Transformers (Japanese: トランスフォーマー, Hepburn: Toransufōmā) is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. Initially a line of transforming toys rebranded from Takara's Diaclone and Microman toylines, the franchise began in 1984 with the Transformers toy line, and centers on factions of transforming alien robots (often the Autobots and the Decepticons) in an endless struggle for dominance or eventual peace.