In this list I will attempt to answer any pre-Transformer related questions. As you can see I've already made a list of the ones I could think of. If you have any questions feel free to send them in and I'll try to answer them here.

What does the following term mean?:

Beetras - Beetras was a toy line released by Takatoku Toys in 1984. These toys were later released as the Deluxe
                insecticons.

Diaclone - A toy line released by Takara between 1980 and 1984. Diaclones were mecha controlled by humans or aliens
                  (Waruders). The toys vary in scale from 1/70 to 1/36.

Diaclone figure/driver - A 3 cm (1 1/8 inch) tall figure with magnetic feet, which came with most Diaclones (sometimes
                                        mistakenly called microman, which they are not!).

Dorvack - Dorvack was an anime which aired in 1983. The toys from this anime were made by Takatoku toys and include
                  the forerunners of Roadbuster and Whirl.

Macross - A very popular Japanese anime which aired in 1982. The toys from this series were made by Takatoku toys and
                 later by Bandai (for the Macross Movie: "Do you remember love?"). This is were Jetfire comes from, which
                 resembles a VF-1S Super Valkyrie (though it has the nose of the VF-1E Elint seeker)

mecha - A machine controlled by a living being (either human or alien), with certain characteristics of living beings, like legs,
              and or arms.

Micro Change - Micro Change was part of the New Microman series. Microchange toys were sold between 1983 and
                           1984. A large number of these Microchange toys were later released as Transformers.

Microman - A toy line released by Takara between 1974 and 1980. Microman are a 10 cm tall alien cyborg race which
                     fights against the Acroyears. The toys are all scale 1/1.

Micronauts - Micronauts are the American versions of the original Microman toys and are therefore not directly related to
                      Transformers. The story was different than the original Microman story.

New Microman - In 1981 Takara started the successor of Microman called New Microman. In New Microman the toys
                             became more and more robotic, and introduced transforming robots.

Robotech - Robotech was an American series, which was combined of the Japanese animes: Macross, Southern Cross and
                   Mospeada. In the Macross part of the series you can see the Valkyries, from which Jetfire was derived.

Valkyrie - A valkyrie (= Veritech in Robotech) is the main mecha used in the original Macross series. It transforms into tree
                  modes: Battloid (robot), Gerwalk (sort of in between) and Fighter (jet). In the series, four different types were
                  shown: VF-1A, VF-1D (not made as toy), VF-1J and VF-1S. The VF-1S is the one on which Jetfire was based.

What's with the red Bumblebees and yellow Cliffjumpers?

Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and the rest of the first series of Mini Bots were originally released as Microman toys. When Hasbro bought the molds to produce these toys, they also took over the left over stock of the Microman versions of the Mini Bots, which included red versions of Bumblebee and yellow versions of Cliffjumper, which they repackaged as Transformers.

What's a "Bumblejumper"?

Among the Microman versions of the Mini Bots there was also a car resembling a Familia 1500 XG, which was not released as a Transformer. When Hasbro bought the leftover stock of the Microman versions of the Minibots, they also got a number of yellow versions of the Familia 1500 XG, which they distributed in either Cliffjumper or Bumblebee packages.

What's with the hatches and seats I find on many Transformers?

The Transformers that have these are originally from the Diaclone line. Diaclones came with 3 cm tall figures with magnetic feet which could be seated in most of the Diaclones. In Diaclone these were the pilots that controlled the mecha.

What does the letter M mean which I find on certain Minibots?

The Minibots were originally sold as Microman toys. The letter M is a brand mark for the Microman series.

What do the double dates mean that I find on certain Transformers?

Well, the first date is the date when the original toy line started (for example, Microman started in 1974). The second date is when the toy itself was copyrighted.

Does the blue Bluestreak really exist?

A blue version of Bluestreak was released as Diaclone. Whether a blue version of Bluestreak was released as Transformer is doubtful, though not entirely impossible. A red version of Tracks was sold in the Netherlands, but if a blue Bluestreak was ever released as Transformer than it would even be much rare than the already very rare red Tracks.

What would have happened if the Transformers were never released?

- The Microman toy line would have definitely continued. From a Microman catalog it appeared that Takara
  had plans to release a whole new series of Microman figures. There was also a second Microman Camera
  Robo about to released which would change in on robot instead of tree, like Microx. I also suspect that at
  least some of the second wave of Mini Bots (like Cosmos) were supposed to be released as Microman toys.
- The Diaclone toy line would also have continued. Astrotrain was most likely a Diaclone toys that was just
  about to be released when Takara decided to drop the Diaclone line and replace it by Transformers. This is
  probably why the first Astrotrains in Japan where white/black instead of white/purple/black.
- The other toylines from Takatoku Toys (Macross, Dorvack and Beetras) were already of the market,
  because Takatoku Toys went bankrupt in 1984. If they would have continued to produce new toys, a new
  series of Valkyries would probably have been released in 1985. They looked even more like the in the anime
  and included the VF-1D (a picture of these can be seen in an article on the "Cool Japanese Toys" page)
  Also a fifth Beetras mecha (pre Deluxe Insecticons) was supposed to be released, which was a female
  mecha that transforms into a ladybug.
- Bandai probably would have released the original Valkyrie (Veritech) toys in the US as part of the Robotech
  toy line, instead of the large non-transformable versions. The reason why they couldn't sell them in the US
  was because Hasbro already owned the right to use this toy shape for Jetfire.
- And finally. I would have never learned about these wonderful toys, and you wouldn't be reading this! :)

Where the pre-Transformers also released outside Japan?

In the US a small number of Diaclones were released as Diakron toys. These include a black version of Ironhide, a red version of Sunstreaker, a blue version of Trailbreaker, the Powerdashers and maybe more.
Shortly thereafter Takara also released Kronoform, which included several Microman and Diaclone toys, but none of these were released as Transformers, except for the transforming watches, which were repackaged as Transformers in limited numbers. Further more, certain stores in the US imported all sorts of pre Transformers (like Diaclone, Microman and Dorvack toys) in the original Japanese packages, so there is a (very small) chance of finding them in the US. The chance is much larger that you will find a Taiwanese copy, which came in packages copied from the original ones, but translated into English. These toys are often hardly indistinguishable from the real thing, so be careful!

In Italy a company called GiGi imported most, if not all of the Diaclones and Microman toys and released them in Italian packages under the name Trasformer. The toys were the same as the Japanese versions, except the missiles were replaced by strange padded missiles and I believe that the Diaclone toys lacked the Diaclone figures.

In France a number of Diaclone and Microman toys were sold together under the name Diaclone.

Which Transformers were released as "pre-Transformer" before they became Transformers?

Below is a list of all of the American Transformers that were previously released as part of another toyline in Japan: