Transformers(1984 - 1987)

In a distant corner of the universe, on the planet Cybertron, a war was fought between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, robots with the ability to transform themselves into vehicles and weapons.
With supplies of energon running low, the Autobots launched a spacecraft to locate a new source of energy to continue the fight. They were attacked by the Decepticons, and ended up crashing on Earth. The ship was buried deep underground, and all aboard - Autobot and Decepticon - were deactivated in the crash.
Four million years later, an eruption brings the ship to the surface. Automatic systems repair the robots, altering their transformation ability to mimic Earth machines.
Now the war begins anew, with the Autobots defending Earth from the Decepticons, who seek to enslave humanity and drain the world of its energy.
UPDATE: TRANSFORMERS IS AN AMERICAN SHOW, REDUBBED INTO JAPANESE. AFTER SEASON 3 IN AMERICA THE SHOW WAS CANCELED. JAPAN CONTINUED THE SHOW, BUT THE FIRST 3 SEASONS (UNLIKE MOST EVERYTHING ELSE) WERE MADE IN THE USA!

(Another update: The above info was mostly correct except for where it was made. It was actually a US/Japan co-production. Yes its not simply an anime or an american show in fact in a way it was both. It was made by Hasbro/Marvel along with Takara and famed Japanese animation studio TOEI animation. This show was one fo the original efforts in the concept that is the US/Japan co-productions in animation.)

Update: Actually its a little more complex than that. It was produced by Sunbow Productions, the same studio that did the GI Joe cartoons and The Tick cartoon . Sunbow used to outsource stuff to other larger copanies such as Toei, but thats relatively common in the animation world. Toei handled the Japanese dub of the original american series and worked on many of the susequent Japanese ones.