Growing up it was the turtles. Period, point blank. Our parents taught us fukk dying in these wars that weren't for our people anyway. Thundercats & Transformers came next, throw He-Man out there.
Most people didn't give a fukk about G.I. Joe outside the ninjas & Black dude, I think his name is Roadblock. Storm Shadow. Snake Eyes. The Gray demolition dude.
We fukked with Megatron. Raphael. Panthro.
Turtles became trash after like season 2. It was really ridiculous. Thundercats was OK, but the toys were trash. He-Man - I was a huge He-Man fan until Turtles came out, but I stayed with GI Joe.
The problem with Transformers was that no one liked many of them. Really who was a fan of Bumblebee? No one liked him until he became Goldbug. The only ones with fans Optimus, Megatron, Soundwave, Shockwave, Starscream, Grimlock, and Devastator (in order).
GI Joe had them beat in numbers period. Duke, Flint, Snake Eyes, Scarlet, Lady Jaye, Roadblock, Spirit, Beachhead, Shipwreck, Sgt Slaughter & then every member of Cobra outside of the BATs. And it the toys, it was GI Joe by a mile.
The appeal of Transformers will always be giant robots fighting, which kids will love, but the cartoon wasn't as good as GI Joe, especially the multiparters.