G1.
In the spring of 1991 there were very few Transformers toys in stores, the cartoon hadn't aired in years, and the final nail in the coffin was when Marvel announced the Transformers comic series would end with issue 80. (I think it was the letters page of issue 77)
This was truly the darkest time in TF history because there was absloutely no reason to think Transformers would ever return. There was no internet yet, no e-mail, no fan clubs or magazines.
As far as I knew at the time I was just a 16 year-old who never grew up and still liked the toys he played with at age 9 or 10.