yeah, he died trying to kill off Unicron and then was brought back by the Last Autobot.
in the UK he had Wheeljack build him a fake body that was destroyed by Megatron before he threw himself and Megs through the partially materialised Space Bridge, so they wound up on Cybertron. he'd planned to use the fake body to fake his death and see how the Autobots coped without him, after their misguided alliance with Megatron when Galvatron and his lieutenants showed up in 1986, during which he was chronally displaced into limbo.
in the UK he had Wheeljack build him a fake body that was destroyed by Megatron before he threw himself and Megs through the partially materialised Space Bridge, so they wound up on Cybertron. he'd planned to use the fake body to fake his death and see how the Autobots coped without him, after their misguided alliance with Megatron when Galvatron and his lieutenants showed up in 1986, during which he was chronally displaced into limbo.