That's an interesting idea.

Suggestion: make it a hodge-podge crew of various Micromasters from different teams rather than sticking to Hasbro's pre-defined team. e.g. Swindler, Fixit, Powertrain, Groundshaker, Atlan etc. (just some random names off the top of my head) - that's one thing I enjoyed with the commando teams that Furman made in G1, they were random assortments. In the G1 cartoon they usually stuck with pre-defined sub groups from the toyline (e.g. Dinobots, Constructicons, Aerialbots etc.), but in the G1 comics they mixed them up more. e.g. The Wreckers had Deluxe Autobots with Jumpstarters with Triple Changers, the Decepticon Mayhem Attack Squad had Triggercons with Small Targetmasters (but not Quake) with Pretender Beasts etc., the Survivors had various random Autobots and a Decepticon among their ranks! et al. Maybe they picked the best Micromaster warriors, regardless of which team they had been previously assigned to and assembled them as a secret crack unit known as the Maximals - perhaps as a Micromaster off-shoot of the Wreckers hand picked by Springer to assist the Wreckers?

... just a thought.
I've never liked the idea of the Maximals simply appearing out of nowhere (or so it seemed) They have to have their own history by the time the Great War ended, so this chain of events gives them that history.

Then as the protoform/mini-bot tech is wider spread, the resulting 'bots are more like Maximals than Autobots. 'Autobot' being their slave name given to them by the Quintessons anyway, weren't they?

Unicron did appear in Anglophone continuity too (re: Shokoract arc).
What is this Anglophone continuity?

Shokoract I'm dubious of as he's been used twice now: In BotCon and IDW BW. He can't be in both if both are accepted as 'canon'.

This term 'canon' is held with too much regard in my opinion.

Well, Tarantulas did explicitly say that the destruction of the Ark would only affect Transformers descendant from Autobots and Decepticons and that he and Tripredacus shared different origins, then later Megatron referred to Tarantulas as "Unicron spawn," and it's since been officially retconned as literally meaning that.

But in the "Vernoverse" if you wanna go with the Cybertronian Empire origin, that can work too.
I just like the neatness of it all, it all fits, and, importantly, makes sense.

You've officially coined the term Vernoverse.

Be that as it may, it's still official canon.
See comment above re: canon

Yup. RE: "On The Edge of Extinction." That's also when Primus was slain by Unicron.
So Primus is officially dead in all continuities? And the All Spark is something different and seperate from his 'spirit' or 'essence'?

Erm... okay, that contradicts with Anglophone G1 continuity. Also, Primus and Unicron are unable to return to the astral plane, regardless of how much time has passed. They left the astral plane and came to this reality around the "dawn of time" -- I don't think a couple more centuries would do anything. There's no expiration date on how long they'll be imprisoned in this universe; Primus saw to that... he made sure that neither he nor Unicron could escape this reality (and thus contain the conflict within a single multiversal plane instead of potentially infinite ones).

Anyway... your universe... do as you like.
Come on, they're Gods. Surely as they recover from previous encounters and gain strength they'd bust through that glass ceiling and back onto the Astral Plane. A God isn't a God unless he's sitting on a white fluffy cloud looking down on everyone. (I'm an atheist myself, so thats slightly tongue in cheek)

Yeah, that's what most fan-fic writers do. I personally prefer in-canon stories, but that's just my preference.
Just wait til it's published by IDW (or whoever has the TF rights at the time). Then it WILL be canon!

What is the atomic weight of Boron?
10.81