Character page for Transformers: EarthSpark
open/close all folders
Malto Family
Robby Malto
- Voiced by: Sydney Mikayla, Joshua Evans (Expedition), Ayahi Takagaki (Japanese)
A 13-year-old and the eldest child of the Malto family. Robby resents his family for moving to Witwicky just for his mom to work as a park ranger, though it softened after the Terrans come to be.
- Black and Nerdy: Downplayed. He's Afro-American Filipino and enjoys competitive gaming, as well as tinkering with different machines.
- Big Brother Instinct: Deconstructed. Robby feels that, as the older brother, it's his job to protect his younger siblings from bad and scary stuff and never let them think that he's worried or can't handle whatever's coming. This leads to him bottling up things like his anxieties about the Terrans getting taken away by G.H.O.S.T. one day or hide important information, like that Twitch and him encountered Agent Schloder in "Classified", which leads to him coming into conflict with Mo and exploding from all the negative emotion he's been keeping suppressed.
- Cool Big Bro: He's always kind to Mo and never seems annoyed or put upon when spending time with her. In the first episodes, he even interrupts his plan to run away just to fix her bike and when Mo asks if he wouldn't even stay for her he can't find it in himself to answer.
- Establishing Character Moment: His first scene has him MacGyvering an antenna out of everyday household items with a little help from his younger sister Mo, whom he seems to genuinely enjoy working with, only for his demeanor to sour when the connection doesn't last. This establishes both his talent with fixing and building things, his genuine love for Mo and his discontentment with moving away from Philadelphia and desire to either go back or at least maintain connection with his friends there.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Downplayed, since Robbie isn't averse to adventuring or breaking rules sometimes but overall he's the more calm and down-to-earth one between him, Mo and most of the Terrans.
- MacGyvering: Managed to make an adjustable internet antenna using a tinfoil kite and his father's bicycle with help from his sister.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His attempt to tap into more of his cybersleeve's power in "Disarmed" results in both sleeves' connection to the Terrans burning out, and Robbie's body succumbing to a gradually worsening sickness.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: A rare male example, Robby's main gripe with his family and theirs with him prior to the Terrans being born. He feels more connected with his friends from Philadelphia than with his parents and younger sister, and is not shy about making his displeasure about it known when called out. In fact, he was completely fine with running away from home and attempting to desperately and unrealistically ride to Philadelphia on his bike. The following episodes also have him instantly go to his phone when bored, such as in "House Rules", where he rather quickly gave up on doing chores in favor or scrolling through, what appears to be, Instagram.
- Shield Bash: In "Disarmed", Robbie discovers that his cybersleeve can create a Hard Light shield construct, which he sometimes uses to strilke enemies with.
Morgan "Mo" Malto
- Voiced by: Zion Broadnax, Tunisia Hardison (Expedition), Misaki Kuno (Japanese)
A 9-year-old and the second youngest child of the Malto-family. She's optimistic and adores her older brother Robby, as well as her Terran siblings.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling:
- Downplayed since Robbie isn't always one hundred percent responsible, but Mo is definitely the more adventurous and rowdy between the two of them.
- Mo herself is more of the responsible sibling when paired with the technically even younger and more impulsive Thrash.
- The Heart: She's the most sensitive and caring in the Terran-team and often the one to get other members to open up about their issues or the one trying to cheer them up or calm them down if something goes wrong.
- Pubescent Braces: She has them, though they're kinda hard to notice, since we rarely get close-ups on her mouth and she speaks normally even with them.
- Kid Has a Point: When Alex describes the Cybertronian War as a conflict between "heroic Autobots and dastardly Decepticons", Mo asks whether this re-telling of events isn't a bit oversimplified.
- Non-Standard Character Design: She is much cartoonier than the rest of her family.
- Tomboy: Mo mainly seems to be interested in traditionally masculine things, like wrestling and nature hikes, and her clothes aren't particularly girly either.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Mo is surprisingly emotionally intelligent for a 9-year-old, to the point that it's often her that has to calm down or reassure Robby, rather than the other way around.
- Women Are Wiser: Downplayed, since Mo has her irrational and impulsive moments, but between her and Robby, Robby is often the one who gets stuck in his own head, while Mo takes a more relaxed approach to things and manages to solve problems or answer questions in a contructive manner, rather than agonizing over them.
Dorothy "Dot" Malto
- Voiced by: Benni Latham, Sayaka Ohara (Japanese)
Robby and Mo's mother. A former soldier who fought in the Transformers War, but has since retired to work as a park ranger.
- Action Mom: A Retired Badass from the Cybertronian War and if anyone so much as looks at her babies wrong, Dot's more than willing to prove she's still got it.
- An Arm and a Leg: She lost her right leg in the Battle of the Bay. She later shows it off to Mandroid after he explains the reason for his missing right arm to emphasize how his grudge against the Cybertronians isn't justified since she sustained similar injuries but doesn't hold it against them.
- Car Fu: Slams her police SUV into Swindle when he threatens Thrash and Mo's lives.
- Everyone Has Standards: She's more than a bit taken aback when she learns that G.H.O.S.T. is running an underground prison for Decepticons. This is very significant considering how little she was willing to trust Prime at the start of the series.
- Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: The firm hand to her husband Alex's gentle touch. Dot is more of a hard-ass when it comes to rules and won't hesitate to chew her kids out when they cause trouble.
- Handicapped Badass: She lost one of her legs in the Transformer War in San Fransisco, but she will not hesitate to throw down when the people she loves are in danger.
- Happily Married: Her and Alex's marriage is loving, happy and supportive through and through.
- Hero of Another Story: She was a soldier in the Transformers War and it's implied she played a pivotal role in it. Alex calls her the bravest of the humans fighting on the side of the Autobots and it's also implied that Megatron's Heel–Face Turn was sped along by his friendship with her.
- Hypocrite: In "House Rules" she claims that anyone wearing a Decepticon-badge is not to be trusted, despite being besties with Megatron. When Mo and Thrash call her out on it, she insists it's different because Megatron truly changed. Though subverted at the end of the episode when she does concede the point, admitting that it's not the badge that makes a Con bad news, but rather their choices and behavior.
- Interspecies Friendship: Genuine friends with Megatron, and even seems to prefer working with him over Optimus. She even calls him "Megs".
- Jerkass to One: She isn't fond of Optimus and seems to greatly prefer working with Megatron over working with him. It's implied this is because of Optimus' tendency to sugarcoat and his submissive attitude toward G.H.O.S.T. She does warm up to him a bit after the events of "Classified", after realizing Optimus' overly positive demeanor is him genuinely trying his best to work under subpar circumstances,and that they're not so different after all.
- Mama Bear: She is not to be messed with when the kids are in danger, and her being a retired soldier who fought against Cybertronians makes her more than capable of taking care of herself.Dot: Mom Rule #1: DON'T MESS WITH MY BABIES!
- Nature Lover: She has a great fondness for nature and animals, shown by how her dream job is to work as a park ranger in a quiet town. She refers to her ranger's station as her "happy place" and is very enthusiastic about teaching her children about nature.
- Platonic Life-Partners: She's Happily Married to Alex while also sharing a close working relationship with Megatron.
- Retired Badass: Subverted. She certainly would have liked to invoke this trope by taking on a job as a park ranger in a quiet town, but G.H.O.S.T. had other plans. Because she's just too good of a soldier and has a connection to Megatron no one else does, G.H.O.S.T. and the Autobots continue to rope her into their affairs, even when she makes it clear she'd rather leave it all behind.
Alex Malto
- Voiced by: Jon Jon Briones, Alex Christian (Expedition), Fuminori Komatsu (Japanese)
Mo's and Robby' father. He's a college professor with a PhD in Cybertronian History and has great admiration for the Autobots, especially Bumblebee.
- Ascended Fanboy: Bumblebee is Alex's favorite Autobot, and he's absolutely excited to have Bee living with them as part of his mentor duties.
- Catchphrase: "Pinch me!" Said whenever something cool to do with the Autobots happens to or around him. Especially when Bumblebee's involved.
- Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: He's the gentle touch to Dot's firm hand, being generally softer in his approach to parenting and more willing to give the kids and the Terrans some leeway when they mess up.
- Happily Married: Him and Dot adore each other and rarely if ever seem to fight.
- Hidden Depths:
- He seems to be a very skilled basketball player. "Traditions" has him succesfully throw a three point shot on the fly.
- He apparently knows Dr. Meridian as Dr. Meridian screams his name in shock when they meet. Before that in "Traditions", Alex also seems to recognize one of Dr. Meridian's arachnamechs, remarking that a colleague of him used to work with machines like it.
- Mr. Exposition: In the pilot episode, Alex gives Robby and Mo a summary of the history of Transformers on Earth in this continuity, though implied to be a very simplified version of it.
- Non-Action Guy: Zig-zagged. He usually doesn't engage in combat unlike Dot, but there are times where he's shown to be more than capable of handling himself. Such as in "Traditions", where he manages to fight off arachnamechs with nothing but a pair of wooden sticks.
- Papa Wolf: He won't normally engage in a battle, but if someone harms his family Alex can and will go through hell and high water to ensure their safety.
- Stout Strength: Alex has a stocky build and he's quite strong. In "Traditions" he saves Robby from some arachnamechs using a pair of bamboo sticksnote .
G.H.O.S.T.
In General
"We wouldn't be G.H.O.S.T. without your spirit!"
A human organization founded thirty years before the series' present, whose goal, according to them, is to rebuild Autobot-human relationships.
- Ambiguously Evil: While they themselves claim to be the Big Good, working towards a future in which humans and Autobots can live together in peace, they come across as pretty shady at times. For one, they're very controlling of their Autobot allies, requiring Optimus to report every minute detail about his missions to them and dictating how him and Megatron should behave and what they should say in public, which Megatron remarks upon in "Age of Evolution". They also hustled Dot into working for them by luring her in with her dream job of park ranger, when all she wanted was to retire from the fighting for good. Their treatment of the Decepticons also leaves much to be desired; Captured Decepticons are imprisoned in an underground facility, with no chance at rehabilitation or release. "Home" reveals that Croft is both working with Mandroid and behind the "Bot Brawl" franchise, where Decepticons fight each other for scraps of Energon while people watch, with at least some of the agents in on it. The "ambiguous" part is dropped as the season goes on with the reveal that G.H.O.S.T. is not only working with Mandroid, but is planning a full-on invasion of Cybertron and the eradication of all Cybertronians as payback for the Transformer War.
- Faceless Goons: Most of G.H.O.S.T.'s personnel wear all-concealing, imposing armor.
- Fun with Acronyms: G.H.O.S.T. stands for Global Hazard and Ordinance Strike Team.
- Locked Out of the Loop: G.H.O.S.T. is unaware that Bumblebee survived the war, due to Optimus keeping it a secret from them. They also know nothing about the Terrans' existence for the same reason.
Agent Jon Schloder
- Voiced by: Marc Evan Jackson, Shinya Takahashi (Japanese)
A G.H.O.S.T. agent and the brother of Agent Croft.
- Anti-Villain: The only reason he is an antagonist is that his job would require him to abduct Bumblebee and the Terrans. As far as his behavior and motives go, he is far from evil and just wants to keep people safe from rogue Decepticons.
- Butt-Monkey: Probably on account of being The Comically Serious, things rarely work out for Schloder. "Classified" has him sent on a wild goose chase for Twitch (which he fails) and pushed around by Bumblebee in vehicle form, while "Decoy" has him attacked and relieved of his key card by the Cassetticons off-screen. He also gets no respect from Croft, who is both his sister and superior.
- The Comically Serious: Schloder has a very focused and formal personality even as he says and does the strangest things.
- Cool Shades: He's rarely seen without a pair of those.
- Creepy Good: Just about everyone who knows Schloder thinks he's a creep, an impression he does little to change with his monotone way of speaking and tendency to burst into people's private spaces. That said, he's still a G.H.O.S.T. agent, working to defend fellow humans from Decepticons. Downplayed though, as just how "good" G.H.O.S.T. is remains to be seen. Later episodes show that he truly believes in peace between Humans and Cybertronians, and turns against his sister when she reveals her intentions to conquer Cybertron.
- Entertainingly Wrong: He falsely believes the Terrans to be rogue Decepticons, and later that Bumblebee scanned Alex's car rather than Bumblebee being his car.
- Everyone Has Standards: When they suspect Twitch is a Decepticon (and kidnapping Robby), one of Shloder's cadets opens fire on the pair. Schloder grabs their gun and tells them off for endangering a civilian. He is also far and away not opposed to peace with the Cybertronians, and as such goes against Croft when she attacks Bumblebee and the Terrans.
- He also prefers to leave Decepticons who aren't trying to cause trouble alone, only searching proactively for them under direct orders from Croft.
- Friendless Background: In "Classified", he implies that nobody came to his sixth birthday.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In "Security Protocols" he tries to capture Bumblee after Bee saves his life, but he makes clear that he's only doing so because he believes Bee deserted the Autobots. When Agent Croft tries to arrest the Maltos for harboring Bumblebee, Schloder talks her down, arguing that G.H.O.S.T. is supposed to protect civilians, not imprison them.
- A Lighter Shade of Grey: While he can be a real jerk, he has standards, and is much better than his sister, who teams up with Mandroid in order to "protect" Earth from Transformers.
- Noodle Incident: When being called back to G.H.O.S.T. HQ in "Classified" because of Decepticon-sightings (really Twitch and Thrash), but finding everything empty, he sorrowfully remarks that the situation reminds him of his sixth birthday.Schloder: Playground chatter saved my squad in the Kneeslapper Valley Incident.
- The Only Believer: He's the only prominent member of G.H.O.S.T. who actually believes in their mission statement of facilitating peace between the humans and Cybertronians. Every other member seems to be on board with just using that statement as smokescreen while plotting to conquer Cybertron as payback for the Transformer War.
- Spell My Name With An S: He insists on being called "John without the H" whenever he introduces himself.
- Tempting Fate: After Optimus gives out a tip-line for reporting Decepticons in "Age of Evolution", Schloder warns the viewers not to abuse it for pranks, even daring them to "try [him]". While not directly a "prank", Mandroid does end up using the tip-line against G.H.O.S.T. to capture Dot and Megatron.
- Token Good Teammate: He's the only G.H.O.S.T. agent who actually believes in peace with the Cybertronians.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He's very gung-ho about busting 'Cons, but not to the point of endangering civilian children. When one of his cadets tries to fire a shot at Twitch, who was carrying Robby at the time, Schloder stops him and angrily tells him off.
Executive Agent Karen Croft (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
- Voiced by: Kari Wahlgren, Akeno Watanabe (Japanese)
A high-ranking G.H.O.S.T. agent and the sister of Agent Schloder.
- Aloof Big Sister: She displays a cold attitude when speaking to Agent Schloder, who is her brother.
- Asshole Victim: Considering how many atrocities she committed against even her own race to get revenge against the Transformers, Croft's death at the hands of Mandroid is clearly well-deserved and not worthy of any sympathy... you just might not wanna tell her brother that last part, though.
- Big Bad Wannabe: She has less-than-admirable intentions for the tech she has Mandroid make and intends on double-crossing him, but he beats her to the latter goal and it costs Karen her life.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She at first seems to be a lot more flexible and casually friendly than her brother. It's then revealed that she's actually been torturing Decepticons and is working with Mandroid to exterminate all Cybertronians.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: After being unwittingly "marked" with Energon by Mandroid's chip, she is used as a test subject for the anti-Cybrtronian weapon Mandroid found. The device's energies completely (and painfully) disintegrate her.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite Croft betraying and imprisoning him, Agent Schloeder is heartbroken when his sister dies and tries to avenge her.
- Evil All Along: In her first couple of appearances, she comes across as an Anti-Villain at worst. Then "Home, Part 2" reveals that she's working with Mandroid and allows Deception prisoners to be experimented on and drained of Energon. She even let Mandroid brainwash Grimlock, an Autobot! It's later revealed that she never cared about promoting peace between Humans and Cybertronians and simply used G.H.O.S.T. as a means to gather resources so she could conquer Cybertron as payback for the damage its inhabitants have done.
- Fantastic Racism: Croft despises Cybertronians just as much as Mandroid, perhaps even more so, but is far more willing to force her way onto others and even turn on those who would've been her allies in the name of exterminating them.
- Foil: To Robby and his siblings (both the Terrans and Mo):
- While Robby tends to argue with his siblings, he is not above joining in on their antics and openly shows affection towards them. As such, they are more than willing to deal with his flaws and vice versa in a loving and healthy relationship.
- Agent Croft, on the other hand, shows almost no signs of affection towards her own brother, and despite the two being related she sees him as nothing more than a disposable pawn. The one time she calls out their relationship it is clearly condescending, unlike with the Maltos, who do so with a clear love for one another.
- Another difference is that the Maltos are more than willing to coexist with Cybertronians, while Croft, despite her pretenses, is so anti-Cybertronian that she intends to conquer their home planet as payback for the damage they've done to Earth.
- Hate Sink: Croft is willing to harm anyone, children, civilians, Cybertronians with no allegiances, and even her own brother to get back at the Transformer race, and absolutely refuses to make peace with the robotic beings or their sympathizers.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: "Home" reveals that she's the mastermind behind a "Bot Brawl" franchise, where Energon-starved Decepticons fight each other for scraps of what they need to survive, and working with Mandroid.
- No Body Left Behind: Mandroid deliberately infects her with Energon so that his anti-energon weapon will affect her, causing her to completely disintegrate.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Holds higher ranking than Agent Schloder but is seen as far more flexible, given how casually she is able to greet Optimus and Megatron. Except it turns out that it's just an initial act to throw off suspicion.
- Tainted Veins: Using Mandroid's override device infects her with Energon, giving her face purple markings.
- Too Dumb to Live: Despite trying and failing to backstab Mandroid, it never occurs to her that Mandroid would want to return the favor.
- With Us or Against Us: She tells this to her brother after locking him up for helping the Maltos escape.
- Villain Team-Up: "Home" reveals that she's working with Mandroid.
- Walking Spoiler: The number of atrocities she's behind tosses G.H.O.S.T.'s moral ambiguity out the window and reveals their true sinister intentions.
- White Hair, Black Heart: She has very light blond hair and is revealed to be exploiting her Decepticon prisoners by making them fight gladiatorial battles for the Energon they need. She also teams up with Mandroid and is revealed to be plotting a full-scale invasion of Cybertron.
Antagonists
Dr. Meridian/Mandroid
- Voiced by: Diedrich Bader, Bill Rogers (Expedition), Nobuo Tobita (Japanese)
A human scientist and roboticist with a deep-seated hatred for Cybertronians.
- All for Nothing: In the end, he makes himself into an inhuman being in his mad quest to eliminate all the Cybertronians on Earth, and seemingly dies when the device is activated, only for the Malto children to use their cybersleeves to harness the Emberstone's power and cause a World-Healing Wave to undo the damage.
- An Arm and a Leg: He lost his arm during a clash between Autobots and Decepticons, when Autobot friendly fire accidentally collapsed the building his lab was in.
- Badass Transplant: Mandroid grafts Hardtop's arm onto himself. He later replaces his other arm with one of Brawl's. Deconstructed, as his habit of grafting alien body parts onto him causes him to get addicted to Energon and to suffer major Sanity Slippage.
- Bad Boss: To his Cybertronian underlings at least, which fits with his Fantastic Racism. After Nova Storm and Skywarp fail to get him Optimus' and Megatron's specialized arms, he has his arachnamechs restrain them and threatens to dismantle them for their failure.
- After he returns from his spacebridge journey with two Sharkticon minions, he clearly plans to have them killed by the anti-energon weapon despite their loyalty to him for helping overthrow their oppressors, and lies to them about it.
- Benevolent Boss: He's a lot kinder to his Arachnamechs than he is to the seekers, at one point threatening Nova Storm when she kicks one of them out of frustration. That said, he does occasionally lose his patience with them as well.
- Big Bad: Serves as the main antagonist of the show's first season.
- Composite Character: Described as the successor to Doctor Arkeville as a human scientist with a robotic prosthetic allied with Decepticons but had his own goals; he also had elements of Circuit Breaker as someone with a grudge against all Transformers thanks to being a victim of collateral damage due to a big fight involving them.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: It seems he wasn't all right upstairs before he grafted Hardtop's arm to his body, but he seems to be getting worse the more body parts he replaces. Replacing more parts of his body eventually makes him dependent on Energon to survive, and he later becomes a horrifying-looking robot with his rotting head as the only sign he was once human.
- Cyborg: Replaces his missing arm with an arm he stole from Hardtop.
- Embarrassing Nickname: "Mandroid" is the nickname Thrash gave him in retaliation for Meridian not using his and Twitch's actual names. Mandroid himself actually hates the name and futilely tries to get everyone to call him by his real name Dr. Meridian instead whenever it's used.
- Evil Counterpart:
- To Dot. Both worked for the government during the Cybertronian War on Earth and both lost limbs due to the conflict. But while Dot never stopped believing in the Autobots and even befriended Big Bad Megatron, Mandroid went full-on Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- To the Terrans as a whole as well. Like the Terrans, he's a hybrid of organic and Cybertronian material and sees himself as the next step of evolution for his species. But while the Terrans were born that way, Mandroid forcibly takes Cybertronian body parts and grafts them onto his body. Also in contrast to the Terrans, their hybrid nature makes it so they don't need Energon to function while he gradually becomes addicted to it.
- Evil Cripple: Losing his right arm due to the Cybertronian war started him on the path to villainy.
- Expy: As confirmed by series producer Ant Ward
, he is the spiritual successor of Doctor Arkeville as a human scientist with a robotic prosthetic allied with Decepticons but had his own goals.- As mentioned in Composite Character, he's also a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to Circuit Breaker from
The Transformers (Marvel) (whose rights issues make her difficult to use), as a human villain motivated by revenge against Cybertronians for the damage their body suffered during one of their battles, resulting in it undergoing cybernetic surgery. - Mandroid also shares many similarities with Silas from Transformers: Prime. They both serve as human villains to the Autobots who end up becoming hybrids with Cybertronians.
- As mentioned in Composite Character, he's also a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to Circuit Breaker from
- Eviler than Thou: It's made clear Karen was never really in control of him once he uses her to demonstrate the weapon to deactivate all Energon-based lifeforms.
- Fantastic Racism: Towards all Cybertronians, Autobot and Decepticon alike. That doesn't stop him from using Decepticons as part of his schemes, however.
- Go Out with a Smile: He has a smile on his face as his life fades out after he succeeds in activating his tower and seemingly eliminates all Cybertronian life on Earth. Of course, he never lives to see that his efforts were All for Nothing thanks to the Malto children altering the tower to instead undo all the damage Mandroid caused.
- Hate Sink: Mandroid's personality and actions make it very clear that he is in no way the savior of Earth that he thinks he is, and that every defeat he suffers is very much well-deserved.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Is just as bad as many of the Decepticons, if not worse in some ways.
- Hypocrite: He hates the Transformers and wants them off Earth. But he clearly doesn't have a problem with allying with certain Decepticons and using Transformers tech himself. It's implied he justifies it to himself because he needs the power boost to match them. He confirms this when Thrash calls him out on turning himself into a cybernetic mutant despite his hatred for Cybertonians. The fact that he was willing to activate a Cybertronian-killing device that would also kill him due to his implants implies that he's well aware that he's become what he hates and has only been keeping himself alive in order to see his Cybetronian-exterminating plan to its conclusion.
- Knight Templar: He believes himself to be a hero on a quest to rid the planet of the invasive Cybertronian Species.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Very, very downplayed; as vile as Mandroid is, he doesn't want to invade and conquer Cybertron like Croft does. He's satisfied with the idea of simply removing all Cybertronians from Earth.
- Madness Makeover: He looks awful by the time we see him again in "Home" and he's clearly not all there anymore, craving Energon and losing much of his poise. It's heavily implied this is a consequence of him grafting Cybertronian body-parts onto himself.
- Mad Scientist: To the Cybertronians, he's this, considering his MO is kidnapping and dismantling them (which is akin to vivisection to a Cybertronian) in order to figure out how to combat their kind.
- Mecha-Mooks: His arachnamechs.
- Moral Myopia: When the Cybertronians unintentionally get civilians caught up in their battles and put them in harm's way, it's proof they're evil and need to be destroyed. When he does it, it's simply a sad but necessary side effect in saving the world.
- Not Me This Time: Hashtag thought he was behind the Bot Brawls, but in reality, Meridian was brought in later to them.Hashtag: Of course you're behind Bot Brawl!Meridian: It'd be comforting if that were true wouldn't it? However, the Bot Brawls were happening long before I arrived and they'll continue long after I leave. Even if I were to vanish, the desire for an Earth free of alien scum burns in the hearts of humans everywhere.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While it seems he might have genuinely had good intentions when he started out, by the climax of season 1 those are all long gone, as he sets up Karen to be killed by his anti-energon weapon by infecting her with energon through the device she used to control the Autobots, clearly out of sadism and revenge, tricks his loyal Sharkticon minions into thinking that they'll be spared the weapon's effects, and tries to wipe out every Cybertronian on Earth with it for reasons that are clearly more personal than protecting humanity, and his claims that Cybertonians aren't people fall flat due to knowing that the Terrans care for the Maltos (along with all the other times he's played with their emotions making it clear that the Cybertronians are just as much sapient beings as humans). He's even called out for it in the climactic battle.
- Psychological Projection: More than once he claims that all humans ultimately feel the way that he does about Cybertronians, but even ignoring the Maltos and the Terrans, it's clear that there are others who feel differently and he's just projecting his own Fantastic Racism on everyone else.
- Start of Darkness: He used to be a normal scientist for the Government. But after he lost his arm during the battle of San Fransisco he began to see the Transformers as a menace to humanity.
- Taking You with Me: In the season 1 finale, he activates a device that targets and takes out everything that runs on Energon. This includes him, but he has no problem with dying as long as the "monsters" die with him.
- Tainted Veins: When he reappears in "Home" after grafting Brawl's arm to himself, he's sporting a few that glow when he absorbs Energon.
- Unusual Eyebrows: They resemble scythes, which is notable as every other human character has fairly conventional straight eyebrows of varying thickness.
- Villainous Cheekbones: He wouldn't consider himself a villain, but he's still a dangerous man with a gaunt face that really makes his sharp cheekbones stand out.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: To hear Mandroid tell it, he's just trying to protect Earth. All's well and good until one considers the extremes he'll willingly take, such as using Cybertronian tech to drive all Transformers out of the planet and getting some Decepticons to aid him in using brute force to accomplish his goals. The fact he was willing to resort to outright kidnapping does little to help matters.
- We Used to Be Friends: He and Alex were once professors at the same college. This doesn't stop Mandroid from trying to kill Alex along with the rest of the Maltos.
- Would Hurt a Child: In addition to kidnapping Twitch and Thrash, he essentially Mind Rapes Hashtag when he mind controls her in "Home". Torturing and belittling her in her inner virtual world, preying on her fears of being alone and hated by humans. He also shows zero hesitation to attack Mo and Robby, two human children.
Others
Mr. Smelt
- Voiced by: Daran Norris, Kanehira Yamamoto (Japanese)
The drama teacher at Robby's and Mo's school.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He speaks in an overly hammy manner, randomly leaves class for "meditation breaks" (which is code for "looking at his dating app profile") and refers to a student moving around weirdly in his classroom as "being upstaged".
- Dodgy Toupee: He's wearing one. It shifts around a bit when he spots and becomes incensed by Bumblebee's vehicle form committing a parking violation.
- Large Ham: Always speaks in a very dramatic and theatrical fashion.
Quintus Prime
- Voiced by: Clancy Brown, Naofumi Ichihashi (Japanese)
An ancient Cybertronian and a member of the original thirteen Primes.
- Big Good: Twitch and Thrash come into being after Robby and Mo find Quintus's Emberstone in a cave. Later, when the Maltos and Terrans are taking shelter in the cave, hiding from the Seekers who are fighting Bee and Optimus outside, he creates Nightshade, Hashtag, and Jawbreaker in response to Mo's plea for help.
- The Chooser of the One: He chose Robbie and Mo to wield the power of the Emberstone via the cybersleeves.
- The Voice: He's never seen, but he communicates through the Emberstone. Averted when he openly communicates with Mo in a later episode.
Blitzwave and Razorfin
- Voiced by: Nolan North (Blitzwave) and Steve Blum (Razorfin)
A pair of Sharkticons discovered by Mandroid that he recruits to assist him in wiping out all Transformers on Earth.
- Adaptational Job Change: Sharkticons are normally associated with the Quintessons and will devour anyone who crosses their path. Given that Mandroid mentions helping the Sharkticons overthrow their oppressors, it's possible that they did work for them before joining up with Mandroid.
- Composite Character: While named after the Quintesson minions from G1, their upright stance and back decorations cause them to resemble the G1 Terrorcon Rippersnapper's alt mode.
- Villain Team-Up: With Mandroid in the first season finale.
