Characters / Transformers Film Series – Autobots

The heroes of the saga. A group of civilians, scientists, and soldiers founded by Optimus Prime to defend the AllSpark from Megatron. The war eventually deteriorated Cybertron, forcing the Autobots to launch the AllSpark to prevent it from falling into Decepticon hands. Millions of years later, the AllSpark was rediscovered on Earth, re-starting the Autobot–Decepticon conflict. Later films show the Autobots forming an alliance with humanity to defend Earth from the Decepticons, as the loss of the AllSpark has eliminated any possibility of rebuilding Cybertron.

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In General:

• Adaptational Jerkass: A downplayed example, but typically Autobots are willing to take defeated Decepticons as prisoners, hold conversations with moments of affability and occasionally will propose a truce when a greater threat pops up. Here, there is no mercy between the two groups, and no truces are made between the two either.
• Alien Among Us: The benevolent kind.
• Arm Cannon: Most Autobots have them, until they began to get phased out in Dark of the Moon.
• Badass Crew: Whether it's Optimus's initial Five-Man Band or the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits plus the Dinobots, they're a force to be reckoned with.
• Band of Brothers: In the first three films. The fourth features a bunch of loners and misfits who don't get along, eventually becoming Fire-Forged Friends.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: The Autobots have human-like appearances so that audiences can identify as them as the good guys. Their faces resemble human faces and they have five-fingered hands. Even Jetfire and Drift, defectors from the Decepticons, can be identified as good guys by this trope. Sentinel Prime subverts it.
• Car Fu: These Autobots certainly have a lot more creativity with their vehicle forms, especially with Optimus being as big as he is.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A number of them (i.e., Ironhide and Hot Rod), sport dark colors, but they are heroes.
• Dual Wielding: Be it blades or guns, every Autobot does this with every Shapeshifter Weapon they have.
• Dwindling Party: The original five Autobots from the first film (Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet and Jazz). The films consistently kept the tendency to kill one per movie Jazz dies in the first, Optimus dies in the second, Ironhide in the third and Ratchet in the fourth. Out of them, only Optimus came back, leaving Optimus and Bumblebee as the last remaining members of the original group.
• Heroes With Bad Publicity: Humanity's perception of the Autobots shifts with each film. Sector 7 didn’t know there were good Cybertronians who’d be willing to help them and thus would hunt them down if given the chance. The second film sees the Autobots allied with the world’s militaries, but there are still those who distrust them by virtue of being aliens like Theodore Galloway. After The Fallen reveals the Cybertronians’ presence to the world, the public is divided on the Autobots. Under threat of Decepticon invasion, they opt to exile Optimus's group, but public perception seems to mostly come around after they save humanity in the Battle of Chicago. However, humanity remains rightfully afraid of the Decepticons, and Cemetery Wind hunts down all factions while publicly claiming they’re only hunting the hostile faction that leveled Chicago. By the fifth film and several more years of Cybertronian chaos, public perception has mostly turned negative with a few exceptions. Some humans like Sherman and even the Cuban government grant asylum to Cybertronians, while the TRF will try to confirm whether or not a Cybertronian is an Autobot or Decepticon, and even Decepticons are taken alive as prisoners instead of being summarily executed if they can help it.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Most Autobots have blue eyes, like in Generation One, so that they can be identified as the heroes. Exceptions are Jetfire, Sentinel Prime, Drift, and the Dinobots.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: As is tradition, the Autobots are a alien resistance group who fight against the Decepticons who plan to take over the universe by force, in a civil war between the same species.
• Mildly Military: They don't show any sort of military discipline whatsoever, even if they work alongside the human military. Hound comes off as a grizzled, over-the-hill veteran brought back out of retirement.
• The Purge: They suffer one of these by the hands of the humans, the species they have been working so long and hard to protect, their corpses being used for creation of human-made vehicle-transforming robots, under the argument that the Autobots brought the war of Cybertron to Earth and this would be their way to tell them to get out of the planet.
• La Résistance:
  • When Optimus and Megatron falled out and became enemies, the latter managed to seize almost all of Cybertron, forcing Optimus and the Autobots to fight despite the sheer power difference.
  • The Decepticons clearly outnumber the Autobots, both in terms of the on-screen cast and in the universe at large, leaving Optimus's unit as seemingly the sole force really putting a dent in the Decepticons.
  • Taken even further in Age of Extinction, with the Autobot-human alliance being dissolved and the Autobots being forced to go on the run.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Their arms transform into their weapons. Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction subvert it, with the Autobots' weapons being handheld instead.
• Transforming Mecha: Natch.
• True Companions: The cast of the first three films act as a well-oiled bunch of killing machines, fueled by their long comradeship and friendships. Averted initially in Age of Extinction: the only Autobots that survived The Purge are a bunch of loners, misfits, and assholes who clearly don't belong together, but they're stuck with each other because they're literally all that's left. By the end of the film, however, it's safe to say they've become this.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The fourth and fifth movies show that the Autobots as a whole are victims of this; with various human governments blaming every crime that the Decepticons are ultimately responsible for on the Autobots, and sending out various taskforces and agencies with the goal of killing the Autobots whenever they show up. With the apparent worst punishments that the Decepticons are given are being arrested and sent to Prison.

Introduced in Transformers (2007)

Optimus Prime

"We cannot let the humans pay for our mistakes."

^{Click here to see Prime from Age of Extinction}
"Humans have asked us to play by their rules. Well, the rules have just changed."

]]

Voiced by: Peter Cullen, Blas Garcia (Latin-American Spanish dub, 2007-2011), Alfonso Ramirez (Latin-American Spanish dub, 2014) Tesshō Genda (Japanese dub), Jacques Frantz (European French dub), Reiner Schöne (German dub)

"You defend my family... or die."

The valiant, courageous and noble leader of the Autobots, Optimus is very guilt-ridden about the damage done to Cybertron and protects the Earth so that it doesn't suffer the same fate. Though idealistic, millions of years of war have hardened him considerably, and he is willing to take more brutal methods than usual to end the war. He transforms into a series of semi trucks, most prominently a Peterbilt 379.

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• Action Hero: He's a soldier, after all. He sees more action than any other Autobot in the films.
• Adaptational Badass: Optimus is usually a great fighter with impressive strength, speed and ability to fight against the Decepticons. Here, not only is Optimus bigger in size, he is stronger than the other incarnations of Optimus, having killed more enemies than the rest of the pre-existing Optimuses and has different modes that lets him become even more deadlier.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Normally, Optimus is depicted as being unwilling to kill other bots until pushed to it, strongly preferring mercy and aiming to incapacitate or imprison Decepticons if at all possible, and takes no pleasure in it. Here, he brutally and swiftly kills multiple Decepticons without a second thought.
• All-Loving Hero: Downplayed. At heart, Optimus is a kind and compassionate man who believes that all beings have a right to live and be free. With that being said, if any Decepticon thinks that he won't kill them without second thought to protect that right, they're in for a VERY rude awakening.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Rarely uses contractions.
• Arm Cannon: Gains one in RotF using Jetfire's parts.
• Art Evolution: Optimus' design gradually became more streamlined and humanoid over the course of the films.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: How Optimus gains the loyalty and support of the Dinobots.
• Back from the Dead: In keeping with franchise tradition, Revenge of the Fallen has Optimus killed after being fatally stabbed in the chest from behind by Megatron. He is later resurrected by Sam using the Matrix of Leadership.
• Badass Boast:
  • "I'll take you all on!"
  • To a lesser extent, "We're NOT your technology!!" ^note He is snarling this to a very smug Joshua Joyce, who is justifying his desecration of deceased Transformers (including Optimus's old friend Ratchet) by saying it's just for the sake of the advancement of human technology. This goes over with Optimus as well as you'd expect.
• Badass in Distress: He is captured by Lockdown and brought to his prison ship in Age of Extinction. The other Autobots free him, along with the captured Dinobots.
• Being Good Sucks: Boy, does it ever! So many tragedies happen to Optimus in the film series, even when most of them aren't really his fault. He could leave Earth to its fate—he was even considering it in Age of Extinction—but he chooses to stay because of his belief in the freedom all sentient beings deserve.
• Benevolent Boss: An effective commander and a loyal friend to his subordinates, he mourns for the deaths of his fellow Autobots when they die by the hands of Decepticons and humans.
• Bequeathed Power: Optimus achieves his upgraded form when Jetfire donates his parts to him.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't you dare harm any human in front of him, especially humans who are particularly close to him. He WILL scare the crap out of you, like what he did to Sector Seven, who kidnapped Sam and Mikaela. Or beat you senseless, like what he did to Megatron, Starscream and Grindor when they captured Sam and tried to get his brain. He destroys the Fallen, who was endangering the whole human race, and brutally cleaves Megatron's head in half and then uses the latter's gun to blow Sentinel Prime's head off for slaughtering thousands of people and several of his friends.
  • Changed in Age of Extinction. With humanity indiscriminately killing Autobots, Ratchet being the most recent casualty, it takes all of his self control to stop him from killing every human in sight. To his credit, he doesn't go destroying city blocks like the Decepticons, and directs his rage at those who are responsible for or are accomplices to the betrayal. Furthermore, attempting to harm the Yeagers in his vicinity pretty much ends badly for anyone who tries it, particularly Attinger and Lockdown.
  • All in all, whether they be humans who help him, fellow Cybertronians, or anything in between, if he considers them his allies, and you harm them, it doesn't matter who you are or where you go to escape him, because he's coming for you.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The greatest living Cybertronian warrior is according to Word of God a peace loving and kind-hearted scientist, so don't piss him off or he'll take your face.
• Big Badass Rig: He transforms into a long-nosed Peterbilt 379 truck in the first trilogy; in Age of Extinction, he transforms into a rusty Marmon 97 semi truck and later into a Western Star 4900 Phantom Custom semi-trailer truck.
• Big Damn Heroes: His job in a nutshell.
• Big Good: Leader of the Autobots and all that. Age of Extinction shows that without him, the Autobots were getting ready to blow each other apart. Also, when Optimus gains the loyalty of the Dinobots, this exchange happens.
  Crosshairs: Ugh, you just want to die for the guy. That's leadership... or brainwashing... or something.
  Drift: No, that's Optimus Prime!
• Black-and-White Insanity: In the fourth film. While he's justified in being angry at the humans involved with the killing of his friends and using them for experiments, he extends his contempt to the rest of the human race and is ready to leave Earth and abandon them to their self-destructive ways, giving respect only to Cade and his family for helping them. However Cade manages to talk him out of this attitude.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: One in each arm. He switches to using more conventional handheld swords from Dark of the Moon onwards.
• Bond One-Liner: After killing the Fallen, Optimus declares "I rise. You fall."
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In TLK, by Quinessa, to aid her. It lasts until he nearly kills Bumblebee.
• Broken Pedestal: He starts out advocating for humans and holds them in high regard, despite various Autobot and Decepticon characters explicitly telling him that humans are a warlike and unintelligent species which don't deserve his protection. The pedestal cracks significantly when Sentinel Prime, his mentor and the one who instilled these principles into Optimus, betrays him and the Autobots in the third film. Thanks to the humans turning on them soon after, this pedestal is thoroughly broken by the fourth movie, if his initial reaction upon being reawakened is any indication. Once he learns of Ratchet's fate, you might as well pull out a fusion cannon and vaporize any remnants of said pedestal.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of Age of Extinction, Optimus takes the Seed and heads into deep space alone, leaving the remaining Autobots on Earth, as he still has to confront his apparent Creators.
• Character Development:
  • By the end of the first trilogy, he has finally lost all hope for peace with Megatron, especially after the massacre of Chicago.
  • The fourth film focuses on him regaining faith in humanity after a quite unforgivable betrayal.
  • For better or worse, Optimus gradually learns throughout the course of the film series that humans can often times be as despicable and backstabbing as any Decepticon. The films following Dark of the Moon in particular has him learn to accept that they are capable of both great kindness and great evil.
• Character Narrator: Every movie begins and ends with a narration from Optimus with the exception of The Last Knight, where the intro narration is provided by Sir Edmund Burton (Optimus still gives the closing narration, however).
• Combat Pragmatist: Very much so. Starting from his first fight scene, where he rams his blade into Bonecrusher's face. There is practically nothing he won't use as a weapon against a foe.
  • Defied during his fight with Megatron at the end of the first film, where he deliberately held himself back to avoid collateral damage. This decision led to a Near-Villain Victory. In the remaining four films, the action either takes place in a location where collateral damage is no concern, or the situation is too dire to worry about it.
• Composite Character: In most continuities, Nemesis Prime is his Evil Doppelgänger. Here he is given the name after he is brainwashed.
• Cool Mask: He has a retractable faceplate for combat situations. Megatron breaks it in Revenge of the Fallen, but it gets repaired when Optimus merges with Jetfire's parts.
• Cool Sword: He wields a longsword in Age of Extinction.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He gives plenty of these to his enemies. Gouging their eyes out, decapitating in brutal way or ripping their faces apart, Optimus will give any one these if you harm his allies and loved ones. He gets on himself in Revenge of the Fallen when Megatron stabs him in the back and destroys a vital part of him.
• Death by Adaptation: Is killed in the cutscene after his boss battle in Transformers: The Game (Console).
• Defiant to the End: Optimus always chooses to go down fighting in the face of certain death, and actually does so in ROTF. He gets better, since Optimus wouldn't be Optimus without coming Back from the Dead.
• Doomed Moral Victor: His attempts to set a higher moral ground are undercut by the gray morality the human race adopts.
• Et Tu, Brute?: His very realization when he discovers that Sentinel Prime had betrayed him and the Autobots.
• Firing One-Handed: He executes Sentinel this way with Megatron's handheld fusion cannon, due to Sentinel cutting his right arm off.
• Genius Bruiser: Aside from being a formidable soldier, he's also one of Cybertron's greatest scientists.
• Gentle Giant: Being the largest Autobot in the main group, he fits this trope the most.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: He expects humanity to respect and support the Autobots as much as they respect support the Earth, and so he doesn't think highly of Necessarily Evil situations the humans set up, like exiling the Autobots or melting them down for their own army. Justified though in that those schemes pretty much ended in failure and more trouble for Earth that the Autobots have to rescue them from.
• Good Is Not Soft: As several very dead Decepticons can attest, Optimus is merciless in a fight. In Age of Extinction, he threatens to kill Grimlock if he and the Dinobots don’t help him defend the Chinese city which is under attack by Lockdown.
  Optimus Prime: You defend my family... or die.
• Guns Akimbo: He wields two guns when attacking Megatron to save Sam in Revenge of the Fallen.
• The Hero: He is the alpha protagonist over the course of the movies. Sam and Cade might provide a human perspective the story, but Optimus is the one moving the story forward.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Optimus gets to use swords quite a lot through the saga, such as his arm-blades in the first trilogy and the longsword in Age of Extinction.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He dies protecting Sam in Revenge of the Fallen by Megatron. He gets better, though.
• Heroic Spirit: He wouldn't be Optimus Prime if he didn't display it.
• Honor Before Reason: Optimus will always try to honor a promise or a deal when he is asked for and he accepts it. Except when he kills Megatron at the end of DOTM instead of accepting a "truce". Though considering Megatron seemed less than sincere, taunted Optimus while asking for said truce, and still had his gun pointing at him, this is a Justified Trope. The novel has him use this trope all the way through, though in both the novel and comic adaptations, Megatron is clearly sincere about the truce, and even asks Optimus to kill him if he deems it fit.
  • Then again, Optimus calls out Sentinel on making an alliance with Megatron, so if he did the same, he would look like a Hypocrite.
• Hooks and Crooks: A memorable scene in Revenge of the Fallen has him swapping his blades for hooks, then using said hooks to tear Grindor's head apart.
• Hot Blade: His swords are superheated, allowing Optimus to slice his enemies more easily.
• Hot Paint Job: Optimus has red flames painted on his blue chassis, letting him keep the iconic red-chest-windows look.
• Humans Are Flawed: After spending three films believing Humans Are Special and then the fourth one that Humans Are the Real Monsters, Optimus eventually begins to accept that our race is indeed "primitive and violent" but still worth protecting, especially for the few that truly showcase our species' noblest qualities.
• Humans Are Special: Firmly believes this for the first three movies, and trusts his human friends with his life.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Tragically has come to believe this by the time of the fourth film, after The Purge that wiped out most of the Autobots on Earth, luckily Cade convinces him otherwise.
• Ideal Hero: Deconstructed and reconstructed in Age of Extinction. Optimus's faith in humanity results in them slaughtering Autobots to create their own Transformers. Optimus is angry at this betrayal and is ready to abandon them to their fate, but Cade re-awakens Optimus's idealism and convinces him humanity is still worth protecting.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • This is what he says to Megatron's corpse at the end of the first film, and it clearly pains every inch of his being.
  • Not quite so much the second time 'round, though. Killing The Fallen, Sentinel Prime, Lockdown and Attinger similarly leaves him with little remorse.
• Jet Pack: Gains one from Jetfire's parts in Revenge of the Fallen, his trailer can become one in Dark of the Moon, and has booster rockets on his legs in Age of Extinction.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Has become this by Age of Extinction. He ultimately gets better, but it's clear the past couple years of hiding and fighting for his life have taken a toll on him. For one thing, he legitimately considers leaving humanity to face the apocalypse they brought on themselves.
• Large and in Charge: The tallest of the Autobots at 32 ft., until Jetfire (50 ft.) gets involved, and then later the Dinobots.
• Large Ham: Downplayed. He has his moments here and there, though.
• Last of His Kind: Was believed to be the last of the Primes, and was therefore hunted by the Fallen (who lost his title when he betrayed his brothers). Dark of the Moon reveals that he actually isn't; Sentinel Prime is still around, and when Optimus finds out, he revives the old warrior. Then Optimus kills Sentinel after the latter tries to enslave humanity, putting this trope back into effect. Ouch.
• The Leader: A combination of the Levelheaded and Charismatic varieties. Optimus remains calm and taciturn in combat situations and is able to inspire his soldiers through his charisma and idealism.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's the tallest of the Autobots and is capable of pulling off impressive acrobatic stunts. Dark of the Moon shows his strength and speed in a Foe-Tossing Charge that ends up killing Shockwave.
• Like a Son to Me: Implies Bumblebee is this in Age of Extinction.
• Living MacGuffin: In Age of Extinction, Lockdown wants to capture Optimus and bring him to his Creators.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: He carries a shield to match his Hot Blade in Dark of the Moon and his longsword in Age of Extinction.
• Master Swordsman: Whenever he gets his hands on a sword, Optimus becomes more lethal than usual.
• Messianic Archetype: It's Optimus Prime, this is par for the course.
• Midseason Upgrade: Every new movie sees Optimus getting a new upgrade like there's no tomorrow. First, his combination with Jetfire's parts in Revenge of the Fallen, then his trailer in Dark of the Moon contains a whole arsenal for him to use, and in Age of Extinction, scanning a new alt-mode redesigns his body with new weapons.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After Sentinel Prime goes on a rampage, killing Ironhide and destroy the NEST base, the look on his face as he realizes this is his fault for bringing Sentinel back can only be described as this.
  • Says this word for word after snapping out of his brainwashing and realizing that he nearly killed his friends, specifically Bumblebee.
• Nice Guy: Optimus is loyal, friendly, noble and treats both Autobots and humans with kindness and respect.
• Off with His Head!: His fondness for this spawned the meme. ^note To be fair, movie Cybertronians in particular are extremely hard to kill. It makes sense to focus on destroying the head, since Frenzy and later Megatron survived without a head.
• Old Friend: He's closest to Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Ironhide. He does not take the deaths of the latter two well at all.
• One-Handed Shotgun Pump: He occasionally does this. He does it twice with his dual ion blaster pistols in Revenge of the Fallen. At the end of Dark of the Moon, he does it with Megatron’s handheld fusion cannon, which is even designed to resemble a shotgun; justified by his arm being severed a few minutes earlier.
• Papa Wolf:
  • He loves his human friends like his own children, and would literally tear you a new one if you harm even one of them; Starscream, Grindor, The Fallen, and Megatron find this out the hard way.
    Optimus: Taking the children was a bad move.
  • And then in DOTM when Sentinel Prime, his father figure and teacher, has led an invasion of Chicago that murdered and enslaved millions of innocent civilians, Optimus shoots the bastard execution-style as he begs helplessly for his worthless life lying on the ground. Do not screw with a race that Optimus Prime has come to love.
• Parental Substitute: Implied to be the relationship between him and Bumblebee, via an offhand comment to Cade in Age of Extinction. While Cybertronian culture doesn't really include such concepts as "parents", he was more or less the closest thing to a father that Bumblebee had. Which makes his realization of how close he came to killing Bumblebee in The Last Knight all the more terrifying and heartbreaking for him.
• Power Fist: He deploys a spiked knuckleduster on his left hand in Chicago, using it to disembowel Shockwave with a single punch.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Especially in the first three films. Optimus having a Hot Paint Job was a design necessity due to red paint being notoriously difficult to film on cars. ^note This is because light reflected off red paint tends to mess with lighting. By making the truck blue and adding red flames to it, this allows the truck to look better on camera while also allowing Optimus to have his signature red chest in robot mode.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: He occasionally doles them out, particularly in DOTM, where he lets loose three consecutive one-liners during the Battle of Chicago.
• Primary-Color Champion: Naturally, by way of his Hot Paint Job.
• Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Optimus is among the very few characters to get a power-up in each movie.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Towards Sentinel Prime.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He is always willing to let his friends handle things if the situation calls for it.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the leader of the Autobots and also an extremely powerful fighter, able to take on multiple Decepticons by himself and still come out on top.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: Cade's words about having faith in what humanity can be instead of what they are, along with him and his family risking their lives to save him and help him fight Lockdown cause this.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Optimus leads a truly terrifying one when he learns that Ratchet was slaughtered and is being melted down for parts.
  Optimus: THEY SLAUGHTERED RATCHET!!! I'M GONNA TEAR THEM APART!!
• Series Mascot: Shares this role with Bumblebee.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: He uses Megatron's shotgun to execute Sentinel Prime in Dark of the Moon.
• Standardized Leader: Comes with being Optimus Prime. He doesn't have the quirks of other Autobots, is more focused on the mission and rarely affords moments of leisure.
• Supporting Leader: In the first film, Optimus stands in the background while Sam is in the spotlight. Subverted in the sequels.
• Tear Off Your Face: Most infamously when he kills the Fallen, but he has a disturbing tendency to go for the faces of his enemies for whatever reason.
  Give me your face!
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Blasting Attinger with a weapon designed for giant mechanical lifeforms. Not that many were sad about it.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Emphasis on the "sinful earth".
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first film, Optimus took out Bonecrusher, but could barely stand against Megatron. In the second, likely to add more emphasis on the importance of Optimus being a Prime, Optimus suddenly becomes strong enough to competently AWESOMELY battle Megatron, Starscream and Grindor at the same time for a while! In the third film, he leads a massive Foe-Tossing Charge and kills Shockwave with one combo.
• Took a Level in Cynic: By Age of Extinction, years of the Autobots being hunted down by humans has caused Optimus to lose much of his faith in them, to the point where he will not hesitate to kill humans in self-defense. He regains his idealism and faith in humanity at the end though.
• Tranquil Fury: Upon seeing what the Decepticons have done to Chicago he gives a single line in an even tone encapsulating his anger at their atrocities.

  Optimus: We will kill them all.

• Unexplained Recovery: It looks like he dies after his boss battle in the Decepticon Campaign of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - The Game but he turns up alive and well for the final battle where he tells Megatron that Primes are born, not made and Megatron was betrayed by the Fallen.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Severely downplayed. Megatron saves his life against Sentinel and proposes a truce, Optimus immediately follows this up by killing Megatron swiftly and brutally. To be fair to him, Megatron was a bastard who not only killed Prime once, but frequently threatened the world and was largely responsible for the death of his friends and the endangerment of the planet he tried to protect.
• Villain Killer: Optimus has the highest Decepticon body count in the entire film series. He kills Bonecrusher in the first movie. He kills Grindor, Demolishor and the Fallen in the second movie kills. Shockwave, Sentinel and Megatron are added to his body count in the third movie. In the fourth movie, he claims the lives of Attinger and Lockdown.
• Vocal Evolution: Peter Cullen gives Optimus a much deeper voice than he had in the original cartoon, which has since become his de-facto voice for the character.
• Walking Armory: Two ion blasters, two retractable Hot Blades, two superheated hooks, an axe (also superheated); the trailer he gets in the third film adds a shield, a BFG, spiked knuckles, and a jetpack; and he gets the "Sword of Judgement", another shield, and rocket boosters in his feet from Lockdown's ship. The guy's positively armed to the teeth.
• Weaponized Exhaust: His upgraded form in Revenge of the Fallen can throw Megatron through a stone wall.
• Wolverine Publicity: Optimus gets the spotlight of any movie's marketing campaign, alongside Bumblebee and the human protagonists.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • In the first film, Optimus is strongly implied to be holding back against Megatron due to the massive amount of humans still in range for collateral damage, when earlier he had handled Bonecrusher with relative ease.
  • In Revenge of the Fallen, he is initially powerless against The Fallen due to having just been revived from the dead and not having had any opportunity to heal or be repaired from his fatal injuries at Megatron's hands (or the fight in general against him and powerful Decepticon enforcers Starscream and Grindor). It takes a power-up from Jetfire to get Optimus repaired and in fighting shape; after which, he mops the floor with The Fallen and Megatron.
• The Worf Effect:
  • While Worf Had the Flu is in play for his fight with Megatron in the first film, Optimus is also shown struggling against the Decepticon leader to show what a huge threat he is.
  • In Dark of the Moon he proves to be unable to best his direct predecessor as Autobot leader and teacher, Sentinel Prime, and would've been killed had Megatron not intervened.
  • In Age of Extinction he is shown fighting Galvatron on equal footing to establish what a threat KSI's man-made drones are, and also struggles against seasoned Cybertronian bounty hunter Lockdown.
• Wrecked Weapon: At least one of Prime's swords is broken when fighting Galvatron in Age of Extinction.
• You Are Not Ready:
  • Refuses to share Autobot weapons advances with the humans for fear of them pointing said weapons at non-Decepticon targets. Part of this is because he's afraid of contributing to mankind destroying themselves like his own race did. In other words, if the Cybertronians weren't responsible enough not to wipe out their own race with their weapons, how is a race who are millions of years behind them supposed to? Averted in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Video Game where he reluctantly provides NEST with the Axiom Gun. By Dark of the Moon, the Autobots have started sharing Cybertronian technology with NEST and also train them on how to target and kill Cybertronians.
  • Age of Extinction proves just how justified Optimus was with this, since what little they did share with the humans is indeed used against them. The scene of Ratchet's death is eerily similar to the opening sequence of Revenge of the Fallen, only turned on the poor Autobot medic, and they're shown using tactics and even call out attacks identically to what Epps and Lennox's team used in Dark of the Moon against the Decepticons.

Bumblebee

Voiced by: Mark Ryan (Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Video Game Transformers: The Ride queue line), Ben Schwartz (Transformers: Age of Extinction), Erik Aadahl (Transformers: The Last Knight), Fred Tatasciore (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) Alfredo Gabriel Basurto (Latin-American Spanish dub, 2007-2011), Akio Kato (Japanese dub/Transformers (2007), non-radio voice), Hiroshi Iwasaki (Japanese dub/Transformers, radio voice), Kōichi Yamadera (Japanese dub/Transformers: Age of Extinction), Masato Obara (Japanese dub/Transformers: The Last Knight), Ryōhei Kimura (Japanese dub/Bumblebee)

"Any more questions you wanna ask?"

Sam's designated guardian, Bumblebee is a 16-foot tall yellow Autobot. His vocal processor was damaged, so he speaks through the radio in his Chevrolet Camaro form.

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• Adaptational Badass: An example that made its way into later series featuring the character. In Generation One, Bumblebee's main purpose was evacuating humans from danger while the larger Autobots did the fighting. In the movies, Bumblebee is active in combat.
• Animal Motifs: With bees and even dogs.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's one of the friendliest Transformers in the series, even compared to other Autobots, but he's also an extremely skilled fighter with a fair number of Decepticon kills to his name, and you do not want to piss him off.
• Breakout Character: The film series firmly made Bumblebee one of the franchise mascots.
• Character Development: He goes from scout to guardian to warrior over the course of the series.
• Combat Parkour: Due to his light armor and small size, Bumblebee cannot defeat enemies through brawn alone, so he has to leap around the battlefield to keep his enemies distracted.
• Composite Character: He was mainly inspired by his Generation One self, but his design takes cues from Prowl and Bluestreak (i.e., his car grill makes his chest, his trunk and rear wheels make his legs, and his car door forms faux "wings"). This may be justified as the Camaro he transforms into in the movies is much closer in size and shape to Prowl's police cruiser than the Volkswagen Bug he originally transformed into. He even provides the page image.
• Death by Adaptation: Dies in the Decepticon campaigns of Transformers The Game (in the console version, he's killed by Barricade and the DS version has him be killed by Starscream), the PSP version of that game (Megatron lands on him in jet mode) and the Decepticon campaign of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Game where he's killed alongside Jetfire by Megatron in Egypt.
• Demoted to Extra: Downplayed in Age of Extinction. While Bumblebee is still a relevant character, his role as the designated guardian to the human protagonists is taken by Optimus. He seems to develop a small bond with Shane, however.
• Detachment Combat: He's somehow picked up the ability to do this in The Last Knight.
• Handicapped Badass: His inability to speak does not reduce his ability in combat one bit.
• Heroic Mime: Not by choice in the first movie: backstory reveals that a battle that takes place before the films ended with Megatron ripping his arms off and then crushing his vocal processors. In the second movie, Sam says that he plays it up.
• Informed Attribute: In Age of Extinction, Drift claims he's been acting as leader of the crew but we never see any of it. Marketing material for The Last Knight also describes Bumblebee as the current Autobot leader, but this also isn't seen in the film where Cade is clearly in charge of the group.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Though he's much more badass this time around.
• Kid Hero: Bumblebee's exact age is unknown, but given the audio clips he uses to communicate, he displays the behavior of a teenager at the very least.
• Nice Guy: He is one of the easiest Autobots to get along with. Optimus and Sam are very fond of him for this reason.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Compared to other Autobots, at least.
• Plot Armor: Past the first movie: No matter how dire of a circumstance Bumblee is in, he'll always survive no worse for wear.
• Poor Communication Kills: His failed attempts to inform Sam that the hot girl Alice who's riding with them is a Decepticon, unless you read it as him just trying to stop Sam from cheating on Mikaela.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: He's very emotional.
• Series Mascot: Shares this role with Optimus.
• Shipper on Deck: In the first two movies, it's quite apparent that he's all for Sam & Mikaela. In the first he's outright trying to play The Matchmaker. We don't know his thoughts on "Sam and Mikaela's break up", but whatever the case, he, like Sam, has clearly moved on, and totally jumped on the Sam/Carly boat, outright trying to hint that he wants Sam to propose to Carly at the end of the third film.
• Silent Snarker: He can't talk, but he gets his points across.
• True Companions: Considers Sam this, at one point "saying" that Sam is "the person I care about most in my life. If there's anything you ever need, I won't be far away.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: If you see his battle mask come down, chances are you aren’t leaving that fight alive.
• Villain Killer: Let's just say he's killed a LOT of Decepticons.
• Weak, but Skilled: Bumblebee's one of the smaller Autobots, so strength isn't one of his strong suits. However, he's also one of the smarter fighters, knowing how to use the environment to his advantage and exploit bigger opponents' weak spots to level the playing field.
• Wolverine Publicity: He is always at the forefront in advertisements, alongside Optimus and the human protagonists.

Ironhide

"I'm a soldier. I'm made for war. Your kind simply... are not."

Voiced by: Jess Harnell, Mark Ryan (Transformers: The Game (Console)) Dafnis Fernández (Latin-American Spanish dub, 2007-2011), Katsuhiro Kitagawa (Japanese dub)

"You feelin' lucky, punk?"

A grouchy war veteran and Optimus's oldest friend. Ironhide is a proud figure who enjoys fighting and likes showing off his arm cannons. He transforms into a black GMC Topkick pickup truck. He is the first Autobot fatality of the third film, killed by the opening betrayal shot of the treacherous Sentinel Prime.

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• Arm Cannons: One in each arm.
• Bash Brothers: Mostly in the first movie, with Ratchet.
• Blood Knight: He is a very passionate warrior, though thankfully he’s much nicer than Sideswipe.
• The Big Guy: He is the Autobots' weapons specialist.
• Character Development: In the first film, he was pretty cantankerous and disapproved of the Autobots' aiding humanity. By Revenge of the Fallen, he's happy to work with them, and even accepts orders from them. Plus, he's become cool-headed enough to be a worthy second in command of the Autobots.
• Death by Adaptation: Is killed in the Decepticon campaigns of the first two games (By Blackout in the first game and Long Haul in the second game).
• Demoted to Extra: Despite not getting this as bad as Ratchet, he's a very minor character in Revenge of the Fallen, though he does get a good fight scene in DOTM, before getting killed off by Sentinel Prime.
• Et Tu, Brute?: His very reaction when he was shot In the Back by Sentinel Prime.
• Foreshadowing: Worries about rusting when Sam's dog pees on him in the first movie. This is exactly how he dies two movies later, courtesy of Sentinel Prime.
• Hypocrite: He complains that humans are a violent race, all the meanwhile gloating to Sam about his cannons.
• In the Back: How Sentinel Prime murders him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He doesn't like humans too much, but he'll fight for them all the same.
• Killed Off for Real: By Sentinel Prime.
• Number Two: After Jazz's death, he takes on the role of the Autobots' second-in-command, leading in the field when Optimus isn't around. Upon Optimus' death in Revenge of the Fallen, he seems to take over the Autobots, though he's willing to defer to Lennox when he doesn't know something about Earth (like the terrain in Egypt).
• Old Soldier: He is old by Cybertronian standards and is still one of the best Autobots in the field.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: In the comics, it's noted he was initially part of the Thetacons, who were separate of the Autobots and Decepticons. Although not technically a different race, he does say "I was built for war. Your kind, simply, are not."
• Rank Up: He becomes the Autobots' second-in-command after Jazz's death.
• Sacrificial Lion: Sentinel Prime's coldblooded murder of Ironhide shows just how dangerously unstable the old guy has become.
• Shoulders of Doom: His truck-mode hood forms a pair of massive shoulderpads in robot mode.
• Sociopathic Hero: His Trigger-Happy nature could easily associate him as such. He eventually grows out of it, though.
• Trigger-Happy: Replying to Optimus scolding him for half-jokingly suggesting they slag Sam's annoying parents: "I'm just sayin' we could. It's an option..." The first movie's Video Game also implies that he's responsible for destroying an entire planet. Though Ironhide claims that "it was gonna blow up anyway."
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: Seems very fond of this, especially in the first movie.

Ratchet

Voiced by: Robert Foxworth (films, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen: The Video Game, Fred Tatasciore (Transformers: The Game (Console), Transformers Dark Of The Moon The Video Game), Jameison Price Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark 3DS version Jesús Cortez (Latin-American Spanish dub, 2007-2011), Jin Urayama (Japanese dub), Alain Dorval (European French dub)

"The boy's pheromone levels suggest he wants to mate with the female."

The Autobot's medical and science officer. A former member of Cybertron's High Council, Ratchet is very diplomatic and intelligent. He transforms into a Hummer Search & Rescue truck.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: This version of Ratchet is much nicer and friendlier than most incarnations of the character, who are traditionally depicted as a crotchety grouch (though this characterization didn't become a staple part across the franchise until Transformers: Animated, released between the first and second films).
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Rather than being red and white like most incarnations, this Ratchet sports a yellow and red color scheme, though he switches to a green and white color scheme in Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction.
• An Arm and a Leg: Ratchet gets his left leg blown off by Cemetery Wind as they pursue him. He tries to use this to get them to take him alive. It doesn't work when he learns they have no intention of wanting him alive.
• Arm Cannon: His right arm turns into a machine gun.
• Badass Bookworm: He's one of the smartest Autobots and he's no slouch in combat either. He is always taking part in the battles across the series, and has taken on the likes of Brawl, Megatron and Starscream, and Sentinel Prime. He was one of the last casualties of Cemetery Wind's hunt, managing to hide and survive for five years on his own.
• Bash Brothers: Mostly in the first movie, he's this with Ironhide.
• Combat Medic / Deadly Doctor: His weapons are often also medical tools, and he constantly makes use of his knowledge in combat.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He's hunted down by Cemetery Wind and brutally worn down and blown apart by their superior firepower. Then, Lockdown arrives (after having sniped him), rips into his chest, and removes his spark.
• Defiant to the End: When he realizes he isn't going to be spared, he puts up as much of a fight as he can before his death, and spits in Lockdown's face when offered a chance to survive by ratting out Optimus.
• Demoted to Extra: A major character in the first movie, but unlike Bumblebee or Ironhide, his screentime decreased massively by the second. The third film does try to give him more spotlight, however. And the fourth film brings him back only to be Killed Off for Real, in a particularly brutal fashion.
• Face Death with Dignity: Though he initially panics while being hunted down, he sadly accepts his death and lies back and waits for it.
• Foil: To Ironhide.
• Friendly Sniper: If one pays attention to his fighting style, he mostly walks slowly while carefully aiming and sharpshooting his foes with precision.
• Gentleman Snarker: Upon being confronted by Galloway, his reaction is "This fool is terribly misinformed."
• The Heart: Besides Bumblebee and Que, he is the most genuinely nice member of the Autobots and is good friends with the entire team. His death in Age of Extinction sends Optimus and the surviving Autobots into a rage, even those who we never saw interacting with him, like Cade, Hound, Crosshairs and Drift.
• Ink-Suit Actor: His appearance seems to be styled after Mr. Foxworth himself.
• Killed Off for Real: Wounded by Cemetery Wind operatives while responding to Optimus's call to arms, leaving Lockdown to finish him off in Age of Extinction.
• The Medic: Medical officer of the Autobots. In addition, in Transformers The Game, he would have had the ability to heal fellow Autobots, he's got a Combat Repair Sequence in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Game to rapidly regenerate his and his fellow Autobots' health as his ability and In the 3DS version of Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, he possesses the Repair ability and has a Healing Wave move to restore a massive amount of health to him and his allies.
• My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: See his quote.
• Nice Guy: In contrast to most Ratchets from alternate continuities, who are, at the very least, a Dr. Jerk / Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Noble Profession: Being a doctor and all.
• Officer and a Gentleman: Alongside Optimus, the most polite of the Autobots. Overlaps with Gentleman and a Scholar.
• Old Friends: With Optimus, Ironhide and Bumblebee. It's his death and subsequent desecration that sends Optimus over the edge in Age of Extinction.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Seems to know everything from chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine.
• Pheromones: Can apparently sense them; specifically, those produced by Sam when Mikaela is around.
• The Professor: Combined with Absent-Minded Professor in regards to humans.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Ironhide's red.
• Sacrificial Lion: In Age of Extinction. He gets an entire scene depicting his slow, brutal death at the hands of Cemetery Wind and Lockdown, to not only show what's been happening to the Autobots since Dark of the Moon, but what will happen to Optimus and company if they're found.
• Sherlock Scan: In the third movie, he diagnoses Sentinel Prime without touching him.
• The Smart Guy: He's a scientist, after all.
• Spared by the Adaptation:He's alive and well in the 3DS version of ''Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark.
• Spock Speak: Alternates between this and Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness.
• Undying Loyalty: To Optimus and his allies in general. He tells Lockdown to fuck off when the bounty hunter offers him his life in exchange for Optimus's.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: He's quite often seen tucking and rolling during battles.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Does not appear in the Decepticon Campaign in Transformers: The Game (Console). Considering how that one ends, things are not looking good...

Jazz

"You wanna piece of me?! You wanna piece?!"

Voiced by: Darius McCrary, Andrew Kishino (Transformers: The Game (Console)) Gerardo García (Latin-American Spanish dub, 2007-2011), Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese dub)

"This looks like a cool place to kick it!"

Optimus's first lieutenant. He loves Earth's cultures and styles and has since taken on several of Earth's customs. He transforms into a Pontiac Solstice hardtop convertible.

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• Adaptational Badass: Kills both Starscream and Blackout at once, and a pair of Class Alpha Drone Units in Transformers: The Game (Console).
• Back from the Dead: In the mobile game of the first film and Transformers: Twilight's Last Gleaming, Though thanks to Megatron having corrupted the AllSpark shard, it does not turn out well there.
• Black Dude Dies First: Even when he's just a robot that downloaded 'urban vernacular' as his speech pattern from the internet. And breakdances. The only Autobot to go down in the first movie... and the first to die in the entire franchise.
  • His voice actor even lampshaded in the behind the scenes featurette.
    Darius McCrary: The brother always gets it. (Beat) Hahaha.
• Cool Car: A Pontiac Solstice.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the movie he is ripped in half by Megatron. He is killed by Brawl and Barricade in the Autobot and Decepticon Campaigns respectively of Transformers: The Game (Console) and Megatron guns him down in the Decepticon version of the DS game.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Megatron kills him by ripping him in half.
  Jazz: You want a piece of me?! YOU WANNA PIECE?!
  Megatron: No! I want two!
• The Heart: Jazz openly protests when Optimus decides to leave Bumblebee in Sector 7's clutches.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He deliberately stayed behind to fight Megatron; most likely knowing full well it was suicide, after telling the others to fall back. This buys enough time for Optimus to show up.
• Insult of Endearment: Refers to Sam and Mikaela as "little bitches" when he first meets them, but obviously means no offense.
• The Lancer / Number Two: Optimus' first lieutenant.
• Magnetism Manipulation: He briefly shows off an ability to snatch some Sector 7 agents' guns out of their hands with this.

Introduced in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen (2009)

Sideswipe

"Damn, I'm good."

Voiced by: André Sogliuzzo (Revenge of the Fallen), James Remar (Dark of the Moon), Fred Tatasciore (Transformers: The Game (Console) (PSP), Transformers: Dark of the Moon)

Introduced in the second film. Sideswipe is a silver-armoured Autobot with retractable blades on his arms and wheels for feet. He is a bit of a showoff. In the tie-in comics, Sideswipe was in charge of an Autobot colony until it was destroyed by Demolishor and chased him to Earth where he joined Optimus's team. He transforms into a Corvette Stingray car. DOTM sees a slight change to a convertible variant.

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• Backpack Cannon: Which he likes to fire downward at foes while flipping over them.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: One in each arm.
• Blood Knight: According to the Tales of the Fallen tie-in comic: "I am a warrior; I bleed conflict".
• Cool Car: A shiny new Corvette.
• Killed Off for Real: Tie-in cards for Age of Extinction confirm he was hunted down and killed by Cemetery Wind and Lockdown during the Time Skip between the third and fouth films.
• Killed Offscreen: His death was never shown.
• The Lancer: After Ironhide's death, Sideswipe is seen leading the Autobots in the battle for Chicago when Optimus isn't around.
• Rollerblade Good: Two of his Corvette's tires form his feet; he uses skating moves to get around.
• Shout-Out / Continuity Nod: Sideswipe's backstory appears to be inspired by that of Depth Charge from Beast Wars, who guarded a Maximal colony until it was destroyed by Rampage.
• Sociopathic Hero: Tie-in comics establish him as not caring about civilian casualties. He mellows out a bit by the time he appears in the movie, though.

Jetfire

Voiced by: Mark Ryan, Clive Revill (Video Game)

"Behold, the eternal glory of Jetfire!"

An elderly Decepticon turned Autobot. He was once a Seeker Transformer, but was abandoned on Earth by the Fallen and joined the Autobots as a result. He is falling to pieces but is resourceful and actually a pretty awesome fighter. He transforms into an SR-71 Blackbird jet.^SpecificallyThe Real Life one displayed in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in the District of Colombia. Funnily enough, the display at the museum even features one of the Jetfire toys of the film, and plays a clip of the scene of him awakening, along with some trivia involved in the creation of the scene.

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• The Atoner: As an ex-Decepticon, he gets a chance of redemption by aiding the Autobots.
• Beat Still, My Heart: A self-inflicted variation. After being severely wounded by Scorponok and a massive airstrike that kills most of the Decepticon army, Jetfire pulls out his own Spark Core so that Optimus can use his parts to defeat The Fallen and Megatron.
• Been There, Shaped History: According to the tie-in comics, he accidentally provoked the Spanish-American War as when he detected Megatron being reawakened, he transformed and as he was the metal parts of the ship, caused the rest to break up and sink.
• Bifurcated Weapon: His cane/axe.
• Character Blog: He had a formspring account.
• Composite Character: He is based on his G1 version (a plane Transformer who is a Decepticon-turned Autobot), and shares traits of Kup (an elderly Autobot) and Sky-Lynx (a bombastic jet). In the comics, his Cybertronian jet mode looks like the Axalon. His parts form a jetpack for Optimus Prime, a homage to Jetfire in the Armada cartoon.
• Cool Old Guy / Grumpy Old Man: He straddles the line between these two tropes. One hand, Jetfire is easy to anger and not very happy to learn the Decepticons are winning the war. On the other hand, he is very skilled in combat, happy to see Optimus return to life and willing to take his own life to give Optimus an upgrade. He's also very chummy with humans, acting like an old grandpa telling a story.
• Cool Plane: His alt-mode is a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird; which, for the uninformed, holds the still-unbeaten record for fastest military aircraft.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicts one on fellow Old Soldier Ransack in the Revenge Of The Fallen novelization. The Decepticon confronts Jetfire after they reawaken, calling him a traitor for defecting to the Autobots and attempting to shoot him... only for the shot to harmlessly bounce straight off him. Jetfire then promptly stomps the much smaller Ransack to death, muttering afterward that he never liked him.
• Deadly Upgrade: Unusual in that it's not for him. He dies to upgrade Optimus.
• Depending on the Writer: He's much more calm in the comics and acts like Kup in the Video Games, being an old storyteller. The Sector Seven comics bring him back to his film characterization.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: The movie has him gravely injured by Scorponok and willingly tear out his spark to let Optimus use his parts. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Game, the Autobot Campaign has him be stabbed through the spark by Megatron, and he's gunned down alongside Bumblebee in the Decepticon Campaign by Megatron.
• Final Speech: As he's about to kill himself to give Optimus the necessary upgrade to have a fighting chance against The Fallen and Megatron, Jetfire gets one last talk in with the Autobot leader; reassuring him that it's what he wants and that it's his chance to make up for all the years he fought as a Decepticon.
  Jetfire: In my Decepticon life, I never did a thing worth doing until now... Optimus, take my parts, and you will have a power you've never known. Fulfill your destiny...! (pulls out his own Spark Core, falling where he stands)
• Heel–Face Turn: As he notes in his first appearance, Jetfire defected to the Autobots after becoming disillusioned by the hateful, destructive ways of the Decepticons. Technically he made it decades — if not centuries — before the movies take place, but never got around to changing his alt-mode's emblem, leading to a slight panic situation with Sam & co. at first.
  Mikaela: (sees Jetfire's old faction emblem as he reawakens) Oh, shit... HE'S A DECEPTICON!
• Heroic Suicide: So that Optimus can get a much needed upgrade.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A former Decepticon from a long time ago and a crotchety old geezer to this day, but there's no denying that he's actually very good beneath the abrasive exterior.
  Jetfire: Well, I changed sides to the Autobots!
  Sam: What do you mean you "changed sides"...?
  Jetfire: It's a choice. An intensely personal decision! So much negativity... and who wants to live a life filled with hate?
• Large Ham
  • Incoming Ham: "BEHOLD! The eternal glory of... JETFIRE!", (and of course, his first line: "What sort of hideous mausoleum^*The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is this?!").
• Made of Iron: He's pretty tough, even by Transformer standards. He survives being dismembered by Scorponok and later on a massive airstrike that obliterated most of the Decepticon army. He dies only when he gives up his own life and parts to help Optimus Prime. He died by his own hand, as no one could kill him.
• Mr. Exposition: Explains what the heck the Fallen's beef with humanity is.
• Old Soldier: Jetfire is one of the oldest Cybertronians we've seen, to the point where he's got a full-on beard and walks with a cane. But when he actually fights, he shows just how good he is.
• Precision F-Strike: "Oh, BOLLOCKS!", and later "Itchy, wretched RUST in my ARSE!".
• Sanity Slippage: In Wheelie's words, he has not aged well.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Unlike the Fallen who is in full control of his faculties, Jetfire is senile. He often goes off on rants about irrelevant things and has to be reminded to get to the point.
  Jetfire: My father, he was a wheel. The FIRST wheel! Do you know what he transformed into? (Beat) NOTHING! But he did so with honor, dignity, dammit!
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: He's very opinionated and expresses his strong opinions loudly, often by yelling or spitting.
  Jetfire: Earth? (unimpressed) Terrible name for a planet... might as well have called it Dirt. (spits on the ground) Planet Dirt!
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He curses like a sailor.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Despite changing his allegiance, he never got around to changing his Decepticon symbol, which causes Sam to have an Oh, Crap! moment when he sees it.
• Teleporters and Transporters: He has a built-in space bridge, which can teleport him and company from Washington DC to Petra, Jordan. It's very volatile, though, and scatters its targets in the air, hundreds of meters around the destination point.
• Toilet Humor: He farts through his afterburners, which has the effect of deploying his parachute.
  Jetfire: (the parachutes pull him over with a very loud creak) My boosters are fried!

Arcee, Chromia, & Elita-1

"We're on our way."

Voiced by: Grey DeLisle
Hologram rider played by: Erin Naas

A trio of female Autobots who transform into motorcycles. Arcee was captured by the Decepticons Thundercracker and scientist Flatline, who created Chromia and Elita-1, planning to use the three as attack drones, but they combined their mental links and escaped to Earth.

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• Action Girl: They're soldiers, this is a given.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: While they don't return for DOTM or AOE, the comics overrode their apparent death in ROTF, showing them alive and well post-Fallen, although Elita-1 was killed by Shockwave. Arcee and Chromia survive, making their current status alive, just off screen with all the other comic Autobots that weren't killed by Shockwave but didn't appear in DOTM. Arcee is listed as deceased by Cemetary Wind in Age of Extinction though.
• Combining Mecha: Not in the movie itself, mind, but they originally would have. They still do combine in the comics and (supposedly in the toyline).
• Fragile Speedster: Fast on their wheels but Elita-1 was easily destroyed by Shockwave in one shot.
• Hive Mind: According to some sources, but not others. The current accepted version in the comics is that Arcee, Chromia, and Elita-1 started as three siblings and entirely separate beings. The latter two were eventually killed, with their bodies salvaged, while Arcee was eventually captured and experimented upon. Arcee's spark ended up reanimating the other two and leaving a permanent bond.
• Robo Family: They are sisters after all.
• Ship Tease: The Dark of The Moon prequel shows that Elita and Optimus have had feelings for each other like in G1. Sadly, at the end of said comic, the war and Optimus' demeanour after facing Megatron seem to end the attraction.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only female Autobots ever seen in the film series.

Skids & Mudflap

"NOBODY messes with the twins!"

Voiced by: Tom Kenny (Skids) and Reno Wilson (Mudflap)

Skids: You scared?
Mudflap: Scared? Scared of your ugly face!
Skids: I'm ugly? We're twins, you stupid genius!

A pair of kid-like Autobots who are identical twins save for their colors (green and red). They begin Revenge of the Fallen as combiners, transforming into two halves of a beat-up ice cream truck, and later take on Chevrolet subcompact forms.

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• Bash Brothers: It's averted due to their clumsiness/stupidity, despite their best efforts. They manage to play it straight for awhile against Devastator, though, managing to escape from the Combiner.
• Berserk Button: Attempting to harm or kill one of them is gonna get you into big trouble with the other.
• Body Horror: Skids and Mudflap die this way in the comic book/novel adaptations of Dark Of The Moon, both being shot by Sentinel Prime and gorily rusting away to nothing.
• Butt-Monkey: Both are to an extent, but Mudflap gets it slightly worse.
• Child Soldiers: According to ancillary media.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Absent from Dark of the Moon with no explanation. The novelization and comic adaptation have Skids killed by Sentinel Prime, Taking the Bullet meant for Bumblebee. Mudflap then fights Sentinel alone to buy time for the others to escape, continuing to punch him even as he's literally rusting away. It got cut from the movie due to the backlash against them, but even then, it's one hell of a cool way to go.
• Colossus Climb: Skids tries this on Devastator; Mudflap has the benefit of already being drawn up there when Devastator ate him.
• Combining Mecha: At first. They start out as two halves of a single Ice Cream Truck as their alt-mode(s) in Revenge Of The Fallen, but then later gain their own Chevrolet subcompact forms.
• Death by Adaptation: The novelization and comic book adaptations of Dark Of The Moon has them both die when Sentinel Prime betrays the Autobots; with him first shooting Skids — who took a shot that was meant for Bumblebee — and then Mudflap meeting the same fate while fighting him off to protect the others. Said scene was originally going to be in the film itself, but was shelved along with Skids and Mudflap themselves due to their very negative reception.
• Defiant to the End: In the novel and comic book adaptations of Dark Of The Moon, Mudflap is this as he furiously charges down Sentinel Prime for killing Skids. Not only does he successfully buy time for the others to escape, he still continues punching Sentinel even after he's already been shot and is in the process of rusting away to nothing.
• Demoted to Extra: This was their intended role in Dark of the Moon, only briefly appearing before being killed off by Sentinel.
• Gag Lips: Mudflap has some oversized lips that make him look like a crude caricature.
• Goofy Buckteeth: Dim-witted Skids has prominent buckteeth, with one even being gold. In terms of personality, he and Mudflap are stupid, belligerent and impulsive, akin to "wannabe gangstas". Skids somehow believes himself to be the mature, serious one of the pair and often performs crazy stunts in the belief that this will show he's a better warrior than his brother... though in truth it's because he's genuinely afraid the reverse is true. At one point of the film, the brothers get into a petty brawl in an enclosed space and almost crush their human allies, prompting an enraged Bumblebee to manhandle them and throw them out.
• Heroic Sacrifice / Dying Moment of Awesome: Though written out of the film proper, the novel and comic adaptations have Skids taking a fatal shot from Sentinel Prime to protect Bumblebee immediately following Ironhide's death at Sentinel's hands. Mudflap then, in a blind rage, charges Sentinel and is killed by him, but in doing so gives the others the opportunity to escape.
  Mudflap: Run, you guys! Leave Him to Me! This bastard's mine!
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Though luckily for Skids, this only costs him the gold tooth as opposed to anything vital. Even then, he's still pretty pissed.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Skids is killed by Sentinel Prime in the novel/comic book for Dark Of The Moon, Mudflap reacts to seeing — and thanks to their Robo Family nature, feeling — his beloved brother die with Stunned Silence, and then with a heartbroken, agonized scream. It's especially punctuated by him then immediately charging and attacking Sentinel in a suicidal, grief-stricken rage:
  "There had never been a moment when the motor-mouthed Autobot named Mudflap had been at a loss for words. Under ordinary circumstances, Sam would expected him to say something like "Oh, no you did-unt! Oh NO you DID-UNT! Uh uh! You in it now!". He said nothing like that. Perhaps it was because of the psychic link that he shared with his twin, so that he had actually felt Skids die. Perhaps it was because of the betrayal of a warrior they revered above all others, like finding out the Archangel Michael was on Satan's payroll. Whatever the reason, Mudflap didn't react the way Sam would have expected. Instead, he howled. It was a primal agony, torn from the individual bit of Spark that powered all the Autobots. It was the most horrible thing Sam Witwicky had ever heard, and he recognized it for what it was: the sound of a soul dying. And then it escalated into a war cry of undiluted fury."
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: The robot equivalent, but since they're bright green and orange...
• Robo Family: They aren't called "The Twins" for nothing.
• Shoo Out the New Guy: After the negative reception to the characters, they were removed during production of Dark of the Moon.
• Sibling Team: A duo of Autobots who are related to each other, and always have each others' back. Skids is also distraught when he sees Mudflap get seemingly killed by Devastator. Mudflap even moreso when he sees Skids sacrifice himself to protect Bumblebee from being shot by Sentinel Prime in the Dark Of The Moon comic book/novel, causing him to fly into a grief-induced Unstoppable Rage and die fighting Sentinel himself to buy time for the other Autobots to escape.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Skids thinks he's the smart one, but to everyone else they're both obviously kinda stupid. Skids is also inwardly fearful that he's ultimately the weaker of the two, which frankly he sort of is. However, they both process information much more rapidly than any of the other Earthbound Autobots, so that's something.

Jolt

"Jolt, electrify! Transfer those afterburners!"

—Ratchet

A blue-armored Autobot who becomes a Chevrolet Volt. He is shown to be an assistant to Ratchet, wielding a pair of electrical whips. He is killed by Shockwave during the events between the second and third films.

---

• Ascended Extra: Got a pretty meaty role in Titan Magazine's run.
• The Cameo: Well, sort of. His head can be briefly seen on the Junkyard in The Last Knight.
• Killed Off for Real: According to the IDW tie-in comics, Jolt was at Diego Garcia when Shockwave came calling, killing Jolt as well as the other two Autobots present.
• Lightning Lash: His electric whips are his go-to weapon, but we only see them being used to upgrade Optimus at the end.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Jolt is such a minor character because he was an extremely late addition to the film, which didn't exactly make it easy for the film crew to give him a role.
• Satellite Character: He doesn't have a single line throughout the entire movie, and has no apparent importance besides helping upgrade Optimus at the end. And he doesn't appear in any of the subsequent movies, either. Titan Magazines gave him a pretty big role.
• Shock and Awe: Wields a pair of electrical whips, befitting his alt-mode (a primarily battery-powered car).
• Small Role, Big Impact: He has no lines, no characterization, and barely any screentime, but he uses his electric whips to upgrade Optimus Prime by creating an electromagnetic field that attached Jetfire’s parts to Optimus’ body. This was also done in only a matter of seconds, making Optimus waste no time in reaching the Fallen and destroying his machine.
• The Voiceless: He never says a single word in the entire film.

Wheelie

Voiced by: Tom Kenny

"Easy, Warrior Goddess, I'm just a little salvage-scrap drone!"

A small salvage scrap drone used by the Decepticons as a spy, he transforms into an RC toy truck. He is sent to retrieve the Allspark shard given to Mikaela by Sam, but ends up siding with the Autobots.

---

• Aborted Arc: Wheelie betrays the Autobots to Megatron in Titan Magazines but when they find him after having been dismembered by Dead End, they're completely unaware and ship him off to Ratchet to be fixed.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Though Brains has a significant role, Wheelie doesn't appear in Age of Extinction. It's conceivable that he's wherever Sam and Carly are if he survived the climax of Dark of the Moon, or given what happen to his buddy Brains, a victim of The Purge. He turns up in The Last Knight, living with the other Autobots in Jimmy's junkyard.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: He and Brains take control of a Decepticon carrier, providing a distraction at a crucial moment. When last seen, they appear to be on a crash course into Lake Michigan. Subverted, as Brains and Wheelie both survive.
• Eye Scream: His first meeting with Mikaela involves her pinning him down and taking a blowtorch to his left optic. He apparently gets it repaired or got a new one by the time of Dark of the Moon.
• Heel–Face Turn: At first, he only helps the Autobots when Mikaela threatens to burn his eyes. He later joins the Autobots for real. It's clear that he was only working for the Decepticons out of (justified) fear ("I'm going to be dead without that shard!") and when he learns he doesn't have to work for them, he embraces Sam and his friends.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He and Brains are able to deactivate some of the Decepticon dropships, but he dies (maybe) while Brains survives.
• It Has Been an Honor: "We had a nice run, Brains, you and me." Though in the fifth film, he returns unscathed.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is certainly a mouthy and rude little robot, yet once he changes sides, he becomes a loyal follower to the Autobot cause.
• Mars Needs Women: He apparently finds Mikaela very attractive and unabashedly humps her leg.
• Nominal Villain: Wheelie is a Decepticon spy at first but it's clear that he only serves them out of fear. When he meets Jetfire and learns of the former's defection from the Decepticons, Wheelie realizes that being a Decepticon is a choice and pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
• Never Found the Body: Only implied to have been destroyed in the third movie along with Brains. Brains, at least, is shown to have survived in the next movie. He turns up alive and well in The Last Knight.
• Those Two Guys: In the third film with Brains.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears near the end of the second film; by the third film, though, he's living with Sam and Carly.

Introduced in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Video Games)

Aerialbots

Breakaway

Breakaway

Voiced by: Christian Lanz

The sole flying Autobot main cast member of the Revenge of the Fallen console game.

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• Demoted to Extra: While he wasn’t the most fleshed out, he went from a core cast member of Revenge of the Fallen to just a minor boss in Dark of the Moon who’s only playable in multiplayer.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: He’s received three deaths across the various media he’s appeared in.
  • In what could be considered the primary video game timeline, he is killed by Starscream during the Dark of the Moon campaign.
  • The Decepticon campaign of the Revenge of the Fallen game sees him be killed as a boss for Grindor.
  • He is quickly killed off in the first issue of Nefarious by Soundwave.
• Friendly Sniper: He serves as the primary sniper character armed with a rifle, which makes for a potent combination with his ability to fly to high sniper points with ease.
• In Name Only: He has nothing to do with past incarnations of the character besides his name.
• Killed Off for Real: Breakaway is killed by Starscream alongside the other Aerialbots in the Dark of the Moon game. His comic counterpart is killed by Soundwave in Nefarious.
• Nice Guy: He's a pretty nice guy.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: He's part of the game’s main cast because he was originally going to feature in the movie with evidently a large enough role to net many toys as well.
• Sixth Ranger: He’s the sixth main Autobot cast member after the original five who debuted in the first film, and is the only new character in the game’s core roster.
• Wolfpack Boss: He, Air Raid, and Silverbolt battle Starscream together to protect Stratosphere.

Silverbolt

Silverbolt

The leader of the Aerialbots.

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• The Leader: He leads the Aerialbots.
• Red Shirt: He’s only there to give the Autobots more casualties.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He only shows up to get killed by Starscream with only a Mythology Gag towards the classic character’s fear of heights.

Air Raid

A member of the Aerialbots.

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• Red Shirt: Hes only there to be picked off by Starscream.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Has zero characterization before he dies.

Others

Stratosphere

Stratosphere

Voiced by: Travis Willingham

The mightiest Autobot of Optimus's Earthbound forces, who transforms into a colossal C-17.

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• The Big Guy: The single largest Autobot in the Dark of the Moon game.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets whittled down for a prolonged period of time and begs for help from Optimus to absolutely no avail. Then Starscream climbs inside his cargo hold and blows him up from the inside, sending him to crash fatally while thinking he failed.
• The Faceless: He never transforms to robot mode, so we never see his face.
• Worf Had the Flu: Despite his tremendous size, he’s unable to fend off Starscream’s assault due to trying to protect the MechTech within his cargo.

Warpath

Warpath

Voiced by: Dave Fennoy

A burly Autobot with a tank for an alternate mode.

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• Adaptational Seriousness: Warpath's other incarnations are usually known for being boastful Large Ham's. This Warpath is a dead serious, if still boastful, warrior who has none of the comic relief he’s often known for.
• The Big Guy: The second biggest Autobot of the game behind Stratosphere. He’s strong enough to fight Megatron himself one-on-one.
• Composite Character: He has the traditional design that originated with the G1 character, but he has the more dour, angry personality of his Transformers: Animated incarnation.
• Mighty Glacier: He’s physically the strongest Autobot fought in conventional combat in the game, though it comes at the cost of speed. This comes back to bite him as the recovering Megatron is not only as strong as him, but much faster than him thanks to rejuvenating, meaning Warpath ends up falling despite his impressive defenses.
• Smug Snake: He sure enters the scene cocky and proudly declaring he’s going to put Megatron down, but the Decepticon leader quickly gains the upper hand and takes him down.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He only shows up to go down at Megatron’s hands. Players can surmise he was only added to the game to give the Autobots a chassis for the soldier class.

Introduced in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

Brains

Voiced by: Reno Wilson

"Want me to tell ya what I know? I can tell ya about the solar system, all the fun planets to hang out in."

A Decepticon drone that gained sentience, Brains sided with the Autobots and now lives with Wheelie in Sam and Carly's apartment. He transforms into a laptop.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Heroic example. Was built by the Decepticons, but gained sentience and defected.
• An Arm and a Leg: When he shows up in Age of Extinction, he's missing a leg and walks with a cane.
• Art Evolution: He gets a slight redesign in Age of Extinction that looks more simplified compared to how he looked in Dark of the Moon.
• Break the Cutie: While his status as a cutie is debatable, he was a pretty upbeat and fun guy in DOTM. After five years of enslavement and torture, being forced to operate on the bodies of not only dead Decepticons but his dead Autobot friends, as well as enabling Megatron's return, he's pretty broken and doesn't break a sweat when it seems humanity's extinction is nigh. Optimus holds no objection when he apparently bails and just outright leaves the conflict.
• Cassandra Truth: Brains is the only one who knows of Megatron's plan to manipulate KSI into building him a new body. It doesn't look like Joshua cares much for what he says.
• Covert Pervert: Carly mentions she found Brains in her underwear drawer. From Sam's reaction, this isn't a rare thing with Brains.
• Einstein Hair: Made of what look like fibre-optic cables.
• Genius Ditz: As his name implies, he's supposed to be pretty smart, and Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction show that he can be, he just needs the proper incentive first.
• Heel–Face Turn: He was created to be a Decepticon, but quickly had other ideas.
• Mad Eye: His right eye is smaller than his left to give him an eccentric appearance.
• Mr. Exposition: His last act in Age Of Extinction is to explain how Megatron was reborn in Galvatron, and just what Galvatron's plans are.
• Never Found the Body: Only implied to have been destroyed in third movie along with Wheelie. But it's never really shown that they did die. Age of Extinction shows he survives.
• Nice Guy: Some reviewers even noted that while they were displeased to have another pair of comic relief characters, they actually found Brains quite likable.
• Put on a Bus: Leaves in Age of Extinction and is not seen again.
• Those Two Guys: With Wheelie in DOTM.
• Translator Buddy: What the builders of the man-made Transformers use him for, though "Buddy" is stretching it quite a bit.
• True Companions: With Wheelie, Sam, and Carly.

Sentinel Prime (Unmarked Spoilers)

"For Cybertron! For our home! What war destroyed we can rebuild..."

Voiced by: Leonard Nimoy

"All I ever wanted was the survival of our race."

The leader of the Autobot faction before Optimus Prime, who looks up to him almost as a father with admiration and respect. He transforms into a Rosenbauer fire engine.

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• Adaptational Badass: In earlier incarnations he only existed to get killed by Megatron; then, in Transformers: Animated he played the Straw Loser, and then here he fights and wins against Optimus twice.
• Adaptational Villainy: Most versions of Sentinel Prime are Optimus' respected mentor who dies pursuing the Autobot cause. In the same vein and his then-recent counterpart in Animated, this Sentinel effectively betrayed the Autobots and is helping the Decepticons to take over Earth.
• Anti-Villain: Subverted. He paints himself as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but shows he nothing more than a hypocritical tyrant.
• Badass Cape: His robot mode has one, which becomes the top of his vehicle mode.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He projects the image of a kindly old mentor when he is in fact a genocidal tyrant corrupted by eons of warfare.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Lampshaded by Optimus right before he kills him.
  Sentinel: Optimus, all I ever wanted was the survival of our race. You must see why I had to betray you...
  Optimus: You didn't betray me. You betrayed yourself.
• Big Bad: More proactive than Megatron, the other half of the Big Bad Duumvirate. While technically working with him, Sentinel upstages Megatron's leadership in all but name by the climax. Note that Michael Bay claimed in the lead-up to DOTM that Shockwave would be the Big Bad, possibly as a misinformation campaign to make Sentinel's reveal more shocking.
• Big "NO!": His last words before Optimus finishes him off.
• Boom, Headshot!: How he dies, courtesy of Optimus blasting a chunk of his head away with Megatron's fusion shotgun.
• Broken Pedestal: Sentinel's betrayal causes Optimus to lose all respect towards his former mentor.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Optimus does this to Sentinel during their final battle, although he's more of a father figure to him than an actual father.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:Betrayed the Autobots to join with Megatron, but then betrays Megatron later on (in Megatron's estimation, anyway). Also a literal example, as The Reveal that he's actually with the Decepticons comes with blasting Ironhide In the Back.
• Classic Villain: Fits all of the criteria as an Ambition and Pride villain.
• Composite Character: Takes his name from Optimus's predecessor in the Transformers mythos, while his back story as a scientific genius and his overall design seem to be modeled after Alpha Trion. His reveal as a traitor also brings to mind Nova Prime, who was also a Prime who became evil.
• Cool Old Guy: Subverted. He initially appears to be one, and is certainly treated as such by the rest of the Autobots and most of their human allies, until his true colors are revealed.
• Deal with the Devil: Inverted. It's arguable that he's the Devil in the relationship, despite him making the deal with Megatron in the first place.
• Dirty Coward: Shoots Ironhide in the back, and during his final battle with Optimus, he orders all Decepticon ships in Chicago to fire at his former student and tries to retreat. When at the mercy of Optimus, he tries to save himself by pulling I Did What I Had to Do, only to then start pleading for his life when that doesn't work.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To Megatron. As Carly points out, he made Megatron his "bitch".
• Drunk with Power: You know that there is nothing of Optimus Prime's noble father and teacher left when he starts declaring Godhood of Earth.
• Evil Counterpart: Retroactively, to Jetfire, who betrayed the Decepticons after falling out with their ways and defected to the Autobots; while he had issues with the humans, he was willing to put up with and defend them. Sentinel betrayed the Autobots because he thought they were never going to win the war, and considers himself superior to the humans in every manner.
• Evil Sounds Deep: After being revealed as a bad guy.
• Face–Heel Turn: Sentinel actually betrayed the Autobot faction a LONG time ago by siding with Megatron before he started his journey in the Ark. His reanimation basically allowed him to pick up where he left off.
• Fallen Hero: Was once Optimus's mentor and the leader of the Autobots, but it turns out that he turned traitor.
• Foreshadowing: At one point early on in Dark of the Moon, Wheelie watches an episode of Star Trek and comments that the episode he is watching is "the one where Spock goes nuts." Not only is this an Actor Allusion to Leonard Nimoy’s role as Spock, but it also foreshadows Sentinel Prime’s descent into villainy. The fact that Nimoy previously voiced Galvatron in the animated Transformers movie from the 80's could also be considered this.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's soft-spoken and an elderly mentor to Optimus, but you know crossing him is hazardous to your health considering he's Optimus' former teacher, not to mention his true colors as a genocidal tyrant. Sure enough, NEST learns this the hard way when he betrays them.
• BFS: Carries one on his arm.
• A God Am I: "We were Gods once, all of us! But here, there can be only one!
• Hypocrite: Sentinel states that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few"... conveniently ignoring the fact that there are six billion humans, versus the few hundred or so Cybertronians. This may be Fantastic Racism at play, as he views the human race as beneath his own kind.
• I Did What I Had to Do: A grievously injured Sentinel begs Optimus to understand why he's done what he felt he had to do. Of course this is nothing more than a last ditch effort to save his own skidplates. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.
  Sentinel: Optimus, all I ever wanted was the survival of our race. You must see why I had to betray you...
  Optimus: You didn't betray me. [cocks shotgun] You betrayed yourself.
  Sentinel: NO, OPTIMUS!
  [Optimus shoots Sentinel dead]
• Ink-Suit Actor / Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: He looks like 1970s Sean Connery, while having the facial expressions of Leonard Nimoy himself.
• Kick the Dog: Kills Ironhide by shooting him in the back, even though Ironhide didn’t get a chance to arm himself.
• Killed Off for Real: Shot in the head by Optimus.
• Knight Templar: He struck a deal with Megatron by making plans to use Earth's resources that could be used to replenish Cybertron. This status is also revealed to be influenced by his god complex; remembering how the Cybertronians, particularly the Primes, used to lived like gods. He is also disgusted by how the humans sees the Autobots as simple machines.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Him shooting Ironhide in the back, as well as his tyrannical and ruling nature, become his undoing, when Megatron does the exact same thing to him at the end of the film, having realized that he would be nothing more than "his bitch".
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The packaging for his Studio Series toy, which was released nine years after Dark of the Moon, flat-out labels him as a Decepticon, which spoils his true allegiance in the film. The backdrop and instructions included with the figure, however, still have Autobot insignias and colors as per usual.
• Make Them Rot: Or rust, rather. His primary weapon causes opposing Transformers to rapidly rust away, as seen with Ironhide.
• Master Swordsman: He taught Optimus how to use his after all.
• Mentor Archetype: To Optimus Prime.
• The Mole: To the Autobots.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: His intention of restoring Cybertron was indeed legitimate. Unfortunately, he decided to "defect" to the Decepticons, and presumably use them, as well as launch a massive invasion on Earth with the intention of enslaving humanity in order to do so. He also makes clear that although he does intend to restore Cybertron, that does not mean that he intends to let Megatron rule it. However, his A God Am I speech shows he's nothing more than a power-hungry traitor by this point.
• Offing the Offspring: What he spent most of the war trying to do to Megatron. And what he spent most of Dark of the Moon trying to do to Optimus.
• Off with His Head!: His decapitated head can be seen at the KSI facility in Age of Extinction, with the scientists there pulling data from it to learn more Cybertronian physiology.
• Old Soldier: Is capable of taking on the entire Autobot team by himself without breaking a sweat. Also duels Optimus (who by this point has taken out the Driller, Shockwave and a small army of Decepticons with little difficulty) and would have killed him but for Megatron's intervention.
• One-Man Army: To be expected considering he's mentored the likes of Optimus, Megatron, Shockwave, and Ironhide. In the final battle of Chicago, he takes on the entire non-Wrecker Autobot force and the NEST troops and is clearly winning until the Decepticons' numbers become less and less, leaving him open to more and more enemy fire.
• Parental Substitute: To Optimus and Megatron. He loses this when he reveals his betrayal.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Sealed himself in a vault on the Ark for a great many years in stasis until the Autobots revive him. Turns out he was actually Sealed Evil in a Can and betrayed them long ago.
• Shout-Out: Sentinel has numerous Gundam-like design elements. The most noticeable are the iconic "V" on his forehead, along with his shield, which he even holds in a very Gundam-like fashion.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Before the film's release, he was not shown in any trailers except for the teaser, although he was shown in toy promotions.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: Betrays the Autobots to Megatron.
• Slasher Smile: He gets an unnerving sneer when he is about to kill Ironhide and reveal his betrayal.
• The Sociopath: He puts up the facade of a kindly old mentor, but in reality is nothing but a power-hungry lunatic who wants to enslave humanity and plans on betraying Megatron.
• The Starscream: To the Autobots, and to Megatron later on.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • During his final battle with Optimus, he orders all Decepticon ships in Chicago to fire at his former student.
  • His cannon infects his targets with cosmic rust, a Cybertronian disease that wastes a transformer to nothing. The former leader of the Autobots, who instilled Optimus Prime's values of freedom, was more than willing to commit war crimes even before his Face–Heel Turn.
• Villainous Legacy: Sentinel's betrayal and critical role in spearheading the devastating Battle of Chicago ensures that humanity's trust in Autobots will be significantly fractured even after his death.
• Villain Has a Point: He's proven right about his observation that the humans only view Transformers as machines in Age of Extinction, when Joshua Joyce declares the fallen Transformers as "just metal". Though Sentinel is more bemoaning how far the Transformers have fallen from their golden age than anything else—especially for the Primes.
• Walking Spoiler: The entire plot of Dark of the Moon revolves around him.
• Wham Line: "Indeed I am. What you must realize, my Autobot brothers, is we were never going to win the war... For the sake of our planet's survival, a deal had to be made... with Megatron."

Dino/Mirage

"On the ground, per favore, and stay there!"

Voiced by: Francesco Quinn, Dave Wittenberg (Transformers: Dark of the Moon)

A new member of the team in the third film who speaks with an Italian accent and transforms into a red Ferrari. While he doesn't do much, what little there is of him in the film does have him as a combat partner with Sideswipe.

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• Blade Below the Shoulder: A pair of curved blades on his forearms that he appears to be able to rotate.
• Cool Car: His alt-mode is a Ferrari 458 Italia.
• Death by Adaptation: Wheeljack's death in the movie is how Mirage died in the novelization, while Wheeljack dies in an entirely different manner.
• Shout-Out: His name is a homage to Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari, son of the company founder Enzo Ferrari.
• Sudden Name Change: In Dark of the Moon he is referred to in-film as "Dino", but as "Mirage" in the merchandise and novelization.
• Toyless Toyline Character: So far his only toys are a small Legion-scale figure which is a Palette Swap of Sideways, and a die-cast which doesn't look like his car mode. (Hasbro has the problem of Mattel retaining the rights for Ferrari toys.) Takara released an extremely movie-accurate retool of Sideways as Dino as part of a celebration of the movie toyline.
  • This was eventually subverted when Studio Series releases the first mainline Deluxe-class figure of Dino/Mirage in 2021, which unfortunately still has an unlicensed vehicle mode that doesn't resemble his Ferrari 458 Italia vehicle mode in the movie due to licensing restrictions.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: If the wiki is to be believed, he is the only Autobot whose fate is currently unknown, as he disappeared after DOTM, but hasn't been killed off. Averted in the novelization where Starscream slaughtered him.

Que/Wheeljack

"They're great inventions for kicking ass!"

Voiced by: George Coe

The Autobots' inventor, Que is first seen handing Ironhide a new gun. Speaks with a vaguely Irish(?) accent. Doesn't really have any awesome moments, but does contribute to others'.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The poor guy frantically begs for his life as well as his friends' before he's callously executed. Justified, as he's more of a scientist than a soldier.
• Alien Hair / Einstein Hair: Has glowing fiber-optic cables on his head that increase his resemblance to Albert Einstein.
• Barrier Warrior: Makes use of an impenetrable force field during the Philadelphia battle in Rising Storm; Fearswoop learns about the "impenetrable" part the hard way.
• Cool Car: Turns into a Mercedes.
• Cool Old Guy: He even states he won't let the humans go into battle without his latest kilamajigs.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Executed by Soundwave and Barricade despite being unarmed and pleading for mercy.
• Einstein Hair: His face even resembles Einstein himself.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He's a genius inventor. Provides Sam with the weapons he ultimately uses to kill Starscream.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: "Why did you—"(BANG)
• Non-Action Guy: Rather ironically, given all the weapons he carries on his person. Nonetheless, he's clearly not that great in a straight-up fight, as evidenced by his getting blown up by Shockwave in Rising Storm, and how easily he falls to the 'Cons in Chicago, resorting to begging for his life before Barricade snuffs him out.
• Shout-Out: To the character Q from the James Bond franchise. He's also a real-life shout out to a certain German scientist.
• Sudden Name Change: In Dark of the Moon, he is referred to in-film as "Que", but as "Wheeljack" in the merchandise and novelization.
• You Don't Look Like You: Compared to the previously-existing versions of Wheeljack from Generation One and Transformers: Armada, the film version's appearance resembles neither. Bumblebee rectifies this, but it might not be canon, since that film is officially a Continuity Reboot. The Rising Storm comics showed he looked like his G1 form originally and had to be fixed by Ratchet. after getting blown up by Shockwave.

The Wreckers

Mechanical engineers, warriors, and (according to the novelization) NASCAR fans, the Wreckers were left to look after an Autobot ship in NASA custody. They transform into NASCAR stock cars that are festooned with guns.

Leadfoot

"We ain't going nowhere."

Voiced by: John DiMaggio (Dark of the Moon), Robert Foxworth (Age of Extinction)^note  Leadfoot's one line is taken from Ratchet's death scene

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• Chromatic Arrangement: Is the leader and most prominent of the Wreckers, and is the red one (because his NASCAR alt-mode advertises Target).
• Cool Shades: The shape of his optics (a trait shared with his fellow Wreckers) certainly gives off this impression.
• Jerkass: This is explained as to why he and his fellow wreckers aren't active with the other Autobots; they don't get along well with humans.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he's not exactly nice, he and his fellow wreckers are all for defending humanity with the other Autobots.
• Killed Off for Real: Leadfoot was killed by Cemetary Wind, as shown in an audio recording in Age Of Extinction.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: How he and the other Wreckers kill the Decepticon pilot would be unsettling if not for said pilot having opened fire on humans minutes prior.
• Product Placement: As he turns into a stock car, this was a given. Taken to extremes with his toys; as while the Roadbuster and Topspin figures were released at mass retail (their main sponsors being Lowes, a hardware store, and AMP energy drinks, which is exactly What It Says On The Tin), most of his figures were Target exclusive as the main sponsor for his alt form was Target (with Lysol, Energizer, Cottonelle and Tums as the secondary sponsors on his "Human Alliance" figure). The Japanese release neuter his figures to remove these sponsors with the exception of the Studio Series figure, which keeps the Target Bull's eye logo intact.
• Sociopathic Hero: He DID help in mutilating a Decepticon pilot. But, said pilot also did murder dozens of innocent people just moments earlier, so it wasn't exactly undeserved.
• Stout Strength: He is shorter and fatter than his fellow Autobots, but that does not hinder his fighting skills at all.
• Violent Glaswegian: He and Roadbuster both have Scottish accents, and if you need proof of the "violent" bit, there's how they kill that Decepticon pilot at the beginning of the Final Battle...
• Weaponized Car: Alongside his fellow wreckers, his alternate mode seems to automatically be like this—weaponized NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet Impalas, with Leadfoot being the #42 of Juan Pablo Montoya.
  • His alternate mode also appeared alongside his brothers in the parade laps for the 2011 Daytona 500.

Roadbuster

"This is going to hurt... a lot!"

Voiced by: Ron Bottitta

---

• Cool Shades: The shape of his optics (a trait shared with his fellow Wreckers) certainly gives off this impression.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he's not exactly nice, he and his fellow wreckers are all for defending humanity with the other Autobots.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: How he and the other Wreckers kill the Decepticon pilot would be unsettling if not for said pilot having opened fire on humans minutes prior.
• Product Placement: As he turns into a stock car, this was a given. Taken to extremes with his toys; as while his and Topspin's figures were released at mass retail (their main sponsors being Lowes, a hardware store, and AMP energy drinks, which is exactly What It Says On The Tin), most of Leadfoot's were Target exclusive as the main sponsor for his alt form was Target. The Japanese release neuter the Leadfoot figures to remove these sponsors but keep the other two's intact. His Studio Series figure removes all but his Chevrolet markings.
• Sociopathic Hero: All the wreckers are, but he particularly told the Decepticon he was about to mutilate that it was "gonna hurt...a lot."
• Violent Glaswegian: He and Leadfoot both have Scottish accents, and if you need proof of the "violent" bit, there's how they kill that Decepticon pilot at the beginning of the Final Battle...
• Weaponized Car: Alongside his fellow wreckers, his alternate mode seems to automatically be like this—weaponized NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet Impalas, with Roadbuster being the #88 of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
  • His alternate mode also appeared alongside his brothers in the parade laps for the 2011 Daytona 500.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Leadfoot was confirmed dead in Age of Extinction, and Topspin was confirmed to have survived and is currently living in Cuba with Simmons in The Last Knight. Roadbuster's fate is left unknown though. While KSI does have schematics resembling him, implying they had access to his body like the other killed bots, whether or not Cemetary Wind actually caught him isn't revealed.

Topspin

"You always say 'five minutes'... that means 'no.'"

Voiced by: Steven Barr

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• Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Seems to have grown quite fond of volleyball by The Last Knight.
• The Bus Came Back: After being absent in Age Of Extinction, He returns in The Last Knight, having been granted asylum in Cuba with Simmons.
• Cool Shades: The shape of his optics (a trait shared with his fellow Wreckers) certainly gives off this impression.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Topspin. He had his head design in Dark of the Moon, But his current head as of The Last Knight Looks almost exactly like that of his former comrade, Leadfoot. Whether there's an in-universe explanation for this is still unknown.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he's not exactly nice, he and his fellow wreckers are all for defending humanity with the other Autobots.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: How he and the other Wreckers kill the Decepticon pilot would be unsettling if not for said pilot having opened fire on humans minutes prior.
• Product Placement: As he turns into a stock car, this was a given. Taken to extremes with his toys; as while His and Roadbuster's figures were released at mass retail (their main sponsors being Lowes, a hardware store, and AMP energy drinks, which is exactly What It Says On The Tin), most of Leadfoot's were Target exclusive as the main sponsor for his alt form was Target. The Japanese release neuter the Leadfoot figures to remove these sponsors but keep the other two's intact. His Studio Series figure removes all but the Chevrolet markings.
• Sociopathic Hero: He did help in mutilating the Decepticon pilot, after all.
• Suddenly Voiced: He speaks in The Last Knight.
• The Voiceless: Didn't speak in Dark of the Moon. Later averted in The Last Knight.
• Weaponized Car: Alongside his fellow wreckers, his alternate mode seems to automatically be like this—weaponized NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet Impalas, with Topspin being the #48 of Jimmie Johnson.
  • His alternate mode also appeared alongside his brothers in the parade laps for the 2011 Daytona 500.

Introduced in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

Hound

"I'm like a fat ballerina, who takes scalps and slits throats!"

Voiced by: John Goodman

"We got the gang back together!"

Introduced in the fourth film as a new member of Optimus's team, Hound transforms into a Oshkosh Defense Medium Tactical Vehicle.

---

• Acrofatic: Being that big doesn't really slow him down. As he puts it:
  Hound: I'm like a fat ballerina! Who takes scalps and slits throats!
• Adaptational Badass: He's a grenade-chucking, pistol-firing blend of Bulkhead, Ironhide, Roadbuster, and Kup. He fits the bill.
• Author Avatar: His obese figure could be a self-reference to John Goodman.
• Big Fun: Despite being an armory on legs, he's rather jolly, and even dances with Bumblebee and Tessa in a deleted scene.
• The Big Guy: He's the most powerful Autobot besides Optimus and the Dinobots, and is a dead ringer for the trope personality-wise. He shares the role with the less conventional Drift.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's a trigger-happy loudmouth who's great at dealing tons of punishment to Decepticons.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Regardless how trigger-happy he may be, it's clear that Hound cares for his Autobot comrades like a family, and, while he despises humans at first due to their involvement in the deaths of his friends, comes to accept Cade, Tessa, and Shane as part of his family too.
• Cigar Chomper: The artillery shell he holds in his mouth evokes this. Becomes a Chekhov's Gun when he runs out of ammo that he flips the shell around to fire it at a Decepticon pinning him down.
• Combat Pragmatist: When pushed, this fat ballerina proves how damn good he is at this.
• Composite Character: He's named after G1 Hound, but he seems more based on Bulkhead of Transformers: Animated and Transformers: Prime, being a big, green, friendly bulky guy. Personality wise, however, he has more in common with the Bulkhead from Transformers: Energon, being a crusty, trigger-happy and violent veteran warrior.
• Firing in the Air a Lot: His introduction sees him so overjoyed at Optimus's return that he pulls out a gun and lets off several rounds.
  Hound: Oh yeah! Hell yeah! He's back! He's alive! [fires in the air a lot] Optimus is here!!
• Gatling Good: His default weapon is a powerful triple barrelled mini gun.
  • More Dakka: ...And by "triple barreled" we mean three separate 6-barreled mini guns, in a triangular set-up.
• Hats Off to the Dead: Sadly takes off his helmet and places it over his Spark when he learns of Leadfoot's death.
• Large Ham: John Goodman really cuts loose in the role.
• Improbable Weapon User: As he runs out of ammo, he ends up throwing his helmet at the oncoming Vehicon onslaught, using his belt as a melee weapon, and (quite awesomely) firing his bullet-cigar out of his mouth into the face of a Vehicon.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Looks quite a bit like John Goodman himself.
• Made of Iron: Hound stands of being one of the few characters to take a direct hit from Megatron's gun and live to tell the tale.
• No Man Left Behind: He's completely unwilling to abandon his fellow Autobots or Cade on the battlefield, and he's the one who takes the time to free the oft-forgotten Brains.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The boisterous, trigger-happy Red to Drift's calm and serene Blue.
• Stepford Smiler: Implied during the scene where the group learns of Leadfoot's death. Hound had been jovial until Optimus asked if they knew of any other survivors, and immediately gets very quiet and soft-spoken. His voice nearly breaks when he sees footage of Leadfoot being killed, and he quietly curses the humans responsible. He remains this way until Optimus declares he plans to kill Attinger.
• Undying Loyalty: To Optimus.
• Walking Armory: He carries a multitude of guns and explosives that he uses to great effect, though it it isn't quite enough to take care of the dozens of Vehicons he fights in Hong Kong. By the time the movie ends, he is completely out of ammo, and forced to rely on whatever he has on his person to keep fighting. His toy likewise features a total of eight weapons, in contrast to the one or two that most other toys come with.

Crosshairs

"Nah! This isn't our fight! I'm done being an underdog. Underdogs suck! I say they get what they deserve."

Voiced by: John DiMaggio, Tom Bromhead (Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS version)

"I'm unclear. What's in it for me?"

Introduced in the fourth film, Crosshairs is a paratrooper who transforms into a green 2014 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Stingray.

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• Adapted Out: The original Crosshairs was a Targetmaster, who had a smaller robotic partner that turned into a gun for him to wield. This Crosshairs, however, has no such thing.
• Anti-Hero: At the end of the day, Crosshairs is a good person but is also very selfish and distrustful of humans. When the Autobots sneak onboard Lockdown's spaceship to save Optimus and Tessa, Crosshairs does not want to save Tessa until Hound forces him to cooperate. Justified because of The Purge.
• Badass Longcoat: His alternate mode kibble forms a long, flowing duster. In old-style Transformers that's called shell-forming and is a sign of bad transforming design. Just this once, though, it's awesome.
• Blood Knight: He certainly has fun flipping through the skies of Chicago and gunning down Decepticons.
• Composite Character: In addition to taking some cues from Sideswipe (Blood Knight antics, Corvette Stingray altmode) he also draws heavy inspiration from Rattrap (somewhat disrespectful toward the team leader, a expert saboteur, Deadpan Snarker tendencies).
• Cool Car: Transforms into a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C7.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the biggest. Essentially he's Damon Baird if John DiMaggio voiced him.
• Guns Akimbo: During the battle in Chicago he proceeds to do this while descending from the skies, parachutes deployed. See here◊.
• It's Raining Men: He's the Autobots' paratrooper.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Much like the Wreckers, he's an asshole, but he'll come through in the end. Perfectly exemplified when the Autobots' ship crashes and he realizes the Autobots are outnumbered ten to one: he immediately declares that it isn't their fight and says he's sick of fighting against impossible odds, then he asks Optimus what they're going to do next, clearly ready to follow no matter whatever his leader decides.
  Crosshairs: Nah! This isn't our fight! I'm done being an underdog. Underdogs suck! I say they get what they deserve. What's the play, Prime?
• The Lancer / The Smart Guy: Pulls double duty on the Five-Man Band, due to having both the most technical prowess and the most disagreeable temperament.
• Oh, Crap!: When Grimlock transforms into a Tyrannosaurus for the first time, he hastily tries to climb away from the battle even further.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Generally his approach when faced with a situation he doesn't like. When aboard Lockdown's ship, he quickly tries to get the others to bail with him. Hound has to threaten to kill him to get him to stay and help. Later, in a lesser example, he quickly scrambles to the sidelines when Optimus and Grimlock are going at it.
• The Starscream: Heavily downplayed, but he mentions on several occasions wanting to take charge of the team, at least whenever Optimus isn't around.
• Those Two Guys: Most frequently seen with Drift, who is the only Autobot that Crosshairs never gets into an argument with at some point or another.

Drift

"Hound, find your inner compass. Loyalty is but a flower in the winds of fear and temptation."

Voiced by: Ken Watanabe, Chris Jai Alex (Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark)

An Autobot tactician and a former Decepticon who transforms into a black and blue 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, as well as an unspecified attack helicopter.

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• All There in the Manual: That he's a former Decepticon goes completely unmentioned in either of his film appearances.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: He's the most soft-spoken of the group, but will hack you to pieces if you piss him off or spook him.
• The Big Guy: Along with Hound.
• Blue Is Heroic: He has blue armor and is one of the good guys. Later becomes a case of Red Is Heroic in The Last Knight.
• Composite Character: He is a former Decepticon and wields twin swords like G1 Drift, and is a Triple Changer with a car mode and an helicopter mode like G1 Springer.
• Cool Car: A Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, and in the fifth film a Mercedes-AMG GT-R.
• Dual Wielding: Has two samurai swords that he stows on his back. On a larger scale, he's a Triplechanger, transforming into both a car and a helicopter.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: His robot mode is essentially a robotic samurai.
• Headbutting Heroes: Drift threatens to cross blades with Hound when he is provoked, and also scraps briefly with Bumblebee when calling the latter out on his lack of discipline.
• Heel–Face Turn: Pulled one before the events of the fourth film. However, he still resents the fact that he's had to tolerate Bumblebee's attempts at leadership, as he views the young Autobot as inexperienced and unfit to lead.
• Ink-Suit Actor: He only lacks the facial hair.
• Mood-Swinger: Quite a few instances where Drift goes from calm and soft-spoken to violent and manic at the drop of a hat. Might have something with being a former Decepticon.
• Not So Stoic: When spooked by a captive creature on Lockdown's ship, he quickly hacks it to death in a panic, immediately after admonishing the others to save violence as a last resort.
• Only Sane Man: With Optimus becoming more emotionally volatile, Hound being a bit too boisterous for his own good, Crosshairs being a self-serving jerk, and Bumblebee having a fragile ego to go with his lack of maturity, Drift is this among the surviving Autobots.
• Red Is Heroic: For some reason, his armor is repainted red in The Last Knight^note He was intended to be red in Age of Extinction, but the red Bugatti that the studio was eyeing was bought by someone else before Paramount had a chance to buy it..
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm and stoic Blue to Hound's boisterous Red.
• The Stoic: He's very soft-spoken, but see Not So Stoic.
• The Strategist: Also indicated in his toy bio.
• Those Two Guys: Most frequently seen with Crosshairs, and he's the only Autobot who doesn't earn his ire.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: During the battle of Hong Kong, he destroys a Vehicon by flinging one of his swords through it. He fails to retrieve it and is down to one sword in TLK.
• Undying Loyalty: To his sensei, Optimus.
• Warrior Poet: He recites a Japanese haiku while lamenting the Autobots's situation.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He thought that Grimlock's alt mode was going to be a "giant car". Justified in his case, as up until the Dinobots reveal, the only Transformers with animal alt-modes were the much smaller Ravage (who may not have even had an alt-mode) and Laserbeak.

The Dinobots

Appearing in the movies: Grimlock, Scorn, Slug, and Strafe

Other members: Slash, Slog, Snarl

Grimlock

Scorn

Slug

Strafe

• Adaptation Name Change: Slug the Triceratops was originally Slag^note although, confusingly Snarl has also been another name for him. Slog the Brontosaurus was originally Sludge. Strafe the two-headed pteranodon was originally Swoop. Slag's name has been "officially" changed to Slug since 2010, mainly because of a case of his name meaning "slut" in the United Kingdom. Word of God states that Strafe was named differently due to diverging too much from Swoop in appearance, but toys of the original G1 Swoop released at the time were also named Strafe and a 2018 Tiny Turbo Charger toy of Strafe names him Swoop, suggesting otherwise.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming: All of their names apart from Grimlock start with the letter S.
• Androcles' Lion: They serve as this to Optimus after he frees them from Lockdown's captivity.
• Badass Crew: They curbstomp Galvatron's army in Age of Extinction.
• Badass in Distress: They briefly become this when Lockdown attempts to recapture them with his ship, as not even they can fight his giant magnet.
• Breath Weapon: Grimlock is shown having a fiery breath that can burn Transformers.
• Canon Foreigner / Canon Immigrant / God-Created Canon Foreigner: Slash and Scorn. Slash could be a heavily-modified semi-Expy of Dinobot (who also has a dromaeosaur alt-mode), and Scorn one of ''Cybertron'' Undermine.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Unlike the film, each of the Dinobots' toys sport a unique color instead of being metallic grey.
  • Grimlock — Gold with silver highlights.
  • Scorn — Red with orange highlights.
  • Slug — Purple with red highlights.
  • Slash — Light blue with yellow highlights.
  • Strafe — Dark blue with silver highlights.
  • Slog — Black with red highlights.
  • Snarl — Green with purple highlights.
• Death from Above: Strafe is a giant, two-headed Pteranodon in his dino-mode and commonly employs this tactic.
  • Scorn is shown entering the fray by leaping into the air and landing back-first on enemy transformers, impaling them on his spines.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Optimus has to smack around Grimlock, the leader, for the rest of the Dinobots to follow his lead.
• Deus Exit Machina: The Dinobots only really appear in the climax of Age of Extinction since they're so powerful they would end the film about two hours early. Similarly, in The Last Knight Grimlock and Slug only are around long enough to help fend off Megatron's squad of Decepticons and the TRF, and at both fights they utterly curbstomp everyone; they don't join the final battle against Quintessa either. On top of that, the most powerful Dinobot, Scorn, is absent, as is Strafe.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: All of them have designs that invoke a draconic appearance to them. And hey, Grimlock breathes fire.
• Dual Wielding: Most of their toys. Grimlock is the only one to wield a single weapon.
• Dumb Muscle: They don't seem to be very intelligent, but are significantly larger (Grimlock is at least twice the size of Optimus) and more physically powerful than most other Transformers.
  • Slog, whose bio describes him as, "Low on brainpower, even by Dinobot standards". However, he's still the biggest and one of the physically strongest of the Dinobots. This is consistent with the classic depiction of Sludge (who Slog was initially intended to be), who also transforms into a Brontosaurus and is typically portrayed as the largest and dumbest Dinobot.
• Famed In-Story: Implied. Upon seeing Grimlock, Optimus says (in Cybertonian) "The legend exists". Pretty blatantly stated when Optimus shows them to Drift and Crosshairs, calling them "legendary warriors".
• Giant Flyer: Strafe. He's big enough to have two car-sized Transformers^note Bumblebee and Stinger fighting on his back at once.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Or, as the case may be, a Cybertronarian. The Dinobots munch their way through enemies just as much as they smash. Grimlock even eats Dreadbot in The Last Knight.
• The Juggernaut: Scorn, apparently. According to his toy's bio "His massive size makes him almost impossible to bring down."
• Kaiju: The Dinobots' beast modes are huge - Grimlock is as large compared to Optimus as a normal T. rex is compared to a human.
• Kill It with Fire: As stated previously, Grimlock has fire breath in Dino-mode that is hot enough to cook Transformers.
• Knight in Shining Armor: All of the Dinobots' robot modes resemble armored knights. Grimlock and Scorn's designs carry a particular samurai flair as well.
• Large and in Charge: Subverted—Grimlock is obstensibly the leader, but is only the second largest. True to life, Scorn the Spinosaurus dwarfs the other three. Toyline-only character Slog is a Brachiosaurus, which may not be the biggest of the sauropods, but it's still far bigger than a Spinosaurus.
• Men of Sherwood: Slash may qualify as this, as several of them are shown in concept art◊ charging down a bridge behind Scorn.
• Multiple Head Case: Strafe is a pterosaur with two heads.
• Papa Wolf: In The Last Knight, Grimlock and Slug help violently defend the junkyard and the baby Dinobots from the invading TRF.
• Prehistoric Animal Analogue: Albeit with each one having an element of the fantastic.
  • Strafe is a two-headed pterosaur.
  • Grimlock is a horned T. rex.
  • Slash is a dromaeosaurid with metal "feathers" covering his body.
  • Slug is a Triceratops with a spiked tail (the spikes possibly being a stand-in for the quills Triceratops might have had in real life).
  • Scorn is a Spinosaurus with multiple sails.
  • Slog is a Brachiosaurus with rows of spikes along his back.
  • Snarl is a Stegosaurus with... not much different from a regular Stegosaurus aside from being robotic.
• Single Specimen Species: Averted with Slash in concept art (see Men of Sherwood).
• Spike Shooter: Scorn is depicted doing this in concept art◊.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Grimlock is more of a big, naughty pet to the junkyard crew in The Last Knight, after having been a hostile, dangerous warrior who had to be beaten into submission by Optimus in Age of Extinction. Similarly, Slug seems to spend most of his time peacefully grazing the junkyard like a space cow, and the two are not seen as particularly bothersome by the others and Cade and are considered dependable members of the team. That said, in battle they're still a dangerous force to be reckoned with.
• The Voiceless: None of them say a word. It's not clear if they even can speak, but they seem to understand what Optimus is saying.
  • Averted in the toyline. Grimlock's Electronic Titan Toy has a voice chip, with lines provided by Gregg Berger, Grimlock's original voice actor from the original cartoon.
• Weapon Specialization:
  • Grimlock uses a giant mace, and Slug is seen with one in concept art◊. Snarl can use his thagomizer as a club.
  • Scorn has a Cool Sword in his right hand, and Slug also dual-wields swords. Strafe also has a pair of swords that can combine with his crossbow.
  • Scorn uses his dinosaur mode tail, which becomes his left arm in robot mode, as a Jousting Lance. Slog has a pair that he dual-wields (though they might be swords).
  • Slog has a pair of Shoulder Cannons.
  • Slash dual-wields Sinister Scythes. Snarl can use his largest pair of plates as one.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • When the first information on Age of Extinction was revealed, there were seven Dinobots and their alt-modes named. Slash, Slog^note Sludge for those who know Gen 1, and Snarl are nowhere to be seen in the film.
  • In TLK, all the Dinobots but Grimlock and Slug are absent, without comment or explanation. The latter two are present in the early part, only to vanish after the Decepticon attack on Cade's junkyard.

Introduced in Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

Hot Rod

"I HATE the accent! But I can't get rid of it! I'm STUCK with the accent!"

Voiced by: Omar Sy

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• Bash Brothers: Described to be one with Bumblebee.
• Cool Car: At the start of the movie, his alt-mode is a Citroen DS. Later on in the film, he changes his alt-mode to a Lamborghini Centenario, a limited-edition 770hp model based on the Aventador platform created to commemorate Ferrucio Lamborghini's 100th annivesary. So yes, he's basically a Good Counterpart to Lockdown alt-mode wise.
• French Jerk: He has been described as arrogant, and speaks with a French accent. However, it turns out that the accent is not his choice, and he cannot turn it off, downplaying this somewhat.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's also described as "brash but noble". Such an example is him addressing Vivian as "lady", even while the latter is hitting him with a polo stick.
• Time Stands Still: His weapon can create a localized temporal rift.
• Unexplained Accent: Why he's stuck with a French accent he hates is never elaborated on.
• You Don't Look Like You: His design greatly differs from any of his previous incarnations. While design changes for the films are largely accepted by now, he is notable for having no visual resemblance to original Hot Rod.

Cogman

"My lord, rip an arm off a human and they'll go wherever you want."

Voiced by: Jim Carter

The first headmaster to appear on the big screen, he serves Edmond Burton as his robotic butler.

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• Battle Butler: He works as Sir Edmund Burton's car and his driver.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: On two ways. For one, he is a sociopathic Autobot. He's also very polite, unless you anger him.
• Canon Foreigner: He doesn't seem to be based on any previous character.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He apparently has "anger issues".
• Informed Ability: He’s said to be a Headmaster in the film. At no point does he ever turn into a head for a larger robot in the film.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He's described as a Headmaster, a Transformer whose alt-mode is just a head. Presumably he can attach itself on "abandoned" robot bodies and/or possibly vehicles, as that's what Headmasters are known for (and what his toy is capable of doing), but neither alt-mode nor robot-hijacking ability are showcased in the film.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's around the same size as most humans, but is just as capable of violence as the other bots, something Crosshairs painfully finds out.
• Servile Snarker: He has a tendency to make sarcastic remarks towards Burton.
• The Sociopath: Described as such.
• Twitchy Eye: In his motion poster. He greets the viewer like a proper British gentleman... and then his right eye goes nuts.
• Undying Loyalty: He remains by Burton’s side no matter what, even staying with him during his last moments.
• What Could Have Been: A scene involving Cogman's Headmaster ability was initially conceived, wherin he would decapitate Nitro-Zeus and commandeer his body by transforming into its new head. While Cogman and Nitro Zeus's respective toys were designed to represent this, the scene ultimately went unfilmed, leaving Cogman's status as a Headmaster overall pointless.

Sqweeks

"Woah."

Voiced by: Reno Wilson

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• Advertised Extra: Even though he's been shown in many promos, Sqweeks' role is rather small in the film.
• Badass Transplant: Izabella grafts a Decepticon arm to replace his lost one. The arm packs a blaster bigger than Sqweeks himself, which obliterates a huge turret in one shot.
• BFG: His new arm transforms into one bigger than he is tall and with the firepower to match.
• Cute Mute: He's a small and cute-looking drone who can't speak.
• Expy: Of Fixit, another small, one-wheeled Autobot drone who's damaged and thus unable to transform.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He doesn't look anything like the other Transformers in the films. He looks more like a kit-bashed robot made of scooter parts.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: He has two big, sad optics that look like moped lights.
• The Unintelligible: Sqweeks communicates through... well, squeaking, and the occasional word in Spanish, usually "Ay, Chihuahua!"

Daytrader

"You always resort to violence, right off the bat!"

Voiced by: Steve Buscemi

A junk collector.

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• Canon Foreigner: He is an original character, but has some traits from already existing ones such as Wreck-Gar. For example, his Honest John's Dealership traits bring Swindle to mind.
• Deadpan Snarker: Gives a fair few sarcastic quips in his one scene, courtesy of being played by Steve Buscemi.
• The Ditz: It is implied he's not very smart, seeing he gave Bumblebee a female-sounding voice box.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The other Autobots near-constantly belittle and threaten him, mostly due to he fact that they recognize his unreliability at finding anything of value.
• Honest John's Dealership: His wares are mostly junk, and even when requesting specific parts, he tends to bodge it up and bring in products that are either shoddy or just plain wrong.
• Ink-Suit Actor: His face was originally modeled directly off his voice actor◊. You can guess why they decided not to go with this idea.
• You Are Fat: Calls Hound "my corpulent comrade". Pretty ironic considering he is just as portly as Hound.

Canopy

"Let's go."

Voiced by: Frank Welker

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• Advertised Extra: Has been shown in a few promotions, only for his death to occur early in the film.
• Canon Foreigner: He was created exclusively for the film; he has no counterpart in any other media.
• Gentle Giant: Hides Izabella, Sqweeks, and a bunch of kids from a TRF drone without harming them.
• Killed Off for Real: Get struck by a missle from a TRF jet and dies, but not before thanking Izabella for her companionship.
• Red Shirt: Is killed off just as soon as he appears.
• Reused Character Design: Has the same body type as Long Haul and Onslaught, but with a different head and color.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Is only shown for 10 minutes before he is mortally wounded by a TRF jet missile.

Knights of Iacon / Dragonstorm

The Knights of Iacon

Dragonstorm

A group of Cybertronian knights, who landed on Earth in the fourth century AC, in Britain. Allying with Arthur, the twelve knights can combine into one gigantic three-headed dragon.

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• Been There, Shaped History: They helped make legends of King Arthur and Merlin, and inspired the Knights of the Round Table.
• Combining Mecha: Twelve bots who combine into one alt-mode.
• Dragon Knight: In interesting variation. They are Cybertronians knights who can combine into a robotic dragon.
• Humans Are Special: They beat Optimus to the punch by over a thousand years, seeing mankind for their potential.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Their look in robot mode (minus the odd bit of patina after a thousand years sleep).
• Palette Swap: The Knights all share a similar build in robot mode, outside of slightly different proportions, and different colour-schemes.

Trench

An Autobot who transforms into a Cat 320 excavator taking refuge from the TRF. Due to his limited screen time, he's the "Jolt" of The Last Knight.

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• Bit Character: He only appears in vehicle mode for a few seconds before transforming to robot mode, and altogether has probably twenty seconds of screen time.
• Dull Surprise: When Grimlock approaches him snarling, he still remains intact.
• The Voiceless: Doesn't have any lines.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's seen transforming to robot mode when Hound is loading up on weapons to prepare to face the approaching Decepticons, suggesting he's going to join the fight. However, he's never seen again, nor is he even mentioned or acknowledged.

Bulldog

"My bits are falling off."

Voiced by: Mark Ryan

An elderly Autobot who transforms into a British Mark IV tank, and is known to have fought in World War 1.

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• Scatterbrained Senior: Like Jetfire, Bulldog suffers from "robot dementia", and he's old to the point where pieces crumble off of him when he transforms.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: His senility is making him paranoid enough to fire on any newcomers to Sir Edmund Burton's castle.
• Shoulder Cannon: In robot mode, Bulldog's tank cannons come out of his shoulders, though he also has .303 Lewis machine guns.
• Tank Goodness: Transforms into a British Mark IV used in World War I, which was one of the first tanks ever invented and used in combat. In particular, Bulldog turns into a Male variation, going by the 6-pounder cannons in his shoulders.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears after Cade and Edmund arrive at the castle, and doesn't appear when the London police show up.

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