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Cybertronian Empire
Liege Maximo
"Evil is infinite."
One of the Thirteen Original Transformers, created as a force of evil to keep the balance with his good counterpart, Prima. He's implied to be the founder of the Decepticons, and he left Cybertron with several followers to create a Cybertronian Empire that Terraforms conquered planets.- Adaptational Wimp: When your original incarnation is the head of a massive empire and ludicrously huge... anything else is going to be something of a let down. His modern day incarnations are regular-sized, and slightly less harmful in their approach.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: According to the
unlicensed but canon Alignment, the Liege's goal was to become a god like Primus and Unicron. Pretty much no other version of him has displayed this trait, though (aside from a nod in the Facebook Ask Vector Prime page). - Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Cybertronians are already big by human standards. This guy is somewhere upward of a hundred feet and counting.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Due to Jhiaxus bearing the similar-sounding rank of Liege Centuro, it's implied that Liege Maximo is his title and not his real name. That said, later fiction tends to treat Liege Maximo as the character's actual name.
- Greater-Scope Villain: His G2 incarnation was implied to be Megatron's ancestor.Liege Maximo: I would have felt Megatron's death. You see, Rook, to me he is less an ancestor... more an offspring.
- Green and Mean: A green guy who is the ultimate evil.
- Heel–Face Turn: According to Ask Vector Prime, at least one version of him (from the "Rhythms of Darkness" timeline) turned good when Unicron killed that reality's Primus, and the Liege died doing in the destroyer.
- Horns of Villainy: No matter the continuity Liege Maximo is usually illustrated with horns.
- Large and in Charge: The massive leader of the Cybertronian Empire who towers over Rook.
- Man Behind the Man: To Jhiaxus, and the Cybertronian Empire as a whole.
- Manipulative Bastard: All his Power of the Primes abilities revolve around the Liege being a silver tongued devil.
- Obviously Evil: Giant, deep red eyes, covered in spikes, burning stump where his left hand should be. Yup, he's pretty evil.
- Orcus on His Throne: Never really did anything of note before the G2 comics ended.
- Shout-Out: His artwork in The Covenant of Primus bears a resemblance to Loki.
- Toyless Toyline Character: Does not receive any toys until the Power of the Primes toyline.
- You Don't Look Like You: He finally received a toy in Power of the Primes. Said toy is a tiny Headmaster-like thing that doesn't resemble the Liege at all. Even the shell it comes with looks more like Skullgrin.
Jhiaxus
Function: Conqueror
Alt Mode: Alien Jet
"The only thing I fear... is myself."
The Liege Centuro (general) of the Liege Maximo's Cybertronian Empire in the G2 comics. Alternatively, Jhiaxus was a crew member on the Ark-1 and Nova Prime's pet mad scientist, an ancient Cybertronian senator or a Well-Intentioned Extremist creation of Alpha Trion.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- His depiction in Generation 2 Redux has him as an Affably Evil Anti-Villain looking to create a new Generation of Transformers to help unite the old ones and usher in an era of peace.
- Like Nova Prime, Transformers: Devastation depicts Jhiaxus as someone who started off idealistic before he was corrupted by Unicron, with his villainous actions as the result of said corruption.
- Arc Villain: In The Transformers: Regeneration One, he's the villain for the last full arc.
- The Berserker: His G2 incarnation tries to repress his older, more brutal nature. When everything goes to crap for him in the finale, he lets loose and beats Optimus within an inch of his life. Only the fact that the Swarm shows up stops him from crushing Optimus' head.
- Big Bad: He's the main villain of the G2 comics. However, in terms of actual scope, he's barely The Heavy.
- Breakout Villain: He's easily the most popular villain introduced in G2 comics and has appeared in almost every subsequent G1-based continuity since.
- Canis Latinicus / Punny Name / Take That!: Well aware that the Transformers: Generation 2 series would probably be canceled before it ran very many issues due to unrealistic sales expectations, Simon Furman named him after the pun "Gee, axe us!"
- Characterization Marches On: Jhiaxus, like many other Transformers, is very much a character who acts Depending on the Writer. That said when The Transformers Megaseries gave him a scientific background, that characterization became a major part of how he was written and continued into Generation 2 Redux, Transformers (2019), and Simon Furman (Jhiaxus's creator) even incorporated it into his character when Furman revisited him in Regeneration One.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He is forced to confront his in Generation 2 issue #3. He was once a violent sadist, and has since cultivated a calm and reasonable personality in an effort to convince himself that he is a moral person. It turns out that's just a facade, and that he's still as bad as he always was. Naturally, instead of admitting this, he's determined to kill Prime and the Autobots so they can't remind him of the truth of who he is.
- Dragon Ascendant: Could be considered The Dragon to Nemesis Prime, and becomes the Big Bad in RID. When Dark Cybertron begins he willingly demotes himself to serve his pupil, Shockwave.
- The Evil Genius: To Nova Prime's Big Bad in the IDW comics.
- Evil Mentor: To Shockwave, again from IDW.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Or the closest equivalent for a race of mechanical lifeforms, at any rate. He's even willing to experiment on himself, resulting in a body that has far more in common with the Transformer designs of the recent movies than Generation 1.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: IDW Jhiaxus had a very poor track record when it came to his experiments. The end result of his attempt to introduce gender to a genderless species, Arcee, became a psychotic and violent mass-murderer obsessed with tracking him down and murdering him as slowly and painfully as possible; and Monstructor, his effort at producing a gestalt, is a nigh-indestructible and vicious killing machine, about the only one that didn't go wrong is his space bridge invention.
- Actually subverted on Monstructor's insanity. According to RID issue 7, Jhiaxus doesn't consider it a weakness.
- Killed Off for Real: Jhiaxus's position as a central villain often ends with his death. Unlike other major villains like Megatron or Starscream, his deaths tend to stick.
- Transformers: Generation 2 his debut series ended with him confronting the Swarm, the other major villain of G2. The confrontation ends badly and the Swarm consumes him.
- In the 2005 IDW continuity, Jhiaxus being undead allowed him to survive numerous fatal experiences (consumption by the dead universe, Arcee, etc.). He meets his permanent end in The Transformers: Dark Cybertron when Starscream runs him through with his blades.
- Transformers: Wings of Honor has him die at the climax of Generation 2 Redux, impaled on the blade of Megaplex.
- Regeneration One has him die from being assimilated into the Underbase.
- Mad Scientist: The 2005 IDW continuity reimagined Jhiaxus as one and he's responsible for numerous horrific experiments including the creation of the first major combiner (Monstructor) without the need for the Enigma of Combination. This characterization stuck around for many of his subsequent appearances like in the Wings continuity, the Regeneration One continuity, and the 2019 IDW comics; though it was strongest in the 2005 one.
- Non-Human Undead: Like all Dead Universe Transformers.
- The Starscream: After Millenia of service to Nova Prime and Galvatron, Jhiaxus betrays them in The Transformers: Dark Cybertron to further Shockwave's plans. Even after Galvatron saved and resurrected him, Jhiaxus tried to turn him into a conduit for the Dead Universe.
- Surpassed the Teacher: In the IDW continuity he was Shockwave's mentor and by Dark Cybertron he admits that Shockwave is his superior.
- Toyless Toyline Character: Until 2014, when he got a toy in Generations, which doesn't look much like him. In 2022, he would recieve another toy in Legacy, which looks more like the character.
- Un-person: A plot point in Regeneration One is that Jhiaxus wiped all traces of his existence from every existing Cybertronian database.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His portrayals usually have him as a Knight Templar but Generation 2 Redux wrote him as genuinely sincere in his attempts to start a war to unite the factions of Cybertron in a new era of peace.
Mindset
The Cybertronian Empire's commander who's incapable of creative thought.- Fantastic Racism: He's baffled as to why anyone would consider primitive carbon blobs worth protecting.
- Mauve Shirt: He's on-panel for a few pages before the Swarm eats him.
- Meaningful Name: Meta example; he shows the mindset of the Imperials to the reader.
- Robo Family: All Imperials are related to some Autobot or Decepticon via "budding", but he's one of the few ones whose ancestor is revealed, the Combaticon leader Onslaught.
Rook
A second generation Transformer who serves Jhiaxus.- Foil: To Jhiaxus. He keeps his cool while Jhiaxus is slowly losing it throughout the comic.
- Lean and Mean: The Transformers: Regeneration One has him considerably thinner and sleeker looking.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Justified example. He leaves because Jhiaxus is out of control and he needs to inform the Liege Maximo.
Humans
Spike Witwicky
Voiced by: Corey Burton (EN), Show Hayami (teenager), Masashi Ebara (adult), Kōji Ochiai ("The Rebirth") (JP)
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Drawn with blond hair in the Marvel comics.
- Adaptational Jerkass: His counterpart in the 2005 IDW continuity is noticeably more unscrupulous, arrogant and pervy than he was in the Sunbow cartoon and the Marvel Comics continuity. What's especially jarring is that this version of Spike Witwicky ends up wantonly killing the Constructicon Scrapper and only worked with the Autobots because he saw them as a means to an end.
- Casanova Wannabe: In his younger years, hitting on nearly every girl he meets and failing. And that's even after meeting Carly.
- Decomposite Character: Originally, Spike in the cartoon and Buster in the Marvel comics filled the same role in their respective continuities. Spike was introduced much later in the comics as Buster's older brother.
- Empowered Badass Normal: After becoming Fortress Maximus, he's even more formidable than when he was just a normal human.
- Interspecies Friendship: Is very close with the Autobot Bumblebee in the Sunbow cartoon.
- Legacy Character:
- To Galen as Fortress Maximus in the Marvel comics (Spike was the first and only to become him in the cartoon).
- In The Transformers: Regeneration One, he continues Circuit-Breaker's legacy by becoming Circuit Smasher.
- Likes Older Women: Many of the girls he hit on were much older than him. He was 15 when he met Carly, who was in college.
- Though she may have entered college young. She was that smart. The series bible describes her as being only one year older than him.
- Missing Mom: His mother was never even mentioned. Though it's commonly accepted that she died, since the production bible described his dad as a "widower". However, she finally makes an appearance in the IDW comics.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the 2005 IDW continuity, his first name is "Steven" while "Spike" is his nickname.
- Never My Fault: In Regeneration One, his decision to live his life and abandon the Ark meant that Megatron was reactivated by mistake by nosy humans and this led to the devastated Earth in the series as well as the deaths of Buster, Jessie and Sparkplug (amongst others). Needless to say, he blames the Autobots for this because they weren't there to defend the Earth (even though the Autobots had no way of knowing about what was going on Earth) and never owns up to the whole thing was due to his decision.
- Official Couple: With Carly. They even get married during the Time Skip between the second and third seasons.
- Papa Wolf: In the cartoon's final episode "The Rebirth", he creates Fortress Maximus to take down Zarak after realizing how much danger his son Daniel is in.
- Team Member in the Adaptation: In the 2005 IDW comic continuity, he ends up affiliated with G.I. Joe.
- We Used to Be Friends: In Regeneration One. Because the Autobots weren't there to protect the Earth when Megatron and his zombie hordes attacked, he now hates them with a passion (while refusing to acknowledge that it was his decision to basically abandon the Ark which allowed people to sneak in and accidentally reactivate Megatron).
Sparkplug Witwicky
Father of Spike and Buster.Voiced by: Chris Latta (EN), Toshio Ishii (JP)
- Adaptational Ugliness: Some of the comics depict him much uglier than he ever was in the cartoon.
- Badass Normal: While just a normal guy, he's still pretty useful and can even help Ratchet and Wheeljack with their tinkering.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Completely disappears after season 2. Although, it is entirely possible that he died of old age in the twenty year gap between season 2 and The Movie.
- He was in the script for "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1", on the Earth Defense Command shuttle with Blaster and Outback going to Carbombya to investigate Decepticon activity. His single line in the script was given to Blaster in the final episode.
- Depending on the Writer: In the Marvel comics, his first name was intended to be Stanislas Piotr (hence the name of his service shop being "S. Witwicky Auto Repairs & Tow Service"); though issue 4 has his name being William and issue 31 it's Irving. In the IDW comics it's Daniel.
- Killed Offscreen: His fate during the twenty year timeskip is not revealed, but it is safe to say he's long dead by 2005.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Only in the cartoon, where we first meet him working on an oil rig, then learn he once worked in the ruby crystal mines of Burma, and still later see him running an auto repair shop in New York. In the comics, he was consistently portrayed as an auto repair guy with his own shop.
- Papa Wolf: In the Sunbow cartoon, he's shown to be very protective of his only son. While he has no problem letting Spike accompany the Autobots on missions out in the field, he's willing to do whatever he has to rescue Spike whenever his son is put in serious danger.
- Parents in Distress: In "The Ultimate Doom" three-parter, Sparkplug is kidnapped by the Decepticons and brainwashed into becoming their obedient slave, and as a result, he's put in a considerable amount of peril. Spike spends the bulk of that story trying to rescue his old man and free him from the Decepticons' control.
- The Patriarch: He is Spike Witwicky's father and is well respected by the Autobots.
Buster Witwicky
Spike's younger brother, and the Autobots' friend in the Marvel Comics.- Badass Normal: Like his brother, he's a useful ally to the Autobots even though he's just a human being.
- Badass Bookworm: He's very smart and regularly aids in fighting the Decepticons.
- Killed Off for Real: By zombie Ratbat - in a car wash, no less, in the backstory of The Transformers: Regeneration One.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He wears a pink shirt.
- Official Couple: With Jesse. They even get married in Regeneration One.
Chip Chase
Spike's wheelchair-bound best friend.Voiced by: Michael Horton
- Bookworm: He's very intelligent and sometimes proves useful in fights against the Decepticons.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He stops appearing halfway through season two. Though he does make a two second cameo appearance (with his back to the viewer) in the Japanese-exclusive special, "Scramble City." Concept art of an adult Chip was created for The Headmasters, but he never appeared.
- Genius Cripple: Despite his youth, Chip is one of the most brilliant scientific minds on Earth. He created the anti-matter formula, helped design the Dinobots, and got Prowl through a fight by operating his body remotely. With a PC!
- Handicapped Badass: He may be in a wheelchair, but he's still as useful an ally to the Autobots as Spike.
- Nerd Glasses: He wears glasses and is kind of nerdy.
Carly
Spike's girlfriend and future wife.Voiced by: Arlene Banas (EN), Gara Takashima (teenager), Kazue Komiya (adult) (JP)
- Bookworm: She's a MIT student and has great knowledge of robotics.
- Official Couple: With Spike. They even get married in the Time Skip after season two.
- Only One Name: While it would obviously be Witwicky after she married Spike, her maiden name remains unknown. Although her counterpart in the live-action movies was given a last name, making her full name is Carly Brooks-Spencer.
Daniel Witwicky
Spike and Carly's son.Voiced by: David Mendenhall (EN), Mayumi Tanaka (The Transformers: The Movie), Masumi Gotō (The Transformers), Tomiko Suzui (The Headmasters), Yoshiko Kamei ("The Rebirth") (JP)
- Badass Adorable: He's just a 12-year-old, but he's still useful to the Autobots and even has the guts to talk back to Cyclonus on occasion.
- Jumped at the Call: He's always happy to get a chance to help the Autobots.
- Kiddie Kid: In Transformers: ★Headmasters, he acted younger than he was supposed to be, even bawling loudly at one point and having to be calmed down with funny faces. Although he was slightly younger than his dad was during The Movie and Seasons 3 and 4.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Arcee's Titans Return figure comes with a Titan Master named "Leinad". Given that Daniel was binary-bonded to her in "The Rebirth" three-parter, and said Titan Master's name is his name spelled backwards, it is presumed that Leinad is intended to be Daniel, with a rename necessary for trademark reasons.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Fills in the role his father had in the first two seasons as the Autobots' closest human ally, since Spike didn't appear as often in the third season.
- Tagalong Kid: He often comes along with the Autobots on their adventures.
Doctor Arkeville
Voiced by: Casey Kasem (EN), Chikao Shiroyama ("The Ultimate Doom"), Toshio Ishii ("Countdown to Extinction") (JP)
- Cyborg: The top of his scalp and his left hand are metallic-mechanical replacements of biological ones. "Countdown to Extinction" takes it further by having most of his body replaced with robotics except for half his face and part of his chest and right arm.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even though Doctor Arkeville happily enslaves human beings by the hundreds with his hypno-chip implants, he draws the line at cold-blooded murder, and is visibly horrified by Megatron's callous proposal of leaving them to die in favor of gathering energy, showing clear concern for the safety and welfare of his slaves over his conquest of Earth.Megatron: When the tidal wave hits the sea funnel, the fury of the ocean will turn the generators and fill thousands of Energon cubes. But where's the other generator? It should be in position now.
Dr. Arkeville: The funnel structure is not strong enough! The tidal wave will snap it like so many matchsticks! My slaves will drown!
Starscream: Who cares what happens to slaves, Dr. Arkeville? - Hollywood Cyborg: The top of his scalp and his left hand are metallic-mechanical replacements of biological ones.
- Large Ham: "I, Doctor Arkeville, genius of science, say... Open Sesame!"
- Last-Name Basis: His first name is not revealed in the cartoon, but Shattered Glass suggests it might be Henri.
- Obviously Evil: Well, the word Evil is in his name, after all.
- The Quisling: He allies himself with the Decepticons.Dr. Arkeville: Remember our agreement, Megatron. The Earth is to be mine when you are through with it.
Megatron: It will be... what's left of it. - What Happened to the Mouse?: Never shows up again after being left on Cybertron as an immobile cyborg in "Countdown to Extinction". Though supplementary material in the Japanese G1 cartoon continuity revealed that he's quite mobile and is back on Earth.
Jesse
Buster's girlfriend in the Marvel comics- All Women Are Lustful: Lusts after Buster. Not that Buster's complaining.
- Fiery Redhead: She got red hair and she's quite emotional and boisterous.
- Killed Off for Real: She is killed off in The Transformers: Regeneration One.
- Official Couple: She and Buster even get married in Regeneration One.
Marissa Faireborn
Voiced by: Susan Blu (EN), Kazue Komiya (The Transformers), Lyrian (Kiss Players) (JP)
- Action Girl: She's an occasional ally to the Autobots.
- Brought Down to Normal: After the events of Kiss Players, she presumably lost her ability to fuse with a Transformer.
- The Captain: She's head of the Earth Defense Command.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Shaoshao Li fell in Love at First Sight with her.
- Fiery Redhead: She has red hair and is temperamental.
- Formerly Fit: The end of the Legends comic leading into the Generations Selects comic for Volcanicus shows that an aged Marissa has become the new director of the EDC, but has also lost her
◊ fit physique◊, having gained weight and looking more like a Big Beautiful Woman. - Idol Singer: After losing her Kiss Player powers, she briefly formed a singing group with Atari Hitotonari, Shaoshao Li, and others to travel the world and promote improved relations between humans and Transformers.
- Interspecies Romance: With Optimus Prime in Kiss Players and Jazz in Dreamwave.
- Odd Friendship: She forms one with Thundercracker of all people in the IDW comics.
- Precocious Crush: In Kiss Players, she reveals that she fell in love with Optimus Prime as a child when he saved her and her father.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She trusts the Autobots and knows they're the good guys.
- Touched by Vorlons: Her Kiss Player powers came from exposure to fragments of Galvatron's body infused with Unicron's energy. She lost them when the fragments were reabsorbed.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: While her Hasbro Comic Universe counterpart is still Flint's daughter, Lady Jaye is no longer her mother.
- Unwitting Pawn: The Sparkbots nearly tricked her, Atari, and Shaoshao into summoning Unicron. Primus had to personally intervene to prevent this.
Josie Beller/Circuit Breaker
- Anti-Villain: Besides her vendetta against Transformers, her main motivation is to help and protect humans, repeatedly risking her life and taking injuries to save innocent bystanders.
- The Cameo: Briefly appears in Secret Wars II, where she has a chat with The Beyonder. He found her very interesting and amusing, so he cancelled his plan to brainwash the entire universe. He reasoned that turning people into mindless slaves would deprive him of such excellent entertainment. In essence, she saved the universe without even realizing it.
- Clingy Costume: Since she needs it to walk, she's never without her costume.
- Determinator: She designed and constructed her suit while she only had the use of one arm.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She once pumped out enough electricity to make Unicron scream in pain, distracting him long enough for Optimus Prime to defeat him with The Matrix of Leadership.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: The strain of this feat put her in a coma.
- Disability Superpower: She's crippled, but wears a suit that gives her amazing powers.
- Fantastic Racism: She considers all Transformers to be soulless abominations, mockeries of life that must be destroyed.
- Flight: Her suit grants her this ability via some form of electromagnetism.
- Genius Cripple: She can't move without her suit and is a very cunning adversary.
- Handicapped Badass: Manages to become a genuine threat to all Transformers after being crippled by Shockwave.
- Killed Offscreen: The Transformers: Regeneration One implies that she died in battle in the interim between this series and the original Marvel Comics series.
- Shock and Awe: Her name "Circuit Breaker" is well put, as she can electrocute Transformers until they short circuit and burn.
- Stripperific: She's naked under her cybernetic suit, which looks like thin strips of strategically placed tinfoil.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: It doesn't matter how much other humans vouch for the Autobots, she doesn't care and will still insist on seeing all Cybertronians as monsters that must be destroyed.
- Vapor Wear: The amount of skin her suit leaves exposed makes it clear she's not wearing anything underneath.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Because the aforementioned cameo in Secret Wars II ensured that Marvel kept the rights to the character out of Hasbro's hands, later appearances had to be sneaky to avoid getting in legal trouble with Marvel.
- The Marvel Comics continuity's Sequel Series Regeneration One avoids directly naming her and only shows her in a flashback sequence where she is obscured in shadow. This is odd as IDW was reprinting the old Marvel Comics in their IDW Classics line and reprinted Circuit Breaker's stories freely yet for Regeneration One and the 100-page spectacular, IDW suddenly became concerned about what Marvel would think.
- Her counterpart in Transformers: Shattered Glass got around the possible legal restrictions of using her by giving her the codename "Emulator" for when she gains her cybernetic armor.
- The later posts of the Renegade Rhetoric Facebook page (which started out as a Character Blog for Cy-Kill) consisted of the adventures of the Transformers Generation 2 Go-Bots and had one post that mentioned Circuit Breaker as a member of the Society of Ultimate Villainy, but had her name partially obscured by static as a means of alluding to the character without inciting the ire of Marvel's attorneys.
Atari Hitotonari
When her parents were killed in a Transformer-related accident, she was left despondent, resentful of the giant robots, and wishing to die. But when she was discovered to be a Kiss Player, perhaps the most powerful Kiss Player in existence, she was forcibly drafted into the Earth Defense Command, partnered with a man-made Transformer called Autorooper Ne-04, and ordered to help defend the world against the threat of Legion, an army of monstrous creatures formed from Galvatron.Voiced by: Satomi Akesaka
- Bespectacled Cutie: Her artwork shows her with big glasses which only make her more adorable.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When she is pushed, she pushes back, hard. Her feats include tearing a girl who had murdered her friend limb-from-limb, and throwing Galvatron into space.
- Big Eater: Often gorges herself on donuts and other sweets.
- Brought Down to Normal: Loses her Kiss Player powers at the end of the story, just like Marissa.
- Butt-Monkey: She's taken some incredible humiliation, like Starscream taking over her body and going on a rampage with her panties exposed.
- Character Development: Her story from start to finish consisted of her learning to overcome her shyness and fears, accepting her duty, and understanding the importance of truly living.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Despite her reluctance to fight and desire to be ordinary, she cannot stand to see anyone in pain.
- Death Seeker: At first she wanted to die thanks to her parents dying in a Transformer-related accident.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Another Kiss Player named Ringo Chikuma stalked her and gave her several Forceful Kisses.
- Idol Singer: After losing her Kiss Player powers, she briefly formed a singing group with Marissa Faireborn, Shaoshao Li, and others to travel the world and promote improved relations between humans and Transformers.
- Interspecies Romance: With Autorooper Ne-04. She says she feels a sense of humanity within him.
- Paint It Black: While she was possessed by Starscream, her outfit turned black.
- Shrinking Violet: Started the story by being basically very introverted
- Survivor Guilt: Was the only one in her family to survive that fateful Transformer accident.
- Touched by Vorlons: Her Kiss Player powers came from exposure to fragments of Galvatron's body infused with Unicron's energy. She lost them when the fragments were reabsorbed.
- Unwitting Pawn: EDC Commander Hitoshizuku Amaō manipulated nearly her entire life, including the deaths of her parents and her gaining Kiss Player powers, so she could be used as the perfect host body for Hitoshizuku's dead daughter. Fortunately, Atari, Marissa, Shaoshao, and their partners foiled this plot and defeated her.
- The Sparkbots nearly tricked her, Marissa, and Shaoshao into summoning Unicron. Primus had to personally intervene to prevent this.
Shaoshao Li
Marissa Faireborn's childhood friend, who became a Kiss Player and enlisted in Earth Defense Command to fight Legion. She was Autorooper Ne-04's original partner, but went missing for a while and resurfaced with Hot Rod as her partner.Voiced by: Yui Kano
- Action Girl: Knows martial arts and weapons like tonfas.
- Brought Down to Normal: Loses her power to fuse with a Transformer at the end of the whole story.
- Character Development: Learned to be nicer and more accepting. Eventually got over her obsession with Marissa and gave her and Optimus Prime her blessing.
- Chinese Girl: Chinese name? Yes there is. Race? Also Chinese.
- Green-Eyed Monster/The Resenter: Hated Optimus Prime for "stealing" Marissa from her. Hated Atari for being more powerful than her (Shaoshao was considered the most powerful Kiss Player before Atari came along).
- Fantastic Racism: Hates the Transformers and resents having to partner with them. She reluctantly admits that she enjoys kissing Hot Rod.
- Idol Singer: After losing her Kiss Player powers, she briefly formed a singing group with Marissa Faireborn, Atari Hitotonari, and others to travel the world and promote improved relations between humans and Transformers.
- Interspecies Romance: With Hot Rod. Though she never truly loved him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Oh boy. She was quite rough and mean when we first saw her, but over time, she mellows out to be just as friendly as your other heroes.
- Love at First Sight: Loved Marissa from the moment they met as children.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Tried to goad Hot Rod into killing Optimus Prime. Hot Rod nearly went through with it because he was under the impression that Prime was an imposter.
- Slave Collar: Ever since she was a child, she's worn a metal collar that's secured with a padlock and has "Fortune" engraved on it. She never removes it and it is not affected by The Nudifier. She is not and has never been a slave, but she refuses to explain its purpose or origin.
- Touched by Vorlons: Her Kiss Player powers came from exposure to fragments of Galvatron's body infused with Unicron's energy. She lost them when the fragments were reabsorbed.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Unfortunately for her, Marissa only had eyes for Optimus (and later, Dirk Manus), and is straight.
- Unwitting Pawn: The Sparkbots nearly tricked her, Atari, and Marissa into summoning Unicron. Primus had to personally intervene to prevent this.
Ringo Chikuma
A Kiss Player partnered with the man-made Transformer Autorooper Ne-01 who happily enlisted in the EDC for the opportunity to fight and slaughter. When Atari Hitotonari was forced to join, Ringo stalked, sexually harassed, and abused her. Atari was too frightened and unassertive to resist, essentially making her Ringo's sex slave behind closed doors. When Atari tried to report her, she was ignored. When Ringo made the mistake of callously gunning down one of Atari's friends right in front of her, Atari finally snapped and tore her limb-from-limb.- Ax-Crazy: If the below tropes aren't evidence enough, she's bizarre, childish and driven by whim to torture Atari.
- Blood Knight: Really, really enjoys fighting a little too much...such as gunning down Atari's friends. It was enough to get Atari to tear her apart as payback.
- Domestic Abuser: She abused Atari with her victim unable to fight back out of fear.
- Drives Like Crazy: As Atari recalls, Ringo's driving is definitely not great and really, really wild.
- Forceful Kiss: As part of her assaults on Atari, she stuck her tongue into Atari's and bit her hard. This continued with her force-feeding poor Atari flowers via kisses.
- Girlish Pigtails: She has this as part of her style, but they belie the sinister Ax-Crazy monster she is.
- Hemo Erotic: Ringo's abuse basically involved a lot of bloodshed from Atari, such as her first Forceful Kiss where she bit Atari hard.
- Insistent Terminology: Ordered Atari to call her "Princess Ringo".
- Karmic Death: Meets her gruesome end at the hands of Atari, the girl she viciously assaulted and tortured.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Small stature, able to pilot a man-made Transformer and go really, really hard on Atari.
- Psycho Lesbian: She's attracted to Atari but then she goes really wild on her, and what she did as the above tropes state, is definitely not good.
- Touched by Vorlons: Her Kiss Player powers came from exposure to fragments of Galvatron's body infused with Unicron's energy.
Abdul Fakkadi
The self-professed Supreme Military Commander, President-for-Life, and King of Kings of the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya. A corrupt and greedy leader who is often willing to make deals with the Decepticons to further his goals. The creation of this incredibly offensive Middle-Eastern stereotype caused Casey Kasem (who is of Lebanese descent) to quit the show in disgust.Voiced by: Philip L. Clarke (EN), Toshio Ishii (JP)
- Bullying a Dragon: He kept Octane in line by threatening to call in the Autobots to deal with him. But when he tried this with Galvatron, the Decepticon leader simply laughed it off.
- Chest of Medals: Has medals pinned on both sides of his chest in all appearances.
- The Generalissimo: He's the military dictator of a third-world country that he rules with violence and fear.
- Dressed to Oppress: Prefers to don a Commissar Cap, medals, and beard.
- Greed: Very obsessed with gold.
- Jerkass: Not a nice guy at all, and a cruel dictator too.TFWiki.net: One gets the feeling that if you were to inform him that, by definition, a Republic cannot have a King (much less a "King of Kings"), his likely response would be to stare blankly for a long moment, and then order your immediate beheading.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's an unflattering caricature of Muammar Gaddafi.
- Monumental Theft: Octane and Trypticon stole several landmarks like Fort Knox and the Eiffel Tower to appease Fakkadi in exchange for Carbombyian oil to make potent energon.
- President for Life: One of his proclaimed titles is that he's President for life.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: He has quite a lot of titles that he feels the need to mention every time he says his name.
Garrison B. Blackrock
The CEO of Blackrock Industries.- Adaptational Species Change: The IDW comics changed him into a Cybertronian who conditioned himself to believe he was human.
- Ambiguously Jewish: His last name sounds like an Anglicization of Schwarzstein, and creator Bob Budiansky said he based the character's name off that of his friend Gary Bennett Schwartz; both Budiansky and Schwartz are Jewish.
- The Casanova: Sometimes tries to pick up girls.
- Expy: Of Tony Stark. His "true form" as the Titan Master Sovereign in the IDW comic even resembles Iron Man.
- Honest Corporate Executive: He's an honest businessman allied with the Autobots.
- No Name Given: In the Marvel comics, he was only known by his initials, which is speculated to stand for "Gary Bennett" after Bob Budiasky's friend. It was partially confirmed in the IDW comics, where the G stands for Garrison.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: He will not condone illegal practices.
Other
Nova Prime
Function: Conqueror
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Anti-Aircraft Truck
"A warrior finds honor only in the total destruction of his enemies."
A Matrix-bearer and leader of the Cybertronian people from millions of years before the time of Optimus Prime, Nova Prime ruled in a time when the Cybertronian race was enjoying a golden age of prosperity and power. Seeing his species as the greatest form of life in the universe and thus deserving of its rulership, the expansionist Nova gathered a crew of loyal and likeminded Transformers to crew a vast spaceship known as the Ark-1; ostensibly theirs was a mission of exploration and mapping the galaxy, but in reality their goal was one of conquest. Fortunately for most other forms of life, the Ark-1 and its crew vanished into the Benzuli Expanse shortly into its maiden voyage and was presumed destroyed with all hands. This turned out not to be the case, however; instead of destroying them, the Benzuli Expanse flung Nova Prime and his crew into the Dead Universe, its fell energies transforming them until they were neither living nor dead. Now, millions of years later, Nemesis Prime, still holding to his expansionist ideals, intends to merge the Dead Universe with our own in order to create a reality where Cybertronian life reigns supreme, but how much of this is his own plan and how much of it comes from the creeping, malevolent sentience which sustains him cannot be determined...
- Adaptation Name Change: He was called Prime Nova in the Marvel Comics. The IDW comics gave him his current name.
- Adaptational Heroism: The original Nova Prime, even back when he was a "good guy", still wasn't a paragon of virtue. While he did show incredible bravery during the Great War and ultimately united the warring tribes to begin the Golden Age of Cybertron (even earning his title of Prime from Alpha Triton as a result), he also was deeply racist and heavily promoted the ideal humanoid Cybertronian at the expense of both non-humanoid Cybertronian life and all other Organic life. He had intended to create an empire that expanded across space, before he was turned into Nemesis Prime which made him an Omnicidal Maniac. Every time he appears in other continuities he's recast as a better person.
- The Transformers Legends game has Nova Prime as a peaceful ruler of Cybertron who must confront Nemesis Prime, his evil future self.
- In Transformers: Devastation, Nova was an idealistic and moral leader of Cybertron who was corrupted by Unicron. His expansionist policies were focused solely on terraforming uninhabited planets to serve as Cybertronian colonies, and only after his corruption did he start doing the same to inhabited planets uncaring of their populations.
- All There in the Manual: "Spotlight: Optimus Prime" includes sketches that reveal his appearance to be Powered Armor, having a smaller robot mode inside. However, like Ultra Magnus in the cartoon, this is never reflected on-panel and Nova Prime is always shown in his powered-up mode.
- Back from the Dead: Briefly returns thanks to the D-Void, but is ultimately killed by Galvatron again, and in The Transformers: Dark Cybertron he returns to life once again now calling himself Nova Prime again.
- Big Bad: For the IDW comics prior to The Transformers: All Hail Megatron.
- Casting a Shadow: He has shadowy energy surrounding him.
- Dark Is Evil: As Nemesis Prime, his appearances changes to reflect his evil nature.
- Evil Costume Switch: A variation; when we first see Nova prime in a flashback his colour scheme is predominantly white, but as Nemesis Prime his colour scheme is inverted.
- The Evils of Free Will: Sought to eliminate free will from Cybertronians and the galaxy at large.
- Light Is Not Good: As Nova Prime, his paint scheme is largely white, with some black. He's still a terrible person, even if not at Omnicidal Maniac levels.
- Non-Human Undead: Because of exposure to the energies of the Dead Universe, he's neither living nor dead.
- The Right of a Superior Species: He believes firmly that Cybertronians are the highest form of all life in the universe, thus it is only right they should expand and conquer other races wherever they might be.
- Uniqueness Decay: When Nova Prime first came along, the idea of a Prime being evil was a legitimate twist. That was in 2006. Since then, IDW ran with the concept that every Prime other than Optimus was evil and/or a dick, lessening the impact, to the point that Optimus became disillusioned with the very concept of Primes in the first place.
- Unwitting Pawn: Of Shockwave in Dark Cybertron. Though in that particular storyline, who isn't?
Quintessons
Function: Galactic Despots
Top To Bottom: Magistrate, Inquisitor, Scientist, Bailiff, Gatekeeper
"Everyone is guilty until proven innocent, and even then they are guilty."
A hostile race of mechanical, squid-like beings with up to five faces on their bodies.
Voiced by: Various; Regis Cordic, Roger C. Carmel, and Jack Angel were the primary voices.
- Abusive Precursors: In those continuities where the Quintessons colonized Cybertron in the distant past and built robotic slaves who would eventually turn against their masters and become Autobots and Decepticons. Needless to say, the Quintessons aren't happy about being given the boot by their former servants, and seek to either re-enslave or destroy all Cybertronians.
- Always Chaotic Evil: There are almost no good Quintessons. Al-Badur helped the Cybertronians, but he turned on them in the end. Pentius initially presented himself as a neutral malevolent force meant to steer Megatron towards evil. He was wicked, but firmly believed in bettering Megatron to the point where he approves of Megatron killing him for survival, and even Pentius reduced to a spark, betrays Megatron for his own gain. The only two Quintessons who are known to be definitely good are Aquarius, who comes from a Mirror Universe, and Klementia, who resurrected Optimus Prime in The Return Of Optimus Prime and, according to supplementary materials, would later go onto forge a peace between the Quintessons and the Autobots and spearhead a number of reforms in Quintesson society.
- Deconstructed in Void Rivals. Darak and Solila encountered an imprisoned Inquisitor who promises to reward them well if they free him. However, the Inquisitor is so blatantly sinister in his behavior and demeanor that they are instantly suspicious of him that they sell him out to the Skuxxoid before he has a chance to doublecross them.
- Big Bad: Of Five Faces of Darkness, The Space Pirates (no, not that one), and an Aborted Arc of the Dreamwave comic.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: In the original cartoon the Quintesson faction had no single leader and the Judge Class of the group were depicted as the rulers with roughly equal authority. Subsequent stories do give focus to singular Quintessons as major antagonists though other narratives still use joint rule by the Judges.
- Card-Carrying Villain: "[We] are Quintessons! Arrogance is our life's blood, ambition is our food and drink, but most of all, hubris is the air we breathe!!
- Combat Tentacles: They have tentacles that they often use to defend themselves.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: They WERE this at the height of their power. In addition to the War For Fun And Profit example below, in the continuities where they created the Transformers it is very clear that the Decepticons were created to be sold as "weapons platforms" while the Autobots would have been sold as traditional slaves. By the time we see them, however, they have been largely forced into the shadows, acting as The Syndicate. Retrieving a journal containing thousands of year's worth of their corrupt business practices is a plot point for several episodes of the Sunbow cartoon.
- Cultural Rebel: Mara-Al-Utha dabbled in sorcery, which led his more scientific-minded brethren to banish him to another dimension.
- Dirty Coward: They'll betray anyone to save their own skin.
- Ditto Aliens: Aside from the different types of Quintessons, they tend to look identical to one another with few exceptions.
- Does Not Like Magic: They banished one of their own for the "crime" of practicing sorcery.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Quintessons fled when the Hate Plague began to spread. Klementia, who was left behind, helped revive Optimus Prime who's the only one who could stop the Plague.
- Evil Mentor: In the IDW comics, a Quintesson named Pentius was this to Megatron.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Regis Kordic and Roger C. Carmel provided deep voices for the Quintessons they voiced.
- Fantastic Racism: Have disdain for all other races, Cybertronians and humans in particular.Scientist: Humans are disgusting creatures, but worthy of study, if only to find a better way of destroying them.
- Faux Affably Evil: In Transformers: The Movie.Inquisitor: Before the Imperial Magistrate delivers a verdict, would you like to beg for your lives? It sometimes helps, but not often.
- Hanging Judge: The trials they hold for their prisoners always end with the prisoner being executed.Inquisitor: Has the Imperial Magistrate reached a verdict?
Magistrate: I have.
Inquisitor: Guilty or innocent?
Magistrate: Innocent.
Inquisitor: Feed them to the Sharkticons. - Heel–Race Turn: In at least one timeline, after resurrecting Optimus Prime and helping to deal with the Hate Plague, Klementia spearheads reforms that results in the Quintessons becoming friendly towards the Autobots.
- Jerkass: They enjoy tormenting and killing people for no good reason.Inquisitor: Innocent or guilty?
Kranix: Spare me this mockery of justice! - Hive Caste System: The Five-Faced Magistrates serve as judges pronouncing sentencing on their hapless victims, the Inquisitors command the military forces and also serve as prosecutors at the trials, the Scientist and Bailiff classes are Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and the Gatekeeper class are executioners at the trials and overseers of the Sharkticons. It is implied that Bailiffs and Executioners/Gatekeepers were the original soldiers and officers in their military, but serve their current role because so few of them are left. General Ghyrik from The Space Pirates is the primary exception.
- Kangaroo Court: Tend to capture beings and subject them to mock trials that serve no purpose except their own amusement. They are fond of simply declaring everybody who they try as "innocent", then dropping them into pits full of Sharkticons anyway. They admit pleading for one's life "sometimes helps... but not often."Magistrate: Silence or you will be held in contempt of this court.
Hot Rod: I have nothing but contempt for this court! - Large and in Charge: Lord Kledji, the leader of the Magistrate class, is drawn as twice the size of the standard Magistrate in the comics.
- Mad Scientist: Many of them enjoy performing experiments on their captives.
- Mecha-Mooks: In the Marvel G1 comics, they are Unicron's enforcers that hunt down and pick off anything that escapes his maw.
- In the 3H comic continuity, Unicron hired them to seek out the body of Primus. After discovering him in the form of Cybertron, the Quintessons decided to tell Unicron about it later. And the rest is history.
- Out of Focus: Their only appearance in the Marvel G1 comic (not counting the miniseries adaptation of the movie and the issue adapting the cartoon episode "The Big Broadcast of 2006", neither of which were considered canon to the comic book continuity) was in the UK exclusive Space Pirates storyline, and they never appeared in any of the various Japanese anime that picked up where the Sunbow cartoon left off.
- Shark Pool: Pools of Sharkticons are among their main weapons.
- Shout-Out:
- General Ghyrik is likely named for Agent Gyrich.
- The head design for the Inquisitors vaguely resembles the head of a Xenomorph.
- Squishy Wizard: Get past their technological defenses and they are easy prey. They have no aptitude for direct combat and can easily be overpowered by humans despite their immense size.
- Stupid Evil: The Quintessons try to kill Rodimus and company by blowing up their homeplanet with them on it, blowing up all of their minions and the majority of their resources in the process. As such, they're left crawling to the Decepticons for help and nearly get killed by Galvatron if not for some quick thinking and manipulation.
- Terrible Trio: The most prominent Quintessons seen in the Sunbow cartoon were a trio of Magistrates, led by, presumably, the animated counterpart to Lord Kledji.
- Toyless Toyline Characters: For a long time, no G1 Quintesson toys had been released, either because they would be way too complex or there wasn't much justification for selling a non-transforming toy (despite several exceptions to this rule in the franchise). In 1986, they would be impossible to make due to the limitations of toy technologies. However, in 2020, Earthrise would finally produce a G1 Quintesson Judge figure — it's able to transform into a battle station, complete with a cage. The Pit of Judgement giftset would later produce figures for the Baliff and Prosecutor varieties, though the latter is non-transformable. Prior to this, several third-party companies made unauthorized Quintesson toys.
- War for Fun and Profit: Quintessons were war profiteers in the original cartoon.
Sharkticons & Allicons
Function: Shock Troops
A ravenously hungry horde of transforming robots who turn into sharks, the Sharkticons serve as the Quintessonian muscle and their main method of execution. They're also not very bright, and could easily be turned against their masters if given half a chance. The Allicons, who transform into monstrous crocodilians, are a stronger, somewhat smarter breed that the Quintessons reserve for more important tasks.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted. The Sharkticons are initially presented as a ferocious and ravenous race of monsters who will devour anyone unfortunate enough to be dropped into a pool of water with them. However, as the cartoon goes on to show they don't act out of malice and are more akin to a bunch of hungry animals. Future stories rarely depict them as sadistic and individual Sharkticons that receive character focus tend to be portrayed sympathetically rather than as beings of calculated evil.
- Dumb Muscle: Sharkticons are not very bright.
- Elite Mooks: The Allicons are their smarter, bigger, nastier cousins, who turn into alligators. They're usually higher up the food chain than the Sharkticons.
- Epic Flail: Sharkticons can detail their tails to use as flails. So far, none have been shown doing this in fiction.
- Fat Bastard: Both shark and robot modes look pretty chubby. But then, they do eat a lot. The Allicons are a bit chunkier, thanks to being more muscly.
- Mix-and-Match Critter: Despite the name, Sharkticons look like a mix of sharks and piranhas.
- Slave Race: For the Quintessons.
- Toyless Toyline Character: Much like their masters, the Allicons would take a long time to receive a toy. Earthrise would eventually deliver one in 2020, and the mold would serve as the Baliff's basis for the Pit of Judgement giftset.
- Zerg Rush: Sharkticons aren't very smart, not very strong, and not very durable. Their advantage lies in swarming enemies and devouring them.
Junkions
An offshoot of the Cybertronian race who live on the planet of Junk. They pick up transmissions from Earth, which has severely influenced their way of speaking. While very defensive of their home, they strike up an alliance with the Autobots.
- Aliens Steal Cable: They don't just watch TV, they live TV. All Junkions tend to speak exclusively in quotations from TV shows they've watched.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: When the Quintessons try to recover a journal of theirs which has landed on the planet, they try using subliminal messaging to make the Junkions more hostile to outsiders. It works, but things go wrong and the Junkions decide to broadcast the signal to the entire universe.
- Cloudcuckoolander: They're odd, what with all the TV, but nice.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: A general mix of red, orange, brown and grey. It's very rare to see a Junkion who doesn't have those colors.
- Freudian Excuse: According to the Dreamwave comics, people are always after their lucky charms... err, the refuse dumped onto their planet, which is why they're jumpy around newcomers.
- Implacable Man: As Springer puts it, it's not hard to knock them down. It's getting them to stay down that's the trick.
- Made a Slave: In the UK comics, Unicron's head wound up on Junk, and all the Junkions save Wreck-Gar (who wasn't there) got enslaved to rebuild his body.
- Mr. Fixit: Handy if you need a patching up. In the movie, they were able to glue Magnus back together with no side-effects after he'd blown up.
- Mysterious Past: The exact details on their origin in the cartoon are murky. One episode just says they're a tribe of Autobots, but when and why they wound up on Junk is unclear. The Dreamwave comic says they were the result of Cybertronians winding up on Junk and just sort of becoming Junkions over time, with Megatron noting Wreck-Gar smells of Autobot and Decepticon.
- Named After Their Planet: "Junkion" can refer to both the planet and its inhabitants.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. The majority of Junkions have red eyes, and they're introduced as hostile enemies in The Movie, but Hot Rod manages to make peace with them and finds out the Junkions are friendly sorts otherwise.
- Robot Hair: Facial hair is a common trait among male Junkions, especially compared to Cybertronians.
- Toyless Toyline Character: With the exception of Wreck-Gar, Junkions didn't receive toys during their original debut and it would be until the 2020's that the Junkions would finally receive figures in the Studio Series and Legacy toylines.
Primus
Function: God of Light
Alt Mode: Cybertron itself
"I am that which is, what was, and is yet to come!"
The Lord of Light and counterpart of Unicron, Primus is the Creator God of the Transformers. The spark of each Transformer is a piece of his lifeforce, and combined, they form his essence, the Allspark. He created the Thirteen original Transformers to man his body in planet mode, but when The Fallen betrayed him, Primus was forced to go into stasis, in an effort to prevent Unicron from finding Cybertron and devouring it, which would destroy that universe. Like his brother and his creations, Primus is a multiversal singularity, meaning there is only one version of Primus in the vast multiverse.note
- Big Good: The highest authority there is on the Autobots' side, surpassing even Optimus Prime.
- Composite Character: The Japanese continuity states that he's the Oracle from "Call of the Primitives" note , Vector Sigma note and the Oracle from Beast Machines note .
- Cosmic Keystone: If Primus dies, reality tends to get a little... ah, weird. The bizarre nature of the Japanese G1 continuity has been put down to his near-destruction during Headmasters.
- Decomposite Character: In the Japanese G1 continuity, he wasn't the planet Cybertron itself. He came from a world where he had the possession of the Silver Matrix, which can create a new universe. However, him and his pet Primacron were the only known survivors, and they built many machines, including Unicron. Unicron destroys his body and he drifts into the parts unknown, until he created Cybertron but it was taken over by Quintessons.
- Depending on the Writer: Choose your pick.
- In the US continuity, he is the planet Cybertron itself, created the Transformers, and Unicron is his evil brother.
- In the Japanese continuity, he was a robot from a world before the creation of the new one via the Silver Matrix and the Zodiac, Primacon created a robot monkey body for him, created many machines, including Unicron, has the primitive Transformers fight Tornedron, and took the Silver Matrix from Dai Atlas.
- Failed a Spot Check: He claims to be able to track Unicron's presence. Somehow, he failed to notice Unicron until he was quite literally right on top of him (something Kup even points out. How the hell do you miss a guy the size of a planet?)
- Fighting a Shadow: The entire Cybertronian race are extensions of him and their deaths just return the fragment of his essence they hold back to the whole to be reborn later. He created them as a method of fighting Unicron without risking the universal destruction that his death would cause.
- Genius Loci: He is Cybertron, or, at least, trapped within Cybertron. It varies Depending on the Writer.
- God of Good: His main goal is always to bring peace and prosperity to the universe as a whole. Sadly, he often falls short of accomplishing this ideal thanks to his judgement flaws and indirect methods.
- God's Hands Are Tied: He could fight off Unicron and other threats to reality directly, but that would require him essentially killing all Cybertronians in existence to pull himself back together and risk the destruction of the multiverse in the crossfire as has happened to previous iterations of the universe where they clashed. That's why he prefers to remain dormant and only fight giving his "children" weapons with bits of his pure essence to defeat his enemies.
- Guile Hero: The original version of his and Unicron's origin had Primus tricking both of them into asteroids.
- Holy Hand Grenade: The Matrix of Leadership contains a portion of his essence. If a chosen wielder opens it, even evils as powerful as Unicron will fall.
- Horrible Judge of Character: His G1 comic incarnation took Galvatron at his word.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: One of the few Physical Gods to be on the receiving end of this trope thanks to Octopunch firing at Grimlock and the shot bounced off and straight into Primus's face.
- King in the Mountain: In most continuities, he's sleeping to hide himself from Unicron, and will only wake up when "all are one". As can be guessed, he doesn't wake up very often.
- Manipulative Bastard: And he's supposed to be the "good" one. Though some versions have been more heroic.
- MacGuffin: The Matrices throughtout the G1 continuity (especially the Japanese one) is this for him, but especially the Silver Matrix and The Matrix of Leadership.
- Minor Major Character: Even though he created and is worshiped by the Cybertronian race, he's seldom given any prominence.
- Multiple-Choice Past: He's either a primordial force or the former lab assistant of the Mad Scientist Primacron.
- In the DK Ultimate Guide, he actually split from Unicron. Really.
- Omniscient Morality License: Everything he does is in some way to combat Unicron and protect the universe, but that doesn't mean its convenient or pleasant for the little guys.
- Pieces of God: Each member of the Cybertronian race holds a fragment of him known as a "spark" that functions as their souls.
- Physical God: He's the creator god of the Transformers.
- Retcon: Japan's saying that he's the G1 cartoon Oracle, Vector Sigma and the BM Oracle also came with saying that the scene in "Call of the Primitives" wherein the Oracle summons the Primitives to his planet and instructed them on how to destroy Tornedron took place in the ancient past...despite nothing in the US or Japanese versions indicating that.
- World of Badass: He is Cybertron. And nobody would deny the Transformers are Badass.
Unicron
Function: Harbinger of Chaos
Alt Mode: Armored Planetoid
The primordial personification of Chaos and Darkness, Unicron is the ultimate force of evil in Transformers—not simply in Generation 1, but in all iterations of the brand. Like his brother and archenemy Primus, Unicron is a multiversal singularity—in all the myriad realities of the transformers universe, there is only one Unicron.note The Chaosbringer has seen our existence, our reality, and he has taken offense; Unicron's greatest desire is to consume and annihilate all of creation, all possible realms of existence, until naught remains but an infinite void of absolute nothingness, at the center of which he shall sleep forever more, his tasks complete. You cannot destroy Unicron permanently; blow up his physical body, and he simply reforms in another part of the multiverse to continue his never-ending quest to devour all reality.note
Voiced by: Orson Welles (The Transformers: The Movie), Roger C. Carmel (The Transformers) (EN); Mizuho Suzuki (JP)
- Achilles' Heel: The energy of the Matrix of Leadership can devastate his physical form.
- Always a Bigger Fish:
- The reason why Primus doesn't just fight Unicron directly. Every time they've fought, Unicron had readily defeated him.
- While they haven't come into direct conflict (yet), Unicron has been trumped as the biggest threat in the franchise, by the Elder Gods.
- Always Someone Better: According to the first versions of their origin, at least, Unicron managed to turn his asteroid prison into a planet first. Primus stole the idea of transforming from him.
- The Anti-God: Compared to Primus. The two are equal, but opposite in every regard.
- As Long as There Is Evil: He gloats that he'll never be gone for good as long as evil beings exist. Unlike most examples of this, Unicron backs it up.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: In the G1 cartoon continuity, during The Movie, just to displease Galvatron, Unicron decides to attack Cybertron, which at the time is under the thrall of the Decepticons. They rally their forces against the Chaos God to protect their home planet, but Unicron, being the planet-sized juggernaut he is, plows through, devastating their defenses and decimating their numbers, killing a bunch of important Decepticon leaders, such as Shockwave. This is why for Season 3, the millenia-long Autobot-Decepticon war (otherwise known as the Great War) has ended, and Cybertron is back into the Autobots' hands.
- Beard of Evil: He has a pretty evil Robot Hair version of a beard.
- Breakout Villain: Unicron was designed simply as a Generic Doomsday Villain for The Movie, and was given very little characterization beyond being a Planet Eater. Simon Furman's reinvention of him in the UK comics and later the main Marvel book as the Satanic Archetype of the Transformers world however stuck, and he has since gone on to be the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire franchise.
- Breath Weapon: He can fire a stream of flame-like energy from his mouth, which he used in the movie to attempt to destroy the Junkion ship (which failed because the Junkions were able to repair it as fast as he damaged it) and shoot down the Quintesson ship (which succeeded, but caused it to crash into and through his eye). His planet mode's maw on the other hand, can fire a powerful tractor beam to draw things into it for consumption.
- Dark Is Evil: Unicron is always associated with darkness and acts as the ultimate evil in whatever story he shows up in.
- Deadpan Snarker: The Movie characterizes Unicron as near perpetually bored and having a mild sense of dark humour, complimented by the acting of a then aged Orson Welles.Megatron: You have nothing to fear. I have already crushed Optimus Prime with my bare hands.
Unicron: You exaggerate.
Megatron: The point is he's dead, and the Matrix died with him!
Unicron: No. The point is that you are a fool. - Deal with the Devil: Occasionally the Chaos Bringer will see fit to empower mortal creatures with a fragment of his essence, upgrading their bodies and granting them new abilities in order to carry out whatever tasks he requires of them. The most well-known of these Heralds of Unicron is Galvatron, though there have been many others, and not all of them exhibit the same degree of independence and free will as Galvatron did. Unicron cares little for his pawns, however, and in the end his goals call for their consumption as well.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Service to Unicron leads to madness and loss of self.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?:
- During their first meeting Megatron treats Unicron the same as he would any of his minions, and demands concessions for doing his will, despite having, as Unicron points out, no bargaining power.
- After his defeat, Starscream later makes an arrangement with Unicron in return for granting back a physical form. As soon as his part is met however, Starscream laughs in the face of the planet eater and tells him to do his own dirty work, with the severely damaged Unicron only now realising now he is in far less position to control him than he was Megatron.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Don't even think about it, since he's a high level telepath whose reach is only limited in areas consecrated by Primus himself. Disloyalty, or disrespect, is met with an Agony Beam... or sometimes worse.Unicron: For a time, I considered sparing your wretched little planet Cybertron. But now, you shall witness its dismemberment!
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Going by what he says after Optimus forces the Matrix down his throat in the comics, Unicron actually doesn't understand concepts of good or love or life.
- Evil Is Petty: His motivation is a truly inane one. He finds it an insult to his very being that anything other than him has the right to exist, and sets upon correcting that and destroying it all.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Orson Welles gave him a cynical world-weary baritone one would expect from a Physical God who has spent countless millennia easily crushing anyone who stands in his way.
- Eye Beams: He can fire lasers from his eyes.
- Eye Scream: In the movie his right eye was destroyed by the Quintesson ship crashing through it, then later his left eye was destroyed by the Autobots driving through it to escape just before he exploded.
- Face Death with Despair: When Unicron is seconds from dying in The Movie, he is in denial over his painful demise.
- Fighting a Shadow: In some incarnations, he isn't always fought directly and instead sends an illusion to fight on his behalf.
- Faux Affably Evil: On occasion. His meeting with Megatron in the movie is akin to a business proposal with an almost casual air... as he Mind Rapes the fallen Decepticon leader into being his servant."Perhaps I misjudged you. Proceed... on your way to oblivion."
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Unicron's character is Depending on the Writer. Usually, he's a thinking being rationalizing the destruction he's caused but sometimes he's characterized more as a force of nature.
- Genius Loci: His alt mode is a giant planet.
- God of Evil: He's a godlike being and is basically the Satan of the Transformers franchise.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: He has a pair of impressive skeletal wings, even if he doesn't really need them to move in space, but are quite fitting for an evil deity like him.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He is a bigger threat than Megatron, but he isn't encountered until The Transformers: The Movie and seldom returns after his defeat.
- Horns of Villainy: A consistent feature of his look are some impressive curved horns.
- It's All About Me: To the point where he is offended that anything other than him can even exist.
- Knight of Cerebus: Unicron outshines every other Knight in Transformers. If he shows up, the situation is officially beyond bad.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- After his defeat, his head blown off and was sucked into Cybertron's orbit, leaving the former living planet little more than a moon for one of the worlds he tried to devour.
- Later on, his head is reactivated by the ghost of Starscream, who bargains to grant him a new body in return for restoring his own. After fulfilling his end of the bargain, he orders Starscream to commit to his, only for the latter to laugh in his face and the former planet-eater to realise too late there's nothing he can do about it. Given Unicron's penchant for faustian deals and toying with his minions, it's quite poetic he ends up a mere pawn for the most iconic backstabbing underling of them all.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: A rare case where the actual character represents such, as their genocidal quest to purge and devour any lifeform they deem beneath them and to get rid of the Matrix at all costs is ultimately what all leads to their undoing and the almighty planet eater being reduced to a delapidated robot head orbiting Cybertron.
- Losing Your Head: Rodimus Prime reduced him to a head, but he is still incredibly dangerous whenever he regains consciousness.
- Made of Evil: His internals are either Dark Energon or Angolmois, depending on the continuity. Neither of them are recommended by the surgeon general (Angolmois in particular can mutate the body). Curiously, in some continuities both substances have been able to create life.
- Mechanical Abomination: Those who have seen only the movie believe Unicron to be little more than a Planet Eater, but the truth of the matter is that Unicron consumes all things—matter, existence, time and space, all of these are mere morsels snapped up to sate his unholy hunger, however briefly.
- Mind Rape:
- Throughout The Movie, Unicron often used some sort of sensory overload to Galvatron's mind whenever the latter considered betraying or disobeying him. He seemed to lose that ability after his defeat, thus could not recall Galvatron and had dangerously minimal control over his successor.
- In the UK comics, he managed to enslave the entire Junkion race. When Death's Head started getting lippy, Unicron turned it on him.
- Multiple-Choice Past: He's either a primordial entity like Primus or the creation of a Mad Scientist named Primacron who rebelled against his creator and decided to destroy everything.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The Dark God utterly loathes existence with a passion, and is slowly making good on his goal of consuming all of creation; Unicron has already devoured more than a fifth of all possible universes.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In one instance, as he was getting close to Cybertron, Unicron was so determined to kill Primus he completely passed by a perfectly good planet.
- Physical God: Specifically, a dark god.
- The Quiet One: He only speaks twice in the 2005 IDW continuity, both times only saying "I...hunger."
- Planet Eater: When Unicron says he wants to be alone, he damn well does something about it. If he eats everything, then all will be a part of him, and he will finally be alone.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: Usually, stats are 1 to 10 for a Transformer. Unicron's stats whenever a toy of his full body is released has many of his stats listed as unknown. One online retailer exclusive figure has them set at Infinity
- Red Baron: The Dark God, the Chaos-Bringer.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: For a being who's consistently referred to as a 'planet' in his alt mode, and whose Red Baron epithet is "The Monster Planet," G1 Unicron is WAY too tiny for those names to be accurate, trope page image notwithstanding. Across the entire franchise, Cybertron has been confirmed to be smaller than the Earth's moon - small enough to fit inside the Earth's orbit without causing permanent disruption - and Unicron standing in robot mode is slightly shorter than Cybertron's diameter. The Marvel comics somewhat rectify the scaling issue by stating that Unicron's body and Cybertron were carved out of asteroids, not planets, and Unicron got the short stick.
- Spacetime Eater: He won't be satisfied until he's devoured all of reality.
- Spikes of Villainy: In planet mode he's covered in spikes,
- The Stoic: Due to Orson Welles being deathly ill and not understanding the script, his Unicron sounds perpetually bored - as might be expected of a God-like being as old as the universe itself.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Doesn't matter where Primus goes or where he hides himself. Unicron will hunt him down for as long as it takes.Unicron: You cannot destroy my destiny.
- Transforming Mecha: Unicron is the biggest ever created transforming mecha. To compare, the closest competitor for that title, the SDF-1 Macross, is a kilometer tall. Unicron is THOUSANDS of kilometers tall in robot mode. Even in the wider context of mecha in general, only the Getter Emperor, the Chou Ginga Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and the War God Demonbane can compete with the god of destruction.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Starscream in "Ghost in the Machine", who actually succeeds in taking advantage of him.
- Villainous Breakdown: After he devours Hot Rod with the Matrix, he forces Galvatron, in a much more impatient and forceful tone, to dispose of him to ensure his plans once and for all. When this only activates the Matrix and Hot Rod's transformation into Rodimus Prime, the implosion within leaves an agonised Unicron's panicking, going so far as to try and pry himself open just to reach Rodimus. The Skyward Scream he makes before exploding is the only time Welles raises his voice as Unicron.Unicron: Destiny... you cannot destroy... my... DESTINY—!!!
The Fallen
Function: Dark Acolyte
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Tank
"My hand in the darkness drives the engines of fate."
One of the Thirteen Original Transformers created at the dawn of time by Primus to crew his planetary shell, the being once known as Megatronus Prime served as the guardian of entropy, overseeing the orderly dissolution of all things in preparation for the next creation. Destruction came to fascinate him too much, however, and as he forgot his original purpose he gave himself to Unicron, turning on his former master and his brethren amongst the Thirteen. The Fallen, as he is now known, is a cosmic force of evil, his physical form little more than a cage for the raging inferno of chaotic power which constitutes his essence; he can only be defeated, never destroyed. Like Primus, Unicron, and the other members of the Thirteen, The Fallen is a multiversal singularity—as such, The Fallen of Dreamwave Comics and The Fallen from the Michael Bay movies are the same character (or was, until the concept was done away with).
Voiced by: Mark Hamill (Prime Wars)
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: He manages to catch Grimlock's energon sword one handed. Even more impressive given the properties of energon swords on Cybertronians mean it's like a lightsaber for them. And it doesn't even annoy the guy.
- Deal with the Devil: Like his dread master, The Fallen has been known to bargain with and empower the lesser mortals of the multiverse, tempting them with the forbidden promises of dark science and entropic magic that they might see to his dark designs. He himself made a deal with Unicron.
- Energy Being: The body we see is merely a shell for the chaotic energies that now comprise the Fallen's form.
- The Dragon: To Unicron.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Split the difference between the Joker and Darth Bane.
- Fallen Angel: He was one of the original 13 Transformers, but then became an acolyte of Unicron.
- Fighting a Shadow: He often sends an emissary to fight on his behalf.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Primus made him to fight Unicron directly, and it shows. Throughout The Dark Ages, pretty much nothing the Autobots try on him does anything. It takes divine intervention to get rid of him.
- Omnicidal Maniac: He wants to kill everyone.
- Physical God: He is extremely powerful and formidable.
- Retgone: One of the powers he grants in Power of the Primes is the ability to erase people from existence.
- Satanic Archetype: A Fallen Angel who is one of the best of his kind, but becomes the field leader of evil.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: After his deal with Unicron, he got thrown into subspace. The Decepticons and their early tinkering with Space Bridges let him loose.
- Take Away Their Name: Loses his name after siding with Unicron. The Fallen is more of a descriptor than a name.
- Tank Goodness: His alt-mode is a tank, though he's never shown using it in his appearances.
- Wreathed in Flames: The Eldritch energies contained within The Fallen's body cause him to appear constantly ablaze in unholy fire. Sadly, every depiction of him since his first appearance has done without this.
The Thirteen
The first thirteen Cybertronians created by Primus, intended to fight Unicron directly. Once they existed as multiversal singularities with the exception of their Aligned selves but that period ended. Their membership now varies by universe but all lineups have included Prima, Vector Prime, Nexus Prime, Solus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Prime, Onyx Prime, the Liege Maximo, and Megatronus AKA the Fallen. Other members have included Autobot elder Alpha Trion, Quintus Prime, Amalgamous Prime, the unnamed Thirteenth Prime sometimes identified as Optimus Prime, death god Mortilus, Logos Prime, Adaptus, Solumnus, Epistemus, Sentinel Prime and Autonomus Maxiumus the Last Autobot.
The Thirteen were first introduced in Dreamwave's Transformers: The Ultimate Guide by Simon Furman.
For Alpha Trion's info, see the Autobot's page.
- Adaptational Origin Connection: Beginning with the Aligned Universe and continuing with later incarnations, a few seemingly-unrelated characters from G1 have became part of the first children of Primus. Especially when The Transformers: Titans Return made Sentinel Prime part of the group.
- Adaptational Villainy: Onyx and Nexus were on the receiving end in IDW's comics (well, Nexus was. Onyx is... a complicated story). They're joined by Alchemist in Power of the Primes, who is made a Decepticon.
- Adaptational Wimp: The 2005 IDW versions. Rather than the semi-divine children of Primus, they're instead a bunch of tribal leaders manipulated by Onyx Prime who was actually a disguised Shockwave.
- Canon Immigrant: Of them, Prima, Alpha Trion, the Liege and the Fallen all started off in G1 based continuities (also possibly Nexus, though his continuity of origin is... difficult to pin down). Vector Prime first appeared in Cybertron, and the rest come from the Aligned continuity.
- The Corrupter: Alchemist can "awaken a shadow spark" in 'bots.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The Power of the Primes Prima is identified as Prima Prime.
- Depending on the Writer: The group's line up has varied by continuity.
- Expy: To the Covenant (group of 12) from the Beast Era G1 comics Both groups of the first Transformers created and given godhood by Primus. They were both created by Simon Furman.
- Expy Coexistence: The Fallen started out as one for G2 Liege Maximo in the Dreamwave line and live-action universes, both being evil Primes who opposed their nobler brothers and who are seen as forerunners of the Decepticons. Currently they both exist in the official lineup of Primes
- Gadgeteer Genius: All of Solus Prime's abilities in Power of the Primes revolve around giving people the ability to create things.
- God in Human Form: In the Power of the Primes toyline, they have taken on the forms of diminutive Transformers that transform into sparks which can attach to other Transformers in order to grant them special powers. Some of them are packed with a decoy armor styled after a G1 Pretender that they can hide inside.
- The Paragon: Going by his Power of the Primes profile, Prima is bold, brave, fearless and selfless.
- Precursor: They are the precursors to all Cybertronians.
- Shrouded in Myth: The Thirteenth Prime. Sometimes he's Optimus, sometimes he's some other guy. Sometimes, the Thirteenth is just whoever's got the Matrix at that time.
- The Smurfette Principle: Solus is the only gal in the group.
- Token Evil Teammate: After the Fallen left the other Primes, Liege Maximo is often depicted as this.
Skuxxoid
Voiced by: Corey Burton (EN); Masashi Ebara (JP)
- A Dog Named "Dog": He's a member of the Skuxxoid species, and he's referred as "the Skuxxoid" by other characters (he even introduces himself this way in Void Rivals). His actual name has never been given.
- Ace Custom: He captains the Rockeroid, a spaceship capable of disguising itself as an asteroid.
- Adaptational Badass: Downplayed. The Sunbow cartoon Skuxxoid was bumbling comic relief - every time he went up against a Transformer, he was clearly out of his depth unless he had help. In Void Rivals he's a slightly more competent threat to Darak and Solila, though he's still nowhere near the prowess of Lockdown or Death's Head.
- Didn't Think This Through: In Void Rivals he tries to sell a Quintesson prisoner to Shockwave and the Decepticons for quick cash. An annoyed Shockwave points out Cybertron is so strapped for resources that even if he wanted the prisoner, he'd have nothing to pay for them with, meaning Skuxxoid is wasting his time on Cybertron and should damn well know it.
- Flying Cutlery Spaceship: The Rockeroid. It's designed to look like an asteroid, but it looks like the kind of asteroid that H. R. Giger might draw, with its elongated shape and jagged, spiky protrusions. In its true form, it has giant pincher claws that can grab (or crush) any smaller ship that gets caught in its tractor beam.
- No Name Given: See the above entry for A Dog Named "Dog".
- Pig Man: A porcine-reptilian hybrid with a nominally humanoid shape.
- Punch-Clock Villain: He is barely even a villain, being a mere bounty hunter/scrapper who works to support his family and nothing more.
- Toyless Toyline Character: Him being a non-transformable organic, coupled with his relative obscurity, meant that he has thus far never been immortalized in plastic.
- Villainous Breakdown: In "Starscream's Ghost", Skuxxoid is hired by Galvatron to kill Octane. When all his attempts are thwarted by a series of farcial mishaps, his desperation turns him into an incoherent mess.Skuxxoid: I didn't WANT this job, I HAD to take it! I've got a wife and kids! I HAVE to deactivate you! Look, a guy's got to make a living, don't you understand?
Tornedron
Voiced by: Neil Ross (EN), Yutaka Shimaka (JP)
- Eldritch Abomination: He is a large fearsome entity that feeds on the life energy of others.
- Energy Absorption: He thrives by feeding off other creatures' life energy. He can even absorb the energy of an entire star.
- Energy Being: His default form is a being of energy.
- Feed It with Fire: Attacking him just makes him stronger, since he absorbs energy.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Like Unicron before him, his goal is to wipe out all life.
- One to Million to One: Does this to pursue multiple targets.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Regardless of whatever form it takes, Tornedron's eyes always appear red.
- The Starscream: Tornedron turned against Primacron in the end, seeking to take his master's lifeforce as another meal.
- Superior Successor: Primacron considered him this to his "big brother" Unicron, and he managed to reduced Cybertron to a lifeless shell, something Unicron failed to. The Matrix, which destroyed Unicron, is nothing more than another snack to Tornedron.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Assumes the forms of many predatory beasts.
Kremzeek
Voiced by: Wally Burr (EN), Ken Shiroyama (JP)
- Adaptational Badass: In Transformers/Ghostbusters comic book, Kremzeek is not just a mischievous tiny creature, but a powerful ghastly apparition known as the Scavenger who can turn the living beings into ghosts. The smaller, more cartoon-accurate versions of Kremzeek are referred as his children instead.
- Asteroids Monster: After Blaster's unsuccessful attempt to fry Kremzeek with electricity, it multiplied into many multi-colored Kremzeeks.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The multiplied Kremzeeks are eventually merged together, but end up forming into a massive Kremzeek that starts rampaging through the city.
- Color-Coded Characters: When Kremzeek multiplied, each one is a different color.
- Energy Being: Kremzeek is a being of living electricity that can possess machinery and cause it to malfunction.
- Feed It with Fire: When Blaster tried to "fry [Kremzeek] with his own juice", it only made Kremzeek multiply.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Kremzeeks appear as collectibles in Transformers: Devastation. Catching them unlocks new stage arts in the in-game gallery.
- Pokémon Speak: Kremzeek's speech consists of it always saying its own name.
- Psycho Electro: Kremzeek is a chaotic, mischievous creature of electricity that enjoys messing with machinery and wrecking havoc whenever it goes.
- Shock and Awe: Kremzeek is an electric being that can use its electric composition to possess machines and wreck havoc in their systems.
