G1 Character Index: Autobots ('84-'85) ('86-'87) ('88-'90) | Decepticons ('84-'85) ('86-'87) ('88-'90)
This character sheet is for listing the tropes related to Transformers: Generation 1 Autobots introduced between 1986 and 1987, many of whom made their debut in the movie and the post-movie seasons of the cartoon.
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1986 Autobots
Hot Rod (Hot Rodimus (ホットロディマス hottorodimasu))
Rodimus Prime (Rodimus Convoy (ロディマスコンボイ rodimasukonboi))
Rodimus Prime (Rodimus Convoy (ロディマスコンボイ rodimasukonboi))
Hot Rod
Rodimus
Function: Cavalier (as Hot Rod), Protector (as Rodimus)
Alt Modes: Race Car (as Hot Rod), Truck (as Rodimus)
Hot Rod: "My actions speak louder than words."
Rodimus Prime: "Experience is the benchmark of maturity."
Rodimus Prime: "Experience is the benchmark of maturity."
Voiced by: Judd Nelson (EN; The Transformers: The Movie), Richard Gautier (EN; The Transformers); Hiroya Ishimaru (JP), Akimitsu Takase (JP; "The Rebirth"), Peter von Gomm (EN; Call of the Future), Ryōtarō Okiayu (JP; Kiss Players)
The Chosen One and leader of the Autobots after Optimus' death. He was initially not very certain about himself as a Prime but slowly got the hang of it. He later gains a Targetmaster companion named Firebolt after a resurrected Optimus reclaims leadership of the Autobots.
- Adaptational Jerkass: He's depicted as an egostitical, Hot-Blooded Glory Hound and a Manchild in the 2005 IDW continuity. He ends up undergoing tons and tons of Character Development to get over this.
- Adaptational Wimp: His cartoon counterpart was often depicted as being able to match or surpass Galvatron in combat, even after Galvatron's Sanity Slippage. The Marvel comics version was no match for Galvatron after he gave in to his madness. The version from Rhythms of Darkness! was depicted as easily killed by Galvatron II.
- The Atoner: Leads the Autobots to atone for Optimus' death. He briefly stepped down as leader and exiled himself to Earth (which was not Transformer-friendly at the time) to atone for the destruction of Tokyo.
- Beard of Evil: Sports one as Rodimus Unicronus. It's surprisingly similar to the one his Transformers: Shattered Glass counterpart wears on his face.
- Big Good: He becomes the new leader of the Autobots after Optimus’ death and he even uses the Matrix to destroy Unicron.
- The Captain: In The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, before eventually sharing the spot with Megatron of all 'bots.
- The Chains of Commanding: Just like Optimus, Rodimus has to deal with all the problems of leading the Autobots, on top of having to be the guy replacing Optimus. In the cartoon, when he turns back to Hot Rod, he's perfectly willing to ditch his responsibilities.
- The Chosen One: He fills this role in The Transformers: The Movie, being the lowly Autobot who rises up in their Darkest Hour and destroys Unicron.
- Cool Sword: In the Regeneration One comic series, he wields the sacred Sword of Primus. His Kingdom Commander-class toy also includes the weapon, as a nod to said comic series.
- Deadpan Snarker: As Rodimus Prime, due to carrying a more world-weary attitude and dealing with The Chains of Commanding, his lines in the cartoon are drenched in sarcasm.Spike: Aw swell. What do Daniel and I do when the air runs out?
Rodimus: Basically you'll have two choices: suffocate or smother. - Demonic Possession:
- UK comic Rodimus wound up eventually getting possessed by Unicron, and even when that was over Unicron was still stuck inside him, gently corrupting anyone who got near him.
- Power of the Primes toyline introduces Nemesis Hot Rod/Rodimus Unicronus, which is the corrupted form of Rodimus Prime himself, thanks to the Matrix of Chaos.
- Do-Anything Robot: Not to Ironhide's extent, but The Transformers: The Movie shows him using a lot of in-built devices, such as his deployable visor, welding torch and buzzsaw.
- Good is Not Nice:
- Comics: Rodimus repeated Optimus's "you who are without mercy" line to a downed Decepticon. Unlike Optimus, he followed through on it, and blasted the Decepticon's head in. And there was the little matter of hiring a bounty h- er, freelance peace-keeping agent to hunt down Galvatron.
- Animation: More plot than character writing, but apparently Rodimus has no qualms with doing an Enemy Mine with the treacherous Starscream (his ghost had possessed Cyclonus). Rodimus set up a trap, ambushing Galvatron with hidden troops, with Starscream happily doing the luring.
- Hot Paint Job: Features some sweet flames on his paint job, indicative of the name "Hot Rod".
- I Have Many Names: Aside from Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime, he's also been known to go by "Hot Rodimus", "Rodimus Major" and just plain "Rodimus" regardless of what form he's in. You can thank trademark law
for that. - Inadequate Inheritor: Not many were happy about him leading after he got Optimus killed, himself first and foremost.
- Interspecies Romance: With Shaoshao Li in Kiss Players and Michelle in "Only Human" (he was in a human body in this incident).
- Kid Hero: Well, a kid by Cybertronian standards, at least.
- My Greatest Failure: See Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
- Mythology Gag: His Rodimus Unicronus form looks very similar to evil incarnation of Rodimus from Transformers: Shattered Glass, complete with a similarly looking Beard of Evil.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- His interference in Optimus' fight against Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie leads to Optimus' death.
The comics (knowingly?) set up a similar situation, but subverts the trope: Optimus realizes that a battle with the Decepticons was staged to leave Ratchet and the Ark defenseless, and he sends the rest of the Autobots back to the ship, which leaves him alone against all of the Decepticons on Earth. Hot Rod bails out at the last minute and returns to help Optimus, and when Pretender Starscream attacks, it's his shot on the Pretender shell that turns the tide of the fight. - He defeated Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie by throwing him into space, but in Kiss Players, Galvatron lands back on Earth and annihilates Tokyo on impact. The disaster caused worldwide anti-Transformer sentiment that took a while to fix. Even in the original cartoon continuity, he indirectly saved Galvatron from imploding inside Unicron in this act, and chained off the events that would leave the Decepticon leader even more psychotic and vicious than before.
- He does it again in "Regeneration One". While peeking through time, he witnesses a future version of himself battling Galvatron. Seeing Scourge and Cyclonus flying in to attack, Hot Rod calls out a warning...which distracts the future Rodimus long enough for the Cons to shoot the Matrix off of his neck and for Galvatron to kill him, leading to the events of "Rhythms of Darkness".
- His interference in Optimus' fight against Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie leads to Optimus' death.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Has a rather jarring Jerkass moment at the end of the episode "Fight Or Flee." A fellow Autobot mourns the destruction of his world, remarking that it was as beautiful in death as it was in life; Rodimus callously tells him to get over it, since Cybertron is much better anyway.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: As Rodimus Prime, he noticeably looks older, having lines on his face.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Hot Rod's original character model for the movie has him in pink, rather than the red his toy (and most other depictions) went with.
- Shock and Awe: In both forms, he can fire photon blasts from the pipes on his arms.
- Sinister Shades: Gains an angular red visor in his evil Rodimus Unicronus form.
- Took a Level in Badass: As Rodimus Prime, he is large and powerful enough to fight Galvatron.
- Undying Loyalty: His Marvel comics incarnation is one of the few Autobots to stay on Optimus's side even as the other Autobots become increasingly dissatisfied with his decisions.
- Unlikely Hero: The brash teenage Autobot who becomes Autobot leader.
- Weaponized Exhaust: He can blast smoke/fire out of his exhaust pipes in both vehicle and robot modes (since they're attached to his arms).
Firebolt/Sparks/Offshoot/Firedrive (ファイアーボルト faiāboruto/ファイヤードライブ faiyādoraibu)
Alt Mode: Electrostatic Discharger Rifle
- Adaptation Origin Connection: Transformers Legends and its follow ups in the Japanese G1 Continuity have "Firebolt" be a grown up Shaoshao Li, Hot Rod's partner from Kiss Players, using a pair of Master Bracers, her initial appearance coinciding with a new mold of Firebolt released as part of the "Legends Targetmaster Hot Rodimus" toy, and later being redesigned to match the "Siege Firedrive" figure.
- Equippable Ally: Dr. Sparks/Firebolt who was killed in the Marvel UK comics at some point prior to Hot Rod becoming Rodimus Prime.
The Aerialbots (Airbot (エアーボット eābotto))
A group of flying Autobots that combine to form Superion.
- Been There, Shaped History: In "War Dawn," they get sent to the Golden Age of Cybertron, and meet Orion Pax and Orion's girlfriend, Ariel. When Orion's critically wounded by Megatron, they take him to Alpha Trion, who rebuilds him into Optimus Prime. They mention Ariel, and Alpha muses she'll soon be reborn as Elita-One. Back in their own time, Silverbolt says "Or should I say...Orion Pax?" and Optimus realizes they saved him that day.
- The Dividual: While they and the Stunticons had individual personalities in the G1 cartoon, since then the Aerialbots would often receive blanket characterization as "Autobot team that can fly and combine." It's not an uncommon fate for Combiners.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: In the cartoon, when the Stunticons frame the Autobots, the humans shoot the Autobots with the Aerialbots along for the ride. Not impressed by this, Slingshot snarks, "And we're sworn to protect these bird-brains?" It takes a lot for Slingshot to overcome this bad first impression.
- Horrible Judge of Character: In the cartoon. Except for Silverbolt, the team admired the Decepticons at first. Even after they were tricked and sent to the past, Slingshot thought they had been done a favour, and suggested getting to know the Decepticons in the past.
- The Psycho Rangers: Inverted in the G1 cartoon, where the heroic Aerialbots are built to fight against the evil Stunticons.
- The Rival:
- They are first and most prominently pitted against the Stunticons/Menasor.
- To a lesser extent, The Aerialbots/Superion versus the Combaticons/Bruticus. They fight each other in an episode of the cartoon ("Aerial Assault") and their G2 counterparts are marketed as rivalsnote .
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The group's Combiner Wars toys replace Slingshot for a new character - Alpha Bravo, who sports a similar color scheme to Slingshot but unusually for an Aerialbot, turns into a helicopter.note
- Time Travel: The Aerialbots were sent back to the First Golden Age of Cybertron thanks to the Chronosphere. There they got to see Megatron for who he really was. When the Chronosphere is working again thanks to the Autobots, they returned to the present.
Silverbolt (シルバーボルト shirubāboruto)
Function: Aerialbot Leader
Alt Mode: Concorde SST Jetliner
"Don't look down, look straight ahead."
Voiced by: Charlie Adler (US), Tomomichi Nishimura (JP), Fumihiko Tachiki (JP; "The Rebirth")
The leader of the Aerialbots with a fear of heights. When combining with his fellow Aerialbots, he forms Superion's torso and head. His G1 toy also forms into a runway for Metroplex.
- Acrophobic Bird: Despite transforming into a plane, his defining characteristics are his fear of heights and what he does to quell that fear. Optimus appointed him as the Aerialbots' leader, correctly predicting that Silverbolt's newfound responsibilities will keep him distracted from his acrophobia.
- Ironic Fear: He's afraid of heights, despite being a giant robot capable of transforming into a jet and being the leader of the Autobots' main air squadron. Despite this, he proves to be a level-headed, extremely qualified leader who always does his duty.
- He was built from a low-level cargo transport aircraft, but got modified to resemble an Earthly Concorde jet. To help him fight his fear, Optimus names Silverbolt leader of his team (as it would give him something to focus on more than his acrophobia).
- Leader Forms the Head: He forms the torso and head of Superion and he's the leader of the Aerialbots.
- Shock and Awe: In plane mode, he can gather static electric particles as he flies through the air, and channel them through his nosecone. In robot mode, he carries a rifle with a similar effect.
- Straight Man: Silverbolt to his team.Air Raid: How come they made you the Aerialbot leader, Silverbolt? You've got no sense of adventure.
Silverbolt: Exactly.
Air Raid (Air Rider (エアライダー earaidā))
Function: Warrior
Alt Mode: F-15 Eagle Fighter Jet
"If you look first, you may not leap."
Voiced by: Rob Paulsen (US), Kenyū Horiuchi (JP), Kōki Kataoka (JP; "War Dawn"), Show Hayami (JP; "Thief in the Night"), Masashi Ebara (JP; "Fight or Flee"), Yoku Shioya (JP; "The Ultimate Weapon")
A tactically fearless warrior who tends to charge recklessly towards the Decepticons. He forms Superion's left leg.
- Homing Projectile: Carries heat-seeking missiles in jet mode.
- Leeroy Jenkins: He tends to fly right into a cluster of Decepticons without thinking.
- Thrill Seeker: All he wants to do is have fun, which usually means risking his life with dangerous aerial stunts.
Fireflight (Firebolt (ファイアボルト faiaboruto))
Function: Reconnaissance
Alt Mode: F-4 Phantom II Interceptor Jet
"When I'm flying, no enemy is safe - nor friend."
Voiced by: Jeff MacKay (US), Ken Shiroyama (JP), Yoku Shioya (JP; "Cosmic Rust", "War Dawn"), Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP; 2010)
An Aerialbot who is not very aware of where he's flying...or who he's going to fly into. He forms Superion's right arm.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He's a daydreamer who gets easily distracted while flying, leading to some disastrous results.
- Breakout Character: Toy Fireflight, oddly enough. While most figures moved towards animation-accurate toys, Fireflight got figures based on his G1 toy even when none of the Aerialbots got a release at all. He's got the most toys of any of the Aerialbots (discounting unrelated characters that are named Air Raid).
- Drives Like Crazy: Or rather, flies like crazy. His lack of focus in the air means he's constantly making sudden, erratic course corrections. Not only does this make Fireflight terribly fuel-inefficient, it also means any human unlucky enough to be his passenger would be at risk of serious injuries from all the sudden stops and quick turns.
- Kill It with Fire: He can launch missiles containing highly flammable "fire fog".
Skydive (スカイダイブ sukaidaibu)
Function: Air Warfare Strategist
Alt Mode: F-16 Falcon Fighter Jet
"Only by studying the past can we win the present."
Voiced by: Laurie Faso (US), Takurō Kitagawa (JP), Kōji Totani (JP; 2010)
A smart and skilled flyer who is the fastest among his team. He forms Superion's right leg.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: He can replicate almost any aerial maneuver he's seen or read about.
- Badass Bookworm: In his bio it mentions that he might be the most skilled Transformers flier in existence. He's also a history nut and would prefer to read about fighting rather than actually do it.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Skydive is prominently colored black and red but he's just as heroic as the other Autobots.
- Disintegrator Ray: His "nega-gun" fires a beam that cancels out the bonding force between molecules, causing whatever it hits to turn to dust.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In trying to replicate the moves of another, he can sometimes push himself past his form's limits.
- The Smart Guy: The smartest and most scientifically-apt Aerialbot.
Slingshot/Quickslinger (Sling (スリング suringu))
Function: Ground Troop Support
Alt Mode: Sea Harrier Jumpjet
"I'm even better than I think."
Voiced by: Rob Paulsen (US), Hirotaka Suzuoki (JP; main, Season 2), Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP; "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2", "War Dawn", 2010)
A braggart who secretly lacks confidence, but is nevertheless commended for his loyalty and hard work by Optimus. He forms Superion's left arm.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is rather full of himself and his bio even states that he takes credit for any of his comrades' exploits, but it doesn't stop him from stooping down to help out anyone, from fellow Autobot to human.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: All his boasting masks a lack of self-confidence.
- Smug Super: In the cartoon, Slingshot started out arrogantly boasting that he and the other Aerialbots were superior to the Autobots thanks to their ability to fly. Thankfully, Silverbolt managed to humble him pretty quick.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Cartoon Slingshot started out with a very low opinion of humans. This changed in "Aerial Assault", when he unknowingly befriended a deposed prince.
- Unstoppable Rage: In "War Dawn," he finally sees just how much bad Megatron really was. He then vows the Aerialbots won't stop fighting until Megatron's finished.
Superion (スペリオン superion)
Function: Air Warrior
"To live is to fight; to die is to stop."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US, "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2"), Ed Gilbert (US), Tomomichi Nishimura (JP)
The combined form of the Aerialbots who suppresses the thoughts of his component 'bots to smash Decepticons.
- Arm Cannon: In the cartoon, his gun is mounted to his arm instead of being handheld.
- Attack Its Weak Point: His "stress fracture cannon" works like this; the beam it fires locates the natural stress lines in whatever it hits, and overloads them.
- Blood Knight: Justified. The only thing he cares about is smashing Decepticons, but that's because smashing Decepticons is pretty much the only thing he can care about. The Aerialbots suppress so many of their emotions to function as a single unit that violence is the only thing they can agree on.
- Combining Mecha: A giant robot formed from the five Aerialbots, who is notably the first Autobot combiner.
- Depending on the Artist: The color of his face or visor and whether or not he has a mouthplate varies between appearances.
- Dumb Muscle: Since he suppresses the thoughts of the Aerialbots he's formed from, his intelligence is rather limited, as are most combiners.
- Flawed Prototype: Superion is often the first attempt by the Autobots at making a combiner, and it shows. Instead of the usual problem of sticking five minds into one body, the Aerialbots's minds aren't integrated at all, leaving Superion single-minded, and usually in a "SMASH DECEPTICONS" sort of way. This also means Superion's bad at creative strategy. And in the comics, Silverbolt has to stop him from smushing a brainwashed human.
- Lightning Bruiser: Superion is extremely fast for his size, a rarity for combiners. His Tech-Specs have a speed attribute of 8 and Superion is said to be able to fly at speeds of 800 mph.
- No Social Skills: He's mistaken as aloof by other Autobots. He isn't, he just lacks the capacity to socialize at all.
- Sacrificial Lion: He's presented as one of the most powerful warriors in the setting and the Aerialbots are probably the Autobots' most recognized combiner thanks to being made of jets, but they have a tendency to die (or nearly die) a lot in the comics (twice in Marvel Generation 1, permanently in Dreamwave and Transformers vs. GI Joe, and nearly killed in Transformers IDW).
- Vocal Dissonance: Despite looking tall and heroic, he's infrequently given a very scratchy voice comparable to characters like Zorak.
Arcee (アーシー āshī)
Function: Warrior
Alt Mode: Cybetronian Car
"Looks are always deceiving."
Voiced by: Susan Blu (EN); Yuko Kawanami (Transformers: The Movie, The Headmasters), Masako Katsuki (Season 3) & Atsuko Yuya ("The Rebirth") (The Transformers) (JP)
A major female soldier among Rodimus' main team, who proves to be a competent warrior. She acts as a surrogate mother to many of her comrades, especially Daniel Witwicky.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the 2005 IDW comics, Arcee is introduced as an emotionally detatched Ax-Crazy Anti-Hero, though she simmered down through Character Development over time.
- Adaptational Sexuality: While she was straight in the G1 cartoon continuity (being attracted to Hot Rod in the movie and to Springer in the series) and the Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers comics (where she and Bumblebee were established as a couple in The Art of War), both IDW continuities had her form a romantic relationship with another female robot (Aileron in the 2005 continuity and Greenlight in the 2019 continuity). Though in her 2005 IDW counterpart's case, this is understandable to a degree, since she used to be a male Transformer (and Galvatron's twin brother at that) before Jihaxus turned her into a Fembot.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: In the 2005 IDW comics continuity, once the retcons had settled down. While she was a "forged construct" note , Arcee nevertheless felt that her structure did not match her programming, and sought Jhiaxus out for "blacksmithing" at a time when feminine programming was discouraged among Cybertronians. The actual problem was that Jhiaxus decided that he'd learn more if he didn't bother turning down the gain on her pain sensors.
- And I Must Scream: Averted, when put in Garrus-9, she was stripped down to her spark and left in containment, losing her senses but still being conscious, her narration states that it's a pleasant experience where she feels calm and at ease for once in her life.
- Anti-Hero: Type IV-V in the IDW comics, where she's pretty loony, and has no problems with murder, torture, and even a mix of the two.
- Ax-Crazy: In the first IDW continuity, Arcee was forcibly converted into a female Transformer by the mad scientist Jhiaxus, which had the side effect of making her a psychotic assassin obsessed with tracking him down.
- Badass Family: Her great nephew is Rattrap.
- Depending on the Writer: She's been in relationships with several Transformers:
- The cartoon continuity has paired her with multiple characters, these being Hot Rod in the movie, Springer in the third season, and Chromedome in the Japanese-exclusive Headmasters anime.
- The Wreckers stories in the 3H and Transformers: Universe continuities has her matched with Rodimus.
- G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers volume 3 has Bumblebee as her paramour and she mourns his death at the hands of the Serpent Organic Robot, aka Serpent.O.R..
- IDW has her hook up with a female Transformer named Aileron.
- The 2019 IDW continuity has her in a relationship with Greenlight.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: It varies. Some of Arcee's toys have her using swords, some have guns.
- Losing Your Head: In "The Rebirth" three-parter, she is binary-bonded to Daniel as a Headmaster. Her Titans Return figure comes with a Titan Master named "Leinad" (which is "Daniel" spelled backwards).
- Mama Bear: She acts as a mother figure to Daniel Witwicky, and pity anyone who threatens the boy.
- Mysterious Past: The G1 cartoon never really explained where she came from. The UK comic did try to explain where she came from, and IDW's comics give her a definite origin. Meanwhile, Dreamwave implies she's a Quintesson sleeper agent of some kind.
- Pink Means Feminine: It's not just to match her programming, her streamlined bodywork and light alloy construction also mean she's sleeker and more agile and than her bulkier male/neutral programmed teammates. Also, as the IDW continuity points out, pink is the same color as Energon - so from their point of view, she's blood-colored.
- Related in the Adaptation:
- In The Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Galvatron is revealed to be her brother.
- In Beast Wars, Rattrap refers to Arcee as his great-aunt.
- Shout-Out: Given the original movie was pretty heavy on the Star Wars homages, Arcee's helmet being shaped like Leia's buns hairdo from A New Hope is not a coincidence.
- The Smurfette Principle: Even though some female Autobots had previously appeared in the Sunbow cartoon episode "The Search for Alpha Trion", Arcee was the first one to become a regular cast member, and the only one for some time.
- Time Abyss: Her IDW incarnation is a good twelve million years old at least. She's actually older than Kup was before his little vacation to the Dead Universe, and barring the Titans and Omega Supreme, was the oldest mech still around and fighting.
- Toyless Toyline Character: For the duration of the series due to the belief that boys would view a pink female Transformer as a toy for girls. Two Arcee toys were actually designed during G1: a regular toy emulating her old animation model, and a retool of Chromedome (as Arcee became a Headmaster in the US cartoon continuity, a fact completely ignored in Japan due to having their own continuity ignoring "The Rebirth" three-parter). It took a while for her to finally get a toy (not counting the Energon and Revenge of the Fallen lines) but by the 2000s she would receive several.
- She got a toy as a repaint of Blackarachnia for Bot-Con 2001 (with an infamously over-sensitive light chip that made her speak a newly-recorded line by Susan Blu non-stop).
- She received another in 2008 as part of Binaltech.
- In 2013 with the blind-bagged Kre-O toy.
- She finally a show accurate toy from her G1 cartoon appearance in the Generations line. Unfortunately, she and Chromia were tail-enders of the Thrilling 30 line, and faced poor distribution as a result. Chromia also had an accurate toy released around this time. The corresponding Japanese line, Legends, took it a step further and gave Arcee cartoon-accurate colors, as is tradition for modern G1 toys released in Japan.
- In the Titans Return line she received a retool and redeco of Blurr's mold to simulate her Headmaster appearance. It was a Toys R' Us exclusive.
- In 2020, Earthrise also delivered an Arcee figure, one that, at the cost of some partsforming, adheres even closer to the cartoon design.
- In December 2020, she received a Masterpiece toy.
Blurr (ブラー burā)
Function: Data Courier
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Car
"The faster it is, the better I like it."
Voiced by: John Moschitta (EN); Ken Yamaguchi (JP; Season 3, The Movie and The Headmasters), Eiji Itō (JP; "The Rebirth")
The fastest-moving and fastest-talking Autobot online. He would later be partnered with Targetmaster Haywire.
- The Bartender: The IDW version becomes one during the fragile peace between Chaos, and Dark Cybertron.
- Blue Is Heroic: He's colored bright blue and a very reliable Autobot.
- Depending on the Writer: Exactly how his super-speed shows itself depends on the continuity.
- The cartoon depicts him as talking extremely fast, but usually repeating himself in the process.
- Bob Budiansky had him talk normally, while Furman had him say everything as a big bunch'o text.
- IDW's continuity usually just has him talk normally, though he does on occasion have the "wall of text" superspeed.
- Equippable Ally: He gets a Targetmaster partner named Haywire.
- Fastest Thing Alive: The fastest Cybertronian in existence.
- Keet: Adorable (especially in the eyes of kids), and very hyperactive.
- Killed Off for Real: Met his end in the IDW 2005 continuity in The Transformers: Unicron, sacrificing himself to save civilians and dying when the planet exploded under him.
- Motor Mouth: He's voiced by John Moschitta. Judging by the cartoon's version, it's a case of nerves mixed with super-speed.
- Nervous Wreck: Haywire is prone to losing it over every little thing.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the G1 cartoon episode "Face of the Nijika", he suffered a leg wound which was so agonizing, he started speaking slowly.
- Out of Focus: Of the '86 car trio, he gets the least focus and characterization. Hell, most depictions don't even have him with Hot Rod or Kup at all.
- Speed Demon: Blurr is the fastest Autobot on Cybertron, and likes to remind people of it.
- Speed Echoes: In the '86 movie, thanks to it having a much better budget than the TV series. Also appears in the third season episode "Chaos".
- Super-Speed: The fastest Cybertronian alive.
- The Speedster: The clearest example in the franchise.
- Verbal Tic: Hetalksreallyfast. Also he repeats himselfrepeatshimselfrepeatshimself.
Kup (Cher (チャー chā))
Function: Warrior
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Truck
"The past is the greatest teacher."
Voiced by: Lionel Stander (Transfomers: The Movie), John Stephenson (The Transformers) (EN); Osamu Saka (JP; Season 3, The Movie and The Headmasters), Takao Ishii (JP; "The Rebirth")
A self-proclaimed war veteran who enjoys telling long stories to his audience. He would later be partnered with Targetmaster Recoil.
- Acid Attack: His gun is a "Musket Laser" which, despite the name, shoots hydrochloric acid.
- Communications Officer: In Wings of Honor he serves as this on Thunderclash's ship.
- Composite Character: His cartoon incarnation is a crotchety old coot who's seen and done it all, and is ready to show them punks how it's done. His comic incarnation is a grouchy sort whose first approach is shoot 'em and shoot some more, and lacks the cartoon version's distinctive manner'a speech. His IDW incarnation is a mix of both approaches.
- Cool Old Guy:
- A good-natured old timer who can still hold his own in combat.
- Recoil is a former star athlete. Just like Kup, he's still eager for action, and won't be going into retirement any time soon.
- Distressed Dude: In the book "Car Show Blow-Up", the Decepticons catch him spying on them and tie him up so that he can't escape and warn the Autobots of their plans. He manages to foil them by tripping Galvatron.
- Equippable Ally: Recoil is his Targetmaster buddy who can transform into a new gun.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: In Simon Furman's run and Regeneration One, the Autobots pretty much hate Kup due to his constant yelling at Optimus Prime and would have abandoned him to die if not for the fact he actually pulls his weight.
- Good is Not Nice: Marvel Comics Kup is incredibly belligerent and aggressive, often having to be restrained from shooting folk and yelling at Optimus repeatedly.
- Grumpy Old Man: At however old he is, he ain't got time for any turbo-revvin' young punks!
- He's Back!: Kup's origin story in the UK comics has him retire into space, having become too old to fight. An encounter with Blurr and Hot Rod rekindles his fighting skills.
- Interspecies Friendship: The 2005 IDW continuity has him become close friends with the human Action Man.
- The Mentor: Specifically to Hot Rod, but IDW has him teaching a lot of other Autobots, including Optimus.
- New Meat: His younger self in Wings of Honor.
- Odd Friendship:
- The cartoon Dinobots adored Kup because of his war stories, and their more child-like attitudes. Dreamwave Grimlock seems to have a good working relationship with Kup because they like fighting... though even then, there was a time Grimlock was really fighting the urge to hit Kup over the head when he was navel-gazing too hard.
- In the IDW continuity, he ends up befriending Ian Noble, aka Action Man.
- Old Soldier: Has been through countless battles, which he recounts as countless war stories.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Given his Seen It All nature, this exchange when Unicron is attacking Cybertron is rather chilling.Hot Rod: Doesn't this remind you of anything, Kup?
Kup: Nope. Never seen anything like this before. - Put on a Bus to Hell: Kup's fate in the IDW comics: sent to the beginning of the Dead Universe. He came back, obviously.
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: In the Sunbow continuity, he's Seen It All and tends to go off on old stories of his at the drop of a hat. TFWiki.net's article on Kup even gives him captions based on Abe Simpson to further the joke.
- Seen It All: And he'll tell you War Stories about them all too!
- So Proud of You: When Hot Rod becomes Rodimus, he's over the moon.Kup: I knew you had potential, lad!
- Time Abyss: All of the Transformers are this, really, but it's particularly noticeable with Kup. How old is he? Well, no concrete numbers are given, and the continuities vary, but take, for example, the G1 cartoon. There, the war against Megatron began 9 million years ago, and Optimus Prime took control when it began. Kup is portrayed as being significantly older than Optimus Prime. That means Kup could potentially be twelve million years old or more!
- For comparison: modern man (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) is only 200 thousand years old as a species. At 12 million years old, Kup would be 60 times older than the human race. Even if we generously extend humanity's existence to "the earliest appearance of a homo-genus primate" (currently evaluated at roughly 2.3 to 2.4 million years ago), that still makes this lone individual roughly five and a half times older than humanity.
- Taken beyond ludicrous with his IDW incarnation, who thanks to some incidents manages to be several billion years old, on top of his already advanced age.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He's a lot meaner after Optimus comes back to life and Kup would have been left to die if not for pulling his weight (e.g. having the Wreckers blow up the Hub Network in Regeneration One).
- Weapon-Based Characterization: Appropriately, the old-timer wields a gun called a musket laser, named after an old-fashioned weapon; his Generations toy even makes it look more like an actual musket.
- What the Hell, Hero?: His comic incarnation spent most of Furman's run unleashing these on Optimus.
- Younger Than He Looks: His Wings of Honor self was pretty young at the start of the war, only finding Dion younger than he was, but he aged pretty fast, like Alpha Trion, because most of his comrades went into stasis, went to earth and fell to stasis, or went elsewhere, and he aged faster due to a shortage of Energon.
Broadside (ブロードサイド burōdosaido)
Function: Air and Sea Assault
Alt Modes: Aircraft Carrier, Transport Plane
"I like the sea far away and my feet on the ground."
Voiced by: Bill Martin (EN), Masashi Ebara (Season 3) & Ken Yamaguchi (The Headmasters) (JP)
A triple changer who's intensely acrophobic and aquaphobic. His alternate modes being a plane and an aircraft carrier only exacerbate his fears. Even so, he's quite a decent warrior, being one of the esteemed Wreckers. Thanks to his carrier mode's sheer size — and the dearth of aquatic Transformersnote — Broadside most frequently serves as the Autobot's aquatic transport during the G1 cartoon.
- Acrophobic Bird: One of his forms is a fighter jet, but he's scared of heights. Almost as bad as being a seasick aircraft carrier.
- Adaptation Personality Change: His phobias never showed up in the Sunbow cartoon, not that he really got much focus.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
- Broadside is often depicted as quite a massive Autobot. While not city-former-sized, he dwarves almost every other individual robot. A page◊ in IDW's The Transformers' "International Incident Part 2: "Ranks of Bronze" shows that he's a few heads taller than even Jetfire.
- His Japanese continuity version rebuilds himself so much that he becomes the same size as Fortress Maximus.
- Broadside is often depicted as quite a massive Autobot. While not city-former-sized, he dwarves almost every other individual robot. A page
- The Big Guy: Often fills this role for his fellow Autobots. In some instances, he's as tall (and nearly as powerful) as a Combiner.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: In one episode of the cartoon he transformed into aircraft carrier mode in midair and landed on top of Devastator, who stuggled to hold Broadside up for a second before getting squashed.
- Irony: Transforms into a fighter jet and a freakin' aircraft carrier, befitting his role as an Air and Sea Assault trooper, but he hates heights and gets motion sickness on the water, so while he's quite smart and powerful (all his important stats rate at 7 or better), he's also rather hapless and something of a loser since the Autobots wish he'd stop complaining all the time.
- Land, Sea, Sky: His two altmodes allow him to travel in the ocean and the air, but thanks to his aforementioned phobias, he'd rather stay grounded in robot mode.
- Lightning Bruiser: For all his waffling over his altmodes, Broadside is actually an exceptional combatant. According to his Tech Specs, he's quite sturdy, hard-hitting, and fast all around, with decent firepower to boot. Only his ranking falls below 7 or better, at 6.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Among the original six Triple Changers, Broadside is the only one to lack a land-based alternate mode. He instead opts for an aquatic alt-mode, which itself sticks out due to their rarity across the entire franchise.
- Sizeshifter: To quote the Transformers wiki, "Broadside is the most blatantly out-of-scale Transformer ever." His Titans Return incarnation tries massaging this a bit, by having him come with scale-accurate mini-Aerialbot figures... only for the bio to foul this up by claiming his Titan Master power is to make him super-large.
- Weaksauce Weakness: His armor plating will start to flake and peel if he's out to sea for longer than two days.
- Weapon Specialization: His weapon is a huge battle-axe.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: His Ironic Fear of sea and sky.
- Wrong Line of Work: An Autobot with acrophobia and seasickness who turns into a jet and an aircraft carrier. Poor Broadside is in the wrong line of life.
- You Don't Look Like You: After his first couple of appearances in season three of the G1 cartoon, his design underwent a serious change (This is due to late alterations to his toy model, with his first look based on the original model).
Eject (イジェクト ijekuto)
Function: Electronic Surveillance
Alt Mode: Micro-cassette
"Clutch hitting is the key to an effective offense."
Blaster and the Autobots' defensive play against Frenzy. He really likes Earth sports.
- Loony Fan: He's fond of Earth sports just a liiiiitle too much, often peppering his speech with sports aphorisms.
- Odd Friendship: With the Joe Firewall in the final volume of GI Joe vs. the Transformers because of their love of reality TV.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: His single-handed beatdown of eight S.N.A.K.E. unites in the final volume of GI Joe vs. The Transformers.
- Out of Focus: Eject barely ever appeared, even in the cartoon and comics. These days, he appears even less. He does, at least, get a semi-major role in Beast Wars: Uprising and in the final volume of GI Joe vs. the Transformers.
- Pint Sized Power House: In the final volume of GI Joe vs the Transformers, he beats eight S.N.A.K.E. units all by himself and is the only one to get away without a scratch when the Pretender Monsters attack the underwater base. He carries Firewall up to the surface for Cosmos to rescue before heading down to recharge and help the others. As TFWiki.net says "Whether this "help" consisted of single-handedly driving off their attackers is not made clear, but really, his track record points that way."
- Theme Naming: He and Rewind are named after functions of a tape player.
- The Voiceless: Has zero lines in the cartoon.
Hubcap (ハブキャップ habukyappu)
Function: Communications
Alt Mode: Porsche 924 Turbo Sportscar
"Weapons can win battles, but words can win wars."
An affable, witty, generous, charming con artist who can hear signals as weak as 0.000001 watts.
- Communications Officer: Sometimes.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Gone Too Far", an official fan-club story, and Sins of the Wreckers.
- Face–Heel Turn: In Sins of the Wreckers, he's The Mole for Mayhem.
- Palette Swap: Of Cliffjumper. Hubcap lacks the rear spoiler, and he received a new head.
- Toyline-Exclusive Character: Hubcap was conspicuously absent from the cartoon (unlike his fellow 1986 Mini-bots) and didn't even make an appearance in the Marvel comics.
- The Barnum: Apparently a con man.
- Those Two Guys: With Jackpot, in "Gone Too Far".
Metroplex (Metroflex (メトロフレックス metorofurekkusu))
Function: Battle Station
Alt Mode: Fortress, Starship
"Vigilance is the foundation on which victories are built."
Voiced by: Bud Davis (EN); Osamu Saka (JP)
A humongous Autobot built as a sub-section of Autobot city. As the Autobots' ultimate weapon and last line of defence, he boasts insane strength, power, valour, dedication and heroism but is self-depreciatory and modest about his achievements. His G1 toy has three more Autobots within his grounds: Slammer the tank, Scamper the car and Six-Gun, who is made from Metroplex's six guns.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Six-Gun was originally depicted as being made from Metroplex's six guns, a tower and a tower roof and mentally linked to Metroplex. In the Siege toyline, he's a Cybertronian VTOL craft, meaning he's more mobile and has his own robot mode and freewill. Oh, and he pull himself into pieces which form armour and weapons for his other Autobots, just like the original toy.
- Likewise, Slammer the tank was basically a tank which could be made from one of Metroplex's towers or propped up on Metroplex's fists to act as an arm cannon. The Kingdom toyline, however, made him an actual Transformer with his own robot mode and the ability to disassemble into weapons for his more mobile comrades to use.
- Age Lift: After Fall of Cybertron, which had its own version of the big guy be ancient, Metroplex received one in other materials, boosting his age up from "built in the 21st century" to several million years.
- Genius Loci: His alt-form is a city.
- Gentle Giant: Most of Metroplex's incarnations show him as a rather pleasant bot, with lots of power to match his great size.
- Humongous Mecha: He's the size of a city (or at the very least, the size of a large Cybertronian building).
- Logical Weakness: Metroplex is a city. According to his bio, this does sort of mean he's incredibly sluggish, so just transforming takes a while.
- The Rival: Constantly butts heads with Trypticon, a city-sized Decepticon who has very similar capabilities and functions to him.
- Sealed Good in a Can: He seems to fill this role repeatedly in the IDW verse. Awakened by Optimus and the Matrix during one of the Autobot's darkest hours. Later comes out of hiding to defeat Sixshot, the Insecticon Swarm, and restores Cybertron's ruined atmosphere.
- Too Powerful to Live: He and the other Metrotitans tend to either die or depart shortly after appearing in the IDW stories, giving off this impression.
Outback (アウトバック autobakku)
Function: Gunner
Alt Mode: Modified Suzuki Jimny SJ20 Jeep
"Rules are detours on the road of life."
Voiced by: Dan Gilvezan ("Five Faces of Darkness") & Gregg Berger ("The Quintesson Journal") (EN), Yoku Shioya (JP)
An Autobot with an Aussie accent and a tendency to not follow rules, plans or roads.
- Awesome Aussie: His cartoon incarnation has an Australian accent and the badass maverick personality to match.
- Drives Like Crazy: Considering how he's supposedly from down undah...
- Killed Off for Real:
- In the IDW comics he dies when he and Kup crash land on the planet Tsiehshi and the excessive radiation causes him to explode.
- In Of Masters and Mayhem Outback fell to Toxitron's corrosive ooze.
- Palette Swap: Of Brawn. Outback received not just a new head, but a roof-mounted gun.
Pipes (パイプス paipusu)
Function: Warrior
Alt Mode: Single-Axle Semi Truck
"One being's junk is another's art."
Voiced by: Hal Rayle (EN), Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP)
An Autobot with an affinity with Earth's gadgets and a slightly more positive mindset than Huffer.
- Arm Cannon: His signature pipes become dual arm cannons in robot mode. His bio says they emit corrosive gas, but most fiction portrays them as standard blasters.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Pipes gets injured almost every time there's a fight in the IDW comics, culminating in getting killed by Overlord when he steps on him and fatally injures him.
- The Collector: Likes to collect Earthling knickknacks of all types.
- Fantastic Anthropologist: As mentioned, he's fascinated with Earth's gadgets and gizmos and collects many of them.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: While his body is coated to protect himself from the corrosive gas he emits, said coatings can sometimes flake off and leave him vulnerable to his own weapons.
- Meaningful Name: Has pipes on his arms, or in the case of his original toy, his arms are pipes.
- Palette Swap: Pipes is a retooling of his brother, Huffer. The changes made to the original figure are so extensive that he transforms differently from his basis. What used to be Huffer's back is now sculpted to be Pipes' front. The exhaust pipes (themselves retooled to be cylindrical) are now oriented beneath the shoulders in robot mode.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Has the same strength and stature as his mold-mate Huffer.
The Protectobots (プロテクトボット purotekutobotto)
A team of Search and Rescue vehicles who seem to act as the bridge between Autobots and humans. They combine into Defensor.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: The team itself isn't formednote (and by extension, Defensor) until late into the original IDW run when they're all assigned to escort Mirage from the Lost Light to Cybertron.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The Protectobots in general; Hot Spot in particular. They're mostly friendly around their comrades and humans alike, but they're not afraid to mow down Decepticons sticking their nosecones into human society.
- Character Focus: The team get a major role in War Within: The Dark Ages.
- The Dividual: Other than First Aid getting his own episode in the original series and being a prominent character in the first IDW continuity, none of the rest of the Protectobots have ever stood out, at best Hot Spot being the leader lets him speak for the others at times.
- Light 'em Up: Save for Hot Spot, they all carry photon pistols that fire bursts of blinding light.
- Remember the New Guy?: They're notably the only combiner team in Season 2 not to get an episode detailing their origin, appearing briefly and out of nowhere in "The Revenge of Bruticus".
- Sixth Ranger:
- The Japan-exclusive Skyfeather and Heatrock, who transform into a VTOL jet and a drill tank respectively. Combined with the others, they can form either Gaia Guardian (replacing Hot Spot as the torso) or God Guardian (acting as a chestpiece and shield respectively).
- Rook, who transforms into a SWAT vehicle and takes Groove's place as a limb for Defensor.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: In the IDW comics, Rook barely gets any characterization before getting killed off in his sleep. First Aid even lampshades that he hardly got to know him.
Hot Spot/Hot Zone (ホットスポット hottosupotto)
Function: Protectobot Leader
Alt Mode: Mitsubishi Fuso Fire Ladder Truck
"Rust never sleeps, and neither do I."
Voiced by: Dan Gilvezan (EN), Kenyuu Horiuchi (main) & Takurō Kitagawa ("The Ultimate Weapon" and "The Return of Optimus Prime, part 1") (JP; Cartoon); Kōji Totani (primary), Hōchū Ōtsuka (ep 12), Kazuo Oka (ep 25), Ken Yamaguchi (ep 27) & Hirohiko Kakegawa (ep 34) (JP; The Headmasters)
The charismatic, inspirational leader of the Protectobots who tries to be operative for as long as he's online. He forms Defensor's head and torso. His G1 toy also forms into a repair bay for Metroplex.
- Depending on the Artist: It's somewhat inconsistent if Hot Spot has a mouthplate or not, mostly going with the former.
- The Determinator: He always gives 110% in his actions.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: He's got fireball cannons to burn Decepticons to a crisp.
- Good Is Not Soft: He fought Cobra during the G2 comics, and wound up frying several of them with his fireball cannons.
- Heroic Sacrifice: G2 Hot Spot blew himself up rather than let Cobra take him alive.
- Hot-Blooded: An energetic and charismatic leader who puts his all in everything.
- Irony: He's a fire truck armed with fireball cannons. This means he can set fires just as well as he extinguishes them (fortunately, he's immune to his own weapons due to his heat-resistant armor having a higher rating than the temperature his fireballs produce).
- Leader Forms the Head: As with most Combiners, he's the team leader and he forms Defensor's torso and head.
- Weapon-Based Characterization: A Hot-Blooded fire truck who fights with fireball-based weaponry.
Blades (Graze (グレイズ gureizu))
Function: Air Support
Alt Mode: Modified Bell UH-1V Iroquois Medevac Helicopter
"War's a dirty game - and I'm a dirty player."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (EN), Ken Shiroyama (Season 2), Keiichi Nanba ("The Ultimate Weapon") & Masashi Ebara ("Call of the Primitives", The Headmasters) (JP)
The team's air support, who prefers going up close and personal with Decepticons. He forms Defensor's right arm.
- Blood Knight: He always loves a good close-quarters brawl.
- Close-Range Combatant: Despite being a flyer equipped with long-range weaponry, he prefers fighting up close and considers long-range attacks "cowardly".
- Helicopter Blender: His preferred tactic is using his rotor blades to slash Decepticons.
- Token Flyer: His alt mode is a helicopter while the others have grounded vehicles for alt modes.
First Aid (ファーストエイド fāsutoeido)
Function: Doctor
Alt Mode: Datsuon Vanette C120 Ambulance
"An ounce of maintenance is worth a pound of cure."
A compassionate Protectobot who isn't much of a fighter, but works tirelessly to help others. He forms Defensor's left arm.
- Actual Pacifist: He is not keen on fighting, opting to help and heal others instead. In the cartoon, he refuses to fight back against Swindle and as a result allows him to get away with Metroplex's transformation cog. He's only willing to fight as Defensor's arm.
- Apocalyptic Log: In the IDW verse he writes and sends one off when Delphi is hit by a plague.
- Ascended Extra: He managed to establish himself separately from his team back in the cartoon, as his use as a medic brought him more character focus (he was apparently the only one who could fix Metroplex when he was damaged). Impressively he was still relevant in season 3 even when most of the previous cast was being phased out (though that was mostly due to Ratchet, the only other Autobot medic, dying in the movie). Then of course there's the IDW comics where he's easily the most important of the Protectobots as his arc and screen time eclipses all of them combined.
- Beware the Nice Ones: His weapon is a "decrystallizer cannon", which weakens the chemical structure of those it hits so much they can shatter.
- The Medic: He takes over this role from Ratchet in the cartoon after the latter's death in The Movie.
Groove (グルーブ gurūbu)
Function: Scout
Alt Mode: Police Motorcycle
"War is a problem, never a solution."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (EN), Osamu Saka ("The Revenge of Bruticus"), Show Hayami ("B.O.T."), Masashi Ebara ("Ghost in the Machine"), Ken Yamaguchi ("The Ultimate Weapon") & Masato Hirano (The Headmasters) (JP)
A laid-back Protectobot and a pacifist. He forms Defensor's right leg.
- Actual Pacifist: He's not thrilled over having to fight a war.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: His mind tends to wander even when he's on the job of saving the world from Decepticons. Defensor sadly can be affected by this flaw...
- Demoted to Extra: The Protectobots' Combiner Wars toys reduce him to being Defensor's chestpiece, with new member Rook taking his former role as a limb. Mind you, it does make a little more sense, given he was a motorbike that became a limb as big as one made from an ambulance...
- Informed Attribute: His pacifist tendencies were never brought up in the cartoon.
- Technical Pacifist: Being reluctant to participate in the war against the Decepticons doesn't stop him from scouting on them. Of course, he does wish he was an Actual Pacifist...
Streetwise/Streetstar/Streetsmart (ストリートワイズ sutorītowaizu)
Function: Interceptor
Alt Mode: Nissan 300ZX Turbo Police Car
"You have to know where you are before you know what to do."
Voiced by: Peter Cullen (EN), Keiichi Nanba ("The Revenge of Bruticus"), Masashi Ebara ("B.O.T."), Yoku Shioya (Season 3) & Ryōichi Tanaka (The Headmasters) (JP)
A determined, smart and alert Protectobot who can easily pick up very slight senses. He forms Defensor's left leg.
- Ascended Extra: He manages to get himself some screen time, though not to First Aid's extent. In the IDW comics he partnered up with Prowl as both were police cars, and in the Wings of Honor comics he was the only survivor of the Defensor Menasor battle, alongside Breakdown, and goes on to participate in the G2 battles that arose from the old conflicts.
- The Determinator: He's very, very determined to get any job done for his comrades or for the humans.
- Heroic RRoD: He's prone to overheating his engine due to his unceasing determination.
- Hyper-Awareness: He's able to detect even the slightest senses.
- Photographic Memory: He only has to look at a map of a city once to be able to drive through the streets like he's lived there all his life.
- Shout-Out: In Wings of Honor, Streetwise (or rather, Streetstar) talks like Shaft for... no particular reason.
Defensor (Guardian (ガーディアン gādian))
Function: Super Warrior
"As long as one innocent being is threatened, none are truly free."
Voiced by: Chris Latta (EN), Kenyuu Horiuchi (main), Takurō Kitagawa ("The Ultimate Weapon") (JP; Cartoon), Kōji Totani (main), Yoshitada Ōtsuka (ep 12), Kazuo Oka (ep 25) & Hirohiko Kakegawa (ep 34) (JP; The Headmasters)
The combined form of the Protectobots. He's devoted to protecting humans with his extreme durability, massive strength and impenetrable forcefield.
- Barrier Warrior: He can generate a forcefield.
- Combining Mecha: He's a giant robot made up from all five Protectobots. In IDW's first continuity, Rook forms one of Defensor's arms. The Combiner Wars toyline can have Defensor comprised of Rook and every single Protectobot on this folder, with this new 'bot as a limb and Groove as the chestpiece.
- Genius Bruiser: By combiner standards, Defensor is surprisingly smart, having an intelligence rating of 7, only surpassed by Computron's 10. This is because his components synergize so well, thanks to their shared goal of protecting humans and their fellow Autobots.
- Gentle Giant: The hulking Defensor seeks to protect humanity and is very kindhearted, though he doesn't understand why humans seem to be afraid of him.
- Mighty Glacier: Unusually for combiners, his weaknesses are mostly physical rather than mental. He's slow and his limbs sometimes have problems coordinating due to poor circuit connections. Groove's wandering mind tends to affect him as well.
Ramhorn (Amhorn (アムホーン amuhōn))
Function: Warrior
Alt Mode: Micro-cassette
"Flee before me or else you'll fall before me."
Voiced by: John Hostetter (EN), Takurō Kitagawa (JP; cartoon), Koji Totani (JP; The Headmasters)
The most violent and destructive of Blaster's cassettes who destroys everything in his path.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He'll attack anyone over the tiniest of slights.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The fact that he's way smaller than a real rhino doesn't make him any less dangerous.
- Red Is Violent: He's a bright red rhinoceros with a very short temper.
- Rhino Rampage: Once he starts charging, he's practically unstoppable.
- Talking Animal: In the Sunbow cartoon, he was the only animal-type cassette who was fully capable of speechnote (though only in one episode).
- Undying Loyalty: He is fiercely protective of those he feels have treated him with respect.
- Verbal Tic: During his accidental visit to Cybertron in the past, he stutters a lot.
- Vibration Manipulation: In cassette mode, he can produce vibrations that destroy any machinery he's currently in contact with.
Rewind (リワインド riwaindo)
Function: Archivist
Alt Mode: Micro-cassette
"Too much information is never enough."
Voiced by: Townsend Coleman (EN), Yoku Shioya (JP; cartoon), Ken Yamaguchi (JP; The Headmasters)
Blaster and the Autobots' response to Rumble, who uses his near-limitless databanks to store useless information.
- Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Though according to his original bio, the information Rewind gathers is useless trivia, rather than anything useful.
- Insufferable Genius: Is a trivia master and won't hesitate to drill that fact into their memory banks.
- Official Couple: With Chromedome, in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye.
- The Smart Guy: Of Blaster's tapes. It gives him a chance to see more usage than the others, since his vast breadth of knowledge means he fills a niche of knowing something potentially useful to the plot.
- Sticky Situation: His primary weapons fire unbreakable metal-bonding glue.
- Tank Goodness: His TFCC and Titans Return toys turn into super space tanks.
- Theme Naming: He and Eject are named after functions of a tape player.
Sandstorm (サンドストーム sandosutōmu)
Function: Reconnaissance
Alt Modes: Dune Buggy, MH-53 Pave Low Search & Rescue Helicopter
"When the smoke clears, I've cleared out."
Voiced by: Jerry Houser (EN); Yoku Shioya (JP)
A thrill-seeking triple-changer who can whirl up blinding sand and dust clouds as a dune buggy or a helicopter.
- Abnormal Ammo: His sandblaster gun fires erosive silicate particles.
- Adaptational Nationality: In the G1 Cartoon, he's a native of Paradron, until it got blown up. Every other version of him's a native Cybertronian.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Transformers: Punishment casts him as a Tragic Villain, unable to cope with peace times and the atrocities committed by various Decepticons and Autobots. He becomes a vigilante and starts killing them, even trying to kill Optimus at one point. After that, he settles into an especially dark Anti-Hero for the rest of the 2005 IDW run.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He is easily bored and has difficulty focusing on humdrum tasks.
- Character Death:
- UK Comics Sandstorm is killed fighting Galvatron.
- His Dreamwave incarnation gets blasted through the chest by Runamuck. There are better ways to go.
- Depending on the Artist: Whether he's got a faceplate or not. Usually, it's not.
- Expy: The IDW Sandstorm is effectively a Cybertronian Punisher.
- Friendly Enemy: To Octane in the cartoon.
- In the Back: Whether by coincidence or not, his deaths in the UK comics and Dreamwave both involve him being shot in the back.
- Meaningful Name: He can use his alt-modes to create blinding sand (and dust) storms.
- Technical Pacifist: His characterization in the G1 cartoon.
- Thrill Seeker: His bio mentions that he loves taking death-defying risks and is often bored when not in danger.
Sky Lynx (スカイリンクス sukairinkusu)
Function: Lieutenant Commander
Alt Modes: Cargo Shuttle; Prehistoric Bird and Lynx
"The best achievements are worth repeating."
Voiced by: Aron Kincaid (EN); Koji Totani (JP)
A very unusual, draconic Autobot, Sky Lynx is the Autobots' foremost expert in space exploration and interstellar combat. He's let this go to his head a little, and he can barely go five minutes without talking himself up. Sky Lynx has a few transformation options: he can split into two beast modes, a bird and a lynx. These two beasts can transform into a space shuttle and a transport platform, respectively. Expectedly, the shuttle can be connected to the transport platform. Despite all appearances, the resulting combination is as capable of flight as the shuttle alone.
- Adaptational Badass: His lynx component for his Earthrise figure retains the ability to transform into a transport platform, but also gains new functionality by being able to additionally convert into a launch platform for his space shuttle component.
- Adaptational Villainy: While he was always an insufferable narcissist, he was at his worst in Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, where his pride culminated in him believing that he was the one worthy of the Matrix of Leadership to the point that he attacked Alpha Trion to snitch the Matrix from him. This resulted in him being banished into the Dead Universe, where his ego was shattered and he came to acknowledge the errors of his ways.
- Break the Haughty: His Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy incarnation had his ego shattered after he was banished into the Dead Universe, spending countless millenias trapped alone with his own mind being his only company.
- Cool Starship: His alternate mode is a space shuttle with a transport platform/cargo carrier.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- His Marvel comic incarnation, after choosing to retire and explore the galaxy, disappears without comment after Budiansky's run, not to be seen for the remainder of the initial series.
- In the Japanese G1 continuity, he vanishes come the beginning of Headmasters. This was due to complicated legal issues behind his G1 toy that prohibited him from being sold in Japan. To wit, the toy was licensed by Hasbro for release in other territories from a company called Toy Box. Because of this, Takara was not keen to promote another company's products and could not release the toy in Japan anyway even if they wanted to. These issues were later resolved when Takara merged with Tomy, one of its longtime competitors, in 2005. After the merger, a member of Takara's Transformers development team discovered the plans and molds for Sky Lynx's original G1 toy among Tomy's holdings, and it was discovered that Toy Box was not the toy's manufacturer, but had in fact licensed Tomy to manufacture the toy on its behalf. This discovery paved the way for Sky Lynx's G1 toy to finally receive a Japanese release in 2008.
- Combining Mecha:
- A strange example for the series. Sky Lynx is comprised of two vehicles, a space shuttle and a carrier transport, which can combine into a singular vehicle alternate mode and transform into a quadrupedal dragon-like beast robot mode. The two components are capable of splitting from each other and fuctioning autonomously, and each has its own robot mode, a dino-bird for the former and a lynx for the latter. However, both components are still collectively considered a singular Transformer and share the same consciousness. If anything, Sky Lynx has more in common with the Duocons than a traditional gestalt.
- His Combiner Wars toy is a standard Transformers combiner, forming the torso of Sky Reign.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: His robot mode is vaguely dinosaur-like, close enough that he even leaves a "dinosaur transform static". He's quite annoyed at being lumped with the Dinobots.
- Fantastic Racism: Downplayed. In the episode Thief in the Night, after Fort Knox is stolen by Trypticon and "dinosaur transform static" is detected at the scene, Scamper and Six-Gun proceed to interrogate every Autobot with such static, including the Dinobots and Sky Lynx. Sky Lynx is clearly miffed at being lumped together with the Dinobots and voices his objections quite vocally.
- Hive Mind: His bird and lynx components can operate independently from each other but are part of the same consciousness.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all his grandstanding, Sky Lynx always comes through to aid his fellow Autobots, if only because his ego won't allow him to fail them. He once even kept Cosmos company while both were in space, despite his shuttle-mode being much faster than Cosmos' saucer mode.
- Lightning Bruiser: Sky Lynx is a titanic presence on the battlefield, both for his sheer size and his combat skills. All of his offensive stats save for firepower are maxed out at 10. His speed is justified by his shuttle mode's thrust and his beast mode's elegant flight.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Sky Lynx's design is quite a strange one among the G1 cast. When combined, his transformation is so simple that he doesn't disguise himself so much as he folds up. Thus, he's very transparent about which parts become what across modes — especially his combined beast mode's head (and the bird mode's head, by extension), which is just the space shuttle's crew cabin with jaws. His separate components also have distinct modes of their own; yet unlike contemporary combiners, they both share Sky Lynx's consciousness and aren't counted as separate characters.
- Our Gryphons Are Different: His combined beast mode has the head and wings of a bird (a prehistoric bird of indeterminate species instead of an eagle) and the lower body of a big cat (a lynx instead of a lion), making him resemble an Opinicus-type gryphon. He still differs a little from that body-plan due to his tail coming from his bird mode.
- The Rival: In the cartoon, he has a rivalry with Predaking.
- Sapient Ship: He's big enough that his shuttle mode can hold several passengers within his body.
- Smug Super: His huge form is dwarfed by his massive ego. However, he does have the skills and power to back it up, though. His Earthrise figure further highlights this, as his space shuttle component now bears the (rather fitting) name Magnificence.Sky Lynx: Save your ammunition Autobots! Superior forces are taking over!
Springer: Well, well, Commander Modesty's here. - Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Sky Lynx effectively replaced Omega Supreme as the giant warrior and group transportation in the third season. Omega did have a few appearances, though, and an entire episode where he got to trounce Decepticons on the Planet of Junk (and the only episode where Omega and Sky Lynx appeared together).
- What Would X Do?: Does this with himself."Now remember, before you do anything, think, 'Is this what Sky Lynx would do in my position?', and you will not go far wrong."
Springer (Sprang/Sprung (スプラング supurangu))
Function: Aerial Defense
Alt Modes: ADH-02 Hellhound Attack Helicopter, M1117 Guardian Armored Security Vehicle
"Strength is more than physical."
Voiced by: Neil Ross (EN); Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP)
An optimistic, wise-cracking triple-changer whose power is just as much as his good-natured character and incredible jumping ability.
- The Big Guy: In the G1 cartoon he stood out as the strong and combat-capable warrior on the team. Since the cartoon he's often upgraded to The Leader, being a high ranking Autobot, especially with his association with the Wreckers.
- Commanding Coolness: His comic incarnations nearly always lead the Wreckers.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially in the animated movie, but kept it through the sequel season of the show. Becomes more The Snark Knight in later adaptations.Arcee: Did we have to let them detonate three-quarters of the ship?
Springer: Seeing as how they would have detonated four quarters, I think it was a good choice. - Dropped a Bridge on Him: In Regeneration One, Springer is introduced as leader of the Wreckers, treated like a major character, and then unceremoniously murdered by Megatron just to be a dick to Prime.
- Expy: If Hot Rod is the movie's Luke, and Arcee the Leia, Springer fills the role of Han Solo, the cocky-yet-capable rogue.
- Good Counterpart: As the first Autobot triple-changer introduced (in The Movie, before the introductions of Sandstorm and Broadside in the follow-up season) he serves as one to the pre-existing Decepticon triple-changers Astrotrain and Blitzwing.
- Helicopter Blender: His sword is formed from his copter mode's rotors.
- Heroic Build: A consistent element of his character design is that he's got some wide shoulders on him.
- In a Single Bound: Springer's original toy bio specifically highlights his "pogo-like" jumping ability, from which he derives his name. Given that one of Springer's alternate modes is usually a helicopter, though, it's not an ability that sees a whole lot of use...
- Loveable Rogue: One of the more light-hearted Autobots, prone to cracking wise.Springer: I've got better things to do tonight than die.
- The Musketeer: Wields a sword and a blaster, but usually uses one or the other in the series. Appropriate for the closest thing the Transformers have to a Swashbuckler.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Unlike the other G1 triple changers, Springer's two vehicle modes share the same cockpit. For his first toy, this detail gives the vehicles very similar silhouettes, something later incarnations of the character (especially Springer's Last Stand of the Wreckers design) and even Springer's cartoon character model would try and address.
Steeljaw (スチールジョー suchīrujō)
Function: Tracker
Alt Mode: Micro-cassette
"What the eyes don't see, the nose knows."
Voiced by: Masashi Ebara (Season 3), Tomomichi Nishimura, Masato Hirano (ep 22) (The Headmasters) (JP)
Blaster's answer to Soundwave's Ravage, equipped with a keen nose allowing him to track anything.- Aloof Ally: His comrades take him for this, as he's often so focused on his tracking duties that he'll walk right past them without any kind of acknowledgement.
- The Nose Knows: An expert tracker who uses his nose to pick up anything, especially scents and others' tracks.
- Panthera Awesome: He's a lion.
- Weaksauce Weakness: He's prone to rusting in humid environments.
Swerve (Werve (ウェーブ wēbu or ウエーブ uēbu))
Function: Metallurgist
Alt Mode: 4WD Off-Road Pickup Truck
"Molecular structure is the key to understanding."
A reckless Autobot who can get easily distracted even on the road.- Adaptational Badass: His Legends incarnation is a very silly version of this - he's capable of destroying Trypticon, thanks to that time the big guy stood on him.
- Amusingly Awful Aim: The 2005 IDW Publishing comics portray Swerve as being an atrocious shooter. When a berserk Fortress Maximus takes the psychologist Rung and Whirl hostage, Swerve happens to be in a position to take a shot to disable Maximus and buy time for a breaching team to break into the room. He not only misses Maximus completely, he instead manages to near-fatally shoot Rung in the head despite Maximus being almost five times larger than Rung. Later in the series, Brainstorm creates a special gun for him named "My First Blaster", which is programmed to offer him encouragement whenever he misses and praise whenever he actually hits something.
- Ascended Extra: IDW's More than Meets the Eye gives him his biggest role in the franchise yet, being a major crew member of the Lost Light.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Gets distracted very easily.
- Drives Like Crazy: As a result of becoming so focused on his current project, he tends not to pay much attention to his driving.
- Motor Mouth: In The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, his nickname at the Academy was "Shut the Hell Up".
- Palette Swap: Of Gears. Swerve received a new head that bears shades.
- Plucky Comic Relief: In IDW's More than Meets the Eye he mainly serves as comic relief.
- The Voiceless: Ironically never gets to speak during his limited screen time in the cartoon.
- Wall of Blather: In IDW, where his comrades' speech box overlaps with his due to his unbearably long talk.
Tailgate (テイルゲイト teirugeito or テイルゲート teirugēto)
Function: Scout
Alt Mode: Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Sportscar
"Let my fellow mechanical beings go!"
Voiced by: Ted Schwartz (EN); Ken Shiroyama (JP)
A naive, childlike Autobot with a strong need to be liked. Though reckless and unfocused without proper guidance, he can be fairly effective when he is properly supervised.- Adaptation Personality Change: His most distinctive quirk described in his original bio is being unable to tell that Earth machines are nonsentient. This doesn't get a chance to be shown anywhere, as even in the cartoon he's a Living Prop. The IDW More Than Meets The Eyenote series finally gives Tailgate a chance to shine, but with this version of the character never having been to Earth, his main "thing" is instead being a Fish out of Temporal Water. The only aspect that really carries over is his naviete.
- A Day in the Limelight: The most focus he got in the original 80s run was issue #245 of the UK comic.
- Ascended Extra: Never really got any real spotlight or characterization before the MTMTE comic, which earned him a Thrilling 30 toy based on Nick Roche's design for him in that series.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: The 2005 IDW continuity has him fall unconscious and stay dormant for millions of years, resulting in him having to be brought up to speed on what has happened while he was inert.
- Naïve Newcomer:
- His original bio claims Tailgate can't distinguish between regular mechanical life (robots) and household appliances, leading to bother with humans since he thinks they're oppressing the calculators.
- His IDW incarnation has this trait in a very different way; he spent the past 6 million years underground, missed the war entirely, and spent much of the first few arcs trying to get caught up.
- New Meat: One of the only recurring points of his depictions is that Tailgate is a fresh recruit to the cause.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Defeating the Mutants let lose the Demons, who managed to be worse.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Comic Tailgate was talked into going along on a dangerous initiation ceremony by two fellow Autobots because they suggested he'd be a coward. End result: They got eaten, Tailgate didn't.
- Palette Swap: The original Tailgate toy is a white-colored Windcharger with a new head and faceplate. With his MMTE-inspired Thrilling 30 figure, it's the other way around; the Combiner Wars Windcharger toy is a retool of him.
- Ret-Canon: His Generations toy bio gives Tailgate traits of his MTMTE incarnation, namely his tendency to lie in order to impress folk.
Ultra Magnus (ウルトラマグナス urutoramagunasu)
Function: City Commander
Alt Mode: White Freightliner WFT-8664T Cabover Car Carrier Truck
"Consistency is victory."
Voiced by: Robert Stack (Transformers: The Movie), Jack Angel (The Transformers) (EN); Sho Hayami (Season 3), Masaki Aizawa ("The Rebirth") & Banjo Ginga (The Headmasters) (JP)
The commander of Autobot City on Earth. He is frequently described as the brother of Optimus Prime. He tends to be Prime's First Officer whenever Prowl or Grimlock don't have the job, but unlike either of them, Magnus does not particularly relish the role.- Adaptational Badass: In Regeneration One: While his UK comics counterpart suffered multiple defeats at Galvatron's hands before finally besting him, this version faces Galvatron II twice, defeating him in their first battle, and killing him in the second.
- Adaptation Personality Change: When written by Furman, Magnus tends to be pretty lacking in self-confidence, despite being one of the strongest and most capable bots around. His IDW incarnation was written as a rock of self-confidence due to Furman wanting to try something different with the character.
- Arch-Enemy: In Marvel Comics continuity and Sunbow cartoon, he's portrayed as Galvatron's primary nemesis, even though he's not an Autobot leader.
- Back from the Dead: In the movie; The Sweeps blasted him until he exploded into pieces, but he was repaired with ease by the Junkions.
- Big Badass Rig: Becomes a large one that can transport several of his fellow Autobot cars.
- The Big Guy: Fitting for someone who turns into a truck and trailer, Magnus usually stands a great deal taller than everyone else. A major part of Operation: Volcano would have consisted of the Wreckers killing their targets, while Magnus held off every other 'con by himself.
- Bounty Hunter: His IDW incarnation works as an enforcer, hunting down anyone, Autobot or Decepticon, that violates the Tyrest Accord.
- Character Catchphrase: "I can't deal with that right now." Ascribed to him by
Memetic Mutation, though he only says it the once, in a situation that's understandable in context. - Combat Pragmatist: Dreamwave Magnus shot Grimlock in the head with a missile, while he was distracted.
- The Comically Serious: IDW Ultra Magnus is essentially the ultimate old-fashioned Straight Man, especially in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. Even when he's actually trying to be up-to-date and/or give snappy one-liners, he fails miserably."All weapons are trained on them in case they try something 'hilarious.'"
- The Creon: Despite having a natural talent for command, Ultra Magnus really doesn't want the responsibility of being the Autobots' leader. He'd much rather stay as Optimus's second-in-command.Ultra Magnus: I'm just a soldier, I'm not worthy.
Optimus Prime: Nor was I. - Decoy Protagonist: In the Movie, a dying Prime gives Magnus the Matrix, making him the new leader of the Autobots. However, he's unable to activate the Matrix when he needs it most and ends up not being The Chosen One after all.
- Divergent Character Evolution: His original toy was a white Optimus Prime redeco plus Mecha Expansion Pack, but his cartoon appearance and several future toys would omit the smaller robot, making Ultra Magnus drastically different from Prime aside from their similar-looking truck cabs.
- Evil Is Hammy: After being infected by the Hate Plague, Magnus' serious demeanor goes out the window. It's like Jack Angel had been waiting all year to cut loose.
- Hope Bringer: His origin in the UK Marvel comics; he was designed as a Super-Soldier meant to be a symbol of hope for the dwindling Autobot La Résistance on Cybertron.
- Humble Hero: Ultra Magnus is a legitimately skilled fighter and leader, but he tends to downplay or even outright deny he's any good. Bearing in mind, this guy is good enough to get on with Grimlock, and in one instance when Optimus was missing, managed to hammer the Decepticons bad enough Shockwave asked for a cease-fire.
- Humongous-Headed Hammer: Transformers: Animated popularized a large hammer as Ultra Magnus's signature weapon and since then it's been incorporated into various continuities. Later G1 fiction, and even Magnus's Combiner Wars toy, incorporate massive two-handed hammers.
- Killed Off for Real:
- By Sixshot in Headmasters. Put up one helluva fight, though.
- The 2005 IDW continuity plays with this. Ultra Magnus lives through it as a Legacy Character, with Minimus Ambus portraying him for most of his appearences. However, the continuity's original Ultra Magnus, who appeared in the early war arcs, died under unknown circumstances as was replaced by a statistician named Datum, who was killed by Megatron, and a soldier named Convoy, who died fighting Dire Wraiths.
- Legacy Immortality: In the IDW series. Minimus Ambus is the true name of the current bearer of Ultra Magnus' name and armor.
- Mirror Character: He and Cyclonus are both noble warriors, the main difference between the two being their moral alignments.
- More Senior Subordinate: Rodimus Prime, new leader of the Autobots following the events of the movie, is far less experienced than his second-in-command, Ultra Magnus.
- Neat Freak: His IDW version.
- No Sense of Humor: See The Comically Serious.
- Number Two: To Optimus or Rodimus. It's how he prefers it.
- Older Sidekick: During Season 3 of the cartoon, he served as second-in-command to the younger Rodimus Prime, often giving him advice.
- One-Man Army: The UK comics version. Part of the Wrecker's Operation: Volcano consisted of them wiping out nine Decepticons, while Magnus held off the reinforcements all on his lonesome.
- Palette Swap: Beneath his armor, Magnus' true self tends to be a stark-white Optimus Prime, with some minor aesthetic or proportional changes.
- Power Armor: He wears it so often, the armor is his definitive look. Without it, he could be mistaken for Optimus Prime at first glance.
- Precision F-Strike: A very weak example, but Magnus is pretty infamous for grumbling, "Open! Dammit, OPEN!" while struggling with the Matrix in The Movie.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: So brave and honorable he is respected by Humans, Autobots and Decepticons.
- Robo Family: Sometimes said to be Optimus Prime's brother.
- Worthy Opponent: He respects Cyclonus as a brother warrior, and the feeling is mutual.
Wheelie (ウィーリー wīrī)
Function: Survivalist
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Car
"Only the fierce shall live."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (EN); Kazue Komiya (JP)
A young Autobot who was forced to come of age when the ship carrying his newly minted protoform crashed on an unknown world. Learning to survive alone via a mixture of stealth, cunning, and fearlessness, he was eventually found by the Dinobots and reintegrated into the main Autobot forces.- Adaptational Badass: Some continuities play up his survivalist background due to the extended period of time he spent away from the main Autobot forces on dangerous alien worlds.
- Boisterous Weakling: He's just as strong as his small size would suggest, but is also a fierce fighter who wins fights through sheer determination.
- Brats with Slingshots: His only weapon in the cartoon is a slingshot that shoots hot coals. Not much of a weapon against giant alien robots, since the most it'll do is annoy them.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Tiny by Cybertronian standards, he's only slightly bigger than a human. One of the first things he was seen doing was mouthing off at the Dinobots.
- Kid-Appeal Character: Specifically, to Daniel.
- Rhymes on a Dime: To the point that his page on the Transformers wiki is written entirely in rhyme. It actually makes it hard to read sometimes. The IDW comics are the only ones that have ever bothered explaining the whys; he crash-landed on an unknown planet and eventually met an alien who could only talk in rhyme. Wheelie had to learn how to rhyme just to keep up, and eventually the habit stuck.
- Robot Kid: Is a youngster by Cybertronian standards.
- Those Two Guys: Forms a dynamic with Daniel in the cartoon, and in the Headmasters anime.
Wreck-Gar (レックガー rekkugā)
Function: Junkion Leader
Alt Mode: Motorcycle
"Collect and save, collect and save."
Voiced by: Eric Idle (The Transformers: The Movie), Tony Pope (The Transformers) (EN); Toshio Ishii (Transformers 2010), Ryōichi Tanaka (Transformers: ★Headmasters) (JP)
The leader of the Junkions originating from the Planet Junkion. More of an ally to the Autobots than an Autobot per se.- Badass Biker: In the movie, not only do he and the Junkions transform into motorbikes, they ride each other. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible to do with his original G1 toy due to the limited articulation most Transformers toys of the day had, but most recent Wreck-Gar toys (and his retools to represent other Junkions) are actually designed to do this.
- Beware the Silly Ones: The "Space Pirates" storyline in the Marvel UK continuity concluded with him making it so that the Quintessons now had every other race in the universe gunning for them.
- Cloudcuckoolander: As a Junkion, he is quite odd in his mannerisms. Notably, in "The Killing Jar", he accepts a ride on a spaceship from a clown he was just watching on TV, and sees absolutely nothing strange about the situation (it, of course, is a Quintesson trick).
- Disney Death: The TFWiki doubts that Wreck-Gar actually died in Dreamwave's comics, saying that getting stabbed through the chest likely wasn't enough to kill the highly resilient Junkion.
- Grail in the Garbage: The Planet Junkion. A bit of an inversion, as only the Junkions know how to utilize that trash to build functioning objects. To anyone else, it really is just trash.
- Horny Vikings: The reason for his looks, according to pre-production material, is that he's supposed to look Viking-ish. Meaning his name is likely a horrible pun on "Hagar' the Horrible".
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: Like most Junkions, he enjoys Earth television shows and movies. TFWiki.net notes that he may be the only being in the universe who likes clowns.
- Losing Your Head: The 2005 IDW continuity has him end up reduced to a still functioning head that had to be carried around by his significant other Rum-Maj after his body was destroyed by the positron core he stored inside exploding.
- Rocket Punch: As a Junkion, his limbs can be detached and reattached with ease, so he can launch his fist as an attack.
- Spanner in the Works: Quintesson scientists pride themselves on being able to predict the moves and reactions of everybody. Wreck-Gar is so bizarre that he defies all expectations.
- Speaks in Shout-Outs: The Junkions speak in mixed advertisements and pop-culture references.
- Stupidity-Inducing Attack: The effect of his decelerator laser, which slows down his enemies' cerebral processors, i.e. making them dumb.
- What a Piece of Junk: Junkion technology thrives on it. They are able to create very advanced machines by using various spare parts to build them. The results don't always look good, but they tend to work better than anything else.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Dreamwave continuity had Wreck-Gar revive Megatron after the events of the War and Peace miniseries, with the ongoing Transformers: Generation One comic eventually having Megatron kill him now that he no longer needed his help. The TFWiki doubts that the Junkion leader actually died from this.
1987 Autobots
Artfire (アートファイアー ātofaiā)
Function: Sniper
Alt Mode: Mitsubishi Fuso F-Series FT Fire Ladder Truck
He is patient, and thinks of his friends first, but there are times when he ignores orders because of that. His primary Targetmaster companion is Nightstick, who transforms into a "space beam gun", though he sometimes allies himself with Sparks. His original toy was only available in Japanese markets, making him far less known than fellow Autobots introduced in 1987.- Equippable Ally: His Targetmaster partners are Nightstick and Sparks.
- Immune to Fire: His body can withstand temperatures of up to 8,000 degrees Celsius.
- Out of Focus: Even by Targetmaster standards, Artfire has received little individual focus.
- Palette Swap: He's a redeco of Inferno with the main difference being he's white and red and doesn't have an Arm Cannon.
Brainstorm (ブレインストーム bureinsutōmu)
Function: Biomechanical Engineer
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Starfighter
"The strongest tyrant cannot crush freedom of thought."
Voiced by: Michael Bell (EN), Hiroshi Naka (JP; "The Rebirth"), Ryouichi Tanaka (JP; The Headmasters)
An Autobot scientist so full of ideas that he often begins disclosing a new one before he can even finish explaining the old one. In some continuities, he invents binary-bonding technology with the help of his Headmaster partner, Arcana.
- Birds of a Feather: Brainstorm and Arcana are both highly intelligent scientists. Arcana always enjoys listening to whatever fresh idea pops into his partner's head.
- Double Agent: He is an undercover Decepticon in the IDW comics. Except he's actually playing them, too.
- For Science!: He's the Autobots' idea man. In Last Stand of the Wreckers, this tips fully over into Mad Scientist.
- Freak Out: In the Marvel comics. His reaction to seeing Unicron tearing apart Cybertron to fire madly while saying "no" repeatedly.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His Marvel comics incarnation was Unicron's first victim, impaled on one of the guy's fingers. Then eaten.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Played with him and his partner Arcana. Like most Cybertronians compared to organics, Brainstorm is eons older, but while Arcana is an old man by the standards of his species and has a wiser outlook on life, Brainstorm isn't too old for a Cybertronian and is mentally a young adult.Gort: Arcana, you're the wisest and oldest among us, who do you choose?
Arcana: I choose Brainstorm; his mind is undisciplined, but I find his youthful ideas most...refreshing. - Killed Off for Real:
- Impaled on one of Unicron's fingers and eaten in the Marvel comics.
- He's summarily executed by Jhiaxus' forces in Regeneration One.
- Transformers (2019) opens with his murder and the initial few arcs involve investigating what happened.
- Lack of Empathy: Somewhat. In IDW's comics, Brainstorm makes it his mission to create incredibly excessive and creatively brutal weaponry, and shows little guilt over the implications of this. When an Autobot, Ore dies, he cracks a joke about it.
- Subverted in that he has never taken a life himself, and when faced with the prospect, can't bring himself to do it. He also empathizes with Chromedome after he loses Rewind.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster and Arcana's his buddy who forms his head.
- Mad Scientist: Brainstorm tends to latch onto any and all ideas that pop into his head. He does so strongly, in fact, that he eschews proper safety in his quests to fully realize these ideas.
- Meaningful Name: True to his name, Brainstorm is constantly bombarding himself with spontaneous ideas.
- Small Name, Big Ego: In The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, where he tends to act like he's a big celebrity and galaxy-renowned scientist, but everyone else just treats him as an average, if somewhat insane, egghead.
Chromedome (クロームドーム kurōmudōmu)
Function: Computer Programmer
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Car
"A battle plan is only as good as its programmer."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (EN), Kunihiko Yasui (JP; "The Rebirth"), Hideyuki Hori (JP; The Headmasters)
After his life as a number-cruncher at Cybertron's Institute For Higher Learning ended when the Decepticons destroyed the facility, Chromedome was forcibly thrust into the Great War. Luckily, his skills proved useful in fighting back against the Decepticons for the Autobots. His Headmaster partner is Stylor.
- Ascended Extra: Receives a leading role in The Headmasters anime. After several more years being out of focus, he became a main character in MTMTE.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the Marvel Comics, Chromedome's last seen running away from Unicron. Regeneration One at least shows he survived.
- The Dandy: Stylor is often more concerned with his own looks than with fighting.
- Interrogating the Dead: In IDW he's a "mnemosurgeon" that can read robots' memories, including dead 'bots (though in those cases, it's much more difficult to get anything legible). This crossed through into his Titans Return toy bio, which made it a superpower.
- The Lancer: To Fortress Maximus, in the anime.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster and Stylor's his buddy.
- Odd Couple: He and Stylor are one of the most dissimilar Headmaster pairs, with Chromedome being a quiet academic while his little partner is stylish and vain.
- Official Couple: With Rewind, in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye.
- Telepathy: In the 2005 IDW comics, he's a skilled mnemosurgeon who can hack into the minds of other Transformers to read their memories.
Crosshairs (クロスヘアーズ kurosuheāzu)
Function: Weapons Supervisor
Alt Mode: Modified Off-Road Vehicle
"Don't shoot until you see the wires in their eyes."
Voiced by: Neil Ross (EN), Jin Horikawa (JP; "The Rebirth"), Hōchū Ōtsuka (JP; The Headmasters)
A meticulous Autobot marksman who makes sure never to miss a shot, out of fear of wasting ammo. Partnered with the similarly-efficient Pinpointer.
- Birds of a Feather: Crosshairs and Pinpointer get along quite well in comparison to other Targetmaster pairings due to both being very meticulous and obssessed with not wasting anything.
- Cold Sniper: Determined and mostly quiet and emotionless. Oh, and he prefers shooting from a distance.
- Equippable Ally: Pinpointer is a Targetmaster, meaning he becomes Crosshairs's gun.
- Jerkass: His Headmasters incarnation is an aloof guy with a massive stick up his rear.
- Mirror Character: Of his Decepticon Targetmaster counterpart Triggerhappy; while Crosshairs is efficient and meticulous, Triggerhappy is careless and wasteful with his ammo.
- Primary-Color Champion: Easily identified by his red and dark blue paintjob.
Fastlane and Cloudraker (ファーストレーン fāsutorēn, クラウドレーカー kuraudorēkā)
Fastlane
Cloudraker
Function: Warrior (Fastlane), Sky Fighter (Cloudraker)
Alt Modes: Dragster Race Car (Fastlane), Futuristic Jet (Cloudraker)
Fastlane: "Either you're out of my way or out of luck."
Cloudraker: "Gravity is the chain that binds us all."
Cloudraker: "Gravity is the chain that binds us all."
Voiced by: Rob Paulsen and Danny Mann (EN), Akimitsu Takase and Ken Narita (JP; "The Rebirth"), Kazuo Oka and Ken Yamaguchi (JP; The Headmasters)
Identical robots who transform into completely different vehicles (a race car and a plane, respectively)
- Always Identical Twins: Like their Evil Counterparts, Pounce and Wingspan, they look identical in robot form, but their altmodes tell the difference.
- Drives Like Crazy: Fastlane.
- Gravity Master: Cloudraker wields a pair of gravity rifles that alter the force of gravity around their target.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Fastlane and Cloudraker each bear a rubsign denoting which altmode which brother turns into. Of course, a look at their backs also reveals this information. Fastlane bears his car mode's spoiler and tires on his back, while Cloudraker has his jet mode's wings neatly folded against his legs. Not unlike Pounce and Wingspan, these details were design limitations of their toys that were integrated into the brothers' Headmasters character designs.
- Killed Off for Real: Both brothers are killed fighting Unicron in the IDW comics.
- Loud of War: Fastlane carries dual sonic boom rifles.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Cloudraker is afraid of enclosed spaces.
Fortress Maximus (フォートレスマキシマス fōtoresu makishimasu)
Function: Headmaster Leader
Alt Mode: Battle Station
"Prepare for war, but strive for peace."
Voiced by: Stephen Keener (Fortress Maximus) and Jered Barclay (Cerebros) (EN), Kunihiko Yasui (Fortress Maximus) and Ken Narita (Cerebros) (JP; "The Rebirth"), Ikuya Sawaki (JP; The Headmasters)
A large Autobot who serves as the commander for the Autobot Headmasters. The largest of the Headmasters, his head transforms into the cityspeaker Cerebros, who is himself binary bonded to the human-sized Emissary.
- Adapted Out:
- Most of his comics selves lack the city mode, due to being more-or-less the same size as most Autobots.
- His toy comes with two drones named Gasket and Grommet, who can combine into a single bot named Cog. They have hardly ever appeared outside of the toyline. Cog made it into the IDW comic, but with his connections to Fort Max removed.
- Anti-Hero: In the IDW comics, he's the no-nonsense warden of G-9, and always runs a tight ship as they hold some of the most dangerous prisoners. Get out of line, and he'll have you stripped down to a spark, and kept in a jar (though Arcee mentions it's a quite pleasant experience).
- Arch-Nemesis: To Scorponok.
- Artifact Name: In continuities where he isn't a city-former, the name "Fortress" doesn't make any sense.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: In the IDW comics he goes ballistic after spending over 2 years being tortured.
- Berserk Button: After the events of "Last Stand of the Wreckers," references to Overlord will alternately cause him to violently flip out or collapse into a blubbering wreck. He's shot other Autobots just for having the same colors as Overlord.
- BFS: His Headmasters anime incarnation wields the mighty Master Sword, which is scaled for his fully transformed mode.
- Demoted to Extra: He suffered this in the latter half of the Marvel comics (chiefly due to Spike's distaste for taking part in the Autobot/Decepticon conflict).
- Depending on the Writer: His actual personality changes from iteration to iteration. Also interchangeable is whether Cerebros even exists as an individual or not.
- Gentle Giant: One of the biggest Autobots in universe and toyline, yet the last thing he wants to do is fight.
- Humongous Mecha: Is a massive city-former in the cartoon and toyline. In the latter, he held the title of the tallest toy in the franchise until the release of Generations Metroplex in 2012. He reclaimed the title in 2016 with his Titans Return toy.
- In-Series Nickname: The Marvel comics had him referred to as "Fort Max" on occasion.
- Legacy Character: Emissary in the Marvel Comics. The original Emissary was Galen Kord; when he is killed by Scorponok, Spike inherits the mantle from him.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Comic Fortress was able to fight, the problem was more Spike, who had little to no desire to actually get involved in the war. The second-to-last issue has Spike finally getting over this, followed by becoming one of the few to actually beat Galvatron in a fight (admittedly, Galvatron had gone completely nuts by that point, but hey).
- Losing Your Head: Is a double Headmaster, with his head Cerebros being a full-sized Cybertronian who is also a Headmaster.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the comics, he brings the war to Nebulos.
- Reluctant Warrior: He'd like to be an Actual Pacifist. The cartoon even has Cerebrosnote be very reluctant to fight, though he does participate in some battles.
- Senseless Sacrifice: In the Generation 2 comics, he and Spike die destroying the Ark, but it doesn't actually slow Megatron down in the slightest.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: In Regeneration One. A new body was built for his original head (which had languished on Nebulos for over two decades) - only for the Dark Matrix Creature to jump in and take control the second the final connections were made.
- Your Size May Vary: In the cartoon and toyline, he can transform into an entire city. In the original comics, he started out as a regular-sized Transformer, with Galen as his sole Headmaster partner. On the way to Earth, he had himself upgraded into a slightly larger form, with Cerebros built as an in-between body for himself and Galen.
Hardhead (ハードヘッド hādoheddo)
Function: Ground Assault
Alt Mode: Cybertronian self-propelled Artillery Gun
"It's either MY way - or NO way!"
Voiced by: Stephen Keener (EN), Eiji Itō (JP; "The Rebirth"), Masato Hirano (JP; The Headmasters)
A Headmaster who's terse and rude in his talk, and equally stubborn. His Headmaster partner is Duros.- The Big Guy: The tank-transforming tough guy of the original Autobot Headmaster group, which is otherwise comprised of intellectuals.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: He dies in two of his major incarnations (Marvel and IDW) to show how high the stakes are (Unicron and Nova Prime).
- Birds of a Feather: He and Duros (a fellow combat veteran) are one of the most alike Headmaster duos and get along swimmingly because of that. In the cartoon, Duros even picks Hardhead to bond with due to their similarities.
- Character Death: One of the many casualties of Unicron in the US comics (he gets trodden on).
- Character Focus: He's a semi-major character in Furman's IDW run.
- Depending on the Artist: Despite his toy and packaging art (seen above) giving him a faceplate, most media depictions leave his mouth exposed. This is the main difference between his Titans Return toy (which gives him a faceplate in keeping with the line's focus on toy-accuracy) and his Legends and Retro Headmasters (the two sharing the exact same head mold) releases.
- Gemstone Assault: Wields two "Shatterblaster" rifles that fire diamond-hard crystal shards.
- Glad You Thought of It: The best way to convince him to go along with an idea is to make him believe that he came up with it in the first place.
- Killed Off for Real:
- In the Marvel comics he is stepped on by Unicron and killed.
- In the 2005 IDW comics he's left in the Dead Universe in Revelation but merges with the distorted reality to become undead before being properly resurrected. His return in The Transformers: Dark Cybertron has him fight Nova Prime and then exposed to the Dead Universe's corrosive energies, reducing him to dust in a final death.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster and Duros is his partner.
- Meaningful Name: He's extremely stubborn. Also, in the IDW comics, he survives a point-blank shot to the head, only having a small smoking hole between the optics, it still hurt though. And he can also headbutt stuff with it, should the need arise.
- Shoot the Dog: Implied to have to do it a lot in the IDW comics. When Nightbeat suspects himself to be a sleeper, he takes Hardhead with him, and tells Hardhead to execute him if he goes rogue. When Jhiaxus seizes control of Nightbeat's mind and almost has Hardhead killed, before giving a Hannibal Lecture, Hardhead just nods at the speech, and calmly shoots Nightbeat through the head, killing him.
- Shoulder Cannon: Where his tank turret rests in robot mode.
- Tank Goodness: Turns into a space tank. IDW's Escalation gives him a more Earth-based tank mode.
Highbrow (ハイブロウ haiburō)
Function: Electronic Warfare
Alt Mode: Cybertronic twin-rotor helicopter
"War is the playground of the ignorant."
Voiced by: Johnny Haymer (EN), Eiji Yanagisawa (JP; "The Rebirth"), Michitaka Kobayashi (JP; The Headmasters)
A very intellectual Headmaster who is very scholarly and snobbish. His Headmaster partner is Gort.- All American Boy: Gort is the Nebulan equivalent of this. Gort is a Chick Magnet, Working-Class Hero and Nice Guy who's faultlessly loyal to his girlfriend. Highbrow's tech spechs even describe Gort as this trope.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: His snobbish attitude means few Autobots can stand him. Even Fortress Maximus finds himself struggling to contain his annoyance at Highbrow. In the cartoon, he ends up paired with Gort because the Nebulan leader was the last one who got to pick a partner and suprisingly, nobody else wanted the Autobots' resident Insufferable Genius.
- Hidden Depths: One comic depicts Highbrow as hating combat and war because he's afraid of losing his sense of self if he gives in to his worst instincts.
- Honor Before Reason: At one point, Highbrow captures Scorponok's head without telling any of his teammates. He contemplates destroying it, but can't bring himself to do it. Optimus Prime later tells him he acted as an Autobot should.
- Informed Ability: Highbrow is supposed to be an expert at electronic warfare. His tech specs note that he has a lot of equipment for monitoring enemy communications and positions, implying that he's supposed to work in military intelligence. Most continuities never actually show him doing this.
- Insufferable Genius: Highbrow is quite intellectual, and he makes sure to rub it in people's faces.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster and Gort's his partner.
- Meaningful Name: The term "highbrow" denotes someone who is scholarly and sophisticated. Indeed, Highbrow is very smart, but also very snobbish.
- Odd Couple: He sees his partner Gort, leader of the Nebulan rebels, as nothing but a commoner and feels degraded by sharing a bond with him. Like everyone, Gort sees Highbrow for the elitist snob he is. Notably, Gort doesn't actually want to partner with Highbrow in the cartoon; he was just the last bot left.
- Out of Focus: Highbrow tends to appear much, much less than the rest of his fellow Headmasters. That he shares the role of "team scientist" with Brainstorm might have something to do with this, since two geniuses to a team becomes a little redundant.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: A tendency to overuse big words that fly right past everyone else.
Master Warriors (マスター戦士 master senshi)
Voiced by: Kazumi Tanaka (JP; Kirk)
A group of Headmasters lacking full bodies of their own. Their numbers include: Kirk, Rodney, Loafer, Lione, Toraizer, and Shuffler.Also, a set of Japanese exclusive Headmaster figures released during Headmasters's run. Some of their number received new Titan Master figures during Titans Return.
- Aerith and Bob: Japan's odd naming conventions strike again with Kirk and Rodney.
- Adaptation Name Change: When he received a toy in Titans Return, Lione became "Sawback".
- Lightning Bruiser: Rodney, who has a speed rating of ten, with a strength level of 6.
- Losing Your Head: All of them are Headmasters.
- Mighty Glacier: Shuffler, who has a speed rating of a mere 4 out of 10, but his strength is all the way at 10.
- Panthera Awesome: Lione and Toraizer turn into lions.
- You Don't Look Like You: Some of the Warriors appeared during Headmasters, but for whatever reason, they were never in the right colors.
The Monsterbots (Firebot (ファイアーボット faiābotto))
Three Autobots named Doublecross, Repugnus, and Grotusque, who transform into odd monstrosities.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- The Legends comics take the pre-existing Beastformer characters, White Leo, Hedgehog, and Platinum Tiger, and makes them into the Headmasters for Doublecross, Repugnus, and Grotusque, respectively. This is also reflected in the Monsterbots' Legends figures. This is averted for the equivalent Hasbro Titans Return releases, where the Titan Masters for the Monsterbots are new characters, Daburu for Doublecross, Dastard for Repugnus, and Fengul for Grotusque. However, the Habro Titan Masters are still designed in homage to their Takara counterparts, and were thus redecoed into said counterparts when the Monsterbots were released in Japan for the Legends line.
- In most G1 fiction, Haywire is a Nebulan and is partnered with Blurr as the latter's Targetmaster. In the Legends comics, the Haywire Laser is instead White Lune, a Beastformer, in Targetmaster armor, and is paired with Doublecross.
- Advertising-Only Continuity: Their original commercial gives their origin as Autobots whose creation Went Horribly Wrong and became monsters. Nothing else would ever follow up on this, with the trio being portrayed as normal Autobots who just happen to have monstrous alt-modes.
- Breath Weapon: All of them, specializing in fire.
- Equippable Ally:
- Doublecross' Legends toy comes with Haywire, Blurr's Targetmaster, which the toyline's associated comic instead re-imagines as White Lune in Targetmaster armor.
- Repugnus' standalone Titan Master includes a Mini-Mecha resembling his insectoid beast mode that can transform into a gun to be wielded by a larger figure. After Repugnus regains his body in the Legends comic, he briefly uses the Mini-Mecha in this manner.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: All of them to the Autobots. They basically only get along with each other, and even then, just barely. No one actually likes Repugnus, and most people also don't want to deal with Doublecross' bad temper(s) either. That leaves jolly, good-natured Grotusque as the only one who can expect to socialize to any degree.
- Heel–Face Turn: According to the back-matter for The Dark Ages, Grotusque and Repugnus used to be Decepticons.
- Horrifying Hero: All three have monstrous alt-modes better fitting Decepticons, but they're on the side of good, albeit on the lower end of the Autobot morality spectrum.
- Losing Your Head: All of them are subjected to this in the Hasbro Titans Return toyline and the equivalent Takara Legends figures.
- In the Titans Return toyline, the heads of Doublecross, Repugnus, and Grotusque's Deluxe Class figures transform into Titan Masters named Daburu, Dastard, and Fengul, respectively. Repugnus himself also received a separate standalone Titan Master toy.
- In the Legends storyline, the trio get their heads cut off by the Laser Beasts of the planet Beast, who then take over them. To free them, the Beastformers partnered with them, merging with their heads and reformatting them into Headmasters. To wit, White Leo, Hedgehog, and Platinum Tiger are partnered with Doublecross, Repugnus, and Grotusque, respectively.
- Meaningful Name:
- Doublecross is a two-headed dragon with two cranky personalities that both refuse to honor deals made by the other one. Doublecross' substitute name, Twinferno, alludes to his nature as a two-headed dragon that breathes fire.
- Repugnus is a worse person than half the Decepticons, even downright enjoying the missions that are too underhanded or immoral for other Autobots to stomach.
- At the same time, Grotusque is one ugly mother in his beast mode and comes equipped with armor-piercing tusks. Apart from the obvious definition of "grotesque" that Grotusque's name is meant to evoke, his alternate mode also matches another definition of the term, that being of a fantastical monstrous stone carved figure similar to a gargoyle, minus the water sprout.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Grotusque is usually the nice, Doublecross the in-between, and Repugnus is undoubtedly the mean.
- Out of Focus: The Marvel comics used them almost never. The Headmasters anime featured Doublecross in a semi-recurring role, since his gimmick made him prime comedy material, but that was about it until 2007, when Maximum Dinobots showed them in all their... "glory".
- Playing with Fire: They can all breathe it in their beast modes, as an allusion to the sparking feature on their original toys. They're even called "Firebots" in Japan.
- Punny Name: Repugnus and Grotusque's names are derived from "repugnant" and "grotesque", respectively, and they certainly live up to them.
Doublecross (ダブルクロス daburukurosu)
Function: Supply Procurer
Alt Mode: Two-headed Dragon
"Decepticon destruction is my favorite sport... and mine, too."
Voiced by: Koji Totani and Michihiro Ikemizu (The Headmasters)
An Autobot who transforms into a winged dragon with two constantly bickering heads.- Adaptation Origin Connection: Doublecross' Takara Legends toy omits the two guns included with the Hasbro Titans Return version, and instead includes Haywire, a Targetmaster traditionally partnered with Blurr, likely because the Targetmaster wasn't produced in time to be paired with Blurr's toy. The Legends comic re-imagines Haywire as an initially inanimate gun that White Lune, White Leo's sister, merges with using the Three Wise Ones' gems in order to become a Targetmaster, while White Leo himself becomes Doublecross' Headmaster.
- Adaptation Species Change: Haywire goes from being a Nebulan, as he is portrayed in most G1 fiction, to a Beastformer (more specifically White Lune) in the Legends comics.
- Adapted Out: His 2005 IDW iteration shows little sign of his Multiple Head Case trait.
- Butt-Monkey: For whatever reason, Doublecross spent a lot of the Headmasters anime getting humiliated and beaten up.
- Empathic Weapon: In the Legends storyline, White Lune forms Doublecross' Haywire Laser weapon.
- Gender Flip: In most G1 fiction, Haywire is a male Nebulan. In the Legends comics, the Haywire Laser is instead White Lune, a female Beastformer, in Targetmaster armor.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Laser Beasts suffer this at the hands of Doublecross when they use their Haywire Laser, intending to defeat White Leo with it. In response, White Lune uses the Three Wise Ones' gems to become a Targetmaster by merging with the Haywire Laser, and becoming Doublecross' new weapon. Once this happens, the Monsterbot doesn't hesitate to use his new Targetmaster to great effect against its former owners.
- Informed Flaw: Doublecross is supposed to be one of the weakest Autobots, physically. It never shows up in any media he turns up in, especially considering one incident where he casually snaps a Sunstreaker clone in half with hardly any effort.
- Magic Enhancement: Daburu has the ability to supercharge Doublecross' systems with energon, enabling him to perform at peak levels for longer periods of time.
- Multiple Head Case: Doublecross in dragon mode, to the point that you can't actually bargain with one head and expect the other to agree to the deal.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: A robotic version. Doublecross has the largest robot-mode limbs of any of the Monsterbots...and a Strength rating of 1. This is a guy who'd lose an arm-wrestling contest to Bumblebee on paper.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Doublecross is a dragon. He likes using his fire-breath.
- Original Generation: His Targetmaster partner in Legends, White Lune, is the first original Beastformers character to debut since the original end of the toyline in 1988.
- Out of Focus: In the 2005 IDW Comics, Doublecross was the Monsterbot with the least focus of the trio. Repugnus acted as their main representative in Transformers Maximum Dinobots, while Grotesque was given a minor role in Transformers: More than Meets the Eye by being one of the bots Ten considers a friend after he painted flowers on the former Legislator. Doublecross meanwhile at best is either in group shots, or seen sitting at Swerve's getting drunk.
- Sibling Team: In the Legends comic, to rescue Doublecross after his head is cut off by the Laser Beasts, White Leo and his sister White Lune use the Three Wise Ones' gems on themselves. The gems merged the former with Doublecross' head to turn him into a Headmaster and the latter with the Laser Beasts' Haywire Laser, which then became Doublecross' Targetmaster weapon, enabling them to evoke this trope.
- Snake Talk: Doublecross hisses constantly when he speaks.
- Split Personality: Doublecross in his beast mode, and both of them are surly and irritable. The worst part is, every time he transforms into robot mode, it's anyone's guess as to which dragon head is in control for the duration.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Newer figures and homages of Doublecross instead bear the name "Twinferno" due to trademark issues around the use of his original name.
Repugnus (リパッグ ripaggu)
Function: Counter-Intelligence
Alt Mode: Insect Monster
"No job is too disgusting to disgust me."
Voiced by: Michitaka Kobayashi (The Headmasters)
One of the most unscrupulous Autobots, who does the jobs no other is willing to do. Transforms into some sort of monstrous insect creature.- Atrocious Arthropods: He turns into a huge insect-like monster and is one of the most violent Autobots.
- Blood Knight: Repugnus likes disemboweling his enemies.
- Combat Pragmatist: As his tech spec implies, no tactic is too low down and dirty for him to consider, including ones the Autobots would normally frown on. Especially ones the Autobots would normally frown on.
- Depending on the Artist: Repugnus has two different head designs. His G1 toy sports small eyes and a short wide crest on his forehead. His animation model from the Headmasters anime instead features much larger goggle-like eyes and a different forehead crest which is longer and narrower. His standalone Titans Return Titan Master has a robot mode whose face features the former design, but transforms into a head with the latter face. His Titans Return Deluxe toy instead includes a Titan Master whose head mode is the former face. Purchasing both Titans Return toys allows fans to pick and choose which look they prefer their Repugnus figure to sport.
- Gadgeteer Genius: In the Legends comic. To wit, after Hedgehog acquires Spike's old exo-suit and offers to become his Headmaster, the former rebuilds the exo-suit to resemble his head. Repugnus also possesses the know-how to reconstruct his Mini-Mecha into an autonomous Mecha-Mook drone, and later mass produces an army of them.
- Jerkass: Repugnus has a personality to match his unpleasant habits. He once threatened Grimlock that if the Dinobot didn't pay the Monsterbots for services rendered, he'd hand him over to Grotusque and Doublecross and let them do what they would.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Dastard gives Repugnus this ability.
- Mecha-Mook: In the Legends comic, Repugnus eventually converts his Mini-Mecha into an autonomous drone, then later builds an army of them.
- Mini-Mecha: Repugnus' standalone Titan Master includes one that can combine with the Titan Master to form either a gun for a larger Transformers to wield or an insectoid monster resembling his full-sized form. The Mini-Mecha also has a flying vehicular mode that the Titan Master can also pilot. In the Legends comic, Brawn built it for him to give him some degree of mobility after he survives as a severed head and is subsequently converted into a small Headmaster body.
- Mini Mook: Repugnus' Mini-Mecha becomes this after he converts it into a Mecha-Mook. He then builds an army of these he dubs "Korepugs" (little Repugs).
- Nominal Hero: Repugnus has done things more fitting of a Decepticon war criminal than an Autobot soldier. Yet for some reason, he unswervingly stays on the side of the Autobots.
- The Paralyzer: Repugnus's gun paralyses his enemies, allowing him to move in for the kill.
- Token Evil Teammate: Repugnus is the nastiest Autobot to still be portrayed as a hero, rivaling the Dinobots; only the comic-exclusive Flame, an unrepentant villain, is worse. The only reason the Autobots keep him around is because he's the only one willing to do less-than-ethical missions when they prove necessary.
- Turn in Your Badge: A semi-military version. Repugnus keeps getting cashiered for being just plain unpleasant, but the Autobots keep taking him back every time they need some unsavory mission handled.
Grotusque (グロタスク gurotasuku)
Function: Military Strategist
Alt Mode: Gargoyle
"If it ain't fun to do, it ain't worth doing."
Voiced by: Masaharu Satō (The Headmasters)
A Monsterbot with a jovial personality at odds with his strange, gargoyle-like alt mode.- Anti-Nihilist: Grotusque accepts that the Cybertronian war is awful and that he was built specifically to fight in it, but remains cheerful, friendly, and helpful.
- Big Fun: Chunkiest of the three Monsterbots in beast mode (right down to having a distinct pot belly in that form), but the most jovial and upbeat.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Loud and occasionally irksome, but a great fighter and unquestionably brave and skilled.
- Eye Beams: Fengul gives Grotusque this ability.
- Face of a Thug: Despite having a horrifying appearance that rivals that of his fellow Monsterbots, he is an affable, jovial, and upbeat character who will courageously defend his comrades and tries to make them laugh with his quirky sense of humor.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Grotusque once ate a human Headmaster. And the Transformer clone body they were controlling. Alive and on-panel in a comic. Technically cannibalism since he consumed a Cybertronian body, but still, really putting the 'monster' in Monsterbot there, Grotusque.
- Self-Deprecation: Despite his aversion to his own hideous appearance, Grotusque likes to joke that it was the result of Primus having had a little too much high-grade energon the day he created him.
- Smarter Than You Look: The horrific gargoyle-like Autobot with the armor-piercing tusks who hangs around with the two-headed dragon and the giant murderous insectoid? Not the Dumb Muscle he looks like. Instead, Grotusque has Intelligence and Skill raings of ten, meaning he's actually smarter and more talented than both Prowl and Brainstorm!
- Token Good Teammate: Between the duplicituous Doublecross and the bloodthirsty Repugnus, Grotusque stands out among the Monsterbots for being a relatively pleasant and affable fellow.
Pointblank (ポイントブランク pointoburanku)
Function: Enforcer
Alt Mode: Cybertronian sports car
"Be brief of speech and long on action."
Voiced by: Danny Mann (EN; "The Rebirth"), John Culkin (EN; The Headmasters), Kenichi Sakaguchi (JP; "The Rebirth"), Yuji Mikimoto (JP; The Headmasters)
A war-weary Autobot who longs to finally have peace. He's partnered with Peacemaker.- Depending on the Artist: The biggest variance in his design is whether he has a visor and pointy crest in the middle of his head or lacks these traits.
- Equippable Ally: Peacemaker turns into his gun.
- Hot Paint Job: His original toy has some flames above his rear hubcaps.
- Make Some Noise: Peacemaker becomes a sonic blaster.
- Mirror Character: Of the Decepticon Slugslinger; Pointblank is weary, quiet and wishes for peace, while Slugslinger is arrogant, glory-seeking, yet also cowardly, and whereas Pointblank fights close and personal, Slugslinger prefers to shoot from a distance.
- The Pollyanna: Peacemaker is a relentlessly cheerful ray of sunshine, who's made it his mission to get his partner out of his funk.
- Primary-Color Champion: Like fellow Targetmaster Crosshairs, Pointblank is colored red and blue.
- The Quiet One: A quote in his official profile sums up his reasons for his relative silence. "Words are what got us into this mess in the first place. They do more harm than weapons."
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Went from being cheerful and adventurous to weary and pessimistic.
Punch/Counterpunch (パンチ panchi / カウンターパンチ kauntāpanchi)
Punch
Counterpunch
Function: Double Agent
Alt Mode: Pontiac Fiero
"In my business, there are no friends, only suspects."
Voiced by: John Moschitta Jr. (EN; "The Rebirth"), John Culkin (EN; The Headmasters), Eiji Yanagisawa and Katsuhisa Hoki (JP; "The Rebirth"), Masaharu Satō (JP; The Headmasters)
An Autobot spy who has a second robot mode and identity used to infiltrate Decepticon ranks. However, despite his loyalty to the Autobots, his line of work leaves him suspicious of others and paranoid about events happening around him. He also fears his Decepticon persona is taking a personality of its own.- A Day in the Limelight: His minute long appearance in "The Rebirth, Part 1" is the largest role he got in the original run of G1. Headmasters used him a lot more, but since then he's had barely any appearances. In addition, Transformers '84 and Transformers: Secrets & Lies, both of which are prequels to the Marvel Comics continuity, had him serve as the narrator to remedy his absence in the original Marvel Comics series and only being included in the Sequel Series Regeneration One in a small role.
- Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: His Of Masters and Mayhem incarnation claimed to be from Harmonex, which had been destroyed, on the grounds that no-one would dare question whether he was actually from there or not. After things between Punch and Counterpunch get complicated, Punch isn't even sure if Harmonex ever really existed.
- Combining Mecha: Of Masters and Mayhem have Counterpunch as one of the components of Wreckage.
- Depending on the Artist: Punch's toy and appearances in some media (seen above) give him a faceplate, giving him an Optimus Prime-like look, but other times (most notably the Sunbow cartoon) his mouth is exposed. Whether or not he has a visor or exposed eyes also varies. Counterpunch, on the other hand, has a more consistent look across all appearances.
- Decomposite Character: Counterpunch has his own TFSS toy that doesn't transform into his Autobot counterpart at all. There is no corresponding Punch figure either.
- The Infiltration: He's undercover as a Decepticon.
- Narrator: He appears in the Framing Device of the Marvel Comics continuity's prequels Transformers '84 and Transformers: Secrets & Lies, both having him serve as a narrator to the events that led to the Autobots' exodus of Cybertron on the Ark as well as what happened on Cybertron and on Earth before the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark were eventually rebuilt and reactivated in the 1980's.
- No-Sell: In Regeneration One, Scorponok's gene-key weapon doesn't work on him, because it's designed to make Autobots more like Decepticons, and Punch is already part-Decepticon.
- Orange/Blue Contrast: Punch is mostly orange and Counterpunch is mostly blue.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: His other robot mode's parts hang off his back. Plus, he's pretty terrible at explaining what he's doing. Thankfully for him, no one on the Decepticons seem to notice.
- Properly Paranoid: Trusts no one because he himself is an Autobot disguised as a Decepticon, and suspects that there may be Autobots who are actually Decepticon agents in disguise. This proves to be the case on several occasions.
- Shoot the Dog: The Transformers '84 one-shot portrays him as having been ordered by Optimus to keep the Ark's location hidden from everyone, fellow Autobots included, and if that includes having to kill said fellows, well... he'll do it.
- Split Personality: According to his bio, Punch experiences blackouts that imply Counterpunch could be developing a personality of his own.
- Split-Personality Takeover: In Of Masters and Mayhem, Counterpunch takes over fully, and helps cripple the Autobots. Then, Punch fights back, and the Decepticons blast them to pieces. By the end of it, Counterpunch comes out the other side, but is no longer sure of who he is.
Ricochet (Stepper (ステッパー suteppā))
Function: Marksman
Alt Mode: 1976 Porsche 935 Turbo sports car
He is the most accurate marksman the Autobots have and a Targetmaster as well, further augmenting his incredible skill. His Targetmaster partner is Nebulon.- Ascended Extra: He finally gets a major supporting role in Transformers (2019)'s sidestory Treads & Circuits as part of the Wreckers.
- Dub Name Change: He's known as Stepper in Japan.
- Hot Paint Job: Like Rodimus his Autobot insignia has a flame design around it.
- Palette Swap: He's a redeco of Jazz. Dreamwave comics even makes him a clone of Jazz created by Shockwave due to this.
Sureshot (シュアショット shuashotto)
Function: Sharpshooter
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Buggy
"Believing in yourself improves your aim better than target practice."
Voiced by: Steve Bulen (EN; "The Rebirth"), Rik Thomas (EN; The Headmasters), Ken Narita (JP; "The Rebirth"), Masaharu Satō (JP; The Headmasters)
The Autobots' best sharpshooter, whose skills have inflated his own ego. He's partnered with Spoilsport.- Achilles' Heel: Spoilsport is prone to overheating if fired too rapidly in weapon mode.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Or Arrogant Sharp-Shooter Guy, in his case.
- Born Lucky: Sureshot's arrogance comes from the fact he's never really needed to try with his aiming. He's just that good.
- Equippable Ally: Spoilsport, a Cold Sniper in his own right.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Sureshot is the best marksman among the Autobots. Spoilsport is just as good (to his partner's annoyance).
- Mirror Character: Of Misfire; Sureshot considers himself the best shooter of all the Autobots, while Misfire has the worst aim of all Decepticons, and his yellow and orange color scheme contrasts with Misfire's magenta color.
- Primary-Color Champion: He's colored yellow and red with some orange.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: His Dreamwave profile states that he agreed to join the Autobot cause in return for getting some leeway from the normal chain of command.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Sureshot and Spoilsport do not get along.
The Technobots (テックボット tekkubotto)
A combiner team of scientifically-minded Autobots who have figured out how to pool their intellects into a single cohesive force.
- Cool Shades: All of them including Computron have visors to go with their scientific theme.
- Death by Adaptation: With the exception of Strafe, all of them die in the events of the original IDW continuity, Nosecone torn to shreds by a Sweep, Afterburner and Lightspeed performing a Heroic Sacrifice at Kimia to take out an army of Sweeps, and Scattershot being killed in the final battle against Unicron.
- The Dividual: As is usual for Combiners, the Technobots barely stood out from one another in the original series, being always seen together wether individually or as Computron.
- Large Ham: Afterburner and Strafe yell upon their introductions. Subverted with Lightspeed who speaks rather camly.
- Leeroy Jenkins:
- Strafe tends to fire at any sign of movement, without first making sure if it's friend or foe. Oddly enough, this trait becomes a positive when he combines with the others, as it helps Computron refocus his attention on any new problems that may occur.
- Afterburner will race into battle at the drop of a hat.
- The Smart Guy: Poor Nosecone (though technically all of them to an extent. Nosecone and Lightspeed just display it more.)
- Trigger-Happy: Scattershot and Strafe do not hesitate to fire their guns.
- Undying Loyalty: In Transformers: Generations Selects Special Comic, even after many years, the Technobots refuse to turn on their "father". They even form a weapon for Grimlock's combiner form, Volcanicus, to use.
Scattershot (スキャッターショット sukyattāshotto)
Function: Technobot Leader
Alt Modes: Spaceship & Anti-Aircraft Cannon
"Decepticons are like rust spots - they're ugly and they can pop up anywhere."
Voiced by: Stephen Keener (EN), Minoru Inaba (JP; Cartoon), Masashi Ebara (JP; The Headmasters)
The gruff leader of the Technobots, who always enters the battle with guns blazing.- Acid Attack: Scattershot's main weapon fires acid pellets.
- The Berserker: Nothing short of running out of ammo will take him out of the fight.
- Cool Starship: His main alt mode is a cybertronian starship.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: His original toy is a triple changer, being able to turn into a starship or an anti-aircraft cannon. Subsequent figures don't have this function.
- Irony: He's the leader of one of the most technologically-advanced Autobot teams, yet acts more like an uneducated brawler most of the time.
- Leader Forms the Head: Like most combiner teams, Scattershot is the leader and forms Computron's head and torso.
- Meaningful Name: Scattershot uses automatic weapons and isn't the type to stop and aim, so his shots end up quite scattered.
Lightspeed (ライトスピード raitosupīdo)
Function: Data Processor
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Car
"Space travel is the only flight to freedom."
Voiced by: Danny Mann (EN), Takuro Kitagawa (JP; Cartoon), Masashi Ebara (JP; The Headmasters)
A mellow, intellectual 'bot who dreams of space travel.- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Lightspeed can easily be distracted by external happenings amidst his missions.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Lightspeed pulls this off in the show as well (in "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1") by taking a split-second to look at the situation and coming up with a plan that he quickly sets in motion through his teammates. And it works.
- Cool Car: His alt mode is a cybertronian car.
- Greater Need Than Mine: Lightspeed would like nothing more than for his alt mode to be modified into a starship, so he can explore the galaxy. But he reluctantly puts that dream aside, aware that winning the war against the Decepticons must come first.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Lightspeed is a variation of this. He's a futuristic car who would love nothing more than to be reformatted into a spaceship to explore the universe.
- Super-Speed: Lightspeed describes himself as being "faster than a speeding photon" and is said by his Tech-Specs to be capable of accelerating from 0 to 500 mph in eight seconds. Unfortunately, he isn't given many opportunities to actually demonstrate his advanced speed, unlike Blurr.
Nosecone (ノーズコーン nōzukōn)
Function: Assault Vehicle
Alt Mode: Drill Tank
"It's not who's the fastest; it's who reaches the finish line."
Voiced by: Dave Workman (EN), Yutaka Shimaka (JP; Cartoon), Koji Totani (JP; The Headmasters)
Slow and ponderous, Nosecone is the most level-headed Technobot.- Badass Bookworm: Nosecone is a bookworm and is capable of smashing Decepticons. He even knows how to do it right and carefully.
- Drill Tank: Nosecone transforms into one, powerful enough to drill through the walls of Unicron's head in the cartoon.
- Manchild: Justified with Nosecone once he activates. His initial personality is that of a confused kid discovering the world around him.
- Mighty Glacier: Nosecone is extremely slow and methodical in everything he does. Fortunately, he is heavily armored in both modes, allowing him to withstand enemy firepower long enough to get the job done.
- This Is a Drill: Nosecone turns into a drill tank and has used his drill for combat. In The Transformers: Combiner Wars its position on Computron's knee is used to hurt Menasor when Computron knees him in the stomach. The Unite Warriors redesign for Nosecone allows Computron's hand to become a massive drill.
Afterburner (アフターバーナー afutābānā)
Function: Gunner
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Motorcycle
"Following leaders leads nowhere."
Voiced by: Jim Cummings (EN), Toshiro Ishii (JP)
A furious, hot-headed and uncooperative rebel.- Commander Contrarian: His dislike of being given orders means he tends to do the opposite of what he's told to do. When he combines with the others, his contribution to Computron's calculations is to provide the "counter-analysis" to Scattershot's "conclusions".
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Subverted. When the Technobots are united as Computron, Afterburner's pushing back against his teammates ensures that they consider other possible ideas. If they come up with an idea that even Afterburner can agree on, it's probably the right one.
- Cool Bike: Afterburner's alt mode is a cybertronian motorcycle that can even drive up walls.
- Driving Up a Wall: In motorbike mode, his tires release an adhesive that allow him to drive up walls.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Afterburner has a Berserk Button that is constantly in some state of pressed.
Strafe (ストレイフ sutoreifu)
Function: Aerial Gunner
Alt Mode: Starfighter
"Shoot everywhere - since that's where the enemies are."
Voiced by: Steve Bulen (EN) Koji Totani (JP; Cartoon), Masashi Ebara (JP; The Headmasters)
A flighty and erratic gunslinger.- Cool Starship: Like Scattershot, his alt mode is a starfighter.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: He's got pretty accurate aim despite his tendency to shoot first, think second.
- Nervous Wreck: He's constantly paranoid about being attacked, so he fires his weapons without thinking.
- Super-Reflexes: Has extremely fast reflexes, which he utilizes by going guns blazing anytime he senses danger.
Computron (コンピューティコン konpyūtikon)
Function: Warrior
"Complete data analysis is essential for the synthesis of successful strategy."
Voiced by: Bert Kramer (EN), Yoku Shioya (JP), Masashi Ebara (JP; The Headmasters)
A rarity for combiners, Computron is mentally much more than the sum of his parts. Being the combined intellect of the Technobots, he's effectively a supercomputer that can calculate odds with pinpoint precision.- Adapted Out: Computron never appears in the original IDW continuity. While all five members of the Technobots were together at multiple points, they never became Combiners due to the IDW continuity establishing that Combiner technology was very experimental outside of the Enigma of Combination, and by time that came into play, all but Scattershot and Strafe had long been killed.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: He takes forever to make a move in a fight, but once he does? OHKO all the way, baby. (It's actually getting that hit in before he gets pulverized that's the problem.)
- Begin with a Finisher: Computron is aware of his own stunted reaction time due to his immense processing power. Thus, when he does make his move, it's often a very decisive one based on a Fatal Flaw he notices in his opponents. For example, when he finds Abominus physically stronger than him in a direct grapple, his solution is to grab Abominus by the shoulders and vibrate him so hard his joints give out and forcibly disengage the Terrorcons.
- Genius Bruiser: Computron may have an advanced intellect, but that doesn't stop him from packing a huge punch to go along with his high IQ.
- Gone Horribly Right: Scattershot insisted that all the Technobots' combined intellects and analytical abilities be maximized when they formed Computron. Unfortunately, this can drastically slow down his reaction time as he considers every alternative before he acts.
- Mighty Glacier: While other combiners' weaknesses center around only being able to do what all their component personalities can agree on, Computron's problem is that he tries to combine all the ideas and thoughts of all his components. He spends more time thinking about the best option to take, which leaves him vulnerable to attack.
- Super-Intelligence: Instead of surpressing the mental abilities of his components, Computron combines all the Technobots' intellects in order to become a giant supercomputer. The cartoon's origin for Computron has his intelligence come from a temporarily super-intelligent Grimlock, who sacrifices his newly-gained wits in order to grant Computron his massive intellectual capabilities.
- Super Prototype: Transformers (2019) made him the first Autobot combiner of the continuity, forged from an artificial Enigma of Combination. Computron also formed as a fairly stable individual in contrast to the violent aggression that Abominus and Devastator formed with.
The Throttlebots (スロットルボット surottorubotto)
Chase
Freeway
Searchlight
Rollbar
Wideload
Function: Scout (Chase), Saboteur (Freeway), Surveillance (Searchlight), Tracker (Rollbar), Materials Transport (Wideload)
Alt Modes: Ferrari Testarossa sports car (Chase), Chevrolet Corvette C4 (Freeway), Volkswagen Beetle (Goldbug), Jeep CJ-7 (Rollbar), Ford RS200 (Searchlight), Mining Dump Truck (Wideload)
Chase: "Hunters drive; targets park."
Freeway: "Words can cut deeper than steel."
Searchlight: "Seeing is, by itself, not enough for believing."
Rollbar: "When the going gets tough, the tough get driving!"
Wideload: Look good and you'll have the world in your pocket."
Freeway: "Words can cut deeper than steel."
Searchlight: "Seeing is, by itself, not enough for believing."
Rollbar: "When the going gets tough, the tough get driving!"
Wideload: Look good and you'll have the world in your pocket."
Voiced by: Rob Paulsen (Chase), Danny Mann (Freeway), Steve Bulen (Searchlight), Dan Gilvezan (Rollbar) and Corey Burton (Wideload) (EN), Akimitsu Takase (Freeway), Masashi Hirose (Searchlight), Kunihiko Yasui (Rollbar) and Takao Ishii (Wideload) (JP; "The Rebirth"), Tomomichi Nishimura (Chase), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Freeway), Masaharu Satō (Searchlight) and Masato Hirano (Wideload) (JP; The Headmasters)
A group of Autobots led by Goldbug, the former Bumblebee. They are Chase, Freeway, Searchlight, Rollbar and Wideload. Tropes about Goldbug go in his own folder on the 84'-85' page.
- Butt-Monkey: In Transformers: The★Headmasters, they tended to be put through the wringer on a regular basis.
- Composite Character: Rollbar has many characteristics of both Brawn and Trailbreaker.
- Decomposite Character: At times Goldbug is a separate character from Bumblebee.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Wideload isn't very popular with his teamates, due to being stuffy and superficial.
- Jerkass: Freeway thinks he's a comedian. The others... don't.
- Killed Off for Real: The Throttlebots don't have the best track record.
- In the Marvel comics the whole team is offlined by an Underbase-powered Starscream before they can even transform.
- In the Generation 2 comics Chase is killed by Megatron.
- In the IDW comics Freeway and Wideload are killed fighting Sixshot, while Searchlight is cut in half by a Maximal, leaving Chase, Rollbar and Goldbug as the survivors.
- Light 'em Up: In vehicale mode, Searchlight's headlights are bright enough to blind the enemy.
- Motor Mouth: Chase talks very fast.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In the Marvel comic series, the Throttlebots lost their bodies to humans, but the components containing their minds were placed in toy cars. While Goldbug was fortunate enough to get a new body relatively quickly, the others remained trapped for quite some time until meeting up with their fellow Autobots again. They finally got new bodies... only to be wiped out by the Underbase-powered Starscream soon after.
- Sixth Ranger: Goldbug. Sometimes he isn't even acknowledged as part of the team.
- Sudden Name Change: Chase had his name changed to Roadburn in the Titans Return toyline most likely due to the far more visible and well-known one from Transformers: Rescue Bots.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They replaced the Mini-Vehicles in the toy line, with some of them having similar alt-modes and personalities to previous Mini-Vehicles.
- Chase is one to Cliffjumper, hot-blooded attitude and alt mode.
- Rollbar is one to Brawn, with his alt-mode and personality being very similar to him.
- The Quiet One: Searchlight is very quiet and withdrawn. Fitting for his main role as a spy.
- Watch the Paint Job: For a dump truck, Wide Load is very particular about his appearance.
- Wrong Line of Work: Wideload is a Narcissist whose main concern is keeping his armor shiny. His role as materials transport usually leads to him being covered in dirt (which he complains about non-stop).
The Trainbots (トレインボット toreinbotto)
Shouki
Getsuei
Suiken
Seizan
Yukikaze
Kaen
Raiden
Function: Light-speed Commander (Shouki), Night Fighter (Getsuiei), Heavy Snow Fighter (Yukikaze), Plains Warrior (Suiken), Mountain Fighter (Seizan), Heavy Mobile Fighter (Kaen), Heavy Series-Linked Gestalt Warrior (Raiden)
Alt Modes: Zero Shinkansen bullet train (Shouki), EF-65-1000 Electric Locomotive (Getsuiei), 200 Shinkansen bullet train engine (Yukikaze), Tokai-type 153 Express locomotive (Suiken), 485 Limited Express Electric Locomotive (Seizan), DE-10 diesel locomotive (Kaen)
Voiced by: Keiichi Noda (Shouki & Raiden) Michihiro Ikemizu (Shouki, ep 1), Kazuo Oka (Getsuei), Ken Yamaguchi (Yukikaze), Kazumi Tanaka (Suiken), Masaharu Sato (Kaen) (JP; The Headmasters), Russ Veillard (Raiden) (EN; Call of the Future)
The Trainbots are an Autobot subgroup that transform into trains and can combine into the mighty Raiden. Having been constructed in Japan, they consider the country to be their homeland, even going so far as to adopt Japanese names, which is unusual for Transformers. Due to this love for their "birthplace", the Trainbots feel especially protective of the country, its people, and its culture.
- Combining Mecha: They can combine into a single supertrain as well as the Gestalt warrior Raiden.
- Cool Train: All of them turn into trains who are used in Japan.
- "Day of the Week" Name: The names of the Trainbots are associated with the Japanese names of the days of the week.
- Shouki with Light/Sun - Sunday: Nichiyoubi.
- Getsuei with Moon - Monday: Getsuyoubi.
- Kaen with Fire - Tuesday: Kayoubi.
- Suiken with Water - Wednesday: Suiyoubi.
- Yukikaze's green color scheme associates him with Wood - Thursday: Mokuyoubi.
- Seizan with Earth - Saturday: Doyoubi.
- Raiden's electric/lightning theme associates him with Gold/Metal - Friday: Kinyoubi.
- The Dividual: The Trainbots have never stood out from one another. At best, Shouki got to star in the chapter of an obscure manga to promote a redeco of Classics Astrotrain as him.
- Dub Name Change: Subverted. Unlike most Transformers, the Trainbots were never imported to US markets and were even given Japanese names, which is actually acknowledged as unusual. When they were released in western markets under the Masterpiece line, their names stuck.
- Elemental Motifs: While they don't have elemental powers, each Trainbot can be associated with an element:
- Shouki can be associated with wind and light due to his speed and blue and white color scheme.
- Getsuei is associated with the night and shadows, he's even described as sluggish and daydreamy during the day.
- Suiken can be associated with water and storms, even his preliminary name was going to be storm.
- Seizan is associated with the earth due to being the mountain warfare specialist.
- Yukikaze is unsurprisingly associated with snow and ice.
- Kaen has an obvious fire motif and a hot-headed personality.
- Raiden is associated with thunder and lightning, being named after Raijin, the Japanese god of thunder and lightning.
- Fire/Ice Duo: Kaen specialization is heat while Yukikaze specializes in cold, which makes it difficult for them to work together at times.
- Flawed Prototype: Raiden has one in G-Liner, who is made up of another team of Trainbots, consisting of Doctor, Silver, Crystal, Thunder, Battle and Miracle.
- Leader Forms the Head: As is typical for combiner teams, Shouki is the leader and he makes up the head and torso.
- Meaningful Name:
- Getsuei roughly spells 'Midnight', which goes well for the nocturnal warrior.
- Seizan translates to 'Western Mountain', and he is the mountain warrior.
- Yukikaze means 'Snow Wind', fitting for a snow warrior.
- Kaen roughly translates to 'Blaze', which goes well with his hot-headed personality.
- Suiken roughly means 'Water Fist' or 'Drunken Fist'. No indication he's a Drunken Master, though.
- The Rival: Raiden has been classified as Devastator and later Predaking's rival.
- Robo Family: Shouki and Yukikaze are brothers.
- Super-Speed: Shouki is considered the fastest of the Trainbots, especially when combined with the others to create a supertrain.
W Cassettebots (Wカセットボット daburu kasettobotto)
Noise
Graphy
Decibel
Dile
Zaur
Legout
Function: Forest Investigation (Noise), Aerial Intelligence (Graphy), Energy Resource Scout (Dile), Water Source Development (Zaur), Information Gestalt Warriors (Decibel and Legout)
Alt Modes: Micro-Casettes
A sub-group of the Autobot Micro-Casettes consisting of Noise (Allosaurus) and Graphy (Pteranodon), and Dile (Iguanodon) and Zaur (Brontosaurus). Made up of dinosaur robots, they can double-up with a partner to form a humanoid robot. Being only sold in Japanese markets means they're rather obscure.
- Animal Mecha: All of their robot modes are dinosaurs.
- Aquatic Sauropods: Zaur turns into a Brontosaurus and is an expert in water combat and exploration.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Dile's scouting for energy sources tend to be sidetracked by his curiosity.
- Bit Character: Legout's only appearance in the IDW comics was during a flashback as a protestor of Autobot corruption. Decibel's only role in the same continuity is a brief appearance as a crew member of the Lost Light.
- Combining Mecha: Graphy and Noise combine into Decibel, while Zaur and Dile combine into Legout.
- Cuteness Proximity: Zaur has an unexpected affection for squirrels and little birds.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Zaur is colored dark blue, almost black, but he's an heroic Autobot.
- Gentle Giant Sauropod: Zaur is a Brontosaurus and described as a very nice bot.
- Good Counterpart: They can be seen as the good counterparts of Overkill and Slugfest.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Dile and Zaur turn into herbivorous dinosaurs and are far more easygoing than the predatory Noise.
- Hero-Worshipper: Noise idolizes Grimlock.
- Out of Focus: Even by Micro-Cassette standards, the four and their combined forms are rarely seen in media.
- Predators Are Mean: Noise is an aggressive predatory dinosaur.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Noise is the violent and aggressive red to Graphy's calm Blue. Interestingly their color schemes are the reverse of this dynamic.
- Robo Family: Decibel and Legout are described as brothers. How does that affect their respective components is unexplained.
- Shoulder Cannon: Decibel comes with a Fire Blasters on each shoulder.
- Super-Toughness: Zaur can dive to depths of 1,500m.
- Token Flyer: Like Swoop for the Dinobots, Graphy is the only member of the group who can fly, being a pterosaur.
