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 Decepticons introduced between 1988 and 1990.
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1988 Decepticons
Bomb-Burst (ボム・バースト bomu-bāsuto)
Function: Predator
Alt Mode: VTOL Suborbital Fighter
"The greater the foe, the sweeter his fuel."
A twisted, vampire-like Decepticon Pretender whose bat-monster shell, while highly inefficient in its energy consumption, can corrode metal with its touch and leech the energy from other Cybertronians to strengthen Bomb-Burst.
- Bat People: His Pretender shell is a monstrous-looking humanoid bat.
- Blinded by the Light: His optics are over-sensitized to light, so he shuns brightly lit places and sunlight.
- Cool, but Inefficient: Bomb-Burst's Pretender shell is a vampiric weapon that can inflict rusting on contact, can drain Autobots of their fuel, and bolsters his strength the more victims he claims. However, said shell is not only energy-inefficient, but it risks draining Bomb-Burst himself, forcing him to drain a large number of victims to offset this.
- Death by Looking Up: In the Marvel comics, Bomb-Burst is crushed under Unicron's foot alongside the Autobot Hardhead.
- The Dreaded: Bomb-Burst is regarded as a dark and terrifying legend among Autobots for his preferred methods of silently hunting them down and picking them off, one by one, leaving behind mangled corpses sucked dry of fuel that are only found in dawn's light.
- God in Human Form: His Power of the Primes toy is a disguised Megatronus.
- Harmful to Touch: His Pretender shell is specially textured to give any robot that touches it a "rust rash".
- Land, Sea, Sky: Of the first wave Decepticon Pretenders, Bomb-Burst has a jet alternate mode, in contrast to his wavemates' land and sea-based altmodes.
- Our Vampires Are Different: He's a giant alien robot who feeds on the energy of other robots because it both increases his strength and because his specialised armor will swiftly drain him of energy if he doesn't.
- Space Plane: His altmode is a Cybertronian jet with VTOL rotors in the wings.
- Vampiric Draining: With serrated fangs, Bomb-Burst's Pretender shell can pierce an enemy's armor and drain their fuel, using it to bolster Bomb-Burst's own strength.
- Weapon Specialization: While in his Pretender shell, a battle axe is one of his weapons of choice.
Bugly
Function: Strategist
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Hoverjet
"The greatest power is the power to control."
A Decepticon warrior with pinpoint maneuverability in the air, and a practitioner of Circuit-Su, an ancient Cybertronian martial art. His Pretender shell resembles a giant insectoid creature, with powerful electric stingers in the helmet.- Big Creepy-Crawlies: His Pretender shell is a large insectoid monster, befitting his name.
- Co-Dragons: In The Dark Ages, he's one of The Fallen's goons, alongside Bludgeon and Mindwipe.
- Control Freak: He likes to have his fellow Decepticons follow his orders and strategies to the letter, relishing domination over others.
- Fantastic Fighting Style: Practices a martial art called Circuit-Su.
- Killed Off for Real: In Dreamwave's Generation One comics he's killed alongside Mindwipe and Bludgeon.
- Killed Offscreen: In The Transformers: Regeneration One, an undead Bugly is seen among Megatron's zombie army on Earth, despite his death never being shown or alluded to in the original Marvel comic.
- Land, Sea, Sky: Like the first wave of Decepticon Pretenders, the second wave continues the theme with their altmodes; Bugly represents "sky" by turning into a Cybertronian jet.
- The Paralyzer: His stingers are capable of subduing some 'bots. In extreme cases, it causes permanent paralysis.
- Power Pincers: Instead of a right hand, Bugly's Pretender shell has a large crablike claw.
- Punny Name: His pretender shell is a bug and rather ugly.
- Shock and Awe: Uses Circuit-Su to channel his energy into electric blasts and can use the the stingers in his helmet to deliver electric shocks.
- The Strategist: His primary function, as his Tech Specs helpfully point out, is to devise new strategies and tactics in battle.
Carnivac (カーニバック kānibakku)
Function: Hunter/Tracker
Alt Mode: Wolf
"A cunning smile is more devastating than the fiercest weapon."
A Pretender whose shell and alt mode are wolf-shaped. The original leader of the Mayhem Attack Squad, Evil Counterpart of the Wreckers.
- Adaptational Heroism: While his toy bio solicits him as a crazy sadist, his main appearances in fiction (Marvel UK and IDW) cast him as a Noble Demon at worst and an Anti-Hero at best. Beyond that he's often just background filler and presumably no worse than the average Decepticon.
- Anti-Hero: Post-Heel–Face Turn in Marvel UK continuity. Somewhere between a Type II and a Type III (arguably a type IV in his revenge arc).
- Anti-Villain: Before Heel–Face Turn in UK comic continuity.
- Ax-Crazy: His Dreamwave incarnation supposedly went nuts a long time ago, becoming a savage monster.
- Blood Knight: (Marvel UK) As he says to Springer: "I'm a Decepticon warrior! The need to fight is in my oil." However, he comes to value the fight for more than its own sake whilst defending humans from his former Decepticon comrades.
- Cruel Mercy: Stops Springer from killing Bludgeon, Stranglehold and Octopunch as he reasons "denying them their 'warrior's death' is the worst fate I could think of".
- Defector from Decadence: Marvel UK. Breaks away from the Mayhem Attack Squad with his Pretender comrade Catilla and joins up with the remnants of the Wreckers to form the Survivors. Later comes to admire and value human life.
- The Dragon: To Tarantulas in The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers.
- Enemy Mine: Teams up with the Wreckers to fight Megs and Galvy in Time Wars.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's been shown to have a noble side that other Decepticons do not.
- Face–Heel Turn: In an inversion of his Marvel UK characterization, in the IDW continuity he was originally an Autobot before he joined the Decepticons.
- Fire-Forged Friends: With Springer and the Wreckers as a result of their Time Wars team-up.
- Heel–Face Turn: Again, in Marvel UK continuity. Joins the Autobots and comes to appreciate the value of human life; however, he still retains his Decepticon ruthlessness when fighting his former comrades. See Cruel Mercy and Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Noble Demon: In the Marvel UK continuity, he disobeys his orders to "kill any Wreckers left standing" after fighting with them against Galvatron and Megatron in Time Wars.
- Noble Wolf: While his toy bio and Dreamwave incarnation paints him as a savage wolf, two of his most famous incarnations (Marvel UK and IDW) make him this.
- Out of Focus: Carnivac has sadly never regained the focus he got in the Marvel UK days.
- Purple Is Powerful: His robot mode is purple and he's one of the most capable members of the Mayhem Attack Squad.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Marvel UK.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Takes out most of the New Mayhem Attack Squad after they kill his comrade, and fellow Defector from Decadence, Catilla. However, he spares Bludgeon, Stranglehold and Octopunch in the spirit of Cruel Mercy.
- Weaponized Animal: Even in his pretender wolf shell, Carnivac has an "anti-thermal cannon" on his back.
Doubledealer (ダブルディーラー daburudīrā)
Function: Mercenary
Alt Modes: Vulture, Missile Carrier Truck
"The price of victory is never too high."
An amoral Double Powermaster who works both sides of the Autobot and Decepticon conflict to maximize profits for himself.- Agent Provocateur: The IDW comics (alongside the toy's tendency to be marketed as a Decepticon) imply that he is at least nominally a Decepticon agent embedded into the Autobot ranks as a provocateur. However, he is still steering things toward the outcome that will give him the highest amount of credits, and there's nothing to keep him loyal to the Decepticons in the face of potentially better offers.
- Appropriated Appellation: Originally called Dealer, the Decepticons nicknamed him Doubledealer because of his duplicitous nature.
- The Artifact: Doubledealer was an oddity in that he was a triple changer with only one vehicle mode and two robot modes. Originally his humanoid robot mode was the form he took when an Autobot and his condor robot mode was the form he took as a Decepticon. Nowadays this has been dropped and Doubledealer's humanoid robot form is considered his default appearance when dealing with both sides and his condor mode became just an alt-mode. The 2005 IDW comics omitted the condor mode entirely (with its redesign as an insect only appearing in concept art) and the 2020 toy made it so his robot mode could swap insignias (in contrast to his original toy, who's robot mode only had the Autobot logo and condor mode only had the Decepticon logo).
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance:
- It's very fitting that Doubledealer can turn into a vulture. Much like how the bird exploits dying animals for food, Doubledealer exploits both sides of the Autobot-Decepticon War for profit.
- The kibble parts belonging to Doubledealer's robot and beast modes are hidden away quite nicely, depending on which forms he chooses. This helps distance the relation between his Autobot and Decepticon personas considerably. The most blatant kibble parts are his vulture-mode wings in his robot-mode, which are folded neatly against his back in plain sight. Even then, they can easily pass off as a cape.
- Caped Mecha: In his robot mode, Doubledealer's vulture wings fold up against his back, making it seem like he's donned an understated, lavender cape.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Doubledealer seems to have gotten some ideas from Sanjuro and The Man With No Name, but they had a conscience... he doesn't.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Undercover as an Autobot AND as a Decepticon, so he can get benefits from both sides. He even uses two different robot modes (android as an Autobot, vulture as a Decepticon) to not be discovered. Fortunately for him, nobody seems to notice that the android and the bird seem to have the same vehicle mode.Doubledealer: "Show one face to the world. Hide the other. Be an island. Let no one in."
- Evil Counterpart: To Punch/Counterpunch, another faction-changer who was released the year before him. Punch is really an Autobot posing as a Decepticon, while Doubledealer is a manipulative backstabber loyal only to himself, despite not officially being a Decepticon.
- Feathered Fiend: His Decepticon persona is a mechanical vulture, erroneously described as a falcon on his tech specsnote .
- Gambit Pileup: Falls victim to this in the IDW comics.
- Godhood Seeker: In the IDW comics, Doubledealer ultimately proves his true loyalties when he sees how powerful the Magnificence is.Doubledealer: "I imagine all it can do. The wonders and secrets it can unlock. And any lingering thoughts of surrendering it to the Decepticon Secret Service vanish. Why trade it when it can make me...omnipotent!"
- Killed Off for Real: IDW comics. Hot Rod shoots him square in the chest, he bursts into flames and plummets down a mountain, shattering to pieces on impact.
- Living Battery: He has two Powermaster partners, Nok and Skarr. Nok allows him to take on his robot mode, while Skarr enables him to take on his beast mode.
- Obviously Evil: After killing him, Hot Rod admits that his treachery was staring him in the face.
- Playing Both Sides: In his only Marvel UK appearance, he uses his dual identities to manipulate Optimus and Scorponok.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Which should be rather suspicious for an Autobot.
- Uplifted Animal: Skarr is a Nebulan bat-like creature, modified to act as a Powermaster.
Dreadwing (ドレッドウイング doreddouingu)
Darkwing (ブラックウイング durakkuuingu)
Function: Aerial Assault
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Jet
"Things are never as bad as they seem - usually they're worse."
Dreadwind (ドレッドウインド doreddouindo)
Function: Air Defense
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Jet
"Fear is a friend whose presence is felt long after he's left."
A grim Decepticon Powermaster duo who can combine their jet forms into the spacecruiser Dreadwing. Darkwing's partnered with the Nebulan thief Throttle while Dreadwind is paired with the rogue Nebulan scientist Hi-Test.
- Combining Mecha: Their jet modes can combine with each other to form the spacecruiser Dreadwing. Their Power of the Primes toys not only retain this functionality, but can also form a limbs for a combiner.
- Composite Character: In the Transformers: Generation 2 comic, G2 Dreadwingnote is an upgraded form of Darkwing rather than his own separate character.
- The Eeyore: Dreadwind is in the running against Dead End for Most Depressing Outlook In The Decepticon Army.
- Killed Off for Real: Dreadwind is shot to death and cannibalized in The Transformers (IDW).
- Living Battery: Hi-Test and Throttle.
- Portmanteau: The name of their combined form. Dreadwind + Darkwing.
- The Rival: The Marvel comics version of Hi-Test was the former assistant of HiQ, Optimus Prime's future Powermaster partner. Intent on proving himself superior, Hi-Test hired Throttle to steal HiQ's notes, using them to become Powermasters.
- Straw Nihilist: Darkwing has a similarly depressing outlook on existence as Dreadwind, but he sees this as motivation to actively make the lives of others worse.
Fangry
Function: Tracker
Alt Mode: Gargoyle
"Leaders are for fools who need to follow."
A hot-headed warrior with a tendency to rebel against authority, Fangry has complete faith in his judgment alone, no matter how flawed his reasoning may be. He is binary bonded to the Nebulan Brisko, who is smart enough to limit his influence to mild suggestions and reverse psychology.
- The Berserker: Hot-headed, kinda crazy and very angry and he fights like the angriest 'con around.
- Berserk Button: Throws a fit if he's given orders.
- Blow You Away: Carries a compressed air cannon in both modes.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Hated by squadmates and commanders alike, Fangry often ends up holding the line against the Autobots all by himself. He wouldn't have it any other way, though - the implication that he needs help would be insulting to him.
- Hate Sink: Both his Bio and his canon appearances make it clear Fangry's just an asshole through and through. In the Marvel comics, he keeps picking fights with Grimlock over the new peace and eventually restarts the war. In the 2005 IDW comics, he pals around with Kaput for a bit before killing him and dozens of other civilians to take over.
- Jerkass: Fangry's bio and his fictional appearances consistently characterize him as an asshole.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
- Manipulative Bastard: Brisko subtly directs Fangry's rage, lightly nudging him toward the targets he thinks his partner should be attacking.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: His beast form is depicted as a wolf with bat wings and a reptilian tail.
- Non-Standard Character Design: His beast mode's upper body has a far more organic-looking appearance (especially in the Marvel comics) than most G1 beastformers.
- Punny Name: His name is a combination of 'Fang' and 'Angry'.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: Fangry happens to have a green face and a mostly purple body.
- Too Dumb to Live: In the Marvel comics, he repeatedly picks a fight with Grimlock. In the final issue, it finally comes back to bite him, when Grimlock punches straight through his chest.
Finback (フィンバック finbakku)
Function: Naval Assault
Alt Mode: Hovercraft
"Ashes to ashes, rust to rust."
One of the earliest volunteers for the Pretender process, Finback is a grizzled veteran sporting numerous carbon scoring from previous battles. In a state of constant pain, his only remaining joy is in making Autobots suffer as much as he has.- Evil Cripple: Suffering from a corrosive disease which his Pretender shell is keeping in check.
- Fish People: His Pretender shell. It even appears as if it was wearing a iron mask.
- Killed Off for Real: In The Transformers he dies fighting Unicron, when the guns he's manning (meching?) overload and explode.
- Shadow Archetype: To the Autobot Pretender Splashdown. Both are aquatic-themed warriors, but while Splashdown is friendly and jovial, Finback is sour and constantly unhappy.
The Firecons (ファイヤーコン faiyākon)
Cindersaur
Flamefeather
Sparkstalker
Function: Firestorm Trooper (Cindersaur), Warrior (Flamefeather), Cryptologist (Sparkstalker)
Alt Modes: Mutant Lizard (Cindersaur), Harpy (Flamefeather), Kaiju (Sparkstalker)
Cindersaur: "Crash and burn... and burn... and burn."
Flamefeather: "The only good Autobot is a deactivated Autobot."
Sparkstalker: "The smallest details reveal the largest secrets."
The pyromaniac Cindersaur, the violent Flamefeather and the intelligent Sparkstalker, who can transform into a trio of fire-breathing beasts.
- Adaptational Badass: In the 2019 IDW comics, where they are stated to have ignited an entire planet's atmosphere, killing all life on it in moments.
- Ascended Extra: Sparkstalker got upgraded to a supporting character late in the IDW continuity and got some developement on his own away from Cindersaur and Flamefeather. He even got a Heel–Face Turn and a love interest.
- Ax-Crazy: Cindersaur and Flamefeather, much to Sparkstalker's chagrin.
- Back from the Dead: Despite his reported death in the Marvel comics, Sparkstalker returns alive and well in the Regeneration One comics.
- The Berserker: Cindersaur and Flamefeather, again, the former because of his unbelievable idiocy and the latter because he's so violent that even the Decepticon military academies didn't want him.
- The Cracker: Sparkstalker, a brilliant cryptologist and extremely stealthy, subtle hacker. Instead of using those talents, he's stuck babysitting a driveling idiot and a rage fueled hate machine.
- Breath Weapon: Take a wild guess.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Though whatever Cindersaur transforms into doesn't look like any real species of dinosaur, the fact that it's reptilian, breathes fire, and his name is Cindersaur alludes to this trope. Newer Cindersaur toys straight up redeco/retool him from characters who transform into actual dinosaurs, changing his alt-mode to a Tyrannosaurus Rex (Beast Wars Megatron) or a Velociraptor (Dinobot Slash).
- The Dividual: While their bios all display subtle differences between Cindersaur and Flamefeather and major differences with Sparkstalker, most fiction depicts them as a trio of like minded minions with flame powers.
- Dumb Muscle: Sweet Primus yes. Cindersaur and Flamefreather are dumb as a pair of smoldering stumps. Flamefeather is the brighter of the two, but only just. They're both stronger than their leader, Sparkstalker, but because they're such dim bulbs the only use they have is to be pointed vaguely in the direction of an enemy.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Sparkabots, Autobots with flame-throwing vehicle modes.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Cindersaur. "Hey guys, watch Fizzle sizzle!"
- Feathered Fiend: Flamefeather looks like a mechanical harpy and is probably the most violent of the three.
- Gonk: They are drawn with a very high degree of toy accuracy in robot mode in the Marvel comics. Unfortunately, this makes them all stumpy, chubby-looking dwarfs compared to more the proportionally humanoid designs of, say, the Seekers.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It's said that Flamefeather's greatest achievement in life was talking to someone for a full minute without going into a frothing rage.
- Killed Off for Real: Sparkstalker was accidentally incinerated by the idiotic Cindersaur in a Friend or Foe? incident.
- Only Sane Man: Sparkstalker, who is the only functional adult of the three. He's able to make plans, hold conversations, and not burn everything down either by accident or intent. He even manages to find a Conjunx Endura. By comparison, Cindersaur could probably be outwitted by a mundane blowtorch and Flamefeather is homicidally furious beyond all reason or sense.
- Pyromaniac: By definition, but Cindersaur in particular.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: Cindersaur's face is green, while his body is orange and magenta.
- Unexplained Recovery: Though incinerated in the Marvel comics, Sparkstalker shows up fine in the sequel Regeneration One.
- Wrong Line of Work: Sparkstalker is one of the Decepticons' most skilled hackers and could arguably give Soundwave a run for his money as a military intelligence asset. No one has yet offered a good explanation for why they instead decided to modify him into a Firecon and forced him to babysit a pair of barely-competent walking fire safety violations.
Horri-Bull (ホリブル horiburu)
Function: Ground Trooper
Alt Mode: Bull
"Smash all that stands and trample the rest."
A brutish thug with a Hair-Trigger Temper, Horri-Bull is a Card-Carrying Barbarian who constantly reeks of oil, grease, and smog. He is binary bonded to Kreb, who is nearly as slovenly as he is.- Brutish Bulls: Horri-Bull is a brutish Decepticon with a Hair-Trigger Temper who transforms into a bull.
- The Bully: He's an asshole who picks on other people, even other Decepticons. Also a pun.
- Kill It with Fire: Flamethrower tail-gun for robot mode, burning smoky breath for beast mode.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster. He later got his head blown off his shoulders, which was decidedly more fatal.
- No Accounting for Taste: Why was Needlenose dating this guy again?
- Shout-Out: While called a bull, his beast mode design owes a fair bit to the 'terror dogs' of Ghostbusters (which predated his release by two years).
- Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Not just gross but deliberately repulsive. He's proud about the fact that he can't remember his last bath. He's also extremely bad-tempered and abusive.
- Your Head Asplode: In the IDW comics thanks to an Autobot inhibitor/deterrence chip that was actually Soundwave's doing.
Iguanus (イグアナス iguanasu)
Function: Terror Trooper
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Motorcycle
"Sow the seeds of fear and victory is yours."
A Pretender whose polydermal shell resembles a lizard like creature, Iguanus has developed an obsession with reptiles, and secretly aspires toward the perfect synthesis of scales and steel, if such a thing is possible.- An Arm and a Leg: IDW comics. When he goes to Bludgeon about the Autobots having infiltrated the base, Bludegon's merged with his pretender shell, and the psychic shock causes him to go crazy and slice off one of Iguanus's arms and legs. He bleeds to death from the injury.
- Becoming the Mask: Ever since he gained a reptilian Pretender shell, he's been obsessed with them. His bio calls it 'misguided camaraderie.'
- Cool Bike: He transforms into a bike that is a dead-ringer for a Command & Conquer recon bike.
- Eldritch Abomination: In Regeneration One. The Autobots have no idea what the shadow-leeches are until they isolate one, analyze it, and discover to their horror that it used to be Iguanus...meaning that the other leeches used to be everyone else.
- Hypnotic Eyes: According to his Dreamwave profile, his shell comes equipped with a pair.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Fatally dismembered in Stormbringer by Bludgeon.
- In Regeneration One he's one of many absorbed by the Shadow Leeches, with his death in particular confirmed by the protagonists via scanning one.
- Narcissist: Swoons over his own freaky reptilian Pretender shell.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: A big creep in more ways than one. Even his bio calls him hideous, loathsome, and a monster.
Needlenose (ニードルノーズ nīdorunōzu)
Function: Aerial Warrior
Alt Mode: F-16XL Falcon Fighter Jet
"Get hip or get hit!"
A former Microchip designer before the war, Needlenose joined the Decepticons because he blamed the Autobots for the failure of his business. A Double Targetmaster, Needlenose is partnered with Zigzag and Sunbeam, who can combine to form a high-powered rifle.- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Finds Earth's fads and trends fascinating. So far, that means being a video game nerd.
- Combining Mecha: Needlenose becomes a component of Thunder Mayhem in Of Masters and Mayhem.
- Crying Wolf: Does this in the appropriately named Marvel UK strip Cry Wolf; his comrades don't take it well; Carnivac (HeelFaceTurned Decepticon with wolf Pretender shell and alt mode) uses Needlenose's fear and paranoia to his advantage, making the paranoid Decepticon the first target of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Empathic Weapons: Sunbeam and Zigzag.
- Even Evil Has Standards: During the Marvel Comics' storyline "Matrix Quest", he was disgusted over Thunderwing using Windsweeper as bait in his plan to take the Matrix.
- Evil Counterpart: Needlenose's interest on Earth culture makes him very similar to Jazz.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: He has a flamethrower in the IDW comics.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In The Transformers: Robots in Disguise where he's in love with Horri-Bull and tries to avoid fighting his brother Tracks.
- Mauve Shirt: The Transformers: Robots in Disguise, he keeps showing up doing odd jobs for the Decepticons or for himself, from enforcing the peace, to hiding Dirge, to beating up civilians, to advocating that the Autobots not kill Megatron.
- The Mourning After: Needlenose never got over Horri-Bull's death and blamed the Autobots for it because he never learned that it had actually been detonated by Soundwave.
- No Accounting for Taste: Why the chic, would-be trendsetter was dating the abrasive, phenomenally gross bully is anyone's guess.
- Related in the Adaptation: He is depicted as Track's brother in the IDW comics.
- Robo Family: His brother is the Autobot Tracks. Amusingly it's the Autobot who's the elitist snob. Unlike other siblings in the franchise there's no clear indication of what makes the two of them related.
- Sibling Rivalry: With his brother Tracks, as one is an Autobot and the other joined the Decepticons.
Quake (クェイク kweiku)
Function: Ground Assault
Alt Mode: Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank
"Nothing lasts forever... so why not destroy it now?"
A berserker with unconventional battle tactics, Quake's squadmates often fear that his aggressiveness in battle will leave them Collateral Damage. As a Double Targetmaster, he is paired with Tiptop and Heater, who can transform into Heavy Pistols, or combine into a massive plasma shotgun.- The Berserker: Violent to a fault. Other Decepticons have to dive for cover because he shoots everywhere and lets his hit count do the talking.
- The Brute: There isn't much to Quake other than he's violent, a bully and not very smart, making him this by default.
- The Bully: Basically a big ol' jerk that tries to pick on anyone he thinks is weaker than him, which usually comes back to bite him in the aft.
- Con Artist: Tiptop was once a circus strongman who turned his diet and exercise routine into a worldwide phenomenon. Then it was discovered that he had actually gained his strength from illegal muscle-enhancing chemicals, and the diet he promoted was not only ineffective, but dangerously unhealthy.
- Didn't Think This Through: His battle tactics can sometimes be quite inventive, but he never considers how they might affect his fellow Decepticons.
- Driving Up a Wall: His tank treads can exude an adhesive that allows him to scale even vertical surfaces.
- Dumb Muscle: His Strength, Endurance, Courage, and Firepower levels are quite high. His intelligence is only slightly better than Sludge, widely considered the dimmest bulb among the Dinobots.
- Empathic Weapons: Tiptop and Heater.
- Lazy Bum: Heater, a former street thug and chemical dealer who can't stand doing any real work.
- Mugging the Monster: Quake tends to underestimate people, and then tends to get his butt kicked. Most notably, he mocked the relatively diminutive Tigatron during the 3H comic era, and got his face vaporized off for his effort.
- Purple Is Powerful: A powerful brute who turns into a magenta-purple tank.
- The Sociopath: Described as one in the 2019 IDW continuity. Quake is unempathetic and relates more to stimulation from violence than anything else.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The turret in his tank mode can become a shotgun in robot mode. Also, Tiptop and Heater can combine to form a shotgun.
- Tank Goodness: Transforms into a tank, fitting for a strong and formidable Decepticon.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Quake has a bad habit of dying a lot.
- Generation 2: Blown up by Cybertronian forces.
- 3H comics: Destroyed by a Vok-empowered Tigatron.
- 2005 IDW comics: Died due to a cerebro-shell planted by Bombshell after Starscrem told him to die.
- Transformers (2019): Killed by Bumblebee in revenge for the murder of his protegé Rubble.
Roadgrabber (ロードグラバー rōdogurabā)
Function: Gunner
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Jet, Cybertronian Car, Attack Chariot
"Destruction has a beauty all its own."
A Decepticon Pretender with a mechanical shell that transforms into an armored vehicle. Enjoying inflicting pain but fearful of being injured himself, Roadgrabber specializes in hit and run attacks, taking advantage of his outer vehicle's speed and firepower.- Dirty Coward: He prefers to remain in his Pretender shell for the bulk of a battle, only coming out when there's nothing left but wounded Autobots who are too weak to fight back.
- For the Evulz: He's been known to blast the kneecaps out of a fleeing Autobot, just so he can enjoy the sight of them flailing around in agony.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Transformers: Wings of Honor he's not that effective or smart. When chased down a hallway, he emptied several clips into the wall behind him, reasoning that the pursuers have to come around the same corner and get shot (his companion said it was stupid, as they wouldn't run into a hallway riddled with gunfire).
- Red Shirt: In IDW comics he's killed when fighting Thunderwing. Adding insult to injury, almost everyone else in that fight turned up alive again later. Roadgrabber didn't.
- The Sociopath: Enjoys shooting Autobots and watching them die a slow death.
The Seacons
A team of six Decepticons who transform into sea creatures. They are Snaptrap (leader, a turtle), Nautilator (a lobster), Overbite (a shark), Seawing (a manta ray), Skalor (a coelacanth) and Tentakil (a squid).
- Animal Mecha: All of them transform into sea animals.
- Combining Mecha: They form Piranacon.
- Composite Character: With the Beast Wars II Seacons in the Classics continuity.
- Determinator: Every Seacon (even Nautilator) shares a common trait — extreme determination in pursuing the target they want to hunt down, which results in Piranacon becoming endlessly relentless.
- The Dividual: As is usual with Combiner teams, but also given their lack of appearances, the team has never managed to stand out much from one another. Taken to its logical extreme in the Super-God Masterforce anime, where they're an army of mass produced drones except for Snaptrap (or Turtler), who even then is mostly just a grunting brute.
- Egomaniac Hunter: All of them are obsessed with hunting, which is taken to such an extreme in Piranacon that Snaptrap had to install an automatic timer to ensure they'd separate after a certain amount of time, to prevent Piranacon from hunting forever.
- Fiendish Fish: Seawing transforms into a manta ray and Skalor transforms into a Coelacanth.
- Graceful in Their Element: With the exception of Nautilator, they are generally far more capable and dangerous in deep water. On land, their creature modes are for the most part ungainly and slow.
- Killed Off for Real:
- In The Transformers, the entire team is frazzled during the Underbase saga. Adding insult to injury, in the US comics, this was but a few issues after they'd been introduced. In an issue of the UK Marvel series, Megatron attempted to go back in time and save them to add to his army but he was foiled and the Seacons remained dead. However, they were revived later in the Classics timeline.
- In the Classics timeline, the stories homaged Beast Wars II and the Seacons had some change-ups to reflect that. Megatron, Dirge, and the Seacons crash on an irradiated planet, and when Nautilator and Tentakil go outside the radiation immobilizes them and they're trampled to death by a herd of buffalo. This was done to make the team more in line with their BWII counterparts who lacked a Nautilator and Tentakil was replaced by Scylla (who debuts in that Classics storyline). With the loss of two components, Piranacon seems to have died as well as the combination of the remaining four Seacons and Scylla identifies as a new separate being, God Neptune.
- IDW's 2005 continuity gives a number of ambiguous fates to the Seacons in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. Seawing is gunned down and Snaptrap is dismembered, neither is confirmed dead (Snaptrap previously surviving being stabbed through the head). Nautilator wasn't so lucky with Whirl blowing his head apart effectively killing him. Overbite was not affiliated with the group in this continuity but he would later be killed by Overlord.
- Mighty Glacier:
- Piranacon is one of the slowest combiners both inside and outside the water.
- Snaptrap is also as slow as the turtle he gets his alt mode from, but he is a Nigh-Invulnerable Walking Armory.
- Undying Loyalty: In the Classics timeline, they are, first and foremost, loyal to Megatron. Though they were initially serving Bludgeon after the end of the war, when Megatron came to seize the Decepticon leadership back, they immediately sided with him, initially serving as his Deep Cover Agents, and then killing Bludgeon when the time came right.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: In the Marvel US comics, they were killed three issues since their debut.
Snaptrap
Function: Seacon Team Leader
Alt Mode: Mutant Turtle
"Broken Autobots never mend."
- Blood Knight: Snaptrap's favorite part of the hunt is the kill.
- Leader Forms the Head: Snaptrap is the leader and he always makes the head and torso of Piranacon.
- Loud of War: The cannons on Snaptrap's back fire sonic shells.
- Red Baron: Snaptrap is known as "The Butcher of the Bogs", after an incident when he ambushed and killed a group of Autobots in the Toxic Sludge Swamps on his own.
- Sturdy and Steady Turtles: Snaptrap transforms into a tortoise with Nigh-Invulnerable shell, but with extremely low speed (marked as 2 out of 10 in Tech Specs).
- Walking Armory: Snaptrap's tech specs give him enough firepower to equip the rest of the Seacons on his own.
Nautilator
Function: Underwater Excavations
Alt Mode: Mutant Lobster
"Blame someone else before they blame you."
- Butt-Monkey: Nautilator has a particularly bad luck. He's a very poor swimmer and is very suspectible to rusting (in spite of the fact that he is a part of the team suited for underwater warfare), has No Sense of Direction, frequently gets lost, and is loathed by his fellow Seacons due to his uselessness. If not for the fact that he occasionally brings something useful during his scavenging (and the team discovers it only because they constantly have to drag his aft out of the latest place he gets stuck in), he would've been left behind to drown and rust away.
- Also a meta example: Nautilator was excluded the first time the team was sold as a multi-pack. Later multi-pack releases do include him.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Nautilator transforms into a giant lobster.
- The Klutz: Described as a "stumbling, bumbling amphibious foul-up" in his tech specs, Nautilator is exceptionally poor swimmer who frequently gets lost during the underwater missions, much to his teammates' irritation.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Nautilator. His physical abilities are certainly impressive...but he's such a moron that the rest of the Seacons end up Face Palming every time he gets himself in trouble and they have to rescue him.
- The Load: The rest of the Seacons see Nautilator as a good-for-nothing millstone, since they've repeatedly had to fish his chassis out of the depths whenever he gets himself lost. Whenever they form Piranacon, the Seacons always make Nautilator serve as their weapon, rather than let him form a body part, so that they don't have to mentally merge with him. When Nautilator is allowed to form one of Piranacon's limbs, the gestalt's performance is noticeably impaired. As Snaptrap says, if Nautilator didn't occasionally find something useful when he got lost, they would have left him to rust a long time ago.
- Never My Fault: Nautilator is, according to his tech specs, a "stumbling, bumbling amphibious foul-up". Of course, whenever he's called out for his screw-ups, he always tries to shift the blame to someone else.
- Super Drowning Skills: Nautilator tends to rust easily, he can't navigate to save his spark, and he has trouble swimming. And he's a member of the Decepticons' underwater strike force.
- Wrong Line of Work: Nautilator was assigned to the Seacons without receiving any aquatic combat training. While he loves the ocean, he is a poor swimmer, and can't navigate to save his life. His teammates are deeply irritated at having to constantly rescue him from the depths.
Overbite
Function: Undersea Terminator
Alt Mode: Mutant Shark
"There are two kinds of creatures: predator and prey."
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Overbite's color scheme bears a purple not seen anywhere else on the Seacons. This distinction helps highlight Overbite's default placement as Piranacon's Targetmaster — contemporarily released Targetmasters in 1988 commonly have distinct colors from their handlers.
- For the Evulz: On his free time Overbite enjoys sinking oil tankers and picking off the drowning humans for sport.
- Land Shark: Overbite turns into a mutant shark with limbs, allowing him to fight on land too.
- Threatening Shark: Overbite transforms into a shark, and he greatly enjoys hunting his prey, even attacking human ships in his spare time when he's not busy attacking the Autobots.
Seawing
Function: Undersea Reconnaissance
Alt Mode: Mutant Manta Ray
"The darkest depths reveal the darkest secrets."
- Blinded by the Light: Due to his optics being specifically tuned for the dark sea depths, Seawing is vulnerable to bright lights.
- The Paralyzer: Seawing has eye rays which can temporarily freeze up a Cybertronian's body. They even work on Galvatron.
- Sinister Stingrays: Seawing, who uses his manta ray form to ominously glide through the water.
- The Starscream: Seawing, inside the team.
Skalor
Function: Amphibious Assault
Alt Mode: Mutant Coelacanth
"I stink, therefore I am."
- Acid Attack: Skalor's weapon mode is a double-barreled corrosive slime shooter.
- Lazy Bum: Unlike Blot, who is simply unable to keep up with his maintenance problems, Skalor could easily get his personal hygiene issues under control. He just can't be bothered to do so.
- The Pig-Pen: Skalor DOES NOT CARE about what other Decepticons think about his lack of personal hygiene.
- Sticky Situation: Skalor carries two "crustation rifles"; one fires a powerful glue, while the other fires shrapnel shards. When used in concert, they cover a target in tough, sticky particles until they're completely immobilized.
- Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Skalor, a disgusting slob who is as unkind as he is unsanitary.
Tentakil
Function: Underwater Demolitions
Alt Mode: Mutant Cephalopod
"Embrace your enemies... until they're terminated."
- Dying to Be Replaced: Gets killed off in Classics and is replaced by Scylla.
- False Friend: Tentakil is known to befriend people only to kill them once they get to trust him enough to let their defenses down.
- Faux Affably Evil: Tentakil is mentioned to be the cruelest Seacon of them all, which he masks by very friendly facade.
- Giant Squid: Tentakil transforms into a gigantic squid.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Tentakill's beast mode has a far more organic-looking appearance compared to the others.
- Psycho Pink: He has more pink than the other Seacons and he's the cruelest of them.
- Serial Killer: Tentakil operates like a serial killer, luring his victims into a false sense of security by getting along with them and knowing them better so that they'd lower their guard, and once they do, he kills them in a cold blood and then moves on to the next victim.
- Shock and Awe: Tentakil's weapon mode is a powerful lightning bolt rifle.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Tentakil has been known to lure in Autobots by claiming that his fellow Decepticons are forcing him to fight… then quickly proves otherwise by crushing them.
Piranacon
Function: Undersea Warrior
"Underwater, no one can hear you scream."
- BFS: Piranacon wields an incendiary sword, formed from Snaptrap's.
- Dumb Muscle: While Piranacon is reasonably intelligent for a combiner, he eschews his component's inhibitions in favor of a single-minded obsession with hunting. It's so strong that Piranacon generally refuses to stop if left unchecked, even when running low on fuel or covered in scars. Thus, Snaptrap had to install an automatic timer to force him and his partners to separate, thereby allowing them to regroup.
- Empathic Weapon: Piranacon's a "Scramble City" Combiner with special hands. So any one of his limbs can become his gun.
- Gone Horribly Right: The Seacons' mutual interest in hunting means they synergize very well when they combine. The result, however, perverts this interest into something too strong for his own health. To wit, Piranacon strongly neglects self-care, causing him to accumulate tons of battle-damage and forget to refuel. Without Snaptrap's combiner timer, the gestalt would surely kill himself.
- Hour of Power: Forcibly separates himself eventually thanks to an automatic timer.
- Prongs of Poseidon: Appropriately for the aquatic combiner team, Snaptrap/Piranacon wields a three-pronged incendiary sword, which appears to be a cross between a sword and a trident.
- The Worf Effect: Piranacon is claimed to be a nigh-unstoppable, terrifying murder machine. Galvatron once defeated him handily.Galvatron: What is this? Shockwave sends fish against me? Does he expect me to laugh myself to death?
Skullgrin (スカルグリン sukarugurin)
Function: Siege Warrior
Alt Mode: Cybertronian Tank
"Those who stand against me shall soon fall before me!"
A Decepticon Pretender whose shell is a monstrous, horned, skull-headed humanoid.- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Tends to favour his own interests more than the Decepticon cause and get distracted from his missions.
- The Berserker: What he becomes if he spends too much time in his shell, which was designed to bring out his base instincts.
- Depending on the Writer: Thanks to "Monstercon From Mars", writers are torn between having Skullgrin be a mindless brute obsessed with destruction and violence (per his tech specs) and his Marvel comic portrayal, who was smart, obsessed with fame and immersing himself in human culture (including becoming an actor), and showing kindness to humans. Dreamwave's profile books went with the notion that he's normally the latter, which annoyed his bosses, who programmed his Pretender shell to make him the former.
- Establishing Character Moment: Transformers #46 (Monstercon From Mars), which has Skullgrin embrace Earth and become a movie star, showing him as someone who was far more than a bruiser and who was interested in fame as an actor and capable of kindness towards humans.
- God in Human Form: His Power of the Primes toy is a disguised Liege Maximo.
- Killed Off for Real: G2 has him killed when his spaceship blew up in orbit.
- People in Rubber Suits: In-Universe example. He used his Pretender shell to become a star in monster films.
- Pet the Dog: Forms an actual friendship with an actress when he was taken to become an actor, and saves her later on. His teammates make fun of him for it.
Snarler (スナーラー sunārā)
Function: Assault Warrior
Alt Mode: Wild Pig
"Stealing isn't a crime, getting caught is."
A Pretender whose shell and alt mode resemble a wild pig. A member of the Mayhem Attack Squad alongside fellow Pretender beast Carnivac, Snarler is not above throwing his fellow soldiers into the line-of-fire ahead of him, if that's what it takes to survive.- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: His boar Pretender shell is colored blue.
- Didn't Think This Through: He's not quite smart enough to pull off his scams as skillfully as he'd like.
- Full-Boar Action: His pretender shell and regular alt-mode are both boars.
- It's All About Me: He possesses a short-sighted selfishness, even being unwilling to follow orders unless he's sure he can benefit from them (the fact that his superiors are perfectly happy to scrap him otherwise usually does the trick).
- Jerkass: Snarler is utterly unwilling to lift so much as a finger to help allies unless he's absolutely certain it'll benefit him.
- Mighty Glacier: Snarler's strong and durable, but his speed isn't much to write home about.
- This Is a Drill: His regular beast mode has a drill-snout.
Spinister (スピニスター supinisutā)
Function: Aerial Assault
Alt Mode: AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter
"Respect your foes' abilities as you would your own."
A Double Targetmaster who has few friends in the Decepticon ranks, but is highly respected for his combat prowess and uncanny ability to turn the tide of battle whenever he enters the fray.
- Bell-Bottom-Limbed Bots: His lower legs being formed from his helicopter cockpit(s) gives them a bell-bottomed look, especially thanks to the way they're curved.
- The Cameo: He appears in the Dreamwave Transformers: Armada comic, where he is the sole survivor of a dead Cybertron in another Universe.
- Combat Pragmatist: In the Marvel comics. When Carnivac comes for them, Spinister snipes him instead of fighting him hand to hand. When the Mayhems resolve to go down fighting, he opts to run.
- Combining Mecha: Of Masters and Mayhem makes him the right arm of the combiner Thunder Mayhem.
- The Ditz: In the 2005-2018 IDW comics.Misfire: If he seems distracted by his own fingers, it's because - and I present this as an empirical truth - he is truly the stupidest person in the universe.
- Empathic Weapons: Hairsplitter (heavy blaster) and Singe (flamethrower), who can also merge to form a sniper rifle.
- Enigmatic Minion: That's his bio in a nutshell, he's a mystery to all those around him, no one knows his motives. In the Regeneration 1 comics, all the Decepticons opt to work for Scorponok after he kills Misfire, while leaving, Spinister relays the information to Soundwave, for his own reasons.
- Genius Ditz: In the IDW continuity he's an expert surgeon despite being too dumb to count to three.
- Killed Off for Real: Carnivac killed him in the Marvel comics (the comics in question had questionable continuity, and all future appearances in that continuity keep him alive), and in the Dreamwave Transformers: Armada comic, he was killed by Unicron.
- Mythology Gag: His IDW personality, being a bit crazy in the head and all, hearkens back to the Dreamwave Transformers: Armada comic, where Optimus Prime meets an insane Spinister on a dead Cybertron.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Has no real animus toward his Autobot opponents, views his fellow Decepticons primarily as co-workers, and does not gloat about his own abilities.
- Punny Name: His name; spin (like a helicopter) + sinister (like a Decepticon).
- Purple Is Powerful: Spinister's color scheme is purple and violet and he's a pretty capable Decepticon, no matter the incarnation.
- The Quiet One: Rarely speaks, and when he does it's only about something relevant to the task at hand.
- Space Pirates: In the 2019 IDW continuity, he leads a crew of splicers, essentially the Cybertronian equivalent of the Harvesters from Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
- Weak, but Skilled: He has some impressive moves, but is seriously lacking in physical strength.
- Your Size May Vary: He's always been a tall bot, but it ranges from being a bit taller than average to being the largest of the Scavengers in the 2005 IDW continuity, rivaling Grimlock in stature.
Squawkbox (スクォークボックス sukwōkubokkusu)
Beastbox
Squawktalk
Squawkbox
Function: Interrogator (Beastbox), Translator (Squawktalk), Battlefield Dissonance (Squawkbox)
Alt Modes: Micro-Cassette (both)
Beastbox: "Speak now if you intend to ever speak at all."
Squawktalk: "If you have nothing interesting to say, say it anyway."
Squawkbox: "One being's noise is another's music."
The combined form of two of Soundwave's micro-cassettes, the chatty Squawktalk and the brutish Beastbox, Squawkbox is a scientist specializing in weaponizing sound. Viewing his creations as being akin to musical works of art, Squawkbox uses his "compositions" to disorient Autobots on the battlefield.
- Area of Effect: If he's not careful, Squawkbox's sound-based attacks can affect any of his fellow Decepticons within the vicinity.
- The Brute: Beastbox. And someone thought he was a good choice for interrogation. His bad temper usually means he beats his prisoners to death, without even taking down what they're trying to say.
- Killer Gorilla: Beastbox, hands down.
- Feathered Fiend: Squawktalk, though he is nowhere near as violent as Beastbox.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Squawktalk couldn't stop talking if his life depended on it. This habit doesn't exactly endear him to his comrades.Dirge: Not only does his constant ranting have the potential to alert the Autobots, it puts everyone around him on edge. If he doesn't shut up, I'm going to kill him myself.
- Gale-Force Sound: Squawkbox can produce a disorienting and physically damaging sound show.
- Innocently Insensitive: Squawktalk doesn't mean to annoy his teammates. He just loves the sound of foreign languages, and finds it pleasant and relaxing to listen to - even if he's the one speaking them.
- Omniglot: Squawktalk can request a cracker in trillions of languages.
- Remember the New Guy?: In the IDW comics, Soundwaves cassettes all are shown a little backstory, Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw found and befriended him, Rumble and Frenzy get retooled to work with him, and he forces Ratbat into a cassette body, but Squawkbox just shows up out of nowhere helping to deliver weapons to the newly formed Decepticon army.
- So Much for Stealth: Squawktalk's constant talking makes it impossible for him to follow through on any missions requiring some level of stealth.
- Wrong Line of Work: Beastbox is poorly suited to his role as an interrogator, due to losing his temper and beating his prisoners to a pulp with little provocation.
Squeezeplay (スクイーズプレイ sukuīzupurei)
Function: Saboteur
Alt Modes: Alien Crab
"Place brawn before brains and victory is yours."
A self-described engine of destruction, Squeezeplay has harnessed the tactical advantages of brute force and intimidation, using his aggression and ferocity to throw his opponents off balance. He is binary bonded to the pirate Lokos, whose craftiness counterbalances Squeezeplay's brutality.
- The Brute: While not unintelligent (the opposite, in fact), he prefers to rely on sheer force to win. The results are effective enough that Lokos usually lets him have his fun.
- Giant Enemy Crab: His alternate form is a huge crab beast. Most people confused it for a bipedal cobra with pincers, but that's not the case.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
Submarauder (サブマローダー sabumarōda)
Function: Undersea Warfare
Alt Mode: Alien Submersible
"Conquer the seas and the rest will fall!"
An aquatic Decepticon Pretender whose Pretender shell is a vaguely humanoid aquatic lifeform, something like the Creature from the Black Lagoon in Roman Legionary armour.- Becoming the Mask: His Pretender shell has engendered a very real respect and care for sea life.
- Berserk Button: Submarauder hates company in general, but people — human, Autobot, even Decepticon — interfering with the creatures he is so fascinated with really stirs him up.
- Forgets to Eat: Submarauder apparently can get so caught up in his studies and meditations that he forgets to return to base for refuelling.
- Genius Bruiser: The savage, raging berserker is actually, at heart, a reclusive and scholarly intellectual who finds great satisfaction in observing sea life and pondering the ocean's mysteries.
- God in Human Form: His Power of the Primes toy is a disguised Alchemist Prime.
- Hidden Depths: Let's face it, "easily-angered Decepticon warrior" and "scholar with a genuine love for sea creatures and the ocean" don't exactly go together at first glance.
The Triggercons (トリガーコン torigākon)
Composed of the whiny Crankcase, the loud Ruckus and the neat freak Windsweeper. They are part of the Mayhem Attack Squad.
- Combining Mecha: Ruckus and Windsweeper become components of Thunder Mayhem in Of Masters and Mayhem.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Autobot Triggerbots, though both groups were introduced at exactly the same time.
- Hidden Weapons: Their gimmick, shared with the Triggerbots. They can all flip out guns hidden inside their bodies.
Crankcase (クランクケース kurankukēsu)
Function: Data Collector
Alt Mode: High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle
"Things are never as good as they seem."
A grumpy, cynical Decepticon who enjoys being in a bad mood.- Ascended Extra: Crankcase was given a major role in the 2005 IDW series as a member of "The Scavengers" an ineffective team of Decepticons that the MTMTE comics would follow. Crankcase was their pilot and often played The Straight Man to whatever antics they got up to.
- The Cynic: Crankcase is always in a bad mood.
- Made of Iron: In the IDW comics, Crankcase been pummeled, electrocuted, and previously had a chunk of his head blown off. His original appearance had him survive an encounter with Thunderwing, a being who killed most of his squad (including Ruckus) and leveled at least two planets.
- Not Quite Dead: Crankcase and Ruckus both got smashed by Thunderwing. Crankcase was shown to have survived years later.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Crankcase was originally a scrawny, nerdy, constantly picked-on fuel spill janitor before getting an upgraded body complete with shoulder cannons.
- Only Sane Man: Shares this role with Krok as part of the Scavengers in MMTE.
Ruckus
Function: Combat Assault
Alt Mode: HPI Baja Dune Buggy
"I take a licking and keep on kicking."
A brash and boisterous Decepticon warrior.- Determinator: In the Marvel comics, he supposedly once got reduced to nothing more than his voicebox, and still did what he could to get a message to Megatron.
- Killed Off for Real:
- While Crankcase is shown to have survived Thunderwing's assault in Stormbringer, Ruckus wasn't so lucky.
- He doesn't survive being possessed by Exarchon during Transformers (2019).
- Meaningful Name: He's loud and can cause quite a ruckus.
- No Indoor Voice: Ruckus' signature character trait.
- Shoulder Cannon: His Triggercon guns rest on his shoulders in robot mode.
- Yellow/Purple Contrast: He's easily identified by his bright purple and yellow color scheme.
Windsweeper
Function: Air Defense
Alt Modes: Modified B-1B Lancer Bomber
"Uninvited guests soon become smoldering wrecks."
A neurotic neat freak who seeks to clean the skies of germs and any other impurities.- Neat Freak: Windsweeper, along with a bit of Terrified of Germs, to the point of shooting anything else in the air: planes, birds, insects, leaves, even clouds. He can be defeated by throwing garbage at him, as being dirty causes him to become irrational enough to literally blow a fuse.
- Skewed Priorities: In Spotlight Megatron, Windsweeper wonders if they should stop Starscream and Megatron from killing each other because they were making a mess. Skywarp threatens to Tele-Frag him if he tries.
- Token Flyer: He's the only flyer among the Triggercons.
- Trigger-Happy: Not in the sense that he is overly affectionate towards his guns, but in the sense that he shoots anything at the slightest provocation if it is considered unclean by his (admittedly extreme and monomanaical) standards. This includes taking potshots at things that theoretically can't be harmed by his lasers, such as trying to shoot down passing clouds.
1989 Decepticons
The Air Strike Patrol
Whisper
Storm Cloud
Nightflight
Tailwind
Function: Surveillance (Whisper), Electronic Warfare (Storm Cloud), Espionage (Nightflight), Reconnsaisance (Tailwind)
Alt Modes: Stealth Fighter (Whisper), Dassault Rafale Fighter Jet (Storm Cloud), F14D Tomcat Fighter Jet (Nightflight), A-10 Thunderbolt Fighter Jet (Tailwind)
Whisper: "Undetected in flight; undefeated in fight."
Storm Cloud: "The air is my playground."
Nightflight: "I prey like a vulture in the night."
Tailwind: "Revenge is sweet, victory is sweeter."
One of the first Decepticon Micromaster units, the Air Strike patrol specialize in surveillance, electronic warfare, and hit and run tactics. Consists of Whisper, Storm Cloud, Nightflight, and Tailwind, who are constantly fighting amongst themselves.- The Chessmaster: Tailwind, the only one of the group who stands a chance of success in scheming to take control of the team because he's both subtle and manipulative.
- The Cracker: Storm Cloud, in his team role as a combination virus writer and ECM specialist.
- Deck of Wild Cards: Arguably one of the best examples out there. Whisper is a strong and competent leader, who is unfortunately saddled with an entire squad of disloyal pains-in-the-aft. He gets his pick of Starscream pastiches too, including an incompetent egotist who couldn't plot his way out of a paper bag (Storm Cloud), a cowardly butt-kisser trying to suck up to senior officers (Nighflight), and an overly smug and annoying schemer who refuses to divulge his thoughts (Tailwind). It is probably no surprise that with this kind of team composition, Whisper's main complaint is that he can't solve this loyalty problem the way he wants... which is to say, to have the rest of the Patrol Shot at Dawn and request new squadmates.
- Dirty Coward: Nightflight, though he'll argue he's actually a Combat Pragmatist. In truth, Nightflight is too spineless for direct confrontation and would rather collect the scraps of other people's work.
- Killed Off for Real: In the first run of the Marvel Comics, #68 The Human Factor.
- The Mole: In an Evil Versus Evil scenario. They faked loyalty to Scorponok, but actually worked for Megatron.
- Mugging the Monster: They attack an oil refinery and run into Hector Dialonzo. They think he's just another flesh creature. They don't survive, as it turns out he's the superhero Dynamo.
- Only Sane Man: Whisper, who lacks any real flaws aside from being a Decepticon squad leader.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Nightflight again. He's the sort of person who would prefer to steal pocket change rather than put in the effort to rob a bank because the change was easier to take. This is also his only real plan for usurping power from Whisper: kiss every available ass at every available opportunity until someone with authority promotes him to command of the Air Strike Patrol.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Nightflight again. His career plan involves attaching himself in remora-like fashion to the aft-end of the strongest senior commanding officer he can find and currying enough favor to be promoted to command of the Air Strike Patrol.
- The Starscream: Everyone to Whisper. That's right, his entire team is trying to usurp his command. Fortunately for Whisper, Tailwind is the only one who could actually pull it off... if he ever decides the time is right to strike.
- The Stoic: Tailwind. He says the least of anyone in the team, but that just means he's more likely to get away with his plots.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The only way this bunch of backstabbing, squabbling rowdies get anything done. Tailwind, Nightflight, and Storm Cloud all want to overthrow Whisper and ensure their rivals do not succeed in taking over. Meanwhile, Whisper would rather save himself the headaches and simply shoot his disloyal subordinates. Decepticon High Command has not granted any of their requests, so the four of them are stuck with each other and forced to work as a team despite the fact they really don't like each other.
- Too Dumb to Live: Storm Cloud. Usually, attempting to stage a coup in a villain's army requires a degree of subtlety, restraint, or skill. Storm Cloud has none of these and will loudly announce plans to overthrow Whisper in public. In front of Whisper.
Airwave
Function: Aerial Defense
Alt Mode: F14D Tomcat Fighter Jet
"My price is too high and you're going to pay."
A former airbase inspector with a reputation for taking bribes, Airwave joined the Decepticons under the stipulation that he continue his black marketeering operations. Eventually, he was put in charge of a Decepticon airbase, where he proved to be a capable commander with a sadistic streak.
- Combat Pragmatist: Not good at close quarter combat, but has used artillery to rack up an impressive body count.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: To Airwave, everything is an extortion racket. He is so greedy and corrupt that even Swindle hates him. Megatron grudgingly tolerates Airwave's illicit activities because he's a capable soldier, but is prepared to kill him the moment he becomes a liability.
- Genius Loci: The Earthrise toyline makes Airwave a Modulator, combining the character with his Airport Base, which he now turns into.
- Red Ones Go Faster: A red fighter jet with a top speed of 800 miles per hour.
- Weak, but Skilled: His physical strength is fairly low, so he fights smarter, not harder.
Bludgeon (ブラジオン burajion)
Function: Electric Warrior
Alt Modes: Tank
"To know your own limits, you must first know your foe's limits."
A Decepticon martial artist whose Pretender shell is a samurai skeleton.
- Always a Bigger Fish: How he died in the Generation 2 comics. After Megatron tore off the head of his Pretender shell, Bludgeon transformed into tank mode and continued his attack. Megatron, barely damaged from Bludgeon's cannon blast, transformed into his own tank mode and annihilated Bludgeon with a single shot.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: A master of the Cybertronian martial art of Metallikato, and prone to preceeding his sentences with a heartfelt "Fools!"
- Big Bad: He becomes the Decepticon leader following the battle with Unicron in the Marvel comics, and keeps the title for the remainder of the series. In continuations of the book (such as Generation 2 and Regeneration One) he continues to be Decepticon leader, if only at first.
- Breakout Villain: Bludgeon is easily the most popular of the Pretender toyline. His memorable skeleton samurai look as well as his major role in the Marvel comics ended up making him a fan favorite and since then he's received a number of new toys and he's been adapted into other continuities.
- Clothes Make the Legend: Whenever he appears in fiction or as a toy, you're far more likely to see Bludgeon with his Pretender shell on than the inner robot inside it. Some toys have even made it the primary robot mode.
- Cruel Mercy: In Regeneration One, Bludgeon begs Rodimus to finish him off. Rodimus instead chooses to spare him so he can live to suffer the humiliation of defeat.
- Death Seeker: On some level he seeks to meet his end in glorious battle. And his master plan in Regeneration One was intended to end with his own death.Bludgeon: Kill me. Finish what you started.
Rodimus Prime: No. I can think of no more fitting punishment than to deny you whatever "glorious" death you coveted. - Dragon Ascendant: In the Marvel comics, he becomes Captain of the Mayhem Attack Squad after Carnivac's Heel–Face Turn, and later becomes Decepticon leader following the battle with Unicron and Scorponok's death.
- Evil Sounds Deep: The IDW version is implied to sound this way, as John Barber tended to give him black speech bubbles.
- Fantastic Fighting Style: Metallikato. In at least some continuities, it's meant to be outlawed.
- Gashadokuro: His Pretender shell is based on a Gashadokuro, and he's a huge robot with a skull face in a samurai armor.
- God in Human Form: His Power of the Primes toy is a disguised Quintus Prime.
- Katanas Are Just Better: He wields a katana in most fiction appearances, despite his original toy lacking such a weapon entirely.
- Killed Off for Real: Bludgeon's position as a significant Decepticon usually gives his death a kind of story importance.
- Transformers: Generation 2: Bludgeon is killed fairly early on. Megatron is rebuilt and returns to wrestle control of the faction back from him. They battle it out and Megatron emerges victorious, killing Bludgeon. Though later, Megatron would lament killing off such a useful soldier.
- Transformers: Generation One: The Decepticons and Autobots team up to defeat the Chaos Trinity (Bludgeon, Bugly, and Mindwipe). Bludgeon is the last to die, gunned down by Skywarp.
- Transformers: Armada: In the comic adaptation Bludgeon debuts as one of Unicron's interdimensional heralds. He's killed when the base he occupied was blown up.
- Classics: The story At Fight's End has Megatron take leadership back from Bludgeon after the Marvel series. Bludgeon is betrayed by the Seacons and destroyed by Piranacon using Tentakil's mass compression cannon mode.
- The Transformers: Unicron: After surviving a lot of punishment in the 2005 IDW comics, Bludgeon finally meets his end battling Slug. The ship they're battling on crashes killing both.
- Laser Blade: In the IDW comics, the katana is upgraded to a lightsaber.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: He's a Ninja Samurai Skeleton Robot thanks to his Pretender shell.
- A Million Is a Statistic: His plans tend to involve a lot of collateral damage:Thundercracker: You're going to kill civilians with this stunt, Bludgeon. I thought we were supposed to be fighting on their behalf.
Bludgeon: Every civilian is a Decepticon at heart. Those that die today are martyrs. I envy them. - Non-Indicative Name: A bludgeon is a blunt object, something that doesn't really mesh with the samurai-like aesthetics of his Pretender shell, or even his inner robot's tank mode.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: After becoming Decepticon leader, Bludgeon gives a Rousing Speech to the Decepticons, saying that they're warriors and shouldn't fight what's in their oil.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: His inner robot mode is green and orange, while his samurai look other than his skeletal face is an orange armor with a purple helmet and arm guards.
- SkeleBot 9000: Since most post-G1 incarnations of the character turn his Pretender shell into his robot mode, he usually has the appearance of a robotic skeleton in samurai armor.
- Tank Goodness: Outside of his pretender shell, Bludgeon turns into a simple tank.
Flattop
Function: Naval Warfare
Alt Modes: F4 Phantom Fighter Jet
"Terror is the ultimate weapon."
A self-described "scourge of the seven seas", Flattop patrols the oceans looking for targets he can destroy. Captaining the aircraft carrier Platonix, Flattop can merge with the ship, transforming it into an interstellar warship that can terrorize targets in space.- Ace Custom: Platonix, a space ship which he can pilot manually or attach to his jet mode.
- Smug Snake: Flattop thinks he's better than every other Decepticon, and often refuses to admit he needs help.
Greasepit
Function: Fuel Depot
Alt Modes: Monster Truck
"An engine is only as powerful as the fuel that runs it."
A Micromaster Base Commander, Greasepit runs a fuel depot that can transform into an anti-aircraft battery. Greedy and opportunistic, he takes full advantage of the goodwill inherent in his position to gain advancement.- Con Artist: Greasepit operates a fake gas station, which he uses to siphon fuel.
- Genius Loci: Earthrise makes Greasepit a Modulator, meaning he now turns into his refuelling facility.
- Smug Snake: The other Decepticons would like Greasepit a little more if he just stopped going on about how he's doing them a favour.
Octopunch (オクトパンチ okutopanchi)
Function: Salvage
Alt Mode: Crab
"Anything that can sink is worth sinking."
A Pretender whose shell resembles a humanoid squid monster, Octopunch is a pirate who frequently serves on the Mayhem Attack Squad when he isn't plundering treasures on aquatic worlds.
- Creepy Old-Fashioned Diving Suit: His pretender shell wears an old-fashioned diving helmet that barely conceals his horrifying visage.
- Expy: Black Manta as a Decepticon, sort of.
- Giant Enemy Crab: His alt mode is a crab.
- God in Human Form: His Power of the Primes toy is a disguised Solus Prime.
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: He's no more dangerous than your average Decepticon, but, to quote TFWiki
, get back to us on this after he shoots God in the face. - Mirror Match: Ends up fighting against his heroic Shattered Glass counterpart in Classics.
- Ruthless Modern Pirates: The Decepticon equivalent of one. If he's not stealing sunken treasure or ancient artifacts, he amuses himself by smashing holes in submarines and cruise ships.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: The octopus parts of his shell are colored magenta and his lower half is green. Meanwhile his inner robot shell is purple and light orange.
- Tentacled Terror: His Pretender shell is a horrifically ugly octopus-like monster wearing a diving suit.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "The Primal Scream", he shoots Grimlock, the shot bounces off him and hits Primus, awakening the dormant creator with a scream... which warns Unicron about his presence, so he courses towards Cybertron. Thanks a lot, Octopunch. Later fiction states that this action was heard multiversally, awakening Unicron from his own dormancy.
The Pretender Monsters
Bristleback
Icepick
Scowl
Slog
Wildfly
Birdbrain
Monstructor
Function: Aerial Attack Trooper (Birdbrain), Ground Assault (Bristleback), Demolitions (Icepick), Sonic Saboteur (Scowl), Combat Artist (Slog), Aerial Assault (Wildfly), Super Warrior (Monstructor)
Alt Modes: Gryphon (Birdbrain), Bulette (Bristleback), Kaiju (Icepick), Werewolf (Scowl), Demon (Slog), Harpy (Wildfly)
Birdbrain: "Anyone who is not a predator is considered prey."
Bristlebck: "You can't tell a Decepticon by its cover."
Icepick: "From today's rubble-strewn fields shall emerge a new Decepticon world!"
Scowl: "Control sound, and the faintest whisper can be the fiercest weapon."
Slog: "Destruction is the highest form of art."
Wildfly: "Strike fear into your enemy, and you've won half the battle."
Monstructor: "My touch is death."
Six pretenders whose shells and alt modes are monster-shaped. They are Birdbrain, Bristleback, Icepick, Scowl, Slog and Wildfly.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Slog's pretender shell looks like a monstrous-looking bug.
- Combining Mecha: They form Monstructor.
- The Dividual: Like other combiner teams, the Pretender Monsters rarely receive characterization beyond serving as extensions of Monstructor.
- The Dreaded: Monstructor actually projects a field of terror, to help the pants-darkening sight of his just appearing.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Dreamwave profiles paint Monstructor as some horrific thing that just happens to come in the form of a violent robot, channelling evil there isn't a name for.
- Feathered Fiend: Wildfly's alt mode is a bird-like monster, while his Pretender shell is also vaguely bird-like. While Birdbrain's shell is also a monster that looks like a bird, his alt mode is not truly bird-ish.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Bristleback is filled with hate for everything and everyone.
- Hates Being Called Cute: Scowl hates his werewolf altmode because its squat, chubby proportions make people find it cute; he loves his pretender shell, meanwhile, because it's as gruesome and monstrous as he feels.
- Hidden Depths: Underneath his mad exterior, Slog laments the loss of life the war causes on both sides. His superiors aren't happy with that.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Monstructor gets killed in The Transformers: Unicron when Superion blasts a hole through his chest while Victorion punches his head into oblivion, killing the mad combiner and all of his components.
- Monstructor is also annhilated by Omega Supreme in Regeneration One.
- Mad Artist: Slog turns his enemies into alleged masterpieces.
- No Indoor Voice: Scowl, with his already loud voice amplified by his shell.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: Both Bristleback's shell and alt mode are supposed to be a Bulette, but it doesn't look at all like any other monster seen in the toyline.
- Poisonous Person: Monstructor literally kills anything he touches.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Wildfly thinks he's some daring prankster. His fellow Decepticons think he's a moron.
- The Starscream: Icepick, in "Rythms of Darkness", thought maybe getting rid of Galvatron was a good plan. He didn't get anywhere before a large building collapsed upon him.
- Super-Scream: Scowl's power.
- Too Dumb to Live: Wildfly thought it was a good idea to bad-mouth Galvatron in earshot.
- Verbal Tic: Talks strangely, Slog does.
- Walking Wasteland: Monstructor drains the life out of everything nearby, and his solar rifle draws in every bit of sunlight nearby. He longs for the day when he just roam the galaxy killing everyone and everything he can find.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Bristleback has to stay in his shell most of the time, otherwise he'll start rusting up like mad.
Roadblock
Function: Ground Forces Commander
Alt Modes: Cybertronian Tank, Hoverbike
"To show fear is to admit defeat."
A Pretender equipped with a mechanical transforming shell, Roadblock is a former member of the Mayhem Attack Squad who has since moved up to become something of a boogeyman of the Decepticon Army. Though equally capable of direct frontal assault or stealth-based reconnaissance missions, Roadblock generally favors the former, showing no fear in battle and demanding the same confidence from the soldiers under his command.- Ace Custom: In addition to his two vehicle modes, he also has a Mad Max style battering ram siege tank that he drives.
- Bad Boss: His troops tend to be the first Decepticons to charge at the Autobots... because they are running away from him. It eventually got so bad that Megatron started using Roadblock's command as a Punishment Detail.
- Blood Knight: A self-described "locomotive of destruction" that crushes everything in his path with his iron-studded wheels.
- The Dragon: To Carnivac in Regeneration One.
- Drone Deployer: To survey a battle site before attacking, or to provide air support for himself when he goes into battle.
- Hollywood Acid: Equipped with corrosive grenades that eat through enemy armor.
- Mighty Glacier: Tech specs give him Level 8 Strength and Firepower, but only a 3 for Speed.
- No Sympathy: Utterly contemptuous of those who show even the slightest weakness.
- One-Man Army: He's armed to the teeth, and since his inner robot and outer shell can both transform, he can essentially split himself into two vehicles (hovercraft and tank).
- Purple Is Powerful: His Pretender shell.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: His vehicular shell is green while his transformable shell is purple.
- Tank Goodness: His inner robot transforms into a tank.
- Villainous Valor: Roadblock knows no fear whatsoever. He'll charge into battle alone, if he must.
Roughstuff
Function: Aerial Defense
Alt Mode: Missile Truck
"Shoot first, aim later."
Originally part of a neutral faction that oversaw the everyday maintenance of Cybertron, Roughstuff became a Decepticon due to his eagerness to fight. When his trigger happy nature proved poorly suited to the front lines, Roughstuff found himself assigned to remote outposts, which makes him even more eager for something to shoot at.- Green and Mean: His upper body is green and he's a trigger happy thug.
- Irony: In the 2019 IDW continuity, it's Roughstuff that gets shot by a fellow Decepticon eager for something to shoot at.Triggerhappy: We probably shouldn't have shot him. I mean me. I shouldn't have shot him. Maybe. Right? Hard to say.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Has a habit of firing upon anything that enters his airspace without checking to see who it is beforehand. He's been known to have accidentally blasted his fellow Decepticons due to this.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Deemed too incompetent for the front lines.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The hitch of his alt mode is defective, causing his armed half to detach at inopportune times.
Skyhopper
Function: Aerial Assault Commander
Alt Mode: Dassault Rafale Fighter Jet
"The bigger the boom, the better I like it!"
An unusually dedicated air warrior, Skyhopper gets a special kick out of watching things explode. When not terrorizing targets in the air, he operates a mobile defense base equipped with a disruptor cannon that damages electronics by reversing their polarity.
- The Dragon: In the Dreamwave comics, he serves as Skystalker's head goon.
- Loud of War: One of his weapons is a sonic cannon.
- Pyromaniac: He loves seeing things blow up. Sometimes, a little too much. He's willing to get as close as he can just to see the pretty booms. Good thing he's pretty durable, then.
Skystalker
Function: Interstellar Assault
Alt Mode: Porsche 959 Sportscar
"Terror reigns from the skies, the hapless rule on the ground."
The Captain of the Thunder Arrow, an interstellar warship capable of transforming into an assault base, Skystalker began plundering other worlds once Cybertron began running low on resources. Harboring a serious Napoleon complex, he has high ambitions of a Galactic Empire with himself as absolute ruler.
- Adaptational Badass: The 2019 IDW continuity makes him a Cityspeaker, capable of talking to Vigilem.
- Arch-Enemy: Countdown in the Dreamwave comics.
- Cool Car: He turns into a Porsche 959.
- Evil Counterpart: To Countdown, a heroic space explorer who commands the Autobot Rocket Base.
- Freudian Excuse: His MTMTE profile suggests that it's precisely because he's so weak and puny that he's so driven to be in charge.
- Ironic Name: His alternate form is a car.
- Space Pirates: Leads a crew of them.
- The Starscream: His Dreamwave version tried overthrowing Shockwave and luring all the larger Decepticons into a trap to be killed. And it almost worked, too.
- Weak, but Skilled: Extremely weak (even for a Micromaster), but highly intelligent and cunning.
The Sports Car Patrol
Blackjack
Detour
Road Hugger
Hyperdrive
Function: Advance Assault
Alt Modes: Ford Probe GT Turbo Sportscar (Blackjack), Chevrolet Corvette Indy Sportscar (Detour), Ferrari 408 Integrale Concept Car (Road Hugger), Mitsubishi X2S Concept Car (Hyperdrive)
Blackjack: "It takes force to push back the enemy, but speed clears the way."
Detour: "To flee before overwhelming odds is no vice; to stay and be smashed is no virtue!"
Road Hugger: "Only cowards stop at red lights!"
A quartet of Decepticon car soldiers that function as a road clearance unit, speeding ahead of the main ground forces to clear a path for the heavier fireteams. Led by the calculating Blackjack, the team is respected for its speed and efficiency.
- Ascended Extra: Blackjack's Combiner Wars toy is able to become Menasor's chest piece, making him something of an unofficial Stunticon.
- Closest Thing We Got: Road Hugger is more courageous than Detour and less psychotic than Hyperdrive, making him Blackjack's default choice for second-in-command.
- Dumb Muscle: Hyperdrive is bad-tempered, loud and easily bored.Detour: Brain in neutral, mouth in drive. You never change, Hyperdrive.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Autobot Race Car Patrol.
- The Friend No One Likes: Even the other Decepticons can't stand Hyperdrive's violence and brutality.
- Killed Off for Real: Detour got killed by Arcee in the 2005 IDW comics.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Blackjack has a particular skill at analyzing a situation, and knowing when's a good time to strike or not. He also likes using this skill to actually know when to fold.
- Meaningful Name: Blackjack likes to gamble.
- Only Sane Man: Detour is usually the team voice of reason. If he's starting to voice objections, Blackjack takes that as a sign to get out of dodge.
Stranglehold (ストラングルホールド sutoranguruhōrudo)
Function: Enforcer
Alt Mode: Rhinoceros
"Rule one is: There are no rules!"
A Pretender whose shell resembles a human in gladiator armor, Stranglehold is a former Cybertronic Wrestling Federation Champion who has joined the Mayhem Attack Squad.
- Combat Pragmatist: Will do anything to win when he's in a fight. His rifle is actually an apparatus that saps his opponents' HP, and he uses sucker punches, low blows, and other varieties of "cheap" attacks when fighting hand to hand.
- The Brute: A glorified thug.
- Dumb Muscle: Not very bright but still rather capable of going head to head with Autobots.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The only Decepticon Pretender to have a human shell, a trademark of Autobot Pretenders.
- Pornstache: His Pretender shell has this type of mustache.
- Rhino Rampage: Transforms into a rhino.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: The gladiator's armor of his shell is purple and part of his robot mode is green.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: His Pretender shell comes in the form of a shirtless wrestler.
Thunderwing (サンダーウイング sandāuingu)
Function: Aerial Espionage
Alt Modes: Space Shuttle, Interstellar Jet
"Cover yourself with lies and no one will find you."
A Pretender outfitted with a prototype transformable shell, Thunderwing is an ambitious Decepticon warlord who uses trickery and deceit to accomplish his goals. Though he values those who serve him loyally, his troops become fearful of him whenever he locks into a particularly obsessive mission or quest.- Adaptational Badass: His original tech specs indicate that he's a mid-level officer specializing primarily in aerial espionage, but the comics generally put him in a high-ranking position. IDW ramps him all the way up to The Juggernaut.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: In the Marvel UK comics, unlike pretty much every leader before him he didn't seize power, rather he was given it, after proving he had the chops. He technically failed the assignment to prove himself, but in the process impressed the Decepticon High Council enough for them to give him the job anyway.
- Bad Boss: He seems to be this, risking his troops' lives to get the Matrix, but when he finally gets it and uses it to attack Spinister, he notices the corrupted Matrix is influencing him, since he wouldn't harm a fellow Decepticon. (Well, except Ruckus.)
- The Berserker: Normally relatively composed for a Decepticon, but once something pisses him off, he tends to lash out at anyone and anything in sight, other Decepticons included.
- Big Bad: Of Matrix Quest and Stormbringer.
- Breakout Villain: While not quite to Bludgeon's level, Thunderwing's famous Marvel depiction won him a lot of popularity and secured him major roles in TF fiction. He was even reimagined for the Prime continuity as the Big Bad of Transformers: Prime – The Game.
- The Chosen Many: Thunderwing is one of the vanishingly rare Decepticons capable of reacting to the Matrix. Of course, by the time he got his mitts on it, the Matrix had... changed.
- Clothes Make the Legend: Like Bludgeon, his Pretender shell has become far more recognizable than his inner robot.
- Demonic Possession: His Marvel Comics self ended up being taken over completely by the Dark Matrix Creature.
- Depending on the Writer: Despotic warlord in the Marvel continuity, herald of Unicron in the Dreamwave Armada continuity, and Mad Scientist in the IDW continuity.
- Detrimental Determination: Once Thunderwing sets his mind on something, nothing will sway him from his course. While this does give him a charisma that makes Decepticons follow him, it's also a problem because he's strong and smart enough to keep on going into disaster.
- The Dreaded: His IDW incarnation is so ridiculously dangerous Megatron is totally willing to obliterate Cybertron just to stop him going on another rampage.
- Faux Affably Evil: Simon Furman tended to write him this way in the Marvel comic.
- Flawed Prototype: In the IDW continuity, he's the first Pretender, driven insane and unstoppable by the process. When the Autobots get their hands on him, they're able to refine the process so they don't go completely nuts.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In the IDW comics, his experiments with
Pretenderpolydermal grafting technology made him unfathomably powerful and nigh-indestructible, at the cost of obliterating his sanity and turning him into a mindless engine of destruction. The Autobot and Decepticon armies took on Thunderwing, combined and in their entirety, and even then they still couldn't kill the monster he had become. - Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Nightbeat used Thunderwing's brief moment of clarity to harpoon him out of the Ark.
- I Warned You: In the IDW comics he's the only scientist to figure out the Energon crisis before it was too late, and warn the others (Shockwave didn't care to tell anyone). His warnings go unheeded, and he takes matters into his own hands.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He notices he's losing it after he turns the Matrix power against Spinister.
- Person of Mass Destruction: IDW continuity. While he wasn't the only factor contributing to Cybertron's decline, he was definitely the one to push things over the edge and leave the planet a barren, radiation-choked wasteland utterly inhospitable to Transformer life.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: In the IDW continuity, by virtue of having run out of energy and being locked within his own Pretender shell. That is, until Bludgeon and his insane Pretender cult roused the beast from its slumber...
- Thrown Out the Airlock: See Impaled with Extreme Prejudice above.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In the IDW comics, he figured out that the planet would die out because the war would exhaust resources (and in many continuities, that's exactly what happened), so he created his polydermal technology to survive the depletion (nobody else wanted to partake in it because they thought it was disgusting). Ultimately, his mind was destroyed and he became the very thing which ravaged the planet and made it uninhabitable. His last words were screaming at his computer to cancel the procedure.
1990 Decepticons
Axer (アクサー akusā)
Function: Bounty Hunter
Alt Modes: Sportscar, Motorcyle
"No prey is too large, no fee is too small."
At one time a neutral interstellar peacekeeping agent, Axer's career in law enforcement ended when it became apparent that he enjoyed the thrill of the hunt a little too much. He subsequently started working for the Decepticon Secret Service as their de facto executioner, seeing the freedom to indulge his murderous sadism without consequence as a fair trade for the reduction in pay.- Blade Below the Shoulder: To go with his name, Axer's reimagined movie depiction is a retool of Lockdown but with an axe instead of a hook for a right hand. This design eventually was incorporated into the G1 continuity as part of the Wings of Honor universe.
- Bounty Hunter: He works exclusively for the Decepticons because he prefers killing his targets slightly more than getting paid.
- Cool Bike: His original toy came with the Turbo Cycle. His RiD body turns into a Harley Davison.
- Divergent Character Evolution: More recent fiction has depicted him as a spy or assassin to differentiate himself from Lockdown.
- Lawman Gone Bad: Went from interstellar cop to interstellar hitman.
- The Mole: In the (2005-2018) IDW comics, he went undercover as an Autobot and tried to assassinate Optimus Prime.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite the name, he's never actually come with an axe.
- Palette Swap: His third toy made him one to Lockdown.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: He eschews using tech and equipment in favor of his brains and detective skills.
The Battle Squad
Direct-Hit
Power Punch
Fireshot
Vanquish
Meltdown
Half-Track
Function: Aerial Counterattack
Alt Modes: Armored Van (Direct-Hit), Transport Cannon (Power Punch), SR-71 Blackbird Stealth Jet (Fireshot and Vanquish), Armored Truck (Meltdown), Anti-Aircraft Tank (Half-Track)
Direct-Hit: "Keep your sights locked on target until there is no more target."
Power Punch: "Strike hard and fear no one!"
Fireshot: "It is my duty to expect the unknown."
Vanquish: "I strike when you least expect."
Meltdown: "Ramming speed is the only way to travel!"
Half-Track: "The higher they fly, the faster they'll fall!"
Composed of Direct-Hit, Power Punch, Fireshot, Vanquish, Meltdown and Half-Track.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Meltdown's chosen method of attack is to rush at the enemy and try to beat them to death.
- Ascended Extra: Fireshot and Vanquish play a supporting role in The Transformers: Windblade as representatives of the colony planet Devisiun. They're also among the few survivors of the planet when Unicron destroys it.
- The Creon: Power Punch is the team's greatest military asset, but he's perfectly content staying as second in command.
- A Doormat to His Men: Before being promoted to the squad's leader, Direct-Hit was a skilled, tenacious warrior who inspired his comrades by example. He is unfortunately a poor leader because of this, as he treats his subordinates more like equals, rarely ever utilizing actual command or discipline. Aside from the faultlessly loyal Power Punch, the rest of the squad don't respect him at all.
- Hot-Blooded: Meltdown. His Dreamwave bio states he even has the equivalent of aneurysms because of it.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Meltdown's usual approach to a fight is ignore Direct-Hit and shoot at the enemy in a frothing rage, which doesn't exactly help the team's over-all performance.
- The Paranoiac: Fireshot. His teammates know it, and laugh behind his back about it.
- The Peter Principle: Direct-Hit got to be in charge because of his skills on the battlefield, but after that it turned out he wasn't much good at actually being in charge.
- Pet the Dog: Vanquish has developed sympathy for Fireshot due to their partnership, and often backs him up whenever he makes a decision.
- The Quiet One: Vanquish is both a master of stealth, and the non-talkative type, to the point where Fireshot actually forgets he's combined with him.
- Strategy Versus Tactics: Direct-Hit's problem. He's good at short-term tactical planning, but strategic planning is beyond him.
- Undying Loyalty: Power Punch, to Direct-Hit. This is a problem, because he refuses to realize much of the team's problems come from Direct-Hit's poor leadership, instead blaming it on everyone else.
- The Unintelligible: Half-Track gets a bit too excited about combat, causing his statements to come out garbled, much to his teammates amusement.
Banzai-Tron (バンザイトロン banzaitoron)
Function: Martial Arts Warrior
Alt Mode: Japanese Type 90 Tank, Cybertronian Hovercraft
"To the victor go the profits!"
An entrepreneurial martial artist who can use pressure point techniques to dismantle weaker opponents in seconds. As the director of the Decepticon Secret Service, Banzai-Tron has a great deal of autonomy from the senior leadership. He routinely abuses this position of power for his own benefit.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Played with. He respects Bludgeon, but hopes to defeat him someday.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Keeps extensive files on his fellow Decepticons.
- Enemy Mine: Arcee finds him, Gutcruncher and Axer beaten up, and most of their unit killed, and he offers an allegiance with the remaining to hunt down their mutual enemies.
- Fantastic Fighting Style: Crystalocution. Think "Chi-blocking, but with giant robots".
- Pragmatic Villainy: Banzai-tron heavily believes in this, hoping to take people apart with his Crystalocution and sell their parts. He even disregarded the spiritual side of his training because he didn't believe in it. In the IDW verse, he has a retrieval mission, and he doesn't turn it into a slaughter because it would take too much time and resources, that and the cons they were retrieving could give them combiner tech.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: Banzai-Tron's color scheme is violet, orange and green.
- The Spymaster: A high-ranking intelligence officer.
Blackout and Spaceshot
Function: Ground Infantry
Alt Mode: B-1 bomber jet
"Persistence is the cornerstone of victory."
A combiner duo that can merge to form a powerful Anti-Aircraft Base.
- Adaptational Heroism: In Beast Wars: Uprising, they're among the few Builders who are not total wads.
- Dirty Coward: Blackout will flee the minute he thinks the battle's going poorly. Only his fear of Spaceshot keeps him from getting out of dodge.
- Gender Flip: Their one staring role, in Beast Wars: Uprising had them as female.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Spaceshot is under the delusion that Blackout is as brave and dedicated as he is.
- The Stoic: Spaceshot. Unless someone questions Blackout's dedication to the cause, at which point he'll verbally tear into them.
The Constructor Squad
Hammer
Sledge
Grit
Knockout
Stonecruncher
Excavator
Function: Battlefield Fortification
Alt Modes: Crane-truck (Stonecruncher and Excavator), Backhoe Truck (Grit and Knockout), Dump Truck (Sledge and Hammer)
"There's nothing like the feel of cold steel."
Composed of Grit, Knockout, Sledge, Hammer, Stonecruncher and Excavator. Micromasters who form only half a vehicle and need to combine with their partner to form the full one.
- Ascended Extra: Grit had a major role in The Transformers: Drift Empire of Stone with Knockout as a supporting player. This would be the only appearance of the Constructor Squad in the 2005 IDW continuity.
- Berserk Button: Mess with Excavator in Stonecruncher's presence. Do it.
- Blessed with Suck: Hammer can't move around in his own alt-mode unless he's attached to Sledge (or any other front-end micromaster).
- Boring, but Practical: Sledge values function over aesthetics and doesn't even try to combine the two. This is because he's a "soldier first, builder second" and honestly doesn't care about construction beyond what it takes to get the job done. This ends up being a Stealth Pun: because of his focus on violent combat and basic utilitarian functionality over any kind of form or aesthetic, you could say he is a brutalist.
- The Fatalist: Grit is a strangely optimistic version of this, in that he figures that, okay, yeah, they're all going to die and everything they know and value is going to crumble to dust at some point or another because time is kind of a dick like that, but hey: He's certain that at least the Decepticon empire will continue to thrive.
- Hates Being Touched: Hammer will kill you.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: At the end of The Transformers: Drift: Empire of Stone, Grit fights alongside Drift and Ratchet and survives the events of the comic. He departs the Decepticons and heads out on his own, with his morality ambiguous though left on a more positive path.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Sledge. He may seem gruff and antisocial, but if he sees his teammates struggling with anything then he's always the first to rush in to help.
- Stonecruncher. He's loud and aggressive, but he honestly means well. So long as you're a Constructor, that is.
- The Quiet One: Excavator prefers being off by himself until there's something to build, at which point he suddenly comes to life.
- The Rival: Hammer views the Constructors as being this toward the better-known Constructicons. And he's sure that his team is better.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Excavator (quiet, introverted, withdrawn until there's a project to work on) and Stonecruncher (frat boy personality, loud and aggressive)
- Sleepy Head: Knockout. To the point of narcolepsy, though it really only happens whenever he gets excited about something. Sometimes he does this while in alt-mode and poor Grit has to haul him around until he wakes up.
Gutcruncher (ガットクランチャー gattokuranchā)
Function: Air-to-Ground support
"Conquest of the Autobots begins with control of the sky!"
A cold, calculating warrior who sees the trappings of war as an opportunity to acquire more wealth and power. Autobots fear him because he's a ruthless force of nature on the battlefield. Decepticons fear him because he may have already calculated their net worth on the black market.
- Adaptational Dumbass: The 2019 IDW version is a dim-witted thug who tends to pick fights with individuals he probably shouldn't be pissing off; a stark contrast to his earlier depictions as an opportunistic war profiteer.
- The Bartender: Briefly worked as one in the 2005 IDW continuity.
- Cool Plane: The Stratotronic Jet, which he either flies or turns into, Depending on the Writer.
- Green and Mean: His main color scheme is green and he's never been a pleasant bot.
- Klingon Promotion: He's risen up the Decepticon ranks by fragging his immediate supervisors and selling their remains for scrap.
- Killed Off for Real:
- A version of him appeared in the Timelines comics as one stranded on Axiom Nexus and was assassinated.
- His 2005 IDW incarnation was burned to death in The Transformers: Punishment by Sandstorm.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Wings of Honor shows that Gutcruncher, alongside Take-Off and Charger, were exposed to a crystal monolith whose energies left them unable to transform.
Krok (クロック kurokku)
Function: Foot Soldier
Alt Modes: Flying Wing Stealth Fighter, Crocodile
"The road to conquest is best traveled one step at a time."
A powerfully built mechanoid whose feet can trigger a planetquake... or send an opponent into orbit with a patented roundhouse kick to the face. A champion mech-soccer player prior to the start of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict, his experience as team captain has made him a fairly effective squad leader. Occasionally leads the Scavengers, a pirate crew comprised of other grade-C Decepticons.
- Ascended Extra: In the 2010s he was plucked from obscurity and featured as both the captain of the Scavengers in the IDW comics, as well as getting a new toy and a starring role in issue 9 of the Timelines comic.
- The Captain: In the IDW comics, he's the Captain of the Weak Anthropic Principle, on top of being team captain for the Scavengers.
- The Dragon: In the G1 comics, briefly served as Bludgeon's chief underling. Not that he did much.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He is not a fan of gladiatorial combat, considering it cruel and barbaric.
- The Fundamentalist: In a likely Shout-Out to his original toy's Action Master roots, the 2005 IDW Krok is part of the Militant Monoform Movement, a religious sect whose beliefs prohibit adopting alternate modes.
- Losing Your Head: Titans Return Krok is a Titan Master.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: His Titans Return figure depicts him as a... well... crocodile. Justified as his toy is a retool of Skullcruncher (under the name Skullsmasher).
- Only Sane Man: Of the Scavengers, he's able to think up the plans, and his personality doesn't inhibit him.
- The Paralyzer: His Titan Master given superpower lets him freeze 'bots with a glare. Then he eats them.
- Punny Name: His Action Master partner is called "Gatoraider". Krok used to be a sports star. Sports start, Gatorade?
- Shockwave Stomp: Can cause Level 7 planetquakes with a stomp of his foot.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed with his relationship with Gatoraider. While Krok treats him as an equal, Gatoraider's sentience is barely above an animal and he behaves as such. He's not a sentient Transformer in an animalistic form (like Laserbeak or Ravage) but rather a modified mecha-fauna, and Krok speaking to him is more akin to someone talking to their dog rather than a fellow being.
Metrotitan (メトロタイタン metorotaitan)
Function: Warlord
Alt Modes: Fortress, Starship
A Decepticon version of Metroplex, released in Japan as part of the Zone toyline.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: As a City-bot like Metroplex.
- Evil Counterpart: To Metroplex.
- Facial Horror: His fight with Metroplex ends with a chunk of his face getting blown off.
- Face–Heel Turn: He started out as an Autobot, who willingly turned to the Decepticons.
- Freeze Ray: His guns are freeze-rays, capable of freezing entire moons.
- Hero Killer: In the Zone story pages, he killed Galaxy Shuttle, and came very close to getting Dai Atlas.
- Retcon: His original origin was that the Autobots built him on Titan, Saturn's moon, with the implication that it was some time just before Zone. The Legends story establishes him as being much older, having inspired the Titan religion.
The Military Patrol
Bomshock
Dropshot
Growl
Tracer
Function: Front Line Assault
Alt Modes: Leopard 2 Battle Tank (Bombshock), Armored Personnel Carrier (Dropshot), FMC XR311 Combat Support Vehicle (Growl), AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter (Tracer)
Bombshock: "The ultimate force is the force of destruction."
Dropshot: "Hit it until it hurts, then hit it again."
Growl: "If it moves, crush it."
Tracer: "Pummel the enemy, and victory is yours."
Composed of Bombshock (leader), Dropshot, Growl and Tracer.
- Barbaric Bully: Growl, who wound up joining the Decepticons after picking the wrong fight.
- Determinator: Dropshot absolutely refuses to let himself be defeated by anything, an approach that becomes outright masochistic at times. So far, Dropshot's won against pretty much everything (except Bombshock).
- Helicopter Blender: Tracer can use the rotary fan of his helicopter mode on either hand as a weapon. In Transformers (2019) he graphically demonstrates its use by bisecting an unnamed Autobot guard in half, vertically.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Tracer is always eager to be the first of the team of the battlefield, which often results in him finding himself alone and outnumbered.
- Old Soldier: Bombshock wasn't born a Micromaster. He was one of the volunteers to downsize for fuel economy.
- One-Steve Limit: Tracer has the same name as one of the Targetmaster partners of Scoop.
- The Starscream: Dropshot and Tracer think they'd be better at leading than Bombshock, something he knows, and welcomes. In Dropshot's case, Bombshock usually re-establishes the pecking order physically. Tracer actually respects Bombshock's abilities, he just thinks he should be in charge. Growl just does it to go with the flow, when he actually likes being told what to do.
- Tank Goodness: Bombshock turns into a Leopard 2.
- Token Flyer: Unusually for a Decepticon team, Tracer is the only member of the group who can fly.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Growl got offered a choice between prison or joining the army. Since that army was the Decepticons, it worked out pretty okay for him.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Bombshock, long ago.
The Race Track Patrol (Race Car Patrol Team (レースカーパトロールチーム rēsu Kā patorōru chīmu)
Barricade
Ground Hog
Motorhead
Roller Force
Function: Mobile Assault
Alt Modes: Ligier JS31 Formula-1 Racecar (Barricade), Dodge Shelby Charger Muscle Car (Ground Hog), Callaway Chevrolet Corvette Sportscar (Motorhead), Baja Off-Road Buggy (Roller Force)
Barricade: "There are two kinds of fighters, Decepticons and losers."
Ground Hog: "The roar of an engine is music to my ears."
Motorhead: "Burning rubber smells like victory!"
Roller Force: "Unless you're behind me, you're in my way!"
Composed of Barricade (leader), Ground Hog, Motorhead and Roller Force.
- Ascended Extra: Became the main Decepticons of the Dreamwave-era Micromaster miniseries, albeit more in a deuteragonist role rather than an antagonistic one.
- Car Fu: Barricade got his name from his fondness from ramming.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Barricade acts as a nagging coach to boost his team's efficiency, but it just makes things worse because Motorhead gets distracted from battle to check if Barricade notices how well is he doing.
- Human Resources: Among Ground Hog's supplies are parts "generously donated" by Autobots.
- It's All About Me: Roller Force is obsessed with being number one.
- Loud of War: Ground Hog loves making noise.
- Mr. Fixit: Ground Hog serves as the team mechanic, helping to find ways to make the team faster (and louder).
- One-Steve Limit: Barricade is not to be confused with the Canon Immigrant Barricade from the live action film series. To avert this situation in the Earthrise line, where both characters received figures, this character was renamed Runner instead.
- Sudden Name Change: Barricade got his name changed to Runner in Earthrise which according to TFWiki.net is due to him being supplanted by the live-action version of the character as the definitive version. Hasbro wanted to keep the two separate. This is notable for being one of the few instances where a character received a name change that was not due to Hasbro Writing Around Trademarks.
- There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: In Barricade's mind, it's either Decepticons, or losers.
Terror-Tread and Cement-Head
Function: Demolitions
Alt Mode: Dump Truck
Terror-Tread: "We aim for nothing less than total victory!"
Cement-Head: "Only the best can win, and we're the best."
A combiner duo that can merge to form a Cannon Transport, a truck that can transport into a mobile battle base.- Brains and Brawn: Terror-Tread is the strategist, calmly planning out the duo's method of attack. Cement-Head prefers to go all-out, attacking anyone in their path.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Cement-Head loves rushing fist-first into fights, screaming, bellowing and threatening as he goes. Terror-Tread usually comes up with the strategies that allow him to come back.
- Palette Swap: Cement-Head is a redeco of Sledge while Terror-Tread is a redeco of Hammer.
- The Quiet One: Terror-Tread doesn't say much.
Treadshot (トレッドショット toreddoshotto)
Function: Gunslinger
Alt Mode: Cybertronian H-Tread Tank
"A gun is only as good as the one who holds it!"
A Decepticon sniper whose speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness have given him a fearsome reputation in the Autobot ranks. Partnered with Catgut, a Prysmosian cheetah who can transform into a particle cannon.- Cats Are Mean: Catgut, who uses his razor-sharp claws and fangs to finish off any target who survives his particle blasts.
- Cold Sniper: Feels he was literally built to shoot things and cares for little else.
- Crippling Overspecialization: He often relies on his gunslinging abilities to solve a problem, even when some other method would be more effective.
- Depending on the Writer: Whether he has an alt-mode (like his Timelines toy) or not (like his original Action Master figure). And if the latter, whether or not he lost the ability to transform due to injuries or illness, or never could to begin with.
- Equippable Ally: Catgut turns into a gun for Treadshot to use. Later canon would say he was a Targetmaster.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: IDW comics, Revelation, his body could be seen impaled on a piece of shrapnel after Monstructor cleans his team out, he survived.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Known as the best marksman among the Transformers, capable of performing complex trick shots in addition to long-range sniping.
- Killed Off for Real: Impactor fatally shot him in the chest with a harpoon in The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers.
- Palette Swap: His second toy is one of Warpath.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Treadshot only agreed to join the Decepticons on the caveat that he be given autonomy and wealth.
- Uplifted Animal: Catgut started out as a mecha-fauna who was later modified to be able to transform.
Wingthing (ウィングシング wingushingu)
Function: Manipulator
Alt Modes: Blaster, Micro-Cassette
A bat-like creature that works under Soundwave.
- Equippable Ally: Wingthing's original toy turned into a blaster for Soundwave to use (canon later referring to him as a Targetmaster). Wingthing's Siege toy can function as a shield for Soundwave.
- Killed Off for Real: Namedropped as one of the many killed by the Shadow-Leeches in Regeneration One.
- Palette Swap: Wingthing debuted with a unique alt-mode and bat mode, but was turned into a repaint of Ratbat for ease of production and to allow him to better interact with the Soundwave figure of the time. His encore, Masterpiece, and Siege toys are all recolors of Ratbat.
