It should come as no surprise that, ultimately, the Transformers franchise is the story of good and evil playing out over and over, with the good side emerging victorious every single time. Given that, we decided to put the spotlight on the Autobots. These intergalactic heroes have battled the force of evil and saved humanity time and again, even when humans made it clear they wanted nothing to do with the massive robots.
Take a look at our breakdown of every Autobot in the live-action franchise--and a ride based on the movies--thus far. And when you get to the end of the list, don't worry too much.
While we haven't had a new film since 's Bumblebee, there will surely be another Transformers movie at some point. As the leader of the Autobots -- and the most popular Transformer -- it's no surprise that Optimus Prime has been around since the beginning. He doesn't get much airtime in the newest film, though.
If Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, Bumblebee is the heart. In the first three films he served as a guardian to Sam Shia LaBeouf and speaks through songs and pieces of dialogue played through the radio. Throughout the film series he transforms into various models of the Chevrolet Camaro. Jazz was second-in-command to Optimus Prime and transforms into a Pontiac Solstice sports car in the first movie.
He is killed in a fight with Megatron, making him the first Autobot casualty in the film's franchise. After the death of Jazz in the first movie, he becomes second-in-command to Optimus Prime. The medic of the Autobots, Ratchet transforms into a Hummer H2 ambulance. He is killed by the Cybertronian Lockdown in the fourth film, Age of Extinction. There's no mention of the character in the first or fourth installments of the series, however.
Jolt -- who transforms into a Chevrolet Volt -- only appeared in the second movie and was used as a way to promote the electric vehicle. Though the bot helped to save Optimus Prime in Revenge of the Fallen, he was never mentioned again.
These two, who originally transformed into ice cream trucks, played small roles in the second film. The bulk of their appearance in Dark of the Moon was cut for time, though they do make a cameo in it. They were originally set to debut in the first film, but don't make an appearance until the sequel. They die in the film's final battle. Arcee later appears in a different form in Bumblebee. Portrayed as an older robot who uses a cane to walk, Jetfire -- who transforms into a long-range jet -- turned his back on the Decepticons to become one of the good guys.
In the end, he sacrifices himself to save Optimus Prime. Perhaps the silliest of the Autobots, Wheelie transformers into a radio-controlled truck. Like Jetfire, he was originally a Decepticon before changing his ways. While it was believed the character died during Dark of the Moon, it's been confirmed Wheelie will return for The Last Knight. Brains, another former Decepticon, transforms into a laptop computer. In Dark of the Moon he is shown to be close friends with Wheelie, with the two of them ultimately saving the day.
He appears again in Age of Extinction but his status as of the end of the movie is unknown. Mirage speaks with an Italian accent and transforms into a Ferrari. He started out working with security services, but when the civil war broke out he was one of the first to fight off the Decepticons. After seeing his own team brutally killed by the Predacons, Jazz managed to drag the only survivor of the Autobots he was meant to rescue -- Tracks -- to safety, and then faced off against all five of the Predacons.
Through tricks, weapons, and good old hand to hand combat, he singlehandedly beat down several of them, and held down the leader until he could get reinforcements. As a member of a long lineage of Primes who existed before Optimus was ever given the mantle, Sentinel Prime plays a part in being one of the reasons why the Decepticons have such hatred for the Prime name to begin with.
By the time war finally broke out, Sentinel had almost taken over the Senate for himself. Fortunately by this point Megatron had risen from the gladiatorial pits, and would eventually kill Sentinel Prime with his bare hands… though by that point things had already progressed to full on war.
Ultra Magnus is basically Prime-lite. Minimus Ambus is the latest in a long line of these Ultra Magnii. In several universes -- like the original cartoon and the Transformers Animated cartoon series, Fort Max is one of a handful of city-bots, Transformers that are literally the size of a full city.
In the long-running IDW comics however, Fortress Maximus is a point-one percenter, an exclusive club of Cybertronians with special sparks that are one in a thousand.
There, he would go on to fight through countless battles for the Autobots before finally becoming the warden of Garrus-9, the Autobot prison where they kept prisoners of war and anyone who broke the law on either side. This lasted until the Phase Sixer Overlord arrived and overwhelmed the prison, where he would need to be rescued by the Wreckers sometime later. As one of only a handful of female Transformers, Arcee has made appearances in nearly every version of Transformers created.
Though the circumstances behind her introduction to the universe were… far less than ideal, later writers would rehabilitate her character, turning her from an unbalanced, psychopathic killing machine into… an emotionally balanced killing machine. Arcee has the honor of being one of the oldest Transformers in the Autobot army, existing prior to both Cybertronian Civil Wars as Arcee of the Darklands, a slave that fought in ancient gladiatorial arenas.
While there, she easily proved the superior of her brother Galvatron, and over millions of years honed her battle capabilities to levels most Autobots could scarcely dream of. Grimlock made his first appearance in the original cartoons after being built by the other Autobots, who wanted to give dinosaur alt modes some new comrades.
After being created, the Dinobots wound up attacking the other Autobots, and it was only after they saved Optimus and the others from the Decepticons that they were officially welcomed into the Autobot forces. In the IDW G1 series, we meet Grimlock already locked up in a military jail for having ticked off his commander. While there, he and his cellmate Slag formed a group known as the Dynobots. But since he and Megatron get along worse than he and Optimus, Grimlock wound up back with the Autobots fairly quickly.
Over time, Prime would turn the security forces he ran into the beginnings of the Autobot army, tamping down some of the damage the Decepticons inflicted, even as Megatron murdered both of the previous Primes before him, Sentinel and Zeta. That really says it all about Optimus. If Megatron is an astonishing force for evil across the universe, striking fear into organic and Cybertronian life alike, then Optimus Prime is his opposite number.
A member of the Omega Sentinel guardian robots, Omega Supreme is one of the few Cybertronians on this list capable of remembering a time before both civil wars. Omega would miss millions of years of history after the twisted actions of Jhiaxus created the combiner Monstructor.
Skids, an Autobot, only appears twice in the entire series. Each time, he is voiced by a different actor. Only toys that came from molds made by the toy company Takara got characters in this show. Toys from molds that were produced by other companies never appeared. Roadbuster, Whirl, Barrage, Chop Shop, Venom, and Ransack were all based off of molds from a competing toy company, Bandai, so they never appear in the cartoon.
Bob Budiansky , who was given the task of naming the toys supplied to him by Hasbro in order to help create the story for the Transformers line, gave his characters alternate names to accommodate them as a form of choice.
In the case of Starscream who was a silver jet in vehicle mode, one of the alternate names given to his character by Budiansky was 'The Silver Snake'. Though this name was never used, but remained in Budiansky's original notes, it is interesting to note that the character of Starscream in the original G1 series was voiced by comedian voice actor Chris Latta.
In addition, Chris voiced the character of Cobra Commander in another popular cartoon of the time 'G. Joe' The voice Chris used for both characters were identical and were the two characters Chris was most remembered for.
In addition, to being part of a "Snake" named group as its leader, the character of Cobra Commander was seen often wearing an iconic "Silver" face plate that concealed his identity that was revealed in the 'G. Joe The Movie' as being partly snake like in form due to a science accident, hence making him somewhat of a 'Silver Snake' in his appearance. Some of his lines can still be heard in "Five Faces of Darkness" Episodes 3. Sparkplug makes his last appearance in The Transformers: Cosmic Rust No explanation for his absence is given either in the following episodes or in The Transformers: The Movie The Autobot's space ship, the Ark was originally named "Auntie".
The name got carried over into the comics. Interestingly, the name of the ship was never spoken in the cartoon. Rumble's toy was black and red, and Frenzy's was blue. However, in the TV series, Rumble was colored blue and Frenzy was colored black and red. Although many characters that wore face-plates instead of mouths such as Optimus Prime and Soundwave have made this feature iconic, they were originally intended to have true mouths underneath those plates in various related media.
The Marvel comics, for example, gave Soundwave a generic human face for a few issues, and Optimus Prime himself can be seen without his face-mask in one of the early story books. Some later re-imaginings of these characters opted to continue depicting them with mouths. Many other characters, like Bumblebee or Windcharger, were based on toys that also had a face-plates but received normal mouths for the cartoon show.
If this season had aired its episodes in terms of production order, Windcharger would not be mentioned by name until The Transformers: Fire on the Mountain This Autobots only appears in this scene, never speaks or transforms to robot mode, and is referred to as "Hauler" by Cliffjumper. Apparently, this was an early version of the Autobot called Grapple, who later appears in season two. All of the other characters introduced in the movie were given new voice actors.
In his next appearance The Transformers: City of Steel , he acts quite insane. Later, in season 3, Galvatron Frank Welker lands in lava and goes insane as a result episodes 3. The Decepticon jet Thundercracker never uses his sonic powers in the series his toy tech specs do say he has them, and he uses them in Marvel Comics. Omega Supreme was originally going to be called "Fortress Maximus". Although his name was changed, the name Fortress Maximus is later given to a character who first appears in the series-ending, episode 4.
Voice director Wally Burr occasionally filled in for voice actors that were unavailable for a given episode. Alpha Trion is the only Transformer in the series who aged since the beginning of the war between Autobots and Decepticons till the present time, judging by the difference in his look at The Transformers: The Search for Alpha Trion The Transformers: War Dawn He can be considered as Spike and Buster's third brother, or as an early name for either of their characters.
Season 5 did not feature any new episodes. It consisted of 15 episodes from the previous seasons and The Transformers: The Movie separated to five episodes. New opening and closing footage were added to each episode, which portrayed Powermaster Optimus Prime meeting regularly with a live-action human named Tommy Kennedy to tell him old Transformers stories. Ravage was originally named Stalker. Jetfire was originally called Fireball.
Cliffjumper was originally Blowout. Trailbreaker was originally to be called Guzzle. Famed comic writer and co-creator of the Transformers mythos, Bob Budiansky owns the cartoon on DVD, but he has never watched it. Trypticon doesn't seem to have eyes because when his animation model was designed based on his toy, they forgot to place the eye stickers on his head. Unlike Optimus Prime's trailer, which mysteriously comes and goes between transformations, Megatron's silencer and stock can be accounted for when he transforms from pistol to robot.
In "Day of The Machines" when Megatron transforms back to robot mode in the storage cage, the components drop to the ground and remain in frame behind both he and Soundwave. The series has become so infamous for its often sub-par, error-ridden animation that even Hasbro themselves have acknowledged the mistakes and jokingly gave them in-story justifications.
In subsequent Transformers canon, it has been explained that various energies, objects, powers and events have reality-altering capabilities that cause inconsistencies in space-time continuum on a multi-dimensional level. For example, the crass animation errors of the episode The Transformers: Carnage in C-Minor , widely considered the worst-looking of the series, have been attributed to the reality-warping side effects of the Eurythman aliens' Harmony sound, which the plot of said episode revolves around.
At the time of season one, Spike Witwicky is about 14 years old. His love interest, Carly introduced in season 2 , is about a year older than him. Generally speaking, the Autobots have blue eyes, and the Decepticons have red.
There are exceptions, though. Some include: Swindle purple , Thrust yellow , and Motormaster purple. The Autobot called Broadside's character model was totally overhauled halfway during season 3, so it would more closely resemble his toy. Sparkplug Witwicky's real first name is not revealed in the TV series. In Marvel Comics, sometimes he is called William, and sometimes Irving. The character based upon him in the live action film, Transformers , played by Kevin Dunn , is named Ron.
Starscream was originally called Ulchtar before the writers, mainly Bob Budiansky , decided on his finalized name. The original idea behind Ratchet was "the best tool guy or girl".
Since early on in the production, there was a rule against female robots, Ratchet became a male. A similar case happened in Transformers: Animated , since they originally envisioned the main Autobot cast with a female medic, who eventually became the male Ratchet. Later, in the aforementioned show's third season, a female medic finally appeared for a short time, named Red Alert.
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