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In General
- Depending on the Writer: Aside from the individual Decepticons, the faction itself has been portrayed differently across G1 media. They've been intrinsically evil machines out for universal conquest, as well as Well Intentioned Extremists who fought a corrupt government, but ended up becoming no better/even worse than them.
- Galactic Conquerer: They typically want to spread Cybertronian rule across multiple planets.
- Gladiator Games: In some continuities, the Decepticons were formed through these by Megatron.
- Meaningful Name: The IDW comics explains that the name "Decepticon" is taken from one of Megatron's rallying lines: "You are being deceived".
- Multiple-Choice Past: How the Decepticons formed varies among depictions: the Sunbow cartoon had them as the descendents of Quintesson military hardware, and the Generation 2 comic as descendents of the Leige Maximo (both times making them inherently evil), while the IDW and Dreamwave comics have them as normal Cybertronians swayed by Megatron for a single cause (IDW makes them out to be more noble... well, initially, anyway).
- Planet Looters: More often than not in the G1 mythos, they're on Earth to steal its numerous resources of energy for their own ends.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the IDW continuity, the Decepticons were originally a protest group made up of lowly blue-collared workers who opposes the corrupt Autobot government, only to end up being disillusioned with the whole "peace through tyranny" stuff.
Nemesis Decepticon crew
Function: Leader
- "Peace through tyranny."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US), Seizo Kato (JP)
- Adaptational Badass: His IDW incarnation is a Took a Level in Badass variation. He went from being a lowly miner to a gladiatorial Warrior Poet to a ruthless Well-Intentioned Extremist. It also helps that he has other alt-modes (a stealth bomber and a tank) aside from his iconic Walter P38 handgun form.
- Adaptational Heroism: While the original cartoon version of Megatron was a standard villain who wanted to Take Over the World, and mistreated his henchmen, several other continuities portray him in a more well intentioned light, especially IDW, in which he becomes an Autobot.
- Antimatter: He can use this by interdimensionally linking up to a black hole. He rarely uses it though, since it's, y'know, antimatter.
- Arm Cannon: His iconic fusion cannon remains attatched to his right arm and can pack incredble destructive power. With it, he provides the page image for the arm-mounted type.
- Asskicking Equals Authority: If him taking on Devastator, Astrotrain, Blitzwing and Starscream for Decepticon leadership and winning in "Triple Takeover" is anything to go by.
- Bad Boss: In the Sunbow cartoon, he mistreats his henchmen. It's also implied in "The Secret of Omega Supreme" that he brainwashed most of them into servitude with the Robo Smasher.
- BFG: He not only has one, but turns into one. In addition, the barrel of his gun mode appears on his back and can seemingly flip under his right arm (which is how the toy is meant to be transformed) and be fired.
- Usually wielded by Starscream or Soundwave when Megatron turns into one, twice he let Optimus Prime use him (once to launch Dr. Arkeville's Exponential Generator into space before it could turn Earth into energy, once to shoot antidotes into the Insecticons before they could explode and kill everyone in Iron Mountain.)
- Big Bad: He's the Decepticon leader (well, one of them, but he's the most famous), and Optimus Prime's Arch-Enemy. Generally, he's only not this when Unicron or The Fallen are about.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Averted in the original 80s cartoon. Despite being a laughably incompetent General Failure, Megatron lacks the necessary competition to fall fairly into this trope. He retains the role of Big Bad simply because there is no other villain to put him in his place. The only competition he has is Starscream, whos even more inept than he is. This all changes in the film when Unicron shows up.
- Cool Sword: Has a lightsaber-esque sword in Transformers: The Movie. Some versions of the original figure (mostly Japan exclusive ones) give him a silver sword too.
- Driven to Suicide: Upon Optimus Prime's initial death in the Marvel comics, Megatron (rightfully so) believed Prime to be still alive and blew up the Space Bridge while he was riding it. It didn't work, however, instead leading to Laser-Guided Amnesia.
- Emperor Scientist: This guy invented (or at least rediscovered) transformation in the Marvel Comics, and is behind many doomsday machines of the week. In the Sunbow cartoon, he's also capable of making working Transformer bodies from human cars to create the Stunticons.
- Epic Flail: Has a purple energon mace.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Frank Welker gave Megatron a fairly raspy voice. A few obscure audiobooks made him even raspier.
- Evil Laugh: The sheer creepiness of Megatron's Evil Laugh in the original animated series is in and of itself Nightmare Fuel.
- Evil Overlord: He's the leader of the Deceptions.
- A Father to His Men: He's this in some continuities, albeit a gruff and angry one. In the cartoon, he even worked with Optimus Prime on numerous occasions to protect his warriors."I do this only for the welfare of my Decepticons. It grieves me that you should profit from it."
- Flight: Most media depict him as able to do this, despite not transforming into any form of aircraft.
- General Failure: Megatron has made some... questionable... decisions during the war. Such as an overly-complex scheme involving Bruticus firing at the moon causing it to shift Earth's tides to make a tidal wave that would flood a single dam causing a massive power surge... when, as an earlier episode proved, Rumble was all he needed. Even Starscream would tell Megatron when a plan was bound to fail, but he would hear nothing to do with failure. He was more competent in the Five-Episode Pilot, though.
- Genius Bruiser: Has an Intelligence score of 10 out of 10.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Whenever he is VERY happy, making the accompanying Evil Laugh all the more creepy.
- Good Guns, Bad Guns: The Walther P38 (which is his alt-mode) is a Nazi handgun. Coincidence? Probably, as his specific design was based on the gun used by the heroic spy agency U.N.C.L.E.
- Greater Scope Villain: Of Beast Wars. Aside from leading the Decepticons (whom the Predacons are descendants of), it's his recorded message on the Voyager's Golden Disk, which hundreds of years later ends up being stolen by a Predacon named after him, that ends up kickstarting the whole conflict on prehistoric Earth.
- HeelFace Turn: In the IDW continuity, after Dark Cybertron Megatron has a true change of heart and becomes an Autobot.
- Large Ham: Courtesy of the legendary Frank Welker.
- Laser Blade: Has one in Transformers: The Movie.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- In the Marvel Comics, when his suicide attempt failed, he was transported to the Dead End region of Cybertron and wandered around as an Empty. He got better when he saved Blackjack from a group of Autobots.
- He also experienced this in the UK Comics after Straxus attempted a botched Grand Theft Me on him, and Ratbat sending him back to Earth expelled Straxus's mind from him.
- Machiavelli Was Wrong: In The Transformers: The Movie, an injured Megatron has to beg Soundwave just to not to leave him behind. Then when his Decepticon minions realize they could jettison the wounded on Astrotrain to make it go faster, Megatron is Thrown Out the Airlock despite his pleas, not one Decepticon lifting a finger to help him. It seems once his forces had no reason to fear him, they had no reason to be loyal to him. This is contrasted with the Autobots going back for Optimus Prime, and showing reverence for him even in his final moments.
- Multiple-Choice Past: He is often depicted as being a gladiator (sometimes a miner beforehand) before he created the Decepticon faction. However, the original cartoon and Wings of Honor claim he was created for conquest by the Constructicons. Also different is how much of a Well-Intentioned Extremist he is or if he just wants raw power.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite being an infamous General Failure, Megatron could still prove to be formidable, losing to the Autobots by an inch (eg. he instantly reversed around Mirage's attempt to turn them and the Insecticons against each other and also managed to steal or outmatch some of Wheeljack's gadgets such as the Immobilizer and the Dominator Disc).
- One-Man Army: Megatron is frequently portrayed as unstoppable against Autobots on the battlefield. Barely a handful of Transformers (Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Shockwave) have been able to go up against him and live to tell the tale. The cartoon episode "Triple Takeover" showed he even took on Starscream, Devastator, Blitzwing AND Astrotrain to come out the undisputed Decepticon Leader after a coup d'etat attempt.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Megatron is pretty territorial about who ends up offing Optimus Prime.
- Deconstructed in the comics; Megatron may obsess over killing Optimus Prime but he has often left the killing up to subordinates so that he can focus his energies on Ratchet, who Megatron respected after Ratchet single-handedly beat him.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Very few Autobots were willing to accept IDW Megatron after his becoming an Autobot. The crew of the Lost Light ignore him at best and insult him at worst.
- Size Shifter: His iconic Walter P38 form can be held by Decepticons or normal humans. Or even become as large as Optimus Prime◊.
- Tank Goodness: Modern incarnations of him usually transform into a tank instead of a Walter P38 pistol (mostly because changes in US law prohibit the sale of firearm replicas in toy stores).
- This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Part of Optimus' Batman Gambit was for Megatron to get fired up enough to defeat the usurpers for the title of Decepticon Leader in "Triple Takeover."
- Villainous Friendship:
- Type 1 with his loyal left-hand-man Soundwave, who along with the Mini-Cassettes are the only sentients that he has shown to be fond of. Though ironically, it didn't keep Soundwave from letting Starscream expel Megatron into outer space in the movie.
- He obviously trusts and even respects Shockwave (that is, his cartoon version; not so much in other continuities). We just don't see it as much since Shockwave never leaves Cybertron.
- Villains Want Mercy: In the movie, Megatron begs Optimus Prime to spare his life, while reaching for a blaster on the ground.
- Warrior Poet: Was used to be this in the IDW comics, even after founding the Decepticons.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: "Peace through tyranny."
- Worthy Opponent:
- His rivalry with Optimus Prime transcends petty hatred into a deep respect and understanding: so much so that whenever they fight side by side for a common goal, they are unstoppable.
- More so with Ratchet in the comics; Megatron doesn't like Prime in the comics but he's Affably Evil to Ratchet during their fights and will tell Ratchet that he respects him, something he'll never do to Prime.
Function: Air Commander
- "Conquest is made of the ashes of one's enemies."
Voiced by: Chris Latta (US), Hirotaka Suzuoki (JP)
- Adaptational Badass: He's far from stupid in the G1 cartoon, but his Unicron trilogy and IDW counterparts are flat-out Agent Peacocks. Even more so with the latter, who is a Villain with Good Publicity.
- Agent Peacock: He may be vain and flamboyant in the IDW comics, but he's definitely not someone who should be taken lightly.
- Awesome McCool Name: A human character in the comics even commented on how cool his name is.
- Back from the Dead:
- In the cartoon universe, he can live on after death as a "ghost" thanks to having a mutant spark that is indestructible. In the episode "Ghost in the Machine", Unicron gave him his body back.
- In the Marvel Comics continuity, after Starscream died during the Underbase Saga (taking many characters with him), Megatron had him brought back as a Pretender.
- Big Bad Wannabe: On the few times he takes control, he just can't cut it - he's not completely incompetent at leadership, but he's nowhere near as cruel or dangerous as Megatron.
- Cassandra Truth: Starscream often knows when a plan of Megatron's is not going to end well, but Megatron never takes his advice. Expect merciless shrieking and gloating when things inevitably do go wrong.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
- Co-Dragons: Alongside Soundwave and Shockwave, Starscream is one of Megatron's highest ranking Decepticons.
- Cool Plane: His F-15 form.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- In the cartoon:
- Somehow, in The Transformers: The Movie, out of all the Decepticons in the big huge brawl, Starscream outlasts everybody else.
- In the episode, "Starscream's Brigade", Megatron actually kicks Starscream out - so he revives the Combaticons into bodies made from old World War II vehicles, and he leads them to victory and overthrows Megatron, becoming the leader of the entire Decepticon army (if ultimately only for one minute).
- In the episode, "A Prime Problem", Megatron made a clone of Starscream fight a clone of Optimus. The real Starscream was running the clone on remote, and even the Autobots remarked how good a fight he was putting up that day.
- In the Marvel comic:
- He managed to absorb the Underbase while playing both sides, and killed off many, MANY Transformers, Autobot and Decepticon alike.
- After being destroyed at the end of the above mentioned Underbase Saga, he was revived as a Pretender by a Not Quite Dead Megatron, brainwashed, and almost defeated Optimus Prime and all of the Decepticons on Earth. But Ratchet had actually turned him into a reverse Manchurian Agent, hiding his true personality deep within his neural circuitry, and when Hot Rod shoots Starscream during the fight, he immediately panics and begs mercy to Scorponok.
- In the cartoon:
- Deadpan Snarker: Mostly regarding Megatron or his comrades' incompetence.
- Dirty Coward: He wouldn't shoot Megatron in the face if you held a gun to his.
- The Dragon: Megatron's most iconic lieutenant.
- Demonic Possession: If his body is destroyed, his Spark can wander about and take over other Transformers, ordinary machines, or even cyborgs.
- Evil Genius: In the cartoon, he occasionally makes use of his former scientist side, like when he constructed an electric generator to recharge the Decepticons, made gunpower to compensate for running out of regular ammo in "A Decepticon Raider In King Arthur's Court", and his creation of the Combaticons in "Starscream's Brigade".
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Learnt this in the Marvel comics. While the Underbase isn't evil, Starscream ended up being destroyed by the sheer power he had absorbed from it.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Inverted; Starscream has the screechiest voice among the Decepticons. When his voice does drop though, he's much more sinister and/or serious.
- Fatal Flaw: It's not greed or ambition (even though he has plenty of both) but pride.
- Faustian Rebellion: Bargained with Unicron for a new body in "Ghost in the Machine", then successfully betrayed him.
- Faux Affably Evil: He may be a cowardly suck-up, but he's as villainous as you can get with Decepticons.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Few of his fellow Decepticons can stand being around him, especially when he tries to betray Megatron.
- Genius Bruiser: In the cartoon, he was a scientist and explorer prior to joining the Decepticons, and he often uses his smarts to his advantage.
- Informed Attribute: His treachery was this in the original G1 comics; Though he did speak of overthrowing Megatron in the early issues, he never acted on those thoughts, and his critical injuries at the hands of Omega Supreme put him out of commision for a long time. It wasn't until the Underbase saga that Starscream finally got the chance to showcase his most famous trait, betraying both Decepticon factions for his own benefit.
- In-Series Nickname: Characters sometimes call him "Screamer".
- It's All About Me: Starscream is vain and self-centered, constantly letting his ambition get in the way of his actual competence.
- Jerkass: He's a self-centered jerk who can be just as rude and condesceding to his fellow Decepticons as he is to Autobots.
- Joker Immunity: As the first iteration of one of the most popular and iconic Transformers characters, Starscream is rarely killed off. Even in the post-movie cartoon, he lives on with his indestructible spark.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's the fastest of the flying Decepticons (with a Speed rating of 9 out of 10), able to reach Mach 2.8 and fly as high as 52 miles. His Strength and Firepower are also listed at a 7.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: For all his flaws, Starscream is a dangerous combatant, with plenty of Autobots under his belt (and as Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass shows, he has come close to winning many times). This is the only reason Megatron keeps him around.
- One-Hit Kill: His Null Ray shuts down nearly anything that runs on electricity, meaning he can defeat several Transformers with one clean hit. However, organic beings and powerful Transformers like Megatron, Optimus Prime, and Starscream himself will only get knocked backwards by the Null Ray.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Starscream possesses a mutant spark that is indestructible - allowing him to survive death as a "ghost".
- Out-of-Character Moment: Humbly deferred to and took orders from Astrotrain in "The God Gambit". note
- Paint It Black: When his spark possesses someone, their appearance may change to reflect him. This includes Atari Hitotonari's uniform turning black and Waspinator's Predacon emblem turning into the Decepticon emblem.
- Palette Swap: With his Seekers (Thundercracker, Skywarp, Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust).
- Rage Against the Mentor: Some of Starscream's recent characterizations have this.
- Smug Snake: Starscream believes himself to be smarter, deadlier, and handsomer than the rest of the Decepticons. He has frequently been portrayed as more interested in being Decepticon leader for the sake of the title than defeating the Autobots. Unsurprisingly, most of the Decepticons hate him.
- Terrible Trio: Part of the Seeker trio with Skywarp and Thundercracker. He also forms one with Megatron and Soundwave.
- The Starscream: Though this really goes without saying...
- They Killed Kenny Again: After getting destroyed the first time in the cartoon, he can barely keep a host or rebuilt body for a short time before getting blown up again.
- Villain with Good Publicity: In the IDW comics, after being elected as the leader of a neutral faction.
Function: Communications
- "Cries and screams are music to my ears."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US), Issei Masamune (JP)
- Adaptational Badass: Same deal as Megatron in the IDW comics, but in this case, his other alt-modes are based on armored cars.
- Adaptational Heroism: The IDW comic's version of Soundwave is perhaps the most sympathetic among all of his incarnations. His backstory is quite sad too.
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: He enjoys music, even calling the alien music from "Carnage in C-Minor" heaven.
- All There in the Manual: Soundwave's bio depicts him a telepathic robot who keeps notes on all of his fellow Decepticons for blackmail, and everyone hates him for this. This is quite the opposite of his comic and cartoon portrayal (though the blackmail element ended up finally showing up during "Earthforce").
- Back from the Dead: As Soundblaster in The Headmasters.
- "Blackmail" is Such an Ugly Word: He's going to dig up any dirt you have on you and use it. This is chiefly used in the UK Marvel comics during the "Earthforce" series.
- Broken Pedestal: IDW Soundwave did not appreciate Megatron betrayng his ideals and going over to the Autobots... until All Hail Optimus.
- Catch Phrase: "[Mini-Cassette], eject! Operation: [action]!"
- Co-Dragons: Across continuities, he's usually this with Starscream and/or Shockwave.
- Communications Officer: This is his official function in the Decepticon army.
- Dark and Troubled Past: In the IDW continuity, he was originally a Homeless Pigeon Person who suffered from Sensory Overload, not knowing where he came from or even what his name was. Ravage, Buzzsaw and Laserbeak happen upon him, and Ravage's advice helps him to control his Super Senses through focus. After that he lives with them on the streets, and they remain loyal to each other, even coming with him when he was employed by the Senate and later when he joined the Decepticons.
- Depending on the Artist:
- In the Marvel comics, Soundwave was consistently colored purple (evidently based on an early animation model), and Sarra Mossoff used the same coloring in the Generation 2 series. In the UK comics, though, he was consistently colored blue. Regeneration One depicts him as blue, but this is later shown to be an in-universe change as a result of being possessed by the Dark Matrix entity.
- In some issues, José Delbo would draw Soundwave with an actual face. Previous and later artists would depict him with his more well-known faceplate.
- Depending on the Writer: Soundwave is usually Megatron's most loyal supporter, however, certain sources, like the UK "Earthforce" story and his original Tech Specs, write him as an unscrupulous conman in it only for himself. His use of blackmail varies from continuity as well. In the IDW comics he's usually a complete loyalist, however sometimes he's written as an opportunist. His speech patterns also tend to vary, from normal to stilted and robotic.
- The Dragon: He's Megatron's most faithful and competent subordinate. And every time a new Big Bad surfaces in the Marvel comics, Soundwave keeps his Dragon status.
- Drone Deployer: He keeps an army of Mini-Cassettes inside his chest, which he sends out for espionage and battle purposes.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His cassettes (barring Ratbat in the IDW continuity) and Megatron. As he puts it:Soundwave: You do not understand LOYALTY!
- Evil Laugh: Very rarely, he does this in the cartoon. It's rather unsettling when he does it.
- Homeless Pigeon Person: His backstory in the IDW continuity explains why he is called "Soundwave".
- Laser-Guided Karma: His Tech Specs note that because of his opportunistic blackmailing nature, he's a target of retaliation for fellow Decepticons.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: According to his toy bio quote (quoted at the top).
- Loyal to the Position: Of Decepticon leader.
- Machine Monotone: His cartoon depiction had this, as well as a memorable vocoder effect applied to it. Comic depictions made after the cartoon tend to write his dialogue this way, too.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: OK, so he doesn't do it by actually shouting, but he does possess sonic powers.
- No Mouth: Mostly, see Depending on the Artist. Though it is implied he does have a mouth, since the cartoon makes his mouthplate move as if a mouth were underneath, plus his IDW backstory depicts him with a regular mouth before he is hired by the Senate.
- Not So Stoic: Though he gives off the impression of an emotionless robot in the cartoon, he does have moments of emotion (see Screams Like a Little Girl and Evil Laugh). Also in Child's Play, he tried to play baseball with Skywarp, while in Microbots he gets as drunk off his ass from Energon with the other Decepticons.
- Operation Blank: Soundwave would seem to use this trope, except his speech patterns meant he was simply issuing orders to his Casseticons.
- Out-of-Character Moment:
- He didn't lift a finger to save Megatron when Starscream had him Thrown Out the Airlock in The Transformers: The Movie. Especially after he just risked his neck to save Megatron in the first place.
- Paint It Black: As Soundblaster.
- Robo Speak: Though he doesn't always talk robotically in the cartoon, his iconic catchphrases do fall under this."Soundwave superior, Constucticons inferior."
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Believe it or not - he screams in the cartoon episode, "Roll for It", after being sent flying.
- Size Shifter: Transforms into a microcassette player able to be held by humans. Even more bizarre in the cartoon, in which we see him quickly shrink in size after transforming◊.
- The Spymaster: He sends his little minions out to spy on the Autobots... and his fellow Decepticons.
- Tactful Translation: In "Atlantis, Arise!" Soundwave translates what Nergal really said to his troops—instead of taking Wheeljack to the dungeons as Nergal told Megatron, he's to be taken to the labs to develop weapons against both Autobot AND Decepticon alike.
- Telepathy: Though sn often forgotten power of his, Soundwave can read minds by monitoring electrical brain impulses.
- Undying Loyalty: To Megatron. In the original screenplay of the movie its shown that he opposed Starscream's decision to throw the mortally-wounded Megatron off Astrotrain, and fought for Decepticon leadership just so he can force Astrotrain to go back for him. This was unfortunately cut to "save screentime" and in the final film, Soundwave is even shown among the Decepticons agreeing with Starscream on throwing Megatron to his death. Maybe Megatron recorded over Soundwave's favorite mixtape before hand?
- Villainous Friendship:
- Type I with Megatron. There is a reason why Megatron begged for his help when mortally-wounded, as he is the only being, much less Decepticon, he could trust. Thankfully, this love is fully returned even when his leader became Galvatron, as in The Headmasters, he brought him back to life as Soundblaster after he died fighting Blaster.
- Some continuities also have him have a Type I friendship with his cassettes, most prominently his backstory in the IDW comics.
- Yes-Man: To Megatron, but an unquestionably cool example.
Function: Spy
- "My bite is worse than my bark."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US/JP)
- Break the Haughty: His ego is not the hardest thing in the world to break.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: His appearances in the cartoon weren't frequent to begin with (see below for why), but Season 3 forgot all about him.
- Depending on the Writer: Can he speak English, or just squawk and caw?
- Faux Affably Evil: He's civil and sophisticated, but also cruel and destructive.
- Feathered Fiend: Even though he doesn't have any feathers, this bird is still not friendly.
- Improv: He isn't good at it.
- Killed Off for Real: In the Marvel Comics, thanks to an Underbase-powered Starscream.
- Mad Artist: Buzzsaw's idea of art is to display his victim's corpses in grotesque ways.
- Palette Swap: He and Laserbeak are these to each other.
- Pirate Parrot: In the Marvel Comics, he was this for Shockwave when he was Decepticon leader.
- Out of Focus: Despite having the "Spy" function and being packaged with Soundwave, most tie-in media ignored him in favour of Laserbeak (obstensively because so long as Soundwave was advertised, so was Buzzsaw, so he didn't need to appear as much).
- Size Shifter: Goes from a normal sized bird to a microcassette (or a regular cassette in the cartoon).
- Small Name, Big Ego: To the point where he'll sulk if things don't go his way.
- Stationary Wings: His wings are often still, with jet engines doing the flying for him.
- Strong as They Need to Be: Taken to ridiculous levels when in the Marvel Comics he takes down Omega Supreme.
- The Unintelligible: Sometimes.
Function: Interrogation
- "The only point I like in Autobots: Melting point."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US/JP)
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He survived the Great Toy Purge that was The Transformers: The Movie, but, save for a brief cameo in "Webworld," never appeared again, his spot in the cartoon and toyline taken by fellow Mini-Cassette Ratbat.
- Composite Character: In the cartoon, Laserbeak took up Buzzsaw's role as the Decepticons' spy since use of Buzzsaw was rarely encouraged (as a result, Laserbeak's less family-friendly role of "Interrrogator" was ignored).
- Depending on the Writer: In the cartoon, he makes squawks. Other media have him speaking English.
- Dirty Coward: The main reason for his tactic of quickly attacking and quickly disappearing. He even shows hesitation in the episode, "Divide and Conquer", after being told to spy on the Autobots, specifically to report on a severely wounded Optimus Prime's condition. He does end up doing it though.Skywarp: "I think Laserbeak's chicken!"Megatron: "He will have more to fear if he refuses to obey me!"
- Feathered Fiend: Just without the actual feathers.
- Killed Off for Real: In the Marvel comics, due to an Underbase-powered Starscream.
- Lighter and Softer: The cartoon version (and subsequently most other adaptations) is this compared to his original Tech Specs, in which he's not a spy but an interrogator, and a pretty nasty one at that.
- Mutilation Interrogation: Is described as using his lasers to carve into prisoners until he gets what he wants to know.
- Pirate Parrot: He sits on the shoulder of Soundwave or anyone who is the Decepticon leader at that time. Most noticeable in the comics. A joke on TFWiki.net tells, "Autobots pass the Matrix, Decepticons pass the Laserbeak". This is usually due to his cowardice - should the helm change, his loyalty to the previous leader will almost instantly disappear.
- Power Crystal: His Tech Specs say his lasers are powered by ruby crystals. Running short of them can be enough to panic his systems into shutdown.
- Professional Killer: He is often used as an assassin.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Primarily red and black.
- Size Shifter: Goes from a normal sized bird to a microcassette (or a regular cassette in the cartoon).
- Stationary Wings: Like Buzzsaw, Laserbeak's wings don't flap like real bird wings.
- Strong as They Need to Be: In some episodes he's easily defeated. In, "A Prime Problem", he effortlessly manhandles Optimus Prime and Starscream.
- The Unintelligible: Speaks with bird noises in the cartoon.
Function: Saboteur
- "Today's Autobots are tomorrow's scrap metal."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US), Hirotaka Suzuoki & Frank Welker (JP)
- Blinded by the Light: Ravage doesn't take too kindly to bright light.
- Cats Are Mean: Oh yes.
- Depending on the Writer: Sometimes he speaks perfect English. Sometimes he's The Unintelligible.
- I Work Alone: He operates best alone, and he's not shy about letting the other Decepticons know it.
- Panthera Awesome: His robot mode is panther-like.
- Size Shifter: Goes from being a normal sized jaguar to a microcassette (or a regular cassette in the cartoon).
- Stealth Expert: He has an electromagnetic emission shield, walks without making a single sound and disappears in low light/shadow.
- The Strategist: He's good at concucting newer, deadlier strategies.
- Strong as They Need to Be: He can fight evenly with Autobots or be knocked away by humans.
- Took a Level in Badass: He gets reformatted into a Predacon in Beast Wars.
- Undying Loyalty: To Megatron. In fact, Ravage was his first recruit in the UK Marvel Comics.
- The Unintelligible: As with Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, whether he can speak or not all depends on who holds the pen. While he's this in the cartoon, he did speak once, in "More Than Meets The Eye Part 3".Ravage: The rocket base is one hundred and forty kilometers due west of the Autobot camp.
Rumble and Frenzy
Function: Demolitions (Rumble), Warrior (Frenzy)
- Rumble: "Destroy what's below and what's above will follow."Frenzy: "Sow panic and surrender will bloom."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US)
- Adapted Out: Frenzy's sonic abilities were never used (or even mentioned) in the Sunbow cartoon. Instead, he had piledrivers like Rumble.
- American Accents: The cartoon made them sound like street punks with a bit of New Jersey thrown in.
- Battle Cry: Frenzy uses his sonic powers as one.
- Brown Note: Frenzy's sonic screeches.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like Laserbeak, the two stopped appearing around Season 3 of the cartoon. The Marvel comics also had it out for them - though they're freed from the Ark after over twenty issues, they're never seen in any major capacity, not even getting killed in the Underbase Saga!*
- Depending on the Artist: Rumble is red/black and Frenzy is blue, or it is backwards? At one point, due to a limited palette, they were both blue in the Marvel comics. And at one point in The Transformers: The Movie, they were both red/black!
- It should be noted that the production bible for the cartoon specifies Rumble as a "red robot", as does a Freeze-Frame Bonus in "Heavy Metal War" when Teletraan 1 shows some specs of Decepticons, indicating an error happened somewhere in production.
- Depending on the Writer: Rumble can create earthquakes and Frenzy has sonic screeches. Or can both create earthquakes?
- Dub Name Change: In the Japanese dub of the cartoon, Rumble became Frenzy and Frenzy became Rumble.
- Earthquakes Cause Fissures: Rumble's earthquakes sometimes make fissures.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: At least four unnamed look-alikes of Rumble and Frenzy turn up in More than Meets the Eye, Part 2. No explanation is given and they were never re-used.
- Loud of War: Frenzy's sonic abilities.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Frenzy.
- Meaningful Name: Rumble makes earthquakes.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Rumble. Unless it's Frenzy.
- Single-Minded Twins: They both are punks with a knack for destruction.
- Size Shifter: They are normally no taller than Soundwave's hips. They transform into microcassettes.
- Those Two Bad Guys
Function: Reconnaissance
- "See and you can know, know and you can destroy."
Voiced by: Chris Latta (US), Yoku Shioya & Keiichi Nanba (JP)
- "Blackmail" is Such an Ugly Word: Is said to watch his fellow Decepticons and learn their secrets. He's impressed by his ability at this.
- Blame Game: Spectro blames others when something goes wrong.
- Blinded by the Light: He can generate a bright flash to blind his enemies.
- Combining Mecha: Of a sort - instead of three robots becoming one large one, they combine into a single small camera.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Rarely if ever featured after Season One, he was only used in Season One of the cartoon to boost the Decepticon ranks. He was banned from usage in the comics and from the cartoon once the second wave of Transformers started showing up on the show.Why?
- Depending on the Writer: Reflector is either a Transformer with three bodies in robot mode (who might really be one guy who can clone himself) or just three independent Transformers who combine into an altmode.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the Marvel comics, Reflector's sole appearance consisted of a single panel showing Spectro, Viewfinder and Spyglass among several poisoned Decepticons.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals:
- The cartoon depicted Reflector as three identical robots (with one having a lens aperture in his chest) that slightly resembled Viewfinder, all of which were simply named "Reflector", rather than the toy's individualy named and designed robots.
- In addition, several Reflectors appeared in various crowd scenes in early episodes. They may or may not be the result of Reflector possessing the ability to produce copies of himself.
- The Leader: Viewfinder is the leader of the trio.
- Leader Forms the Head: Well, not a head, but Viewfinder forms the lens in camera mode.
- Me's a Crowd: Several Reflector-esque Decepticons appear in crowd scenes in "More than Meets the Eye Part 2", as well as a few generics in certain episodes (such as "Divide And Conquer"). May be Justified as a cloning ability.
- Never My Fault: Spectro tries to pin the blame for his screwups on anyona and anything but himself.
- Size Shifter: They're miniature 'Cons whom form a camera that can be held by robots or humans.
- Self-Duplication: He/they might have this ability - it's hinted at in some cartoon scripts, but never really addressed in the actual cartoon. One scene in "Divide And Conquer" did show Reflector's three robots run into each other and collide into one.
- Smug Snake: Viewfinder. This comes back to bite him as he is incapable of recognising his own flaws.
- Speak in Unison: He/they did this in the cartoon.
- Terrible Trio: He's made up of one.
Function: Warrior
- "Strike when the enemy isn't looking."
Voiced by: Frank Welker (US), Masashi Ebara (JP)
- Big Bad: Of the Bumblebee miniseries in the IDW comics. He tried to gather up all sorts of weapons for Megatron's return, and gained a device to disable the Earth Autobots.
- Cool Plane: An F-15 Eagle, to be exact.
- Dumb Muscle: Easily one of the stupidest Decepticons. The only time Skywarp actually becomes a credible opponent for the Autobots is when a more intelligent Decepticon, like Megatron or Starscream, is present to supervise his teleportational shenanigans.
- However, a guff-up led to Skywarp's tech spec numbers being switched with Starscream's, thus making his stupidity sound like an Informed Flaw.
- Homing Projectile: Skywarp can fire heat-seeking missiles.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Four unnamed Seekers in variations of Skywarp's colors turn up in More than Meets the Eye, Part 2.
- Jerkass: Skywarp loves to play cruel pranks on his fellow Decepticons.
- Killed Off for Real:
- A powered up Starscream bumps him off in the Marvel comics.
- To a lesser extent, he's this in the cartoon, as despite being reformatted as either Cyclonus or... someone else (it's weird), Cyclonus shows little to no acknowledgement towards having ever been anyone but himself.
- More Dakka: Skywarp uses variable-calibre machine guns in combat.
- Palette Swap: Like Thundercracker, he's one for Starscream. Personality-wise, however, the three Seekers are drastically different.
- The Prankster: Prefers to use his teleportation powers for this.
- Spanner in the Works: During "Dark Cybertron", Skywarp loses control of his teleportation due to an injury he sustained from Arcee. This ultimately proved fortunate as once Metalhawk and Waspinator discover Shockwave's plans, he luckily appeared long enough to teleport the two (and knowledge of what they had seen) back to the city.
- Teleporters and Transporters: The only Decepticon with the built-in ability to teleport. While one might think this would make Skywarp a crafty and dangerous adversary, in truth the Seeker is far too dimwitted to employ his unique talents for anything more than pulling childish pranks, like pushing his comrades down a flight of stairs.
- Terrible Trio: A Seeker alongside Starscream and Thundercracker.
- Villain Teleportation: Subverted in that it's only really effective when someone like Megatron or Starscream tells him how to use it.
- Undying Loyalty: The first thing he does upon being revived in the pilot is ensure Megatron is the next Decepticon who gets revived. Later, in The Transformers: The Movie, he becomes Galvatron's unswervingly loyal and dedicated dragon, Cyclonus. Or possibly not. It's weird.
Function: Warrior
- "The deadliest weapon is terror."
Voiced by: John Stephenson & Wally Burr (EN), Yuu Shimaka (JP)
- Anti-Villain: He's uncertain if he really believes in Megatron's cause. Or in the attacking and killing of humans.
- Cool Plane: Just like his fellow Seekers, it's an F-15 Eagle.
- Halfhearted Henchman: He's not convinced that the Decepticons' goal of conquest is right, even though he remains on their side.
- HeelFace Turn: In the IDW continuity, Thundercracker finally abandons the Decepticons to live pecefully on Earth.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Six unnamed seekers in variations of Thundercracker's colors turn up in More than Meets the Eye, Part 2.
- Jerkass: He may not be fully committed to evil, but don't let that make you think he won't sneer at you. "Fire on the Mountain" even has him get lippy with Megatron.Thundercracker: Whats the matter, fearless leader? You and Starscream look real geeky!
- Killed Off for Real:
- Yet another victim of the Underbase powered Starscream in the Marvel comics.
- To an extent he's also this in the cartoon , as Scourge (who Unicron reformats Thundercracker into) doesn't acknowledge him being anyone other than Scourge.
- Loud of War: His sonic boom could collapse structures and blow up enemy jets.
- Noble Demon: Has traits of this, especially in the IDW 'verse where he doesn't find joy in human slaughter unlike his allies.
- Palette Swap: For Starscream.
- Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: The only reason Thundercracker is still a Decepticon is because Starscream and the others have to repeatedly convince him he's where he belongs.
- Playing with Fire: Thundercracker uses incendiary guns as a weapon.
- Straight Man: Sometimes, like in "Countdown to Extinction", after Megatron and Starscream go missing, he's the one trying to get everyone to focus on fixing their base, and has to intervene when Skywarp gets into a fight with Rumble and Frenzy. Humorously Soundwave showed signs of The Starscream by insulting Thundercracker's tentative command.
- Terrible Trio: With Starscream and Skywarp as the Seekers.
1984/ 85 Decepticons
Function: Military Operations Commander
- "Clarity of thought before rashness of action."
Voiced by: Corey Burton (US), Yuu Shimaka (JP)
- Adaptational Badass: In Dark Cybertron, he's a Chessmaster and a Magnificent Bastard.
- Adaptational Heroism: As a Senator in Dark Cybertron.
- A God Am I: Shockwave's plan in Dark Cybertron amounts to "ascend to godhood".
- Arm Cannon: His left arm has a gun in place of a hand.
- Arch-Enemy: With the Dinobots (although he doesn't care).
- BFG: Also an aversion of Size Shifter — he doesn't change size in his gun altmode, so he becomes a robot-sized gun.
- Big Bad: In comics only, but he shows he's a much better Decepticon leader than Megatron. Recently, he's the one for Dark Cybertron.
- The Blank: His face consists of nothing beyond his eye.
- The Chessmaster
- Cyber Cyclops
- The Dragon: Megatron's controller on Cybertron while he's away.
- Dragon Ascendant: In the Marvel Comics, having driven Megatron "to suicide".
- Co-Dragons: Usually with Soundwave.
- Dying as Yourself: By the end of Dark Cybertron, Shockwave's emotions and morality return, and, horrified by what he has become, allows Optimus Prime and Megatron to kill him.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Shows up in the first episode of the cartoon, well over a year before his toy was released.
- Evil Brit: Well, he was meant to sound similar to David Warner of TRON according to Corey Burton, Shockwave's VA.
- Ironically, Corey himself would voice Sark in the Kingdom Hearts video games.
- The Evil Genius: Guess who designed the space bridge system?
- Exact Words: Prior to Megatron leaving Cybertron in his care to purse the Ark, Shockwave swore that when he should return, Cybertron will be as he had left it. Four million years later, Cybertron remained essentially unchanged, with no technological advancements made.
- Genius Bruiser: Can take on all the Dinobots and win with ease.
- It's Personal: Subverted in the IDW comics. When he gets stuck in stasis for several million years, he's woken up and put on an Explosive Leash by the humans to stop all other Transformers. He attacks Grimlock out of revenge, and even fights his way through Scorponok to get it, but he spares Scorponok because he has no real reason to fight him. When he finally gets to Grimlock, they brawl, until Shockwave gives up the fight (when he gets the upper hand), because it was all just a distraction to have Soundwave deactivate the leash. He says he has no real quarrel with Grimlock and that he doesn't care about the stasis thing. Grimlock chooses to blow them both up with a grenade instead of letting him walk away.
- Monster Sob Story: IDW comics (see below).
- Nothing Personal: Shockwave's actions are never personal, just logical to their best outcome. When The Dinobots attack him out of a personal grudge, he struggles to comprehend why they would follow him so far through space, and waste so many resources over wounded pride.
- Purple Is Powerful
- Redemption Equals Death: The Shadowplay punishment inflicted on him millions of years prior to "Dark Cybertron" is broken as his old, emotional persona returns. However, the only way the universe can be saved from his actions is to destroy him (as the chronal drive is inextricably bound to him and therefore cannot be detatched.
- The Spock: Claims that logic is the only master he serves.
- The Starscream: In some continuities, he's this. However, he's FAR more competent a leader than Starscream, and to some extent Megatron himself.
- The Stoic: Though the IDW comics show that originally, he was the complete opposite of a stoic.
- Tragic Monster: In the IDW continuity. Originally one of the only decent Senators in a corrupt government, Shockwave was an outspoken, emotional, friendly guy. Then he was subjected by Sentinel Prime and Protus to "Shadowplay", where his emotions were forcefully removed, turning him into an emotionless husk. Making things even worse, he had his face and hands taken away and replaced with a blank mask and claws for no reason other than spite. This had the side effect of freeing him from morality, allowing him to choose the most logical path to saving Cybertron... culminating in his A God Am I plan that would be activated in "Dark Cybertron".
- Undying Loyalty: To Megatron in the cartoon.
- In everything else, to Logic and/or Cybertron.
- Unstoppable Rage: In the IDW comics the Dinobots attack him because he destroyed a cargo cruiser they were guarding. Shockwave is mystified at the fact that the Dinobots commandeered a spaceship, took energon and went on a perilous cruise across the cosmos after Shockwave just for revenge at this (minor in the grand scheme of things) offense to their pride. He simply stops trying to think and gets really angry. Curb-Stomp Battle ensues.
- Wild Card: Has no problem going behind the others backs.
- You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: In the Marvel comics to Megatron.
Function: Military Transport
- "In confusion there is opportunity."
- Big Bad Wannabe: In the Sunbow cartoon. His idea of leading the Decepticons was to create an army of drone trains to collect Energon, which could seem a good idea at first, but their A.I.s were too primitive for creative thinking. Contrast with Blitzwing, whose plan seemed dumb at first but ended being better and more successful.
- Bigger on the Inside: As a space shuttle. Taken to ridiculous lengths in Transformers: The Movie, where not only can he fit in the entire Decepticon army, but there's also enough space for freaking Devastator to move around in!
- Cool Starship
- Cool Train: If outdated. Some modern toys have him become a bullet train instead.
- The Dragon: In the IDW comics, he replaces Starscream as the second-in-command of the Earthbound Decepticon Infiltration Unit. The fact that Soundwave and Shockwave were MIA probably helped him get there.
- God Guise/First Church of Mecha: In "The God Gambit", he conned an alien tribe into worshiping him.
- Just Train Wrong: His train mode has no tender.
- Killed Off for Real: One of the many victims of a power-mad Starscream in the Marvel Comics.
- Meaningful Name: He transforms into an astroship and into a train.
- Size Shifter: Stands shoulder to shoulder to Starscream in robot form; can transform into a space shuttle that can fit the entire Decepticon army, even Devastator in his hull.
- The Starscream: On occasion.
- Steam Never Dies: Transforms into a JNR Class C62 steam locomotive. He does get with the times in his Classics toy, where he's a bullet train instead.
- Villainous Valor: In the cartoon, he was brave enough to take on bigger, stronger opponents, such as Omega Supreme and Sky Lynx.
- Voice of the Legion: A quirkier, more nasally example than most, but Astrotrain has a much louder reverb than the other Decepticons.
Function: Ground and Air Commando
- "Destroy first, think later."
- Aborted Arc: See the Antivillain trope, below. He is exiled from the Decepticons and refuses to join the Autobots... but is later seen in some crowd shots with other Decepticons. Is this an oversight on the part of the producers? Or was the whole idea of his exile just quietly dropped? Maybe Galvatron just forgave him for some reason. Who knows...
- This arc was going to continue in the episode "Starscream's Ghost", but his role was taken by Octane to promote the new character.
- Anti-Villain: In "Five Faces of Darkness", it is shown that he cares for the survival of the entire Transformers race over Decepticon victory, and is willing to work with Autobots to prevent their mutual extinction at the hands of the Quintessons. Even after he is exiled by Galvatron for allying with Rodimus and betraying the Decepticons, he graciously refuses Rodimus' offer to join the Autobots and quietly accepts his punishment, such is his loyalty to his own brothers.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: In "Triple Takeover", he defeated several Autobots and made a throne from their bodies during his brief reign as the Decepticon Leader. The Autobots were later rescued and repaired.
- Cool Plane
- Killed Off for Real: Dreamwave and the original Marvel Comic.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Once Galvatron has shown himself gullible enough to fall for the Quintessons' "Decepticon Matrix of Leadership" ploy and unwilling to listen to Blitzwing's warnings, Blitzwing knows the Quintessons' are the TRUE enemy the Transformers should be fighting that one time instead of each other. And takes his lumps and leaves the Decepticons after the Quintessons' defeat.
- Mauve Shirt: In many continuities where he isn't as important as the main cast, he falls into this. This is pretty noticeable in the IDW comics, where he's introduced in the very first arc, and he has numerous appearances, fights and dialogue in the series, but like Astrotrain, he never really takes center stage, compared to his teammates (The Seekers) and Megatron. note
- Orcus on His Throne/Victory by Endurance: His strategy in "Triple Takeover". And it was highly effective.
- Size Shifter: His jet mode can fit the entire Stunticon team.
- The Starscream: On occasion.
- Tank Goodness
The Constructicons
Function: Construction Engineer (Scrapper), Surgical Engineer (Hook), Material Fabrication (Mixmaster), Demolitions (Bonecrusher), Transport (Long Haul), Mining & Salvage (Scavenger), Warrior (Devastator)
- Scrapper: "My work is a monument to - and of - my enemies."Hook: "Strive for perfection even if others must suffer."Mixmaster: "How strong the steel, how quick the conquest."Bonecrusher: "Hit it till it stands no taller than dust."Long Haul: "A battle front is only as good as its supply line."Scavenger: "Everything is worth something, even me."Devastator: "Thinking and winning do not mix."
- Adaptational Badass: The IDW version of Devastator is the most dangerous despite being a prototype. In Combiner Wars, it took three combiners working together to beat him.
- BFG: Devastator sometimes has a gun the size of his arm. This would mean the gun was as big as a Transformer.
- Combining Mecha: Their combined form, Devastator.
- Depending on the Artist: Devastator's cartoon model had two different head designs - one without a red visor (seen in "Heavy Metal War") and one with. The latter seems to have been adopted as the official design.
- Depending on the Writer: The cartoon went in and out with the Constructicons' loyalty. In some episodes they were loyal and enthusiastic followers of Megatron, in others they were perfectly willing to usurp his position.
- Dumb Muscle: Devastator sets the ground-rule in G1 that once Combiners become one, their conflicting personalities WILL make the resulting giant as dumb as a box of rocks, no matter how smart each individual component may be. Devastator, case in point, is made up of 6 genius level engineers, only to be a roaring, screaming idiot that can barely roar Crush. Kill. Destroy! without falling over himself.
- If they all agree to a coherent plan before forming Devastator, however, they can focus on that instead of his raging Crush. Kill. Destroy! bouts of fury (as was seen in "The Core" and "The Master Builders").
- The Engineer: All of them, but most notably Scrapper.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Scrapper.
- FaceHeel Turn: Megatron reprogrammed them into Decepticons and gave them the ability to combine. Possibly.
- Five-Bad Band:
- Big Bad: Scrapper
- The Dragon: Hook
- Evil Genius: Mixmaster
- The Brute: Bonecrusher
- Dark Chick: Long Haul due to not liking his assigned job, and Scavenger due to being an underdog.
- HeelFace Brainwashing: Underwent an infamous bout of this in the cartoon episode "The Core".
- Humongous Mecha: Devastator.
- Leader Forms the Head: Actually averted with The Constructicons, the first of the combiners. Scrapper, the leader shovel-dozer of the six warriors, actually forms the right leg of Devastator, whereas it is actually Hook the crane who forms the head instead. In the Wings Continuity, he was the leader, but after a defeat, he was demoted, and Scrapper given the position.
- Mad Scientist: Mixmaster.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Were they built on Earth? Are they Autobots reprogrammed by Megatron? Are they the Decepticons that built Megatron in the first place?
- It doesn't help matters that, unlike most of the other examples on this page, all three of these wildly contradictory origins came from the cartoon itself.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: ...yeah, guys, great disguise, no-one will bat an eye at construction vehicles painted bright green and purple. At least a European rerelease had them painted a more realistic yellow.
- Villainous Valour: Certain episodes such as "The Core" gave the Constructicons blatant showings of camaraderie.
- The Worf Effect: Hailing from a Merchandise-Driven show like Transformers, the fearsome Devastator would usually be the go-to character to have the newest toy curb stomp to show just how powerful he is.
Function: Warrior
- "Fear is the element that unites all losers."
- Blatant Lies: "Death comes to he who crosses me." See They Killed Kenny below.
- The Chew Toy: See they Killed Kenny. In the IDW verse, lots of bad things happen to him, injured in an explosion, almost getting executed, getting mind controlled, getting shot, and being put on Cybertron's most wanted because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Cool Plane: A modified F-15 Eagle that has a delta wing.
- Depending on the Artist: As the picture above shows, the original toy of Dirge depicts him as having his nosecone down. The cartoon and most other media, however, depict it pointing upwards instead.
- Dirty Coward: When his ability to sow fear is overcome, he gets scared himself.
- The Dreaded: His morose and silent nature causes people to fear him, but if he finds himself in a situation over which he has no control, Dirge will find himself crippled and paralyzed with terror.
- Palette Swap: For Starscream. The positioning of his wings and his upwards nosecone do seperate him from Screamer though.
- Terrible Trio: Along with fellow Coneheads Thrust and Ramjet.
- They Killed Kenny: He tends to die or get severely damaged a lot in every version of the G1 continuity in which he appears. A lot. The fandom, naturally, has picked up on this tendency and run away with it.
- Averted in the IDW verse, one of the very few stories where he plays a large role and avoids getting killed.
The Insecticons
Function: Espionage (Kickback), Electronic Warfare (Shrapnel), Psychological Warfare (Bombshell, Venom), Thief (Chop Shop), Gunner (Barrage), Warrior (Ransack)
- Kickback: "Friend is another word for fool."Shrapnel: "Control electricity and you control the world."Bombshell: "The mind is my playpen."Venom: "Friends are more dangerous than enemies."Chop Shop: "I take no prisoners, just spare parts."Barrage: "Nothing left standing means nothing left to change."Ransack: "The sight of ruin only makes me crave more."
- Big Creepy-Crawlies
- Big Eater
- Exiled from Continuity: The Deluxe Insecticons (Venom, Chop Shop, Ransack and Barrage) didn't appear in the cartoon, nor did they appear in the Marvel comics (although Venom and Chop Shop did appear in the UK comic's "Time Wars" story). This was likely done for reasons smilar to the controversy behind Jetfire/Skyfire - the toys were from a different company, and including them would be giving Takara's competitors free publicity.
- Extreme Omnivore: Bombshell, Kickback, and Shrapnel are shown to be capable of and willing to eat anything.
- Hollywood Acid: Venom's stinger is able to make acids that dissolve metal.
- Japanese Beetle Brothers: Shrapnel (stag beetle) and Bombshell (rhinoceros beetle), along with Chop Shop and Barrage, are a Type A example of this.
- Killed Off for Real: The original cartoon (possibly, the animation errors and possibility of clones mires the subject somewhat).
- The Leader: Venom is said to be the Insecticon leader, but in fiction where the Deluxe Insecticons don't appear, Shrapnel seems to take the role.
- Psycho Electro: Shrapnel's main power is manipulating electricity, electricity.
- Send in the Clones: The main three Insecticons are capable of creating clones of themselves. Often overlaps with Expendable Clone and The Swarm.
- Shock and Awe: Shrapnel can do this. Venom is also armed with an electric-blaster gun.
- The Swarm: The Insecticon clones are often this. The IDW comics also show an army of failed Insecticons known as the Swarm.
- Theme Naming: For some reason, the three primary Insecticons are named after the dangers of an exploding bomb.
- Verbal Tic: Shrapnel always repeats the last word of his sentences, sentences.
- Villain Decay: They got hit with this hard in movie, especially Shrapnel, who got taken down three times over the course of the battle for Autobot City.
Function: Warrior
- "If it flies, crash it!"
- Cool Plane: An F-15 Eagle with F-16XL wings.
- Depending on the Artist: While most fiction has his nosecone pointing upwards, the IDW seres has him resembling his original toy (where the nosecone was meant to go behind his head).
- Extreme Melee Revenge: When Ramjet plots against Megatron (IDW-verse), Megatron brutally beats him to death and dismembers him.
- Hidden Depths: Ramjet has higher-than-average competence even when only compared to his wingmates Dirge and Thrust. In fact whenever it's only the 3 of them Ramjet becomes the de facto leader of the group and directs them or tells them to get their acts together.
- Nanomachines: His plan in the IDW verse involved mind controlling humans by injecting them with microscopic "Mini-Constructicons".
- Palette Swap: For Starscream. As a Conehead in the cartoon, also with Thrust and Dirge.
- The Starscream: IDW-verse, he was basically a less-effective and more killable one than the original.
- Terrible Trio: Forms the Conehead trio with Dirge and Thrust.
- Use Your Head: Ramjet, as one would expect, likes to ram things with his conehead—in and out of vehicle mode. Case in point.◊
- And (because of wingmates Dirge and Thrust), "using his head" he usually does.
Function: Warrior
- "My engines' roar is my enemies' song of doom!"
- Cool Plane: Like the other Coneheads he is a modified F-15 Eagle - in his case, he has different tailfins and VTOL wings.
- Dirty Coward: An unusual example. While he can go into battle without pause, a strong enough counterattack can break his nerve, driving him to retreat.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: When trapped in a Starscream possessed Trypticon, Runabout, Runamuck, Thrust and Dirge realize they need to stop him. Thrust himself smashes Trypticon's controls, stopping Starscreams plan, and saving Cybertronnote . It's never spoken of.
- Palette Swap: For Starscream.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Thrust believes himself to be far more competent than he actually is, and he wants you to know that he's coming.
- Terrible Trio: With Dirge and Ramjet.
- Unfortunate Name: See the above Double Entendre, and keep in mind the fact that Thrust is a Conehead Seeker.
1986 Decepticons
Function: City Commander
- "My power is everything; defeat is absurd!"
- Adaptational Badass: His comic selves were shown to be immensely powerful, shrugging off multiple Autobot assaults in rapid succession, and surviving many experiences that could have killed other Transformers. In the IDW comics, he even killed a Prime!
- All Take and No Give: When energon-low Decepticons (who'd already given energon to bring back Galvatron) were hired by the Quintessons to take on the Autubots with enough energon to keep going, they're seen as "disloyal," and Galvatron makes no bones about it. Swindle calls him out on it.They gave us energon! They led us on this raid! What can you give us that they didn't?
- Arm Cannon
- Ax-Crazy:
- In the third season, he becomes so unstable that Cyclonus and Scourge take him to a planet designed to deal with psychotic people, but Galvatron ultimately ends up demolishing the planet.
- Meanwhile, the UK comic version starts off as relatively composed. However, it soon becomes clear he's holding back a great deal of madness, and circumstances keep pushing him over the edge.
- Badass Grandpa: Again, in the comics.
- Bad Boss:
- Whereas Megatron was genuinely respected by his warriors, Galvatron was feared and hated for his erratic tendency to suddenly kill them for the most insignificant of slights.
- In his first appearance, the Marvel US version threatens to kill Wildfly for bad-mouthing him, then actually does kill Cyclonus for being overpowered by an Autobot.
- Barbarian Hero: He's far from being a hero, but his portrayal in the IDW continuity perfectly fits the bill.
- BFG: Transforms into a futuristic howitzer cannon.
- Big Bad
- The Caligula:
- After his being submerged in a lava pit on the planet Thrull, he went into a more insane state after his "sanity chips" had suffered from being in a "plasma bath" that long.
- The Marvel US version clearly had a few screws lose, talking, yelling at and shooting Rodimus' corpse.
- Continuity Drift: In the Transformers UK series, this happened with Galvatron when Simon Furman took over writing the US Transformers comic and wanted to bring Megatron back. While Megatron had survived Shockwave's attempt to drive him to suicide in the UK comic, he was still dead in US comic canon and could not simply evoke the UK canon since no one in the US knew about the Transformers UK stories. So for the UK stories, the Megatron Galvatron ran around with in the Time Wars was made into Lord straxus, who put himself inside a clone body of Megatron.
- Deal with the Devil: Megatron's transformation into Galvatron was this.
- Depending on the Writer: Galvatron's relationship with Megatron. In most cases he is an upgraded Megatron going by a new name. However, the IDW comics show him as a completely separate entity from Megatron.
- The Dreaded: Whereas Megatron was consistently mocked and made a fool of by Autobots and humans alike, the mere mention of Galvatron conjures despair in the bravest of hearts: even his own warriors fear for their lives every waking moment.
- Evil Laugh: With a gloriously-goofy-sounding one in the Malaysian-dub.
- Evil Overlord
- Graceful Loser:"There will be no war today, Optimus Prime; you have earned Galvatron's respect."
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Even Megatron had a better temper than Galvatron did.
- Hero Killer: The Marvel US version helped Unicron destroy Cybertron, and by the 21st century, pretty much every Autobot's dead (including Rodimus Prime, whose corpse has been strung up between the ruins of the World Trade Center).
- I Hate Past Me: Marvel US version actually tries to beat an insensate, just-revived Megatron to death when they meet, thinking it will cure his madness.
- Large Ham: It does not help that Frank Welker decided to give Galvatron a high-and-screechy voice, not unlike another screeching-and-effeminite villain called Skeletor.
- Joker Immunity: The Marvel UK incarnation basically had nearly all of his appearance involve something that would turn anybody else to scrap metal, but he kept coming back, over and over. It eventually took a time rift erasing him from existence to get rid of him for good.
- The Juggernaut: The incarnation in the Marvel UK, it's easier to list the attempts to hurt that actually do something
- Mood-Swinger: In S3 he could switch between calm, insanely gleeful, sarcastic, terrified, enraged at the drop of a hat. It was even lampshaded in one episode.Galvatron: (after being told to stop) And just how do you intend to stop me? You lump of--
- One-Man Army: Comic Galvatron is usually capable of plowing through anything thrown at him.
- Pet the Dog/Kick the Dog: In the IDW comics, a Sweep mistakes Autobots for a threat and attacks them, he is shot down and Galvatron finds him. Two scenes were drawn for this: Galvatron would either kill or heal the Sweep, and ultimately the writer went with heal, and Galvatron claims to be the Savior of Cybertron and they all need to unite to save it.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: His IDW counterpart is a barbaric ten million-year old Badass Grandpa.
- Psychopathic Manchild: In Season 3 at times, his behaviour's similar to that as a spoilt child with a horrible temper with Cyclonus being the "damage control" for the Decepticons and he's leader of an entire army of Decepticon warriors. He definitely fits the third dot point of the trope.
- Purple Is Powerful: Galvatron's color.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to his lieutenant Cyclonus' blue.Cyclonus: "Mighty Galvatron please!! We must use strategy and—"Galvatron: [punches him into outer space] "Strategy is for cowards!!"
- The Rival: Not Rodimus, but Ultra Magnus. The two frequently pair off against one another.
- Samurai: The crests upon his head clearly invoke an imagery of the helmet worn by Samurai.
- Sanity Strengthening: After being hit by the Autobot Matrix by Optimus Prime, Galvatron seems to regain some of his marbles, enough to show lucid appreciation for Prime in the end. This came into play in both "The Rebirth" and the Headmasters continuations, where Galvatron shows himself to be a (comparatively) more calculating and reserved commander who can manage some amount of strategy again.
- The Starscream: Ironically for a character usually born of Starscream's treachery, Galvatron tends to betray Unicron the first chance he gets.
- That Man Is Dead: Subverted in the cartoon (everyone knows Megatron and Galvatron are the same but don't make a big deal out of it) and deconstructed in the Marvel Comic, as the various time travelling Galvatrons have a hard time coping with past versions of themselves that somehow manage to cheat fate and not become Galvatron, often having to tell themselves that they are not Megatron to muster up the courage to attack their past selves.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Double subverted. Upon Megatron's initial reformatting in the movie, he is actually a fairly stable commander. However, his "plasma bath" in the third season, alters Galvatron's sanity chips, rendering him insane.
- Tranquil Fury: In an O.O.C. Is Serious Business kind of way. In Season 3, when this happens, it means he's even more furious than usual.
- Unstoppable Rage
- Villainous Friendship: Surprisingly, he retains this with Soundwave after his transformation. This carries over to the Japanese Headmasters series, where he has Soundwave rebuilt as "Soundblaster".
- To a lesser degree in Season 3 of the cartoon series shows he had a similar relationship with Cyclonus even though he didn't show it nearly as often as Cyclonus did.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Subverted, when Megatron first becomes Galvatron, he is perfectly rational. The insanity part usually comes soon after.
Function: Saboteur
- "Compassion is the Autobots' downfall."
- Adaptational Heroism: In the IDW comics he's at his most heroic, pulling a HeelFace Turn and becoming a brooding anti-hero, who nevertheless allies with and assists the Autobots.
- Adaptational Villainy: Whilst a Noble Demon in the cartoon, the Universe Wreckers comic and Rodimus Vs. Cyclonus comic both him as only pretending to be one to cover his cowardly duplicitous nature.
- The Berserker: In the IDW comics, Cyclonus's main conflict is that internally, he's a huge ball of rage, despite trying to be The Stoic, and wanting Nemesis Prime's peaceful "utopia." As the series goes on, he mellows, being calmer in action and more silent off the field, he mentions in issue 1 of the MTMTE ongoing, that if he gets into a real fight, he's gonna have trouble stopping.
- Continuity Snarl: Cyclonus in the US Marvel Comic, along with Scourge, had a blink and miss cameo appearance in "The Headmasters" comic in order to pimp their Targetmaster figures. This created a problem since the book was set in the present. Simon Furman ultimately fixed this (even though the Headmasters comic would not be published in the UK) by creating a time travel scenario where Cyclonus and Scourge would be sent back in time and ultimately hook up with Scorponok.
- Depending on the Writer: His true identity. In recent comic continuity, writers sidestep the issue by either having him be created by Unicron from scratch or having him be always Cyclonus and not a Transformer who got upgraded into a new body.
- In the G1 cartoon, he was either Bombshell or Skywarp.
- In the Marvel comics, he was a Decepticon called Life-Spark.
- In the Universe continuity, he's implied to be Bombshell, calling Skywarp his Armada.
- In Macrocosmic Seekers, he's implied to be Skywarp.
- In the Dreamwave comics, he's himself and a servant of Unicron, and there seems to be many of him.
- In the IDW comics, he's still himself, an old Transformer from before the war.
- The Dragon: To Galvatron.
- Demonic Possession: In Starscream's Ghost.
- Cast as a Mask: Roger C. Carmel still voiced Cyclonus when the story demanded he "act normal" to fool Galvatron in that episode. When he made the deal to betray Galvatron to Rodimus, Chris Latta voices Cyclonus.
- Discontinuity Nod: IDW comics, after being erroneously labeled as a Decepticon throughout Heart of Darkness and Chaos (he really is non-affiliated), Cyclonus mentions in The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye that he isn't and never was a Decepticon, and in the issue before, he's seen protesting being locked up with the Cons, as he isn't one.
- Dumb Muscle: The Marvel UK version, who is even dumb enough to tell Shockwave that he and Scourge would help kill him one day.
- Ear Ache: In The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, Whirl breaks one of his horns in the first issue. He goes for over 30 issues before it finally gets fixed.
- Empathic Weapon: Nightstick.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In the IDW comics, Cyclonus goes to activate a Nega-core, which will flood the positive universe with his Negative Universe, and he has several debates with himself over if he should activate the guardian, Thunderwing, who destroyed his planet. Ultimately he decides not to, but when the Autobots corner him, he banishes his doubts and activates the guardian.
- Evil Counterpart: To Ultra Magnus. This is actually lampshaded by a Quintesson scientist in The Killing Jar.
- When their leaders seemed to attack them in an insane rage, BOTH Magnus and Cyclonus tried to use reason before they fought, only doing so when they "were given no other option."
- Flat Character: Invoked by his Transformers Universe profile, which states he has no personality beyond being a ferocious warrior. Averted pretty much everywhere else, where he usually has some kind of personality.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In the cartoon, he's either Bombshell, Skywarp; two low ranking Decepticons. In the UK continuity, he's a no-name Decepticon called "Life Spark".
- Noble Demon: Deconstructed; while he was willing to save Ultra Magnus from certain doom, he was more than willing to employ Death's Head to kill Shockwave so he wouldn't have to get his hands dirty himself."Warriors such as you and I should meet their end in battle."
- Number Two: To Galvatron. It has been stated he could easily become a better leader than Galvatron any time he wanted to, were it not for his Undying Loyalty to the maniac.
- Off with His Head!: His Marvel UK version gets his head torn off by Megatron.
- Only Sane Man: Shares this with Soundwave in Season 3. He serves as the voice of reason in the Decepticon command.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to his commander Galvatron's redCyclonus: "Mighty Galvatron please!! We must use strategy and—"Galvatron: [punches him into outer space] "Strategy is for cowards!!"
- Size Shifter: Even though he is as tall as Galvatron, Cyclonus can fit his leader perfectly in his plane mode's cockpit.
- Actually, he's a little taller than Galvatron, as shown in The Big Broadcast of 2006.
- Shrug of God: In-Universe. In a coded Ask Vector Prime from a Transformers Animated guidebook, Vector Prime, an immortal multiversal traveler, says that Cyclonus's identity varies by universe.
- That Man Is Dead: Evoked in a comic included in a Hot Rod/Cyclonus toy box set, by Cyclonus
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Several, actually. Transformers Headmasters inexplicably changed him and Scourge from genuinely menacing and formidable warriors into dumber Dirty Coward Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain comic reliefs who manage little more than cheap childish slapstick whenever they appear.
- Undying Loyalty: To Galvatron. To emphasise, he uses Starscream's "Mighty Galvatron" addressing with complete sincerity.
- Villainous Friendship: In S3 he is loyal to only Galvatron and the Decepticon cause. He always stayed by Galvatron's side. In Webworld he even attempted to find help for him when his insanity caused mutiny to stir in the ranks of the Decepticons, he demonstrated towards the end of the episode he'd rather have a psychotic boss rather than just a mindless machine (the therapists were about to lobotomise him) and in Burden Hardest to Bear he's the only Decepticon who stayed by Galvatron's side after a Matrix empowered Scourge usurped command of his army from him.
- Worthy Opponent: He respects Ultra Magnus as a brother-warrior, and the feeling is mutual.
- The Quiet One
Function: Sweep Leader
- "Desolation follows in my tracks"
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Scourge's beard in the box art appears white (or light grey on his toy itself). In the cartoon, it's either dark blue, dark greyish blue, dark grey, or black.
- Beard of Evil: A stylish Fu Manchu and Goatee. Or Van Dyke.
- The Brute: Under Galvatron.
- Butt Monkey: While Cyclonus gets his fair share of abuse from Galvatron, it is Scourge who truly bears the brunt of his leader's hideously-bad temper, as he is not one TENTH the warrior that Cyclonus is.
- Co-Dragons: With Cyclonus.
- Continuity Snarl: Scourge, in the US Marvel Comic, along with Cyclonus, had a blink and miss cameo appearance in "The Headmasters" comic in order to pimp their Targetmaster figures. This created a problem since the book was set in the present. Simon Furman ultimately fixed this (even though the Headmasters comic would not be published in the UK) by creating a time travel scenario where Cyclonus and Scourge would be sent back in time and ultimately hook up with Scorponok.
- Demonic Possession: In Ghost in the Machine.
- Depending on the Writer: Not as often as Cyclonus (see Shrug of God)
- Dirty Coward: It's implied that the Sweeps in general are cowards, but after what happened to a Sweep that was shot in the eye in Five Faces of Darkness part 3 by Wheelie, soon after they recovered Galvatron, nobody would blame them.Sweep: "My guidance system is hit! Galvatron, save meeee!"Galvatron: "Please, meet your end with dignity! I despise whiners!"
- Empathic Weapon: Fracas.
- HeelFace Turn: At the end of the Timelines comics, a continuation of the G1 cartoon, Scourge signs a peace treaty on behalf of the Decepticons with the Autobots Neutrals and Second Generation Transformers that ends the war.
- Powers via Possession: When he takes in the Autobot Matrix of Leadership in his own body, he turns into a hideous freak with the power of a hundred Decepticons and great madness to boot in "The Burden Hardest to Bear." Scourge wipes the floor with Galvatron and Cyclonus and usurps control of the Decepticons for a strike on Earth. However, Hot Rod, having seen the changes the Matrix did to Scourge, defeats him to reclaim it and become Rodimus Prime once again.
- Put on a Bus: Lampshaded. In the IDW continuity, after the Chaos event, the Dead Univers Transformers are all accounted for, Galvatron is temporarily dead, Cyclonus has pulled a HeelFace Turn, kinda, and Jhiaxus has gone to cause trouble in space, but Scourge has disappeared. In the first issue of MTMTE, Cyclonus is seen searching for him, before leaving, and Skye-Byte mentions that a Sweep head looks like someone he knew. Editor John Barber eventually confirmed he was considered dead.
- Real Men Wear Pink: His claw-tips are painted pink, and Depending on the Artist, the tips of his toes as well.
- Remember the New Guy: IDW comics, he just shows up in All Hail Megatron 14. In the Revelation miniseries the Dead Universe Transformers were: Nemesis Prime, Galvatron, Cyclonus, Straxus, Jhiaxus, and Grindcore. 14 states that Scourge was also one, despite having not been seen before.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: This is mostly an Informed Ability.
- Shrug of God: While Cyclonus's identity is widely debated to this day, writers of the Transformers generally don't go out of their way to dismiss the issue of whether or not Scourge was Thundercracker and his sweeps former Insecticon clones (Shrapnel and Kickback to be exact)
- Super Senses: Demonstrated when a storm erupts on Jupiter (from Galvatron shooting at it) is audibly painful to the Sweeps, but not Galvatron or Cyclonus.Sweep 1: "This is blowing out my audio sensors!"Sweep 2: "It's torture!"Galvatron: (Evil Laugh) "No, no, it's music! The symphony of destruction and the anthem of agony!"
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Several, actually. Transformers Headmasters inexplicably changed him and Cyclonus from genuinely menacing and formidable warriors into dumb Dirty Coward Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain comic reliefs who manage little more than cheap childish slapstick whenever they appear.
- Yes-Man
The Combaticons
Function: Combaticon Leader (Onslaught), Interrogation (Vortex), Munitions Expert (Swindle), Ground Assault (Brawl), Space Warrior (Blast Off)
- Onslaught: "The mind is the greatest weapon."Vortex: "I'm Vortex, fly me - if you dare."Swindle: "Make Deals, not war."Brawl: "I was built to be wild."Blast Off: "I destroy Autobots by choice, not command."Bruticus: "The road to conquest is paved with Autobot wrecks."
- Arms Dealer: Swindle
- Ascended Extra: While they were all introduced and characterized together, Swindle get's the most focus, having the most moments away from the team in the cartoon, and the most prominent Combaticon in the IDW comics. He's also the most heavily featured of these bots in the Fall of Cybertron and Rise of the Dark Spark as well as being the only Combaticon to be adapted into Animated.
- The Barnum: Swindle
- The Chew Toy: Swindle in the IDW comics. He's had an illegal weapon that drains a victim's energon tested on him, Optimus Prime once landed on him in Truck-mode and crushed him, he's had his arm shot off and hung by a chain attached to his back for interrogation, and Astrotrain ran him over and dismembered him. Most of these happened to him for reasons contrary to his wrong doing.
- Combining Mecha: They merge into Bruticus.
- Dumb Muscle: As Bruticus.
- FaceHeel Turn: According to the Transformers: Wings of Honor comics, they were part of the Autobot Elite Guard.
- Five-Bad Band:
- Big Bad: Onslaught
- The Dragon: Vortex. Not too obvious, but he yells orders whenever Onslaught is incapacitated.
- Evil Genius: Swindle. Knows a lot about all those weapons he sells. "Five Faces of Darkness" showed he knew how to negotiate with others (the rest of the 'Cons asked him to handle that part). See also Pragmatic Villainy.
- The Brute: Brawl. The most obvious one.
- Dark Chick: Blast Off. His altmode and function keep him apart from the rest.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Brawl.
- High-Altitude Interrogation: Vortex.
- Honest John's Dealership: Swindle.
- The Juggernaut: Bruticus tries, he tries so hard. Wings of Honor shows him as one, having heavy weapons and near invincible armor, he rips his way through the Elite Guard, and even when he's brought down, there's barely enough of them left to form a team.
- Mighty Glacier: Bruticus isn't quick or agile, but he is able to lift up to 500,000 pounds.
- Multiple-Choice Past: In the cartoon, Starscream created the bodies from junked WWII vehicles where he put the minds of five war prisoners. They could have been part of the Autobot Elite Guard who defected to Deathsaurus' Decepticons to later be imprisoned by Megatron's Decepticons (to coincide with the TV origin, yet still with some slight discrepances). And so on.
- Pragmatic Villainy: "Webworld" has Motormaster and Swindle disillusioned with the insane Galvatron, and give Cyclonus an ultimatum:Swindle: Either you do something about his craziness, Cyclonus—Motormaster: —Or we'll do something about both of ya!
- The Strategist: Onslaught.
- Tank Goodness: Brawl.
Function: Assault Sentry
- "I live for the taste of an Autobot's fuel line!"
- Big Eater
- Epic Flail: His weapon of choice in robot mode.
- HeelFace Turn: In at least one comic continuity, he's joined the Autobots and become Wheelie's best friend.
- Threatening Shark
Function: Fueler
- "He who has fuel, has power."
- Achilles' Heel: In tanker mode, he is heavily armored everywhere except for the underside.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. Ask Galvatron about Trypticon's vacation in Carbombya.
- Dirty Coward
- Deflector Shields: He has a deflecto-shield that repels beams and artillery.
- Friendly Enemy: To Sandstorm.
- Hazy Feel Turn: After the Decepticons kick him out in the cartoon, he sorta sides with the Autobots, getting a job as a salvage operator, and being friendly with Sandstorm. He never actually became an Autobot, but he did seem to scheme with Starscream and Rodimus to get Galvatron killed.
- Kill It with Fire: In a surprising show of backbone, Octane takes on the Scraplet monster with the other triple changing Decepticons. He sets it on fire with his rifle which is powered by his large fuel supply.
- Killed Off for Real: Marvel comics, killed alongside his fellow Triple Changers against Starscream.
- The Starscream: Until he meets the ghost of the REAL Starscream who shows him how it's done.
- Troll: Loves to make commercial aircraft abort landings. The other Decepticons find such activities to be pointless.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He teams up with Starscream and the Autobots to defeat Galvatron, and when Galvatron comes back in the end, Octane just runs off, and is never seen again. Future appearances had him back in the Decepticons, but they might have just been animation errors.
The Predacons
Function: Predacon Leader (Razorclaw), Gunner (Rampage), Ground Assault (Headstrong), Fueler (Tantrum), Aerial Assault (Divebomb), Warrior (Predaking)
- Razorclaw: "All good things succumb to those who wait."Rampage: "Those who conquer, act; those who are conquered think."Headstrong: "The best advice is not to listen to advice."Tantrum: "Anger gets me running better than any other fuel."Divebomb: "Conquer the skies and below you will fall."Predaking: "Destroy first, ask questions later."
- Combat Pragmatist/ Know When to Fold 'Em: However, in "Nightmare Planet," after being freed from Daniel's nightmares, they're ready to go after Rodimus and the Autobots—all except Headstrong, whose leg had been injured by a giant Nightmare Galvatron badly enough to keep him from transforming into his beast mode. Knowing without him, they couldn't form Predaking, Razorclaw calls for a retreat (since without Predeking, the odds are for the Autobots, not them).
- However, in "Call Of the Primitives", they elect to stand and fight, electing death preferable to cowardice.
- Combining Mecha: See above.
- Dumb Muscle: Predaking is arguably the mightiest of the G1 Combiners, yet is barely above a rampaging beast.
- Evil Counterpart: A quintet of five vicious, near-feral robots with savage animal modes who refuse to listen to their leader's orders? Sounds like they fit the bill for the Dinobots to me.
- Invoked by the rivalry between Divebomb and the Dinobot Swoop. When they picked up their rivalry on Earth, the rest of the Dinobots and the rest of the Predacons joined in the fight. The Dinobots were less than impressed.
- Feathered Fiend: Divebomb transforms into a mechanical eagle.
- Five-Bad Band: Par for the course with Combiner teams:
- The Big Bad: Razorclaw who, given that he is the most patient and analytical of the Predacons, pulls double duty as The Evil Genius.
- The Dragon: Rampage.
- The Brute: Headstrong and Tantrum.
- The Dark Chick: Divebomb.
- Informed Ability: Their combined form of Predaking is supposedly a nigh-unbeatable Genius Lightning Bruiser. In all the myriad continuities in which Predaking has appeared, however, the big guy acts like a dumb brute and has had perhaps one victory against anyone, and that was against the Combaticons.
- Predecessor Villain: Certain continuities establish them as the founders of the Predacon Faction. When the Decepticons accept the Autobot's offer for peace, the Predacons separate from them, gathering together former dissidents and protoforms to begin the conflict a new.
- Unstoppable Rage: Rampage has this if he's not watching TV.
Function: Fuel Scout
- "The road is my dinner plate."
- Adaptational Intelligence: In the cartoon, he was shown to have an animalistic intelligence. In the original comics, he was Cybertron's chief fuel auditor, with a talent for calculating expenditures and profits.
- Baleful Polymorph: IDW afflicts him with a robotic form of this - once a humanoid with bat-like features, Soundwave places his spark into a smaller body that is all bat.
- Bat out of Hell: Quite literally.
- Big Bad: Some continuities have him be in some position of Decepticon leadership.
- Corrupt Politician: In the IDW comics, Ratbat is shown to have once been a senator who did immoral things for profit.
- Depending on the Writer: While most continuities have him capable of speech and put him in some high ranking position, the cartoon merely made him The Unintelligible and a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Laserbeak.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: In IDW, Ratbat was a greedy senator who used Megatron's uprising for his personal gain. Then his minion, Soundwave, betrayed him, destroyed his body and placed his spark in his current "cassette" body, thus making him Soundwave's servant.
- Killed Off for Real: Offed by Scorponok in the Marvel comics and Arcee in the IDW comics.
- Size Shifter: Turns from a microcassette into a bat. IDW makes this more ridiculous by making him a giant bat.
Runabout and Runamuck
Function: Shock Troopers
- Runabout: "A pretty car makes an even prettier wreck."Runamuck: "The road is my playpen; cars are my toys!"
- Affably Evil: Sometimes, like in the Wings of Honor continuity, they happily inform Jhiaxus of the war, and even give advice on how to pursue a fembot to Sideburn.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Both of them suffer this to an extent, but Runabout in particular. He's easily distracted and prone to indulging in flights of fancy, random violence, and petty vandalism.
- Chaotic Stupid: Both are violent, short-sighted, impulsive, 'wacky,' and not as clever as they think they are.
- Delusions of Eloquence: One of the few differences between them is that while Runabout is fully aware that the duo's pranks and graffiti are childish and silly (and gladly embraces this fact), Runamuck has deluded himself into believing that he's a brilliant, Banksy-style artist who creates revolutionary art and social commentary. His art is actually poorly scribbled phrases like "humans are wimps".
- Dixieland Decepticon Tag Team Twins.
- Drives Like Crazy: Though not to the extreme of the Stunticons, the Battlechargers have little regard for humans and their silly little traffic laws.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains: In most continuities, like in Marvel, where they put graffiti on the Statue of liberty, and especially in the Wings Continuity, where they are incredibly dim, and fairly awkward.
- The Hyena: Runamuck's constant chuckles are always written as "heh heh," almost to the point of a Verbal Tic.
- Killed Off for Real: Both the Marvel comics as well as the IDW run.
- Monumental Damage: Though more like monumental petty vandalism, since their most memorable moment is spray-painting "Humans are wimps!" on the Statue of Liberty.
- Palette Swap: Averted, surprisingly. You'd think from their designs that they share a body type and were just recolors of each other like the Seekers, but they have noticeably different heads, bodies, and legs. They were produced simultaneously so it's likely each one had his own mold instead of one being retooled to make the other.
- Psychopathic Manchildren: Basically what you get if Beavis And Butthead were giant robots.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Runamuck's Red to Runabout's Blue—and Runabout is only the Blue Oni by being compared to Runamuck.
- Those Two Bad Guys: They're more or less a couple of hooligans, but also something of a double act—Runamuck is an amusingly thuggish idiot, while Runabout is slightly better spoken, but not by much.
The Stunticons
Function: Stunticon Leader (Motormaster), Warrior (Drag Strip, Dead End), Terrorist (Wildrider), Scout (Breakdown), Super Warrior (Menasor)
- Motormaster: "These wheels are made for crushing."Drag Strip: "The first one to cross the finish line lives."Dead End: "We are all just food for rust."Wildrider: "Either you're out of my way or you're out of luck."Breakdown: "Keep your optical sensors to yourself."Menasor: "Leave no Autobot uncrushed."
- American Accents: In "The Burden Hardest to Bear," Wildrider inexplicably developed a Deep South accent.
- Ax-Crazy: Wildrider. And Menasor.
- Bad Boss: Motormaster is this to his teammates.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Saves Megatron from Bruticus and Starscream when they combine in "Starscream's Brigade": earlier Bruticus had taken out Devastator and was about to get Megatron to submit to Starscream. Only Motormaster's point about Starscream's ego not knowing when to quit got them to do it though.
- Car Fu / Drives Like Crazy: Their modus operandi. They were specifically built to be able to demolish anything and everything on the road, in fact. Wildrider is the worst driver of the bunch, though.
- Cast as a Mask: For "Masquerade," where Autobots who closely resemble the Stunticons' alt modes impersonate them, the voices of Motormaster and Wildrider (Roger C. Carmel and Terry McGovern) are used when Optimus and Windcharger impersonate them.
- Combat Pragmatist: Motormaster realizes in "Starscream's Brigade" that Starscream's ego would not let Starscream and Bruticus stop with just defeating Megatron and Devastator. This lets him convince the other Stunticons to form Menasor and defeat Starscream and Bruticus.
- Combining Mecha: Menasor.
- Cool Car: All of them.
- Dumb Muscle: Menasor is an idiot like every other combiner, made worse by the fact that since ALL five components absolutely hate each other, he is a self-loathing idiot.
- Dysfunction Junction: Every one of them has a disorder of some sort.
- The Eeyore: Poor, poor Dead End.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Motormaster. "Bottomless pit" deep, in this case.
- Five-Bad Band
- Big Bad: Motormaster
- The Dragon: Drag Strip
- The Dark Chick: Breakdown
- And he seems to hail from a Cybertronian equivalent of New York.
- Evil Genius: Dead End, due to being the most mentally stable member.
- Which should really say something about the Stunticons, as Dead End is a Nihilist.
- Though in "Starscream's Brigade" when Motormaster tells him, "So you think Starscream's gonna stop here?" Dead End concedes that point: "He never knows when to quit."
- The Brute: Wildrider
- Sixth Ranger: Offroad, who often takes Wildrider's spot in the roster when he appears. There's also Blackjack, who becomes Menasor's chestpiece as his Combiner Wars toy.
- Insane Equals Violent: While this applies to all the Stunticons, Wildrider is the most overt example.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Megatron's constructed weapon explodes in "Masquerade," Autobot reinforcements arrive. Menasor retreats, as the number of Autobots greatly increased from five.
- Large and in Charge: Motormaster.
- Malaproper: Breakdown.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Motormaster considers Optimus Prime to be his rival as "King of the Road" and goes out of his way to destroy him before Megatron can.
- Motormaster finally got his chance in "Masquerade" to go up against Optimus when he rammed the Autobot leader at maximum speed when they were both in their truck forms. The resulting collision gave Optimus a headache, but it gave Motormaster a smashed up grill, blown-out tires, a wrecked engine, broken windows...you get the picture.
- Pragmatic Villainy: "Webworld" has Motormaster and Swindle disillusioned with the insane Galvatron, and give Cyclonus an ultimatum:Swindle: Either you do something about his craziness, Cyclonus—Motormaster: —Or we'll do something about both of ya!
- Small Name, Big Ego: Drag Strip. Motormaster too, as seen above.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Stunticons despise each other, yet the four smaller cars are united in how much they hate and fear Motormaster. They're forced to join minds to form Menasor and are thus constantly to exposed to each other's neuroses and loathing. They only way they manage to work together is because they fear Motormaster or, more likely, fear the possible wrath of Megatron if they don't cooperate and do as he commands.
- The Psycho Rangers: Of the Aerialbots. Played straight in the comics, but interestingly inverted in the cartoon, as the Stunticons were created first: Megatron originally built them because the Autobots thwarted his plans one too many times by being able to drive into places where Decepticon jets couldn't follow them, and he decided he needed his own fleet of cars. That they were mistaken for Autobots early in their existence was a nice bonus.
- This Cannot Be!: Menasor is insulted in "Masquerade" when "Motormaster" (really Optimus Prime in disguise) accuses HIM of being an impostor, but this trope hits when with Windcharger's magnetism and Mirage's illusion-creating ability, the "Stunticons" form a second Menasor!Starscream: IMPOSSIBLE!Megatron: (looking at them both) TWO Menasors??Menasor #1: Can't be! I Menasor! Me!
- Villain Decay: In their debut appearance, the Stunticons had "automatic forcefields" that made their hulls impenetrable, and were more than capable of pounding practically the entirety of the Autobot forces. In later appearances, they were taken down much easier, with no mention of their forcefields.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When Menasor is formed, he is very powerful. Too bad that his components not only consist of a cruel tyrant, an egotistical glory-hog, a nihilist, a paranoid wreck and a complete nutter, but also that all of them hate the cruel tyrant. As such, this practically makes Menasor a walking asylum.
Function: Assault Base
- "Total victory requires total destruction."
- Big Eater: Oh yeah, he consumes 50 energon cubes (50000 barrels of oil) an hour!!
- Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: His robot mode resembles a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
- Genius Loci: His alt-form is a city.
- Humongous Mecha: He is city-sized.
- Man Child: Especially in Thief in the Night.
- The Rival: To Metroplex.
1987 Decepticons
Function: Headmaster Commander
- "Kindness is no virtue... and cruelty is no vice."
- Alas, Poor Villain: Invoked with his death at the hand of Unicron in the Marvel comics.Scorponok: Huuuu... Puh-Prime? Did... Did... kuuuu... I do... good?Optimus Prime: Yes, old friend... You did good.
- A Villain Named Zrg: Lord Zarak.
- Back from the Dead: In Regeneration One; his original pre-Headmaster head was left on Nebulos, which reactivated and ordered Nebulan scientists to reconstruct his original body.
- Big Bad: For most of the latter part of the Marvel comics, The Headmasters, and briefly in Regeneration One.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Under the alias "Mr Z".
- Disney Villain Death: Regeneration One sends him and Grimlock falling down a dark canyon. While Grimlock reappeared later on, Scorponok was not so lucky.
- Depending on the Writer: Scorponok's portrayal wildly varies between continuities: in the Sunbow cartoon (specifically the "Rebirth" three parter) he appears to be a lifeless Humongous Mecha controlled by Zarak, in the Marvel comics Scorponok is a large (but not huge) sentient Decepticon who allies with Lord Zarak, and in The Headmasters, Scorponok is a small Cybertronian who controls a lifeless Transtector to become MegaZarak (and later BlackZarak).
- In addition, some continuities have him in merely a high ranking position, while others make him the leader for a time.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Zarak.
- Genius Loci: One of his alt-modes is a city.
- Humongous Mecha: His bigger robot mode is city-sized in some continuities. His smaller mode (as Lord Zarak) is an inversion of the trope.
- Large and in Charge: How large and how much in charge he is though varies.
- Legacy Character: In the Wings Universe continuity, Zarak's son Olin inherits Scorponok after he passes away, becoming the mech's new operator.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster. He tends to use the Scorponok name in his bigger mode and the Lord Zarak name in his smaller mode, though some have called him Zarak when in Scorponok mode.
- Scary Scorpions: One of his altmodes.
- Social Darwinist: Holds these beliefs in The Transformers: Monstrosity.
- Your Size May Vary: Sometimes he is simply twice as tall as the average Decepticon, sometimes he's big emough to become a city.
Function: Saboteur
- "Obnoxiousness is not a problem, it is an art."
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: His animal altmode. And that's it.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:"Yuck, noble Autobots make me want to puke." - in The Rebirth
- Jerkass: Even to fellow Decepticons, he's rude, loud and obnoxious.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
- Those Two Bad Guys: With Snapdragon.
Function: Assault Team
- "We're only halves of a whole, but double the trouble."
- Ascended Extra: Botcon 2015 gave him a new toy and made him the narrator for the main story for that year.
- Depending on the Writer: His Bio in Dreamwave and his appearance in The Headmasters make him a Duocon, but his Marvel comics appearance makes him a Triple Changer. Timelines combines the two and says that he was originally a Duocon before being upgraded into a Triple Changer.
- Flawed Prototype: In the Dreamwave comics, Battletrap (and Flywheels) was the result of Shockwave's early attempts at creating a Transformer with more than one alt-mode, and failed as his consciousness was split between two vehicles.
- Literal Split Personality: Sometimes averted when some stories make him a Triple Changer and not a Duocon.
Function: Assault Team
- "Believe in yourself, but only if you both agree."
- Depending on the Writer: He can split into two altmodes in continuities like Headmasters, G1, and Dreamwave, but in the Marvel UK comic he was more of a triplechanger, as well as the IDW continuity.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: He had his top half shredded by Tesarus in the IDW comics.
- Killed Off for Real: In the Marvel comics and the G1 comics, possibly in the G2 comics. Killed in the IDW comics as well.
- Literal Split Personality: When he divides on his altmodes, they cannot agree on anything.
- Mythology Gag: Thinking Fulcrum was a zombie is a callback to one of the few stories where Flywheels was actually important, City of Fear, where an ancient city was infested with zombies.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: When introduced in issue 7 of the IDW comics, Flywheels does the least to emphasize his personality, only showing he's kinda twitchy.
Function: Hypnotist
- "Just one look from me and you've lost."
- Bat out of Hell: His altmode.
- Compelling Voice: He is a hypnotist, so this comes with the territory.
- Evil Genius: Mostly known for "brainwashing."
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
Function: Interceptor
- "Keep shooting, eventually, you're bound to hit something."
- A-Team Firing
- Empathic Weapon: Aimless.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: In his case, the inability to hit a target is a trait of the character.
- Meaningful Name: In the IDW comics he got his name after an incident with a gun and 20 dead Decepticons.
- Motor Mouth: His profile in the IDW comics states that he has ADHD.
- Mythology Gag: His gun in the IDW comics looks like Aimless, in the original cartoon, their guns had the nebulons incorporated into them, so basically his gun looks the way it did before becoming a target master.
Function: Warrior
- "Too much destruction is never enough."
- Ax-Crazy
- Dumb Muscle
- Harem Seeker: In G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers.
- Power Incontinence: Sometimes fails to size change when transforming from tape to dino mode resulting in an action figure sized T-Rex.
- Tyrannosaurus rex: When he's not a tape.
Pounce and Wingspan
Function: Infiltrator (Pounce), Data Processor (Wingspan)
- Pounce: "Terror is the stage on which I perform."Wingspan: "Knowledge is the most deadly weapon of all."
Function: S.T.A.G. (Solo Transformer Assault Group)
- "Life is worth saving only as long as there are enemies worth destroying."
- Challenge Seeker: Sees battle as a way to test himself against powerful opponents.
- Equippable Ally: While in gun mode.
- I Gave My Word: The only reason such an honorable warrior like Sixshot would continue to work for a deranged genocidal maniac like Galvatron was his sense of sworn-duty to Megatron.
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: In the Japanese Headmasters series.
- Meaningful Name: Sixshot, being a Six Changer, has six forms—his robot mode, a tank, a gun, a spaceship, an off-road vehicle, and a winged wolf.
- Noble Demon: Sixshot only serves the Decepticons out of a sense of sworn duty to Galvatron, and is actually a principled, decent and honorable warrior who does not kill children or innocents in cold blood. This hidden decency allows him to befriend Daniel later on, resulting in a HeelFace Turn.
- One Bot Army: Sixshot is perfectly capable of holding his own against far more numerous opponents. Fitting, given that he is also a...
- Person of Mass Destruction: In the IDW comics, Sixshot is one of Megatron's "Phase-Sixers", a trio of extremely powerful Decepticons who are expected—and perfectly capable—of razing entire planets to the ground whenever they see action.
- Super Soldier: In IDW.
Function: Swamp Warrior
- "Autobots are like bad fuel - weak and greasy."
- I'm a Humanitarian: Skullcruncher has eaten both Nebulans and Transformers.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
Function: Messenger
- "Expect betrayal and your friends won't disappoint you."
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The plates down his back double as this.
- Conspiracy Theorist: He's absolutely sure all the other Decepticons are plotting against him behind his back.
- Dumb Muscle
- Mighty Glacier: Strength score of 9, Speed score of 1.
- The Spiny: Supposedly, in the IDW comics, Ultra Magnus steps on him with no bad consequences.
Function: Air Defense
- "The only way to survive a duel with me is to not show up."
- Dirty Coward: His definition of a "duel" is shooting his enemy from behind and at a distance.
- Empathic Weapon: Caliburst.
- Miles Gloriosus: He boasts of his skill as a marksman, but is nowhere near as good as he thinks.
- Only Sane Man: When your teammates are Triggerhappy and Misfirenote , coward or no, you're a more effective and stable teammate.
Function: Interceptor
- "If it doesn't get you dirty, it's not worth doing."
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set him off.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
- The Pig Pen
- Undying Loyalty: To Lord Zarak. It is considered his only redeeming feature.
The Terrorcons
Function: Terrorcon Leader (Hun-Grrr), Terrorist (Rippersnapper), Sentry (Sinnertwin), Foot Soldier (Blot), Shock Trooper (Cutthroat)
- Hun-Grrr: "Eat only what you need - destroy the rest."Rippernapper: "Autobots are an error I intend to correct."Sinnertwin: "The sound of ripping metal is music to my audio modules."Blot: "I'm not as bad as I look - I'm worse."Cutthroat: "Compassion is the currency of losers."
- Awesome McCool Name / Punny Name: Sinnertwin
- Berserk Button: Hun-Grrr was in a good mood, he offered some energon chips to his boss, Bludgeon, due to a complex frame-up, Bludgeon believed Hun-Grrr to be a traitor. Hun-Grrr was more pissed off that his generosity was refused.
- Big Eater: Hun-Grrr.
- Dumb Muscle: Abominus is so destructively dumb that a timer needs to be set before the Terrorcons merge. However, there was this one time during the "Hate Plague" episode where he manages to beat Computron (because the latter "thinks too much).
- Extreme Omnivore: Hun-Grrr can eat almost anything and spits it out as missiles and weaponry.
- Fat Slob: Blot is not really fat in fat standards. But he's still too dumb to do anything about it.
- The Pig Pen: Blot.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": To Sixshot (during Sixshot's IDW comics continuity).
- Psychopathic Manchild: Rippersnapper takes his massive inferiority complex out on his Autobot enemies.
- The Psycho Rangers:
- Big Bad Evil Genius: Hun-Grrr when he's not stuffing his face.
- The Brute: Blot
- Dark Chick: Cutthroat CRANKS IT TO 15.
- Two Dragons: Rippersnapper and Sinnertwin.
- Spell My Name with an "S": The Terrorcon leader's name has been spelled as Hun-Gurrr, Hun-Grr, Hun-Garr, Hun-Grrr, and Hun-Gar across various official sources.
- Verbal Tic: "Let's all speak like Grimlock!" (On and off during G1 cartoon.)
- Weaksauce Weakness: Sinnertwin's afraid so small, furry animals despite being a scary two-headed orthrus.
Function: Gunner
- "Have gun, have fun!"
- Empathic Weapon: Blowpipe, Lord Zarak's brother-in-law.
- Meaningful Name
- Trigger Happy: Pun intended.
Function: Tracker
- "My pleasure with my enemy's pain comes."
- Verbal Tic: Backwards he talks.
- Your Head Losing: A Headmaster he is.
1988 Decepticons
Function: Predator
- "The greater the foe, the sweeter his fuel."
- Bat out of Hell: His Pretender shell
- Killed Off for Real: IDW comics.
- 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.
- Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe. 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.
- Weaksauce Weakness: His optics are over-sensitised to light, so he shuns brightly lit places and sunlight. The fact his Pretender shell will rapidly deplete his own energy reserves if he doesn't feed often enough arguably counts.
Function: Strategist
- "The greatest power is the power to control."
Function: Hunter/Tracker
- "A cunning smile is more devastating than the fiercest weapon."
- Anti-Hero: Post-HeelFace 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 HeelFace Turn in UK comic continuity.
- Bad Ass
- 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.
- Enemy Mine: Teams up with the Wreckers to fight Megs and Galvy in Time Wars.
- Even Evil Has Standards
- Fire-Forged Friends: With Springer and the Wreckers as a result of their Time Wars team-up.
- HeelFace 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.
- 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.
Function: Aerial Assault
- "Things are never as bad as they seem - usually they're worse."
Combining Mecha: with Dreadwind.
Function: Mercenary
- "The price of victory is never too high."
- Killed Off for Real: IDW comics
- The Mole: Undercover as an Autobot AND as a Decepticon, so he can get benefits from both sides. He even uses two different robot modes (humanoid as an Autobot, eagle-like as a Decepticon) to not be discovered.
- Playing Both Sides: In his only Marvel UK appearance, he uses his dual identities to manipulate Optimus and Scorponok.
Function: Air Defense
- "Fear is a friend whose presence is felt long after he's left."
- Combining Mecha: with Darkwing.
- The Eeyore: In the running against Dead End for Most Depressing Outlook In The Decepticon Army.
Function: Tracker
- "Leaders are for fools who need to follow."
- The Berserker
- Berserk Button: Throws a fit if he's given orders.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
Function: Naval Assault
- "Ashes to ashes, rust to rust."
The Firecons
Function: Firestorm Trooper (Cindersaur), Warrior (Flamefeather), Cryptologist (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."
- Ax-Crazy: Cindersaur and Flamefeather, much to Sparkstalker's chagrin.
- 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, sublte hacker. Instead of using those talents, he's stuck babysitting a driveling idiot and a rage fueled hate machine.
- Breath Weapon
- 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 accidently incinerated by the idiotic Cindersaur in a Friend or Foe incident.
- Back from the Dead: In the Regeneration One comics.
- Only Sane Man: Sparkstalker
- Pyro Maniac: By definition, but Cindersaur in particular.
Function: Ground Trooper
- "Smash all that stands and trample the rest."
- A Load of Bull
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster
- Your Head Asplode: In the IDW comics
Function: Terror Trooper
- "Sow the seeds of fear and victory is yours."
- 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.
- 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.
Function: Aerial Warrior
- "Get hip or get hit!"
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Finds Earth's fads and trends fascinating. So far, that means being a video game nerd.
- 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.
- Evil Counterpart: Needlenose's interest on Earth culture makes him very similar to Jazz.
- Jerkass: In The Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
- Kill It with Fire: He has a flamethrower in the IDW comics.
- 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.
Function: Ground Assault
- "Nothing lasts forever... so why not destroy it now?"
- The Berserker: Violent to a fault, too. Other Decepticons have to dive for cover because he shoots everywhere and lets his hit count do the talking.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Tank Goodness: More like Tank Badness due to being such a bully.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Quake has a bad habit of dying a lot.
- Wall Crawl: His tank treads can exude an adhesive that allows him to scale vertical surfaces.
Function: Gunner
- "Destruction has a beauty all its own."
- For the Evulz
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Transformers: Wings of Honor he's not that effective or smart. When chased down a hall way, he eptied 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: IDW Stormbringer comics he's killed when fighting Thunderwing.
- The Sociopath
The Seacons
Function: Seacon Team Leader (Snaptrap), Underwater Excavations (Nautilator), Undersea Terminator (Overbite), Undersea Reconnaissance (Seawing), Amphibious Assault (Skalor), Underwater Demolitions (Tentakil), Undersea Warrior (Piranacon)
- Snaptrap: "Broken Autobots never mend."Nautilator: "Blame someone else before they blame you."Overbite: "There are two kinds of creatures: predator and prey."Seawing: "The darkest depths reveal the darkest secrets."Skalor: "I stink, therefore I am."Tentakil: "Embrace your enemies... until they're terminated."Piranacon: "Underwater, no one can hear you scream."
- Blood Knight: Snaptrap's favorite part of the hunt is the kill.
- Butt Monkey: Nautilator. If not for the Seacons being relatively unknown, one would believe Futurama's Zoidberg is an Expy of him.
- 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.
- Combining Mecha: They form Piranacon
- Egomaniac Hunter: All of them, and taken to such an extreme in Piranacon that Snaptrap had to install an automatic timer to insure that they'd separate after a certain amount of time to prevent them Piranacon from hunting all the time.
- Empathic Weapon: Piranacon's a "Scramble City" Combiner with special hands. So any one of his limbs can become his gun.
- Faux Affably Evil: Tentakil, so very much.
- 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 feel this way about Nautilator, 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.
- No Respect Guy: Nautilator
- The Pig Pen: Skalor DOES NOT CARE about what other Decepticons think about his lack of personal hygiene.
- Serial Killer: Tentakil is oh~so~smooth.
- The Starscream: Seawing, inside the team.
- 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.
- Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Skalor, a disgusting slob who is as unkind as he is unsanitary.
Function: Siege Warrior
- "Those who stand against me shall soon fall before me!"
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!
- 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 comic portrayal, who was smart, obsessed with fame and immersing himself in human culture (including becoming an actor), and showing kindness to humans.
- 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.
- Killed Off for Real: G2note and IDW comics note
- 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.
Function: Assault Warrior
- "Stealing isn't a crime, getting caught is."
Function: Aerial Assault
- "Respect your foes' abilities as you would your own."
- Awesome Mc Cool Name
- The Cameo: He appears in Transformers Armada 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.
- Empathic Weapons: Hairsplitter and Singe.
- 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 Transformers Armada, he was killed by Unicron.
- Mythology Gag: His IDW personality, being a bit crazy in the head and all, hearkens back to Transformers Armada, where Optimus prime meets an insane Spinister on a dead Cybertron.
- The Quiet One
- Too Dumb to Live: In the IDW comics.
- Weak, but Skilled: He has some impressive moves, but is seriously lacking in physical strength.
Function: Interrogator (Beastbox), Translator (Squawktalk)
- Beastbox: "Speak now if you intend to ever speak at all."Squawktalk: "If you have nothing interesting to say, say it anyway."
- The Brute: Beastbox
- Motor Mouth: Squawktalk can request a cracker in trillions of languages.
- Remember the New Guy: In the IDW comics, Soundwaves cassettes all are shown a little back-story, Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzzsaw already work for 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.
Function: Saboteur
- "Place brawn before brains and victory is yours."
- The Brute: While not unintelligent (the opposite, in fact), he prefers to rely on sheer force to win. His Headmaster parter, Lokos, is trying to persuade him to use his untapped intellect to get ahead.
- Losing Your Head: He's a Headmaster.
Function: Undersea Warfare
- "Conquer the seas and the rest will fall!"
- 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.
- 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
Function: Data Collector (Crankcase), Combat Assault (Ruckus), Air Defense (Windsweeper)
- Crankcase: "Things are never as good as they seem."Ruckus: I take a licking and keep on kicking."Windsweeper: "Uninvited guests soon become smoldering wrecks."
- The Cynic: Crankcase is always in a bad mood.
- Humongous Mecha In the IDW comics, Crankcase finds one in the Spaceship.
- Giver of Lame Names: Crankcase in the IDW comics
- Killed Off for Real: Ruckus (IDW comics)
- Loud of War: Ruckus
- 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.
- 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.
- 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: Crankcase shares this role with Krok in the scavengers arc of the IDW comics.
- Skewed Priorities: In Spotlight Megatron, Windsweeper wonders if they should stop Starscream and Megatron from killing eachother because they were making a mess. Skywarp threatens to Tele-Frag him if he tries.
1989 Decepticons
The Air Strike Patrol
Function: Espionage
- "The more tightly you hold a secret, the more we like ripping it a way."
- 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.
- Dirty Coward: Nightflight, though he'll argue he's actually a Combat Pragmatist.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Function: Aerial Defense
- "My price is too high and you're going to pay."
Function: Electric Warrior
- "To know your own limits, you must first know your foe's limits."
- 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.
- 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.
- Cool Tank: His altmode.
- Dragon Ascendant: Becomes Decepticon leader in the Marvel comics following the battle with Unicron and Scorponok's death.
- Fantastic Fighting Style: Metallikato.
- Katanas Are Just Better: He wields a katana in most fiction appearances, despite his original toy lacking such a weapon entirely.
- Ninja Samurai Skeleton Robot: Thanks to his Pretender shell.
- 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.
- Tank Goodness: His alternate mode.
Function: Naval Warfare
- "Terror is the ultimate weapon."
Function: Fuel Depot
- "An engine is only as powerful as the fuel that runs it."
Function: Salvage
- "Anything that can sink is worth sinking."
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: He's no more dangerous than your average Decepticon, but, to quote TFWiki.net, get back to us on this after he shoots God in the face.
- 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.
- Oh, and later fiction says that this action was heard multiversally, awakening Unicron from his own dormancy.
The Pretender Monsters
Function: Aerial Attack Trooper (Birdbrain), Ground Assault (Bristleback), Demolitions (Icepick), Sonic Saboteur (Scowl), Combat Artist (Slog), Aerial Assault (Wildfly), Super Warrior (Monstructor)
- 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."
- Combining Mecha: They form Monstructor.
- Mad Artist: Slog turns his enemies into alleged masterpieces.
- Poisonous Person: Monstructor literally kills anything he touches.
Function: Ground Forces Commander
- "To show fear is to admit defeat."
Function: Aerial Defense
- "Shoot first, aim later."
- 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.
Function: Aerial Assault Commander
- "The bigger the boom, the better I like it!"
- Pyro Maniac: He loves seeing things blow up.
Function: Interstellar Assault
- "Terror reigns from the skies, the hapless rule on the ground."
- Weak, but Skilled: Extremely weak (even for a Micromaster), but highly intelligent and cunning.
the Sports Car Patrol
Function: Advance Assault
- "It takes force to push back the enemy, but speed clears the way."
- Ascended Extra: Blackjack's Combiner Wars toy is able to become Menasor's chestpiece, making him something of an unofficial Stunticon.
Function: Enforcer
- "Rule one is: There are no rules!"
- The Brute: A glorified thug.
- Dumb Muscle: Not very bright.
- Rhino Rampage: Transforms into a rhino.
Function: Aerial Espionage
- "Cover yourself with lies and no one will find you."
- 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.
- Big Bad: of the "Matrix Quest" arc.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In the IDW comics, his experiments with
Pretenderpolydermal grafting technology made him unfathomably powerful and nigh-indestructable, 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 Primus, What Have I Done?: He notices he's losing it after he turns the Matrix power against Spinister.
- Person of Mass Destruction: 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: 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
Function: Bounty Hunter
- "No prey is too large, no fee is too small."
the Battle Squad
Function: Aerial Counterattack
- "The higher they fly, the faster they'll fall!"
Function: Martial arts warrior
- "To the victor go the profits"
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Played with. He respects Bludgeon, but hopes to defeat him someday.
- 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.
- 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 Kill 'em All job because it would take too much time and resources, that and the cons they were retrieving could give them combiner tech.
Blackout and Spaceshot
Function: Ground Infantry
- "Persistence is the cornerstone of victory"
the Constructor Squad
Function: Battlefield Fortification
- "There's nothing like the feel of cold steel."
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Function: Air-to-ground support
- "Conquest of the Autobots begins with control of the sky!"
Function: Foot soldier
- "The road to conquest is best travelled one step at a time."
- 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: Of the scavengers in the IDW comics.
- Only Sane Man: Of the Scavengers, he's able to think up the plans, and his personality doesn't inhibit him.
- 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 mecha-fauna, and Krok speaking to him is more akin to someone talking to their dog rather than a fellow being.
the Military Patrol
Function: Front Line Assault
- "The ultimate force is the force of destruction."
the Race Track Patrol
Function: Mobile Assault
- "There are two kinds of fighters, Decepticons and losers."
- Ascended Extra: Became the main Decepticons of the Dreamwave-era Micromaster miniseries, albeit more in a deuteragonist role rather than an antagonistic one.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Barricade acts as a nagging coach to boost his team's efficiency, but it just makes things worse because Motorbreath gets distracted from battle to check if Barricade notices how well is he doing.
Terror-Tread and Cement-Head
Function: Demolitions
- "We aim for nothing less than total victory!"
Function: Gunslinger
- "A gun is only as good as the one who holds it!"
- 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.
- Killed Off for Real: He didn't survive Impactor shooting him in the chest with a Harpoon later on in The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers.
1991 Decepticons
Function: Self Contained Nomadic Assault Machine
- "I stand my ground... I accept any challenge... I am hungry for conflict."
- Adaptational Villainy: Noble Demon in his debut in the Japanese series, a completely Ax-Crazy, sociopathic, depraved lunatic in the IDW comics, and a regular Decepticon conqueror who won't be upstaged in the Classicsverse.
- Ambition Is Evil: Averted and Lampshaded in the IDW. Overlord has no ambitions, he doesn't seek power, and will never become The Starscream, all he wants to do is upgrade his kills from homicide to genocide. He wants to being pain and suffering and death, and getting in the way of that goal angers him.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: All versions.
- Boom, Headshot: IDW comics, he kills Wingblazer, his partner, and Rotorstorm this way.
- Canon Foreigner: He originates from Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, a Japanese series out of continuity with the American cartoon.
- Depending on the Writer: Almost everything, including whether he's a Transformer at all! In the West, he is. In Japan, he's actually a "Godmaster," which is a human in armor emulating one. In Overlord's case, he's actually two armored humans fused together, one of which is a woman!
- Eye Scream: In The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers he rips off Springer's face, blinding both eyes, and tearing one out.
- A Father And Mother To Their Men: See Unholy Matrimony, below.
- Faux Affably Evil: IDW comics, polite, eloquent, and completely crazy. Case in point, when an Elite Autobot Task Force crash down in front of him, one of them, Rotorstorm, cracks a joke. No one laughs, except Overlord, who thought it was funny. He immediately points a gun at Rotorstorm's head and splatters his companions with cranial fluid.
- Gender Bender: See above.
- The Heavy: To Big Bad Devil Z in Masterforce.
- No Export for You: He was only available in Japan and Europe.
- One-Man Army
- Psycho for Hire: Subverted in IDW Comics. He's always in it to cause suffering, but he's his own bot, and he won't be hired or working for anyone.
- Slasher Smile: Common in IDW comics like here.
- The Sociopath: IDW Comics
- Unholy Matrimony: Giga and Mega (the male and female part of Overlord, respectively). They see the Decepticons (specially the Jr Headmasters, but the way older Pretenders too) as their sons.
Function: Massive assault specialist
- "Annihilation equals victory!"
- French Jerk
- No Export for You: He was only available in Europe.
- Palette Swap: of Wheeljack.
- Powered Armor: His exo-suit, which aldo transforms into his buggy.
- Shout-Out: to the French taunter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
1992 Decepticons
The Predators
Function: Air Commandant (Skyquake), Leader (Falcon), Scientific Advisor (Skydive), Surveillance (Snare), Advance Fighter (Talon), Communications Expert (Stalker)
- Skyquake: "Break them, crush them - grind them to dust!"Falcon: "I despise weakness and spit on compassion."Skydive: "True cruelty is the highest form of art."Snare: "Fear? What's fear? It's all fun to me."Talon: "Don't get me mad... when I get mad, I get even."Stalker: "Hate till it hurts and then hate some more."
- Card-Carrying Villain: Their quotes lend the impression that they're like this.
- No Export for You: They were only available in Europe.
- Palette Swap: Stalker and Soundwave zig-zag with this trope. Despite being intentionally designed to look like Soundwave, he was a brand-new mold with a different altmode. Since tape decks became outdated, Soundwave has been released at least twice as a repaint of Stalker, so Soundwave is the Palette Swap, but since Soundwave is an older, more recognisable character, Stalker tends to be regarded as the Palette Swap.
- Six Bad Band:
- Big Bad: Skyquake.
- The Dragon: Falcon.
- Evil Genius: Skydive.
- The Brute: Snare and Talon.
- Dark Chick: Stalker.
- The Starscream: In the IDW comics, Calcar discusses this about Skyquake. Skyquake took over a space sector, and made it his own (Calcar calls it going native), installing his own government, and ruling the sector by himself. However, despite the power, he's still loyal to the Decepticons, and leaves his post to attack a heavily fortified Autobot Prison when Megatron orders it. Defying the trope.
Canon Immigrants
Function: Operations Commander
- Your mind is mine for the taking"
- Cyborg: Just like other Gobots and unlike other Transformers, he has an organic brain in a robotic body.
- Mad Scientist
- Palette Swap: of Bumblebee, after changing his body to blend better among the Transformers
- "Mercy is not dispensed here, fools... only death!"
- Axe Crazy
- An Axe to Grind
- The Caligula: Even by Decepticon standards. Which is really saying something.
- Grand Theft Me: With a copy of Megatron's body in the Marvel UK comics. Sort of. It's complicated.
- Toyless Toyline Character: During the original toyline run. He got a figure in 2010 as part of the Generations toyline.
Function: Aerospace warrior
- "Unchecked power is the true path to divinity."
- Ascended Extra: He first appeared as an unnamed background character in the first animated episode.
- A God Am I: His lethal radioactivity has caused him to believe that he is a god. In fact, his Masterpiece toy comes with a redeco of Starscream's crown, cape and shoulder pads (though this may or may not be a coincidence).
- Palette Swap: Just like most Seekers, he's one for Starscream.
- Walking Wasteland: Sunstorm is so named because he is dangerously radioactive; his mere presence causes other Transformers to melt, corrode and die. This, combined with his physically and mentally unstable nature, has resulted in Sunstorm developing a massive god complex.
- Ascended Extra: Like Sunstorm, he was a generic Seeker that appeared in the first episode.
- Palette Swap: Of Starscream, though he more accurately resembles Thundercracker with extra bits of red and white.
- Ascended Extra: Appeared as a no-name generic in the first episode, alongside Bitstream and Sunstorm, attacking Wheeljack and Bumblebee.
- The Engineer
- Palette Swap: He's a purple Starscream.
- Playing with Fire: His favorite creation is his pyropathic flamethrower.
Acid StormA member of the Rainmaker squad.
- Ascended Extra: Not to the extent of Sunstorm, but Acid Storm has had more appearences since his one episode.
- Cool Plane: Transformed into a pyramid-jet in his brief one episode appearance. IDW and toys would give him the standard F-15 Eagle mode.
- Meaningful Name: He makes acid rain along with his fellow Rainmakers (though their since-elaborated-on powers seem to imply making acid rain is something only he can do).
- Mythology Gag: His quiet nature and preference to wallow in anonymity is likely a reference to his appearance in "Divide and Conquer", where he was a generic Seeker who didn't speak.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When Shrapnel blows Ultra-Magnus's ship out of the sky, Acid Storm yells at him as his rash actions have now sent debris heading towards their outpost. It gets destroyed.
- Palette Swap: Like all Seekers, he's a Starscream recolor. His design did change from his initial bright green color to a more appealing jungle camouflage paint job.
- The Quiet One: He rarely speaks and prefers to silently serve under his superiors.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Gives one to Starscream when he tries to give a speech about letting go of the Decepticon cause for peace.
Nova StormAnother Rainmaker member.
- Ascended Extra: Like the rest of his squad, Nova Storm was originally a generic Seeker painted in bright yellow (though he wasn't Sunstorm).
- Cool Plane: Turns into a Cybertronian tetrajet in his one appearance.
- Divergent Character Evolution: In the same "Ask Vector Prime" update that gave him his name, he got a snazzy new look◊.
- Meaningful Name: Nova Storm is able to survive volcanic or otherwise extremely hot environments for small periods of time.
- Palette Swap: He's a Seeker, so of course.
- Playing with Fire: Downplayed; his armor allows him to survive volcanic environments.
Ion StormThe third and final Rainmaker member.
- Ascended Extra: Yet another background Seeker from the cartoon.
- Cool Plane: Like the other Rainmakers, he turned into a Cybertronian jet in his one appearance in "Divide and Conquer".
- Divergent Character Evolution: Like with Nova Storm, he was redesigned◊ in the same "Ask Vector Prime" update that named him.
- Meaningful Name: Ion Storm has control over electricity.
- Palette Swap: Like any other Seeker.
- Shock and Awe: Ion Storm is electrokinetic, and can create EMPs.
LyzackLeozack's Sister.
- Adaptational Badass: Went from a weepy sister in her debut to a full fledged, though still kinda depressed, Decepticon Warrior in the Transformers: Wings of Honor comic.
- Calling Your Attacks: Guess it runs in the family.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Wings of Honor Comic mentions that she isn't taken very seriously, reduced to a servant by Deathsaurus and talked down to by Starscream.
- Glass Cannon: Takes on Magnum and cuts him down, but before she can kill him, she's beaten by a single punch.
- Shrinking Violet: Manga and Wings of Honor. In the Wings verse her bio does mention her isolation, but this trope causes many to underestimate her.
- Undying Loyalty: To Deathsaurus.
TurmoilDecepticon soldier and former commander of Deadlock (aka Drift).
- Arm Cannon
- Bad Boss: Kills the aliens he used to build his ship, not very pleasant to the Decepticons under him either.
- Eye Patch Of Power: After Optimus punched out one of his Optics
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Has little patience for pacifists or opportunists.
FulcrumA Decepticon soldier in The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.
- Lovable Coward
- Suicide Attack: He's a K-class Decepticon. Guess what the K stands for.
- Heroic Sacrifice: As a living Bomb he attempts to do this to the DJD to save his new friends. He turns out to be a dud, and the DJD leave because they think he's dead. He survived, and it's revealed that Spinister cut out his explody part so he wouldn't blow up when they were trying to salvage him.
LockdownA Decepticon bounty hunter. First appeared in IDW's Drift miniseries, now leader of a band of Decepticons in The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.
- Bounty Hunter: Like his namesake.
- Canon Immigrant: An interesting case. The character himself comes from Transformers Animated, while his design is based on the Lockdown figure from a Revenge of the Fallen movie toyline.
- Cool Car: Transforms into a muscle car.
- Hook Hand: Has a large hook in place of his right hand.
LugnutA massive Decepticon bruiser that blindly follows Megatron. Currently a member of Lockdown's group in The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.
- The Brute
- Canon Immigrant: This one's from Transformers Animated. His second appearance has him in a direct reference, while his first had him based of his Reveal the Shield Toy.
- Cool Plane: His toy transforms into a bomber plane.
- Rocket Punch: The Punch of Kill Everything.
- Sycophantic Servant
- Undying Loyalty: Carried over from his Animated namesake. If the grand and GLORIOUS Megatron commands it, Lugnut will obey without question.
Decepticon Justice DivisionWhen Decepticons disobey orders or go rogue, It's the DJD's job to hunt them down. Debut in The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.
- Torture Technician: a whole team dedicated to it.
TarnWell spoken member of the DJD, turns into a tank.
- Arm Cannon/BFG: He has two Fusion cannons on his arm, showing his loyalty to the cause.
- Big Bad
- Captain Patriotic: Inverted. Tarn is loyal to Megatron above all others, and his ideals about how Cybertron should be run. Tarn has the Decepticon Symbol grafted to his face.
- Fantastic Drug: Addicted to transforming, if one looks at his scenes in issue 8, he transforms a lot.
- Faux Affably Evil: Talks politely, quotes poetry and philosophy, all as you die. His actual words go at a frequency so that the spark of the victim gives out
- Torture Technician
- Wicked Cultured
KaonTurns into an Electric chair and organizes the list of people the DJD hunt down, he owns the Pet.
- Black Eyes of Evil: His optics are black and gives the appearance that he has only eye-sockets. While not intentional, James Roberts admits to liking the idea Kaon's blind.
- Electric Torture: Employed via his chair.
- Psycho Electro: He shoots electricity from his chair mode and his hands for combat.
- Torture Technician: Via Electric Torture
- Eye Scream: Inverted. He's got all sorts of spikes and drills under his face, and they're all over, except his eyes, as he needs to see, and presumably the victim can still see when his face get's put over them.
- Nightmare Face: Behind his face is a number of torture utensils, and he puts his face over victims.
- Torture Technician
- The Unintelligible
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: He has two extra crane like arms.
- Torture Technician: His chest is a shredding device, which he can put most or all of an enemy into.
- Immune to Bullets: Somewhat, Spinister shoots him a bunch of times, but it seems to have no effect.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous
- Torture Technician: Transformers into a mobile smelting pool.
The PetKaon's pet Sparkeater/Turbofox.
NickelThe DJD's resident physician.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's abrasive and insulting to the DJD, but dedicates herself to fixing them up. The DJD fully acknowledge that she's only the way she is because she cares about them.
- Last of His Kind: Sole survivor of a genocide on her homeworld of Prion.
- The Medic: To the DJD
- The Smurfette Principle: The only female Decepticon seen in the IDW series.
- Team Mom: Constantly telling off the DJD for their lack of hygiene and maintenance.
- Villainous Friendship: Has this with the DJD.