Characters (season 1)

Even though it's the first season, there are plenty of characters in Transformers for both the Autobots and Decepticons, and here's a complete list of everybody:


The Autobots are the side with the larger number of robots, and this trend will continue in just about every Transformers series ever.

Bluestreak (Casey Kasem) doesn't get to do much this season at all apart from go around trying to say funny things and just participating in the odd fight, although he usually fights quite well -such as ramming into Soundwave in Roll For It or stopping the Decepticons' acid rain in Divide And Conquer. He also looks a lot like Prowl but has different colours and two shoulder cannons.





One of the strongest Autobots, Brawn (Corey Burton) can usually take on any Decepticon aside from Megatron and come out A-OK, although he's quite often the robot who goes after Soundwave in this series. He can transform into a small 4x4.






Bumblebee (Dan Gilvezan) is the youngest Autobot on the team and is often shown to be hanging around with Spike. Due to his small size he often finds it difficult to take on the Decepticons, even in trying to defeat the likes of Ravage or Laserbeak, but he does his best. He can transform into a Volkswagen Beetle.





Cliffjumper (Casey Kasem) is a rather trigger happy Autobot and is the first Autobot to fire at the Decepticons when the two sides are on Earth. This was a mistake though as his action got Hound injured although he did say sorry at least. He's also good at mistaking rock formations for Decepticons. His original name was Blowout.





Gears (Don Messick) really doesn't get to do anything exciting at all in this season and is one of the least used characters throughout. So I can't really say that much about him other than he can transform into a small truck and that he won't develop much of a personality until the next season.






Dinobot leader Grimlock (Gregg Berger) can transform into a T-Rex and at first, sees himself to be stronger than Optimus Prime. This leads to trouble in War of the Dinobots as Grimlock is tricked by Megatron into thinking that he should be the leader of the Autobots as he is the strongest. However Megatron's plan is foiled and Grimlock respects Optimus.





Hound (Ken Samson) is basically a scout for the Autobots and can transform into an army jeep, and is a good friend of Spike. He's the first Autobot to get blasted when the two sides are on Earth thanks to Cliffjumper, but he doesn't hold a grudge. His main feature is that he has the power to create holograms which come in to be quite handy in certain episodes.





Huffer (John Stephenson) is a whiney little Autobot nobody really likes and his main function is to just complain and moan about everything. He also thought that the Dinobots were a stupid idea. Huffer does finally do something good though as in Divide and Conquer he finally realises to stop being such a wimp and leads the Autobots out to battle the Decepticons.




Ironhide (Peter Cullen) is a robot who has been serving with the Autobots for a very long time now and is one of Optimus Prime's closest friends. Always eager to fight the Decepticons, Ironhide often lets his hastiness get the better of him and this sometimes puts him in dangerous situations, although due to him being pretty strong he can pull through just fine. His transformation mode is a red mini van.





At first, Jazz (Scatman Crothers) seems to be Optimus Prime's second in command, but this idea is dropped in the later episodes of the season. Anyway, Jazz is the cool one of the Autobots and soon develops a thing for Earth music. The main thing to remember the character by is that his voice actor was Scatman Crothers, who appeared in The Shining.





"He can turn invisible" - the only thing people remember Mirage (Frank Welker) for. Which is a quite good ability and it comes in to be extremely useful in stopping the Decepticons from leaving the Earth in the third part of the pilot. In the pilot Mirage seems desperate to return back to Cybertron but he doesn't complain about it again later on.





Autobot leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) takes himself and a group of Autobots away from Cybertron to look for energy supplies but thanks to the Decepticons they crash on Earth. Optimus Prime is basically the robot the Autobots cannot live without and as episodes like Divide and Conquer show they need him to survive against Decepticon attacks. He can transform into a truck, and his trailer can become a battle station if needed. He also houses a little scout vehicle called Roller in his trailer.




Prowl (Michael Bell) can transform into a police car and he looks quite a bit like Bluestreak, only he's coloured differently and doesn't have shoulder cannons. He also gets a lot more screen time than Bluestreak but doesn't develop much of a personality and compared to his comic book counterpart, doesn't get to be as important, either.





The only full time medic the Autobots have is Ratchet (Don Messick), who can transform into an ambulance and is the one the Autobots call for when repairs are needed. Because of this he's not that handy in battle, particularly in the first few episodes where he does nothing but get beaten up, but he eventually learns how to fight.





Another Autobot who is always itching to get into a fight is Sideswipe (Michael Bell), who can transform into a red Lamborghini Countach. He thinks Sunstreaker is his brother, if robots can have that kind of relationship. Also, in the third part of the opening pilot, he has a rocket pack which lets him fly, although he's never seen actually using it - he just gives it to Optimus Prime to use once and after that it's never seen again.





Before the great war between the Autobots and Decepticons started, Skyfire  (Gregg Berger) was a scientist on Cybertron and worked with Starscream. One day, he and Starscream explored an area of space and found Earth, but Skyfire crashed there and was lost in the ice. Millions of years later he is found by the Decepticons and joins their side, but later switches to the Autobot team. He's quite useful since his transformation mode is a large Cybertronic spacecraft which can transport other Autobots around quickly.




Slag (Neil Ross) is one of the Dinobots and can transform into a triceratops, and his single goal in life seems to be to get into as many fights as possible, as he loves fighting.






Another Dinobot is Sludge (Frank Welker), who can transform into a brontosaurus. However, since that type of dinosaur doesn't exist any more, he's actually able to transform into an Apatosaurus instead. Anyway, whilst all of the Dinobots are dim, Sludge is easily the most stupid of the Dinobot team, and simply follows whoever he sees as "the strongest".





Snarl (Hal Rayle) is one of the two extra Dinobots created after the original three, and can transform into a stegosaurus. Like most of the other Dinobots he just likes getting into fights and in the season's final episodes he and the other Dinobots take on the Constructicons, although he gets beaten up be Devastator.





Sideswipe's brother Sunstreaker (Corey Burton) can also transform into a Lamborghini, although he's coloured yellow rather than red. He and Sideswipe are shown to work together in a couple of episodes, such as in Roll For It and A Plague of Insecticons although both times their attacks don't go that well.





The final Dinobot is Swoop (Michael Bell), who was made along with Snarl to bolster the Dinobot team's numbers. He can transform into a pteranodon, giving the Dinobots air support when needed and he's one of the smarter Dinobots, although that doesn't say much for him.






Trailbreaker (Frank Welker) can transform into a black van and whilst he's one of the slowest moving Autobots, he makes up for it with endurance. His other useful ability is that he can create force fields which can be used to protect himself or help defend other things, such as when he uses one to stop part of a meteorite from destroying part of the Autobot's base in War of the Dinobots.




Wheeljack (Chris Latta) is the Autobot's main scientist and he spends his time inventing things which can be useful (a device to nullify the effects of hypno-chips) or can't (his shockblast cannon). He also sometimes helps out Ratchet in repairing injured Autobots and the two of them are the ones that make all five of the Dinobots.





And finally we have Windcharger (John Stephenson), who's so important he doesn't even get named in any of the opening pilot's three parts and generally does nothing but get beaten up by the Decepticons, but hey, at least he's still cooler than Brawn.

There aren't as many Decepticons as there are Autobots but they do eventually get several new robots on their side.

Leader of the small Insecticons team, Bombshell (Michael Bell) and the other two Insecticons were originally on Megatron's ship which chased after the Autobots when they left Cybertron but they used an escape pod to leave it when the ship went out of control. Bombshell enters an uneasy alliance with Megatron and the Decepticons which does not last for long. Bombshell only appears in one episode this season.





Bonecrusher (Neil Ross) in a Constructicon and can transform into a bulldozer. He also forms the left arm of Devastator whenever the Constructicons unite.






Devastator is the huge robot that the Constructicons can transform into and is first seen near the end of the final episode in the season. He shows his might by taking on all five of the Dinobots and winning, but is later distracted by one of Hound's holograms and is then shot by Optimus Prime. Strangely, the one shot that Prime fires is enough to defeat Devastator.





One of Soundwave's cassette robots, Frenzy (Frank Welker) appears quite late on in the season and for whatever reason, he only appears in Countdown to Extinction. It probably doesn't help of course that he's just the same as Rumble only coloured red and black. However, due to a mix-up with their character model sheets, Frenzy has actually been coloured like Rumble and vice-versa. This mistake was never corrected.





Hook (Neil Ross) is another Constructicon and can transform into a crane, and also becomes the shoulders of Devastator whenever the Constructicons unite.






Another Insecticon is Kickback (Clive Revill), who uses his powerful legs to destroy or knock over things. Like the other Insecticons, his main concern is just just eat as much energon as possible. Also like the other Insecticons, he only appears in one episode this season.






Laserbeak (Frank Welker) is one of Soundwave's cassettes and is used a lot throughout the first season on spying missions, usually trying to find out what the Autobots are doing or trying to assassinate them. Thanks to his small size he's usually quite good at it to, managing to almost kill Optimus Prime in one episode and can often speed past any Autobot.





Long Haul (Gregg Berger) is another Constructicon and can transform into a dump truck, or he can become Devastator's torso whenever they merge together. He never speaks in his single appearance this season.






Megatron (Frank Welker) is the leader of the Decepticons and is always plotting schemes to rob the Earth of it's energy so he can use it to make energon in his bid to rule the universe. But his plans never succeed as somehow the Autobots always manage to stop them, so Megatron's plans keep getting more and more eccentric, such as moving Cybertron though a massive space bridge and cheating in a one on one battle against Optimus Prime.




Another Constructicon is Mixmaster (Frank Welker), who can transform into a cement mixer or Devastator's left leg when the team unite. He only appears in the last episode but it's the only time when he isn't shown to be kind of insane, which is what he's like in season two.






Like Laserbeak, Ravage (Frank Welker) is one of Soundwave's most used cassette robots, and transforms from a tape to jaguar. He's often used to distract Autobots or hunt down things.






Reflector (Chris Latta) has one of the most useless transformation modes ever -he can transform into a camera. Oh, and it takes three of him to accomplish this. The real Reflector is the one with the lens near the bottom of his chest, but he's usually always followed around by another two robots which look just like him but are missing the chest lens. Who these extra robots are exactly is something that is never explained in the cartoon.




Despite being one of the smallest Decepticons since he's one of Soundwave's cassettes, Rumble (Frank Welker) can often take on the Autobots and can make earthquakes by using his pile-driver arms. Due to a mistake with his model sheet, he's always coloured like Frenzy and vice-versa.






Scavenger (Don Messick) is another Constructicon and can transform into a digger and also forms Devastator's right arm whenever the Constructicons unite. His original name was Scrounge.






The robot in charge of the Constructicons is Scrapper (Michael Bell), and is the one who does most of the talking in the single episode the Constructicons appear in. He can transform into a scoop loader and is also Devastator's right leg whenever the team unite. His original name was Gravedigger.





Left to guard Cybertron, Shockwave (Corey Burton) is the robot Megatron sees to be his second in command, and unlike Starscream, he's totally loyal to Megatron and always carries out his orders without question. Sadly this makes him quite different to his comic book counterpart and in my opinion, not as good as he never gets to do anything exciting and often ends up getting his ass kicked by the Autobots.





The last Insecticon is Shrapnel (Hal Rayle) and he's just like the other two -he just wants to eat as much energon as possible and he doesn't care how he gets it. Like the other two Insecticons, he only appears in one episode this season.






Skywarp (Frank Welker) is one of three Decepticon jets, and he looks exactly like Starscream and Thundercracker but he has a black and purple colour scheme. He has the ability to teleport which he doesn't use as much as he should, but aside from this he's nothing more than cannon-fodder during battle scenes.





Decepticon communications expert Soundwave (Frank Welker) will always be remembered for being the robot with the funky voice, and not for his ability to transform into a cassette player. He's mostly used to gather intel on what the Autobots are up to or where the best places to steal energy are and also has four cassette robots - Rumble, Laserbeak, Ravage and Frenzy - to help him out.





Starscream (Chris Latta) wants to be the leader of the Decepticons but he just can't overthrow Megatron, despite his best efforts. And even when he does somehow manage to take the leader position, he fails miserably, such as in Roll For It. Starscream can transform into an F-15 fighter jet.





Thundercracker (John Stephenson) is the last Decepticon jet and looks just like Starscream and Skywarp, only he is coloured blue and white. His memorable moment in this season is in Fire on the Mountain when he spots Skyfire but decides not to shoot him so he can get Starscream into trouble instead.

OTHER CHARACTERS
And here's the less cool guys.

Dr. Arkeville (Casey Kasem) is a evil human scientist who allies with Megatron and creates an army of human slaves with his hypno-chip. Megatron ends up betraying him though so instead he sides with Starscream, who also betrays him and transports him to Cybertron where he turned into a cyborg after an accident with a computer.

Arkeville is the only non-Decepticon bad guy to be in more than one episode, but sadly after his appearance in "Countdown to Extinction" he is never seen again.


Chip Chase (Michael Horton) is a wheelchair bound computer expert who first appears in Roll For It and then returns several times throughout the rest of the season. He proves to be quite useful to the Autobots, such as when he finds out where the Decepticon space bridge will next appear in Divide and Conquer and discovering that Megatron cheated in Heavy Metal War.





Sparkplug Witwicky (Chris Latta) is Spike's Dad and he works on an oil-rig with his son. One day, a whole lot of giant robots appear and attack them, but they are saved by the Autobots and since they know so much more about Earth than the Autobots do, they get to help them out. Sparkplug proves his worth by being able to help repair damaged Autobots. He is captured and turned into a human slave in the Ultimate doom trilogy but is eventually saved thanks to Wheeljack.




Sparkplug's son Spike Witwicky (Corey Burton) is the main human character of the show to give all the kids someone to relate to, and he's mainly there to get in the way and ask questions. Like his father, he is shown to good at mechanics and can help fix damaged Autobots.