Zombie

This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.

I can't possibly deal with all of you at once!

“	Don't you know?! The dead—the dead walk the streets of Kalis! And their victims... their victims become like them—the living dead!	”
—Flywheels, "City of Fear!"

Although Transformers are often rebuilt or otherwise brought back from apparent death, there are also many examples of them being partially reanimated as zombies, either self-aware or under the control of another.

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

And some lingering remnants of his memory and personality [...] But without our circuit implants, he would be utterly mindless, an ordinary machine. [...] A robotic zombie.The Quintessons, "Dark Awakening"

Sadly, we are cheated a "Brawn of the Dead" pun-reference.

While fleeing from Galvatron's Decepticons, Rodimus Prime and his Autobots found refuge inside an Autobot funeral barge, where Daniel Witwicky stumbled upon the reanimated form of Optimus Prime. Though most of the Autobots did not believe Daniel's story, Rodimus was obsessed with Optimus's memory, and tracked him down. After finding Optimus seemingly still alive, Rodimus happily handed over the Matrix of Leadership. However, things were not as they appeared, and Optimus immediately turned on them, left them to die in the funeral barge and escaped in a ship he had built.

Upon Optimus' return to Cybertron, he claimed that Rodimus and his crew had died due to a cruel Quintesson trick, and commanded every single Autobot to help him strike back. This was just what the Quintessons had orchestrated from the beginning, having reanimated the Autobots' former leader solely for the purpose of leading the Autobot fleet into a deadly trap. Now without the Matrix, Hot Rod and his crew had managed to escape, and Hot Rod battled Optimus one-on-one in an attempt to reclaim the Matrix and get to the bottom of this deception. Thanks to the energies of the Matrix, Optimus eventually overrode the Quintessons' coding, properly returning to life whereupon he returned the Matrix to Rodimus, once again gave him his blessing, and the Autobots retreated. Optimus's final act would be to pilot their ship into the trap, detonating it, and leaving a nova behind... Dark Awakening if he hadn't come back again later anyway.

Super-God Masterforce cartoon

Black Friday saaaaales....

After stealing dead bodies from medical universities, Dauros and Gilmer infused them with evil energy from Devil Z. These human zombies (in matching Decepticon jumpsuits) had begun to lay siege to a local city when Lander, who was nearby, changed into his Pretender form and battled them. However, the zombies began to disappear in a flash of light after they had run out of energy.

The Decepticons realized that they needed to infuse life energy from living humans into the zombies to avoid this problem. After kidnapping several human boys, the Autobot Pretenders came to the rescue and befriended one of the boys, Cab, who joined their team. Terror! The Decepticons' Manhunt

The zombie process was eventually improved using living people and a more durable form of Destroid was unleashed on Rome, however the Autobot Pretenders knocked them out with anesthetic gas and Diver was able to give them treatment for their condition. Kidnapping!? The Targeted Jumbo Jet

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

So, bereft of its brain module, a Transformer body is just so much circuitry, operable by a powerful computer signal!Ultra Magnus, "City of Fear!"

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

We take Pete's car, we drive over to mum's, we go in, take care of Phillip (sorry Phillip), then we grab mum, we go over to Liz's place, hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for all this to blow over. How's that for a slice of fried gold?

In a desperate bid to stop Grimlock from exploding the walking bomb Guardian, Wheeljack radio-controlled the body of Optimus Prime (Shockwave had the head), to grab Grimlock's arm. Without a brain module to control its functions Prime's hand could not let go of Grimlock's arm. This resulted in Grimlock's hand being ripped off when he was knocked away from Prime by the Guardian robot. The Wrath of Grimlock!

Several years later Ultra Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots encountered similar technology used on a much broader scale. Traveling via prototype space bridge to the new home of Emirate Xaaron's resistance movement in Kalis, they arrived to find the place vacant and ransacked by beings unknown. After capturing the Decepticon Flywheels in Tyrest and bringing him back into Kalis, their captive shook with fear. The dead walk in Kalis, he warned, as the fists of the unliving punched up through the ground beneath them.

Though Ultra Magnus refused to return Flywheels's gun to him, the Decepticon helped Magnus and the Sparklers beat back the undead hordes. Their attempts, however, seemed futile—no matter how hard their attackers were damaged, they still functioned! Finally, Flywheels and the Sparklers reverted to vehicle mode, where they could use their weapons to destroy the zombies more effectively. But alas, Magnus was stunned to realize that the beings they put down were formerly Autobots. Realizing that the zombies were being animated by remote using a radio signal, they travelled to the Baird Beaming Transmitter. The signal was indeed shut down, and Magnus discovered that the signal was coming from deep within Cybertron... City of Fear!

Wreckers never die, they just go to Hell and regroup!

The zombies were actually activated by the mad Autobot scientist Flame and sent to stalk the area surrounding Kalis to scare off intruders, while he set into motion his doomed plan to transform Cybertron into a spacefaring battlestation. Though he captured his rival Emirate Xaaron and other inhabitants of Autobase, he would have been easily thwarted—if not for his zombification of the late Wreckers leader, Impactor. Legion of the Lost! The current Wreckers leader, Springer, was shocked into inaction at the sight of his former leader, and if it weren't for Impactor's mind reasserting itself, the planet would have been lost. Impactor once again sacrificed his life to save the others, staying behind to deactivate Flame's mechanism as it annihilated him. Meltdown!

Leeeadership... Leaaadershiiip...

Later, Dreadwind and Darkwing were sent by Megatron to reclaim Starscream's charred corpse on Earth. Starscream's remains were possessed by the essence of the Underbase and went on an insane rampage, nearly killing Doctor Susan Hoffman and her assistants. After Starscream was diverted away from the humans by Backstreet, Dogfight, and Override, the trio of Triggerbots tried in vain to stop the rampaging zombie. Eventually, the Underbase realized it was acting insane and regained control, but as soon as it did, Dreadwind and Darkwing siphoned all the power out of it, and Starscream's corpse returned to being an inanimate pile of scrap, which the pair quickly collected. Race with the Devil

Goddamn, Goldbug's creepy. Guess this explains why Ratchet prefers him as Bumblebee.

Meanwhile, Ratchet had been working long hours to repair the Autobots' massive number of casualties from the Underbase Saga—so long, that he began to hallucinate, seeing his patients rise up from their repair beds and blame him for their condition. Megatron, to whom the corpse of Starscream was being delivered, required Ratchet to repair him, so the former Decepticon leader sent the Micromaster Sports Car Patrol to trick Ratchet into returning with them to Cybertron. To do this, Blackjack and his fellow Micromasters made Ratchet's hallucination real, animating Ratchet's patients. However, this began to backfire when Ratchet decided to give himself up to his accusers. The Sports Car Patrol decided this wasn't the best course of action and tried to lure him with a different plan. Back from the Dead

While looking for clues to the identity of Playback's killer, Nightbeat suddenly found himself, Siren, and Hosehead under attack by the prime suspect—Thunderwing! Ultimately, Nightbeat was able to save their lives by having his Headmaster partner, Muzzle, become the head of Playback's corpse, momentarily distracting Thunderwing with its scary zombieness. As soon as Muzzle jumped clear, the trio of Autobots fired at the corpse's fuel supply, causing a huge explosion which forced Thunderwing into retreat. The Big Shutdown!

Another Time & Place

Optimus and Grimlock disapprove of Megatron's Scraptrap cosplay.

Seeking to rebuild the Decepticon army, Bludgeon recovered Megatron's remains from the Ark's second crash on Earth and brought him to Hydrus Four to be repaired and revived with Nucleon. When the Autobots unexpectedly arrived to stop the Decepticons’ plans, Bludgeon unleashed the half-alive Megatron upon them, but he was quickly destroyed by Optimus Prime and Grimlock. Another Time & Place

Regeneration One

Regeneration One continues from the Marvel US series, and does not include the UK stories or any subsequently published stories.

They're not dead exactly, they're just sort of... rotting.

By 2012, Megatron had used the knowledge gained from his mental link with Ratchet to reanimate a large number of Decepticon victims of the Underbase Saga. Not content with the idea of soldiers with the ability to rebel however, Megatron immediately proceeded to lobotomize the newly resurrected Transformers, destroying their higher brain functions while still retaining the ability to follow orders, although clumsily. The lobotomized Decepticons (who were also joined by resurrected and similarly lobotomized Autobots) sported crude metal clamps over their heads due to their surgeries, and were incapable of maintaining their own bodies as Megatron ruthlessly ravaged the Earth. Megatron subjugated Starscream to the same treatment, although the Seeker was allowed to retain a small part of his consciousness as a punishment, unable to react to the horrors he experienced. When Kup and the Wreckers crashlanded on Earth in their escape pods, Megatron ordered his zombie army to track them down. Loose Ends, Part 2

After Astrotrain, Skywarp and Ratbat brought in the unconscious Kup, Megatron used him as bait to lure in the other Wreckers then ordered the zombies to ambush them. Blitzwing shot down Whirl, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw disabled Sandstorm and Starscream almost killed Springer, earning himself a rebuke from Megatron who was saving that pleasure for himself. However, within Starscream the spark of rebellion still burned and he was able to vocalize to Kup that in order to defeat Megatron he must kill Ratchet. Loose Ends, Part 4

Heave ho!

The army of "Ex-Bots" charged into battle against the detachment of Autobots Optimus Prime had brought with him from Cybertron, but when Ratchet, Megatron and Auntie were more-or-less simultaneously taken out by Kup, Prime and Circuit Smasher respectively, the signal reanimating and controlling the zombies was shut off and they dropped to the ground, inactive. Loose Ends, Part 5

Cosmos, Wheeljack, Red Alert and Smokescreen were tasked with gathering the fallen zombies and throwing them into a large pit where Ultra Magnus could vaporise them from orbit to be sure. The only survivor was Starscream, thanks to the glimmer of consciousness Megatron had left him with. Natural Selection, Part One As it turns out, Starscream was still very much alive, and Megatron had merely repressed all but that little glimmer of consciousness with mental blocks—blocks that were loosened by Shockwave, whom Megatron had plugged into the Ark in order to gain control of Auntie. With Megatron and Auntie gone, Shockwave was able to remove Starscream's blocks altogether, allowing the treacherous Decepticon's true personality (and voice) to return. Natural Selection, Part Five

Known zombies:

• Astrotrain
• Blitzwing
• Blot
• Bugly
• Buzzsaw
• Grotusque
• Hun-Gurrr
• Octane
• Overbite
• Laserbeak
• Ratbat
• Razorclaw
• Repugnus
• Skalor
• Skywarp
• Snaptrap
• Starscream
• Tantrum
• Tentakil
• Thrust
• Thundercracker

Beast Machines cartoon

I have only my knife! THERE WILL BE BLOOD!!!

After the defeat of Megatron and the Maximals' takeover of the Grand Mal, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia were investigating the fields of sparkless Transformer bodies when they were attacked by a zombie-like creature. A seemingly-invincible corpse battled them. Blackarachnia attempted to use her energo-web attacks, but it merely absorbed them. Until, finally, after Blackarachnia threw another corpse's power core at it, the zombie collapsed. A mysterious energy ball lifted from the zombie, and it disappeared through a grate in the ground.

The energy ball appeared next in the technorganic orchard that Rattrap and Botanica were tending, bringing life to a deactivated Cycle Drone. Botanica attempted to use her energy weapon powers against it, but like Blackarachnia's energo-webs, it merely absorbed her attack. After being expelled too from this body, it fled to the surface into a deactivated Aero Drone, where it attacked Cheetor, Obsidian, and Strika. Nightscream tried a different approach of "draining" the creature of its power, but it drained Nightscream's own power from him. The Maximals began to see a pattern in the zombies' attacks, and regrouped inside the Grand Mal, which seemed to be its target. Finally, Rattrap had an epiphany, realized what was going on, and captured the energy ball inside a Diagnostic Drone. The energy ball was actually the polarized spark of Megatron. Surprise! Spark of Darkness

Beast Wars Metals manga

He really shouldn't have taken that Aztec gold.

As Optimus Primal's corpse floated in Earth's orbit following his sacrifice at the hands of the aliens' Planet Buster, Predacon Megatron realized true strength was not only in numbers (fashioning himself an army of drones), but also in retrieving Primal's remains, reassembling it, and reanimating it as a zombie. Upon initial activation, the zombie asserted its dominance over Megatron's new army of drones.

Thankfully, before Megatron and Tarantulas could make the process permanent, the Maximals showed up and Rhinox injected Primal's Spark (which he had retrieved from transwarp space) into his old body. Thus ended the short career of Zombie Convoy. Beast Wars Metals #1

Beast Wars Reborn

As an amnesiac Optimus Primal and Megatron moved through the temple they'd awoken in, reality shifted around them and they found themselves on a decayed world. They were soon swarmed by reanimated fallen robots who would only chant "spark" as they sought to consume the pair's life force, however the zombies were no match for the pair and were soon ripped apart. The Mysterious Temple in Space

2005 IDW continuity

All the trees begin to moan
And the monsters grunt and groan
Rotting faces full of slime
Don't you know it's terror time?

Kup had been marooned on a distant planet for quite some time when They started coming for him. They only came at night, when the suns would stop filtering through the planet's beautiful, indigenous crystals, creating such beautiful music... Kup could not allow Them to take the music away from him, and even though his buddy Outback, the only other survivor of Kup's crew, refused to help him, Kup was able to beat back every single last one of Them every single night when they'd come for him.

What Kup didn't know is that they were not zombies, but Autobots sent in to rescue him. The antique anti-rad armor they wore to protect themselves from the extreme radiation caused by the crystals also disguised their identities to Kup, who was suffering hallucinations at the hand of the radiation. Oops. Spotlight: Kup

A few years later, Galvatron found a strange mass of real zombies—human and robot—frozen together near an anomaly in space. He brought the mass aboard to study but when they thawed, the zombies attacked Galvatron's crew, infecting some of his Sweeps. Zombie leader Britt, now in robotic form, used powers of suggestion to trick the Cybertronians into thinking she was a member of their crew named Bayonet, while she actually sabotaged the engines to take the ship to Earth. The Transformers: Infestation #1 When Kup was infected by the zombie virus, Britt gained the knowledge of Cybertron's history and technology, which would let her send the virus back in time and infect Cybertron during its Golden Age. She was stopped when Prowl took control of Kup's body and used her space-time portal to transport her, Kup and the entire zombie horde to the very beginning of the Dead Universe where there would be nothing to devour or infect. The Transformers: Infestation #2

Urban decay.

When the apparently-dead Fulcrum returned to life, the Decepticon Flywheels (naturally) assumed he was a zombie, before Fulcrum managed to persuade him otherwise. Rules of Disengagement

After millions of years in exile, the Titan Master Infinitus - disgusted by what Cybertron had become during his feigned death - used his abilities to awaken the hordes of dead Titans that had been left to rust on Luna 1, hoping to use the undead army to cleanse Cybertron and rebuild the planet from scratch. Last Light The colossal army of building-sized zombies met stiff resistance from Cybertron, with Metroplex transforming to robot mode to fight off his undead brethren. Ping Though they succeeded in bringing down and temporarily disabling Metroplex, they were slaughtered to the last 'bot by the return of Vigilem. Rubicon

War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon

STAAAAAARS...

The Sparkless were mindless reanimated corpses who sought to revive themselves by taking the sparks of living Cybertronians and inhabited a valley in the Sea of Rust that contained the AllSpark. Siege episode 5 When Optimus Prime spotted and retrieved the Allspark, the Sparkless disintegrated into dust. Siege episode 6

2021 Beast Wars comic

After Terrorsaur was killed by an enraged Skold, Tarantulas recovered his body to experiment on it. The end result of his labor was "Experiment ZT-Omega", a monstrous zombie programmed to obey Tarantulas. When Tarantulas finally decided to switch allegiance from Megatron to the Vok, he set ZT-Omega on both sides. Though Scorponok managed to get away, Tarantulas had ZT-Omega kill him while he attended to his own plans. The Beginning of the End In the battle that followed, ZT-Omega attacked Skold, paralyzing her with stun beams before Rhinox intervened. Reasoning that the experiment's undead nature meant he didn't need to hold back, Rhinox unleashed his full power on it. The End

Unicron Trilogy

Transformers Legends anthology

On one Halloween night, Rad White disguised himself as a zombie. Something Robotic This Way Comes

Cybertron comic

Kiiiickerrr...Kiiiicker... our Plaaanetts...

The afflicted is driven by an insatiable desire to feed on the life energy of others. Nearly mindless, he will stop at nothing to feed. He ignores injury, knowing only hunger and pain. And the best part is that anyone off whom he feeds becomes just the same.Ramjet tells Scrapmetal a heartwarming story, Balancing Act, Part 3"

Despite Unicron's apparent death inside the Unicron Singularity, his essence's will was still strong enough to use the reality-altering black hole to bring the Terrorcon Scorponok to Cybertron. Now Dark Scorponok, this undead creature stalked the evacuated planet surface, screaming in hunger and pain, crying out for sparks upon which to feast. At first Dark Scorponok assaulted Skyfall, Balancing Act, Part 2 who survived due to his powerful forcefield ability, but the monster was drawn away by Ramjet's evil Mini-Con minions, towards the Kalis Primary Energon Reserves Control, where Vector Prime and Sentinel Maximus were located. Balancing Act, Part 3 After a prolonged fight, Sentinel Maximus was able to defeat Dark Scorponok, after which he and Vector Prime realized this was just a diversion. Leaving what was left of Dark Scorponok, unable to solve his affliction, their attentions were needed elsewhere, below the planet's surface. Balancing Act, Part 4

Live-action film series

Titan movie comic

You hear the screeching of an owl
You hear the wind begin to howl
You know there's zombies on the prowl...

Immediately after Megatron's death, Starscream appointed himself the commander of the Decepticons... who were all dead. Noticing the mechanical devices that the AllSpark had animated, Starscream tore the solidified AllSpark energy from them and used it to turn the Decepticon corpses into undead soldiers. Without any mental functions whatsoever, they simply walked forward and attempted to kill, and very nearly tore apart the weakened Autobots before Ratchet worked out how to stop them. Starscream's Militia

Fun Publications Shattered Glass

The Omega Terminus had the ability to revive corpses as zombies, as a defense mechanism. It did so when Rodimus, Blurr, Cliffjumper and Sideswipe stumbled on it. Fortunately, thanks to a handy flask of Scraplets, the zombies were destroyed. Dungeons & Dinobots

Animated cartoon

I'll swallow your SPARK!

Space barnacles are parasitic life-forms that can be considered "zombie-inducing" in their quest for energy. Some of them attached themselves to the dead body of Megatron and managed to reanimate it, evolving themselves into semi-awareness and later absorbing other machines. In this state, they shared with zombies the property to "infect" other robots by simple contact, turning them also into mindless drones, ready to spread the infection. ("Normal" space barnacles simply drain energy, but presumably do not take over Transformer minds.) Prowl and Bumblebee were finally cured from their contact with the creature when Sari blasted the space barnacles off with hot water. Nature Calls

Prime cartoon

Night of the Living Generics

Dark Energon had the power to bring Transformers back to life as shambling creatures known as Terrorcons. Megatron first used it as such on the deceased Cliffjumper. Darkness Rising, Part 2 Megatron used it to reanimate dead Transformers in a battlefield on Earth Darkness Rising, Part 3 and went on to use Dark Energon to reanimate Cybertron's dead, though these Terrorcons were all destroyed. Darkness Rising, Part 5 The Decepticon Skyquake was also later revived as a Terrorcon. Shadowzone Knock Out's experiments combining Synthetic Energon and Dark Energon resulted in a more vampiric form of Terrorcon. Thirst Unicron raised an army of Terrorcons created from long-fallen Predacons. Predacons Rising

Games

Prime VS The Zombie Cons

Optimus Prime had to defend Phoenix, Arizona from a horde of rampaging Zombie Cons. Prime VS The Zombie Cons

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Experiment ZT-Omega was one of Tarantulas' brainchildren, a reanimated monster made from Terrorsaur's corpse. If not given instructions, the create tended to hunt down the nearest available source of energon. Technorganic Secrets

Toys

Prime

Generations

You know you're going to add him to your Seeker patrol and call him something else.

Honorable mentions

• Jetfire, while he was an animated unliving Transformer controlled by Shockwave and later Buster, was not strictly a zombie. He was not given life until after he was used as a mindless puppet by diabolical masters.
• Metrotitan is not a reanimated Metroplex as was commonly believed for some time.
• Dinobot II, though he looked like an undead Dinobot I, was more of a Frankenstein's monster than a zombie.
• Primeval Dawn's "Zombie Tarantulas", as referred to by some fans, did inhabit the reconfigured remains of his previous body. This seemed to be a full return to life, despite his new black-and-gray color scheme, rather than being undead.
• Ramjet was brought back to life after an ancient god toyed with his spark. Now he's an "incomplete" form of what he was before, in a state of both being and unbeing.
• Energon Starscream, though brought back from the dead, was more ghostly than zombie-like. Even Aaron Archer referred to him as an "Energon ghost."
• Animated Starscream was kept alive by a fragment of the AllSpark, despite his spark having been extinguished, making him a zombie of sorts.
• Dark Crumplezone, though he was also brought back from the dead, likewise wasn't very zombie-like; indeed, he even came back smarter (according to his on-package bio) and with his personality intact.
• Dead End was a decomposing, bestial creature that cannibalised other Transformers, but was doing that to stave off death.
• Many of MECH's constructed and reassembled Transformers have a rusted, heavily damaged appearance, but they are not undead.
• The Vehicons of Beast Wars: Uprising behave like zombies in pretty much every respect (mindless horde turning every living thing they encounter into more Vehicons), without being actual zombies per se.
• "The Dweller in the Depths" featured the equivalent of zombie plague (arguably a vampiric zombie plague), with those affected turning into mindless, shambling, hungry ghouls, and passing the condition on to any normal victims they could reach.
• The Hate Plague of "The Return of Optimus Prime", by contrast, has a fair amount of overlap with the hate virus from 28 Days Later, and the contemporaneous Zack Snyder remake of Dawn of the Dead.
• Sparkeaters are cannibalistic monsters who were once ordinary Cybertronians, but they are not truly dead and their condition can be cured.