Carlos Lopez

Carlos is a human from the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Holy frijoles!

Carlos Lopez is a typical kid. He goes to school, he likes to skateboard, he hangs around giant transforming alien robots, fantasizes about holographic dead girls, and happily propagates ethnic stereotypes.

Fiction

Cartoon continuity

Armada

Voice actor: Matt Hill (English), Yukie Maeda (Japanese), Leo Hallerstam (Swedish)

One day, Carlos and his best friend Rad went exploring into the caverns deep beneath the local observatory. Inside, they found the curious remains of a clearly artificial construction, seemingly far in advance of human technology. Rad discovered a glowing green pentagonal artifact half buried in the rubble, and against Carlos' advice, his friend was drawn towards the strange object. Touching it, the entire structure began to shake, suddenly springing to life as thousands of computers lit up the walls.

At home, Alexis felt the tremors and used her computer to pinpoint the epicenter of the apparent earthquake as the mountain caverns that Rad and Carlos were exploring. Similarly, the scientists and researchers at the observatory were baffled by the sudden movement of the Earth. As Rad and Carlos made their escape with the artifact, a bright light engulfed the chamber they were in, simultaneously shutting down all electronic equipment in Licoln, as well as emitting three distinctly coloured distress signals beams into the sky.

One beam, green, reached an ancient starship wreck on the dark side of the moon, causing it to fire hundreds of smaller beams of green light at the Earth. The two remaining signal beams, coloured red and purple, continued deep into space until it reached a cold, distant metal world.

Emerging from the cave with Rad, Carlos turned to see a huge glowing purple sphere of pulsating energy floating in mid-air, which soon solidified into a huge robot. This being was Megatron, supreme leader of the evil Decepticons. As he tried to take the object Rad had found, which had now revealed itself to be High Wire, a sought-after Mini-Con, suddenly another massive robot ordered Megatron to stand down. He was Optimus Prime, leader of the heroic Autobots. As the pair grappled, Rad mused that somehow this was all his fault. First Encounter

Carlos just happens to sound just like Ironhide and Beachhead in G.I. Joe: Spy Troops. He is also easily the most annoyingly petulant of the human children that befriend the Autobots.

Energon

Voice actor: Matt Hill (US), Junichi Endō (Japan), Leo Hallerstam (Sweden)

In 2020, Carlos was posted on the Earth Federation's space station orbiting Mars. During a surprise attack by Alpha Quintesson's Terrorcons, he uttered the immortal phrase "Holy frijoles", thus proving he isn't a horrible ethnic stereotype.

Later, Hot Shot inquired about the attack, but Carlos was unable to provide any additional information. Cybertron City

Cybertron

Apparently Carlos wants to be the next Ricardo Montalbán.

He's still alive. Yay? Beginning

Panini Armada comics

When Rad found the ruins of an old spaceship in a cave, Carlos came with him to check it out (and was very impressed). They accidentally stumbled into a computer terminal when Billy caused a rockfall outside, which led to the activation of the Mini-Cons. The first one they met was High Wire, but before he could even learn proper English, he was attacked by Megatron. While Megatron was distracted by Optimus Prime, High Wire grabbed Carlos, Rad and Alexis and took them to the other Mini-Cons. First Encounter! However, Rad was disgusted to hear that the Mini-Cons were unwilling to help Optimus fight Megatron, and decided to take matters into his own hands. Carlos wasn't so sure it was a good idea, but followed anyway. While Rad tried to negotiate with Megatron, Carlos made his way back into the caves in search of more Mini-Cons to help them. He didn't find any, but the time he returned, the other Mini-Cons had changed their minds and driven Megatron off anyway. Friends and Foes!

However, Carlos had managed to find the crashed ship's locator log, and he and his friends were sent back to retrieve it alongside the Street Action Team. Carlos led the expedition into the caves and found the log, but they soon found themselves under attack from Demolishor. They got away thanks to some quick thinking on Rad's side, but the locator log was destroyed in the process. Deep Trouble! After a slow day at school, Carlos went skating with some buddies at the local mall. Unfortunately for him, Grindor wanted to help him, and replaced his skateboard with his own rocket-powered skateboard mode. The ensuing crazy looping, grinding and flying was not well received by Carlos, who feared having to explain it all to the other skaters. Just a Memory!

Later, Carlos was present when the Autobots tried to send the Mini-Cons back to Cybertron, and thought it was a bad idea since the Autobots would be wiped out without their Mini-Con power-ups. Thankfully, the plans fell through and the Mini-Cons remained on Earth. No Way Back! Carlos was using Grindor to race with his friends when they were suddenly attacked by Starscream, out to capture the Street Action Team. While the three Mini-Cons defended themselves in the form of Perceptor, their human friends fetched Optimus Prime to help them. The Two-Edged Blade Shortly afterwards, Carlos, Rad and Alexis helped Amos Hume rescue the Land Military Mini-Con Team from the Extra-Terrestrial Response Division. Sale of the Century!

Legends anthology

One Halloween, after explaining the holiday to their Mini-Cons, Carlos, Alexis and Rad decided to give a practical demonstration. Carlos donned the Mini-Con costume he'd been building for the last several weeks, and they all went out Trick-or-Treating. Something Robotic This Way Comes

Trivia

• According to the now-defunct TV Tokyo Micron Legend website, Carlos was 12 years old at the start of Armada. The page also stated that he is good at sports, loves rap and skateboarding, and has been friends with Rad since kindergarten.

• According to the Reader's Digest Transformers Armada Official Guidebook, Carlos was ten years old at the start of Armada. It also specified that he enjoyed hip-hop, and that while he was not a great student, he was an excellent mechanic. Although this particular bit of his character didn't make it into the animated series, it was an important part of his role in the Dreamwave comics.

• When startled, Carlos invokes the holy Frijoles.