The Transformers (cartoon)/cast
As The Transformers progressed over it's four main seasons, characters would often come and go in the blink of an eye, while others stuck around for the majority of the show's length. As this show was made to sell toys to the audience, new characters were constantly being introduced to keep relevant products on-screen. Because of this, creating a main cast list for this show can be very cumbersome and can cause a lot of headaches and arguments as to who is worthy of being considered a "main character" and who isn't.
For the purpose of this list, we have used all of the characters that were sold in the concurrent toyline since, in Hasbro's eyes, they would've been considered the main characters, as those were the products they wanted you to buy. We have also included the main human and alien allies that worked alongside the Autobots and Decepticons in two or more adventures throughout the series.
However, this list does not included background Seekers that have since been named in other forms of media, the Rainmakers, the Female Autobots and other minor Autobot, Decepticon or human characters that may have appeared in one episode. Basically, if they play no part in the overarching story (or what little there is of it), then they aren't relevant here, but can still be found on the individual episode pages.
Rather than listing every single character that appeared per season, each season's list only has the newly introduced characters present to reduce the size of the lists. Season 3 and the movie's lists have been merged as the movie was the first to introduce a lot of the 1986 characters that would continue on into the show's third season. Some minor characters that appeared in the movie have been excluded as they don't play any other role in future seasons. As with the individual episodes, a full list of characters that appeared in the movie can be found on its own page.
Season 1
The first season primarily revolves around the Ark and Nemesis crews after landing on Earth and waking up in 1984. Sparkplug and his son, Spike were among the first victims of a Decepticon attack and would later become the Autobot's guides of Earth and its many human customs. As the season progressed, the introduction of toys from the 1985 lineup started to make their appearance. Skyfire, the Dinobots, the Insecticons and the Constructicons were added to later adventures, expanding the already fairly large cast. Chip Chase, a wheelchair-bound computer wiz would later befriend the Autobots and join them on many adventures as well. This season also had a recurring human villain working alongside the Decepticons, this was quite rare as later seasons wouldn't focus too heavily on villains of other races for more than a single episode (not counting the Quintessons of course).
(Recurring characters only)
Season 2
"Ah, Prime, we're gonna need a bigger camera..."
"Darn, looks like we may have to lose a few of our numbers."
The second season greatly expanded the cartoon's cast and focused more heavily on character-driven stories, with many characters getting their own "spotlight" episodes. With the new additions of figures sold in the 1985 lineup of toys, it practically doubled the original amount of characters that were seen in the previous season.
The inclusion of Elita One, Orion Pax, Alpha Trion and Vector Sigma on this list stems from the impact they create on the overall story. Vector Sigma is essentionally the super-computer that created life on Cybertron and it also plays a big roll in creating the first two new combiner teams to appear in this season. It would also go on to play a fairly large roll in subsequent Japanese Generation 1 shows and stories published over the many years after its introduction. The inclusion of Alpha Trion, is due to him having four episodes of the season that he plays a fairly large roll in (He would also make more appearances in season's three and four as well). Elita One's inclusion is due to her appearance in two episodes (albeit as two different characters) that establish a lot of the ancient Transformer history. Lastly, Orion Pax's inclusion is due to him being Optimus Prime from the past.
This season also introduces two new Autobot-allied humans that help out during various adventures. Carly would also go on to be Spike's love interest and would later marry him and become the mother of Daniel Witwicky in the third season.
(New and recurring characters only)
The Transformers: The Movie and Season 3
- For more on the movie, See: The Transformers: The Movie.
1986 was the year Hasbro decided to wipe a clean slate and advertise the molds that they had solely created. Thus the movie was made, killing off a lot of older season one characters in the then-future year of 2005, in order to pave the way for their new products that were hitting store shelves. The new cast of characters introduced in the film also became the focus for future stories. The third season, set mostly in 2006, added even more characters on top of the movie's cast, with the addition of Citybots, new combiners, new Minibots and more Triple Changers.
The introduction of new antagonists, the Quintessons, also expanded further on the show's history. It was revealed that the Quintessons were the creators of the original robots that would later evolve into the Transformers and they managed to hold onto their roll as secondary antagonists throughout the entire duration of the third season. This is even longer than the four episodes Doctor Arkeville managed to hold onto in season one. It was very rare for secondary antagonists to hold a larger roll in the story as most episodes stuck to a one-off or stand-alone structure. This often left most secondary antagonists with a very short-lived spotlight as the Decepticons were the show's main focus.
(New and recurring characters only)
Season 4
Lastly, season four aka "The Rebirth" was set in late-2007, after the return of Optimus Prime. This season is unique in that it was only three episodes long! With how short the season ended up, most characters from the 1987 lineup that weren't the main focus of the story, only got roughly 90 seconds of screen time each. The introduction of the Headmasters and Targetmasters were this season's sole focus. The addition of Targetmaster partners for main characters from the 1986 lineup was possibly the leading reason as to why this decision was made and even Arcee, who never had a toy made for her, became a Headmaster to keep her relevant with the changes made to her fellow teammates.
While this season felt like a fairly rushed conclusion to the show, it certainly didn't hold back on showcasing a whole new cast of characters with various new abilities.
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