Zombie
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.
Quick list of Transformers zombies/the undead
Generation One
- Flame's army of zombies, which included the undead Impactor
- Optimus Prime
- Starscream
- Playback
- The bodies remote-controlled by Blackjack
- Black Zarak and possibly the rest of the Nine Great Demon Generals
- (Note: Metrotitan is not a reanimated Metroplex as is commonly believed.
Beast Era
- Galvatron
- Optimus Primal's original body, dubbed "Devil Gorilla"
- Tarantulas
- The bodies inhabited by Megatron
Unicron Trilogy
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
While fleeing from Galvatron's Decepticons, Rodimus Prime and his Autobots find 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 entire faction 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. The real Optimus eventually resurfaced, 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.
Marvel Comics continuity
(Note: Events in italics occurred in UK-only material.)
Ultra Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots, traveling via dimensional portal to the new home of Emirate Xaaron's resistance movement in Kalis, 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. City of Fear!, Part 1
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 ten kliks outside Kalis 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!, Part 2
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!, part 1 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!, part 2
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 Dr. 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
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 back with a different plan. Back from the Dead
