< Ensemble Darkhorse

Ensemble Darkhorse/Transformers

Holy Scrap!


Please list characters by the media/incarnation that the darkhorse is most associated with. And let it be known, these characters have The Touch.

This page is for the Ensemble Darkhorse characters spanning all Transformers, Beast Wars, etc. media. Listed first are the characters who won fan voting in the Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame selection process: Each year, starting in 2010, several characters and real life humans associated with the series are inducted into the Transformers Hall of Fame. One additional character is inducted, based on fan voting, out of 5 characters as choices. As the main characters are automatically inducted, and most of the choices are already on this page, this makes the winner a Breakout Character among the Ensemble Darkhorse characters. For 2010 and 2011, the choices were four G1 characters (each lumped with their other incarnations, if any) and one Beast Wars character.

  • 2010 winner: Beast Wars' Dinobot, beating other characters Soundwave, Grimlock, Shockwave and Jazz.
  • 2011 winner: Beast Wars' Waspinator, beating other characters Grimlock, Shockwave, Jazz and Erector.[1]
    • Chew Toy, and didn't take over the show. He was slated to be killed off at the start of the second season, but due to the unlucky Predacon's popularity among fans, he was spared. Waspinator continued as a supporting character, played for increasingly painful and humiliating comic relief, and his personality continued to develop. He also became just the third character outside of G1 to get an alternate version into another continuity (Wasp in Animated).

Transformers Generation 1

  • Although it is connected to the various animated shows, most of the characters from the original G1 Transformers have been brought back in some form or another. Most notably are the "Seekers", Thundercracker and Skywarp in particular. Part of the reason for their popularity is the fact that they can be easily churned out via simply repainting a line's Starscream (which often leads to the awkward event where a line will feature all three of the original Seekers even when only Starscream appears in the actual cartoon being made to promote the line.
    • The popularity of the Seekers came out at it's clearest when Hasbro, having killed the popular Transformers Classic line to focus solely on the Broken Base Transformers live action movie, dumped the remaining Seeker figures (the second wave of Seekers and Thundercracker) into an ultra-rare 2006 Botcon set. Needless to say, Transformer fans shat bricks over the fact that they were denied a chance to all the Classic versions of the Seekers, since Botcon sets are made in ultra-low quantity and the massive desire for the figures ensuring that the few that made it to the secondary market would sell for $100 and up PER FIGURE.
      • Hasbro finally rectified this in 2010-2011 by releasing arguably better versions in the mainstream toylines.
      • Of Thundercracker, Dirge, and Thrust. Skywarp is still rare and expensive.
  • Sideswipe is another example; he very rarely did more than be in the background or get any starring appearances in the cartoon or comics, but he's still one of the most popular characters. A likely factor is that he's a Cool Car (a Lamborghini), so his toys tend to be the best. Particularly, in his film appearances, the fans clamored for more of him.
    • His popularity can be boiled down to three words: "Damn, I'm good!"
    • Try playing the game, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Sideswipe is only playable in the second Autobot chapter, but damn is he entertaining to play. not because of any specific gameplay but his dialog and personality during the level make it extremely funny.
  • Erector. Only ever had one toy, and never appeared in fiction save for a Japanese magazine story, but he recently experienced such a rise in popularity that the fans voted him into the final nominees for the Transformers: Hall of Fame, competing with such insanely popular and famous characters as Grimlock, Jazz, Shockwave and Waspinator. Hasbro even wrote a completely new character bio for him, semingly having embraced his sudden importance, but handled him as more than a simple dick joke. Considering his reputation started because of his name, this can fully well be seen as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the character.
  • Soundwave, who eventually became one of the few Transformers to survive all the way from "More Than Meets The Eye" to "The Rebirth" unchanged. His robotic but pretty vocoder-altered voice, his faceless look, the fact that he had a pretty dang articulate toy... Call him a snitch and the fanbase will eviscerate you.
  • Nightbeat's an Autobot detective. And he is AWESOME.
  • Despite most Pretenders being obscure, there are two that stand out.
  • Straxus was a character created specifically for the Marvel Comics, a deranged tyrant who basically existed to be killed off by Blaster after he killed Blaster's best buddy. However, Simon Furman revived him and had him retroactively hijack a lot of badass Megatron moments. He eventually got a rather awesome Deluxe class toy in Generations.
  • And in yet another case of "Decepticon leader who's better than Megatron," we have Shockwave. In the cartoon, he was just a dull Yes-Man, essentially a poor man's Soundwave. In the comics, he was the Big Bad for most of Budiansky's run, and his reason for constantly and successfully usurping Megatron? It's because he simply deems it logical, whilst also averting the Straw Vulcan trope in actually being logical.
  • Most of the characters from Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers became this, but the biggest example is Ironfist. He even got an TFA incarnation complete with a toy!
  • Me Grimlock! It helps that he is regarded as Simon Furman's signature character in the comics.
  • Swerve is quickly turning into this in the fandom thanks to Roberts' portrayal of him in More Than Meets the Eye. He's gone from being used in past continuities as a filler character with no real distinct personality, to being a very chatty mischievous smartass with a Boisterous Bruiser personality packed into a minibot body.
  • Roberts' original character Rung, the Autobot psychologist, is also gaining a fangirl posse, due mainly to his adorkably gangly and goggle-eyed design and his equally adorkable Butt Monkey and slightly naive personality.
  • Heh heh, the Battlechargers, Runabout and Runamuck, have a decent fan following due to being some of the only Decepticons who are genuine friends. Not to mention the fandom meme that has them associated with Beavis and Butthead. Uh huh huh huh.
  • Even those who didn't much care for Mike Costa's run on IDW's Transformers ongoing seemed to like one character: Bob the Insecticon, a spiky yet adorable abomination of science who becomes Sunstreaker's pet. When Bob showed up in the fourth issue of James Roberts' ongoing, which followed Costa's, a number of fans were rather excited to see that he was still around.

Beast Wars and Beast Machines

  • The Beast Wars series, considering it resurrected Transformers as a franchise, introduced sparks and other concepts, and more. Take a look at who the Hall of Fame winners are.
  • Megatron's Rubber Ducky. No lines, not interaction with anyone else, but one of the 3 fully loyal Predacons. And the only one of those three (the others being Inferno and Scorponok) to get transmetallized.
  • Inferno, largely due to his Large Ham qualities.
  • Blackarachnia, who by the end became a Breakout Character, and was one of the two characters (the other being Waspinator) to get an Expy in Transformers Animated.
  • In Beast Machines, this role was taken by Jetstorm due to his gleefully evil, sarcastic, arrogant personality. A keen sense of wit and the fact that his Voice Actor played him as a Large Ham didn't hurt, either.
  • Rampage and Depth Charge. The former for being an immortal psychopath, the latter for being the only one badass enough to take him on. They are drawn to each other like matter and antimatter, and are about as safe to be around when it happens. Put them in a scene together and watch the awesome.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise

Transformers Armada

Transformers Cybertron

  • Even though he never appeared in any fiction beyond a fan club story, Cannonball became this for being a freaking Space Pirate.
  • Scourge, the leader of the Jungle Planet. Another Dinobot-like character with a three-headed dragon beast mode.

Transformers Animated

-- Wazzzpinator cannot go offline. Wazzzpinator haz planzz.....

Transformers Film Series

  • Dispensor, the Mountain Dew vending machine turned into a homicidal robot by the power of the Allspark, despite being Product Placement, not being named, and barely appearing for more than a few seconds. Dispensor eventually got his own (short flash) game, where he infiltrates human facilities Looney Tunes style and takes over the world in the name of Mountain Dew. He also got a toy, although, tragically, it doesn't transform and isn't poseable.
  • For the sequel, we have Agent Simmons, who upgraded from Obstructive Bureaucrat to Bunny Ears Lawyer Badass Normal.
    • His assistant Dutch has become this as well, in the third film. Helps that he's played by Alan Tudyk.
  • Jetfire, the British accented Badass Grandpa who fights with a giant cane-sword and turns into an SR-71 Blackbird jet.
  • Scalpel, the German-accented Mad Doctor.
  • Ejector the evil toaster, who is also an Ascended Meme (he originally appeared in a Mountain Dew commercial for the first film). He too has a toy.
  • Jolt from ROTF has a large fanbase due to his minimal screentime.
  • DOTM introduced a large background Decepticon, who resembles the Cloverfield Monster.
  • Laserbeak, the coldblooded assassin who works for Soundwave.
  • Bonecrusher is this for hating everything.
  • And let's not forget that crazy bastard, Jerry Wang.
  • Flatline quickly became this. Essentially the Decepticon equivalent to Josef Mengele, he's arguably more vile than his universe's Megatron - Which is saying something. A lot of fans want to see a toy of him that turns into a hearse.
  • Barricade, the police car Decepticon. It doesn't hurt that in the video game adaptations, he's voiced by Keith David.
  • Lennox and Epps gained this status by essentially being Expies of Duke and Roadblock.
  • The Wreckers. A trio of race cars with Scottish accents that have an affinity for dakka. Lots of dakka.

Transformers Prime

Transformers: Shattered Glass

Currently, only Transformers and My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic[2] have their own pages dedicated to ensemble darkhorses, so please click here for more examples from other shows.

  1. ↑ Soundwave, the only voting option to not return, was automatically inducted
  2. ↑ Hasbro is really good at this trope, apparently
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