For the conveniance of the site-going public, this is a visual guide of the main Transformers of the film, in both vehicle and robot form. The following Transformers seen in the film are:
The Autobots, or Autonomous Robotic Organisms in full, are sentient robots from the planet Cybertron, sent to Earth to locate the All Spark, before the Decepticons can find it. They are the protaganists of the film.
Optimus Prime, voiced by Peter Cullen as in the original Gen 1 series, is the leader of the Autobots. In the film, his disguise form is a custom refinished Peterbilt Model-379 long nosed truck, three of which were built for production. Originally a flat nosed truck had been selected, but the long nose truck gave greater size to Prime, so was ultimately selected. The truck's paint scheme is loosely based on the paint-scheme used on NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon's car. Originally Optimus Prime was mainly red, but red is among the worste colors to photograph, so blue with red flames was used instead. In robot form, Optimus Prime stands 32' tall, and is composed of 10,108 parts.
Bumblebee is the first of the Autobots to land on planet Earth, as a scout for the team. When he first arrives, he takes the disguise of a rather undesirable and broken down Chevy Camaro 1976 with a fading yellow paint job and black racing stripes. His voice box was damaged in a previous battle, forcing him to use the car radio as his main means of communication in the film. He is found by Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) at a used auto retailer, and is bought for $3,000. After Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) questions why he chose to disguise himself as a piece of crap Camaro, he re-scans and takes the new form of a 5th-generation Camaro 2009 model, in reality a mocked up Pontiac GTO with the Camaro Concept's exterior and interior design. Bumblebee in robot form stands between 16-18' tall, and is composed of an unknown number of parts.
Ironhide is the weapons specialist of the team (our kind of guy), and said to be Optimus Prime's oldest friend. He is a battle hardened soldier, and one of the oldest of the Autobots, succeeded only by Prime. According the to CGI animators at ILM, Ironhide's arm cannons had over 10,000 parts each, more than some of the other Transformers in total. In disguise form, Ironhide is a black GMC Topkick C4500-series pickup truck. In robot form, Ironhide stands 26' tall, and is composed of ~ 30,000 parts.
Ratchet is the team medic, and has enhanced senses for use on all species. His disguise on Earth is a fictional build up on a GM Hummer H2 passed off as a "Search and Rescue" vehicle.
Jazz is Optimus Prime's 1st Lieutenant as he was in the Gen 1 series. His fighting style and transformation movements are based on the fighting style of capoeira. His diguise form on Earth is a Pontiac Solstice GXP with a silver paint job. He is the smallest Autobot, standing 15' tall. He is composed of an unknown number of parts, though Megatron believes the number to be two.
The Decepticons are the antagonists of the film, seeking the All Spark on Earth to form an army of Decepticons from its life-giving power. Michael Bay decided to make the Decepticon's disguises based on Military/Police vehicles, based mainly on their looks, hardware, and sheer coolness.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingBrawl, Barricade, and Bonecrusher driving down the road. Missing from this picture is Megatron, Starscream (who is high up in the sky), Blackout, Scorponok, and Frenzy. This is due mainly because of the Decepticon's lack of team work, as they ineffectively believe more in deception and overpowering their opponents as their main fighting technique.
Megatron
Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons, and brother to Optimus Prime. He is responsible for the destruction of Cybertron due to his selfish wishes to dictate the planet. In the original Gen 1 series, Megatron's transformation form was a gun (A "Man from U.N.C.L.E. Walther P38), as nothing was more sinister for the role of an '80s villian than a firearm. Due to obvious size issues, Megatron was chosen to take the form of a Cybertronian jet. Instead of disguising himself like the rest of the Transformers, Megatron is too ignorant to care about being discovered, as his loathing of humankind is too great after being frozen at the Sector 7 base for over 100 years. Regardless, we still see Megatron form a large cannon from his two arms during the battle in Mission City, as a possible homage to this. Megatron is the largest of the Transformers, standing ~35' tall. Hugo Weaving was selected as the voice actor for Megatron, as he sounded far more sinister than original voice actor Frank Welker, who was also busy at the time.
Starscream is Megatron's right hand man, and is secretively deceptive in his desires to overthrow Megatron as leader. Starscream's disguise form is a Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor jet, which is currently the best jet available. In the original Gen 1 series, he was an F-15 Eagle, which was the best jet available at that time as well. He is very acrobatic, using his jet boosters like a jet pack to increase jumps, decents, and flight. His feet were purposely designs to be thin and birdlike to make landing on small structures easier, allowing him to "perch". Starscream stands 31' tall and is composed of an unknown number of parts.
Blackout is the first Transformer we see in the film, wreaking havoc on a SOCCENT base after returning under the numbers of a helicopter said to be shot down weeks before. Blackout is capable of carrying large loads, including other Decepticons. We see him carry Scorponok on his back during his first assault. Blackout's disguise form is a Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low helicopter. Blackout stands 33' tall, which seems contradictory in retrospect to his vehicle form's size, which would place him as being much taller (around 55' tall). This would make him much larger than Megatron though, which seems out of place.
Scorponok in the film is more heavily based on a character from the Beast Wars series in the Transformers genre rather than his Gen 1 form. His disguise and robot form are up to some debate, as in the prequel novel Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, he is depicted as being in robot form. Yet in the film, we see serial numbers on his chassis indicating the scorpion form is his robot form, and his diguise form is possibly a part of Blackout's helicopter disguise.
Bonecrusher is a misanthropist, despising all other robots of his kind, but serves Megatron out of fear alone. He is agressive and very powerful, and proves to be rather pugnacious during his battle with the Autobots on the freeway where he flips multiple cars and tears a bus in half. Bonecrusher's disguise form is a Force Protection Inc. Buffalo Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV). Bonecrusher makes use of his six wheels by using them like roller skates to bound quick across flat surfaces. He stands 28' tall, and is composed of an unknown number of parts. Bonecrusher is reportedly Michael Bay's favorite Transformer in the film, and he named one of his dogs after him.
Barricade is the first Decepticon to locate Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) on Earth. He is one of the few Decepticons who can succefully blend into the civilian world, unlike the other Decepticons who disguise as bulky military vehicles. Barricade's diguise form is a Saleen S281 Extreme (a modified Ford Mustang 2007) made up as a police car. Barricade stands 16' tall and is composed of an unknown number of parts.
Frenzy is the recon operative of the group, and is a new creation to the Transformers universe. He is based on the Gen 1 character Soundwave, whose alternate form was a tape recorder. This proved a problem in size (like Megatron's Gen 1 gun form), so a new, smaller character was born. Frenzy takes the form of a boombox disc player, the disks being replaced by shuruken throwing blades.
In the film, the Decepticon that takes the form of a tank is said to be "Devastator". In reality he is named Brawl, and the name Devastator was accidentally used instead. Michael Bay personally favored the name Devastator though, and it leaked past post-production. In the sequel to the film the same name would be used to depict a much more sinister Decepticon. Brawl's tank form is an extremely large prop rather than a real tank (although based on the M1 Abrams and the Leopard 2 tanks), and was originally built for the movie XXX 2: State of the Union; it was modified for Transformers to carry a replica of the "Venus Fly Trap" MCBS (minus the two forks and "dog bone" magnetic mine detonator) and a pair of quad missile launch tubes on the secondary turret. The hull is a modified truck chassis with the rear shortened and the radiator cut off, using a Freightliner diesel engine and rubber band tracks taken from a construction vehicle. It is noticeably too light for a real Abrams, as can be seen from how high it rides up as it runs over a car in Mission City. In addition, extras in the Mission City sequence don't seem to have been advised that they should be avoiding a 40-foot area surrounding the tank's turbine exhaust; some are standing in positions where they'd be severely burned if the tank was real. The main gun is secured using a non-functional travel lock that has a tendency to disappear and reappear between shots, most likely there to stop the top-heavy prop turret falling off the chassis during the car-crushing sequence, as it has no visible hinge to fold down and is not a component of either the Abrams or the Leopard 2, the two tanks the prop is based on. Indeed, the turret visibly wobbles during this sequence. The main gun noticably doesn't recoil; barely at all in one shot of the muzzle, and not at all in another; by comparison, when the CGI version of the tank fires shortly afterwards the gun recoils as would be expected.
Before either the Autobots or the Decepticons arrived on Earth, their robotic form was more organic and was not influenced by a vehicle design. This was a break from the original Gen 1 idea that even on planet Cybertron the robots had vehicle based forms (which really didn't make much sense). So instead their different forms are space travel pods allowing them to survive the passing of the atmosphere and the crash landing.
