G1 Gears. Sorry, but the role of chief complainer has already been taken by Huffer, only he actually bothered to help Optimus by hauling his trailer while Optimus was hurt. All Gears has to his name is that he got to work alongside Spiderman, but that's still not enough to save my opinion of him. What was his role in the Autobots again?

G1 Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust. Starscream had the most character, Thundercracker was sympathetic (at least in the IDW comics), and Skywarp can teleport, but the Conehead Seekers were just dumb thugs who could easily be replaced.

G1 Rodimus Prime. He had his moments, but mostly he was just mopey, melodramatic, and irresponsible. Being reluctant to lead is one thing, but shirking his responsibilities as a leader and running off to mope kind of made it hard to care for him. Insensitive moments like his remarks about Springer getting chopped up, or to Sandstorm after his planet got blown up don't help matters.

G1 Wheelie. Of all the characters introduced in the movie, Wheelie has to be the most useless. Ultra Magnus was a powerhouse, Kup was competent and had an entertaining character, Arcee kicked butt, Blurr was fast, and Wreck Gar... well, I thought Wreck Gar was entertaining. Wheelie was just a weaker and more useless version of Bumblebee with none of the charm and an annoying speech gimmick.

ROTF Skids and Mudflap. Racist stereotypes who did nothing but provide unfunny dialogue and then proceed to make a mockery of one of the most potentially interesting creations of the Movie-verse. Speaking of which...

ROTF Devastator. So much wasted potential... He had a cool design, a neat gimmick, and towered over the Egyptian battlefield of Revenge of the Fallen, yet he went down without a fight.

ROTF The Fallen. Oh no! Megatron's mentor is in this movie, and he's supposedly more powerful and dangerous than Megatron himsel-oh, never mind. He just went down in less than two minutes. What a let down. Say what you will about RID Megatronus, but at least he was a challenge for the Autobots.

RID2015 Undertone. You could write the whole episode without him and literally the only thing that would be remotely different is the fight scene with Ratchet and Drift against Overload in Decepticon Island Part 2, and even then, you'd barely notice.

TLK Onslaught and Dreadbot. At least Mohawk and Nitro Zeus got to establish their personalities. These two did nothing of note but stand around, look cool, and die. It's especially disappointing when you consider how effective other Onslaughts were. G1 Onslaught directed a successful invasion and conquest of Cybertron, and FOC Onslaught was a competent commander who salvaged a mission a higher ranking Decepticon screwed up. TLK Onslaught... just kinda died without putting up a real fight.

Honorable mentions to Beast Wars Scorponok, Animated Blurr, and RID2015 Overload. They didn't really leave an impact to me, but they either were entertaining enough, or effective enough fighters that I don't think I can truly place them on this list.

 

BW Scorponok just fucked up at every turn. Occasionally his projects worked, but Tarantulas usually outclassed him in the science category. He was loyal like Waspinator, but his comic relief wasn't as funny.

Ironically, he's one of my favorite characters. Loved his design. Such a shame he got offed, he probably could have grown as a character with more time.

 

definitely starscream. i hate it!

 

I would also like to mention Wedge from the 2001 RID cartoon. He's nowhere as annoying as Side Burn is, but he pretty much did nothing in the entire show besides from stands there and get captured by the Predacons.

 

G1 Huffer, fuck that guy.