Anyone who grew up in the '80s or even the '90s will have probably played with a Transformers toy or watched an episode of the animated series at one point. In 2005, Steven Spielberg announced he would be directing a live-action Transformers movie in the vein of his megahit Jurassic Park. The Transformers fan base rejoiced. Later that year, Michael Bay was announced as director instead. At the time, most people thought it was a great idea - Bad Boys II was a hit in the cinemas, what could go wrong? It wasn't until the film hit cinemas that movie fans realised Michael Bay had been a terrible choice. Two controversial and progressively worse films later, there's a fourth one currently in production, though the series' previous main characters - Megan Fox and Shia LeBeouf - have since distanced themselves from the franchise entirely. So Bay is starting afresh with Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. The title sounds horrible, of course, but the good news is Mark Wahlberg is replacing Shia LeBeouf as the main character. The robots themselves are usually re-vamped versions of the most popular characters from the toy and cartoon lines (Bumblebee, Starscream, for example). There are some characters that date back to the original Generation 1 toys, though, that will likely never find themselves anywhere near the silver screen. With this list, I've set out to explain which characters were great once upon a time, but would never work in the current world of Transformers...
Honorable Mention: The Quintessons
The Quintessons are more of a race than a character. The most recognisable of them would be the five-faced judges,who first appear in Transformers: The Movie (1986). They take the appearance of a floating balloon-like alien and have five faces which represent Death, Rage/Wrath, Laughter/War, Bitterness/Wisdom and Doubt/Judgement. Their role is deciding the fate of Autobots Hotrod and Kup, who have obviously walked in to the wrong neighbourhood (or in this case, crashed on the wrong planet). The reason they probably won't be included in the live action films? Because Bay's universe doesn't leave Earth. Judging by the news on the fourth film, the cast are going underground rather than to outer space. If they were in the new film, each face would probably be a different racial stereotype (see Skids and Mudflap from Revenge Of The Fallen). Still, the Quintessons don't make the list simply because they aren't - by definition -Transformers.