Kickback (G1)

2009-12-27T02:18:02Z

76.183.209.7: /* Generation 1 */

{{factions|decepticon}}
{{disambig3|Kickback}}
{{picsneeded|Fictional appearances}}

:''Kickback is a [[Decepticon]] [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticon]] from the [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:G1_Vol.1_Issue3_2.jpg|right|300px|thumb|So Bombshell controls minds, Shrapnel controls electricity, and... I kick things? I call do-over!]]
'''Kickback''' is one of the most charming, likable beings you're ever likely to meet. He collects friends the way others do [[Energon cube|energon cubes]]. Scratch the surface, though, and you find a manipulative blackmailer that loves digging up dirt on his new "pals" to force them to work for him. Humans are particularly likely to fall prey to his honeyed words. In insect mode his super-charged legs allow him to jump great distances and kick through solid steel, though he's vulnerable in that mode when attempting to fly through high winds.

:''Italian name'': '''Atrox'''
:''French-Canadian name'': '''La Raude'''
:''Portuguese name (Portugal comic):'' '''Maquia'''
:''Portuguese name (Brazil comic):'' '''Pula-Pula'''

==Fiction==
===Cartoon continuity===
:''Voice actor:'' [[Clive Revill]] (English), [[Toshio Ishii]] (Japanese)

[[Image:PlagueInsecticons Kickback harvester.jpg|right|200px|thumb|GRASSHOPPER KICK!]]
Kickback, [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] and [[Shrapnel (G1)|Shrapnel]] landed on [[Earth]] in their own space pod before the [[Ark (G1)|Autobot ship]] crashed to Earth. Their pod crashed into the region that would become known as "[[Demon Swamp]]" and their [[idento-computer]]s adapted them to transform into insects and eat organic food to survive. The "Insecticons" apparently lived in the swamp for millions of years until discovered by Megatron's Decepticons. They formed an uneasy alliance with Megatron, never coming fully under his command but working with the Decepticons when they could be convinced there was something (usually food) in it for them. The Insecticons were able to create vast [[Insecticon clone|clone]] armies of themselves at will, a formidable ability that may have been the reason they were able to maintain their autonomy from Megatron. {{storylink|A Plague of Insecticons}}

{{storylink|Traitor}}

On one occasion, the Insecticons were chowing down on redwoods in a national forest when [[Hound (G1)|Hound]], [[Beachcomber (G1)|Beachcomber]] and [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] arrived on the scene and attempted to stop them. Despite the equal odds, the Insecticons managed to overpower their Autobot opponents and send them into retreat after launching a massive fallen tree trunk at the heroes (naturally, Kickback used his legs to push the tree instead of his arms like the others). Megatron then arrived and offered a deal: if he led the Insecticons to a fresh new source of energy, they would aid him in acquiring some useful data from the heavily-guarded [[Iron Mountain]] installation. Agreeing, the Insecticons accompanied the Decepticons to the [[Nova Power Core]], an energy source of considerable power. Consuming it, the Insecticons found themselves more than doubling in size and strength.

[[Image:QuestForSurvival Insecticons.jpg|left|200px|thumb|]]
Naturally, both groups of 'Cons planned to eliminate each other at the most opportune opportunity, but the Insecticons got the upper hand first by secretly placing [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] under the control of Bombshell's [[cerebro-shell]]s. Before the mission at Iron Mountain was completed, the rest of the Decepticons sans Megatron were also under Insecticon control. Kickback and the others planned to use Soundwave to acquire Iron Mountain's data for themselves, but little did they know that the Nova Power in their systems was explosively unstable. With the help of the Autobots, Megatron managed to administer the antidote to the Insecticons (reversing their invincibility and self-destruct cycles) and reclaim his soldiers. Because Shrapnel was critically wounded in the final battle, Kickback and Bombshell quickly repaired him and fled to fight another day. {{storylink|The Insecticon Syndrome}}

{{storylink|Quest for Survival}}
{{storylink|The Revenge of Bruticus}}

[[Image:TFTM SquashedKickback.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Well, it was inevitable that he of all people would kick the bucket.]]
When the Decepticons invaded Autobot City on Earth in 2005, a keen-eyed [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] spotted their hijacked shuttle before they were able to penetrate the city's defenses. As a result, the Autobots had time to activate the base's heavily-armored transformation sequence, and the Decepticons are forced to physically breach the defenses. Kickback and his fellow Insecticons attempted to eat their way into the city, but kept their eyes on their stomachs and were caught off guard by the returning Hot Rod and [[Kup (G1)|Kup]]. Kup used Kickback's head as a ramp to jump his way into the closing city, flattening the Insecticon's head in the process.

Heavily damaged, Kickback was carried by Long Haul back aboard [[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]] by Scavenger as the Decepticons fled. He proved too weak to resist when the 'Cons tossed him and several other weakened warriors out of the shuttle to "make room". His was reformatted by [[Unicron]] into a [[Sweep]] drone, to serve under [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]]. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

{{storylink|Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1}}
{{storylink|Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5}}

{{charstubfiction}}

===Marvel Comics continuity===
{{noteukonly}}
Kickback was one of Lord [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]]'s warriors operating out of [[Polyhex]] and, without realizing it, barely escaped being killed by the [[Wrecker]]s in [[Operation: Volcano]]. He was later summoned to Earth by Megatron, and became an Insecticon alongside his partners Shrapnel and Bombshell.

{{charstubfiction}}

====Earthforce====
{{earthforcefiction}}
''Kickback and the Insecticons worked under Megatron's command during the Decepticon Civil War. At the [[Enclave]], he was seen talking to [[Long Haul (G1)|Long Haul]] before the fighting broke out. {{storylink|The Bad Guy's Ball!}} Later, he joined his fellow Insecticons in infiltrating [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]]'s base to spy on their activities. They ate their way through the wall next to the war room, and planned to pick a nice, cozy spot for eavesdropping, but [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] caught the little pests in a [[Rustbug Hoop]]. He then fed them false information to lead Megatron and Shockwave into a confrontation with each other, giving him a chance to consolidate control over the Decepticons. {{storylink|Bugged!}} After the coup, Kickback was part of the attack on Autobot Earthbase led by [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]]. {{storylink|Divide and Conquer!}}''

===Dreamwave comics continuity===
{{note|Kickback makes a [[:Image:4 blitzwing prime directive.jpg|cameo]] in [[Prime Directive]] issue [[Prime Directive issue 1|#1]] as a prisoner aboard the ''[[Ark II]]''. His appearance there would be [[retcon]]ned by later stories, though as always with the Insecticons, [[Personal canon|one could make the case]] that it is just a [[Shothole|clone]].}}

Seen in his pre-Earth dragster mode, Kickback and the pre-Insecticons joined [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] and [[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]] in making an assassination attempt on the recently-risen [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], hoping to extract the power of the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]] from the green Autobot leader. Instead, they learned a valuable lesson about underestimating any newborn Prime whose name isn't "[[Hot Rod (G1)|Rodimus]]". {{storylink|The War Within}}

At some point after the disappearance of the [[Ark (G1)|Ark]] and ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]'', [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] managed to track the ships to the planet Earth, and dispatched Kickback, [[Shrapnel (G1)|Shrapnel]], and [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] to the planet as part of some longterm machinations which were never made clear. Shortly after landing, they were confronted by the [[Dinobot (G1)|Dynobots]] who followed them to the planet, but somehow managed to give them the slip. {{storylink|The Rules of Extinction}}

{{note|Kickback and the Insecticons made a brief appearance in the second [[Keepers Trilogy]] novel, [[Annihilation]], as troops under Starscream's command on Earth. This appearance is contradicted by later Dreamwave stories. Also, in the novel the Insecticons shrink down to insect-size as they did in Marvel Comics, whereas later Dreamwave issues showed them retaining their full size, like their cartoon versions.}}
The Insecticons were supposed to remain in hiding on Earth until an unknown time, and managed to keep their presence on the planet secret even after the Autobot and Decepticon spaceship crews awoke and began regularly battling it out on Earth. However, Bombshell began instituting plans of his own, mutilating cattle, kidnapping fleshlings, and growing techno-organic "Insecticlones", among other things. Kickback noticed a minor power struggle between Shrapnel and Bombshell, and enjoyed stirring things up between his partners. Bombshell's antics drew the attention of the Autobots and [[Earth Defense Command]], and the Insecticons were forced into the spotlight to do battle. Kickback was personally taken down in combat with [[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]]. {{storylink|Extermination}}

The Insecticons were taken into custody by [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] and his Autobots after the encounter. {{storylink|The Route of All Evil}}

===Devil's Due ''G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers'' comics===
Kickback was part of [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]]'s army as it waited for [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]]'s force field around [[Teletran 3]] to expire so that they could run in and capture the Autobots. {{storylink|G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II issue 2}}

In a dark alternate future in which the Decepticons had conquered Earth, Kickback-type Insecticons were a common sight as part of Insecticon swarms. {{storylink|G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II issue 3}}

===IDW comics continuity===
Kickback was very briefly seen among the newly-formed Decepticons as they left [[Kaon]]'s jail and began laying waste to the city-state. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 4}}

Millions of years later, Kickback was newly created by [[Deluge (Decepticon)|Deluge]] alongside Shrapnel, Bombshell and [[Insecticon swarm|three thousand mindless monsters]]. He soon joined Megatron's forces on Earth, and helped defeat the local Autobots after they were led into a trap. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7}} As the Decepticons started conquering the mostly defenseless planet, Kickback listened to Megatron hold a speech in the ruins of [[New York City]]. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 4}} The Insecticons later traveled to [[China]] and wrecked [[Beijing]], where [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]] started picking a fight with Bombshell. Kickback and Shrapnel came to his aid, but found themselves outclassed by Skywarp's [[teleportation]] skills and fled the scene. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 6}}

After returning to New York, the Insecticons were approached by [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]], who apologized for Skywarp's behavior and told them about his ambitions for the future. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 8}} When Starscream rebelled against Megatron shortly afterwards, the Insecticons joined him in attacking their former leader. Kickback attempted to jump-kick Megatron, who simply grabbed him out of mid-air and tossed him at Bombshell. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 10}} The revolt was cut short by the arrival of European jets and the return of the exiled Autobots. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 11}} In the ensuing battle, Kickback was swatted aside by [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] wielding a broken streetlight, and the Decepticons were eventually defeated. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 12}} Kickback and the others fled Earth aboard [[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]]. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 13|Uneasy Lies the Head}}

===IDW ''Hearts of Steel'' continuity===
[[Image:HeartsofSteel2_Kickback_money.jpg|left|thumb|]]
Along with many other Decepticons, Kickback awoke in the late 19th century when a sunken human submarine crashed onto their submerged ship. {{storylink|Hearts of Steel issue 1}} After [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] allied himself with [[Tobias Muldoon]], he learned that the humans required money to work, and sent Kickback, Bombshell and Shrapnel to retrieve some. The trio took on the form of an "[[Insectrain]]", with Kickback forming the piledriver-equipped front of the train. Using these piledrivers, the Insecticons attacked and robbed a train carrying cash and bullion from the Denver Mint, although Kickback sneered at the concept of "sheets of inert plant matter" being valuable. The following morning, the Insecticons delivered the stolen property to Starscream and Tobias Muldoon. {{storylink|Hearts of Steel issue 2}}

{{-}}

===Sector Seven alternate reality game===
[[Image:NBE 125.JPG|thumb|right|125px|NBE 125]]
Video footage was taken of a small mechanical grasshopper on a tree branch. The grasshopper then flew towards the camera changing into a robot and proceeded to attack the camera, breaking the lens. It was sightings like this and others that prompted the secret government organization known as [[Sector Seven]] to launch a disinformation campaign called [[Hungry Dragon]]. A key part of this was the [[Takara Agreement]], a collaboration with a Japanese toy manufacturer [[Takara]]. The goal of the agreement was to portray non-biological extraterrestrials as kids' toys, cartoons, and fiction. Any claims of actual sightings of giant robots would be seen as fanciful nonsense.

It was a great success. You don't believe alien robots actually visited the Earth, do you?

The original footage of the grasshopper was eventually leaked to the public through [http://www.sectorseven.org/ the internet]. {{storylink|Sector Seven (game)}}

==Toys==
===Generation 1===
*'''Kickback''' (Insecticon, 1985)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''40'''
**''Accessories'': "Electrothermic Blast Tube"

[[Image:G1Kickback toy.jpg|right|150px|thumb|I'll transform into a giant mechanical grasshopper and no one will notice me.]]
: Kickback transforms into a robotic grasshopper/locust. He doesn't do a whole lot more than that.

: The mold has gone through a few variations, primarily in the chromed-silver wings. Original versions only had a single [[rubsign]] indent, on the outer right-robot-mode wing. Later versions not only added indents to all four faces of the wings (for symmetry, apparently), but ''shortened'' the wings as well.

: In Japan, Kickback and the other Insecticons were "re-released" as mail-order items from 1987 through 1988. They each cost 880 yen (their normal retail price) and two [[robot points]].

: This mold was used to make the [[Shothole]] drones.

*'''Insectrons''' (Transformers Collection multi-pack, 2004)
**''Japanese ID number'': '''16''' (full set)

: Kickback was re-released as part of the Japanese "[[Transformers Collection]]" series in a set with [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] and [[Shrapnel (G1)|Shrapnel]]. This set also included three [[energon cube]] accessories that fit inside their chest compartments.

: The Kickback in this set has ''another'' change to the wings; this time, the "[[For safety reasons|safety circles]]" at the wing-tips added by [[Hasbro]] back in the day are no longer present, giving them pointed tips. The wings also go back to having a single rubsign indent.

*'''Insecticons''' (Toys-R-Us multi-pack, 2009)

: Kickback was released as part of the ''[[Universe (2008 toyline)|Universe]]'' line, as a [[Toys"R"Us]] [[exclusive]], in a set with his Insecticon pals. Unlike his teammates, Kickback keeps his original name. Though they mistakenly call Shrapnel, Kickback on the instruction manual.

==Merchandise==
===Decoy===
*'''Kickback''' (Decoy, 1987)

: Kickback was one of the Decepticon [[Decoy|Decoys]] packed in with smaller carded ''Transformers'' toys. While the normal purple version could come on any Decepticon toy, the rarer red version was available ''only'' on [[Throttlebot]] cards and only for a short while before the switch to purple.

*'''Destron Hero Collection-22 Set''' (Decoy multi-pack, 1987)

: The entire run of twenty-two Decepticon Decoys were sold as a single boxed set in Japan, only in purple.

===Hard Hero===
[[Image:HardHero Kickback statue.JPG|right|120px|thumb|]]
*'''Kickback''' (2003)

: The first of [[Hard Hero]]'s "Insecticon Series", Kickback is a 9-inch cold-cast porcelain statue sculpted by [[Jason Ray]]. Only 1000 pieces of the statue were produced.

{{-}}
===Robot Heroes===
[[Image:Robotheroesironhidekickback.jpg|thumb|right|300px|They're taking this show on the road!]]
*'''Ironhide vs. Kickback''' (2008)

:''[[Robot Heroes]]'' Kickback is a small [[super-deformed]] figurine with swivel joints in his neck and shoulders. He is colors are based on those his toy rather than his less detailed cartoon [[character model]]. Kickback was only available in a two-pack with [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]].

{{-}}

==Trivia==
* Kickback, like the other Insecticons, was originally a ''[[Diaclone]]'' "Waruder Battas", an evil alien piloted mech in different colors...which were eventually used when the trio were [[redeco]]ed for [[e-Hobby]] release. This is also the genesis of those opening chest compartments.
* Kickback's wings did not flap in the television show (although they did in [[The Transformers: The Movie|the movie]]). He and the other Insecticons seem to fly by [[Flight|other means.]]

{{-}}
==External links==
* [http://www.tfu.info/1985/Decepticon/Kickback/kickback.htm Kickback at TFU.info]
*[http://www.ntfa.net/universe/english/index.php?act=view&char=Kickback Kickback's Universe profile at NTFA.net]

[[Category:Generation 1 characters]]
[[Category:Live-action film ARG characters]]
[[Category:Insecticons]]
[[Category:Mail order items]]
[[Category:Robot Heroes]]
[[Category:Universe (2008)]]

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Kickback (G1)