MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

Scott McNeil

2010-03-28T07:38:39Z

76.26.184.183:

[[Image:OTFCC2004ScottMcNeil.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Scott receives a pair of Wolverine sandals at OTFCC 2004. The insanity of the gift is only matched by the insanity of the recipient.]]

'''Scott McNeil''' ([[September 15]], 1962- ) is an Australian-born Canadian voice actor. Some of his most notable roles include Piccolo from the original English dub of ''Dragonball Z'', Bonesteel from ''Ninja Turtles: the Next Mutation'', [[Cobra Commander]] from ''[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]: [[Sgt. Savage|Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles]]'', Hohenheim of Light from ''Fullmetal Alchemist'', Duo Maxwell from ''Gundam Wing'', [[Wolverine]] from ''X-Men Evolution'', Ace the Bat-Hound from ''Krypto the Superdog'', Ken Masters from ''Street Fighter'', Proto Man and Dr. Wily in ''Mega Man'', Koga from ''Inuyasha'', Senor Hasbeena from ''Mucha Lucha'' and oh so many more.

He is an extremely prolific performer, an incredibly popular guest at Transformers and anime conventions, and is probably insane.

Scratch the "probably".

==Voice roles==
===Beast Wars===
*[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]
*[[Dinobot II]]
*[[Packrat]] (script reading)
*[[Rattrap]]
*[[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]]
*[[Vice Grip]] (script reading)
*[[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]]
*[[Cicadacon]]

[[Image:Scott McNeil Ohayocon 04.jpg|right|223px|thumb|Scott entertains an audience at Ohayocon 2004, probably with another story about Garry the big dumb munky.]]
===Beast Machines===
*Rattrap
*Silverbolt
*Waspinator

===Armada===
*[[Jetfire (Armada)|Jetfire]]

===Energon===
*Jetfire
*[[Omega Supreme (Energon)|Omega Supreme]]
*[[Strongarm (Energon)|Strongarm]]

===Cybertron===
*[[Backstop (Cybertron)|Backstop]]
*[[Snarl (Cybertron)|Snarl]]
*[[Velocitron]] announcer

{{note|McNeil didn't continue Jetfire into ''Cybertron''. The producers reportedly wanted Jetfire to have a more 'Australian' voice instead of his usual, hence a new actor. Ironically, Scott McNeil was, in fact, born in Brisbane, [[Australia]]! Clearly, he was insufficiently Australian.}}
==Convention appearances==
* [[BotCon 1998]]
* [[BotCon 1999]]
* [[BotCon 2001]]
* [[OTFCC 2004]]
* [[BotCon 2006]]

==Trivia==
[[Image:ScottMcNeil Megsy.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Megatron watches in horror as Scott plays with his arms.]]
* Scott looks vastly different at each of his convention appearances. This page only scratches the surface of his myriad looks.
* For the interview in [[Madman Entertainment]]'s ''Beast Wars'' DVDs, Scott came dressed in a foam [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] costume.
* In the 2003 animated version of ''Ben Hur'', he was the voice of Jesus. When Scott gets arrested, [[Robert Foxworth]] denies him three times.
* His first live action role was as Bonesteel in ''TMNT: The Next Mutation''. Bonesteel was a big game hunter with a screw loose. Not that big of a stretch really.
* Seriously, he's clinically insane.

==External links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573926/ Scott McNeil at the Internet Movie Database]
*[[Wikipedia:Scott McNeil|Scott McNeil at Wikipedia]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcneil, Scott}}
[[Category:Convention guests]]
[[Category:Voice actors]]

Garry Chalk

2010-03-28T07:35:11Z

76.26.184.183:

[[Image:GaryChalk1.jpg|right|225px|thumb|Garry Chalk: Man-at-Arms]]
'''Garry Chalk''' (born [[November 13]], 1953; also known as '''Gary Chalk''' or '''Gary Chaulk''') is a British-born Canadian voice actor and screen actor. In addition to his ''Transformers'' work, Chalk has also played Donkey Kong and King Hippo in ''Captain N: the Game Master'', Guts Man in ''Mega Man'', [[Dum Dum|Dum Dum Dugan]] in ''[[Nicholas|Nick Fury: Agent of Shield]]'' and [[General Blitz]] in the ''[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]'' offshoot ''Sgt. Savage and His Screaming Eagles'', among numerous other roles. Also, he played characters in certain animated shows and movies with fellow voice actor [[Scott McNeil]].

He sounds like every awesome grandfather and uncle you ever had. He shakes the hands of fans at [[BotCon]] too. He once secretly video taped Eric Stoltz having sex and as a result was broken in two by a giant fly monster.<ref>The Fly II</ref>

==Voice roles==
===''Generation 2''===
* [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]]/[[Superion (G1)|Superion]] (same voice) in a toy [[commercial]]
* [[Leadfoot]], also in a toy commercial
* Narrator for Season Two cartoon commercials

===''Beast Wars''===
{{collist|2|
*[[Megatron (G1)|G1 Megatron]] (recorded message)
*[[Onyx Primal]] (script reading)
*[[Optimus Primal]]
*Protohuman
}}

===''Beast Machines''===
{{collist|2|
*Optimus Primal
*[[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] (hologram)
}}

===''Armada''===
*[[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]]

===''Energon''===
*Optimus Prime

===''Cybertron''===
*Optimus Prime

==Convention guest==
{{collist|2|
* [[BotCon 1998]]
* [[OTFCC 2003]]
}}
{{-}}
==Trivia==
* During the audio commentary for "[[Beast Wars (Part 2)]]" on [[Madman Entertainment]]'s ''Beast Wars'' Season 3 DVD, Garry's cell phone suddenly rings, forcing him to step outside.

* He has voiced Optimus Prime/Primal in more episodes than any other actor.

* Chalk is the first ([[David Kaye|but not the only]]) actor to voice both an [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] and a [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (but in different series).

==References==
<references />

==External links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0149942/ Garry Chalk at the Internet Movie Database]

*[http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/interviews-27/tfw2005-interviews-transformers-voice-actor-garry-chalk-164728/ TFW2005 Interviews Transformers Voice Actor Garry Chalk]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalk, Garry}}
[[Category:Convention guests]]
[[Category:Mainframe]]
[[Category:Voice actors]]

David Kaye

2010-03-28T07:28:45Z

76.26.184.183: /* Notes */

{{disambig3|David}}

[[Image:DavidKaye1.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Just keep that [[Raksha|crazy snake-woman]] away from me!]]
'''David Kaye''' (born '''David V. Hope''' on [[October 14]], 1964) is a Canadian voice actor. Some of his more popular roles include Professor X from ''X-Men Evolution'', Treize Khushrenada from ''Mobile Suit Gundam Wing'', [[Captain America]] in the ''Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2'' video game and Sesshomaru from ''InuYasha''. He's also voiced a [[Megatron (Armada)|certain Decepticon]] several times. [[Megatron (BW)|Yeeessssss...]]

He has a '''BIG''' boost of confidence!

==Voice roles==
===''Beast Wars''===
*[[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]

===''Beast Machines''===
*Megatron
* [[Noble|Savage/Noble]]

===''Armada''===
*[[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron/Galvatron]]

===''Energon''===
*Megatron/Galvatron

===''Cybertron''===
*Megatron/Galvatron

===''Transformers Animated''===
*[[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]]
*[[Lugnut]]
*[[Security Bot]] ([[Total Meltdown]])
*[[Grimlock (Animated)|Grimlock]]
*[[Trash Bot]] ([[Sound and Fury]])
*[[News Bot]] ([[Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster]])
*[[Sparkplug (Animated human)|Sparkplug]] ([[Sari, No One's Home]])
*[[Cliffjumper (Animated)|Cliffjumper]]
*[[Highbrow (Animated)|Highbrow]]
*[[Warpath (Animated)|Warpath]]

====Incidentals====
* Technician 1 ([[Transform and Roll Out]])
* Firefighter (Transform and Roll Out)
* Fan #2 (Transform and Roll Out)
* Fan #1 ([[Home Is Where the Spark Is]])
* Nature Show Narrator (Home Is Where the Spark Is)
* Customer ([[Nanosec (episode)|Nanosec]])
* Man ([[Along Came a Spider]])
* Intercom Voice ([[Sound and Fury]])
* [[Irate Citizen]] ([[Garbage In, Garbage Out]])
* Driver ([[Velocity]])

==Convention appearances==
* [[BotCon]] ([[BotCon 1997|1997]], [[BotCon 1998|1998]], [[BotCon 2007|2007]], [[BotCon 2008|2008]], [[BotCon 2009|2009]])
* [[OTFCC 2003]]
* [[Unofficial conventions|TFcon 2004]]

==Notes==
*He is the only voice actor who has voiced both [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] and [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] as regular roles.
* He has appeared in six separate ''Transformers'' series, the most for any single TF voice actor. Gary Chalk came close.
*When originally auditioning for ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'', Kaye originally read for the role of [[Optimus Primal]] while [[Garry Chalk]] read for the sinister [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]].
*He voices two Transformers whose alt modes are Tyrannosaurus rex: [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] and [[Grimlock (Animated)|Grimlock]].
*He is a wonderful human being.{{fact}}
*[[Bill Fagerbakke]] says his mom is hot. This disturbs him. '''And''' us.
*He brought his father to TFcon 2004 with him.
*He is one of the only original ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cast members that expresses fondness for ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]''.

==External links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0443286/ David Kaye at the Internet Movie Database]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaye, David}}
[[Category:Convention guests]]
[[Category:Mainframe]]
[[Category:Voice actors]]

Jetstorm (BM)

2010-03-28T03:00:23Z

76.26.184.183: /* Beast Machines */

{{faction|vehicon}}
{{disambig3|Jetstorm}}
:''Jetstorm is a [[Vehicon (BM)|Vehicon]] from the [[Beast Machines (franchise)|Beast Machines]] portion of the [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:JetstormBMfull.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Air superiority complex.]]
Arrogant and cocky with the skills to back up all his big talk, '''Jetstorm''' leads [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]'s [[Sonic Attack Jet|aero-drones]] in his bid to remove the last vestiges of resistance on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. He is distinguished from the other drones as having a more purple colour scheme and yellow markings on his body. The only thing Jetstorm likes more than cracking wise is cracking heads. He takes great pleasure in tormenting the [[Maximal|Maximals]] and lets them know at every opportunity how much better than them he is. He has a nasty temper that is barely hidden behind a thin veneer of cool indifference, and it really doesn't take much to set him off. Like that [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] chick, what's she staring at?

Despite his smarm, bravado and temper, Jetstorm knows when to cut his losses and run for it. He may have a whole load of personality flaws (and a load of aero-drones to back him up), but he's not stupid. Despite early rivalries, he has also developed a camaraderie with [[Thrust (BM)|Thrust]], even though the idea of being friends with anyone initially came as something of a shock.

Jetstorm is in actuality a programmed shell personality given life by the [[spark]] of the Maximal [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]].

His [[Command Code]] is "afterburn".

{{quote|Get it through your CPU! That program has been deleted. I'm Jetstorm now. ''PERIOD!''|—Jetstorm getting sick of Blackarachnia's attempts to appeal to Silverbolt, "[[Savage Noble]]"}}

:''Spanish name'': '''Aluvion''' (toy)
:''French-Canadian name'': '''L'orageux'''

==Fiction==
===Cartoon continuity===
====''Beast Machines''====
:''Voice actor:'' [[Brian Drummond]], [[Scott McNeil]] (as [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]]) (English), [[Mitsuo Iwata]] (Japanese)

[[Image:Jetstorm Fires Of The Past.JPG|right|180px|thumb|Wonder who would call their child "Problem"?]]
Jetstorm came online alongside fellow generals [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] and [[Thrust (BM)|Thrust]] fairly early on in the Beast Machines conflict, when [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] realized that controlling his vast armies of Vehicon drones directly was beyond even his mental capacities. In order to more efficiently control his forces, he created the [[Vehicon general|Vehicon generals]] to serve as field commanders answering directly to him. In order to give these generals life, he used the sparks of two captured Maximals and one Predacon, hoping that Optimus Primal and his crew would be reluctant to fight their former comrades-in-arms. For Jetstorm, he used the spark of the [[Fuzor]] Silverbolt.

Jetstorm made his entrance alongside Thrust and Tankor, with Rattrap and Blackarachnia as his audience. When the spider lady noted that three mindless drones shouldn't be a problem, Jetstorm stunned the Maximals by replying that one, they weren't drones; two, the weren't mindless; and three, "Problem" was his middle name. Jetstorm teamed up with Thrust against Blackarachnia, strafing her from the air and obliging her with a ride through the skies after she webbed herself to him. When they initially lost the Maximals' signatures, Jetstorm was the first to detect them inside the spaceport terminal building, and the chase resumed, ending with a firefight between the generals and Optimus Primal and Cheetor that caused the destruction of the Autobot shuttle Omega-Delta. {{storylink|Fires of the Past|Fires of the Past}}

Berated by Megatron after his team's failures, Jetstorm protested that he'd almost captured the Maximals, only for the "lugnuts" to screw him up. Unsurprisingly, Megatron didn't buy it. After a couple of painful jolts and a promise of either reward or suffering, the three generals hit the road to find the Maximals. When Thrust stopped and began to brood, Jetstorm confronted him and demanded to know what the problem was, instigating a fight with the Cycle Commander. While they were dueling, the two picked up the Maximals' signatures and took off, only to find Tankor had beaten them to the prize. Teaming up with Thrust, Jetstorm attacked Tankor, landing a solid hit on him but ultimately getting himself knocked out when Tankor's counterattack blew up a fuel tank which walloped everyone but him. Later, Jetstorm angrily told Thrust he never wanted to see "that slagging turret-head" again—right before they were blasted back and then crushed by a falling Tankor. {{storylink|Mercenary Pursuits|Mercenary Pursuits}}

Although Silverbolt's former lover, Blackarachnia, initially believed that Thrust possessed the spark of her beloved, she soon discovered the truth, that Thrust had [[Waspinator]]'s spark and Silverbolt was in Jetstorm's body, and she went to great lengths to reawaken the Maximal spark Jetstorm held within him. And what did she get for her trouble? [[Silverbolt (BW)|A samurai hawk with serious issues]]. After Optimus Primal and Megatron fell to their deaths into the organic core of Cybertron, which resulted in its reformatting into a technoorganic world and the restoration of its inhabitants, Silverbolt was his old passionate self, Blackarachnia was so happy and the two embraced, despite his corny line.

{{charstubfiction}}

==Toys==
===Beast Machines===
*'''Jetstorm''' (Deluxe, 2000)
**''Accessories:'' 2 missiles

[[Image:BM deluxe Jetstorm toy.jpg|left|250px|thumb|Er, right... I'm who now?]]
: Part of the first wave of ''Beast Machines'' Deluxes, Jetstorm transforms into a Cybertronic fighter jet. His jet-mode cockpit has a spring-loaded extension, giving him a bird-like head in this form that is articulated at the neck to "search" for targets. Both jet and robot modes feature spring-loaded "energy blast" missiles. He also has an alternate robot mode, which folds his legs into a "flight cone" and reveals jet thrusters.

:Note that, in the photo to the left, Jetstorm is slightly mis-transformed. In robot mode, the chest panels have holes in the back designed to pop over the yellow nubs on the collar plate, thus locking together the collar and the two halves of the torso. Further, in vehicle mode, his wings should be swept forward (like the Ultra-class toy below).

: This mold has been [[Redeco|redecoed]] to make the [[Sonic Attack Jet]], ''[[Robots in Disguise (toyline)|Robots in Disguise]]'' [[Storm Jet (RID)|Storm Jet]] and [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]], and ''[[Universe (2003 franchise)|Universe]]'' [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]].

{{-}}
[[Image:BM ultra Jetstorm toy.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Dancing on air!]]
*'''Jetstorm''' (Ultra, 2000)
**''Accessories:'' 2 missiles, 2 drones

: Part of the first wave of Ultra-class ''Beast Machines'' toys, Jetstorm is also the first Ultra-class toy since the beginning of the "[[Beast Era]]" to feature electronics. He was also the ''largest'' Ultra-class toy yet. Like the Deluxe version, he transforms into a Cybertronic fighter jet, but in this incarnation the jet mode looks far more like the [[Mainframe Entertainment|Mainframe]] CGI model, even if the robot mode bears only a slightly stronger resemblance. His jet mode cockpit/neck is geared up with the pop-up gun turret on his back so that both turn in the same direction when moved. This turret has a light-up feature plus two spring-loaded missiles. Like the small toy, he has both a "normal" bipedal robot mode and a "flight robot mode" with pop-out thruster engines.

: This mold was redecoed into the [[BotCon 2002]] exclusive [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]].

{{-}}
*'''Jetstorm''' (Happy Meal, 2000)

: The McDonald's Happy Meal toy's robot mode was very close to the CGI model -- ''from the waist up''. Below the waist, the jet nose splits into two halves. Legs? Feet? Who knows? The toy's front torso is made of translucent plastic to simulate his slender TV show model, despite being quite fat. He also features a light piping gimmick which causes the spark crystal on his chest to light up when he's held up to the light. In jet mode his cockpit also has limited light piping.

*'''Jetstorm''' (Little Red Rooster Meal, 2000)

: The McDonald's Happy Meal Jetstorm was also released in Australia through the Red Rooster restaurant chain. Like the other three toys, it came in four colors: the original colors (with opaques replacing the transparents), red, green, and very light blue. It was retooled from the original version, losing the light piping. To make up for this it has (sloppily) painted on 'eyes' for its jet mode.

:Due to the lack of translucent plastic the toy's profile is different to the McDonalds version, looking somewhat fatter. This version of the toy isn't as well ballanced as the McDonalds version, either. They fall down a lot.

===Beast Wars Returns===
*'''Vehicon Jetstorm''' (Ultra, 2005)
**''Accessories:'' 2 missiles, 2 drones

:A redeco of the U.S. market Ultra figure, released as part of the Toys R Us exclusive ''[[Beast Machines (toyline)|Beast Wars Returns]]'' line in Japan. It is one of the less drastic redecos of the line, and is fairly similar to the U.S. release, substituting most grey parts for a secondary shade of greyish blue, and replacing some of the yellow and all the gold highlights with both a silvery grey and more blue, most notably on his cheek plates. It gives the figure a darker, more sombre and overall ''blue'' appearance, in order to have greater [[show-accuracy]].

==Merchandise==
===Robot Heroes===
====Beast Machines series====
*'''Optimus Primal vs. Jetstorm''' (2009)
{{canceledtoy}}

==Notes==
[[Image:BMJetstorm-Concept.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Jetstorm's summer wear.]]
* Jetstorm's pre-release name was '''Skybolt''', but that was deemed too close to "Silverbolt", so the name was changed to further obscure the identity of Jetstorm's spark.
* Early concept artwork showed Jetstorm as being red instead of blue.
* Jetstorm was prone to making pop culture references, including "[[Pokeformers|Gotta Catch 'em All]]!" (the slogan for the Pokémon franchise) and "swing batty-batty!" (a baseball pun intended to nark off [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]]).
* In the [[Beast Machines (cartoon)|show]], Jetstorm has no feet and never walks. He only touches the ground when he is prone/disabled.

==External links==
*[http://www.tfu.info/2000/Vehicon/Jetstorm/jetstorm.htm Jetstorm at TFU.info]

[[Category:Beast Machines characters]]
[[Category:Fast food exclusives]]
[[Category:Transformers with three modes]]
[[Category:Vehicons]]

Terrorsaur (Armada)

2010-01-06T06:40:18Z

76.26.184.183: /* Notes */

{{factions|decepticon|unicron}}
{{disambig3|Terrorsaur}}
:''Terrorsaur is a [[Decepticon]] from the [[Armada (franchise)|Armada]] portion of the [[Unicron Trilogy]] [[continuity family]].''

Terrorsaur is an obnoxious, loud-mouthed thug who no one likes. But he also happens to be a coolly-effective warrior on the battlefield, which is the only reason why his Decepticon comrades tolerate him. Of course, they'd never actually TELL him he's a natural in the ways of combat. That'd just reinforce Terrorsaur's already over-blown ego.

Terrorsaur's partnered with the [[Mini-Con]] [[Ironhide (Armada)| Ironhide]]. Claimed by Terrorsaur after he killed her old [[Autobot]] partner, Ironhide became nothing more than a slave to the despicable Decepticon.

{{charstub}}

==Fiction==
===Armada/Energon comics===
Terrorsaur was one of the Transformers abducted by [[Unicron]] during the Unicron Battles. Ten years later, when [[Alpha Quintesson]] sent the [[Terrorcons (Energon)|Terrorcons]] to [[Earth]] to raid the planet's [[Energon (Energon)|energon]] resources, he also dispatched the reprogrammed Terrorsaur and others to [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], where, as [[Four Horsemen of Unicron|Unicron's Four Horsemen]], they attacked the Autobots in order to prevent them from coming to Earth's assistance. Fortunately for both Cybertron and Earth, the newly-created [[Omnicon|Omnicons]] were able to defeat Terrorsaur and company.

==Toys==
===Armada===
[[Image:ArmadaTerrorsaurToy.jpg|right|250px|thumb|"Well, being a Horseman is better than being melted, I guess."]]
*'''Terrorsaur w/ Ironhide''' (Super-Con, 2003)
**''Accessories'': Left & right wing-blades

: A [[redeco]] and [[Retool|retooling]] of the ''[[Beast Wars (toyline)|Beast Wars]]'' [[Transmetal]] [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]], Terrorsaur transforms into a robotic pterodactyl. In beast mode, his wings feature flip-up panels to reveal VTOL fans and "attack blades", plus his backside opens up to reveal twin thrusters. He has been retooled to feature "dead" [[Powerlinx]] plugs for [[Mini-Con|Mini-Cons]]. In robot mode, his wing-tips become hand-held blade weapons. He came with his Mini-Con partner [[Ironhide (Armada)|Ironhide]].

: This mold was also used to make ''[[Beast Machines (franchise)|Beast Machines]]'' [[Terranotron (BM)|Terranotron]]. It was also used as the non-toy model for the Transmetal form of [[Fractyl]] and the mutated form of [[Ravenus]].

==Notes==
* Terrorsaur's toy does not use the same tooling as the previous iteration of the mold, Terranotron. That version added a [[spark crystal]] to the twin engines in the back, which ''Armada'' Terrorsaur lacks. The non-toy character Ravenus uses a combination of the two, having both Powerlinx plugs and the spark crystal (used to represent his "[[Doomstone]]").

*Terrorsaur never appeared in the animated series.

==External links==
*[http://www.tfu.info/2003/Decepticon/Terrorsaur/terrorsaur.htm Terrorsaur at TFU.info]

[[Category:Armada characters]]
[[Category:Decepticons]]
[[Category:Energon characters]]
[[Category:Transformers with three modes]]
[[Category:Unicron-related characters]]

Wheeljack (Armada)

2010-01-06T06:28:44Z

76.26.184.183: /* Armada */

{{factions|autobot|decepticon}}
{{disambig3|Wheeljack}}
:''Wheeljack is a [[Decepticon]] from the [[Armada (franchise)|Armada]] portion of the [[Unicron Trilogy]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:Wheeljack-AR-DVD.jpg|right|350px|thumb|"My vengeance will be long-winded and repetitive!"]]
'''Wheeljack''' isn't here for vengeance, he's here for vengeance.

A former [[Autobot]], Wheeljack wears the scarred insignia as a constant reminder of what he left. He believes the supposedly-noble Autobots left him on the field of battle to die (and he's not ''entirely'' wrong about that, either), and particularly blames his former friend [[Hot Shot (Armada)|Hot Shot]] (''that'', now, he's got dead wrong). He's a fierce soldier with a lot of tricks up his sleeve.

He's accompanied by his [[Mini-Con]] partner [[Wind Sheer (Armada)|Wind Sheer]], who ''also'' used to be allied with the Autobots, but followed Wheeljack over to the dark side.

:''Japanese name:'' '''Rampage'''
:''Polish name:'' '''Prasownik'''

==Fiction==
===''Armada'' cartoon===
:''Voice actor:'' [[Michael Daingerfield]] (English), [[Susumu Chiba]] (Japanese), [[Gerhard Jilka]] (German)

[[Image:AWheeljack-Fire.jpg|left|180px|thumb|Because you're mine, I walk the... oh, wait. Wrong caption.]]
Wheeljack was once an [[Autobot]] in the same military unit as [[Hot Shot (Armada)|Hot Shot]], looking up to his peer due to his own inexperience in battle, and they considered each other good friends. However, that friendship was broken one day when Wheeljack was trapped under rubble in the middle of an intense fire. Hot Shot could not lift the wreckage alone, and left to get some help, promising to return, but he never did. An [[arrogant Autobot officer]] forbade Hot Shot from returning, claiming the fire was too intense and they couldn't risk more lives.

[[Image:ArmadaHotShot Wheeljack sunset.jpg|right|180px|thumb|"Soon, we'll all go home... you, me, Optimus, some guy—no... not some guy, he's—Wheeljack?"]]
Meanwhile, Wheeljack saw a figure approaching through the flames, thinking that at last, Hot Shot had returned. But it was [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]] who saved him that day, and in return, Wheeljack became a Decepticon.

A million years later, a black-coloured Wheeljack tracked down Hot Shot on [[Earth]] as his former friend was mentoring another young Autobot, [[Side Swipe (Armada)|Side Swipe]]. Managing to aggravate the younger Autobot's temper by laughing evilly and (ha) sideswiping him off the road, Wheeljack led him on a chase before finally sending him off a cliff. Confronting Hot Shot, he explained what had happened so long ago and why he was here. As Hot Shot begged forgiveness, Wheeljack shot him at point-blank range. {{storylink|Past, Part 1|Past, Part 1}}

[[Image:ArmadaWheeljack Sideswipe hostage.jpg|left|180px|thumb|"This what you get for stealing my G1 reference!"]]
Later, as Hot Shot tried to deal with these revelations, Wheeljack challenged his friend to a showdown at an abandoned oil refinery. Once again, Hot Shot tried to explain what had really happened and asked for forgiveness, but the Decepticon was both unwilling to listen and had been too bitter for too long to simply let bygones be bygones. At that moment, the hapless Side Swipe attempted to save Hot Shot, only to be taken hostage by Wheeljack, who shot Hot Shot in the leg before daring him to save his young friend from the burning refinery.

In a touch of what he perceived to be poetic justice, Wheeljack left Side Swipe restrained to the main oil tank in the middle of the blazing inferno, as he believed Hot Shot would abandon his new friend just as he allegedly did to Wheeljack on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. As Hot Shot struggled through his injuries and limped through the refinery to save Side Swipe, [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]], who had been watching the confrontation, attacked the helpless Autobot. An enraged Wheeljack shot him out of the sky for daring to interfere, but soon discovered that Megatron had been there the whole time.

On the [[Moon (moon)|Moon]], a comically-injured Thrust protested Megatron's decision to allow Wheeljack to join the Decepticons, given his unstable temperament and violent disposition. Wheeljack swore loyalty to Megatron and the Decepticons, to the unease of [[Starscream (Armada)|Starscream]]. {{storylink|Past, Part 2|Past, Part 2}}

{{charstubfiction}}

On Cybertron, he seemed to have finally forgiven Hot Shot. When Hot Shot went for Decepticon help against Unicron, Wheeljack pleaded with Megatron to let him speak, and later went with Hot Shot. {{storylink|Dash (episode)|Dash}}

{{note|Wheeljack claims to have put the past behind him, and that he isn't here for revenge, but at the same time, he '''constantly''' thinks about the incident and has definitely returned for revenge. This is possibly due to bad translation or bad writing of the source script. It's also possible, however, that this inconsistency is caused entirely by Wheeljack's own skewed perceptions.}}

===Dreamwave comics continuity===
[[Image:SkywarpSidewaysWheeljack.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Hot Shot who?]]
====Armada comic====
Long ago, Wheeljack was one of the most trusting and dedicated Autobots around. He put unending faith in the Autobot cause and especially his teammates, such as Hot Shot, with whom he had a friendly rivalry. But that all ended when a battlefield miscommunication resulted in Wheeljack being abandoned ... and being found by the Decepticons. They quickly indoctrinated him, and before long he had slashed his Autobot symbol and joined the opposing team. Some day he'll meet Hot Shot again, and there will be a reckoning. {{storylink|More Than Meets The Eye (Armada)|More Than Meets The Eye: Armada}}

Wheeljack, along with [[Skywarp (Armada)|Skywarp]] and [[Sideways (RID)|Sideways]], guarded the rocket site that was used to launch Megatron's [[solar scalpel]] into orbit. {{storylink|Fire & Ice|Fire & Ice}}

[[Image:Flashback Decepticons Energon 30.jpg|right|thumb|150px|]]
====Energon comic====
Millions of years ago, Wheeljack was part of a squad of Decepticons under the command of [[Scorponok (Energon)|Scorponok]]. {{storylink|No Exit|No Exit}}

{{-}}

==Toys==
===Armada===
[[Image:Armada Wheeljack toy.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Revenge is a dish best served with pinto beans and muffins.]]
*'''Wheeljack with Mini-Con Wind Sheer''' (Deluxe, 2003)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''MD-07'''
**''Accessories:'' 2 missiles

: Wheeljack transforms into a gullwing-doored supercar of vague origin. He is cast in dark charcoal plastic in vehicle mode, with white and yellow for robot parts. His most distinctive feature is the large, scarred Autobot symbol on the center of his chest. The small Decepticon symbol is seen under it. When his Mini-Con Wind Sheer is attached to his active rooftop [[Powerlinx]] port, both doors either side of the vehicle mode open up like wings, which also give access to the triggers for his door-mounted missile launchers. In robot mode, these missiles can be held in his hands as melee weapons. Unusually, his right wrist features a swivel joint while his left wrist is immobile.

: The [[Takara]] release of Wheeljack, named Rampage, has some deco differences. His predominant vehicle mode plastic is now solid black, with the large yellow paint striping replaced with much smaller light blue stripes, and his eyes are painted blue, matching his cartoon model.

: This mold was also used to make a proposed, but unreleased, ''[[Universe (2003 toyline)|Universe]]'' [[Battle in a Box]] [[Drench (Universe)|Drench]]. The deco was later used for the [[BotCon 2008]] exclusive ''[[Shattered Glass (franchise)|Shattered Glass]]'' [[Sideswipe (SG)|Sideswipe]].

*'''Rampage and Hawk with Air Assault Micron''' (Multi-pack, 2003)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''MS-08'''
**''Accessories:'' 2 missiles

: In Japan, Wheeljack was available both as an individual release, and in a multi-pack with the [[Air Assault Mini-Con Team]], likely to mirror how his rival Hot Shot had a multi-pack with the [[Air Defense Mini-Con Team (Armada)|Air Defense Mini-Con Team]].

==Trivia==
* According to [[Aaron Archer]], the final head design for ''Armada'' Wheeljack is unintentional, at least to [[Hasbro]]. Unbeknownst to the American toy company, [[TakaraTomy|Takara]] had designed and sculpted the head to resemble [[Generation 1]] [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]], no doubt due to the similarity of the robot modes on both toys, and Hasbro's team were surprised when they received the prototype toy from Japan.

* Also according to [[Aaron Archer]], during his ORSON stint, it seems some other things about the final sculpt were unknown to the Hasbro team.
**When a fan asked about Wheeljack having only one articulated wrist, Archer did not know why this was done:
**When asked about Wheeljack having knees whilst most other Armada figures seemed to lack them, the reply was "Wheeljack has knees?"

* At [[OTFCC 2003]], Hasbro noted they had vague plans to release the Takara version of Wheeljack as a [[running change]] [[variant]]. This never materialized, however.

* Out of the ''Armada'' Decepticons who came to Earth in the animated continuity who were not shown to be killed off, Wheeljack is the only one who did not reappear in ''[[Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]''. As a result, his eventual fate is unknown.

* The original plan for Wheeljack was for him to be Hot Shot's brother. Even after the episode aired, Aaron Archer, posting as ORSON, was unaware of this change.

* Wheeljack possessed a teleportation power in the cartoon which was not reflected in his [[More Than Meets The Eye (Armada)|MTMTE profile]].

==External links==
*[http://www.tfu.info/2003/Decepticon/Wheeljack/wheeljack.htm Wheeljack at TFU.info]

[[Category:Armada characters]]
[[Category:Autobots]]
[[Category:Decepticons]]
[[Category:Turncoats]]

Endgame, Part II

2010-01-02T09:28:21Z

76.26.184.183: /* Trivia */

{{disambig2|the ''Animated'' episode|the ''Beast Machines'' episode|Endgame Pt. II: When Legends Fall}}

{{episode|
|series=Anitoon
|image=TFA-Endgame-MissionActuallyAccomplished.jpg
|caption=Mission: ACCOMPLISHED!
|ep=42
|title="Endgame, Part II"
|airdate=[[May 23]], 2009
|written by=[[Marsha Griffin]]
|directed by=[[Kalvin Lee]] [[Yoshio Frank Chatani]]
|animation studio=[[Mook]]
}}
'''The Autobots fight to defend Detroit from Megatron and his clones of Omega Supreme.'''

==Synopsis==
Outside the plant, the [[Autobot]]s observe the [[Lugnut Supreme]]s hovering above Detroit. [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] wonders what they are, and [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] assumes that [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] repurposed [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]]'s [[cloning]] technology to make clones of [[Omega Supreme (Animated)|Omega Supreme]]. Aboard the main Lugnut Supreme, Megatron decides to start the field test with [[Sumdac Tower]]. Lugnut pontificates on the greatness of Megatron rather than getting it done, leading the annoyed Decepticon leader to ask [[Shockwave (Animated)|Shockwave]] if he can control the clones directly yet. However, Shockwave is still working on finding the necessary security patches from [[Arcee (Animated)|Arcee]]'s memory banks, and tells Megatron in an amused tone that he'll have to filter all orders for the clones through Lugnut.

In Detroit, the Lugnuts turn and open fire on Sumdac Tower. Fortunately, the force field goes up and protects the building. Unfortunately, it will only last for so long. Ratchet says that they need to launch an aerial assault with the [[Magnus Hammer]], but [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] is a little unsure. [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]] then reinforces his leader's faltering confidence by promising to accompany him. Sari then offers to join them, and cuts off Optimus's "No, Sari—" with a rant about how she's always being told it's "too dangerous" for her to help, leaving her embarrassed when Prime says he was going to tell her to help protect the humans. He orders the others to help Sari in this, while he and Prowl take to the skies. Megatron initially assumes that the figure bearing the Magnus Hammer is [[Ultra Magnus (Animated)|Ultra Magnus]] himself, and is quite relieved when he sees it's only Optimus. The two airborne Autobots manage to avoid the missiles sent in their direction, but Prime's opening shot with the Magnus Hammer misses the Lugnuts. Ratchet says that he's receiving Omega's signal from the moon, and suggests they transwarp to the moon and sever Megatron's connection. Optimus approves, and orders him to take Bumblebee and [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] with him. Prowl says that they need to bring the Lugnuts down all at once, and Optimus uses the Magnus Hammer to cause a tornado which sends the Lugnuts crashing toward [[Dinobot Island (Animated)|Dinobot Island]]. Megatron, livid, tells Lugnut to abort the field test, but Lugnut is forced to inform him that Prime's attack managed to damage the one Megatron was in and disable the flight mechanisms of the other two. Furious, Megatron tells him to have the clones destroy everything except Megatron himself, then leaves his clone and assumes his [[alternate mode|flight mode]], intending to take a more direct role.

At Sumdac Tower, Ratchet fires up the space bridge, ready to take Bumblebee and Bulkhead to retrieve Arcee and Omega Supreme. [[Sari Sumdac|Sari]] decides to go with them, telling [[Isaac Sumdac]] that she needs to go. Transforming to her full robot mode, she jumps through the portal with the Autobots. On the moon, Starscream reassembles himself and immediately takes off for Earth, saying he has a surprise for Megatron. The Autobots transwarp in mere moments after he leaves, as Sari is momentarily stunned just by being on the Moon, while the Autobots are more surprised by the lack of [[Decepticon]]s around. Over by Omega Supreme, Ratchet sees Arcee and runs to her. Unfortunately, she's reverted to her fugue Teacher Bot state. Worse, she's bait: Shockwave fires at them, barely missing them. Bumblebee and Bulkhead take on Shockwave, while Ratchet and Sari take Arcee inside Omega Supreme. Both bots are taken down, but Bulkhead manages to recover and charge Shockwave, knocking off his cannon. Shockwave briefly assumes his Longarm form and pleads for mercy, but Bulkhead destroys his cannon with his wrecking ball. Inside Omega Supreme, Ratchet discovers the damage to Arcee's processor is quite extensive, and any attempts to repair her could take her offline. Sari scans the malfunctioning intelbot and gives Ratchet instructions on how to use his EMP generator to restore her memory from her internal backups.

Over Detroit, Prime orders Prowl to break off from their fight with Megatron, find Jazz and try to slow the clones down. As he grapples with the Decepticon leader, he snaps and loudly declares his name after being patronisingly called "Autobot" by Megatron yet again.

In Omega Supreme, Ratchet manages to bring Arcee fully online, her memory back at the time it was when [[Lockdown (Animated)|Lockdown]] captured them. Ratchet promises that they'll catch up in time, but right now they need her [[activation code]]s to retake control of Omega Supreme. Bumblebee and Bulkhead enter and say they've found something Sari needs to see.

Back on Earth, on the ground, Prowl and Jazz try to get inside the Lugnut Supremes, but their armor is too strong to cut through, and Jazz radios Prime with news of their failure. Optimus tells them that the only thing powerful enough to shield the city is the AllSpark, but it's scattered everywhere. In return, flushed by his recent success in reconstituting a fragment, Prowl theorizes that they can use [[processor-over-matter]] to make the AllSpark whole again. Prime is doubtful, but Prowl is adamant, and flies his fellow ninjabot to Sumdac Tower.

As Ratchet and Arcee make their way to Omega Supreme's head, Sari is brought before the protoforms, and—believing this to be where she came from—gets a moment of closure from the experience. Outside, Ratchet uses his magnets to keep Arcee above Omega's face and the fembot uploads the codes, severing Lugnut's control over him. Omega Supreme ejects the massive Decepticon and heads for Earth once Sari and all the Autobots are aboard, with the three remaining protoforms.

On Earth, with Lugnut no longer guiding them, the clones briefly shut down... then reactivate with Starscream's face. The treacherous Decepticon tells Megatron that he planted bombs in the clones, aiming to destroy him and everything within a hundred-mile radius. Unable to remove the bombs inside, Megatron decides to instead destroy Optimus Prime, using the Autobot captain's name for the very first time. At Sumdac Tower, the force field fails much to Isaac Sumdac's distress, and Prowl and Jazz direct him to the building's bomb shelter, before they begin using processor-over-matter to collecting AllSpark fragments. Starscream arrives to observe the death of Megatron, but his AllSpark fragment suddenly begins pulling him toward the AllSpark being formed by Jazz and Prowl. Starscream panics and tries to destroy the two ninja-bots, but his AllSpark fragment is pulled from his head, and Starscream falls to the street, dead.

[[Image:EndgamePart2-Prowlsmiles.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Code of Hero|The rest...is silence.]]]]
Omega Supreme arrives and begins fighting the two clones. He is able to defeat one and disarm its bomb, but the other knocks him aside and forces him back to ship mode. At Sumdac Tower, Jazz says that they don't have enough Spark to shield the city, but neither he nor Prowl can pull in any more AllSpark fragments. Prowl recognizes that there is one other way to make the AllSpark chunk powerful enough, and levitates towards it. Jazz recognizes what he intends to do, and screams that they can find another way, but Prowl merely turns to give him a reassuring smile. Suddenly, the AllSpark releases a surge of energy, and Prowl falls back to the ground. Jazz catches his body, but it is too late: Prowl merged his [[spark]] with the AllSpark to give them the energy necessary to make the force field work. A field soon forms around the remaining clone, but Megatron and Optimus Prime are trapped within it. Megatron gloats that he will take Optimus with him, but a figure of light in Prowl's image removes Optimus from the force field. Megatron roars in anger as the clone detonates, and everything goes white...

Waking up, Optimus sees his fellow bots around him. They declare that they won, and begin to celebrate... until Jazz comes carrying Prowl's shell. Optimus moves toward his fallen comrade, but is instead knocked backwards by a purple blast. Megatron still functions! Ratchet uses his magnets to throw the Magnus Hammer to Optimus. In a rage, Optimus beats Megatron down. Lying helpless, Megatron urges Optimus to finish him, and Optimus brings the Magnus Hammer down...on Megatron's fusion cannon. Optimus says that killing Megatron is the easy way out, and the Decepticon leader doesn't deserve that. Instead, he places [[stasis cuffs]] on him.

[[Image:TFA-Endgame-PanAcrossEveryone.jpg|thumb|240px|We shall not forget them. Nor fail to reward that which is given. Courage with love, valour with honour, evil... with vengeance.]]
On [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], the Autobots return is hailed by a cheering crowd (except for [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Prime]], who glowers), with Optimus carrying the Magnus Hammer, the large piece of the AllSpark around his neck, and Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Jazz bearing Prowl's body. In addition, they bring with them the three rescued protoforms, and Megatron, Lugnut, and Shockwave as prisoners. Finally, to top it off, Omega Supreme transforms from ship mode, and this sends the crowd into another round of cheering, hailing Optimus Prime and his crew as the heroes they have proven themselves to be.

[['Til all are one]].
{{--}}

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Jazz (Animated)|Jazz]] (4)
*[[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] (5)
*[[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]] (6)
*[[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] (7)
*[[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] (8)
*[[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] (9)
*[[Omega Supreme (Animated)|Omega Supreme]] (11)
*[[Arcee (Animated)|Arcee]] (13)
*[[Carrera (Animated)|Carrera]] (18)
*[[Searchlight (Animated)|Searchlight]] (19)
*[[Seaspray (Animated)|Seaspray]] (20)
*[[Cosmos (Animated)|Cosmos]] (21)
*[[Powerglide (Animated)|Powerglide]] (22)
*[[Furao]] (23)
*[[Sedan (Animated)|Sedan]] (24)
*[[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Prime]] (25)
*[[Hubcap (Animated)|Hubcap]] (26)
*[[Warpath (Animated)|Warpath]] (27)
*[[Cliffjumper (Animated)|Cliffjumper]] (28)
*[[Sky Garry (Animated)|Sky Garry]] (29)
*[[Dai Atlas (Animated)|Dai Atlas]] (30)
*[[Red Alert (Animated)|Red Alert]] (31)
*[[Mainframe (Animated)|Mainframe]] (32)
|c2=
*Three [[Lugnut Supreme]]s (1–3)
*[[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] (10)
*[[Lugnut]] (12)
*[[Shockwave (Animated)|Shockwave/Longarm Prime]] (14)
*[[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] (17)

|c3=
*[[Isaac Sumdac]] (16)
|c4=
*[[Sari Sumdac]] (15)
}}

==Quotes==
'''Megatron''': Lugnut, let's begin this field test with Sumdac Tower. I want to see my former prison crumble to the ground. 
'''Lugnut''': As you command, oh great and glorious Megatron! Your genius exceeds all others! And I am but your humble and obedient servant! Furthermore— 
'''Megatron''': Shockwave! Is there anyway to bypass this endless pontificating and command these clones directly? 
'''Shockwave''': Still working on the data patch, my liege. Until then, you'll just have to relay all. Orders. Through. Lugnut.
:—Megatron desperately seeks to cut out the middleman, while Shockwave demonstrates how to smirk without a face.

'''Sari''': I'm going too! I have a jetpack. 
'''Optimus''': No, Sari, it's— 
'''Sari''': Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's "too dangerous", I know. It's '''always''' "too dangerous"! 
'''Optimus''': I was ''going'' to say, "It's more important for you to protect your father and your fellow organics." 
'''Sari''': Oh. Right. Sorry.
:—Sari isn't used to being treated as an equal.

'''Megatron''': Lugnut, this field test has been a complete failure! Order the other clones back to the Moon immediately! 
'''Lugnut''': Forgive me, oh Great One, but their flight capabilities have been disabled. 
'''Megatron''': Then destroy the Autobots. Destroy the city. Destroy anything that's not '''me'''!
:-Megatron may have finally went off the deep-end. And it shows, too.

"''Get away'' from my weapons of mass destruction." 
:—'''Megatron''', apparently about to send '''Optimus Prime''' to bed without his supper.

'''Shockwave:''' ''(changes to Longarm)'' G-guys...buddies...you..wouldn't want to take out your old platoon mate Longarm, would you? 
'''Bumblebee:''' No....of course we wouldn't. 
'''Bulkhead:''' Oh, not in a million stellar cycles, pal. 
(smashes Shockwave's arm cannon)
:—Not all Autobots are that gullible, '''Shockwave'''. Thanks for playing, though.

'''Ratchet:''' Those Deceptiscums fried her processor trying to remove the activation code....but if I tried to rewire her circuitry, it could take her offline for good. 
'''Sari:''' ''(touches Arcee on the knee)'' You need to recalibrate your EMP generator into a data recovery tool. Then you can salvage Arcee's secondary memory storage from her hard drive, bypassing her corrupted input/output systems. 
'''Ratchet:''' I suppose us...machines just told you that? 
'''Sari:''' Pretty much. 

:—In case you didn't get that, Sari has just solved in five seconds what Cybertron's [[Perceptor (Animated)|greatest]] [[Wheeljack (Animated)|minds]] couldn't for millions of years. Wait. '''''WHAT?!'''''

"You're a persistent little Autobot." 
"My name is OPTIMUS PRIME!"
:—'''Megatron''' and '''Optimus Prime'''

"If I cannot save my clones, at least I'll have the satisfaction of destroying you, '''Optimus Prime'''." 
"So, you ''can'' remember my name!"
:—Took you long enough, '''Megatron'''.

==Notes==

===Animation or technical errors===
* When Omega Supreme runs towards one of the Lugnut Supremes, the clone has a [[Shattered Glass|purple Autobot symbol]] on its midsection as it gets up.

* Megatron's helicopter cockpit kibble (usually seen behind his head on his back) briefly vanishes for a second as he kicks Optimus Prime towards the AllSpark-powered force field.

* Prowl's ghost appears with his armour on, but when it reaches out to save Optimus, the armour has vanished.

* When [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] makes one last attempt to destroy [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]], his right shoulder guard is drawn rather small. As he's knocked down to Earth and insists Optimus finishes him, it reverts back to its proper size.

[[Image:AutobotGroupShotEndgamePartII.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Blink and you'll miss it.]]

* Quite a number of animation errors can be seen immediately after Optimus Prime stasis cuffs Megatron (right before a kneeling Omega Supreme gets up.) The Magnus Hammer has disappeared, [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl's]] body is drawn like a boxy black mannequin in [[Jazz (Animated)|Jazz]]'s arms with very little detail, Jazz himself (as well as Bulkhead) are missing their Autobot insignias, [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] appears rather tiny compared to the other Autobots, and Sari appears to be either hovering off of the ground or standing on [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]]'s foot. Oh, and [[Arcee (Animated)|Arcee]] is missing from the shot as well. Dandy.

*When Optimus Prime first disembarks from Omega Supreme at the end of the episode, he is shown to be almost as tall as Megatron and Lugnut, who, by all rights, should be towering over him in height. They are drawn at their proper scale once they stand before the cheering crowd, though.

* When the Autobots hold up [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]'s coffin before the cheering crowd (as seen in the picture on this page), Prowl's body is drawn rather short. If one compared the height of his body to [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] at his left, Bumblebee would actually be a head taller.

* The [[Magnus Hammer]]'s handle again changes length from shot to shot.

===Continuity errors===
*Due to the incomplete activation code, the Lugnut Supremes only worked when Lugnut consciously directed them from Omega Supreme. Yet after Omega tossed him out, not only did Starscream take them over, they continued to function autonomously after he was dead.

===Transformers references===

[[Image:TFA Prime with Matrix.jpg|right|150px|thumb|This is awesome and you love it.]]

*At the very end, Optimus Prime is shown with the large piece of AllSpark which Jazz and Prowl pulled together, in a container strongly resembling the [[Matrix of Leadership]]—and he's [[The Transformers: The Movie|wearing it on a chain around his neck]].

*Even at this late stage, a new face still appears in the crowd scene on Cybertron: [[Hubcap (Animated)|Hubcap]]. [[Dai Atlas (Animated)|Dai Atlas]] and [[Sky Garry (Animated)|Sky Garry]] make their first in-person appearances (though Dai Atlas only appears from behind), and the unnamed, orange female robot, whose arm could ''juuuuuust'' be seen poking in from offscreen back in "[[Decepticon Air]]", also gets to appear in full. The crowd also includes a ''crazy'' amount of miscolored-slash-[[generic]] robots, including such gems as a [[Hot Shot (Animated)|Hot Shot]]-colored robot using the Bumblebee body-form, a blue-and-green Sky Garry and a yellow [[Warpath (Animated)|Warpath]].

* Yoketron's dying words in "[[Five Servos of Doom]]" (where he tells Prowl that he will understand when his time comes) finally come to pass.

* As Optimus approaches the Lugnut Supremes, Megatron confuses him for Ultra Magnus. [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/toys|Gee, I wonder why?]]

===Real-world references===
*Ratchet refers to the Lugnut Supremes as "[[bootleg|knockoffs]]".

===Trivia===
*Shockwave transforms into a ''purple'' Longarm. Maybe he was just confused or [[To sell toys|something]].

*Jazz states that they can't find all the AllSpark fragments; at the very least, this makes sense because [[Skywarp (Animated)|Skywarp]], [[Thundercracker (Animated)|Thundercracker]], [[Sunstorm (Animated)|Sunstorm]], and [[Ramjet (Animated)|Ramjet]] aren't on Earth anymore. There is no indication that any other Earthbound characters animated by AllSpark fragments were defragmented and killed like Starscream, and they don't seem to be kept alive the same way he is. At [[BotCon 2009]], the writers revealed that they had intended to show Wreck-Gar and at least one of the Constructicons to confirm their survival, but that this scene was cut for time.

*This is the first episode since "[[Megatron Rising - Part 2]]" to feature Prime's faceplate.

*Shockwave claimed in "[[This Is Why I Hate Machines]]" that using Omega Supreme's original activation codes on him once more would wipe his memories, morals and personality, allowing a new mentor-con to turn him into a model Decepticon—a fact which Ratchet and [[Perceptor (Animated)|Perceptor]] apparently both agreed was true. Since Arcee uses the codes on Omega in this episode, did this cause a reset to factory settings? If not, why not? Could it perhaps have something to do with that patch they were talking about?

*There seems to be a scene missing involving Lugnut - when Omega Supreme discards him onto the lunar surface and flies to Earth, he is neither captured nor incapacitated, and it's been shown repeatedly that Decepticons (including Starscream in this episode and Lugnut himself in "[[Lost and Found (episode)|Lost and Found]]") are capable of making ''at least'' the Moon-Earth trip under their own power, where [[Slipstream (Animated)|Slipstream]] has apparently evaded detection for the whole of S3. His off-screen capture is therefore noteworthy.

*Arcee didn't join the other Autobots on their victory/funeral parade at the end.

* It is revealed during the events of this episode, that while in her robot mode, Sari doesn't need an external oxygen supply.

* As of this episode, there's a lot of remaining uncaptured Decepticons!
**Thundercracker and Skywarp are still floating out somewhere in space.
**[[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Blackarachnia]] and a bleeding, shattered [[Wasp|Waspinator]] are still in that mysterious jungle, precise whereabouts (and even ''when''abouts) unknown.
**[[Laserbeak (Animated)|Laserbeak]] fled the scene with the sentient part of [[Soundwave (Animated)|Soundwave]] in "[[Human Error, Part II]]". It's unknown if Ratbat survived.
**[[Scrapper (Animated)|Scrapper]]'s whereabouts are presumably still known to the Autobots; he may have returned to [[Dinobot Island (Animated)|Dinobot Island]] with [[Snarl (Animated)|Snarl]] after "Human Error".
**[[Swindle (Animated)|Swindle]] leaves for parts unknown in "[[Decepticon Air]]".
**[[Lockdown (Animated)|Lockdown]], [[Slipstream (Animated)|Slipstream]], [[Team Chaar]] and any unseen Decepticons all remain at large.
**[[Mixmaster (Animated)|Mixmaster]] and [[Dirt Boss (Animated)|Dirt Boss]] may have been destroyed in the explosion in "[[Three's a Crowd]]"—if not, add them to the list.
**There are a lot more Decepticons at large and on the loose than the main cast, as shown in [[Dispatches]], where a large group of unamed [[Generic]] Decepticons are present at Megatron's funeral as Blitzwing rambles on like a madman.
*Several other plot points have yet to have been resolved by the end of this episode:
**Sari's origin has yet to be completely explained. It still hasn't been revealed how or why a protoform showed up on Earth years ago, or why it looked so different compared to other protoforms seen during the course of the series. Since it has been shown that all the protoforms Lockdown stole were blanks, it's unlikely she came from that batch.
**[[Meltdown (Animated)|Meltdown]] was last shown apparently reconstituting himself at the end of "[[Black Friday (episode)|Black Friday]]", and has not been seen since.
**Wreck-Gar and all three Dinobots are not present at the end of the episode, and presumably are still on Earth. Although it could be speculated that they stayed there by choice, one must wonder what kind of measures that Optimus and company took to prevent said bots from any more disastrous encounters with the populace of Earth.
**[[Ultra Magnus (Animated)|Ultra Magnus]] was last seen being repaired, but his fate isn't revealed.
** [[Blurr (Animated)|Blurr]] was last seen crushed into a cube and tossed into an incinerator. We don't see him get incinerated, though we also don't see any evidence he survived being cubified.

*[[Snarl (Animated)|Snarl]] and [[Swoop (Animated)|Swoop]] ''still'' have yet to talk.
* This is the final episode to feature Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, Prowl and every other character in the series. We remind you so we may see you weep...we hate to cry alone. But... there is hope. IDW might continue the series in comic form. Join us as we get down on our hands and knees and beg IDW to do this for us.

[[Category:Animated episodes]]

Ironhide (Animated)

2010-01-02T07:26:51Z

76.26.184.183: /* Notes */

{{factions|autobot}}{{disambig3|Ironhide}}
:''Ironhide is an [[Autobot]] from the [[Transformers Animated]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:AniHide.JPG|right|200px|thumb|Less crusty, but still Southern.]]
Even though he's now a ranking Autobot security officer, '''Ironhide''' is just a country boy at heart. Though his ability to encase his superstructure in a near-indestructible alloy meant he rose through the ranks in the military service quickly, he never quite lost the "awe-shucks" demeanor he picked up as a [[protoform]] in a rural prefecture of [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. Now going to strange places, meeting strange mechanoids, and getting shot at by them, he still finds himself wide-eyed at some of the stranger things in the galaxy. He's got a mischievous streak, though his pranks often seem a bit crude to more cultured bots.

==Fiction==
===''Animated'' cartoon===
:''Voice actor:'' [[Corey Burton]] (English), [[Kaspar Eichel]] (German)

[[Image:Autobot Cadets.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Ironhide's young and Ratchet's old? ''Animated'' so crazy!]]
Ironhide fell in with [[Wasp]] from day one of boot camp, the both of them having high hopes for the [[Cybertron Elite Guard]]. The tough Autobot recruit was an early favorite of [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Minor]], who was duly impressed by his retractable armor. When resident screwup [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] kept getting the unit more chores and exercises as punishment, he and Wasp took it upon themselves to let the little yellow Autobot know of their displeasure frequently and in no uncertain terms. {{storylink|Autoboot Camp|Autoboot Camp}}

Years later, Ironhide was stationed at the Autobot colonies on the galactic rim, under [[Rodimus Prime (Animated)|Rodimus Prime's]] command. {{storylink|Transwarped}}

He contacted [[Ultra Magnus (Animated)|Ultra Magnus]] and revealed the Decepticons had begun an uprising, destroying a [[space bridge]] in the process. Before he could reveal all the details however, his transmission was cut short by the attack. {{storylink|Mission Accomplished|Mission Accomplished}}

A later attack saw him go up against [[Strika (Animated)|Strika's]] squad; while his armour held off her firepower, [[Oil Slick (Animated)|Oil Slick]] and [[Cyclonus (Animated)|Cyclonus]] eventually took him down. {{storylink|Transwarped}}

When news reached Cybertron that [[Shockwave (Animated)|Longarm Prime]] was really the traitor and not Wasp, Security Officer Ironhide searched the planet to apprehend him. All he found was Ultra Magnus, badly injured, mangled, and missing his hammer, uttering the name of who had defeated him: "Sh-Shockwave." {{storylink|Where Is Thy Sting?}}

==Toys==
===Animated===
*'''Ironhide''' (Deluxe, 2009?)
:A [[redeco]] and [[remold]] of the upcoming Cybertron Mode [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] toy. It features a new head to more closely match the character. Ironhide's vehicle mode is a futuristic man-sized Cybertronian minibus. At BotCon, Hasbro explained 'Either Ironhide got a new head, or [[Wasp]] did.' They went with the former. Good choice.

{{comingsoontoy}}

==Notes==
* According to [[Derrick J. Wyatt]] at [[BotCon 2008]], Ironhide's voice and manner are based on [http://www.calgold.com/ Huell Howser], host of several California TV travelogue shows.

*A [[Cartoon Network]] online game had mistakenly labeled Ironhide as a Decepticon. This had led to speculation that he was the traitor in "[[Autoboot Camp]]". However, it was revealed that Ironhide was ''not'' the traitor after all. Whoops. Take '''that''', spoilers!

*Unlike his namesakes, ''this'' Ironhide never went to Earth and got a different alt mode.

[[Category:Autobots]]
[[Category:Animated characters]]
[[Category:Security officers]]

Scorponok (G1)

2010-01-02T06:50:05Z

76.26.184.183: /* Generation 1 */

{{factions|decepticon|{{factions/icons|custom=Machination_logo.png|cSize=45x30px|cLink=Machination}}}}
{{disambig3|Scorponok}}
:''Scorponok is a [[Decepticon]] [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmaster]] [[City-bot]] from the [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]]. In Japan, he became '''BlackZarak'''.''

[[Image:Scorponok-Annual.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Scorponok's American look… taken from a British publication.]]
'''Scorponok''' is frequently in a position of Decepticon leadership and is usually the arch-foe of [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress Maximus]]. He is often partnered in some way with a being named [[Zarak (Nebulan)|Zarak]].

{{note|Other than these base facts, much about him differs by continuity; from personality to [[Scale|size]]. See separate character notes in the sections below.}}
:''Japanese name:'' '''Scorpion''' ("The Rebirth") / '''MegaZarak''' and '''Scorponok''' (see below)
:''Italian name'': '''Skorpion'''

==Fiction==
===Marvel Comics continuity===
{{noteukonly}}
{{note|Though quite powerful, the Marvel Comics version of Scorponok stands only a few heads taller than the average Transformer.}}
Scorponok was a Decepticon commander on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], and was a rival of the [[Autobot]] [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress Maximus]]. ''Some time in the past, [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]] and [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] were displaced from the year 2008 and fell under his command. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}'' In the modern day, Scorponok led his troops in a raid on an Autobot city on Cybertron, leveling the city and leaving its remnants in flaming ruins. A long line of captives was taken from the battle; as they marched to their doom in the [[smelting pool]], Scorponok took a sadistic glee in ordering them to move faster or feel his sting. He wasn't so gleeful when Fortress Maximus led an ambush on his squadron; his troops were overwhelmed by the Autobots' righteous fury, and Scorponok ordered a retreat so that they might live to fight another day. {{storylink|Ring of Hate!}}

Soon after, Fortress Maximus and his followers quit the war and left for the planet [[Nebulos]]. Scorponok invaded the Autobots' abandoned base, but found nothing, not even the obligatory trap that Scorponok expected. They did, however, receive a communication from [[Zarak (Nebulan)|Lord Zarak]] on Nebulos, who informed them of the Autobots' arrival there and requested their help. Scorponok happily led his troops there, vowing to conquer the new planet.

[[Image:Loveandsteel-scorponokispissedoff.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Not having a good day here.]]
Upon reaching Nebulos, Scorponok immediately confronted Zarak and obtained the location of Fortress Maximus, learning that he had surrendered himself and four of his followers to ensure peace for the Autobots. Scorponok decided to attack there first, ignoring Zarak's protests. Scorponok and his troops laid siege to the capital city of [[Koraja]], demanding the surrender of the Autobots and blasting away at its newly erected defensive walls when they were refused. It seemed the Decepticons would capture the city, until the gates opened to reveal the Autobots. They had not come to surrender, however, but to fight. With their newly enhanced [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmaster]] powers, they easily overwhelmed the more numerous Decepticons; Brainstorm and Chromedome effortlessly penetrated Scorponok's defenses, blasting him. Faced with this unexpected development, Scorponok ordered a rather ignominious retreat.

Scorponok and his troops began investigating ways to dispose cleanly of the Nebulans, such as dumping them into space inside anti-gravity-powered polymer bubbles. In the midst of this research, Apeface and Snapdragon returned from a failed mission, defeated by two of the Autobot Headmasters, and Scorponok gave them a good smacking around. When the captive Lord Zarak suggested that there might be something to this whole "working with fleshlings" thing, Scorponok nearly smacked ''him'' around too, before conceding that perhaps sharing his power might indeed be in his best interest.

And so, Scorponok underwent the Headmaster process, along with five of his troops; Zarak became his binary-bond partner. Using Zarak's daughter [[Llyra]] as bait, the Decepticons lured the Autobots into a trap. During the ensuing battle, the Decepticons trapped a group of Nebulans inside the floating polymer bubbles. When Scorponok noticed Llyra was inside one of the bubbles, he found himself conflicted, his feelings as Zarak the father battling against his legacy as Scorponok the Decepticon. The Decepticon won out, and plan went forward: While the Autobots were busy saving the humans, Scorponok and his troops defeated them and took them captive. {{storylink|Love and Steel!}}

[[Image:Terrorcons-rollout1.jpg|left|250px|thumb|The Terrorcons are too dumb to notice that they're hanging out with a headless dude.]]
Scorponok continued to dominate Zarak's personality more and more, driving him to a battle lust at the [[Mercury Gardens of Melanossus]], and again at [[The Nursery]]. Zarak broke free of Scorponok's influence long enough to free the captive Autobots, but the Nebulan was soon back atop his partner, urging his troops onward to destruction. {{storylink|Brothers in Armor!!}}

''Scorponok and Zarak challenged Fortress Maximus and Galen (here called "Kord") to a duel to settle their differences. Kord/Maximus won by cheating, but it didn't matter because the duel was a ruse to distract the Autobots while [[Slugslinger (G1)|Slugslinger]] stole Autobot fuel converters. The Deceptions had bugged the Autobot base and learned of Earth. They needed the converters to travel there. The Decepticons left for Earth and the Autobots followed.'' {{storylink|The Final Conflict}}

{{note|The events in this UK story differ in significant ways to the [[Headmasters (comic)|Headmasters]] mini-series.}}

When [[Galen]] decided to leave Nebulos for [[Earth]], Scorponok and his forces again followed, leaving the war-torn Nebulos behind. {{storylink|Brothers in Armor!!}}

Scorponok's first action upon arriving on Earth was to track down the signal that had led Fortress Maximus's crew there. At first, he found only an [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|impudent fleshling]], but soon Fortress Maximus and the Autobots returned to the cave from which the signal had been sent. In the ensuing battle, Scorponok nearly took the human hostage, and he used him as a tool to kill Zarak's old nemesis, Galen. At first, he thought this would leave Fortress Maximus helpless, but the human took Galen's place, and Fortress Maximus drove the Decepticons into retreat. {{storylink|Trial by Fire!}}

[[Image:Scorponokpretendertothethrone.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Nya ha ha!]]
Scorponok took his time establishing a beachhead on Earth. First, he covertly seized a genetics lab and created the Decepticon [[Pretender|Pretenders]], hoping to disguise his troops' robotic natures. It was during this operation that he first crossed paths with Optimus Prime, within a computer-simulated world. {{storylink|Pretender to the Throne!}} Scorponok then sent [[Skullgrin]] to the planet to establish a fuel depot for the Decepticons' eventual landing. {{storylink|Monstercon from Mars!}} Scorponok used his human component to head up a covert operation by the [[Z Foundation]], in an effort to get humans to destroy the Autobots for him. When the plan failed, Scorponok himself attacked [[Roadjammer|some of the same humans]] in a brutal battle in a parking garage. {{storylink|Ca$h and Car-nage!}}

''When Scorponok sought to have [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]] brainwash the Autobot [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]], his plans couldn't have gone more wrong. Mindwipe neglected to hypnotise Highbrow's partner [[Gort]], and the Nebulan managed to regain enough control of Highbrow's body to rip Scorponok's head clean off his shoulders. The sudden separation without any mental command caused both Scorponok and Zarak to black out, and Highbrow returned to base with Scorponok's head in his grip.'' {{storylink|All in the Minds!}} ''Highbrow found himself unable to kill Scorponok in cold blood despite his desire to end the threat he posed, but as he ruminated on the matter outside the Autobot base, he was attacked by a group of Decepticons who had come to reclaim the head of their leader. The chronal crisis known as the "Time Wars" soon erupted, during which Scorponok was reunited with his head and reactivated, at which point he joined with the various Transformers of two worlds, two factions and two eras against the fighting-mad [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]].'' {{storylink|Time Wars}}

Not long afterwards, Scorponok was contacted by Starscream, representative of another faction of Decepticons operating on Earth under the command of [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]]. Scorponok immediately brought his ship to this group's location in the [[Arctic]], only to find his vessel under attack by [[Piranacon (G1)|Piranacon]]. Starscream soon arrived to smooth things over before any damage could be done, but relations were off to a rocky start. Things got worse when Scorponok revealed his partially fleshling nature to Ratbat's group, worse still as a tour of Ratbat's base seemed to be a pointless delaying tactic, and even worse when he learned of Ratbat's plan to seize the legendary power source known as the [[Underbase]]. Furious that Ratbat had clearly never intended to cooperate with his group, Scorponok attempted to lead his troops away, only to find his path barred by the [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]]. Seeing their leader besieged, the rest of Scorponok's troops stormed to the attack. A battle soon erupted between the two sides, with Scorponok mercilessly ripping, tearing, smashing and blasting his way through Ratbat's soldiers. Only the sight of Starscream stealing his ship in the midst of the battle caused him to call a cease-fire. {{storylink|Cold War}}

The arrival of the Autobots caused another battle to break out, this time with the Decepticons united against a common foe. But Ratbat and Fortress Maximus called for a cease-fire so they could unite against Starscream. The group was unable to stop Starscream from uniting with the Underbase, and he destroyed Scorponok's ship. Optimus Prime saved the allied groups, bringing them all aboard the [[Ark (G1)|Ark]]. Scorponok found the proposed alliance "detestable" and was eager to take action against the traitor; he was disgusted by Optimus Prime's apparent cowardice in refusing to join the attack teams against Starscream on Earth.

[[Image:Ratbatdarkstardeath.jpg|left|250px|thumb|Sorry, no, I'm a $40 toy. I am NOT getting upstaged by a cassette.]]
Scorponok was co-commander of an attack team in [[Tokyo]], where an offhand comment by Grimlock caused him to realize what Optimus Prime must be up to. Abandoning the fight, Scorponok returned to the Ark aboard the Autobot shuttle that had ferried him to Earth. He found that Ratbat had the same idea; the two confronted Optimus Prime, who had just launched a rocket into space to bring the Underbase to Earth. Seeing the Autobot leader's apparent treachery, Scorponok blasted him. When Ratbat stated his intention to take the Underbase himself, Scorponok blasted him, too, taking him out of the picture permanently. Rocketing into space, Scorponok was nearly in range of the Underbase, when Optimus Prime—now recovered and with his [[Powermaster]] partner back in place—pushed them both out of its way. The two leaders watched in horrified fascination as Starscream arrived, absorbed the entire Underbase, and promptly self-destructed.

Impressed by Prime's actions, Scorponok agreed to a temporary truce, long enough for both sides to gather up their fallen. With Ratbat and Starscream out of the way, Scorponok's command of the Decepticons on Earth was assured. {{storylink|Dark Star (issue)|Dark Star}}

The truce at an end, Scorponok attempted to assassinate his old foe, Fortress Maximus, by having [[Carnivac (G1)|Carnivac]] and [[Snarler]] kill his human partner, [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike Witwicky]]. {{storylink|The Man in the Machine!}} ''In return, Scorponok granted Pretender shells to the pair.'' {{storylink|Survivors!}}

Scorponok finally made a permanent landing on Earth, establishing [[New Jersey base|a base in New Jersey]] as part of a plan to gather energy. The plan failed, but Scorponok kept his base there. {{storylink|King Con!}}

Zarak continued to function as a covert human for Scorponok, allowing the Decepticons to counter the growing popularity of [[Roadhandler (G1)|Roadhandler]] in [[New York City]]. {{storylink|The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!}}

Scorponok found himself drawn into a battle at [[MacDill Air Force Base]] by his newest recruits, the [[Air Strike Patrol]]. Announcing his arrival in no uncertain terms, he attacked the Autobots who were harassing his troops, only to have those same troops cut and run. Optimus Prime, meanwhile, tried talking to him about alliance and cooperation, of them both being manipulated by some unknown player. Scorponok wasn't very interested in listening, but his memories of Prime's selfless actions during the [[Underbase Saga]] finally got the better of him. Just as he was ready to compare notes, however, the [[Classic Pretender|Pretender-enhanced]] Starscream arrived. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} The Autobots and Decepticons eventually overpowered him, however, and Starscream begged Scorponok to take him back. {{storylink|Skin Deep|Skin Deep}} Badly in need of additional troops and firepower, Scorponok agreed, but this decision proved to be very unpopular with his troops. {{storylink|Primal Scream (issue)|Primal Scream}} It eventually cost him the loyalty of [[Triggerhappy]] and [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]], who deserted him after Starscream went missing again. {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

In 1991, Scorponok made Decepticon history as [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] formally offered his surrender in hopes of making a new force to combat the Dark God [[Unicron]]. Scorponok initially planned to betray Prime's trust to bolster his own leadership position, but Prime eventually convinced him of the Chaos-Bringer's threat and persuaded him to unite their forces—just as a contingent of rebel Decepticons under Shockwave's command attacked Scorponok's base. {{storylink|Surrender!}}

[[Image:Allthisandcivilwar-arethey.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Wildman and Baskerville, pretty well summed up in one panel.]]

Scorponok arose from the wreckage of his base and quickly put down most of the rebels. He then went mano-a-mano with Shockwave, in a protracted battle which spilled into New York Harbor and across the river into the city's Battery Park. Optimus Prime and Nightbeat interrupted the fight, as did the arrival of the human mutant squad the [[Neo-Knights]]. {{storylink|...All This and Civil War 2}} Though initially scornful of the humans' efforts, Scorponok was downed by two of them and was nearly killed by [[Circuit Breaker]]. The battle came to a conclusive end when Circuit Breaker used all her power to knock out Shockwave, and Scorponok agreed to stop fighting.

In a sign of the growing alliance, Scorponok was actually inquiring as to Prime's well-being, when they, along with every other Transformer on Earth, were transported by Primus to Cybertron. {{storylink|Out of Time!}}

Faced with Armageddon, Scorponok confessed his fears of dying to Optimus Prime, who reassured him that there was no shame in it. Scorponok vowed that he would be proud to go down fighting alongside Optimus... which he nearly did, when the two came under attack from a group of [[Unicron cultist|Unicron cultists]]. Though Scorponok had the option of leaving Prime to his fate, the Decepticon portion of him wouldn't hear of it, and he attacked the cultists in a rage. With the battle won, Scorponok spared one of the cultists at Optimus Prime's behest. {{storylink|The Void! (US)|The Void!}}

Unicron arrived at Cybertron mere seconds later, and the final battle began. Scorponok was at first paralyzed by the sheer size of their foe, and later further terrified when Optimus Prime was batted aside with ease. But he rose to the challenge, calling on his Decepticon heritage, and attacked Unicron viciously. While he was tearing into the giant's foot, Unicron blasted him with a stream of fire, mortally wounding him. Optimus Prime knelt over him as him as he lay dying, providing solace in the final moments of his life. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}

====Marvel UK future timelines====
''In an alternate 1991, near the end of the Decepticon Civil War between the forces of Scorponok, [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]], and [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]], Scorponok found himself separated from his troops and hounded by Megatron's [[Air Strike Patrol]]. He attracted the attention of the Autobots by rampaging through a human settlement, and immediately surrendered to [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]], leader of the Autobot unit. As Autobot ethics require the protection of prisoners, Scorponok had maneuvered Hot Rod's team into fighting his battle for him. With the frustrated Autobots and Megatron's Decepticons focused on each other, Scorponok was free to walk away. {{storylink|Aspects of Evil!}}''

===''Classics''===
{{note|The ''[[Classics (2006)|Classics]]'' story takes place in a post-Marvel Generation 1 comics universe where neither [[Generation 2 (franchise)|Generation 2]] nor the Marvel UK material happened.}}
Scorponok and Zarak's remains on Cybertron were discovered and studied by the [[Mini-Con]] [[Broadside (Classics)|Broadside]]. {{storylink|The New World}}

===Generation 1 cartoon continuity===
====''The Transformers'' cartoon====
:''Voice actor:'' [[Stephen Keener]] (English)

Scorponok was a gigantic Headmaster robot built from scratch by Lord Zarak, the secret ruler of Nebulos, upon learning of the Transformers. Working from the Headmaster process designed by the Autobot [[Brainstorm]] and later applied to his allies in the [[Hive (G1)|Hive]] and the Decepticons, Zarak used his mental powers to reconstruct the Hive's entire city into a robotic body for him to binary bond with. {{storylink|The Rebirth, Part 2}} With Scorponok under his command, Zarak was able to retrieve the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber from the Autobots and carry the Decepticon forces back to Cybertron to reunite with Galvatron. In the end, however, a bolt of [[plasma energy]] zapped Scorponok in his city mode, launching the massive Headmaster (and the collected Decepticons inside) far out into space. {{storylink|The Rebirth, Part 3}}

{{Note|Like Fortress Maximus, it is unclear if Scorponok has a life of his own or is simply a large machine that Zarak can control. There is no explanation of how Zarak could've brought him to life and his one line of "Autobot Die!" isn't exactly the most sophisticated of expressions.}}
{{-}}

===Japanese cartoon continuity===
{{note|In this continuity, in a reverse of the standard western naming, Scorponok is the name of the being who becomes the ''head'' of the giant robot, taking the place of Lord Zarak in Japanese fiction. The giant robot's name is '''MegaZarak''', but it's simply a lifeless [[Transtector]] that serves as a larger body for Scorponok.}}
====''The Headmasters'' cartoon====
:''Voice actor:'' [[Banjō Ginga]] (Japanese)

[[Image:Scorponok headmasters shadows.jpg|right|225px|thumb|Well-manicured eeeeevil.]]
Scorponok was one of a group of diminutive Transformers who left Cybertron four million years ago to escape the Great War and took up residence on the planet [[Master (planet)|Master]]. To survive the harsh environmental conditions on Master, the Transformers built large, lifeless robotic bodies called [[Transtector|Transtectors]], to which they could connect as heads, increasing their size and power. Scorponok underwent the training to become one of these "Headmasters," but he chafed under the leadership of [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress]], and he led several like-minded Headmaster warriors in a rebellion that ultimately ended with their defeat and exile from Master. {{storylink|The Mystery of Planet Master}}

By the year 2011, Scorponok had teamed up with Galvatron and the Decepticons, and his three minions, [[Weirdwolf]], Mindwipe and [[Skullcruncher]], joined Galvatron's forces in an attack on Cybertron in 2011. {{storylink|Four Warriors Come out of the Sky}} Scorponok himself, on the other hand, refrained from making appearances on the battlefield, sticking to the shadows (in the most preposterously literal way imaginable) and emerging only to lure the Autobot Headmasters into a trap on the planet [[Praum]]. {{storylink|The Four-Million-Year-Old Veil of Mystery}} Not long thereafter, when Galvatron discovered that [[Vector Sigma]] was in the midst of developing a powerful [[Cybertonuron|new alloy]], Scorponok advised against attacking the planet, suggesting instead that they destroy the alloy, rather than risk the Autobots gaining control of it. {{storylink|Cybertron Is in Grave Danger, Part 1}} In truth, Scorponok was more concerned about ''Galvatron'' obtaining the alloy's power, and determined to stop anyone from acquiring it by taking out Cybertron itself. He had Mindwipe plant powerful bombs in Vector Sigma's chamber, which went off and devastated the planet, ostensibly taking Galvatron with it. {{storylink|Cybertron Is in Grave Danger, Part 2}}

[[Image:Scorponok headmasters smallrobot.jpg|left|225px|thumb|"Mine is an evil laugh! Moo hoo ha ha!"]]
Scorponok subsequently took control of the Decepticons, falsely claiming that Galvatron was alive and commanding him from afar. He immediately put a series of far-reaching plans into action, starting with the creation of a massive Transtector for himself, which would put him on equal footing with Fortress and his Transtector-cum-battleship, the ''Maximus''. Enslaved [[Beastformer|Beastformers]] were put to work on the planet [[Zarak (planet)|Zarak]] to construct this Transtector, and to provide it with power, Scorponok had the Decepticons steal the [[Solar-1]], a human solar-energy-gathering satellite, which beamed its power reserves to Zarak. {{storylink|The Shadow Emperor, Scorponok}} While the construction was going on, meanwhile, Scorponok focused his attention on harnessing the power of the [[plasma energy]] released in the destruction of Cybertron. Seeking to generate even more of the energy for his plans of universal conquest, Scorponok used the energy he had already obtained to create bombs that were planted beneath the surface of [[Mars (planet)|Mars]], which would rip the planet apart. {{storylink|Explosion on Mars!! Maximus Is in Danger}} While the Autobots were busy fighting the Decepticon contingent on Mars to prevent the planet's destruction, Scorponok unveiled his completed Transtector to the rest of the Decepticons on [[Chaar]], stepping from the shadows for the first time as he brought all his troops aboard his new battleship-body and flew to Mars. Once there, he transformed into robot mode and spitefully attacked the immobile Maximus before fleeing into space just before his plasma bombs detonated and blew Mars to cosmic rubble. The Maximus was able to absorb some of the energy released in the initial stages of the explosion, however, and Fortress was able to transform into Fortress Maximus and escape the blast. Fortress Maximus cleaved Scorponok's shoulder with his [[Master Sword]], forcing the Decepticons to retreat. {{storylink|Explosion on Mars!! MegaZarak Appears}}

[[Image:Scorponok headmasters megazarak.jpg|right|225px|thumb|"Hello? My visor seems to have fallen down over my face. Little help?"]]
Believing that his deeds had cemented his position of power, Scorponok arranged to be coronated the new Decepticon emperor on Earth's moon, but in the midst of the ceremony , Galvatron returned alive and well and retook leadership. {{storylink|Return of the Immortal Emperor}} Galvatron's return saw Scorponok relegated to the insulting position of interplanetary short bus as the Decepticons traveled from world to world, pillaging copious amounts of energy. Scorponok transformed to robot mode only once on the journey, to battle Fortress Maximus on [[Susei]]. {{storylink|Fight to the Death on Planet Hive!!}} When the Decepticons returned to Earth, diminishing Scorponok's immediate usefulness to Galvatron, the wicked Headmaster returned to this own schemes, ignoring Galvatron's orders {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}} and planting more plasma energy bombs along the [[Pacific Ring of Fire]]. {{storylink|The Emperor of Destruction Vanishes on an Iceberg}}

Everything turned around for Scorponok when Galvatron faced the Autobot Headmasters alone in a battle in Alaska, and was finally destroyed when they collapsed and iceberg on top of him. {{storylink|The Emperor of Destruction Vanishes on an Iceberg}} This allowed Scorponok to once again seize leadership of the Decepticons, appointing himself the "Emperor of Terror" and resuming his plan for the destruction of Earth by attempting the detonation of his plasma bombs. During the previous interplanetary quest, however, the Autobots had made contact with [[Tekna]], one of the Beastformers who had worked on the construction of Scorponok's Transtector, and he was able to provide them with encrypted data that pinpointed the location of the Transtector's weak spot. After [[Chromedome (G1)|Chromedome]] decoded the data, he raced to Earth where the battle was already in progress and gave Fortress Maximus the information, allowing the Autobot leader to perforate Scorponok's weak spot, and send the critically wounded Decepticon fleeing off into space. {{storylink|I Risk My Life for Earth}}

[[Image:Scorponok headmasters scorpionmode.jpg|left|225px|thumb|Claws...check. Stinger...check. Multiple gun turrets...check. Giant, vulnerable weak spot dead center on the chest...check mate.]]
Moving his attentions away from Earth for the time being, Scorponok led the Decepticons back to planet Master in search of a weapon to counter the power of Fortress's Master Sword. The Autobots pursued them, which unfortunately resulted in [[Wheelie (G1)|Wheelie]] being captured by the villains and ransomed for the secrets of the Master Sword. {{storylink|The Master Sword Is in Danger!!}} Using this information, Scorponok forged the [[Zarak Shield]] out of [[G-Metal]], and when the two weapons clashed, the Zarak Shield emerged triumphant. {{storylink|Operation: Destroy the Decepticons}} Emboldened by this victory, Scorponok led the charge back to Earth, intending to finally destroy it, pausing only in the asteroid belt to effect repairs on his Transtector, and to betray and dispose of [[Sixshot]], whom he had never trusted. {{storylink|Duel on the Asteroid}}

Upon his return to Earth, Scorponok promptly had the Decepticon launch an energy-gathering satellite into orbit, and then withdrew to the sunken continent of [[Lemuria (G1)|Lemuria]], where already had numerous Decepticons working to mine the legendary [[crysmag metal]]. Scorponok raised "Death Towers" of this metal in five strategic location all over Earth all, which proceeded to generate waves of energy that were gathered by the satellite. {{storylink|The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 1)}} For the final part of his plan, Scorponok lured the Autobots to the North Pole, where he clashed with Fortress Maximus for the last time atop a sixth dais of crysmag metal. As soon as the two combatants were upon the dais, Scorponok had the satellite beam its stored energy down into his Transtector, and through it into the dais, creating an exponential loop that threatened to tear the Earth apart. Scorponok disconnected from his Transtector and retreated into space with the Decepticons to watch the Earth's destruction, only for Fortress Maximus—supercharged with the combined energy of the Autobot army united in a [[Head Formation]]—to destroy his Transtector, breaking the circuit and saving the Earth. {{storylink|The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 2)}}

====''The Headmasters''/''Super-God Masterforce'' intermezzo====
{{note|Following ''The Headmasters'', Japanese continuity branches off in two similar but distinct directions: one is depicted in the ''Super-God Masterforce'' animated series, leading into the ''Zone'' cartoon, while the other is told through the ''Super-God Masterforce'' manga, which leads into the ''Zone'' manga and story pages. However, Scorponok's activities ''between'' the end of ''The Headmasters'' and the beginning of ''Super-God Masterforce'', told through his own packaging [[bio]] and [[TV Magazine]] articles, apply to both continuities.}}
With the Decepticons at last forced off of Earth, the Autobots also left the planet, and Transformers' war transitioned into a series of space-based exchange between Chaar and [[Athenia]], with the advanced technology of planet [[Master (planet)|Master]] forming the backbone of the conflict. To rejoin the fight, Scorponok had a new Transtector constructed, much smaller than his old one (comparatively speaking – it was still taller than a [[combiner]]), but outfitted with hyper-dense armor. Before he could connect with this new body, however, Scorponok was captured by the mysterious alien entity [[Devil Z]], who had been in hibernation on Earth until recently, and saw a use for Scorponok in his plan to create the ultimate lifeform. Devil Z brainwashed Scorponok, placing him, and by extension the entire Decepticon army, under his control, and then allowed him to link up with his new Transtector. Rather than forming the head for his Transtector, however, Scorponok controlled it from it within its chest cavity, wired directly into its systems from there, with a new "decoy" head placed between its shoulders. Now, Scorponok was '''BlackZarak'''.

The former Decepticon ninja, [[Sixshot]], learned what had befallen Scorponok, and alerted the Autobots to the existence of Devil Z on Earth. The news of this shadowy controller reached the Autobots just as the [[Trainbot|Trainbots]] reported the first sighting of BlackZarak in the shadows of a meteor cluster, and the concerned Autobots decided to send a collection of Transtectors to the small Autobot group under the command of [[Metalhawk]] that was still on Earth, which he used to transform human beings into Autobot warriors to aid in the battle against Devil Z's forces.

====''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon continuity====
=====''Super-God Masterforce'' cartoon=====
:''Voice actor:'' [[Banjō Ginga]] (Japanese), [[Hidekatsu Shibata]] (Japanese, when merged with Devil Z)

[[Image:Blackzarak robotmode.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Also known as "African-American" Zarak.]]
After numerous failures by Devil Z's forces on Earth resulted in multiple [[Godmaster]] warriors joining the Autobot ranks instead of the Decepticons, the incensed alien summoned BlackZarak to Earth. Observing BlackZarak's activities, Fortress Maximus's younger brother, [[Grand Maximus]], raced to Earth ahead of him and warned the Autobots of his coming. In preparation for BlackZarak's arrival, the Autobots worked to construct a power-up drone named [[Godbomber]] for their most powerful member, [[Ginrai]]. {{storylink|Life? Death? Lightfoot Must Choose}} While they worked, the approaching BlackZarak bombarded the Earth with meteors as part of a complicated scheme by Devil Z's ambassadors, [[Giga]] and [[Mega]] to publicly discredit the Autobots, which was ultimately foiled. {{storylink|Expose the Decepticons' Dark Deception!}}

Giga and Mega combined into their robot form of [[Overlord (Masterforce)|Overlord]] and headed to Earth's moon to rendezvous with BlackZarak, but before BlackZarak arrived, Ginrai merged with the completed Godbomber, and pursued him into space. BlackZarak showed up in the midst of their battle, and promptly impaled Ginrai with his Tyrant Spear, sending him crashing to the moon's surface. {{storylink|God Ginrai - Into the Sky!!}} BlackZarak and Overlord followed him down to the moon, and hunted the wounded Autobot, who was in dire straits until the timely arrival of Grand Maximus. With the sides now more evenly matched, the two Decepticons attempted to break off the battle and head for Earth, but Ginrai and Grand brought them back down to the moon with a bump. BlackZarak instructed the damaged Overlord to flee the battle, and although he was furious at being ordered around by this newcomer, Overlord could do little to argue, and left BlackZarak to face the two Autobots alone. Grand and Ginrai double-teamed BlackZarak, and eventually, Ginrai was able to decapitate the Decepticon with his God Fire Guts attack. Although Ginrai thought his opponent was done for, BlackZarak's headless body hauled itself back up, and retreated off into space, with Grand Maximus hot on his tail. {{storylink|God Ginrai - Showdown on the Surface of the Moon}}

[[Image:Blackzarak scorpion mode.jpg|left|215px|thumb|The scorched remains of two fans who wouldn't stop asking why Devil Z made so many Autobot Transtectors.]]
During this extended stay in space, BlackZarak mastered localized gravity manipulation and gained the ability to open black holes, which he could use to teleport himself across the galaxy at will. After trapping Grand Maximus one of these singularities in order to keep him out of the way, BlackZarak teleported directly to Earth and immediately tore through [[New York City]] as part of Devil Z's "Operation M-1". He proceeded to attack [[Tokyo]] alongside Overlord, but was foiled when Ginrai freed Grand Maximus, and the two Autobots stopped the villains by tricking them into blasting each other. {{storylink|BlackZarak - Destroyer from Space}} With the failure of this scheme, Devil Z initiated "Operation M-2" and had BlackZarak withdraw to the far side of the moon, where he would unleash the atmosphere-destroying [[Death Para-Machine]] against the Earth. Thankfully, BlackZarak was only able to get off one shot from the deadly weapon before Ginrai destroyed it with his God Fire Guts attack. {{storylink|Crisis! The Day of the Downfall of Humanity}}

[[Image:Blackzarak dakatsu mode.jpg|right|215px|thumb|A dog chasing its own tail has nothing on Hydra Mode.]]
BlackZarak returned to attacking cities around the globe, and soon struck in a city where [[Cancer]] went to, with a trio of [[Sparkdash]] drones to back him up. Luckily, Autobot Godmaster [[Road King]] was on patrol in the area, and soon called him Ginrai to help him take BlackZarak down. {{storylink|God Ginrai - Save Cancer!?}} Later, after battling Grand Maximus in [[Moscow]], BlackZarak was present at the Decepticon base when the Autobots attacked it. During this clash, Devil Z took his brainwashing to the next level, and actually merged his consciousness with BlackZarak, entering his body and taking control of it himself. For his first act in BlackZarak's body, Devil Z collapsed the Decepticon base in a failed attempt to destroy the Autobots {{storylink|The Ultimate Combination!! BlackZarak, the New Lifeform}} and then led the Decepticons in an attack on North America, bombarding the country with his [[Devil Power]] from a strategic staging point in the heart of the [[Grand Canyon]]. {{storylink|Battle to the Death!! God Ginrai VS Darkwings Reborn}}

Devil Z next took the Decepticons to the peak of the Matterhorn, where he unleashed his Devil Power upon Europe until God Ginrai arrived to challenge him. The battle was fierce, and Ginrai thought he had won when he once again cleaved BlackZarak's head from his shoulders, but the decapitation of his host meant little to Devil Z, who simply transformed BlackZarak's body into a new, twin-headed serpent form, and kept the fight going. Uniting his Chōkon Power with that of the [[Headmaster Junior|Headmaster Juniors]], Ginrai unleashed his most powerful God Fire Guts yet and dove through BlackZarak's body, finally destroying the giant Decepticon in a huge explosion that left only ash and shrapnel. Although Devil Z survived the blast, he now no longer had BlackZarak's body to enclose him, and was wide open for Ginrai's finishing move: the Final Fire Guts, which utterly obliterated the evil alien. {{storylink|A Battle... and Then...}}
{{-}}

=====''Zone'' cartoon=====
:''Voice actor:'' [[Hirohiko Kakegawa]] (Japanese)

[[Image:ZarakZone1.jpg|left|180px|thumb|Aye aye aye—sharpen your boot, and bludgeon your eye]]
Several years after the conclusion of the Masterforce war, when the supernatural entity [[Violen Jiger]] seized control of the Decepticons, one of his first actions was to recruit "[[Nine Great Demon Generals]]" from Decepticon history. Using his mysterious powers, Violen Jiger resurrected BlackZarak to serve as his "Evil Spirit General," and outfitted him with new armor and weapons to make him more deadly that ever before. It was never explicitly stated if he possessed the consciousness of Scorponok or Devil Z, but he seemed to have a serious ''pirate''-vibe going on, now sporting a hook for a hand and an eye-patch.

[[Image:Zone blackzarak.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Aye aye aye—the blarney stone brings a tear to me eye]]
BlackZarak was part of the team of generals who attacked planet [[Micro|Zone]] in order to steal its precious [[Energon Z]] for Violen Jiger's schemes, but BlackZarak refrained from participating in the assault, hanging back on the fringes of the planet's atmosphere to cover his allies' rear. As his fellow generals made good their escape with the Energon Z in hand, BlackZarak barred the way of the [[Super Car Patrol Team]] and [[Battle Patrol]] as they attempted to pursue in the [[Rocket Base|Galaxy Rocket]]. The Demon General managed to trap the rocket in a crackling field of electricity, and then departed to rejoin his fellow Decepticons, leaving the electric net to slowly destroy the rocket. Luckily for the Autobots, the [[Jet Patrol Team]] arrived to destroy the net, and [[Sunrunner]] proceeded to use his radar to track BlackZarak back to the other Decepticons. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
{{-}}

====''Super-God Masterforce'' comic continuity====
=====''Super-God Masterforce'' comic=====
[[Image:Blackzarak manga.jpg|left|180px|thumb|Black-and-WhiteZarak]]
When it became apparent that the small force under his command on Earth lacked the manpower to handle the Autobots, Devil Z chose to unite them with the Decepticons in space, and ordered the combined army to attack Athenia. Ginrai (who was on the planet at the time to be appointed Supreme Commander of the Autobots) was able to win the battle by defeating [[Scramble 7]], but after the fight, BlackZarak made his first appearance before the Autobots, carrying Hydra, Buster and the Decepticon Headmasters, who announced that they were returning to Earth. {{storylink|The Battle Begins! The United Earth-Space Troops}}

BlackZarak joined the Decepticons in travelling to Earth, battling [[Raiden]] and the Autobot Headmasters outside the planet's atmosphere while Ginrai confronted Overlord for the first time down on its surface. After defeating his opponents, BlackZarak turned towards Earth, only to find Ginrai streaking towards him, with Overlord in close pursuit. At the last moment, Ginrai spun out of the way, causing the two Decepticons to accidentally strike each other, and damage one another quite badly. While the wounded Overlord returned to Earth, BlackZarak limped back off into space. {{storylink|God Ginrai's Amazing Super-God Combination!}}

BlackZarak later battled Grand Maximus and the Autobot Godmasters in space, with the aid of [[Darkwings]], {{storylink|The Earth Family of Good and Evil}} after which Devil Z spirited him away to carry out some upgrades. {{storylink|Decepticons' Great Counterattack!}} These upgrades complete, BlackZarak was soon returned to Earth, and joined Overlord in attacking another city, where he wound up battling Grand Maximus and the Autobots Godmasters once more. {{storylink|Live? Die?! The Desperate Super-God Combination}} Later, BlackZarak attacked China with a trio of [[Sparkdash|Sparkdash drones]]. Decepticon Headmaster Junior [[Cancer]] happened to be in the city at the time, and when the Autobots arrived to battle BlackZarak, he displayed his disdain for humans—even comrades—by seizing Cancer and using him as a shield to keep the Autobots at bay. It was then that Overlord arrived, and surprised everyone by viciously attacking BlackZarak, disgusted by his treatment of Cancer. While the two Decepticons were fighting, the Autobots exploited their conflict to attack and force them to retreat. {{storylink|Great Turn-Around! Autobots}}

[[Image:Devilz head on%21.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Head? I don't need a head. Heads are for wimps!]]
Overlord's betrayal proved to be the last straw for Devil Z, and he took matters into his own hands by connecting himself to BlackZarak's Transtector as a new head of sorts. Now in control of the Decepticon's body and mind, he transformed BlackZarak into a new serpentine form, and attacked Overlord, the Headmaster Juniors and Ginrai, intending to absorb their [[Chōkon Power|Jinchōkon]], in order to transform himself into the ultimate lifeform. His Jinchōkon-absorbing beam was blocked by the wholly-robotic Autobot [[Pretender|Pretenders]], and the Autobots and Decepticons united to destroy Devil Z and BlackZarak for good. Uniting their powers in the "Perfect Transform Attack", all the Autobots and Decepticons boarded Grand Maximus, who collided with BlackZarak, destroying the Decepticon and his alien passenger in an explosion of pure Chōkon Power. {{storylink|The Birth of the Super Lifeforms}}
{{-}}

=====''Zone'' comic and story pages=====
[[Image:Blackzarak zone manga.jpg|left|180px|thumb|]]

Years after the end of the Masterforce war on Earth, the creature known as [[Violen Jiger]] took control of the Decepticon forces and created an elite fighting force by recruiting "[[Nine Great Demon Generals]]" from throughout Transformer history. BlackZarak was selected to be one of these generals, and Violen Jiger used his strange, supernatural powers to bring the Decepticon back from the dead, dubbing him his "Evil Spirit General" and increasing his strength with new armor and weaponry. {{storylink|Zone (story page)|Zone Part 1}}

BlackZarak was part of the contingent of generals sent to planet Zone to steal its super-energy, Energon Z, for Violen Jiger. After his fellow Decepticons succeeded in purloining the Energon Z, BlackZarak covered their escape, seizing the Galaxy Rocket carrying the pursuing Autobots in an unbreakable grip. He proceeded to coat the rocket in a cocoon of strange energy webbing and then departed to join his fellow generals, but fortunately for the Autobots, the Jet Patrol Team arrived to cut them free before they lost BlackZarak's trail. {{storylink|Zone (manga)|Transformers: Zone}}

BlackZarak later attacked Earth, and met resistance in the form of [[Landshaker]] and [[Sky Hyper]]. BlackZarak seized Landshaker, easily shrugging off Skyhyper's blasts, but was suddenly stunned by a barrage from [[Sonic Bomber]], as he and Dai Atlas came swooping onto the battlefield. Exploiting the opening, Dai Atlas fired on BlackZarak, proving once again that the Autobots' desire to save their comrades would always best the Decepticons' evil. {{storylink|Zone (story page)|Zone Part 5}}

Along with the other Generals, BlackZarak schooled [[Metrotitan (Zone)|Metrotitan]] and the [[Metrosquad]] in the ways of evil, making them formidable oponents for the [[Powered Master]]s. {{storylink|Zone (story page)|Zone Part 7}}

===Ladybird Books continuity===
[[Image:Decepticonsatthepole.jpg|right|150px|thumb|"Put me on the Naughty List, will you?!"]]
Scorponok was originally a large, mobile Decepticon base on [[Nebulos]]. {{storylink|Decepticons at the Pole}} Through means unknown, he became a Transformer, as well as smaller and sentient, and took command of the Decepticon forces from [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]].

He matched wits with Optimus Prime himself, at one point trying to lure him into surrendering in exchange for a hostage's life. {{storylink|Autobot Hostage}} Eventually, the Autobots became too big a nuisance, and Scorponok had the Decepticons move en masse to a secret underground city in the Nebulos Triangle, but this backfired when the Autobots sealed him and his army underground for good. {{storylink|Decepticons Underground}}
{{-}}
===Dreamwave comics continuity===
[[Image:DestinedforNothing_Scorponok.jpg|left|200px|thumb|]]
Shortly before the [[Great Shutdown]], Scorponok attended a teleconference with [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]] and [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]], where he criticized the latter for "thinking like a calculator instead of a warrior". {{storylink|Destined for Nothing}}

{{-}}

===IDW comics continuity===
{{ongoing}}
[[Image:SpotlightUltraMagnus Scorponok.jpg|right|300px|thumb|If you insist on sticking your olfactory sensors where they don't belong, I'm just going to have to take them from you!]]
Long ago, Scorponok once robbed an installation that the [[Dinobot (G1)|Dynobots]] were guarding—it was something [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] wouldn't forget. {{storylink|Spotlight: Grimlock}}

After the destruction of Cybertron, Scorponok became a criminal known for his flagrant violations of the [[Code of Interplanetary Conflict]]. His traditional modus operandi was to make contact with ambitious non-Cybertronians on a developing world, work with his contacts to develop advanced weaponry using Cybertronian technology, then eliminate his partners when he had what he wanted. [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] had been seeking him for some time.

On the planet Nebulos, Scorponok was in league with [[Zarak (Nebulan)|Mo Zarak]], head of the [[Zarak Consortium]], a cabal of really smart scientists. Presumably with input from Scorponok, the Cranium had created hybrid Nebulan/Cybertronian beings. Unfortunately for Scorponok, Ultra Magnus had tracked him down. Claiming to be on the verge of something "breathtaking", Scorponok proceeded to beat the snot out of Ultra Magnus, before transforming into beast mode to finish him off. Unfortunately, Zarak ran out, begging Scorponok not to fire, or risk destroying what they had built. Unable to abort his shot, Scorponok killed Zarak (revealing to Magnus that the Nebulan had also been infused with Cybertronian technology). Shocked at his actions, a furious Scorponok turned to Ultra Magnus, and Magnus shot Scorponok in the head. However, Scorponok managed to escape through an artificial wormhole generator. {{storylink|Spotlight: Ultra Magnus}}

Shortly after the [[Brasnya]] conflict, Ultra Magnus contacted Optimus Prime, saying that he had a new lead on Scorponok's whereabouts, but he did not elaborate on the specifics. {{storylink|Spotlight: Optimus Prime}}

At some point over the last twenty years, Scorponok chose [[Earth]] as the location to continue his experiments. Making contact with a man named [[Abraham Dante]], Scorponok established an underground organization of human agents known as the [[Machination]], based out of [[Tampa, Florida]]. With their assistance, Scorponok began further developing the [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmaster]] technology he had begun on Nebulos, designing the means for cybernetically-enhanced humans to bond with mechanoid bodies. This technology now had great personal value to Scorponok, as he had been reduced to little more than a disconnected head without a body, apparently due to the head shot Ultra Magnus gave him in their last encounter.

{{note|It is unclear whether Scorponok pre-dated the Decepticon infiltration unit on Earth or not.}}
[[Image:Devastation6 Scorponok liveagain.jpg|left|200px|thumb|That must have been one hell of a stag night]]
The Headmaster process was completed shortly before [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] initiated Phase Two on Earth—all it needed was a test subject. To accommodate this, Scorponok and Dante sent agents out into the field to locate the Autobot and Decepticon bases, and conceived tactical scenarios for forcibly acquiring a Transformer as a "guinea pig" before Scorponok underwent the process himself. When the discovery of [[Ultra-Energon|Ore-13]] accelerated the conflict on Earth, the Machination accelerated their plans as well. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 4}}

When the Autobots [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]] and [[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]] next left the ''[[Ark-19]]'' in [[Lake Michigan]], Machination agents surprised them on the highway and kidnapped Sunstreaker, leaving behind a heavily-scrapped replica to throw any pursuers temporarily off the scent. As a bonus, they picked up Sunstreaker's passenger as well, [[Hunter O'Nion]]. {{storylink|Escalation issue 1}} Taking advantage of the situation, Scorponok and Dante attempted to have Hunter brainwashed and subjected him to the same bio-mechanical engineering as their own agents, creating a small squad of [[Sunstreaker clone|Sunstreaker clones]], each with their own human cyborg controller modified to act as the head in robot mode. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6}}

With the Headmaster process a success, Scorponok proceeded to the next stage: revitalizing himself. Abraham Dante underwent the Headmaster process and donned an exo-carapace of his own. The two of them binary bonded just in time to test-drive their union against Hunter O'Nion, who had managed to shake off their brainwashing attempt and was trying to escape the Machination compound. Despite his renewed size and power, however, Scorponok failed to prevent Hunter from binary-bonding with one of the Sunstreaker drones, and escaping the Machination. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}

[[Image:SpotlightGrimlock punch KLUNG.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Oh come on, I just got this head!]]
The Dante/Scorponok merge went well; even Dante considered them one being. He planted a mole named [[Kloss]] into [[Skywatch]], who planted a virus into Grimlock, freeing him from Skywatch's control. When Grimlock escaped, Scorponok met Grimlock with an offer of an alliance for world conquest. Grimlock refused and they battled, with Grimlock losing. Before he could be killed, Grimlock teleported to his still-functional ship. Dante/Scorponok later planned to take control of the other Dynobots and use them to destroy Grimlock. {{storylink|Spotlight: Grimlock}}

While continuing his search for the real Sunstreaker, Hot Rod came upon a wrecked Sunstreaker clone; he deduced that its destruction was "the price of failure." {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}

[[Image:ScorponokHotRodMaxDino02.jpg|left|200px|thumb|No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to listen.]]
Following his bonding with Dante, he became a lot chattier and willing—nay, ''desperate''—to monologue his evil schemes.

Once his agents had ensured Skywatch had reprogrammed the Dynobots (reprogramming ''he'' could remotely control) and an army of Sunstreaker clones had been built, Scorponok arranged for Grimlock to be orbital-bounced to [[Fallon]], [[Nevada]]. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 1}}

When Skywatch turned up with the Dynobots, he ensured a massive, destructive fight took place, all a set-up so Skywatch would be discredited and his Headmasters could "save the day"... intending his puppet companies would get all the lucrative anti-Transformer defense contracts from a panicked US government. While his attempt to exploit the Dynobots' internal divides failed, he ''did'' get to beat Hot Rod half to death and yell a lot. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 2}}

When Scorponok's control of the Dynobots was lost, he sent in an army of Headmasters to annihilate everyone. They might have succeeded if not for the timely arrival of the [[Monsterbot]]s. This bemused Hot Rod, and Scorponok ordered him terminated, but Hot Rod managed to set his guards ablaze and escape the compound. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 3}}

As Hot Rod broke out, Sunstreaker broke in to find his real head. Scorponok caught him and blasted him through the chest, but Hunter was able to escape. Before Scorponok could find Hunter, the Monsterbots began blasting the compound, taking out the defenses. Scorponok ordered a recall of all Headmasters to attack the Dynobots, but Hunter was able to sever the connection to Sunstreaker's head, disabling all the Headmasters. A furious Scorponok began to take revenge but was thrown into battle with [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]], who wanted the same thing. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 4}}

Shockwave eventually gained the upper hand but allowed Scorponok to retreat gracefully. Scorponok caught Hot Rod trying to sever the connection with his real head, so he thought he'd take out his frustrations by squeezing the life out of Hot Rod. The timely arrival of the Dynobots prevented that, and Swoop severed the connection himself, rendering Scorponok helpless. Just then, Ultra Magnus arrived, responding to an S.O.S. from Hot Rod. He wouldn't allow Scorponok to be killed, but took him into custody. He also ordered the Machination stripped and all technology removed. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 5}}
{{-}}

==Commercial appearances==
[[Image:Scorponok-Rebirth.jpg|right|180px|thumb|"Not Elton John."]]
Scorponok has an odd history of [[Commercial|television commercial]] appearances:

* Like any proper flagship toy, he appears in a 1987 commercial largely devoted to him. As Galvatron narrates, the Technobots attack his base mode, prompting him to transform and counterattack, bashing Computron with a boulder. Notably, the commercial identifies Scorponok as Galvatron's "[[Triple Changer]] Headmaster base". Some of the animation was recycled for the Season 4 cartoon opening.

* In 1989, a [[Giant Decepticon Soldier|Frankenstein Decepticon]] appeared in one of the first Micromaster commercials, getting swarmed and overwhelmed by hordes of Micromasters. While not using the same character model, this character was partially based on Scorponok's appearance, including his distinctive head antennae and some of his color palette.

* In 1990, a Scorponok toy painted white and gray appeared in the stop-motion animated toy segment of a commercial advertising the [[Hot Rod Patrol]] and [[Construction Patrol]]. Like his cel animated counterpart, he gets overwhelmed by his smaller foes, who blow up a bridge beneath him, sending him tumbling into a ravine with an amusingly unthreatening cry of "RAWRRR."

==Toys==
===Generation 1===
[[Image:G1 Scorponok toy.jpg|right|350px|thumb|If a camel is a horse designed by committee, then Scorponok is… er…]]
* '''Scorponok''' (Headmaster, 1987)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''D-93'''
**''Accessories:'' Lord Zarak Headmaster unit, helmet, Scorponok's rifle, rifle cover, Scorponok's shield, [[Fasttrack (Scorponok)|Fasttrack]], Fasttrack's 2 guns, 2 ramps, 4 double cannons, 4 antenna, 2 leg shields, 1 claw arm, 1 side gun arm and 1 elevator.

: The largest Decepticon toy in Generation 1, Scorponok's beast mode is a robotic purple, green and orange scorpion. The pincers have multiple points of articulation, and the ratcheting joints are strong enough to grasp a smaller Transformer. His eight legs are also independently jointed. There are two wheels with rubber grips underneath Scorponok's beast mode body, and pushing him along will cause the scorpion legs to move, simulating the motion of walking. Lord Zarak can sit inside the scorpion head/cockpit while in robot form, or he can be stored inside the chest compartment.

:Like many large Generation 1 Transformers, Scorponok has a base mode, with various ramps and towers for smaller Transformer toys to interact with, though it is quite out of [[scale]] for larger toys, such as his fellow Decepticon Headmasters. The central ramp (formed out of his beast tail) is designed with Fasttrack in mind and features a minor gimmick — placing Fasttrack on the orange panel and pressing the small black button will cause the back of the orange panel to rise, sending Fasttrack rolling down the ramp.

:Scorponok's robot mode is impressively large, and still remains one of the largest Decepticon toys in the ''Transformers'' franchise. As with all Headmasters, Scorponok has a flip-down panel on his chest which covers a spring-loaded mini-[[Tech Spec|Tech-Spec]]-meter which gives readings for Speed, Strength and Intelligence. The tumblers are activated when Lord Zarak (or any other Headmaster unit) is plugged into his neck socket while in head mode. As Lord Zarak is about the same size as the Headmaster units of smaller Headmaster toys, Scorponok would thus have a pretty small noggin if not for the large helmet (that was the beast mode scorpion head) that is placed over the Headmaster. The helmet also features a flip-down visor, which was homaged in ''Energon'' [[Scorponok (Energon)|Scorponok]]. The 2-part rifle and shield plug into Scorponok's pincers.

:Also, he has a [[die-cast]] ass.

:Fasttrack transforms into a small six-wheeled attack vehicle. He comes with two small, easily lost orange guns.

::*[http://www.tfu.info/1987/Decepticon/Scorponok/scorponok.htm More information on Scorponok at TFU.info]

===Super-God Masterforce===
[[Image:Blackzarak toy.jpg|right|320px|thumb|Stingin' and blingin']]
*'''BlackZarak''' (Headmaster, 1988)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''D-311'''
**''Accessories:'' Scorponok Headmaster unit, face cover, two-piece "Tyrant Spear", "Black Hole Cannon", cannon cover, "Shield Tower"/"Plantium Shield", four "Blacking Cannons", two "Combat Ramps", two "Maintenance Arms", four "Radar Sensors", elevator, [[Fasttrack (Scorponok)|Black Rorichi]], Black Rorichi's two lasers

:This Japanese-exclusive [[retool]] of the original Scorponok figure [[Redeco|redecoes]] the figure in black, gold and red, and equips the figure with a new helmet/scorpion head that features a better-proportioned face sculpted directly into it. As such, it's not really necessary to plug the Scorponok Headmaster unit between the shoulders, since the new helmet-head conceals it completely, but it does fit. The figure includes a small red visor-like mask that clips over the robot mode face, hiding it from view for scorpion mode.

:BlackZarak comes with one major new accessory—his red, two-piece "Tyrant Spear", which he can hold in robot mode—and also includes all of Scorponok's original accessories, appropriately redecoed, including a gold redeco of [[Fasttrack (Scorponok)|Fasttrack]] named "Black Rorichi". BlackZarak is, however, notoriously difficult to find complete, due to many of his accessories, and even body parts, suffering from [[Gold Plastic Syndrome]]. Even sealed box samples have horrified owners who opened the toys for the first time to discover broken parts on their previously-untouched toys.

:Like [[Sixshot]] and Overlord, with their respective "Wingwolf" and "space jet" alternate modes, BlackZarak's instructions do not feature the additional two-headed serpent mode, created as it was by the production staff after fiddling around with the toy and dubbed the "dakatsu" mode. As such, it's entirely possible to transform the toy into this form, but if you try, be aware that it was seriously streamlined for animation, and doesn't look nearly as good in plastic as it does on the screen or comic page. (Also, if the toy hasn't shattered yet due to GPS, putting the toy into Hydra Mode will probably finish the job.)

::*[http://www.tfu.info/1988/Destron/BlackZarak/blackzarak.htm More information on BlackZarak at TFU.info]

==Merchandise==
===Parody Deformed===
[[Image:Scorponok pd model.jpg|right|125px|thumb|]]
*'''MegaZarak''' (1990)

:A small white and red, non-transforming [[super deformed]] model kit of Scorponok was available as part of [[Kabaya]]'s "[[Parody Deformed]]" line of [[Candy toy|candy toys]]. The fourteenth figure in the series, he came with a "[[Transformer PD Type]]" comic about himself, "Watch Out! MegaZarak!", and something that could charitably be described as "gum".
{{--}}

===Super Collection Figure===
*'''BlackZarak''' (2001)

[[Image:Scorponok scf.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Me and myself]]
:BlackZarak was the "Build-A-Figure" from the fifth, ''Masterforce''-centric wave of [[TakaraTomy|Takara]]'s line of ''[[Super Collection Figure]]'' PVC figurines, available in eight out of every ten cases. He was divided into six parts, each one packaged with one of the silver metallic "pewter" versions of the other six figurines in the line (the regular, color versions of the figures didn't come with BlackZarak parts): his head and torso came with Ginrai, his left arm with [[Shūta Gō|Goshooter]], his right arm with Metalhawk and [[Minerva]], his waist and tail with [[Devastator (G1)|Devastator]], his left leg with [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]] and his right leg with Overlord. BlackZarak's part were available in both full-color and smokey translucent plastic (in an equal ratio of 4 out of every 10 cases each), meaning that there were two versions of the figure to collect.

*'''MegaZarak''' (2002)

:Like BlackZarak before him, this version of Scorponok was the Build-A-Figurine from the line's eighth wave. His six components were packaged with the regular color versions of the other figurines in the line: his head and torso came with Fortress, his left arm with Dai Atlas, his right arm with Star Convoy, his pelvis with [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]], his left leg with [[Alpha Trion (G1)|Alpha Trion]] and his right leg with [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]]. Like BlackZarak, there was both a regular full-color figure to collection (available in 6 out of every 10 cases) as well as a rarer variant version, this time in metallic silver (available in 4 out of every 10 cases).

==Trivia==
* The [[Action Master Elite]] [[Double Punch (G1)|Double Punch]]'s mold looks just like an [[Action Master]] version of BlackZarak, right down to the molded details, including the head. The coloring (black/red/purple) is similar to BlackZarak's coloring (black/red/gold) as well. This is very strange, considering that Japan never got Action Masters, and Europe never got BlackZarak.

* Both Scorponok and Fortress Maximus suffer from the writers struggling to reconcile the characters' high rank with their size. In their comic appearances, they are portrayed as commanders in some capacity but are shrunk down to interact with other Transformers, and their city modes pretty much don't exist. Conversely, the cartoons have opted to portray them as giant city Transformers, though they seem to be merely extensions of the smaller beings that bond with them, with no real life or will of their own.

[[Category:Decepticon bases]]
[[Category:City Transformers]]
[[Category:Multi-component Transformers]]
[[Category:Decepticon leaders]]
[[Category:Decepticons]]
[[Category:Generation 1 locations]]
[[Category:Headmasters]]
[[Category:Headmasters characters]]
[[Category:Machination]]
[[Category:Masterforce characters]]
[[Category:Triple Changers]]
[[Category:Zone characters]]
[[Category:Zombies]]

The Transformers: The Movie

2010-01-02T06:20:32Z

76.26.184.183: /* Quotes */

{{disambig3|Transformers: The Movie}}

{{quote|Conceived in the epic tradition of ''"[[Star Wars]]"''...|[[Victor Caroli]] ain't just whistling Dixie, [[The Transformers: The Movie promo|''The Transformers: The Movie'' promo]]}}

{{episode|
|seriess=[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]
|prev=B.O.T. (episode)
|next=Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1
|seriess2=[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (franchise)|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers]]
|prev2=Scramble City
|title=''The Transformers: The Movie''
|image=Transformersanimatedfilmposter.jpg
|caption=Featuring the deaths of all your favorite Transformers characters.
|production code=
|production company=[[Sunbow Productions]]
|writer=[[Ron Friedman]]
|directed by=[[Nelson Shin]]
|animation studio=[[Toei]]
|release date=[[August 8]], 1986
|continuity=[[Generation 1 cartoon continuity]]
}}

'''''The Transformers: The Movie''''' is an animated feature film based on the original Transformers toyline. It was released in the United States on August 8, 1986.

The film's storyline introduces a [[Scale|planet-sized Transformer]] called [[Unicron]] who eats other planets, and is approaching [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. As part of their continuing wars, the Autobots and Decepticons have a [[Battle of Autobot City|fierce battle]] on Earth which sees both Optimus Prime and Megatron mortally wounded. Prime passes the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to Ultra Magnus and dies, and Megatron is transformed by Unicron into [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]]. [[Starscream (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Starscream]] (briefly) assumes leadership of the Decepticons, but is killed when Galvatron arrives at Cybertron. Galvatron then chases the surviving Autobots on Earth across space, splitting them up and taking the Matrix. The Autobots find their way back to each other, and follow Galvatron to Cybertron just as Unicron transforms into robot mode and begins to eat their world. Travelling inside Unicron, [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] recovers the Matrix, transforms into Rodimus Prime, and uses the Matrix to destroy Unicron.

Often referred to by fans simply as "the movie" or "TFTM", the movie was a step up in almost every area from the television series, with a more sophisticated plot, more serious treatment of war and violence, a hugely ambitious scope and a greatly increased animation budget with well-known celebrities providing voice work. For these reasons the film remains very popular with children of the 1980s.

The film opens with characters who had been featured in the first two years of the toyline and associated media (cartoons, comic books, etc.), but quickly introduces new characters and kills many of the old ones to make room. In particular, [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]], [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]], and [[Starscream (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Starscream]] are all destroyed during the course of the film.

{{quote|The Japanese have funded a full-length animated cartoon about the doings of these toys, which is all bad outer-space stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen.|Orson Welles<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=KlqsYy512WIC&source=gbs_navlinks_s "Orson Wells: A Biography"] page 522</ref>}}

==Synopsis==
[[Image:TFTM_Unicron_Lithone.jpg|left|200px|thumb|That's no moon.]]

A mechanical planet travels through the depths of space, attacking [[Lithone (planet)|a metal planet]] which has [[Lithone (species)|robotic inhabitants]]. Robots, vehicles, buildings, and even large chunks of rock are sucked off the surface and devoured by the monstrous planet.

It is the year 2005, and the [[Decepticon]]s are now in control of Cybertron. The [[Autobot]]s are preparing to launch an assault to retake the planet from hidden bases on two of Cybertron's moons. The Autobots launch a [[Autobot shuttle|shuttle]] to pick up a final shipment of [[Energon (fuel)|energon]] from [[Earth]] before they strike.

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|I have a bad feeling about this.]]

Plans for the attack are overheard by [[Laserbeak (G1)|Laserbeak]], who reports back to Megatron. The Decepticons attack the Autobot shuttle en route to Earth, wiping out its crew (including [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] and the [[Brawn (G1)|guy in the picture over there]]). Using the Autobots' own shuttle, the Decepticons are able to get very close to the Autobots' base on Earth, [[Autobot City]], before they are detected, and begin a devastating surprise attack on the unprepared city.

During the battle at Autobot City, both [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]] and Megatron suffer mortal injuries, and a number of other characters are also killed. Eventually the Decepticons retreat, but the damage suffered by the Autobots has been severe.

{{note|For an extensive synopsis of the battle, see [[Battle of Autobot City]].}}

[[Image:Tftm1986b.jpg|left|200px|thumb|If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.]]

Shortly after the battle, Prime lies on his deathbed. He passes the reins of leadership to [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] and gives him the [[Matrix of Leadership]]. (Though Hot Rod actually touches the Matrix before Magnus does.) Prime relates a prophecy: "One day, an Autobot shall rise from our ranks, and use the power of the Matrix to light our [[darkest hour]]." He then gives the oath, "[['Til all are one]]", and [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|dies]]. This sequence of events is observed remotely by Unicron, who appears unusually concerned by the survival of the Matrix.

The Decepticons are making their escape aboard [[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]], but are too heavy for him to get them all home under his own power. After putting the matter to a fair vote, the Decepticons decide to throw their injured members off the ship to better the chance of survival for the rest. One of the most severely injured Decepticons is Megatron. Starscream tosses him out and claims leadership of the Decepticon army.

Megatron and the other adrift Decepticons then encounter Unicron in interstellar space. Unicron offers to rebuild Megatron and his minions in exchange for their service. Megatron agrees, and is [[Reformatting|reformatted]] into [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]]. The other Decepticons are turned into [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]], [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]], and the [[Sweep]]s. Unicron provides them with a [[Revenge (G1)|ship]], and sends them to kill Ultra Magnus and destroy the Matrix, stating that the Matrix is the only thing which can stand in his way.

[[Image:Tftm1986c.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.]]
Galvatron first stops at Cybertron to take his revenge by killing Starscream and reclaiming leadership of the Decepticons. Almost immediately afterwards, Unicron arrives in Cybertron's vicinity and devours at least two moons—both of the Autobots' moon bases are destroyed. Under coercion by Unicron, Galvatron finally heads to Earth to kill Ultra Magnus, but Magnus and the other surviving Autobots flee in a pair of shuttles. Eventually Galvatron manages to cause one shuttle to crash on yet another metal planet ([[Quintessa]]), and detonates the other with a volley of missiles. However, the Autobots in the second shuttle escape unnoticed by separating the front portion of their shuttle just before impact.

The Autobots in the crashed shuttle, [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]], [[Kup (G1)|Kup]], and the [[Dinobot (G1)|Dinobots]], find themselves separated and in a hostile environment. Hot Rod and Kup are captured by a squad of [[Allicon]]s and taken before a [[Quintesson]] [[Quintesson#Judges|judge]] and his court. While being held there, they learn the name and nature of Unicron from [[Kranix]], a survivor of the planet destroyed in the opening of the film, which he calls [[Lithone (planet)|Lithone]]. Meanwhile, the Dinobots encounter and befriend a young, wild Autobot named [[Wheelie (G1)|Wheelie]] who has been living alone on Quintessa. Together, they crash the trial just as Hot Rod and Kup are fighting losing odds against the Quintessons' [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]]. The tide is turned, and the Autobots commandeer a [[Quintesson spacecraft#Quintesson_Cruiser|Quintesson Cruiser]].

[[Image:Tftm1986d.jpg|left|200px|thumb|What an incredible smell you've discovered!]]
The other group of Autobots has landed on the planet [[Junkion (planet)|Junkion]] to make repairs, but are attacked yet again by Galvatron, who was tipped off to their survival by Unicron. During the battle, Ultra Magnus tries to open the Matrix to use its power, but is unable to do so, and instead is killed. Galvatron absconds with the Matrix, taking it away to Unicron. The remaining Autobots—[[Perceptor (G1)|Perceptor]], [[Springer (G1)|Springer]], [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]], and [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike's]] son [[Daniel Witwicky (G1)|Daniel]]—are then ambushed by [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], the eponymous natives of Junkion, who are also giant transforming robots. This battle is cut short, however, by the arrival of Hot Rod's group in their Quintesson ship. After exchanging the [[universal greeting]] they all make friends, and the Junkions restore Ultra Magnus to life. Together, the whole group travels to Cybertron to try to recover the Matrix.

[[Image:TFTM Unicron smashes cybertron.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Rebel base in range. You may fire when ready.]]
Galvatron attempts to open the Matrix to use its power against Unicron, but is also unable to get it open. Unicron, not pleased with this attempted treachery, shocks Galvatron by transforming from a planet into a [[Scale|planet-sized robot]]. Unicron plucks Galvatron off his chest and swallows him, Matrix and all, and then begins attacking Cybertron itself. [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] scrambles the Decepticon forces to defend the planet, but they are ineffective against so large an enemy. Shortly the Autobots arrive from Junkion, and fly the Quintesson ship straight through Unicron's eye. This impact destroys the ship, and the Autobots fall out inside Unicron. Hot Rod, separated from the others, eventually runs into Galvatron. During their fight, Hot Rod gets his hands on the Matrix and hears Optimus's voice speak the words, "Arise, Rodimus Prime." Hot Rod grows in stature, adopts a much sterner demeanor, and quickly dispatches Galvatron by tossing him through Unicron's hull out into space. He then opens the Matrix, which fills Unicron with light and begins destroying him.

[[Image:Tftm1986e.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Use the Force, Luke.]]
In the meantime, the other Autobots inside Unicron have located some of their comrades from the moon bases who had been presumed dead, including [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] and Daniel's father, Spike. The Autobots, including Rodimus, escape through Unicron's remaining eye just as he begins to fall apart and explode. The scene then immediately shifts to the surface of Cybertron, where—for unclear reasons—the Autobots seem to be in charge again. Rodimus predicts an era of peace and prosperity, and the film closes with a shot of Unicron's severed head still floating in orbit around Cybertron.

[['Til all are one]].
{{-}}

==Quotes==
"Such heroic nonsense."
:—'''Megatron''' coldly finishes off Ironhide. The 'Cons always get the best lines.

"I've got better things to do tonight than die!"
:—'''Springer''', telling it like it is.

"One shall stand. One shall fall."
:—'''Optimus Prime''' uttering the most quoted line of the Movie. An ass kicker cometh.

"Until the day...'til all are one..."
:—'''Optimus Prime''''s final words

"Oh, how it ''pains'' me to do this." 
"Wait! I still function!" 
"Wanna ''bet''?"
:—'''Starscream''' fights back the tears as he throws '''Megatron''' out of Astrotrain.

"I have summoned you here for a purpose." 
"Nobody summons Megatron!" 
"Then it pleases me to be the first."
:—'''Unicron''' shows '''Megatron''' who's the boss.

"Who disrupts my coronation?" 
"Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy." 
"Megatron? Is that you?" 
"Here's a hint!"
:—'''Galvatron''' drops "hints" for '''Starscream''' like others drop anvils.

"I, Galvatron, will crush you just as Megatron crushed Prime." 
"And you'll die trying just like Megatron." 
:-'''Ultra Magnus''' being clueless about what really happened.

"Did we ''have'' to let them detonate three quarters of the ship?" 
"Seeing as how they would have detonated ''four'' quarters, I think it was a good choice."
:—'''Arcee''' and '''Springer'''

"For a time… I considered ''sparing'' your wretched little planet of Cybertron. But now... you shall witness... its ''dismemberment''!"
:—'''Unicron''' really needs to work on his anger management skills…

"Me Grimlock kick butt!" 
:—'''Grimlock''' isn't speaking figuratively.

"Let this mark the end of the Cybertronian Wars as we march forward into a new era of peace and happiness! 'Til all are one!" 
:—'''Rodimus Prime''' announces the end of the [[Great War (G1)|Great War]]... yeah, right.

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]] ([[Peter Cullen]]) (5)
*[[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]]/Rodimus Prime ([[Judd Nelson]]) (29)
*[[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] ([[Robert Stack]]) (39)
*[[Kup (G1)|Kup]] ([[Lionel Stander]]) (33)
*[[Springer (G1)|Springer]] ([[Neil Ross]]) (40)
*[[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] ([[Susan Blu]]) (41)
*[[Blurr (G1)|Blurr]] ([[John Moschitta]]) (42)
*[[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] ([[Gregg Berger]]) (60)
*[[Perceptor (G1)|Perceptor]] ([[Paul Eiding]]) (38)
*[[Blaster (G1)|Blaster]] ([[Buster Jones]]) (44)
*[[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] ([[Michael Bell]]) (62)
*[[Slag (G1)|Slag]] ([[Neil Ross]]) (63)
*[[Sludge (G1)|Sludge]] (61)
*[[Wheelie (G1)|Wheelie]] ([[Frank Welker]]) (69)
*[[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]] ([[Peter Cullen]]) (6)
*[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]] ([[Michael Bell]]) (12)
*[[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] ([[Scatman Crothers]]) (8)
*[[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] ([[Dan Gilvezan]]) (10)
*[[Cliffjumper (G1)|Cliffjumper]] ([[Casey Kasem]]) (9)
*[[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] ([[Corey Burton]]) (18)
*[[Gears (G1)|Gears]] ([[Don Messick]]) (7)
*[[Auto-combatant]] ([[Frank Welker]]) ()
*[[Eject]] (52)
*[[Rewind]] (53)
*[[Steeljaw (G1)|Steeljaw]] (50)
*[[Ramhorn]] (51)
*[[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]] (55)
*[[Windcharger (G1)|Windcharger]] (56)
*[[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] (21)
*[[Snarl (G1)|Snarl]] (65)
*[[Grapple]] (59)
*[[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] (32)
*[[Hound (G1)|Hound]] (34)
*[[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]] (35)
*[[Bluestreak]] (31)
*[[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]]* ([[Walker Edmiston]]) ()
|c2=
*[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] / [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] ([[Frank Welker]] / [[Leonard Nimoy]]) (15)
*[[Starscream (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Starscream]] ([[Chris Latta]]) (16)
*[[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]] / [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]] ([[Roger C. Carmel]]) (24)
*[[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] / [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]] ([[Stan Jones]]) (36)
*[[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] ([[Frank Welker]]) (14)
*[[Devastator (G1)|Devastator]] ([[Arthur Burghardt]]) (58)
*[[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]] ([[Michael Bell]]) (22)
*[[Bonecrusher (G1)|Bonecrusher]] ([[Neil Ross]]) (20)
*[[Hook (G1)|Hook]] ([[Neil Ross]]) (23)
*[[Scavenger (G1)|Scavenger]] (19)
*[[Mixmaster (G1)|Mixmaster]] (17)
*[[Long Haul (G1)|Long Haul]] (54)
*[[Shrapnel (G1)|Shrapnel]] / [[Sweep]] ([[Hal Rayle]]) (27)
*[[Kickback (G1)|Kickback]] / [[Sweep]] ([[Clive Revill]]) (28)
*[[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] / [[Cyclonus's Armada]] (57)
*[[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]] ([[Jack Angel]]) (64)
*[[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] ([[Corey Burton]]) (13)
*[[Dirge (G1)|Dirge]] ([[Bud Davis]]) (25)
*[[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] ([[Ed Gilbert]]) (37)
*[[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] ([[Frank Welker]]) (46)
*[[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] ([[Frank Welker]]) (47)
*[[Laserbeak (G1)|Laserbeak]] (4)
*[[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]] (48)
*[[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]] (49)
*[[Thrust (G1)|Thrust]] (45)
*[[Ramjet (G1)|Ramjet]] (26)

|c3=
*[[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike Witwicky]] ([[Corey Burton]]) (11)
*[[Daniel Witwicky (G1)|Daniel Witwicky]] ([[David Mendenhall]]) (30)
|c4=
*[[Unicron]] ([[Orson Welles]]) (1)
*[[Wreck-Gar (G1)|Wreck-Gar]] ([[Eric Idle]]) (67)
*[[Kranix]] ([[Norman Alden|Norm Alden]]) (2)
*[[Junkion (species)|Junkion]] ([[Michael Bell]]) (66)
*Junkion ([[Frank Welker]]) (66)
*[[Quintesson]] leader ([[Roger C. Carmel]]) (70)
*Quintesson judge ([[Regis Cordic|Rege Cordic]]) (70)
*[[Arblus]] (3)
*[[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]] (71)
*[[Allicon]]s (68)
|nonumbering=true
}}
<nowiki>*</nowiki>Credited, but did not appear.

==Animation errors==
* When Unicron is approaching Lithone at the start of the movie, at the line "Look, it's Unicron!", a [[Animation error#Sizing errors|cel stacking error]] results in Unicron's ring appearing in front of a building arch, [[Distribution|making Unicron look very tiny]] in that shot. In the next shot, it is clear that Unicron is several times larger than the entire planet of Lithone.
* The inside of one of the Lithonian ships being devoured by Unicron is visible for a couple of frames. The pilot of the ship appears to be Kranix, even though he apparently screams out Kranix's name, and Kranix appears later in the Quintesson prison.
* When the inside of Unicron is shown after he devours Lithone, the "blinking energy" effect of Unicron's innards was apparently achieved by recycling backgrounds from other animated TV shows or movies. A frame by frame viewing reveals what appear to be several images of post-apocalyptic buildings inside Unicron.
* When Optimus Prime asks Jazz to report security status, it shows both Jazz and Cliffjumper. Cliffjumper is seen twiddling knobs above the actual drawn computer, as if a section was supposed to be present.
* When the Decepticons blow a hole through the Autobot shuttle to get in, it is a clean break. However, Megatron is still shown ripping through random ship components to get in.
* When the Decepticons are killing the Autobot shuttle crew, there is one of the common Starscream/Skywarp/Thundercracker miscolors. Megatron transforms into gun mode and Starscream catches him and kills Brawn. When they cut back to the Decepticons, Starscream is in front of the Constructicons without Megatron and is firing one of his arm rifles (this probably should have been Skywarp or Thundercracker). When they cut back to the Decepticons for the third time, Starscream has Megatron again and is finishing off the rest of the Autobots.
* When the Decepticons fly to the shuttle's controls, all of the Autobots have changed positions from when they fell—Brawn is now on his back, for example, while Prowl is now face-down.
* Hot Rod has at least two totally different transformation schemes during the course of the film.
* When Kup and several Autobots at the roadblock react to Hot Rod's attack on the hijacked Autobot shuttle, Bluestreak is represented by Prowl's [[Character model|animation model]], in Bluestreak's grey and black colours.
* Sunstreaker appears with Kup's group on Earth as they observe Hot Rod firing on Ironhide's shuttle. Sunstreaker later appears as Optimus Prime's co-pilot when they arrive on Earth with the Dinobots, and is seen disembarking the shuttle along with Optimus Prime and Hound.
* When [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] sends out his cassette troops, [[FIRRIB|Rumble is the same color as Frenzy]].
* Blaster first ejects what looks like Eject, who stays blue up until he gets to the edge of the screen. He then turns black like Rewind. Then Blaster ejects another blue cassette, which after about a second turns black. This one gets through half his transformation colored black, then turns blue for a split second then turns black again. Then, when the cassettes are fighting each other, Eject runs in from the left and jumps over Perceptor. And then he runs in from the left ''again'' to shoot Ravage. Suddenly [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl/Devastator]] doesn't look so bad, does he?
* Swoop's lower leg (with its distinctive red claw/knee) appears for a brief second during the Autobot City battle, long before the rest of him gets there.
* When Devastator forms in Autobot City, his chest plate is the same green as the rest of him. In the next shot, it's the usual purple. However, it promptly turns green again in the next shot.
* In the battle for Autobot City, when Prime drives up behind the Decepticons, Blitzwing turns his head and its color changes to purple for a split second. However, when he turns it back it's tan again.
* When Optimus Prime takes the Matrix out of his chest to give to Ultra Magnus, there is another Matrix beneath it in his chest. (On which note, see also ''[[Matrix of Leadership#Universe|Matrix of Leadership, Universe comic]].'')
* When Ultra Magnus accepts the Matrix, he's seen inserting it into his chest twice, or at best readjusting its "fit".

[[Image:Coronation .jpg|thumb|right|250px| *''trumpet fanfare''* ]]

* Even after the [[Battle of Autobot City]], characters who are supposedly dead continue to appear in crowd shots and battles. Shrapnel's role in the fight on [[Junkion (planet)|Junk]] is the most noticeable, but Thundercracker and Skywarp can be seen at both Starscream's coronation and later flying into Unicron's mouth.
* When Cyclonus is strafing the Autobot shuttle in space, he briefly flies offscreen, and during that time his laser blasts come from a point that in no way matches his flight path.
* When Hot Rod tells the Junkions the universal greeting, the Autobot insignia on his chest is coloured black.
* When Unicron transforms, the first hand we see (his right) is backwards relative to how the arm is shown on screen.

== Continuity errors ==
[[Image:G1TFTM Snarl cameo.JPG|thumb|right|250px|He used to bulls-eye womp-rats in his T16 back home.]]

* The Dinobot [[Snarl (G1)|Snarl]] is mysteriously absent from almost the entire movie, even though the Dinobots as a group are featured prominently. Copies of the script which have come into fans' hands repeatedly list the Dinobots, but never make mention of Snarl by name. In fact, at one point the script refers to "the four Dinobots". Despite this, Snarl does appear in three very brief shots {{m-}} in which ''Swoop'' is entirely absent. Hmm.
* Also curiously absent are the 1985 Autobot cars and Mini-Vehicles, such as Inferno, Smokescreen, Cosmos, Warpath, etc. It would seem that these characters were available at the time of the movie:
** Perceptor and Blaster both debuted at the same time in the cartoon as the 1985 cars, and both play prominent roles in the movie.
** Grapple is [[:Image:BattleAutobotCity.jpg|seen ''very'' briefly]] during the battle for Autobot City.
** The 1985 Decepticons (Astrotrain, Dirge, etc.) appear in the film.
** [[:Image:TFTM-SideswipeRedAlertTracks.jpg|Tracks]], [[:Image:TFTM-RedAlertDown.jpg|Red Alert]] and Smokescreen all appeared in storyboards but not the finished film.
* Devastator is treated as ''the'' ultimate threat, while in the cartoon, his role (and apparent power) was already being [[Starscream's Brigade|severely diminished]], presumably because several other combiners had been introduced. In story terms, the absence of these newer combiners, not to mention the mighty Omega Supreme, is inexplicable. In real-life terms, those characters didn't exist when the film commenced production. (The [[Transformers: The Animated Movie]] adaptation shows Omega Supreme, Superion and Defensor guarding the Ark against an attack by Bruticus and Menasor, attempting to [[retcon]] the problem away.)
[[Image:Cyclonus armada tftf.jpg|thumb|right|250px|We'll be safe enough once we make the jump into lightspeed.]]
* During the Battle of Autobot City, Starscream gets his leg caught. He shoots downward and gets away while screaming "My foot!", but it's his shin that's smoking while his foot looks fine. Later he kicks Megatron with the same foot. Shouldn't that hurt, according to him? Note there is a time lapse between the "foot shooting" and the kicking, leaving the option of a battlefield repair.
* So Ultra Magnus just happens to have a ready-made Matrix chamber installed in his chest cavity? Is this standard issue for all Autobots?
* The cartoon had already established that Astrotrain increases his size when he transforms to shuttle mode, being large enough to carry a pair of Decepticons in his cockpit. However, within the movie itself, his size is [[scale|noticeably inconsistent]]: When he leaves Autobot City, he's just large enough for the Decepticon army to cram themselves in; later, he's so huge that the Constructicons can quite comfortably form Devastator inside him.
* The number of minions created by Unicron changes throughout the film, with more Sweeps appearing as the story progresses. A second Cyclonus ("Cyclonus, the warrior, and [[Cyclonus's Armada|his armada]]") is shown being created but disappears shortly thereafter.

[[Image:SSBQ.jpg|thumb|right|250px|"I've been looking forward to this for a long time." "Yes, I bet you have."]]

* [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] is capable of reducing [[Starscream (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Starscream]] to ashes with a single shot from his cannon mode. Though in later episodes Galvatron is shown blowing up even small ''[[Thrull|planets]]'' with his cannon, his extraordinary killing power seems to be gone—like when he scores a direct hit in cannon mode on Ultra Magnus in "[[Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5]]" and Magnus isn't especially hurt at all, or how a similar blast against Scourge in "[[The Burden Hardest to Bear]]" only leaves the latter temporarily incapacitated. [[Marvel Comics]] bios explain this by suggesting that Galvatron had nearly limitless power through Unicron... but then again, Galvatron himself claims to be "more powerful than ever" after Unicron is dead. {{storylink|Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2}} [[To sell toys|Who knows.]]
* Why didn't anyone notice Unicron until he was within devouring distance of Cybertron's moons?
* Despite running out of energon goodies on Quintessa, Hot Rod has at least one to offer to the Junkions. Maybe he got some on the ship. It's also possible that, when he told the Allicons "No more," he meant that he wasn't going to ''feed'' them any more energon goodies, not that he didn't ''have'' anymore.
* Daniel, who was just learning how to use his exo-suit, had to knock down the acid cover inside Unicron to save his loved ones. Why couldn't the more experienced Spike do the same with his suit from above? He had both of his arms free and a clear shot at the cover.
* It's not clear how Rodimus Prime (carrying two humans) and the other Autobots survived their jump out of Unicron's eye and their plunge towards the surface of Cybertron.
* It's also unclear just how the dozen or so Autobots (and one shipload of Junkions) managed to retake the whole planet of Cybertron. Did Unicron really wipe out ''that'' many Decepticons?

===Not Necessarily Errors===
* Fans have noted throughout the years that Astrotrain, in his flight through zero-gravity space, should not have needed to "jettison some weight" in the literal sense. However, since the ejected Decepticons quickly fall behind Astrotrain instead of floating alongside him, he must still have been accelerating and thus would have needed to burn a greater amount of fuel in order to push a larger payload. Perhaps he should have said "jettison some ''mass''", but then again, just being a spaceship doesn't make him a rocket scientist.

==Real-world references and Easter eggs==
* When Sludge gets haymakered by Devastator, his eyes pop out of their sockets in Looney Tunes fashion.
* Kup's storytelling sequence aboard the shuttle is drawn from the novel ''Of Mice and Men'', complete with Grimlock in the Lenny role asking Kup to "tell Grimlock about petrorabbits again".
* The Quintesson jail cell includes robot debris ''strongly'' resembling the RX-178 MK II and the MSZ-006 mobile suits from 1985's ''Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam''.

==Adaptations==
*[[Transformers: The Movie (Marvel Comics)|A comic adaptation of the movie]] was published by [[Marvel Comics]] in 1986, concurrently with the movie's theater run. It was based off a non-finalized version of the script, and differs in many details from the final film. Additionally, most of the major character models (and possibly their unedited original character write-ups) appear in Issue #4 of the ''[[Transformers Universe (Marvel comic)|Transformers Universe]]'' series.
* [[Transformers the Movie (Ladybird adaptation)|A storybook adaptation]] was released in the UK by [[Ladybird Books]].
*A four-part adaptation was released in 2006/2007 by [[IDW Publishing]], as part of the film's 20th anniversary celebration. It was titled ''[[Transformers: The Animated Movie]]'' to differentiate it from the [[Michael Bay]] [[Transformers (2007)|live-action film]]. Unlike its predecessor, it adheres rigidly to the script and plot of the finished movie.

==Soundtrack==
{{main|The Transformers: The Movie - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack}}

==Promotions==
* Early in the movie's production, a [[The Transformers: The Movie promo|promotional trailer]] was made to sell the project to potential investors.
* The movie was advertised on related 1986 toy packages via the [[Decipher the Decepticon]] Sweepstakes, which included a pack-in poster and contest.
* The movie was heavily advertised directly by TV [[commercial]]s, and tail-end segments on Transformer toy ads. Portions of its story were also retold in altered fashion by animation segments of commercials for the movie character toys, such as a spot showing Springer doing battle with Wreck-Gar.

==In the comic continuity==
The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|Marvel UK comic]] made extensive use of the Movie as the basis for a series of stories involving the Transformers in the future. However there are several differences between the events seen on screen and those referenced in the comic:

*The comic always dates the move to 2006, following the date given in a treatment that was all [[Simon Furman]] had when he wrote [[Target: 2006]].
*In Target: 2006, [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]] states that he was previously "[[Life Spark]]".
*The Matrix is always called the "Creation Matrix" in the comic, a name that predates the "Matrix of Leadership" but which is now used for the same physical object.
*[[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] and [[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]] both survive the events, both later appearing in [[Space Pirates!]] (set in 2008).

In addition, Shockwave definitely survives the attack by Unicron.

The US comic almost completely ignored the events of the Movie, though later in the run an alternative future is briefly shown in "[[Rhythms of Darkness!]]" and "[[A Savage Circle]]". In this timeline at least some of the events of the Movie took place such as the creation of Galvatron from Megatron, which is dated to 2005, though Prowl's death was overlooked. [[Prowl II|Wouldn't be the first time. Or the last.]]
*The US version of the future story [[The Big Broadcast of 2006 (issue)|The Big Broadcast of 2006]] implicitly has the events of the movie as part of its backstory. However, since the rest of the US series ignored the movie, this issue's place in the continuity is questionable.

==Edits==
Several English-language versions of the film exist, with the following differences in content from the American theatrical run:

* In some versions (notably the European version) the opening credits are replaced with a scrolling text ("''Star Wars'' style") which provides backstory.
* In some versions (notably the European version) the film ends with [[Victor Caroli|a narrator]] reassuring the audience that Optimus Prime will return.
* Instances of swearing in the film (there are two) were edited out; sometimes one, sometimes both. Those instances are: Spike yelling, "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?" after the self-destructing Moon Base 2 fails to scratch Unicron, and Ultra Magnus growling, "Open, damn it, open!" while trying to open the Matrix to fend off Galvatron and the Sweeps on Junkion. The United Kingdom cinema version had the swearing included but, when it was released on VHS in the United Kingdom, Spike's line was cut ("damn" not being considered offensive in the UK). However it has been restored on all United Kingdom DVD releases.
* In some early FHE video releases, the shot of the Matrix falling out of Optimus Prime's hand and being caught by Hot Rod is edited so that it appears that Ultra Magnus simply takes the Matrix from Prime. Why this was done is not known, and the replay of the Hot Rod catch on Unicron's monitors was left intact.
*Instead of DEG, the Rank Film "gong man" appears before the film, as Rank were the United Kingdom distributors.

None of these edits significantly affect the story. They should not be confused with various other sequences which were changed before the film's final release:

* Originally, Ultra Magnus's "death sequence" on Junkion called for him to be lassoed and drawn and quartered by the Sweeps' energy beams, but this was deemed too graphic for audiences, hence the less disturbing "shot to death" sequence seen instead. There is evidence that the original sequence had been fully animated when the decision was made, however; the Sweeps still kept their solid energy lassos when they fire upon Mags, and Mags is seen visibly straining against what appears to be said lassos (edited out and replaced with laser fire) before exploding.
* A number of other sequences were illustrated as [[storyboard]]s but dropped, presumably without ever being animated. Among them were:
** A short scene showing the Autobot shuttle veering around some meteors, explaining how the Decepticons caught them unawares.
** An extended sequence with Hot Rod and Daniel outside the city.
** A sequence of Mirage blasting Bombshell and being fired on by Megatron.
** The Autobots finally bringing down Devastator with a barrage of missiles (and the Constructicons subsequently shooting Red Alert in the back).
** The Decepticons dogpiling Optimus Prime, explaining why he seems to be standing up just before his fight with Megatron.
:Some of these concepts were in earlier versions of the script, and hence made it into the comic adaptation.
* Rumors have occasionally circulated in the fandom of additional animated footage that was dropped from the film, such as ultra-violent battle scenes. No evidence has ever surfaced to back these claims; the only known edits are those listed in this section.
:{{see|Misconceptions and urban legends about Transformers#The Transformers: The Movie|Urban legends about ''The Transformers: The Movie''}}

==Reception==
''The Transformers: The Movie'' was almost universally panned by professional critics upon its release. Well-known film critic and animation enthusiast, Leonard Maltin, gave it a rating below 1 1/2 stars in his ''1987 Movie & Video Guide'', regarding it as a "bomb". He went on to say, "Obnoxious animated feature about the title good guys, who defend the universe against an evil planet (which has a voice of its own... provided by Orson Welles.) That deafening rock score certainly doesn't help. Little more than a feature-length toy commercial."

Over time, however, the movie has acquired something of a cult following beyond the core base of [[fandom|Transformers fans]], particularly among children of the 80s. It is sometimes screened as a midnight movie at colleges. Online, it is not hard to find amateur reviews lauding everything about it as utterly awesome, from the premise to the soundtrack, and dismissing more critical views out of hand.

To date, the budget of the film has not been disclosed—at least, not in any place the [[fandom]] has found. According to most box office tracking sites,<ref>http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=transformers.htm</ref><ref>http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1986/0TRTM.php</ref> ''The Transformers: The Movie'' made $5,849,647 in domestic (e.g., United States) theaters. Comparing this with other animated films of 1986, the results are not particularly charitable; while it did better financially than ''[[Tonka GoBots|GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords]]''<ref>http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=gobots.htm</ref> ($1,338,264) and ''Heathcliff: The Movie''<ref>http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=heathcliff.htm</ref> ($2,610,686), it performed worse than the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' movie<ref>http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mylittlepony.htm</ref> ($5,958,456) and the '''second''' ''Care Bears'' movie<ref>http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=carebearsmovie2.htm</ref> ($8,540,346). Bringing up ''The Great Mouse Detective''<ref>http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=greatmousedetective.htm</ref> ($25,336,794) and ''An American Tail''<ref>http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=americantail.htm</ref> ($47,483,002) would really just be overkill.

==Significance in Transfandom==
''The Transformers: The Movie'' remains one of the most important elements of the entire Transformers brand, both within the fiction and from the perspective of the brand's popularity and "mindshare".

Fictionally, it established several story concepts that have been used repeatedly in the years since 1986, some of which—such as Unicron and the Matrix—are now central to the entire Transformers mythos. The movie is also the centerpiece of the most well-known Transformers continuity: the Generation 1 animated universe. The ''Transformers'' cartoon is split into "pre-movie" and "post-movie" sections which feature different characters and settings, and even somewhat different visual styles. (Most pre-movie episodes were animated by the studio [[Toei]], while most post-movie episodes were animated by [[AKOM]].)

On a practical note, it was widely available on videotape, and remained so long after the ''The Transformers'' cartoon had gone off the air. Only a [[Family Home Entertainment|handful of series episodes]] were available on video, making ''The Transformers: The Movie'' the logical choice for someone looking to pick up a ''Transformers'' cartoon; this made it far more well-known among fans than any particular cartoon episode.

To an entire generation of young fans, the movie was the most visually spectacular and narratively epic ''Transformers'' experience of their entire youth. Events such as the death of Optimus Prime are widely reported to have reduced many kids to tears. It is hardly a surprise that these emotional experiences embedded themselves deeply in many fans' memories.

==Criticisms==
[[Image:TFTM Ratchet dies.jpg|180px|left|thumb|Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.]]

All this is not all to say that the movie is a "masterpiece", exactly. The film met with extremely harsh critical reviews on its release, and some of those criticisms still ring true today.

The film displays an arguably cynical attitude towards itself as [[To sell toys|a vehicle for advertising toys]], especially in the way beloved characters are killed—sometimes gratuitously—for sake of justifying the story's focus on a new group of toys. (Note that with the exception of Laserbeak and possibly Buzzsaw [http://www.flickr.com/photos/42232106@N06/3893688802] the poster at the top of this article features ''only'' new characters.)

Further, the two primary plot devices—[[Unicron]] and the [[Matrix]]—have no prior establishment in the fiction. Unicron is given no backstory or justification; he simply exists, is very dangerous, and is afraid of the Matrix, all for no adequately explained reason. The introduction of the Matrix itself is a heavy [[retcon]]. The story asks the audience to accept that this cosmically powerful artifact has been in Prime's possession all along (even though an X-ray of Optimus Prime's innards in the second season episode "[[A Prime Problem]]" show absolutely no signs of said Matrix), but has somehow never been relevant before. In fact, this lack of prior establishment is what led [[Simon Furman]] to develop the divinity backstory of Unicron and [[Primus]] in the UK comics run.

[[Image:Megatronlightsaber.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Your powers are weak, old man!]]
The movie bears many similarities to ''[[Star Wars]]'': There are several character-parallels ([[Springer (G1)|Springer]] is a [[Han Solo]]-type and [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] even has Princess Leia's hairdo!), the primary threat is similar (it's the [[Death Star]]... [[Unicron|but it transforms!]]), and both feature a climactic battle where the [[Hot Rod (G1)|young hero]] hears the voice of his [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|dead, wise mentor]] one last time before saving the day.

To be a bit more fair to ''The Transformers: The Movie'', however, most of these similarities are either superficial (Arcee's Leia-hair; Megatron's "lightsaber" he briefly uses in his duel against Optimus Prime) or can be seen as elements common to thousands of years worth of epic storytelling through human history, not just common to ''Star Wars''. As a simple example, the phenomenon of two charismatic leaders dealing each other mortal injuries in battle hearkens back to some versions of the "King Arthur" myth; in their final battle, [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Arthur]] and his arch-enemy [[Megatron (G1)|Sir Mordred]] deal one another lethal injuries and both apparently expire—though Arthur according to the legend will [[The Return of Optimus Prime|return]] when [[Cybertron (planet)|England's]] need [[Darkest hour|is greatest]].

==Formatting==
[[Image:Tftm widescreenesque.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The "widescreen" picture (left) actually ''cuts off'' the top and bottom of the fullscreen picture (right).]]
Although it was billed in some advertisements before its theatrical release as being "widescreen", the movie was in fact animated in a 4:3 (fullscreen) aspect ratio. For its theatrical screenings, the film was matted down in the projector by the projectionist to a 16:9 aspect ratio (widescreen), chopping the top and bottom off the picture, but all video transfers of the movie were done without mattes, meaning that there was actually more picture visible in the fullscreen video and DVD releases than there would have been in theaters. Across 2006 and 2007, new editions of the DVD of the film were released by Sony BMG and [[Metrodome]] which applied the mattes in order to replicate the original theatrical presentation of the film for the first time in home entertainment. Some fans, however, didn't realize that the film wasn't actually ''animated'' in widescreen, and, hearing that the DVD was to be in widescreen, expected to see the fullscreen image with additional footage at the sides, causing them to complain that the top and bottom were cut off, thereby totally missing the point.

==International versions==
{{main|The Transformers: The Movie/dubs}}

==Commercial Releases==
* The movie was originally released in North America on home video in 1987 by [[Family Home Entertainment]], minus Spike's swear. Not long after, it was releasd in the UK by [[Video Gems]]. This version featured the opening text crawl and closing narration inherent to the UK version of the film. In Australia, the film was releaed on video by RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts. In Japan, Hillcrane released a Laserdisc version alongside a VHS copy.
*The movie was released spottily in the '90s, beginning with a budget VHS by Avid Home Entertainment in 1991. [[Malofilm]] released a VHS in Canada in 1995, notable for being the first home entertainment version to include Spike's swear. In 1998, Japanese company Pioneer produced another pair of Laserdisc and VHS releases. In 1999, things kicked off when American company [[Kid Rhino]] secured the Transformers license and released the film on VHS once again.
*The 21st century's flirtation with ''The Transformers: The Movie'' started with a UK budget VHS release of that country's version by [[Sony|Sony Wonder]], distributed by [[Maverick Entertainment]]. A Japanese company called CatCo followed this up with a VideoCD, and Malofilm—now Seville—were the first to release a DVD version of the film, though it was just a dump of their VHS version.
*In November 2000, ''The Transformers: The Movie'' got its first, full professional DVD release from Kid Rhino. This edition, labelled a "Special Collector's Edition", is the first to feature remastered video and audio, and several special features, including storyboards and an interview with [[Vince DiCola]]. Rhino concurrently released this version on VHS, sans extras.
*In 2001 in the UK, Sony Wonder released their own much-delayed DVD version of the film. It was the UK version of the film, but included Spike's swear. However, the release was burdened by badly interlaced video, though it notably included the [[Omni Productions]] dub version of the ''[[The Headmasters (cartoon)|Headmasters]]'' episode "[[Four Warriors Come out of the Sky]]" as an extra. This version (including the ''Headmasters'' episode) was simultaneously released on VHS.
*The movie was released on DVD in Australia in 2003 by [[Madman Entertainment]], using the same video as the Maverick version, but distinguished by some nifty new cover art by [[Don Figueroa]], and special features not seen on other editions, such as ''[[Stan Bush|The Touch]]'' music video and 80s TV spots.
[[Image:Tftm uk covers.jpg|right|180px|thumb|The UK poster art (left) has been the most common DVD and VHS cover in its home country, but the Ultimate Edition featured new art by Andy Wildman (right).]]
*After acquiring the license to release ''Transformers'' DVDs in the UK, [[Metrodome]] focused on completing their run of series box sets before turning their attention to the movie properly, releasing only a cheap budget DVD of the UK version through Prism Leisure with no extras, and a UMD of the same version.
*In 2005, Metrodome released ''Transformers: The Movie - Reconstructed'', a new version of the film designed to expose as much of the animated picture as possible. This, however, only resulted in exposing the rough, unfinished edges of the animation, and an overly pale remaster was compounded by excessive interlacing due to an unnecessary NTSC to PAL transfer. This, coupled with a 5.1 remix from [[Magno Sound & Video]], featuring the same extra sound effects that they added to Rhino's season box sets, made this release both controversial and disappointing to many. This was the first time that the US version of the movie was released in the UK, and the first to feature the US poster art as a cover (although a Silverscreen store exclusive version of the disc included a reversible cover with the UK poster art as well). Extras include trailers, TV spots, the character biographies from the Madman release, and a subtitled version of "[[Four Warriors Come out of the Sky]]".
[[Image:Tftm sony covers.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Sony's covers, by Don Figueroa.]]
*For the movie's 20th anniversary in 2006, new license holder [[Sony|Sony BMG]] released a two-disc special edition of the film, featuring both a high-quality widescreen remaster and the original fullscreen version, audio commentaries from crew and fans, several new featurettes interviewing those involved in the movie's production, storyboards, tv spots, American and Japanese commercials and more. Most notably, this version included the first Western release of "[[Scramble City]]", albeit silent and unsubtitled, featuring only audio commentary. This release featured two covers by Don Figueroa: one is of the '84-'85 cast that appear in the movie, and one is of the movie's new characters, available either as a lenticular hologram that switches between the two, or as a reversible sleeve with the images printed on either side.
[[Image:Tftm madman covers.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Madman's 2003 DVD cover (left), and their 2007 Special Edition cover (right).]]
*Delayed a bit to coincide with the hype for the 2007 [[Transformers (2007)|live-action movie]], Metrodome also released a two-disc "Ultimate Edition" with a different widescreen master. Like "Reconstructed", this version used the US edition of the film, but this time, the UK version was also included, in fullscreen, on the second disc. Extras include TV spots, commercials, the Madman biographies, storyboards, commentary, Scramble City (with audio and subtitles), featurettes with [[Flint Dille]] and [[Peter Cullen]], and more. The double-disc edition was sold in a steel case featuring new art by [[Andrew Wildman]], with the UK poster art adorning the standard case inside. Various store exclusives were available, including postcards from Play.Com, a reversible cover with the US poster art from HMV, art cards from Virgin Megastore and [[posters]] from Woolworths and [[Toys"R"Us]]. It was also available in an extra-less single-disc version. This version was premiered at the Mid Ulster Film Festival in Ireland which was the only cinema showing of the remastered version of the film to date.
*The film was released in Full HD 1080p on Blu-ray in the UK in October 2007. The Blu-ray is not region-locked, so it will play anywhere in the world. It features a 2.0 soundtrack, 5.1 Dolby Digital track, and a full bitrate DTS 5.1 track. The master used was the same used by Sony for their US DVD. The picture is quite stunning and the sound very good. Sadly, there are no extras on the DVD. The version of the film on the Blu-ray is the US one, complete with swear word.
*Madman produced their two-disc special edition through some collaboration with Metrodome, and consequently it features much of the same content, with additional extras taking the form of The Touch music video and a bonus episode of ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]''. This release again features cover artwork by Don Figueroa, specifically the cover of [[IDW Publishing|IDW]]'s ''[[Transformers: The Animated Movie]]'' adaptation.

==Notes==
* This film was one of the last professional performances by [[Orson Welles]], if not the very last. According to production materials shown at [[BotCon 2000]] by Tim Finn, the voice recording sessions for ''The Transformers: The Movie'' were done on September 10 and 11 of 1985. Welles died on October 10 of that same year. It has often been speculated that Unicron's last line ("Destiny… you cannot destroy my destiny!") was recorded by another actor—possibly [[Leonard Nimoy|Nimoy]]—because it sounds different than the other lines. This speculation has been quashed by statements by Transformers voice director [[Wally Burr]].<ref>http://cybertronchronicle.freewebspace.com/60-astrominutes/wally_burr_3.html</ref>
[[Image:Windcharger wheeljack otp.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru!!]]

* With the exception of Starscream and possibly Shockwave, only the Autobots suffered fatalities in the movie. All of the other "dead" Decepticons from the Autobot City battle were rebuilt into Galvatron's new troops, and although more Decepticons were shown taking heavy damage and suffering huge casualties while fighting Unicron, their identities and their final condition are uncertain. Additionally, both Starscream and Unicron survived in the post-movie series in some form or another. Shockwave's death in the finished film is highly uncertain, although in the script it is fairly strongly implied. He does make some miscolored appearances in crowd shots in later cartoon episodes, but these are probably examples of the fairly common animation errors in those episodes.

* Somewhat ironically, though only three of the original eighteen Autobots - [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]], [[Cliffjumper (G1)|Cliffjumper]], and [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] - are definitively shown to have survived the movie, two would quite literally never be heard from again: [[Scatman Crothers]] passed away (though this didn't stop Jazz from making any number of background cameos) while Casey Kasem [[Casey Kasem#Trivia|quit the show early in the third season]]. Fate's finger is fickle indeed.

*[[:Image:TFTM-MaybeBeachcomber.jpg|A robot resembling Beachcomber]] appears alongside Spike and the Autobots inside Unicron seconds before Daniel blasts the acid cover. Whether this was actually meant to be Beachcomber or just coincidental coloring is unknown, but regardless, Beachcomber shows up alive and well in "[[Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5]]".

==External links==
* [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=transformers.htm ''The Transformers: The Movie'''s box office domestic gross.]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20080426020409/http://www.tftm.net/ ''The Transformers: The Movie'' "Unofficial Fansite", an extremely thorough site about the movie]
* [http://www.wombatking.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=4 ''The Transformers: The Movie'' deleted storyboards]

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transformers: The Movie}}

[[Category:Generation 1]]
[[Category:MSTF]]
[[Category:Real world films]]

Death

2009-12-30T13:00:11Z

76.26.184.183: /* Weaponsfire */

[[Image:Battleofautobotcity.jpg|right|300px|thumb|And lo, the children did weep.]]

''Transformers'' is a children's franchise, but at its core, it's a story of war. This means that the '''death''' of major and minor characters sometimes figures into the fiction.

Given the ambiguous nature of [[Transformer]] physiology, there is very little consistency regarding what is fatal to a Transformer, even within a single storyline. Damage that one Transformer might shrug off can prove fatal to another, or even to the same character in a different story. Sometimes just a laser blast or two will do the trick. Other times, characters survive being melted, crushed into cubes, and even utterly disintegrated. It does not take a terribly cynical viewer to conclude that the threshold of survival is generally determined by the needs of the plot.

The out-of-universe reasons for a character's death can vary from plot development to the arrival of [[To sell toys|new toys]]. Conveniently enough for writers who are beholden to the whims of a toy company, the majority of Transformers characters are machines, which means that death isn't necessarily permanent. Across the various universes, characters that appear to have been killed have been known to pop up alive again at a later date, or go through some sort of resurrection.

{{quote|"How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" 
"Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" 
"The humans don't understand! Our form of life is vastly different from theirs!"|[[Spider-Man]], [[Sparkplug Witwicky]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]|"[[Prisoner of War!]]"}}

==In-fiction causes of death==
[[Image:DEATH.jpg|left|thumb|400px|[[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] is just as puzzled as the rest of us.]]

There is little consistency in what can kill a Transformer. Sometimes it takes just a shot. Other times, even totally annihilating a Transformer's body still doesn't do the trick. Even the most basic method of killing, which is to destroy or otherwise cause the loss of a Transformer's [[spark]], varies quite a bit in its details from story to story, character to character, and series to series.
{{-}}
===Weaponsfire===
{{quote|This was almost too easy, Starscream!|[[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] (like the fandom) is surprised to find how easily Autobots die, ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''}}

[[Image:Tftm1986a.jpg|right|200px|thumb|We're here aboard the Autobot shuttle, where we've secretly replaced Brawn's hyper-dense metal armor plating with styrene plastic. Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.]]

[[Image:TFTM UltraMagnus dies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Prepare for your death today. Yer gonna die!!]]

[[Image:Magnusdeath.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ow! Hey! Cut it out, guys! That hurts!]]

[[Image:Blades1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Sorry, nameless guy, your generic nature means you will never be miraculously resurrected.]]

Like humans, Transformers can be killed by damage caused by energy, projectile, and chemical weapons. Just how many shots it takes is widely variable, however.

* In the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
** Many casualties of the [[Battle of Autobot City]] (and its run-up), including [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]], [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]], and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], were victims of energy weapons. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} This was quite a change from the cartoon's M.O., wherein the same characters routinely got shot and blasted all the time and shrugged it off, or at worst spent some time in the repair bay. Brawn and Prowl both went down after one shot.
** [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] subsequently "dies" after being shot a few times by the [[Sweep]]s, exploding into pieces. He is soon revived by the [[Junkion (species)|Junkions]], however. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Ultra Magnus dies ''again'', for real this time, after [[Sixshot]] shoots him a few times. {{storylink|Ultra Magnus Dies!!}}

* In the [[Marvel Comics continuity|Marvel comics]]:
** [[Impactor]] was cut down by a single head shot from [[Macabre]]. {{storylink|Target: 2006}}
** Most deaths in the ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel Comics)|Generation 2]]'' book occurred from energy weapons, such as [[Red Alert (G1)|Red Alert]], {{storylink|Devices and Desires! (Marvel)|Devices and Desires!}} as well as numerous generics. {{storylink|War Without End!}} Quite a few victims exploded spectacularly after being shot, including [[Tantrum]] {{storylink|The Gathering Darkness}}, [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]], [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] {{storylink|New Dawn}}, and [[Smokescreen (G1)|Smokescreen]]{{storylink|Escalation!}}.

* In the ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon:
** [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] dies after incurring severe damage from numerous [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] weapons. {{storylink|Code of Hero}} The apparent cause of his demise is his refusal to enter protective [[stasis lock]], as other characters have survived similar or worse levels of damage.
** [[Tigerhawk]] is disintegrated by the main cannon of the starship ''[[Nemesis (G1)|Nemesis]]''. The same cannon subsequently blasts [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] and [[Quickstrike (BW)|Quickstrike]], apparently killing them, though their "death" may be permanent simply because there was nobody around to put them back together. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 2}}

* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] dies holding back the [[Hydra Cannon]], the damage causing him to [[:Image:Sshot-arm-39-4.jpg|crumble to dust]]. {{storylink|Crisis|Crisis}}

* [[Dreamwave]] G1 comics: [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] is killed by an assassin's blast. {{storylink|The Age of Wrath issue 1}} He got better. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3}}

* [[Movie continuity]]: [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] and [[Blackout (Movie)|Blackout]] both died from weapons fire. [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] died when his own disc chop of his head. [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]] died when [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] ran his sword through his head. [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]] by ripping him in half.{{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}

{{-}}

===Big explosions===
{{bigquote|They're going to blow us all to pieces! [[Guardian (Marvel)|Guardian]]'s booby-trapped - packed with enough explosives to level this whole mountain!|[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], "[[The Wrath of Grimlock!]]"}}

Transformers characters often assume that explosions are more lethal than they really are; characters survive explosions all the time. An explosion's messy nature makes a good "out" for a writer to fake a character's death. {{storylink|The Wrath of Grimlock!}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Agenda (Part 2)}} Nevertheless, a few characters have been permanently killed by explosions. (This list omits characters who exploded from within, like Ultra Magnus up above.)

* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Straxus (G1)|Straxus]] was the victim of an interdimensionally triggered explosion that destroyed his body. (In UK continuity, he survived as a raggedy, bodiless head.) {{storylink|The Bridge to Nowhere!}}
** In an alternate future, a wounded [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] died in the fiery explosion of a crashing shuttlecraft. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** [[Finback]] was presumably killed in the explosion of a huge gun battery. [[Misfire]] tried to warn him off, and may have been killed in the same explosion. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}

* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon:
** [[Optimus Primal]] was blown to bits -- terminally so -- by the [[transwarp]] explosion that destroyed the [[Planet Buster]]. {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}}
** [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] was killed by the explosion that resulted from [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]]'s death (either his exploding spark, or the exploding energon shard that pierced it.) {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

* Several of the [[Beast Era]] [[Wrecker]]s ([[Sonar (BW)|Sonar]], [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]], the [[Deployer]]s) were destroyed when part of their ship exploded with them in it. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

===Impact trauma===
Falling off a cliff or mountainside or tall building is usually just as fatal to Transformers as it is to, say... Wile E. Coyote. Only on rare occasion does it result in death:
* Timelines: [[Hacksaw]] met his end by falling from a huge communications tower. {{storylink|The New World}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Doubledealer]] was shot, fell off a mountain and smashed to bits on impact. {{storylink|Spotlight: Doubledealer}}
* Movie continuity: [[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]] fell off the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] after losing his balance when his arm was shot off, and he shattered to pieces as he tumbled down. ''{{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}''
* The [[Beast]] fell off a cliff and shattered. {{storylink|The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences}} At least, we hope that's where and how it ended.

===Crushing===
[[Image:Edgeofextinction-hardheadbombburst.jpg|thumb|right|175px|DO NOT WANT]]
[[Image:TFAni TransWarped LongArm Cliffjumper Cube.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Before time began, there was... THE CUBE.]]

Quite a few characters have been crushed into deactivation:

* In the Marvel comics:
** [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] was smashed between [[Unicron]]'s palms, while [[Bomb-Burst]] and [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] all met this fate when they were stepped on by Unicron. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** [[Inferno (G1)|Inferno]] is apparently killed when a very large building collapses on top of him. {{storylink|Escalation!}}

* [[Unicron Trilogy]] cartoons:
** [[Thrust (Armada)|Thrust]] is killed when caught between two folding sections of Unicron's external armor. {{storylink|Union}}
** [[Shockblast (Energon)|Shockblast]] is crushed by Unicron's hand on [[Blizzard Planet]]. {{storylink|The Power}}
** His brother [[Six Shot]] meets a similar fate, crushed under the heel of a super-sized Galvatron. {{storylink|Galvatron Terror}}

* ''Animated'' cartoon: [[Blurr (Animated)|Blurr]] is (possibly) killed by a garbage compactor-like crushing device. (An "out" by writer [[Derrick J. Wyatt|Derrick Wyatt]] was intended to show his still-pulsing spark within his cubified remains, but this did not make it into the show, leaving his fate ambiguous at best.) {{storylink|TransWarped}}

===Melting===
[[Image:BW Scorponok Terrorsaur deaths.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Even having a new toy couldn't save Terrorsaur!]]

[[Image:Fallout title.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Primal's diet had gone horribly wrong.]]

They're made of metal; therefore, with enough heat or sufficiently acidic material, they can melt. This is one of the more fool-proof methods of killing a Transformer; few if any have survived it.

* In the G1 cartoon:
** An acid vat would apparently have been enough to destroy Optimus Prime. {{storylink|The Search for Alpha Trion}}
** Another acid vat was used to disintegrate living victims of Unicron. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comics:
** Victims of the Deception [[smelting pool]]s on Cybertron were reduced by intense heat into their base metals, including [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]]. {{storylink|The Smelting Pool!}}
** It is possible that an acid bath from (naturally) [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] offlined [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks]] [[Makin' Tracks!|(for a while anyway)]]. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] was partially melted by Unicron's flame-breath and subsequently died. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The [[Cybertronian (faction)|Cybertronian Empire]] used some kind of acid to rather messily eradicate some of their Decepticon ancestors, including [[Stranglehold]]. {{storylink|New Dawn}}

* In the Beast Era cartoons:
** [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] and [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] were apparently melted to death after tumbling into a lava pit within the [[Darksyde|Predacon base]]. {{storylink|Aftermath}}
** Optimus Primal's body was seemingly melted into the floor after his climactic face-off with [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]. Considering how many god-like forces were unleashed and conflicting during the battle, his demise may be due to more than simple temperature-induced melting. {{storylink|Fallout}}

===Incineration===
{{bigquote|I saw the end! They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!|[[Shawn Berger]], "[[Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2]]"}}

[[Image:Armada 52 - Prime hangon to Galvatron.jpg|right|175px|thumb|Galvatron died to save everyone and came back ''twice''—you lose, [[Jesus]]!]]

Plasma, energy fields, and stellar atmospheres can all utterly destroy a Transformer's body. Like being melted, being reduced to one's component molecules would seem to be a surefire way of getting killed, but quite a few characters seem able to survive the process as ghosts and/or disembodied sparks:

* Generation 1 cartoon: [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]]'s spectacular death at the hands of [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] might be categorized as incineration. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* Quite a few characters met this fate in the Unicron Trilogy, but all survived it in some fashion:
** [[Megatron (Armada)|Megatron]]'s spark persisted within his burnt-out body when he was dropped into the exploding Unicron. {{storylink|Mortal Combat}} {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}
** [[Demolishor (Armada)|Demolishor]]'s body was obliterated by an expanding energon grid, but his spark survived the process and was placed in a new body. {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}}
** [[Inferno (Energon)|Inferno]] was destroyed when he threw himself into a star, but his spark was salvaged by the Autobots and, again, placed in a new body. {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
** And finally, Megatron (Galvatron, whatever) threw himself into Primus's new energon sun to prevent Unicron from possessing him, killing himself yet again. This death was so inconsequential that his subsequent resurrection wasn't even explained! {{storylink|The Sun}}

===Consumption===
{{bigquote|...If we don't find the Matrix, some bad guy's gonna ''eat'' us! Right?|Longtooth, "[[Deadly Obsession]]"}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The shocking death of the barely-seen guys with hardly any lines!]]
[[Image:Rocky mecannibal bartender marvel uk 240.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Cannibalism is hilarious, kids!]]

Quite a few critters in the multiverse are equipped to devour giant robots. Being eaten (and, presumably, digested) generally proves fatal:
* In the G1 cartoon:
** Various life forms were routinely devoured by the [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]s on Quintessa. This included [[Kranix]], a mechanical life form, though not a Transformer. [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] and [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] would have suffered this fate as well, but fought their way free. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}
** Quite a few Transformers found their way into Unicron's gullet, though many survived the experience. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}}

* In the Marvel comic:
** The [[Mecannibal]]s ate robots routinely, including quite a few Transformers during their sojourn on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} {{storylink|Out to Lunch!}} There is some indication that they could actually reconstitute their victims from their "recycled" parts, though this is never explicitly shown. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
** Unicron skewered [[Brainstorm]] and ate him. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The subsurface-dwelling [[demon]]s devoured [[Runabout]]. {{storylink|On the Edge of Extinction!}}
** The Swarm "devoured" innumerable Cybertronian troopers and a handful of older-generation Transformers as well, though this was through a molecular process almost akin to incineration. {{storylink|Swarm (issue)|Swarm}} {{storylink|Total War!}} {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* The Sharkticons killed two of the [[Mutant (BW)|Mutant]]s by gobbling them up. Or ripping them apart. Or both. We don't really know. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

===Disassembly===
[[Image:Jazz DyingAction.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"HERE'S what I think of your resemblance to your G1 counterpart!"]]

Taking a Transformer apart into its component parts can occasionally kill them:
* Marvel comics: [[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] met this fate in an alternate future, when Swoop used a machine to pull him apart into his component pieces. {{storylink|Another Time and Place}}
* Movie continuity: Being ripped in half killed [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]]. {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}}

===Decapitation===
{{main|Decapitation}}

[[Image:Cyclonus death.jpg|thumb|right|150px| "CHUK!" is good, but I could really go for a "Shakkooosh" right about now.]]

Sometimes cutting a Transformer's head off is fatal. Sometimes!
* In the Marvel comics:
** The Megatron clone killed Cyclonus by ripping his head off. {{storylink|Dry Run!}}
** Several of the Wreckers were killed by having their heads ripped or blasted off, including Twin Twist and Topspin, respectively. {{storylink|Time Wars}}
** [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] died after having his head cut off by a propeller fired by [[Leadfoot]]. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}

* In the movie continuity:
** Characters frequently die by decapitation of some form: [[Bonecrusher (Movie)|Bonecrusher]], {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} [[Grindor (ROTF)|Grindor]], and [[The Fallen]]. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
** Decapitation was an inconvenience for [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]] the first time. The second time, when the blow only removed ''most'' of his head rather than all of it, was fatal.

===Vivisection===
[[Image:VictoryUKAnnual.JPG|thumb|right|150px| Ahhhh, there we go...]]

{{bigquote|I have no desire to be carved up into Auto-sushi.|Tracks, "[[Make Tracks]]"}}

Getting chopped in half is pretty graphic for a kids' story, even one about robots, so it doesn't happen very often.
* Marvel comics: In a dream sequence, [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]] slices [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in half, killing him. {{storylink|Victory!}}
* Japanese G1 cartoon: [[Predaking]] gets sliced in half by Dai Atlas. The strike dissects what appears to be an organic brain in his head. {{storylink|Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!}}
* ''Beast Wars Metals'': Terrorsaur was killed by being sliced in half by Primal's mace. {{storylink|Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!}}
* Movie continuity: [[Sideways (ROTF)|Sideways]] dies when [[Sideswipe (ROTF)|Sideswipe]] slices his car mode in two. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}

===Destruction of brain===
{{bigquote|Next strike in the neural cluster, yes? Weakest spot on ''all'' Transformers...|[[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], "[[Fire on High!]]"}}

In the early days of the franchise, a Transformer's life force was sometimes understood to be entirely contained within their [[brain module]], most prominently in the Marvel comics. Destroying the brain would kill the Transformer. This premise was eventually passed over in favor of the more esoteric concept of [[spark]]s.

* In the Marvel comics:
** In an alternate future, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] is blasted by [[Death's Head (G1)|Death's Head]], who kills him by extracting and crushing his brain module. {{storylink|The Legacy of Unicron!}}
** The [[Throttlebot]]s ''avoid'' death by having their brain modules removed from their bodies shortly before their bodies are destroyed (by crushing). {{storylink|Toy Soldiers!}}

===Destruction of spark===
{{bigquote|RAW energon! Right through your twisted spark!|Depth Charge to Rampage, "[[Nemesis Part 1]]"}}

[[Image:Skyfallwontbethereforit.jpg|thumb|right|200px| ]]

Getting stabbed right through the spark is almost always fatal:
* In ''Beast Wars'': The supposedly immortal Rampage was killed when Depth Charge pierced his spark with an energon blade. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}
* Timelines: [[Skyfall (Cybertron)|Skyfall]] died when [[Alpha Trion (SG)|Alpha Trion]] rammed his sword right through his chest. {{storylink|Transcendent: Part 6}}
* Cybertron: Galvatron died after being impaled with [[Rhisling]] by Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Unfinished}}
* Movie continuity: Optimus Prime died from a stab wound through the chest. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
* In ''Beast Machines'' continuity: [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] -- already reduced to a spark within the matrix -- ceased to be when Megatron annihilated his spark from existence. {{storylink|Singularity Ablyss}}
* [[Transformers (Titan Magazine)|Titan's Movie comics]]: Transformers have forcefields shielding their sparks, which can be externalised to protect bodywork. Jazz loved doing this, leaving him far more vulnerable to death by destruction of spark than he would otherwise be. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 6|Lost in Space 4: Jazz}}

===Loss of spark===
{{bigquote|Warning. Further expenditure will result in permanent loss of spark. Stasis lock ''must'' commence.|[[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]]'s internal computer, "[[Code of Hero]]"}}

Sometimes sparks can survive outside of a body; sometimes they cannot. In the Beast Era, there is some indication that a spark left outside a body will soon begin to return to the Matrix/All Spark/another dimension.
* When Dinobot expires after his final battle, his Spark is seen exiting his body. The implication is that a sufficiently damaged body can no longer hold a spark within this dimension. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}
* ''Beast Machines'' subsequently showed living sparks existing outside of bodies on a regular basis. The sparkless bodies were simply considered shells, rather than "dead".
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Prowl dies when he intentionally relinquishes his own spark. {{storylink|Endgame, Part II}}
* ''Movie'': Jetfire rips out his own spark in Revenge of The Fallen to give Optimus a fighting chance.

===Energy overload===
{{bigquote|We may need energon for power, but this is too much of a good thing.|[[Optimus Primal]], "[[Beast Wars (Part 1)]]"}}

[[Image:TFAnimated transformandrollout DEATH.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Death — the Optimus version of a power nap.]]
[[Image:Underbaseallmine.jpg|thumb|right|200px|He's got an Underbase in his underpants.]]

The average [[Human]] needs a lot of [[water]] to survive. But too much water results in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication a horrible death]. Similarly, Transformers need energy to survive, but too much of it can be a very bad thing. Sometimes it's just plain old energy; other times it some special god-like force that does them in.

* In the Marvel comics:
** An [[Underbase]]-empowered Starscream slaughtered dozens of Transformers with energy blasts, {{storylink|Dark Star}} which reportedly burned out millions of their microchips. {{storylink|Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner?}} Some Transformers were seen to recover from these attacks, either via conventional repairs {{storylink|All the Familiar Faces!}} or through the power of [[nucleon]]. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
** Starscream himself was killed when he absorbed all the energies of the Underbase. {{storylink|Dark Star}}
** [[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] was apparently killed when struck by a blast of energy from the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], though the physical effect was more like being hit by an especially powerful laser blast. {{storylink|All Fall Down (issue)}}

* ''Masterforce'' cartoon: [[Sixknight]] died from an overcharge of BlackZarak's Devil Power. {{storylink|Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runabout]] dies when one of the [[Reaper]]s zaps him full of energy, causing him to explode from within. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* Movie continuity: [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] was killed when [[Sam Witwicky]] shoved the [[AllSpark (Movie)|All Spark]] into his chest.
* ''Animated'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] got caught in an explosion of [[AllSpark (Animated)|AllSpark]] energy that may have been sufficient to kill him, although he also fell off a very tall building immediately afterwards (Starscream was caught in the same explosion and survived, but was knocked offline for an unspecified period.)

===Energy depletion===
On rare occasion, Transformers can simply run out of energy completely and expire.
* Marvel comics: the ancient [[Overlord (rank)|Overlord]] died from a lack of energy. {{storylink|State Games}}
* In the movie continuity, [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] explains that a lack of energon causes the Transformer equivalent of aging, such as rusting joints, mental confusion, and pieces falling apart, followed by an indefinite period of stasis that can only be reversed by an infusion of Allspark energy.

==Limbo==
IDW comics: Megatron severely damaged Optimus Prime in battle and planned on finishing him off by crushing his [[spark core]]. Optimus Prime feigned death by downloading his "consciousness" into his [[Combat Deck|trailer section]]. His [[Brain Center|robot mode]] then appeared dead to Megatron so he never actually went through the trouble of actually crushing Prime's spark core. In the time it took for Prime's consciousness to transfer to his trailer, he briefly entered [[infraspace|limbo]], the transitional infraspace between life and death. {{storylink|Escalation (IDW)|Escalation}}

==Non-fatal deactivation==
{{quote|"You mean he's still alive?!"     "No! But neither is he what you would term 'dead'!"|[[Spider-Man]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], "[[Prisoner of War!]]"}}

[[Image:Zombiesbackfromthedead.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Braiiiiiin mooooodulllllles....]]

For almost every single cause of death listed above, there's been one or more Transformers who have survived it, sometimes without so much as a period of unconsciousness.

In particular, "deactivation" is the Transformers equivalent of being in a coma. Numerous Transformers are seen to enter this state and eventually recover, such as the Autobots deactivated by Shockwave {{storylink|The Last Stand}}, who are later were repaired. However, the line between death and deactivation is a blurry one. Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably, even in reference to characters who are later revived. Most of Starscream's Underbase victims were described as deactivated, and were sometimes lamented as "dead" while at other times were shown undergoing repairs. {{storylink|Back from the Dead}} {{storylink|Gone but Not Forgotten!}} {{storylink|The Gathering Storm}}

"[[Stasis lock]]" would eventually give a more concrete name to the state of deactivation. The inert Transformers on the crashed Ark were retconned as being in stasis lock. Various ''Beast Wars'' characters would go into stasis lock to maintain their spark when their body had sustained too much damage from weaponsfire or energon absorption. ''Animated'' showed a crew of Autobots voluntarily entering protective stasis lock in anticipation of a crash landing.

Some of the quasi-fatal things which can cause a Transformer to "deactivate" include:

===Impact trauma===
Smashing into something usually knocks out a Transformer, but almost never actually kills them:
* The crew of the original Ark is deactivated when the ship crashes on Earth and lies inert for 4 million years {{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1}} {{storylink|The Transformers (issue)}}
* Marvel comics: [[Gears (G1)|Gears]] falls to his "death", but is patched together and talking again in short order. {{storylink|Prisoner of War!}}

===Decapitation===
[[Image:Sentinelprimeanimatedhumiliated.jpg|thumb|200px|In the movie continuity, this would've been fatal. In ''Animated'', it's just embarrassing.]]

{{bigquote|Anyone who can lop your head off in one blow is alright by me!|[[Landmine (G1)|Landmine]] jokes about [[Cloudburst]]'s near-death experience, "[[Recipe for Disaster!]]"}}

Like we said before, decapitation is sometimes fatal... and other times it isn't.
* Marvel comic:
** Optimus Prime was able to survive as just a head when Shockwave separated it from his body in an effort to get the Creation Matrix. {{storylink|The New Order}}
**[[Cloudburst]] was abruptly decapitated by sword, but was just fine after some repairs. {{storylink|Recipe for Disaster!}}
* G1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was disassembled into his component parts, but functioned just fine as nothing more than a head once [[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] connected a few wires. {{storylink|City of Steel}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] survives having his head blasted or otherwise knocked off multiple times {{storylink|Spider's Game}} {{storylink|Other Voices, Part 2}} {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)}} {{storylink|Code of Hero}}, and even put it back on himself one time. He even accidently swapped heads with Megatron once. Megatron was not amused. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* IDW G1 continuity: [[Runamuck (G1)|Runamuck]] was just fine when one of the Reapers whacked his head off. (He didn't fare so well when another Reaper crushed his head with a boulder, however.) {{storylink|Devastation issue 6}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: Decapitated victims of the ''Animated'' [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] rarely show any ill effects other than not having a body anymore. {{storylink|Headmaster (episode)|Headmaster}} {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}} {{storylink|A Bridge Too Close, Part II}}

===Dismemberment===
Transformers get ripped to pieces all the time, and recover from it:
* Marvel comic: Scorponok tears [[Tantrum]] to pieces. [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] slices [[Horri-Bull]] in half at the waist. Both are seen alive later on. {{storylink|Cold War!}}

===Spark removal===
{{bigquote|His spark can't exist outside a living body!|[[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]], "[[Optimal Situation]]"}}

A Transformer's spark -- their "soul", their living essence -- can be removed from their body, or the body can be destroyed around them
* The destruction of Starscream's body, and his subsequent survival as a ghost, was eventually retconned to be his Spark enduring without a physical form. {{storylink|The Transformers: The Movie}} {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}}
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Tigatron and Airazor's sparks spent quite some time wandering around behind Tigerhawk, before combining and entering his body. {{storylink|Other Victories}}

* In the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon:
** Megatron de-sparked most of Cybertron's population and stored their sparks in a big barrel. Most were restored to bodies eventually. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future}}
** Blackarachnia's spark wandered around bodiless for a time. {{storylink|Revelations Part III: Apocalypse}}
** Megatron himself, his spark in a depolarized state, wandered the surface of Cybertron without a body for a time. {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}

The treatment of bodiless sparks in ''Beast Machines'' is seen by some fans as contradicting the canon established by ''Beast Wars'', particularly the quote above.

==Resuscitation==
Robots are machines. They can be switched off, taken apart, blown to bits, and put back together. Ergo, in many continuities and cases, "death" is not nearly as permanent a condition as it is for us fragile fleshy types.

===Reconstruction===
[[Image:PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg|thumb|right|250px| ]]

{{quote|I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!|A random Quintesson, "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1]]"}}

* Generation 1 cartoon: Optimus Prime was simply ''repaired'' back to life by a Quintesson. Some fixing of this and that, a burst of power, and boom, suddenly he was alive again. {{storylink|The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1}}
* Marvel Comics: Optimus Prime's mind was encoded on a disk. After a new [[Powermaster]] body was constructed for him, the disk's contents were loaded into it, and Optimus Prime lived again. (One wonders why they couldn't make as many Optimus Primes as they pleased.) {{storylink|People Power!}}

===Spark transfer===
Transferring a Transformer's spark into a new body constitutes a form of resurrection, particularly if the Transformer's previous body was destroyed.
* ''Beast Wars'' cartoon: Optimus Primal was restored to life when Rhinox managed to recall his spark from the Matrix, a special circumstance only enabled by a temporary window into transwarp space. {{storylink|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Inferno and Demolishor both had their bodies ''atomized''; however, their sparks both survived, and were placed into new bodies. (The upshot is that it's nigh-impossible to kill a Unicron Trilogy Transformer.) {{storylink|Go for Unicron!}} {{storylink|Farewell Inferno}}
* ''Animated'' cartoon: The spark of a dying [[Yoketron]] was placed into a new protoform body by [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]]; however, Yoketron consciously chose to let his life end, and expired anyway. {{storylink|Five Servos of Doom}}

==="Magical" substances===
* Marvel Comics: The miraculous healing properties of Nucleon brought many Autobots back to life, as well as a few Decepticons. {{storylink|The Void! (US)}}
* ''Energon'' cartoon: Megatron was revived by the all-encompassing power of energon, as was Unicron. {{storylink|Megatron Resurrected}}

===Primus and Primus-related powers===
{{quote|Where the Last Autobot is concerned, even death, it would appear, is an abstract concept!|Optimus Prime explains his latest revival, "[[End of the Road! (US)|End of the Road!]]"}}

Anything tied to the primordial life-force of the Transformers' god Primus tends to be a cure-all for death. This includes Primus himself, his various power-wielding avatars and servants, and the assorted Matrixes and Allsparks, all of which can deliver an infusion of the essence of life itself. In some continuities, this is parsed as a Transformer's spark being brought back out of the Allspark dimension.

[[Image:RageInHeaven-HeroPrime.jpg|thumb|right|150px| ]]

* In the Marvel comics:
** The [[Last Autobot]] was granted the power of recreation by Primus, which he used to raise numerous fallen Autobots from the battlefield. {{storylink|End of the Road! (US)}}
** Optimus Prime was eager to find the lost Creation Matrix, stating that it would be able to restore many deactivated warriors to life. {{storylink|Bird of Prey!}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the [[Swarm (G2)|Swarm]] after it had ingested the energies and knowledge of the Matrix. {{storylink|A Rage in Heaven!}}
* In the movie continuity:
** The Allspark is shown repeatedly to be capable of restoring just about anything. Frenzy gets a whole new body from its power, {{storylink|Transformers (2007)}} and Megatron is restored to life by merely a fragment of it. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)}}
** Optimus Prime was restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership, an Allspark-related talisman.
* ''Beast Machines'' cartoon: [[Optimus Primal]]'s body was destroyed, but the All Spark granted him the choice of uniting with it or being reborn. He chose the latter, and ''poof'', just walked right out of the Oracle bubble in a brand new version of his previous body. {{storylink|Fallout}}
* ''Armada'' cartoon: [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] was brought back to life by the power of the [[Mini-Con]]s after his body was disintegrated. {{storylink|Miracle|Miracle}}

===Zombies===
* Dude, [[zombie]]s!

==Immortality==
===Immortal sparks===
Certain sparks have mutant qualities that allow them to, potentially, exist forever.
* Starscream survived his death at the hands of Galvatron; this was later explained as him having a "mutant indestructible spark". {{storylink|Starscream's Ghost}} {{storylink|Possession}} {{storylink|Bad Spark}}
* [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]] was created as an attempt to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark. {{storylink|Bad Spark}} He was eventually killed by [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]], so the attempt may be seen as unsuccessful. {{storylink|Nemesis Part 1}}

===Other===
* [[Multiversal singularity|Multiversal singularities]] such as [[Unicron]] and [[The Fallen]] can be killed off in one dimension, only to still be alive and well in another (or many others), due to the varying properties of different dimensions (reverse-time, dimensions, for example are key to revival of the singularities).
* ''Animated'' [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] could not be killed so long as he retained his Allspark fragment embedded in his forehead.
* Denizens of the [[Dead Universe]] could essentially regenerate themselves out of nothing, no matter how much damage was inflicted on them.
* [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] can never completely die no matter what for some reason.

==Out-of-fiction causes of character death==
===Drama / character culmination===
At its best, character death can be a moving plot development, the fruition of an ongoing character arc.
* Suspecting that they would have to remove a character from the show, the writers of ''Beast Wars'' began planning for Dinobot's death several episodes ahead of time. Thus, when it came, it was the outcome of the character's own choices, flaws, and history, and played a crucial role in the show's plot.
* Sunstreaker's death in ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' is intended to follow a similar style of arc... only it's missing the whole choices, flaws and history thing. Oh well!
* Optimus Primal's death(s) in ''Beast Machines'' are likewise the outcome of his own choices and character. His death in ''Beast Wars'', by contrast, was more a moment of dramatic pathos -- knowingly walking into danger, his enemy got the better of him.

===Consequences of war===
It's hard to take a war story seriously when nobody actually dies. The reality of war can be more readily portrayed when characters die. [[Generic]]s are particularly handy for this, allowing death to be shown while not removing primary characters (retail toys!) from the story.
* Impactor's death was used to drive home the threat of the Decepticons as well as the risks taken by the Autobots and their commanders.
* The ''Generation 2'' book featured several deaths which drove home the realities of war. Most notably, Red Alert's destruction served to make Grimlock acutely aware of just how badly he'd screwed up.

===Increased threat===
An enemy that kills is an enemy to be taken seriously. Thus a writer will frequently throw in some preliminary deaths to point out how seriously the bad guy should be treated.
* The generic who dies at the beginning of "[[City of Fear!]]" serves to show the zombies as a true life-threatening menace.
* Likewise for Runabout's death at the hands of the demons; knowing they can devour a Transformer makes the reader more concerned about the Dinobots' subsequent fate.

===Cast thinning===
Transformers stories are notorious for acquiring gigantic casts as they roll on; Generation 1 was particularly notorious for this because of its longevity. A simple way to make things more manageable was simply to kill off large numbers of characters in battle. Examples are rife in the fiction, especially the Marvel Comics.

* In the Marvel comics:
** The "[[Time Wars]]" storyline got rid of the [[Wrecker]]s and quite a few Decepticons as well.
** The [[Underbase Saga]] even more explicitly cleared out dozens of characters, leaving perhaps 2 dozen characters from each faction in the story.
** The battle with Unicron in "[[On the Edge of Extinction!]]" likewise got rid of a lot of older characters, leaving the story free to concentrate on more of a core cast (and associated newer toy characters.)
* [[Betrayal|Wreckers #2]] dealt with its oversized cast by killing off scads of characters right up front.

===Clear space for new toys===
{{main|To sell toys}}

Some fiction has an inherently limited capacity for characters. ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines'' are by far the most prominent examples; their CGI animation made character animation expensive and necessiated removing an old character before a new one could be brought in. But any medium can be susceptible to this toy-driven phenomena.
* The numerous casualties of "[[The Transformers: The Movie]]" were fairly explicitly removed from the story to make way for a wave of new toy/characters.
* Terrorsaur and Scorponok had to be removed -- quickly -- to make room for the two upcoming Fuzor characters, hence their sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it death in "[[Aftermath]]".
* Airazor and Tigatron were removed for similar reasons. When their plot was finally resolved, it was, surprise, via [[Tigerhawk|a new toy]]!

==Fleshling death==
In general, ''Transformers'' fiction is pretty squeamish about showing the deaths of Earth's organic creatures. But it's a war, and sometimes it does happen. The out-of-universe reasons generally fall into three categories: Consequences of War, Emotional Pathos, and BLOOD IZ KEWL.

The various cartoons tend to show organic death the least, as they are most clearly aimed at, and easily accessible by, children. Comics tend to be less reluctant to show the impact of the Transformers' war on innocent lives, though the death rate varies by series. Latter-day Generation 1 books especially revel in high body counts, because squishing stupid humans is killer and awesome and radical and hardcore. Even the occasional [[Satellite of Doom|children's storybook]] has been known to off mass quantities of the dumb fleshies.

===Animal death===
[[Image:MurderedPuppy02.jpg|right|150px|thumb|One dead dog]]

[[Image:Sparkwar3 Dead noble.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two dead dogs]]

Cute little animals are almost always killed off for reasons of Emotional Pathos:
* A little girl's pet puppy named [[Pis]] barked at [[Wilder]] and was kicked so hard he died. {{storylink|Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules}}

* The [[Murdered puppy]] was shot down by the Decepticons after running away from Megatron's experiments. {{storylink|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8}}

* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] once reminded [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] that [[The Fallen]] once shot down a ship full of [[Antilian bumble-puppy|Antilian bumble-puppies]]. (Decepticons have a thing for killing puppies.)

* The puppy-like [[Noble]] was shot at by [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] because of his hatred for organics {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege}} and was later mourned by his "owner", [[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]] {{storylink|Spark of Darkness}}.

* A stray shot from [[Tigatron]] accidentally caused an avalanche which killed his friend [[Snowstalker]]. {{storylink|Law of the Jungle}}

* "[[Law of the Jungle]]" also portrays the deaths of four different forest animals (a bug is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is taken off to be eaten by a bird. Later, an orange tiger kills an antelope). This is a rare "Consequences of War" example.

* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] also once ate an eagle, {{storylink|Power Surge}} while Tarantulas ate a cute little rat {{storylink|Victory (episode)|Victory}}, and nearly ate an antelope as well. {{storylink|Code of Hero}}

* In order to save [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]], [[Silverbolt (BW)|Silverbolt]] had to fight a saber-toothed tiger off a cliff killing it. {{Storylink|Bad Spark}}

* [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Elita-1]] used [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel]]'s shield to knock a spikey rock onto a giant spider effectively killing it. She later used [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus]]' axe to kill some new born baby spiders. {{Storylink|Along Came a Spider}}

===Human death===
[[Image:Razorclawshootsahuman.jpg|right|thumb|250px|This didn't happen much.]]

* Marvel US: The [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|original Marvel book]] ignored or glossed over human casualties, which were rarely if ever shown; the panel at right, from [[Toy Soldiers!|US #37]], shows a ''very'' unusual instance of a human dying right in front of us. One of the few human(oid)s to die on-panel was [[Galen]], killed off to make way for [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. ''[[Generation 2 (Marvel Comics)|Generation 2]]'' was much more explicit about human death, as Bludgeon and later [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] attacked Earth for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
* Marvel UK: The UK-original stories were much less reluctant to show human death; within the first year or so, humans had died in Autobot-induced car wrecks and at the hands of mind-controlled Autobots.
* In every US-aired cartoon series, humans essentially ''never'' die. Even ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'', which features the city of [[Detroit]] getting smashed by robot battles virtually every week, never once mentions humans getting killed.
* Contemporary toyline-based comics (''[[Armada (Dreamwave comic)|Armada]]'', ''[[Energon (comic)|Energon]]'') seem to follow a similar policy, avoiding mention of human death -- even when human cities are being directly attacked, as in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
* Japanese cartoons, by contrast, don't seem to mind showing human deaths (or [[Pis|dog deaths]], for that matter).
* The [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave G1 comics]] really thought it was totally awesome and cool and radical to kill off those stupid humans. Thus, they start off with Megatron smushing some stupid humans. More smushing and killing and blowing up follows. DIE, dumb stubbies, DIE!
* [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW comics]] managed to avoid this for a long time, showing human death only when it was particularly integral to the plot... then ''[[All Hail Megatron]]'' came down the pike. DIE, stupid fleshies, DIE!
* The live-action [[movie continuity]] implies a great deal of human death. ''Revenge'' mentions a body count of over 9,000, and massive damage is done during the battle of [[Mission City]]), though little of it is shown on screen. And of course, the first film begins with Blackout wiping out an entire military base. A handful of humans are killed directly on-screen, most notably [[Patrick Donnelly|Donnelly]].
* The alternate timeline arc in Titan's Movie comic featured big wars on Earth and lots of destruction, clearly ''insinuating'' human death while not being explicit. The exceptions were in [[Transformers Comic issue 10|issue 10]], where [[NATO]] is said to be suffering losses of 11,506 and the [[France|Palais Bourbon]] is blown up when people are still clearly inside. [[Sam Witwicky]], meanwhile, was stated to have died.

==Characters who die a lot==
* [[The many deaths of Optimus Prime|Optimus Prime]]
* [[Dirge (G1)]] — the unlucky guy who gets [[:Image:Dirge DeathSerpentor.jpg|killed]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathSwarm.jpg|off]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathTimelines.jpg|in]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathUnicron.jpg|many]] [[:Image:Dirge DeathArmada.jpg|continuities]]
* [[Quake (G1)|Quake]] — the unlucky guy who gets killed over and over in the same continuity, but doesn't seem to mind.
* [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] — the unlucky guy from ''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' who gets sliced, diced, and fricasseed every other episode only to be fully functional in time to get [[Slag (slang)|slagged]] ''again''.
* [[Cy-Kill (disambiguation)|Cy-Kill]], a Go-Bots character transferred to many Transformers comics just to be killed off violently. For no other reason than the lolz of ending his toyline, his universe, and finally his life...repeatedly.
* [[Sentinel Prime (G1)]] — the unlucky [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime lou.jpg|who]] [[:Image:Sentinel prime dw.jpg|must]] [[Megatron Origin issue 4|die]].

==See also==
* [[Transformer funerary practices]]
* [[To sell toys]]

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Transformer anatomy]]

The Rebirth, Part 1

2009-12-30T12:38:46Z

76.26.184.183: /* Quotes */

{{episode
|image=Rebirth 1 title shot.JPG
|caption="Guys, I'm serious, we need a water cooler in here to converse about." "Damn it, Goldbug, we're robots. We don't drink water."
|series=G1toon
|ep=96
|title="The Rebirth, Part 1"
|written by=[[David Wise]]
|animation studio=[[AKOM]]
|production code=6701-1
|airdate=[[November 9]], 1987
|production company=[[Sunbow Productions]]
|continuity=[[Generation 1 cartoon continuity]]
}}

'''Galvatron invades Autobot City and then Cybertron with a plan to destroy the Autobots forever! This is something new?'''

:''Japanese title:'' ("The Headmasters Are Born")
:''German title:'' '''Die Wiedergeburt, Teil 1''' ("The Rebirth, Part 1")

==Synopsis==
[[Goldbug (G1)|Goldbug]] is talking with the [[Technobot (G1)|Technobot]]s at [[Autobot City]]. Things have been quiet for the [[Autobot]]s in the months since the return of [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]] and the [[Hate Plague]] crisis. Not a word has been heard of the [[Decepticon]]s in months. Who knows where they are. The answer? Right at their doorstep. Meanwhile, [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] walks into a room to find Optimus on his knees. Optimus claims that he has been having visions since he opened the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]], and it's something big. Goldbug informs Optimus of the approaching Decepticon force, and Optimus realizes that what ever he's been sensing, it's starting right now.

[[Image:Rebirth 1 Autobots Decepticons fight.JPG|left|200px|thumb|A truly epic battle.]]

Leading the Autobots out, the Decepticons attack. The Technobots and the [[Throttlebot]]s take point, but the Decepticons have gotten some new raw power in [[Apeface]] and [[Snapdragon]], while [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]] has some fun with [[Lightspeed (Technobot)|Lightspeed]]. However, [[Punch (G1)|Punch]] sees [[Wingspan]] and [[Pounce]] enter into Autobot City. [[Transformation|Transforming]] into Counterpunch, he follows to check up on their progress, where he sees them steal something from the vaults. The Clones quickly dispatch Punch, and take their prize to [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]]. Having claimed what they wanted, [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] orders a retreat. Optimus, realizing this was a diversion, runs into Autobot City, finding Punch and the vault. Horrified, Optimus orders everyone to board the ships and head for [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]].

On Cybertron, [[Blurr (G1)|Blurr]] is racing with [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]], with [[Daniel Witwicky (G1)|Daniel]] riding in Hot Rod. Blurr, however, loses control, while Daniel shoots several Decepticon targets and wins the race. [[Brainstorm]] claims that this is evidence of his theory that human partners would be able to assist the Autobots in the war with the Decepticons. [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] and [[Cerebros (G1)|Cerebros]] are unsure of the idea. However, Optimus contacts the Autobots, telling them Galvatron stole the [[Key to the Plasma Energy Chamber|Key]] to the [[Plasma Energy Chamber]]. This was the forge which was used to create the bodies of the original Autobots. Since the [[Quintesson]] rebellion, the key has been in the safekeeping of the Autobot leaders, who have been tasked with guarding the key with their [[Spark|lives]]. However, Galvatron intends to open the chamber and destroy Cybertron. The Decepticons arrive, and chaos ensues. The [[Aerialbot (G1)|Aerialbots]] are quickly taken down by [[Sixshot]].

[[Image:Rebirth 1 Plasma energy Scourge.JPG|right|200px|thumb|Scourge never gets a break.]]

During the onslaught, Kup and Hot Rod's team notice Scourge heading for the Plasma Energy Chamber. They pursue in an attempt to stop him, but when Scourge opens the chamber, he is nearly killed, but Spike and Cerebros manages to grab the key. The Autobots' ship is hit by a wave of energy from the Plasma Energy Chamber. Their ship is hurled off Cybertron itself. Discovering Scourge, the Decepticons reactivate him. Scourge explains what happened, and a team under [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]] heads out to find the Autobots with the key.

[[Image:Rebirth 1 Hive machines.JPG|left|200px|thumb|Oh, this is not going to end well...]]

Meanwhile, the Autobot ship crashes on Nebulon. With the engines fried, the Autobots and the Witwickys decide to look for civilization. They're soon spotted by [[Duros]] and [[Pinpointer (G1)|Pinpointer]], who assume the Autobots are machines controlled by the [[Hive (G1)|Hive]] and alert the rest of their resistance group. The group soon captures the Autobots, and plans to destroy the Autobots with magnetic bombs, even though Spike tries to talk them down. However, the Decepticons show up. Spike finally convinces the Nebulons to release the Autobots. In the subsequent battle, Daniel is injured by Snapdragon, and Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, [[Crosshairs (G1)|Crosshairs]], and [[Sureshot (G1)|Sureshot]] are taken captive. Some of the Autobots pursue them into the forest, but are quickly driven off by machines.

[[Image:Rebirth 1 Autobot heads.JPG|right|200px|thumb|"This will haunt me until the day I die..."]]

Back at the cave, [[Arcana]] and [[Firebolt]] manage to stabilise Daniel's condition, but the boy will have to be connected to life-support machinery. The Nebulan leader [[Gort]] explains that the Hive is a tyrannical group of telekinetics who have used machines to enslave Nebulon. The resistance members know the weak points of the machines, but they just don't have the firepower. Spike thinks that Brainstorm's idea of organic partners just might be the ticket. The Autobots agree to allow the Nebulons to use their heads as suits, except for Cerebros, who walks out, tired of fighting. [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] asks to be Daniel's partner, and Spike agrees. As they remove their heads, Spike declares that they are about to become [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmasters]].

[[The Rebirth, Part 2|To be continued...]]

{{-}}

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
* [[Strafe (G1)|Strafe]] (1)
* [[Bumblebee (G1)|Goldbug]] (2)
* [[Lightspeed (Technobot)|Lightspeed]] (3)
* [[Scattershot]] (4)
* [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] (5)
* [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]] (6)
* [[Afterburner (G1)|Afterburner]] (7)
* [[Nosecone (G1)|Nosecone]] (8)
* [[Freeway (G1)|Freeway]] (9)
* [[Wide Load]] (10)
* [[Searchlight (G1)|Searchlight]] (11)
* [[Chase (G1)|Chase]] (12)
* [[Rollbar (G1)|Rollbar]] (13)
* [[Punch (G1)|Punch]] (27)
* [[Blurr (G1)|Blurr]] (33)
* [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] (34)
* [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] (37)
* [[Pointblank]] (38)
* [[Sureshot (G1)|Sureshot]] (39)
* [[Crosshairs (G1)|Crosshairs]] (40)
* [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] (41)
* [[Brainstorm]] (42)
* [[Chromedome (G1)|Chromedome]] (43)
* [[Highbrow (G1)|Highbrow]] (44)
* [[Cerebros (G1)|Cerebros]] (45)
* [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] (46)
* [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]] (52)
* [[Air Raid (G1)|Air Raid]] (53)
* [[Fireflight (G1)|Fireflight]] (54)
* [[Slingshot]] (55)
* [[Skydive (G1 Aerialbot)|Skydive]] (56)
* [[Fastlane]] (60)
* [[Cloudraker (G1)|Cloudraker]] (61)

|c2=
* [[Apeface]] (14)
* [[Mindwipe (G1)|Mindwipe]] (15)
* [[Skullcruncher]] (16)
* [[Snapdragon]] (17)
* [[Weirdwolf]] (18)
* [[Abominus (G1)|Abominus]] (19)
* [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]] (20)
* [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] (21)
* [[Sweeps]] (22)
* [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] (23)
* [[Misfire]] (24)
* [[Wingspan]] (25)
* [[Pounce]] (26)
* [[Punch (G1)|Counterpunch]] (28)
* [[Sinnertwin (G1)|Sinnertwin]] (29)
* [[Rippersnapper (G1)|Rippersnapper]] (30)
* [[Cutthroat (G1)|Cutthroat]] (31)
* [[Blot (G1)|Blot]] (32)
* [[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]] (47)
* [[Scavenger (G1)|Scavenger]] (48)
* [[Bonecrusher (G1)|Bonecrusher]] (49)
* [[Hook (G1)|Hook]] (50)
* [[Mixmaster (G1)|Mixmaster]] (51)
* [[Sixshot]] (57)
* [[Slugslinger (G1)|Slugslinger]] (58)
* [[Triggerhappy]] (59)

|c3=
* [[Daniel Witwicky (G1)|Daniel Witwicky]] (35)
* [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike Witwicky]] (36)

|c4=
* [[Gort]] (62)
* [[Duros]] (63)
* [[Stylor]] (64)
* [[Arcana]] (65)
* [[Pinpointer (G1)|Pinpointer]] (66)
* [[Firebolt]] (67)
* [[Recoil]] (68)
* [[Haywire]] (69)
* [[Peacemaker]] (70)
* [[Spoilsport]] (71)
}}

==Quotes==
"It's... starting."
:—'''Optimus Prime''', foreseeing the end.

"Back off, Snapdragon!" 
"NO!"
:—'''Freeway''' right before '''Snapdragon''' kicks him backwards.

"Fine. ''You'' deal with my Autobot counterpart. I've heard he's nearby." 
''[ducks around the corner, transforms to Punch]'' 
"...''Real'' nearby."
:—'''Counterpunch''' becomes '''Punch''', uttering a classic line.

'''Kup''': It might give us the edge if the Decepticons ''did'' return. 
'''Crosshairs''': That's not gonna happen! 
'''Optimus''': Kup! Highbrow! The Decepticons are heading your way! 
'''Kup''': How many of 'em, Prime? 
'''Optimus''': ''All'' of them! 
'''Crosshairs''': 'Course, I ''have'' been wrong on one or two occasions.
:—Crosshairs ''really'' needs to think before he speaks.

"Sixshot, show them what a one-robot army is!"
:—'''Galvatron''' prompts Sixshot to do the old sell-my-toy routine.

"Five up, five down. It's like shooting cyberducks in a barrell."
:-'''Sixshot''', after his target practice on the Aerialbots

"I suppose it's the only meritorious way out of our meretricious situation." 
"Yeah, me too. Like he said."
:—'''Highbrow''' and '''Hardhead''' on becoming Headmasters.

"My one wish... is to ''never'' fight again."
:—'''Cerebros''', so pacifistic he won't even fight to help his friends.

==Notes==
===Animation or technical glitches===
* Daniel is gnawed and thrown around by Snapdragon, and yet, his uniform remains squeaky clean and show no signs of damage despite Daniel's injuries being described as 'severe'. That must be some tough fabric they use in the future.

===Continuity errors===
* Goldbug and the Technobots reminisce about all the "loose parts" knocked from the Decepticons after Optimus Prime was resurrected. When did that happen, exactly?
* Scattershot claims there's "about a hundred" Decepticons heading towards Autobot City, but the attacking force shown on-screen is barely a quarter of that number.
* The outside of the city is already smoking (burning?) before the Decepticons start their attack or fire a single shot.
* Soooo.... why do the Autobots rush headlong to meet their attackers instead of [[The Transformers: The Movie|transforming the city to battle station mode]]?
* When the Autobots first met the Nebulans (only to get captured by them), why didn't they use the universal greeting? Perhaps the 'Universal Greeting' is only universally recognised by all mechanical lifeforms, and just gibberish to an organic lifeform like a Nebulan. Like a type of computer code. :)

===Transformers references===
* This episode takes place several months after "[[The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2]]".
* While discussing the Headmaster creation procedure with Chromedome, Brainstorm mentions that it's possible for a Transformer to "download (their memories and personalities) into the auxiliary memory circuits in their chests". Assuming that the aforementioned hardware is a standard feature in all Transformers, it might explain why [[Death|death is just a wee bit inconsistent in fiction]]. Not bad for a throwaway line!

===Miscellaneous trivia===
[[Image:Rebirth1 Hardhead and Blurr.jpg|right|200px|thumb|"Ssh, ssh, ssh. Its alright. Don't struggle. Walk into the light."]]
* "The Rebirth, Part 1", was to be the fourth season premiere, but due to declining interest, it simply was the first of the three final episodes (originally conceived as a ''five''-part story), in which a slew of new characters and concepts were introduced, most notably the US animated version of the Headmasters.
* All these years of Blurr babbling when he panics...and ''Hardhead'' is the only one who thinks to cover his mouth?
* Then again, the animation makes it look like Hardhead is sweeping Blurr off his feet in a passionate French kiss instead of throttling him into silence, so who knows what's really going on?
* Okay. Whose bright idea was it to give Daniel a gun?
*The Japanese dub of all three episodes of "The Rebirth" were released exclusively on laser disk by [[Pioneer]] (and later on DVD as part of their ''[[Transformers 2010 (franchise)|Transformers 2010]]'' box set). The dub for these episodes is unusual in that it primarily features Western names for characters rather than Japanese-exclusive ones. For instance, [[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] is referred to by his Western name rather than "Hot Rodimus", [[Kup (G1)|Kup]] is not called "Char" and so on. Some Japanese names are retained, such as [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] being called "Convoy". Even stranger, aside from several primary characters, nearly all the voices are different from the usual Japanese cast.

==External link==
*[http://cybertronchronicle.freewebspace.com/cartoon-dossier/synopses/the_rebirth_part_1.html Dossier at the Cybertron Chronicle]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebirth, Part 1}}
[[Category:Generation 1 episodes]]