Butch Witwicky (G1)

2016-01-02T10:15:53Z

Hicks Royel:

{{disambig2|the little-known Witwicky son|his evil mirror-universe counterpart|Butch Witwicky (SG)}}
{{disambig3|Butch}}
:''Butch [[Witwicky]] is a [[human]] from the [[Forest Rescue Mission]] portion of the [[Generation 1 continuity family|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''
[[File:Butch.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|The only other time this kid made an appearance was on the back of a milk carton.]]

'''Butch Witwicky''' is the young son of [[Sparkplug Witwicky]]. He is a friend to Autobots and forests everywhere. His hobbies include fishing and helping [[Hound (G1)|Hound]] play pranks on [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]].

==Fiction==
===Forest Rescue Mission===
[[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] and the [[Autobot]]s decided to take a vacation with their friends Sparkplug and his son Butch. Optimus Prime had a hunch that the Decepticons might be up to something so he sent Hound to investigate. Hound discovered that Megatron had chosen this forest to build a [[Decepticon factory]]. In the ensuing battle, Megatron attempted to kidnap Sparkplug and Butch in a plan to get the Autobots to surrender. But it turns out he was only chasing holograms projected by Hound!

After the day was won, Butch thanked the Autobots for putting the forest back to normal. {{storylink|Forest Rescue Mission}}

==Behind the scenes==
"Butch" is a mostly abandoned name for Sparkplug's son.

At [[OTFCC 2004]], [[Bob Budiansky]] stated that the story treatment he received from [[Hasbro]] used the name [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike]]. However, his copy of the treatment has the name crossed out and replaced with [[Buster Witwicky (G1)|Buster]] in his own writing. Budiansky could not recall the details, but speculated at the convention that Hasbro had asked for the name to be changed. However according to [[Jim Shooter]], who claims to have created the name "Spike", the change to "Buster" had been mandated by the cartoon producers because it sounded less aggressive.<ref>[http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secret-origin-of-transformers-part-2.html "The Secret Origin of the TRANSFORMERS – Part 2" post] on [http://www.jimshooter.com Jim Shooter's blog]</ref> The fact that they ended up using "Spike" in the cartoon anyway is, Jim says, "typical."<ref>[http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secret-origin-of-transformers-part-2.html?showComment=1308784677556#c8836528668786836782 Followup post by Shooter]</ref>

The new name may have been Budiansky's choice, or may have been told to him by somebody at Hasbro. Nevertheless, the name was changed to "Buster" only for the comics series. In the cartoon and most other associated products, Sparkplug's son remained "Spike". The comic series would later see a second son called "Spike" be introduced because of the need to promote the [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress Maximus]] toy, which came with "Spike" as a [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmaster unit]].

What this implies for "Butch" is that it was probably a very, very, ''very'' early name for the character, perhaps sent out with the first version of the story treatment that went to licensors for use in their products. The one example of a licensed product which uses the name is the coloring book [[Forest Rescue Mission]]. Somewhat surprisingly, this book is published with a copyright of 1985. Most errors such as name mistakes and off-model drawings are found in 1984 products which, presumably, were prepared while the names and models were still in development.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.camphortree.net/tf/books/coloring/forest.html Full scans of "Forest Rescue Mission"]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witwicky, Butch}}
[[Category:Generation 1 humans]]
[[Category:Prose-only characters]]
[[Category:Witwicky family|Butch Witwicky]]

MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

Butch Witwicky (G1)