Hunting

When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Although hunting is a legitimate way to put food on the table, this seems to be rare compared to hunting as a recreational activity or a sport. Some hunters, be they human or Transformer, prefer the direct hunt while others favor the art of trapping. On Earth, a wide variety of animals is good for hunting, while on Cybertron the range of mechanimals hunted appears to be limited to turbofoxes, cyber-ducks, and dynametal ducks. At times, a hunter might desire prey that is more prestigious than an animal but not as illegal as one of their own kind, and that's when it's convenient if there are aliens around.

Despite that there's a comparable chance of something ending up dead between hunting and fishing, fishing is much more likely to be picked up by people with morals.

Fiction

Generation 1

Generation 1 toy bios

Mirage was known to hunt turbofoxes with his friends before the war broke out. This was apparently an activity enjoyed only by the wealthy of Cybertron. Mirage's The Transformers toy bio

The Transformers cartoon

It didn't work out but this would haunt Optimus from continuity to continuity.

Starscream compared a clear shot at some Autobots to "shooting dynametal ducks in a beryllium barrel." The Core

Lord Chumley was a big game hunter whose success at killing many an exotic animal made him grow bored, prompting him to go after sapient prey. Still decent enough not to go after humans, he did go after manned army equipment as if he was dealing with animals and after some notable successes he set his sights on Optimus Prime. To this end, he and his valet Dinsmore first abducted Tracks, Bumblebee, Jazz, Beachcomber, Grapple, Blaster, and Inferno using highly elaborate and undoubtedly expensive traps. Chumley subsequently used them as bait to make Optimus walk into more traps, but altough he did unintentionally capture Blitzwing and Astrotrain with them, through luck and skill, Optimus survived all traps, freed his men, and handed over Chumley to the authorities. Prime Target

The Dinobots wanted to go hunting but they didn't want Grimlock to come with them. They told him so. Grimlock's New Brain

Sixshot compared shooting the Aerialbots to "shooting cyber-ducks in a barrel." The Rebirth, Part 1

Super-God Masterforce cartoon

The Decepticon Headmaster Juniors were ordered to look for any Godmasters in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, but didn't much feel like doing that. Bullhorn proposed that they'd go hunting and have a barbece and that was accepted with cheers by the other two. An Enemy? The Third Godmaster, Ranger

Marvel The Transformers comics

The hunters Gus, Juan, and Morrie had spotted a large creature in the New Jersey meadowlands, but the police refused to do anything with their information. As such, the three decided to enter the swamps themselves and kill or capture the creature before it would reach populated areas. Gus had some misgivings about the operation, mainly because hunting in the swamps was illegal, but before he could convince the others to go home, their dog found something: Iguanus. The hunters fired at the creature, but the bullets just bounced off. It only took a salvo from Iguanus's hurricane air blaster more before they made a run for it. King Con!

Movie continuity

Movie toy bios

Arcee had a reputation for being an expert shot and frequently hunted turbofoxes. Arcee's 2007 toy bio

Transformers magazine

Sometimes, I like to stand here and pretend I'm one of them.

After Transformers became public knowledge, the big game hunter Tyler "Trophy" White decided to make Optimus Prime's head his next trophy and to go down in hunting history as the first man to bag an Autobot. He had the Free Men, a militia of hunting-obsessed madmen under his command, slaughter everyone inside the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in order to draw Prime out, then led him into an ambush that succeeded with the detonation a non-nuclear electromagnetic bomb. Prime was left unconscious and in the time it took for him to recover, White saw a gray wolf and killed it to stave off boredom. When Prime eventually came to in the Free Men's compound in the Rocky Mountains, Trophy took pleasure in showing off his past trophies, the stuffed and mounted heads of endangered species, so the Autobot would know what was to be his fate. That was, however, the end of his game, because Robert Epps and Bumblebee hit the compound and Optimus broke free. White could do nothing as Optimus proceeded to destroy every last trophy that made up White's "distasteful hobby". Bring Me the Head of Optimus Prime

Animated

Animated cartoon

Chase compared the Flash Frenzy trapped at Elba to a "sitting cyber-duck". The AllSpark Almanac II

Web of Deception

Lockdown received a generous offer from a safari hunter in the Kvi Cluster for both the techno-organic and the Archa Seven arachnid which formed part of a plan by Blackarachnia. Lockdown therefore abducted her; whether Blackarachnia ended up in the safari hunter's hands and what that meant for her is uncertain. Web of Deception

Aligned continuity family

Rescue Bots cartoon

The name's Chumley. Perhaps you've heard of it?

The brothers Thurston and Quint Quarry grew estranged due to a disagreement over their big game hunting methods and became rivals who went as far as stealing each other's technology. Enemy of My Enemy

After Optimus Prime became feral as a result of scanning a dinosaur alternate mode, Quarry saw Huxley Prescott's broadcast of Optimus's downtown rampage. Recognizing a new thrill, Quarry used his heli-jet to abduct the "dinobot" to Quarry Safariland. Although once he arrived he discovered that Cody Burns had stowed away, the boy's presence did not deter him from proceeding with the hunt he craved. As Quarry went about things, Heatwave, Blades, and Chase reached the island in search of Optimus. Quarry captured the team using a combination of Q-Drones and hidden traps and momentarily paused his hunt on Optimus to take the three to his compound. This gave Boulder and Graham the time to arrive with an Energon patch for Optimus and this effectively ended Quarry's hunt. Back at his compound, Quarry tried to make off in his heli-jet with his three captives but Optimus and Boulder arrested him in time. Big Game

With the use of Q-Drones, Thurston stole a lion from Griffin Rock Zoo, so the Rescue Team contacted Quint in jail to figure out what to do. He advised them to set a trap using a rare animal if they wanted to find Thurston, because like him he wouldn't resist such quarry. It was agreed that the Rescue Bots' dino modes would be this bait and that they would wait for Thurston inside the zoo. As predicted, the Q-Drones infiltrated the facility but by releasing the zoo's animals as a distraction the Q-Drones negated all precautions the Rescue Team had taken and the Rescue Bots were carried off in a waiting heli-jet. The "dinobots" were taken to a ship where Thurston held a huge menagerie of trophy animals, many rare species and even some thought extinct, all kept in stasis. Thurston overplayed his hand when he released the Rescue Bots to prepare them for display because they made a run for it. As each tried to find an exit separately, they encountered many traps, but they countered the hunter with his own strategy of releasing all the animals. The creatures cornered Thurston, so he trapped himself in one of his own stasis pods to avoid worse. As the Rescue Team prepared to repurpose Quarry Safariland as a preserve for the recovered animals, Cody received a call from Quint, who had broken out and who declared that he'd steer clear from the Rescue Bots from now on. Enemy of My Enemy

2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

Fixit reported that two Cybertronian ships had landed in the forest west of Crown City nearby a hunting lodge. Worried about the possibility of encountering any humans at the lodge, only Bumblebee Strongarm, Sideswipe and Denny went to investigate. However, the place was deserted, prompting Denny to remark that perhaps it wasn't hunting season. Hunting Season

Notes

• In an alternative version of Trailbreaker's bio, as seen in the Revised Series Bible of the CBS pitch, he responds to the arrival of flying Decepticons with "Looks like droid-duck season has just opened."