Jack Richards

This article is about . For other uses of "Jack", see Jack (disambiguation)|The name or term "Jack" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Jack (disambiguation).}}

Jack Richards is a human from the Transformers Adventure Game Books portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Back off, man. I'm a scientist."

Your uncle Jack Richards is a globe-trotting astronomer who studies distant nebulae through the world's most powerful telescopes. He smokes a pipe when he's thinking.

Fiction

Peril from the Stars

The following summarizes one or more multipath adventures. Details vary depending on the paths taken in-story. See the book's page for information on alternate paths.

Jack and his wife Sue were having you over to stay with them at the Los Palmos observatory when it fell under the interest of Starscream and Bombshell, looking for a way to track a Cybertronian weapons pod trapped in Earth's atmosphere. That morning, the Decepticons' interference caused the observatory's systems to go haywire and there was a red flash in the sky.

Later, on encountering you alone with the Autobot Jazz, your uncle feared for your safety, pulled a gun and fired at the giant robot. The bullet didn't harm Jazz, but the ricochet grazed his head and knocked him unconscious, so you and Jazz returned him to the observatory, where explanations were exchanged.

Not long afterwards the Decepticons attacked the observatory and set the weapons pod to home in on a beacon they planted there, but thanks to your quick thinking Jack was saved from being flattened. Peril from the Stars

Since "Peril from the Stars" is a multipath adventure, the above isn't necessarily what happens to Uncle Jack. If he doesn't shoot Jazz, you get back to find that his wife has been implanted with one of Bombshell's cerebro-shells, or, to pick another example, he does get flattened if you're dim enough to keep quiet about the homing beacon in your pocket.

Notes

Remember, kids—Jazz says smoking is cool!

• Jack and Sue are described as astronomers, "but not the sort of astronomers who just sit around calculating things. They are much more adventurous than that, and are always travelling to exotic corners of the globe to watch distant nebulae through some of the world's most powerful telescopes." Given that they both also carry guns, they're clearly to astronomy what Indiana Jones was to archaeology.
• He doesn't just smoke a pipe while thinking, he also smokes one when you're in the car with him. Tobacco wasn't quite as harmful back then, obviously.
• He also doesn't mind leaving you alone with Olaf at the petrol station.