User:Locoman/Sandbox:Seekers

Conceptual history

Origin of the term

The truly mysterious thing about the term "Seeker" is the fact that, despite it being widely used by fans as early as the 1990s, nobody knew where it actually came from, as evidenced by confused conversations from that time on alt.toys.transformers.<ref>alt.toys.transformers thread from 1996 about the origin of "Seeker"</ref> There were plenty of wrong answers; the strongest suggestion seemed to be that it came from the "hunter-seeker skyship" used in issue #17 of the Marvel US comic—though the Decepticons it is applied to in that story are shown only in their flight modes, which look nothing like the jets in question, and are completely different from the Cybertronian forms of the Coneheads, who also appear in the issue. The only real connection between the hunter-seekers we were shown and the "Seekers" is that there's more than one of them and they fly.

During this time when the term was believed non-canon, fans flirted with other terms such as "Skyraider" (see below), but in 2002 Simon Furman used "Seeker" in a Dreamwave War Within script, which sealed the deal of officiality and set the tone not just for the fandom, but for the Transformers fiction that came afterwards as well.

No, you fool, we're following orders: We were told to scour the countryside, so we're scouring it.

Years later, the mystery was finally solved with the discovery of multiple department-store advertisements from the 1984 holiday season in which the word "Seeker" appeared. The J.C. Penney catalog (sometimes called a "wishbook") featured a page dedicated to Transformers that included this statement in its description of Starscream: "Airplane with sensational F-15 styling scours the countryside searching for Autobots. When they're found, the Seekers set out to destroy them." It also said Soundwave "sends out messages to the Seekers and other Decepticons".<ref>J.C. Penney 1984 wishbook (full-page scan)</ref> J.C. Penney and (now-defunct) chains Zayre and Dahlkemper's put out ads in November 1984 listing Starscream and either Thundercracker or Skywarp as "Decepticon Seeker". In addition, one of the earliest known ads for Transformers toys period is a Zayre circular from April 1984 that uses the term.<ref name="savead">1984 "Seeker" ads (scan at The Vintage Space Toaster Palace)</ref> The term even appears as late as 1985, in a toy-ordering catalog for (now-defunct) Western Auto, a specialty retail chain for automobile parts and accessories, which lists all the standard Transformers releases from the 1984 line-up, among them the "Decepticon (Seekers) Plane assortment", with Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp depicted.<ref name="westernauto">[1] Western Auto toy ordering guide] at TFW2005.</ref>

Presumably, then, the term "Seeker" was likely handed down by Hasbro in promotional materials, and those retailers happened to run with it. It's impossible to know with absolute certainty, but the most curious aspect of the whole story is that members of the online Transformers fan community were widely and independently using the term largely without question since the early 1990s, when the fandom was just getting on its feet, not dissimilar to the way the term "Generation 1" was coined. Were those obscure toy ads truly widely seen enough, and a strong enough part of the fandom's collective memory, to determine common parlance almost ten years after the fact? Or were there more official usages that have since disappeared? That is a mystery we may never solve!

Alternate terms

I don't know what to call you, Scourge, but I know "plane" isn't it.

The most obvious alternate name for these Transformers—and the one generally used by toy pack-in catalogs—is Decepticon Planes. While usually clear enough from context, this term has the weakness that there are many Decepticon planes who do not share this body-type. Also, the term is rarely, if ever, used outside of toy-specific contexts. The first UK toy pack-in catalog referred to the group as strike planes.<ref name="ukcat">First UK toy catalog (scan at Transformers @ The Moon)</ref> The 1985 European Milton Bradley catalog calls them "Decepticon Aeroplanes".<ref name="mb">"Milton Bradley Transformers" at TF-1.com.</ref> In Japan, they were called Jetrons. The Generation 2 versions were called "Decepticon Jets".

Within the fiction, the cartoon episode "Atlantis, Arise!" features Brawn calling Thundercracker a Deceptijet. And the 1985 Listen 'n Fun audio book "Sun Raid" has Megatron ordering the Deceptiplanes (Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker) to break off an attack. The audio book "Jaws of Terror" referred to them as Decepticon superjets. The multipath adventure book "Dinobots Strike Back" has Megatron order his warrior jets to attack the Autobots, just before a "good" ending which they fail to prevent.

Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter...

For a long time, it has been common among fans to refer to the Seekers' cartoon Cybertronian forms (from the episode "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" among others) as tetrajets because their shape resembles a [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}tetrahedron|{{#if:||tetrahedron}}]], a pyramid with a triangular base.

If there was ever an official term that could've given "Seeker" a run for its money, it was the one used on the European Generation 2 packaging of Starscream and Ramjet: Skyraiders.<ref>Starscream and Ramjet's European Generation 2 packaging (photo at Cobra Island Toys)</ref> That term also appeared in those characters' profiles in the UK Generation 2 comic. When the modern fandom dug this information up, "Seeker" was still considered a fan-generated term, so there was a push to supplant it with "Skyraider". But Furman's use of "Seeker" in The War Within, coupled with the rediscovery of the department store advertisements, put a damper on that movement. Some years later, the term "Skyraider" was officially resurrected to describe the jet warriors in the BotCon 2009 set "Wings of Honor" (based on the Energon Starscream mold).

Legacy

The earliest episodes of the original The Transformers cartoon featured a very large number of generic jet Transformers in addition to the named characters—although they came in a wide range of colours, and sometimes displayed unique powers, they were all unanimously based on the three pre-existing Seeker Transformers: Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp. As a result of the relatively small Decepticon cast during the early episodes of the show, these generics, along with extra Reflector copies and cassette-bots, were used to populate Decepticon crowd scenes, man Megatron's various evil inventions, and otherwise serve as low-level goons to be ordered about as needed. As the cartoon continued, and the Decepticon cast grew to accommodate various new product such as the Decepticon Triple Changers, this practice was eventually discontinued.

The sheer amount of those random cameos, however, captured the imagination of the nascent fandom, and it soon became popular to ascribe names, powers, and personalities to the various jetbots glimpsed throughout the show. That said, it would take many years before Hasbro first keyed onto the idea, and released a toy based on one commonly-glimpsed colour scheme in the Heroes of Cybertron toyline": a lavender 'bot dubbed "Air Warrior." Around the same time, Dreamwave's Dreamwave Generation One comic series reused the term to describe Shockwave's army of genetically engineered drones, all of them patterned after the original three Decepticon jets.

Nova Storm was retroactively named through Ask Vector Prime, and a a female adaptation of the character starred in the Cyberverse cartoon.

Between retailers searching for new toys and a market of fans hungry for nostalgia, several Seekers would soon make the jump from being one-off background cameos into individual characters. The first was a yellow-orange Seeker who appeared in the pilot episode of The Transformers, whom E-HOBBY would dub "Sunstorm." Sunstorm would see release as an exclusive toy, and even receive a major antagonistic role in the then-ongoing Dreamwave comic. In a similar vein, a lime green flier in the episode "Divide and Conquer" would similarly become a full-fledged Decepticon known as "Acid Storm." In 2013 Fun Publications got in on the act by dubbing Sunstorm's partners Bitstream and Hotlink after two Seekers from the Aligned continuity, and 2015's Ask Vector Prime feature would characterize Acid Storm's partners as Nova Storm and Ion Storm.

Mainstream media generally fell away from the concept of multiple Seekers after the conclusion of the original Transformers cartoon; in 2008, however, the Transformers Animated cartoon would resurrect this notion in an episode that featured Starscream cloning himself to create a (dysfunctional) army of warriors, all mostly based on various Generation 1 Seekers—including the very first female seeker, Slipstream. 2018's Cyberverse cartoon would take the idea and run with it, introducing the largest number of Seeker generics since the Generation 1 cartoon and including both male and female Seekers.

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

Marvel The Transformers comic

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

The various jet Transformers who operated alongside Starscream included both Skywarp and Thundercracker, who were among the first Decepticons to reactivate on Earth following the crash of the Ark. The Transformers These three Transformers took part in many early battles for energy on Earth, including a battle at Harrison Nuclear Power Plant. Power Play! The three would also be dispatched to England to investigate reports of amythical "Man of Iron" and were responsible for killing him. Man of Iron

In time, these three would be joined by the three Coneheads, who had previously served as the thuggish enforcers of Straxus during the former Decepticon leader's reign over Cybertron before his assassination, The Bridge to Nowhere! and had been ordered to Earth by Megatron shortly before Operation: Volcano. Target: 2006 Eventually, however, Starscream would absorb trhe power of the Underbase, and in the battle that ensued, both Skywarp and Thundercracker were destroyed by their former comrade. Dark Star

Marvel UK future timelines

DIrge, Thrust, and Ramjet were part of the Decepticon battalion who joined forces with the Autobots in order to fend off a Quintesson invasion of Cybertron. Space Pirates!

Marvel Generation 2 comic

Rebuilt and reactivated at some point after their destruction at the hands of Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp joined Starscream in the Decepticon invasion of Earth, The Gathering Darkness and later joined the Autobot-Decepticon alliance to defeat Jhiaxus's Cybertronian Empire. Escalation! Shortly thereafter, the Seekers were among the many Decepticons who teamed up with their Autobot foes to battle the Swarm. A Rage in Heaven!

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Numerous Seekers, including the trio of Sunstorm, Bitstream, and Hotlink took part in the war for Cybertron, and several were aboard the starship Nemesis when the Decepticon battleship left the planet in order to pursue the Autobots aboard the Ark. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 In addition to Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker, many other Seekers bolstered the ranks of Megatron's Earth unit, and mostly sported various blue and lavender paintjobs. More than Meets the Eye, Part 2 More than Meets the Eye, Part 3

Another team of Seekers with the power to create clouds of acid rain—Acid Storm, Nova Storm, Ion Storm, were known as the "Rainmakers", and menaced the Autobots during a mission to save Optimus Prime's life. Divide and Conquer Yet another group of Seekers appeared when the Decepticons attempted to prevent the rescue of Sparkplug on Cybertron. The Ultimate Doom, Part 3

By this point, the Decepticons on Earth had been joined by the trio of "Coneheads" and other flight-capable characters such as Blitzwing, and the number of generic Seeker cameos sharply dropped off. However, at least one would go on to take part in the Battle of Autobot City, The Transformers: The Movie, another appeared during the Quintesson's attack on Cybertron, Five Faces of Darkness and yet another joined Galvatron's invasion of Paradron. Fight or Flee

Wings Universe

New guys, same ol' body-type.

Wings Universe is based on the Generation 1 cartoon, but deviates from it in cosmetic ways and continuity points.

The term "Skyraiders" (see alternate terms) was assigned to the prototype Starscream-like air warriors that Skyquake developed at the very beginning of the war. The ranks of the Skyraiders did not seem to include any of the usual Seekers, but instead comprised other flying Decepticon characters. In addition to Skyquake himself, the Skyraiders were Leozack, Hellbat, Hooligan, and Guyhawk. Wings of Honor Starscream himself was captain of Deathsaurus's Skyraider-Seeker Brigade until he was promoted following Falcon's death. A Team Effort

Dreamwave Generation One continuity family

Some time before the Great Shutdown, Megatron and Optimus Prime were lost in a space bridge accident. When Megatron returned millennia later, he brought with him the Aerospace Extermination Squadron, a million-strong fleet of Seeker drones which he quickly used to dominate Cybertron. The Age of Wrath

After capturing the planet, the drones policed the Autobot slaves. Megatron tasked Shockwave with reverse-engineering the cloning device that produced them. Shockwave asked him where it had come from, but Megatron refused to divulge that he had received it from the Quintessons. The Age of Wrath Pt.2 Interestingly, he had started the war to fight against Quintessons who had infiltrated the Council of Ancients, so it's unclear how this move would jibe with his greater plans. The Route of All Evil

At least one drone showed an ability to materialize additional armaments in flashes of light. It nearly destroyed a team of Autobots singlehandedly, but they managed to subdue it with an inhibitor claw designed by Perceptor. The Age of Wrath Pt.3 Shockwave would experiment further on some of the many clones he had created, installing an experimental fusion reactor into one clone to create the powerful, and insane, Sunstorm. Night of the Combaticons

The Age of Wrath ceased publication before the story could conclude. The following would have taken place in unpublished issues.

Shockwave succeeded in mutating some of the drones given to him by Megatron, making it so they would obey only the leader of the Decepticons, and not their Quintesson creators. Back at the Autobots' headquarters, Nightbeat and Getaway brought the inert drone they had captured to Perceptor, who discovered upon analyzing it that it was powered by cyberstatic energy. The Age of Wrath Pt.4 Using this information, Perceptor was able to defeat the clones by attacking their shared neural network. The Age of Wrath Pt.6

What is it? Did Rumble fall down the well? Is Skywarp pinned under the tractor again?

After the Aerospace Extermination Squadron was defeated, their bodies were all "zapped into space." Lost and Found By the modern day, at least a few of them had ended up on the planet of Junk, resembling Earth-adapted Seekers for some reason. Generation 1 #0 When Megatron was brought to that world by Wreck-Gar, he had the Junkion gather and restore three drones. (Then he destroyed Wreck-Gar for his troubles.) Runnin' with the Devil He took the drones to the planet Beest to recruit the Predacons. Welcome to the Jungle The growing troupe then headed to Cybertron, where Megatron used a drone to lure out two of Shockwave's warriors, Astrotrain and Blitzwing. The Triple Changers made short work of the drone but were ambushed by Razorclaw. Blitzwing refused to surrender and was destroyed; however, Astrotrain joined Megatron's band and helped him overthrow Shockwave. Lost and Found

Shockwave was then escorted to the Decepticons' base on Earth by an Air Warrior, where Megatron overpowered Starscream and took command of the Earthbound Decepticons from him. The Route of All Evil

Transformers/G.I. Joe

Along with Starscream and Skywarp, the Seekers were awakened on the Fera Islands in 1939 and were reformatted into World War II-era fighter planes. The Line Trial by Fire They joined up with Cobra with the rest of the Decepticons, while the Autobots allied themselves with G.I. Joe. Transformed Trial by Fire They held a strong animosity towards the Aerialbots in particular, and fought against the combining Autobots. Wolves All of the Seekers that awoke on Earth were defeated by the Autobots, though the Decepticons managed to score a few fatalities of their own, including Superion. Trenches The Iron Fist

2005 IDW continuity

Army-building. Army-building never changes.

Though the "Seeker" body-type was a mass-produced form used by many jet-form Cybertronians, Your First Mistake the Seekers would later take on the body type to homage their commander, Starscream, at his own suggestion; All Hail Megatron #6 a suggestion which, Skywarp later believed, was intended to cause confusion over Starscream's own identity so he could hide from defrauded taxpayers. Starscream: The Movie

Seekers are elite officers in the Decepticon army, and are expected to fulfill a leadership role on the battlefield in commanding other Decepticon troops. Seekers are expected to show absolute loyalty to the Decepticon cause. Seasons in Flight All Hail Megatron #12

Confusingly, the human organisation Skywatch referred to Ravage and Laserbeak as "Seekers" Devastation #4 while Galvatron also referred to Scourge and Cyclonus with the term Rebirth Heart of Darkness #2. Neither use has any apparent connection to Starscream's corps.

Ask Vector Prime

Some held that the mythical trickster Xal was the first Seeker. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/12

In one reality, Starscream and the "second-generation Seekers" used the mysterious Mega-Blaster™ to destroy the entire Earth in one fell swoop. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/24 Autobots' Advantage

Games

Transformers: Mystery of Convoy

Transformers: Mystery of Convoy

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The Transformers: Battle to Save the Earth

In this iteration of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict, it seems all the Decepticon possess the Seeker body-type. There are also innumerable amounts of them. The Transformers: Battle to Save the Earth

Transformers: Cybertron Adventures

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Transformers: Cybertron Adventures

Transformers: Devastation

Besides Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp, generic conehead-style Seekers were encountered by the Autobots during Megatron's plan to cyberform the Earth. There were three types encountered: Warriors (standard), Heavy Weapons (use missiles), and Elites (use swords).

Transformers: Devastation

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References

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