Wolfang (Maximal)

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This article is about . For other uses of "Wolfang", see Wolfang (disambiguation)|The name or term "Wolfang" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Wolfang (disambiguation).}}
Wolfang is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
I saw Wolfang drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

Wolfang is no lone wolf. He is a team player through and through, effortlessly integrating himself into whatever Maximal unit he finds himself entrenched with. This "strength in numbers" mentality is only enhanced by his given beast mode; he has even developed an affinity with actual, flesh-and-blood wolves. Wolfang does his best work under cover of night, relishing tracking down Predacons while cloaked. Once he has his quarry, Wolfang prefers to call in the rest of his Maximal "pack" to help finish the job.

Fiction

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Dreamwave Generation One continuity

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This is a strange remake of Jane Eyre.

On their way back to Cybertron, Rattrap recalled meeting three unknown Maximals named Wolfang, Bonecrusher, and Optimus Minor, when they saved him from Dinobot II in the wilderness. He asked them to join the Axalon's crew, but they declined because of some other mysterious purpose that they couldn't elaborate on. Wolfang and the others asked Rattrap to keep their existence a secret, and he acquiesced. Ain't No Rat

Shell Game was never published. The following would have taken place in unpublished issues.

Wolfang, Optimus Minor, and Bonecrusher appeared to Rattrap in a vision while he and the rest of Optimus Primal's crew were leaving the planet at the end of the Beast Wars. The three of them guilted the Maximal for abandoning them, but for some reason, Rattrap was unable to recall his previous encounter with the trio. Wolfang and the other two Maximals pleaded with Rattrap to return to Earth. Shell Game #1

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

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In touch with the ground, I'm on the hunt, I'm after you.

Wolfang was one of the protoforms left behind by the crew of the Axalon on prehistoric Earth. He was activated and put in chronal phase by Razorbeast at Magmatron's request, but was protected from Magmatron's Predacon shell-program by Razorbeast's viral code. The Gathering #1 He was one of the first Maximals Razorbeast hooked up with,and accompanied him in his quest to obtain a transwarp signal amplifier from the wreckage of Ravage's ship. They had a short scuffle with Magmatron, but managed to escape while Optimus Minor and Snarl secured the signal amplifier. The Gathering #2 The Maximals' attempt to use the amplifier to send a distress call to Cybertron was interrupted by a full-scale Predacon attack, and Wolfang and the others were boxed-in. Luckily, they were saved by timely reinforcements led by Torca. The Gathering #4

Still stranded on Earth weeks later, Razorbeast expressed frustration to Wolfang and Prowl about the current situation and doubt that rescue was ever going to arrive. Wolfang tried to point out the positive, stating that they had beaten the Predacons before and had Grimlock on their side. Only a short time later, the Predacons staged another assault on the Maximals' base-camp. The Ascending #1 On the verge of being overwhelmed, the Maximals were once again saved by a timely intervention; this time by Lio Convoy and the Pack. The battle was halted, however, when Rartorata arrived and infected Razorbeast with a dose of Angolmois venom. The Ascending #2 Driven berserk by the infection, the feral Razorbeast forced the Maximals and Predacons to work together to both contain him and fight the new Blendtron threat. Lio Convoy and Ravage quickly gathered a portion of their combined forces to return to Cybertron in hopes of preventing the ascension of the mad demi-god Shokaract. Wolfang was among those who went back. The Ascending #3 However, upon return to his home planet, Wolfang was engulfed in one of Shokaract's powerful blasts and killed fighting alongside K-9 and Insecticon. The Ascending #4

Beast Wars: Uprising

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In Beast Wars: Uprising, Wolfang is reinterpreted as an amalgamated character with Wolfang the Predacon. See the other Wolfang's page for more on him.

Wolfang was a Predacon Secret Police copper who was sent as a spy in the Maximal Command Security Force, transforming from his real robot mode into a Maximal disguise. Initially, he'd been an eager-beaver patriot. As time went on and the depressing, soul-grinding nature of Cybertron wore down on him, he grew depressed and addicted to cy-gar-ettes. He also stopped caring about his spy mission: he enjoyed solving murder cases (though never getting too invested) and was happy to be seen as a good soldier by both sides. Wolfang was, he prided himself, an honest MaxCop too, never being corrupt to supplement his salary. Trigger Warnings He worked with Stiletto, who for her part considered him a colleague, and called him "Howlinger" to annoy him. Cultural Appropriation

As a MaxCop, he partnered with Aura. He attempted to counsel Stiletto after she was forced to kill her partner Betabear while he was on a nucleon-kick, but she failed to recover mentally and Wolfang lost a leg in the field due to Stiletto's hesitation to act. The leg turned from blue to red after it was separated, but she didn't properly register this. Burning Bridges

During the Grand Uprising, he became far too attached to one murder case after secretly accessing the victim's memories and seeing happy emotions. The victim, Twirl, turned out to be a Targetmaster in disguise, hiding in plain sight as a Micromaster. With the Resistance and Tarantulas both interested in the forbidden technology contained in her corpse, Wolfang realized that the true killer was none other than Overrun, another Targetmaster in hiding. He convinced Overrun that the tech in his body was too dangerous to be allowed to fall to either faction and the two of them allowed themselves to be blown up. Trigger Warnings

Stiletto would learn of his death some time later, though she only knew some details, such as it being a "Builder murder case", and on finding an abandoned pack of cy-gar-ettes smoked some in his memory. Cultural Appropriation A year later, she'd learnt he'd been a Predacon, and callously dismissed his death. Derailment Ultimately, Wolfang's presence in history, such as it was, wound up forgotten completely. Lio Convoy: Unity Through Tyranny

2005 IDW continuity

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Wolfang was one of Onyx Prime's Maximals. When the Maximals invaded Cybertron, Wolfang was one of the many warriors who wound up battling Arcee. Unforgivable

2021 Beast Wars comic

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The Cybertronian who would become Wolfang was one of the many Maximal protoforms aboard the Axalon. To eliminate the Maximals and Predacons, Tarantulas and the Vok brought every crashed stasis pod they could find online and reprogrammed the protoforms within into loyal "Children of the Vok". Together, they attacked the crashed Darksyde in an attempt to take out the Maximal-Predacon alliance, but Skold took Wolfang out of the fight when she threw him into Inferno. Eventually, when the Maximals and Predacons destroyed the Vok themselves, their remaining followers agreed to a truce and left to live peacefully in the wilderness. The End

Games

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Transformers Roleplaying Game

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Wolfang was originally a member of the Predacon secret police, and possessed a unique chassis that let him shift between Predacon and Maximal forms. However, Wolfang spent so much time undercover that he eventually came to think of the Maximals as his true pack, although he had trouble admitting this to himself. Technorganic Secrets

Toys

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Beast Wars

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I'm aware I'm a wolf, soon as the moon hit.
  • Wolfang (Deluxe Class, 1996/1997)
Part of the second assortment of Hasbro Beast Wars Deluxe-class toys, Wolfang transforms into a timber wolf. In robot mode, his wolf mode's back becomes a hand-held shield, and his tail becomes a spring-loaded missile launcher; two anchor-shaped missiles are stored in Wolfang's midsection, seemingly intended as the wolf's ribcage! As with all first-year Beast Wars toys at the Deluxe class and up, he has both a normal robot mode head and a mutant head: in his case, the mutant head is a visor-like mask that flips up and down over his robot face. When his mask is up, he has a chin that would make Derrick J. Wyatt proud.
The Takara release of the toy, in the fourth wave of Beast Wars product in December 1997, appears to have no notable differences from the Hasbro version.
This mold was redecoed to make the Predacon also named Wolfang (pronounced "vol-fang"), and retooled to make K-9 and Max-B.


  • Deluxe Beast Assortment (Wolfang and Buzz Saw) (Two-pack, 1996)
  • Accessories: Tail/launcher, back/shield, 2 missiles
Sold exclusively at BJ's Wholesale Club, Wolfang was released alongside Buzz Saw in a two-pack card.
Both toys are identical to their original releases... which makes sense, as they are the original releases, packaging and all, just joined together in a cardboard sleeve.


NO PARENTS
  • Kurayami no Taiketsu: Howlinger VS Buzz Saw (暗闇の対決 ハウリンガー VS バズソー, 1997)
  • ID number: VS-9
  • Accessories: Tail/launcher, back/shield, 2 missiles
In Japan, "Howlinger" was available both as an individual release, and in a "Darkness Showdown" two-pack with the Predacon Buzz Saw.
Both toys are identical to their individual releases.

Vintage Beast Wars

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Inside of you are two wolves. One is a Maximal. The other one is of dubious canonicity.
  • Maximal Wolfang (Reissue, 2022)
  • Accessories: Tail/crossbow launcher, back/shield, 2 missiles
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Beast Wars, the original 1996 Deluxe Class Wolfang was reissued under the Vintage Beast Wars lineup. "Maximal Wolfang" features all the same accessories and functionality as the original toy. Unlike most other Beast Wars Vintage releases, Wolfang's reissue changes are very subtle. The crossbow projectiles have been retooled to be, surprisingly, shorter and thinner, as well as being cast in much more flexible plastic than the originals. Said flexible plastic is, unfortunately, also used on Wolfang's upper robot arms, resulting in his forearms popping off rather easily. Due to how shallow the divot in the projectiles is, many copies of the figure can't lock them into the weapon, resulting in them just springing straight back out. The deco remains largely identical to the original, except the white overspray on the wolf paws and jaw is much less pronounced. The only other change is that the robot feet are now attached via flathead pins instead of screws.
Much like Vintage G1, Wolfang is packaged in a blister card styled after the original Beast Wars toy packaging, package art and all. Notably, unlike the first three carded releases in the line, the bubble is an all new square shape that shows off the projectiles, as opposed to the rounded or rocky versions used in the original Beast Wars line. Also similar to Vintage G1, the time disparity since the original release has doubled the price of the toy's 1996 release, $22 versus $10. This figure was originally exclusive to Walmart in the United States. Overstock of the figures, sometimes in the dozens, later showed up at closeout stores like Ollie's for $9.99.
Wolfang was revealed on a Transformers Tuesday on March 22, 2022, with pre-orders on the Walmart site dropping two days later on the Walmart Collector-Con at 1 PM ET.

Merchandise

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Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game

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  • Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game (1997)
Wolfang was one of the 24 beast warriors to receive a battle card representation for the Beast Wars card game.

Notes

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  • Wolfang was originally to be the first new character to join the Beast Wars cartoon. However, that role was instead filled by Tigatron, due to the fact that Tigatron's animation model is a tweak of the already-in-cartoon Cheetor model, thereby saving Mainframe a buttload of time and money.
  • The original Hasbro Beast Wars packaging art for Wolfang depicts him with his mutant mask on; his later redeco K-9 was drawn with the mask off, likely for a distinctive contrast. Tarantulas and Blackarachnia as well as Waspinator and Buzz Saw share this status.
  • "Ain't No Rat" was originally going to be a prologue for Dreamwave's Beast Wars series. After Dreamwave collapsed, IDW picked up the project and Simon Furman reworked the original plan into The Gathering; as a result, the three new Maximals from Dreamwave's story figured prominently into IDW's first limited series.
  • In IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook #4, Wolfang's name is misspelled as "Wolfgang".
  • Wolfang's deco seems to have served as the inspiration for the Universe Mini-Con Scavenger.
  • Beast Wars: Uprising Wolfang appears as a "virtual redeco" of Generations Deluxe Class Drift in a BotCon 2016 lithograph. When he ultimately appeared in the prose stories, he was reimagined as a faction-changer, using the 2008 Universe Deluxe Class Sunstreaker/Sideswipe mold, which had previously been used for the two-in-one function of Punch / Counterpunch.

Foreign names

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  • Japanese: Howlinger (ハウリンガー Hauringā)
  • French: Croc (Canada, "Fang")
  • Italian: Wolf
  • Spanish: Lobo (America, "Wolf")
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