Collections

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"Collections"
First published	May 13, 2015
Writer	Jesse Wittenrich
Art	Jesse Wittenrich
Letters	Jesse Wittenrich
Continuity	unspecified post-Beast Wars & TransTech

Packrat gets abducted by a mysterious individual.

Synopsis

On prehistoric Earth, after the end of the Beast Wars, the Maximal Packrat has remained behind, salvaging what little remains from the conflict. Returning to Maximal base, Packrat greets Sentinel, who informs him that there's been no Predacon activity detected. Packrat remarks that he should have waited to steal before everyone else left; Sentinel, still programmed to protect the Maximals, including their possesions, is as annoyed as an A.I. without a personality component can be, but Packrat assures him that all that's left on this world is junk, throwing an arm of Waspinators amongst his stash. Suddenly, an intruder picks up the arm, and compares it to his own, remarking that he wish he could go back to when all this seemed important-except, of course, for the blowing up part. Packrat recognizes the intruder as Waspinator, and shouts at Sentinel for allowing him on base; the intruder explains that he's no longer just Waspinator, but rather, Thrustinator, and that he wasn't detected because he's no longer just a Predacon. Unfazed by Thrustinator's odd appearance and speech patterns, seemingly combined with Waspinator's from...something else, Packrat demands to know what he's doing here. Thrustinator explains that he's been sent to take him back to Cybertron, or rather, a version of it. Packrat declares he has no intention of going back there; instead, he plans on hacking his way into the Ark, where he can steal from the depths of history. Perturbed by this, Thrustinator declares he doesn't belong here. Packrat cracks that the last time he saw Waspinator, the early humans had launched him into space, but his insults are ignored as Thrustinator zaps him, taking him through a dimensional portal. Thrustinator contacts his partner, Heinrad, who is stationed back at Axiom Nexus in Rhinox's control room. Heinrad tells his friend to hack into the TransTech database and place Packrat in there and to give him an i.d. bolt. Heinrad remarks that Rhinox still doesn't approve of them directly removing anomalies from the multiverse, something that Heinrad doesn't get.

After all, what kind of trouble could Packrat possibly get into?

Mentioned characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Others
Packrat (1) Depth Charge's parts (6)	Waspinator's parts (3) Inferno's parts (4) Tarantulas's parts (5) Rubber Ducky (7) Rampage's parts (8)	Sentinel (2) Thrustinator (9) Heinrad (10)

Notes

• Characters mentioned include: TransTech Rhinox.

Continuity notes

• This comic takes place after the end of the Beast Wars cartoon (or at least a version of it), with Packrat having taken up residence in the Maximal's base next to the Ark.
• Packrat has managed to recover the Sentinel security A.I., thought lost when Tigerhawk destroyed the Predacon ship in "Other Victories".
• Items in Packrat's collection include:
  • Various parts of Waspinator's, including a right arm, a stinger, a wing, and a set of his alternate mode legs.
  • The headless body and gun of Inferno (who was killed accidentally by the Nemesis in "Nemesis Part 2".)
  • The leg and right arm of Tarantulas (who was accidentally destroyed by his own machinery when the Vok possessed him in "Other Victories").
  • Depth Charge's tail-sword, gun, and one of his "wings", and Rampage's claws (recovered after their deaths battling each other in "Nemesis Part 1").
  • Dinobot's sword (recovered after his death in "Code of Hero").
  • Some generic crates seen on the Axalon and in Maximal headquarters throughout the series.
  • A stasis pod.
  • A tusk from Megatron's hunting chair, from "Call of the Wild".
  • Megatron's original, non-Transmetal rubber ducky, and his stopwatch, seen among his belongings in "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)"
  • The Covenant of Primus, seen in the "Nemesis" two-part series finale.
  • A target box, one of which was seen in "Power Surge".
  • The Transmetal driver, introduced in "Feral Scream Part 1", and last seen in "Crossing the Rubicon".
• Thrustinator and Heinrad were introduced in "Timeless", guardians of the multiverse from a future version of Axiom Nexus on the TransTech Cybertron.
• Packrat indicates that this comic takes place after Waspinator's flashback from Beast Machines episode "The Catalyst", where he was sent into space by the early humans.

Transformers references

• Also in Packrat's collection is the alternate mode shell of Predacon Fuzor Terragator from the Beast Wars toyline, a bit incongruous with the rest of the junk.

Other trivia

• Tying into BotCon 2015's "Cybertron's Most Wanted" toys and comic, this prequel tells the story of how Packrat came to Axiom Nexus. It was published on BotCon's Twitter account; the Tweets have since been deleted, but a copy of them still exists (see "External links").
• The original plan was that this Packrat is a copy of the original 3H story Packrat: temporal energy from "Invasion" split him into two Packrats, à la Riker being duplicated in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and years of solitude from being unknown and abandoned left him bitter. This was too convoluted to fit into the story though, but remains intended nonetheless.

Errors

• The Covenant of Primus is a wee-bit off model. Rather than the printed Autobot symbol with white borders between the red shapes making up the insignia, the Covenant has an embossed Autobot symbol, composed only of red shapes.
• The target box, meanwhile, is pretty heavily off-model, only recognizable from its yellow coloration and three prongs sticking out of the bottom. Rather than the trapezoidal shape it was depicted as in the cartoon, it's shaped more like a TV, with a cone on top, attached to which is a satellite dish.
• And finally, Megatron's stopwatch is colored brown, rather than the grey-ish green it was in the cartoon. Jesse Wittenrich might have confused it with the timepiece Megatron had in "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)", which was brown.

External links

• "Collections" on Imgur