Mainframe (G1)

The name or term "Mainframe" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Mainframe (disambiguation).

Mainframe is an Autobot Action Master from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Code Monkey like Fritos. Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew. Code Monkey very simple man with big warm fuzzy secret heart: Code Monkey like you.

Mainframe is a dork. A computer dork, to be precise. (Both in that he is a computer that is a dork, and a dork about computers.) He'd rather tackle complex mathematical problems than join the inconvenient galactic conflict with the Decepticons. Despite his distaste for combat, he won't shirk his duties when called upon. If anything, he hopes that if he simply must fight, that he'll have the chance to use his considerable brainpower to end things quickly.

Alas, his partner, Push-Button, would rather convert to a proton rifle and blow stuff up than be stuck debugging Mainframe's programs. Naturally, the two don't especially get along.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: The Transformers #28

Block coloring: Obscuring Transformers' identities since 1984.

At some point in history, Rewind acquired footage of Mainframe. The Gloaming

Mainframe was one of the survivors of the Kimia Facility massacre. He got away aboard an escape pod piloted by Chromedome and Brainstorm. Kings The pod was picked up by Arcee, who told the survivors of D-Void's plan to destroy the universe and brought them all to Cybertron to stop it. Genesis

When the Lost Light departed for unknown space to search for the Knights of Cybertron, Mainframe was part of the bridge crew. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It He was present among the assembled Autobots after their tumble through quantum space as Rodimus addressed the troops. Hangers On

"I'm a pilot, not a...wait, I'm a pilot?"

When crew member Ultra Magnus left on a stolen shuttle, Mainframe helped track it down. The Fecund Moon They followed Magnus to Luna 1, where the ship was invaded by Chief Justice Tyrest's Legislators and the crew subdued. The Divided Self Having been constructed cold, Mainframe was among those nearly killed by Tyrest's universal killswitch. Arm the Lonely

Mainframe piloted the Lost Light into the right position for launching Rodimus, Orion Pax, and others through a portal to the Dead Universe. Black Metal In search for Metroplex he then navigated the ship to a watery planet Winners & Losers where they were attacked by a lot of Ammonites. 2026 of them, according to Mainframe's estimation. Into the Abyss After finding Metroplex, the crew used the Titan's space bridge to teleport him and the Lost Light back to Cybertron, where Mainframe lost control of the ship and crash-landed. Finis Temporis Cybertron was subsequently invaded by another army of Ammonites, forcing Mainframe to get the ship airborne and away from the attackers. Black Planet His contribution to the battle was contacting Chromia before the Lost Light rammed Monstructor, telling her to clean up the remains in a flowery, dramatic fashion too vague for her to understand. ...And the Damage Done

Once Cybertron was saved, Mainframe went for drinks in Swerve's, where he was approached by Getaway and Atomizer, who asked him where he would stand if they were to stage a coup against Rodimus. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases He then continued to serve on the Lost Light as it returned to its journey with a new captain: a reformed Megatron. Towards Peace He helped a plastered Jackpot to the medbay, running into Tailgate on the way. Words Hang in the Air

Mainframe was also a member of the crew on a quantum duplicate version of the Lost Light. Then the Decepticon Justice Division showed up, and Mainframe had his head torn off. slaughterhouse His corpse presumably vanished with the rest of his Lost Light when the main Lost Light crew shut down the duplicate ship's quantum engines. The Road Not Taken

Look at my fingers! They're glorious!

While the Lost Light was disappearing piece by piece, Mainframe was seen evacuating the ship alongside Jackpot. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide After the Lost Light reappeared, Mainframe along with Bluestreak, First Aid, and Trailcutter landed on Ofsted XVII while awaiting further orders from Rodimus. Mainframe explained to a curious Bluestreak that the planet was experiencing a lot of warp gates appearing after a massive battle between Black Block Consortia and the Galactic Council with a few mechs over a ravaged ship in orbit. After First Aid called Bluestreak from a lecture theater, he and Mainframe went to meet up with him. They discovered a fatally wounded Cybertronian lying around in the wrecked room. Mainframe and Bluestreak decided to find out if the Cybertronian was an Autobot or Decepticon. After First Aid and Trailcutter returned with medical supplies, First Aid became furious with Mainframe and Bluestreak for moving the injured bot, giving him less time to live. Mainframe became unsure about donating some of his fuel when he mentioned the risks of donating too much energon. Next, Mainframe found a translator lying around and activated it. However, Bluestreak discovered the Cybertronian's face and discovered a switch on it that released spikes. Mainframe was now convinced that the injured bot wasn't an Autobot, and he and Bluestreak backed out from donating their fuel and left the lecture theater. After the bot was revealed to the Vos, a member of the D.J.D. and attacked Trailcutter, First Aid went to go find Mainframe and Bluestreak to help. Mainframe was present when the three bots discovered that Kaon had murdered Trailcutter, and watched helplessly as Kaon crushed Trailcutter's brain module. Births, Deaths, and Interventions Afterwards, Mainframe and the others were nearly killed by the D.J.D. after they tried to blow up their shuttle and was soon rescued. The Custom-Made Now

Shortly after Thunderclash's pre-wake and recovery from near-death, Mainframe was called to Swerve's by Getaway and Atomizer and asked if he would stand by the two in a mutiny against Megatron, with the lonely navigator eventually agreeing. Filling in the Blanks

Mainframe acted as shuttle pilot for Rodimus and the crew when they located the Necrobot's port-of-call. In trying to decide whether to approach by stealth or storm, Mainframe found Rodimus's sarcasm and flippancy indecipherable, as do we all from time to time. The Not Knowing

Revenge of the Nerds

When certain members of the crew were psychically attacked, Mainframe and Blaster traced the source to Necroworld but concealed the location from Team Rodimus so as to bait them off-ship. As Rodimus, Magnus, Megatron and the affected crewmembers prepared to leave in the Rodpod to investigate, Mainframe took the team's doctor Velocity aside and suggested that she should take Whirl along as some extra muscle. Once the crew had liberated Getaway, Mainframe stood alongside him on the ship's bridge as he informed Rodimus that they were being stranded on the Necrobot's planet and to expect "visitors". The shocked bridge crew demanded Getaway explain himself. He revealed he'd bargained with the Galactic Council to have them seize Megatron but assured the safety of their fellow Autobots. Three weeks later, the bridge crew discussed the Warren and the map to Cyberutopia before a transmission came in from Rodimus informing the crew that he and his entourage were facing the Decepticon Justice Division, prompting Mainframe to despair at his role in the mutiny. Like all aboard, Mainframe's memories were remotely altered by Sunder so as to make him think Team Rodimus had left of their own volition and that Getaway was the bee's knees. How Bright Their Frail Deeds Filling in the Blanks

"Grimlock! You killed the zombie Mainframe!"
"...He was a zombie?"

When the Protectobots finally caught up to the ship, Mainframe was in "Visages" where he joined a group in catching up First Aid on the changes aboard ship. Full Circle After a trip through the Warren, Mainframe cycled the engines into their recharge state. He was shocked when Blaster ordered a detour, noting how close they were to their goal. Another jump through the Warren took the ship directly to Cyberutopia. Journey's End

However, the promised land turned out to be nothing more than the ancient medical moon of Mederi, fuelled by telepathic aliens, and since the crew had no fixed idea what Cyberutopia was supposed to be like the illusion soon collapsed. Soon after arriving the Lost Light came under assault by the forces of the Grand Architect whom Getaway swore fealty to, allowing Scorponok to turn the crew into sparkeaters to prove his loyalty. Lūstrāre The mutated crew members were then set loose on Team Rodimus and the Scavengers, You Are Here where Mainframe was unceremoniously hacked to pieces by Grimlock. A Dance Before Dying

Classics

Mainframe was overlooking the Ironworks with Rad when Overlord attacked the base with his squad of Decepticons. Invasion Prologue He argued with Rollout while rebuilding Ironworks. When the Junkions attacked, he was captured and turned into one. Invasion

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

At the tail-end of the Great War, Mainframe was sent out to accompany Tigatron in an attempt to broker peace-talks between the Autobots and Decepticons, hoping to end the war without further carnage. Unfortunately, the first enemy camp they approached was headed by the renegade soldier Megatron, who sicced Predaking on them. Mainframe fled before the gestalt could cut him down. Dawn of the Predacus

Of Masters and Mayhem

Mainframe was one of the many casualties of Toxitron's attack on the Ark's launch facility. The Toxic Transformer

2019 IDW continuity

One of Highbrow's peers at the Academy of Research, Mainframe helped set up a video conference with Straxxus. Escape Part Two

Toys

The Transformers

It figures a computer dork would want a BFG.

• Mainframe with Push-Button (Action Master, 1990)

• Accessories: "Vibro pulverizer" rifle, "Push-Button" partner
• Known designers: Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Part of the second assortment of individually-carded Action Masters, The Transformers Mainframe is a non-transforming 3¾-inch action figure of a robot with an indeterminate alternate mode, but chances are he turns into one of those huge computers you see in those movies from the 70s and 80s. You know, the ones the size of refrigerators with the reel-to-reel magnetic tape. His construction is broadly similar to that used by the G.I. Joe figures of the time, having a swivel neck, shoulders and knees, plus ball-jointed hips attached via a steel rod internally secured by a rubber "o-ring". His hands have standard 3 mm holes which allow him to hold any other accessory in the Action Master line, plus his feet have holes in the bottom to secure him to larger vehicles. On top of that, the hole in his back is compatible with 5 mm posts.

He came packaged with his partner-robot Push-Button, who can transform into a massive cannon that Mainframe can (awkwardly) carry.

• More information on Mainframe at TFU.info

War for Cybertron: Kingdom

By popular demand!

• Autobot Ark (Titan Class, 2021)

• Accessories: Sky Spy, Voyager Golden Disk, Vok Golden Disk, Optimus Prime, navigator globe
• Known designers: John Warden and Lenny Panzica (Hasbro), Shogo Hasui and Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy), Hirofumi Ichikawa (detailing), Ken Christiansen (concept artist)

Only available with War for Cybertron: Kingdom Titan Class Autobot Ark, "Autobot Mainframe" is a Voyager Class-sized toy that transforms from robot mode into either "Teletraan-1" or the bridge of the Ark. As Teletraan-1, the toy is mostly to scale with contemporary Generations toys, and features a sculpted computer console with multiple tampographed screens and a Sky Spy accessory. Behind it are two removable show-accurate Golden Disk accessories (both depict the "Sounds of Earth" record on one side, but feature differing images on the other side. One depicts the Voyager record's golden case, while the other depicts the Vok disk). In bridge mode, there are small seats and Teletraan-1 computer screens where microfigures (such as the included Optimus Prime) can be placed, all surrounding a navigation globe. In this mode, Mainframe can be placed inside the chest/hull of the Ark.

Dramatic Capture Series

Continuing the time-honored tradition of retroactively inserting Mainframe into the cartoon!

• Autobot Headquarters (Multi-pack, 2024)

• Release date: November 30, 2024
• Accessories: "Scanning Satellite", navigator globe
• Known designers: Hisashi Yuki (TakaraTomy)

Part of TakaraTomy's Dramatic Capture Series, this Mainframe is a redeco of his Kingdom figure above, with his robot mode deco now based directly on his Action Master toy, with a few concessions to keep the Teletraan-1 mode colored yellow, such as retaining the yellow shins. Surprisingly, very little of this new deco is done via paint. Only his light-gray forearms and head are painted yellow plastic, while all of his blue and red parts are cast in those colors.

His computer mode has also modified all of his tampographs. Most of the screens are unchanged design-wise, but now have white lines, with the grids on the lower portion having red lines, rather than the original's light blue lines. (This is curiously a very non-show color choice, as the Teleraan screens were typically blue in the cartoon.) The lower-left screen now shows the Autobot sigil instead of the Matrix of Leadership. The central screen still shows the Ark, but in a simple vertical upright position, with completely different extra data graphics (and no hint of the Ark's robot mode). The right-top screen is mostly the same, but has a bust-shot of Mainframe's robot mode where the prior version showed Vector Sigma.

He retains the Sky Spy and tiny hologram accessories; the Sky Spy is barely changed at all (you really gotta side-by-side it to tell), and the hologram is now bright clear-orange rather than clear-yellow. Also, the Golden Disk is nowhere to be found. (He can, of course, still store one if you want.)

He was only available as part of the "Autobot Headquarters" three-pack, with even-more-show-like redecoes of Optimus Prime and Jazz.

Notes

• According to his Tech Specs, he is equipped to store 200,000 megabytes of data. At the time his toy was released, this was actually pretty impressive, as most hard drives then could barely hold 1,000 MB. Nowadays, of course, this is not exactly a big deal, since USB drives going into the terabytes (1,000,000 MB in 1 TB) are commonplace.
• Mainframe is inexplicably on the cover of the 1990 Family Home Entertainment VHS release of the "Five Faces of Darkness" mini-series... a cartoon produced about four years before Mainframe's toy was released.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Mainframe (メインフレーム Meinfurēmu)
• French: Ordinateur (Canada)
• Italian: Omicron