Technobot (G1)

This article is about the heroic Autobot subgroup. For the evil mirror-universe Autobot subgroup, see Technobot (SG).

The Technobots are an Autobot subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Reinforcing the stereotype that scientists are ill-socialized psychopaths.

The Technobots are a group of generally hot-headed Autobots with Cybertronian alternate modes. They are also scientists, though their IQ is decidedly average. They have often clashed with the bestial Terrorcons. The Technobots consist of:

• The trigger-happy Scattershot (leader)
• The screw-loose Strafe
• The wonder-filled Lightspeed
• The angry Afterburner
• The patient Nosecone

In some universes they are joined by:

• The insecure Scrounge
• The forgettable Cybaxx

The Technobots' greatest strength is being able to merge their minds effectively compared to other combiners, and combine to form the unusually intelligent Computron. Sometimes Scattershot uses non-Technobot components to form Betatron.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

They tell us that
We lost our tails
Evolving up from little snails
I say it's all just wind in sails Are we not men?

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

After Optimus Prime and his troops aboard the Ark went missing, the Technobots were among several under the leadership of Fortress Maximus. Their faction was mired in a seemingly endless war with a band of Decepticons led by Scorponok, in a struggle so pointless and self-perpetuating that Fortress Maximus decided to leave Cybertron and its war and settle on the peaceful planet Nebulos. The Technobots followed Fortress Maximus' lead, building the Steelhaven and departing their war-torn home. Ring of Hate!

It would not be so easy. The Nebulans were xenophobic towards the strange robots which invaded their world, and after several missteps in communication, Fortress Maximus and a handful of others surrendered their heads as hopeful proof of their benevolence and compliance. Ring of Hate! But when the Decepticons followed them to Nebulos, the Technobots found themselves once again pitted against the terrible Terrorcons. Love and Steel!

They later travelled to Earth with the rest of Fortress Maximus's forces, and Scattershot was among the advisors Fortress Maximus brought with him for the first meeting with the Ark's crew. Totaled!

Scattershot accompanied Optimus Prime to confront the insane future Decepticon Galvatron but after misinterpreting the mass substitution effect of a time-jump, ended up attacking Rodimus Prime and his future Autobots instead. Time Wars

The Technobots were later among the casualties of the Underbase-powered Starscream. Dark Star

Marvel UK future timelines

In 2008 Rodimus Prime learned that Unicron was reconstructing himself on the planet of Junk and so he, Scattershot, Smokescreen, and the Dinobots took a shuttle to try and prevent it. After Rodimus and the Dinobots disembarked, Scattershot and Smokescreen piloted the shuttle, taking pot-shots at Unicron's giant head while avoiding his annihilating eye beams. The Legacy of Unicron! Some months later, Nosecone, Strafe and Scattershot were among the Autobots that joined Ultra Magnus in responding to a Decepticon rescue call, fighting alongside Soundwave's forces against a marauding army of Quintessons. Space Pirates!

Following the events of the Time Wars and the reboot of history, Strafe and Afterburner were stationed at Autobot City in 2009 along with Perceptor and Blaster. They responded to a distress call when the Autobot evacuation ship crashed on Earth. Shadow of Evil Confronted by a Unicron-possessed Rodimus Prime, Strafe was apparently killed in the resulting conflict. White Fire

Remember all those times we hung out with Triton? Yeah, me neither.

In an alternate future of 2510, the Technobots were closely allied with Ultra Magnus and Triton. They were amongst the Autobots who saw the end of the war after the last Decepticon fell and were called to Autobase to hear Rodimus Prime announce that he was stepping down as Autobot leader. Unfortunately, Triton was an undercover Decepticon and he managed to sow dissent between the Technobots and Wreckers which, after Scattershot killed Roadbuster, quickly escalated into a new Autobot Civil War. Peace

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Grimlock was made super-intelligent by accidentally absorbing energies from the generator in the power core of Cybertron. He then built the Technobots' bodies from parts of Unicron's brain, and then transferred his super-intelligence into them. Together, the Technobots used their intelligence to defeat the individual Terrorcons and their combined form, Abominus. Grimlock's New Brain

Soon afterwards, they were assigned to the EDC to assist Commander Marissa Faireborn in pursuing smugglers and other criminal elements. Confronting the Quintessons and the Terrorcons, the Technobots' combined form of Computron once again defeated the dim-witted Abominus by causing the Decepticon giant to fall apart into his individual team member components. Money Is Everything

When the Decepticons attacked the research facilities of Mark Morgan and Gregory Swofford in search of the scientists' new metal alloy, the Technobots combined into Computron to fight off Abominus. Unfortunately, their scuffle caused part of the building to collapse, severely injuring Morgan's daughter, Jessica. This led the elder Morgan, in his hatred of the Transformers, to unleash the Hate Plague on the Autobots in the hopes they would destroy each other. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1

After the truce in the aftermath of the Hate Plague ended, the Decepticons attacked Autobot City on Earth in order to steal the Key to the Plasma Energy Chamber. The Technobots were among the Autobot forces who attempted to stop them. The Rebirth, Part 1

The Great Transformer War

The Technobots were under construction at Metroplex when the Autobots sought the aid of Doctor Dalton in improving their abilities. The Great Transformer War #1 Dalton heavily upgraded the Technobots' weaponry, allowing the combined Computron to easily outmatch the Decepticon combiner, Abominus. As the Decepticon motto goes, however: When in doubt, cheat. Galvatron outfitted the Terrorcons with Cohesive Control Liquid, a substance that enabled them to assume control over Computron. Dalton arranged for Spike Witwicky to use a special exosuit to approach Computron safely and administer an antidote. The Great Transformer War #2

The Headmasters cartoon

In 2011, Galvatron staged a major attack on Cybertron. Scattershot and the Technobots joined the Dinobots on the front lines of defense. Four Warriors Come out of the Sky As Hot Rod began his search for the Matrix of Leadership on Earth, Ultra Magnus gathered the Technobots to prevent the Decepticons from hampering his quest. When Hot Rod finally located the Matrix, Galvatron confronted him with the Decepticon Headmasters and Terrorcons, but the Technobots arrived to help even the odds. Scattershot ordered them to form Computron, and the mighty giant occupied the Decepticons so that Hot Rod could make a break for the space bridge. Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime

Later, Galvatron launched Metamorphose, a metal-twisting meteorite, and the Aerialbots were its first victims. The Technobots were sent out to recover their damaged comrades for repairs, but they were intercepted by the Terrorcons. The fighting escalated with new arrivals on both sides, as the Decepticons tried to keep their foes occupied until the meteorite reached Athenia, destroying the Autobots completely. The Battleship Maximus eventually arrived to carry the Headmasters into space to confront the meteorite, and so the Technobots formed Computron and covered their retreat. Approach of the Demon Meteorite

Scattershot was on Earth with Ultra Magnus, attending to the shadowy robot's threat to steal all of Japan's energy. Terror! The Six Shadows The two of them also studied the mysterious seismic activity which led to a volcano erupting near the Peruvian city of Pan. The Dormant Volcano Mysteriously Erupts When a giant carnivorous plant took root in San Francisco, Ultra Magnus sent the Technobots to deal with the incident. The plant proved to be extraordinarily resilient, however, and it was also guarded by the Decepticons. The Technobots were distracted by combat with the Stunticons, first as individuals and later combined as Computron and Menasor. Head On!! Fortress Maximus After the Trainbots ran into trouble on Mars, the Technobots were on the way to help when Sixshot and Trypticon intervened. The Earthbound Decepticons succeeded in occupying the Technobots so that they couldn't make it to Mars. Explosion on Mars!! Maximus Is in Danger

The Technobots were part of a strike team that flew to the moon to disrupt Scorponok's gathering of Decepticons. They immediately formed Computron upon entering the battle. Return of the Immortal Emperor Scattershot's regiment later helped load the Trainbots with energon supplies for the destitute planet Sandra. They were attacked by the greedy Decepticons and fought back both as the mighty Computron and as individuals, using the Trainbots' large vehicle modes as a shield. SOS from Planet Sandra

The Technobots accompanied Fortress on his quest to prevent the Decepticons from stealing energy elsewhere in the galaxy. During this extended mission, Scattershot and his teammates formed Computron to battle Predaking on the planet Paradise. Head Formation of Friendship

After returning to Earth, the Technobots reassociated with Ultra Magnus at Autobot City on Earth. They were sent to Miami to counter a Decepticon attack, and battled Abominus as Computron. Unfortunately, the attack was a ruse to draw them away from Autobot City, and they were unable to stop Sixshot's assassination of Ultra Magnus. Ultra Magnus Dies!! The Decepticon attacks continued even after Magnus's death, as Sixshot launched five separate strikes at once around the world. The Technobots were dispatched as Computron to one of the many battle sites. The Emperor of Destruction Vanishes on an Iceberg

The Technobots remained on Earth as Fortress and his men traveled the stars hunting Scorponok. As the war returned to Earth, they joined the entire Autobot army in flying to the North Pole to settle all scores with Scorponok and his evil warriors. As Computron, they fought against the Decepticons until Fortress Maximus was trapped in an energy circuit with the crysmagnetal. Along with the rest of the Autobots, the Technobots transferred some of their energy into the Headmasters' Head Formation, giving Fortress Maximus enough strength to break free. The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 2)

Grim Grams

Grimlock considered that the Technobots must be his children and he should get them a cake on their birthday. He then became sad that Wheeljack and Ratchet never got to meet their 'grandchildren', and hopes they would be proud that he made such important Autobots. Grim Grams, 2015/10/03

Generations Selects Special Comic

In the year 2050, the Technobots happily greeted Wheeljack when humanity's mastery of Angolmois Energy cured him of his memory problems. Volcanicus comic 1 When humanity's Selectors began rebelling, the Technobots initially followed Optimus Prime's orders to fight with their fellow mechanicals before their loyalty to Grimlock caused them to defect to the side of humanity, combining with the Dinobots into Volcaticon whose display of power halted the violence before Grimlock promised to find a peaceful solution. Volcanicus comic 2

When the Terrorcons suddenly descended, Computron was quickly overwhelmed. Abominus comic 1 After recovering, the Technobots combined with their fellow Autobot combiners into Comperian to match Abominus who responded by turning himself into Abomenaticus before Megatron smacked everyone aside and announced his latest plans for conquest. Abominus comic 2

2005 IDW continuity

The Technobots were not combiners in this continuity.

The Technobots used to crew the Autobot vessel Calabi-Yau in orbit around Cybertron, under the command of Jetfire.

After landing on the planet to investigate an energy spike, Scattershot, Lightspeed and Strafe accompanied Jetfire on a reconnaissance mission and were captured by Bludgeon's group of Decepticons. Nosecone and Afterburner, having taken the Calabi-Yau back into orbit, crash-landed back on Cybertron after escaping the doomed ship in an emergency pod and were drafted into assisting the Wreckers. Stormbringer

The Technobots helped take the Monstructor six into custody, after their fight with Omega Supreme. Spotlight: Optimus Prime

Later on, the Technobots and Jetfire were sent to help separate the entity Monstructor into its component parts. They weren't making much progress, though were determined to keep trying—but the Decepticon raid on Garrus-9 saw them taken down, and Monstructor captured. Spotlight: Arcee

The Technobots continued their research work in conjunction with Jetfire, polishing up Bludgeon's work with Pretender technology. They were prepared to create Pretender shells for four Autobots, to protect them from the unknown hazards in the Benzuli Expanse. Spotlight: Doubledealer Finishing the shells aboard the Nightbird, they hurried to save the crew of the Mirror-Manifold from Cyclonus, then gave them the shells. Spotlight: Sideswipe

Three of the Technobots later were assigned to the Kimia Facility. Unfortunately, Nosecone met his end at the hands (and teeth) of the Sweeps, Lamentations while Lightspeed and Afterburner heroically blew up the station (and themselves) to keep it from falling into Galvatron's hands. Numbers

Strafe and Scattershot either were not on Kimia at the time, or escaped the Sweeps' attack. Strafe joined the crew of the Lost Light on their search for the Knights of Cybertron. Before & After A quantum duplicate of Strafe aboard a quantum duplicate of the Lost Light was killed by the Decepticon Justice Division. 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

Strafe joined the security patrol aboard the Lost Light. When they caught Cyclonus and Tailgate after their apparent assassination attempt on Megatron, Cyclonus appeared to reach for his Great Sword, so the guards opened fire. The Lopsided Triangle Although he didn't realize it at the time, Strafe temporarily became an outlier as a result of his exposure to Tailgate's flare. He complained of sudden burnout to Velocity when his system finally crashed from the high. At Close of Day

As a member of the Lost Light's security team, Strafe was subjected to shadowplay by Sunder on behalf of Getaway. In addition to wiping his memories of how Rodimus and the command team left, Strafe was also wired to see Getaway's authority as unquestionable, and anyone who did question it as an undercover Decepticon. Filling in the Blanks As a result, Strafe was wary and trigger-happy when First Aid and the Protectobots returned to the Lost Light and seemed uncomfortable with Getaway's command. He held First Aid and the others at gunpoint when Riptide told them the truth about the mutiny at Swerve's. The Protectobots tried to get away, but were captured and placed in recursive memory loops. Full Circle

Scattershot remained on Cybertron, and was seen working at Fixit's medical bay. Stick Together When the Decepticons made their move to conquer the planet, he aided Fixit in taking care of the injured. Plan for Everything He took part in the battle against Unicron, commanding Fastlane and Cloudraker, only for their ship to be obliterated by a Worldsweeper, leaving Strafe as the only surviving member of the team. Our Finest

Of Masters and Mayhem

During the Great War, the Technobots enhanced their combined form of Computron by adding Scrounge and Cybaxx to their ranks. The introduction of the latter allowed the Technobots to tap into the power of the Underbase and increase their processing power, something that they hoped would provide them the edge over Thunder Mayhem.

It didn't. Lively Pursuit

2019 IDW continuity

A Colonial Security force, the Technical Solutions Team were posted at the Black Hub. Following the Titan Vigilem going rogue, they oversaw the Titan Lodestar undergoing an armed refit, bringing an imploder with them in the event they needed to destroy Vigilem. Upon locating Vigilem at Hexagon, the team attempted to negotiate with Thunderwing only to run afoul of the various lowlives he'd hired. When facing off against Airachnid, the five fell into her experimental Combination Core, a recreation of the Enigma of Combination, and emerged as Computron. Before their combined form could gather his wits, he was ejected from the station. Decombining, the five discussed their experienced before Lodestar collected them. Light/Star

Upon receiving a distress call from Cybertron, Lodestar set course for Crystal City. While her dramatic touchdown scared off most Decepticons, she was too damaged to fight, the team combining back into Computron to hold off Strika's Heavies until Optimus Prime arrived to speak with the Decepticons. The team subsequently decombined with Scattershot recapping what had happened to them to Optimus. The Landscape of Fear Too drained of energon to combine again, the team was sent ahead to Darkmount, leaving the Autobots unable to turn Computron against the rust worms or Insecticons. End of Time

By the time that the Decepticons were using an imploder to bar Optimus Prime's path to Darkmount, the Technical Solutions Team had been refuelled, the sight of the advancing Computron breaking Skywarp's concentration and allowing Jumpstream to teleport him and the imploder away. Unwilling to engage the combiner, Megatron allowed the Autobots to press forward, Computron escorting them to safety.

When the Decepticons finally attacked Darkmount, the Autobots gave the Technical Solutions Team the last of their energon reserves so that Computron could join Leviathan in fighting Devastator. After a mighty punch from the Constructicon combiner broke Computron back into his components, Scattershot called for volunteers. When Pipes, Flareup, Backstreet, Javelin, and Groove stepped forward, Computron was reborn as a ten-bot combiner. Buying time for the Autobots to escape Cybertron, Computron managed to overpower Devastator, though failed to kill him, before he was fired upon by the totality of the Decepticon force. Overwhelmed, Computron broke back into his components, having bought enough time for the Autobots to launch. Fate of Cybertron

Games

Transformers Legends

The Technobots were ambushed outside Autobot City by the Terrorcons, who feared they would combine into Computron. The Decepticon team overwhelmed them, gaining entry to the city itself. Circuit Breaker

Transformers Roleplaying Game

The Technobots were a group of temperamental Autobot scientists. The Enigma of Combination

Toys

The Transformers

Computron

• Technobots (1987)
  • Afterburner
  • Lightspeed
  • Nosecone
  • Scattershot
  • Strafe

The Technobots are a Scramble City-style combiner team, consisting of four smaller toys sold carded at the $5 price point, and one larger toy sold boxed at the $12 price point. The smaller toys can each become any limb for the combined robot form, attaching to connection points on the leader toy, which forms the torso. All five Technobots were available both separately and in a full-team gift set.

The smaller Technobots are typical combiner limbs, with simple transformations, articulation limited to knees and shoulder rotation, and a single block instead of separate feet. All five team members share a unified color scheme of reds, brown, cream, and muted oranges and yellows. They each transform to "futuristic" vehicles, in counterpoint to their Decepticon foes, the Terrorcons.

Generation 2

• Strafe (Cyberjet, 1995)

A redeco of the Decepticon Cyberjet Space Case.

Universe (2008)

• Special Team Leaders (Multi-pack, 2008)
  • Series: Classic Series

Scattorshot (so named due to trademark issues) is a redeco of the Cybertron Legends of Cybertron Vector Prime toy.

Gentei! Gentei!

Gentei! Gentei! Strafe (Not a miscolored Shattered Glass Cyclonus, mind you.)

• Strafe (Deluxe Class, 2009)

A redeco of the 2008 Universe series Cyclonus toy, He comes with a partner figure named Rocketbot.

Combiner Wars

Combiner Wars Scattershot (Still in Beta.)

• Scattershot (Voyager Class, 2015)

A retool of Generations Combiner Wars Voyager Class Silverbolt. Strangely, he sports an unchanged version of Superion's head and chest. As a Combiner Wars Voyager he is able to combine with any Deluxe Class toys from the same subline or the Unite Warriors line, although he was intended to combine with Mirage, Prowl, Sunstreaker, and Ironhide to form Betatron rather than Computron.

Collection Pack Computron (And here it is!)

• Computron (Collection Pack, 2016)
  • Scattershot
  • Afterburner
  • Lightspeed
  • Nosecone
  • Strafe
  • Scrounge with Cybaxx

Generations Combiner Wars Computron is composed of the entire Technobot team, including Scrounge. All of the new figures for this set are extensive retools of previously-used molds, and are generally decoed to match their original 1987 figure counterparts, but have some occasional hue differences and callouts to details from the cartoon. Like Victorion, Computron features new pairs of hands and feet. The hands can be stored underneath the feet's cavity when Computron is not formed, and were later reused as Unite Warriors Baldigus's hands and feet.

Every figure in the set makes extensive use of paint for their decoes, which unfortunately can lead to paint chipping if not handled carefully.

Unite Warriors

Unite Warriors Computicon (this is the final release!)

• Techbot Combined Warrior Computicon (giftset, August 27, 2016)
  • ID number: UW-08
  • English name: Autobot Technobots Combiner Computron

• Known designers: Hisashi Yuki (TakaraTomy)

Released as part of the Unite Warriors lineup, Takara's take on "Computicon" is very different from Hasbro's version. Only two of the figures (Scattershot and Afterburner) actually use the same base sculpts, and both sport tooling changes, with Scattershot being heavily retooled to sport a different combiner chest and head sculpt more closely resembling Generation 1 Computicon. Strafe, Lightspeed, and Nosecone are retooled from Unite Warriors Blast Off, Combiner Wars Wheeljack, and Rook, respectively. All five figures are retooled and decoed to much more closely match their G1 cartoon appearances.

Strangely, he does not include the same dedicated hands and feet as the Hasbro version. Instead he opts to use the standard Combiner Wars hand/foot guns.

Notes

• The rear-views of all of the Technobots' pre-final animation models (including Computron) are riddled with errors, suggesting that they were drawn without toy references. There is evidence of a revised set of rear-view models existing for all of the Technobots in the Toei-animated episodes, however, those models appear to have been lost after season 3, as Toei ended up using the pre-final versions for The Headmasters cartoon. Unsurprisingly, the AKOM-animated episodes used the pre-final models.
• The Technobots all have Kreon counterparts, although some have slightly different names than the Generation 1 originals. However, those guys have never actually explicitly officially been called Technobots, so...

Foreign names

• Japanese: Techbot (テックボット Tekkubotto), Technobot (The Rebirth, テクノボット Tekunobotto), Tech Robot (The Rebirth Japanese subtitles only, テックロボット Tekku Robotto)
• English: Techno Regiment (Omni Productions dub)
• Italian: Tecnobot
• Mandarin: Shénfēng Duì (神风队, "Divine Wind Team")