Nebulan

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

A group of binary-bonded Nebulans in their armor.

Nebulans (or Nebulons) are the inhabitants of the planet Nebulos and speak Nebulanese. They have found themselves involved with the Transformers in several different dimensions within the multiverse and are usually responsible for or deeply involved in the Headmaster, Targetmaster, and Powermaster technologies.

Their exact characteristics vary by universe.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

The Nebulans were a race of humans that had lived without war for thousands of years on their home planet of Nebulos. That peace was disrupted when a group of Autobots arrived seeking to relocate from their own war-torn world of Cybertron. This caused divisions amongst the Nebulans based on whether or not to trust the newcomers. Ring of Hate! The arrival of a group of Decepticons soon afterward only escalated these tensions, and Nebulos's age of peace was lost as citizens binary bonded to Transformers on both sides of the conflict to become Headmasters Broken Glass! Love and Steel! and Targetmasters.

Realizing the damage that was being done to Nebulos's once-peaceful culture, the Autobots abandoned the planet to join Transformers already on the planet Earth, believing (correctly) that the Decepticons would pursue them off-Nebulos. Brothers in Armor!!

After this the citizens of Nebulos tainted their own energy sources so as to be poisonous to any Transformers that might seek to return to their world. When Decepticons Darkwing and Dreadwind arrived soon after the departure of the other Transformers, they soon found themselves victim of this poisoning, and lay dormant for a time. They were later revived by Nebulan traitors Hi-Test and Throttle, who had stolen power-conversion plans that eventually created the Powermasters. Hi-Q, the creator of this process, eventually binary bonded with a reborn Optimus Prime, and several of his staff joined with other Autobots, in order to combat the threat posed by Darkwing and Dreadwind. They, too, eventually left Nebulos to join the other Transformers on Earth. People Power!

Many more Nebulans ended up binary bonded to Transformers around these events, but how these team-ups came to be is not chronicled.

Classics

Classics continues from the Marvel US series, and does not include the UK stories or any subsequently published stories.

Regeneration One

Regeneration One continues from the Marvel US series, and does not include the UK stories or any subsequently published stories.

Nebulan scientists led by Borx initiated "Project Lazarus", an attempt to rebuild the Autobot Headmasters' bodies and join them to the heads left behind. Loose Ends, Part 2 When the Nebulans attempted to access Lord Zarak's files, Scorponok reactivated, and took control of the Nebulans. Natural Selection, Part One

Grimlock, seeking a way to cure his teammates suffering from Nucleon's side effects, became interested in the potential of Project Lazarus and went to Nebulos to investigate. Grimlock arrived at Koraja Spaceport, which initially appeared abandoned, only to be attacked by Nebulan forces. Grimlock, observing that the Nebulans appeared hypnotized, refused to fight back, and was captured by Scorponok. Loose Ends, Part 2 Scorponok completed the Project Lazarus research under his terms, creating the Gene Key which he would use against Cybertron. Natural Selection, Part Two

After Scorponok's defeat, Natural Selection, Part Five Ultra Magnus dispatched the Rescue Patrol to Nebulos, hoping that Fixit and his team could find a way to undo Scorponok's influence and restore the Nebulans. Destiny, Part One At Optimus Prime's suggestion, the construction of a Space Bridge began in the Clar Macro-jungle so that humans and Nebulans could help each other rebuild their shattered worlds. Destiny, Part Two Though regarded as the Dark Matrix as one of the three "trinity", The War to End All Wars, Part 4 the Nebulans remained largely ignorant of the entity's machinations. In the aftermath of the battle, a delegation of Nebulans greeted their human opposites with the two species going on to thrive in their partnership. The War to End All Wars, Part 5

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Nebulons were extremely human-like aliens who possessed green skin and dark green or white hair. Some of the oldest of their ruling class, the Hive, appear to have had cyborg alterations or even taken on fully robotic bodies.

Nebulos was a world whose inhabitants were enslaved by the Hive, a group of eleven Nebulon telekinetics whose focus on development of their mental powers had caused their bodies to wither, led by Lord Zarak. The populace was mainly forced to do routine farm work, watched over by the machines which the Hive controlled telepathically.

Several Transformers crashed on Nebulos. A small band of Nebulon rebels, led by Gort, captured the Autobots, believing them to be Hive machines. The Decepticons were captured by the Hive. Convincing the rebels that they were not Hive machines, the Autobots volunteered to help, offering up four of their own to serve as Headmasters, with Nebulon partners inside their heads to serve as secondary operators.

Zarak demanded his own Headmasters, but Cyclonus only wished to offer up the Decepticon animals for this. The rest offered their weapons, which Zarak willingly accepted. The Autobots learned of this and adapted the new Targetmaster designs.

Zarak rebuilt a Hive facility into Scorponok, only to be countered by Fortress Maximus, an old Hive city converted into a Headmaster body by Spike Witwicky and Cerebros. Defeated, the Hive and the Decepticons fled in Scorponok. The Rebirth

Wings Universe

In 2012, several Nebulan scientists, including Hi-Q and Hi-Test, were working on an unspecified power source (presumably the Powermaster process). A Flash Forward, Part 3

In 2013, upon meeting the Decepticon Serpentor, who, unlike his "second generation" Transformer comrades, was purely a human creation, Jhiaxus remarked that unlike the Nebulans, the humans continued to interest him. A Common Foe

Tornado initially thought that Olin Zarak, Headmaster partner to Scorponok, was a 'bot from the planet Master until realizing that Zarak was in fact a Nebulan. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

In the late 30th century, Apelinq regarded the Nebulans as a fascinating species as history had caused their society to become symbiotically linked to Cybertronian society. When a disturbance occurred in Nebulan space, Commander Ginrai ordered the Cybertronian Knights to travel there aboard the Apex immediately, only to find that the disturbance was merely a spaceborne "fender-bender" caused by four transport vessels trying to access the same Nebulan spaceport at the same time. Apelinq's personal logs

Legends comic

Zarak traveled to the Legends World and was followed by Stylor, Arcana and Duros, who combined their Nebulon Headmaster technology with the local transtector-type Headmasters to defeat him. LGEX Headmaster Set Chapter

Ladybird books continuity

The Nebulans were small robots. Decepticons at the Pole Autobots Strike Oil Autobot Hostage Decepticons Underground

The Transformers Adventure Game Books continuity

Both the Autobots and Decepticons agreed that Nebulos should not be ravaged as Cybertron was in the Great War, and limited their numbers on the planet to only those who were teamed up with Nebulan companions. These Nebulans were robotic life-forms and although some worked with the Autobots as scientists, many of them were miners on the planet's equatorial continent, relaxing by getting drunk on high-grade oil and listening to extremely fast, loud techno music at the Wolf at the Door nightclub. Desert of Danger Swamp of the Scorpion

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

When Cybertron was devastated by another energy crisis, a scientist from Nebulos named Hi-Q assisted Optimus Prime on his quest for the potent energy source Nucleon, which was located inside black holes. Nucleon Quest Super Convoy's profile

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

No native Nebulan, sans *-master armor, is ever seen in the Dreamwave books, and the world itself only appears in the More Than Meets The Eye guidebook and one panel of the The War Within comic. Dreamwave's Nebulon, like much of its continuity, is built from a fusion of previous iterations.

Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity

Ask Vector Prime

In Aurex 503.01 Gamma, Nebulan doctors Hi-Q and Arcana performed the Headmaster process to save the lives of their patients Overload and Rollout. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/18

Cybertron cartoon

Following the conclusion of the Energon War, the Autobot Jetfire spent some time on the planet Nebulon. There he picked up a new accent from the locals, which to some Earthling ears resembles that of Australians. Sort of. Challenge

2005 IDW continuity

Nebulans were a hairless, green or reddish-pink skinned humanoid race with pointy ears. Their eyes were white. They had a bit of a vampiric look to human eyes. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus Stormbringer

Several million years ago during the Interregnum, Delta Magnus used a power booster rod to fool primitive Nebulans into worshipping him as a god. An Intimate Beheading Some time later, the unidentified Transformer who preceded Orion Pax as captain of the Rodion police enjoyed hunting "primitives" enough to keep a stuffed Nebulan on his wall. Chaos Theory Part 2

In the modern age, Scorponok violated the Code of Interplanetary Conflict by making contact with the maverick Nebulan scientists behind the Zarak Consortium. With his help, chairman Mo Zarak learned to fuse Nebulans with Cybertronian technology, re-engineering them into transformable men. Seeking to bring Scorponok to justice, Ultra Magnus infiltrated the Consortium and confronted him, leading to the death of Zarak and Scorponok's escape from Nebulos. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus

Nebulos was later devastated by Thunderwing, likely killing a lot of Nebulans. Stormbringer #3

United

Supreme Scientist Zella developed a cure for the nano-virus that was slowly killing the Autobots that were not binary bonded. It saved them all. The Fierce Fighting on Planet Nebulos

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

The Neb'los lived on a planet that shared the same. The Autobot/Decepticon war eventually reached Neb'los with Zarak betraying his people to the Decepticons for a position of power. The digital ghosts of the Neb'los survived in Zarak's mobile city of Scorponok, with them urging Scarlett to kill Zarak when she found herself trapped in the city. Headmasters

Beast Wars: Uprising

The Nebulans found their world dragged into the Great War after the Decepticon infiltration protocol manipulated the planet's two largest geographical superpowers, turning the Hive Nations against the World Watchers. When the Human Confederacy arrived, the Transformers revealed themselves, kickstarting the war. The Decepticons experimented on prisoners of war and developed Headmaster technology, which was stolen by the Autobots and subsequently altered to create Targetmasters.

Presumably, the vast majority of Nebulans perished during the apocalyptic Scouring of Nebulos that rendered their home incapable of supporting life. The stragglers that had already fled the planet with their Transformer partners died of natural causes before the 24th century. As the war drew to a close, the organic Nebulans were supplanted by the mechanical Cyberdroid inhabitants of the colony world Rebirth. A Brush With Infamy–Prologue

Last Bot Standing

When Rodimus awoke from stasis lock, he briefly mistook Shib Wallkis for a Nebulan. When he explained the Cybertronian race to her, he remembered the Nebulans as a casualty in the Great War before the conflict finally drained the universe of energon. Last Bot Standing #2

Energon Universe

When Skuxxoid picked up the Zertonian Solila, and her reluctant Agorrian ally Darak, he, after confirming they had no bounties, offered them a pre-Hive Nebulan starship in exchange for the unique alloy of their makeshift craft. Void Rivals #3

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Inhabitants of the planet Nebulos, Nebulans had an affinity for technology that eventually led to them becoming part bio-mechanical. The downside to their love of technology was that if a Nebulan encountered any new tech they would become distracted until they had thoroughly investigated it. Decepticon Directive When the Cybertronian war reached their world, a combination of Autobot and Nebulan technologies gave birth to a new form of Headmaster. Meanwhile, the political body known as the Hive aligned with the Decepticons, and reverse-engineered the binary bonding process to create Targetmasters. The Enigma of Combination

Notes

• The spelling "Nebulon" for the Nebulan species has thus far been exclusive to the Generation 1 cartoon.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Nebulos-jin (ネビュロス人, "Nebulos people"), Nebulan (ネビュラン Nebyuran)