Nightstalker (G1)

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

Nightstalker is an Autobot Mini-Cassette from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Nightstalker was once the partner of Ravage. His devotion to his superiors, however, exceeds even the Decepticon's—Nightstalker will unhesitatingly sacrifice his own well-being to save those he has sworn to protect. His ability to harden his outer armor to form a near-impenetrable barrier makes him a hard bodyguard to crack. And if worst comes to worst, he can always activate his self-destruction protocol and make sure whoever's coming after his charges won't make it past him, except as chunks of flaming debris.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Nightstalker appeared exclusively in the UK portion of the Marvel Comics continuity.

Nightstalker, along with his partner Ravage, was bodyguard to the last surviving Overlord, an Autobot ruler who had grown so old and enfeebled that he needed constant re-energizing life support to stay alive. When the Overlord visited the city-state of Tarn, war broke out between it and its neighbor, Vos, forcing the Overlord to retreat to his own home in Iacon. Accompanied by Optimus Prime and a pre-Decepticon Megatron, the Overlord almost made it—but Tarn's forces tracked him down and demolished the bridge to Iacon before he could cross, trapping him and his retinue. Like all of the Overlord's bodyguards, Nightstalker possessed a powerful last-resort self-destruct mechanism, and in a display of extreme loyalty to his charge, he now used it: detonating himself and taking out all of Tarn's forces with him.

Nightstalker's sacrifice would be in vain: the Overlord died soon afterwards from energon deficiency after Ravage betrayed him and sided with Megatron, refusing to give up his own energy to sustain the old, rusting fool. State Games

Legends comic

Before the war, Nightstalker was a member of the Autobot imperial guard alongside Ravage, and they both possessed the ability to reinforce their bodies and become nigh-invulnerable. During a battle to defend the Transform Super Cog from the Decepticons, Nightstalker used this ability to block an attack from Enemy aimed at the Jumpstarters before confronting Ravage and urging him to remember their time together, though his old friend refused to listen. Slugslinger's Ambition Ravage would later mention Nightstalker's name while explaining his hardening ability to Bullhorn. LG37 Ravage

2005 IDW continuity

The Functionist Universe

Nightstalker joined forces with the universe-traveling Megatron and the Anti-Vocationist League to oppose the forces of the Functionist Council. Unfortunately for Nightstalker, by the time the AVL, pursued by the Council, encountered the "main" universe's Lost Light, he was listed among the companions of Megatron confirmed as killed by the Council's forces. The Return of the King

Games

Transformers: Earth Wars

Toys

Encore

You always remember your first pointless casualty.

• Twincast (2012)

• ID number: 22
• Accessories: Left & right "Spear Missile Launchers", cassette case

Encore Nightstalker is a black redeco of Steeljaw, transforming from robotic lion to microcassette tape and back. In cassette mode, he can fit into the chest compartments of Blaster and Soundwave (and the numerous other iterations of those molds). Not only does Nightstalker use Ravage's missile weapons rather than the winged blasters that normally come with the Steeljaw mold, his tape mode is a near perfect reproduction Ravage's tape-mode detail, all in reference to the characters' shared history.

As was the case with other cassettes released with the Twincast reissues, Nightstalker sports an image of Scorponok which reveals the city-bot's weak spots when viewed through Twincast's clear-red chest door (in the same way Tech Spec decoders work). Due to the seams of his transformation, this sticker is just kind of randomly placed on the outer casing rather than its usual position in the central "window" of the cassette mode.

He was only available in the Encore Twincast set, which also included Stripes (who did get the Steeljaw weapons).

• More information on Nightstalker at TFU.info

The Transformers mold: Steeljaw
Hasbro: The Transformers Steeljaw (gold weapons) Steeljaw (silver weapons) Universe (2008) Steeljaw Platinum Edition Steeljaw Transformers Retro Steeljaw Takara/TakaraTomy: Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers C-65 Steeljaw (Transformers 2010) C-65 Steeljaw (w/ Twincast) C-120 Steeljaw (The Headmasters) The Transformers Collection 21 Steeljaw Encore 17 Steeljaw 22 Nightstalker
Takashi Matsuda

Masterpiece

More like "STEAL"-jaw, amirite??

• Cassettbot VS Cassettron (Multi-pack, 2017)

• ID number: MP-15/16E
• Release date: December 23, 2017
• Accessories: Pink tape case

Issued in a limited edition "Encore" Masterpiece set available from TakaraTomy Mall, Nightstalker transforms from robotic lion to microcassette and back. As his cassette mode is the same size as his original toy, he can fit inside the chest compartments of both Masterpiece Soundwave and the many iterations of the original Soundwave and Blaster molds. Like his prior release, he has the Ravage style hip-rockets rather than the Steeljaw winged-cannons; these weapons are built into his tape mode rather than being add-on accessories. He does, though, come with a clear-pink cassette case, which kinda serves double-duty as a compressed energon cube (what with Soundwave often being depicted as creating cubes from his chest-window).

This set also includes Masterpiece versions of Stripes, Wingthing, and Enemy.

If purchased from a seller supplied by Hasbro Asia, the set includes a collector coin, featuring Enemy's face on one side and the Autobot logo and names of all the included characters on the opposite side. The coin is mounted in a card resembling a cassette, similar to the cards housing the coins for MP-15 and MP-16, but styled like Enemy's cassette mode on the "A" side, while the "B" side resembles Stripes's cassette mode.

As with several TakaraTomy Mall exclusive items, The Cassettbot VS Cassettron set was also released at the Wonder Festival 2018 event.

Merchandise

Transformers Character Card

• Twincast & Soundblaster Set (October 17, 2023)
  • ID number: 67 & 68

Released as part of the ninth wave of the e-HOBBY exclusive Transformers Character Card series, this pair of holographic trading cards depict super-deformed art of Twincast (with Rosanna, Nightstalker, and Stripes) and Soundblaster (with Wingthing, Buzzsaw amd Enemy) in their respective Headmasters forms along with character profiles and tech specs.

• Translation of Twincast's Transformers Character Card

Notes

We wonder whatever happened to Jason Yeo...

• It was thought Nightstalker may have been loosely based on a similarly-named fan character that was one of the winners of Marvel UK's "Design-a-Decepticon" competition, published way, way back in issue #9. This character, named "Night Stalker" (with a space), was less of a Ravage clone in design, with a canine robot mode (though with a similar color scheme to that of the Decepticon feline). However, when interviewed by James Roberts for The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2, writer James Hill stated that this is just coincidence (sorry Jason) and that the name was probably lifted from Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
• Nightstalker's Encore art is, rather than a redeco of the normal Steeljaw packaging art, a reworking of the (honestly much nicer-looking) art of Steeljaw used for the original Twincast box, where he is leaping towards the camera from the larger bot's open chest compartment (though obviously with the weapons replaced by Ravage's missiles). It's also a clear reference to the distinct "Ravage pounce" pose used for Ravage's package art and character model, which has been heavily swiped and homaged over the years.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Nightstalker (ナイトストーカー Naitosutōkā)

Gallery

• 
  Encore art