Head Games

« Transformers Timelines text story » Beast Wars: Uprising
"Head Games"
Publisher	Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published	March 16, 2015
By	David Bishop & Jim Sorenson
Illustrations by	William Mangin
Continuity	Beast Wars: Uprising
Chronology	early 25th century
Page count	30pp

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Builders	Others
Armordillo (2) Knockdown (7) Backstop (8) Cybershark (9) Lio Convoy (10) Bighorn (12) Survive (13) Corahda (14)	Buzzclaw (1) Ser-Ket (4) Wreckloose (6)	Supersonic (3) Fortress Maximus (11) Squeezeplay (15) Crumplezone (16) Growl (17) Windsheer (18) Bulge (19) Blackjack (20) Gran (21) Plasma (22) Kord (23) Crack (24) Shock (25) Bomb (26) Thunderblast (27) Wreckage (28) Steamhammer (29) Bonecrusher (30) Broadside (31) Tankor (32) Motorhead (33) Roller Force (34) Ground Hog (35) Barricade (36) Spark Grid (37) Dirt Digger (38)	Dipole (5)

Notes

Errors

• "Hear" is used in place of "here" in the sentence "This Fortress Maximus is no more a Builder than the transport that brought you hear is part of you."

Continuity notes

• More detail is fleshed out for this timeline and how the war ended this way, namely that the Human Confederacy (which given the common authorship is probably shorthand for the Confederation of Terran Worlds), now more advanced than Transformers, forced them to Cybertron. We would hear some more detail about them in the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime, via a reference to the Confederated Terran Colonial Fleet.
• This story follows a few days on from "Broken Windshields" but the Grand Uprising is only now kicking off for real, much to the shock and horror of many characters at the pub.
• Cheetor as "first resistor" nods back to the earliest Uprising fiction, Blackarachnia's bio in club magazine #25.
• It's implied Daniel Witwicky had a son, Galen Witwicky.

Transformers references

• Buzzclaw's bundle of nerves under a brave front and Armordillo's patient, murderous stalking are both in line with their Beast Wars Sourcebook bios.
• Wreckloose and Backstop, two slight redecoes of the Cybertron characters/toys of the same name in the 2010 Transformers toyline, are finally given a continuity family of origin with this story: they're G1 Beast Era guys!
• Just before his death, Squeezeplay mentally rails against his "former partner". This probably refers to his Nebulan Headmaster partner Lokos.
• While several of the Micromaster guards in Fort Max are classic G1 Micromastesr, others are repurposes of Armada and Cybertron Mini-Cons. Dirt Digger is the only Micromaster with a new name but may be an erroneous parsing of the Classics Mini-Con Dirt Rocket, a member of the Dirt Digger Team.
• The given origin for Fortress Maximus is broadly in line with "The Rebirth".
• Galen Witwicky is a reference to Galen, Fort Max's original partner in the Marvel G1 continuity.
• The Cyberdroids are a reference to two Japanese redecos of Cerebros and a UK Annual's wrong name for Galen.
• The following characters are mentioned or referenced, but do not appear in the story proper: Diver, Drancron, Frostbite, Vamp, Omega Sentinel, Rage, Autostinger, Nightviper, Scourge, Razorclaw, Megatron, Liege Maximo, Trypticon, Cerebros, Spike Witwicky, Daniel Witwicky, Galen Witwicky, Zebres, Emissary, Gasket, Grommet, Cog, Cog, Koka, Onomisu, Cheetor, Grimlock, Preditron, and the Tripredacus Council. The "Titans" are also referred to as a group.
• Further mentioned in the Cybertronix text are: Llyra and Olin Witwicky.

Real world references

• The "Terran Singularity" that made the humans powerful and immortal is a reference to the Rapture-for-nerds theory of a technological singularity.

External links

• "Head Games" PDF at transformersclub.com (no membership required to download)