Spark extractor

You got SPARK EXTRACTOR!

A spark extractor is a device that is used for pulling a Transformer's spark out of its mechanical body. This process can be accomplished even against the will of the target Transformer (as was, in fact, the norm). Once removed from its body, a Transformer's spark is more or less helpless.

When an extractor is near a Transformer and activated, even before the spark emerges, the Transformer often appears to be stunned or dazed such that they find it difficult to resist. The extraction itself is quite fast, taking well under thirty Earth-seconds in most cases. Extractors are therefore quite effective as weapons, requiring only that the victim be momentarily immobilized in order for the extractor to do its work.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

3H comics

Spark extractor technology, of Cryotek's devising, fell into Megatron's hands when he returned to Cybertron from the Beast Wars and briefly worked with Cryotek.

Beast Machines cartoon

I'LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!

Spark extractors were used frequently, such as on Blackarachnia in several occasions. After interfacing with the Oracle, Megatron's own disembodied spark also had the ability to remove the sparks of living Transformers even without the technological aid of an extractor.

Prime cartoon

Kaon PD! Nobody move!

One of the class-A weapons confiscated from the Decepticons, the Spark Extractor was stored in the Iacon Vaults. When the Decepticons stormed Iacon, the Extractor was sent off-planet Operation Bumblebee, Part 1 by Alpha Trion, and ended up on Earth. Alpha/Omega It remained buried until the Decepticons unearthed it many years later. Though Optimus Prime attempted to take it, Megatron threatened to trigger it, potentially extracting the spark of everyone present. As the Decepticon leader tried to return to his ship, Bumblebee stole the device from him and took it back to the Autobot base. Operation Bumblebee, Part 1

The Autobots attempted to deploy the Spark Extractor in an attack on the Decepticon warship, but the ship's newly-awakened intelligence put them all into stasis lock. Megatron ordered the ship to move closer so he could retrieve his weapon, only for the warship to change course instead. Flying Mind Jack later confirmed that the Spark Extractor was once again in storage back at the base, implying that the Autobots had recovered it. New Recruit

When the Autobots were preparing to go to Cybertron, Smokescreen took the Spark Extractor from storage. After the Autobots had seized the Omega Keys, he deployed the weapon in the middle of the Decepticon ranks. The Extractor eliminated the Vehicons squadron before Megatron impaled it with his Dark Star Saber. Regeneration

IDW Generation 1 continuity

As part of Mesothulas and Prowl's collaboration during the early days of the Great War, the two of them brainstormed punitive imprisonment measures for prisoners of war. Their efforts began as the Noisemaze, but they decided to abandon it in favor of developing a technique for spark extraction. Sins of the Wreckers #3 When Prowl rebelled against his partner, the Noisemaze was forgotten and spark extraction became the normal way of containing prisoners. Numerous criminals, both Autobot and Decepticon had their Sparks separated at Garrus-9. Spotlight: Arcee

After the Scavengers had stolen the Firstborn, they teleported themselves to Garrus-9 to try and make use of the spark extractors so they could remove Rat-a-Tat-Tat's spark from the creature. Kill All 'Cons

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Spark Kyūin Sōchi (スパーク吸引装置 Supāku Kyūin Sōchi, "Spark Suction Device")