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 consist of:

• The level-headed Scattershot (leader)
• The trigger-happy Strafe
• The wonder-struck Lightspeed
• The impulsive Afterburner
• The philosophical Nosecone

They combine to form Computron. The Technobots are also among the few Autobots who can fly in robot mode (besides Wheeljack, Superion, the Dinobots, etc.), according to the U.S. G1 cartoon.

Japanese name: Techbot (except for "The Rebirth")

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

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.

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!

Cartoon continuity

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 threatening Sol. 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

IDW comics 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 reconaissance 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

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

At this point, Combiner technology is limited to Monstructor, and thus the Technobots are not combiners here.

Toys

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

File:G1Strafe toy.jpg

File:G1Computron toy.jpg

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.

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.

For whatever reason, knockoff artists have on more than one occasion packed copies of Nosecone and Afterburner in with copies of three of the Stunticons, referring to them as "Artillerist" and "Shooter", respectively.

Trivia

• The back views of all of the Technobots' animation models (including Computron) are riddled with errors, suggesting that they were drawn without toy references.