Fred (Armada)

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

Fred is a human from the Armada portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

"My therapist says..."

Frederick "Fred" is quite possibly one of the most important human characters in the entire Transformers mythos. He f***in' owns you. Admit it.

Fred was the best (and possibly only) friend of Billy, Lincoln Middle School's resident would-be-bully. Fred was rather unmotivated by the prospect of bullying Rad and Carlos, preferring to occupy his time with eating assorted snack foods and mentioning that he was still hungry.

Later on, he and Billy became good friends with their former would-be victims, participating in many adventures with them due to the fact Fred is awesome and indispensable to the Autobots. Plus, somebody had to bring all the food along.

Japanese name: Jim

Fiction

Armada cartoon

Voice actor: Tony Sampson (English), Nobuyuki Kobushi (Japanese), Johan Wilhelmsson (Swedish)

One day, Rad and Carlos went out investigating the caves under the local observatory, so Billy and Fred followed, intent on discovering what the two were up to, as well as wanting to bully them for no apparent reason.

Unfortunately for Fred, Rad's activation of something in the caverns caused an earthquake that almost buried them alive. (Fred, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it.) When he and Billy finally crawled out of the rubble, they were greeted by the sight of gigantic, body-shaped depressions and footprints in the valley floor. First Encounter

Later, Billy and Fred managed to discover the truth about Rad and Carlos's toy robots and after the giant yellow robot saved their lives, they were forced to promise to keep the existence of the Transformers a secret. Carnival

While attempting once again to harass Rad and Carlos, Billy and Fred were captured by the Decepticons for nefarious purposes and imprisoned in one of those conveniently abandoned ghost towns that seem to populate Earth. While imprisoned, Fred offered the Decepticon Mini-Con Leader-1 some potato chips, which appeared to earn him the Mini-Con's friendship. When the Autobot rescue attempt went awry, Fred was proven pivotal in securing their freedom from the Decepticons and their nefarious purposes because Leader-1 refused to do anything to harm the humans. Afterwards, the pair joined the Autobot team. Confrontation

Some time later, he and Billy were treated to a tour of the Autobot base. When Rad, Carlos, and Alexis were called to the control room, Billy led Fred off to explore on their own. Megatron chose that moment to attack the Autobot base, seeking completion of the Star Saber. Fred and Billy found themselves in mortal danger when the base's automatic defenses opened fire on the Decepticons. Their presence caused Optimus Prime to order a ceasefire, allowing the Decepticons access to the Mini-Con storage area. However, it ultimately turned out all right, as the Autobots were able to take Sonar from Megatron, completing the Star Saber Swoop. Fred subsequently tried to accompany the Autobots into battle, but was left behind combat lines for his own good. Here, he was left alone when Sideways kidnapped Billy. Since he missed out on all the excitement, Spiral offered to give him a ride, but Fred didn't particularly seem to enjoy it Gale. He was subsequently bummed at hearing Hot Shot managed to lose a solo battle against all the Decepticons in their base Credulous.

Fred, usually in conjunction with Billy, would provide sometimes redundant commentary Conspiracy on various events Trust. While on a camping trip which Alexis totally didn't want to take part in, Fred helped distract the gathered onlookers so that the Autobots could more easily rescue Red Alert, Carlos, and Shaun from a mudslide without being detected Vacation. Following some more events in which he didn't really do anything, Reinforcement Decisive Battle he came up with the idea that the Decepticons' Mini-Cons held captive on the Moon didn't really like their masters and would willingly defect. A few minutes later, he, Rad, and Optimus Prime ended up being teleported around the world when Megatron, attempting to get his servos on the Skyboom Shield, started messing around with the warp gate. The boys persuaded Optimus not to shoot the Mini-Cons Megatron had brought with him, an action which persuaded them to come to the side of the Autobots, proving Fred right. Vow

When Rad, Carlos, Alexis, Grindor, Highwire, and Sureshock were sucked into Sideways's virtual world, Fred and Billy were the ones who found them comatose and warned the Autobots Chase. After that, Fred tried to tell people about a mysterious anomaly that was detected by the Cosmoscope Research Center, but nobody wanted to listen. Tactician He was present at the battle in which the Space Mini-Con Team first combined to form the Requiem Blaster. Detection Awakening Desperate Runaway He and Billy either purchased or programmed a video game which allowed them to pit Autobots, Decepticons, and Mini-Cons against each other, Past and they managed to get Alexis addicted despite her initial objections. Past II When Starscream brought a rather nice-looking rock back from Mars, Fred was the most enthusiastic and took a big ol' chunk of Marsrock for himself. Mars He then helped knit the Chamois of Friendship and was responsible for telling the Autobots that Starscream told Thrust to slag off when the latter tried to persuade the former Decepticon to rejoin his former allies. Crack As a result, Fred felt particularly betrayed when Starscream decided to go back to the Decepticons. Threaten He was also especially devastated when Optimus Prime died. Crisis

After that, he packed himself a big bag of food (but forgot to pack underwear Miracle) and begged Hot Shot to let him come into space. Hot Shot refused on the grounds that the front lines of a war between alien death robots weren't safe for human children, but relented when the Mini-Cons refused to let the Axalon launch if the kids didn't get to come. Depart During the journey, Fred mostly just made forgettable comments and complained about being hungry, Puppet Uprising Dash and after arriving on Cybertron, he and Billy complained when Rad, Carlos, and Alexis ran off to try and track down Thrust. Drift Portent Starscream died soon after, Cramp which sent Fred into a spiral of depression. He cheered up when Optimus Prime and Megatron finally shook hands. Alliance He then accompanied the other kids inside Unicron, Union Origin escaping as the Chaos Bringer exploded. Mortal Combat He apparently loosened up a lot after his adventures with the Autobots ended.

Dreamwave Armada comic

He was going to be in more Dreamwave comics, but their cheques bounced.

He's not Sid!

When Billy started a fight with Rad, Fred blocked Carlos from getting involved, stating it was a private grudge match. He was then mildly confused by a bicycle flying overhead before he came under direct attack by a malevolent scooter. In the face of this, he quite naturally looked horrified and dived for cover. Dreamwave Armada issue 8

Panini Armada comic

In the interests of bullying, Fred came with Billy to a cave which Rad and Carlos were exploring. They found that the entrance was blocked, so Fred figured they might as well give up and go home. Billy tried to lever the rocks away instead, but only caused a rockfall that forced him and Fred to give up and go home. First Encounter!

Later, Fred and Billy were studying chemistry in school, but quickly got bored and decided to have some fun instead. Fred watched as Billy messed up Rad's experiment, which got him in trouble with the teacher. As they laughed about it, they were suddenly pulled out the window by Rad's robot buddy High Wire, who avenged Rad by knocking them out. Just a Memory!

Trivia

• Despite Fred's love of food, he has been known to offer potato chips to Mini-Cons, even if said Mini-Cons have no means of ingesting the offered food. Because that's the kind of great guy Fred is.

• According to the Micron Legend Year Book 2003, the producers of the Armada cartoon kept meaning to write Billy and Fred out of the series (Is anyone honestly surprised by this?), but ultimately never got around to it. Their staying through to the end of the show was thus wholly unintentional.

• Fred is beyond the need for mortal appreciation.

• Fred's mom makes great spaghetti and meatballs. The sauce is a haunting blend of herbs and spices and the things she can do with a pot roast are truly inspirational. Runaway

• Fred constantly makes remarks how he gets low blood suger levels if he runs to much. It is implied that he might have Diabetes mellitus type 1.

• In Micron Legend, Fred's dialogue is less food-related. Unlike his American counterpart, he actually worries about the present situation instead of how hungry he is and makes insightful comments from time to time.