Dirt Boss (Armada)

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

Dirt Boss is a Mini-Con from the Armada portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

I say, I'll give you a sound thrashing!

Filthy both physically and verbally, Dirt Boss intentionally skips maintenance checkups to keep his engine loud and misfiring, despite the risks this poses to him. Foul-mouthed and foul-smelling, he enjoys shocking and annoying those around him. Few can stand to be around him for any length of time; even his Race Mini-Con Team allies, who are likely the only ones who willingly spend any time with him at all, occasionally need to just get away.

And yet, Dirt Boss might actually be the smartest of the team, with extensive knowledge of high-level physics and entropy studies. Not that he ever really looks for a useful application for this information... but it certainly does give some insight into his attitude.

Dirt Boss combines with the rest of the Race Mini-Con Team to form the Skyboom Shield.

Japanese name: Drift

Fiction

Armada cartoon

Dirt Boss was one of the first two Mini-Con panels belonging to the Race Team that were captured by the Decepticons. Overmatch Conspiracy He finally came on-line when the Decepticons gathered all three panels, and joined with Downshift and Mirage to form the Skyboom Shield under Megatron's control. Reinforcement

In the next battle, Megatron assembled both the Air Defense Team and the Race Team into the two most powerful weapons in the universe. Armed with both the Star Saber and the Skyboom Shield, he toyed with Optimus Prime until his overconfidence caused him to lose his grip on the Shield. Prime's Mini-Con partner Sparkplug then "locked on" to the Skyboom Shield and brought it under Prime's control, thwarting Megatron's killing strike with the Saber and balancing the powers between the two sides. Decisive Battle

Because the Skyboom Shield was in such demand by the Autobots to protect them from the Star Saber (and later the Requiem Blaster), Dirt Boss and the Race Team appeared quite infrequently as individuals. After Starscream and Jetfire rescued Firebot from Mars, Dirt Boss was among the Mini-Cons who welcomed the new arrival to the Autobots. Mars Later, Dirt Boss and the Race Team went for a walk with the kids to catch some fresh air. Unfortunately, their little stroll happened just as Billy and Fred reported that Thrust had met with Starscream. Squidhead had asked for the Skyboom Shield Mini-Cons as collateral for letting Starscream back into the Decepticons, so their sudden disappearance from the base didn't look too good for the former Decepticon. The Autobots' distrust for Starscream in part led to his decision to take Thrust up on his offer, and so even after Hot Shot uncovered the kids and the Race Team and cleared his name, Starscream stole the Skyboom Shield for Megatron and returned to the Decepticons. Crack

Dirt Boss and the Race Team had little time to act as individuals after that, remaining powerlinxed as the Skyboom Shield while the Decepticons used the shield as one-third of the Hydra Cannon, before it was stolen by Thrust and used to provide power to the heart of Unicron. Mirage, Dirt Boss and Downshift reawakened as individuals with the help of High Wire and the Street Action Team, who had journeyed to Unicron's core with Optimus Prime, Galvatron and the Earth children to grant the super-weapon Mini-Cons their freedom. Origin Dirt Boss fled Unicron aboard the Autobot Jetfire just before the Chaos-Bringer was finally destroyed. Mortal Combat

Dreamwave Armada comic

Dirt Boss was painfully cut open and altered by the Decepticons so that they could draw out his power for their own use. Dreamwave Armada issue 1 He was among the Mini-Cons who escaped from them and ended up on Earth's moon under the command of Dualor. Dreamwave Armada issue 9 However, the Decepticons eventually found them and attacked their moonbase, forcing Dirt Boss and the others to abandon it. Dreamwave Armada issue 11 After escaping to Earth, he and the other Race Team members joined the Autobots. They were among the reinforcements sent to Alaska after the Adventure Team got into trouble with Thrust and Cyclonus. Dirt Boss and his companions found that Thrust had already been defeated, but Cyclonus was still up and going, and their attempts to fight him were not too successful. Dreamwave Armada issue 13

Later, the Race Team joined the rest of the Earthbound Mini-Cons in traveling back to Cybertron, which was under attack by Unicron. They were presumably part of the Mini-Con Matrix ceremony at the Loop, which caused Unicron some major damage. The End

Panini Armada comics

Alongside Mirage, Dirt Boss was captured by Thrust during the early days of the Mini-Con kidnappings. The two escaped and joined Dualor, who had devised a plan to kill Megatron. Counter-Strike!

Cybertron toy bios

Dirt Boss was sent to Velocitron under the "protection" of Red Alert, in order to split the Road Assault Team up to make it harder for Megatron to steal the entire Team and re-assemble the Skyboom shield.

Meanwhile, an alternate-universe version of Dirt Boss fell through a rip in space-time and landed on Earth. He was found by Landmine, who took the grimy Mini-Con under his wing. They probably get along great together.

Toys

Armada

Shamone

• Race Mini-Con Team (Basic, 2002/2003)
  • Japanese ID number: MM-05

Dirt Boss transforms into a Peugeot-style rallye car, not unlike Bumblebee's Classics design. He also unfolds to form the middle portion of the Skyboom shield with his teammates Downshift and Mirage. He was normally only available as part of the complete Race Mini-Con Team set. The complete Team was also included as bonus add-ons with the Max-Cons Scavenger and Predacon (though what retail chain offered these is unknown at this time).

This mold was also used to make Midship.

• More information on Dirt Boss at TFU.info

• Grap & Lift with Race Micron (Multi-pack, 2003)
  • Japanese ID number: MS-02

The Race Team was available in Japan both as an individual team, and in a multi-pack with Smokescreen.

blue-Mone ah!

• Race Micron X-Dimension (Basic, 2003)
  • Japanese ID number: MM-10

A limited-edition (but still regular-retail) redeco of the Race Team was made available in Japan as part of the X-Dimension Mini-Cons. The entire Team was given a deco in varying shades of blue.

• More information on X-Dimension Drift at TFU.info

• Drift (Micron Booster, 2003)
  • Booster ID number: 6

Part of the first Micron Booster set, this version of Dirt Boss is almost totally identical to the retail version, only this uses a slightly-sparkly plastic and paint. Whoopee.

• More information on Micron Booster Drift at TFU.info

• Drift (Change Micron, 2003)

Another nigh-identical Japanese release, this version came as a "candy toy" produced by Kabaya as part of the Change Micron assortment. This toy is actually a new molding, though based on the original mold.

• More information on Change Micron Drift at TFU.info

• Road Assault Mini-Con Team (Basic, 2003)

A late-series redeco of the Race Team—under a new Team name—was released alongside the Road Wrecker Team. This time, Dirt Boss was colored black and red with yellow flame details. In Japan, individually-bagged members of this Team were given away randomly with the purchase of Armada Jetfire or Tidal Wave at Ito Yokaido stores in August.

• More information on Road Assault Dirt Boss at TFU.info

Universe

• Dirt Boss (Tiny Tin, 2004)

The entire Race Team was made available as individual Tiny Tins releases under the Universe banner. The toys in this release are identical to the original Armada ones.

Energon

• Race Mini-Con Team & Space Mini-Con Team (Multi-Pack, 2004)

An unaltered version of the Road Assault Mini-Con Team (yet named the Race Team again) was released as part of an Energon-series "Mini-Con 6-pack" with the Space Mini-Con Team.

Cybertron

• Red Alert w/ Dirt Boss (Bonus pack, 2006)
• Landmine w/ Dirt Boss (Bonus pack, 2006)

A new redeco of Dirt Boss with a Tiny Tin carrying mini-case was packed in special Wal-Mart exclusive sets. Dirt Boss was packaged with both Red Alert and Landmine.

• More information on Wal-Mart Dirt Boss at TFU.info

Notes

• Hasbro copy writer Forest Lee confirms that the Cybertron Tiny Tins exclusives were originally planned with two different Race Team decos in mind, hence the backstory involving one version of the Team being from an alternate universe and the Tins' decos showing the Mini-Cons in silhouette rather than the normal full-color images. He could not confirm what the then-chosen decos were, however, but it seems likely they were re-packs of the two schemes from Armada, given the use of "Road Assault Team".

• The Race Team are the only one of the three "legendary Mini-Con weapon" Teams to be released in all three chapters of the Unicron Trilogy.