Pretender

"Pretenders hide the Transformers inside."

Disguise has always been a key component of Transformer operations on other worlds. Pretenders attempt to take this concept to the next level. Pretenders are Transformers fitted with special external armor shells that can disguise their very nature as robots. Rather than hiding themselves as the machinery or vehicles of a world, Pretender Shells can allow a robot to take on the appearance of a native lifeform itself.

On top of their exploration and infiltration uses the shells can also function as powerful battle armor, aid in self-repair, and even function independently of their robot as a second combatant mentally controled by their "wearer." The major drawback of the technology is that the core robot will feel whatever pain is inflicted on the shell, sometimes even more strongly than pain inflicted on the robot itself.

The most common style of Pretender is an inner robot with a single humanoid shell (usually resembling a monster for Decepticons or a human in battle armor for Autobots).

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

(The disguise aspect of Pretender shells emphasized by the toy promotion was established in the comic book, but as the Pretenders in this continuity remained giant-sized in these shells they were odd and rather dubious disguises at best and only really functioned well in that aspect in one story involving Femax. When Simon Furman took over the book he instead emphasized the shell's capabilities as advanced super power-boosting armor.)

Pretender technology was created by Lord Zarak to help his troops operate semi-annonymously on an Earth that had become (partially due to his influence with the Z Foundation) openly and publically hostile towards giant alien robots. The idea was that giant organic-looking alien monsters would somehow attract less attention.

(Despite Scorponok and Zarak's claims, there is evidence to suggest that Pretender technology was around before this point. It is possible that Scorponok only developed the technology to quickly apply Pretender shells in that particular way, or that he was unaware of developments before that point. Or that it's simply a mistake.)

This technology was stolen by Optimus Prime (at the time reduced to a computerized personality) and replicated by the Autobots. The Autobots fashioned their shells after humans, with the stated rationalization that the Decepticons were rather unobservant and wouldn't notice that these humans were many stories tall. He was right.

Masterforce cartoon

(The cancellation of the American Transformers cartoon series had not deterred Japan - in 1987, they produced their first exclusive Transformers series, Transformers: Headmasters, and did the same for 1988 with Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, starring, among others, the Pretenders.)

Eight thousand years ago, a starship containing the Autobot Pretenders Metalhawk, Lander, Diver and Phoenix pursued the Decepticon Pretenders Blood, Dauros and Gilmer to neolithic-era Earth, where they crashed. Using their Pretender abilities, the Autobots adopted the form of humans.

(Rather than explicitly using the toy's external shells like in the American fiction, Japanese Pretenders made the most of the intended "disguise" aspect of the gimmick and actually transformed the very structure of their bodies into an organic equivalent, shrinking down to normal human size to hide in plain sight among burgeoning humanity.)

The Decepticon Pretenders, on the other hand, adopted the forms of monstrous creatures, becoming feared as demons by early man. After many battles, the Autobots succeeded in defeating their enemies and sealing them away - Blood in the pyramids of Egypt, Gilmer in the ruins of Atlantis, and Dauros beneath the Nazca Lines in Peru - for thousands of years.

Liberated in the near future by the mysterious Decepticon "god", Devil Z, the three Pretenders entered his service, and immediately began to draw the Autobot Pretenders out of hiding, before turning their attention to a series of plans to acquire energy and to disrupt one of the three Chokon Powers on Earth. After a string of failures, Devil Z supplanted them with his more powerful Godmaster minions, and although they would often participate in missions, their standing was downgraded and their regularity of appearance on the battlefield diminished. Eventually, they generally only served to supply comic relief, and departed Earth with the other surviving Decepticons when Devil Z was destroyed.

Along the way, the Autobots had been joined by Grand Maximus, who was not only a Pretender but a Headmaster.

Dreamwave continuity

Pretender technology was originally developed as a form of additional body armour. Pretender shells can enhance their wearer’s physical strength and resistance to damage. More advanced shell designs could shrink down to human size and enable their wearer to blend into Earth society unnoticed.

It is possible that the Pretender technology was later adapted to develop the Maximal and Predacon beast modes.

IDW continuity

In its most gruesome variation, Pretender technology was the invention of the Decepticon Thunderwing, and used living tissue painfully culled from live (quite possibly unwilling) subjects to create a powerful symbiotic, living carapace. The goal of this technology was to allow Transformers to survive an impending environmental collapse on their home planet, Cybertron. Even Megatron rejected the concept as unnatural and repulsive. Both cases where the technology was implemented ended in disaster as the melding of the robot's mind with the shell was improperly aligned or hastily executed. Subject one, Thunderwing, became unfathomably powerful but totally insane and destructive. Subject two, Bludgeon, tried to rush the process and ended up comatose inside his new shell. It is unknown if research will continue further (but it seems rather unlikely given the moral issues and planetary-level threat posed by Thunderwing).

Known Pretender Types

Pretenders

(The default. Single robot with a single humanoid shell.)

• Blood
• Bludgeon
• Bomb-Burst
• Bugly
• Bumblebee
• Cloudburst
• Dauros
• Diver
• Doubleheader
• Finback
• Gilmer
• Grand
• Grimlock
• Groundbreaker
• Iguanus
• Jazz
• Lander
• Landmine
• Longtooth
• Metalhawk
• Octopunch
• Phoenix
• Pincher
• Skullgrin
• Sky High
• Splashdown
• Starscream
• Stranglehold
• Submarauder
• Waverider

Pretender Beasts

(Pretenders with quadropedal Earth animal-based shells.)

• Carnivac
• Catilla
• Chainclaw
• Snarler

Pretender Vehicles

(Pretenders whose shells are vehicles that transform into combat decks for their inner robots.)

• Gunrunner
• Roadgrabber

Mega Pretenders

(Both the inner robot and the humanoid shell transform and can combine their alternate modes into a larger vehicle.)

• Crossblades
• Thunderwing
• Vroom

Ultra Pretenders

(The ultimate. Double Pretenders whose outermost shell is a large vehicle that can transform into a combat deck for their inner robots. This contains another secondary humanoid Pretender shell that is itself able to transform into a vehicle, and that can be piloted by its inner robot. Both suffer from Gold Plastic Syndrome}

• Roadblock
• Skyhammer

Pretender Monsters

(Smaller pretenders with rubbery monster shells. Their inner robots can combine to form Monstructor.)

• Birdbrain
• Bristleback
• Icepick
• Scowl
• Slog
• Wildfly

Crossformers

(Japanese counterpart to the US Mega Pretenders, the shells were remolded to be less organic.)

• Black Shadow
• Blue Baccus

Dinoforce

(Possess cyborg dinosaur "Transalts". Can combine to form Dinoking.)

• Doryu
• Gairyu
• Goryu
• Kakuryu
• Rairyu
• Yokuryu

Double Pretenders (unproduced)

(Prototypes for "Double Pretenders," two small robots in one shell, that splits into top and bottom at the waist, were designed but never put in production. Mercifully.)

• unnamed ape duo.
• unnamed spider-bandito duo.
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.