K-9

This article is about the Maximal doggy. For the Maximal security officer, see 9K.

K-9 is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Affirmative, Master, TARDIS has stabilised!"

K-9's alternate form, a German Shepherd, is befitting of his function as a guard. His keen canine senses keep him aware of his surroundings at all times. Trust does not come easily to K-9; he even keeps one optic on many fellow Maximals, searching for any hint of wavering loyalties. But to those who have proven themselves to him, K-9 is a staunch ally and comrade. His great agility and strength give him the edge against most Predacons.

If K-9's considerable abilities should fail, he can always try leaking lubricant on his opponents as a last-ditch effort—it might cause them to rust.

Fiction

Intimidation Game

Voice actor: Brian Dobson

The Tripredacus agent Flamewar was held prisoner and interrogated by a group of Autobots and Maximals which included K-9. However, the interrogation was a facade, and the entity appearing to be K-9 was in fact a disguised Max-B. Intimidation Game

IDW Beast Wars comics

He's gonna go bury Insecticon's leg now.

K-9's issues with trust stem from an incident on Cybertron. While guarding a weapons facility, several Maximals under K-9's command revealed themselves as Predacon agents and tried to take the place over. K-9 was forced to destroy the facility's main missile silos, foiling the defectors' plot, but leaving him with a scarred sense of confidence in his own comrades. Beast Wars Sourcebook 2

K-9 was one of the protoform stasis pods jettisoned from the Maximal survey vessel Axalon when it was forced to crash-land on prehistoric Earth. The Predacon general Magmatron led a small group (that included the Maximal agent Razorbeast) back in time to place these protoforms into chronal phase and reprogram them into Predacons, and lead this army against the Maximals in the present. However, Razorclaw placed a viral code in Magmatron's Predacon shell program, allowing a number of the protoforms to retain their Maximal identity. The Gathering #1

Soon after awakening, he joined up with Torca's militia along with Bantor, Noctorro, Stinkbomb and Armordillo. During their journey to meet up with Razorbeast, Torca got stuck in some mud, and K-9 and the others helped free him. The Gathering #2 After following Razorbeast's signal for days and picking up more Maximals along the way, K-9 and the rest rushed into battle against Ravage's Predacons. The Maximals won that altercation, set up their base and awaited rescue from Cybertron. The Gathering #4

He has that expression because he has to keep The Ascending cast straight in his head.

Sometime later, when Ravage's Predacons hit the Maximals again, K-9 was among the ground forces defending their base, The Ascending #1 given some respite by the arrival of Grimlock, and then the Pack. The Ascending #2 However, the sudden attack on Razorbeast by the Unicron servant Rartorata forced the Maximals and Predacons to band together so as to save Cybertron. During the struggle against Rartorata, K-9 gave Polar Claw a weird look when the latter displayed an overly-aggressive attitude, which he assured was in the interests of longterm peace between the Cybertronians. After Rartorara was temporarily taken down, K-9 reported to Lio Convoy that Transquito's desperate attack would have killed either of them, but it barely pacified the Blendtron. Unfortunately, more enemies arrived in the form of Drancron and Elephorca, forcing K-9 and the other undamaged Maximals and Predacons to escape in the Pack's transwarp cruiser while those left behind distracted their attackers. The Ascending #3

During the battle on Cybertron, he was killed by Shokaract. The Ascending #4

Toys

Beast Wars

• K-9 (Deluxe, 1997)
  • Accessories: Snare gun/tail, shield/back, 2 missiles

K-9 transforms into a German Shepherd and features a missile launcher concealed in his tail. The missiles store in his robot abdomen. His beast-mode back also forms a riot shield.

This toy is an extensive (if not complete) retooling of Wolfang. Almost all of his parts have been given new molding, often becoming larger, making him somewhat more massive than his predecessor. The only part of his body not changed is his robot head sculpt. K-9 was then used as the basis for a second retooling into the Beast Wars II toy Max B.

Despite the cosmetic changes, K-9 essentially works exactly the same as Wolfang, with very little change to play value. He even retains the "mutant mask" gimmick (the mask was retooled, even if his head wasn't), even though by the time of his release, that feature had been dropped from new-mold toys. The only mechanical change is that his back shield's handle was simplified to make it easier to transform.

• More information on K-9 at TFU.info

Notes

Is that you back there?

• In the comic, K-9 gained his beast mode on ancient Earth... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before the German Shepherd breed came into existence. In reality, the breed was created by man selectively breeding dogs in Germany and the German Sheperd only appeared in 1899. (Though his beast mode's depiction in the comic is a fairly poor representation of a Shepherd, so make of that what you will.)

• Trent Troop, who designed the Maximal Command Security Force, based the colors of one member (the one with the axe and shield) on K-9 (privately dubbing him "9K"). Whether any other material ever picks up on this remains to be seen.

Foreign names

• French: Max (Canada)
• Italian: Dingo
• Spanish: K-Nino