Manterror

Manterror is a Predacon from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

File:IDW Manterror.jpg

"More like preying mantis! Get it?"

Manterror is a nasty sort of 'bot. His internal stealth silencers allow him to sneak up undetected on his Maximal adversaries, but even when they do see him, his somewhat ungainly appearance sometimes lulls opponents into a false sense of security. That is when Manterror uses his sharp claws and ion disks to swiftly strike out and disable his foe. And once he has an opponent down, he's been known to slowly and surgically pick them apart, piece by piece.

He is also somewhat punny.

Fiction

IDW Beast Wars comics continuity

"I'm strongly against introducing Female Transformers to any continuity!"

Magmatron recruited Manterror, along with Transquito, Drill Bit, Spittor, Iguanus, and Razorbeast, on Cybertron. Magmatron's plan was to use the abandoned stasis pods on prehistoric Earth to build an army and take over Cybertron. Upon arrival, Magmatron sent Manterror and the others to watch over the stasis pods as they were activated. Manterror witnessed the birth of Snapper.

As it turned out, Razorbeast was a Maximal spy. Magmatron sent his new Predacon army to hunt down the Maximal and his band. During the conflict that followed, Manterror got his face smashed by Wolfang. The Gathering

Manterror was next seen leading an advance scouting party consisting of himself, Retrax, and Snapper to spy on the Maximals' base-camp, and telling Retrax to shut up and man up, the big wimp. They were discovered by Grimlock and Manterror and Snapper were disabled while Retrax rolled to safety. While his wings were being eaten, he desperately called for Retrax to blow the mines they'd planted around the Maximal base. The Ascending #1

He managed to recover and was seen amongst the Maximals and Predacons left behind on Earth to fight the Blendtrons. It is unknown if he survived this battle. The Ascending #4

Toys

Beast Wars

• Manterror (Deluxe Predacon, 1997)
  • Accessories: 2 disc projectiles

Manterror transforms from a robot into an organic mantis. Each terrible foreclaw holds one of his disc-weapons and uses a pressure-launch mechanism to fling them.

This mold was used to make Beast Wars II Mantis.

• More information on Manterror at TFU.info

Notes

• Buzzclaw's function is "Quick Attack Specialist", and his toy bio states that he uses "ion disks", suggesting that he is Manterror reborn as a Fuzor. Coincidentally or not, both share a particularly toothy grin. Either way, Manterror and Buzzclaw appear side-by-side in the IDW comics.

• Sketches in The Gathering trade paperback indicate that Manterror's Cybertronian mode was a dragster-type car.

Foreign names

• French: Manterreur (Canada, "Manterror")
• Italian: Cannibal