Deluxe Vehicle
- The Deluxe Vehicles are an Autobot subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.
The Deluxe Vehicles are a duo of Autobots: Roadbuste and Whirl. They are members of the Wreckers.
Fiction
Marvel comics continuity
Under Fire! Target: 2006 The Harder They Die! Distant Thunder! Resurrection! Legion of the Lost! Time Wars
Marvel UK future timelines
In an alternate version of 2510, Roadbuster, Whirl and the rest of the Wreckers fought along in the battle that put an end to the Decepticon faction for good. Shortly hereafter, Rodimus Prime held a ceremony where he officially announced the war to have come to an end and subsequently his plans to pass the Matrix on to the leader of the Wreckers, Springer. This decision was challenged by Triton, in truth a surviving, undercover Decepticon, who claimed Ultra Magnus would be a better leader for a world at peace. Whirl took offense to Triton putting down his commanding officer, telling him to watch his mouth and asking where his "precious Ultra Magnus" was when the Wreckers were winning the war. Triton in return punched Whirl to the ground, to which Roadbuster reacted by raising his gun and stating it was time someone shut him up permanently. It didn't come to that, as Scattershot shot first in defense of Triton and Ultra Magnus's reputation, thereby killing Roadbuster. This disastrous turn of events soon escalated into an Autobot Civil War between the forces of Ultra Magnus and Springer. Peace
Well done, Deluxe Vehicles. Very well done.
Marvel books
Dreamwave comics continuity
War Within: The Dark Ages Destined for Nothing War and Peace War Within: The Age of Wrath
IDW comics continuity
Megatron Origin Stormbringer issue 2 Stormbringer issue 3 Stormbringer issue 4 Spotlight: Hardhead Spotlight: Doubledealer Spotlight: Sideswipe Spotlight: Drift All Hail Megatron issue 5 All Hail Megatron issue 6 All Hail Megatron issue 7 All Hail Megatron issue 10 All Hail Megatron issue 11 All Hail Megatron issue 12 All Hail Megatron issue 15
3D Battle-Card Game
Whirl was one of Optimus Primal's many Autobot allies in a fight against Megatron's Decepticon forces, in what might possibly have been an inter-universe battle. Energon Wars Expansion Set
Toys
Generation 1
- Deluxe Vehicles (1985)
- The Deluxe Vehicles were originally designed by Takatoku Toys for the Special Armored Batallion Dorvack (特装機兵ドルバック) toyline. Roadbuster is a repaint of the "Mugen Calibur" toy and Whirl is one of the "Oberon Gazzette" toy. They feature larger size and greater complexity than most of the Transformers toys of their time.
Classics
- Autobot Whirl (Legends, 2007)
Universe (2008)
G1 Series
- Autobot Ambush (Voyager Deluxe Comic 2-Pack, 2008)
Merchandise
3D Battle-Card Game
- Whirl (2007)
Notes
- Both Deluxe Vehicles were licensed from Takatoku Toys by Hasbro for inclusion in their 1985 Generation 1 line-up. In the Japanese market, these toys were from one of Takara's competitors, which meant Takara would not include them in their version of the toyline. Since Hasbro and Takara shared the cartoon as promotional material for the toyline, the Deluxe Vehicles were not included in its cast. They also were omitted from the US Marvel comics and kept low profile in the UK Marvel comics.
- The Special Armored Batallion Dorvack line contains a third transforming robot that was not inserted to Generation 1, "Bonaparte Tulcas". Presumably, this was because the toy has a far less convincing "robot mode" than the other two and thus was less interesting to put on the market.
- To maximise both their own profits and their figures' place in the domestic marketplace, Takatoku Toys struck up a relationship with the less renowned manufacturer Mark, whereby the latter would produce cheap, knockoff-quality versions of these figures. Due to some sort of crazy loophole the rights to these cheap versions remained with Mark after Takatoku folded, and simple versions of a number of the Takatoku figures were licensed to another American manufacturer, Select. They used them for the cash-in Convertors line, which was on sale at more or less the same time the real things were in the Transformers line. This is where all those little plastic Roadbusters and Whirls you see on eBay come from...
