Hi-Test (G1)
- Hi-Test is a Nebulan Powermaster from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Hi-Test is an overachieving perfectionist with the brains and determination to accomplish incredible things. But when his partner Hi-Q's accomplishments exceeded his own, Hi-Test's pride was injured. He became the Powermaster partner of the Decepticon Dreadwind, enabling him to experience new worlds and thrills he'd never dreamed of.
As a Powermaster, Hi-Test has been bio-engineered to transform into Dreadwind's engine, vastly increasing his power as well as allowing him to fuel himself on human foodstuffs. The process granted Hi-Test enormously increased strength, however it has also made he and Dreadwind interdependent- they must link up on a semi-regular basis in order to survive. If Hi-Test removes his external armor he can pass for a Caucasian human. (In some continuities.)
Hi-Test finds that it's his duty to nag the depressive Dreadwind in order to keep him on-task. Hi-Test's perfectionist nature allows Dreadwind to perform his duties despite his depressive fits- he knows the Nebulan will always remind him what he has to do...
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comics
Hi-Test was an overachieving perfectionist with the brains and determination to accomplish things no one has ever done before. Those attributes, which made him so attractive to Hi-Q as a partner, also doomed their relationship. When it was Hi-Q's breakthrough, not his own, that allowed the Council of Peers to poison all fuel on Nebulos for Transformers, Hi-Test walked out, vowing to prove Hi-Q was a fraud.
Hi-Test had a plan to get even. He picked up the thief Throttle in a bar to serve as his new partner, and had him steal Hi-Q's research data on fuel conversion. He and Throttle bio-mechanically engineered their bodies to become Powermasters using this data, putting lie to Hi-Q's promise of a Nebulos free of Transformers. People Power!
Later, they took up a job as middlemen and "robot-spotters" for the Mecannibals. Because Master Mouth and his brood lived off of eating robots, Darkwing and Dreadwind posed as a non-sentient spacecraft, allowing Hi-Test and Throttle to act as the primary partners in their dealings. Working with J'oh of the Black Hole Bar and Grill in Grand Central Space Station, the team delivered many robots to the dinner plates of the Mecannibals. Guess Who the Mecannibals Are Having for Dinner? After their ruse was uncovered by Sky Lynx and the Autobot Pretenders, however, the Powermasters found themselves on the run from their former bosses. Recipe for Disaster!
Classics
Hi-Test encountered Grimlock and found the Dinobot leader surprisingly disarming. Games of Deception
Wings Universe
On Nebulos in 2012, Hi-Test worked with Hi-Q on Project: Powermaster, but Hi-Q's sudden disappearance left Hi-Test the allegedly unenviable position of working on the project alone. When Autobots under the command of Pyro arrived to investigate, Hi-Test was reluctant to help them, as he was very busy. However, the suggestive powers of Hubcap coaxed Hi-Test to reveal that the answer to Hi-Q's disappearance might lie in their lab's surveillance footage. A Flash Forward, Part 3
Ask Vector Prime
In Primax 1086.0 Kappa, Hi-Test and Vorath, working for Mortilus Zarak, fused the remnants of Transformers defeated by the Nebulans into the entity known as Zarak Maximus. Part of their experimentation was binary bonding Zarak with the robot, which drove him insane. Ask Vector Prime
Toys
Generation 1
- Dreadwind with Hi-Test (Decepticon Powermaster, 1988)
- Hi-Test is an armored humanoid figure that converts into an engine block. In this form, he can fit into the engine socket of any Powermaster mold, releasing a catch and unlocking its transformation from vehicle to robot mode. He was only available with his partner Dreadwind.
- Redecoed versions of Hi-Test & Dreadwind were sold in Japan as the Godmaster Buster and his Transtector, with an unchanged Buster Dreadwind version available via mail-order.
Notes
- Hi-Test is 65 Earth-years old[1] in 1989, and he implies that Nebulan years are measured differently. Which is probably a given, but we can thank him for clarifying.
