Tank Drone
- Tank Drones are Vehicons from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Tank Drones are the brute force of Megatron's Vehicon forces. These deadly sparkless drones will destroy any Maximals in their path.
They were led by their general Tankor until his, ah, departure, and were led by whoever happened to be around thereafter.
Fiction
Beast Machines cartoon
- Voice actor: N/A (English), Isshin Chiba, Nobutoshi Canna (Japanese)
Tank Drones were used by Megatron in his conquest of Cybertron. Forbidden Fruit
Tank Drones were the first type of Vehicons encountered by Optimus Primal's amnesiac group of Maximals. Several Tank Drones were used to deliver the Transformation virus that devolved and paralyzed several of Optimus Primal's crew. Among the paralyzed was Rhinox, whom the Tank Drones captured on the spot. Descent A group of the Tank Drones chased down Optimus as he made his to his underlings, one after the other. Throughout the chase, they displayed the impressive extent of their firepower, blasting everything in their path, including a titanium-reinforced train. Their lack of care for one another's safety soon became apparent to the Maximals, as even other drones were blasted to scrap in their efforts to destroy Optimus and his friends. The drones lost track of Optimus, Cheetor and Rattrap when the trio escaped into Cybertron's underground. The Reformatting
The Maximals next encountered a squadron of Tank Drones when they attempted to breach the Council Citadel. The Tank Drones served as the citadel's outer defences. While Primal managed to enter the building, the drones chased the Maximals throughout the surrounding streets. The Maximals split up, forcing the drones to disperse their forces. They were led by the Maximals into elevated, narrow areas, where they were picked off one at a time. Though they eventually managed to heard the Maximals onto a rooftop, the Tank Drones began to malfunction when Primal was able to make Megatron lose his cool and transform into his beast mode. Master of the House
When the Maximals attempted to access the Cybertron Archives, they encountered the Tank Drones once more. Optimus and Cheetor took out several of them before one Tank Drone got a lucky shot in and knocked out Blackarachnia. As the Maximals fled, the drones rained wanton destruction onto nearby buildings while in pursuit. This backfired when a large piece of debris crumbled onto the drones and destroyed them. The drones were granted a leader shortly thereafter when Megatron bestowed Rhinox's spark upon a Tank Drone, creating Tankor. Fires of the Past
A squad of Tank Drones participated in an attack against Cheetor, Nightscream and Rattrap when the three Maximals infiltrated a Vehicon assembly factory. Though all of the active Tank Drones were destroyed by Cheetor, Rattrap accidently caused the factory's assembly line to power-up, causing a multitude of Tank Drones to be built and then run amuch. When all three Vehicon generals were taken out, Megatron took direct control of the Tank Drones. But in the wake of a power-feedback, Megatron was rendered weak, and all of the Vehicon drones were rendered offline for half a solar cycle. The Weak Component
Tankor and his drones were put in charge of transferring cargo at a space port. Tankor kept on insisting that his drones work faster, no matter how fast they drones we already working. Cheetor and Rattrap interrupted the operation, and got Tankor’s attention, by throwing an explosive his way. A few Tank drones accompanied Tankor in his retaliation against the Maximals. Cheetor tricked Tankor into blowing most of them up. Cheetor then distracted the remaining Tank Drones while Rattrap hacked into Tankor’s brain. Rattrap then managed to shut down the drones while connected to Tankor. Descent
After the arrival of Strika and the Heavy Artillery Drones, the Tank Drones were put in reserve. They were mobilized when the Vehicons launched their assault on the Maximals in the Grand Mal.
The Wreckers comic
During the Spark War, several of Tankor's Tank Drones were chasing Optimus Primal and Nightscream as they were escaping with the Deployers. Primal and Nightscream were rescued by Primal Prime and Ramulus, who trounced the Tank Drones. Later, Quake's Tank Drones and Blastcharge's Tank Drones accompanied their generals as they pursued the Wreckers to Arcee's hideaway. Quake ordered his drones to dispose of the wounded Fractyl, but an angry Arcee took them down. More of Quake and Blastcharge's Tank Drones were present among a larger force of Vehicons attempting to block off the ancient Autobot shuttle which the Wreckers intended to use to travel offworld. The Wreckers ultimately triumphed over all the Vehicons they confronted, general and drone alike. Departure
Transformers Legends comic
Some Tank Drones accompanied Tankor as he wreaked '80s-themed havoc in Tokyo, but didn't do much other than sit in the background and go "dana". Together with their leader, they were then blown sky high by Rattrap. Bonus Edition Vol. 3 They returned to stand behind Tankor when he introduced himself to Thrust and Jetstorm. I'm Tankor, dana!
Toys
Beast Machines
- Tankor (Mega, 1999)
- Accessories: Projectile
- Part of the first wave of Beast Machines product, Tankor transforms into a large Cybertronic tank. Aside from a spring-loaded missile launcher, he also features a light-piped "scanner eye" on his turret, and twin sawblades that spin via gear-wheel system when his tank mode is pushed along. In robot mode, all of these gimmicks are retained, though the "scanner eye" is this time in his robot head.
- For reasons unknown, his name was misspelled as "Tankorr" on his instructions.
- This toy was redecoed into Universe incarnation of Tankor. The toy's likeness was also repurposed as the non-toy Beast Era incarnation of Quake and his drones.
- Blastcharge (Deluxe, 2000)
- Accessories: 3 long-range plasma ultrarockets
- Part of the third wave of Beast Machines deluxes, Blastcharge is a tan, red, and silver Cybertronic six-wheeled armored vehicle with a rotating and elevating turret. This turret stores three missiles, but only the middle missile can be fired with the spring-loaded mechanism. His other spring-loaded gimmick is that the front portion of his vehicle mode can spring forward and turn independently of the rear portion. The missiles can also be used as clubs. His spark crystal is hidden inside his front grille.
- Tank Drone (Basic, 2001)
- Accessories: Energy-blast missile
- The Tank Drone was released in the last wave of the Beast Machiness toyline, as part of the "Battle for the Spark" subline. It transforms into a blue and grey Cybertronic four-tracked tank.
- Pressing the spark crystal on his cannon connects the gear-wheel system on the underside of his tank mode, and pushing him forward causes the cannon barrel to spin. This in turn triggers a spring-loaded "energy blast" missile.
- It hews more closely to the animation model than the Tankor toy released the year before, which may be why it was redecoed as Tankor for release in the Japanese Beast Wars Returns line several years later, despite being the smallest of the Vehicon toys.
Notes
- In the Japanese dub of the series, the Tank Drones inherited the vocal tic of Tankor, constantly chanting "DA-NA!" at all times.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Tank Drone (タンクドローン Tanku Dorōn)
