Thrust (BM)
| The name or term "Thrust" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Thrust (disambiguation). |
- Thrust is a Vehicon from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Thrust was one of the first of Megatron's Vehicon generals to be created, and was the last one to stand against the Maximals. Commander of the Motorcycle Drones, he is a dark, cold, brooding type, and is absolutely devoted to Megatron's goals, even though he knows what it means in the end for him. He is almost completely fearless, says exactly what is on his mind (he had the lugnuts to tell Megatron just how dumb his plan of using Maximal sparks to power the other two Vehicon Generals was), and takes a delight in tormenting his foes both physically and psychologically.
Oddly, despite initial backstabbing, he grew to consider his fellow General Jetstorm a friend, which developed into a white-hot hatred when Jetstorm was reverted into the Maximal Silverbolt. He refused to even call Silverbolt by his name, calling him "Jetstorm" and "traitor".
Thrust's personality and mind is in fact a shell program powered by the spark of the Predacon Waspinator. Despite this, Thrust has virtually no similarities to Waspinator, and the Predacon is very happy to be in the cool "biker-bot", even if only as a power source.
His Command Code is "overdrive," although in one anomalous instance, he used the phrase "accelerate."
Thrust can be distinguished from his drones by his size and yellow markings.
Fiction
Beast Wars cartoon continuity
Beast Machines cartoon
- Voice actor: Jim Byrnes (English), Kensō Katō (Japanese), Sérgio Stern (Brazil), Thomas Nero Wolff (German), Victor Covarrubias (Latin American Spanish)
Thrust was one of three Vehicons granted individual sparks by Megatron in an effort to defeat the Maximals; Thrust was given the spark of Waspinator. Fires of the Past Waspinator was aware of Thrust's actions, and the brooding, sarky, badass personality was utter heaven for the bug! The Catalyst
Along with Tankor and Jetstorm, he pursued Blackarachnia and Rattrap when they attempted to recover information about what happened while they were offline, but failed to capture them. Fires of the Past After being chewed out by Megatron, the generals again attempted to apprehend the Maximals, but Thrust and Jetstorm decided to destroy each other to avoid having to share any rewards. While they were thus occupied, Tankor of all bots managed to capture the Maximals. Thrust and Jetstorm decided to put aside their differences in order to take out the big lug, but ended up getting slagged. Mercenary Pursuits
Thrust lead a squad of his Motorcycle Drones in an attack against Cheetor, Nightscream and Rattrap when the three Maximals infiltrated a Vehicon assembly factory. He was defeated by Cheetor, rendering his drones inert. 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. With Thrust, as well as Jetstorm and Tankor out of commission for the time being, Megatron was effectively rendered defenseless. As soon as Thrust was repaired, he rushed out to defend his leader against the Maximals, but Megatron had struck a deal with Rattrap while Thrust had been off-line. Thrust was ordered to allow the Maximals to walk away. The Weak Component
Later, during a battle between the Maximals and Vehicons, Thrust saved the life of Blackarachnia, though quickly wondered why. The two wandered into a spark extraction facility, where a massive spark extractor attempted to extract their sparks. Thrust again saved Blackarachnia, and was in turn saved by her. Thrust began having flashbacks to the time when his spark was first extracted, but was interrupted by the sudden arrival of the other Maximals before he could remember anything. Discovery
After that, he and Jetstorm were attacked by Blackarachnia and Nightscream while Cheetor and Rattrap worked to reawaken Tankor's Maximal spark. Blackarachnia, convinced that Thrust was carrying Silverbolt's spark, tried to help him remember their past, which resulted in Thrust having more flashbacks, this time to the time he spent on Earth. However, before he could remember his previous identity, Jetstorm attacked and accused him of betrayal. Thrust claimed he was just trying to stall Blackarachnia; Jetstorm, unconvinced, ordered Thrust to prove his loyalty to Megatron by extracting Blackarachnia's spark. He grudgingly agreed to this, but was interrupted by Nightscream. Unfortunately, Blackarachnia's spark was extracted anyway, by Jetstorm. Descent Thrust picked up Blackarachnia's body and pursued Jetstorm. After an altercation with Nightscream, who had recovered Blackarachnia's spark in the meantime, Thrust fled, leaving Blackarachnia to be re-ensparked by Nightscream. Apocalypse
When the Maximals stole one of Megatron’s Vehicon Mole drones, Thrust was ready to pursue them. Megatron claimed it was unnecessary, as he could track the Mole itself. The Key
After that, he was sent with Jetstorm and Tankor to apprehend Nightscream as part of an attempt to remove Megatron's organic components. Nightscream escaped and Thrust and Jetstorm pursued him, but were defeated by Nightscream's sonic scream. Survivor Shortly thereafter, while on a wild goose chase courtesy of Tankor, Thrust was exposed to organic goo courtesy of Blackarachnia, which caused him to revert to his Waspinator personality. After explaining how he returned to Cybertron, Waspinator was driven to rage when Blackarachnia spurned him. However, before he could cause any damage, he was zapped by a duplicate Key to Vector Sigma, causing him to revert to his Thrust persona.
After this event, Thrust stopped trying to save Blackarachnia and she stopped trying to get him defect. No technorganic salvation for you, Waspy! The Catalyst
Some time later, Optimus Primal used the Plasma Energy Chamber against Megatron's Keys to Vector Sigma, apparently destroying them both, along with Tankor. End of the Line With the war apparently over, Thrust and Jetstorm were invited to join the Maximals, but they instead decided to strike out on their own. Thrust got hostile at the idea of Jetstorm getting reformatted, deciding he viewed the general as a friend and didn't want to lose him. Fallout. During this time, they were attacked by Savage, an event which they initially blamed on the Maximals. They did temporarily team up with their old enemies against this new threat, but their insistence on attacking Savage and antagonising Noble earned them nothing more than a trashing. Savage Noble Thrust would go up against Savage once again when he and Jetstorm attempted to apprehend Nightscream. Savage, now free from Megatron's spark, gave Thrust a sound thrashing. He called out for Jetstorm, but unfortunately for him, Jetstorm had since been reformatted into Silverbolt, who pushed him over the edge of the cliff from which he was dangling. In Darkest Knight Thrust would subsequently reserve a special hatred for Silverbolt, seeing him as a traitor to the Vehicon cause.
Following the loss of Jetstorm, Megatron resurrected the Hate Plague and generated a variant which would apparently only affect technorganic life, and sicced it on the Maximals. Thrust led a group of Motorcycle Drones to eliminate them, but decided to conserve ammo by letting the Maximals destroy each other. However, the Maximals were able to overcome the effects of the virus and chased Thrust out. A Wolf in the Fold
After this, Thrust was apparently given command of the remaining Tank Drones and Sonic Jet Drones (even with the arrival of Obsidan and Strika, Thrust would have been the senior Vehicon General since he had served under Megatron for the longest amount of time, especially when you count his time as Waspinator). When a ship carrying a strange plant being crashed on Cybertron, Megatron sent Thrust to recover it and its contents to avoid them falling into the hands of the Maximals. By judicious use of his drone army, Thrust was able to reach the ship first, but was knocked out by Optimus Primal before he could enter. He then chased the Maximals to the Oracle chamber, where Botanica had fled; upon reaching it, he deployed a huge number of Tank Drones to destroy both the Maximals and the trees, but they were all eliminated in one attack by the reformatted Botanica.
Outnumbered, Thrust fled, telling Botanica she had made a big mistake. He complained to Megatron about the unfair situation, Home Soil prompting Megatron to resurrect Obsidian and Strika. Around this time, he apparently started reverting somewhat to Waspinator, as he was beaten up and damaged when he tried to stop the Maximals salvaging spare parts, by Obsidian when he tried to brief the new generals on the current situation, by Megatron when he attempted to rub Obsidian and Strika's faces in their recent failure to destroy the Maximals, The Strike by Savage when he led a force of Cycle Drones to pursue Optimus Primal and Nightscream to the ruins of Iacon, The Search and by the force of gravity when the Grand Mal crashed into Cybertron's surface. The Siege
Following Megatron's depolarization, Thrust again wandered Cybertron aimlessly. He encountered Obsidian and Strika, who were considering joining forces with the Maximals. Thrust asked how they could be truly loyal to anybody if they were loyal to everybody, and drove off. His words gave the other generals pause, and when Rattrap repolarized Megatron, inspired them to return to the side of villainy. Thrust encountered them again soon enough and tried to take command, only for Megatron to berate him for being useless and announce the final stage of his plan. Obsidian, however, stated that it was Thrust who had made him and Strika realise their loyalties lay with Megatron. Spark of Darkness
In the final battle, Thrust led a force of Cycle drones against the Maximals. Despite accidentally destroying several of his own drones and being attacked by Strika due to Rattrap's latest gadget, he led a large force to the Grand Mal, just in time to see it crash to Cybertron. The Downward Spiral Thrust personally took on Silverbolt, taunting him by calling him 'Jetstorm', and when he and Blackarachnia went down, Thrust, Strika, and Obsidian penetrated the Grand Mal.
Inside, Cheetor activated the anti-gravity generators, blasting Obsidian and Strika into orbit. Thrust, however, managed to avoid the field and engaged Cheetor personally. The two grappled for a while and, just as it looked like Thrust would win, Cheetor grabbed a spark extractor and removed Thrust's spark. When Legends Fall When Cybertron was reformatted, Waspinator got his spark back, but he was stuck with the body of a normal sized wasp with Thrust's head. He lamented the fact that he could never gain power, glory, or anything he wanted as he was swatted away by Rattrap. Poor guy. Seeds of the Future
Transformers Legends anthology
Thrust was steamed at Obsidian and Strika for abandoning the presumed-dead Megatron and siding with the Maximals. He sped off shortly before the pair were attacked by a drone controlled by Megatron's spark. Singularity Ablyss
The Wreckers comic
After using the Divine Light to access Primus's power, Cryotek reanimated several Sharkticon corpses into facsimiles of Megatron's old subordinates, including one of Thrust. Wreckers: Finale Part II
Universe comic
Hailing from Primax 1103.12-R Gamma, Thrust was abducted by Unicron, as was Rattrap and, from an earlier point in their timeline, Terrorsaur. Ask Vector Prime, 20/9/2015 He was among the many many Transformers captured by Unicron and held prisoner within the Cauldron. Escape Thrust and Rattrap, however, resisted Unicron's corrupting influence, arguably becoming Children of Primus. Ask Vector Prime, 20/9/2015 He escaped during the jailbreak started by Trailbreaker and Silverbolt. Escape
TransTech
Thrust was one of countless "offworlders" residing in Axiom Nexus. He was seen having a drink with Signal Lancer. Gone Too Far
Transformers Legends comic
When Rhinox was turned into Tankor one day, Waspinator and Silverbolt similarly woke up in the bodies of Thrust and Jetstorm, respectively. Seeing a kinship between them, Tankor asked the two if they'd join him in turning the world into a paradise of original Transformers, but Thrust countered that his kids didn't know anything about characters from 30 years ago and that it's better to have lots of versions of Transformers for everyone to enjoy. Their refusal angered Tankor, and a battle broke out between the three Vehicons. I'm Tankor, dana!
Games
Transformers Legends
Thrust was one of Megatron's generals after the Predacon conquered Cybertron. When the Maximals returned to the planet, he, Jetstorm, and Tankor were sent to take care of them, but failed. Beast Machines
Toys
Beast Machines
- Thrust (Deluxe, 2000)
- Accessories: Flame-missile
- Thrust transforms into a long, low-riding Cybertronic motorcycle. His insectoid-head-looking cycle mode cowling is attached to a gear-wheel on his underside, which moves it back and forth in a "scanning" motion when Thrust is rolled along. His robot mode head has an opening jaw for some reason. His left tailpipe/arm features a spring-loaded missile-launcher, while his right has an extending "grabber claw" that opens up when the trigger is pushed forward. His robot mode could retain the single-wheeled form he is most commonly associated with, be converted into an awkward bipedal mode, or a "3-wheel mode".
- Thrust (Happy Meal, 2000)
- McNumber: ???
- Accessories: Stand
- A small, simplified toy of Thrust based on the cartoon model was one of nine Beast Machines Happy Meal toy premiums released in 2000. This toy is unique in that he was given a stand so his single-wheeled robot mode could stay upright, the only toy in the set to come with an accessory.
Beast Wars Returns
- Slightly redecoed from the Motorcycle Drone, Beast Wars Returns Thrust looks a heck of a lot more like his show counterpart than his Beast Machines toy. His right arm/tailpipe contains a spring-loaded missile launcher, activated by pressing his spark crystal. His other arm's outer casing unfolds to recreate the look of a spark extractor. His "foot" wheel can split down the middle, forming a pair of feet so he can stand "normally".
Timelines
- Thrustinator (Deluxe, 2014)
- TFSS2 number: ??
- Accessories: missile launcher, 2 missiles
- Part of the Transformers Collectors' Club Figure Subscription Service 2.0, Thrustinator is the Dirgegun tooling with a retooled head, now redecoed to look like an disturbing amalgam of Waspinator and Thrust. His stinger becomes a hand-held spring-loaded missile launcher; the missiles are hidden in each of his wings. These missiles can also be used in the launcher mounted on his beast mode back. This mold has a pop-up gun in place of the mutant head found on the original, meaning you have to flip his head down if you want to use this feature in robot mode.
- The original version of Dirgegun's mold was, of course, used for like a dozen Waspinators and a Buzz Saw.
Notes
- The Japanese dub of the series completely eliminated the ambiguity and mystery of Thrust's former identity by giving him all of Waspinator's vocal quirks, such as making buzzing noises while talking and generally acting like a doofus. He also shared in the Cycle Drones' affinity for chanting "BARI-BARI!" ("work hard, work hard") to obnoxious excess.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Thrust (スラスト Surasuto)
- Mandarin: Phuò-chí-phào (Taiwan, 迫擊砲, "Mortar"), Bàofēng Mótuō (China, 暴风摩托, "Storm Motorcycle")
