Icebird
- Icebird is a Mutant from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Powerful and wise, Icebird leads the Mutants in his crusade to evolve beyond the technological origins of the Transformer race, ascending to a completely organic existence. It's a lofty goal, to be sure- compounded by the difficulties of working with the disparate group of mopey personalities that make up the Mutants- but Icebird perseveres, treating his self-styled mission as a spiritual crusade. He tolerates the heroic exploits of the Maximals, viewing them as a necessary step on the path to true organic evolution, but ultimately Icebird believes to the core of his Spark that the future belongs to the Mutants, and all those who have chosen to give up their robot modes in the service of some higher power. Secretly, however, Icebird mourns the loss of his own robot mode - even if it is, as he claims, the first painful step on the road to enlightenment.
Icebird's mutation has given him a bevy of abilities, including telepathy, mind-reading, invisibility, and the ability to shut down machinery at will; when Icebird takes to the battlefield he's a powerful force to be reckoned with. Swooping in from above in his stealthy owl mode, he can turn invisible, then mass-shift into his hulking bear mode to tear his foes apart with his energized claws.
Fiction
Toy bio
Icebird viewed Optimus's heroics with forgiving tolerance, and was said to be greatly feared by Megatron, implying an active role in the Beast Wars. Icebird bio
3H comics
The "discarded children of Megatron's experiments", Icebird and his Mutants were one of several groups summoned by the Oracle for a greater purpose. They were tasked with traveling to the Outer Orion Cluster, where they would heal themselves by repairing their fractured sparks and finding their true hidden potential. While being briefed along with other resistance groups, Icebird attacked Optimus Primal for not going far enough in his battle against the technological Vehicons. Tigatron separated the two before harm could befall either of them. Departure
However, the Oracle had sent the Mutants on a fool's errand, and Icebird and the others found their destination to be a Quintesson court. Though the others grew worried and suspicious, Icebird attempted to calm them. He was certain that the Oracle would not lead them astray. Icebird appeared to be mistaken, however, as Sharkticons swarmed his group and began devouring them gruesomely. Betrayal
Icebird and Poison Bite managed to survive, using their incredible sense-warping abilities, and the two revealed themselves to the Quintessons while most of the five-faced beings were busy, light years away, invading Cybertron. Icebird and Poison Bite began to glow, and technorganic plants bloomed and surrounded the Quintessons and their Sharkticon army. As their would-be-executioners were slaughtered, Icebird glowed brighter still. His polar bear head morphed into a monstrous blue face through which Primus himself spoke. "Thank You For Your Role In This, Quintesson. I Can Always Count On Your Interference To Drive My Children Forward." The Quintesson Judge Heirodyus felt his body melt away as Primus bid him adieu. Icebird and Poison Bite had found their balance and their purpose. In the aftermath, they resolved to lead the newly-freed Sharkticons to a brighter future. Wreckers: Finale Part II
IDW Beast Wars comics
Icebird was one of the many protoforms from the remaining Axalon stasis pods to be reactivated by Razorbeast. He and his fellow Mutants took up residence in a swamp. When a Predacon scouting party intruded on their home, Icebird was the first Mutant they spotted. Their leader Transquito followed him, fooled by his seemingly-harmless owl mode. Once he had lured him into a remote location, Icebird transformed into his bear mode and mauled the hapless Predacon while declaring that both Maximals and Predacons were unwelcome in the Mutants' lands. The Gathering #3
He was not upset by his loss of a robot mode, and while his fellow mutants reacted in horror to what Megatron's early prototype for a transformation-lock virus had done to them, Icebird viewed it as a mystical sign that he was destined to lead others like him towards a purely organic existence. Beast Wars Sourcebook #3
Ask Vector Prime
In Primax 208.06 Zeta, Icebird and the Mutants were a resistance group against Obsidian's Vehicon rule of Cybertron. After the defeat of the Vehicons, Icebird joined Waspscream, Rodimus Primal, and Magmatron in forming a new High Council. Ask Vector Prime, 16/8/2015
Toys
Mutant Beast Wars
- Icebird (Mutant, 2000)
- Part of the final year of Beast Wars toys, Icebird is a deluxe-sized toy that transforms between two organic beast modes: a snowy owl and a polar bear. In bear mode, his "true" robot-mode head is revealed by flipping open the back panel and tucking away the bear-mode head. His owl-mode's beak moves up and down to a button-activated spring-loaded plunger mechanism, but it doesn't work particularly well. In both modes, the panel with his Mutants faction symbol (on his right foreleg in bear mode, or his left leg in owl mode) can be flipped up to reveal mechanical detailing.
Notes
- Official Hasbro stock photography of the Icebird toy shows him with metallic red machine-bits rather than the metallic blue of the final toy. Why this change was made is unknown. Maybe the red "damage panel" seemed a little too much like bloody giblets of torn flesh?
- The exact placement of Icebird (and the other Mutants) within the fiction can be argued. Though their packages labeled them "Mutant Beast Wars", they came out at a point when the Beast Wars toyline and cartoon were well ended and Beast Machines was well underway. Further, their packaging blurb and bios make reference to Megatron's mode-lock viruses, conflict between organic and mechanical Transformer life, and most tellingly, the Oracle, all of which were specifically central points of the Beast Machines storyline. Hence, the 3H BotCon materials placed them on Beast Machines Cybertron as part of that conflict, while IDW's Beast Wars comics defaulted to their packaging label, ignored any conflicting backstory, and made them a part of the Beast Wars on Earth instead.
