Path Finder

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Path Finder is a Guardian from GoBots posing as an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Mighty robots! Path Finder is in the upper-left corner

Path Finder is one of six explorers from an alternate dimension, come to Cybertron and Earth to seek out a solution to a threat against their home. She has joined the Autobots, keeping their origins a secret, and communicates with Treds, the leader of the trio who have infiltrated the Decepticons. She is a high-ranking Guardian in her home dimension, a calm and rational leader with great wisdom.

Fiction

TransTech

The Cataclysm had come. In the dimensional level occupied by Path Finder and her Guardian comrades all life, all matter, all everything was threatened with non-existence. A self-serving doctor, allied with them out of necessity, discovered the source of the Cataclysm using his Dimensional Interfacer. Twenty-two levels removed from their dimension was a universe populated by Cybertronians, robotic Transformers whose war with a Dark God had destabilized reality, causing an offshoot timeline of their level to "overwrite" the one occupied by Path Finder and her people.

To deal with this threat, a Coalition Expedition Team was assembled under Path Finder's command. Alongside her fellow Guardians, Treds, Small Foot, and Road Ranger, and their Renegade counterparts, Bug Bite and Bad Boy, Path Finder was modified to assume a Cybertronian form. The team's mission was to arrive on the Transformers' Earth and infiltrate the Autobots and Decepticons in the hopes of uncovering some way to reverse the Cataclysm.

Their Interfacer beam was disrupted in mid-transit, however, and wound up on Axiom Nexus, where they became guests of the Transcendent Technomorphs, Cybertronians who never experienced a civil war, and had radically advanced their own technological forms. Far off course from their stated mission parameters, Path Finder chose to honestly explain their predicament to the TransTechs in the hope of finding aid, or at least to be sent on their way. Unfortunately, the Dimensional Interfacer was a technology unknown to the TransTechs, and the Technomorphs traditionally took a very hard stance on unknown technology. After a meeting before the Senate, Optimus Prime and Megatron (reluctantly and disdainfully) refused to allow the GoBots to continue on their mission. They feared the GoBots, in a panic over the death of their universe, might lead an invading army to the TransTechs' Cybertron, using Interfacer technology that would evade transwarp scans. Instead, Prime deemed that the GoBots would be allowed to live peacefully, but permanently, in the Offworlder sector of Axiom Nexus, with the other transwarp refugees. Withered Hope

And then, from across the room, their eyes met...

Path Finder, along with other displaced GoBots, went through "processing" at Axiom Nexus with a motley collection of other Transformers and assorted entities. Transcendent: Part 1

As if permanent exile wasn't bad enough, Path Finder lost track of Bug Bite during processing. Arguably the smartest and certainly the least trustworthy of their group, the Renegade's disappearance was a serious cause for concern. Path Finder dispatched Treds and Bad Boy to locate their missing "fellow Decepticon", while she secured a place to hang their chassis with the other "Autobots". After that, Path Finder made a vain attempt to leave TransTech airspace under her own power using her shuttle mode. Fortunately for her, Beam Rider and Skyquake caught her easily before she ran into the planetary defense grid and was atomized.

Back at the Widow's Cafe Cybertronian, the hostel the Coalition Team were staying at, Path Finder, Small Foot and Road Ranger attempted to regroup and make a new plan. The hostel's owner, Crystal Widow, was generous with the information but ultimately unhelpful on how to leave after being dubbed "units of interest" by the TransTechs. Mulling over their options, the Guardians were present for a raid by General Demolishor of the Military Police and Inspector Airazor of the Axiom Nexus Security Administration. Bug Bite, it seemed, had been busy. A thief named Escargon had stolen six letters of transit that allowed unrestricted access to the transwarp centers and passage offworld, no questions asked. He had already swapped one with Bug Bite for Astro-Beam technology when Demolishor executed him at the Cafe. Recognizing the GoBots' tech as similar to the Astro-Beam found on Escargon's body, Demolishor attempted to take them into custody, but was blocked by some confusing legalese spouted by Airazor.

Treds and Bad Boy weren't so lucky. Demolishor captured Treds and took him to the Heap, demanding Path Finder and the others bring him the transit passes or else Treds died. The battle at the Heap was devastating, even with Crystal Widow's help, as the GoBots fought fiercely against the TransTech General. Path Finder finally threw caution to the wind by activated her Faster-Than-Light drive in atmosphere, lancing through Demolishor and leaving behind a handful of scrap that ripped him apart from the inside. The general was still on his feet (well, foot by that point), though, when Commander Cheetor arrived and took charge of the situation. Through a series of political and bureaucratic maneuverings too complex and multi-layered to get into here, Cheetor arranged for General Demolishor's arrest, the repair of the GoBots, and ordered Airazor (without actually saying the words) to turn over the remaining transit passes SHE had swiped off of Escargon's corpse to Path Finder and her crew.

Armed with the passes, the Coalition Expedition Team continued with their mission and finally deposited themselves on the correct Earth after Bug Bite. They managed to make contact with him and his erstwhile Decepticon allies Dreadwind and Weirdwolf shortly after the Renegade had made a disastrous attempt on Megatron's life. Reunited, for good or ill, the GoBots began to regroup and plan for the next wave of arrivals from the Interfacer... Withered Hope

Making their way to the rendez-vous point in Utah, Path Finder's unit met their reinforcements: Man-O-War, Buggyman, and Rest-Q. Having lost time due to their transition through Axiom Nexus and the unrelated catastrophes caused by the Terminus Blade, Path Finder altered mission parameters to approach the Autobots directly instead of using infiltration techniques. Sunrise

Though those traveling on the ground met with some trouble, Bad Boy, Man-O-War, and Path Finder managed to reach the Autobots' Ironworks base unimpeded. High Noon

Renegade Rhetoric

In one Gargent reality, the Renegade Sky-Jack hijacked an Earth satellite for the Renegades to use, barely escaping detection by the space-capable Spay-C, Path Finder, or Apollo. Renegade Rhetoric (1), 2015/10/18

Toys

Collector's Edition

She put on a lot of weight in transit
  • G1 GoBots (Multi-pack, 2004)
    • Japanese ID number: 84
Path Finder is a redeco of the Mini Vehicle Cosmos toy, transforming into a flying saucer based on George Adamski's "eyewitness" designs of "real" flying saucers. She was only available in the Japanese e-Hobby exclusive Collector's Edition "G1 GoBots" six-pack with Bad Boy, Bug Bite, Road Ranger, Small Foot, and Treds.

Notes

My wheels are out of alignment.
  • Path Finder is clearly intended to be the character from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon based on Tonka's GoBots line. Her name does not appear on any of the final product materials; the name was only given in an early Photoshopped promotional image from the e-HOBBY website. The individual toys' names (and any overtly-explicit ties to Tonka's GoBots fiction) were dropped when Takara's legal department became concerned at how Bandai—the company that made the toys that would become the GoBots—would react to the names being used, despite the minimal chance of provable trademark infringement on Takara's part. The group bio retained numerous references to technology portrayed within the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, however.
  • This became moot when Fun Publications took the ball and ran with it, however, restoring those explicit ties.
Cybertron needs women!
  • Path Finder's coloration comes from an early Japanese Transformers catalogue picture (shown at right), which shows different colors for all of the 1985 Mini Vehicles than the final retail versions.
  • Unlike the Transformers, the GoBots were originally a race of organic alien humans who replaced much, but not all, of their bodies with machinery. Thus, Path Finder is actually a cyborg, not a true robot.

Foreign names

  • Japanese: Path Finder (パスファインダー Pasu Faindā)
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