Goldbug (IDW)
| This article is about the Throttlebots' leader who was never Bumblebee. For the Throttlebot member who was once Bumblebee, see Bumblebee (G1). For a list of other meanings, see Goldbug (disambiguation). |
- Goldbug is an Autobot Throttlebot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Along with his other Throttlebot teammates, Goldbug is a proven courier officer, skilled at being able to evade the enemy to keep important data out of unauthorized hands and speed it where it needs to go.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Goldbug and the Throttlebots were assigned to Orvus Base, orbiting Salvvatan VI, to safeguard top-secret Autobot research. Their purpose was to act as couriers in case the lab came under threat, taking the data and keeping it out of enemy hands. They had no idea what the research actually was, but that wasn't deemed essential to their job. And indeed, when an attack did come in the form of Sixshot, the Throttlebots were the only ones who made it out of the station alive, the information in their sole possession. They crashed on the planet below and quickly rushed for cover, Sixshot hot on their trail.
What they found on the planet was a strangely unoccupied, Cybertronian-style city with energon reserves. But just as they were powering up, Sixshot caught up with them and demanded the information. Goldbug suggested that they might not have the information at all, then asked him if he would torture them in that case. Sixshot said he would, so Goldbug ordered the Throttlebots to scatter.
Sixshot quickly took down half the team, even as they tried to feint and counterattack. The remaining three bantered with Sixshot and then attacked him, the battle taking them into a strange chamber where an "intruder alert" alarm began to blare. There, Sixshot shot Goldbug point-blank in the chest, and his remaining two comrades fared little better.
But just as Sixshot was about to execute Searchlight, the city around them awakened. A giant fist smashed Sixshot, followed by a similarly-proportioned foot. Goldbug and his two companions gaped in awe at the transformed Metroplex, who declared his own position compromised and announced that he was going to leave and hide again. He told them where to find a shuttle and supplies, but Goldbug was indignant, asking him what kind of Autobot would abandon the dying Throttlebots. Metroplex replied that he wept for them, but his mission was more important, and with that, he left.
Rollbar and Searchlight, the latter carrying Goldbug, began walking back to recover their teammates. As they pondered how important Metroplex's mission must be and how lonely he surely is, the battered Sixshot stirred... Spotlight: Metroplex
Beast Wars Uprising
During the horrific event known as the Rending, Throttlebot commander Goldbug's vocoder was shredded, leaving him unable to speak. He instead communicated by text dispatch for orders requiring clarity, and snippets of old Earth songs when emotion or urgency was required.
Much much later, during the climax of the Grand Uprising, he was the Builder commander of the strategically critical Yuss Batteries, hardwired into the system. When the Maxilla, the seven fortresses on the Hydrax Plateau guarding the landward approach to the batteries, fell to the Resistance, Goldbug did his best to keep the batteries out of enemy hands. He failed and was forcibly disconnected and interrogated. He refused to yield the command codes, and was knocked unconscious by Lio Convoy.Derailment
He survived the war and, along with a few other Macromaster-scale Builders, bore witness to the new Constructicons at a graduation ceremony. One of the new recruits, Wideload, was a former Throttlebot and traitor to the Autobot cause. The two reached something of an understanding during this hopeful moment. The Inexorable March
Toys
Generation 1
- Goldbug (Throttlebot, 1987/1991)
- Japanese ID number: C-97
- The Goldbug toy transforms into a 1971-72 Volkswagen 1302 “Super Beetle”. Like all Throttlebots, it features a pull-back motor that zips him forward in both vehicle and robot modes. In 1991, the Throttlebots were re-released in European markets as part of the "Classics" sub-line. Goldbug was retooled to remove the rubsign indent on his roof/chest, and the rubsign decal itself was replaced with a glossy-paper Autobot sigil.
Notes
- Goldbug owes his existence to IDW editor/writer Andy Schmidt's decision to make the IDW version of Goldbug a character who is separate from the IDW continuity's version of Bumblebee just as Megatron and Galvatron are separate.
- And then Hasbro released a G1 Goldbug-inspired redeco/retool of a Bumblebee toy, which itself was directly based on an IDW design, and explicitly identified the toy as a new form of Bumblebee in its on-packaging bio. What's more, the toy design was even to be featured in IDW's comics due to a re-emerged desire on Hasbro's behalf to have its Generations toys promoted by the comics. Conveniently, the name "Goldbug" was unavailable for trademark reasons at the time, so the toy was released under the substitute name "Goldfire" instead; and when the toy design was introduced in the comics, that name was merely referenced in a throwaway line, while the character still went by the name "Bumblebee". Phew!
- Goldbug's Cybertronian alternate mode appears to be an homage to Bumblebee's, as seen on "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1".
- Goldbug's characterization in Beast Wars: Uprising borrows heavily from the movie interpertatoin of Bumblebee.
