Hubcap (G1)
| The name or term "Hubcap" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Hubcap (disambiguation). |
- Hubcap is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Everybody likes Hubcap. He's friendly, always has a clever joke or compliment ready, and is generally a nice, fun, affable bot to be around. On the other hand nobody actually trusts Hubcap. It's not his devotion to the Autobot cause that's the concern (mostly), but his ulterior motives for his friendship and jokes and the like. He is at his core a con artist, and everyone's a bit on their guard around him. Some think he's this way to cover for deficiencies or to stay in a position well above his actual aptitude level... or maybe he just likes tricking people. He doesn't seem to have made many enemies with his tricks and scams, though; quite the opposite. So perhaps it is all mostly harmless.
No-one doubts that he's got very good audio receptors, though, capable of picking up incredibly weak signals, which is why he's part of the Autobot communications hub. One can only guess as to what he might do with all he hears in that position, though.
Fiction
Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers manga
Hubcap was part of a group who arrived to back up Powerglide, who was defending a dog that had been cruelly experimented on by the Decepticons from being hunted and captured by the Combaticons. He and the other Minibots combined with Powerglide in their vehicle modes thanks to the experimental energies within the dog, and, spinning furiously, smashed through Bruticus's chest and out the other side in a flying drill attack.
No, seriously. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8
Controverse
Hubcap manned the dimensional portal that banished Primacron to another universe after his trial. Controverse
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
Hubcap was among the group of new recruits seen failing to take on the auto-combatant training drones on Cybertron after Shockwave's rule was toppled. Black Sunshine
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Hubcap was secretly an outlier, with the power to amplify or block any signal. Sins of the Wreckers #4 Before the war, he was buddies with Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, forming a trio of friends who would often enjoy the races together. Ghost Stories
Hubcap's dayjob was a member of the Security Services, rather like Ironhide. He (like Ironhide) was among the mourners at Bumper and Fastback's funeral at Security Services Headquarters in Kaon, appropriately standing next to Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. Megatron Origin #3 He later served at an Autobot communications post, trying to radio through to Iacon for reinforcements during Megatron's "everything burns" offensive. In the end, the area was so devastated that Hubcap and the Autobots including Ironhide only requested evacuation from the area instead of new troops, leaving Kaon under Decepticon control and Sentinel Prime. Megatron Origin #4 Sometime after, Hubcap was on the list of soldiers being trained by the newly prominent Orion Pax. A list that Ironhide dismissed as not being real soldiers. That had to be a slap in the face for poor Hubby. Old Ways
At one point in the early days of the Decepticon uprising, Hubcap and Cliffjumper were weirded out when Bumblebee started acting odd and stopped hanging out with them. Ghost Stories
He took up a job as an intelligence analyst Sins of the Wreckers #4 and partway through the war, he was listed as a potential candidate for a mission that was ultimately given to Wheelie. Spotlight: Wheelie During the war, Hubcap was a good friend of Pipes and the two would often write to each other. Under Cold Blue Stars
One fine day, he was assigned as a cadet for training with the famous Roadbuster! But the famous Roadbuster had been hearing voices from Mortilus that told him to torture and murder his cadets. After a period of extreme brutality, "mode drilling" that forced him to transform again and again, Hubcap came close to death when security forces under Prowl arrived in the nick of time. But to Hubcap's fury, Roadbuster was released after minimum rehab because 'bots like Prowl and Impactor needed him for the war effort and little guys like Hubcap and his dead friends didn't rate.
Digging up dirt on Prowl became his hobby and at some point, fell in with the renegade Tarantulas he also wanted Prowl to suffer. All sorts of information on Prowl's activities was quietly researched, sifted through, and collated by Hubcap during his job at as analyst. Even though Tarantulas admitted having been the voice of "Mortilus" that drove Roadbuster mad, the terrified Hubcap went with it in the hope of justice and getting a new, stronger body to use: thus nobody would ever overlook him again. Sins of the Wreckers #4
Pipes was disappointed when Hubcap wouldn't leave Debris to join the Lost Light No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases but the two stayed in touch: Pipes' last proper words before his death was a message sent to his friend. Under Cold Blue Stars
After the war ended, Hubcap furthered Tarantulas' plot by beoming the administrator of Debris, the space station used by the Wreckers as a base of operations, next to Roadbuster. The Wrecker didn't recognise him Sins of the Wreckers #4 and assumed that with his reputation as a communications specialist, he must really want the job.
On the day Taratulas captured Prowl, Hubcap nervously approached Impactor and Roadbuster to warn them that Guzzle was about to break free of his makeshift prison. The former initially mistook him for a fanboy before speculating that he must have done something bad to have been assigned to Debris. The conversation then (uncomfortably) switched to the subject of Springer being kept on life support, when they were interrupted by an alarm from... Springer's life support.
Rushing to the medbay expecting to find the worst, they instead discovered Springer had been contacted by Kup with a direct order—to wake up and find Prowl. Sufficiently motivated, Springer recruited Hubcap into a new iteration of the Wreckers and they travelled to Earth to rendez-vous with Kup, where they found that Arcee had got there ahead of them and kidnapped Verity Carlo, a human who had been blackmailing Prowl with her copy of the Aequitas data slug. Sins of the Wreckers #1
While Arcee and Springer took to arguing over who they thought was responsible for Prowl's disappearance, Hubcap scanned the local area but was unable to find any trace of other Cybertronians nearby. With the news from Prowl (via Kup) that he had been taken to an offshore undersea facility and Stakeout's report that the data slug had been stolen by a bunny that swam inside a whale, Springer requested that Hubcap track the whale but its bio-disguise nullified its spark-signature, rendering it invisible to his systems. Sins of the Wreckers #2 (Hubcap, of course, knew Mayhem were around) Sins of the Wreckers #4 Instead, the whole crew headed out to Stakeout's last known location where they soon found themselves in combat with these newly revealed enemies. When, during the battle, the whale got stuck in mid-transformation to robot mode, the Wreckers saw their chance and ran inside, with Roadbuster urging Hubcap to get a move on. There, they found an inter-dimensional portal to the Noisemaze and once Hubcap had checked that their captive Claw Jaw hadn't messaged ahead using ether-tech traffic or analogue frequencies, they forced him to open it. Sins of the Wreckers #2
To Claw Jaw's glee, every single Wrecker bar Hubcap and the human Verity collapsed as soon as they entered the Noisemaze: it hit Transformers on a sensory level and no unprepared robot could stand it there. However, Hubcap's frequency skillz allowed him to both tune it out and switched off the foe's blocking frequencies before amplifying the Maze's effects; Claw Jaw blew his own head off. However, Hubcap was reluctant to save the rest of the Wreckers. As Verity passed out, he merely told her he admired her bravery in standing up to Prowl and asked her to stay brave now... and then stood with Tarantulas as he ripped the guilty secrets out of the Wrecker's heads! Sins of the Wreckers #3
His agenda exposed, Hubcap verbally tore into Prowl for his crimes and trying to diminish him. Brave people like him and Verity were gonna expose the bastard! Verity, he'd then overhear, hadn't ever really planned to expose Prowl and had only been trying to force him to give her medical aid before she died. As everyone argued around him, Hubcap picked up Debris itself entering the Noizemaze and Tarantulas ordered him to activate the data transfer early. Hubcap was starting to get qualms though and Prowl was able to verbally make it worse, bringing up the potential loss of life if the Prowl files started a new war. Balking at the last second, he quietly freed the Wreckers and led Prowl to safety mid fight.
As Hubcap admitted that he was glad there was finally an end to it all and he could move on, even in jail, he saw Prowl pull a gun on him. He had too much incriminating data to be allowed to live. Hubcap was having none of it and demanded Prowl acknowledge that if he kept doing all these 'greater good' atrocities, all of what happened would just happen again, that Prowl would create new people out for justice and one of them would succeed. Bots like him were made the way they were by 'bots like Prowl, the weak transformed by the strong, and while Hubcap had made a huge mess he couldn't put right, they could at least make sure the cycle ended.
Prowl agreed.
Impactor, waiting in the shadows, believed it was too great a risk and shot Hubcap through the chest. Hubcap plunged to his apparent death. Sins of the Wreckers #4
TransTech
After a routine space bridge accident, Hubcap and his best mech Jackpot ended up in the trans-dimensional processing hub of Nexus 208.0 Epsilon Cybertron. They were released into Axiom Nexus proper after being properly cataloged and tagged to wait until their exit visas came through. Their tour guide Scattorshot, an Autobot from the Aurex universal cluster, explained the deal with the TransTechs, but Hubcap didn't get much further than "I hate quantum." The whole TransTech v. Offworlder system put Hubcap on edge, but Jackpot convinced him to live a little and mix it up with the locals.
While looking for someone to float them a line of credit, the two Autobots visited a local bank, only to be quickly escorted to the curb after Hubcap began loudly explaining all the ways the basic contract was designed to screw over the lendee long-term. Mixing their needs for adventure and profit, Hubcap and Jackpot journeyed to the relatively unpoliced Zone 6, and hit the scene at The Blue Deployer. Hubcap was initially annoyed at the low-level jamming field in the tavern that threw a blanket over his special senses, but soon perked right up when he saw the gambling tables. Hubcap got on a winning streak in his game, squaring off against a local Decepticon named Gutcruncher, and bet it all on what he thought was an unbeatable hand in Fullstasis. Unfortunately for their coin-purse, Jackpot wandered over at that moment and his luck-warping field (combined with the natural observer's bias when dealing with quantum mechanics) sent Gutcruncher's hand into superposition, costing Hubcap everything or, as he put it, "fifty-slagging-three-slagging-thousand slagging credits!"
Gutcruncher liked the cut of Hubcap's metal, and offered him a business opportunity to meet for later than night. Hubcap and Jackpot were in agreement to Never Trust a Decepticon when The Blue Deployer's patron, Cryotek, interjected his opinion. He convinced the duo to take Gutcruncher up on his offer and see what their options were. A few hours later, Hubcap and Jackpot found themselves with mezzanine-level seats to the start of a war—Gutcruncher was rallying all the offworlder gangs and unions to strike back at the TransTechs and seize their transcendent technology for themselves. And, as the universe attempted to prove any situation could always get worse, a photon charge suddenly went off directly behind the duo, atomizing Gutcruncher's skull and leaving every crooked crankshaft and gear-spitting gang member in Axiom Nexus gunning for their heads.
Hubcap and Jackpot led their pursuers on a merry chase, but could find no help at The Blue Deployer or from their own doppelgangers in the Nexus. Finally, they were caught by agents of the Security Administration and hauled in to the cops. Hubcap tried to explain to Commander Cheetor that his tech-specs just didn't allow this level of violence, but Cheetor was already way ahead of them: obviously they didn't do it, but obviously the gangs weren't going to stop and listen to a reasoned explanation. He was planning to hold them indefinitely, so Hubcap set off his engines to create a smokescreen long enough for them to escape. Still lacking anything that resembled a cunning plan, Hubcap and Jackpot continued running around the back alleys of Axiom Nexus, occasionally out-maneuvering the Malignus gang with sonic decoys and lucky electrocutions.
This might have gone on for ages if the REAL killer hadn't tracked them down. Black Shadow, one of Cryotek's employees, had been responsible for the execution of Gutcruncher, and was planning to add two more kills to his record. After all, icing the two Autobots not only prevented them from clearing their names and implicating him, it also gave him a shot at a second payday once he collected the bounty placed on their heads by Gutcruncher's second, Dirge. The Autobots let him keep monologuing until they were ready to make a break for it. Unfortunately, Black Shadow was a Pretender (Crossformer, really), and splitting up did little to improve their odds. Hubcap tried to outrun the flying Decepticon by hitching a ride on a passing jet mode Transformer. He used a high-pitched whine from his audio systems to pretend he was equipped with an exponential generator, forcing his unwilling carrier to participate in the getaway. The next part of his plan was a bit dangerous, deliberately amplifying his voice and identifying himself to draw out the Malignus and Gutcruncher's lackeys. It worked, and just as Black Shadow was going to choke the life out of him and / or hand him over to Dirge and the Malignus for something even worse, Hubcap activated his internal playback and broadcasted Blackie's gloating confession for all to hear. After then tricking Black Shadow into identifying his guns as the murder weapons, the jury was in—the assembled gangs tore the assassin limb from limb.
Although they had successfully cleared their names, Commander Cheetor had deemed the two Autobots "undesirables" and fast tracked their exit visas as soon as possible, sending them on their way to a universe similar to their own. Hubcap and Jackpot ended up crash-materializing atop a Decepticon named Killzone, who was rampaging through a primitive civilization. A short talk with the locals revealed the planet was polluted with a certain kind of squarish rock that glows and explodes when you hit it. As they arranged to contact the Autobot army for pick-up, Hubcap began negotiating with Yurgeth to remove all those nasty rocks...free of charge, of course. Gone Too Far
Wings Universe
Hubcap spent most of his time listening in on radio "chatter" on Earth, on the lookout for both Cybertronian and human criminal activity which he could help in stopping. Hubcap's profile in Club magazine #46
In 2010, Hubcap was among the reinforcements sent from Autobot City to Switzerland via the Geneva space bridge nexus. He assisted Pyro's Autobots against the Decepticon Syndicate, and was exposed to forestonite gas that gave him new super-powers. Generation 2: Redux He later accompanied Pyro and several others to follow up on a distress call from Nebulos. Upon arriving, they discovered that scientist Hi-Q had disappeared. Hubcap used his forestonite-enhanced powers of persuasion to convince Hi-Q's lab assistant, Hi-Test to reveal the existence of Hi-Q's extensive security system. A Flash Forward, Part 3 Following clues from the surveillance recordings, Pyro and his team tracked the kidnapped Nebulon to Qre, where they were quickly incapacitated and captured by Jhiaxus. A Flash Forward, Part 4 After Sideswipe freed everyone, they rescued Hi-Q, destroyed the base, and returned to Earth. A Flash Forward, Part 6
Circa 2013, Cybertronian leader Jhiaxus cloned Hubcap to create a clone commander of him. Termination During the final stages of the Machine Wars, the original Hubcap was on Earth. He alerted Pyro to Obsidian's signal from Cybertron. A Common Foe
Games
Transformers Legends
Hubcap was assigned to Pipes's team, guarding some researchers at a coastal town when they were attacked by Overbite and Nautilator. The B-Team Part Deux
Transformers: Battle Tactics
Hubcap participated in battles against a variety of opponents, both Autobots and Decepticons. Sometimes there were many of him! He was a Super Rare character who first appeared in the "Sonic Clash" event, and could be recruited by collecting 250 units of Cybermetal, 75 units of Transmetal, and 10 cores of this character. Transformers: Battle Tactics
Toys
Generation 1
- Hubcap (Mini-Vehicle, 1986)
- Japanese ID number: C-57
- Released in the third year of the original toy line in the US (second year in Japan), Hubcap is a retooling of the Cliffjumper "penny-racer"-proportioned Porsche 924 Turbo sports car mold, giving him a new robot mode head and "no spoiler". (His seeming lack of a spoiler is actually scale-accurate to the spoiler found on the real Porsche 924 and 944.) He is sometimes mistaken for the variant yellow Cliffjumper, and even occasionally for Bumper, who has a similar transformation, but an entirely different mold for his car parts and robot head.
- In 1986, he was made available as a mail-away item (incorrectly labeled as Cliffjumper) in the "Digital Doom on the Highway to Destruction" and "The Autobots Are Under Attack!" fliers packed with most boxed Transformers toys. He cost $3.50 and one Robot Point. The instruction booklet to mail-away Hubcap (sometimes bundled with Warpath and Cosmos) also incorrectly refers to him as "Cliffjumper".
Generation 2
- Hubcap (Mini-Vehicle, 1993)
- Hubcap was re-released as part of the first batch of Generation 2 toys in the US, this time in shiny chrome red. There's speculation that this was because Hasbro had intended to release Cliffjumper instead but didn't have the mold, but it seems more likely it was simply to keep him from looking too much like his assortment partner Bumblebee.
Transformers (2010)
- Hubcap (Scout Class, 2010)
- Japanese ID number: AA-09
- Hubcap was repurposed as Hubcap in "The B-Team Part Deux".
- Hubcap transforms into a hot rod based on a 1930s-style car of indeterminate make, but most closely related to the Willys 77 (with some elements of its successor, the Americar). His feet appear to be based upon the iconic foot design of the Japanese mecha franchise Gundam. Compared to other toys from the live-action film series, his transformation consists of a mere three or four very easy steps.
- Like most toys in the 2010 Transformers toyline, Hubcap features a standard Autobot insignia rather than the live-action movie style Autobot insignia.
- This mold would also have been used to make 2010 Transformers Downshift.
Notes
- In the pre-Toy Fair 1986 catalog, Hubcap (actually just a redecoed Cliffjumper) is featured with a white car body, a black chest/torso, and a red face. Fellow 1986 Mini Vehicle Tailgate appears in Hubcap's final colors, though. The white "Hub Cap" would eventually become the basis for the non-toy character Rest-Q.
- Also in the pre-Toy Fair 1986 catalog, Hubcap's photo shows him mistransformed: his arms are not extended, making him look like his only limbs are his legs.
- Despite his availability with the rest of the '86 Mini-Vehicle assortment, Hubcap was completely absent from contemporary Western Generation 1 fiction. No character model was drawn up for him, and he was not included in either the Generation 1 cartoon or the Marvel comic. He was even missing from Marvel's The Transformers Universe bio series, despite having a full-length bio written by Bob Budiansky. The reason for this omission is unknown.
- Speaking of that full-length bio, it notes that Hubcap's phosphorescent windscreen acts as a television monitor.[1] This is awesome.
- The fan-commentary track for Sony's 2006 release of The Transformers: The Movie erroneously claims that a generic robot resembling Bumblebee seen on Unicron's conveyor belt late in the film is Hubcap.
- In Fun Publications' stories, his personality and mannerisms are based on comedian-magician Penn Jillette.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Hubcap (ハブキャップ Habukyappu)
- French: Virevolto (Canada)
- Mandarin: Díshì (的士, "Taxi")
References
- ↑ http://boltax.blogspot.com/2010/12/extended-bios.html Hubcap's full bio at "Disciples of Boltax"
