Buzz Saw (BW)
| The name or term "Buzzsaw" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Buzzsaw (disambiguation). |
- Buzz Saw is a Predacon and later Maximal from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Buzz Saw is a figure of mystery, feared and respected on both sides in the Beast Wars. He is seldom even glimpsed as he flies at extreme altitudes to gather vital recon information or to rain unexpected death down on the Maximals far below. Little do any of them realize that he is, in actuality, a complete and utter coward, and his long range tactics stem entirely from the fact that he is terrified of coming into direct contact with the enemy. On the occasions where he must appear on an actual battlefield he does his best to remain at the back of the lines, hiding as best he is able behind dozens of other attacking Predacons. Socially he's a bit of a gossip and rather prone to bragging, wanting everyone to know what a great job he did on his last mission.
Buzz Saw is equipped with boosters that make him capable of escaping planetary orbit and flying free in space.
At some point after the Beast Wars he returns to Cybertron and joins the Maximals in their fight against Megatron's Vehicons.
Sometimes his name is spelled Buzzsaw.
Fiction
Toy bios
Buzz Saw liked to gang up with his equally wicked partner, Waspinator, and reveled in fighting land-based foes to give himself the extra edge in battle. His optical array was impressive, being capable of detecting Maximal activities from 200,000 feet by using infrared scanning sensors. His strategy was then to zero-in on his victims, and temporarily paralyze them with his air-to-ground "sting" missiles. Buzz Saw bio
Buzzsaw was saved from Megatron's virus by Rattrap and became a part of the Maximal band fighting Megatron's rule over Cybertron. Buzzsaw bio
Intimidation Game
- Voice actor: Paul Dobson (English)
The Tripredacus agent Flamewar was held prisoner and interrogated by a group of Autobots and Maximals. However, this was actually a ruse perpetrated by Scourge and a group of Megatron followers, among them Buzz Saw (disguised as Obsidian). Intimidation Game
IDW Beast Wars comics
The 'bot who would one day call himself "Buzz Saw" served under Megatron at the tail-end of the Great War. Though the Tripredacus Council sought to let hostilities between the Autobots and the Decepticons die out after Optimus Prime and Galvatron both fell in combat, Megatron had more aggressive plans. His squadron attacked Tigatron when he approached them to broker peace between the two factions. While Predaking dealt with Tigatron's entourage, Megatron and his troops headed off for the Primal Counci's base of operation to bring them down. Once there, they managed to surround their targets, only for Silverbolt, Ironhide, Prowl, Unit-3, and Tigatron (who had caught up to them) to combine into Magnaboss and strike back. As they were being pushed back, the Tripredacus Council arrived on the scene, and surrendered to the Autobots on behalf of all Decepticons, ending the war. Dawn of the Predacus
Buzz Saw later came to be one of the protoforms on Earth reprogrammed into Predacons by Magmatron. The Gathering #2 He was sent to search for Razorbeast and his team of Maximals from the air by the recently revived Ravage. The Gathering #3
When Sky Shadow discovered the Maximals' lair, Buzz Saw was among the Predacons who participated in the battle that ensued. After being beaten by the Maximals and their newly arrived reinforcements, Buzz Saw presumably retreated along with the other Predacons. The Gathering #4
He popped up again in the air wing of the Predacons' last ditch assault on the Maximal base. The Ascending #1 After the initial charge, he became a victim of the Pack's attack, with Longrack nibbling on his wings. The Ascending #2 He was presumably left on Earth with many of the injured Predacons and Maximals as the rest returned to Cybertron to fight Shokaract. The Ascending #3
3H comics
Buzz Saw took part in the battle against the Quintesson forces one week after the reformatting of Cybertron into a technorganic world. Wreckers: Finale Part II
One year after the Great Reformatting, Buzzsaw got a front row view of several wayward Autobots exiting their spaceship, at least until Rook shoved him out of the way to get a better view. Otherwise, he remained silent and blended into the crowd. Abduction
Wings Universe
Buzzsaw was a Predacon-turned-Maximal who joined Primal Prime's Wreckers. Apelinq's personal logs, 2014/06/18 Aboard the Rodimus Major, he played pranks which annoyed Night Viper and Stockade. Apelinq's personal logs, 2015/01/07
Beast Wars: Uprising
Buzz Saw had a helicopter alt-mode before undergoing the Beast Upgrade to become an insecatron. He became a reconnaissance agent for the Resistance during the Grand Uprising. When all contact was lost with the city-state of Damaxus, Buzz Saw and Stormrazor were sent across the Rust Sea to scout the situation. They uncovered one of the first hives of Vehicons, sparkless combat drones able to convert proto-formers into more of their kind. Damaxus was completely overrun by Vehicons...and they noticed the scouts. Stormrazor sacrificed himself to help Buzz Saw escape with the intelligence report, but that delayed the Vehicons for only a few moments. Unable to escape, Buzz Saw attempted to surrender, even offered to turn over Resistance data to save himself. He plead for mercy, only to find the Vehicons had none. Derailment
Toys
Beast Wars
- Buzz Saw (Deluxe, 1996)
- Japanese ID number: D-9
- Accessories: missile launcher, 2 missiles
- A redeco of the original Waspinator mold, Buzz Saw transforms from an organic yellow jacket to a robot. The missile-launching gun stores in the beast mode abdomen. Missiles for the gun store in the insect wings. His torso features a rotating center-block with a robot mode head on each end; one is a "normal" robot mode face (with which he is usually depicted), the other a "mutant" face (which is nominally used by Waspinator).
- The Takara release of the mold is slightly different from the Hasbro version, using a darker purple plastic, and replacing the lime-green plastic with a muted gray. (Curiously enough, exactly the same plastic changes were done to Blackarachnia's Japanese release.)
- Showdown in the Darkness: Howlinger vs Buzz Saw (Multi-pack, 1997)
- Japanese ID number: VS-9
- Accessories: missile launcher, 2 missiles
- In Japan, Buzz Saw was also available in a two-pack with the Maximal Wolfang. The two-pack versions are identical to their individual releases.
Beast Machines
- Buzzsaw (Basic, 2000)
- Part of the first wave of Beast Machines Basics, Buzzsaw transforms into a technorganic wasp. His stinger/left arm is on a long flexible spring with a string "spine", letting it bend freely. It opens up to form a claw with extending needle, also revealing his spark crystal.
- Buzzsaw is one of the few flying-insect Transformers whose bug-wings don't just hang off him as kibble, instead forming his robot mode legs.
Cybertron
- Buzzsaw (Deluxe class, 2005)
- Accessories: 2 missiles, Cybertron Decepticon Cyber Key
- Cybertron Buzzsaw is a redeco and fairly extensive retool of Armada Cyclonus, transforming into a Cybertronian helicopter. The figure's cockpit is retooled into a "bubble" style window that resembles the head of a wasp. While one might think this removes the original Mini-Con "second cockpit" gimmick, the cockpit can still be lifted up to accommodate Crumplezone (or Heavy Barrel). His primary gimmick is a trigger-activated gear assembly that runs through the length of the vehicle mode; pulling the trigger both spins the rotor blade and a gear system in the cockpit area. Normally, this simply causes his cockpit-mounted twin-cannons to shake back and forth. If Crumplezone/Heavy Barrel is attached in secondary cockpit mode, the gears make their cannon move. Attaching a compatible geared Mini-Con to the square frame on the underside of his cockpit (any member of the Destruction Mini-Con Team, the Adventure Mini-Con Team, or Refute) allows the gear system to activate their gear-wheel gimmicks as well by pulling the trigger.
- The figure's wing-mounted missile launchers have been retooled to operate off of a Cyber Planet Key rather than a Mini-Con, which also means he cannot wield the helicopter blade as an arm-mounted weapon as the original does. The Powerlinx ports on his legs do not activate the pop-out shin-guns anymore; these are released with a simple nudge.
- In robot mode the figure features a retooled head which resembles the "robot" head of the Beast Wars character that is his namesake.
Merchandise
- Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game (1997)
- Buzz Saw was one of the 24 beast warriors to receive a battle card representation for the Beast Wars card game.
Notes
- The identification of Beast Machines Maximal Buzz Saw as the same character as the Beast Wars wasp stems from the fact that he was originally planned as a Predacon, until Hasbro decided more than two factions in the toyline would be confusing to kids. His bio still reflects this and talks about his conversion to the Maximals. Thus, as a Predacon wasp named Buzz Saw with the function "aerial recon" he would certainly have been the same bot. Hasbro has apparently confirmed this identification.
- Early concept artwork of Buzz Saw's Beast Machines body portrayed him in with a different color scheme.
- Buzz Saw's Beast Wars box art shows him with his "normal" head when in robot mode. This was most likely to make him look different from Waspinator, whose box art (and subsequent fictional portrayals) depicted him with his mutant head.
- The Beast Wars incarnation of Buzz Saw served as the inspiration for the homage-character Buzzsaw from the Cybertron series.
- The Beast Machines version of the character had the pre-production names of Mudobber and Sting.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Buzz Saw (バズソー Bazu Sō)
- French: Frelon (Canada Beast Wars, "Hornet")
- Spanish: Abejorro (Beast Wars)
