Black Block Consortia

The Black Block Consortia is an organization from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Little is known about the Black Block Consortia except that they are a powerful military force, on a par with the Galactic Council.

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

According to Wipe-Out, the Black Block Consortia seceded from the Galactic Council but kept the same philosophy, i.e. exploiting unsuspecting inhabited worlds for resources as part of a protection racket against the galaxy's mechanical races. The Council was...displeased at losing some of their market share and the two factions began a turf war. An Axe to Break the Ice

Upon encountering thousands of Ammonites on the planet Hydrophena, Ultra Magnus asked if they were affiliated with the Galactic Council or the Black Block Consortia. In reply, they attacked him. Into the Abyss

The Consortia were involved in a three-way battle with the Galactic Council and the Decepticon Justice Division over the wreckage of the duplicate Lost Light near Ofsted XVII. Births, Deaths, and Interventions

At some point, the Black Block Consortia discovered a Transformer civilization founded by Prion, one of the thirteen lost Titans. They attacked the planet and wiped out almost every mechanical life-form, leaving Nickel as the sole survivor. The Permanent Revolution When visiting the site, Sentinel Prime called them merciless as he explained to Optimus Prime what had happened to the planet. White Light

On Troja Major, Anode and Lug had a run-in with Consortia troops after breaking into a coffin-filled compound. After one of the coffins turned out to be a disguised Transformer, the Black Block arrived, demanded that the two hand it over, and then gunned it down anyways when they refused. Anode and Lug escaped with the help of Wipe-Out. Elsewhere, the three briefly wondered if the Black Block Consortia were the ones hunting down blacksmiths but dismissed the possibility because the mech they'd killed hadn't been a blacksmith and they hadn't simply shot Anode with it. Wipe-Out also explained to his time lost friends what the Consortia was. An Axe to Break the Ice

When the Protectobots caught up with the Lost Light, Getaway claimed the ship's radio silence was to avoid alerting the Consortia to their presence. Mirage questioned this, thinking the region of space belonged to the Galactic Council and Atomizer explained the Consortia was massing on the far side of the Benzene Cluster which made them an obstacle on the Lost Light's quest to reach Cyberutopia. Full Circle

The Functionist Universe

In an alternate timeline, the Black Box Consortia had been at war with the Functionist-controlled Cybertron for two million years. In order to make peace, it was publicly claimed that the Functionists sold Luna 2 to the Consortia, The Custom-Made Now but that would ultimately emerge as a lie told by Six-of-Twelve to cover up his secret retrofitting of the moon into giant harvester unit. Bad Moon Rising

Six-of-Twelve's genocidal attack on the city of Adaptica using the moon was covered up as a Consortia attack to absolve the Council of guilt and keep the populace in a perpetual state of xenophobic fear. This Machine Kills Fascists

Notes

• This assumes that the Black Block Consortia and the Black Box Consortia are the same thing but in different timelines. It's possible that they are unrelated but share coincidentally similar names.
• A footnote in Lost Light #4 describes the Black Box Consortia as "galactic peacekeepers/extortionists".
• Considering Anode's unfamiliarity with the group, the Consortia likely split from the Galactic Council sometime in the last 500 years before 2017.