Outback (G1)
| This subject of this article goes by multiple names that apply to other articles as well. See Outback (disambiguation), Fallback (disambiguation). |
- Outback is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
No by-the-book soldier is Outback (aka Fallback[1]); for him, the rules of war are the rules of Rafferty. If the beaten track winds, it's a fair bet he'll go straight. He's more comfortable out in the never never anyway, up grades as steep as 50 degrees, or kicking up willie willies at 110 mph. His insubordination gains him little respect from his mates, and often he finds no partner on his missions but Pat Malone and his trusty rooftop tank-jigger, loaded with armor-piercing shells.
Way in the back blocks of Outback's mind, however, there lurks a dark certainty. By the rules of Rafferty he lives, and by these rules, he is sure, Outback's bound to be a write off. The army's run by Wallies and the war's a no-hoper, but he's not totally clapped-out yet, so he'll give it a fair go. It's not the best attitude, but he'll share it with anyone without reserve. Outback calls a spade a bloody spade.
Let a mission go down the gurgler, though, and Outback's the one who'll sort it. He may be largely a mediocrity; he may be an insubordinate grizzle, but his courage is beyond reproach. By the rules of Rafferty he lives, and so far they've served him well.
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
- Voice actor: Dan Gilvezan, Gregg Berger (English); Yoku Shioya (Japanese), Davide Lepore (Italian)
After an attack on the Galactic Olympics, Outback and Blaster were charged with tracking down any Decepticons on Earth, whom the Autobots believed were responsible for the assault. With reason to believe some 'Cons were hiding out at a Carbombya air field, the duo still had to deal with a needle in a haystack (or rather, a jet in an airport). In order to get results, Outback bluffed his way through the inspection with a "Decepticon detector", pointing it at random things and hoping for a response. He got one. Astonishingly, the two jets with giant Decepticon insignias on them were actually Decepticons(!), Dirge and Ramjet, who tried to run for it in fear of Outback's respectable scanning abilities. Outback caught them with a nuclear bomb smoke bomb, though, and he and Blaster managed to interrogate the Coneheads and get the location of the Decepticons' new base on Chaar. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1
Shortly thereafter, Outback was among a cadre of Autobots who failed to defend the Ark from an attack by Trypticon. He didn't even get a chance to open a can of Foster's VB. Bugger. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5
Later, Outback was teamed with Blaster again aboard Sky Lynx when Perceptor radioed in that a mysterious Quintesson signal was broadcasting from a nearby planet. Investigating, the Autobots discovered a lost Quintesson recorded journal, containing secret information about how the Quintessons had purposely escalated a war between Xetaxxis and Lanarq, two feuding worlds for which Rodimus Prime was attempting to negotiate a peace summit. Galvatron and the Predacons also arrived looking for the journal, and soon the Autobots, Decepticons, and Quintessons began a game of "hot potato", bouncing possession of the journal back and forth between each party over and over. Outback and the others eventually claimed the journal and brought it to the peace summit, ending the war at least temporarily. The Quintesson Journal
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers manga
When the Insecticons attacked Kyushu, Outback and the rest of the Four-Wheel Drive Corps, as well as Kenji, arrived to investigate. Outback and friends were briefly trapped inside craters by land mines but escaped once they united into some kind of crazy human pyramid. Using their combined attack, the Four-Wheel Drive Robo Combination Scrumbuster, they drove the Insecticons away and saved Kyushu. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #3
Wings Universe
Outback gained a job as Magnum's administrative assistant, though he preferred the freedom of the outdoors and would explore the wilderness sectors of Cybertron whenever he could. Outback's profile in Club magazine #38 Following the incident with Brimstone, Outback brought Magnum a new assignment for Metalhawk and Onslaught. Flames of Yesterday Much later, after the Combaticons all but wiped out the Elite Guard, he answered the door of the Elite Guard Auxiliary Weapons Locker when Magnum brought a team to stock up on weapons, though he refused to let them in until Magnum gave the correct code. He, Ricochet, and Moonracer joined the team as they set out to attack Deathsaurus's base. Battle Lines, Part 2
Shortly after encountering Side Burn, the team was attacked by Deathsaurus's troops and forced to fight for their lives. Outback, Moonracer, and Flak gathered around Ricochet's fallen body, though it took a few moments for Outback to realize that the Autobot had perished from his injuries. They had little time to mourn, as they were promptly attacked by Lyzack. Battle Lines, Part 3 A week after the battle, he was part of the Autobot forces at Iacon's city walls as the Decepticons broke through with Devastator. Battle Lines, Part 5 The battle was won, but cost the Autobots some of their members. Soon later, when the Autobots' current reserve of energies was dangerously low, Outback joined his comrades still on Cybertron in stasis hibernation as an energy-saving measure. Battle Lines, Part 6
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comics
Surprised by a lone Decepticon killer, Outback was saved from death by Optimus Prime, who had accidentally returned to Cybertron along with Megatron. Though Prime told Outback that he wanted to be left alone after the rescue, Outback decided to quietly follow Prime along from a distance anyways. ...The Harder They Die! He later tried to save Optimus Prime from being executed as a spy by the Wreckers due to a rumor spread by Megatron.
When Ultra Magnus refused to believe him, Outback helped Optimus Prime escape by distracting his captors with a gas particle bomb. The two went on the run together, pursued by Magnus and a squad of Guardian droids. Two of the Guardians caught up to them, and Outback was seriously wounded in battle against them. Optimus Prime was forced to carry him to safety. Under Fire!
Hiding in the Dead End of Cybertron, hoping that Outback would recover, Optimus Prime told him the story of what happened when he was displaced to the Limbo dimension when Galvatron traveled back in time.
Outback ultimately survived when Prime's tale was overheard by Ultra Magnus and Emirate Xaaron, convincing them of his identity. Distant Thunder! At no point did Outback have the opportunity to throw a couple of shrimps on the barbie, but he did fight alongside the Autobots, participating on several raids to secure Decepticon-held resources, before Optimus returned to Earth. Resurrection!
Outback next appeared on the Moon, watching a battle for Autobot supremacy between Blaster and Grimlock, when he and the other Autobots were suddenly attacked by the Decepticons and their island spaceship. He wanted to know what was going on! Totaled! Later, he partook in a training session with Blaster, alongside Mirage and Runamuck. Club Con!
Along with fellow Autobot Military Academy cadet Pipes, Outback later went after Tailgate to Cybertron's underground. They arrived in time to see Tailgate battle with the Mutants, but Outback didn't intervene, sure of the fact that Tailgate could handle the Muties himself. And he was riggerty right. Underworld!
Classics
Outback helped to rebuild Ironworks. When evil Junkions from a mirror universe attacked, he was turned into one. Invasion
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
Outback was operational during the early days of the war. He was one of the many Transformers at work at the Central Spaceport to prepare for the Autobot evacuation of the planet. The War Within #2
Outback was among the group of new recruits who failed to take on the auto-combatant training drones on Cybertron after Shockwave's rule was toppled. Black Sunshine
Descent into Evil
Outback, having at this point renamed himself Fallback to complement his revived sense of optimism, led an Autobot strike force consisting of Chromia, Flareup, and Ricochet to the planet Ceti Alpha Seven. Their target was the Insecticon cloning facility constructed there by the Decepticon general Deathsaurus. The first batch of Virulent Clones had already been completed, and the team found itself under attack before they ever reached the lab. Fallback and his team destroyed a number of clones, but, when Deathsaurus himself joined the fight, they were overwhelmed and captured. The arrival of their teammates Ironhide and Ratchet on the planet ultimately resulted in Deathsaurus's defeat and the rescue of Fallback's team. Descent into Evil
IDW Generation 1 continuity
- First Appearance: Spotlight: Kup
Millions of years ago, before the outbreak of the war, Outback learned that the famous racer Drag Strip had gotten in league with the increasingly dangerous criminal Megatron. He decided to take action and assassinate Drag Strip on his way to a race, but was interrupted and disarmed by the security guard Ironhide, who had never heard of Megatron and was only doing his job. As Outback was taken into custody, he told Ironhide that it was thanks to blind, apathetic 'bots like him that a civil war was imminent. Iron in the Blood
When the Decepticons duly exterminated the old Senate, Outback joined the cops to fight 'Cons! One particular 'Con was Hefter, arrested for grafitti and allegedly having a gun, who 'fell down the stairs' to his death in Outback's custody. The man was almost bragging about it when Tappet protested to Orion Pax and when Pax interrogated him later at a bar, Outback pulled a gun and ranted about the need to defend themselves and their partners, violently, against Decepticon killers everywhere. Pax thumped him, which didn't seem to sway Outback much. To Walk Among the Chosen
During the war, Outback and Kup crash-landed on Tsiehshi, which was covered with radioactive Ore-8 crystals. When they attempted to use parts of their ship to create a transmitter, the radiation overloaded the generator, and Outback was killed in the explosion. Kup, however, was eventually driven insane by the radiation and not only talked to Outback's charred remains as though he were alive but used his severed arm as a club.
Springer was able to hack into the deceased Autobot's holo-emitter to try and send Kup a message that the Autobots were coming to rescue him, but the delusional Kup saw this as a ghost making threats upon his life. Outback's remains were further crushed by an errant swipe from one of the rescue party, sending Kup into another homicidal rage. Spotlight: Kup Everything in Its Right Place
After Ironhide mysteriously woke up alone on an abandoned Cybertron, he had a strange vision or hallucination featuring Outback. With half his body still missing, Outback delivered some cryptic comments about Optimus Prime being angry at Ironhide for letting the Stunticons get away, and that nobody recognized him anymore. Iron in the Blood
Of Masters and Mayhem
Outback was part of a devastating battle that left so many dead that the highest-ranked officer to lead their unit was the cook, Spin-Out, who Outback did his best to encourage. When the unit attempted to take Toxitron prisoner, Outback fell to his corrosive ooze, and his half-melted remains were crushed when Toxitron collapsed on top of them. The Toxic Transformer
Games
Transformers Legends
Outback was caught up somehow in a Quintesson plot to kidnap several Autobots during the Galactic Games. Five Faces of Darkness: Part 1
Toys
The Transformers
- Outback is a khaki and brown retool of the 1984 Mini Vehicle, Brawn, transforming into a (somewhat inaccurate) Suzuki Jimny SJ20. His head, arms, and chest have been changed. He is also the only Mini Vehicle to have been given an accessory: a "mortar cannon" that can mount on the vehicle mode roof via a 5 mm post-hole in the spare tire. Unfortunately, this weapon cannot really be wielded effectively in robot mode.
- Outback (Mini Vehicle, 1987)
- In the Mexican Transformers line produced by IGA, Outback was probably released as a straight redeco of Brawn, sold on Outback cards. He was cast in sand with metallic-maroon robot parts, which is pretty close to the Hasbro/Takara Outback colors. Unlike most of the second-series IGA Mini Vehicles, he does not appear to have been sold in a second color scheme (at least, that we know of so far).
- We say "probably" because while IGA appears to have done this old-mold-new-colors-sold-as-new-character move with all of the third-year retooled Mini Vehicles, so far Tailgate is the only one that has been confirmed with carded samples. All of the IGA versions of probably-Hubcap, Outback, Pipes, and Swerve have only been found loose. So it's highly likely, we just don't have the final confirmation yet. Fun!
- IGA Transformers also eventually made their way to a variety of European markets, slightly decreasing their rarity.
- This version of Outback was later repurposed as Shattered Glass Fallback.
Timelines
- Descent Into Evil (multi-pack, 2005)
- Accessories: Crane boom/rifle, spare tire halves, Autobot-style energon star
- Available only as part of BotCon 2005's Descent into Evil set (along with Buzzclaw, Chromia, Deathsaurus, Dirge, Ironhide, and Ricochet), Fallback (renamed due to steakhouse reasons[2]) is a brown and tan redeco of Energon Strongarm, transforming into a jeep of made-up model. His clear-blue spare tire and crane/cannon can be assembled to form an energon battle-axe, plus he comes with a clear-blue energon chip.
- This mold was also used to make 2007 movie Strongarm and Crosshairs.
| Energon mold: Strongarm | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
Encore
- Bumble & Minibots (Multi-pack, 2008)
- Encore number: 10
- Accessories: "Mortar cannon"
- In 2008, Outback was reissued in the Encore line, bundled with Bumblebee, Pipes, Tailgate, and Swerve. This version has a few extra paint applications, most notably a new blue visor.
Generations
- Autobot Outback (Legends Class, 2018)
- Japanese ID number: PP-38
- Accessories: Shield/Roof
- Part of the third wave of Power of the Primes Legends Class figures, "Autobot Outback" (he got his name back!) is a retool of Titans Return Legends Class Brawn with a new head, and transforms from a robot to a jeep, inspired by his original Generation 1 toy. His roof can detach to become a shield in robot mode, or peg into his back to maintain symmetry. Outback features an opening canopy for his cockpit, which allows any Prime Master figure to ride, and like Brawn he can transform without needing to remove a Prime Master from his cockpit.
- In a clever touch, unpainted windows are sculpted beneath the vehicle mode storage of the shield, so that the vehicle mode will still look complete, even if the accessory is lost.
- In what can be only described as an amazingly funny coincidence, Outback's first toy since 1986 to be sold under his original name was not only officially revealed at the Australian Toy Fair 2018, but was also released at retail in Australia before most other worldwide markets (only Hong Kong got him earlier).
Vintage G1
- Outback ("Legion Class" reissue, 2018)
- Accessories: "Mortar cannon"
- Part of the first (and so far only) wave of the "Vintage G1" line, Outback is a seemingly straight reissue of the Encore Outback figure, complete with blue-painted visor.
- Like all Vintage G1 figures, Outback was exclusive to Walmart in the United States and Canada, but has thus far only been available from the Walmart website in the US. He was also available at general retail in Hong Kong, and exclusive to the website of Australian fashion chain Cotton On. Oddly, the Australian release came in multilingual packaging intended for the European market, a rare but not entirely unheard of occurrence.
Notes
- In the pre-Toy Fair 1986 catalog, Outback is shown with a solid red face. Upon release, he had a solid silver face (then for his Encore release many years later, he had a silver face with a blue visor).
- The character Fastback from Megatron Origin was written and designed to be a pre-Earth version of Outback. However, Fastback is killed during the events of the comic, contradicting how Outback died during the war in the previously established Spotlight: Kup, necessitating a quick name change that turned Fastback into a nobody.
- Roche wanted to use a "name" character as a victim in Spotlight: Kup, knowing it has more impact when they die than when a generic buys it. Why Outback? He doesn't know![3]
- Before Transformers Fallback was mentioned in an Ask Vector Prime post, it is possible that he was meant to be a new form of Outback.
- Oddly, so far as we can tell, Outback has never actually been to Australia. Or Nebulos.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Outback (アウトバック Autobakku)
- French: Bled (Canada)
- Hungarian: Mucsai ("Hillbilly")
- Italian: Raid
- Mandarin: Fùdì (腹地, "Hinterland")
- Russian: Dikar (Дикарь, "Savage")
References
- ↑ "Fallback" was a substitute name used by Fun Publications for a BotCon 2005 exclusive Timelines toy representing the Generation 1 Outback character, because the name "Outback" was not available as a trademark to Hasbro at the time. The name was also used to refer to the character in the BotCon 2005 exclusive comic Descent into Evil. Although this would be the only time the name was used for the Generation 1 character, other toys inspired by Outback that represent characters from other continuities were also named "Fallback" (see here for more). Hasbro finally got the name "Outback" back in 2018, in time for the Power of the Primes toy and the Vintage G1 reissue of the original toy.
- ↑ Fallback toy notes at BWTF.com
- ↑ Nick Roche interview with Moonbase Two
