Missile

Missiles are projectile weapons that are released and fly through the air toward a target. An ICBM, an arrow, or a flung beer bottle—all are missiles, though their effectiveness varies. Rockets are a certain type of missile that includes entirely self-contained propellant. Transformers use a variety of different kinds of missiles. Examples include Prowl's wire-guided incendiary missiles, Sunstreaker's laser-guided, ground-to-air missiles, Thundercracker's drone rockets, and Skywarp's heat seeking missiles.

Typically, though, the term 'missile' refers to a self-propelled weapon that may or may not have some sort of guidance system to get where it's going. Those without them usually end up bearing the 'rocket' label.

Fiction

Generation 1

Marvel The Transformers comic

Sunstreaker had the ability to fire laser-guided, ground-to-air missiles from his shoulder mount. He used them to put Skywarp in his place. Prisoner of War!

Ravage fired proton missiles using them to incapacitate Skids in battle. Command Performances!

The Transformers cartoon

Sideswipe and Wheeljack both had shoulder-mounted missile launchers but these were rarely utilized. Likewise, the vehicles modes of the Seekers and Blitzwing possessed missiles that often went unused in favour of energy weapons.

In 1985, the Earth-bound Decepticons did use their missiles once in aerial combat with the US Air Force. Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2

The Revenge was armed with a complement of moleculon missiles which Galvatron used to destroy two Autobot shuttles. The Transformers: The Movie Judgment Day!

Ultra Magnus once used his shoulder missiles to break down a door. The Dweller in the Depths

IDW Generation 1 continuity

When the Lost Light stopped off at Hedonia, Rodimus took the opportunity to purchase some proton missiles. Signal to Noise Some years later, they were used to cripple the O Fortuna after the Protectobots aboard has discovered Getaway's treachery. Full Circle

Beast Era

Beast Wars cartoon

Both Scorponok and Terrorsaur utilized missiles during the Beast Wars, the former used them as his primary offensive weapon while the latter reserved them mainly for special attacks. Beast Wars season 1

The Nemesis was armed with a comically large amount of missiles. Nemesis Part 2

Unicron Trilogy continuity family

Cybertron cartoon

To prevent Optimus Prime from seizing the Omega Lock, Starscream fired a missile at the Autobots' human allies forcing Prime to break off and intercept the projectile. Retreat

Scattorshot's Cyber Key power was dubbed "MISSILE STORM!" in which he fired a cluster of missiles upward whereupon they would strike an enemy while leaving said enemy little room to maneuver. Retreat Revelation After being reformatted by the power of the Omega Lock, Scattershot scanned a military tank with even more missiles. Critical

Live-action film series

When the Ark left Cybertron, an Orbital Assault Carrier fired a missile that unleashed six missiles which crippled the warship and sent it hurtling aimlessly through space/time. Dark of the Moon Convergence #1

To free Megatron from Hoover Dam, Starscream fired his missiles at the dam's power generators. Transformers Years later, he destroyed the Xantium with his artillery. Dark of the Moon

Prime cartoon

Starscream possessed missiles on each of his arms, Darkness Rising, Part 1 which he triggered to fire by clenching his fingers. One of these missiles was powerful enough to sever Skyquake's arm. After losing the Seeker lost his right arm, Knock Out scavenged a replacement that sported many missiles attached to it. Shadowzone Eight of Starscream's missiles could theoretically fell Megatron himself. Two of them were sufficient to terminate Starscream. Or at least a clone of him. Armada

Breakdown also possessed an integrated missile launcher in his upper left shoulder. In vehicle mode, this weapon manifested itself from his roof. Deus ex Machina

Cyberverse cartoon

The Seekers were big fans of Robotech.

Seekers are armed with two kinds of missiles, large ones carried underwing and smaller missiles launched from an internal bay.

Toys

OUR MISSILES!!!!

Many Transformers toys include simulated missiles. Some are nonfunctional dummies, partly or wholly visible as a removable, affixed, or molded-on detail. Functioning Transformer missiles operate in several ways:

• Spring-launched

Loading the missile compresses a spring. At full compression, a lock of some sort engages the missile. When released, the spring recoils, propelling the projectile into the air, towards unsuspecting Decepticons, siblings, or cats.

• Pressure-launched

Wind Sheer's pressure-launcher.

Also called "marble-shooter" missiles, these were first seen on the Generation 2 Cyberjets. A rounded, annular protrusion on the missile rests in a claw-like holder. The missile is held in place due to tension in the launcher, because the launcher's sides have to be bent slightly outward in order to insert the missile. The tail of the missile protrudes from the launcher. To fire, finger pressure is applied to the missile's tail. When the missile's bulb begins to push out of the launcher's grip, the tension becomes even stronger, and once the bulb has passed the halfway point, the launcher squeezes the missile out at high speed. This speed may be increased further by force from the operator's finger, which accelerates after the missile's release, but briefly remains in contact with its tail.

2001 Robots in Disguise Megatron and the Galvatron redeco use a variation of the pressure launcher in which a finger-pressed jaw squeezes the "marble" directly, instead of built-in tension.

This entire mechanism can be scaled up to create a "Disk Launcher", firing disks of two to three inches in diameter. These usually incorporate a lever mechanism to push the disks, rather than direct contact from a finger. They also commonly incorporate a gravity-feed magazine to deliver multiple projectiles in succession.

Toys such as Depth Charge, Laser Optimus Prime and all his various repaints, and more recently the Fast Action Battlers and Robot Replica versions of Frenzy feature such launchers. Hailstorm and Mindset each feature eight(!) pressure-launched missiles.

• Air-launched

These use air pressure to drive the projectile from its launcher. On the Laser Optimus Prime, Combat Hero Prime, and Combat Hero Megatron figures, the missiles are hollow and fit over the open mouth of a tube with one closed end, which communicates via a flexible hose with a plastic bellows. Depressing the bellows compresses air, displacing it into the tube, and launching the missile. However, the rubber tubing tends to wear down over time, and thus the air-launching technology was widely phased out.

For safety reasons, missiles in Transformers have to satisfy a number of length, hardness, and pointiness requirements. Before these requirements, and to this day in countries where they are not in effect, some missiles were quite small. For instance, Generation 1 Inferno's fists can be launched as missiles from his original toy, but the springs of his 1985 US release were quite weak.