Nightstalker (G1)
| This article is about the Generation 1 Autobot. For the Aligned Decepticon, see Nightstalker (Prime). |
- Nightstalker is an Autobot Mini-Cassette from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Nightstalker was once the partner of Ravage. His devotion to his superiors, however, exceeds even the Decepticon's—Nightstalker will unhesitatingly sacrifice his own well-being to save those he has sworn to protect.
Fiction
Marvel The Transformers comics
Nightstalker, along with his partner Ravage, was bodyguard to the last surviving Overlord, an Autobot ruler who had grown so old and enfeebled that he needed constant re-energizing life support to stay alive. When the Overlord visited the city-state of Tarn, war broke out between it and its neighbor, Vos, forcing the Overlord to retreat to his own home in Iacon. Accompanied by Optimus Prime and a pre-Decepticon Megatron, the Overlord almost made it—but Tarn's forces tracked him down and demolished the bridge to Iacon before he could cross, trapping him and his retinue. Like all of the Overlord's bodyguards, Nightstalker possessed a powerful last-resort self-destruct mechanism, and in a display of extreme loyalty to his charge, he now used it: detonating himself and taking out all of Tarn's forces with him.
Nightstalker's sacrifice would be in vain: the Overlord died soon afterwards from energon deficiency after Ravage betrayed him and sided with Megatron, refusing to give up his own energy to sustain the old, rusting fool. State Games
Legends comic
Before the war, Nightstalker was a member of the Autobot imperial guard alongside Ravage, and they both possessed the ability to reinforce their bodies and become nigh-invulnerable. During a battle to defend the Transform Super Cog from the Decepticons, Nightstalker used this ability to block an attack from Enemy aimed at the Jumpstarters before confronting Ravage and urging him to remember their time together, though his old friend refused to listen. Slugslinger's Ambition Ravage would later mention Nightstalker's name while explaining his hardening ability to Bullhorn. Bonus Edition Vol. 37
IDW Generation 1 continuity
The Functionist Universe
Nightstalker joined forces with the universe-traveling Megatron and the Anti-Vocationist League to oppose the forces of the Functionist Council. Unfortunately for Nightstalker, by the time the AVL, pursued by the Council, encountered the "main" universe's Lost Light, he was listed among the companions of Megatron confirmed as killed by the Council's forces. The Return of the King
Toys
Encore
- Twincast (2012)
- ID number: 22
- Encore Nightstalker is a black redeco of Steeljaw, included with Encore Twincast and Stripes. Nightstalker's tape mode is a near perfect reproduction of the tape detailing used for Ravage (likely to further associate them as one time partners). He uses Ravage's accessories.
- As was the case with other cassettes released with Twincast, Nightstalker sports an image of Scorponok which reveals the city-bot's weak spots when viewed through Twincast's clear-red chest door (in the same way Tech Spec decoders work).
Masterpiece
- Issued in a limited edition "Encore" Masterpiece set available from TakaraTomy Mall, along with Stripes, Wingthing, and Enemy, Nightstalker is an entirely new mold! Steeljaw redeco in 3...2...1....
- If purchased from a seller supplied by Hasbro Asia, the set includes a collector coin, featuring Enemy's face on one side and the Autobot logo and names of all the included characters on the opposite side. The coin is mounted in a card resembling a cassette, similar to the cards housing the coins for MP-15 and MP-16, but styled like Enemy's cassette mode on the "A" side, while the "B" side resembles Stripes's cassette mode.[1]
- As with several TakaraTomy Mall exclusive items, The Cassettbot VS Cassettron set was also released at the Wonder Festival 2018 event.
Notes
- It was thought Nightstalker may have been loosely based on a similarly-named fan character that was one of the winners of Marvel UK's "Design-a-Decepticon" competition, published way, way back in issue #9. This character, named "Night Stalker" (with a space), was less of a Ravage clone in design, with a canine robot mode (though with a similar color scheme to that of the Decepticon feline). However, when interviewed by James Roberts for The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2, writer James Hill stated that this is just coincidence (sorry Jason) and that the name was probably lifted from the Kolchak TV show.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Nightstalker (ナイトストーカー Naitosutōkā)
