Quintesson Judge (G1)
| The name or term "Judge" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Judge (disambiguation). |
- Quintesson Judges are a type of Quintesson from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Leaders of the Quintesson race, the Quintesson Judges determine the sentences of their unfortunate victims in Quintessa's courtrooms and serve as the face of their many business and war excursions.
Faces
The Judge's most distinctive physical characteristic is their set of five rotating faces. Each face represents a different aspect of the Quintesson, although the specific order can differ.
-
Death
-
Angry
(aka "Rage," "Wrath") -
Smiling
(aka "Laughter," "War," "Wit") -
Grimacing
(aka "Bitterness," "Wisdom") -
Suspicious
(aka "Doubt," "Judgment")
Only the Face of Death was identified in the original Transformers cartoon. The script for The Transformers: The Movie called for the expressions on the other four faces to be "angry," "smiling," "grimacing," and "suspicious," and artist Floro Dery designed the faces to represent these emotions. A spread in the January 1987 issue of Japan's Comic Bom Bom would also reflect this intent, with translations of the material by Andrew Hall circa 2002 identifiying the faces as "Rage," "Laughter," "Bitterness," and "Doubt." However, this information was not widely known to fandom at the time the 2004 publication, Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, was written, resulting in the book's author Simon Furman inventing names for the other four faces. While he struck lucky dubbing the "angry" face "Wrath," the others — "War," "Wisdom," and "Judgement" — have no connection to the actual intent behind the Quintessons' design. In 2020, the instruction manual for the Quintesson Pit of Judgment set (see below) gave the "smiling" face the new name of "Wit," while using established names for the others, specifically "Death," "Doubt," "Wrath," and "Wisdom."
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
Macrocosmic Seekers
The Seeker was a Quintesson Judge before he abandoned his race to become a being of pure information. A Treasure's True Worth
Legends comic
A Judge and a Prosecutor were in contact with the Matrix, which was filled with the Quintessons' evil wisdom. Bonus Edition Vol. EX
A sole Judge from a time long before 2021 led a troop of Overcharges to attack the Legends World through a portal. He was attacked by the diminutive Blitzwing of 2021, but was thrown away by the Judge's attendant Overcharge. Blitzwing soon made his own transtector from a fallen Overcharge, and he was able to convince his past self, who was the Judge's Overcharge, to find his own identity. Fleeing Blitzwing back to his native time and place, the Judge declared the creators of the Legends World to be dangerous. Bonus Edition Vol. 59
The Story of Super Robot Lifeforms: The Transformers manga
A Judge loudly announced the emergence of Gilthor from Earth's oceans. The Story of Super Robot Lifeforms: The Transformers #4
Controverse
The Galactic Court assigned Adveraros, a Quintesson Judge, to Primacron's trial on Millaath. Controverse
Kiss Players Position
Generations Selects Special Comic
The Quintessons would eventually break free of their dimensional prison thanks to the Angolmois Energy on Earth and the unique properties of Dinobot Island. With one Judge leading several other Judges, a Bailiff, and some Allicons, the Quintessons sought to subdue the Dinobots so they could sell the Autobots to the highest bidder. The Dinobots resisted, so the lead Judge released a Recreator Volcanicus comic 1 that recreated Predaking to fight the Dinobots. However, the Dinobots were able to combine into Volcanicus, and the Quintessons fled while the Dinobot combiner defeated Predaking. Volcanicus comic 2
Marvel The Transformers comics
Lord Kledji and Sevax were Quintesson Judges. Space Pirates!
3H comics
Derodomontatus, Betrayal Heirodyus, and Brinn were Judges. Wreckers: Finale Part II
2005 IDW continuity
Pentius was a Judge-type Quintesson. Faces of Darkness
Toys
Generations
- Quintesson Judge (Voyager Class, 2020)
- ID number: WFC-E22
- Takara ID number: ER EX-08
- Takara release date: August 29, 2020
- Accessories: Blaster, cage, throne, levitation beam
- The first Generation 1 Quintesson toy was finally released at the Voyager price point as part of the Earthrise toyline, only over three decades after their introduction into the mythos. A trigger on his "back" activates a face-spinning gimmick, and three of the five faces (Death, Bitterness, and Rage) have opening jaws (Laughter and Doubt look like they should have mouth articulation, but do not). The order of the faces matches the arrangement from The Transformers: The Movie, which means it does not match the order in the cartoon show or the comics, which had Rage and Doubt surrounding Death, rather than Bitterness and Laughter. Two faces (Rage and Doubt) come detached in the package, requiring owners to clip them into their respective sides; there have been multiple reports from owners that Rage is far more difficult to clip in.
- The lower body's five soft-plastic tentacles are on swivel joints to raise and lower, and each has three effects pegs on it: one at the tip of each tentacle, one just behind the tip to hold the included blaster accessory (resembles the welding / repair gun that a Quintesson Judge used in "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2"), and one a bit further back to plug into two small holes in the lower body so he can "aim" the blaster better. Of course, any of them can be used to host a small blast effect part.
- Because it has to transform into something, the Judge converts into a weird tower with prison cage in 16 steps. The cage is large enough to fit a Battle Master (or other similarly-sized figure), and has a post-hole on top to fit the blaster. The throne/platform and the panel under the Death face have A.I.R. Lock System ramp connections, allowing it to connect to ramps from other compatible toys, notably the Quintesson-allied Slitherfang.
- Promotional photos depicted a yellow levitation beam, but production pieces were clear. Sadly, the levitation beam clips into the Judge's underside and has little to no use as an effects part, though it does have shallow 5 mm post-holes underneath to keep him in his throne.
- Like all Earthrise toys, the inside of the back of the Judge's package includes an exclusive clip-and-save piece of a larger star map. Also in the box is a thin red piece of transparent plastic with which to read the star map. The Judge's piece of the map contains the labeled location of the planet "QUINTESSA".
- Unfortunately, the Judge's collectible space map piece is among those afflicted with a graphical error found on most of the Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader-class Earthrise figures from wave 2 onward; that error being the presence of illustrative overlay graphics from a wave 1 figure in the same size class, on top of and in addition to the background and graphics intended for this piece. In the Judge's case: the illustration of Quintessa, its name, and the travel routes to it are present but obstructed with the overlaid route graphics from the piece originally packaged with Starscream. This exact error with the Starscream route graphics (but not the underlying stars or planets) also appears on the piece packaged with the voyager Snapdragon toy.
- The Judge was originally supposed to be released in the second wave, but was pushed back to the third for unknown reasons, with Starscream taking his place in wave 2 cases. In Japan, the Quintesson Judge was released as a TakaraTomy Mall exclusive.
- Quintesson Pit of Judgment (2020)
- Accessories: blaster, cage, seat, blast effect
- This giftset represents the "trial" of Kranix during The Transformers: The Movie. The set includes a brighter redeco of the Earthrise Quintesson Judge toy, now packaged with all its faces attached. The interior packaging forms the Sharkticon execution pit.
- This piece was exclusive to Hasbro Pulse in the United States. It was announced to the public before the "standard" versions of the Judge and Allicon were released, and was available first for people who attended the Hasbro Fans Expo in Hong Kong and preordered the set.
Notes
- In their first appearance in The Transformers: The Movie, the two speaking Quintessons are voiced by Regis Cordic (who plays the judge) and Roger C. Carmel (the prosecutor). These two actors then became the primary recurring voices of the Quintessons in the third season of the cartoon, usually playing judges, with Jack Angel normally serving as a third in episodes where more than two speaking roles were required. In AKOM-animated episodes, Cordic's Quintesson (usually designated "Quintesson #1" in scripts) would commonly speak from the Face of Doubt, while Carmel's ("Quintesson #2") used the Face of Laughter; Angel's intermittently-appearing third Quintesson would most often use the Face of Death, but animation errors, and Quintesson face-rotating meant that these were not absolute rules. In Toei episodes, judges usually spoke from the Face of Death regardless of actor, and prosecutors got more screen time, with Cordic, as the "lead" Quintesson actor, voicing most of them. Numerous guest actors also played assorted "guest" Quintesson roles in various episodes.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Itsutsu-gao (5つ顔, "five-faced"), hanji (判事, "judge"), saibankan (裁判官, "judge"), Quintesson Judge (クインテッサンジャッジ Kuintessan Jajji)
