Zapmaster (Armada)
| This article is about the Armada Mini-Con. For the Beast Wars: Uprising Micromaster, see Zapmaster (BWU). |
- Zapmaster is a Mini-Con from the Armada portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.
Zapmaster (also Zap Master) will attack just about anything head-on, no matter how big and overpowering it may be. "Fear" doesn't ever seem to register in his brain. He lived in the Wastelands of Cybertron for who-knows-how-long, which turned him into the vicious little bugger he is today. After partnering up with the Decepticon Thundercracker, he was taken to Earth, where his eagerness shifted to a new hobby. There, he became a speed demon, who lived for extreme thrills, and loved to drive across the earthen terrain. He can now frequently be found at race tracks, zooming around and trying to beat the records of top human drivers.
Zapmaster is also the cousin of Swindle, and is a partner for Starscream in one incarnation.
| “ | You don't want none of this! | ” |
—Zapmaster's overconfidence shining through | ||
Fiction
Energon comic
Zapmaster was a Mini-Con hailing from the same alternate universe Cybertron as Over-Run. Their planet was attacked by Unicron, and the inhabitants were unable to fight him off. Recognizing that they were doomed, Zapmaster urged Over-Run to take the Mini-Con Matrix and use a null-reality pod to flee to another reality, where hopefully the planet eater could be defeated. Over-Run complied and disappeared into another dimension, reluctantly leaving Zapmaster and his homeworld to be devoured by Unicron. Armageddon Part 2
Toys
Armada
- Thundercracker with Zapmaster (Max-Con, 2003)
- A redeco of the Armada Swindle mold, Zapmaster transforms into an F-1 race car. As a Mini-Con, he has a "Powerlinx" socket on his vehicle-mode underside which allows him to attach to any toy with a "Powerlinx" style 5 mm post; some toys have special Powerlinx posts that activate/unlock gimmicks when a Mini-Con is attached. He is designed to fit between Thundercracker's flip-out missile launchers, and can also be clipped on the underside of Thundercracker's jet-mode cockpit, deployed by pressing down on the canopy.
- In the Takara Legends of the Microns line, the Thundercracker/Zapmaster pairing was released (with very slight alterations) as "Starscream Super Mode" and "Spark Grid", as seen in the Armada cartoon. You can of course use your Hasbro Zapmaster as "Powerlinx Swindle" if you wanna.
- This toy was repurposed as Beast Wars: Uprising Zapmaster. This mold is also similar to, but not the same as, the one used to make Armada Mirage and Top Gear.
Built to Rule!
- Thundercracker with Zap Master Mini-Con (Built to Rule!, 2003)
- For the Hasbro Built to Rule! building block system, Zap Master[sic] was a simple redeco of the small, building-block-based version of Swindle. This toy can be rebuilt from robot mode into something kind of vaguely resembling a race car. Sort of.
Energon
- Prowl with Longarm & Starscream with Zapmaster (Multi-pack, 2004)
- Zapmaster got redecoed again, as sort of a reverse-Swindle, as part of the Sam's Club exclusive Energon multi-pack. This time he was partnered with Starscream, who also came with Prowl and his "reassigned" Mini-Con partner Longarm.
Notes
- In Japan, the Armada Thundercracker/Zapmaster set is used (with slight plastic tweaks) as the powered-up versions of Starscream ("Starscream Super Mode") and Swindle ("Spark Grid") rather than new characters.
