Spin-Out (G1)

This article is about the red Autobot. For the cannon fodder for Overlord, see Spin-Out (IDW).

Spin-Out is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.

SAMPLE

A bot of mysterious and confusing origins, Spin-Out was originally a lifeless human-piloted mecha. Though circumstances not yet fully understood, he was turned into a fully-sparked Cybertronian. He actually remembers his previous "life", which has bred in him a fierce loyalty to humans, to the point where he's actively uncomfortable operating without human supervision, which stands in odd contrast to his often hot-headed and brash nature.

Fiction

Of Masters and Mayhem

Spin-Out was the cook in a five hundred strong Autobot force but being the 49th highest ranking officer means you still become the commanding officer when forty eight other 'bots are dead! After a destructive, 17-cycle "holding action", the Autobots technically won but Spin-Out was left depressed by the wreckage, the amount dead, and the fact that people like Outback thought he should feel proud he "stepped up". And he couldn't even sit down in case it was on a corpse!

Things couldn't get worse.

Then his remaining men took a Decepticon called Toxitron prisoner... who turned out to be a walking acid spill who had intentionally been "captured". Everybody died, including Spin-Out, and the cook's rotting head was later used to let Toxitron falsely register as having an Autobot transponder.

So that's worse. The Toxic Transformer

Masterpiece toy bios

Spin-Out was originally a human-piloted Diaclone mecha from another dimension. He was transported to the universe of the Transformers, but deposited in the Diadem space facility over ten million years in the past. The Anterior Zeta system in the installation was able to convert Spin-Out into a fully-living Cybertronian life-form and then put him into stasis as an emergency fallback, having studied the mecha's databanks and learning of the Waruder threat.

Ten million years later, Delta Magnus investigated the remains of the Diadem station, which had been devastated in a battle between the Decepticons and Quintessons, while searching for ancient Cybertronian data, including the stored original memories of his teammate Cordon. He discovered Spin-Out, who promptly activated, ready to fight for freedom. Delta Magnus also found the lost memory banks, but Cordon declined to install them. Masterpiece Spin-out bio

Toys

Diaclone

(The red mecha on the left.)

• Countach LP500S Super Tuning (1982)
  • ID number: No. 1
  • Accessories: Left & right fists, 2 rocket boosters, 3 rockets

Diaclone "Countach LP500S Super Tuning" was released as the first figure in the "Car Robots" portion of the toyline. It transforms into a "Super Tuning" customized Lamborghini Countach LP500S with an exposed rear-mounted engine. Each robot mode arm has a spring-launching mechanism to fire its fists, its chrome missiles, or its "rocket boosters" (once the boosters' main body is pushed forward to lengthen the connection peg). The boosters fit very very loosely in the holes in his rear bumper/robot shoulders, making them pretty dubious additions to either mode.

Before the debut of Transformers, Takara released the Countach LP500S toy stateside in the short-lived Diakron line, using the same colors as the Japanese original. This mold was later released in yellow as Sunstreaker for the original Transformers toyline.

Masterpiece

Apparently not Tigertrack's twin brother.

• Spinout (November 28, 2020)
  • ID number: MP-39+
  • Accessories: N.C. Beam Rifle, Heavy Laser Cannon, "Spinizer" Gun

Masterpiece MP-39+ Spinout is a red redeco of MP-42 Cordon, which itself is a retooling of MP-39 Sunstreaker, transforming into a licensed Lamborghini Countach LP500S mode, only without Cordon's police light-bar. The toy is an homage to the original Diaclone iteration of the original Sunstreaker toy; his license plates reading "CR-01" in reference the original mold being the first Diaclone Car Robot toy.

The rear electronic propulsion engine cover can be folded into the rear of the car for a more realistic alternate mode, and the rear combination tail-lights can be switched between realistic and cartoon modes. The doors and hood open, and the front headlights can be popped up. His rear spoiler can also V-wing to reveal a rear-mounted (non-firing) blaster.

To preserve cartoon accuracy, the windows on the chest are fake, with the main panel of the chest being formed by turning the roof of the car mode inside out, with the extra windows folding out from inside.

Spinout was initially offered for pre-order as a TakaraTomy Mall online exclusive and a little later at other online retailers.

Generations Selects

The Red Luigi to Tigertrack's Green Mario.

• Cordon & Autobot Spin-Out (2-pack, 2020)
  • ID number: WFC-GS20
  • Accessories: Rocket boosters/gun

A Generations Selects add-on to Earthrise, Spin-Out is a redeco of Sunstreaker, transforming from a robot into an unlicensed approximation of a Lamborghini Countach LP500S (most conspicuously missing the spoilers, but also having 5mm holes back there just in case). His engine block can be used as a pair of rocket boosters or as a gun.

Spin-Out's chest is actually darker translucent plastic painted red on top, and silver underneath. Due to the pegs on the chest underside being painted, it can be very difficult to slot in place for car mode. This can be resolved by lightly sanding the front portions of the pegs until the gap can be cleanly closed.

Though this mold shares much of its engineering and transformation scheme with Earthrise Wheeljack, it is not a retool of that mold.

He was only available in a two-pack with mold-mate Cordon. They share a single instruction sheet, which nonetheless shows both individual toys' transformations in full... and swaps their names around. Oops.

Notes

• Spin-Out's name was chosen in homage to the development history of the original Sunstreaker who, in the early days of the Transformers toyline, held it as a pre-production name (also spelled "Spinout"). However, as an updated version of the red "No. 1 Countach LP500S", the modern Spin-Out looks more like what the original Sideswipe was meant to be, before the two Lamborghini brothers swapped molds. As initially planned, the Spinout/Sunstreaker figure would have bore more of a resemblance to Tigertrack.
• Separately, Spin-Out's coloration was also used in the 2005 IDW comics for some of the Machination's Sunstreaker clones.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Spinout (スピンアウト Supin'auto)

External links

• Blog posts by Plastic Missile and Kapow Toys about Diaclone "Red Sunstreaker"