Nightbird (G1)
| The name or term "Nightbird" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Nightbird (disambiguation). |
- Nightbird is a Decepticon-allied human-built robot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
"No dude, a giant robot ninja chick!"
"Duuuude!"
Nightbird (sometimes Nightbird Shadow) is a giant female ninja robot built to "benefit mankind".
Yeah, those nunchucks are really gonna be benefiting their way through society.
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
Nightbird was a robotic ninja warrior created by Doctor Fujiyama the Famous Scientist, ostensibly to show how advanced Human technology had become. The Decepticons stole Nightbird, and Bombshell implanted her with an enhanced brain chip which turned the drone-like Nightbird into a true butt-kicking machine. Nightbird broke into the Ark and stole the Autobots' World Energy Chip, which contained the locations of a variety of energy sources, energy sources that the Decepticons would most assuredly use for conquest!
The Autobots were, at first, hampered by their promise to Doctor Fujiyama not to damage or destroy the ninja robot, and found themselves flustered in botched attempts to capture her. Eventually, however, they used an electro mesh prison which drained Nightbird's power reserves and allowed the Autobots to capture her without serious damage. Doctor Fujiyama placed Nightbird into cold storage, and she gave an angry glare as she was stored away. Enter the Nightbird
Legends comic
Nightbird, having somehow escaped storage, went to the Six Clan's planet to learn the art of transformation, picking up a "swan mode". She would later acquire a car mode elsewhere. She later found two disciples, Road Pig and Road Rocket, both who would eventually develop a rivalry with a dispute over their master. LG-15 Nightbird Shadow Sequel
In one of the Legends World's Tigatron's dreams, Nightbird was among the evil female Transformers (and related robots, evidently) who sought to kidnap him and fought the heroic female Transformers guarding him. Arcee was in Nightbird's line of sight shortly before the dream ended due to Tigatron waking up. Bonus Edition Vol. 11 Alpha Trion later saw Nightbird, Blackarachnia, and Slipstream in a vision of things to come. Bonus Edition Vol. 14
Having gotten his mitts on Nightbird again, Megatron brought her with him to the Legends World, where he presented her to the public as a Tera-Kura Co. ninja maid robot under the name Nightbird Shadow. To prevent her from causing any problems, he equipped her a clumsiness function that customers found adorable, leading to Tera-Kura mass-producing and selling Nightbird clones for profit. The clones then immediately went out of control and started rampaging through Tokyo, something Megatron credited to their inherently evil Decepticon souls, but were stopped in their tracks by their own clumsiness. The local Megatron prepared for a mass recall, but the customers of the Nightbirds protested that the clones' little "mischievous streak" was just charming, and they remained on the market. Bonus Edition Vol. 15
During Halloween, Megatron had Nightbird Shadow go trick-or-treating for energy alongside Blackarachnia and Slipstream. Dressed up as a ghost, she and the others knocked on Tigatron's door before getting accosted by Arcee, Chromia, and Windblade, who were defeated by Blackarachnia. Bonus Edition Vol. 17 Later, when quizzed by Rattrap about her backstory, Nightbird explained her history with the Six Clan and her students, which Rattrap found hard to believe.
At Tera-Kura, employees became enchanted with Nightbird's cuteness when she took off her mask, prompting the company to begin producing the absurdly popular "Nightbird Maskless Version". LG-15 Nightbird Shadow Sequel Nightbird later swooned over the foreign Springer with the other female Tera-Kura employees, LG19 Sprung Prologue driving Tigatron to envy. Bonus Edition Vol. 19 The three later came with Megatron on a hot springs trip, and were thus absent when Tera-Kura Co. was briefly taken over by Waspinator. Bonus Edition Waspinator Nightbird Shadow and Slipstream were targeted by Skids in his quest to send all the Legends World's interdimensional visitors back to their own universes, prompting Megatron to intervene and seemingly lose his life saving his soldiers. As they crowded around his body, however, they found that Megatron persisted in a tiny new body that Nightbird found cute. Bonus Edition Vol. 20
Tarantulas, leader of Tera-Kura Co.'s science department and the one in charge of the Nightbird clone production, allied with the Decepticon Headmasters near one of the production lines. Headmaster Chapter Prologue On a chart showing the employees of the newly formed Decepticon Tera-Kura Co. and their titles, Nightbird Shadow was included as one of the "three office ladies". Bonus Edition Vol. 22 When Megatron turned into Galvatron and went on a rampage in the city, Nightbird Shadow and the other two tried to talk (well, sign language) him out of it, but their calling him "Megatron" only angered Galvatron further and he opened fire on them. Bonus Edition Vol. 23 Nightbird was later present for Scourge's failed attempt at usurping Megatron. Bonus Edition Vol. 26
Nightbird's continued time at the office involved getting hypnotized into fawning over Mindwipe, Bonus Edition Vol. 34 getting her dress ripped off by Apeface's telekinesis, Bonus Edition Vol. 38 and standing around while Megatron argued with Astrotrain. Bonus Edition Vol. 40 When the Headmasters turned against Tera-Kura Co. and came to steal Metroplex's transformation cog from them, Nightbird led her clones into battle against the traitorous Sweeps. Decepticon Civil War As an agent of the Six Clan, Nightbird had orders to eliminate Sixshot and saw her chance when the rogue ninja appeared in the Legends World. When Sixshot was distracted by his victory over Ultra Magnus, she snuck up behind him and impaled him, told him he had broken the Six Clan's laws, and left him to die. Bonus Edition Vol. 50
Nightbird remained at Tera-Kura Co. after Megatron left to become mayor, but remained loyal to him and helped take back the company after it was conquered by the Concurrence. Bonus Edition Vol. 63 With the destruction of the Legends World, Nightbird returned with Megatron to their own dimension. The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 2 She honored the terms of the Cybertron Alliance, the peace treaty between Autobots and Decepticons negotiated by Optimus and Megatron. She was seen at the ceremony trying to bring about personal peace between her former protégés, Road Rocket and Road Pig. Epiloge
Generations Selects Special Comic
Nightbird was present when Rung made his plea to Megatron to assist the Selectors in revolution against their creators, the humans. Volcanicus comic 1
3H comics
In 2025 or so, Fujiyama, apparently having learned nothing, built an entire army of Nightbird drones. When they went on a rampage, Arcee, Daniel Witwicky, and Wheelie came to the doctor's aid. Though they were rather outnumbered, the group held off the drones long enough for Hot Spot to arrive with help and an evacuation shuttle. This was only just too late for Wheelie, who found his back slashed open by a Nightbird drone, disabling him from getting to the shuttle. Loyal to his friend, Daniel stayed with him as the others fled. When he could no longer fight off the drones, he detonated an explosive to destroy them, killing himself and Wheelie in the process. Departure
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
A science fiction movie, Enter the Nightbird, featured Nightbird kicking shiny metal robo-ass. Infestation
Kre-O comic
Nightbird was wanted as one of Earth's five most wanted criminals. Little did the Autobots know that their list was out of date, leading to their shock when Metroplex came under attack from Autobot Spike, Robot Master, Dr. Arkeville, Headmaster... and a whole lotta Nightbirds! The villains nearly managed to steal Metroplex's brain, but were thwarted at the last possible moment by Carzap and G.B. Blackrock. In the battle's aftermath, several Nightbirds found themselves strewn about in pieces. The Brick List: Earth's Most Wanted
2005 IDW continuity
Nightbird was identified as a Cityspeaker by a Camien newscaster. Primeless, Part 1
Games
Transformers Legends
At her unveiling by Doctor Fujiyama, Nightbird was stolen by the Decepticons and reprogrammed by Hardshell to serve them. She was sent on a mission to Autobot HQ, where she stole the World Energy Chip and successfully escaped into the desert, however Jazz and Brawn gave chase, and despite the best efforts of the Decepticons, she was recovered along with the chip. The Autobots returned her to Doctor Fujiyama, who put her in stasis. Enter the Nightbird
Angry Birds Transformers
Nightbird appears as a character unlockable in Challenge Events. She is portrayed by Zeta. Angry Birds Transformers
Transformers: Earth Wars
Programmed with the skills of a mighty ninja, the non-sentient Nightbird developed a full meta-processor brain after being implanted with one of Bombshell's cerebro shells, which merged with her own simulated intelligence.
Nightbird became one of the greatest threats to the Autobots, even more so when—as Bombshell was reformatted—she gained true sentience and freedom of thought. Nightbird character bio
When Arcee, the Autobots' recon and decoy specialist, was sent to Earth, Nightbird was sent in response. Nightbird had some showdowns with Arcee before settling in with the rest of the Decepticons. Crystal City
- Class: Warrior
- Lowest Star Rating: 2 star
- Weapons:Nightbird uses her gun on a target, then closes in and kicks and punches it.
- Ability: Holo Decoy - Place a decoy that soaks up damage and stuns a defense. Only one decoy can be active at a time.
Nightbird at Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki
Toys
Kre-O
- Earth's Most Wanted
Legends
- Nightbird Shadow (October 24, 2015)
- ID number: LG15
- Accessories: Pistol, rifle, two swords, two sais
- Part of the eighth wave of Transformers Legends toys (an assortment of entirely Legends-exclusive female villains), "Nightbird Shadow" is a retooling of Generations: Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Arcee featuring a new head and chest, transforming into a Cybertronian open-top sports car. While she has Arcee's 4 weapons (large and small guns and 2 swords) she also comes with 2 new brand new sais. All six of her weapons each feature several universally-sized rectangular pegs that allows them to be tabbed into multiple matching ports in her fists, forearms, hips, shoulders, and the sides and rear of her car mode. Additionally, her two guns can store beneath her car mode. Stock photography promoting the figure (and shown here) depicted the bladed weapons as painted plastic, but on the final production figure they were translucent. Nightbird Shadow uses the modified hand sculpts from the later releases of this mold, with "open" hands and a rim at the bottom of the fist to prevent weapon handles from sliding too far in and potentially getting stuck. This prevents her from properly holding her blasters and swords. However, the sai weapons sidestep this issue by having narrower sections at the end of the handles that can slide past the rims inside the hands, allowing Nightbird to wield the weapons properly if the sais' side tabs are pointed inwards.
- Her name is a reference to the Japanese title of her debut cartoon episode: "The Shadow of Nightbird".
| Generations mold: Arcee | ||
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Version 1 (closed hands):
Version 2 (open hands):
Version 3 (5 mm hands):
See also:
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Generations Selects
- Nightbird (Deluxe Class, 2019)
- Series: War for Cybertron: Siege
- Hasbro ID number: WFC-GS07
- TakaraTomy release date: September 7, 2019
- Accessories: "Venomizer Blaster", "Nightshock Baton", 2 "Flash Grenades"
- A Generations Selects add-on to Siege, Nightbird is a redeco and new head retool of Chromia, transforming into a Cybertronian car. Like Chromia, Nightbird includes a gun compatible with the C.O.M.B.A.T. System. Two grenades can connect to the barrel, and the scope can be detached and can extend the barrel as well, allowing you to change the length of the barrel and/or scope. The grenades can also attach to the back of the vehicle, as if they are big exhaust pipes. Hasbro stock photography also suggests plugging one grenade into the pegged end of the silencer and the other into the underside of Nightbird's hand, creating the appearance of some sort of small staff to make up for her otherwise notable lack of melee weaponry. The instructions instead suggest connecting the two grenades together, then pegging the silencer on top to make a rather bottom-heavy baton. The arrangement can be reversed to make a mace. Unlike most Siege figures, Nightbird is basically spotless, with no battle damage paint applications anywhere on her body. She also features multiple hardpoints all over herself and her weapon to accommodate "Fire Blasts" from the Battle Masters assortment, which can be used to simulate blaster fire or explosions.
- Despite Nightbird sharing a similar transformation scheme with the Power of the Primes Moonracer/Novastar mold, the Chromia/Nightbird mold is mostly unique, save for the wheels, thighs and hip ball joint sockets.
- Some copies of Nightbird seem to suffer from either mold degradation or poor quality control, with exceptionally tight peg holes, loose joints, and excess plastic. Sometimes the extra plastic is simply extra flash near molding lines from the sprue which hasn't been removed, while other times it's in more problematic spots like the opening around the peg holes on the grenades. Others have reported figures arriving broken or breaking after transforming it for the first time.
- The stock photos on the Hasbro Pulse website show the vehicle mode mistransformed. One has the robot mode feet exposed in vehicle mode, neglecting to fold out the front panel to cover them. The other shows the grenades/tail pipes at a very high angle, meaning the head is not rotated completely backward. This one also shows the silencer piece attached to the side of the blaster, which is possible but not intentional as the hole that allows this is a different shape and much longer than the notch.
- This toy was released exclusively through Hasbro Pulse and other online retailers in North America, and TakaraTomy Mall in Japan. It was also available at general retail in Singapore.
Masterpiece
"Look, it's harder to build a robot without them, okay? They're load-bearing."
- Nightbird Shadow (February 28, 2022)
- TakaraTomy ID number: MP-55
- Hasbro ID number: MP-51+
- Accessories: 2 swords, 2 sais, 2 lightsaber handles, 2 lightsaber blades, 2 shuriken, 2 guns,2 mouthplates, 3 Fire Blast effects, holster, alternate face
- Masterpiece Nightbird is a retool of Masterpiece Arcee, transforming into a Cybertronic car. Aside from the reused weapons and effect parts from the original mold, Nightbird also comes with two additional pairs of melee weapons, one pair based on the Legends figure's sais and the other on Thrilling 30 Arcee's blades, and two new lightsaber weapons. Nightbird's mouthplate can be removed to reveal her full face, and she also comes with an additional unmasked face (complete with molded anime-esque sweatdrop) inspired by her appearance in the Legends comic that is also compatible with the mouthplate.
- Amusingly, Nightbird's instructions depict an official "swan mode" directly based on the aforementioned Legends comic episode. And yes, it's just as ridiculous as it was on the comic.
Merchandise
Transformers Trading Card Game
- Nightbird, Enigmatic Agent (2019)
- Wave 4P: War for Cybertron: Siege II
- Rarity: RT
- Card Number: P7/2019
- Stars: 7
- Nightbird, Enigmatic Agent was released as an in-store play promo for the Transformers Trading Card Game's Wave 4: War for Cybertron: Siege II release.
Notes
- Nightbird's gadgets to benefit humanity include: nunchaku (unused), a pair of sai daggers (also unused), a wrist-mounted grappling hook, magnetic feet (they also work on rocks!), fist-replacing sawblades, some kind of spin/make bright light/disappear gimmick, an endless supply of hip-stored energized shuriken, a beam saber, another unused weapon the hilt of which is visible on her "backpack", a glowing magnetic tractor beam, and stereo speaker-nullifying metal donuts. Additionally, she vanishes after jumping over a cliff edge, leading Mirage to wonder if she has the power of invisibility.
- The Nightbirds in The Wreckers comic have four different accent colors, the same colors as the bandanas of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Nightbird was featured among the Decepticon forces on the Dreamwave 20th Anniversary Lithograph.
- A screencap of Nightbird was used to represent the Nightracer in the comic story "A Flash Forward, Part 2" since her head was a close fit and the art style matched the images of other Decepticons next to her. According to Pete Sinclair and Jesse Wittenrich, the image wasn't supposed to be recognizable as Nightbird once it was obscured by Sky-Byte, but either Sky-Byte didn't cover her up in a way that would obscure her enough, or maybe we're just that good. She's not intended to be the same character as Nightbird.
- Shatter in Bumblebee was based on Nightbird.[citation needed]
Foreign names
- Japanese: Nightbird (ナイトバード Naitobādo)
- French: Oiseau de Nuit (Europe, "Nightbird")
- Italian: Ninja
- Mandarin: Yèyīng (China, 夜莺, "Nightingale"), Yèniǎo (Taiwan, 夜鳥, "Nightbird")
- Russian: Golubka (Голубка, "Dove")
- Spanish: Ave Nocturna (Latin America, "Nightbird")
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