Playback (SG)

This article is about the evil Autobot spy. For his heroic counterpart, see Playback (G1).

Playback is an evil Autobot from the Shattered Glass continuity family.

I'm the one on the right.

Playback is one of Blaster's Cassettes.

Fiction

IDW Shattered Glass continuity

It was at this moment he knew... he f**ked up.

Playback was one of the Cassettes sent out by Blaster to attack Megatron and Starscream in a Gold City tavern so they could be delivered to Goldbug. During the fight he pounced at Megatron, who grabbed him by the head and threw him at Starscream, who immediately sliced him in twain. Shattered Glass #3

Notes

• The Shattered Glass incarnation of Playback demonstrates the coalescence of decades of lore welding. Back in 1986, the generic Paradron communicator in "Fight or Flee" was scripted as a "PRIMATIVE [sic] BLASTER", though this design intent did not make it into the final episode. In 2015, the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime would give the communicator a name by retconning him as an alternate version of the 1989 Marvel comic character Playback, who was described by Dreadwind as "a Cybertronian Autobot, another of the cassette ones, I think." Finally in 2021, SG Playback debuted with cassette kibble as a member of SG Blaster's entourage. Whew!