User:Locoman/Sandbox/Mini-Cassette

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

Hundreds of years ago, a troop of Autobot astronomers on Cybertron detected the legendary Underbase making its way towards Earth. In order to alert their Autobot colleagues on that world, they encoded the information onto Raindance and Grand Slam. On their way to Earth, their ship was damaged and the two Autobots crashed into the sea. They were found locked in their cassette modes by a band of 18th century pirates, who stashed them away in a treasure chest just before a storm destroyed and sank their ship. Club Con!

A number of small Decepticons—Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Ravage, Frenzy, and Rumble—accompanied Megatron when he left Cybertron four million years in the past; upon reactivating on Earth in 1984, the Ark's computer rebuilt them into human tape cassettes. The Transformers These Mini-Cassette troops used their small alternate modes for stealth, disguise and transportation—for instance, Rumble and Frenzy frequently hitched rides in the cockpit of the Decepticon jets, DIS-Integrated Circuits! while Ravage used his cassette form on several occasions to spy on humans. Power Play!

Three of these cassette troops were taken out of play by Omega Supreme Command Performances! and remained inoperative for quite some time, while Ravage was dropped into a mine shaft by the Autobot Skids, which also took him out of comission. Showdown! Laserbeak remained operational, and acted as a sort of totem of Decepticon leadership Command Performances! until an Underbase-empowered Starscream eventually destroyed him and many other Cybertronians. Dark Star

Ratbat assumed a cassette form upon traveling to Earth, and used this disguise to monitor his human accomplices. Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom When Decepticon Imperial Headquarters stumbled across long-lost information related to the Underbase, they commanded Ratbat's Earthbound Decepticon to find the lost tapes. They moved their disguised desert island starship to the rough coordinates of the shipwreck and opened a Club Con vacation resort for fleshlings to disguise their true purposes there. The Seacons successfully retrieved Raindance and Grand Slam from the treasure chest, despite a brief altercation with Blaster. Club Con! Ratbat and his communications expert Soundwave were able to learn from the cassettes that the Underbase was set to pass by Earth in less than a week's time. The Flames of Boltax!

Ravage would go on to have multiple other adventures; after helping his former leader Shockwave close a destructive rift in time and space, Time Wars he teamed up with Megatron as the two returned to Cybertron to depose the Triumvirate and put the Decepticon house in order. The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire.

The Autobot cassette Playback was a prisoner of the Decepticons on Cybertron. Along with Hosehead and Horsepower, he was released into the wild on Earth to be hunted down by Thunderwing as part of his initiation as a new Decepticon leader. He was the first of the trio Thunderwing tracked down and executed, and left his corpse to rust on a shallow beach. The Big Shutdown!

Marvel UK future timelines

By 2008, Eject was stationed at Autobase on Cybertron, working communications for Ultra Magnus.

Meanwhile, on Earth, the Quintessons invaded Autobot City, devastating most of the base's population. Rewind, Steeljaw, and Ramhorn were stationed there, but got trapped inside Blaster's chest when he was blasted off-line and hung on the ramparts. A quick-thinking Hot Rod realized where they'd be and managed to free them. The Mini-Cassettes joined Hot Rod and Arcee in retaking Autobot City from the Quints. Space Pirates!

Earthforce

These stories do not fit into the normal Marvel continuity. See Earthforce for details.

During the Decepticon Civil War, Ravage and Rumble sided with Shockwave. The Bad Guy's Ball!

Classics

Classics continues from the Marvel US series, and does not include the UK stories or any subsequently published stories.

Not all of the Transformers who partnered with larger 'bots like Soundwave and Blaster transformed into cassettes: some turned into memory sticks, while Blockrock had an unfortunate bomb alternate mode. Recordicons #12

Numerous Mini-Cassettes survived the destruction of their native universe and evacuated parallel universe of evil Autobots and heroic Decepticons. Ravage had a run-in with his cheerful mirror-universe doppelganger, Recordicons #10 while Frenzy and Rumble were confused when the this universe's Ratbat tried to bring "their" Ratbat, who'd already died to Scorponok, to justice. Recordicons #11

Ladybird Books continuity

While investigating humanity, Laserbeak accidentally collided with some high-voltage power lines, which short-circuited his transformation systems and trapped him in cassette mode. Eventually, he found his way into the possession of a young boy, and wound up in a box of cassettes that would be played at that night's town hall disco. When the disc jockey inserted him into his tape deck, Laserbeak drained the energy from the sound system and used it to re-energize his systems. Laserbeak's Fury