The Autobots face Earth's most wanted criminals.
At Autobot City, Obsidian has gathered the Autobots for a briefing on Earth's Most Wanted criminals: the cyborg mad scientist Doctor Arkeville; the supervillain Robot-Master; the diminutive body snatcher the Headmaster; the unstable Autobot Spike; and the robot ninja Nightbird. The briefing soon turns into a combat situation, however, when Landshark spots the criminals, backed up by numerous copies of Nightbird. Obsidian orders Rattrap and Fractyl to take care of the rank-and-file, as he grapples with Arkeville. The Headmaster takes his chance in all the confusion, robbing Sentinel Prime of his body, and using his optics to access his way into Metroplex's control room. Recovering Metroplex's processing core on a disk, the Headmaster reconvenes with the others, who plan to return to their lair. Fortunately, Carzap speeds to the rescue, transforming and grabbing the disk. With it safe, G.B. Blackrock uses his Circuit Smasher to force the Headmaster to separate from Sentinel's body, forcing the villains to retreat. The Autobots are glad that the disk was saved, or else Metroplex would have lost his head; Rattrap quips that he's thankful Sentinel lost his instead. Angered, Sentinel Prime orders the others to put his head back on his body, or else "heads will roll". Unfortunately for him, his body is still immobile due to the Circuit Smasher's effects; because of this, he's temporarily placed on a small wheeled platform, much to his chagrin.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
- Even though some of the featured villains have been associated with the Decepticons in other media, no actual Decepticon appears in the story.
- This comic was sold with the Kre-O Kreon Souvenir Set at BotCon 2015, featuring the set's five "Earth's Most Wanted" criminals and Sentinel Prime. It also takes inspiration from the online Kre-O manga, of which artist Hayato Sakamoto drew the first half—especially with the Metroplex/Autobot City base, specifically based on his Generations "Thrilling 30" toy.
- Other previously released Kreons who appear include Obsidian, Strika, and Hoist (from the BotCon 2013 set); Fractyl, Rattrap, and Landshark (from the BotCon 2014 set); and G.B. Blackrock (of whom a Kreon version was sold with Transformers Figure Subscription Service 3.0 toy Carzap).
- Newly created fictional Kreons in this chapter include Flareup (based on her BotCon 2014 toy, with her parts being sourced from helmet of Ironhide and the wings of Wheeljack) and a Micro-Changer version of Carzap (based on his TFSS Timelines toy, with the helmet of Sideswipe and the wings of Prowl/Jazz/Bluestreak).
- Additionally, in the first panel, a helicopter based on the Zone Sky Hyper Micromaster Base is seen hovering in the sky.
- There are multiple Nightbirds present in the story, inspired by the army of them from 3H Productions' The Wreckers issue #1. Additionally, Fractyl is seen on the Autobot's side; he was a member of the titular group in The Wreckers comic series.
- Rattrap moans that the Autobots are "all gonna be lil' lost pieces in the carpet," combining his infamous "we're all gonna die" catchphrase from Beast Wars with the fact that LEGO—er, Kre-O pieces are wont to disappear.
- The Headmaster speaks in his "leetspeak". It's still as annoying now as it was then. Additionally, he takes over Sentinel Prime's body, as he did in the Animated episode "The Return of the Headmaster".
- Carzap speaks in Japanese, much like the Wings Universe character he's based on, who was actually created in Japan.
- G.B. Blackrock calls the little gun emplacement his toy came with the "Circuit Smasher"; "Circuit Smasher" was the identity Spike Witwicky took after being brought back to life with G.B. Blackrock's technology, as seen in IDW Publishing's Regeneration One. Headmaster quips that it should have been called "Circuit Breaker", after the robot-hating human and former Blackrock employee from the Marvel The Transformers comics, whose technology was used in Blackrock's resurrection of Spike (though it was never said to be her specifically, given that Marvel owns the rights to her).
- Robot-Master orders "Nightbird, to the shadows!" as he and the other Most Wanted retreat. The Japanese dub of the Sunbow The Transformers episode that introduced her, "Enter the Nightbird", was titled "The Shadow of Nightbird".
Real-world references
[edit]- Headmaster calls Blackrock a "camper," a gaming term referring to those who stay in a specific position to gain a strategic advantage.
- Carzap was drawn next to Hoist in panel 1, but a speech panel covered him up.
- Carzap's sole line of dialogue is in Japanese. He says "I'll be taking that!"
