User:Drmick
Earth's resident G1 Spinister expert!
My custom modern day Spinister
Springer is one of my all time favourite G1 characters, but it bothered me that there was never a prominent Decepticon helicopter equivalent to face him. After Springer, Blades was probably the next most famous helicopter in UK G1 continuity.
All that changed with the advent of TF UK #229. Here was Spinister, a Decepticon helicopter with a bit of bite. Second in command of the Mayhem Attack Squad, no less! Which meant that the powers that be (or Simon Furman) thought he would be good enough to take on Megatron and Galvatron combined, with a bit of help from his friends. The debut story, Hunting Party was also the debut of new TF artist Simon Coleby, who brought a fresh new style to the Transformer stories lying somewhere between the dynamicism of Geoff Senior and Lee Sullivan and the humanism of Jeff Anderson. Great!
The Energon (Super Link in Japan) toyline came out in 2004, with most characters being modern day representations of G1 characters. This trend has been continued recently with the TF Classics/Universe line. Springer got Energon-ised, even if the cartoon characterisation shared little in common with G1 Springer. Energon Bulkhead (Superlink Sprang) is the closest modern Transformer to resemble the Apache Helicopter, which was Spinister's alternate form. A bit of paint, and a bit of putty to the head, and hey presto! Modern day Energon Spinister was created!
What's more, the super-link extra combining weapons platform that came with Bulkhead, would also be a perfect homage to Spinister's Targetmaster origins (despite the fact Singe and Hairsplitter never appeared in G1 continuity).
And just how did Spinister (and Needlenose and Quake) become a Targetmaster? They were never part of Scorponok's original crew. That's a story (a very speculative fan-fiction story admittedly) for another time.
I hope to update this page in time with more Spinister goodness in time. I'm a bit bitter that the fandom considers him dead after the Where Wolf story. I will outline why he cannot be dead at a future date (if the wiki overlords don't get me!)
