Chip Chase
| The name or term "Chase" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Chase (disambiguation). |
- Chip is a human from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Chip Chase is a human ally of the Autobots and Spike Witwicky's best friend. Suffering from some unknown malady, Chip uses a wheelchair. He isn't defined by his disability though, but rather by his geeky, genius-level skills with computers, programming, and electronics.
He also has tremendous upper body strength.
"Courage!"
Fiction
Cartoon continuity
Generation 1 cartoon
- Voice actor: Michael Horton (English), Keiichi Nanba (Japanese)
Chip Chase came to the attentions of the Autobots as a friend of Spike Witwicky and the whiz behind Dr. Alcazar's antimatter formula project. Though the Decepticons stole the antimatter formula, Chip memorized the data.
Chip has a remarkably advanced (or at least ridiculously expensive) desktop computer for 1984. It contains, among other things, a 16 Million color monitor (Chip's view of the Decepticons was no different than Prowl's), a microphone, dial-up networking, speakers, and a sound card that could interpret Prowl's speech. Maybe he's friends with Ethan Zachary.
Chip once tore a floppy disk apart with his bare hands. Roll For It This may explain why Optimus Prime is keen to stay in his good books. His superhuman abilities shine when he correctly identifies Skywarp's missile is of the heat-seeking variety before it even does anything to suggest as such.
Chip is a graduate of Yal University, is able to survive acid rain Divide and Conquer...
War of the Dinobots Heavy Metal War
... is able to stand (despite the wheelchair) The Autobot Run ...
The Core Dinobot Island, Part 2 Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1
... and once saved the world by getting Thrust to shoot Teletraan I. Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2
Child's Play
He once told a group of Autobots that "No one is really disabled as long as they have courage." If any human was an illustration of this, it's Chip Chase.
Japanese cartoon continuity
Scramble City
Chip can be seen alongside Spike, Sparkplug and Carly, helping to construct Autobot City. Scramble City
Binaltech
When Prowl's Laser Core was lost to subspace in a GT Transfer accident (a technology he himself helped to create), Chip Chase volunteered to sacrifice his very own soul in order to breathe life into the now-lifeless Prowl-2, stating "Twenty years ago, we met thanks to an online message from you. Your battle computer was down, and in its place, I—" Roll For It while something flashed in the back of his mind: "Your intelligence and personality are already in this frame. In which case..." With the help of Ratchet and Wheeljack, Chip's consciousness was transported into Prowl's frame. The new entity created in this fusion is virtually indistinguishable from Prowl's old persona, thanks to copies of the original Prowl's Memory Core and Datatrax, while a separate neurocomputer handles Chip's thought processes. Meanwhile, Chip's real body is stored in stasis in an EDC medical facility.
At least one continuity had this new spark used for Prowl II, which makes no sense, since Binaltech is separate from Beast Wars.
Trivia
- The idea for Chip's character grew out of very early plans for the series, which involved two human allies for the Autobots named "Eddie Fairchild" and "Matt Conroy". Eddie was the prototypical version of Spike, but when the Matt character was conceived as an "elder brother figure" for Eddie, the idea to make the younger boy handicapped, and hence more dependent on the Autobots, was briefly considered. Evidently, this idea went in a slightly different direction and wound up inspiring Chip. <a href="http://tfarchive.com/cartoons/bible/#149" class="external autonumber" title="http://tfarchive.com/cartoons/bible/#149" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>
- Chip and Carly never appeared in the same episode during the entire US run. Coincidence!? Shocking dual identity!? (Or maybe the two of them just can't stand to be in the same room for whatever reason...) The only time they're both seen on screen is near the beginning of "Scramble City". Blink twice and you'll miss 'em.
- Although last seen in "Scramble City" and being absent through the entirety of the series' third season, the producers of the Japanese-exclusive Headmasters apparently had plans to include an adult version of Chip in the series' first episode. A character design of an adult Chip can be seen in the Transformers Generations reference book and The Ark II Japanese character models book.
- He may easily be the most advanced human who ever lived.
- In the Movie console game, there is a fast food place called Chip Chase's. The restaurant's logo features Chip's grinning mug. Wonder if the TV ads are as scary as the ones featuring the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King#Advertising" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Burger_King">Burger King</a>.
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