Starscream clone (Animated)

This article is about the abominations from the Animated continuity family. For the mad Starscream clone from the Dreamwave comics, see Sunstorm (G1).

Starscream clones are a group from the Animated continuity family.

Are there no signs of normalcy in these wretches? No cowardice or pomposity, no snideyness or smarm, not even basic honest-to-goodness double-dealing two-facedness?

A Starscream clone is one of an army of (mostly) physically identical copies of Starscream. They have all of his abilities, with the added bonus of being extremely disposable. While there seem to be a large number of mass-produced clones, a handful have appeared which carry AllSpark energy signatures, have different colour schemes, and seem to embody various elements of Starscream's personality. How these clones were created is a mystery; all that is known is that an army of Starscreams cannot lead to anything good. The clones include:

• Dirge, representing Starscream's greed.
• Skywarp, representing Starscream's cowardice.
• Sunstorm, representing Starscream's bootlicking tendencies.
• Thundercracker, representing Starscream's ego.
• A clone representing parts of Starscream best left unexplored.
• A clone that is as honest as the day is long.

Fiction

Animated cartoon

Skywarp, you've got a longer yellow streak than a herd of diarrhetic camels.

After Prowl and Lockdown captured and then lost the original Starscream on the Moon, his sycophantic clone destroyed Prowl's shuttle and headed for Earth. The two bots followed him, but bumped into the cowardly clone first. After capturing him, Lockdown double-crossed Prowl and dragged the clone away. As the Autobots gave chase, the Sycophant appeared and offered to deal. Prowl wasn't having any of it, and after a brief skirmish, managed to get the stasis cuffs on him. Both Lockdown and the Autobots took the clones to an abandoned warehouse, where the Decepticons were waiting. As everyone was understandably shocked, some sort of program deactivated the clones' higher functions and opened their spark chambers, which were empty...except for a pair of powerful bombs. As Lockdown and the Decepticons made a break for it, Prowl welded his borrowed mods to the pair and launched them into the sky, where they exploded. The Decepticons were caught in the blast wave, but the city was saved. In the wreckage of the Nemesis, a disappointed but pragmatic Starscream consoled himself with the fact he still had plenty left. A Fistful of Energon

While Megatron was officially bringing the Constructicons into his army on Earth, Starscream was doing the same with his fifth clone on the Moon. Immediately after he brought his final clone on-line, however, the neurotic ensemble began giving him trouble, and he learned that each of them embodied a distilled facet of his personality: his cowardice, his sycophancy, his deceitfulness, his egomania...and one facet that warned him not to ask what she was. A Bridge Too Close, Part I‎

After bringing the five clones to life, the Starscreams all flew to Earth after Megatron made the Space Bridge. Starscream attacked the Decepticons with his new army and lost two clones (along with Blurr) in a blob of cement, and soon after lost his head to Prof. Sumdac. Finally, the other Starscream clones decided he was unworthy to lead them and sided with Megatron, but after that they all had to attack Omega Supreme and were easily defeated. A Bridge Too Close, Part I‎I

The two clones who were warped into space with Blurr were able to escape their cement prison, but were left behind in space as Blurr darted away. TransWarped

It was also revealed that the Liar Starscream had survived, as he saved Lugnut (and promised not to tell Megatron).Three's A Crowd

Titan Magazines

Starscream used his mass produced clones to seize the Autobot base. Unfortunately, Sari knew their weakness: they weren't immune to giant robot dinosaurs beating the slag out of them. Dino-MIGHT!

Trivia

• The clones are a reference to the common practice of redecoing Starscream toys as new characters, specifically the Seekers.
• The color schemes (though little more) of most of the clones are inspired by various Generation 1 Seekers.
• At BotCon 2008, Animated series creators Derrick Wyatt and Marty Isenberg repeatedly emphasized that there would be "no clone army...definitely no clone army...absolutely no clone army in this show." Lots of reports forgot the sarcasm tag.
• Starscream could certainly be considered an army-builder.
• This is, however, not the first appearance of a Starscream clone.
• Or even the second.
• For some reason, Dirge was added to the clones after their fictional appearance, making him the single toy-only clone so far (and one of the few Animated toy-only characters, period).