Bumper (G1)
- Bumper is an Autobot in the Generation 1 continuity family.
Bumper is a young and inexperienced Autobot, new to the war, but eager to do his part against the Decepticons. He is in the interesting position of looking up to Bumblebee, which makes Bumblebee feel more awkward than normal. Bumper may not have much of a history so far, but his determination and flashes of courage and brilliance may take him far.
Fiction
Dreamwave comics continuity
Bumper was part of the crew of the shuttle Orion, under the command of Bumblebee. He was part of the party that attacked Sunstorm in order to attach an inhibitor to him, in order to drain the vast energies Sunstorm produced.
Later, he and Warpath were sent to retrieve several Autobots that Starscream had previously deactivated and "stored" at the bottom of a lake. They were interrupted by a heavily-armed platoon of EDC troops under the command of Marissa Faireborn, who took them and the deactivated Autobots to a secret base, reactivating them. The EDC needed the Autobots' help to investigate the disappearance of an entire town of people in San Desto, California.
Bumper was part of the squad sent in to San Desto, instantly earning the disdain of Sunstreaker, but Sunstreaker thinks that way about everyone. Bumper took a squad of EDC troopers into a movie theater to investigate, but was captured by the Insecticons. When they left to take care of their new breed of Insecticlones, Bumper managed to break free and took a cerebro-shell. Freeing the captured Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, Bumper then used the taken cerebro-shell to attack Bombshell and shut down the Insecticlones, and halt the advance of the controlled citizens of San Desto.
Toys
Generation 1
For nearly twenty years, the toy that would eventually be "Bumper" had no official name, aside from the versions released by Estrela in Brazil in various colors, first as the "Robocar" Sedan, then as the heroic "Optimus" Sedan. Originally a mold from the pre-Transformers Microman line, the penny-racer-proportioned "Familia 1500XG" mold appeared on Cliffjumper cards in 1984 (it's not impossible that he was also available on Bumblebee cards, but to this day, no packaged example has surfaced). How this toy came to be released in this manner has yet to be determined, and it's highly likely the mystery may never be solved.
For years, the toy was referred to as "Bumblejumper" by fans, until the early 1990's when the shortened and more Transformers-name-like "Bumper" began to propegate. The name was not made "official" for the toy until it was used in the first issue of Dreamwave's on-going Transformers comic in 2004.
