Bug Bite (GoBots)
| This article is about evil Bug Bite. For the other guy who isn't evil, see Bug Bite (Shattered Glass). |
- Bug Bite is a Renegade posing as a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family. His name is sometimes parsed as Bugbite.
Bug Bite is a brilliant yet amoral scientist, specializing in co-opting and adapting others' technology and advancements for his own use. He is actually a cyborg hailing from another dimension, specifically coming from a robotic world which was, similarly to Cybertron, consumed by an endless civil war. This war was stopped only when the fate of not only their planet but their entire universe was threatened by an extradimensional influence.
Under the strict supervision of the Guardian Treds, Bug Bite was enlisted to an allied team and sent into the dimension which threatened their own. Bug Bite took a new body and infiltrated the ranks of the Decepticons, hoping not only to discover the source of his home universe's plight, but take calculated revenge.
Fiction
Timelines
As their universe neared its destruction, a threat posed by a multiversal cataclysm, a team of six GoBots were chosen to travel to a parallel dimension, assimilate themselves into the Transformers' war, and determine the cause of the cataclysm. Bug Bite, with his mad scientific genius, was chosen to be part of this group.
But instead of landing in the Transformers universe that originated the cataclysm, Bug Bite—along with companions Small Foot, Treds, Bad Boy, Road Ranger, and Path Finder—was snagged in mid-journey into the Transformers universe populated by the TransTech. As the team were tagged, examined, and interrogated, Bug Bite remained petulantly indignant throughout. At the first opportunity, he snuck off alone into the "offworlder" portion of Axiom Nexus using a portable Astro-Beam. Hearing about some stolen black-ops passes that would get him off-world unimpeded, he murdered a "new friend" for his money, and sold the Astro-Beam to the passes' new owner Escargon in order to obtain one. Using his new funds, he had his cortex installed into a new body by Swindle, Swindle & Swindle on the black market, and used the black-ops pass to travel to their original destination universe... leaving his teammates to deal with the fallout of his actions. Withered Hope
Bug Bite appeared on Cybertron approximately at the time of the battle with Unicron. He eventually fit in with Bludgeon's troops, quickly becoming favored. (Bug Bite had also reverse-engineered a mind-control device using cerebro-shell technology. Let's just say the other Decepticons suddenly liked him very much.)
Bug Bite discovered that Megatron was somehow responsible for the death of his universe, so he rounded up his amazingly loyal troops and landed on Earth. He requested an audience with Megatron through Starscream and his Seekers, but this meeting was merely a ploy by Bug Bite to snare these Decepticons with cerebro-shells.
Subsequently, Bug Bite marched straight into Megatron's stronghold, the Ark, under the pretense of striking a deal. Almost immediately, Bug Bite switched on the other Decepticons' mind control, and Megatron found himself surrounded by weapons pointed in his direction. Unfortunately, rogue Autobots led by Ultra Magnus were waiting outside and jammed the cerebro-shells' signal, though with mixed results. Bug Bite appeared dead during the following battle after Megatron blew off his head. Games of Deception
While Dreadwind pulled the damaged bodies of Weirdwolf and Bug Bite into the repair room of their ship, Bug Bite's dimension-traveling GoBot companions arrived via a portal. Bug Bite revealed himself to be alive after all, explaining that he'd kept his organic brain behind his windshield, like on his original GoBot body, not inside his new Transformer-styled head. He announced to the others that they should expect other GoBot travelers very soon... Withered Hope
Toys
Generation 1
- G1 GoBots (Multi-pack, 2004)
- Japanese ID number: 84
- Bug Bite is a redeco of the retooled Takara reissue Bumblebee, transforming into a "penny racer"-proportioned Volkswagen Beetle. He was only available in an e-Hobby-exclusive six-pack with Bad Boy, Path Finder, Road Ranger, Small Foot and Treds.
Timelines
- Games of Deception! (Multi-pack, 2007)
- Accessories: "Tidal Wave" trailer/jetpack
- Bug Bite is part of the Classics-themed BotCon 2007 box set, along with Dirge, Dreadwind, Thrust and Thundercracker. Bug Bite is a white and black redeco of the Classics Bumblebee toy, transforming into a sports coupe of indeterminate model. He tows a small trailer with his "Tidal Wave" drone-unit on the back, which converts into a jet-pack to give him "flight" in robot mode. Also it can be placed on his arm like a claw weapon. As with most Classics toys, he features a heat-sensitive rubsign.
- There were 1500 Classics Bug Bite figures produced.
- This mold was also used to make Classics Cliffjumper.
Merchandise
- Deco Pin (2007)
- The first 100 people to pre-register for a BotCon 2007 Primus package also received a bonus metal pin with Bug Bite's "tribal" deco on it.
Trivia
- Bug Bite's name does not appear in any of the final product material on the Japanese e-Hobby set from which he "originated"; it only appeared in an early Photoshopped promotional image on the E-Hobby website. The individual toys' names were dropped when Takara's legal department became concerned at how Bandai—the company that made the toys that would become the Tonka GoBots—would react to the names being used, despite the minimal chance of provable trademark infringement on Takara's part.
- This, of course, was rendered moot once Fun Publications took the ball and ran with it, re-establishing explicit ties between the two formerly-rival franchises.
- According to Timelines collaborator Ben Yee, Lanny Lathem of Fun Publications intended Bug Bite's purple "tribal" paint applications to be a highly stylized version of the Decepticon insignia.
- Bug Bite's Classics body model is an "off-white C1186-P0019" (the product number for the Classics Bumblebee toy in the real world), according to the black market bodyshop Swindle, Swindle & Swindle in "Withered Hope". He also bought a gutted Wave Crusher and a Decepticon signal transponder, but declined the X-03 custom add-ons (referring to the fan-made custom parts kit for Classics Cliffjumper).
- When Bug Bite gets a new head at the end of Withered Hope, it is pointed out by Dreadwing that it doesn't quite match his body's off-white. This is a reference to the fact that his Botcon toy's head was much more white than his body.
- A rather Bug-Bite-y head can be seen among Lockdown's trophies in "A Few Loose Strands".
