Protectobot (G1)

The name or term "Protectobot" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Protectobot (disambiguation).

The Protectobots are an Autobot subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.

But who could that dude on the left be?

The Protectobots consist of:

• The energetic Hot Spot (Leader)
• The savvy Streetwise
• The bad ass Blades
• The easy going Groove
• The pacifistic First Aid

This team of emergency, rescue and law enforcement vehicles are dedicated to the protection of humans and their homes. To this end, they will respond to any manner of mundane human emergency and help in any way they can.

They combine to form the giant Defensor, who embodies the team's ideals of protecting human life.

Fiction

Cartoon continuity

When the Insecticons attacked an inhabited city on Earth, Optimus Prime called upon the Protectobots to evacuate the civilians caught in the crossfire. Later, as Earth's orbit was diverted to the Sun by the Combaticons, the Protectobots raced around the world rescuing people trapped by fire, putting out infernos and trying to cool the population down by putting them inside meat lockers. The Revenge of Bruticus

Soon after the Combaticons were brought to heel by Megatron, they attacked a major city for no apparent reason. Defensor arrived and totally blew up Bruticus. Later, the Protectobots saved some window-washers from a burning skyscraper, and helped douse the flames. Later still, the Protectobots were ordered to help defend Autobot Headquarters from a Decepticon attack. They merged into Defensor and activated his useless force field, which almost immediately deactivated, allowing the Decepticons to blast Defensor back into his component parts. B.O.T.

Marvel Comics continuity

Generation 1

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

In a world... made of onion roots...

The Protectobots were first shown in a vision show to Buster Witwicky and Optimus Prime by the Matrix. After seeing the vision he ordered the creation of both teams of Autobots seen in it, the Protectobots and Aerialbots. Second Generation!

The Protectobots' first known mission involved accompanying Optimus Prime to stop the Decepticons from stealing a hydrothermocline. They eventually battled the Decepticons within a game world called Multiworld, wherein they trounced the Combaticons with some help from the game's native inhabitants, then as Defensor killed Megatron by dropping them both off a bridge. Megatron cheated, however, and was able to re-create himself in the game. Optimus Prime defeated him for good, but in the real world decided that he'd lost the game as he harmed the video game's natives in doing so. As the game's terms called for the losing leader to be destroyed in the real world, Prime was blown to bits, and the stunned Protectobots hauled his remains back to the Ark in silence. Afterdeath!

PREPARE TO ENGAGE AGAINST A HOSTILE ENEMY FORCE! GO TEAM!

The Protectobots later were sent by Grimlock to track down the "traitorous" Blaster and Goldbug. Goldbug was captured by humans, but Blaster was secured after a fight with the Combaticons. Used Autobots A second battle followed as the Protectobots returned to the Ark; as Defensor, the Protectobots were defeated, and saved only because Blaster was freed by some human children. Moved by his example, the Protectobots freed Blaster, and watched as he took the children for a ride in space aboard the captive Blast-Off. Child's Play

Streetwise subsequently battled Starscream on Earth. Stargazing

The Protectobots are curiously absent from the subsequent giant battle on the moon, Totaled! implying that they were never retrieved from Earth; in fact, they are never shown again in the G1 series — not even to get blown up in the Underbase Saga. However First Aid was subsequently showed as having been deactivated, The Greatest Gift of All! presumably in the Underbase battle.

No reference was ever made to any origin for the Protectobots in the US comic, though they first appeared just after the Aerialbots were explicitly created on Earth. A flashback in "Club Con!" shows Defensor several centuries ago on Cybertron. (The latter is an error, though, as he was normal height and standing next to Sunstreaker, and in the same issue a Battlecharger is drawn among the Autobots.)

Generation 2

The peace-loving Groove and First Aid go on a mission to blow up a spaceship with a giant bomb.

The Protectobots seem to have been split up; Hot Spot led an assortment of other (non-Protectobot) Autobots on a mission to stop Megatron on Earth, which ended with his self-destruction to avoid capture by Cobra.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team was under Grimlock's command as he took on the second-generation Cybertronians. They joined a mission to destroy the Cybertronian flagship Twilight; Grimlock hadn't quite thought things through, however, and the mission ended with the Autobots held captive. A subsequent rescue mission by Optimus Prime freed the Autobots.

Groove later joined the Aerialbots, Hot Rod, and the Dinobots in a training exercise on a deep space asteroid. Blades suffered rotor damage when he was shot by Rumble on Earth, as part of a Grimlock-led assault force against Megatron's Decepticons to back up Optimus Prime's truce-seeking mission.

Dreamwave Generation 1 comics continuity

So exciting they're bursting right out of the panel.

As one of the powerful and contested combiner teams, the Protectobots were supposed to remain neutral. However, when the Ultracons recruited Devastator and turned him loose on their enemies, the Protectobots felt they had no choice but to respond. As Defensor, they counter-attacked the Constructicon combiner, but the fragile industrial area around them was being destroyed. Eventually, they succeeded in taking down Devastator as individuals, through careful teamwork.

After the battle, the team tried to figure out why their combined form still wasn't living up to his intellectual potential. Before they could find an answer, the Chaos Trinity attacked the team's secret base. Hot Spot was unwilling to use Defensor, afraid of a repeat of what had happened before. The team was defeated, and Hot Spot taken prisoner. The War Within: The Dark Ages

Toys

Generation 1

Collect all five! You don't want Defensor to be missing a limb, do you?

• Protectobots (1986)
  • Blades
  • First Aid
  • Groove
  • Hot Spot
  • Streetwise

The Protectobots are fairly standard Scramble City-style toys: four simple, small figures who form the limbs of the combined form, sold carded at the $5 price point, and one larger leader who forms the central torso, sold boxed at $12. All five can combine to form Defensor.

Unlike the Aerialbots and Stunticons who slightly preceded them, the smaller Protectobots do not share a standard transformation scheme. All feature shoulder swivels as their only notable articulation; some have knee joints, but they are rendered useless by their fused uni-feet. Three of them do have an odd fist design, with the post-hole on the side rather than the top; their guns feature L-shaped grips to compensate. All four small members of the team come with add-on weapons for their vehicle modes. They share a color palette dominated by whites, reds, light grays, and black.

The team is also notable for having a small amount of kibble storage -- Defensor's chest plates can attach to Hot Spot in vehicle mode, and the combiner's head is integral to Hot Spot.

The Protectobot molds were later slightly redecorated to make Guard City.

Knockoffs of the team are quite common. Almost universally, they feature Hot Spot in red, perhaps emulating the later Guard City version of the molds. Not quite so universally, they give creative new names to the team, such as Motorcycle, Patrol Wagon, and Whirlbird. Reduced-scale knockoffs of the team have also been seen.

Universe (2008)

• Blades (Voyager, 2008)

A redeco of the Cybertron Evac mold.

Other

• A new team of Protectobots was issued as part of the 2005 Universe lineup, but in the absence of any fiction apart from a background cameo, it is unclear if they are meant to have any relation to the Generation 1 characters.

Trivia

• The Protectobots' sudden, unexplained appearance in the animated series is a result of the information on the characters not being delivered to the production staff before the second season's final run of plots were decided upon. Consequently, the team could not be given an "origin" episode, but they were nonetheless inserted into the events of "The Revenge of Bruticus" and "B.O.T." without explanation for where they came from in order to appease Hasbro.