First Aid (G1)
| This article is about the Scramble City ambulance from Generation 1. For the Micromaster ambulance from Universe, see First Aid (Universe). |
- First Aid is an Autobot Protectobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
First Aid is one of the most empathic and compassionate beings you'll ever meet. He cares deeply about all living things. Heck, he even cares deeply about the "pain" of inanimate objects. A broken or malfunctioning can-opener will earn just as much sympathy and attention as a fellow Autobot. Otherwise, First Aid is a soft-spoken and sometimes overly cautious sort (especially when it comes to the well-being of a fellow Autobot). Still, all the Autobots know he will work long and hard to do his best for them and that their well-being matters to him more than anything, and those are quite comforting thoughts.
First Aid is a member of the subgroup Protectobots and forms the left arm of the combiner robot Defensor.
- French-Canadian name: Ambulo
- Italian name: Sirena
Fiction
Cartoon continuity
- Voice actor: Michael Bell (English), Kenyū Horiuchi (Japanese)
First Aid is an avowed pacifist. When the Insecticons attacked an inhabited city on Earth, Optimus Prime called upon the Protectobots to evacuate the civilians caught in the crossfire. First Aid helped an injured man discovered by Streetwise. Later, as Earth's orbit was diverted to the Sun by the Combaticons, First Aid brought civilians to a meat locker that Groove and Streetwise had commandeered to help the humans cool down. The Revenge of Bruticus
First Aid, as part of Defensor, was the arm that wielded the rifle which totally blew up Bruticus. Afterwards, he was with the Protectobots when they saved some window-washers from a burning skyscraper. Later still, First Aid and the other 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.
In the year 2006, First Aid was on Cybertron for the planet's first peace conference. He participated in a surprise birthday party for Daniel Witwicky along with Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Warpath, Groove and Wheelie. The Combaticons then attacked a nearby shuttle bay, hoping to scrap the ships which would be used to ferry delegates to the conference. First Aid happily blasted away at the Combaticons. After the battle, First Aid was tending to a serious wound Magnus suffered on his back, when he used his own body to shield Wheelie from a Decepticon attack. When attention turned to the damaged shuttle, Ultra Magnus insisted First Aid repair the ship first and deal with his injuries. Guess he forgot First Aid was a doctor, not a mechanic! (Ol' Ratchet sure wouldn't have taken no lip — he would have disconnected the patient's vocal processor first.) Surprise Party
When Superion took heavy fire over the Planet of Junk, Sky Lynx brought him back to Cybertron for repairs. First Aid arrived and began patching up the super-robot. The Big Broadcast of 2006
The Autobots were asked to help the Dutch authorities deal with French rebels. First Aid wondered why the humans were always fighting amongst themselves. After dispersing the human aggressors, First Aid then helped out Blades when his comrade was shot down by Galvatron. While the Autobots held off the loser-ish Decepticons, First Aid carried Blades back to Metroplex for repairs. After he finished, the Autobot medic responded to an intruder alert and confronted the Decepticon Swindle stealing Metroplex's transformation cog. Unfortunately, Swindle managed to make off with his loot because the pacifist Autobot refused to fight back. Despite Rodimus Prime's attempts to convince him that they didn't expect First Aid to compromise his beliefs, he felt he was a liability to the Autobots and left. After helping some old junker robot chug down some oil and repair some refrigerators, First Aid received a pep talk from Hot Spot, which convinced him to come back to help the Autobots. While Trypticon and Metroplex fought it out, First Aid bravely entered the Autobot giant and re-aligned the stolen transformation cog to suit Metroplex, allowing the Autobot city to transform fully and defeat Trypticon. The Ultimate Weapon
Later in 2006, First Aid transported Jessica Morgan to County General Hospital after she was injured in a battle between the Technobots and the Terrorcons. Despite his helping to restore her ability to walk, the fact that First Aid was a robot had some negative consequences because some people are jerks. The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1
Japanese cartoon continuity
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
When the Decepticon combiners attacked a baseball stadium in Japan, the Protectobots and Aerialbots raced to the rescue. After attending to the blaze created by Menasor's destruction, First Aid and his team combined into Defensor. However, Defensor's central component was damaged battling Bruticus; with Hot Spot out of action, the Protectobots could not maintain their super-robot form. Getting an idea, the Autobots' human friend Kenji told Superion to shoot out the legs of the Decepticon super-robots. With their legs damaged, Menasor and Bruticus were left open for First Aid and the other small Protectobots to link up as their new legs, taking over the Decepticons' locomotion, sending them out to sea. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 5
Later, the Constructicons were paving over a natural island paradise, and the Autobots sent a rescue party to save the wildlife and their friends on the island. Due to the medical needs of the mission, First Aid replaced Slingshot with the Aerialbots to form Superion. Even linked together, First Aid and the Aerialbots were outclassed against both Devastator and Trypticon, until Hound generated a hologram of Metroplex to distract the dino-base Decepticon, sending him over a cliff. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 6
The Great Transformer War
In 2010, Galvatron kidnapped the scientist Dalton in order to upgrade his combiner warriors. First Aid and the Protectobots joined forces with the Aerialbots to rescue Dalton from inside Trypticon. Superion was heavily damaged in the first strike run, however, and Hot Spot needed time in his repair bay mode to bring the Aerialbots back to fighting strength. While Blades snuck into Trypticon alone to rescue Dalton, First Aid, Streetwise and Groove defended Hot Spot against both Menasor and Bruticus. They held out long enough for the Aerialbots to be revived. After the Aerialbots distracted the Decepticons, Blades completed his mission and the Autobots rolled out for Scramble City with Dalton in tow. The Great Transformer War issue 1
Marvel comics continuity
Generation 1
First Aid and the other Protectobots were created on Earth by Wheeljack and the Autobots after they stole a recording of Devastator's combiner transformation sequence and modified it (and after Optimus Prime and Buster Witwicky shared a Matrix-induced vision of the future with the Special Teams in it) Second Generation!.
Having learned of a Decepticon plot to acquire the human-made hydrothermocline, Optimus Prime brought the Protectobots with him to Energy Futures Industries in order to guard the device. After Megatron and the Combaticons arrived ready for a fight, the Transformers allowed themselves to be convinced of a better solution by Ethan Zachary, an employee of EFI. Zachary would upload their minds into a video simulation program known as Multi-World, allowing the Transformers to do battle without damaging the hydrothermocline or the surrounding area. Inside the game world, First Aid and Streetwise were exploring Vineland when their path was blocked by a web of thick vines. First Aid wanted to blast through, but Streetwise thought better of it and merely lifted the vines out of their way. They were caught off-guard by the Combaticons Brawl and Swindle, but were then miraculously saved by the living vines they had refrained from destroying moments ago. First Aid then used his decrystallizer cannon on the Decepticons, making them brittle enough for Streetwise to shatter with a burst from his compressed air cannon.
Apparently, First Aid's pacifism doesn't extend to virtual combat. Afterdeath!
First Aid was later displaced to limbo right before Bumblebee's eyes, in order to make room for Death's Head. Wanted:Galvatron — Dead or Alive!
First Aid later attempted to console a despondent Ratchet after the death of Optimus Prime. Funeral for a Friend!
While not seen on-panel being killed in the Underbase Saga, he was possibly deactivated in that battle, since he was next seen in a life support capsule as Optimus briefly considered using a Matrix fragment to revive him after Ratchet's disappearance. The Greatest Gift of All!
Generation 2
When Optimus Prime and Grimlock discovered the threat of the Cybertronian Empire, they called in Autobots scattered across the galaxy, including First Aid. And, when Grimlock chose to disobey Prime's directives and make a tactical first strike against Jhiaxus's ships, First Aid went with him. They were quickly found out and captured, though, leaving it to Optimus to bail them out of trouble. Devices and Desires!
Sometime later, First Aid was working with a science team alongside Perceptor and Wheeljack. They attempted to find out what had devastated the population of J'asik, down to the cellular level. Samples taken from the bodies helped the team identify the killer, known as the Swarm, as an offshoot of the Cybertronian race. Swarm
Dreamwave comics continuity
First Aid was on Cybertron with the other Protectobots when they decided to counter the threat of Devastator joining the Ultracon faction. Escalation
Millions of years later, the Protectobots battled Menasor as Defensor when the Stunticons escaped from a penal facility... and lost, big time. Passive Aggression Defensor later aided in the Autobot insurrection. Revelation After the Autobots regained power, First Aid and the Protectobots searched Shockwave's clone lab, finding Runabout and Runamuck barely alive, having been attacked by an unknown assailant. First Aid was seen administering medical help to the heavily damaged Battlechargers. Black Sunshine
IDW Comics continuity
First Aid was among the extraction team who located the damaged pair of Jazz and Tracks following their skirmish with the Predacons. He performed initial repairs on both of them, bringing Tracks back online. Spotlight: Jazz
Toys
Generation 1
- First Aid (Protectobot, 1986, 1991)
- Team ID number: P4
- Japanese ID number: C-75
- Accessories: "Photon pistol", "Dual-Barrelled Decrystallizer Cannon" with attachment piece
- First Aid transforms into a Toyota Town Ace/Lite Ace ambulance. Due to the requirements of transformation, there are some significant compromises in the appearance of the vehicle, such as the rather visible hinge joints for the front end and the big gap in the back of the ambulance to facilitate his knee joint. There is a 5mm peg hole at the back to attach his large "Decrystallizer Cannon" to this mode.
- As a Scramble City robot, First Aid can form the limb of any super robot combination, though his nominal place is as the left arm of Defensor.
- During the initial 1986 run, there were two variants; initial runs had a die-cast metal chest, while later releases used plastic. When the toy was reissued in the European-exclusive Classics line, the rubsign was removed, but the rubsign indentation remained.
- This mold was also used to make Safety from the Guard City giftset in the Operation Combination toyline.
Unreleased
- The Protectobots were to be released as part of the second wave of combiners in Generation 2. However, this entire wave was ultimately canceled for unknown reasons. First Aid was to be off-white with seafoam-green robot chest, gold robot parts and a different rescue/ambulance deco. Vanishingly few samples—less than a dozen—of this item made their way outside Hasbro, including some on-card samples, which give him the unit number "P2".
Trivia
- First Aid's pacifism is only demonstrated in the original cartoon. In the various comics he seems to have no problems fighting his enemies.
- Although the Protectobots in the Marvel comics are assumed to have been built on Earth (explicitly so in the UK), his advice to Ratchet after Optimus Prime's death sound like words of experience. Afterdeath!
