Thrust (Armada)

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

Thrust is a Decepticon from the Armada portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Now a regular on "Spongebob Squarepants"

Thrust is one of Megatron's higher-ranking Decepticon soldiers (and a total wack job). His occasional Mini-Con partner is Inferno, plus sometimes he commands the Air Military Mini-Con Team.

Fiction

Armada cartoon

Voice actor: Colin Murdoch (English), Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Márcio Seixas (Portuguese), Kai Taschner (German)

Thrust was a renowned tactician who joined Megatron on Earth in an attempt to improve his soldiers' relations. He picked his own Mini-Con parnter, Inferno, among the other Mini-Cons the Decepticons had locked up in the closet. Thrust had concocted a briliant plant to eliminate Optimus Prime by luring the Autobots into a gully with a fake Mini-Con signal. Then the Decepticons kept the Autobots under constant fire. Megatron then singled out Optimus, separating him from his men and the Skyboom Shield. This would have been the end of Optimus if Jetfire, Optimus's second-in-command, hadn't arrived and threw off Thrust's plans. Tactician Thrust then devised a new plan to both steal the Skyboom Shield and destroy Jetfire in revenge for his interference. Thrust lured Jetfire to an area above the ocean where he, Starscream, Cyclonus, the Air Military Mini-Con Team, and the Air Defense Mini-Con Team attacked Jetfire. Thought underestimating Jefire's reluctance to attack Mini-Cons, Thrust's force soon proved to be overwhelming for the Autobot vice-commander. And when the other Autobots appeared on a nearby island to assist Jetfire, Megatron led a small attack intent on stealing the Skyboom Shield. But once again, victory was stolen from Thrust by the unforseen. Optimus warped to Jetfire's location and Powerlinked with him, allowing him to defeat the Decepticons. Thrust, however, was amused by the new change and said that the war had gotten more interesting. Linkup

Thrust later told Megatron there was a reason why his plans haven't worked besides the unexpected turn of events from the Autobots. The Autobots were inferior to the Decepticons in all aspects except for their ability to work as a team. Megatron took this as a slight against his ability to lead and nearly sliced Thrust apart with the Star Saber. Thrust explained that the reason the Decepticons haven't been working together so well was because there was a lack of unity, while looking pointedly at Sideways. Sideways then determined that Thrust was a danger to his plan and manipulated Demolishor into thinking Thrust was going to overthrow Megatron and had him attack Thrust. However, Thrust had anticipated such an attempt and had Starscream tail Sideways when he made his report to whoever his leader truly was. Megatron then allowed Thrust to take Sideways on himself. Thrust would have destroyed Sideways if it weren't for the fact that Sideways transformed into a swarm of nanites and flew away. Detection Thrust led the Decepticons to some short victories and summoned the giant battleship Tidal Wave to aid them, but was quickly dethroned of his rank after his failures began to stack up. Awakening Hated by all the other Decepticons due to his superior attitude, Thrust began to shrink into himself and got more desperate to prove his power.

Eventually, Thrust joined Sideways with the lure of ultimate power, and managed to steal the three Mini-Con weapons that were the keys to reactivating Unicron's body. Thrust met his demise when he demanded Unicron attack his former master, Galvatron, only to have Unicron act totally unaware of Thrust's presence. Thrust fell into a seam on Unicron's surface which began to tighten and close as Unicron moved, and was crushed to death as Galvatron walked away.

Dreamwave comic continuity

Armada comic

Thrust was a somewhat cowboy-like entity that served the Decepticons loyally. He was devoted to Megatron, and followed his orders faithfully. Thrust first appeared via transwarp from Cybertron, carrying rocket boosters so the Decepticons could fly to the moon and capture the Mini-Cons stationed there.

Later, Thrust was sent to northern Alaska to back up Cyclonus, who was there to retrieve a fallen Mini-Con escape pod. First Thrust took a torch-blast to the face from Dune Runner of the Adventure Mini-Con Team, who was there to save his allies. Then he was knocked around by Cyclonus, who was feeling the effects of a triple-Powerlinx with the entire Destruction Mini-Con Team, which began to burn out his circuits and drive him mad with pain. When he finally came to, between Cyclonus' breakdown, the arrival of the Autobots, and Megatron using an orbiting solar scalpel to melt the ice that buried the escape pod, Thrust decided maybe he'd better get the heck outta Dodge.

Later, Thrust followed Starscream to a building lot in San Francisco, to investigate a weird transwarp disturbance. He got there just in time to get shot down by a herald of Unicron, who was seeking the refugee Mini-Con Over-Run.

When Megatron left to attack the Autobot base on Earth, Thrust was left behind to guard their Silver Ridge headquarters. He quickly had the crap kicked out of him by the other heralds of Unicron. Not a fatal beating, though, as he was repaired in time to journey back to Cybertron and face the planet-eater.

Energon comic

After the destruction of Unicron and the apparent death of Megatron, Thrust became a security officer in the new peacetime. When Starscream mocked the "rebel" Decepticons under Tidal Wave, his former comrade attempted to state his case that there were other Decepticons willing to fight, until Starscream pointed out that Thrust was happy with his "little sheriff's badge" and Demolishor never gave the rebellion a second thought. This Evil Reborn Later, Thrust joined Hot Shot's unit and defended Toronto, Canada from the Terrorcon Divebomb clones when they attacked Earth. When the revenant Megatron appeared and decimated the Terrorcons, Thrust tried to rejoin his former leader, but Megatron completely ignored him, warping to his next destination. Multiplicity, Pt. 4

Toys

Armada

"Heeheehee... flathead.... boy, I can really dish it out!"

• Thrust with Inferno (Super-Con/Deluxe, 2003)
  • Japanese ID number: MD-05
  • Accessories: 2 missiles

Thrust transforms into a dark green F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. In jet mode, he has two pressure-launch missile launchers, and a space to store his Mini-Con partner Inferno in his (Inferno's) truck mode. Aside from his robot mode, he also has an "assault" robot mode, which turns his torso around 180 degrees and extends his winged backpack; attaching a Mini-Con to the Powerlinx plug on his chest and pushing it up and down causes the backpack to move as a spinning blade.

This mold was also used to make Universe Sunstorm.

• Thrust and Thunder with Air Military Micron (Multi-pack, 2003)
  • Japanese ID number:
  • Accessories: 2 missiles

In Japan, Thrust was available both as an individual (well, with Inferno) and in a larger boxed set that also included the Air Military Mini-Con Team. There are no notable difference between the Japanese and US releases.

• Powerlinx Thrust with Powerlinx Inferno (Super-Con/Deluxe brown/blue version, 2003)
  • Accessories: 2 missiles

Part of the later-series "Powerlinx" line of redecos, Powerlinx Thrust got a new color scheme that was a "reversal" of the Generation 1 "conehead" Dirge, primarily light brown with dark blue and black accents.

The packaging for this release, however, showed him in a color scheme more like his G1 namesake, burgundy with black (and some bone-white accents). His coloration was changed to the brown-and-blue too late to change the packaging photography.

The change was made due to Takara choosing a mostly red color scheme for Demolishor (Demolishor's name in Japan was Ironhide and the color scheme was based on the G1 version of said character). Originally Hasbro had different plans for their redeco of Demolishor. But as a result, they changed their plans for Demolishor to match the animation, which was already based on Takara's products. Hasbro then thought there would be too much red on the shelves at the time, so Powerlinx Thrust's coloration was modified, as the figure would not appear on the cartoon. There are some similar colors used between the two versions of the toy, likely due to the quick change in scheme.

The thrust of Spawn.

• Powerlinx Thrust with Powerlinx Inferno (Super-Con/Deluxe 2003)
  • Accessories: 2 missiles

Although Hasbro at one point expressed interest in releasing a running change variant of Powerlinx Thrust that reflected the originally intended color scheme, they never went through with it, at least not on the North American market. However, Takara released red Powerlinx Thrust as a "USA Edition" in Japan, exclusively available at the Toy's Dream Project members store Toycard, in Hasbro packaging (Takara had previously also released a "USA Edition" version of Powerlinx Thrust in Hasbro's colors, this time exclusively available at Laox stores).

Curiously enough, Hasbro actually did produce a small run of red Powerlinx Thrust, but never released it on the North American market. Instead, the toy, in European packaging, popped up in Israel in mid-2004, later followed by sightings in Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The toy was even found in Australia, but only in stores that also occasionally sell toys imported from other countries, and again in European packaging. Furthermore, some of the European countries saw the toy being sold at instant discount prices, which suggests it was old Hasbro warehouse stock which had never seen a shelf release that was now being cleared out.

Notes

• Thrust's demeanor and speech in the Dreamwave Armada comics are very reminiscent of Beast Wars Quickstrike, to the point of him even using the phrase "What in tarnation?" in one issue. Amusingly, Colin Murdoch voiced both characters in each respective cartoon series. It is unknown if this was an intentional move on writer Simon Furman's part or simply a coincidence.

• Like the Generation 1 Thrust, the Armada incarnation is portrayed as a braggart. In fact, just before his untimely demise, the angry Galvatron tells Thrust that "You always did like the sound of your own voice."

• Thrust is frequently called derogatory nicknames by his fellow Decepticons, including the notable 'Squidhead' coined by Megatron.

External links

• Thrust at TFU.info