GT Units Online!

« Binaltech Chapter 4 »
GT Units Online!
Published in	August 2004
Story	Hirofumi Ichikawa
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

As the Binaltech battle for Earth heats up, Chip Chase helps the Autobots develop a new way to increase their manpower.

Synopsis

In response to the emergence of Binaltech Decepticons, the Autobot-human alliance fights back hard, constructing more and more Binaltech units for the battles ahead. There is just one problem: without sparks, the Binaltech units are useless, and there aren't enough Autobots on Earth to provide all the bodies with sparks! The Autobot's longtime human ally Chip Chase solves the problem by developing the "Genetronic Translink" or "GT System", which allows an Autobot's spark to be removed from the constraints of a single physical body and placed in subspace, from where they will be able to use communication links to control multiple Binaltech bodies at the same time. Smokescreen is the first Autobot to undergo the process, and it is a roaring success.

Notes

• This chapter of the Binaltech story was printed in the pack-in booklet included with the "Smokescreen GT" Binaltech toy. His participation in the project is noted in his bio and Tech Specs, rather than the story chapter itself.
• It's no surprise that Chip is the one to formulate a way to control Transformer bodies from afar, given that he that very thing himself in his very first encounter with the Autobots, in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Roll for It".
• The GT System is named in reference to the Robots in Disguise figure, "Mirage GT". That line already had a Mirage toy, and the "GT" suffix for this second Mirage had no explained meaning at the time, and so Ichikawa rolled the idea around to create the notion of a "GT" system that allowed a single Transformer to have multiple bodies.
• This story chapter is the first canonical mention of the longstanding fan concept of "subspace". This interdimensional emptiness was for years the default fan explanation for disappearing weapons and accoutrements and size changing, and while none of those attributes are credited to it here, later pieces of fiction under the Timelines banner would re-use the subspace concept and canonize many of the attributes fans had long ascribed to it.