Airazor (BW)

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

Airazor is a Maximal from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family. She was previously known as Wing Saber and sometimes referred to as the Chromia 10 Pilot.

Don't tell her to grow a pair, 'cuz she can and she will.

Primarily used for recon and surveillance due to her aerial alternate mode, Airazor's talents are a great asset to the Maximal cause. She's calm and confident, but also adventurous and brave, with a healthy supply of dry humor. Her aerial skill in either mode, incredibly sharp eyesight and steady aim make her a dangerous opponent.

Due to the circumstances of her "birth," she sees Rhinox as something of a uncle-figure and Cheetor as the sibling she never had. She devotes most of her efforts, however, to taming the wild yet gentle Tigatron. She shares his love for the beautiful planet on which the Maximals are stranded, and it is on this planet where their destiny will be forever intertwined.

“	She stoops to conquer!	”
—Airazor, "Call of the Wild"

Japanese name: Airrazor

Chinese name (Taiwan): Shén Yīng (神鷹, "God Hawk"), Yīng Nǚ (鷹女, "Hawk Woman")

French name (Canada): Aérolame ("Aero Blade", original toy), Serres D'Acier ("Talons of Steel", cartoon and Transmetal)

Italian name: Falcon (original toy), Falcon Lady (cartoon), Metal Falcon (Transmetal), Falco (video-pack release)

Latin-American name: Aguila ("Eagle")

Polish name: Brzytwozora

Portuguese name: Falcúria

Spanish name: Cuchilla ("Blade")

Fiction

Cartoon continuity

The Razor's Edge

Airazor was once a Maximal named Wing Saber. Back on Cybertron, she led a team of unstoppable female Maximals who had awesome special powers like all your favorite Autobots but totally better. With them, she once dressed up like servodroids, and she also fought the original Megatron, but it turned out he was actually someone else in a big Megatron costume. The Razor's Edge

Dawn of Future's Past

Tiger, you just hit the jackpot.

The Predacons who stole the Golden Disk were pursued by Unit 2, who was granted clearance from Maximal Defense Command to commandeer transport. The Maximal who would become Airazor was boarding her ship, the Chromia 10, when Unit 2 approached and demanded use of it. "Airazor" at first refused, but suggested she was open to... persuasion. The call of adventure captured her interest, and instead of handing over the Chromia 10 to Unit 2, she allowed him to hitch a ride, piloting it herself.

The Chromia 10 intercepted the Predacons' ship, the Darksyde, which was engaged in battle with the Axalon and guarded by a mysterious third ship. During the ensuing firefight, the Chromia 10 was badly damaged. Optimus Primal had "Airazor" and Unit 2's sparks remotely uploaded to blank protoforms in the Axalon's cargo hold, which saved their lives, but severely damaged their core mainframes. Dawn of Future's Past

This story is a retcon, as Airazor was originally treated as a newborn protoform in the Beast Wars animated series. Instead, here she is revealed to have been a Maximal who existed previously on Cybertron but ended up on the Axalon in a stasis pod, damaged to the point of not remembering any of her past.

Beast Wars cartoon

Voice actor: Pauline Newstone (English), Tetsuya Iwanaga (Japanese), Denise Reis (Portuguese)

Her stasis pod damaged upon crashing to Earth, Airazor was able to come online due to the genius of Rhinox and the bravery of Cheetor. Rhinox deftly operated the stasis pod's controls and Cheetor offered up his own components to repair it. Immediately out of the pod, she outmaneuvered and destroyed Terrorsaur. Her aerial beast mode, at the time, made her the only Maximal other than Optimus who could fly. The Spark

And the lady shall ride a tiger.

She and Tigatron started to team up more frequently, a prospect Airazor seemed to welcome, but Tigatron preferred to work alone. Their first big adventure together came when a flying island paradise was discovered. The island, however, was covered in booby-traps which were triggered by the use of energy weapons. Airazor rescued Tigatron when he was ambushed by Predacons on the island, but she was damaged badly. Tigatron carried her on his back, refusing to leave her behind. The island was ultimately destroyed, much to the sadness and outrage of Tigatron, and he would have secluded himself from the other Maximals further if not for Airazor's concern. The Trigger, Part 2

Soon after, the Predacons beat Tigatron to another stasis pod, reprogramming it and unleashing Inferno. Once again, Airazor tried to work with Tigatron, but, once again, he insisted that he work alone. Airazor commented that sometimes you can be too alone. She was right, because then Tigatron got shot up a lot. Nearing death, Tigatron was saved by the arrival of Airazor and Optimus Primal. Spider's Game

"I WONDER IF SLEEPING WITH AIRAZOR IS LIKE SLEEPING WITH A BIRD (Ah, net.eternal.questions...)

After the realization that the aliens who seeded their planet with traps and energon were returning to destroy it, the Maximals and Predacons entered a truce. Optimus Primal used Airazor to try to sneak Rattrap into the Predacon base to find out what Megatron was up to, but Megatron, of course, found them on his scanners and politely asked them to leave. Unbeknownst to Megatron, the ploy was a decoy for Tigatron's infiltration. Before the Storm The aliens arrived and a new alien structure was built, trapping Airazor, who was tortured. Optimus Primal forced his way inside, with the help of the Predacons, and traded himself to the aliens for Airazor. After Primal was scanned and briefed by the aliens, they transformed the planet's artificial second moon into a Planet Buster, which fired upon the planet, slowly igniting the unstable energon. Other Voices, Part 1

After the destruction of the Vok's Planet Buster, Other Voices, Part 2 Airazor and Tigatron left together to find the rest of the missing stasis pods scattered across the planet. Aftermath While on their search, the two Maximals discovered not only a remarkably beautiful valley, but a strange plant. As the two looked into each other's eyes and held hands in quiet celebration, the plant transformed into another Vok device, and as they clasped hands, declaring their love to exist beyond the throes of death, the two were absorbed and shot into space. Cheetor arrived, but was too late, and loudly protested the loss of two of his best friends. Other Visits (Part 1)

Airazor and Tigatron were kept in a form of stasis until near the end of the Beast Wars, when they were merged together into the powerful being Tigerhawk. Tigerhawk returned to Earth as the emissary of the Vok to stop the deterioration that the Beast Wars were causing to the timestream, his first act being to destroy the Darksyde, sending the Predacons scrambling. Tarantulas managed to capture Tigerhawk and removed the Vok's influence from his frame (and absorbed it into himself), letting Airazor and Tigatron's sparks inhabit Tigerhawk's body. Tigatron's voice was dominant, but Tigerhawk's personality and mannerisms were an amalgam of Tigatron and Airazor's. Other Victories

Shortly afterward, however, Tigerhawk was killed in a standoff with the Nemesis after Megatron retrieved it from the ocean floor. Nemesis Part 2

3H comics

Somewhere near the end of the first year of the Beast Wars, before the Planet Buster ignited the planet's energon, Airazor, Rhinox, and Cheetor overheard a battle between Fractyl and Packrat. Airazor ended up having to rescue Cheetor, who had darted off ahead of them and gotten blasted. After the battle was resolved, she and the other Maximals fled, pretending to be beaten by the timid Fractyl to increase his standing in Megatron's eyes. Ground Zero

WINGS UP WINGS DOWN WHO GIVES A CRAP

After the Beast Wars were over, Tarantulas, presumed destroyed, existed in a new, undead form that was fueled by his new Vok powers. The remaining Vok assembled warriors to end this threat, creating Primal Prime and giving new Transmetal bodies to the extant Sparks of Airazor and Tigatron.

After awakening a stranded stasis pod containing Ramulus, opening a second pod triggered an ambush by Spittor, Iguanus, Razorclaw, and a reborn Transmetal 2 Ravage. Airazor immediately saved Tigatron's life, knocking Spittor aside before Tigatron would have unwittingly come in contact with Spittor's body, covered entirely in cyber venom. This maneuver left her vulnerable to Ravage's gunfire, which knocked her out of the air.

The battle ended catastrophically, and Ramulus, Airazor, and Tigatron were forced to carry a critically-wounded Primal Prime back to the Ark after Tarantulas ripped the Matrix of Leadership from his chest. As Airazor and Tigatron conferred with the seemingly absent Vok, Airazor experienced great pains due to her battle wounds. But before she could explain, the Ark was under attack by Ravage and the Predacons. Primeval Dawn

Due to 3H Productions loss of the convention license, "Primeval Dawn" was never completed. It is telling, however, that Airazor was not present in the subsequently-placed "Wreckers" storyline. "Wreckers: Finale Part II" even has Tigatron awkwardly not answering Rattrap's query as to where Airazor is now. It is unclear for certain what happened to her in the interim, though it is probable that she died.

Transmetal Toy Bio

Thanks to her new body, Airazor has become a warrior that inspires absolute fear in the Predacons, thanks to her deadly armor-ripping talons. Her post has been adjusted to sea reconnaissance, in light of her vehicle mode. Transmetal Airazor Bio

The on-package bios of the Transmetal sub-line presented a micro-continuity where all of the characters receiving a new toy were transmetalized due to the initial quantum surge, instead of a select few.

Transformers Beast Wars: Transmetals Video Game

This game takes place in an alternate version of the second season of the Beast Wars cartoon.

Airazor is only accessible for game play in the Nintendo 64 version of this game.

Voice Actor: ??? (English), ??? (Japanese)

Airazor played a critical role in the Maximals' victory over the Predacons. However, when their enemies had all been taken prisoner, Airazor and Tigatron decided not to join their comrades in their journey to Cybertron. The two sparkmates would reside on prehistoric earth, observing as the planet recovered from the war. They nonetheless sometimes wondered about the other Maximals' fates and whether or not true peace could finally be found between Maximals and Predacons. Transformers Beast Wars: Transmetals

Each character possessed an alternate ending, displayed if the N64 version of the game was beaten with said character. Each character has only their own ending listed on their pages, see the other characters' pages for Airazor's fate in those outcomes.

Beast Wars Metals comic

From chick to guy and back to chick! (You're sure about that, right?)

Following the Quantum surge, Airazor, who is a girl, became a Transmetal. However, she was separated from the rest of the Maximals and was locked outside of their base during Quickstrike's counterattack. As she flew in, Sentinel's defenses began to fire at her. Rhinox attempted to shut Sentinel down, only to be stopped by Rattrap, who warned him that Sentinel was the only thing protecting them from Quickstrike's army of Cobra Soldiers and Scorpion Soldiers. Rhinox brushed him aside and shut Sentinel down, anyway. Airazor, who had been shot by Sentinel, swooped in for a crash-landing. Rattrap, feeling somewhat guilty, dove to soften her landing. Not long after this, Blackarachnia breached their defenses and took out both Rattrap and Airazor without effort. Rhinox saved her some time and appeared to shoot himself in the head. Feeling her job was done, Blackarachnia left as Quickstrike destroyed their base.

From a small section of the base that had been protected by a forcefield, Airazor aided Rattap and Rhinox in pulling Optimus Primal's spark from Transwarp space. As Rhinox brought his spark out from oblivion, Rattrap funneled it through a ray device while Airazor positioned a reflective dish. Primal's spark bounced off the dish and connected with his body (which was being held by Megatron at his base, the Hindenburg), resurrecting him as a Transmetal. Airazor, still injured from before, began to plummet to the ground. Primal rescued her, destroyed Megatron's drone army, and carried her off on his flying surfboard. Recovering, Airazor began to wonder where her "Tigatron-sama" was. Raise the Curtain for Beast Wars Metals!!

Later, Airazor's spark became separated from her body, with her body becoming host to a malevolent force. The evil Airazor did battle with Tigatron, who did not want to fight the robot he loved. With no other option, Tigatron gave the evil Airazor one of his katana and knelt down. As the evil Airazor struck him with the sword, the real Airazor's spark entered Tigatron's body. In cyberspace, the two embraced and vowed never to be apart again. As their sparks merged, they became Tigerhawk.

TransTech

Airazor, who transforms into a twin-nosed jet, is a police-bot within the TransTech city of Axiom Nexus. Gone Too Far

Toys

Beast Wars

File:Airazorbwtoy1.jpg

She should hang out with Override.

• Airazor (Basic, 1997)
  • Japanese ID number: C-10
  • Accessories: Blaster

Part of the first wave of year-two Beast Wars product, Airazor transforms into a somewhat generic falcon (or some other bird of prey) with opening beak. Unlike first-year Basics, Airazor's transformation is entirely manual, rather than spring-loaded. Pulling on the yellow-plastic feathers near her tail activates a spring-loaded wing-movement gimmick. Each wing also has a flip-out blade. Her tail hides both a heat-sensitive "energon chip" and a non-firing blaster that can be hand-held or mounted on the underside of either forearm.

• More information on Airazor at TFU.info

This took forever to photograph because the damn thing's ankles are looser than George Michaels. You're welcome.

• Airazor (Video pack-in, 1997)
  • Accessories: Blaster

The original Airazor toy was given a similar but darker redeco, and packaged with a VHS tape containing the episodes "Aftermath" and "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)". She retains all of her previous gimmickry.

• More information on video Airazor at TFU.info

• Aerial Showdown: Airrazor vs Kuwagaigar (Basic, 1997)
  • Japanese ID number: VS-10
  • Accessories: Blaster

For her (his) Takara release, Airazor was available both as an individually-boxed toy, and in an "Aerial Showdown" Vs-pack with Insecticon. Both toys were identical to their individual releases.

First American toy designed to be a girl from the start.

• Airazor (Deluxe Transmetal, 1998/1999)
  • Japanese ID number: C-44

Transmetal Airazor transforms into a mechanical falcon, with a third "seaplane" mold with fold-down pontoons. In robot mode, the chromed beast-mode backplate can fold around it for a "shield" mode. Some early releases of the Hasbro Airazor have much more lavender-hued chrome than the normal blue of later versions.

The Japanese version of this toy is largely identical, but the yellow plastics were replaced with a bright orange. The "AIRAZOR" tampograph on its chromed shields was also changed to "CYBERTRON" with the Maximal faction symbol.

This mold was also used to make Armada Airazor.

• More information on Transmetal Airazor at TFU.info

• Heatwave Showdown: Airazor vs Quickstrike (VS set, 1999)
  • Japanese ID number: VS-44

In Japan, Metals Airazor was available both as an individual and in a "VS" pack with Quickstrike. Both toys are identical to their individual releases.

• Airazor (Deluxe Transmetal, 2000)

One of the final releases of the normal Beast Wars line, Airazor's Transmetal toy was given a tweaked deco and released as part of the so-called "Fox Kids" assortment of Deluxe Transmetal redecos. This redeco was not as drastic a change from the original as the others in the series, mostly making her a little darker and more desaturated.

This version of Airazor was made available in Japan as a JafCon convention exclusive along with the "Fox Kids" versions of Transmetal Cheetor and Rattrap.

• More information on Fox Kids! Transmetal Airazor at TFU.info

Timelines

I am a symptom of the retroactive ruination of Beast Wars.

• Chromia 10 Pilot (Airazor) (Club exclusive, 2007)
  • Accessories: Missile

The second members-only exclusive to Fun Publications' Transformers Collectors' Club, Airazor is a redeco of Energon Slugslinger with a retooled head, transforming into a Cybertronic twin-cockpit jet. Her jet mode has an under-slung spring-loaded missile launcher (which flips over her shoulder in robot mode), plus she also has flip-out (non-firing) blasters as well.

• More information on the Chromia 10 pilot at TFU.info

Merchandise

• Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game (1997)

Airazor was one of the 24 beast warriors to receive a battle card representation for the Beast Wars card game.

Notes

Transman.

• Airazor's gender in the Hasbro line is due to Beast Wars story editors Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio's insistence. The original Airazor toy wasn't developed with a specific gender in mind, and Bob & Larry wanted a larger female presence in the show, and the Airazor toy seemed as good a choice as any. They requested the change early enough that the toy's packaging bio could have its pronouns changed to female (thank god). The later Transmetal version of Airazor was the first American-released Transformer mold created to represent a female character.

• In the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, Airazor was turned into a boy as a means to (hopefully) increase toy-sales. For the TV series, his relationship with Tigatron was played off somewhat differently to avoid complaints of homosexuality. Tigatron was presented as a samurai retainer with protective feelings towards his young ward; their closeness addressed in a "brotherly" sort of way. Despite that, there was still enough innuendo left-over for the gender-bending to become unsettling. The Japanese script's near-relentless "jokey" tone didn't help. And there was simply no way for the dub team to get past the sequence in "Other Visits, Part I" when Airazor and Tigatron stare into each others' eyes while holding hands and slowly leaning in for a kiss, so in that instance the dub team had male Airazor fully "come out" and begin to express his affection for Tigatron just before the two of them were abducted by the Vok. Japanese magazine editors, responding to letters from confused young fans, gently explained that "some people are just like that".

• In the case of the Beast Wars Metals manga, however, Airazor's female gender was retained, as was her romantic relationship with Tigatron. This was due to the fact that Airazor's Transmetal toy had an indisputably feminine build. Though her gender was restored, her personality underwent an overhaul, no longer resembling her tough, tomboy-ish Western characterization. Since Japanese entertainment does not cotton to strong female characters in Transformers (these are the people who turned Arcee into a secretary), Airazor was reduced to a helpless damsel in distress with a subservient and single-minded devotion to her "Tigatron-sama". Commence puke.

• Somewhat inexplicably, a number of the Italian toyline-specific names for various Beast Wars characters were only printed on the cardback for the Italian "video-pack" release of Airazor; the names do not even appear on the cardback for "video-pack" Razorclaw, who was presumably released in proximity to her, if not at the same time. The Italian names only printed on "video-pack" Airazor were: Insector (Powerpinch), Rapax (Lazorbeak), Vortex (Drill Bit), Anfibius (Spittor), Diablo (Snarl), Cannibal (Manterror), Tenax (Retrax), Dingo (K-9), and Bison (Bonecrusher).

• Transmetal Airazor is likely the first Transformer toy designed to intentionally represent a female character.

• The name of Airazor's ship in Dawn of Future's Past, the Chromia 10, is a reference to her original toy's Japanese ID number, and not to being "case fresh"... as is obvious from her dialogue.

• The Dawn of Future's Past Club exclusive toy is only sorta technically the second Club exclusive toy. She was actually shipped at the same time as Astrotrain, but he was the first toy advertised.

• Dinobot rarely appeared in the same episode as Airazor, and if so, rarely in the same scene. This is because the former does not understand female warriors unless they are trying to kill him.

External links

• Airazor - Beast Wars Transformers - Toy Gallery