Particle cannon

The particle cannon is Galvatron's weapon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

File:GalvatronTVMag1.jpg

The particle cannon is Galvatron's primary weapon. It is attached to his right arm and is devastatingly powerful, as is to be expected from a weapon forged from the remains of Megatron's favoured fusion cannon.

Notes

• Galvatron's cannon was named as such in the UK comics, in which it was generally referred to as a particle (or particle-accelerator) cannon. His toy's instruction sheet names the weapon a "laser" which, according to the toy bio, "emits chemically-produced, direct-current electricity". The Marvel UK name seems to be taken partly as a reference to Megatron's fusion cannon and partly on the toy bio.

• The 2008 Universe Galvatron toy has a "firing particle cannon" callout on the packaging, adding weight to that being the correct name of the weapon.

• As noted above, Galvatron's toy bio descirbes his cannon as a "laser which emits chemically produced direct-current electricity". While this is a rather strange thing for a laser to do, it is a neat pun on his name. A galvanic cell, named after Luigi Galvani, is a certain type of chemical voltage source. Though Galvatron's toy's batteries are not galvanic cells, they do produce DC electricity chemically, making his toy one of the more fiction-accurate in the Generation 1 line.

• Just as Megatron's fusion cannon was sometimes shown in commercials to have a handle, Galvatron's particle cannon had a trigger on at least one occasion. Galvatron apparently doesn't need to use the trigger; however, several times in season three, he behaved as if he was, holding his cannon with his fist vertically, rather than horizontally, while having one finger in front of the others... go figure.