Particle cannon

The particle cannon is Galvatron's weapon from the Generation 1 continuity family. It is also a human weapon in the IDW Publishing portion of that 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.

Fiction

Generation 1

IDW comics continuity

Particle cannons were used by Skywatch as lethal countermeasures in their campaign against the Transformers.

After Breakdown was captured by a team led by four crash suits, Spike Witwicky ordered the particle cannons on the supporting gunship armed in order to lure out any other Cybertronians in the area by giving the impression that Breakdown was about to be terminated. This worked, and oddly enough, Prowl attempted to come to the Decepticon's rescue, but was then disabled.

Later, particle cannons were used against the Autobots who attempted to rescue Prowl. Spotting one of the cannons being aimed at Hot Rod and Prowl, Ironhide hurled himself into the weapon's path, and died. ...For All Mankind

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.