Powerglide (G1)
- Powerglide is an Autobot in the Generation 1 continuity family.
Powerglide, unlike most Autobots, can fly under his own power, and it goes straight to his pointy head. Give him any excuse and awaa-aa-aay he goes, dashing off into the stratosphere at 500 mph -- but not in a straight line. No, Powerglide is an aerial acrobat, able to perform stunts other Transformer planes would never dream of. Barrel rolls, tail stands, death spirals, screaming 3200-mph powerdives: none of these are too tough for this Autobot barnstormer, and if he has an audience, be they friendly or enemy, he is guaranteed to put on the air show of their lives.
Yet this seeming frivolity has saved his life countless times in combat. Powerglide is lightly armed with small concussion bombs and a nose-mounted thermal beam, and the former is practically useless in the air. Furthermore, his speed and power, impressive as they are, are vastly outclassed by most aerial Decepticons. Like the flying aces of World War I, Powerglide resorts to dogfighting maneuvers, using his flying skills to confuse and evade the enemy. This tactic works very well.
In fact, Powerglide's skill only aggravates his greatest weakness. He is good, and he knows it, and he misses no chance to show it. If this means he will seek out ever tougher foes to prove his mettle -- then he'll do that, even if it kills him. Some day, it might.
- Greek name: Keravnos (Κεραυνός)
- French-Canadian name: Survolo
- Italian name: Jumbo
- Hungarian name: Motorszárny (Motorwing)
Fiction
Animated continuity
- Voice actor: Michael Chain (US), Hirotaka Suzuoki (Japan)
Powerglide was a brash barnstormer with a penchant for spouting gung-ho sayings like "And awaaa-aaa-aay we go!". He literally appeared out of nowhere to save Spike Witwicky when the boy had been thrown overboard Megatron's spaceship, after the latter's plan to use a clone of Optimus Prime to destroy the Autobots failed. A Prime Problem
Bumblebee and Powerglide were sent on reconnaissance mission to investigate some strange energy readings out at sea. Inside the temporal anomaly, they discovered a prehistoric island inhabited by dinosaurs. Powerglide had to save Bumblebee from an aggressive pterodactyl then attempted to repair Bumblebee's damaged jetpack, before abandoning it and flying Bumblebee off the island. Later, after it was decided that the Dinobots should be relocated to the island, Powerglide led the large brutes and Spike to the island. After Spike unwittingly got himself into several dangerous situations, Powerglide flew him back home. Dinobot Island, Part 1
After Megatron demanded Optimus Prime's surrender in exchange for Elita One, Powerglide was among the Autobots who followed him to Cybertron. Once there, he was disbelieving of Starscream's claim that Optimus Prime had been destroyed. During their vengeful attack on the Decepticons, Powerglide met up with his girlfriend, Moonracer, who thought Powergide was awesome. The Search for Alpha Trion
Soon after hooking up with Moonracer, he was somewhat smitten with the fleshling female Astoria Carlton-Ritz after saving her from the Decepticons. They went on a date or two, but (fortunately) the only lasting result was a series of flashing lights under his chestplate in the form of a stylized heart. What purpose this served (other than being disturbing) is not immediately clear. The Girl Who Loved Powerglide
After thoroughly embarrassing himself by accidentally destroying several sets and props in an attempt to show off, Powerglide was among several egotistical Autobots who demanded to be given a role in a movie that Hoist was starring in. Initially, his "role" amounted to crashing into a STORE while in jet mode (supposedly to stop "the crooks"). Soon afterwards, Powerglide and the other would-be-actor Autobots asked Hoist to talk to the Director to get them some "real" acting roles. After reworking the movie into Attack of the Evil Alien Robots, the Director had the Autobots given cheesy alien face masks. Powerglide remarked that the role was "the pits", and that he would rather do the stunt crashes. In a later scene, Powerglide demonstrated his rather wooden acting "skills". Guess he was better suited for stunts. Hoist Goes Hollywood
Powerglide appeared to have been destroyed during a disastrous Autobot attack on the Quintessons led by a resurrected, reprogrammed Optimus Prime. Dark Awakening However, he was later among the Autobots who attempted to stop Scourge and Starscream's ghost from stealing Metroplex's eyes, so he must have gotten better. Unfortunately, a blind Metroplex accidentally shot him down, but Warpath saved him. Ghost in the Machine
Note: The above appearance in "Dark Awakening" is likely a result of a careless animation team using the animation model of Powerglide to represent an Autobot spaceship rather than Powerglide himself, as the footage of "his" destruction is used twice during the battle sequence.
Marvel Comics continuity
- (Note: Events in italics occurred only in the Marvel UK books.)
Powerglide was a member of Perceptor's resistance cell on Cybertron, and was on hand to lift Blaster to safety out of the smelting pool. Shortly thereafter, he and the rest of the cell were transported to Earth over the Space Bridge, where they were greeted by aRAAT crew. The Bridge to Nowhere! They were captured with the help of Circuit Breaker and disassembled. The Autobots were only released after Circuit Breaker was forced to elicit their aid to defeat the Battlechargers. Decepticon Graffiti!
Following Skids back to the Ark, Powerglide and the others got lost after their guide spontaneously vanished into limbo. Even worse was the reason for the disappearance -- Galvatron had returned to the present. Unlike most of his fellows, Powerglide actually managed to get a good shot in before Galvatron knocked the circuits out of him. After the battle, Perceptor's team finally managed to reach the Ark, and were assimilated into Optimus Prime's soldiers. Fallen Angel
Unfortunately for an action junkie like Powerglide, the Ark crew dropped out of the war shortly after he joined. With Prime dead Grimlock took over, and the Dinobot commander wasn't interested in fighting the Decepticons to protect humans any more. He begged the renegade Blaster to overthrow the cranky T-Rex and end his boredom, but it...didn't pan out. Spacehikers! Eventually, Optimus Prime returned and the Autobots become active again, but Powerglide was shot down in battle by some Decepticon aerial aces, including the ever-frightening Buzzsaw. Dark Star! He was identified as deactivated several weeks later. Yesterday's Heroes!
Dreamwave comics continuity
Powerglide was operational during the early days of the war, and was seen in Iacon shortly after Sentinel Prime's demise. The War Within, Part 2
In the modern era, Powerglide was a member of one of the later-formed Autobot resistance cells on Cybertron, in communication with Smokescreen and Tracks along with several other Minibots. Countdown to Extinction He participated in the final insurrection which threw Shockwave and his Decepticons out of power on Cybertron. Afterwards, he was assigned to Bumblebee's command and traveled to Earth on a supply run aboard the starship Orion. Night of the Combaticons Their simple supply mission ended with heavy combat against the amazingly-powerful clone, Sunstorm. The Autobots, in a fit of temporary insanity, decided to ally themselves with Starscream in order to deal with this threat. Powerglide might have raised a complaint to being assigned to guard their new "partner", but Starscream betrayed them and deactivated Powerglide's unit so fast, it's hard to be sure he even had a chance to speak up. The Omega Effect
Ratchet presumably got him back online in time to help with the construction of Autobot City.
Toys
Generation 1
- Powerglide (Mini-Vehicle, 1985)
- Japanese ID number: C-62
- Powerglide transforms into an A-10 Thunderbolt ground-strike plane. He is notable for being one of the earliest Autobots with an aerial alt-mode.
- Minibot Team (Multi-pack, 2004)
- Japanese ID number: TFC-12
- Powerglide was reissued in a "Transformers Collection" six-pack with Bumblebee, Cosmos, Gears, Huffer and Warpath. With the exception of an added faction sigil sticker, there are no notable differences between the original and the reissue versions.
Universe (2008)
- Powerglide (Ultra, 2008)
Trivia
- Classics Fireflight, a redeco of Legends of Cybertron Jetfire, was originally intended to be Powerglide, but Hasbro apparently could not secure the name.
- Powerglide makes an appearance in one of the five Transformers public service announcements, speaking out against gender discrimination. (If that's not irony, I don't know what is.)
