Dion (G1)
- Dion is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
No? Oh. How about Hot Shot?
No? Oh. How about...
Dion is an earnest dock worker and best friend to Orion Pax. His is a simple life of manual labor, and he does not give a second thought to the stories that a war may be brewing around him. What does interest him are those new-fangled flying robots. Maybe someday he'll get to meet them...?
Fiction
Cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
- Voice actor: Corey Burton (English), Ken Shiroyama (Japanese)
Nine million years ago, near the end of Cybertron's Golden Age, it was Dion's job to haul energy and supplies in and out of the dock in which he worked. There were murmurs of attacks from new, flying robots, but he didn't believe those rumours.
Dion was honored to meet the leader of these enigmatic warriors, Megatron, until Megatron revealed his plan to rob their dock of its energon stockpiles and ordered the Decepticons to attack. Witnessing Megatron strike down Orion and Ariel, another friend and Orion's girlfriend, Dion ran (seemingly straight towards the attacking Decepticon warriors for reasons unclear), but was quickly mowed down by a shot in his chest.
The time-traveling Aerialbots carried Orion Pax to Alpha Trion for repairs, and Dion's friend was rebuilt into Optimus Prime. Drones were sent back to retrieve Ariel,it is beleived that he died.>[http://www.tfviews.com/news/main/hasbro-q-and-a/1024 TFviews June 2010 Hasbro Transformers Q&A</ref> War Dawn
Timelines: Wings of Honor
In a similar but divergent timeline, Dion definitely survived Megatron's raid on storage yard 67, but just barely. Once reactivated, and now fully knowledgeable of the extent of Megatron's evil, he signed up for the Elite Guard, since he believed he'd lost everything he'd previously known to war. Dion was assigned to Metalhawk's team, he and determined to fight Decepticons by any means necessary.
Dion's new twin flame launchers utilize a "reverse-Higgs Mechanism" to "decouple energy from matter," which makes things very destructible. Though rebuilt, he can still modify his arms to accommodate the need to carry heavy objects, a skill he possessed as a dock worker. Unfortunately, his new shoulders kind of lock up, which restricts his arms' movement. Dion's "Wings of Honor" profile
On Dion's first mission, he, his commander Metalhawk, and his teammates Over-Run and Ironfist allied with Thunderclash's Elite Guard team to fight a plague of Virulent Clones. Getting covered with Insecticon goop was not exactly what Dion had in mind for his first foray into action, but nevertheless the clones were defeated.
They all relaxed for a bit, until a call from Magnum bleeped over Thunderclash's comm, informing them that Metalhawk's squad had to ferry Thunderclash's squad to Space Port Bravo straightaway. Dion and Kup helped load their gear onto the Hawk's Claw, then they disembarked.
Once at the spaceport, the two squads bid their goodbyes. Kup told Dion that he'd make sure to share any stories he came across with the "lad". When Dion reacted to the nickname by pointing out Kup wasn't that much older, Kup said it was just the first time he got to meet a younger Elite Guard member.
After Thunderclash's squad left, Dion's squad speculated where they'd end up next. The others expressed a wish for something quiet, and Dion teased them that he actually looked forward to getting to beat up Decepticons. When Over-Run chastised Dion's eagerness by asking if the younger bot had ever seen a Decepticon up close, Dion stalked off angrily, much to Over-Run and Ironfist's confusion.
The squad eventually reboarded their ship and headed to Elite Guard HQ. There they were highly praised for their performance by Magnum, and assigned to a new mission—assisting a new special ops team in attacks against the various Decepticon leaders. The Coming Storm: Part 2
Dion was unimpressed with Sentinel Major's play-on-words: Combaticons "to Combat the Decepticons", but let the matter drop as the two units reported to Comm Officer Big Bang for their next mission. The two teams were being assigned to a civilian historical dig in Median to assist in demolition and excavation, as part of Magnum's ongoing efforts to curry favor with the civilian council (and keep them from interfering in more serious Guard business).
The diplomatic cakewalk soon turned out to be anything but. The historians expected to be under siege soon by a gang of Decepticon wannabes, who wanted the prize of their research: an urn containing the Heart of the Dragon. According to uncovered data, the Heart was apparently a spark of unprecedented innate power, able to reformat any normal Cybertronian form it resided in into a living engine of destruction. Dion and the Elite Guard had been requested in order to bolster the meager defensive fortifications that Security Chief Strika had assembled for the historians.
As they prepped the outer wall for attack, Dion engaged in a little star-gazing, dreamily recollecting stories of the Covenant he had heard as a protoform, like when Leonicus and Scorpius battled the dreaded ice-demon. Dion drew a few funny looks from his comrades, though, when he started mumbling aloud about how cool Scorpius's fire-breath was. Once the Guard finished their preparations, they separated into two groups to settle in for the Decepticon attack. Dion was teamed with Metalhawk, Swindle, Blast Off, Over-Run, and the eager historian Lancer as the second front. After Onslaught's team wasted Roadgrabber, the Decepticons' advance striker, Dion's unit got the drop on Rage and the Stormtroopers who followed through after Roadgrabber. Rage surprised Metalhawk with his stasis chemical cannon, though, and the Stormtroopers swooped past Dion and the Guard once their leader was rendered inoperative.
The defense of Median turned into a fiasco after that, with casualties on both sides as the archaeometrist Glyph was killed by one of Rage's raiders, Aquablast, who was killed in turn by Lancer. Rage got away with the Heart, though, and the Elite Guard soon tracked him back to his mobile fortress, the Metrotitan. The Guard were assaulted by Rage's stable of Minotorons, cybernetic mechanimals of great size and poor disposition. Dion came up with the idea of using the Tressian Kajiga-whatsits Swindle have scavenged earlier to overwhelm Buffalo Dump and the bulls with amplified sound. His plan was successful and the Minotorons were sent retreating back to the Metrotitan.
Thinking quickly, Dion, Swindle and Blast-Off lept into the rear pails of the fleeing mechanimals, gaining quick and easy access inside the Metrotitan. Using his duro lifters and booster units, Dion broke out of the pens and helped his fellow Autobots make their way inside. By this point, however, Rage had already installed the Heart of the Dragon's laser-core in a new body, birthing the powerful (if micro-sized) Brimstone. The Elite Guard played cat-and-mouse with the dragon inside Metrotitan until a combination of Ironfist's explosives cache and the dragon's own atom-smashing flame breath destroyed Brimstone from the inside out. Flames of Yesterday
Dion's strike team continued to work with the Combaticons over the following weeks, and the two groups began to gel well together. After several successful missions, they separated after eliminating the Decepticon faction leader, Shadowcaster. The Coming Storm: Part 3
Who is Dion?
Fan speculation
Orion Pax and Ariel were rebuilt into Optimus Prime and Elita One respectively, so for decades many fans speculated that Dion was also rebuilt into a familiar character. However, there are no hints within the episode itself, other than that Dion was Orion's best friend. Regardless, the fandom loves its patterns, and thus the most popular suggestions are Ironhide and Ultra Magnus.
Some think the debate is irrelevant, believing Dion most likely dead and inconsequential, and possibly a casualty that hit close to home in Optimus Prime's early years as Autobot leader. After all, no specific mention is made of him in the episode after he is shot, but Ariel is mentioned repeatedly.
The reason for this is that writer David Wise originally intended for both Ariel and Dion to die in order to add some weight to the episode. Upon reading the script for "War Dawn", colleagues of Wise made the connection between Ariel and Elita One (a character whom David Wise did not know of) as love interest of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime.[1] This saved Ariel's life in the final product, as it was an obvious idea to have her rebuilt into a soldier alongside Orion. Any similar connection for Dion was never made, though the resulting conclusion on his fate in the episode gets into the realm of authorial intent.[2]
Other continuities
In later years, many unrelated or tangentially related continuities would include nods and references to the fan theories about Dion's ultimate fate:
- In the Robots in Disguise animated series, it's stated that Alpha Trion built both Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, a likely nod to the Generation 1 cartoon. Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!
- In the Dreamwave comics continuity, Ultra Magnus leads Security Team Dion, another nod. New World Order
- In the IDW comics continuity a robot that is a hybrid of the "Orion Pax" and "Optronix" designs appears listening to Sentinel Prime's speech at the funeral of Bumper and Fastback. Standing with him are Elita One, Alpha Trion, and a white version of himself. This may be a reference to the proposed Orion-Ariel-Dion/Optimus-Elita-Magnus identifications. Megatron Origin #3
- In the Dreamwave More Than Meets The Eye reference books it is mentioned in Alpha Trion's profile that he shares a "special bond" with both Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime. This is possibly a hint that he rebuilt Ultra Magnus as well, given that his bond with Optimus began when he rebuilt him and as a result, Optimus looked up to him as a father figure.
However, because all of these easter eggs take place in different continuities from the Generation 1 cartoon series, they are not directly relevant.
Special mention should be made of the Timelines story "Wings of Honor." As this story occurs in a continuity that is "VERY similar to the original G1 toon, though it is different enough to allow us some leeway in the overall story telling,"[3] it may have more relevance to the question of Dion's identity than other continuities. This story makes the wild assertion that Dion is... Dion. Well played, Fun Publications, well played!
The official word
In the second volume of The AllSpark Almanac, an "Ask Vector Prime" section dealt with the problem by ducking the question. When asked if Dion was rebuilt into anyone, the enigmatic cosmic entity replied "Which Dion? Celine Dion? I loved Titanic."
Twenty-five years after the episode aired, Hasbro weighed in on the question. When asked point-blank what Dion's fate was in an online Q&A session, their response included the following unequivocal statement: "Dion was never rebuilt into any other character."[4]
Toys
Generation 1
- Orion Pax (E-Hobby, 2005)
- Japanese ID number: 67
- Dion is an extensively-painted redeco of the Mini Vehicle Wheelie, transforming into a yellow and blue Cybertronic car. His windshield is cast in transparent plastic, as opposed to the original toy's opaque gray plastic.
- He came packaged with Orion Pax and Barrelroller as part of an e-Hobby-exclusive multi-pack.
- More information on Dion at TFU.info
- Orion Pax at TFU.info for the one sentence that makes up Dion's profile
Timelines
- Dion (Deluxe, 2010)
- Accessories: Left & right tailpipe-cannons, 2 "flame" missiles
- Elite Guard Dion is a redeco of Henkei! Henkei! Hot Rod (itself a retool of Universe Hot Shot) in orange and blue, transforming from a sleek Audi TT-like hot rod sports car into a fully poseable robot. He comes with "Micromaster" Cop-Tur, a redeco of the gang-molded Mini-Con Jolt, plus two springloaded flamethrowers. In robot mode, these flamethrowers can be mounted on his forearms or pegged into his fists. In vehicle mode, they plug under the vehicle as dual exhaust pipes. Cop-Tur can plug into the back of Dion's vehicle mode spoiler or on Dion's shoulder via his Mini-Con connection point.
Dion doesn't have shoulder pain, but carpal tunnel.
- Dion's bio (though not his instructions) also officialized an extra feature originally conceived by fans while playing with the Hot Shot version of the figure: the two chunks of car kibble on his shoulders can be popped off and pegged into the holes in his forearms, creating a pair of "boxing glove"-like fist-weapons. In Dion's case, the bio identifies these as "duro-lifters" used for his warehouse work.
- Dion was free to all Transformers Collectors' Club members who joined before the end of March 16th 2010. He was the first club exclusive freebie to ditch the small Club Membership card in favor of a larger bio card more in line with those that accompany BotCon exclusives.
References
- ↑ Interview with David Wise
- ↑ Moonbase2 interview with David Wise
- ↑ Collectors' Club forum thread
- ↑ [http://www.tfviews.com/news/main/hasbro-q-and-a/1024 TFviews June 2010 Hasbro Transformers Q&A
