Flanker
- Flanker is a Micromaster from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Flanker (フランカー Furankā) is a member of the Wing Team, and a sniveling little punk. He likes to snipe at the weak and use the strong for protection, all the while schmaltzing up to alternately Chain Gun or Supersonic to improve his standing. All the while, he's planning to take leadership of the team for himself, though it's likely if he ever did achieve that goal, he'd last as long as a petrorabbit in a Sharkticon school.
Flanker combines with the Wing Team to form Sixwing.
Fiction
Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Micromaster
Flanker was one of several Autobot Cyberdroids who were mutated into Decepticon Micromasters by a mysterious dimensional shockwave. After the ship crash-landed on Earth, he and his fellow Decepticons began causing trouble. A New Transformer Legend Begins!! Shortly after the arrival of Sixturbo on the Autobots' side, Flanker joined his teammates to form Sixwing and attack the Autobots' base after a failed attempt by Missile Run to steal some Cyberdroid capsules. During the course of the battle, Sixwing took a blast from the Autobots' experimental Vaccine Program Gun, intended to return their original Autobot programming, but instead giving the Wing Team the power of the Berserker. Enter the Decepticon Sixwing!!
Later, Sixwing was routed by the newly-arrived Sixtrain, who used his "Red Mode" power to blast him into his components. The team fled, leaving the Autobots free to examine the Decepticons' excavation site near a dormant volcano. Once the Autobots dug up a pair of metal plates of Cybertronian origin, Chain Gun called for another attack to snatch the prizes, the team once again forming Sixwing. Sixtrain! Activate Red Mode!!
Operation Combination
Years later, Flanker (now an Autobot once again) and the rest of the Six-team Micromasters joined Guard City and the Road Corps in defending Earth from the forces of the Decepticon Führer Scrash. Operation Combination
Dreamwave Generation 1 comics continuity
The Decepticons Falcon and Flanker, pursued by the "Deluxe" Insecticons, ran across the Hot Rod Patrol and Race Track Patrol in neutral territory. Destined for Nothing Falcon was quickly killed in the confusion, but Flanker and the others were saved by the timely arrival of Groundshaker and his ATV, who ran off the monsters. The five Decepticons declined Groundshaker's offer for safe transport to Little Iacon. As the Autobots left, Shockwave arrived on the scene, explaining to them that his earlier dismissal of the Micromasters' concerns over fuel rations was perhaps rash, and that they were all free to do as they please. The Race Track Patrol chose to continue to Little Iacon, while Flanker opted to rejoin Shockwave. Once the others were out of sight, though, Shockwave quickly tossed Flanker to the Insecticons as a snack before their newest assignment. The Gray Race
Toys
Operation Combination
- Sixwing (Micromaster Sixteam, 1992)
- Japanese ID number: TF-02
- The original version of Flanker was available only as part of a Sixwing gift set in Japan, transforming into a Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" fighter jet (brilliant naming, huh?). He can also form either leg to any of the "kibble-jet" style of Six-Team, though his nominal placement is as the right leg of Sixwing. (He can form a rather stumpy and awkward arm as well, but requires the Sixturbo fists to do so.) The toy's larger connector socket is approximately 5mm wide, making Flanker compatible with Powerlinx ports. The original Six-Teams are considered among the more difficult Japanese Generation 1 pieces to find.
- This mold is also used by the Universe Aerialbot Fireflight.
Micromaster
- Flanker (Micromaster, 2003)
- Sixwing ID number: 5
- Accessories: Sixwing right footplate.
- In 2003, the entire Sixwing team was extensively redecoed as part of the third The Transformers: Micromaster assortment, in individual boxes with a number visible to show which mold was inside each box.
- Berserker Flanker (Micromaster, 2003)
- Sixwing ID number: 5
- Accessories: Sixwing right footplate.
- In every case of twelve Wing Team Micromasters, two of them were solid-white-plastic "Berserker" variations with purple Autobot sigils. All six Micromasters were available in this manner.
Notes
- Flanker, like all of the six-team Micromasters, had no individual bio information whatsoever until his Micromaster release a decade after his original Operation Combination release.
