Hosehead (G1)

Hosehead is an Autobot Headmaster from the Generation 1 continuity family. He is sometimes known as Horsehead.

"No, you take off!"

Hosehead... well, he's got a nice personality. He's a fine guy, kind and well-meaning, courageous and willing to carry out his dangerous search and rescue function. Sometimes he even does it quite well. But he gets very flustered under pressure, to the point that he can do as much damage as good. His binary bond with the Nebulan star athlete Lug seems to be improving this problem.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

"You killed him! He's dead! I'm a witness! Police! Police! My brother's a murderer!"
"I didn't do nothin'- take off!"

Before the war, Hosehead was a low-level microchip counter in a transistor factory. He left to join the Autobots to prove to himself that he could do something more worthwhile. Hosehead's Transformers Universe profile

Under unrevealed circumstances, Hosehead was binary-bonded to the Nebulan named Lug, and then taken prisoner by the Decepticons on Cybertron. As a field test for the new Decepticon lord Thunderwing, Hosehead was released free on Earth alongside his fellow prisoners Playback and Horsepower. Thunderwing was to hunt down and execute them in an uncontrolled environment. The Decepticon made the mistake of toying with his prey, however, killing Playback and then leisurely pursuing the others. Playback's death caught the attention of two Autobots from the Ark, Nightbeat and Siren. Horsepower was killed in the following combat, but the remaining trio of Autobots survived, besting Thunderwing with their wits, and became inseparable from then on as Hosehead joined the Ark's crew. The Big Shutdown!

We found this mouse in a bottle of YOUR BEER, eh. Like, we was at a party and a friend of ours - a COP - had some, and HE PUKED. And he said, come here and get free beer, or he'll press charges.

When the Autobots received a distress call from Earth's surface, Nightbeat assembled a combat team that included Hosehead, Siren, Landmine, Getaway, and himself. Under Optimus Prime's command, they rushed to Earth to help their fallen comrades, but there they found the Deathbringer, who had come to cleanse the planet of life. Ironically, Deathbringer was powered by the energies of the Creation Matrix, the very thing Prime had desired earlier to restore his fallen warriors, and it must be destroyed to save Earth! Hosehead and the others fought valiantly, but were getting slaughtered. Nightbeat used its own programming against it, and the Deathbringer destroyed itself, removing Hosehead and the others from further danger. Deathbringer

The Chaos-Bringer, Unicron was awakened and was headed towards Cybertron, but only the Creation Matrix could stop him! Even worse, the Matrix was fired into space inside the body of Optimus Prime and was presumed lost. To this end, Hosehead joined Siren and Nightbeat on a mission to Pz-Zazz, a planet in a star system where the Matrix might have landed. After getting caught in the middle of a gang war between Gutt and B'hgdad, he and Siren helped Nightbeat unravel the mystery of the planet's missing life-force, but were subsequently captured by Thunderwing. Bird of Prey! Hosehead proved able to resist Thunderwing's Mind Leech device, revealing nothing about the Matrix Quest, but Nightbeat wasn't as stalwart. Kings of the Wild Frontier. Hosehead and the others were freed when the device's equipment was damaged. They then worked together to stop Thunderwing's Matrix-powered rampage aboard the Ark. Hosehead deactivated the Ark's artificial gravity per Nightbeat's order, allowing suction to drag Thunderwing out of the ship. All Fall Down

There wasn't much to do. All the bowling alleys had been wrecked. So's I spent most of my time looking for beer.

In the aftermath of this showdown, Siren and Hosehead relaxed by watching televised murder mysteries. Later, Siren told Hosehead a joke he'd already heard. Eye of the Storm

Hosehead and the rest of the Earthbound Transformers were warped to Cybertron by Primus to do battle with Unicron, where their creator explained to them the history of their race. The Void! At Optimus Prime's orders, he manned a building-sized cannon, which he fired at the Chaos Bringer. On the Edge of Extinction! However, Hosehead was ultimately among the casualties of the battle; his wrecked vehicle form was shown among the dead. Still Life!

Marvel UK future timelines

In an alternate 2009, Hosehead was one of the Autobots who had to abandon Cybertron to Galvatron and the Decepticons after the Time Wars rebooted history. To make matters worse, their ship crashed on Earth after their leader, Rodimus Prime, was possessed by Unicron's corrupting influence. Hosehead and Doubleheader were seen taking a shot at the insane Rodimus, but their fire bounced off his "aura of evil" and he blasted right back at them. Shadow of Evil

Transformers Comic-Magazin

Horsehead [sic] was present when Powermaster Optimus Prime led the Autobots against the joint Decepticon leaders Shockwave and Megatron, who had tried to hijack the oil reserves of Alaska. He complained that there were too many Decepticons to fight, and that they needed to be picked off one-by-one. The Autobots drove off the Decepticons, but not before Quickmix shot a minibot because he turned off his targeting computer. Optimus then sat his troops down and explained to them the differences between Autobots and Decepticons. Transformers in Action: Attack at Dawn

Horsehead was among the Autobots monitoring the Decepticons from a distance when Megatron made peaceful gestures to Humanity in New York City, and had to tell Slapdash to stop shouting at the Decepticons.. The Autobots returned to the Ark and discovered that a statue of Snaptrap that the Decepticons had gifted to New York was actually Snaptrap in disguise. Snaptrap went on a rampage and the Decepticons used this distraction to attack various other targets. Optimus Prime led the Autobots to narrowly defeat this menace. Transformers in Action: The Troy Principle

Dreamwave comics continuity

"Fleshy headed mutant! Are you friendly?"
"No way, eh. Radiation has made me an enemy of civilization!"

During the Age of Internment, Hosehead remained free from Decepticon rule under Blaster and Perceptor's resistance cell. He was working with Nightbeat on a strike team to capture a member of the Aerospace Extermination Squadron for study. The Age of Wrath Pt.2 After two drones were destroyed, the final one suddenly reactivated and attacked them. Hosehead prevented the drone from executing Nightbeat, but it retaliated with a pulse that scrambled his circuits. Fortunately, Getaway attached the inhibitor claw onto the Aerospace drone, shutting it down. The Age of Wrath Pt.3

Dreamwave declared bankruptcy before the final result of their mission could be told.

IDW comics continuity

Stick Together

Toys

Generation 1

I was like a one-man army, like Charlton Heston in Omega Man. You ever see it? Beauty.

• Hosehead (Headmaster, 1988)

• Accessories: "Lug" Headmaster driver, seat/helmet, "Accelerator Rifle", left and right "Laser Pistols"

Hosehead transforms into a sweet fire truck of undetermined model. The area between the cabin and the rear of the truck has a seat that Headmaster unit, Lug, can sit on, but he can also be stowed inside the cabin itself. (This method isn't as secure, however.) The ladder base has a ratcheted joint, allowing it to rotate, while the ladder itself can extend out to 22cm in length and also has a movable compound nozzle. His head guns can be stored on the sides of the vehicle while his rifle can be plugged onto the ladder.

In robot mode, like all Headmaster toys, Hosehead has a flip-down panel on his chest which covers a spring-loaded mini-Tech-Spec-meter which gives readouts for Speed, Strength and Intelligence. The tumblers are activated when Lug (or any other Headmaster unit) is plugged into his neck socket. Lug has Hosehead's face plainly visible on his back because, as a smaller Headmaster toy, he lacks the flip-down panel featured on larger Headmasters. As another consequence of being a smaller Headmaster, Hosehead's chest cavity was apparently too small for 3 individual tumblers. As a result, all Headmaster heads inserted will display Hosehead's pre-molded (and painted) Speed, Strength, and Intelligence readings (5, 8, 6) on one large sliding plate.

This toy was released in Japan as the Headmaster Junior Cab, with little or no changes.

• More information on Hosehead at TFU.info

Notes

• For whatever reason, Hosehead's character model treats his "goggles" as a colorless transparent visor covering a pair of standard optic sensors, despite his toy having the same kind of outwardly-opaque visor as numerous other Transformers. Just more small Headmaster Autobot weirdness...
• In "The Big Shutdown!", the Marvel UK story which introduced Hosehead, neither Nightbeat nor Siren recognized him, and Hosehead even assumed Siren and Nightbeat were Decepticons until the truth was revealed. Apparently Hosehead never bumped into the other two when they were all on Nebulos getting Headmaster partners together.

Foreign names

• French: Boyau (Canada)

External links

• Hosehead's Universe profile at NTFA.net