Tank Drone

Tank Drones are Vehicons from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Tank Drones are the brute force of Megatron's Vehicon forces. These deadly sparkless drones will destroy any Maximals in their path.

They were led by their general Tankor until his, ah, departure, and were led by whoever happened to be around thereafter.

Fiction

Beast Machines cartoon

Tank Drones were used by Megatron in his conquest of Cybertron. They were the first type of Vehicons encountered by Optimus Primal's Maximals.

The drones were granted a leader shortly thereafter when Megatron bestowed Rhinox's spark upon a Tank Drone, creating Tankor.

After the arrival of Strika and the Heavy Artillery Drones, the Tank Drones were put in reserve. They were mobilized when the Vehicons launched their assault on the Maximals in the Grand Mal.

Toys

Beast Machines

An army of one.

• Tank Drone (Basic, 2001)
  • Accessories: Energy-blast missile

The Tank Drone was released in the last wave of the Transformers toyline, as part of the "Battle for the Spark" subline. It transforms into a blue and grey Cybertronic four-tracked tank.

Pressing the spark crystal on his cannon connects the gear-wheel system on the underside of his tank mode, and pushing him forward causes the cannon barrel to spin. This in turn triggers a spring-loaded "energy blast" missile.

It hews more closely to the animation model than the Tankor toy released the year before, which may be why it was redecoed as Tankor for release in the Japanese Beast Wars Returns line several years later, despite being the smallest of the Vehicon toys.

This mold was also used to make Universe Stockade.

• More information on Tank Drone at TFU.info

Notes

• In the Japanese dub of the series, the Tank Drones inherited the vocal tick of Tankor, constantly chanting "DA-NA!!!" at all times.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Tank Drone (タンクドローン Tanku Dorōn)