Nightracer (G1)

This article is about the Decepticon that was around a long time ago. For her clone from Generation 2, see Nightracer (G2).

Nightracer is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

I'm just a placeholder image, honest.

We don't know much about Nightracer except that she existed long ago, faded into myth, and was later cloned.

Fiction

Wings Universe

In 2012, Jhiaxus had the Battlechargers retrieve several personality components from within Cybertron, one of which was Nightracer's. A Flash Forward, Part 2

Toys

She's still waiting for her insignia to finish downloading.

• Nightracer (BotCon 1995)
  • Accessories: Rifle

Nightracer was a BotCon 1995 exclusive toy, with a confirmed at-convention run of only 298 pieces. A redeco of the Generation 2 Go-Bot High Beam, Nightracer uses the same base plastic colors and mold as the Go-Bots version of Bumblebee, but lacks the gold overcoat paint layer, and has silver paint on her face and engine as opposed to Bumblebee's black. She also uses a different wheel mold than Bumblebee. Each toy given at the convention was further modified with hand-painted blue stripes on the sides of the hood, and a custom-made Decepticon sigil sticker on the center of the hood.

She feels positively naked without her stripes. (FX version shown).

Several years later, a large batch of Nightracer figures were sold through WhizBang Toys, both on eBay and through WhizBang's toy shows, presumably Hasbro overstock. This version of the toy lacks the hand-painted details and Decepticon sigil sticker, obviously.

Aside from being the first toy specifically redecoed for use as a convention exclusive, Nightracer was also thought to be the first female Transformers toy to see North American release, however limited, until Freezon (released in 1985) was retconned to be female.

This mold was also used to make Robots in Disguise Crosswise.

• More information on Nightracer at TFU.info

Notes

• A screencap of Nightbird from the cartoon was used to represent the original Nightracer in the A Flash Forward storyline, since her head was a close fit and the art style matched the images of Soundwave and Frenzy next to her. According to Pete Sinclair and Jesse Wittenrich, the image wasn't supposed to be recognizable as Nightbird once it was obscured by Sky-Byte, but either Sky-Byte didn't cover her up in a way that would obscure her enough, or maybe we're just that good. She's not intended to be the same character as Nightbird.

• Nightracer's name, character, and biography never went through the Hasbro approval process—they were created by Raksha, host of the 1995 BotCon convention, who maintains that Hasbro has no legal claim on the character. The claim is shaky at best, due to the nature of derivative works, but Hasbro has yet to pursue the issue.

• In addition to her murky official status, Nightracer's toy doesn't clearly belong to any particular continuity- though she uses parts from G2 characters, BotCon 1995's banners and logos displayed only the G1 Autobot and Decepticon sigils, and she wears the G1 Decepticon sigil on her chest. Until her status is official one way or another, this Nightracer, and the original toy, is considered to be from the G1 continuity.