Nightracer (G2)
| This article is about the Decepticon clone from Generation 2. For the Decepticon she was cloned from, see Nightracer (G1). |
- Nightracer is a Decepticon clone from the Wings Universe portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Female Decepticons were thought to have become extinct sometime during Cybertron's long history of war, among them, the original Nightracer. Her skill with a gun and especially as a sniper became legendary, and as the war grew and bled on into history, a myth. However, Jhiaxus had remembered the myth of Nightracer, and chose to clone her and re-create one of Cybertron's deadliest warriors. In particular, he chose to include her acerbic personality to see how his other clones, his 'Second Generation' of Cybertronians, would react, in order to overcome arising divisions. The cloned Nightracer firmly believes in Jhiaxus' goals of recreating the Cybertronian Emprire. At least, that's what she tells herself, since the original Nightracer's aversion to social interaction and bonds still shows through.
Her knowledge that she is a clone of the original Nightracer gives her serious doubts, often causing her to wonder whether the original Nightracer was faster, a better shot, or stronger. Poor self-doubting clone.
Fiction
The Allspark Almanac
Readers of Venus, a trans-dimensional magazine for Decepti-femmes, were invited to decide who was deadlier, Nightracer or Flamewar. The Allspark Almanac
Wings Universe
Nightracer is shown as one of Jhiaxus' "Second Generation" warriors. A Flash Forward, Part 3
Toys
Generation 2
- 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.
- 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.
Notes
- The original 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.
- Nightracer's colors weren't quite what Raksha had asked for: The lime-ish yellow plastic parts were supposed to be blue, but Hasbro had presumably told Raksha that the colors couldn't be changed.[1] A possible reason for this is that, due to the Generation 2 Go-Bots' gang-molded nature, Nightracer was actually made from spare parts that were left over from the production run of the Japanese releases of Go-Bots Optimus Prime, Megatron and Soundwave: Nightracer's "godawful yellow" is also the color of Soundwave's car shell. This would also explain the different wheels, which originally belonged to the Double Clutch/Mirage mold.
- Fun Publications, however, was not so concerned with any pesky legal issues, and made Nightracer an official part of Transformers canon by including her in the A Flash Forward storyline in Issue #45 of the Collectors' Club magazine. Nightracer's profile in the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 46 explains that the Nightracer making her pictorial debut in the accompanying storyline (and thus Transformers canon) is a clone of an unseen "original Nightracer." The cloned Nightracer in this story is depicted as having Raksha's intended blues instead of the toy's bright yellow.
