Broadside (G1)
| The name or term "Broadside" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Broadside (disambiguation). |
- Broadside is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Broadside is a huge loser. He's the forgotten Autobot Triple Changer who turns into an aircraft carrier and an impossibly large "jet". Broadside also happens to be terrified of heights. And gets seasick on the water.
His life must suuuuuuck.
- Italian name: Mistral
- French-Canadian name: Navalo
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Broadside appeared as part of the Wreckers commanded by Springer in Cybertron, while they were been attacked at their Kalis base by the Legion of the Lost. Legion of the Lost!
Animated continuity
Voice actor: Bill Martin (US), Masashi Ebara (Japan)
Broadside had a troubled history in the animated continuity. A large Autobot spaceship that looked exactly like Broadside's jet mode appeared in Five Faces of Darkness, but was destroyed in the episode. In the following episode, The Killing Jar, a Quintesson scientist disguised his spaceship as Broadside and beckoned the Decepticon Cyclonus to come inside. For some reason, Cyclonus complied! His first confirmed appearance was in Thief in the Night, where he appeared in aircraft carrier mode. He fell on Devastator in Carnage in C-Minor, appearing in robot mode (albeit an old prototype design). In Grimlock's New Brain and The Burden Hardest to Bear, Broadside finally appeared in his correct robot mode.
Dreamwave comics continuity
During the first arc of Optimus Prime's tenure as Autobot Supreme Commander, Broadside was an enormous warrior, as tall as the special combiner teams, and supposedly nearly as powerful. He helped defend the Autobot capital of Iacon.
A few thousand years after that, Broadside, now the size of a standard transformer, is a member of the Wreckers fighting in the Tagan Heights. Most notably he organized the evacuation of his team when Devastator and Defensor where decimating the area. Possibly, Broadside had himself reduced after the signing of the Crisis Intervention Accords to keep his combat status nominal.
According to his DW "More Than Meets the Eye" bio Broadside was magically cured of his fear of heights and seasickness when Shockwave turned him into a triple-changer, but he still likes to complain about both anyway. (So basically in the DW-verse he's a whiner instead of a loser.)
IDW Comics continuity
Broadside is a member of the elite combat unit "The Wreckers." Broadside appears to be the teams strongarm, and is second only to Roadbuster for total armament. He is also quite large (easily the tallest Wrecker), solving some of the issues of his mass-shifting. Typically in the air he worked alongside Whirl and Sandstorm, while on the ground he worked with Roadbuster and Scoop. He appears not to have the animated continuity version's phobias. But then, there isn't really time to complain when an omnicidal Pretender is trying to kill you. Stormbringer
Toys
Generation 1
- Broadside (1986)
- Japanese ID number: C-85
- Broadside transforms into an aircraft carrier, and a rather unconvincing apparently-aircraft carrier-sized jet fighter. He carries a rifle and a small axe as weapons in robot mode.
Trivia
- Broadside has the distinction of having two animated character models, one based on a prototype toy that apparently went just short of production for some reason, and one based on the actual toy. The prototype design - which was used for the 1986 box mural, Carnage in C-Minor and his Marvel Comics appearances, albeit with a different coloration - features a head with antennae and a red humanoid face which appears to mounted on a horizontal pivot of some kind within the section of the aircraft carrier that folds back.
- According to Carnage in C-Minor, Broadside has quite a temper when it comes to his paint job.
- His italian name, Mistral, refers to a French Navy helicopter carrier and the Maserati Mistral, a Grand Prix car, not Chilean woman poet, Gabriela Mistral.
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