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.

Every mode is a loser.

Broadside is a huge loser. He's the forgotten Autobot Triple Changer who turns into either a tiny aircraft carrier and a jet, or an impossibly large "jet" and an aircraft carrier. Broadside also happens to be terrified of heights. And gets seasick on the water.

His life must suuuuuuck.

Fortunately, as one of the Wreckers, Broadside is almost constantly shooting the slag out of Decepticons, which is probably a good outlet for any frustration.

Italian name: Mistral

French-Canadian name: Navalo

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Events from the UK-only comics are in italics.

Broadside was present to watch Blaster and Grimlock duke it out on the moon. Totaled!

Broadside appeared as part of the Wreckers commanded by Springer on Cybertron, while they were been attacked at their Kalis base by the Legion of the Lost. Legion of the Lost! Following the Time Wars, Broadside become one of the Survivors.

Cartoon 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 leader of the Autobots, 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. The War Within

A few thousand years after that, Broadside, now the size of a standard Transformer, was a member of the Wreckers fighting in the Tagan Heights. Most notably, he organized the evacuation of his team when Devastator and Defensor were decimating the area. Possibly, Broadside had himself reduced after the signing of the Crisis Intervention Accords to keep his combat status nominal. The War Within: The Dark Ages

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 was there. He saw it happen. The conquest of Kaon. The fall of a Prime. The beginning of the Great War. Broadside was there, and amazingly well armed for such a "peaceful" period, though perhaps he took a clue from Sentinel Prime. Either way, the huge old bot was one of the survivors who managed to evacuate before Megatron's takeover. Megatron Origin

Presently, Broadside is a member of the elite combat unit "The Wreckers". Broadside appears to be the team's 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

A loser in three modes.

• Broadside (Triple Changer, 1986)
  • Japanese ID number: C-85
  • Accessories: Plasma pulse gun, Vibro-axe, 2 missiles

Broadside is the most blatantly out-of-scale Transformer ever. He transforms into an aircraft carrier and a rather unconvincing, apparently aircraft-carrier-sized jet fighter. He carries a rifle and a (comparably) small axe as weapons in robot mode. Two non-firing missiles attach to his wings in jet mode.

Trivia

Awesome...no wait, the opposite.

• 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 could be seen in a European toy catalog, at right—was rendered in animated form only in "Carnage in C-Minor" and the commercial for the 1986 Triple Changer toys, where it featured a different color scheme that appeared to be derived from the actual finished toy (lacking the prototype toy's blue). The prototype design also appeared in the 1986 package art mural, and was consistently used for Broadside's Marvel Comics appearances, colored to resemble the prototype toy, blue and all.

• 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 Grand Prix car Maserati Mistral, not Chilean woman poet Gabriela Mistral.

External links

• Broadside at TFU.info
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.