Kickback (G1)
- Kickback is a Decepticon Insecticon in the Generation 1 continuity family.
Kickback is one of the most charming, likable beings you're ever likely to meet. He collects friends the way others do energon cubes. Scratch the surface though and you find a manipulative blackmailer that loves digging up dirt on his new "pals" to force them to work for him. Humans are particularly likely to fall prey to his honeyed words. In insect mode his super-charged legs allow him to jump great distances and kick through solid steel, though he's vunerable in that mode when attempting to fly through high winds.
- French-Canadian name: La Raude
- Italian name: Atrox
Fiction
Animated continuity
- Voice actor: Clive Revill (US), Toshiro Ishii (Japan)
Kickback, Bombshell and Shrapnel landed on Earth in their own space pod before the Ark crashed to Earth. (It is unclear whether this pod was launched from the Nemesis or not, as the dialogue seems to suggest maybe it was, but the Insecticons and Megatron's Decepticons do not seem to know each other.) Their pod crashed into the region that would become known as "Demon Swamp" and their computers adapted them to transform into insects and eat organic food to survive. The "Insecticons" apparently lived in the swamp for millions of years until discovered by Megatron's Decepticons. They form an uneasy alliance with Megatron, never coming fully under his command but working with the Decepticons when they could be convinced there was something (usually food) in it for them.
The Insecticons in the Cartoon were able to create vast clone armies of themselves at will, a formidable ability that may have been the reason they were able to maintain their autonomy from Megatron.
Marvel Comics continuity
Kickback was one of Lord Straxus's warriors operating out of Polyhex and, without realizing it, barely escaped being killed by the Wreckers in Operation: Volcano. He was later summoned to Earth by Megatron, and became an Insecticon alongside his partners Shrapnel and Bombshell.
Dreamwave comics continuity
Forthcoming.
IDW Hearts of Steel continuity
Kickback, Bombshell, and Shrapnel rob a train carrying cash and bullion from the Denver Mint, on Starscream's orders. They deliver the stolen property to Starscream and Tobias Muldoon the following morning.
Kickback forms one end of the "Insectrain" (as it is called in the concept art); the front end, in its one appearance. He has piledrivers mounted to force other trains off the tracks. Hearts of Steel, Part 2
Toys
Generation 1
- Kickback (Insecticon, 1985)
- Japanese ID number: 40
- Kickback transforms into a robotic grasshopper/locust. He doesn't do a whole lot more than that.
- The mold has gone through a few variations, primarily in the chromed-silver wings. Original versions only had a single rubsign indent, on the outer right-robot-mode wing. Later versions not only added indents to all four faces of the wings (for symmetry, apparently), but shortened the wings as well.
- This mold was used to make the Shothole drones.
- Insectrons ("Bookbox" multi-pack, 2004)
- Japanese ID number: 16 (full set)
- Kickback was released as part of the Japanese Transformers Collection series in a set with Bombshell and Shrapnel. This set also included three energon cube accessories that fit inside their chest compartments.
- In Japan, Kickback and the other Insecticons were "re-released" as mail-order items from 1987 through 1988. They each cost 880 yen (their normal retail price) and two robot points.
- The Kickback in this set has another change to the wings; this time, the "safety circle" at the wing-tip added by Hasbro back in the day is no longer present; the wings also go back to having a single rubsign indent.
Merchandise
- Kickback (Decoy, 1987)
- Kickback was one of the Decepticon Decoys packed in with smaller carded Transformers toys. While the normal purple version could come on any Decepticon toy, the rarer red version was available only on Throttlebot cards and only for a short while before the switch to purple.
- Destron Hero Collection-22 Set (Decoy multi-pack, 1987)
- The entire run of twenty-two Decepticon Decoys were sold as a single boxed set in Japan, only in purple.
Trivia
- Kickback --like the other Insecticons-- was originally a Diaclone "Waruder Battas" evil alien piloted mech in different colors... which were eventually used when the trio were redecoed for e-Hobby release. This is also the genesis of those opening chest compartments.
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