Blades (G1)
- Blades is an Autobot and a Protectobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Blades will never be the Autobot poster child. He's a dirty, underhanded street brawler at heart and proud of it. The fact that his alternate mode and function as air support can keep him at a distance from combat infuriates him. Blades would rather use his rotors to gut a Decepticon from antenna to tailpipe than to fly. When he fights he wants to feel his enemies fuel spraying across his steel skin. Blades does his job, and does it darn well, but if there's a way to get his hands dirty in the process you can bet your processor he'll find it.
Blades combines with his fellow Protectobots to form Defensor.
- Japanese name: Graze (グレイズ, gu-re-i-zu)
- French-Canadian name: Hélicopto
- Italian name: Rasor
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Generation 1
- (Note: Events in italics occurred only in the Marvel UK books.)
Blades and the other Protectobots were created on Earth by Wheeljack and the Autobots after they stole a recording of Devastator's combiner transformation sequence and modified it (and after Optimus Prime and Buster Witwicky shared a Matrix-induced vision of the future with the Special Teams in it).
Shortly after the Protectobots were given life by the Matrix, Optimus and Wheeljack learned of a cerebro-shell implanted in Prime which had allowed Megatron to tap into the Matrix and eavesdrop on their conversations. Reversing the signal, the Autobots learned of a Decepticon plot to steal the energy-converting hydrothermocline. Taking the Protectobots with him for the mission, Optimus moved to intervene on Megatron and his Combaticons' plans.
At the industrial site, a human named Ethan Zachary broke a stand-off between the two forces by suggesting they battle for the hydrothermocline in a virtual game program he had created, so that nothing of value to either side would be damaged in the melee. With their consent, Zachary uploaded Optimus, Megatron, and the two Special Teams into his computer game environment called Multi-World. Blades was teamed with Groove, and they maneuvered through an area called the Cloud-Steppes, where cities floated on clouds and absurdly long walkways were supported underneath them. The Combaticon flyers cut loose one of the walkways, sending the ground-bound Groove and a group of Cloud-Steppers flailing and falling. Against his better judgment, Blades caught the falling humanoids instead of saving his teammate. This proved to be a good idea, as the Cloud-Steppers unleashed their patented cloud-in-a-knapsack trick to blind the Combaticons until Groove shot them down.
When Grimlock took control of the Autobots, Blades began to muse on deserting like Goldbug and Blaster. While on a mission in London, his bad mood was made worse by being attacked by Action Force and he came close to killing the humans before realising this was against the Autobot code. He then ended up assisting Action Force, Grimlock and Centurion against a rampaging Megatron.
Generation 2
Some years later, Blades was working with a team of Autobot "firestormers" under Grimlock's command, when they first discovered the Liege Maximo's Cybertronian empire.
During one of their raids, Hound hesitated to shoot a Decepticon who said he was weaponless. Blades blasted the Decepticon, who he claimed was in fact reaching for a weapon, and berated Hound for being "soft".
He was later seen among a crew recruited by Grimlock to destroy the Cybertronian flagship Twilight. That mission ended in failure, but Blades survived the subsequent escape and joined another Grimlock-led team sent to Earth to back up Optimus Prime, who had gone in solo against Megatron. Rumble damaged his rotors, forcing him to land, which mostly just served to piss him off even more.
Animated continuity
Blades appeared along with the rest of the Protectobots not long after the Combaticons were created. He helped the team evacuate a city under siege by the Insecticons, allowing the Autobots to attack unhindered. When the Combaticons used a modified space bridge to move Earth closer to the sun, Blades sprayed some kind of coolant -- but worried that he was running out and couldn't apply it to the whole planet. Blades joined his team in fighting a fire at a burning building a while later, and again when the Decepticons were prepared to fire on Autobot Headquarters with a new superweapon.
In 2006, he was one of the first three (along with Wheelie and Slingshot) to be drained by the energy leech, Tornadron. The whole of Cybertron was likewise sucked dry moments later, though all were restored when Grimlock saved the day.
Blades was shot down by Galvatron while running recon for the Autobots on Earth; First Aid ferried him back to Metroplex for repairs. He was later instrumental in getting Metroplex back to full operation after the city-bot's transformation cog was stolen by Swindle. In the middle of a full-scale battle between Metroplex and Trypticon, he ferried First Aid into Metroplex, enabling the medic to re-align the replacement cog properly, which in turn allowed Metroplex to triumph.
Dreamwave comics continuity
Blades stuck with his team after the official status down grade of the special teams. Though officially neutral, the team deployed to counter the threat of Devastator in the Tagan Heights. When it became evident that the two titans were simply causing more damage, the Protectobots split up to deal with Devastator through more subtle means. It was Blades who got the most dangerous assignment of distracting the rampaging Ultracon while his team disabled him.
Some while later, the Chaos Trinity invaded the Protectobot base. Blades was quick to draw arms, but was defeated by Bludgeon.
IDW comics continuity
Hundreds or thousands of years ago on Cybertron, before the war with the Decepticons, Blades was part of an Autobot security force in the city of Kaon. His squad was tasked with hunting down the renegade operators of gladatorial contests in the degenerate slum areas of Cybertron -- particularly the brutal fighter who would come to be known as Megatron. When Megatron and many other prisoners escaped, Blades was part of the field team attempting to bring them back under control; he was seen having difficulty contacting other units, as Sentinel Prime made the decision to bring out his Apex armor.
Toys
Generation 1
- Blades (Protectobot, 1986)
- Team ID number: P3
- Japanese ID number: C-72
- Blades transforms to a rescue helicopter resembling a Bell UH-1V Iroquois. He also comes with a pair of side-mounted (non-firing) cannons. He is a "Scramble City"-style combiner limb, who can form the arm or leg of any such combiner -- though he normally forms Defensor's right arm. Like many such toys, his articulation is limited to arm rotation at the shoulders. His fists are unusual in that their post holes are on the side rather than the top, an oddity he shared with Groove and First Aid. A hook-shaped handle on his gun allows him to hold it normally.
- This mold was also used to make Fly-Up.
- Defensor (Gift set, 1986)
- Japanese ID number: C-76
- All five Protectobots were made available in many markets as a complete gift-set as well as on individual cards/boxes.
Generation 2
- Blades (Unreleased)
- Team ID number: P5
- A Generation 2 redeco of Blades, as well as the rest of the Protectobots and the Stunticons, never made it past the stage of production samples. These toys are among the most exceedingly rare Transformers ever made.
External links
- Blades at TFU.info
- Gallery of unreleased MOSC Generation 2 Blades
