Bug Bite (GoBots)
- Bug Bite is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family. His name is sometimes parsed as "Bugbite."
Bug Bite is a brilliant yet amoral scientist, specializing in co-opting and adapting others' technology and advancements for his own use. He originally belonged to another dimension, specifically a robotic world which was, similarly to Cybertron, consumed by an endless civil war. This war was stopped only when the fate of not only their planet but their entire universe was threatened by an extradimensional influence.
Under the strict supervision of the Guardian Treds, Bug Bite was enlisted to an allied team and sent into the dimension which threatened their own. Bug Bite took a new body and infiltrated the ranks of the Decepticons, hoping not only to discover the source of his home universe's plight, but take calculated revenge.
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Timelines: Games of Deception
Bug Bite appeared on Cybertron shortly before the Autobots and Decepticons crashlanded on Earth 4 million years ago. He eventually fit in with Bludgeon's troops, quickly becoming favored. (Bug Bite had also reverse-engineered a mind-control device using cerebro-shell technology. Let's just say the other Decepticons suddenly liked him very much.)
Bug Bite discovered that Megatron was somehow responsible for the death of his universe, so he rounded up his amazingly loyal troops and landed on Earth. He requested an audience with Megatron through Starscream and his Seekers, but this meeting was merely a ploy by Bug Bite to snare these Decepticons with cerebro-shells.
Subsequently, Bug Bite marched straight into Megatron's stronghold, the Ark, under the pretense of striking a deal. Almost immediately, Bug Bite switched on the other Decepticons' mind control, and Megatron found himself surrounded by weapons pointed in his direction. Unfortunately, rogue Autobots led by Ultra Magnus were waiting outside and jammed the cerebro-shells' signal, though with mixed results. Bug Bite was apparently killed during the following battle after Megatron blew off his head. Games of Deception
Shattered Expectations
The heroic Bug Bite, flying with the aid of his Tidal Wave drone, and the rest of the Mayhem Suppression Squad assisted Starscream and Razorclaw against a trio of marauding Autobots. Shattered Expectations Bug Bite's Shattered Glass doppelganger has a mustache and eye patch and appears to be British.
Toys
Generation 1
- G1 GoBots (Multi-pack, 2004)
- Japanese ID number: 84
- Bug Bite is a redeco of the retooled Takara reissue Bumblebee, transforming into a "penny racer"-proportioned Volkswagen Beetle. He was only available in an e-Hobby-exclusive 6-pack with Bad Boy, Path Finder, Road Ranger, Small Foot and Treds.
- Bug Bite's name does not appear in any of the final product material on the Japanese set from which he "originated"; it only appeared in an early Photoshopped promotional image on the E-Hobby website. The individual toys' names were dropped when Takara's legal department became concerned at how Bandai—the company that made the toys that would become the Tonka GoBots—would react to the names being used, despite the minimal chance of provable trademark infringement on Takara's part.
Timelines
- Games of Deception! (Multi-pack, 2007)
- Accessories: "Tidal Wave" trailer/jetpack
- Bug Bite is part of the Classics-themed BotCon 2007 box set, along with Dirge, Dreadwind, Thrust and Thundercracker. Bug Bite is a white and black redeco of the Classics Bumblebee toy, transforming into a sports coupe of indeterminate model. He tows a small trailer with his "Tidal Wave" drone-unit on the back, which converts into a jet-pack to give him "flight" in robot mode. As with most Classics toys, he features a heat-sensitive rubsign.
- There were 1500 Classics Bug Bite figures produced.
Merchandise
- Deco Pin (2007)
- The first 100 people to pre-register for a BotCon 2007 Primus package also received a bonus metal pin with Bug Bite's "tribal" deco on it.
Trivia
- Unlike the Transformers, the GoBots were originally a race of organic humans who replaced much, but not all, of their bodies with machinery. Thus, Bug Bite is a cyborg and not a true robot.
- According to Timelines collaborator Ben Yee, Lanny Lathem of Fun Publications intended Bug Bite's purple "tribal" paint applications to be a highly stylized version of the Decepticon insignia.[1]
