Variable voltage harness
- The variable voltage harness is a torture device from the Marvel Comics portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
An energy-sucking torture/restraint device, the variable voltage harness makes sure a prisoner is kept in maximum discomfort.
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Galvatron and his cronies captured Jazz when he and Hound came spying on them. With reports of Ultra Magnus dwelling around, Galvatron wanted to see any possible Autobot interference dealt with before they might become a real problem. So, in order to provoke the Autobots into a hasty, easy-to-deal-with attack, he had Jazz hooked up to a torture device and sent images of the proceedings to Autobot headquarters. Target: 2006[1]
When the Protectobots captured the "renegade" Blaster and prepared to bring him back to the Ark, Autobot commander Grimlock had a variable voltage harness prepared as punishment for the deserter. Beachcomber, who along with Wheeljack and Cosmos was helping to prepare the device, wondered if it was not a little bit excessive. Child's Play
When Blaster surrendered to the Dinobots, Grimlock hooked him up to the harness, and essentially threw away the key. Goldbug, after his own surrender to Grimlock, found Blaster still clamped to the device in the Ark's brig. The time spent in isolation had dulled Blaster's sense of purpose. Totaled!
Via the UK letters pages, Grimlock and Dreadwind would threaten to use the VVH on the writers and artists of the comics (known collectively as Stubbies) for making mistakes. Blaster eventually abolished the practice. Darn 'n' Blast #308
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Megatron was placed in a variable voltage harness inside Omega Supreme after surrendering to the Autobots. Optimus Prime activated it after losing his patience and being taunted one time too many, electrocuting Megatron so hard it probably would've killed him if Omega Supreme hadn't immediately cut the power. Chaos Theory #1
Later, on the displaced Luna 1, Chief Justice Tyrest's enforcer Star Saber kept Getaway smouldering in a variable voltage harness. The Divided Self
References
- ↑ The machine shown in "Target: 2006" is never actually called a variable voltage harness and in fact was written about by Simon Furman a year before Bob Budiansky did. Still, the machine looks and functions a lot like the variable voltage harness and has no name of its own to distinguish it, so it's included in the article.
