Rustbug hoop

Rustbug hoops are anti-roboinsect devices from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

The rustbug hoop is the latest piece of Decepticon weapons technology for handling extremely small flying opponents. It is just a coincidence that it looks like an electrically charged fly swatter. Oh yes.

Fiction

Earthforce

Starscream was on monitoring duty at Shockwave's base when he spotted a visitation by the Insecticons, spying for Megatron as part of the Decepticon Civil War. After a quick trip to the armoury, Starscream was ready. The Insecticons attacked him, so he pulled out the rustbug hoop and casually swatted them all. Bugged!

Notes

• The rustbug hoop is depicted as being square on the cover of issue #276, but in the story itself, it is round as the name suggests.
• Starscream's dialogue implies that the hoop was designed to deal with a small, possibly insectoid form of Cybertronic wildlife known as a rustbug.