Crosscut (G1)

This article is about the Autobot ambassador. For the doomed Decepticon soldier, see Crosscut (Decepticon).

Crosscut is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Want some smallpox blankets?

The Autobot ambassador to many worlds, Crosscut (クロスカット Kurosukatto) and his partner/bodyguard Road Rage were sent to Earth on secret orders to work with the human governments on establishing Autobot City there. He is fluent in over 230 Earth languages and 6300 alien languages. Though he carries a lot of weaponry, it is all defensive in nature, meant to incapacitate rather than kill. In dire emergencies, he can transfer all his data and memories to his scooter-drone Clutch so his knowledge won't be lost even if he falls to the Decepticons.

Fiction

3H comics

Lives to die.

Crosscut was the navigator of Sojourner's Passage, one of several starships sent out by Rodimus Prime in 2005 to explore the universe and establish recon points. He was especially interested in establishing first contact with undiscovered alien civilizations.

Weeks later, their ship was hit by an energy pulse fired from the planet Archa Nine, and Crosscut was killed when the ship subsequently crashed. Betrayal

Wings Universe

Wings Universe is based on the Generation 1 cartoon, but deviates from it in cosmetic ways and continuity points.

Crosscut was a member of the Elite Guard's Recon Team, working with Rest-Q, Delta Seeker, and their field leader Roadfire. A former ambassador for Cybertron to other planets, he used his translating skills to compensate for Rest-Q's hopelessly-incomprehensible dialogues.

After the Stealth Team was exposed to Nucleon, Crosscut interpreted for Rest-Q as he examined the radiation's effect on their super-structures. His upbeat delivery did little to cover the fact that Rest-Q had no idea when they would regain the ability to transform. A Team Effort

Crosscut was among the Elite Guardsmen seen defending their base from the traitorous Combaticons. The Coming Storm: Part 5 His corpse was hurled through a section of the Elite Guard headquarters by Bruticus just as the Strike Team arrived on the scene. The Coming Storm: Part 6

IDW Generation 1 continuity

Crosscut is a former Senator turned playwright. He's famous for being one of the few Senators to take a stand and liberating Petrex "with wise words and a shovel", meaning his play My Shovel, Your Face, but would prefer for people to know him for his art than his wartime reputation. He was a forged Transformer, with a Vitrious-Negative spark and a phobia of nanocons. The Dead Are Not Enough Twenty Plus One

After the war's official end, he joined the Lost Light.

While fighting the Ammonites, he invited Swerve (who he confused with Rung) to see one of his plays (if they both survived). The Dead Are Not Enough Unfortunately, he had already forgotten Swerve's name a few hours later when asked by Blurr. Inside Swerve's bar. Named Swerve's. The Becoming

Some time later, he helped run Swerve's (fake) "Crewditions" Towards Peace and began working on an experimental one-act, single stage play about information creep (called, unimaginatively, Information Creep). He didn't have time to write the play before he, and every other original crewmember of the Lost Light, vanished. Twenty Plus One

On an alternate Lost Light, Crosscut did indeed finish Information Creep and was performing it at Swerve's when the Decepticon Justice Division arrived to massacre everyone. slaughterhouse

Toys

Generation 1

Crosscuts die like Mudflaps shelfwarm.

• Crosscut (Autobot, October 2002)
  • Japanese ID number: 95
  • Accessories: "Clutch" drone, "Electromagnetic pulse emitter" rifle, "twin vertigo gun" double-blaster, "stun grenade" launcher, 3 "stun grenades"

Crosscut is a redeco/retool of Skids, transforming into a Honda City R hatchback with a different head and hood. He also comes with a "scooter" accessory named "Clutch" that fits in his hatchback. As he was a Japanese release, his spring-loaded missile launcher is fully functional.

Crosscut was an exclusive to e-HOBBY, sold only in a set with Road Rage. Pre-orders ended on July 31 of 2002, and the toys were sent out in October.

This toy was redecoed to make the Transformers Generations 2009 exclusive Screech.

• More information on Crosscut at TFU.info

Generations

Your scooter can't save you now!

• Crosscut (Deluxe, 2014)
  • Series / Number: 02 / #016
  • Accessories: Small gun, large gun (combine to form rifle)

Part of the tenth wave of 2012-onwards Generations Deluxe Class toys, Thrilling 30 Crosscut is a retool of Skids, featuring a new head based on Crosscut's original toy. He transforms from a contemporary-looking hatchback into a heavily-armed robot, featuring (non-launching) missile pods in both shoulders, dual flip-out guns on each wrist, and two pairs of over-the-shoulder cannons. He comes with two guns that combine into a larger rifle and can be held or peg onto his vehicle sides via 5mm post. The leg assembly error that many Skids figures had seems to have been corrected on this release. He has visible light-piping on the back of his head, but his eyes are painted yellow, rendering it useless.

In the United States and Hasbro's Asian markets, he comes packed with the Hasbro exclusive cover variant of "The Dead Are Not Enough: Dark Cybertron Chapter 7", with its pages out of order (pages 1-4 are placed between pages 20 and 21). In Canada, the comic is not included.

The original version of this sculpt was also used to make Age of Extinction Rollbar.

• More information on Generations Crosscut at TFU.info

Notes

This is not my beautiful skull!

• Crosscut and Road Rage are notable for being the first additions to the Generation 1-era cast of characters after the original line ended since the short-lived Machine Wars series. This also started the general trend toward e-Hobby releases being new characters rather than old characters in new colors.
• Crosscut's "new" head and coloration are based on one of the original pre-Transformers Diaclone versions of the "Honda City R" mold. The original version was only available in a "double set" with a blue version of the "4WD Hi-Lux Wrecker" (pre-Hoist) that was also only available in that set.
• There is evidence that this version of the mold was the one originally intended to be released in the original Transformers line rather than the "Honda City Turbo" model that would become Skids. The original Skids' instructions have the Crosscut mold's line-art, and in the Marvel UK comic, artists Dan Reed and John Stokes drew Skids with Crosscut's head in several panels. It's possible the Turbo model was chosen because its face was more human-looking (to go along with the generally more humanized faces the characters were given in the cartoon), but this is merely speculation.