Escargon

Escargon is a Maximal from the Beast Era of the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Involuntary gender-reassignment time!"

Escargon (エスカルゴン Esukarugon) is, well...kinda creepy.

He spends most of his time curled up in his shell. But if he encounters a foe who catches his "interest", he'll try to poke them with his Love-Love Lancer, which can change their gender.

Sweet, slow lovemaking follows, presumably.

Fiction

TransTech

Escargon was one of millions of Transformers and other beings who inhabited Axiom Nexus, the Offworlder section of a Cybertron run by Transcendent Technomorphs, or TransTechs. This Cybertron was a hub for inter-dimensional travel, which the TransTechs kept heavily regulated and under control. Most arrivals were eventually granted exit visas allowing them to return to their own dimension, but more than a few were "asked" to remain indefinitely for one reason or another.

Escargon ran the risk of upsetting the TransTech domination of transwarp travel when he got ahold of six black ops transit passes. Each pass would grant unmolested access to the transwarp hubs for displacement, no questions asked. Potentially the most profitable items on the entire planet, they also marked him as a planetary-level threat by the TransTechs. Escargon attempted to hide out in the Widow's Cafe Cybertronian, but was eventually tracked down by General Demolishor of the Military Police, who executed him on the spot. Withered Hope

Notes

• Shōji Imaki created Escargon to show what a submission to the Comic Bom Bom Character Design Contest should look like. The character did not actually appear in any fiction until he was used by Fun Publications nearly a decade later.
• The winner of the competition, by the way, was Star Upper.
• The Love-Love Lancer is based on "Love Darts", a part of the snail reproductive system, while its gender-changing properties reference the fact that snails are hermaphrodites, which makes the whole thing... slightly less weird in context.