Packrat
- Packrat is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Packrat is sneaky and generally untrustworthy. A renowned thief and narcissist, he's also a glory hound. Not only does he want to steal things, he wants the world to know about it and sing his praises. If he weren't so effective on the battlefield, he wouldn't be as tolerated by the other Maximals. That, and he tends to cause the Predacons more damage than his so-called colleagues. However, his overdeveloped self-interest may be his undoing—if he won't look after his teammates, why should they return the favor?
Fiction
3H comics
- Voice actor: Scott McNeil (English)
Packrat was spying on the Predacon scientist Fractyl, overhearing his development of energon armor, and vowed to steal it from him. If he was successful, Packrat surmised, he would finally earn the respect he craved from Optimus Primal and the other Maximals—and get rid of his hated beast altmode.
Packrat escaped with the energon armor and tore through any Predacons in his way, handily blowing away Inferno with his newly-enhanced powers. However, the armor was unstable and threatened to erupt in a cataclysmic explosion, destroying Packrat and any nearby. Rhinox convinced Packrat he would earn the respect he craved if he simply gave up the armor, saving himself and the others. Packrat conceded, and also helped out Fractyl by making it look like the peaceful Predacon had fought the Maximals off when Megatron arrived on the scene. Ground Zero
Packrat and Onyx Primal were in Predacon territory investigating a fallen meteorite when they stumbled across a Predacon "plot device." They fought over the artifact amongst themselves but were immediately attacked by Vice Grip and Fractyl. After Onyx Primal stashed the artifact in a rock crevice, a shadowy figure stole it and vanished.
The Predacons continued their attack, but Silverbolt and Rattrap appeared overhead to rescue the Maximals, even though they were mere "repaints." Vice Grip and Fractyl's defeat was followed by Optimus Primal's arrival. Packrat and Onyx Primal argued over whose fault it was the artifact was lost.
Ultimately, they blamed Megatron. Visitations
After the Beast Wars, the Earth-bound Packrat, now a Transmetal, followed Primal Prime and his band to Cybertron, where they found a planet overrun by Vehicons. Joining the ranks of the depleted Wreckers, he stole Nightscream's Deployers as the legendary task force was given marching orders from the Oracle itself. He and the Wreckers fought through an army of Vehicons to get to an old Autobot shuttle and escaped the planet, only to be smacked around by the bounty hunter Devcon once they were away. Departure
When the aft of the shuttle was sabotaged with a plasma bomb explosion, Packrat suggested they hit the emergency release and ditch the damaged portion, even though Sonar, Spittor, and the Deployers were back there. Primal Prime, of course, dismissed the option, but Packrat, fearing for his own safety, hit the emergency release anyway, sentencing the separated crew members to their deaths. The Wreckers were quickly at Packrat's throat, but Primal Prime ordered the thief off his bridge and into containment.
Primal Prime directed the Wreckers to Akalo, the ninth planet in the Archa system, where they found a primitive people who worshipped the Divine Light, an object of great power. Later, when no one was watching, Packrat attempted to steal the object, but the Wrecker Cyclonus (who was secretly working for Cryotek) followed him, killed Packrat, and took the Divine Light for himself. Betrayal
IDW Beast Wars comics
Packrat has once encountered a rare substance, with which he experimented upon himself to make his exo-structure resistant to Energon overload. Beast Wars Sourcebook
Beast Wars: Uprising
Toys
Beast Wars
- Fractyl & Packrat (Multi-pack, 1997)
- Accessories: 2-part "Sonic Disruptor" pistol
- Packrat is a blue, gray, and gold redeco of the original Basic-class Rattrap, transforming into a large organic rat with a spring-loaded one-step transformation to robot mode. His blue plastic was given a sparkly sheen to simulate the "energon armor" effect from the accompanying comic book. His "Sonic Disruptor" pistol splits into two parts to store in his beast mode kibble. He came packaged with Fractyl and was sold exclusively at BotCon 1997.
- Rattrap (Deluxe Transmetal, 1999)
- Accessories: Tail-whip
- The first store-exclusive Transformers in the Beast Wars line, Transmetal Rattrap was given a deep blue color scheme. He transforms from a robotic rat to a robotic rat-car-thing, to a robot mode with "organic" parts. His tail becomes a hand-held whip weapon. He was only available at Walmart stores, even having the Walmart logo emblazoned on the bubble as part of the design.
Timelines
- Cybertron's Most Wanted (BotCon 2015 box set)
- Accessories: 2 blasters, demolition charge
- Packrat is a redeco of Thrilling 30 Rattrap. He has two blasters which can combine to form a larger rifle, and his left forearm opens to reveal a demolition charge which Rattrap used in "A Better Mousetrap". The blaster can be stored securely in a slot between the robot's back and the backpack to simulate Rattrap reaching behind his head to draw it. Additionally, he is jointed so that he can be standing upright in rat mode, much like Rattrap did in the television show, and extra fur-textured plastic is placed at the back of his neck so that it can close up the gap when his rat head is facing downwards. His tail is rubberized with a wire running through it, allowing it to be posed. Though, like most Deluxe Class Generations toys, he is tooled to have lightpiped eyes, his eyes are painted over in red.
- Packrat will come with Shattered Glass Stepper, Battletrap and two other toys yet to be announced.
Notes
- Scott McNeil's portrayal of Packrat in the "Visitations" script-reading was based on Ed Norton, the Honeymooners character played by Art Carney, to go along with Garry Chalk's Jackie Gleason-inspired voice for Onyx Primal. This was reportedly a spur-of-the-moment decision, arrived at about a minute before the presentation started.
- 3H members indicated that the story of how Fractyl (and the other non-show characters who appeared in "Visitations" and "Critical Mass") arrived on ancient Earth and why they weren't seen in the show would be later told, but this never happened. In The Wreckers #2, Devcon denigrates Packrat as "trash" likely to have been shipped off-planet in a stasis pod because he was a low-life back home. Packrat's conversion into a Transmetal body post-quantum surge agrees with this suggestion.
- Packrat's Transmetal form from the Wreckers comics was based entirely on the Wal-Mart exclusive version of Transmetal Rattrap. According to 3H staff, the blue coloration of the toy was a coincidence, and that their Hasbro contact who had okayed the exclusives realized that the toy could have been officially "Transmetal Packrat" very shortly after it was too late to make the change. So while there is no technically, clinically official Transmetal Packrat toy, many fans follow the Wreckers comics' repurposing of it.
- Revenge of the Fallen Nightbeat was originally conceived as an homage to Packrat, but marketing felt the name wouldn't appeal enough to kids.
