Nebulon (Headmasters)
| The name or term "Nightstick" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Nightstick (disambiguation). |
- Nightstick is an Autobot Targetmaster from the Generation 1 continuity family.
While still living on the planet Master, Nightstick was an engineer. He volunteered to undergo a unique form of binary-bonding in order to save the wounded Autobot Ricochet. Unlike other Targetmasters, where the small partner is held in the larger partner's hand, Nightstick plugs into Ricochet's robot-mode back. Thus he interfaces with Ricochet's metabolism, serving as a life-support system.
While in flame cannon mode, Nightstick utilizes the energy gathered by Ricochet's black-body technology to fire blasts of up to 5000°C. This can cause backdraft problems at high speeds, but Ricochet has other weapons he can rely upon (which is another unorthodox element of their Targetmastery).[1]
Ricochet hangs around with Artfire, whose Targetmaster partner is also named Nightstick. But that's okay, because everyone just calls Ricochet's Nightstick "Nebulon."
Fiction
The Headmasters manga
On Earth, the Decepticon Targetmasters Slugslinger, Misfire and Triggerhappy set a blazing inferno. Chromedome and Daniel were having trouble controlling the fire when Ricochet and Artfire, accompanied by their partners Nightstick and, uh, Nightstick, showed up to help. The blaze was quickly quenched, and the Autobots then sent the Decepticons into a retreat.
Toys
Generation 1
- Stepper (Targetmaster, 1987)
- Japanese ID number: C-109
- Nightstick (called "Nebulon") was included with Ricochet (called "Stepper"). Nebulon isn't even a repaint of the Decepticon Nightstick; they're the same toy. He transforms into a single-barrelled, non-firing hand-cannon that can peg into Stepper's car-mode spoiler or attach to a separate bracket mounted over his robot-mode shoulder. At the time, the pair was exclusive to Japan.
- The other Japanese-exclusive Targetmaster, Artfire, came with a partner identical to Scourge's. Since Cyclonus and Scourge were never released as Targetmasters in Japan, it seems Takara just wanted to put their gun-partners in Autobot hands. They even had the same names: one was called "Nightstick," and the other was called "Nebulon" (which is how Scourge's on-package bio referred to his partner). But they were switched: the Nightstick-lookalike was called "Nebulon" and vice-versa. This presented no particular confusion at the time, as the Pacific was still a substantial cultural barrier for Transformers fans. That wouldn't last, though...
- Ricochet w/ Nightstick (Targetmaster, 2003)
- Japanese ID number: TFC-15
- For the 2003 reissue of Ricochet/Stepper both stateside and in Japan, Nightstick/Nebulon was retooled with a slender peg extension to allow Ricochet to actually hold him in his hand. The North American release called Nebulon "Nightstick" in an apparent attempt to undo the mix-up of his original release. Hasbro, however, did not foresee the needs of this Wiki.
