The Transformers Thunderous Thirty #9 - Starscream

Today, we focus on everybody's favorite Decepticon, Ulchtar.

No... wait... that's not right....

What a different world we would have lived in, if Starscream, arguably one of the most prominent characters in the entire Transformers franchise, had kept the name he was given in the original story treatment by Jim Shooter. I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief that Marvel comics Transformers editor (and later writer) Bob Budiansky decided to change "Ulchtar's" name to something less bizarre.

Of course, whatever name he ended up with, Starscream came to be so well-known because of his persistent attempts to take over command of the Decepticons from Megatron (and, perhaps, because of Megatron's persistent inexplicable refusal to have Starscream destroyed for his insubordination... well, the animated movie notwithstanding, of course).

One actually wonders how Starscream got to the position of authority that he has (his Tech Specs function is "Air Commander"). None of the other Decepticons seem to respect him, and few seem to truly fear him. It would seem that to be an effective leader, you'd have to have at least one of those two qualities. Besides all this, let's face it, Starscream's a bit of a coward. He acts all tough for as long as he seems to have more power than his opponent, but the minute the tables are turned, he starts to panic and whine like a frightened child: "Please don't hurt me! I'll be good! Honest!"

That's not to say that Starscream hasn't had a few moments of triumph. In the cartoon, he was responsible for the (re)creation of the Combaticons, and had both the Autobots and Decepticons at his mercy... until the Combaticons turned on Starscream, too. In the comics, powered by the Underbase, he destroyed entire swaths of characters (conveniently no longer available in stores)... before he himself was destroyed (temporarily) by the very power source he was using.

That's just how it is for Starscream. He can indeed be truly dangerous for short stretches, but he inevitably fails due to his own impatience and incompetence.

But he's just so much fun to watch....

The Transformers Thunderous Thirty #8 - Gears

Given his bright red-and-blue color scheme, it's perhaps no surprise that Gears often makes me think of Superman. This image from issue #3 of Marvel's 1980's Transformers comic (his only significant appearance in that series) of Gears ascending alongside Spider-Man probably helps support such an idea.

Too bad Gears is such a grouch.

To be fair, his original Tech Specs bio suggests that at least some of this grumpiness is an act, as he hopes to boost his comrades' spirits (presumably in need of it due to their exile on Earth and the ongoing war with the Decepticons) as they try to boost his. They also say that he can be airborne (he doesn't really fly, per se, but he can shoot into the air like a rocket, controlling his decent through compressed air beneath his feet) up to 20 miles, which is well into the stratosphere. Actually, that's also in keeping with the Superman motif, especially when you consider that the original version of the world's most famous superhero couldn't really fly, either, but was limited to a literal (rather than figurative) ability to "leap tall buildings in a single bound."

Oddly enough, despite nearly all of the original cast of Transformers characters having received official updates in recent years, this toy from 1984 remains the only one (not counting reissues) for the original Generation One character to date.^* The character of Swerve, whose original 1986 toy was a remold of Gears, is getting the latest of what has been a string of updates, reportedly due in stores next month, but there's still been no word yet that a new Gears will be made, although the possibility of a remold/redeco of that upcoming Swerve toy is perhaps the best chance for a new version of Gears we've had in ages.

Sounds like something else for Gears to complain about.

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^*The name Gears has been used on a toy related to the Revenge of the Fallen line in 2009, but that's not only not the same character, but the toy really bears pretty much no resemblance whatsoever, so it's hard to even call it an homage, despite obvious conscious attempts to use blue and red in places.

The Transformers Thunderous Thirty #7 - Windcharger

Poor Windcharger. According to the TFWiki, when the Transformers were introduced to the cartoon-viewing world with the three-part "More Than Meets the Eye" mini-series, Windcharger never got to speak, or even so much as get his name mentioned on-screen. It's no surprise that many Transformers fans (perhaps especially those who didn't grow up during the earliest days of the franchise) don't remember him.

Like most of these initial characters, Windcharger is remembered (by those who actually do) for a single signature ability. In Windcharger's case, his arms can function as powerful magnets. Yes, Windcharger is to the Transformers what Magneto is to the X-Men (except not evil!). In retrospect, I'm actually kind of surprised that no official Windcharger toy has ever incorporated magnets into the design. It's comparatively easy to do, and kids would have tons of fun with such a feature....

Windcharger's original Tech Specs tell us that he's the fastest Autobot for short-distances (of course, this really only applies to the original characters, as obviously faster characters were developed later). This is in keeping with his sporty Pontiac Trans-Am alternate mode, although like Windcharger's smaller-robot buddies, his proportions are super-deformed rather than realistic. Of course, this less-than-authentic detail didn't stop me from taking a spare toy and painting it black to resemble KITT from the original Knight Rider. And, besides, it's not like most modern car-type Transformers adhere to realistic stylings, anyway, as that tends to require licensing from the car companies, and can be expensive. That said, it's hard not to argue that the more recent Mustang/Camaro hybrid version of Windcharger (featured last year) is a better toy, and I'm still glad that I went to the effort to pick it up. In fact, I've since picked up the nearly-identical Japanese version of the toy so that I could get the all-black "Wipe-Out" toy that comes with it. I haven't yet decided to add a red scanner to the front of Wipe-Out to turn him into a new version of KITT, however.

The Transformers Thunderous Thirty #6 - Laserbeak

When I wrote about Rumble, I commented on how only about a third of the original Transformers were actually Decepticons. Fully half of those are, in fact, characters that turned into cassettes when they were originally introduced. If these entries were done in the vein of my usual toy-centered Transformers posts, that would mean a bunch of entries with nearly identical alt-mode pictures. One of the reasons I'm looking to focus more on the characters in this series is an effort to shake that pattern up a bit, allowing for toy images, yes, but hopefully introducing a bit more variety into the mix.

Laserbeak is said to be the Decepticon interrogator. There is at least one time in the old Marvel comics where Laserbeak is seen to be involved in an interrogation, and by all appearances, he was no doubt generally successful in this role. That said, I don't think most Transformers fans specifically remember Laserbeak as an interrogator, first and foremost.

Although Laserbeak was occasionally seen taking part in major battles, he was much more frequently seen playing the part of spy. This is perhaps especially fitting given Laserbeak's well-established cassette alternate mode (or even the data disc mode used by the Fall of Cybertron version, seen here on the left), but the other cassettes seem to have used their modes for espionage-related purposes far less frequently than did Laserbeak. Even so, I wouldn't say that "spy" was Laserbeak's main function.

Laserbeak's main role, it seems to me, was to inform the world who the leader of the Decepticons was. Being something of a coward, Laserbeak was not an especially loyal follower, known to change shoulder-sitting preferences to whoever happened to be the commander of the moment. This bit of visual imagery was seldom (if ever) explained outright, but it was nonetheless fairly common. Need convincing? Take this little exchange from the comics when Shockwave conceded that Megatron was indeed more fit to command.

The Transformers Thunderous Thirty #5 - Trailbreaker/Trailcutter

According to some stories within the Transformers canon, each of the characters represented by the original 1984 Transformers toys is a legend. However, that assessment is sometimes hard to reconcile with the reality that some of these characters received little to no characterization at all, and comparatively few appearances in the fiction in which any personality might be expressed. Trailbreaker is one of these ciphers.

Even if you were to ask a hard-core Transformers fan, pretty much the only thing they'd be likely to be able to tell you about Trailbreaker without looking him up is that he's "the force-field guy." With few exceptions, if Trailbreaker does show up in a story, it's because the script calls for a force-field to be used in that situation, and Trailbreaker's the go-to guy for force-fields. When this new toy (now called "Trailcutter" for trademark reasons) was released just a couple of months ago, the included pack-in comic book even made a point to talk about the fact that so little is known about Trailbre...uh, Trailcutter besides the fact that he can do force-fields.

The original 1984 toy's Tech Specs bio did make an attempt to tell us more about the character (and some of these traits do survive into the above-mentioned comic story, if arguably for the first time ever). He demonstrates a public face of humor and optimism, apparently to cover up a low sense of self-worth, being the Autobot that (of that original group, at least) uses up fuel more quickly than anyone else. Given that the need for fuel was perhaps the single most consistent plot point of the early Transformers stories, it perhaps makes sense that being so much of a gas-guzzler would cause one to consider oneself a liability, but I can't recall any story of the 1980's that made note of this point (readers are invited to cite examples in the comments if they know of any).

Having established what little there is to say about Trailbreaker's personality, I did want to point out an oddity about this recent toy. The accessory they gave Trailbre... uh, Trailcutter (that name's going to take some getting used to) is a shield. I haven't seen anyone else comment on this yet, but this seems a singularly odd choice of weapon for the character whose one well-known character trait is that he creates force-fields. Why would such a character need a physical shield? (I've got the toy holding it upside down, compared to the character art and the instructions, which probably highlights the "shield-ness" of the item even more than intended, but even with those gun barrels pointing the right way, there's little denying that this thing is a shield) Perhaps the inclusion was meant to be symbolic or something, but it just strikes me as weird.

The Transformers Thunderous Thirty #4 - Sunstreaker

I've written before about the Autobots being "good guys" and the Decepticons being "bad guys" in fairly sweeping terms. While this is helpful for describing things to people who don't know much about the Transformers franchise, the reality is that the truth is often more subtle (much like real life!). Sunstreaker is an Autobot, but to call him a "good guy" glosses over some fairly significant personality flaws.

The character's original Tech Specs bio from 1984 says that Sunstreaker is "the complete egotist" and describes his intense vanity, as well as the fact that he is "not a team player," but that's the version that had to be edited down for space to fit on the back of the toy's box. The longer version, published a few years later in issue #3 of Marvel's Transformers Universe comic, describes Sunstreaker's "sociopathic tendencies," and these have only become more prominent in fictional portrayals of more recent years. Sunstreaker may fight on the Autobots' side in a battle, but he really isn't someone you'd want to get to know too closely (as IDW's Hunter O'Nion character found out. Click on that Wiki link for more details).

The original Sunstreaker toy is one of a very few 1984 molds that has never been officially reissued in the post-Generation One era (it was most recently reissued in the European "Classics" line of 1990), and the original molds are believed to be lost (or, perhaps, currently in the hands of Zhong Jin, a company which has been making knock-offs that are nigh indistinguishable from the originals. Buyer beware!). This 2008 Universe toy, however, is relatively easy to find. Besides not being as accurate to the Lamborghini stylings of the original toy for legal reasons, this toy represents an early effort by Hasbro to not only get more than one toy out of a mold (usually done simply by reissuing the mold in new colors, maybe with a new head), but to incorporate a distinctive transformation for each character. Thus, with Sunstreaker, the car's roof becomes the robot's chest (much as in the original) while with Sunstreaker's brother Sideswipe, the car's hood becomes the robot's chest. This dual-transformation design has already been demonstrated when I featured the Transformers Collectors' Club's Punch/Counterpunch figure, which also uses this mold.

One further note about that original bio, which was written (as were most, if not all, of the Generation One bios) by Bob Budiansky as part of Hasbro's efforts to give their transforming robot line an edge over its competitors (an effort that, by all accounts, was singularly successful). There are are clues, especially in the longer version, that suggest that Sunstreaker's bio was originally intended for the toy that became Sideswipe, who also turned into a Lamborghini, although a somewhat different-looking one. The idea is that the color schemes (and thus the names) intended for each toy were swapped sometime after the bios had been attached to them. So when the same bio that calls Sunstreaker a sociopath also says that he thinks Sideswipe's design "is spoiled by the rear-mounted engine in his automobile mode" (a feature distinctive to Sunstreaker, but not Sideswipe) it seems clear that the G1 mold we now associate with Sideswipe was really supposed to be the jerk! As it is, Sunstreaker's irritating personality stuck, while his particular reasons for feeling superior to his brother have been glossed over as a mistake. Go figure.

The Transformers Thunderous Thirty #3 - Rumble

It is perhaps noteworthy that, for the first year of the Transformers franchise, the bad guys were outnumbered by the good guys roughly two-to-one! While I can't speak to how well that ratio has held up in other eras of the franchise, having more Autobot (good guy) figures than Decepticons (bad guys) has definitely been a recurring reality throughout the years. Indeed, on the assumption that kids don't want to buy "bad guy" toys, there are whole years of the Japanese line where Deceptions are all but absent altogether! I can't say I've ever quite gotten my head around that assumption myself. As a sometime-actor in grade school and college, I know that role-playing as bad guys can be tons of fun! As one of the best-remembered bad guys from the early years of the Transformers franchise, it's hard to imagine kids not wanting to have a Rumble figure of their very own!

Let's get the alt-mode out of the way first. Rumble was one of several Decepticons that turned into microcassette tapes. Kids nowadays probably have no idea what this is, outside of a funny-colored rectangle, but cassette tapes were in wide usage during the 1980s, and Transformers that turned into cassettes were almost always popular. That said, cassette tapes admittedly don't make for very exciting photographs!

So let's move on to Rumble's robot mode (using the recent Japanese "Masterpiece" version of the character for demonstration purposes^*). Rumble is a red-and-black robot, at least, in the original version and most subsequent official depictions over the years. However, this is admittedly at variance with the 1980s cartoon, which made a mistake late in the start-up process and switched Rumble's color scheme with something more closely resembling his same-mold twin Frenzy (about whom I'll have more to say in coming weeks). This has led to one of the most long-standing debates within the Transformers fandom, often shorthanded along the lines of FIRRIB, short for "Frenzy is Red, Rumble is Blue" (after the cartoon depiction), although several other permutations are out there, depending on the fan's preference. My own preference is that the cartoons made a mistake (ably demonstrated by noting that the cartoon "bible" itself has a note calling Rumble a "red robot"), and I'm actually kind of annoyed that after being consistently red in toy form for over 25 years, Hasbro has recently started to cave to the cartoon's disproportionate popularity, and has started releasing (or, in one case, planned to release) blue Rumble toys these past couple of years (although I'm pleased to learn that the recent Toys R Us exclusive American re-release of this same toy maintains the "Rumble is Red" identity).

Rumble's most distinctive feature is the one from which he gets his name. Rumble can cause earthquakes! In the cartoon, this was famously depicted by having Rumble's arms turn into massive pistons with which he would pound the ground. The original toy had no such pistons, even as accessories, and so other depictions had Rumble create earthquakes differently (the comic suggested that Rumble sent vibrations through his legs, for example). However, the cartoon's pistons quickly became rather iconic, and so it was no surprise to see them depicted in toys as the character came back in other forms over the years. Rumble is now fully equipped for maximum destruction!

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^*Thanks to my brother Nick, for the generous use of his Masterpiece Rumble figure while we were on vacation visiting him and the rest of my family this past week. Nick also helped set up lights to make this photo shoot a success. I do apologize to those of you who have perhaps noticed the very slight transformation error. I discovered after completing the photo shoot that this toy allows you to extend Rumble's torso upward slightly to reveal a bit of a red abdomen, in keeping with the Rumble/Frenzy animation model. The decision not to take up more of our vacation time to retake the relevant photos was mine and mine alone.