This is just an idea I was playing with -- a hypothetical lost assortment of characters from the 1980s. More fan toy-line than out and out fan doc. Concept: It is 1982 and Hasbro are trying out a new toyline called Transformers in a few limited markets. This assortment was only released in some parts of Lemuria or Narnia. It was definitely not released anywhere near where you or I lived. The overall assortment of characters matches the shape of the 1984 or 1985 toylines with a couple of twists -- Autobot fliers, Decepticon cars -- and some antecedent releases (characters that will be “re-released” as part of the later Scramble City waves). A focus on identifiable realistic alt-modes from the 1980s or earlier, albeit with a healthy amount of dramatic license. Backstory: This scenario is a rift on the Beast Wars & G1 crash ideas. In the original G1 cartoon/comic the majority of the Autobot and Decepticon forces on Earth were entombed somewhere beneath Mount St. Hilary. This scenario posits the there were a large number of protoform-like escape pods that were ejected from the Ark before it crashed. These pods, just like in Beast Wars, are scattered across the world. Now, in the early 1980s these pods are being found and their occupants revived. The scattered Autobot and Decepticon survivors are coming together in small groups. They are desperately searching for more escape pods and even for the site of the dormant Ark itself. “1982” Autobot Assortment Autobot Base Broadside - Two components (Fort Max style): Tornado fighter jet & base-sized aircraft carrier Autobot Cars Duke - GMC DUKW, amphibious WWII landing vehicle Pitstop - 1958 Scarab Sports Roadster Roadster - Custom Chevy Corvette C3 Wedge - Bertone Lancia Stratos HF Zero Deluxe Vehicles Boondock - de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver floatplane Montana - Williys Jeep Autobot Planes Air Raid - McDonnell Douglas F-15 Downdraft - Chinook heavy lift, twin rotor helicopter Kestrel - Hawker Siddeley Hawk Roswell - Flying saucer Silverbolt - Concorde SST Autobot Mini-Vehicles/robots Austin - 1971 Mini Cooper S Krankenstand - Messerschmitt KR200 Howler - Heavily customised VW Golf Mk1 Rocksteady - A rock Vista - Binoculars Tempus - British Police Box “1982” Decepticon Assortment Decepticon Base Ominous Maximus - Foundry/Rampart Decepticon Cars Banshee - Custom 1968 Shelby Cobra G.T.350 Breakdown - Lamborghini Countach Mamba - Stock 1968 Shelby Cobra G.T.350 Memoir - Indeterminate black van Tailgater - 1960 Peterbilt 281 tanker Deluxe Decepticons Draycon - Frankenstein dinobot The Risen - McDowell Douglas F-15 Decepticon Commanders Contessa Tenebrous - Black Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Doctor Sparkshaver - Rockwell B-1 Lancer Decepticon Mini-Vehicles Hatebug - Black VW Type I Beetle Hellucinate - Customised Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Jitterbug - Rusty VW Type I Beetle Ninito - Nuclear Bomb Snakelit - Street furniture
Some bios for the above... Autobot Base BROADSIDE Function: Quartermaster & Base Alt-mode: Sentinel Transector body: Aircraft carrier; Head: Tornado Jet. In this multiversal stream, Broadside isn’t a traditional triple changer. Instead, he’s Sentinel-sized bot. Broadside’s cartoon alt-modes are comically different in scale so what would it be like if those alt-modes actually belonged to two different robots, ala Fortress Maximus and Cerberos. I’m imaging the jet-head bot having his normal robot move and the aircraft-carrier mode having the red/blue variant animation model. BROADSIDE is the Air Support Division’s secret weapon. Most of the time he remains far out at sea, out of the reach of the Decepticon cars and the RIB. There he functions as the Air Support Division’s mobile base of operations. He has two distinct components, a normal sized bot and a sentinel-sized based. The normal sized component houses his spark and can transform into a Tornado jet fighter. In this form he serves as the Autobot’s quartermaster and is forever grumbling about how he hates flying and how he hates being at sea. The third form of the normal-sized component is a head that can attach to the second, sentinel-sized component (similar to Cerberus and Fort Max). However, this joining has become rare and the sentinel component usually remains in its Aircraft carrier form.
Autobot Cars This set of four characters are really a rift on Kup, Arcee, Hotrod, and Blurr, but with tweaks inspired by TV & film characters -- less Star Wars, more Hollywood. I’m thinking the Autobot Cars could be a show on their own. They are based out of a private car collection in Florida owned by the enigmatic billionaire called Walter T. Wheeler. His constant collecting is the perfect cover for seeking out hidden Autobot survivors. DUKE, the old drill sergeant, isn’t too active nowadays and leaves most of his legwork to ROADSTER and WEDGE. Those two are assisted by Samuel Shinoda and Leonard Washington, private investigators retained by Wheeler. (Think-of Hot Rod and Blurr’s older brothers paired with Crockett and Tubbs). They are assisted by the enigmatic PITSTOP. DUKE Function: Drill Sergeant Alt-Mode: GMC DUKW, amphibious WWII landing vehicle Probably voiced by somebody doing an R. Lee Ermey impression. He’s the old-timer of the group, similar to Ratchet’s position in Transformers Prime. DUKE is a veteran bot from the same school as Ironhide and Kup. He has served as Optimus Prime’s trusted drill sergeant since the start of the Great War. Duke was the one Prime turned to when he had to a draft a rag-tag bunch of racers and construction workers into the Autobot resistance. On Earth, Duke transforms into a 1942 WWII amphibious assault craft. Unlike some Autobots, Duke has taken the time to study the origins of his alt-mode and has developed a tremendous respect for the humans’ military tenacity, if not their technology. His cover on Earth is as part of the extensive Florida-based vehicle collection of billionaire Walter T. Keller. RITSTOP Function: Espionage Alt-Mode: 1958 Scarab Sports Roadster Probably has a slight southern accent, something that says high culture and old money. On Cybertron, PITSTOP was one of the Autobot’s leading espionage assets. Before the War, she’d was a classic cat burglar who hid her activities behind the pretense of being a sophisticated and cultured Cybertronian aristocrat. After being drafted into the Autobots, she became a spy specialising in infiltration, exfiltration, and burglary. On Earth, Pitstop has re-established her alter-ego with a personality that humans would interpret as a refined southern lady. Pitstop usually works on her own, investigating leads that Roadster and Wedge can follow-up with their own heavy handed approach. She has been known to quietly kill/execute Decepticons that Roadster and Wedge believe they’ve left alive. Pitstop transforms into a 1950 Scarab Sports Roadster. The original Scarab has a livery that is too close to Mirage, so Pitstop would probably have a scheme rifts on the Compact Pussycat. Her robot mode would also rift on the animation model of Penelope Pitstop is the same way that Arcee’s original model rifted on Princess Leia. ROADSTER Function: Special Operations Alt-Mode: Custom Chevy Corvette. ROADSTER is a rebel with a cause, but Duke would just call him a turbo revving young punk. To look at you’d think he was Hot Rod’s cooler, edgier older brother and there is a definite James Dean brooding/rebel streak to him. He is increasingly disillusioned with the futility of the War, especially now that it’s been transferred to a new arena. Nevertheless, Roadster has solid combat experience and can usually be trusted to get the mission done. Roadster transforms into a deep red Chevy Corvette C3 convertible customised to look more like the Mako Shark II prototype. He cannot match Wedge for pure speed, but will be there to land the finishing blow to whatever combo Wedge sets up. Roadster is often paired with Leonard Washington, a former college football star and Vietnam vet turned PI. “Damnit Wedge! Where are you?!” WEDGE Function: Racer Alt-Mode: Bertone Lancia Stratos HF Zero concept car. Wedge is a futuristic, but actually real, concept car which takes corners like something out of Tron. Mid-Atlantic accent. WEDGE is fastest of the Earth-bound Autobots before the arrival of Blurr, and he looks it. He transforms into a rare Lancia Stratos concept car that looks like something straight from Cybertron. His raw speed is amazing enough, but his secret weapons are inertial capacitors that allow him to stop almost instantaneously and even make 90-degree turns at speeds more than 200 mph plus. Before the War, Wedge was a performer, the closest thing Cybertron has to a DJ. Now he’s fascinated by Earth’s music culture, particularly the energetic nightclub culture. I’m thinking more Bowie & Daft Punk, than Run DMC and Disco. Wedge is flighty, but he was always there, somewhere, in every single battle. He can move fast, but will not run from a flight. Wedge is often paired with Samuel Shinoda, a formerly Boston-based PI who is hunting the Decepticon who killed his brother.
Deluxe Vehicles The deluxe vehicles are BOONDOCK and MONTANA. They are non-combatants, unlike the later Wreckers Deluxes, and spend most of their time surveying for escape pods. We probably wouldn’t see much of them, but they’d guest star every now and then. BOONDOCK Function: Anthropologist Alt-mode: de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (floatplane) BOONDOCK was an academic, a cyberpologist and cyberneticist, a specialist in studying mechanical cultures and the origins of Cybertronian life. She was a leading proponent of the ex carne hypothesis (that Cybertronian life had been created by a biological Precursor species) and was frequently attacked by cyber-supremacists who felt her work was aberrant. After the War started, Boondock was repeated targeted by Decepticon attack squads so Optimus Prime moved her and the other intellectuals back to Iacon for their own protection. Now on Earth, Boondock is revelling in being out in the field again. She is fascinated to encounter a biological race for the first time and is in her element studying the native Earth culture. Although, she is inclined to get her initial interpretations comically wrong at times. She is often paired with Montana. MONTANA Function: Archaeologist and military historian Alt-mode: Williys Jeep (possible Hound redeco) with canvas soft-top and desert camouflage livery. MONTANA is a female identifying Autobot archaeologist and military historian. On Cybertron she studied Decepticon tactics, advised Prowl, and taught military history in the Autobot academy. She is an effective lecturer and speaker, but is more at home buried in the Iacon archives or investigating the remains of Cybertron’s lost grandeur. Montana transforms into a soft-top Jeep. On Earth she is paired with Boondock hunting through Earth’s wilderness for signs of buried Autobot escape capsules, energon deposits, and anything that might lead them to the resting place of the Ark. Unfortunately, her colleagues consider her something of a conspiracy theorist and dismiss her idea that Cybertronians have visited Earth before.
Autobot Planes Autobot Air Support, or more accurately the survivors of Aerospace Platoon of the Autobot Logistic Division left Cybertron as part of the Ark Armada. They were commanded by the junior commander SILVERBOLT and journeyed within the interstellar carrier mode of BROADSIDE, one of the few surviving Sentinel robots. After reawakening, Broadside was reformatted to resemble a human aircraft carrier and to act as the AAS’s mobile headquarters. ROSWELL acts as the AAS’s eyes in the sky, helping coordinate search teams and local cells. When a stasis locked Autobot is discovered DOWNDRAFT is dispatched to extract them back to the aircraft carrier. She is accompanied by the warriors KESTREL and AIR RAID whose job it is to make sure Downdraft and her cargo gets back to base in one piece. AIR RAID Function: Air warrior Alt-mode: McDowell Douglas F-15 Eagle This is a pre-Aerialbots Air Raid as a redeco of the original F-15 Starscream model. Officially he and the first generation Decepticon Jets share the same alt-mode, so why not make him an actual seeker defector. AIR RAID was original one of the Decepticons endless seeker clones. However, his programming was corrupted when he was brought online. He was morally repulsed by the casual brutality of the Decepticons and switched sides to join the Autobots. He nevertheless remains a thrill-seeker, much like the original Seekers. Because of his origin, Air Raid is one of the few out and out warriors current active amongst the Autobots on Earth. This can lead him into trouble as he rushes ahead of his comrades into whatever trap the Decepticons have set. DOWNDRAFT Function: Logistics support and transportation. Alt-mode: Chinook heavy lift, twin rotor helicopter. DOWNDRAFT is large, loud and opinionated. She actually accepts her lot in life, but would prefer to get into the thick of the melee rather than evacuating the casualties back to Ratchet. That’s not to say she accepts her assignment’s quietly; you will definitely know her opinion on this matter. Dowdraft’s signature attack is to use her rotors to create a powerful and continuous blast of air that can knock even full sized cons off their feet. KESTREL Function: Air warrior Alt-mode: Hawker Siddeley Hawk KESTREL is one of the most accomplished and deadly Autobot fliers. She is a professional warrior and a skilled martial artist. Her alt-mode makes her one of the most nimble Autobot fliers even if she lacks the higher upper speeds of some of the twin-engine jets. However, in close combat she is virtually unmatched. Her favourite tactic is to close in as a plane, transform and attack in mid-air as a robot, and then break away and transform leaving her stunned (and often incapacitated) opponent to crash land. If there is one word to describe Kestrel it would be exasperated. She often has to extract Air Raid’s over confident ass from whatever situation he’s got himself into. She also refuses to identify with any gender despite her overtly slender, feminine-like appearance. ROSWELL Function: Telecom/Network Hub Alt-Mode: Flying saucer - Silver & sleek, very little thickening towards the centre. ROSWELL is the classic Hollywood flying saucer, as opposed to the George Adamski inspired model used for COSMOS. She is probably a shell-former with the majority of the saucer plates folding behind her to form a pair of angel-like wings. ROSWELL is the last of her kind. On Cybertron she was one of the Sky Cloud, a network of orbital Cybertronians who acted as telecommunication satellites and network relays to their brethren on the ground. However, her kind were targeted in the early days of the War by Decepticon Air Command as part of a successful campaign to establish air superiority on Cybertron. Roswell reawoke in 1947, ahead of the other Autobots, and took an Earth name from the town where she made unwitting contact with a group of native humans. Her alt-mode is still her un-reformatted Cybertronian mode. All our UFO legends are based on sightings of her as she buzzes suspected sites of suspected Cybertronian activity, desperately looking for survivors from the Ark Armada. Roswell would dearly love to get to know her fellow survivors better and even the humans they now watch over, but her mission forever seems to keep them separate. People expect her to be aloof and distant, much like her mission, but she is actually gracious and warm. Her humanoid form is tall and graceful. Large parts of her saucer fold behind her to give her angel like wings. However, she is unaccustomed to being on the ground. SILVERBOLT Function: Autobot aerospace coordinator Alt-mode: Concorde SST This is a pre-Aerialbots Silverbolt. He’s still a relatively junior officer in the Autobot Army and isn’t yet the bot that Optimus Prime will one day pick to lead the Aerialbots. SILVERBOLT was drafted into the war when Optimus Prime reorganised the civilian Cybertronians to create the grand Autobot Army. On Cybertron he was involved with aerospace coordination, what humans would call air traffic control. The defection of the majority of the air command to the Decepticons left the Autobots without many fliers. Silverbolt stepped up and allowed himself to be reformatted into a flier. He is not a natural soldier and has never truly overcome his fear of heights. However, it is not a coward and is slowly earning his stripes.
Autobot Mini-vehicles/robots These mini-vehicles are based in Europe. One suspects this is Duke trying to keep them at arm's length. They are an eclectic mix of egos, misfits, and troublemakers. AUSTIN Function: Battlefield courier and messenger Alt-Mode: 1971 Mini Cooper S -- white, with 3-spot lights, & twin black bonnet stripes He’s one of the White Mini Coopers from the original Italian Job. A Cockney who sounds a bit like Michael Caine. AUSTIN excels at traversing active battlefields, at speed, over difficult terrain, while under constant fire. Where Bumblebee might endeavour to go unnoticed as a scout, Austin would rush forward with tyres screeching and self-confidence in his own ability to dodge/evade trouble. His usual mode of travel, outside of his alt-mode, is not dissimilar to parkour. Austin’s gung-ho spirit is undercut by sharp, sardonic wit. Graviton plating on his alt-modes underside allows him to adhere to surfaces that no other land vehicle can, or should, be able to traverse. This ability needs him to be travelling at some speed and fails completely if he has to come to a complete stop. On Earth, Austin feels over-constrained by the need to maintain the illusion and stick “normal” roads. If he read newspapers, Austin would read the British Daily Mirror. HOWLER Function: Sonic attach specialist. Alt-mode: Heavily customised VW Golf Mk1. He probably has a British “youth” accent with poor diction and grammar. HOWLER is what the Brit’s would call a “chav” or a “yob”. He is loud, unrepentantly opinionated, and doesn’t give a flying lugnet what you think. Howler transforms into an early “hot hatch” that has had its suspension lowered and a large custom sound system fitted. Unfortunately, you are more likely to find him street racing human youths than actually fighting Decepticons. In combat, he bombards his enemies with directional high-intensity white noise to disrupt their thought processes or even just to frag them off. Duke absolutely hated him. He is often paired with Austin who is more than willing to let Howler blunder into whatever trap or ambush he has failed to spot. If he read a newspaper, Howler would read the British Sun. KRANKENSTAND (“sick leave”) Function: Nurse/Combat Medic Alt-mode: Messerschmitt KR200 He probably sounds like an inoffensive German academic. KRANKENSTAND is a quiet and polite Autobot who is utterly terrified of his own shadow. His disposition isn’t helped by being one of the smallest of the Autobots. In the sick bay, his small-size means that he can more easily access tight corners and the difficult to reach parts of far larger bots. About the only time he will stand up for himself is when the life of a patient is on the line. Ratchet has a healthy respect for Krankenstand’s skill and usually tries to keep him away from the more boisterous warriors. Krankenstand transforms into a red Messerschmitt KR200, a three-wheeled German bubble car. He is utterly perplexed by Howler’s references to “Don’t Mention the War” and 1966. ROCKSTEADY Function: Deep cover surveillance / Psychologist Alt-mode: A rock ROCKSTEADY is the Autobot’s leading expert in long-term, deep cover surveillance. His alt-mode is highly mutable allowing him to take on the appearance of a rocky outcrop or boulder. This includes the ability to alter his surface finish to match the local geology. His default state looks something like a small part of Vasquez Rocks. Rocksteady is accustomed to spending days and even weeks in his alt-mode. He is not the greatest conversationalist, but he never forgets anything he is told and can be amazingly perceptive. Cross-trained as a combat psychologist -- he’s lost count of the number of Autobots who though they were spilling their guts to him only to discover that they’d been talking to an actual rock. TEMPUS Function: Deep cover surveillance. Alt-Mode: British Police Box Tempus is inspired by Tardis-dress cosplayers and by the Doctor Who character Idris. TEMPUS is a young Autobot long-term, deep-cover agent, with a specialism in the urban environment. Her alt-mode should be a small generic building with the exact surface camouflage being configured dynamically upon transformation. A normal mission profile on Cybertron would be a month-long surveillance of a Decepticon outpost. Unfortunately while visiting the United Kingdom, Tempus affected the appearance of a small blue police cabinet and has been stuck with that alt-mode ever since. She has grown to rather like it. Tempus is another of those Transformers who has gone native on this new world. In her case, she’s gone UK native and is an obsessive fan of British TV comedy. Duke doesn’t appreciate the Monty Python references, but Austin digs them. Maybe, it’s because she is an expert at keeping still for so long that Tempus over-compensates in person and lets her mouth run several sentences ahead of her brain. VISTA Function: Range-finding and surveillance Alt-Mode: Binoculars An homage to the Microman MC-19 Binocular Robo Scope Man. He probably has a slight Italian accent. VISTA is an expert at range finding and identifying targets -- either for Autobot airstrikes or when paired with a sniper as a spotter. Perhaps it is a function of his assignment, but Vista hates getting involved in the nasty part of warfare. This has led to his teammates considering Vista uppity or snobbish. The truth, however, is that Vista is a classic introvert -- even in social situations, he’s more relaxed watching everybody else than taking part himself. Vista transforms into a pair of binoculars either at Cybertron size or by mass-shifting down to human size. That transformation includes a tripod if necessary. Away from the battlefield, Vista is a quiet observer and will spend hours just watching humans or even just wildlife go about their business. On the battlefield, Vista’s alt-mode is a little too shiny and is likely to give away his own location if he isn’t careful.
Decepticon Leaders I always thought that it was interesting that the Decepticon’s had more upper bass than the Autobots. Each of the Autobot leaders is pretty much a loaner, whereas Megatron and Galvatron have more visible lieutenants. These are two more characters in that mould. CONTESSA TENEBROUS Function:Interrogation technician Alt-mode: Black Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II She never raises her voice, Latin American accent. TENEBROUS is from old Cybertronian money, from the pre-War Aristocracy. However, the exact details of her past have been erased. It is believed that she went by another name, but nobody can remember it. Since she became a Decepticon she’s always just been called the Contessa. It is also believed that she had a pre-War connection to Mirage, but what that is neither one of them is saying. Soundwave might read your secrets straight from your mind, but he isn’t always available and Megatron is not always motivated to be so clean. In those cases the Contessa serves as Megatron’s interrogation technician (nee torturer). She is itching to get that traitor Starscream into her dungeon and he knows it. Most of time, however, she serves as the leader of the Decepticon secret police (what the Autobots call the RIB, the Robots in Black). DOCTOR SPARKSHAVER Function: Decepticon medic and mad scientist. Alt-mode: Rockwell B-1 Lancer. Why do the Decepticons end up with so many bots that are either impossible to hide or simply monstrous? Shockwave should be too logical, so maybe there is another Decepticon scientist -- one who is a little bit more Doctor Strangelove or Victor Frankenstein. He of course should have a slight indeterminate Eastern European accent that gets stronger when he becomes excited. He also looks like he’s wearing little round glasses. Where Shockwave believes is cold logic, SPARKSHAVER believes in wild experimentation (usually on captured Autobot prisoners or at a push one of Starscream’s nameless Seekers). If there is a daffy Decepticon (Horrorcons, Terrorcons, etc) or off model modifications (VTOL fans or swept wings on an F15!?) he’s probably been involved. Shockwave’s efforts are usually more effective militarily, but Megatron appreciates the psychological terror spread by Sparkshaver’s haphazard creations. Sparkshaver transforms into a Rockwell B-1 Lancer and has the appearance of a stretched or elongated seeker. In that form he often carried Ninito into battle. His speed and high cruising altitude usually keep him out of direct combat. He also has little regard for the safety of this “volunteers” and his colleagues rightly consider him insane. If an Autobot or even a Decepticon turns on him Sparkshaver is just as likely to high-tail it or as to reveal some as-yet-unannounced horror project. If he was a headmaster, Arkoville would be his partner.