Ask Vector Prime October Guests

For the month of October, 2015, while Vector was away due to the events of the "Another Light" storyline, seven guest hosts took over, each having their own column that lasted for a few days. Some of them were a bit more popular than others (and one caused some minor controversy), but overall, it was a very fun month, full of great moments.

October 1:

With some set-up from the Axiom Nexus News pages, we start off our first guest column, Grimlock's Grim Grams. Run by the Grimlock of the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, the original Grim Grams was the letters page hosted by Grimock for the Marvel UK The Transformers comic, running from issue #75 to #182. Grimlock's profile picture is a screenshot of him in Tyrannosaurus mode from The Transformers: The Movie (specifically from the scene in the trial room on Quintessa).

Grimlock's first post doesn't have much to it, so we'll start right away with the questions:

Question 1: In Age of Extinction, none of the human allies from the first three film showed up, and it was a fairly popular fan theory at the time that they were killed by Cemetery Wind, the CIA black ops task force and human antagonists of the film. With the release of The Last Knight, we know Lennox and Simmons are still alive, though Sam's fate is a bit less clear. Kermit is obviously the usual protagonist of The Muppets. In a reply to a comment on the post, Grimlock mistakes "canon" for "cannons". The anti-tank cannon was the transforming "partner" for the Action Master toy of Grimlock. Grimlock's Pretender toy came with an "Atom-Smashing Submachine Gun", while the rocket launcher the original Grimlock toy came with was called a "galaxial rocket launcher" in his tech specs.

Question 2: Beryllium baloney (as it's properly spelt) was originally mentioned in Sunbow The Transformers season 2 episode "Dinobot Island, Part 1", but is far better remembered for when it was mentioned in The Transformers: The Movie, where Slag claimed that Grimlock was full of beryllium baloney, only for Grimlock to claim in turn that he was full of cesium salami. Following on from the "element plus foodstuff" pattern established by those two foods, this post also mentions plutonium pepperoni and strontium spaghetti.

Question 3: Here we have a screencap from Sunbow The Transformers episode "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2", where the Decepticons are lined up. To fill out their ranks in the pilot mini-series, the show used recolored versions of the Rumble/Frenzy character model, along with recolored versions of the Decepticon Jets and multiple copies of the Reflector character model. Of course Grimlock likes Jurassic Park. Grimlock showed off his dancing skills on the Planet of Junk in The Transformers: The Movie.

October 2:

Question 1: T-Bob was the kid-appeal sidekick character of M.A.S.K., companion to Scott Trakker. He showed up in the Transformers multiverse as one of the off-worlders in Axiom Nexus in "Withered Hope".

Question 2: Grimlock and the Dinobots fought Unicron in The Transformers: The Movie, and later in the film Rodimus used the Matrix of Leadership to destroy him. Later, in the season 3 episode of the Sunbow cartoon, "Grimlock's New Brain", after becoming super-intelligent, Grimlock used the remains of Unicron's head to create the Technobots.

Question 3: Another somewhat silly question AVP used to get. Eventually, in Beast Wars: Uprising, there was Panzer, though technically he turned into an ursanokor rather than an actual panda.

Question 4: This is cute and good.

Question 5: Cosmic Rust was seen in season 2 of the Sunbow cartoon, in the episode "Cosmic Rust". The Dinobots weren't seen in that episode; it's revealed here they were away at the time of the cosmic rust infection, and were ordered to stay away for their own safety. Not quite bugs, but Unicron was destroyed by metal-eating spores in the Devil's Due Press two-issue mini-series, G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Black Horizon.

October 3:

Question 1: As I said, Grimlock built the Technobots in "Grimlock's New Brain". It aired on November 14th, 1986. Wheeljack and Ratchet created the first three Dinobots in "S.O.S. Dinobots". Wheeljack and Ratchet were killed by the Decepticons in The Transformers: The Movie. The post has a comment with art from Matt Kuphaldt (a.k.a. Jackpot) of Grimlock showing the Technobots the "family scrapbook".

Question 2: The Lightning Strike Coalition was an Autobot splinter group first seen in Dreamwave's The War Within: The Dark Ages mini-series, of which the Dinobots were all members. I suppose Kup might have arrived with Grimlock in Axiom Nexus. Alternatively, he doesn't realize Kup can't see him back home.

Question 3: Presumably this fan is annoyed that Vector Prime didn't give an in-depth answer about the movieverse Dinobots because of Age of Extinction only just being released a year prior. Kup drove backwards in animation errors in "Starscream's Ghost" and "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2".

Question 4: At this point in time, there had been no female Dinobots. That would change later that month, with Strafe being introduced in IDW's The Transformers: Redemption one-shot. Perceptor would have to build any new Dinobots since Wheeljack and Ratchet are dead.

After this question, Grimlock was fired for his...well, lack of intelligence. Thus, we get our second host: Swindle, with Swindle's Spiel!

The Swindle running this column is one of the three who run Swindle, Swindle, and Swindle, a store seen in the TransTech prose stories "Withered Hope" and "I, Lowtech". They include: Swindle the First, the Generation 2 release of Swindle; Swindle the Second, the original The Transformers Swindle toy, with die-cast purple chest; and Swindle the Third, the variant of the toy with the plastic gray chest. Swindle's profile pic is the illustration of Swindle, Swindle, and Swindle from "I, Lowtech", with pencils and inks by Nick Roche, and colors by Winston Bolen. His introduction post is, again, fairly straightforward, so we'll head right in to

Question 1: The Reverse Evolution virus (or "mind changer virus", the more technically accurate but boring name) was seen in the 2002 Micromaster toyline's storyline, which turned the Turbo Team evil. Corrodia Gravis (a Cybertronian version of myasthenia gravis) was introduced in the Transformers Annual 1990 story "Destiny of the Dinobots!", and seen more in the Marvel UK's "Earthforce" stories published the following year. Metal fatigue was originally mentioned in issue #17 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. And Cybercrosis is the Cybertronian version of cancer, originally mentioned in the IDW Publishing More than Meets the Eye Annual 2012. The Placebotron 5000 is named for the concept of the "placebo", an inert drug that's prescribed for psychological benefit, rather than physical. Vorns were also mentioned in issue #17 of the Marvel comic. Acid rain on Cybertron was originally seen as an artificial creation in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Divide and Conquer", and became a normal fixture of Cybertronian weather in later stories. Cybonic plague, the Cybertronian equivalent to bubonic plague, aka the "Black Death", was seen in the Transformers: Prime episode "Sick Mind". Energon discharge virus was seen in the Beast Wars episode "The Low Road". Berzerker Button is an alcoholic beverage, originally mentioned in issue #18 of IDW's More than Meets the Eye. It takes its name from "Berserk Button", a trope featured on TV Tropes.

Animated Oil Slick was a chemical warfare expert. He's presumably at least one of the Oil Slicks whose a customer at S, S, and S. The other might be Oilslick, an "Aligned" version of the character mentioned in the TransTech comic "Timeless". GPS is gold plastic syndrome, which refers to an affliction held by several Transformers toys, in which a swirly, brown-ish gold plastic becomes brittle, cracking and breaking down over time. "Black Z" is BlackZarak, an upgraded version of Scorponok from Super-God Masterforce, whose toy is one of the infamous GPS-victims. In The AllSpark Almanac II, the Animated version of Red Alert was noted to have invented a vaccine for GPS during the Great War. Reality Bridges were mentioned in an Ask Vector Prime post about the Universe Spychangers, an upgraded version of the space bridge that allowed the Autobots to travel to the world of the GoBots. The Critias Gate was a super-dimensional reactor from the Alternity storyline, named for Plato's dialogue, Critias. The Dimensional Interface was an invention of Doctor Braxis seen in the Challenge of the GoBots two-parter, "Invasion from the 21st Level". He recreated it when the GoBot's world was slowly dying in the TransTech prose story, "Withered Hope". And Transwarp Drives have been seen regularly since Beast Wars, easily capable of traveling not just through space, but through time and across realities as well. "RUINED FOREVER" is a fandom in-joke poking fun at all the fans who say that every new incarnation of Transformers ruins the brand, started by TFWiki's page for it, seen here: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Ruined_FOREVER The metafictional bomb was an invention of Brainstorm's that caused its victim to believe they were in a fictional narrative, first seen in issue #15 of More than Meets the Eye.

October 4:

Question 1: The Cybertronix does, of course, have an alphabet, as it first showed up in Beast Wars as a written cipher language. Alternium is a substance linked to the higher-dimensional realm from the Alternity storyline, which was partially responsible for evolving the Autobots into the Alternity. The Zodiac, meanwhile, was a mysterious energy source introduced in the Zone storyline. Skywarp was armed with a Bouncer Bomb in the Sunbow season 2 episode "The Immobilizer". Shanix was a currency introduced in issue #113 of the Marvel UK comic. Cy-gars are the Cybertronian equivalent of cigars, first seen in IDW Publishing's All Hail Megatron maxi-series. The Xobitor Cluster is the world of the Robotix franchise and it's various components. Zull was a planet seen in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Ultra Magnus. An energon infuser (a medical device used to infuse energon, obviously enough) was seen in the Sunbow season 4 episode "The Rebirth, Part 1". Inhibitor claws were restraining devices originally seen in in issue #84 of the Marvel UK comic. The omni-directional relay was seen on the planet of Junk in the Sunbow season 3 episode "The Big Broadcast of 2006". The Decepticon Demus and the planet Tebris VII were introduced in issue #45 of IDW's More than Meets the Eye; the one Swindle knows is an Animated version of the character. Ultralite was a alloy used in automobile manufacturing, mentioned in IDW's Escalation mini-series. The Y-Wing bomb is one of the famous starfighters from Star Wars; it's show up a few times as an alt-mode in the Star Wars: Transformers toyline. G-Metal was a rare substance from the planet Master, seen in The Headmasters cartoon. Weirdwolf was one of the 1987 Decepticon Headmasters. Dynametal ducks were mentioned in the Sunbow season 2 episode "The Core". Frijoles are a Mexican dish of cooked and mashed beans; in the Energon episode "Scorpinok" Carlos Lopez shouted "holy frijoles!", which became something of a meme. Suicide buttons were devices seen in issue #232-233 of the Marvel UK comic, used to prevent the enemy from getting any info in case one was captured. The "hyperspace mallet" was the name given by The AllSpark Almanac II to teenage Sari Sumdac's hammer weapon, inspired by the trope in anime of younger women grabbing giant mallets out of nowhere and smacking others with them, especially with the "comedy pervert"-type characters. Jetpacks are fairly obvious, as are knuckle spikes. Lysken crystals were mentioned in issue #58 of the Marvel comic. Tau-Ursa was a mechanoid-inhabited planet seen in issue #3 of Blackthorne Publishing's The Transformers in 3-D comic. Princess Perfectina is an all new character. Mechanite was seen in the Rescue Bots episode "Bots and Robbers", used by Evan and Myles for their Tech Wrecker, a device that shut down machines in a certain radius. Project Prime was Fortress Maximus' faction of Autobots' attempt to bring Optimus Prime back online, seen in issue #41 of the Marvel comic; Fort Max, Goldbug, Brainstorm, and Highbrow were the Autobots shown to be involved. The Quasar Rifle was the weapon of choice of Beast Wars Cheetor; famously, it jammed on him in the first episode of the series. Nanobots are fairly obvious. The rectifier coil is the component of a starship that protects Transformers from energon radiation; it was seen in the Beast Wars episode "Call of the Wild". Outlier is a term for Transformers with a "special power" unrelated to their alternate mode, originally introduced in issue #11 of More than Meets the Eye. The Transmetal driver was a piece of Vok technology seen in several episode of the third season of Beast Wars, which upgraded several characters into their Transmetal 2 forms. The Voyager 2 was a real-world NASA space probe; it, or rather, the "Golden Disk" it carried, factored heavily into the Beast Wars cartoon, where it was revealed that the original Megatron had found it and left instructions to future Decepticons and their descendants to use transwarp technology to alter the course of history, in the event that he lost the war. The Da Vinchi Code is a novel about a secret alternate history of Christianity, which popularized a number of conspiracy theories. In the 2007 live-action Transformers film, a still-packaged Xbox 360 was one of the machines brought to life by a burst of energy from the AllSpark, causing arms to spout out of the box as it attempted to escape. The 1988 Autobot Pretender Cloudburst came with a Lightning Whip. The Revenge of the Fallen Fast Action Battler Jolt toy came with Electro Whips. The Animorphs Marco toy (the one that turned into a gorilla) came with a Battle Chain. I'm not sure of the origin of Cyber Whips and Cryo Chains, but they definitely sound familiar.

Question 2: Robot Resources is Human Resources in Cybertronian speak. Mini-Cons often had non-humanoid configurations. "Conjunx Endura" is the Cybertronian equivalent to being married, first introduced in issue #12 of More than Meets the Eye, conjunx being the Latin word for spouse. The Shattered Glass version of Blot, introduced in the Club's "Reunification" storyline, was a psychologist, inspired by the "inkblot" test created by psychologist Hermann Rorschach. Froid was an psychologist seen in IDW's continuity, starting with a mention in issude #13 of More than Meets the Eye. He's named after the pioneer in psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Swindle's also implied here to be in a poly-amorous relationship with his fellow Swindles here.

Question 3: TF-NBC is a reference to NBC, the National Broadcasting Company. The Dirk Manus Industrial Average first appeared in The AllSpark Almanac II. Inspired by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, its name comes from Dirk Manus, a rogue seen in Sunbow season 3 episode "Money is Everything".

Question 4: Datatrax is a fairly generic sci-fi word, but they've been in Transformers since Beast Wars. Swindle's datatrax, Salesbotship: Getting to Yes, is named after the business self-help book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury. GalEx is short for Galactic Express, a shipping company mentioned in the Sunbow cartoon episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1", and is a pastiche of FedEx. The Wireless Automated Sales Person/WASP was a holographic salesbot A.I. from the Shattered Glass continuity that parodied OxiClean spokesman Billy Mays, seen in the sixth Around Cybertron strip.

Question 5: For the Fall of Cybertron-based section of the Generations toylines, the Combaticons were redecoed and retooled into the Wreckers, with the new combined form of Ruination. Aside from serving as slight homages to the Robots in Disguise Commandos and their combined form of Ruination, the head of Ruination was based on Marvel UK original character Emirate Xaaron, who worked with the Wreckers in the stories from the Marvel UK comic that introduced the team. Electronic paint was seen in Animated episode "Where Is Thy Sting?" The Quintessons, of course, are the five-faced aliens introduced in The Transformers: The Movie. Swindle's famous client is obviously Bumblebee. Bumblebee's original toy was sold in a red color variant alongside the more famous yellow one, and for a time, although they didn't share a mold originally, fellow Autobot Mini Vehicle Cliffjumper was often redecoed from Bumblebee due to their similar designs. The Animated version of Waspinator started out life as Wasp, an arrogant Autobot who shared the same body design as Bumblebee; it was in "Where Is Thy Sting?" that he tried to use electronic paint to switch identities with Bumblebee. The Generation 2 release of Bumblebee's original toy gave it a chrome gold paint job. Polar Assault white is a more obscure reference; for the Bot Shots toyline of small, auto-transforming figures, Bumblebee's toy was sold in white as part of the "Polar Assault Team" five-pack with Optimus Prime, Mirage, Ironhide, and Jetfire. Bumblebee's upgraded form is the Throttlebot Goldbug; he got that moniker in the Sunbow cartoon in "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2", where after he was rebuilt, he claimed he felt like "a gold bug". The Generation 2 release of Aerialbot Slingshot is one of the most notorious victims of gold plastic syndrome, often shattering only minutes after being taken out of the box.

October 5:

Question 1: The Transmetal driver was not given an origin in Beast Wars, only showing up in Megatron's possession in "Feral Scream Part 1". The Vok probe was seen capturing and studying Optimus Primal in "Chain of Command". The floating island showed up in the two-part episode "The Trigger", and was given the name "Brigadoon" in the Japanese guidebook Beast Wars Universe, after the play Brigadoon, about a mysterious Scottish village that only appears for a day every 100 years.

Question 2: The Iacon 5000 was mentioned by Blaster in the letters page of issue #326 of the Marvel UK comic. Swindle's implied here to be in a relationship with his other counterparts again, with a brief fling with Animated Swindle. Animated Swindle's personal storage dimension was seen in "Decepticon Air". Seizer's Palace is named after Caesars Palace, a luxury hotel and casino in Las Vegas; Seizer was a member of the Decepticon Triumvirate ruling the Decepticons after the death of Straxus, seen in issues #213-214 of the Marvel UK comic, who was himself named after Augustus Caesar, member of the Roman Second Triumvirate. Cybertron Armorhide was established to be a stand-up comedian before the war, as mentioned in his online Cyber Key Code bio. Windy was one of the components of Sixtrain from Operation Combination, who was established to be a female singer/"idol" in the Micromaster toyline. Praxus Fold 'Em is the Cybertronian equivalent of Texas Hold 'Em, mentioned in the Cyber Key Code bio of Cybertron Brimstone. The Blasty Zone is a realm that can transport someone throughout space and time, seen in the Robotmasters storyline. Shanix are mentioned again. Buckazoids are a form of currency seen in the Space Quest series of computer games.

Question 3: The electro-disruptor rifle is the weapon of Generation 1 Smokescreen. The coda remote device (or Coder Remote, as it would eventually be revealed to be actually named in the dialogue script) was a device created by a young Alpha Trion/A3 to disable the Dark Guardians, as seen in the Sunbow cartoon season 3 episode "Forever Is a Long Time Coming". Xal Unbound was a play mentioned as having been written by Shattered Glass Straxus, as mentioned in his tech specs for his BotCon 2012 toy. It's named after the plays Prometheus Unbound, one written by 5th-century BC Greek tragedy writer Aeschylus, and one by the 1800s English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Xal was a deity invoked in issue #9 of the Marvel Generation 2 comic. Mini-Con panels were seen in Armada, used by the Mini-Cons to store themselves in stasis. "Tuned to eleven" is a paraphrase of a famous quote from the film, This Is Spinal Tap.

Question 4: The Mainframe mentioned here is probably the Autobot Action Master from the 1990 range of the original toyline. Crindars are the currency of the Scarran Empire from Farscape. Syli is the currency of the Quintessons, as mentioned in The AllSpark Almanac II, named after the national currency of Guinea from 1971 to 1985. Quatloos are a currency from the planet of Triskelion, as seen in the original Star Trek series. Aquillian crystals are a form of currency mentioned in issue #44 of the original Marvel The Transformers comic. Cubits are a form of currency from Battlestar Galactica. Another mention of shanix. Solari is a currency from Dune.

Question 5: Nightbird was a drone built by Doctor Fujiyama and reprogrammed by the Decepticons, from the Sunbow cartoon season 2 episode "Enter the Nightbird". Blitz Engines were semi-sparked drones created by Bludgeon in the 2013 Marvel The Transformers sequel series from IDW Publishing, Regeneration One. Galamen were drones serving the mysterious Dark Nova in Return of Convoy. Q-Drone were the drones of Quint Quarry, from the Rescue Bots cartoon. The Hellhound was a Cybertronian canine seen in issue #237 of the Marvel UK comic. Centurion Droids were seen in the two-parter "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1", guarding the chamber of Vector Sigma. Dead End was the Mini-Con partner of the Armada version of Unicron; copies of him were seen in the Armada cartoon, serving as anti-bodies for Unicron. The Energon version of Terrorcons were drones serving first Alpha Quintesson, and later the Decepticons. The Insecticons had beetle modes, while Divebombs had eagle modes. The Scrapmetals were pests seen in Cybertron; the "Balancing Act" storyline from the first year of the Collectors' Club magazine established they were a type of Terrorcons. Command Ravage is an stealthy variant of the Battle Ravage jaguar types. IFF means "identification, friend or foe". The Sharkticons were the most famous servants of the Quintessons first seen in The Transformers: The Movie; the film also introduced another type of servants with alligator-like alternate modes, which were named Allicons by Dreamwave Productions. Guardians were giant Autobot drones first introduced in issue #20 of the Marvel UK comic; a Mark V Guardian was seen in issue #60 of the Marvel US comic, so a Mark IV Guardian is the one before them. Legislators were the drones serving the mad Autobot Chief Justice Tyrest in IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye comic, who, when first introduced, continued uttering "Nineteen eighty-four", from statute of the Autobot Code. In the 2014 Age of Extinction film, the company KSI (Kinetic Solutions Incorporated) built man-made Transformers; Stinger was their attempt to create a version of Bumblebee. The Vehicons were seen in Beast Machines; Tank drones served under Tankor, cycle-drones served Thrust, and copter-drones served Obsidian. Overcharge was a release of the Blitzwing toy in its original Diaclone colors. Its tech specs indicated that Overcharges were mass-produced "Terrorbots" created by the Quintessons, sold as military surplus. The Beast Wars: Uprising story "Burning Bridges" indicated other types of Terrorbots included Noizemases (the generic inhabitants of Planet X who shared their body with Sideways, from Cybertron) and Guardminders (Decepticons sharing a body-type with Scorponok's partner Fasttrack from Super-God Masterforce).

October 6:

Question 1: This is presumably the mirror-universe Jim Sorenson, who co-wrote the two AllSpark Almanacs.

Question 2: The Enigma of Combination was the artifact of Nexus Prime, introduced in The Covenant of Primus, which had the power to create combiners. Battle Gaia was a redeco of Bruticus from Operation Combination, while Baldigus is the Japanese of Ruination, the combined form of the Commandos, redecoes of the Combaticons from Robots in Disguise. Get it? Bald?

Question 3: In the Prime cartoon, Bumblebee's human partner Raf Esquivel was able to understand Bumblebee's bleeping with little to no explanation. The Institute for Higher Programming was mentioned in the tech specs of Autobot Headmaster Chromedome. Translator microbes were microscopic organisms which allows one to understand other languages from Farscape, while babelfish were fish which did much the same, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Nebuleese is the language of the Nebulans, the aliens who become the various "Master" partners. The Shi-Lai were an alien race mentioned in the Collectors' Club Classics comic "Cheap Shots". Illxians is the language of the Illxians, who were introduced in Spotlight: Blaster. High Vestial and Low Vestial are presumably the languages of Vestum Major and Vestum Minor, the capital worlds of the Vestial Imperium from "Cheap Shots", first mentioned in The AllSpark Almanac II; its presumably similar to the dialectical differences between High and Low German, and so on. Quintanese is the language of the Quintessons. Tyroxian is the language of the Tyroxians, seen in issue #132 of the Marvel UK comic. Tykosian is the language of the inhabitants of Tykos, seen in issue #7 of the Marvel Generation 2 comic. Klovian is the language of the inhabitants of Klo, the planet seen in the final few issues of the Marvel US comic. Bk'nsish is the language of the robospiders of Bk'n, mentioned in the Transformers Annual 1992 story "Another Time & Place".

Question 4: We never saw the Shattered Glass version of Swindle, but Shattered Glass version of Animated Swindle was mentioned in The AllSpark Almanac II, who ran charities.

Question 5: Autobots dealing with Swindle is a fairly-recurring trope. The idea that Cybertronian's names on Earth are "translations" of their Cybertronian names is a fairly common trope. With Swindle fired, we move on to the next day.

October 7:

To replace Swindle, we have Sentinel Shouting, hosted by Sentinel Prime from Animated. It's made clear that this is a younger Sentinel from his days as the Drill Sergeant Sentinel Minor seen in "Autoboot Camp", and a screencap of him yelling from that episode is his profile picture. Cyberflies were mentioned in the packaging bio of the Target exclusive redeco of Movie Jazz in Generation 1 colors, part of the first live action movie's toyline.

Question 1: Some very obvious prejudice here. In The AllSpark Almanac II, Sentinel mocked Seaspray for his water-based vehicular form. Since this is the Sentinel Minor of some hundred or so years ago, Safeguard (and his components, Jetstorm and Jetfire, who have jet modes) has not been created yet, being a modern creation.

Question 2: In the Animated world, the city-bots Metroplex, Fortress Maximus, and Trypticon all exist, but only as non-sentient buildings. Sentinel noted his disdain for Alpha Trion's push for less military in The AllSpark Almanac II, and Metroplex is where the Guilds Domesticus (the civilian government of Cybertron) meet.

Question 3: Attached here is an image of Big Bang, a prototypical Autobot designed for the toyline that became Return of Convoy, where he was ultimately replaced with Star Convoy. The robot mode comes from the Transformers Generations Deluxe book, while the vehicle and base modes come from exclusive TakaraTomy documentation. Big Bang Prime showed up as a member of the Autobots during the Great War in The AllSpark Almanac II.

Question 4: The Autobot Commonwealth was established in The AllSpark Almanac II (see where we're going with this?) Sentinel is just a real jackass in this.

Question 5: The Motorvators Gripper, Lightspeed, and Flame were slight redecoes of the Victory Brainmasters Blacker, Braver, and Laster, sold in Europe in 1991. They no longer had their combiner kibble, but they could still combine, and eventually, that form would show up in fiction in BotCon 2014's "Hoist the Flag" comic. The Spark of Combination was seen in Energon, bestowed by Primus onto the Autobots and giving them combination abilities. Big Motorvator's name is in line with that of fellow neutered Victory combiner released in Europe, Big Rescue Force.

October 8:

Question 1: Sentinel is, of course, blue and orange. And the colors he describes here are that of Optimus (red), Bulkhead (green), Prowl (gold), Bumblebee (yellow), and Ratchet (white).

Question 2: We all know Sentinel is full of integrity. Autobot Academy is different from Autobot Boot Camp; Optimus Prime went there before he was expelled. Transform-ups were seen in "Autoboot Camp". Circuit boosters are a type of Cybertronian drug, seen in issue #275 of the Marvel UK comic,

Question 3: In the comic adaptation of the Revenge of the Fallen film, the movieverse version of Optimus Prime was noted to be an orphan, something that was dropped for the final film, which was where the hatchlings were introduced. Animated Optimus was already promoted to Prime after being expelled from the Autobot Academy, as seen in flashbacks in "Endgame, Part I". Major was a rank introduced in The AllSpark Almanac II. Sentinel's shield was given the name "Skyboom" in The AllSpark Almanac, after the Skyboom Shield from Armada.

Question 4: I believe the term "Decepticon Star Empire" comes from The AllSpark Almanac II, but I can't remember where in it. Sentinel gets a lot more imperialist here, as the third season hinted at. Nano-fleas were mentioned in issue #2 of the 3H Productions Universe comic. The Omnibots were mail-away exclusives from the second year of the original toyline, Autobots who turned into cars and a tertiary "attack mode".

Question 5: Sari Sumdac, the human companion from Animated, was revealed later on in the series to be a half-Cybertronian technorganic. The Maximals of Beast Machines were technorganic. Sentinel has a fear of organics, caused by the loss of Elita-1 on Archa Seven to giant spiders, as seen in flashback in "Along Came a Spider".

October 9:

Question 1: This person is asking for more about Vector Prime's days before he became a member of the Time Warriors. The Matrix did not exist in Animated, with the AllSpark existing instead (at least until the final episode, where the gathered shards were placed in a new Matrix shaped container). At this point in time, the AllSpark is lost in space, and will not be recovered until Optimus and his crew come across it in the first episode of Animated. I figure you know who the Omega Sentinels are-the last line of defense, of which Omega Supreme was the first.

Question 2: Sentinel used a spray can after shaking Mayor Edsel's hand in "The Return of the Headmaster"; The AllSpark Almanac II gave it the name of "cyber-sol spray". And so we lose another host.

With his departure, the show becomes Bee's Backtalk, hosted by the Movieverse Bumblebee. This is one of my favorite guest hosts; Kellen Goff did a really good job recreating the "radio speak" of Bumblebee, something that a lot of ancillary media fails to do, interspersing the samples with the sounds Bumblebee makes in the films. Bumblebee's profile picture is one of the many stock images released of his CGI model for the first film. Some of the posts have been taken down since then, so follow along here to actually listen to them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhcGI0aIUyU&feature=youtu.be And use the TFWiki source page for transcriptions.

For the intro post, the video is illustrated with another stock image of Bumblebee from the first movie. The trumpets starting it off are sourced from the YouTube video ""Fanfare" for Natural Trumpet" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wOnLKNhjA), which in turn appears to be just a sample of fanfare. The "welcome" is sourced from Timon (voiced by Nathan Lane) in the 1994 film, The Lion King. Kellen isn't sure of the source for the "to", having taken it from an old radio broadcast on his harddrive, but believes it might be from a recording of jazz singer Cab Calloway. "Bees" is sampled from the animated short DR. BEES by Harry Partridge (who I believe also provides the voice), while "backtalk" is sourced from Rochelle (played by Tichina Arnold) from the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. And "let's go, go, go!" is sourced from the Cat in the Hat (played by Mike Myers) from the 2003 live-action The Cat in the Hat film.

Question 1: In issues #216-218 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic, Dr. Susan Hoffman (a character who had debuted back in issue #125) was accompanied by assistants, three of whom were drawn as The Real Ghostbusters versions of Ghostbusters members Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman, and Ray Stantz, as an in-joke by artist Andrew Wildman, who also worked on The Real Ghostbusters comic published by Marvel UK. They, along with some Autobots and Decepticons, found the still-living body of Starscream. who had been seemingly destroyed by the power of the Underbase in Marvel US issue #50. In the video (illustrated by another stock image), Bumblebee replies with a lyric from the Ghostbusters theme song, performed by Ray Parker Jr.

Question 2: Sam Witwicky, the main protagonist for the first three live-action Transformers films, was nowhere to be seen in 2014's Age of Extinction, and with the human antagonists of the film, CIA black ops group Cemetery Wind, being more than willing to kill civilians, things didn't look good for him. Bumblebee's answer (illustrated with a screencap of him from Revenge of the Fallen, during the part where he and the others are hiding in an abandoned area), is composed of a few different clips. First, the "I, uh..." comes from Malvus, an orc from a cancelled World of Warcraft mod made by Kellen Goff's friend that he still had on his computer. "I don't want to talk about it," meanwhile, is sampled from Lisa (played by Juliette Danielle) from the 2003 film The Room.

Question 3: I think I asked this, possibly because I was thinking of the 2006 The Wicker Man remake with Nic Cage, with the infamous "Not the bees!" scene. Another stock image of Bee to illustrate the video. "That's my name" is sampled from Danny Zuko (played by John Travolta) from the 1978 film Grease, while "don't wear it out" is sampled from Pee-wee Herman (played by Paul Reubens) from the 1985 film Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

October 10:

Question 1: Sari Sumdac's origin in Animated was never revealed, beyond her being a Cybertronian. Any information released since its end have only ever teased what her origins might be, The video is illustrated with a stock image of Bumblebee's second body in Age of Extinction. Bumblebee's enigmatic answer is sampled from Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) from the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon.

Question 2: Cheetor is, of course, the kid-appeal character of Beast Wars. The video is illustrated with a screencap (I think) of Bumblebee from the 2007 movie adaptation video game, Transformers: The Game. The "say whaaaa" is sampled from Gandhi (voiced by Michael McDonald) from the animated sitcom Clone High. "Kids love me" is sampled from Jeremy the Crow (voiced by Dom DeLuise) from the 1982 film The Secret of NIMH. And "you're gonna need all nine lives" is sampled from Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson) from the 2010 live-action Marmaduke film.

Question 3: In the Marvel The Transformers comic, the Creation Matrix was lost when Thunderwing was blown out the Ark in issue #66, leaving the Transformers only one option to stop Unicron: to unite together, as told in a prophecy in the Keeper to Bumblebee in issue #61. When Unicron attacked in issue #75, the united Autobots and Decepticons tried to stop him, but ultimately only one when Thunderwing returned with the Creation Matrix, which Optimus retrieved after Thunderwing was destroyed, using its power to end Unicron. Another stock image of Bumblebee, this time with his battle mask. "Game over, man" is sampled from Private Hudson (played by Bill Paxton) from the 1986 film Aliens. "It's the end of the world" is sampled from the song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by the band R.E.M. And "you're gonna need a bigger boat" is sampled from Chief Martin Brody (played by Roy Scheider) from the 1975 film Jaws.

Question 4: Movieverse Bumblebee is especially marketed to kids. Another video game screenshot, this time from the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 version of the Dark of the Moon video game. "They say I'm a role model" is sampled from the song "Role Model" by rapper Chipmunk, while "tit for tat" is sampled from the song "Without Me" by rapper Eminem. "Uhoh" is definitely sampled from one of the Transformers films, one of the things Bumblebee actually says. "I know I'm not supposed to say those things" is sampled from Andy Kaufman (as portrayed by Jim Carrey) in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon.

Question 5: In the original Sunbow cartoon, the Autobots were exiled by humanity after being tricked by Megatron into believing they betrayed them in the two-part episode "Megatron's Master Plan". In Dark of the Moon, the Decepticons tricked the humans into believing that they would leave them in peace if they exiled the Autobots. The Intelligence and Information Institute, also known as "Triple I", was a government organization from the Marvel comic, formed to hunt down Transformers, and mostly ended up fighting with the Autobots. Cemetery Wind was the CIA black ops group formed to hunt down both Autobots and Decepticons in Age of Extinction. The video is illustrated with a screencap of Revenge of the Fallen, specifically the fight between Bumblebee and Rampage. "D'oh" is sampled from Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castelleneta) from the animated sitcom The Simpsons. "Make me wanna (shout)" is sampled from the song "Shout" by the Isley Brothers. "If he were weren't here" is sampled from ADR from a short film Kellen Goff made with his classmates back in high school, Velox the Messanger. "Right in the kisser" is sampled from Ralph Kramden (played by Jackie Gleason) from the sitcom The Honeymooners.

October 11:

Question 1: The video uses one of the posters (featuring Bumblebee) for Dark of the Moon. "Nobody puts baby in the corner" is sample from Johnny Castle (played by Patrick Swayze) from the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.

Question 2: Stinger was the man-made "clone" of Bumblebee created by KSI, seen in Age of Extinction; Bumblebee's first encounter with the robot is screencapped here as illustration for the video. "Son of a" is directly sampled from Bumblebee in that scene, as part of his reaction to the Stinger commercial. "Why you bringing up" is sampled from Smokey (played by Chris Tucker) from the 1995 film Friday. "What a piece of junk!" is sampled from Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) from the 1977 film Star Wars (also known as Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope). "Cruise control" is sampled from the song "Loser" by Beck. "I'm sorry" is sampled from Jason (played by Miles Teller) from the 2010 film Rabbit Hole, while "it's just" is another bit of ADR from Velox the Messenger. "I don't like him" is sampled from Kevin Lomax (played by Keanu Reeves) from the 1997 film The Devil's Advocate.

Question 3: Human allies are a staple of Transformers media; Lori, Bud, and Coby were the Autobot's human allies in Cybertron. Another stock image of Bumblebee The audio here is sampled, of course, from Scooby-Doo; I'm not sure which episode or series the first one is, but the second is sampled from Professor Wayne (voiced by John Stephenson) from the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode "Scooby's Night with a Frozen Fright", which you might remember best as the episode serving as the source for the "but where's the caveman" meme, from the popular YouTube Poop series The Misadventures of Skooks.

Question 4: This time we have a screenshot from Revenge of the Fallen, from the bit with Bumblebee in the Witwicky garage. The "ah boy" bit is sampled from the video review of terrible video game The Zoo Race done by JonTron; that didn't age well... "Yooo Joe!" is sampled from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon; I'm not sure who said it, since it was reused for multiple characters like Duke and Flint. If it was Duke, since that was who shouted the line originally, it would have been Michael Bell providing the voice. "Yabba-dabba-doo" is sampled from Fred Flintstone (I think the version voiced by Alan Reed) from The Flintstones. "You eediot" is sampled from Ren (voiced by John Kricfalusi) from The Ren & Stimpy Show. "I'll take the case" is sampled from Harvey Birdman (voiced by Gary Cole) from Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. "Bite my shiny metal a-" is sampled from Bender (voiced by John DiMaggio) from Futurama. "Form Blazing Sword" is sampled from Keith (voiced by Neil Ross) from Voltron: Defender of the Universe. And "wubba-lubba-dub-dub" is sampled from Rick Sanchez (voiced by Justin Roiland) from Rick & Morty.

Question 5: Another screencap, this time from Dark of the Moon during the Battle of Chicago. "Might as well be walking on the sun" is sampled from the song "Walkin' on the Sun" by Smash Mouth.

October 12:

Question 1: The Autobots listed here are all the ones we know survived Age of Extinction (minus the Dinobots). I wanna say the image used in the video was some wallpaper promoting the first movie, since it has the poster featuring Optimus Prime's eye watching over Earth. "We're all searching for 'em" is sampled from the song "We're All Searching" by the band Surface. "I'm just searching for clues" is sampled from the song "Life's Been Good" by Joe Walsh. And "I'll let you know" is sampled from J.J. LaRoche (played by Pruitt Taylor Vince) from the police proceedural series The Mentalist.

Question 2: Linkin Park was the band who provided some of the main songs to the first three Transformers films. Another stock image of Bumblebee; this one looks like it might be from a video game. "I love them!" is sampled from Roxie Hart (played by Renée Zellweger) from the 2002 film Chicago, while the "ballers" line is sampled from Dean Craig Pelton (played by Jim Rash) from the comedy series Community.

Question 3: Another stock image of Bumblebee, again possibly from a video game.. This audio is sampled from the Presidential inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Question 4: The IDW Publishing version of Bumblebee was killed by Shockwave in Robots in Disguise issue #27, while Megatron killed the Movieverse version of Optimus Prime in Revenge of the Fallen. Another stock image of Bumblebee. The audio sampled here comes from Oliver Hardy, and is one of his catchphrases from his and Stan Laurel's series of comedic films.

Question 5: Shock pop was a genre of Cybertronian music mentioned in the packaging bio of the 2007 live-action movie Wal-Mart exclusive toy, Grindcore. A screencap of Bumblebee in his 1970's Camaro body from the 2007 film is used here. The audio sampled is from the song "Electric Boogie" by Marcia Griffiths.

October 13:

Question 1: At the end of the 2007 movie, Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes made out on the hood of Bumblebee in his vehicle mode. The video has another screencap of Bumblebee, again from the Battle of Chicago from Dark of the Moon. "I was uncomfortable" was sampled from a cancelled high school "interview"-style film by Kellen Goff. "I said I was okay" was sampled from Ann Perkins (played by Rashida Jones) from the sitcom Parks and Recreation. "Let's talk about something else" was sampled from Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) from the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Question 2: Despite having seemingly been fixed by the end of the first movie, Bumblebee continued to use his radio-speak in the sequels (with Revenge of the Fallen quickly justifying it by saying his voice box was still acting up). Here we have another screencap, this time of Bumblebee after scanning his second Camaro mode in the 2007 film. The audio here is sampled from the song "It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who to Sock It To)" by Marva Whitney.

Question 3: This question and its answer are a joke about how Michael Bay's films have a lot of explosions in them, sometimes with little to no reason. The video actually uses footage from the films, starting off with Bumblebee from the scene where the Autobots are taking refuge in Monument Valley in Age of Extinction. During this bit, the audio is sampled from two sources. The first-"oh, that's easy"-is sampled from Mark Sloan (played by Eric Dane) from the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. The second-"and the answer"-is actually sampled from Wreck-Gar (voiced by Eric Idle) from the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie. The bit is interrupted by an explosion (no I'm not going to identify the explosion source) followed by "shaky cam" footage used from both the Battle of Chicago from Dark of the Moon (which you can tell from the details on Bumblebee from slowing down the footage, along with what appears to be an Orbital Assault Carrier), and the battle against the Galvatron-controlled Decepticons in Hong Kong from Age of Extinction (you can just barely spot some KSI Sentries). There's a bunch of gunfire stock sounds added in, and you can just barely here Age of Extinction Hound (voiced by John Goodman) in the background. We get an epilogue with the ANN newscrew. Rook is voiced by Daniel Ross, who was supposed to play the Universe version of the character in an OTFCC script reading, before 3H Productions lost the license. Abby Collins, meanwhile, reprises her role as Andromeda, whom she played in the BotCon 2011 script reading "Bee in the City 2: Electric Boogaloo". And the Mini-Con intern Aston is played by Kellen Goff. I'm not sure what Rook's transformation noise is sampled from; it doesn't sound like the original one from the Sunbow cartoon, so I figure it must be something from a modern series; Animated, perhaps. And with that, we end Bee's Backtalk.

To replace it, we have one of our more...well, let's just say, controversial guest hosts: Cy-Kill, leader of the Renegades from Challenge of the GoBots, hosting Renegade Rhetoric. I won't regale you with the controversies about GoBots and their relation to the Transformers franchise, but I'll tell you this; it's inclusion is very polarizing to this day. Anyway. Cy-Kill's first profile picture is his face edited in from one of the Challenge of the GoBots episodes (perhaps "Renegade Alliance") on top of the city of Axiom Nexus (from "Transcendent: Part 1", with art by Alex Milne and colors by Josh Perez). However, wanting to avoid legal troubles, the profile pic was quickly changed to art from an exclusive Transformers source; a panel from "Transcendent: Part 5", with the TransTech version of Cy-Kill (pencils by Evan Gauntt, inks by Jake Isenberg, and colors by Josh Perez). Note that the Cy-Kill here is NOT the one from the dying universe seen in "Withered Hope"; rather, this Cy-Kill hails from an alternate version of the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, with a metafictional "second season", as we'll see later on.

Cy-Kill's first post isn't filled with too much; we'll learn why he was exiled to Axiom Nexus later. Most of it he spends lying about Leader-1, heroic leader of the Guardians, and how his Renegades are the truly heroic ones.

Question 1: The obvious answer to this question is the moving and shifting of parts. In the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, the "conversion" noise was more akin to the noise made in Beast Wars, a quick series of mechanical whirrs. The first in a long series of Cy-Kill claiming the GoBots have better technology (he's not entirely wrong). Snoop was one of the Renegades in the cartoon (her toy was meant for Series 2 of the regular-sized GoBots, but unfortunately never saw release in America, only in the European and Australian versions: Robo Machine and Machine Men), with a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird alt-mode; I wanna say her silent conversion was indeed seen in the cartoon, where she served as a spy, but it's been a while since I've seen the series. A bit of a commentary on both Transformers and GoBots with that comment answer, there.

Question 2: The main distinction between Transformers and GoBots is that the latter are actually cyborgs, who were once human-like aliens that were forced to put their brains in robotic bodies. The Evil One was an ancient GoBot warrior seen in the episode "In Search of Ancient GoBotnauts". S.T.A.R.S. was the Transformers fanclub in the 1980s, which pack-in fliers depicted as being an Autobot-aligned group of children who watched for Decepticon activity.

October 14:

Question 1: This question is about the 1997 Machine Wars toyline, releases of some new molds and some European-only released molds as classic characters, which, while very obviously set in the Generation 1 universe, had some new ideas mentioned in the tech spec bios. Cy-Kill is lying, of course. As seen in the episodes "Cy-Kill's Escape" and "Quest for the Creator", the Renegades were attacking civillians protected by the Guardians. The Master Renegade, leader of the movement, sabotaged the Guardian's asteroid-harvesting fleet, sending an asteroid into GoBotron and causing a great Catastrophe that nearly caused the Gobeing race to go extinct. The Last Engineer, one of the few survivors, built new robotic bodies-the GoBots-for his people, who transferred their minds into the machines. He was going to go to Antares III to continue his research, but the Master Renegade stole his ship, forcing him to place himself into suspended animation beneath GoBotron. As seen in ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill"", Cy-Kill was originally one of the three Guardian High Protectors. Cy-Kill never went to Parthus, home of the Parthian raiders who were attacking GoBotron; rather, he went with his forces to raid the remaining Renegades on Zeeros, in an attempt to gain more political power. He failed miserably, and was going to be killed by Zero, leader of the remaining Renegades (one of the toys in the second year's range of regular GoBots, who had a Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen alternate mode), only to be saved by his fellow Guardian Dart at the last second. Jealous of Leader-1's success, Cy-Kill ultimately ended up betraying him, defecting to the Renegades and becoming their leader. As stated here, Leader-1 and Zeemon (one of the larger Super GoBots in the toyline, who used to turn into a Datsun 260Z Fairlady-Z). Zeemon ended up being a politician in the modern day; his transformation circuits were damaged on Parthus; he decided not to repair them, to remind himself of his failure.

Question 2: I think Eich Verniz is the name of the guy who asked the question.

Question 3: Transformers does tend to have consistent alt-modes for his characters, although this isn't always true, of course. There were roughly 40 Renegades in the toyline overall. Stretch was one of the series 2 releases in the GoBots toyline, where he was called Tux; it was in Challenge of the GoBots that he was given the name Stretch, for unknown reasons. Fly Trap was another series 2 release, as was Spoons. Steamer, meanwhile, was a cartoon-original character, a Renegade who defected to the Guardians when he began to regret his evil ways in "Steamer's Defection". And both Water Walk and Twin Spin were part of series 2. Usually, Transformers turn into modern vehicles because they're blending in with human society. Zero gets another mention; he betrayed Cy-Kill in "The Third Column". Bolt, Ace, and Man-O-War were all part of the series 3 of regular-sized GoBots, and as such, only barely appeared in the cartoon, with Bolt and Man-O-War both only appearing in one of the final episodes, "Mission: GoBotron".

Question 4: Autobots, generally speaking, are incapable of flight. In the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, all GoBots, whether Guardians or Renegades, had in-built flight systems.

Question 5: Vector Prime, back on Ask Vector Prime, had revealed he existed in the world of the GoBots, as a Guardian named Vec-Tor. Clearly, Cy-Kill's familiar. Almost all GoBots (aside from Scooter) had built-in blasters in their hands.

October 15:

Question 1: Somewhat oddly, Cy-Kill's character model for the cartoon gave him a gray portion of his face around his mouth that resembled "five o'clock" beard stubble.

Question 2: Cy-Kill, Crasher, and Cop-Tur disguised themselves as Revolutionary War-era George Washington, Martha Washington, and a Minuteman, respectively, in the storybook GoBots: Operation Hoax. Attached is an image from the storybook, as illustrated by Dan Spiegle.

Question 3: The Modifier, the deviced that gives the GoBots their alternate modes, was first properly introduced in "The Fall of GoBotron"; it installs the transformation circuits into a GoBots body, and gives them their specific alt-mode. The term "GoBeing" describes the race of the GoBots, usually in the context of their pre-cyborg days, mentioned several times in "The GoBotron Saga" mini-series. The Monster GoBots were a sub-set of Renegades, with more alien vehicle modes that often resembled living creatures. Vamp (who was released in series 2, and who turns into a flying, vaguely insectoid car) and Scorp (another series 2 release, who has a mechanical scorpion-like vehicular alternate mode) were chronologically introduced as servants of the Master Renegade on the planet of Antares III in "Quest for the Creator". As stated here, Pincher (also from series 2, with a vaguely insectoid jet figher mode) was reformatted from a hapless GoBot, for use as an amabassador to the two other Monster Renegades.

The next three Monster GoBots mentioned all came from series 3: Bugsie (who turns into a vaguely insectoid ground vehicle), Klaws (who turns into a flying oblong vaguely similar to Scourge's alt-mode), and Hornet (who turns into some kind of flying vehicle, built like a tank). All three were seen under Zero's command in ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill""; Hornet appeared under Cy-Kill's command in "Mission: GoBotron", and all three appeared in the movie GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (Though Klaws only showed up briefly, and Bugsie was mistakenly given his name).

Creepy, meanwhile, was a series 2 release (who also had another toy in green, sold as a mail-away) with a mechanical crab-like alternate mode. He first appeared as a Renegade under Cy-Kill's command in "Guardian Academy", but would appear in the final broadcast episode of the series, "Quest for New Earth", as a non-Renegade aligned Monster GoBot who was secretly serving the Master Renegade. The "defied" bit seems to be an attempt to smoove over this inconsistency, making it so that Creepy betayed Cy-Kill. Finally, Bladez was the other Monster GoBot who was release in series 3, with a monstrous tank-like alternate mode. He was the only one who never managed to make the jump to the cartoon. It's noted that after "Quest for New Earth", the Master Renegade went into hiding once more, and Bladez was built during that time.

Fitor was a semi-regular in the cartoon, serving as Fitor's loyal second-in-command of his forces, watching over the Renegades while he was off on missions, and was one of the first toys to be released as part of series 1. Tank, too, was another series 1 release, with a alien tank mode dubbed here as a "Pulverizer Mark VII" model. Psycho was a series 1 Super GoBot, who turned into a futuristic car. His alternate mode is dubbed here as a Psychoroid car, taking its name from the original release of Psycho's toy in the Japanese Machine Robo toyline. And finally, Screw Head was another series 1 release. UNECOM was the international organization created after the events of the cartoon's first mini-series, working together with the Guardians to protect Earth.

Question 4: Doctor Go was the cartoon-given name to Herr Fiend, a Super GoBot from series 1 with a Porsche 928S alternate mode. Clutch, we'll get back to in a bit, since he's given an origin here. The raid on TransTech Shockwave's lab will be seen later; the sparks in his possesion are the ones collected by Topspin while serving under the Shattered Glass version of Alpha Trion, as seen in the "Transcendent" storyline and the "I, Lowtech" prose story; a later post on Rook's page will reveal that Cy-Kill took up residence in Trion's base. The laser core was a concept mentioned a few times in the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, somewhat similar sounding to sparks; later fiction like Binaltech would make the two connected, with the spark being part of it. The idea of "astramechs" will re-occur later in Sorenson's Beast Wars: Uprising stories, with Lord Imperious Delirious; it's derived from "astral mechanoid". Swindle, Swindle, and Swindle get a brief mention again. The Verronian Warp Star was mentioned on the Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur Facebook page, created by the Verrons as a device for meditation that was also explosive. The warp star originating from Doctor Who, where its highly explosive nature was seen, although there it was only called a "warp star", having been given to human Sarah Jane by a "Verron soothsayer", only being inter-connected after the fact by Tornado's page. Cryotek was a Predacon released in the 2001 Robots in Disguise toyline, redecoed from the Transmetal 2 Megatron toy from Beast Wars. While he's more well-known for his appearance's in 3H Productions' The Wreckers comic, this comment refers to the Robots in Disguise version of the character introduced in Ask Vector Prime, who had a strange, humanoid-shaped spark, and whom believed sparks weren't the true source of Cybertronian life.

Question 5: Gunnyr (a series 3 GoBot with a MiG-21 "Fishbed" fighter alternate mode) first debuted in "Mission: GoBotron", as one of Cy-Kill's sub-commanders. However, two episodes later in "The GoBots That Time Forgot", Gunnyr was depicted as Lord High GoBot of GoBotron's Level 17, which had been long forgotten. He was a dictator, with only him and his lieutenant Bug Bite (a Super GoBot from series 1 with a Volkswagen Beetle altnernate mode) able to transform, a result of their machine with block both transformation and the other GoBots memories of the surface. Eventually, Scooter, Turbo, and Leader-1 found the level, and with the help of GoBots Ace (already mentioned) and Dart (a series 3 GoBot with a Honda VF1000R motorcyle alternate mode; he was sold as a Renegade, and we'll go into that a bit more later) defeated him and Bug Bite. They were sent to GoBotron's Prison Moon at the end of the episode (the Prison Moon first appeared in "Cy-Kill's Escape"), and from their this post bridges the gap between it and "Mission: GoBotron". As mentioned previously, Zero betrayed Cy-Kill in "The Third Column", and the events of that episode are summarized here. The "minor, temporary setback" mentioned here was a raid on a Guardian weapons factory. We've already gone over Twin Spin and Stretch: Geeper-Creeper was a series 1 GoBot with a Mitsubishi Jeep alternate mode, while Bad Boy was a series 1 GoBot with an A-10 Thunderbolt alternate mode. Notably, the Guardians as seen in the cartoon are not led entirely by Leader-1, but a Guardian Council, with Leader-1 serving as commander of their military forces. A more ambitous version of Bug Bite would be seen in BotCon 2007's "Games of Deception" comic, along with the TransTech prose story "Withered Hope".

October 16:

Question 1: Listed here are some of Cy-Kill's special abilities, seen in various episodes of the cartoon; mind control, for instance, was seen in "Escape from Elba", when Cy-Kill brainwashed Royal-T and Street Heat, or in "The Seer", when he hypnotized young precognitive Sean Roberts' mother. Another mention of Doctor Go. Doctor Braxis was a semi-regular character in the cartoon, sort of the equivalent to Transformers character Doctor Arkeville, a human who would work with the Renegades, though Braxis was often working on his own agenda seperate from them. Professor Von Joy was another Super GoBot Guardian, whose toy was sold in series 1 as "Baron Von Joy", and who turned into a Porsche 930T. Again, GoBots can fly. In the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, it didn't really seem like anyone ever changed sizes, but well, it's a Hanna-Barbera joint; you can't really tell either way.

Question 2: I'm sure Megatron would give some answer similar to this justifying why he calls his faction the Decepticons. The GoBot Liberation Army is named after the People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of the "Communist" Party of China. You should know the names Terrorcons and Protectobots; Destructicon is a named that has been used in several pieces of Transformers media.

Question 3: Several new Renegades, who all never appeared in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, are introduced here, as Transformers convinced by Cy-Kill to join the Renegades. The Instigation Mini-Con Team (Pow Wow, Breez, and Odd Ball) were three of the six toys sold in 1985 as promotional toys at the fast-food restaurant Wendy's for GoBots. Vector noted back in Ask Vector Prime that Mini-Cons especially were treated as second-class citizens by the TransTech, with those who could only communicate in bleeps originally being considered as little more than drones. Clutch and Warpath were both Super GoBots; Clutch was part of series 3, while Warpath was part of Series 2. I imagine they came from a Primax-based universe.

And then there's the six Predacons (who will latered be revealed in Ask Vector Prime to be the ancient "Aligned" version of the faction), who are the components of the Renegade combiner Monsterous: Fright Face, South Claw, Gore Jaw, Heart Attack, Weird Wing, and Fangs. All of them turned into vaguely beast-like vehicular forms, and unlike most GoBots toys, they had packaging bios giving them personalities, of which they're depiction here pulls from. The Heap was seen in several of the TransTech prose stories; a lawless wasteland at the bottom of Axiom Nexus. The Predacons are given new attacks and, in some cases, a bit more personality; South Claw has a freeze ray, while Heart Attack has a "cycloptic infarction beam"; an infarction is the technical term for a heart attack, and Heart Attack's singular optic is in the shape of a heart. As his bio notes, he has a weak point; presumably, it's his eye. Fangs is given a cowardly personality here. After joining Cy-Kill, the Predacons have been given the combiner upgrade, allowing them to become Monsterous; it's noted to be based on Puzzler's technology, the other GoBots combiner, who showed up as a mindless drone in one episode of the cartoon, "Auto Madic". Various Megatrons, of course, have gotten hundreds of troops under their command in a brief amount of time.

In the comments, it's confirmed that Pow Wow, Breez, and Odd Ball came from an "Unicron Trilogy"-based universe. Fright Face's bio noted Monsterous was cold and calculating, a trait that comes from Fright Face, as noted here. Fangs' bio noted he could break into a top security building with ease, while Weird Wing's bio claimed he could predict the future of his victims, often ominous in nature. The "Blades" mentioned here is Night Fright, a Super GoBot from the third series. For some reason, his sole appearance in the cartoon, in the episode "The Gift", gave him the name Blades. Cy-Kill notes the similarity between it and the Monster GoBot Bladez, and presumably will decide to have Blades change his name to Night Fright. BuggyMan was one of the series 1 GoBots, who showed up as a faithful Renegade in the cartoon several times. Like the Monsterous toys, the Wendy's GoBots all had bios of their own. Odd Ball's noted he was unpredictable; Pow Wow's claimed he was fearless, and that he pretended to be friendly; and Breez's noted he was a dirty fighter with a mean streak. Block Head was a series 2 GoBot, with a cement mixer alternate mode. I've already talked about Snoop; she infiltrated the Guardians in "Cy-Kill's Cataclysmic Trap". Bad Boy I've already mentioned; Stallion, meanwhile, was a series 2 GoBot with a Ford Mustang alternate mode. We'll find out who this other Renegade Cy-Kill is working with soon enough.

Cy-Kill describes the events of "Auto Madic" here. The Guardians obtained the Power Suits and Courageous in the second mini-series of the cartoon, "The GoBotron Saga" (which aired AFTER "Auto Madic"). Stretch was noted in Ask Vector Prime to have supplied the Earth vehicle forms for GoBotron. A bit of an explanation: in The AllSpark Almanac II, an Animated version of Stretch recieved a profile, detailing how he was once buisness magnate Porter C. Powell's limo (and indeed, the limo was designed to look like Stretch). When an AllSpark fragment was pushed into the limo's dashboard, it came to life as the Decepticon Stretch, and Powell worked with Isaac Sumdac to send it into Sumdac's space bridge. The profile hinted that he would end up being the Stretch from the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon. Ask Vector Prime followed up on this, confirming that he was, and explained that his 22nd century databanks were responsible for giving the GoBots Earth forms, thousands of years before they would exist. All of Puzzler's component's are named after various puzzle types: Tic Tac (from tic tac toe), Jig Saw, Pocket, Crossword, Zig Zag, and Rube (from "Rubik's Cube").

Question 4: Zod was a Tonka original GoBots toy, a giant, motorized mechanical lizard. Trypticon, of course, is one of the Decepticon Titans, as most of you probably know. In the cartoon, Zod was depicted as Cy-Kill's pet, whom he cloned in the "Battle for GoBotron" mini-series, as mentioned here; a few times in the cartoon, 'wild" Zods would appear, such as the one seen in the episode "The GoBots That Time Forgot". "Kneel before Zod!" is a famous quote of the DC Comics character, from the film Superman II.

Question 5: Leader-1's cartoon model had a weird domino mask around his eyes. Scooter, one of the main Guadians, had holographic powers. The Matt mentioned here is Matt Hunter, one of the Guardian's human allies, who often rode around with Leader-1. Turbo is another one of the main Guardians, while Small Foot was a semi-regular character, sold in series 2, and with a Toyota Hilux truck alternate mode. Another mention of Zeemon and his inability to transform. Triple M, or the Militant Monoform Movement, as it's more properly known, were a militant group Transformers who removed their transformation cogs, first mentioned in issue #23 of IDW Publishing 2009-2001 Transformers ongoing. "Inaction Masters" is a play on Action Masters, Transformers from the final year of the original toyline who did not transform, instead coming with Transforming partners or vehicles. Nick Jones and A.J. Foster were the other two main human alies of the Guardians.

October 17:

Question 1: Quartex is the home planet of the Rock Lords, which the GoBots visited in the theatrical film, GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords. Some stock Hanna-Barbera episode plots are given here, the start of the "hypothetical season 2 of Challenge of the GoBots" that Renegade Rhetoric becomes as time goes on, including a racing episode, a super-genius episode, a killer plants episode, a computer simulation episode, a gladiator episode, and a body swap episode. A cyber-mimetic virus is one that, presumably, mimics the system it infects, keeping it hidden from detection until it's too late. Rest-Q was a series 1 GoBot, with an ambulance alternate mode. The Alienapolis Five Million is named after the real-life racing event, the Indianapolis 500. Sky-Jack was a series 3 GoBot with a F-14 Tomcat jet fighter alternate mode. Sparky was another series 3 GoBot. The Command Center and the Thruster are the ships used by the Guardians and the Renegades, respectively. The GoBots were shown to use hyperspace throughout the series. The "gladiator episode" stock-plot's use, I'm willing to bet, is a refer to both the Star Trek episode "Bread and Circuses", and how the cartoon would use plots from Star Trek for various episodes. Scooter's gadgets and gizmos saw use in many episodes. The Brainstormer was an interrogation device used by both Guardians and Renegades; it was introduced as a Renegade tool in the pilot mini-series, and would go on to be used by them and the Guardians in the cartoon proper. Destroyer was a series 1 Super GoBot.

Spoiler was a series 1 release. Stallion, I've already covered. Street Heat was a series 2 release. I'm not sure if the Guerr-O-Vac or the Arena of Strife are references to anything specific, but "guerr" seems to be derived from "guerra", the Spanish word for war. Slicks was a series 2 GoBot. Van Guard was a series 2 GoBot with a Dodge Caravan alternate mode, while Defendor was a Super GoBot from series 2. The Renegade's ships all had Stealth Devices. Sparky was noted to be a guard on the Prison Moon of GoBotron in "The Fall of GoBotron". The Rogue Star was the capital ship of the Renegades; it was, chronologically speaking, shown to be under construction in "The GoBotron Saga", but first appeared in "It's the Thought that Counts". Scooter was the only GoBot who was unarmed. I'm not sure if Dr. Go ever did any medical work in the cartoon. Cy-Kill throws some shade at how Transformer medics often turn into ambulances or other emergency vehicles. Gluons and Bosons are particles in quantum physics. Crasher's obsession with Turbo could be seen several times throughout the cartoon. The AllSpark Almanac II noted that GoBotron was an aspect of Primus, who often resides as the core of Cybertron.

Cy-Kill was shown as a prisoner of the Guardians in "The GoBotron Saga" mini-series, despite having escaped at the end of the first mini-series, "Battle for GoBotron". This post fills in the gap, noting Cy-Kill allowed him to be captured so he could free his men. Galleon was a planet seen in ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill"", where it was mined for ore used in GoBotron's reconstruction. Mach-3 was a series 3 release, with a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet fighter alternate mode; Dozer, from series 1, with a bulldozer alternate mode; and Dive-Dive from series 2, with a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine alternate mode. Dumper was a series 1 release, with a dump truck alternate mode; Pumper was a series 1 release with a fire engine alternate mode, and was the only one who never got to appear, although a model was created for his inclusion in the "Battle for GoBotron" mini-series. Bullseye was a series 3 release, with a B-1 Lancer alternate mode. Flip Top, Hans-Cuff, and Blaster were seen as guards on the Prison Moon in "Cy-Kill's Escape", events from which he descripes here, such as Turbo's near-fatal injury. GoBot weapons are powered by powerpacks, small devices that power the GoBot body. Hans-Cuff and Blaster were series 1 releases, while Flip Top was from series 2. Flip Top's alternate mode was a Kaman SH-2 Seasprite helicopter; Hans-Cuff's, a Toyota Crown Patrol Car; and Blaster's, a M33 Missile tank. Stinger was a series 2 GoBot. He and Stallion were seen working together in "The Fall of GoBotron".

A few months later, the returned Ask Vector Prime would attach images to the bottom of the post. These are fake "title cards" for the "hypothetical season 2" episodes, based on the title cards used by the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon. Most of the names are just straight forward, but "The Best Medicine" is presumably derived from the saying "laughter is the best medicine." The other episodes names are: "The Alienapolis Five Million", "Cop-Tur the Genius", "The GoVine Incident", "Virtual Trap", "GoBot Arena", and "Brain Swap".

Question 2: The dimensional problems are a result of Nexus Prime's actions in the "Another Light" storyline. We'll find out the Renegade Cy-Kill has met soon enough. Cop-Tur and Crasher always accompanied Cy-Kill in the cartoon, if you didn't already know.

Question 3: Crasher's feet in the cartoon were able to create small little "earthquakes", which she used to devastating effects. Seismec energy dischargers require a bit of an explanation. The 2007 live-action Transformers movie toyline had a Wal-Mart exclusive toy, Fracture, who was a homage to Crasher. Her bio homaged this attack, attributing them to seismec energy dischargers. Again, I think those power Cy-Kill lists are just thing he did every so often, though corrosive gas was specifically seen in "Steamer's Defection". The Astro Beam was the GoBots equivalent of the space bridge, a teleportation device used by both sides; a miniaturized version showed up in the episode "Guardian Academy". The shrinking ray showed up, appropriately enough, in "Cy-Kill's Shrinking Ray"; we have a screencap from that episode submitted by the commentor, with Cy-Kill holding the device. I think Cy-Kill was able to remove his wheels and use them as a sort of thrown projectile, I'll have to watch the cartoon again to find out.

Question 4: The Dread Launchers were three Renegades: Re-Volt, Chaos, and Traitor, who had a similar transformation gimmick to the Duobots; their robot modes split into two alternate forms. Their infiltration of the Guardian Academy to capture Zeemon, and their rivalry with the Secret Riders, was seen in the episode "Guardian Academy", and some other parts of that episode are quickly mentioned here, like Cop-Tur's blundering. The Dread Launchers probably don't have the best names for Guardian infiltrators. The Secret Riders who were in the toyline were three Guardian toys, larger in size and equipped with gimmicks. Tri-Trak was a Honda ATC 200, Tork was a Ford Ranger, and Twister was a helicopter. "Guardian Academy" added on Staks, a series 2 Super GoBot with a Peterbilt 352H tractor trailer alternate mode, despite him having been a full-fledge Guardian since near the start of the series. "Quest for New Earth", meanwhile, replaced Tork with Throttle, a series 3 Super GoBot with a BMW KS 1000 RS motorcycle alternate mode. The Secret Riders themselves were faced with a lot of difficulty in their cartoon appearances, with Tri-Trak and Twister showing up as Guardians before Cy-Kill defected in ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill"", and Tork showing up as a Renegade in "The Gift".

Question 5: Not much to talk about with this one. Some more hints at Cy-Kill's activity. The Beast was the combined form of the Generation 1 Dinobots, seen in the mini-comics "The Beast Within" and its sequel, "The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences". Attached is an image of it from the first comic, with art by Dylan Gibson.

October 18:

Question 1: Another bit about Vec-Tor. Some more hints at Cy-Kill's other Renegade ally, who appears to know Vector Prime; we'll come back to that later...

Question 2: I've gone over most of these guys. Nothing too notable in the first three; BuggyMan did show up a fair few times early on in the cartoon. Scales was another Tonka-original toy like Zod, with a pull back friction motor and a button that, when you had him pulled back and you pressed it, would reveal his reptile mode as he sped along. He's noted to be a prototype in Cy-Kill's attempts to recreate Zod.

Question 3: Cy-Kill would be an odd name for his old, entirely organic GoBeing self.

Question 4: C.S. Lewis was a British author and a lay theologian, perhaps known best for The Chronicles of Narnia. The quote fromhim comes from God in the Dock, a collection of unpublished essays and speeches by the author. Another stock plot episode in the comments, with Cy-Kill running for President of the United States in "Cy-Kill For President". Spay-C and Path Finder were both series 1 GoBots; Spay-C turned into a Rockwell Orbiter space shuttle, while Path Finder, a semi-regular character, turned into a GoBotic starship, similar to a UFO. We'll come back to Apollo later. Illinois has quite a few railways in it. Loco was a series 1 GoBot, with a JNR D-51 train alternate mode. The others I already went over. Grumman was one of the United States' leading military aircraft builders, operating out on Long Island; presumably, Chaos was sent cause he turns into one. New York is also known as the Empire State. Fort Bragg is a military installation of the Unite States Army, located in North Carolina. Indoctrination Chips are pretty obviously mind control devices. Motosan takes a bit of explanation: he's Mr. Moto, a series 3 GoBot with a Honda ATC 200 alternate mode. He wasn't named in his sole appearance of the cartoon, ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill"", but his model sheet was labeled Moto-San; presumably, this is the result of the Japanese artist who created the model, with "Mr" being translated to the suffix "-san", used in the Japanese language as an honorific, signifying respect for an elder...although Challenge of the GoBots was animated in Taiwan. Hrm. Another title card at the end.

Question 5: Not much to say here. "The Exploding Toads of Primus" was an illustrated text story from the Robo Machine Featuring the GoBots Annual 1986; one of the images (Cy-Kill and Braxis, artist unknown but probably traced from the cartoon or some other material) has been posted by the commentor. Cy-Kill remembers it, confirming it or some variation of those events happened in his universe.

At the end of the day, a post is shared from Andromeda's page, with Director Shockwave's research facility having been bombed, obviously tying back into a post from a few days ago, where Cy-Kill noted he had ordered Clutch to raid Shockwave's lab. Cy-Kill paraphrases the saying "a gentlemen doesn't kiss and tell" when someone asks if his Renegades did it.

October 19:

Question 1: Dart is a bit of a confusing one. His toy was sold as a Renegade, but his first appearance in the cartoon, "Mission: GoBotron", which, chronologically speaking, serves as the last episode of the series, depicted him as a heroic Guardian. Then, flashbacks in the next episode, ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill"" depicted him as a Guardian who joined Cy-Kill and Fitor when they defected to the Renegades. The episode after that, "The GoBots That Time Forgot", depicted him as one of the amnesiac subjects under Gunnyr's control on Level 17, who helped Leader-1 and the others defeat the cruel Renegade. After that, he and fellow former subject of Gunnyr, Ace, joined up with the Guardians. This post helps massage the continuity error: Dart did indeed defect to the Renegades early on in the war, but after his experiences under Gunnyr's rule, realized he did not want to be a Renegade, and rejoined the Guardians. Steamer, as I mentioned, was a cartoon-original character seen in "Steamer's Defection". Steamer, unwilling to hurt humans that would be harmed as part of one of Cy-Kill's plans, abandoned the cause, and went over to the Guardians, though Cy-Kill manipulated them into thinking that Steamer was a mole.

Now, we return to another "hypothetical season 2 episode" with "Brother's Keeper". The episode takes its title from a passage in Genesis, in which God asked Cain where his brother Abel was; Cain, having murdered Abel, told God "Am I my brother's keeper?" All the GoBots introduced here are toys from the original Bandai Machine Robo toyline that did NOT see release as part of Tonka's GoBots toyline. I'll quickly go through them by order of introduction: Apollo is repurposed from Apollo Robo. His name is both taken from that toy, and the fact that his Saturn V rocket mode was the vehicle used for NASA's Apollo missions. Decker Decker is based on Double Decker Bus Robo, his name obviously a pun on "double decker". Hi-Way is based on Highway Robo, another one of the Machine Robo toys with non-Earth alternate modes; in his case, a sort of bus. Bullet and Vain Train, respectively, are based on the toys Shinkansen Robo and New Shinkansen Robo. Bullet's name is derived from "bullet train", while Vain Train is in the style of Crain Brain. And Jack Attack is repurposed from Mini Cooper Robo, with his named derived from the Union Jack that adorns his vehicle mode roof. It's noted that they left early on after the GoBot upgrade, placing them as having left before ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill"". Now, in later posts, in homage to some of the continuity errors that happened in the later episodes of the series, these characters would occasionally appear in "episodes" before their debut here; that happened (possibly) with Apollo in "Cy-Kill For President". Crain Brain is a series 1 GoBot with a Unic K-200B crane alternate mode; he's teamed up with Vain Train because their names rhyme. The Space Hawks were another Tonka original toy, an "Interceptor" ship that could fit a GoBot in its cockpit in its cockpit, and could turn into a "land fighter" mode. The Renegades were shown to have them in GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lord; we'll go into that more later. Cy-Kill uses his mind control abilities again.

Question 2: Niccolò Machiavelli was a 15/16th century Italian diplotmat, politician, and writer, known best for his political work The Prince. Sun Tzu was a 6th century Chinese general and philosopher, known best for his military strategy work, The Art of War. Friedrich Nietzsche was a 19th century German philosopher and writer, responisible for many ideas and concepts, such as perspectivism and the Übermensch. Karl Marx was a 19th century German writer and theorist, responsible for the foundation of Marxism, Communism, and other ideas. John Locke was a 17th century English philospher and physician, heavily influential to the writers of the Enlightenment in Europe, associated with concepts like natural rights and tabula rasa. Dramatist W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were 18th century English collaborates, who collaborated on 14 comic operas. The Pirates of Penzance (also known by its full title The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty) was a 1879 comic opera written by the pair, about a pirate apprentice named Frederic, who falls in love after his apperenticeship concludes. However, he finds out that, having been born on February 29th, and thus only having a birthday every leap year, he is still technically indebted, and so is forced to serve for another 63 years.

The Renegade version of it happens in the hypothetical season 2 episode "The Show Must Go On", as we learn from Vector's post of a title card. Not the usual stock plot affair, but "eccentric wealthy" characters are definitely stock. A thaumaturge is a magician; Arcanus Maximus' name is derived from "arcane", meaning obscure or mysterious. Franz Kafka was a German-speaking, early 20th century Bohemian novelist and short story writer, known for his semi-surreal modernist work. The Metamorphosis was a 1915 novella written by Kafka, about salesman Gregor Samsa, who one day woke up to find that he had been turned into a massive cockroach. I don't think any specific stage version of it is meant to be the ones the Guardians put on. "Major Modern General", or as it's more properly known, "Major-General's Song", is one of the best known songs from the play, sung by Major General Stanley as a sort of "resumee" of his experiences. The Pirate King is the leader of the Pirates. Mabel is the love interested of Frederic, and daughter of Major-General Stanley. Ruth was the the pirate's maid of all work, while the Police Sergeant was one of the antagonists of the play, who wanted to arrest the pirates. Cop-Tur, unable to act, ended up being the stage director.

Question 3: Not much here. Another group of GoBots felt uncomfortable with Transformers in Axiom Nexus in "Withered Hope". Cy-Kill hints that he's leaving soon.

Question 4: Almost all GoBots, as mentioned before, had built-in hand blasters and flight systems.

Question 5: The attempt to destroy the Guardian's mining fleet with a fleet of Thrusters was seen in "Mission: GoBotron", and as mentioned, the events on Quartex happened in GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords. This "two-parter", "The Hawks of Space", and all the episodes before it, take place before the theatrical movie. The Space Hawks showed up out of nowhere in the film, and this story gives them an origin. The premise seems somewhat inspired by the text on the Space Hawk toy's box, which told children that only they could decide which faction had the Space Hawks, noting that the Guardians had them online, but the Renegades were building their own as well. The Space Hawk is specifically labelled as an Interceptor on its packaging. Dr. Anya Turgenova was a Russian scientist introduced in the pilot mini-series, and she became a semi-recurring character in the show proper.

The Boomers were two battery-powered toys created by Tonka, which had a motorized rolling feature, an auto-transformation gimmick, and could fire a plastic ball in robot mode. It was sold in two color schemes: the grey Guardian Rumble, and the blue Renegade Blast. Their packaging indicated they were sentient GoBots, but in their extremely brief appearance in the cartoon in "Mission: GoBotron", they were repurposed as drones. Another bit of "Renegades are easily fooled by Scooter's holograms".

Scratch and Night Ranger were series 2 GoBots. Scratch turned into a Ford Bronco, while Night Ranger turned into a Harley-Davison Electra Glide. Bent Wing, Super Couper, and Tail Pipe all got an origin later on as "Robo Rebels", which I'll go into on the main Renegade Rhetoric annotations page. Bent Wing was a series 3 GoBot, who turned into a Chance Vought F4U Corsair. Super Couper was a series 3 Super GoBot, with a Ford Coupe alternate mode. And Tail Pipe was another series 3 release, with a Skyline 2000 RS Turbo alternate mode. Spy-Eye was another series 3 Super GoBot, with a RAF Panavia Tornado GR1 plane alternate mode. More poking fun at the Dread Launchers' names. We have a screencap of Dr. Go with Braxis from the episode "Braxis Gone Bonkers". Obviously this guys inquiring about Dr. Go's toy name, Herr Fiend.

The Power Marchers were licenesed by Tonka from Bandai, from their WalkingRobo toys. They were motorized figures who, instead of transforming, walked. Quick-Step was the Renegade versions, purple and saurian. Hitch Hiker, meanwhile, was the Guardian version, a white robot. Another Guardian Power Marcher, Ridge Runner, was intended for release, but cancelled; it was a boxy, white and gray robot with red lights. While there was no indication of what they were on their packaging, here they're depicted as drones, much like the Boomers.

October 20:

Question 1: Nothing new here.

Question 2: I've talked about these gimmicks before. Binary bonding is the process in Western media by which a Transformer bonds to a "master"-type partner. Braxis, I've talked a lot about; Alva-Mar, meanwhile, was an alien with advanced techology, who the Renegades duped into helping them in the episode "Renegade Alliance". Grungy was a toyline-only redeco of Courageous in black, as a Renegade combiner. The episode summarized here, "Coup de Grunge", takes its name from the term "coup d'état", a French term meaning the overthrow of a government. GoBotolis was first seen in the episode "Lost on GoBotron"; the GoBotron Fortress was a cancelled playset from the toyline, only ever having been teased on advertising. Like the Guardian Power Suits, the Power Suits that make up Grungy all have special powers.

Next, we get two RoGun episodes. The first is "The RoGun Ruckus". A tetrionic capacitor sounds to just be a made-up sciency-sounding name that lots of episodes often featuring, including the opening mini-series. I believe this is the first mention of the Fortress Moon of GoBotron. The RoGuns are based on the GoBots toys produced by Arco, who gained the license from Tonka. none of which particularly look very GoBot-esque. They're named after the packaging name for Shotgun, RoGun. Rifle is the name given to Cap Rifle, who had a light up gimmick (hence the heat ray). Pistol is the name given to the Cap Pistol toy (which could fire tiny little caps that were like firecrackers). Squirt is the name given to the Squirt Gun toy, and the water squirting action is interpreted as a chemical spray here. The RoGuns initial form of communication is inspired by the bleeps and boops of the Mini-Cons, as seen first in the Armada cartoon. Major Mo was another series 2 toy, with a Nissan 300ZX alternate mode. Of course Scooter would understand them.

Various moons of GoBotron showed up in various episodes. The Moon of Knowledge and the Spa Moon were seen in "The GoBot Who Cried Renegade"; and the former was also seen in "Cy-Kill's Escape". The Picnic Moon was mentioned in "Quest for New Earth". The Moon of Fire was mentioned in "Tarnished Image". The Industrial Moons Zeta 1 through Zeta 4 showed up in "Renegade Alliance". And the Moon of Shadows appeared in "Doppelganger".

The second RoGun episode is "The RoGuns of Mars". It takes inspiration from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom stories, and it's name falls in line with various stories in the series like A Princess of Mars and The Gods of Mars. Scope is based on the Robo-Scope that came with Rifle's toy. As mentioned, Shotgun is the name given to RoGun. Them being introduced later than the first three RoGuns might be a nod to the Dinobots debut in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, where Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge first showed up in "S.O.S. Dinobots", while Snarl and Swoop didn't debut until "War of the Dinobots". Bars Barkas is named for the honorable alien from the Barsoom series, Tars Tarkas, while the Barkons are based on the Tharks. Bars Barkas son, Losa, is named after Tars Tarkas' daughter, Sola.

Dr. Braxis helped the Renegades mind control Earth in the "Battle for GoBotron" pilot mini-series. He created the Dimensional Interfacer, bringing Queen Exor and her Insectoids to his dimension in the two-part "Invasion from the 21st Level". The Nova Beam was seen, appropriately enough, in "Nova Beam". Braxis stole a Renegade shuttle and flew off in "Braxis Gone Bonkers". Power Suits have no legs, or arms, or any movement really. "Project: Nemesis" refers to the cancelled Renegade Power Suit combiner Nemesis, who had a main tank section, instead of a spaceship like Courageous and Grungy.

Question 3: General Newcastle was the other semi-recurring human in the cartoon; as described here, he and the other humans used to be a part of NASA. I'm not sure if UNECOM's name was ever given an explanation in the cartoon; I'm also not sure where A.J. Foster's full name come from. We have some idiot use a quote from Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Question 4: I've talked about the Rock Lords already. The Narlies were another part of the Rock Lords toyline, small motorized animals with "fur" tops. Magmar was the leader of the evil Rock Lords.

Question 5: Cy-Kill confirms the bombing at Shockwave's was his men's doing.

October 21:

Question 1: Another episode summary. "Darkest Before the Dawn" takes its name from the idiom "it's always darkest before the dawn," attributed to 17th century English clergyman Thomas Fuller in his work, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof. Dynamic Assymetrical Wavefront Nullifier is, of course, the full form of the acronym, DAWN. SciFi Con seems inspired by the likes of San Diego Comic-Con. I don't think Dr. Faraji is a reference to anything. Raizor was another series 3 Super GoBot, with a VTOL-modified McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom alternate mode. Bastille Day is likely a pastiche of the action film Independence Day; Bastille Day is the French equivalent to the American holidy of Independence Day.

The Cylons were the robotic antagonists of Battlestar Galactica. Lara Croft is the protagonist of the Tomb Raider video game franchise. Cloud Strife is the protagonist of the video game Final Fantasy VII. The Doctor is the main character of Doctor Who; Re-Volt has specifcally dressed up as the Fourth Doctor. Deadpool is a Marvel Comics character, created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefield, who first appeared in The New Mutants issue #98. Priness Leia is from Star Wars; Hornet is specifically dressed as Leia in her slave outfit from Return of the Jedi. Inuyasha is the protagonist of the manga and anime Inuyasha. Turbo has probably dressed as Neo, the lead from The Matrix. Raizor is dressed as Ash Williams, protagonist of The Evil Dead franchise. Matt is dressed as Boba Fett, the bounty hunter from Star Wars first seen in The Empire Strikes Back. We have a screencap of the Guardians from the opening credits of the cartoon.

Question 2: One more episode. "The Stolen Moon" is inspired by the film Die Hard, with Leader-1 having to take down the Renegades one by one. The Communication Moon of GoBotron is new, I believe. The Magellanic Nebulae is a real place. The idea the Astro Beam's effects last for only 48 hours was seen in "Steamer's Defection". Cy-Kill's former friendship with Leader-1 was seen in ""Et Tu, Cy-Kill"".

Question 3: And here wrap up. The OZSA (Offworlder Zone Security Administration) is the police force of Axiom Nexus' Offworlder Zone. Dux non Intruitus is the law preventing faction leaders from entering Axiom Nexus. The TransTech Cheetor has been shown to be the leader of the OZSA since the first TransTech pieces of fiction. The inclusion of "literring" in Cy-Kill's crimes is funny. Stungun was a TransTech police officer introduced in "Gone Too Far". The Hound seen here is Sgt. Hound, the BotCon 2015 exclusive based on the unreleased Generation 2 Sgt. Hound toyline, who was seen as an OZSA officer in "Cybertron's Most Wanted". Detectas was a part of the fifth "Micron Booster" collection of Mini-Cons, a clear redeco of Classics Strongarm. He was seen as an OZSA officer in "Gone Too Far". And now we have the final Renegade ally: Gong, one of the two GoBot watches released by Tonka in the toyline. He was the blue Renegade version. Vector Prime met his Guardian counterpart, Tic Toc, and showed familiarity with Gong in Ask Vector Prime. We'll see Cy-Kill again, eventually. The TransTech incarnation of Starscream is Intelligence Director of Cybertron. An appearance from the Axiom Nexus Auto-Censors, seen back in Ask Vector Prime.

With Cy-Kill gone, we move onto our next host: Robots in Disguise poetry-loving Predacon shark Sky-Byte with Shark Sonnets! Sky-Byte's profile pic is a screencap of him from the episode "The Fish Test". Sky-Byte, obviously, has never met an incarnation of Vector Prime before. Some very Robots in Disguise-esque dialog here. Sky-Byte's insistence that he was a mighty shark was seen in "The Fish Test".

Question 1: Obviously, this guys question is disproved almost immedietly, as the only Decepticon combiner in Robots in Disguise was Ruination, the combined form of the Commandos. Additionally, the Beast Era did have a fair few combiners.

Question 2: The Seacons were a team of Decepticon combiners in the 1988 range of the original toyline.

October 22:

Question 1: Sky-Byte showed his love of haikus throughout the cartoon.

Question 2: We did see a Sky-Byte in "Transcendent: Part 1" that may or may not be this guy, though he does seem newer, and we will eventually establish that this places at least a few months later in the second version of Renegade Rhetoric. Scourge was the evil Decepticon "clone" of Optimus Prime, who had gained Megatron/Galvatron's favor due to his success, while Sky-Byte kept bumbling his way through missions. Sky-Byte declared himself the baddest shark in town on several occasions.

Question 3: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a long-form poem by 18/19th century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In it, a mariner is cursed for killing an albatross.

Question 4: The Beast Era Predacons were all slightly larger that humans, as seen in Beast Wars, part of the Great Upgrade that created the more energy efficient Maximals and Predacons. The Predacons in Robots in Disguise shared the insignia but were standard-sized Transformers. Previous TransTech prose stories showed offworlder processing as taking forever. Another bit derived from "The Fish Test".

Question 5: This is cute. Sky-Byte also declared himself the coolest shark around on several occasions.

October 23:

Question 1: Cybershark was a Maximal in the Beast Wars toyline, who was originally released in 1997 as a fully-organic hammerhead shark. His second toy was released in 1999, a Transmetal 2 great white shark, and would be redecoed into Sky-Byte's toy for Robots in Disguise.

Question 2: Slapper was one of the Predacons in Robots in Disguise, one of Sky-Byte's three underlings. He turned into a biomechanical toad. I think Slapper said it in, again, "The Fish Test".

Question 3: Destron Pizza's going to take some explaining. In 2005, Takara worked with the Japanese branch of the Pepsi company to create Pepsi Convoy, which was itself based on a promotional version of the original toy for Optimus Prime released in 1985, with Pepsi decals on his trailer. Writer Hirofumi Ichikawa wrote a bio for the toy, declaring that it was a seperate character from Optimus Prime, created by the Autobots using "sentient metal" provided by NASA. This was a reference to Pepsiman, the Japanese mascot for Pepsi who had his own, self-titled video game, and who was noted in his official backstory to be created using sentient metal; he was even originally mentioned in Pepsi Convoy's tech specs! Anyway, the February 2006 issue of Dengeki Hobby featured an ad for Pepsi Convoy. In it, a pizza box in the refrigerator had the name of the pizza place it was bought from: Destron Pizza. The Decepticons were known as "Destrons" in Japan, AND it was also a reference to Pepsiman's antagonist Cave Pizza, a stand-in for Pepsi's rival Coca-Cola. Whew.

In The AllSpark Almanac II, the names of Cybertronian days were revealed, all of which were named for writers and others who worked on various Transformers cartoons. Marxsol is named for Christy Marx, who wrote two episodes for Beast Wars (one of which never saw production). The Blue Deployer is an establishment seen in the TransTech prose stories owned by TransTech gangster Cryotek, based on the Robots in Disguise Predacon. That version of Cryotek was a gang boss as well, and had a pet Deployer, the avian Chro, repurposed from the blue version of Beast Machines Maximal Deployer Rav. In turn, The Blue Deployer is named for The Blue Parrot, the establishment owned by Signor Ferrari in the film Casablanca. Ferrari was played by Sydney Greenstreet, who was the source of inspiration for Cryotek's depiction in the animated short, Theft of the Golden Disk. Cobratron is a sentient version of a Cobra-created combiner, made up of multiple units of their S.N.A.K.E. battle-suits and robotic B.A.T. soldiers, seen in issue #1 Devil's Due Press mini-series G.I. Joe vs the Transformers: The Art of War. The TransTech version of Cryotek is a neutral.

Question 4: Sky-Byte saved the CGA Tower (after accidentally destroying one of its supports in a hostage situation he started) in "Sky-Byte Saves the Day". The other two Predacons under Sky-Byte's command are the biomechanical skunk Gas Skunk and the biomechanical flying squirrel Dark Scream. Dark Scream showed off his singing...well, what could be charitably called "skills" in "Secret Weapon: D-5".

Question 5: Time for a history lesson. John Keats and Alfred Tennyson were 19th century English poets. Matsuo Bashō was a 17th century Japanese poet. Masaoka Shiki was an 18th century Japanese poet. The Brontë sisters (Charolette, Emily, and Anne) were 19th century English poets and novelists. Homer was a legendary Ancient Greek poet. Ovid was a 1st century B.C./A.D. Roman poet. Emily Dickinson was a 19th century American poet. Langston Hughes was a 20th century American poet and novelist. Li Bai was an 8th century Chinese poet. Lord Byron was a 19th century English poet and politician. Zuhayr bin Abī Sūlmā was a 6th century Arabian poet. Percy Bysshe Shelley was a 19th century English poet. Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Victor Hugo were 19th century French poets. Friedrich Hölderlin was an 18th and 19th century German poet. Dante was a 13th and 14th century Italian poet. Vladimir Mayakovsky was a 20th century Russian poet and artist. And Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century American poet and writer. The Immortal Bard is 16th century English playwrite William Shakespeare, a name given to him in Isaac Asimov's short story "The Immortal Bard".

October 24:

Question 1: With this post, most of the rest of Sky-Byte's answers are in haiku form.

Question 2: Sky-Byte disguised himself as a red racing car in "Skid Z's Choice".

Question 3: This question implies that Sky-Byte was aimless before Megatron recruited him.

Question 4: Jaws was a 1975 thriller film, while Finding Nemo was a 2003 animated family film. Sky-Byte describes their plots simply here.

Question 5: The Decepticons in Robots in Disguise were Autobot protoforms reprogrammed by Megatron for evil, as seen in the episodes "The Decepticons". At the end of the series in "The Final Battle", Sky-Byte was left behind on Earth, having quit his evil ways. His 2012 Hall of Fame profile and a video on Ask Vector Prime revealed he patrolled the oceans, stopping illegal fishing boats.

October 25:

Question 1: Tsunami Blaster was the name of Sky-Byte's main attack in the cartoon, a laser fired from the cannon on his chest.

Question 2: Obviously this person is trying to ask about the Beat poets of the 1960s. Instead, Sky-Byte assumes he means the years of 69-60 B.C. He refers to 1st century Roman poet Lucan's work, the Pharsalia, which depicted the civil war between Julius Caeser and Pompey the Great.

Question 3: The Klud was a biomechanical species of whale native to the planet Pequod, seen in issue #64 of the Marvel The Transformers comic.

Question 4: Old Corroder was a beverage mentioned in issue #11 of IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye comic.

Question 5: The Predacon Council was mentioned in the episodes "Mystery of the Ultra Magnus" and "Suprise Attack!", in which it was revealed they sent Megatron to Earth to find Fortress Maximus. The fact that their is three of them obviously references the Tripredacus Council, the leaders of the Predacon faction overall in Beast Wars.

October 26:

Question 1: We never saw many Predacons in the cartoon, though we knew a battle raged on Cybertron.

Question 2: Limmericks are another form of poetry. Scourge's "goons" are the Commandos. Sky-Byte, of course, often failed and bumbled in attempts to show up Scourge.

Question 3 and 4: And so Shark Sonnets ends. Gerbesol is another Cybertronian day, named after one of the story editors on the third season of the original The Transformers cartoon, Steve Gerber. I'm glad for Sky-Byte. Sonnets are also another form of poetry. As I mentioned, pieces of ancillary fiction have established that after the cartoon, Sky-Byte protected the oceans of the Earth from illegal fishing ships.

Our next host is the female Decepticon adventurer, Spacewarp. Now, to explain: for the 2003 Universe toyline, a redeco of Armada Jetfire, along with his Mini-Con Comettor and the Space Mini-Con Team (Astroscope, Payload, and Sky Blast), as a Toys"R"Us exclusive Decepticon named Spacewarp, who homaged Generation 1 Astrotrain. However, this toy ultimately had no interest from any retailers, and ended up cancelled. In 2007, Fun Publications revisited this idea with the Timelines Astrotrain toy, with a new head based on the original. The Cybertron version of Astrotrain came with a Commetor redeco named Starcatcher, but because the Space Mini-Con Team's molds had degraded, he instead came with a redeco of the Cybertron Giant Planet Mini-Con Team (Longarm, Overcast, and Deepdive) as Astro-Hook, Astro-Line, and Astro-Sinker. Eight years later, Ask Vector Prime would revisit Spacewarp, giving her a gender and a personality as a Decepticon adventurer. Her Mini-Con partners were all given new identities: Comettor became Foldspace, while the Space Mini-Con Team became the Interstellar Marauders Mini-Con Team (Boom Tube, Starburst, and Jump Drive).

Spacewarp's profile picture is a new piece of artwork of her, done by Jesse Wittenrich. I feel like the Stardate in her opening post has to be a reference to something, but to what, I have no idea. Her post sets up a bit of a noir theme that we'll see in her posts; both the kind of pulp-y space fiction of the 40's and 50's, and detective stories.

Question 1: In all three of the "Unicron Trilogy" series (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron), Megatron would start off the series as Megatron, become Galvatron in the latter half, and then die, only to come back as Megatron in the next series. Generation 1 Megatron was known as "the Slag Maker", according to his profile in Marvel's The Transformers Universe. Kahuna is a Hawaiian word, meaning a respected person in society of some high level. The term Big Kahuna traces its origin back to a character in the 1959 film Gidget. "Peace through tyranny" was the motto of Generation 1 Megatron. Megatron chased after Mini-Cons in Armada and Cyber Planet Keys in Cybertron.

Question 2: The post about Spacewarp on Ask Vector Prime noted she smoked cy-gars, the Cybertronian version of cigars introduced in IDW Publishing's All Hail Megatron. Batch proto-initiators are the equivalent to parents, mentioned in issue #3 of IDW Publishing's Infiltration mini-series. "The birds and the bees" is an idiom used by parents to explaing sexual intercourse to their children-hence, binary-birds and cyber bees.

October 27:

Question 1: Purgatory was mentioned in Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur. It's named after a belief in some sects of Christianity, an intermediate level between heaven and hell where one goes to purify themselves of their sins. The "constantly shifting allegiences" in a war of three species sounds like the countries Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Vulcans are a humanoid species from Star Trek, with pointy ears. The power booster rod was introduced in issue #26 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. "Do not pass go, do not collect 200 shanix" is a reference to the board game Monopoly, specifically paraphrasing "do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars". Shanix is a form of currency that was introduced in issue #113 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic.

The alien species living on Purgatory are the Yequon, the Gadreel, and the Kasdaye. All of them take their names from fallen angels mentioned in the Book of Enoch. The Yequon military base, the Asphodel, is named after the Asphodel Meadows, a part of the underworld of Greek mythology. A yucca tree is a type of plant that can live for thousands of years. Opulus IX and Pomperous VII appear to take their names from the words "opulent" and "pompous". Limbobugs take their name from limbo, a place where those who have died but are not deserving of hell go, such as infants. Tartarus, the Yequon capital, is named for the abyss in the underworld of Greek mythology, where the Titans are imprisoned. I'm not sure if the "82.9 gigahertz" bit is a reference to anything. Spacewarp paraphrases the lyrics to Prince's song "1999". Omega Trion will be mentioned a few times going forward; he appears to be a Decepticon counterpart to Alpha Trion, coming from the phrase "I am the Alpha and Omega" from the Book of Revelation.

Question 2: Cannonball was a Decepticon pirate from the Cybertron toyline.

Question 3: In the South Korean version of the Car Robots toyline released by Sonokong (you'd know it in the west as Robots in Disguise), several Beast Wars II toys were released to buff up the line a bit. Beast Wars II Galvatron was released as Gigatron Z, an upgraded form of Gigatron (A.K.A. Megatron), while several of the vehicular Predacons from that series were released as Autobots. However, they still had the Predacon stickers of those toys, hence the story of their defection here. Armored Corps was a re-release of Megastorm. "Bucket Head" is an appelation of Megatron, which originates from the shape of the Generation 1 character's head; Megastorm was a redeco of the first Generation 2 Megatron toy. Garrus-7 is named for Garrus-9, the Autobot maximum security penetentiary from IDW Publishing's comics continuity, introduced in Spotlight: Arcee. Devil Gigatron is the Japanese (and Korean) name of Robots in Disguise Galvatron. Robots in Disguise Megatron/Galvatron's backstory in Car Robots was that he was from the future of the Beast Era, and came back to wreak havoc on early 21st century Earth. The Scoutforce (Scoutstinger, Scoutslasher, Scoutjet, and Scoutlauncher) were the Car Robots re-releases of the Beast Wars II Autorollers (Autostinger, Autocrusher, Autojetter, and Autolauncher). Stealth Saber was the name given to Beast Wars II Starscream's toy for his and BB's release in Car Robots; the BB toy is given the name Victory Bomber, and their combined form is given the name Stealth Bomber. This, in turn, references Victory Star Saber and Victory Leo, who combine to form Victory Saber. The concept of Amica Endurae ("best friends") was introduced in issue #32 of IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye. Maybe someday we'll learn about Spacewarp's adventures inside Unicron; this feels like a reference to her having been meant for release in the Universe toyline, of which the fiction had Unicron abduct Transformers from across the multiverse.

The Dark Nebula was a region of space seen in the Victory cartoon. Devil Z was the mysterious entity who commanded the Decepticons in Super-God Masterforce. Fire Convoy is the Japanese name of Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime. To roll someone is to steal money from a drunk person.

Question 4: The Transwarp Blaster is the combined form of the Interstellar Marauders Mini-Con Team (redecoed from the Requiem Blaster). Awwww.

Question 5: Not much to say here.

October 28:

Question 1: Spacewarp is a redeco of Armada Jetfire, who could combine with Armada Optimus Prime by becoming the legs for "Jet Optimus Prime".

Question 2: Thunderblast, Crumplezone, and Ransack were all seen in Cybertron. At the end of the series in the episode "Beginning", they struck out on their own, becoming the quote-unquote New Decepticon Army. Thundercracker was forced to come with them, but it seems he's been able to get away since then. The Reciprocating Inverted Subspace Knife stands for RISK, and might be a reference to the strategy game RISK. Spensifax B was mentioned in the "Autopedia" profile for Overlord in IDW Publishing's Last Stand of the Wreckers trade paperback and hardcover. Other planets in the system are introduced here, with other letters of the alphabet to distinguish them. Quasimatter is a...well, substance like matter, I guess? I'm no physicist. A yeti is an ape-like creature of legend from Himalayan folklore. Chessmen are, of course, based on the game of chess.

Question 3: The Maelstrom Exchequer was mentioned in Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur, and another version of it was noted to be among Spacewarp's possessions in Ask Vector Prime.

Question 4: The positioning of pirates and knights references the theme of BotCon 2014, "Pirates vs. Knights". Djinn are supernatural entities from Arabian mythology, spirits that can be either good or evil. Orbital Torus States were a type of Cybertronian city first introduced in Dreamwave Productions' The War Within mini-series. Animated Bulkhead had an interest in art, starting with the episode "Headmaster". Circuit-Su is a Cybertronian marshall art, first mentioned in 1988 Decepticon Pretender Bugly's tech specs. Eurythma is a musical based planet seen in the Sunbow The Transformers season 3 episode "Carnage in C-Minor". Glyph was noted to have attened Drouhard University in The AllSpark Almanac II; it's named after her designer, Brianna Drouhard.

Question 5: In issue #80 of the Marvel The Transformers comic, it was noted that the legend of the Last Autobot had, in some retellings, become corrupted into the legend of the Ultimate Warrior, to which this version lines up. Buffaloids are a type of Cybertronian with bovine-esque robot modes, including Terrashock (first seen in Robots in Disguise (2015) episode "W.W.O.D.?") and Overhead (first seen in the issue of IDW Publishing's short-live Robots in Disguise comic). Dyakayra was first seen in issue #3 of IDW Publishing's Heart of Darkness mini-series. Trobulum was a substance seen in the third entry of the Transformers Animated: Be the Hero series of choose-your-own-adventure books, Web of Deception. A ziggurat is a pyramid-like structure that originates from ancient Mesopotamia.

The Last Autobot was revealed to be a member of the Thirteen in Ask Vector Prime, and given the name Autonomous Maximus. The Keeper was an ancient Transformer standing guard over Primus in the core of Cybertron seen in issue #61 of Marvel's The Transformers comic. When Cybertron Vector Prime was revealed, his resemblence to the Last Autobot was often noted. The Robots in Disguise (2015) version of Fracture was a bounty hunter.

October 29:

Question 1: This is nice.

Question 2: I've already talked about Cybertron Astrotrain. The Rhinox mentioned here is the TransTech version of the character. Vector Prime previously brought up "quantum harmonic resonance" in Ask Vector Prime, explaining why some characters across all of reality are so similar to one another. The Core is the "sentient core of the universe" first mentioned in issue #74 of the Marvel The Transformers comic, and given the name "The One" by latter pieces of fiction. The Big G is God, obviously. The Quill is the artiface of "Aligned" Alpha Trion mentioned in Exodus; it was mentioned by Ask Vector Prime as having also been used by some higher power to write reality, AKA us.

Question 3: Terrorcons were drones created by Alpha Quintesson in the Energon cartoon and comic. Serton was mentioned in the Transformers "Find Your Fate Junior" book, The Invisibility Factor. Cabanas are small huts built by indigineous people in tropical climates, usually near bodies of water; they are also used recreationally for people on vacation. Tetra Gar was a thieve's den seen in Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur.

Azurala gets its name from "azure," a bright blue color, and "azul," the Spanish word for blue. Sertlantia is named for Atlantis, the mythological city first mentioned in the works of Greek philosopher Plato. The Insecticons were the beetle-type Terrorcons; Chromehorn is their Japanese name. Chromehorn is specifically based on the Super Link (the Japanese name for Energon) exclusive redeco of Insecticon in green, "Chromehorn Forest Type". The bits with the super-advanced Atlantis feels like a reference to the Stargate franchise, but I've never seen it. The

Temporal Analysis & Replication Dampening Interference Subjugator is named for the TARDIS from Doctor Who; there, it stands for "Time and Relative Dimension in Space". The Sertlantian time window also feels like a reference to something, but I'm not sure what.

Rook interrupts the posts with an important video where Vector Prime returns (and more); go over to his and the other's section for annotations.

Question 4: Shockwave was shown to experiment on offworlders in the "Transcendent" storyline. His lab is still being repaired from Cy-Kill's bombing.

Following on from Spacewarp mentioning that Vector was going to meet the chief, we get a post giving a transcript of that meeting. With the effects of the Shroud, Vector Prime is now a non-singular being, and as such, his history has been changed slightly: this TransTech version of Vector is a native, having taught Rhinox and others as a researcher into the multiverse. The "dream" Vector remembers is the events of "Another Light", where the Thirteen gathered as Nexus Prime used the Star Saber and the Terminus Blade to strengthen the walls of the multiverse. We learn here that Vector helped Rhinox come up with the Universal Stream system. Whoops on the Chief's part.

Question 5: Hey, I wrote this one! Treadbolt was a redeco of Armada Scavenger, released in the Energon toyline. The toy was one of the few characters left from the Unicron Trilogy who never got any sort of bio or fictional appearance, and so I decided to make her female. B'hgdad, the bird statue, and Pz-Zazz all appeared in issue #62 of the Marvel comic, in which B'hgdad was also after the bird. Spacewarp compares B'hgdad to the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. The TransTech Ego was killed by Bulletbike, a TransTech who had been placed in his Generation 2 counterpart's body, in "I, Lowtech". It was kept secret that the spark swap happaned in the story, but with Cy-Kill's bombing of Shockwave's lab and Hammerstrike's hacked broadcast, it appears to have gone public. Ego's collection of offworlder techology and artifacts was also seen in "I, Lowtech". Mode locks were first seen in issue #35 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. The Freelance Police Legion was mentioned in several TransTech prose stories, named after the Freelance Police Officers seen in Sam & Max. A commentor posts the stock image used by TFWiki for Treadbolt's article; the "doll" line is cute. As released, Treadbolt's Mini-Con partner was the same as Scavenger's, Rollbar; here, the Mini-Con is given the name Hound, for his resemblence to the Generation 1 Autobot.

October 30:

Question 1: The Ramjet mentioned here is Universe Ramjet, the servant of Unicron seen in "Balancing Act" who had been stranded in transwarp, experimented on by the Elder Gods that lived there.

Question 2: Scraplets are small, metal-eating parasites that were first seen in issue #29 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. The original The Transformers Ultra Magnus toy's inner robot was a redeco of Optimus Prime's toy in white. Tasmos was a planet seen in the Beast Wars Neo episode "Bump the Physicist", which did indeed have a debris field around it. The lost tribe of Mini-Cons are presumably the Mini-Cons who ended up on Earth, as seen in the Armada cartoon. Robo-chickens were mentioned in the Cybertron episode "Titans". The Pit is the Cybertronian version of hell, first mentioned in Beast Wars. The Shi-Lai were a antagonist alien species first mentioned in the Classics comic, "Cheap Shots". The Kukri-class scouts are named after the kukri, a type of knife from Nepal and India. Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen. I don't know if Tetroladice takes its name from anything specific; it might be some kind of brain-derived term. Medulus is named for the medulla oblongata, part of the brain.

Question 3: I wrote this one as well. Again, another thing about Spacewarp being redecoed from Jetfire.

Question 4: Simultronics were seen in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Blurr.

Question 5: Nothing too notable here.

October 31:

Question 1: We talked about Cannonball. Vector Prime noted he had fought with Spacewarp back on Ask Vector Prime. Ramjet again. Empress Lilliopath of the Nano-Spawn comes from Lilliput, a island of miniscule people from the novel Gulliver's Travels. Polterninja derives his name from a combination of "poltergeist" and "ninja". Diabolicus gets his name from "diabolical"; a synod is the council of a church, so it's a relgion of assasins. Goliath the Living Asteroid is inspired by Ego the Living Planet of Marvel Comics fame.

Question 2: Dinosaur Ace seems to be inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes strip, in which a Tyrannosaurus pilots an F-14 Tomcat jet fighter. The J'Kozian sector and its planets (Chakar, Roliak, Loneedo, Nibari, and S'elar) appeared in the Beast Wars prose story "The Razor's Edge". Gracks sound like generic animals. The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was a plane used by the American Air Force in World War II. Professor Puma is, well, a Puma. Gorilla Ambrosius is presumably named after Merlin, who, in the amalgamated history created by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae, was known as Merlin Ambrosius. Gengis Nahk has obviously been created from Mongolian Emperor and warrior Gengis Khan's DNA; her last name is backwards, and Lognom is "Mongol" backwards. Messerschmidt was a German aircraft manufacturing company. Most of the other names here-Massacre Master, Crypt of Reflection, Chrono-Hex-don't appear to be references to anything. Rigel VI, or Rigel 6, was mentioned in issue #27 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. The Mummy Mechs of Dimension 12, again, aren't a ref to anything specific.

Question 3: Strika was a Vehicon General from Beast Machines.

Question 4: Shanix are mentioned again. Tharkoros II is probably in the same system as Tharkoros VII, mentioned in the young adult Transformers Classified novel Switching Gears. Pya'dorus the Pitiless is an A'ovan, a species seen in issue #3 of Titan Magazines live-action Transformers movie tie-in comic. Na'conda is the homeworld of the A'ovan and the Thrall, first given a name in The AllSpark Almanac II. Twistspace shotguns presumably bend space in the area they're shot at. Spacewarp's clone is repurposed from the Armada Powerlinx Jetfire toy.

And so, we end our guest month with Spacewarp's final post, as she heads for space. But don't worry, Spacewarp's Log will return!

(Figure out: Cy-Kill's Powers (Smoke screen, eye beams, mind control, corrosive gas), GoBeing, A.J.'s full name, Cy-Kill's first profile picture)