Broken Windshields

The first of the Beast Wars: Uprising prose stories, "Broken Windshields" sets up much of the universe, although some of the premises and ideas from the stories wouldn't really be involved in future stories. The story definitely has a different feel to the later stories, and while I still love all of Beast Wars: Uprising, I'd be lying if I said this was one of my favorite installments of the series. That's not to say it's a bad story, of course-it hooked me in, after all!

Released on the 19th of February in 2015, the story focuses on Maximal Lio Convoy. Lio Convoy, for those of you who don't know, was introduced as the Maximal leader in the Japanese series, Beast Wars II. A new toy of him was released by the Transformers Collectors' Club in 2015 as the toy you got when you bought membership; redecoed from Generations Thrilling 30 Orion Pax, this toy lead to Jim Sorenson being commissioned into writing this story and delivering what would eventually become, in my opinion, one of the best Transformers stories of all time.

With all that personal stuff out of the way, let's begin:

The title, "Broken Windshields", refers to the controversial broken windows theory of criminology first devised in a 1982 article by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which states that visible signs of crime and disorder leads to further crime and disorder. It's also linked to the story, where Lio Convoy's broken windshield reveals the Energon Matrix that the Builders hid from the Maximals and Predacons. America's police brutality and the connections that police have to racism were big inspirations for the storyline, especially the then-recent Ferguson Unrest of the 2014. The cover is the tech specs illustration of the 2015 Club Membership free toy, Lio Convoy, penciled by Dan Khanna, inked by Jake Isenberg, and colored by Jesse Wittenrich; it was also featured in a variety of other places, including his profile published in issue #61 of the Collectors' Club magazine, and the fake "covers" for the five parts of "Intersectionality". The rest of the story features illustrations by Jesse Wittenrich.

I'm going to be doing this by sections, rather than pages, for ease of convenience. The paragraph breaks with the text (we'll get to them) will serve as the end of a section. Let's begin!

Section 1: we start off the story right away in a game. Lio Convoy's Solipsistic Staff takes its name from the philosophical theory of solipsism, which, simply put, puts forth that the only thing the mind knows to exist is itself. With its ability to cloak him from any cameras, the name makes sense. This particular game is taking place in the Mebius arena, in Mebion; Mebion was mentioned in Collector's Edition and e-HOBBY exclusive Magnificus' tech specs, where he ruled as Decepticon military consul until being framed by his fellow Decepticons. By the time of this story, we're already down to our last two players: Quickstrike and Stinkbomb. Quickstrike, being a cartoon Beast Wars character, is well-known; Stinkbomb, meanwhile, was a Transmetal 2 Maximal skunk from the fourth year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1999. This section was published as a preview for the story in issue #61 of the Transformers Collectors' Club magazine.

At the end of this section, we get our first "break". For almost all installments of Beast Wars: Uprising , these bumpers would appear, usually being briefly mentioned somewhere in the story and showing secret messages in Cybertronian languages; something which was suggested to Jim by fellow Club writer Jesse Wittenrich. This, specifically, is the sports tickers on Eject's monitors, with text in Maximal Cybertronix, a language seen in the Beast Wars cartoon which was created by the animation studio on the show, Mainframe Entertainment. The red and purple text throughout the story add up, and seeing as there's quite a few breaks, we'll wait until the end to go through them.

Section 2: The Cortex is more properly known as the Cyclonus Memorial Tower; Cyclonus will be mentioned in later stories, explaining what happened to him. Another trend begins here, in which various locations are named after deceased Transformers from the first 3 or so years of the brand. Barrage and Half-Track are Micromaster Combiners, released in the final year of the original US toyline in 1990. Barrage was part of the Autobot Astro Squad who formed half of a lunar exploration vehicle, while Half-Track was part of the Decepticon Battle Squad who formed have of a anti-aircraft halftrack. Supersonic is briefly mentioned here; we'll get to him later. In any case, Micromasters were small Transformers first released in the 1989 range of the toyline; Hasbro's answer to Galoob's Micro Machines, they were characterized as Transformers who had downsized, conserving their energy. As such, they're used in Beast Wars: Uprising as the enforcers of the Builders, serving the larger-scale and non-mobile Transformers.

Thetacon, the city where the Cortex is located, was introduced in Foundation, one of IDW Publishing's prequel comics to 2011's Dark of the Moon. Zoom Out is a Generation 1 version of Zoom Out 25X, a Real Gear Robot Decepticon video camera from the toyline for the first live-action Transformers film. Slog, meanwhile, was one of the Pretender Monsters released in 1989, small robots with monstrous alternate modes and Pretender shells, who could combine to form Monstructor. The doors to Eject's office are made of fluro-steel; fluoro-steel alloys were mentioned by Goldbug in issue #28 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. Sports updates Eject receives include those on mecha-soccer, which was originally mentioned in the Marvel UK The Transformers comic's letters page, and was eventually mentioned in the tech specs of the 1990 Action Master Decepticon Krok; racing; basketrek, mentioned by Jetfire in issue #21 of the Marvel The Transformers comic; pugilism; track-and-field; lobbing, essentially the Cybertronian equivalent to "catch," which first appeared in the Prime episode "Con Job"; volleyblast, a new Cybertronian game that's analogous to volleyball, which seems to be poking fun at the more trademark-friendly "fireblast" replacing "firepower" in tech specs; marksmanship; and retro-rodeo, a Cybertronian version of regular rodeo. Scissor Boy was a Maximal earwig from Beast Wars II, essentially a re-release of the American toyline's 1997 Predacon earwig Powerpinch (with his "rubsign" now having a Maximal symbol). Killer Punch was a Predacon Styracosaurus from Beast Wars Neo; he'll show up again in "Intersectionality". Ultra Mammoth was a Maximal woolly mammoth version of Ultra Magnus redecoed from Beast Wars Neo Big Convoy, released as part of the first Transformers Figure Subscription Service. While that toy represented the original Ultra Magnus upgraded into a Maximal form, this Ultra Mammoth is a separate character. Notably, Killer Punch's bio in IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook noted that, among other conspiracy theories, he believed that Ultra Magnus was a Decepticon spy. Megatron's energon mace showed up in the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2". Gladiatorial combat has been a staple of pre-war Cybertron culture, dating all the way back to Marvel UK prose story "State Games" from the Transformers Annual 1986. Knowing Jim, the term "exo-walker" might be a reference to the devices of the same name from the 1993-1994 sci-fi animated series Exo-Squad, a favorite of his.

Eject's depiction in this story was set up a little under a year before the release of this story, with the release of his Transformers Figure Subscription Service toy, redecoed and remolded from the United Frenzy and Rumble toys. His tech specs indicated that he was from the Beast Wars: Uprising universe and explained that he was the administrator behind the games. We get our first indication of humanity's position in the cosmos in the modern era from Eject's words here, having evolved and created technology beyond the Transformers' capabilities. Future stories would make Lio Convoy's ignorance of humanity seem a little bit strange, considering that almost every other Maximal and Predacon knows about it, though perhaps Lio Convoy was kept in the dark. Eject reveals that the Club's real-world inspiration for Beast Wars: Uprising setting is true in-universe too; the Builders modeled the Games after the Hunger Games films from the 2010s, based on the young adult dystopian novels from the late 2000s. Eject's only just seen the second film, 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, as a result of the broadcast taking longer for Cybertron's satellites to pick up. I won't bother with most of Eject's sports talk, but for more obscure ones, I'll point it out. For example, "sticky wicket" is a phrase derived from the sport of cricket, used to describe difficult circumstances. The "cycle" unit of measurement, along with all the various derivatives of it such as megacycle, nanocycle, stellar cycle, solar cycle, etc. emerged from the Beast Wars cartoon, although orbital cycles were first mentioned in Animated, I believe. Nano-kliks also come from Beast Wars.

Section 3: Glibax was introduced in the 2010 Wings Universe prose story "Flames of Yesterday". The Autobot Commonwealth was the name given to the Autobot-controlled planets of Animated in The AllSpark Almanac II; I believe the name of the Decepticon Star Empire also comes from the book, but I can't remember in which part. The Class system mentioned here won't be brought up again until a fair few stories down the line. The Maximal Command Security Force, or MCSF, was a police force introduced in BotCon 2006's "Dawn of Future's Past". The top of page six features the first illustration: the anomaly Lio Convoy witnesses in the sky.

Obviously, and as the story will later reveal, this is Blackarachnia. Blackarachnia was introduced to us as one of the first Beast Wars: Uprising characters, back in the "Transcendent" storyline. Her profile in issue #25 of the Club magazine set up the earliest details of this universe. Her oddly fluid red-and-purple frame here, with a six-legged car mode, is the result of her being placed in her TransTech counterpart's body by Topspin, as part of a ploy by Shattered Glass Alpha Trion to get him back home. We last saw Blackarachnia in the "Reunification" storyline; her fellow dimensional escapees Immorticon and Nightscream were killed (by TransTech Megatron and Shattered Glass Optimus Prime, respectively), and it seems that Scavenger hasn't made it either. Of course, there's only the vaguest implications of that here, as what little dimensional travel appeared in Beast Wars: Uprising was always made intentionally vague. Blackarachnia uses her "Tall, gold, and [adjective]" line that was staple of her dialogue in the first two seasons of the Beast Wars cartoon. Nyon originated from IDW Publishing's Autocracy mini-series and was the home of that incarnation of Hot Rod/Rodimus.

Section 4: Femme is a word that Sorenson used in his and Bill Forster's The AllSpark Almanac guidebooks, a word for "female Cybertronians," along with the male equivalent of "mech." The Roman numerals DCCCLXXII are for game 872, placing it about a century or so ago; future stories place the first games as happening around 210 years before the Uprising. I'm not entirely sure where the word "mechanimal" first originated, perhaps in the Wings Universe stories? Blackarachnia's outburst is probably talking about Optimus Primal, her former commander who believe that the Maximals were for the greater good, and ended up getting Rhinox and Silverbolt killed, as related in her aforementioned profile. "Upset the scrapplet cart" derives from the idiom "upset the apple cart," which means to disturb the status quo; scraplets are small, metal eating parasites, originally introduced in #29 the Marvel The Transformers comic. Rustbugs were originally mentioned in issue #276 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comics, where Starscream used a rustbug hoop against the spying Insecticons.

Section 5: Anyone who watched Beast Wars probably knows this, but to be complete; CR Chambers were introduced in the series, used to repair the damage Maximals and Predacons. I believe this is the first time they've been indicated to help guide nano-machines, though that might have come from the Japanese reference guide Beast Wars Universe, which contained lots of behind-the-scenes information from the cartoon's head story writers, Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio; the same book explained that protoforms were made up of nanites. Longtooth was one of the 1989 Autobot Pretenders; he turned into an amphibious transport, and his Pretender shell was a humanoid cyborg walrus. His appearance here (seen on the top of page ten) uses the design created by Guido Guidi for his appearances in IDW Publishing's Robots in Disguise/The Transformers, where he served as the cameraman for news reporter Circuit's; his camera optic is repurposed here as his ever watchful eye. Smelting pits are a variation on the concept of the smelting pool, introduced in issue #17 of the Marvel The Transformers comic.

The Maximal being harassed by the MCSF is Noctorro, a Maximal bull/bat Fuzor from the third year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1998. His accent in this story is inspired by the stereotypical Dracula/vampire accent, which sounds vaguely Eastern European. Polar Claw was one of the toys from the first year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1996, a Maximal polar bear. Snarl was a Maximal lion from the second year of the Beast Machines toyline in 2000, though his description in this story (a black body with red and yellow trim) matches the colors of his 2003 Universe toy.

Stasis-cuffs originate from Animated. Later Beast Wars: Uprising stories would indicate Glibax is actually close to Cybertron's north pole, retconning this earlier detail. I'm not sure what "Builder Assemblage Code 375.19 Gamma, Section 9, subsection 23" could be referring too; I initially thought it might follow the same idea as the universal stream concept, but as far as I can tell, no significant comics were released on March 19, 1975. Autopedia was introduced in IDW Publishing's Last Stand of the Wreckers mini-series, as part of the character profiles included with some issues. Mechanometers are unit of measurement, originally mentioned in The Transformers episode "City of Steel". Noctorro uses the sci-fi swear "frag," which saw heavy use in the Beast Wars cartoon. Grid Khajida follows the format various Grid mentioned in the Beast Wars cartoon, named after online members of the fandom; in this case, it's named for User:Khajida, from TFWiki.Net, with the name having been slightly misspelt.

Section 6: The phenomenon of acid rain on Cybertron was seen in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode "Divide and Conquer", though there it was artificially caused by the Decepticon Rainmakers; it has since evolved to become a natural Cybertronian phenomenon in various stories. Radio Free Cybertron is named for both the Transformers-based podcast, purported to be the longest running in the fandom, and one of the first podcasts in the world, and Radio Free Europe, an organization created by the US during the Cold War in 1949. The latter's official purpose is to broadcast to countries where the "free flow of information is banned". This previous resistance probably refers to what little pre-prose story Beast Wars: Uprising fiction there was, including the resistance led by Cheetor mentioned in Blackarachnia's profile, and Rattrap, Botanica, Dynobot, and their group from "Alone Together: Prologue".

Black Omen is the European-exclusive Decepticon Trakkon Fearswoop, using his Dutch/French name. He was released in 1993 in the last year of the European-exclusive original The Transformers toyline and transformed into a Lockheed YF-22 fighter jet. Now, I assume everyone reading this knows that Primus is the Light God representing Order, who created the Transformers from the Marvel The Transformers comic, but just in case. He was created by Simon Furman and Jeff Anderson. Mecho-gnats were mentioned by Frenzy in issue #12 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. Glitch mice were mentioned by Bluestreak in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode "S.O.S. Dinobots". Nosoron was the name given to Animated Ramhorn's species in The AllSpark Almanac II, which was itself taken from the Polish name for Beast Wars Rhinox. Electro-toads were mentioned by Starscream in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode "Atlantis, Arise!" Pneuma-lions were mentioned in Wings Universe prose story "Flames of Yesterday", as the supposed image made by the constellation of Leonicus, while zap-ponies were mentioned by Sprocket in "Battle Lines, Part 4". Machadrons were mentioned by Ultra Magnus in IDW's Spotlight: Arcee; unlike most mechanimals, they have no clear Earth counterpart, although judging on what little we know, they could be an analogue to elephants.

Section 7: Hadean is Cybertron's sun, mentioned in the pseudo-canonical novella Alignment, which finished up plot points from Marvel's Generation 2; it would be canonized in The AllSpark Almanac II, although it was initially misspelt as "Hadeen" before being corrected in The Complete AllSpark Almanac. Blackarachnia has returned to her original Maximal body-form; evidently, she has somehow procured a protoform. Her body is described as being that of the Generations Thrilling 30 Chromia (recognizable by her split wheel on her legs, her back mounted wheel, and the acicular details on her knees and elbows), with the colors of her original Predacon form in the Beast Wars cartoon. We have another illustration on the bottom of page 15, featuring B'Boom and Scylla. Scylla was a member of the Beast Wars II Seacons, a vaguely-Predacon aligned squid, redecoed from the original The Transformers toyline's 1988 Seacon Tentakil. The art depicts her as a virtual retool of Cybertron Thunderblast, with a new head based on the original. She also has a pirate accent and eyepatch, matching her profession. B'Boom was a Maximal baboon from the second year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1998. The illustration depicts him as a virtual retool of Revenge of the Fallen Brawn, with a new head based on his original. He's also been given a "surfer dude" accent. Blackarachnia brings up "that "transform and transcend" scrap"; "transform and transcend" was one of the many enigmatic mantras of the Oracle from the Beast Machines cartoons. Given her tendency to reference Earth culture in later stories, Blackarachnia's "little lion man" quip might be derived from the 2009 song "Little Lion Man", by British folk-rock band Mumford & Sons. Lio Convoy's profile in the issue #61 of the Club magazine (published shortly before this story) indicated his Energon Matrix came from a mysterious source; here, it's revealed to be Terran in origin, which will come up again soon. In Beast Wars II, Lio Convoy's Energon Matrix was merely a status symbol as part of his Convoy rank, with limited energon-manipulating abilities; this version of it is a bit closer to the classical Matrix of Leadership, able to give life like the Creation Matrix from the Marvel The Transformers comics. Burthov was originally seen in IDW Publishing's Defiance mini-series, one of the prequels for the 2009 live-action movie, Revenge of the Fallen.

Section 8: Here, we learn more about the losses of the Great War; almost everyone from 1984 to 1986 is gone, including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Prowl, Blaster, Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave, and Soundwave. One exception (aside from Eject) is Ratbat; as he appears later in the story proper, I'll wait until we get there. As for the others mentioned on the Builder assembly...

Kudon was part of the Council of Ancients seen in Dreamwave Productions' The War Within mini-series, created by Simon Furman and Don Figueroa. Riker was the Micromaster governor of planet Micro from the Victory anime. Traachon was a High Councillor and General seen in a few stories published in the Marvel UK The Transformers comic annuals, starting with 1985's "And There Shall Come...A Leader!" in the Transformers Annual 1985, created by Simon Furman and John Stokes. Crosscut (or Cross-Cut, as is name is spelt here, starting a trend that would be common to differentiate characters with the same name in Beast Wars: Uprising—presumably, the Decepticon seen in Marvel The Transformers issue #18 has the "Crosscut" name, as he was introduced first) was part of the Collector's Edition toyline, a "retool" of The Transformers Skids toy based on the original Diaclone release of the mold. His tech specs characterized him as the Autobot's ambassador to various alien races, and he turned into a Honda City Turbo. Sigil appeared in the "Aligned" Exodus novel as a member of the High Council and is transferred to Generation 1 continuity here. He might have been created by Alex Irvine, but there's a possibility he's from the "Binder of Revelation", the Hasbro document upon the novel which the novel was based. Eject's "Galva Contingency" is set up here; going off the description of it given in the epilogue, we all could guess that the clone resulting from it would be based on the Beast Wars II Lucky Draw Galvatron Color Lio Convoy toy, and sure enough, we would be correct.

The Pit is the Transformer analog to Hell, first mentioned in the Beast Wars cartoon. Dodecahex was first seen in issue #1 of the 3H Productions The Wreckers comic, published at BotCon 2001. "Bush league" is an informal term used to refer to the minor league of a professional sport.

Section 9: Tritanium is a real-world metal, but it's also been used a fair few times in Transformers media, starting with the 3H Productions Reaching the Omega Point prose story, "Herald". We'll get to Override after she shows up a few sections later. The Predacon Secret Police was mentioned in the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda (Part 2)", where it was revealed Tarantulas was a member of the group, having been sent to infiltrate Megatron's gang as a mole. Dodecahex's original appearance in The Wreckers depicted it as having spaceports, including Shuttle Complex Ohm, where the titular characters obtained a ship. Farad Spaceport derives its name from Shuttle Complex Ohm; farads and ohms are both SI units, for electrical capacitance and electrical resistance respectively. The Rust Sea/Sea of Rust/Great Rust Sea/etc. was originally mentioned in the Marvel UK The Transformers letters page in issue #162, and has gone on to make many appearances in various pieces of Transformers media. Alloygators were originally mentioned by Elita-1 in BotCon 2007's "Games of Deception" comic. Oxide sharks, meanwhile, were originally mentioned in the online bio of the 2010 Transformers toyline's version of Legends-class Revenge of the Fallen Devastator set, which stated that Generation 1-inspired color scheme given to the toy was taken from green coloration of oxide sharks. Supersonic originates from Japan's 1992 toyline Operation Combination, where he was a member of the Autobot Wing Team, transforming into a Concorde Super Sonic Transport jet and the left arm of Sixwing. When the Wing Team were re-released and redecoed in 2003's Micromaster toyline along with the other Micromaster combiners from Operation Combination, they were released as Decepticons, explained by the pack-in fiction to be the result of a dimensional shockwave, which mutated them into Decepticons. Supersonic has both an Autobot and Decepticon symbol, and his color scheme combines his original toy's red inner torso and forearms with the blue face and pinkish-purple shoulders of his Micromaster release, as seen on the illustrations of him talking to the camera at the bottom of page 18 and the top of page 19.

Now, the contestants: On the Maximal side, we start out with Binary, who is based on Beast Machines Botanica, and uses her pre-production name. She represents Uraya, a city-state mentioned in Dreamwave Productions The War Within. Sonar was a Maximal Transmetal 2 bat, from the fourth year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1999. She was made female in 3H Productions The Wreckers comic, taking advantage of her pronounless bio, starting a trend of using pronounless bios to create female characters. Manta is Manta Ray, originally a Predacon...well, manta ray, sold as part of the Beast Wars promotional Happy Meal toys in 1996, who would later be made female by the Beast Wars Sourcebook; her name is shortened here as "Manta," which was her name in the Japanese Beast Wars Perfect Book (where she was characterized as male). Crystal Widow was an Autobot spider, redecoed from Beast Machines Blackarachnia, and sold in the 2003 Universe toyline as part of a Kmart-exclusive set with Oil Slick in 2004. Air Hammer was a Maximal hammerhead shark/hawk Fuzor, from the third year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1998. Skywarp was a Maximal bald eagle, from the Beast Wars II toyline, himself a redeco of the American 1997 Beast Wars Magnaboss component, Silverbolt. CatSCAN was an artificially intelligent Autobot tiger redecoed from Beast Machines Night Slash Cheetor and sold exclusively at BotCon 2002; here he's a full-fledged Transformer. Dinotron was a Beast Machines Dinobot Pachycephalosaurus from the second year of the toyine in 2000, who was a redeco of the Beast Wars Neo Hardhead toy, which was in turn a retool of the original Beast Wars Dinobot toy. Panther was another 1996 McDonald's-exclusive Beast Wars toy, a Maximal...uh, panther. Tasmania Kid was a Maximal Tasmanian devil from the Beast Wars II series, himself a near-identical re-release of the American 1997 Beast Wars Snarl toy. Rhino, like Manta Ray and Panther, was another Beast Wars 1996 McDonald's Happy Meal toy, a Maximal rhinoceros. And finally on the Maximal's side, there's Optimus Minor, a Maximal Transmetal 2 monkey, released in the fourth year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1999. As a gag, all the Maximals are expies for the Maximals who showed up in the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoon, introduced in reverse chronological order (minus Rampage, Transmutate, Tigerhawk, and Noble): Binary/Botanica (the far-traveled plant); Sonar/Nightscream (the aloof bat); Manta/Depth Charge (the aggressive and vengeful manta ray); Crystal Widow/Blackarachnia (the seductive spider); Air Hammer/Silverbolt (the chivalrous Fuzor); Skywarp/Airazor (the somewhat shy bird of prey); CatSCAN/Tigatron (the serene tiger); Dinotron/Dinobot (the growling dinosaur); Panther/Cheetor (the youthful big cat); Tasmania Kid/Rattrap (the trigger-happy small mammal); Rhino/Rhinox (the slow and steady yet battle ready rhinoceros); and Optimus Minor/Optimus Primal (the heroic primate leader).

On the Predacon side we have: Insecticon, who was a Predacon beetle from the first year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1996. Megalligator was a Predacon alligator from the Japanese Beast Wars toyline, sold as part of the "Amazon Showdown" set with Convobat. He was redecoed from the regular Basic-class Megatron toy with a bio indicating him to be the original Decepticon Megatron. This incarnation of Megalligator is a separate character from both the original Decepticon Megatron and Predacon Megatron. Scourge (he doesn't have a different name here from the Decepticon Scourge, something that would be rectified in "Derailment") was a Predacon Transmetal 2 locust from the fourth year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1999. Night Viper was a Maximal cobra from the second year of the Beast Machines toyline in 2000; his bio was originally written to depict him as a former Predacon, who had joined with Optimus Primal's Maximals to fight against the Vehicons but, perhaps to prevent any confusion, this idea was dropped from the final toy's bio. Transquito was a Predacon mosquito from the second year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1997. Autostinger was a Predacon dump truck from Beast Wars II, himself a redeco of the Decepticon Auto Roller Dirtbag from Generation 2. Scavenger was a Predacon Transmetal fire ant from the third year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1998, who was originally intended to be a Transmetalized version of fellow Predacon fire ant Inferno. Due to his appearance before the Beast Wars: Uprising name rule was fully in-place, he shares his name with the other Scavenger who already appeared (a Predacon version of the Beast Machines Vehicon), and would be stuck with it; Jim noted that, if he could have edited "Broken Windshields", he would have renamed him Corpse Eater. Creepy was a Monster Renegade with a vaguely spider-like alternate mode from GoBots. We'll get to him more in "Cultural Appropriations". Reptix was a Mini-Con/Predacon Pteranodon released as part of the fifth wave of "Micron Boosters" in 2007, a redeco of Classics Mini-Con Swoop. Terragator was a Predacon snapping turtle/alligator Fuzor from the third year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1998. Queen Rage is based on Rage, a non-aligned Transformer with a jellyfish alternate who was the queen of the planet Wednesday, from a prose story in the collected edition of the Beast Wars Neo manga; we'll get into her a bit more when we annotate "Derailment". She was created by Shōji Imaki. And finally, there's Rot Gut, based on the Prime: Beast Hunters Predacon ogre. redecoed from fellow Predacon Blight; this starts a trend of repurposing the Prime Predacons as Beast Wars Predacons.

Phew!

Section 10: Baffle fields might be a reference to a piece of technology from The Culture sci-fi novel series by Scottish author Iain Banks. We'll get to Break in the next section. Angolmois was the lifeblood of Unicron, introduced in Beast Wars II.

Section 11: Override is a continuity import of Cybertron Override, the Autobot leader of the planet Velocitron; she turned into a Velocitronian race car. Break was a Maximal penguin from the Beast Wars Neo series. He speaks in hashtags and internet slang, as part of his hacker role. Retrax was a Predacon pillbug from the second year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1998. Longhorn was a Maximal bull from the second year of the Beast Machines toyline in 2000.

Section 12: Tailwind was a Decepticon Micromaster A-10 Thunderbolt II from the Air Strike Patrol, while Sunrunner was an Autobot Micromaster E-2C Hawkeye AEW plane from the Battle Patrol, both released in 1989. On page 23, we have our final illustration: Lio Convoy making his speech, as Tailwind and Sunrunner fly towards him.

Section 13: The Great War was established to be the Third Cybertronian War in Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4", thus making the Uprising the Fourth.

Section 14: Iacon was one of the first named cities on Cybertron, dating all the way back to Jim Shooter's original story treatment for The Transformers franchise. Energon chains have been seen in various pieces of media, starting with the Sunbow The Transformers episode "S.O.S. Dinobots". Octus was introduced in issue #213 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic, part of the Decepticon Triumvirate, who turned into a Dalek, a cyborg race of aliens from British sci-fi show Doctor Who. An Animated version of him appeared in The AllSpark Almanac II, where he was the mirror-universe Jim Sorenson's reverse-Pretender disguise, used so he could interview the Decepticons. He was created by Simon Furman and Lee Sullivan. Lio Convoy has been rumored to have been given the title "Supreme Commander" by the Resistance, the rank Lio Convoy held in Beast Wars II. Ratbat was shown to be a Senator before the war in IDW Publishing's Megatron: Origin; Jim would later state that he imagines Ratbat's upgraded himself to his Japanese-exclusive Generations Senator Ratbat toy. CNA was introduced in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Arcee, although the idea that Transformers had genetic material dates back to the Marvel Generation 2 comic. A "Hail Mary" is a type of pass in football, usually made in desperation.

Now, for the breaks: The red section when combined reads in full: "Zapmaster (MM-D) leads the Iacon 5000 (Micro Division), entering circuit 41 with Six-Speed (MM-A), Free Wheeler (MM-A), and Hyperdrive (MM-D) close behind. Fans were stunned when Flat-Out (MM-A) blew a tire and crashed into Holi (MM-A) during circuit 37. In critical condition. --- Retro-rodeo champ Ironlunge (P) was convicted yesterday of Possession with Intent of 1.4 kilo-units of the circuit booster Syk. The investigating official, Road Police (MM-A): "The Assembly should throw the book at him." He made headlines when he wrestled a bucking brontobot to the ground, hanging on as it converted from beast to tank. Runner-up Battle Unicorn (M): "What else would-"

In purple: "The Builder Assembly ruled that Cyberdroid refugees from the former colony Master are ineligible to participate in the Max/Pred League and must play in the Micro Division. Basketrek star Lug (CD-A) of the Triax Troublemakers: "I welcome the chance to give those Micros what-for!" Minimum Ambus (CD-A), Throttlebot Wanderers goalie: "We're much closer to Maximals in stature." Dante (CD-D), captain of the Corumcan Corrupturs Vollyblast team: "About damn time." --- Caliburn (MM-D) took the Micro-Weight Boxing Championship late Robbisol evening, bounding former champion Ironworks (MM-A) into brutal submission. Popular pugilist Star Upper (M) has already hurl-"

Zapmaster was the Mini-Con partner of Thundercracker from Armada, who turned into a Formula-1 race car; here, along with other Mini-Cons, he's been imported as a Micromaster. The Iacon 5000 was mentioned in the Marvel UK The Transformers comic's letters page in issue #326. Six-Speed was part of the Gigantion-native Recon Mini-Con Team from Cybertron, who turned into a race car; Free Wheeler was a Micromaster Autobot Lamborghini Countach, part of the Race Car Patrol from 1989; Hyperdrive was a Decepticon Micromaster Mitsubishi X2S concept car, a member of the Sports Car Patrol from 1989. Flat-Out was one of the Mini-Con Super Stunt Team, sold with the first DVD volume of the Micron Legend anime and appearing in the pack-in Linkage manga. He turned into a Saleen S7 luxury car. Holi is an Autobot Micromaster Ford Taurus police car, and a member of the Rescue Patrol Team from Victory and Zone; he was sold in America in 1989 as Rescue Patrol member Stakeout. Ironlunge was a Mini-Con/Predacon Triceratops sold as part of the fifth "Micron Booster" assortment in 2007 and was a redeco of Classics Mini-Con Knockdown. Kilo-units are a unit of measurement mentioned by Bulkhead in the Animated episode "Rise of the Constructicons". Syk is a circuit booster (essentially a Cybertronian drug); it was mentioned in issue #275 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic, which indicated that Mixmaster was a syk dealer. Road Police was a Autobot Micromaster and member of the Turbo Team from Operation Combination, who turned into a Acura NSX police car and the chest of Sixturbo. Brontobots were originally mentioned as the species of Animated Zaur in The AllSpark Almanac II, itself derived from a pre-production name for Generation 1 Sludge. Battle Unicorn was a Maximal unicorn from the third year of the Beast Machines toyline in 2001.

Cyberdroids were a type of Transformer that originated from the Micromaster toyline's pack-in fiction, small Cybertronians unable to transform; the titular characters were this kind of Transformer, before being mutated into Micromasters. This term would be applied to the Japanese versions of the Headmasters and Targetmasters as seen in The Headmasters cartoon by TFWiki due to their similarities, as they were also depicted as not being able to transform before they either eventually learned how (in the case of the Headmasters) or mutated to have alternate modes (in the case of the Targetmasters). Beast Wars: Uprising would make this idea official. Planet Master was a colony from The Headmasters, home to the titular characters. Lug was the Headmaster partner of Hosehead from the fifth year of the original toyline in 1988; there, he was an organic Nebulan, but as with many characters in Beast Wars: Uprising, his species has been changed. Triax was mentioned in IDW Publishing's Autocracy mini-series. Minimus Ambus (spelt here as Minimum Ambus) was a small, human sized Autobot who served as the modern Ultra Magnus, as revealed in IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye ongoing. The character of Minimus Ambus was created by James Roberts and Alex Milne; as originally depicted, he turned into a minesweeper there, although it's unlikely here. The Throttlebot Wanderers were mentioned as a mecha-soccer team by Blaster in the Marvel UK The Transformers comic's letters page in issue #316. Dante is a Cyberdroid version of Abraham Dante, the human partner of Scorponok and leader of the Machination from the IDW Publishing Transformers comics continuity. He made his first full appearance in Escalation and would later be seen in Devastation and Maximum Dinobots. Dante was created by Simon Furman and E.J. Su. Corumkan (misspelled here as "Corumcan") was mentioned in 3H Productions Reaching the Omega Point prose story "Herald". Robbisol was one of the Cybertronian days mentioned in The AllSpark Almanac II, named after Sunbow The Transformers story editor Dick Robbins. Caliburn was the Decepticon Micromaster partner of Megazarak, from OTFCC 2004; redecoed from Armada Leader-1, he turned into a buggy with twin cannons. Ironworks was an Autobot Micromaster semi-truck, sold with the Micromaster Station "construction station" in 1989. Star Upper is a Maximal kangaroo, the winning entry of a character design contest for Beast Wars II in the magazine Comic Bom Bom, created by Yasunori Kawai; he would appear in the Beast Wars II manga and the Beast Wars Neo anime.