Not All Megatrons

"Not All Megatrons" is the eight Beast Wars: Uprising story, and the first of the four-part finale. Released two months after the previous story, "Identity Politics", on November 17, 2016.  It returns to the present day, focusing on Megatron's Darksyder criminal empire in the midst of the Uprising, and his creation of the Beast Upgrade, cutting off the Maximals and Predacons' dependence on Builder industry and profiting from all sides in the process. It's the second story of the series to focus on Beast Wars Megatron, and fittingly, the title represents his struggle to differentiate himself from the Decepticon original. The story was written by Jim Sorenson and Dave Bishop, with art by Christopher "IKY" Colgin and Robby Musso, and colors by Colgin and Jesse Wittenrich.

The title references the Twitter hashtag #NotAllMen. Although the phrase has existed in some variant since the early 19th century, it took off in the early 2010s, generally used in a satirical way to mock those who argue against feminist arguments by pointing out that "not all men are like that," missing the point of those arguments in the first place. In particular, it gained traction after the 2014 Isla Vista killings, due to the misogynistic nature of the crime, with the hashtag #YesAllWomen created in response, expressing that all women are, to some degree, victims of sexism and misogyny. For this story, as mentioned, it ties into Megatron's struggle to distinguish himself, and also ties into the role Galvatron has played in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe.

The cover by Christopher Colgin features Max-B's arm (who we'll get to; Colgin appears to have drawn the arm directly based on Guido Guidi's art for Max-B's profile from the IDW Publishing Beast Wars Sourcebook) breaking out of her stasis pod, as a strand of CNA floats in the background.

Section 1: As revealed in the opening, this story takes place in the fourth year of the Grand Uprising, placing it four years after "Broken Windshields". It also reveals that the previous story, "Identity Politics", took place 25 years ago, and 21 years before "Broken Windshields". 

Cryotek is an interesting case. He was a blue redeco of the Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Megatron toy, and was released as a Predacon dragon in the 2001 Robots in Disguise toyline. However, he was quickly snatched up by 3H Productions for their BotCon The Wreckers comic, who wrote him as a Beast Wars Predacon who was a highly-intelligent crime lord who served as Beast Wars Megatron's mentor. He was eventually reintroduced into the Robots in Disguise continuity, but most of his appearances have been in Generation 1/Beast Wars-based continuities. In this continuity, he had nothing to do with Megatron's rise into the criminal world, as seen in the last story. He was previously seen in the Club magazine's "Alone Together" storyline, in the comic's second chapter "Perception", having taken in Trans-Mutate and using her abilities for his own ends. There, he was depicted as a virtual retool of the Prime: Robots in Disguise Bulkhead toy, a body he still presumably has here. Cryotek's gang was unnamed in "Alone Together"; "Identity Politics" identified them as the Minions of Unicron, named for the army of Unicron from the 2003 Universe toyline, as well as being a reference to Cryotek's proximity to that line; his profile in the "Director's Cut" of issue #2 of 3H's The Wreckers labelled him as one, contrary to his appearance in the actual comic. They use the same symbol as well; a yellow-orange abstraction of Unicron's face, recolored from the red symbol of the Blentrons from Beast Wars Neo. 

Doom-Lock is a continuity import of a Decepticon/Terrorcon from Energon; a retool of Cruellock, he turned into a dinosaur-like monster. The mansion is Double Punch's, as seen in "Identity Politics", where he was depicted as Megatron's former mentor, who was murdered for betraying the Predacon in order to rise to the Builder Assembly. We'll go over Packrat in a bit. Equilibrium circuits were mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 1".

Cryotek's lieutenants include Escargon, Jai-Alai, Cataclysm, and Hammerstrike, all of whom have diverse origins. Escargon was created by Beast Wars manga artist Shōji Imaki for Comic Bom Bom magazine's Beast Wars II Character Design Contest, as an example of what a character should look like. He was a Maximal with a snail alternate mode, armed with his Love-Love Lancer weapon, which could change the gender of anyone struck by it. He previously showed up as an underling of Cryotek's back in "Perception", where he appeared nigh-identical to his beast mode design; here, he's described as turning into a half-track. His weapon's been renamed the L^2 Lancer, as in "love squared." A version of Escargon was shown to be selling stolen passes in the TransTech story "Withered Hope", hence his depiction as a criminal. Jai-Alai was an unproduced 3H Productions BotCon exclusive, a black redeco of Beast Wars Manterror who would have been a ninja. Named for the Basque sport of jai alai, the character was conceived as male, but is made female here. Cataclysm was one of Shokaract's Heralds from the 3H BotCon storyline "Reaching the Omega Point", a conniving schemer always looking to up his position in the ranks. He was a "virtual redeco" of Beast Wars Transmetal Cheetor, and was created by Simon Furman and Dan Khanna. Finally, Hammerstrike was a Maximal hammerhead shark from Beast Machines, a fearless, battle-hungry warrior. Hammerstrike's tech specs depicted him as male, but like Jai-Alai, she's female here; a female TransTech version of Hammerstrike previously appeared in a post on the Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist Facebook page, whose spark was swapped with her Beast Machines counterpart, who himself began taking on a female identity and pronouns, suggesting that she was genderfluid.

The statue of Floron was previously mentioned in "Identity Politics"; he was one of the ancient Decepticon leaders enshrined in the Hall of Heroes in 1986's The Transformers: The Movie, created by character designer Floro Dery, who named Floron after himself. Data discs first appeared in the Nintendo DS version of War for Cybertron, but are probably more well known for being the alt-modes of the partners of Fall of Cybertron Soundwave and Blaster from the Generations toyline. I'm not sure if "lexi-film" are from something. Megatron's C/R bath was seen in the Beast Wars episode "Feral Scream Part 1"; the yellow shape Cryotek spots is Megatron's rubber ducky, seen several times throughout the cartoon, including in that episode. The Maximal Darksyder that comes across Cryotek and the others is Gredator. Part of the fifth wave of "Micron Boosters" in Japan, he was a Maximal-aligned Mini-Con wolf redecoed from Classics Overbite, a bot in tune with nature. 

The "statues" are the Dropkick drones seen at the Iacon Dynamic Energon Distilleries facility back in "Identity Politics", who were reprogrammed by Megatron and Scorponok during the end of Megatron's time as administrator of the facility. They were originally mentioned as being Quintesson-manufactured Terrorbot drones back in "Burning Bridges". Megatron's comment about Cryotek not actually caring about Unicron again lampshades how Cryotek's profile called him a Minion of Unicron, despite the comic showing he didn't believe in the Chaos Bringer. "Keys" are Cyber Planet Keys, a form of currency mentioned in several stories now. While they're named after the objects from Cybertron, they're based in appearance on the collector's coins from the Hasbro Asia releases of the Masterpiece figures. Ironhide keys, worth 1 CPK, are based on the collector's coin for Masterpiece MP-27 Ironhide, obviously enough. The Predacon Psychobat is a continuity import of a Decepticon Mini-Con from the Adventure toyline (the Japanese version of the 2015 Robots in Disguise series). A redeco of Robots in Disguise Ratbat, he transformed from a robotic bat to a torpedo; presumably this Pyschobat has a humanoid robot mode instead. Mnemosurgery is a practice introduced in IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye series, in which a Transformer enters another's mind and alters their memories, though patterns, and so on. Twitcher is also a continuity import; in his case, he's based on the Decepticon Real Gear Robot Twitcher F451 from the 2007 live-action Transformers movie toyline. A redeco of High Score 100, he turned into a video game controller, similar in appearance to that of the Xbox 360, hence his profession in Simultronic games. Simultronics were a virtual reality-based drug introduced in IDW's Spotlight: Blurr; given Twitcher's name, it seems likely that it's also referencing the video game live-streaming platform Twitch.tv.

The section breaks this time around are in Predacon Cybertronix (one of the fonts created for the Beast Wars cartoon by Mainframe Entertainment), and when put together make up the prologue of Nucleon's book, A Brush With Infamy, which we'll get to later.

Section 2: Scorponok was shown to be Megatron's right-hand man in "Identity Politics", with Terrorsaur betraying Thunderhoof and joining the Darksyders in the same story. Vos and Tarn were first seen in the Marvel UK prose story "State Games" from the Transformers Annual 1986. Durax was first mentioned in the third, Shattered Glass-themed installment of the Club magazine's Around Cybertron comic strip. Hexima was first mentioned as "Hexima State" in the 2007 live-action Transformers movie's tie-in Risk board game. The Darksyders insignia is based on the Tyrant Spear, which Megatron was shown stealing from Double Punch in "Identity Politics"; named for the weapon of Super-God Masterforce BlackZarak, it's based on the weapon of Megatron's BotCon 2016 toy, itself reused from the 2001 Robots in Disguise Megatron/Galvatron mold.

Megatron has set up a mental simulation of his Decepticon namesake. In the Beast Wars cartoon, Megatron placed the spark of the Decepticon leader in his body in the episode "Master Blaster", upgrading himself to his Transmetal 2 form, and it remained in there for the four final episodes of the series, being placed back inside the sleeping Decepticon Megatron offscreen in the final episode. Later, in the 2004 prose anthology book Transformers Legends, Simon Furman wrote the story "A Meeting of the Minds", in which the two Megatrons were shown to mentally communicate with one another, with the original serving as an advisor to the Predacon. Queen Rage (see previous annotations for more on her) took over Triax (a city introduced in IDW Publishing's Autocracy series) back in "Head Games", after the Game she was participating in was stopped when Lio Convoy assassinated Supersonic back in "Broken Windshields". The Pit is the Cybertronian version of hell, first mentioned in the Beast Wars cartoon. Perihex also comes from the Transformers edition of Risk, while the Plains of Toraxxis (or Toraxxis Plains) first appeared in IDW's Monstrosity series. Proximax was first seen in the Classics prose story "The New World". The Antares Eight are the Monster GoBots, relocated to this universe due to the Cataclysm affecting their home universe (a version of the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon), seen in the TransTech prose story "Withered Hope"; they've previously been either mentioned or seen in the stories "Broken Windshields", "Head Games", and "Micro-Aggressions". Their unusual tech has come from the GoBots universe; their name, meanwhile, comes from the fact that they were created to serve the Master Renegade on Antares III, as seen in "The GoBotron Saga" series of episodes. "Nuke" is short for nucleon, the substance that turned Transformers into Action Masters, as told on both the packaging of the final year of The Transformers toyline and the Marvel The Transformers comic. Syk was a circuit-booster first mentioned in the Marvel UK The Transformers comic issue #275. The 100-CPK Soundwave coin is based on the collector's coin for Masterpiece MP-13 Soundwave. 

The Maximal High Council and the Tripredacus Alliance both were seen as the governing body of their respective factions in the Beast Wars cartoon, though there the latter were known as the Tripredacus Council, based the three combining Predacons Cicadacon, Ram Horn, and Sea Clamp, who merged to form Tripredacus; the show also mentions a "Predacon Alliance," presumably meaning the concepts are being combined here. I believe the term "Predacolonial" was first mentioned in the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime, though I'm not sure if it predates that; it might be a typo for "Predaconial," an adjective first used in Beast Wars Stinkbomb's tech specs. Quadrant Rho takes its name from the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet; an area of Iacon with the same naming scheme, Quadrant Epsilon, was seen in the second and third volumes of Dreamwave Productions' Generation 1 comic. Iacon Stadium is described as being domed; the domed Iacon Autobot Base was seen in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, and the Great Dome is a location in Iacon in the Marvel UK The Transformers comics. Astro ticks were mentioned in Devil's Due Press' first G.I. Joe vs the Transformers mini-series. Radio Free Cybertron (named for both the Transformers fan podcast and the real-world Radio Free Europe) was first mentioned back in "Broken Windshields". 

Megatron's ant-droid farm was seen in "Identity Politics", having served as set-up for this story; antroids were first mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "More than Meets the Eye, Part 3". Razor-snakes, meanwhile, were mentioned in the tech specs of Beast Wars Spittor. Uridium was a mineral mentioned a few times in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a component used in Cardassian sensor arrays, possibly named for the 1986 Commodore 64 video game Uridium. Mechanimals is a term for Cybertronian animals that, I believe, comes from the Wings Universe stories.

Section 3: The Hydrax Plateau was introduced in DK Publishing's 2004 guidebook, Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, where it was noted to be Cybertron's primary spaceport location. Starsreach Spaceport was seen in the aforementioned Monstrosity series; its rendering here as "Starsreach Central Spaceport" evokes the likes of New York City's Grand Central Station, and also combines it with the Central Spaceport of Ibex, a quadrant of Cybertron (seen in issue #77 of the Marvel The Transformers comic), the Central Spaceport of Iacon (seen in Dreamwave Productions' The War Within mini-series and The Ultimate Guide), and the Central Spaceport of Cybertropolis (seen in Beast Machines). Packrat was a Maximal rat, a redeco of the original Beast Wars Rattrap figure, sold at BotCon 1997 alongside the Predacon Fractyl. He was characterized as a thief who wasn't trusted by the other Maximals, and previously showed up in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe as one of Cryotek's subordinates in "Alone Together". He was shown as a virtual retool of the Prime Decepticon Rumble toy, and is continued to be described as such in this story. 

The MFC is the Maximal Flying Corps, first mentioned in "Burning Bridges". The red-and-white Micromaster overseeing the Hydrax Spaceport, as mentioned later, is Airwave, from the 1989 range of figures in the original toyline. A redeco of fellow 1998 Micromaster Nightflight, he turned into an F-14 Tomcat, and came with the airport, one of four Micromaster Stations from the toyline, which transformed from airport to battle station. His Dreamwave More than Meets the Eye profile depicted him as a former airbase inspector who accepted bribes before the war, who later became an airbase commander for Megatron. Mechanometers were mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "City of Steel". Hadean was the star around which Cybertron orbited in Simon Furman's pseudo-canonical novella Alignment, which would later be canonized in The AllSpark Almanac II. The Badlands of Cybertron were introduced in the Reaching the Omega Point BotCon storyline from 3H Productions, going on to appear in a number of other continuities. A quadcorder is presumably like the tricorder, a hand-held object from Star Trek. The idea of a Transformer's vehicle mode headlights or other parts flashing to indicate talking has popped in a few series, perhaps most prominently in the Cybertron cartoon. We'll go over the tanker next section.

Section 4: The area of Stanix, the town of Yuss, and the military Fort Scyk were all introduced in the Marvel UK prose story "The Magnificent Six!", published in the Transformers Annual 1991. Powerhug was a Maximal from Beast Wars II; a redeco of the American Beast Wars Predacon Retrax, he turned into a pill bug, and was characterized as a friendly, somewhat clumsy martial artist. The first two aspects are played up by this story. The ICS is the Iacon Communication Service, introduced in IDW Publishing's Robots in Disguise ongoing. I dunno if The Bronze is a reference to anything. Triad was a card game from the rebooted 2003-2009 Battlestar Galactica television series; it previously showed up in this universe in "Intersectionality". The Liege card serves as a stand-in for one of the real-world playing cards above 10 (king, queen, or ace) and refers to the Liege Maximo, one of the Thirteen original Transformers and ancestor of the Decepticons from the Marvel Generation 2 comic, created by Simon Furman and Geoff Senior. Emirate is a title held by Transformers, the most famous of which is Marvel-original Emirate Xaaron, the Autobot resistance leader on Cybertron; here, it stands in for the jack card. The 5 CPK Shockwave coin is based on the coin for Masterpiece MP-29 Shockwave; the 25 CPK Starscream coin on the one for MP-11 Starscream; and the 50 CPK Prowl coin on the one for MP-17 Prowl. Subspace is a longstanding sci-fi concept; the idea of Transformers using it for storage comes from fan theories to explain strange scenes in the original comic and cartoon where weapons or other things like Optimus Prime's trailer would appear out of nowhere, later canonized in the Club's Cybertron and TransTech prose stories.

Section 5: The "Class" system for Maximals and Predacons had only previously been mentioned in "Broken Windshields". Nucleon was the Titan Master partner (an alternative form of Headmasters) of Titans Return Galvatron, forming his head. In this universe, he was Galvatron's Powermaster partner with an engine alternate mode, perhaps in reference to the fuel that shares his name that turns Cybertronians into Action Masters. Engex was a beverage first seen in the prose story "Bullets", from IDW Publishing's Last Stand of the Wreckers trade paperback. Doomshot was the Titan Master of Titans Return Megatron, who turned into his head. Clench, meanwhile, was the Mini-Con partner of Armada Galvatron, who turned into both a buggy and several gun modes for Galvatron to wield. Presumably, the Generation 1 European-exclusive Decepticon Clench is called by his Generation 2 name, Colossus. The Cybertronix sections will hint at who the other Triple-Threat Master was. Galvatron's status in the end days of the war, and his death, were previously detailed in "Micro-Aggressions"; the Great Push was mentioned in passing in the Cybertronix sections for that story, then named in "Intersectionality". The "precursor uprisings" are the initial resistance movements seen in the Beast Wars: Uprising stories from before the prose stories; Cheetor's group, mentioned in Blackarachnia's profile in issue #25 of the Club magazine, and Rattrap and Botanica's group from "Alone Together". The Targetmaster Extirpation, in which all Targetmaster partners were betrayed and killed, was mentioned first in "Burning Bridges", and was a major plot point of "Trigger Warnings".

The middle paragraph on page 11 accidentally repeats. Here is the second Galavatron, the original reborn when the Micromaster Cop-Tur was corrupted by the G-Virus, the essence of Galvatron in a viral form, in "Micro-Aggressions"; he's this universe's version of Beast Wars II Galvatron. Krunix previously showed up as the bartender of the Scourge of Athenia in "Identity Politics"; he's a fair bit convoluted in origin. In issue #2 of Marvel's Headmasters mini-series, the Decepticon Cyclonus was supposed to show up a few scenes, but artist Frank Springer accidentally drew Cyclonus' Targetmaster partner Nightstick instead (further compounding the issue, the models for Nightstick and Fracas accidentally swapped their names around). When it came time for the series to be released in Marvel UK's version of The Transformers, audiences were already familiar with Cyclonus as a character, and so editorial swapped out Cyclonus name for a new one, creating the "character" of Krunix. Here, he's made the Headmaster partner of Scourge (calling back to the model swap of Nightstick and Fracas), and is repurposed from the Titans Return Fracas Titan Master toy, which formed the head of that line's Scourge. 

On the bottom of page 11, we have an illustration from Christopher Colgin, standing at the entrance of The Bronze. His cloak is reminiscent of the one worn by Dark of the Moon Megatron. On the right side of the wall is some graffiti in Predacon Cybertronix, which reads "RIBFIR," in reference to the long-standing fan argument about the Decepticon cassettes Rumble and Frenzy; the two were supposed to be colored red and blue, respectively, and were in all classic media, except for the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, where Rumble was blue and Frenzy was red. In the background, we can just barely see the Cybertronian lamppost alt-mode Soundwave had in the first episode of The Transformers. In the sky are two constellations from the Cybertronian zodiac, introduced in The AllSpark Almanac II; the Void (the nothingness left behind by Unicron when he consumes a universe, seen in issue #74 of the Marvel The Transformers comic) and the Golden Disk (the relic from the Beast Wars cartoon, which was the Golden Record onboard the 1977 Voyager spacecraft, which was recovered by the original Megatron and altered to contain a hidden message from him to his descendants). 

Section 6: Cancix was one of the Covenant, prototypical Transformers created by Primus on the moon Protos in the BotCon Reaching the Omega Point storyline, created by Simon Furman. The Covenant were Zodiac-themed, with Cancix based on the crab constellation of Cancer; this Cancix is a Maximal, albeit a bit of an older one, and is established to be female. The Arclight was an Autobot ship from the short-lived MOTA game Transformers Universe, where it was destroyed when heading to Earth to gather stockpiles of energon. The Alchemor, meanwhile, was the Autobot prison ship from which the majority of the Decepticons in the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon escaped from, having been stored in stasis pods onboard. The Rust Sea was originally mentioned in the letters page of issue #162 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic.

Section 7: Overbite is based on the 2003 Universe version of the character, a Decepticon cyborg shark sold in a two-pack with the Autobot Repugnus as a Target exclusive. He was a redeco of Beast Wars II Hellscream, who was in turn a heavy retool of Beast Wars Cybershark. The Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime established that the Overbite that fought in the Universe War was the Seacon original upgraded into a Predacon; here, they're made distinct characters, with the Seacon presumably having a different name. Oxide sharks were mentioned in the Hunt for the Decepticons Toys R Us-exclusive release of the Legends-class Constructicon Devastator, their sickly green colors the inspiration for his Generation 1-style color scheme. "Suitable alt-mode detected" is paraphrased from the statement made by the stasis pod A.I. after its DNA scanner picked up something in the Beast Wars cartoon, "suitable lifeform detected."  Calling out "alt-mode" in turn references the Maximals and Predacons shouting "beast mode" to transform. Overbite and the other initial test subjects were used due to their misshapen beast modes.

Section 8: We'll learn who test subjects two and three are later. Test subject four is Max-B. The original Max-B started out life as the Predacon BB in Beast Wars II. A redeco of Generation 2 Dreadwing, he turned into a tank and a stealth bomber, and was a simplistic fellow who almost never said anything aside from the word "roger." His partner, Starscream (a redeco of Generation 2 Smokescreen; in reality, the two were more slight redecoes of the limited release Generation 2 ATB Megatron and Starscream toys), could link up with him in vehicle mode, forming the super jet Formation Scream. Later, the pair were mutated by the power of Angolmois Energy: Starscream became the aforementioned Hellscream, while BB became Max-B, a heavy retool of Beast Wars K-9, transforming into a cyborg wolf. BB/Max-B was male in his original depictions, but here she's female, a prisoner forced to try and upgrade, as the next passage reveals. Her attempted beast mode, a wirewolf, takes its name from both the prehistoric dire wolf and the trademark friendly name for the Titans Return toy of Weirdwolf, Wolfwire. Cybertronix as a spoken language wasn't established until the TransTech prose story "Withered Hope". CNA, the genetic material of Cybertronians, was first named as such in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Arcee, but it first appeared as a concept in Marvel's Generation 2 comic.

Section 9: The PSP agent isn't actually named in this section, but for simplicity's sake, he's Paralon. A continuity import of a Decepticon from the 2015 Robots in Disguise series, Paralon was a retool of the line's Scorponok figure, turning into a scorpion. While his head in the cartoon was a fairly generic one, his toy's headsculpt was based on Beast Wars Scorponok. 

Section 10: Mech-fluid is essentially Cybertronian blood, first mentioned in the Beast Wars cartoon. The laser core is a part of Cybertronian anatomy mentioned several times in the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, the life force of a Cybertronian; later fiction, including the bio of Beast Machines Mechatron and the pack-in Binaltech fiction, would connect the laser core with the analogous concepts of the spark. We'll get to Leatherhide when he actually shows up.

Section 11: The Toxic Sludge Swamps were first mentioned in the Tech Specs of the 1988 Seacon leader, Snaptrap. Hyperious, meanwhile, was first mentioned in the Wings Universe prose story "Flames of Yesterday". Irillium was a mineral mentioned in the original Star Trek series. An energo machete is presumably like the energo-swords wielded by most of the original Dinobots. The fruit Terrorsaur finds is the hallucinogenic kind found by the Maximals in the Beast Machines episode "Forbidden Fruit". Darksteel is a continuity import of the Prime Predacon, an easily amused individual. Appearing alongside Skylynx in the Predacons Rising movie finale, Darksteel was a redeco of the toyline-only Predacon Grimwing, turning into an ursagryph (a bear/falcon hybrid); here, he's depicted as something of a hillbilly with a hovercraft alt-mode. Cyberflies were mentioned in the bio of the Target-exclusive version of the 2007 Transformers live-action movie Autobot Jazz toy in Generation 1 colors. Electro-toads were mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Atlantis, Arise!" Tesla-trees were plant-like lifeforms seen in the 1989 science fiction novel Hyperion, by Dan Simmons.

Slicers were razor-sharp, primitive Cybertronians, first mentioned as inhabiting the Toxic Sludge Swamps in the prose story "Zero Point (from IDW Publishing's Last Stand of the Wreckers hardcover collection), before appearing on-panel in IDW's Spotlight: Orion Pax; they were created by James Roberts and Steve Kurth. While in IDW's fiction they were naturally-occurring Cybertronians without alternate-modes, here they are creations of Leatherhide, mechanimal-Transformer hybrids with rudimentary flight-mode configurations. Another mention of vehicle-mode parts flashing to indicate a Transformer is talking. Meshsteel is a fairly generic term, but the 2013 "Aligned" continuity guidebook The Covenant of Primus mentioned that the Arachnicon Transformer, Dr Cogwheel, had the ability to produce meshsteel webbing.

Now, as to Leatherhide: in 2004, prototype test-shots on eBay, combined with a listing on Hasbro's website, revealed the existence of two "Halloween Horrorcon Value Packs" that were intended as Wal-Mart exclusives for the Universe toyline, which wound up being cancelled. There was Leatherhide vs. Blackarachnia and Nightprowler versus Waspinator; Blackarachnia and Waspinator were redecoes of their old Beast Wars toys (specifically, Blackarachnia's original toy and Waspinator's Transmetal toy, respectively), while Leatherhide and Nightprowler were all new characters. Leatherhide was a redeco of the Beast Wars Mutant Soundwave, transforming from bat to alligator, while Nightprowler was a redeco of Beast Wars Cheetor, turning into a snow leopard. The toys never wound up being released. Later, in 2010 Leatherhide and Nightprowler were mentioned as being members of the Combatibots, a renegade group of Autobots. The other members included Screechwing and Spiketail (unreleased redecoes of Beast Wars Sonar and Stinkbomb solicited for the Beast Machines toyline on BigBadToyStore, but which never even saw stock photos released) and Albitron (an all-white redeco of the Beast Wars Basic class alligator Megatron, intended as an exclusive for Men in Black's unofficial 1997 Transcon2 convention, cancelled due to them not receiving proper permission from Hasbro), and combined to form Toxitron (named for the unreleased redeco of Generation 2 Laser Optimus Prime from the Universe toyline). Their story would be reiterated in the Ask Vector Prime Facebook page, describing how they were a group of Autobots who specialized in stealth and guerilla warfare, only to be corrupted by their experiences and forgoing any moral code; you can read Chris McFeely's annotations on The AllSpark Almanac II and my own annotations for more on them. Leatherhide being a biologist comes from his TransTech counterpart, mentioned on the Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News Reporter Facebook page. Alloygators were first mentioned in the BotCon 2007 Classics comic "Games of Deception", while bolt-bats were first mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "S.O.S. Dinobots". Leatherhide (and Soundwave, by extension) had a hidden robot head in his bat modes mouth, which represented the original robot mode head for Soundwave; the same is true for Leatherhide here.

On the top of page 20, we have an illustration from Christopher Colgin of Leatherhide erupting from the Toxic Sludge Swamps. Colgin's interpretation is monstrous, with robot mode parts (a hidden feature on Soundwave/Leatherhide's toy, revealed by opening his bat mode's chest panel) showing through the "skin" of Leatherhide's form. On his chest, the unique Mutant insignia (molded on the original toy) obscures his faded Autobot symbol. The "Horrorcon" versions of Waspinator and Blackarachnia are visible in the background, representing mechanimals. Also visible are the three proposed "Vintage Horror Movie Series" toys, unproduced Transformer versions Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Fly, from 1931's Dracula, 1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon, and 1958's The Fly, respectively. Proposed for the original The Transformers toyline, the toys never made it past the concept art stage, only being revealed in the 2004 guidebook Transformers Generations Deluxe. They are also representing mechanimals: Dracula in his bat mode, the Creature in his coelacanth mode, and the Fly in his...well, his fly mode. We also get to see what a tesla-tree looks like: a mechanical tree, naturally enough.

Section 12: Nothing of any real note here, except for the fact that the original Megatron is mentioned to have died "centuries ago," clearly ignoring the attempt at an origin from "A Change to the Agenda", which you can read more about in previous annotations.

Section 13: Duraglass is a material from Star Trek, first mentioned in a deleted scene for the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Labrat is an all-new character here, created by Jim Sorenson, Dave Bishop, and Christopher Colgin; we'll go into more detail for him in a bit. The Ratchet Memorial Hospital reintroduces a trend of naming places on Cybertron after figures from the Great War in Beast Wars: Uprising, previously seen in "Broken Windshields" with the Cyclonus Memorial Tower. The Destron Boys were a gang mentioned in the TransTech prose story "Gone Too Far"; they were established in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe in "Identity Politics". They're led by a Predacon named Brimstone; the original Brimstone was a Decepticon Pteranodon. A robot with the same name would appear as a Star Seeker pirate in the "Aligned" continuity Exiles novel, and the two would be combined together for a Wings Universe version of the character, a redeco of Generations Fall of Cybertron Air Raid sold at BotCon 2014, which this character is a version of. "Solving that puzzle" is a bit of a clue about Labrat's physical appearance, which we'll get to. The mission Packrat's on was supposed to be the one seen in the next story, "Cultural Appropriation", but the timing in the stories doesn't quite work. We'll get to Bisk in a second; a "quest" in video game terms usually refers to a task in role-playing games or massively multiplayer online games that a player completes to gain some form of reward.

Section 14: Bisk is another continuity import of a 2015 Robots in Disguise Decepticon as a Predacon. Bisk transformed from a humanoid lobster robot form to a sports car and was a stereotypical gamer who treated life as one big video game, which translates here. The sections told from Bisk's point of view are full of gaming terms, something which Jim Sorenson's friend and Dungeons & Dragons teammate, Rob Pennington, helped with. Monxo and his bar, The Way of All Things, showed up back in "Trigger Warnings". PVP stands for "player versus player," gameplay in MMOs and the like where gamers fight against each other, rather than computer-controlled enemies; a PVP free zone is an area where no fighting occurs. An NPC is a "non-player character," a term originally used for characters in a tabletop RPG that weren't controlled by the players but has since gone on to refer to characters in video games controlled by the computer, whom the player interacts with. The Master Wars were a series of conflicts brought up several times as background information in the Super-God Masterforce cartoon, where the Autobots and Decepticons fought in space, using the super-science of Cybertronian colony Master, home of the Headmasters and Targetmasters; obviously, Monxo was involved in the version of that war in this universe as a Headmaster, and it will be described further in the Cybertronix sections. "Gank" in video game terms is short for "gang kill," where a group of players will team up and attack a less experienced one, stealing their items and loot.

Waspinator makes his Beast Wars: Uprising debut here, still a loser with odd speech patterns. He's simply known as "Wasp" for now; Animated Waspinator began life as an Autobot named Wasp, who was falsely accused of being a Decepticon spy. The name would then be used as Waspinator's pre-Earth name for his Hall of Fame 2011 online bio. "Logging into the bar channel" simply means Wasp walked in the door. "Mob," short for "mobile object," is a term roughly equivalent to NPC, usually used for enemies, but not always; the term was first used in its long form by Richard Bartle in the 1978 virtual world game, MUD1, being shortened later on by other games like DikuMUD and EverQuest. "PC" stands for "player character." "Toon" is another term for a gamer's avatar, which goes back to the days of pen and paper gaming but is perhaps best associated with World of Warcraft. "Metalore" is essentially backstory for a game, information that provides story material but doesn't affect gameplay. A "clan" is an organized community of gamers in a multiplayer game, which can range from a friend group to full-on organizations competing against one another. A quest giver is an NPC who specifically provides missions for a player character to go on. A "boss" in video game is a computer-controlled enemy, stronger than the standard ones, who usually appears at the end of levels. The term has a complicated etymology, potentially coming from the "crime boss" of a criminal gang, or Chinese American actor and martial artist Bruce Lee's Hong Kong movies, like 1971's The Big Boss and 1972's Game of Death, or the final enemy in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign; the first video game to feature what would be called a "boss fight" was 1975's dungeon-crawler dnd. Leveling is a concept in RPGs, where a character gains more skill and experience the more they play. "Noob" is internet slang for "newbie," inexperienced players. An "avatar" is a gamer's appearance; the term comes from Hinduism, where it described a form taken by a deity when interacting with terrestrial beings. The term would see some use throughout the 1980s in gaming, like 1979's Avatar, 1985's Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, 1986's Habitat, and 1989's Shadowrun, before being popularized by writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 cyberpunk novel, Snow Crash. "Buzz bot" might be a reference to Buzzer-Bot, a Go-Bot from Playskool's Go-Bots series visually based on Waspinator. 

Section 15: The bit about the tower feels like a reference to "levels" in gaming. "PM" is short for "private message." In video games, usually only specific parts of an environment can be interacted with, the rest just being part of the background models. "Dev" is short for "developer." Bisk's processor interprets Megatron's sentences, highlighting specific words, much like a game would for instructions on a task, such as with Grand Theft Auto. Dialogue trees are common in role-playing games like Mass Effect, which notably features romance options for various characters throughout the series. "Consumables" are items in game that are usually used once on the player, like health kits or food. Dungeon crawls are games in which the player must go through a labyrinth-like environment, fighting enemies and gaining collectables along the way, ala Dungeons & Dragons; the first dungeon crawler video game was 1975's pedit5, AKA The Dungeon. 

Section 16: Nova Cronum was introduced in Dreamwave Productions' The Dark Ages mini-series; it was established to be a philosophical haven in The Ultimate Guide and was shown to be where Boltax would meet with his colleagues in IDW Publishing's Regeneration One, in order to create the Underbase. Class trainers are NPCs in World of Warcraft who are able to train players in various skills and abilities. "Despawning" is the removal of various objects or enemies in a video game, usually following destruction or defeat. The Grand Mal was a giant floating fortress from Beast Machines, which the spark of Megatron inhabited as a body, which a stylized depiction of Megatron's original robot mode head. Able to transform into a spaceship form, with a robot mode hinted at but never shown, the fortress' name (not mentioned in the show itself, but in the episode scripts) comes from a type of seizure, and is French for "great pain." Humanity was first hinted to have contained the Cybertronians back in "Broken Windshields", before going into greater detail on that in "Micro-Aggressions". A gaming server is a private part of a larger game, where the actions of players don't affect other servers. Thunderwing was the Decepticon Mega Pretender of 1989, with both his robot form and his Pretender shell transforming into spacecraft. His depiction here combines several characterizations he's had over the years: in the Marvel The Transformers comic, he was the leader of the Decepticons on Cybertron, obsessed with hunting down the Creation Matrix and gaining its power, while in IDW Publishing's Stormbringer mini-series, he was a scientist whose experiments with Pretender technology turned him into an insane monster, with both Autobots and Decepticons aligning together to try and stop him, rendering Cybertron a lifeless husk. Both Thunderwing and the Grand Mal were previously mentioned in "Trigger Warnings".

The phrase "great Decepticon general" calls to mind the Nine Great Demon Generals from Zone, powerful Decepticons recruited by the monstrous Violen Jiger. Cybertron was first shown to have moons in The Transformers: The Movie in 1986 with Moonbase One and Moonbase Two (specifically referenced before in "Burning Bridges"): various stories over the years have added both a third and fourth moon. Artemis (which "Derailment" will reveal to be an alternate name for Moonbase Two) takes its name from the Greek goddess of the Moon, along with the hunt, wild animals, and the wilderness, among other things. The name was previously used for a gynoid living on the moon of Gaia in Beast Wars II. Boltax and the Underbase first debuted in issue #48 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. Boltax was an ancient neutral Transformer who collected the knowledge of the Cybertronian race, so dedicated to his task that he abandoned his body long ago, placing his lifeforce in his Temple of Knowledge, and animating a robotic puppet to interact with others. Boltax was created by Bob Budiansky and José Delbo, named after Budiansky's real-life friend Janet Boltax; Boltax's servants, the Disciples of Boltax, had their named used for Jim Sorenson's blog. Boltax created a database that contained the combined knowledge of the Cybertronian race: a massive structure seemingly made of light, which was so powerful that those exposed to it would be either given cosmic power, go insane, or be destroyed. It served as the underlying element of the "Underbase Saga" from issues #47 to #50, eventually ending with Starscream briefly gaining its power and destroying many Autobots and Decepticons (mostly those whose toys were no longer sold), before being destroyed himself.

"Realm unique" means an item found in only one specific point in a game; a drop is any items left behind by both PCs and NPCs upon their death; Boltax was killed in the comic when Optimus Prime launched the Underbase into space, destroying the Temple of Knowledge in the process. Thunderwing was served in the Marvel comic by the Mayhem Attack Squad (composed of Pretenders Bludgeon, Octopunch, and Stranglehold), and his four personal soldiers, Targetmasters Needlenose and Spinister and Triggercons Ruckus and Windsweeper. In 2016, the Transformers Collectors' Club Transformers Figure Subscription Service Series 4.0 featured a new Mayhem Attack Squad made from various Combiner Wars toys. The team was comprised of Bludgeon, Needlenose, Ruckus, Spinister, and Windsweeper, who combined to form Thunder Mayhem, a gestalt fueled by Thunderwing's spark contained in the Matrix of Malice, something nodded to here with the "much mayhem ensued" line. Their story was told in the Of Masters and Mayhem comic that ran in 2016's run of Collector's Club magazines, along with prose stories that focused on the Wreckers' side of things, after Thunder Mayhem destroyed Cybertron, similarly bringing the Autobots and Decepticons together. Thunderwing's spark was mutated in Of Masters and Mayhem, turning him into a Point One Percenter; it's also similar to Megatron's attempt to absorb Cybertron's sparks into his own, as seen in the second season of Beast Machines, where he was using the Grand Mal as a body. There's no specific thing going on with the Grand Mal being based on Thunderwing's head; the fortress is just vaguely similar to Thunderwing's Pretender shell head.

The Wreckers were a group of highly-trained Autobot commandos from Marvel UK's The Transformers comic, created by Simon Furman and debuting in issue #78 of the series. They've gone on to appear in other series; in Of Masters and Mayhem, they were gathered to get revenge on the Mayhem Attack Squad, turning into the Combiner Wreckage (initially formed up of Toxitron, Counterpunch, Fractyl, Alpha Bravo, and Offroad, with the latter two later replaced by Impactor and Bluestreak); in Beast Wars: Uprising, they were much less successful. A "module" in Dungeons & Dragons is a specific adventure, usually following a basic storyline. "TPK" stands for "total party kill," a Dungeons & Dragons term. The description of the gouged-out moon matches the depiction of Cybertron's moon in Beast Machines, there hinted to be the result of Unicron's attack on Cybertron. "Exploits" and "backdoors" are hacking terms in video games; a "GM area" is another World of Warcraft term, an area where only "Game Masters" (employees of the publisher Blizzard Entertainment) are allowed. "Boosting stats" is another leveling term. "Cross-faction" means a mission where players of different factions can accomplish the same goal; a "Raid Finder" in World of Warcraft is a UI element that lets a player locate and join "raid" missions. A meta-guild is an overarching faction made of multiple smaller guilds.  Like at the end of Beast Machines, the Grand Mal lies crashed on Cybertron's surface.

Grinding in video games involves performing repetitive tasks for gameplay advantages, loot, or some other reason, while fragging is a term for killing enemies in first person shooters like Doom or Halo. Mutants are subterranean inhabitants of Cybertron, unable to transform but with unusual bodies and abilities, seen in issue #245 of Marvel UK's The Transformers, and created by Simon Furman and Jeff Anderson. Energy leeches were originally seen on Chaar in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2"; the animation models would be re-used for similar creatures in The Headmasters episode "Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime" found in Cybertron's subterranean tunnels, and are confirmed to be the same species here. Hydro-weasels were mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Atlantis, Arise!". A raiding party is obvious enough, probably. Dungeon levels are another World of Warcraft thing, tying in with dungeon crawls. A large number of enemy NPCs is called a "swarm." Balance in game design is the process by which a game, either manually by the programmers or by an in-built algorithm, is adjusted to make a game for the players; something that isn't really possible in the real-world, not that Bisk knows. Bisk's use of a metal crate to hide himself is a homage to Konami's Metal Gear series, where protagonist Solid Snake will hide himself under cardboard boxes to avoid detection in stealth missions. Sector 77-B miiiiight be a reference to the 2016 anime Danganrompa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, where the protagonists are Class 77-B of the titular school, given that it's based on the Danganrompa games; the anime had just concluded a few months prior to the story being finished, so it's certainly possible. A "scripted sequence" in a game is where a player still has partial control, but is also interacting with a specific moment that plays out according to script, seen in games like Half-Life or Call of Duty. Room B appears to be the location where Megatron's collection of sparks was placed aboard the Grand Mal in Beast Machines, based on its description. A cutscene is a moment in a game that provides a bit of story, where the player can't do anything but watch.

Section 17: Galva Convoy was first set up in "Broken Windshields", with Eject, Lio Convoy's former mentor and parental figure, mentioning the "Galva Contingency" and revealing he had a copy of Lio Convoy's CNA, with the life-giving Terran-created energon matrix encoded in the genetic sequence. Eject later went to obtain a sample the G-Virus in "Micro-Aggressions", still early on in the war; now, four years later, Galva Convoy has been alive for only a few months. Galva Convoy himself is a homage to a special "Lucky Draw" version of Beast Wars II Lio Convoy called "Galvatron Color Lio Convoy," which was obviously enough Lio Convoy in his Predacon counterpart Galvatron's colors. He was released as the Customization Class figure at BotCon 2016, a redeco of the Club's Lio Convoy figure, who was himself a retool of Generations Thrilling 30 Orion Pax. Eject has a bunch of sports idioms that should be obvious enough in his dialog. Decanting is a cloning process from writer Aldous Huxley's 1932 dystopian novel, Brave New World. The initial entity that Galva Convoy linked to is heavily hinted to be Unicron, his influence felt in his original reformatting of Megatron into Galvatron. Galva Convoy's aborted idea of the Terrorcon proto-race homages both the Energon Terrorcons, animalistic Transformers who, in the cartoon, were the dead inhabitants of Alpha Quintesson's homeworld brought to life once more as drones, and the Prime Terrorcons, zombie Transformers brought back to life via dark energon, Unicron's lifeblood. The outside influence on Galva Convoy isn't explicitly identified, but the fact that it is disembodied, is controlling machines, and wants to destroy all Transformers should hint at who it is...

In the Prime cartoon, Unicron was shown to possess an anti-spark, with the Terrorcons of that series powered by it. The line about Galva Convoy's Galva Matrix homages a few evil Matrices throughout the franchise's history. The Anti-Matrix was the name given to the Matrix of Conquest from 3H Productions' Reaching the Omega Point storyline in IDW Publishing's Beast Wars: The Ascending mini-series; Galva Convoy's toy came with an accessory of the Anti-Matrix/Matrix of Conquest made by Japanese fan Myu. The Dark Matrix was the name given to the corrupted entity born from the Creation Matrix in Marvel's The Transformers comic in IDW's Regeneration One. The Matrix of Malice, as mentioned, was the container for Thunderwing's corrupted spark in Of Masters and Mayhem. Finally, the Galva-Matrix was an orb within Beast Wars II Galvatron's chest, connecting him to his warship, the Nemesis. Vector Sigma and the Creation Matrix were the classic objects that brought Transformers to life in the original cartoon and comic, respectively; the idea of Transformers having to learn how to transform originates in the cartoon, but here it specifically feels like a callout to dialogue in the first episode of Beast Machines. "Transform and transcend" is one of the mantras of the Oracle from Beast Machines.

Section 18: The jingle that plays in Bisk's head is the original "item get" chime from the 1986 video game, The Legend of Zelda, of which Japanese video game developers Takashi Tezuka and Shigeru Miyamoto directed, produced, and designed. "Narrowbeam" is presumably like tightbeaming, a form of transmission in sci-fi.

Section 19: The other two victims of Megatron's experimentation are revealed here. Crow-con Boy is the Beast Wars: Uprising version of Crow Convoy, from the first chapter Beast Wars Neo manga. Created by Shōji Imaki, he was a Maximal commander with a crow alternate mode, who was stuck half-way between modes, hence him being picked here as a failed experiment. His altered name here (it would seem, given future stories, that they wanted to make Lio Convoy's name unique) is derived from the Hepburn romanization of his name: Kurō Konboi. Gnash, meanwhile, was one of the Raptoricons from the Of Masters and Mayhem story "Life Finds a Way"; here, she was a Predacon. Created by Matt Frank, she was a damaged as a Protoform, causing her robot form to be misshapen, and her beast mode to have exposed robotic parts; she was a simple but caring robot, with incredibly strength. Her name causes Megatron some minor consternation; as revealed in "Identity Politics", Megatron's original name was Gnashteeth, and his former mentor, Double Punch, called him by the nickname of "Gnash." Labrat's colors (white, orange, and blue) further hint to who he is, which we'll get to in the next section. The "Beast Wars" name is actually incorporated into the stories of Beast Wars: Uprising, at last. Now that the technology has been perfected, the scanner says "suitable lifeform detected," rather than "alt-mode." The description here matches the animation seen in the Beast Wars cartoon of how a protoform takes on a new shape. "Insecatron" doesn't appear to be a reference to anything, just a Transformerized version of "insect." Formikon is the Beast Wars: Uprising version of Beast Wars Inferno; due to the naming policy, the original Autobot firetruck Inferno keeps his name, so the Predacon fire ant instead uses his name from the Italian dub of the Beast Wars cartoon. "My queen" and "warrior of the colony" are all cribbed bits of dialog of Inferno from the cartoon. A lampshade is hung over Formikon's by Megatron's line "by the Inferno"; the aforementioned Pit was originally called the Inferno, before Inferno the character debuted in the show. "I like him" was Megatron's initial reaction to Inferno in the Beast Wars episode that introduced him, "Spider's Game".

Section 20: Scorponok's beast mode, an arachnotron, was previously mentioned in "Trigger Warnings", and was named after an enemy type from the 1994 video game Doom II. Scorponok's robot mode, as we see in the illustration, is not his original Beast Wars body, but rather his 1998 McDonald's Happy Meal Transmetal toy, due to its robotic alternate mode. Similarly, Terrorsaur's Beast Upgrade form is his non-show Transmetal body, with a secondary "VTOL" form.  Starscream and Shockwave's traitorousness is obvious; Ratbat, meanwhile, served as leader of the Decepticons on Earth towards the middle of the Marvel The Transformers comic. I've already gone into Thunderwing. Overlord was originally a Decepticon Godmaster from Super-God Masterforce; originally a lifeless Transtector piloted by husband and wife Giga and Mega, before being granted life of his own, he split into two vehicles (the Gigatank and the Megajet), and could also turn into a battle station. Him usurping the command of Megatron is inspired by his characterization in IDW Publishing's comics, where he wanted to face Megatron one on one, to prove he was more powerful than his commander. With Labrat's alternate mode revealed (a retrorat, mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episodes "Changing Gears" and "Microbots"), Labrat's finally had his appearance put into place: he's based on a special release of Transmetal Rattrap in the Beast Wars Metals toyline, one that came with a puzzle as an exclusive from Central Hobby. Megatron's Beast Upgrade form is his BotCon 2016 "Transmetal 3" toy; a redeco and retool of Robots in Disguise 2001 Megatron, it was originally proposed by 3H Productions for the OTFCC 2005 convention, but when they lost the license, the toy concept went unused, until it was brought into reality by Fun Publications for BotCon 2016. Here, the new body is described as a quad-changer, much like Optimal Optimus: with robot, two-headed dragon, jet, and car forms, dropping the bat and hand modes the toy also has. "OS" stands for "operating system." 

On page 30, we have a full-page illustration with line-art by Robby Musso and colors by Jesse Wittenrich. It depicts Megatron in his new form, as Terrorsaur, Scorponok, and Labrat watch in astonishment. In the background, you can spot Megatron's rubber ducky, seen briefly at the beginning of the story. Originally, this piece was also supposed to be done by Christopher Colgin, the artist for the rest of the story. Pete Sinclair, story editor for Fun Publications, was unsatisfied with the piece, and got Musso to do it instead, resulting in this story being delayed by a few months. It was reprinted one of four "mini-prints" sold with a set of sticker decals in the final days of the Collectors' Club, and would be included in Jim Sorenson's 2019 artbook, Transformers: A Visual History. "Consign you once again to oblivion" recalls Unicron's line to Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie, "proceed on your way to oblivion." In an inversion of the original Beast Wars cartoon two-part premier, it is Megatron who declares the Beast Wars, not Optimus Primal.

Before we get into the Cybertronix section, there is a profile for Labrat at the end, in the style of IDW Publishing Beast Wars Sourcebook profile books. The art of Labrat's robot mode was done by Robby Musso (pencils and inks) and Christopher Colgin (colors), while his retrorat and dragster forms had all the art done by Colgin. Another mention of the "Class" system from "Broken Windshields". As before, the bit about him working through problems "like a puzzle" is a nod to his origins. Sieg and Overdrive Edition Industries are a reference to the Armada Mini-Con Spiral. Leader of the Street Speed Mini-Con team with a Mercedes E-class luxury car mode, her Japanese name was Sieg, from a brand of tires Mercedes used. Originally released in blue, a special "Overdrive Edition" of her in gray was released as a giveaway at the World Hobby Fair in Japan in January/February of 2003. While Sieg's gender isn't explicitly given here, Colgin mentions that he intended for her to be female like Spiral. Altihex was a city introduced in Dreamwave Productions' The War Within mini-series. "Evolution Revolution" was a song performed by "JM" and produced by Saban Music for a promotional commercial for Beast Machines on Fox Kids. Durabyllium was originally mentioned in issue #19 of Marvel's The Transformers. Labrat is noted to have turned into a dragster before the Beast Upgrade; Colgin intended for him to be a "virtual retool" of Cybertron Brakedown. "h/mc" stands for "hics per megacycle," hics being a unit of measurement mentioned in the Marvel UK prose story "The Magnificent Six!" in the Transformers Annual 1991. Phlogiston was a proposed fire-like element from the 17th century, postulated to explain combustion, which has now been discarded; the tech specs of BotCon 2011's Animated Wildrider mentioned that he had a phlogiston-reactor flamethrower. Adamant crystal was a material mentioned in issue #15 of All Hail Megatron, itself named for an archaic form of diamond in classical mythology. 

Finally, the Cybertronix section in full translates to a little extra prose story:

*****

A Brush With Infamy—Prologue

“Guilty” rang out the verdict, with no hesitation from the Quintesson adjudicating the proceedings. Actually, thinking back, it was probably something more like “We the jury, under the auspices of the Pax Cybertronia and in consideration of all relevant facts, treaties, laws, and statutes, do find the defendants guilty on all counts.” Even then, I think Swindle managed to get us acquitted on some of the charges. But the message was clear. Galvatron and Scourge would follow Cyclonus into oblivion. Clench, Doomshot, Krunix, and I were to be incarcerated indefinitely. Fracas was remanded to the custody of his original partner, Artfire, to be extradited to… I never found out. Surely not Nebulos. Nightstick alone escaped justice, perhaps because of Cyclonus’ great sacrifice. He became the space pirate known only as The Nebulon. I like to think that he lived out his natural life this way, though it’s more likely the humans hunted him down like a slaarg. 

Of course, we all know what comes next: executions, the brief rise of Overlord, the horror of the Rending, and so on, right up until the dismal present with its Games and scattered infrequent Uprisings. But where did it start? One might be tempted to go back 7 million stellar cycles, to the founding of the colony that Galvatron would one day christen Master. Our ancestors named it Rebirth when we fled there, giving up their size and ability to transform to try to break the cycle of war. Worked for a while, until it didn’t, especially if you have a high tolerance for a stagnant bunch of oligarchs decreeing how you’ll spend your every waking cycle. 

Maybe one need go back a mere three centuries, to an organic world called Nebulos. Slag, we—by which I mean Decepticons, of which I technically hadn’t quite joined yet—sure did a number on that place. It started with a standard infiltration protocol, that insidious algorithm Shockwave developed when he got left in charge for a few epochs, but spun very quickly out of control. Sure, Zarak, the ‘Con sent to oversee things, managed to get the Hive nations at war with the World Watcher alliance. But then the humans came in their ships and mucked up the secret war. We forged a Hive alliance, and ‘Con tech played very nicely with theirs. Too nicely. Zarak and Fausto Borx, the warped genius driving the Hive’s biomech advances, performed hideous experiments on captured Autobots and WW members. The things they did to the Autobot clones… But regardless, they proved that a hybrid being could provide remarkable benefits to processing capabilities. Thus was the Headmaster program born. Suddenly, instead of Hive elite troopers like Spasma and Skytread riding Rarigo and Tankette mechs, they were binary bonded to Apeface and Flywheels. And Pit yeah, it made a difference having a dozen Headmasters on the battlefield. 

The Autobots followed suit, of course, with Muscles and Brawn volunteering to become the first Autobot Headmaster. Soon Furos, Stylor, Clobber, Xort, Zella, Firedrive, and others were using the same upgrade to form the heads of the Autobot commanders on the planet. To make things worse, Teslor and Arcana, the genius twins of the WW, soon expanded the process to include powerful weapons, and the Targetmasters were forged. For a time, warriors like Flintlock and Cybaxx and Spoilsport gave the Autobots the initiative. That is, until the heroes Fracas and Nightstick tricked their Autobot masters, Artfire and Stepper, by swapping armor and defecting to the Hive cause, bringing with them Targetmaster tech. 

The war was a bloody, carnage-strewn stalemate, until Fausto and Zarak changed the equation. Their genius created the first double-Headmaster, turning the entire city of Kinodia into… MegaZarak. Cerebros, who had bound himself to the human called Spike, responded in kind, and Fortress Maximus rose. Their battle shattered mountain ranges and scorched seas. Victory was nearly ours, but the Autobots used Fausto’s daughter, Llyra, the mate of one of their human allies, as a distraction. MegaZarak hesitated at a key nanoklik, and all was lost. In the end, Fausto was killed and we were driven from the husk of Nebulos, but the planet would never again support life. 

The humans declared enough. In their arrogance they overlooked their own role in the tragedy and demanded that Cybertronians never again spread their cancer beyond the worlds where they already held sway. They called it an Armistice, but the fighting continued, just… Contained. But Galvatron had tasted the power that was binary bonding, and his thirst would not be slaked. He conceived a new form of bondage, the Powermaster process, turning beings not into intellectual partners and sentient sidearms, but living batteries. There was only one problem… He had no more access to properly-sized organics. 

And thus did his gaze turn to our world. Autobots and Decepticons alike knew of our existence, but our ancestors’ gambit worked. We were too small, not versatile enough, not industrialized enough to be worth bringing into the war. They were content to raid Paradron for its energon, Gigantion for its manufacturing, Omnitron for its soldiers, Opulus for its wealth. Us they left alone. But then Galvatron realized that the few paltry Headmasters and Targetmasters he had were not enough, not if he was to stand against the humans, who he had come to see as his real enemy. And there was a whole planet of us, ripe for exploitation. Or liberation, depending on one’s perspective. 

Which brings you to my story. Because when Galvatron came, I welcomed him as a savior. Our 7 million stellar cycle history had begun as an attempt to embrace peace, but it had slowly rotted from the inside out. At the top of society were the eternal triumvirate of Apex, Diac, and Hi-Q, who called themselves the Optimus after the infamous once-and-future Autobot commander; the rest of us lived to serve them. Some of us decided that there was more to life than being another bot’s lackey. Two visionaries, Doomshot and Clench, formed a society dedicated to peaceful protest of the policies of the oppressive Optimus. I might never have joined had not my conjunx, Kari, been unjustly imprisoned merely for voicing her dissent. Her passion fueled me, and my engineering acumen soon led me to become a ranking member. But the Optimus called us a disease upon the body politic, a Malignus, and drove us underground. We were pursued by the likes of Hunter and Daburu Leo and Silencer, and many of us perished… But this only fanned the flames of rebellion. 

Thus did Galvatron find us, and thus were we receptive to his message of throwing off shackles. It’s ironic, isn’t it? Ours is a history of oppressor and oppressed, changing places on a never-ending dance stretching back to time immemorial. Galvatron himself had never partaken in the binary bonding process; his distaste of organics was too great to ever allow that, even if both his top lieutenants had taken the Targetmaster upgrade. But we of Rebirth, of Master, we suited his proclivities just fine. To my pride, and shame, I perfected the Powermaster process, and adapted Head and Targetmasters to our unique Cyberbiology. I wouldn’t subject others to a process I wouldn’t try myself, and became the first Powermaster. Galvatron, ever shrewd, convinced the Malignus leadership to join with him, and thus did the first Triple-Threat Master come to be. And with our power, Galvatron was nigh-unstoppable, like unto a living god. I still remember the taste of that power. Part of me still yearns for it. We rampaged through the streets of Astrotopia, our capital, and imprisoned the Optimus. Optimus loyalists fled, and we Malignus and our supporters rejoiced. 

But where the Decepticons go, can the Autobots be far behind? They learned of the reversal of Rebirth, of how the Optimus were deposed, how the planet was rechristened Master, and they came. Of course, we had been busy. A new generation of Head, Target, and Powermasters were waiting for the Autobots. We slaughtered them, but they kept coming. They freed the surviving Optimus, and created their own new generation of Cyberdroid partners. Their leader took the sacrifice—for one cannot be long bound to three other egos and retain one’s spark integrity—and Triple-Threat Prime was born. His clashes with Galvatron shook the heavens, but were indecisive. 

Faced with the prospect of defeat, the Autobots dusted off Fortress Maximus himself, now bound to Daniel, son of Spike, but we were waiting. Zarak had found himself two new partners. Eschewing another scientist—he was confident in his own intellect, and wanted to avoid anyone with deep emotional attachments—he sought out a being of base cunning, and thus was his Headmaster partnership with Dante secured. And to further cement his superiority, he underwent the Powermaster upgrade with the steeetfighter Caliburn, to give him an edge in combat. When MegaZarak and Fortress Maximus clashed next, their penultimate battle, this time it was the Autobot who flinched. Perhaps he was hesitant to visit the destruction that had scoured Nebulos down on Master; perhaps he was simply outclassed. He was bested in space, and Master was Decepticon territory… For a time. But with the Autobots in retreat, Galvatron’s implacable hunger turned inevitably to the human blockade. 

Galvatron may have been insane—he wasn’t called The Mad Tyrant for nothing—but he was also terribly shrewd. He had seen firsthand the awesome and terrifying power wielded by the Terrans, and intuitively grasped that only a wholly unexpected vector of attack could succeed. (Having his intellect and ego co-mingled with myself and my compatriots also tempered him. There is no question that, when bonded, it was his will that propelled us. But Doomshot’s slowburning drive, Clench’s manipulative cynicism, and my own scientific perspective all combined to make him—to make us—truly a force unique in the cosmos. Gestalt technology seems so primitive, so crude, when compared to the elegant subtlety of bindary bonding.) It is clear, at least to me, that only Galvatron could have devised the stratagem that so nearly strangled the nascent Terran empire in its crib—the Grendel Gambit.

****

So, as mentioned, these are Nucleon's memoirs, filling in the backstory of events alluded to in "Head Games" and "Micro-Aggressions"; the Scouring of Nebulos, the Great Push, Galvatron's death, and so on. The Quintessons are obvious enough, though them serving as judges working with the human race is something a bit new; Jim Sorenson noted that in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe, humanity begrudgingly allows the Quintessons to continue to have relations with Cybertron, due to their shared history. The Pax Cybertronia was the peace accord dictating post-war Cybertron, first seen in the Beast Wars cartoon. Swindle being a lawyer is something so in-keeping with him that I'm surprised it hasn't come up until now. Galvatron's death was recounted in "Micro-Aggressions", Scourge's in "Identity Politics", and Cyclonus' death revealed with the aforementioned Cyclonus Memorial Tower in "Broken Windshields". The sacrifice Cyclonus made calls back to his honorable counterpart in IDW Publishing's comics who, during the "Chaos" storyline, turned against Galvatron to save Cybertron from the D-Void. We'll wait a bit to get into Fracas and Nightstick. Slaarg's are creatures that were mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers third season premier, "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1".

The mention of executions probably relates to the Targetmaster Extirpation, as detailed in "Trigger Warnings". Overlord was mentioned as briefly taking command of the Decepticons in the main story. This is the first mention of the Rending; we never quite figure out what it is, but to rend something is to tear it apart. Nucleon mentions "scattered Uprisings," again linking to the main story with the mention of "precursor Uprisings." Master was the planet to which the titular characters of The Headmasters cartoon fled to, small robots initially unable to Transformer, later given the name "Cyberdroids"; it's original name, Rebirth, homages the American version of the Headmasters, with it being named for the three-part finale of the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon that introduced them, "The Rebirth". In general, the Beast Wars: Uprising version of events will combine both American and Japanese backstories, along with the Sunbow and Marvel takes on Nebulos.

"Slag" as a swear was popularized by Beast Wars, though it was also seen variously in the original cartoon and comic. As mentioned in the main story, Shockwave had a brief tenure as Decepticon leader. The Decepticon infiltration protocol of warfare on other planets was introduced in IDW Publishing's first mini-series, Infiltration. Back in "Head Games", the cipher text in that story hinted at Scorponok's role in the Scouring of Nebulos. However, with the introduction of the Predacon Scorponok in "Identity Politics" as part of a mandate from editorial, that meant the Decepticon original had to be shifted around. So, like Scorponok in The Headmasters cartoon, Zarak (this universes version of the evil Nebulan Zarak, Scorponok's Headmaster partner) is the head component of the unliving MegaZarak, the Japanese name for Scorponok's large body, reflecting the relationship of the Sunbow version of Cerebros and Fortress Maximus. Fausto Borx, the stand-in for the Nebulan Zarak in this universe, is a version of Borx, a Nebulan scientist from IDW Publishing's Regeneration One series, created by Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman. His new first name, Fausto (calling to mind the first name of IDW Publishing's take on Zarak, Mo), is derived from the German legend of Faust. Based on the real-life 15th-century German alchemist and magician, Johann Georg Faust, and perhaps best known from the 18th-century play by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust was a successful but unhappy man, who sold his soul to the devil's representative, Mephistopheles, to gain newfound power, only to regret it at the end of his life, enslaved by the one who gave him his power in the first place. The Hive was the evil ruling faction of technocrats on Nebulos, atrophied and immobile but with great technological power, in Sunbow's The Transformers cartoon, while the World Watchers were the peacekeepers of Nebulos in Marvel's Headmasters mini-series. The depiction of Zarak and Borx working together on biomechanical experiments also homages IDW Publishing's version of Scorponok and Zarak, who were attempting to recreate the Headmaster process; as such, Headmaster technology is a Decepticon invention in this universe, rather than an Autobot one like in classic media. The Autobot clones, Cloudraker and Fastlane, were a pair of Autobots in the 1987 range of toys who had identical robot modes from the front, but turned into two different vehicles: a jet and a dragster. Apeface was one of the Decepticon Headmaster Horrorcons from 1987, turning into a jet and a gorilla. Flywheels, meanwhile, was one of the Duocons released that year, splitting into two alternate modes: an F-4 Phantom II and a tank. Spasma was Apeface's Headmaster partner. In classic media, Flywheels didn't actually have a partner; Skytread, introduced here as a separate character, is actually based on Flywheels' Titans Return toy, given a Titan Master form and a new, trademark-friendly name. Rarigo and Tankette were partner drones included with the Legends release of Weirdwolf and Hardhead, which shared molds with the vehicles of Titans Return Apeface and Skytread.

As with Flywheels, Brawn had a Titan Master toy in the Titans Return toyline, though he also had a version of his normal body released as a Legends class toy. The Titan Master is repurposed as a Nebulan named Muscles, a pre-production nickname for Brawn. From there, we have a number of Headmasters listed. Furos is Duros, the Headmaster partner of Autobot Cybertronian tank Hardhead; Furos is his trademark-friendly name from the Titans Return toyline, like Monxo before. Stylor is the Headmaster partner of Autobot Cybertronian car Stylor. Clobber was a Titan Master version of Dinobot leader Grimlock from Titans Return, here made his Headmaster partner. Gort was the Headmaster partner of Autobot Cybertronian helicopter Highbrow, again using the trademark friendly Titans Return name of Xort. Zella is the odd one out; he was Nebulos' Supreme Scientist seen in the story "The Fierce Fighting on Planet Nebulos", a comic promoting the United toyline in the Japanese guidebook Transformers Generation 2011 Vol. 2. Physically based in appearance on American theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, he was created by Simon Furman and Guido Guidi; it is unclear whose partner he would be. Firedrive was the Titan Master partner of Titans Return Autobot Hot Rod; he was a version of Hot Rod's original Targetmaster partner, Firebolt. Back in "Trigger Warnings", a Targetmaster named Offshoot, the name for Firebolt for the Hasbro release of Masterpiece Rodimus Prime, was mentioned; perhaps Hot Rod is a Double Targetmaster in this universe. Arcana was the Headmaster partner of Autobot spaceship Brainstorm, the creator of the binary bonding process in classic media. He was renamed Teslor for Brainstorm's Titan Returns toy; Teslor, in turn, is repurposed as Arcana's brother in this universe. Targetmaster technology being an Autobot invention was the way it was presented in the Marvel comic. Flintlock was one of the two Targetmaster partners of 1988 Autobot dump truck Landfill, transforming into a "heat-targeting stress pistol." Cybaxx was the little partner figure of Scrounge from the Combiner Wars Computron set, redecos and retools of Generations Thrilling 30 Payload and Autobot Cosmos, respectively. Cybaxx turns into a little spaceship and a gun; he was intended to be a new version of the aforementioned Boltax, as reflected in the Of Masters and Mayhem story "Lively Pursuit", but he's also made into his own character here. Spoilsport was the Targetmaster partner of Autobot buggy Sureshot, transforming into a twin laser cannon. Now, Fracas and Nightstick are a complicated case. In America, the 1986 Decepticon Jets Cyclonus and Scourge were re-released as Targetmasters. Cyclonus was paired with Nightstick, who turned into a "black-beam gun," while Scourge was partnered with Fracas, who turned into an "incendiary cannon." In Japan, however, neither 1986 Decepticon Jets nor the 1986 Autobot cars were released as Targetmasters in The Headmasters toyline. Instead, two new Autobot Targetmasters were created: Stepper (known later in Hasbro markets as "Ricochet"), a redeco and retool of 1984 Autobot Car Jazz, and Artfire, a redeco and retool of 1985 Autobot Car Inferno. The two were given Cyclonus and Scourge's Targetmaster partners, but with their names swapped around. Artfire was given Nightstick, known in Hasbro markets as Fracas, while Stepper was partnered with "Nebulon," the figure known as Nightstick in America, so named because Fracas was only referred to in Scourge's tech specs as "the Nebulan" (hence Nightstick's name as a space pirate, "the Nebulon"). The American and Japanese version are made into the same characters here, justifying their appearances by having them swap armor. 

Much of the next passage recounts in more detail the history of Cerebros, given previously in "Head Games". In classic media, Fortress Maximus was the only "double Headmaster," one whose Headmaster partner has a partner of his own. The idea of Scorponok/MegaZarak being built out of the Hive city was originally seen in "The Rebirth". I don't believe the city of Kinodia is a reference to anything. Spike is, of course, Spike Witwicky. Llyra was the daughter of Zarak from Marvel's Headmasters mini-series, where Zarak's love for her also caused him to conflict with Scorponok. She was created by Bob Budiansky and Frank Springer, and was previously hinted at being the wife of Daniel, Spike's son, in "Head Games". The Powermasters were introduced in the 1988 range of figures; transforming into small engines, they unlocked their larger partner's transformation, and were depicted in fiction serving as power sources for their partner. 

A few Cybertronian colonies are mentioned next. Paradron was the peaceful, energon-rich world to which many Cybertronians fled, seen in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode "Fight or Flee". Gigantion was one of the four colony worlds from Cybertron, home to gigantic Transformers who were constantly making their planet bigger. Omnitron is the home planet of the Omnicons from Energon; originally an unnamed planet seen in flashback in the episode "Survival Instincts", it was given a name by The AllSpark Almanac II. Finally, Opulus was the planet around which the Autobot Orbital Command Hub was stationed in IDW Publishing's Stormbringer mini-series. It's never had anything specific said about it in the past, so the idea of it being a planet of wealth likely derives from the word "opulent." 

The Optimus, the ruling faction of Rebirth, are both named for Optimus Prime, and for the heroic Optimus faction of The Transformers toyline as released by Estrela in Brazil, composed of the Mini-Vehicles Volks, Carrera, and Sedan. The Optimus of Beast Wars: Uprising are composed of characters connected to Optimus Prime in some way. Hi-Q (another Nebulan turned Cyberdroid) was the Powermaster partner of 1988's Powermaster Optimus Prime. He was later made into a Titan Master with the trademark--friendly name, Apex, in Titans Return, who's made into a separate character here. Finally, Diac was the Titan Master partner of the Voyager-class Titans Return Optimus Prime toy. Hi-Q and Apex were mentioned by Overrun back in "Trigger Warnings", the three being partners of Optimus Prime as a Triple-Threat Master, as insinuated later here; we'll learn Diac's fate in "Derailment". Optimus is mentioned as the "once-and-future-Autobot commander"; working with what "A Change to the Agenda" forced upon them, the stories by Jim and Dave generally imply that Prime did die, while Megatron didn't, and that Optimus would eventually return to life. It also homages the 1958 novel The Once and Future King, by English author T.H. White, about Arthurian legend. We've already gone over Doomshot and Clench. Kari is a Cyberdroid version of the Nebulan assistant to Hi-Q, seen in issue #42 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. Peaceful and unwilling to join the Transformers' war, she was created by Bob Budiansky and José Delbo. "Conjunx endura" is the Cybertronian equivalent of a significant other, introduced in IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye comic. The Malignus were the evil faction of the Brazilian toyline, composed of Mini-Vehicles Jipe, Pick-Up, and Camaro. Hunter is a Cyberdroid version of Hunter O'Nion, one of the original human allies of the Autobots in IDW Publishing's comic. Originally introduced in IDW's Infiltration mini-series and created by Simon Furman and E.J. Su, he later became the Headmaster partner to Sunstreaker, hence his inclusion here. Daburu Leo is an interesting case. Daburu was the Titan Master partner of Titans Return Autobot Twinferno. His physical appearance was molded after the Autobot-aligned cybernetic lion White Leo from Beastformers, Takara's version of Hasbro's Battle Beast, who showed up in The Headmasters cartoon; Daburu's name is the Japanese pronunciation of the English letter "W," for White Leo. The two are combined into a singular character: Daburu Leo. Finally, Silencer was the other Targetmaster partner of Landfill, turning into a "noiseless, recoilless proton rifle."

Cyberbiology is a term previously used in "Trigger Warnings", though I can't tell if it predates that in any Transformers fiction. Astrotopia, again, appears to be new.

"Reversal of Rebirth" calls to mind the Robotmasters Rebirth Megatron toy, a heavy retool of Generation 2 Hero Megatron, who had taken over the body of Autobot commander Reverse Convoy. Note how "Triple-Threat Prime" is never referred to by his true name.

By the time of their battles on Master, Cerebros has now binary-bonded with Daniel Witwicky. "Head Games" noted that he would have one more partner: Daniel and Llyra's son, Galen Witwicky, named for Galen, the original Headmaster partner of Fortress Maximus in Marvel's comics. Zarak has a new Headmaster partner, as well as a Powermaster one. Dante is a Cyberdroid version of Abraham Dante, human businessman and head of the shadowy organization known as the Machination who became Scorponok's Headmaster partner in IDW Publishing's comics, who first appeared in the Infiltration mini-series and was created by Simon Furman and E.J. Su. Caliburn, meanwhile, was the Micromaster partner of OTFCC 2004 exclusive MegaZarak, a redeco of Armada Megatron named for the Japanese version of Scorponok. A redeco of Megatron's Mini-Con partner Leader-1, Caliburn turned into a small combat buggy and could be weld by Megazarak as a gun, but it is his origins as a Mini-Con redeco that see him used here as a power-enhancing Powermaster. The two were previously mentioned in the cipher text of "Broken Windshields" as modern-day sports players (Dante in volleyblast and Caliburn in boxing), and had a connection mentioned in the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime. As "Derailment" would reveal, Dante would not be Zarak's final Headmaster partner.

Clench's personality (manipulative and cynical) follows on from the Armada character's portrayal in the Dreamwave Productions More than Meets the Eye: Transformers Armada guidebook series. The connection between combiner technology and binary bonding had been explored in IDW Publishing's Combiner Wars tie-in story arc. Finally, the Grendel Gambit is named for Grendel, a monster from the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf. As hinted at in the cipher text of "Derailment" and detailed in interviews with Jim Sorenson, it would have involved Pretender technology. Galvatron would have made himself into a Pretender (based on an early Transformers Figure Subscription Service concept that later became the Double Pretender Megatron from the sixth TFSS, which would have seen a retool and recolor of Hunt for the Decepticons Breacher into a cartoon-colored Galvatron, and a redeco of Super-God Masterforce Grand Maximus' Pretender shell into the toy-colors of Galvatron; view the image at the bottom of the page), accompanied by the 1988 Decepticon Pretenders in their Autobot counterpart's suits (Bomb-Burst/Cloudburst, Skullgrin/Landmine, Submarauder/Waverider, Bugly/Sky High, Iguanus/Groundbreaker, and Finback/Splashdown), in an attempt to infiltrate the Terran Confederacy.

Finally, at TFNation 2017, a printed "annotated" version of "Not All Megatrons" was released, with notes about behind the scenes work done for the story, and an all-new illustration of Bisk overlooking the Grand Mal in Nova Cronum by Christopher Colgin, based on an illustration of Link overlooking Death Mountain from the instruction manual of the original The Legend of Zelda game. Bisk is drawn to the specifications of his Legion-class toy, giving him a more robotic look. Grand Mal has been redesigned to more closely resemble Thunderwing. There are several bases nearby. First, the 1988 Micromaster Station "fire station"/Fire Base, which transformed from fire station to a treaded fortress, and came packed with its Micromaster pilot, Hot House, a redeco of fellow Micromaster Tailwind, who turns into an A-10 Thunderbolt. Next is Arachnid, who along with Orcanoch were part of the "MicroVerse" sub-group in the Beast Wars toyline, animals that turned into bases inspired by Galoob's Micro Machines toyline, which Hasbro would later own. Arachnid turned from spider to base; here, he's had his organic detailing removed. Finally, there's the Maximal Mobile Base from the Beast Wars II toyline. It's an interesting story: it started life as the "Andro Base," a transforming spaceship/fortress from Blue Box Toys 1984 toyline, Androform. Clearly "inspired" by the Guardian Command Center and Renegade Thruster from the Tonka GoBots toyline, it had a "head" and "arms" and was presented as a playset where kids could place their transforming robots. Takara would license it from Blue Box in 1998, heavily retooling it and removing the arms, giving it plenty of new accessories as the Maximal Mobile Base. It came with five ships, two of which are visible here: the Gaiblade and the Juggler. In the background among the towers, two are silhouetted versions of buildings from Cartoon Network shows. The first is Mojo Jojo's observatory headquarters from The Powerpuff Girls, while the other is Aku's tower from Samurai Jack. Finally, another one of the Cybertronian Zodiac constellations is visible in the background: the Key (Sari Sumdac's AllSpark key from Animated).