Too many parts.
So we already looked at the Autobots and last time we checked out the humans. Now it’s time to check in on the villains of our story, the Decepticons.
In the original draft the Decepticons were all dead, basically existing as orbs of energy that possess vehicles. Now they not only survived the war, they succeeded in conquering Earth, and by the time of the pitch have held it for five years. In the actual show, or rather the movie in that universe, the Decepticons would conquer Cybertron by 2005 while the Autobots had two moon bases and Earth. The show would focus on a handful of Decepticons as the villains instead of the entire toyline like we got in the show.
This section, continuing the computer printout style format, started with this information being classified unless you knew the password: freedom. We then get an introduction to the Decepticons from the computers that CBS didn’t think the robots needed.
AUTOBOT MILITARY DEFENSE FILES
SUBJECT: DECEPTICON OPERATIONS AND PERSONNEL
TIME FRAME: APROX- 1988
THE DECEPTICONS ARE AN EVIL RACE OF TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED ROBOTS. THEY CAME TO EARTH LOOKING FOR A NEW ENERGY SOURCE AND FOUND A MEANS TO CONQUER THE UNIVERSE. THE INNATE ABILITY OF A DECEPTICON ROBOT IS TO TRANSFORM FROM ITS BASIC ROBOT FORM TO THE FORM OF A “DECEPTIVE” MECHANICAL OBJECT: JET, TANK, BATTLESHIP, OR EVEN THE MORE MUNDANE FORMS OF A JUKE BOX, STEREO, OR COMPUTER.
The first Transformers battleship was actually an Autobot. The main line never gave us a jukebox or computer, and the stereo was a boom box Autobot. Jets and tanks were the only things both groups would have, getting their tanks at the same time, with the Decepticon getting a triple changer and the Autobot a “minicar” sized tank.
THE ABILITY TO MECHANICALLY TRANSFORM HAS A TWO-FOLD PURPOSE: FIRST IS DISGUISE, THUS GIVING COVER IN TIMES OF DANGER AND THE ABILITY TO SPY WITHOUT DETECTION; SECOND IS TRANSPORTATION. IN THEIR ROBOT FORM, DECEPTIONS CANNOT FLY, BUT HAVE ONLY THE POWER TO TAK£ LARGE LEAPS AS WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITH
THEIR SUPER-STRONG, NUCLEAR POWERED HYDRAULIC LEGS. BUT IN THE FORM OF A TRAIN OR JET OR SHIP, THEY CAN FLY, SPEED ACROSS THE GROUND, OR STREAK ACROSS THE SEAS.
And yet in the show both sides could fly in the pilot (it was Marvel) but in the series it’s a plot point that only the Decepticons could fly in robot mode without a jetpack. You’d think with the “seeker” toys having jets on their feet at least they could fly but I don’t know if they planned to redesign the characters besides Muffler. After a reminder that these files are top secret (despite being information about your enemy and not your ally), we start with the Decepticon leader, Negator. Everyone remembers Negator, cruel leader of the Decepticons, right?
It’s not like we have a picture of Negator to work from. Soundwave got to be a satellite at one point.
CODE NAME: NEGATOR
RANK: SUPREME COMMANDER
FUNCTION: DECEPTICON LEADER
TRANS-FORM: SATELLITE PARTICLE BEAM CANNON
SIZE: {ROBOT} 30′ – {SATELLITE} 15′ DIAMETER
In case you forgot or didn’t catch the production notes section of this series, CBS was weary about having a handgun Transformer as the central villain. Most of their shows didn’t even have characters with guns. Villains would just be strong enough to grab the heroes. Maybe you could get a laser but you had to be Superman to ever get hit by one. Apparently swords and other melee weapons were fine if you didn’t actually use them. You can kind of see why syndication was such an attractive destination for cartoon in the 1980s. The story takes place in 1988 but this is still for the 84/85 season. Meanwhile, Hasbro didn’t want their toys changed, which is why the gender swaps were out. So Megatron was also tossed out in favor of Negator. I wonder if Megatron would be shown to be his boss back on Cybertron?
PROFILE: NEGATOR, AS HIS NAMES SUGGESTS, IS TOTALLY NEGATIVE IN CHARACTER. IF YOU TOOK ALL POSITIVE CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES AND REVERSED THEIR POLARITY … YOU WOULD BE LEFT WITH NEGATOR. NO LOVE, NO COMPASSION, NO MERCY. NO TO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING THAT MAKES LIFE LIVABLE FOR ANY SENTIENT BEING. IT IS THIS FACT THAT MAKES THE AUTOBOTS WONDER WHETHER NEGATOR REALLY IS SENTIENT, OR WHETHER HE IS JUST A COLD, EMPTY SHELL, ANIMATED BY SOME ANCIENT COMPUTER PROGRAM. NEGATOR HAS RISEN TO SUPREME LEADER OF THE DECEPTICON FORCES AS MUCH BY DESTROYING DECEPTICONS, AS BY AUTOBOTS. “HE WILL,” AS HE SO OPENLY INSISTS, “DESTROY ANYONE AND ANYTHING THAT GETS IN HIS WAY.” ON CYBERTRON, HE WAS THE DESIGNER OF THE BASIC DECEPTICON MILITARY GOAL: COMPLETE SUBJUGATION OF ALL INFERIOR LIFE-FORMS THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE. AND TO NEGATOR, EVERY LIFE-FORM IS INFERIOR TO HIM. ONE COULD WONDER JUST HOW FAR NEGATOR WILL TAKE THIS.
Sooooooo…….he’s evil. Got it. Really, that’s what it boils down to. How clear can we make it that he’s evil. Even Megatron had standards, even if only for his own amusement. Otherwise Starscream would have been space dust long before 2005. You have to wonder how Negator managed to not kill him if killing other Decepticons was no big deal to him. It makes you wonder, since “More Than Meets The Eye” is supposed to be canon, if Negator didn’t off Megatron and take over?
ABILITIES: NEGATOR IS THE MOST POWERFUL AND INTELLIGENT OF ALL THE DECEPTICONS. THE ONLY ROBOT IN THE UNIVERSE WHO IS HIS EQUAL IS THE AUTOBOT LEADER, OPTIMUS PRIME. AS ALL DECEPTICONS, NEGATOR HAS THE ABILITY TO TRANSFORM FROM HIS WEAPON FORM TO HIS ROBOT FORM, AND VICE-VERSA.
Do we even have to tell them that. This is Hasbro, who knows what toyline they’re selling, and CBS, who have already heard of this concept. Adding that he transforms seems kind of redundant. Then again, compare him to Megatron. He has a fusion cannon, and according to the toys (never seen in media) he can interdimensionally connect to a black hole and shoot the resulting power through that cannon. Negator is…powerful…somehow. At least he stole one thing from Megatron: not so much the weapon as the black hole option, but how often could he use it?
WEAPONRY: NEGATOR CAN TRANSFORM INTO A SATELLITE PARTICLE BEAM CANNON, WITH THE CAPABILITY OF FIRING AN EXPLOSIVE BLAST WITH SUFFICIENT FORCE TO FLATTEN A SMALL TOWN. HIS SATELLITE FORM IT TOTALLY MOBILE, CAPABLE OF TRAVELING WITHIN OR WITHOUT AN ATMOSPHERE. NEGATOR CAN USE HIS INTERNAL CIRCUITRY TO CONNECT HIS CANNON INTER-DIMENSIONALLY WITH A BLACK HOLE, DRAWING ON ANTI-MATTER AS ITS SOURCE MATERIAL- THE BLAST FROM THIS IS FAR MORE POWERFUL, BUT CREATES A TREMENDOUS STRAIN ON NEGATOR FOR EVEN ONE BLAST.
So he sniped Megatron from orbit before he had a chance. I don’t see that alt mode being usable in the battlefield, so I’m guessing Negator would be a lot more hands off than Megatron was, as Megatron led his forces into battle…and retreat. Negator actually sounds kind of lame compared to Megatron, unless he’s some omnipresent threat that rules from afar and sends his bots into battle. Even Skeletor took the front in battle. Dr. Claw didn’t get his hands dirty, so I guess that’s someone to compare him to, but Megatron just sounds more interesting to write. Meanwhile he stole Megatron’s black hole antimatter weapon, which would be too powerful for the writers to use. The show never used it and neither did the comics and only fans like me would probably even remember he could do that.
WEAKNESSES: NEGATOR HAS NO KNOWN WEAKNESS.
And yet he’ll lose every time because he has to. It’s Saturday morning. The Transformers Universe entry on Megatron also said he had no known weaknesses, so they’re cribbing from that handbook again while ripping off Megatron features for Negator, and it would be all the stuff that would make him uninteresting in comparison even if he came off more powerful.
Soundwave got kicked out a zoo for trying to shove the animals into his chest. Untrue story.
CODE NAME: SOUNDWAVE
RANK: COMM-OFFICER
FUNCTION: COMMUNICATIONS
TRANS-FORM: LARGE FORMAT CASSETTE RECORDER
SIZE: {ROBOT} 8′ – {CASSETTE RECORDER} 16″ X 24″
Specifically, Soundwave is a microcassette recorder, meaning he and the cassettes actually grow smaller than you think. So let’s rob some more from the Marvel Comics handbook series.
PROFILE: IT IS SAID THAT SOUNDWAVE CAN HEAR A FLY SNEEZE. IT IS ALSO SAID THAT BENEATH HIS SMOOTH-TALKING, AFFABLE SURFACE BEATS THE QUARTZ PULSE OF A BLACKMAILER. THOSE WHO KNOW THESE TWO FACTS ABOUT HIM ARE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT THEY SAY WITHIN HIS EARSHOT. SOUNDWAVE IS THE ULTIMATE OPPORTUNIST AND WILL USE ANYTHING HE CAN TO ADVANCE HIS STATUS IN THE EYES OF NEGATOR. HE DOESN’T WORRY ABOUT WHAT OTHERS WILL THINK OF HIM BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE IS NEARLY INDESPENSABLE. THE OTHER DECEPTICONS PRETEND TO LIKE SOUNDWAVE RATHER THAN GET ON HIS BAD SIDE. AS BUZZSAW EXPLAINS, “SOUNDWAVE ALWAYS HAS THE LAST LAUGH.”
And yet something else that was in the tech specs and comic handbook but we have never seen. Soundwave is never shown blackmailing anyone and until The Transformers: The Movie was probably the only bot more loyal to Megatron than Shockwave.
ABILITIES: SOUNDWAVE’S SENSORS CAN DETECT RADIO TRANSMISSIONS OF THE LOWEST ENERGY LEVELS. HE CAN EVEN “READ MINDS” BY MONITORING THE ELECTRICAL IMPULSES WITHIN A HUMAN’S BRAIN CIRCUITRY, PROVIDED HE IS NEARBY. HE SERVES AS THE DECEPTICONS’ COMMUNICATIONS RELAY STATION– HE CAN KEEP THEM ALL IN RADIO CONTACT WITH ONE ANOTHER. DUE TO THE IMMENSE INFORMATION STORAGE CAPABILITY OF THE MAGNETIC DISKS IN HIS CHEST, SOUNDWAVE HAS A VIRTUAL PHOTOGRAPHIC-SONIC MEMORY.
We only saw him read a mind once, but we can count it. Everything else is something we’ve seen or at least believe he might do. We never saw him act as a coordinator with the other Decepticons but with his abilities we can at least believe he could do it if the writer came up with a way to use that ability.
WEAPONRY: SOUNDWAVE CARRIES A HIGH-AMPLIFICATION, DIRECTIONAL RADIOWAVE SENSOR . AND A CONFUSION BLASTER. HE ALSO HAS GREAT PHYSICAL STRENGTH. SOUNDWAVE’S CHEST CONTAINS A SECRET CASSETTE COMPARTMENT WHICH HOUSES BUZZSAW, THE DECEPTICON CASSETTE-CONDOR, HIS STAUNCH ALLY AND CONFIDANT.
As we’ll see, Buzzsaw is the only cassette (I’ve seen them called “Recordicons” at times) that would be in the show, and it’s the actual cassette the toy came with. Meanwhile even in the original miniseries they favored Laserbeak, his mold mate.
WEAKNESSES: SOUNDWAVE SOMETIMES GETS OVER-CONFIDENT ABOUT HIS VALUE TO THE OTHERS. AT TIMES HIS HATEFUL PERSONALITY HAS RESULTED IN RETALLIATION FROM THE OTHER DECEPTICONS, OR WORSE YET, HIS ABANDONMENT DURING BATTLE WITH THE AUTOBOTS. SO FAR, SOUNDWAVE HAS NOT ONLY SURVIVED THESE INCIDENTS, BUT HAS SEEN TO IT THAT HIS BETRAYERS PAY FOR THEIR ACTIONS.
Something else stolen from the comic profiles but never seen in the show. If anything Soundwave lacked a personality, even having a very mechanical way of speaking thanks to how his voice sounds. Frank Welker would use the same voice he used for the aforementioned Dr. Claw (the main antagonist of Inspector Gadget) and they would mess with the audio to create the unique sound of his voice. The Constructicons were right to call him “uncharismatic” no matter how upset Rumble and Frenzy were…though I doubt those two new what the word meant as they couldn’t even pronounce it.
He’s either going to sue Laserbeak or kill him in his sleep. He could go either way.
CODE NAME: BUZZSAW
RANK: RECON-MASTER
FUNCTION: RECONNAISSANCE
TRANS-FORM: GOLDEN ROBOT CONDOR
SIZE {CONDOR} 6 1 WINGSPAN – {CASSETTE} 2 1/2″ X 4″
One last profile before we call it quits for this section. You can’t discuss Soundwave without his partner, which I already talked about being swapped out for the other condor in the show. I guess they just prefered red to gold.
PROFILE: GIVEN HIS REPUTATION FOR CIVILITY AND SOPHISTICATION, IT MIGHT SEEM SURPRISING AT FIRST THAT BUZZSAW IS ALSO ONE OF THE CRUELEST AND MOST DESTRUCTIVE OF ALL DECEPTICONS. BUT HIS TWO SIDES ARE NOT CONTRADICTORY. HE CARRIES OUT HIS LETHAL TASKS WITH THE CAREFUL, REASONED APPROACH OF A FINE ARTIST; WITH THE COOL PRECISION OF A NEUROSURGEON. HE VIEWS EVERY AWFUL UNDERTAKING OF HIS AS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW MASTERPIECE. EVERY OPPONENT HE DEFEATS MARKS A COMPLETION. AND, LIKE ANY TRUE ARTIST, NOTHING CAN SWAY HIM FROM HIS COMMITMENT TO HIS DEADLY CRAFT. HE WILL ONLY END HIS CAREER WHEN THE AUTOBOTS ARE PAINTED INTO OBLIVION.
It’s too bad we never got to see this aspect of his nature. He was barely in the media thanks to being usurped by Laserbeak and when he did show up he was just gold Laserbeak, taking the role of scout alongside Laserbeak. This sounds like more serious a threat. Laserbeak was an interrogator who was also a craven coward without his buddies around, but we never saw it.
ABILITIES: USING HIS OPTICAL SENSORS, BUZZSAW CAN PINPOINT AND PHOTOGRAPHICALLY RECORD A FINGERPRINT AT 100 MILES, MAKING HIM INVALUABLE ON SPY MISSIONS. HE CAN FLY VIRTAULLY SOUNDLESSLY AT EXTREMELY HIGH SPEEDS.
WEAPONRY: BUZZSAW IS EQUIPPED WITH TWIN WING-MOUNTED LASER-MORTARS WHICH CAN FIRE FIVE PULSES PER SECOND. BUZZSAW’S MOST FEARED WEAPON IS HIS BEAK, WHICH, WITH ITS DIAMOND-HARD, MICRO-SERRATED EDGES, HE CAN USE TO CARVE UP ALL EXCEPT THE MOST STRONG-SKINNED OPPONENTS. AND, LIKE THE ARTIST HE IS, HE USES HIS BEAK WITH GREAT FINESSE.
Laserbeak robbed Buzzsaw the same way Negator robbed Megatron. Points for using the right bird, though.
WEAKNESSES: BUZZSAW HAS A TREMENDOUS EGO. IF ONE OF HIS CAREFULLY PLANNED OPERATIONS SHOULD GO ASTRY, RUINING WHAT HE CONSIDERS A WORK OF ART IN PROGRESS, HE WILL OFTEN STOP AND SULK RATHER THAN IMPROVISE OR PROCEED.
Also, none of the animal cassettes, Soundwave’s or later Blaster’s, had any personality at all. They were just animals, which is also a shame. The second Robots In Disguise finally treated animal robot modes like robots while the animal alt mode Transformers (think the Dinobots and Predacons–more so the latter) had personalities in both modes. I wonder why they went that route? I guess they wanted Soundwave to have pets. Since there’s no Ravage I guess we wouldn’t see him against Burt the dog.
Next time we’ll check in with the Seekers, the new fembot in town, and the Decepticons’ pet human. I wonder if he’ll matter considering the Decepticons don’t really need a human spy.
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