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Dear Turmoil Titterer,

You've got it the wrong way around; Turmoil was Deadlock's Mini-Con partner. He transformed into a miniature space shuttle and was known for being just as cruel as his master.

But that's not all: Turmoil was, in fact, part of a Mini-Con team that served the despicable Decepticon general. He and his compatriots, Strife and Havoc, comprised the Discord Mini-Con team. Together, they had the ability to combine into the Bedlam Blade—though not as powerful as the Star Saber, it was a mighty weapon in its own right. It was said that wounds delivered by this weapon would leave its mark on the victims' very spark.

Dear Mode Monopolist,

Oh, he's had several over the aeons and across the universes. Fuel transportation trucks, mobile chemistry laboratories, sports utility vehicles, snowmobiles, trams, city buses, jukeboxes. He's always had a fondness for what many would call "antiquated" alternate modes.

I haven’t seen a post from you in a while, and I’m starting to worry. I’m wondering if you might have fallen into a stasis lock, but if you’re okay, please don’t hesitate to scold me for thinking such a bad omen.

Well, the reason I spoke to you is that I’ve seen yet another vision. It seems you witnessed Alchemist transforming into a tram, but I saw him in an even older Altmode—that of a steam locomotive!

We also received reports that he was clad in a dawn-colored robe, that he had defeated the three-eyed demon that had tormented humanity on ancient Earth, and that he had left immediately without revealing his name. However, it seems there is a possibility that this is a case of confusion with someone else from a different dimension within the Omniverse.

Are there other Cybertronians besides Stormjoker, such as the red and silver "Flamemetal" and the yellow and blue "Moontrigger"?

Dear Double Diviner,

I have never met Overlord himself, but I have seen a vision of your brother, who appears to be close to him. Could this be a phenomenon brought about by the “Transforming Cyborg,” a distant, distant ancestor of the Cybertronians?

There was orange BB in the Beast Wars Sourcebook, is there UNIVERSE where he came in this color?

Dear Roger Dodger,

Let me see... Oh dear. The bright orange BB came from a timeline where he and Starscream were part of the Predacon nouveau riche class that emerged after a historic amendment to the Pax Cybertronia paid several owed reparations to the Predacons for war crimes committed by the Autobots. As self-centered and conceited as the one who fought on planet Gaia, this Starscream decided to have both himself and his partner fully plated in electrum coating to stand out as part of a "better class of Predacon". Classy.

I can see it... the foolish conversation of BWII Combatron.

Thrust mentions BB, who was once dyed gold, while Dirge dozes off, seemingly uninterested.

Starscream gleefully shares his mistaken view of “Bumblebee,” the origin of BB's name, and BB looks smug.

I can see it... your Heinrad-type body, listening to their conversation and lamenting while pondering Bumblebee's true nature.

Are there any additional mammoth and smilodon members among the combined members of Volcanicus?

Dear Prehistoric Plus,

I saw a vision of the finished Dinobots that Wheeljack was going to build. However, I could not make out the name of the key. By what name were they going to be born?

Thanks for sharing their names! Keep up the good work!

Are there any additional mammoth and smilodon members among the combined members of Volcanicus?

Dear Prehistoric Plus,

I saw a vision of the finished Dinobots that Wheeljack was going to build. However, I could not make out the name of the key. By what name were they going to be born?

Ah, Sentinel Prime. I remember battling him fondly; his tutelage is the reason why Optimus has survived against me for so long. In a way, he made both Prime and myself who we are today.

I was an up-and-coming warlord then, seeking only to make my name known as ruler of a few minor provinces. Simpler times… Back then, Sentinel Prime was leader of the High Council and Supreme Commander of Cybertron's army. He counted a young Optronix, Hot Rod, and Ariel among his subordinates. Rather than simply delegate his forces to "deal with me", he came himself in hopes of reaching an accord... and when I turned it back at him, he gave me my first defeat.

I thank him for that, for it was that first loss that truly lit the fire of my ambition. With the coming of the Mini-Cons, I recognized the opportunity to increase our powers and took Sentinel and his forces by surprise. Still, I was unable to conquer him, as other Mini-Cons themselves came to his aid. Beginning with himself and the Mini-Con Over-Run, more and more Autobots and Mini-Cons became partners, and our forces reached a standstill.

It wasn't until the battle at the Straits of Yuss that the tide turned. A skirmish between our forces became a one-on-one battle as Sentinel and I both took the field. First, I blasted his locomotive alternate form off its wheels, only for him to transform and blunt my cannon with his neutron hammer. I countered by Powerlinxing with Leader-1, but Sentinel used Over-Run to shoot my Mini-Con out of my hands. He attempted to finish me off with a Powerlinx-fueled punch, but I surprised him by deploying my hidden switchblade, dealing him a mortal wound. Still, he would not fall. In the end, I unleashed a rain of missiles upon him, and he died shielding his Mini-Con with his ruined body.

After a long time I had a vision of a distant universe. It may not be accurate, as it came to me dimly, but I painted Unicron Trilogy Sentinel Prime.

For some reason the colors looked exactly like the Energon Overload, did this mean he changed the paint in honor of the Sentinel?

Dear Dichotomous Discusser,

Ah, Sentinel Prime. I remember battling him fondly; his tutelage is the reason why Optimus has survived against me for so long. In a way, he made both Prime and myself who we are today.

I was an up-and-coming warlord then, seeking only to make my name known as ruler of a few minor provinces. Simpler times… Back then, Sentinel Prime was leader of the High Council and Supreme Commander of Cybertron's army. He counted a young Optronix, Hot Rod, and Ariel among his subordinates. Rather than simply delegate his forces to "deal with me", he came himself in hopes of reaching an accord... and when I turned it back at him, he gave me my first defeat.

I thank him for that, for it was that first loss that truly lit the fire of my ambition. With the coming of the Mini-Cons, I recognized the opportunity to increase our powers and took Sentinel and his forces by surprise. Still, I was unable to conquer him, as other Mini-Cons themselves came to his aid. Beginning with himself and the Mini-Con Over-Run, more and more Autobots and Mini-Cons became partners, and our forces reached a standstill.

It wasn't until the battle at the Straits of Yuss that the tide turned. A skirmish between our forces became a one-on-one battle as Sentinel and I both took the field. First, I blasted his locomotive alternate form off its wheels, only for him to transform and blunt my cannon with his neutron hammer. I countered by Powerlinxing with Leader-1, but Sentinel used Over-Run to shoot my Mini-Con out of my hands. He attempted to finish me off with a Powerlinx-fueled punch, but I surprised him by deploying my hidden switchblade, dealing him a mortal wound. Still, he would not fall. In the end, I unleashed a rain of missiles upon him, and he died shielding his Mini-Con with his ruined body.

After a long time I had a vision of a distant universe. It may not be accurate, as it came to me dimly, but I painted Unicron Trilogy Sentinel Prime.

For some reason the colors looked exactly like the Energon Overload, did this mean he changed the paint in honor of the Sentinel?

Transformers: Mosaic #15 - “Business Lunch”

Originally posted on September 24th, 2007

Story, Art - Melissa DeHaan

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | TFArchive | BotTalk

wada sez: Melissa “Wayward Martian” DeHaan is the creator of Insecticomics, a classic photocomic which I have yet to get around to reading. This comic is set squarely in Marvel continuity, referencing two of Bob Budiansky’s best stories. Firstly, “the boss” is none other than Lord High Governor Straxus, and Bombshell complains about the smelting pool; these all debuting in issue #17. Meanwhile, the red monsters are Mecannibals, stars of the two-part story from issues #52-53. Melissa gives them spherical disguised forms in the earlier panels. She also gives Shrapnel his speech quirk from the cartoon, where he echoes the last words in each sentence. Finally, Kickback is seen springing around like a grasshopper. Seriously, though, look at the presentation of this strip, done up to look like a scan of an old copy of a late-era Marvel UK comic, right down to the credit byline! See below for a Japanese translation by Barricade 643.

Have there been any other Horrorcons besides Snapdragon and Apeface?

Dear Kaiju Kopf,

While I could mention the Horrorcons who fought in the Universe War—Leatherhide, Blackarachnia, Nightprowler and Waspinator—I assume you are speaking specifically of the triple-changing Headmaster Horrorcons binary-bonded with Nebulans. Though, now that I mention it, I did once hear of a Leatherhide who bonded himself to… ah, my apologies, I'm getting off-track.

I believe that in at least one universe, the Decepticon forces under Scorponok did indeed include a third Horrorcon by the name of Backbiter. Like her fellows, Backbiter was a powerhouse among the Headmasters; she transformed into both a Cybertronian "flying wing" stealth bomber and an enormous, heavily armored snapping turtle. Though not as fast as some Transformers, the difficulty of detecting her jet mode allowed her to get in close to her Autobot enemies before converting into turtle form, becoming a nigh-invulnerable mobile bastion; in robot mode, meanwhile, she wielded a Psyche-Out Blaster that disrupted the brain modules of enemy Transformers to cause vivid hallucinations—something that proved useful if she ever needed to retreat from a fight.

While outwardly the least unpleasant of the three Horrorcons to be around, Backbiter was in truth a cruel and spite-driven individual who—as her name suggests—would feign politeness to others' faces while spreading vicious rumors and mockery behind their backs, taking a perverse pleasure in breaking other Decepticons' spirits while masquerading as their friend. Perhaps her only ally that she didn't treat this way was her Headmaster partner Gemba, a scheming Nebulan socialite desperate for prestige and fame, who was more than happy to ride Backbiter's coattails to a position of power.

Often I have visions. Recently I have been wondering what this phenomenon is called. And I have output some of them.

What does SG Tyran cluster Megatron look like and what does he transform into? Alien jet? Alien tank? Tanker track? or Stealth jet?

Dear Silver-Screen Shatterer,

There are, of course, many negative-polarity universes that mirror the realities you speak of. In one such universe, Megatron looked much the same as the Megatron that you know from the Transformers film series, albeit with blue eyes in place of his counterpart's red; this Megatron, who had allied with the repentant Sentinel Prime, was killed by Optimus Prime after a misguided attempt to convince the Autobot tyrant to follow his predecessor's example. Fortunately, he was rebuilt as Galvatron thanks to the intervention of the philanthropist scientist Joshua Joyce, and took the fight to Optimus once more with his new hypno-transformation abilities.

Dear Sympathetic Sleuth,

Why yes, on many occasions. I've found that we are a most excellent team—though on occasion while assessing the evidence, he must remind me of important details such as "time flows from past to future" and "the culprit probably isn't a multiversal singularity".

Most recently, he asked for my support for the "Matter of the Missing Metroplex Messages" case. Hoist and Grapple had completed the blueprints to integrate Metroplex into Autobot City, but those plans had suddenly vanished from Teletraan-I without a trace. Optimus Prime put Nightbeat on the case, and he interviewed everyone who'd accessed Teletraan in the previous week, including Sideswipe ("I don't really know what a blueprint is. Is that a new kind of rubsign?"), Sparkplug (valid alibi—he’d been playing with young Daniel at the time), and Cliffjumper, who only noted in his paranoid way that some of Teletraan's keys felt "grimier" or "not smooth like usual".

After many frustrating, fruitless days of searching, Nightbeat called me in, hoping that my time powers might help resolve the puzzle. Borrowing Nightbeat's magnifying glass and his fedora, I went back in time to when the data was last known to be present on the computer, and I saw nothing out of the ordinary—except for tiny red and blue smudges on Teletraan's keys. Empty-handed and feeling insecure about my detective skills, I returned to the present and showed Nightbeat the photograph I took.

Nightbeat's optics flared behind his visor, and with a big grin, he told me that he'd solved the case. Walking over to Teletraan, he bonked the console firmly—and the console winced! It detached from the rest of the Ark, transforming into Mainframe, who had spray-painted himself with a nice (and cheap, as Cliffjumper later noted) golden sheen to match Teletraan-I. For all the good he was at being a computer, he was not adept at spray-painting himself at first. I had helped after all!

Again I had a vision. It clearly showed you and Nightbeat unmasking the Teletraan-I-Mainframe. But for some reason, your body looked a lot like BWN Heinrad. Why is this?

Dear Sympathetic Sleuth,

Why yes, on many occasions. I've found that we are a most excellent team—though on occasion while assessing the evidence, he must remind me of important details such as "time flows from past to future" and "the culprit probably isn't a multiversal singularity".

Most recently, he asked for my support for the "Matter of the Missing Metroplex Messages" case. Hoist and Grapple had completed the blueprints to integrate Metroplex into Autobot City, but those plans had suddenly vanished from Teletraan-I without a trace. Optimus Prime put Nightbeat on the case, and he interviewed everyone who'd accessed Teletraan in the previous week, including Sideswipe ("I don't really know what a blueprint is. Is that a new kind of rubsign?"), Sparkplug (valid alibi—he’d been playing with young Daniel at the time), and Cliffjumper, who only noted in his paranoid way that some of Teletraan's keys felt "grimier" or "not smooth like usual".

After many frustrating, fruitless days of searching, Nightbeat called me in, hoping that my time powers might help resolve the puzzle. Borrowing Nightbeat's magnifying glass and his fedora, I went back in time to when the data was last known to be present on the computer, and I saw nothing out of the ordinary—except for tiny red and blue smudges on Teletraan's keys. Empty-handed and feeling insecure about my detective skills, I returned to the present and showed Nightbeat the photograph I took.

Nightbeat's optics flared behind his visor, and with a big grin, he told me that he'd solved the case. Walking over to Teletraan, he bonked the console firmly—and the console winced! It detached from the rest of the Ark, transforming into Mainframe, who had spray-painted himself with a nice (and cheap, as Cliffjumper later noted) golden sheen to match Teletraan-I. For all the good he was at being a computer, he was not adept at spray-painting himself at first. I had helped after all!

Again I had a vision. It clearly showed you and Nightbeat unmasking the Teletraan-I-Mainframe. But for some reason, your body looked a lot like BWN Heinrad. Why is this?

Transformers: Shattered Glass Comics - “Birth Of The Sixchangers”

Originally posted on May 14th, 2012

Story - Wout Jut Art - Kei Tomoe Edits - King Wrench

deviantART

wada sez: I think First Aid has been given a Constructicon color scheme here, because the Shattered Glass Constructicons share a white/red medical color scheme? The color schemes for Quickswitch and Sixshot appear to have been created by simply inverting their usual color schemes. Possibly entirely coincidentally, almost ten years later, John-Paul Bove would take exactly the same approach with Sixshot for the official IDW Shattered Glass comic series, arriving at an identical color scheme. I suppose it’s possible Bove just Googled “Shattered Glass Sixshot”, but it seems unlikely he’d lie about doing so! See below for the clean inks and colors for this strip, along with a Japanese translation by Barricade 643!

Transformers: Mosaic #227 - “The Gladiator”

Originally posted on August 15th, 2008

Story - Eli Navarro Art - Kent Lin Colours - Drew Eiden Letters - Sean Moore

deviantART | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: Commenters REALLY didn’t like that the writer of this strip gave precedence to the movie, which referred to the tank characters as “Devastator”—while basically every Hasbro source called it Brawl, a name classically associated with a green tank Decepticon. With a combining Devastator appearing in the sequel, Brawl evidently won out, but this strip predates that. It’s a cool strip! I’m unsure whether his Cybertronian mode is the same as that depicted in the Titan magazine, or whether it just draws common inspiration in its adaptation of the Earth-form design cues. See below for a Japanese translation by reader Barricade 643!