#bantor

Just ask Bantor.... He was all mandrill before I put a tiger in his tank!"

A slightly delirious Ratchet Transformers Prime S2 Episode 4 "Operation Bumblebee Pt2"

Now that's a deep cut, as Bantor was a... well, let's be polite and say "lesser known" Fuzor from the second wave of Beast Wars Fuzor subline (Where each bot had a beast mode made of two different animals, like Silverbolt and Quickstrike as seen in the TV show)

When Transformers Prime introduced the idea of Predacons in Season 3, a thought popped into my head; Where the Scrap are the Maximals? The Autobots with Beast modes never made an appearance in the show along with a bunch of other characters who were supposed to be in the series, but mostly due to the show not having the budget required to implement them. The idea of the Maximals never really existed in the showrunners list of lightbulbs, but what if they existed?

The Pack was introduced in IDW Publishing's Beast Wars Comics as a Maximal Imperium Covert ops unit under the Command of Lio Convoy. In my version, The Pack was an Autobot Infiltration/ Intelligence team that were sent behind enemy lines to extract info from Decepticon Facilities. The Crew consisted of:

Leobreaker (Lio Convoy): the steadfast, wise and compassionate leader who becomes the emissary of Onyx Prime

Skipjack: the cranky Inventor who used to be an architect

Bantor: strong and fast, but he's also an intelligent, disciplined warrior with a tactical mind and a keen understanding of guerilla warfare—useful traits to have when you're a demolitions specialist. His Fuzor beast mode means that he's at home in the trees or on the ground, stalking his prey slowly and silently through the jungle and into a carefully planned ambush. By that time, his victims have already walked right into one of his cleverly-disguised snares or explosive booby-traps.

Airrazor: She's calm and confident, but also adventurous and brave, with a healthy supply of dry humor. Her aerial skill in either mode, incredibly sharp eyesight and steady aim make her a dangerous opponent.

Wolfang: A team player through and through, effortlessly integrating himself into whatever unit he finds himself entrenched with.

Twinferno: Admittedly, Twinferno has always been undecided, but when he gained a twin Dragon Transmetal form it kind of made things harder, but the one thing that he always agrees on is the busting of Decepti-Chops.

Beastbox: A Mini-Con mercenary for hire, Beastbox thinks of himself as the king of the jungle, but nevertheless will work for for anyone willing to pay him in Energon bananas.

Divebomb: A Predacon clone created by Shockwave, he rejected his original path and now hunts his fellow Predacons with the same zeal with which they hunt others, and though he shares their lust for destruction, at least now it is harnessed in a more productive way.

After the reformation of Cybertron, The Pack opted to become a retrieval team hunting down any war criminals who fled war tribunals. Onboard their starship The Yukikaze, the Pack was intercepted by the Star Seekers' flagship Tidal Wave and crash landed on a Planet, unbeknownst to the Crew the planet they landed on was a Cybertronian Colonial World called Animatron. Upon Arrival, the crew quickly discovered that the planet was actually an experimental world founded by Onyx Prime to create a new generation of Cybertronians with Beast Modes. The Pack enters a temple containing Hieroglyphics, Leobreaker touches and says one of the words on the wall that says "Maximize". A flash of light appears and Leobreaker and the Pack are taken to the realm of the Primes and are met with a giant beast like-Cybertronian with four legs, wings and four eyes. "Greetings Leobreaker, I am Onyx Prime, you and your compatriots are on the planet Animatron a world in which I hoped to create a new species known as Maximals. A more peaceful animalistic society that was destroyed by the Quintessons. In the Aftermath, Thundertron in his youth scanned an alt-mode of one of my citizens and begun his plundering. I am in need of your Team's services, my close friend Micronus is guiding your Leader Optimus on his Journey to defeat Megatronus The Fallen, I need your help to find Thundertron before he seeks an ultimate power that will ultimately be cataclysmic. I give you and your team the alt-modes of my citizens. Leobreaker do you accept the Burden with all that you are?" Leobreaker replies with "I do". "Arise Lio Convoy, you will become my Emissary I will grant upon you an Energon Matrix, a supplementation of the Matrix of Leadership that was created by myself, Prima and my dearest Solus. It will give you powers that will be unimaginable to you, now go for there is much to do"

Notes: Okay, so lets get this out of the way

The Maximals here are the ones that never made it to pasture. The idea of the Maximals in Prime seemed entirely far-fetched, but why not let me give a crack at it.

Leobreaker becomes Lio Convoy, Granted the Energon Matrix and becomes the Emissary of Onyx Prime (Who we've not seen or heard of in a long time)

Skipjack is an alternate name for (Erector) a name in which I will never ever in a million years ever grant to any character in TF Lore ever. The design was for a Beast Wars/ Prime style reimagining.

Bantor was mentioned by Ratchet and I thought I should just get that ball rolling.

Airrazor and Wolfang were in a construct-bots toyline for Prime and have a kind of Airrazor/Tigatron Relationship.

Twinferno (Awesome name) was in the Robots In Disguise 2015 toyline and had a cool design and has a type of Turbo Revving young punk personality.

Beastbox is a Mini-Con with Tons of Optimus Primal References

Divebomb is a Predacon turned Autobot/Maximal with a dark past.

Thundertron and the Star Seekers are the main enemy and seek Solus' Creation Lathe.

Energon Matrix gives Lio Convoy similar abilities to that of Beast Wars 2nd Lio Convoy

And that's all folks.

P.S. this is Lio Convoy's Final Form

So, I think we all know about the general fuckery surrounding TFP’s production, especially around season three...

Hasbro: Still Does Not Know How to Effectively Produce Shows Despite Doing So Since the 1980s

While we’ll never know all the details, presumably because a lot of these people still work for Hasbro in some capacity and would almost certainly like to keep their jobs lmao, we do have this: 

“Dropped plans included a S3 set mostly on Cybertron, with Maximals and Predacons in a 'wild west' set up...” - TF Wiki

“...the creatives behind Prime didn't want to be beholden to older stuff... Then the incoming Prime director abruptly changed Beast Hunters plans and clashed with Hasbro.” - TF Wiki 2

And we have some details from a convention, courtesy of @sunnybutte here, which provides further proof that S3 was originally planned to be radically different from the Beast Wars season that we got. 

This is likely due to internal conflict between creative teams/directors/Hasbro, the mess that was trying to implement the Aligned Continuity overall, and serious budget issues that are hinted to have started back in S2′s production period-- On top of the tight time constraints in which episodes had to be completely re-conceptualised, re-scripted, and re-animated! Yikes. 

HOWEVER. 

We do have a single blatant hint in the show, on screen, as to what S3 was originally supposed to be! 

In the episode Operation Bumblebee Part 2, when Ratchet is coming out of sedation (stasis), he rambles a bit; You can hear the relevant dialogue here at around 2:54. 

Now, I have a hearing disability, and it’s hard for me to make out exactly what Ratchet is saying because his speech is slurred from the sedation in this scene. 

As a result, this is the best transcript I can provide: 

Ratchet: “I... am able! Just ask Bantor! He was all mandrill before I put a tiger in his tank!” 

One Line of Dialogue with Many Implications! 

Now, Bantor is a Maximal from Beast Wars.

Ratchet’s dialogue here confirms that Maximals do exist in TFP’s canon, and that Ratchet is responsible for converting Bantor into a Fuzor. 

(I vaguely remember Fowler also saying “What’s a fuzor?!?!” at some point in TFP, and it might even be in this episode as well, but I can’t seem to find a clip of it at the moment!)

Jokes For Old People: Thanks, Ratchet

Also, I love the meta joke of the “tiger in his tank” line; Many of you possibly saw this noted on TF Wiki as I think they point it out somewhere (probably in the episode page), but it’s a reference to an old Esso gasoline tagline! 

It counts as a double meta joke, because not only is it a dual reference to Beast Wars and Esso, but it’s also a tagline that hasn’t been used in at least a couple decades--- 

---Which is also a play on Ratchet’s age and the age of potential audience members watching the show. 

Younger people might have caught the Beast Wars reference but not the Esso reference, while older people would have caught the Esso reference as well. 

In Conclusion: My Posts Are Always Long, I Know 

Anyway, it sucks that executive meddling keeps messing up good shows, and I would have loved to have seen a season based on Cybertron with all of the main Autobot characters engaging with Maximals and Predacons. 

Not that the S3 we got was bad or anything, but I think it definitely derailed things, and the original concept would have likely worked out better overall-- Although of course, we’ll never know...

...Because Hasbro sunk $250,000+ into the Aligned Continuity bible, which they never used again. 

Dear Future Fan,

In one universe, Megatron did indeed miscalculate his transwarp trajectory, and the Axalon and Darksyde crash-landed on Earth fifty million years in the future, a time when humanity had gone extinct. To survive on this untamed world, both sides adopted beast modes based on the local wildlife. Optimus Primal became a long-armed khiffah; the ‘bot you know as “Cheetor” became a gigantic, long-legged carnivore rat, “Rattrap” a long-eared lutie, and “Rhinox” a hulking rundihorn. In time, they were joined by Switchback, who scanned his alternate mode from an alpine shurrack, Bantor, who became a fierce horrane, and Nyx, who became a blind purrip bat.

While Megatron chose his beast mode from a long-fossilized tyrannosaurus rex, and Terrorsaur an extinct Pteranodon, the Predacon you know as “Dinobot” instead chose to take on the form of a frightful, ground-dwelling bat. Insects and arachnids had not changed much in the intervening millennia, so most of the other Predacons were quite similar to the ones you know—with the notable exception of Splashdown, whose stasis pod scanned a colony of peculiar water-dwelling ants. He was as savage and unpredictable a warrior as the Inferno of other timelines, but blasted his foes with high-pressure water cannons that rusted joints and stripped gears.