#omnicons

At tail end of the Unicron Revival operation, a conflict between the Autobots and Terrorcons on Cybertron caused a stray bolt of Energon from an Energon Tower to ricochet deep within Cybertron, reactivating the dormant Sentinel Prime and his followers Superion Maximus, Prowl, Checkpoint, Rough Edge, Highbrow, and Omega Sentinel. Also awakened were his own personal Omnicons, teams of RetroSurges (Strong Arm), Chromias (Arcee), and Bluebolt (Skyblast) to assist with mining operations while the others are muscle.

Like the anime, they’re “mass produced”, but have individual personalities, but also have a verbal tic like in the Dreamwave comics in FRZ, CRZ, & so forth.

While I didn’t include it here, the Skyblast variant is visually based on TFONE Sentinel Prime. If I had a Signal Flare variant, he’d be based on the orange IDW G1 Sentinel but still be blue to match the TFA inspired Energon Sentinel.

Unlike regular Omnicons, Sentinel’s are just as battle capable as his regular troopers, but Sentinel prefers they focus on Energon extraction. Sometimes they do wind up fighting when Checkpoint, Prowl, Rough Edge and Highbrow are distracted.

Aghast at the modern Cybertron Alliance, thinking the Autobots have gone soft and are merely giving away precious Energon to unworthy aliens, Sentinel Prime began his campaign to steal back Energon and horde it on Cybertron, as are the Autobots’ rights (at least in his day).

Superion is the reluctant one in the affair, having served under Prima, and initially only joined Sentinel to protect Cybertron from an invasion from outside enemies, but has gradually realized Sentinel was taking things too far.

When Galvatron commandeered Unicron’s corpse after Rodimus Prime and the now restored Alpha Q used it to revive Planet Donnokt (a planet that meant a great deal to Rodimus), Planet Athenia, Planet Q and many others that would become part of the new Q System, Unicron awoke in a rage and immediately turned his ire on Donnokt and Athenia, rendering the planets extinct once again, reenergizing fully with their Energon deposits.

BTW, Donnokt & Athenia are planets tied to Rodimus in other media to give him more of a personal stake beyond helping Alpha Q. Donnokt was a planet studded with Energon that became a target of desperate Decepticons and former Autobots in the final IDW series Last Bot Standing, an Old Man Logan type story starring Rodimus as a hypothetical ending to the franchise. Athenia appeared in 80’s media, where it became the Autobot base in later G1 Headmasters media.

In this final clash with Unicron, Sentinel Prime did assist his fellow Primes, but afterwards swatted an olive branch extending Optimus Rex aside into Rodimus Supreme and Prima Supreme, declaring his intent loud and clear that he intended to still wrest Energon back from the hands of unworthy organics & lesser mechanoids, that Unicron was just a mutual inconvenience. Superion hesitates and gives his condolences to Rodimus Prime for his loss of Donnokt and Athenia before departing.

Sentinel firmly believes in Cybertronian supremacy and how Transformers should be viewed as a symbol of authority in the galaxy, his low options on other races stemming from poor xeno relations in his era.

Still an Autobot at his core, he doesn’t actually intend to destroy other lifeforms in his crusade, he only intends to largely make a statement that Cybertron shouldn’t be trifled with and leave other races to think of what they’ve done and appreciate the privilege to be dressed down by a superior officer. Prowl and Checkpoint enforce this to a T and aren’t afraid to get brutal. Superion Maximus largely only acts in defense mirroring Defensor Maximus.

That being said, Sentinel’s xenophobia got the better of him during an earlier exploit prior to Unicron’s revival when attacking Planet Probat. He learned of their unique Energon deposits, but unlike Galvatron who was so repulsed he just gave up to let the Autobots wallow in their “filth”, Sentinel was repulsed to the point he felt these Energon secreting creatures were too gross to live and tried to detonate the planet’s Energon Core, but was pushed back and defeated by Team Sherwood.

After the defeat of Unicron and needing to refuel, Team Prime and Team Sherwood began exploring the Q System and other planets but running afoul of the Terrorcons and Sentinel’s Autobots interfering. Sentinel’s Omnicons in particular tried taking advantage of a celebration on Planet Gastronea, a planet of jovial slug people, to mine their Energon deposits only to get chased off by Junkion Maximus, Volcanicus Maximus, Rodimus Prime & helping Gastroneans. Prior to this, Sentinel almost fouled up relations with Planet Voin, carefully crafted by Ariel’s friend Nautica (Mirage retool).

Continued action against Team Prime and Team Sherwood has seen Sentinel start gradually understanding the importance of working together with beings outside of Cybertron and develops respect for humans and their tenacity, taking a particular shine to Sally Jones, Kicker’s kid sister and Jason Dean, Kicker & Sally’s cousin.

Despite improving relations in time for the final confrontation with the revived Liege Maximo, Ariel, Optimus Prime’s kid sister, thinks very poorly of Sentinel as does Heather Duke, and intends to put him under their thumbs if he thinks of putting a toe out of line again.

Could you tell us about Seeker-body Jetfire?

Dear Sky Seeker,

Variations on this individual crop up all across the multiverse, under different names. The Jetfire I am familiar with was a famous explorer, celebrated for defeating the Star Seekers of the Blot Nebula. On one of his expeditions, he tracked the apocryphal AllSpark to a primitive Earth, only to discover to his dismay that the artefact's energon radiation interfered with his telemetry, causing him to crash-land on the North Pole. Unearthed millions of years later, he quickly upgraded himself into a new form with an external booster unit to improve his atmospheric flight capabilities and prevent a similar mishap occurring in future.

In another universe, this was the ex-Omnicon Skyblast, who felt a lack of purpose after the development of Cyber Key technology finally gave the Autobots the ability to boost their own power without relying on others. With his comrades no longer needing his abilities, he upgraded himself into a new Cyber Key-carrying form that would let him do for himself what he had done for them.

After the ignition of the first Energon Sun, the revival of the “Q System” of planets, and Unicron’s sabotage to prevent the Decepticons from abusing his power, Alpha Q is restored to his original child form: a humanoid type Quintesson and joins the Autobots. While technically the older one between the two, as a physically 8 year old boy by human standards, he becomes Kicker, Misha, and Sally’s kid brother, and really latches on to the teens and the other Autobots, not wanting to let a second chance at found family slipping away. In the absence of his original father figure, Scorponok, he is additionally protected by Blackout, a sentient, ninja like variant of the Divebomb Terrorcons.

Demolisher, Cyclonus and Tidal Wave have all tragically died during the mid stage of the Energon War, with their reformatted selves replaced by Wheeljack (now a Mercenary hired by the Decepticons), Slugslinger and Sharkticon. Snowcat does appear still, but is revealed to be Cyclonus’ cousin (better played off by their Japanese names in Sandstorm/Snowstorm). Other Mercenaries hired by Starscream and Scorponok that appear off and on include the red hot spider bot Airachnid who the Insecticons are smitten over, and the brother and sister duo Iguanus and Pythona. Pythona doesn’t think very highly of Galvatron, knowing full well what he was like as Megatron, and mostly sticks around out of amusement to see how Galvatron will foul things up for himself this time. Iguanas is the more business minded of the two, and negotiates contracts and payment in Energon over his more lackadaisical and foul mouthed kid sister who isn’t afraid to tell Galvatron where to shove it.

The Autobots are joined by the Dinobots, created by Primus to help better battle the animalistic Terrorcons. Besides Grimlock and Swoop, they are joined by Grimstone and his drones who can become Volcanicus Maximus. Grimlock has a semi playful rivalry with Kicker, always teasing him and giving him a taste of his own teenage angst nonsense. The Dinobots seem to have an affection for Misha in particular, and usually listen to what she says over Optimus and Kicker.

Other teens help out the Autobots, Braverman and Dean, who are the sons of prominent scientists and shareholders of the Energon operation on Earth. They help survey planets for Energon using Cyberhawks like Laserbeak and Mini-Con Dinobots (Dile and Zaur with the cheerful Braverman while Graphy and Noise are partnered with the more surly Dean). The boys are heavily implied to be a couple, with Hot Shot remarking how opposites truly do attract to Ironhide’s confusion. The boys are also accompanied by the eccentric adventurer Outback (retool of Cliffjumper) and his doting and no less adventurous wife Cindersaur (retool of Grimlock) who everyone affectionately calls “Cindy”. The two can Powerlinx, with a running gag where they playfully flirt on who gets to be on top. Dean is Kicker’s cousin on Miranda’s side, while Braverman is Misha’s childhood friend. Both boys grew up at the Cosmoscope Research Center Village like Rad, Carlos and Alexis did and were among the little kids who befriended the Mini-Cons at the Carnival and are not so secretly Transformer geeks to Jetfire’s annoyance,

Similar to the anime, the next major arc is protecting Alpha Q’s restored planets, but the main difference is they’re now all inhabited by other Transformers and alien life forms for more toyetic possibilities.

Blizzard Planet: Populated by the Xetaxxians, based on their organic forms from IDW. A legend by the locals speaks of a mighty Blizzard Saber that helped forge the Xetaxxians into the race they are today. They’re the lost Cryo Saber Mini-Con Team, and an item of interest to Snowcat to look good in front of Galvatron. The Dinobots hate this planet, with Grimlock famously refusing to help because “Ice Age kill Dinosaurs on Earth” after hanging up abruptly on Optimus.

Iron Planet: A primitive rocky world populated by pseudo mechanical lifeforms made of a Sentio Metallico equivalent, making them compatible with Transformers for Powerlinx. Most of the life is in a prehistoric, animalistic state such as Morphobots, Iron Wolves, Rust Giants, the Iron Bird (the G1 Asteroid Bird creature), Iron Spiders, and more. Some of them, via the power of Alpha Q’s Energon and the Combination Spark, allow Optimus to combine with them into Iron Optimus (Iron Convoy). Galvatron learned the hard way harvesting Energon here may prove difficult than previously thought when his Insecticons were devoured voraciously by a stray pocket of Morphobots embedded in an Energon deposit.

Rock Planet: The Lithone equivalent, the sister planet to Iron Planet. Lithones like Kranix, Arblus, the Rock Lords and the various Infernac Transformers from Legacy reside here. Kranix works with the Autobots and Omnicons to study Energon and fend off Terrorcons. It’s Kranix in particular that helps recognize the transformation capabilities of the other planets’ residents, which allows each world’s populace to fight back and Powerlinx with the Autobots. Bouldercrash in particular is Powerlinx compatible with Ironhide, Jetfire and Cliffjumper. Optimus Prime can combine with the planet’s leader, Metamorphus Prime, into Igneous Prime.

Circuit Planet: A pseudo cyberformed race track planet built and used by the royal Alpha Q family as a vacation home. Alpha Q was particularly excited to have it restored. Populated by other Quintessons and Transformers who naturally are huge racing nuts, and the planet has something of a rivalry with Velocitron by the time of Cybertron. The ancient Combiner Teams Rallybots and Stunticons hail from this planet, with their presence implying a reservoir of Super Energon is hidden somewhere, but rumored it can only be found by winning the Quintessa Grand Prix. Wheeljack develops a fondness for the planet and coaxes the turbo revving and ultra competitive Stunticons to help the Terrorcons gather Energon.

Ocean Planet: Nicknamed Waterworld by Kicker, it’s a planet seemingly devoid of Dryland, though some aerial recon by Jetfire, Bulkhead, Swoop, and Skyblast shows there are above water land masses. Most of the Energon however is located underwater, where the Autobots have a disadvantage. Sharkticon is in his element here, prowling the waters with Cruellocks and Seacon type Terrorcons. The planet is populated by aquatic lifeforms, in particular the rare but beautiful creatures known as Kluds. The Sub-Atlanticans from G1 reside here and aren’t eager to share their Energon with anyone, but somewhat begrudgingly work with the Autobots as they correctly view Galvatron as the larger threat.

Jungle Planet: A pristine copy of Earth in its prehistory, populated by a cheerful amphibious race and various prehistoric creatures similar to Earth’s dinosaurs and the like. The Dinobots view this place as home away from home, the Dinobot Island equivalent, and it takes a lot of coaxing to make Grimlock want to leave it to help with other matters. The Mercenary Airachnid and the Terrorcon Insecticons along with Slugslinger and the Divebomb Terrorcons prove to be a constant annoyance, that the Dinobots fiercely protect the planet against. Mercenaries Iguanus and his sister Pythona sometimes raid this planet too with Cruellocks, but most of the time it’s just to blow off Galvatron and sunbathe/otherwise goof off.

Plains Planet: A lush grassland populated by wooden robots, affectionately dubbed “Arborbots” by the kids. Botanica is the main representative of these Transformers, and works closely with Kranix and Optimus’ science team. While Energon deposits are plentiful here, the Arborbots don’t use mine for it, instead having the ability to photosynthesize Energon in their bodies from the Energon sun instantaneously. They’re apparently an artificial offshoot of the Omnicons and Terrorcons, developed by Quintesson scientists prior to Planet Q’s destruction in an effort to better refine and gather Energon more efficiently. The Arborbots toywise are similar to the Weaponizer/Armorizor figures and can clip on to make weapons for the Autobots. Some of the Arborbots become prey of the Terrorcon Insecticons, though because of the high concentration of Energon in the wood bots’ bodies, it causes the Insecticons to overload and explode.

Planet Q: Alpha Q, Scorponok and the Terrorcons’ home planet. The Quintessons and Transformers here are actually INCREDIBLY ungrateful for Alpha Q’s hard work, to his shock, as they (somewhat rightfully) blame him for the planet’s original demise. Ousted by new rulers put in place to Kicker and Ironhide’s anger, the new rulers were blind sighted by the return of the Grand Chamberlain/Scorponok, who proceeded to annihilate the capital to excavate the Energon underneath. The rulers sheepishly try to radio the Autobots for help but Kicker initially tells them to fuck off, before Alpha Q and Rodimus takes command of the situation. The denizens are primarily the assorted recolors available of the Terrorcons, and various G1 and Armada character models used as generics. The Quintessons are largely just the G1 models, with a few retooled from Alpha Q’s Sharkticon like body.

There are lots of Prowl and Smokescreen in the Aurex cluster, but I have never seen a Cybertronian who calls himself “Bluestreak”. Have you seen him / her? If "Silverstreak" is there, please let me know.

Dear Streak Seeker,

I do recall a Mini-Con Bluestreak, a Velocitron native who was part of the Pit Stop Team. Unusually for Mini-Con groups, the Pit Stop Team were highly independent, and the cunning and manipulative Bluestreak was more commonly seen keeping pace with Dirt Boss than his own team members.

The other two members of his team were Dino, an excitable racer who had a huge crush on both Override and the newcomer Hot Shot; and Minerva, who was one of the few medics on Velocitron, and spent most of their time exhausted from having to fix up racers who went too far. Naturally she was happy to find a fellow medic in Red Alert, and the two could occasionally be found sharing an engex and complaining about how everyone else seemed far too eager to destroy their bodies.