Gunrunner wasn’t actually my first choice to be on this G1 cartoon continuation, but his PTSD profile I thought was interesting. Also there’s a lot of comedy to be mined from a transforming jet robot that drives and lives in a giant car.

Megatron appearing in his Action Master body during a Movie flashback is an intentional reference to the cartoon’s animation errors.

This was drawn before I solidified the designs for the generic Micromasters, so they’re absent in the battle, but the Decepticon Micros I went with still fits the toyetic style I wanted. The race car Microcons I like to think are the Stunticons’ “sons” since they’re so similar.

The hot rod patrol are hot rod's biggest critics, they find fault in just about everything he does and have come to rescue the autobots stranded on earth really just to show they're better than him. And nobody exemplifies their distain towards hot rod better than trip-up, he'll never forgive him for insulting his mom one time (hes very touchy about that)

Trip-up is the most aggressive, contemptuous, and openly malicous member of the hot rod patrol. His own morality is something that deeply troubles him deep down. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to fight his urge to be petty.

His willingness to screw other people over to his own benefit is born from his past. He never wanted to be a mechanic, but his momma (bless her spark) died, and he had to take over the family business to stay afloat. His success in the field led to the wreckers taking note.

From their invitation, he met Big Daddy and joined the team. He hates the job, loathes it with a passion, and takes it out on pretty much everybody except hubs. something about her gets him really flustered. It's clear she likes him back in a playful bully kind of way

Even though big daddy and greaser run the team in a very unorthodox, "anything goes in the name of freedom" philosophy, they keep an eye on trip-up as they feel he could be a bad influence on hubs,

Day 284: Windy (Transformers: Operation Combination)

I found a cute train lady! I was scrolling through Shouki (Trainbot Leader) on TFWiki, and I found a story called “Train Wars” that included nearly every Train Transformer fighting the Fallen in manga form!

Naturally, I had to go through all the train members, and I found Windy! She’s part of the micromaster team “Sixtrain,” and we got her in the US as Midnight Express.

She's the leader of the hot rod patrol, like the rest of the team, she's a younger bot, lacking real maturity, seen in her justified but frankly childish crusade against hot rod. Throughout hot rod's gradual rise, big daddy and her team criticized him at every step but with their constant pressure hot rod improved. He wouldn't be half the leader he eventually becomes without them.

Big Daddy was an early adopter of Greaser's sense of style, born on lower omega supreme on the ark, she was born tougher than tough and stronger than strong, but the other bots would often try to push her around, because of her small size, in time she would get sick of it and begin to test other people to see if they're worthy of her, which eventually formed into her unique ideology, all leadership must be tested if it is fit to lead,

A long time ago now, she picked up hot rod to join her team, gifted son of paradronian immigrants, who's seen life from every angle even at an early age. she saw potential in him for great things but his time on the team turned hot rod into an overconfident arrogant and self absorbed jerk, who thought the world was already promised to him, and when the time came it became clear he wanted to be some kind of authority, the hot rod patrol tested him as they would do to anybody else and he failed.

Big daddy was directly responsible for throwing hot rod to optimus' team, but was actually distraught when the team was thought to be dead. When Cosmo's message reached the ark, the hot rod patrol broke into the wreckers' workshop and stole an experimental ship to come to earth as fast as possible but the ship was so fast they were unable to land it properly, stranding them on earth with the other autobots.

While on earth they fell under prime's leadership where they became rivals to the throttlebots. They would constantly test hot rod's team's patience among other things, every step they take, every kilometer they rolled, the hot rod patrol would be one step ahead, one city block away, until hot rod just couldn't take it anymore, locked himself up in his room and passed his duties to bumblebee, (don't worry he'll get better)

The second in command and original founder of the hot rod patrol, many years ago he figured out something humanity would figure out for itself much later, that fire decals look awesome, he defines the hot rod patrol's sense of style

Greaser is the oldest member of the hot rod patrol, and is completely loyal to their leader big daddy, he sees her as his true sucessor, having turned his style into an ideology and a way of life, the hot rod patrol believes authority must be tested at all times if it's fit to lead, tough interestingly greaser doesn't seem all that willing to question big daddy's authority at all, a contradiction born from coming from a slightly older era? Or maybe he just has a soft spot for her.

Either way they lead the team with an "anything goes in the name of freedom" philosophy, they're mostly hands free but when they need to get their hands dirty Greaser is there to lift the weights and beat up other guys who think they can rub big daddy's paint He's also the team's field mechanic, though the team works for the wreckers they can't always rely on their expertise, so greaser is there to pick up the slack