Waspinator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Transformers character | |
 Waspinator packaging art for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line. |
|
| Waspinator | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Predacon  |
| Sub-Group | Deluxe Beasts Transmetals Basic Vehicles |
| Function | Aerial Attack |
| Motto | "Waspinator tired of being universe's chew toy!" |
| Alternate Modes | Jet Fighter Wasp Transmetal Wasp Technorganic Wasp |
| Series | Beast Wars Beast Machines Transformers: Universe Transformers: Timelines |
| English voice actor | Scott McNeil (English) Kenzo Kato {Japanese) |
Waspinator is a fictional character from the Transformers series and toyline.
Contents |
[edit] Beast Wars
Waspinator (name possibly a pun on "Terminator") is most remembered for being the comedic relief: getting destroyed or demolished in almost every episode of Beast Wars, yet returning in almost perfect condition in the very next episode (sometimes even later in the same episode). He is also dim-witted, talks in a broken third-person speech pattern, often referring to other characters - except Megatron, Tigatron, Optimus Primal and himself -by names that reflected their transformation modes instead of their true names (example: referring to Silverbolt as "Doggy-Bot") and spent most of the series as an underdog, causing him to take constant abuse from Maximal and Predacon alike (thus summing up Waspinator's most well-known line "Why universe hate Waspinator?") making him one of the more fan-favourite characters on the show.
Waspinator's toy was recolored as the Predacon Buzz Saw, a character who only appeared in the comic series. Waspinator came with two different heads, a robotic and mutant head, but the television series only ever depicted him with the mutant head. Buzz Saw was depicted in the comics with the robot head.
Although a transmetal version of Waspinator was made in the toy line, Waspinator remained in his original form in the television series from first episode to last (the only one of the original five Predacons to do so). There was also a "Fox Kids" repaint of his original form, which was in new colors, and one of his transmetal form which had the colors of Buzz Saw.
In 2005 the original Waspinator toy was one of the toys selected for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary toyline, repainted in more show-accurate colors. He came packaged with one of the six pieces used to make the Transmutate toy and a DVD with the episode Possession on it.
[edit] Season 1
Waspinator was a follower of the Predacon criminal Megatron, joining him on his raid of the Golden Disk from the Maximals and being on the Darkside warcraft when it was chased through transwarp space by the Axalon & crashed on prehistoric Earth. High energon levels threatened to destroy the crew unless they adopted organic alternate modes, and Waspinator took the form of a wasp (Beast Wars Part 1).
Waspinator's body was blasted apart, crushed or dissembled numerous times throughout the series ("Oh sure...don't mind Waspinator; Waspinator just lie here and suffer... drag himself to CR tank..."). Even his fellow Predacons had little respect for Waspinator, often letting him take the shots in battles. Despite the fact that Waspinator never actually led or participated in a rebellion against Megatron, he was not loyal to the Predacon tyrant but merely too cowed and frightened of Megatron to overthrow him, a sentiment which only got worse as Megatron grew more powerful during the series. This can be best observed during the First Season when Waspinator was shown in a private conversation to himself reveals his desire to, like most Predacons, overthrow Megatron and establish himself as leader.
Outside of Optimus Primal and Megatron, he had a tendency to address his comrades and enemies by nicknames that vaguely described their personas or transformation modes, such as calling Dinobot "Lizard-Bot" and Inferno "Ant-Bot". Interestingly, when Megatron was reconfigured into the form of a dragon, Waspinator began to call him "Dragon-Bot", despite having always referred to him as Megatron in the past.
In the first season, he was often partnered with Terrorsaur and proved himself to be a capable aerial combatant.
During the episode Possession, Waspinator was possessed by the ghost of Starscream. Starscream betrayed Megatron with the help of Blackarachnia and managed to capture the Axalon from the Maximals, but his own ego and a betrayal in turn by Blackarachnia saw him defeated.
[edit] Season 2
When the Earth was hit by a quantum wave from the Vok's destroyed planet-buster weapon, it reformatted several Maximals and Predacons into Transmetal forms. Waspinator was unaltered. It is theorized by fans that, because he fell into a CR tank as the wave passed, he was shielded from its effects.
In a bold and surprising move, he attempted to steal the Golden Disks from Megatron, only to be beaten to it (and subsequently scrapped) by Dinobot and the Darkside's security systems. This was his second moment of hidden disloyalty. In the same episode, it was revealed that he had realised the Predacons were really stranded on Earth.
[edit] Season 3
Waspinator spent much of the season partnered with Inferno and Quickstrike ("Ant-Bot and Two-Head"). After the destruction of the Predacon base, the three of them were sent to establish a new base for the Predacons and discovered caves that were inhabited by a tribe of early humans. Just as the Predacons were about to engage the early humans in battle, Waspinator decided he was sick of the constant physical abuse of being a Predacon and quit in a furious rant.
"I said, no! Dragon-Bot command you sub-commander Kiss-butt. Dragon-Bot not command Waspinator! Not any more! Waspinator sick of being evil! Sick of being Predacon! and Waspinator especially sick of getting blown to scrap all the time! Soooooo, Waspinator quit! As of now, which means Ant-Bot and Two-Head can just pucker their mandibles and plant big wet juicy one right here on Waspinator's big, fat, stripy..."
Interrupting Waspinator's tirade, Inferno and Quickstrike shot him and proceeded to fight the early humans.
As the Beast Wars came to an end and the Maximals left for Cybertron, it was revealed that Waspinator stayed behind on Earth, living amongst a tribe of early humans and being worshipped as a god. He got the last line of the series - "Waspinator happy at last!".
Throughout the Beast Wars series, Waspinator was one of only three characters to last the entire series without receiving some type of upgrade (the other being Rhinox and Inferno) - although in the toy line he did become a transmetal with the third mode of a jet.
[edit] Beast Machines
Waspinator was captured by Megatron's Vehicon drones and his spark was transferred into the Vehicon General Thrust in Beast Machines. During the series, it was revealed that, following the conclusion of the Beast Wars, Waspinator was worshipped as a deity by the early humans, but they eventually got tired of him, and forced him to leave (although he claimed he was tired of them and left because he missed Cybertron). Although it seemed that Inferno and Quickstrike had died on Earth when Waspinator was last seen there, their fates were unclear because they had only taken similar dismembering damage to that Waspinator had taken in many episodes. It is theorized that Beast Machines Quickstrike and Universe Inferno were later incarnations of these other two Predacons who may have returned with Waspinator from Earth.
Despite being under the service of Megatron once again, Waspinator actually liked being Thrust because "chicks dig brooding loner bit", as he put it (he was right: Blackarachnia began to develop a relationship with him, believing him to be Silverbolt, until discovering the truth about Jetstorm), and he wasn't scrapped nearly as much in his new body. Presumably as a result of Vehicon personality programming, as Thrust his previous personality and speech quirks were eliminated. This is apparent in Thrust's relationship, as he flatly told Megatron on one occasion that using the Sparks of Silverbolt and Rhinox was a bad idea - something the cowardly Waspinator would never have done.
With Cybertron's reformatting at the end of the series, Waspinator was reformatted into a small technorganic wasp, but with the head of Thrust. "No, NO! Waspinator want glory, Waspinator want power! And what Waspinator get?! WASPINATOR NEVER GET WHAT WASPINATOR WANT!". He was then swatted by Rattrap and sent spiralling away through the air. Bob Skir referred to this version of Waspinator as Thrustinator in the DVD commentary of the last episode.
[edit] Transformers: Universe
In the Transformers: Universe storyline Thrust would return in his Vehicon form as one of the many Transformers kidnapped by Unicron.
There were plans to release a Transformers: Universe toy of Waspinator, a repaint of the transmetal Waspinator, part of a Halloweeen Horrorcons 2 pack, but the toy would never be released. However, Waspinator did appear in the 2004 Botcon voice actor play.
When Rhinox' attempts to stop Unicron pulling victims from alternate realities resulted in two groups of dimensionally-displaced Autobots being marooned on frozen planetoids, Waspinator, on the side of good for once, was sent alongside Silverbolt and Rattrap to help. They ended up battling Unicron's minions alongside a crew of timelost Autobots (Bumblebee, Cosmos and Tracks) and the two groups of Autobots they had been sent to help (both from the RiD universes), and, with Rhinox' help, sent them back to their own times and realities.
[edit] Transformers: Timelines
A toy of Waspinator in his pre-Beast War vehicle mode was released as a Botcon 2006 exclusive toy. This toy is a remold of Machine Wars Skywarp. He turned into a Saab Gripen jet. This was supposed to represent Waspinator on Cybertron before the Beast Wars.
[edit] Waspinator toys
In the toyline, Waspinator was a deadly and efficient aerial warrior, who ended up becoming a Transmetal with a tertiary mode of a fighter-jet. His jet mode slightly resembled an F-15 - the same jet that Starscream originally transformed into.
The original Waspinator toy was recolored as Buzz Saw, then remolded into Dirgegun.
In 2005 the original Waspinator toy was repainted in more show accurate colors and re-released for the 10th anniversary of Beast Wars.
