Waspinator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Waspinator is the name of a fictional character from the various Transformers universes.
| Transformers character | |
 Waspinator packaging art for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line. |
|
| Waspinator | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Predacon  |
| Sub-Group | Deluxe Beasts Transmetals Basic Vehicles |
| Rank | 6 |
| 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) |
Contents |
[edit] Beast Wars
Waspinator is best 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, 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-favorite characters on the show. Some of Waspinator's best moments feature being possessed by Starscream's spark, receiving severe torture from Rattrap including a "robo-noogie", being blasted to pieces by a status pod, sliced to shreds by Dinobot II, and his final classic rebellion which resulted in him surviving the Beast Wars.
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] Transformers: Timelines
The Predacon General now known as Megatron gathered a crew of like-minded individuals. While Waspinator and Terrorsaur stole a ship, Megatron, Dinobot and Scorponok stole the Golden Disk artifact, battling the guards and destroying one, disabling a second, and leaving a third to commandeer a ship to pursue them. Waspinator would lose a contest to name the ship with Terrorsaur, christening it the Darkside (Waspinator's choice being "Buzzerbot"). Picking up the others, they fled and were pursued by two ships: one of which was the Axalon commanded by Optimus Primal, the other the Chromia 10 piloted by Airazor. With a little help from Laserbeak and Buzzsaw (secretly sent by Divebomb to ensure Megatron's plan to change history succeeded) they destroyed one of their pursuers, and the newly christened Darkside fled into Transwarp space, with the Axalon in pursuit - thus beginning the Beast Wars.
[edit] Season One
Waspinator was a follower of the Predacon criminal Megatron, joining him on his raid of the Golden Disk artifact from the Maximals and being on the Darkside when it was chased through Transwarp Space by the Axalon and 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 disassembled 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 and Waspinator did not. 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 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. However, Waspinator had few notable roles other than acting as Megatron's aerial muscle. During the episode Possession, Waspinator was possessed by the ghost of the ancient Decepticon 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. In another bizarre incident, he was severely damaged by a reprogrammed Rhinox, who had developed his own ideas about leading the Predacons. As usual Waspinator survived but this time he had been temporarily damaged mentally, referring to himself as the original Insecticon Shrapnel, and talking with his speech impediment. This lasted until a confused Cheetor shot him down and Waspinator was repaired.
[edit] Season Two
When the Earth was hit by a quantum surge from the Vok's destroyed planet killer 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 was the first to realize that the planet the Beast Wars was being waged on was really Earth after all, suggesting that he may not have been quite as dumb as he often appeared to be.
[edit] Season Three
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 was the evil Predacon ways and of the constant physical abuse he was always receiving and quit in a furious and surprising rant.
"I said NO! Dragon-Bot command you sub-commander Kiss-butt. Dragon-Bot not command Waspinator! Not any more! Waspinator sick of being Predacon! Sick of being evil 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. It is worth noting that this rant is the only time in the series that Waspinator ever referred to himself as “I”.
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 even 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 all three seasons without receiving some type of upgrade; the others being Rhinox and Inferno. Although in the toy line he did become a transmetal with the third mode of a jet, possibly a homage to Starscream's who spark shared Waspinator's body briefly.
[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 that the early humans got tired of Waspinator, despite having worshipped him as a deity, and forced him to leave (although he claimed he was tired of them and left because he missed Cybertron).
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 in a sense: 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. Plus as a result of the Vehicon personality programming, as Thrust his previous personality and speech quirks were eliminated, as well as his cowardice. This is apparent when Thrust flatly told Megatron on one occasion that using the Sparks of Silverbolt and Rhinox was a bad idea, something the cowardly Waspinator never would have done.
With Cybertron's reformatting at the end of the series, Waspinator was reformatted into a surprising 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 spiraling 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's 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's 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] 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 a Mirage 4000, a comparable aircraft to the F-15 which Starscream originally transformed into.
The original Waspinator toy was recolored as Buzz Saw, then remolded into Dirgegun in the Japanese Beast Wars II TV Show.
In 2005 the original Waspinator toy was repainted in more show accurate colors and re-released for the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars.
