Pretenders (Transformers)

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Pretenders is a subline within the Transformers toy line, introduced in 1988. The gimmick was that the Transformers were supposedly capable of disguising their robotic forms through the use of synthetic organic outer shells.

Contents

[edit] Pretender toys

[edit] Standard Pretenders (1988)

[edit] Autobots

[edit] Decepticons

While the Autobots' outer shells all resemble human beings clad in armor, the Decepticons' shells are all in the form on monstrous animalistic creatures. The robot figure is contained entirely within the shell, invisible to the outsider observer, and after the shell splits apart to release it, the shell can be recombined for a second figure. Although the first set of Pretenders was released early in 1988, a second set of 6, exclusive to America, was also sold. Metalhawk, named so because his inner robot was constructed partially of die-cast metal (a rarity in 1988), was only sold in Japan.

[edit] Pretender beasts (1988)

[edit] Autobots

  • Chainclaw (bear)
  • Catilla (sabre-toothed tiger)

[edit] Decepticons

The exterior shells of these figures were organic representations of the mechanised animals the interior robots transformed into, also equipped with armor and mounted weapons.

[edit] Pretender vehicles

[edit] Autobot

  • Gunrunner (jet)

[edit] Decepticon

  • Roadgrabber (jet)

The interior robots of the Pretender vehicles were contained within large armored-vehicle style shells. When the interior robot was removed, the shell could be reconfigured into a battle vehicle for them to pilot. The Pretender vehicles were exclusive to the American market.

[edit] Standard Pretenders (1989)

[edit] Autobots

  • Pincher (scorpion)
  • Longtooth (amphibious combat vehicle)
  • Doubleheader (jet)

[edit] Decepticons

  • Bludgeon (tank)
  • Octopunch (crab)
  • Stranglehold (rhino)

Notably smaller than the previous year's standard Pretender size, this year also saw the shells break convention, with a monstrous Autobot in Longtooth, and a humanoid Decepticon in Strangehold. The shells each wield, as a weapon or accessory, a piece of the interior robot integral to their transformation, e.g. Bludgeon's tank turret became a shield for the shell.

[edit] Pretender Classics (1989)

[edit] Autobots

[edit] Decepticon

Four classic characters, re-imagined as Pretenders. All four have humanoid shells.

[edit] Mega Pretenders (1989)

[edit] Autobots

  • Vroom (car, motorbike w/sidecar)
  • Crossblades (jet/dragster, helicopter)

[edit] Decepticon

The Mega Pretenders kicked the Pretender concept up a notch, giving both the interior robot and the shell the ability to transform and combine to form a larger vehicle.

[edit] Ultra Pretenders (1989)

[edit] Autobot

  • Skyhammer (VTOL jet/jet/funny car)

[edit] Decepticon

  • Roadblock (tank/jet/car)

Taking the Pretender concept to the extreme, the Ultra Pretenders featured two shells — a large exterior vehicle shell, which then contained a secondary humanoid shell (which could also transform), and within that, finally, the diminutive interior robot. Roadblock is a notable sufferer of "gold plastic syndrome" — gold plastic is known for deteriorating faster than other colors, and the inner robot is made mostly of this material, making it is hard to find an intact Roadblock.

[edit] Decepticon Monster Pretenders (1989)

  • Icepick
  • Bristleback
  • Slog
  • Scowl
  • Wildfly
  • Birdbrain

These six figures were unique among the Pretenders — small robots with monster alternate modes, housed within shells made from soft rubber. Together, the six interior robots could combine into Monstructor.

[edit] Fiction

[edit] Marvel Comics

With the American Transformers cartoon having come to a conclusion the previous year, it fell to Marvel Comics to provide the supporting fiction for Pretenders in the West.

Attempting to maximize his warriors' power of disguise and surprise, the Decepticon commander Scorponok conceived a method of merging "sythoplasm" — a synthetic organic substitute — with six of his warriors, creating the Decepticon Pretenders. A computerized version of Optimus Prime had spied on the process, however, allowing the Autobots to duplicate it in time to meet the Decepticon attack with their own Pretenders. But while the Autobots were well aware of the true nature of their opponents, the dim-witted Decepticons at first thought they were merely fighting particularly tall humans, giving the Autobots the element of surprise when they split from their shells and forced the Decepticons back. Both factions used their shells and inner forms simultaneously and separately in combat, splitting their concentration to double their effective fighting force. This tactic was seen again and again in subsequent stories involving the Pretenders.

Later, the Decepticon Skullgrin underwent a brief stint as a movie star, using his shell to play the role of a monster, until he was attacked by Circuit Breaker.

When Starscream attained the power of the Underbase, the Pretenders were among the Transformers able to survive his onslaught due to their organic components. Seeking to bolster his forces, Scorponok contacted Carnivac, Catilla and Snarler — three Decepticons left on Earth after the reality-shredding Time Wars — and gifted them with Pretender shells in exchange for their attacking Fortress Maximus. Although they failed, they were allowed to keep their shells, and subsequently encountered Springer and the other Autobot Time Wars survivors. Catilla joined the Autobots outright, while Carnivac sided with them but remained a Decepticon in name, leaving Snarler disgusted and vowing to make them pay. Snarler assembled a new Mayhem Attack Squad — including the Pretenders Bludgeon, Strangehold and Octopunch — and attacked the "survivors" in a battle that saw Bludgeon kill Catilla.

Not long after, Landmine and Cloudburst were sent on a mission to acquire new parts to repair the fallen Autobots, only to run afoul of the dealers of said parts, the robot-eating Mecannibals. Chosen by the Mecannibals to be their next meal, Cloudburst staid their consumption by convincing the Mecannibals to allow them to acquire an additional ingredient that would make them tastier to eat, retrieving it from the nearby planet of Femax. There, Cloudburst so impressed the female warrior chieftain that she sought to make him her mate, only to decapitate him in rage upon discovering that he was a robot within his shell. Landmine was able to placate her, and Cloudburst was repaired; as they left the planet, they discovered that the Decepticons Dreadwind and Darkwing had been responsible for the Mecannibals discovering their true nature, and were able to escape the monsters' clutches while they set off to make their robot-spotters the Mecannibals next meal.

Escaping the Mecannibals for a brief time, Dreadwind and Darkwing were sent on a mission by Megatron to recover Starscream's corpse. Megatron then captured Ratchet, teleporting him — and, accidentally, the deactivated bodies of Grimlock, Jazz and Bumblebee — to Cybertron, where he forced him to rebuild Starscream as a Pretender, who he then unleashed on the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth. Ratchet was able to use the discard prototype Pretender shells to revive Grimlock, Jazz and Bumbleebee, and defeated Megatron's plan. While Starscream got to grips with his new situation — feeling that the Decepticons considered him a walking joke, when in actuality, they were terrified of him — the Mayhem Attack Squad Pretenders were sent to attack Grimlock and co. on the orders of the Decepticons' new Cybertronian commander, Thunderwing, a Pretender himself. Four UK strips showed how Thunderwing became commander; but no explanation was given for where Thunderwing acquired his Pretender shell, and he was only shown without it in one panel in "The Big Shutdown". This would confuse the issue of the origin of the Pretender shells further, as illustrations for the text story, "The Magnificent Six", would show Thunderwing with his shell as a lieutenant of Megadeath before the Ark crashed on Earth.

When the quest to recover the Autobots' lost Creation Matrix began, Autobot Pretenders Longtooth, Pincher and Doubleheader tracked a lead to the planet of Pequod, discovering that the last of an extinct race of sea-mammals named the klud had been revived by Matrix energy. Longtooth was attacked by the creature, and then, his injuries addling his mind, set out to kill it in an Ahab-like quest, only to be stopped by his allies. The "Pretender Classics" then located the Matrix on a moon of the planet Cameroon, but Thunderwing stole it and was possessed by it, attacking the Autobots until he was defeated by being jettisoned into space. It was here for the first time that a liability inherent in using a Pretender outer shell separately in combat was shown; Thunderwing blew a large hole straight through Bumblebee's Pretender shell, and, though nowhere near the blast, Bumblebee's inner form was crippled by the feedback.

Thunderwing later returned during Unicron's attack on Cybertron, but was destroyed by the Chaos-Bringer, allowing Optimus Prime to use the Matrix to save the day, at the cost of his own life. Grimlock was appointed new Autobot leader, and lost his Pretender abilities when exposure to Nucleon robbed him of being able to transform, turning him into an Action Master. Bludgeon, meanwhile, became new Decepticon leader for several years, until Megatron returned and battled him, decapitating his outer shell and then destroying his interior robot (as seen in Transformers: Generation 2).

In the Rhythms Of Darkness alternate 2009, the Pretender Monsters are lackeys of Galvatron, while Chainclaw is one of the few surviving Autobots.

[edit] Dreamwave Productions

While the Pretenders received profiles in Dreamwave Productions' More Than Meets the Eye series, only a few Pretenders were actually featured in any Dreamwave stories. Bludgeon and Bugly were both part of the Chaos Trinity, along with Mindwipe, and helped procure subjects for The Fallen's plans in the second volume of Transformers: The War Within, known as The Dark Ages. They were eventually defeated by a combined force of Autobots and Decepticons.

Alternate universe versions of Bludgeon and Thunderwing, as well as Scourge, Dirge and Galvatron were among the Heralds of Unicron in the final story arc of Dreamwave's Transformers: Armada series, sent to soften the Armada universe for Unicron's arrival. However, Armada Megatron defeated Galvatron with the help of the Star Saber and the others were blown up by the Autobots.

[edit] IDW Publishing

In the IDW Publishing miniseries The Transformers: Stormbringer, the Pretender process, called "bio-cybernetic grafting," was invented by Thunderwing in his attempts to allow Transformers to survive Cybertron's deterioration. Pretender shells are made from "bodily tissue culled from living beings", which led Megatron to decry the process as an abomination and decommission it, causing Thunderwing to go rogue to prove it worked. The process inadvertently turns the subject into a supremely powerful maniac, more force of nature than sentient being, and Thunderwing's initial rampage made Cybertron uninhabitable. A cult of Decepticons under Bludgeon, comprising Bomb-Burst, Skullgrin, Finback and Iguanus, brought Thunderwing back online in 2006, in an attempt to rejuvenate Cybertron by the sacrifice of inhabited planets. They were intending to undergo the grafting process themselves, but the Wreckers terminated most of the group before this could happen; Bludgeon underwent the process too soon and it went wrong, destroying his mind in a psychic backlash.[1]

The robot forms of Bludgeon's group are drawn substantially different from the robot forms of their toys, and resemble the designs of their Pretender shells. Bludgeon's Pretender shell was redesigned to be that of a transformable Mega-Pretender. Also, Thunderwing was given a secondary attack mode where his jet wings folded in and his body extended, making him a giant among the other Transformers.

Monstructor made his debut in The Transformers: Spotlight issue on Optimus Prime, however his components were neither Pretenders nor Decepticons, as they were imprisoned before factions or the Pretender process existed.[2]

[edit] Devil's Due Publishing

The concept of Pretender shells was given another new origin in Devil's Due Publishing's fourth G.I Joe vs the Transformers series. Here, Bludgeon and the future Pretender Monsters came to Earth to exploit it, but were shot down. To survive, they made a deal with the serpent cult Cobra-La to work for them. However, Cobra-La's aversion to mechanical technology would mean that they took organic shells out of necessity, being "adjusted" for Cobra-La's purposes. Unlike IDW's re-imagining of Pretenders, the Pretenders seen here resemble the traditional look of their Pretender toys.

[edit] Pretenders in Japan

Not all of the Pretender toys released in the West reached Japan, and several of those than did were either renamed or remolded in some way.

[edit] 1988

[edit] Autobots

  • Lander (Landmine)
  • Phoenix (Cloudburst)
  • Diver (Waverider)

[edit] Decepticons

  • Blood (Bomb-Burst)
  • Dauros (Skullgrin)
  • Gilmer (Submarauder)

Additionally, one entirely new Autobot Pretender figure was created for this year — Metalhawk, so named for the large amount of die-cast metal in his interior robot, which transformed into a jet.

Also, this year saw the release of a recolored version of the original Fortress Maximus toy named Grand Maximus. His Headmaster component, Grand, was outfitted with a newly-created Pretender shell. Grand is a recolored version of Fortress Maximus's component, Cerebros.

In addition, Japan did not receive the following Pretenders:

[edit] Autobots

  • Groundbreaker
  • Sky High
  • Splashdown

[edit] Decepticons

  • Iguanus
  • Finback
  • Bugly

[edit] 1989

This year saw only Decepticon Pretenders released, all sufficiently colored differently from their American cousins.

[edit] Dinoforce

The Japanese version of America's Pretender Monsters, these toys were colored in creams, blacks and greens, and were given entirely different shells in the images of cyborg dinosaurs. Their combined form is Dinoking. They included:

  • Goryu (redeco of Icepick; T-Rex)
  • Gairyu (redeco of Bristleback; ankylosaurus)
  • Doryu (redeco of Scowl; stegosaurus)
  • Kakuryu (redeco of Slog; triceratops)
  • Yokuryu (redeco of Wildfly; pteranodon)
  • Rairyu (redeco of Birdbrain; brontosaurus)

[edit] Crossformers

The Crossformers are versions of America's Mega Pretenders that have names based on their base colors, and shells that appear to be remolded variants of the American Mega Pretender shells. It is possible they may have been released earlier than the Mega Pretenders (1989) due to the fact that while both share the same decals as the American versions, the frames of each label matches the color of the place it sat on each Crossformer. (For example, while Thunderwing has lavender wings and Black Shadow has red ones, the edges of the labels are red.)

  • Blue Bacchus (remold/redeco of Crossblades)
  • Black Shadow (remold/redeco of Thunderwing)

[edit] Super God Masterforce

The cancellation of the American Transformers cartoon series had not deterred Japan — in 1987, they produced their first exclusive Transformers series, Transformers: The Headmasters, and did the same in 1988 with Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, starring the Pretenders.

Eight thousand years ago, a starship containing the Autobot Pretenders Metalhawk, Lander, Diver and Phoenix pursued the Decepticon Pretenders Blood, Dauros and Gilmer to Neolithic-era Earth, where they crashed. Using their Pretender abilities, the Autobots adopted the form of humans - not using simple external shells like in the American fiction, but actually transforming the very structure of their bodies into an organic equivalent, shrinking down to normal human size to hide in plain sight among burgeoning humanity. The Decepticon Pretenders, on the other hand, adopted the forms of monstrous creatures, becoming feared as demons by early man. After many battles, the Autobots succeeded in defeating their enemies and sealing them away for thousands of years — Blood in the pyramids of Egypt, Gilmer in the ruins of Atlantis, and Dauros beneath the Nazca Lines in Peru.

Liberated in the near future by the mysterious Decepticon god, Devil Z, the three Pretenders entered his service, and immediately began to draw the Autobot Pretenders out of hiding, before turning their attention to a series of plans of acquiring energy and disrupting one of the three Chokoon Powers on Earth. After a string of failures, Devil Z supplanted them with his more powerful Godmaster minions, and although they would often participate in missions, their standing was downgraded and their regularity of appearance on the battlefield diminished. Eventually, they generally only served to supply comic relief, and departed Earth with the other surviving Decepticons when Devil Z was destroyed.

[edit] Victory

The Pretenders made a return of sorts in Transformers: Victory, with the Decepticon DinoForce, a group of Pretenders with outer shells resembling dinosaurs. Acting mostly as the comic relief, they were used by Deszaras primarily for their ability to combine into Dinoking. Oddly, the shells were shown to be sentient, able to act and think for themselves when their hosts weren't around. Also, the shells were fully transformable even though the Dinoforce themselves were never shown to transform.

[edit] References

  1. ^  Simon Furman (w),  Don Figueroa (p),  The Transformers: Stormbringer  #1–4 (July–October 2006)  IDW Publishing
  2. ^  Simon Furman (w),  Don Figueroa (p),  The Transformers: Spotlight  #9 (August 2007)  IDW Publishing
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