Side Burn
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For the type of facial hair, see Sideburn.
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Side Burn is the name of two characters in the Transformers universes.
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[edit] Transformers: Robots in Disguise
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Side Burn | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Autobot |
| Japanese name | Speedbreaker |
| Sub-Group | Car Brothers Deluxe Vehicles Spy Changers |
| Function | Speedy Knight |
| Motto | "Speed limit? What speed limit?" |
| Alternate Modes | Dodge Viper |
| Series | Transformers: Robots in Disguise Transformers: Universe |
| English voice actor | Wally Wingert |
| Japanese voice actor | Punch UFO |
Side Burn (Speedbreaker in Japan) is the youngest and fastest of the Autobot Brothers, Side Burn rockets down highways in his Dodge Viper mode for fun, in pursuit of an enemy - or chasing after his latest flame. Because that's Side Burn's greatest weakness: the ladies. Every time he sees a little red sports car, he falls in love all over again, but can't seem to comprehend that Earth cars aren't alive. His older brothers are Prowl and X-Brawn. His Japanese name, Speedbreaker, is also used on a variant of his tech spec bio (although his picture and tech spec data retain the Side Burn name on the same package).
[edit] Animated series
Side Burn debuted in the series opener "Battle Protocol", battling Darkscream and driving him off when he scratched Side Burn's paint job. Side Burn appeared regularly after this. Although a brave and loyal soldier, his lack of maturity often brought him into conflict with Optimus Prime, TAI (the Autobots' sentient computer) and especially his law-abiding brother Prowl. This rebounded when the Predacons used his love of red sports cars to capture him (using Megatron's car mode repainted red) to lure Prime into a trap. On another, he and the Autobots' human ally Koji explored some ruins - only to end up dodging Sky-Byte's missiles after it was revealed that one of the O-parts lay within.
When Prime's brother, Ultra Magnus, came to Earth and forced Prime into a combination that allowed him to share the power of the Matrix, Magnus's link to the Matrix resulted in him inadvertently channelling its energy in the midst of a battle. That energy involved Prowl, Side Burn and X-Brawn, "supercharging" them into newly-colored, more powerful bodies. After a brief amount of training, Prowl and the others were soon able to control this new ability, shifting to "Supercharge Mode" when an extra power boost was needed in battle. Their supercharged modes afforded them no advantage in their final battle with Galvatron, however, as they were strung up and had their energy drained by the villain, until Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus challenged him to a final battle at the Earth's core, and defeated the villain.
[edit] Dreamwave Productions
The character also put in a brief appearance in one comic book story in the Dreamwave Summer Special, but no more stories were published. The RiD lost a contest Dreamwave between itself and Beast Wars to gain a mini-series. Before either storyline could get the series Dreamwave went out of business.
[edit] 3H Enterprises
RiD deluxe Side Burn himself was recolored dark grey with a carbon fiber hood and released in the Universe line. This version of Side Burn appeared in the 2004 Botcon voice actor play.
This Side Burn character made an appearance in the Botcon 2004 vocal play, where he was a member of two groups of Transformers from the RiD universe by Unicron for use in the gladitorial battles repowering him. However, a device built by Rhinox to stop this deflected them instead to a frozen asteroid. Both sides then dispatched teams to locate them. Alongside the future era Transformers Silverbolt, Rattrap and Waspinator, as well as the timelost G1 Autobots Bumblebee, Tracks and Cosmos, they battled and defeated Unicron's Decepticon servants.
[edit] Fun Publications
Although 3H Enterprises losing the licence would forestall the conclusion to the Universe storyline, an explanation of sorts would be found in issue 8 of the Transformers Collectors Club magazine Cybertron/Robots in Disguise, where Prime told the tale of how Unicron's forces were defeated in one last battle by Optimus Primal's forces, as Unicron disappeared due to the black hole opened in Transformers: Energon. Side Burn was among those seen escaping.
[edit] Toys
- Car Robots Speedbreaker (C-003) (2000)
- The original Japanese release of the Deluxe-sized toy. Transforms from a blue (with blue flames) Dodge Viper GTS to robot. [1]
- Car Robots Super Speedbreaker (C-025) (2000)
- A repaint of Speedbreaker to depict his "supercharged" mode. Colored red with yellow/orange flames.
- Robots in Disguise Side Burn (2001)
- The U.S. release of Speedbreaker, only with the addition of an Autobot emblem on the roof. [2]
- Robots in Disguise Super Side Burn (2001)
- The U.S. release of Super Speedbreaker. Oddly enough, while X-Brawn needed to be modified to avoid a lawsuit from Mercedes-Benz, Super Side Burn had the Viper emblem added to the front end, and the packaging had him labeled as a Viper replica under license from DaimlerChrysler. [3]
- Sideburn's toy is 12.5 cm long, and a Dodge Viper is 445 cm long. This is a scale of about 1:36. Since he stands 13 cm tall in robot mode, his robot mode would stand 15.4 feet tall
- Transformers: Universe Roulette and Shadow Striker are remolds of RiD deluxe Side Burn.
- Robots in Disguise Spy Changer Side Burn
- Another toy named Side Burn, a Spy Changer based on an unreleased Generation 2 Go-Bot mold was released in Robots in Disguise, but this character never appeared in any media.
- Spy Changer Side Burn was repainted as Universe Spy Changer Autobot Jazz.
- Transformers: Universe Side Burn
- A redeco of Robots in Disguise Deluxe Side Burn in grey and red.
[edit] Transformers: Armada
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Side Burn | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Mini-Con |
| Partner | Predacon Skid-Z |
| Motto | "You can't catch somethin --or someone -- you don't know." |
| Alternate Modes | Car |
| Series | Transformers: Armada |
Another character named Side Burn appeared in the Transformers: Armada toyline, this time as a Mini-Con.
This Side Burn was a spy for the Autobots, inflitrating the cult of the charismatic Decepticon Predacon to discover more about his philosophy of blending organic flesh to Cybertronain bodies. Despite his coolness under pressure, he wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of fanaticism within the cult, or the trust that Predacon actually bestows upon him (much to his rival Skid-Z's anger). However, he is constantly worrying that Predacon will find him out.
He can reach speeds of up to 140 mph for a distance of 300 miles before requiring refueling.
[edit] Toys
- Armada Predacon with Side Burn and Skid-Z (2003)
