Mechanic (Transformers)

The Mechanic is a fictional character in Marvel's Transformers comics.

Nestor Forbes, better known as The Mechanic, is a notorious car thief and is considered something of a "godfather" in the car thief subculture. True to his name, but in spite of his business, he always wears an automobile mechanic's outfit, complete with goggles and gloves.

Fictional character biography

Despite his obvious success in the world of crime, the Mechanic hates being called a thief. It is not known what term he would prefer instead. The Mechanic's right-hand man is Juan—another thief.

The Mechanic's career of crime heightened substantially when he accidentally tried to steal the Autobot Ratchet, who he first thought was a perfectly normal ambulance. Inside Ratchet, the Mechanic and his accomplice Juan discovered the Cybertronian technology Ratchet was carrying, and were instantly amazed.

At first, Ratchet protected the criminals inside him from the police chasing them, to avoid getting caught himself, but when they drove him to their hideout, a fight ensued between them. The Mechanic succeeded in temporarily freezing Ratchet with his own cryogenic sprayer, then stole it and his laser scalpel, and secretly followed Ratchet back to The Ark, where he stole a power booster rod—a strength-enhancing wrench.

Aided by the new technology, the Mechanic was able to steal large amounts of powerful, highly specialised industrial parts. He set up a business, where other crime lords could have their cars fitted with the Mechanic's special weapons, at the cost of a few tens of thousands of dollars.

The Mechanic's crime business scheme was foiled by Blaster, working in co-operation with the local police, as Blaster disturbed the cars' electronics with his electro-scrambled rifle. In the midst of the ensuing chaos, the police were able to arrest all the criminals. The Mechanic escaped, but Juan was arrested.