Protectobots

The Protectobots are a fictional emergency, search, and rescue team of five Autobots in the Transformers franchise. They transform into civilian service and emergency vehicles and combine to form the combiner Defensor. Their Decepticon counterparts are the Combaticons.

Transformers: Generation 1

Protectobot members

The five Protectobots are:^[1]

• Hot Spot
  He transforms into a Mitsubishi Fuso fire engine.
  He forms the torso of Defensor.
  He is an energetic warrior and leader who leads by example.
  He is always active and wants his troops to be active too.
  His motto is "Rust never sleeps and neither do I."
  He was voiced by Dan Gilvezan.
• Blades
  He transforms into a UH-1 Iroquois helicopter.
  He forms the right arm of Defensor.
  He is a "rough and tough" warrior who prefers close combat with his enemies.
  He often at odds with the other, more peace-loving, Protectobots.
  His motto is "War is a dirty game... and I'm a dirty player!"
  He was voiced by Frank Welker.
• Streetwise
  He transforms into a Nissan 300ZX police car.
  He forms the left leg of Defensor.
  Like his name, he is a "street-savvy" law enforcer who knows his job.
  His motto is "You have to know where you are before you know what to do."
  He was voiced by Peter Cullen.
• Groove
  He transforms into a Honda Goldwing GL1200 Motorcycle.
  He forms the right leg of Defensor.
  He is a steadfast pacifist who hates violence of any kind.
  His motto is "War is always a problem, never a solution."
  He was also voiced by Frank Welker.
• First Aid
  He transforms into a Toyota Hiace ambulance.
  He forms the left arm of Defensor.
  He is devoted to helping and saving lives.
  He hates to see any machine, whether living or non-living, suffer even the slightest.
  His motto is "An ounce of maintenance is worth a pound of cure."
  He was voiced by Michael Bell.

Their combined mode of Defensor was one of the second generation of Transformers combiners (along with the Aerialbots, Stunticons, Combaticons, Technobots, Terrorcons, and Seacons).^[2]

As such, they have the ability to merge to form a combiner (or "gestalt" in fandom), with any of the 4 smaller members becoming any limb.

In the comic and cartoon mythos, however, most gestalts have one default transformation. Defensor has one each in the American and Japanese versions.

Animated series

Unlike the Aerialbots, Combaticons, or Stunticons, the Protectobots were the only combiner team from the pre-movie episodes that were not given an origin story. In 2015, however, the "Ask Vector Prime" Facebook page indicated that they were found in stasis on the planet Archon by Omega Supreme. In order to revive them, they were infused with Energon from the Aerialbots, which inadvertently provided their ability to combine.^[3] They first appeared in the episode "The Revenge of Bruticus," although they were not heavily featured and do not merge into Defensor until the episode "B.O.T", where they battled the Combaticons, with Defensor defeating the Combaticons' combined form of Bruticus. When Bruticus reappeared (having been rebuilt by Swindle after he sold his comrades' parts), Defensor engaged him again and was on the verge of losing when nearby humans used the robot B.O.T to force them to disengage.

Interestingly, they were the only group of Autobots to have a base away from the Ark, they resided in a converted building in a nearby city. Throughout the second and third season, the Protectobots were utilized mainly for assisting human civilians during battles or crises caused by the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. However, they often were engaged in battle as well both on Cybertron and Earth, including a trip to Unicron's severed head to investigate its reactivation by the ghost of Starscream.

The Protectobot who made the biggest impact on the series was without a doubt their medic, First Aid. It was apparent that he took over the duties as chief medical officer for the Autobots after the death of Ratchet during the movie. This led to another prominent appearance for the Protectobots in the third season episode "The Ultimate Weapon", where First Aid's failure to stop Swindle from stealing Metroplex's transformation cog led to his resignation from the Autobots, leading the other four Protectobots to soldier on, even battling Menasor at one point as Defensor with only one arm. Eventually, after the Autobots stole back Metroplex's cog, Hot Spot convinced First Aid to return, as he was the only one who understood how to install it. He did so, allowing Metroplex to defeat Trypticon. After this the Protectobots were reunited as a team.

Rodimus Prime ordered the team, as Defensor, to be the rear guard as he led a team to retrieve the body of Optimus Prime, in the two part third season finale "The Return of Optimus Prime." Unfortunately, a trap had been set, and Ultra Magnus and the Aerialbots were quickly infected by the Hate Plague. The Aerialbots, as Superion, engaged Defensor, and rather than waste energy in a futile battle with their comrades, the Protectobots withdrew, but with Superion in pursuit. Defensor attempted to evacuate a bridge in a nearby human city, desperately trying to keep some distance from Superion. They were unsuccessful, however, as Superion was successful at not only infecting Defensor but causing him to split, at which time the mad Protectobots quickly began to fight each other. They were cured along with everyone else when the resurrected Optimus Prime unleashed the power of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, ending the plague once and for all.

The Protectobots were last seen supporting Ultra Magnus in a last-ditch effort to stop Galvatron in the fourth season. They failed and were gunned down. It is assumed that they were restored along with Ultra Magnus when the Golden Age of Cybertron was ushered in.

Marvel Comics

The Protectobots had also appeared in the accompanying Transformers comic by Marvel, although they had a lesser role. They originally appeared in the UK Marvel Transformers comics in a very odd way - as part of a dream sequence. In previous stories, Optimus Prime had transferred part of the Matrix to Buster Witwicky. During a mission, Soundwave detected this and used one of Bombshell's cerebro-shells to tap into his mind. Buster's vision showed the future of the Transformer race - the combiners. The Protectobots and Aerialbots battled the Stunticons and Combaticons in their various combined modes with Shockwave and Prime looking on. This set the wheels in motion for more combiner teams on both sides.

The Protectobots made their first true appearance in issue 24 of the US Transformers comic, when they and Prime confronted Megatron and the Combaticons at a power plant. The two sides reached an agreement thanks to the human Ethan Zachary, where they would battle it out in the confines of a computer game. Prime and the Protectobots won due to their compassion towards the game's inhabitants, but Prime deemed that he had lost, as he had sacrificed some of them to stop a cheating Megatron, and self-destructed. Shortly after, Hot Spot was considered important enough to be one of the Autobots who named Prime's successor.

When Blaster and Goldbug went rogue from the new Autobot regime under Grimlock, the Protectobots were dispatched to bring them in. However, when they reached the used car dealership where they had last been sighted, they encountered the Combaticons. The two teams battled, with the Combaticons only withdrawing after the arrival of Circuit Breaker and RAAT, who captured Goldbug and the Throttlebots. The two teams battled again in pursuit of Blaster, this time as Defensor and Bruticus, with the Decepticon combiner emerging victorious, although Blaster managed to take out the Combaticons.

The Protectobots appeared less after this, as more new characters were introduced. Although they were not seen to be killed by the Underbase powered Starscream, they did not appear again after issue 50. They did, however, reappear in the Transformers: Generation 2 comic. Hotspot was part of a team sent to Earth to combat a newly rebuilt Megatron before the events Generation 2. He and Slingshot were the only survivors. Later he self-destructed in order to avoid being captured by Cobra forces. Blades was a member of one of Grimlock's raiding parties (with a notably more callous outlook), while Groove appeared assisting the Aerialbots in a team exercise against Hot Rod and the Dinobots. It is unclear if they survived the final battle against Jhiaxus' forces and the Swarm.

Manga

In the Transformers Manga #5 Galvatron and his Decepticons attacked the Prime Energy Tower. Galvatron ordered the Decepticons to form Menasor, Devastator and Bruticus and attack. Rodimus Prime counted on this move by ordering in Superion, Omega Supreme and Defensor. Galvatron then ordered in Predaking, knowing that Sky Lynx was elsewhere and couldn't counter them. Rodimus ordered the Omnibots to attack Predaking's legs. By tripping up the giant, he fell into the other Decepticon giants, winning the day for the Autobots.^[4]

Dreamwave Productions

The Protectobots were featured in Dreamwave's reimagining of the Generation 1 universe, during the second Transformers: The War Within series. Here, they appeared in their Cybertronian forms (essentially the Cybertronian equivalents of their Earthen forms) interfering in a battle between the Ultracons and Wreckers. When Ratbat unleashed his secret weapon - Devastator - the Protectobots, seeking to prevent an arms race as all factions tried to acquire combiner teams, engaged him as Defensor. Their battle devastated the area, with Defensor becoming more uncontrollable, and Wrecker leader Springer eventually convinced them to separate and defeat Devastator via sabotage. After this, the Protectobots decided not to combine again in case the same thing happened - but were attacked by the Fallen and his acolytes, who defeated them and abducted Hot Spot. Here they are not directly affiliated with the Autobots, but instead keep conflicts from escalating on their own. When the Fallen was killed by Primus himself, Hot Spot was freed.

They had few appearances again before Dreamwave's closure, but Defensor briefly appeared as a victim of Menasor's rampage in their second Generation One miniseries. In issue #2 of the third Generation One series, titled "Black Sunshine", the Protectobots were ordered by Prowl to inventigate the energy anomaly created by Sunstorm escaping Shockwave's abandoned secret lab. When they arrived they discovered the hole left in the roof by Sunstorm and the deactivated Battlechargers Runabout and Runamuck. Streetwise reported back to Prowl as First Aid repaired the Decepticons. They did not appear again.

IDW Publishing

Blades appeared in The Transformers: Megatron Origin as part of the pre-war response team under Sentinel Prime. True to his tech spec portrayal, he was the most vocal of the team in going after Megatron's gladiators. He was shown subduing Motormaster when the Response team moved against the newly founded Decepticons, and later fighting alongside Prime and Prowl when revolution broke out in Kaon.

Hot Spot, Groove and Streetwise appear during the "Police Action" portion of the Transformers: Ongoing series, assisting Bumblebee, Prowl and Ultra Magnus in their missions on Earth.

The full team later appears as members of the Lost Light crew, with First Aid and Blades being the only members who had been a part of the crew before the ship's return to Cybertron. They only become a single unit after they are ordered to escort a comatose Mirage back to Cybertron, wherein Streetwise dubs them "Protectobots" because of their functions: a doctor (First Aid), a cop (Streetwise), a firefighter (hot Spot), an infiltration expert (Groove) and a flier (Blades). When the Prowl-controlled Devastator attacked Caminus to try and prevent Starscream from creating an empire, Starscream forcibly used the Enigma of Combination to merge the Protectobots into another combiner, Defensor, and together with Superion the two were able to bring down Devastator. Both Superion and Defensor were stationed on Caminus while negotiations were made between Cybertron and Caminus, however both Menasor and Devastator fell through the space bridge fighting each other, and soon all four combiners ended up fighting.

Transformers: Universe

The Protectobots in Transformers: Universe were an American release of the Japanese Generation 1 Sixturbo team.^[5]

Members

Prowl (Road Police)

Team commander turns into a white police car. His bio painted him as a stereotypical gunslinger. A fast draw, he enjoys collecting Earth handguns.

Groove (Glide)

Team scout turns into a blue motorcycle. His tech spec claimed he enjoyed his time on Earth, especially giving rides to Earth females in motorcycle form. Despite this, he is deadly serious in combat

Streetwise (Circuit)

Team Recon/Courier turns into a white Formula-1 race car. He is the team's recon expert: however, sometimes his choice of alternate mode means he races around madly - often getting him into trouble with the law.

Hot Spot (Neo-Wheel)

Team warrior turns into a yellow car. He loves animals and nature, and prefers their company to those of his teammates.

Red Alert (Discharge)

Team firefighter, female, turns into a red fire engine. Discharge's bio painted her as dedicating herself to the purpose of her alternate mode - putting out fires and rescuing people. Few have ever seen her true appearance. She hates fighting, but is fearsome when provoked.

First Aid (Sireen)

Team medic/strategist turns into an ambulance. The team's medic, he is very good at what he does. He is friends with Digo of the Liner Team and the two of them work together as the "central processors" of the Micromasters for designing strategies.

Defensor (Sixturbo)

Defensor is formed from the entire combination of team. He views humans as his children and will spend his last drop of fuel to protect them.^[6] The combined extra parts of Defensor can also be turned into a jet which can be piloted by one of the members of the team.

Although unrelated to the combiner Defensor, another Defensor was included in Transformers: Universe Storyline as the adversary of Megazarak. A toy was designed for him (a retool of Robots In Disguise Optimus Prime) but was never released as Defensor.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The Protectobot name is used for a playable character in the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen video game by Activision. He looks like Streetwise and transforms into a police car.^[7][8]

Transformers: Power Core Combiners

In the 2010 Transformers: Power Core Combiners toy line, the Autobot Stakeout leads a Protectobot team, which consists of vehicle drones. These drones can combine with Stakeout to become a larger robot by forming his limbs.^[9]

Transformers: Prime

Books

The Protectobots and their combined form Defensor appears in the novel Transformers: Exodus.^[10]

References

• Furman, Simon (2004). Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. DK Publishing Inc. pp. 55, 67. ISBN 1-4053-0461-8.