Sunstreaker

Sunstreaker is the name of two fictional characters from the Transformers franchise. The first is one of the main Autobot cars from the original Transformers series. The second is an evil parallel universe version of the original Sunstreaker.

Transformers: Generation 1

Sunstreaker (Solo in Québec, Lince in Italy) was one of the first generation of Autobots in the original Transformers television series. He was the twin brother of Sideswipe, another Autobot, and like him also turned into a Lamborghini Countach. His alternate mode however, was yellow and had a modification in the form of an engine that sticks out the back. He was described as the ultimate egotist, being notoriously difficult to work with and pair up with anyone else besides Sideswipe, and described himself as the most beautiful thing ever and Cybertron's greatest warrior. He was also a cold, ruthless and effective fighter who would do anything to win.

Sunstreaker was designed by Japanese toy designer Kohjin Ohno for the Diaclone toy line. Ohno considered the design the first toy that turned from car to robot.^[1]

Marvel Comics

In the U.S. Marvel Comics, Sunstreaker made his debut in issue 1 as one of the Autobots who travelled on the Ark to destroy the asteroid field that threatened Cybertron and subsequently crash landed on Earth. After being revived, Sunstreaker was given his sports car form. He was involved in some of the early skirmishes with the Decepticons, but was rendered inactive when the Autobots ran out of fuel. When Shockwave captured the Ark he damaged the inert Sunstreaker so badly that Ratchet was unable to repair him with the other Autobots. He remained inactive for several years.

Eventually he was mended, and made a rare appearance when Grimlock and Blaster battled for leadership on the Moon. It may be assumed that he was rendered inactive again when the Decepticons launched a surprise attack in the same issue.

Sunstreaker did not appear again until Grimlock revived him along with a number of other Autobots using the healing substance nucleon. He then travelled with Grimlock to Cybertron where he was involved in the battle against Unicron. He survived the battle, and was seen attending the first meeting of the ill-fated Autobot/Decepticon alliance.

In the annual story State Games, Sunstreaker was revealed as a gladiator in the State Games before the War, where he lost a match to Megatron.

In the Earthforce stories, an injured Sunstreaker, along with several other Autobots, was awakened not by Nucleon but by Galvatron's Dream-Inducing Bug. Galvatron had studied their dreams in the aim of finding dissenting members of the Autobots that he hoped to put into his own employ. In this story, it was revealed that when doing a recce of the original Decepticon base, Sunstreaker panicked, leaving an injured Jazz behind and deliberately drawing human soldiers into the fight to avoid being damaged. After defeating Galvatron, Sunstreaker became part of Grimlock & Prowl's Earthforce team.

Later, Sunstreaker was sent on a new mission to the Stanix region of Cybertron with Silverbolt, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Jazz, and Inferno by Optimus Prime. While there, he overcame the ghosts of the past and helped defeat the mad Decepticon Megadeath who had tortured him & the others 4 million years ago.

Animated series

Sunstreaker appeared frequently in the animated series as one of the Autobots on Earth, saving Trailbreaker from the Seekers in "More Than Meets the Eye", but had very few prominent roles.

Predictably, given his ego, he was one of several Autobots who appeared as "giant evil aliens" in a Hollywood movie ("Hoist goes Hollywood") alongside Hoist and many others, before ending up battling the Decepticons for real.

Sunstreaker appeared briefly in The Transformers: The Movie helping to pilot the shuttle that flew Optimus Prime and the Dinobots to Autobot City.

It should be noted that in the IDW Publishing adaption of the Transformers movie they removed Sunstreaker from helping Kup on Earth and only depicted him as being with Prime just after the shuttle landed.

He is one of the few original Autobots to have apparently survived the attack on Autobot City. He unlike his twin Sideswipe had a brief appearance in the movie as the pilot of the shuttle carrying the detachment of Autobot reinforcements to earth. This was his last appearance in the series.

In Japan Sunstreaker made some appearances on the serial Transformers:Headmasters. On the first episode, he managed to elude a chase of Blitzwing, that collided with a building.

Books

Sunstreaker appeared in the 1984 sticker and story book Return to Cybertron written by Suzanne Weyn and published by Marvel Books.^[2]

Sunstreaker appeared in the 1984 sticker and story book The Revenge of the Decepticons written by Suzanne Weyn and published by Marvel Books. In this book he is depicted as being red, his original Diaclone colors.^[3]

Sunstreaker was featured in the 1985 Find Your Fate Junior book called Dinobots Strike Back by Casey Todd.^[4]

Sunstreaker appeared in the 1985 audio adventure Autobot's Lightning Strike.

Although Sunstreaker's voice didn't appear in the 1985 audio adventure Satellite of Doom, he was depicted in the book as one Autobots who helped destroy the satellite.

Sunstreaker appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books.

Dreamwave Productions

Sunstreaker is the twin brother of Sideswipe. Before the civil war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, Sunstreaker was an artist. After the war broke out he joined the Autobots, but some who knew his violent disposition joked that he didn't join the Decepticons simply because their purple logo clashed with his paint job. When Decepticon leader Megatron and Autobot leader Optimus Prime temporarily disappeared in an accident with a space bridge, the Autobot and Decepticon forces splintered into smaller factions. Sunstreaker stayed with the Autobots under the leadership of Prowl and battled the Fallen when he attacked the Autobot base.

Afterwards, he was among the Autobots on the Ark mission and crash landed on Earth, being revived & reformatted in the form of an Earth car in 1984. When the battle for Earth was finished and the Autobots were heading home, the Ark II exploded after takeoff and Sunstreaker was lost & deactivated in the ocean. Sunstreaker was among those revived in 2002 by Optimus Prime and fought against the Decepticons in San Francisco. When Ultra Magnus came to Earth claiming that the Earth-based Autobots were Cybertronian criminals and apprehended most of them, Jazz was left in charge of the Ark and Sunstreaker was part of his unit.

When Starscream returned to Earth with the Combaticons, Sunstreaker was taken offline once again along with most of Jazz's unit. Jazz, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were repaired later by the Earth Defense Command, and investigated Insecticon activity on Earth for them. They all later rejoined Ratchet on board the Autobot ship Orion.

Devil's Due Publishing

In this reimagining of the Generation One story, the Ark was discovered by the terrorist organization Cobra, and all the Transformers inside were reformatted into Cobra vehicles remotely controlled by the Tele-Vipers. In this storyline, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker both turned into Cobra Stingers.^[5]

IDW Publishing

Sunstreaker made his first chronological IDW Publishing appearance in issue #2 of The Transformers: Megatron Origin, where he can be seen on page 4, part of a crowd cheering for Megatron to kill his opponent in an underground bloodsport. Later, he and Sideswipe appeared among the gathering of gladiators and insurgents that Megatron would eventually mold into the Decepticons.

In The Transformers: Infiltration mini-series, Sunstreaker, now an Autobot, was part of an infiltration unit consisting of Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Bumblebee and Jazz, led by Prowl. He did not play a major role, other than to accompany the other Autobots to the Decepticon base to watch the duel between Megatron and a super-powered Starscream, saving Bumblebee from Runabout at one point.

Apparently destroyed by the Machination along with his passenger Hunter in the sequel The Transformers: Escalation, it was since been revealed that the Machination faked his destruction, indicating he and Hunter were still alive. His fate was not disclosed in the series, but in the final issue the Machination showed Hunter a row of headless Transformer bodies greatly resembling Sunstreaker.

The follow-up series The Transformers: Devastation revealed not only had the Machination made a Headmaster army of Sunstreaker clones, but his decapitated head lived on in the Machination compound, begging Hunter to kill him. Not only had his body been dissected and reengineered as a template for the Headmaster bodies, but he had been used as a computer hub for the army, using his memories to hunt the other Autobots. Despite begging for death, Sunstreaker agreed to help Hunter fight back, helping him become a full Headmaster. After undergoing the process Hunter escaped to the copy production line. Attacked by Scorponok and unable to merge, Hunter then turned into Sunstreaker's head - at which point he began talking like Sunstreaker, making reference to his "real" body and telling Scorponok that he was dealing with Sunstreaker before escaping.

Sunstreaker appeared among the Autobots on Cybertron in All Hail Megatron, with a body based closely on the Transformers Universe figure. His part in the story initially appeared minimal, but it turned out that the defeat of the Autobots on Earth and elsewhere was due to a combination of knowledge gleaned by Bombshell from the captured Hunter, and an agreement made by Sunstreaker with Starscream. Plagued by guilt over his betrayal, Sunstreaker ultimately sacrifices himself to destroy a bridge and buy the other Autobots some time to defend themselves against the mutant Insecticon swarm. The IDW comic, Transformers: Continuum, indicates that Sunstreaker is not dead, despite sustaining horrible injuries in the explosion.

3H Enterprises

Roulette, Shadow Striker, Sideswipe, Trailbreaker, and Sunstreaker return to Cybertron.

Sunstreaker would appear again as an Official Transformers Collectors' Convention exclusive toy, a remold and of Robots in Disguise Prowl painted in his yellow color scheme.

Sunstreaker was amongst the Autobot heroes of the Great War to be welcomed back to Cybertron. However, all of them were transported away by Unicron. Reformatted into a new body, he was forced to fight for Unicron's amusement (and unbeknownst to all, so that the Spark energy from fallen combatants could revitalize his own shattered frame), Sunstreaker duelled his own brother. All were subsequently freed by the resurrected Optimus Primal, and Sunstreaker went on to serve him as part of the new Autobot faction.

Although Universe ended at issue #3, the flashback of Optimus Prime would reveal what happened. In the final battle between the forces of Optimus Primal and Unicron, the Chaos-Bringer had disappeared (due to the events of Transformers: Energon), with Primal's forces barely making it out. Sunstreaker was among those seen escaping.

Fun Publications

At the command of Megatron a human city was attacked by Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust. The city was defended by Ironhide, Jetfire, Optimus Prime, and Sunstreaker.^[6]

In "Invasion" Sunstreaker is among the Autobots in Canada who help get people to safety from an earthquake caused by Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus using the Terminus Blade.^[7]

Toys

• Generation 1 Autobot Car Sunstreaker (1984)

Oddly, Sunstreaker's Tech Specs and Transformers Universe profile mentions Sideswipe's rear mounted engine, which is a feature on the Sunstreaker toy.^[8] The missile launcher and gun in Sunstreaker's profile are found on the Sideswipe toy. The mix-up may have been due to the Diaclone toy decos. The toy used for Sideswipe had three Diaclone versions: red, yellow, and police, while the Sunstreaker mold was released only in red and police decos. This might also explain the red stickers behind Sunstreaker's rear wheels.

The Toy was designed by Koujin Ohno (Takara Toys) and is credited as the first "Car to Robot Transforming Toy" ever made. It appeared first in Takara's Car Robot Series in 1982 before being used in the initial wave of Hasbro Transformers in 1984.

According to original tech spec notes written by Bob Budiansky found at Iacon One in 2006 the original name for Sunstreaker was Spinout. Also according to these notes the numbers for Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's tech specs were not switched, just their bios.

• Universe Deluxe Sunstreaker

Recently Hasbro and Takara had produced new toys of Sunstreaker. The first being Hasbro's Official Transformers Collectors' Convention 2003 exclusive toy, which was a repaint of RiD Prowl. Collectors who stayed at the Hyatt Regency hotel where the convention was held, were entitled to purchase this exclusive.

• Binaltech/Alternators Sunstreaker (2005)

In 2004, prototypes of a remolded Binaltech/Alternator Sideswipe toy were leaked, and it bore a great resemblance to Sunstreaker. However when it was released, Takara & Hasbro surprised fans by releasing him as the Decepticon Dead End, in different colour scheme and faction to reflect the former Stunticon.

About 2 years after the release of Dead End, and with much prodding from the fandom, Takara launched a new sub-line called 'Binaltech Asterisk' (BTA), with one of the first releases being Sunstreaker himself. Sunstreaker is partnered with -for unknown reasons- the human "race queen" model Junko Shiragami, and acts as her car. Once, Sunstreaker got in a race with a human-driven sports car, much to Junko's dismay. He used his transformation ability to take a particularly sharp curve, destroying a road sign in the process, for which Junko chewed him out.

It is said that Sunstreaker drives faster when he smells Junko's marigold-scented hair.

During December 2005, Hasbro released Sunstreaker as Alternators #18, with a different color pattern and deco. The Binaltech Asterisk and Alternators versions differ in the yellow used for the main paint job, as well as the Alternators version having black stripes down the car body, just like Dead End, where the BTA is solid yellow. In robot mode, the chest coloring is essentially inverted: a black cross-piece over a yellow chest for the BTA, and a yellow cross-piece over a black chest for the Alternator. The legs, feet and arms are also colored very differently, however both share the same signature Sunstreaker head design, with silver and yellow replacing Dead End's bronze face and red vents. The Alternators version does not include the Junko figure. Coming from the Binaltech line, BTA Sunstreaker includes diecast components, while the Alternator version is all plastic.

• Titanium 3 inch Sunstreaker (unreleased)

A repaint of Titanium Side Swipe, Sunstreaker was scheduled to be released as part of the 3-inch tall Titanium line in early 2007.

There are plenty of mavericks and weirdoes in the Autobot ranks, but most of them are down and dirty warriors fighting for freedom against the Decepticons. Sunstreaker is in a totally different class, and he makes no secret of the fact that he knows it. In fact, he thinks he's the hottest thing on wheels. When it comes to a fight, winning is only the second or third thing on his list, after protecting his artillery-resistant hide from scuffs and scratches, and making sure reflected laser light glints just so off his paint job.

• Universe Classic Series Deluxe Sunstreaker (2008)

Part of the first wave of the Transformers: Universe Classic Series line, this figure is a modern redesign of G1 Sunstreaker, faithfully keeping his form as a Lamborghini while incorporating the detail and articulation technology of current Transformers toys. On the back of his car mode, his license plate reads, "WE R 84", a reference to the year 1984 being the birth of the Transformers franchise.

The figure was first announced along with Sideswipe by Hasbro at BotCon 2007. Sunstreaker is considered the original toy, while Sideswipe is a remold of him with a new head and the body being rotated from Sunstreaker's robot mode so the car's hood (on Sunstreaker's back) becomes Sideswipe's chest. Concept art of both was displayed by Hasbro at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con International. On January 23, 2008, the Transformers Collectors Club revealed a pictures of both his vehicle and robot mode to members only. This picture was quickly reprinted on the ToyFare magazine web site.^[9] A packaged version of this toy first appeared on eBay in March 2008.^[10]

The mold for this figure was also used for Henkei/Generations Red Alert (as an homage to the original G1 figure being a redeco of Sideswipe), as well as the BotCon 2010 exclusive Breakdown and the Collectors Club exclusive Punch-Counterpunch.

• Henkei! Henkei! C-07 Deluxe Sunstreaker (2008)

The Japanese version of the Universe Classic Series figure by Takara Tomy has the gun and rear spoiler remolded in chrome silver.^[11]

Transformers: Timelines (Shattered Glass)

This Sunstreaker is an evil mirror universe reflection of the Generation 1 character. He is colored like Alternators Dead End.

Fun Publications

Sunstreaker was seen in a flashback in the Transformers: Timelines story "Shattered Glass" as one of Optimus Prime's troops.

Sunstreaker was mentioned in the story "Dungeons & Dinobots", where Blurr mentioned him as Sideswipe's brother.^[12]

References

• Furman, Simon (2004). Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. DK Publishing Inc. p. 25. ISBN 1-4053-0461-8. 

External links

• Champions RPG character sheet for Sunstreaker.
• Transformers Alternators: Sunstreaker review
• Sunstreaker at Transformers Wiki
• Sunstreaker galleries at Seibertron.com