ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
SUB-GROUP: PROTECTOBOT
FUNCTION: AIR SUPPORT

FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 24

“War’s a dirty game – and I’m a dirty player!”

Profile: Underneath Blades’ aerodynamically designed steel skin beats
the engine of your basic street fighter. He would much prefer using his rotor
assembly to slash through a horde of Decepticons than to fly. But his function
keeps him in the air most of the time, and that really fires his fuel. Not only
is he prevented from engaging his enemies in hand-to-hand combat, but he can
only strike at them by long-range air attack, a way he considers unsporting
and cowardly. “If I’m gonna destroy someone, I want his fuel spurting all
over me, not the ground below,” says Blades. But this doesn’t preclude
Blades from doing his job and doing it well, a fact of which his fellow Protectobots
are deeply appreciative.

Abilities: Blades can reach speeds of 400 mph and has a range of 1,200
miles in helicopter form. He carries twin rocket launchers that fire armor-piercing
“smart” rockets, each of which seeks its target based on a computer
image encoded within it. In robot mode, he carries a photon pistol that shoots
light-bursts with the equivalent brightness of 5,000 watt light bulbs, enough
to temporarily blind all but those whose optical sensors are the most heavily
shielded. He combines with his fellow Protectobots to form the giant robot known
as Defensor.

Weaknesses: In helicopter mode, Blades is ineffective in winds of more
than 40 mph, and is liable to crash in winds of more than 60 mph. His rotor
blades are prone to metal stress fractures if not checked after every 5,000
miles of usage.