ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
SUB-GROUP: TARGETMASTER
HUMAN COMPONENT: PINPOINTER

FUNCTION: WEAPONS SUPERVISOR
FIRST APPEARANCE: HEADMASTERS # 1 (Crosshairs), HEADMASTERS # 4 (Pinpointer)

“Don’t shoot until you see the wires in their eyes.”

Profile: Crosshairs had a long career on Cybertron as the Autobots’
chief armory manager. He procured, maintained and supplied to his brethren the
latest and most lethal weapons. But he grew more and more disgusted with himself
as more and more Decepticons were consigned to the scrapyard, the awful result
of his labors. He reasoned there were better ways to use his time than stockpiling
implements of death. He quit the weapons business and joined the Autobot band
led by Fortress Maximus. When Fortress Maximus renounced war, Crosshairs was
one of the first to agree with him and one of the most vocal of his supporters.
However, events on the planet Nebulos soon forced these Autobots to take up
arms against the Decepticons again, and Crosshairs grudgingly went along. Given
his prior experience, he was appointed weapons supervisor by Fortress Maximus.
He’s meticulous, cautious – some would say overcautious. Although he’s less
than happy with his job, he’s very caring about it, and mindful of his limited
resources. He doesn’t like to waste ammo; he won’t take a shot unless he’s sure
he can’t miss, and encourages others to do the same.

Pinpointer was a biomass recycling engineer on Nebulos. As such, he shares
his binary-bonded partner Crosshairs’ concerns for efficiency and avoiding waste.
He’s very businesslike and can be brief in his words to the point of appearing
rude. But he is very reliable and an ideal Targetmaster.

Abilities: Pinpointer transforms into a dual rocket-propelled grenade
launcher who can lock on a target in less than .0003 seconds, but usually trusts
Crosshairs to tell him when to shoot. He can be fired by hand or mounted on
and operated by Crosshairs in vehicle mode. In vehicle mode Crosshairs has a
maximum speed of 160 mph and a range of 750 miles. He’s built for traversing
very rough terrain and has superior durability.

Weaknesses: In weapons mode, Pinpointer often suffers from nausea and
dizziness as a result of the exhaust fumes he inhales from his own grenade firings.
This can severely reduce his accuracy. Crosshairs sometimes becomes emotionally
overcome by the rampant destruction he witnesses in battle, hampering his combat
effectiveness.

ALLEGIANCE: DECEPTICON
FUNCTION: MILITARY OPERATIONS COMMANDER
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 4

“Clarity of thought before rashness of action.”

Profile: Of all the Decepticons, Shockwave’s method of operation is
most characterized by the cold, brutal efficiency one would expect of a purely
mechanical being. He enters every battle not with the bloodlust of his comrades,
but with a scientist’s approach to solving a problem. The problem is always
the same: How can he use his abilities to most effectively eliminate the greatest
number of his enemies, the Autobots? All too often he finds the answer. He seeks
Megatron’s position of supremacy over the Decepticons not because his ego demands
it, but because his logic-circuits dictate it. He feels Megatron’s all-consuming
passion for conquest only hinders its achievement. With smug certainty Shockwave
believes the reins of Decepticon power will inevitably be his – after all, he
reasons, it’s only logical.

Abilities: Among the Decepticons, Shockwave’s power is second only to
Megatron’s. His total command of the electromagnetic spectrum allows him, in
his ray-gun mode, to emit a coruscating beam of energy in a wide variety of
forms: high-energy explosive gamma rays, x-rays that allow him to see through
almost anything, blinding visible light, super-hot infrared rays and radio waves
that can either send messages or jam other radio signals are but a few of the
weapons in Shockwave’s arsenal. Never having been adapted by the Ark to an Earthly
form, Shockwave remains a size consistent with his robot mode when he transforms
to a ray-gun, that is, more than 35 feet long. He can fly in either mode using
powerful jet thrusters in his boots (which become the handle in his ray-gun
mode).

Weaknesses: Shockwave’s wave-emission power, as well as his flying,
is limited by his high fuel consumption. Although he uses the same type of liquid
fuel as his fellow Transformers, he can also use radioactive fuels in the small
nuclear reactor within his torso, which substantially eliminates his liquid
fuel dependency problem. Although his logical brain center is usually an advantage,
more intuitive and emotional thinking processes often confound him, particularly
when his adversary is human.

ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
FUNCTION: DEMOLITIONS
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 1

“Might over microchips.”

Profile: Brawn looks on Earth as essentially a hostile environment – and he loves it. He is the most macho of the Autobots. He delights in challenges and when he faces one he becomes fully alive. He is strong, rugged and very agile – which is why he is frequently teamed with Bumblebee when the Autobots are in a mountainous environment – but it is his enjoyment of the challenge that makes him valuable to his leader, Optimus Prime. He won’t be discouraged and that helps the morale of the rest. He is hardy and enjoys a good joke, if it is not too subtle. His main fault is that he tends to be contemptuous of those not as tough as he.

Abilities: Brawn is one of the strongest Autobots. He can lift up to 190,000 lbs. and knock down a small building with one punch. His endurance and resistance to artillery fire are among the highest of the Autobots.

Weaknesses: As the Autobot with perhaps the least sophisticated circuitry – most of his components focus on his strength – Brawn is very vulnerable to attack by electromagnetic and other types of waves. His eagerness to show off his strength often results in his using it improperly and without thinking. He’s been known to destroy an entire building before realizing it’s the wrong one.

ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
SUB-GROUP: TRIGGERBOT

FUNCTION: AIR COMBAT
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 46

“Don’t fire till you see the lights of their eyes.”

Profile: The skies are unsafe for aviation when Dogfight is in the air.
He terrorizes friend and foe alike. Not one to take chances, he buzzes even
non-military commercial aircraft just to make sure that they keep their distance
from him. This wild, wicked sky-flying street fighter likes to go nosecone to
nosecone with his opponents in what he calls “a dance of doom.” He
generally doesn’t begin to fire until he’s close enough to count the rivets
in their fuselage. Sometimes he’ll even partially transform to his robot mode
in mid-air so he can punch it out with an enemy aircraft. It doesn’t take much
to get his fuel flowing – he’ll fly into action against a flock of pigeons if
they accidentally interfere with his radar. Optimus Prime has tried to calm
Dogfight down by instructing him in mechano-meditation, a discipline that teaches
the art of mastering one’s behavior by learning how to recognize and modify
the electrical pulses within one’s emotional cortex module. So far, the results
have been negligible. Dogfight’s aggressive outbursts are deep-rooted. They
stem from a moment of indecision in his youth. He was on air guard duty for
his village on Cybertron. While on a maintenance break on the ground, he saw
a squadron of jets approach in the distance just as an air tanker carrying vital
fuel relief was arriving. Before he could decide whether the squadron was friend
or foe, it destroyed the tanker. All the while, Dogfight remained on the ground.
Without the fuel many of his neighbors had to shut down for a long time, and
some have yet to fully recover. Because he hesitated to take action, Dogfight
blamed himself for this tragedy. Ever since, he’s never hesitated. And he’s
never met a Decepticon that he didn’t want to destroy immediately.

Abilities: Dogfight’s swept-back wing design allows him superior maneuverability
in jet mode. A state-of-the-art navigational system gives him the ability to
constantly adjust his speed, altitude and direction to compensate for the inherent
instability of this wing design. His maximum speed is 1700 miles per hour and
his range is 3000 miles. He is armed with two fusion reaction-powered blowtorch
blasters in both jet and robot modes. In jet mode the blasters are mounted under
his tail section and pointing behind him to surprise any enemy aircraft that
try to sneak up on him. He commonly leaves a twin trail of flame from the blasters
as he streaks through the air. His wingtips are serrated and can cut through
all but the toughest steel alloys. One of his favorite tactics is to fly close
enough to his opponents so that he can use his wingtips to slice off their wings.

Weaknesses: Dogfight is vulnerable to mid-air stalls during some of
his more dramatic flying maneuvers. So far he has been able to pull out of all
of them before actually crashing on the ground, but he’s come close to destroying
himself on several occasions.

ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
SUB-GROUP: HEADMASTER
HUMAN COMPONENT: STYLOR

FUNCTION: COMPUTER PROGRAMMER
FIRST APPEARANCE: HEADMASTERS # 1 (Chromedome), HEADMASTERS # 2 (Stylor)

“A battle plan is only as good as its programmer.”

Profile: Chromedome spent several thousand years crunching numbers at
Cybertron’s Institute for Higher Programming before a Decepticon attack reduced
it to a smoking pile of microchips. Forcibly dragged into the war in this way,
Chromedome turned his skills to limiting the potential for violence by reprogramming
many of his Autobot colleagues to be able to outsmart their foes. But this only
began an ever escalating strategic brain race during which each side furiously
competed to apply the latest in software to military purposes. Disillusioned
and frustrated, Chromedome eagerly joined Fortress Maximus’s expedition in search
of a peaceful world upon which to live. Although, much to his chagrin, the war
soon followed him to Nebulos, Chromedome still devotes much of his time to academic
pursuits – after all, he now has a whole new world to learn about. But he is
also now resigned to the idea that the war with the Decepticons can not be avoided,
only won. He’s as scholarly and reserved as he ever was, but now he’s also a
stalwart warrior.

Stylor, Chromedome’s binary-bonded Nebulan partner, is more concerned with
appearance than warfare. He spends more time primping himself and polishing
Chromedome than he does preparing for battle. In Nebulan society circles, he
is renowned for his exquisite taste in clothes and dashing good looks. He is
not much of a ladies’ man, however – few Nebulan women are interested in a guy
who tries to look prettier than they do. He’s charming, cheery and egotistical.
Many suspect the reason Stylor volunteered to become a Headmaster was because
it was the fashionable thing to do at the time.

Abilities: In car mode, Chromedome’s twin fuel-injected, turbo-charged,
side-mounted engines give him a maximum speed of 478 mph on a flat road. His
range is 630 miles. His hood-mounted infrared rangefinder automatically targets
his roof-mounted dual lasers, which he also uses in robot mode.

Weaknesses: Chromedome does not travel well on rough surfaces in car
mode. Stylor’s preoccupations with himself often impede Chromedome’s effectiveness,
particularly during combat.

ALLEGIANCE: DECEPTICON
FUNCTION: SWEEP LEADER

FIRST APPEARANCE: THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE # 1

“Desolation follows in my trail.”

Profile: Scourge is the most fearsome and implacable hunter-destroyer
created by Unicron from the wreckage of dead Decepticons. Scourge is leader
of “The Sweeps,” a specially created wolf pack of tracker-terminators
designed by Unicron to hunt down and eradicate Autobots and their human allies.

Abilities: Scourge is possessed of scanning and locating equipment,
which can detect machine or human presence even if it is as small as an amoeba
in the ocean or a wind-up toy in the Sahara desert. And he is merciless and
capable of using such weapons as acid rays, which dissolve his targets, laser
blasters, disintegrator beams, and assorted demolition and fusion devices in
eliminating his prey. He can transform to a scouring vehicle, a marauding automotive
mode which handles any terrain and scans for “survivors.”

Weaknesses: Scourge’s only weakness is his arrogance.

ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
FUNCTION: WARRIOR
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 1

“Strike first, strike fast, strike hard.”

Profile: “Let me at ’em” is Cliffjumper’s usual response when
the Autobots embark on a mission. His eagerness and daring have no equal among
the Autobots. Optimus Prime knows this gung-ho trait is an expression of Cliffjumper’s
burning desire for vengeance on the Decepticons. Although he takes his work
very seriously, Cliffjumper is full of good-natured bravado while he’s doing
it. He doesn’t actively dislike Earth, but he considers its rough, uneven terrain
a hindrance to his effectiveness, and too often is carelessly destructive. Often
he is on the receiving end of a lecture from Optimus on caution and the protection
of Earthen property.

Abilities: Cliffjumper is one of the fastest of the Autobots, in his
automobile mode, and he makes a particularly effective target for drawing fire
away from other Autobots, a job he relishes and seldom gets hurt doing. He can
fire projectiles filled with what he calls “glass gas.” On impact,
this gas disrupts the microscopic crystalline structure of most metals, temporarily
making the metal as brittle as common glass.

Weaknesses: Cliffjumper is prone to literal blow-outs in his automobile
mode. He accelerates so quickly and recklessly that he is sometimes disabled
before he goes 50 yards. His overeagerness can often lead him into dangerous
situations that he’s not prepared to handle. And sometimes, if the wind is blowing
toward him, he can fall victim to his own glass gas.

ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
SUB-GROUP: HEADMASTER
HUMAN COMPONENT: ARCANA

FUNCTION: BIOMECHANICAL ENGINEER
FIRST APPEARANCE: HEADMASTERS # 1 (Brainstorm), HEADMASTERS # 2 (Arcana)

“The strongest tyrant cannot crush freedom of thought.”

Profile: Brainstorm is so full of ideas that often he’s disclosing the
next one before he’s finished explaining the first. His mind seems to work at
a fevered pace. Even when he’s not consciously applying himself to thinking
creatively, a part of his subconscious circuitry proceeds on its own – he often
interrupts conversations, battles, even himself with typically irrelevant, but
brilliant, pronouncements. On Cybertron, he felt unappreciated, since warriors
were valued far more than robot geniuses. He’s found Nebulos to be more fertile
ground in which to plant his ideas. His most significant contribution so far
has been devising a way to install the humanoid Nebulans into headless Autobots
to create the Headmasters.

Arcana’s genius is a bit more mysterious. Trained as a medical doctor, the
Nebulan quickly rose to the top of his field, but he found his job unchallenging,
so he turned his attentions to studying the ancient lore of Nebulos. He became
learned in many sciences that had long been repudiated, which earned him the
disfavor of many of his medical colleagues. Arcana combined some of that ancient
knowledge with his modern medical skills to bio-engineer Nebulans, including
himself, so they could transform and become the heads of the Autobot Headmasters.
Working with Brainstorm, Arcana made Fortress Maximus’s vision of the Headmasters
a reality. He is the oldest Nebulan among the Autobot Headmasters, and the wisest.
He is also the most remote – no one truly can fathom the workings of Arcana’s
mind, not even Brainstorm, who shares it.

Abilities: In jet mode, Brainstorm has two solid-fuel after-burning
turbofan jet engines that propel him to a maximum speed of 5200 mph. He carries
two high-energy photon pulse cannons on either side of his nose module, which
he can also use in robot mode. His range is 8000 miles.

Weaknesses: Brainstorm’s mind sometimes works so fast that he overheats
and shorts out sections of his cerebro-circuitry, which often leaves him disabled.
In jet mode, his engines are also prone to overheating. If driven too hard,
they burst into flame. If Brainstorm is lucky, he can manage to glide back to
the ground without crashing.