ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
FUNCTION: CAVALIER

FIRST APPEARANCE: THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE # 1

“My actions speak louder than words.”

Profile: Hot Rod is the all-American-boy Autobot. Not too sweet, not
too sharp, not too snotty… not a goodie-goodie, but basically a typical adolescent
who has dreams of doing great stuff and being as heroic and important as Optimus
Prime and other famous and revered top Autobots. He tends to follow rules until
they bug him – and he sometimes learns, to his regret, that disobeying wasn’t
exactly smart. And he often acts without thinking in an effort to do the right
thing – and this gets him and sometimes his friends in trouble. But he’s not
afraid when trouble does arrive and is a brave and honorable fighter and friend.
He is especially close to Kup, the grizzled old mentor of an Autobot, although
he sometimes resents hearing “wisdom.” And he likes Daniel, the Earth
kid, a lot. (In a way, Hot Rod is big brother to Daniel – a role model – and
Hot Rod knows it and takes the responsibility seriously.) In robot or automotive
mode, Hot Rod is sometimes hot-headed, but always a well-meaning, admirable
“lad” and popular with all who know him.

Abilities: He carries two photon lasers that temporarily electromagnetize
an enemy robot’s microcircuits. Speed: 120 mph. Range: 4 miles.

Weaknesses: Hot Rod’s impulsive actions often get him into trouble.

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: 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.