ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
FUNCTION: WARRIOR
FIRST APPEARANCE: –

“One being’s junk is another’s art.”

Profile: The more seemingly worthless a gadget, the more Pipes is fascinated
by it. And he finds Earth a veritable gold mine of worthless gadgetry: carrot
juicers, musical wristwatches, electric hair combers – the capacity of the human
imagination never ceases to amaze Pipes! He is so enthralled by all this that
he now collects these artifacts, creating a sort of mini-museum of American
consumerism in an unused corner of the Ark. Pipes doesn’t allow his hobby to
interfere with his responsibilities to the Autobot struggle – at least not usually.
Even while on a mission, he’s been known to pull over to the curb and enviously
ogle a human walking by using a hand-held, portable electric fan. Pipes explains,
“The true collector never knows when or where he’ll discover his next treasure.”

Abilities: In vehicle mode, Pipes can travel 100 mph, has a range of
400 miles and can haul up to 60 tons. His twin exhaust pipes, which become his
arms in robot mode, emit corrosive gases that can dissolve a 2-inch thick slab
of steel in 10 minutes. He is among the strongest of the Autobots.

Weaknesses: Pipes is fairly tough, but even a mere scratch to his corrosion-resistant
armor leaves him vulnerable to the destructive effects of his own exhaust gases.
Often, in the heat of battle, Pipes is unaware of such blemishes and, consequently,
sometimes succumbs to his own weapon.

ALLEGIANCE: DECEPTICON
SUB-GROUP: SEACON

FUNCTION: UNDERSEA EXCAVATIONS
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 47

“Blame someone else before they blame you.”

Profile: Despite his fierce appearance and formidable weaponry, Nautilator
is actually a stumbling, bumbling amphibious foul-up. Originally a land-based
warrior, he underwent adaptive reconstructive surgery for oceanic combat on
Cybertron without ever being tested to see if he had an aptitude for the undersea
environment. Once he joined the Seacons, it became apparent to everyone that
he liked that environment – he just wasn’t very capable within it. His fellow
Seacons have had to haul his chassis out of tidal undertows more times than
they care to admit. Some of them secretly whisper, “Let him drown,”
whenever he calls them for help nowadays. They’re also fed up with having to
retrieve him – almost every time he goes on one of his underwater exploratory
excavation missions, he usually gets lost. And to make relations with his comrades
even worse, he’s always quick to blame them for his mistakes. But there are
very good reasons why the Seacons usually come to Nautilator’s aid, as Snaptrap
explains, “If he didn’t bring back an occasional lost nuclear bomb from
the ocean bottom, we’d have left him down there to rust a long time ago.”

Abilities: In his lobster mode, Nautilator uses chemical, thermal, electrical,
magnetic, seismic and sonic sensors located in his legs and tail to search for
and detect underwater fuel deposits and other materials useful to the Decepticon
cause. His claws have an unbreakable grip and can pierce the thickest of ship
hulls with minimal effort. He wields a triple crusher cannon, a weapon that
shoots energon bands that encircle and trap their target, tightening around
it until only rubble remains. He can mount the cannon on his mouth, convert
to weapons mode and use it in a stationary position, or use it on land in robot
mode. In weapons mode, he can also convert it to a torpedo cannon. He combines
with his fellow Seacons to form the super-robot Piranacon.

Weaknesses: Nautilator suffers from a defective gyroscopic circuit center,
which accounts for his poor navigational skills. He also rusts relatively easily,
and can stay underwater for no longer than 4 hours without suffering damage.

ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
FUNCTION: DATA COURIER
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE # 1

“The faster it is, the better I like it.”

Profile: Blurr is the fastest Autobot in motion and in conversation.
He talks non-stop and continuously – if no one tells him to put a sock in it.
And he is a superior messenger because he can whisk information from one place
to another so fast that he is a blur in motion – hence his name – and almost
a blur in giving his report until he’s told to slow it down to a thousand words
a minute or something somebody can understand. He is rather nervous and high-strung…
not unusual for an Autobot who sometimes seems to be part-thoroughbred Cybertronic
race horse (if there were such a thing). But he is courageous and loyal and
determined to do what’s required whether or not it’s dangerous.

Abilities: In robot mode, he carries an electro-laser that reverses
the polarity of an enemy robot’s microcircuits and leaves him motionless. His
humanoid mode is built for speed – and he looks longer and leaner than most
Autobots. When he’s in his vehicular mode, he is a racing car that routinely
breaks the speed of sound and then some, leaving a trailing image as it hurtles
across distances.

ALLEGIANCE: DECEPTICON
SUB-GROUP: HEADMASTER
HUMAN COMPONENT: SPASMA

FUNCTION: SABOTEUR
FIRST APPEARANCE: HEADMASTERS # 1 (Apeface), HEADMASTERS # 2 (Spasma)

“Obnoxiousness is not a problem, it is an art.”

Profile: Pounding loudly on his chest plates to announce his latest
success is perhaps the least obnoxious of Apeface’s habits. He’s also known
for insulting everyone he talks to, clumsily knocking over anyone in his way
without apologizing, never changing his lubricant so he smells like a grease-encrusted
turboworm, and spitting fuel in public. He revels in the reactions others have
to his undesirable antics. What little imagination he has in his cerebro-circuits
he devotes to devising new gross-outs. One would think he wouldn’t be too popular
with his fellow Decepticons, but actually the opposite is true. He is the ultimate
team player. When he’s called upon to do a job, he puts aside the pranks and
gets down to work. Many think that his slobbish personality is just a disguise
he puts on to cover the cool professional underneath. Then again, many others
think he acts like a cool professional only to obscure the fact that he really
is a slob.

When his mind is merged with that of Spasma, the Nebulan to whom he is binary-bonded,
Apeface’s behavior is often even more repellent. Spasma was the nervous, insecure
son of a despised and bankrupt noble family. Seeing his father’s failed footsteps
as the only path that lay before him heightened Spasma’s feelings of worthlessness,
which manifested itself in his screechy, staccato manner of speech. He saw the
chance to become a powerful Decepticon Headmaster as a way of erasing his feelings
of inadequacy. Instead, now thrust into situations fraught with dangers, Spasma
worries more than ever. His speech is even worse, almost unintelligible at times,
and now, on his own, he walks as herky-jerkily as he talks.

Abilities: In jet mode, twin liquid hydrogen-fueled jet engines enable
Apeface to reach speeds of 3250 mph. He can emit powerful jamming frequencies
from his nose cone, which he uses mainly as a defensive measure to disorient
approaching enemy aircraft. Otherwise, he has no offensive capabilities in jet
mode. Apeface primarily uses his jet mode to transport himself to the site of
his mission objective, where he transforms to his ape mode. In this form, he
possesses great strength and agility, which he uses to great effect in climbing
about and sabotaging enemy installations. In robot mode, he wields a semi-automatic
sonic boomer, which emits wave after wave of concentrated sound energy.

Weaknesses: Lack of offensive weapons makes him fairly vulnerable in
jet mode. Spasma’s often erratic leadership dangerously delays Apeface from
reacting to enemy attack.

Play.com have added Classic Optimus Prime and Megatron to their site, and are now just waiting for the stock to arrive.

IDW have released their October 06 Solicitations, and there are plenty of Transformers offerings

Transformers.com has uploaded some official in-package images of wave 1 of the Transformers Classics line, due for release in November 2006. The images can be seen here.