Kup (G1)


 * Kup is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.



Kup is a tough old coot. He's almost as old as rust, in fact, and he was plinking Decepticons and Ick-Yaks with acid bursts from his trusty musket laser long before most of you turbo-revvin' young punks were born. In his day, lasers didn't need to use light; they did whatever they were told to do. And liked it.

He's probably had a thousand adventures, Kup has, and he'll be glad to relate a story of any one of them at any time to a willing audience. The Dinobots love Kup's war stories, lapping it up like cheap Energon, and don't seem to mind when he inadvertently leaves a piece out or changes the story between retellings. Old memory chips'll do that to you. Other Autobots can be less patient, and Kup finds this disrespectful and irritating. If there's one thing Kup dislikes, it's when young punks don't respect their elders. If they'd only listen, they might learn something. Hot Rod is one of the worst offenders in this way, but he's a good lad-bot, and Kup will straighten him out sooner or later, even if it takes a tank of Sharkticons.

Occasionally, Kup's vast experience gets in his way. When a situation doesn't remind him of anything, he has trouble figuring out what to do. This doesn't happen very often though.

"Every place reminds you of someplace else."

- Hot Rod to Kup


 * Japanese name: Chear (チャー, chaa, except for "The Rebirth")
 * French-Canadian name: Kaisso


 * Hungarian name: Kup — (Űr)Zsaru ["(Space)Cop"] in one of the dubs of The Movie.
 * Italian name: Blitz / Char (Headmasters dub only)
 * Russian TV dub name: Vorchoon ("Grumbler")

Cartoon continuity

 * Voice Actor: Lionel Stander → John Stephenson (US), Osamu Saka (Japan)



Known aliases in this continuity: Teaspoon

Though it is not yet established when Kup joined the Earth-bound Autobots, he was stationed at Autobot City during the 2005 invasion by the Decepticons. He was supervising construction efforts undertaken by Huffer and other workers when this work was interrupted by an impetuous drive-through by Hot Rod. Kup was determined to straighten out the adventure-seeking youth.

After the Decepticons began their attack, Kup and Hot Rod were trapped outside of Autobot City's fortress-like defenses. Thanks to an attempted hull breach by the Insecticons, Kup and Hot Rod entered a small gap in one of Autobot City's heavy blast doors. In the process, Kup crunched Kickback's skull by running over it.

Inside the city, Kup and Hot Rod joined Arcee and Springer in shoving an explosives launcher into place to help defend against the might of Devastator. With the arrival of Optimus Prime the next day, the tide of battle was turned and the Decepticons were defeated—but at a terrible price.



Even as the Autobots began to pick up the pieces, they came under assault from a group of powerful, unfamiliar Decepticons and had to escape in their remaining shuttles. Once they were safely away, Kup passed the time during the trip by telling the Dinobots stories of his past (or complete fabrications, it's hard to tell). When the new Decepticons caught up to them again and attacked, Kup and Hot Rod crash-landed on Quintessa, where they narrowly escaped being sentenced to death. He was finally struck dumb by the sight of Unicron attacking Cybertron, apparently having never experienced anything quite like it before.

Following the events in the year 2005, Kup served as an adviser to the newly minted Rodimus Prime. He taught him about giri. Actually, he didn't really...he sort of stood on the sidelines making wise commentary about the kid's problems while Roddy went through it on his own. We're sure it helped in its own way, though.

Years later, on the planet Nebulos, Kup encountered the Nebulan resistance against the Hive. Using Targetmaster technology stolen from the Decepticons, Kup was partnered with the Nebulan Recoil, who apparently then chewed his ear off about their leader, Optimus Prime.

The Headmasters anime
Kup and Fortress were old friends. He left with Rodimus to find a new home, along with Blurr. Poor guy.

Generation 1


''Several hundred years ago, Kup became afflicted with combat fatigue, a loss of nerves and will brought on by too many millions of years of non-stop fighting. Considering himself a liability to the Autobot cause, Kup went into "retirement", wandering space alone in his starship, waiting for the end eventually to take him. He was shaken out of his misery when he crossed paths with a pair of Tyroxian fighters attempting to destroy a lone spacecraft. Spurred into action, Kup disabled the pursuers and brought the hunted pilot on-board, and was surprised to finding he was a fellow Autobot named Hot Rod. Hot Rod was thrilled to have found aid and eagerly tried to recruit Kup into helping him return to Tyroxia and save his comrade Blurr, but Kup wasn't interested in getting involved any further, and he only agreed to take Hot Rod back to Cybertron. The young punk reprogrammed the ship's navigation computers, though, and landed on Tyroxia to rescue Blurr by himself. Kup was finally shaken out of his funk when he realized that Hot Rod represented everything he used to be, and he single-handedly saved Hot Rod and Blurr from their Tyroxian tormentors. His fighting spirit restored, Kup returned to Cybertron with the two Autobots and joined Fortress Maximus's troops alongside his new allies. ''

When Fortress Maximus became disheartened by the never-ending cycle of violence on Cybertron, he made plans to escape the war and set up a new life on the planet Nebulos. Kup and many of his top warriors chose to follow their leader to this new world aboard the starship Steelhaven. Tragically, a series of incidents and misunderstandings brought the Autobots and Nebulans to the brink of war within days of their arrival. Kup was all for forcibly teaching the Nebulans some manners, but Fortress Maximus forbade it. In a desperate attempt to show their true intentions, Fort Max, Kup and several others disarmed themselves in front of the Nebulan gates. Furthermore, Fortress Maximus and four of his lieutenants beheaded themselves and agreed to leave their lifeless heads and bodies, as well as their various weapons, in Nebulan custody so that serious peace talks could be conducted. Kup took over command of the Autobot wilderness camp in Fortress Maximus's absence.

Matters quickly deteriorated after the arrival of the Decepticons, and two factions of Nebulans joined with both Autobots and Decepticons through bio-mechanical engineering to become Headmasters. Events turned against the Autobots as Lord Zarak, the Nebulan politician binary-bonded to Decepticon leader Scorponok, was able to sway public opinion in favor of the Decepticons, labeling the Autobots as renegades and taking their Headmasters prisoner. Some Nebulans remained loyal to Fortress Maximus's partner, Galen, and traveled to the Autobot camp to forge an alliance. Making use of a new form of bio-mechanical engineering, Kup and the other weaponless Autobots were teamed with Nebulan Targetmasters to replace their lost guns. Kup personally was teamed with Recoil. As the conflict continued, though, both camps of Nebulans began to realize the devastation they were causing to their homeworld, and they decided to quit Nebulos and travel to Earth in search of other Transformers. The crew of the Steelhaven soon found themselves linked with the Ark ' s Autobots and under the overall command of Optimus Prime.

Kup soon took over as Prime's head of security aboard the Ark and one of his top advisers. As a result, it fell on Kup to tell Optimus he was screwing up and losing the troops' support. Optimus Prime listened to him long and hard...and proceeded to surrender the entire Autobot army to Scorponok. (Way to go, Kup. Prime would've at least pretended to consider Ironhide's suggestions.)

In an alternate future of 2009, the Autobots were overwhelmed by the forces of evil. Unicron consumed Cybertron utterly, and Earth came under heavy fire from Galvatron and his Decepticon legions. Kup and Blurr were personally executed by Cyclonus and Scourge.

Marvel UK future timelines
''In 2003, Kup was given the job of decoying the Decepticons over the plans for Autobot City. Ultra Magnus needed to get the plans to Earth's various governments unimpeded, while also taking steps to ensure the Decepticons would not get in the way of the Autobot efforts to build the city. So, he made an open and showy display of tasking Kup with being the courier that would bring the information to the humans. Sure enough, the Decepticon spy Ravage overheard those plans and sent the Stunticons out to intercept the old Autobot. Despite Hot Rod's good-intentioned efforts to stop them, the Stunticons made off with the fake plans, secure in their knowledge that they now knew the secrets of Autobot City. Kup was also present at the grand opening of the city a year later. ''

''After the attack on Autobot City in 2006, Kup, Hot Rod and Blurr received a psychic prodding from Unicron, alerting them to Galvatron's travel through the timestream back to 1986. Using Galvatron's own time-jump mechanisms, the Autobot trio followed him back into the past, mass-displacing Shockwave, Thundercracker and Frenzy in the process. Apparently reaching an instinctive conclusion that Galvatron could never be returned to the future by force, Kup and his comrades conspired with the Ultra Magnus of 1986 to trick the Decepticon into returning of his own volition.''

''As Ultra Magnus kept Galvatron busy, the future trio made arrangements to discourage him from staying. When he returned to his base, Galvatron found his henchmen knocked unconscious and his super-weapon rigged to explode. Once it did, he was confronted with a taunting Starscream claiming credit, and he was egged into blowing the treacherous Decepticon into smithereens. Believing Starscream's death at this juncture altered history, making his actions in 1986 part of an alternate timeline that wouldn't affect his own future, Galvatron reluctantly gave up his plans, picked up his goons, and returned to the future. Kup and his comrades, having successfully framed Starscream and driven Galvatron away, returned to 2006 themselves soon after. ''



''After Unicron was defeated in 2006 and Hot Rod rose to become Rodimus Prime, Galvatron went missing. Unable to accept the Decepticon leader was truly dead without seeing the body, Rodimus Prime went searching for him with Kup and Blurr. Unfortunately, his lax attention to Cybertron gave the new Decepticon commander, Shockwave, time to consolidate the army under his control and begin the war anew. Rodimus was forced to return to Cybertron empty-handed, and he only made matters worse when he rashly took out a 10,000-shanix reward for any bounty hunter who could find Galvatron for him. This led to a freelance peacekeeping agent named Death's Head traveling back in time to 1987, where he had learned Galvatron had escaped after the battle with Unicron. Realizing that a trigger-happy mercenary messing with the timestream was just as dangerous as Galvatron could ever be, Rodimus arranged a time-jump to clean up his mess, taking Kup, Blurr and Wreck-Gar back to 1987 along with him. ''

''In the past, the future Autobots once again found the 20th-century Ultra Magnus fighting with Galvatron, as the Decepticon leader attempted to extract vast amounts of energy from a volcano. Mere seconds after locating Galvatron and engaging him in combat, however, Kup and Blurr were knocked off-line when Galvatron hurled Ultra Magnus's beaten body at them. After regrouping, the Autobots concocted a plan to steal Galvatron's time-jump mechanism and rewire it to propel them all back to their proper place and time. While Kup and the others distracted Galvatron, Wreck-Gar and Rodimus Prime attempted to make the proper modifications. In the end, however, only the Autobots were launched back to the future; Galvatron had modified the device so that the temporal backlash did not affect him, and he stayed in the past. ''

''In 2008, Kup was on hand to witness a full-scale Decepticon assault at Autobase on Cybertron. He fought alongside Rodimus Prime and the other Autobots and, when Rodimus traveled to the planet of Junk to deal with Unicron (the cause behind the Decepticon offensive), Kup stepped up to lead the remaining Autobot forces alongside Ultra Magnus until Soundwave sounded a retreat and the Decepticons fled. Later that year, Autobot City was attacked by Quintessons, and the deactivated Autobots were hung out on the outer walls as a warning for any would-be rescuers. Kup came to Earth with Rodimus Prime and crew to deal with the usurpers, and he led an advance team of Blurr, Smokescreen and Wide Load in searching the complex. They were caught in a heated battle with the Quintessons' shock troopers, but managed to hold their own long enough for Roddy to reach the control center and activate Metroplex himself. Resistance faltered rather quickly after that. ''

''As time passed, the long-term effects of Galvatron's presence in the past became overwhelming. A full-on time storm began brewing at both ends of the timeline, 1989 and 2009. In order to set the universe back on the right course, Rodimus Prime and Kup chose to travel back in time with Blurr, Arcee, Ultra Magnus and Red Alert to retrieve Galvatron. No, really, for sure this time. Problem was, this time their mass-displacement upon arrival took out 1989's Optimus Prime and several fellow Autobots, leading to more than a little consternation among their 20th-century counterparts. Fortress Maximus, guided by his neophyte Headmaster partner, Spike Witwicky, jumped to the conclusion that Optimus was dead and led his Autobots into battle with Rodimus and his group. Kup didn't fare too well at trying to fight Grimlock hand-to-hand, but soon cooler heads prevailed, and the Autobots joined forces not only with each other, but with a pair of detachments from the 1989 and 2009 Decepticon camps as well.''



''As the various groups tracked down Galvatron, they were shocked to find that not only had he joined forces with Megatron, but that the two of them had laid waste to the Cybertronian teams of the Autobot Wreckers and the Decepticon Mayhem Attack Squad. Kup joined Arcee and Ultra Magnus in trying to gun down Megatron, but was batted aside by the Decepticon's fusion cannon and lay unconscious, out of the battle for the rest of the conflict. Still, Galvatron was ultimately destroyed in battle with Optimus Prime and consumed wholly by the timestorm, restoring the timestream to a stable place. Kup and the other 2009 Autobots gathered together and prepared to return home to their lives. ''

It didn't quite work out that way.

''Back in 2009, the Autobots were horrified to find that Galvatron waited for them on Cybertron. It seemed the restoration of the timeline prevented Galvatron from having ever traveled back in time, and thus he had been present at the Decepticons' side for the last few years, which considerably altered the war effort in their favor. In the new 21st century, Galvatron and the Decepticons virtually controlled Cybertron, and only a few token bands of Autobot resistance remained on their home planet. Kup and the returnees adjusted as best they could, but the odds were hopelessly against them. The resistance on Cybertron ended when Galvatron and his men ransacked a resistance station, killing Blurr and the other Autobots present. Galvatron mutilated the corpses to drive Rodimus Prime into a killing frenzy, hoping to corrupt the Matrix itself through its host. Indeed, Kup and Arcee began experiencing fire in the depths of their souls before they managed to talk down Rodimus. The Autobots of Cybertron were then forced to flee the world entirely. ''

''On their voyage back to Earth and Autobot City, the Autobot shuttlecraft had just entered hyperspace when Pincher and Doubleheader alerted Kup to a problem: sabotage. Someone had killed a guard and torn up the engine room, damaging the guidance systems so that the ship would be flying blind when they came out of warp into who-knows-what. Sure enough, the ship materialized too close to Earth, and another bit of sabotage prevented the emergency retros from stopped their descent. It was going to be a heavy hit. What's worse, Kup's efforts to isolate the Decepticon life-signs of their saboteur turned up a nasty truth: No additional life signs were present on the shuttle. The saboteur was an Autobot! After failing to locate Rodimus Prime during the time the sabotage was being committed, Kup had a sinking feeling and set up a ruse to test Prime. When Arcee left to try and enter the sealed retro room through the air vents, Kup told Rodimus she was actually going to sneak through the coolant tanks. Fortunately for their landing, Arcee succeeded just in time. Unfortunately for...well, everything else, Kup was right: Rodimus Prime was the saboteur, possessed by the pure malevolence of Unicron, which had taken up residence inside the Matrix sometime ago. Apparently Galvatron's efforts to corrupt Rodimus back on Cybertron had jarred loose enough evil for Unicron to take hold on Rodimus Prime's consciousness. ''

''Battling the power of the Matrix influenced by the Devil himself, the Autobots were sorely outmatched against Rodimus. Despite Arcee's urgings, Kup desperately searched for another option besides lethal force. In the short term, Kup seemed to be correct: Rodimus managed to fight back Unicron's evil, caging it inside the Matrix long enough for Kup to remove the object from Rodimus's chest, temporarily severing their link. In the long term, however, the threat was far from over. Rodimus would again be consumed by evil in 2010, this time metamorphosing into Unicron reborn for a time, before caging the evil again. Kup and Arcee were present at this second rise of Unicron, but their ultimate fate is unknown. It is telling, however, that Rodimus Prime appears to be beaten, ill, and totally alone by the time of 2356. ''

Generation 2
After the Autobot army splintered throughout the universe, Kup was working alongside Optimus Prime and Hot Rod when Grimlock summoned them for help. This led into a protracted war with the Liege Centuro and his Cybertronians.

Dreamwave comics continuity
During the Cybertronian War's earlier years, a young Kup served alongside Ironhide and Wheeljack under the command of Grimlock. He appeared to be the only one who would speak up against Grimlock. When Optimus Prime and Megatron disappeared in a prototype Space Bridge accident, Kup followed his unit to the Lightning Strike Coalition offshoot of the Autobot faction.

Along with Arcee, Blaster, Hot Rod and Wheelie, Kup was part of a resistance group during Shockwave's control of Cybertron. Their group managed to find Optimus Prime, but Prime's first sight was the frightening Gnaw, and he had to be restrained. When Hot Rod pulled a weapon on the startled Autobot leader, Kup smacked the turbo-revvin' punk upside his head. God, what is wrong with that kid? After linking up with the former Ark crew and having a touching reunion with Ironhide, the Autobots managed to overthrow Shockwave's regime, bringing the planet under Autobot control.

Teletraan Go! Go! mini-comics


Kup stopped a feisty Wheelie from annoying Teletraan 15. When she thanked him, he recognized her, gave her a big old spine-cracking hug, reminisced about the time with the giant Ick-Yaks, realized he actually had no idea who she was, and drove off.

IDW comics continuity
Kup is extremely old. In years past, he'd trained dozens of Autobots, including Prowl, Springer, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Hot Rod, and even Optimus Prime.



Shortly after Thunderwing's first apocalyptic assault, the besieged Autobots prepared for the big push against their positions by the Decepticons. Kup was in a trench alongside Broadside, Huffer, and the injured Getaway, waiting for Blaster's morale-boosting broadcast to the Autobot forces, a transmission that never came.

At some point after Cybertron was abandoned, Kup and Outback crash-landed on a mysterious planet covered with radioactive crystals. Over time, Kup was slowly driven insane from the radiation. He talked to the dead corpse of Outback as though he were still alive (and used his disembodied arm as a club) and believed that zombies were attacking him when he shut down for the night. In reality, these zombies were fellow Autobots sent to rescue him, and Kup killed several of them before Springer managed to get a specialist in to extract the aging Autobot. Unfortunately, due to the damage Kup sustained from the radiation, his incompatibility with modern Transformers tech due to his age and stubborn unwillingness to upgrade, and a near-meltdown of his spark, he was placed on life support upon arriving aboard Ark-17, and it was unknown if he would ever recover, physically or mentally.

Springer eventually reported to Optimus Prime that Kup's physical injuries had been repaired, but the state of his mind was still in question.

It was made clear that Kup was restored to seemingly full mental and physical operating capacity, and given a position of leadership in the Autobot ranks.

The Decepticons ambushed Kup's crew in their ship above Ceybertron causing the Autobots to crash-land on the planet's surface with little hope of finding any way off planet.

Kup and his crew discovered that another band of Autobots led by Jazz had been stranded on Cybertron as well who were tending to a badly wounded Optimus Prime and otherwise surviving.

Once the two teams of Autobots joined forced, Kup led the combined forces for several issues of considerable amounts of dialog and lamentation over their current condition as Ratchet worked to save Optimus Prime.

The Autobots soon learned that they were not alone on Cybertron, and were being stalked by the Swarm, an army of apparent rejects from the process of Insecticon creation. Deciding to move to a more secure location, Kup led the Autobots across a chasm where a series of events led to Sunstreaker sacrificing himself to block the Swarm after revealing that he had betrayed the Autobots.

Upon the Autobots had crossed the chasm and set up their new base, Kup remained in charge of the Autobots until Ratchet was able to suddenly and inexplicably restore Optimus Prime to perfect working order.

Generation 1

 * Kup (Autobot, 1986)
 * Japanese ID number: C-82




 * Kup transforms into a Cybertronic pickup truck (though how he is able to carry goods safely with no tailgate is a mystery). The entire front of the vehicle (including the windshield) is made out of die-cast metal. In robot mode, Kup has full shoulder rotation, though the way his elbows are set up means he cannot make full use of their joints. He (somewhat) makes up for it with swivel wrists. His legs feature no articulation whatsoever. Maybe Hot Rod left a piece out. He is armed with a blue laser rifle. Early releases of Kup had metal rear wheels, while later releases replaced them with black plastic.


 * Kup (Targetmaster, 1987)
 * Japanese ID number: C-113


 * Kup (this time using all-plastic parts rather than die-cast) was slightly retooled with larger fist-holes and a mounting point on his vehicle mode back-end in order to make him into a Targetmaster. He came with his Nebulan partner Recoil rather than his original blaster.


 * Future Cybertron (Transformers Collection, 2005)
 * Japanese ID number: TF-20


 * Targetmaster Kup was reissued in Japan, and like the "Transformers Collection" reissue of Hot Rod, he came with his original metal parts restored, as well as both his partner Recoil and his original gun, which was slightly retooled to fit the larger weapon-mounting points. The set also came with a redecoed Wheelie.


 * This iteration of the mold was used to make Orion Pax.

Timelines

 * Elite Guard Kup (Botcon Exclusive, 2009)


 * Kup was repainted from the Cybertron Red Alert toy and given a new headsculpt to convey a younger version of the character.

Trivia

 * Check out the Kup toy's chest-sticker...it's got a pair of 5 1/4-inch floppy disk drives on it. Apparently, he can store up to two extra Transformers' brains.


 * In the Japanese Binaltech Asterisk online manga, a little lost kitty was rescued from certain death (well, being stuck in a tree) by Ai Kuruma and Red Alert. That kitty was named Cha (Kup's Japanese name).


 * Kup was given an homage in the Cybertron toy line in the form of Brakedown GTS, a "powered-up" redeco of that series' cantankerous old coot character, with the colors changed to resemble Kup's. Brakedown's vehicle mode also resembles Kup's Cybertronian vehicle mode from the War Within comic series.


 * He claims on his MySpace page (see External links) that he's a Pisces. It is best to remember, however, that at the time he wrote this, he was utterly insane.