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, has Kup, 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 ladbot 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.

"Every place reminds you of someplace else."

- Hot Rod to Kup


 * Japanese name: Chear (チャー, chaa)
 * French-Canadian name: Kaisso
 * Italian name: Blitz, Char (Headmasters dub only)
 * Hungarian name: Kup -- Zsaru (Cop) in one of the dubs of The Movie.

Animated 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 rigging 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.

Following the events of the movie, Kup served as an advisor 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. I'm 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.

Headmasters anime
Kup and Fortress were old friends.

Generation 1

 * (Note: Events in italics occurred only in the Marvel UK books.)

''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 to eventually take him. He was shaken out of his misery when he crossed paths with a pair of Tyroxian fighters attempted to destroy a lone spacecraft. Spurred into action, Kup disabled the pursuers and brought the hunted pilot on-board, surprisingly finding him to be a fellow Autobot, 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 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 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' troop 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' 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' 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 decided to quit Nebulos and travel to Earth in search of other Transformers. The crew of 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 advisors. 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.)

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.


 * (Note: In an aside, Teletraan 10 boggles over the fact that Kup's weapon is a musket laser that fires hydrochloric acid over 8km, which makes absolutely no sense to her. Or anyone but Bob Budiansky, probably.)

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

At some point, he 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.

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, but (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.

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.