Broadside (G1)


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



Broadside is a huge loser. He's the forgotten Autobot Triple Changer who turns into either a tiny aircraft carrier and a jet, or an impossibly large "jet" and an aircraft carrier. Broadside also happens to be terrified of heights. And gets seasick on the water.

His life must suuuuuuck.

Fortunately, as one of the Wreckers, Broadside is almost constantly shooting the slag out of Decepticons, which is probably a good outlet for any frustration.


 * Italian name: Mistral
 * French-Canadian name: Navalo

Marvel Comics continuity
Broadside was present to watch Blaster and Grimlock duke it out on the moon.

''Broadside appeared as part of the Wreckers commanded by Springer on Cybertron, while they were been attacked at their Kalis base by the Legion of the Lost. Following the Time Wars, Broadside become one of the Survivors.''

Cartoon continuity

 * Voice actor: Bill Martin (US), Masashi Ebara (Japan)

Dreamwave comics continuity
During the first arc of Optimus Prime's tenure as leader of the Autobots, Broadside was an enormous warrior, as tall as the special combiner teams, and supposedly nearly as powerful. He helped defend the Autobot capital of Iacon.

A few thousand years after that, Broadside, now the size of a standard Transformer, is a member of the Wreckers fighting in the Tagan Heights. Most notably he organized the evacuation of his team when Devastator and Defensor were decimating the area. Possibly, Broadside had himself reduced after the signing of the Crisis Intervention Accords to keep his combat status nominal.

IDW Comics continuity
Broadside was there. He saw it happen. The conquest of Kaon. The fall of a Prime. The beginning of the Great War. Broadside was there, and amazingly well armed for such a 'peaceful' period, though perhaps he took a clue from Sentinel Prime. Either way, the huge old bot was one of the survivors who managed to evacuate before Megatron's takeover.

Presently, Broadside is a member of the elite combat unit "The Wreckers." Broadside appears to be the team's strongarm, and is second only to Roadbuster for total armament. He is also quite large (easily the tallest Wrecker), solving some of the issues of his mass-shifting. Typically in the air he worked alongside Whirl and Sandstorm, while on the ground he worked with Roadbuster and Scoop. He appears not to have the animated continuity version's phobias. But then, there isn't really time to complain when an omnicidal Pretender is trying to kill you.

Generation 1

 * Broadside (1986)
 * Japanese ID number: C-85


 * Broadside is the most blatantly out-of-scale Transformers ever. He transforms into an aircraft carrier, and a rather unconvincing apparently-aircraft carrier-sized jet fighter. He carries a rifle and a (comparably) small axe as weapons in robot mode.

Trivia

 * Broadside has the distinction of having two animated character models, one based on a prototype toy that apparently went just short of production for some reason, and one based on the actual toy. The prototype design - which was used for the 1986 box mural, Carnage in C-Minor and his Marvel Comics appearances, albeit with a different coloration - features a head with antennae and a red humanoid face which appears to mounted on a horizontal pivot of some kind within the section of the aircraft carrier that folds back.


 * According to Carnage in C-Minor, Broadside has quite a temper when it comes to his paint job.


 * His italian name, Mistral, refers to a French Navy helicopter carrier and the Maserati Mistral, a Grand Prix car, not Chilean woman poet, Gabriela Mistral.