Thundercracker (G1)


 * Thundercracker is a Decepticon character in the Generation 1 continuity family.



Thundercracker claims the skies as his arena. He looks down in contempt on those who cannot leave the ground -- he considers them lesser beings. He will often attack the flightless beings below him for no other reason than to satisfy his scorn.

His superiority in this realm is the only thing he is sure of. Thundercracker is not entirely committed to the Decepticon cause, and even has some seemingly contradictory sympathy for the humans they terrorize. Fear of retribution from Megatron and the influence of his peers is usually enough to bury these doubts. Regardless, he needs constant reassurance that he's where he needs to be. Sometimes, his heart's just not in the job.


 * French-Canadian name: Coup de Tonnerre
 * Italian name: Vampiro
 * Hungarian name: Villámcsapás (meaning Lightning strike)

Marvel Comics continuity
(Note: Events from the UK comics are marked in italics.) Thundercracker was one of Megatron's troops who attacked the Ark during its mission to clear a path for Cybertron through an asteroid field. He was deactivated when it crashed on Earth, and he lay dormant for four million years. When he and his fellow Decepticons awoke, Thundercracker was given a new altmode, that of an Earth jet. He aided the Decepticons in their building of their new base constructed of parts from Harrison Nuclear Power Plant and joined in their attack on Sparkplug Witwicky's auto repair shop. After the successful abduction of Sparkplug Witwicky, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream defended their base from Autobots, though Gears and Spider-Man were able to sneak through and rescue Sparkplug.

Though Sparkplug Witwicky was able to devise a way for the Decepticons to convert Earth fuel into a usable substance, he also poisoned the result, so Thundercracker and his fellow Decepticons were immobilized at the climax of their would-be final battle with the Autobots. The Decepticon Shockwave took command of the Decepticons and the Ark shortly thereafter, and nursed Thundercracker and his comrades back to full health. Thundercracker may have helped Shockwave attempt to capture and brainwash Bumblebee into a Decepticon, or it may have been Skywarp with red stripes. It's hard to tell.

He served the Decepticon cause up until he was deactivated while battling Omega Supreme and placed in prison stasis at Autobot headquarters.

''Like Starscream and Frenzy, he revived early and soon quickly escaped from the Ark. He, Frenzy and Shockwave were then temporarily displaced to Limbo when Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr time-jumped from 2006.''

During a massive battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth's moon, Skywarp and the other Decepticons held in stasis aboard the Ark were liberated by the Constructicons and subsequently brought back on-line. Much later, Thundercracker attacked an Underbase-powered Starscream in Tokyo, but both he and Skywarp were destroyed by their former flying partner.

Animated continuity

 * Voice actor: John Stephenson, Wally Burr (US), Yutaka Shimaka (Japan)



Thundercracker was one of Megatron's elite warriors, participating in the attack on the Ark and joining the rest of the Earth-bound Transformers in their several-million-year nap under an inactive volcano. He awoke when the rest of the Decepticons did, and took part in their attempts to gather energon and escape the planet Earth, which he loathed for being too "flat". It was he and Reflector who spotted the first "potential Autobot", when in fact they had discovered the planet's native inhabitants, two humans, in an unliving vehicle.

One of the few things he seemed to loathe even more than the world he was stranded on was the attitude of his commander, Starscream. Thundercracker often started fights with the Air Commander, usually over whether or not Megatron's latest plan was a waste of time (Thundercracker took Megatron's side). At one point, Thundercracker's distaste for "that geeky Starscream" became so strong that he was willing to let Skyfire destroy one of the Decepticons' greatest weapons, just in the hopes that Starscream would get blamed for it! Despite these brushes with treachery, however, Thundercracker just never had it in him to do anything more than complain about his fellow Decepticons.



Thundercracker was present for the Decepticon assault on Autobot City in 2005. After the battle, the injured Thundercracker was tossed out of Astrotrain with the rest of the injured and weakened warriors, who were jettisoned for ballast in order to preserve fuel.

That was not, however, entirely the end of Thundercracker's story. Unicron was waiting in space for a chance like this, and when the newly reborn Galvatron needed some new troops to command, Thundercracker was among the corpses chosen to use as raw materials. His body was used to create Scourge, and was thus given a new lease on life.

Later Octane would show concern when he ran into a Decepticon Crypt to hide from some attackers and found a statue of Thundercracker there. After paying his respects and apologizing for the intrusion, Octane decided it would be better to hide behind someone else's statue.

Machine Wars toy bio
The mysterious Machine Wars were a tumultuous time for Thundercracker. At long last he was convinced of and committed to the truth of the Decepticon cause, but Thundercracker now ironically found himself in open rebellion against Megatron's leadership of the faction. It is unknown what events lead to his reversal of heart about the Decepticons and his being branded a "Rebel Warrior." (Since no fictional backstory has ever been established for the Machine Wars line it is possible that it is set in some alternate reality where this was simply Thundercracker's nature, but given that the rest of the characters are clearly their classic G1-selves unrevealed events/character development seem more likely explanations).

Dreamwave comics continuity
One of the first Decepticons recruited by Megatron. Early Megatron's scheming, Thundercracker was sent to Sector Zero-Six with Skywarp and Starscream. On the way, Starscream unintelligently leaked the plan to Grimlock.

Thundercracker was one of several Decepticon invaders onboard the Ark when it crashed into Earth four million years ago while the Autobot ship was clearing an asteroid in the path of Cybertron.

In 2002, he was one of several Transformers who survived the disastrous launch of the sabotaged Ark II, and was later captured and reprogrammed by arms dealer Adam 'Lazarus' Rook, who intended to rent out the services of the enslaved robots to various terrorist groups. In a demonstration of their power to a group of prospective clients, Thundercracker participated in an attack on the Artic division of the Smitco Oil Refinery by blowing something up.

After Megatron reactivated himself, he freed his Decepticon subordinates in order to put forward his plans to infect Earth with a metallic virus of doom. To pass the time while this happened, Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp busied themselves by tearing apart the Autobot Minicar team.

Thundercracker later participated in Megatron's attack on San Francisco, where he followed Starscream's orders to maintain formation and drop cluster bombs on the Autobot giant Superion, forcing the Aerialbots to split into their separate component robots.

Thundercracker stood watch over the defeated Autobots while Megatron tried to persuade Optimus Prime to help the Decepticons conquer Earth. After some human firefighters distracted the Decepticons long enough for Optimus Prime to free the Autobots, Thundercracker was presumably beaten up and escaped when Superion sacrificed himself to stop a nuclear missile launched by rogue US General Robert Hallo.

After Shockwave had defeated Megatron and brought the Decepticons back to Cybertron, Thundercracker and Skywarp spent their time relaxing and bathing, though Thundercracker was skeptical of Shockwave's new order, and compared its promised benefits to the benefits originally promised by Megatron.

Starscream eventually brought several Decepticons back to Earth and lead them in a battle against the Autobots who had stayed behind there. Thundercracker was among those captured by the Autobots, but was eventually freed in exchange for Starscream's assistance in fighting against Sunstorm.

IDW comics continuity
Thundercracker operated as part of a Decepticon insurgent cell that had operated covertly on Earth for at least four years, working to destabilize Earth's governing organizations and create global anarchy. He, Runabout and Runamuck were assigned by Starscream to intercept the human Stoker and retrieve his SM-40 palmtop PC, containing data on their Nebraska operation. The team caught up with and killed Stoker outside Phoenix, AZ, but the SM-40 was missing. Thundercracker tracked the device to Hunter O'Nion and Verity Carlo, but was driven off by Ratchet, who managed to temporarily lose him and the two Battlechargers. After picking Ratchet up again, Thundercracker was later shot down by Prowl, Sunstreaker and Ironhide.

Generation 1



 * Thundercracker (Decepticon Jet, 1984/1985/1986/2001/2003)
 * Japanese ID number: 24


 * Originally a Diaclone "Jet Robo Acrobat-Type", Thundercracker transforms into an F-15 Eagle fighter jet, sharing his mold with his teammates Starscream and Skywarp. Many parts need to be removed completely from transformation from robot to jet and back, which nowadays is considered a major drawback of the toy.  It is rare to find it complete, as neither mode can hold all the pieces required. There are a few minor mold variations of this toy (common for the first two years of Transformers, really), the most immediately noticeable being that early versions did not have visible "clip-tabs" on the inner face of the gauntlets.


 * In 1986, he was made available as a mail-away item (as he was no longer shipping to retail shelves) in the Digital Doom on the Highway to Destruction flier packed with most boxed Transformers toys. He cost $10 and two robot points.


 * In 2001, Thundercracker was given a short-run re-issue by Takara as a convention-exclusive item. The toy would later be more extensively released as part of the Hasbro Commemorative Series line, though due to US toy-safety regulations, his missiles were made extra-long.


 * This mold is also used by Dirge, Ramjet, Sunstorm and Thrust.


 * Thundercracker (Action Master) (Action Master Exo-Suit, 1991)




 * Released only in European markets, once again Thundercracker was a redeco of Starscream, a non-transforming action figure that combined elements of both the character's cartoon model and toy-form. Like all Action Masters, Thundercracker was a nontransformable action figure with a transformable accessory -- in his case, a Solo Mission Jet Plane vehicle that converted into exo-suit battle armor.  However, unlike most of Thundercracker's appearances, Action Master Thundercracker is not in his traditional blue and silver colors, but rather in magenta, purple, blue, gold, and two shades of green.  (Oy.)

Machine Wars

 * Thundercracker (Basic, 1996)


 * Sharing a mold once again with Skywarp, Thundercracker transforms into a green Dassault Rafale fighter jet with spring-loaded one-step transformation from jet to robot. The two halves of his rifle store in his lower legs. Like all Machine Wars toys, Thundercracker was an exclusive to Kay-Bee stores and related stores like Toy Liquidators.


 * This mold is also used by Beast Wars II Dirge and Robot Masters Wing Stun''.

Smallest Transformers

 * Thundercracker (Smallest Transformers, 2004)


 * Part of the third wave of Smallest Transformer product (dubbed wave "2.5" and available only at CVS stores in Japan), Thundercracker is again a redeco of Starscream. Like all toys in the line, Thundercracker is a tiny, even more simplified version of the original toy, transforming into an F-15 fighter jet. These toys were sold in "blind-packed" boxes, so you could not know which one you had until you actually opened the box. To complicate matters further, Thundercracker was a chase figure, one of two in his wave (the other was a cartoon-colored version of Optimus Prime's trailer).


 * The same mold is used by Smallest Transformer Skywarp and Thrust.

Robot Masters

 * Skywarp & Thundercracker (Multi-pack, 2005)


 * Robot Masters Thundercracker is a redeco of Starscream from the same series, a smaller yet more advanced version of the original toy, adding more articulation and reducing the amount of part-forming required. He was available only in a two-pack with Skywarp, which also came with a Decepticon sigil pin and chromed missile pods. This set was the very last product released in the Robot Masters line, and wasn't even strictly sold in a box from that series; instead, it used an e-Hobby Generation 1 reissue box, with a small Robot Masters sticker in the corner tab noting its origin from the front.

Titanium Series

 * Thundercracker (6" Cybertron Heroes, 2006)


 * Titanium Thundercracker is based upon his appearance in The War Within. He transforms into a cybertronic 'tetrajet', as reimagined by Don Figueroa. As with all 6-inch Titanium Cybetron Heroes, he is constructed mostly of fully painted die-cast metal.


 * This mold was redecoed into Titanium War Within Starscream and Sunstorm.


 * Yes. Thundercracker was here first.

Timelines

 * Games of Deception! (Multi-pack, 2007)


 * Thundercracker is part of the Classics-themed BotCon 2007 box set, along with Bugbite, Dirge, Dreadwind, and Thrust. Thundercracker is a redeco of the Classics Starscream toy using the modified version first seen with Skywarp.


 * Classics Thundercracker is a faithful reproduction of his original toy, but with modern standards of toy engineering, transformation, sculpting detail and articulation. He transforms into an F-15 Eagle, but has the nose of an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. His colour scheme is inspired by the original figure released in 1984, but with a shade of blue closer to that of the original Diaclone version.


 * In robot mode, Thundercracker is essentially a very detailed version of his cartoon robot mode. He is armed with two (overly large) null-ray missile launchers, which are so large that they restrict his arm movement due to them bumping into his wings.


 * There were only 1500 Classics Thundercracker figures produced.

Robot Heroes

 * Thundercracker (2007)

Thundercracker is a redeco of the mold used for Starscream and Skywarp. He was available in a two-pack with Jazz.