Waspinator (BW)


 * Waspinator is a Predacon in the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.



Waspinator is God's whipping boy. If something goes wrong, it happens to him. If something blows up, he is usually at the epicenter of the explosion (or at least close enough) and is therefore blasted into his components. He also doesn't talk very well (he hazz a problem with pronounzzing zzertain letterzz), so he's easy to make fun of. Some might consider this speech quirk a "lisp", but really, he just likes the letter "Z" a bit too much. (So, those prone to witticisms could call it a a "lizzzzp.") He also refers to himself in the third person, and to most other people by nicknames like "cat-bot" and "two-head" (Megatron is the only one he ever refers to by his real name). Megatron has classified the harebrained Predacon as expendable, much to Waspinator's dismay. This is especially true after the many Transmetal upgrades that enabled Megatron himself to take to the sky.

However, Waspinator's not stupid. He has caught on to his lot in life and tries to avoid his fate as often as possible, but his fate always finds him - in the forms of friend and foe, fleshlings, and even Mother Nature. Thankfully, Waspinator is almost supernaturally durable and has survived the most devastating and humiliating of defeats. Whether this is a boon or a curse is anyone's guess.

"Why universe hate Waspinator?"

- Waspinator laments his lot in life


 * Spanish name: Avispón
 * French name: Bourdon, Bizznator
 * Italian name: Punginator
 * Japanese name: Waspitar
 * Bulgarian name: Осинатор

Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past


While Megatron, his lieutenant, and another underling stole a Maximal relic, the Golden Disk, the Predacon who would later name himself Waspinator stole a ship with the help of an accomplice he nicknamed "Beakbot." The two had a contest to name the ship, but "Waspinator" lost, and thus the stolen ship was dubbed the Darksyde. "Waspinator" believed Buzzerbot would have been a better name. For reasons known only to Primus, Megatron agreed.

After escaping Cybertron, the Darksyde was intercepted by the Axalon and the Chromia 10, but after an intense space battle, only the Darksyde and the Axalon remained. Megatron ordered "Waspinator" to execute their planned transwarp jump, opening up a portal which both ships entered.

Beast Wars



 * Voice Actor: Scott McNeil (US), Kensō Katō (Japan), Ivo Roberto (Brazil)

Waspinator, part of Megatron's rogue band of Predacons, landed on an unknown planet with dangerous levels of unstable energon. To protect themselves from the energon, the Predacons took organic beast modes. In Waspinator's case, he now transformed into a large green wasp. The first conflict between the stranded Predacons and their Maximal pursuers came when the Maximal Cheetor stumbled across Waspinator.

When Rhinox had his personality program converted to that of a Predacon, he started surreptitiously taking out the various Predacons. He swung a cargo crate into Waspinator, giving him a concussion. As a result, Waspy flew around in a daze, claiming to be the Insecticon Shrapnel as well as the great Wonko the Sane. This dementia was apparently reversed when Cheetor later got annoyed at his yattering and shot him down.

The "ghost" of Starscream traveled through time and possessed his body (even changing the Predacon sigil on his helmet to a Decepticon one). It took a major energon explosion to dislodge Starscream's immortal spark from Waspinator's body.

After the mysterious aliens detonated the unstable energon on the planet using the artificial second moon, Waspinator fell into the Restoration pool on the bridge of the Darksyde as the ship was rocked by the force of the transwarp wave resultant from the moon's explosion. Bathed in the regenerative fluids, this prevented him from becoming a Transmetal. He was also the first to realize that this seemingly unknown planet was, in fact, Earth. Dinobot had made the same realization and stole into the Darksyde to retrieve both of Megatron's disks. Waspinator proposed the two work together to steal the discs, and much to his surprise, Dinobot agreed... and threw him into the security shield. Waspinator was crushed into a cube by the disks' security contraption, leaving Dinobot free to steal the discs unharmed, and crawled away to the CR chamber using his only free leg.

After the destruction of the Darksyde at Tigerhawk's hands, Megatron sent Waspinator, Inferno, and Quickstrike on an errand to find a new base, which was really nothing more than pointless busywork while Megatron went to do more important things. As the trio staked out an early human tribe that had taken up residence in a series of caves, Waspinator decided he'd finally had enough and ripped off his Predacon symbol, declaring himself out of the Beast Wars.

"I said no! Dragon-Bot command you, Sub-Commander Kiss-Butt! Dragon-Bot not command Waspinator! Not any more! Waspinator sick of being evil! Sick of being Predacon! And Waspinator especially sick of getting blown to scrap all the time! Sooo, Waspinator quit! As of now, which means Ant-Bot and Two-Head can just pucker their mandibles and plant big, wet, juicy one right here on Waspinator's big . . . fat . . . stripy . . . "

At this point Waspinator was interrupted by getting blown to scrap by Inferno and Quickstrike.

His parts recovered by the tribe, Waspinator remained on Earth while all the other surviving Transformers set off for Cybertron, and led the tribe, declaring that he was finally...happy.

For a bit, at least.

Beast Machines


Sadly, for Waspinator, the Protohumans he had ruled over grew tired of his presence and forced him to leave the planet and return to Cybertron (and his proper time) under his own power. There his spark was removed and used to power the Vehicon general Thrust. He was discovered by Blackarachnia after she thought he was Silverbolt.

Waspinator remained in the "background" and let Thrust run the show until Cheetor used an extractor to remove Waspinator's spark from the body shell.

After Cybertron's technorganic reformatting (thanks to Optimus Primal, through the cost of his life and Megatron's life) Waspinator returned in his beast mode with Thrust's head, and at the size of a standard wasp. He complained to Rattrap about how much he wanted glory and power, but Rattrap simply swatted him away.

Beast Wars: Transmetals (N64 & PSX)

 * Voice Actor: Scott McNeil (US), ??? (Japan)

In an alternate timeline, Transmetal Waspinator joins his fellow Predacons in distributing various one-on-one beat downs to the Maximals.

Beast Wars

 * Waspinator (Deluxe, 1996/1997)
 * Japanese ID number: D-3


 * Waspinator transforms into a large organic wasp. His stinger separates to become a hand-held spring-loaded missile launcher for his robot mode; the bolts are stored on the underside of his insect-wings. His head is on a vertical column that rotates around a horizontal axle; each end has a different head, one "mutant", one "robot". The "mutant" head was used as the base for his CGI model, and thus the norm for his fictional portrayals.


 * The Takara version of Waspinator uses slightly brighter, more primary colors than the Hasbro version.


 * This mold was also used to make Buzz Saw and Dirgegun.


 * Cheetas vs. Waspitor (Multi-pack, 1997)
 * Japanese ID number: VS-3


 * In Japan, Waspinator was available both individually and in a two-pack with Cheetor. The two-pack version was unchanged from the normal individually-packaged one.




 * Waspinator (Deluxe Transmetal, 1998)
 * Japanese ID number: D-42


 * Now an almost completely robotic figure, Transmetal Waspinator transforms into a robotic wasp and features a third "jet" mode, flipping and folding his wins into a fighter-jet configuration as well as flipping a cockpit/nosecone between his insect-head mandibles.


 * Though he appears solid black at first glance, he is actually made of very dark transparent-black/green plastic.


 * The Takara version of this toy is almost completely identical, except the "WASPINATOR" tampograph was replaced with "DESTRON" and the Predacon sigil.


 * Metals Cheetas vs. Metals Waspitor (Multi-pack, 1999)
 * Japanese ID number: D-42


 * In Japan, Transmetal Waspinator was available both individually and in a two-pack with Transmetal Cheetor. The two-pack version was unchanged from the normal individually-packaged one.


 * Waspinator (Deluxe, 1999)
 * This toy is a redeco of the first Waspinator toy. A "FoxKids!" sticker on the packaging promoted the cartoon, which was playing on Fox at the time. It is also hideously ugly, consisting primarily of slate blue and green-gold plastic, with dark blue (barely) translucent parts.


 * Waspinator (Deluxe Transmetal, 2000)
 * This toy is a redeco of the Transmetal Waspinator toy. A "FoxKids!" sticker on the packaging promoted the cartoon, which was playing on Fox at the time. The toy's new deco bears more than a passing resemblance to Buzz Saw.

Beast Wars 10th Anniversary

 * Waspinator (Tenth Anniversary, 2006)


 * This toy is a slight redeco of the first Waspinator toy to make it closer to Waspinator's cartoon appearance. He came with the head to Transmutate plus a DVD with the episode "Possession".


 * Waspitor (Telemocha figure, 2007)
 * Japanese ID number: TM-04


 * This toy is a ridiculously-extensively-painted redeco of the first Waspinator toy to make it almost completely show-accurate to Waspinator's cartoon appearance (forgiving mold issues and unpaintable plastic, of course). He came with a DVD of the episode "Power Surge".

Timelines

 * Darksyde Megatron and Darksyde Waspinator (Bagged set, 2006)


 * Available exclusively at the BotCon 2006 event itself, this two-pack represents Waspinator and Megatron before the events of the Beast Wars show. "Darksyde Waspinator" is a Basic-sized figure, originally used for Machine Wars Skywarp and Thundercracker, which autotransforms to robot mode from a Dassault Rafale fighter jet. (One can surmise, however, that it is meant to represent a Cybertronic design in this case.)  His rifle splits into two pieces, which store in the backs of his lower legs.


 * This mold was also used to make Beast Wars II Dirge, Robots in Disguise Skyfire, and Robot Masters Wing Stun.

Unreleased
For a brief time, Hasbro's official website checklist featured listings for two "Halloween Horrorcon Value Packs" that were to be Wal*Mart exclusives... which also likely explains why they were canceled. (Wal*Mart had taken a good half-dozen exclusives and released them more-or-less simultaneously, leading to a huge glut. A lot of other Transformers exclusives were canceled during the Universe era.)

In 2004, several test-shots appeared on ebay in a group, among them the Transmetal Waspinator toy with opaque-salmon wings and lavender insect legs. This, presumably, was to have been the Universe incarnation of Waspinator, as the other toys in the group line up with the names given for the two Halloween sets. He was to come in a "Vs." two-pack with the presumably-Autobot character Nightprowler.

Trivia

 * Waspinator was originally chosen by Hasbro to be one of the characters killed off for the second season of the Beast Wars cartoon to help make way for new characters (read: product). However, story editors Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio convinced them to spare Waspinator on the grounds of his popularity with the online fan-base, so Terrorsaur and Scorponok took the plunge instead.


 * Waspinator was originally slated to appear in the very first Beast Wars video game, and even had a character model built. However, he was ultimately unused and only appeared in footage taken from the Beast Wars cartoon.


 * Waspinator appears to be the inspiration for Buzzer-Bot from the Playskool Go-Bots line.


 * As a side note, Waspinator's original and 10th Anniversary toys contain a high number of ball and swivel joints, which more than easily separate. Makes him a little more show-accurate, after all.


 * When Waspinator is hit from behind by a stasus pod ship made by Blackarachnia, a toilet is seen falling from his smashed body.


 * According to Waspinator's profile in Beast Wars Universe, he likes flying and nectar.