Motormaster (G1)


 * Motormaster is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.



When Motormaster booms out orders in his hollow, bottomless-deep voice of doom, his Stunticon soldiers listen in very real fear. A cold and brutal tyrant, without an ounce of mercy or care for any lesser being, he considers himself the true "King of the Road." He longs to one day prove his claim by destroying Optimus Prime in a head-on collision. His fellow Stunticons hate him, but are too terrified of him to dare disobey his orders.

He can combine with his fellow Stunticons to form Menasor.

Animated continuity

 * Voice actor: Roger C. Carmel (US), ? (Japan)

Motormaster finally got the chance to prove he was the true "King of the Road" by ramming head-on into Optimus Prime. The crash flattened his tires, crumpled his trailer, broke his windows and shattered his ego. Optimus only suffered a headache.

Dreamwave Comics continuity
During the start of the war, Motormaster served as Starscream's enforcer. During The Dark Ages, he joined up with Starscream's Predacons. On the eve of The War Within: The Age Of Wrath, Motormaster was tasked with sniping Ultra Magnus, he failed, but instead he hit Grimlock.

At some point in Cybertron's recent history, the Stunticons were deemed psychotic and too dangerous to function in society, and as a result were placed into perpetual stasis lock inside of a prison facility. Later, in an attempt to create a diversion while he set his final plans in motion, Shockwave arranged for the release of the Stunticons. They formed into Menasor and ran amuck in Iacon for awhile, until Ultra Magnus arrived and began to attack Menasor by insulting the Stunticons individually. Unable to reconcile with this, the five Stunticons began to bicker with each other over whose fault it was that they were failing, temporarily halting Menasor's destruction. At that point, Ultra Magnus is quoted to have said: "'King of the Road' eh? We'll see about that", just before ramming the combiner in the chest while in vehicle mode, forcing Menasor to separate into his component parts, and disabling the Stunticons.

Ultra Magnus' attack was significant in that he essentially made a fearless suicide run straight into Menasor, echoing Optimus Prime's head-on collision with Motormaster in the animated continuity. Not only did Magnus succeed in disabling Menasor, but in particular damaged Motormaster severely. Magnus' attack showed that Motormaster was bested by an Autobot who considered himself, and was considered by others, to be a lesser than Optimus Prime.

Generation 1

 * Motormaster (Stunticon, 1985)
 * Japanese ID number: D-50




 * Motormaster transforms into a black Kenworth K100 Aerodyne sleeper truck pulling a long, dark silver trailer. Unlike many Transformers truck toys, his trailer is permamently attached to the cab.  Motormaster can assume a base/repair bay mode which can connect to the Decepticon city Trypticon, a feature only documented in Trypticon's instructions.  (He can also connect to Metroplex, but this is undocumented for obvious reasons.)  His small "roller car" gains relevance in this mode, as it is scaled for the base-mode's ramp.  The Japanese release includes a launcher mechanism to propel the car, much like Optimus Prime's Combat Deck propels Roller.  (As with Silverbolt, Motormaster's various knock-offs include the launcher.)


 * In robot mode, he is armed with a long, purple "cyclone" rifle and a large, silver, vacuum-metallized sword. He also forms the central body of Menasor, with the roller car becoming his chest piece and Menasor's mask covering his face.  Menasor's hands and feet were included in Motormaster's box.

Unreleased toys

 * The Stunticons and Protectobots were planned to be released as part of the Generation 2 line, but were ultimately canceled (though Breakdown saw "release" as the BotCon 1994 exclusive). The smaller limb-robots all have had packaged samples appear, but no packaged samples of Motormaster or Hot Spot are known to exist, and the two leaders are the hardest of their sets to come across nowadays.


 * A redeco of Thunder Clash as Motormaster (called "Menasor" because of trademark issues) was planned as a store exclusive for Universe, but was ultimately canceled. No physical samples of this toy have been found so far, just package art.

Trivia

 * In the 2006/2007 Classics line, a redeco of Legends of Cybertron Optimus Prime was intended to be Motormaster, but again, the name could not be obtained. The toy was given the name "Menasor", and the super robot's function of "Super Warrior", effectively making him Menasor, not Motormaster.


 * Motormaster has three different pieces of boxart. The art on on his Japanese packaging has him transformed correctly, while the art on his individual Hasbro release shows him mistransformed with his upper legs out to the side instead of down. In what is presumably an attempt to fix this, the art on the Hasbro giftset uses the lower legs from the Takara art, but this leaves Motormaster's upper legs mistransformed.