Blast Off (G1)


 * Blast Off is a Decepticon Combaticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.



Blast Off doesn't need a write-up in some pathetic, grubby little human database. It might matter to some robots what others think of them, or if they think of them at all, but Blast Off couldn't care less. No, he's literally and figuratively above your average Cybertronian riff-raff. The other Combaticons could completely forget he's up here, orbiting so far above the Earth, distant and alone... with only the cold, empty void for company... and he couldn't care less. No, certainly not.

Lesser robots could hardly understand the joy... yes, that's it, the joy, he finds in efficiently and remorselessly annihilating targets from such a great distance. Blast Off was quite simply "built better" than the rest, you see, and so needs nothing from those tiny beings moving about so... so very... far away below. Blast Off... Blast Off is quite happy with his superior position, yes, quite happy and... and quite alone.

Blast Off condescends to combine with his fellow Combaticons to form Bruticus.


 * Italian name: Exploder (ouch)
 * Hungarian name: Kilövő
 * French-Canadian name: Propulsio

Generation 1
Blast Off, Lord of the Skies, was beaten up by a cloud.

''On a mission for Commander Shockwave, Blast Off and the Combaticons secured a volcano where the nemeses Galvatron and Ultra Magnus had been found frozen in the cooled lava like flies in the amber. Shockwave saw Galvatron as a threat to his power base, and wanted the volcano destroyed with Galvatron stuck inside it. The Combaticons' mission was interrupted, however, by several female fleshlings trying to save Ultra Magnus. They sent a speeding jeep towards Blast Off and his comrades, but they stopped the vehicle easily. They didn't fare as well against a tank the women had appropriated, however, which fired at the jeep and set off the storage of explosives the women had put inside it. ''

He and his fellow Combaticons were sent on a hunting mission by Decepticon command, and spent several weeks tracking and tormenting Blaster and the Throttlebots, who had recently interfered with their schemes. They were interrupted by the Protectobots, though, and engaged in battle with their foes. Blast Off demonstrated his unmitigated superiority by beating up a pacifist. Darn peace-niks. In a later combat, the Combaticons joined to form Bruticus but were beaten by Blaster and Defensor. Afterwards, Blast Off was slapped with a mode-lock device so that Blaster could remote control him, taking his human friends the Spacehikers for a spin around outer space. Unfortunately, Blaster was at odds with Autobot leader Grimlock at the time as well, and Blast Off and his passengers were forcibly captured by the Ark. The Decepticon later either escaped Autobot custody on his own, or was rescued along with Omega Supreme's victims by the Constructicons.

Marvel UK future timelines
''In 2008, Blast Off was briefly seen racing through the skies with his fellow Decepticons on the way to attack Autobase. ''

Generation 2
Blast Off was among the Decepticons who fell back under Megatron's command after Bludgeon was destroyed. He was among the crowd of Decepticons Megatron whipped up into a warrior frenzy before first confronting Jhiaxus and his second generation Cybertronians. He later showed concern when Onslaught had a tummy-ache, particularly because Combaticons (strictly speaking) don't have tummies. Blast Off and his fellow Combaticons were the first Decepticons aboard the Warworld to meet the boarding party of Cybertronians led by Starscream. They didn't fare so well.

Cartoon continuity

 * Voice actor: Milt Jamin (US), ??? (Japan)

Blast Off was one of several Decepticon political prisoners who were "liberated" by Starscream. Somehow he turned from the chassis of a World War II bomber to a Space Shuttle once he was activated. He would probably place this on him being a sophisticated Transformer.

Unfortunately, Blast Off's new body lacked an energy absorber, an "oversight" Starscream used to control him and his fellow Combaticons. In return for the vital components (taken from captured Transformers), Blast Off helped Starscream lead his latest coup against Megatron. The coup almost succeeded, until the Stunticons interfered, leading to Blast Off's (and the rest of the brigade's) exile on a distant asteroid.

His exile would prove to be short-lived. With Blast Off providing the locomotion, the Combaticons returned to Cybertron, where they defeated Shockwave and his drone army. It took a temporary Autobot-Decepticon alliance to defeat the Combaticons, and the Autobots believed them destroyed after Cybertron's sort-of liberation. In reality, Megatron had Bruticus (and thus, Blast Off, we guess) reprogrammed to be more loyal.

In 2006, Blast Off was patrolling a litter void in Decepticon territorial space when he found a Skuxxoid on a rocket sled making target practice out of the junk. After running the little punk to ground, Blast Off "convinced" him to give over his impressive blaster cannon. In addition, the alien told him how to find the weapon's rare ammunition, death crystals, from Quig Mountain on the planet Dredd. When the Autobots came to investigate, Blast Off and Runamuck attempted to chase them off the scene. Sky Lynx gave them a merry chase, but Runamuck actually managed to blow up a comet to cover their escape.

Dreamwave comics continuity
Shortly after Optimus Prime became the new Autobot Supreme Commander, Blast Off took part in the Decepticon assault upon Iacon. Blast Off enjoyed strutting his stuff in his less aerodynamic but more heavily armed original form.

Millions of years later, Blast Off, along with his fellow Combaticons, was imprisoned by Shockwave, until they were released by Starscream.

When Sunstorm appeared on Earth, the battered Combaticons were ordered by Starscream to combine into Bruticus and deal with the crazed zealot. It did not end well.



The repaired Combaticons were brought to Guadalcanal where they could hone their somewhat lackluster combat skills and listen to Starscream's long-winded aspirations of glory. Starscream orders them to defeat the magnificent Autobot Sky Lynx as a means to train themselves for greater battles. Blast Off declared to Vortex to 'take [Sky Lynx] down', but unfortunately, the Combaticons did not fare well when the crafty Autobot split into his two forms, and Blast Off was embarrassingly grabbed in the flying form's jaws.

This was the least of their troubles, however, as Predaking showed up as soon as Sky Lynx was deactivated. This encounter also did not end well.

Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs the Transformers comics continuity
As part of Serpent O.R.'s forces, Blast Off defended the newly unified Decepticon army's base against a combined Autobot/G.I. Joe strike force.

IDW comics continuity
Blast Off was part of the troop complement aboard the Decepticon warship Thanatos under the command of Razorclaw. He later served with the Combaticons in the Garrus-9 raid and right in the middle of chortling over the fun of killing folk, got stabbed by Arcee. The other Combaticons carried him out with them.

Generation 1

 * Blast Off (Combaticon, 1986/1990)
 * Team ID number: C3
 * Japanese ID number: D-65
 * Accessories: Left & right cannons, pistol




 * Blast Off transforms into a Rockwell International NASA Space Shuttle. In this mode, he is armed with two laser cannons mounted his engines.


 * In robot mode Blast Off is armed with a small laser pistol and his two laser cannons, which are now mounted on his legs. Along with fellow Combaticon Vortex, Blast Off is the first Transformer figure to use ball joints, located in his shoulders. He usually forms Bruticus' right arm, but as a Scramble City toy, he can be connected with any limb slot on Bruticus.


 * This mold was also used to make Operation Combination Shuttle Gunner, Robots in Disguise Movor and Universe Movor.

Generation 2

 * Blast Off (Combaticon, 1994)
 * Team ID number: C3
 * Accessories: Left & right cannons, pistol


 * In Generation 2, Blast Off was redecoed white with purple camouflage... for all the times you need purple camouflage in space.

Merchandise

 * A digital wristwatch of Blast Off's shuttle mode was released during Generation 2, in the same white and purple coloration as the toy. This did not have a robot mode, however.

Trivia

 * Blast Off's animation model apparently mis-interpreted his forehead crest as a visor, giving him one funkily-arranged face.


 * Normally, the word "blast" is rendered in katakana as ブラスト (bu-ra-su-to) like in Blastarm or Broadblast. However, the katakana used in Blast Off's Japanese name is most decidedly ブレスト (bu-re-su-to)  which is usually used to render the English words "breast" or "blessed". It appears that this is not an uncommon misspelling, so it is uncertain as to whether Takara were intentionally trying to give Blast Off the name "Breast Off"/"Blessed Off". However, it is somewhat notable that this same spelling was later used to render the first part of Blast Master's name, an unrelated shuttle character released years later. Perhaps the common katakana "spelling" of the word changed at some point, a not-unheard-of occurence.