Kicker Jones


 * Kicker is a human character in the Energon portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.



Chad "Kicker" Jones is the son of Dr. Brian Jones and Miranda Jones. He's brash and headstrong, always ready to leap before he looks. During the war over energon, Kicker accompanied the Autobots on many of their missions, even fighting Decepticons and Terrorcons himself by utilizing a high-tech battlesuit developed by his father. He is a top-notch cyclist, though his real strength is in his mysterious ability to detect and harness the power of energon.

True to his name, he tends to kick things. Usually his Autobot allies.


 * Hungarian name: Vadóc ("Rogue"/"The Wild One")

Energon
Voice actor:'' Brad Swaile (US), Daisuke Kishio (Japan), Masumi Asano (Young Kicker, Japan)



Soon after the end of the Unicron Battles, Optimus Prime returned to Cybertron to lead the new Autobot-Decepticon alliance. With it came contact and diplomatic ties to Earth's governments, after Rad secretly invited the Jones family to Cybertron.

The Autobots transported them aboard their flagship, the Axalon, and among the occupants were their friends Rad White, Carlos Lopez and Alexis, as well as Dr. Brian Jones, humanity's foremost expert on the newly discovered ore, energon. He brought along his young son, Chad (nicknamed Kicker), who was very afraid of this strange, metal world and its towering giant robot inhabitants. While his father was busy, Kicker ran away, hiding in a long-ruined part of Cybertron. This led Optimus Prime to search for him, warning that the areas was strictly off-limits.



While trying to escape the Autobot leader, Kicker accidentally fell down a long shaft only to be saved by a mysterious glowing sphere - Primus, the living heart of Cybertron. Fascinated by the boy, Primus imbued him with a special gift - the ability to detect energon, which manifested itself as an eerie, yellow glowing of his hair. Dr. Jones exploited his son's new talent, dragging the young Kicker from planet to planet, wherever they expected to find energon. Over time, due to his experiences on Cybertron, this mysterious power, as well as his father's often casual indifference to his son's well-being and wishes, led Kicker to greatly resent his father and the Transformers. Nevertheless, he still cared about his family, especially his younger sister, Sally, and would fight to protect them. Somehow, he found the time to form a relationship with Misha, a young scientist stationed on a research outpost in Plain City.



Some ten years later on the day Ocean City discovered energon, Kicker was still bitter at his ordeal and his status as a tool for his father's scientific research, which concerned his mother. After the Cybertron City on Mars is destroyed by Terrorcons Kicker is the first to realize Cybertron City was their next target. Riding outside the city with Hot Shot in tow and concerned for the safety of his family inside, Kicker lured the strange beast Transformers away until he was surrounded but is saved at the last moment by Optimus Prime's Autobot reinforcements. Angry that his father had asked Optimus Prime to look after the boy, Kicker took off again away from the city and soon ended up in trouble despite assistance from the young Autobot Ironhide. Once again, Optimus Prime came to his rescue by throwing him a special suit developed by Dr. Jones specifically to protect Kicker in dangerous situations. After the dust settled, Optimus Prime explained that Dr. Jones knew Kicker would refuse to allow the Autobots to protect him, so the suit was made so Kicker could fight alongside the Autobots.



Kicker is regarded as a new legend by the Transformers on Cybertron, having located over a dozen energon points himself, resulting in the various Cybertron Cities throughout the solar system.

In battle, he was usually partnered with Ironhide. Early on, neither of the pair got along with each other with Kicker being all angsty and Ironhide being a doofus, but eventually both became good friends.

Cybertron


Kicker was present for the launch of the four recovered colony ships Atlantis, Ogygia, Hyperborea and Lemuria, the re-starting of the galaxy-spanning Space Bridge mission.

He had a mullet. Weird.

Energon


At 16 years of age, Kicker was spending his time in the Australian outback, using his energon-detection powers at Alterenergy's Exploratory Excavation/Drilling Operation. (Unlike the cartoon, his powers were never explained.) He longed for more excitement, but he complied with the wishes of his father, who also worked for Alterenergy.

The monotony was broken, however, when Scorponok led a Terrorcon raid on the facility. This was possibly the first Decepticon attack on Earth in a decade, and it's unclear whether Kicker even knew about the existence of Transformers. He fled on a motorcycle, but Battle Ravage took chase. Nearby, Alexis had been leading a protest against Alterenergy's strip-mining practices, and she saw Kicker wipe out. When Battle Ravage caught up, she shot the Terrorcon in the eye with a flare gun, then joined Kicker on his bike. But that only prolonged the hunt; Battle Ravage still managed to capture them and bring them back to Scorponok.

Just by looking at him, Scorponok could tell that Kicker had a "unique physiology. The proximity of energon fires sensory nodes in his medulla oblongata, resonating throughout his entire nervous system." (It's unclear how many Transformers could see this. Tidal Wave said outright that he "doesn't look like anything to me."  But it's vaguely implied that Battle Ravage had retrieved him alive because of his abilities.)  When the Autobots inevitably appeared, Scorponok kept Kicker specially captive, but Alexis was able to escape with the help of Rad and Carlos, who were part of an Alternenergy rescue team. (Notably, Rad was wearing a suit that looked very much like the one that would become Kicker's signature look.) Rad also destroyed one of the Terrorcons' energon siphons, which apparently damaged their operation enough that Scorponok felt the need to retreat.



But he didn't retreat far; they simply attacked Alterenergy's nearby Mobile Command Center. Scorponok was betting that Kicker would be emotionally attached to someone there and would help the Terrorcons if they stopped the assault. He was right. Dr. Jones himself was there, and in fact was nearly killed. So Kicker led them to another energon source, but the Autobots were still in pursuit. As the battle renewed, Hot Shot rescued Kicker, who had already laid the seeds for the Terrorcons' defeat. The energon source he had found for them "wasn't, y'know, exactly... pure." This caused the siphons to explode, and Alpha Quintesson teleported all the Terrorcons back to Unicron.

During the rescue, Hot Shot had given Kicker a suit that, as mentioned earlier, looked like Rad's. Strongarm said it was something Dr. Jones and the Autobots had "cooked up together." Kicker would never be seen dressed in anything else from that point on.

He seemed quite happy helping the Autobots afterwards, probably due to the newfound adventure. They took him around the world in search of energon, from the Yukon to the Black Sea. In the latter locale, he had Signal Flare create an energon bubble around him so he could go underwater and plant a drill module while his Omnicon companions stayed onshore. But just as he was setting up the drill on the sea bottom, a Terrorcon squad attacked. Signal Flare's energon stream was interrupted, and the bubble collapsed. Despite his super-special suit, Kicker simply choked and then floated motionless.



Sharkticon engulfed him and may have purposefully revived him, as the mission had been to capture him alive. At any rate, Sharkticon surfaced and flipped on his back, then his belly exploded. Kicker levitated from within, surrounded by a ball of energy, powered by the "energon well" below. He saw the Terrorcons standing over the defeated Omnicons onshore, so he sent streams of energon into his allies, reviving them. They quickly chased the Terrorcons off, and Kicker reveled in how his energon-manipulation powers were growing. "The more I work my energon mojo, the stronger I seem to get. It's like... there's no limits, none."

Energon

 * Kicker (Microman, 2004)
 * Japanese ID number: SL-14


 * The first Kicker toy is based upon Takara's 2003 Microman body. As such, it is super-posable, and its parts are fully interchangeable with other Microman figures.  He is armed with a small, non-transforming silver version of the Energon Saber, plus his torso armor and belt are removable.


 * The toy is incredibly breakable. Some people have bought them only to find them broken in-package.


 * SL Grand Convoy and Kicker (Multi-pack, 2004)
 * Japanese ID number: SS-03




 * This limited-edition "Transformer X Microman Anniversary Set" (celebrating the 30th anniversary of Microman and the 20th anniversary of Transformers in Japan) contains an exclusive variant of Kicker, with an exclusive variant of the Deluxe-level Optimus Prime toy. This version of Kicker uses clear-black plastic rather than opaque (which makes it even more susceptible to breaking with even moderate pressure than the normal Microman Kicker, so be careful), uses vacuum-metalized chrome on the body armor, plus along with a gold-chromed version of the Energon Saber accessory, also has an exclusive chromed "Destron Clone Sword".


 * Kicker Energon Edition (Microman, 2004)


 * This special clear-red version of Kicker is a Lucky Draw prize, limited to 100 pieces. He also comes with a red-chromed Energon Saber accessory (and goes very well with the Japanese mail-away "Fire" version of STD Grand Convoy).  Contest entries were found in the Super Link soundtrack CD and the first three volumes of the Super Link DVD, and the prize winners were announced in August 2004.


 * Energon Kicker with High Wire (Deluxe, 2005)


 * Hasbro's release of Kicker is an all-new sculpt, based around the 3'3/4 inch 2003 G.I. Joe "Valor Vs Venom" body design. He comes packed with a Joe-scaled (though slightly oversized) version of High Wire, also an all-new sculpt.  Kicker has a Spark crystal located on his backpack, which can be used as a mounting point for energon chips.