Airazor (BW)


 * Airazor is a Maximal from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.



Primarily used for recon and surveillance due to her aerial alternate mode, Airazor's talents are a great asset to the Maximal cause. She's calm and confident, but also adventurous and brave, with a healthy supply of dry humor. Her aerial skill in either mode, incredibly sharp eyesight and steady aim make her a dangerous opponent.

Due to the circumstances of her "birth," she sees Rhinox as something of a father-figure and Cheetor as the sibling she never had. She devotes most of her efforts, however, to taming the wild yet gentle Tigatron. She shares his love for the beautiful planet on which the Maximals are stranded, and it is on this planet where their destiny will be forever intertwined.

Spanish name: Cuchilla Italian name: Falcon Lady French name: Serres D'Acier

Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past
The Predacons who stole the Golden Disk were pursued by Unit 2, who was granted clerance from Maximal Defense Command to commandeer transport. The Maximal who would become Airazor was boarding her ship, the Chromia 10, when Unit 2 approached and demanded use of it. "Airazor" at first refused, but suggested she was open to ... persuasion. The call of adventure captured her interest, and instead of handing over the Chromia 10 to Unit 2, she allowed him to hitch a ride, piloting it herself.

The Chromia 10 intercepted the Predacons' ship, the Darksyde, which was engaged in battle with the Axalon and guarded by a mysterious third ship. During the ensuing firefight, the Chromia 10 was badly damaged. Optimus Primal had their Sparks remotely uploaded to blank protoforms in the Axalon's cargohold, which saved their lives, but severely damaged their core mainframes.

(This story is a retcon, as Airazor was originally treated as a newborn protoform in the Beast Wars animated series. Instead, here she is revealed to have been a Maximal who existed previously on Cybertron but ended up on the Axalon in a stasis pod, damaged to the point of not remembering any of her past.)

Beast Wars

 * Voice Actor: Pauline Newstone (US), Tetsuya Iwanaga (Japan)

Her stasis pod damaged upon crashing to Earth, Airazor was able to come online due to the genius of Rhinox and the bravery of Cheetor. Rhinox deftly operated the stasis pod's controls and Cheetor offered up his own components to repair it. Immediately out of the pod, she outmaneuvered and destroyed Terrorsaur; her aerial beast mode, at the time, made her the only Maximal other than Optimus who could fly.



She and Tigatron started to team up more frequently, a prospect Airazor seemed to welcome, but Tigatron preferred to work alone. Their first big adventure together came when a flying island paradise was discovered. The island, however, was covered in boobytraps which were triggered by the use of energy weapons. Airazor rescued Tigatron when he was ambushed by Predacons on the island, but she was damaged badly. Tigatron carried her on his back, refusing to leave her behind. The island was ultimately destroyed, much to the sadness and outrage of Tigatron, and he would have secluded himself from the other Maximals further if not for Airazor's concern.

Soon after, the Predacons beat Tigatron to another stasis pod, reprogramming it and unleashing Inferno. Once again, Airazor tried to work with Tigatron, but, once again, he insisted that he works alone. Airazor commented that sometimes you can be too alone. She was right, because then Tigatron got shot up a lot. Nearing death, Tigatron was saved by the arrival of Airazor and Optimus Primal.

After the realization that the aliens who seeded their planet with traps and energon were returning to destroy it, the Maximals and Predacons entered a truce. Optimus Primal used Airrazor to try to sneak Rattrap into the Predacon base to find out what Megatron was up to, but Megatron, of course, found them on his scanners and politely asked them to leave. Unbeknownst to Megatron, the ploy was a decoy for Tigatron's infiltration. The aliens arrived and a new alien structure was built, trapping Airrazor, who was tortured. Optimus Primal forced his way inside, with the help of the Predacons, and traded himself to the aliens for Airazor. After Primal was scanned and briefed by the aliens, they transformed the planet's artificial second moon into a Planet Buster, which fired upon the planet, slwoly igniting the unstable energon.



After the destruction of the Vok's Planet Buster, Airazor and Tigatron left together to find the rest of the missing stasis pods scattered across the planet. While on their search, the two Maximals discovered not only a remarkably beautiful valley, but a strange plant. As the two looked into each other's eyes and held hands in quiet celebration, the plant transformed into another Vok device, and as they clasped hands, declaring their love to exist beyond the throes of death, the two were absorbed and shot into space. Cheetor arrived, but was too late, loudly protesting the loss of two of his best friends.

Airazor and Tigatron were kept in a form of stasis until near the end of the Beast Wars, when they were merged together in the powerful being Tigerhawk. Tigerhawk returned to Earth as the emissary of the Vok to stop the deteriation that the Beast Wars was causing to the timestream, his first act being to destroy the Darksyde, sending the Predacons scrambling. Tarantulas managed to capture Tigerhawk and removed the Vok's influence from his frame (and absorbed it into himself), letting Airazor and Tigatron's sparks inhabit Tigerhawk's body. Tigatron's voice was dominant, but Tigerhawk's personality and mannerisms were shared.

Shortly afterward, however, Tigerhawk was killed in a standoff with the Nemesis after Megatron retrieved it from the ocean floor.



(Note: In the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, Airazor was turned into a boy as a means to (hopefully) increase toy-sales. For the TV series, his relationship with Tigatron was played off somewhat differently to avoid complaints of homosexuality.  Tigatron was presented as a samurai retainer with protective feelings towards his young ward; their closeness addressed in a "brotherly" sort of way.  Despite that, there was still enough innuendo left-over for the gender-bending to become unsettling. The Japanese script's near-relentless "jokey" tone didn't help.)

Tales of the Beast Wars comics
Somewhere near the end of the first year of the Beast Wars, before the Planet Buster ignited the planet's energon, Airazor, Rhinox, and Cheetor overheard a battle between Fractyl and Packrat. Airazor ended up having to rescue Cheetor, who had darted off ahead of them and gotten blasted. After the battle was resolved, she and the other Maximals fled, pretending to be beaten by the timid Fractyl to increase his standing in Megatron's eyes.

Primeval Dawn comics


Though the Beast Wars were over, the threat to the timestream was not. Tarantulas, presumed destroyed, existed in a new, undead form that was fueled by his new Vok powers. The remaining Vok assembled warriors to end this threat, creating Primal Prime and giving new Transmetal bodies to the extant Sparks of Airrazor and Tigatron.

After awakening a stranded stasis pod containing Ramulus, opening a second pod triggered an ambush by Spittor, Iguanus, Razorclaw, and a reborn Transmetal 2 Ravage. Airazor immediately saved Tigatron's life, knocking Spittor aside before Tigatron would have unwittingly come in contact with Spittor's body, covered entirely in cyber-venom. This maneuver left her vulnerable to Ravage's gunfire, knocking her out of the air.

The battle ended catastrophically, and Ramulus, Airazor, and Tigatron were forced to carry a critically-wounded Primal Prime back to the Ark after Tarantulas ripped the Matrix of Leadership from his chest. As Airazor and Tigatron conferred with the seemingly absent Vok, Airazor experienced great pains due to her battle wounds. But before she could explain, the Ark was under attack by Ravage and the Predacons.

(Due to 3H Productions loss of the convention license, "Primeval Dawn "was never completed. It is telling, however, that Airazor was not present in the subsequently-placed "Wreckers" storyline.  It is unclear for certain what happened to her in the interim, though it is likely she died.)

Beast Wars Metals manga


(Note: while the Beast Wars Metals manga picks up halfway through the Beast Wars series, it is not in-continuity with the television series.)

In the Beast Wars Metals manga, Airazor was changed into a Transmetal rather than being captured by the Vok aliens. In this manga, Airazor is a girl, presumably because her transmetal toy has boobies.

Toward the end of the manga, Airazor's spark became seperated from her body, with her body becoming host to a malevolent force. The evil Airazor did battle with Tigatron, who did not want to fight the robot he loved. With no other option, Tigatron gave the evil Airazor one of his katana and knelt down. As the evil Airazor struck him with the sword, the real Airazor's spark entered Tigatron's body. In cyber space, the two embraced and vowed never to be apart again. As their sparks merged, they became Tigerhawk.

Beast Wars



 * Airazor (Basic, 1997)
 * Japanese ID number: C-10


 * Part of the first wave of year-two Beast Wars product, Airazor transforms into a somewhat generic falcon (or some other bird of prey). Unlike first-year Basics, Airazor's transformation is entirely manual, rather than spring-loaded.  Pulling on feathers near its tail acticavtes a spring-loaded wing-movement gimmick.  Each wing also has a flip-out blade. Its tail hides a non-firing blaster.


 * For its Takara release, it was available both as an individual and in an "Aerial Showdown" Vs-pack with Insecticon.


 * Airazor (Video pack-in, 1997)


 * The original Airazor toy was given a similar but darker redeco, and packaged with a VHS tape containing the episodes "Aftermath" and "Coming of the Fuzors, Part 1".


 * Airazor (Deluxe Transmetal, 1998/1999)
 * Japanese ID number: C-44


 * Transmetal Airazor transforms into a mechanical falcon, with a third "seaplane" mold with fold-down pontoons. In robot mode, the chromed beast-mode backplate can fold around it for a "shield" mode.


 * The Japanese version of this toy is largely identical, but the yellow plastics were replaced with a bright orange. The "AIRAZOR" tampograph on its chromed shields was also changed to "CYBERTRON" with the Maximal faction symbol.  It was available both as an individual and in a two-pack with Quickstrike.


 * This mold was also used to make Armada Airazor.


 * Airazor (Deluxe Transmetal, 2000)


 * One of the final releases of the normal Beast Wars line, Airazor's Transmetal toy was given a tweaked deco and relased as part of the so-called "Fox Kids" assortment of Deluxe Transmetal redecos. Again, its redeco was not as drastic a change from the original as the others in the series.


 * This version of Airazor was made available in Japan as a toy-show exclusive along with the "Fox Kids" versions of Transmetal Cheetor and Rattrap.

Timelines

 * Chromia 10 Pilot (Airazor) (Club exclusive, 2007)
 * The second members-only exclusive to Fun Publications' Transformers Collectors' Club, Airazor is a redeco of Energon Slugslinger with a retooled head, transforming into a Cybertronic twin-cockpit jet. Her jet mode has an under-slung spring-loaded missile launcher (which flips over her shoulder in robot mode), plus she also has flip-out (non-firing) blasters as well.


 * As of this writing, this toy is not yet available.

Trivia

 * Airazor's gender in the Hasbro line is due to Beast Wars story editors Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio's insistance. The original Airazor toy wasn't developed with a specific gender in mind, and Bob & Larry wanted a larger female presence in the show, and the Airazor toy seemed as good a choice as any. They requested the change early enough that the toy's packaging bio could have its pronouns changed to female.


 * Note the name of Airazor's ship in Dawn of Future's Past, the Chromia 10.  "C-10" is a reference to her original toy's Japanese ID number, and not to being "case fresh"... as is obvious from her dialogue.