Nightbird

Nightbird is a human-built robot from the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Dude? A giant robot ninja?" "No dude, a giant robot ninja chick!" "Duuuude!"

Nightbird is a female ninja robot built to "benefit mankind."

Yeah, those nunchucks are really gonna be 'benefitting' their way through society.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon

Nightbird was a robotic ninja warrior created by the "famous scientist" Doctor Fujiyama, ostensibly to show how advanced Human technology had become. The Decepticons stole Nightbird, and Bombshell implanted her with an enhanced brain chip which turned the drone-like Nightbird into a true ass-kicking machine. Nightbird broke into the Ark and stole the Autobots' World Energy Chip, which contained the locations of a variety of energy sources, energy sources that the Decepticons would most assuredly use for conquest!

The Autobots were, at first, hampered by their promise to Doctor Fujiyama not to damage or destroy the ninja robot, and found themselves flustered in botched attempts to capture her. Eventually, however, they used an Energy Net which drained Nightbird's power reserves and allowed the Autobots to capture her without serious damage.

Doctor Fujiyama placed Nightbird into cold storage, but apparently didn't see fit to fully deactivate her, as she seems aware of her plight and gives an angry glare as she's stored away. Enter the Nightbird

Universe: The Wreckers

In 2025 or so Fujiyama, apparently having learned nothing, built an entire army of Nightbird drones. Daniel Witwicky detonated an explosive to destroy them, killing himself and Wheelie in the process. This event caused Arcee to enter a deep depression, setting the stage for her personality change as she became a Wrecker.

Presumably, the Nightbird drones were all destroyed, since they are never seen or mentioned again. Departure

Dreamwave Generation 1 comics

A science fiction movie, Enter the Nightbird, featured Nightbird kicking shiny metal robo-ass. Infestation

Fandom interpretation

Various fan fiction authors have paired Nightbird with Megatron as a potential love interest, based on a few lines of dialog where Megatron declares how impressed he is of her skills. Some fans have deliberately misinterpreted these lines as cries of affection, something that Megatron has never shown being capable of (not that it comes up much in the cartoon). Some even regard Nightbird as an equal to Megatron, which would mean that Megatron's really one very angry toaster.

It's unlikely that Megatron would regard Nightbird as a "real" robot (i.e., a Cybertronian), since she had no personality component to speak of, and showed no signs of a personality or much capability for independent thought—except the sole angry glare as she's being shoved into storage.

Trivia

• The Nightbirds in the Wreckers comic have four different accent colors, the same colors as the bandanas of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

• The Chiba Institute of Technology actually built a ninja robot in 2003. Martial arts is used as a benchmark of physical dexterity in robotics. Thankfully this ninja robot is only 30 centimeters tall.

External Links

• Ninja Robot Built to Benefit Mankind