Thunderblast (Cybertron Decepticon)

This article is about the Cybertron female Decepticon. For the Cybertron Autobot-allied Mini-Con, see Thunderblast (Mini-Con).

Thunderblast is a Decepticon from the Cybertron portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Oh no you DI'INT,sister!

Thunderblast is obsessed with power. Not attaining it for herself, but rather, latching onto a "male" Transformer who has a lot of power. She follows the strongest Decepticon she can find, and the stronger he is, the more infatuated with him she is. As such, she is usually seen clinging to Galvatron (who certainly doesn't reciprocate). But as soon as the power structure shifts, so does the focus of her affections.

Though she's fickle and flighty (and greedy and selfish and opportunistic and vain and overconfident and...) she's not completely stupid. She knows how to use her wiles to get what she wants, and she's no slouch in combat, especially underwater. She knows Autobots are generally reluctant to shoot at a female and uses that to her advantage as long as she can...at least, long enough to give them a face full of missiles.

She seems to have something resembling an actual friendship with Lugnutz. And while she's generally disappointed if guys aren't fawning over her, she's found that she wants nothing to do with the geeky Shortround, who is infatuated with her. On the other end of the spectrum, she has quickly gained the undying hatred of the human girl Lori.

Japanese name: Chromia

Hungarian name: Mennykő ("Thunderbolt").

Russian name: Molniya (Молния, "Lightning")

Fiction

Cybertron cartoon

Voice actress: Maryke Hendrikse (US), Natsuko Kuwatani (Japan)

Jeez. Let the animators go home to their wives once in a while, for Primus' sake.

Thunderblast arrived on Earth in the colony ship Atlantis millions of years ago. While the Autobots watched over and guided human evolution, the Decepticons terrorized the humans, inspiring the myths and legends of old; Thunderblast was the inspiration for the myth of Lorelei and possibly the Sirens. These "monsters" were rounded up by the "monster hunter" Crosswise, who locked up the criminals inside a prison located in the center of the Earth (called the "Earth's Navel"), where they stayed until they were released by Starscream in the present day.

Thunderblast and Lugnutz defended Starscream's volcano-island base from the Autobots and Decepticons...up to a point. While Lugnutz decided simply to wander away from the "heavy scene", Thunderblast found herself less than impressed with Starscream and took to following Megatron (whose power was just soooooo dreamy), joining his forces as they journeyed to Cybertron, which transformed into Primus's gargantuan robot mode.

Baby, why you make me gotta hit you?

There, while admiring her looks in a mirrored satellite, she was interrupted by a super-sized Starscream, who gave her the choice to steal the Omega Lock or get blasted to smithereens. She took the former option, but managed to weasel her way out of it by lying to Starscream, luring him planetside, then telling Megatron that she was ordered to attack him. Starscream arrived and the two bickered until they were interrupted by Optimus Prime and Wing Saber. All parties involved rocketed off to fight, leaving her free to wander off unperturbed. Escape Shortly afterwards, she tracked Jetfire and Wing Saber, leading Megatron to the missing Atlantis starship. Titans

When Megatron returned from the fire dimension, Thunderblast and the others continued to follow him, all the way to Gigantion. There, when she teamed up with Scourge in a hunt for the planet's Cyber Planet Key, they ran across an Autobot party consisting of Override, Wing Saber and the human Lori. Thunderblast and Lori very quickly got on each other's nerves, both browbeating Scourge, and when Thunderblast took off, Lori scared Wing Saber into following, leaving Scourge and Override to duke it out.

Wing Saber chased Thunderblast through the lower levels, but it was a trap, since the Decepticon was leading them to a harbor area, and water combat was Thunderblast's element. Wing Saber took a fair pummeling, but Lori noticed a cluster of cranes, and she set them up so Wing Saber could lure the overconfident "floozy" (Lori's words). Thunderblast was crushed under a half-dozen massive claws, and Wing Saber took the chance to blast her while she was down, the explosion sending her flying away uncontrollably. Ambush

Thunderblast is on the move, Thunderblast is loose!

When Megatron (now Galvatron) and Starscream dueled over the Omega Lock and the four Cyber Planet Keys, Thunderblast briefly wondered if she was infatuated with the wrong 'bot. But when Galvatron emerged victorious, she followed him back to Cybertron happily. There, she and the few remaining Decepticons still loyal to Galvatron (Thundercracker, Ransack and Crumplezone) were given a boost of Omega Lock power, super-sizing them so they could take on the massed armies that had gathered from all of the colony worlds to oppose them. After being assaulted (and insulted) by Undermine and Brimstone, Thunderblast found herself going up against her old friend Lugnutz. Though she seemed shocked he'd side with the "good guys", she got over it pretty quickly and had no compunctions about trying to blow him away.

Ultimately, Galvatron's plot failed. Thunderblast realized that Galvatron was going to let her die in the cataclysm that his plan would have caused, and she ran off along with the other now-de-powered Decepticons. When the rocket boosters built on the Jungle Planet to push the world back to its normal place in the cosmos began to fail, the four Decepticons arrived, cackling...and helped with the efforts to keep the thrusters upright and functional, deciding to try being on the winning team for once.

Men never ask for directions.

Afterwards, Thunderblast, Ransack and Crumplezone went to each world, trying to find a place to fit in and failing. Thunderblast in particular threw herself at about every strong male bot around, but it seemed no one was even remotely interested. When the Autobots were ready to begin their Space Bridge initiative, the trio built a rickety rocket, shanghaied the reluctant Thundercracker (who was really enjoying being an Autobot), and took off for parts unknown as the New Decepticon Army.

They made it as far as Mars before the rocket crashed.

Toys

Cybertron

"Oh, I think I broke a nail carrying this gun" *pout*

• Thunderblast (Deluxe class, 2005)
  • Japanese ID number: GD-11
  • Accessories: Missile launcher, 2 missiles, Earth Cyber Planet Key

Thunderblast transforms into a speedboat of undetermined model via shellforming. She has a small, rotating (non-firing) machine gun and a large missile rack on a rotating and elevating base in this mode. Inserting a Cyber Planet Key into the back of the missile rack opens it up to reveal a spring-loaded missile launcher, which uses the torpedoes mounted under her hydrofoils as ammunition. The rack becomes a hand-held weapon for her robot mode. She comes with a silver-bordered Earth-style Key; the Hasbro version has the Key code dh62 stamped on its back.

The original Takara release of the toy has a molding defect, giving her lopsided Shannen Doherty eyes. The Hasbro release fixes this, as well as changes a few minor paint applications.

Multipack

• Sideways, Brimstone, Thunderblast ("Value Pack", 2005)
  • Accessories: Missile launcher, 2 missiles, Earth Cyber Planet Key

Thunderblast was also available in a Toys "R" Us exclusive "Value Pack" alongside Sideways and Brimstone; all three normally-carded toys were put in a large cardboard "sleeve" that let the bubbles stick out. This set retailed for $29.99... and since Deluxes were $9.99... not much of a "value" there.

Minerva

Hello, nurse-boat!

• Chromia Minerva-Type (DVD pack-in, 2005)
  • Accessories: Missile launcher, 2 missiles, Earth Cyber Planet Key

Packaged with the ninth disc in the Galaxy Force DVD series, Thunderblast's only toy was redecoed into a white and red color scheme, an homage to the Generation One Masterforce female Autobot Minerva (even though the only similarity between the two characters is that they're both female). This release uses the Hasbro version of the mold, with the corrected face sculpt.

Notes

We were gonna circle the part in question, but we figured you guys were already staring at them.

• Thunderblast's mold was used as the basis for the non-toy Classics incarnation of Elita One.

• While Thunderblast isn't the first female Transformer to have a rack (or male Transformer, for that matter), she is the first one to have what appear to be "nipples", as seen in the episode "Memory". The animators at Gonzo obviously weren't taking enough cold showers.

• So far, Thunderblast is also the only female Transformer that seems to use her armor as a form of clothing (in her case, a tank top) as here breast constantly pop out as seen in "Escape".

• Thunderblast is the first female Decepticon ever to appear in a Transformers cartoon series, Blackarachnia being a Predacon (well, technically a co-opted Maximal) and Strika being a female Vechicon.

External Links

• Thunderblast at TFU.info