The Energon Pub

I really enjoyed BotCon 2008's Shattered Glass story. Essentially, it's a role reversal, Mirror-Mirror type story where the Decepticons are the good guys, the Autobots are the bad guys, and everyone has been re-written to skew their personality in the appropriate way.

Now, a lot of the major characters have already been written, but the 2007 Movie line gave us an opportunity to add to that cast with toys who's faction symbols were not specific. ie, the Decepticon symbols were not purple, but silver, etc.

Doing what I do and being who I am, I started to do write ups of these toys where appropriate because, well because it's awesome.

So of you read my SG Ultra Magnus bio, so you know kind of how I go about this. Well, I'm going to start off with Skywarp here, followed by Thundercracker, and later Jetfire.

I try to keep the core character traits around, like for instance, Skywarp is still a trickster, he's just much more intelligent now. Instead of needing constant supervision, he's more Wolverine esq.

Well, pictures and bio (please give your thoughts):




Skywarp

Decepticon Saboteur

“Think before you act! Responsibility is the measuring stick of civilization.”

Overly cautious, but calculatingly clever, Skywarp is happiest when set loose to create havoc for the Autobot armies. His early records in the Academy showed him to be a poor solider with little ability to carry out orders in the manner that his commanders had set forth. Despite his blatant disregard for standard operating procedure, his squadron managed a steady stream of success. While his commanders under this system were happy to lap up all the glory, it took the careful notice of Starscream to figure out that the key variable in those successes was Skywarp’s gifted, if disrespectful re-interpretation of his commander’s orders.

It did not take much time until Skywarp “dropped out” of the academy, never to be heard from by the rank and file Decepticons again. His reassignment was classified, his new orders were clear and simple, “Never give the Autobots a moments rest.” This was the only command Starscream gave to Skywarp and he has never since come to regret it.

Skywarp has near genius level intellect. His early failures were due in part to an inability to reconcile poor leadership with his superior strategy. His current successes are entirely due to the weight and honesty of the task Starscream has given him. Skywarp understands that Starscream (and Megatron by extension) know his worth. He does not have to prove himself and is free to act in the manners necessary to stop Optimus Prime.

Will the ends justify the means? Sometimes the responsibility is too much for even a genius to bear.

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Skywarp is the slowest of the Seekers. His alt mode is weighed down significantly by the vast array of gadgets he wields. His maneuverability in space is limited by somewhat antiquated propulsion systems.

Skywarp has an insidious ability to teleport matter from one location to another. His systems have a glitch that he has yet to be able to correct where occasionally, he teleports himself rather than the intended target. The result of this is usually a temporary case of Stasis Lock.

Very creative. I always enjoy reading stuff like this. Keep up the great work!

Okay, here is my attempt at repurposing a toy and making a Shattered Glass character from it. I'm using G2 Mirage as Shattered Glass Mirage.

I'm torn on how you would do Thundercracker.

Would his doubts about the Decepticon cause persist with the Decepticon's being good guys? Or would he be an Autobot that doubted their cause? Or would he be a Decepticon completely committed to their cause?

I figure with an insignia swap, Universe Treadbolt might be a good fit, but if you want correct colors and insignia, then Movie Thundercracker is the best option. The aggressive design would fit well with the following (especially if you claim him as an F-35 instead of an F-22):

Thundercracker

Decepticon Jump Trooper

"A good soldier has his feet firmly planted on the ground."

Thundercracker is one of many Decepticons reformatted for air-combat, but during his early training alongside his idealistic fellow Decepticon air-warriors, Thundercracker came to feel that he didn't really belong among them. He found their 'air-superiority' philosophy to be arrogant and somewhat cowardly, believing that wars will always be won by grunts on the ground. More importantly he came to feel that their idealism was naivete; to Thundercracker, the ends can always justify the means. Eventually he left their ranks to serve as ground infantry, where he could fight the Autobots face-to-face.

Ruthless and violent on the battlefield compared to his fellow Decepticons, Thundercracker has been tempted many times by Autobot pleas for him to join their side. So far, something inside of it, hope for a better world and a better self perhaps, has led him to follow Megatron's leadership.

----------------

Thundercracker can fly at up to 1500mph in jet-mode, but unlike other Decepticon air-warriors, he uses this ability chiefly to leap into battle on foot, soaring above advancing troops and slamming in to the opposing battle-line ahead of them. Autobots scatter at the sight of his approach - when Thundercracker lands, he does not decelerate first but instead strikes the ground with tremendous force, generating a thunderous sonic boom. How he himself is able to survive this tactic is unclear. Once on the ground, Thundercracker chiefly relies on his two automatic incendiary guns, cleansing the area of enemies with a fiery hail of ceramic rounds. He also sports a pair of machinegun-armed UCAV drones that he can launch in either mode to cover his back in a fight.

Thundercracker's contempt for 'flyboys' makes him overly disinclined to use his own flight mode, limiting his contribution to the war effort, and reluctant to help his old wing-men out of a scrape. His ruthlessness has repeatedly brought him into conflict with his more compassionate superiors, and the temptation to join the more like-minded Autobots may eventually win out over the moral convictions that flicker within his ember.

I always liked this mold and color scheme, so playing the part of Shattered Glass Octane we have movie Jetstorm.

It occurs to me that there ought to be two Devastators.

One of the origins of the Constructicons in the cartoon had them being heroic Autobots forcibly reprogrammed by Megatron.

In the SG universe, they'd presumably have started out as Evil Autobots and... remained that way. The heroic Megatron would never forcibly reprogram someone that way!

So they would be the Constructibots (including Hauler) and would merge to form Devastator.

In response to this, however, the heroic and brilliant Megatron (or perhaps Shockwave as in the G1 comics) would have created his own team of Constructicons from scratch. These Constructicons would merge to form... Constructicon Maximus? Buildtron? Something 'nicer' than Devastator.

I would suggest that the Evil Autobot Constructibots use the G2 color scheme (remember, purple is an Autobot color now) and the Heroic Decepticon Constructicons use the color scheme on the right:

I alsows loved the messy Skalor Seacon as a kid, so what would his Shattered Glass version be like? A neat freak of course!

Caelus wrote:I'm torn on how you would do Thundercracker.

Would his doubts about the Decepticon cause persist with the Decepticon's being good guys? Or would he be an Autobot that doubted their cause? Or would he be a Decepticon completely committed to their cause?

This is my take on him...(I had this written, but was waiting to post it, came back and you all had gone to town. )

Thundercracker

Decepticon Stuntman

“Stand aside, I’ll handle this one…”

Nothing is too difficult for Thundercracker. He’ll make sure you’re perfectly aware of this with every order he’s given. He has no doubt, no fear, and no perception of what war means for the rest of the Decepticons.

Thundercracker never had anything to lose from the beginning of the war and as such, the war has not really proven to be a threat to him. Instead, it has provided an opportunity to push his personal limits time and time again.

He’s as loyal to the Decepticon cause as any Transformer alive. He has no doubts about the righteous nature of their war or of the certainty of their victory. He engages every battle with 100% percent ferocity, making his presence known with several consecutive concussion blasts which destroy any and all unprepared audio receptors on the field.

Thundercracker has even crossed fists with Optimus Prime, leaving an ill fated crack in Prime’s chest that to this day has gone unrepaired. Prime has vowed to one day permanently ground the Decepticon flyboy.

-----

The truth about Thundercracker’s bravery is simple, he has a severely malfunctioning risk/reward subroutine. Thundercracker simply doesn’t comprehend the dangers his activities place upon himself and others. He lacks the ability to separate operations with a 10% chance of success from those with a 100% chance of success. Only his highly impressive skill set combined with this insane level of daring has kept him alive for as long as he has been.

Thundercracker is the most heavily armored of the Decepticon elite jets. He sports powerful engines with both atmospheric and sub-orbital capabilities. He is able to generate incredible amounts of forward thrust in very short time periods which make his free-fall flying and subsequent acrobatics possible. These engines are also responsible for his sonic-boom and sound manipulation abilities which have only bolstered his fame.


I was actually using Movie Jetstorm as my Thundercracker. I liked the color shift with the traces of blue.

Since Thundercracker has actually appeared in the fiction and has a form, I gave up on using a figure for him. He's officially a rainbow colored repaint of Classic Starscream with the power to make waves of silence, but I'm not sure on his personality.



Here is my take on Shattered Glass Powerglide. I used the Classics Fireflight toy, since we are getting that repaint of the Energon mold as a more accurate Classic Fireflight toy.

Scaleface wrote:Since Thundercracker has actually appeared in the fiction and has a form, I gave up on using a figure for him. He's officially a rainbow colored repaint of Classic Starscream with the power to make waves of silence, but I'm not sure on his personality.

If that's from the Shattered Expectations April Fools story, it's not SG canon at all. That story had elements of it that ran contrary to the small, but established SG story as it stood.

No, it's official. SG Thundercracker also appeared in the story "Dungeons & Dinobots", where he was the same as the character in Shattered Expectations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundercra ... _Timelines

Scaleface wrote:No, it's official. SG Thundercracker also appeared in the story "Dungeons & Dinobots", where he was the same as the character in Shattered Expectations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundercra ... _Timelines

I just checked.

That pictures does not appear in Dungeons & Dinobots, nor does any picture of Thundercracker appear at all.

The bubble of silence thing is in there and there is a reference to a 'multi-colored fuselage', but that's it.

No picture, true, but I thini it's implying that they went with the Shattered Expectations appearance. I think the authors have also said they were putting some of the Shattered Expectations characters into official SG characters. Of course you can make up your won character if you want, nothing wrong with that. Right now NO toy looks like they described it in D&D that I am aware of, and you can still make up your own personality in a bio. He's wide open as a character.

Oh, speaking of colorful characters, here is my take on Shattered Glass Seaspray:

Scaleface wrote:Since Thundercracker has actually appeared in the fiction and has a form, I gave up on using a figure for him. He's officially a rainbow colored repaint of Classic Starscream with the power to make waves of silence, but I'm not sure on his personality.

Simple use Action Master Thundercracker.

Yeah, except it doesn't transform, and it's not exactly easy to buy a spare Action Master Thundercracker these days. They are pretty rare.

What I like about Shattered Glass is that it's not a perfect mirror image of G1. They have some things the same, some things opposite, some things just use different variations. For instance Megatron is colored like G1 Megatron, or Sideswipe is colored like a G2 character and still a "good guy". Thundercracker is colored like a variant. Sky Lynx has a lynx head and bird feet in combined mode. It's not just opposites, it's twisted!

BTW - Here is my Shattered Glass Waver. In the normal Victory series Waver is a quite laid back guy who listens rather than talks... so...

Scaleface wrote:...Sky Lynx has a lynx head and bird feet in combined mode. It's not just opposites, it's twisted!

At the risk of maybe being off-topic: is there a pic of this somewhere? That sounds cool!

Caelus wrote:I would suggest that the Evil Autobot Constructibots use the G2 color scheme (remember, purple is an Autobot color now) and the Heroic Decepticon Constructicons use the color scheme on the right:

The only issue with this is that we have seen Constucticons in Shattered Glass, as they were the ones who found, recovered and fixed Cliffjumper after he was left in the Rad Zone. Specifically Hook and Scrapper. Long Haul also makes an appearance but not clear enough to see his paint aps.

Regardless, Hook and Scrapper clearly are shown in a white with red motif clearly marking them as a team of medics. Thusly, it is to be assumed that regardless of their vehicle types that they would be in either an entire white/red paint app, or possibly painted like a modified Defensor.

I would believe (and wish I had the photoshop skills to do)that Hook, Scrapper, and Long Haul are white with red, Bonecrusher and Scavenger likely red with white, with Mixmaster being mostly red with his mixbarrel white with red crosses. Which should give Devestator a balanced white/red look. Maybe if I can find a KO set this year, I'll try repainting them like this.

I wish they had gone with a G2 orange or yellow color scheme for the Constructicons, that way would could use those toys for them.

We also recently saw Wildrider in the comic story "Reunification", and he was oddly colored like a G2 Aerialbot! The Shattered Glass Technobots also appeared and they were colored like the Terrorcons. Scattroshot was Hun-Gurrr, Lightspeed was Blot, Strafe was Cutthroat, Afterburner was Sinnetwin, Nosecone was Rippersnapper.

Scaleface wrote:Oh, speaking of colorful characters, here is my take on Shattered Glass Seaspray:

I am surprised that you did not use the movie repaint of Cybertron Shortround.

With a symbol swap courtesy of Reprolabels he'd be perfect.

Of course, C-Shortround himself would do well for SG-Seaspray, what with his G1 Seacon colors.

I honestly didn't want to work with any altered or customized figures, just repurposed existing figures. Besides, I'm working on the rest of the Autobot Pirates. Like Seaspray's first mate, Seawatch.

Are you going to churn out a Heroic Decepticon Cannonball or are you sticking to G1 only?

Well, I usually focus on toys I have that are not really part of much official ficiton, then I see if they fit in somewhere. I'm not sure what toy a Shattered Glass Cannonball would be. I have collected a lot of Micron Boosters lately and been using them as Micromasters and SF Mini-Bots.

My line-up:



Autobots:
Seaspray, Huffer, Star Saber, Dread Leo (combined to save shelf space), Beachcomber, Windcharger, Jetfire, Side Burn and of Course Ultra Magnus.

Decepticons:
Scorponok, Shockwave, Spyglass, Spectro, Viewfinder, Swindle, Thundercracker, Skywarp and of course Soundwave.

Profiles can be found here for the Autobots and here for the Decepticons.

Brief versions for those that don't wanna read:
Beachcomber: Pacifist, but so emotionally detached that he cares not for the suffering of others. Runs the Autobot gulags.
Huffer: Takes great pride in his work, which is blowing things up; though is often way too cheerful and eager to help.
Windcharger: A tactician who prefers to be as far away from the fighting as possible. Only in it because he sees no real victory for the Decepticons.
Jetfire: Once a pal of Starscream, in this universe Jetfire became the cold hearted killer
Seaspray: An Autobot who has become so corroded by the Rust Sea that he thinks he can stand up to, and beat Optimus Prime.
Star Saber: A dirty cop who has let power corrupt him completely. Changes the "laws" on a whim and will torture anyone who breaks them. (Still to be posted)
Dread Leo: One of Wheeljack's failed experements in copying Grimlock's AI. It was up to Star Saber to kill it, but instead he formed a bond with it. (Still to be posted)
Side Burn: A paranoid pyromaniac. (still to be finished)
Mirage: A rich playboy multi-billionare who has become bored with life. Prime has renewed his intrest by allowing him to hunt more resourceful and intelligent prey; Decepticons. (Will be played by the Clear Mirage figrue)

Soundwave: A former music star of mega-fame. He now maintains morale, and weaponry. Not much of a fighter.
Thundercracker: Unlike his "normal" self, this Thundercracker is completely sure of his loyalty to the Decepticon cause. He's a former police officer that was driven out of town once Prime took over.
Skywarp: Young and naive, Skywarp is in the war for glory. (not happy 'bout this one. May rework)
Scorponok: Not Cybertronian in nature, but loyal to Megatron when they busted him out. Speaks in strange patterns. Technorganic in nature.
Spyglass: Doesn't say much, but when he does it's the right thing. Never jumps to conclusions.
Spectro: An anthropologist with deep psychological issues. "Sees" using echolocation.
Viewfinder: A former sportscaster, this little mech has a loud voice and can energize a crowd. Dreams of the day he can put his voice towards entertainment again.
Swindle: A former politician who trades on favours and information. Loves finding out new little secrets.
Shockwave: Former colleague of Megatron's. One of the first to be recruited. Now works double duty as drill sargent and weapons development. (still to be finished)

I think the writers ahve said that the Movie Hardtop toy will be representing SG Beachcomber in the comics eventually.

I like the idea of Energon Sixshot as SG Shockwave though.

I was thinking of using the Universe Springer as SG Springer.

Scaleface wrote:I was thinking of using the Universe Springer as SG Springer.

I don't think a rescue chopper would really fit (unless you mean the Botcon exclusive).

I think the TF2 Movie Springer (Voyager Incinerator Repaint) that's likely to come out would be a better choice.