Nightscream

Nightscream is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.

Beast Machines
Nightscream is a young Maximal and a member of the cast of Beast Machines. He turns into a bat.

According to a FAQ on Bob Skir's web site "Hey, I argued till I was blue in the face for our new bat to be a female (in my mind she was Newt from Aliens. Now, instead, he's John Conner from T2 !). So.... if I had my druthers, half the cast would be female!"

Hasbro registered the name Nightscream for U.S. Trademark in October 2003.

Reception
Nightscream was named to have the 7th "shittiest" Transformers disguise by Cracked magazine.

Animated series
Nightscream was on Cybertron when Megatron returned from the Beast Wars and unleashed his cataclysmic virus. Fleeing the Vehicons, Nightscream fell into a cavern and escaped the fate of Cybertron's other inhabitants. Nightscream's inbuilt DNA scanner copied a bat skeleton, and reformatted him as a bat. Nightscream managed to escape the virus' debilitating effects by eating fruit from a mysterious tree located in the caverns. He first encountered the Maximals while spying on their transformation training (for he was unable to transform himself as well).

After befriending Optimus Primal and his crew, he led them to the tree where everyone except Cheetor sampled the fruit. The entirely organic fruit brought the primal sides of their beast modes to the fore, and the Maximals descended into feral anarchy. Cheetor, unaffected, destroyed the tree during an attack by the Vehicons, hoping to restore the others. As Nightscream wailed in despair, Primal reformatted him, giving Nightscream a new technorganic body. With his tree destroyed, Nightscream joined the Maximals.

Nightscream's childish petulance caused problems for the Maximals, as his immature mistakes often endangered his team mates. His scorn for Primal's team, seeing them as having lost the Beast Wars, often caused problems. However he was for the most part fairly levelheaded and his outsider perspective of the team helped Cheetor to realize Optimus’ descent into fanaticism. Nightscream was a formidable force with his sonic scream and vampiric ability to drain energy from his enemies. He also did have a sense of compassion; when he discovered how he had gained his beast mode, he bitterly regretted not having been able to use it to have saved more Maximals from the virus.

Nightscream developed a friendship with Savage/Noble, sensing a kindred spirit in the bestial Transformer. When Noble died defending the Maximals from Megatron, Nightscream attacked the Vehicon Leader in rage, depolarizing his spark. Afterwards, Nightscream participated in the final battle against Megatron, and his spark was extracted but was returned when Megatron fell and Cybertron was reformatted.

Nightscream was voiced by Alessandro Juliani. In the Japanese he was given an effeminate voice by Nobutoshi Kanna.

Fun Publications
Botanica, Rattrap and Nightscream appeared together in the story Wreckers: Finale Part II by the Transformers Collectors Club in 2007. During the invasion of Cybertron by the Quintessons they worked together and came across the Quintesson working with the Wreckers.

Toys

 * Beast Machines Nightscream
 * This figure was based on drawings by Hasbro designer Tim Bradley.


 * Happy Meal Nightscream
 * A promotional item that came with McDonalds Happy Meals.

Transformers: Armada
Nightscream is also the name of a Mini-Con in the later Transformers: Armada toyline. He is partnered with Armada Airazor. Airazor and Nightscream were only released by Hasbro, not Takara, so they didn't appear in the television series, which was made in Japan. Although Airazor did appear in the Transformers: Armada comic series, Nightscream's only appearance was limited to his biography page in the More Than Meets The Eye series. He transforms intro a race car.

The bio indicated that Nightscream was a loudmouth with a problem with authority. He has little discipline and often makes life hard for the Autobots around him. This masks a deep affection for his partner Airazor. While he likes bugging her he is completely devoted to her and will protect her at all costs. After Airazor was abducted by Unicron and reformatted as one of his Horsemen, Nightscream vowed to rescue her from her enforced servitude no matter the cost.

Toys

 * Armada Nightscream
 * He is a repaint of the Mini-Con Oval.

Transformers: Energon
Nightscream is the name of one of the Mini-Con partners to Energon Rapid Run. Energon Nightscream has not appeared in any fiction.

Nightscream is also the Japanese name for Starscream.

Fun Publications
Outwardly nebbish and unassuming, Nightscream was a costs accountant for centuries. After the Unicron Battles, he was working for the Mini-Con Council of Sages when he accidentally intercepted the spy Nightcruz, who was there to steal data on the Council's plans to make new combiner Mini-Cons… and quickly helped him take the data. Since that day, he's been working for the mercenary Rapid Run and loving it, even if he's a spy half the time and the team's accountant the other half. His nerdy outer self masks a deep well of adventure-lust and resentment, which occasionally breaks to the surface as odd berserker fits.

Toys

 * Energon Nightscream
 * He is a repaint of Armada Rook.

Transformers: Cybertron
Nightscream is the name of an Autobot-allied Mini-Con planned to come out in a 2-pack with the Decepticon-allied Mini-Con Skyblast. Seemingly a different character to the Armada version, he is part of the Night Rescue team, and with them has vowed to stand up to the tyranny of Skyblast and the Predator Attack Team.

Fun Publications
In the biography posted on the Transformers Collectors Club web site Nightcream is described as a Mini-Con courier from the Giant Planet. He is one of the fastest transformers and has special permission to pass through closed cities while making his deliveries.

Toys

 * Cybertron Nightscream
 * Nightscream was released as part of a bonus pack with Cybertron Primus, along with the Mini-Cons Knockdown, Strongarm and Offshoot. The toy of Cybertron Nightscream is identical to that later released as Classics Thunderwing.

Transformers: Classics
One of the new Mini-Con molds released for the Transformers: Classics line, Nightscream is an Autobot allied Mini-Con who turns into a dragon. He is a member of the Clear Skies Team along with Thunderwing and Steel Wind.

The open skies might not be big enough to contain Nightscream's ego. He's convinced he's the most beautiful, graceful flier of all of Cybertron, a claim not without some merit. His swooping flight patterns defy physics, and his ability to twist and hairpin-turn in midair makes him nearly impossible to hit with anti-aircraft fire. He loves flying low, swooping through land-based obstacles. His dragon-mode head is capable of spitting flames in a variety of intensities, from broad tongues of far reaching orange fire to short range white hot focused heat that can melt through even the toughest armors with surgical precision. While he may be agile, he's not a very fast flier compared to his teammates, and his wings are fairly fragile.

Fun Publications
Nightscream appeared in the Fun Publications fiction The New World.

Toys

 * Classics Mini-Con Nightscream (2007)

Transformers: Timelines
Nightscream was among the characters originally proposed for the Transtech line up.

After the Beast Machines line ended, Hasbro planned a follow-up series called Transtech. The Transtech concept was a line intended to take Transformers to their most futuristic. Hasbro commissioned sets of designs from Draxhall Jump. The series was supposedly to bring back some of the characters who died in Beast Wars along with some characters from the original eighties cartoon series, all in new, techno-organic bodies, though with vehicle alternate modes instead of the animals used in Beast Machines. Many concept sketches and even a few toy prototypes were made, but Hasbro scrapped the idea in favor of bringing Car Robots to their markets as Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Nightscream was mentioned in the Blackarachnia biography printed in issue #25 of the Transformers Collectors Club magazine. According to the biography this Nightscream was originally a Maximal who served in an army on an alternate Cybertron where the Maximals and Predacons rebelled from their controlling Autobot and Decepticon masters. He fled Cybertron with fellow Maximal Blackarachnia and the Predacons Scavenger and Immorticon in an experimental transwarp ship and ended up on Transtech Cybertron. Feeling like a prisoner on this Cybertron he joined up with Alpha Trion's group, who had Topspin transfer their sparks into the bodies of their Transtech counterparts.

Fun Publications
Transtech Nightscream appeared among the troops of Alpha Trion in the story "Transcendent" by Fun Publications. He aided in the raid on Shockwave's lab to free Breakaway. The group then escaped through a dimensional portal to Shattered Glass Cybertron.

appears in a flashback in The Coming Storm being shot by Optimus Prime.