Waspinator

Waspinator is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes. He is sometimes called Wasp. The original Waspinator was voiced by Scott McNeil in the Beast Wars animated series.

Beast Wars
Waspinator is best remembered for being the universe's whipping boy: getting destroyed or demolished in almost every episode of Beast Wars, yet returning in almost perfect condition in the very next episode. He is also dim-witted, talks in a broken third-person speech pattern, often referring to other characters, except Megatron, Optimus Primal, and himself,(however when Megatron became a dragon, Waspinator referred to him as "Dragon-Bot") by names that reflected their transformation modes instead of their true names (example: referring to Silverbolt as "Doggy-Bot") and spent most of the series as an underdog, causing him to take constant abuse from Maximal and Predacon alike (thus summing up Waspinator's most well-known line "Why universe hate Waspinator?!") making him one of the more fan-favorite characters on the show. His beast mode is a wasp and his name is based on The Terminator.

Waspinator displays an ability to put himself back together and move even when in pieces - and he needs it. He is not so much a bad fighter as he is incredibly unlucky, being considered highly expendable by Megatron and most of the other Predacons too. The only logical explanation (never confirmed) is that Starscream's immortal spark passed a little bit of its indestructible properties to Waspinator when he was possessed. He has been proven to be disloyal when he thinks he can get away with it, but most of the time he follows Megatron's orders and gets blown to pieces in the process - and usually, that was Megatron's plan. Rattrap once mentioned that he had a large collection of Waspinator's parts.

In the final episode, Waspinator had enough of being a Predacon since evil people get blown up. Before he quit, he gave a speech," I said NO! Dragon-bot command you, Sub-commander kiss-butt! Dragon-bot not command Wazzpinator, not any more! Wazzpinator sick of being evil, sick of being Predacon! And Wazzpinator especially sick of GETTING BLOWN TO SCRAP ALL THE TIME!!! Sooo, Wazzpinator quit! As of now, which means Ant-bot and two-heads can just pucker their mandibles, and plant BIIG wet juicy one right here, on Wazzpinator's ...BIG...FAT...STRIPEY..." at which point he is blown apart by Inferno and Quickstrike.

Waspinator's toy was recolored as the Predacon Buzz Saw, a character who only appeared in the comic series. Waspinator came with two different heads, a robotic and mutant head, but the television series only ever depicted him with the mutant head. Buzz Saw was depicted in the comics with the robot head.

Although a transmetal version of Waspinator was made in the toy line, Waspinator remained in his original form in the television series from first episode to last (the only one of the original five Predacons to do so). There was also a "Fox Kids" repaint of his original form, which was in new colors, and one of his transmetal form which had the colors of Buzz Saw.

In 2005 the original Waspinator toy was one of the toys selected for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary toyline, repainted in more show-accurate colors. He came packaged with one of the six pieces used to make the Transmutate toy and a DVD with the episode Possession on it.

As the Vehicon General Thrust he was in charge of the Cycle Drones and was one of the few who remained an ally to Megatron until the very end.

Waspinator also has a tendency to have the last word in every series finale.

Scott Mcneil attended Botcon 2006 at the Lexington Convention Center for the 10th anniversary of the TV series.

Reception
Wired Magazine once nominated him as one 12 most ridiculous Transformers of all time.

Animated series
Waspinator was a follower of the Predacon criminal Megatron, joining him on his raid of the Golden Disk artifact from the Maximals and being on the Darksyde when it was chased through Transwarp Space by the Axalon and crashed on prehistoric Earth. High energon levels threatened to destroy the crew unless they adopted organic alternate modes, and Waspinator took the form of a wasp ("Beast Wars Part 1").

Waspinator's body was blasted apart, crushed or disassembled numerous times throughout the series (“Oh sure...don't mind Waspinator; Waspinator just lie here and suffer... drag himself to CR tank...”). Even his fellow Predacons had little respect for Waspinator, often letting him take the shots in battles. Despite the fact that Waspinator never actually led or participated in a rebellion against Megatron, he was not loyal to the Predacon tyrant but merely too cowed and frightened of Megatron to overthrow him, a sentiment which only got worse as Megatron grew more powerful during the series and Waspinator did not. This can be best observed during the first season when Waspinator was shown in a private conversation with himself, revealing his desire to, like most Predacons, overthrow Megatron and establish himself as leader.

Outside of Optimus Primal and Megatron, he had a tendency to address his comrades and enemies by nicknames that described their personas or transformation modes, such as calling Dinobot "Lizard-Bot" and Inferno "Ant-Bot". Interestingly, when Megatron was reconfigured into the form of a dragon, Waspinator began to call him "Dragon-Bot", despite having always referred to him as Megatron in the past.

In the first season, he was often partnered with Terrorsaur and proved himself to be a capable aerial combatant. However, Waspinator had few notable roles other than acting as Megatron's aerial muscle. But he did get a successful victory when he stole the Axalon's Energon shielding system in "Call of the Wild" and also blinding and nearly destroying some of the Maximals in "Dark Voyage". During the episode "Possession", Waspinator was possessed by the spark of the ancient Decepticon Starscream. Starscream betrayed Megatron with the help of Blackarachnia and managed to capture the Axalon from the Maximals, but his own ego and a betrayal in turn by Blackarachnia saw him defeated. In another bizarre incident, he was severely damaged by a reprogrammed Rhinox, who had developed his own ideas about leading the Predacons. As usual Waspinator survived but this time he had been temporarily damaged mentally, referring to himself as the original Insecticon Shrapnel, and talking with his speech impediment. In the same scene he refers to himself as Wonko The Sane, which is in turn a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as well as to a prominent Transformers fan who used that name as his online handle. This episode of insanity lasted until an annoyed Cheetor shot him down and Waspinator was repaired (with his last insane line being part of the original transformers theme song "more than meets the eye").

In "Before the Storm", Waspinator was the first to discover that Tarantulas was going to leave, disobeying Megatron. Waspinator was blown to pieces by Tarantulas before he could inform Megatron (who still found out with his security cameras). In the season finale, he fought with Rattrap in a fist duel, but he lost and left dizzy.

When the Earth was hit by a quantum surge from the Vok's destroyed planet killer weapon, it reformatted several Maximals and Predacons into transmetal forms. Waspinator was unaltered. It is theorized by fans that, because he fell into a CR Tank as the wave passed, he was shielded from its effects.

In a bold and surprising move, he attempted to steal the Golden Disks from Megatron, only to be beaten to it (and subsequently scrapped) by Dinobot and the Darksyde's security systems. This was his second moment of hidden disloyalty. In the same episode, it was revealed that he was the first to realize that the planet the Beast Wars was being waged on was really Earth after all, suggesting that he may not have been quite as dumb as he often appeared to be and that he might have been an astronomer prior to joining Megatron.

Waspinator finally got his time for glory, when he shot Silverbolt by the back, which made him crash into Dinobot knocking both of them out.

Inferno: You serve the Royalty well, Waspinator!

Waspinator: Waspinator not serve...Waspinator rules!!

Waspinator's moment did not last, however, because Rattrap tricked him into knocking himself out when he was trying to carry Silverbolt.

Following this, however, Waspinator played little role in the Beast Wars as the season continued, his only other prominent moment being when he was sent by Megatron to the location of the crashed Ark - only to be followed by Blackarachnia and inadvertently smashed to pieces by her modified stasis pod while she was arguing with Silverbolt.

Waspinator spent much of the season partnered with Inferno and Quickstrike ("Ant-Bot and Two-Head"). He was briefly teamed up with the transmetal II clone of Dinobot (who sliced him to ribbons), only to end up quickly shot by Cheetor after the young Maximal completed his own 'upgrade' into a transmetal II. Waspinator's status grew increasingly poor as time went on, to the extent that he was literally taken to pieces by the proto-human girl Una, who had been taught by Cheetor to go for the hinges when attacking robots. Megatron merely described this as "situation normal then". Throughout most of this series he was used as Predacon cannon fodder, while the slightly more powerful ones did more active combat. When the Predacons broke into the Maximal base, he was told that he would be leading the attack, but instead turned out to be a decoy that was literally squashed by Optimus.

In "Other Victories", Waspinator was assigned to act as Quickstrike's defense attorney. In a speech summed up by Megatron as "Brilliant as always", he simply stated that he had no problem whatsoever with Quickstrike being dealt the death penalty. Later in the same episode, when Tigerhawk created a tornado and he was sucked in, he reflexively grabbed on to Inferno and Quickstrike, the result being that all three of them were carried away. Waspinator's sentiment on the matter was that "At least this time Waspinator has company!"

After the destruction of the Predacon Base, Inferno, Quickstrike and Waspinator were sent to establish a new base for the Predacons and discovered caves that were inhabited by a tribe of early humans. Just as the Predacons were about to engage the early humans in battle, Waspinator decided he was sick of the evil Predacon ways and of the constant physical abuse he was always receiving and quit in a furious and surprising rant.

Interrupting Waspinator's tirade, Inferno and Quickstrike shot him and proceeded to fight the early humans. It is worth noting that this rant is only the second time in the series that Waspinator ever referred to himself in first-person (the first time was in the episode 'Power Surge.')

As the Beast Wars came to an end and the Maximals left for Cybertron, it was revealed that Waspinator stayed behind on Earth, living amongst a tribe of early humans and being worshiped as a god. He even got the last line of the series: “Waspinator happy at last!”.

Throughout the Beast Wars series, Waspinator was one of only three characters to last all three seasons without receiving some type of upgrade; the others being Rhinox and Inferno.

Waspinator was captured by Megatron's Vehicon Drones and his spark was transferred into the Vehicon General Thrust in Beast Machines. During the series, it was revealed that, following the conclusion of the Beast Wars that the early humans got tired of Waspinator, despite having worshipped him as a deity, and forced him to leave (although he claimed he was tired of them and left because he missed Cybertron). How he got home afterwards was never revealed, though he did say "Took forever, but waaayyy worth it". Even writer Bob Skir mentioned in his website that "someone someday has to explain to me how he hitchhiked his way home..." It is possible that he just flew under his own power and it took him so long to reach Cybertron that he arrived just prior to the Maximals exiting from transwarp space.

Thrust was the only one of the original three Vehicon Generals who was able to remember on his own that he used to be someone else. For a while, Blackarachnia believed that this someone else was Silverbolt, since Thrust kept displaying a soft spot for the she-spider. She was disappointed to learn that Thrust was not Silverbolt, but the Predacon Waspinator. Waspinator had been left on prehistoric Earth, to be worshiped by the early humans, but Waspinator accidentally boringly flung a pebble at a human who was building a statue to worship his "godlike" performance, and chased him off. Somehow he returned to Cybertron where his spark was extracted by Megatron and reprogrammed into Thrust. Waspinator was actually very pleased to be inside the "cool biker-bot" because "Chick-bots dig 'brooding loner' bit! "

Thrust almost never loses his cool, and is almost fearless. He'll even let his boss, Megatron, know when he's done something stupid, something which the cowardly Waspinator would never have done. Thrust even once told his leader that using the sparks of Rhinox and Silverbolt for Jetstorm and Tankor had been a bad idea as they had once been “pals” of Optimus.

Each of the three original Vehicon Generals had their own personalized command codes; Thrust's was: "Thrust Overdrive!!" (though on one occasion he said: "Thrust Accelerate!" as a joke)

Despite his preference for solitude, he considered his fellow Vehicon General Jetstorm to be his best friend, disregarding some of their past rivalries. As for Tankor, "He's a nice guy... little dim". He despised the next generals, Obsidian and Strika simply because they replaced the original cast and because they treated him like an outsider, despite the fact that he had been there the longest. Not until Megatron had been thought dead and Obsidian and Strika had joined forces with the Maximals despite Thrust’s assurances that Megatron would return, did the new generals respect Thrust, for he had been loyal when they had not. While he was still not considered an equal, they from then on let him in on their plans.

Unlike all the other Generals, Thrust would remain loyal to Megatron to the bitter end. His friendship with Jetstorm would eventually turn into a white-hot hatred when the Jetstorm reverted back to Silverbolt, his old Maximal self.

With Cybertron's reformatting at the end of the series, Waspinator was reformatted into a surprisingly small technorganic wasp, but with the head of Thrust. ''“No, NO! Waspinator want glory, Waspinator want power! And what Waspinator get?! WASPINATOR NEVER GET WHAT WASPINATOR WANT!”''. He was then swatted by Rattrap and sent spiraling away through the air. His final line in this series is an ironic contrast to his last on Beast Wars. Bob Skir referred to this version of Waspinator as Thrustinator in the DVD commentary of the last episode.

3H Enterprises
In the Transformers: Universe storyline Thrust would return in his Vehicon form as one of the many Transformers kidnapped by Unicron from alternate timelines.

The original Waspinator also put in an appearance in the BotCon voice actor play. When Rhinox's attempts to stop Unicron pulling victims from alternate realities resulted in two groups of dimensionally-displaced Autobots being marooned on frozen planetoids, Waspinator, on the side of good for once, was sent alongside Silverbolt and Rattrap to help. They ended up battling Unicron's minions alongside a crew of time lost Autobots (Bumblebee, Cosmos and Tracks) and the two groups of Autobots they had been sent to help (both from the RiD universes), and, with Rhinox's help, sent them back to their own times and realities.

Fun Publications
The Predacon General now known as Megatron gathered a crew of like-minded individuals. While Waspinator and Terrorsaur stole a ship, Megatron, Dinobot and Scorponok stole the Golden Disk artifact, battling the guards and destroying one, disabling a second, and leaving a third to commandeer a ship to pursue them. Waspinator would lose a contest to name the ship with Terrorsaur, christening it the Darksyde (Waspinator's choice being "Buzzerbot"). Picking up the others, they fled and were pursued by two ships: one of which was the Axalon commanded by Optimus Primal, the other the Chromia 10 piloted by Airazor. With a little help from Laserbeak and Buzzsaw (secretly sent by Divebomb to ensure Megatron's plan to change history succeeded) they destroyed one of their pursuers, and the newly christened Darksyde fled into Transwarp space, with the Axalon in pursuit - thus beginning the Beast Wars.

Beast Wars Second Galvatron, Megastorm and the technorganic Predacon Waspinator appeared together in the story Wreckers: Finale Part II by the Transformers Collectors Club in 2007. During the invasion of Cybertron by the Quintessons the Predacons worked together to ambush a Quintesson contingent commanded by Overseer Vashik. Vashik's troops were caught in a pool of molten magma and destroyed.

IDW Publishing
Waspinator had a biography printed in the Beast Wars Sourcebook by IDW Publishing.

Other media
Waspinator appears among the characters in Re-Unification, the 2010 TFcon voice actor play prelude comic.

Honors
For BotCon 2011, Hasbro named Waspinator as the "Fans' Choice" robot inductee in the Transformers Hall of Fame, beating Shockwave, Grimlock, Jazz and Erector. He is the second Beast Wars character to be given this honor.

Toys

 * Beast Wars Deluxe Waspinator
 * The original Waspinator toy featured two different heads for his humanoid robot mode. One more human-like and another more insect-like. The insect one was featured in the show as his only head in robot mode. On his redeco, Buzzsaw, they utilized the human-like head to make the characters more distinctive.
 * The original Waspinator toy was recolored as Buzz Saw, then remolded into Dirgegun in the Japanese Beast Wars II TV Show.
 * An interesting note is that the original issue of Waspinator was composed with many ball and swivel joints that more than easily separated when little force was applied, making him a little more show accurate than would be expected.


 * Beast Wars Deluxe Transmetal Waspinator
 * In the toyline, Waspinator was a deadly and efficient aerial warrior, who ended up becoming a transmetal with a tertiary mode of a fighter-jet. His jet mode slightly resembled a Mirage 4000, a comparable aircraft to the F-15 which Starscream originally transformed into.


 * Beast Wars Fox Kids Transmetal Deluxe Waspinator
 * A redeco of transmetal Waspinator, done in the colors of Beast Wars Buzzsaw, but oddly still called Waspinator.


 * Beast Machines Deluxe Thrust
 * A Deluxe sized toy was released for Thrust by Hasbro. His Cycle-Drones were made into Basic sized figures utilizing brand new molds. Oddly enough the Cycle-Drone toys looked more like Thrust in the television series than the Thrust toy did.


 * Beast MachinesHappy Meal Thrust
 * A smaller version of Thrust was also made as a toy which was included in children's fast food meals.


 * Beast Wars Returns Scout Thrust
 * A redeco of the Motorcycle Drone toy that was only released in Japan, as part of their 2005 Beast Machines (called Beast Wars Returns there) line.  This version is far more show-accurate than the original, owing to its more recent mold and the fact that the show had been around for a longer time when it was released.


 * Universe Transmetal Waspinator (unreleased)
 * There were plans to release a Transformers: Universe toy of Waspinator, a repaint of the transmetal Waspinator, part of a Halloween Horrorcons 2 pack, but the toy would never be released. However, Waspinator did appear in the 2004 Botcon voice actor play.


 * Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Deluxe Waspinator (2005)
 * In 2005 the original Waspinator toy was repainted in more show accurate colors and re-released for the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars.


 * Timelines Basic Waspinator (2006)
 * A toy of Waspinator in his pre-Beast War vehicle mode was released as a BotCon 2006 exclusive toy. This toy is a remold of Machine Wars Skywarp. He turned into a Saab Gripen jet. This was supposed to represent Waspinator on Cybertron before the Beast Wars.

Transformers Animated
Waspinator is introduced as former Elite Guard trainee, named Wasp, around the same time as Bumblebee, both being of the same model with similar abilities, though Wasp is faster, stronger, angrier, and arrogant in personality. Due to Longarm's intervention, Wasp ended up being his scapegoat when Bumblebee believed Wasp to be the double agent working for Megatron. Though it was truly Shockwave disguised as Longarm who was the double agent, using Bumblebee's blind conviction to his own advantage. In the flashbacks, Wasp's color scheme consists of light green and yellow with black highlights, and he has the signature Autobot blue eye color.

By the time of his introduction, Wasp resembles more of his Beast Wars version in both eye/body color and speech pattern. But once converted into Waspinator, his design is very similar to his original Beast Wars CGI model but with a smaller second set of arms that jut from his sides. Originally able to talk normally as a cadet, his time in the Stockade rendered him to speak in a brooding voice that mimics the ravings of The Lord of the Rings' Sméagol/Gollum, speaking in Waspinator's trademark third-person and adding "-bot" to the names of fellow Transformers. (ex. Bumblebee=Bumblebot)

In his upgraded technorganic form he can fly and shoot stinger lasers from his robot mode hands or his beast mode forelimbs. He is also much larger and more powerful as a technorganic being. According to his toy bio and as seen on the show, Wasp can survive being blown to pieces, just as the original Waspinator famously could. It is unclear, however, if this is a side-effect of his mutation or if Wasp has had this ability from the start.

One notable difference between this newer Waspinator and his Beast Wars counterpart, was that whilst the original Waspinator was a bumbling idiot unlike his Animated counterpart had a murderous, psychotic and deadly personality.

David Kaye said at TFcon 2010 that the creators wanted to get Scott McNeil to voice Waspinator, but since he could not work in the US without a permat, they were unable to get him to revise his role.

Animated series
Wasp made his debut in the opening scenes of the episode "Autoboot Camp" when he broke out of his imprisonment and escaped his former drill sergant Sentinel Minor via Space Bridge. However, the long imprisonment reduced Wasp into a completely cold and impassive shell of his former ego, seeking vengeance on Bumblebee for ruining his life. Though hunting him down on the impression he was heading to Megatron, Bumblebee would learn from Shockwave the truth that he really sent an innocent bot to the Stockade. Being pursued by a small team composed of Jazz, Sentinel Prime, Jetfire and Jetstorm, Wasp managed to get to Earth in order to get his revenge. Though Bumblebee attempted to explain what had happened, Wasp was bent to make him suffer just like he had, knocking him out before swapping paint jobs, helmets and voice synthezisers with him, so Bumblebee could take his place while he remained free. To further the trick, Wasp downloaded information from the earth Autobots' computer to know everything he knows. However, when his deception ultimately failed, Wasp used Bumblebee as a shield to make an escape.

After being found, Wasp attempted to evade his Autobot captors as they cornered him, refusing to go back to the Stockade. It was only when two of his pursuers, Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime, begin arguing over what to do with him that Wasp escaped before being abducted by Swoop. Swoop took Wasp to Dinobot Island and dropped him before Blackarachnia, whom he fell in love with. Blackarachnia used her charm and mutual past of Autobot betrayal to gain Wasp's trust, using it to make him step into her transwarp generator and be exposed to its energy along with Wasp DNA. A few cycles (minutes) later, as Sentinel confronted Blackarachina, Wasp exited the generator as Waspinator to protect his friend. During the fight, Waspinator entered the hallway and ran into Bumblebee. Bumblebee tried to apologize for sending Wasp to the Stockade, and though Waspinator said "Wasp" forgave Bumblebee, he angrily stated that "Waspinator would never forgive him." Waspinator was about to blast Bumblebee when the transwarp radiation stored inside him became unstable, followed by Waspinator overhearing Blackarachnia's rant of using him to suit her own ends. Enraged for being betrayed again, Waspinator followed Blackarachnia outside and tried to kill her, but he went critical with Blackarachnia spinning a chrysalis around her and Waspinator so only they were effected by the energy. Ending up in an African jungle in pieces, Waspinator began to put himself back together, stating that he had "plans". Unfortunately, with the series having ended after its third season, his objectives are a mystery.

Toys

 * Animated Deluxe Waspinator (2009)
 * A Deluxe sized mold depicting Waspinator's techno-organic wasp mode.


 * Animated Deluxe Fugitive Waspinator (cancelled)
 * A green redeco of the Animated Deluxe Bumblebee. This was mentioned, but not yet shown at the 2009 BotCon. It was later shown in the slide show at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International. On the back of the packaging of Deluxe Cybertron Mode Ironhide, a picture of the figure is shown. It is unknown if Hasbro will indeed release this figure.


 * Animated TA-37 Deluxe Waspinator (Takara Tomy) (2010)
 * The Japan release version by Takara Tomy is virtually identical to the Hasbro version, with the exception of a silver wasp head and a purple Decepticon emblem. Set for release in Japan on August 2010.

Transformers: Timelines
In the mirror universe of Shattered Glass WASP (Wireless Automated Sales Person) is a sentient hologram of an Autobot (and seeingly a member of the Elite Guard) who does commercials.

Fun Publications
Wasp makes an appearance in a commercial in the Around Cybertron comic strip #6. He appears as Rook does a story about the death of Megatron.

Toys
Although no toy for this version WASP was made, his appearance is identical to the Animated Elite Guard Bumblebee toy.