User blog:Sclera1/Vehicon

Vehicons are a faction in the fictional Transformers In the animated cartoon series Beast Machines, most Vehicons are non-sentient drones, controlled entirely by the will of Megatron or their respective general. In Transformers: Prime, the name Vehicon is used to describe the "Decepticon Troopers". Several Vehicons appear with a somewhat similar appearance to The Revenge of the Fallen's Soundwave. Unlike the Beast Machines Vehicons, they are sentient drones.

Beast Machines
Vehicons are a faction in the animated cartoon series Beast Machines. However, most Vehicons are non-sentient drones, controlled entirely by the will of Megatron or their respective general.

Animated series
The origins of the Vehicons came about when Megatron returned from the Beast Wars ahead of the Maximals and unleashed his transformation freezing virus, rendering the populace of Cybertron helpless to fight back as it sent them into stasis lock. As more Cybertronians fell to the virus, Megatron had their bodies melted down and used to create his ideal army - the Vehicons, a vehicle based army of sparkless drones with no organic elements, controlled totally by him, calling them, "the wave of the future". In time, nearly the entire population of Cybertron fell, leaving the Vehicons in control of a deserted Cybertron.

Eventually, Megatron's erstwhile captors returned to Cybertron. The Vehicons assaulted them with canisters of the virus, capturing Rhinox and Silverbolt and reverting the rest from their Transmetal forms into their original beast modes. They were then reformatted by the Oracle into the thing Megatron hated most - partially organic beast modes. The Vehicons proved unable to stand against the newly powerful Maximals, and Megatron resorted to a new strategy - imbuing three Vehicon drones with the Sparks of Silverbolt, Rhinox and Waspinator, creating Jetstorm, Tankor and Thrust. They led the Vehicon forces against the Maximals with some success, but Megatron's insistence on using the Sparks of Rhinox and Silverbolt came back to haunt him. Tankor betrayed and tried to kill Megatron, and both were seemingly destroyed during an explosion in the Plasma Energy Chamber. After this, with Megatron's control severed, the Vehicons simply shut down.

Megatron's return would mean a fresh campaign against the Maximals. During this time, Blackarachnia managed to turn Jetstorm back into Silverbolt, leaving Thrust's forces to be repeatedly overwhelmed. Megatron accordingly created two new generals - Obsidian and Strika, two of the greatest Cybertronian generals who ever lived. They quickly turned the tide against the Maximals with their tactical and strategic brilliance. However Megatron's fortess was soon destroyed once more, and the Vehicons again shut down. Megatron had in fact survived in the body of his Diagnostic Drone, and had his factories produce masses of new Vehicons for a final assault. In the final battle, all three Vehicon generals fell, the factories were destroyed and Megatron was finally destroyed in battle with his foe Optimus Primal. This last act reformatted Cybertron into a technorganic paradise, with the Vehicons being turned into the new bodies of the populace, their Sparks now free from Megatron's control.

3H Enterprises
The Transformers: Universe-Wreckers BotCon comic featured several other types of Vehicons and their generals not seen in the TV show. To combat the rising threat of the various groups on Cybertron including the Mutants, Dinobots and Wreckers, Megatron created two other Vehicon Generals to deal with them Blastcharge and Quake (implied to be the original). These two were sent after the Wreckers, managing to kill Fractyl, but failing to stop the Wreckers' escape, They and another general, Spy Streak, took their drones (including Mirage drones, Scavenger drones and a third bomber type based on Spy Streak) to confront the Wreckers at the crash site of an old Autobot shuttle. All three were killed, and most of their forces wiped out.

Several other Vehicons appeared as members of the Wreckers, having managed to retain their individuality. These included Cyclonus, Skywarp, Rotorbolt and Devcon. The original Mirage drone also appeared battling Apelinq, and being sucked into a wormhole.

Robot Masters
The term Vehicon would later be used in the backstory for Takara's Robot Masters line, as the name of the planet of Transformers led by Reverse Convoy, a Transformer whose body was possessed by G1 Megatron.

Toys

 * Beast Machines Basic Spy Streak (1999)
 * Spy Streak was repainted into the Transformers: Robots in Disguise Autobot Nightcruz and the Transformers: Universe Autobot Fireflight.

Transformers: Prime
The name Vehicon is used to describe the "Decepticon Troopers". Several Vehicons appear in Transformers: Prime with a somewhat similar appearance to The Revenge of the Fallen's Soundwave.

They are usually the ones that Megatron sends out to fight the Autobots before the rest of the Decepticons come. They are usually lead by a "General" or bigger rank of Decepticon, such as Starscream or Megatron. However unlike previous versions of Vehicon drones, these are not mindless, but seem to have separate personalities.

There are two varieties of Vehicon: Those that transform into Earth muscle cars, and those that become Cybertronian jet fighters; the latter are more frequently seen. There is also a servant class Vehicon used for mineral labour such as mining for energon. They have a slight difference in physical appearance, but are also portrayed as having their own personalities.

Animated series
In "Darkness Rising Part One", they are sent to kidnap Cliffjumper and Starscream kills him. In the next episode, Megatron uses Dark Energon which revives him into a mindless Terrorcon zombie-like transformer. Soon after that he is killed by Megatron.

After Megatron's apparent death, some Vehicons refuse to take Starscream's orders while others are loyal to him, even to the point that they address him as "Lord Starscream".

The Vehicons are the most frequently killed characters over the course of the series, usually at the hands of Autobots. In "Con Job", a large number of them were apart of the strike force Starscream intended to use in an assault on the Autobot base.

When Megatron is revived, they are loyal to Megatron again. Megatron first orders them to "exterminate the pests" (Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Raf) as he has "his own extermination to take care of" (get his revenge on Starscream). After that, they continued to appear but had no major roles.

In "One Shall Rise, Part 3", they question Airachnid's leadership, before Soundwave battles her. Soundwave wins, and the Vehicons continue their wait for Megatron. When Megatron returned, they bowed before him as Megatron introduced their newest commrad, Orion Pax.

In "Orion Pax, Parts 1, 2, and 3", the Vehicons guard Orion Pax from any Autobots trying to rescue him like Arcee. When Starscream comes aboard, they attempt to arrest him, before he kills them. He steals Energon cubes and stumbles onto Orion Pax, whom he believes is still Optimus Prime. Not to long after that, they check in with Orion, and find Starscream. They tell Orion to stay in his quarters and one Vehicon chases Starscream, but is killed in an explosion. Starscream told the Autobots the location of Optimus Prime and the space bridge. Two Vehicons force Orion to finish "Project: Iacon," but he kills them and goes through the ground bridge to face Megatron, who is ready to kill Arcee. They don't appear again in that episode.

When Breakdown asked what was going on with the space bridge with the Autobots attacked it, Ratchet told Raf to patch in Agent Fowler to trick Breakdown into believing he's a Vehicon.

In "Armada", they are seen roaming halls of the Nemesis, at one point startling Bulkhead who had become trapped on board, but despite this Bulkhead manages to remain unseen, by the Vehicons and Megatron. During the Insecticon assault engineered by Airachnid, the Vehicons defend the ship alongside their leader Megatron, though they prove no match for the Insecticons, unlike leader Megatron. They are saved from further casualties by Airachnid's accidental imprisonment in an Insecticon stasis pod during her fight with Arcee, frees the Insecticons from her control. The Insecticons cease their assault and pledges allegiance to Megatron. Follow this, the Vehicons inform Megatron the ship power core has been damaged (by Bulkhead) and they are losing power, Megatron orders them to prepare for landing.

In "Flying Mind", Megatron has the Vehicons restore the power core using Dark Energon. However this causes the ship to gain a mind and will of its own. Realizing the ship is no longer under his control Megatron orders his forces to retake the ship at all cost. However the ship uses stasis beams to put the Vehicons, Insecticons, Knock-Out, Dreadwing, and eventually Megatron himself in stasis lock. They remain in that state until Jack, Miko, and Raf (who had boarded the ship with Agent Fowler to steal the Iacon datafiles) dump the Dark Energon that granted the ship life, freeing the ship crew.

Throughout the series, different voice actors have voiced the Vehicons: Steven Blum, David Kaye, Josh Keaton, Daran Norris, Nolan North, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Frank Welker.

Video game
They appear in the video game, however do not use the name "Vehicon", but rather are called "Brutes". There are not only Decepticon Brutes, but there are Brutes allied with the Autobots. Autobot and Decepticon Brutes have different physical appearance.

The Vehicons appear in Transformers: Prime - Terrorcon Defense.

Books
They are background characters in the novel Transformers: Exodus.

They have also appear in the prequel comics to Transformers: Prime.

Toys

 * Prime Cyberverse Legion Vehicon (2012)
 * A new Legion mold of Vehicon.


 * Prime First Edition Deluxe Vehicon (2011)
 * A new Deluxe mold of Vehicon.


 * Prime First Edition Deluxe Vehicon (Takara Tomy) (2011)
 * The Japanese version of Vehicon by Takara Tomy is repainted in a metallic finish.


 * Prime Robots in Disguise Revealers Deluxe Vehicon (2012)
 * A different Deluxe mold of Vehicon that is slimmer in profile than the First Edition release.

Types of Vehicon
There were six basic types of drone shown in the show:
 * Tank-Drones, controlled by Tankor
 * Aero-Drones, controlled by Jetstorm
 * Cycle-Drones, controlled by Thrust
 * Assault-Drones, controlled by Strika
 * Copter-Drones, controlled by Obsidian
 * Mole-Drones, controlled by Megatron

All types of drones (except the mole-drones) were commanded by a general who shared their basic structure, although their Sparks meant they possessed a higher intelligence of the drones and had more free will. Each type of Vehicon was specialized for a particular role; for example the tank drones were used for heavy assault, while the Cycle drones were often used for pursuit. Although they did not appear in the show, three more types of drones were introduced in the toyline: the Mirage drones, who turned into race cars; the Scavenger drones, who transformed into Demolition Vehicles; and the Blastcharge drones, who turned into Six Wheeled Attack Vehicles. However, the drones' lack of Sparks or any kind of free will made them easy prey for the reformatted Maximals.

Diagnostic Drones
The Diagnostic Drone (known as Flying C or Fly in Japan) is a character from the Beast Machines TV Series. It is a minor character in the show, serving as an advisor to Megatron. This drone possessed an artificial intelligence and was programmed to obey Megatron's every command. During its brief role in the series, it attempted several times to eradicate Megatron's organic side, with little success. Eventually, by studying the Maximal Nightscream, it did learn how to remove Megatron’s organic components; however before it could do so, it was reprogrammed by Tankor, who had regained his memories as the Maximal Rhinox, who ordered it to fail in its attempt to help Megatron. Tankor then used the Diagnostic Drone to obtain the Key to Vector Sigma and to send false visions through the Oracle to Optimus Primal. The Drone is later destroyed by Megatron, who was apparently aware of its traitorous activities the entire time.

Having been destroyed in the first season and Megatron having removed his organic body from himself, there was no need for the Diagnostic Drone in the second season. However other Diagnostic Drones appeared for the first time, with much more limited intelligence, although still more intelligent then the average Vehicon Drone. Their function appeared to be maintenance and repair. But in second season, Megatron eventually becomes trapped in the body of one of these Drones. Several Diagnostic Drones build him his "Optimal" body and more of them are seen bringing the last of the Maximal sparks into the containment unit and repairing a console after Optimus Primal damages it.

Strangely the Diagnostic Drones have no alternate transformation mode, they each only have one mode, similar to the Mole Drones which also have no alternate mode.

A similar drone was seen in the Transformers: Universe comic series acting as cameraman for the Autobot reporter Rook.

Several diagnostic drones of the type seen in Beast Machines were seen in the first Transformers: The War Within series from Dreamwave Productions, both acting as drones in Optronix's data library, and later fetching Megatron's cannon in the Decepticon base.

Spy Streak
Spy Streak's bio presented him as single-minded in the pursuit of the Maximals. To this end he was a formidable aerial warrior and just as dangerous on the ground.

Spy Streak appeared in the "Transformers: Universe Wreckers" comic as one of the Vehicon generals under the command of Megatron. Unlike his fellow generals Quake and Blastcharge his creation was not shown in the comic.

He was sent along with a group of drones to assist Quake and Blastcharge in the destruction of Primal Prime's Wreckers as they tried to escape Cybertron in an old Autobot shuttle. At first the battle went well, as Spy Streak's drones took command of the sky - until the Wrecker backup arrived in the form of the former Decepticons Skywarp and Cyclonus, who wiped out his drones. Spy Streak was left trapped under some debris as the Autobot shuttle took off, and could only watch helplessly as a bomb left by Cyclonus detonated, presumably destroying him.

Vehicon Generals
Vehicon Generals were a new type of Vehicon created by Megatron when he realised the Maximals were defeating his forces due to their free will. To this end, he implanted Sparks in a set of drones, giving them free will and the autonomy to command their drones as they saw fit, creating Tankor, Jetstorm and Thrust.

The Vehicon Generals were completely obedient to Megatron and were single minded in their pursuit of the Maximals. This is mostly due to Megatron erasing their memories of their past lives. It was only when they regained these memories that they became a wild card. Tankor, once he regained his memories of being Rhinox, betrayed Megatron and attempted to rule Cybertron himself, while Silverbolt became one of Megatron's bitterest opponents after being reformatted from Jetstorm. The third, Thrust (in reality carrying Waspinator's Spark), was happy to re-suppress his Predacon memories and be a "cool biker-bot". By the second season, however, this was no longer a problem. The second generation Vehicon Generals, Obsidian and Strika, willingly joined Megatron, believing service to Cybertron at this point was service to Megatron. At the end of the war on Cybertron, Thrust became Waspinator again, and Obsidian and Strika were sent into orbit by Cheetor using gravity generators.