TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1 - WILDRIDER

 TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

    "Either you're out of my way or you're out of luck!" - Wildrider, 1986.

DECEPTICON

Name - WILDRIDER

Function - Terrorist

Series Debut - 1986 / Wave 3

Sub-Group - Stunticons

BACKGROUND...

    Wildrider is a freakin' lunatic - there is no better way to describe him!  He's always driving around all crazy-insane, cackling like a madman, running cars off the road and causing accidents.  He's pretty proud of the chaos he leaves in his wake!  Unfortunately for him, his wacko driving style often results in him having frequent tire blow-outs.  The sound of quiet seriously bothers him, maybe that's the reason for his erratic behavior?

    Wildrider transforms into a dark gray sports car.  In this mode, he can achieve speeds up to 250 mph and can utilize a plasma-energy blaster for battle.  All 5 Stunticons have a small force field barrier around them in their vehicle modes.  This protects them when they slam into various objects and allows them to keep going.  In his robot mode, Wildrider wields a Scattershot gun.  If the Stunticons find themselves on the losing end of the battle, they can easily turn the tide by merging together to become the giant robot - Menasor!

    At one point, a group of Autobots attempted to impersonate the Stunticons after they had been defeated and captured.  Trying to learn of a new Decepticon weapon, the 5 Autobots used a special paint to look like the Stunticons.  Windcharger disguised himself as Wildrider.  In order to try to sell the rouse on Megatron, Windcharger had to ham it up and drive reckless and crazy.

MY THOUGHTS...

    Wildrider is EXACTLY what I wanted from a Stunticon!  Crazy, reckless, and able to achieve death-defying maneuvers as a car.  This is how they were originally introduced in the cartoon "The Key to Vector Sigma" and I thought it was awesome!  As I picked up the Stunticons one by one, that's how I imagined them - totally off-the-wall nuts!!!  My Autobot cars would really have their hands full.  If the rare situation occurred and the Stunticons were overmatched - put them together into Menasor and the battle reaches a new level!

    I loved this group!  I thought it was such a fun, new element in the cartoons to have these evil cars occasionally mistaken for Autobots.  Wildrider wasn't my top favorite, but his Tech-Spec perfectly described the ideal Stunticon.  If you read the Tech-Specs, not all of this group was crazy... but Wildrider is!!!

    Standing in for the original G1 Wildrider is 2022 Legacy Wildrider.  He is very cartoon-accurate and has excellent articulation.  A fantastic rendition of the character!

Stunticons from the 1986 Transformers catalog!

    (Information on the character's lore was taken from the Sunbow Transformers cartoon series, including the Movie and the figure's original Tech-Spec.)

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