TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting The Character of Generation 1 - TAILGATE

TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

    "Let my fellow mechanical beings go!" - Tailgate, 1986.

AUTOBOT

Name - TAILGATE

Function - Scout

Series Debut - 1986 / Wave 3

Sub-Group - None

BACKGROUND...

    Tailgate is a bit of a space cadet.  He is extremely confused on how Earthen technology works.  He believes normal cars and planes are as alive as he is.  As he drives around, he sees garages housing cars and feels as if those cars have been wrongfully imprisoned.  It only feeds more into his need for the freedom of the open road and the opportunity to explore this new, foreign world he has found himself on.  

    Tailgate transforms into a white corvette sportscar.  In this mode he is extremely fast and can reach speeds up to 180 mph.  And that's exactly the kind of driving he wants to do too!  Not this piddly, slow 55 mph he sees posted on many Earth roads.  He has to be careful though as he has a tendency to overheat.

    Under his hood, Tailgate houses a powerful ferrocobalt magnet.  He can use this to slyly be pulled within a few feet of other vehicles on the road.  By doing this, Tailgate can conserve his own fuel. 

MY THOUGHTS...

    When we were kids in school and Series 3 was slowly starting to trickle out, I remember a friend in class said he saw Metroplex at the store and on the picture on the front was a "white Windcharger"!  We were all curious why in the world Windcharger was now white.  I figured he was confused.  Obviously, it turned out to be Tailgate, a new character retooled from the Windcharger mold.

    Of course, I had already been buying all the mini-cars as they were so accessible for my allowance.  So I knew I would be getting all these new ones.  Tailgate was an instant favorite!  He had a great new face sculpt and the white just looked great for this little sports car!  I imagined the chromed grill in front of his car mode, was his magnet and he could use it to tail Stunticons or Battlechargers back to the Decepticon base!  Such a cool mini-car.

    Standing in for the original Tailgate is this awesome 2017 update from the Power Of The Primes series.  Hasbro really did a fantastic job updating this character, making him slightly larger, giving him more detail, and improved articulation!  An excellent new version of Tailgate!

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