TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting The Characters Of Generation 1 - THUNDERCRACKER

TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

    "The deadliest weapon is terror." - Thundercracker, 1984.

DECEPTICON

Name - THUNDERCRACKER

Function - Warrior

Series Debut - 1984 / Wave 1

Sub-Group - None

BACKGROUND...

    The Decepticon, Thundercracker, is one of the seekers under command of Starscream's air wing.  As an air warrior, he has contempt for anything that cannot take to the sky as he can.  His gruff personality sometimes clashes with his fellow Decepticons, often Starscream himself.  Some of this is due to the fact that Thundercracker is not 100% dedicated to the Decepticon cause.  He has been convinced to continue fighting the Autobots, but he is not the most effective soldier harboring these doubts.

    Long ago, Thundercracker was a member of Megatron's Decepticon Army that took part in an ambush on an Autobot shuttle.  As the battle went awry, the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, caused the spacecraft (the Ark) to collide into the side of a volcano on the planet Earth taking all aboard off-line.  After awakening many, many years later, Thundercracker served with Megatron on Earth with the plan to use resources and energy from this new planet to revitalize Cybertron.  

    The Ark's computers gave Thundercracker the alt-mode of an Earthen F-15 fighter jet.  In this mode, he has extreme speed and can reach up to 1500 mph.  His name comes from his ability to create powerful sonic booms, a deafening noise that can be heard for up to 200 miles away.    In both robot and jet mode, Thundercracker is armed with drone rockets, incendiary guns, and a flamethrower.

    By 2005, the Decepticons were successful in their plan to conquer Cybertron.  As they launched a large-scale attack to attack Autobot City on Earth and critically damage the Autobot forces, both sides took heavy casualties and Thundercracker found himself on the "expendable" list.

    Tossed into the void of space with several other injured Decepticons, including Megatron, Thundercracker systems shut down.  As he floated deactivated towards the gigantic planet-eater Unicron, Megatron bartered a deal that saw the injured Decepticons reformatted into new beings.  

    Thundercracker was reformatted into the Tracker - Scourge!  Scourge was designated as the leader of a group of hunters called the Sweeps.  Unicron tasked the newly created Decepticon group, now led by Galvatron, was tasked with destroying the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.  It is unknown if Scourge retained any of Thundercracker's memories or personality!    

MY THOUGHTS...

    Obviously, all of the seekers from the first 2 Transformers series were great!  Thundercracker was no exception!  Wanting to build my seekers collection, I acquired my Thundercracker through a trade.  I remember this because as I recall one of his guns was broke when I got him so I permanently glued them in the launchers.  There was something awesome about assembling your own army of seeker jets!

    Back in those days, my group of friends and I would have "our" Constructicon, and our Dreadnok, and so on.  We all had our Decepticon jet too.  So Thundercracker was my friend, Aaron's jet and he got Scourge too by default (since Thundercracker became Scourge).

    Standing in for the robot mode of the original G1 Thundercracker, is the PVC from the Heroes Of Cybertron line.  These figures are great representations of the cartoon depictions of these characters!  The jet mode is represented by the Combiner Wars version of the figure.  While the jet mode looks pretty accurate, the robot mode is just "okay"!  

    What is your favorite version of Thundercracker?

Original seekers from the 1985 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.)