TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting The Characters Of Generation 1 - VENOM

TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

    "Friends are more dangerous than enemies." - Venom, 1985.

DECEPTICON

Name - VENOM

Function - Psychological Warfare

Series Debut - 1985 / Wave 2

Sub-Group - "Deluxe" Insecticon

BACKGROUND...

    Venom is the leader of a breed of Insecticons that includes Chop Shop, Ransack, and Barrage.  Unfortunately, his leadership is shaky because he trusts no one and is extremely paranoid that others are trying to steal his position of authority.  Due to this, he is not above betraying other Decepticons in multiple forms.

    Venom transforms into a cicada insect and can fly up to 15 mph.  Though Earth cicadas have a straw-like mouth to suck fluids from trees, they do not "sting".  Venom on the other hand - can and will!  He can use his "stinger" to inject harmful fluids into his victims including paralyzing toxins and destructive catalysts, among others.  The stinger has the ability to penetrate 1/4 inch steel, but is still a weak point and can break off.

    In robot mode, Venom carries an electro-blaster pistol and a battle axe.

MY THOUGHTS...

    Back in 1985, I was so excited to see the Deluxe Insecticons appear in the Transformers cartoon and comic!  The original trio - Shrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell made their debut early in the first Series of cartoons.  So what was their story?  What was their origin?  How were they related to the regular Insecticons?  Are they friends or enemies?  Will they team up?  How come the regular Insecticons have a standard color scheme, but the Deluxe are colored random?  

    As it turned out, none of those questions would ever get answered!  Venom and his cohorts Ransack, Barrage, and Chop-Shop would NEVER appear in any form of media back then.  Apparently there was some kind of copywrite mumbo-jumbo that prevented them from making any appearances.  This happened with quite a few Series 2 Transformers...

    With nothing to draw interest to them, my friends and I didn't buy ANY of the Deluxe Insecticons.  It didn't help that they weren't readily available at any stores either.  Rumors were also abound that that they were built with a cheaper plastic and were prone to breaking easy.  So you can see why these weren't sought out figures.  So I have never owned or seen any of the original Deluxe Insecticons out of the package.

    As Hasbro started incorporating ALL the Insecticons into the Legacy line, I started to get curious about the ones that never got the spotlight.  I got Venom (now called "Venin", but I refuse to call him that) for Christmas '25 from my wife.  

    I like the bizarre look of these guys!  They don't have "normal" faces like Shrapnel or even Megatron.  Instead, they are more insectoid-like... kind of more robotic, like Shockwave.  Venom himself only has a red visor.  Otherwise he is expressionless.  The unique colors among the Deluxe figures definitely sets them apart from the common Insecticons.  This new version of the figure is great and I hope to track down the other three eventually.

    When my young daughter, Korie, saw this figure, she said he looked like he had a pumpkin for a head!  That's funny.  I hadn't really thought that before, but he does have the orange head and the green stinger coming out the top - looking like a pumpkin and stem!

    What are your thoughts on Venom or any of the Deluxe Insecticons?

The original Deluxe Insecticons from the 1985 Transformer 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.)