US Comic Fleshlings

Welcome to a listing of all the 'obscure' (IE: Those who never appeared anywhere BUT the comics, and who debuted in the US comic) Fleshlings and Aliens from the US comic! Enjoy!

This is not a completely comprehensive list and includes only the humans I thought were of meaning to Transformers fandom.

(Transformers US #23) A family of humans who were on a cross-country vacation when the Decepticon Battlechargers decided to follow them. As mentioned in the entry below on Noah Acton, the reason for this is that their tour of America took them to all different national monuments that the Battlechargers were interested in painting rude words on.

Eventually, realising that the coincidence of the Decepticon attacks was getting beyond a joke, they approached the authorities, allowing Triple-I and Circuit Breaker to lay a trap for the Battlechargers. (See Noah Acton, just below, to find out why this trap failed.)

(Transformers US #23) A human child who had a penchant for writing things on walls. Upon seeing the reaction to his graffiti efforts, the Decepticon Battlechargers decided to follow him around and do a little Graffiti of their own.

Outside the American monument 'Independence Hall' Noah ran in too close to a fight between the Battlechargers and Circuit Breaker, in an attempt to see the action. Circuit Breaker was badly injured trying to save him. After that the kid isn't seen again.

(Transformers US #28) Partner to Detective Greco, who was helped by the Autobots in trying to bust The Mechanic. They failed, but at least busted a lot of Portland's biggest criminals.

Probably the most memorable thing about Detective Altman was the fact that he had a huge handlebar moustache, making him look like a 70s Australian Cricketer. (This sorta thing is why we love Don Perlin.)

(Various issues of Transformers US from #15-#39) Barnett was a leading light of the human organization "Triple I". The organisation which was charged with controlling the Transformers problem.

Barnett had a hand in a lot of stupid or annoying plotlines. He was the one who hired the Robot Master, and was in charge of the organization R.A.A.T., he hired Circuit Breaker to join this group, and finally it was he who installed the Throttlebots into toy cars!

Barnett spent most of his career believing the Autobots were just as dangerous as the Decepticons. However, the Throttlebots convinced him otherwise. So, to save them from execution he removed their brain modules from their bodies, and put them into toy cars. To smuggle them out of Triple I. He was soon pursued by the Predacons and Ratbat. But managed to escape with all but Goldbug's brain modules. This was probably the last really significant thing that Barnett ever did.

(Transformers US #27) A human palaeontology student who found Dinobot tracks in the mountains around Portland, and was convinced they were the tracks of real dinosaurs. (Yes, her professor DID point out that the tracks were clearly mechanical, IE: fake.) When camped out there looking for dinosaurs, she spotted Trypticon, but ran away screaming.

Annoyed at her own cowardice, Rachel stood her ground when she came into contact with Dinobot leader, Grimlock. Her courage impressed Grimlock greatly. So when she was captured by Trypticon's partner 'Wipe-Out' and presented to Trypticon, Grimlock leapt in to save her. Rachel got away, but she gave up looking for Dinosaurs in the mountains after that.

(Transformers US #44, 52 + 53) A human who was captured on earth and made a part of the legendary 'Cosmic Carnival' owned by the nefarious Bigtop. At first he was a sideshow freak attraction. But after he started to cooperate with the management he was made into the master of sideshow alley.

Eventually, with the help of some Autobots, Berko was able to escape. Until he was again captured, this time by the Mechaninibals. Berko helped the Autobot Pretenders to defeat the Mechannibals.

(Transformers US #62) B'ghdad (Big dad, it's a pun, people) was a gangster on the planet of Pz-zazz. His mob was made up of huge, scar-faced thugs. His main rival was the fatso Gutt. Like Gutt, B'ghdad was after the mysterious 'bird' statue that, by chance, came into the possession of Nightbeat, Siren and Hosehead. When Nightbeat attempted to retrieve the statue from storage, B'hgdad confronted him, only to be hit around the head by the statue.

Interestingly, this hit chipped the statue, revealing a glowing interior. From this Nightbeat was able to solve the mystery, realising the 'bird' was really the life-force of the planet Pz-zazz. All thanks to B'ghdad! Yay Gangsters!

(Transformers US #44) The owner of the "Cosmic Carnival". Big Top would trick or trap acts for his carnival. When Sky Lynx and the Spacehikers visited his carnival, but couldn't pay, Big Top forced them into his service, holding the Spacehikers as a ransom (they became a feature of his Sideshow Alley), and making Sky Lynx the star attraction of his circus show.

When Optimus Prime and Goldbug showed up (Bigtop could never get Goldbug's name right), they freed Sky Lynx, the Spacehikers and a human named Berko. Then they locked Bigtop up in his own sideshow alley. This is, presumably, where he remains.

(Transformers US #10) A human trucker, and dedicated family man, who had his truck stolen by the Constructicons. Bill chased down the Constructicons, to the point of jumping into Huffer and joining the Autobots at their battle.

At first Bill wasn't much more than dead weight, until he discovered that his truck was still intact. (I have no idea why the Constructicons stole it if they weren't going to use it.) He then used his truck to ram away some of Soundwave's connections to the massive transmitter he was hooked up to. This distracted Soundwave long enough for Huffer to clean his clock.

After this adventure, Bill went home to his family.

(Transformers US #2) An engineer at the Harrison Nuclear Power Plant. He was dictating information about the Power Plant into a tape recorder and inadvertently placed Ravage in the recorder when he needed a replacement tape.

From the information dictated by Jason, Megatron realised that the power plant was ripe for conquest.

(Transformers US #55) The manager of professional wrestler Jake "the Jackhammer" Jackson. After organising a fight between Jake and the Micromaster Roadhandler, Brown became Roadhandler's manager as well.

Casanova's funniest moment came when he tried to hit on Roadhandler's friend, Cecelia. The look on her face says it all.

(Transformers US #46) Burnout was a Bounty Hunter who joined the group known as the "Roadjammers". (The two other Roadjammers were Felix and Mr. T) He hunted Autobots using Decepticon-made jamming devices, until he realised he'd been played for a patsy and fought back against the Decepticons. Never saw him again after that.

The most memorable thing about Burn-out was that he had a face only a mother could love.

Carr, Carissa (Transformers US #45) See 'Stankiewicz, Ethel'.

(Transformers US #5) A news reporter who was interviewing G.B. Blackrock and Josie Beller about the super-oil rig that Beller had designed. The report was monitored by Shockwave and inspired his attack on the rig in issue #6.

In other words, Charlene was indirectly responsible for the beginning of the relationship between Blackrock, Beller and the Transformers. Frightening.

(Transformers US #13) Charlene number two was the dopey, and bimbo-like girlfriend of one Jake Lomax. Well, at least I assume she's his girlfriend. In truth, Charlene is one of several girls kept around by the gangster. All of these girls have black hair and black string bikinis.

Jake Lomax is the kinda guy who knows what he likes. But though Charlene offered him her respect, he didn't want that.

(Transformers US #20) A female human (a bit of a country hick, who dreams of big things) who discovered an injured Skids out in whoop whoop (out nowhere). She brought him back, repaired him and used him as her car. When she found out he was a Transformer, she soon became close friends with him.

(How close a friend? Well, there was that scene of her cleaning Skids in her tiny little cut-off jeans...)

The blissful relationship was ruined when Donny Finkleberg showed up, being chased by Ravage. After a duel between Ravage and Skids (Skids tossed Ravage down a well), the Autobot decided he had duties to uphold, and left Charlene.

Incidentally, of the three Charlenes to appear in Transformers, Charlene 3 is the most famous.

(Transformers US #45) A two-bit has-been actor who was a co-star with Skullgrin when he became a movie star. Jake was snobby both to Skullgrin and his co-star Carrissa Carr (also known as Ethel Stankiewicz) believing that he was the only 'real' actor there.

When Circuit Breaker attacked Skullgrin, Jake was told to rush in and adlib movie lines, so that Rollie Friendly, the movie director, could add the action to his latest movie. Surprisingly, Jake did just that.

At the last second Jake showed some real character, pulling Carrissa to safety and, it seemed, maybe winning her heart.

(Transformers US #19 + 20) A complete goon. Jake was the owner of a fabulous car. (CLUE: same as Breakdown's alt mode...) However despite owning a fabulously expensive car, he still lived in hick-ville USA. Not only that, he chose to paint the car bright pink. Yes, bright pink. Dork.

Jake had several run-ins with Skids, where the Autobot inadvertently busted up Jake's car. Jake became obsessed, chasing Skids even when he was pretending to be the car of Charlene 3. All that time, though, he didn't suspect him of being a Transformer. Finally Jake smashed Skids' Windscreen, knocking the Autobot unconscious (don't ask me, I don't understand either).

The Saga of Jake finished when he sacrificed his car, to bust up Ravage, and save Skids. Awwww, he was nice in the end.

Jake Dalrymple is also significant for being probably the most 'famous' of four characters named 'Jake' to appear in the Budiansky run on the US comics.

(Transformers US #51) A college chum of Spike Witwicky. Clifford was a complete klutz. Clifford and Spike were both chased by Decepticons Pretenders while on a skiing trip. They managed to escape the Decepticons for a while, holding up in a cave in the mountains.

Spike was then forced to come to terms with being an Autobot and summoned Fortress Maximus to save them both. After that, Spike explained everything to Clifford.

(Transformers US #55) A pair of wrestling fans. They became Roadhandler's fan club when the Micromaster took up wrestling. They were subsequently kidnapped by Scorponok to make Roadhandler throw a fight against Stormcloud. They were then rescued, and Roadhandler won the fight anyway. The whole turn of events was rather stupid.

(Transformers US #62) Miss Fatale (as in 'Femme Fatal', another one of those puns, fellas!) was an alien from the planet Pz-zazz. Like many there she was looking for the legendary 'Bird', an artefact which was the key to controlling the balance of power on the planet. She helped to lead the Autobots to the temple the bird was originally placed in. When Gutt attacked them, she helped fight him off. She wanted to use the bird herself; to gain immortality from it. However, Nightbeat put the bird back, restoring the planet to life, and giving hope back to Miss Fatale.

(Transformers US #46) Felix was a Bounty Hunter who joined the group known as the "Roadjammers". He hunted Autobots using Decepticon-made jamming devices, until he realised he'd been played for a patsy and fought back against the Decepticons. Felix was something of a brain, and was able to double the capacity of the Jammers, as well as making a new Jammer of his own. However, we might thank the gods that he never again appeared after this.

The other Roadjammers were Rand 'Roadhog' Horton and 'Burn-out'.

(Transformers US #7-12) Ferdy and Gabe were a couple of workmen at Blackrock's Aerospace Plant. They inadvertently took Soundwave into the plant, straight past all the plant's security defences. After Soundwave and Laserbeak conquered the plant, Ferdy and Gabe stuck together. They witnessed the creation of the Constructicons, and only just survived it. When Shockwave finally gave up the plant, Ferdy and Gabe released Buster Witwicky from the Matrix extractor which was threatening to kill him.

In the picture, Ferdy is the one in the green cap, Gabe is the one in the blue cap.

Ferdy and Gabe are an excellent example of the different 'style' of writing between Furman and Budiansky. Furman never, never ever, in all his run, re-used unimportant or incidental human characters. True, he re-used prominent ones who were the stars of stories, but never ones like Ferdy and Gabe, who were totally forgettable. Budiansky, on the other hand, used several unimportant human characters, like Ferdy and Gabe (Jake Dalrymple was one who rose from unimportant to major human) and the Nebulan Peers Soriza and Sorgen as narrative links between story segments. A nice, and very subtle, touch.

(Transformers US #29 + 30) A scientist exploring a massive crater made when a Decepticon Ship crash-lands on earth. However the Decepticons arrived, and spoilt his fun. Until that is, Goldbug and Blaster showed up. He smuggled the two of them into the crater, where Blaster got infected by Scraplets. Charlie and Goldbug fled, but Goldbug too got infected by Scraplets.

Charlie managed to push Goldbug to a service station where, when sloppily drinking over top of the infected Autobot, he discovered that the cure for Scraplets was water.

Charlie is also prominent as he is one of only a handful of Transformers characters to appear outside of the pages of Transformers! That's right, Charlie Fong made a couple of appearances in the Bob Budiansky comic book series 'Sleepwalker'.

Friendly, Rollie (Transformers US #45) A B-movie producer who 'discovered' Skullgrin and made him the starring monster in some of his movies. He tried to encourage Circuit Breaker to kill Skullgrin because it would look good on film. This annoyed her and she destroyed his film instead.

Forbes, Nestor (Transformers US #26 + 28) A human car thief he referred to himself as "The Mechanic!". Nestor Forbes was a two-bit crook until he stole some weapons from the Autobot Ratchet. Then he became a 'super-crook'! He tried to raid the Ark for more weapons, but ran away when he saw Prowl's vehicle form and thought the police were coming for him.

He later used the few weapons he HAD acquired to become Portland's number one criminal, and first ever super-criminal. He stole super-technology from all over Portland, and used it to rebuild the cars of other crime-bosses into super-vehicles (for a price, of course). His operation was brought down by the Autobots Goldbug and Blaster and a group of human police. Nestor himself escaped, but was never seen again.

(Transformers US #28) A human police officer who was helped by Blaster and Goldbug to make a bust on the hideout of 'The Mechanic'. When he first met the Transformers, his orders were to destroy them (if possible). However when Goldbug and Blaster convinced him of their good intentions they decided to work together. Greco was even to save Goldbug's life, rescuing him from the car-disassembling machines of the Mechanic's henchman, Juan.

He failed to capture the Mechanic in the bust, but did catch a lot of the region's most dangerous organised crime leaders. The region being Portland. Portland Oregon.

(Transformers US #62) An ugly and fat Gangster on the planet of Pz-zazz. His rival was B'hgdad. He, like all the gangsters on Pz-zazz, was after the legendary 'bird', a font of life. To possess it would mean immortality, but if it fell into another's hands...?

Gutt mistook Siren, Hosehead and Nightbeat for the 'Robot Mob' (who, it turned out, were really Thunderwing's Decepticons) and tried to take the bird from them. The Autobots beat up his men, however, and replaced the bird in its temple, restoring Pz-zazz to life. Gutt himself was defeated when the saucy (I couldn't think of a better adjective, sue me) Miss Fatale kicked him in the nutts. (Okay, she kicked him in the stomach. Sue me again.)

Gutt was last seen running to get away from the spreading wave of purity as it washed over the planet when the bird was restored to its proper place.

As the Bird of Prey story is modelled on The Maltese Falcon, Gutt is undoubtedly based on the character Kaspar Gutman from that story (possibly Sidney Greenstreet's famous movie portrayal). Conversely, although he's rather thin, I'm not sure if B'hgdad is as explictly based on Joel Cairo (who was played by Peter Lorre). --Monzo

Harbour Master (Transformers US #64) A strange pig-like (or perhaps walrus like, in some aspects?) alien who discovered that a recent bout of boating 'accidents' were caused by a Klud. He was interviewed by a trio of Autobot Pretenders, and told them the whole story of his discovery.

(Transformers US #46) A member of the Roadjammers who was meant to look, I think, something like Mr. T. He had a bad attitude and a ball and chain. He was hired by the Decepticons under false pretences to fight Autobots, then turned on his employers when he realised he'd been played for a patsy.

(Transformers US #63) A parasitic alien on the planet Cheyne who fed on the emotions of other beings. He and his family befriended the Triggerbots, and slowly drained away all their resistance and independence, making them forget their mission to search for the Creation Matrix.

Hud and his family were revealed for what they were after an encounter with the Decepticon Thunderwing jogged Dogfight's memory and made him see the truth. Though the Triggerbots didn't want to kill these evil aliens, they were forced to when Hud and his family fought back. It was Dogfight who ended up killing Hud.

Incidentally, this encounter was one of several pieces of evidence that psychic powers work just as well on Transformers as on other more organic species. Interesting, isn't it?

(Transformers US #55) Jake 'The Jackhammer' Jackson was a human professional wrestler who challenged Roadhandler publicly to a fight. This kick-started Roadhandler's wrestling career, when Jake was trounced in spectacular fashion.

While his public persona was that of a creep and a blustering jerk, Jake was actually a pretty nice guy out of the ring. Interestingly, Jake started the wrestling match against Roadhandler as a 'good guy' only to pull a REAL jackhammer on the Micromaster and become a bad guy. These sorts of switcho-chango role-reversals are common in real wrestling. Especially when trying to up the popularity of an existing wrestler, or to make a new wrestler seem cooler.

While Jake lost his fight against Roadhandler it was an impressive battle, Jake seemingly lifting the massively heavy Micromaster over his head, and Roadhandler even transforming to drive back into the ring!

Jackhammer Jake seemed like an all right kind of fellow and was a decent enough wrestler to appear on a New York talk show. I'm surprised his persona wasn't more showy or flashy, since the WWF first hit popularity in the mid-to-late 80s. In fact, he appears to wear the same kind of speedo as "Crusher" Hogan who fought Spider-Man back in the '60s, making Jake kind of a throw-back.

I personally can't tell if Jake was supposed to be a heroic wrestler or an evil wrestler. His disco suit and general attitude on the talk-show make me think "evil," but the crowd was cheering AND booing him at the arena. It's also nebulous as to if Jake and Roadhandler decided that Roadhandler would win before-hand, or if Roadhandler improvised his transforming stunt and surprised Jake. Since Roadhandler was on a first-name basis with Jake, the former may be possible.

On a side-note, I think the Jackhammer gimmick is more of an independent wrestling gimmick than a mainstream one. At least he wasn't a wrestling dentist... -- Monzo

(Transformers US #53) One of several 'wild west' style aliens from the planet Cheyne. He attempted to kill the parasitic child of the alien Hud, only to be stopped by the Triggerbots. Joe later assisted Dogfight in getting his memory back and getting ready to fight Hud and his clan. (Though it must be noted that Joe himself didn't join in or help with the actual fight.)

(Transformers US #28 + 28) Sidekick and partner to "The Mechanic". Juan was a nervy and insignificant character. In his first appearance he did little but look around nervously and drive the Mechanic's getaway cars, and tell his boss to stop worrying about the police.

In his second appearance, Juan was the gleeful operator of the Mechanic's 'car stripping' machine. He attempted to use the machine to strip Goldbug of his outer casing, only to be stopped by Detective Altman, and arrested. The fact that the Mechanic got away was probably not much consolation to poor old Juan, who never even managed to get a last name.

(Transformers US #42) An assistant to the famous Nebulan scientist named 'Hi-Q'. Kari (along with Hotwire, Lube and Rev) was helping Hi-Q find a way to combat the Decepticon Powermasters, who were terrorising Nebulos. When four Autobots showed up asking to have Optimus Prime's body rebuilt by Hi-Q, she assisted on the project.

When the others all became Powermaster units for other transformers, Kari refused to join in and become Goldbug’s Powermaster unit. She claimed she wouldn't do it because she "wasn't a warrior", and while this sounds good enough, it ignores the fact that none of the other scientists there (one of who was an old bald man!!) were warriors either.

Eventually Kari derided and disparaged and talked down the evil warrior-like Autobots so much that they decided it would be better if they left the planet.

(Transformers US #64) A whale like creature from the planet Peaquod, which was thought to be extinct. One of these creatures (probably the last) was revived by Matrix energy from a pod from the moon VsQs.

The Klud went on a very Jaws-esque killing spree, destroying boats, and killing tourists and Klud-hunters alike. He even bit the leg off the Autobot known as Longtooth, starting the Autobot on a spiralling path of self-destruction and obsession.

Longtooth hunted the Klud like Ahab hunted Moby Dick, finally cornering the giant whale-creature, only to be attacked by the Decepticons.

Thunderwing mentally contacted the Klud, learning from him the details of his revival at the hands of Matrix Energy, then left the creature to die. In the end, though, Longtooth did not kill the creature, convinced to let it live by Pincer.

(Transformers US #67) A human woman from another dimension where Unicron was victorious and Galvatron had conquered North and South America. Lisa was a freedom fighter and the girlfriend of that dimension's Spike Witwicky.

Lisa did very little in her appearance other than give a pep talk to the Autobots which convinced them to keep on fighting. Sure, this sounds significant, but the truth is the Autobots had no choice but to keep on fighting anyway, so every point she made was moot.

On the other hand, at least now we know that Spike has completely different taste in women to his brother.

(Headmasters #2-4) The daughter of Lord Zarak and the girlfriend of Gallan. Llyra was rather judgemental and constantly changed sides during the Headmasters war on Nebulos. All in all she was something of a bi... err... a pregnant dog.

She began on Gallan's side, mooning about him until she decided that his siding with the Autobots was the wrong thing to do. After that she was part of (and even led) a campaign to monitor the Autobots' actions, even going so far as to go to a battle to watch! During the battle she and her fellow observers were put into bubbles, and had their minds altered by Mindwipe, resulting in Llyra believing her daddy when he said that the Autobots were evil and had been shooting at her. (In reality they were just shooting the bubbles to save their lives.)

However, when Zarak started going a little crazy Llyra began to doubt even him. By the end of the series she realises that Gallan was the good guy and went to him... but he just lied to her and told her he was the bad guy, messing with her already fragile psyche. When last we saw her, Llyra was wandering aimlessly, as Nebulos was being rebuilt.

(Transformers US #13) A crime boss who was practically put out of business by the antics of one Joey Slick. Slick was originally a two-bit hood who worked for Jake. However, when Jake attempted to have Joey executed (he 'lost' some of Lomax's money) Joey discovered the damaged Megatron in pistol mode, and turned his fortunes around just a little bit.

Slick went on a crime spree that threatened Lomax's business. At first Jake tried sending thugs after Joey to kill him, but that was useless. In the end Slick invaded Jake's very own home, punching out the crime lord and leaving his empire in ruins. That's gotta suck.

(Transformers US #62) The top thug for the gangster known as Gutt. He lived and worked on the planet known as "Pz-zazz".

Not... really anything more to say about Louie.

(Transformers US #32) Big Steve was a sleazy used car salesman (are there any other kinds?) who was 'lucky' enough to have the Throttlebots drive into his car lot. He filled their fuel tanks with soft drink (which he bought in cans, instead of bottles, for some reason). He then attempted to sell all six of them to RAAT. When the Decepticons and Autobots arrived on the scene he tried to hold an auction! To the highest bidder goes the Autobots...

However, the Auction soon turned into an all-out brawl. While the Decepticons and Autobots were occupied with each other (and destroying Steve's car lot, no less) RAAT made off with the Throttlebots, and gave Steve a 300,000 dollar cheque. When the Combaticons were routed Blaster destroyed Big Steve's cheque, leaving him with nothing. About what he deserved.

(Headmasters #1) Marita was the girlfriend of Gort (who was later to become High Brow's Headmaster partner). She was necking with Gort when Highbrow came along and tried to communicate with them. The two panicked and Gort fell off a cliff. Highbrow left a message with Marita, and she fortunately realised that the communication bungle was an accident and didn't hold it against the Autobots.

When a panic broke out during Blurr's attempt to contact the Nebulans, Marita was one of the people injured in the rush to get away.

Incidentally, Monzo says that Marita is hotter than Llyra.

(Transformers US #65 + 66) A frightful creature created by the Matrix when it was experimenting with being evil. The creature was the modified form of a predator from the moon of Cameron, VsQs. The creature slaughtered the VsQs exploration team, then attacked the various Transformers who came to investigate.

The creature was finally killed by Thunderwing, who proved far too powerful for it. He impaled the beast on a spike, though sadly that scene was shown only in pink. Remember, in the comics, Decepticons think in pink, Autobots think in green.

(Transformers US #54-55) The host of a talk show, and a reporter. Cecilia (Ceci for short) discovered a Decepticon plot to destroy New York and helped Roadhandler and his Micromasters to stop the plot going ahead. Roadhandler and crew stayed with Cecilia, and even appeared on her TV show. To her horror Roadhandler got himself involved in a career in professional wrestling quite inadvertently while on her show. After this career fell through the Micromasters left Cecilia and New York where she lived. That was the last we saw of her.

(Transformers US #46) A Bounty Hunter partner to the guy known as "Felix". He became a member of the "Roadjammers", hired by the Decepticons to hunt robots (specifically Autobots). For some reason they hunted down Autobots released deliberately from Decepticon prisons. When he realised he'd been played for a fool, Skunge and his mates all went ballistic on their Decepticon employers.

(Transformers US #13) Joey slick was a two-bit crook who made it big when he stumbled upon Megatron in gun form. Megatron was malfunctioning at the time, his personality not asserting itself he was forced to obey any orders given to him by Slick.

Armed with Megatron Slick went on a huge crime spree, terrorising Oregon, and becoming insanely rich in just a couple of days. He even got even with his former employer, Jake Lomax. Rather than shoot Lomax with Megatron, Slick threw the Decepticon leader away and punched Jake in the head.

The jolt from being thrown away knocked Megatron's circuits back into working order. Obviously, this meant that the foolish human who'd been ordering him around for weeks had to die. Joey escaped this fate only because he impressed Megatron by being unafraid to die. Megatron left Joey behind, confused.

(Headmasters #1 and Transformers US #42) Sorgen was a member of the Nebulan council of peers. He supported Zarak's stance against the Autobot 'invasion', being rather ill-disposed to invasion by giant robots from another planet. Makes sense to me.

In a later appearance (in issue 42) he demonstrated nearly belligerent defiance against the invasion of Nebulos staged by the Decepticon Powermasters (Darkwing and Dreadwind), despite the likelihood of his head being crushed in.

(Headmasters #3 and Transformers US #42) Soriza was part of a Council of Peers delegation sent to observe Galan and his Headmasters in action. The delegation came to an end after they were all put inside bubble and floated up towards space. The peers were saved by the Autobots, but Mindwipe saw to it that they only remembered Autobot hostilities.

Soriza appeared again later when she was cowering with fear from the Decepticon Powermasters, Dreadwind and Darkwing, understandable considering her last interaction with the Transformers.

(Transformers US #35, 36, 44 + 45) Sammy, Jed, Allen (or Allan, they could never decide on the spelling) and Robin. These four kids were out playing in an old rail-yard when they accidentally got caught up in a battle between the Protectobots and Combaticons over the Autobot known as Blaster. They freed Blaster, and he defeated the Combaticons.

They became "Spacehikers" when they used the mode-lock that had formerly been on Blaster and put it on Blast Off. Blaster then took them for a ride in space, where they were captured by Grimlock, and sentenced to death. Blaster himself was tossed out of Blast Off by Sammy, so he wasn't captured.

The kids were picked up by Sky Lynx, who was dogged by Grimlock, until Blaster gave himself up, to save the kids.

Later both Sky Lynx and the kids were captured and made a part of the cosmic carnival. The kids remained there as a sideshow attraction until they were saved by Optimus Prime and Goldbug. They were then returned to Earth by Sky Lynx, and that's all she wrote.

(Transformers US #14) Brick Springhorn was a rock star whose concert Shockwave raided for energy! Springhorn played on, even during an Autobot-Decepticon battle, to convince the crowd it was just all part of the show.

Clearly Brick Springhorn was mean to be Bruce Springsteen. There is no subtlety here, not with Brick singing such classic lyrics as, "Born in America" and "Can't start a fire without a light/ Even if we're just dancing in the night."

(Transformers US #45) A human actress (with the stage name "Carissa Carr") who befriended the Decepticon Pretender Skullgrin when he became an actor for a short time. She became fairly close to the Decepticon, feeling almost as much of an outsider in her life as he was. (Though, she wasn't literally as much of an outsider as Skullgrin, what with him being a giant robot encased in a pseudo-skin exoskeleton.)

When approached by a lady in a wheelchair who asked where Skullgrin would be filming his next movie, Ethel willingly gave it away. Little did she know that the lady in the wheelchair wasn't Skullgrin's biggest fan, she was Circuit Breaker.

Skullgrin shed his shell to show Ethel, and was attacked by Circuit Breaker. During the fight Skullgrin saved Ethel's life. Despite this, Circuit Breaker was going to kill him. Until someone pissed her off and she left.