Appearances:

UK Transformers

#242 (Assault on the Ark)

Text mentions in:

#230 + 231 (The Big Shutdown, parts 1 + 2)

#241 (Rage)

Quote:  

"You passed our revised test with flying colours. You exhibited single-mindedness, ruthlessness and fighting prowess! The perfect qualities for leadership!"

Alt-Modes:  

Unknown

Description:  

The Decepticon High Council. We know very little about them. All we know is that they were three Decepticons who helped to appoint Lord Thunderwing as Decepticon leader. (Honestly, that's about all we know.)

We don't know who they are. We don't know what sort of powers they had. They don't seem to be the leaders of the Decepticons, per se. Instead they seem to be more of a jury who appoints the new leader of the Decepticons. (Probably when no one else can decide who should lead.)

Any more than that, we do not know.

Interestingly this is just one of three Decepticon leadership trios. The other two are the Triumverate from 'Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire', and the Tripredicus Council from Beast Wars. Something to think about.

Biography:  

Presumably because they felt that Megatron was a nutjob (though that's speculation), the Decepticons on Cybertron were looking for a new leader. 

(Megatron had just unseated the 'Triumverate', but he was starting to go absolutely nuts in the lead-up to his death at the hands of Megatron. To understand this better go read Straxus' entry.)

The Decepticon high council put a potential candidate named Thunderwing through several tests to see if he was worthy of Decepticon leadership. (We don't know if there were any other candidates, but one presumes there were.) The last of these tests was a simple one. He had to hunt down three Autobot prisoners released on Earth; Playback, Hosehead and Horsepower. He managed to kill Playback and Horsepower, but was defeated when Siren and Nightbeat showed up and helped Hosehead. Thunderwing was seen plunging into the ocean, burning, and presumed dead.

A while later Thunderwing emerged from the ocean, hell-bent on revenge on those crazy Autobots who'd ruined his chances at becoming Decepticon leader. 

Only problem was, the Decepticon High Council sent down a little squad of Decepticons to haul his arse back to Cybertron, because he'd failed the test. (Among them were the Triggercons, previously seen as minions of Megatron in the UK comics. This lends credence to the idea that the Decepticons got tired of Megatron's deteriorating mental state and decided to appoint a new leader.)

Unfortunately for this team, Thunderwing wasn't ready to come back. He attacked, subdued and commandeered the team for an assault run on the Ark, with the sole purpose being revenge. When the attack started to go sour his troops (specifically Ruckus) convinced him he should retreat and look for revenge some other day.

The Decepticon High Council were waiting for Thunderwing when he got back. They'd watched his activities and decided that maybe he was Decepticon leader material after all. (It's also possible that there just wasn't anyone else...) They appointed him Decepticon leader, much to his shock and surprise.

Tech Specs/TFU:  

We really don't know enough about them to even try to speculate on what their Tech Specs would have been like.

Toy:  

Take a look at the picture, these guys aren't exactly leadership material.

Over All:  

There's something about this one-shot set of characters that intrigues me. It adds another layer to the Decepticon hierarchy. Yet they're frustrating because we really don't know much about them. How do they fit in with the rest of the Decepticon chain of command? What part do they play other than choosing a new leader every now and then? We honestly don't know.

Another little thing, they really don't look very impressive. They were drawn by Andrew Wildman, whose generic and obscure Transformers tend to be a bit wishy-washy an unconvincing. For some reason here he added 'disinterested' to that list of traits. It makes you wonder whether these guys even cared who they were appointing to become the new Decepticon leader.