The Stunticons are antagonists in the Transformers franchise. They are the second Decepticon Combiner team in The Transformers (TV series) as well as the first Decepticons whose alternate mode are cars and trucks. Their creation came to fruition due to the need of extra power on the roads as most Decepticons at the time aren't ground-based like the majority of the Autobots. Their creation also led to that of the Aerialbots, who serves as their primary adversaries.
The Stunticons are infamous for psychological instability in each member, which makes them among the most unpredictable & dangerous Decepticon units & their combiner form, Menasor, being just like his name.
History[]
The original lineup consisted of Motormaster, Dead End, Drag Strip, Wildrider and Breakdown.
Cartoon[]
The Stunticons were introduced in the two-part second season story "The Key to Vector Sigma". They were created by Megatron and given life by Vector Sigma. Their raids were initially mistaken by the humans for evidence that the Autobots had gone bad. When the Stunticons encountered their new counterparts the Aerialbots, they formed Menasor but were defeated by the combined power of Superion and Omega Supreme.
The Stunticons were given large roles in "Cosmic Rust", where they sought to deny the Autobots a cure to the rust plague, and "Masquerade", where they were captured and impersonated by the Autobots after a series of raids. In "Starscream's Brigade", they brought an end to Starscream's bid for leadership by combining into Menasor and taking down his own combiner Bruticus.
They continued to appear after The Transformers: The Movie, with Dead End and Wildrider managing to steal the Matrix from Rodimus Prime in "The Burden Hardest to Bear". Their last appearance was in "The Return of Optimus Prime", where they followed Galvatron in trying to retrieve Optimus Prime's body from the Autobots only to be infected by the hate plague and were the infected Transformers to arrive at Autobot City to destroy Optimus Prime and got cured by Prime as he used the Matrix to destroy the plague.
Comics[]
After initially being glimpsed in a vision of the future in the UK story "Second Generations", the Stunticons made their full debut in "Heavy Traffic", where Megatron assigned them to spoil the good publicity the Autobots had gained from Skids saving a motorist by causing havoc on a motorway and then pretending to be on Skids' side. They ended up fighting the Aerialbots and receiving unexpected help from a typically misguided Circuit Breaker, although Skids escaped in the confusion.
They made occasional appearances thereafter, including taking part in the assault on the Autobots on the moon in "Totalled". Their last appearance in the US title was during the Underbase Saga.
In the Marvel UK Earthforce storyline, the Stunticons were mostly seen as members of Megatron's Decepticon faction, although one issue showed Motormaster among Shockwave's troops. Wildrider was killed by Megatron in "Secrets" after Soundwave framed him as a traitor. The remaining Stunticons later joined the combined Decepticon army led by Soundwave and Starscream and played a key role in the final arc, abducting Irwin Spoon, a journalist planning to give the Autobots good publicity. Irwin was rescued by the Autobots but not before Bombshell had brainwashed him into writing a smear piece.
The post-movie version of the Stunticons appeared in "The Legacy of Unicron" and "Space Pirates".
Transformers Animated[]
A comic story named The Stunti-Con Job, following on from the Transformers Animated series, saw the Stunticons travel to Cybertron as part of a plan to free Megatron from prison. With another Decepticon, Toxitron, the Stunticons posed as a group of traveling players and convinced Sentinel Magnus to let them put on a show outside the prison. They and their plan were exposed thanks to the efforts of Sideswipe and Cheetor, and also Optimus Prime who foiled their plan by disguising himself as Toxitron, and ended up imprisoned with Megatron.
Aligned Universe[]
The Stunticons are a major antagonists in the first half of the third season of the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon. Only Motormaster and Dragstrip remained from the original line-up, with the other members being Heatseeker, Wildbreak, and Slashmark. They were first seen in the two-part third season premiere "King of the Hill", where Heatseeker set up base in a valley, with the Autobots' attempts to oust him complicated by the presence of a nuclear waste dump. Heatseeker escaped with a device that detected Cybertronian tech and the Stunticons made a number of attempts to retrieve it before the Autobots, such as in "Bee Cool" when Dragstrip and Wildbreak tried to get hold of a Decepticon hunter, combining into a larger form at one point.
Dragstrip, Heatseeker, Slashmark, and Wildbreak later entered a race to try and be crowned rulers of the road. The team developed the ability to combine into Menasor, battling the Autobots over a dish. When Optimus Prime visited Earth, the Stunticons attempted to destroy his ship but were defeated by the Autobots combining into Ultra Bee. Menasor was blown apart and the Stunticons were taken back to Cybertron in stasis pods.
