Thundercracker (WFC)
From Transformers Wiki
The name or term "Thundercracker" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, seeThundercracker (disambiguation). |
- Thundercracker is aDecepticonfrom theWar for Cybertronportion of theAligned continuity family.
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A scientist by nature, with a more upper-class air,Thundercrackerstands out among his fellow Decepticons in being a fairly calm and level-headed fellow. He believes in the cause, even if he's not enthusiastic about Megatron's methods. Lacking the endless ambition ofStarscreamand the cruel thuggery ofSkywarp,he displays little malice towards his enemies and takes no joy from battle. For Thundercracker, conflict is simply applied physics and chemistry, nothing more than the redirection of forces and energy towards the desired target... his foes. He is also a master of using sound to his advantage, producing sonic booms that instill fear in the Autobots' audio receptors.
Contents |
Fiction
Aligned novels
WhenDecepticonsbombedAltihexCasino,StarscreamtoldSentinel Primethat Thundercracker andSkywarpwere his trusted lieutenants and that they would take him to safety. They actually took him toKaon,from where he was then moved toMoon Base Oneand imprisoned.Exodus
Thundercracker and the Seekers were later used as disposable assets by Megatron, sending them out to investigate an Autobot signal that Megatron suspected was part of a larger trap. Sure enough,Thundertronand theStar Seekerswere behind the signal, and Thundercracker barely escaped back to the Nemesis with his hide intact.
Later, Thundercracker was among the Decepticon onAquatroncaptured by theQuintessons.Found innocent of crimes against the Quintesson Imperium, Thundercracker was fed toPiranhaconsin the city ofHydratron'sHall of Justice.Retribution
Primecartoon continuity
- Voice actor:James Horan
During the war for Cybertron, Thundercracker was stationed at a Decepticon science installation located inAnkmor Park.Thundercracker was aiding his fellow scientistShockwavein extracting the Sparks of the DecepticonsRumbleandFrenzyin order to put them inLaser corecontainment chambers, which would then allow them to permanently switch between different bodies. Thundercracker started the experiment, and, in a flash of light, Rumble and Frenzy were transferred into their new bodies.
As the two smaller 'cons bickered over whether Shockwave had gotten their colors right,twoAutobotsburst into the lab, one of them demanding that the Decepticons leavehislab. Thundercracker released Rumble and Frenzy to backup Shockwave and himself. However, the Autobot Wheeljack revealed that years ago he had lined his lab with explosives and unstable energon. Unable to use weapons, Thundercracker and his allies engaged their foes in hand-to-hand combat. After losing Rumble and Frenzy, Shockwave and Thundercracker decided to retreat instead of risking Wheeljack setting off the explosives he had rigged in his lab, never realizing that the Wrecker had been bluffing.
Thundercracker and Shockwave would reconvene with Rumble and Frenzy atKaon,where Soundwave demanded that they return the two to their original bodies.Unreliable Narratives
Games
Transformers: War for Cybertron(Xbox 360/PS3/PC)
- Voice actor:Graham McTavish(English),Achille Orsoni(French),Iñaki Alonso(Spain-Spanish)
Thundercracker served with Skywarp,Jetfire,and the former Sky Commander Starscream on a dilapidated orbital research station that once experimented on the powerful, but highly dangerousDark Energon.This made it a target for the leader of the Decepticons,Megatron,who wished to restart Dark Energon production in his plans to revitaliseCybertron.Megatron attacked the station and fought his way into the laboratory, and despite Starscream's attempts to destroy the remaining Dark Energon, Megatron withstood its destructive power and bent it to his will. His survival intrigued Starscream, who offered to serve Megatron in exchange for learning how to manipulate Dark Energon himself; Thundercracker and Skywarp fell into line. Jetfire declared them traitors and left to warnZeta Prime.Thundercracker and Skywarp were prepared to give chase, but Megatron allowed the Autobot to leave, as he wished Zeta Prime to know his demise was coming. However, the Decepticon commander scoffed at the idea of being given what he could simply take from Starscream, until the one-time Sky Commander revealed that there was very little Dark Energon left on the research station, but he knew how to manufacture more, and that the ancient, long-forgottenEnergon Bridgeneeded to be reactivated before they could do so.
Thundercracker, Starscream and Skywarp were sent the cliffs ofKaon,where they could make their way into the underground. Thundercracker commented with wonder that he had never travelled this far into Cybertron before, for which Skywarp labelled him as being boring as always. As they entered an underground energon reservoir, Thundercracker warned his teammates to avoid touching the flowing streams and waterfalls of crude energon, as in that state is was extremely volatile; Skywarp once again mocked his companion's thoughtfulness. Making their way out of the reservoir, the three fliers faced their first serious challenge when an Autobot cruiser appeared in a canyon they needed to travel through. The trio crippled the cruiser's weapons system, fought their way past theAerialbotsquadron it launched, and moved into the ship. Defeating the ship's defenders, they then destroyed it by placing a detpack on the ship's power core. While Starscream and Skywarp busied themselves with glory hogging and relishing the battle against the Autobots, Thundercracker tried to keep them alive, using hisEnergon repair rayto heal their wounds. Deeper in the core, they encounteredstrange creaturesthe likes of which Thundercracker had never seen before. Eventually, they found themselves before the mechanism needed to restart the Energon Bridge, but Thundercracker's scans detected something very unusual about the machine. Starscream, tired of Thundercracker's readings and sensors, pushed his way past and injected Dark Energon into it without waiting for more information. Perhaps he should have listened to Thundercracker, as the machine activated its defense systems, revealing itself to be theEnergon Bridge Guardian.The three Decepticons were forced to fight a desperate battle where the Sentinel threw heat-seeking fireballs at them, activated powerful energy beams and turned the floor into lava. Exploiting the machine's cooling down period, they were eventually victorious, and barely escaped with their lives when the Dark Energon infected the facility and reactivated the Energon Bridge, which sent its energon bouncing along satellites to Megatron's Dark Energon facility. Thundercracker remarked his amazement at this...but not until after Skywarp did. Y'know, TC, it's all well and good for you to be thoughtful and careful, but when Skywarp beats you to the punch in stating the blindly obvious, you might want to speed it up.
Shortly after the defeat of Zeta Prime,Iacon's guardianOmega Supremegave chase to Megatron, though based on Megatron's attitude it was hard to tell exactly who was chasing whom at times. At one point, Megatron even ordered Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker to attack the behemoth, if only to provide a distraction. The three apparently eluded him after drawing his fire, however, as after Omega had cornered Megatron's team at an Autobot anti-aircraft terrace (or, depending on who you talk to, when Megatron tricked him into attacking them there), Omega's armour was breached by Megatron using the heavy guns, and Starscream led Skywarp and Thundercracker in shooting down the mighty Autobot, forcing him to crash land in a sub-level below. After Megatron defeated Omega Supreme on the ground and forced him to open theOmega Gate,Thundercracker and the others watched as Megatron achieved his plan to infect Cybertron's core with Dark Energon.Transformers: War for Cybertron
Transformers: War for Cybertron(DS)
- Voice actor:Graham McTavish(English)
Thundercracker served under Megatron loyally during the final days of the war. He followed Megatron into battle against the titanic Autobot Omega Supreme, but not without expressing his numbing fear of the giant first. War for Cybertron - Autobots/Decepticons
Transformers: Cybertron Adventures
- Voice actor:Graham McTavish(English)
Thundercracker and Skywarp taunted Barricade about his inability to fly. Later, Megatron watched three Autobot ships make their way to escape position, and ordered Thundercracker and Skywarp to plant homing beacons on each one. Thundercracker rocketed through the debris field, taking out Aerialbots and using the larger pieces of debris as landing points. Inside one, he was pinned down in a narrow tunnel by a gatling-Destroyer, giving him very little opportunity to gun the behemoth down between sweeps of blaster-fire. After a stern reminder from Megatron as to his mission, Thundercracker intercepted the first cruiser and planted the beacon on it. As he made his escape he was pinned down by Autobots, but Skywarp arrived to draw their fire. Skywarp leapt into the open to draw the fire of a squad of Autobots, allowing Thundercracker to snipe them in peace. After a short flight they planted the second beacon, and a blast from Trypticon sent the second ship to its doom. Making his way through another large chunk of destroyed base, Thundercracker headed for the Council ship through heavy firepower. He planted the beacon, and watched as the blast from Trypticon punched through... but did not destroy the ship. The Autobots had weakened Trypticon again, and Megatron ordered Thundercracker back to defend the superweapon. Transformers: Cybertron Adventures
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
Console
3DS
Toys
Prime
- Thundercracker(Deluxe, 2012)
- Accessories:Arms Micron "Silver Metal Baro"
- AredecoofSkywarp,which is a slightretoolingof the"First Edition" Deluxe Starscream toy,Thundercracker is exclusive toTakaraTomymarkets, and further exclusively available at Yodobashi Camera, Yamada Electronics and EDION group stores. He transforms into a jet resembling aGeneral Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.Like the other toys in the line, a lot of his detailing is done with customer-appliedstickersrather thanpaint operations.He lacks Starscream's missile pods, instead featuring a pair of permanently-attached "bombs" on his wings. These bombs feature the hexagonal-shaped5mm post-holes used in the line-wide "Arms Micron"play-pattern. He comes with his Arms Micron partnerSilver Metal Baro,designed to form a star/shield that can be attached to Thundercracker's arms or store on his back.
- The original version of this mold was differently retooled intoTimelinesSlipstream.
Generations
- Thundercracker(Deluxe, 2013)
- Series / Number:02 / #006
- Accessories:Two assault cannons, tail-fin
- Part of the sixth wave of2012-onwardsGenerationsDeluxe Class toys,Thrilling 30Thundercrackeris a redeco ofGenerations:Fall of CybertronStarscream, and transforms into a Cybertronian jet fighter. He comes with two spinning, triple-barreled cannons which can combine to form a larger hand-held weapon that is geared to spin its two triple-barrels together, and resembles theNeutron assault riflefromFall of Cybertron.Each of the weapon halves features two 5mm posts, as well as a peg-hole on their hollow sides, while the combined form features another peg-hole at the top, but makes the peg-holes on the hollow sides inaccessible. Thundercracker features numerous 5mm peg-holes, such as his hands, forearms, lower legs, and wing undersides.
- Thundercracker's tail-fin is attached via a 5mm post on its underside, and can be detached to reveal three additional peg-holes, with two of these peg-holes being just the right distance to accommodate the combined assault cannons/rifle, with the tail-fin pegging on the rifle's top peg-hole. This allows the weapon to mount on top of the vehicle mode, and store on his back in robot mode.
- Unlike other uses of the mold, Thundercracker featurestwodifferent translucent plastic colors. His chest/cockpit canopy is molded in pale yellow, while the light-piping block built into his head in molded in red.
- Thundercracker is minimally mis-transformed in-package: his jet mode nosecone is extended, rather than folded in as it should be in robot mode. He comes packaged with a copy ofIDW's'Spotlight: Thundercracker'.
- This toy was also redecoed into TakaraTomy'sFall of CybertronSkywarp.
Generationsmold:Starscream (Deluxe Class) | ||
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Studio Series
- Thundercracker(Voyager Class,2025)
- Game:War for Cybertron
Notes
- Thundercracker is usable in both the Autobot and Decepticon versions of theWar for Cybertrongames for the DS. Used only for multiplayer, bonus missions and Arena mode in the Autobot version and used in Multiplayer, Arena mode, and campaign in the Decepticon version.
Foreign names
- Japanese:Thundercracker(サンダークラッカーSandākurakkā)
- Russian:Thundercracker(War for Cybertron,Тандеркрекер),Gromoverzhets(Громовержец, "Thunderer" )