Astrotrain (SG)

Astrotrain is a heroic Decepticon from the Shattered Glass continuity family.

"Pile on some weight, or I'll totally make it to Cybertron!"

Astrotrain is the honorable and brave commander of his personal squad of Micromasters—Fasttrack, Stonecruncher, Submarauder, and Tailwind—that he transports around in his shuttle compartment, and sometimes also a member of the Mayhem Suppression Squad. He's also close friends with Blitzwing.

Fiction

Shattered Expectations

The heroic Astrotrain—who served as a means of conveyance for his teammates—and the rest of the Mayhem Suppression Squad assisted Starscream and Razorclaw against a trio of marauding Autobots. Shattered Expectations

Fun Publications Shattered Glass continuity

Astrotrain transported the supplies and energon rods from the Arch-Ayr depot, which the Decepticons had just laid claim on, to Darkmount. Later that cycle, he assisted in the hunt for the Dinobots by collecting all captured Dinobots and bringing them back to base. Dungeons & Dinobots

Astrotrain and his squad helped with final preparations for the launch of the Nemesis, which necessitated Whisper and the Predacons being sent to rescue Megatron from Ricochet instead.

Some time later, the Nemesis had successfully launched and was in pursuit of the Ark. During the firefight that ensued it was discovered that the Ark was armed with a neutron cannon that would keep the Nemesis from getting close enough to finish the Autobots off. Starscream decided to order Astrotrain and his squad to disable the cannon, since they were small enough to evade the gunfire and get in close enough to do so. Astrotrain nobly informed his squad that any of them could stay behind if they so chose, but none took him up on the offer.

They were able to successfully approach and land on the Ark's hull to commence their attack. While his Micromasters caused general damage, Astrotrain crawled towards the neutron cannon itself. Unfortunately, the Autobots discovered their presence on the hull and steered the Ark into entering Earth's atmosphere in an attempt to burn them off. Starscream attempted to order Astrotrain back to the Nemesis, but he turned off his comm and continued with the mission.

He was able to dislodge the neutron cannon and disable its aiming mechanism with his squad's help. He then manually set the cannon to fire on the Ark, let the cannon go, and recalled his squad into his shuttle compartment as he transformed and moved back. While his turning the cannon on the Ark successfully disabled the ship and sent it on a trajectory to crash onto the planet, he wasn't able to avoid his own hull being burned by the entry into Earth's atmosphere. Do Over

When the Earth was in danger of being attacked by a hijacked defense satellite, Heatwave lamented that he wished they had Astrotrain to fly up and disable it. Unfortunately, they still didn't know where he had landed, or if he and his squad had even survived atmospheric entry. Eye in the Sky

He did survive entry, and crash-landed in Antarctica, prompting most of the Decepticons to go there to dig him out, leaving Blitzwing and Heatwave alone just long enough to get into trouble dealing with the Autobots' stellar spanner before reinforcements could arrive.

Later, after he had been freed, he was placed in the Nemesis repair bay in stasis lock to have the ice drained out of his systems. Soundwave had thought that the wayward Blitzwing might be there, as he and Astrotrain had been close, but instead found only a datapad Blitzwing had left behind before taking off for parts unknown. Blitzwing Bop

He was eventually brought back online. When Starscream led a group of Decepticons to rescue Sephie Beller, he and his Micromasters were kept in reserve to join the battle if needed. Transhuman

IDW Shattered Glass comic

Astrotrain fought in the Decepticon assault on Goldbug's fortress in order to rescue Starscream, following behind Soundwave as he blasted a path into the compound. Shattered Glass #5

Toys

Timelines

Bet you didn't count on my loyal army of prostitutes.

• Astrotrain (TFCC exclusive, 2007)

• Accessories: Electronic thruster-cannon, shield, 2 bombs

Timelines Astrotrain is a retooled Armada Ultra-sized Jetfire, transforming into a Cybertronian space shuttle, in a gray and purple color scheme that is a (very) loose homage to Generation 1 Astrotrain. Since he is the Jetfire mold, he can also form the lower legs for Armada Optimus Prime's super mode. In shuttle mode, his Mini-Con partner Starcatcher can form his front landing gear. Placing Mini-Cons on the Powerlinx points on his wings drops the bombs stored underneath. He retains the electronic lights and sounds in his main thruster/blaster-weapon from the Powerlinx Jetfire version, uncommon among such low-run collector exclusive toys.

Aside from Starcatcher, Astrotrain also comes with a redeco of the Giant Planet Mini-Con Team, named Astro-Hook (crane), Astro-Line (plane), and Astro-Sinker (submarine). In addition to the Mini-Cons, an exclusive illustrated text story featuring Astrotrain, set in the Cybertron series, was made available to club members online.

The toy was released in March 2007 as one of the first exclusives available for purchase to Transformers Collectors' Club members. Well, sorta technically the first. He ended up being available at the same time as the Club's exclusive Dawn of Future's Past Airazor toy, but Astrotrain was the first Club exclusive advertised. And that's also not counting the "free" club figures available with subscriptions but which were also available to those who subscribed late.

• More information on Timelines Astrotrain at TFU.info

Notes

• A shuttle crashing, becoming buried in polar ice, and being dug out sounds awfully familiar.