Quickstrike (Energon)

Quickstrike is an Autobot from the Energon portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Consistency and perspective mean nothing to me! Now hand over that damn purse!

Unlike his brawling cousin, Bulkhead, Quickstrike looks before he leaps. A strategic genius with a preference for quick, surgical strikes, Quickstrike never enters into a conflict without a plan of attack. Due to his value to the Autobot cause, Megatron has placed a price upon his head—but woe to any Decepticon who tries to collect.

Quickstrike is armed with a Weapons Drone unit that he can Powerlinx with, much like his cousin.

Fiction

Energon comic

When the Terrorcons invaded Earth en masse, Quickstrike was among the Autobot warriors selected by Jetfire to hold the line against the invaders. He was either assigned to Prowl's unit in Tokyo, Japan, or Inferno's unit in Moscow, Russia. Multiplicity, Pt. 2

Quickstrike was later one of four Autobots who manned Mars Base on Mars. He was forced to defend the base when Alpha Quintesson sent the Four Horsemen to attack it in hopes of forcing the Autobots to lower Earth's planetary defense shield so they could send reinforcements. Armageddon Part 3 Just as planned, the defense shield was lowered and Omega Supreme was sent to Mars to assist. Armageddon Part 4 He succeeded in defeating the Horsemen and saving the Autobots at Mars. Armageddon Part 5

Timelines

During the Unicron Singularity crisis, Quickstrike served aboard the Autobot flagship Iron Hope. He was called into action during a Decepticon attack on the ship, and battled a trio of Decepticon jets alongside Skyblast, Overcast and the Sky Scorcher Mini-Con Team. Force of Habit

Toys

Energon

• Quickstrike (Command Class, 2004)

• Accessories: Rotor assembly, rotor, "Weapons Drone", 4 missiles
• Known designers: Eric Siebenaler (Hasbro), Marcelo Matere (packaging artist)

Energon: The Powerlinx Battles Command Class (Ultra) Quickstrike is a redeco of Bulkhead, and transforms into a large Cybertronic assault helicopter somewhat resembling an Apache. He has a double-barreled spring-loaded missile launcher on each stabilizer wing, plus pulling the landing gear/trigger on his tail fin activates a gear that spins his rotor blades. Both gimmicks are available in robot mode, though the rotor mechanism becomes a weapon that can be held by his hands via 5 mm post. The rotors themselves can detach at the base, possibly for safety reasons.

Quickstrike cannot Powerlinx with other Autobot toys; instead, his size-class' gimmick is to Powerlinx with extra parts to form a "Brute Mode" (or Powerlinx Quickstrike). In this case, Quickstrike comes with—what the instructions refer to as—a "Weapons Drone", that features electronic light-and-sound action. This drone can attach to the underside of Quickstrike's copter mode to form a sort of thruster pack, and in robot mode, it forms a large backpack, with the thrusters unfolding to become large cannon/claw arms. These arms also become legs for the drone's "walker" mode, giving it something to do when not attached to Quickstrike.

Care should be taken with the Weapons Drone, even when it is taken out of sealed packaging. The mushroom pegs that secure the drone's turrets to the main body have been known to shear off in some instances, leaving the turrets themselves attached by the LED wires from within the drone. It is most noticeable if the turret is wobbly; if one attempts to turn the turret, it will take the peg along with it, as this wobble likely means the peg has already partially sheared off. A way that could possibly prevent any breakages is to untighten the two screws on the undersides of the guns themselves immediately before making any movements on the joints, to reduce any unwanted excessive friction, so you don't shear the pegs off. If needed, remove the two screws entirely and dismantle the guns, check everything over, and see if there is any minor sanding needing done to the pegs. The two black halves of the drone also appear to be glued, so excess glue that may have seeped out onto the pegs, gluing the guns in place may play a big part in this also. That being said, it is also not uncommon to find the drones' LED electronics corroded beyond use due to the included watch batteries leaking battery acid over time.

• More information on Quickstrike at TFU.info

Notes

• Quickstrike's bio card artwork miscolors his right hip-mounted missile launcher as red with black missiles, but has the left launcher properly colored. In addition, despite his holding his rotor-weapon well behind him in that Dreamwave-typical "one hand thrust forward, one thrust back" pose, his rotor blades actually pass in front of his hip-mounted wing. To boot, the back-flung arm takes up about the same amount of space in the image as the one flung forward (perspective!), plus his spine appears to have snapped, with his cockpit-sternum pushed well back into the hip assembly.
• His packaging side-flap "Brute Mode" artwork is a simple color swap of Bulkhead's. This is in sharp contrast with fellow redeco-Ultra Landquake, who got entirely new "Brute Mode" artwork, not simply recolored Landmine art.
• The tail of Quickstrike's toy has the kanji 空中防衛官 (Kūchū Bōeikan, "Aerial Defense Officer"). This is the character function of Bulkhead/Sprung, presumably in homage to Generation 1 Springer, who had the function "Aerial Defense", which was rendered on Springer's Takara packaging as 空中防衛戦士 (Kūchū Bōei Senshi, "Aerial Defense Warrior").