| Waspinator | |
| Transformers character | |
 | |
| First appearance | Beast Wars |
| Voiced by | Scott McNeil (as Waspinator) Jim Byrnes (as Thrust) Tom Kenny, Bumper Robinson ("Where Is Thy Sting?") |
| {Japanese) | Kenso Kato Kenji Nojima (Wasp) Kenso Kato (Waspinator) |
| Information | |
|---|---|
| Aliases | Wasp, Thrust |
| Affiliation | Predacon Vehicon Decepticon Autobot |
| Alternate modes | Cybertronian Jet Fighter, Giant Wasp, Giant Transmetal Wasp/Jet, Cybertronian motorcycle, Technorganic Wasp Cybertronian Sports Car, Futuristic Car similar to a Chevrolet Beat, Technorganic Wasp Futuristic Car similar to a Chevrolet Beat |
Waspinator is the name of four fictional characters from the Transformers robot superhero franchise. He is sometimes called Wasp. The original Waspinator was voiced by Scott McNeil in the Beast Wars animated series.
Beast Wars
Waspinator, later called Thrust, is best remembered for being the universe's whipping boy: getting destroyed or demolished in almost every episode of Beast Wars, yet returning in almost perfect condition in the very next episode. He is also dim-witted, talks in a broken third-person speech pattern, often referring to other characters, except Megatron, Optimus Primal, and himself, (however when Megatron became a dragon, Waspinator referred to him as "Dragon-Bot") by names that reflected their transformation modes instead of their true names. His beast mode is a wasp and his name is based on The Terminator.
Waspinator's toy was recolored as the Predacon Buzz Saw, a character who only appeared in the comic series. Waspinator came with two different heads, a robotic and mutant head, but the television series only ever depicted him with the mutant head. Buzz Saw was depicted in the comics with the robot head.
Although a transmetal version of Waspinator was made in the toy line, Waspinator remained in his original form in the television series from first episode to last (the only one of the original five Predacons to do so). There was also a "Fox Kids" repaint of his original form, which was in new colors, and one of his transmetal form which had the colors of Buzz Saw.
As the Vehicon General Thrust, he was in charge of the Cycle Drones and was one of the few who remained an ally to Megatron until the very end.
Animated series
Waspinator was a young follower of the Predacon criminal Megatron, joining him on his raid of the Golden Disk artifact from the Maximals and being on the Darksyde when it was chased through Transwarp Space by the Axalon and crashed on prehistoric Earth. High energon levels threatened to destroy the crew unless they adopted organic alternate modes, and Waspinator took the form of a wasp ("Beast Wars Part 1"). Waspinator's body was blasted apart, crushed or disassembled numerous times throughout the series ("Oh sure...don't mind Waspinator; Waspinator just lie here and suffer... drag himself to CR tank..."). Even his fellow Predacons had little respect for Waspinator, often letting him take the shots in battles. Despite the fact that Waspinator never actually led or participated in a rebellion against Megatron, he was not loyal to the Predacon tyrant but merely too cowed and frightened of Megatron to overthrow him, a sentiment which only got worse as Megatron grew more powerful during the series and Waspinator did not. This can be best observed during the first season when Waspinator was shown in a private conversation with himself, revealing his desire to, like most Predacons, overthrow Megatron and establish himself as leader.
In the first season, he was often partnered with Terrorsaur and proved himself to be a capable aerial combatant. However, Waspinator had few notable roles other than acting as Megatron's aerial muscle. But he did get a successful victory when he stole the Axalon's Energon shielding system in "Call of the Wild" and also blinding and nearly destroying some of the Maximals in "Dark Voyage". During the episode "Possession", Waspinator was possessed by the spark of the ancient Decepticon Starscream. Starscream betrayed Megatron with the help of Blackarachnia and managed to capture the Axalon from the Maximals, but his own ego and a betrayal in turn by Blackarachnia saw him defeated. There is evidence that Starscream influenced Waspinator's character. In another bizarre incident, he was severely damaged by a reprogrammed Rhinox, who had developed his own ideas about leading the Predacons. As usual Waspinator survived but this time he had been temporarily damaged mentally, referring to himself as the original Insecticon Shrapnel, and talking with his speech impediment. In the same scene he refers to himself as Wonko The Sane, which is in turn a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as well as to a prominent Transformers fan who used that name as his online handle. This episode of insanity lasted until an annoyed Cheetor shot him down and Waspinator was repaired (with his last insane line being part of the original transformers theme song "more than meets the eye")..
Waspinator spent much of the season partnered with Inferno and Quickstrike ("Ant-Bot and Two-Head"). He was briefly teamed up with the Transmetal II clone of Dinobot (who sliced him to ribbons), only to end up quickly shot by Cheetor after the young Maximal completed his own 'upgrade' into a Transmetal II. Waspinator's status grew increasingly poor as time went on, to the extent that he was literally taken to pieces by the proto-human girl Una, who had been taught by Cheetor to go for the hinges when attacking robots. Megatron merely described this as "situation normal then". Throughout most of this series he was used as Predacon cannon fodder, while the slightly more powerful ones did more active combat. When the Predacons broke into the Maximal base, he was told that he would be leading the attack, but instead turned out to be a decoy that was literally squashed by Optimus.
After the destruction of the Predacon Base, Inferno, Quickstrike and Waspinator were sent to establish a new base for the Predacons and discovered caves that were inhabited by a tribe of early humans. Just as the Predacons were about to engage the early humans in battle, Waspinator decided he was sick of the evil Predacon ways and of the constant physical abuse he was always receiving and quit in a furious and surprising rant. As the Beast Wars came to an end and the Maximals left for Cybertron, it was revealed that Waspinator stayed behind on Earth, living amongst a tribe of early humans and being worshiped as a god. He even got the last line of the series: "Waspinator happy at last!".
Waspinator was captured by Megatron's Vehicon Drones and his spark was transferred into the Vehicon General Thrust in Beast Machines. During the series, it was revealed that, following the conclusion of the Beast Wars that the early humans got tired of Waspinator, despite having worshipped him as a deity, and forced him to leave (although he claimed he was tired of them and left because he missed Cybertron). How he got home afterwards was never revealed, though he did say "Took forever, but waaayyy worth it". Even writer Bob Skir mentioned in his website that "someone someday has to explain to me how he hitchhiked his way home..." It is possible that he just flew under his own power and it took him so long to reach Cybertron that he arrived just prior to the Maximals exiting from transwarp space.
Thrust was the only one of the original three Vehicon Generals who was able to remember on his own that he used to be someone else. For a while, Blackarachnia believed that this someone else was Silverbolt, since Thrust kept displaying a soft spot for the she-spider. She was disappointed to learn that Thrust was not Silverbolt, but the Predacon Waspinator. Waspinator had been left on prehistoric Earth, to be worshiped by the early humans, but Waspinator accidentally boringly flung a pebble at a human who was building a statue to worship his "godlike" performance, and chased him off. Somehow he returned to Cybertron where his spark was extracted by Megatron and reprogrammed into Thrust. Waspinator was actually very pleased to be inside the "cool biker-bot" because "Chick-bots dig 'brooding loner' bit! " Each of the three original Vehicon Generals had their own personalized command codes; Thrust's was: "Thrust Overdrive!!"
With Cybertron's reformatting at the end of the series, Waspinator was reformatted into a surprisingly small technorganic wasp, but with the head of Thrust. He was then swatted by Rattrap and sent spiraling away through the air. His final line in this series is an ironic contrast to his last on Beast Wars. Bob Skir referred to this version of Waspinator as Thrustinator in the DVD commentary of the last episode.
Transformers: Universe
In an alternate reality of the Beast Wars, Waspinator was possessed by Starscream, whose previous defeat at the hands of another Optimus Primal prepared him for their confrontation in this reality and allowed him to triumph. The fused being, dubbed "Waspscream," proceeded to destroy the Maximals, something that prompted the Vok to sterilize the planet, only for Blackarachnia to be tricked into destroying their superweapon. The resulting Quantum Surge mutated the Predacons and affected the stasis pods on the planet, and the Transmetallized Waspscream proceeded to take over the Predacons, imprisoning Megatron, Inferno, and Scorponok with the help of new recruits Silverbolt and Quickstrike, though the former left the warring group due to his noble attributes. Tarantulas then decoded the Golden Disk for Waspscream, enabling the Predacons to access the Ark and gain control of the Autobot shuttle.
Amassing an Energon supply, the Predacons sought out and captured Silverbolt, though they lost Quickstrike to Protoform X before gaining his allegiance as well. On the way back to Cybertron, however, Megatron broke free and returned to Cybertron before his enemies, and with a mind damaged by his travels took over Cybertron with a Vehicon army and transformation freezing virus. However, Waspscream and the Transmetal members of his crew were protected from its effects, and soon were reformatted by the Oracle to fight against Megatron's Vehicon hordes. The villainous former Predacon responded by turning Scorponok and Silverbolt into the Vehicons Tankor and Jetstorm, who along with a reformatted Inferno served Megatron as generals. However, he was later undone when he recruited the Autobot Obsidian as a general as well after Silverbolt was rescued by the Predacons.
Obsidian soon took control of the Vehicons and killed Megatron with Tankor's aid, pushing Inferno and his Vehicons into the Predacon camp which was also joined by Depth Charge, Botanica, and Nightscream. Though Obsidian killed Silverbolt and Terrorsaur, additional resistance groups appeared to fight him as well prior to his abduction, Tankor's and Inferno's to the Universe War. Waspscream subsequently became a member of the new ruling council of Cybertron along with Wreckers commander Rodimus Primal, Dinobot leader Magmatron, and Mutants leader Icebird.
A similar Waspinator/Starscream fusion is described in the IDW Beast Wars Sourcebook, though it is unknown if they are the same being.
Transformers Animated
Waspinator is introduced as former Elite Guard trainee, named Wasp, around the same time as Bumblebee, both being of the same model with similar abilities, though Wasp is faster, stronger, angrier, and arrogant in personality. Due to Longarm's intervention, Wasp ended up being his scapegoat when Bumblebee believed Wasp to be the double agent working for Megatron. Though it was truly Shockwave disguised as Longarm who was the double agent, using Bumblebee's blind conviction to his own advantage. In the flashbacks, Wasp's color scheme consists of light green and yellow with black highlights, and he has the signature Autobot blue eye color.
By the time of his introduction, Wasp resembles more of his Beast Wars version in both eye/body color and speech pattern. But once converted into Waspinator, his design is very similar to his original Beast Wars CGI model but with a smaller second set of arms that jut from his sides. Originally able to talk normally as a cadet, his time in the Stockade rendered him to speak in a brooding voice that mimics the ravings of The Lord of the Rings' Sméagol/Gollum, speaking in Waspinator's trademark third-person and adding "-bot" to the names of fellow Transformers. (ex. Bumblebee=Bumblebot)
In his upgraded technorganic form he can fly and shoot stinger lasers from his robot mode hands or his beast mode forelimbs. He is also much larger and more powerful as a technorganic being. According to his toy bio and as seen on the show, Wasp can survive being blown to pieces, just as the original Waspinator famously could. It is unclear, however, if this is a side-effect of his mutation or if Wasp has had this ability from the start.
One notable difference between this newer Waspinator and his Beast Wars counterpart, was that the original Waspinator was a bumbling idiot unlike his Animated counterpart, who had a murderous, psychotic and deadly personality.
David Kaye said at TFcon 2010 that the creators wanted to get Scott McNeil to voice Waspinator, but since he could not work in the US without a permit, they were unable to get him to reprise his role.
Animated series
Wasp made his debut in the opening scenes of the episode "Autoboot Camp" when he broke out of his imprisonment and escaped his former drill sergeant Sentinel Minor via Space Bridge. However, the long imprisonment reduced Wasp into a completely cold and impassive shell of his former ego, seeking vengeance on Bumblebee for ruining his life. Though hunting him down on the impression he was heading to Megatron, Bumblebee would learn from Shockwave the truth that he really sent an innocent bot to the Stockade. Being pursued by a small team composed of Jazz, Sentinel Prime, Jetfire and Jetstorm, Wasp managed to get to Earth in order to get his revenge. Though Bumblebee attempted to explain what had happened, Wasp was bent to make him suffer just like he had, knocking him out before swapping paint jobs, helmets and voice synthesizers with him, so Bumblebee could take his place while he remained free. To further the trick, Wasp downloaded information from the earth Autobots' computer to know everything he knows. However, when his deception ultimately failed, Wasp used Bumblebee as a shield to make an escape.
After being found, Wasp attempted to evade his Autobot captors as they cornered him, refusing to go back to the Stockade. It was only when two of his pursuers, Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime, begin arguing over what to do with him that Wasp escaped before being abducted by Swoop. Swoop took Wasp to Dinobot Island and dropped him before Blackarachnia, whom he fell in love with. Blackarachnia used her charm and mutual past of Autobot betrayal to gain Wasp's trust, using it to make him step into her transwarp generator and be exposed to its energy along with Wasp DNA. A few cycles (minutes) later, as Sentinel confronted Blackarachina, Wasp exited the generator as Waspinator to protect his friend. During the fight, Waspinator entered the hallway and ran into Bumblebee. Bumblebee tried to apologize for sending Wasp to the Stockade, and though Waspinator said "Wasp" forgave Bumblebee, he angrily stated that "Waspinator would never forgive him." Waspinator was about to blast Bumblebee when the transwarp radiation stored inside him became unstable, followed by Waspinator overhearing Blackarachnia's rant of using him to suit her own ends. Enraged for being betrayed again, Waspinator followed Blackarachnia outside and tried to kill her, but he went critical with Blackarachnia spinning a chrysalis around her and Waspinator so only they were effected by the energy. Ending up in an African jungle in pieces, Waspinator began to put himself back together, stating that he had "plans". Unfortunately, with the series having ended after its third season, his objectives are a mystery.
An "Ask Vector Prime" Facebook entry later revealed that in one universe Waspinator's spark was blasted out of his body after the transwarp explosion and ended up in a Robots in Disguise universe where it was found by Jhaxius and used to create Thrust, akin to his Beast Machines counterpart. Thrust was a new Decepticon that resembled his G1 counterpart but occasionally had memories to his past life as Wasp/Waspinator, resulting in a cowardly streak in his personality.
Shattered Glass (Elite Guard)
In the mirror universe of Shattered Glass, WASP (Wireless Automated Sales Person) is a sentient hologram of an Autobot (and seeingly a member of the Elite Guard) who does commercials.
Shattered Glass (Predacon)
In the mirror universe of Shattered Glass, Waspinator is a heroic Predacon who enunciates just fine and is probably nigh invulnerable. Shattered Glass Waspinator's body is based on Waspinator's "Thrilling 30" Generations toy, albeit colored like Fox Kids Transmetal Waspinator.
Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
This version of Waspinator is an Insecticon from the mobile game based on the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon. Waspinator is a surprisingly competent Decepticon in comparison to previous incarnations. He has the ability to fire a bolt of energy from the weapon on his left arm which powers up his fellow Decepticons, making him an invaluable ally. Waspinator's name doesn't appear in the game itself, but was found by looking at the game files.