Pretender Beast
From Transformers Wiki
- Pretender Beasts are Transformers from the Generation 1 continuity family.
The Pretender Beasts combine animal ferocity with advanced Pretender technology, giving these beast-mode bots outer shells based on feral Earth animals. An unwary opponent will find themselves suddenly staring down twice as many fangs and claws!
Both the Autobots and Decepticons have Pretender Beasts in their ranks (though some are known for their shifting allegiance):
| “ | Strange and terrifying! | ” |
| —Announcer, "Pretender Beasts/Pretender Vehicles" commercial | ||
Contents |
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comic
Pretender shells were considered a sufficiently valuable resource that Scorponok was able to offer the technology to Carnivac and Snarler as payment for an assassination job. Survivors! The two used those shells in their mission track down Fortress Maximus, though at first the trail led only to a junkyard, where they found a Headmaster control helmet. Using the scent of human on it, they followed its former owner, Spike Witwicky, to a ski resort in the Sierra Nevadas. Though Spike was able to summon the body of Fortress Maximus, which had been left on the Ark, it was hard-pressed to deal with four targets at once when the Decepticons literally split up. But the Pretenders had made one big mistake: bringing the control helmet with them. After he prized the helmet from Snarler's tusk, Spike's mental bond with Maximus was restored to full operation, and a barrage of artillery sent the two packing. The Man in the Machine!
Carnivac, meanwhile, used his shell in his initial solo assault on the Mayhem Attack Squad. When he was caught off guard, outnumbered and nearly surrounded, he sent the shell on a suicide run, allowing it to be destroyed. Wolf in the Fold! Though the feedback nearly killed him, the ruse worked, and his pursuers believed him to be dead, allowing him to regain the element of surprise. Where Wolf?
- Rhythms of Darkness!
In an alternate timeline, Chainclaw was one of seven Autobots remaining in the Western Hemisphere in 2009, which had been overrun by the Decepticons. He, Getaway and Guzzle took on Cyclonus and Scourge in order to keep them away from the rest of their team while they accomplished their mission; showing the rest of the world that America still lived and fought against the Decepticons. Chainclaw got the drop on Cyclonus and likely would have killed him, if not for the intervention of Galvatron, who destroyed Chainclaw with a single shot.
Of course, Galvatron then killed Cyclonus for being weak, so if Chainclaw weren't dead, he'd probably feel better about the outcome. Rhythms of Darkness!
Regeneration One
Catilla and Chainclaw were among the many Autobots fighting off Bludgeon's Blitz Engines on Cybertron. Destiny, Part Four
Commercial appearances
Snarler and Catilla had it out with each other, battling both in and out of their shells. Pretender Beasts/Pretender Vehicles
Toys
The Transformers
- Pretender Beasts (1988)
- Part of the first year of Pretenders product, Pretender Beasts are very similar to the normal Pretenders, only their alternate modes and shells are based on Earth animals. These sets also lack melee weapons, and the shells completely lack articulation in any form (unless you count changing the orientation of the mounted blaster accessories).
- These toys appear to have been gang-molded: the two Autobot inner robots use the same plastic colors (yellow and gray), as do the Decepticons (purple, brown and turquoise).