Red Wing

Red Wing is a Decepticon Seeker from the Generation 1 continuity family.

We swear, if he throws Octopunch one more time...

Red Wing (aka Redwing) has a "devil may care" attitude and some powerful guns, so what more do you need?^[1] This bravado of his hides a more cautious side; Red Wing knows when to pick his fights...and when to make a tactical advance to the rear.

Fiction

Wings Universe

Red Wing was part of a joint Autobot/Decepticon assault on the Cybertronian clone army. In the ensuing battle, Red Wing was shot in the back by a Skywarp clone. Termination

Kre-O online manga

"Sorry, you're too hot to know me, babe!"

Red Wing was among Bludgeon's troops as they discovered the Red Bucket. Treasure Competition! Defeat with Block Power!

TransTech

Red Wing was one of many Offworlders in Axiom Nexus's Under City. Red Wing was part of a crowd in Seeker-Shinai that C-81 attempted to disperse through intimidation. Unfortunately, all the Seekers present were too stunned to see a "Megatron" in Axiom Nexus to budge. Cybertron's Most Wanted

2005 IDW continuity

Redwing was one of the Decepticons who joined Needlenose and Brawl for Galvatron's ill-fated assault on Shanghai, China. Once Upon a Time on Earth

Flying to engage Unicron, Skywarp disdainfully listed Redwing among the Seekers not under Starscream's command. Assembly

Generations Selects Special Comic

In 2050, Red Wing and the Decepticons lent their support to the Earth-born Selectors, robots eager to rebel against their human makers who enslaved them. Volcanicus comic 2

2019 IDW continuity

First appearance: Transformers #28

Red Wing was part of a squad led by Skytread sent to liberate prisoners from a lightly-guarded detention center. Hunt He took part in an assassination attempt on Pyra Magna alongside fellow Seekers Nacelle and Hooligan. They didn't expect to come up against Pyra's Companions and once Red Wing realized that Windcharger was present, he bugged out, advising Nacelle (too late) to do the same. We Are Not Meant To Be Darkness

When the Decepticons were sent to hunt for Termagax, Red Wing flew with Wingstun and Space Case. When the three found her, Red Wing decided to fall back and return to communications radius, doing so alone when his fellows charged into battle. Sea of Rust I After the Autobots and Decepticons clashed in front of Termagax's home over the Enigma of Combination, she unleashed her entire stock of spectrosynth drones to defend her. Red Wing opened fire on the horde of drones, but was run down by Springer in the chaos. When the Enigma appeared lost, Red Wing joined his fellow Decepticons in a retreat. Enigmatic

Red Wing participated in the siege of Crystal City under Strika's command with numerous other Seekers. A Dust of Crystals Later on, despite the truce with the Autobots, Jhiaxus directed Red Wing's Seekers to box the Autobots in, keeping them trapped between an advancing horde of rust worms and an artillery bombardment. Radical Time Red Wing personally stopped Chromia and her scouts from moving beyond this allowed zone. End of Time He flew with the other Seekers against Sky Lynx in the battle of Darkmount. Fate of Cybertron

Games

Transformers Legends

When the Decepticons used Chronogon portals to send the Aerialbots back in time, Red Wing took part in an operation to try and prevent Orion Pax's recreation as Optimus Prime. Golden Age

Toys

Generations Selects

Living proof that Hasbro will make a toy out of any character.

• Decepticon Red Wing (Voyager Class, 2019/2020)
  • Series: War for Cybertron: Siege
  • ID number: WFC-GS02
  • Accessories: 2 "HPI Null-Ray Laser Launchers"

• Known designers: AJ Piejko-Brown (packaging)

A Generations Selects accompaniment to Siege, "Decepticon Red Wing" is a redeco of Thundercracker, himself a head retool of Starscream. Red Wing transforms from a heavily G1-inspired robot to a Cybertronian "tetrajet" based on the Seekers' appearance in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" and back. Red Wing includes two "HPI Null-Ray Laser Launchers," which can mount on his upper arms, or under the wings in jet mode. Said jet mode prominently has the robot legs sticking out from the undercarriage.

Fitting with the rest of Siege, Red Wing has 5 mm posts on his biceps, forearms, shins, under his feet (thrusters), and wings. The 3 mm pegs on his shins, forearms, left bicep, and the tips of his Null-Rays can accommodate effects parts sold separately. Like the rest of Siege, his robot mode focuses on articulation, with double-jointed elbows, knees that bend at nearly 180 degrees, ankle rockers, and waist articulation, being notable articulation points for a Seeker toy. Being a rather heavy shellformer, Red Wing can be separated into both a wingless robot mode and a nearly complete tetrajet easily, via a friction hinge.

Amusingly, Red Wing's existence was leaked on February 16, 2019 when orders went live for Combat Megatron on Hasbro Pulse, including a typo of Red Wing's name.^[2] Ultimately, Red Wing received an early limited release from Hasbro Asia on June 1, 2019, ahead of being released as a Target REDcard exclusive in the United States. It was later released as a Toys"R"Us exclusive in Canada and remaining units were sold at Entertainment Earth and BigBadToyStore in the United States in 2020.

Merchandise

Jada Toys

• Transformers Series 2 18-pack (4cm Die Cast Figure Multipack, 2022)

Released by Jada Toys, Nano Metalfigs Series 2 Redwing is a redeco of Series 1 Skywarp, an incredibly small die-cast figurine molded doing an action pose. He has a little base attached to his feet for balancing reasons.

He comes in an impressive multipack with seventeen other figurines. This mold was also used to make Series 3 Bitstream.

Notes

• Red Wing's name pays homage to the Detroit Red Wings, the favorite ice hockey team of another Transformers fan.^[3]
• Red Wing received his first bit of characterization when he was given a short bio by the Transformers Legends mobile game.
• Kre-O Red Wing is made from existing Kre-O parts, like all non-toy robot Kreons in these comics. As per usual, he uses the Seeker Kreon parts consisting of the Starscream helmet, jet wings, and Seeker arm rifles.
• In the Japanese dub of Cyberverse, Thrust (who is not a Conehead) is renamed as "Red Wing".

Origins

Red Wing owes his entire existence to a series of miscommunications between Hasbro, TakaraTomy, e-HOBBY, and Fun Publications, coupled with a slight coloring error: FunPub's original plans for the BotCon 2013 exclusive toys were to have a souvenir three-pack featuring redecos of Classics Starscream with color schemes based on the "welcoming committee" from the Generation 1 cartoon's first episode.^[4]

At the time, FunPub had just entered a partnership with e-HOBBY in Japan, and since e-HOBBY were the ones who had originally turned the generic orange Seeker into an actual character and given him the name "Sunstorm", and e-HOBBY had plans to release their own Sunstorm redeco of the mold,^[5] FunPub decided to exclude Sunstorm from the set,^[6] and instead replace him with a new character named "Hotlink" (at that time, the purple Seeker would have been named "Nacelle") that would have sported a more red-ish orange color scheme, with the BotCon 2013 exclusive comic intended to feature both Sunstorm and "Hotlink".^[7] However, TakaraTomy subsequently denied e-HOBBY the permission to release their version of Sunstorm, because according to their information, Hasbro themselves were planning to release a new Sunstorm toy.^[8]

After a while, FunPub realized that Takara might have very well been referring to their own (since shelved) BotCon exclusive figure... so they eventually decided to go ahead and change the figure to be included in the set back to Sunstorm, while the name "Hotlink" was reassigned to the purple Seeker (the name "Nacelle" was later given to yet another Seeker).^[9] Because that change was made at the last moment, the comic still ended up featuring both the more yellow-ish orange Sunstorm and the more red-ish orange Seeker... however, in the final printed comic, that latter Seeker ended up looking very red and not much orange due to the lighting effects and contrast with the background.^[10][11]

Following the convention, one fan kept persistently inquiring about the identity of the mysterious "red" Seeker both online and offline,^[12] and thus Fun Publications finally ended up naming the character "Red Wing" via Twitter.^[13] Prior to this, Pete Sinclair wasn't even aware (or at least feigned ignorance) of his existence in "Termination" due to his extremely minor role and the number of other Seekers present within the story.

Foreign names

• Mandarin: Hóng Yì (Taiwan, 紅翼, "Red Wing")

References