Transquito

Transquito is a Predacon from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Purple, brown and vomiting? What kid WOULDN'T want this? Oh, right. All of them.

Everyone hates Transquito. If the incessant, high-pitched screech of his mosquito wings doesn't get to you, then the smelly spray of chemicals he uses to "mark his territory" will. He's loathed by both Maximals and Predacons equally... and frankly, Transquito wouldn't have it any other way. He's happiest when he's driving people bonkers, and he'll go out of his way just to make sure that he's really cheesing off everyone around him.

Naturally, his fellow Predacons prefer to keep him far away... okay, far, far away from everyone else, so Transquito spends most of his time performing reconnaissance duties, tracking down Maximals from the air. Although he's a great hunter, he's not particularly bright, and he may easily be outsmarted. Getting outsmarted makes him mad, and he'll retaliate by wildly spewing a barrage of virus missiles, which can keep a group of enemies occupied, annoyed, or downright demented until more Predacons arrive to back him up. Of course, whether the other Predacons will choose to come to his aid at all is a bit of a toss-up.

Fiction

3H comics

Solid purple Transquito courtesy of Andrew Wildman.

During the final battle with Shokaract, several realities converged into a single, apocalyptic timestorm. Beast Warriors from alternate realities emerged, including Transquito, B'Boom, Drill Bit, Air Hammer, Polar Claw, and unidentified others, though all of them were summarily defeated. Unlike most of the others, Transquito was defeated not by Shokaract, but by Sandstorm, a supposed ally, who revealed himself to be one of Shokaract's Heralds, for the sole purpose of lowering Shokaract's guard, so that he can be hurt now. Transquito was just bait, a sacrificial lamb, and he wasn't even from that reality. Terminus

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Transquito was brought to prehistoric Earth by Magmatron in order to raise an army out of the stasis pods left there after the departure of Optimus Primal's team. While his comrades sought out the stasis pods, Transquito was tasked with tracking down Waspinator, still M.I.A. somewhere on the planet. Shell Game #1

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Behold the metamorphosis of Mister Transquito!

West Nile virus rules!

Magmatron recruited Transquito, along with Drill Bit, Spittor, Iguanus, Manterror, and Razorbeast. Magmatron's plan was to use the abandoned stasis pods on prehistoric Earth to build an army and take over Cybertron. Upon arrival, Magmatron sent Transquito and the others to watch over the stasis pods as they were activated. Transquito witnessed the birth of Jetstorm.

Razorbeast was revealed as a Maximal spy when Maximals started coming out of the pods he had activated. After Spittor was attacked by Polar Claw, Transquito surveyed his own area. From the sky, he saw Insecticon scuffling with Wolfang, and another group of Maximals banding together. The Gathering #1 Magmatron ordered his new army to hunt down the Maximals. The Gathering #2

While investigating a swampy area with Powerpinch, Retrax, Scourge, and Insecticon, Transquito was mauled by Icebird after mistaking him for an easy target. Several other Predacons were taken down by the Mutants, who declared that no Maximal or Predacon were welcome in their home. The Gathering #3

Transquito survived, and later participated in a major Predacon assault on the Maximals' base. The Ascending #2 When Rartorata showed up and attacked both Maximals and Predacons, Transquito compared his appearance to that of his teammate Injector. He then used his entire supply of nerve weaponry on Rartorarta, enough to kill the average transformer, but just enough to stun a Blendtron. Transquito then had to accompany the best of the best back to Cybertron to battle Shokaract (see a trend here). The Ascending #3 He was last seen as part of an air attack squadron led by Noctorro. Whether he survived this battle with Shokaract is unknown. At least he wasn't the main sacrificial lamb this time. The Ascending #4

Beast Wars: Uprising

Transquito was on the Predacon team in the fateful final match of the Games, which was interrupted by Lio Convoy's assassination of Supersonic and call for an uprising against the Builders. Broken Windshields

2005 IDW continuity

Transquito was one of Onyx Prime's Maximals. He and a horde of beasts attacked the Throttlebots on Regalis V, but were driven off by Prowl and his allies. The Dead Come Home, Part 2 (of 2) During Onyx's invasion of Cybertron, Transquito was one of the many Maximals who battled Arcee and lost; Jetfire and Aileron came across his remains shortly afterwards. Endless Forever

Another Maximal of Transquito's body-type^[1] was among the Maximals who took part in the final battle against the Autobots and their allies in orbit during Unicron's attack on Earth. Ceremony

2021 Beast Wars comic

The Cybertronian who would become Transquito was one of the many Maximal protoforms aboard the Axalon. To eliminate the Maximals and Predacons, Tarantulas and the Vok brought every crashed stasis pod they could find online and reprogrammed the protoforms within into loyal "Children of the Vok". Together, they attacked the crashed Darksyde in an attempt to take out the Maximal-Predacon alliance; when the Maximals and Predacons destroyed the Vok themselves, however, their remaining followers agreed to a truce and left to live peacefully in the wilderness. The End

Commercial appearances

While buzzing about a barren wasteland, Transquito came under fire from B'Boom. Though Transquito evaded the shot, B'Boom managed to pounce atop of the giant insect. Transquito pushed off his adversary by converting to his robot mode, prompting B'Boom to transform as well. Both combatants then began firing volleys upon volleys of laser-blasts onto one another. B'Boom and Transquito commercial

Toys

Beast Wars

• Transquito (Mega, 1997)

• Accessories: Missile
• Known designers: Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy)

The only new toy in the third wave of second-year Beast Wars Megas, Transquito transforms into an organic mosquito. In this mode, a push-switch on his back makes his insect wings slide back and forth. His insect-mode proboscis is actually a spring-loaded missile that fires from his mouth in robot mode. This gimmick does not work in beast mode... well, not well, since the missile just shudders slightly backwards into his skull.

He has a third "combat mode", forming what appears to be some form of amblypygid. Its oversized mandibles/"poison-tipped pincers" are formed by unfolding his wings; the "flapping" gimmick from mosquito mode makes the mandibles close down on victims.

Transquito was a notorious shelfwarmer, possibly the most not-selling toy in the line, and it had some hefty competition in that regard. There were reports of stores still sitting on unsold Transquitos even after the Beast Wars line was well over, and that happened in late 2000!

This toy was released in Japan as an import in Hasbro packaging with a Takara-applied sticker. This mold was also used to make the Beast Wars II Insectron Bigmos.

• More information on Transquito at TFU.info

Merchandise

Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game

• Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game (1997)

Transquito was one of the 24 beast warriors to receive a battle card representation for the Beast Wars card game.

Notes

• Somewhere in the United States, Transquitos are still sitting on shelves.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Transquto (トランスキュート Toransukyūto)
• French: Dipteron (Canada)^[2]
• Italian: Zanzara

References