Heal: Jetfire
Hurt: Thundercracker

Megatron 82
Blitzwing 82
Soundwave 72
Ironhide 68
Jetfire 57
Ravage 34
Starscream 28


Dead:
Bumblebee
Skywarp
Ratchet
Optimus Prime
Hound
Mirage
Thundercracker

...now for my rantage...

Thundercracker: A Celebration of a Spark

Thundercracker is arguably one of the most underused character in G1 who had more potential than writers would allow him. During the 1980s no writer fully exploited the potential in him. In fact, it wasn't until only recently that we started seeing Thundercracker's true nature in IDW's ongoing G1 series (one thing that I applaud IDW for having done). Even Shane McCarthy gave us a glimpse into this side of Thundercracker.

One of the most interest lines from the original G1 toy's tech specs bio is: "Not totally convinced of the Decepticons' cause, but they persuaded him to continue battling Autobots." and "Doubts about cause sometimes impede effectiveness." And from his G1 Universe profile: "Yet he is not totally convinced of the cause that he serves. Only the words of his Decepticon companions about the rightness of their cause, the destiny of conquest that is their birthright, convince him to go on. He is persuaded because he wants to be persuaded. Without a sense of purpose, Thundercracker would find his life unbearable." and "Lingering doubts in Thundercracker's subconscious sometimes surface and impede his effectiveness, particularly when innocent human lives are endangered."

So Thundercracker was always defined, since the beginning of G1, as a morally conflicted character. Yet the majority of writers, including my personal favourite Furman, failed to really exploit this fascinating aspect of his character. Instead they gave far more limelight to Starscream, which the cartoon portrayed as a whining beeotch.

Read about Thundercracker at TFwiki here - up till IDW, no writer had really bothered to exploit Thundercracker's most interesting aspect, his moral ambiguity.

On top of that, Thundercracker is IMHO the best looking of the 1984 Seekers. He was the first Transformer that had metallic paint (i.e.: metallic flakes mixed inside the paint) - which made him quite distinct from Skywarp and Starscream. Skywarp is my second favourite looking G1 Seeker toy and Starscream is my least favourite, mostly because he has such a relatively garish colour scheme compared to the other two jets. But no where near as awfully garish as Thundercracker's second incarnation as an Action Master. Eewww! At least he got a nifty exo-suit... but DAMN that colour scheme sucks hard! Then to add further insult to injury, Thundercracker's third incarnation saw him in jungle camouflage colours (why a jet would need jungle camo is beyond me) -- but the most confusing thing is his tech specs bio which states, "Believes in the Decepticon cause, but remains rebellious among his own ranks." WTF?! So... he's finally been convinced of the Decepticon cause, but he remains rebellious. On top of that, his function is Rebel Warrior. What kind of function is that?! Rebels don't call themselves rebels just as terrorists don't call themselves terrorists (these are labels given to them by their enemies); in Star Wars the Rebel Alliance was merely its informal name. Formally they were known as either 'The Alliance to Restore the Republic' or 'Alliance to Restore Freedom to the Galaxy.' The people who formed the Alliance such as Bail Organa, Mon Mothma etc. were members of the Senate who saw themselves as loyalists to the original Galactic Senate, and saw Emperor Palpatine as a traitor to the Republic. The Alliance saw themselves as patriots. So how did Thundercracker get _assigned_ with the function (which is like a formal rank for Transformers) of "Rebel Warrior"??? Thundercracker wouldn't assign that to himself... and if Megatron and the other Decepticons saw him as a rebel (re: traitor) then he would have been exiled, imprisoned or executed. Not _assigned_ to the rank of rebel!!

Smallest Thundercracker, Robot Masters and Titanium Series (War Within) Thundercracker are neat enough toys, but all were limited exclusives. In an interesting move, Titanium Series Starscream was a repaint of Thundercracker! (so Starscream got shafted there, since the War Within Seekers are _not_ mere repaints of the same body type! ). And as we know, Classics and Henkei Thundercracker were both also limited exclusives, with Henkei Thundercracker suffering from some mould degradation. Then when Masterpiece Thundercracker came out, for no apparent reason his RRP was higher than Starscream and Skywarp, and due to a factory assembly error, his pecs are flipped. Gah!

The whole reason why I've been trying to protect Thundercracker since this game began is because I just really feel so sorry for him. Since 1984 he's been this one character who had potential that was never tapped. And since then he kept on getting shafted by writers and HasTak. I just wanted to give the poor guy a break.

So to those of you who sought to destroy him... I would like to ask WHY?

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!