A journey through the JP Gen1 cartoon.

[GoktimusPrime]

At least the US comic had the sense of making them just one part of the cast and story, not the majority like in Masterforce. And even then, the nebulons were not often on their own, so weren't the central plot or point of the comic... not to mention, they were just an add-on to the Transformer, not the actual 'Transformer'.

Well it depends... Fortress Maximus and Scorponok seemed to be quite like Transtectors in the US G1 cartoon - both operated by Spike and Zarak respectively but without any apparent independent will/sentience from Fort Max or Scorpie. Even Cerebros seemed to lose apparent will/sentience when Spike became his head. In the G1 comics Cerebros was pretty much a mindless drone, built by Galen to allow him (and later Spike) to bond with Fort Max's larger Mk II body. As G1 progressed, it seemed (at least to me) that that independent wills of some of the Headmasters became more docile, allowing the wills of their bonded partners to become dominant. For instance, after arriving on Earth Zarak became increasingly dominant as the mind of Scorponok -- in fact, when faced with his imminent doom Scorponok's courage faltered because Zarak realised that as a man of flesh and blood, if he died in this battle it would be terminal for him... then he kinda spoke about "What would Scorponok do?", and then inspired by this took courage. But there was no apparent input from Scorponok himself, unlike say with the relationship between Fort Max and Spike. It could be argued that Zarak and Scorponok's minds merged into one. The minds of Optimus Prime and Hi-Q also merged; hence Action Master Optimus Prime's (and presumably G2 Optimus Prime's) mind is actually an amalgam of Optimus Prime and Hi-Q. In "Guess Who The Mecannibals Are Having For Dinner?" and "Recipe For Disaster!", the Decepticon Powermasters Darkwing and Dreadwind were basically portrayed as vehicles for Hi-Test and Throttle, with Sky Lynx discovering their secret and saying something like Hi-Test and Throttle being the Decepticons Darkwing and Dreadwind. There was no interaction between those Decepticons and their Nebulan partners as if they had separate sentience -- if you looked at those stories independent of the rest of G1, and you didn't know any better, you might think that Dreadwing was pretty much a piloted mecha like a Transtector.

Also keep in mind that the Transtectors are actually sentient Transformers in their own right, it's just that their sentience is dormant throughout most of the series until the end when they awaken and become independent of their human/Godmaster counterparts -- hence when you see God Ginrai and Minerva in Transformers Victory, they are _only_ Cybertronian robots and NOT binary bonded to their former human partners (thus when God Ginrai is slain and later rebuilt as Victory Leo, it's the robot who's rebuilt -- the human named Ginrai remained on Earth and was never involved in the events of Victory)

She does play out the 'scared little girl' stereotype to begin with, but she does indeed get into the thick of the action and even takes on the enemy... unlike Arcee in Headmasters, which I don't think fought anyone or fired a shot throughout the whole series.

Yeah, I quite like the Minerva character.

Nope, she certainly didn't - Glad to hear that this trend hasn't continued into Masterforce though because women/females are just as capable, if not more so, of inflicting damage.

Hell hath no fury...