Transformers: Alternators

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is a toyline of the Transformers series produced by Hasbro in North America and Takara in Japan, the primary selling point of which is the use of 1:24 scale, accurate real-world vehicle modes officially licensed from car manufacturers.  Typically for each vehicle there are two toys to go with it to match the base model and the sport model.

Contents

1 Background story

1.1 Trivia

2 List of Alternators
3 List of Binaltech
4 Contrary to the plan
5 External links

Background story

The fiction is from the booklets accompanying the Binaltech toy releases. There has been no story for Alternators on any Hasbro material, though the American Mazda website cited the Binaltech storyline.

In the year 2003 the Autobots and humans have formed an alliance, leading to the formation of the Earth Defense Command, humanity's first step towards space with the creation of a lunar colony, and the construction of Autobot City, still in progress. Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Megatron had stepped up his campaign, and many Autobots had to return to their home planet to join the fight. However, a small group, led by Ultra Magnus, remained behind on Earth to defend the planet against the Decepticons forces still working there, led by Starscream.

When the Combaticon Swindle unleashed a modified version of the Cosmic Rust plague, many Autobots fell to it (including Smokescreen, Bluestreak (Silverstreak), Sideswipe, Tracks, Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker) and were damaged beyond repair. To revive the Autobots, the EDC initiated the Binaltech Project, which saw assorted human car manufacturers produce new bodies for the damaged Autobots, powered with electro-cells. Bluestreak was the first, but due to some instability problems with his personality, he was forced to undergo several tests before he was cleared. Subsequently, the project provided bodies for Smokescreen, Sideswipe (with a TORQ 3000 operating computer from Quantum Labs), Hound - who volunteered to undergo the BT process because of his love of earth and humans (his body co-built by Hybrid Technologies Corporation), and Tracks, able to switch his colouration from blue to yellow. These new Autobots were able to defeat the Decepticons, and force them off the planet.

However, in the shadows, a secret cabal known as "The Concurrence" had formed, with prominent members such as Count von Rani and General Garrison Kreiger, with financial backing from industrialist Shawn Berger Jr. and eccentric big gamer hunter, Lord Chumley. Another member of the group was former Decepticon ally, Doctor Arkeville, who was soon contacted by Starscream with the intent to form an alliance between the Decepticons and the Concurrence. Combining his Hypno-Chips with the Insecticon Bombshell's Cerebro-Shells, Arkeville took control of several workers in the Binaltech Project, thus providing some Decepticons with new, more powerful bodies that could take on the Binaltech Autobots. Hence, while Symultech Industries believed themselves to be building a new body for the Autobot, Sunstreaker, they actual created a new form for the Stunticon, Dead End. And while the Central City Institute of Technology thought they were constructing the new body for Trailbreaker, it was in fact occupied by Swindle (who had managed to pull some tricks and move himself to the top of the list, even though there were more injured Decepticons than he) Unable to access the electro-cell recharge facility, the Decepticons instead used stabilised exponential generators as their power sources.

To counteract this development, the Autobots launched a new offensive in the form of Project Genetronic Translink, headed by old Autobot ally, Chip Chase, which involved the displacement of a Transformer's Laser Core to subspace, from where it could control multiple bodies via "Translink Ports." Smokescreen underwent this process, becoming "Smokescreen GT", and now able to control up to four bodies at once. Also, despite having not been affected by Cosmic Rust, Jazz underwent this process, and in his new body can now control a red duplicate of himself nicknamed "Zoom Zoom." Jazz then proceeded to participate in "Operation Carwash," a secret project intended to uncover the depth of the Decepticons' involvement in the BT project.

Meanwhile, EDC top agent Dashiell Faireborn had infiltrated the Concurrence's headquarters in the Lunar Colony, learning the truth, and transmitting a message to Ultra Magnus before being forced to flee to escape capture.

At the same time, across the galaxy, the war was not going well on Cybertron. The "Unleashers," a primitive telepathic alien lifeform, was turned on the Autobots by the Decepticons, and infected the minds of the Dinobots, driving them insane and turning them into rampaging savages, forcing the Autobots to take them out of commission. Afterward, Grimlock regained consciousness and vowed to do anything to return to the battle. Hence, Wheeljack took him to Earth, where his mind was implanted in the newest Binaltech body, combining the best aspects of all the previous bodies constructed. Grimlock hated it immediately, but made the best of it.

But elsewhere, the seeds of the past were beginning to bear fruit. Staffers of the defunct government program, I.I.I. ("Triple I"), unearthed a mysterious capsule from a prehistoric layer of the planet, and dubbed it "Schrödinger's Box." In actuality, the capsule was the flight recorder from the craft of the Decepticon/Predacon, Ravage, who had travelled back into Earth's prehistoric past and been destroyed during his involvement in the Beast Wars. The flight recorder contained an encoded copy of Ravage's personality and memories, and when the I.I.I. staffers managed to communicate with this consciousness, they agreed to give him a new body in exchange for his future knowledge. A new body was constructed in a fake BT project, and the copy of Ravage's consciousness was implanted in it. To truly bring him to life, however, the present-day Ravage - currently in EDC custody - was stasis-locked into cassette mode and permanently implanted into the new body's cassette deck, thereby providing the body with a Spark. Ravage overcame the failsafes in his body and equipped himself with weapons and then, realising that his participation in the Beast Wars had failed to change history, he killed the I.I.I. staffers and set out on a mission to alter the future.

Meanwhile, the Binaltech Project continued. After the creation of several prototypes, a new body was constructed for the Omnibot, Overdrive, armed with his Omniblaster and a Durabyllium shield. As a result of restrictions imposed by his role of humanitarian support, however, Overdrive's body had its in-built weapons removed. Overdrive, having experiences in dimensional travel, soon began to notice reality fluxes that resulted from sabotages acts committed by Ravage, and warned the Autobots that someone from outside the timestream was attempting to alter history.

Ravage's next action saw him infiltrate the facility producing the 13th Binaltech body, which was attempting to utilise "Transmuter" technology to shape a new BT body based on Jazz's scanned data. Ravage, however, implanted Shockwave's personality component and redesigned data into the car, causing it to take his form and restore him to life. Subsequently, Ravage hijacked Wheeljack's shuttle as it returned to Cybertron and landed it in devastated Decepticon territory, where he located and reactivated the Kronosphere, a time-travel device previously developed by Shockwave. Ravage employed the Kronosphere in the midst of the deciding battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron's forces - whereas in the original timeline, Prime's forces withdrew to their bases on Cybertron's moons (thereby setting up the scenario at the beginning of Transformers: The Movie), Ravage, unthinkably, succeeded in altering history by using the Kronosphere to trap Megatron and his forces in a time-space rift, thereby changing the outcome of the battle. But Ravage knows that soon, a great darkness will arrive, and now, the Autobots must face it alone, and when all is laid to rest, Megatron will return...!

Unfortunately for Ravage, he is eventually captured by the Autobots thanks to efforts from Overdrive and Wheeljack, and is intensely interrogated until he finally reveals the details of his mission, including how all but Optimus are expendable, as the Autobot leader has the tool needed to defeat Unicron upon the Chaos Bringer's arrival. Despite Ravage's tempting explination that his plan may allow some of those Autobots destined to die in the normal timeline (dubbed 'Prime Time' by Wheeljack, with the current, altered timeline being classified as 'Ravage Time') to survive, his plan is deemed too audacious and dangerous to be allowed to happen, and with Unicron already making his way to Cybertron, Optimus goads Ultra Magnus to accompany him in a shuttle to take the planet-eater down, while he ordered Skids to initiate "Operation: Distant Thunder", a plan to prevent Ravage's time manipulations by sending a copy of Wheeljack's memory tracks, using a time warp created from manipulating the energies of the Earth location known as "Dinobot Island", to a point in history preceding Ravage's changes, alerting their past selves of the threat Ravage's plans pose to their future and hopefully stop him before he could proceed with them. With any luck, if their plan succeeded, "Operation Body Shop" (the Binaltech project) would be able to smooth over any bumps in future history and abort most of the tragedies in the real timeframe, without anyone being the wiser. Just as Skids sent the datatracks, however, sensors indicated a massive Decepticon platoon headed their way, a platoon that might jeopardize this one, final desperate attempt to set right what Ravage had distorted...

Trivia

A lot of the Binaltech story contains references to many past Transformers concepts and series, as well as some in-jokes for fans and mentions to other series.

The story takes place in the interim between the conclusion of the second animated series and the movie. The movie is set in 2005, and features Autobot City, which is still being constructed during this story, set in 2003.
The Earth Defence Command (EDC for short) was introduced in the season three episode, "Five Faces of Darkness," Part 1.
The Lunar Colony is mentioned briefly in part 2 of "Five Faces of Darkness."
Cosmic Rust previously appeared in the season two episode, "Cosmic Rust."
Electro-cells previously appeared in the season two episode, "Traitor."
"TORQ 3000" is a reference to the TORQ 3 supercomputer from the season two episode, "Day of the Machines," which also featured Quantum Labs.
Hybrid Technologies Corporation - aka HyTech - appeared in the season two episode, "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide."
Count von Rani is better known as Iron Klaw from G.I.Joe Extreme.
General Krieger is better known as General Blitz from Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles.
Shawn Berger appeared in the two-part season two episode, "Megatron's Master Plan." However, he was not identified as a "Junior" in that episode, leading to speculation that this character may be his son.
Lord Chumley appeared in the season two episode, "Prime Target."
Doctor Arkeville and his Hypno-Chips played a major role in the season one trilogy, "The Ultimate Doom."
Symultech Industries were mentioned in the season two episode, "Trans-Europe Express."
Central City is the fictitious city in the immediate proximity of the Autobots' headquarters throughout the first two seasons of the cartoon series. It is identified as such in "Megatron's Master Plan."
An exponential generator first appeared in the season one episode, "Countdown to Extinction," as an invention of Doctor Arkeville.
Chip Chase appeared in several episodes across the first two seasons of the animated series.
A laser core is the central component of a Transformer, mentioned in the G1 episodes "Divide and Conquer" and "The Autobot Run." The Beast Wars series replaced this piece of parlance with the term "Spark," which is now in much wider use.
"Subspace" is sub-dimensional space existing between realities, which has long been Transformer fans' preferred explanation for where items such as Optimus Prime's trailer disappear to, and where excess mass is shunted when Transformers change size.
Dashiell Faireborn is better known as Flint from G.I. Joe. Additionally, in the third season episode, "The Killing Jar," he was established as the father of Marissa Faireborn, a high-ranking EDC captain.
Although Hirofumi Ichikawa, writer of the Binaltech story, states that they are an original creation by him, the Unleashers bear a startling similarity to an unnamed race of aliens from the Transformers: Generation 2 Marvel comic, which were also primitive, telepathic beings that turn their victims into rampaging savages.
I.I.I. (Intelligence Information Institute, aka "Triple I") was a government organisation featured in the Transformers Marvel comics, which disbanded prior to #68 of that series.
In a non-Transformers related explanation, "Schrödinger's Box" is named for Erwin Schrödinger, a physician who formulated the popular paradox known as "Schrödinger's Cat." By sealing a cat in a box with a radioactive isotope, he claimed that it was impossible to know if the cat was alive or dead without opening the box. Therefore, technically, it was both alive and dead at the same time. The reference is employed here because the story deals with a "box" (the flight recorder) containing the essence of Ravage (who transforms into a cat), who is both alive (in that his mind is preserved) and dead (as his body was destroyed) at the same time.
The existence of Overdrive's prototype bodies is a reference to, and explanation for, the fact that the toy was released as the Autobot, Windcharger, in the US.
Durabyllium is a fictitious metal mentioned in the tech specs for the Transformers toys Nosecone and Catilla, and in the Transformers: Universe profile for Snap Trap.
The removal of Overdrive's built-in weapons is a double reference. First, it is referencing the original 80's toy's ability to transform into a third, "attack" mode with deployed in-bulit weapons, which this version of the character cannot do. Secondly, it also refers to the fact that in the US, the toy's gun had its elongated barrel removed in order to, according to Hasbro's official statement on the matter, "keep it from looking like a weapon." It was believed Honda had some say in this matter, but the Honda logo does appear on the Binaltech packaging. It's important to note that the Binaltech version does have the barrel weapon, not the Alternator version.
Overdrive's alleged experience in dimensional travel is a reference to the advert for the original Omnibots toys, who were only available as mail-away exclusive figures. It encouraged readers to order them quickly, lest they "fight on in another universe".
The Transmutor technology that restores Laserwave to life is apparently a reference to "matter transmuter" technology used in the G.I. Joe episode, "Worlds Without End".
The Kronosphere appeared in the season 2 episode, "War Dawn."
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 figure is the original Optimus Prime in the American Alternators line, yet in Japan he was temporarily known as G1 Choujin Masterforce Godmaster Ginrai , yet upon final release as BTA-04 , he became known as 'Convoy' (Optimus' Japanese name ) .

List of Alternators

Coming Soon

23. Camshaft - Acura RSX
24. Nemesis Prime - Dodge Ram
??. Rumble - Honda Civic

List of Binaltech

Binaltech figures are essentially the same as Alternators, except they feature painted die-cast metal parts, while Alternators are entirely plastic in order to keep costs down.

BT-01 Smokescreen - Subaru Impreza WRC 2003 (#7 & #8)
BT-02 Lambor - Dodge Viper SRT-10
BT-03 Streak - Subaru Impreza WRX
BT-04 Hound - Jeep Wrangler
BT-05 Dead End - Dodge Viper Competition Coupe
BT-06 Tracks - Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (Yellow & Blue)
BT-07 Smokescreen GT - Subaru Impreza WRC 2004 (#1 & #2)
BT-08 Meister - Mazda RX-8 (White & Red)
BT-09 Swindle - Jeep Wrangler custom
BT-10 Grimlock - Ford Mustang GT
BT-11 Ravage - Chevrolet Corvette
BT-12 Overdrive - Honda S2000
BT-13 Laserwave - Mazda RX-8 Mazdaspeed Version
BT-14 Wheeljack - Mustang GT Street Tuning
BT-15 Prowl - Honda Integra Type-R (Patrol Type & Vivid Blue Pearl)
BT-16 Skids - Toyota bB

Binaltech Asterisk

BTA-1 Alert meets [Ai Kuruma] - Subaru Impreza WRX Prefecture Police Type & Policewoman
BTA-2 Sunstreaker meets [Junko Shirakami] - Dodge Viper GTS & Race Queen
BTA-3 Broadblast meets Lumina Hoshi - Toyota bB TV Interview Vehicle & Scene News Reporter

Kiss Players

Convoy meets Marissa Faireborn - Dodge Ram (August 2006 planned release)
Hot Rod meets Lǐ Shāo-Shāo - Ford GT (October 2006 planned release)

Contrary to the plan

The Alternators and Binaltech lines haven't always worked out quite like they were intended to.

Hasbro and Takara tried to get a liscense for a MINI Cooper from BMW, the owners of the MINI brand. They said that as long as the figure did not have a gun, they were OK with it. The problem was, they had already placed one on the prototype. This prompted BMW to revoke the liscense.
Dead End was - quite clearly from his sculpt - originally intended to be the Autobot, Sunstreaker. For unexplained reasons (theories include that Hasbro may not have wanted two yellow cars on the market at the same time, as Tracks was originally intended to be yellow), however, the toy was renamed and recoloured as Dead End. The Binaltech story contains an in-story reason for this.
Chevrolet originally rejected Hasbro's proposal to make a Tracks figure of their car, and so a new Dodge Viper body was designed for Tracks. Chevrolet then changed their minds, and the Viper body was given a new head and released as Sideswipe. Additionally, Tracks was originally intended to be yellow, but alleged problems resulting from the transparency of the yellow plastic saw the toy switched to blue, to match the character's classic appearance. The yellow version was released as part of the Binaltech line, while the blue version saw release as an Alternator, and was later exported to Japan with an added flame sticker to further match Tracks's classic look. The Binaltech storyline contains an explanation for the colour switching.
Swindle was originally intended to be Trailbreaker, but due to Hasbro apparently not possessing the trademark to that name the figure was repainted as Swindle (a fortuitous accident, as he was better suited to the mould; Swindle originally turned into a jeep, while Trailbreaker did not). Like Dead End there is an in-universe explanation for this, and even a referance to Trailbreaker's "Force Barriors."
Windcharger was originally intended to be the name given to the second Mustang toy, with a head designed to evoke the classic G1 character of that name. However, when complications with the Overdrive toy occurred (currently unidentified, but presumably either resulting from a rejection of the name "Overdrive" by Honda, or lack of trademark possession), the name was applied to that figure, and the second Mustang became Wheeljack. The original headsculpt design for Windcharger was subsequently used in a Decepticon remould/repaint of the Overdrive toy, given the unsatisfying name of "Decepticharge" in the US. In Japan, the plan was that the toy would have been released as "Wildrider," one of the Stunticons, and although the headsculpt bears no resemblance to the character, the colour scheme and racing decals beared some degree of similarity to the unreleased Generation 2 repaint of the [Wildrider toy]. Others believe that Decepticharge bears more resemblance to the Generation One Stunticon Drag Strip. However, plans were changed, turning Wildrider into Black Widow, the Japanese name for fan-favorite Predacon Blackarachnia. Black Widow has been delayed, according to a new rumor. It is unknown whether or not the release is canned. Nevertheless, the cancellation/delay of Wildrider/Black Widow has pushed up Skids' ID number from BT-17 to BT-16.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 figure is the original Optimus Prime in the American "Alternators" line. Originally, the Dodge Ram was to be another character other than Optimus Prime, but Takara insisted that the figure be Prime, as they believed that the figure would not sell well in Japan otherwise, due in large part to the fact that trucks of any kind are virtually unseen on Japanese streets, and thus would prove unpopular unless it was made into a famous character. As the Dodge Ram figure was reportedly more expensive to make than the other figures in the line, Hasbro had to agree to make the Dodge Ram Prime, so Takara could continue to front part of the cost to make the figure. Ironically, when Takara then solicited the figure for their Binaltech Asterisk line, it was not Prime, but Ginrai, the Prime look-a-like from Super-God Masterforce. When the Asterisk line was cancelled, however, the figure was then resolicited for the KISS Play line, this time as Prime. However, for a great many months, the Ginrai version of the figure was put on indefiite hiatus, prompting speculation that Takara had actually cancelled the figure's release.

External links

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