Inferno (Transformers)
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Inferno is the name of four fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.
Contents |
[edit] Transformers: Generation 1 (1985)
| Transformers character | |
 The Autobot Inferno |
|
| Inferno | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Autobot  |
| Function | Search and Rescue |
| Motto | “Where there’s smoke, there’s me.” |
| Alternate Modes | Fire Engine |
| Series | Transformers: Generation 1 |
| English voice actor | Walker Edmiston |
| Japanese voice actor | Takuro Kitagawa |
The toy of Inferno is based on a Japanese Diaclone toy. In the original Transformers toyline Inferno is a fearless Autobot who has a firetruck as his vehicle form. He relishes the attention he gets for saving lives and extinguishing fires any chance he gets, but Inferno's intentions are always noble, though he rarely gets involved in the battles.
Inferno would be a lot better at his job if he weren't so easily distracted. He genuinely wants to be responsible and perform his job well, but he simply cannot resist getting involved in combat. The rugged and powerful, Inferno likes things to be as intense as possible, although he prefers the heat of battle to the heart of a burning building. He's not unaware of the seriousness of his function, and he does enjoy the chances it offers him to save innocent lives. It's just that Inferno can't turn down an opportunity to get into the thick of the action. Like his fellow Autobot Ironhide Inferno speaks with a thick southern U.S. accent.
[edit] Animated series
Inferno first appeared in the episode Dinobot Island Part 1.
His most prominent appearance came in Auto-Berserk alongside Red Alert. After a battle with the Decepticons ended with Red Alert being damaged, the Autobot became paranoid that Inferno and the others were out to get him. Red Alert deserted and teamed up with Starscream (who had been kicked out of the Decepticons after a disagreement with Megatron) to steal an Autobot device called the Nevagator. After being damaged again, Red Alert realized what he had done and destroyed the Nevagator, setting fire to the cavern they were in - and a guilty Inferno rushed into the fire to save Red Alert's life.
In the episode Prime Target the big game hunter Lord Chumley captured a secret Soviet jet, leading to panic of possibly war. Chumley then set his sights on the ultimate trophy, the head of Optimus Prime. In order to lure Optimus in Chumley captured the Autobots Tracks, Bumblebee, Jazz, Beachcomber, Blaster and Inferno. Windcharger and Huffer were able to avoid being trapped. When Cosmos learned of the location Chumley was keeping the captured Autobots Optimus Prime accepted Chumley's challenge to meet him alone. Although interrupted by the Decepticons Astrotrain and Blitzwing who attempted to ally with Chumley, Optimus defeated the big game hunter and freed the Autobots. Chumley and the stolen jet were given over the Soviets by the Autobots as punishment for his actions.
In The Search for Alpha Trion, when Optimus Prime returned to Cybertron alone to save Elita One, Ironhide leads Inferno and Powerglide after him. On Cybertron the Autobots are briefly reunited with Chromia, Moonracer and Firestar, defeat the Decepticons and save Elita.
[edit] Marvel Comics
Inferno also appeared in the Marvel Transformers comic, acting in a capacity similar to his animated self, although he had few notable appearances. After many battles against the Decepticons, Inferno was deactivated by the Underbase powered Starscream. He was later reactivated by Grimlock who brought him back to life with an infusion of Nucleon. Inferno went on to fight against Unicron, but was later killed again by Bludgeon's ambush (he was not seen being killed, but his wreckage is visible among that of the victims of the ambush). He was presumably resurrected by the coming of Optimus Prime and the Last Autobot, allowing them to defeat the Decepticons, as he was later seen again in the Transformers: Generation 2 comic. His luck ran true to form, however. As he battled the forces of Jhiaxus, he saw his friend Smokescreen gunned down. In a rage, he killed all of them - only to be ambushed by more of them. Inferno dove for cover, but never made it, as the building collapsed on top of him.
The Inferno of the post-The Transformers: The Movie universe appeared in the Marvel U.K. comics, most prominently in the "Legacy of Unicron" arc, where his habit of dying spectacularly continued. He and Smokescreen were dispatched to escort Wreck-Gar back to the Junk. There, they discovered it had been taken over by the decapitated head of Unicron. The two escaped to warn Rodimus Prime, leaving Wreck-Gar behind to free his people, with Inferno being badly injured by the mind-controlled bounty hunter Death's Head. The two arrived on Cybertron - only to discover that Unicron's puppets Cyclonus and Scourge had launched an all-out Decepticon assault. The Decepticons badly damaged the shuttle, and Smokescreen refused to leave his injured friend. Inferno had other ideas and bodily threw him through the windshield to safety. Observing how he had always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, Inferno crashed the shuttle into a massive group of Decepticons, taking them out but with him dying alongside it.
[edit] Dreamwave Productions
Inferno appeared in Dreamwave Productions' Generation One Transformers comics. He first appeared in the second War Within series as part of Grimlock's Lightning Strike Coalition.
Later, after the end of the Great Shutdown, Inferno was reformatted into an Earth fire engine and then surprisingly became part of the Cybertronian High Council.
[edit] Toys
Inferno was re-released in 1990 as an Action Master toy. He came with a "Hydro Pack" that could transform and squirt water.
Inferno was re-released in Generation 2 of the Transformers with slight modifications, including a water squinter.
[edit] Trivia
- In Japan, the toy form of Inferno was recolored and slightly re-tooled in 1987 and used to create the Japanese-exclusive Targetmaster Artfire. Among Artfire's unique features, his cab was colored white, his ladder silver, and he featured a clip added to the end of his ladder that allowed weapons mode Fracus (Scourge's Targetmaster partner in America) to be used by Artfire in fire engine mode.
- Inferno's original toy, slightly modified, was knocked off and used as the titular giant robot in the Korean animated film Phoenix King. Phoenix King was dubbed (horribly) and released in America by Digiview Entertainment as Defenders of Space, generally selling for the bargain price of $1.00. Scenes of "Inferno" from this movie were also incorporated into another bargain film distributed by Digiview Entertainment, Space Thunder Kids.
- In the late 1990s, a knockoff of G2 Inferno with some yellow parts was sold in discount stores on a card reading "Transformers: Generation 3."
[edit] Beast Wars (1996)
| Transformers character | |
 The Predacon Inferno |
|
| Inferno | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Predacon  |
| Rank | 7 |
| Function | Infantry Commander (Sub-Commander in the TV Series) |
| Alternate Modes | Fire Ant |
| Series | Beast Wars Transformers: Universe |
| English voice actor | Jim Byrnes |
| Japanese voice actor | Shinichiro Miki |
Insane and arsonistic, Inferno delights in causing pain and suffering while blasting opponents with twin flamethrowers. During his first encounter with Quickstrike, he claimed that "Pain is my friend!" before giving the Fuzor a severe pounding. When Megatron first witnessed Inferno's insane vigor for violence, he commented, "Oooh, I like him!" Inferno was extremely tough and powerful, while at the same time being amazingly loyal, even laughing after ignited energon crystals rather then lose them to the Maximals, on Megatron’s orders. In keeping with his ant instincts, he was one of the few Predacons genuinely loyal to Megatron, and always refers to him as "the Royalty" or "the Queen" (although he rarely used the latter in public after Megatron nearly strangled him after one too many uses of the term). Additionally, he referred to the Predacon Base as "The Colony"(and at one point "The Nest") and his comrades as "Drones", drawing some amount of dissatisfaction from them. Despite this, Inferno would prove surprisingly sociable, often playing cards with his fellow Predacons.
[edit] Season One
Inferno was originally a Maximal protoform who was converted into a Predacon by Tarantulas, who had originally intended to recruit a third arachnid loyal only to him, as well as gain the stasis pod for himself to escape the planet. However, the scanner in Inferno’s pod had already scanned a fire ant before Tarantulas arrived. A glitch in this process (and possibly Tarantulas' faulty programming) resulted in Inferno's beast instincts heavily influencing his robot mode. He believed he was an actual fire ant, protecting his "colony" (the stasis pod), however was soon destroyed by Tigatron. An enraged Inferno was seconds away from killing him when he was blown apart by Optimus Primal. Repaired after this, Inferno joined the Predacon ranks, reprogrammed to believing Megatron to be his “queen, the base to be his “colony” and the other Predacons as fellow “drones”. His arsonistic tendencies and impenetrable personal loyalty to Megatron (whom he often referred to as his "Queen", or "the Royalty" , much to Megatron's chagrin) forgive his quirks. This favored treatment would lead to a rivalry with Megatron's current second-in-command Scorponok, as the brutish Predacon considered the fanatically loyal Inferno as a threat to his position.
Inferno quickly made an impact on the Predacons, frequently leading the other flyers (Waspinator and Terrorsaur) on missions, although his desire for destruction often meant he disregarded any semblance of a plan. He also obtained revenge on Tigatron, killing his white tiger companion Snowstalker during a mission. Inferno was considered loyal enough to be sent on a solo mission to retrieve the alien second Golden Disk artifact from a mountain cave. Later, he was sent after Tarantulas and Blackarachnia when they tried to escape in a modified stasis pod, incinerating Tarantulas.
[edit] Season Two
Scorponok and Inferno’s rivalry was rendered moot after Scorponok died falling into a lava pit. After this, Inferno was promoted to sub-commander throughout the second and third seasons. After this, Inferno would stay at "the Royalty"'s side throughout various schemes, including taking over a Vok structure and attempting to eliminate the early protohumans. At the end of season two he would attempt to destroy Primal and Cheetor by detonating a store of Energon whilst Megatron was held captive by Ravage. The attempt failed, and Inferno almost blew himself to pieces (at the time fans believed Inferno died at this point as his body was obliterated, but he was seen to have survived the explosion in the next season).
[edit] Season Three
Inferno recovered and scored a major victory for the Predacons when he managed to recover the Maximal defense computer Sentinel. Shadowing his earlier rivalry with Scorponok, Inferno had somewhat of a rivalry with the Transmetal II Dinobot clone, whose seemingly loyalty to Megatron's rivaled his own. Inferno then took on any and every mission regardless of danger to hopefully win back his Royalty's favor.
In the finale, Inferno led Quickstrike and Waspinator in search of a new "colony" after the Predacon Base was destroyed by Tigerhawk. Inferno decided that the caves of the humans would be suitable and he and Quickstrike attacked the base, after Waspinator defected. As Inferno tried to annihilate the human leader, Megatron appeared in the skies onboard the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis to take revenge on the human, and unknowingly destroyed Inferno and Quickstrike in the process, blowing them to pieces with one blast. His parts along with Quickstrike's were later used by the human settlement.
Throughout the Beast Wars series, Inferno was one of only three characters to last the entire series without receiving some type of upgrade (the others being Rhinox and Waspinator) - although in the toy line he did become a transmetal with the third mode of a drilling vehicle - but with an alternate name: Scavenger.
[edit] Convention Comics
Inferno was one of the stars of the 1997 BotCon Convention Comics, a story set near the end of season one of the Beast Wars television series.
In the Convention Comics plot, Inferno and Blackarachnia watched as the Predacon scientist Fractyl attempted to invent Energon Armor capable of protecting them from energon build up. Although seemingly successful, the armor was stolen by the Maximal thief Packrat. Blackarachinia and Fractyl realized the energon armor was flawed and could destroy the planet if it came in contact with large amounts of energon. Inferno pursued Packrat, but since Packrat didn't need to assume beast mode with the armor on, he got the upper hand in the fight with Inferno. Hearing the battle, Airazor, Cheetor and Rhinox joined Packrat. Fractyl convinced Rhinox that the armor was a threat to them all. Rhinox was able to talk Packrat into giving up the armor, which Fractyl aided them in doing. When Blackarachnia arrived with Megatron, Packrat suggested that Fractyl pretend to be attacking the Maximals, who fled. Megatron was impressed with Fractyl's new found battle prowess.
[edit] Toys
There was a red transmetal ant released in the Beast Wars line called Scavenger, who was supposed to be Inferno, but was misnamed. He did however appear as a separate character in the IDW Beast Wars comics. In Japan however, the Scavenger toy was correctly sold as the transmetal version of Inferno.
There was a black carpenter ant (a recolor of Inferno) called Antagony, a female Predacon Transformer, released as a BotCon Exclusive in 1998.
[edit] Transformers: Universe (2003 - 2004)
Inferno is the name of an Autobot toy, a recolor of Robots in Disguise Prowl who was colored as a homage to the original Autobot Red Alert. Of all the initial characters in the Transformers: Universe toy line Inferno was the only one to lack any tech spec, bio, or appearance in any fiction, leaving his character a complete mystery. According to rumors the toy was originally going to be called Red Alert, and Universe Autobot Ratchet was to be called Inferno, but the names were swapped in a production mistake for this toy, so they had to rename the other toy as well.
[edit] Transformers: Armada (2003)
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Inferno | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Mini-Con  |
| Partner | Thrust Sunstorm |
| Motto | "The chosen exist to lead." |
| Alternate Modes | Missile Truck |
| Series | Transformers: Armada Transformers: Universe |
Inferno (Thunder in Japan) is the name of the Mini-Con partnered with the Decepticon, Thrust. He appeared in the cartoon series in this role.
This Inferno was Thrust's personal Mini-Con. Inferno would pick up some of his partner's arrogance, enjoying the power this grants him. His attitude has done little to endear him to either his fellow Mini-Cons or the larger Decepticons. If he were ever robbed of Thrust's protection they would take him out themselves. This often runs counter to Thrust's role as a manipulator, as Inferno is simply too antagonizing. Despite this Thrust still values his partnership with the capable and formidable Mini-Con.
[edit] Transformers: Universe (2003 - 2004)
Inferno is also the name of the Mini-Con partnered with the Decepticon, Sunstorm. This Mini-Con is a recolor of the original Mini-Con Inferno from Armada, as Sunstorm is a recolor of the Armada Thrust toy. These toys also came with recolors of the Mini-Con Street Action Team. Although Sunstorm and the Street Action Team appeared in the some fiction of the Transformers: Universe storyline, Inferno did not.
[edit] Transformers: Energon (2004)
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Inferno | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Autobot |
| Sub-Group | Deluxe Vehicles |
| Motto | “Always look before you leap.” |
| Alternate Modes | Fire Truck |
| Series | Transformers: Energon |
| English voice actor | Michael Daingerfield |
| Japanese voice actor | Nobutoshi Kanna |
Despite the name already being used for an Armada Mini-Con, the Inferno moniker was reused for a character in Transformers: Energon. This Inferno is an Autobot and physically a homage to the original Inferno.
Inferno's tech spec portrayed him as the epitome of what an Autobot should be. He always cares for his teammates, and is careful to always think of the consequences of his acts, unlike his Powerlinking partner Hot Shot. In the series he took over Smokescreen's role from Armada as the Autobot sniper.
Besides being made as a Deluxe sized toy, a Built to Rule Inferno was release that was only sold in Cincinnati for a short period of time to test the market.
[edit] Animated series
The level-headed master sniper of Team Optimus Prime, Inferno transforms into a fire engine and possesses the Spark of Combination, frequently combining with Hot Shot. He tended to play no major role until the Autobots were transported to a new region of space where Alpha Q had successfully recreated the planets destroyed by Unicron. Here, on Iron Planet, Inferno was charged with guarding Shockblast, but an attack by the Decepticons saw Megatron infuse Inferno with his own energies, trying to brand him with the Decepticon symbol and turn him to his side. Inferno fought the influence in a series of Jekyll-and-Hyde-like transformations, eventually plunging himself into the Energon Sun when he could hold it back no more. Thankfully, Jetfire was able to recover his Spark and had a new body constructed for him, recreating Inferno as Roadblock (Inferno V in Japan), who now transformed into a truck crane.
[edit] Dreamwave Productions
Inferno first appeared in issue #19 of the Dreamwave Transformers: Energon comic series. He fought against Unicron's four Horsemen (Rhinox, Terrorsaur, Airazor and Cheetor). Badly injured, he was reformatted into his Powerlinking body by the power of Primus, allowing him and the other Autobots to drive off the Horsemen. He then went to Earth alongside Optimus Prime and battled against Scorponok's Terrorcons. Later, he was one of the defenders of Moscow against the endless horde of Battle Ravage clones. Although they looked doomed, they received help from a surprising source - Megatron, resurrected in a new body by Prime. Megatron routed the clones, allowing the Autobots to recover. Dreamwave's Energon comic ended at this point, forestalling any future stories of Inferno.
