Road Ranger
From Transformers Wiki
- Road Ranger is a Guardian from the GoBots continuity family.
Road Ranger is a tough but friendly Guardian soldier. He's in the battle for the long haul and hopes to head the convoy that takes the Renegades to permanent incarceration.
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Fiction
TransTech
Road Ranger participated on many missions alongside Small Foot, to the point the pair almost considered each other siblings. High Noon
Road Ranger was one of the Guardians faced with the threat of the Cataclysm. A coalition of Guardians, Renegades, and humans who survived the destruction of the Sol system searched for a possible solution to the universal threat, and found signs that another reality was encroaching on theirs. This reality contained warlike robots from Cybertron outwardly similar to the cyborg Gobotronians, and so an infiltration mission was proposed. Road Ranger was chosen for the Coalition Expedition Team, Gobotronians disguised as Autobots and Decepticons, who would enter the foreign reality and make contact with the natives as they searched for the cause of the Cataclysm.
During their voyage through inter-dimensional space, however, the Coalition Expedition Team were diverted to yet another foreign reality, one overseen by allegedly more evolved Cybertronians called Transcendent Technomorphs, or TransTechs. Faced with an unexpected situation, Road Ranger's team leader Path Finder attempted to explain their plight and negotiate with the TransTechs, but it ultimately proved fruitless. The GoBots unfamiliar technology and strained circumstances made the TransTechs warry of inter-dimensional invasion, and so they sentenced the GoBots to permanent "house arrest" in Axiom Nexus, the offworlder zone of that reality's Cybertron where extra-dimensional visitors had set up a permanent integrated city. Withered Hope
Road Ranger and the GoBots spent several hours waiting in processing lines before they could enter the city proper. Transcendent: Part 1
Road Ranger was the least comfortable on Axiom Nexus of all the GoBots. Despite his mechanical body, he still considered himself a man on the inside, whereas the Transformers were all "just" robots. Path Finder tried to explain sparks to him, and how Cybertronians were just a uniquely different form of life, but it did little to quiet his nerves.
During processing, the GoBots lost track of their least trustworthy member, Bug Bite. While Treds and Bad Boy searched for him, Road Ranger and Path Finder tried to find a way out of Axiom Nexus, but failed. Back with Small Foot at the Widow's Cafe Cybertronian, the hostel where they were staying, Road Ranger and the others crossed paths with General Demolishor of the Military Police. Demolishor was searching for a thief who took valuable transit passes from a courier, allowing unrestricted access to the Transwarp center, and therefore off-world. When he killed the thief and found no passes on him, though, Demolishor turned on the GoBots as probable accomplices. Road Ranger tried to defend Small Foot from Demolishor's police brutality, but was less than effective. Only some fast double-talk from the bartender Crystal Widow and Airazor of the Freelance Police Legion kept Demolishor from flattening him.
Despite this reprieve, Demolishor tracked down Treds and kidnapped him, forcing Road Ranger and the others to chase him to the Heap, the last place in Axiom Nexus anyone would ever want to go. Losing the transit passes was Demolishor's responsibility, and his desperate efforts to cover up the failure led him to go after the GoBots by any means necessary, without even knowing for sure if they had the passes. During the fight that followed, Road Ranger damaged Demolishor by overloading the power in his hand blasters, causing them to explode. Although he lost his hands and suffered critical injuries, Road Ranger continued to fight back and tossed his entire power pack at the general, detonating inside the TransTech's tank mode grinders.
When Airazor and the Axiom Nexus Security Administration and Freelance Police Legion finally arrived, Demolishor was carted off to explain himself to the Military Police. Crystal Widow, who aided the GoBots in their fight, used her energon-based powers to cauterize Road Ranger's wounds. Thanks to more wheeling sand dealings that nearly went over their heads, Commander Cheetor "didn't" tell Inspector Airazor to turn over the passes she had "liberated" earlier from the thief's corpse to the GoBots, letting them go on their way once they got repaired.
After finally arriving in the proper Primax reality, Road Ranger and the others located Bug Bite, who had escaped earlier using one of the passes. Unfortunately, he no longer had a head. When he started talking anyway, Road Ranger freaked right the heck out, but Bug Bite soon reminded him he never kept his brain in his head. Reunited, for better or for worse, the GoBots made preparations for the second Expedition Team to arrive...Withered Hope Before both teams met, Bug Bite managed to sneak off once more. Road Ranger soon detected three vehicles incoming, who in short order identified themselves as Admiral Man-O-War, Rest-Q, and The BuggyMan. Road Ranger was certain that the latter was really just Bug Bite in a new body, but Bad Boy vouched for the new arrival. The group then set off to make contact with the local Autobots. Sunrise
In order to avoid drawing attention to themselves, the GoBots "borrowed" a flatbed trailer, mounted Treds atop of it, and concealed him beneath a tarp. Road Ranger was tasked with hauling the tank, to his great annoyance. When Rest-Q suggested the team pull over to recharge, Road Ranger welcomed the chance to take a break from pulling his heavy load. Rest-Q examined Road Ranger, and noted that he had sprung a leak in his fuel line. The medic fixed him up quickly, though Small Foot volunteered to continue hauling Treds for the remainder of the journey. Road Ranger assured her that he'd be up to the task after some rest.
The Gobots resumed their journey the next morning. On the road, they crossed paths with Tracks, though thanks to an early warning from The BuggyMan, they were able to avoid a confrontation with the negative-polarity Cybertronian. As they approached the Autobots' base, the GoBots were put ill-at-ease at the radio silence they encountered. Deciding to err on the side of caution, they approached the Ironworks stealthily. They were nonetheless ambushed by the evil Autobot Stepper and his partner, Nebulon. Road Ranger and his allies attempted to fight back with their built-in weaponry, only for Stepper to prove invulnerable to laser-fire. Treds managed to land a shot with his tank-turret, destroying both Nebulon and Stepper's hand. Road Ranger then got Stepper's spare weapon away from him, destroyed it, and gave Stepper the old boot-to-the-face. Then, a stern voice cautioned the group not to move... High Noon
Renegade Rhetoric
Using the Power Suits, Road Ranger, Treds, Royal-T, and Dozer formed Courageous in order to deter Cy-Kill's new combiner, Monsterous. One Born Every Minute
Go-Bots comic
A next generation Go-Bot, Road Ranger was built and brought online after the conquered Earth had been rebuilt into Gobotron. Said to be descended from kings, Road Ranger spent most of his days patrolling the highways of Gobotron, fighting off bandits and even Zod. Words of his deeds reached the audio receptors of the Trade Federation, who felt Road Ranger's heroism would net him command of the planet. Road Ranger's charisma caused many other next-gens to follow him, as well as several of the older Go-Bots such as Bug Bite and Zeemon. Go-Bots #3 Go-Bots #5
After Leader-1 had ventured to Earth to find the Lazer Lance, said to be capable of defeating Zod, Dr. Braxis's Vamp army attacked the surface of Gobotron only for Road Ranger to cleave the mad man in two, introducing himself and his entourage to Turbo, Crasher, and Scooter. After seeing him tame the Command Center, Turbo and Crasher agreed it best to let the next gens decide where society would go, riding with Road Ranger to Gobotropolis.
For his first act as the planet's ruler, Road Ranger decided to leave Earth and what little remained of humanity behind, declaring it time that the Go-Bots found their true place in the universe. As Gobotron, free from its tainted past, sailed through hyperspace, Bug Bite questioned him on their future plans. Road Ranger answered that they would begin producing new Go-Bots and Gobotrons, seeded throughout the multiverse. To emphasize this, Road Ranger directed his companion's attention to his latest project, an "optimized" heir that he was building, and encouraged his friend to do the same. As the Volkswagen considered it, he asked what was to be done with Leader-1 and Cy-Kill's remains. After mulling it over, Road Ranger decided that both demagogues were more trouble than they were worth and instead opted to salvage their remains and use them to build a new Go-Bot, one that would, hopefully, embody the best traits of both leaders. Go-Bots #5
War for Cybertron Trilogy marketing material
After the quantum surge caused a time vortex in an alternate timeline, the GoBot Road Ranger was pulled to a prehistoric Earth alongside the Huffer/Pipes-fusion known as "Puffer". Golden Disk Collection Chapter 1
Toys
Collector's Edition
- G1 GoBots (Multi-pack, 2004)
- ID number: 84
- Known designers: Hirofumi Ichikawa (deco artist)
- Road Ranger is a redeco of the Transformers Mini Vehicle Huffer, transforming into a cabover-syle semi truck resembling a Volvo F88.
- This was intended to be the character from Tonka's GoBots line, but his name does not appear in any of the final product material; it only appears in an early Photoshopped promotional image on the e-HOBBY website. The individual toys' names were dropped when Takara's legal department became concerned at how Bandai—the company that made the toys that would become the GoBots—would react to the names being used, despite the minimal chance of provable trademark infringement on Takara's part.
- He was only available in an e-HOBBY-exclusive Collector's Edition six-pack with Bad Boy, Bug Bite, Path Finder, Small Foot, and Treds.
| The Transformers mold: Huffer | ||
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Version 1 (Huffer):
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War for Cybertron: Kingdom
- Autobot Puffer / Autobot Road Ranger (Golden Disk Collection 2-pack, 2021)
- Chapter 1: Through the Vortex
- Accessories: Truck bed/shield, 2 Energon blaster halves
- Part of the first release in the Golden Disk Collection, War for Cybertron: Kingdom "Autobot Road Ranger" is a redeco and retool of Kingdom Deluxe Class Huffer in colors based on his "G1 GoBots" multi-pack toy. He transforms from a cab-over truck into a robot mode inspired by Huffer's Generation 1 cartoon appearance, now with a head featuring a visor and mouthplate accurate to Huffer's original G1 toy, as opposed to the animation accurate face of regular retail Huffer.
- Deliberately diminutive for a Deluxe Class figure, some of Road Ranger's plastic budget goes towards accessories, bulked up as he is with a shield and a gun that can form a truck bed in vehicle mode. Bizarrely, his blaster seems to have been directly based on concept art for the Spartan Laser from the Halo video game series. As a carryover from Huffer, Road Ranger can tow Earthrise Optimus Prime's trailer (or any of its redecoes).
- Road Ranger was only available in a multi-pack with his mold-mate "Autobot Puffer". This set was revealed and made available for pre-order on September 27, 2021, and was the first of four daily announcements concerning the Golden Disk Collection; as with the other sets in this series, Puffer and Road Ranger's packaging is printed with a portion of a Golden Disk graphic, and customers are encouraged to collect all four packs to unite the full image. The set is an Amazon and Hasbro Pulse exclusive in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
- Despite originally being scheduled for a March 2022 release, the set started shipping in December of 2021.
Notes
Foreign names
- Japanese: Road Ranger (ロードレンジャー Rōdo Renjā)
External links
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