Astrotrain - IDW

Astrotrain loves to sow confusion. To this end, his Triple Changer abilities serve him well. Nothing pleases him more than confronting an Autobot in a dark corner and making him wonder if he's up against one Decepticon or two. He craves having this power over others. Single-minded, you may say, but when most of your time is spent transporting troops around, you have to take your jollies where you can. He wants more from life, but it's either fly the other Decepticons around, or get scrapped by them. He also craves having power over a massive army of train drones. When Megatron wanted to have a peaceful chat with Orion Pax in the early days of the Decepticon revolt, Astrotrain and Blitzwing held Bumblebee hostage to make sure Orion didn't get any funny ideas. This went well until Autobot reinforcements arrived, at which point Astrotrain was punched out by Ironhide. He later transported the Decepticons back to Kaon after they saved Orion Pax from Zeta Prime's attack on Nyon. Astrotrain later dropped Orion Pax and Megatron into Zeta Prime's citadel and after Zeta Prime's death, Megatron broke the alliance between him and Orion's unit. When Megatron was defeated in combat with Orion-turned-Optimus Prime, Soundwave brought him to safety him by flying past on Astrotrain and grabbing him off the ground. Looking to punish Megatron for leading the Decepticons into defeat, Scorponok had Astrotrain carry his damaged leader into space and drop him off near Junkion. Following a failed attack on Starsreach Spaceport, Shockwave's troops retreated on board Astrotrain, who brought them to the Toraxxis crater on Scorponok's orders. Astrotrain then took Starscream to the planet of Canis Tor in order to recruit the wayward Predacons back into the Decepticon fold. In the wake of Thunderwing's world-ending rampage, Cybertron was unable to support life and as the Cybertronian race fled to the stars Astrotrain fell under Starscream's command. In the mid-19th century, Starscream formed a brief alliance with a swarm of Dire Wraiths led by Vekktral in the hopes of stealing an energon synthesizer that had been developed by the Solstar Order to nourish their Cybertronian recruit Stardrive. Astrotrain adopted a new alternate mode based off a Galactic Council shuttle and used it to ferry the Wraiths, disguised as Council representatives, to the Solstar Order station Orchid Crossing over the icy world of Xetaxxis. Vekktral soon revealed himself as a Wraith imposter and Astrotrain transformed into robot mode and opened fire on the Space Knights, killing Auxin, before he himself was pinned down by Sata. The situation quickly worsened when the Autobots arrived, and an attempt by the Dire Wraiths to assimilate Sky Blast turned him into an uncontrollable monster. Deciding to use the chaos to his advantage, Starscream told Astrotrain to aid him in retrieving the synthesizer, which was cut short when Ultra Magnus sabotaged the station and sent it tumbling towards the planet below. Starscream ordered Astrotrain to evacuate the Dire Wraiths in his shuttle mode; as the Decepticons and Wraiths regrouped, Vekktral used Astrotrain's sensors to deduce that the Wraith/Cybertronian hybrid had survived reentry. The Decepticons caught up with the monster as it rampaged through a Xetaxxian village and eventually burned itself out, though Vekktral was enthusiastic about trying again, Starscream made it clear that it wouldn't be his men that Vekktral sacrificed. While Starscream and the Coneheads headed off to retrieve the synthesizer from the wreckage, Astrotrain hung back with Vekktral and his Wraiths to spring a trap for the Autobots. When a group of Xetaxxans — preying on Bumblebee 's sympathy for the natives — revealed themselves as Wraiths, Astrotrain crashed through a wall to ferry Vekktral into battle, forcing Magnus to fight a rearguard action while Bumblebee and Sata made a beeline for the station. In the ensuing melee, Astrotrain wisely stuck to the sidelines and merely watched as Magnus battled — and eventually succumbed to — the swarm of Wraiths, observing with some discomfort as Vekktral used his magic to merge with the Autobot into another monstrous fusion. Astrotrain rejoined the other Decepticons as the Wraith-Magnus led the charge against the Autobot-Knight alliance... but was unprepared for Vekktral to backstab his mechanical allies, intending to turn them into more Wraith hybrids. Ensnared by Wraiths, Astrotrain was rescued by Blitzwing; the two Triple Changers joined Starscream as he announced a new plan: to grab the synthesizer and get off world as fast as possible. Stardrive tailed them and managed to rip off Starscream's wings, forcing Astrotrain to carry their humiliated leader offworld as the Seeker detonated the energon synthesizer so that the Autobots couldn't have it either. A century later, Astrotrain was still a part of Starscream's squad, now operating under the infiltration protocol. They arrived and worked covertly on Earth for at least four years, working to destabilize Earth's governing organizations and create global anarchy. Astrotrain oversaw the extraction and refinement of the mysterious, Energon-like substance, Ore-13, but despite having sampled its power, he was unwilling to stand alongside Starscream against Megatron. Later on, he took Starscream's place as the Earthbound Decepticon Infiltration Unit's second-in-command under Megatron, and continued to oversee the Ore-13 research. During Megatron's scheme to escalate the tensions between Brasnya and Russia, Astrotrain served as air cover for their ground forces, but was severely damaged by Hardhead and later retreated. After being humiliated in battle with Optimus Prime, Megatron ordered Sixshot to come to Earth several phases before his presence is normally requested. Upon hearing this, the wire in Astrotrain's forehead nearly exploded, but Megatron told him to shut up. A year later, the Decepticons on Earth, including Astrotrain, defeated the Autobots on the planet in a mighty battle. As the Decepticons subsequently began conquering the planet, Astrotrain carried on being by-the-book and tactically minded in the attack on New York City, suggesting they send the Insecticons to handle ground forces to avoid ballistic attacks. He also took to the subway lines in locomotive form to eradicate the humans hiding in the subway stations. Inexplicably, his train mode was seen to resemble an outdated steam locomotive instead of the diesel freight engine it had been a year earlier. Astrotrain was one of many Decepticons to listen to Megatron's speech about conquest. He later watched Starscream try to take control of the Decepticons using Devastator, although the revolt was interrupted by the arrival of human jets from Europe. This was soon followed by the return of the exiled Autobots, at which point Astrotrain wrestled with Roadbuster and laughed at the Autobots when they were seemingly retreating (in reality, they were just making room). Astrotrain was then tackled into a building by Roadbuster, who commented that the Decepticon was a "lightweight". Megatron and his army were defeated, and Astrotrain served as their escape vehicle as they fled Earth. Three years later, Astrotrain was stationed on the desolate asteroid base where Starscream was in charge. He responded to Hot Rod's infiltration of the base, but ended up running straight past the intruder without noticing. When Megatron finally returned to take back command, Astrotrain and the other Decepticons watched him brutally punish Starscream for his actions. They then followed Megatron back to Earth for revenge. There, Astrotrain was present when Megatron was approached by a lone Optimus Prime, and was ordered to stop the Autobot when he apparently tried to escape. As it turned out, Prime was only getting some distance away from the imminent impact of a satellite he had arranged to be dropped on the Decepticons from space. Astrotrain and his comrades were blown sky high from the ensuing explosion. Megatron then let himself be captured by the Autobots and taken to Cybertron, where he used the space bridge technology built into in his new body to summon Astrotrain and the other Decepticons who were waiting on Earth. At first they did battle with the Autobots, but were soon mind-controlled by Galvatron into combining with his Sweep army and forming a huge monster. After the war, Astrotrain was among a Cybertronian crowd recruited by Starscream to pressure Prowl into revealing one of his secret discoveries below ground on Cybertron. After following Starscream underground, they witnessed Metrotitan, a dying Titan, declare that Starscream was the Cybertronian destined to unite their whole race. Astrotrain and the other Cybertronians celebrated by carrying Starscream on their shoulders through Iacon. In spite of his support of Starscream, Astrotrain's true loyalty lay with Shockwave and Soundwave, who were secretly in contact with Megatron. As part of Megatron's plan, he and the other loyalists were captured by a mind-controlled Prowl and taken to the Black Room, where they were upgraded into new forms in preparation of their leader's return. Astrotrain then proceeded to aid Blitzwing in capturing a mixed group of Autobots and neutrals sent to investigate Prowl, running over Swindle and breaking off his arm in the process. While it looked like the Decepticons had the upper hand, Astrotrain was taken off guard along with the others when Arcee revealed her true loyalties to the Autobots and killed Bombshell. In the Decepticons' resulting escape from the Black Room, Astrotrain helped provide covering fire. The Decepticons went on to fight the Autobots over control of Iacon, but the battle ended with Megatron defeated and Starscream rising to leadership of the neutrals. Starscream's first action was to exile all Autobots and Decepticons who refused to abandon their factions, including Astrotrain. Out in the wilderness, Soundwave declared that he would lead the Decepticons to hunt down the deserted Shockwave, but Astrotrain and Blitzwing were sick of listening to him after their recent failure and rebelled. They attacked the communications expert and fought his cassettes until the fight was broken up by Needlenose and Soundwave left to confront Shockwave alone. He soon returned and tried to rally Astrotrain and the other Decepticons again, claiming they had to save all Cybertron from Shockwave's machinations. As the Decepticon forces converged on Shockwave's newly arrived Necrotitan, they ran into the exiled Autobots and a battle broke out. Black Metal They were rudely interrupted when the Necrotitan suddenly unleashed an energy wave that gravely wounded soldiers on both sides, among them Astrotrain. Having lost his legs and an arm to the death wave, Astrotrain was carried to safety and guarded by the Dinobots. He let his defenders borrow his binoculars, explaining he had bad eyes but kept this secret so Megatron wouldn't consider him a liability. Astrotrain wound up at the Autobots' wasteland camp, and when the Necrotitan was defeated by Metroplex, he and the other death wave victims were cured from its corruption. He also got his limbs back somehow. He celebrated the victory by going to Swerve's to drink and sing alongside both Autobots and Decepticons. The celebrations came to an end when Shockwave put his final plan into action and summoned an army of Ammonites to Cybertron, forcing all Autobots and Decepticons to fight back. Following Shockwave's defeat, Astrotrain fell under the command of new Decepticon leader Galvatron, who took his troops to Earth under Soundwave's advice of starting a new approach to peace there. When an enraged Galvatron went on a rampage in their ship, the Nemesis, Astrotrain tried to calm him down only to end up redirecting the rage at himself. When the Nemesis was brought down by Prowl during the Autobots' attack on the Earth Defense Command's Bikini Atoll base, Astrotrain was injured and had to be pulled out of the wreckage by Blitzwing. Astrotrain then ended up taking Galvatron to a swamp for a secret meeting with Arcee. Astrotrain was a little stupefied when Galvatron offered to kill him after Arcee expressed annoyance at his not coming alone, and was also not happy about the bugs infesting the area; his intake manifolds got full of them, and a rather large one startled him when it flew up to his face. Astrotrain next transported some tanks of oxygen, along with a group of Decepticons and humans, to the Decepticons' Jupiter commune, which was in the midst of being constructed (and which he considered to be a much better place to visit than a swamp). He thought the docking process could have been a little gentler, but didn't hold any ill feelings against the human crew member responsible. As the Decepticons made preparations to board the Autobots' ship and seize its space bridge, Astrotrain wondered how long it would be before the craft's power ran out and the force field surrounding it was gone. He also expressed confusion at the idea that Galvatron had ever been young. Soon after, Astrotrain and the Decepticon elite were summoned to Shanghai, China by Galvatron, as the Decepticon invasion of Earth was to begin. When Optimus Prime and his forces arrived in Shanghai, Astrotrain and the rest of the Decepticons present engaged with them. He was one of the Decepticons teleported away from the battle when the People's Liberation Army Mecha Force attacked the battling Cybertronians. He dropped Galvatron off at the Copahua volcano for his "appointment" with Arcee, then later picked him up. He was once again among Galvatron's Decepticons fighting forces defending the Nemesis at the bottom of the ocean. When Galvatron turned the Earth into a giant Enigma of Combination, Astrotrain was forcibly combined with Blitzwing, Acid Storm, Dreadwing, and Mindwipe into Galvatronus (Astrotrain formed the left leg). Galvatronus punched Victorion and grappled with Superion with support from two Seeker clones. After Superion disabled the Earth Enigma, Galvatronus was disassembled into his components. Galvatron ordered Astrotrain to carry him away from the battle while under fire from Thundercracker, leaving the rest of the Decepticons behind. The two fled in the direction of Sanctuary Station, but were pursued into space by Cosmos and Arcee. Galvatron shot and disabled Cosmos, who was then able to shoot Astrotrain in the engine, forcing him to enter Jupiter's atmosphere. They were pursued further into Jupiter's atmosphere, but could not land due to Jupiter being a gas giant. Astrotrain tried to convince Galvatron to let him retreat to the space station, claiming he would be able to get free somehow, but Galvatron told him he was not yet through serving the Decepticon cause. Galvatron sacrificed Astrotrain by flinging him in his disabled shuttle mode at Arcee, who trisected him with her swords. As a Triple Changer, he has three different forms: his standard robot mode, a locomotive train and a space shuttle. His weapon that he uses in his robot-bot is an ion displacement rifle; capable of breaking down the molecular bonds in metal alloys. Being 18’1”/5.5 meters tall, his color palette consists mainly of gray, purple, downward-pointing arrow-like strips of red on the chestplate and hips, a strip of yellow going vertically across his helm, a light grey faceplate, and crimson optics.