Thundercracker

Thundercracker is the name of eight fictional characters in the Transformers series.

1985 The Transformers

Thundercracker is one of the original Decepticon Seekers from the first year of the series. He is a warrior who usually turns into a jet. He sometimes helps form the Sky Reign combiner.

Transformers: Armada

Thundercracker, only mentioned off-screen in Transformers: Armada, finally made his appearance on screen in Transformers: Cybertron. Originally released alone, Thundercracker was later packaged with a Mini-Con partner as a Wal-Mart-exclusive but is unable to powerlinx with the Mini-Con. Although Armada Thundercracker did appear in the Dreamwave comics, he was portrayed very differently from the Cybertron character.

As a character, Thundercracker is a Deception highly distinguished for his love of battle. He speaks with a distinctive southern "drawl" accent. This excessive blood-lust affects the entire Decepticon group. What he lacks in skills, Megatron recognizes Thundercracker's talent for encouraging the troop's fighting spirit. He always has his sights on target in either robot or jet mode. Unfortunately, he cannot concentrate on a target, and accuracy is not his style. He also comes up with special attacks that prove ineffective against his foes, most particularly Jetfire in a battle for sky supremacy, but when reinforcements arrive, he is usually the first to be defeated.

Thundercracker's tech specs by both Hasbro and Takara revealed more about him. The Takara bio noted that he was excessively eager to go into battle, in turn inspiring the Decepticons who fought with him—which is why Megatron keeps him around. His Hasbro bio is indicates that, like the original G1 Thundercracker, his main power is his ability to create deafening sonic booms in combat. Rather oddly, the unlockable content on Hasbro's website indicates he is also somewhat of a practical joker. The non-flying Decepticons often ride on him.

The Wal-Mart-exclusive Mini-Con pack would explain how Thundercracker got his Mini-Con partner Downshift, snatching him from under the Autobot's noses in one of his trademark fear causing missions. What he did not realize was that Downshift was as dedicated to creating chaos as him, and the two formed an alliance to terrorize the Autobots on Earth.

2007 Transformers

Thundercracker lives on fear. Special materials in his vehicle body allow him to emit controlled sonic detonations that can be heard 200 miles away. Cruising along at Mach 6, he wants his enemies to hear him before they see him. He wants them to know he's coming, and cower in fear at their impending doom.

Thundercracker's design is also the basis for a series of Decepticon drones.

2008 Shattered Glass

A mirror-universe version of Thundercracker appeared in the Transformers: Timelines fiction. He is one of the heroic Decepticons. Thundercracker has the ability to completely deaden all sound in an area with his engines. He is painted in his Generation 1 Action Master toy colors.

Fictional biography

A founding member of Colonel Deathsaurus' Mayhem Suppression Squad, Thundercracker abandoned his civilian post to oppose the Autobots as a resistance fighter. Jovial and friendly, he is the squad's "morale mechanism". He pities anything that cannot fly, though he uses mango-clamps to take friends flying whether they like it or not. He can create 50-meter wide zones of pure silence but prefers to fight using his cryonic blaster and drone rockets. Recently, during a routine surveillance mission, Thundercracker picked up a signal coming from the prison at Paradron. He couldn't be sure, but could it be that some type of jailbreak was in progress?

Fun Publications

Thundercracker appears in the 2008 April Fool's comic Shattered Expectations by Fun Publications as part of the Mayhem Suppression Squad called in by the Decepticons against the Autobots Goldbug, Grimlock and Jazz.

Thundercracker also appears in the fiction Dungeons & Dinobots, a text based story from Fun Publications. In the story, he defends the Arch-Ayr fuel dump from an Autobot attack.

Thundercracker appears in the 2012 BotCon Invasion lithograph by Casey Coller and Josh Perez.