Crater Critters

	; Hoooooobgoblins. Hoooooobgoblins. What do ya do with those hoooooobgoblins.
	"Crater Critters"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	February 1987
Cover date	June 1987
Writer	Bob Budiansky
Breakdowns	Don Perlin
Finishes	Ian Akin & Brian Garvey
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Janice Chiang
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

A secret shipment from the Decepticons carries an infection that threatens Decepticon and Autobot alike.

Synopsis

Believing that they can better fight the Decepticons on their own, Goldbug and Blaster seek information from G.B. Blackrock that might lead them to Decepticon activity. After some torture, Blackrock tells them of a mysterious meteor that crash-landed in Northern Arizona. The Autobot pair goes to investigate.

The meteor was actually a space freighter sent by the Decepticons from Cybertron as part of a secret scheme to steal Earth's energy, but the freighter pilot did not contact Cybertron upon arrival as planned. Ratbat sends the Triple Changers Astrotrain, Octane, and Blitzwing to investigate. They arrive on Earth near a crater caused by the crash, and frighten away a group of scientists who had planned to study the "meteor". The Decepticons find the freighter, but learn only too late why the freighter crashed: the pilot was infected with scraplets, a group of tiny Transformer-like robots who can change into innocent-looking nuts, bolts, screws and the like, but which attach themselves to mechanical lifeforms and replicate quickly, causing great damage to the larger robot.

One of the scientists, Charlie Fong, doesn't scare away easily, and when he meets Goldbug and Blaster, they work out a plan to get to the crater and find out what's going on. When they arrive, they are quickly attacked by the Decepticons, and Goldbug and Fong are separated from Blaster. Although Goldbug is able to escape infection from the Scraplets, Blaster is not so lucky.

Don't get them wet or feed them Autobots after midnight.

Blaster notes that the Triple Changers are weakened more by the Scraplets than he is, and wants to fight the Decepticons with Goldbug's help. But Goldbug is convinced by Fong that Blaster's only hope now is to find a cure for the Scraplets. Fong proposes taking a crushed Scraplet out of the crater for experimentation, and Goldbug reluctantly agrees. As Goldbug leaves the crater, Blaster, believing himself abandoned, swears revenge. Goldbug pauses out of guilt, only to become infected himself. Now he has no choice. He and Fong must find a cure, or they are all lost...

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Goldbug (3) Blaster (4) Grimlock (8) Scrounge (9)	Astrotrain (10) Ratbat (11) Octane (12) Blitzwing (13)	G.B. Blackrock (5) Felicia (6) Jenkins (7) Charlie Fong (14) Walter Huddleston (15)	Freighter pilot (1) Scraplets (2)

Quotes

"So you guys are deserters."
"We prefer to think of our selves as "independent minded"."

—G.B. Blackrock and Blaster

"Scrounge wasn't much of a warrior, but he had a fuel pump as big as a planet. I had to watch Scrounge die -- all because defeating the Deceps was more important. No amount of Deceps I destroy'll ever bring my little buddy back... but it's the best I can do for him in the meantime. And it's all I can do. It's all I want to do."

—Blaster is touching and scary at the same time

"I'm not filling your tanks to listen to you talk! Go! Time is fuel!"

—Ratbat dismisses the Triple Changers and their plot exposition

"Legend has it that, thousands of vorns ago during an outbreak on Cybertron, a rare chemical was found that killed the scraplets! But I doubt any of us will live long enough to rediscover it."

—Octane describes the SUPER-RARE CHEMICAL

Notes

MONDAY FIRM AT THE LATEST! AND FOR THE LAST TIME, WE ARE *NOT* DOING A 'THIS MAN, THIS MAYONNAISE' GRAPHIC NOVEL SO *QUIT* *PITCHING* *IT*!

Artwork and technical errors

Halfway through this issue, Goldbug is finally drawn mostly correct (still with Bumblebee's feet), where previously he was Bumblebee with Goldbug's head. After the switch, Goldbug's windows on his chest randomly appear and reappear. Barring the windows and feet, the error was even mentioned in Transformers: Classics.
Though Nel Yomtov consistently coloring Goldbug (whether incorrectly drawn with Bumblebee's original body or with his correct Goldbug design) in Bumblebee's original color scheme (a mostly yellow body with blue wheels, thighs, forarms and hands, but with a yellow head), contrary to the toy and cartoon color scheme (an entirely golden body with a blue head), can be considered an artistic choice, this causes a discrepancy in this issue when G.B. Blackrock wonders whether the Volkswagen Beetle that's approaching him might be Bumblebee, even though "his color is different"... when he's given the exact same color scheme as Bumblebee.

Continuity errors

Goldbug resorts to searching for Blackrock at a random expensive Portland restaurant... but he knows where Blackrock lives! He picked him up at home back in issue #15. Why not find him there?

Continuity notes

This issue features the debut appearance of the Decepticon Triple Changers.
In an unusual mixture of standard sci-fi faster-than light technologies, the freighter in this story can "warp" into "hyper-light speed".
Bumblebee sees through his headlights in car form.
Flashbacks:
- Blaster and Goldbug recall getting chewed out by Grimlock, seen last issue.
- Blaster remembers the sacrifice of his friend Scrounge, from "The Smelting Pool!"; in flashback, Scrounge is shown carrying a rifle, though he never used a gun in his original appearance.
Blackrock mentions "some suspicious activity in the Caribbean lately," no doubt the Decepticons at their new base of operations, where they relocated to in "Gone but Not Forgotten!"; in a couple of issues from now, we'll see that the Decepticons are hijacking oil tankers in the area.
Scraplets would be mentioned a time or two more in the Marvel comics, and would go on to appear in many later Transformer stories.
While this was the Triple Changers' debut story for the US market, the Decepticon and Autobot Triple-changers were both introduced way back in "Target: 2006" in the UK.

Real-life references

The action is set in northern Arizona, while GB Blackrock's date is in Portland. Blackrock also mentions ship disappearances in the Caribbean.

UK printing

Issue #123

Back-up strips: Iron Man - "Man of the Year" and Robo-Capers

Issue #124

Back-up strips: Iron Man - "Man of the Year" and Robo-Capers
AtoZ: Buzzsaw and Cliffjumper.

Other trivia

Do I have something on my face?

The corner box image of Optimus Prime, first used on the cover of issue #5, makes its last appearance on the US covers for a while; the next issue replaces it with Grimlock's alt-mode character model. It does appear next month on Headmasters issue #1, before going away completely; Prime would return to the corner box with issue #50.
This issue was reprinted by IDW Publishing as Generations #10. It featured a new cover by Nick Roche.

Bot Roster

Autobots: 32 active including Blaster and Goldbug; 14 in repair bay. (46 total)
Decepticons: 34 active as the Triple Changers come to Earth; 9 offline. (43 total)

Courtesy of my...

Blaster's electro-scrambler, as usual.

Covers (3)

US cover: Scraplets attacking Blaster, by Bob Budiansky, Ian Akin, and Brian Garvey.
UK issue #123 cover: Triple Changers, by Lee Sullivan.
UK issue #124 cover: Blaster being eaten by Scraplets, by Will Simpson.

US issue #29 - In Japan, this is a fetish.
UK issue #123 - Octane's the camp one...
UK issue #124 - He looks SO happy!

Reprints

Transformers: Breakdown TPB cover: Predaking, Megatron, Ratchet and half of Ratbat, by Andrew Wildman.
Breakdown hardback cover: Grimlock fighting Trypticon, by Kev Walker, Simon Coleby and Chris Blythe.
The Transformers: Generations #10 cover A: a new version of the US cover, by Nick Roche.
Generations #10 cover B: line-art version of cover A.
Generations #10 incentive cover: reuse of a panel from this issue.
Generations TPB cover: reuse of the Nick Roche cover to Generations issue #1.