Dipstick is an Autobot from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

"SEYMOUR!"

Dipstick is one of the guys in charge of the reconstruction project at the Igue-Moor Fuel Depot. He hates trigger-happy soldiers.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Last Stand of the Wreckers #1

Dipstick was a Made To Order Autobot, a soldier constructed cold for the purpose of participating in a particular military operation, in his case Operation: Doom Patrol. This made his full name "Dipstick of Operation: Doom Patrol", something he didn't particularly enjoy. Twenty Plus One

Well, Seymour, I made it, despite your directions.

Dipstick eventually got stationed at Igue-Moor, where he was not a happy bot when Ironfist's test run of the lightformer cannon resulted in extensive damage to the reconstruction project, and let him and his buddies Pyro and Guzzle know in blunt terms. Guzzle attempted to justify the incident by claiming that's what Wreckers do, while Pyro tried to simply apologize for it. Unfortunately, Pyro's apology was cut brief as Rotorstorm dropped a payload, narrowly missing poor Dipstick. Understandably, he was all too happy to be rid of this troublemaking quatuor as the pick-up signal from Ultra Magnus arrived. As the soon-to-be Wreckers boarded, Pyro told Dipstick they'd be seeing him, but he quipped back that as Wreckers, they probably won't live long enough for that to happen. Rotorstorm quietly expressed his dislike of the bot as he entered the ship. Last Stand of the Wreckers #1

Aurora Borealis!? At this time of year, at this time of day, at this part of the country, localized entirely within your kitchen?!

After Cybertron was reborn in the wake of the D-Void's attack, Dipstick watched on as a viewscreen showed Rodimus explaining his desire to gather a crew to find the Knights of Cybertron. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It He ended up joining, and was present for the grand opening of the ship bar, Swerve's. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases At one point during the journey, Dipstick ended up losing an arm. While receiving medical attention from First Aid, he was temporarily frozen in place by one of Brainstorm's malfunctioning weapons. The Reluctant Specialist Some time later, he was part of a group that Rewind gathered to tell a true story over a bottle of "Old Corroder" in Swerve's. (This means Dipstick once had an adventure with Xaaron, Atomizer, Sprocket, and Slapdash.) An Intimate Beheading

Dipstick took part in the liberation of Temptoria from Decepticon forces, and at one point elbowed Snapdragon in the face. Before & After Later, he was incarcerated in the Lost Light's brig by Ultra Magnus for his bad punctuation. Cybertronian Homesick Blues During the Legislator attack on the ship, Dipstick was injured and had to be protected by Trailcutter and Hoist. House of Ambus

Dipstick remained on the Lost Light on its second journey under the co-command of Megatron, and was among the Autobots who abandoned the ship as it began disappearing piece by piece. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide Stuck on board the Rodpod alongside 19 other evacuees who were disappearing one by one, he contributed to figuring out the pattern to the disappearances by revealing how he was created. He disappeared himself before a solution could be found, however. Twenty Plus One

Eighteen months from the Lost Light's launch, the Necrobot had listed Dipstick as deceased... Who's Afraid of the DJD? The deceased Dipstick turned out to be an alternate (or quantum duplicate) who was a victim of the Decepticon Justice Division, while Dipstick himself returned once the cause of the disappearance had been dealt with. The Road Not Taken

"Yes! It's a regional dialect."
"Uh-huh. What region?"
"Uh...upstate New York."

Dipstick was one of the Autobots present when Rodimus gave news about Thunder Clash's prewake. The Sensuous Frame

Dipstick stood in favor of Getaway's mutiny, removing Megatron and the members of the crew willing to support him as captain. Getaway was promoted as captain, but he made mistakes and resorted to shadowplay in order to remain in control. The mnemosurgeon Sunder reprogrammed the memories of Dipstick and the crew, making them forget the mutiny while still maintaining Getaway as their captain. Filling in the Blanks Dipstick was seen socializing in "Visages" when the Protectobots reconnected with the Lost Light. Full Circle

Beast Wars: Uprising

An Empty on post-war Cybertron, Dipstick took up selling energon cubes for Scorponok. Dipstick was highly successful at it until he was gunned down by the Kospegos in an alley outside of Protoforms of Anarchy. Identity Politics

Notes

• Wow, talk about your unfortunate names...
• At 46.40 of his Moonbase 2 interview, James Roberts said that originally Dipstick was going to let loose with "the rich variety of Transformers based insults and swearwords", but they had to be cut for reasons of "space and decency". Truly the most fantastic, revealed by the authors at Auto Assembly 2010, was "clutch-munching piston-lickers".
  • As a nod to this, in "Twenty Plus One" Ratchet notes that Dipstick is prone to coprolalia, a real-world condition defined as "involuntary swearing or the involuntary utterance of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks".
  • In the same story, Dipstick's alternate mode is described as "redundant". To this day, his alternate mode has yet to be seen.
• Dipstick shares a character model (minus his head) with the later character Tappet.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Dipstick (ディップスティック Dippusutikku)