Jawbreaker is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

"What do you get when you cross a hyena with a deadly futuristic cyborg?"
"I don't know, but if he laughs, you better laugh with him."

Jawbreaker (aka Cackle)^[note] has a twisted sense of humor and a dark view of the future. He is convinced he will meet a grisly end on the battlefield. It may be that all his off-putting jokes and antisocial behavior are intended to keep others safely away from this ultimate defeat; Jawbreaker is never quiet about his preference for working and fighting alone. Nevertheless, the older Noctorro has attempted to form a bond with the young Maximal, though his efforts at counseling often meet with lackluster results.^[1]

Fiction

Beast Wars: Uprising

Look, I'm in fiction! It only took fifteen years!

Jawbreaker believed in his own inevitable demise, dying alone in a pool of his own mech fluid. He long ago chose to live life as jovially as possible. At the Maximal Academy, he was frequently disciplined for pranking his fellow students. His final prank on headmaster Lionhead got him expelled. Out on the streets, he found a new home with Botanica and her rebel agitators against the Maximal Autocracy. The media frenzy caused by his flurry of leaflets distributed over Cybertropolis Square ensured Jawbreaker's role in the movement. Jawbreaker's profile in Club magazine #57

Jawbreaker was part of a cell of Maximals who rebelled against the status quo imposed by their Autobot masters. He joined a nighttime raid on Ferromax Detention Center to free Dynobot, and spent much of the time pasting up Dynobot posters all over the prison. After rendezvousing with Rattrap, the team managed to liberate Dynobot and headed for the exit, with Jawbreaker just flinging the leftover posters into the air as they fled. Prologue

2005 IDW continuity

Jawbreaker was one of Onyx Prime's Maximals. When this bestial horde invaded Cybertron, he was one of the many warriors who wound up battling Arcee. Endless Forever

Toys

Beast Wars

Mufassaaah!

• Jawbreaker (Deluxe Transmetal 2, 1999)

• Accessories: Tail-blade
• Known designers: Yuichiro Hira (TakaraTomy), Tim Bradley and Masakatsu Saito (concept art)

Part of the third and final wave of fourth-year Beast Wars Deluxes, Jawbreaker transforms into a blue, black, and red Transmetal 2 hyena. The back of his beast mode neck has a spinning saw-blade, and the entire assembly becomes his right robot mode arm; his spark crystal is embedded in this assembly, and unlike more Transmetal 2 toys, is not hidden behind any sort of flip-up panel. His tail detaches to form a really vicious-looking sword. His beast-head arm features a clicking ratchet joint at the elbow rather than a ball joint; a feature which wouldn't see a prominent release until the end of the Beast Machines toyline.

The hyena jaws were designed to swing down and away from the rest of the head, forming a more distinct grasping hand for the robot mode. This feature is shown on the packaging photographs, but on the final toy it was "neutered" by the addition of rigid plastic pegs locking the jaws into the skull. It is possible to carefully break these pegs in order to restore the feature.

This toy was sold in Japan as an "import", in Hasbro packaging with a Japanese sticker for legal information, exclusive to Toys"R"Us.

This mold was later used to make Universe Frostbite, and was the basis of the fiction-only character Untite.

• More information on Jawbreaker at TFU.info

Notes

Cackle, who barely exists.

• "Jawbreaker" was previously one of Bob Budiansky's early working names for Generation 1 Grimlock. He later tried to use it again for the Seacon that was ultimately released under the name "Overbite", though the name still ended up being used for the character's early appearances in the comic by Marvel UK.
• Jawbreaker's own early working name was "Cackle".^[2] This name was actually retained on European market packaging, both on the English/Spanish/Italian Beast Wars/Biocombat and the French/Dutch/German Beast Wars/Ani Mutants variants.
• Speaking of pre-release information, it appears that instead of a hyena, the toy that eventually became Jawbreaker was initially intended to be a kangaroo. The February 1999 issue of Lee's Toy Magazine mentioned a "kangaroo" with a yet-to-be-determined name^[3], and Walmart's systems never changed that early (and obviously outdated) description, and thus "Kangaroo" appeared in place of the toy's actual name on purchase receipts.^[4] Crikey!
• His appearance (at right) in the Alone Together prologue, where nobody has a beast mode, was drawn by Evan Gauntt^[5] based on the Prime: Beast Hunters version of Ratchet. Monocle-head and all.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Jawbreaker (ジョーブレイカー Jōbureikā)
• Dutch: Cackle
• French: Brisefer (Canada, "Iron-Breaker" or "Klutz"), Cackle (Europe)
• German: Cackle
• Italian: Cackle
• Spanish: Rompemandíbula (America, "Jawbreaker"), Cackle (Europe)

References