Kickback is a Decepticon from the Robots in Disguise cartoon portion of the Aligned continuity family.

It's just like the story of the Grasshopper and the Octopus. All year long, the Grasshopper kept burying acorns for winter.

Kickback is the platonic ideal of "lackey". Just smart and skilled enough to pull off simple jobs, just ambitious enough to try and do his "best" at them, but also just dumb and bitter and prideful enough to open his yap at the wrong time making him a potential liability, and just greedy enough to bail when he thinks he'll get a better deal elsewhere. He's worked for just about every Decepticon criminal on Cybertron at some point in his life, which actually doesn't reflect well on him. Basically, nobody likes him, but they're willing to use him, at least for a while... and probably in a role marked "acceptable losses". One can only assume it's his ability to kick really hard and run away really fast that's kept him alive all this time, and maybe a little bit of it just not being worth hunting him down.

After being imprisoned on the Alchemor and being set free on Earth, he's acquired a racecar mode. At the very least, it makes getting away when things start to go south much faster.

Fiction

2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

Voice actor: Liam O'Brien (English), Yūki Tai (Japanese), Tony Beck (French), David Turba (German), Matteo Brusamonti (Italian)

"They love me. Sorta. Kinda."

Kickback was one of the prisoners aboard the Alchemor when it crashed, freeing him from stasis. After escaping, he eventually encountered Steeljaw and his gang and tried to join up with them, only for the other Decepticons to tie him up and use him as bait to lure the Autobots away from their scrapyard base. The Autobots did indeed track him down, prompting the toadying Kickback to ask if the Autobots needed a new sidekick. When they refused his offer, Kickback used his side kick to shred his ropes and escape his captors, whereupon he immediately transformed and fled. Lockout

Kickback encountered another group of Decepticons led by Scorponok and Glowstrike, camped out in a section of the crashed Alchemor. While off scavenging items to repair the ship for his new team, he again encountered Steeljaw, who tried to manipulate him into becoming a member of his new pack. Kickback refused and kicked Steeljaw aside before fleeing, but unwittingly led the other Decepticon back to the ship. To add insult to injury, Saberhorn rudely bumped him as he went to give Scorponok and Glowstrike his findings, however they were less than appreciative of him as well. Kickback tried to bargain for praise, only for Glowstrike to fire upon him, sending him scurrying away. Metal Meltdown

Kickback was among the Decepticons on the Alchemor when the Autobots activated a stasis bomb, freezing all of the escaped prisoners.^[1] Kickback's stasis pod was then taken back to Cybertron by Optimus Prime, Windblade, and Ratchet. Decepticon Island (Part 2)

Notes

Kind of a drag.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Kickback (キックバック Kikkubakku)

References