Air Warrior

The Air Warriors are Decepticons from the Generation 1 continuity family.

It doesn't get more generic than "Decepticon Decepticon".

When Starscream and the other standard Seekers just aren't enough, call in the Air Warriors. Sometimes they're explicitly drones and sometimes they're just quietly single-minded, depending on the continuity. But they're always obedient, determined, ruthless... and ultimately disposable.

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

Voice actor: Michael Bell, Dan Gilvezan (English), Masashi Ebara, Keiichi Nanba (Japanese)

Stand in the place where you are.

When the Decepticons first awoke on Earth, the core group of warriors was reinforced by a number of unnamed Decepticon jets, all in various shades of blue and purple. They joined their more-famous comrades in battle and resource-gathering.

When the main Decepticon force departed their base of operations for the Ruby crystal mines of Burma, two of these jets remained behind. Spotting the snooping Trailbreaker as he was returning to Autobot Headquarters to report on the Decepticons' movements, the pair pursued and engaged him. However, the two jets soon found themselves outnumbered when Sunstreaker and Sideswipe came to Trailbreaker's rescue. A shot from Sunstreaker wounded one of them, and he chose to return to base for repairs, his companion providing him with an escort. More than Meets the Eye, Part 2

These generic jets were last seen fighting the Autobots prior to the launch of the Decepticons' newly built space cruiser. They never reappeared after the cruiser's crash, but their disappearance was never mentioned, so their specific fate is unknown. More than Meets the Eye, Part 3

On-package bio

Air Warriors were "ruthless killing machines" with a "no-nonsense attitude" and "lack of compassion." They also had a motto ("I will control the skies") and an intelligence Tech Spec of 5. Whether this made them drones or not is unclear. Either way, they were dedicated to destroying Autobot sympathizers with their cluster bombs and laser-guided missiles.

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Of all the Seekers, they're the Seekiest.

Some time before the Great Shutdown, Megatron and Optimus Prime were lost in a space bridge accident. When Megatron returned millennia later, he brought with him the Aerospace Extermination Squadron, a million-strong fleet of Seeker drones which he quickly used to dominate Cybertron. The Age of Wrath

After capturing the planet, the drones policed the Autobot slaves. Progressing from one task to the next with no sign of true self-awareness, they communicated amongst themselves in sentence fragments via radio or perhaps telepathy. Megatron tasked Shockwave with reverse-engineering the cloning device that produced them. Shockwave asked him where it had come from, but Megatron refused to divulge that he had received it from the Quintessons. The Age of Wrath Pt.2 Interestingly, he had started the war to fight against Quintessons who had infiltrated the Council of Ancients, so it's unclear how this move would jibe with his greater plans. The Route of All Evil

At least one drone showed an ability to materialize additional armaments in flashes of light. It nearly destroyed a team of Autobots singlehandedly, but they managed to subdue it with an inhibitor claw designed by Perceptor. The Age of Wrath Pt.3

What is it? Did Rumble fall down the well? Is Skywarp pinned under the tractor again?

Shockwave succeeded in mutating some of the drones given to him by Megatron, making it so they would obey only the leader of the Decepticons, and not their Quintesson creators. Back at the Autobots' headquarters, Nightbeat and Getaway brought the inert drone they had captured to Perceptor, who discovered upon analyzing it that it was powered by cyberstatic energy. The Age of Wrath Pt.4 Using this information, Perceptor was able to defeat the clones by attacking their shared neural network. The Age of Wrath Pt.6

After the Aerospace Extermination Squadron was defeated, their bodies were all "zapped into space." Lost and Found By the modern day, at least a few of them had ended up on the planet of Junk, resembling Earth-adapted Seekers for some reason. Generation 1 #0 When Megatron was brought to that world by Wreck-Gar, he had the Junkion gather and restore three drones. (Then he destroyed Wreck-Gar for his troubles.) Runnin' with the Devil He took the drones to the planet Beest to recruit the Predacons. Welcome to the Jungle The growing troupe then headed to Cybertron, where Megatron used a drone to lure out two of Shockwave's warriors, Astrotrain and Blitzwing. The Triple Changers made short work of the drone but were ambushed by Razorclaw. Blitzwing refused to surrender and was destroyed; however, Astrotrain joined Megatron's band and helped him overthrow Shockwave. Lost and Found

Shockwave was then escorted to the Decepticons' base on Earth by an Air Warrior, where Megatron overpowered Starscream and took command of the Earthbound Decepticons from him. The Route of All Evil

Toys

Buzzworthy Bumblebee

There are many like me, but this me is mine!

• Troop Builder Multipack (4-pack, 2023)

• Series: Legacy: Evolution
• Accessories: 2 cannons
• Known designers: Mark Maher (Hasbro)^[1]

The "Decepticon Seeker" is a redeco of Earthrise Starscream, retaining the neutral-expression head, with a blueish-lavender color scheme reminiscent of the generic Seeker troops from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2". The Seeker transforms into a F-15 fighter jet and comes with two attachable arm/wing-mounted guns.

Like all other uses of the mold, the Seeker has a missing molded panel-line detail on the right wing hinge that is supposed to curve in towards the body of the jet. The reason for this missing detail is likely due to it missing from the metal mold itself.

The Seeker comes in a four-pack with a Quintesson Trooper, a G2 Universe Cybertronian Trooper, and an Animated Universe Autotrooper. As a Buzzworthy Bumblebee-branded set, the pack was primarily stocked at Target, although some quantities were available via Hasbro Pulse (those did not last long though, pre-selling out very quickly).

Merchandise

Heroes of Cybertron

Some assembly required.

• Decepticon Air Cavalry Troop Builder Set (2003)

A redeco of the standard Seeker Heroes of Cybertron figure, this was available in triplicate as part of an army-builder six-pack with Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp (who were identical to their mass-retail releases). Like (almost) all Heroes of Cybertron figures, they are cast in translucent plastic and entirely painted over, save for their eyes and a patch of the back of the head, giving them a light-piping effect.

This set was offered by 3H at OTFCC 2003 and other venues.

For some reason, the packaging lacked the molded plastic insert that normally held Heroes figures in place, so they tended to fall apart in the package. While this was normal for the toy and not a defect, they appeared "broken" at first glance.

This mold was also used to make Sunstorm, and retooled to make Super Collection Figure Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge.

• More information on "Decepticon" at TFU.info

Notes

• Nearly 20 years after their brief cartoon appearance, the nameless Seekers appeared as Heroes of Cybertron toys at OTFCC 2003. While the label simply said "Decepticon", the bio presented the full name of "Decepticon Air Warrior" for the first time.

References