Waspinator's History
Waspinator was a Predacon soldier during the Beast Wars that found himself in constant misfortune.
Waspinator, part of Megatron's rogue band of Predacons, landed on an unknown planet with dangerous levels of unstable energon. To protect themselves from the energon, the Predacons took organic beast modes. In Waspinator's case, he now transformed into a large, green wasp. The first conflict between the stranded Predacons and their Maximal pursuers came when the Maximal Cheetor stumbled across Waspinator. In a stark contrast to his later career, he actually proved to be a serious threat and had the advantage over the inexperienced Cheetor, pinning the young Maximal down in a canyon.
The Predacons pursued the Maximals and interrupted a fight between Optimus Primal and Dinobot. When a stray shot exposed a cache of energon atop a nearby mountain, the Predacons headed for it. Waspinator was teamed with Terrorsaur for the first time, in an attempt to slow the Maximals down. They were chased off by a missile from Primal and rejoined the others for a mountaintop battle, wherein Cheetor attempted to have a rematch with Waspinator.
Waspinator helped Scorponok and Terrorsaur install some perimeter defenses around the Predacon base. When Cheetor ended up in the Predacon base through some sort of freak teleportation system, Waspinator and Scorponok tried to kill him, but only succeeded in blowing themselves up with their own missiles. Little did Waspinator know that he would be blown up numerous times in the adventures to come.
Waspinator was part of an attack on the Maximals at the Standing Stones. He survived that battle, but when an alien probe appeared at the circle, he and Megatron attempted to take possession of it, and a pulse of energy zapped them. They turned up, badly damaged, back at the Predacon base. After repairs, Megatron sent Waspinator and Scorponok to guard the circle. The Maximals soon turned up to try and extract Primal from the probe. Waspinator attempted to sneak up on Rhinox, only for the Maximal to see his reflection on the probe and ventilate him with a chaingun. Waspinator fell backwards against a standing stone, activating a sequence which freed Primal from the probe.
After Terrorsaur managed to slag Megatron and take leadership of the Predacons, Waspinator and Scorponok promptly fixed Megatron. When a stasis pod crashed, Waspinator and Terrorsaur went directly to the Axalon and ambushed Optimus Primal when he emerged to look for the pod. Though they succeeded, Dinobot dropped a huge rock on Waspinator, and Terrorsaur had to help his fellow. Waspinator was still healthy enough to report to Megatron, who sent the pair to capture the pod. On the way, they managed to slow down the Maximals by destroying an ice bridge, but by the time they reached the pod, Tigatron had already been activated. The new Maximal fought them off.
In one of Waspinator's few victories, he managed to retrieve the stasis pod which gave birth to Blackarachnia. When Terrorsaur again deposed of Megatron, Waspinator seemed happy to follow his fellow Predacon. Perhaps that was why he was subsequently assigned with Blackarachnia and Terrorsaur to deliver a sonic emitter to a location below the Axalon. Dissatisfied with the task, he went to fly around for a bit and mutter to himself, only to give away their position accidentally. Though he returned to the other two Predacons, they were discovered by Tigatron, who destroyed the sonic emitter. After Primal was inadvertently turned into a berserker by Scorponok's cyberbee, Waspinator attempted to track down Optimus in the Predacon base, but found himself pulled through a wall and blasted.
Waspinator acted as bait for the first test of Tarantulas's transformation lock lens. The test was a success, but Waspinator was slagged by Tigatron. He was later one of the trio who mounted a mock revolt against Megatron to fool the Maximals. The Predacons concealed themselves in a crevasse while the Maximals repaired the Axalon. They were discovered by Dinobot, who dropped a large rock on Waspinator and Terrorsaur. Though the latter survived to battle on, Waspinator apparently didn't.
When Rhinox had his personality program converted to that of a Predacon, he started surreptitiously taking out the various Predacons. He swung a cargo crate into Waspinator, giving him a concussion. As a result, Waspy flew around in a daze, claiming to be the Insecticon Shrapnel as well as the great Wonko the Sane. This dementia was apparently reversed when Cheetor later got annoyed at his yammering and shot him down. One of Waspinator's stray shots subsequently hit the Transmuter, causing it to explode.
Terrorsaur and Waspinator were hanging around outside the Predacon base during Megatron's experiment to create a clone of Dinobot. The pair attacked Cheetor when the young Maximal was protecting a stasis pod. Cheetor managed to lure Waspinator into flying over an energon geyser, frying his circuits. Perhaps a sign that they hadn't learned their lesson, Waspinator and Terrorsaur attacked Tigatron, only to be blasted by the defense system of a strange flying island. Though injured, they were able to return to base to report the find, just in time before Terrorsaur fainted on top of Waspinator. Following another bout of repairs, the duo headed back for the island, only to run into Primal and Rattrap, who were headed in the same direction. Eventually, they did reach the island only for Blackarachnia to trick them into triggering the island's defenses again, resulting in them both being blasted.
Tigatron was ambushed on his way to another stasis pod by Waspinator, who managed to get a drop on the tiger. Waspinator's victory was short-lived, as Airazor promptly shot his wings off, and he crashed to the ground. Waspinator and Terrorsaur stole the Axalon's rectifier coil, forcing the Maximals remain in their beast modes. Once the Maximals had gone feral and wandered off into the jungle, the Predacons mounted a hunting expedition. The Maximals were able to overcome their programming block, and during the subsequent fight, Rhinox swatted Waspinator out of the air with a tree.
After an apparently victorious battle, Waspinator and Scorponok returned to base. However, the Maximals they had attacked were not dead, merely blinded, and Waspinator was soon sent out again, teamed with Terrorsaur, to eliminate them. Unfortunately, even four blind Maximals were more than enough match for them, and both Predacons were sent packing. Things continued to go badly for Waspinator, as during a violent storm, he was possessed by the immortal spark of Starscream. It took a major energon explosion to dislodge Starscream's immortal spark from Waspinator's body. It also had the after-effect of giving Waspinator a headache in his whole body.
Waspinator was part of a diversionary attack while Tarantulas tried out his new weapon, an energon discharge virus. Later on, the Predacons attempted to stop the Maximals getting the antidote and were blasted by Rhinox's energon discharge. Waspinator teamed up with Inferno and Terrorsaur for a fight, only to be roundly trounced by Tigatron. The trio were later able to defeat Dinobot, with Waspinator dealing the final blow, but Optimus Primal turned up and blew both him and Terrorsaur away with one shot.
Waspinator caught Tarantulas stealing a transwarp cell from the Darksyde, but he was unable to stop the spider from leaving, as Tarantulas tossed him a bomb and locked the door behind him. Trapped inside, Waspinator was soon in a multitude of separate pieces. Recovered and ready to take revenge on Tarantulas, he was instead sent by Megatron to secure a new alien site. Unfortunately, once he got there, he encountered Rattrap, who dispatched him. He retired to the Darksyde, where the Predacons monitored the situation with the Planet Buster weapon which had been revealed from the planet's second moon.
After the Planet Buster was destroyed, the strange energies of a quantum surge saturated both ships. Waspinator lost control of his hoversled and was tipped into one of the restoration pools. Bathed in the regenerative fluids, he was prevented from becoming a Transmetal. He and his newly upgraded leader mounted an attack on the Axalon, but once Waspinator faced a similarly upgraded Cheetor, he soon retreated. Waspinator was the first to realize that the seemingly unknown planet on which they'd landed was, in fact, Earth. Dinobot had made the same realization and stole into the Darksyde to retrieve both of Megatron's disks. Waspinator proposed the two work together to steal the disks, and much to his surprise, Dinobot agreed and threw him into the security shield. Waspinator was crushed into a cube by the disks' security contraption, leaving Dinobot free to steal the disks unharmed while Waspinator crawled away to the CR chamber using two fingers.
He got himself repaired in time to join Megatron's forces on the battlefield, where they outnumbered Dinobot, Cheetor and Rattrap. He was teamed up with new recruit Silverbolt to attack the Axalon by air. After asserting his authority over the Fuzor, he was promptly knocked out of the air by Cheetor. After piercing Sentinel's defenses, he joined the other Predacons as they prepared to finish off the Maximals for good, but was the first victim of a reborn Transmetal Optimus Primal.
Waspinator and Inferno were tasked with constructing a new jamming tower. They constructed it successfully, but while Waspinator proudly reported their success to Megatron, Inferno playfully knocked the tower over on him. Another of Waspinator's rare victories came when he shot Silverbolt from behind, causing the Maximal to crash into Dinobot, effectively taking both out. While Inferno took off with Dinobot's prone form, Quickstrike refused to help Waspinator carry Silverbolt. A short time later, Rattrap mimicked Quickstrike's voice, tricking Waspinator into picking up a gas mine, and Waspinator's victory was no more.
Waspinator and the rest of the Predacons installed shield generators around another alien site, but the alien construct which appeared zapped everyone, sending him into stasis lock. Megatron took control of the construct and restored all of the Predacons to working order. Waspinator and Inferno retrieved transwarp cells to give the ship transwarp capability. They were later sent out to defend the construct against the Maximals.
Sent with Blackarachnia to claim another pod, Waspinator didn't last long before he was shot down by Cheetor and landed head first. He also took part in the attack on the valley where the anthropoids were living, but his contribution ended when Dinobot stuffed him head-first into Rampage's main cannon and Rampage exploded.
As by Megatron's calculations, the transwarp wavefront from the Planet Buster explosion would soon be reaching Cybertron, the Predacons mounted an attack on the Axalon. The Maximals received reinforcements in the form of Predacon covert agent Ravage, whose transwarp cruiser saw the Predacons off. Waspinator was subsequently given a new solo mission by Megatron, and he departed when the Maximals next attacked. Just as he arrived at his destination, Blackarachnia accidentally hit him with her hoversled, knocking him apart. Waspinator once again started gathering himself together.
Waspinator pulled himself together in time to aid Megatron's escape, after the Predacon leader badly damaged Optimus Prime. He, Megatron and Inferno headed for the Axalon, but Cheetor and Primal caught up with them, and Waspinator was downed by one shot from Cheetor. After Inferno was blown to bits while attacking the Maximal base, Megatron sent Waspinator to salvage him. Waspinator was less than happy, complaining that no one ever salvaged him. He was able to get the drop on Silverbolt when the Maximals were attempting to salvage Sentinel, and he happily flew off with the module. He was so excited, he figured Megatron would give him a vacation for this.
Sadly, he didn't get very far before Silverbolt and Rattrap caught up, blasting him out of the air so they could reclaim Sentinel. After Megatron developed cyber raptors, Waspinator and Tarantulas were sent out with a group of them to attack Cheetor and Blackarachnia. The Maximals soon discovered that destroying the raptors' control components sent them wild, and Waspinator was stomped into the ground by an out-of-control dinosaur. Another of Waspinator's increasingly few victories came when he managed to snatch a stasis pod from under the Maximals' noses. He acted as lab assistant as Megatron utilized the blank protoform contained in the pod, plus a transmetal driver, to create a new Dinobot. Unfortunately, even this victory was short-lived, as a short time later, the device Megatron was using exploded, and Waspinator was caught in the blast. After getting repaired, he made his way to where Megatron was interrogating Depth Charge only to be blasted by his own trigger-happy leader.
After Megatron discovered that Cheetor had upgraded himself into a Transmetal 2, he sent Waspinator and Dinobot out to find and capture the kitty. The pair located him in a cave, but as Dinobot began to move in, Waspinator asserted his own leadership...and was shredded by Dinobot. Following another bout of repairs, Waspinator rejoined the hunt, and they eventually found Cheetor again. Waspinator was offhandedly slagged by the Maximal while trying to sneak up.
Requiring someone organic to complete the disruptor cannon, Megatron sent Waspinator and Inferno to pick up an anthropoid. Waspinator was able to capture Una, but she did quite a bit of damage to him on the flight back. On reaching the mountain hideout, Waspinator reported success and promptly collapsed into a collection of parts. At some point, he got repaired and was able to join in the pursuit of Rattrap and Una as they escaped. He was hit in the face by mud, sending him out of control, crashing into first Inferno, then Dinobot, and allowing the Maximals to escape. The three Predacons were called back to the mountain, where Megatron attempted to use the disruptor cannon, which promptly exploded. Waspinator's next glorious mission was an attack on the Maximal base. Unfortunately for him, his expected backup wasn't there, and he was swatted by Optimus Primal. It had all been a ploy to draw Primal out so that Tarantulas could deliver a device to take control of the Maximal leader.
During Quickstrike's trial for betraying Megatron, Waspinator was his defense attorney. He didn't do a very excellent job of defending his client as he wanted to see him get punished. However, before Quickstrike's sentence was cast, the Darksyde was destroyed at Tigerhawk's hands. In retaliation, Megatron ordered the Predacons to attack, but Tigerhawk summoned a tornado that swooped up Waspinator, Inferno, and Quickstrike. Waspinator looked on the bright side that he had company this time.
With their base gone, Megatron sent Waspinator, Inferno, and Quickstrike on an errand to find a new base, which was really nothing more than pointless busywork while Megatron went to do more important things. As the trio staked out an early human tribe that had taken up residence in a series of caves, Waspinator decided he'd finally had enough and ripped off his Predacon symbol, declaring himself out of the Beast Wars. Waspinator was interrupted by getting blown to scrap by Inferno and Quickstrike. His parts recovered by the anthropoid tribe, Waspinator remained on Earth while all the other surviving Transformers set off for Cybertron, and led the tribe, declaring that he was finally happy.
