Allegiance: Decepticon Name: Needlenose Function: Aerial Warrior Quote: "Get hip or get hit!" Profile: The coolest Decepticon ever to crush an Autobot. Believes the secret to being bad is to be BAD. Fascinated by earth trends and culture. Armed with a twin-barrel electrostatic cannon. Teamed with Sunbeam, a beach-bum who transforms into a solar-powered sunburst-discharger, and Zigzag, a drone transector who transforms into a missle launcher. Sunbeam and Zigzag can combine into Bigshot. As the story goes, Needlenose never took his job all that seriously, always being on the lookout for the latest fad to follow. It was this lack of focus on the goal that caused him to become severly damaged in battle, and caused the loss of his original Zigzag partner. Distraught, Needlenose had himself rebuilt, and had a new partner created, that he named after his lost comrade. More serious than before, he has become a better warrior under the new Megatron's tutelege. However, he still maintains a keen interest in earth's going-ons, although now he channels that knowledge into the greater good of the Decepticon cause.

Notes: Well, believe it or not, this project was going to be a simple repaint of Thrust into G1-accurate colors. Along the way, I noticed how similar he looked to the Targetmaster Needlenose; especially the way the forehead gets covered, and how the nosecone sticks out from behind the legs...so I scrapped my plans. Those stupid jet-wing arms didn't lend much playability to the toy, so I modified Thrust with Needlenose's arms. I couldn't scrap-out the old ones completely...they are integral to the jet mode. SOOoo...now they attach to the back and act as a jet-pack. :-) (They also disconnect and combine with the removable nosecone, to form a twin electrostatic disrupter...note that Needlenose's partner Zigzag transformed into that originally. Note also that the design looks VERY much like RiD Prowl's twin-weapon, which was *also* a type of electrostatic disruptor. Neat, huh? It all ties together in my twisted little mind.) I wasn't thrilled with the knee-launchers, so off they went. I also had to do a bit of filing on Thrust's forearms to get the Needlenose arms to fit. All in all, only a few minutes of time were really spent on building this project. I wasn't thrilled with the Neelenose tech by any stretch, but I also feel the need to keep the character 'true' to G1, while adding a touch more darkness (and a reason for the new form, natch). The design more than made up for it.