Thundercracker (WFC)

Thundercracker is a Decepticon from the War for Cybertron portion of the Aligned continuity family.

Someone told me I was meeting Mike Costa here.

A scientist by nature, with a more upper-class air, Thundercracker stands out among his fellow Decepticons in being a fairly calm and level-headed fellow. He believes in the cause, even if he's not enthusiastic about Megatron's methods. Lacking the endless ambition of Starscream and the cruel thuggery of Skywarp, he displays little malice towards his enemies and takes no joy from battle. For Thundercracker, conflict is simply applied physics and chemistry, nothing more than the redirection of forces and energy towards the desired target... his foes. He is also a master of using sound to his advantage, producing sonic booms that instill fear in the Autobots' audio receptors.

Fiction

Aligned novels

When Decepticons bombed Altihex Casino, Starscream told Sentinel Prime that Thundercracker and Skywarp were his trusted lieutenants and that they would take him to safety. They actually took him to Kaon, from where he was then moved to Moon Base One and imprisoned. Exodus

I want to tell you about the Transformers! This character article is a stub and is missing information on their fictional appearances. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it. Exiles

Thundercracker and the Seekers were later used as disposable assets by Megatron, sending them out to investigate an Autobot signal that Megatron suspected was part of a larger trap. Sure enough, Thundertron and the Star Seekers were behind the signal, and Thundercracker barely escaped back to the Nemesis with his hide intact.

Later, Thundercracker was among the Decepticon on Aquatron captured by the Quintessons. Found innocent of crimes against the Quintesson Imperium, Thundercracker was fed to Piranhacons in the city of Hydratron's Hall of Justice. Retribution

Prime cartoon continuity

Voice actor: James Horan

During the war for Cybertron, Thundercracker was stationed at a Decepticon science installation located in Ankmor Park. Thundercracker was aiding his fellow scientist Shockwave in extracting the Sparks of the Decepticons Rumble and Frenzy in order to put them in Laser core containment chambers, which would then allow them to permanently switch between different bodies. Thundercracker started the experiment, and, in a flash of light, Rumble and Frenzy were transferred into their new bodies.

As the two smaller 'cons bickered over whether Shockwave had gotten their colors right, two Autobots burst into the lab, one of them demanding that the Decepticons leave his lab. Thundercracker released Rumble and Frenzy to backup Shockwave and himself. However, the Autobot Wheeljack revealed that years ago he had lined his lab with explosives and unstable energon. Unable to use weapons, Thundercracker and his allies engaged their foes in hand-to-hand combat. After losing Rumble and Frenzy, Shockwave and Thundercracker decided to retreat instead of risking Wheeljack setting off the explosives he had rigged in his lab, never realizing that the Wrecker had been bluffing.

Thundercracker and Shockwave would reconvene with Rumble and Frenzy at Kaon, where Soundwave demanded that they return the two to their original bodies. Unreliable Narratives

Games

Transformers: War for Cybertron (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)

Voice actor: Graham McTavish (English), Achille Orsoni (French), Iñaki Alonso (Spain-Spanish), Mario Hassert (German)

Thundercracker served with Skywarp, Jetfire, and the former Sky Commander Starscream on a dilapidated orbital research station that once experimented on the powerful, but highly dangerous Dark Energon. This made it a target for the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, who wished to restart Dark Energon production in his plans to revitalise Cybertron. Megatron attacked the station and fought his way into the laboratory, and despite Starscream's attempts to destroy the remaining Dark Energon, Megatron withstood its destructive power and bent it to his will. His survival intrigued Starscream, who offered to serve Megatron in exchange for learning how to manipulate Dark Energon himself; Thundercracker and Skywarp fell into line. Jetfire declared them traitors and left to warn Zeta Prime. Thundercracker and Skywarp were prepared to give chase, but Megatron allowed the Autobot to leave, as he wished Zeta Prime to know his demise was coming. However, the Decepticon commander scoffed at the idea of being given what he could simply take from Starscream, until the one-time Sky Commander revealed that there was very little Dark Energon left on the research station, but he knew how to manufacture more, and that the ancient, long-forgotten Energon Bridge needed to be reactivated before they could do so.

Thundercracker, Starscream and Skywarp were sent the cliffs of Kaon, where they could make their way into the underground. Thundercracker commented with wonder that he had never travelled this far into Cybertron before, for which Skywarp labelled him as being boring as always. As they entered an underground energon reservoir, Thundercracker warned his teammates to avoid touching the flowing streams and waterfalls of crude energon, as in that state is was extremely volatile; Skywarp once again mocked his companion's thoughtfulness. Making their way out of the reservoir, the three fliers faced their first serious challenge when an Autobot cruiser appeared in a canyon they needed to travel through. The trio crippled the cruiser's weapons system, fought their way past the Aerialbot squadron it launched, and moved into the ship. Defeating the ship's defenders, they then destroyed it by placing a detpack on the ship's power core. While Starscream and Skywarp busied themselves with glory hogging and relishing the battle against the Autobots, Thundercracker tried to keep them alive, using his Energon repair ray to heal their wounds. Deeper in the core, they encountered strange creatures the likes of which Thundercracker had never seen before. Eventually, they found themselves before the mechanism needed to restart the Energon Bridge, but Thundercracker's scans detected something very unusual about the machine. Starscream, tired of Thundercracker's readings and sensors, pushed his way past and injected Dark Energon into it without waiting for more information. Perhaps he should have listened to Thundercracker, as the machine activated its defense systems, revealing itself to be the Energon Bridge Guardian. The three Decepticons were forced to fight a desperate battle where the Sentinel threw heat-seeking fireballs at them, activated powerful energy beams and turned the floor into lava. Exploiting the machine's cooling down period, they were eventually victorious, and barely escaped with their lives when the Dark Energon infected the facility and reactivated the Energon Bridge, which sent its energon bouncing along satellites to Megatron's Dark Energon facility. Thundercracker remarked his amazement at this...but not until after Skywarp did. Y'know, TC, it's all well and good for you to be thoughtful and careful, but when Skywarp beats you to the punch in stating the blindly obvious, you might want to speed it up.

Shortly after the defeat of Zeta Prime, Iacon's guardian Omega Supreme gave chase to Megatron, though based on Megatron's attitude it was hard to tell exactly who was chasing whom at times. At one point, Megatron even ordered Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker to attack the behemoth, if only to provide a distraction. The three apparently eluded him after drawing his fire, however, as after Omega had cornered Megatron's team at an Autobot anti-aircraft terrace (or, depending on who you talk to, when Megatron tricked him into attacking them there), Omega's armour was breached by Megatron using the heavy guns, and Starscream led Skywarp and Thundercracker in shooting down the mighty Autobot, forcing him to crash land in a sub-level below. After Megatron defeated Omega Supreme on the ground and forced him to open the Omega Gate, Thundercracker and the others watched as Megatron achieved his plan to infect Cybertron's core with Dark Energon. Transformers: War for Cybertron

Transformers: War for Cybertron (DS)

Voice actor: Graham McTavish (English), Mario Hassert (German)

Thundercracker served under Megatron loyally during the final days of the war. He followed Megatron into battle against the titanic Autobot Omega Supreme, but not without expressing his numbing fear of the giant first. War for Cybertron - Autobots/Decepticons

Transformers: Cybertron Adventures

Voice actor: Graham McTavish (English), Mario Hassert (German)

Thundercracker and Skywarp taunted Barricade about his inability to fly. Later, Megatron watched three Autobot ships make their way to escape position, and ordered Thundercracker and Skywarp to plant homing beacons on each one. Thundercracker rocketed through the debris field, taking out Aerialbots and using the larger pieces of debris as landing points. Inside one, he was pinned down in a narrow tunnel by a gatling-Destroyer, giving him very little opportunity to gun the behemoth down between sweeps of blaster-fire. After a stern reminder from Megatron as to his mission, Thundercracker intercepted the first cruiser and planted the beacon on it. As he made his escape he was pinned down by Autobots, but Skywarp arrived to draw their fire. Skywarp leapt into the open to draw the fire of a squad of Autobots, allowing Thundercracker to snipe them in peace. After a short flight they planted the second beacon, and a blast from Trypticon sent the second ship to its doom. Making his way through another large chunk of destroyed base, Thundercracker headed for the Council ship through heavy firepower. He planted the beacon, and watched as the blast from Trypticon punched through... but did not destroy the ship. The Autobots had weakened Trypticon again, and Megatron ordered Thundercracker back to defend the superweapon. Transformers: Cybertron Adventures

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark

Console

Rise of the Dark Spark

3DS

Rise of the Dark Spark

Toys

Prime

He's just Blue Starscream now.

• Thundercracker (Deluxe, 2012)

• Accessories: Arms Micron "Silver Metal Baro"

A redeco of Skywarp, which is a slight retooling of the "First Edition" Deluxe Starscream toy, Thundercracker is exclusive to TakaraTomy markets, and further exclusively available at Yodobashi Camera, Yamada Electronics and EDION group stores. He transforms into a jet resembling a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. Like the other toys in the line, a lot of his detailing is done with customer-applied stickers rather than paint operations. He lacks Starscream's missile pods, instead featuring a pair of permanently-attached "bombs" on his wings. These bombs feature the hexagonal-shaped 5mm post-holes used in the line-wide "Arms Micron" play-pattern. He comes with his Arms Micron partner Silver Metal Baro, designed to form a star/shield that can be attached to Thundercracker's arms or store on his back.

The original version of this mold was differently retooled into Timelines Slipstream.

Generations

• Thundercracker (Deluxe, 2013)

• Series / Number: 02 / #006
• Accessories: Two assault cannons, tail-fin

Part of the sixth wave of 2012-onwards Generations Deluxe Class toys, Thrilling 30 Thundercracker is a redeco of Generations: Fall of Cybertron Starscream, and transforms into a Cybertronian jet fighter. He comes with two spinning, triple-barreled cannons which can combine to form a larger hand-held weapon that is geared to spin its two triple-barrels together, and resembles the Neutron assault rifle from Fall of Cybertron. Each of the weapon halves features two 5mm posts, as well as a peg-hole on their hollow sides, while the combined form features another peg-hole at the top, but makes the peg-holes on the hollow sides inaccessible. Thundercracker features numerous 5mm peg-holes, such as his hands, forearms, lower legs, and wing undersides.

Thundercracker's tail-fin is attached via a 5mm post on its underside, and can be detached to reveal three additional peg-holes, with two of these peg-holes being just the right distance to accommodate the combined assault cannons/rifle, with the tail-fin pegging on the rifle's top peg-hole. This allows the weapon to mount on top of the vehicle mode, and store on his back in robot mode.

Unlike other uses of the mold, Thundercracker features two different translucent plastic colors. His chest/cockpit canopy is molded in pale yellow, while the light-piping block built into his head in molded in red.

Thundercracker is minimally mis-transformed in-package: his jet mode nosecone is extended, rather than folded in as it should be in robot mode. He comes packaged with a copy of IDW's 'Spotlight: Thundercracker'.

This toy was also redecoed into TakaraTomy's Fall of Cybertron Skywarp.

• More information on Generations Thundercracker at TFU.info

Studio Series

Wanna taste my lollipop?

• Thundercracker (Voyager Class, 2025)

• Game: War for Cybertron
• Accessories: neutron assault rifle, two-part mace
• Known designers: Evan Brooks (Hasbro), Tomoki Tatsumi (TakaraTomy)^[1]

Completing the trio as a part of the twenty-ninth wave of Studio Series figures, Thundercracker is the expected blue redeco of Gamer Edition Starscream. He has a new head with a slightly angrier expression than the original's stoic face. He is based on his appearance in the War for Cybertron video game, transforming into a Cybertronian jet in 29 steps, in particular based on the jet's "hover" mode. He lacks the Decepticon symbol on the jet's rear that could be prominently seen during gameplay. Due to it storing his head and neck for transformation, this figure features a notably larger cockpit than the in-game model. Oddly, Thundercracker has painted black shins and kneecaps like his concept art intead of the pure blue of his in-game model. Additionally, this figure uses a far brighter blue, one more traditionally associated with G1 Thundercracker than the correct darker, more battle-worn blue.

He comes with a mace and new, more appropriately sized Neutron Assault Rifle which can be held normally using a 5 mm post. Like other Gamer Edition figures, his right forearm can be detached to equip the rifle or other Gamer Edition weapons. Unfortunately, there is no storage for the detached arm. For some reason, the very bottom of the mace's handle features a nonstandard 4mm post that goes unused. Both weapons can store on his back in robot mode and on the rear of the jet mode. Despite coming in a windowed box unlike the previous releases of the mold, Thundercracker's collar pieces are still packaged separately and are user-assembled.

Coincidentally, Thundercracker can also wield his Generations figure's Neutron Assault Rifle using the Gamer Edition arm gimmick, as that rifle's combined mode sports a 5mm port.

The mold was also used to make Gamer Edition Skywarp.

Notes

• Thundercracker is usable in both the Autobot and Decepticon versions of the War for Cybertron games for the DS. Used only for multiplayer, bonus missions and Arena mode in the Autobot version and used in Multiplayer, Arena mode, and campaign in the Decepticon version.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Thundercracker (サンダークラッカー Sandākurakkā)
• Russian: Thundercracker (War for Cybertron, Тандеркрекер), Gromoverzhets (Громовержец, "Thunderer")