Female Autobots

Transformers: Generation 1

The Female Autobots (known in Japan as the Woman Cybertrons and alternately known as the Fatal Furies and Elita One's Squadron) were seen in the 1985 animated television series, in which they were indicated to be rare, and believed extinct by most other Transformers. They did not appear in the American Marvel comic book series, where it was specifically stated that Transformers do not have genders. It is very clear that the difference between male and female Transformers is much more than the shape of their bodies, it is a sociocultural difference, with each "gender" possessing—in a general sense—the traits usually associated, at least partially stereotypically, with the human genders.

Members

The team as it originally appeared consisted of six members, Elita One, Chromia, Firestar, Moonracer, Greenlight and Lancer. Elita One, Firestar, and Moonracer are all voiced by Morgan Lofting, Chromia is voiced by Linda Gary, and Greenlight and Lancer went unnamed and had no dialogue. In the Dreamwave Productions comic books, the "Female Autobots" were an elite squad of warriors under the command of the Quintessons, while Arcee functioned as a sleeper agent of theirs in this continuity. Arcee was voiced by Susan Blu. In IDW Publishing's comic book series, the "Female Autobots" consisted of new fan-made character Windblade, along with another new character named Nautica, and a new version of Chromia.

In most versions are the Transformers storyline (such as the cartoon, Dreamwave, etc.), the original and main line up consisted of:

Elita One – Originally, Elita One was Ariel, girlfriend of dockworker robot Orion Pax, but when the two were fatally wounded during one of Megatron's first attacks, the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion, rebuilt them as Optimus Prime and Elita One, using the same set of schematics. Elita desired to accompany Prime on the Ark's mission, but he refused, saying it was too dangerous. When a Decepticon ambush struck the Ark launch site shortly before the craft took off, Elita disappeared in an explosion, and Prime believed she had died. This was not the case, however, and in the following four million years she led her troops in a guerrilla war against the remaining Decepticon forces on Cybertron, advised and aided by Alpha Trion himself, unaware of her connection to him. In 1985, Shockwave uncovered the location of the Female Autobots' base and the Decepticons were able to capture Elita One, using her as bait to lure Optimus Prime to Cybertron. Prime almost met his end in an acid bath, but Elita used her hidden secret weapon – a stasis field which effectively froze time, allowing her to pull Prime from the path of the acid. However, the ability was a sacrificial one, as it drained almost all of Elita's energy. With Elita now hovering on the brink of death, Prime took her to Alpha Trion, where Trion revealed that only Prime's power supply could properly interface with hers (as a result of their shared schematics). Now aware of Trion's hand in his creation through implications made by the ancient Autobot when Optimus confronted him on how he would have known the Autobot leader could revive her, Prime re-energized Elita, and the two helped rescue their comrades from a Decepticon attack. Elita and her forces elected to remain on Cybertron and fight the battle there, while Prime returned to Earth.

Chromia – Chromia was one of Elita One's top agents and the friend/romantic interest of Ironhide. When Moonracer was caught in a booby-trap during one of the Autobots raids on Shockwave's energy stockpile, the continued existence of the Female Autobots was finally revealed to the Decepticons, and Shockwave was able to trail them back to their base and capture Elita One. When Optimus Prime was then lured to Cybertron, Ironhide, Inferno and Powerglide followed and Ironhide was reunited with her.

Firestar – Firestar was one of Elita One's top agents and the friend of Inferno. When Moonracer was caught in a booby-trap during one of the Autobots raids on Shockwave's energy stockpile, the continued existence of the Female Autobots was finally revealed to the Decepticons, and Shockwave was able to trail them back to their base and capture Elita One. When Optimus Prime was then lured to Cybertron, Ironhide, Inferno and Powerglide followed and Inferno was reunited with her.

Moonracer – Moonracer was one of Elita One's top agents and the friend/romantic interest of Powerglide. When Moonracer was caught in a booby-trap during one of the Autobots raids on Shockwave's energy stockpile, the continued existence of the Female Autobots was finally revealed to the Decepticons, and Shockwave was able to trail them back to their base and capture Elita One. When Optimus Prime was then lured to Cybertron, Ironhide, Inferno and Powerglide followed and was reunited with her.

At BotCon 2005, the Transformers: Energon Arcee figure was remoulded and repainted to resemble Moonracer, but the name could not be legally acquired for the toy, and so she was dubbed Chromia.

Additional member may include some of the following characters depending on the continuity and or time period:

Flareup – Flareup was a student of the Autobot Firestar. According to the toy designers they originally planned for this character to be a new version of Generation 1 Firestar, but when that name was unavailable they called her Flareup and made her Firestar's student.

Greenlight and Lancer – Greenlight is mostly green colored, while Lancer is mostly orange. Both are members of Elita One's team and were present when the team's headquarters were severely damaged by Starscream's squad in the episode "The Search for Alpha Trion". Upon the team's escape from the damaged structure, they, Chromia, Moonracer and Firestar helped Ironhide, Powerglide and Inferno fend off the Decepticons. Greenlight and Lancer have no dialogue in the episode, nor do any of the other characters refer to them by name. Their identities were not revealed until 2010, in the story "Flames of Yesterday" published by the Transformers Collectors' Club.

Arcee – The best known of all female Autobots, Arcee was introduced in The Transformers: The Movie and remained a main character in the subsequent television series. In the Dreamwave Productions comic books, Arcee functioned as a sleeper agent of the Female Autobots in that continuity. Arcee was voiced by Susan Blu.

Alternately, the IDW Publishing's comic book series introduced a new incarnation of the "Female Autobots" team consisting of a new line up, including:

Windblade – Autobot who turns into a VTOL jet. Windblade is the first "fan-built bot" ever — the result of various polls on Hasbro's official website to determine most of her character and physical traits. She was officially revealed as a female Autobot at SDCC 2013. In addition to getting a toy, she'll also get a special IDW mini-series written by Mairghread Scott and illustrated by Sarah Stone. Scott did not give details on Windblade's backstory, but she did say that she has "no intention of presenting her in any sort of stereotypical geisha or hand-over-her-mouth-anime-girl role." Windblade made her first comics appearance in Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #26, which was Chapter 8 of the Dark Cybertron event. Following that event, she was featured in a 4-issue miniseries, released from April–July 2014. This miniseries was notable for being first Transformers comic with an all-female creative team.

Nautica – an Autobot from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family. An intellectual gifted to the point of possibly being an outlier, Nautica has studied more subjects than you can shake a stick at, from literature to cartography to moral philosophy. By trade she's a quantum mechanic—an engineer with focus on faster-than-light starships—and as such can usually be seen carrying her trusty wrench. Hailing from the colony world of Caminus alongside her friends Chromia and Windblade, Nautica can be rather clueless about the history of Cybertron and the war, but she's eager to learn from her new friends on the Lost Light. Nautica transforms into a submarine with limited space travel capabilities.

Chromia – Chromia was born from the hot spot contained in the Metrotitan Caminus, a distant colony was cut off from Cybertron long before the war and whose citizens had adapted to their new life with by developing differentiated genders. Her people's isolation ended with the arrival of Thunderclash, who had come seeking help from a Cityspeaker in order to aid Metroplex. The chosen Cityspeaker, Windblade, needed a bodyguard, however, and so Chromia (and Nautica) were enlisted. A Bot and Her City The three joined the crew of the Vis Vitalis shortly before it crossed paths with Alpha Trion. The legendary Autobot was preoccupied with an important quest, so the three volunteered to watch after Metroplex for him and keep him alive. Under their watch, Metroplex's insides were besieged with invaders, so Chromia and Nautica hunted them down to confront them and fight them off, if necessary. They found a small group of robots and Chromia threatened to put the hurt down on them.

Victorion - A female Combiner composed of six female Autobots known as the Torchbearers who took up residence in the Sea of Rust. She is named after a robot from Brave Saga 2.

Pyra Magna - Leader of the Torchbearers; alt-mode is a rescue truck.

Jumpstream - Turns into a sports car.

Dustup - Turns into a sports car.

Stormclash and Skyburst - Twins who turn into helicopters.

Rust Dust - Turns into a motorcycle.

Velocity - A medic who assists Ratchet.

Though not a female transformer, given his supportive role to the team in the cartoon, Alpha Trion might be considered a member of the group in that continuity as well.

Animated series

Four million years ago, the Female Autobots parted ways with Optimus Prime's team as he led his ship the Ark on a mission to gather energon. Elita One wanted to come with him but Optimus insisted it was too dangerous. Optimus vowed to return for them, but caught in an explosion, Optimus believed them to be destroyed. In 1985, Elita One is the female Autobot commander on Cybertron trying to liberate the planet from the corrupt grip of the Decepticon guardian of Cybertron, Shockwave. Advised by Alpha Trion, she led a group of female Autobot resistance fighters including Chromia, Firestar, and Moonracer. Elita One is captured and used as bait by Shockwave to lure Optimus Prime into a deadly trap. As Shockwave predicted, Optimus Prime traveled back to Cybertron to uphold his promise and save his love. Ironhide, Inferno, and Powerglide follow him. They are soon joined with Optimus and Elita. The Decepticons, defeated, retreat. The Autobots wish they could stay with them, but they have to go back to Earth, as the Decepticons are there, while Alpha Trion gives the Female Autobots a new base.

The Female Autobots would make no further appearances or even be mentioned in the series after this point. However, Elita One would later appear as "Ariel" in a prequel episode entitled "War Dawn" focusing on Optimus and Elita's origins, while Arcee would be introduced later in The Transformers: The Movie separately, and would evolve into a main recurring character in the show's third season. Towards the end of the series, a female character named Beta would be introduced as the first female Autobot in "Forever is a Long Time Coming" as one of Alpha Trion's early partners in a war against the Quintessons.

Books

Arcee appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books.

MC Axis mini-comics

When the team took out a humongous Decepticon, Moonracer began boasting about their success, claiming that they alone could retake Cybertron. Only Elita One failed to share in her team's exultation, as she knew they were only hiding and that the war was wearing them out. She prayed that her beloved Optimus Prime would return soon to save the day.

At another time, Arcee showed off to Firestar and Moonracer how "badass" she was by taking out a Decepticon the other two hadn't even noticed. She then continued to berate them that war seemed to be too tough for females in particular. Firestar was horrified at realizing that three beautiful women were at three times as much risk.

Transformers 2010 story pages

By the year 2010, the Autobot ranks were subjected to a knew chain of command. The Female Autobots joined other subgroups, such as the Dinobots, the Junkions and the Autobot Cars, as now being under the command of Jazz.

Marvel Comics

No female Transformers are ever seen or referred to in the US stories. In "Recipe for Disaster!", Cloudburst is pressured into a relationship with the beautiful First One of Femax, but he explains that Transformers, as a species, have no gender. The UK stories corroborate this, and, in "Prime's Rib!" Arcee is intentionally created by the Autobots to be the sole female Transformer in an attempt to placate human feminists.

Despite this, the Marvel continuity was actually the first in introducing a female Cybertronian: Aunty, the onboard computer of the Ark, who was introduced in the very first issue. Theoretically, she is not that different from other Cybertronians and one can only guess how to combine her existence and the "no gender"-statements.

The letter pages mentioned another two females: Decepticon Clio and presumed Autobot Karmen. Provided they are real and Blaster didn't just make them up, they might have been built after Arcee's example. BotCon's Classics fiction, while not including the UK material, introduced Elita One in "Games of Deception", in a manner similar to UK Arcee.

Dreamwave Productions

Elita One, Chromia, Firestar and Moonracer appeared briefly in the final issue of Dreamwave Comics Generation One series among the female Transformers sent by the Quintessons to Cybertron. Although they were supposed to participate in the next plot arc, involving the return of Optimus Prime, the company's closure left this story unfinished. Arcee functioned as a sleeper agent of the girls'.

Fun Publications

The "Female Autobots" appeared in the story "Battle Lines, Part 6". In order to gather energy for the sapped Autobots, a crew was formed to pilot the Ark. The Female Autobots were to be part of the crew, but a Decepticon attack blocked her and others from reaching the ship before it departed. Soon after, as their current reserve of energies was dangerously low, Elita joined her comrades still on the planet in stasis hibernation pods to await the return of energy resources to their planet.

IDW Publishing

Originally Simon Furman stated that he would not use female Transformers in IDW continuity until he came up with a reason for them to exist that made logical sense to him. He did not rule out doing so, as he said he had found a similar justification for the Pretenders, which led to the Stormbringer miniseries. Despite this, in Megatron Origin, Alex Milne drew what are clearly intended to be female Transformers in a good number of "easter egg" cameo appearances, which included female GoBots character Crasher, Elita One, Chromia, and a number of generic background characters. Another female Transformer appears in a flashback to Sunstreaker's glory days in "Replay", staring up at him in doe-eyed adoration.

This was finally resolved in "Spotlight: Arcee", where it was revealed that the malevolent Golden Age Cybertronian scientist Jhiaxus introduced gender to the Cybertronian genome just to see what would happen. Tampering with the CNA of the titular character at her creation to make her Female, he discarded his experiment once he was finished, only to find she had an inherent homing instinct for his creations. Arcee's systems were severely messed up by this experiment, causing her to become tremendously unstable to the point of psychosis and fixated on getting revenge on Jhiaxus. While the story implies that she is something very rare and unique it does not say that she was the only female Transformer Jhiaxus created, merely the first, leaving it open for the cameos in Megatron Origin to remain in continuity. Jhiaxus specifically alters Arcee's CNA to make her female and introduce gender to the species. Exactly how deep these alterations went, how closely her form was designed to match the females of organic species on which she was based (particularly in relation to reproduction) is unknown and will likely remain so.

By Hasbro edict, IDW introduced a new female Transformer called Windblade in 2014. Writer Mairghread Scott made it clear that Windblade wouldn't have gender by accident or sinister design, and that female Transformers would have a new type of origin. (This led to a brief conflict as Furman initially read this as a personal attack on his work) Windblade's arrival was used to double the number of female Cybertronians to a total of four as her friends Chromia and new Autobot Nautica showed up with her in Chapter 8 of the Dark Cybertron crossover. As revealed in the first issue of The Transformers: Windblade, the Transformers of the planet/Metrotitan Caminus merely evolved over time in a way that allowed for female Transformers to exist. Other generic female Transformers besides the three that first showed up in Dark Cybertron are shown or implied.

Video games

In Transformers: Legends, Hunting parties led by Slipstream and Flamewar managed to stop the Female Autobots (referred to in-game as "Elita One's Squadron"). It is unclear what "stopped" means in this context, as in-continuity information about the Fatal Furies event was limited to two brief blurbs.

Toyline

Though many female Transformers were featured in the fiction from the early days of Generation 1, for many years they tended to either: a) not have toys made of them at all, or, b) for those very few that did get a release, end up as repaints of other molds clearly not designed with a female aesthetic in mind. This was mainly because Transformers was marketed as a boy's toy. Transmetal Airazor is likely the first Transformer toy designed to intentionally represent a female character.

Unicron Trilogy

The Unicron Trilogy would also feature female Autobots, though as usual they appeared in the minority. The most prominent examples were Arcee, who here appeared as a member of the Omnicons, and Override, leader of the planet Velocitron.

Transformers: Cinematic Universe

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the Arcee Sisters (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is the name of the group consisting of Female Autobots. During development, the three bikes were first conceived to be able to combine into a single robot, and this ability can still be seen in the film's novelization.

The three sisters are a pink Ducati 848 called Arcee in the toyline, a blue Suzuki B-King 2008 called Chromia in the toyline, and a purple MV Agusta F4 R312 called Elita One in the toyline. At some point, Elita One was meant to be called Flareup. All three motorcycles feature customizations performed by custom sportsbike builder retroSBK. Arcee's holographic riders are played by Erin Naas.

IDW Publishing

In the IDW Publishing comics, Arcee and her sisters are distinct characters with individual personalities and have different names. They also are designed differently. Arcee is a tall but skinny pink robot. Elita resembles Arcee, just with different vehicle mode kibble, and a bit bulkier. Chromia is the one that has a completely different design than her sisters, even the vehicle mode kibble and face. Arcee and Elita have a somewhat bird-like face, while Chromia has her movie appearance. In Tales of the Fallen #6 Arcee is taken by Thundercracker and given to the Decepticon medic Flatline, who experiments on her. Upon waking up she discovers Skids and Mudflap are also captives of the Decepticons.

After she discovers her spark has been merged with that of Chromia and Elita One, they have a mental link, and use this to lead an escape. Arcee, Chromia and Elita One subsequently were among the Autobots to come to Earth in response to Optimus Prime's signal inviting all of his kind to do so. She joined with the Earth-based Autobots in Transformers: Alliance #4. In California, the Autobots set a trap for Starscream's minions Divebomb, Fearswoop and Skystalker by having Theodore Galloway pose as an arms dealer attempting to purchase Cybertronian technology. The trap is uncovered and the Autobots send in Arcee, Chromia, Elita One, Ironhide, Mudflap and Skids. Divebomb and Skystalker are killed while Fearswoop is captured by the Autobots and taken back to the NEST base on Diego Garcia.

Movie plot

In the movie, all three robots are referred to as Arcee and do not seem to be separate characters. They chased the Decepticon Sideways in an alley in Shanghai, but lost track of him. They were later present when the Autobots faced off with the Decepticons in Egypt, and were sent with Ironhide as an advance team to recover Sam. Upon finding Sam and Mikaela, several Decepticons attacked and Arcee and Elita One were shot, while Chromia was last seen taking cover. They were never seen again in the films.

Transformers: Prime

As in other continuities, female Transformers in the Transformers: Prime universe are incredibly rare. The explanation for the use of the 'she' pronoun for Solus, as detailed in her section of the Covenant, is that Cybertronians do not possess gender, but instead use pronouns as a result of a communication protocol designed to help factilitate dialogue between Cybertronians and the members of races who possess gender, as a means of recognizing and celebrating difference.

This does not conflict with the Autobit regarding Arcee being an "exception", as the explanation does not preclude the possibility that a Cybertronian could voluntarily self-identify with a gender, merely that they do not inherently have a gender, female, male, or anything in-between.

Books

In the Transformers: The Covenant of Primus, though she predated the Autobot and Decepticon movements by eons, Solus Prime was featured as the first female Transformer. She is mentioned as one of the Thirteen Primes who did battle with Unicron, and her mystical forge-an artifact that could craft any material into a desired object in the hand of a Prime-was a contested resource during the second and early third seasons. The book also mentioned Elita One and Moonracer as early female Transformers who participated in the rebellion against the Quintessons alongside Sentinel Prime.

IDW Publishing

Firestar and Chromia appear in the Rage of the Dinobots comic book miniseries as Autobot refugees on an abandoned Cybertron.

Animated series

The most prominently featured female Autobot in the Transformers: Prime series was Arcee, who served as a member of Team Prime. Though, Megatron takes Solus Prime's arm to wield the Forge of Solus Prime for a short period of time. A new female Autobot named Strongarm appears in the 2015 Transformers: Robots in Disguise sequel television series as part of Bumblebee's team. The cast was also joined by an animated incarnation of Windblade.