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#16

Waspinator

By Blackjack

"Waspinator having good day! Not get shot once!"

Percentage of vote: 34.0
Average ranking: 12.8

Sometimes you root for the underdog. And amongst the Transformers lore, no character has gotten pummelled, incinerated, possessed, decapitated, mutilated, detonated, butchered and generally abused as much as Waspinator has. "How shall I count the number of ways he gets destroyed?", an anonymous voter asked, and really, how could you? Soon after his first appearance in Beast Wars' first episode, Waspinator was reduced into a physical comedy relief routine. He has become a running gag in the show, between him getting basically blown up in every fight he's in (save for conflicts against Silverbolt which he will inevitably win), never really suffering any permanent injury (the pain was real though). As well as his adorably buzzing third-person speech quirk, this helped Waspinator grow quickly into a character everyone loves to laugh at and at the same time, one to pity.

"Greatest comic relief.
He exploded for our sins."

-- Rafael Anguila"

The brand of violent, slapstick abuse heaped on Waspinator and his constant whining is one of the key aspects of Beast Wars' unique brand of comedy. He was never in the spotlight, but he was never shoved unceremoniously aside into the background either. He was a constant, something every show needs. The show can change to include Fuzors and Transmetals and Generation One and all sorts of high stakes, or it can focus on Rhinox's gas problem, but one thing remains constant: Waspinator will deliver a funny line or sequence or two and he will go boom in a fight. Everyone likes a bit of slapstick now and then, and in the midst of any serious episode you really do need some funny little quip from Waspinator to lighten things up. A funny little quip, a rather clueless observation… Waspinator delivers everything with that endearingly adorable buzzy voice that the voice-acting maestro Scott McNeil bequeathed to him.

Of course, just being blown up every episode does not account for Waspinator's sheer popularity. He's beloved by fans, and to quote Zach Baringer (TFW2005's Icespark), Waspinator is "a character who could be both laughed at and related to." Not everyone can relate to the war-torn hero or the evil warlord or the plucky kid character, but at some point in your life you've felt like Waspinator at least once. Just generally trying to do your best with the lot you're given in life, but everyone just seems to get in your way and kick you even further when you're down. Enemies, allies… the universe itself seems to be out to get you. Waspinator is a loser, he's a butt-monkey, but he just wants a simple life. To follow orders and be praised for doing something right. But the universe hates him and makes his life hell. And no matter how successful you are in life, at some point you were Waspinator, the little bug that blew up.

Of course, like every other character in Beast Wars Waspinator was not a two-dimensional archetype. He showed a fair bit of friendship with Terrorsaur early on, and maintained a long-suffering attitude throughout his long, long tenure as part of Megatron's Predacon crew, even suffering abuse from fellow cannon fodder comedy mooks Inferno and Quickstrike. And finally, all the rage bottled up throughout the three seasons exploded in the very last episode, where Waspinator rips off his Predacon insignia and snaps at the other Predacons, showing backbone for the first time in his life… and, predictably, gets blown up to bits for it. Of course that wasn't the end of Waspinator because the proto-humans eventually repaired him and waited on him like a king, earning the poor little bug some solace from his daily routine of being exploded.

"Icon of an era. A unique
character who's never really
been topped in his archetype."

--Copper Bezel

Of course, it didn't really end there – Waspinator somehow found his way back to Cybertron in time for the show's questionable sequel, Beast Machines. But while his spark does get put inside the Vehicon general Thrust, Waspinator himself remained dormant and was content to allow this other personality take control. After all, the ‘cool biker-bot' gets all the chicks. At the end of Beast Machines, though, Thrust-Waspinator was turned into a tiny little wasp which was eventually swatted away, as was per the norm for anything featuring poor little Waspinator.

So, as Waspinator likes to ask, "Why universe hate Waspinator?" Well, let me answer you, Waspinator – because it's freaking hilarious, that's why. But you can be well assured that all that abuse nets you a spot among the thirty greatest characters. Waspinator's popularity reaches so far and wide that he was given a relatively faithful (if far more serious) adaptation in the Animated cartoon as well as modern G1 IDW comics, and enjoys a massive and faithful fanbase. In fact, so powerful was his fanbase that he was the very first character to be voted by fans into Hasbro's official Transformers Hall of Fame, leaving extremely popular G1 characters like Grimlock, Jazz and Shockwave in his wake. While such is not the case for our poll (mostly because rabid Waspinator fans don't get to vote multiple times in a day), his popularity and the impact he's made unto the fandom is undeniable. As Warcry puts it, Waspinator is "the best comic relief character in 30 years of stories." And I would like to tip my hat to the long-suffering Waspinator, one of the simply funniest fictional characters I have ever known. Bless you, Waspy. The universe may hate you, but the fans do love you.

"You WISH you had planz like him."

--Brendocon

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