Trailbreaker (G1)

Trailbreaker is a character from the Transformers Generation One franchise. He was portrayed as a light-hearted joker, who often acted a morale booster for his comrades. Deep down, however, he considers himself a liability due to his high fuel consumption. Because of this he has a low sense of self-worth, he often asks to be left out of missions. Despite this, the other Autobots know he is a valuable addition to their ranks.
Trailbreaker is voiced in The Transformers by Frank Welker. 
==History ==
===Cartoon===
Trailbreaker accompanied his fellow Autobots on their first mission to stop the Decepticons on Earth—a mission that took him to an off-shore oil rig. The Decepticons plundered the rig for energon and destroyed it, leaving it a flaming wreck that endangered its human crew. Trailbreaker used his force field to contain the fire, while Wheeljack used his built-in fire suppression systems to douse the flames.Trailbreaker was one of the original Autobots aboard the Ark. When it crashed, he was re-activated four million years later and his vehicle was converted to that of a Toyota Hilux. He was a hearty character who would make light of any situation (just as his tech spec portrayed him). His primary feature was his force field which he often used to defend him and his comrades.
Later, Trailbreaker served as a spy despite his stated function as defensive strategist. He, along with the humans Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky, camped out near the Decepticon headquarters and eavesdropped on their plans to raid the ruby mines of Burma.
As the series progressed and more new characters were introduced, Trailbreaker only appeared when his force field was needed. In "Triple Takeover" a plot by Starscream, Astrotrain, and Blitzwing resulted in the flooding of a city. Trailbreaker used his force field to protect himself and a small group of Autobots from a large tidal wave.
His force field later saved all the Autobots from being disintegrated by the Sun in the episode "Megatron's Master Plan Part 2", and it again saved them from a Decepticon ambush in "The Immobilizer". Trailbreaker's last animated appearance was in episode 64, "Masquerade".
Trailbreaker did not appear in The Transformers the Movie or the seasons beyond. However, part of the movie's storyboard depicted that he would be seen dead (much like Windcharger and Wheeljack) during the Decepticons' attack on Autobot City. This was cut from the finished movie, but it is possible that he was killed offscreen or before the events of the movie.
===Comics ===
Trailbreaker was one of the original group of Autobots introduced in the initial miniseries as part of the crew on the Ark. Outside of the initial introduction splash page, Trailbreaker played no real part in the miniseries beyond background appearances. In the first UK-exclusive story "Man of Iron", Trailbreaker was among a group of Autobots who travelled to England to investigate reports of a crashed Autobot spaceship. He provided an escort for Jazz when he was transporting human boy Sammy Harker, but was quickly blown apart by Thundercracker during a Decepticon ambush. At the end of the miniseries, Trailbreaker was left offline after Optimus Prime decided to use the Autobots' limited fuel supply to keep a small number of Autobots at full power.
Trailbreaker was shown to be active again in Issue #12, being part of a convoy that aimed to liberate the Blackrock Aerospace Facility. They were ambushed by a fake Optimus Prime and the Decepticon cassettes. The US comic treated all those who participated in the battle as offline, but Trailbreaker continued to appear in UK-exclusive stories. In "The Icarus Theory", he was attacked and thrown into a rockface by Swoop, who was being controlled by human scientist Professor Morris. In the following "Dinobot Hunt", he was part of a team with Mirage and Brawn searching for the missing Dinobots, who had gone feral. They located and retrieved Snarl, who had been disabled by an experimental explosive.
In "Target: 2006", Trailbreaker was injured during a battle with Scourge and left deactivated. He was shown to have been repaired in "The Gift", where he accompanied Prowl and Jetfire in an attempt to stop the Decepticons sending a message to Cybertron and received a beating from Dirge. Like most of the original Autobots, he disappeared shortly afterwards. His only subsequent appearance was in US Issue #41, when he and several others were shown to have been repaired in time to witness a duel between Grimlock and Blaster on the moon. He was possibly deactivated during the massive Decepticon attack that followed.
==IDW Comics==
==Aligned Universe ==
A version of Trailbreaker was mentioned in the novel Retribution, when Sunstreaker suggested him for the mission of saving Optimus Prime and his team from the Quintessons. Years later, when the War was over, Trailbreaker was among those blacklisted by the corrupt High Council in Robots in Disguise. 
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