Chase is a minor character in Generation One of the Transformers franchise.
He was voiced by Rob Paulsen, who also voiced Slingshot and Air Raid, along with Chomper in The Land Before Time, Tripwire and Snow Job in G.I. Joe, and Raphael in the 1987 Turtles cartoon and Donatello in the 2012 version.
History
Cartoon
Chase was first seen in the two-part third season finale "The Return of Optimus Prime", where he was part of a team that Rodimus Prime put together in order to retrieve the body of Optimus Prime. Like most of the Autobots on the mission, he was infected with the Hate Plague and later cured when Optimus Prime released the wisdom of the Matrix. In the three-part series finale "The Rebirth", Chase was among the Autobots defending Autobot City Earth from Galvatron and later accompanied Optimus Prime to Cybertron to battle the Decepticon attack there, being present to witness the beginning of Cybertron's Second Golden Age.
Comics
Chase was introduced in Issue #30 along with the rest of the Throttlebots. The group were captured by Ratbat, who instructed them to travel to Earth to contain an infection of Scraplets by wiping out all the infected Transformers (the Decepticon Triple Changers and Blaster). Ratbat threatened to destroy Earth if they didn't succeed. Shortly after they reached the crater, Chase realised another Transformer had left the scene. He was left in charge of preparing the acid while Rollbar and Wideload left to investigate. They returned with Goldbug and the reveal that the Scraplets were vulnerable to water, with which they managed to destroy them.
In the UK-exclusive story "Ladies' Night", Chase and the other Throttlebots accompanied Goldbug in coming to the rescue of humans Joy Meadows, Susan Hoffman and Cindy Newell, who had tried to take on the Combaticons on their own. This led into US Issue #32, where the Throttlebots were under attack from the Combaticons. They took refuge in a car lot where the owner Big Steve Ludwig disabled them by pouring sugar into their fuel and sold them to the human anti-robot team RAAT. In Issue #37, RAAT chief Forsythe had Chase and the others destroyed in response to continued Decepticon attacks, refusing to believe the two groups were enemies. However, his subordinate Walter Bertram saved their lives by transplanting their brain modules into toy cars. They sought the help of Buster Witwicky to be returned to the Earth Autobots but came under attack from Ratbat and the Predacons. Chase and the rest of the Throttlebots were separated from Buster and Goldbug in the confusion and remained in Bertram's possession.
At some point prior to Issue #50, Chase and the others' brain modules were returned to the Autobots and rebuilt into stronger bodies. They were part of a combined Autobot-Decepticon group led by Grimlock and Scorponok who defended Tokyo from an Underbase-powered Starscream. Chase and his team were quickly killed by Starscream without even managing to transform.
In the UK post-movie story "Space Pirates", Perceptor addresses one of the Autobots stationed at Autobot City as "Chase", although the artwork shows Rollbar.
In the G.I. Joe comic stories that set up the Generation 2 Transformers comic, Chase was part of a team led by Hot Spot who travelled to Earth to investigate reports Megatron had returned. With Megatron backed up by Cobra, Chase was first wounded by Cobra's artillery fire and then killed by Megatron.
Trivia
- Although Rob Paulsen is credited as voicing Chase, the character has no on-screen dialogue. (An announcement over the Autobot City PA system is possibly him.)
- During several of his Marvel US appearances, including his first and last, Chase is coloured white, causing him to resemble fellow Throttlebot Searchlight.
