The Throttlebots are protagonists from Generation One of the Transformers franchise. They were part of the 1987 toyline, serving as an Autobot espionage team, being faster and stealthier than their counterparts.
History
Cartoon
The Throttlebots appeared in the two-part third season finale "The Return of Optimus Prime", where Rodimus Prime selected them as part of the team that accompanied him to try and retrieve the body of Optimus Prime. As a result, they were among the first Autobots infected with the Hate Plague, along with Ultra Magnus and the Aerialbots. They were healed when Optimus Prime unleashed the power of the Matrix.
The Throttlebots reappeared in the concluding miniseries "The Rebirth", helping Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus defend Autobot City on Earth from a Decepticon attack and then following them to Cybertron.
Comics
The Throttlebots first appeared in Issue #30 of the Marvel US comic. They were a group of Autobots on Cybertron captured in a raid on a Decepticon fuel dump. Decepticon leader Ratbat sent them to Earth to destroy an infection of Scraplets and any Transformers who had been infected, threatening to destroy the planet otherwise. However, they met up with Goldbug and his human ally Charlie Wong, who revealed the Scraplets could be destroyed with water. They managed to cure the infected Transformers and destroy the Scraplets.
The Throttlebots began travelling with Blaster and Goldbug independently of the main Autobot army. They next appeared in the UK-exclusive story "Ladies' Night" where they stopped the Combaticons destroying the volcano where Ultra Magnus and Galvatron were entombed. This led into Marvel US Issue #32 where the group were being pursued by the Combaticons. They sought refuge with human car salesman Big Steve Ludwig, but he disabled the Throttlebots by putting sugar in their fuel and sold them to the anti-robot organisation RAAT.
In Issue #37, the Throttlebots' bodies were destroyed by RAAT but their brain modules were saved by sympathetic agent Walter Barnett, who transplanted them into toy cars. He took them to the Autobots' human friend Buster Witwicky in the hope of returning them to the Autobots, but Buster and Goldbug were separated from the others during an attack by Ratbat and the Predacons. The other Throttlebots were still in Barnett's possession in Issue #39 when he joined a fleet besieging the Decepticons' island base and thus were able to stop the humans firing on Fortress Maximus' Nebulan Autobots when they launched an attack of their own.
The Throttlebots weren't seen again until Issue #50 during the Underbase Saga. It was revealed they had been rebuilt into more powerful bodies as they were assigned to part of a team led by Grimlock and Scorponok who protected Tokyo, only to be all destroyed by the Underbase-powered Starscream.
Trivia
- When the Throttlebots are depicted in modern media, Goldbug remains their leader and is depicted as a separate character to Bumblebee.
