Axer is aDecepticonAction Master from theGeneration 1 continuity family.

Axer? But she seems so nice!

A bounty hunter,Axer (alsoAxor) gained experience by stalking in the slag swamps ofCybertron for microchip smugglers. He custom-built hisTurbo Cycle, a heavily-armed motorcycle that converts to a small battle station.

He is renowned across Cybertron for his intuitive prowess as a tracker and detective. He eschews equipment and devices, preferring instead to rely on knowledge and instinct. This personal involvement in his craft extends right to the end, when he gets to unleash his sadistic pleasures on his terrified victims. The joy he feels at the sight of helpless targets' faces when he blows them away is worth more to him than the money he gladly collects for doing so.

Axer has also traveled to adifferent universe, where he doesn'tride a "turbo cycle", but rather hetransforms into one instead. While thisalternate mode doesn't look like its namesake, it does bear much of the same weaponry.^[1]

Fiction

Robots in Disguise toy bio

Axer went through ablack hole on a rescue mission, and he ended up joiningGalvatron in order to monitor his "operation." Galvatron placed him underScourge, whose leadership Axer resented.^[1]

DreamwaveGeneration One continuity

Before joining the Decepticon army, Axer was a "freelance peacekeeping agent" both on Cybertron and across the galaxy. But he was willing to take a pay cut to work for the Decepticons exclusively, since they gave him the freedom to indulge his murderous sadism without consequence. The Decepticon high command employed him not just as a bounty hunter but also as a full-on assassin.

Despite being classified as anAction Master, Axer was never known to lose his ability to transform. The Turbo Cycle made up not for alack of an alternate mode, but for a particularlyslow alternate mode.More Than Meets The Eye #1

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance:Spotlight: Arcee

Does this salami smell funny to you?

Four million years ago, Axer was a Decepticon agent who slightly modified his appearance to infiltrate the Autobots' ranks. It is unknown for how long he operated among them. After the Autobots successfully halted a major Decepticon energon convoy, however, Axer made his move. He attended a celebration in honor of the Autobot's victory and, as the majority of soldiers present relaxed and let their guard down, he pulled a hidden blaster from his side and made an assassination attempt onOptimus Prime. Only the keen battle instincts of Prime's bodyguardIronhide kept the Autobot leader alive, as Ironhide threw himself in the path of Axer's blast.The Iron Age

Ninja consultant.

In the modern era, Axer was a part ofBanzai-Tron'sDecepticon Secret Service team, serving aboard the flagship while they raided theGarrus-9 penitentiary for theMonstructor-Six gestalt team.Spotlight: Arcee Some time later, Banzai-Tron's own base was leveled byNemesis Prime'sDead Universe minions, who were searching for Monstructor themselves, and Axer was one of the few survivors.Spotlight: Hardhead He later assisted theAutobotArcee in fightingMonstructor after the gestalt had been turned into one of Nemesis Prime'sNega-Core guardians.Spotlight: Sideswipe

Three years later, Axer was one of the Decepticons left stranded on Earth afterMegatron's top lieutenants fled the planet. He was captured byBumblebee and the Autobots forSkywatch.The Hanging Sword

Wings Universe

In the early days of the war, Axer[sic] had a reputation as a procurer of illegal things. He used a neutral tavern as his typical meeting place for new business ventures, but was skilled enough to be choosy about his clients. This was unfortunate forTake-Off, the loud chatterbox minion of a minorDecepticon Warlord who needed a ship for transport off planet. Take-Off was too busy rattling off secret information to Axer to notice theAutobot Elite Guard spy listening to his every word. Axer quickly ended their meeting and got as far away from Take-Off as possible before the moron dragged him down with him.A Team Effort

During the "last Decepticon uprising", Axor[sic] and his team were hunted down byDevcon, who impressed upon Axor of his ruthlessness. Managing to escape Devcon's pursuit, Axor joined theStar Seekers and continued to fear for his life. As a result of his paranoia, Axor incessantly askedFerak to improve the Star Seekers' weapons in case they ever encountered Devcon.

On the day thatTornado andFerak joined theStar Seekers, Axor operated theTidal Wave’s guns and blew their Autobot pursuers into oblivion. He often pestered Ferak on improving the ship’s weaponry to ease his paranoia about Devcon returning to finish him off.

Along with the rest of the crew, Axor participated on the attack onVentax II.Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

Eventually, Cannonball took the Star Seekers through time in a ploy to pillage Cybertron of all its Energon in its future. The trip took its toll on theTidal Wave though, and Axer informed his captain that they were without long distance propulsion for the duration of their raid. He presumably stayed back with the ship, not participating in the plundering proper, which turned out to fail anyways since Cybertron had become technorganic by the time the Star Seekers had arrived.Hoist the Flag

Regeneration One

Axer was on Cybertron just before the rise of the Anti-Matrix'sshadow-leeches.The War to End All Wars, Part 4

Ask Sideways

Sideways claims Axer has a foul-mouthed sister that everyone calls "Airbags" (because of the way they sometimes deployed during, ah,collisions). The reason the bounty hunter chased him across the multiverse fromPrimax toViron is Sideways dated his sister and "I miiiiiiight have accidentally made an inappropriate remark about her exhaust port". However, Sideways claimed that Axer was a hypocrite because he once talked openly about how he and aTerradore were doing something (censored by theAxiom Nexus Auto-Censors) in front ofImperius Drax.Ask Sideways, 2015/07/05

2019 IDW continuity

Axer was a survivor of theIron Hope disaster and shared a close relationship with fellow survivorCircuit. The two parted on bad terms, with Axer moving toVelocitron and joiningSecurity Operations there for a fresh start. At some point, he secretly became affiliated with the underground terrorist organizationMayhem, intent on upending the society that had looked down on him for no longer being able to transform.Tread & Circuits Part 2

Circuit joined theWreckers and Axer encountered him again on Velocitron, the team intent on stopping Mayhem from disrupting theSpeedia 500.Tread & Circuits Part 1 Axer cornered his former compatriot snooping around near a hidden Mayhem hideout, but merely offered Circuit a ride back to theWreckers' ship. On the way, the two caught up and Axer wanted to make amends for Circuit being hurt the last time they were together. He asked Circuit to leave the planet with the Wreckers and assured him that SecOps had their own plan to deal with Mayhem. Circuit seemed to agree, but Axer soon found a camera drone following him as he returned to the hideout. Axer destroyed it and went ahead to meet with Mayhem's leaderOctopunch, annoyed that Circuit hadn't heeded his warning. The trailing Circuit witnessed this meeting and was suddenly shot in the head by a Mayhem sniper. Later, as the Speedia 500 was about to commence, Axer stood on call as part of SecOps and prepared to reveal his true allegiance.Tread & Circuits Part 2

After the race began, Mayhem made their move, triggering an avalanche that scattered the participants. Axer rodehis bike into the chaos, singling outRoad Pig as the first victim and helping Octopunch kill him. Axer andSubmarauder eventually caught up to the racers in the lead and took outOverride,Sideways andRoad Rocket. OnlyKnock Out remained in the race, and Axer pursued theAscenticon alone. Axer vented his fury and disgust over the mistreatment he had suffered thanks to elitists like Knock Out as he kept pace. Unfortunately, the SecOps commander and Knock Out'sConjunx EnduraBreakdown was lying in wait ahead, and he blew Axer and his bike to bits with a barrage of firepower. Axer died, never learning that Knock Out and Breakdown were secretly in cahoots with Mayhem to put an Ascenticon in charge of the planet.Tread & Circuits Part 3

Games

Transformers Legends

Axer,Straxus, andThunderwing accompaniedNemesis Prime on a mission to defeat Nemesis's former self, Nova Prime.Prime Evil

Toys

The Transformers

• Off-Road Cycle with Axer (Action Blaster Vehicle,1990)

• Accessories: "Magnetic-lock targetingdestabilizer rifle", "Off-Road Cycle" vehicle
• Known designers:Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Part of the first (and only) assortment ofThe Transformers "Action Master Blaster Vehicles", Axer is a non-transforming 3¾-inch tall robot action figure, with hints of an alternate mode to his design, possibly some form of off-road car. His fists have 3 mm holes for holding accessories, and the screw-hole in his back is5 mm post compatible.

He came with theOff-Road Cycle, an off-road motorbike with sidecar that can transform into a gun emplacement. The bike's seat-back can detach to form a hand-held shield for Axer (or any compatible toy) to use.

This figure mold was also used to makeCircuit.

• More information on Generation 1 Axer at TFU.info

Robots in Disguise (2001)

• Sideways vs Axer (Mega,2002)

• Takara release date:May 30, 2002

Robots in Disguise Axer is aredeco of theMicroman:LED Powers toyRoad Bison, itself aretool of theGeneration 2Laser CycleRoad Pig with new handlebars. He transforms into a mostly-black Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle. His tailpipe has an LED that lights it up, becoming an arm-mounted weapon inrobot mode.

He was only available in a Mega-class 2-pack withSideways. This set was aWalmartexclusive in the US released in April of 2002, and aToys"R"Us-exclusive "USA Edition" in Japan in May.

This mold was also used to makeRobotmastersDouble Face. It was going to be used forGeneration 2Soundwave, but that release was canceled. Outside ofTransformers, it was also used inMicroman as theTornado Bison.

• More information onRobots in Disguise Axer at TFU.info

Transformers (2010)

• Axor (Deluxe Class,2010)

• Accessories: Engine

TransformersAxor is aretooling ofRevenge of the FallenLockdown with a new head and colors based on theGeneration 1Action Master Axer. He also has a new axe weapon on his right arm instead of Lockdown's hook. Axor transforms into an amalgam of a 1980s Corvette and a 1960s Cougar, with lots of spikes and a cow-catcher on his bumper. The toy'sMech Alive feature rotates cylinders inside his thighs as his lower legs rotate, and pneumatic cylinders extend as his axe is deployed.

Like with Lockdown, Axor's arm-mounted hot rod engine weapon can be removed and can be replaced byRevenge of the Fallen DeluxeRatchet's weapon. In return, Axor's engine can be mounted on Ratchet's roof, but not attached to his arm.

This toy was redecoed intoTimelinesCircuit.

• More information on Axor at TFU.info

Notes

My torso's blue! My torso's blue!

• The Axer figure shown in the 1990catalog and on his own toy packaging has different coloring from the final version.Most Action Masters had different pre-final colors, for whatever reason.
• Axer's vehicle has two names. In all forms of fiction (bios, comics) it's called a "Turbo Cycle", but in descriptions of the toy (packaging, instructions, catalog) it's called an "Off-Road Cycle". Note that Action MasterProwl's vehicle was also called a "Turbo Cycle".
• Axer was the firstTransformers character to cross over physically from onecontinuity family to another.
• An Axerretool was planned by Hasbro designerMark Maher from the2022LegacyPrime Universe Arcee toy, though it ultimately went toRoad Rocket.^[2]

Foreign names

• Japanese:Axer (アクサーAkusā)
• Italian:Exploder

References