Silverbolt (Beast Wars)

The second Silverbolt is a character in Beast Wars (Grifo in some European countries). This Silverbolt seemingly had no connection to the original Aerialbot Silverbolt, and is a completely new character.

Among the Maximals, he was sort of a contrast to Dinobot (who embodied Predacon honor, similar to the samurai code of bushido); Silverbolt embodied the Maximal version of honor which was like the chivalry of the medieval knights, which sometimes left his teammates feeling befuddled, annoyed, or amused at just how seriously he took his ideals. Often, a cheesy horn theme would play whenever Silverbolt said or did something heroic, sounding somewhat like an English fanfare for the Knights of old. Like Tigatron, Silverbolt was slow to anger but never backed down from a fight. Rattrap often called him "Bird Dog" and, at one point, called him "Sir Drools-a-Lot". Waspinator often referred to Silverbolt as "Doggy-Bot", and Blackarachnia often called him "Bowser", "Jo-Jo", and/or "Rover" in a tone that was often both mocking and affectionate at the same time. Silverbolt himself didn't seem to mind, and generally let whatever criticisms people made of him roll off his back as if he were oblivious to it. Silverbolt fell in love with Blackarachnia, and had charmed her into grudgingly falling in love with him at the end of season 2; when Rattrap made a derogative remark about Blackarachnia, Silverbolt threatened to harm him brutally.

Unlike Tigatron and Airazor, Silverbolt did not seem to feel that the Earth was his home or place of birth. His fellow fuzor, Quickstrike, once vowed that they would have an all out brawl some day, but it never came to pass. Some of his early episodes portrayed Silverbolt as an extremely cheerful, almost happy-go-lucky Maximal who was always eager to undertake assignments.

Season two
Appearing after the apparent death of Optimus Primal, Silverbolt's scanner was damaged by the energy wave that created the transmetals. Scanning a wolf and eagle, it combined them to create his beast mode: a timber wolf with the wings, tail, and claws of an eagle. Megatron immediately tried to recruit him, but despite his damaged memory banks Silverbolt quickly realized he did not belong with the Predacons, as even the transformation code of "Silverbolt: Terrorize?" was distasteful to him. When he saw the kindness the Maximals offered to him by sparing him after a battle — something Megatron had refused to do for the Maximals — he realized his place was with them. Repaired just in time to see Optimus Primal reborn as a transmetal, Silverbolt changed sides and even saved Primal from a blow from Megatron.

His first real mission with the Maximals was when he and Rattrap tried to stop Predacons Blackarachnia, Tarantulas, and his Quickstrike from creating refueling station. When the cave, in which the station was supposed to be in, exploded (which was done by Tarantulas to make a new lair) he proposed to Rattrap that they won and should leave, in which Rattrap happily agreed. This is also the start of his relationship with Blackarachnia, when he refused to shoot her when she was down because she was a lady.

In the episode "Bad Spark", Optimus spoke of the "dark secret of Axalon's voyage", which was to dump the stasis pod containing Protoform X - Rampage - on a barren world so that he could cause no more destruction. When it was revealed that Rampage did survive when his stasis pod crashed, Optimus, Cheetor, Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, and Waspinator tried to subdue the rampaging Transformer, only to have him captured and forced to join the Predacons by Megatron. It was here that Silverbolt's relationship with the Predacon Blackarachnia really started. They were separated by their own teams and had to join forces to escape from the jungle and from Protoform X. But Silverbolt was able to defeat Rampage (with the help of Optimus) and saved Blackarachnia from falling into a chasm. Silverbolt would continued to have a secret relationship Blackarachnia for most of the season.

Silverbolt's unerring compassion would be demonstrated when a new stasis pod fell to Earth. When the pod was revealed to contain the transmetal mutant Transmutate, Optimus Primal deemed that the slow-witted but powerful mutant should be forcibly put back in stasis, Silverbolt furiously protested and tried to befriend the mutant robot. This was complicated by the fact that Rampage, seeing a fellow tortured and rejected soul, was trying to do the same (against Megatron's orders to destroy her). The two fought each other to keep her free and join their sides. Unable to bear seeing her friends fighting over her, she terminated herself, much to the sorrow of both combatants.

Later Silverbolt's tentative relationship with Blackarachnia flowered into a cross-faction affair. Silverbolt would ferry her things she needed to build a hover ship in a series of clandestine meetings, although at this point Blackarachnia was using him more than anything. After failing to stop her escaping during a battle, Optimus Primal confined him to quarters. Silverbolt escaped and joined with Blackarachnia. As Silverbolt doggedly tried to convince her to become a Maximal (being rewarded with a bolt in the leg for his troubles) Blackarachnia revealed her true intent: to uncover the The Ark. The two were then jumped by Megatron, who forced Blackarachnia to cooperate by threatening Silverbolt's life. Megatron then shot the stasis-locked body of Optimus Prime in the head, causing a time storm that threatened to destabilize all of history.

Season three
Silverbolt was instrumental in Blackarachnia changing sides to the Maximals in "Optimal Situation" when, impressed by his unflagging courage and devotion to protecting her, she switched sides. Their relationship was not always smooth (she ended up shooting him at one point to save him from Dinobot's clone) but for the most part the two seemed to have a genuine affection for each other. The other Maximals often questioned and, in Rattrap's case, often mocked, his affection for Blackarchnia, which Silverbolt usually ignored; however at least once or twice he became violently angry with Rattrap when it came to Blackarachnia (once for her honor, later for her well-being).

Silverbolt's role in season three was rather minor, as he acted mainly as a guard for the entrance to the Maximal base. Most of the time, he ended up getting damaged and taken out of action early on in episodes; this led to a running gag in which Waspinator would regularly take cheap shots at Silverbolt and gloat before being taken out himself (such as when Optimal Optimus smashed him with his bare hands in "Master Blaster").

The third season featured a minor antagonism between Silverbolt and Cheetor over Blackarachnia, as they both had feelings for her. Outside of this, Silverbolt took part in the Maximals' failed attempt to recover the Sentinel guard unit from the Axalon, where he had a brief argument with Depth Charge over Depth Charge's loyalty, and battled the transmetal clone of Dinobot. It also showed Silverbolt at his most brutal during the episode "Crossing the Rubicon", when Blackarachnia was temporarily killed, due to the meddling of Tarantulas, an enraged Silverbolt attempted to murder Tarantulas, almost succeeding but for the intervention of Rampage. Happily, his love was soon resurrected as a transmetal 2 (with her Predacon programming purged) - just in time to save an ambushed Silverbolt from Rampage.

Silverbolt did have one very heroic save in the finale, "Nemesis", where he dove on a booby trap bomb left by Megatron at the entrance to Tarantulas's Nemesis worksite. The force of the bomb completely shredded Silverbolt, causing him to have to return to base for repairs; however it protected Optimus and Depth Charge who were then able to chase after Megatron.

Silverbolt (to Optimus): Sir, I'll be fine! I can-

Blackarachnia: Shut up and obey your commander, bone-brain!

Silverbolt: Yes, dear...

In the second part of the finale, however, Silverbolt has but a single line. After Megatron's finale defeat, Silverbolt returned to Cybertron with the other Maximals.

Beast Machines
At the start of Beast Machines, Silverbolt was captured by Megatron and his spark extracted, later to be used in the Vehicon General Jetstorm. The other escaped Maximals would remain unaware of Silverbolt's true identity until Blackarachnia began to suspect that his Spark lay inside one of Megatron's generals. After mistakenly assuming it was inside Thrust (who turned out to be Waspinator instead,much to her chagrin), she discovered it to be inside Jetstorm, whose sheer murderous impulses were the total opposite of Silverbolt's nobility. She briefly managed to awaken Siverbolt's true personality, but the Jetstorm program quickly reestablished itself and Blackarachnia was forced to leave behind her former-loved one.

In a contrast to Silverbolt trying to sway her from the side of evil in Beast Wars, Blackarachnia now tried to reawaken the good in Silverbolt. She had many setbacks, including when Jetstorm managed to extract her Spark and present it to Megatron, only being foiled by the timely intervention of Nightscream. Eventually Rattrap invented a device which combined a spark extractor with a DNA scanner he planned to use to restore transformers into their bodies. Blackarachnia stole this device and together with the organic core of Cybertron and a nearby fossil reformatted Jetstorm into Silverbolt, now a technorganic condor.

Unfortunately, Silverbolt's mind had been fully aware and conscious whilst Jetstorm was active, and the fact that he'd been able not only to commit such atrocities but also enjoy them had left him with a darker personality, no longer as close to his beloved as he had originally been out of mixed-guilt. Furious, Silverbolt would attempt to kill Megatron after the megalomaniacal dictator tried to sway him back to his side, with the Blackarachnia having to knock him out to get him away. After this Silverbolt was willing to do whatever was necessary to defeat Megatron, clashing with the rest of the team on several occasions, particularly the impetuous Nightscream. After Megatron's final defeat, Silverbolt's old, chivalrous personality seemed to reassert itself. Despite his deep personality change, he still appeared to be there for some humour.

Already a controversial series, the change in Silverbolt's character angered a number of fans, who felt that his personality had been changed into a copy of Dinobot and Depth Charge, losing much of his previous charm. However, in the series finale he seemed to regain his old personality. In the audio commentary on the Beast Machines DVD, this change was said to have been inspired by the evolution of Batman's persona. The campy Batman's change into his current dark portrayal was used as a template for the evolution of Silverbolt. The creators stated that part of this reason was due to how much the Beast Wars Silverbolt reminded them of Adam West’s Batman. Scott McNeil, the actor who voiced Silverbolt, was quoted in interviews saying that he did not like the change in Silverbolt's personality. Strangely enough, when Silverbolt's persona first re-emerged while inside Jetstorm's body, he appeared to be the same chivalrous, knight in shining armor type character he had been in Beast Wars, poetically addressing Blackarachnia as "dark poison of my heart" (he has called her this during the beast wars after he thought she was about to die in optimal situation) and seemingly unaware of his deeds as Jetstorm or even aware of his Jetstorm identity, although he seems to have acknowledged Waspinator as Thrust. Perhaps it was after this event that Silverbolt become aware of what he was doing as Jetstorm.

He was voiced by Scott McNeil (as Silverbolt), Brian Drummond (as Jetstorm), and Mitsuo Iwata (Japanese).

The appearance of Beast Machines Silverbolt is based on concept art provided to Hasbro by Draxhall Jump.

Transtech
After the Beast Machines line ended, Hasbro planned a follow-up series called Transtech. The Transtech concept was a line intended to take Transformers to their most futuristic. Hasbro commissioned sets of designs from Draxhall Jump. The series was supposedly to bring back some of the characters who died in Beast Wars along with some characters from the original cartoon show, all in new, techno-organic bodies, though with vehicle alternate modes instead of the animals used in Beast Machines. Many concept sketches and even a few toy prototypes were made, but Hasbro scrapped the idea in favor of bringing Car Robots to their markets as Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Concept sketches or prototype toys have been seen for Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Megatron, Nightscream, Optimus Prime, Scavenger, Shockwave, Silverbolt, Soundwave, Starscream and a new character called Immorticon.

The sketches of Silverbolt, while lacking a finished head, showed him transforming into a supersonic jet, while his robot mode kept some of the samurai qualities from Beast Machines.

3H Enterprises
Sadly, Silverbolt's happiness would not last long. In the BotCon exclusive storyline Transformers: Universe, Silverbolt and several other heroes of the Beast Machines era welcomed the Autobot heroes of The Great War back to Cybertron. However, all of them were trasnsported away by Unicron. Reformatted into a new body (a purple and yellow version of his Beast Wars Fuzor body). Forced to fight for Unicron's amusement (and unbeknownst to all, so that the Spark energy from fallen combatants could revitalize his own shattered frame), Silverbolt would team up with the Autobot Trailbreaker, swapping Sparks (and bodies) to free themselves from their cells. All were subsequently freed by the resurrected Optimus Primal, but with a price - Blackarachnia had been corrupted by Unicron's power and now willingly served the Chaos-Bringer. As she had once done for him, Silverbolt vowed to bring her back to the side of good.

Silverbolt also appeared in the 2004 BotCon voice actor play. When Rhinox's attempts to stop Unicron pulling victims from alternate realities resulted in two groups of dimensionally-displaced Autobots being marooned on frozen planetoids, Silverbolt was sent alongside Waspinator and Rattrap to help. They ended up battling Unicron's minions alongside a crew of timelost Autobots (Bumblebee, Cosmos and Tracks) and the two groups of Autobots they had been sent to help (both from the RiD universe), and, with Rhinox's help, sent them back to their own times and realities.

Fun Publications
Although Universe ended at issue #3, the flashback of Optimus Prime would reveal what happened. In the final battle between the forces of Optimus Primal and Unicron, the Chaos-Bringer had disappeared (due to the events of Transformers: Energon), with Primal's forces barely making it out. Silverbolt was seen carrying away Blackarachnia. Whether this means there was a happy ending for Silverbolt is unknown.

Other Appearances

 * The Beast Wars Silverbolt action figure makes multiple appearances in the Sabrina Online comic series.

Toys

 * Beast Wars Fuzor Silverbolt (1998)
 * A Deluxe sized Maximal Fuzor who combined traits of a grey wolf and an eagle. Came with 2 missile/feathers. This toy was later redecoed into BotCon Windrazor.


 * Beast Wars Metals Silverbolt (1999)
 * A slight redeco of the Silverbolt toy was released in Japan as part of their Beast Wars Metals line. This version featured slightly more show-accurate colors.


 * Beast Machines Silverbolt (2000)
 * A basic sized Maximal condor, Silverbolt was one of the smallest Maximal figures, but was the tallest in the show. Like most Beast Machines toys, the colors of the toy and show character of Silverbolt did not match. In the show, he was purple with yellow highlights, but as a toy he was red and blue with rainbow feathers. The Japanese release of this toy was colored more closely to the television series. Both versions suffer from being improperly scaled. They are far too small in comparison to most other figures in the line.


 * Transformers: Universe Fuzor Silverbolt (2003)
 * The original Fuzor toy redecoed into purple and bright yellowish-green, with silver and red deco across his beast mode back.


 * Beast Wars Returns Silverbolt (2005)
 * The Japanese release of the Beast machines toy was redecoed into show accurate colors.