Outback (Transformers)

Outback/Fallback

Autobot
Sub-group	Basic Vehicles, Mini-Bots, Deluxe Vehicles
Function	Gunner (G1 toy), Administrative Assistant (Fun Publications)
Rank	4
Partner	Chromia, Ironhide, Ricochet, Tailgate, Pipes, Bumblebee, and Swerve
Motto	"Rules are detours on the road of life" (G1 toy), "Where I'm going, I don't need rules. Just the open road." (Fun Publications)
Alternate Modes	Land Rover, Hummer HX
Series	Transformers: Generation 1 Transformers: Timelines Transformers: Reveal the Shield
English voice actor	Dan Gilvezan/Gregg Berger

Outback is a fictional characters in the Transformers universe. He's an Autobot who turns into a car. Due to trademark issues, newer toys of the character are named Fallback, although he's often still called Outback in the comics.

Transformers: Generation 1

Outback's bio presented him as a risk-taker who was willing to bend the rules if need be. His toy is a retooling of Brawn with a different head sculpt and a tan/khaki paint scheme. In the animated series, he spoke with an Australian accent.

Marvel Comics

Outback was not featured in the US version of the comics, except as an unnamed sparring partner of Blaster in issue #47.^[1] However, he had a significant presence overseas in the "Prey" arc of the UK series. When Optimus Prime arrived on Cybertron due to a teleporting accident the Wreckers believed he was a spy and tried to kill him.^[2]

Outback, portrayed in the story as an oddball and a fatalist, was the only Autobot to recognise Optimus Prime as anything other than a replica. He rescued Optimus Prime and aided him thoroughout his time as a fugitive, but was eventually gravely wounded by a Guardian droid. Prime finally surrendered to the Wreckers on the condition that Outback receive medical treatment - this selfless act convinced Emirate Xaaron of Optimus Prime's true identity.

Outback survived his injuries. He was seen as a sparring partner battling Blaster in a training session and he later appeared in issue #245 as an Autobot cadet, where he was horrified to learn that his friends and fellow cadets Tailgate, Flattop and Subsea had ignored his warnings and entered the disused sewers of Cybertron (known as the Underworld) as part of an outdated Autobot initiation ritual. Outback and Pipes (also a cadet) rushed to rescue their friends, arriving in the sewers just in time to see Tailgate battle and destroy a band of sadistic mutant Transformers (who had already killed Subsea and Flattop). Outback, Pipes and Tailgate escaped to the surface together, with Pipes warning that they were lucky not to have encountered anything worse. However, unbeknown to them, Tailgate's battle had awakened horrific demons beneath Cybertron, who would emerge to battle other Autobots and Decepticons in the next two issues.

Animated series

Outback made his first appearance in "Five Faces of Darkness Part 1". After Ultra Magnus, Kup and Spike Witwicky were kidnapped, the Autobots assumed the recently defeated Decepticons were behind the plot. Rodimus Prime sent out Autobot patrols to seek out any remaining Decepticons. Outback was on patrol with Blaster, when they were called in to investigate suspicious jets in the fictional nation of Carbombya. Using his "trusty Decepticon detector" he lured Dirge and Ramjet out into the open. He and Blaster disabled and interrogated them as to the whereabouts of their new hideout, the planet Chaar. In part 5 Outback was among the Earth-based Autobots forced to defend The Ark from Trypticon. However, the Autobots were no match for the Decepticon monster and the Ark was completely destroyed.

Outback's next significant role came in "The Quintesson Journal". Outback, Blaster, Sky Lynx and the Autobot cassettes were returning to Cybertron from an undisclosed mission. While en route, Perceptor intercepted a signal determined to be an old Quintesson frequency. He ordered Outback and Blaster to rendezvous to the coordinates from where the signal was originating. The Autobots, as well as the Predacons arrived on the planet and discovered the journal. Soon the Quintessons themselves arrived and attempted to reclaim their journal. This resulted in a three way frenzy to maintain control of the journal. The Autobots eventually escaped with the journal and returned to Cybertron. The contents of the journal revealed the operation by the Quintessons to supply weapons to two warring civilizations, Zetaxus and Lenarq. The sneaky Quintessons would fuel tensions between the two factions, by selling larger and more expensive weapons to each side, without the other knowing it. Neither faction realized they had been conned by the Quintessons until the journal was revealed, leaving the Zetaxus and the Lenarq to agree to a cease fire. Outback did not make any major appearance in the series after this.

Dreamwave Productions

Outback had a brief cameo in Dreamwave's Generation One ongoing series, as a new recruit to the Autobots.

Fun Publications

Outback appeared again in the 2005 BotCon comic Timelines: Descent into Evil, where he was renamed Fallback for copyright reasons. He appeared as part of Ironhide's squad, sent to investigate Deathsaurus' attempts to clone an army of Insecticons. He and the other members of the squad were captured, but were rescued when backup arrived.

Outback is among the Autobots present when Megatron attacks Iacon with his new weapon, Devastator.^[3]

IDW Publishing

Outback made his first IDW Publishing appearance in the Spotlight issue on Kup - of a sort. The only other survivor of a crash on a deadly crystalline planet, Outback was killed when a generator he and Kup rigged exploded. The increasingly insane Kup talked to Outback's corpse as if it were alive. His body was later destroyed once and for all by an Autobot rescue team.

Toys

The Hummer HX

• Generation 1 Mini-Vehicle Outback (1986)

A brown remold of Brawn with a gun accessory.^[4][5]

• Timelines Basic Fallback

A redeco of Energon Strongarm.

• Reveal the Shield Deluxe Fallback (2010)

A brown redeco of Deluxe Brawn from the Revenge of the Fallen toy line with a head sculpt similar to his original G1 toy.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ "Transformers" #47 (1988)
2. ^ Marvel graphic novels and related publications: an annotated guide, Page 92, by Robert G. Weiner, 2008
3. ^ Pete Sinclair & Jesse Wittenrich (October/November 2011). "Battle Lines Part 5". Transformers Collectors Club Magazine 1 (41): 3. 
4. ^ Alvarez, J.E. (2001). The Unofficial Guide to Transformers 1980s Through 1990s Revised & Expanded 2nd Edition. Schiffer Publishing Ltd.. p. 40. ISBN 0764313649. 
5. ^ Cobra Island Toys - Outback
6. ^ TFW2005.com - Fallback
7. ^ Ben's World of Transformers - Reveal the Shield Deluxe Fallback