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MattDrawsRobots — Firecons
Published: 2005-11-29 00:27:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 4165; Favourites: 137; Downloads: 96
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Description
"Firecons: Infernal Investigation"The Firecons are a long-forgotten trio that appeared in the waning days of Generation 1 : pathetic toys built around a lame sparking gimmick, with barely any appearances in the fiction, to boot. But I've had an irrational soft spot for 'em ever since the late 80s, so when I was approached with a commission to draw them, I gladly took on the challenge.
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Comments: 35
So basically, they ended up forgotten just like the Monsterbots.
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More or less, yeah. The Monsterbots got a little love in the IDW G1 comics, but not nearly enough!
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It's a funeral pyre for anyone who goes near the Firecons. >)
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Sparkstalker probably shouldn't be standing in front of Cindersaur considering that he died in the Marvel comics because Cindersaur incinerated him. By ACCIDENT.
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Yeah, that always bummed me out. But it's cool - he got better!
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Wow! That looks freakin' awesome with all the flames! 
I've never heard of the Firecons but now I'm going to look them up! Wonder how big they were in comparison to other Transformers... 
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Yep, they're Decepticons. They're fairly small - here's a photo of one of them with some other G1 TFs . Unimpressive, really, and their transformations were terrible. Their selling point was that they had a wheel on their bellies that, when you rolled it, would cause little sparks to shoot out their mouths. They were nobody's favorites, but like I said in the description, I've got a soft spot 'em. If you go back through the comments here, I have a conversation with "BB Shockwave" about their personalities, which you might find interesting. I always enjoy shedding light on areas of Transformerdom that people might not know about.
Anyway, glad you liked the pic, and thanks for saying so!
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EPIC!! I totally love the composition with one beam going up and one down
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well whadya know, i have my bro's old sparkstalker... i like him more now
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Much and I hate the Firecons myself, this picture is awesome and definitely faveworthy!
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Most appropriate having the whole picture engulfed in flames.
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I absolutely love this pic. It shows the Firecons so well. I have a soft spot for them too--especially poor Sparkstalker. You've got to love the idiot-idiot-misplaced genius team dynamic that they have. And hey--at least they transform better than the poor Throttlebots.
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Heh, true dat. It's funny - I've definitely drawn my share of obscure characters, but I think I've gotten more "soft spot" responses about the Firecons than anyone else. Hell, it was a commission in the first place, so the love was there right from the start! The Firecons are... they're like the pugs of Transformerdom. So pathetic and ugly, they circle back to adorable again.
Anyway, thanks for the comment! I'm glad you liked to pic.
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Indeed! You know, Best First, the creator and "undisputed ruler" of Transfans often threatened me (in a kidding way) with banning due to me often stating how much I love the Firecons, even the toys. 
On a side note, I believe Sparkstalker's monster mode is based on a Godzilla monster, Gigan.
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Wow... so I'm not the only one who loves Firecons. I get a lot of head-banging on forums for saying this, but I really like them. Must be because Sparkstalker was my first Decepticon toy as a kid...
And you really gave back their 'might' on this pic - I especially like Sparkstalker sitting there with the metal piece with an Bot insignia on it...
They had a small but neat role in "Enemy Action", a Marvel UK strip, where they have been sent (by Thunderwing, most likely) to recruit Galvatron - they failed, of course... 
I like their trio, it's dynamic: - Cindersaur is the crazy pyromaniac guy, Flamefeather is the 'noob' who loves combat but isn't good at it and ends up damaging everything around him, and Sparkstalker - he's the guy who signed up for the Cons and later protested "Battle wasn't in my job description!"
Thanks for this pic - probably the only Firecon fan art out there!
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That pretty much lines up with my view of them too. Sparkstalker's tech-spec bio made me fall in love with the little guy - I used to draw him a lot when I was a kid.
I vacillate between thinking of him as a put-upon misfit and as a manipulative genius. In this pic, I think he's more the leader of the team, happy to have their brawn when he needs it (such as when he succeeds at catching up with his quarry).
I also have an image in my head of him as a small-time crime boss flanked by his bodyguards "Cindy" and "Feather." They'd be villains in a Nightbeat story.
Anyway, I'm glad you like this pic! I don't know who they're tracking, but Sizzle or Fizzle would do fine.
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Me too - he was my first 'Non-Micromaster/Action Master' decepticon toy, my dad brought him for me from Austria (since in 1988 we were still behind the Iron Curtain, there were no western toys in Hungary at the time). I got an english dictionary and translated his tech spec, and thought - "Well, this guy must be on the Con side because he wanted to continue his research undisturbed, not because he's evil."
I have written a short fanfic novel "The Con who wasn't there" about Sparkstalker's life in the Con army, with a shocking finale... I have to translate that into english one day.
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Sparkstalker: emissary of the Free World!
It's interesting that you took that view of him. Do you think it had anything to do with Soviet-bloc culture? Certainly there are real-life examples of scientists who had to feign political allegiances just to do their work. Though perhaps you would've been too young at the time to be really aware of that sort of thing...
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Well I did not feel much of the opression, since by the 80's things were much less harsh here. But I read a lot of literature about what happend, and also met lot of people, like some teachers of mine who told me such stories. So it is possible it inspired me to imagine him like that... His bio was probably the first thing I translated to hungarian.
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That's interesting. Thanks for sharing!
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Someone needs to do a Blackadder parody using the Firecons. Sparkstalker is Blackadder--he signed up for a job that would hopefully keep him out of the heat of battle and the possibility of death that went along with it, while still reaping the glory of being a "hero" who contributed greatly to the war effort. However, he got the equivalent of General Melchett in the crazy Decepticon high command, who ordered him in the most dangerous, most brainless, most destructive unit, which guaranteed that he'd constantly be doing more than "going over the top" (and like poor Blackadder, he was done in by the stupidity of his own men in the Marvel comics). He's one of the soldiers who knows that the high command are utter idiots, and it's the common soldiers who suffer the consequences of their poorly thought out orders. Cindersaur would be Baldrick, since he's the stupidest sentient mechanoid lifeform in existence. While he might not have Baldrick's innocence, he can still be childishly funny, like when he burns a swathe of destruction to find his way home. Flamefeather is George, the new, idealistic guy who messes everthing up with overeagerness, leaving Sparkstalker to pick up the pieces. He has a short temper, but is just eager to do his bit for the Decepticon war effort. In other words, give the Blackadder team some giant mechanical bodies, bad tempers, and flamethrowers, and voila--you have the firecons.
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That's.... surprisingly fitting. For some reason the idea of a young Hugh Laurie playing Flamefeather really tickles me.
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That's awesome idea! I have to draw that someday, thanks for the idea!
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It takes a damn fine artist to make the Firecons look cool. Guess what that makes you.
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Awww shucks. [looks down, puts hands in pockets, kicks dirt]
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Flamefeather... Cindersaur... can't remember the last one, but amazing work. This is fantastic!
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Sparkstalker, and thank you! Bringing love to the unloved is what I'm all about.
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Woo, shweet. I can really feel the heat coming off the screen! And you gotta feel sorry for the poor 'Bot at the other end of those tracks... Awesome job.
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Thank you! That may be the first time in history anyone has felt "sorry" for a "poor 'Bot" with the Firecons on his trail.
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Very cool. Wow, I miss Transformers. The original ones from my childhood, too, not the newer ones. *sigh* Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane, as well as the AWESOME drawing. *favs*
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Thanks! I'm glad you dig it!
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