Many thanks go out to TFans member Nevermore who has been kind enough to translate, combine and compose the complete storyline of the Binaltech line from all released Binaltech figures! Read on to view perhaps one of the greatest TF storylines ever concieved....

 

Read the Full News Story Here

Well, I didn't actually "translate" this. The only translations I participated in were the chapters for Ravage and Overdrive, and there I only transferred Fan to Fan's translations into more fluent English, looked up and fixed obscure references etc.

 

Translation credits are included. :)

Thanks a lot, Nevermore, for the cumulative story so far, and Fan to Fan for the original translations. It's a real treat for us English-speaking Alt buyers :thumb

JUST POST THE F'N STORY :grr

 

In the year 2003, over a decade after the end of season 2 of the G1 cartoon, humans and Autobots have formed an alliance. The Earth Defense Command (EDC, from G1 season 3) has been formed, construction of Autobot City ("Cybertron City" in Japan; first seen in Transformers: The Movie) has begun, humans are about to make their first steps into outer space, starting with a colony on the moon (the Lunar Colony was originally mentioned in the G1 season 3 episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2"; in the original script of that episode, there was a line that was cut from the final episode which established the colony as having existed since 1997).

 

Meanwhile, Megatron had launched an all-out war on Cybertron, and many Autobot warriors had left the Earth in order to prevent him from taking over their home planet. However, some Autobots, led by Ultra Magnus, decided to stay back on Earth in order to protect the planet and Autobot City.

 

All of a sudden, the Combaticon Swindle unleashed a modified version of the Cosmic Rust (from the G1 season 2 episode "Cosmic Rust") on the Autobots. While a few of them, including Jazz (Meister) and Ultra Magnus, were spared from the effects of the virus, most of the Earth-bound Autobots, among them Smokescreen, Hound, Tracks, Sideswipe (Lambor/Side Swipe), Bluestreak (Streak/Silverstreak), Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker, were damaged beyond repair.

 

In order to counter the new Decepticon threat, the EDC launched an emergency plan and initiated the long-planned project "Binaltech". Supervised by the Autobots' mother computer Teletraan-1 (from G1 season 1 and 2), car manufacturers and research facilities around the world started to build new bodies for the fallen Autobot warriors that combined the latest of Earth's and Cybertron's technologies. The Autobots' primary power sources are electro-cells (originally introduced in the G1 season 2 episode "Traitor").

 

The first Autobot to be rebuilt in a new Binaltech body was Bluestreak, but due to some problems with an unstable personality, the EDC Inspection Bureau had him undergo a variety of tests until they gave him clearance to return to active duty. Next up were: Smokescreen, in a new body built by Fuji Heavy Industries, Inc. and STi (Subaru Tecnica International); Sideswipe, in a new body built by the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation's PVO-Team (Performance Vehicle Operations), whose main operating computer is a "TORQ 3000" quantum processor developed by Quantum Laboratories (from the G1 season 2 episode "Day of the Machines", where they created the super-computer TORQ III); Hound, who totally loves his new body built by Daimler-Chrysler and Hybrid Technologies Corporation ("High Technology Corporation" in Japan; Astoria's company from the G1 season 2 episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide") and views it as the first step towards his goal of becoming human himself one day; and Tracks, in a new body built by General Motors and DuPont (GM's former parent company), which now provides him with the ability to change his body color from yellow to blue.

 

The newly rebuilt Binaltech Autobots were able to repel the Decepticon attack, severely damage some of them and eventually drive them off the planet. In the meantime, however, an evil underground organization, calling itself the "Concurrence", was formed. With prominent members such as Count von Rani (aka Iron Klaw from "G.I. Joe Extreme") and General Garrison Kreiger (aka General Blitz from "Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles") and financially backed up by Lord Chumley (from the G1 season 2 episode "Prime Target") and Shawn Berger Jr. (from the G1 season 2 two-parter "Megatron's Master Plan"), among others, they sought to put a rift between the human/Autobot alliance.

 

Shortly afterwards, Starscream, from a secret staging ground, contacted his former ally Dr. Arkeville (from the G1 season 1 three-parter "The Ultimate Doom" and the follow-up episode "Countdown to Extinction"), who was also a member of the Concurrence, and the two of them agreed to form an alliance. Arkeville combined his own "hypnochip" (also from "The Ultimate Doom") with the Insecticon Bombshell's cerebro-shells and thus managed to secretly bring several facilities participating in the Binaltech Project under his control, in order to provide the damaged Decepticon warriors with new bodies as well.

 

Therefore, while Symultech Industries (originally mentioned in the G1 season 2 episode "Trans-Europe Express") believed they were rebuilding Sunstreaker, they actually built a new body for Dead End, who can no longer combine with the other Stunticons into Menasor in this form and now fears that he might have to revert to his old body some day. Likewise, the body the Central City Institute of Technology (Central City is a fictious city from the G1 season 2 two-parter "Megatron's Master Plan") had intended for Trailbreaker (even including a force field projector ["force barrier emitter" in Japan], which now had to be left offline since it was never finished) ended up as the new body of Swindle, who had managed to put himself on top of the waiting list of Decepticons to receive a Binaltech upgrade, even though other Decepticons were more severely damaged, and now can't merge with the other Combaticons into Bruticus anymore either.

 

Since the EDC deleted the registration for the BT units the Decepticons had acquired, they couldn't access electro-cell recharge facilities anymore (the "recharge facilities" refer to the recharging chambers from the G1 season 2 episode "Attack of the Autobots"), thus they used stabilized "exponential generators" (Dr. Arkeville's invention from "Countdown to Extinction") as their new primary power sources instead.

 

In order to counter the threat posed by the Decepticons' infiltration of the project and their acquisition of the Binaltech technology, the Autobots and the EDC quickly launched a number of counteroffensives:

 

The first of them was a sub-project, initiated by the EDC's Advanced Technologies Development Bureau, named "Genetronic Translink" (GT), headed by the Autobots' old associate Chip Chase (from G1 season 1 and 2). In order to enable a single Autobot to control several Binaltech bodies at once, the GT technology involved an Autobots' "laser core" (mentioned in the G1 season 1 episode "Divide and Conquer" and in the season 2 episode "The Autobot Run"; first seen in the G1 season 2 episode "Starscream's Brigade", albeit referred to as "personality component" this time), which is the basis of his personality, being stored in "subspace" (a popular concept among fans used to explain various aspects of Transformers technology) and from there controlling the individual robot units via "Translink ports". The first Autobot to test the new technology was Smokescreen, who, now as Smokescreen GT, can operate up to four robot bodies at once, although this amount of active units is saved as a last resort for criticial situations.

 

The second Autobot to use the GT technology was Jazz, who had originally not been affected by the Cosmic Rust. Regardless, he agreed to have his brain transferred into a new body (built by the Mazda Corporation) anyways in order to carry out secret operations. Using the GT technology, Jazz can also remote-control a red duplicate of himself he nicknamed "Zoom-Zoom". Zoom-Zoom isn't a fully sentient individual yet, but Jazz has already started to give him dancing lessons whenever time permits. Jazz himself, in turn, participated in a secret investigation code-named "Operation: Carwash", intended to uncover the extent of the Decepticons' infiltration of the Binaltech Project.

 

Meanwhile, the EDC's top agent, Dashiell R. Faireborn (better known as Flint from "G.I. Joe", now also the father to EDC agent Marissa Faireborn from G1 season 3), infiltrated the Concurrence's secret headquarters in the Lunar Colony and found out the truth about the Concurrence's agenda, the involvement of von Rani, Kreiger, Chumley and Berger, and also about Arkeville's brainwashing activities. After confirming that no member of the BT project was actually working for the Concurrence, he managed to send out a message to Ultra Magnus in Autobot City, advising him to find a way to neutralize the effects of the brainwashing. After finishing his transmission, Faireborn was forced to flee in order not to get caught by the enemy. His fate is still unclear at this point.

 

At the same time, on Cybertron, the war between Optimus Prime's Autobots and Megatron's Decepticons was in full force when the Decepticons used some primitive telepathic aliens known as the "Unleasher" (NOT a G1 or other obscure reference - Hirofumi Ichikawa confirmed they are entirely his own creation) in order to launch a psychic attack on the Autobots. The attack affected all "Primitives" (first identified as such in the G1 season 3 episode "Call of the Primitives") and turned the Dinobots into rampaging savages.

 

After the Autobots had found themselves forced to take their comrades out of commission, Grimlock regained consciousness and agreed to do anything in order to be able to return to the battlefield. Thus, Wheeljack rushed off to Earth and had Grimlock's brain being transferred into a new body (built by the Ford Company's Specialized Car Development Team) that combined all the improvements of the previous Binaltech bodies, thus making him the "ultimate" Binaltech warrior. Even though Grimlock hated his new body from the first minute and took it out on the Ford developers even while still being rebuilt, he decided to make the best of his situation and to continue fighting alongside his fellow Autobots.

 

Meanwhile, some former staffers of the now defunct "I.I.I." (Intelligence and Information Institute aka "Triple-I", originally introduced in Transformers #15 from Marvel USA, disbanded prior to Transformers #68, also from Marvel USA) discovered that a capsule they had excavated from a prehistoric layer years ago, dubbed the "Schrödinger's Box" (Erwin Schrödinger was a physician who postulated the popular paradox known as "Schrödinger's Cat", which involved - in theory - a cat being put inside a box together with a radioactive isotope; prior to reopening the box, it would be impossible to determine whether the cat is still alive or has died, therefore the cat is technically alive and dead at the same time), was actually a flight recorder from future Ravage's ship (from the three-part Beast Wars season 2 episode "The Agenda") that contained the memories and personality of X-9 aka Ravage.

 

The former I.I.I. staffers found a way to communicate with Ravage and reached an agreement to give him a new body in exchange for technology and knowledge of the future. Setting up a fake BT project, they built a new body for Ravage. In order to bring him truly back to life (Ravage had died in "The Agenda"), they took the original, present day Ravage (Jaguar) who conveniently happened to be in EDC custody at that time, forced him to shrink down into cassette mode and stored him, in stasis lock, inside the audio unit on Binaltech Ravage's dashboard, thereby providing the latter with a "Spark" (a Transformer's equivalent to a human "soul", first introduced in the Beast Wars season 1 episode "The Spark"). Although they removed all armaments and installed several layers of fail-safe systems, Ravage was able to overcome them with the help of his extremely advanced technological knowledge and equip himself with upgraded weaponry systems. Realizing the future hadn't changed at all, he ingored the agreement, killed those who had brought him back to life and now embarks on a mission to change history, seeking Decepticons forever to be the ruling faction.

 

In the meantime, Honda's Wako Basic Technology Research Center, which indeed already has experience in developing humanoid robots (see here), had managed to rebuild the Omnibot Overdrive, whose central processing unit had been severely damaged. Equipped with an "Omni-Blaster" (a nod to the old team name of the Omnibots), which incorporates the properties of his three former weapons, as well as a ballistic shield made of Durabyllium (a fictious metal that was mentioned in the tech specs for the Technobot Nosecone and the Pretender Beast Catilla as well as in the the Seacon Snaptrap's Transformers Universe profile), Overdrive primarily serves as a tactician for the Earth/Cybertron alliance, his armaments in vehicle mode (in his Omnibot incarnation, he was equipped with an "attack mode" in vehicle mode) had been removed (a nod towards the removal of the gun barrel Honda had demanded for the US version of the toy) as a consequence of the contractually imposed restrictions regarding humanitarian support (Overdrive's primary function in battle). There are several prototypes of Overdrive's body in existence (a nod towards Hasbro's "Windcharger" version), all of which are part of Wheeljack's "Bodyshop" project.

 

Meanwhile, Ravage had secretly launched his attempts to alter the future by commiting a series of sabotage acts. However, Overdrive, who had experience in dimensional travels (a nod to an ad from an old Hasbro catalog which urged fans to order the Omnibots, which were exclusively available via mail-order, as soon as possible, lest they would "fight on in another universe") using a quantum dial, as well as an improved perception for all sorts of disturbances in the flow of time, soon noticed the familiar reality fluxes during one of these incidents. He promptly warned the Earth/Cybertron alliance that someone from outside the regular time stream was apparently trying to alter history.

 

 

To be continued...

 

 

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Story and bios written by Hirofumi Ichikawa

Technical data written by Fumihiko Akiyama

Based on translations provided by Doug Dlin (originally done for BWTF), Fan to Fan and LagunaL8 from Ragnark: Logoff

Additional clarifications provided by Hirofumi Ichikawa and Doug Dlin

Swindle's head originally identified as a Trailbreaker toy/cartoon hybrid head by Might Gaine of The Allspark and David "It's Walky" Willis from alt.toys.transformers

Correction regarding the first mentioning of the "laser cores" by Arcee from TF Archive/LadySilverSnake from 2005 Boards and Michael "Kil" McCarthy from alt.toys.transformers

Iron Klaw and General Blitz originally identified by sdtessmann from 2005 Boards

Exponential generator originally identified by Thylacine2000 from 2005 Boards

Durabyllium originally identified by Raijin Optimus of Fan to Fan

 

 

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Sources:

 

The story (note: Doug Dlin's translations are author-approved):

 

Binaltech story chapter 1 (from Smokescreen's and Lambor's booklets):

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF

Fan to Fan translation (under "26 Sep 2003")

 

Binaltech story chapter 2 (from Streak's, Hound's and Dead End's booklets):

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Binal-Tech is...")

 

Binaltech story chapter 3 (from Dead End's booklet):

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Birth of the Evil Binal-Tech!")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Binaltech story chapter 4 (from Smokescreen GT's booklet):

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Binaltech Story: Chapter Four")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Binaltech story chapter 5 (from Meister's booklet):

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Operation: Carwash")

Fan to Fan translation

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

Binaltech story chapter 6 (from Swindle's booklet):

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Expose All of Evil's Designs!")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Binaltech story chapter 7 (from Grimlock's booklet):

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

Binaltech story chapter 8 (from Ravage's booklet):

Fan to Fan translation

 

Binaltech story chapter 9 (from Overdrive's booklet):

Fan to Fan translation

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

 

 

The characters (again, Doug Dlin's translations are author-approved):

 

Smokescreen bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Tech Specs")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Smokescreen system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page 9: System Description")

 

Lambor bio:

Fan to Fan translation

 

Lambor system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page 10: System Description")

 

Streak bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Tech Specs")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Streak system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page Nine")

 

Hound bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Tech Specs")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Hound system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page Nine: System Description")

 

Dead End bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Tech Specs")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Dead End system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "System Description")

 

Tracks bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "BT06 Autobot Warrior")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Tracks system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page Nine: System Description")

 

Smokescreen GT bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Tech Specs")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Smokescreen GT system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page 9: (System Description)")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Meister bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Tech Specs")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Meister system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page Nine")

Fan to Fan translation

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

Swindle bio:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Tech Specs")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Swindle system description:

Doug Dlin translation from BWTF (under "Page Nine")

Fan to Fan translation

 

Grimlock bio:

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

Fan to Fan translation

 

Grimlock system description:

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

Ravage bio:

Fan to Fan translation

 

Ravage system description:

Fan to Fan translation

 

Overdrive introduction page:

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

Overdrive bio:

Fan to Fan translation

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

Overdrive system description:

Fan to Fan translation

LagunaL8 translation from Ragnark: Logoff

 

 

 

Additional background:

 

Q&A with Doug Dlin

More Q&A with Doug Dlin

Even more Q&A with Doug Dlin

Clarification on the "Unleashers" by Hirofumi Ichikawa, forwarded by Doug Dlin

Clarification on continuity issues by Hirofumi Ichikawa, forwarded by Doug Dlin

JUST POST THE F'N STORY :grr

'scuse me?

And you just rendered all the links in it useless.

 

BTW, for those wondering:

I just got word from Ichikawa-san via Doug Dlin. Never did any of the carmakers make any demands regarding his fiction. All the in-jokes ("Zoom-Zoom", Overdrive as a pacifist) are meant for fun only and are supposed to reflect some of the real-life events that led to the respective toys ending up the way they did. But Ichikawa included all of this because he wanted to, not because Mazda or Honda told him so.

And you just rendered all the links in it useless.

 

BTW, for those wondering:

I just got word from Ichikawa-san via Doug Dlin. Never did any of the carmakers make any demands regarding his fiction. All the in-jokes ("Zoom-Zoom", Overdrive as a pacifist) are meant for fun only and are supposed to reflect some of the real-life events that led to the respective toys ending up the way they did. But Ichikawa included all of this because he wanted to, not because Mazda or Honda told him so.

i liked the way he added those things, gives a sense of humour to the story