Transformers: Generation 1

The Throttlebots, a sub-group of the Autobots, consist of six toys that could transform between a car and a robot. As a special gimmick

Gimmick

In marketing language, a gimmick is a unique or quirky special feature that makes something "stand out" from its contemporaries. However, the special feature is typically thought to be of little relevance or use. Thus, a gimmick is a special feature for the sake of having a special feature...

, they feature a pullback motor

Pullback motor

A pullback motor is a simple clockwork motor used in toy cars.Pulling the car backwards winds up an internal coil spring. When released, the car is propelled forwards by the spring...

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The Throttlebot toys had limited poseability and simple transformations. Not even the arms move. To transform the car to a robot, what is needed is to lift the frame of the car to an upright position, flip out the side panels to reveal the arms and hands, flip back the rear of the car body to reveal heads, and optionally push the chassis in.

The Throttlebots include six toys:

• Chase - A restless spirit who is always on the go. Voiced by Danny Mann
  Danny Mann
  Daniel "Danny" Mann is an American voice actor, writer, singer, musician, and production manager. He is best known for his voice of Hector from Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats, Freeway, Cloudraker and Lightspeed in Transformers, Backwoods Beagle in DuckTales, Kaltag in Balto, Ferdinand from Babe,...
  
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• Goldbug
  Bumblebee (Transformers)
  Bumblebee is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes. In most incarnations, Bumblebee is a small, yellow Autobot with the altmode of a compact car.- Transformers: Generation 1 :...
  
   - A reincarnation of Bumblebee. Voiced by Dan Gilvezan
  Dan Gilvezan
  Dan Gilvezan is an actor who provided the voice for Peter Parker/Spider-Man on the 1980s animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and the voice of the Autobots Bumblebee, Outback and Hot Spot and the Decepticon Snapdragon in the original 1984-1987 Transformers cartoon...
  
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• Freeway - A practical joker. Voiced by Danny Mann
  Danny Mann
  Daniel "Danny" Mann is an American voice actor, writer, singer, musician, and production manager. He is best known for his voice of Hector from Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats, Freeway, Cloudraker and Lightspeed in Transformers, Backwoods Beagle in DuckTales, Kaltag in Balto, Ferdinand from Babe,...
  
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• Rollbar - An adventurer who likes driving off-road; known more for his use of corny phrases and slogans. Voiced by Dan Gilvezan
  Dan Gilvezan
  Dan Gilvezan is an actor who provided the voice for Peter Parker/Spider-Man on the 1980s animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and the voice of the Autobots Bumblebee, Outback and Hot Spot and the Decepticon Snapdragon in the original 1984-1987 Transformers cartoon...
  
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• Searchlight
  Searchlight (Transformers)
  Searchlight is the name of two fictional character in the Transformers toy line, comics and cartoon series.-Transformers: Generation 1:A creature of the night. Cruises the Earth with the curiosity of a cat. Nothing is too insignificant or irrelevant to escape his notice. Quiet, serious; a loner...
  
   - A paranoid who wants to always watch what's going on. Voiced by Steve Bulen
  Steve Bulen
  James Steven Bulen , better known as Steve Bulen, is an American voice actor. He has been doing voices for many animated films and television shows for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Hanna-Barbera as well several video games and anime titles such as Doomed Megalopolis, Giant Robo, Outlaw Star,...
  
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• Wideload
  Wideload (Transformers)
  Wideload is the name of several different fictional characters in the various Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Toy Wideload is a member of the Throttlebot team; Wideload transforms into a dump truck...
  
   - A large dump truck obsessed with keeping himself clean. Voiced by Corey Burton
  Corey Burton
  Corey Burton is an American voice actor, perhaps best known as Count Dooku, Ziro the Hutt and Cad Bane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Brainiac in the DC animated universe and Spike Witwicky and Shockwave in the Transformers universe...
  
  .

The Throttlebots were among the first Transformers released in 1987 and featured pull-back motors that worked in both car and robot modes.

Animated Series

The Throttlebots were introduced in the Transformers cartoon's third season finale, "The Return of Optimus Prime" as a team originally consisting of Chase, Freeway, Searchlight and Wideload. In the second half of that two-part episode, the severely damaged Bumblebee is repaired and rebuilt by a Quintesson

Quintesson

Quintessons are fictional aliens from the Transformers universe. Within the TV series, they are the creators of the Transformers, although in most other fictional universes featuring the Transformers, they have no such status...

, and given the new name Goldbug by Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers franchise. Prime is the leader of the autobots, a faction of transforming robots from the planet Cybertron. The autobots are constantly waging war against a rival faction of transforming robots called Decepticons...

 after commenting that his new body made him a "Gold Bug". Rollbar did not appear until the first installment of "The Rebirth", the three-part episode that served as the fourth and final season of the series. In the Return of Optimus Prime saga the Throttlebots were one of the first Transformers to be infected by the hate diesease and quickly spread it over to the Stunticons. In the fourth and final season of the Transformers they have a little major role of defending Autobot City against a full army of Decepticons.

Marvel Comics

In the Marvel US Transformers comics, Goldbug is introduced the 4th issue of the G.I. Joe and the Transformers mini-series. He was rebuilt by the efforts of G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe is a line of action figures produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier , Action Sailor , Action Pilot , Action Marine and later on, the Action Nurse...

 technicians and Autobot

Autobot

Autobot, a faction of sentient robots from the planet Cybertron, are usually the main protagonists in the fictional universe of the Transformers, a collection of various toys, graphic novels, paperback books, cartoons and movies first introduced in 1984. In all but one Transformer story, the...

 medic Ratchet

Ratchet (Transformers)

Ratchet is the name of several characters in the Transformers universes. According to the original creator of the Transformers names, Bob Budiansky, Ratchet was named after the character of Nurse Ratched from the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The name Ratchet is almost always portrayed as...

 after being destroyed by a G.I. Joe security detail (using Armadillo mini-tanks).

In the UK Marvel comic Goldbug is rebuilt by the time-travelling Junkion leader Wreck-Gar

Wreck-Gar

Wreck-Gar is the name of two characters from the Transformers universes. Both are unpredictable good-aligned characters who provide comic relief in their series.-Transformers: Generation 1:Wreck-gar is the idiosyncratic leader of the Junkions....

 after his "death" at the hands of the notorious bounty hunter Death's Head

Death's Head

Death's Head is a fictional comic book character, a robotic bounty hunter appearing in the books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior for the company's Marvel UK imprint...

 as the events of the aforementioned crossover do not take place in the continuity of the UK comic. Goldbug goes on to join several other "future" Autobots in fighting the rogue Decepticon Galvatron

Galvatron

Galvatron is the name of several fictional Transformers, most often the recreated version of Megatron, the Decepticon leader. He was voiced by Leonard Nimoy in the 1986 Transformers movie, and then by Frank Welker in season 3 and 4 of the animated television series. Since then, other Transformers...

 before rejoining his present day companions and eventually the other Throttlebots.

In Transformers (Marvel Comics U.S.) issues #29-30, the Throttlebots were a rogue band of Autobot rebels whom Ratbat captured and forced to go to Earth to end a Scraplet

Scraplets

Scraplets are fictional characters, an alien race in Marvel's Transformers comics.-Marvel Comics:Scraplets are robotic parasites. They are semi-sentient robotic lifeforms, generally about five centimetres tall...

 infestation - tiny viral robots that turn into bolts and screws and eat metal upon contact - by exterminating the infected. Blaster

Blaster (Transformers)

Blaster is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers television and comic series based on the popular toy line produced by Takara Tomy and Hasbro. Due to trademark reasons, he is sometimes called Autobot Blaster...

, Goldbug and the Decepticon Triple Changers had already been infected, with Goldbug searching for a cure; the Throttlebots reluctantly attempted to kill him until they discovered the Scraplets could be killed with water. Curing the plague, the Throttlebots joined Blaster and Goldbug on the road, eventually being hunted down by the Autobots (under Grimlock

Grimlock

Grimlock is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes. He is usually portrayed as a tough leader who turns into a mechanical dinosaur...

's command), the Combaticons

Combaticons

The Combaticons are a group of Decepticon military vehicles in the assorted fictional universes of the Transformers.- Transformers: Generation 1 :...

 and R.A.A.T. forces. Rollbar having been injured earlier by an R.A.A.T. ambush, the Throttlebots were captured by R.A.A.T. and eventually executed as a show of disapproval against Decepticon attacks (R.A.A.T. and the American government believed all Transformers were allied despite statements by their captives and humans who learned the truth); they only survived by having their brain modules secretly removed by sympathetic government agent Walter Barnett. Their brains spent some time in toy cars before their bodies were rebuilt by Fortress Maximus' crew.

The Throttlebots were destroyed by the Underbase-powered Starscream

Starscream (Transformers)

Starscream is a fictional character in the Transformers franchise. He is one of the most prolific characters in the Transformers fictional work, appearing in almost all incarnations of the story. Starscream is usually portrayed with the same characterization...

. Goldbug was rebuilt (as Bumblebee) but the other Throttlebots were never shown rebuilt; Chase appeared as part of an Autobot task-force in the GI Joe/Generation 2 crossover but he was killed by Megatron.

IDW Publishing

The Throttlebots appeared as a whole team in IDW's Spotlight Metroplex.

Searchlight was among the crew in Optimus Prime's ship in Stormbringer

Stormbringer

Stormbringer is the name of the infamous black sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. Created by the forces of Chaos, it is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes carved deep into its blade...

.

Searchlight was on the Autobot Orbital Command Hub in Spotlight: Blaster. He was present when Blaster was recovered and returned to the Autobots.