Allegiance: Autobot

Function: Air Support

First Comic Appearance: Transformers # 24

"War's a dirty game- and I'm a dirty player!"

Profile: Underneath Blade's aerodynamically designed steel skin beats the engine of your basic street fighter. He would much prefer using his rotor assemply to slash through a horde of Decepticons than to fly. But his function keeps him in the air most of the time, and that really fires his fuel. Not only is he prevented from engaging his enemies in hand-to-hand combat, but he can only strike at them from long-range air attack, which he considers unsporting and cowardly. "If I'm gonna destroy someone, I want his fuel spurting all over me, not the ground below," says Blades. But this doesn't preclude Blades from doing his job and doing it well, a fact of which his fellow Protectobots are deeply appreciative.

Abilities: Blades can reach speeds of up to 400 mph and has a range of 1,200 miles in helicopter form. He carries twin rocket launchers that fire armor-piercing "smart" rockets, each of which seeks its target based on a computer image encoded within it. In robot mode, he carries a photon pistol that shoots light-bursts with the equivalent brightness of 5,000 watt light bulbs, enough to temporarily blind all but those whose optical sensors are the most heavily shileded. He combines with his fellow Protectobots to form the giant robot known as Defensor.

Weaknesses: In helicopter mode, Blades is ineffective in winds of more than 40 mph, and is liable to crash in winds of more than 60 mph. His rotor blades are prone to metal stress fractures if not checked after every 5,000 miles of usage.