Finkleberg, Donny (Robot Master)

An out-of-work comic book writer, Donny Finkleberg took on the role of Robot Master, a supposed terrorist who controlled the Transformers. He has since discontinued this role, and his present whereabouts are unknown.

Comic Bio (US):

Donny Finkleberg was the writer of the Robot Master comic book, a comic that was, at the time, floundering. The series was cancelled and Donny fired. However, Walter Barnett from I.I.I. had seen the comic and realized that he could use the Robot Master character to calm public hysteria surrounding the Transformers crisis. He found Donny, and offered to pay him to masquerade as Robot Master on television. Donny accepted, and publicly announced that he controlled the Transformers, thus quelling speculation that the robots were aliens. Afterwards, he was offered another cheque if he would be willing to broadcast in front of Megatron, who was incapacitated in a coal mine. Unfortunately, Soundwave and his cassettes then arrived and drove out everyone but Donny, who was captured by the enraged and reactivated Megatron. Shockwave arrived in timely fashion and Donny took advantage of this to convince everyone he would be more useful alive than dead.

Donny broadcast several messages from the coal mine as Robot Master, indicating that not only did he control the Transformers, but also that the Autobots and Decepticons were equally bad. Public opinion clearly took a turn for the worse for the Autobots.

During an Autobot assault designed to study Devastator, Donny escaped his captors and managed to find Skids, who was considering retirement at the time. Skids defeated Ravage, who was hunting Donny, and agreed to take Donny to Autobot Headquarters.

Soon after his arrival, Optimus informed Skids that several Autobots had apparently gotten to Earth through the newly-constructed spacebridge. However, they had since disappeared, and Optimus decided to send Skids to find them. Skids blackmailed Donny into going with him by taking from him the cheques he had received from I.I.I. During their hunt, Megatron had the Stunticons race towards Skids on a crowded highway, causing as much destruction as possible on the way. I.I.I., along with Circuit Breaker, soon arrived, and Donny decided to go to them and tell them that Skids was a "good guy" and to avoid shooting him. However, as soon as the Aerialbots arrived, Motormaster loudly ordered the Stunticons to surround Skids, and defend him! As Megatron had anticipated, Circuit Breaker immediately came to the conclusion that Skids, and thus the Autobots, were every bit as bad as the Decepticons. Donny was horrified at the turn of events, which concluded with I.I.I.'s capture of the Aerialbots.

Skids managed to escape in the confusion and took Donny with him, but by now, Donny was so dejected by the turn of events that he turned Skids over to I.I.I. (for $50,000) while Skids was in his sleep cycle.

At this time, the Battlechargers began a vandalism spree in North America, and Circuit Breaker found her powers not quite strong enough to take on the more aggressive Decepticons. Eventually, she was convinced by Donny to make a deal with the captured Autobots, who would help her defeat the Battlechargers in return for their freedom. Circuit Breaker reluctantly agreed, they won, and the Autobots were released. Circuit Breaker was fired as a result, and Donny eventually had a change of heart and donated his cheque to repairing the damage done by the Battlechargers.