Powet Alphabet: F is for Flipsides

 

In 2002, it all started out so innocently. Takara was reissuing some of the original line of Transformers. As an E-Hobby exclusive, special variants were made of brand new characters that never appeared in the original show. The result was Road Rage and Crosscut. After that, what followed could only be described as a wave of repainted G1 molds as new characters with new stories inserted into the Generation 1 canon. This is what we may call a ‘retcon’ since the books were more or less closed on new stories from the original canon up to that point. Repaints of Hound, Sideswipe, Starscream, Grapple and more would follow with new color schemes, names and bios. If a mold had been part of the Diaclone or Microchange line, that original paint scheme would be used as an option as well.

Read on to learn about Flipsides!

Generation One

Down the line, an E-Hobby exclusive repaint of Twincast, a repainted Blaster from the Japanese series. While the original Twincast came with Steeljaw, this reissue was offered with a repainted cassette that was based on the Eject/Rewind mold. This new character was a female called Flipsides. Her bio in short form is as follows:

You’d be hard pressed to find a robot more friendly and compassionate than Flip Sides. A former teacher, she is well-suited to managing data, military history and coordinating, and has been given the task of managing waves of remote-controlled combat drones. She’s well-liked and personable, and a valuable Autobot fighter.

And it’s all a lie, even to Flip Sides herself.

She is in actuality a sleeper agent placed into the Autobot ranks thousands of years previous. She has no memory of her former self, which has been carefully buried under her Autobot persona, and will not awaken until the intricate timer mechanism also buried inside her programming triggers. What her Decepticon self is like is entirely unknown, but the thousands of years of data she’s collected will undoubtedly be used to devastating effect. When this happens… nobody knows, possibly even the mysterious Decepticons who programmed her.

She has a phobia towards mechanoids with more than two legs, which can lock her systems up if she is surprised.

The long version of her bio can be found here.

This always seemed an unusually interesting and unique back story to me. It really made my mind wander in all sorts of ‘what if’ scenarios. As mentioned in the extended bio, the entire plot is even more devastating in its method of execution than its ultimate gain in military intelligence. I have often wondered whether the Autobot personality of Flipsides is actually called Flipsides. Her name is kind of a give away, so I pondered whether she might have an alternate identity.

Kiss Play Position

In 2007, a 3 pack of repainted mini-cassettes was released as another E-Hobby exclusive to supplement the bizarre and pedophilic Transformers Kiss Play series in Japan. This is referred to as the Kiss Players Position pack. At that point in the series, Ultra Magnus decided to form a Transformers / Human pop music group to go on a good will tour of the world to promote Transformer / Human relations, which were poor at the time (that might be the least ridiculous thing that happens in this series). The Transformer members of the pop group were the three figures included in this exclusive set; Glit (a repainted Ravage in white), Sundor (a golden laserbeak repaint), and Rosanna (a pink and white repaint of the Eject/Rewind mold).

Rosanna and Flipsides not only share the same mold, but very similar color schemes. My wandering mind likes to think that Rosanna is actually the Autobot alter-ego of Flipsides. I’m apparently not the only one with that idea, though, maybe not in the Generation One continuity.

Transformers Animated

On April 1, 2009, Derrick Wyatt, the creative director for Transformers Animated, posted an April Fools’ image featuring many characters that may or may not appear in the then-forthcoming final season of the series. Among them was Flipsides. She did not appear in the show, but Rosanna did appear in a very brief cameo during a crowd shot on Cybertron. All the way over on the right.

The Allspark Almanac 2 revealed several more details about these two. Rosanna was a member of the Entertainment Guild and was a pop star sensation. Flipsides was the name Agent Blurr gave to this unknown Decepticon sleeper agent whom he believed to be an important member of the Entertainment guild. Coincidence? I think not!

One of the great things about the Transformers franchise is the immense variety and quantity of characters. Add to that many different forms of great fiction that give these characters life. Everyone has a favorite character and rarely will they be the same as the next. Flipsides is one of my current favorites. How about you?