Name: Red Alert
Partner name: Longarm
Allegiance: Autobots
Function: Medic
Sub-group: Vanguard Team
Timeline: Unicron Trilogy
All life is precious.
Profile:
Red Alert faithfully serves the Autobots as both medic and science officer. On Earth, these are two very different professions, but on Cybertron, a world of living, sentient machines, there is very little distinction between the two roles. Calm and collected to a fault, Red Alert has a reputation for being a tightly-wound workaholic. When he's not healing a wounded Autobot, he's spending his time upgrading the systems of the Autobots' base or catching up on the latest breakthroughs in Cybertronian medical science. Red Alert is extremely reserved, rarely taking the time to crack jokes or relax with the rest of the Autobots. On the occasions when Red Alert interacts with others, he comes across as a bit stiff and detached, giving the impression that he is an egotist or looks on their downtime activities with disdain. This is a false impression - Red Alert is simply a little socially awkward and more comfortable in his medbay or in the lab, with his inventions. One of the handful who know the "real" Red Alert is Optimus Prime, who has known Red Alert since his youth. In those days, Red Alert was one of the loudest, most fearsome and brash Autobot warriors, who would charge into battle without a thought for his own personal safety. That all changed when Red Alert was left with near-fatal injuries - which cost him his left hand - following a brutal encounter with several of the deadliest Decepticon warriors. Red Alert spent several stellar cycles in intensive care; it was not certain whether Red Alert would even survive. Fortunately, Red Alert pulled through, and his near-death experience led him to an epiphany about the preciousness of life. Now, Red Alert still charges into battle without thought for his own personal safety - but unlike his younger days, now Red Alert risks his life to save wounded comrades.
Nissan Patrol Rescue SUV mode:
Longarm
Unlike many Cybertronians during the Micron War, Red Alert did not choose to take a Mini-Con partner; nonetheless, the Mini-Con Longarm was a constant companion to Red Alert during that time. Longarm is a good-natured 'bot who is friendly and compassionate. Sadly, Longarm experienced permanent memory loss after suffering near terminal injuries during a mission to keep him and several other Mini-Cons out of Decepticon hands - he's effectively a blank slate. Red Alert refused to give up on Longarm, and spent dozens of solar cycles working non-stop to save Longarm's life. Out of a desire to save others as he himself was saved, and gratitude to Red Alert, Longarm decided to work alongside Red Alert as a nurse. Red Alert and Longarm become an incredible team when working together; while Red Alert works to repair damaged allies, Longarm takes care of diagnosing and triaging patients, helping Red Alert to prioritise repair operations. It is telling that, following the end of the Micron Wars, Longarm chose to continue working as a nurse with Red Alert of his own free will rather than joining the other Mini-Cons on their new colony world of Micron.
Crane mode
The Vanguard Team
When Red Alert was reformatted by the power of Earth's Planet Force, he received a substantial upgrade to all of his systems that greatly increasing his raw power. Being reborn with a new offence-oriented body and alternate form greatly troubles Red Alert, even though outwardly he maintains an air of cool stoicism. His new form makes Red Alert recall his younger, more brazen days when he would charge into battle with barely a thought for his own safety; an attitude that Red Alert thought he'd left behind in his past when he almost died in battle. Although Red Alert keeps telling himself that his reformatting is external only, and that his mind and spark remain intact and unaltered, as he goes into battle using his powerful new body he feels the fire of his warrior's spirit reigniting inside him. Red Alert tries his best to temper his warrior's spirit with his more rational side, which he honed in the years since that original near-death encounter. The result is one of the deadliest Autobot warriors ever; a powerful opponent who deploys his assortment of new weapons with surgical precision. Red Alert is always careful to use his new abilities to disable opponents, always targeting non-critical systems with the intent of causing minimal lasting harm. However, Red Alert is fearful; he remembers how he used to be, and is concerned that he might get swept up in a battle and allow his self-control to slip, in the process doing lasting harm to an opponent. Gazing at his restored left hand, Red Alert questions why a fragment of Primus saw fit to grant him a combat-oriented form, when he has worked so hard to leave that part of life behind. It's a question he'd like to ask Primus himself, once the Autobots accomplish their mission of recovering the remaining Planet Forces and awakening the creator.
Cybertron Defence Red Alert alternate mode: Mobile Ballistic Missile Launcher
Author notes:
Something that I'd intended to reference in Red Alert's bio was that the loss of Red Alert's left hand isn't actually permanent. In my mind, Red Alert feels it is more efficient to have a multitool mounted on his arm for medical treatment, plus he keeps the hand missing as a reminder of how his life was saved and the oath he took to uphold the sanctity of life. I worked that into his Cybertron Defence bio in the end, as a reflection of how Red Alert feels uncomfortable with his new form and that he's regressing to his more violent older self.
Red Alert's relationship with Longarm was an interesting line of thought as well. It seemed odd for Red Alert to be using a Mini-Con partner when he's all about the sanctity of life, so the way I see it, Longarm is a willing partner who helps Red Alert and sticks with him, even though Red Alert is like "no, really, you're a free 'bot, you don't need to constantly follow me around". Of course, part of this is Longarm's gratitude and part of this is the mechanism built into the Mini-Cons that compels absolute obedience to whomever the Mini-Con powerlinks with, which neither of the characters would have known about. That being said, I do see Longarm sticking about through Transformers Cybertron as a nurse working in the background somewhere while the main action was going on.
Given Red Alert comes back in Transformers Cybertron, I'd love to know what he was up to in Transformers Energon. Presumably, he's working on Cybertron in some capacity, possibly maintaining the world's defence grid, but it'd be nice to have a story to explore this someday. Another potential story thread that has never been explored relates to Red Alert's evolution into his Vanguard Team / Cybertron Defence mode. Red Alert's backstory references how he used to be a much more brash and violent character, and became a medic after his combative nature nearly got him killed. The Cybertron Defence mode is a much more offensively minded design, and so I would definitely want to play on the fact that there is a warrior under the surface being reawakened. How that goes is up to the writer, but I'd like to think Red Alert tempers his fighting spirit with experience and becomes a much more rounded individual.
Toys of Unicron Trilogy Red Alert
Transformers Armada Red Alert with Mini-Con Longarm
Armada Red Alert is the epitomy of toys in the Transformers Armada line: big, chunky, loaded with spring-loaded gimmicks and SFX, and with some cool design choices. Articulation is a bit of a secondary priority to being fun, chunky toys. But in Red Alert's case, he's got some good poseability, with full motion in both the arms and legs, although the panels on the legs sometimes limit exactly how much posing Red Alert can really do. I feel like Hasbro did the right thing putting the fun first with the Armada toys, and Red Alert seems to have a good balance of all the different ideas. He's one who I really enjoy taking out to play about with from time to time.
A fun fact is this is allegedly the very last Hasbro Transformers toy to feature a red cross on its design. Apparently Armada Red Alert using the symbol prompted a legal response from the international Red Cross, and since this time, Hasbro hasn't used the symbol on any Transformers toys.
More information on Transformers Armada Red Alert at TFW2005
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Transformers Armada toys in my collection.
Transformers Cybertron Red Alert
The Cybertron Red Alert (or the one I own, the Galaxy Force version, who was named First Aid) is a lovely toy. He's wonderfully solid, with a cool leg transformation. It's one of the nicest leg transformations I've seen on a Transformer, with the front and back swinging down and clipping together to make a solid and bulky pair of legs. The figure's Cyber Key gimmick is fairly unobtrusive - it gives him a bit of a backpack but it folds flat enough that it is quite unobtrusive. The overall look of Cybertron Red Alert has a lot of nice callbacks to the Armada design, which I really like - it sells the idea that this guy is the same character from Transformers Armada, with moderate upgrades.
Another feature that I like are the arm attachments - the hammer and the claw. It plays on the multi-tool aspect of the Armada version of the character, except here the tools have a little more versatility. That is something I really like, since it gives Red Alert a few different options for different missions.
One small negative, though - the exposed head in vehicle mode. You can see the top of the head when Red Alert is in ambulance mode! The one thing that Red Alert has in his defence here is that the top of the head sits between the lightbar so it sort of conceals itself. It's not great, though, and personally, I'd have liked a better way to hide that head when he's in vehicle mode.
More information on Transformers Galaxy Force First Aid at TFW2005
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Transformers Cybertron toys in my collection.
Transformers Cybertron Defense Red Alert
The Cybertron Defence Red Alert (First Gunner in the Japanese Galaxy Force line, which is the one in my collection) is a substantial chunk of toy. He's a huge bot! One of the defining features of this mold is the gigantic missile on the shoulder, which opens up into an even more gigantic laser cannon when you plug in the Cyber Key. He's a great, fun toy, pure and simple, who plays to the strengths of Red Alert's two earlier toy designs. I really like the inclusion of an arm cannon which can take upgraded versions of Cybertron Red Alert's arm attachments, meaning the whole arm attachment thing carries over thorugh all of Red Alert's incarnations. I really like that. The only thing I can really say against this mold is that it's not as creative as some of the other molds in the Cybertron line, even though it looks glorious and it is a lot of fun to play about with.
More information on Transformers Galaxy Force First Gunner at TFW2005
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Transformers Cybertron toys in my collection.
