Doubledealer (Transformers Generation 1 Profiles)

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Name: Doubledealer
Partner name: Knok, Skar
Allegiance: Double Agents, Mercenaries
Function: Mercenary
Sub-group: Powermaster
Timeline: Generation 1

The price of victory is never too high.

Profile:

Ruthless, battle-ready, and completely untrustworthy, Doubledealer believes that loyalty is just another commodity that can be bought and sold. He fights for the highest bidder - energon, precious metals, advanced technology - Doubledealer will accept them all in exchange for his services. Nobody really trusts Doubledealer, but his skills are too valuable to spurn, and thus both the Autobots and the Decepticons readily pay him for his services. Originally, Doubledealer merely equipped his body with the ability to broadcast the IFF signals and display the sigils of whichever faction he was dealing with. But as he became more widely known, Doubledealer invested a considerable amount of money and research into reengineering his body to grant himself the abilities of a triple changer - creating separate Autobot and Decepticon identities to help in his dealings with the two factions. He uses his robot mode (under the pseudonym Dealer) mainly to deal with the Autobots, and his monstrous vulture form (which he calls Double) to deal with the Decepticons. Doubledealer knows both sides suspect his duplicity - he charges for his services on a per-battle basis, after all - but finds that assuming a different identity based on whichever faction he is working with at worst avoids unnecessary confrontations with the rank-and-file, and at best helps to obscure the truth of his double-life. Plus, since arriving on Earth, Doubledealer has found even more opportunities to profit by selling his services to humans as well - both to those desperate for protection from the alien war that has arrived on their world, and to those who want to hire an alien robot to advance their own ambitions.

Early years:

In the present day, Doubledealer is a mercenary who sells his loyalty to the highest bidder in the same casual manner that Swindle sells illegal munitions. Ruthless and battle-ready, Doubledealer has been thoroughly untrustworthy since the day he came online. In his younger days, he went by the name of "Dealer" and was nominally a member of the Autobot forces. But Dealer was greedy, and smart enough to recognise opportunities to profit from his position. He secretly sold data on Autobot troop movements to the Decepticons, which lead to several devastating losses for the Autobot forces. Dealer's handler on the Decepticon side, Banzai-Tron of the Decepticon Secret Service, was one of the few to know of Doubledealer's duplicitous nature, and gave him the name "Doubledealer" in recognition of how Dealer was profiting from both sides. Growing aware that certain Autobots were becoming suspicious of him, Dealer arranged to be captured and thrown into a Decepticon prison - which was a carefully arranged ruse to allow Dealer to be reengineered as a triple changer. But little did the Decepticons know that Dealer was also planning on selling them out, and staged a prison break that liberated a number of Autobot prisoners of war and handily dispelled the rumours of Dealer's duplicity. Now possessing the ability to assume two unique alternate forms, Dealer fully adopted the identity of Doubledealer the mercenary, using his two alternate forms to sell his services to both the Autobots and the Decepticons, all while keeping an open mind to other opportunities for profit.

Missile carrier mode:

Author notes:

Writing Doubledealer wasn't overly difficult, as he's such an interesting character! I decided to work in a few elements of the new Earthrise toy (the symbols on the shoulders) and also incorporate the naming scheme from IDW and the character's one and only Marvel UK appearance. Marvel UK actually named the robot mode Double and the bird Dealer, but I flipped that to fit how IDW named the robot mode Dealer.

The last section of the main bio is another concession to Doubledealer's release in the Earthrise line, and comes out of asking "so, if this character were on Earth, wouldn't he sell his services to humans as well"? Generation 1's cartoon established there were plenty of self-interested groups out there who'll happily hire a Transformer mercenary if one offered their services, and it creates an interesting way to use Doubledealer in a few stories.

Doubledealer is a character with a lot of good story potential who I'd like to see explored more in future Transformers stories. I'm personally disappointed that Netflix didn't make more of the character in Earthrise - his role could have been filled by anyone, and it feels like Doubledealer was there purely to sell his new toy.

Toys of Transformers Generation 1 Doubledealer

Transformers Earthrise Doubledealer

Every once in a while Hasbro gives us a complete leftfield release, and Earthrise Doubledealer is no different. Outside of a Blitzwing redeco in the 2013-14 Generations Thrilling 30 lineup, we've not had a new Doubledealer since the 1980s. This version is one that I feel does the original justice. He's got a nice burly build to him that recalls the chunky feel of the original toy, and a lot of 5mm weapons including some missile pods and an awesome machine gun, as well as the rifle and missile that defined the original. I like that because of the way it fits the "battle-ready mercenary" billing that went with the original Doubledealer.

The robot mode on this new Doubledealer has little flip-down panels on the shoulders that let him switch between Autobot and Decepticon allegiances, which is a very nice touch and something I feel plays to the character's duplicitous nature - especially given his portrayal in the IDW comics. This robot mode has some decent poseability, including wrist swivels. When the wrists rotate, though, I find the gun won't stay pegged into the fist. This is then coupled with the gun being so heavy that the arm sometimes can't hold the gun upright. There's a few ways to pose the arms to get a decent pose with the arm extended, but I am a bit concerned how the arm joints will fare in the long run.

Doubledealer's got two alternate modes, like the original toy. His bird mode is pretty much exactly what the Generation 1 toy was, right down to the way the different body parts are arranged. I'd have liked some more liberties taken with this mode, personally, so it could have been a little more convincing. It's by far the weakest of the three modes of Doubledealer. The missle truck mode is very nice and solid, everything pegs together well and it still looks as good and appropriate an alternate mode for this guy as the original did in the 1980s.

Another really nice touch for this version of Doubledealer is how Hasbro has managed to work in the old Powermaster gimmick. Doubledealer himself doesn't come with any Powermasters, but there is a Generations Selects set that redecos Siege Rumble and Ratbat as his partners Knok and Skar. And, in a really cool touch, Doubledealer's chest section folds down and rotates around to expose a cavity that fits any of the Siege cassettes. Depending on your preference, this means you can have Doubledealer's "Powermasters" as Soundwave-style minions, or even incorporate plugging the little guys into the space in the chest as a step in the transformation. A word of warning that Skar (the bat) does feel a little loose unless you press on the back of the head to wedge him into place. Not sure if that is just mine, or a thing with that mold since Knok fits in nice and snug.

Overall, this is a fun toy. He's got a few flaws, and if you want the "full" package you need to get a separate exclusive for the Powermasters. However, he's a rate update of a less well known character and a very solidly executed one at that. I thoroughly recommend adding him to your collection if you want a unique character who exists outside of the usual crop of characters.

More information on Transformers Earthrise Doubledealer at TFW2005

See more Transformers Earthrise toys in my collection.

Transformers Generations Doubledealer

Generations Doubledealer is nowhere near as cool or accurate as the Earthrise version, but he's still got some charm. I like the headsculpt, and the overall imposing look of the design.

This mold has a well documented flaw with the shoulders - they don't lock in - so when you try to adjust the arms, they sometimes unlock. It's a little annoying, but no where near as bad as on the Blitzwing version of this mold.

A fun thing is you can get the Earthrise accessories to fit this Doubledealer! It's not perfect, and I used some extra parts to work around the molding of the parts for a better fit, but they do suit the figure better than the recycled Blitzwing parts.

In my mind, this toy is Doubledealer when he was starting out, before he became the mercenary we know later on. I based his story on the IDW version, but worded to fit with other fiction if needed. That's who this version of Doubledealer is in my collection. He still may eventually find his way onto my sales pile, though.

More information on Transformers Generations Doubledealer at TFW2005

See more Transformers Generations toys in my collection.