Exhaust

Exhaust is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Guaranteed to cough extensively after every evil laugh!

Exhaust (エグゾースト Eguzōsuto) is an employee of Marlboor Dynamic, a massive interplanetary corporation that steals secrets from alien cultures around the galaxy. His power, given to him by the research department of the company, allows him to "quantize": convert his body into living smoke. His function is industrial espionage,^[1] and he gathers new secrets and technology for Marlboor. He acts like a suave, debonair spy, but the stress of his job is actually getting to him, causing a chain cy-garette smoking habit that the medical officer has warned is detrimental to his health.^[2]

Fiction

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

 

Exhaust frequently has to deal with attacks by anti-smoking activists.

Exhaust was one of many Decepticons in the Kaon gladiator arena to witness Megatron's execution of the corrupt Emirate Xeon, signaling the beginning of their uprising. Exhaust stood right next to Fumes. The War Within #2

Exhaust and Fumes were in Iacon when Starscream's botched mechaforming attempt leveled the city. They were unprepared when Shockwave ordered troops to fall back to Kolkular rather than be destroyed. The War Within #6

Noise & Smoke

Following Soundwave's death and reconstruction into Soundblaster, the chain of command within the Decepticon's espionage division changed, leaving Exhaust solely an employee of Marlboor Dynamic. Using Marlboor Dynamic's ownership of GalacShare, Exhaust figured out that the popular and mysterious musician C Shadow was in fact a lowly grunt named Loudpedal. Exhaust then showed up on Loudpedal's doorstep one day, lavishing compliments on the musician and offering him a deal: in exchange for cooperating with researchers looking to investigate his intercranial autocomposition disorder, Marlboor would outfit Loudpedal with experimental weapons and provide him with a manager in the form of Exhaust. Though Loudpedal was rightfully skeptical of the incredibly one-sided offer, he realized that Exhaust was possibly a fan of his, and accepted. Noise & Smoke

2005 IDW continuity

Exhaust was one of three Transformers killed when Chromia bombed the Acrolight District in an attempt to scare Windblade off of Cybertron. Regretting her actions, Chromia had the victims' names scored into her head so that she'd never forget. 07:00:00 The Line Between Us

War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon

Voice actor: Ken Rogers (English), Aitor González (Castilian Spanish), Alex Castelán (Latin-American Spanish)

Earthrise just wouldn't be complete without, uh, goth Wheeljack?

Exhaust was a member of Doubledealer's crew of Mercenaries, hired by Quintesson Judge Deseeus to bring in the Autobots aboard the Ark to Chaar. Earthrise episode 2 Aboard the Fool's Fortune, the crew flew to the adrift Ark and infiltrated the ship. Earthrise episode 1 While reactivating the ship, Bumblebee went online and took fellow Mercenary Bug Bite captive as a shield, though Exhaust and Thrust fired at them anyway. The Mercenaries successfully brought the Autobots to Chaar, though after Deeseeus refused to pay them and Doubledealer made a new deal with Megatron, Exhaust and the others battled the Quintesson's forces and helped the Autobots escape. Earthrise episode 2

After Deseeus took control of Doubledealer's mind, Exhaust and Bug Bite were the only remaining members of the Fool's Fortune crew. The two were sent to patch up holes in the ship during its battle with both the Autobots and the Decepticons over Earth. Though he declared that he was done with the team once they were back to real space, Exhaust and his partner were shot into the hole by stowaway Autobot Cog, and the two Mercenaries tumbled into the void of space. Deseeus later called for Bug Bite and Exhaust to the bridge but was met with no response. The three were presumably killed when the Fool's Fortune warp drive exploded during the dogfight. Earthrise episode 6

Games

Transformers: Earth Wars

Highly intelligent by Decepticon standards, Exhaust is not truly loyal to anyone... except maybe himself.

• Class: Gunner
• Lowest Star Rating: 2 star
• Ability: Reflective Force Field - For seconds, you generate a Force Field. Within its range, you and your allies reflect a percentage of the damage received back to your enemies.

Exhaust is a member of the Decepticon Justice Division. Enter the DJD

Exhaust at Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki

Toys

Masterpiece

Because "Masterpiece Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease" wasn't catchy enough.

Curse you, Trademark!
(And other things, but let's not go there...)

• Exhaust (2015)

• ID number: MP-23
• Release date: 2015 March 21
• Accessories: "Gadget Gun", 2 "Drone Launchers", 2 missiles/"warheads", "Immobilizer"

Masterpiece Exhaust is a retool of MP-20 Wheeljack, transforming from an officially-licenced Lancia Stratos into a robot and back! Roughly as tall as a Voyager Class figure, he is also in scale with MP-10 Optimus Prime, and can fit inside Prime's trailer in vehicle mode. In contrast to larger entries in this line, Exhaust lacks die-cast parts, and his tires are cast in hard, non-rubberized plastic. Additionally, his side mirrors come detached out of the box, and can be found separately packaged inside the instruction bag. An extra pair of mirrors is included in case of loss or breakage. Much like Wheeljack, unscrewing his visor from his head reveals molded eyes underneath.

For accessories, Exhaust comes with his "Gadget Gun" and two non-firing shoulder-mounted missile launchers (dubbed "Drone Launchers" due to their in-universe ability to fire warheads with built-in A.I. targeting systems) with newly molded, stumpier missiles in homage to the launchers of the original Wheeljack toy. He also comes with the Immobilizer from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Immobilizer", which was subsequently included with the cartoon decoed MP-20+ Wheeljack.

Initial prototype photos of Exhaust's car mode (see right) featured markings strikingly similar to the Marlboro logo... which makes sense as the Diaclone toy Exhaust is based on was modeled after an actual rally car with Marlboro sponsorship (see "Notes" below). Beginning in November 2014, toy dealers worldwide received warning notices from the parent company of Marlboro, Philip Morris USA. In addition to the trademark dispute, this paintjob also raised corporate alarms under the rules of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement as well as the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act: under those federal statutes, smoking-related markings may never be used on products that could be intended for children. For some time, it technically became illegal to sell Exhaust in the U.S., and Phillip Morris pressed that claim aggressively—even against dealers based in Asia. As a result of all this controversy, Exhaust's release was delayed from February 28 to March 21, and TakaraTomy elected to change the vehicle mode deco. However, even after this alteration, online dealers continued to report receiving legal threats from Phillip Morris. Hasbro Asia, who distributes TakaraTomy Masterpiece figures in areas of Asia outside of Japan, canceled their release of Exhaust entirely due to pressure from Phillip Morris. This cancellation led to the Hasbro Asia exclusive collector coin for Exhaust not being released. Exhaust was still released by TakaraTomy for the Japanese market. Notably, the North American online retailer TFsource.com had the entirety of their orders professionally customized by an unnamed third party in order to comply with the demands of Phillip Morris. This was done without informing customers, though TFsource.com offered free refunds to those who were dissatisfied with this solution.

• More information on Exhaust at TFU.info

Generations Selects

Ssssssssmokin'!

• Decepticon Exhaust (Deluxe Class, 2020)

• Series: War for Cybertron: Earthrise
• Hasbro ID number: WFC-GS11
• TakaraTomy ID number: ER EX-26
• TakaraTomy release date: 2021 June 26
• Accessories: Non-firing missile launcher
• Known designers: John Warden (Hasbro)

A Generations Selects add-on to Earthrise, "Decepticon Exhaust" is a redeco and head-retool of Wheeljack, transforming into an Earth-based car resembling a Lancia Stratos with some portions of the vehicle's design being similar to the Lancia Rally. His (non-firing) missile launcher weapon can be attached via the 5 mm post on its side, or mounted on either shoulder behind his head with the tab on its underside. His spoiler halves/wings are also attached with just 5 mm posts, and can be easily removed and placed elsewhere if you really wanna.

His car rally deco is even less like the original Diaclone toy than the Masterpiece version's, likely to even further distinguish its look from Marlboro's logo. His car mode keeps the 598 number and adds some fake sponsor logos, including one that says "Bandit" (possibly a reference to Smokey and the Bandit) and another that says "Exhuast" [sic]. Despite the Japanese characters on the sides phonetically spelling out "Decepticon" and "Decepticon" being part of his trademark-friendly name, Exhaust is the first toy to brandish the Mercenary faction symbol.

This figure appeared on eBay in late June of 2020 with no prior announcement by Hasbro, and was immediately offered with an instant "in stock" purchase option by several online retailers (mostly based out of Europe) despite still not being acknowledged by Hasbro by that point. Ultimately, Exhaust was revealed in the July 17, 2020, Fan First Friday event, and subsequently made available through Hasbro Pulse and other online retailers.

The toy is branded as part of the War for Cybertron Trilogy toyline by Hasbro in the US but as part of Earthrise by TakaraTomy in Japan.

This mold was also used to make Shattered Glass Collection Decepticon Slicer.

Notes

Bet he knows Cancer.

• Exhaust started out as a variant of "Lancia Stratos Turbo", the Diaclone toy that would become Wheeljack, featuring a retooled head and a different color scheme and endorsement decals based on Marlboro cigarettes—albeit misspelled as "Marlboor", so as not to infringe on any trademarks (similar to Mirage's toy misspelling "Gitanes", another cigarette brand, as "Citanes"). This variant was labeled as "Lancia Stratos Marlboro Type" only on the instructions for applying the decals; this was little-known, so the character was for many years known as "Marlboor Wheeljack" until the Masterpiece toy was announced, finally bestowing the name Exhaust on the character, in the process paying homage to his, ah, smokey origins.
• The vehicle mode deco is specifically based on one of two Series 5 Stratos racing cars produced, the other being the car on which Wheeljack was based, though Exhaust's deco doesn't strive for the same level of accuracy. The original car on which the deco was based no longer exists as it was destroyed in a fire caused by its overheated engine.^[3] Irony!
• Exhaust's deco was also homaged by Prime Legion Class "Hyperspeed" Wheeljack.
• A proposed but expectedly-unrealized Fun Publications BotCon exclusive was a redeco of Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Class Lockdown as a modern update of Marlboor Wheeljack with the placeholder name "Marlboro"^[4] (this was conceived prior to Exhaust receiving his name from Takara).
• Mairghread Scott probably conceived of the IDW character "Exhaust" separately from the Diaclone character, but with no details to the contrary, this wiki opts to group the characters on the same page.
• Due to apparent budget limits, Exhaust's animation model in the Netflix War for Cybertron Trilogy animated series reuses Wheeljack's head rather than match the newly-tooled head of the Generations Selects toy.

References

External links

• Review of Diaclone "Marlboro Wheeljack" on TFU.info