Lifeline (G1)

Lifeline is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Don't worry, it's easy. Bleed, patch, and keep moving."

Lifeline is a Paradron Medic, the last of her kind. She is a pacifist at spark, and rejects violence to such a degree that she feels ill-at-ease treating soldiers, knowing full well that she is only sending them back to fight once more after they've been healed. However, she isn't the squeamish type; her sensibility and pragmatism allows her to deactivate without qualms patients who have no chance of surviving, and would only suffer would their lives be prolonged. Aiding her in her practice is her attendant Quickslinger.

Fiction

Of Masters and Mayhem

Impactor left the critically injured Punch in Lifeline's care upon coming to Paradron. When the Autobot returned to check up on his compatriot, Lifeline made clear she viewed the warriors with a certain amount of disdain for their violent ways, but led Impactor to his recovering friend nonetheless. She had grave news for Impactor, however: due to the extensive damage Punch had suffered, she had been forced to remove one of his modes entirely... leaving him with only his "Counterpunch" robot mode and vehicle mode. Outraged by this turn of events, Impactor declared that Lifeline should have simply let Punch die instead of leaving him in his current state and stormed out of the room. Insight During his treatment, Counterpunch briefly woke up and was told of his halved status by Lifeline before he faded back into unconsciousness. The Truth We Make

Beast Wars: Uprising

Apparently a hero of the Great War, Lifeline had died some time prior to the 24th century, and the Lifeline Memorial Hospital in Stanix was presumably named in her honor. Not All Megatrons

War for Cybertron Trilogy marketing material

After Cybertron fell, the Autobots left their homeworld aboard the Ark, traveling through space in pursuit of the AllSpark. Earthrise webpage^[1] With the ship running low on fuel, Ratchet was sent on a mission to a far-off energy-rich planet, detected by Teletraan-1. There he encountered the Paradron Medic Lifeline, a refugee who fled to Paradron after the war broke out. Reluctant to help him secure Energon due to his ties to the war, Ratchet proved himself useful in helping injured bots, such as Hot House, impressing Lifeline with his dedication as high as her own. Encounter 1: Paradron Medics

Generations Selects Special Comic

In 2050, Lifeline joined the Autobots warring with the Dinobots over the fate of the Selectors. She could not penetrate the wall of solar energy beams being emitted by Snarl. Volcanicus comic 2

Toys

Combiner Wars

"We've got a job to do, so shift your carcass!"

• Lifeline / Quickslinger / Fractyl / Scorponok (Multi-pack, 2016)

• Accessories: "Energon infuser" pistol, "plasma projector" rifle, 2 "solid light surgical tools"
• Known designers: Marcelo Matere (packaging artist)

A redeco of the "fixed hands" running change variant of Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Arcee, Combiner Wars Lifeline transforms into a sleek Cybertronian open-topped sports car. She comes with the full suite of weapons Arcee had, but now as "medical tools". All four weapons tools feature multiple universally-sized rectangular pegs that allows them to be tabbed into multiple matching ports in her fists, forearms, hips, shoulders, and the sides and rear of her car mode. Additionally, her two guns can store beneath her car mode, which was not mentioned in Arcee's instructions, but is in Lifeline's instructions.

She is packaged with her Targetmaster partner Quickslinger, but since her hands are not 5 mm compatible, Lifeline is incapable of holding Quickslinger in weapon mode, which both their instructions and bio cards point out (with the bios explaining this as Lifeline's pacifism at work).

This figure is intended to not only represent the new comic character Lifeline but also the generic Paradron Medic (making her a potential army-building toy), but due to the nature of the mold, Lifeline has Arcee's shoulder kibble while the cartoon model for the Paradron Medic doesn't.

Lifeline and Quickslinger were originally to be the first set in the fifth and final year of the Transformers Figure Subscription Service. However, due to needing to rush the toys out due to Fun Publications losing the Transformers license, the pair were also packed with the second set of toys, Fractyl and Scorponok, in one big box.

War for Cybertron: Earthrise

"I'm supposed to fix patches, not cause them!"

• Paradron Medics (Galactic Odyssey Collection, 2020)

• TakaraTomy ID number: ER EX-20
• TakaraTomy release date: March 27, 2021
• Accessories: "Energon infuser", hover board/rear vehicle shell
• Known designers: AJ Piejko-Brown (packaging)

A redeco of Earthrise Deluxe Class Arcee, Lifeline comes in a 2-pack with fellow redeco/retool Ratchet, representing her planet, Paradron, as Encounter 1 of the Earthrise "Galactic Odyssey Collection". She transforms into her classic futuristic car mode and is armed with a colorless translucent "Energon infuser". Similar to Arcee, the back half of her waist isn't painted. Lifeline is also a shellformer, having her robot mode resting under a vehicle mode shell, which folds into a backpack for the transformation into her robot mode. Part of the backpack (consisting the rear half of her car mode) can be detached to act as a hover board, having molded-in ports for Lifeline's feet to plug into. Much like the rest of the "Galactic Odyssey Collection", she lacks an Earthrise ID number, and comes in a Selects-style box with a planet card featuring key details about the set's respective planet.

Being a repaint of Arcee, this means that she is compatible with Red Cog's blaster that enables her to combine with the weaponizer.

This two-pack was exclusive to Amazon in the U.S. but was available at general retail in Hasbro's Asian markets such as Hong Kong.

This mold was also retooled into War for Cybertron Trilogy Elita-1.

Notes

• The name "Lifeline" was taken from a G.I. Joe member as Fun Publications also held the G.I. Joe Collectors' Club license at the time.
• Separately, "Lifeline" was also a preliminary name of CatSCAN.
• The Combiner Wars Lifeline toy was likely intended to use the 5 mm-compatible forearm pieces of Combiner Hunters Arcee to facilitate her being able to hold Quickslinger's weapon mode. The final line of Quickslinger's profile – "Lifeline, herself, never employs Quickslinger in this mode." – lacks the capitalised proper nouns FUN PUBLICATIONS utilised in their TRANSFORMERS® bios, a telltale sign of the sentence being a last minute addition.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Lifeline (ライフライン Raifurain)

References