Kup (WFC)

Kup is an Autobot from the Prime portion of the Aligned continuity family.

After a certain age, all old people start to look alike.

Kup always has advice for the youngsters. Always. Even in the middle of the worst firefight, with smoke and death all around, Kup is ready with his antique wrist blasters, a cy-gar and a calmly-told tale that contains the right advice to get them out of a terrible situation. His incredible longevity and fearlessness in the face of Decepticon assault has given rise to the silly rumor that lasers just bounce off the veteran Autobot... and the less-silly rumor that he's just a little bit crazy.

Rodimus isn't particularly fond of working with him.

Fiction

Aligned novels

As the Ark travelled deeper into unknown space, the Autobots came across the mysterious planet of Aquatron. Along with Bumblebee, Prowl, and Rodimus, Kup was part of the initial away team aboard the Ark's dropship, sent to scout out the planet. They discovered a civilization of benevolent amphibious robots skilled in the art of processing Energon, and made contact with the Curator, who claimed to be an emissary sent to welcome the to Aquatron. When Optimus Prime and some other Autobots arrived as a larger greeting envoy, Optimus collapsed and was rushed to a nearby medical center for diagnostics. Rodimus, Kup, and Bumblebee set off on the dropship to see if the Aquatronians were as benevolent as they claimed. Their dropship malfunctioned and sank, stranding them in a large underwater complex. Bumblebee used his navigational skills to try and plot a safe route back to the surface, and on the way up the trio stumbled across an armada of dormant Sharkticons. Before they could report their find to Optimus, they also encountered the Hydratron, which hypnotized them into submission. They were then restrained while the Curator tampered with their minds, and subsequently released on the surface without any memories of the event.

When the Aquatronians revealed themselves to be servants of the Quintessons and arrested both Autobots and Decepticons, Kup was one of the Cybertronians called to testify against his leader in the Quintesson's kangaroo court. The Curator's manipulation caused Kup to accuse Optimus Prime of spearheading the Cybertronian revolt during the Age of Wrath and deliberately causing the Great War. Kup eventually snapped out of his trance when the Autobots and Decepticons forged a temporary truce, and aided in the battle against Gnaw's Sharkticon troops. Kup was aboard the Ark when the Autobots departed Aquatron to continue their search for the Allspark. Retribution

Prime cartoon continuity

Voice actor: Wally Burr (English)

Unreliable Narratives

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2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

Following the restoration of Cybertron from the Great War, Kup was one of the many Autobots blacklisted by the new High Council for being a supporter of Optimus Prime. Enemy of My Enemy

Games

Transformers: War for Cybertron (DS)

So old he's forgotten how to say the universal greeting.

Voice actor: Ed O'Ross (English)

Before departing for a mission to get some data links working again, a newly trained Autobot had a brief exchange with Kup over a communications monitor that consisted of the elderly Autobot uttering the universal greeting. Once the youth got the links up and running, he contacted Ironhide who told him he was being reassigned to Kup's team. The recruit looked forward to the exciting times he'd experience being on Kup's team. Transformers: War for Cybertron

Transformers Online

Kup thought very highly of Sledgehammer. Transformers Online

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark

When Optimus Prime and Jazz infiltrated Megatron's home base of Kolkular, Jazz spent some time reminiscing about some of the battles he had been in. He then commented on how he was starting to sound old like Kup with all of his war stories. Jazz then began to panic, stating that he could not be getting old yet, as he was too cool. Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark

Toys

Prime

Ironhide joins the Cybertronians.

• Sergeant Kup (Deluxe Class, 2012)

• Series / number: 1 / 013
• Accessories: 2 cannons

Part of the fifth wave of Prime: Robots in Disguise Deluxe Class toys, Sergeant Kup transforms into a large pickup truck of made-up model. He has twin cannons that peg into his forearms/doors, hands, and truck bed, and can also combine to form a longer weapon. He also has a "dramatic head reveal," wherein his head rises up from within his torso when his abdomen panel is slid up. He also features a fake kibble windshield on his chest, with the real front windshield ending up on his back.

His stock photography depicts a few paint operations not on the final product, such as metallic silver on the ends of his cannon barrels and upper forearms, extended green deco on the vehicle sides, as well as black boxes on his shins.

As should be visibly apparent, Kup is a green redeco of a design for Prime Ironhide created by Ken Christiansen that incorporates elements of the character's Generation 1 and live-action movie selves. Although Ironhide was originally solicited as part of the fifth Robots in Disguise wave, Kup was ultimately released in his place. What prompted this change is unknown. Ironhide himself was eventually released as part of the seventh wave of the TakaraTomy Prime "Arms Micron" toyline (in which Kup did not appear).

In wave six of the Prime toyline, Kup was put into new packaging, which came with a DVD featuring the Prime episode, "Loose Cannons".

• More information on Kup at TFU.info

Notes

• In the Nintendo DS version of War for Cybertron, Kup's only appearance is in an easter egg within the game. In the tutorial level, after speaking with Air Raid and Ratchet, walk over to the wall with three monitors on the right. Approach the middle monitor, and Kup appears for a chat.
• Whether the recruit survives to actually end up on Kup's squad depends on whether you're playing the Autobot or Decepticon variant of the game. The latter does not turn out well for him.
• Like several other Prime toys unrelated to the cartoon, the Deluxe Sergeant Kup mold (originally intended for Ironhide) came about as part of an opportunity to create a capsule line for the Asian market^[1] (a la the "Global Development Organization" Generations releases from that same year), tying into the short-lived Transformers Online MMORPG.^[2] As this capsule never materialised for whatever reason, the mold ended up first being released as Sergeant Kup.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Sergent Kup (サージェントカップ Sājento Kappu)

References