Downshift - Transformers: Generation 1

Transformers: Generation 1

This Autobot's function is Security Agent, and he transformed into a white Toyota Supra. This character never appeared in the television series, but did appear in the Generation One Dreamwave comics.

Another little-known fact is that the Omnibots were the Autobots' first "triple changers" -- a talent identified more with the Autobots Tracks, Perceptor, and (until 1986) the Decepticon Triple Changers. Downshift, like Overdrive, transformed into a heavily armed, flying version of his compact sports car mode.

The original Omnibots' instruction booklets described them as such new additions to the Autobot team that no tech spec data or statistical information was available about them. This left kids and collectors able to use their imagination regarding what personalities and roles the characters would play. No hint was given at possible profiles until a 1987 mail-order catalog was published, with Ultra Magnus giving synopses of each Omnibot's function. In this mail-order pamphlet, Downshift is referred to as a "Security Agent", a title which some fans and eventually Dreamwave used as an official function.

Original show bibles discovered in 2007 revealed the biography written by Bob Budiansky. This biography describes Downshift as an Air Defense specialist. A war-weary veteran, he enjoys the planet Earth and children.

The resulting Dreamwave bio described him as a serious and competent security agent, often being assigned to protect important positions. The only problem is that Downshift often sees enemy agents where there are none: as he tries to root them out he leaves what he is guarding open to Decepticon attack.