Kup

Kup is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universe. All are older Autobots who are members of the Elite Guard. Wired Magazine once nominated him as one 12 most ridiculous Transformers of all time.[1] Sometimes referred to as Sergeant Kup.

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Transformers: Generation 1
Introduced in 1986, Kup is an Autobot who can transform into a light bluish-green futuristicpickup truck and wields a musket laser. He has a wealth of experience and is well liked by the Dinobots for his old war stories, of which he seems to have an endless supply.

The universal greeting used by Kup and Hot Rod appears in the game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.[2]

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Animated series
Kup was introduced and featured in The Transformers: The Movie and the third season of the original animated television series. He also serves as something of a mentor to the more rebellious and youthful fellow Autobot Hot Rod. Kup is also said to be among the oldest of the Transformers, a title held in the prior seasons by Ironhide.

Kup first appears in the movie putting up a roadblock which Hot Rod ignores and demolishes. Kup later rescues Hot Rod and Daniel Witwicky from Decepticon Blitzwing.

Later, Hot Rod and Kup crash into an ocean on the planet Quintessa. He is captured by a giant mechanical squid which is then attacked and defeated by Hot Rod. On Quintessa, he uses the universal greeting when confronted by hostile alien transforming robots. Although the ploy fails in this case, it leaves a lasting impression on Hot Rod, who uses it later on the planet of Junk. The pair are taken prisoner and meet Kranix who tells them about Unicron and who is soon after taken out and dropped into a pool full of Sharkticons. A fate which later befalls Kup and Hot Rod, who escape by creating a whirlpool, thus avoiding Kranix's fate.

Throughout the movie, Kup has an anecdote for every situation, although at the sight of Unicron attacking Cybertron, he claims to have "never seen anything like this before." Alongside Springer and Arcee, he combats Unicron's internal defenses until Hot Rod releases the power of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, destroying the Chaos Bringer. Upon seeing that Hot Rod had become Rodimus Prime, Kup states "I knew you had potential lad" as the new leader of the Autobots led him and the others in the escape from Unicron just as he explodes.

Kup would revisit Quintessa months later when he, Ultra Magnus, and Spike Witwicky are kidnapped by the Quintessons. Kup and the others would escape with the help of Rodimus Prime's strike force, shortly before the planet was destroyed by the Quintessons.

While investigating a shuttle crash, Kup determined that the craft had been torn apart by death crystals from the monster known as Chaos. Kup had encountered Chaos many years before, on the creature's homeworld, planet Dredd. On that previous visit, Kup had been captured and enslaved; he barely escaped, but left the other slaves behind in order to save himself. Kup lead a team of Autobots to planet Dredd to investigate, only to find that the Decepticons were building a new superweapon utilizing the crystals. During the course of the mission, Kup confronted Chaos once again, and this time he freed the slaves. With Chaos defeated and the slaves freed, the Decepticons fled the planet, and a dark part of Kup's past was redeemed.

Kup continued to play a key role throughout season 3, serving as security director. He watched over Rodimus Prime as a sort of father figure, noting that the new Autobot leader had a lot of the same growing pains as his predecessor, Optimus Prime. When Rodimus was feeling overpressured by the demands of leadership, Kup described it as giri - "the burden hardest to bear", and something Optimus had to learn to cope with and respect.

Kup was among the Autobots injured by Superion during the hate plague outbreak. After Optimus Prime was revived, Kup was among the team of Autobots that joined the expedition to Chaar to recover the metal developed by Drs. Morgan and Swofford, previously stolen by Galvatron, which was impervious to the plague. Kup bought time for Optimus and Sky Lynx to escape with the metal, before becoming infected with the plague himself. Kup, along with everyone else who was infected, was subsequently cured by the power of the Matrix.

In season 4, Kup he becomes a Targetmaster with a Nebulon named Recoil.

In the Japanese exclusive Headmasters series, the events of The Rebirth are ignored and Kup never became a Targetmaster, instead leaving Cybertron with Rodimus Prime and Blurr to find a new homeworld for the Autobots.