As Megastorm became more distrusting of the ambitious Starscream, he attempted to raise the standing of Dirge and Thrust in their stead. Despite Starscream's complaints, the comedy duo were given a surveillance assignment by Megastorm to evaluate the Space Pirate Seacons when they arrived on Gaia. The Tentacular Scuba Dirge and Thrust were on the bridge of the Galvaburg II, watching Starscream's plan to get the Insectrons wasted on super-strong oil unfold. No one noticed Galvatron awaken from his coma and dig into the spiked oil, until all the Combatrons had to flee from their drunken emperor. The Strongest Tag Team? After the Combatrons' several failures to eliminate the Insectrons, the Autorollers stepped forward to take the assignment. Starscream was worried the Autorollers would succeed and outshine his accomplishments. Dirge and Thrust, who had no accomplishments to speak of, said to let the Autorollers have their shot. Autorollers Roll Out! Hasbro executives, high off the revival of G.I. Joe through the same marketing concept, decided to acquire rights to toys from a variety of Japanese “Super Robot” series. Transformers didn't introduce the concept of super robots to the United States, but for the first time, the genre became widely recognized and popular outside of Japan. As the Transformers brand grew throughout G1, it began to define the genre, and all other super robots were measured competitively to Transformers' standard.

C-44 Metals Rhinox(メタルスライノックス)("Transmetal Rhinox" in the original USA toyline): Rhinox's new form, Beast mode is a Transmetal rhinoceros.D-43 Metals Terrorsaurer(メタルステラザウラー)("Transmetal Terrorsaur" in the original USA toyline): Terrorsaurer's New form, Beast mode is a Transmetal pterodactyl. D-22 Gigastorm(ギガストーム): Retool of G1 Trypticon, Megastorm's New form, Alt mode is a City, Robot mode is a mechanical Tyrannosaurus rex. C-40 Metals Convoy(メタルスコンボイ)("Transmetal Optimus Primal" in the original USA toyline): Show-accurate redeco of USA Transmetal Optimus Primal, Convoy's New form, Beast mode is a Transmetal gorilla.

D-26 Thrustor(スラストール): Retool of Dinobot, Thrust's New form, Beast mode is a yellow cyborg Velociraptor. This release is one of several toys notorious for severe chrome-flaking issues. Later redecoes -including the Takara release below- do not seem to have this problem (at least, not anywhere as bad or widespread).

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D-3 Waspeeter(ワスピーター)("Waspinator" in the original USA toyline): Show-accurate redeco of USA Waspinator, Beast mode is a wasp. Dirge and Thrust hated the idea of reporting to Starscream, and only begrudgingly went along with his latest scheme to set up an underwater lake trap for the Maximals. Basically Starscream's stooges until his plan played out, Dirge and Thrust were quietly thrilled when the Maximals escaped their death-traps and foiled Starscream and BB's plot. The Lake Trap