Thundercracker/Cartoon continuity

We can absolutely state with certainty that in the Generation 1 cartoon continuity, Thundercracker definitely existed.

The Transformers cartoon
In the early days of the Decepticon rebellion, Thundercracker and Skywarp both faced the powerful protectors of Cybertron's cities, the Guardian robots. According to Thundercracker, he was often not very successful.

Thundercracker was one of Megatron's elite warriors, participating in the attack on the Autobot spacecraft and joining the rest of the Earth-bound Transformers in their several-million-year nap under an inactive volcano. He awoke when the rest of the Decepticons did, and took part in their attempts to gather energon and escape the planet Earth, which he loathed for being too "flat". While keeping watch around the Decepticon encampement, he and Reflector spotted what they thought was an approaching Autobot, though in actuality, they had only spied two of the planet's native inhabitants, in a non-sentient vehicle.



Following a raid on an oil platform to obtain the energy needed for a new space cruiser, Thundercracker took part in the Decepticon attack on Sherman Dam, where he and Skywarp tussled with Mirage and Cliffjumper and were knocked off the walkway they were fighting on by the aristocratic Autobot. Later, while pillaging the ruby crystal mines of Burma, Thundercracker was complaining to Skywarp about his dislike for Earth when they stumbled across the Autobot Bumblebee and his ally Sparkplug Witwicky. They immediately stated beating them up, but unbeknownst to the two jets, the pair had planted a bomb in the mines which promptly went off and buried them all.

Megatron soon blasted the Decepticons free, and Thundercracker then help steal rocket fuel from Cape Carlson air base, making his his mark by destroying a couple of tanks. The fuel stolen provided the Decepticons with enough energy to launch their new space cruiser, but the Autobots arrived to stop them; during the brawl, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Laserbeak unleashed an aerial assault upon Cliffjumper and Wheeljack. The Decepticon soon broke off the fight to board their ship, but sabotage courtesy of Mirage grounded their plans, literally and metaphorically.



The Decepticons' rebuilt their crashed space cruiser into an undersea headquarters, and soon attempted to established a space bridge between Earth and Cybertron. Thundercracker was seen flying away after the Decepticons trapped the Autobots in a cave to keep them out of the way, but the Autobots soon freed themselves, and their interference resulted in Megatron disappearing through the bridge. Starscream declared himself leader in Megatrons absence, and Thundercracker and Soundwave attacked a hydroelectric power plant alongside him, despite Thundercracker's lack of confidence in his leadership abilities. Opposed by the Autobots again, Thundercracker bashed the charging Cliffjumper with a pillar from the building, but when the energon cubes they were making were destroyed, they fled. As they escaped, they were contacted by the still-living Megatron, and Thundercracker happily put himself back under his true leader's command. To repair the damage they took in the fight, the Decepticons struck at an airplane factory for spare parts, but while Thundercracker was having his wings reattached, Bluestreak and Prowl crashed the party. The jets shot at the Autobots, but Chip Chase took control of the injured Prowl and had him unleash a spectacular assault forcing Starscream's squad to escape. They proceeded to abduct young genius Chip Chase and brought him to the laboratory where the other Decepticons were waiting, where they extracted an antimatter formula from his brain. Thundercracker was just about to "get rid" of the now-useless Chip when the Autobots burst in and saved him, but with the antimatter successfully synthesized, the Decepticons soon staged an attack on Autobot Headquarters. After being saved from Sunstreaker "jet judo" by Starscream, Thundercracker handed Megatron the antimatter cubes they had synthesized, massively increasingly his power. Thanks to Chip's ingenuity, however, the Decepticons were foiled and had no choice but to retreat.

While raiding a munitions factory alongside Skywarp and Starscream, Thundercracker was confronted by Optimus Prime, who the three jets were together able to heavily damage. Though Megatron had them escape rather than face the other Autobots who soon turned up, Thundercracker was soon back on the battlefield when the Decepticons attacked the demoralized Autobots outside their own headquarters at sunset that day, though he was immediately clobbered by Huffer as soon as he landed. When Megatron suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a recovered Optimus Prime, Starscream smugly instructed everybody to take Megatron back for repairs. Following this, Thundercracker witnessed the rebirth of Starscream's former colleague Skyfire and was shot down by Slag during a mission at the Great Falls.



When Thundercracker and Starscream were instructed to obtain steel for Megatron, Thundercracker insisted that no Earth-made metal would be strong enough for their purposes. Naturally, Starscream refused to listen, and when the weapon frame they constructed from the purloined steel proved unable to handle the energies of the Crystal of Power Megatron had obtained, Starscream deflected all blame onto Thundercracker. Stuck with guard duty as a result, Thundercracker caught Skyfire snooping around, but actually contemplated letting the Autobot destroy the crystal so that he could make "that geeky Starscream" take the blame. Unfortunately for Thundercracker, Starscream caught him in the act, and blackmailed him into obeying his orders, otherwise he would reveal his treachery to Megatron. The Autobots soon destroyed the crystal themselves, and as the Decepticos withdrew, Thundercracker rather boldly chose to openly mock Megatron and Starscream for underestimating their enemies. Thundercracker and the other jets hauled an unstable meteor off for the Decepticons, then later attacked a solar plant located in India as a diversion so Megatron could put his current plan into motion by orchestrating the capture of Sparkplug Witwicky. The Autobots assaulted Decepticon Headquarters to rescue Sparkplug, and during this underwater battle, Thundercracker got hit by one of his own missiles when Bumblebee redirected it back at him. The rescue of Sparkplug was all part of Megtron's plan, however; equipped with a mind-controlling hypno-chip, Sparkplug crippled the Autobots' defense systems and weapons from within, allowing Thundercracker and the Decepticons to invade their base. Although they were driven off by a deluge of fire-retardant foam, they then went to work assembling a gigantic space bridge, which Megatron used to transport Cybertron itself into Erth's orbit.



The appearance of Cybertron threw Earth's atmosphere into chaos; the storm winds the planet's gravity created blew Thundercracker's flamethrower blasts right back into his and Starscream's face when the air commander insisted he fire on the Autobots. Thundercracker was later loaded with energon cubes to transport to the orbiting Cybertron, but didn't even get the opportunity to life off before Earth tremors caused by the disrupted gravity toppled him and his cargo all over Decepticon Headquarters. During a later battle on a tropical island, Thundercracker was shot down by Optimus Prime, then fought hand-to-hand with Ironhide. When they noticed Megatron departing for Cybertron by himself, Thundercracker and Skywarp broke off the fight to follow him. Megatron subsequently disappeared for a shot time when the Autobots blew up his shuttle craft, and Thundercracker took something resembling command, though really, he was just trying to get everyone to stop arguing and finish repairing their damaged headquarters. Luckily, Megatron soon returned, and Thundercracker and the rest of the Decepticons went with him when he set out to deal with Starscream and Dr. Arkeville.



Thundercracker accompanied Megatron and Soundwave to Bali to investigate sightings of giant robot insects, which Thundercracker soon deduced were, in fact, Decepticons whose idento-computers had given them insect alternate modes. Joining forces with these "Insecticons", the Decepticons battled a group of Autobots who had also come to investigate, then raided an oil refinery, where Thundercracker helped Rumble make energon cubes. The Autobots followed, so Thundercracker ignited an oil spill to try and incinerate them, only for the Autobots to swim under then push up the dock he was standing on, hurling him into the blaze he had created. When the Insecticons cut and ran, Thundercracker followed Megatron's lead and left to pursue the treacherous bugs.

Like all the other Decepticons, Thundercracker donated his power chip rectifier to Megatron in order to increase his leader's powers for a one-on-one battle with Optimus Prime. This allowed Megatron to use Thundercracker's sonic boom power, deafening and disorienting Optimus and leaving him open to the blast that ended the duel. The Autobots were poised to leave Earth in accordance with the agreement they had made with their enemies, until they learned of Megatron's illegal enhancements; overpowered by the Autobot counterattack, Thundercracker and his comrades were sent toppling into a crevice filled with lava.



Thundercracker survived his fall with the rest of his group, and later joined in attacks on Air Force rocket bases, and the hunt for Autobot X. During the Decepticons' solar needle scheme in Africa, he was sent flying into a tree by a kick from Ratchet, and was subsequently the first to beat retreat when the needle threatened to destroy the sun. When the Decepticons took over New York City, Thundercracker was part of an aerial strike force that bombarded the Autobots as they attempted to recover Optimus Prime's stolen right arm from the Decepticons' fortress.

Thundercracker participated in a diversionary attack on Autobot Headquarters, causing a landslide with his blasts that stopped Prowl in his tracks. Later, he and the other Decepticons boarded a rocket they intended to take back to Cybertron, but the Autobots damaged the fuel tanks and forced them to jump ship. Thundercracker tried to fend off Optimus Prime when he came seeking to retrieve electro-cells the Decepticon had stolen, and was among the party who came to steal Wheeljack's Immobilizer. When the Decepticons trapped the Autobots in their vehicle modes with the transfixatron, Thundercracker used his incendiary guns to overheat the Autobots' engines and immobilize them, then helped demonstrate the crushing machine the Decepticons planned to use to destroy their impaired enemies. The few Autobots who had escaped transfixation then arrived to rescue their comrades; Thundercracker tried and failed to stop them, and the outnumbered Decepticons retreated.



Thundercracker disliked the idea of sharing power with the fish-men of the underwater city of Sub-Atlantica, but went along with the plan anyway, working on the mechanisms to raise the city to the ocean's surface and dealing with the Autobots who attempted to stop their plan to take over Washington, D.C.. While strafing the Autobots from the air during a battle in the city, however, Thundercracker was ensnared by a grappling line fired by Brawn and leashed to the Washington Monument, allowing Optimus Prime to blast him out of the sky. Later, Thundercracker and Starscream snatched Dr. Fujiyama, the famous scientist's creation Nightbird, and had to help restrain the hysterical Starscream when Megatron threatened to replace him with the robot ninja.



Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream all tried taking on Optimus Prime together when the Autobots were investigating a mysterious new energy source in a crevice, but all three were taken down by the Autobot leader. Unbeknownst to Thundercracker, Megatron was putting a complicated plan into motion that involved clones of Prime and Starscream; as such, he was surprised to hear "Starscream" announce for everybody to hold their fire, given that had an Autobot right in his hands. Nevertheless, when Starscream explained his plan to fight "Optimus Prime", Thundercracker went along with it and was the one who announced the start of the match. On a later mission, he ambushed the Autobots from above, only to be swatted away by an Autobot-controlled Devastator. He was subsequently around at the mission to Nova Power Plant, firing at the Autobots and a group of helicopter-piloting humans. Soon after, he was one of the Decepticons enslaved by the Insecticons at Iron Mountain, but they were freed from their mind-controlling cerebro-shells when the Nova-powered Insecticons were defeated. Later, Thundercracker gathered energon cubes from Dinobots Island, where he also assisted in repelling Autobots before being trampled by a stampede of the island's native dinosaurs.



Thundercracker and the other jets took a few shots at the Autobots when they were caught in a ravine, but were foiled when Smokescreen used his eponymous ability to blind them. Next, he assisted in the recovery of the wreck of the Decepticons' original space cruiser in South America; that mission went so well, he and the other Decepticons went on an energon binge and got completely smashed. He also disguised himself as an Autobot as part of a Decepticon plan to frame the Autobots and have them banished from Earth. With the Autobots gone, the Decepticons took over Central City, where Thundercracker and Skywarp supervised human slaves filling up energon cubes at a power plant. He and the other Decepticon fliers fended off a squad of fighter jets that attempted to liberate the city, but soon, they were overwhelmed by the Autobots, who had returned from their banishment.

Spotted landing at a commercial airport by Spike Witwicky, Thundercracker and Thrust were inadvertently responsible for alerting the Autobots to the location of the base the Decepticons had hidden on the airfield. Thundercracker and the jets were royally thrashed by the Dinobots, and things only got worse when, soon after, the Decepticons all began malfunctioning due to cybertonium deterioration. Unaware of the cause of their breakdown, they went on an energy raid to get some fresh energon; met in battle by the similarly-impaired Autobots, Thundercracker was able to easily shoot Mirage when the Autobot's invisibility power failed to work. Thundercracker helped steal Professor Haley's Voltronic Galaxer and took it to the moon, where Megatron used it to disrupt Earth's communications. While the Autobots were struggling with the resultant chaos, Thundercracker and Ramjet launched a surprise assault that damaged Powerglide and Prime.

After going on a mission to the Great Britain,, Thundercracker served as a guard alongside Skywarp, ensuring that the captive Perceptor and Seaspray stayed in line. Rendered invulnerable by a coat of electrum, Thundercracker took part in the mission to topple Omega Supreme, but when he and Skywarp went to go retrieve another captive Autobot, Beachcomber, from his cell at the base, the tricky Autobot geologist managed to knock them both out. The Decepticons attempted to attack the now electrum-powered Autobots at the lagoon, but their electrum began to wear off and Thundercracker was shot down and they were forced to retreat. Thundercracker assisted in guarding the Decepticons' base in the Pine Barrens, and went with the other Decepticons to a valley that was full of Morphobots, where he didn't do much of anything except hide when an Autobot convoy arrived, then retreat. When Astrotrain declared himself leader of the Decepticons, Thundercracker snarked at the idea, and it certainly didn't help when Astrotrain's "troops" got themselves in a mess. He barely escaped with his fellow jets when one of the troops accidentally created a flood. He later made a bet with Thrust and Ramjet (three energon cubes!) over whether or not Megatron would prevail over the rebellious Triple Changers and Devastator.



Thundercracker, Starscream, and Skywarp found themselves pursued by the newest Autobots, the Aerialbots, when they captured several human dignitaries. Though Thundercracker came out a loser in his dogfight with Fireflight and Slingshot, the Aerialbots were all impressed by the Decepticons jets' flying skills—something that allowed the three Decepticons to lure the naive young Autobots into a trap on Cybertron by offering to talk with them. The Aerialbots were sent nine million years into the past by the Kronosphere time machine, and the Decepticons tried to keep the other Autobots from rescuing them by reanimating a dormant Guardian robot—though the mere sight of the huge sentinel gave Thundercracker the shivers, as he remembered his encounters with them back in the "old days". The Aerialbots soon returned and formed Superion to destroy the Guardian.



Thundercracker and Skywarp were guarding a space bridge when Starscream flew in and requested to go to Cybertron. The two of them refused to let anybody through without proper authorization, but soon decided that Starscream's gun aimed directly into their faces was authorization enough. Using personality components he liberated on his trip to Cybertron, Starscream created the Combaticons, who Thundercracker then battled against along with the other Decepticons. Once Starscream was dealt with, the Decepticons got back to energy-gathering, and Thundercracker and Dirge were charged with transporting some freshly-made cubes to the space bridge. When Starscream and the Combaticons returned to threaten Earth and Cybertron, Thundercracker was part of the allied Autobot-Decepticon group who headed to Cybertron to stop their plot. Soon after, he took part attacking Autobot Headquarters and Defensor.



In the year 2005, Thundercracker was present for the Decepticon assault on Autobot City, and was among the Decepticons gunned down by Optimus Prime. After the battle, Astrotrain transported the Decepticons away, but requested that some dead weight should be jettisoned. The injured Thundercracker, along with Megatron, Skywarp and the Insecticons, were tossed out of Astrotrain following a decidedly stacked vote. However, that was not entirely the end of Thundercracker's story: his and the other Decepticons' remains were gathered up by the monster planet Unicron, and transformed by his power into new warriors. Megatron was reborn as Galvatron, and Thundercracker became Scourge, the tracker.

The Decepticons had the decorum to set up a marker for the "deceased" Thundercracker in their crypt on Cybertron. In 2006, Octane would seek refuge in the crypt, and apologised to the marker for trying to hide behind it.

Cloud
Thundercracker was one of several Decepticons who wound up on the receiving end of a beating from "Cloud World Megatron", an incarnation of their leader from another dimension, as he fought his way through them to get to his world's Optimus and the super-powerful robot entity SARA.

Later (multiversally speaking), in a parallel timeline that had diverged from this one, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Blitzwing were observing humanity's construction of an orbital space bridge on Megatron's orders when they were suddenly attacked by the Starscream from Cloud World. Cloud World's Brawn arrived to take on Starscream, but the Decepticon was summoned away, leaving Thundercracker and Skywarp to shoot at Brawn instead.

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers story pages
Thundercracker was one of the Decepticons who attacked New York City in the early days of their war on Earth. When the Autobots arrived, the jets took on Jazz while Inferno and Ratchet tried to fight the fire they had started.

When Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Reflector raided a human space center to steal energy from a shuttle launch, their efforts were impeded by Sideswipe, Red Alert and Inferno. While Reflector made off with a few cubes, Thundercracker and buddy engaged the two Lamborghini Autobots in mid-air combat. Thundercracker and the other Decepticons jets later battled Optimus Prime and the Aerialbots in Egypt.

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers manga


Under orders from Megatron, Thundercracker accompanied Starscream and Skywarp in an energy raid on Tokyo. They succeeded in bombing pedestrians and children until Optimus Prime and a unit of Autobot vehicles arrived. Though a Decepticon victory seemed assured when they unleashed Menasor on their foes, their strategy was undone when the Autobots drove up a ramp at top speed, transformed to vehicle mode and punched everybody in the face. Thundercracker was forced to retreat.

Thundercracker later took part in an all-out assault on Autobot Headquarters in Arizona. The attack was nothing more than a diversion so Soundwave could go do unspecified stuff in Japan and the Decepticons were eventually defeated and driven off.

Scramble City: Mobilization


When the Decepticons succeeded in locating the construction site of the Autobots' Scramble City project, Thundercracker joined Starscream, Skywarp and the Constructicons in an attack on the hidden facility. They were met by an Autobot contingent led by Optimus Prime and a firefight ensued. The Aerialbots soon arrived to back up Prime's team, and a barrage of fire from them sent Thundercracker and the rest into retreat.

Full Throttle Scramble Power!
When Megatron held the world hostage with his Omega Whip cannon, Thundercracker joined numerous other Decepticons in raiding the Earth's various energy resources.

The Battle of the Star Gate
In the mid-1990s, Thundercracker was amongst the Decepticons who attacked the human warp gate space station known as the Trigger as it neared completion. They took it over easily, thanks in part to their human collaborator, Trov, but one of the station's staff, Makoto, had been overlooked. He managed to pin down Thundercracker and the rest of the group under Megatron’s command in the Trigger ' s rail room with a powerful electromagnetic field. Thundercracker was almost sent hurdling to the farthest side of the galaxy by the Trigger, but a blast from Megatron's fusion cannon disabled the portal. Then the Autobots showed up, and the two factions began their battle aboard the space station. The Decepticons lost the fight and fled.

Thundercracker was one the Decepticons Megatron brought back to the Trigger to confront Starscream, who was in the middle of conspiring against the Decepticon leader with the aid of his own future self, who had come back in time via the Trigger. When Starscream combined with the Trigger to create a powerful new body for himself, Thundercracker had to contend with the volley of asteroids thrown towards both Autobots and Decepticons from Starscream’s star gate. He was then almost sucked into a portal to a black hole when Starscream neared defeat, but was instead sent plummeting down to Earth when Optimus and Megatron worked together to defeat Starscream.

Robotmasters online manga
When a variety of time-displaced Autobots and Decepticons arrived on Earth in 2004, Thundercracker took part in the three-day final battle at Autobot Headquarters over the last of the solitarium on the planet. He, Skywarp, and Starscream took on Lio Convoy during the fight, but the Autobots ultimately triumphed.

The Headmasters cartoon


In a flashback to the early days of the Transformers' war on Earth, Thundercracker joined his comrades in an attack on the Autobots that resulted in the death of Optimus Prime.

Macrocosmic Seekers
In 2010, Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge were captured by the alien Seeker, who used his powers over space and time to revert them to the moment of their transformation by Unicron, intending to freeze them in this transitional state and study their recreation. Inadvertently liberated by the Junkion Scrapheap, the Decepticons' remained in this flux-state for a period of time; in Scourge's case, he was partially reverted to being Thundercracker. His body took on the form of a shuttle-like spacecraft, and he regained his sonic boom power. After destroying the Seeker's ship to escape, the space-time energies faded away, and their bodies returned to normal.

Wings Universe


At the dawn of the war, as Devastator breached Iacon's walls, Thundercracker was there with the rest of Megatron's forces.

Circa 2013, Cybertronian leader Jhiaxus cloned Thundercracker to create a clone commander and clone drones of him.

Mars Attacks: The Transformers
Thundercracker was among the Decepticons who found themselves in the middle of a Martian invasion after being defeated by the Autobots. After an abortive attempt to team up with the invaders, Thundercracker and the other Decepticons instead formed an alliance with the Autobots and helped see off the Martians; when Cliffjumper observed that Megatron was taking all the credit for the success of their team-up, Thundercracker rolled his eyes and remarked that it was "a thing".