Tidal Wave (G1)

Tidal Wave is a Decepticon or starship from the Generation 1 continuity family.

"This is Duff McWhalen!"

Foul-tempered, foul-mouthed and fourteen stories tall, Tidal Wave is a force to be reckoned with. Though he may be too stubborn and dense for his own good, this aquatic colossus is a mighty warrior, incredibly strong and big enough to fit countless smaller allies and more within his body.

Tidal Wave is sometimes partnered with the Titan Master Fathom, who grants him the power of armor crush. In some realities, the Tidal Wave is instead a non-sentient battleship — but let's be honest, it's not like Tidal Wave's thinking ability is one of his greatest assets.

Fiction

Wings Universe

"Duff McWhalen is a clear reference to Guns 'n' Roses. And you know what Guns 'n' Roses has to do with Transformers? Nothing! His name is Duff McWhalen!"

The Tidal Wave, Scourge of the Seven Systems, was the ship of the Star Seekers, captained by the lineage of Decepticon pirates named Cannonball. Armed with laser turrets, proton missiles, and rail guns, it carried its crew as they pillaged and plundered their way across the galaxy.

While passing near Torax Prime, the Star Seekers rescued Tornado and Ferak from an Autobot fighter, the two signing aboard. As part of Cannonball's master plan, the Tidal Wave went on a series of space adventures to gather the materials necessary to time travel to the year 2984, where they would attack the defenceless Cybertron of the time. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

Though reaching their temporal destination, the Tidal Wave was several light years off-course. Warping to the Galadria Space Bridge Outpost, the pirates met with Flamewar, using the space bridge to warp into Unicron's severed head, leaving their ship behind. Hoist the Flag

After that didn't work, like at all, the Tidal Wave set course for the Unknown Sector, where the spark of the immortal Starscream was said to be. Arriving at planet Shut-Up-Tornado-I'm-Trying-To-Think, the Star Seekers found only a Quintesson who bargained passage on the Tidal Wave in exchange for the location of Starscream's spark. As the Tidal Wave hung around the planet, it was revealed that the Quintesson was dead, its corpse animated by Starscream, who proceeded to possess Cannonball and reformat the captain's body into his likeness. Bolstered, the Decepticons seized control of the Tidal Wave, dumping a third of the crew on the planet, before warping off. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

Starscream hung around for a time, Legacy but eventually left the Tidal Wave, promising to one day repay his debt to Flamewar, leaving her to pirating. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

Crew

2005 IDW continuity

"His stage is an underwater scrolling stage. So already you have an underwater stage and a scrolling stage."

Cranky and temperamental, the potty-mouthed Tidal Wave was the largest member of Mayhem, a group of Cybertronians who sought to expose the truths about society hidden by their leaders. After allying with Tarantulas, he became a Chimeracon, a Transformer with biological components and a beast mode that was able to hide him from detection. Sins of the Wreckers #3

Tarantulas deployed Mayhem to Earth, where Tidal Wave disguised himself as a whale. Operating from the ocean, he became a mobile base for the smaller members of Mayhem, with his internal workings hosted a portal that gained access to Tarantulas's Noisemaze. When Stampy fled with the Aequitas data slug stolen from Verity Carlo, Stakeout followed the rabbit and was surprised when he fled into a whale's mouth. Claw Jaw and Overbite emerged from the same mouth to deal with the Autobot. Despite orders to remain underwater, Tidal Wave surfaced and transformed into a massive tank. After more members of the Wreckers joined the fight, Tidal Wave attempted to transform into robot mode, but unfortunately found himself stuck in mid-transformation ... because the missing Stakeout had been swallowed and accidentally jammed into his transformation cog. Sins of the Wreckers #2

"And his name is Duff McWhalen, by the way."

After fighting through more of Tidal Wave's animal comrades, Roadbuster managed to cow the beast Transformers by holding Claw Jaw hostage, and the squid allowed the Autobots to enter the portal in Tidal Wave that led to Prowl's prison. Sins of the Wreckers #2 The other members of Mayhem managed to re-engage Tidal Wave's jammed transformation cog by extricating the damaged Autobot. The sullen Chimeracon was able to re-enter his beast mode and retreat to the ocean. Sins of the Wreckers #3

Overhearing a fight within the Noisemaze, a furious Tidal Wave decided that he'd had enough, and decided to turn his own body inside-out to enter the realm, ignoring the fact that his sheer mass accompanied by the presence of the Debris threatened the Noisemaze's integrity. Tidal Wave wound up kicking Impactor into the Tor... which was where Impactor was planning to go anyway. Tidal Wave turned his attention to the Debris, attacking it. With the Wreckers' job done, Prowl decided to destroy all of Tarantulas's creations, including the Noisemaze. Sins of the Wreckers #4 Tidal Wave's attack on the Debris caused coffins containing deceased Wreckers to spill out. Prowl delivered Tarantulas's Obtenteum to the battlefield where Guzzle force-fed it to Tidal Wave, causing him to go mad and destroy with impunity. Sensing the collapse of the Noisemaze, Carnivac used his forced-transformation powers on Tidal Wave, unaware that the gravitational forces associated with his transformation would collapse the Noisemaze entirely. Tidal Wave's fate after the collapse is unknown. Sins of the Wreckers #5

Beast Wars: Uprising

Tidal Wave was the flagship of the Builder fleet defending the Straits of Yuss and the waterways leading up to Iacon. His fellow Decepticon Banzai-Tron was wired into Tidal Wave's bridge as captain, commanding a crew of Micromasters. With minimal mental capacity left (if he ever had it), Tidal Wave made no contribution to the battle other than shouting his name over and over again. When the Builders' navy was overwhelmed, Banzai-Tron ordered Tidal Wave on a collision course with the Broadside, the Resistance flagship. The impact created an explosion that utterly consumed both ships. Derailment

Titans Return marketing material

"His name—I lie awake at night thinking about this! His name is Duff McWhalen!

Tidal Wave was partnered with the Titan Master Fathom, who granted him the power of armor crush.^[1] Tidal Wave took part in a mission to Cybertron, wherein he linked with Thunderwing to unleash seismic storms against their foes.^[2]

2019 IDW continuity

At some point, Tidal Wave posed in a group photo with many Cybertronians, including Blast Off. Open Comms

Toys

Armada

Main article: Tidal Wave (Armada)#Armada

Many incarnations of Tidal Wave on this page are based on the Hasbro Armada Tidal Wave toy.

Titans Return

"What is this? HIS NAME IS DUFF MCWHALEN!"

• Siege on Cybertron (Gift set, 2017)

• Accessories: Seated gun, "Fathom" Titan Master, 5 mini jets

A redeco and retool of Titans Return Broadside, Tidal Wave transforms into an aircraft carrier and another aircraft-carrier-sized and very not-aerodynamic jet fighter (however, the legs can be shrunken down with some fiddling). Tidal Wave also features Titan Master-compatible ports on some of his parts. He retains the sprue of mini Aerialbot jets previously included with Broadside, though now painted black rather than white. It's unknown if those jets represent evil versions of the Aerialbots or something else.

Unusually for a 2010s Hasbro toy, Tidal Wave's deco is based on Armada Tidal Wave's appearance in the Armada cartoon (and consequently Takara toy) rather than the Hasbro Armada toy.

Tidal Wave and Fathom were only available as part of the "Siege of Cybertron" set, which also includes Magnus Prime & Ginrai, Professor Go & Metalhawk, Decepticon Pounce, and Thunderwing. In the United States, this set was exclusive to BigBadToyStore, but it saw a wider release in Canada where it was available at Toys"R"Us, Amazon, the Canadian Walmart online store, book store chain Indigo and several PC retailers (seriously!). It was also available at retail in Hong Kong and Singapore and even saw an official release in the Netherlands, where it was exclusively available from BOL.

• More information on Tidal Wave at Transformers-Universe.com

Merchandise

Transformers Trading Card Game

• Tidal Wave, Dark Fleet (2020)
  • Stars: 24
    • Tidal Wave, Dark Fleet (Aircraft Carrier)
    • Wave 5P: Titan Masters Attack
    • Rarity: R
    • Card Number: P02/2020
    • Stars: 8
    • Tidal Wave, Dark Fleet (Transport)
    • Wave 5P: Titan Masters Attack
    • Rarity: R
    • Card Number: P03/2020
    • Stars: 8
    • Tidal Wave, Dark Fleet (Battleship)
    • Wave 5P: Titan Masters Attack
    • Rarity: R
    • Card Number: P04/2020
    • Stars: 8

These cards' set was originally set for an April 2020 release, however due to the global COVID-19 pandemic the release was pushed back to May 29, 2020.

Notes

• The Tidal Wave in Wings Universe is treated as a perfectly normal spaceship in all fiction, although Timelines #10 artist Hayato Sakamoto sold a poster at BotCon 2014 depicting it in a robot mode (based on the Armada Tidal Wave toy).
• Tidal Wave's appearance in the original IDW run is the "classic, imposing design" with bits of whale shoved onto it. His inclusion had been on writer/artist Nick Roche's mind since finishing Last Stand of the Wreckers. He attributes this fascination with Tidal Wave to the fight against him in the 2004 video game being one of his "top-ten Transformers moments"—and who can blame him, that fight is a Duff McWhalen of a time.^[3]

See also

You look familiar...

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Versions of Tidal Wave have appeared in other continuity families, including:

• Tidal Wave, the loyal Decepticon powerhouse from the Unicron Trilogy.
• Tidal Wave, the Maccadam's menu headshot from Transformers Animated.

For more information, see Tidal Wave (disambiguation).

References