Ferak

Ferak is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

I finally get a robot mode. Hope you weren't expecting anything from the neck down. (Ferak is the one at the bottom right.)

Ferak is a Decepticon who transforms into a hunter-seeker skyship. He has a low taste in entertainments, so he prefers to indulge on his own, taking out his sadistic impulses on others. Ferak's capacity for cruelty extends to his notable engineering skills, having invented such instruments of mayhem as the Nightmare Engine and the Cobalt Fusion Infernal Doombringer.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

The difference, of course, is that they hunt too.

Stationed near Darkmount, Ferak and his two fellow Hunter-Seekers were cruising the Dead End on orders to reduce the surplus population by blasting and then recycling the derelict Empties found there. Spotting three of them, Ferak warned his wingmen off so he could enjoy this sport on his own, taking leisurely potshots at the trio as they ran for their lives.

Ferak destroyed Telus and Rotorbolt before the noise of his play attracted the nearby electro-scrambler (wielded by some Autobot). The electro-scrambler disrupted Ferak's guidance system, causing him to spin out of control. Blaster then grabbed him by the wings and threw him into a tower.

He exploded on impact. The Smelting Pool!

In. Your. Face.

He survived, and in one possible future led an airborne hunter squad against Rodimus Prime, Kup, Blurr, and Wreck-Gar. He and his squad gloated at the outnumbered Autobots, apparently taking out Kup and Blurr before transforming to face the Autobot and Junkion leaders. Ferak and the others taunted them further, asking that they beg for their lives. Rodimus assured them they would get no such satisfaction from him, and told them to do their worst as they prepared to fire.

They were never to get the chance. Prime had stationed Ultra Magnus, Jazz, Bumblebee, and Cliffjumper nearby and at his word they cut down half the Decepticons where they stood. The others made a break for it, only to find their way blocked by Kup and Blurr who had been playing roboto-possum. His comrades falling around him, Ferak ran back to fall at Rodimus Prime's feet begging for mercy (and unwittingly stirring up disturbing memories for Rodimus) but the Autobot had no mercy to give and executed the Decepticon on the spot. Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!

2005 IDW continuity

Ferak really just wants to make the Autobots realize that when they speak in front of class, they're always already naked.

Ferak was once friends with his fellow engineer Wheeljack. Ferak's Squadron X profile In the early days of the war, Ferak worked together with Soundwave and Shockwave, helping them create a "nightmare transmitter" of Shockwave's design they used to torment a courier named Bumblebee into committing acts of terrorism for them. When their patsy turned himself in, it wasn't long before officers Orion Pax and Prowl figured out something was up with some help from Jetfire and descended upon the Decepticon's hideout. Though Soundwave realized the jig was up, Ferak wasn't ready to give in and urged him to keep broadcasting the signal before forcibly being dragged away by Ravage. As they made their escape, Ferak took the controls to their shuttle and commented that he was intrigued by the transmitter's potential. Ghost Stories Many years later, Ferak came to Megatron's notice when he created the Nightmare Engine.

This mode isn't quite as much of a surprise.

Ferak was later part of Squadron X, a team of Decepticons which served as a brutal counterpart to the Autobots' Wreckers. He grew tired of this life and hoped to quit after transporting munitions to a Decepticon outpost in the Redan Quadrant. Ferak's Squadron X profile The Wreckers and Squadron X's rivalry came to a head on Pova, but after being dispatched in an aerial battle, Ferak and the rest of Squadron X were rounded up in a containment unit and put in inhibitor harnesses.

According to Fisitron's Wreckers: Declassified datalogs, Ferak and the other members of Squadron X were able to somehow escape their harnesses, forcing the Wreckers to execute rather than imprison them. However, this was merely a cover story. Last Stand of the Wreckers #4 The truth was that Impactor executed Squadron X before the Autobots would have been forced to let them go in accordance with a neutrality agreement. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5

Wings Universe

Ferak and Tornado were once members of Squadron X, but joined the Star Seeker pirates after the rest of the Squadron died on Torax Prime.

Upon first joining Cannonball’s pirate crew, Ferak and Tornado were tasked with building weapons for the captain. They readily accepted, even suggesting they could throw in a few surprises of their own, given they were provided the necessary parts. Ferak came to enjoying tinkering about with the Tidal Wave, upgrading the ship whenever he could to make it more effective in the pirates' many raids.

Ferak had Tornado once help test out a batch of fragmentation foam.

After the creature of Demon's Maw caused considerable damage to the Tidal Wave, Ferak was tasked with designing better armor platting and weaponry for the ship. He earned many murderous glares from Scorponok and his band of laborers whenever he had a change of heart on the ship's reconstruction halfway through their efforts, and ordered them to restart from scratch.

When Tornado asked Ferak to build some kind of sound dampener to quiet Thunderclap and Rolling Thunder’s races, Ferak misheard him and instead built a sonic destabilizer.

Ferak at some point had the idea to graft limbs onto a bomb so that it could shoot at an enemy while it descended upon its intended target. When Tornado walked in on him, seemingly out of a fit of nostalgia, Ferak ceased working in order to discuss the past with his fellow ex-Squadron-X member. It turned out that he had been mentally constructing another weapon, the Full-Slayer, at the time, and had needed Tornado to jog his memory in order to pick up the project once more.

When Tornado and Skyduster were tasked to infiltrate Ventax II, Ferax provided the pair with extra weaponry. Along with the rest of the crew, Ferak afterwards participated in the attack on the planet. With the help of the sonic disrupter, he rescued Tornado from the local security force, and gave him a ride back to the Tidal Wave.

Some time later, Ferak uncovered a Lukythian Warp Star in his workshop. Figuring it was either left there by himself after he had forgotten about it, or another pirate who had stashed it away, he claimed it as his own and decided to wear as part of a necklace.

Ferak helped Scorponok upgrade the Tidal Wave's transwarp engines. He also continued to busy himself by building several Arms Minicons, which were distributed to several members of the crew as weaponry/pets. While working on the mechafauna Minicons, he discovered what he believed to be a way to fix Tornado's firing mechanism, and informed the little bot of this development.

On several occasions, Ferak discovered one of Brimstone’s cameras spying on him. He threatened the second-in-command with brutality if he discovered another camera in his workshop after the third time. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

Ferak was busying himself with his latest project when Cannonball walked in, announcing that they had arrived at their temporal destination. Ferak then accompanied the team of pirates that traveled down to the Galadria space bridge outpost, where the Star Seekers took control of a space bridge. Along the way, they met the Decepticon Flamewar and recruited her. Using the space bridge, the pirates transported themselves to Unicron’s head, still in orbit around Cybertron. Cannonball then revealed the full extent of his plan: to use the Chaos Bringer's remains to siphon Cybertron of all its Energon! The Cybertronian Knights came to oppose the Star Seekers, leading Ferak to plan and use Tornado’s gun mode in conjunction with the Lukythian Warp Star to blast Alpha Trizer away. Cannonball dissuaded him from doing so, not wanting Tornado to backfire as he knew he was prone to do. Ferak and Tornado activated the systems necessary to begin the Energon collecting process. Nothing came of it, since Cybertron was now a technorganic planet. With the raid a complete failure, Ferak was taken into custody by the knights. Hoist the Flag

The pirates escaped and when on the run from the Cybertronian Knights. Cannonball’s crew nonetheless headed for their next adventure: tracking down Starscream’s immortal spark! Ferak was tasked with building a Spark Containment Chamber in order to capture the illusive prize.

Later, Ferak was tasked with coming up with a protective system to halt the gravitational assault of the many black holes surrounding the Tidal Wave's next destination. Ferak did come up with something, but warned it would only last so long before the Tidal Wave would finally be overwhelmed by the black holes’ pull. Though the Star Seekers came close to oblivion, they managed to reach a small, nameless planetoid inhabiting a “safe zone” in between the black holes. Ferak, alongside Tornado, Flamewar, Thunderclap, and Neurotoxin went down to investigate with Captain Cannonball. On the planetoid, the group found an ancient Quintesson who professed knowledge of Starscream's last known location. The Quintesson was brought on board, though soon afterwards, strange happenings began across the Tidal Wave.

In order to escape the gravitational pull of the many black holes surrounding them, Ferak concocted a plan that would involve pouring forestonite into the ship's engines. The plan was interrupted by a mutiny, which ended with Flamewar as the new Captain of the ship, and Captain Cannonball and his loyalists being stranded on the small barren planetoid. Believing his debt to Cannonball had already been repaid, Ferak had no qualms with staying on the ship under Flamewar's command. He took up with glee her first order of business: for Ferak to modify one of the Cannonball helmets for her use. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

Ferak was observed by Shokaract, newly arisen from the power of Unicron, as he contemplated new evils. Legacy

Toys

Timelines

Ferak is no faker.

• Pirates Vs Knights (BotCon 2014 box set)

• Accessories: "Tornado" Targetmaster

Timelines "Pirate Ferak" is a redeco of Universe Cyclonus, transforming into a Cybertronian starfighter. In robot mode, his fists can be folded back into their "thruster" arrangement which allows his Targetmaster partner Tornado to plug into his wrist socket rather than be hand-held. (This is the only way Ferak can use Tornado with his left arm, as that hand oddly lacks a 5 mm post-hole.) Tornado can also be mounted on the roof of Ferak's vehicle mode.

Ferak was only available in a box set with fellow pirates Tornado, Cannonball, Scorponok, and Olin Zarak, plus knights Ginrai and Devcon.

• More information on Ferak at TFU.info

Legacy

In a world without Energon, we might've been heroes!

• Star Raider Ferak (Voyager Class, 2024)

• Accessories: Oxidating laser, 2 wingtip blasters
• Known designers: Mark Maher (Hasbro), Shuhei Umezu (TakaraTomy)^[1]

Legacy United "Star Raider Ferak" is a retooling of Kingdom Cyclonus, transforming into a Cybertronian spacefighter. His new wings (with detachable guns) and nosecone are designed to bring his vehicle mode closer to the original comic design. His head, chest, and shoulders feature very slight retooling which seems to be based on details from the original Cyclonus toy. Additionally, the toy is cast in a silver plastic, rather than the BotCon toy's white, specifically to match Marvel Ferak's actual original comic book colors.

The original version of this mold was retooled into Legacy: Evolution Metalhawk.

Ferak was revealed during the Walmart Collector Con online event on March 7, 2024, as part of the Walmart-exclusive "Star Raider" collection.

• Designer commentary on Legacy Ferak from Mark Maher on Instagram

Notes

• In a text interview 23 years after he had written the story that introduced Ferak, Bob Budiansky was asked if he would pronounce the name "Fair-ACK" or "fehr-OCK". Budiansky laughed, double-checked the spelling, and chose "Fair-ACK".^[2]
• Ferak wasn't given a robot mode until his surprise appearance in Last Stand of the Wreckers #4. That mode resembles the airborne hunter squad leader, an intention confirmed by Last Stand co-author James Roberts.^[3] Ferak's background information in the Last Stand of the Wreckers hardcover goes further and hints the airborne hunter squad's leader may well be Ferak himself, who might've survived his encounter with Blaster. The Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime would go on to confirm this theory.
• Ferak is quite a weapons inventor, having made the Chaotic Deathaxe, Neutronic Sorrow-Caster, Proton Fusion Multiplier, Quantum Benzok Accelerator, Semtex Cascading Warhead and Thermobaric Ordinance of Persistent Terror. He may have also created the Cascading Cranium Crusher.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Ferak (フェラク Feraku)

References