Oil tanker - Transformers Wiki

An oil tanker is a massive sea-going vessel, constructed by humans to traverse the oceans of Earth.

Their primary purpose is to be the victim of Decepticon attacks and hijackings. They occasionally serve a secondary function of moving massive qualities of oil around.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

Quite a few oil tankers disappeared around the Caribbean, likely the victims of Decepticon activity. Crater Critters

An oil tanker owned by the Blackrock Corporation was hijacked by several of Shockwave's troops. After getting rid of the crew by setting them adrift in life rafts, Shrapnel used his electrical powers to direct the ship toward the Decepticons' Caribbean island base... where fuel auditor Ratbat discovered that the tanker's oil cargo had already been offloaded. Whoops! Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom

Much later, Starscream had the idea to seize an oil tanker while his troops diverted the Autobots. The ship's captain was just about ready to sink the ship rather than let the giant alien robots have it, but was talked out of it by one of his crew, who reminded him of the potential environmental damage. Starscream hadn't counted on a segment of Earthforce being held in reserve, however, and was soon driven off. Divide and Conquer!

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

When the Insecticons and their new allies the Decepticons arrived at an oil refinery in Bali, they gnawed through the sidewall of a tanker and drank the oil within. Later, Megatron set the tanker on fire in a bid to destroy the entire refinery and the Autobots with it, but was foiled when Ironhide put out the flames and Optimus tipped the vessel onto its side, dousing the fire. Prime later lifted the entire loaded, waterlogged vessel over his head and threw it at Megatron. A Plague of Insecticons

After Megatron took control of the supercomputer TORQ III, he gave it the power to control machinery remotely using Remote Control Circuit Linker cards. The Decepticons placed these cards on the world's fleet of oil tankers, allowing TORQ III to direct them to the specially-built oil platform which the Decepticons had set up. Skyfire, Hound, and Spike stowed away on an oil tanker so they could penetrate the Decepticon shield, though they were almost immediately captured.

Although Optimus Prime disabled TORQ III, Megatron had a backup remote control, and so was able to keep the oil tankers on course. It wasn't until the Autobots mounted an assault on the oil platform that the control was able to be disabled, and the oil tankers returned to regular duties. Day of the Machines

Victory cartoon

Blacker and Braver were entrusted with protecting the oil tanker India from Decepticons. The mission was successful, mainly because the Decepticons were more concerned with raiding a shuttle base in Nevada for energy. Attack the Shuttle Base!!

Later, Drillhorn came up with a plan to capture an oil tanker to provide them with desperately needed energy: by draining gasoline supplies near Marine City, they forced Mayor Burns to request a shipment of gasoline to the city in an oil tanker called the Big Baron. After the Dinoforce plant a neutron bomb in Marine City, the Breastforce are left to take control of the Big Baron while the Autobots search for the bomb. Eventually, Leozack let slip the location of the bomb, and the Decepticons were driven from the tanker. Tanker Hijack Operation

Go-Bots cartoon

Notes

• Because they work in the very turbulent ocean, oil tankers generally have sealed, hard-hulled life boats, not inflatable rafts as portrayed in "Car Wash of Doom".