Blaster

Blaster may refer to:

Music

Fiction

Computing

Other

Blaster (Transformers)

Blaster is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers television and comic series based on the popular toy line produced by Takara Tomy and Hasbro. Due to trademark reasons, he is sometimes called Autobot Blaster. He is an Autobot who specializes in communications.

Transformers: Generation 1

Blaster's initial transformation is an AM/FM Stereo Cassette Player, commonly referred to as a boombox or ghettoblaster, hence the name. Blaster was a popular character from the original series while not featuring as prominently in the modern Transformers universe.

As a member of the Autobot communications sub-group Blaster frequently worked with its other members - Eject, Grand Slam, Raindance, Ramhorn, Rewind and Steeljaw. He is the Autobots' answer to the evil Decepticon Soundwave.

Blaster (Tempo in France, Radiorobot in Italy, Broadcast in Japan), like the Autobot Jazz, has a great love of Earth culture, rock music and other forms of music as long as it is hard. He's normally at the forefront of any given situation. As an AM/FM stereo cassette player, he can perform as a deck, plus receive radio signals on a variety of frequencies. Acting as the Autobot communications center, he can transmit signals within a 4,000 mile radius. Blaster is sometimes depicted as carrying various tape warriors within his deck, including (Steeljaw, Ramhorn, Rewind and Eject).

Raygun

A raygun is a type of fictional or futuristic directed-energy weapon. They have various alternate names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, phaser, zap gun etc. They are a well-known feature of science fiction; for such stories they typically have the general function of guns. In most stories, when activated, a raygun emits a ray, typically visible, usually lethal if it hits a human target, often destructive if it hits mechanical objects, with properties and other effects unspecified or varying.

Real-life analogues are particle-beam weapons or electrolasers, electroshock weapons which send current along an electrically conductive laser-induced plasma channel.

History

A very early example of a raygun is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (1898). Science fiction during the 1920s described death rays. Early science fiction often described or depicted raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs. Nikola Tesla's attempts at developing directed-energy weapons encouraged the imagination of many writers.

Ferro

Ferro may refer to:

Ferro (surname)

Ferro is an Italian and Spanish surname related to the word ferro ("iron").People with this surname include:

Ferro Lad

Ferro Lad (Andrew Nolan) is a fictional character, a comic book superhero and member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century of the DC Comics Universe. He is Andrew Nolan of Earth. He is known in later continuity simply as Ferro.

Publication history

When Jim Shooter first created the character, he intended Ferro Lad to be black, but editor Mort Weisinger vetoed the idea, saying "we'll lose our distribution in the South."

This was in fact why Shooter chose Ferro Lad to be the one to die in the Sun Eater story. "Ferro Lad, I killed because my plan was that he was a black guy, and Mort said no. Then I said, "Well, let's see. I've got this idea for a story, and someone needs to die...Ah-ha! Him!" So basically, I killed him off because it annoyed me that I couldn't do with him what I wanted."

The Life and Death of Ferro Lad (ISBN 978-1-4012-2193-5), a hardcover trade paperback collecting the Silver Age appearances of Ferro Lad, was released in 2009.

Fictional character biography