Cryotek (RID)

Cryotek is a Predacon from both the Robots in Disguise continuity family and the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

It's almost as if he's been doing too much science.

Cryotek is a gangster in Cybertron's dangerous criminal underworld. Once a brilliant engineer, he turned his talents to crime, along with advancing technologies that were outlawed. He developed bodyframes that, though quite powerful and weapon-laden, qualified as legal for construction or research. His own "cryo-tank" form was as powerful as a Predacon could manage without special government clearance. With his bodyguards Dirge, Buzzbomb, and Backslash, Cryotek ran a tight organization that skirted the law, embarrassing the Maximal Command Security Force, who could never dig up any evidence against him.^[1]

Ironically, Cryotek's claim to fame would be his protégé, the rogue Predacon who would be called Megatron. Cryotek's greatest ideas would be co-opted by his former student, including technology for spark extractors and even his plan for the theft of the Golden Disk. If there's one thing Cryotek's pride cannot stand, it's his own failures.

Chro can often be seen perched on his shoulder.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Theft of the Golden Disk

Voice actor: Brad Venable (English)

TFwiki.net will give its firstborn to whoever makes this toy.

In the late stages of the Great War, Cryotek served under the Decepticon Emperor of Destruction Deathsaurus as a supply manager. As the Great War came to a close, he doublecrossed his boss by leading a team of Predacon rebels against him, earning him amnesty during the following peace. TCC website Max Cops Cryotek profile

Step One: Teach a promising young criminal the ways of doublecrossing your superiors.

After gloating about his genius plan to steal data revealing the location of a sacred Maximal artifact, the Golden Disk, he dispatched his star pupil Megatron to carry it out. He reminded Megatron that only Cryotek was allowed to decrypt the data.

Cryotek was no fool, however, and knew that Megatron would betray him sooner or later. He alerted the authorities to Megatron's heist, expecting his protégé would take the fall. Though when Dirge returned with the data storage box, it was empty, save for a Maximal security homing bug. Megatron had doublecrossed him! Cryotek pled for his lawyer as the Maximal Command Security Force infiltrated his secret lair. Theft of the Golden Disk

3H comics

Button ya lip, Mugsy.

When Megatron returned from his timelost exile on Earth, Cryotek offered to rid him of his hated beast mode, wishing to take the powerful dragon form for himself. This process, however, left Cryotek disabled for some while. Upon his recovery, he discovered that Megatron had stolen his research and conquered Cybertron.^[2]

Considered an outlaw among his own kind, and with Cybertron overrun with Vehicons, Cryotek exiled himself to New Quintessa, where he began a business partnership with Derodomontatus and the rest of the Quintesson race. Using the Oracle shell program that the Quintessons had used to manipulate Vector Sigma since eons ago, Cryotek and Derodomontatus manipulated several groups of survivors of Megatron's virus into running various fool's errands. One of these groups, the Mutants, were instructed by the Oracle to journey to New Quintessa itself. A trap was waiting for the Mutants, and they were devoured by Sharkticons while Cryotek and Derodomontatus watched. The Quintesson was amused, but Cryotek, striking him, reminded Derodomontatus of his race's incompetence and hubris.

He has taken his first step RRAGH RREERNG REAHGORAGH!!!

Secretly, Cryotek suspected that Vector Sigma's true voice would break out through their deceptions, and so he placed Cyclonus into another of the surviving groups, the Wreckers. The Wreckers traveled to Archa Nine, Cyclonus double-crossed them, and Cryotek had the object of his desire, the Divine Light, delivered to him. Betrayal He assured his Quintesson business partners of his success, and that despite their Oracle's recent destruction amidst Cybertron's Great Transformation, he would escort them to Cybertron, their new home, which was now ripe for the taking. Disclosure

As he and the vast Quintesson army descended upon Cybertron, he scoffed at their arrogance in assuming that the Transformers' new technorganic forms would render them docile, facilitating the Quintessons' invasion. But this would not be the only trouble to befall the Quintessons—Cryotek himself would turn on them, and seize the Divine Light for himself. The Divine Light was a Quintesson-engineered conduit of Primus' power, and now that Cryotek possessed it, all the power of a god was now his! Having grown and mutated into a powerhouse, he battled the Wreckers. At one early point he believed he had killed Apelinq and Primal Prime, but they quickly returned, merged as one by Primus, as Sentinel Maximus. However, Cryotek didn't really care, and dissolved his contract with the Quintessons by killing Derodomonatus.

Don't mind us exclusives, we'll be up here in this containment bubble.

Using his new god-level powers, Cryotek transformed Chro into a huge technorganic monster, which kept most of the Wreckers busy. While Cheetor and Devcon were left behind to finish off Chro, Cryotek began his final face-off against the other Wreckers. He was drawn by his foes to a special chamber, at their Quintesson guide Al-badur's insistence. Suddenly the chamber was activated by the Quintesson scientist, locking Sentinel Maximus and Cryotek inside a forcefield containment bubble with a portal inside. The pull from the portal was strong, but Cryotek's powers were easily able to keep him from being sucked inside—at least until Cheetor and Rodimus arrived. They were Matrix Templars, so they were able to drain Cryotek of his powers from outside the bubble. But he needed one extra final push, which came from Sentinel Maximus, and the two disappeared through the portal.

Cryotek found himself suspended in absolute nothingness. Only a tiny fragment of the power of Primus that persisted within him was keeping him alive, but that was enough. He planned to defeat Sentinel Maximus here and somehow use what remained to engineer his escape, but it was not to be. Sentinel Maximus was called by Primus elsewhere, leaving Cryotek utterly alone. ...Or was he? Wreckers: Finale Part II

Cryotek was apparently a Minion of Unicron. Cryotek's Universe profile

Beast Wars: Uprising

Cryotek was the head of a crime gang called "The Minions of Unicron". Not All Megatrons He took advantage of Trans-Mutate's naivete, presenting her with a narrative of absent leaders and continuing wars that fit her notes of inconsistent data in the officially prescribed history of Cybertron. Using her special abilities, Cryotek had Trans-Mutate assist in illegal activities without her full awareness and, once her usefulness was exhausted, had his underlings dispose of her to cover for their escape from a heist. Perception

Some twenty-one cycles before the Grand Uprising, an upstart gang called the "Darksyders" started encroaching on Minion territory. Cryotek's initial offers of an alliance were violently rejected. As the cycles passed, Cryotek found his influence and reach diminishing. Four cycles after the outbreak of war, his people managed to catch a Darksyder going by the name of Doom-Lock, who Cryotek personally interrogated, finding the location of the Darksyder's mysterious leader "Megatron". Gathering his top enforcers, Cryotek went to his domicile to take the fight right to Megatron. It turned out Megatron had been expecting them, and offered an alliance. Unwilling to work with some pretentious purple prat, Cryotek refused.

At which point it turned out Megatron had planned ahead, and wasn't even there. But a group of Dropkicks were. Cryotek's lieutenants were swiftly killed, and Cryotek cornered by Megatron, who gave him a new offer: Surrender and dissolve the Minions into the Darksyders and he'd live. With no other choice, Cryotek accepted. Of course, Megatron followed by saying thanks to his earlier reluctance, the Predacon had to take some precautions, and introduced the mnemosurgeon Psychobat...

Later, after the merger of the Minions and the Darksyders, Packrat—one of Cryotek's former underlings—noted he was acting a little weird when he introduced the thief to Megatron, but wasn't too concerned. Not All Megatrons

Ask Vector Prime

Megatron, a quantum orphan from Primax 496.22 Alpha after the conclusion of the Beast Wars, schemed to conquer Cybertron in Viron 102.0 Beta. He joined forces with the ruthless Predacon Cryotek, a native of this universe, to better learn about the new world he found himself in. The Alternity shepherded Megatron's contemporaries Optimus Primal, Rhinox, Rattrap, and Silverbolt to this dimension to stop Megatron's machinations. After the long and arduous "Allspark Battles", they triumphed over Megatron and his Vehicons. In response to Megatron's defeat, Cryotek embarked on his own stratagem. Like Megatron, Cryotek sought mechanical purity, but in a different and much more drastic way. He believed that Transformers’ sparks were not their life essences, but rather symbiotic, leech-like parasites. Cryotek planned to eliminate all sparks and replace them with physical operating systems which he had created, based partially on Megatron's research into shell programs and spark extraction. Ominously, he had already conducted successful field tests on his own men.

Cryotek knew to be cautious in dealing with those who had vanquished Megatron, and for a time settled on hit and run tactics, using Megatron's transwarp technology to sporadically attack the Autobots through time and space with his Automatic De-Sparkers. Needing allies, Cryotek contacted Galvatron on early 21st century Earth. Galvatron offered him refuge aboard his ship, the Megastar, in exchange for a body upgrade. With Cryotek's engineering, the Predacon leader become “Megatron Megabolt”. Meanwhile, in the future, Optimus Primal found the victims of Cryotek's horrendous experiments and resolved to stop him by any means necessary. Having already perceived that a greater power was behind the Oracle, Primal demanded it send him after Cryotek; the Alternity revealed their true form to Primal and agreed to his request, if he would join the ranks of their elite agents, the Protectors, in return. Primal accepted the offer and was sent back in time to 21st century Earth with Mirage GT as a guide. To minimize the risk of temporal paradoxes, Primal could only assume a corporeal form to engage Cryotek; against the threat posed by Megabolt Maximus—Fortress Maximus under control of Megatron—Primal could only act as a spirit guide. It was a tough battle, but in the end Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal emerged victorious, with Megatron and Cryotek decisively defeated. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/30

TransTech

In an interview with Rook, Stungun stated that he had been in rooms full of Megatron lookalikes, including Cryotek. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/07/29

Toys

Robots in Disguise (2001)

Between us, this is actually just a hue-shifted photo of Megatron.

• Cryotek (Ultra, 2002)

• Accessories: 3 missiles
• Known designers: Andrew Frankel (Hasbro)

Robots in Disguise Cryotek is a redeco of the Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Megatron toy, transforming into a twisted cyborgy part-organic-part-mechanical dragon. He also has a third "dragster" mode... which is best forgotten. In dragon mode, his mouth has a spring-loaded missile launcher, his flexible dragon neck can be thrashed back and forth by rotating a small lever located at its base, plus his wings can be automatically expanded and retracted with a small slider in his back. In robot mode, his dragon neck and head become his left arm, retaining both gimmicks. He also has a second spring-loaded missile launcher in the top of his robot-mode helmet. The missiles for said launchers can be stored in his wings.

Takara Cryotek's "spark avatar".

He has slightly different, thicker wing-claws than Megatron, a slight retool likely made to make them less breakable if dropped.

Both this mold and Tigerhawk's mold share a gimmick that was altered before release—a cockpit bubble where a tiny "spark figure" would have "piloted" the character. While the cockpits remained part of the toys, Hasbro dropped the figures inside from the final releases due to it junking around with the Transformers mythos; it was feared buyers would mistake the "spark figures" as humanoid pilots for a non-sentient transforming robot, à la Diaclone, instead of being representations of the spark essence of a living, breathing Transformer. However, Takara's "USA Edition" release of Cryotek, a limited-run release in Hasbro packaging (with Japanese-language stickers for legal information applied), includes the "spark figure"; it looks like a tiny pre-Earth Megatron.

This toy was a Target exclusive in the US, released in January of 2002. It is currently unknown when the Takara USA Edition was released, but it was a mass-release item, not exclusive to any store chain.

More information on Cryotek at TFU.info

Notes

• If you're wondering why this article is at "(RID)" when most of Cryotek's fiction is Beast Wars and Beast Machines-related, Cryotek's toy was not released until the 2001 Robots in Disguise toyline had long since replaced the Beast Machines toyline at mass retail. While his BotCon Online profile (rooted deeply in the lore of the Beast Era) was based on an unreleased bio and tech specs that Hasbro had originally created for the character's retail toy, said toy was first officially unveiled at BotCon 2001 in Robots in Disguise packaging, four months before the profile's online release. Furthermore, the character's fictional debut in The Wreckers #2 saw him quote the Robots in Disguise toy's motto (quoted above at the top of this article) as if to cement that, yes, the Cryotek of the Beast Machines-based Wreckers comics is meant to be the same character as the Robots in Disguise toy, despite the conflicting toyline release.
  • Years later in 2015, the Ask Vector Prime Facebook would finally establish an official Robots in Disguise version of Cryotek for the first time ever, but who was basically just another version of the Beast Era Cryotek residing in a setting still very much based on Beast Machines.
• The name "Cryotek" was first used by a hero from Hasbro's mid-Eighties action figure line Visionaries. Andrew Frankel, a longtime fan of Visionaries and responsible for exclusive Transformers product at the time of Cryotek's release, assigned the name.

Clearly a photoshop.

• Prior to his official reveal at BotCon 2001, Cryotek's toy debuted in an eBay auction by a seller with zero feedback, packaged inside a Beast Wars Transmetals 2 Megatron box. One of the largest flame wars of the early years of the fandom erupted over this early sample, as fans argued over whether the toy was merely an easy Photoshop job or if it were a real production piece.^[3] Even when a buyer received the "blue Megatron" from the seller and confirmed that it was, in fact, blue, claims of fraud were not silenced. It wasn't until the toy's official reveal at BotCon 2001 (along with a few copies of this early mispackaged sample seen in person), with its authenticity (and name) confirmed by 3H Productions, that the fandom finally simmered down.

• Cryotek's CGI model in "Theft of the Golden Disk" is based on Energon Shockblast with a new head. His voice was patterned after actor Sydney Greenstreet.
• Cryotek's Wreckers profile published in the 2004 Director's Cut version of "Betrayal" lists him as a "Minion of Unicron", despite Cryotek's disbelief in Unicron's existence, and having been defeated before the Universe War even began, in "Wreckers Finale". This was most likely done to maintain marketing consistency with the Universe franchise presenting all of its evil-aligned characters as Minions of Unicron, as the Wreckers comic series had by then been retroactively folded under the umbrella label of the Universe franchise.
• Beast Wars: Uprising Cryotek's design is based on the Prime: Robots in Disguise Bulkhead toy.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Cryotek (クライオテック Kuraiotekku)

References