Creation
Tap-Out was created by Rob Gerbracht, along with fellow writer Glen Hallit and artist Dan Khanna. He first appeared in 2002’s Botcon Comic Book Special Transformers: Universe Featuring the Wreckers #2.
Transformers Universe
Origin
Tap-Out spent a long time as a prisoner of the Decepticons, forced to battle other prisoners in the grease pits of Polyhex for the amusement of his captors. He frequently fought in the place of other members of his captured unit, which tragically forced him to take the lives of fellow Autobots, something that haunts him to this day.
After eventually being freed by an Autobot strike force, Tap-Out became more determined than ever to prevent the loss of innocent life. He tries to remain upbeat, but the anger and pain from his past manages to surface at times. Should he think any of his charges are being threatened, Tap-Out will rush into battle with nary a second thought, which has unfortunately led to some confrontations and misunderstandings that could easily have been avoided otherwise.
Betrayal
After the defeat of Unicron, Rodimus Prime sent several groups of Autobots on exploration missions to prevent further catastrophic surprises. With high recommendations from Kup, Tap-Out was chosen to act as a bodyguard for researcher Glyph. Their ship, the Sojourner’s Passage, crashed on the planet Archa Nine, with Tap-Out and Glyph being the only survivors. Luckily, they were able to befriend the native Akalouthans and survive on the planet for hundreds of years.
Many years later after the Beast Wars, the Wreckers came across an Autobot homing beacon, prompting them to land on Archa Nine. CatSCAN accidentally wound up coming into conflict with some Akalouthans, immediately bringing Tap-Out to come to their defense. Ramulus, Apelinq, and Primal Prime then came to aid CatSCAN. Thankfully Glyph soon arrived and sorted the whole thing out. Tap-Out apologized to CatSCAN and wished him no hard feelings. Glyph then revealed that the Akalouthans’ society revolved around a powerful artifact known as the Divine Light. The Divine Light was soon stolen however by Cyclonus, who betrayed the Wreckers and made off with the artifact.
Disclosure
When the Wreckers prepared to follow Cyclonus, Glyph chose to remain behind for the sake of her research. Tap-Out insisted on staying too, until CatSCAN volunteered to remain behind to act as a bodyguard for Glyph and the injured Wreckers. Glyph reminded Tap-Out that Archa Nine had never truly been home for him, and so the two shared a touching farewell as Tap-Out joined the Wreckers on their journey.
When the Wreckers arrived on an unnamed icy planet, Tap-Out stayed behind with Skywarp and Tigatron to guard the ship. They were attacked by a group of Sharkticons, but the trio of Wreckers made short work of these enemies. After the away party returned with a new “ally” known as Al-Badur, the Wreckers took off to return back to Cybertron.
Wreckers: Finale
Upon returning to Cybertron though, everyone found it had changed after the Great Reformatting into a technorganic paradise. Quintessons attempted to invade the planet at this point, but Primal Prime assured Tap-Out that Cyclonus’ boss, Cryotek, was their only concern. Primal Prime, Apelinq, Ramulus, and Tigatron set off to find Cryotek, leaving Tap-Out and the rest of the Wreckers behind so that they could take their injured to safety before joining the ground forces fighting against the Quintessons. Their ship took heavy damage though, forcing Tap-Out and the rest to abandon ship, except for Skywarp, who appeared to perish when he selflessly sacrificed himself to save everyone by piloting the ship as it went down. Tap-Out prepared to deliver a brief eulogy for his fallen comrade, but he had forgotten that Skywarp was a teleporter, who managed to ruin Tap-Out’s eulogy by appearing unharmed right in the middle of it. The group then disregarded Primal Prime’s orders and instead descended into the depths of Cybertron to find Cryotek.
They wound up running into Cyclonus and began to fight him, only for their battle to be cut short when strange orange sparks shot out of the walls where they were fighting and penetrated both Tap-Out and Skywarp, leaving nothing of them behind. Cyclonus wished he could take credit for their apparent demise, but admitted he could not. Tragic as their disappearance was, the Wreckers were unable to investigate as the battle was still raging.
Escape
Tap-Out and Skywarp had actually been transported to another reality, where they were now among the many Cybertronians held prisoner by Unicron, and forced to fight each other so that the Chaos-Bringer could feed on the sparks of the losers. Freed by Trailbreaker and Silverbolt, Tap-Out, Brawn, and Wheelie helped keep the madness-infected Sideswipe and Sunstreaker apart so they would stop fighting each other. Tap-Out then escaped the prison-dimension and ended up back on Cybertron.
Revelations
Tap-Out joined Optimus Primal‘s Children of Primus against Razorclaw‘s Minions of Unicron, and he was present during the final battle in the Pit. As he and Longhorn watched Rhinox finish off Tankor, Unicron began falling apart beneath them. The Children of Primus then left through an escape portal as Unicron and his minions were left to perish.
Powers & Abilities
Despite his small stature, Tap-Out possesses incredible grappling skills, something that’s managed to surprise many of his enemies. Small, tough, strong, and agile, Tap-Out is a fierce Autobot fighter that will protect anyone that needs it.