Apelinq (BM)

Apelinq is a Maximal from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Code Monkey get up, get coffee. Code Monkey go to job. Code Monkey have boring meeting with boring manager Rob.

Apelinq was a participant in the close of the Autobot/Decepticon wars specializing in scientific research, particularly computer xenoscience, in Cybertron's new peacetime economy. But in due time, he was called by the Maximal government to lead the resurrection of Cybertron's legendary strike team, the Wreckers. Known for his genius battlefield tactics, Apelinq is a bot of ideas who would rather outwit his opponents than destroy them with brute force. His years in research have jaded him against more spiritual thinking. He doesn't trust mysticism. Apelinq tends to micromanage, to his detriment, and, thanks to his solid confidence in his own abilities, he can get in over his head.

Apelinq's scientific endeavors have armed him well. He carries two impact maces of his own design, capable of shattering most vanadium-reinforced armor. He is most famous for his Transfer Interlink, an invention that can download digital objects into reality. The limitations of this technology are not yet known, though he uses this ability to achieve his favorite mode of transportation—through the skies on his "virtual digiboard".^[1]

Sometimes his name is spelled Ape-Linq and sometimes when he receives a new body, he becomes known as Hyperlinq.

Fiction

3H comics

Over three vorns ago, Apelinq was part of the High Council's Research Cooperative. He got to know Cryotek, a fellow engineer, before the Predacon went on to be a crime lord The Wreckers: Finale Part 1 and Apelinq became a facility head. BotCon: Beyond Apelinq profile

He would leave the hard sciences for the Wreckers, becoming the 2nd platoon commander of the 7th Wreckers Squadron, The Wreckers: Finale Part 1 eventually coming to operate from within the Wrecker Command Base. Shortly before 316 A.U., Apelinq was part of the effort to track down the missing Axalon. Apelinq's War Journals

As the Maximal Elders were silenced and chaos erupted across Cybertron, Apelinq grew increasingly worried. Marshals were disappearing left and right and entire sections of populace began to go missing. After the source of the trouble was identified as Megatron, returning from the Beast Wars, Rodimus and the other Wreckers, sans Apelinq, were sent to put him down. Only Rodimus returned alive, his unique Matrix Templar physiology curiously immune to Megatron's virus.

Yeah, uh, real shadowy.

Apelinq used Rodimus's physiology as a starting point for the creation of a countervirus, but suddenly, a new ship arrived through a low-altitude transwarp anomaly on Cybertron. While Rodimus and Apelinq investigated, finding the crew to be Primal Prime and other surviving troops, the group was rushed by the Vehicon General Mirage. Apelinq and Mirage were thrown through the anomaly, landing on a strange organic planet. Apelinq disposed of Mirage, but was separated from the countervirus and his transfer interlink.

Apelinq found himself a captive observer of the Beast Wars. He kept a distance for a long duration, until he bore witness to a battle between Shokaract and the Covenant. He could stand by idle no longer, and Apelinq joined their battle. Apelinq's War Journals

Unfortunately, the countervirus had been found by Packrat and Onyx Primal before Apelinq could get to it. During their fight with Fractyl, Vice Grip, and Antagony, Apelinq was able to grab the device without them noticing anything more than a "shadowy figure". They blamed Megatron. Visitations

Hi, don't mind me, I'm just this year's exclusive toy being shoehorned into this story...

Then, after a number of the Covenant were cut down by Shokaract, Apelinq transformed into his vehicle mode and pressed his attack against the Unicron-powered tyrant.

Apelinq survived the first few waves of attacks, despite their high number of casualties, and regrouped with Optimus Primal, Windrazor and the others. For a moment, they thought they had been betrayed by one of their own, the heroic Predacon Sandstorm, but this was just a ruse. Sandstorm was secretly Scorpius, one of the Covenant. But when Sandstorm died as well, Optimus Primal was inspired by his sacrifice, and asked Apelinq to fight alongside them. Together, along with the summoned might of J'nwan, they were able to defeat Shokaract, remove Unicron's essence from prehistoric Earth, and rewrite the future. As time began to grow unstable around them, Apelinq grabbed Windrazor and managed to return to the Cybertron from which he originated.

However, once Apelinq arrived home, Windrazor had disappeared. Terminus

"Dammit, Primal, look, I'm your redeco, okay?"

After Primal Prime and Ramulus saved Optimus Primal and Nightscream from some Tank Drones, Apelinq appeared and introduced himself to Optimus. Since the timeline in which they had battled Shokaract in Earth's past had been erased, Apelinq filled Optimus in on their time together. But he and the others were off to a meeting with the Oracle, and Primal and Nightscream decided to tag along.

Several groups, including Primal Prime and Apelinq's Wreckers converged on the Oracle's chamber, and a series of cryptic messages were given to each group. The Oracle admitted that the Wreckers could probably stop the Vehicons themselves, but before it could give the Wreckers their mission, Optimus Primal interrupted. Apelinq quietly disapproved when the Oracle subsequently wiped Primal's mind of the events from the day. The Oracle flickered, a strange voice spoke, and a set of coordinates were beamed into Primal Prime's head. Their task lay before them, and Prime ordered Apelinq to prepare their Autobot shuttle for launch.

CHOOM

But just as they arrived within the shuttle's launch bay, the Wreckers were ambushed by hordes of Megatron's drones. Thankfully, Apelinq had some backup, and he summoned Cyclonus, Rotorbolt, and Skywarp. Shouting the Wreckers' battle cry, Apelinq entered the fray. Together they cut their way through the Vehicon army, and the shuttle lifted off, escaping Cybertron for parts unknown. Departure

But their shuttle had a stowaway. The bounty hunter Devcon had attacked some of their crew, and in the process Fractyl was seriously damaged. Apelinq, Arcee, and Ramulus rushed the injured Fractyl to the repair bay. Frustrated with the antiquated Autobot technology, Apelinq used his Transfer Interlink to create CatSCAN, merging the ship's medical diagnostic program with design schematics from an old acquaintance. The new medic was able to save Fractyl, but Apelinq was unable to dissolve CatSCAN as he normally would with his creations.

The Wreckers received a homing beacon and followed it to the surface of a planet. Apelinq, Primal Prime, CatSCAN, and Ramulus began to survey the planet when CatSCAN got in some trouble with the locals and was attacked by Tap-Out. Apelinq jumped in to assist, but Glyph entered the scene to sort things out. Glyph and Tap-Out were the only survivors of a survey mission sent centuries ago by Rodimus Prime. They were looked after by the native Akalouthans while studying their culture.

Curiously, these natives were expecting the Wreckers. According to prophecies, protectors would arrive to guard the Divine Light, the power source which the Akalouthans worshiped. Apelinq's analysis found the Divine Light to be a sort of battery, but with unusual properties. Having suspected that there was a traitor among them for a while, the Wreckers were surprised to find their comrade Rotorbolt nearly off-line. Apelinq, Ramulus, and Devcon rushed to the Divine Light's chamber in time to witness Cyclonus make off with the treasure. Betrayal

That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight, losing my religion.

In the aftermath of their betrayal on Archa Nine, Primal Prime retreated into himself and the Matrix. Apelinq's skepticism surrounding their divine mission continued to nurture, and the others had growing doubts of their own.

They traveled to an icy planet ten systems away, and Primal Prime ordered Apelinq, Rodimus, Arcee, and Ramulus to follow him quickly outside, while Apelinq protested their hastiness. Apelinq's worries were, for the moment, unwarranted, as the sole inhabitant of the planet seemed to be the excommunicated Quintesson Al-badur. Though the Wreckers eyed him uneasily, he was willing to tell them the history of the Quintessons' attempts to use Vector Sigma to enslave the Transformers race. When Al-badur revealed that the Oracle itself was a Quintesson creation devised to control Vector Sigma, Primal Prime was taken aback. Had they been led astray this whole time?

However, for Apelinq, the pieces now fit together, and he recounted how the real Vector Sigma had broken through the Oracle shell program, giving them a real mission. Primal Prime was reassured during the brief moment before the Sharkticons attacked. Though the Sharkticons were armed with strange (yet somehow familiar) technology, they were eventually overtaken by the Wreckers. With Al-badur, the Wreckers left once again, but this time for Cybertron. Disclosure

I'm a bot of many names.

After arriving in orbit above the newly reformatted Cybertron and finding a full-scale Quintesson invasion underway, Primal Prime ordered his troops to concentrate only on Cryotek, the real threat. Taking Apelinq, Ramulus, Tigatron, and Al-badur with him, Primal Prime leapt from the still-airborne shuttle into the battle below.

But their subterranean attack on the Predacon gangster, grown to intimidating size and power by the Divine Light, was costly. Primal Prime had sacrificed himself, taking a fatal hit that was intended for Apelinq, but rather than saving Apelinq, Prime's act fused them together grotesquely. With two of the Wreckers' most powerful disposed of, leaving only Devcon, Tigatron, Ramulus, and the Quintesson, all hope seemed lost.

Suddenly, a glowing titan formed before them, from the combined bodies of Apelinq and Primal Prime into a single powerful entity: Sentinel Maximus, with Apelinq, now named Hyperlinq, forming the head of Primus's champion. During the battle with Cryotek, Hyperlinq was once forced to disengage from Sentinel Maximus when they were frozen still by Cryotek's ice powers. He transformed into robot mode and was able to break Maximus free of the ice with a few laser blasts. Wreckers: Finale Part II

Wings Universe

Apelinq was a master of computational xenoscience and held a position as lead researcher at the Cybertron Science Academy. Despite his dedication to the rational and the tangible, however, Apelinq had been plagued with "visions" ever since coming online. He perceived a liquid orb atop a long bridge and continuous impressions of events that did not happen, or did happen, but differently. Apelinq's tech specs In order to collate his thoughts, Apelinq began transcribing a personal journal. He repeatedly experienced vague visions and warnings from another lifetime. Apelinq's personal logs

When Apelinq was a protoform, he was told tales of how Cybertron's spiritual leader, the sage Alpha Trizer was once part of a group of warriors whose battles crossed time and space. Apelinq's personal logs

Once, Apelinq single-handedly defended the Academy from a Decepticon raid using his own invention: the Transfer Interlink. His heroism and talent attracted the attention of Alpha Trizer, who recruited him into the Cybertronian Knights. Apelinq subsequently became the resident science officer of the Knights. Knight Apelinq's profile card

Apelinq was present to hear the news that Alpha Trizer was reinstating the Wreckers to defend Cybertron's interests throughout the galaxy. He personally noted, however, that the great sage had probably done so mainly to separate the conflicting personalities of Primal Prime and Ginrai.

While on a routine patrol of the outskirts of the former Rust Sea, Apelinq had yet another vision of the "Hunter" as well as a multicolored Optimus Prime-like 'bot leading a motley group into a great battle. Later investigating a safe house holding representatives of the Twin Star Continuum, Apelinq had a visual hallucination where he saw the word "Hunter" spelled out in the mech fluid of the fallen dignitaries. Devcon, however, dismissed Apelinq's hallucination and noted that the corpses were the work of Flamewar.

Along with Ginrai, Apelinq rapidly responded to a disturbance in orbit of Nebulos, only to find that it was a mere spaceborne "fender-bender". Meanwhile, Apelinq was plagued by yet another vision of the "Hunter".

Apelinq met new recruit Flare-Up at the New Polyhex Training Academy, finding her to be a talented if excitable 'bot. While at the Academy, Apelinq also encountered Primal Prime, who hoped to recruit Flare-Up for the Wreckers, but the young female Autobot declined as she had already been recruited for the Cybertronian Knights. Apelinq noted to Flare-Up that he had never doubted her inclinations as her quarters clearly demonstrated her admiration for Commander Ginrai. Apelinq and the other Knights were extremely chagrined to be called in for a mandatory meditation session with Alpha Trizer. Apelinq noted that the Knights would preferably face Terrorcons, Scraplets, or even Unicron himself.

After the Wreckers' ship Rodimus Major disappeared into a spatial anomaly, Apelinq was tasked with examining the logs brought back by surviving Wrecker Fireflight. Apelinq's personal logs

While on Cyberion, Apelinq and Flare-Up were summoned by Ginrai to respond to a communications malfunction out of the Delta Prysmos Sector. They soon located the source: a group of pirates attempting to renovate Unicron's head into an energon siphon to attack Cybertron. The plot failed, and the Knights quickly rounded up the pirates. At least...most of them. Hoist the Flag Some time later, Apelinq and Flare-Up were standing in a burning ruin on Cybertron, unaware that at that very moment, Shokaract plotted to return to the planet and lay waste to it. Legacy

Beast Wars: Uprising

HULK COGITATE!!

Apelinq was chief science officer aboard the starship Dinosaur. A graduate of the Iacon Academy of Science and Technology and the only other Maximal officer on board, Apelinq was nominally third-in-command of the ship after the captain and first officer Longrack.

When a planetside mission to recover lost prisoners came up, Apelinq was placed in charge of the landing party when the Builder political officer, Synapse, convinced Longrack to stay behind. During planetfall, the shuttle was caught in a tractor beam and pulled to the site of the Draco Ziggurat. Apelinq and Saberback remained behind to study their landing site while security specialist Hard Head led the other members of the crew in search of the prisoners.

Saberback received a mental summons from the ziggurat, drawing him and Apelinq into a digital realm. Once they adjusted to their new surroundings, Apelinq reluctantly agreed to follow Saberback's instincts and approach the Eye of Providence found in the digital realm. Saberback supplicated himself before the Eye, and was inhabited by the consciousness of Metascan Omega. Apelinq and Saberback convinced Metascan Omega to intervene on behalf of their friends, using the tractor beam to control the descent of both the shuttle and the Dinosaur, which had undergone serious troubles since the duo entered the Draco Ziggurat.

With news of the Grand Uprising by the Proto-races back home, many of the crew decided to establish a new colony using the crashed ship as Dinosaur City. Apelinq chose to remain with the colony rather than return home, hoping to reestablish Metascan Omega as a mecca for knowledge and learning once more. Intersectionality He was still in residence a decade later when Lio Convoy and the Vok arrived at Metascan Omega. The Inexorable March

2005 IDW continuity

Apelinq was one of Onyx Prime's Maximals. When the Maximals invaded Cybertron, he was one of the many warriors who wound up battling Arcee and fell to his death when Arcee disrupted the gravity generator in the Nemesis. Unforgivable

Toys

Beast Machines

I'm totally different from Optimus Primal. I have some green!

• Apelinq (Mega Class, 2000)

• Accessories: Hand-cannon/thruster, 2 club-missiles

Apelinq is a redeco of the Beast Wars Mega Transmetal version of Optimus Primal, transforming into a robotic gorilla. He also has a third "transport" mode, where his robot legs unfold into a "virtual digiboard" for his gorilla form to ride. The thruster for the board becomes a handheld spring-loaded missile launcher, which uses Apelinq's twin maces for ammunition.

Apelinq was available as an exclusive toy to BotCon 2000. He and Shokaract were both limited to 1200 pieces.

• More information on Apelinq at TFU.info

Universe (2003)

Don't mind the new packaging, my name is Hyperlinq, for serious!

• Sentinel Maximus with Ape-Linq Mini-Con (Ultra Class, 2004)

A retooling of the Armada Mini-Con Rollout, Ape-Linq transforms into an armored personnel carrier capable of towing the larger "armored transport" mode of Sentinel Maximus. He also has a hand-held gun mode, and forms the head and central torso of the combined Sentinel Maximus robot mode. His head was completely retooled to resemble a fully-mechanical version of the original Apelinq toy's noggin, plus the larger Sentinel Maximus robot head was given wholly-new tooling as well. Naturally, he was only available with Sentinel Maximus.

The set was a planned exclusive to OTFCC 2004, but was not produced in time for the show. After the convention license was revoked from 3H's ownership, Hasbro eventually mailed out the paid-for Sentinel Maximuses in new packaging.

This mold was also used to make Energon Knock Out.

• More information on Ape-Linq at TFU.info

Timelines

I'm totally different from Optimus Prime! I have some green!

• Knight Alpha Trizer / Knight Apelinq / Knight Flareup (Souvenir multi-pack, 2014)

• Accessories: "Digitized hoverboard," blade, missile, Cybertronian Knights key

Timelines Knight Apelinq is a redeco of Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Deluxe Class Optimus Primal. Similar to his Transmetal form, Apelinq comes with a hoverboard with two 5 mm posts at the base, allowing him to ride it in his gorilla mode, or hold it in robot mode via the 5 mm posts on his robot palms/gorilla feet. When a Cyber Key is inserted at the rear of the board, a spring-loaded extending blade deploys, and a trigger is revealed to allow one to use the spring-loaded missile launcher at the tip. Though it is not intended to be removed, the blade can be popped off and held in Apelinq's hand thanks to his posable thumbs. Apelinq's key is chromed as a callback to his chromed original toy, plus it sports the Cybertronian Knight sigil.

Apelinq was only available as part of a BotCon 2014 at-show souvenir 3-pack, packed in with Knight Flareup and Knight Alpha Trizer.

This mold was redecoed into Cybertron Optimus Prime and BotCon 2014 Primal Prime.

• More information on Timelines Apelinq at TFU.info

Generations

• BotCon Legacy Collection (Multi-pack, 2015)

• Accessories: "Digitized hoverboard," blade, missile, Cybertronian Knights key

"Ape-Linq" was repackaged with fellow BotCon 2014 toys Flareup, Shokaract, and Flamewar in the Generations "BotCon Legacy Collection", which also had the pack-in comic "Legacy".




Notes



Hey, that should be your legs!
• Even though Apelinq's toy forms his hoverboard out of parts of Apelinq's robot feet, the hoverboard is treated in fiction as a digital object downloaded into reality from Apelinq's Transfer Interlink.
• Both Apelinq and his creator, Glen Hallit, are former engineers. Apelinq is super smart and is an excellent fighter, he can download any digital object into reality, and his lowest Tech Spec stat is 8. Later, he sort of gets the Matrix. Hmm.
• The original planned name for the Universe incarnation of Apelinq was "Hyperlinq", which was printed on the proposed boxes shown at OTFCC 2004. However, when Hasbro created new packaging for the toy, they went with the name "Ape-Linq", as did Sentinel Maximus's profile in the Collector's Club magazine. However, he is called Hyperlinq in "Wreckers: Finale Part II".
• On the Alternators character Decepticharge, there is a pseudo-advertisement for "Hyperlinq Racing".
• Apelinq/Ape-Linq/Hyperlinq/whatever was the first character to receive a second BotCon toy.
• Glen Hallit strongly implied at BotCon 2000 that Apelinq was known as "Uplinq" prior to taking his gorilla alternate mode.
• The Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Apelinq is a "virtual redeco" of the Crossovers Hulk toy.

References

1. ↑ Profile written from information provided both by Apelinq's original bio (see external links) and the full-page profile published in the back of The Wreckers #2 (Director's Cut edition).

External links

• Apelinq's BotCon: Beyond profile on the BotCon Online archives