Crosswise (Armada)

Crosswise is a Unicron-allied Mini-Con from the Armada portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

I don't get paid enough for being a head.

Crosswise is a walking pile of bad luck... for other people. He's certainly a bit clumsy on his own, but anytime he's around, things fall over, machinery shorts out, and things just generally go bad. His allies Sideways and Rook tell him he's a spy, but really, he's just out there to mess things up for everyone else.

He combines with Sideways's other Mini-Con partner, Rook to form Mirror.

Fiction

Armada cartoon

When Sideways came to Earth and transformed into robot mode for the first time, his rider split in half and Rook covered Sideways's head, revealing his Autobot insignia. Crosswise vanished from the scene. Gale Rook continued to serve as Sideways's head covering until Sideways chose to switch factions. Then Rook launched off of Sideways's head, transformed into Crosswise, and returned to Sideways's shoulders. Credulous

Dreamwave Armada comic

Crosswise, and his life-partner Rook, fled Cybertron one million years ago aboard the Mini-Con starship. Once they were reactivated in the modern era, Crosswise and Rook inhabited the moon base being run by Dualor and the Destruction Mini-Con Team. Armada #9 Once the Bulks invaded the base, the various Mini-Cons evacuated in escape pods, and many wound up staying with the Autobots on Earth. Armada #11 Crosswise and Rook raised concerns among their fellow Mini-Cons as to whether serving the Autobots was any better than being slaves to Megatron and the Decepticons. Fire & Ice Later, Crosswise and all the other Mini-Cons on the planet returned to Cybertron to counter the upcoming threat of Unicron. The End

TransTech

When Sideways became a finalist in Cybertron's Got Talent, an interpretive transforming competition, Crosswise's status as a double-Headmaster Combi-Micromaster companion gave Sideways an edge. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/14

When Axiom Nexus News started a program of Mini-Con interns, Crosswise specifically asked to be assigned to investigative journalist Rook. On his first day, he was asked for his opinion on an interview with Beachcomber and Gutcruncher. As Crosswise was an Aurex Mini-Con, Beachcomber had to translate his speech. It turned out that Crosswise was looking for the "real" Rook so that he could herald the coming of Unicron. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/06/01

Crosswise subsequently failed to show up for work when Sideways botnapped Vector Prime. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/06/27 Gee, nobody saw that one coming.

Sideways himself claimed he met Crosswise on Tinder. Ask Sideways, 2015/06/28

Toys

Armada

The lighter guy makes the bad guy! (Second-release Sideways pictured)

• Sideways with Crosswise and Rook (Super-Con, 2003)

• Takara ID number: MX-01
• Takara release date: April 24, 2003
• Known designers: Aaron Archer (Hasbro), Takashi Kunihiro (Takara)

Available only with Armada Sideways and Rook, Crosswise transforms into a head unit for Sideways's robot mode. In this form, inserting the robot-mode arms into holes on alternate sides of Sideways's neck reveals a faction sigil under Sideways's chest-windshield. (It is not necessary to do the arm-thing to attach Crosswise in head mode, it's actually a bit easier to attach him with the arms pushed to the back since they don't have to fight the chest-plate springs.) As a Mini-Con, he has a "Powerlinx" socket on his back which allows him to attach to any toy with a Powerlinx style 5 mm post; some toys have special Powerlinx posts that activate/unlock gimmicks when a Mini-Con is attached.

Crosswise has a small tab on the underside of his hip assembly, which allows him to securely (though somewhat awkwardly) ride Sideways's motorcycle mode, seated behind Rook. He also forms the lower half of the combined Mini-Con robot Mirror (unnamed in the Hasbro line) with Rook; since his legs are Mirror's legs, the tab remains in place to allow Mirror to "pilot" bike-mode Sideways as well, but in the much less-awkward front of the seat.

He also has an "attack mode" where he forms... a... weapon?... designed to be mounted on a larger robot via Powerlinx. It's very forgettable.

The original Hasbro Sideways setup had Crosswise as the Autobot-sigil-revealing head, but the television series depicted Crosswise as the Decepticon head and Rook as the Autobot head. Hasbro made a running change to Sideways, swapping the sigils on the inner plates the toy reflected the series' faction alignments, as well as changing Crosswise's red paint to purple to better reflect the new "alignments". The Takara version uses this setup, with no significant differences from the later Hasbro Crosswise.

There is a persistent mis-assembly across all releases: according to the instructions (and animation model), Crosswise's thighs are on backwards, putting the molded tech detailing that is supposed to be on the front of the combined robot's legs on the back, leaving the detail-less backs of his legs up front. Luckily, it's easy enough to pop off the ball joints and swap them around so the detailing shows up on Mirror's front; Crosswise's lower legs are basically identical so swapping them changes nothing.

This mold was used to make Energon Nightcruz.

• More information on Crosswise at TFU.info

• Sideways with Crosswise and Rook (Super-Con, 2003)

• Accessories: 2 tailpipe-missiles
• Release date: November 28, 2003

US Toys"R"Us stores had special bonus pack Max-Con toys, which came with a single bonus Mini-Con attached to the card over their sticker, for less than the price as a normal Max-Con, during Toys"R"Us's post-Thanksgiving-day sale.

Sideways could come with one of the Destruction Mini-Con Team members: Buzzsaw, Drill Bit, or Dualor.

• Bonus Pack (2003)

• Accessories: 2 tailpipe-missiles

Kmart stores offered "Bonus Packs" later in the line's run, which were basically just a normal-release Super-Con and Mini-Con Team pack clamshelled together for slightly less than the cost of the two individually.

Sideways has been found packed with the Destruction Mini-Con Team and the Street Action Mini-Con Team.

Notes

• In the Robotmasters series, Sideways/Double Face is said to have "Bright" and "Shadow" programs which help him... do... things. Yeah. Any rate, the programs' names are a reference to the Japanese names of his two Mini-Con partners.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Shadow (シャドウ Shadō)
• Korean: Shadow (쉐도우 Swedou)