Nightbird is a human-built robot from the Generation One continuity family.
"Dude? A giant robot ninja?" "No dude, a giant robot ninja chick!" "Duuuude!"
Nightbird is a female Decepticon ninja robot built to "benefit mankind."
Yeah, those nunchucks are really gonna be 'benefiting' their way through society.
Fiction
The Transformers cartoon
Nightbird was a robotic ninja warrior created by the "famous scientist" Doctor Fujiyama, ostensibly to show how advanced Human technology had become. The Decepticons stole Nightbird, and Bombshell implanted her with an enhanced brain chip which turned the drone-like Nightbird into a true butt kicking machine. Nightbird broke into the Ark and stole the Autobots' World Energy Chip, which contained the locations of a variety of energy sources, energy sources that the Decepticons would most assuredly use for conquest!
The Autobots were, at first, hampered by their promise to Doctor Fujiyama not to damage or destroy the ninja robot, and found themselves flustered in botched attempts to capture her. Eventually, however, they used an Energy Net . However Megatron had fallen in love with her and wanted the energy supply chip she had stolen from the Autobots and freed her as a result. Starscream however not one to realpaced as second in command of the Decepticons used his null ray to deafest nightbird. Resulting in her being captured by the Autobots and being returned to dr Fujiyama and being deprogrammed and contained forever.
Doctor Fujiyama placed Nightbird into cold storage, but apparently didn't see fit to fully deactivate her, as she seems aware of her plight and gives an angry glare as she's stored away. Enter the Nightbird
Universe: The Wreckers
In 2025 or so Fujiyama, apparently having learned nothing, built an entire army of Nightbird drones. Daniel Witwicky detonated an explosive to destroy them, killing himself and Wheelie in the process. This event caused Arcee to enter a deep depression, setting the stage for her personality change as she became a Wrecker.
Presumably, the Nightbird drones were all destroyed, since they are never seen or mentioned again. Departure
Dreamwave Generation One scne in A science fiction movie, Enter the Nightbird, featured Nightbird beating autobots. Infestation
Notes
- The Nightbirds in the Wreckers comic have four different accent colors, the same colors as the bandanas of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- During an interview with Travis Knight, director of the 2018 film Bumblebee, he commented that his inspiration for the original character Shatter had come from Nightbird.
- The Chiba Institute of Technology actually built a ninja robot in 2003. Martial arts is used as a benchmark of physical dexterity in robotics. Thankfully this ninja robot is only 30 centimeters tall.
- Various fan fiction authors have paired Nightbird with Megatron as a potential love interest, based on a few lines of dialog where Megatron declares how impressed he is of her skills. While others disagree with this interpretation there is enough evidence to support either view point. This has not prevented heated arguments breaking out between more hardcore fans over both how sentient Nightbird was and the degree to which Megatron cared about her.