Seekers (Transformers)
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Seekers.jpg
Fictional characters in the Transformers Universe
The Seekers (Japanese:Jetron), also referred to simply as the "Decepticon Jets" are led by Starscream. On Cybertron, the Seekers transformed into an approximately pyramidal shaped aircraft/spacecraft; on Earth, they transformed into various jet aircraft, most notably an F-15.
The Seekers included Thundercracker, Skywarp, Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge, but the term is generally used to just refer to Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp, who are all of the same body design, while the playful term of "Conehead" singles out Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet.
Exactly how the term came to be so widely accepted is unknown - it was never used in the cartoon or the comics, and yet even when the fandom was young it was the term of choice to describe the Decepticons jets. One piece of evidence for its use during the time of the original series was a JC Penny catalogue, which referred to a jet as a "Seeker." The suggestion that this one term used offhanded in one catalogue could have spread to become the preferred method of referring to the jets seems bizarre, though. In the original Marvel Comics run of the Transformers comic book, however, a reference is made in issue 17 to a group of Decepticon jets on Cybertron as "Hunter-Seekers," but it is worth mentioning that these Cybertronian jets bore little resemblance to the pre-Earth alternate forms of the Decepticons jets in the Sunbow television show and that they were never officially referred to by this designation in the original run of the comic or its immediate successor, Generation 2.
The first official use of the term "Seekers" came in the first issue of the Dreamwave comic, The War Within.