TRANSISTO-MECH
Classification: Advanced terrestrial technology (World War II)
Creator: Jim "Taxi" Taylor
User/Possessors: Jim "Taxi" Taylor
Aliases: Transisto-Mech the Robot; T-Mech (for short)
First Appearance: All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#1 (August, 2011)
Powers/Abilities/Functions: A semi-sentient automaton with the capacity for limited independent thought, T-Mech had a humanoid body configuration and stood about 6 feet tall. Equipped with audio and optical sensors, the robot could respond to vocal commands. It could perform statistical analysis of variables to compute probabilities; it was unrevealed what other abilities T-Mech may have had (...although possibly it could telescopically elongate its arms (see comments)).
T-Mech seemed to require constant adjustments by "Taxi" Taylor to keep its internal mechanisms functioning properly (per Albert Jones, Taylor was "always tinkering with that robot of his").
History:
(All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#1 (fb)
- BTS) - At some point under unrevealed circumstances, Jim "Taxi" Taylor
built the robotic T-Mech to be his assisstant.
(All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#2 (fb)) - During World War II, Taylor and T-Mech were recruited into the "Crazy SUES," a specialized military unit attached to the 101st Air Assault Division--these "super-soldiers" were minor heroes under the command of Sgt. Byrd and Captain America (Steve Rogers), and they would be sent on combat operations deep behind enemy lines--Taylor and T-Mech rarely (if ever) took part in direct combat, but instead usually ran reconnaissance for the team and gathered strategic intelligence (see comments).
(All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#2 (fb)) - On or about August 7th, 1942, T-Mech and Taylor were flying reconnaissance over the area in Taylor's combat vehicle (see comments) while Captain America, Bucky (James Barnes), and the Crazy SUES invaded Guadalcanal and battled the forces of the Imperial Japanese Army. Following the confrontation, as the other Crazy SUES secured the area and were setting up their base-camp, Taylor and T-Mech landed the combat craft and disembarked. T-Mech began spouting gibberish, and Bucky asked Taylor what the robot was saying; Taylor told Bucky that T-Mech's linguistic circuits needed adjustment and explained that the robot was trying to say that Japanese troops were pulling away from the airfield.
(All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#4 (fb)) - At some point, Taylor and T-Mech were aboard a transport plane with the other Crazy SUES and flying to Europe--Taylor busied himself during the flight by tinkering and adjusting T-Mech. When they reached the jump-zone, the Crazy SUES parachuted down near the Normandy village of Sainte Mere Eglise, although Taylor and T-Mech didn't appear to join with the others in the jump (see comments).
(All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#1 (fb)) - On June 25th, 1944, in Vimoutieres, France, T-Mech was piloting the combat vehicle with "Taxi" Taylor and Young Avenger aboard. After smashing through the wall of a Nazi installation with the vehicle, Taylor and Young Avenger rescued the captured Blue Diamond (Elton Morrow) and Invisible Man (Leonard Gade). Young Avenger told Taylor to have T-Mech figure out how much time they had left; T-Mech calculated the enemy troop strength in the vicinity and estimated that they had approximately 30 seconds before the remaining Nazi troops would mobilize and retaliate.
(All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#5 (fb)) - By July 12th, 1944, Captain America, "Taxi" Taylor, and T-Mech were at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah. While Captain America spoke privately with Colonel Ledford, the bewildered Taylor wondered what they were doing there, and he asked for T-Mech's opinion, but the robot did not have enough data to hazard a guess. As Taylor was adjusting T-Mech, Colonel Ledford informed Captain America that Taylor and T-Mech would be reassigned to Ledford's direct command, and they would be assigned to an intelligence gathering that he had assembled at Wendover.
(The subsequent events during World War II for T-Mech and the Crazy SUES remain unrecorded at this time (see comments))
Comments: Created by Paul Jenkins (writer) and Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist).
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes was supposed to be an 8-issue mini-series, but it was cancelled with the fifth issue due to low sales, so unfortunately the story was never completed; but considering the later events, I'm left with the impression that T-Mech would have had a more significant role in the story if the mini-series hadn't been cancelled.
While "Taxi" Taylor was an
actual Golden Age character (@ Mystic Comics I#2/6), T-Mech was a
retcon addition created for this series. (A
profile for "Taxi" Taylor can be found in Marvel Mystery Handbook:
70th Anniversary Special (2009)). Taylor's armored combat
vehicle was a multi-mode land/sea/air-craft, and quite an upgrade
over the "Wonder Car" he originally used.
T-Mech was never shown participating in any direct combat situations, with the possible exception of the rescue of Blue Diamond and Invisible Man (during which, T-Mech was safely ensconced within and piloting the combat vehicle). Considering how "Taxi" Taylor seemed to constantly be giving the robot a "tune-up," my guess is that T-Mech's electro-mechanical system was too delicate to withstand the rigors of combat, or even the resulting shock from a parachute landing, so T-Mech's participation was limited to the side-lines.
In this mini-series, it was revealed that by the outbreak of World War II, the U.S. military commissioned Timely Comics to begin publishing the fictional adventures of various costumed heroes (some of whom had been inducted into the military)--these comic books were basically intended to be used as propaganda, to convince Americans to support the war-effort and increase enlistment. One of the comic books Timely produced was Super Hero Comics #1, which featured a Captain Flame story and prominently depicted him on the cover--Transisto-Mech the Robot was also one of the other heroes featured on this issue's cover, where he appeared in a vignette he shared with the Masked Maiden--T-Mech's body was depicted to be a bit sleeker and more streamlined in this vignette (he almost resembled the later-introduced Human Robot) and he seemed to be telescopically extending an arm, but this ability could have just been an embellishment by Timely to make T-Mech more powerful and more interesting to the readers. When the government ordered the suppression of any references of Captain Flame from the public, the entire print-run of this comic book was ordered destroyed (The full cover of this comic book can be seen in the Comments section of the Captain Flame profile).
However, "Taxi Taylor's Mysterious Mechanical Transisto-Mech--Robot of the Future" was later shown in a vignette on the cover of an issue of another comic, the title of which appeared to be Action Adventure--The Heroic Boys of the Crazy SUES (@ All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#5)--on this cover, T-Mech looked a little clunkier and more like his "actual" appearance (And considering the previous debacle over Captain Flame, it's likely Timely didn't include Captain Flame as a member of the Crazy SUES in this issue).
Transisto-Mech's name implies that he may have been built using the electronic semiconductor components known as transistors; however, the transistor was not invented (in our world, at least) until 1947-- I guess "Taxi" Taylor was just a man ahead of his time.
And a Thank You to MarvellousLuke for the image in Comments!
Profile by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Transisto-Mech/T-Mech has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#1, p18, p2 (Main Image, Transisto-Mech inside and piloting "Taxi" Taylor's combat vehicle (Young Avenger and Blue Diamond outside viewing port))
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#3, Cover (Headshot, Transisto-Mech)
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#2, p18, pan1 (Transisto-Mech spouting gibberish outside "Taxi" Taylor's combat vehicle (with "Taxi" Taylor, Bucky, Sgt. Byrd, Captain America)
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#5, p9, pan2 ("Taxi" Taylor adjusts T-Mech at Wendover Army Air Field, as Colonel Ledford speaks with Captain America in background)
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#1, p11, pan5 (Transisto-Mech the Robot in vignette on cover of Super Hero Comics#1 (Masked Maiden in background))
Appearances:
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#1-2 (August-September, 2011) - Paul Jenkins (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Bill Rosemann & Alejandro Arbona (editor)
All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes#4-5 (November-December, 2011) - Paul Jenkins (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Bill Rosemann & Alejandro Arbona (editor)
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
First Posted: 06/26/2017
Last Updated: 06/26/2017
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