Stubbie

When not endlessly toiling away at the Marvel Comics offices to produce the Transformers comic, Stubbies also have to attend to the whims of the resident letters page answerer.

Fiction

Robo-Capers

When Grimlock finally gave up answering the letters page and prepared to depart on holiday, he enlisted a Stubbie to carry his many suitcases to the shuttle. Grimlock was stopped in his tracks by the arrival of his replacement Dreadwind, but when the Decepticon refused to let him go easily he thumped the ground with his tail, causing the Stubbie to drop the pile of cases on top of Dreadwind. Seizing their chance, Grimlock instructed the Stubbie to grab the cases that contained fuel, leave the rest and follow him. The Wind of Change!

Notes

• First appearing on his letters page in issue #75, Grimlock's nickname for the staff at Marvel became common parlance for the readers of the UK comic who would write in to congratulate the "stubbies" on another fine effort, or to lambast the "dumb stubbies" for colouring errors and the like. Under Grimlock's stewardship, the penalty for such mistakes was often a session on the variable voltage harness, a practice that continued under Dreadwind's tenure. At some point the term became capitalised, as if it were a proper noun.
• Grimlock's predecessor Soundwave had referred to the Stubbies as his "human helpers" and instead of the VVH, preferred to neuro-shock them.