Ai Kuruma
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Ai" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Ai (disambiguation). |
- Ai Kuruma is a human from the Binaltech Asterisk portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Ai Kuruma (来留間アイ Kuruma Ai, born June 11) has had a strong sense of justice since she was a child, and now has aspirations of being a highly decorated policewoman. She's fairly sharp, knows her laws, and is a very good driver (if a little wild), able to keep pursuit of getaway cars even in a normal police cruiser. However, her natural over-eager (albeit good-natured and helpful) nature seems to get in the way of her duties from time to time. She's a decent athlete and dedicated to helping others.
As a member of the Interplanetary Personnel Exchange Program, she is partnered with the Autobot Red Alert, and is in fact the only person on the police force who knows about Red Alert's existence, despite Red's precautions. Red's by-the-books nature grates against Ai's ambition, but despite all this, the two work together surprisingly well; she looks out for him like an older sister. Red has even loosened up enough to allow Ai complete control when driving, rather than subtly controlling himself as he did with past police officers.
In her time off, Ai likes to draw portraits, play softball, and chow down on hamburgers and ice cream. She is not a morning person, however, and she can't park a car to save her life. She keeps a teddy bear hidden in her lunchbox. Really.
Contents |
Fiction
Binaltech Asterisk instructions mini-story
Ai and Red Alert were in pursuit of a speeding criminal. Ai's forceful driving brought a few complaints from Red, but she managed to corner the car. As she stepped out to apprehend the suspect, a shot rang out, and Red Alert quickly transformed, blocking the shot...
Asterisk Story
After shooing the kitty Cher off Red Alert's hood, Ai received a call about a little boy who'd gotten lost on his way to the market. Ai (dreaming of a commendation for finding the boy) followed the sound of crying, only to find it was Cher again, up in a tree. She climbed up the tree to rescue it, but fell from the high branches... but Red Alert caught her and the cat in time.
The cat scampered off, and the pair followed him...and ran across the lost little boy. But then, Cher stole a fish from the boy's grocery bag. Alert set his detector from "little boy" to "fish", and the two gave chase... The Cat and the Medal
Legends comic
Ai was one of the many women brought to the Legends World by Tigatron using the ultra-drill in an attempt to get women who liked him better than Springer. It did not work out, as all of the women brought over eventually swooned over Springer. Bonus Edition Vol. 19
Toys
Binaltech Asterisk
- Alert feat. Subaru Impreza WRX meets Ai (Binaltech Asterisk, 2005)
- ID number: BTA-01
- Accessories: Stand, "driving" arms, seated legs
- Known designers: Hiroyuki Taiga (concept artist)
- Ai is a soft-plastic PVC figurine of a human woman in a Japanese policewoman uniform. She has an extra set of arms and a "seated" lower body so she can be placed in the drivers' seat of her partner Red Alert's vehicle mold. It is unknown how well she fits into the driver's seats of other Alternators. She was only available as part of the first Binaltech Asterisk set.
Notes
- Like all of the Asterisk girls, Ai is modeled after a character from a previous series; in this instance, Ai's inspiration is the Robots in Disguise character T-AI (Ai in Car Robots). Hayato Sakamoto stated at BotCon 2016 that Car Robots Ai is based on a scan of Ai Kuruma, providing an in-universe explanation of the visual similarity.
- Ai's surname is a homophone for the Japanese word meaning "car" (車 kuruma).
