Kintobor

Dr. Ovi Kintobor is a fictional character from Sonic the Comic and related British publications, who originally attempted to absorb all of Mobius' evil into the Chaos Emeralds (for more detail, see Robotnik). He plays a prominent role in the backstory of Sonic the Hedgehog, having provided Sonic with his red-and-white sneakers and facilitated his transformation from a brown, prickly hedgehog to his current, streamlined, blue look. He is even more important in the history of Dr. Robotnik, as an accident involving the Emeralds (and a rotten egg) transformed him into the evil doctor prior to the first issue of the series. Being rather more slight than Dr. Robotnik, Kintobor coincidentally resembles the later canonical character of Gerald Robotnik.

Nevertheless, Kintobor continued to play a role in the series in the form of the computer used by the Freedom Fighters. In an early issue, Sonic explained to Tails that he merely used a hologram of Kintobor's head to help him access some restricted files on Kintobor's personal computer, but this was soon retconned, and for much of the series' run the computer was Kintobor himself, his personality and brainwaves having been preserved on a single gold ring. He loyally served as the Freedom Fighter's computer for the duration of the series, though he was briefly hacked into and turned evil by Grimer.

Kintobor appeared twice more in later issues of the comic, in person. The first instance of this was during a scheme by the Brotherhood of Metallix to erase Robotnik from history, and thus allow Metallix to take over the whole of Mobius. Only Sonic the Hedgehog was preserved from the original timeline, and he discovered that it had been Robotnik's associate Grimer]] that had constructed Metallix, and that Robotnik's contribution had been the installation of a self-destruct device, which could have kept the Metallix in check. Sonic then found himself in the unenviable position of having to travel back in time and actually cause the accident that first turned Kintobor into Robotnik.

Kintobor later appeared on the planet Shanazar. Once Robotnik had been drained of some temporary powers (possibly Chaos radiation) granted by the Chaos Emeralds, he shrank to subatomic size and found himself on Shanazar. Here he transformed into Kintobor and was taken on as the vizier of Princess Kupacious. Unfortunately, he found that his transformation back into Kintobor was not permanent, and developed an elixir to keep Robotnik "at bay", but this ultimately failed and Robotnik regained control. (Nigel Kitching proposed using this as a way of bringing in the "Dr Eggman" design for Robotnik, but this did not go through)

In the "unofficially official" online continuation, STC-Online!, Kintobor appeared once more in flashback, it was revealed he had accidentally ended up on Mobius while on the way to the supermarket. It was shown he'd found the six Chaos Emeralds in a hollow hill in the Emerald Hill Zone, along with a cache of Echidna-Drakon war detritus and an experimental chaos-energy being dubbed Shadow. As well as researching the Emeralds and making contact with the Equinox Crocodile Research Team in the Special Zone (as well as the Omni-Viewer), he tutored Shadow. Due to his transformation into Robotnik and subsequent insanity, Shadow later resurfaced with the intention of following his friend's last wish - to kill the world.

The novel Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension had Sonic using time-travel to ensure Kintobor never had his accident, only to be forced to ensure he did become Robotnik after it was revealed that otherwise nothing could stop an other-dimensional gang of mythological creatures from altering the universe.