Scratch and Grounder

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Scratch and Grounder as seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book

Scratch and Grounder are a pair of fictional Badnik robots created by Dr. Robotnik as adversaries of Sonic the Hedgehog in the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. They form the greater part of Robotnik's "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad" (often abbreviated to SSSSS Squad and, occasionally, 6-S). Scratch and Grounder were voiced by Phil Hayes and Gary Chalk, respectively.

[edit] Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

Scratch and Grounder are largely comic relief characters, as is this incarnation of Robotnik himself, and though charged with the capture of Sonic and his friend Tails, they almost always fail. Not only this, but the two are also highly gullible, easily being deceived by Sonic no matter how bizarre his disguises. These repeated failures frequently result in the two hapless robots receiving a lot of abuse (both verbal and physical) from Robotnik.

Scratch was originally created by Robotnik to be a super-robot that could easily catch Sonic for him, since all of his other mechanical bounty hunters fail. In his robot-maker he put in many items to improve the robot's quality, including a chessboard, rotten eggs, and many other random, usually unpleasant things. But unfortunately, the machine malfunctioned and gave birth to Scratch, a product almost exactly the opposite of what Robotnik wanted. Grounder is a sort of "clone" of Scratch. While being created by Robotnik in the cartoon, Scratch has his feather plucked and put into a cloner. He looks different because Scratch pulled a lever that wasn't supposed to be pulled during the process (when Robotnik chastises him for it, he responds "Well, how was I to know? I was just hatched!"). When he sees the copy of himself, he immediately asks Robotnik "Am I THAT ugly?". Scratch proceeds to tell Grounder that Robotnik loves him more, which Grounder replies to by saying "Oh yeah, well I have more accessories! So nyah!" (and sticks out his accessorised tongue) resulting in a small fight between the duo.

Scratch and Grounder were supposed to be created as geniuses but as one can see, that ended up being far from the case. The truth is that if Grounder and Scratch didn't have their brains bolted in, they would have lost them long ago. Although both robots have shown intelligence, they show even more so that they are very repetitive. They reuse many types of traps including holes, giant traps resembling bear-traps and mouse-traps, and disguised objects. Most often, these plots end up having the trap either spring on them, fall on them, shoot them, or harm them in any other way possible. There were very few TV episodes which did not include the duo being brutally smacked by their traps.

There is a definite show in class. Although Scratch and Grounder work on the same levels, Scratch seems to act as a superior. He comes up with the majority of their small plots and delegates most of what they do. Grounder acts more as the second-in-command doing the work of he tool and fixing things. However, it just is that most of the time they bicker like two brothers.

The two were occasionally aided by a robotic monkey named Coconuts (also based on an enemy from Sonic the Hedgehog 2), although most of the time, he would be competing with them rather than helping them, in hopes of being promoted out of janitor status.

From left to right: Coconuts, Scratch, and Grounder listen for the sound of Sonic in pain.

[edit] Physical appearance

Scratch resembles a tall, humanoid chicken (similar to Clucker, one of the enemy Badniks in the Wing Fortress Zone of Sonic 2). He is distinctified by his prominent laugh, "Ba-ha-ha-ha!".

Grounder is a small green machine with tank tracks, as well as drills instead of his hands and nose. Grounder's design was purposefully derived from the Grounder enemy Badnik from Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Aquatic Ruin Zone, though those Grounders were massproduced, their color schemes were different and they attacked by bursting out of walls. He is notably less intelligent than Scratch, but once acquired a chip that made him super-intelligent - it was subsequently lost. While Scratch seems to be the brains, Grounder is the artillery - his robot body is filled with accessories, which switch usually in his drill hands. His most common add-ons are a pair of robotic hands, but his arsenal varies from episode to episode. He has been known to contain hammers, rotor blades, snow chains, bear-traps, giant drills, rocket boosters, cannons, radar systems, probes, magnets, pet lizards, binoculars, telescopic limbs, ropes, and many other random items. Every time a task is needed, Grounder almost always manifests an appropriate item, in a typical cartoon fashion. When he turns around, a yellow license plate is visibly attached to his back.

[edit] Other appearances

Grounder first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as a regular enemy, although he was red.

Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts all appeared as opponents in the game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which was a clone of Puyo Puyo. Scratch also appeared in a special stage of Sonic Spinball.

Scratch and Grounder also appeared in the earliest issues of the Sonic comic book published by Archie Comics. However, the characters themselves were prominently featured only in their first appearance there, published in issue #2. Subsequent appearances of the two were minor; their last appearance in the comic was part of a flashback in issue #57. However, Grounder also appears (without Scratch) in the story "Sonic Spin City!", published in Sonic Super Special #15.

[edit] External links

• Scans of the duo's first appearance in the comic
• The Adventures of Scratch and Grounder - A fancomic starring Scratch and Grounder