Commandos (Transformers)
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The Commandos are a group of Decepticons military vehicles in the Transformers: Robots In Disguise and Transformers: Universe series. They are recolored and remolded from the Combaticons toys. Finding the Commandos name too generic, older fans frequently referred to the team as the Combaticons.
Contents |
[edit] Transformers: Robots in Disguise
| Transformers character | |
| Ruination | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Decepticon |
| Sub-Group | Commandos |
| Function | Combat Specialist |
| Alternate Modes | 5 smaller robots 4 military vehicles and 1 space shuttle |
| Series | Transformers: Robots in Disguise Transformers: Universe |
| English voice actor | Bob Papenbrook |
The original Combaticon toys were revived as new characters in the parallel Universe of the 2000 Japanese line, Transformers: Car Robots, recolored, renamed and slightly remolded so that all their weapons could combine together. When Car Robots was exported to the West in 2001 as Transformers: Robots in Disguise, where they were again renamed, and more strangely, also recolored again, yielding toys which now no longer matched their animated counterparts.
The team consists of
- Mega-Octane - The cool calculating leader who commands his four subordinates like a drill sergeant. Known as Dolrailer in Japan, he is a repaint of Onslaught. The double guns on his back fire Twin Lasers.
- Armorhide - The team's desert warfare specialist, who uses pit traps to capture his enemies. Named Dangar in Japan, he is a repaint of Brawl.
- Movor - Able to achieve planetary orbit under his own power, Movor usually serves as recon for his comrades. Called Shuttler in Japan, he is a repaint of Blast Off.
- Rollbar - A hand-to-hand combat specialist who loves to fight and prefers Arctic environments. Known as Greejeeper in Japan, he is a repaint of Swindle.
- Ro-Tor - The team's reconnaissance specialist. Named Heptor in Japan, he is a repaint of Vortex.
The team combines into Ruination (Valdigus in Japan), with each of the four smaller members able to form any limb, rather than assuming the fixed configuration of the animated and comic book incarnations predecessor. Movor and Ro-Tor can form arms to give Ruination flight powers, while Armorhide and Rollbar give extra physical power in the role. Ruination's weapons are a combination of all the team's individual guns, and can level a city with their power. It should be noted that in Ruination's standard configuration, Armorhide's form as Ruination's leg is based on Combaticon combiner Bruticus's Japanese transformation, seen in the Combaticon/Bruticus gift set's box art. (In the American transformation, Armorhide's counterpart Brawl is turned with his tank turret facing forwards and pointed upwards)
[edit] Animated series
These five Transformers actually began life as Autobots, sent to Earth along with a sixth to lead them in a mission to reactivate the legendary Autobot battle station known as Fortress Maximus. However, their craft malfunctioned and crashed, and the six Autobots were entombed in protoform state, joining Fortress Maximus in slumber until their ship was unearthed by Megatron and his Predacons. Absconding with the Autobot protoforms right under Optimus Prime's nose, Megatron took them to a nearby military base, intending to scan alternate modes for them. Mega-Octane was the first to be reactivated, infused with a portion of Megatron's own spark energy to create the first of a new breed of Transformer that Megatron dubbed the "Decepticons." The other four members of the team followed, and eventually the sixth, Scourge, who took leadership of the team from Mega-Octane with a show of force.
Simply referred to as the Decepticons, they soon demonstrated their skills by blowing up dams across the country, debuting their combining abilities against Rail Racer and later attempting to harness the energies of a volcano on Montrose Island. As part of a string of failed attempts to locate the Autobots' hidden base, Movor was launched into orbit to track Side Burn from space, and the Decepticons then pretended to have reverted to their original Autobot selves in an effort to make the Autobots take them in. Later, Decepticon corruption of the Autobots' global spacebridge led Ruination into conflict with Landfill.
It soon became apparent that Scourge sought to overthrow Megatron's leadership, and the discovery of Fortress Maximus, buried beneath the Earth's surface accelerated the process as exposure to his energies, and those of the O-Parts - the keys to Maximus's resurrection - awoke memories of Scourge's original mission. His new Decepticon programming turned it on its head, however, as he now wished to command Maximus's power for his own, and soon had the other Decepticons thinking the same way, conspiring with Mega-Octane to get Cerebros, the power key of Fortress Maximus, under his control. As a series of chases to acquire control of Maximus began, Scourge eventually revealed his treachery by trying to have the giant attack Galvatron (Megatron, in a new form), only for the plan to fail. In retribution, Galvatron again brainwashed the Decepticons, turning them back into his loyal servants, who followed him so completely that they were even willing to take his orders after he attempted to kill them as a belated punishment. With Galvatron's defeat, the Decepticons and Predacons were all taken back to Cybertron for imprisonment.
The Decepticons were voiced by Bob Papenbrook/Holly Kaneko (Mega Octane/Dolrailer, Ruination/Valdigus), Neil Kaplan (Ro-Tor), Robert Axelrod/Hidenori Konda (Movor/Shuttler), Michael Lindsay/Riki Kitazawa (Rollbar/GreeJeeper) and Richard Epcar/Takayuki Kondo (Armorhide/Dangar).
[edit] Voice actor plays
Ruination would make one further appearance in the BotCon 2004 Voice actor play. Here, he was one of the Decepticons under the command of Reptilion, alongside Sunstorm and Perceptor. He battled Silverbolt, Rattrap and Waspinator in order to secure two groups of dimensionally displaced Autobots from the RiD universe. However, the three groups of Autobots, together with a time-lost Autobot shuttle from the Great War, were able to defeat the Decepticons.
[edit] Toys
Instead of classic Decepticon symbols seen in other Transformers series, the Commandos wore black Autobot symbols from Transformers: Generation 2, only upside down. The Japanese toy release had show-accurate symbols, however, the toys released in the U.S. had traditional Decepticon symbols. In addition, the American release of Armorhide features his Desert Storm era camouflage pattern recolored over a bluish-gray base. While this may be intended to be an urban assault camouflage, fans seeking toys identical to the Japanese version (and the cartoon series) were disappointed. With Ruination's official height being given as 15 meters (49.2 feet) tall, and the toy measuring 25 centimeters tall, the toy would have a scale of about 1/60. This would mean Mega-Octane would stand 11.4 meters (37.4 feet) tall, while the other Commandos would stand about 4.8 meters (15.7 feet) tall, although this contradicts the series itself, where the five Commandos are shown standing at more or less the same height.
An "Arctic" redeco version of the Decepticons, bearing the same names, was released as a giftset exclusive to Wal-Mart in 2003.
A "tiger striped" desert camo repaint of Ruination - presumably intended as an alternate Universe or future version of the characters - was released as part of Transformers: Universe in 2004. This version of Ruination appeared in the 2004 Botcon voice actor play.
Note: A mistake on the back of the box for the Universe Ruination gift set had Armorhide and Rollbar's pictures swapped.
[edit] Transformers: Cybertron
Although Ruination did not appear in the Transformers: Cybertron series, an Autobot reused the name Armorhide.
