Clench (G1)

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This subject of this article goes by multiple names that apply to other articles as well. See Clench (disambiguation), Colossus Rhodes{{#if:|, [[{{{3}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{4}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{5}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{6}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{7}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{8}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{9}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{10}}}]]|}}.
Clench is a Decepticon Obliterator from the Generation 1 continuity family.
You were supposed to be this colossus! You were this great legendary thing!

Utterly devoted to destroying the Autobots, the Decepticon leader Clench (aka Colossus) is fueled by anger, hatred, and malevolence. He wades into battle blasting, smashing and running over anything in his path with no mercy, then shooting anything else with heavy firepower.<ref>1993 The Transformers and 1994 Generation 2 packaging bio</ref>

So naturally, he's a registered driver in Texas.<ref>BotCon Wings Universe Clench profile</ref>

Fiction

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C'mon, at least shout your name and powers or something.

Fleetway Generation 2 comic

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Clench was part of the Decepticon force led by Bludgeon, sent to Earth to smash stuff up and lure out Optimus Prime. Mostly, he just drove over some parked cars. War Without End


2005 IDW continuity

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Insert crappy "Let me give you a hand" joke here.

Long before the war, a group of ex-miners including Megatron, Frenzy, and Rumble took part in a violent uprising against leaders who had exploited them while pocketing the fruits of their labor. They found themselves on the lam in crime-ridden Kaon, which is where they apparently met Clench. Clench employed these same bitter ex-miners to work as gladiators in an underground bloodsport (in which he also occasionally partook), placing them at greater risk than they had ever known and conditioning them to give in to their murderous impulses, all while hoarding the fruits of their labor for himself.

Clearly, he had thought this through.

So Megatron eventually killed him during one of the fights and took over. Megatron Origin #2


Wings Universe

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"But Black Dynamite, I sell drugs to the community!"

Clench was created at a Cyberfactory in the U.S. state of Texas using a combination of human ingenuity, Nebulan science, and reverse-engineered Cybertronian technology that allowed access to the same font of life that flowed through Vector Sigma. Although designed to function as a security bot, Clench had other ideas: less than ten minutes after coming on-line he had demolished the facility he was born in and set off on one of the most atrocious criminal careers in history. Not the first unsavory Cybertronian of the second generation, Clench soon met others like him and forged them into an outlaw organization known as the Decepticon Syndicate, with him as the head honcho.

Only cursorily connected to the original Decepticons, Clench gladly accepted new troops and technology that arrived from Galvatron, so long as the big bosses "stayed off his turf". The Decepticon Syndicate started with classic Decepticon gambits like hijacking and fuel theft, but Clench soon expanded their repertoire into more unusual Cybertronian crimes like gunrunning and racketeering. Following the Non-Biological Entity Citizenship Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Clench was simultaneously declared a citizen and #1 on the Most Wanted list. Clench eventually pushed too far, however, when he attempted to kidnap and ransom the Queen of England. This crime prompted UK citizen Pyro Ignatius Spark to gather his own team of second generation Autobots to actively oppose Clench and his Syndicate in their dirty dealings. Clench's profile

DARKNESS FINGER!

Clench led a platoon of "second generation" Decepticons into battle at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, repelling the Autobots who had tried to defend the facility and capturing Pyro. Inside, Clench met up with his new ally, the Quintesson minion Sky-Byte, who promised him that his highly energized forestonite fuel would endow the Decepticons with amazing new powers and tilt the tide of battle in their favor. Breakdown urged Clench not to trust Quintesson science, for which Clench mocked him...and then came to believe him, choosing to use Cindersaur as a test subject for the forestonite. As this first subject began to mutate, Clench dictated that Sky-Byte and Breakdown would be the next guinea pigs, and if all survived then he himself would power up with the substance, to later determine if any other Decepticon deserved the privilege. The forestonite imbued Clench with the power to create local gravity wells, crushing and immobilizing his enemies.

He and his troops charged into battle against a would-be Autobot rescue team, and Clench reveled in his new power and gloated over how quickly his enemies would all be destroyed. But Clench and his troops were soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of Autobot reinforcements, whose rapid-attack tactics were more than a match for Clench's strategy of "use gravity beams to hold them down while Double Punch crushes them". Things only got worse when the Autobots gained Forestonite upgrades as well—particularly when Pyro gained limited precognition and could then pre-avoid all of Clench's attacks. In the skirmish the LHC facility was destroyed, prompting Double Punch and Sky-Byte to retreat. Disgusted at the prospect of a fair fight, Clench too fled the scene. Generation 2: Redux

Cooperating with Jhiaxus, Clench supplied his ally with blueprints stolen by Ramjet as well as the Firecons. When he was cagey about the Firecons' abilities, Jhiaxus revealed that he had already heard all about forestonite from Sky-Byte, infuriating Clench. A Flash Forward #2

Legends World

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During his stay in the Legends World, Armada Megatron's plans escalated from stealing Mini-Cons to stealing rare toys, the original Clench (or Colossus) among them. LG18 Armada Starscream Super Mode

2019 IDW continuity

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Clench was once a gladiator, and his fight against Apeface made Pipes a fan.

After the closing of the pits under the Nominus Edict, Clench became a member of the newly-rechristened Decepticons. Clench was a part of the attack on the Senate building, releasing a squad of Decepticon infiltration troopers hidden within him to swarm the Senators. He fought the Senate Guard members, even landing a hit on his former fan Pipes (and thinking he should at least feel a little guilty about it). We Have Deceived You

Clench was made a member of Strika's "New Heavies", and manned a massive rail gun on the Senate building's roof. He reported to Megatron that he spotted Sentinel Prime escaping, and fired on the retreating Autobots below, killing Chainclaw and maiming Bumper and Sideswipe. Clench wound up being blown to bits when Sunrunner marked his position, and Sidetrack and Flak bombarded him with homing missiles. Prime

Games

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Transformers Legends

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Clench was involved in the gladiatorial pit fights in Kaon. As Megatron rose in the ranks of the fights, he found himself opposed by Clench. Megatron defeated Clench and proceeded to take over Kaon itself. Megatron Origins

Toys

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The Transformers

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MEGAWEAPON!
  • Clench (Obliterator, 1993)
Released in the final year of the original Transformers toyline in Europe (just as Generation 2 was starting in the US), Obliterator Clench transforms into the front half of a long-nosed truck cab resembling an early 1990's Kenworth T600. The back half of his vehicle form, the truck bed and container, turns into a large, double-barreled, missile-launching artillery platform that uses "gravity feed" to load a new pair of missiles for rapid firing. Pressing a button between the barrels pops up a spring-loaded targeting reticle. Both gimmicks are available in truck mode as well. In truck mode, the support strut for the artillery cannon becomes a rear-mounted, extending gripper-claw.
The toy's license plate reads "TEXAS 1953 NUE 480". It's certainly not an official Texas license plate, but it gets the point across.
Despite what his tiny fictional appearance and his boxart would suggest, Clench is actually a very dark blue-green in colour. With neat little sparkles! Yay. Sparkles.


Generation 2

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  • Colossus (Obliterator, 1994)
  • Accessories: 6 missiles
Clench was re-released without changes (other than packaging) the following year in the European Generation 2 toyline.
For reasons unknown, Hasbro released this version under the name "Colossus", which had previously only been used for the bilingual French/Dutch packaging variant of the original 1993 release.


Timelines

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Clench got hench.
  • Generation 2: Redux (Multi-pack, 2010)
  • Release date: June 24, 2010
  • Accessories: Riot shield
A new-head retool of Universe Ultra Class Onslaught, Timelines Clench transforms into a six-wheeled SWAT assault truck with positionable mine-scoops and a rotating double-barreled turret on top. His right arm has a spring-loaded flip-out (non-firing) blaster cannon, while his blast shield can be mounted on his left arm and placed on his turret in vehicle mode. The electronics originally in this mold were removed for this release.
The robot mode cheats somewhat, having a second tow-winch on his belt-buckle immediately below his vehicle hood, while the actual vehicle mode winch splits in two to form his shoulders.
Clench was only available as part of the BotCon 2010 boxed set, alongside Breakdown, Autobot Spark, Streetstar, and Sky-Byte. A number of bagged sets were also made available for sale, but only to people who had already bought the boxed version.
The original version of this toy was redecoed into Universe Hardhead. The Clench tooling also served as the basis of the non-toy Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Torca.
After some crafty fans found images of Streetstar in BotCon.com's directory structure, a (fake) photoshopped image of Universe Tankor in Clench's colors was found also soon thereafter, and reported as real news by Seibertron.com. About half an hour later, the BotCon 2010 site went live, revealing Clench's true sculpt. Oh, those Fun Publications guys, such pranksters.


Swapticons

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Well, surely I'll get a figure in Generations soon, right?
  • Clench / Nemesis Prime (Two-pack, 2025)
  • Swapticons number: 2
Released in the second wave of Swapticons, Clench is a recolor and re-face-stickering of Ultra Magnus, transforming into a semi-truck trailer. Using his spring-loaded head as a coupling mechanism, he can be combined with any other figure in the line to make a multitude of weird combinations, though nominally he forms a full semi-truck with his pack-in partner Nemesis Prime.
His side panels/arms are on a hinge, allowing them to swing outward, giving him a tiny bit of articulation.


Merchandise

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Transformers Character Card

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Released as part of the ninth wave of the e-HOBBY exclusive Transformers Character Card series, this pair of holographic trading cards depict super-deformed art of Pyro and Clench along with character profiles and tech specs.

Notes

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  • The story behind Clench's conflicting names turns out to be more complicated than has been assumed for a long time. Like all other European-exclusive releases in 1992 and 1993, Clench and his fellow Obliterator Pyro were available in two different bilingual packaging variants, English/Spanish and French/Dutch. Those two packaging types often gave the figures different (usually English-language) names, and the Obliterators were no exeption: While they were named "Clench" and "Pyro" on English/Spanish packaging, there were named "Colossus" and "Spark" on French/Dutch packaging. When the two figures were then re-released in new packaging under the Generation branding in 1994, Hasbro decided to harmonize their names across Europe, and for unknown reasons decided to go with the names from the 1993 French/Dutch packaging versions, which were now also used for trilingual English/Spanish/Portuguese Generation 2 packaging. So technically, this makes the name "Clench" the odd one out.
  • Clench's original toy has what appears to be an odd personal insignia: jagged lightning bolts that at their center feature a gunsight-target view of a red wolf in crosshairs. Exactly what this is supposed to symbolize is unclear. The lightning bolt seems to be the same design used on fellow UK villain Skyquake, which was released the year before Clench's original toy.
  • In Wings continuity, Clench's mannerisms are based on character actor [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Jack Palance|{{#if:||Jack Palance}}]].
  • Clench and Pyro's modern toy trademarks are an interesting case of opposites. While Clench's secondary name is likely unavailable, occupied by the Marvel character [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Colossus (character)|{{#if:Colossus|Colossus|Colossus (character)}}]], Pyro's primary name is the unavailable one for him.

Foreign names

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  • Dutch: Colossus
  • French: Colossus (Europe)
  • Japanese: Clench (クレンチ Kurenchi)
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  • Timelines art
    Timelines art
  • The fake BotCon Clench
    The fake BotCon Clench

References

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<references />
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