Dead End (ROTF)

This subject of this article goes by multiple names that apply to other articles as well. See Dead End (disambiguation), Detour (disambiguation){{#if:|, [[{{{3}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{4}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{5}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{6}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{7}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{8}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{9}}}]]|}}{{#if:|, [[{{{10}}}]]|}}.
Dead End is a Decepticon from the Revenge of the Fallen portion of the live-action film continuity family.
Put your left foot in, put your left foot out...

Dead End (aka Detour) is as creepy, dark, and depressed as they come. He crawls on all fours in robot mode and keeps to the shadows so his optics will glow creepily. He isn't really capable of carrying on an ordinary conversation and has few friends, even among the other Decepticons. And when he has something to say at all, it is something strange or gloomy. And when he wants to recharge, he siphons off the fuel from other Transformers.

As a result, he's not very popular among his fellow Decepticons. They know that if there's no Autobots to feed on, Dead End will sneak over while they're recharging and start feeding on them...

{{#if:Dead End introducing himself"The Living Headlights"|
“ Yesssss human... I'm afraid you've met a Dead End! ”
{{#if:Dead End introducing himself|

—Dead End introducing himself{{#if:"The Living Headlights"|, "The Living Headlights"}}

}}

}}

Fiction

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Toy bios

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If Dead End and Cliffjumper weren't on opposite sides, they would have gotten along swimmingly—because they were both dysfunctional jerks. As it happened, the extent of their interpersonal relationship involved Dead End trying to creep Cliffjumper out, which typically ended with Dead End getting punched in the face. Dead End and Cliffjumper

Titan movie comics

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{{#if:Dead End"Spare Parts!"|
“ NEED... PARTS... ”
{{#if:Dead End|

—Dead End{{#if:"Spare Parts!"|, "Spare Parts!"}}

}}

}}

"NEED... MORE DENTAL CARE..."

Dead End was used as a guinea pig for the test run of an experimental regeneration circuit, designed to automatically repair damage he sustained in combat. Unfortunately for Dead End, the unit malfunctioned and began eating away at the molecular cohesion of his body, driving him mad and leaving him a shambling half-'bot, wandering the wastes of Death Valley, California, mindlessly searching for spare parts to try and repair his crumbling frame.

When the Autobot rookies Jolt, Dune Runner and Rollbar were sent to Death Valley on a survival exercise, Dead End caught their scent and followed them to a deserted gold mining town. Unaware they were being stalked, the trio split up to search the town for the recharge pack that had been placed there for them to find. Jolt found the pack, but was attacked by Dead End, who tore his arm off, then turned on the other two Autobots when they arrived in response to their comrade's cry of alarm.

Great idea Ratchet. Let's fully restore the vampiric Decepticon. There's absolutely NOTHING that could go wrong here.

After ripping Dune Runner's arm off, Dead End turned on Rollbar and punched him so hard that his own desiccated arm crumbled away. Dead End paused long enough to try welding Dune Runner's arm on in place of his own, giving Jolt enough time to seize the recharge pack, using it to super-charge his electro-whips. Howling that he "must obey Megatron", Dead End was downed by a massive electrical shock from Jolt's whips and was rendered unconscious.

Dune Runner advocated putting the Decepticon out of his misery, but Rollbar disagreed. The Autobots brought Dead End back to Diego Garcia, where Ratchet was able to remove his regeneration circuit and save his life, complimenting the true Autobot spirit the three rookies had shown. Spare Parts! He was eventually fixed and was now capable of normal speech. Divided Loyalties However, Dead End was later part of Bludgeon's jailbreak and joined his splinter faction. Inside Out!

Dead End was at Bludgeon's Arkhangelskaya Oblast, Russia base when the Autobots tracked it down, and accompanied Lockdown in preparing a suitable reception for their 'guests'. Unfortunately for him, he took damage in the fight Divided Loyalties and that left him in need of SPARE PARTS once more. The traitor Wheelie had just enough time to wonder what was wrong with Dead End before he was ripped apart and his vitals eaten. When everyone else had departed from Russia, Dead End remained and began to track Bumblebee... A Short, Sharp Lesson!

By Christmas Eve Dead End located Bumblebee at Sam Witwicky's house and made an attack, also trying to eat Sam until the Autobot stepped in. A quick and brutal fight happened, with Dead End managing to eat one of Bumblebee's parts, but the Decepticon was eventually taken down. (Whether Bumblebee showed mercy or if he lacks Autobot spirit was not specified) The Nightmare Bee-4 Christmas

"The Nightmare Bee-4 Christmas" reads like it was meant to go after "Divided Loyalties" and "A Short, Sharp Lesson!" despite the story being released before the other two: it's the Russian battle that turns him back into a monster, and he turns up at the Witwickys' because he's following Bumblebee.

Bumblebee Movie Prequel

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Admit it, you want a Masterpiece of this guy now.

One of a number of Decepticon operatives who was active on Earth during the Cold War, Dead End was part of the Decepticon cell overseen by Malignus. Energon Is Forever In 1964, as part of Malignus's master plan to end humanity by orchestrating a nuclear conflict between East and West, Dead End was sent to eliminate E.I.D.O.L.O.N.'s contact Vladimir Vladek, posing as his car long enough to transform and compact Vladek and his chauffeur, introducing himself to P.R.O.G.R.A.M.M.E. agents David Reeve and Diana Lux in the process. The Living Headlights

Although the two humans were able to evade him, Dead End eventually caught up to them and Bumblebee, only to be knocked into stasis by Heath Donavan's electrical trap. He recovered in time to return to headquarters and aim his guns at the Autobot. Energon Is Forever However, Malignus' master plan began going sideways when Diabla suddenly turned on the Decepticons by saving Bumblebee from a Sharkticon. Ordered by Malignus to eliminate all the other Decepticons, Dead End made short work of slaughtering Runabout. While grappling with Bumblebee, Dead End ended up having a Sharkticon land on top of him and got blown to bits by a shot from Blitzwing. From Cybertron with Love


Games

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - The Game (Sony PSP)

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Decepticon campaign

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Dead End is one of several Decepticons that can be played as during the campaign mode of the game, and thus has no real story of his own.

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)

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Dead End appears in the Rise of the Dark Spark game for Nintendo 3DS as a support unit. Equipping him allows all Earth Mercenaries to not be seen by Autobot units from more than 5 tiles away.

Rise of the Dark Spark

Toys

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Revenge of the Fallen

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Very not G1 Dead End-ish.
  • Dead End or Detour (Scout Class, 2009)
  • TakaraTomy ID number: RD-07
  • Known designers: Eric Siebenaler (Hasbro){{#if: |, {{{2}}}}}
Part of the first wave of Revenge of the Fallen Scout Class toys, Dead End converts from a modified red and black Peugeot 9009 concept car to a robot with a bird-like head vaguely resembling [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Hawkman|{{#if:||Hawkman}}]]'s mask/helmet. Interestingly, while Dead End has no neck articulation, he does have a movable jaw; the entire top of his head hinges backward, revealing a lower jaw and teeth. However, added plastic (most likely for safety reasons) makes his chest-plate unable to fold down all the way. As a result, many owners don't even see Dead End's lower jaw, and assume the upper jaw to be the entire head. It is possible to hinge the full head upwards by pulling on the lower jaw's cheek detailing.
Great. Now he's having an identity crisis, too.
Before solid information regarding the name of the Revenge of the Fallen Scout Class toy became available, sellers of stolen prototypes alternatively referred to him as "Dead End"<ref name="scoutdeadend">Seibertron reporting on a rumor identifying the red Revenge of the Fallen Scout Class toy as "Dead End".</ref> and "Detour".<ref name="detour1">TFormers reporting on a Chinese Taobao seller identifying the red Revenge of the Fallen Scout Class toy as "Detour".</ref> Eventually the former name won out... but ultimately it turned out the name "Detour" hadn't come out of thin air either: Early shipments of the European release of the toy featured the name "Detour" on the cardboard insert on the packaging's front (the cardback and the instruction sheet still call him "Dead End", however), as did the official in-packaging stock photo of the European version.<ref name="detour2">Official Hasbro stock photos of Revenge of the Fallen Scout Class Dead End, including European "Detour" version in packaging</ref> Later shipments then featured the correct "Dead End" insert instead.<ref name="eurodeadend">Scout Class Dead End in European packaging, named "Dead End".</ref> At least one sample has even been found at US retail, with a misapplied European "Detour" insert.<ref name="detour3">Standard US Revenge of the Fallen Dead End side by side with error version with misapplied European "Detour" name insert.</ref>
This sculpt was also used to make Nightbeat and Slap Dash.


A lot more G1 Dead End-ish Wildrider-ish!
  • Dead End (Deluxe Class, 2009)
Released in the fourth wave of Deluxe Class toys, Dead End is a retool and redeco of Revenge of the Fallen Sideways, transforming into an unlicensed approximation of an Audi R8 with a color scheme resembling Generation 1 Wildrider. His head resembles Wildrider's animated model a bit, and he's even wearing Generation 1 Dead End's vehicle mode hood as a hat!
Dead End features Automorph action during the conversion from car to robot mode. When the front bumper is pressed, his front pair of wheels automatically flip underneath the hood. There is also some Mech Alive: you can see internal gears moving in his fore-arms when moving his arms, as well as a turning disk on each of his elbows. On his right arm is a spinning "saw" blade.
The original version of this mold would be retooled into Lost Age Advanced Line Dino.
In Japan, Dead End was only available as a Toy Hobby Market (now TakaraTomy Mall) exclusive, with a pre-order window of August 13th through September 25th, 2009.
During part of 2010, Hasbro did a promotion wherein US fans could receive three free Deluxes in exchange for receipts showing the purchase of $25 or more of select Transformers product. As noted in this thread over at Allspark.com, and later confirmed by this listing here, Deluxe-class Dead End was one of a pool of eight figures (all from the same wave) from which the free Deluxes were drawn, with several people having noted receiving him.

Merchandise

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Titanium Series

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He looks like Jazz, but all he listens to is Bauhaus and Joy Division.
  • Cliffjumper & Dead End (Two-pack, 2009)
  • Accessories: Decepticon symbol display stand
A black and red redeco of Jazz, Titanium Series Dead End is a non-transforming plastic figurine made of plastic and die-cast metal. He is sculpted holding a small handgun, and has articulation in his shoulders, neck and waist. Oh, and he comes with a movie-style Decepticon logo base to stand on.
He was only available in a Toys Я Us-exclusive two-pack with Cliffjumper.

Notes

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  • While this has never been officially acknowledged in any capacity, we can't help notice that the Scout toy's preliminary name of "Detour" comes from a Decepticon Micromaster from 1989, to whom Dead End bears a startling physical resemblance—with his distinctive alt-mode, door panels on his arms, and his U-shaped chest. A shame we never got this mold in bright yellow!
  • Concept artist Ken Christiansen worked on the Dead End art featured at the top of this article using some very poor supplied images of Dead End some considerable time before the toy was released, so it is missing some details seen on the toy, such as Dead End's scary-ass lower jaw. For more information, see the external links below.

Foreign names

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  • Japanese: Dead End (デッドエンド Deddo Endo)

References

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