Pretender Monster

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The Pretender Monsters are a Decepticon subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.
What's that coming over the hill, is it a monster, is it a monsterrrrrrr.

The very presence of the Pretender Monsters (aka the Monstructor Six or simply the Monsters) is an ill omen. These foreboding robots tend to show up in hopeless alternate futures and bizarre hidden corners of the universe where mortals have tempted forbidden knowledge. They conceal their monstrous robot forms within even more monstrous outer shells. The team consists of:

  • Birdbrain, a talented warrior constantly foiled by a malfunctioning shell;
  • Bristleback, a foul-mouthed malcontent rendered sluggish by his shell;
  • Icepick, the fervent preacher of planned obsolescence;
  • Scowl, whose deafening volume is made worse by his shell;
  • Slog, the contemplative artist whose work centers on wild destruction;
  • Wildfly, a psychotic and violent "jokester".

They can combine to form the dread behemoth Monstructor.

Fiction

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Marvel Comics continuity

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Rhythms of Darkness!

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You can almost hear them making repulsive squishy noises.

In a post-apocalyptic alternate future of 2009, where one version of Galvatron killed Rodimus Prime and devastated North America, the Pretender Monsters were led by to the remains of New York City. After Galvatron reminded them that they were all disposable cannon fodder to him, he ordered them to search Manhattan in an attempt to root out the last remaining vestiges of Autobot and human resistance. All they managed to find, however, was a human-made booby trap that buried Icepick under tons of debris.

Not long after, the team rejoined the other Decepticons to defend the Decepticon Powerbase against an Autobot attack. Rhythms of Darkness!

Transformers '84

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Just before the launch of the Ark, Birdbrain, Bristleback, Wildfly, Slog, Scowl, and Icepick served under Straxus and participated in his attack on Autobase. Secrets & Lies #2

G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers

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What exactly are Scowl and Slog standing on?

Some time prior to 1978, in the Himalayan Mountain region of Tibet, Bludgeon led the soon-to-be Pretender Monsters to meet with the underground kingdom of Cobra-La, seeking power and a ringside seat at the death of a planet. En route, they were shot down and damaged by the Chinese Air Force, however, forcing Bludgeon to make a deal with Cobra-La: in exchange for defending Cobra-La's subterranean domain, Cobra-La provided them with life-supporting organic Pretender shells.

At the behest of Golobulus, the Pretender Monsters used their shells to slip past the sensors of the submerged Autobot ship Arc II, where they made quick work of Skids, Sideswipe and Prowl. Black Horizon, Part 1 of 2

Later, when GI Joe sent an invasion force against Cobra-La, they merged into Monstructor to repel the invaders. Monstructor wreaked havoc on the Joes but was defeated when the Laser Squad blew up his head, leaving his component members in an unconscious heap. Black Horizon, Part 2 of 2

2005 IDW continuity

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Prisoners... of rock and roll.

Eons ago, Nova Prime sought to rediscover and harness the combiner technology that the deceased Nexus Prime had once mastered. The Crucible To this end, he recruited six individuals, promising that they would become the embodiment of the phrase "all are one". Jhiaxus oversaw the project, intending to create the ultimate fusion of mind and body: a vast amount of intellect combined with unparalleled strength. However, the primitive combiner technology drove the six lobotomized subjects mad, turning their combined form into a violently insane creature that dubbed itself "Monstructor". Primus: All Good Things

After Nova Prime and Jhiaxus departed Cybertron in the first Ark, Omega Supreme locked the six away in a dimensionally-displaced prison to live out the rest of their horrid existence. Eventually they escaped; aboard a starship, they tracked down Omega Supreme's hidden asteroid base. They attacked the base as Monstructor, handily defeating Omega Supreme, but were defeated by Optimus Prime, using Omega's knowledge of Monstructor's built-in weakness. Despite Omega Supreme's protestations about the dangers of gestalt technology falling into Decepticon hands, Prime had the six taken into custody in an attempt to repair their shattered minds. Spotlight: Optimus Prime

The attempt was failing, despite Jetfire's best attempts, when the Decepticon Secret Service launched an assault on the Garrus-9 penal facility to capture the combiners. Despite the release of Arcee, the Combaticons successfully captured the Monsters, and Arcee was sent to track them down. Spotlight: Arcee

Banzaitron heroically sent wave after wave of his own men at Monstructor until he was forced to shut down.

The breakout of the "Monstructor Six" eventually made its way to the Autobot Orbital Command Hub, and from there to Optimus Prime. Although Earth was currently facing the threat of Megatron and Sixshot, Prime decided that they couldn't risk allowing the Decepticons to gain gestalt technology, and ordered Prowl's team to abandon Earth and head to Garrus-9. Devastation

Shockingly, stealing a horrifyingly powerful homicidal monstrosity turned out to be a bad thing, as the Dead Universe forces activated Monstructor and he mangled his way through the Secret Service. Being beaten up didn't stop Banzaitron though, who had already put tracker tags in each of the six and decided to track them down. Spotlight: Hardhead Monstructor was tasked by the Dead Universe to guard a Nega-Core on Rotan, Spotlight: Doubledealer where the Secret Service attempted to recapture them. Spotlight: Sideswipe

The Secret Service was victorious and the Monstructor Six fell into the hands of the Decepticons, who used them as the basis for their own combiner. Shockwaves The team itself was placed on the Torment under the command of Bludgeon, a follower of Jhiaxus's student, Shockwave. During the Surge, they attacked Hot Rod but were defeated by Perceptor. Lost & Found

Bludgeon later patched up Monstructor's weak spot and, after learning of Jhiaxus's capture, traveled to Arduria where he used Monstructor to distract the Autobots while personally freeing Jhiaxus. The plan worked and they retreated in their separate components and continued Jhiaxus's mission of finding Regenesis missiles for Shockwave. Syndromica (1) On the next planet, LV-117, Monstructor was tied up fighting Wheelie's monstrous pets, but Jhiaxus nevertheless achieved his goal there. Syndromica (2) As the final phase of their plan, they then traveled to Gorlam Prime in search of a dormant Titan. The Monstructor Six lured the Autobots out by seemingly attacking Waspinator; they then combined and forced Orion Pax to defend himself by awakening the Titan, which Waspinator then stole for Jhiaxus. Homecoming

The Monstructor Six then followed their masters to Cybertron as they reunited with Shockwave to enact his master plan. The Dead Are Not Enough As Monstructor they subdued Galvatron as Shockwave used him as a conduit to the Dead Universe, The Becoming and fought Devastator during Shockwave's all-out assault on Cybertron. Black Planet In the end, Monstructor was rammed into pieces by the Lost Light and his individual components were subdued by Windblade, Chromia, and Nautica. ...And the Damage Done They evaded capture and were still at large six months later. The World of Tomorrow.

Years later, they resurfaced once again working for Bludgeon... and by extension Unicron... to whom they proved quite useful by savagely tearing Victorion apart. Our Finest They continued to serve as Bludgeon's deadly enforcers Road's End Assembly until they were finally killed in a rematch against Victorion and Superion. Ceremony

Precursor World

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The Pretender Monsters were among Purple Wicked Convoy's collection of monsters. When Megatron Omega and the Blue Order's Straxus twins came to the Purple Planet in an attempt to take the power of the Purple Matrix, the monsters attacked them before their master decided to ally with the three instead. God Neptune comic 1 At least Icepick accompanied his master and his new allies into space, where they confronted God Neptune, who had collected the remaining matrices. God Neptune comic 2

Commercial appearances

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Some suspicious parentage.

Pretender Classics Starscream lowered the robot forms of the team into vats of brightly colored chemicals, from which they emerged as monsters. Monsters with rubbery skin!! Monsters with rubbery skin whose inner robots combine to form a "monster Transformer"! Commercial

Toys

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The Transformers

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Pardon me. I was just about to do the Monster Mash.

The Pretender Monsters were each sold separately in cardback packages. Each came with the inner robot, the outer shell, a shell backing plate, a small hand gun, and a Monstructor component. Slog additionally came with a large gun for Monstructor.

Just crying for a revival with today's toy technology.

The inner robots are tiny, standing only slightly taller than the Micromasters dominating the G1 toyline at the time, though they were not marketed as such (and their fictional appearances have treated them as normal-sized Transformers). All six transform into stylized robotic monsters, though their small size means that the transformation schemes are simplified to the point that it's difficult to tell exactly what some of them are supposed to be. Most of the robotic beast modes share some thematic similarities with the corresponding outer Pretender shell. Icepick and Scowl share a transformation scheme (and Slog's is similar to theirs), as do Bristleback and Birdbrain.

Backpacky goodness.

Their outer shells are unique in several regards. Instead of splitting in half like most other Pretenders, the shells have a small backing plate that is removed to allow the inner robot to be inserted. This plate can also hold all of the accessories for each robot, including the kibble for Monstructor—a unique feature among the combiner teams.

I dunno why we're complaining. Aren't they supposed to be horrifying?

The monstrous outer shells are completely without articulation. They are composed of a malleable rubbery substance, advertised on the box as "lifelike, flexible bodies" (well not flexible in articulation, that's for sure...). This material does not tend to age well, unfortunately, and there have been reports of Pretender Monster shells showing mold-like spotting or secreting an oily residue, likely [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}plasticizer|{{#if:||plasticizer}}]] escaping the PVC.[1] Um, ew.

The inner robots are not without their own problems, as Slog and Bristleback are largely composed of very GPS-prone gold plastic. As one might imagine, this is a very unfortunate problem for a combiner team.

The robots and combiner parts were used to make Victory's Dinoforce team, which got entirely new outer shells (but still had the same problem with icky residue).

Age of the Primes

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Today's toy tech yields a group of six... thingies... Hooray for keeping the spirit of the original toys!
  • Decepticon Monstructor (Gift set, 2026)
  • Accessories: Multi-part halberd, multi-part cannon
Released to accompany the Age of the Primes toyline, Generations Selects Decepticon Monstructor is in theory a fairly heavy retool of Legacy: United Dinoking, but in practice is more akin to a retool of Legacy: Evolution Core Class Dinobot combiner Volcanicus with Dinoking's accessories, as none of the included toys use the Victory cartoon-inspired heads from their Dinoking set mold-mates in favor of new toy-based heads. Each of the six Pretender Monster monster 'cons are retooled to turn into monsters rather than dinosaurs, though most of the end results look akin to modes created by fiddling around with the toys rather than proper alt modes. Well hey, no crumbling or plasticizer leakage this time. Compared to the Dinoforce being based on their inner robots while turning into the dinosaur species of their Pretender shells, the Monstructor team members are all based on their inner robots, though their monster mode heads have vague influences from their shells.
The team combines into Monstructor, who sports a monstrous new headsculpt based on his look in IDW's comics. As the mold was designed with Dinoking in mind, Monstructor inherits his halberd and combining cannon, as well as the greater articulation provided by the Dinoforce limbs; notably possessing wrist swivels and ankle tilts.
Like the previous combiner sets from Legacy, Monstructor's packaging features a classically-inspired Tech Specs cut-out, reproducing the bio and stats of the original Generation 1 version's Tech Specs (though the bio is slightly edited, replacing "Pretenders®" with "monsters" and changing all the exclamation points to periods).
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Notes

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  • With a Rank stat of 7 (the highest among the team), Slog may be the leader of the Pretender Monsters by default.
  • In an interview, Vinnie D'Alleva referred to the Double Pretenders as the "Monster Pretenders". Whether that was actually supposed to be their recycled-trademark name or if D'Alleva got them confused with the combiner group is not clear.
  • While their packaging and the 1989 catalog refers to them as "Pretender Monsters", their toy commercial refers to them as "Monster Pretenders".
  • In the 2005-2018 IDW comics, the Pretender Monsters, in addition to not being Pretenders, are something of an enigma. They are described as having been lobotomized in preparation for the combiner process, and driven insane as a result of combining. When not combined into Monstructor, however, the Pretender Monsters act any way OTHER than insane, capably following orders and acting in visible unity. The individual Pretender Monsters were never seen expressing any level of individuality, personal thought, or independent behavior, which may mean "insane" is a very liberally applied term.
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