Groundpounder (RID)

This article is about the Robots in Disguise Decepticon. For the Generation 1 Autobot, see Groundpounder (G1).

Groundpounder is a Decepticon from the Robots in Disguise portion of the Aligned continuity family.

He may move slow and he can't jump high, but this 'Con's one hell of a guy!

Groundpounder (aka Groundbuster, the "Beast from Kaon", and the "Pulverizer of the Pits") is a massive gorilla-bot gladiator who fought in Kaon's utterly brutal matches. Under the tutelage of his coach Headlock, Groundpounder's signature "Fiery Fists of Furnax" and arsenal of throws made him a legend to fighting fans. He's not very imaginative with his moves, but he doesn't really need to be, as his sheer power makes him a match even for a Dinobot. Violence is pretty much all he knows, and his sole goal is to prove he's the biggest and baddest beast-bot there is. That driving urge proved too much even for the arena, and his violent rampages ultimately ended with him locked away on the prison ship Alchemor.

Free once again, Earth is just the place to make a comeback... and he has no problem with letting Headlock play dirty while he roughs up the opposition.

“	Time to bring the heat!	”
—Groundpounder's catchphrase, "The Champ"

Fiction

2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

Voice actor: John DiMaggio (English), Tetsu Inada (Japanese), Maurizio Trombini (Italian), Jean-Michel Vovk (French), Martin Spinhayer (French, The Champ), Olivier Francart (French, Decepticon Island, Part 2), Gerald Paradies (German), Octavio Rojas (Latin-American Spanish), Michał Konarski (Polish), Mauro Castro (Brazilian Portuguese)

It's like Bob the Builder, but with chokeslamming.

Groundpounder was once one of the greatest gladiators on Cybertron until he and his coach Headlock were accused of cheating and kicked out of the gladiator circuit. Enraged by the accusation, Groundpounder went on a destructive rampage, requiring the deployment of the Elite Guard. Eventually, both he and Headlock were arrested. Both of them were placed in stasis pods aboard the prison ship Alchemor, but were freed when the ship crashed on Earth.

He's preparing the Recoome piledriver.

The two Decepticons hid out at a construction site outisde of Crown City, while Groundpounder began a new training regimen. Upon seeing an advertisement for the Rumbledome, he decided he needed to prove he could take on the human-built monster trucks. Forcing his way into the arena, he challenged the current champ to a match, and the Rumbledome manager promptly agreed. Though Crasher Casey and her Mechanosaurus put up a good fight, Groundpounder eventually put her rig out of commission... with the help of Headlock's sabotage. The manager, believing the two Cybertronians to be human-controlled robots as part of an act, offered them a permanent spot in the show.

For their next show, however, Groundpounder discovered his opponent was another Cybertronian— the Autobot Grimlock, aiming to bring down the crooked duo. The battle became increasingly chaotic and destructive, and began damaging the stadium itself. With Headlock out of commission courtesy of Fixit, who had also been coaching Grimlock to read the ape-bot's moves, Groundpounder left himself open for Grimlock's cannonball attack, and was swiftly incapacitated. The Champ

After Steeljaw broke into the scrapyard, he deactivated Groundpounder's stasis pod, alongside several others, as part of a bid to bolster Glowstrike's forces. When Thunderhoof brought up Steeljaw's past failures at leadership, Steeljaw informed the Decepticons of his alliance with Glowstrike, and gave them coordinates to follow while he remained at the scrapyard. The escapees later reconvened at Steeljaw's coordinates, where they was inspected by Glowstrike, who seemed pleased by the new cadre of "elite warriors". Misdirection

Groundpounder used Fire Punch!

Groundpounder gathered with Steeljaw's other remaining followers on the roof of the crashed back half of the Alchemor, where Steeljaw updated them on his plans to overthrow Glowstike, until she and Saberhorn arrived to talk with Steeljaw alone. Portals

Along with the other Decepticons, Groundpounder was present after Steeljaw staged his coup and took control of the Decepticons. Decepticon Island (Part 1) When the Bee Team split up to try and incapacitate the vessel, Groundpounder and Thunderhoof faced off against Grimlock, Strongarm, and Sideswipe. Eager for a rematch, Groundpounder got the upper hand, gleefully pounding his Dinobot rival senseless while Thunderhoof handled the other two. He and Thunderhoof were taken out by a high-frequency signal that Sideswipe created as the Autobot tried to free the Mini-Cons held hostage aboard the ship. Both Decepticons were summarily re-frozen by a stasis bomb that Bumblebee and Optimus Prime detonated aboard the ship. Groundpounder was then taken back to Cybertron by Optimus Prime, Windblade and Ratchet. Decepticon Island (Part 2)

Games

Transformers: Robots in Disguise mobile game

Version	Unlock Cost (Energon)	Unlock Cost (Ultra Sparks)
Starter	500	10
Legion	1500	30

Groundpounder could be recruited to help fight off the Insecticon clone army overrunning Crown City. Robots in Disguise mobile game

Toys

Robots in Disguise (2015)

This 'Con's so strong, it isn't funny. He can make a Dinobot cry out for mummy.

• Decepticon Groundbuster/Groundbuster (Legion Class, 2016/2017)

Legion Class Groundbuster transforms from robot to excavator and back in several easy steps. Groundbuster's scan-badge is located on his robot chest, accessible while in-package. Scanning this badge temporarily unlocks the Legion Class Groundbuster figure in the Robots in Disguise mobile game.

The figure has been released twice: first in 2016 as part of wave 8 of the Robots in Disguise Legion Class assortment under the Mini-Con Weaponizers subline imprint (then sporting the name "Decepticon Groundbuster"), and then again in 2017 at the tail end of the line, released as part of wave 13 of the Legion Class assortment in the Combiner Force subline imprint packaging refresh, this time without the "Decepticon" prefix for its name. This second release actually featured a small running change, with the hands now painted in a brighter red color.

While all versions of the instructions omit the "Decepticon" prefix from his name regardless of how it's handled on the packaging, the European version of the original 2016 release, in an instance of poor quality control, has the name misspelled as "Groundbutter" (even though it's spelled correctly on the back of the instruction sheet).

Notes

• Groundpounder's signature moves are mostly named after Cybertronian cities. These include the Polyhex Power-Slam, the Cyber City Suplex, the Praxus Piledriver, the Gygax Gouger, and the Hydrax Hammer Fist. Other signature moves include the Fiery Fists of Furnax and the Berrillon Bodyslam.
• The 2014 Thrilling 30 incarnation of the Generation 1 Autobot Neutro went through a similar experience, having the preliminary designation "Groundpounder" before receiving the finalized toy name "Groundbuster".
• Groundpounder's animation model was later used to make fellow Decepticon Simacore.
• In the Japanese dub, Groundpounder speaks in a casual, polite manner, even to his opponents, such as by adding -ssu (っす) to the end of his sentences.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Groundpounder (グランドパウンダー Gurandopaundā)
• Mandarin: Dǎo Dì Chǔ (China, 捣地杵, "Ground-Pounding Pestle")