Rum-Maj

Rum-Maj is a Junkion from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

The Junk(wo)man.

Formerly an inhabitant of Junkion, Rum-Maj roams the cosmos alongside her consort Wreck-Gar, searching for a way to help restore their shattered world. Calm almost to the point of cold and possessing a grimly pragmatic streak, she provides a stark contrast to the excitable, gabby Wreck-Gar.

We are the trash that has been built—from what creatures destroyed. That is the meaning of civilization. All it is good for... is spare parts.Rum-Maj, "Dance Among the Shadows"

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

And all he cost was a pamphlet titled "How to Get Ahead in Navigation".

Fleeing the destruction of Junkion when the Cybertronian Great War spilled over onto their world, Rum-Maj, Wreck-Gar, and thousands of Junkion refugees became nomads, travelling through space aboard a gigantic corkscrew-shaped vessel. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain To Walk Among the Chosen Scavenging what technology and trinkets they could as they travelled from world to world, their travels took them to the planet Thrull, where Wreck-Gar fell in love with her; Time Will Rust by the time that their ship chanced upon the planet Earth and its ample supplies of Ore-13, she had become the matriarch of the Junkions tribe. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain

Making planetfall in the Alps, To Walk Among the Chosen Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj were welcomed by Optimus Prime and the Autobots, who had detected the arrival of their ship. The two Junkions explained that they had come to Earth in the hopes of trading their technological secrets for Ore-13, which they could use to rebuild their planet. What negotiations there were—Rum-Maj remained skepetical of Prime's claims that he spoke for all of Earth—were cut short when a G.I. Joe unit showed up, and when a curious Wreck-Gar found himself on the wrong end of the humans' military power, the Autobots chose to withdraw entirely. A few hours later, the Junkions later visited Autobot City to continue their negotiations, and while touring the Titan's internals the Junkions offered the Transformers a legendary positron core. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain

I see a kingdom! Shining bright, I can see the colors coming through

Back aboard her vessel, Rum-Maj watched as Cosmos, Frenzy, and Rumble carried out a covert infiltration of the Junkion cruiser, on Prime's orders... unaware that their stealth paint failed to conceal them from advanced Junkion sensors until they stumbled upon the ship's Sharkticon holding pen, whose inhabitants made short work of the intruders. Behind My Bleeding Back Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj observed their defeat; while Wreck-Gar was still keen to make a deal with the Transformers, Rum-Maj asserted that they couldn't trust Optimus to be a 'bot of his word: rather than bargain for the Ore-13 to rebuild Junkion, they would simply take it and conquer Earth in the bargain, transforming it into a new Junkion homeworld. When the time came for Prime to organize a proper diplomatic summit between Junkion, human, and Transformer, Rum-Maj and her forces began their assault, tossing Cosmos' battered body off their shuttle as evidence of Prime's duplicity before siccing the Sharkticon school on the forces below. Dance Among the Shadows

Rum-Maj gleefully watched as her troops engaged the Transformers; when Optimus Prime retaliated by unleashing Metrotitan on the Junkion mothership, Rum-Maj joined her troops as they stormed the Titan's flight deck, shouting encouragement to the Junkion warriors. Their fortunes took an abrupt turn when Soundwave convinced the Sharkticons to turn against their masters, prompting Rum-Maj to murmur that the Cybertronians were more dangerous than she thought. Future Glories Lost

Rum-Maj walked the plank and made it her kingdom.

As the battle reached its height, Rum-Maj tried to flee from Optimus and the Colonist Soldiers as the rebellious Sharkticon hordes stormed their ship. The standoff was cut short when a stray shot from Arcee detonated Wreck-Gar's positron core, blowing her consort to bits. A defeated Rum-Maj cradled Wreck-Gar's still-living head in her arms as she lamented her failure to rebuild their world. Rather than finish them off, however, Prime realized that he'd gone too far down the path of violence and abruptly changed strategies: revealing the Matrix of Leadership, he convinced both sides to lay down their arms in the hopes of starting anew. Feel Safe Without Regrets On Marissa Faireborn's suggestion, the Junkions were given the old Earth Defense Command base in the Bikini Atoll; working together, the Autobots, Sharkticons, and Junkions set about rebuilding the abandoned base into a new city for themselves as Rum-Maj and Wreck-Gar affectionately bickered with each other. Feel Safe Without Regrets The Next Day, and the Next

Several months later, she and Wreck-Gar attended the opening of a new Ore-13 mine in Kentucky, where she grimly mused on humanity's treatment of their kind. Surfeit of Primes A few weeks after Shockwave's return and the awakening of Unicron, Rum-Maj brooded on the endless cycle of violence that the Cybertronians had perpetuated on the universe before word came in of Slide's attack on the G.I. Joe forces assembled at Mount Rushmore. Rallying their Sharkticons, the pair set out to help, but arrived too late to save either Gimlet or his victim, the recently killed Mainframe, and watched in horror as Unicron materialized over the planet. Time Will Rust As a grieving Soundwave cradled Mainframe's dead body, the two were momentarily overwhelmed by the outlier's telepathic abilities amplifying his emotions, though Wreck-Gar cheerfully pointed out that the situation would translate to good PR regarding human-Cybertronian relations. A Sunrise Dark

X marks the spot.

During the final battle against Unicron and his Maximals, Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj flew their fleet of Sharkticons to Washington, D.C., where they arrived just in time to rescue the President of the United States and her retinue from the Maximals who had survived the crash of Bludgeon's Worldsweeper. Ceremony

In the aftermath of the battle, and in the wake of Prime's own sacrifice, Rum-Maj and Wreck-Gar returned to little Cybertron, where they attended Prime's funeral and helped to bury the many heroes who had perished in the conflict. Rum-Maj wondered if the cost of victory had been too high; Wreck-Gar opined that since life kept going with or without you, nothing could truly be called a victory. Post

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Rum-Maj was a Junkion. Decepticon Directive

Notes

Oil Slick's long-lost sister!

• Rum-Maj's name is altered from the word "rummage," changed in such a way as to resemble Wreck-Gar's name. In addition, rum is a drink commonly associated with pirates, which serve as loose inspiration for her robot mode design. In-keeping with that design influence, Rum-Maj's transformation scheme was designed so that she'd wind up with a skull and crossbones on her back.
• The Legacy: Evolution character Crashbar was drafted as a toy of Rum-Maj at one point in development, though this concept was scrapped due to the Evo-Fusion modularity gimmick precluding her transformation scheme.

See also

• Nancy