Hydradread

Hydradread is a Decepticon Stormtrooper from the Generation 1 continuity family.

He's not here, is he??

Whatever is going on in the dark, sticky mind of Hydradread, it always spells an unfortunate, messy end for somebody. Even Decepticons who've been committing atrocities for millions of stellar cycles will admit that this guy here can come up with some really genius-level depravity. Rage can always count on Hydradread as the Stormtroopers' scientific advisor to give any attack strategy that extra twist of the knife.

Fiction

Fleetway Generation 2 comic

Suicide Squad hoooooo!

The Stormtroopers were part of Bludgeon's forces dispatched on Earth to basically wreck stuff until Optimus Prime came to stop them. War Without End Hydradread, having apparently found humans too small to be suitable targets, was eagerly anticipating going up against some Autobots... but instead, the Stormtroopers found themselves up against Megatron, who had come to take leadership of the Decepticons back from Bludgeon. They attacked, and Hydradread was the first to get blasted by Megatron. War Zone

TransTech

Later arrested for squirting in public.

Hydradread was among the inhabitants of the multiversal hub city of Axiom Nexus. Transcendent: Part 4 Either this Hydradread or another one was presumably one of the founders of Hydradread/Highbrow Hybrid Technologies. His company's stock skyrocketed after the Supreme Multi-Circuit Court struck down the Vraz-Halogen Act. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/09

Wings Universe

Hydradread was a weapons designer and technician working for Rage in the early days of the war. Their "Stormtroopers" were little more than thugs and bandits with delusions of grandeur, but had nonetheless scored a major coup when they captured a transforming base known as the Metrotitan. Their next venture was to recover the fabled "Heart of Darkness" that a dig team recovered from Median.

Hydradread supplied his teammates with pump-action rifles that fired streams of corrosive stasis gel. The pumping was silly, but the result was still effective. The team secured the Heart and brought it back to the Metrotitan, where Hydradread rushed to install it in the proper frame. The Heart was actually a supernaturally powerful personality component, which Rage eventually hoped to install in the Metrotitan itself. But first, a test. The Mini-Con-sized dragon body dubbed "Brimstone" proved remarkably powerful for the Heart on its own once Hydradread was finished. Too powerful, in fact—Brimstone eventually entered meltdown and exploded, taking the Metrotitan with him.

The survival of Rage and Hydradread remains uncertain. Flames of Yesterday

2005 IDW continuity

Serving under Turmoil, Hydradread helped Drench restrain Deadlock when he got too rebellious and attempted to overthrow their leader. However, he was caught off-guard when Turmoil accidentally killed Drench, and the prisoner escaped. Drift #1

Years later, Hydradread was among the Decepticons who raided Megatron's trial in an attempt to free their leader, only to fail when it turned out Megatron had no intention to run. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide

Beast Wars: Uprising

Hydradread and Deluge once enjoyed the beaches of Loneedo together. Deluge recalled this pleasant moment many years later, after he'd become an immobile Builder of Cybertron. The Inexorable March

2019 IDW continuity

Hydradread was an eccentric weapons engineer who specialized in unusual fluid-based weapons. In the cycles leading up to the Great War, he became a member of The Rise; as a member of Shockwave's inner cadre, Shockwave sent him and Rage to find Bombshell and the other Insecticons, who'd stolen some of his equipment before going rogue. Escape Part Three

Wielding some of Hydradread's new acid rifles, the pair traced the stolen equipment all the way to the Cybertronian Mountains where they discovered that the Insecticons had set up a cloning laboratory which they used to mass-produce Insecticon clones. The pair narrowly managed to escape the swarm before the Titan Emissary crash-landed atop the position; the subsequent cave-in trapped Hydradread underneath the wreckage and forced Rage to melt the scientist's leg off with his own rifle to save him. As they retreated, the pair watched as the entire swarm took off towards the nearby city of Darkmount. Escape Part Four

Toys

The Transformers

Beware the deadly elephant snout gun!

• Hydradread (Stormtrooper, 1993)

• Accessories: Water cannon
• Known designers: Andy Couzens (Hasbro), Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Hydradread transforms into a modified 1990 Pontiac Sunfire Concept Car. His rear bumper contains a bellows that can be filled with water, shooting it from the nozzle that ends up on his car-mode roof. This assembly becomes a hand-held weapon in robot mode. His hood/chest piece is coated in color changing paint; when it gets warm, it turns from its normal blueish tint to a pale off-white.

Hydradread was only available in various European markets during the two-year "transitional" period marking the changeover from the original toyline to Generation 2; in the original line's final year (1993), the toys were given redesigned Autobot and Decepticon symbols, but it wasn't until 1994 that "Generation 2" appeared on the packaging.

• More information on Hydradread at TFU.info

Generation 2

• Hydradread (Stormtrooper, 1994)

• Accessories: Water cannon

This release is identical to the original, only this time in packaging specifically branded "Generation 2".

Notes

• A piece of internal documentation containing Hydradread's packaging copy once turned up on eBay, evidently from the collection of a former Hasbro employee. This document shows that Hydradread's name was intended to be Hydrodread; the write-up has the "A" in his name crossed out by hand and replaced with an "O". Evidently this correction never made it through the system, as our boy here made it all the way to production as Hydradread.
• Hydradread gets the front-and-center spot on the 1993 cardback mural, facing off against Deluge. This seems a pretty random choice, as he's actually got the lowest Rank among the Stormtroopers... as does Deluge among the Aquaspeeders, for that matter.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Hydradread (ハイドラドレッド Haidoradoreddo)
• Dutch: Hydroshark
• French: Hydroshark
• Italian: Idrosqualo ("Hydroshark")