Bludgeon (ROTF)

The name or term "Bludgeon" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Bludgeon (disambiguation).

Bludgeon is a Decepticon from the live-action film series continuity.

Foolish Whirl! To a master of Metallikato, your moves are like— grhk

Bludgeon is a Metallikato martial-artist, loyal to the Decepticon cause and armed with an ancient blade handed down from ancient times. Underneath the samurai trappings though, he's a pretty straightforward 'con: he loves giving people a kicking, he's willing to fight dirty, and he doesn't give a fig about your complaints of immorality. Things like that, and his willingness to use a high-voltage electric cannon when fights go against him, are why other Metallikato users believe he's not a true master. But what does he care, he just shot you with a cannon!

One thing he does care about: he really, really gets focused on rivals and proving he's the best of them. If the rival defeats him, hey, he'll just find a new one to obsess over, no matter how much damage he took from the last.

He likes how Earth is full of innocent victims to use against Autobots, but he could do without all that disgusting greenery and water (urg!). It has other possibilities too: a smart, canny, dirty-fighting 'Con could lead his own faction if they played their cards right...

I am a warrior born! It is you, Megatron, who should fear me!Bludgeon has ball bearings, "A Short, Sharp Lesson!"

Fiction

Toy bios

These are the tales of the Skeleton Warriors...

Bludgeon and Whirl were rivals in Metallikato. When they ran into each other on Earth a battle ensued, a fight to the finish that would take only microseconds. Master of Metallikato Whirl was the victor of the fight, whereas Bludgeon was nearly killed and retreated.

Reemerging in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Bludgeon scanned a new tank mode and reformatted his robot mode into a frightening skeleton-like samurai. Drawn to his location by his acts of mayhem, Ironhide and Armorhide have come to complete the unfinished mission of hunting the Decepticon martial artist down. Eager to prove his mettle against an Autobot in battle and restore his honor, he lies in wait for his next opponent. Bludgeon (Voyager) Armorhide (Deluxe)

Cyber Missions

Voice actor: Bronco D. Jackson (English), Miguel Ángel Ghigliazza (Spanish), Ronaldo Júlio (Brazilian Portuguese)

The one fiction in which his toy actually has swords, he uses a tree. Go figure.

Ironhide! I will extinguish your spark beneath my treads!

When Bludgeon and Soundwave descended on Diego Garcia, they interrupted an Autobot mission briefing. While Bumblebee stayed inside to guard its precious data tracks from Soundwave, Ironhide headed outside, where he was happy to face Bludgeon in battle, ramming him off the road. Bludgeon was able to temporarily thwart Ironhide when he snuck up behind the Autobot and hit him with a tree. The Decepticon wondered if he'd be as smart without that ugly head of his. Cyber Missions #1

Optimus Prime radioed Ironhide to hold off fighting Bludgeon until reinforcements arrived, but Ironhide didn't have the option. Bludgeon cursed the organic environment in which he was staged, and drew his weapon. When the fight reached an apparent stalemate, Ironhide offered Bludgeon amnesty if he joined the Autobots. Bludgeon refused, citing the wrath of Megatron, and dove backwards off a waterfall. Cyber Missions #2

Megatron led the Decepticons on a mission to free the captured Soundwave. It was an Autobot trap. Bludgeon fought with Ratchet until an army of the Autobots' human allies surrounded the battlefield. Optimus Prime gave each Decepticon a choice: Leave Earth or be destroyed. Bludgeon and the other Decepticons chose to leave Earth. Decepticons Attack

Titan movie comics

Ah, that's much better.

One fine day, Bludgeon said to himself that he'd quite like to run his own group of Decepticons. But where could he find recruits? Well, there sure are a lot of them in NEST's prison... Inside Out! And so, pretending to be after an unspecified goal, Bludgeon entered the city of Las Vegas and waited for the Autobots to notice. The Autobots' plan was to allow the Decepticon to leave the city and safely attack him in the empty desert, but the impulsive Jolt couldn't hold himself back, and leapt into battle before Bludgeon had departed. The mighty martial artist shrugged off a blow from Jolt's electro-whip and severed the weapon with a slash of his sword, before hurling the Autobot through the wall of a nearby casino.

Bludgeon taunted Jolt by commenting on the proliferation of humans and how little the Decepticons cared for them, as a precursor to transforming into a tank mode and taking aim at some hapless gamblers. Jolt hurled himself into the path of Bludgeon's blast, and as he lay wounded, Bludgeon rubbed salt into his wound by reminding him that none of this would have happened if he had just followed his orders. Bludgeon attempted to deliver a killing strike with his sword, but Jolt rolled away at the last second, causing Bludgeon to embed his blade in the ground instead. In that moment, Jolt seized the immobilized sword and used his electrical powers to channel the entire output of the Las Vegas power grid through the blade, straight into Bludgeon himself! Bludgeon was knocked offline by the massive power surge, and taken into Autobot custody. Culture Shock

"I'll hit his shoulder at some point!"

Later, in NEST's South Africa maximum security prison, Bludgeon decided to make his bid for freedom. Halfway through Brakedown taunting him over his easy defeat, Bludgeon released Scalpel from a hidden compartment to remove his restraints. Now armed and dangerous, he freed all the other prisoners-Brakedown, Reverb, Tankor, Dead End, Skywarp, and Lockdown-, murdered Brakedown to encourage discipline, and led a vicious attack on the few helpless Autobot guards. Reinforcements in the form of Bumblebee, Springer, and Gears eventually arrived, just in time to stop him from murdering a beaten Brawn, but they had to let him and the Decepticons leave to avoid civilian casualties. As a result, Bludgeon managed to escape, and with his own personal army... Inside Out!

Form blazing sword!

Bludgeon kept out of the spotlight, but his unit would attempt to recruit the Autobot beserker Blazemaster into their ranks. And while Reverb would break off from their number, Turn and Burn Thrust would eventually take the lone wolf's place. Divided Loyalties Finally, after Crankstart, Brimstone, and Trenchmouth were neutralised in Utah, he decided to declare open war Shadow War, with a scheme to wear down and destroy NEST to cut off the Autobot's support before he came for them.

However, NEST worked out that his base was in Russia... but Wheelie turned traitor and informed Bludgeon in advance of the NEST/Autobot raid. Bludgeon, an adaptable sort, abandoned his previous plan and quickly organised an all-out assault: he ambushed them, boxed them in, and wore them down, personally murdering Slap Dash and wounding/killing Hubcap in the process. Unfortunately, that's when the person Wheelie was really working for arrived: Megatron. Divided Loyalties While his men wet themselves, Bludgeon wasn't impressed and fought Megatron to keep control of his faction, but after a brief fight, the "pretender" (gettit? gettit?!) was beaten down, being spared from death only because Megatron might have use for him. A Short, Sharp Lesson

Unite for the Universe

Alas, poor Bludgeon... I knew him. A fellow of limited ambition, non-existent social skills, and zero sense of humor.Starscream gets all Shakespearian with a hologram of Bludgeon's head, "Ambition Instigated"

Megatron offered Bludgeon, one of the Decepticons' most dependable and calculating warriors, control of the Decepticon forces on Earth if he could deliver to Megatron the "Unite" technology that N.E.S.T. had been developing. Bludgeon assured Megatron that he would not fail him. Starscream, a spectator to this conversation, unwittingly expressed his displeasure—Earth was his, not Bludgeon's! When Megatron chastised Starscream for his outburst, Starscream made secret plans to sabotage Bludgeon's efforts.

Bludgeon led a team consisting of Dirge, Mindwipe, and Brakedown to the N.E.S.T. Advanced Research Facility in Japan. Dirge and Mindwipe complained that they had sneaked into N.E.S.T.'s proximity on foot, since the two could have easily arrived much faster in their flight modes, but Bludgeon reminded them that their plan would succeed only via stealth. Unfortunately for Bludgeon, the element of surprise would not be his, as a team of Autobots was waiting for him there, as their mission had been tipped off by an anonymous source. Bludgeon immediately suspected Starscream of being behind this treachery, and, sure enough, Starscream made this quickly apparent. Compromised, Bludgeon called for a retreat, but he and his troops were buried under ice by Autobot firepower. The Secret of Project: Unite

Some time later, Bludgeon violently emerged from his would-be icy tomb, swearing vengeance against Starscream. Though Starscream believed Bludgeon destroyed, Bludgeon instead viewed Starscream's efforts to retrieve "Unite" technology from afar. After Ravage returned successful from one of Starscream's missions, Bludgeon planned to follow the cat back to his master so he could at last enact his revenge. Ambition Instigated

Bludgeon located Starscream's secret base just as Sea Spray, Sideswipe, and Breacher engaged the Decepticons. He used their distraction to infiltrate the base, but was overpowered by Starscream moments after he entered. Bludgeon's Revenge Bludgeon was recovered from the wreckage of Starscream's base by NEST. On the Road of Destruction

IDW movie comics

"...That or target practice."

After Megatron's defeat at the Star Harvester in Egypt, Starscream gathered his own followers and hatched his own plans for conquest. To this end, Starscream sent Bludgeon and several other Decepticons under his command after a small Transformer named Brains who had fallen under the protection of Bumblebee and Sam Witwicky. Rising Storm #2 In addition to Bumblebee, Wheeljack and Mirage opposed the Decepticons, and in the chaos of battle, Bludgeon accidentally killed Storm Surge while trying to shoot the invisible Mirage. He wasn't all that remorseful about his mistake. Rising Storm #3 Once the Decepticons learned that Shockwave had arranged their mission in order to divert attention away from his own activities, they lost interest in fighting and attempted to retreat, but the Autobots wouldn't let them. Bludgeon was last seen laying defeated on the ground with a wound to his chest. Rising Storm #4

Games

StrikeZone Showdown

Bludgeon, Megatron and Lockdown faced off against Ironhide, Ratchet and Bumblebee in the middle of a forest in a battle to the death. Bludgeon would leap into the air and perform melee attacks to defeat his opponents. StrikeZone Showdown

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)

Bludgeon appears in the Rise of the Dark Spark game for Nintendo 3DS as support a unit. Equipping him allows all Earth Mercenaries to not fully exhaust the points used in any of their melee attacks.

Rise of the Dark Spark

Toys

Revenge of the Fallen

I'm just feeling a little naked, alright?

• Master of Metallikato (Multi-pack, 2009)

• Accessories: Two spring-loaded machine-guns/blades
• Known designers: Don Figueroa (concept artist)

Revenge of the Fallen "Decepticon Bludgeon" is a redeco of Transformers Deluxe Class Wreckage, and transforms into an M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle in green and brown, armed with a M2 .50 cal machine gun and two other machine guns mounted extending out of the troop compartment. In vehicle mode, he sports "KN-2764" markings, a reference to "SAGE2764", the username that deco designer Joe Kyde used at the Hong Kong discussion group talk.transformers to disseminate hoax information for his senior capstone project several years earlier. ("SAGE2764" had previously also been featured on the license plate of Recon Barricade from the first movie toy line.)

His Automorphing feature is activated during transformation by swinging his machine gun down, pushing it against a painted green panel, which simultaneously raises his shoulders, lowers his torso, raises his head and extends his stomach-mounted cannon all in one movement.

The smaller machine gun weapons feature flip-out energy blades that can be held in his hands, mounted under his forearms or on any of the wheels. They can also connect together to form an undocumented but certainly intended double-bladed weapon; mounting this on his forearm wheels gives him an awesome spinning blade weapon.

There is a minor issue with this mold wherein moving his arms down or towards his back at the shoulder will activate his Automorphing feature and begin to fold the torso back into its vehicle mode position. The best way to avoid this is to hold the machine gun plugging into his back in position while moving his arms.

This figure was only available as part of the "Master of Metallikato" two-pack with Autobot Whirl, which was nominally exclusive to Toys"R"Us, but was also found at Winners stores in Canada. This toy was also repurposed by IDW Publishing as an upgraded form for Wreckage.

• More information on Bludgeon at TFU.info

The most metal toy ever.

• Decepticon Bludgeon (Voyager Class, 2009)

• Japanese ID number: RD-20
• Accessories: katana, tantō (see notes below)

Bludgeon now transforms from a green and orange Japanese Type 90 tank into a skeletal samurai robot mode which homages the Generation 1 Bludgeon's Pretender shell, in colors that homage both the shell and the original inner robot. Bludgeon features a flexible plastic sword which is made out of a portion of the barrel of the tank's main gun as well as a smaller dagger. The dagger can be stored in a sheath which is revealed from inside the tank turret, and both blades can be slotted in holes provided on the robot mode's left hip guard. Additionally, the dagger's handle can fit in the base of the sword's handle, forming a double-bladed weapon. He has Mech Alive gimmicks in his thighs and turret: Sculpted cylinders in his thighs rotate whenever his lower legs are rotated, and that pulling his turret open makes a gray sculpted "disc" at the center rotate while a scabbard for the tantō hinges over to the side and props itself up for use.

The vehicle mode is one of the very few Transformer tank toys with rubber components to its treads. Portions of the tread links can unlock, allowing them to hang from the robot mode, while the wheels of the treads are integrated separately into the robot mode form itself. The treads still do not function realistically; small plastic wheels on the underside of the treads help the tank mode roll, as is standard with nearly all Transformer tank toys. Unfortunately, over time, the rubber starts to erode the surrounding plastic. The process is very slow, but the effect is noticeable; affected plastic appears melty and distorted.

Japanklok, making toys METAL since 1984.

There is a paint application error on Bludgeon's rear wheels/thighs, wherein the black paint operations, which were meant to help blend his rear wheels in with the black center wheels, are placed on the wrong side, keeping them out of sight in vehicle mode, and behind his thighs in robot mode. The ratcheting hip joint is also flipped 180 degrees from what it should be, with two further ratchet divots on top of the hip than inside of it, meaning the mechanism in the upper leg is trying to click into a smooth surface. The toy seems to have been originally designed to feature light-piping in the head, though this feature is rendered useless with it being cast in the same solid gray plastic used for his arms, weapons, shoulders and Mech Alive features.

The Japanese TakaraTomy release of Bludgeon has a different instruction sheet that actually labels the weapons as a katana and tantō, whereas the Hasbro release doesn't label them at all.

Unsurprisingly, this toy was repurposed as Generation 1 Bludgeon in several video games. This mold was redecoed into Transformers Banzaitron, and retooled into BotCon 2012 Gigatron, Generations Megatron and Cloud Megatron.

• More information on Voyager Bludgeon at TFU.info

Revenge of the Fallen mold: Bludgeon
Hasbro: Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon Hunt for the Decepticons Banzaitron Generations Megatron (GDO) Fun Publications: Timelines Gigatron TakaraTomy: Revenge RD-20 Bludgeon Cloud TFC-D01 Megatron

Notes

• The Deluxe Class Bludgeon's color scheme was used as a disguise by Wreckage in IDW Publishing's Alliance #2 comic, before the identity of the toy as Bludgeon was publicly confirmed.
• The origin of Voyager Class Bludgeon is older than one may expect. Artist Don Figueroa submitted a concept for a Unicron Trilogy Bludgeon toy that looked very similar to the final product way back during the development of the Energon or Cybertron toylines. Obviously, the concept wasn't put into production as a toy at the time, so Figueroa used it as inspiration for his IDW Publishing Stormbringer rendition of Generation 1 Bludgeon. However, Hasbro evidently resurrected the concept for the Universe (as mentioned by Hasbro at BotCon 2009) and then the Revenge of the Fallen lines. Figueroa notes that his contribution on this toy is very small, as his work on it ended when he submitted the concept to Hasbro way back when.

Smile for the camera!

• Although the Japanese instruction sheet of the Voyager class toy states that the shorter sword is a tantō (短刀), its shape resembles a wakizashi (脇差). Similarly, the longer blade that is referred to as a katana (刀) is too long, and thus more resembles an ōdachi (大太刀).
• Bludgeon is one of only two Decepticons in Titan's stories that has explicitly been shown killing someone on panel, and twice (three times if Hubcap is dead).

Foreign names

• Japanese: Bludgeon (ブラジオン Burajion)