Dillo

Dillo is a Maximal from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

I’m a Dillo.

Dillo is a reformatted ancient task drone who was found by Nightscream. As one of the Deployers, he is capable of quick transformation abilities. He was taught by an ancient Autobot tracker in the ways of the mace bollo. Unfortunately he only uses it while retreating. He is a bit of a coward, but attempts to maintain a tough outer demeanor.

Fiction

3H comics

Having recently been discovered by Nightscream, Dillo and his fellow Deployers Mol and Rav were escorting the young Maximal and Optimus Primal back to their hidden base when they were stopped cold by a squad of Vehicon Tank Drones. Things looked grim for the group until Ramulus, Primal Prime and Apelinq arrived and were all super-awesome and unstoppable. The whole group then journeyed underground, where the Oracle gave the gathered Cybertronians their tasks. The shifty Maximal Packrat convinced the Deployers to join up with the Wreckers crew.

The Deployers took part in the later battle for the Autobot shuttle that would take the Wreckers off-planet, fighting through hundreds of Vehicon drones. However, once they were on board and off-planet, the Deployers, Spittor, and Sonar were battered insensible by a stowaway, the bounty hunter Devcon. Departure

Things didn't get much better for Dillo and crew, as an act of sabotage by Cyclonus sent explosions rocking through the ship. The section the Deployers, Spittor and Sonar were in was jettisoned by Packrat, leaving the five to die a fiery death in deep space. Betrayal

2005 IDW continuity

Dillo was one of Onyx Prime's Maximals. After his master invaded Cybertron and felled Metrotitan, Dillo was sent out of Nemesis under Liege Maximo's command to root out the Titan's companions. The Hallowing

Dillo was one of the many warriors who wound up battling Arcee and fell to his death when Arcee disrupted the gravity generator in Nemesis. Unforgivable

Missing Link

Dillo was a buggy unit who supported Sentinel Prime. Sentinel Prime bio

Toys

Beast Machines

Oh no, I ain't buying you some time.

• Dillo (Deployer, 2000)

• Accessories: Bollo-missile

Dillo is a purple and blue mechanical armadillo. He features a quick-change transformation into a sort of catapult and a mace-shaped "bollo" missile. (Judging from the shape of the missile, "bollo" is probably a typo for—or pun on—"bola".)

• More information on Dillo at TFU.info

• Dillo (Deployer, 2001)

• Accessories: Bollo-missile

The "running change" redeco of Dillo retains all his original features, but now in red and blue. The color changes were not reflected on the packaging, which still showed the original colors.

• More information on Dillo (redeco) at TFU.info

Missing Link

• Sentinel Prime (センチネルプライム, 2024)

• ID number: C-01S
• Release date: 2024 September 12
• Known designers: Hirofumi Ichikawa (deco, bio)

Missing Link Dillo is a blue redeco of Roller, included with Sentinel Prime.

This mold was also used to make Giza, companion to Nemesis Prime.

Notes

• The redeco of Dillo was—according to store listings—originally supposed to be named "Trench", just as the other two redecoed Deployers were to be renamed. Why this plan changed is unknown.
• Dillo's association with an "ancient Autobot tracker" who used a "mace bollo" is a deep-cut reference to the so-called "U-Haul Robot" from "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4", who was later retconned into being an incarnation of Sentinel Prime. Similarly, his fellow Deployer Rav was said to have worked with "an ancient female Autobot resistance leader"—Beta, from "Forever Is a Long Time Coming". Over twenty years later, Hirofumi Ichikawa named Missing Link Sentinel Prime's redecoed Roller drone partner Dillo, explicitly tying the two characters together directly; on social media, he posted an image of the toy posed with Beast Machines Dillo's bollo-missile accessory.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Dillo (ディロ Diro)