Rampage (BW)

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

Rampage is a Transmetal Predacon from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

I ate his spark... with a side of fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Rampage (also known as Protoform X) is the awful result of scientific experimentation gone awry. He is a serial killer and cannibal, with an immortal spark that ensures his twisted brand of horror and misery will live on as long as he does (forever, presumably). Rampage detects and draws strength from the emotions of others, literally feeding on the pain and suffering he causes. As an unwilling conscript of the Predacons, he is contemptuous (at best) of the rest of his team, typically bored and uncooperative on missions, and he frequently sneaks off for his own purposes to try to relieve his boredom in the most cruel and horrible ways possible.

“	Is that fear you are feeling, Maximal? Yes... my spark feeds on terror. Let it grow! Let it consume your circuitry! Feel it, yes, feel it! Feel the fear!	”
—Rampage, "Bad Spark"

French-Canadian name: Furibo

Italian name: Granchior

Polish name: Pieniacz

Spanish name: Rampante

Brazilian name: Violência or Destruição (both names were used in a rather inconsistent way)

Fiction

Dawn of Future's Past

The Maximals should consider making their scandalous super-secret projects a little smaller.

While preparing for a deep-space exploration mission, the Maximal crew of the Axalon stopped for a few weeks at a space station. Here, Rhinox helped acquire a mysterious complement to their cargo, a very large protoform branded with an X. The Axalon was ordered to dispose of "Protoform X" on a barren moon somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant. However, before its captain, Optimus Primal, was able to explain the circumstances fully to his crew, they were suddenly under even newer orders to pursue a stolen Predacon ship, the Darksyde. Subsequently, the Axalon followed the Darksyde through a transwarp portal and crash-landed on a mysterious planet. Dawn of Future's Past

Beast Wars cartoon

Voice Actor: Campbell Lane (English), Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese)

This is a great way to work out.

Protoform X was a Maximal experiment to recreate Starscream's mutant, immortal Spark. Though arguably successful in this regard, the creation was unstable. In point of fact, he was criminally insane. He destroyed Colony Omicron, killing all of its inhabitants save a lone security officer, Depth Charge, who eventually tracked him down and captured him - but not before Protoform X destroyed Starbase Rugby and devoured an unknown number of the inhabitants. The Maximal Elders had Protoform X placed into a stasis pod aboard an exploration vessel, the Axalon. They instructed its commander, Optimus Primal, to dump him on some barren world in deep space.

Protoform X was among the stasis pods jettisoned by Optimus when the Axalon was damaged by Megatron's Predacons, and only fell out of orbit far into the Beast Wars. Battle near his stasis pod shocked him into activation, and he promptly set out to terrorize all nearby Transformers, rending Tarantulas limb from limb and stalking Blackarachnia and Silverbolt. (All right, whose bright idea was it to allow the homicidal maniac to keep his weapons!?) X seemed unstoppable at first, but when one of Silverbolt's missiles jammed his tank treads as he climbed up a mountainside, he lost his grip and tumbled down the rock face in pieces.

As Protoform X lay immobilized, Megatron arrived and, using a blade of pure energon, removed a portion of his indestructible spark. Megatron then had him brought back to the Predacon base and repaired. When X attempted to turn his weapons on his "savior", Megatron revealed that he held half of X's spark in a special cage lined with energon crystals, allowing him to torture the beast at will. Megatron thus welcomed him into the Predacon fold, dubbing him "Rampage". Bad Spark

"Alas, poor Transmutate..."

None shall hurt you now. Come with me, come. I will protect you... I am your friend. Your only friend.Rampage convinces Transmutate to follow him, "Transmutate"

Rampage made no secret of his hatred for his new "master". Megatron kept the spark cage with him at all times, fending off at least one attempt by Rampage to take it back. Though a violent sociopath, Rampage was not without compassion. He found a kindred spirit in the badly damaged Transmutate and sought to protect it from the other Predacons, and became possessive enough to viciously fight with Silverbolt over it. When Transmutate was killed by this fight, Rampage bellowed in grief. Transmutate

Rampage finally met his match in battle when the newly-reformatted Optimus Primal attacked him while he was attempting to push the Axalon over the cliff from which it perched. The huge Maximal leader simply shoved him aside, but Rampage had the last laugh as his deflected missile sent the Maximal base plunging into the lake. Optimal Situation

Later, Depth Charge arrived on prehistoric Earth with the single-minded goal of destroying Rampage. Rampage was beside himself with joy, eager for revenge on his old "playmate". Depth Charge's loss at Colony Omicron had embittered him, and Rampage used this emotional wound to torment the Maximal. Deep Metal Rampage soon met his old enemy again when Rattrap descended to the bottom of the lake to retrieve the Sentinel module from the wreckage of the Axalon. Depth Charge had the upper hand in the battle, but Rampage escaped death when Silverbolt argued with Depth Charge over his commitment to the Maximals. Changing of the Guard

THERE CAN BE ONLY...NONE!

When Megatron created Dinobot 2, he used Rampage's spark fragment to form the core of the new Predacon, who likewise retained the ability torture Rampage into continued loyalty with it. Naturally, Rampage was filled with fury and disgust at sharing his spark with a 'brother'. Feral Scream Part 1

Rampage would go on to have a second clash with Silverbolt, targeting him when he was filled with grief and rage over Blackarachnia's death; he'd have killed him easily if Blackarachnia hadn't suddenly become alive again and beaten him up. Crossing the Rubicon He almost got his revenge when Megatron deliberately gave Blackarachnia to him (JESUS CHRIST, MEGS), and was clearly having fun torturing her before she was able to overpower him. Master Blaster

While Megatron was retrieving the submerged Decepticon craft Nemesis, Depth Charge met Rampage in battle one last time. At the battle's climax, Rampage allowed Depth Charge to kill him with a shard of raw Energon, resulting in a fantastic explosion which destroyed both. Rampage won even in death, laughing maniacally in triumph as Depth Charge made the final, stabbing blow. Nemesis Part 1

Beast Wars Metals comic

He's a Frankenstein's monster-like thing. He ate Primal's head. It's okay, Primal had a spare. One more thing. The head Rampage ate had a bomb in its mouth. Idiot.

Toys

Beast Wars

• Rampage (Ultra Transmetal, 1998)
• Japanese ID number: D-41
• Accessories: Spring-loaded triple barrel missile launcher, 3 missiles and 1 rifle

A Seafood Louis eater's worst nightmare.

Rampage transforms into a Transmetal king crab with a tank mode that includes rubber treads. In beast mode, he features fully articulated crab legs and pincers that can open, close and be posed in a variety of angles through the use of ratcheting joints. His triple-barreled Gatling missile launcher is stored on the underside of the beast mode, with its barrels flipping to the front during vehicle mode. In this tank mode, the crab legs fit together to form a road wheel network for Rampage's rubber treads to fit over so he can roll upon them. Rolling the tank activates the wheel in the missile launcher, firing any or all of the three missiles that can store in it.

In robot mode, Rampage is an imposingly large figure with a decent level of articulation due to his ball joints, but because he wears most of his beast mode as a sort of backpack, he is quite back-heavy. His (very) small laser rifle and his triple-barreled launcher can be held in both of his hands. There were two releases of the toy, one with face colors accurate with the show and another with an orange colored face (seen to the right).

The location of four of the crab legs in the show is not accurate to the toy; the show has the legs on the shoulder pads, whereas the toy situates the legs on Rampage's arms (which mean they are rather cumbersome).

This toy was later redecoed into the BotCon 2000-exclusive Shokaract.

Notes

• According to the series background materials published in the Beast Wars Universe guidebook, Rampage's body was supposed to have been constructed out of leftover G1-era technology seen in the Great War due to the lack of know-how for protoform technology. How this jibes with his status as "Protoform X" is anyone's guess.
• In some episodes, Rampage's robot-mode mouth is animated as an actual hole in his face; in others the external mouthplates are shown to be in front of a greenish solid construct that looks like an extension of his eyes.
• Some fans are split on how to interpret Rampage's death; he is clearly shown to let go of the energon shard that killed him prior to being stabbed with it, to which Depth Charge reacted in surprise. Because of this, some fans feel this means Rampage, knowing he couldn't win the struggle, allowed himself to be impaled in order to end his torturous existence (and laughing in the giddy euphoria of oblivion), while others believe he deliberately let go to test whether or not Depth Charge would go through with his threat of ending his life, his laughter instead being taken as solace in the knowledge that Depth Charge's obsession with him had successfully corrupted him into the same kind of monster he wanted to kill. Or, Rampage could just be completely insane.
• No explanation is ever given for why energon suddenly kills Rampage, even though Megatron's been poking his spark with it ever since he appeared. Although the fact the energon was unstable may have had something to do with it.
• Also, the difference between the spliting (and subsequent torturing) of Rampage's spark, and Depth Charge's fateful blow may be seen to be the same as the difference between surgery and hacking at someone with a sword, with the same difference in results.
• Back-of-the-box art for Rampage gives technical designations to some of his robot mode parts; they include "terror claws", armor plating, and the ever-dreaded galva-conductors.

External links

• Rampage at TFU.info