Mudflap (Cybertron): Difference between revisions
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:''Japanese name:'' '''Demolishor''' | :''Japanese name:'' '''Demolishor''' | ||
:''Russian name:'' '''Брызговик''' | |||
Revision as of 10:16, 9 February 2010
| The name or term "Mudflap" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Mudflap (disambiguation). |
- Mudflap is an Autobot and a Decepticon from the Cybertron portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.
Mudflap has anger issues. A former Autobot and friend to Landmine, being forced to remain hidden on Earth after the evacuation of Cybertron was frustrating for this former famous boxing champion. So frustrating that when he was approached by the Decepticons, he signed up! Only time will tell if Mudflap's heart is really with the Decepticon cause.
To human ears, Mudflap speaks with a French-Canadian accent. Aside from his pugilistic skills, he's an expert in swinging his massive crane-blade, incorporating it into his free-flying limbs fighting technique.
| “ | What's weeth zeez humans, anyway? Zey are one bunch of deesorderly cats, eh? | ” |
—Mudflap's world view, "Race" | ||
- Japanese name: Demolishor
- Russian name: Брызговик
Fiction
Animated continuity
Cybertron
- Voice actor: Dale Wilson (English), Taketora (Japanese)
Mudflap was an old friend and student of the aging Autobot soldier Landmine, who practically raised him. Revelation In 2030 he was one of many Autobots forced by the Unicron Singularity to take refuge on Earth. He found it somewhat frustrating, being vexed by human behavior, such as putting up traffic lights and then not stopping for them, and the resulting crashes.
One day, while he was driving through the desert outside a city after being agitated by such an incident, Mudflap was approached by the Decepticons Starscream and Thundercracker. When Thundercracker opened fire, Mudflap transformed and fought back, summoning his new Cyber Key to deploy a blade from his crane arm. The battle continued until it looked like Thundercracker would win, at which point Starscream intervened.
Starscream told the confused Mudflap that the attack had simply been a test of his mettle, and he'd passed. He then lied to Mudflap that in this situation that both Autobots and Decepticons were trying to gain the Cyber Planet Keys to save the universe, the Decepticons merely trying to do so without caring about the humans. The puzzled Mudflap accepted Starscream's offer of Decepticon membership, at least for now, and became a turncoat. Thundercracker gave him a lift to the Fire dimension. Race
The poor bugger found most of his time was spent training, and he would sometimes be deliberately left behind. Savage He eventually got to go to Earth with Starscream, trying to capture the Autobot's human allies (they failed) and having a brawl with Scattershot. Ice He was then part of a mission to capture the Cyber Planet Key of Jungle Planet Cybertron and then got the illustrious honour of being trapped in a big ball by Starscream. Trap
Once out, he joined Megatron's all-out strike on Earth to capture that world's Cyber Planet Key and beat on Starscream. In the battle that ensued, Mudflap and Landmine found themselves facing each other; Landmine was horrified and appealed to his old friend to realise what he was doing. Mudflap, not wanting to fight the older mech, tried to get him to walk away and finally attacked in a panic. Revelation With the two locked in combat, Landmine finally put down his protege with Cyber Key power and urged him again to reconsider his path. Mudflap refused Critical and the fight carried on, only taking a brief break to change battlefields and while Mudflap spent a bit demanding Crosswise face "someone your own size" instead of Ransack. When Landmine and Mudflap began their fight again, both were angrier and more willing to hit out than before. Assault
Mudflap went on to help Megatron in battle, briefly paused in his villainy when Landmine pointed out an Autobot team was en route to Cybertron and further battling was just endangering their homeworld. The crane was pained by the dilemma... but chose to keep helping Megatron. Starscream
He was withdrawn from Earth and made part of the team that pursued the Omega Lock across the space bridge. United There, he got to see completely inexplicable stuff, Megatron jumping into a time/space vortex, and Ransack and Crumplezone quite happily abandoning their leader. Narked off with the duo, he gave up and went back to Earth. Cybertron Unable to trust the Decepticons any longer but unable to return to the Autobots after this actions, Mudflap was left in despair. Escape
However, in his darkest hour, Landslide came to him again and offered him a chance to rejoin the Autobots. While Mudflap attacked in an angry attempt to be left alone, Landslide refused to fight back: and when he told Mudflap he just wanted his friend back, the troubled Transformer collapsed to his knees in tears, apologizing for everything he has done. Landmine told Mudflap that the most important thing was to forgive himself, and he and a group of civilian Autobots welcomed Mudflap back into their ranks. Family
When the black hole's growth began to devastate Earth, Mudflap was one of the hundreds of Autobots who began saving humans, noting it was great to be doing something useful for once. He then joined the Autobots in taking the fight to Galvatron himself. Homecoming Following the end of the black hole, he fought to save the Jungle Planet and Cybertron from collision. Unfinished
After this final victory, he joined his friend Landmine in tracking down Starscream, as a matter of honour. They eventually found him, but the end result is unknown... Beginning
Toys
Cybertron
- Mudflap (Voyager, 2005)
- Japanese ID number: GD-09
- Accessories: Missile, Earth-style Cyber Key
- Mudflap transforms into a blue crane truck. The toy features two Cyber Key gimmicks, but unfortunately, they both suffer from design flaws. Inserting his key into the side of his cab flips out a firing missile launcher, which works fine in truck mode; in robot mode, however, it is slung under his right arm, and the spring-loaded hinge that flips it out is not strong enough to hold it up, meaning that it dangles loosely underneath his forearm. His second gimmick is his ridiculously colossal saw-blade - first, his crane arm is manually extended, opening up the Cyber Key slot in its side, and inserting the key then flips out the translucent green blade. When fully extended, the blade and crane are about three times the height of his body. Sadly, the blade is molded from soft, flexible plastic, and if left undeployed for too long, will warp due to tension from the spring holding it down - and since it comes packaged undeployed, having been stuck like that since it left China, it comes out of the box warped. Urgh. Because the Takara version did use a harder kind of plastic, it did not suffer the same flaw as the Hasbro version, and the blade did not bend over time.
- Mudflap comes with a silver-bordered Earth-style Cyber Planet Key; the Hasbro release has the Key Code "v6t7" stamped on the back. There are also a myriad of small paint application differences between the Hasbro and Takara releases of the toy.
- A special version of Mudflap was released as a Target stores exclusive, with a pair of free Mini-Cons attached to the box. Mudflap came with the Mini-Cons Tankor and Shockwave.
- This mold was going to be redecoed to make Landslide, but was ultimately canceled (for reasons stated below) - and was later redecoed into Movie Mudflap anyway.
Trivia
- Mudflap was the quintessential shelfwarmer of the Cybertron toy line. For whatever reason, he simply did not sell, and eventually ended up at heavy discount in most chains.
- Mudflap's transformation was used as the basis for the non-toy character Signal Lancer's transformation.
- In late October 2005, searching for "Evac" in Amazon.com's toy section returned a bizarre statement to the effect that customers searching for "epic" tended to eventually buy Mudflap. Oddly, this result did not appear if you actually searched for "epic".
- Despite his name, there isn't a mudflap anywhere on him!
- Mudflap's toy bio is in complete and total contradiction to the show, stating him to be a Decepticon spy planted on Earth long before the evacuation of Cybertron.
