Undergroun

Undergroun is a Beastformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Undergroun (アンダーグラン Andāguran) comes across as kind of a gloomy gus. He doesn't talk much, he shies away from attention, and he spends a lot of time in the dark. But those who get to know him soon find out he's an incredibly kind and caring beast, with one of the biggest hearts on the planet. When he makes a promise, he sticks to it, and he has earned his reputation for honesty and reliability. He lives to see planet Beast as a world at peace.

Though not much good on the surface (the sunlight hurts his sensitive eyes), he is nigh-unbeatable underground. His vibro-axe Ungrinder (アングラインダー Anguraindā) helps him clear soil and hard rock out of the way easily, allowing him to tunnel through the terrain at up to 80km an hour. He's an expert in subterranean tactics, capable of taking down surface targets from below.

Following the war, he returned to his home island of Rhodes where he rules as its King. And despite his subordinate Emperor Ultragas having been on the other side of the war, the two have turned into close friends. The rowdy extroverted skunk and quiet introverted mole work amazingly well together, even sharing a telepathic link so they can coordinate between the surface and the underground.

Toys

Transformers: Beastformers

• Undergroun (Beastformer, 1987)
  • Beast ID number: 42
  • Accessories: Axe

Part of the second series of Takara's Beastformers toys, Undergroun is a lavender anthropomorphic mole in purple robotic armor. His left arm ends in a robotic clamp. The rubsign on his chest reveals one of three symbols; Fire, Water or Wood.

In the Hasbro Battle Beasts line, this toy could come in either purple or black armor, black being significantly rarer. While black-armor Undergroun toys appear in various Beastformer checklists and posters, it is uncertain if it was ever actually released in Japan.

He came in a green-grid generic "Cybertron Beastformer" box, with a bio card with a painted character image on a jungle backdrop. Re-released in Series 3, the box was unchanged, but the bio card replaced the painted image with a simpler line-art image, first used in Hasbro's Battle Beasts cast poster. In both Series, depending on the "Pack" he came in, there was a chance of his bio card being replaced with a rare "Secret Photo", "Bewitching Serpent Seal", or "VS Holography Mirror" card.

Beastformers

• Undergroun (Beastformer, 1988)
  • Beast ID number: 42
  • Accessories: "Ungrinder" MVP Weapon

Re-released in the Transformers-less Beastformers sequel series, Undergroun was given a straight re-release with new packaging and a new, more filled-out bio card with corrected coloring. This new card also gave his weapon, now branded an "MVP Weapon", the name "Ungrinder".

He was sold in two similar-but-different styles of boxes. One wholly-generic version, sold in large display boxes like the Transformers releases, advertised the chance for the included bio card to instead be a rare holofoil card of White Leo with a "Burstsun" rubsign taped to a baggie on the back, so you could apply it to the Beastformer of your choice. The more common version has a slightly different box with a peg-hole in the top flap, and has a sticker on the bottom with his name and role on it.

Late in the run, the "mood ring" styled rubsigns were replaced with new rubsigns that revealed full-color Fire/Wood/Water images on black backdrops. (These rubsign variants also happened at the same time in the Hasbro Battle Beast version of the line.)

Notes

• Undergroun's 1987 poster-checklist art incorrectly gives him Black Turtle's coloring, with black body parts and orange armor. (They both got claws on the left hand, after all.) It also incorrectly colors his weapon silver. His 1988 bio art corrects both of these mistakes, giving him the purple-armor colors.
• His '88 bio card gives him the nickname "Ungura" (アングラ Angura), a portmanteau of "Underground" and "mogura", the Japanese word for "mole".

Foreign names

• English: Miner Mole