Killer Punch
- Killer Punch is a Predacon from the Beast Wars Neo portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Killer Punch (キラーパンチ Kirā Panchi) is the Intelligence Officer of Magmatron's Predacons and is utterly obsessed with collecting information. His every strategy, his every move, is centered around the ultimate goal of amassing further intel on absolutely everyone and everything. Even his special attack, the "Head Punch", secretly doubles as a homing device which gathers data on those it pulverizes. Oh yes, Killer Punch is a sneaky, deceitful master of setting traps and collecting intel.
And this obsession has promptly driven him bonkers. The sheer volume of data Killer Punch has collected on friend and foe alike has turned him into a paranoid conspiracy theorist who'll believe almost anything. For instance, one of his favorite pet theories is that Ultra Magnus was a Decepticon agent. Oh, yeah. They don't make tinfoil hats big enough for the likes of Killer Punch.
Fiction
Beast Wars Neo cartoon
- Voice actor: Yasuhiro Miyata (Japanese)
Hoping to advance himself amongst the Predacons, Killer Punch approached Magmatron with a scheme to destroy Big Convoy and his Maximal new recruits once and for all. Intrigued, Magmatron appointed Killer Punch as sub-commander of his Predacon team and allowed him to go through with his plans. Killer Punch planted a beacon on the planet Stero that would simulate the energy signature of an Angolmois capsule, thus luring the Maximals into an ambush.
Survive and True One found the beacon and chose to use the ambush as an opportunity to teach Big Convoy's recruits a lesson in teamwork. Things went awry and Killer Punch was able to pin Survive, pressing a blade to his head. The Maximals eventually got their act together and with the help of Big Convoy's Big Cannon, sent Killer Punch and the Predacons packing back to the Dinosaur. The Predacons were quick to blame the failure of their mission squarely on Killer Punch. As punishment, Magmatron had DNAVI teleport (the sobbing) Killer Punch into the vacuum of space, ditching him there for who knows how long. Survive the Hot-Blooded Instructor
After the defeat of Unicron, Killer Punch found his way back to Cybertron. As the Maximals and Predacons united to rebuild their home planet, he had a friendly tussle with Survive. Graduation Ceremony!!
IDW Beast Wars comics
Killer Punch spent much time on the Cybertronian Undernet, amassing a sizable breadth of espionage techniques. Beast Wars Sourcebook #2 Before Magmatron left for Earth, Killer Punch was one of several Predacons who listened to him deliver a speech about their rightful place in history and revenge against the Maximal Imperium. The Gathering #1
During Magmatron's astral journey to Cybertron's future, he witnessed his Predacons and the rest of Cybertron descend into chaos and madness. During this carnage, Killer Punch struck Saberback (who himself was attacking Dirgegun) before being punched in the face. The Ascending #1
Beast Wars: Uprising
Killer Punch was a participant in the Maximal/Predacon Games. During one Cull, Killer Punch blindsided Ultra Mammoth with a machete. The machete eventually became part of Eject's collection of artifacts from the Games. Broken Windshields
Later on, Killer Punch became the enlisted intelligence specialist aboard the Dinosaur, a starship with Maximal officers. Despite his diligence, Killer Punch received a reputation as an alarmist and paranoid, especially after the Arkus mission, where Killer Punch had the crew tearing apart the ship looking for a phantom stowaway he was convinced existed on the edge of the sensors. (Killer Punch would never learn that Dead-End had, in fact, brought a Sharkticon on board.)
When the Dinosaur detected a Cybertronian distress signal from planet LGC-8803, a mission team was assembled to assess the situation. While traveling to their destination, comms specialist Hydra detected a second Cybertronian signal coming in, this one from Cybertron but not on any traditional encrypted frequency. First Officer Longrack's complete lack of curiosity almost dismissed the matter entirely, but Killer Punch was interested and spoke up for Hydra. They got Longrack to agree for Hydra to spend the travel to LGC-8803 trying to clean up the second signal.
Almost immediately after the away team's shuttle dropped into atmosphere, however, the Dinosaur was attacked by a foreign starship. Hydra still hadn't returned to his post, and so Killer Punch was forced to perform both intelligence and communications duties during the firefight. After Guiledart chased the threat away, Killer Punch got leave from Longrack to search for Hydra and determine why he wasn't at his post. While looking for Hydra at the science officer's laboratory, though, Killer Punch found himself unusually lost inside the ship. After a series of sensor scans, he concluded the Dinosaur was actually a Transformer...and deliberately rearranging itself to keep him away from the lab.
Seeking help, Killer Punch visited engineering and managed to at least partly convince Magmatron of his suspicions. The chief engineer was willing to shut down all power for one breem to let Killer Punch navigate the corridors unimpeded. He was, unfortunately, successful. Inside the lab, Killer Punch found Hydra dead and his killer, the Builder political officer Synapse, waiting for him. The second signal had been a call-to-arms as the Proto-races back home rose up against the Builder Assembly in revolution, and Synapse couldn't have those ideas spreading on the ship. He revealed the Dinosaur was actually the ancient Builder Megamaster Trypticon moments before the ship executed Killer Punch.
His last act was transmitting these revelations to Magmatron, warning the rest of the crew about their Builder officers. Intersectionality
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Killer Punch appeared in a fictional scenario projected into the mind of a dying Sideswipe through a mnemopathis projector. He and multiple Decepticons were depicted as helping with relief efforts on post-war Cybertron, though Sideswipe initially believed they were smuggling energon and attacked them. The Life of Sideswipe
Toys
Beast Wars Neo
- Killer Punch (Deluxe, 1999)
- Japanese ID number: D-39
- Accessories: Tail-sword, head-missile
- An extensive retooling of Guiledart, Killer Punch transforms into an organic Styracosaurus. In beast mode, he has flip down "damage" panels to reveal ribs and torn flesh below, bleh.
- In robot mode, his right arm's spring-loaded launcher can fire the top of his dino-skull as a missile, even having a flip-over clamp to use as a gripper-claw once fired. The head can also be held in his left fist like a shield. The tail assembly slides out to form a massive cleaving sword. He also has two flip-out non-firing blasters, one hidden in each beast mode foreleg.
- The original Guiledart version of this mold was redecoed as Beast Machines Dinobots Triceradon, the Wal-mart-exclusive Dinobots Triceradon, the 2003 Universe version of Beast Machines Triceradon, and finally Age of Extinction Slug. Whew!
- Roaring Showdown: Survive VS Killer Punch (Mega vs pack, 1999)
- Japanese ID number: VS-39
- Accessories: Tail-sword, head-missile
- Killer Punch was also available in a multi-pack with the Maximal Survive (and his mini-partner True One). Both toys were identical to their individual releases.
Notes
- The Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Killer Punch is a "virtual redeco" of the Generations Roadbuster toy.
