Robosmasher
The Robosmasher is a machine built by Megatron. It has the ability to permanently reprogram a Transformer as a Decepticon. This seems to be a very fast operation, requiring only a few seconds of work once access to the victim's circuitry is achieved.
The Robosmasher is larger than an average Transformer and has six legs and five tentacles. The three central tentacles are tipped with a device which appears to be some sort of laser scalpel or cyberforcep, and the side tentacles are tipped with spiked balls. The side tentacles are used to ensnare and immobilize a victim, and then the central tentacles cut open the Transformer to perform the reprogramming.
Fiction
The Transformers cartoon
The Robosmasher was in operation for an unknown length of time in the Golden Age of Cybertron. Optimus Prime claimed that the device was used to "swell the ranks of the Decepticons", which implies that a significant portion of the Decepticon forces at one time may have been "recruited" through its use. The only specific Transformers it is known to have converted are some dude and the Constructicons, the latter of whom Megatron also gifted with a combined mode in the process. Omega Supreme tried to reprogram them back to their old selves, and he appeared to have succeeded at first. But they would end up betraying him, using their new Devastator mode to pin him against a wall so the Robosmasher could grip his head. Omega destroyed the machine before it could finish its work, but the experience left him cold and notoriously taciturn, desiring only revenge upon the Constructicons. The Secret of Omega Supreme
It does not appear to have ever smashed anything.
e-HOBBY toy bios
While the Robosmasher did a fine job on the Constructicons it caught, it missed at least one. Hauler, estranged from his brainwashed teammates, ended up joining the Autobots. Collector's Edition Roadhauler toy bio
Ask Vector Prime
The Robo-Smasher was a favorite toy of Megazarak. He used it on Rail Racer to turn him into Dominus Trannis, and on Landfill to turn him into Devastator. It worked by using Predacon personality components to ego-wipe the originals, implanting shell programs into its victims. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/28 and 2015/07/30
Beast Wars: Uprising
Notes
- This would not be the Constructicons' only mental manipulation. Later on Earth, the Autobots were able to turn Devastator to their own side via dominator disks. It is not known how deep or long-running that change could have been, though; Megatron disabled the disks handily with his own "control switch." The Core
- The idea of reprogramming the allegiance of a Transformer would be revisited in Beast Wars and Beast Machines, where shell programs were often used to that effect.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Robosmasher (ロボスマッシャー Robo-Sumasshā)
