Hardhead (BW)
| This article is about the Beast Wars Neo Predacon. For the Generation 1 Autobot, see Hardhead (G1). |
- Hardhead is a Predacon from the Beast Wars Neo portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Don't try to confuse Hardhead (ハードヘッド Hādoheddo, also Hard Head) with any of your fancy strategies, or marching orders, or one-word commands, or monosyllabic grunts, or simple gestures. Because none of that is going to penetrate. No, all Hardhead needs is to be pointed toward something and told to smash his head against it. Chances are he'll smash his head against the wrong object entirely, but darn it, he's trying!
Hardhead is rescued from total uselessness by a single saving grace: When his head hits something, he completely obliterates it. Few can withstand so much as a love-tap from his thick skull, let alone a full head-butt, and many a Maximal is relieved that Hardhead hasn't two brain cells to rub together. Hardhead transforms into a Pachycephalosaurus, not that he'd have any idea what that's supposed to be.
Fiction
Beast Wars Neo cartoon
- Voice actor: Masami Iwasaki (Japanese)
Beast Wars Neo manga
Hardhead, along with Hydra, broke into the Maximal ship, the Gung Ho, to steal the Angolmois energy within. With all the crew off the ship on an Angolmois capsule hunt save Longrack and Heinrad, Hardhead threatened Longrack with a sweeping movement of his sword...which accidentally sliced open Hydra's chest. Shocked (and bleeding to death) Hydra demanded an apology. Hardhead committed seppuku instead, despite Hydra's protests that there would be no one left to steal the Angolmois energy if they were both dead.
As Hydra and Hardhead lay dying from the latter's stupidity, the two Maximals stood baffled as to what just happened. In his last moments, Hydra gloated that the most important part of their mission was completed...setting a bomb aboard the Gung Ho. A Battle Fought Alone
IDW Beast Wars comics
Hardhead was a former military academy instructor, and though incapable of formulating his own stratagems, he had the ability to deliver great results when leading troops into the fray, so long as he was following someone else's plan. He oftentimes could be found drilling and whipping into shape the troops serving under him. His mastery of the sword was attributed to his years spent visiting other worlds and studying various fighting styles. Beast Wars Sourcebook #2
At some point, he was recruited by Shokaract in his bid for godhood, and became one of his Heralds. Along with the other 'bots serving under the warlord, Hardhead was sent out into the cosmos to retrieve capsules of Angolmois. All of the heralds returned to Cybertron with capsules in hand as Shokaract made ready for his ascension. The Ascending #3 Shokaract sent Hardhead and his other followers out into the planet's populace to sow chaos and discord, only recalling them to himself when he couldn't be bothered to dispatch some 'bots pestering him. But when they came to their master, the heralds found that Shokaract had disappeared; he had been whisked away into a transwarp netherspace. The group was ambushed by Ravage as they discussed what to do in their master's absence, and Shokaract's schemes were ultimately all undone. The Ascending #4
Beast Wars: Uprising
Hard Head was junior security specialist aboard the Dinosaur. He provided support to third-in-command Apelinq for a landing party on the planet LGC-8803, looking for missing Cybertronian prisoners. While exploring the planet's surface with Crazybolt and Bazooka, Hard Head was attacked by the Destructons, Second-Born Intellects intent on destroying them. They were saved by the intervention of their prisoner quarry, Protoform X and Trans-Mutate.
After trading stories, Hard Head and his crew joined forces with the prisoners to prevent the Destructons from stealing their shuttle and returning to Cybertron. They were confronted by Bruton and the Lord Imperious Delirious himself at the site of the shuttle. The battle went poorly, as most of Hard Head's allies were defeated. The security bot did what he could to salvage the mission, rushing the shuttle and activating the emergency lockdown protocol, preventing Imperious from gaining access to the ship.
Unfortunately, that was only a temporary stop-gap. Imperious brought Hard Head's heavily damaged body to his laboratory. He implanted the Second-Born Intellect of Bruton into Hard Head's frame, snuffing out his spark in the process. The security specialist died trying to resist, and his screams echoed in the audio receptors of his crew. Intersectionality
Toys
Beast Wars Neo
- Hardhead (Deluxe, 1999)
- Japanese ID number: D-37
- Accessories: "Pilesaber" sword, "Revolution Shield" spinning shield
- A retool of the original Dinobot toy, Hardhead transforms into... well, a dinosaur that vaguely resembles a Pachycephalosaurus. Opening his dino mode jaw pops up his skullcap slightly, and using his head as a battering ram pushes down the skullcap and closes his jaw. His tail detaches and separates to form a gear-powered spinning-blade weapon, while the central "tail bone" separates to be used as a sword. The entire assembly can store in robot mode by flipping down the tail-mount and pegging the blade's base to the peg on his lower back.
| Beast Wars mold: Dinobot | ||
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Version 3:
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- Master Fencer Showdown: Sharp Edge vs Hardhead (Deluxe VS pack, 1999)
- Japanese ID number: VS-37
- Accessories: "Pilesaber" sword, "Revolution Shield" spinning shield
- Hardhead was available both as an individually packaged item and in a two-pack with fellow retool Sharp Edge. There are no differences between the individual and multi-pack versions.
Notes
- The Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Hard Head is a "virtual redeco" of the Cybertron Cybertron Defense Hot Shot toy.
