Groundpounder (RID)
| This article is about the Robots in Disguise Decepticon. For the Generation 1 Autobot, see Groundpounder (G1). |
- Groundpounder is a Decepticon from the Robots in Disguise portion of the Aligned continuity family.
Groundpounder (aka Groundbuster, the "Beast from Kaon" and the "Pulverizer of the Pits") is a massive gorilla-bot gladiator who fought in Kaon's utterly brutal matches. Under the tutelage of his coach Headlock, Groundpounder's signature "Fiery Fists of Furnax" and arsenal of throws made him a legend to fighting fans. He's not very imaginative with his moves, but he doesn't really need to be, as his sheer power makes him a match even for a Dinobot. Violence is pretty much all he knows, and his sole goal is to prove he's the biggest and baddest beast-bot there is. That driving urge proved too much even for the arena, and his violent rampages ultimately ended with him locked away on the prison ship Alchemor.
Free once again, Earth is just the place to make a comeback... and he has no problem with letting Headlock play dirty while he roughs up the opposition.
| “ | Time to bring the heat! | ” |
—Groundpounder's catchphrase, "The Champ" | ||
Fiction
2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon
- Voice actor: John DiMaggio (English), Tetsu Inada (Japanese), Maurizio Trombini (Italian)
Groundpounder was once one of the greatest gladiators on Cybertron until he and his coach Headlock were accused of cheating and kicked out of the gladiator circuit. Enraged by the accusation, Groundpounder went on a destructive rampage, requiring the deployment of the Elite Guard. Eventually, both he and Headlock were arrested. Both of them were placed in stasis pods aboard the prison ship Alchemor, but were freed when the ship crashed on Earth.
The two Decepticons hid out at a construction site outisde of Crown City, while Groundpounder began a new training regimen. Upon seeing an advertisement for the Rumbledome, he decided he needed to prove he could take on the human-built monster trucks. Forcing his way into the arena, he challenged the current champ to a match, and the Rumbledome manager promptly agreed. Though Crasher Casey and her Mechanosaurus put up a good fight, Groundpounder eventually put her rig out of commission... with the help of Headlock's sabotage. The manager, believing the two Cybertronians to be human-controlled robots as part of an act, offered them a permanent spot in the show.
For their next show, however, Groundpounder discovered his opponent was another Cybertronian— the Autobot Grimlock, aiming to bring down the crooked duo. The battle became increasingly chaotic and destructive, and began damaging the stadium itself. With Headlock out of commission courtesy of Fixit, who had also been coaching Grimlock to read the ape-bot's moves, Groundpounder left himself open for Grimlock's cannonball attack, and was swiftly incapacitated. The Champ
After Steeljaw broke into the scrapyard, he deactivated Groundpounder's stasis pod, alongside several others, as part of a bid to bolster Glowstrike's forces. When Thunderhoof brought up Steeljaw's past failures at leadership, Steeljaw informed the Decepticons of his alliance with Glowstrike, and gave them coordinates to follow while he remained at the scrapyard. The escapees later reconvened at Steeljaw's coordinates, where they was inspected by Glowstrike, who seemed pleased by the new cadre of "elite warriors". Misdirection
Groundpounder gathered with Steeljaw's other remaining followers on the roof of the crashed back half of the Alchemor, where Steeljaw updated them on his plans to overthrow Glowstike, until she and Saberhorn arrived to talk with Steeljaw alone. Portals
Along with the other Decepticons, Groundpounder was present after Steeljaw staged his coup and took control of the Decepticons. Decepticon Island (Part 1) When the Bee Team split up to try and incapacitate the vessel, Groundpounder and Thunderhoof faced off against Grimlock, Strongarm, and Sideswipe. Eager for a rematch, Groundpounder got the upper hand, gleefully pounding his Dinobot rival senseless while Thunderhoof handled the other two. He and Thunderhoof were taken out by a high-frequency signal that Sideswipe created as the Autobot tried to free the Mini-Cons held hostage aboard the ship. Both Decepticons were summarily re-frozen by a stasis bomb that Bumblebee and Optimus Prime detonated aboard the ship. Groundpounder was then taken back to Cybertron by Optimus Prime, Windblade and Ratchet. Decepticon Island (Part 2)
Toys
Robots in Disguise (2015)
- Groundbuster (Legion Class, 2016)
- Part of the 8th wave of the Robots in Disguise Legion Class lineup, Groundbuster transforms from robot to excavator and back in several easy steps. Due to his very short robot mode, Groundbuster also takes Steeljaw's crown for the (second) shortest Legion Class figure.
- Groundbuster's scan-badge is located on his robot chest, accessible while in-package. Scanning this badge temporarily unlocks the Legion Class Groundbuster figure in the Robots in Disguise mobile game.
- The figure was later re-released as part of the 13th wave with a running change: the hands are painted a brighter red color. However, this version saw an extremely limited toy store release in Asian countries like Malaysia, so fans had to rely on hobby shop retailers. In December 2018, a number of Legion Groundbusters (along with a Twinferno and a reissued Sideswipe) were made available as part of a six-day promotion held by one such shop. In April 2019, the newer version of Groundbuster was released along with the rest of the wave (in limited numbers) in Popular Bookstores as a "Must Buy!" offer, sporting a discounted price tag of 15.90 MYR (approximately 3 USD at the time).
Notes
- Groundpounder's signature moves are mostly named after Cybertronian cities. These include:
- Polyhex Power-Slam
- Cyber City Suplex
- Praxus Piledriver
- Gygax Gouger
- Hydrax Hammer Fist
- Fiery Fists of Furnax
- Berrillon Bodyslam
- When his toy was first shown off at New York Toy Fair it was in a package sporting the name Decepticon Groundbuster. Some might consider this an error, but this isn't the first 2015 Robots in Disguise toy where such an error occurred. However, some copies of the figure have been found to sport the "Decepticon" prefix on their packaging. It's currently unclear as to whether this is limited to the UK and Europe.
- Some copies of Groundbuster's instructions sheet call him "Groundbutter"! Typo or third alias? As the packaging for these seemingly erroneous samples sports the name "Decepticon Groundbuster" and the "Decepticon" part is omitted from the name on the instructions, it could well be the latter.
- At least some packaging samples showed him to have an Autobot badge. All told, it seems that Groundbuster has some real identity issues.
- The 2014 Thrilling 30 incarnation of the Generation 1 Autobot Neutro experienced a similar issue, having the preliminary designation "Groundpounder" before receiving the finalized toy name "Groundbuster".
Foreign names
- Japanese: Groundpounder (グランドパウンダー Gurandopaundā)
- Mandarin: Dǎodìchǔ (China, 捣地杵, "Ground-Pounding Pestle")
