Roadbuster (DOTM)
| The name or term "Roadbuster" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Roadbuster (disambiguation). |
- Roadbuster is an Autobot from the Dark of the Moon portion of the live-action film series continuity family.
When Roadbuster (aka N.B.E.-212)[1] isn't out bashing Decepticons with his buddies, the Wreckers, there are only a couple of other places to look for him. He might be in his shop, hammering out a new piece of armor or putting together another in the line of powerful weapons he's made for the Wreckers. He might be out on the race track, pushing his engine to the limit with his human buddy Sergeant Recon. Wherever he is, though, you can be sure he'll be going about his task with his head down and his shoulders set. Roadbuster's not a big talker and he's no genius, but his willpower and dogged tenacity always get the job done.
Fiction
Movies
Dark of the Moon film
- Voice actor: Ron Bottitta (English), Shunsuke Sakuya (Japanese), Armando Coria (Latin American Spanish), Pedro Tena (Castilian Spanish), Rino Bolognesi (Italian), Frank Muth (German), Gérard Dessalles (European French), Frédérik Zacharek (Canadian French)
Roadbuster, Leadfoot and Topspin, collectively known as the Wreckers, by Charlotte Mearing, had arrived with the second wave of Autobots aboard the Autobot ship, the Xantium, and were rarely let off of the NASA base because of their attitude. They would spend most of their time working on repairing their ship along with some human engineers, including Robert Epps.
When Sentinel Prime announced that the current occupation force of Autobots was to be exiled or the Earth would face the wrath of hundreds of Decepticons, the three prepared the ship for launch and accompanied Optimus Prime and the others aboard, sending the ship into the atmosphere - where it was then targeted and blown to smithereens by Starscream, seemingly killing all the Autobots aboard. Undaunted by this, the Autobot's human allies nonetheless tried to launch an incursion into Decepticon-held Chicago.
Fortunately for them, the Autobots were not actually aboard the ship, and had only feigned their deaths in order to keep the Decepticons from following up on their global threat. Leadfoot and the other Wreckers swung into action immediately, rescuing Epps, Sam Witwicky and a group of soldiers from a Decepticon fighter and executed the pilot. Upon being questioned on their apparent deaths, Roadbuster stated that they had built the ship, but hadn't been inside it when it had been destroyed.
While the Autobots were scouting a route to the building containing Sentinel's Space bridge pillars, Shockwave and his pet Driller separated Optimus from his weapons trailer. Optimus ordered Roadbuster and the other Wreckers to create a distraction so that he could retrieve it, and in their armored racecar forms fired at Shockwave with their machine guns until being forced to retreat, leaving behind Wheelie and Brains, who had hitched a ride with them. After Optimus had become snared in a construction site's cables, the Wreckers set out to free him. After doing so they rejoined the battle, battling against Devcon. After the battle Roadbuster stood with the other survivors, accepting that Cybertron was gone forever and that Earth was their new home. Dark of the Moon
Age of Extinction film
After the battle for Chicago, Harold Attinger's "Cemetery Wind" began hunting down the Autobots in addition to the remaining Decepticons on Earth. Roadbuster received a message from Optimus Prime, instructing all Autobots to flee for their lives.
Five years later, Optimus questioned Roadbuster's absence, to which Hound replied that it was uncertain if anyone else evaded Cemetery Wind. Age of Extinction Seeing as how his schematics were featured in blueprints for the KSI Sentry robots,Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
Robo Power
Robo Fighters
- Roadbuster (2011)
- This smaller edition of Roadbuster doesn't transform, but instead boasts an "attack mode" with extra deployable weapons.
Bot Shots
- Roadbuster (Bot Shot, 2012)
- Series: 1
- Number: B017
- Fist strength: 320
- Blaster strength: 445
- Sword strength: 695
- Part of the fifth wave of Bot Shots, Roadbuster transforms into a pine green sports car with a spoiler and MechTech-style deployed weapons. A sharp impact to his front bumper will cause him to spring into robot mode.
Generations
- Roadbuster (Deluxe Class, 2020)
- Studio Series Roadbuster accurately represents his appearance in Dark of Moon, transforming from a robot to a heavily-armored version of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s #88 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevy Impala stock car, although the NASCAR logo, the "IMPALA" wordmark, and Junior's #88 are the only details of the deco. Just like his fellow teammates, his wheels feature "ULTRA" and "WRECKERS" labels. He comes with a small gun that can plug into 5 mm ports on his forearms and shoulders, though the forearm ports are quite shallow. He also comes with a cardboard backdrop display depicting a war-torn Chicago.
- The car mode's front can have a bit of trouble staying pegged into place for many copies.
Notes
- Like his fellow Wreckers, Roadbuster appears to be patterned after a trucker hat-headed, sunglasses-wearing, goateed NASCAR fan stereotype.
- As part of the promotion for Dark of the Moon, the film prop versions of Roadbuster, Leadfoot, and Topspin made appearances at the 2011 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20th. They appeared both off the track as display cars, and on the track, participating in the ceremonial first lap.
- This isn't the first time there's been a Wrecker named Roadbuster.
- Early concept art revealed that Roadbuster was originally going to have Jeff Gordon's #24 DuPont-sponsored Chevrolet as his alternate mode.[2]
- Early concept art showed that Roadbuster was a red-and-orange Autobot with the name Warpath, though considering some of the other names on the concept art, it's likely this was just a false name in case of leaks.[2]
- In the movie's end credits, he's listed under two names, Roadbuster/Amp, the latter referring to his NASCAR vehicle mode's primary sponsor, AMP Energy.
- Roadbuster has a rank stat of 9, the highest out of the 3 Wreckers, which may make him their leader by default.
- Roadbuster's Scottish accent and occupation as an engineer are likely nods to the character Scotty from the original Star Trek series.
- Concept art was produced of Roadbuster's protoform stage, but ultimately never made its way into the film proper.
- With Leadfoot having been killed off in Age of Extinction and Topspin found to be alive in The Last Knight, Roadbuster is the only member of the Wrecker trio whose fate after the events of Dark of the Moon has yet to be revealed.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Roadbuster (ロードバスター Rōdobasutā)
