Combatant

Putty Patrol

Combatants (戦闘員 Sentōin) are nondescript gray humanoids who serve under the Predacons in the time of Galvatron. For whatever reason, established Predacons can convert to this state and then regain normal bodies after scanning new alternate modes.

Fiction

Beast Wars II cartoon

Pretty spry for globs of pudding.

Combatants served aboard the Galvaburg II, including during its stint on Gaia. The New Forces Arrive! Four Combatants were the Autorollers, and they regained their usual forms after scanning four vehicles from the Mother Computer's databanks. White Lion, Run!

A Combatant manned the bridge of the Galvaburg II while other Predacons discussed the presence of the Insectrons on Gaia. The Insect Corps Arrive

Notes

• The Combatants received no name (or any kind of acknowledgement) in the Beast Wars II cartoon. The name comes from the Definitive Beast Wars II Super Encyclopedia. Their model sheet alternately labels them as Destron Ippanhei (デストロン一般兵, "Predacon Common Soldier").
• Introduced in the first episode of the Beast Wars II cartoon, the Combatants seem to be generic Predacon mooks under Galvatron's command (as indicated by sentōin being the general term for enemy grunts in tokusatsu media such as Super Sentai; think like the Putties from Power Rangers) and the Autorollers were apparently meant to simply be upgraded Combatants. However, the addition of the Autorollers' contradictory mercenary backstory in the tenth episode and lack of Combatant appearances after the seventh episode indicate they were an early idea that production dropped.
• For a number of years, Combatants were assumed by Western fans to simply be protoforms, but access to contemporary material identifies them as a distinct concept.