Tankor (BM)

The name or term "Tankor" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Tankor (disambiguation).

Tankor is a Vehicon from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Go ahead and make fun of his name. He won't get it and he'll kill you anyway.

Tankor SMAAAAAASHHH! Tankor PULLLVERIZZZZEEE! Tankor SLAG BEAST BOTS! Tankor is the brute force part of Megatron's first trio of Vehicon generals and commander of the powerful Tank Drones. He's slow, simple-minded and immensely powerful. Lovably dim, his limited intelligence can be a drawback; he can easily be confused, misled, or even turned against Megatron, though temporarily. However, this is balanced out by his natural state of blind frustration and destructive rage, which makes getting him to listen to any cajoling a less than simple task.

Tankor is in actuality a programmed shell personality given life by the spark of the Maximal Rhinox.

An alternate-universe incarnation of Tankor is also a Minion of Unicron in a vast, multiverse-spanning conflict. He may or may not be a mindwiped Maximal. His command code is "pulverize".

Fiction

Beast Machines cartoon

Voice actor: Paul Dobson, Richard Newman (as Rhinox, later Tankor) (English), Daiki Nakamura (Japanese), Maurício Berger (Portuguese)

Don't make me pull this spark over.

When the Maximals returning to Cybertron from the Beast Wars were infected with Megatron's virus, Rhinox was not as lucky as most of his comrades. While the Transmetals were able to stay mobile for a time, Rhinox was immediately paralyzed and overtaken by Tank Drones. His spark was forcibly removed and stored in a canister in Megatron's citadel.Revelations Part III: Apocalypse

When Megatron found that he needed underlings to properly control his Vehicon armies in battle, he used Rhinox's spark to power his tank general Tankor. He reasoned that if the Maximals discovered their new enemy had once been their close friend, they would be less willing to fight him. Unfortunately for Megatron, Tankor was only marginally more intelligent than the mindless drones he was created to lead. Meanwhile, Rhinox's spark/consciousness remained intact inside Tankor, albeit unable to act.Fires of the Past

True to Megatron's expectations, the Maximals did attempt to reach Tankor's spark, and they discovered his true nature. They woke his spark, but the Rhinox they got was not the Rhinox they expected. Tainted and embittered by his time inside Tankor, Rhinox rejected the Maximals and embraced Megatron's plan for a "peaceful", technologically-pure Cybertron, only with himself at its head instead of Megatron.Revelations Part III: Apocalypse

Tankor-Rhinox immediately began plotting against both Megatron and the Maximals. He caught and reprogrammed one of Megatron's Diagnostic Drones, forcing it to work for him.Survivor He found the Oracle and, using the Diagnostic Drone, retrieved the Key to Vector Sigma from within. He then faked his own death, seeking to remove himself from both factions' suspicions. The Key. Manipulating events from behind the scenes, Tankor tricked Rattrap into activating an organic rapid-growth catalyst that would make the organics appear much more powerful and out of control, thus inspiring Megatron to take more radical measures to contain them.The Catalyst His escalating arms race gambit worked in manipulating Megatron into firing the key on a planetary scale--which would have killed all the organics, including the Maximals and Megatron, leaving Tankor to rule a pure mechanical world. Tankor's manipulations failed when he tried to attack Megatron, and a provision against doing so, hard-wired into his programming, shut him down. Due to Tankor's manipulations, however, Primal opened the Plasma Energy Chamber and Megatron fired the Key. The ensuing clash of energies destroyed Tankor's body, and his spark joined the Matrix.End of the Line

Primal met Rhinox's spark one last time within the Matrix, where Rhinox expressed regret over his recent actions.Fallout

The Beast Machines story editors intended Rhinox to have been totally free when he chose evil, his own mental processes being corrupted and warped by the shell program even after it was erased. Some fans judge this to be out-of-character for Rhinox and highly unsatisfying, and note that Tankor-Rhinox behaved much like the temporary Predacon-ized version of Rhinox seen in Beast Wars. They thus speculate that it may be similarly the result of awakening Rhinox's spark without shutting down the Tankor shell program. Both interpretations are consistent with the in-show imagery of Rhinox and Tankor fused at the waist into one spark, apparently struggling and in pain.

Universe CD-ROM

"TANKOR RAAAAAAAAAPTURED."

On an alternate Cybertron, Tankor fought alongside the Decepticons Obsidian, Razorclaw, Reptilion, and Blackarachnia against Optimus Primal and his Autobots. One of these battles - the most violent of that year - was interrupted by a mysterious ship that sucked those Decepticons up on beams of light and sped away. None of the combatants realized that it was taking its captives to Unicron for use in a massive army. Universe CD-ROM

This comic shows no signs of being intended to mesh with other Universe fiction. There are inconsistencies in many of its elements, but given that Universe is entirely ABOUT alternate dimensions, it could still be a side note to the greater storyline. Tankor is one of the few characters who could conceivably be the same ones who show up in the main Universe comic, but it is up to the reader to decide if that's the case.

3H Universe comic

In a parallel universe, the Predacon Megatron "decimated" Cybertron's population by capturing their sparks. (It is unknown whether this literally means he only got one-tenth of the Cybertronians.) Tankor served under him, a veneer of dumb, brutish loyalty secretly concealing his actual dumb, brutish loyalty to Obsidian. It was at the latter's bidding that Tankor terminated Megatron, allowing Obsidian to supplant the Predacon's rule with an iron-fisted tyranny of his own. Tankor became the enforcer of this new regime, knowing no purpose but the destruction of all that stood before his master. The pair put down uprisings and held the planet in fear... until Unicron decided that such a mindset would serve his own purposes, and he pulled them out of their universe entirely.

Unicron, his ruined form trapped between dimensions, sought to revitalize himself by pitting abducted Transformers against each other within his own body, absorbing their energon radiation and, eventually, sparks. But Tankor was spared this fate, instead overseeing the deathmatch arena along with Obsidian, Razorclaw, Reptilion, and Striker. Silverbolt, one of the intended victims, recognized Tankor. Obsidian confirmed the familiarity, but noted that in his and Tankor's own timeline, Silverbolt had "died screaming". Abduction

For all his accomplishments, Tankor still did a pretty crappy job of keeping Optimus Primal from freeing Silverbolt and dozens of other captives. Escape Notably, by this time Tankor's allegiance was "Decepticon" though it's unclear if this had always been the case, or for how long. In fact, there is no particular sign that he shared his alternate incarnation's Maximal past at all.

Fun Publications Cybertron comic

Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!

In the final battle of the Universe war, Rhinox defeated this Tankor, presumably redeeming his actions as his own universe's Tankor. Revelations Part 2

Toys

Beast Machines

Tankor SMASH!, Tankor CRUSH puny hum... erm Maximal!

• Tankor (Mega, 1999)
  • Accessories: Projectile

Part of the first wave of Beast Machines product, Tankor transforms into a large Cybertronic tank. Aside from a spring-loaded missile launcher, he also features a light-piped "scanner eye" on his turret, and twin sawblades that spin via gear-wheel system when his tank mode is pushed along. In robot mode, all of these gimmicks are retained, though the "scanner eye" is this time in his robot head.

For reasons unknown, his name was misspelled as "Tankorr" on his instructions.

This toy was redecoed into Universe incarnation of Tankor. The toy's likeness was also repurposed as the non-toy Beast Era incarnation of Quake and his drones.

• More information on Tankor at TFU.info

These are awesome. There should be Tank Drone redecos in these colors. (Upper-left is the normal McDonald's version, the other three are Red Rooster versions.)

• Tankor (Happy Meal Toy, 2000)

One of nine Beast Machines Happy Meal toys from McDonald's restaurants, Tankor transforms into a small Cybertronic tank based a bit more on the show's CGI model. This toy features a fair bit of articulation (about 8 points in robot mode), though some points are more useful than others. His head articulation, for example, is quite nice. The toy also has lightpiping through the spark and missile rack on his belly.

• Tankor (Little Red Rooster Meal, 2000)

The Happy Meal toy was retooled and redecoed for release in Australia, through the Red Rooster fast food chain. Aside from the original coloration, this mold was also cast in the colors of the other three molds used by Red Rooster: Jetstorm, Megatron and Rattrap. The retooling involved removing (and plugging up) Tankor's light piping, meaning that his neck is no longer translucent plastic. Due to the softer plastic used to construct him it can be difficult to get Red Rooster Tankor's arms to come out.

• More information on McDonald's/Red Rooster Tankor at TFU.info

Universe

File:Universe2003toy-TankorObsidian.jpg

We never actually met before, but here we are!

• Tankor & Obsidian (Ultra, 2003)
  • Accessories: Projectile

Part of the first wave of Universe Ultra sets, Tankor is a redeco of the original Mega toy in an olive-green and mustard-yellow coloration with "energon surge" paint on various parts. He retains all of the gimmickry of the original toy. He was only available in an Ultra-level two-pack with Obsidian.

• More information on Universe Tankor at TFU.info

Beast Wars Returns

• Tankor (Basic, 2005)
  • Japanese ID number: BR-06
  • Accessories: Projectile

Released in the second wave of the Japanese Toys "R" Us exclusive Beast Wars Returns line (the Japanese name for Beast Machines), Tankor is a redeco of the Basic Tank Drone, transforming into a Cybertronic four-tracked tank. Pressing the spark crystal on his cannon connects a gear-wheel system on the underside of his tank mode, spinning his barrel as he is pushed along, eventually firing a spring-loaded "energy blast" missile.

It is highly (in fact, almost perfectly) show-accurate, although woefully out of scale with the other Beast Machines toys. Like the rest of the line, actually...

This mold was also used to make Stockade.

• More information on Beast Wars Returns Tankor at TFU.info

Merchandise

Robot Heroes

• Cheetor vs. Tankor (2009)

An adorable little fascist!

Tankor is part of the fourth wave of Universe Robot Heroes and is designated as from the "Beast Machines Series," along with his packmate Cheetor. His sculpt is derived from his television show appearance, but his colorscheme is taken from the Tank Drone toy. Tankor has articulation at the neck and shoulders, though his left arm doesn't have good clearance with his hip.

Rather than using the Beast Machines Maximal and Vehicon symbols, the embossed faction logos on the top of the Cheetor/Tankor packaging are the pre-existing Beast Wars Maximal and Predacon symbols found on Beast Wars-themed Universe Robot Heroes packs.

Trivia

• According to Beast Machines DVD commentary by Story Editor Bob Skir, Tankor is influenced by the Hulk.
• Seeing as Revelations Part III: Apocalypse and onward Rhinox takes complete control over Tankor, that makes Tanky have the shortest live span of any Vehicon general.
• Tankor is the only general out of the original three to not share a namesake with anyone else.

External links

• Tankor at TFU.info