Clench (G1)

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

Clench is a Decepticon Obliterator from the Generation 2 portion of the Generation 1 continuity family. He is also known as Colossus.

You were supposed to be this colossus! You were this great legendary thing!

Utterly devoted to destroying the Autobots, the Decepticon leader Clench is fueled by anger, hatred and malevolence. He wades into battle blasting, smashing and running over anything in his path with no mercy, then shooting anything else with heavy firepower.

So naturally, he's a registered driver in Texas.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Generation 2 UK

C'mon, at least shout your name and powers or something.

Clench was part of the Decepticon force led by Bludgeon, sent to Earth to smash stuff up and lure out Optimus Prime. Mostly, he just drove over some parked cars. War Without End

IDW comics continuity

Insert crappy "Let me give you a hand" joke here.

Long before the war, a group of ex-miners including Megatron, Frenzy, and Rumble took part in a violent uprising against leaders who had exploited them while pocketing the fruits of their labor. They found themselves on the lam in Kaon, which is where they apparently met Clench. Clench employed these same bitter ex-miners to work as gladiators in an underground bloodsport (in which he also occasionally partook), placing them at greater risk than they had ever known and conditioning them to give into their murderous impulses, all while hoarding the fruits of their labor for himself. Clearly, he had thought this through.

So Megatron eventually killed him during one of the fights and took over. Megatron Origin #2

Timelines: Wings of Honor continuity

Clench led a platoon of "second generation" Decepticons into battle at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, repelling the Autobots who had tried to defend the facility and capturing their leader Pyro. Inside, Clench met up with Quintesson minion Sky-Byte, who promised him that his highly energized Forestonite fuel would endow the Decepticons with amazing new powers and tilt the tide of battle in their favor. Breakdown urged Clench not to trust Quintesson science, for which Clench mocked him... and then came to believe him, choosing to use Cindersaur as a test subject for the Forestonite. As this first subject began to mutate, Clench dictated that Sky-Byte and Breakdown would be the next guinea pigs, and if all survived then he himself would power up with the substance, to later determine if any other Decepticon deserved the privilege. The Forestonite imbued Clench with the power to create local gravity wells, crushing and immobilizing his enemies.

He and his troops charged into battle against a would-be Autobot rescue team, and Clench reveled in his new power and gloated over how quickly his enemies would all be destroyed. But Clench and his troops were soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of Autobot reinforcements, whose rapid-attack tactics were more than a match for Clench's strategy of "use gravity beams to hold them down while Double Punch crushes them". Things only got worse when the Autobots gained Forestonite upgrades as well—particularly when Pyro gained limited precognition and could then pre-avoid all of Clench's attacks. In the skirmish the LHC facility was destroyed, prompting Double Punch and Sky-Byte to retreat. Disgusted at the prospect of a fair fight, Clench too fled the scene. Generation 2: Redux

Toys

Generation 1

MEGAWEAPON!

• Clench (Obliterator, 1993)
  • Accessories: 6 missiles

Clench transforms into the front half of a long-nosed truck cab of undetermined model. The back half of his vehicle form, the truck bed and container, turns into a large, double-barreled, missile-launching artillery platform that uses "gravity feed" to load a new pair of missiles for rapid firing. Pressing a button between the barrels pops up a spring-loaded targeting reticule. Both gimmicks are available in truck mode as well. In truck mode, the support strut for the artillery cannon becomes a rear-mounted, extending gripper-claw.

He was first released as part of the "transitional" period of Transformers in the European market, in Generation 1 style packaging, yet bearing the new Generation 2 Decepticon sigil.

Despite what his tiny fictional appearance and his boxart would suggest, Clench is actually a very dark blue-green in colour. With neat little sparkles! Yay. Sparkles.

• More information on Clench at TFU.info

Generation 2

• Colossus (Obliterator, 1994)
  • Accessories: 6 missiles

Clench was re-released in Europe without changes in Generation 2 proper under the name "Colossus."

Timelines

His name is "Clench" because that's what your fist is doing right now around your— oh, hey, kids!

• Generation 2: Redux (BotCon 2010 box set)
  • Accessories: Shield

A retool of Universe Ultra-class Onslaught, Clench transforms into a six-wheeled SWAT assault truck with positionable mine-scoops and a rotating double-barreled turret on top. His right arm has a spring-loaded flip-out (non-firing) blaster cannon that can actually be deployed in vehicle mode as well. his blast shield can be mounted on his left arm, and placed on his turret in vehicle mode. The electronics originally in this mold were removed for the BotCon release.

Clench is part of the BotCon 2010 boxed set, alongside Breakdown, Spark, Streetwise and Sky-Byte.

The original version of this toy was redecoed into Hardhead.

• More information on Clench at TFU.info

Notes

THIS TOY REVEAL MAKES US SO ANGRY!!! BOTCON IS RUINED FOREVER!!!

• No, really, his toy's license plate says "Texas". It's also clearly some kind of European plate, so apparently this is the Texas in Europe.
• Clench has what appears to be an odd personal insignia: jagged lightning bolts that at their center feature a gunsight-target view of a red wolf in crosshairs. Exactly what this is supposed to symbolize is unclear.
• His Function is "Leader." This supposedly means he's the main baddie of 1993's line, though Hasbro Europe was pretty liberal with the "Leader" label during that time. But most of the other "Leaders" were members of multi-bot groups, and since Clench is a Decepticon sub-group of one, then it follows he's likely the head honcho of them all.
• After some crafty fans found images of BotCon 2010 Streetwise in BotCon.com's directory structure, a (fake) photoshopped image of Universe Tankor in Clench's colors was found also soon thereafter, and reported as real news by Seibertron.com. About half an hour later, the BotCon 2010 site went live, revealing Clench's true mold. Oh, those Fun Publications guys, such pranksters.
• In "Generation 2: Redux", Clench's mannerisms are based on character actor Jack Palance.