Skullcruncher (G1)
- Skullcruncher is a Decepticon Headmaster from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Skullcruncher is both slow on his feet and slow witted. He has a nasty habit of grinding his teeth before attacking his foes, making a noise so loud and obnoxious it tips the enemy off to his whereabouts instantly. Because of this personality defect, few Decepticons wish to be partnered with him.
What Skullcruncher does do efficiently is eat. While he thinks they taste rather yucky, Skullcruncher will gleefully scarf down as many Autobots as he can during battle, often ceasing to fight until he's finished chewing his meal. He wouldn't want to choke or anything.
Skullcruncher is binary bonded to the Nebulan Grax.
- Japanese name: Skull, Grax (see below)
- Italian name: Spaccaossa ("Bonecrusher")
- French-Canadian name: Broyeur ("Shredder")
- Chinese name (Taiwan version of Omni Productions dub): Kū-lǒu (骷髏, "Skull")
- Chinese name (China): E Long (鳄龙, "Alligator-saur")
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Skullcruncher was one of Scorponok's soldiers on Cybertron. He was first seen eagerly driving a group of Autobot prisoners towards the smelting pool. Fortress Maximus and his band of interlopers jumped them, however, and the Decepticons were forced to retreat. Ring of Hate! After Maximus's unit abandoned Cybertron, Scorponok received word they had come to the planet called Nebulos, and brought a strike team to that world in order to exact revenge. Skullcruncher joined his leader in assaulting the planet's capitol, Koraja, and demonstrated a little-seen fire-breathing ability as the Decepticons tried to penetrate the city's walls. Later he transformed to robot mode and issued the Decepticon rallying cry.
| “ | Let's stomp these creatures til we're knee-deep in pink slime! | ” |
The Decepticons' forward momentum was halted, however, by the arrival of the new Autobot Headmasters. Fortress Maximus and several of his crew members had binary bonded with their Nebulan allies, creating two-in-one warriors. The increased skill and accuracy gained from this combination sent Skullcruncher and the other Decepticons fleeing into the night. Broken Glass! In the remote plains of Thok, Scorponok's Decepticons made camp at the industrial complex whose hyper-galactic transceiver had first alerted them to the Autobots' presence. Forced to admit the value of the Headmaster process, Scorponok allowed himself, Skullcruncher, and several other Decepticons to undergo the process, binary bonding with Lord Zarak—political rival of Fortress Maximus's Nebulan partner—and his entourage. Skullcruncher was binary bonded with Grax, the industrialist who owned the communications complex, and had modified it to accomodate the hyper-galactic transmitter. Joining with such a refined businessman did little to boost Skullcruncher's fighting style at first, as Fortress Maximus still managed to fight off both him and Weirdwolf at once, and then used Skullcruncher as a club to knock Scorponok around. Only by threatening civilian hostages were Scorponok and his men able to get the drop on the Autobots. Love and Steel! Skullcruncher and the Decepticon Headmasters had another brief battle with their counterparts Worlds Apart! but, as the war continued to escalate on Nebulos, both sides decided to quit the planet and moved on to planet Earth after receiving a distress signal. Brothers in Armor!!
Once they arrived on Earth, the Decepticons raced the Autobots to Mount St. Hilary, former landing site of the Ark and location of the distress signal. The two Headmaster teams did battle in the volcano caverns. Skullcruncher was heard mocking Weirdwolf's bizarre Yoda-esque speech pattern during the fight, but to be fair he also demonstrated an odd quirk of "grrr"ing before each sentence. Do alligators growl? Trial by Fire!
After the Autobot named Highbrow got the drop on Scorponok and stole his head, leaving the Decepticon leader incapacitated, Skullcruncher and his comrades hunted down Highbrow until he reached an Autobot shuttle parked in nearby canyons. They recovered the stunned Lord Zarak and reconnected him with Scorponok, restoring their leader. Moments after they did so, however, Skullcruncher and five of his teammates were shunted into Limbo thanks to the time-traveling arrival of Soundwave and the Terrorcons from 2009. They remained out of action until the war with Galvatron ended, and the time storm was abated. Time Wars
When Scorponok's army made first contact with Ratbat and the other Decepticons active on Earth, Skullcruncher and the Headmasters went with their leader as his entourage. A breakdown in negotiations led to combat, as Skullcruncher and the group began fighting with the Predacons, and later Ratbat's entire base. Cold War! The Decepticons stopped their civil war and teamed up with the Autobots when it was discovered that Starscream had orchestrated the whole affair to distract from his pursuit of the legendary Transformers knowledge database, the Underbase. In the wake of this event, Scorponok assumed command of all Decepticons and, with Skullcruncher's help, placed a new headquarters, including an Energon convertor, under a swamp near New York City. King Con! Sometime later, Skullcruncher responded with a team of Decepticons to MacDill Airforce Base when the Air Strike Patrol got into trouble with the Autobots. The Resurrection Gambit! The whole event was orchestrated from afar by Megatron to eliminate Optimus Prime and his rivals in the Decepticons. Skullcruncher didn't know any of this, but that didn't keep him from getting beaten up a lot, first by Optimus Prime All the Familiar Faces! and later by a reconstructed version of Starscream. Skin Deep
Skullcruncher remained a part of the Decepticons throughout the next few months. He was seen running in panic with many other Autobots and Decepticons at the sight on Unicron on Cybertron. On the Edge of Extinction! Later, he was on the planet Klo when Optimus Prime first arrived with the Last Autobot to rescue the besieged Autobot forces. End of the Road!
The Transformers cartoon
- Voice actor: Chris Latta (English, casting only)
Skullcruncher was one of the many new Decepticons from around the universe gathered by Galvatron to go after the Plasma Energy Chamber in 2007. The Rebirth, Part 1 He later accompanied Scourge and Cyclonus to the planet Nebulos. His honored leaders then volunteered him to have his head ripped off and stuffed with organic material. Remarkably, this somehow increased his combat skills. The Rebirth, Part 2 When Scorponok came to life, he quickly told it to attack Arcee, as she was carrying the Plasma Energy Key. Once they key was retrieved, Skullcruncher and his fellow Decepticons boarded Scorponok and Nebulos for Cybertron. When Cerebros and Spike Witwicky returned to Cybertron, Skullcruncher joined in on the attack, but was forced to pull back when their spaceship turned into a battle station. The Rebirth, Part 3
Japanese cartoon continuity
The Great Transformer War
In the closing days of 2010, while significant Transformer battles were being waged on Earth and across space, Skullcruncher and the other Decepticon Headmasters were running from their Autobot counterparts on the planet Master. The Decepticons appeared to flee by leaping into a chasm, but moments later, they burst up through the ground to catch their pursuers unaware. Unfortunately for the villains, the Autobots were able to sneak away under cover of the dust cloud their emergence created, leaving Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher to mistakenly beat up Mindwipe. The Decepticons soon realized their error, but the Autobots then crashed into them in vehicle mode, ending the fight. At that point, the Decepticon ninja Sixshot arrived and instructed them to follow him back to Chaar. The Decepticons fled into space, but the Autobot Headmasters quickly gave chase aboard the battleship Maximus, heading for Cybertron rejoin the larger Transformer war. The Great Transformer War #3
The Headmasters cartoon
- Voice actor: Kōji Totani (Japanese)
Four million years ago, Skullcruncher was among a group of diminutive Cybertronians who departed Cybertron under the leadership of Fortress, seeking to escape the eternal war that had consumed the planet. The Mystery of Planet Master Alas, engine trouble caused their craft to crash land on the planet Master, an inhospitable world whose murderous environments and wildly changeable atmospheric conditions threatened the lives of the Cybertronians. Fighting against the odds, the Cybertronians made several technological quantum leaps to survive on Master, including the creation of larger, lifeless Transformer bodies called Transtectors. Skullcruncher and many of his comrades underwent rigorous physical and mental training to master the art of transformation, learning to transform into heads that connected to the Transtectors and placed them under their control. The Four-Million-Year-Old Veil of Mystery Skullcruncher was one of ten warriors who became one of these "Headmasters", but he and several other warriors soon began to chafe under Fortress's leadership, and ultimately rebelled against him, siding with a traitor named Scorponok. Via the Decepticon ninja Sixshot, Scorponok soon forged an alliance with the Decepticon leader, Galvatron. The Mystery of Planet Master
In the year 2011, Skullcruncher and his fellow Headmasters Weirdwolf and Mindwipe joined Galvatron's Decepticons in a massive attack on Cybertron, seeking to seize control of the destabilized Vector Sigma and establish a Decepticon hold over the planet through the computer. Unfortunately for Skullcruncher, he failed to impress Galvatron on this first foray when he made the first demonstration of his vulnerability to Mindwipe's hypnotic powers, and fell asleep in the middle of the battle. A kick from his new leader woke him up so he could participate in an attack on the Autobots' computer base, but before the villains could enter the facility, Fortress's Autobot Headmasters arrived on Cybertron to stop them. Four Warriors Come out of the Sky In ensuing battle, Skullcruncher battled Highbrow and Hardhead, but was forced to retreat alongside the others when Fortress brought the firepower of his battleship, the Maximus, to bear. The Mystery of Planet Master
Soon after, Skullcruncher journeyed with Galvatron to Earth to help interfere in the Autobots' search for the missing Matrix of Leadership, which could restore balance to Vector Sigma. The villains caught up to Hot Rod just as he located the Matrix, but Computron stepped in to keep them busy while Hot Rod escaped to Cybertron. Skullcruncher and company pursued, leading to a showdown in Vector Sigma's chamber, where Hot Rod used the Matrix to become Rodimus Prime again. Skullcruncher and the Decepticons wisely fled, rather than face the combined might of both Rodimus and Optimus Prime. Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime
In a later battle Skull and the other Headmaster's dicided to sit it out an play cards.
The Headmasters comic
Super-God Masterforce comic
Several years after the Decepticons' departure from Earth, Skullcruncher appeared on Athenia with the other Decepticon Headmasters, working with the new Decepticon Godmasters to disrupt the coronation of Ginrai as Supreme Commander at the behest of their new secret ruler, Devil Z. The Battle Begins! The United Earth-Space Troops
IDW comics continuity
Skullcruncher was part of the Nebulos infiltration unit, working for Darkwing and Dreadwind when Thunderwing attacked the planet. Stormbringer #2 Skullcruncher was less than enthused with the idea of attacking the giant Pretender, but Darkwing insisted they make a showing of protecting their investment in order to avoid Megatron's wrath. Skullcruncher rolled out with Ruckus, Crankcase and Roadgrabber, but was apparently destroyed by an energy blast from Thunderwing. Darkwing and Dreadwind fled Nebulos shortly thereafter. Stormbringer #3
Games
The Transformers (PS2)
- Voice actor:
While the Autobots were searching the Lazalt Ruins, they found Skullcruncher guarding a large stone door. Asking aloud what took them so long, he transformed from crocodile mode to robot mode and announced that he was gonna chomp them up. Optimus was unimpressed, and Skullcruncher lost the ensuing fight against the Autobots. Skullcruncher fled in beast mode, vowing the Autobots wouldn't get the key necessary to open the door. Optimus Prime was surprised they'd need a key, but an inspection of the door proved it true. Suspecting that Skullcruncher might have the key in question, Optimus sent the Autobots after him. Spotting his pursuers, Skullcruncher transformed back to robot mode and answered Prime's demand for the key by sending a horde of enemies after them. Fighting their way through, the Autobots gave the Headmaster another pounding. Deciding he'd had enough, Skullcruncher returned once more to crocodile mode and retreated, leaving the key behind him. The Transformers
Toys
Generation 1
- Skullcruncher (Headmaster, 1987)
- Japanese ID number: D-58
- Accessories: Grax Headmaster unit, Demolecularization gun and sword/tail
- Skullcruncher transforms into a green and pink robotic crocodile, at least according to his packaging; his head implies he's actually an alligator. Skullcruncher includes one of the most bizarre alt-mode cockpits among the Headmasters for his partner Grax, a small molded seat at the back of his alt-mode mouth below the large canopy that serves as this mode's eyes, his entire upper jaw serving as the hatch to access it. The sword/tail's shape actually makes it look more like a short club.
Notes
- In the television commercial for Marvel Comics' Headmasters limited series, the Autobot and Decepticon Headmasters are shown having different head designs than the ones their Nebulan partners would later turn into. These designs were seemingly never used in any other piece of Transformers media. The models for most of them, however, turned up in the excellent Transformers Generations guidebook.
