Twins (ROTF)

The Twins are a couple of redneck-lookin' 'bots from the live-action film continuity family.

I grabbed me a chair and said "Watch 'im, folks, 'cause he's a thoroughly dangerous man!"

When a spark splits into two separate sparks, the resulting two Cybertronians are considered twins, with an incredibly close bond. One such division yielded Skids and Mudflap, a pair of doofy-looking, hyperactive chatterboxes who refer to themselves simply as the Twins.

The inseparable pair spends more time fighting with each other than paying attention to anything going on around them. They like to think they're hard core, but when their guard drops, it turns out they're basically a couple of robot rednecks. Still, they can hold their own in a fight, and they are eager to show Optimus Prime just how skilled they are. Whether this will end up getting them killed is another question, though they have had some extremely close calls before.

Each twin can transform into smaller separate vehicles or combine for a single, more durable alternate mode. Upon first arriving on Earth, the twins took the form of a beat-up old ice cream truck, but later scanned a couple of slick new Chevy cars for disguises.

Fiction

IDW comics continuity

The Twins briefly had a shared alternate mode.

The Twins received Optimus Prime's transmission for Autobots to come to Earth and help defend their new home from Decepticon reprisals. They met up with Arcee and Sideswipe and landed near Mission City, making their way to a junkyard with a homing beacon Prime's Autobots had left after the destruction of Megatron and the AllSpark. After a short period of training on Diego Garcia, it was announced that the Twins would be joining the other new arrivals in helping to counter the Decepticon incursion in Shanghai Alliance issue 4

Revenge of the Fallen film

After NEST was deployed to Shanghai, the Twins were the first to be deployed, patrolling the streets and taunting any hiding Decepticons to come out and "suck their popsicle". When Sideways tried to make a break for it, the Twins cut him off, forcing him to turn a corner toward a dead end...and jump through an apartment building. While Arcee's components jumped through the hole he had made, the Twins decided to go around the building. However, the turn was too fast, and Mudflap lost control. Although he took full blame for screwing that up, Skids still punched him out. It's combat, what's wrong with him?!

After returning to Diego Garcia, it was decided the Twins would take separate alternate modes, and a green Beat and red Trax were provided. Both Twins were impressed, and Mudflap announced he would be taking the green. Skids disagreed, and a minor scuffle followed, as Skids called the green.

When multiple Decepticon contacts were detected on the East Coast of the United States, the Autobots immediately went to counter them without NEST. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee went to rescue Sam Witwicky, Mikaela Banes, and Leo Spitz from Megatron, Starscream, and Grindor. While Optimus took Sam to the nearby Pine Barrens, Bumblebee rejoined the rest of the Autobots and headed to reinforce Optimus. Unfortunately, by the time they got there, Megatron had already killed Prime, and the Twins served as escort when Bumblebee took the three teens to hide in an abandoned prison.

As Leo Spitz started to have a freak out over what was happening, Skids wondered what they would do with the "shrimp taco". Mudflap suggested they simply pop a cap in him, toss him in the trunk, and forget about him. Skids, however, didn't want Leo in his trunk. Leo told the two "bumper cars" that there would be no killing. An unimpressed Skids told him to get a haircut and whine to his boyfriend. That evening, Sam asked the Twins if they could read the symbols he was seeing. They identified them as old school Cybertronian. Unfortunately, the Twins couldn't read the symbols, and weren't that much into reading anyway. When Leo came back, the Twins still poked fun at him, with Mudflap saying his panic attack was because he was a pussy. Leo however, knew of someone who might be able to help them, and the Twins accompanied Bumblebee and the to New York City, where the source turned out to be Seymour Simmons, former agent of Sector Seven, who in turn led them to Jetfire at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Jetfire in turn teleported the group to Egypt (an experience the Twins had no desire to repeat anytime soon), and told them of The Fallen, the Star Harvester he sought, and how the Dynasty of Primes hid the Matrix of Leadership needed to activate somewhere on Earth.

As Sam continued on his quest to find the Matrix, in the hopes that it could somehow revive Optimus, the Twins continued their supporting roles. As they tried to evade some police, the Twins transformed to robot mode and hid in between some buildings. Skids described it as "blending in with the landscape, like a ninja", and Mudflap told him to shut up. As they made their way to Giza, Skids continued his attempts to blend in, only to run right into Bumblebee.

Sam worked out the next clue, and the group made their way to Petra. The ruins there appeared to be a dead end, and as Sam insisted that it wasn't over yet, Mudflap openly questioned why they were still following him, as he had done nothing for them. When Skids reminded his brother that Sam had killed Megatron, Mudflap countered that he hadn't gotten the job done. As the argument grew heated, Mudflap called Skids ugly, and a brawl followed, with the Twins damaging the ruins and nearly crushing the humans in the cramped quarters. At this point, Bumblebee decided to intervene and stop the brawl...by picking the Twins up, bashing them together, and throwing them out of the ruins. However, their fight had unintended consequences, as the damage revealed the Tomb of the Primes.

"Nobody messes with the Twins!" "Yeah! We mess with each other instead!"

As the group made their way to where NEST had landed with Optimus Prime's body, Starscream began strafing their position, forcing the Twins to take Simmons and Leo away as distractions. Heading toward a quarry near the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Twins witnessed Megatron order the Decepticons to begin their assault, as the Constructicons arrived in the quarry to form Devastator. The Twins were initially unimpressed with the giant, until he started using his Vortex Grinder to begin pulling everything inside his mouth. And the Twins grabbed on for dear life, Mudflap lost his grip and was swallowed by Devastator. As Skids mourned his brother's presumed death, Simmons said that the only safe place was under Devastator. As the trio made their way under, Mudflap fought his way out of Devastator's face and began firing on the combiner. Skids climbed up Devastator's left paw and fired a grapple for Mudflap to grab onto. Just as the Twins grabbed hold of each other, Mudflap accidentally fired his cannon right into Skids' face, knocking the two off. Fortunately, they managed to land under Devastator with the two humans. Revenge of the Fallen

IDW post Revenge of the Fallen comics

The Twins took part in an operation in Seattle which brought down the rampaging Decepticon Alice. Nefarious #1 Later on, when Theodore Galloway was attacked by an Initiative-controlled Ransack, Skids and Mudflap were the Autobots nearest to his location. They successfully kept Ransack occupied until NEST helicopters turned up and blew away the Decepticon. The Twins accompanied Galloway to Hoover Dam, where Initiative forces had been conducting a raid. Nefarious #4 Soundwave helped the Autobots track the Initiative to Crater Lake, Oregon. The Twins were sent in from the east, and encountered a number of human combatants wielding advanced weaponry whom they disarmed. Nefarious #5 When the Autobots encountered Initiative-controlled Transformers, the Twins and Sideswipe were sent to help reinforce Bumblebee's team. Nefarious #6

Dark of the Moon film

The Twins could be spotted briefly in the Autobot hangar. Dark of the Moon

In the novelization and comic book adaptation, Sentinel Prime kills both of the twins during his rampage through NEST headquarters. However this was not seen in the film, as they were removed from the final cut.

Toys

Revenge of the Fallen

File:ROTF Deluxe Skids&Mudflap toy.jpg

I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss for asparagus!

• Autobot Skids And Mudflap (Deluxe, 2009)
  • Japanese ID number: RA-20

This two-pack of the twin Autobot brothers can combine into a single, old-fashioned ice cream truck. The vehicle splits in half right down the middle of its chassis (similar to how it does in the film) to create the two small robot forms. Other than the transformation, the toy features no gimmicks.

Mudflap's heels are too thick for his feet to fold up properly in vehicle mode, though this can be fixed by trimming them. Also, this toy may be the first Transformer to feature the typeface Comic Sans, which is used to write "MADE FRESH FOR YOU" across both front wheel hubs. But that's on Skids's half, so Mudflap is partly absolved here.

Both Skids and Mudflap have sculpted rust detailing all over the Ice cream tuck, but for some reason, they are not painted.

Amusingly, the ice cream truck accommodates Human Alliance human figures really well.

• Shanghai Showdown (Multi-pack, 2010)

The twins in this set have additional decals for you to put on (save for the "suck my popsicle" slogan) and painted rust and "Caution Children" for the ice cream truck mode. They come with a redecoed version of Demolishor.

Transformers (2010)

• High-Speed Spy Battle (Multi-pack, 2010)

Calling it 'Slow and Ungainly Goofball Battle' just didn't have the same ring to it.

This Target-exclusive two pack (or three pack, depending on how you count) features a redecoed Sideways and the ice-cream truck mode of Mudflap and Skids, which replaces most of the robot mode white plastic on the originals with a rusty brown, adds even more rusty paint applications than the earlier "Shanghai Showdown" version and omits the comic-sans "Made fresh for you" on the front wheel wells of the truck.

Notes

Oh, so that explains it. They left the Smart one out of the film.

• The Twins' final alternate modes in the film, the Chevrolet Beat (Skids) and Chevrolet Trax (Mudflap), were designed by General Motors as small car concept vehicles. At one point in the film's pre-production, another small car, the Mercedes-Benz Smart, was evidently considered as an option for a film character; concept art of a "third twin" based on it appears in various sections of the Revenge DVD special features, always in close proximity to concept art of Skids and Mudflap. Whether it was meant to be a third character related to Skids and Mudflap or if it was supposed to be used in place of one of them is unknown. What is known is that Hasbro has had great difficultly in the past trying to get likeness licenses from German automakers, which is probably why the vehicle/character was dropped.

• The toymakers seem to be a bit confused about the roles of The Twins in their final battle; it's Mudflap who blasts his way through Devastator's mouth and Skids who uses a grappling hook to haul his twin out of it, but this is reversed in the Fast Action Battler and Human Alliance toys, which give Skids the large arm-cannon and Mudflap the grapple. The Deluxe class toys get it right, though.