Grand Mal
- The Grand Mal is a ship in the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1/Beast Era continuity family.
The Grand Mal is the transformable vessel that served as Megatron's body during part of the conflict with the technorganic Maximals on Cybertron. Its primary mode was, well, a big floating head resembling the control helmet Megatron wore prior to adopting it as his body. It could change to a rarely-seen ship mode somewhat reminiscent of the Darksyde. And it may have also had a robot mode, but it was never shown to actually convert to it.
- Japanese name: Megahead
Fiction
Beast Machines cartoon
As Megatron raged at the failure of yet another attempted purge of his organic elements, his Diagnostic Drone suggested he instead transfer his spark to an entirely mechanical body. As he spoke, screens behind him displayed wireframe schematics of a ship, a head, and a robot. Megatron immediately rejected the notion as too risky, for it would leave his spark briefly exposed. The Diagnostic Drone changed the subject to Nightscream, and the screens altered accordingly. Survivor But despite the quick rejection, this idea would have far greater impact on Megatron's future than he imagined.
The new body went entirely unmentioned until it suddenly appeared in enormous completed form soon after Megatron was destroyed. He and Optimus Primal had activated their doomsday devices and been obliterated by the colliding energies. Megatron's Vehicon army and all his systems of dominance went offline, but the building-sized head mysteriously arose from behind his citadel. Fallout Using some form of antigravity, it drifted with no apparent destination, never touching the ground.
Meanwhile, Megatron's spark still existed, but it inhabited a fully-organic creature which had also appeared without explanation. All of his actions were aimed at one goal: reentering his citadel and using the control helmet to transfer his spark to the floating head. Duping the Maximals into helping him, he succeeded. From within his new body, he was able to reactivate the Vehicons and the city in general, putting the Maximals back on the run. Prometheus Unbound
The Grand Mal then became as animate as the face of a normal Transformer, and Megatron often spoke down to others while hovering in the sky. But when his generals were inside it, he would communicate with them via a smaller, internal, holographic head composed of Cybertronian symbols. He only transformed the Grand Mal into ship mode once, in order to fire upon Botanica's shuttle and its sprawling plant life. He never converted it to the robot mode seen in the schematics. Home Soil
At some point, he moved his spark collection from the citadel to a massive, cylindrical holding vessel within himself. But this did not accomplish his goal of absorbing the sparks into his own. When he began the absorption process, for some reason his spark drifted out of the Grand Mal. This left him vulnerable Nightscream's sonic blast, which sent his spark careening in a "depolarized" state. The Grand Mal once again floated rudderlessly. Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege
For a time, Megatron wandered the planet bodiless, and the Maximals occupied the Grand Mal as their base. Spark of Darkness He eventually recomposed himself in the body of a Diagnostic Drone and led Vehicon assaults on the Grand Mal. The Maximals fought in defense of the sparks it contained, but when the Vehicons matched their weapons to its shield harmonics, they were able to bring it down. It crashed into the citadel. Endgame Pt. I: The Downward Spiral
It was subsequently the site of the final battle between the Vehicons and the Maximals. The Maximals were able to reactivate its shields by tapping into a surface power source. Later, Primal chased various Vehicon drones through its depths, while Cheetor used its antigravity engines to launch the Vehicon generals Obsidian and Strika into planetary orbit. Endgame Pt. II: When Legends Fall
After the reformatting of Cybertron, its form remained visible, though covered with technorganic greenery. Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future
Universe: Featuring the Wreckers comics
One short week after the great reformatting, the crashed, vegetation-covered giant head had been dubbed Mount Megatron. Wreckers: Finale Part II
Toys
Beast Wars Returns
- Megahead Megatron (Deluxe, 2005)
- Japanese ID number: BR-12
- Megahead Megatron transforms into the Grand Mal's head mode with scuttling spider-leg action, opening jaw for chip-eating action, and a hidden spring-loaded missile launcher in its mouth. In robot mode, the launcher swings over his head, placing a battle mask down over his face. The robot looks nothing like the schematic seen in the cartoon (and there is no ship mode), but a few incidental design elements of the ship-transformation are seen in the toy.
- If one removes the toy's spider-legs in head mode, it fits into the head socket to the Fortress Maximus main body.
- The toy was originally intended to portray Megatron in the Beast Machines toy line, but was shelved for a year till it was used as Megatron Megabolt, part of the Robots in Disguise line. It was later used for Megabolt. Not till the Japanese edition did it finally appear as the character it was originally intended to portray.
Trivia
- It's unclear how the Grand Mal was created in the cartoon. It certainly could have been under construction "offscreen," but its only reference had been when Megatron rejected the notion. And, enigmatically, when Megatron entered it he declared: "For an eternity I slaved to free myself from the organic material contaminating my otherwise perfect technological body. I finally succeeded in separating the two, but my spark remained with the wrong half - the organic half." Prometheus Unbound This perhaps implies that his "destruction" in the doomsday energy-storm spontaneously generated both Savage/Noble and the Grand Mal. But much is unknown about that entire event, and no clear answers exist.
- In a nod to the original series, Rattrap refers to the uninhabited Grand Mal as "a sparkless, floating tribute to Unicron."
- This isn't the only Megatron who likes to turn into a giant body part.
- A grand mal is a type of seizure.
