Robosmasher

The Robo-Smasher is a machine from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Smashing, Dinsmoore, absolutely smashing!

The Robo-Smasher is a machine built by Megatron. It has the ability to permanently reprogram a Transformer as a Decepticon. This seems to be a very fast operation, requiring only a few seconds of work once access to the victim's circuitry is achieved.

The Robo-Smasher is larger than an average Transformer and has six legs and five tentacles. The three central tentacles are tipped with a device which appears to be some sort of laser scalpel, and the side tentacles are tipped with spiked balls. The side tentacles are used to ensnare and immobilize a victim, and then the central tentacles cut open the Transformer to perform the reprogramming.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon

Getting close enough to touch you, Getting brave enough to take you into my arms --"I Crush Everything" by Jonathan Coulton

Almost everything known about the Robo-Smasher comes from Omega Supreme's account of the events. Not only is he heavily emotionally invested in the tale, but he may have been mentally damaged by the experience. His story also contributes to the mass of contradictions that is the Constructicons' history. The existence of the Robo-Smasher was acknowledged by Optimus Prime and Scrapper, but beyond that, veracity cannot be guaranteed.

Transformer brains are constructed from giant wires and capacitors.

The Robo-Smasher was in operation for an unknown length of time in the Golden Age of Cybertron. Optimus claims that the device was used to "swell the ranks of the Decepticons", which implies that a significant portion of the Decepticon forces at one time may have been "recruited" through its use. The only specific Transformers it is known to have converted are the Constructicons, whom Megatron also gifted with a combined mode in the process. Omega Supreme tried to reprogram them back to their old selves, and he appeared to have succeeded at first. But they would end up betraying him, using their new Devastator mode to pin him against a wall so the Robo-Smasher could grip his head. Omega destroyed the machine before it could finish its work, but the experience left him cold and notoriously taciturn, desiring only revenge upon the Constructicons. The Secret of Omega Supreme

Like all of Megatron's other brilliant inventions, the Robo-Smasher was apparently never rebuilt.

It does not appear to have ever smashed anything.

E-Hobby toy bios

While the Robo-Smasher did a fine job on the Constructicons it caught, it missed at least one. Roadhauler, estranged from his brainwashed teammates, ended up joining the Autobots.

Trivia

• This would not be the Constructicons' only mental manipulation. Later on Earth, the Autobots were able to turn Devastator to their own side via dominator discs. It is not known how deep or long-running that change could have been, though; Megatron disabled the discs handily with his own "control switch." The Core
• The idea of reprogramming the allegiance of a Transformer would be revisited in Beast Wars and Beast Machines, where shell programs were often used to that effect.

References

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.