Junkion (species)
| "Junkion" redirects here. For the planet, see Junkion (planet). |
Junkions are a tribe (or possibly race) of Transformers that inhabit the planetoid also known as Junkion. Their historical origin is unclear, although some sources imply that they may indeed be descended from Cybertronians.[1]
They have a unique physiology, seemingly made of little more than the same rusted scraps of trash metal that compose their homeworld. They are capable of not only withstanding damage that would normally incapacitate or kill the average Transformer, but quickly repairing that damage using any pieces of scrap metal they can get their hands on. A Junkion may even be reduced to a pile of parts, only to come back at their enemy less than a minute later. Junkions in battle are utterly fearless, using tag-team and ambush tactics to keep mobile while swarming their opponents en masse.
They are also expert mechanics, even able to repair with remarkable ease Transformers normal medical science would write off as dead. How the Junkions have developed in this manner has yet to be explained.
Junkion culture is centered on one thing: Earth broadcasting. Their speech is a hodgepodge of television and radio clippings, making them oftentimes hard to understand. Junkions as a whole are somewhat childlike and naive. They are curious, but also tend to be wary of, if not outright hostile towards, newcomers to their planet (far too many have come with the goal of harming their world), but once a Junkion's friendship is gained, they go "coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs" and treat their allies as Friends For Life. As such, they are instinctively protective of humans, the source of television.
After having come in contact with the Autobots, the Junkions have become known as some of the best scrap metal merchants and traders around. Even some Decepticons make use of their services. The Junkions are all too happy to exchange energon for more scrap metal... even if they don't think to ask just where the scrap metal came from.
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
Voice actors: Frank Welker, Michael Bell (English)
When a group of Autobots crashlanded on their planet, the Junkions saw them as nothing but intruding thieves. Without warning, Wreck-Gar and his Junkions led an assault on them, but they soon halted when another group of Autobots arrived and proved their friendliness with the universal greeting. Pacified, the Junkions revived the late Ultra Magnus and promptly organized a dance party for everyone.
When Hot Rod voiced his desire to destroy Unicron, the Junkions did not hesitate to join him, and a large number of them boarded the Minnow with which to attack the dark god. The Minnow was crushed in Unicron's hand in the following battle, but luckily the passengers survived (at the very least, Wreck-Gar and Perceptor did). The Transformers: The Movie
Two Junkions came with Wreck-Gar when he travelled to planet Goo 8739B to save his Autobot friends. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4 The exiled Decepticon Octane later worked with Junkions to freight scrapmetal between their planet to Cybertron. Starscream's Ghost The defensive Junkions later chased off a number of Sharkticons that had landed on their planet in search of a Quintesson journal. In response, the Quintessons hijacked the Junkions' precious television signals, planting subliminal messages that caused the Junkions to consider all other races to be their enemies. Even worse, the Junkions got the bright idea to share these transmissions, beaming them out in the galaxy and causing sentient races everywhere to fight each other. The brainwashed Junkions were eventually fixed when Blaster countered the transmissions with some of his own. The Big Broadcast of 2006
Victory cartoon
A few Junkions were residing in Iron Town, where they were menaced by the Decepticon desperadoes. Fortunately, Star Saber saved the town. The Brave Hero of the Universe - Star Saber
Marvel Comics continuity
In a strange alternate future, the defensive Junkions chased off a number of Sharkticons that had landed on their planet in search of a Quintesson journal. In response, the Quintessons hijacked the Junkions' precious television signals, planting subliminal messages that caused the Junkions to consider all other races to be their enemies and meticulously organize the junk on their planet in hopes the lost journal would be discovered. The Junkions got the bright idea to share these transmissions, beaming them out in the galaxy and causing sentient races everywhere to fight each other. The brainwashed Junkions were eventually fixed when Blaster countered the transmissions with soothing easy-listening music. Once the hypnosis was broken, the Junkions sided with the Autobots in driving off the attacking Decepticons. The Big Broadcast of 2006 (US)
Marvel UK future timelines
Following the destruction of Unicron, his still living head floated into range of the planet Junk, and using his vast mental powers he took control of the entire Junkion population. Planning to use Junk as his new body, Unicron ordered the Junkions to attach his head to the planet. His plot failed when Wreck-Gar, who had been off in space at the time Unicron took control, planted explosives benath his head and blew him up. The Legacy of Unicron!
Transformers Legends
The Junkions did not take kindly to the Recyclons intending to recycle their planet into energon. After Salvage damaged Wreck-Gar, the Junkions swarmed the intruders and forced them to retreat into space. Down but not out, the Recyclons decided to fire the Prime Processing Unit to recycle the entire planet from orbit, but the Junkions fired a tractor beam in return, sending their ship crashing violently into Junk. Salvage was the sole survivor of the crash, his last sight alive being a group of Junkions moving in on him. Collect and Save
Dreamwave Generation 1 comics
The planet Junkion began as a Cybertronian garbage disposal area in space where junk was dumped by means of space bridge technology. From whatever more the Cybertronians, Autobot and Decepticon alike, dumped through the space bridge, More Than Meets The Eye space bridge entry the Junkions emerged as a new breed of Transformer. Runnin' with the Devil Though not hostile by nature, the fact their home planet was paradise to numerous treasure hunters and thrill seekers that couldn't care less how the Junkions would suffer from their presence, the Junkions had adopted a mildly xenophobic disposition. More Than Meets The Eye Junk entry
Sometime in 2003, Junkion leader Wreck-Gar was flying the Junkions' main ship alone through space when he stumbled upon the remains of Decepticon leader Megatron. Revelation He brought him on board and repaired him, though Megatron was not the least bit grateful. First, he harshly demanded to know what Wreck-Gar was and when that was answered, Megatron proceeded to manipulate Wreck-Gar into getting him a start back to power. The two returned to Junkion, where Wreck-Gar collected discarded Air Warrior bodies and repaired them, believing Megatron needed an army to vanquish evil from the universe. When he was done, Megatron killed (?) him, because Wreck-Gar was too unpredictable an ally. Runnin' with the Devil
IDW Generation 1 continuity
According to the historian Pentius, the Junkions were the remains of a rich and prosperous race who had arrogantly believed their resources would last them forever. When their veritable paradise of a planet finally ran out of energon, these early Junkions were forced sell off their wealth to other races in a desperate attempt at survival, but it was a futile struggle. As their civilization slowly fell into ruins and their planet was reduced to a hellish junkyard, the survivors deteriorated into a race of scavengers and cannibals living among the garbage. Fallout
The Junkions became a kind of bogeyman to Cybertronians, who believed them to be monstrous scrap-eating zombies from the mythical death-world of Junkion. When Megatron was banished to Junkion by Scorponok, however, he found that the threat was very real. Derelicts He viciously destroyed the group of cannibalistic Junkions who attacked him, suffering some damage in the process. Wreckage
Some four million years later, Galvatron recruited several Junkions into the army he was raising to oppose D-Void. Heart of Darkness #3 Some other Junkions were among the neutral Transformers who returned to Cybertron after the war was over. A Better Tomorrow One of them watched a live interview with Starscream and Omega Supreme. The End of the Beginning of the World
The AllSpark Almanac
Blackarachnia expressed that Meltdown was "buggier than a Junkion's code-base". Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac
Exiles
Early on in the Space Bridge colonization project, Cybertronian colonists used the world of Junkion as a collective dumping ground for the vast amounts of refuse and garbage that inevitably resulted from the push outwards. This same planetoid was later used as a hideout for Cybertronian criminals, pirates, and outlaws. Many of them created new identities for themselves and began new lives working on the planet. The space bridge project eventually failed, leaving Junkion isolated from the rest of the universe. With no new resources available, the inhabitants turned to scavenging to survive. As they created new bots from the junk around them, the few former Cybertronians gradually forgot about their origins and took on the name "Junkions". At the time of Optimus Prime's search for the Allspark, their leader was the eccentric Wreck-Gar.
The Junkions were initially skeptical of Optimus Prime's quest, but eventually aided him and his Autobots by directing them to the nearest working space bridge. However, the Decepticons, who had been following the Ark, landed on the planet and launched an attack on both the Autobots and Junkions. During the course of the battle, the Requiem Blaster, the center of Junkion, was removed, causing the planet to break apart. The fracas was further compounded by the arrival of the Star Seekers, who took the Junkions hostage and, despite Wreck-Gar's protests, forced them to weld a space bridge to the hull of the Tidal Wave. The Star Seekers and Junkions disappeared to places unknown. Exiles
Shattered Glass
The Junkions were the minions of Wreck-Gar, an experimental junk robot with the ability to remake other Transformers in his image using using snake-like creatures. They spoke in the manner of computer error messages. After the spread of the Junkion "Hive" proved a threat to both factions, they were locked away on the prison planet Paradron.
Eventually, they were freed by the Autobot renegade Ultra Magnus, who recruited them as footsoldiers for his incursion into the dimension Primax 207.0 Epsilon. Numerous Autobots from that universe were assimilated into the Hive, and as Magnus's plan came to fruition, transporting the alternate Earth back to their own, negative-polarity universe and destroying 207.0 Epsilon in its wake, the Junkions retreated from battle. Invasion
Toys
Generation 1
- Wreck-Gar (1986)
- The only Junkion toy originally produced was the group's leader.
- Detritus (Junkion, 2004)
Transformers (2010)
- Wreck-Gar (Deluxe, 2011)
- Wreck-Gar transforms from a Road-Warriors-esque motorcycle into an asymmetrical robot with facial hair, a grin, and an axe. Double pegs under his pelvis correspond to double pegholes in his vehicle-mode seat, meaning if you get more than one, he can totally ride himself, or anyone else made from this mold.
United
- Wreck-Gar (Deluxe, 2011)
- United Wreck-Gar is a redeco of the 2010 Wreck-Gar toy with different paint layouts.
- Autobot SET (3-pack, 2011)
- This e-Hobby exclusive 3-pack contains Scrapheap, a retool of Reveal the Shield and United Wreck-Gar with a new head inspired by the background Junkions from the movie.[2]
- Roadmaster Prime Mode (10-27-2012)
- ID number: EX 03
- Accessories: Junker Drone, Trasher Drone, Waster Drone, Scrapper Drone
- Roadmaster is a redeco of the Power Core Combiners Mudslinger toy, transforming into a monster truck of indeterminate model. He also has a "Prime Mode" where he becomes the torso of a super robot, capable of using any auto-transforming Power Core Combiner drone-machine molds for limbs.
- He comes with four color-coordinated "wasteland" vehicle drone-limbs, redecos of the Destructicons. Each one has a square socket for a Power Core Combiner connection; when attached via the blue plugs on a Commander figure, the vehicles automatically transform into a super-robot limb, and snaps back to vehicle mode when disconnected. Despite the universal connector, each drone can only form one limb type (but can be swapped from left to right):
- Junker Drone — Leg (Roadmaster's left)
- Trasher Drone — Leg (Roadmaster's right)
- Waster Drone — Arm (Roadmaster's left)
- Scrapper Drone — Arm (Roadmaster's right)
Generations
- Junkheap (Deluxe Class, 2011)
- "Junkheap" is a retool of Wreck-Gar with a new head. The pegs that tab into slots on the bike-mode's seat mean he can ride either Wreck-Gar or Scrapheap, or vice-versa.
Timelines
- Wreck-Gar / Scrap Iron / Junkheap (2012)
- Redecoes of 2011's Wreck-Gar, Scrapheap, and Junkheap toys respectively.
Notes
- According to secret file on Autobots, the Junkions are a "tribe of Autobots that dwells on the planet Junkion", ostensibly cementing their place as Transformers.
- In G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II #3, the Dreadnoks, a Cobra biker gang, are shown to ride motorcycles that look just like the Junkions. The Dreadnoks claim to have found their new bikes in a junkyard at some point. No indication is given that the bikes are living Transformers, leaving it simply an Easter egg for the reader.
- The Junkions that appeared in the movie and their ship were given names in the Transformers: The Complete Ark book, which was released 23 years after the movie.
- It's probably a good idea to just not mess with the Junkions, as everyone who does seems to die. The one exception to this rule is Thundertron and his crew of Star Seekers, who managed to take the Junkions captive and enslave them.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Junkion (ジャンキオン Jankion)
- Russian: Scavengers (Мусорщики Musorshchiki)
