Onslaught (G1)
- Onslaught is a Decepticon Combaticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Onslaught is what you'd call the "hands-off" type. He doesn't enjoy getting his mits dirty, but rather, Onslaught prefers the thrill of designing battle plans, strategies, and tactics, and then watching his Combaticon soldiers carry them out. While he typically crafts his strategies to exclude his direct involvement, Onslaught is no coward. When required, he will engage in battle with strength, cunning and earthquaking fury. While this darker more brutish side of Onslaught might lead some Decepticons into thinking he has a secret blood-lust stashed away in his circuits, truth be told, he's just really ticked off that he has to go out and do some actual fighting.
Onslaught can combine with his fellow Combaticons to form Bruticus.
- French-Canadian name: Abordage
- Hungarian name: Cudar
- Italian name: Destroyer
- Spainish name: Oslat
Fiction
Generation 1
Marvel Comics continuity
Events from Marvel UK are in italics.
Onslaught is the leader of the Combaticons, one of the Special Teams foretold by the Matrix. It is assumed he was constructed on Earth, but this is contradicted by Generation 2 which hinted that Onslaught is the creator of the Cybertronian Mindset. Whichever the case may be, Onslaught and his team were first seen on Earth in the Afterdeath! story, where Onslaught fought and lost to the Protectobots inside the Multi-World computer game.
Later on, he led his team to kill Galvatron while he was trapped in a volcano, and Onslaught was the only Combaticon not taken down by a trio of human women. He would've killed them if the Throttlebots hadn't shown up as the cavalry. In response for that humiliation, Onslaught and the Combaticons hunted the Throttlebots down. The Throttlebots were trapped in a used car lot and the Combaticons were forced to bid for them in an auction against RAAT and the Protectobots, but Onslaught cut through this by trying to have the lot's owner assassinated. RAAT would get the Throttlebots and the Combaticons were beaten by Blaster.
Onslaught's shining moment came when he got to lead a massed Decepticon assault on the Autobots, which came close to wiping them all out.
He was not seen again until the Generation 2 comic, implying he had been killed in the Underbase conflict and later resurrected. At the death of Mindset, a Cybertronian light years away, Onslaught was briefly overcome by pain, hinting he had some past involvement with what became the Cybertronian Empire. However, he was offlined along with the entire Combaticon team by Starscream and this was never delved into. It is unknown if he was killed or later repaired.
However, in the post-movie alternate timeline, he is still active in 2008 and was one of Soundwave's lieutenants when the Quintessons invaded.
Animated continuity
Voice actor: S. Marc Jordan, Steve Bulin (US), Yutaka Shimaka (Japan)
Onslaughts full past is never truly shown except that he was once a member of the Renegade Decepticons who had gone against Megatron, and was stored in the Decepticon Detention Center on Cybertron. After Starscream was booted from the Decepticon base for attempting to overthrow Megatron (again), he decided to form his own army. Travelling to Cybertron through the Space Bridge, he "liberated" Onslaughts personality component and put it in a Human vehicle that was left over from one of Earth's World Wars. Onslaught and his fellow Combaticons worked with Starscream to overthrow Megatron on the promise of being given vital Energon components as well as revenge on Megatron for being imprisoned for countless centuries. He worked in capturing two Autobots though got into an argument with Vortex over who was responsible for the act. He merged to form Bruticus and nearly won when Menasor defeated the Combiner. Megatron banished Onslaught, his comrades and Starscream in space on a desolate asteroid. Starscream's Brigade
Onslaught became the mastermind of Operation Revenge and helped defeat Shockwave's forces on Cybertron. He also used his external backpack and altered the Space Bridge to send Earth into the sun. It didn't work as he was defeated by the allied Decepticons and Autobots. Then Megatron had the Combaticons, including Onslaught, reprogrammed to serve him. Poor guy, can't seem to get a break. The Revenge of Bruticus
Dreamwave continuity
Onslaught unleashed his considerable firepower against the Autobots during the Decepticon assault against Iacon. He managed to escape from the disaster instigated by Starscream only to be imprisioned millions of years later by Shockwave along with his fellow Combaticons. That is at least until Starscream freed them.
When Sunstorm appeared on Earth, the battered Combaticons were ordered by Starscream to combine into Bruticus and deal with the crazed zealot. It did not end well.
The repaired Combaticons were brought to the Guadalcanal where they could hone their somewhat lackluster combat skills and listen to Starscream's long-winded aspirations of glory. Starscream orders them to defeat the magnificent Autobot Sky Lynx as a means to train themselves for greater battles. Unfortunately, the Combaticons do not fare well when the crafty Autobot splits into his two forms, with Onslaught nearly crushed by the Lynx's right paw as he was issuing orders. After Starscream deactivates Sky Lynx, Onslaught berated his team as buffons for not paying attention to his battle plan.
This was the least of their troubles, however, as Predaking showed up as soon after Sky Lynx shut down. Onslaught ordered his men to keep moving and maintain formation so as to remain as smaller, faster targets, then as they neared Predaking, formed Bruticus. This encounter also did not end well either.... The Route of All Evil
Toys
Generation 1
- Onslaught (1986)
- Team ID number: C5
- Japanese ID number: D-64
- Onslaught transforms into a dark blue mobile anti-aircraft truck of made-up origin, armed with a large double-barrelled cannon mounted on the flatbed of his vehicle mode. He can also assume a base/gun emplacement mode with a ramp that smaller Combaticons can use. This base mode can be connected to both the Autobot city Metroplex (a feature not mentioned in either toy's instructions, for obvious reasons) and to the Decepticon city Trypticon, a feature only documented in Trypticon's instructions.
- In robot mode, Onslaught is armed with a long olive laser rifle and is accessorized by a small chest plate. He forms the central body component of Bruticus, protected by an even larger silver chest plate and Bruticus' head. He also comes with Bruticus' hands and feet.
- The complete set of Combaticons were re-released in the European-market "Classics" line in 1990; these releases typically has the rubsign indent removed from the molding. However, Onslaught interestingly has his indent intact, and the indent remains even in more recent reuses of the mold.
- This mold was redecoed as Operation Combination Great Cannon, Robots in Disguise Mega-Octane, and Universe Mega-Octane.
Generation 2
- Onslaught (1993)
- Team ID number: C5
- In Generation 2, Onslaught was redecoed in a rather
outlandishglorious colour scheme of bright orange covered in purple camoflage, with purple replacing most of his olive and silver colours. The sticks on the back of his truck proudly state that he is indeed Onslaught. In this form he was reputedly "one meta-morphin' dude-icus."
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