Vortex (FOC)
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Vortex" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Vortex (disambiguation). |
- Vortex is a Decepticon Combaticon from the Fall of Cybertron portion of the Aligned continuity family.
Vortex isn't much of a fighter. Instead, what Autobots fear is being caught in his magnetic grapples. Once they are in his clutches, Vortex will execute a series of terrifying maneuvers that leaves his victims scared oilless, shortly before dropping them to the planet surface, shellshocked, to their deaths. Along with the other Combaticons, he can form Bruticus.
| “ | Without this, the gun's just a big stick. | ” |
| —Vortex when getting ammo in Fall of Cybertron | ||
Contents |
Fiction
The Covenant of Primus
The Combaticons remained behind on Cybertron after the launch of the Ark and the Nemesis. Vortex and his comrades fought against the Wreckers to help Shockwave maintain control of Cybertron. The Covenant of Primus
Transformers: The Ultimate Pop-Up Universe
Vortex and the rest of the Combaticons had the ability to merge into the mighty Bruticus! It is not known whether they followed Megatron to Earth in his quest for the Allspark or if they remained behind on Cybertron, as they had yet to have been seen adopting an Earth vehicle mode. The Ultimate Pop-Up Universe
Games
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (360/PS3/PC)
- Voice actor: Dave Boat (English)
When the Autobots came into possession of a large amount of energon, Starscream tasked the Combaticons with diverting the transport by destroying a bridge. Vortex and Blast Off were sent to clear a short cut to allow Brawl to take a drop ship through. Blast Off went through first, drawing out Autobot mines for Vortex to destroy. Once they got through the ruins, the Autobots closed some huge shutters, so Blast Off went ahead, leaving Vortex behind to fight all the Autobots by himself. Vortex eventually reached the bridge and helped out Brawl when it turned out the shielding on the bridge supports was too much for his artillery mode to handle. Vortex flew in and destroyed the autobots guarding bridge to reach the controls, where he manually lowered the defenses of the supports. After the pair took out the side supports, Brawl blasted a hole in the center support so Vortex could head in and destroy it with a detpak. This he did, and barely managed to escape the bridge before it collapsed, forcing the Autobots' transport to use more of its fuel to take flight. Once Swindle took out the anti-aircraft cannons, Vortex and the other Combaticons combined into Bruticus and smashed through the rest of the transports defenses in order to reach the flight deck. There, Bruticus separated back into the individual Combaticons, who rushed the room and quickly dispatched the Autobots inside. On Onslaught's orders, Vortex and Blast Off took the flight controls and attempted to land the craft. Unfortunately the damage they had done resulted in the transport crashing, destroying half of the energon it was carrying. Starscream was not pleased, and ordered them arrested after being scorned about his poor leadership by Onslaught.
Vortex and the other Combaticons were later freed once Megatron was resurrected and retook his leadership, accompanying their leader to the facility in which the Autobots were keeping the remains of Trypticon and combined into Bruticus in order to clear a path for Megatron. They were aboard the newly christened Nemesis as it pursued the Ark and Vortex took part in the assault on the Autobot ship's engines as part of Bruticus. The giant took out many Autobots before he was taken down by the combined efforts of Jazz and the Aerialbots, blasted off the Ark's hull to fall to the dying Cybertron behind them. Fall of Cybertron
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
Console
3DS
Transformers: Battle Tactics
Vortex (FoC) participated in battles against a variety of opponents, both Autobots and Decepticons. Sometimes there were many of him! He was an Epic character who first appeared in the "Bruticus' Chaos" event, and could be recruited by collecting 650 units of Cybermetal, 350 units of Transmetal, 150 exclusive cores, and 50 cores of this character. Transformers: Battle Tactics
Toys
Generations
- Decepticon Bruticus (multi-pack, 2012)
- Accessories: 2 swords
- The first version of Vortex released was made available as part of a Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive "Decepticon Bruticus" giftset that contains all five Combaticons in game-accurate colors. Like most Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive toys, it was initially sold at the store's booth at San Diego Comic-Con and made available at the store's website a few days later.
- Vortex's alternate mode is an ocher and red Cybertronian assault helicopter with four rotor blades and a double-barreled gun at the front end of the cockpit. His swords feature sculpted weapon barrels on the underside and can be either held as swords or as rifles with "bayonets" in robot mode, and can also be attached to the skid-like sections on both sides of the cockpit using the 5mm posts that serve as rifle handles.
- In addition to his robot and vehicle modes, Vortex can also combine with his fellow Combaticons into Bruticus and serve as any of the gestalt robot's four limbs, though his official configuration shown in the instructions is the left arm. (The gestalt's hand features a thumb which can fold over to either side of the palm so that it can be used as either the left or right hand. He can also easily be used as either foot, which is shown by his later retool Autobot Whirl, who serves as Ruination's left leg.) His swords can be combined with the other Combaticons' weapons to form Bruticus's Sonic Cannon. Oddly, he is the only Combaticon limb in the set with a black connection port, opposed to the others' light purple.
- A redeco of Vortex in more "flashy" colors was available as an individually-released mass retail toy (see below), whereas a redeco in Generation 2 colors (as the Generation 1 Vortex character) was released as part of a shared Amazon.com/BigBadToyStore exclusive Decepticon Bruticus gift set. The sculpt was also retooled into Autobot Whirl, as mentioned above. It also served as the basis of the non-toy Cloud incarnation of Whirl and the Wings Universe incarnation of Rotorstorm.
- Vortex (Deluxe, 2012)
- Known designers: Lenny Panzica (Hasbro)
- A redeco of Vortex from the Decepticon Bruticus gift set was available individually alongside his fellow Combaticons as part of the second wave of the Fall of Cybertron-themed 2012-onwards Deluxe Class Generations assortment. These versions of the Combaticons replace the game-accurate, Generation 1-inspired decos with more "flashy" colors apparently homaging the color scheme of Bruticus Maximus. Vortex replaces the ocher and red colors from his gift set release with red and purple, with the swords' blades sporting paint operations in fluorescent yellow.
- The Takara release of this figure features an altered palette: his red and purple paint job is swapped in favor of a game-accurate metallic gold-and-dark red paint scheme. Interestingly enough, the Decepticon sigil on his midsection in robot mode is not a tampograph; it is a sticker.
Platinum Edition
- Grimlock vs Decepticon Bruticus (Multi-pack, 2013)
- Accessories: Sonic Cannon
- Platinum Edition "Decepticon Bruticus" is a seemingly-identical re-release of his San Diego Comic-Con 2012 toy. He comes with a redeco of Fall of Cybertron Grimlock.
Notes
- Vortex's original design art (right) used the same color scheme as a lower quality scan of his Generation 1 counterpart, and this art was used for some significant promotions and in game (using a different pose). Further modification to his color scheme removed any of the bluish gray from the concept art for the final in game design, possibly because of the game's limit of two colors per character.
- Vortex's body parts are available to Scientist-class characters in Fall of Cybertron multiplayer, identified as Vanguard-type components. Because of his unique vehicle mode, there are no Vanguard-type wings. However, wings from other characters can be used by equipping the desired wings on one chest, then switching over to the Vanguard chest. They are only visible on the tail of the helicopter, however.
- Vortex's alt-mode is unusual in that while in it he is normally configured as a helicopter (fitting the trend of other Vortexes in the multiverse), but converts to a jet-like form when using his ability to boost (this would technically classify him as a gyrodyne). Unfortunately, it appears that the toy is not capable of replicating this "boost mode".
- His toy instructions depict Whirl's head.
- He's afraid of the dark.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Vortex (ボルテックス Borutekkusu)
- Russian: Vihr (Вихрь, "Whirlwind")
- Mandarin: Xuàn Fēng (旋风 "Whirlwind")
