Scrapmetal (race)

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The ants come marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah...

No one's quite sure where theScrapmetaloriginally come from, or why they look like Transformers. What is known is that they're a dangerous scourge that swarm from planet to planet, devouringeverythingin their path, and now thousands of them have infested the abandonedCybertron!

Individual Scrapmetal have only a base animal-level intelligence, and by Cybertron standards are small and weak, easily crushed. However, Scrapmetal are almost never witnessed as individuals, only in large swarms that can overwhelm robots far larger than they through sheer strength of numbers, no matter how many of their own dead they skitter over. They appear to follow the orders of a single (barely) sapientScrapmetal,physically identical to his kin, but just bright enough to make the swarmreallydangerous by giving them direction.

Fiction

Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity

Cybertroncartoon

SWAAAAAAAAAARM!

The Transformers knew about Scrapmetal as a planet-hopping scourge, andHot Shotwas creeped out by the way they resembled small Transformers.Cybertron

The Scrapmetal were first sighted when theCybertron Defense Teamheaded to Cybertron across thespace bridge.Watching from the Autobots' base onEarth,Loriwas creeped out by them, as they reminded her of spiders.Red Alertrecognized them as Scrapmetal.Starscream

Despite unleashing their full (impressive) arsenals, the Defense Team were quickly overwhelmed by the creaturesStarscream,promptingOptimus Primeto sendEvac,LeobreakerandOverride(who was carrying theOmega Lock) across the Space Bridge to assist them.Megatronand a horde of his underlings followed in pursuit, hoping to acquire the Lock and its threeCyber Planet Keys.UnitedThe Defense Team, meanwhile, drove off the first wave by themselves anyway.Red Alertbelieved they may have come from other planetsthe black holehad destroyed.Cybertron

The Scrapmetal regrouped and returned, badly injuringCrumplezone.BalanceOne of them subsequently attacked Megatron after his rebirth as a ghostly entity, only to have its shots-and itself-devoured by the shadowy mist surrounding his body.DarknessThe Autobots would have to spend a while clearing the pests offGod.Family

A red Scrapmetal husk was later rebuilt into anon-sentient droneWarpthat was piloted byCoby Hansenand used both in battle and in infiltration of enemy ships.City

Cybertroncomic

As the Scrapmetals swarmed over the abandoned Cybertron underneath theUnicron Singularity,several menaced the new arrivalSkyfallbefore being destroyed by the corruptedDark Scorponok.Other Scrapmetals were co-opted byNemesis PrimeandRamjetin the service of Unicron himself.Balancing Act, Part 2

The Scrapmetals followed Ramjet into battle when he confronted Skyfall.Balancing Act, Part 3The Coming Storm: Part 1Later, Ramjet used the Scrapmetals to attack Primus's spark core chamber. Although Ramjet succeeded, the chamber's defenderDownshiftdestroyed the Scrapmetals following Unicron's herald.Balancing Act, Part 4

Scrapmetals continued to infest Cybertron's infrastructure, promptingOver-Runto try and fix upVector Sigmato aid him in understanding and repairing the planet.Revelations Part 2

Cybertrontoy bios

Once, Scrapmetal were just a breed ofTerrorcon,mechanical vermin from Cybertron's lower levels. But theblack holemutated them, and under the command of the power-hungry sentient Scrapmetal, they swarmed the surface of Cybertron!Scrapmetal bioScrapmetal were perhaps descendants ofa three-member race of insect-like Transformerswhat could produce clone minions.Scrapmetal code bio

Ask Vector Prime

ThePraetoriantried to use the corruptedReconfiguration Matrixto turn all of the robotic life in theVega Sectorinto loyal Scrapmetal. He was stopped by theMultiforce.Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/01

InPrimax 208.06 Zeta,Infernowas given command of the Scrapmetal Drones as one ofMegatron'sVehiconGenerals.Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/16

Swindle's Spiel

Swindle, Swindle and Swindlehad Scrapmetals among their Terrorcon drones for sale.Swindle's Spiel, 2015/10/05

Toys

Cybertron

Stop...

...caution... (Hasbro version pictured)

...go!...WAIT, IT'S NOT GREE...gets run through

• Scrapmetal(Scout class, 2005)

• Takara name:Ramble[sic]
• Takara ID number:GD-13
• Takara release date:July 28,2005
• Accessories:Blade, Cybertron Decepticon Cyber Key
• Cyber Key Code:sf2x(red),s1j5(yellow)
• Known designers:Takio Ejima(TakaraTomy)

Part of the "Scout" -class price-point, Scrapmetal transforms into a four-legged "spider tank" with a rear-mounted cannon. Inserting aCyber Planet Keyinto the back end of the cannon releases a spring-loaded, clear-plastic sawblade-sword from the main chamber of the cannon. This blade can be removed from the assembly and hand-held thanks to its5 mm postbase (indented to prevent it from being placed back into the cannon incorrectly). In robot mode, Scrapmetal's fists can be covered with the tank-mode spikes, or with immobile "pile drivers". The crane-arm can be oriented on either shoulder thanks to the 360-degree swivel of the "shoulderpads" assembly; the default position is on its right shoulder.

This toy was first released in the twelfth wave of theTakaraGalaxy Forceline. "Ramble" (an almost certain mis-romanizationof "Rumble" ) came in three different decos, all released at the same time: red, yellow, and blue, released in equal numbers of all three decos. The packaging is identical for all three versions, with the includedbiocard showing all three (as seen at the top of this page).

Hasbroreleased the red "Scrapmetal" in the sixth wave ofCybertronScout-class toys. This version has numerous slight deco differences from the Takara red version: most immediately noticeable is theCyber Key Codeprinted on the back of its Cyber Key, but it is also missing the red paint on its head and the backs of its arms, most of its red paint detailing is darker, the gray plastic is a metallic gunmetal rather than the Takara version's semi-matte off-gray, while all of therestof its plastic is justslightlydifferent, beingslightlydarker and having a more noticeable metal-flake sheen to the dark-gray plastics. (The Hasbro version can also represent theone semi-sentient Scrapmetalas described in the toy's cardback bio.)

Then, Hasbro released the yellow version in the ninth wave of Scouts. This release isalmostidentical to the original Takara version, with the lighter gray plastic of all three colors and all the same number of paint operations; of course there is the addition of anewKey Code to the back of its Cyber Key, but the Hasbro version also has darker yellow paint on the head and limbs, plus a darker Decepticon symbol.

Hasbro never released a blue Scrapmetal at all, thus driving up demand for Takara's blue version in the West among people keen onarmy-building.

The two Hasbro Scrapmetal releases, despite sporting the same name with no modifiers (such as prefixes or suffixes), came on individual cardbacks not only depicting the correct colors, but also sporting individual product code numbers.

A slightretoolandredecoof the toy was used to make theCobySen'yōRamble.ForBotCon 2006,attendees who signed up for thecustomization classreceived unpainted, unassembled red Scrapmetal, with their parts still on the manufacturing sprues (including the Coby head), to be made intoUniverseincarnations ofRumbleandInferno.

• More information on Scrapmetal at TFU.info

Notes

• The Scrapmetals clearly draw inspiration fromGeneration 1Rumble,with his piledriver arms andcolorswapped counterpart.The toy's original head sculpt, later repurposed forCobybotand for theBotCon 2006custom class, is based directly on the G1 toy's head—in the end, the designers atHasbrofelt it looked too heroic, and swapped it for the final insectile design. A chart of preliminary names forCybertronandGalaxy Forcecharacters gives the Scrapmetals' Hasbro working name as "Rumblor"^[1]—this name also cropped up in the onlineCyber Key contentfor the yellow Scrapmetal toy, which claimed that "Rumblor" was the name for the Scrapmetals in Japan. In actual fact, the toy's Japanese name isRomanizedon theGalaxy Forcepackaging as "Ramble",but the katakana itself is identical to that used for G1 Rumble, so the intention of the name is clear. It's likely that the name" Rumblor "was invented by Hasbro due to their loss of thetrademark"Rumble" during the early 2000s, resulting in releases like "Decepticon Rumble" or "Demolition Rumble".
• The on-screen representation of the Scrapmetals depicts them with toy-accurate Decepticon symbols, despite even though they never actually had any affiliation with the faction in the cartoon's story.
• The online content unlocked for Hasbro's release of the yellow Scrapmetal toy talks exclusively about Coby's Scrapmetal. Whether this is because the yellow Scrapmetal release was at one point planned to be a release of the Cobybot itself, or if the copywriter just felt like there wasn't much more to say about the straightredeco,is currently unknown.

Foreign names

• Japanese:Rumble(ランブルRanburu)^[2]
• Korean:Rumble(럼블Leombeul)
• Hungarian:Fémroppantó( "Metal-cracker" )
• Russian:Metalloed(Металлоед, "Metal-eater" )

References

1. ↑"A mysterious document. Thần bí の công văn." —Monzo, Twitter, 2019/04/27
2. ↑The spelling on the Japanese toys' packaging is. This katakana name is also used for theGeneration 1 character,so the actual intention of the name is clear.