Bombshell


 * Bombshell is a Decepticon Insecticon in the Generation 1 continuity family.



A master of mind-controlling "cerebro-shells," the twisted Bombshell plays with the minds of others as a child would a new toy, enthusiastically and recklessly. But there is nothing childlike about the gleeful malice he exposes in forcing his victims into more and more humiliating and destructive acts. Bombshell takes such sadistic joy in the destruction of his victims that even the other Decepticons can be put off, wondering if he wouldn't be just as pleased to play those same "games" with them...


 * French-Canadian name: Obus
 * Italian name: Prudox

Cartoon continuity

 * Voice actor: Michael Bell (US), Ken Shiroyama (Japan)



Bombshell and the rest of the Insecticons jettisoned themselves out the Decepticon cruiser when it and the Autobot ship crashed on Prehistoric Earth. Landing in what would become modern Bali off of Indonesia, the Insecticons were altered by their idento-computers to possess insectoid beast modes, and had the ability to convert organic matter into energon. The Insecticons were largely communal in nature, though Bombshell often alternated leadership with Shrapnel (Kickback was out of luck).

Reactivating around the same time as those aboard the Ark, the Insecticons formed a small nest for themselves in Demon Swamp before being tracked down by Megatron and the Decepticons. They formed an alliance for the purpose of collecting energon and vanquishing the Autobots. In their first encounter with the enemy, Bombshell demonstrated one of the most unique of the trio's abilities -- after firing an "insecti-shell" at a farming machine to blow it into pieces, he and the other Insecticons used "clone beams" to somehow convert those fragments of metal into duplicates of the Insecticons in their insect modes, a virtual swarm of Insecticlones created nearly out of thin air.

The initial alliance between Decepticons and Insecticons broke down after the greedy insects attempted to gorge themselves on the cache of energon cubes Megatron had created, and then abandoned the Decepticons to the Autobots. After that, the two groups operated independently, only joining forces as a matter on convenience on rare occasions.



Bombshell and the Insecticons next hired out their services to Megatron during his experimentation with the electro-cells as on-call guards, in exchange for a share of the profits. The Autobot Mirage attempted to turn them against each other, however, by stealing the Insecticons' reward and framing the Decepticons for it. Bombshell and the others staged an assault on the electro cell station and their Decepticon "comrades". During a spray of one of Shrapnel's grenades, Mirage was inadvertently caught in the blast while invisible. Bombshell seized upon the opportunity to implant one of his cerebro-shells in the fallen Autobot and turn him into a slave. What he DIDN'T do, however, is question what an Autobot counter-intelligence agent was doing sneaking around Decepticon camp just then. Megatron had to force Bombshell to think at gunpoint before he realized that Megatron wouldn't rob them while Optimus Prime and the Autobots still lived. Maybe after, but not before. The united 'Cons then attempted to set a trap for the Autobots using Mirage, but ultimately Mirage was set free and the electro-cells were destroyed.



Next, Bombshell's aid was commissioned to upgrade the human-built female ninja robot known as Nightbird for Megatron, converting her into a functional assassin. His engineering skills shown here were rather remarkable for someone with no table manners.

On their next joint venture, Megatron arranged for Bombshell and the Insecticons to have access to the Nova Power Core, a meal that filled them with raw energy and caused them to increase in size dramatically. In exchange, they aided the Decepticons in raiding the armored installation known as Iron Mountain to gain control of the defense computer being housed there. Their new power went to their heads, however, and the Insecticons were overheard plotting against Megatron by his spy Soundwave. Soundwave didn't get far, however, before Bombshell captured the Decepticon and turned him with the help of a cerebro-shell.



He then systematically "bugged" the rest of Megatron's troops; by the time Iron Mountain was successfully infiltrated, Megatron was the only Decepticon left. The nova power proved to be too unstable for the Insecticons to synthesize, however, and an antidote was administered to rob Bombshell and Kickback of their additional mass and power. Shrapnel, however, exploded into pieces before the antidote could be properly administered. Somehow, though, Bombshell was able to completely reconstruct his fallen comrade in a matter of seconds, using a special insecti-shell to reunify the pieces.



In another scheme, Megatron convinced the Insecticons that he had a new energon processing system that could draw power from their organic-conversion process far more efficiently than their bodies normally could. The Insecticons would gather vast amounts of power through their clone armies, and then return to Decepticon headquarters to refine their amassed energies into energon cubes. Little did they know that the refinement process was far more effective than Megatron presented -- Bombshell and the others were given scraps while dozens of cubes were being produced by their efforts. They slowly began to wise up to Megatron's duplicity and, when his henchman Thrust attempted to warn them away from a certain valley, the Insecticons took it as a sign there was something valuable there. In fact there was: a can of robotic insecticide the Autobots had planned to use against the Insecticlones, and an ever-growing number of Morphobots, techno-organic plants that fed on robot insects. Bombshell and the Insecticons attempted to feed on the plants, only to have their food "bite back" and their entire clone army destroyed in a matter of minutes.

Bombshell would ultimately be mortally wounded during the battle of Autobot City and was ejected alongside many other fallen Decepticon warriors (Megatron included), into deep space, where Unicron reformatted him into Cyclonus or the other guy.

Marvel Comics continuity
Bombshell was first seen as a soldier on Cybertron, operating out of Darkmount under the command of Lord Straxus. ''Bombshell was one of the Decepticon warriors targeted for termination by the Wreckers in Operation: Volcano. A last minute change in orders prevented Bombshell and his cronies from walking into the Autobot trap, though. '' After Straxus began an alliance with Megatron and the Decepticons of Earth, Bombshell was transported to our solar system by way of the Space Bridge. He, Kickback, and Shrapnel were then reformatted into the Insecticons, and granted impressive mass shifting powers that enabled them to shrink down to the size of actual insects when transforming.

The Insecticons' first mission on Earth was to set up a conduit between Cybertron and Hoover Dam, stealing the hydro-electrical power. Bombshell tracked down the assistant chief engineer, Ricky Vasquez, and implanted him with a cerebro-shell so that the Decepticons could infiltrate the plant clandestinely. With Megatron and the Insecticons riding shotgun, Vasquez snuck them into the control room where Shrapnel was able to take electronic control of the dam. Vasquez eventually managed to reassert his free will however and, with the interference of the Aerialbots, the Decepticon operation proved ineffective.

Still, Bombshell took advantage of the opportunity to infiltrate the Ark by riding atop Silverbolt back to the Autobot base. While inside, he seized a chance to fire one of his cerebro-shell inside Optimus Prime during a medical exam where Ratchet was cleaning a recent wound. He was unable to actually control Prime, but managed something almost as good -- by piping in a radio connection to Megatron through Soundwave, Bombshell's implant was able to divert some of the Creation Matrix to the Decepticons, bringing life to the Stunticons just as Prime was finalizing the life-sparks of the Aerialbots. Bombshell's implant was eventually discovered, but the damage was done.

Later, Megatron commissioned Bombshell and Dirge to take control of the human creation known as Power Station Alpha. Sighting Bumblebee casing the installation, Bombshell blasted a human boy with a cerebro-shell as a distraction, sending him off into danger while the Decepticon infiltrated Alpha and placed a specially-modified shell inside. Things were too hot to retrieve it then, with the G.I. Joe team taking hostile action against Bumblebee and then being confronted themselves by Superion, but later that night the remote control was triggered and Power Station Alpha sprung to life. Surprisingly for the Decepticons, though, it did NOT come to their base as programmed -- Doctor Mindbender of COBRA was able to lock onto the electronic frequency of Bombshell's shell and bring Alpha to Cobra Island instead. Dirge and Bombshell were therefore forced into the position of emissaries for the Decepticon cause, proposing an alliance between them and Cobra in order to share Power Station Alpha's potential.

While Mindbender was acting as Cobra's "ambassador", he uncovered the severity of their plans for Alpha, and the devastating effect it would have on the Earth. Once Cobra switched sides and joined in an alliance with the Joes and the Autobots, Mindbender was deemed "surplus parts" and Bombshell attempted to execute him. Instead, the Insecticon was disabled by a blast from one of the Baroness's cannon weapons. As the two Cobra agents left to join Serpentor in conference with their new "friends", Mindbender scooped up the unconscious Bombshell (who had reverted to his tiny insect mode) in the hopes of dissecting his circuitry later. Only after arriving at the Joe base did they discover the connection between Bombshell and his cerebro-shells, as the Joe technical expert Mainframe prodded the shell which had been surgically retrieved from the boy Bombshell blasted days earlier, causing the still-inactive Insecticon to spontaneously transform out of his own control.

How Bombshell eventually regained control of his systems and returned to the Decepticons is unknown, but he did and was later seen briefly under Ratbat's command.

Earthforce
''Bombshell and the Insecticons were allied with Megatron during the Decepticon Civil War against Shockwave. He attended the Enclave held by the two factions, but it didn't go well and Bombshell was later seen among the massive melee between the Decepticon armies. Bombshell and the Insecticons were later tasked by Megatron to infiltrate Shockwave's base and spy on his war room to gain secret intelligence. Bombshell had tapped into the room with a listening prong right before Starscream arrived, and caught the tiny intruders with a rustbug hoop. Forced to submit, the Insecticons were surprised that Starscream wasn't going to torture or kill them: instead, he offered them a juicy bit of gossip that Shockwave would be off alone on a mission soon. Bombshell realized that Starscream was setting his leader up for a fall, arranging for both Megatron and Shockwave to be disposed of in one felt swoop. He seemed okay with it. ''

''Sure enough, Megatron and Shockwave were soon excommunicated from their respective armies, and the Decepticons united under the command of Starscream and Soundwave. Bombshell was present at the united Decepticons' first major military action, an attack on Autobot Earthbase. Soon, however, he turned his talents to less overt and more deceitful activities. At his leaders' request, Bombshell implanted the mighty warrior Superion with one of his cerebro-shells, turning the giant against the human populace in order to smear the Autobots' image. A human reporter named Irwin Spoon managed to get inside Superion at the Autobots' request, however, and remove the shell before any permanent damage was done. Bombshell's follow-up surveillance revealed that the Autobots had offered the reporter an exclusive interview in exchange for his assistance. Such a positive "puff-piece" would go a long way towards improving the Autobots' image among the humans, and could not be allowed by the Decepticons. So, Soundwave and Starscream arranged for the Stunticons to kidnap Spoon. Trapping him inside Motormaster's cabin, the Stunticons led the Autobots on a merry chase through the highways until they finally forced Motormaster off the road and recovered Spoon. The damage had been done, however; unknown to the Autobots, Bombshell had been hiding inside Motormaster's cab, and implanted the reporter with a cerebro-shell before losing custody of the human. Irwin Spoon therefore wrote exactly the piece the Decepticons wanted, painting the Autobots as evil kidnappers set to destroy mankind. ''

Dreamwave comics continuity
Bombshell, sporting a spiffy tank mode, was first seen on Cybertron millions of years ago as part of a commando group being directed by Soundwave in a raid on Iacon. They ran into Optimus Prime on his first day on the job. It still hurt. A lot. During the Dark Ages, Bombshell and his fellow future Insecticons served under Shockwave as part of the primary Decepticon faction.

Prior to the Great Shutdown, Shockwave uncovered the crash location of the missing ships the Ark and Nemesis: Earth. He sent Kickback, Shrapnel and Bombshell to the planet as part of some vast, incomprehensible scheme he'd been perfecting for millennia. They initially encountered resistance from the Dinobots, but gave them the slip and went undercover on Earth for millions of years. In modern times, however, Bombshell seemed to have developed a few loose screws and begun operating outside his mission parameters. Having taken over a small town in rural America, Bombshell had begun mass production of techno-organic Insecticlones being grown from special pods. His actions drew the attention of Earth Defense Command and Jazz's Autobot faction, leading to an investigation of the town. The Autobots managed to uncover the Insecticons' schemes, free the townspeople, and capture their opponents. It was easy. Perhaps, too easy...?

IDW comics continuity
Bombshell, by order of Soundwave, injects a cerebro-shell into Beachcomber in an effort to make him assassinate Blaster, the inspirational broadcaster for the Autobots.

IDW Hearts of Steel continuity
Bombshell, Shrapnel, and Kickback rob a train carrying cash and bullion from the Denver Mint, on Starscream's orders. They deliver the stolen property to Starscream and Tobias Muldoon the following morning.

Bombshell forms the middle of the "Insectrain". He has a triple-barreled cannon mounted on a turret.

Generation 1

 * Bombshell  (Insecticon, 1985)
 * Japanese ID number: 41
 * Accessories: "Twin Ion Impulse Blaster"




 * Bombshell transforms into a robotic boll weevil He doesn't do a whole lot more than that. There is a variation on the mold's insect-mode horn; some versions have a rounded indent on the "top" part near the base-joint, allowing it to fold down further in robot mode.


 * In Japan, Bombshell and the other Insecticons were "re-released" as mail-order items from 1987 through 1988. They each cost 880 yen (their normal retail price) and two robot points.


 * This mold was used to make the Salvo drones.


 * Bombshell (Action Master, 1991)
 * Accessories: "Needler" partner, rifle




 * Action Master Bombshell is a non-transforming action figure that combines the cartoon model with a few toy-based elements. Interestingly enough, his distinctive head-cannon is no longer on his skull, but his hand-held blaster bears a similar design. He comes with his robot scarab partner Needler, who forms a backpack/battle helmet for Bombshell. He was only available in the European markets.


 * Insectrons (Multi-pack, 2004)
 * Japanese ID number: 16 (full set)


 * Bombshell was released as part of the Japanese "Transformers Collection" series in a set with Kickback and Shrapnel. This set also included three energon cube accessories that fit inside their chest compartments.


 * The Bombshell in this set not only lacks the horn-indent of later variations, but has a couple other minor mold-differences to boot.

Merchandise

 * Bombshell (Decoy, 1987)


 * Bombshell was one of the Decepticon Decoys packed in with smaller carded Transformers toys. While the normal purple version could come on any Decepticon toy, the rarer red version was available only on Throttlebot cards and only for a short while before the switch to purple.


 * Destron Hero Collection-22 Set (Decoy multi-pack, 1987)


 * The entire run of twenty-two Decepticon Decoys were sold as a single boxed set in Japan, only in purple.

Trivia

 * Bombshell --like the other Insecticons-- was originally a Diaclone "Waruder Kabutron" evil alien piloted mech in different colors... which were eventually used when the trio were redecoed for e-Hobby release. This is also the genesis of those opening chest compartments.


 * In the anime series Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, the Ganmen (the head-shaped mecha that are piloted in the series) Dayakkaiser is based off of Bombshell's head design, complete with a cannon mounted on top of its face.