Runamuck (G1)


 * Runamuck is a Decepticon Battlecharger in the Generation 1 continuity family.

Runamuck and Runabout are the Battlechargers, a nearly inseparable pair of hooligans. Runamuck in particular likes to make things explode, heh heh, and loves a good wreck. He has been known to wander around junkyards, fascinated by the carnage of twisted metal and shattered glass. This only makes him want to blow more enemies into heaps of slag. Heh heh, slag. He does not consider it beneath him to indulge in petty acts of vandalism, and thinks a good insult sprayed on a clean wall is a Decepticon victory, heh heh.

As a Battlecharger, he's well-equipped to do it. He'll speed up crowded highways at his 180 MPH top speed (at which he can go up to 600 miles), smashing everything in his path, without regard to his fenders. Then he transforms into robot mode (in less than half a second) to use his prized tool of wholesale destruction - a friction rifle.

This terrible weapon does little damage, but it leaves a field around his target that enhances molecular heating from friction. With the slightest move, a catastrophic buildup of thermal energy bursts his foe asunder in a shower of burned metal fragments and smoke. The field wears off in five minutes, if the target is able to stay absolutely still for that long. Usually they just end up as a big mess. Runamuck loves a big mess, heh heh.

Runamuck is also equipped with short-range rocket boosters to help him jump over obstacles, but strangely enough, he is terrified of heights.


 * French-Canadian name: Furioso
 * Italian name: Benelix

Marvel Comics continuity
(Events in italics are from UK-only stories.)

The Battlechargers were summoned to Earth from Cybertron by Megatron, who wanted a dramatic way to announce his challenge to Optimus Prime for a fight to the death. The two immediately ignored their orders, and began to raise a bit of random highway havoc. ''Encountering Prowl, the two dropped firetraps and wrecked piles of cars behind them. Unable to stop them quietly on his own terms, Prowl grew angry and... was halted by Optimus Prime, who was dismayed with his recklessness. '' During a break in the mayhem, they rested in a parking lot and saw a defiant youngster expressing his disgust of family vacations through graffiti. His dad angrily escorted him back to the station wagon, and their holiday trip resumed. The Battlechargers, impressed by the boy's disregard for authority, began following the family on a road trip through the U.S., defacing any monuments they happened upon (such as Mt. Rushmore, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and the Washington Monument). They wrote insults and jokes in a Cybertronian language, thus attracting the attention of RAAT, which had already captured thirteen Autobots.

RAAT caught up with them in Philadelphia, where Circuit Breaker engaged them in a battle that nearly killed the graffiti-inclined boy. Because of her disregard for civilian safety, Circuit Breaker was temporarily stripped of her command and ordered to stay out of action. Itching for revenge, she found her only allies to be the partially-disassembled Autobots in her RAAT lab. She didn't have time to rebuild them all properly, but she knew she could jury-rig them together into a single form which she could partially control. However, she needed the Autobots' consent, and they only agreed to do it if she would release them afterward. She agreed, and she soon fought an aerial battle with the two Decepticons at the Statue of Liberty (where, incidentally, they had written "humans are wimps" in poor English). The two hooligans met quick defeat at the hands of her makeshift gestalt, their charred bodies sent plunging into the harbor. Circuit Breaker's release of the captive Autobots cost her her job at RAAT, as well as that of Donny Finkleberg, AKA Robot Master, who had helped her do it. Donny had received a $50,000 reward for turning the Autobot Skids in, and he ended up using that money to help pay for the cleanup of the Battlechargers' antics.



For quite some time, the Battlechargers remained out of action (probably rusting under the sea). However, when Shockwave wanted to wrest control of the Earth-based Decepticons from Scorponok, the Battlechargers mysteriously returned and for unknown reasons joined his motley band of rebels. They attacked Scorponok's New Jersey base, and a battle ensued. Just as the battle ended, the combatants were transported to Cybertron by Primus, who was gathering his Transformer children to stand against the demigod Unicron. Runamuck died in the ensuing planet-wide battle.

Despite his apparent death, Runamuck was with the other Decepticons when they ran into Jhiaxus's second-generation Transformers. He was among the first casualties of a battle that nearly cost even the new-and-improved Megatron his life.

Animated continuity
Voice actor: Roger Behr (US), Tomomichi Nishimura (Japan)

In Runamuck's first cartoon appearance, he attacked Kup and some other Autobots investigating a decimated Earth Defense Command station that had crashed on Goo#8739. Riding Blast Off, Runamuck strafed the Autobots with a death-crystal shooter. (The station had been destroyed by death crystals, so it's possible that was Runamuck's work as well.) The Autobots engaged the duo in a short space battle that ended when Runamuck blew up a comet with the death crystals, delaying the Autobots long enough to get away.

He was next seen guarding Trypticon's city mode on Chaar with Runabout. They were attacked by Scourge and the ghost of Starscream, who wanted to steal one of Trypticon's eyes for Unicron. Starscream possessed Runabout, shot Runamuck, then ran into a wall, knocking Runabout unconscious. Runamuck, however, was able to sound an alarm, and Dirge, Thrust, and Astrotrain arrived to help. Scourge got Trypticon's eye, and Starscream possessed Astrotrain and escaped. Later, under Unicron's orders, Starscream returned to Chaar and took control of Trypticon, not knowing that Dirge, Thrust, and the Battlechargers were inside. Starscream used Trypticon to bring Unicron's head down Cybertron's surface, but Thrust sabotaged Trypticon from within before Starscream could connect Unicron to the planet. Starscream came out of Trypticon and demanded that Unicron give him a corporeal form so he could complete the connections. Just as Unicron did so, Autobot-planted explosives detonated and sent Unicron's head back into orbit. Starscream was also flung into outer space, where Galvatron began pursuing him. Trypticon (and the Decepticons inside him) were probably thrown into space as well. Although the Battlechargers never appeared again, Trypticon and the others did, so they most likely did survive.

Dreamwave comics continuity
Sunstorm fried him real good.

IDW comics continuity
Runamuck is part of a Decepticon insurgent cell that has operated covertly on Earth for at least four years, working to destabilise Earth's governing organisations and create global anarchy. He, Runabout and Thundercracker are assigned by Starscream to intercept the human Stoker and retrieve his SM-40 palmtop PC, containing data on their Nebraska operation. The team catches up with and kills Stoker outside Phoenix, AZ, by which time Verity Carlo hs already stolen the SM-40. Their attempts to retrieve it from Verity and Ratchet disregard their cover: They appear in full public view both in primary mode and in a secondary alternate mode, where the panels of their sports-car disguises split apart to reveal weapons and ram-plates. While pursuing Ratchet, both Battlechargers are run off the road by a semi-trailer.

Runamuck moved to Latveria with the rest of the Decepticons to spark a war between the nations of Latveria and Symkaria using the Psycho-Prism. He was the first of Megatron's warriors to be turbocharged by Spider-Man's radioactive blood, and subsequently attacked the allied Autobots and Avengers in mirror response mode with the rest of his teammates. Runamuck was taken out of the fight in short order, after he was blasted by the newly-arrived Iron Man and sliced up by Wolverine. The badly-damaged Runamuck subsequently fled via emergency warp-out protocol.

Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs the Transformers comics continuity
As part of Serpent O.R.'s forces, Runamuck tried (and failed) to prevent the escape of a group of Autobots and Joes from the New Deceptiucon Army's headquarters. When Runamuck refused to surrender the captive Optimus Prime's location, Grimlock tore off his arm and promised that his head would be next. Runamuck became more cooperative.

Generation 1

 * Runamuck (Battlecharger, 1986)


 * Runamuck transforms into a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am sports car. An autotransformer, he uses a pull-back motor to propel him forward in both car and robot modes, though starting in car mode triggers his transformation to robot after he rolls forward a short distance. His mold is very similar to his partner Runabout, but it is highly unlikely one is actually a retool of the other since they had simultaneous production.