Bludgeon (G1)


 * Bludgeon is a Decepticon in the Generation 1 continuity family.



Bludgeon is a ferocious warrior, skilled in the ancient Cybertronian martial art of Metallikato. Utterly vicious and aloof, Bludgeon is also highly religious, adhering to an arcane code of honor.

"Arcane", of course, is code for "bloodthirsty, murderous, sadistic, and subject to the whims of the guy holding the sword."


 * French-Canadian name: Gourdin
 * Italian name: Teskior

Generation 1
(Note: Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.)



Bludgeon killed Catilla, a former Decepticon turned Autobot causing ex-Decepticon Carnivac who loosely allied himself with the Autobot "Survivors" group to hunt Bludgeon to avenge Catilla's death.

He later took on the leadership of Thunderwing's new Mayhem Attack Squad, sent to slay the newly-resurrected Jazz, Bumblebee, and Grimlock. However, alongside the Rescue Patrol, the Mayhems were foiled, and inadvertently awakened the slumbering Primus in the process. During the subsequent battle against Unicron, Bludgeon served as an adviser to Scorponok, and battled against Unicronian cultists on Cybertron. After Unicron's defeat and Scorponok's death, Bludgeon became leader of the Decepticons, and abandoned the dying Cybertron to the Autobots. Alongside his lieutenant Krok, Bludgeon and the Decepticons invaded and pillaged the planet Klo, conquering it within two days. The Autobots attempted to stop them, but Bludgeon had detected their approach and set a trap. The Autobots were routed by the Decepticons until the arrival of Optimus Prime, the Neo-Knights, and The Last Autobot. Their combined assault decimated the Decepticons and sent them into retreat.

Generation 2
Following a brief exile, Bludgeon created a large planet-like spacecraft known as the Warworld, which functioned as a vessel for pirating resources throughout the galaxy. Bludgeon then made a bid to lure Optimus Prime to Earth to steal the Autobot Creation Matrix so life could be granted to a new generation of Decepticon warriors. The plan involved a full-scale attack on Earth and did succeed in drawing Optimus Prime to Earth's defense, but not before Bludgeon was confronted by the newly-rebuilt Megatron, who wanted command of the Decepticons for himself once more. In a brief skirmish, Megatron decapitated Bludgeon's shell and destroyed his inner robot, killing him. The victorious Decepticon leader subsequently displayed Bludgeon's severed head in the Warworld.

Classics
Bludgeon is still leading most of the Decepticons, to Megatron's resentment. Shockwave believes Bug Bite is one of Bludgeon's minions.

Dreamwave Generation 1 comics
During the so-called 'Dark Ages' of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict, Bludgeon, alongside Bugly and Mindwipe, formed the Chaos Trinity. They became disciples of the mysterious being known as the Fallen in exchange for dark power. Together with him, they captured a number of Transformers in order to perform a bizarre ceremony at Cybertron's core, but were eventually foiled by Jetfire and Grimlock. Bludgeon was stopped from alerting the Fallen of the impending allied attack on the Well of All Sparks by a teleporting Skywarp.

Dreamwave Armada comics
An alternate universe version of Bludgeon later appeared as one of Unicron's heralds in Dreamwave's comic in their cross-over storyline "Worlds Collide," along with Thunderwing, Scourge, Dirge, and Galvatron. This Bludgeon was also a martial artist, but unlike Bludgeon's verbose incarnation in Marvel Comics, this incarnation seemed to be mute. After his Pretender shell is destroyed, he is blown up when Jetfire detonates the Decepticon headquarters that they have taken over.

IDW comics continuity


Bludgeon is the leader of a team of Decepticons who were assigned by Megatron to look into what Shockwave was researching before he disappeared. Megatron also sent Soundwave to spy on them. During this time, Bludgeon discovered Shockwave's work on Regenesis. Eventually, however, they discovered the remains of Thunderwing, the Decepticon scientist who became the avatar of the Cybertronian cataclysm, and became bent on restoring the wasted Cybertron to its former glory by resurrecting him. He and his team of Decepticons (Iguanus, Finback, Skullgrin, and Bomb-Burst) believed that in reawakening Thunderwing and turning him loose, the mass sacrifice of worlds would allow the rebirth of Cybertron. They also delved into the outlawed polydermal grafting experiments pioneered by Thunderwing, in an attempt to create super-shells of their own.

In 1984 they went to Earth to extract a load of Ultra-Energon, establishing a base within Mt. St. Helens. Soundwave naturally followed them. He eventually came to them asking for a cut of their profits, believing that they meant to sell the energon, but when he realized that they meant to resurrect Thunderwing he tried to stop them. They used one of Shockwave's devices to lock him in his alt-mode, then caused a volcanic eruption and returned to Cybertron via an orbital bounce.

Twenty-three years later, Jetfire and the Technobots, detecting the Ultra-Energon from orbit, went to investigate, and were taken by the cult, planning to use them as raw materials for their shells. Bludgeon wanted Jetfire to witness Thunderwing's awakening, to make him see that Thunderwing had been right to experiment, but Jetfire eventually annoyed him too much. Connecting his mind to an Axis-Cradle that controlled Thunderwing's blank neuroscape, Bludgeon sent Thunderwing to destroy Nebulos, then engaged the auto-drive to inspect his own shell's progess. When Optimus Prime and the Wreckers attacked Bludgeon's base on Cybertron by surprise, Iguanus escaped to the bio-graft chamber to find Bludgeononly to find the cult leader having donned full Pretender armor, giving him a G1 shell look which was presumably transformable. However, in Bludgeon's rush, the shell was not mentally aligned, causing a psychic backlash that took down the Decepticon before the Wreckers even found him. It is unclear whether Bludgeon's mind survived, but if it did, it is apparently trapped in torment. Prime felt that he got off lightly for having unleashed Thunderwing.

Devil's Due GI Joe vs. Transformers continuity


Eons ago, when Optimus Prime was given the Matrix, Bludgeon attempted to kill him, but failed.

Along with the Pretender Monsters, Bludgeon traveled to Earth, seeking to be present at the planet's destruction by Unicron. The group was shot down by the Chinese Air Force, however, and damaged in the process. An alliance with the underground kingdom of Cobra-La provided them with life-sustaining Pretender shells. He was responsible for the death of Atomic Man in 1978, when the Adventure Team came snooping too close to Cobra-La's hidden lair in the caves beneath Tibet.

Decades later, Bludgeon engaged Optimus Prime in battle as the Autobot attempted to infiltrate Cobra-La's caves. After being burned by Bludgeon, Optimus ripped the chest off of Bludgeon's Pretender shell. In his anger, Bludgeon lost his edge and fell off a cliff. Although Optimus had caught him, Bludgeon chose to fall, standing by his philosophy of "merciless death and destruction."

Generation 1

 * Bludgeon (Pretender, 1989)




 * Generation 1 Bludgeon's inner robot transforms into a green and lilac tank of undetermined origin. Oddly, compared to most Transformers tanks, he has no wheels inside the static tank tracks for any sort of rolling movement. Transformation to robot mode is very similar to many tank-vehicle Micromaster figures, except one must remove the rotating turret piece to do so, with the removable main gun as his weapon, mounted in a hole in his wrist (rather than his hand).


 * Bludgeon's Pretender shell, continuing the Decepticon trend of monstrous or war-like shells, is an orange and maroon humanoid samurai with a human skull for a head. Removing the helmet reveals great attention to detail to the skull, with cranium fusion seams and well-defined teeth, among other sculpting. The shell is armed with a white rifle and the inner robot's tank turret mounted on his arm as a sort of shield.

Trivia

 * Despite Bludgeon's samurai motif and various depictions in media, his only toy never came with a katana.