Ransack (Cybertron)

Ransack is a Decepticon from the Cybertron portion of the Unicron Trilogy.



Ransack is the brains of the Decepticon front on Velocitron... but that's not saying very much at all, since Crumplezone is dumb as a bag of hammers and Dirt Boss is so fixated on grinding Override into the dirt he doesn't care about anything else. In fact, Rasack is pretty dumb in his own way, but his gift for motormouthed, sneaky weaseling borders on genius.

He's a coward, a sneak, a luckless loser and small-time chiseler who's had his optics opened to a far greater form of evil and power previously unimagined, yet completely lacks the intelligence to attain it. Sometimes it seems Megatron only tolerates him because his antics keep the Autobots distracted. If he has a good point to him, it's that he and Crumplezone seem to actually be friends, even though Ransack clearly takes advantage of his huge partner's bulk to lend muscle to his schemes, or as cover when said schemes almost invariably end up in the gutter.

The only time Ransack acts alone is... in his act. Yes, Ransack has tried stand-up comedy. He dreams of one day becoming a star, but his attempts have been met with little success. Not even his grab for the Velocitronian entertainment industry has caught the eye of Override, his secret crush.

Japanese name: Gasket

Cybertron Cartoon
Voice actor: Louis Chirillo (US), ??? (Japan) Special Attacks: Gasket Shot

Ransack and Crumplezone were the first Velocitronians appraoched by Megatron, and were quickly cowed into servitude. Under Megatron's command, they sought out clues to the planet's Cyber Planet Key, first terrorizing Brakedown and Clocker, then convincing Dirt Boss to help them win the Planet Cup race. All throughout, they snuck around, trying to manipulate and cheat their way though, eventually abandonning Dirt Boss during the desert portion of the race. They made it to the final leg of the race, a vast, twisting track deep inside the planet, but blew all their power very early in the race and were left eating dust by Hot Shot and Override. They decided to attempt to just flat-out steal the Planet Cup, and naturally failed.

After their failure to capture the Speed Planet's Cyber Planet Key, Ransack and Crumplezone joined Megatron's forces off-planet attempting to collect the other Cyber Planet Keys. When Starscream gave Megatron a false map that was in fact a trap, Ransack was trapped out in deep space within a steel globe for a while with Megatron, Thundercracker and Mudflap.

Once freed, Ransack joined his boss on the return to Earth, fighting against both the Autobots and the Decepticons under Starscream's command. The battlefield quickly shifted to Cybertron, where Ransack narrowly avoided becoming lunch for a swarm of Scrapmetal... his pal Crumplezone was not so lucky, however. Crumplezone was revived by Megatron shortly after, and the grateful duo continued to follow Megatron, all the way to Gigantion the Giant Planet. There... they suffered humiliating defeat after humiliating defeat, pretty much. For a brief moment they had a shot at actually achieving something for Megatron by kidnapping the Mini-Con Jolt, but were outsmarted by Bud and his new Cobybot, then subsequently blasted through a few layers of Gigantion by Optimus Prime using Metroplex's colossal axe "Sparkdrinker", which was really overkill.

When Megatron-then-Galavtron finally obtained the Omega Lock and all four cyber Planet Keys, they followed him back to Cybertron and the edge of the Unicron Singularity. There, when threatened by hundreds of Transformers from across the colony worlds, Galvatron used the powers of the Omega Lock to make his lackeys gigantic and incredibly powerful. Ransack was thrilled for about five seconds, until he realized he was still the smallest of the crew, and that even at his new size, he was no bigger than the Transformers from Gigantion, who decided to gang up on him, of course.

After Galvatron's plans to accellerate the growth of the Unicron Singularity failed, Ransack and the other Decepticons left Galvatron, realizing that he had had no intention of sparing their lives from the cataclysm should he have succeeded. They re-appeared on the displaced Jungle Planet, as the citizens and Autobots were trying to prevent one of the massive planetary engines that was returning the world to its rightful place from falling over. Surprising everyone, they helped right the engine, having decided to try being good guys and being on the winning side for a change.

Ransack, Crumplezone and Thunderblast journeyed together across each of the worlds, trying to find a place to fit in. Ultimately failing, on Earth they cobbled together a makeshift rocket and headed for the stars, shanghai'ing Thundercracker before they left, eager to become the New Decepticon Army.

The rocket crashed on some planet some unknown time later, to comedic effect.

Cybertron

 * Ransack (Scout class, 2005)
 * Japanese ID number: GD-05
 * Ransack transforms into a Cybertronic motorcycle. By inserting a Cyber Planet Key into the cycle mode's back end, a pair of non-firing guns flip out to form thrusters. This assembly becomes his blaster-weapon in robot mode. He comes with a Velocitron-style Cyber Planet Key; the original Hasbro version of this lacks the silver paint border of other versions, but has the Key code sc92 on the back.


 * Gasket Police-Type (Scout class, 2005)
 * In Japan, a special police-deco version of Ransack was made available as a Toys 'R' Us exclusive on October 7th 2005, with the purchase of 4000 yen (approximately $35 US) worth of Transformers product. (The idea of Ransack as a cop is pretty funny, really.)




 * Ransack GTS (Scout class, 2006)
 * Ransack was redecoed for the Primus Unleashed portion of the Cybertron line in a "stealth" paint job in primarily black and yellow. This coloration was made avialable only in the Hasbro line. He again comes with a silver-bordered Speed Planet Key, this time with the Key code s2w5 stamped on the back.


 * (Note: As of this writing, Ransack GTS has not been released at retail.)



All versions of the Ransack and Gasket molds are actually mis-assembled; the rear wheel struts are put on the wrong sides, raising his rear end up higher in cycle mode. The Hasbro version of the mold actually retooled his heel struts to adjust for the rear wheel rubbing against the back end due to this mis-assembly. The development line-art shown on Hasbro's web site by entering Ransack's Cyber Key Code shows the indended assembly. Some fans have made the adjustment themselves, as it is only a metal pin keeping the wheel struts attached to the main body of the cycle. However, this does take a bit of force, plus carries the risk of damage to the strut pieces, which use a softer type of plastic.