Brawn (G1)


 * Brawn is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.



Brawn, the Autobots' demolitions expert, is amazingly strong for his size. Due to his small stature, he often attempts to overcompensate by playing up his macho personality. He can be somewhat of a bully, and looks down on noncombatant Autobots. He has a ready, though slightly sarcastic, sense of humor, and a lot of chutzpah. In addition to his great strength, Brawn is also so tough as to be almost indestructible... almost.


 * Nickname: Muscles
 * French-Canadian name: Bruto
 * Italian name: Cammello
 * Japanese name: Gong (go-n-gu, ゴング)
 * Hungarian name: Izmos ("Hefty")
 * South American name: Jipe (pronounced "hee-pay")

Generation 1


After the Autobots re-awoke on modern-day Earth, Brawn was one of five Autobots sent out to reconnoiter their new world. When their patrol came under attack from a squadron of Decepticons, Brawn advised the others to stay behind him, as he could absorb the incoming jets' firepower. Later, he clocked Laserbeak.

''A malfunction caused Brawn to go mad, rampaging in a small town because he thought the cars were being enslaved by humans (and then "killed" the cars when they showed no gratitude). After a destructive chase, the Autobots finally managed to recapture and repair him. To regain his honour, he agreed to be Starscream's opponent in a trial by combat; Optimus Prime had Mirage fake Brawn's death to end the battle.''

When the Autobots staged a diversionary attack on the Decepticons' Fortress Sinister, Brawn's strength enabled him to storm through Rumble's localized earthquake, and punch out the little punk. Unfortunately, the little punk had a brother. Frenzy's high-frequency sonic attack knocked Brawn out.

Brawn was among the Autobots who donated fuel to re-energize five Autobot warriors, in preparation for their last stand against the Decepticons. When that gambit failed, he was among the Autobots strung up for spare parts by Shockwave. He was later reactivated by Ratchet along with the others.

In the rush that followed to catch up with the Decepticons' gains, Brawn and Bluestreak were charged with the repair of the Ark's ionic fusion drive. When the Autobots overheard Shockwave's plans to drop the captured head of their leader, Optimus Prime, in a nearby swamp, Brawn was among the Autobots who traveled to the swamp with Prime's body. However, the head was actually a decoy head, which, when attached to the body, caused it to go on a murderous rampage. Brawn was one of those wounded before Prime's proper head was returned.

Brawn was part of a team sent to bring in a demented Snarl.

Brawn was witness to a battle between Grimlock and Blaster for Autobot leadership on Earth's moon. After the scene was attacked by Ratbat's Decepticons, Brawn soon lost a fight with Swindle, who dismissed the Autobot as having a "bright future as spare parts!"

When an Underbase-powered Starscream announced that he would "destroy the cities of New York, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires," Brawn was among the allied Autobot/Decepticon teams sent ahead to New York City. As Starscream approached, Goldbug led a team of Autobots which included Brawn, and the entire team was destroyed with a "single wave of Starscream's hand"! Oops.

Earthforce
''Galvatron briefly considering reviving Brawn as one of his new minions, but the Autobot was too badly damaged to enable reactivation at the time. ''

Generation 2
Brawn was part of a team sent to answer the distress call sent out by their human allies G.I. Joe. Landing in Milleville, they ran up against a revived and Cobra-upgraded Megatron. Assigned by Hot Spot to guard the Autobots' ship, Brawn got himself vaporized when Megatron revealed that he could implode neutrons.

Ratchet must wonder why he even bothers.

3H Universe comics
Brawn was abducted by Unicron just before he was atomized by by the Cobra-tanked Megatron, and sent to the Cauldron. When Trailbreaker and Silverbolt engineered a mass escape, Brawn, Wheelie and Tap-Out subdued the rage-afflicted Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to keep them from killing each other.

Brawn then escaped Unicron thanks to a portal created by Optimus Primal and Snarl. Where he went from there is unknown... hopefully not right back to the neutron implosion.

Generation 1 Cartoon

 * Voice Actor: Corey Burton (US), Yutaka Shimaka (Japan)

Brawn was one of the Autobots on board the Ark who awoke in 1984, reformatted by Teletraan I to have an Earth-based alt-mode of a Land Rover Defender. He was frequently involved in combat engagements against the Decepticons in the early years of the Earth-based war, including the battle that saw the Decepticons destroy an offshore oil rig. In the flaming chaos that followed, Brawn helped save his fellow Autobot Huffer who was trapped in the wreckage by cutting him loose with a blowtorch contained in his right arm. In other instances, Brawn also showed himself capable of wielding a large drill for tunneling, and a number of smaller grappling claws from his vehicle mode. The only thing he really lacked was a gun, but, being Brawn, he didn't seem to mind borrowing someone else's gun.

Brawn performed admirably in several of the Autobots' missions, most notably during the events which brought Cybertron into Earth's orbit. During those chaotic times, it was Brawn who repeatedly spearheaded the various attempts to rescue their ally Sparkplug Witwicky from the clutches of the Decepticons, even traveling to Cybertron itself along with a special rescue team. It was this team that learned of the means which Dr. Arkeville was using to control his human slaves, and then discovered a way to free them from his clutches.

Another important mission for Brawn involved a super-weapon being built in Peru, where it was he (and his ally Trailbreaker) who first discovered the Decepticons' plot and informed the other Autobots. In the end, it was Brawn himself who raced to the top of the ancient pyramid the Decepticons were using as a firing platform, tackled Megatron and helped bring about the weapon's destruction.



When the Nemesis was uncovered in an archaeological dig (and Megatron subsequently retrieved the awesome power of the Heart of Cybertron), Brawn was angered that fellow Autobot Perceptor did not participate in battles, not understanding that Perceptor's scientific and technical skills necessitated his exclusion from combat missions. To the irritation of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, Brawn decided it was his job to bully the Autobot scientist, insinuating that Perceptor was a coward not prepared to do his duty alongside the other Autobots. Brawn later changed his tune and was a big enough 'bot to appreciate Perceptor's skills when the latter hyper-accurately shot the Heart of Cybertron out of the sky. However, it is unclear whether Brawn was big enough to apologize to Perceptor for his earlier boorish behavior.

Brawn was shot down by Megatron in 2005, during the hijacking of a shuttle bound for Autobot City, making him one of the first serious fatalities of that famous assault.

Brawn lives?


While nowhere near as prevalent as discussion of "Who is Cyclonus?", there is recurring debate among Transformers fans regarding Brawn's death in the shuttle attack mentioned above. Generally taken up in partial jest, proponents of Brawn's survival focus on Brawn's well-established toughness and the fact that he had repeatedly survived more serious shots from Megatron than the shoulder wound he received on the shuttle. For example, being shot in the head, twice, in "Fire on the Mountain" and being perfectly okay.

Additionally, Brawn appears in "Carnage in C-Minor" (an episode which takes place well after the time of his supposed death). However, due to the generally low quality of the animation in that episode, Brawn's appearance is usually dismissed as an animation error. Brawn was not mentioned as one of the interred Autobots in "Dark Awakening"... but Huffer, who appeared alongside Brawn in "Carnage" was (even though Huffer's death was not portrayed in the film... in fact, he was barely in the movie at all, only being seen for about a second when Hot Rod crashes though the barrier Kup was setting up.)

It is sometimes joked that after the Decepticons abandoned the shuttle on approach to Autobot City, Brawn got up and piloted the shuttle to a safe landing somewhere off-camera. Of course, to hypothesize that, you have to ignore the fact that the shuttle went up in flames after getting shot a few times.

The Marvel UK comic also incorporated the events of the Movie into its future timeline and in one story set after it (Space Pirates!), Brawn is seen, albeit wounded in a Quintesson attack. However also shown is Wheeljack, who is clearly shown dead in the animated version of the Movie, and there are several differences between the animated version and the information given in the comics which may make this inadmissable evidence in the matter.

Dreamwave Generation 1 comics continuity
In Dreamwave's version of events, the Autobots allied with humankind and were eventually able to defeat the Decepticons at the turn of the century. Following the Ark II tragedy, Brawn became one of the many transformers recovered and reprogrammed by Lazarus. He was later rescued by Optimus Prime and rebuilt by Jazz’s unit. He was part of a small task force lead by Jazz assigned to stop the spread of Megatron’s deadly metal virus in the Canadian Northwest Territories and would later remain behind on Earth when Ultra Magnus demanded the Autobots return to Cybertron as war criminals.

After the end of Shockwave's despotic rule over Cybertron, Brawn was reassigned as reinforcements to Jazz’s team on Earth. After Jazz went missing in the Decepticon assault on the Ark, however, he became a subordinate to the much-less-impressive Bumblebee. The chance to pound the everloving scrap out of Bruticus' ruined form probably made up for this, even if the Combiner was later revived as part of Starscream's deal in response to Sunstorm. He and the other minibots were part of an attempt to stop Sunstorm by attaching Ratchet's energy siphon. Brawn was last seen among Bumblebee's unit when they returned from the assault to the Orion and discovered that they had been (wait for it...) betrayed by Starscream.

Generation 1

 * Brawn (Mini-Vehicle, 1984/1985/1986)
 * Japanese ID number: 15


 * Brawn was part of the original assortment of Autobot Mini Vehicles released in 1984. He transforms into a (somewhat altered) Toyota Land Cruiser with a non-removable spare tire on the roof.


 * There are a couple different variations of the toy. Like all of the 1984 releases, some versions have a rubsign applied to it, where the original runs do not. However, there is also a mold variation: some versions have the faceplate as part of the front body mold, while others have the faceplate as a part of the back, poking through a hole in the front body like the visor does.


 * There are a fair few redecos of Brawn from south of the border. In Brazil, a version in gold with sand-colored robot parts was released. Peru got a light tan Jeep with dark turquoise robot parts, a light-blue painted helmet and no chrome. Mexico got another sand-colored Jeep in 1986, but with maroon robot parts.


 * The Brawn mold was later used to create the Malignus Jipe and Outback.


 * Brawn (Keychain, 2003)


 * The Brawn mold was retooled by Hasbro licensee Fun4All and made as part of the second wave of Transformers keychains alongside Windcharger. A small plastic ring was added to the front bumper, which the metal key chain attaches to. The keychains came on pretty close reproductions of their original cardbacks from 1984. These were originally sold in chains like Hot Topic and video game stores, but over the course of several years, found their way even to the racks of Wal-Mart.


 * In Japan, the four Mini Vehicles were sold in small boxes. Each one was also available in a solid-black variation.

Universe (2008)

 * Brawn (Legends Class, 2008)

Trivia

 * The mold for Brawn's figure was originally developed for the Microman Microchange toyline as a "Jeep". That toyline was meant to depict robots who transformed into toy cars, which is why Brawn's car proportions are a bit exaggerated.


 * Brawn was the first figure identified in the Transformers pack-in toy catalog included in the larger boxed toys.