Bruticus

Bruticus is the combined form of the Combaticons: Onslaught, Brawl, Swindle, Vortex and Blast Off, the military team Starscream assembles in "Starscream's Brigade" from war-museum hardware in Detroit and the personality components of Decepticons Megatron had long ago imprisoned on Cybertron. He is, on paper, the strongest thing on the field: a 14,000 psi punch that can pulverise a suspension bridge, a half-million-pound lift capacity, and armour that shrugs off nearly every form of artillery and radiation. Megatron's stated wish is for an army of them.

His debut is the most successful first outing any G1 combiner gets. Starscream anticipated Megatron's move, waited for the Constructicons to form Devastator, then unleashed Bruticus, who beat the veteran combiner outright and scattered the loyalist Decepticons, only for the Stunticons to arrive and for Menasor to blindside him. Banished with Starscream to an asteroid, the Combaticons then mounted the boldest Decepticon operation of the season: taking Cybertron from Shockwave and reprogramming the Space Bridge to drag Earth into the sun, which forced Optimus Prime and Megatron into an alliance.

He is described as extremely low in intelligence even by combiner standards, and his toy bio claims he would do nothing at all if no one gave him orders. The cartoon quietly disagrees; Bruticus acts independently and effectively. The likeliest in-universe reason is that the Combaticons actually get along when separated, unlike the Constructicons or the Stunticons, so the merged mind has less to fight over. What repeatedly beats him is not confusion but leverage: a fail-safe in his back, a tow cable round his legs, a toppled power line.

One of the physically strongest Transformers in any continuity: a punch measured at 14,000 psi, capable of lifting 500,000 pounds, with armour nearly impervious to artillery and radiation. He wields Onslaught's sonic stun gun and, as a Scramble City combiner, can rearrange his limbs into any configuration. Because the five Combaticons genuinely get along, his merged mind is more coherent than most Decepticon gestalts, letting him act on his own initiative rather than waiting for orders. The weaknesses are structural. A fail-safe device built into his back was used in "The Revenge of Bruticus" to deactivate him the moment he combined. He is slow and easily toppled: the Aerialbots twisted a tow cable round his legs in "Aerial Assault" and finished the job by igniting oil wells, and Blaster brought a power line down on him in the Marvel story "Child's Play" to blast him into components. Defensor's force field neutralised his sonic gun, and Defensor destroyed him outright in "B.O.T.".

• Onslaught - torso and head, plus the chest plate and helmet; supplies the sonic stun gun
• Vortex - arm
• Blast Off - arm
• Brawl - leg
• Swindle - leg
• Note: as a Scramble City-type combiner, any of the four limb Combaticons can be plugged into any socket, and the cartoon varies which side each occupies. The animation model further muddles matters by drawing the chest plate as Blast Off while Blast Off is already an arm.

• Onslaught: forms the torso and supplies the tactical mind; the Combaticons' unusual cohesion starts with him.
• Starscream: created the Combaticons as his private army and was abandoned by them on the asteroid the moment it suited them.
• Megatron: had Bruticus reprogrammed for loyalty rather than scrapped after faking his destruction for Optimus Prime's benefit.
• Defensor: his repeated nemesis, whose force field neutralises his sonic gun and who destroys him outright in "B.O.T.".

Marvel gives Bruticus a different creator and a much earlier seed. He is first glimpsed not as a real robot but inside Buster Witwicky's Creation Matrix visions in "Second Generation!", where the Combaticons form Bruticus to join a Menasor-versus-Defensor fight and Menasor accidentally shoots him. Shockwave, who witnesses the same vision, then sets about adding Bruticus to the Decepticon ranks, so there is no Starscream mutiny, no war-museum bodies, and no imprisoned-Decepticon personality components. Marvel's Bruticus is also more of a heavy for whoever is in charge: he fights Optimus Prime and Defensor during Megatron's hydrothermocline theft in "Afterdeath", then disassembles so the Combaticons can enter a virtual reality video game. His best Marvel showing is "Child's Play", where he battles Defensor to a standstill, defeats him by swinging an entire train, and is then destroyed by Blaster dropping a power line on him after Blaster fakes killing a child to earn his admiration. Dreamwave keeps the cartoon's stupidity and adds humiliation, having Predaking beat him comprehensively.

Bruticus survives G1. Megatron only pretends to destroy him in "The Revenge of Bruticus", using Shockwave's holographic simulator to satisfy Optimus Prime while reprogramming the combiner for loyalty. He is destroyed for real by Defensor in "B.O.T." and rebuilt when Megatron forces Swindle to buy back the pieces he had sold off. He remains in Decepticon service through "Fight or Flee", "The Burden Hardest to Bear" and "The Return of Optimus Prime". In the Japanese Zone continuity he becomes one of Violen Jygar's Nine Great Demon Generals and takes part in the attack on Zone Base.

• Bruticus is one of the very few Decepticon combiners whose components actually get along when separated, which the wiki cites as the reason he performs better than his peers; the only comparable case is Predaking.
• His animation model has the chest plate drawn as though formed from Blast Off, who is simultaneously forming one of his arms.
• "Aerial Assault" was broadcast before "Starscream's Brigade", so American viewers met Bruticus before the episode explaining his creation.
• The Generation One giftset was only sold in Japan and Italy; most markets got the five Combaticons individually.
• The Bruticus mould is the most redecoed of all the Scramble City combiners, later becoming Operation Combination's Battle Gaia and Robots in Disguise/Universe Ruination, with a Generation 2 redeco in 1994.
• On every version of the mould's packaging art, the Brawl figure is depicted assembled backwards.

Where the cartoon, the Marvel comics and the toy bios disagree, or where a popular claim does not hold up. We record these rather than smoothing them over.

• The toy bio says Bruticus is so witless he would stand and do nothing if nobody gave him an order; the cartoon repeatedly shows him acting independently and competently, most obviously in "Starscream's Brigade" and "The Revenge of Bruticus".
• Origin: the cartoon has Starscream build the Combaticons from Detroit war-museum vehicles and the personality components of Decepticons Megatron imprisoned; Marvel has Shockwave create them after seeing Bruticus in a Creation Matrix vision.
• "Aerial Assault" airing before "Starscream's Brigade" means the broadcast order contradicts the production order and shows Bruticus in the field before he exists.
• The animation model's chest plate is drawn as Blast Off, who is at the same time forming an arm, an unresolved model error rather than a story point.