scrapper n : someone who fights (or is fighting) [syn: combatant, battler, belligerent, fighter]

English

Noun

1. A person who disposes of scraps.
2. A person who fights doggedly, who exhibits indomitable will.

   He's a real scrapper, even against impossible odds, he always keeps fighting.

Scrapper is the name of several fictional character in the Transformers universes. Due to trouble Hasbro had trademarking the name Scrapper, some later toys were released under the name Buckethead, Sledge or "Decepticon Scrapper".

Transformers: Generation 1

Scrapper, the leader of the Constructicons, is a master designer who conceives the myriad structures the Constructicons assemble. Although he's genuinely modest about his work, he's prone to bragging amongst his fellow Constructicons. He transforms into a wheeled front-load shovel and forms the right leg of Devastator. As indicated by a cut line from the original script of the Constructicons' debut animated episode, Scrapper was originally to be named Gravedigger. Scrapper is called Bricolo in Canada and Ringhio in Italy.

Animated series

According to the Autobot, Omega Supreme, millions of years ago, the Constructicons were the creators of the beautiful Crystal City on the Transformers' homeworld of Cybertron, which he was assigned the task of guarding. As a friend of the Constructicons, he was hurt the most when they were attacked by Megatron, who, seeking to bolster the forces of his then-small army, subjected the Constructicons to the Robo-Smasher, a device which reprogrammed their minds and turned them into Decepticons. In their first act as Megatron's troops, the Constructicons lured Omega away from Crystal City and demolished it, enraging Omega, who pursued the Constructions across the planet. Eventually, he succeeded in capturing them and apparently restored their programming to its original state, but as the group returned to rebuild Crystal City, Omega learned that Megatron's reprogramming could never be undone - the Constructicons were still Decepticons, and more than that, Megatron had given them a new power: the ability to combine their bodies and minds into the giant known as Devastator. In the ensuing struggle with Devastator, the Robo-Smasher attacked Omega's mind. He was able to stop it before the reprogramming was complete, only to wind up losing his emotions. Filled with only hatred for the Constructicons, Omega relentlessly pursued them, until they finally fled Cybertron in a spacecraft, which Omega chased across the galaxy.

In 1984, the Constructicons joined with Megatron's forces on Earth, and their first mission was an impressive one - Scrapper designed a machine to transfer the other Decepticons' powers to Megatron, and while he battled Optimus Prime, holding the attention of the Autobots, the Constructicons invaded the Ark to destroy Teletraan I. Unfortunately for them, the Ark was protected by the Dinobots, but by merging into Devastator, they became more than a match for their prehistoric foes. The return of the other Autobots and the discovery of Megatron's deception spelled the end of the battle, however, as Hound distracted Devastator with a gigantic hologram, and Optimus Prime blasted the giant at just the right spot to force the Constructicons to disengage. They and the other Decepticons were then forced into a river of lava.

The Constructicons all managed to survive their magma bath mostly unscathed, except for Mixmaster, whose mind was apparently damaged by the experience, as he developed his manic personality and a fondness for repeating his words, which he had not displayed before. Regardless, the team was soon back at work again, performing such varied tasks as assisting in Megatron's reconstruction of New York City - which also involved turning Optimus Prime's scrapped remains into a robotic alligator - and building a device to paralyse Transformers in their vehicular modes, as well as another that could crush them. When the Autobots would interfere in their plans, Devastator would invariably be formed - something that the Autobots chose to use to their advantage when they discovered that the Constructicons were drilling to the Earth's core. Sneaking "dominator disks" onto the separate Constructicons, when they merged into Devastator, the Autobots took control of his mind and used him for their own ends until he escaped, and, surprisingly, helped stop the drill to prevent the destruction of the Earth.

Upon learning of the Autobot Grapple's solar power tower design, Scrapper and the Constructicons pretended to have defected from the Decepticons in order to help him and Hoist construct it, exposing their treachery upon its completion. Later, when the other Decepticons began to suffer from Cybertonium degeneration, the Constructions - apparently working fine, presumably as a result of their newly-built Cybertonium-free Earth bodies - took delivery of a shipment of the mineral via the Space Bridge, and as Devastator, failed to stop Spike Witwicky and Carly from getting by them and travelling to Cybertron.

In 1985, when Omega Supreme learned that the Constructicons were active on Earth, he arrived on the planet and joined Optimus Prime's forces, biding his time until he could face his former friends again. That chance arose when the Constructions were discovered mining an asteroid, and Omega was dispatched to investigate. Ignoring Optimus Prime's orders, Omega Supreme engaged the Constructicons, and in the battle, split the asteroid in two, revealing that it was an egg of sorts, incubating a monstrous alien creature, which promptly attacked San Francisco while Omega, ignoring the plight of the city, continued to battle the Constructicons. Optimus Prime then entered the fray, convincing Omega that saving the city was more important than revenge, and forcing the Constructicons to retreat.

The building skills of the Constructicons remained in demand - other creations around this time included an army of drone Transformers created from common Earth cars; various constructs for Blitzwing, including a throne constructed from deactivated Autobots and a massive maze; and a giant ruby-powered laser cannon - but their combining powers soon became a lot less distinctive with the creation of several new similarly-powered Autobot and Decepticon sub-groups. Devastator was even defeated in battle by the Combaticons, who Starscream specially designed with the ability to combine into Bruticus for that eventuality.

In the Earth year 2005, Devastator was the Decepticons' primary weapon in the Battle of Autobot City, tearing through the defences and walls of the city and battling the Dinobots once more. On the return trip to Cybertron, it was Bonecrusher who advocated the "survival of the fittest" policy that saw many wounded Decepticons ejected from the shuttle, among them Megatron, prompting Scrapper to vote for the Constructions as the new leaders of the Decepticons. Hook took great offense to the notion that Soundwave would make a better leader than them, leading to mass brawl to decide who would be Decepticon leader.

In the remainder of this year and throughout 2006, the Constructions maintained a smaller, but still present, role in the Decepticon army, lending their talents to the Decepticon/Quintesson alliance by constructing Trypticon out of a populated human city in only one night. Later, they built a planetary engine on an asteroid and battled on the planet Eurythma, aided in the overthrow of Paradron and took part in an attack on Japan. Although brief, the Constructicons even played a part in the battle for the Plasma Energy Chamber in 2007.

Marvel Comics

The origins of the Constructions in Marvel Comics' Transformers series was not nearly so complicated. Seeking to bolster the size of his forces on Earth in 1985, Decepticon Commander Shockwave arranged for the construction of six new Decepticon bodies, which were then infused with life by the power of the Creation Matrix, tapped from the head of the imprisoned Optimus Prime. Thus, the Constructicons were born, and were immediately put to work building a massive radio transmission dish that Soundwave used to beam a message to Cybertron. When the Autobots attempted to interfere, the Constructicons revealed their hidden power and merged into Devastator to fight them off, allowing the message to successfully go through.

The Autobots, intrigued by Devastator's unique combining power, attempting to replicate it with the construction of Omega Supreme, but as Omega was composed of only three (non-sentient) components, unlike the six Constructicons that made up Devastator, the Autobots conducted a raid on the Decepticon base, luring out Devastator so that they could gather data on him. This allowed them to accomplish the construction of the new combiner team, the Aerialbots, capable of forming Superion, whom Devastator battled during the Transformers' adventure alongside G.I. Joe.

Although the United Kingdom's exclusive Transformers comic series shone the spotlight on the Constructicons when they were charged with hunting down Buster Witwicky, and again when the time-travelling Galvatron co-opted their services to build a gigantic laser cannon, the team's special talents were not required in the U.S. title again until they and the Predacons stole large amounts of rocket fuel and raw materials, with which the Constructicons rebuilt the Decepticons' mobile island headquarters as a spaceship. With the entire Earth-based Decepticon army aboard the ship, under the command of Ratbat, they attacked an Autobot congregation on the moon, and while the battle raged, the Constructicons penetrated the Ark and recovered the deactivated bodies of several Decepticons defeated in an earlier clash with Omega Supreme.

Fun Publications

The Transformers Classics comics published in the Official Transformers Collectors Club magazine is set in the Marvel Comics continuity, but in a timeline where the events of Generation 2 did not occur. Scrapper appears among Megatrons troops.

Books

Scrapper appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books.

Dreamwave Productions

In Dreamwave Productions's 21st century re-imagining of the Generation One universe, it was revealed gradually that the Constructicons were responsible for pioneering the Combining process through a series of experiments on themselves, thus creating Devastator. The plans to Devastator's combining process were eventually stolen by the Autobots and refined, resulting in Superion as a counter. This in turn led to more Special Teams being built by both sides.

In the initial War Within series, the Constructicons were responsible for activating Cybertron's planetary engines, under the command of Megatron eight million years ago. When Megatron disappeared into the depths of the planet fighting Optimus Prime, Starscream temporarily took command and had Scrapper prepare a process for the resurfacing of Cybertron, which would transform it into a mobile war-world. Scrapper cautioned against such an action, but Starscream ignored him, and prevented him from stopping it when the process was underway. 1.5 million years later, when Megatron and Optimus Prime were thought to have died in an early test of the Space Bridge transport system, and the Autobots and Decepticons splintered into several smaller factions, the Contructicons broke the treaty that had downgraded the combining teams to non-combat status by siding with Ratbat's Ultracons and battling Defensor. The various War Within series showed that the Constructicons' alternate modes were the Cybertronian variants of their Earth designs.

It is apparent that the Constructicons were not aboard the Ark when it crashed on Earth four million years ago, but they did eventually find their way to Earth and joined Megatron's forces there after they awoke in 1984. All the Transformers were rendered inactive in the explosion of the Ark II in 1999, but when they reactivated in 2001, Devastator was the main weapon in Megatron's attack on San Francisco. Rampaging through the city, he battled and defeated Superion, but was defeated by Optimus Prime through a point-blank blast to the face, which toppled the giant. His remains were recovered by the Earth Defence Command, and dissected and studied in their underground base. The ultimate fate of Devastator was not revealed, however, as a result of Dreamwave's closure.

Toys

• Generation 1 Scrapper (1985)

Based on a Diaclone toy.

• Transformers: Generation 2 Scrapper

Scrapper was reissued in Generation 2 in both orange and yellow recolors.

• Transformers: Universe Buckethead

When the Micromaster Sixbuilder was repainted as a homage to Devastator, they renamed the members of the combiner team after the Constructicons, but unable to trademark the name Scrapper, they instead named Scrapper's counterpart Buckethead.

• Energon Sledge

Scrapper is the Japanese name for the Decepticon called Sledge in Transformers: Energon.

• Transformers: Classics Scrapper (2007)

A repaint of an Energon toy, Hasbro got the name Scrapper back by naming him Decepticon Scrapper.

2007 Transformers movie

Scrapper does not appear in the 2007 Transformers movie. However, he appears in the video game as an orange coloured drone. Scrapper transforms into a forklift truck. Both Autobot and Decepticon drones are orange coloured. Autobot versions have eyes and a 'mask' while Decepticon versions have only a single eye.

Transformers Animated

Scrapper has been revealed to appear later on in the Cartoon Network series voiced by Tom Kenny This version transforms into an excavator (like G1 Scavenger), and he has drills in his wrists. He makes his first appearance in "Rise of the Constructicons" alongside Mixmaster. After being brought to life by a fragment of the Allspark, he takes his name from a sign which says "scrap", but Mixmaster deems it too short, and rechristens him "Scrapper". Initially they befriend Bulkhead, but are hired by Megatron after his Decepticons tricked the two into helping them steal supplies to construct a Space Bridge. After drinking contaminated oil provided by Bulkhead, the two have lost their memories of any of the events. They return in "Sari, No One's Home", following a split trail of oil to the Autobot's base. They are eventually scared off by Sari, and run into Blitzwing, who offers them Decepticon oil, and tells them "there's more where that came from".

References

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