Roadbuster (DOTM)
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Roadbuster" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Roadbuster (disambiguation). |
- Roadbuster is an Autobot from the Dark of the Moon portion of the movie continuity family.
When Roadbuster isn't out bashing Decepticons with his buddies, the Wreckers, there are only a couple of other places to look for him. He might be in his shop, hammering out a new piece of armor or putting together another in the line of powerful weapons he's made for the Wreckers. He might be out on the race track, pushing his engine to the limit with his human buddy Sergeant Recon. Wherever he is, though, you can be sure he'll be going about his task with his head down and his shoulders set. Roadbuster's not a big talker and he's no genius, but his willpower and dogged tenacity always get the job done.
Contents |
Fiction
Movies
Dark of the Moon film
- Voice actor: Ron Bottitta (English), Shunsuke Sakuya (Japanese), Armando Coria (Latin American Spanish), Pedro Tena (Castilian Spanish), Rino Bolognesi (Italian), Frank Muth (German), Gérard Dessalles (European French), Frédérik Zacharek (Canadian French)
Roadbuster, Leadfoot and Topspin, collectively known as the Wreckers, by Charlotte Mearing, had arrived with the second wave of Autobots aboard the Autobot ship, the Xantium, and were rarely let off of the NASA base because of their attitude. They would spend most of their time working on repairing their ship along with some human engineers, including Robert Epps.
When Sentinel Prime announced that the current occupation force of Autobots was to be exiled or the Earth would face the wrath of hundreds of Decepticons, the three prepared the ship for launch and accompanied Optimus Prime and the others aboard, sending the ship into the atmosphere - where it was then targeted and blown to smithereens by Starscream, seemingly killing all the Autobots aboard. Undaunted by this, the Autobot's human allies nonetheless tried to launch an incursion into Decepticon-held Chicago.
Fortunately for them, the Autobots were not actually aboard the ship, and had only feigned their deaths in order to keep the Decepticons from following up on their global threat. Leadfoot and the other Wreckers swung into action immediately, rescuing Epps, Sam Witwicky and a group of soldiers from a Decepticon fighter and executed the pilot. Upon being questioned on their apparent deaths, Roadbuster stated that they had built the ship, but hadn't been inside it when it had been destroyed.
While the Autobots were scouting a route to the building containing Sentinel's Space bridge pillars, Shockwave and his pet Driller separated Optimus from his weapons trailer. Optimus ordered Roadbuster and the other Wreckers to create a distraction so that he could retrieve it, and in their armored racecar forms fired at Shockwave with their machine guns until being forced to retreat, leaving behind Wheelie and Brains, who had hitched a ride with them. After Optimus had become snared in a construction site's cables, the Wreckers set out to free him. After doing so they rejoined the battle, battling against Devcon. After the battle Roadbuster stood with the other survivors, accepting that Cybertron was gone forever and that Earth was their new home. Dark of the Moon
Age of Extinction film
Five years after the Battle of Chicago, Roadbuster was not listed as "deceased" by the CIA taskforce, Cemetery Wind.[1] Age of Extinction
The Creation Revoltech!
Roadbuster and the other Wreckers cheered Optimus Prime on when he used the power of the Revoltech Unit to send Megatron packing. The Creation Revoltech!
Games
MechTech Weapons Challenge
Bumblebee could use Roadbuster's assault saw to aid him in his missions to retrieve MechTech weapons technology stolen by the Decepticons. MechTech Weapons Challenge
Bot Shots Battle Game!
Roadbuster participated in numerous one-on-one matches against other Autobots and Decepticons, using his fists, his sword, or his gun to defeat his opponents. Sometimes, he even faced off against himself! Bot Shots Battle Game!
Toys
Dark of the Moon
Cyberverse
- Roadbuster (Cyberverse Legion Class, 2011)
- Series: 1
- Number: 014
- Japanese ID number: CV22
- Known designers: Joe Kyde (Hasbro)
- Part of the third wave of Cyberverse Legion Class figures, Roadbuster transforms into a heavily modified version of Dale Earndhart Jr.'s 88 car, sporting a front-mounted minigun and missile pods mounted on his quarter panels/robot mode shoulders. As always, his right hand is molded to accommodate Cyberverse weapons as well. In what can only be described as a singularity for Legion Class figures, he has a separately molded chainsaw on his left arm that can move independently on a balljoint and be deployed or hidden in vehicle mode. This is truly awesome.
- What appears to be two Cyberverse weapon ports in vehicle mode are actually just screw holes, slightly too big to be used as such. While the actual toy sports a white 88 on top, the promo photography on the card shows it as red.
Deluxe Class
- Roadbuster (MechTech Deluxe Class, 2011)
- Japanese ID number: DA09
- Accessories: MechTech Blaster/Assault Saw
- Known designers: Joe Kyde (Hasbro), Andrew Scribner (deco artist)
- Part of the first wave of Dark of the Moon Deluxes, Roadbuster transforms into a NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevy Impala stock car, specifically Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s #88 car with Amp Energy drink and National Guard sponsorship logos. Like the other NASCAR-based DOTM toys, Roadbuster lacks the multiple small "contingency" sponsor decals found on a full-sized NASCAR racer, although he does have NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and National Guard logos.
- As part of the MechTech series, he has a spring-loaded blaster weapon that deploys flip-out "chainsaw" blades when a lever is pulled; however, the blades cannot lock in the deployed position. Aside from holding the weapon with his hands, there are also three MechTech ports on him, one on his roof, and one on each door, and all of them fill in when there is not a weapon inserted in them. He also features C-joint-compatible 3mm rods in the supports for his (non-firing) back-mounted missile pods and under his hands. The wheels on his legs can also be swiveled down on to a lower peg, although this impedes his backwards leg articulation due to the wheels colliding with his car shell.
- The back missile launchers can still deploy while in vehicle mode to form a Stealth Force or attack mode-like configuration.
- The Japanese release comes packed with a character card and an accompanying transparent plastic card of his MechTech weapon for the MechTech Wars online game.
- His MechTech weapon was redecoed for Dark of the Moon Thundercracker, and was differently retooled each time as Dark of the Moon Arcee's and Vortex's weapons.
- Track Battle Roadbuster (MechTech Deluxe Class, 2011)
- Accessories: MechTech Blaster/Assault Saw
- Known designers: Andrew Scribner (deco artist)
- A Walmart-exclusive redeco of the Deluxe Roadbuster, this version has a higher contrast color scheme, replacing his green plastic with orange, some of his gray with black, the rest of his gray with a darker shade, has brighter red taillights, and has Amp Energy Relaunch as the sponsor instead of the regular Amp Energy. His MechTech weapon was redecoed to be gray instead of green, have a red lever and inner parts instead of gray, and replaced the painted silver on his chainsaw blades with painted matte gold. The "Dale Earnhardt Jr." signature above his right door was removed (while the one on the left was retained). Between his original deco and this deco, he also gains some new paint operations and tampographs: His sculpted thigh panels/pads are painted, in white, and he gains a white stripe on his "baseball cap". The silver Autobot symbol on the front shoulder panel to his right was enlarged, changed to red, and moved to his right thigh panel/pad, his small "National Guard" logos were made larger and moved to the sides of the back of the car, and he gains an "Impala" and another larger "National Guard" tampograph on the front and trunk, respectively.
- In countries where there's no Walmart, he shipped along with the fifth wave of Dark of the Moon Deluxe-Class toys, with Air Raid, Autobot Armor Topspin, and Darksteel.
Human Alliance
- Roadbuster with Sergeant Recon (2011)
- Japanese ID number: DA29
- Accessories: Rocket booster, "flame" missile, chainsaw
- Known designers: Andrew Scribner (deco artist)
- A larger and more complicated Human Alliance figure, Roadbuster is now in his weaponized mode and features many weapons. He has a mini-gun in his fenders, two machine guns for headlights, two missile pods in the back, and one detachable, spring-loaded, missile-firing rocket booster at the back. In robot mode, he features a detachable jointed chainsaw that's pegged onto his left arm while the other arm can be equipped with the rocket booster; two additional accessory ports are exposed on the back of the seats. All ports are compatible with MechTech weapons.
- He comes with a human partner, Sergeant Recon, who can sit on either of his seats in vehicle mode. In robot mode, the aforementioned seats are still usable and end up next to the missile pods, which Recon can operate. He can also can man the swiveling mini-gun above Roadbuster's head, although it's not very secure, as the "seat" lacks pegs and Recon has problems reaching and gripping the handlebars, so it may take some fiddling.
- Like other large Human Alliance figures, he has an additional gimmick on his head. By lifting the top of his helmet and flipping the black lever on the back, Roadbuster can don a pair of translucent blue sunglasses; the same mechanism is used for Jazz's visor.
- Unfortunately, Roadbuster suffers from a very thin (and somewhat unstable) torso section, and his shoulder clips also have trouble holding his upper body together, giving his arms a tendency to detach. He also has a tiny misassembly in the engine section that contains the seat and minigun, wherein the detachable gray plastic swivel below it is installed backwards. This doesn't affect transformation or his other gimmicks in any way, and it can be fixed, but only after popping out the hinge's pin from the engine and then attaching the plastic piece the other way.
- There is a running change variant of Roadbuster which replaces the generic font for the tampographed driver number "88" with a style that is much closer to actual NASCAR branding, replaces the NASCAR decals near the headlights with Sprint Cup Series logos, and rather inexplicably replaces his translucent missile with one cast in an opaque material.[2]
Robo Fighters
- Roadbuster (Robot Fighters, 2011)
- Robo Fighters Roadbuster is a non-transforming figure with five points of articulation. Sliding a switch on his stomach causes his chest armor to move as cannons pop out from his shoulders. He features a chainsaw permanently affixed to his right arm.
Bot Shots
- Roadbuster (Bot Shot, 2012)
- Series: 1
- Number: B017
- Fist strength: 320
- Blaster strength: 445
- Sword strength: 695
- Part of the fifth wave of Bot Shots, Roadbuster transforms into a pine green sports car with a spoiler and MechTech-style deployed weapons. A sharp impact to his front bumper will cause him to spring into robot mode.
Studio Series
- Roadbuster (Deluxe Class, 2020)
- Studio Series Roadbuster accurately represents his appearance in Dark of Moon, transforming from a robot to a heavily-armored version of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s #88 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevy Impala stock car, although the NASCAR logo, the "IMPALA" wordmark, and Junior's #88 are the only details of the deco. Just like his fellow teammates, his wheels feature "ULTRA" and "WRECKERS" labels. He comes with a small gun that can plug into 5 mm ports on his forearms and shoulders, though the forearm ports are quite shallow. He also comes with a cardboard backdrop display depicting a war-torn Chicago.
- The car mode's front can have a bit of trouble staying pegged into place for many copies.
Notes
- Like his fellow Wreckers, Roadbuster appears to be patterned after a trucker hat-headed, sunglasses-wearing, goateed NASCAR fan stereotype.
- As part of the promotion for Dark of the Moon, the film prop versions of Roadbuster, Leadfoot, and Topspin made appearances at the 2011 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20th. They appeared both off the track as display cars, and on the track, participating in the ceremonial first lap.
- This isn't the first time there's been a Wrecker named Roadbuster.
- Early concept art revealed that Roadbuster was originally going to have Jeff Gordon's #24 DuPont-sponsored Chevrolet as his alternate mode.[3]
- Early concept art showed that Roadbuster was a red-and-orange Autobot with the name Warpath, though considering some of the other names on the concept art, it's likely this was just a false name in case of leaks.[3]
- In the movie's end credits, he's listed under two names, Roadbuster/Amp, the latter referring to his NASCAR vehicle mode's primary sponsor, AMP Energy.
- Roadbuster has a rank stat of 9, the highest out of the 3 Wreckers, which may make him their leader by default.
- Roadbuster's Scottish accent and occupation as an engineer are likely nods to the character Scotty from the original Star Trek series.
- Concept art was produced of Roadbuster's protoform stage, but ultimately never made its way into the film proper.
- With Leadfoot having been killed off in Age of Extinction and Topspin found to be alive in The Last Knight, Roadbuster is the only member of the Wrecker trio whose fate after the events of Dark of the Moon has yet to be revealed.
- Attinger's playing card of Roadbuster was revealed in a prop auction for the Transformers film series held in 2019.[4][5]
Foreign names
- Japanese: Roadbuster (ロードバスター Rōdobasutā)
References
- ↑ File:AOE-Kill-Cards-Set-3.jpg
- ↑ Comparison of both versions of Human Alliance Roadbuster.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Josh Nizzi DOTM concepts.
- ↑ Transformers: The Auction by Profiles in History
- ↑ "Items from last three 'Transformers' films go on auction" by AP Archive
