Devastator

Six Constructicons combine to form Devastator!

CONSTRUCTICON: DEVASTATOR

FUNCTION: WARRIOR
"Thinking and winning do not mix."

Awesome and terrifying, this Decepticon is a bizarre combination of six Constructicons: Scrapper, Scavenger, Bonecrusher, Hook, Long Haul, and Mixmaster. He is pure brutality as his sole purpose is to crush all in his path. His mind is a melding together of his six parts, but he is limited by their competing thoughts. He possess enormous height and incredible strength--can knock down a bridge with one punch. He carries a 10,000 degree Celsius solar energy beam rifle. Slow, awkward, and not too bright.

• Strength: 10
• Intelligence: 2
• Speed: 1
• Endurance: 9
• Rank: 6
• Courage: 10
• Firepower: 8
• Skill: 4

Transformers Tech Specs

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Among the gestalt Transformers, Devastator was the first and the coolest. His unique six-piece configuration gave him pecs like no other Transformer, and he just looked huge, even if you didn't put him next to any other TFs. He also had the advantage of being the only gestalt featured in the movie, giving him added collectability. It's too bad it was so hard to move his arms without making them fall off or his fists eject from their launchers.

Compiled overview of the 100 ton DVS-2 Devastator 'Mech, from various BattleTech novels and game sourcebooks:

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The Devastator was built from a Star League-era design, discovered in 3023 by Davion troops in the remains of a Star League base on the planet Hoff. Inner Sphere scientists and BattleMech manufacturers, however, lacked the technology to build the Gauss rifles, extra-light engines, and double heat sinks the design required. The blueprints for the Devastator languished in the files of the New Avalon Institute of Science for ten years, until advanced technological information uncovered in the Gray Death memory core enabled House Davion to construct a prototype of the 'Mech.

Originally designed by General Aleksandr Kerensky to correct the flaws in the prototype Titan 'Mech, the Devastator can deliver tremendous firepower at long range. The chaos of the Amaris Civil War disrupted the development of the original Devastator, though several prototypes reached General Kerensky's forces in time for the final assault on Terra. No record of the 'Mech's deployment during the Succession Wars exists; experts assume that all the prototypes accompanied General Kerensky in the Exodus.

The relative lightness of the Devastator's 300 XL engine enables the 'Mech to carry several heavy weapons and extra double heat sinks. A total of fourteen double heat sinks keep the Devastator cool even at the height of battle, and eighteen and a half tons of armor give the Devastator excellent protection.

The Devastator's weapons are impressive and deadly. Two Poland Main Model A Gauss rifles and two Donal Partical Projection Cannons make up the major portion of the 'Mech's arsenal, allowing the Devastator to inflict immense damage at long range. The 'Mech's four tons of Gauss slugs are stored in four separate bins, eliminating the possibility of putting the Gauss rifles out of action with a single lucky hit. For short-range combat, the Devastator is equipped with four Intek Medium Lasers, including one rear-mounted laser.

Norse-Storm BattlMechs, Inc. has been producing a moderate number of Devastators at their Loxley facility for the past ten years. All of these units have been sold to the Federated Commonwealth. It is unknown how many Devastators were deployed with Lyran units when the Lyran Alliance declared its independence from the Commonwealth. Experts estimate that as many as 100 Devastators may be stationed along the borders of the Clan occupation zones.

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Note: Information used here was the domain of FASA before they split the rights between Wizkids LLC and Microsoft (table-top gaming and video games respectively). Copyright of the fluff text is in limbo, but names of persons, places, & things are without any doubt the property of Wizkids LLC. Use of any terms here related to the BattleTech trademark are not meant as a challenge to Wizkids LLC's rights.

"Devastator says: your end is near!"
      — City of Steel

Devastator was the first Transformers gestalt (if you don't count Reflector, and nobody does), a team of five or six robots who could not only transform into vehicles but also combine, Voltron-like, into a larger robot. Making his debut in the season 1 finale Heavy Metal War, Devastator quickly showed the power of the gestalt teams by being nearly invincible and tilting the balance of power back to the Decepticons, which the Autobots had enjoyed since the Dinobots were added to their team.

Unlike the gestalts who followed him, Devastator was not a Scramble City design — that is, he was not one large robot that formed the torso and four fully interchangeable robots that formed any arm or leg. The Constructicons could only combine one way (or maybe two, I forget if his left and right sides could be switched (actually they were switched fairly frequently in the cartoon, but that was animation errors)), and rather than having one larger robot that formed the torso, they used two regular-sized robots.

Despite being a fan favorite, however, Devastator was routinely shown to be out of his league when pitted against other gestalts. Before the Scramble City combiners were added to the show, he fought Omega Supreme a couple of times and was soundly defeated each time. When Starscream went rogue and created the Combaticons, they surprised Devastator by revealing their own ability to combine into Bruticus and handed Devastator his ass on a plate. In Scramble City, he was defeated by the Aerialbots without even bothering to form Superion. And in the opening miniseries to season 3, Five Faces of Darkness he was smashed apart into his component robots by Menasor. Twice. Devastator seemed to have trouble maintaining his combined form, in fact, having been previously blasted apart once by Optimus Prime and another time by Perceptor, each time with a well-placed shot to the chest plate.

In the absence of other gestalts or gestalt-sized robots such as Omega Supreme or Broadside, though, Devastator was nearly unstoppable. Like other gestalts, his brain was the combination of his component robots and thus mentally limited to what they could all agree on, but since his primary function was "crush enemies" this was rarely a problem. His big moment was in Transformers: The Movie, when he was the Decepticons' siege weapon against Autobot City, tearing apart fortifications with his bare hands and shrugging off point-blank shots from an artillery cannon. Later on, however, he was shaken apart into his component robots (again) by Rumble and Frenzy (Soundwave's cassettes take insults to their boss personally) when the Decepticons were fighting over leadership.

Despite all of this, his fan appeal is easy to see. Of all the gestalts, he is the most frequently referenced in fan art and is widely rumored to be in the upcoming sequel to the Michael Bay Transformers Movie (update: he was). As the first gestalt, he got the most exposure in the cartoon, and he was clearly the most unique looking due to his non-Scramble City design. Construction vehicles are just plain cool to begin with, and the wide variety of Constructicon vehicle designs stood in sharp contrast to the almost identical looking Aerialbots and Stunticons.

Devastator, you might not have been the most powerful gestalt, but you were the first, the most unique, and the best loved.

Dev"as*ta`tor (?), n. [L.]

One who, or that which, devastates.

Emerson.

 

© Webster 1913.