Scrapmetal (ROTF)

Scrapmetal is a Decepticon Constructicon from the Revenge of the Fallen portion of the movie continuity family.

What are you? Seriously we want to know.

Unlike the other Constructicons, Scrapmetal is overlooked and disrespected due to his status as "ze little one".^[1] He transforms into a Volvo excavator, and can form Devastator's left hand if he is fortunate enough to be left alive by his teammates.

Fiction

Revenge of the Fallen film

Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!

After the AllSpark shard was retrieved from NEST's secure bunker at Diego Garcia, Scrapmetal was among the Constructicons who secreted themselves aboard the Bayos freighter heading towards the North Atlantic. Once the ship passed over the Laurentian Abyss, Ravage flew onto the ship, hiding between Scrapmetal and Mixmaster while a sailor passed. Once they reached the specific site, the Decepticons jumped overboard and dove down to where Megatron's broken body lay.

No! Wait! I don't wanna be a Decepticon any-sheeeeaggh!

Once they located his shell, Scalpel was released to assess their leader's condition. After a quick examination, Scalpel declared that he would need some spare parts to replace the ones destroyed in the battle of Mission City, and he ordered the death of the smallest Constructicon. Before Scrapmetal could protest, he was set upon by Long Haul and Mixmaster and beaten to death as they tore off the components needed to restore Megatron. Once these were attached, Scalpel struck Megatron with the shard, reviving the Decepticon leader. Scrapmetal's parts allowed Megatron to take the alternate mode of a Cybertronian tank with flight capabilities. He may have been honoured for all time for his sacrifice for the Decepticon cause. But probably not. Revenge of the Fallen

Toy bios

Scrapmetal was present in Egypt during Operation: Firestorm. He combined with his fellow Constructicons to form the mighty Devastator, forming the left hand. Studio Series Constructicon Scrapmetal

Toys

Studio Series

Black Friday Grimlock wanted four more teammates.

• Constructicon Scrapmetal (Deluxe Class, 2019)

• Movie: Revenge of the Fallen
• Hasbro ID number: 41
• TakaraTomy ID number: SS-32
• TakaraTomy release date: April 27, 2019
• Accessories: Shield, "Pyramid Desert Battle" backdrop (2nd version)
• Known designers: Mike Booth (Hasbro), Shogo Hasui (TakaraTomy)

Released to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Revenge of the Fallen, Studio Series Constructicon Scrapmetal is a Deluxe-sized sculpt that transforms from an excavator into a robot mode based on a piece of concept art, presumably to differentiate it from Scrapper.

He comes with a small shield, made from a panel from the back of the excavator mode, and a cardboard backdrop display depicting Operation: Firestorm.

Scrapmetal can be combined with the rest of the Studio Series Constructicons to form Devastator. Specifically, he forms the left hand and attaches to Hightower, who forms the left upper arm. Hasbro's instructions omit the shield/panel in this mode entirely; TakaraTomy's instructions feature an extra step... and it just has the piece attached to the same place it gets attached to in robot mode, serving no obvious purpose. Promotional images of the Devastator combined mode shows the shield piece attached to the giant's left knee. This splotch of color is oddly placed when Rampage is used as the left leg, but swapping in the screen-accurate Skipjack suggests that the shield may represent part of Skipjack's mass, integrated further up the giant's thigh.

Like the majority of the Studio Series Constructicons, he lacks a Decepticon symbol.

• Devastator (Gift Set, 2020)

• Movie: Revenge of the Fallen
• ID number: 69

This boxset contains 8 of the Studio Series Constructicons seen in the Revenge of the Fallen film. In order to keep Devastator accurate to his on-screen appearance, Skipjack is included in the set, completely omitting Rampage, as he was busy elsewhere.

Scrapmetal remains, mostly faithful to the original release above, save for some additional dirt paint applications on the buckets used for Devastator's fingertips.

The gift set first saw release in Thailand without any announcement from Hasbro, with it later being officially revealed on the October 16th Fan First Friday.

Who is Scrapmetal?

Vehicle mode

GREAT CONTINUITY!

The on-screen identity of Scrapmetal is a bit on the fraught side. In the flyover shot of the barge on which the four Constructicons sit, a red bulldozer (Rampage), a silver/grey concrete mixer (Mixmaster), a green dump truck (Long Haul) and a yellow front-end loader are visible. The yellow front-end loader is the alternate mode of the Constructicon Scrapper, and Scrapmetal's robot mode appears to be the same as Scrapper's. As such, the temptation to just consider this a Scrapper unit is great…

However, the flyover shot is followed by a closeup shot of the bulldozer, which Ravage crashlands into… except that the bulldozer is suddenly yellow instead of red in this shot. Additionally, in the background, the yellow front-end loader has been replaced with a yellow Volvo excavator, which is clearly marked with a large Decepticon insignia.

For the purposes of reducing headaches, we're assuming that the excavator is the "correct" vehicle mode, and that it just happens to transform into a robot mode that resembles Scrapper… even though it's not him. The Studio Series toy would subsequently give Scrapmetal an excavator alternate mode.

Devastator component

Volvo excavator briefly appears behind Hightower during the Devastator combination scene. Also, is that a person in Hightower's cab?… Probably just a hologram… Right?

Building up on the mystery of Scrapmetal's identity, his toy depicts him taking the place of the unnamed yellow bulldozer as Devastator's left hand. Even the Hasbro version of the toy's packaging bio mentions that Scrapmetal combines with the rest of his teammates, with him specifically forming the left hand.

Further evidence supporting the theory behind the unnamed shovel and Scrapmetal being the same character/unit comes from the "Behind-the-Design" interview with Mike Booth, a Hasbro employee who worked on Studio Series Devastator.^[2] He had said that during the design process and the decision on what size class to make each figure that combines to form Devastator, they went back and rewatched the combination scene from the film and "noticed that the left arm was formed by two figures: Scrapmetal and Hightower."

The above statement could potentially mean that with the same subtle retcon Hasbro made with Skipjack being the left leg of Devastator rather than Rampage (as mentioned in the aforementioned interview and indicated in the Studio Series toy bios for both figures), the same could be made for Scrapmetal. With that in mind, that could mean one of two things:

1. The Scrapmetal unit has potentially taken on two different forms, one being the bulldozer that forms Devastator's left hand (which fits with a previous statement made by Hasbro about him being a bulldozer)^[3] and the other being the Volvo excavator shown on the barge or;
2. Hasbro/TakaraTomy has taken to making a different alternate form for the toy as they have done with many other figures in the past.

If everything mentioned above has not already created enough of a headache, the same yellow Volvo excavator with the Decepticon insignia can be spotted in the background of Devastator's formation scene behind Hightower for a brief moment. But in previous and subsequent shots, it is nowhere to be seen. The existence of the excavator in the background could easily be written off as just another continuity error due to different filming times or lack of attention to detail. Nevertheless, it certainly does not make the job of distinguishing each component of Devastator any easier.

Notes

• Hasbro had no idea that "ze little one" had a nickname and a following; they found the idea funny and noted that they liked to call him Scrapmetal, and hinted at working him into a future toy release.^[3] Scrapmetal would eventually receive a toy in the Studio Series toyline.
  • Along those lines, the canceled 2010 Transformers toyline figure multi-pack "Megatron Rising" features a red redeco of Scrapper that is most likely intended to have been Scrapmetal. However, the back of the packaging shown at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 gave the red Scrapper's name as, er, Scrapper, suggesting a breakdown in communication somewhere.

• One abandoned Constructicon concept by artist Steve Jung was a "nurse" that would have transformed into a Volvo wheel loader. It is unknown if this character later evolved into Scrapmetal.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Scrapmetal (スクラップメタル Sukurappumetaru)

References