Posted August 21, 2016 at 11:01 pm

Scrounge was -- at least in my Marvel UK-less childhood -- one of the first Transformers non-toy characters, sharing an issue with a bunch of others.   He didn't have a toy.  He was just created to be in a story only to die.  Blaster, the anti-hero badass, needed his little pal to get offed so as to give him some manpain.  You know how it is.  

Other non-toy guys from that issue have already gotten toys over the years -- Ferak, Straxus.  Ferak was a jet.  Straxus was a (flying) tank.  But Scrounge never got a toy, and for good reason.  He transformed into a wheel.

There aren't a lot of Transformers wheels.  

I remember when that Star Wars Transformers toy of General Grievous came out.  It transformed from Grievous into Greivous's little death wheel vehicle thing.  Hey!  They should add a Scrounge head to that and make a Scrounge, some said!  We were desperate.  There were no other wheels.  Wheels are probably a hard sell to a kid in the toy aisle.  There's jets, tanks, animals, cars.... and, what, a wheel?  What kid's gonna choose the wheel???

(A similar problem exists these days with Rung.  Dude transforms into a STICK.)

But 30 years later, we have a Scrounge.  There was a new Cosmos toy -- you know, the UFO flying saucer guy -- and, hey, if you turn that on its side, that's kind of wheel-like, right?  Right????  Look, it's goddamn close enough.  Hasbro gave it a new Scrounge head, decoed him (and the toy's partner) in yellow, and wham-bam it's Scrounge.  At least, as close to Scrounge as one could realistically expect.  Some would say way closer.  Dude's a wheel, man.

And I'm happy.  It makes me happy.  It's kind of healing, you know?  The poor guy died heroically, and also died horrifically.  Like, got his arm ripped off (his special arm, there is none other like it) and then chucked into a smelting pool, where he was melted alive.  But!  Not before he could chuck a cassette at Blaster, offering priceless proof that Optimus Prime and his warriors were indeed alive somewhere.  Nobody liked the little guy, only to realize at his death who they had lost.  Finally having a toy of him means he wasn't forgotten, that what he did mattered.  And sometimes that realization is helpful here in the real world, too.

Scrounge's little shuttle partner is named Cybaxx, which is another nonsense sci-fi name like "Straxus" or "Xaaron" are.  He's a new guy.  Since his gun mode has two bulbous barrels, it makes me think of Scrounge's Special Arm, the one that had extendo audio and video fingers, the one that Straxus ripped off right before his death.  And so Cybaxx, to me, is just Scrounge's arm.  Maybe his arm was always a guy?  I dunno.  

Also new to Scrounge is that he is now a Technobot, and part of the combiner robot Computron.  He should definitely stay attached to that combiner robot guy.  You probably don't end up in the smelting pool that way.

He's why I bought this box set.

He's worth it.

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