Power of the Primes | Bludgeon Prime

05.24.2019 – There have been many characters introduced in Transformers from the original animated series to the beloved comicbooks written by Simon Furman with artwork by Andrew Wildman. It’s a challenge to track each one if you just got into the hobby collecting the characters. But as fan for its world building the stories by Simon Furman got some interesting characters fleshed out that wasn’t given screen time in the cartoon. There have been some interesting ones out there that are dark and weird and one of them became a personal favourite with Bludgeon, the Decepticon’s Samurai Warrior!

Bludgeon was introduced originally as part of the Pretender with a humanoid body and an inner robot that transforms into a tank. The toy was released in 1989 and in the UK-only comicbooks not until Simon Furman became the writer for the US series.

I reconnected into reading Transformers published by Marvel on the tail end of the series beginning with issue #78 that would cancel the series by #80, which featured Bludgeon on the cover beating a dead Autobot. I don’t know anything about Bludgeon but bits and pieces of the story that I read from those comicbooks.

Fast forward to last year when I was in Adelaide I just came across a Bludgeon figure from Transformers Robots in Disguise, which got interested in getting and of course was on a clearance sale.

Since the last issue that Simon Furman have written on this character it became more intriguing that IDW Publishing decided to continue the cancelled Marvel series starting with Transformers: Regeneration One #80.5 although I used to have the first issue of Transformers Generation 2 #1 that also featured Bludgeon but this continuation from the original series was one of the best stories that featured this skull faced Decepticon.



Power of the Primes

Toward mid-2018 Hasbro introduced the Prime Masters for the Power of the Primes toyline and before heading back to Manila there was already news of a new Bludgeon figure that would be included in this character.

Turns out it still Bludgeon but the inner robot is a Prime Master named Quintus Prime one of the Thirteen Primes that becomes Prime Core that can store inside decoy armor modeled after Bludgeon's Pretender shell, or plug into any decoy armor's weapon form, or replace the Matrix core of a Power of the Primes Leader Class figure.

Quintus can also ride Legends Class figures, or attach to Deluxe Class figures' chest armor, Voyager Class figures' bucklers, or Voyager Class figures' combined modes.

This is similar to all of the decoy armor, the weapon piece for weapon mode can detach and be held by the decoy armor. Bludgeon's gun is modeled after a kanabō (a metal stick), and it can be wielded as such by attaching the nozzle onto either of his 3mm-compatible hands.





From Pretender to Decoy Armor

Bludgeon as decoy armor for Quintus Prime is so detailed that takes back to the original Pretender Shell. What makes this stand out from the other decoy armors is that it has a light piping effect due to the back of the skull has holes in them.

Although having articulation for the arms there’s nothing else that can be said of this figure, but for the way Hasbro made it so detailed and as a melee weapon for other larger figures certainly makes this even interesting. Unless you owned an earlier toy iteration of Bludgeon such as the Voyager Class version that came from 2009’s Revenge of the Fallen movie series this would be even cooler.





Prime Weapon of Choice

Overall it is one of those small Transformers figures that usually are an accessory for an even bigger figure. But Prime Master Size Bludgeon seemed to be a hit for not being well-articulated. I’m not holding off if Habro and Takara Tomy decided to make a new Bludgeon from the current War For Cybertron Trilogy: Siege toyline as this is one of the interesting iteration of this skull-faced villainy.

Any true blue Transformers fan would find this character impressive the way Simon Furman has written about this character. Bludgeon would be considred an underrated Decepticon leader, but it’s okay it show who are actually following this character and I do appreciate NeilCDC from Oz Formers for hooking me up with this figure!

Quintus Prime with Bludgeon is a Prime Master from the Power of the Primes Generations subline imprint released in 2018, which was available at Big W, Target, and Myer’s in Australia retailed at $10.00 AUD while sold in the Philippines for PhP 399.75 pesos and in the US for $7.99 USD!