Cruellock (Transformers Energon)

By the time you see me, it will be too late.

Name: Cruellock
Allegiance: Decepticons
Function: Magma Commander
Sub-group: Terrorcon
Timeline: Unicron Trilogy

Toyline: Transformers Energon

Profile:

Cruel by name and even crueler by nature, the fearsome Cruellock is the most cunning of the four Terrorcon commanders. Cruellock rarely transforms or speaks, often only offering a low growl - giving the impression that he is little more than a vicious, wild beast, not a thinking and reasoning being. However, Cruellock is actually extremely intelligent and is the best tactician among the Terrorcon commanders, specialising in psychological warfare. Cruellock knows exactly what he needs to do in order to unnerve a target, and how to exploit their fear and nervousness to maximum effect. For Cruellock, simply killing an opponent is unsatisfying. Cruellock derives a sick thrill from the suffering of his victims. He loves the sense of anticipation as he stalks a foe, the thrill of the chase, the intoxicating sense of fear as he corners his victim, and then, the kill itself, which Cruellock draws out for as long as possible. Cruellock is utterly ruthless, and similarly the Dinobot-type Terrorcons under his command attack without mercy or remorse. They are considered to be the most dangerous variety of Terrorcons. But the Autobots know that Cruellock is at his most dangerous when he works alone, silently lurking out of sight in the shadows, stalking a victim. In this way, the vicious Terrorcon's gaze is as deadly as his bite.

Abilities:

Cruellock is at his deadliest in his dinosaur mode. In this form, Cruellock can move with lightning speed. Hydraulic pistons in his legs give him incredible jumping power, allowing him to leap the height of a six-storey building - or cover the horizontal distance between him and his prey in a matter of seconds. Advanced olfactory sensors allow Cruellock to pick out even the faintest traces of a victim's scent and track them with often fatal results. Cruellock's dinosaur mode is equipped with powerful energo claws which use an energon field to enhance their cutting power and tear through Autobot armour. His teeth can easily crush reinforced steel or tear out a victim's fuel lines in a single bite.

In robot mode, Cruellock wields an energon scimitar which uses energon to enhance its cutting edge and generate an energy field which disrupts the systems of whomever Cruellock strikes with it - the effects this causes vary depending on the strength of the target and can range from pain and discomfort to inducing stasis lock. Cruellock also carries a pulse blaster which can stun and disorient targets. Both of these weapons can be combined into a larger energon blade. The cutting edge and disrupting effects of Cruellock's scimitar are greatly enhanced in the blade's combined form.

Like all Terrorcons, Cruellock is able to process raw energon, converting it into energy to power his weapons or compressing it into an energon star. Once he has created an energon star, Cruellock can pass it to another Decepticon to grant them access to a copy of his energon blade. The copy blade possesses all the same attributes and powers of the original weapon. Cruellock also knows that the energon stars he creates are toxic to Autobots and can cause them a great deal of pain. To this end, Cruellock sometimes "gifts" one of his energon stars to an Autobot victim to increase their suffering.

Most of Cruellock's abilities and weapons are shared by the Dinobot-type Terrorcons, but Cruellock's sadistic nature makes him even more lethal than the drones under his command.

Weaknesses:

Cruellock's incredibly vicious and sadistic nature unnerves friend and foe alike; many Decepticons tread carefully around Cruellock as they're concerned he might start hunting them for sport if he ever runs out of Autobot victims. On the rare occasions Cruellock finds himself in need of rescue some Decepticons fear his SOS might be luring them into a trap.

Cruellock's single-minded obsession with the hunt and the kill can often distract him from his actual mission, and his desire to inflict as much suffering as possible on a victim can occasionally lead to an Autobot rescue party finding their comrade before Cruellock can finish their execution.

Dinobot mode:

Additional images of Cruellock:

More information on Cruellock at TFW2005

Author notes:

Cruellock is a fun one to write. The four Terrorcon characters in Transformers Energon were mainly treated as legions of disposable drones for the Autobots to blow up in large numbers in the battle scenes. While the Energon comic initially had the four as independent characters, after a few issues they were reduced to scores of mindless drones. Just about the only real depiction of Cruellock as an individual was in his packaging bio.

To reconcile between having Cruellock be an individual while keeping the idea of vast armies of Terrorcon drones, I went down the route Beast Machines used: Cruellock (and the other three Terrorcons) are the generals of armies made up of their respective types of Terrorcon drones. I named Cruellock's Terrorcon armies the Dinobots as a nod to the character's name in Japan.

From there it was a case of expanding Cruellock's bio for this profile. Cruellock's bio didn't give me a lot to go on, other than the fact he's a hunter, a cunning tactician and that his gaze is as deadly as his bite. I used those aspects to craft a version of the character who is basically the nightmarish kind of raptor from Jurassic Park (think the Indoraptor from Jurassic World 2): a perfect hunter who is an absolute sadistic killer - his gaze is truly as deadly as his bite, once he's seen you, he's already plotted out exactly how he's going to bring about a cruel and painful end. The original bio suggested that Cruellock was also the most powerful of the Terrorcons, but I took that aspect away from the character (the stocky Insecticon looks like he should be much stronger, physically) and instead made him the most dangerous - Cruellock still keeps his terrifying title, but in a different way.

Cruellock's toy is one of the better ones from his era, with Beast Wars levels of poseability. He's got this weird semi-autotransform system going on, which I was never a fan of and always feels like it isn't quite pegging into place at the waist, but it works fairly well. The poseability is good - Cruellock can strike a few decent poses - but what I really like about Cruellock is the design. He's got this eye-catching style to him like some sort of tribal warrior, and the dinosaur mode is a great raptor / US Godzilla esque design. The energon weapons is really cool, too. Overall, I like this one.