Beachcomber (SG)

Beachcomber is an evil Autobot from the Shattered Glass continuity family.

And the angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots. You see, reverend Maynard, tomorrow is harvest day, and to them it is the holocaust."

Beachcomber is a twitchy, nervous, unstable evil Autobot dune buggy who is considered completely insane even by Autobot standards of sanity.

Fiction

Fun Publications Shattered Glass continuity

When Cliffjumper freaked out at Rodimus not being dead after drinking a vial of scraplets, Rodimus commented that Cliffjumper must have gone really crazy in the Rad Zone, "like, extra crazy... Beachcomber crazy". Dungeons & Dinobots

Beachcomber was on board the Ark when it traveled to Earth and crashed into the ocean off the United States' west coast. He ended up later being part of the group of Autobots that met up with Rodimus, when Rodimus (who had been the only one to reach an escape pod before the crash) finally arrived at the Ark's crash site. He then was part of the assault force that hijacked the Burpleson Air Force Base so Rodimus could fulfill his plan to use the humans' Global Orbiting Defense Satellites to hold the Earth hostage unless they met his demands. Eye in the Sky

When Blitzwing was turned into a beacon transmitting rock music over the Autobot emergency channel, Beachcomber was the only bot other than Blaster not adversely affected—though less because he was immune, and more because it was merely one more voice among the many already inside his head. Once Rodimus learned this, and that Blitzwing's powers had sent the now also-affected Decepticons into retreat, Rodimus sent Beachcomber to attack the Decepticons' base.

Once there, Beachcomber found that base was empty due to the Decepticons entering emergency stasis lock, and a group of humans were standing guard instead. As he moved to shoot the small female one, one of the others blinded him with a power cell before they all ran off. Beachcomber started to pursue, but his feet connected with the many ball bearings two of the humans had poured all over the place while he'd been blinded. He managed to just barely keep his footing while skidding along, until the cell exploded and finally sent him sprawling.

Incensed, Beachcomber eventually got his footing and chased after the humans. They attacked him with a fire extinguisher, but unlike some other bots, he reacted too quickly to be affected. So they beaned him with the container itself instead, and the surprise of the impact sent him sprawling... again.

As he got his footing—again—and resumed giving chase, he ended up being tricked into running into a wall... which turned out to be the inside of a Decepticon decontamination chamber.

Much, much, later, after surviving the decontamination sprayers, the optic calibrators, the lubricated hallway, and a few bombs for extra measure, the soaked, battered, and scorched Autobot finally had his quarry trapped in the medical bay. He strode forward to enact his revenge... and found himself facing two dozen Decepticons freshly recovered from stasis lock. Beachcomber took stock of the situation, and showed a rare glimmer of sanity by turning around, transforming, and hightailing it as fast as possible out of the base. Blitzwing Bop

Together with Rodimus, Elita-One, and Big Daddy, Beachcomber attacked a newly built Mega-Rig and chose Cliffjumper as his target among the Decepticons defending it. He later accompanied Rodimus along with Side Burn and Goldbug as their leader met with R.J. Blackrock. Rodimus also took him along when the Autobots captured Sephie Beller. When he freaked out due to the activation of a jamming field, Rodimus admitted that that was why he kept Beachcomber around. Forewarned, the Autobots were able to ambush the Decepticons when they arrived, however it transpired that the Decepticons weren't doing the jamming. When a new, unfamiliar robot arrived by plane, Beachcomber immediately obeyed Rodimus's order to attack. The Centurion being twice his size, it made short work of him, and he lapsed into stasis. Transhuman

Toys

Transformers (2007)

• Hardtop (Scout, 2007)

• Accessories: Rifle, Key

A redeco of the Cybertron Hardtop toy, Hardtop transforms into a dune buggy of indeterminate model. Plugging a Cyber Key into the butt of his rifle flips out an extended barrel for a "sniper" mode. He comes with a Planet X-style Key with a Sector Seven logo on it.

Hardtop was released in the first wave of Target exclusive live-action movie Scouts, where they were all part of a Robo-Vision promotion. Hardtop comes with a Robo-Vision Decoder which allows you to see the Robo-Vision Code printed on his cardback. Starting June 2, 2007, Target's website allowed users to input those codes to access exclusive content.

Later releases of this toy did not include the Robo-Vision promotion.

This mold was also used to make Cybertron Swindle, and the toy was later re-released in the Universe toyline as... Cybertron Hardtop again.

• More information on Movie Hardtop at TFU.info

Notes

• All of Beachcomber's dialogue is in the form of song lyrics tweaked slightly into sentences. In "Eye in the Sky" the line "Cats in the cradle! And the silver spoon!" is from "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin, while his line "Now's your time to burn your mind!" is from "Fire" by Arthur Brown. In "Blitzwing Bop", his lines that are song lyrics are... many. See this list for details.