Armordillo

Armordillo is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Armored Armadillo is weak to Spark Mandrill.

Armordillo is a master mechanic and explosives expert who carts a vast array of tools and devices around beneath his heavily armored shell. His specialty is constructing brilliantly elaborate traps and then waiting silently and patiently (with a patience that borders on supernatural in his comrades' eyes) for however many days or weeks it takes for a Predacon to stumble into it. His satisfaction when they inevitably do makes it all worthwhile. In addition to his tools and devices he has an impressive optic array, a hidden laser weapon, and a Morningstar melee weapon that combined with his heavy armor make up for the fact that he moves extremely slowly.^[1]

Fiction

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Armordillo was one of the protoforms left behind by the crew of the Axalon on prehistoric Earth. He was activated and put in chronal phase by Razorbeast at Magmatron's request, but was protected from Magmatron's Predacon shell-program by Razorbeast's viral code. The Gathering #1 Soon after awakening, he joined up with Bantor, Noctorro, Stinkbomb, and K-9 to free Torca from a tar pit. The Gathering #2 After following Razorbeast's signal for days, and picking up more Maximals along the way, Armordillo rode into battle against Magmatron's Predacons atop Torca, presumably joining up with Razorbeast's army after their victory. The Gathering #4

Smooth on the inside, crunchy on the outside. ARMORDILLO!

Even with all the Maximals joined up, the battle against the Predacons continued. During a battle outside the Maximal base, Armordillo was happy about the existence of trenches, and when Grimlock arrived to save the day, Armordillo reminded his friends that "patience brings its own reward". The Ascending #2 The Maximals and Predacons later teamed up to fight the Blendtrons, and Armordillo and several others dogpiled Drancron during the battle. The Ascending #4

Beast Wars: Uprising

Participating in a battle of the Games, Armordillo found himself the last survivor of the Maximal team, facing down the lone Predacon Buzzclaw. Having successfully avoided his opponent's corrosive vomit attack and taken the fallen Drancron's missile launcher, he was able to shoot Buzzclaw down during an attempted surprise attack, but as he moved in for the kill, he tripped and impaled himself on a metal spike used by Buzzclaw as a makeshift weapon.

Though Buzzclaw would celebrate his victory for many years to follow, once Lio Convoy revealed that many of the Games had been fixed, he began harboring doubts that Armordillo had been more than just unlucky. Head Games

Legends World

Armordillo was part of a crowd who cheered for "Optimus Prime" for defeating Devil Z, unaware their savior was in fact Ginrai. Bonus Edition Vol. 35

Scorching Heat Showdown

After discovering the existence of the crashed Ark on their planet, Armordillo attempted to bring this information to the other Maximals, but was pursued by Snapper. Armordillo was ultimately shot and killed by Megalligator, and the two Predacons attempted to extract the information from his memories before being interrupted by Convobat. Scorching Heat Showdown

2021 Beast Wars comic

The Cybertronian who would become Armordillo was one of the many Maximal protoforms aboard the Axalon. To eliminate the Maximals and Predacons, Tarantulas and the Vok brought every crashed stasis pod they could find online and reprogrammed the protoforms within into loyal "Children of the Vok". Together, they attacked the crashed Darksyde in an attempt to take out the Maximal-Predacon alliance; when the Maximals and Predacons destroyed the Vok themselves, however, their remaining followers agreed to a truce and left to live peacefully in the wilderness. The End

Toys

Beast Wars

• Armordillo (Basic Class, 1996)

• Accessories: Mace/foot, rifle/foot
• Known designers: Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Part of the second wave of first-year Beast Wars Basics, Armordillo transforms into a Brazilian giant armadillo, per the pun. He shifts to robot mode with a spring-loaded one-step transformation by pulling up on his tail. His left rear beast mode leg separates to form a non-firing "laser rifle", while the right leg becomes a chain-and-mace melee weapon. These weapons plug into holes on the outer wrists of his forelegs/robot-arms since his robot-mode "hands" are just flat digging claws.

This toy was released in Japan on its own as part of a 1998 mail order catalog theater-goers could buy from. This mold was later used to make Beast Wars Neo Bump and Robotmasters Psycho-Orb.

• More information on Armordillo at TFU.info

• Volcano Showdown: Armor VS Snapper (Vs Playset, 1997)

• ID number: VS-X1
• Accessories: Mace/foot, rifle/foot

Armordillo was available in Japan (under the name "Armor") exclusively in a large "Volcano Showdown" (火山の対決 Kazan no Taiketsu) set containing him, his "rival" Snapper, and a large battery-operated volcano playset. The two figures in the set are functionally identical to the Hasbro releases of the toys.

It has been hypothesized that this playset was originally slated for an abandoned Microman line, which is made plausible by the scale of various sculpted details and general incompatibility with the two figures it comes with.

Merchandise

Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game

• Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game (1997)

Armordillo was one of the 24 beast warriors to receive a battle card representation for the Beast Wars card game.

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Armor (アルマー Arumā)^[2]
• French: Tatou (Canada, "Armadillo")
• Italian: Armodillo
• Spanish: Armadillo

References