Rook (CW)

Rook is an Autobot Protectobot from the Combiner Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Good thing my name isn't Knight or my head would look like a horse.

A rising star assigned straight out of the Cybertronian Military Academy, Rook is the newest member of the Protectobots. An astute and courageous soldier, he must now take his extensive knowledge of military tactics and strategy and learn to apply it in his new role on a rescue team. Thankfully, his durabyllium super-alloy armor and hydraulic claw stand him in good stead, making evacuating wounded Autobots from danger zones a cinch. Rook may not have expected to wind up on this team, but he carries out his new role with fearless aplomb.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: The Transformers #40 (in vision); The Transformers: Windblade #2 (full appearance)

"Grotusque and Mainframe? Man, there's no way I'm becoming a Protectobot if I stand over here!"

Rook was in Mirage's visions of a Caminus consumed by flame and rampaging giants! The Possible Light

Rook happened to be standing around Lost Light #10 recap page when Starscream aimed the Enigma of Combination at some loosely-affiliated Autobots jokingly referred to as the "Protectobots" and then Rook was suddenly Defensor's arm. Mistakes and Mayhem

Every crew's got a Scully.

Following the Combiner Wars, Rook returned with the rest of his new team via shuttle to the Lost Light deep in space. However, their shuttle was too damaged to dock safely and had to crash within the Lost Light's shuttle bays. His fellow Protectobot First Aid seemed very suspicious of the ship's new commander, Getaway, but Rook made fun of First Aid for suspecting a conspiracy so easily. However, First Aid was quickly proven right that something was very wrong when Riptide appeared and told the team of Getaway's duplicity, and then they found disembodied brains and spines of crewmembers preserved at Swerve's. Rook and the others escaped the Lost Light on their original shuttle, but were shot down by the Lost Light, forced to return to the shuttle bays and had to crash just like before—unbeknownst to them, they were all trapped in a shared memory loop. Shouldn't have laughed at First Aid's conspiracy theory, huh, Rook? Full Circle

When Getaway decided to dirty Atomizer's hands in order to shore up the latter's wavering convictions, as well as remove the threat of Defensor, he ordered Atomizer to shoot one of the comatose Protectobots; it was Rook who wound up paying the price, exploding into pieces. First Aid would later lament that he never really got to know Rook. Journey's End

Precursor World

A Warrior of the Seven Lights resembling Rook was a member of the White Order of the Primus Vanguard. He supported his commander White Gallant Convoy in battle when the dimension-hopping pirate Halfshell attacked the White Planet looking to plunder the Order's holy Matrix Saber. God Neptune comic 1

He later ventured forth to confront Halfshell's crew and retrieve the Saber as the left leg of the mighty White Convoy Grand Prime! What happened to him after the combiner was bisected by God Neptune is unknown. God Neptune comic 2

Commercial appearances

Rook and the Protectobots received a message from Optimus Prime alerting them that Menasor was wreaking havoc in a human city, and that the threat was "bigger than ever." The Protectobots combined into Defensor to better combat the Decepticon. Transformers Generations: Combiner Wars commercials

Games

Transformers: Battle Tactics

I have two chinstraps, one for my chin, the other for my nose.

Rook participated in battles against a variety of opponents, both Autobots and Decepticons. Sometimes there were many of him! He was an Epic character who could be recruited by collecting 500 units of Cybermetal, 250 units of Transmetal, and 50 cores of this character. Transformers: Battle Tactics

Transformers: Earth Wars

• Class: Warrior
• Lowest Star Rating: 2 star
• Weapons: Rook wields a flamethrower.
• Ability: Explosive Decoy: Place a decoy that has 65% of Rook's health and attracts defenses. When destroyed, it explodes dealing damage in a large area. Only one decoy can be active at a time. At level 11, gives Rook a shield when destroyed that absorbs 50% of damage for 6 seconds.
  • Cost: 5 ability points + 3 for reuses.

Rook at Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki

Rook's 3 star version can be used to form Defensor.

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Rook was a substitute Protectobot. The Enigma of Combination

Toys

Combiner Wars

Charge now, doctor!

• Protectobot Rook (Deluxe Class, 2015)
  • 2 of 5: Defensor
  • Accessories: Hydraulic clamp/spreader tool, double-barreled gun/fist/foot

• Known designers: John Warden (Hasbro), Shogo Hasui (TakaraTomy), Joe Kyde (deco artist)

Released as part of the Combiner Wars subline imprint of Generations, "Protectobot Rook" transforms into an armored reconnaissance-style SWAT vehicle; reminiscent to a Type 87 ARV. Rook is able to form a limb for any Combiner Wars-style Combiner, though he was intended to be combined with Hot Spot, Streetwise, First Aid, and Blades to form Defensor (with Groove now serving as a chest piece). Rook also forms the right leg of the Timelines-adjacent combiner Modulus and was (much later) cast as the left leg of White Convoy Grand Prime by the Generations Selects comic.

Rather than 5 mm hands, Rook has forward-facing 5 mm ports in front of his fists. This allows him to mount his hydraulic clamp-like accessory as an integrated weapon or use Combiner Wars combiner hands (one of which is included) as giant "Hulk hands". He also features ankle joints.

This mold was redecoed into Unite Warriors Wandering Roller, slightly retooled into Combiner Wars Impactor and Tarantulas, heavily retooled into Combiner Wars Swindle and Hound, and even further retooled into Unite Warriors Nosecone. This mold also served as the model for the non-toy Shattered Glass version of X-Brawn. Unfortunately, due to the internal molding of his shins, repeatedly transforming Rook will eventually create horizontal scratch marks across the hip parts of his thighs. This design flaw is present across every one of his retools as well.

Rook comes with a copy of "Combiner Wars #10" (actually The Transformers vol. 2 #34). In Canada, Latin America, and Europe, the comic was omitted and replaced with a collector card featuring the figure's package art.

As a part of the third and fourth wave promotion in Hasbro's Asian markets, a free sticker sheet for the Protectobots and Optimus Maximus was given out when purchasing any four Deluxe Class toys from those waves. As such, Rook was given Generation 1 toy-esque stickers for the owner to apply if they wanted.^[1]

• More information on Rook at TFU.info

Notes

• Rook's headsculpt is designed to evoke a rook playing piece from chess.^[2]
• Rook's deco was the work of Joe Kyde.^[3]
• Rook suddenly appeared among the Protectobots during Combiner Wars despite being totally unmentioned in the script, the rather notorious result of a rushed production and error-riddled artwork. Lost Light made use of that in its recap page by saying he was literally just some random 'bot who was moving past and got combiner-ed.
• Rook was originally planned to be in "Deadly Aim", but Fun Publications later decided to use Offroad instead to make Wreckage 1.0 a Decepticon by majority.^[4]
• As with all standard Combiner Wars molds, Rook's base tooling had an alternate "pretooled" head, in his case styled on Brawl. A preliminary stage of the Computron multi-pack would have used this head as a new Ironfist, under the trademark-friendly name "Ironclad". Fun Publications also had a secondary backup plan for this tooling as the Shattered Glass incarnation of X-Brawn, but neither of these figures came to fruition.
• In 2023, the Transformers: Earth Wars mobile game gave Rook a Generation 2-themed skin (at right) based upon the colouration of the Marvel Generation 2 Cybertronian Rook.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Rook (ルーク Rūku)
• Korean: Rook (루크 Rukeu)
• Mandarin: Dǔgùn (賭棍, "Gambler")^[5]
• Russian: Rook (Рук Ruk)

References