For the Job for a Cowboy album, see Ruination .

Ruination is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise

Ruination is the combined form of the Decepticon Commandos.

Animated series

These five Transformers actually began life as Autobots, sent to Earth along with a sixth to lead them in a mission to reactivate the legendary Autobot battle station known as Fortress Maximus. However, their craft malfunctioned and crashed, and the six Autobots were entombed in protoform state, joining Fortress Maximus in slumber until their ship was unearthed by Megatron and his Predacons. Absconding with the Autobot protoforms right under Optimus Prime's nose, Megatron took them to a nearby military base, intending to scan alternate modes for them. Mega-Octane was the first to be reactivated, infused with a portion of Megatron's own spark energy to create the first of a new breed of Transformer that Megatron dubbed the "Decepticons." The other four members of the team followed, and eventually the sixth, Scourge, who took leadership of the team from Mega-Octane with a show of force.

Simply referred to as the Decepticons, they soon demonstrated their skills by blowing up dams across the country, debuting their combining abilities against Rail Racer and later attempting to harness the energies of a volcano on Montrose Island. As part of a string of failed attempts to locate the Autobots' hidden base, Movor was launched into orbit to track Side Burn from space, and the Decepticons then pretended to have reverted to their original Autobot selves in an effort to make the Autobots take them in. Later, Decepticon corruption of the Autobots' global spacebridge led Ruination into conflict with Landfill.

It soon became apparent that Scourge sought to overthrow Megatron's leadership, and the discovery of Fortress Maximus, buried beneath the Earth's surface accelerated the process as exposure to his energies, and those of the O-Parts - the keys to Maximus's resurrection - awoke memories of Scourge's original mission. His new Decepticon programming turned it on its head, however, as he now wished to command Maximus's power for his own, and soon had the other Decepticons thinking the same way, conspiring with Mega-Octane to get Cerebros, the power key of Fortress Maximus, under his control. As a series of chases to acquire control of Maximus began, Scourge eventually revealed his treachery by trying to have the giant attack Galvatron (Megatron, in a new form), only for the plan to fail. In retribution, Galvatron again brainwashed the Decepticons, turning them back into his loyal servants, who followed him so completely that they were even willing to take his orders after he attempted to kill them as a belated punishment. With Galvatron's defeat, the Decepticons and Predacons were all taken back to Cybertron for imprisonment.

The Decepticons were voiced by Bob Papenbrook/Holly Kaneko (Mega Octane/Dolrailer, Ruination/Valdigus), Neil Kaplan (Ro-Tor), Robert Axelrod/Hidenori Konda (Movor/Shuttler), Michael Lindsay/Riki Kitazawa (Rollbar/GreeJeeper) and Richard Epcar/Takayuki Kondo (Armorhide/Dangar).

Voice actor plays

Ruination would make one further appearance in the BotCon 2004 Voice actor play. Here, he was one of the Decepticons under the command of Reptilion, alongside Sunstorm and Perceptor. He battled Silverbolt, Rattrap and Waspinator in order to secure two groups of dimensionally displaced Autobots from the RiD universe. However, the three groups of Autobots, together with a time-lost Autobot shuttle from the Great War, were able to defeat the Decepticons.

Toys

• Car Robots Valdigus' (2000)

Instead of classic Decepticon symbols seen in other Transformers series, the Commandos wore black Autobot symbols from Transformers: Generation 2, only upside down. The Japanese toy release had show-accurate symbols.

• Robots in Disguise Ruination' (2001)

The toys released in the U.S. had traditional Decepticon symbols. In on, the American release of Armorhide features his Desert Storm era camouflage pattern recolored over a bluish-gray base. While this may be intended to be an urban assault camouflage, fans seeking toys identical to the Japanese version (and the cartoon series) were disappointed.

With Ruination's official height being given as 15 meters (49.2 feet) tall, and the toy measuring 25 centimeters tall, the toy would have a scale of about 1/60. This would mean Mega-Octane would stand 11.4 meters (37.4 feet) tall, while the other Commandos would stand about 4.8 meters (15.7 feet) tall, although this contradicts the series itself, where the five Commandos are shown standing at more or less the same height.

• Robots in Disguise Ruination redeco' (2003)

An "Arctic" redeco version of the Decepticons, bearing the same names, was released as a giftset exclusive to Wal-Mart in 2003. Oddly this version featured a slight remold making the nosecone of Movor more rounded.

• Universe Ruination' (2004)

A "tiger striped" desert camo repaint of Ruination - presumably intended as an alternate universe or future version of the characters - was released as part of Transformers: Universe in 2004. This version of Ruination appeared in the 2004 Botcon voice actor play. This version of the toy also featured a rounded nosecone on Movor.

A mistake on the back of the box for the Universe Ruination gift set had Armorhide and Rollbar's pictures swapped.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Ruination is a Decepticon who turns into an Osprey helicopter, an alternate mode shared by Incinerator and Springer.

Books

Ruination appears among the Decepticons in the book Transformers: The Veiled Threat by Alan Dean Foster. Longarm joins Knock Out on a mission to Peru to find Decepticons that have been detected in the deep jungles. On a steep mountain pass, the party is attacked by Decepticons Ruination and Blademaster. Despite inexperienced and risky behavior by Knock Out, both Decepticons are severely damaged and driven off.

References

1. http://www.cobraislandtoys.com/tf/2000/baldigus.html
2. http://www.cobraislandtoys.com/tf/2001/ruination.html
3. http://www.cobraislandtoys.com/tf/2003/ruination2.html
4. http://www.cobraislandtoys.com/tf/2004/ruination-universe.html