Transmythic Combiner Quadragon

Buster & Hydra

from two Fuzor Quickstrikes

    Then it hit me. Buster and Hydra, the Japanese names for Darkwing and Dreadwind. They combined to a sort of merged vehicle thing, and the Hydra name was already appropriate. So I added a connector piece to Buster using a square rod carved into a round peg at one end, designed to fit into the hole in Hydra's chest where the legs piece normally goes in Quickstrike. Boom, it worked.

    Hydra was a fairly simple construction. I removed the lower legs from one of the Quickstrikes, along with its long arm. I swapped in the arms so that Hydra had the two long arms seen above. Then I glued the lower legs to the ends of the arms in place of the snake hands, since the balls and sockets were different sizes. Unfortunately, I couldn't take both snake heads and put them on the knee joints of what became Buster, so I have spare snake heads sitting around for a later project. I glued googly eyes to the claws to bring out their resemblance to heads. I'd planned on painting over the eyes, just using the googlies because they were trhe right shape, but the final result didn't look too silly, so I left them unpainted. Finally, I painted the robot eyes red and painted metallic green over many parts, including the scorpion eyes.

    Buster involved a lot more fiddling around, if only to find acceptable modes for him. I finally settled on the weird walker modes seen above and built his Busterguns out of cylindrical bits of plastic. I painted the connector rod brown to blend in better, and simply unscrewed the part that holds the robot head, since I didn't need it (yay, spare head!). I swapped the orange legs around so that they looked better (the default would have had them pointing towards each other).

    Because of the large number of stiff joints in the toy, I decided against major color scheme alteration, and tried to make added parts blend in to the original colors. The result looks like someone cloned Quickstrike and then put both in a blender. Which, really, is what I did. Heh.

    Confession time: I really only designed the combined beast mode. But as I was about to finish scanning, I realized that if I could find some way to put Buster's head on the "shoulders" of an upside down opened-up Hydra, I'd have a spiff robot mode over 7" tall. A spindly gestalt, but a gestalt. The result is kinda unstable and short-armed, but I like the way the head looks, and it can stand up without help.

The sparks of the former Powermasters Buster and Hydra were given a second shot at rehabilitation and made part of the crew of the Axalon. While Buster's spark contained only traces of the human who had once controlled him, it was enough for him to be shocked that neither of his new modes was humanoid in any sense of the word. Still, he's adjusting and learning that sixteen legs can do more than ten fingers. In both modes his Busterguns are a powerful threat. One is a powerful ion cannon capable of maintaining focus at up to 20km and able to fire its ion pulses over the horizon like a mortar. The other is a tribarrel laser meant for closer combat and able to rip through armor steel like it wasn't there. His beast mode has the advantage of greater speed and stability over any terrain, while his "robot" mode makes for a better firing platform. STR 5  INT 6  SPD 7  END 7   RNK 5  COUR 8  FRP 9  SKL 7   Avg 6.75

The calm and collected Hydra is nonetheless emotional enough to appreciate the irony in his new body. In robot mode, all four of his extremeties are lethal biting weapons, and his elongated arms often surprise opponents who were sure they were out of reach. He has developed a fighting style that keeps him bouncing around the field of battle, rarely having more than one foot or hand on the ground at a time. In beast mode, however, he is practically immobile, able to slither along at only a few meters per second. The reason is that all of his energy is shifted from mobility to offensive firepower. His four heads not only have powerful jaws, each spits a different vile substance: napalm, cryo-fluid, acid and a sort of caustic glue. In robot mode he can sometimes bring out one of these attacks by focusing his concentration, resulting in a flaming punch or searing kick.

STR 7  INT 8  SPD 5  END 6   RNK 6  COUR 7  FRP 8  SKL 9   Avg 7

While Buster and Hydra were able to merge into a powerful skyfortress in the old days, that experience was more like being pilot and gunner of an airplane. The fusion of minds that the Quadragon gestalt brings is unfamiliar to both of them, and neither is totally comfortable with the idea that they cease to exist as individuals. Quadragon is more of a third entity who is slowly learning what it is to be an individual, and wants to savor life on his own. As a result, Buster and Hydra are reluctant to form Quadragon, and Quadragon is reluctant to split apart. Still, while personality matters may need some work, there's no disputing that Quadragon is a powerful addition to the ranks of the Transmythic Predacons (or Terrorcons). Lethal in close combat thanks to four snapping jaws, deadly at range due to the extra power surging through his Busterguns, and impossible to get close to because of the sixteen energized legs dancing in a cloud of pain around his torso. While deceptively slender, Quadragon is easily one of the most powerful Predacons.

STR 9  INT 5  SPD 7  END 10   RNK 7  COUR 9  FRP 10  SKL 10   Avg 8.375