Brawn

Brawn is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes. All are tough Autobots who turn into offroad vehicles. Brawn is not to be confused with X-Brawn, a very similar character from Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Transformers: Generation 1
​Brawn is one of the strongest Autobots in the Transformers television and comic bookseries, based on the popular toy line produced by Takara and Hasbro. His vehicle mode is a Land Rover Defender 4x4. Brawn has not had a mass market release toy for several years and until recently, the character has not been featured in the modern Transformers Universe.[2]

The original toy that became Brawn was originally released by Takara in 1983 as part of the Micro Change subset of the Japanese Microman line. He was released in the US in 1984 by Hasbro as one of the first assortment of American Transformers toys.

Brawn's character biography describes him as "the strongest" of the original eighteen Autobots and one of the strongest despite his small size. He is further described as agile and second in physical strength only to Optimus Prime, able to lift weights of up to 190,000 lbs. and strong enough to level a small building with a single punch. His physical resilience is also high, enough to resist artillery fire, but he has an innate weakness to attacks based on electromagnetic waves. Brawn loves rugged and hostile environments and is always up to test his mettle against a new challenge.

Brawn's biography in Marvel Comics' 1986 Transformers Universe mini-series further expands on his character, explaining that Brawn is often teamed with Bumblebee on missions due to their complementary skills, and that while his never-say-die attitude improved the Autobots' morale, he is somewhat less than accepting of those less "tough" than him, a fact made known by how badly he treated Perceptor in the Season 2 episodeMicrobots [1].

Though Brawn's toy was not packaged with a weapon and his character biography doesn't specifically mention Brawn carrying one, the Generation 1 animated series saw him equipped with a laser pistol.

Animated series
Brawn (known as Strongman (Russian: Силач, Silach) in Russia) was one of the Autobots on the Ark when it crashed into Earth four million years ago. He featured prominently in the series and was involved in many of the Autobot and Decepticon conflicts spanning the first two seasons of The Transformers television series. Brawn had numerous roles during the first and second seasons, acting as the Autobots' muscle. Despite his small size (the decepticons insult him by calling him 'midget'), he is one of the strongest autobots; only Optimus Prime and the Dinobots are equal or greater in strength. On one occasion Brawn singlehandedly saved Prowl and Bluestreakfrom Starscream, Thundercracker and Soundwave ("Roll for it"). On another, he stopped Megatron's use of a crystal powered superweapon in Peru, attacking and distracting the Decepticon leader while Optimus Prime and Skyfire destroyed the weapon ("Fire in the Mountain"). When the Decepticons brainwashed Sparkplug Witwicky and took him to Cybertron, Brawn led the rescue mission and eventually managed to retrieve him ("The Ultimate Doom"), singlehandedly taking down Skywarp, Thundercracker and Soundwave by himself and holding his own against Shockwave.

Later, Brawn developed a dislike of the scientist Perceptor, thinking him cowardly for preferring to study science than fight. However, after an adventure where they (along with Bumblebee) were shrunk to go inside Megatron's body to remove the Heart of Cybertron (a power source that was making Megatron all-powerful) Brawn admitted he'd been wrong after Perceptor's knowledge proved invaluable in defeating the rampaging Megatron ("Microbots").[4]

In The Transformers: The Movie, set in the Earth year 2005, Brawn was assigned to Moonbase One along with several first season Autobots. He was later assigned to make a special supply run to Autobot City on Earth. During the shuttle mission, Decepticon forces invaded the shuttle. Using Megatron in pistol mode, Starscream killed Brawn with a single shot to the shoulder.

Brawn's death is disputed among fans. Although one of the strongest Autobots, in the movie he is rapidly dispensed by a single piercing shot to the shoulder. His absence from the list of deceased Autobots in "Dark Awakening" (replaced in a list of those killed in the shuttle attack with Huffer), plus an appearance in the post-movie episode "Carnage in C-Minor" has inspired ongoing debate as to whether the character is truly dead. The episode shows Brawn, a miscolored Huffer, and Bonecrusher fighting together against a weapon built byGalvatron. This appearance is generally considered an error, due to the episode being riddled with animation mistakes. Although select fans continue to argue Brawn's survival, in addition to the animation, confirmation of his demise can be confirmed in the Movie script[2] and comic book adaptations; all depict Brawn being killed.

A dispute can be made that Brawn's injuries were more damaging than at first glance. Whenever Brawn takes the shot to the shoulder, after he falls it is noticed that a larger amount of Brawns back is damaged thus giving the possibility that the laser fired could have acted as a hollow point like bullet and damaging more of Brawn then previously thought.