Sludge

Sludge is a fictional character in the Transformer toy line and fictional series. Sludge is a slow witted but powerful Dinobot. Sludge's strength is considered to be second only to Grimlock's in the Dinobot faction. Sludge also has the great power to shake the ground violently and make huge tremors when stomping around in his Brontosaurus mode, which is a good weapon for shaking up Decepticons. Sludge's biggest weakness is his belief that the strongest Autobot should lead and not necessarily the smartest. Another weakness of Sludge's is that he is depicted as being mentally slow. He joined the Autobots in the cartoon and comics in their first year, but didn't have a toy until 1985. The other members of the Dinobots are Slag, Snarl, Swoop and their leader, Grimlock.[1]

Transformers: Generation 1
Sludge (Terro in Canada, Bronto in Italy) is the Brontosaurus Dinobot.[2]

Sludge represents both prehistoric times and an ultra-tech future, which are many children's preferred worlds these days.[3]

Animated series
Sludge was created by Wheeljack and Ratchet on Earth in 1984. He was created along with Grimlock and Slag as the original three Dinobots. At first they rampaged through the Ark and Optimus Prime ordered that the Dinobots be put offline permanently, but when he and the other Autobots were captured by Megatron, Sludge and the other Dinobots were used to rescue Optimus and the other Autobots.

Shortly after, Megatron convinced Sludge and the Dinobots that Optimus and the Autobots were their enemies and the Dinobots kidnapped Optimus Prime. Wheeljack and Ratchet, with the help of Chip Chase, created Swoop and Snarl and the two new Dinobots were used to rescue Prime from Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge. During that battle, Optimus saved the original Dinobots' lives and they then realized that the Autobots were really their friends.

In 1985, an Island with real dinosaurs was found by Powerglide and Bumblebee. Optimus decided that Dinobot Island would be a good place for the Dinobots to train and practice their fighting skills, because the Ark was too small for the giant Dinobots. Megatron and the Decepticons found out about the island and wanted to harvest it for all the energy it produced. The Dinobots were thrown in a pit of tar, but were later rescued and got a bunch of real dinosaurs to help them attack Megatron.

Later, the Cybertronian Autobots and Decepticons began to malfunction because they ran out of Cybertonium, a crystalline substance only found on Cybertron. The Dinobots were made on Earth, so they were the only Transformers not affected and were sent to Cybertron to get some. When they got to Cybertron, they disappeared. Spike and Carly went to Cybertron to find them and found Swoop, who led them to the other Dinobots that were captured and working for Shockwave. Eventually they were freed and brought the Cybertonium back so that the Autobot's bodies could be restored.

In The Transformers: The Movie, the Dinobots came in the shuttle with Optimus Prime towards the end of the attack on Autobot City. When Galvatron attacked, they went in the shuttle with Kup and Hot Rod. The shuttle was shot down on Quintessa and Kup and Hot Rod were captured by the Quintessons. On Quintessa, the Dinobots met Wheelie, who led them to Kup and Hot Rod and they were able to rescue the two Autobots from the Quintessons. They took a ship to the planet of Junk and were with the Autobots when they attackedUnicron. They helped with the attack on Unicron but were not very effective. Sludge's speaking role in the movie was very limited. He only said "QUIET!" but with Grimlock's voice.

Only Grimlock played a large role in the episodes following the movie, although Sludge and the other Dinobots could be seen from time to time.

In the episode "Call of the Primitives" Primacron's assistant mistakenly called Sludge by the name Sweep.