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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.
Transformers: Generation 1[]
Sludge (Terro in Canada, Bronto in Italy) is the Brontosaurus Dinobot.
Sludge represents both prehistoric times and an ultra-tech future, which are many children's preferred worlds these days.
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 attacked Unicron. 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.
Marvel Comics[]
Sludge was first mentioned near the end of the initial 4-issue miniseries as a missing member of Optimus Prime's crew. It transpired that he and the other four had been reformatted into the Dinobots by the Ark computer to investigate a sighting of Shockwave in the Savage Land. He made his full debut in Issue #8, where he and the other Dinobots were retrieved by Ratchet, the only Autobot still active, with it being revealed they had fought Shockwave to a draw and ended up buried in a tar pit. They helped Ratchet in his battle with Megatron.
In the UK-exclusive story "Decepticon Dam-Busters", Sludge and the others learned of the difficult relationship between the Autobots and humans from Ratchet. Returning to the Ark, they became embroiled in a battle with a Guardian robot reprogrammed by Shockwave, which ended in the apparent death of Swoop and the departure to parts unknown of Sludge and the others, explaining their lengthy absence from Marvel US storylines.
In "Dinobot Hunt", it was revealed that Sludge and the others had gone feral after suffering circuit damage from their time in the tar pit. He was calmed by human Joy Meadows but subsequently abducted by Soundwave, Skywarp and Scavenger, who set him and Grimlock against each other. Several Autobots were deactivated as collateral damage trying to break up the fight before Bumblebee managed to destroy the sonic lance enraging them.
Sludge was brought back online in "Second Generation", leading into his return in Issue #19, where he and the other Dinobots broke ties with the Autobots. In "In the National Interest", he persuaded the others to help Joy Meadows in her plan to expose the "Robot Master" hoax, where the human authorities had told the public the Transformers were the tools of a human terrorist. He protected Joy from agents of the intelligence agency Triple I and the Constructicons, but the attempt to get the truth out came to nothing. In "Fallen Angel", he and the other Dinobots battled Galvatron.
In Issue #27, he tried to press Grimlock's claim for Autobot leadership, which was accepted after they helped drive off Trypticon. In "Grudge Match", he fought Rampage while saving Swoop from the Predacons. Sludge would end up as one of Grimlock's few supporters as his leadership became increasingly erratic. He helped him track down Sky Lynx, who had rescued a group of human children Grimlock had taken hostage, in Issue #36 and cheered Grimlock on in his duel with Blaster in Issue #41.
After Optimus Prime had resumed command, Sludge was part of the team he put together to confront Galvatron in "Time Wars" but the operation was delayed when Optimus Prime and several other members of the group were displaced into limbo by the arrival of Rodimus Prime's future Autobots. A misunderstanding resulted in a fight between the two groups, during which Sludge was overpowered by Ultra Magnus. In Issue #50, at the climax of the Underbase saga, Sludge was part of a joint Autobot/Decepticon group led by Grimlock and Scorponok who tried to defend Tokyo from the Underbase-powered Starscream but was killed by him. He was shown lying deactivated in Issue #56.
Sludge was finally revived by Grimlock using nucleon in Issue #70. They took charge of the deserted Ark where Grimlock told Sludge to set up the nucleon to revive those held in stasis. He ignored Sludge's suggestion they check who was in the pods, unaware one housed Megatron. They joined the final stages of the battle with Unicron and fought Cybertronian demons in the aftermath. In the final issue of the series, Sludge was killed in a Decepticon ambush on Klo but later revived by the Last Autobot.
In Marvel UK's Earthforce storyline, Sludge was reintroduced in "Two Steps Back", where he and the other Dinobots had also been revived by Grimlock and he fought Motormaster during an attempt by the Decepticons to learn the secret. He was subsequently part of an Autobot Earthforce led by Grimlock. His most significant appearances were in "Snow Joke", where he and the other Dinobots played an April Fool's joke on Grimlock, and "The 4,000,000 Year Itch", where they tried to hide Slag's berserker rage from a visiting Optimus Prime. He last appeared in "The Lesser Evil", where he and Swoop were sent by Grimlock to protect Starscream from the Decepticon Mayhem Squad, since they needed Starscream as a donor to save an ill Snarl.
The post-movie version of the character appeared in "The Legacy of Unicron", where he accompanied Rodimus Prime to Junk and fought with the Unicron-controlled Junkions.
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