Bulkhead

**Bulkhead** (バルクヘッド, *Barukuheddo*) isn't quite your typical mudflap. He looks a little more than a big, clumsy mountain of a robot with a simple, untutored nature, menacing, and a lot of a dumb lummox right at first glance. The second and third glances don't do much to improve that impression. Yet scratch that surface and you'll find he is actually but a quite careless and gentle souled, both surprising depths and a spark of pure gold. The biggest and strongest of Optimus Prime's crew, was raised on a backwater energon farm, he joined the academy to achieve the lofty goal of becoming a lowly space bridge technician rather than a warrior. He also has an unfortunate tendency to break stuff by accident due to his sheer strength and natural clumsiness. He's wrecked major thoroughfares and toppled skyscrapers in his zeal to be *helpful*; however like any other Wreckers, when he gets angry, he's capable of berserker rampages and charges that even the Dinobots have learned to respect and fear. Bulkhead's penchant for being a little too eager to please others and getting a little too emotional at times further leads him to act without thinking. Add in a seeming lack of natural skills beyond "destruction", and it does not paint a pretty picture.

He is nicknamed as **Bulk** (バルク, *Baruku*) to and/or by his chums.

But despite all these shortcomings, one is hard-pressed to find a bot with a bigger spark, and he has astounding (if sometimes well-hidden) depths. He hates being thought of as the clumsy brute of the team, which has bred a certain amount of careful forethought and cautiousness. He's endlessly loyal to and protective of his friends, especially his best buddy Bumblebee, Sideswipe and the human girl Sari, even if their impulsive behavior is sometimes annoying. Since coming to Earth, he has discovered a love of art and the urge to express his true feelings through it. He's not very good at it, but he keeps trying anyways. Perhaps most surprising of all is that he is Cybertron's foremost expert in space bridge technology, even though he may not be able to build one himself without accidentally breaking at least half the components.

"*You guys got it easy. All people in Jump City want me to do is break stuff. I mean even I've got rights to be sensitive too, you know... but then again breaking stuff **is** kinda fun.*"

—Bulkhead meditates on his lot in life.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice actor:* Bill Fagerbakke (English), Kenta Miyake (Japanese), Lorenzo Scattorin (Italian), Lee Juchang (Korean), Tilo Schmitz (German), Ireneusz Załóg (Polish), Fabio Moura (Portuguese), Rolando Salinas (Latin American Spanish)
### Biography

Bulkhead is the muscle of the Autobots -- just actually kind of sensitive. If there's one thing Bulkhead is really good at, it's smashing stuff. It's his specialty. In fact, he's so good at it that he's even good at it when he doesn't mean to be. In a fight, you can count on him to smash the Decepticons, nearby parked cars, other Autobots, low-hanging billboards, and occasionally himself. The irony of it is that he's a natural builder who loves to make things. He'd much rather be creating something, but when you're as big and strong as he is, stuff just sort of seems to get smashed.

### Appearance

#### Vehicle Mode

He transforms into a Cybertronian Bulldozer, when arriving to Earth, he adapts the vehicle mode of an All-Terrain SWAT Assault Truck.

### Attributes:

* Really amazingly strong. But not very agile.
* Talented painter and sculptor.
* Can throw or launch smaller Autobots up to a mile.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Autobots
* Team Prime
	+ Optimus Prime
	+ Bumblebee
	+ Strongarm
	+ Sideswipe
	+ Ratchet
	+ Prowl
	+ Omega Supreme
* Drift
* Windblade
* Autobot Mini-Cons
	+ Fixit
* Dinobots
	+ Grimlock
	+ Swoop
	+ Snarl
* Wreck-Gar
* Cybertron Elite Gard
	+ Ultra Magnus
	+ Zeta Prime
	+ Jazz
	+ Blurr
	+ Safeguard
		- Jetfire
		- Jetstorm

### Enemies

* Decepticons
	+ Megatronus Prime/The Fallen
	+ Megatron
	+ Shockwave
	+ Blitzwing
	+ Lugnut
	+ Soundwave
	+ Swindle
* Seekers
	+ Starscream
	+ Thundercracker
	+ Dirge
	+ Thrust
	+ Sunstorm
	+ Ramjet
	+ Skywarp
	+ Slipstream
* Nightjaw's Pack
	+ Nightjaw
* Decepticon Bounty Hunters
	+ Lockdown
	+ Fracture

## Powers, Weapons and Abilities

Bulkhead has by far the greatest physical strength of all the Autobots, one of the toughest Autobots alive as he's the main powerhouse, and he is incredibly strong and resistant to damage, too, able to shrug off attacks that would knock down the other Autobots (for example, he easily takes a blast from Rampage when Bumblebee is floored by a similar attack, knock Starscream out with one punch, and even go toe-to-toe with Groundpounder whom he defeated).

Bulkhead can also retract both of his arms to form his arm mounted signature weapons: his wrecking balls. He usually favors his right arm but can also transform his left into a smashing wrecking ball/mace. The wrecking balls can also be used as melee weapons without launching them.

Bulkhead is also Cybertron's greatest Space Bridge engineer (he had a lot of time to read up on them while he was on the farm).

## History

Bulkhead was originally an energon farmer and attended boot camp in order to qualify as a space bridge engineer. It was there that he first met Bumblebee and their trainer, Sentinel Minor. To begin with, Bumblebee had no interest in being friends with the gentle giant, insulting him with the nickname "mudflap". A friendship blossomed after Bulkhead saved Bumblebee from some "malfunctioning" turrets, dropping a building on Sentinel in the process. In order to prevent Bulkhead from being expelled, 'Bee took the blame, and they both ended up on space bridge detail.

Eventually, they were placed under Optimus Prime's command. While repairing a space bridge, the team discovered the long-lost AllSpark. However, the Decepticons soon arrived, prompting Bulkhead to mention that he had never seen a Decepticon ship up close. (No one had and lived, as Ratchet pointed out.) Bulkhead did his best to hang on while the Autobots drove their ship through the space bridge. Coming out of warp, they went headlong toward Earth, and he joined his fellow 'bots in heading into stasis to avoid the impact shock of an unpleasant landing.

## External links

* Bulkhead *Wikipedia*
* Bulkhead *Transformers Database*

## Trivia

* Bulkhead's design and demeanor likely owe themselves to Crunch from *Mighty Orbots*, a series Derrick J. Wyatt has admitted as being an inspiration.
* After his reformatting into his APC mode, Bulkhead's robot mode kibble changes from the *front* of his vehicle mode (where it forms the scoop of the bulldozer) to the *back*, where it forms the doors of the truck.
* Bulkhead can form his kibble into a chair. This is awesome.
* Bulkhead has a storage place in his chest which opens in at least two ways, like a drawer or like a door.
* Bulkhead's eyes can extend from his face and act as a microscope, as shown in "Rise of the Constructicons". This is slightly strange, but also awesome.
* In spite of the visual differences, it would appear that rather than simply swapping out his hands for his signature wrecking balls, Bulkhead's hands actually transform to *become* the wrecking balls. Although most episodes show his hand simply retract and then be replaced by the ball, a few instances show it actually stay in place, blur and change into the ball. Furthermore, in cases where Bulkhead has had the tether-line of his wrecking ball severed, he remains conspicuously handless until the ball is re-attached, such as in "Transform and Roll Out" and "Megatron Rising - Part 2".
* Of all the vehicles that Teletran 1 scanned, the SWAT vehicle Bulkhead was reformatted into was the only one that didn't match his color scheme.
* Bulkhead's vehicle form strongly resembles a futuristic version of the real world: "2007 DURO IIIP 6x6 (Protected Military Tactical Vehicle)" made by General Dynamics: European Land Systems (MOWAG). This mode also has some design traits from the "Unimog" by Volvo.