Chop Shop

## **Biography:**

Chop Shop  isn’t really your average Decepticon combiner. He lacks the usual stubborn bloodthirstiness you might expect to find in a low-ranking ‘Con, preferring to flee the scene before things get really violent. It’s not that he *can’t* fight, it’s just that he *knows* that sticking around a crime scene for too long means a one-way trip to the nick, and that’s not an experience he wants to repeat anytime soon. When raw strength won’t get the job done, Chop Shop can split apart into his five insectoid components to become a one-bot heist team. Each one of his "lads" can deliver a painful sting, capable of paralyzing any coppers while the rest of the team makes a break for it. In a pinch, he can even improvise, forcing smaller Cybertronians to combine with him… whether they want to or not. It may be that he’s got a good Spark somewhere down there, although it’d take a lot to bring his altruistic side to the surface.

### **Notes:**

* Chop Shop seems to have a Cockney accent,though Righty does not.
* Chop Shop is the first combiner in the series.
* Chop Shop is the first Insecticon to ever debut in the series.
* He's the first Cybertronian to ever has four eyes.
* He refers to himself in the plural, presumably due to his nature as the combined form of five robot ants.
* He's the first recurring Decepticon that has not joined Steeljaw to date.

## **Animal Form:**

Chop Shop's animal form is an Ant and his species is an Antroid.

## **Alchemor Database:**

Chop Shop was one of the many Decepticon criminals aboard the Alchemor. Something of a kleptomaniac,he's racked up a massive rap sheet over the years,enough to be branded one of Cybertron's most notorious thieves. Beyond all this,Chop Shop mostly just wants to be left alone to do his own thing,which wouldn't be so bad if his favorite pastime didn't involve robbing everyone blind.

## **Season 1:**

#### **More than meets the eye:**

Shortly after he escaped captivity,he began scrounging for the parts he needed to construct a spacecraft to return home and set up a temporary base in an abandoned building. After several components,Chop Shop visited a neaby airfield and began tearing apart a plane to find a gyroscope. However,he was interrupted when Bumblebee and his team found him and attempted to bring him in. Chop Shop broke apart into his components,who stung all three of them into paralysis. When Grimlock attempted to intervene,Chop Shop did the same thing to him before hopping into a manhole to escape. Chop Shop then infiltrated a manufacturing plant to steal liquid oxygen. His components began filling a tanker truck with the chemical, but the Autobots intervened once again. Since Strongarm had grabbed his right arm component, Chop Shop made do with a replacement — the Mini-Con Fixit. With his new limb, Chop Shop took down Strongarm and commandeered the truck, unaware that the Autobots were still on his trail. While two of his components continued work on the ship, the rest of Chop Shop angrily confronted his pursuers, demanding why he couldn't simply leave the planet like the Autobots wanted. Before they could answer, however, he began fighting against them with Fixit, quickly gaining the upper hand. Meanwhile, Denny Clay attempted to take out "Righty" with a crowbar, but the blow had little effect. Chop Shop grabbed Bumblebee and began electrocuting him, but before he could finish him off, Fixit rebelled against the Decepticon. Bumblebee convinced Fixit to keep fighting back. After being punched repeatedly by his new right arm, Chop Shop released Fixit, and was subsequently frozen with liquid oxygen. The majority of Chop Shop was placed in a rebuilt stasis cell, but Righty managed to evade capture and remained at large.

#### **Even robots have nightmares:**

Righty eventually sneaked into the scrapyard to try and free the rest of Chop Shop, only to be abducted by Nightstrike. Along with the Autobots, Nighstrike put Righty in a cocoon so that he could feed off of his energon. Later, Bumblebee freed Righty from the cocoon and asked him to help protect Denny and Russell from Nightstrike. Initially, the spider sought to just scutter off, but upon discovering a discarded bucket of paint, he tossed it at the vampiric 'Con to temporarily blind it. The debt paid, Righty left.

#### **The trouble with Fixit:**

Righty later returned to the scrapyard to liberate Chop Shop, with a great deal more success. Once freed, Chop Shop reattached Righty before grabbing some Energon cubes to go. Splitting apart to throw off Strongarm and Grimlock, Chop Shop might have escaped if Fixit hadn't accidentally rebooted into his sentry mode. Overwhelmed by the Mini-Con's superior firepower, Chop Shop was knocked apart, although Denny Clay intervened before Fixit could use lethal force on the escaped prisoner. All of Chop Shop's components were placed back in stasis.

## **Season 2:**

#### **Decepticon Island Part 2:**

Chop Shop's stasis pod was later taken back to Cybertron by Optimus Prime, Windblade and Ratchet.