Beetleworx

A typical Spinner Beetleworx (weapons sheathed).

**Beetleworx** are a type of mass-produced original-design animatronics.

## Description

The Beetleworx are cheaply-produced robots created by the Mad Doctor, supposedly as helpers for maintaining Wasteland, but also as weapons of war. Beetleworx can be sentient, though not all of them are, but will behave strictly according to their programming either way (which incidentally makes them immune to the Magical Paint's conscience-awakening effects).

### History

The Beetleworx were created by the Mad Doctor in the first days of Wasteland alongside many other Animatronics. It seems that even then, the Doctor had concealed weaponry inside them, though whether this was part of any coherent overtaking scheme or just a general mad-scientist compulsion is unknown. The Beetleworx initially did their part in building settlements for the Wastelanders, such as Tomorrow City.

When the Blot Wars began and the Mad Doctor pledged allegiance to the Shadow Blot, he activated the Beetleworx' fighting mode. The creatures spread out all over Wasteland, fighting alongside the Blotling Army against the citizens. The Doctor set up a Beetleworx factory in the Attic of Lonesome Manor to produce more and more Beetleworx. However, Oswald managed to destroy the remote through which the Doctor could directly control the Beetleworx as a whole; thus, the Beetleworx roamed free and caused mayhem throughout the realm, but never as an organized army (which was likely Wasteland's salvation).

Whether by the Doctor's design or through their own cleverness, many Beetleworx took to camouflaging themselves in accordance with their chosen haunts. This remained the state of affairs throughout the decade-long truce that bridged the sealing of the Shadow Blot and official end of the Blot Wars, and the Blot's true destruction by Mickey Mouse in the beginning of the 21st century: Beetleworx roaming the land on their own or in small groups, sometimes remotely doing the Doctor's bidding but usually just causing harm to whoever passed by. A short time before Mickey's arrival, the Doctor, apparently growing dissatisfied with the Bashers he could build by himself, had created the Pirate Conversion Machine, a device that could turn the seamen of Tortooga into obedient Basher-type Beetleworx.

During his first adventures in Wasteland, in 2010, Mickey Mouse faced many rampaging Beetleworx and became an expert at fighting them using the Magic Paintbrush. Once he faced the Mad Doctor himself, however, and had Gremlin Gus blow up his laboratory, all of the Beetleworx deactivated, presumably due to an emergency protocol.

The Doctor, who had become stranded in Disney Gulch, found a way to reactivate them two years later, reverting them to their helpful programmings as part of his bid to make the Wastelanders believe he had reformed. Meanwhile, he built up a new army, the Blotworx. A little while later, he reactivated the Beetleworx's war mode, trying to frame Gremlin Prescott for the “hack”.

In the end, however, the Mad Doctor truly turned himself around after Mickey and Oswald Rabbit saved his life. As a result, he permanently disabled the Beetleworx' fighting mode and returned them to their true helpful purposes for good.

## Behind the scenes

Beetleworx are seen throughout the *Epic Mickey* series.

Concept art for the first *Epic Mickey* showed a much greater variety of Beetleworx than just the four main types (plus the Lifters, who do not actually appear in any of the finished games), such as the Jumblers. If they are considered to still exist in the canon universe, it is best to assume that these were each unique models created as one-off experiments by the Mad Doctor throughout the Blot Wars, and that they were, like the Lifters, long out of commission by the time Mickey Mouse first visited Wasteland.