Robosmasher

The Robosmasher (also Robo-Smasher) is a machine built by Megatron. It has the ability to permanently reprogram a Transformer as a Decepticon. This seems to be a very fast operation, requiring only a few seconds of work once access to the victim's circuitry is achieved.

The Robosmasher is larger than an average Transformer and has six legs and five tentacles. The three central tentacles are tipped with a device which appears to be some sort of laser scalpel or cyberforcep, and the side tentacles are tipped with spiked balls. The side tentacles are used to ensnare and immobilize a victim, and then the central tentacles cut open the Transformer to perform the reprogramming.

The Transformers cartoon
The Robosmasher was in operation for an unknown length of time in the Golden Age of Cybertron. Optimus Prime claimed that the device was used to "swell the ranks of the Decepticons", which implies that a significant portion of the Decepticon forces at one time may have been "recruited" through its use. The only specific Transformers it is known to have converted are some dude and the Constructicons, the latter of whom Megatron also gifted with a combined mode in the process. Omega Supreme tried to reprogram them back to their old selves, and he appeared to have succeeded at first. But they would end up betraying him, using their new Devastator mode to pin him against a wall so the Robosmasher could grip his head. Omega destroyed the machine before it could finish its work, but the experience left him cold and notoriously taciturn, desiring only revenge upon the Constructicons.

It does not appear to have ever smashed anything.

e-HOBBY toy bios
While the Robosmasher did a fine job on the Constructicons it caught, it missed at least one. Hauler, estranged from his brainwashed teammates, ended up joining the Autobots.

Foreign names

 * Japanese: Robosmasher (ロボスマッシャー Robosumasshā)