Rust Dust
From Transformers Wiki
- Rust Dust is a Camien Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Rust Dust is unbalanced in multiple senses. She's wobbly enough as a motorcycle that her teammates wonder how she stays on two wheels, and she's got hair-trigger reflexes that send her racing off at the merest possibility of an enemy. Often she's as likely to be racing into danger as out of it, but to Rust Dust's line of thinking a moving target is just harder to hit. And if she leads her friends on a wild turbofox chase... again... well there are worse things. Add in her upbeat, go-get-em attitude, and even an unbalanced little scrapper like her can inspire her larger, stronger teammates.
She can combine with her fellow Torchbearers to form Victorion.
Contents |
Fiction
2005 IDW continuity
- First Appearance: Transformers: Combiner Hunters #1
Rust Dust derived her name from an old poem that was part of the Light of the Forgefire.
Rust Dust accompanied her fellow Torchbearers on a mission to Parvus Oppidum, an all but abandoned mining town that had recently been beset by bandits after the town's meager energon supply. Though things were quiet when they first arrived, the marauders soon returned and caught the Torchbearers off guard. Rust Dust's friend Fastbreak was killed in the ensuing battle, a fate she narrowly avoided sharing. Eventually a black hole opened up under the town, prompting Rust Dust and her fellow Torchbearers to get to work trying to protect the townspeople. After the singularity and the marauders disappeared, leaving Parvus in ruins, the devastated Rust Dust held Fastbreak's corpse in her arms.
Some time later, Rust Dust began a friendship with fellow Torchbearer Pyra, who had similarly been shaken by the events at Parvus. On one of their meetings, Pyra inquired about the origins of her name. After being named leader of the Torchbearers, Pyra Magna made Rust Dust part of her team. Ghost Stories
Soon after Caminus entered the Council of Worlds, her team was sent to Cybertron to search for the remains of Crystal City.
It was Rust Dust that spotted strangers entering the Sea of Rust and alerted Magna. That led to them intervening in a fight between some rando called Arcee and Cityspeaker Windblade herself, with Arcee attempting to destroy the fabled Enigma of Combination. A horrified Rust Dust tried to save the Enigma and in the process, she accidentally turned all her team into the new combiner Victorion!
After a brief rampage, the gestalt separated and Rust Dust suggested they hide the Enigma on Caminus, if Arcee was so worried Starscream would use it. Windblade overrode her, saying they needed to ensure Cybertron and Caminus stayed allies. An Uneventful Night
The Torchbearers opted to stay in the Rust Sea for a time, still learning to control their new powers. The inhabitants of the wasteland soon learned to avoid them. On one occasion, the team appeared to scare off a group of zombified Sweeps. Redemption
They remained in exile until Optimus Prime—seeking answers about what it truly meant to be a Prime—decided to visit the group. Aphelion Merging into Victorion, the Torchbearers tested Optimus's physical and spiritual resolve. Optimus's agnosticism about the Matrix of Leadership prompted Victorion to lay claim to the Matrix and vow to build Optimus into a worthy Prime. Lagrange
She went to Earth with the other Torchbearers, remaining out of sight for some time, though she was a part of the combiner when they saved Optimus from a human-built kilsat. Edge of the Earth And again when Victorion went into battle against the human-made combiners, at least until the combiner was forcibly separated thanks to trickery from Galvatron leaving Rust Dust and her teammates floating at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. It's Beginning To And Back Again Knocked out by the separation, she remained unconscious while the other Autobots figured out how to end Galvatron's control over combiners. As Above...So Below
By the time that the Torchbearers had regained consciousness, the fight had already moved offworld. No Fair Fights Rust Dust and the Torchbearers helped round up the stragglers. White Light Though exhausted from the fighting, they were forced to form Victorion again to see off the Earth Defense Command. White Heat
After several uneventful months on Earth, the Torchbearers were later deployed to Oregon to defend Arcee and Jazz from a G.I. Joe attack. As Victorion, they used their gravity powers to harmlessly incapacitate human aircraft in the wake of Soundwave's EMP attack. Concorde Hymn The Torchbearers remained on guard outside Metrotitan as the Transformers attempted to diffuse the growing Ore-13 crisis that threatened to destroy Earth. When the Dire Wraiths and M.A.S.K. dropped all pretenses and attacked the city for its Ore-13 supplies, The New Colossus Victorion and the other Autobots defended their base from their combined forces and the monstrous Baron Karza. Overwhelmed by a tide of Dire Wraiths, Victorion split into her components to even the playing field. Valley Forge
When that crisis had passed, the Autobots and their new allies - including G.I. Joe and some recently arrived Transformer colonists with religious aspirations - turned their attention back to stabilizing the increasingly volatile Earth. The Torchbearers accompanied Optimus Prime when they traveled to the Matterhorn and intercept an alien craft on a collision course with Earth. To Walk Among the Chosen As Victorion, the Torchbearers stood guard as the Junkions disembarked from their craft, and watched as their leaders Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj parleyed with Optimus Prime. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain
Rust Dust and the Torchbearers stood by when Pyra Magna finally came to blows with Optimus Prime over his hypocrisy of leading via religious mandate when he himself did not believe. Nevertheless, they attended the meeting between the peoples of Earth, Cybertron, and Junk arranged by the Prime. Which, of course, immediately descended into open warfare. Dance Among the Shadows They engaged the attacking Junkions on the orders of the Prime, forming Victorion to deal with their foes. Future Glories Lost In the aftermath of the battle, the Junkions were given Bikini Atoll as a refugee city, building their own Little Cybertron on the island, with the somewhat reluctant assistance of the Torchbearers. The Next Day, and the Next
Rust Dust was at Autobot City when Metrotitan's Space Bridge ferried Earth's envoy of ambassadors to Cybertron to be accepted into the Council of Worlds. When contact with Cybertron was cut off, she and the Torchbearers locked down Autobot City in case an attack was directed back through the bridge. Primeless, Part 1
The Torchbearers awaited Optimus Prime at Autobot City when he returned from the Ore-13 mines with a supply of energon for Cybertron. Surfeit of Primes A situation developed when he delivered the energon to Cybertron, but Pyra Magna chose to keep her forces in reserve rather than rush to the Prime's side. Another Mine Of course, they had no say in the matter once Autobot City acted on its own accord and transported to Cybertron through its own space bridge portal. Metrotitan was then slain by Nemesis, flagship of the prodigal Prime, Onyx Prime. The Ground
In the wreckage of Metrotitan, the Torchbearers were faced the Maximals of Liege Maximo and the fanatical combiner, Devastator. They formed Victorion in order to better defend their allies. The power of Devastator seemed to be so great that he overcame Victorion's gravity-manipulation abilities. The Hallowing Victorion's fight with Devastator went poorly for some time and he held the upper hand. Endless Forever Eventually, however, it was revealed that the Liege Maximo manipulated the gravity power of Ore-4 to counteract Victorion's powers. Once Arcee dispatched him, Devastator fell easily and was pulverized by sustained gravimetric pressure. Rust Dust and the Torchbearers disconnected as Pyra Magna confronted Onyx Prime in his true form as Shockwave of the Decepticons. Unforgivable
Rust Dust and the other Torchbearers narrowly escaped the destruction of their homeworld Caminus by the jaws of Unicron. Last Stand Rust Dust and the others were concerned for Pyra Magna as they mourned the death of the Mistress of Flame. Stranger Eons After Unicron appeared above Cybertron, the Torchbearers combined into Victorion to attack the planet-eater directly at the command of Elita One. However, Victorion was defeated by Monstructor, who killed Stormclash and forced them to de-combine. Our Finest Hitching a ride on Bludgeon's Worldsweeper to Earth, the Torchbearers arrived in time for the final battle with Unicron and its followers. Assembly With Slide taking Stormclash's place, the Torchbearers were able to form Victorion again and slay Monstructor with Superion's help. In the aftermath of Unicron's defeat, Rust Dust supported the wounded Pyra Magna as they accepted Slide into the Torchbearers. Ceremony
In the days following Unicron's defeat, Rust Dust helped rebuild and attended Optimus Prime's funeral. Post
2019 IDW continuity
- First appearance: Transformers #30
One of Pyra Magna's faithful Companions, Rust Dust adopted her color scheme in protest of Pyra's imprisonment after the War of the Threefold Spark. She joined back up with her fellow Companions after Pyra Magna was released and enlisted by Optimus Prime to combat the Decepticon menace. The Companions hid under a shimmer field as Pyra met with Strika as part of a parlay and sprung into action when it turned into an assassination attempt on their leader. Facing off with a group of Decepticons that Strika had brought along, Rust Dust took point and pounced on a terrified Nautilator in the first moments of the fight. After driving the Decepticons off, Pyra announced that they would be putting their support behind Optimus Prime for the time being. We Are Not Meant To Be Darkness
Rust Dust was part of a strike team sent aboard Sky Lynx to rescue Termagax from an Insecticon clone swarm. After clearing the Insecticons out, Rust Dust and Groundbreaker amused themselves by kicking a dead clone into the nearby Sea of Rust, where it was devoured by rust worms. The Autobots took up a defensive position in front of House when the Decepticons launched an attack and Rust Dust took on Offroad in the ensuing melee. Sea of Rust II
Rust Dust and her fellow Companions were poised to defend Crystal City when a large Decepticon force led by Strika launched an attack on it. A Dust of Crystals After Lodestar and Computron arrived on the battlefield, Optimus Prime saw an opportunity to force a ceasefire with the Decepticons, and Rust Dust accompanied him to confront Strika. The Landscape of Fear Pyra Magna next had the Companions travel to the Sonic Canyons to confront a returned Exarchon. As they passed over the expanding Sea of Rust on their way there, they noticed the frenzied activity of the rust worms within it, which Rust Dust admitted was compelling to watch. The Companions arrived at Exarchon's hideout to find a group of Decepticons led by Sixshot already engaged in battle with him. War's End Part Two
Games
Transformers: Earth Wars
Rust Dust has a habit of acting first and thinking later, tearing off into danger and rationalizing that a moving target is harder to hit than any target at all. The merest whiff of an enemy heat signature and she's away, more often than not leading the others on a wild goose chase.
She's so imbalanced, her teammates wonder how she manages to stay on two wheels, but often her hair-trigger instincts have proven invaluable. Rust Dust bio
Rust Dust came to Earth alongside the rest of the Torchbearers, save Pyra Magna. Rust Dust doesn't really do much, Campaign wise.
Rust Dust along with the other Torchbearers were in the Polyhex district on a scouting mission looking for the Dinobot Sludge. They couldn't find any trace of the big lug until Pyra Magna noticed a broken cerebro-shell. Polyhex Saga
- Class: Special
- Lowest Star Rating: 3 Stars (2 star in Beta)
- Weapons: Rust Dust uses a Stun gun of the same make as Bumblebee. She can also back flip to avoid Cannon or Mortar fire.
- Ability: Artillery Support: Call in Artillery at your current position and get away! Deals massive damage in a large area
Transformers Roleplaying Game
Rust Dust was a bubbly member of the Torchbearers. The Enigma of Combination
Toys
Combiner Wars
- Victorion (Collection Pack, 2016)
- Known designers: John Warden (Hasbro), Shogo Hasui (TakaraTomy), You (initial concept)
- Combiner Wars Rust Dust is a redeco of Legends Class Protectobot Groove from the same toy line, and transforms into a motorcycle. She can combine with her teammates Pyra Magna, Skyburst, Stormclash, Dust Up, and Jumpstream, and forms the chestplate of Victorion. Like the rest of her Torchbearers, Rust Dust features Cybertronic tampographs on her vehicle mode, which reads "Far Away" on her right and "Never Roam" on the left.
- The instructions for Victorion, all of the respective fictional appearances, and official artwork of the character (including the piece used on the packaging) depict Rust Dust's chestplate mode as sitting upright (motorcycle windshield at the top, wheel at the bottom), as opposed to Groove's upside down orientation. However, due to the way the Groove and Hot Spot molds are designed to combine, the only two points of friction holding Rust Dust on in the "official" Victorion configuration, are the 5 mm posts on Rust Dust's arms, leading to the chestplate outright falling off at the drop of a hat. The windshield of the motorcycle also partially obscures Victorion's face in this configuration too. The red paint used on Rust Dust's forearms is also prone to scratching off in places—specifically her knuckles (due to them scraping against the molded greebles on Pyra Magna in torso mode), and the tabs on either forearm (where they plug into her own legs for chestplate mode). The paint scraping off can also lead to less friction on the forearm tabs, making the chestplate mode less likely to hold together.
- Rust Dust was only available as part of a Victorion box set, including a poster and a collector card based on the set's packaging art. The set was one of several so-called "Collection Packs" that were "online exclusives" in the United States, available from online retailers such as Hasbro Toy Shop, Amazon, and BigBadToyStore as well as the online stores of "big box" retailers such as Toys"R"Us, Walmart, Target, and Kmart. In Hasbro's Asian markets such as Singapore and Taiwan, the set was available at general retail. In Australia, it was sold at Toys"R"Us and Big W stores, whereas in Canada, was both sold at Toys"R"Us stores and available via Amazon Canada. In the United Kingdom, it was available via the UK Toys"R"Us website (but never sold in stores), whereas in Spain, it was available via the Spanish subsidiaries of Amazon and Carrefour, as well as the department store chain El Corte Inglés, supposedly also only available online.
- This sculpt was also used to make Adventure Override and was retooled into Combiner Wars Wreck-Gar. It also served as the model for the non-toy Beast Wars: Uprising character Vampire and the Spatiotemporal Challengers incarnation of Scooter.
Notes
- Early appearances of Victorion in the comics had an unfortunate tendency to omit Rust Dust.
- Much like Groove, when Rust Dust is drawn as part of Victorion, she's often drawn upside-down—with the front wheel erroneously pointing down instead of correctly up. This is presumably due to the fact that she appears that way in all stock photography.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Rust Dust (ラストダスト Rasuto Dasuto)
- Mandarin: Xiù Chén (锈尘, "Rust Dust")
