Scrounge (G1)

Scrounge is an Autobot from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Just keep 'em turning, don't stop 'em rolling, the fire is on!

Scrounge has a special arm. There is no other like it.

He is a lot like Bumblebee—he is relatively small, weak, and over-eager to prove himself to the other Autobots; he's a passable spy thanks to the fact that he has a special arm (there is no other like it) specially designed for surveillance; he is yellow. Unlike Bumblebee, with his eagerness to please and general excitability, he has a habit of imagining any little bit of info he stumbles across into a huge and vital revelation that will change the course of the war.

The Autobots have heard him cry turbofox a few too many times, and so treat any info he uncovers with a good helping of doubt. Even his friend and partner Blaster tends to treat him as a useless, tag-along loser.

Maybe he'll get a bit more respect as part of the combiner Computron.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

He gets around, nyuk nyuk.

Scrounge, while searching for a clue on the whereabout of the abducted neutral scientist Spanner, infiltrated Darkmount and obtained coded information that was of great value to the Decepticons. He radioed his accomplishment to Blaster and urged to meet with him, but failed to show up himself when Shrapnel captured him in the Dead End. Scrounge was brought before Straxus, who ripped off his special arm because the Autobot refused to disclose what he had discovered. Right after, Straxus decided it didn't matter what Scrounge knew, since he would never be able to tell his comrades. Without another thought, Scrounge was thrown into the smelting pool.

And thus the Armmasters were born!

Blaster belatedly came to save his little buddy, who was little more than a melting torso by that point. Scrounge died a heroic death getting the Autobots the info, making them realize that they misjudged him, and leaving Blaster with a whole lot of angst, anger, and guilt to work through by killing as many Decepticons as he was able and generally being a hardass. The Smelting Pool!

Scrounge's death continued to hit Blaster hard as the war progressed, first as a reason to not repeat his loss when the scientist Spanner went missing. The Bridge to Nowhere! Blaster angrily brought up Scrounge's death later on Earth, after G.B. Blackrock questioned Blaster's credentials as an Autobot warrior. Crater Critters

Classics

Decades later, Blaster recalled Straxus's culpability in killing Scrounge in a discussion with negative polarity Straxus. Falling into Place

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Megatron Origin #2

And thus his long run of abusive cameos begun.

Long before the war, Scrounge served as medical equipment for a particularly abusive blacksmith as they pulled a newborn Orion Pax from the sparkfield. Once his services were no longer required, Scrounge was callously knocked aside. Post

That doesn't look like Scr-- ohhhhh...

At one point during the Clampdown, Scrounge was walking past Maccadam's New Oil House carrying some conductors. Post Hoc Not long thereafter, he could be found scrounging for trash in the deepest, darkest slums of Cybertron. He still has a special arm. How many others are like it is unknown at this point. Megatron Origin #2

Before the war, Scrounge was begging on the streets and would often receive money from Bumblebee who insisted he not spend it all on Simultronics. When Bumblebee had a bad day at work, he was unable to give Scrounge any money. Ghost Stories Scrounge narrowly avoided being crushed when Metroplex fought Trypticon in a massive battle above the streets of Iacon. Primacy #3

During the war, Scrounge fell in with the Autobots, but was on the list of warriors to be utilized only as a last resort, presumably because, like Wheelie, he's low on useful skills. (Besides his special arm, of course. There is, after all, no other like it.) Spotlight: Wheelie

Scrounge really wanted a TV guest spot.

He was seen on the Orvus Base space station orbiting over Salvvatan VI, mere seconds before Sixshot ripped through it. Sixshot threw Scrounge through the main viewing monitor, presumably out of jealousy of his special arm. After all, he has six modes but nothing like it! Spotlight: Metroplex

That was not the end of Scrounge's story, as he was saved from almost certain death by the intervention of the time travelling Necrobot and secreted away on the Necroworld. After emerging from stasis, he was left behind by Team Rodimus when they went to track down the Lost Light and almost killed by the Disappeared Decepticon Rapidfire, before being rescued by Red Alert. Sardines

After commissioning a film about himself, Starscream recounted to Thundercracker the time when he'd heroically saved Scrounge from being beaten by Impactor, Ultra Magnus, and Ironhide. Thundercracker questioned the veracity of the tale considering the attackers' personalities. Starscream: The Movie

TransTech

When Bulletbike, CEO of RoboCo, found his spark trapped inside a "lowtech" body that was not his own, a poor deluded lowtech named Scrounge was the only other Transformer who offered sympathy. Just like Bulletbike, Scrounge claimed to be someone he was not, by all outward appearances, but unlike Bulletbike, Scrounge was indeed mistaken. Insane though he may have been, he was lucid enough to be of legitimate help, plus he was harmless enough.

Scrounge agreed to help Bulletbike find EconTerm, though at increasing peril. Bulletbike was finding a growing appetite for violence, a troublesome tick that Scrounge was able to narrowly avoid. Ultimately, Scrounge was instrumental in providing support for Bulletbike's crusade to locate the beings who had transplanted his spark into another body, even if it resulted in Bulletbike's death.

In the aftermath, Scrounge was given excellent treatment by Commander Cheetor. The poor thing just needed some proper care. I, Lowtech

When the Waruders caused a blackout in Axiom Nexus, a Kreon Scrounge within the offworlder maximum security prison was caught in the middle of a brawl with his fellow inmates. A Kreon Straxus in particular caused him grief, coming after him even after Scrounge's arm had come off! Cybertron's Most Wanted

Ask Sideways

Known liar Sideways claimed that he was the reason for Scrounge's death. Ask Sideways, 2015/07/05

Of Masters and Mayhem

During the Great War, Scrounge was drafted into the ranks of the Technobots to help enhance Computron following the recruitment of Cybaxx. It was hoped that this upgrade, which allowed Computron to tap into the power of the Underbase, would allow the Autobot combiner to defeat Thunder Mayhem.

It didn't. Lively Pursuit

2019 IDW continuity

First appearance: Tread & Circuits #2

Only me and God have one of these.

A native Velocitronian, Scrounge was on stage during the opening ceremony of the Speedia 500. Tread & Circuits Part 2 When Mayhem interfered and hacked into the communication feeds, he used the finger microphone in his special arm to try and warn the racers of the terrorist attack. Local Security Operations commander Breakdown grabbed Scrounge's mic-finger (rude!) and issued his own instructions to the crowd to evacuate for their own safety. Scrounge and the other race officials then waited on stage, wondering if the Speedia 500 and thus their entire method of choosing a new First Senator had been ruined by Mayhem. However, Knock Out eventually arrived at the finish line, and Scrounge rejoiced with the others over the successful result. Tread & Circuits Part 3 Broadcasting to the public, Scrounge reported on the events of the race before Knock Out's official inauguration as First Senator. Tread & Circuits Part 4

Toys

Combiner Wars

From having a special arm to being a special arm.

• Computron (Collection Pack, 2016)

Combiner Wars Scrounge is a redeco and minor retool of Generations Thrilling 30 Cosmos with a new head based on his IDW design. Like Cosmos, Scrounge can transform into a flying saucer. In this mode, he can attach to Combiner Wars Strafe's arm mode to serve as a shield for Computron. Due to their unique shared construction, he can also attach as a shield to Combiner Wars Mirage and Dragstrip in their arm or leg modes. He includes a small partner, Cybaxx, who can transform into a 5 mm gun or into a space shuttle which can "dock" onto Scrounge's vehicle/shield mode.

Scrounge was only available as part of a Computron 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, Entertainment Earth, 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, Canada and the United Kingdom, it was sold at Toys"R"Us 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.

The original version of this mold was also used to make Adventure Adams.

• More information on Combiner Wars Scrounge at TFU.info

Notes

Autobots with silly abilities like turning invisible or making holograms only wish they could do this.

• Scrounge's death haunted Blaster for a long time. He's kind of like Blaster's Bucky Barnes, only Bucky got a special arm AFTER he "died".
• Scrounge has a special arm (how many times can we mention that?) with two sensored fingers that pick up sound and video. He claims there is no other like it. However, in the Classics story "Games of Deception", Elita One had a similar setup. And in Transformers Animated, Megatron had a setup where he could make his fingers control a headmaster unit. The fingers detached like Scrounge's. Rung has a microphone thumb, but it's definitely not detachable. Should have registered that patent, Scrounge.
• The Scrounge in "I, Lowtech" who thinks he's actually Emirate Xaaron isn't very good at being Xaaron. He claims he has a Matrix and that he's from universe Primax 093.0 Epsilon. Decoding that technobabble allegedly pegs him as an Emirate Xaaron from Transformers Fan Club fiction published in 1993. Yyyyyeah.
• Bob Budiansky revealed at one of his BotCon 2010 panels that Scrounge was partially based upon Gunga Din, but we didn't find out that he meant the 1939 Cary Grant film version of the character (as opposed to the original poem) until his 2013 interview in the Transformers: 30th Anniversary Collection.
• In the cartoon episode "Heavy Metal War", Scavenger is at one point addressed using the name "Scrounge", and a Hasbro Briefing Binder for 1985 product confirms that this was a preliminary name for the Constructicon. When that didn't happen, apparently Bob Budiansky found a use for the name elsewhere.[1]
• The Kre-O version of Scrounge from the "Cybertron's Most Wanted" comic was based on an unused concept for a Kreon Scrounge. He would have had the helmet of Kre-O Mirage, placed on backwards to simulate his odd, wedge shaped head. [2]

Foreign names

• Japanese: Scrounge (スクラウンジ Sukuraunji)
• Hungarian: Szimatoló (Sniffer)
• Portuguese: Crava (Portugal comic), Surrupio (Brazil comic)