Rack'n'Ruin (G1)

Rack'n'Ruin are a pair of conjoined Autobots from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

You win a matched washer and dryer.

Rack'n'Ruin are two Transformers who were surgically combined in a desperate attempt to save their lives. Previously, they turned into "Cybertronian mini-jets", but the operation rendered this impossible. Members of the elite group of Autobot shock troops known as the Wreckers, Rack'n'Ruin employ an unusual style of melee combat. Ruin is the ugly one.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

Rack and Ruin trained diligently with the other Wreckers in preparation for Operation: Volcano. While others doubted the mission after it was clear Ultra Magnus would likely not be able to participate, Rack'n'Ruin remained silent. But after some soul-searching, the other Wreckers decided to not give up on the mission, and Rack'n'Ruin were present when they resumed their training. Target: 2006

Following the aborted Operation: Volcano, the Wreckers leader Impactor was killed and rookie Springer took his place. Under the command of Ultra Magnus, the Wreckers were deployed to capture what they thought was a Decepticon spy disguised as Optimus Prime. Finding the "impostor" in the ruins of Iacon, Rack 'n' Ruin distracted him by smashing him in the face with their hammer, allowing a Guardian unit to get in close and take him down. The Wreckers prepared to execute the fake Prime, ...The Harder They Die! but thankfully were prevented from doing so, as he was in fact the real deal.

Some time later, Rack'n'Ruin stood with the Wreckers in the new Autobase in Kalis when a nuclear reactor exploded and hordes of zombie Transformers began pouring out of Cybertron's lower levels. Rack'n'Ruin were captured and imprisoned with the other Wreckers and Emirate Xaaron in Flame's underground base. Legion of the Lost!

Rack'n'Ruin and the rest of the Wreckers managed to break out of their cell as well, and once more took up the fight against the zombies patrolling Flame's headquarters. They then bumped into a returning Springer, now accompanied by Ultra Magnus, Fizzle, Sizzle, and Guzzle. Unfortunately, any further progress towards Flame's inner sanctum was blocked off by a massive blast door. Though their weapons proved completely ineffective against it, the Autobots managed to get through when Trypticon arrived, repaying a favor that fellow Decepticon Flywheels owed Ultra Magnus. Unfortunately, they came to confront Flame too late; his machines had already destabilized, and the countdown to Cybertron's destruction had already begun. While Springer, Ultra Magnus, and Xaaron dealt with Flame, the rest of the group cut through the remnants of madbot's zombie army, and headed back to the surface. There, Rack'n'Ruin learned that a zombified Impactor had sacrificed himself in order to prevent the whole planet from blowing up. Rack'n'Ruin joined the others in remembering Impactor's two heroic deaths. Meltdown!

"Your foe."
"Galvatron."

Soon the time-traveling Galvatron, wandering about on Earth, had attracted the attention of the Wreckers. After Rack'n'Ruin and the others memorized the stats of their foe, they warped themselves down to Earth to face him... as Galvatron was meeting Cyclonus and Scourge right into the middle of a heavily populated Earth city. Though Springer worried that this had totally compromised their mission, as they didn't want to inflict any casualties on the innocent humans, the Wreckers nonetheless threw themselves at Galvatron. Rack'n'Ruin in particular were able to surprise their target, who underestimated the odd-looking pair, by putting an impressive wound dead-center in Galvatron's chest. Eventually, to stave off further collateral damage, Springer lured Cyclonus and Scourge away, allowing the rest of his team the opportunity to gang-up on Galvatron. The Wreckers were unwilling to leave their leader to the Decepticons' mercies however, and pursued him, allowing Galvatron to escape. The mission a complete failure, the Wreckers returned to Cybertron to plan anew. Wrecking Havoc

"What he'll kill you with."
"His particle accelerator cannon."

However, this only delayed the inevitable. Galvatron's presence in the present day had started to unravel the space-time continuum. Rack'n'Ruin and the rest of the Wreckers reluctantly teamed up with the Decepticons' counterpart organization, the Mayhem Attack Squad, to counter Galvatron.

Quickly, Galvatron began depleting the Wreckers' ranks. When Sandstorm fell, Rack'n'Ruin implored Roadbuster to not fixate on revenge and stick to their job. They retreated into the Mayhem Attack Squad's transport long enough to retrieve an untested Pathblaster cannon. Although the cannon removed a sizable chunk from Galvatron's head, Rack'n'Ruin were unable to warn Roadbuster that the cannon was unstable, and their friend was engulfed in the subsequent explosion.

The increasingly warped Galvatron began tearing through the Wreckers with a renewed vigor. Rack'n'Ruin were "one" of the first to fall, destroyed by Galvatron's arm cannon. Time Wars

Regeneration One

Instead of dying, they got chattier.

Rack 'n' Ruin were members of the Wreckers. In 2012, twenty-one years after the apparent end of the Great War and reoccupation of Cybertron, they joined Kup and the rest of the team in going AWOL to investigate the "loose ends" of the conflict on other planets such as Earth and Nebulos.

Unfortunately, on the team's very first stop, their ship was blown out of the sky by Megatron over a devastated Earth. Loose Ends, Part 1 They managed to get away in the escape pods but the crash landing damaged Broadside's neural circuits and Rack 'n' Ruin were forced to look after him while Leadfoot, Roadbuster, and Sandstorm ran interference against Megatron's army of zombie "Ex-Bots" and Kup, Springer, and Whirl made a break for the Goldstone Deep Space Network. Encountering a group of humans, Rack 'n' Ruin attempted to make contact but were warned off by Topspin and the sudden appearance of Circuit Smasher Loose Ends, Part 2 who promptly fried them. Thankfully the damage was not permanent and after some smooth talking by Topspin the Wreckers accompanied the humans back to Argus Base where they devised a plan to attack Megatron's base of operations: the Ark. Loose Ends, Part 3

It's stretching the definition of "one 'bot" slightly.

Alongside Circuit Smasher, Roadbuster, Leadfoot, Broadside, and the battlesuited humans Gordon Kent, Rob, Paula and Nel, Rack 'n' Ruin fought their way through autoguns and mines to reach the crashed spaceship. Though Leadfoot was nearly destroyed by the Ark's defenses upon being flip onto his roof, Rack'n'Ruin managed to rescue their comrade by smashing all nearby auto-guns with a couple swings of their hammer. But just as the Autobots reached the Ark proper, the ship disgorged a great many Guardian units. Loose Ends, Part 4 Although the fighting against these drones was hard, the Autobots managed to buy Circuit Smasher enough time to deactivate Auntie, at which point the Guardians just "bit the dust". Loose Ends, Part 5

After returning to Cybertron, Natural Selection, Part Five Rack 'n' Ruin, along with the other Wreckers, acted as a security force for Hot Rod, who had been left in charge by Optimus Prime. After a particularly disastrous speech at Eugenesis Plaza the crowd turned violent, and Rack 'n' Ruin held them off while the other Wreckers got the Autobot leader to safety. Destiny, Part One When a group of Neo-Decepticons led by Fang tried to blockade the bridge Auto-artery RG1, Rack 'n' Ruin stood by as Kup and Roadbuster argued over how to handle the rioters. A fight soon broke out when two unnamed Cybertronians attacked Fang. Destiny, Part Two Some time later, Rack 'n' Ruin accompanied the other Wreckers on a raid of the Neo-Decepticons' home base of Fort Scyk. However, the Decepticons' leader, Soundwave had anticipated the raid and had evacuated the base after wiring it to blow up. Despite being caught in the explosion, all of the Wreckers survived. Destiny, Part Three

When Bludgeon launched an attack on Cybertron, the Wreckers were dispatched to destroy his base of operations, the Warworld. However, they failed to go unnoticed, and were attacked by Bludgeon. Although Rack 'n' Ruin and the rest of the Wreckers fought bravely, trying to buy Kup time to destroy the ship, Bludgeon's mastery of Metallikato allowed him to wipe the floor with them. After Hot Rod—now transformed into Rodimus Prime—defeated Bludgeon, the Wreckers and Rack 'n' Ruin proceeded to evacuate the exploding ship. Destiny, Part Five

When Jhiaxus took the majority of the Autobots' forces prisoner, the Wreckers were the only ones left to stand against the Cybertronians Rack 'n' Ruin participated in the Wreckers' attack on Jhiaxus Hub Network, fighting of thousands of Cybertronians while also severing the ties between the planets in the Hub, fundamentally disabling it. After the rest of the Autobots escaped, Autobot and Wrecker alike evacuated the Hub as it exploded. The War to End All Wars, Part 4 Rack 'n' Ruin returned to Cybertron to find it abandoned, save for a number of horrifying creatures. Rack 'n' Ruin, along with the other Autobots, fought their way to Cybertron's only remaining space bridge. As Rodimus Prime departed to destroy the Dark Matrix entity controlling the creatures, Rack 'n' Ruin accompanied the Wreckers to Earth to once again seek the help of Linda Chang's human forces. After recruiting the humans, the Wreckers proceeded to Nebulos where they stopped a possessed Fortress Maximus from killing Ultra Magnus. Once Rodimus Prime had sealed off their universe from the multiverse—and from Primus himself—to defeat the Matrix entity, all surviving Cybertronians were rendered mortal, including Rack 'n' Ruin, who eventually died of old age. The War to End All Wars, Part 5

Transformers '84

After Straxus sought to reactivate Project Dreadnought, Rack'n'Ruin was recruited by Impactor to be part of a wrecking crew to take out the planetary turbines. Secrets & Lies #3

Arriving in Stanix, Rack'n'Ruin were airlifted into action by Whirl only to be met by Abominus. As the combiner harassed the ground units, Rack'n'Ruin was brought close to the giant's face and delivered a hammer strike that sent him tumbling down, with the Wreckers engaging the Terrorcons on foot until the turbine was destroyed. From thereon, the Wreckers functioned as an autonomous unit within the Autobot army, engaging in guerrilla warfare against Straxus' reign. Secrets & Lies #4

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Last Stand of the Wreckers #4

Once triplets, Rack and Ruin's third sibling eventually died. During the era of Zeta Prime, Rack and Ruin were Decepticons responsible for the explosion at the G'th Semane spaceport, a relatively minor act with no fatalities. Unfortunately, they got caught. Orion Pax was tasked with the escort of Rack and Ruin in a prisoner exchange for Chief Medical Officer Ratchet who had been captured by the Decepticons. During an attack by Slicers in the Rust Spot, the twins avoided a chance to escape. Instead, they told Orion Pax how they were grunts that were nothing special, they weren't even that close to each other, repulsed at the thought of being combined to one another. They went on to explain that they do not have alternate modes due to their transformation cogs being overworked because of a process called instantaneous conversion.

Rack and Ruin begged Orion Pax not to hand them over to Megatron because they would be killed for their failure. Orion Pax motioned them to get back into the trailer, at which point Thundercracker arrived and took them to see Bludgeon. While the Autobots fought Bludgeon and his Decepticons, Rack and Ruin escaped the trailer and helped escort the Autobots to safety. Omega's Conundrum

He was half the man he is today.

Their ties with the Decepticons severed, Rack and Ruin joined the Autobots. While Rack was still his own dude, he joined up with the Wreckers, and was present when their 11th iteration battled Black Shadow and suffered three casualties. Rules of Disengagement By the time Springer joined the team, Rack and Ruin were conjoined and greeted the rookie on his first day. Requiem of the Wreckers At some point, Rack 'n' Ruin confessed to Impactor about their "tragic" prognosis, indicating some lingering medical problem. Bullets

Hi, I have spaces in my name now! And some yellow.

Rack 'n' Ruin were part of the Wreckers when they had their final battle on Pova against their longtime rivals, the Decepticon attack squad known as Squadron X. According to official paperwork, Rack 'n' Ruin were pinned in the trenches along with the other flightless Wreckers, but a desperate gambit by leader Impactor and his second-in-command Springer turned the tide. However, after Squadron X was rounded up and put in inhibitor harnesses, they somehow escaped. Impactor ordered Squadron X put down for good, and after one last legendary battle, Rack 'n' Ruin stood with the Wreckers above the bodies of their late enemies. Last Stand of the Wreckers #4

The reality of the conflict was much uglier than the story that was released to the public. After Impactor turned the tide by shooting through an unwilling Springer, Squadron X was rounded up and put in inhibitor harnesses. However, once Prowl learned the Wreckers were on Pova, he ordered Squadron X's release, as a neutrality agreement forbade the Autobots from bringing their war onto Povian soil. Rack 'n' Ruin turned a blind eye when the obsessed Impactor executed Squadron X. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5

Though Rack 'n' Ruin and the other Wreckers felt Impactor had done the right thing, they didn't want to be thrown into Garrus-9 alongside him. To make sure Springer wouldn't think of them as accomplices and testify against them, they all agreed to lie to him that they were against the murders and asked him to be their new leader. By this point, Rack 'n' Ruin's health was, apparently, deteriorating. Zero Point Rack 'n' Ruin died some time afterward, presumably before the resurrection of Thunderwing. The impact this has on Wrecker fatality stats depends on whether RnR count as one or two Transformers. Dead Men's Boots The Wreckers fanboy/historian Ironfist insisted their name should always be treated as a plural noun. Last Stand of the Wreckers #4

2019 IDW continuity

Look, ma—we're on TV!

Thunderclash considered Rack 'n' Ruin to be trusted allies and included them in a list of potential recruits for a new team of Wreckers. Tread & Circuits Part 4

Games

Transformers Legends

Early in the war, Rack'n'Ruin were Decepticons. After being captured by the Autobots, they were escorted through the rust spot towards a prisoner exchange. Despite encountering Slicers en route, the group met up with Bludgeon on the agreed upon location for the exchange. Orion's Gambit

Rack'n'Ruin were members of the fearless Wreckers squad which liberated Garrus-9 from the grip of Dreadwind and the Air Strike Patrol, though they destroyed most of the facility in the process. The Wreckers

Notes

• When talking to James Roberts about the character's origins for Classics UK, Furman admitted "I don't know where he came from" and believes he just "probably [had] the name first... with Ron drawing him".^[1] For whatever reason, they only appear in Part Four of "Target: 2006", the only part drawn by Ron Smith. Evidently the cool visual Smith gave him got him to stick around.
• In their first appearance during "Target: 2006", they are referred to as "Rack and Ruin" but subsequent appearances pep this up to Rack'n'Ruin. Their name was spelled in Last Stand of the Wreckers #4 and Regeneration One as "Rack 'n' Ruin". Oy!
• Their "origin" and their original alternate modes were given in "Transformers: The Facts", a booklet that came with UK issue #200.
• According to the Transformers: Mosaic story "Dead Men's Boots", Rack 'n' Ruin were killed at some point during IDW continuity. This was made canon when the Mosaic was included in the Last Stand of the Wreckers TPB without the typical Mosaic disclaimer.
• Until "Rules of Disengagement", neither Rack nor Ruin had appeared without the other. This solo appearance for Rack (identified in the script)^[2] was the first time either had been individually referred to by name. For the record, Rack is the one with the anvil.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Rack'n'Ruin (ラックンルイン Rakkunruin), Rack (ラック Rakku), Ruin (ルイン Ruin)
• Mandarin: Tiāncándìquē (天残地缺 The Crippled Master)

References