Beachcomber is an Autobot from the Energon portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Voted world's deadliest lifeguard three years running.

Always vigilant, Beachcomber keeps his optics and audio receptors on full alert while on his usual guard duty for any signs of Decepticon activity... and for any opportunity to crack a bad joke. Fellow Autobots might have to suffer the occasional lousy pun (is there any other kind?), but Decepticons get the puns AND missiles in the face. Night or day, Beachcomber is ready.

Fiction

Energon comic

"Think that's fowl? Send me a bill!"

When the Terrorcon invasion struck Earth, Beachcomber was among the Autobots recruited from Cybertron to aid the humans. Multiplicity, Pt. 2 He joined Hot Shot's unit in Toronto, Canada, trading fire with the invading Divebomb drones. Beachcomber wasn't too worried, though—even in the midst of battle, he had time to remotely surf the web and pick up on local jokes and colloquial bad puns. Then, Megatron suddenly arrived and began laying waste to the Terrorcons. Multiplicity, Pt. 3 Most of them, anyway. Beachcomber and Hoist still had to keep fighting in the background and keep Hot Shot from being too distracted by Megatron's arrival. Multiplicity, Pt. 4

Toys

Energon

You never found me because I DUCKED. Haha! Aheh, aheh. Ahhhh, short-packed.

• Beachcomber (Mega Class, 2005)

• Accessories: Left & right launcher rifles, 2 missiles
• Known designers: Eric Siebenaler (Hasbro), Marcelo Matere (packaging artist)

A late-series redeco of Energon Mega Class Cliffjumper, Beachcomber transforms into a large Baja-style buggy with electronic sounds and hood-mounted twin spring-loaded missile launchers, which become hand-held weapons for robot mode. He can also transform into the top half or bottom half of a larger robot, able to combine with most other Combat Class and Mega Class Autobots (though, the former looks silly). When forming a torso, he becomes Powerlinx Beachcomber (or just another version of Powerlinx Cliffjumper in the cartoon).

The joints that hold the armatures for the vehicle bumper halves/robot feet to the legs are very thin on the top-side. Due to the heavy-duty molded detents on the ends of the armatures that form the joints themselves, the thin plastic parts have to flex to make room for the pseudo-ratcheted "teeth" to pass through, resulting in a loud, audible snap, and a forming of a large split in the thin plastic, when simply moving it with little-to-no force. Since this is a design flaw, this also carries over to the other uses of the mold.

While this toy was not released in Japan, the Energon cartoon used this deco as a powered up form for Cliffjumper. Shipping in only one case assortment, Beachcomber is also arguably one of the rarest toys in the Energon line, with not many showing up on the aftermarket. Any sealed specimens that show up, generally have excessively high asking prices in the thousands. Yikes.

• More info on Beachcomber at TFU.info

Notes

• Beachcomber's head in the Energon comic is totally made up.

Foreign names

• Chinese: Hǎitān Zhànchē (Taiwan, 海灘戰車, "Beach Tank")