When he is not using his shrapnel grenade launcher or the raw power of electricity itself to dispatch his enemies, Shrapnel is armed with the really scary-sounding gamma ray detonator, while his clone Zaptrap carries the similarly scary-sounding gamma beam detonator. It's not clear if there is any difference between the two but it would probably be best to not to be on the receiving end of either of them.

Toys

The Transformers

• Shrapnel (Insecticon, 1985)
  • Accessories: gamma ray detonator

The Transformers Shrapnel came with a silver chromed weapon, labelled as a gamma ray detonator in his instructions. It came in two variations, some have "fins" on the very back-end of the weapon and a more detailed main barrel, while others (obviously) lack those details. The extra-detail version appears to be a later run.

This toy was available as a mail-away item in Japan during 1987-88 and has also been reissued a number of times since.

Collector's Edition

• Insectron Clone Army (multi-pack, 2004)
  • Accessories: gamma beam detonator, energon cube

Zaptrap came with a gamma beam detonator, made using the early finless version of the gamma ray detonator's mold.

This toy was only available in an e-HOBBY exclusive Collector's Edition set with Salvo and Shothole and was repurposed as the Shattered Glass incarnation of Shrapnel.

Notes

• Like his fellow Insecticons' twin ion impulse blaster and electrothermic blast tube, Shrapnel's weapon had a completely different, exotic-sounding name in his toy's instructions that would be almost entirely ignored elsewhere—including in his own packaging bio, where it was described as a grenade launcher instead. This would then feed into Shrapnel's subsequent appearances in fiction, as well as his Marvel Universe and Dreamwave More than Meets the Eye profiles.