#66: Frenzy (1984)

Frenzy was part of the first wave of Transformers toys that hit the shelves in 1984, and as such, should get some respect from the Transformers fandom. Sadly, due to a colouring error in the Transformers cartoon way back when, he doesn't get that. Instead, what he gets is nothing but "he's the one that's coloured like Rumble in the cartoon", or even just gets referred to as Rumble himself. But I'm not going to dwell on that at all in this entry. Let's get it right out of the way; Frenzy didn't really appear in the cartoon too much, and when he did, he sounded and acted just like Rumble. End of story.

It was in the comics that Frenzy really came into his own. A distinct and very different character than Rumble, Frenzy wasn't just a common thug. No, this was a guy who loved war. In fact no, it was more than that. Frenzy is war. It's everything to him, his oxygen, his food, his drink. His entire being is given over to fighting the war. To the point of even making him hard to deal with for most Decepticons, who, let's face it, love war.

In the Marvel comics, this was played up to a great level, with Frenzy being a kill-crazy warmonger, unafraid to try and kill humans (including Buster in a very memorable encounter which will be shown at the end of this blog). Frenzy also had the steel balls to help attack Omega Supreme and travel to limbo to destroy the alien life forms who lived there, earning himself a punch to the face from Optimus Prime himself! Frenzy is basically one the baddest of badasses.

This continued into the IDW era (nothing of note happened in the Dreamwave era, with Frenzy doing what he did in the cartoon - standing at the back and keeping out of Rumble's way), with Frenzy starting out in the war as nothing more than industrial equipment, but ending it as a battle tank, refusing to renounce his Decepticon affiliation and accepting banishment, rather than stop fighting a war that he'd already lost. Talk about someone committed to the cause.

Frenzy's toy is a complete and utter classic; let's not mess about here. The original Micro Change design is pretty much synonymous now with those early Transformers toys, and his association with Soundwave is legendary. The man on the street still more than likely thinks of Soundwave and his cassettes as "Transformers" rather than Megatron, Starscream or even Optimus Prime. The amazing thing is, the toy still holds up to this day. Hell, Frenzy's Masterpiece version is practically the same toy as was 30 years ago. That, more than anything, tells you how good the design was, and is.

Frenzy then: not Rumble. Even if the cartoon done messed up and coloured them both wrong. Look to the comics, and you'll find out just how awesome Frenzy truly is.