Dread (DOTM)

The Dreads are a Decepticon subgroup from the Dark of the Moon portion of the movie continuity family.

The Dreads are a unit of particularly fearsome Decepticons. Their specialty is infiltration and the assassination of high profile Autobot targets. They’re also such unpleasant monsters that even the other Decepticons tend to dislike them.

The team is composed of:

• Crankcase
• Crowbar
• Hatchet

Perhaps affiliated with them are an Enforcer who resembles Crankcase, and the Assaulters, who resemble Hatchet.

Fiction

Dark of the Moon film

With the retrieval and reactivation of Sentinel Prime from the wreck of the Ark from Earth's moon, Megatron's plan for the Space Bridge was set into motion. Needing Sentinel for his control pillar to activate the ones the Decepticons had taken from the Ark decades ago, the Dreads were sent to secure the former Autobot leader. Chasing the Autobots down a highway, the Dreads attacked, but despite their best efforts, Hatchet was soon destroyed and the survivors were eventually confronted by Ironhide, backed up by Sideswipe. Unlikely to match the Autobot weapons specialist's heavy firepower, Crankcase and Crowbar dropped their ranged weapons, but as soon as the Autobots followed suit, the Dreads deployed hidden explosive spears and attacked, injuring Ironhide. Unfortunately, Sideswipe managed to deflect the spear thrown at him and tossed his gun to Ironhide, who used it to destroy Crowbar before turning on Crankcase. For his troubles, Crankcase was impaled in the face with Crowbar's spear, thrown onto an abandoned car and destroyed after Ironhide kicked the resulting wreckage into a nearby auto shop. Dark of the Moon

Games

Transformers: Dark of the Moon video game

While infiltrating the Decepticon presence at an ancient Mayan temple, Mirage encountered a number of Assaulters, whose powerful sensors proved a particular problem for him thanks to their ability to break his cloaking shield. After rendezvousing with Bumblebee, Mirage then also battled and defeated the Enforcer atop the temple. Dark of the Moon

Notes

• The Dreads' film preproduction names were "Dreadwind" for Crankcase, "Hooligan" for Crowbar and "Dirtbag" for Hatchet.^[1] Meanwhile, Hasbro used the codenames "Enforcer #1" for Crankcase,^[2][3] "Enforcer #2" for Crowbar^[4][5][6] and "Enforcer #3" for Hatchet^[7].
• While the Dark of the Moon film appears to have always intended the Dreads to be a trio of identical Chevrolet Suburbans—Josh Nizzi's concept art depicts all three Dreads with the Suburban's headlights, and only the three identical vehicles were ever on set for filming—Hasbro chose to give Crowbar and Hatchet replacement alternate modes for the film's toyline: genericized versions of the Carbon Motors E7 concept police car and the Eurofighter Typhoon jet, respectively. Crowbar's toyline car mode did make a second appearance in the Dark of the Moon video game, as the alternate mode for the Crankcase-based "Enforcer" character.
• In addition to the Enforcer and Assaulters, who are identical to Crankcase and Hatchet respectively, the Dark of the Moon video game also features several kinds of generic car-type Decepticon that reuse various elements of the Enforcer's model. This appears to have been a relatively late change, with the game's gameplay reveal trailer featuring the Stunticon Sniper model in place of one of these enemy types.
• Josh Nizzi prepared concept art for "anarchist" recolors of the Dreads for The Last Knight, sporting crossed-through Autobot and Decepticon symbols.^[8] These concepts were labelled under their original preproduction names of Dreadwind, Hooligan and Dirtbag,^[9][10][11] perhaps indicating that they were originally intended to be those same characters, having... gotten better following the events of Dark of the Moon. Ultimately, these concepts were not used in their original planned context—the Crankcase recolor was repurposed to become the unhinged prisoner Berserker, the Crowbar concept evolved to become the Decepticon-aligned Dreadbot, still referred to as "Hooligan" on set, and the Hatchet design went entirely unused.

References