This character exists primarily or exclusively in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog continuity. Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity.

Grounder
First appearance	Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (games) "Super Special Sonic Search & Smash Squad" (AoStH)
Appears in (games)	Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
Appears in (other media)	Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Archie Comics Sonic the Comic
Artist	Gary Paul Terry
Voice actor(s) (English)	Gary Chalk
Voice actor(s) (Japanese)	Kōki Miyata
Also known as	Dumbot Boltbrain Idiot Klutz-bot Brain-dead bolthead
Species	Badnik
Gender	Male
Height	98 cm (3ft 2in)[citation needed]
Weight	39 kg (88lbs)[citation needed]
Creator	Doctor Ivo Robotnik
Birthplace	Dr. Robotnik's HQ
Color scheme	Green (Red in Sonic 2)
Eyes	Black
Alignment	Evil
Skills	Drill hands; Super-Piercing-Drill; Can transform his drill hands into any number of weapons or tools; Cooking skills

Grounder is a badnik created by Dr. Robotnik as an adversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. Along with his partner Scratch, he is a member of Robotnik's Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad. They are Robotnik's main henchmen, and two of the main antagonists of the series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Grounder was based on a badnik, also named Grounder, from the game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which was itself based on the badnik Burrobot from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Grounder has also appeared in the Archie Comics continuity.

Contents 1 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 2 Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Physical appearance 4 Abilities 5 Other appearances 5.1 Games 5.2 Archie Comics 5.3 Sonic Live in Sydney 6 Trivia 7 Quotes 8 Gallery 9 External links

Sonic the Hedgehog 2Edit

In the game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Grounder is a red badnik that appears in the Aquatic Ruin Zone. It is similar in design to Burrobot from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Grounder made a return in Aquatic Relix zone of Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure.

Note that it is one of the few badniks in Sonic 2 that features the Eggman Empire symbol, upon it's shoulder armor.

Adventures of Sonic the HedgehogEdit

Scratch and Grounder are largely comic relief characters, and though charged with the capture of Sonic and his friend Tails, they almost always fail. Not only this, but the two are also highly gullible, easily being deceived by Sonic no matter how bizarre his disguises. These repeated failures frequently result in the two hapless robots receiving a lot of abuse (both verbal and physical) from Dr. Robotnik.

Grounder is a sort of "clone" of Scratch with different abilities and body structure. While being created by Robotnik in the cartoon, Scratch has one of his tail feathers plucked and put into a cloning machine, but Scratch pulled an extra lever that caused, as Robotnik put it, some "slight modifications".

The two were occasionally aided by a robotic monkey named Coconuts (also based on an enemy from Sonic the Hedgehog 2), although most of the time, he would be competing with them rather than helping them, in hopes of being promoted out of janitor status.

Physical appearanceEdit

Grounder is a small, short, stocky teal machine with tank tracks for feet, an antennae on the back of the top of his head, compass bellybutton as well as drills instead of his hands and nose. He also carries a plate on his back that reads "X-14". Grounder's design was purposefully derived from the Grounder enemy Badnik from Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Aquatic Ruin Zone, though those Grounders (named ハンドリル "Handrill" in Japan) were mass produced, their color schemes were different and they attacked by bursting out of walls. He has a IQ of 25, and is notably less intelligent than Scratch, but once acquired a chip that increased his intelligence beyond Dr. Robotnik's - it was subsequently lost. Grounder also seems to be the most fragile of Robotnik's robots, getting blown to bits slightly more often than the others.

AbilitiesEdit

While Scratch seems to be the brains, Grounder is the artillery - his robot body is filled with accessories, which switch usually in his drill hands with any number of weapons or tools such as ropes, helicopter blades, gas guns, parachutes and boxing gloves, stores assorted equipment (commonly, a telephone) in his torso and even has the components of a Swiss Army knife installed in his tongue. His drill hands can also act as a telephone by using one drill hand as a receiver and the other as a speaker.

Either way, both robots are amazingly stupid and fail at almost everything they do. However they are also quite persistent and fairly durable - whenever they get damaged or blown to bits (which is very often) they can be repaired very easily and always come back for more. Robotnik himself wondered in one episode why he always has to repair them.

In the episode "Trail of the Missing Tails", Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts are temporarily transformed into

giant monster versions of themselves. Scratch looks more like an ordinary chicken in this state, almost resembling Cluck, the mechanical chicken pet of Robotnik in the "SatAM" animated series. Grounder acquires a blocky, humanoid body with hands and legs instead of drills and tracks. Coconuts, meanwhile, becomes a hulking, tusked, mechanical ape. In this state, they are much bigger and stronger than normal, but it is unknown if they have any further new abilities.

Other appearancesEdit

GamesEdit

Grounders first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as a regular enemy in the Aquatic Ruin Zone. This version looked a little different from its AoSTH counterpart. Instead of being a green color he was red and did not have a mouth.

Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts all appeared as opponents in the game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which was based around the AoSTH show.

Archie ComicsEdit

Scratch and Grounder also appeared in the earliest issues of the Sonic comic book published by Archie Comics. However, the characters themselves were prominently featured only in their first appearance there, published in issue #2. Subsequent appearances of the two were minor; their last appearance in the comic was part of a flashback in issue #57. However, Scratch appears in issue 4 Tails' Little Tale) without Grounder and Grounder appears (without Scratch) in the story "Sonic Spin City!", published in Sonic Super Special #15. Often times Grounder would be Purple instead of green. Recently in issue #187 Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts have all returned, now as employees of Mammoth Mogul who has taken over Casino night zone and employed the old badniks as workers. In issue 15 of Sonic Universe, Grounder makes a cameo, simply appearing in the foreground of one panel.

Sonic Live in SydneyEdit

In the puppet show version of Sonic Live in Sydney at SegaWorld Sydney, Grounder made an appearance as Robotnik's "ultimate weapon", but is then defeated.

TriviaEdit

• Scratch and Grounder started a trend of Dr. Robotnik having two incompetent side kicks. Example: Sonic Underground had Sleet and Dingo. Sonic X had Decoe and Bocoe. Sonic Colors had Orbot and Cubot.
  • Orbot was originally not incompetent. In Sonic Unleashed he was highly skilled and a great asset to Eggman, but in Sonic Colors he became extremely lazy as he let his "dumber counterpart", do all the work.
• In Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Grounder plays like Witch from Puyo Puyo, the game on which Mean Bean Machine was based. Ironically, since Witch is the eighth opponent, Grounder's MBM AI is rather smart, whereas he is an idiot in AoStH. His AI is still weaker than Scratch's, who was based on Rulue (the second-to-last enemy) and has very smart AI, referencing Scratch being the brains of the two in the show.
• As a running gag in multiple episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Grounder often says he wants his mama. Scratch then reminds him that he doesn't have a mama, to which Grounder replies that he wants one.
• Grounder has similarities to R2-D2 from Star Wars.
• Grounder and Scratch throughout the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog series fall for Sonic's disguises constantly, however in "Momma Robotnik's Birthday", Grounder states that the robot repairman Robotnik sent was a small blue spiny guy, a trick by Sonic to reprogram tree killing robots, meaning that he does recognize that Sonic's disguises are poor, but is still too dumb to recognize Sonic regardless.

Quotes Edit

• "I'm Grounder...but you can call me SAM - 'cos I'm like a Surface to Air Missile...and I'm gonna have you for launch." - Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
• "Hooray! we got promoted from useless!" Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog- Big Daddy

Gallery Edit

External linksEdit

• Scans of Scratch and Grounder's first appearance in the comic