Lord Chumley is a minor antagonist from the original Transformers series and the main antagonist of the episode "Prime Target". He is a British big game hunter and a thief who wants to capture Optimus Prime as a trophy.
He was voiced by Pedro Renaday.
Biography[]
Lord Chumley was first seen in the Arctic aboard a submarine. He then attacked the Soviet Union's experimental jet piloted by Oktober Guard One, who manages to escape, by spearing at it and keeping the jet as a trophy. This in turn sparked an international incident in which Soviet Union blamed USA for the theft, placing both sides on high alert and a special UN session was held to discuss the escalating tensions. After keeping the jet as a trophy, Lord Chumley then told his butler Dismoore that he needs one more thing to complete his collection, being the head of Optimus Prime.
Lord Chumley then started setting traps into the city. He manages to capture Autobots Bumblebee and Tracks by using holograms of the Decepticon triple changers Blitzwing and Astrotrain. This alerted Optimus that he sends Jazz, Beachcomber, Grapple, Blaster and Inferno to search for them. Unfortunately, Lord Chumley has captured them all one by one. Inferno was able to send a distress message to alert Optimus, who then orders the remaining Autobots to return to headquarters, leaving the big game hunter frustrated.
While they regroup, Cosmos sends a message to the Autobot leader, saying he has found the missing Autobots, who are imprisoned in inescapable traps. Lord Chumley himself contacts Optimus on Teletraan 1 and challenges him. Furious with what the human has done, Optimus overloads the screen on the big game hunter's computer and accepted the challenge while ordering the Autobots to stay at base as he deals with Lord Chumley. Megatron, who manages to watch this, orders Blitzwing and Astrotrain to make a deal with Lord Chumley.
Arriving at the hunter's castle, Optimus finds himself in a "well researched" mock-up arena of Cybertron. Lord Chumley then deploys his Bornean dragon to attack him but was easily defeated by the latter, by throwing it to the pit during their fight. Lord Chumley was frustrated by this and sends another trap. Optimus then encounters an imprisoned young woman but ignores her and leaves her for the Decepticons, who just recently arrived. Blitzwing and Astrotrain wondered why he didn't rescue the girl. Blitzwing then checks the girl, who turned out to be a trap intended for the Autobot leader, leaving Astrotrain irritated by this. Lord Chumley then deploys his mechanical scorpion to confront Optimus Prime to fight him. Optimus however, manages to break one of the robot's claws off and pushes the mechanical arachnid away. Astrotrain took this as an opportunity to shoot Optimus in the back, much to Lord Chumley's anger, who called the triple changer a "cheater". He then controls the mechanical scorpion to turn against Astrotrain by knocking him down and keeping and him and Blitzwing prisoners, while disabling their energy weapons.
To Chumley's surprise, Optimus is still alive and is heading towards his castle. He then deploys his mechanical spider to fight him, while arrogantly boasting his victory. Optimus then defeats the mechanical spider by ripping one of its legs off and made it bite itself, causing it to explode. Seeing Optimus is headed towards the control room, Lord Chumley went into a state of panic after Dinsmoore hid in a tank. He then frees Blitzwing and Astrotrain after they promised to help him defeat the Autobot leader. After freeing them, Astrotrain tries to stop the hunter while stating "See how you like being hunted!", before retreating after they realized they are unarmed while leaving Lord Chumley at the freed Autobots' mercy. The Autobots then returned the stolen experimental jet back to the Soviet Union with Lord Chumley tied on the nosecone like a hunting trophy, thus ending the crisis.
Trivia[]
- Lord Chumley is loosely based on General Zaroff from The World's Most Dangerous Game.
- Some of Chumley's characteristics mirrors that of Lockdown's counterpart.
- Chumley is the third human antagonist in the Transformers G1 series to make an alliance with Decepticons, preceded by Doctor Arkeville and Shawn Berger.
