The Energon Pub

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:37 am**

Ok, it's pretty common knowledge that MOST Transformers names are derivatives of other words. In the beginning of the Transformers saga, many of the character names were based on the character's abilities.

And then it occurred to me that Snapdragon's Headmaster partner was named Krunk, which is a slang term when properly spelled as "crunk" that means "crazy drunk". So what did Krunk mean back in 1987 before the term "crunk" became popular? I find it hard to believe that Hasbro inadvertently coined the word "krunk."

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crunk

I highly doubt it was intended to imply "To cry like a crane" or "energized as if crazy and drunk".

Krunk and Snapdragon's profile: http://seibertron.com/database/characte ... har_id=228

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:10 am**

It's a cool name. It kind of sounds German.

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:15 am**

Well, in the classics 3 stooges short, "Restless Knights", when Larry was sent flying by Moe and Curly, he landed in the Queen's throne, which was empty, save for her crown. Shocked at the Queen's disappearence, Moe asked Larry, "What'd you do with the Queen?" Larry, sitting on the throne, asked, "Me?" and looked around himself. Curly suggested, "Maybe he krunked her?" and it suggested Curly thought Larry squashed the queen flat.

:idea:

So I guess Krunk pretty much means to squash. :-?

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:00 am**

I do remember people using the word Krunk in a derogatory fashion when I was younger in the early 90's, same as calling someone a dropkick or moron.

Doubt it came from that :grin:

Could it possibly be a name created from a spelling mistake? Klunk or Krank or something?

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:05 am**

Onomatopoeia?

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:02 am**

Stormrider wrote:It's a cool name. It kind of sounds German.

Actually more Klingon then German

I remember watching an old Batman episode from that crappy 1960's version and when he and Robin fought they used to put up words on the screen like "POW" "BANG" and one of the words was "KRUNK"

I wonder where that came from?

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:17 am**

My guess is that it sounded alien, and that was good enough. In the end, what does Zarak mean, or derived from? How about Monzo?

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:25 am**

Loki120 wrote:My guess is that it sounded alien, and that was good enough. In the end, what does Zarak mean, or derived from? How about Monzo?

Good point. Most of the orginal Nebulans had weird names to begin with Gort, Stylor, Duros, Arcanna, Spike, Zarak, Monzo,
Grax etc al.

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:52 am**

Cyberstrike wrote:
Loki120 wrote:My guess is that it sounded alien, and that was good enough. In the end, what does Zarak mean, or derived from? How about Monzo?

Good point. Most of the orginal Nebulans had weird names to begin with Gort, Stylor, Duros, Arcanna, Spike, Zarak, Monzo,
Grax etc al.

Gort! Now "Gort" has a liniage.... anybody ever read "Farewell to the Master?"
The others can be pretty well explained, too...
Zarak and Grax, though... I do wonder...

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:55 am**

Well, in all fairness, Spike wasn't a Nebulon. Just thought I would point that out.

But the rest of the Headmaster nebulon partners some made some sense, like Arcana or Galen, but ones like Zarak and Grax or Monzo are just alien sound and that was probably the extent of the thought process.

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:14 pm**

Does anybody else remember Conan O'Brien coining Crunk as his "all purpose swear word"? This was a few years before it was popularized, and Con' offered no explaination as to the word's meaning.

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:39 pm**

"Krunk":
Something really heavy dropped from a great height and landing on a fleshling while standing on a steel floor.
"Krunk"

Similar to "Thump":
Something really heavy dropped from a great height and landing on a fleshling while standing on a wood floor.
"Thump"

Not to be confused with "Krump":
Something heavy smashing into something else heavy on a parallel line, with a fleshing in between.
"Krump"

:DEVIL:

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:09 pm**

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+Krunk

Posted: **Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:57 pm**

Raymond T. wrote:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+Krunk

Problem being that the Nebulon name Krunk came before either of those defintions. So at the time, the name meant nothing other than sounding alien and somewhat evil.

Posted: **Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:27 am**

Loki120 wrote:
Raymond T. wrote:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+Krunk

Problem being that the Nebulon name Krunk came before either of those defintions. So at the time, the name meant nothing other than sounding alien and somewhat evil.

This is my view on the matter. As far as I'm concerned it's just an alien-sounding name. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with those two definitions linked via Google.

Posted: **Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:50 am**

Wheeljack35 wrote:
Stormrider wrote:It's a cool name. It kind of sounds German.

Actually more Klingon then German

I remember watching an old Batman episode from that crappy 1960's version and when he and Robin fought they used to put up words on the screen like "POW" "BANG" and one of the words was "KRUNK"

I wonder where that came from?

I liked that old show myself.

Posted: **Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:24 am**

I'll have a bash at this.

Galen - gallant
Arcana - arcane (IE old)
Duros - durable
Stylor -stylish
Gort - no too sure about him but he shares the name with the robot from The day The Earth Stood Still, perhaps the person naming him was a fan of that movie in the same way that Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )

Zarak - I'm sure it's a cooincidence but theres a 1956 film called Zarak. Most likely the name was chosen for sounding like a cool sci-fi name as it starts with Z.
Monzo - Weak link to the word Muzzle?
Grax - Possibly based on Drax (who was the villain in the 1979 James Bond film, Moonraker)
Vorath - Possibly based on the word Wrath.
Spasma - Spasm (or spastic if you prefer)
Krunk - I'd agree with the onomatopoeia explanation.

Perhaps I'm trying to hard for the explanations of the decepticon headmasters. It might be that they just picked sci-fi sounding names for all of them, using the futuristic letters Z, X and V.

Posted: **Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:27 am**

High Command wrote:I'll have a bash at this.

Galen - gallant
Arcana - arcane (IE old)
Duros - durable
Stylor -stylish
Gort - no too sure about him but he shares the name with the robot from The day The Earth Stood Still, perhaps the person naming him was a fan of that movie in the same way that Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )

Zarak - I'm sure it's a cooincidence but theres a 1956 film called Zarak. Most likely the name was chosen for sounding like a cool sci-fi name as it starts with Z.
Monzo - Weak link to the word Muzzle?
Grax - Possibly based on Drax (who was the villain in the 1979 James Bond film, Moonraker)
Vorath - Possibly based on the word Wrath.
Spasma - Spasm (or spastic if you prefer)
Krunk - I'd agree with the onomatopoeia explanation.

Perhaps I'm trying to hard for the explanations of the decepticon headmasters. It might be that they just picked sci-fi sounding names for all of them, using the futuristic letters Z, X and V.

Pretty good reasoning there.
"Monzo" could also be related to "mondo" or "gonzo"?
"Spasma" is a (portmantu?) combination of "spasm" and "plasma" methinks.

Posted: **Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:09 am**

OptimusPrive wrote:
High Command wrote:I'll have a bash at this.

Galen - gallant
Arcana - arcane (IE old)
Duros - durable
Stylor -stylish
Gort - no too sure about him but he shares the name with the robot from The day The Earth Stood Still, perhaps the person naming him was a fan of that movie in the same way that Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )

Zarak - I'm sure it's a cooincidence but theres a 1956 film called Zarak. Most likely the name was chosen for sounding like a cool sci-fi name as it starts with Z.
Monzo - Weak link to the word Muzzle?
Grax - Possibly based on Drax (who was the villain in the 1979 James Bond film, Moonraker)
Vorath - Possibly based on the word Wrath.
Spasma - Spasm (or spastic if you prefer)
Krunk - I'd agree with the onomatopoeia explanation.

Perhaps I'm trying to hard for the explanations of the decepticon headmasters. It might be that they just picked sci-fi sounding names for all of them, using the futuristic letters Z, X and V.

Pretty good reasoning there.
"Monzo" could also be related to "mondo" or "gonzo"?
"Spasma" is a (portmantu?) combination of "spasm" and "plasma" methinks.

"Monzo" is a combination of Marshmellow and Marzapan.

Posted: **Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:39 pm**

High Command wrote:[...]Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )[...]

Is that true?

Posted: **Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:34 pm**

Leonardo wrote:
High Command wrote:[...]Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )[...]

Is that true?

And it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Ratchet is a mechanic and a ratchet is a tool?

I doubt the Nurse Ratched thing.

Posted: **Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:29 pm**

OptimusPrive wrote:
High Command wrote:I'll have a bash at this.

Galen - gallant
Arcana - arcane (IE old)
Duros - durable
Stylor -stylish
Gort - no too sure about him but he shares the name with the robot from The day The Earth Stood Still, perhaps the person naming him was a fan of that movie in the same way that Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )

Zarak - I'm sure it's a cooincidence but theres a 1956 film called Zarak. Most likely the name was chosen for sounding like a cool sci-fi name as it starts with Z.
Monzo - Weak link to the word Muzzle?
Grax - Possibly based on Drax (who was the villain in the 1979 James Bond film, Moonraker)
Vorath - Possibly based on the word Wrath.
Spasma - Spasm (or spastic if you prefer)
Krunk - I'd agree with the onomatopoeia explanation.

Perhaps I'm trying to hard for the explanations of the decepticon headmasters. It might be that they just picked sci-fi sounding names for all of them, using the futuristic letters Z, X and V.

Pretty good reasoning there.
"Monzo" could also be related to "mondo" or "gonzo"?
"Spasma" is a (portmantu?) combination of "spasm" and "plasma" methinks.

As far as "Monzo" goes, wouldn't 'mondo gonzo' roughly mean, like, 'big crazy'?

For "krunk", I'm thinking along the Monzo and Spasma lines, like Krunk is a purposeful misspelling or crunch or crush of something. Those name make a certain amount of sense considering they are the heads of what's supposed to be wild, maniacal robot animals, I think.

Posted: **Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:20 am**

Dagon wrote:
OptimusPrive wrote:
High Command wrote:I'll have a bash at this.

Galen - gallant
Arcana - arcane (IE old)
Duros - durable
Stylor -stylish
Gort - no too sure about him but he shares the name with the robot from The day The Earth Stood Still, perhaps the person naming him was a fan of that movie in the same way that Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )

Zarak - I'm sure it's a cooincidence but theres a 1956 film called Zarak. Most likely the name was chosen for sounding like a cool sci-fi name as it starts with Z.
Monzo - Weak link to the word Muzzle?
Grax - Possibly based on Drax (who was the villain in the 1979 James Bond film, Moonraker)
Vorath - Possibly based on the word Wrath.
Spasma - Spasm (or spastic if you prefer)
Krunk - I'd agree with the onomatopoeia explanation.

Perhaps I'm trying to hard for the explanations of the decepticon headmasters. It might be that they just picked sci-fi sounding names for all of them, using the futuristic letters Z, X and V.

Pretty good reasoning there.
"Monzo" could also be related to "mondo" or "gonzo"?
"Spasma" is a (portmantu?) combination of "spasm" and "plasma" methinks.

As far as "Monzo" goes, wouldn't 'mondo gonzo' roughly mean, like, 'big crazy'?

For "krunk", I'm thinking along the Monzo and Spasma lines, like Krunk is a purposeful misspelling or crunch or crush of something. Those name make a certain amount of sense considering they are the heads of what's supposed to be wild, maniacal robot animals, I think.

I agree. Krunk sounds like something heavy hitting something solid.

Posted: **Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:04 pm**

"Krunk" has been used as a verbal sound effect in a number of comic books (including a few TF comics I believe).

I can picture how it got started, a couple of comic writers are tired of putting "Bam" and "Pow" on their pages and want to come up with a new, more creative word to describe a sound. One of them crushes a soda can.

"Hmm," says one. "What would you call that sound?"

"Sounded to me like a 'krunk'," says another.

"There's our new word!"

Posted: **Mon Mar 12, 2007 10:50 am**

Loki120 wrote:
Leonardo wrote:
High Command wrote:[...]Ratchet is named after Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest )[...]

Is that true?

And it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Ratchet is a mechanic and a ratchet is a tool?

I doubt the Nurse Ratched thing.

Bob Budiansky is displeased by your doubting.

Uncle Bob on naming transformers said not wrote:Do you remember any Transformers in particular that you came up with names and personalities for?
Megatron, whichever the first couple dozen were. Ravage. I think Bumblebee was mine. Ironhide, um who was the ambulence? Ratchet, which I got from "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest", Nurse Ratchet you know that story. Ironhide I got from the old TV series Ironside. I pulled all these names from different things.

Megatron was "Mega" from "Megaton", you know. "Tron" was from "electronics". I can't say for sure, but my belief is that that name became one of the best known. I remember it was in Doonesbury where the son of Doonsbury is saying that the President is Megatron or something like that. I think it's the best known and regarded among a lot of the names I came up with. At the time, Hasbro actually initially rejected it, and the reasoning was "Well, it sounds too scary because Megatron makes you think of nuclear bombs." and I said "Well, he's the head of the bad guys, the whole idea is for him to be scary." They dropped their protest after that. They would reject names every so often for all sorts of reasons. Although they were really happy, I mean they were just ecstatic generally when I came up with a batch of names for them to look at.

I know sometimes in other years they actually used companies to come up with names. At that time I think there was some really nascent computer software to generate names, and they would do that. And they would always come back to me. For like, five years they did that.

So ner. I wasn't talking out of my arse, thankyouverymuchplease.

The Energon Pub

Krunk ... what the hell did his name used to mean?

Krunk ... what the hell did his name used to mean?