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“Wreck-N-Roll!”
    —Wrecking Ball's official catchphrase


Wrecking Ball is a large grub worm who is one of the playable Skylanders in the Skylanders series, first appearing in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. Buddy Wrecking Ball is available exclusively on Skylanders: Lost Islands during the month of May.

Character Development

At the earliest development point of Spyro's Kingdom, Wrecking Ball was of the Water element.[2]

Wrecking Ball was originally called Force Field Grub, having started out as Gameplay Designer Nat Loh's creation but he couldn't finish the character. Lead Designer Toby Schadt had a very particular vision for this character that he wanted to personally develop. The one ability that Nat had originally designed that did not quite make it through was the Power Belch. In the original design, it functioned much like the Mycon Podship's semi-sentient Plasma ball attack. This was a small homing projectile that was very strong at its start and got bigger but weaker with time. The inconsistent nature of its damage ultimately made that iteration of the ability a casualty of the design process.[3]

Background

Personality

Possibly the most reckless of all the Skylanders, Wrecking Ball rolls into danger without thought for his own personal safety. This lively larva smashes anything in his path (often) by accident, and is always hungry, even when he's just eaten![4] In some media, he possesses dog-like qualities.

Biography

Wrecking Ball was once a tiny grub worm about to become the main ingredient in an old wizard’s cauldron of magic stew. But when he was dropped in, the wizard was shocked to see the little grub devour all of the soup and emerge from the cauldron 20 times larger and with a long, sticky tongue. The poor old wizard was even more surprised seconds later, when Wrecking Ball proceeded to swallow him whole. Eventually he ran, quite literally, into the powerful Portal Master Eon, who was intrigued by how he came to be and impressed with his unique abilities.

Story

History

Once upon a time, Wrecking Ball was nothing more than a common or garden grub. His adventure began when he became a speciality ingredient in a wizard's magical stew. After being chucked into the cooking concoction, a curious occurrence took place. The hungry little grub worm took a sip, and then a gulp, and ended up devouring the whole lot. When the wizard came in to check on his cauldron, instead of his tasty stew he found one enormous grub who had grown to over twenty times his original size. And as Wrecking Ball was still a little peckish, he popped the wizard in his mouth too - only to spit him straight back out again (even to a grub's standard's, the wizard tasted like a warthog!). The story soon spread, raising smiles across the Skylands world. Soon the plucky grub bounced into Master Eon, who evidently felt that the Skylanders could do with a serious stomach among their ranks.[5]

Skylanders: Stump Smash Crosses the Bone Dragon

Wrecking Ball was assigned with Countdown and Flameslinger to accompany Stump Smash to the Giggling Forest to investigate why the trees had stopped giggling. There, they discover that several of the living trees and Kaos' trolls were turned to stone by an unknown force, which soon revealed itself to be an angry Bone Dragon. During the attack, Flameslinger's bow was turned to stone by the Dragon's petrifying breath and Flynn's hot air balloon was petrified as well. The beast cornered the Skylanders, but Wrecking Ball quickly expelled a Power Belch at the Bone Dragon to drive it away, allowing the Skylanders to escape with a partially petrified Glumshanks.

Upon learning more about the Bone Dragon at the Eternal Archives, Wrecking Ball once again went with Stump Smash and Countdown to Troll Bastion to attack the fort and find Kaos. They fought against many trolls, eventually coming into contact with General Disaster. Whe the troll general readied two dozen missiles to fire at Wrecking Ball, the grub worm simply lashed out his tongue and swallowed General Disaster whole before he could fire his weapons. The Skylanders found the petrified forms of Kaos and Master Eon, and Wrecking Ball cried out to Stump Smash in alarm when he saw the ent was about to smash Kaos's statue to pieces as retribution for Eon's petrification, but reconsidered it. With the help of Wrecking Ball's gassy indigestion from eating General Disaster, the Skylanders were able to escape the Troll Bastion on Flynn's balloon.

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

After being banished from Skylands along with the other Skylanders, being a frozen statue was a living nightmare for Wrecking Ball. This lively, giant blue grub is never content unless he's smashing things around him (never on purpose). His thoughts were a mix between food and how to unleash his rapidly building energy.[6]

Abilities

Having consumed an entire cauldron of magic stew, its effects not only made Wrecking Ball grow 20 times his normal size and enhanced him with [[[Magic (Skylanders)magical energy]], but also gave him a long, sticky tongue which he uses to lash at his enemies. He can also curl into a ball and steamroll into his enemies using the magical energy he uses as a forcefield. Wrecking Ball can also let loose out a burp of gas from his mouth to blow enemies away, and can also devour medium or small enemies to regain health if he has gained his Soul Gem ability.

Stats

These are the starting and maximum statistics for this Skylander in the console version of the games.

  • Health: 270 (max. 540)
  • Speed: 43 (max. 91)
  • Armor: 24 (max. 54)
  • Critical Hit: 20 (max. 70)
  • Elemental Power: 25 (max. 100)

Warning: These stats are not used in any of the Skylander games. They are only listed for completeness reasons.

  • Strength: 35
  • Agility: 50
  • Defense: 90
  • Luck: 60

Powers and Upgrades

Basic Abilities
These abilities are available from the start of the game.
Soul Gem Ability
Requires Soul Gem from:
Quicksilver Vault

Tongue Whap Forcefield Ball Enemy Slurp
Wrecking Ballprimarypower

Primary Ability
Wrecking Ball slaps enemies with his super-tongue.

Wrecking Ballsecondarypower

Secondary Ability
Summon magic for a spin forcefield charge.

Wrecking Ballsoulgempower

Price: 4000
Wrecking Ball can swallow smaller enemies and regains 10 health when he does so.

Basic Upgrades
Skylanders can buy new abilities from Persephone.

Magic Ball Control Power Belch Tongue Evolution Digestive Detonation
Wrecking Ballbasicupgrade1

Price: 500
Forcefield Ball can be controlled and it does increased damage.

Wrecking Ballbasicupgrade2

Price: 700
Releases a burp attack that has increased range after eating something.

Wrecking Ballbasicupgrade3

Price: 900
Your Tongue Whap grows longer and does increased damage.

Wrecking Ballbasicupgrade4

Price: 1200
Charge up your Burp attack.


Total Tongue
This upgrade path lets you further develop your Tongue attack.

Lightning Tongue Tongue Grabber Tongue Supermax
Wrecking Ballpath1upgrade1

Price: 1700
Your Tongue Whap can attack quicker than ever.

Wrecking Ballpath1upgrade2

Price: 2200
Tongue Whap does extra damage and can pick up food and power-ups.

Wrecking Ballpath1upgrade3

Price: 3000
Your Tongue grows even longer.


Ultimate Spinner
This upgrade path lets you further develop your Forcefield attack.

Forcefield Blast Swath of Terror It's Gotta Go Somewhere
Wrecking Ballpath2upgrade1

Price: 1700
While in your Forcefield Ball, create a forcefield explosion.

Wrecking Ballpath2upgrade2

Price: 2200
The Forcefield Ball is larger and does even more increased damage.

Wrecking Ballpath2upgrade3

Price: 3000
While in your Forcefield Ball, create a more powerful burp attack.

Skylanders gain new abilities automatically based on their level.

Starting Powers

  • Slurp! (Primary Attack): Lash at enemies with your tongue.
  • Burp! (Secondary Attack): Let loose a burp, and enemies hit by the burp gas will take damage from the gas for a few seconds.

Upgrades

  • Clump! (requires level: 2): Roll into enemies to zap them using your forcefield.
  • Gulp! (requires level: 5): Hold to make Wrecking Ball slingshot forward with his tongue, damaging enemies he hits.
  • BURRRP! (requires level: 8): Hold (x) to charge up a massive burp,then release to launch Wrecking Ball into the air while blasting enemies around him.

Minigame Abilities
Skylanders get special abilities in minigames based on their element.

Sky Defense Castle Assault Ground Defense
SSUSkyDefensemagic

Create a vortex that pulls enemies in.

SSUCastleAssaultmagic

Launch a projectile that creates a magic area that disintegrates blocks.

SSUGroundDefensemagic

Create a vortex that pulls enemies in and inflicts damage.

Quotes

Commercial Quotes

Battle Cries

  • "Wreck-N-Roll!"
  • "Getting better and better!"
  • "Looking pretty good!"
  • "Now I look even cooler!" - when putting on a Hat
  • "Ooh treasure, I wanna eat it!"
  • "Ah! Could definitely do some damage in here!" - When opening a Magic elemental gate.
  • "I'm on a roll!"
  • "You got wrecked!"
  • "Sure, I can roll with that!"
  • "I dig the new name!" - When given a nickname

Character Trailers

See also

Gallery

Main article: Wrecking Ball/Gallery

Trivia

  • His missing teeth is the price all good grubs pay for eagerness in battle.[5]
  • Wrecking Ball reminded Master Eon of his favorite childhood pet.
    • The old Portal Master was also the one who named Wrecking Ball after the grub worm wrecked a few of Eon's statues.
  • Wrecking Ball has a few similarities with the Nintendo character, Kirby. Both are cute, squishy and can devour their enemies.
    • Wrecking Ball also shares his tongue trait with another Nintendo character, Yoshi.
  • Wrecking Ball resembles the Protopets from Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando.
  • His name, design and abilities very closely resemble characters from the video game Iggy's Reckin' Balls.
  • Although Wrecking Ball's species is said to be a grub worm, he looks neither like a grub nor like a worm, possibly due to being magically enchanced.
  • A wrecking ball is also a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a crane, that is used for demolishing large buildings.
  • His prototype toy shows that he was originally intended to be an Air Skylander. This early idea was scrapped, and Wrecking Ball was moved from the Air element to Magic.
  • His powers seem to be a mash up of two Ben 10 aliens, Upchuck and Cannonbolt. He has Upchuck's long tongue and ability to burp deadly burps, and Cannonbolt's ability to roll.
  • There is a glitch that if you go with Wrecking Ball's Forcefield Ball Path, you can go through gates in the Lair of Kaos.
  • In Spyro's Adventure, he apparently says "Wahoo!" like Zap when doing his Forcefield Ball attack.
  • There is a glitch (known in the PS3, possibly in others) where, by disengaging his forcefield ball at the right time, you can go through the stairs in the Ruins.
  • As shown in his Series 2 character trailer, his new Wow-Pow abilites include larger molars, and rolling in a disco ball that does more damage (all the while playing disco music).
  • Without any upgrades, his tongue is light blue in color. In spite of this, the Tongue Whap picture shows the tongue pink.
  • Wrecking Ball is similar to a Roly Poly bug.
  • While performing in Wrecking Ball's Wow Pow Power, disco music can be heard playing while he is inside his Disco Ball forcefield.
  • His catchphrase is a play on the phrase "Rock and Roll."
    • Coincidentally, "Rock and Roll" is Bash's catchphrase.
  • Before Swap Force, Wrecking Ball, Sonic Boom, Hot Dog, and Warnado were the only four quadruped Skylanders who are not dragons.
  • Wrecking Ball Series 2 figure has large teeth as it is given with the Wow Pow Disco Ball.

References

  1. Ryan Cooper's Instagram. (Date Posted - Oct. 5, 2015). Instagram.
  2. Game Design from Michael Ebert
  3. Senior character Gameplay designer. Nat Loh Website.
  4. Skylanders Universe: The Complete Collection, page 115
  5. 5.0 5.1 Skylanders Official Sticker Book: Meet the Skylanders, page 7
  6. Skylanders: Book of Elements - Magic and Tech, page 18
Characters
Playable Characters

Spyro the Dragon (Dark) (Legendary) - Gill Grunt - Trigger Happy (Legendary)
Cynder - Terrafin - Stealth Elf - Chop Chop (Legendary) - Eruptor - Ignitor - Prism Break - Stump Smash
- Flameslinger - Zap - Ghost Roaster - Voodood - Bash (Legendary) - Sonic Boom - Drobot - Boomer - Whirlwind
- Dino-Rang - Zook - Wrecking Ball - Sunburn - Camo - Wham-Shell - Slam Bam - Drill Sergeant
- Lightning Rod - Warnado - Double Trouble - Hex

Villains
Kaos - Hektore - The Darkness
Glumshanks - Captain Dreadbeard - Occulous - Vathek

Non-Playable Characters
Master Eon - Hugo - Flynn - Cali - Diggs - Sparx the Dragonfly - Auric - Gurglefin - Clam-tron 4000 - Arbo
- General Robot - T-Bone - Weapon Master - Persephone - Snuckles - Rizzo - Nort - Blobbers -
Jess LeGrand - Batterson - Gallant - Haldor - Flavius - Ramses
- Fargus - Wendel - Esmerelle - Beaufort - Humfry - Tizwig

Playable Characters
Classic series
Spyro - Sparx - Hunter - Sgt. James Byrd - Agent 9 - Sheila - Bentley - Blink
The Legend of Spyro series
Spyro - Cynder
Skylanders series
Spyro the Dragon (Dark) (Legendary) - Gill Grunt - Trigger Happy (Legendary) - Cynder - Terrafin
Stealth Elf (Legendary) - Chop Chop (Legendary) - Eruptor - Ignitor (Legendary) - Prism Break - Stump Smash
Flameslinger - Zap - Ghost Roaster - Voodood - Bash (Legendary) - Sonic Boom
- Drobot - Boomer - Whirlwind (Polar) - Dino-Rang - Zook - Wrecking Ball - Sunburn - Camo
Wham-Shell - Slam Bam (Legendary) - Drill Sergeant - Lightning Rod - Warnado -
Double Trouble (Royal) - Hex
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