Badnik Army Repair Functionaries

B.A.R.F., the Badnik Army Repair Functionaries, were a division of Robotnik's workers who repaired the Badnik robots destroyed by the Freedom Fighters. How big the division was is unknown: only two of its Search and Repair operatives, Cam (a cat) and Bert (a bull) were ever seen. Bert was the general 'handy-man' (with a strong fondness for hammers and hitting things with them); Cam, easily his intellectual superior, dealt more in re-programming computers. Both of them were highly devoted to Robotnik and the "improvements" he'd made to Mobius.

The two appeared in two of their own Sonic's World stories - No More Mr. Nice Bug (STC 32-34) and The Seven Badniks (STC 59-62). In their first appearance, Sonic's ally Porker Lewis made a weapon that could change the programming of Badniks to make them pacifist "Niceniks" (pacifist up until the point you stepped on a flower, anyway). While reprogramming the corrupted Moto Bugs back, B.A.R.F managed to lose two of them and they had to track them down for fear they would infect other Moto Bugs. When the Niceniks launched a vicious assault on them for harming flowers, Cam and Bert retaliated by smashing them.

In their second appearance (wearing new uniforms and with Cam having less jagged teeth), they were tasked with transporting Badniks from the Miracle Planet's Palmtree Panic Zone to Mobius' Green Hill Zone, in order to catch Sonic off guard by having him face Badniks he wouldn't expect to find in that Zone. However, the Palmtree Panic models refused to share a Zone with the older Green Hill Badniks and ran amok, exterminating all the older models. The titular Seven Badniks - Metamoto, Buzzorgsky, Crabaton, Crabinator, Buzznik, Motobotnik and Choppalien - were then built out of Green Hill Badniks by B.A.R.F to pacify the Palmtree Panic models, which they did with ease. The unruly Badniks were then taken back to the Miracle Planet (where they were promptly smashed by the vacationing Freedom Fighters). Cam & Bert never returned again, and neither did the Seven Badniks despite the writer deliberately setting them up to be used again.

Buzzorgsky, Buzznik, Crabbaton and Crabnik use Newtron parts, with the latter two using Crabmeats as well; Metamoto and Motobotnik appear little more than souped-up Motobugs; Choppalien is clearly a modified Chopper, with a secondary mouth.

Notes: though it ran at the same time, 'The Seven Badniks' must be set before the story 'Brotherhood Of Metallix' because of the use of the Palmtree Panic Zones and the Miracle Planet without the Brotherhood's involvement.

The Seven were inspired by cult film Seven Samurai (which would be the basis for The Magnificent Seven also)