Badnik (Sonic Boom)

The Badniks, commonly referred to as minions, are a group that appears in the Sonic Boom franchise. They are a robot line that serves as the military backbone of Dr. Eggman's robot legions. The units consist of a number of mass-produced models designed for the purpose of overwhelming the enemy with numbers. Though easily replenished, they are expensive to produce and very fragile.

The Badniks have been deployed against Team Sonic and its members on numerous occasions, only to quickly be destroyed one way or another. They otherwise reside at Dr. Eggman's Lair, guarding the fortress and aiding Eggman with his projects.

Description
The Badniks are based on regular non-anthropomorphic animals and are entirely mechanical. They are designed with a number of armaments and basic skills and can be equipped with extra gear. However, they are not very powerful and extremely fragile as a well-aimed whack from even the weakest opponent is enough to disable them. Should the Badniks get destroyed after a battle, Orbot and Cubot will salvage their remains.

The Badniks all have a limited artificial intelligence and no noteworthy personalities, making them almost completely silent and near-mindless drones that solely work for whoever is commanding them. Still, they do possess a degree of free will and emotional capabilities, having showcased festive and celebrative gestures on a number of occasions and even behavior indicating feelings, such as surprise and fear. As per the programming demonstrated by most of them, they will only obey orders after being threatened. As Eggman robots, they also receive power remotely from Dr. Eggman's lair. Should the lair run out of power though, the Badniks will too.

Season one
After Tails snuck past them when infiltrating Eggman's Lair, the Badniks cornered the fox when he gave himself to Dr. Eggman in exchange for UT's release. The Badniks later tried stopping Team Sonic when they came for Tails, but failed. Accompanying Orbot and Cubot on a robbery, the Bee Bots helped them rob the DangerCo Deadly Equipment Warehouse and kept Team Sonic busy. The Bee Bots were later summoned to the Awardy Awards by Eggman to help the doctor claim the Awardy Award, but they fled as Team Sonic began counterattacking. The Badniks were later called in to stop Team Sonic from breaking Amy out of Eggman's lair, only to get destroyed and mess up the lair for Modern Lair Magazine.

With Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks turned evil, the Badniks helped them and Eggman corner Sonic. When the evil heroes turned on each other though, the Badniks got caught in the crossfire and got destroyed by Sonic and Sonic Cookie Eggman. The Badniks were later brought to Sonic's Shack by a vengeful Eggman to attack Sonic and Tails, only to get destroyed. The Badniks were also the primary guests at the surprise party Eggman held for Orbot and Cubot where they enjoyed the festivities before Eggman brought them to a close. A lone Motobug Badnik was later used to test a freeze ray. Additionally, Eggman Industries would put some Badniks up for sale, which T.W. Barker bought to guard a certain group of captives, who destroyed them upon escaping.

While helping Eggman train during a laser tag exercise, a trio of Badniks lost to him by accident, making Eggman realize the luck balance of the universe was in his favor. Sonic (while stuck in Eggman's body) later assumed command of the Badniks to recover his body from Eggman, leading to many of them getting smashed. As Eggman got depressed, the Badniks were left on standby for a while, but got called in to battle Sonic when Eggman recovered. They were later summoned to battle Team Sonic again when Eggman's plan to sue Sonic failed. Soon after, some Crab Bots were sent by Eggman to battle Team Sonic and undermine the speed-inhibited Sonic for Eggman's latest plan. The same Badniks would be used by Eggman to attack Team Sonic when a time loop was created. Aware of this, Eggman would re-coordinate the Crab Bots for his attack until they got it right, but soon realized the time loop would undo their work.

When the rock monster appeared, Eggman tried capturing him with his Bee Bot Badniks. When that failed, Bee Bots engaged Team Sonic, who protected the rock monster, only for Sonic to turn them against Eggman, making him retreat. The Badniks later joined Eggman in a battle against Team Sonic in the jungle, but got driven off by the heroes. As Orbot and Cubot said goodbye to the Badniks when leaving Eggman for the time being, Eggman let Nominatus into his system. This computer virus took control of the Badniks to exterminate all life on earth. They then went to attack Eggman and his allies until Orbot and Cubot destroyed Nominatus.

After having a Motobug hold his spot at Meh Burger, Eggman used his Badniks to attack Sonic over a minor error, only for Team Sonic to arrive and destroy them. The Badniks were eventually abandoned when Eggman forsook technology, allowing the Lightning Bolt Society to take control of them and send them on random rampages. However, the Badniks returned to Eggman once he reclaimed his lair. Discontent with Dave the Intern service at Chez Amy, the Badniks were summoned by Eggman to kill Dave and destroy the restaurant. Thanks to Team Sonic though, they only accomplished the latter.

The Badniks were eventually called into the jungle by Eggman to force Monkey-Boy into his service. However, they were destroyed by Team Sonic. A number of Crab Bots soon after came to the Mayor's Mansion and helped Eggman find a form for his first law as ruler of the Village despite resistance from Knuckles. A fraction of the Badniks were later used to shoot Eggman's mind-enslaving movie, though the remainder joined the audience at its premiere. Because the movie ended up a failure though, the Badniks were sent away by Eggman. As Eggman attacked Seaside Island, Team Sonic would destroy the Baadniks accompanying him. Then, when an alternate-dimension Knuckles and Team Sonic attacked Eggman's lair, the Badniks tried miserably to defend it.

Deviating from their regular assignments, the Badniks accompanied Eggman to the Valley of the Cubots to destroy the renegade Cubot prototypes. With Sonic and Tails protecting the prototypes though, they had to retreat. On New Year's Eve, a swarm of Bee Bot Badniks was summoned by Eggman to fight Sonic, but were unable to do so due to the effects of Eggman's Slow Motion Machine. Motobug Badniks were later deployed to attack the Village Center, but Tails defeated them.

Several Eggman Industries-branded Badniks would join a mission sponsored by Eggman to remove Knuckles as host of the Comedy Chimp Show as a part of a sponsor deal with Comedy Chimp. However, they left after a battle with Team Sonic. Another time, when Eggman was stealing Tails' inventions using Hypnobot, the Badniks protected Hypnobot. While they were busy with Team Sonic though, Tails got Hypnobot to stop the Badniks by making them dance.

Once he got a purplus in solar power, Eggman sent his remotely super-charged Badniks to attack the Village. While Team Sonic destroyed the Badniks, they alerted the Archipelago Homeowners Association to Eggman's illegal housing of robots. Eggman thus had to hide his Badniks from the association while he had them over for dinner to convince them he had no robots, or risk eviction. However, the Badniks went haywire from power overload during a thunderstorm and blew Eggman's cover. After avoided eviction by convincing the association that his Badniks were art, Eggman spent the night getting them under control.

Some Bee Bot Badniks later came to Eggman's aid as he stole a trophy. Though Team Sonic's image specialist held them back, thus letting the Bee Bots fight back, the bots got destroyed once Team Sonic got rid of the specialist. The Badniks would also join Team Eggman's fight against Team Sonic. Despite this, Team Eggman still got defeated.

Season two
One time, the Badnik came with Dr. Eggman to answer Tommy Thunder's "challenge" to Eggman on TV, but got destroyed when Sonic came to Tommy's aid. Another time, Eggman used his Badniks to ambush the Unnamed Village while Sonic was stuck on another plane of existence. As the Badniks overwhelmed Team Sonic, they were driven back once Tails brought Sonic to the fight. The Badniks were later pulled out by Eggman to attack Sonic while he was stuck on a floe, but the rest of Team Sonic soon came and eliminated them.

Both Crab Bots and the new Shark Bots would be used by Eggman in the sea to defend the Wave Machine. Though the undersea environment gave the Badniks the advantage when Team Sonic faced them, they were still beaten and even used to foil Eggman's plan. Eggman soon after had his new Beetle Bots aid the mind-controlled villagers with the construction of his Super Slumber Satellite. The first generation of Badniks was later called in when Sticks freed Team Sonic from the mind control, but got defeated. Another time, when his old Badniks got destroyed by the Village's new defense during an attack, Eggman brought his new Scorpion Bots with him past the defense to attack the Village. They too, however, met their end at Team Sonic's hands.

Fed up with Eggman's callous attitude, the Badniks joined Orbot and Cubot's strike action while also scorning Eggman's replacement lackeys. As they were about to give up though, Eggman cracked and agreed to treat them better (but still without respect). The Badniks later tried destroying the Fuzzy Puppy Warehouse to boost the value of Eggman's Fuzzy Puppies collection, but were stopped by Team Sonic. Then, when Orbot became an independent villain, he took some Badniks with him to attack City Hall, but these units were stopped by Team Sonic too. The Badniks would soon after engage Team Sonic again, but the heroes easily wiped them out. Attempting another attack on Team Sonic, Eggman brought his Badniks (including his new Mantis Bots) with him. Unsurprisingly, they proved again to be not match against Team Sonic.

While aiding Eggman on an excavation search for Ancient mech suits, the second-generation Badniks would attack Team Sonic on Eggman's orders when the team found their operation, only to get beaten by the heroes. More Badniks would soon after engage Team Sonic in a number of battles over a couple of days, but came up short each time despite Knuckles' partial absence. Eggman later brought some Bee Bots along to steal the Fregosi Sapphire, but Team Sonic trashed most of them. Taking pity on a surviving Bee Bot, Amy named it "Bea" and adopted it. Learning of this, Eggman took Bea back and had her fight among Bee Bot look-alikes to keep Team Sonic from attacking these Badniks while they helped him steal the Fregosi Sapphire. Once Amy got Bea singled out though, Team Sonic smashed the other Bee Bots. Though Bea got shot, she was fixed and returned to Amy. The Badniks soon failed again to destroy Team Sonic when Eggman attacked the team with them. Some Mantis Bots also tried defeating Sonic for Eggman when Mombot set up a playdate between the two, but they withdrew when Mombot disapproved of this.

A few Scorpion Bots came with Eggman when he joined T.W. Barker's Circus of Wonders. These robots fought Team Sonic when the group crossed the circus, but left with Eggman when he got sent into a sleepwalking trance. After losing more Badniks in a fight with Team Sonic, Eggman brought another batch to a battle with Nominatus and his gang. There, the Badniks fought Nominatus' Caterpixels until Nominatus and his gang were stopped and shrunk, allowing a Beetle Bot to capture them. Going to the beach, Eggman brought his Badniks with him. There, he had them fight Team Sonic to no avail when Sonic upset him. Soon after, Eggman would attacked the Village with his Badniks. There, they cornered a lone Sonic, as Eggman had intended. However, Sonic's team soon came and helped trash the Badniks. Crab Bots eventually engaged Knuckles and Sticks when Eggman put his next plan into motion, but they got taken out by Sonic once Team Sonic was fully assembled.

Thinking Team Sonic had stolen change from him, Eggman sicced his Badniks on them. As the Badniks got crushed by the heroes, Mighton and Bolts intervened to avenge the Badniks. Beetle Bots later tried, on Eggman's order, to stop Team Sonic from rescuing Mighton and Bolts from Eggman's captivity, but got smashed in no time. Less than a hour afterward, the Badniks got infected by malware from Hypnobot, who made them attack the Village alongside other infected robots. There, their onslaught was kept at bay by Team Sonic, whose members eventually split up, leaving the Badniks with fewer foes to deal with. As the battle raged on, the Badniks slowly overwhelmed the remaining heroes, even after Og joined the fight, until the villagers began fighting back too. Hypnobot's control was subsequently broken, and the remaining Badniks returned to Eggman. The Badniks fell under Hypnobot's command again though when he and Eggman made an alliance. Joining the villains' army for an invasion of Morristown, the Badniks met opposition from Team Sonic and their allies after arriving in the city, until the heroes fell back when Hypnobot began turning the robots in the city against them. However, the Badniks got beaten back when Team Sonic returned with Team Cybonic as support and destroyed Hypnobot, leaving those left to retreat with Eggman.

With his FleaBots hindering Team Sonic, Eggman had his Badniks steal candy from a local store. More were later called in to fight the FleaBot-infested Team Sonic when they came to Eggman's lair, but had little success. A few Badniks later helped Eggman attack what appeared to be Sonic, which was revealed to be a decoy doll in the aftermath. Discovering that Amy and Sticks set the doll up to trick him, Eggman attacked the girls with his Badniks, but the duo quickly destroyed them. The first generation of Badniks later attacked Team Sonic when Eggman lured the team into a trap, only to be destroyed by the heroes. The Badniks were soon called in to fight Team Sonic once more by Eggman, but they quickly got overpowered by the team. T.W. Barker soon after conned Eggman out of all his properties, effectively making the Badniks his. The Badniks would be used by Barker to attack Team Sonic, who had a hard time handling the Badniks due to the strategies Barker deployed. However, the Badniks turned on Barker when Eggman had them infected with a virus. After Eggman forced Barker to give him back his properties, the scientist deactivated his Badniks' virus and had them battle Team Sonic again.

During his search for the Tummel Crystal, Eggman took some Badniks with him to excavate Buddy Buddy Temple. When they breached the Froglodyte Caves however, the Badniks got taken out by a natural AI-disabling pulse. Back in the lair, when Eggman's Anti Gravity Ray got stuck on Cubot in high gear and messed with Cubot's mind, a few Badniks got called in by Eggman to help the doctor when he got caught in his device's anti-gravity field. However, they too got caught by the device. When Cubot and the device then got flung out of the lair on a small trip, a few Badniks got pulled along until Team Sonic grounded them. Afterward, Eggman had his Badniks help his robots turn his lair away from the Sunday breeze manually. Later, Eggman had a Shark Bot try out for a soccer team he was attempting to assemble, but it got cut since it could not play on dry land.

Archie Comics
Having been used many times before, the Badniks would be summoned to crush Sonic the Hedgehog, only to quickly be destroyed by Team Sonic. Hordes of Badniks were later unleashed on the villagers during the Eggtoberfest when Eggman realized he could not buy the villagers' trust. However all the Badniks were crushed by Team Sonic.

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom
In Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom, all three type of badniks appear as enemies during the stages. Each badnik has their own attack patterns and can be destroyed with one hit.

Trivia

 * Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom is the first and only media to use the term "badnik" for these robots.
 * Out of all the Badniks, only the Beetle Bots possess defensive abilities.
 * Part of the reason why the Badniks are so easily destroyed in their battles is because Dr. Eggman does not use any real strategy when coordinating them.