Thunderdrum

"Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum will produce a concussive sound wave that can kill a man at close range. Very dangerous, kill on sight!"

- Hiccup as he reads through the Dragon Manual.

The Thunderdrum is a large dragon that is as comfortable in and around water as it is on land. It is noted for possessing great power and a sonic blast for its breath attack. A Thunderdrum named Thornado is owned by Stoick the Vast, chief of the Hairy Hooligan tribe.

Description
This dragon relies mostly on its two sets of wings, one primary and one smaller set to the rear, using them to get around and move through the water like a tornado. The Thunderdrum has legs (If you look closely in the book of dragons, you can see the legs.) Even though they are almost smaller and thinner than even a Terrible Terror's legs, they can surprisingly hold the dragons weight.

According to the Dragon Manual, a Thunderdrum is roughly the same size as an adult Viking, though they are clearly far larger (larger than Bucket and Mulch's ship as seen in How To Pick Your Dragon). In the How to Train Your Dragon 2 teaser much larger thunderdrums are seen, this thunderdrums are about as big as a whale and their wingspan is long enough for toothless to fly under one that was jumping out of the water. This dragon is reclusive in nature, living in sea caves and dark tide pools or even in open waters. The Thunderdrum is classified into the Tidal Class, along with the Scauldron and Oceanzap.

Abilities
The name comes from its main mode of attack/defense. Instead of breathing fire, the Thunderdrum produces a strong concussive sound that can kill a human at close range. The blast is so powerful that the creature is said to "get its power from Thor himself." Like nearly all dragons in the Manual, they are classified "extremely dangerous, kill on sight." It is also said that when a Thunderdrum hatches from its egg, it makes a sound so loud it rattles the sky.

Dragon Appearance
These dragons have stubby legs and long, skinny tails. When they open their enormous mouths, they show a series of teeth inside. Their wings are large triangles. It has a horn on the tip of its nose. It also has a series of backwards facing spikes sticking out of its back. The Thunderdrum, because of all that, is closely related to the Whispering Death, except the Thunderdrum has limbs, bigger, triangular wings, it's eyes are lifeful, the Thunder Drum's torso expands with it's mouth, and the Thunder Drum has the ability to close its mouth. The Thunderdrum's body resembles several marine megafaunas such as a basking shark, a whale shark, a manta ray, or a baleen whale. Its head somewhat resembles that of an angler fish. In Riders of Berk this dragon is just bigger than Stoick (excluding the tail), but in the How to Train Your Dragon 2 preview, it is much bigger.(if you look at these Thunderdrums from the side just the mouths are the same lenght as Toothless' entire body, including his tail.)

In Book of Dragons
The Thunderdrum appears in this exclusive short. It is classified into the Tidal Class in the book. Bork the Bold once found the egg of a Thunderdrum. But he didn't know that Thunderdrum eggs hatch with an explosive sound that rattles the sky, and he found this out the hard way.

Dragons: Riders of Berk
In How to Pick Your Dragon the Thunderdrum was first labeled as a rogue dragon attacking Berk's fishermen out at sea. While Hiccup tries to find Stoick a dragon so he can help his village more effectively, the rogue dragon strikes again. When they arrive on scene, Stoick is satisfied with the beast and requests his son to train it. However, when they bring it back to the academy and put a muzzle on it to keep it from using its roar on This dragon is picked for its ferociousness by Stoick the dragon becomes too stubborn and eventually breaks free.

After finding it, Stoick and Hiccup learn that it was accompanied by another Thunderdrum that was injured, which is why it attacked the fishermen, so it could get food for its friend. Hiccup leaves to fetch the others while Stoick stays behind with the Thunderdrums, but they are soon ambushed by wild boars. Stoick finally bonds with the dragon and together they defeat the boars.

The same Thunderdrum returns in Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man, but he remains unnamed. He serves as a riding mount for Stoick and Gobber.

In Dragon Flower, Stoick reveals to have named his Thunderdrum Thornado. His dragon is shown flying his master to the Shivering Shores as there was a meeting with their chief. When Stoick returns, Thornado eventually becomes ill from the Blue Oleander that Mildew planted. By the end of the episode, Thornado is cured with a Scauldron's anti-venom.

In What Flies Beneath, Thornado returns again. He is ridden briefly by Stoick into battle with the Whispering Death. He uses his sonic roar on the enemy dragon, but it has little effect. Before Thornado and the other dragons can close in, Toothless calls them off.

In Defiant One, Thornado is ridden by Stoick to search Hiccup, Toothless and Snotlout after they went missing.

In Breakneck Bog, Thornado is seen ridden by Stoick while searching for Trader Johann in the beginning of the episode.

In Gem of a Different Color, Stoick uses Thornado to frighten and chase a group of Changewings.

In We Are Family Part I, Stoick is seen riding Thornado to first, the Isle of Night, and secondly to Outcast Island.

Dragons: Wild Skies


In Dreamworks Dragons: Wild Skies, the Thunderdrum can be tamed. It lives in Wrecker's Reef, and one must feed it crabs or fish in order to tame it. You will need 10 Gold and buy a Crab Net, then go to Wrecker's Reef, where you then select the crabs. The Thunderdrum is a Tidal Class Dragon, and it screeches instead of breathing fire. When the player rides it, the dragon's mouth is closed. When you press the space bar, it will open its mouth and screech at the target. Other Vikings will say that the player is as strong as Stoick after having tamed it.

Appearances

 * How to Train Your Dragon (film) (Mentioned)
 * Book Of Dragons (Mentioned)
 * Riders Of Berk Commercials
 * How to Pick Your Dragon (First Appearance in Person)
 * Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man
 * Dragon Flower
 * What Flies Beneath
 * Defiant One
 * Breakneck Bog
 * Gem of a Different Color
 * We Are A Family Part I
 * We Are A Family Part II
 * Wild Skies (First Game Appearance)
 * How to Train Your Dragon 2

Notable Thunderdrums

 * Baby Thunderdrum Bork meet (see Book of Dragons)
 * Thornado
 * Thornado's Friend (see How to Pick Your Dragon)
 * Wild Skies Thunderdrum
 * Wild Thunderdrum (see We Are Family Part I)
 * Herd of Thunderdrums in Book of Dragons
 * Thunderdrum that flies at the camera in Book of Dragons
 * Herd of gigantic Thunderdrums in How To Train Your Dragon 2

Trivia

 * Thunderdrums seem to resemble Eagle Rays in shape and color. Like Spotted Eagle Rays, they are blue with white spots and "fly" through water with wings (Thunderdrums also have a slight resemblance to spotted whale sharks; they have similar gaping mouths). They also seem to resemble the Giant Bee-Eaters from the books.
 * They seem to be based on sharks or baleen whales. As it has whale shark spots, basking shark mouth, and has a shape of a spotted eagle ray (which is a relative of the shark.) It could be a shark-like dragon like the Snaptrapper or a whale-like dragon like the Scauldron which is a plant-like dragon. Its torso could possible be based on ridges on rorquals' belly that dramatically expand when they feed. Additionally, Thunderdrums' humming sounds similar to baleen whales' singing.
 * Its ability to produce a powerful sonic sound could be based on echolocation and sonic sounds used by cetaceans especially by baleen or Sperm whales that can reach several thousand kilometers away and are capable of paralysing large preys such as giant squids.
 * Like most dragons, this dragon could be in a variety of color as there are blue Thunderdrums and there are purple Thunderdrums. Color variety seems to be frequent in dragons such as blue Gronckles, violet Nightmares, purple Nadders, orange Zipplebacks, red Terrible Terrors, etc.
 * We Are a Family Part 1 features a Thunderdrum that is wild, and it attacks the riders.
 * The Thunderdrum was the first new dragon (to be introduced in Book of Dragons) to appear in the series. The Typhoomerang was unknown to Vikings at first.
 * In Book of Dragons, there is a school of Thunderdrums. There have also been lone Thunderdrums. This trait of schooling and living alone may be based on the hammerhead shark. As some socialize in schools to mate and migrate and some hunt alone. More evidence to prove the hammerhead shark theory is that the Thunderdrum seems to be based on sharks as it has a eagle rays shape and spots, basking shark mouth, and whale shark spot patterns.
 * The Thunderdrum is a fairly large dragon (a bit longer than Bucket an Mulch's fishing boat and nearly as long as a Whispering Death) but still considered to be medium, like the Changewing, the Deadly Nadder, the Monstrous Nightmare, the Hideous Zippleback, the Night Fury and the Skrill. However, out of these dragons, it's probably the largest.
 * Though it's overall power is 73, they seem to be extremely strong. Thornado carries Stoick on his back while pulling 2 ships out of their harbor and at another time carries Stoick and Gobber without showing any signs of struggling. Also Stoick beats up a Nightmare, one the toughest dragons known, in a few seconds, while it took him nearly a minute only to hold Thornado steady.
 * Thornado and the other Thunderdrums that appear on the show are much smaller than the ones in the Httyd 2 trailer, possibly because the ones shown in the trailer are titan wings and the domestic ones are not. It is possible that if Thunderdrums are out of water for a prolonged time, their growing slows down. Or perhaps the Thunderdrums in the How To Train Your Dragon 2 were fully grown, and Thornado and the ones in the show are still adolescents.
 * It is possible that it breathes fire (because there's a picture of a Thunderdrum breathing fire).
 * The Thunderdrum's shot limit is probably 16.
 * The Thunderdrum and the Night Fury are the only dragons so far that have 4 wings (though the Night Fury's second pair of wings don't flap).
 * It shares its species name with one of the Eight Instruments of the Sirens from Link's Awakening.
 * The largest Thunderdrums can be 70 metres long (nearly 2 times larger than a Blue whale).

In Free Scauldy, Hiccup says that Tidal class dragons can't stay out of water for very long. This may not be true for all Tidal class dragons, because we have seen Thornado, a Thunder Drum, go for very long periods of time out of water, and his skin didn't dry out.