Tank, also known as Experiment 586, is an illegal genetic experiment created by Jumba Jookiba and a character in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. He is designed to consume metal and grow exponentially larger with all that he eats. He was captured by Gantu, but was rescued in "Snafu".
Background
Personality
Tank is a giant experiment whose intimidating nature only grows with his size. He is shown to be extremely insatiable and voracious, having an enormous appetite for metal. He will hurt anyone who gets in his way and can hold a grudge against them, like he did with Stitch, but otherwise ignores individuals who run from him.
Physical appearance
Tank is a round, quadrupedal, orange armadillo/bulldog-like experiment with thick legs, black eyes, a brown oval nose, a large, wide mouth, sharp metal-like teeth, a short tail, two small ears, and plates going from the front of his head to the end of his tail.
Powers and abilities
Tank has exponential jaw strength that enables him to chew any type of metal with ease. His overbite jaw is also able to stretch amazingly, allowing him to eat things many times his size (such as a factory); he was able to eat an automobile bumper many times his length without struggle. His body size increases exponentially with any metal he consumes.
Appearances
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Experiment 586 was the 586th genetic experiment created by Jumba with Hämsterviel's funding. He was designed to consume metal and grow exponentially bigger with each feast. 586 and the other first 624 experiments were deactivated and smuggled to Earth by Jumba during his mission to capture Experiment 626.
All of the experiment pods were released and scattered across the island of Kauai, with 586's pod landing in a car's grille.
When the owner washed down his car with a hose, 586's pod got wet, activating the experiment. 586 then ate the driver's automobile, leaving only the rubber tires, and ran off.
Later, 586 devoured a huge factory that was being shown to some tourists riding in a van, then proceeded to eat metal throughout town until he grew to a large enough size to go on a rampage.
Gantu had been informed about 586 and realized he couldn't possibly catch the experiment in a containment orb, due to how large it had grown. He then prepared the cargo bay of his ship for abducting 586.
Meanwhile, Lilo won tickets to the Elizabethan Fair and invited the hula girls (who ditched Mertle when she refused to participate with Lilo), but neglected Stitch after he told her an experiment was running amok. Later, Stitch (who couldn't attend the fair because no dogs were admitted) teamed up with a lonely Mertle in hopes of stopping 586.
Stitch and Mertle evaded the gigantic 586 in Nani's dune buggy after he got distracted from his metal-eating feast. After a while, a tractor beam abducted Stitch and Mertle into Gantu's ship. Though Gantu was briefly discouraged that he failed to capture 586, he locked Stitch and Mertle in teleport chambers and prepared to try again.
Experiment 625 was inexplicably fascinated by Mertle. She used this to her advantage by soft-soaping Reuben, who released her from containment as a result. Mertle then locked Reuben in the teleport chamber, and after she freed Stitch from the adjacent one, they escaped the ship as well as 586's clutches.
Gantu later chased down 586 in his ship, but the former was thwarted by Lilo, who brought down Gantu's ship and had two jugglers hinder his progress. Meanwhile, Stitch attempted to battle 586, but due to the latter's enormous size, he proved impossible to defeat, despite Stitch's best efforts. Seeing that Stitch was outmatched by 586, Lilo turned to Gantu for help.
586's rampage continued to spread, where, after an attack on Stitch, he was abducted by a tractor beam from Gantu's ship, as Lilo had convinced Gantu earlier to get the humongous experiment away from Stitch. Mertle later reunited with the hula girls who agreed to take her back, and Lilo made amends with Stitch.
Presumably after this, 586, named Tank, was sent to Hämsterviel who somehow found a way to shrink him back to his normal size and confine him in a container.
Although Tank was unseen in "Woops", he is known to have been sent back to Gantu along with all of Hämsterviel's other captive experiments after Experiment 600 caused chaos and nearly blew Hämsterviel's cover to the prison guards.
Tank reappeared in "Snafu", and was freed along with Gantu's other captive experiments by Lilo, Stitch, and several other experiments in a rescue mission. Tank even helped with the escape by eating Gantu's gun after Plasmoid broke it in two with a plasma blast.
Leroy & Stitch
The first 624 experiments, including Tank, were rounded up by Leroy and taken to a stadium to be destroyed. However, Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, Reuben, and Gantu arrived before the experiments could be destroyed.
Tank participated in the following battle between the experiments and the Leroy clones by eating attacking Leroys.
However, the Leroys soon gained the upper hand in the battle, but were defeated when Lilo, Stitch, Reuben, and several other experiments performed the song "Aloha ʻOe", which caused the Leroy army to shut down due to the original Leroy's fail-safe.
Gallery
Trivia
- Tank was first revealed in a DVD bonus feature of Stitch! The Movie in the experiment gallery.
- Tank is not referred to by his new name at any point in his debut, but his name officially appears on the experiments list in the end credits of Leroy & Stitch.
- Tank, along with Gigi, Dorkifier, Nosox, Butter, Shortstuff, Spike, Yang, Richter, Phoon, Splodyhead, and one unconfirmed experiment, are the only known experiments that are primarily quadrupeds.
- Tank's pod color is blue.
- The Experiment Pod Container describes Tank as: "Experiment 586. Primary function: Metal consumption. Experiment grows exponentially larger with everything it eats."
- Tank has shrunk from a massive size back to his normal size between his debut and "Snafu", suggesting he returns to his normal size after a while without eating any metal.
- Tank is one of the few experiments to not have his one true place revealed.
- In Leroy & Stitch, Tank was seen in a larger form during the battle between the Leroy army and the experiments. It can be assumed that Tank was in a place where he had consumed metal.
- Also during the battle, Tank is shown eating several Leroy clones, though it is unknown whether or not this actually killed the clones.
- Tank's ability to grow larger from eating metal is similar to Ploot's ability to grow larger from eating garbage and Fudgy's ability to grow larger from eating chocolate in the Stitch! anime.
- Tank appears in the online game Lilo & Stitch: Alien Interception, along with Clyde, Dupe, Yang, Plasmoid, and Hämsterviel.
