Not sure if correct location for this thread, but I haven't seen any comments or anything about this particular G1 episode....
So Starscream goes to Cybertron gets 5 "sparks" and makes the Combaticons. WHY oh WHY didn't he take at least like 100 He could have created a whole new Decepticon armada with all those available sparks?
At least not destroy the room of them. All the potential OMG

 

You are assuming there were more "Sparks" to take

You are also assuming that if there were more worth taking ,and not a bunch of useless ability-less individuals

Also it's not like he brought any way of carrying many out so perhaps he took all he could carry by hand

 

You're also assuming there were more wrecks for him to put those personality components in! But he specifically took those because they were a group of renegades who turned against Megatron in the past, during the war on Cybertron, so he knew they'd be willing to fight him.

 

Yup. My first reaction was "maybe those were the only 5 worth taking." If you were Starscream looking for new soldiers, would you really want a spark of some ex-accountant who was serving time for embezzlement crimes? I guess if his plot was to overthrow Megatron through misappropriation of funds, then yeah, sure...

 

Also assuming he could unearth more vehicles. He only found five, time period be damned.

 

Marketing.

 

Also, I may have to rewatch the episode, but wasn't there an alarm hat went off when Starscream took the personality components. I might be remembering this incorrectly, but I could have swore an alarm went off. Meaning that Starscream had to act fast if he didn't want to be captured; so he wouldn' have time to grab tons of personality components.

 

Yes, and he was also recently exiled by Megatron for blatantly attacking him from behind.

 

Even if he had the materials, time, and the right sparks, he doesn't have the wit.

 

Given the fact his decisions usually lead to the Autobots winning, I'd have to agree. The only reason the Autobots were reawakened was because he was a triggerhappy moron.

 

Remember that he was counting down the "prison" bays, so he was looking for someone specific.



Oh, and Sparks didn't exist back then. You had personality components and laser cores. It's also why they were about to be taken offline and repaired so often in the series, and then marketing bullets took them out in the movie.

 

The alarm didn't go off till after he destroyed the rest of the room

 

Sparks, Personality componets, or laser cores. Call it what you will, but it will make a transformer unique... 2nd there were a minimum of 217 rooms probably more. I would assume they weren't all accountants. There had to be some damn good fighters that were threats to Megatrons regime.

 

Fair enough. Now I wish they included a scene with SS talking to himself, explaining every criminal's crime and why they wouldn't be suitable to be his new soldier. "Hacking government records... gonna skip that one. Money laundering... gonna skip that one. Possession of illegal Energon wine... gonna skip that one. Crashing into buildings while under the influence of illegal energon wine... gonna skip that one too."

 

I could see a Hacker being productive especially since at the time earths computers were a joke and the only good cybertonian Computer was Teletran one. It wouldn've provided a better Decepticon rival for Soundwave.

I know it was a stupid show for stupid kids, but if Merchandising was all they were after Start scream could have built TONS of Gestalts to merchandise

 

'Tis true, good point!

 

Maybe the room that housed the Combaticon's personality components were the only personality components in that room with the rest of the info pertaining to historical records that could implicate SS in how and why the Combaticons originally became political prisoners ?

Maybe he did that as a two-fer. Destroy old evidence and get an army.

 

I am surprised you all are taking Starscream for a complete idiot that he didnt take more of them, start to bass him for it, and all of you are missing the obvious which explicitely shows why he did it and that he is far from been an idiot: I will leave this small piece of dialogue here:

"I freed your hides from the Decepticon detention center, in return I command you to help me dethrone Megatron"
"And whats stopping us from turning you into scrap iron instead?"
"The fact that I didnt equip you with energy absorbers, no energy no life"

 

Still a bit less competent than Megs, who would've punched him square in the jaw and made an example of him.

 

Right and a few sceens in the later starscream and the other five are all absorbing energy at some power plant without ever being given the absorbers