Since the announcement that this episode is On Demand on CN & some US Cable TV Systems, going to go ahead and open for discussion...but we won't sticky the thread until it airs on CN in a couple of weeks.

There will be SPOILERS if you haven't seen the ep, don't read further, everyone who's viewed this episode--

Discuss Openly! Enjoy & Have fun!

Synopsis:
Grimlock begs to learn new fighting methods from reluctant teacher Drift and puts them into action when The Autobots travel to the Antarctic to battle the Decepticon Prong Crustacion - unfrozen from a melting glacier.


Watching Defrosted now..so glad these were released tbh. lol

 

Bumblebee too cocky in this new season?

 

My Thoughts:

Spoiler

Pros:
Crustacion's aka Prong's body design really brings out the character personality.
Grimlock's teaching fun is another highlight.
I really enjoy that they're mentioning Windblade again with her cashes.
Arctic Camo!
Cons:
Crustacion was stopped too early,there should have been more details.
Kind of weird how Grimlock fell off a cliff without getting hurt.
Overall Score:9.6

 

Cracked me up with Grimlock being Drift's 'poodle'  

 

This was an okay episode. Crustacion made far better use of Ped's body-type and alt mode than Ped did. It was hilarious to see Grimlock 'graduate' from Drift's training before the Mini-Cons. I also liked the gag with Fixit being distracted by playing Mario... er, whatever that game was. Only real problem is that it was very filler-y, no Stunticons or anything with Soundwave. 8/10.

 

I don't want to have to keep clicking spoiler reveal tags when everyone in here should have watched the episode already.

 

I found this on CNOnDemand, and it said the guy's name was prong...yet he is called crustacion...I'm confused.

 

Liked this episode. Grimmy thinking he was Drift's "poodle" was hilarious, and he indeed came up with a good way to beat a Con larger than him. Also, they used the word Shanix! First time since Animated, I think.
Irish 'Con Crustacion was awesome, loved how he was content to ignore the Bots and just search for his pot'o Shanix. Hope this means he and Ped can get a toy, even if a Legion like Springload.
And maaan, so glad Soundwave finally learned to talk. And Frank Welker is voicing him, no less!

 

Double check the OP... It's only spoilers to those who haven't seen the episode... they enter at their own risk as I stated to "Discuss Openly"... translation: those who post don't need to use spoiler tags.. unless they want to, but not required for these eps that CN placed ON DEMAND.

Pretty sure I read about the name change either in the speculation discussion thread or maybe something on TFWiki, either way it was reported to be Prong, but corrected to Crustacion that's why I left the strike-thru in the first post.  
Since that's what they called him in the episode... that's about as official as it gets I suppose.

 

Thanks for the clarification!

 

Thank god Russell's computer game broke at the end else Fixit would have spent an eternity trying to beat it. I am not sure how I feel about Crustacean. His design is okay but I like Ped's design more than his honestly since I find Ped's looks to be a bit more intimidating. When I watched the fight between Crustacean and Grimlock it just felt a bit lack luster to me since. Maybe I just wanted Grimlock to be slightly more slick and clever about fighting him but oh well. It's probably just me but I feel like the writers should have just made Crustacean a regular Cybertronian. Preferable a jet or boatformer who needed to find fuel but still do evil things.

I appreciate that beastformers are starting to get more attention thanks to the comics and shows but we have been getting a lot of beastformers since episode 1 and I hope that the writers start balancing things out little soon else I just might stop caring about beastformer antagonists unless they have a good plot to them.

One more thing. Grimlock winning over Drift with his dino eyes was just priceless. 

 

I agree with you about Ped, but it was his voice, that I couldn't stand. Also, Crustacion appears to be a shrimp-like bot.

 

Yeah Ped's voice is just way too nerdy for my tastes and I doubt anyone could take him seriously with that voice.

 

He kind of gave me a migrain, so...

 

Take some Tylenol and will probably go away.

 

That was the joke, here you see this dangerous looking worm Decepticon who could attack from underground and can temporarily paralyze you if he bites you... and then he opens his mouth and talks.


jD001

 

That was kind of the point of the character. No one took him seriously, not even other Cons. I liked him for that.  

 

So I finished watching the latest episode of RiD2015 Season 3 and I must say, it is a vast improvement over the season premiere. So on to the review.

Story
So I found the idea of Grimlock wanting to learn from Drift quite interesting. It's also very in character for him since in the last season Grimlock has shown he's willing to learn new things like in the episodes "Brainpower" or "Pretzel Logic." While I find Grimlock quite humorous, it's nice to see this side of him as well. It really gives him more dimension, making him more than the brawn of the team who isn't all that bright. I also like how the side plot did not overstay its welcome this time. Seeing Fixit's antics with trying to beat the video game was well paced and shown in short burst. Much like Russell's game, when looking at Fixit's sideplot, it adds nothing to the main story. But unlike Russell's Game plotline, Fixit's sideplot was portrayed as more of humorous breaks that were much shorter and spreadout unlike the former. Because of this improvement, the antics of Fixit didn't bore me like Russell's game and I didn't quite mind it. As for the Decepticon, I was expecting the Stunticons to appear but was surprised when they didn't appear at all. That was a bit disappointing since they were portrayed as the new bad guys for this season. Though I have a feeling that this plotline isn't a silly filler since the Shanix is implied to be a important key item. It seems that there's a large amount of importance on Cybertron relics, much like how they were in the Prime series. Finally I continue to be interested in the Soundwave plotline. I imagine that Strongarm will have an encounter with the red minicon we see emerge from the Groundbridge since I saw her toy was packaged with him.

Characters
Now moving onto the characters. Grimlock, as I mentioned, was handled excellent in this episode. His characterization much like how it was in what I like to call the best Grimlock episode of the series "Pretzel Logic." I was impressed with Grimlock using Drift's teachings that, while at first didn't quite worked out, actually helped him escape from the ice and defeat the Decepticon. I really enjoy Grimlock when he gets his moments to shine. Strongarm and Sideswipe were alright and it's nice to see them working well as a team. Those two are really effective when they aren't bickering with each other. Bumblebee seems alright but he's still a little too relaxed; fortunately not as relaxed as he was in the season premiere. I still stand by the fact that defeating Starscream had gone to his head. But nice to see that he is stumbling from the loss of his Decepticon Hunter. If I were to guess, I think Bumblebee's character growth for this season is him learning that no matter how many enemies he defeats, something will still come up that he won't be prepared for. As for Drift, it was nice to see him do more in this episode. In the season premiere he was very lackluster by barely doing or saying anything. It was interesting to see his interactions with Grimlock and by the end be proven wrong about him. I like the friendship that seems to develop between the two as the series continues. Finally for the Decepticon Crustacean, I don't see why people compare him to being Irish. If anything he came off more as a pirate to me, searching for his buried treasure. Admittedly I didn't release how large he was until compared to Grimlock. Though he does turn into a truck, and from what I seen is that Cybertronians that transform into trucks or any other heavy artillery vehicle tend to be on the larger side. I found his laser eyes to be interesting at first, but quickly grew disappointed that seemed to be his only combat method. Yeah he swung around his large claws of his, but he seemed clunky and ineffective with them. To toss in a minor nitpick, his design did not scream shrimp to me and I didn't even know that's what he's suppose to look like until pointed out by the characters. His design was way too all the place and could have used some toning down.

Special
Alright so I enjoyed the battle scenes much more than I did in the season premiere. This time around the fact seemed better paced and with flowing movements, not counting Crustacean. I absolutely loved the fight scene with Grimlock and the Decepticon. While Crustacean may be clunky with his movement, he's surprisingly fast. But the same could be said for Grimlock whom was able to move pretty swiftly through the water. I find that quite surprising considering in season 1 he struggling to barely move underwater due to his weight. Though I suppose it could be because he alternated between forms, accessing the situation to quickly think up tactics that were necessary for the moment. As for the background, while the artic is just as empty as the desert in the previous episode, I'm so glad they change up the scenery every so often to prevent it from feeling bland, something that would have helped the season premiere. I imagine if we were stuck staring only at the artic tundra for our background the entire episode, it would have felt quite bland. On a side note, I do like the callbacks to the previous season. When I think about it, there weren't much callbacks in season 2 to season 1. But I suppose that's because season 1 didn't have much material to reference aside from Optimus' revival, Steeljaw, and Megatronus' anti-climatic battle.

So with all that said, I give this Robots in Disguise Season 3: Combiner Force- Defrosted a 9/10. It was almost a 10/10 but a few problems kept me from giving it the top score.

Season 3 Scores

Episode 1 - 7/10
Episode 2 - 7/10
Episode 3 - 9/10

Season 3 Average So Far - 7.7/10

 

Crash Combiners? Isn't this series subtitled Combiner Force?

 

I think it is and I got the toys and series name mixed up.