Awesome theme song now! This episode was great as ever, looking forward to more.

 

Grimlock being more capable of teamwork really struck me as being further setup for him being wrongly imprisoned, or at least wrongly labeled Decepticon.

Hammerstrike wasn't nearly as entertaining as I had hopped, but I think I might have overhyped him in my mind, after I found out that he hates all things land based. Also, I call bullshit on him being trapped in a human made barrel. The dude was ramming a giant ship, then is unable to break out of a barrel?

Speaking of the ship, they never did explain what happened to the crew. I wonder if Hammerstrike ate them? He is a shark who hates land creatures, and Underbite established some TF do eat stuff other than Energon.

Stealjaw seemed a little over the top, but he reminds me a lot of BW Megatron. I think I'm going to like him. Although the fight choreography with him was rather boring.

If it sounds like I didn't enjoy the episode, I actually did. I found Strongarm and Sideswipe's squabbling to be enjoyable, I got a laugh out of Grimlock being stuck in the water, and while I don't remember much of the fight with Hammerstrike, there wasn't anything I took issue with, until the end. Oh, there was dubstep in the fight. I guess that had to find it's was into a TF cartoon eventually.

Edit: I forgot about the intro. I hate it. Especially the theme tune. God that guy shouting "Robots in disguise" was completely out of sync with the music.

 

Why am I thinking Steeljaw is going to be in love with the sound of his own voice? Still seems a cool character, even if he does come off as too smarmy. Must say I'm liking this new series.

 

I still cant get over how good this series is so far. I'll post my opinions later on today (2:06 am here)

 

crazy idea perhaps Steeljaw based his lie on Grimlock it would be odd but interesting or Steeljaw had something to do with it.

 

Loving Steeljaw. As the first non Mega/Galvatron main villain of a TF cartoon, he's doing a nice job so far. Honestly, other than Fixit I think this show's been doing a great job with enjoyable new characters.

 

I really enjoy the series so far. The tone is much lighter than Prime which I think kids will love. The Cons so far are really cool. I like that we got an explanation as to why Steeljaw's symbol was damaged (disable tracking device and trick Autobots). I do hope we'll see more characters from TF: Prime aside from Bumblebee in future episodes/seasons.

 

Hey why is the intro different then the Chinese one

 

I liked the intro with no screaming Robots In Disguise, loved it with music alone

 

I am going to say this. I like Bee's team but I feel it needs someone who is older like Ironhide or Ratchet.

 

I feel like that role could be filled Drift if they decide to give him a coveted main character slot. Seems like he'd have the grumpy old mentor role pegged.

 

My god, the Deceptions we've gotten thus far, are absolutley mint. Their voice actors and voice acting are perfect! Same for the Autobots. I'd have thought Grimlock would be a annoying dumb dick, but he's pretty funny and I like how he's

Spoiler

always got to punch something to be satisfied

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Spoiler

When he walked off with Hammerstrike in the barrel and gave it a punch off screen, it made me chuckle

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Spoiler

Strongarm and Sideswipe are like a little brother and Sister

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I'm not totally sold on the Humans, they're tolerable but I don't want them there all the time. And I most certainly don't want anything like Raf.

I'm pretty satisfied with RID 2.0, it's much better than I expected. Hope more episodes are good.

 

I can see that happening with either Drift or Jazz, actually-- both of them have pulled the Wheeljack approach of showing up for a single episode and then leaving, setting up a future appearance(s) in the process. I think there's a chance that either of them could end up as a permanent member in the future, though Jazz would obviously fulfill a rather different role. I'd imagine him being more like Animated Jazz after he became a regular-- a veteran with a lot of experience to bring to the table, but also with a more cool and friendly demeanour.

 

Steeljaw was great and Troy Baker did a great job. It's also lovely to hear David Kaye again. I was going to ask why Bee didn't think he sounded similar to Hardshell, then remembered they never met  

I'm wondering if Hammerstrike and Underbite are coming back. Their models are cheaper than they would be in Prime and Kaye only had a minor part in it too, so probably not. That said, Steeljaw setting them all free would make for an epic Season finale.

I'm looking forward to future episodes. Hopefully we won't get a lot of filler and more of Steeljaw/ the main plot being established.

 

While I can certainly see your point, I do have to disagree. For this show, the older chatacter IS Bumblebee. Despite his look, he's the heavily seasoned veteran teaching the team this time around. To have an older character join the main cast risks the character, or if you prefer the writers, to fall back into old habits of him deferring to the "more experienced" bot.

Maybe have someone show up for an episode to give advice or sap some of BB's confidence as he tries to be unnecessarily impressive, but not full time. Guy's already going to have Optimus checking in on him afterall.

 

So, this show has proven to be a fun watch within it's first three episodes. I'm surprised how much I like Grimlock as a character, though I wonder if he'll have an explanation for his apparent amnesia. At this point I'm not expecting explanations for his alternate portrayal from the other Aligned Grimlock(s), since Hasbro doesn't seem to care about the idea anymore.

 

Hasbro may not, but Mairghread Scott probably does, and she's still on the writing staff. Prime genuinely surprised me at times with the distance it would go to retcon certain things back into line with the series bible, so who knows? Maybe I'll be surprised again once we finally get some background on Grimlock's missing memories.

 

That beginning with the Autobots doing trust exercises. Strongarm and Sideswipe continue to let the other one fall all the while Bumblebee is being carried in Grimlock's arms. Bumblebee and Grimlock have gotten rather chummy in such a short time.

Grimlock still has his Decepticon insignia. I wonder how much longer will it be till he's a full fledged Autobot.

Steeljaw and Hammerstrike both make their debut appearances in this episode. When Steeljaw makes his introduction to Strongarm he lies as being a prison guard ship on the Alchemor and says he just wants to live in peace on Earth. Steeljaw has this charismatic manipulative presence to him and he's voiced very nicely by Troy Baker the current voice acting king. I love his voice for Steeljaw. It's cool, deep and makes for a nice villain voice.

Hammerstrike is a Sharkticon pirate who wants to rule the Earth's oceans. He also feels ashamed of walking on land and seems to despise all land-dwellers and their trickery. Hammerstrike is voiced by long time Transformers alumni David Kaye. David's voice for Hammerstrike is essientially a lighter version of his Lugnut/Hardshell voice. (much like John DiMaggio as Leadfoot and Crosshairs, almost all of David Kaye's current Transformers role are reusing the same voice type). It works well for Hammerstrike and actually reminds me more of Robin Atkin Downes voice.

At times I kind of wish David Kaye was voicing Steeljaw instead because it would have made a neat callback to him voicing Savage/Noble in Beast Machines. Troy could have probably worked as Hammerstrike in a voice similar to his Ulik from Avengers EMH.

Steeljaw is believe it or not the first main antagonist in a western Transformers cartoon that isn't Megatron/Galvatron. That is actually both cool and sort of depressing to realize. He is now their #1 most wanted fugitive. Congrats Steeljaw!

Grimlock is hilarious in this episode, he doesn't swim in water he just sinks, also he just wants to punch Hammerstrike and is sad he almost didn't get the chance to do so. There is also the part when he and Bumblebee are on the motorboat.  

Sideswipe coming up with Decepticon identity to trick Steeljaw. His name is Grim.....Bee.  

Ted McGinely does an additional voice as a Swedish sounding person at a oil refinery who makes a distress call when Hammerstrike attacks off screen.

The ending scene with Strongarm and Sideswipe is funnier to me because when I saw the first screenshots of this episode almost two months ago thanks to the chinese first release of the 13 episodes It looked like Strongarm was groping Sideswipe. I don't know where they're dynamic will lead to but i hope it's continues to be funny.

For a 3rd episode this is really good and definitely is kicking off a overarching story arc with Steeljaw in the centrefold.

 

I am now waiting for the complete full intro hopefully it is in English and not fully Chinese exclusive, you know the one with Alchemor crashing ad them pulling out weapons

 

"The sea, it calls to me!"

The delivery is perfect by David Kaye. The voice director has improved since Prime, methinks.