I like those things, too.  

This is one of those re-imaginings that IMHO is quite superior to the original!

I went to a Weird Al concert in 2015 in Portsmouth, NH. A little over two hours long, laughed my ass off the entire time.

No matter what happens, we can count on Powell to be a money-grubbing asshole.

And after the last few episodes and revelations, we need it!

So they're being reprogrammed to Eat It, got it. i hope they don't get Fat

Fun fact: Michael Jackson gave Weird Al permission to parody all of his songs in perpetuity.

Well, I mean they gotta fish it out of the river sometime, right?

What's worse is she looks RIGHT at it while it glows and shoots off the beam.

Another fun fact: Weird Al wrote the Saga Begins with only notes on the movie, and George Lucas laughed his ass off watching it.

Is it just me, or was that blimp's voice also voiced by Weird Al?

It was the twitching optic sensor that got me.  

Kinda like Grimlock, actually. With the Constructicons there's definitely a pattern.

You think they would've suspected something when there were no orderlies or EMTs in the back...

Ratchet, you magnificent moron!

You're correct.   The mace takes up the back third of Lugnut's toy.

Oh, look! Continuity and payoff from a scene in the beginning even in a comedy episode!

That was a really cool scene transition.  

'Dare to be Stupid' is my fourth-favorite song of all-time. Anyone wanna guess/know what numbers three through one are?  

No, no. The thing is 'This is something ____ gotta do him/her/themselves!' 

And even some character development and lessons learned!

At this point Leader-1 is just sitting in a corner somewhere, sadly beeping to himself...  

I'm so glad he survived.  

All right, time for the wreck that is Wreck-Gar's toy!



Surprise, it's not a wreck.   It's a pretty faithful reproduction of his show model. He comes with these energy pincer things that store inside the top of his garbage bin. A bit odd, but ah well. He's a bit of a shellformer, too, but not nearly as bad as some I've seen.

And also...



Cheese Sandwich from My Little Pony: Friendship is magic, my NECA doll of Weird Al sporting his modern-day look, and again, Wreck-Gar.

Well, I kinda hate you now.  



I don't hate you.  

 

Is that Legacy Inferno?

I still need to find one. Distribution of everything past wave 1 has been gaaaaaaaarbage in Canada. It's basically been "pre-order everything 8 months ago before you knew this would be an issue or you're SOL now unless you luck into finding what you want.

 

Yup. He's very cool. His head tilts back and he has this INSANE grin. Even better, he can stand stably in insect mode!

 

One thing I don't understand is the late Derrick J. Wyatt's weird dislike of Godly Transformers. So no Primus and no Unicron. (Although he was okay with a non Godly Unicron showing up)

I guess it worked out because we needed a break from them for a while, but I always found his dislike of Godly Transformers rather odd.

 

I tend to like Primus and Unicron because the addition of some amount of spirituality gives you more character dimensions to play with and the idea that this universe and the conflict between the characters was shaped by beings of a power that is far off the scale of everyone else creates a sense of grandiosity to everything.

But I can see the argument against them too. People that want slightly "harder" sci-fi will probably gravitate towards the idea of the bots being constructed by mortal hands at some distant point in the past rather than divinely created. There could be arguments made that the spirituality aspects can also mutate into something more mystical, creating a sense of literal magic in a franchise that tries to be science fiction to some degree. Some people may just also be uncomfortable with spirituality and religion being a focal point of a story about giant alien robots beating the stuffing out of each other to sell toys. And having Primus and Unicron or whatever other divine agents at the center of things could potentially take some agency away from the characters by making the war be more like the god-beings playing with pieces on a game board than "people" living a conflict that arose through their own doing.

As I said, I like the spiritual aspect and would probably tend to at least obliquely reference it rather than ignore it if I were in charge of things, but I think there's a place for it being both present and not depending on the nature of the story being told and the atmosphere the iteration of the franchise wants to create.

Not having those aspects in Animated does kind of shrink the scale of the fight and make you focus more on these characters, which is nice because it is very much a character and interpersonal-narrative driven show.

 

I have a feeling Wyatt was an old school fan of the Sunbow cartoon. That's probably why Autobots transform almost exclusively into civilian ground vehicles and Decepticons Transform into military machines, the Dinobots were built on Earth, why Shockwave is an ardent Megatron loyalist who isn't a scientist, and why there were Great Wars plural in the past. Also the main humans are a single parent with a single child.

 

Guess he didn't read the Marvel comic.

 

Unoriginal on my part, but I've always liked stuff that tries to combine the Primus/Unicron/Quints origins.

Yeah, he was RIBFIR also.

 

EPISODE 21: VELOCITY
Fast and the Furious: Detroit Drift

Spoiler

Youtube

Tubi release
Transformers: Animated S02:E05 - Velocity

The candy-coated series gets an episode that is basically a big piece of candy: lots of excitement and a few teases, but it's kind of empty calories as a lot of parts move and are hinted at without a lot of depth to the episode itself.

The street racing aspect that forms the core of the plot is actually fairly unimportant, all things considered. Once it gets the gang on the trail of an Allspark fragment, nothing else about it really matters. Least of all the lead villain Master Disaster. He's silly and non-threatening at first glance and really it doesn't got any farther than that. He's here to hand the gang an allspark fragment on a silver platter and then never threaten or really factor into the plot again.

But aside from that feeling that the street racing is mostly unimportant set-dressing, this is still a pretty fun episode. There's wall-to-wall action centered mostly around Bumblebee and Sari, whose dynamic and equal but different need to learn a very similar lesson about bending the rules helps keep things focused even as the race subplot wanes.

And just to top it off, we get some interesting teases for the future, a nice continuation of the breadcrumbs that have slowly been laid out for most of this season.

Because hey, sometimes a little bit of empty calorie candy is just what you need.

Spoiler

-The Autobots are out at night, cruising the highway looking for allspark fragments when a bunch of cars go speeding past them. Bulkhead recognizes them as "Street Demons" a set of racers they've seen on TV. So Bumblebee races off to chase them down and prove himself for no satisfactory reason whatsoever!

-But while he's weaving through all the cars a mysterious blue car with a pretty high-tech look comes up from behind and blows past everyone. Well, blows past a few of them before ramming a couple more off the road.

Tracks?​

-The blue car passes Bumblebee before Optimus radios to come back and help save the racers that were taken out.

-As they help the pair of racers, Fanzone shows up and explains that they're illegal racers (obviously, because who would think that Detroit had legalized dangerous street racing in the last half-century?) and he's been after them for months.

-Back at the base Bumblebee tries to convince the rest of the team that he should be able to use his turbo boosters, but Optimus and Ratchet aren't having any of it. Mostly because it seems like Bumblebee's biggest concern is that his ego is hurt by no longer being the fastest thing on Earth.

-Elsewhere Bulkhead confronts Sari over the fact that the races they had been watching were illegal. Sari then admits to him that she didn't pay for the broadcasts since she pirated the signal and it pretty much turns into an anti-piracy PSA with Bulkhead in the "don't do it, it's bad." camp.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to keep watching the widescreen HD video files of this show that I definitely obtained in a legitimate fashion and not off of a quiet corner of the internet that doesn't exist anymore.

-Bumblebee then makes a short joke about Sari. That hypocrite!

-He waits for Bulkhead to leave then asks Sari to show him the races because he needs to take out the blue car that made a fool of him. Here we get a look at the race organizer: Master Disaster

I don't get a "street racer" vibe from him. Instead I feel like I should be watching out for him to serve me poisoned tea.​

Master Disaster is Bill Fagerbakke doing one of his surprising number of incidental and one-off voices for this series. He doesn't really have any recurring significant roles aside from Bulkhead, but he definitely contributes.

In Japan he's played by Jurota Kosugi, a longtime voice actor with supporting roles in One Piece, Naruto, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and many more shows. Perhaps most notably (for me at least) playing Sukashii in Kyatto Ninden Teyandee. Or as he might be better known on this side of the pacific, Guido Anchovey in Samurai Pizza Cats.

-The broadcast is EXTREME *guitar wail*

-Bumblebee then asks Sari to figure out where the broadcasts originate from. somehow she's able to do this by plugging her key into the TV remote (at least that's what it looks like she's going to do before we cut away)

-And we cut away to Bumblebee with his boosters entering the race.

-Master Disaster is annoyed at Bee's intrusion and he dispatches the blue car, which it looks like he controls with an RC remote.

-The car heads right for Bumblebee, who is stuck in a mud pit and unable to get away as we head to commercial break.

-Unable to get away from the car, Bumblebee transforms and looks like he's going for the "punch the car in the hood so it flips over" move, only the car stops short of Bee's punch. Good job, Bumblebee.

-Master Disaster goads Bumblebee into entering a proper race later that night and Bee takes the bait with ease. Good job, Bumblebee!

-Back at base Bulkhead offers Sari a cup of hot chocolate. So he definitely upped his culinary game since "fish skeletons and oil cans" a few episodes ago.

-In a bit of perfect timing, Bumblebee phones Sari and she somehow accidentally answers while trying to shut her phone off, so Bulkhead can hear all about Bee's extracurricular activities. Whoops.

He even tells Sari to keep Bulkhead busy so he can continue his racing while Bulkhead is listening on the phone. Double Whoops.

-But after Sari seemingly hangs up, Bumblebee spots Blitzwing out in the city searching for an allspark fragment. He figures that this connects to the blue racer.

-Bee returns to base to tell Sari about what's been happening in more detail, but falls for the world's worst invocation of the "he's right behind me" gag because a) there's no way he ran into the room to be right ahead of Bulkhead without noticing him standing there and b) there's no way Bulkhead was able to sneak up on Bumblebee given how loud he is when he moves.

The only way this would be worse would've been if Bulkhead was actually in front of him.​

-Bulkhead tells Bumblebee that he's not "bending the rules" as Bee insists, but rather "shredding" them. He still folds as Bee tells him about his plan to get an allspark fragment and then does a fingers crossed promise about not doing anything reckless.

Like having your hand behind your back isn't suspicious.​

Poor, poor gullible Bulkhead.

-And Bumblebee admits he learned the fingers crossed thing from Sari. Because of course he did.

-At the police station Fanzone is pressing one of the racers for info about the syndicate and gets the address of tonight's race.

-When Bumblebee tries to leave without Sari, but she pretty much blackmails him into letting her tag along.

-Sari's key reacts to an allspark fragment, but it's not coming from the blue car. So she gets out of Bumblebee to check out where it is. Bumblebee objects, but not strenuously enough that he'd abandon his race to stop her.

-Sari gets into Master Disaster's production truck rather easily. I suppose we could assume she "picks" the lock with her key, but we don't really see anything like that happen, just the door opening (and the key is around her neck as she enters). Good for him to be so trusting.

-The allspark signal the key detects leads to the remote MD was using earlier, but before she can investigate further MD returns and she has to slip out. Though she takes the remote with her.

-Bumblebee admonishes Sari for stealing, but she replies that he's not exactly a paragon of virtue.

-Through all this Bulkhead is watching from the shadows, but before he can act Blitzwing freezes him and takes off after Bumblebee.

-A shot of ice conveniently takes out all the other racers so that it's just Bumblebee (and Sari) against Blitzwing unopposed and with no innocent bystanders (byracers?)

-Blitzwing tries to knock Bee out with a stretch of frozen road (actually it's more like those drainage/aqueduct canals you see all the time in California. I have no idea if Detroit uses them too) but Bee transforms with Sari on his shoulder and skates over. Through all of this it seems like he no longer has issues controlling the turbo boosters, but what I really took away from this scene was the laugh of unbridled joy Sari lets out as they skate along, momentarily forgetting that a giant tank/jet is trying to murder them.

Unfortunately it was only after this that Bumblebee discovered robots aren't allowed in olympic speed skating​

-Bumblebee continues to outrace Blitzwing, even though he is somehow able to somewhat keep up in tank mode.

-His tank mode cannons also make the heavy "twang" firing sound that one usually associates with heavy blaster turrets in Star Wars.

-Blitzwing is buried in a collapsing overpass (that he caused) but manages to dig himself out just in time to see Bee pass by along with Fanzone. He decides that he might as well just destroy them both to get the allspark.

-And so Fanzone's car gets blown up again.

-Unable to escape, Sari tries using the remote control she swiped on Blitzwing. It works right up until the point that Bee hits a bump and she drops the remote out the window.

-But before Blitzwing can close in to finish his prey, the mysterious blue car leaps off a nearby overpass and plays chicken with Blitzwing, who bails at the last minute, scraping his wing and then careening into a building.

-the mystery car then drives off as Bumblebee kicks out the humans so he can take on Blitzwing.

-This leads back to Master Disaster's trailer, where Blitzwing crashes but then manages to get the drop on Bumblebee.

-Sari shows up and uses the remote again, but she catches Bumblebee in the control field for it and the pair of them end up under his control.

-Blitzwing escapes at his earliest opportunity and with Bulkhead now out of the ice everything gets wrapped up as Master Disaster is arrested, Sari and Bumblebee promise to stop bending the rules, and Bumblebee demonstrates his new responsible streak by cutting off Sari's pirated TV feed.

-Finally Bumblebee sees the mystery blue car speed down a nearby road from the top of their base and he shouts his thanks as he wonders just who his benefactor is.

Smokescreen?​

Maybe we'll find out eventually, but not tonight as the episode fades to black.

Fanservice Tracker
G1: 0 (total: 23)
G1-Marvel: 0 (total: 1)
Beast Wars: 0 (total: 4)
Non-Series-Specific Japan: 0 (total: 1)
Masterforce: 0 (total: 1)
Overall: 0 (total: 30)

Pros
+Action-packed episode

+It's fun seeing Bumblebee and Sari learn the same lesson in slightly different ways

+Teases for the future

+Another small-scope episode that gives us progress and entertainment without having to be a high-stakes, big picture story.



Cons
-Master Disaster is kind of underwhelming as a villain

-The street racing subplot is window dressing of the highest order. None of it really matters once the pieces are in place and Master Disaster is a delivery device and nothing more, so he makes almost no impact himself.

 

EPISODE 22: RISE OF THE CONSTRUCTICONS
Probably not a prequel to Rise of the Beasts

Spoiler

Youtube

Tubi release
Transformers: Animated S02:E06 - Rise Of The Constructicons

Unlike the last episode, this one identifies is central plot element and sticks with it as the Constructicons the whole time and has them in the middle of everything that happens. But in a weird inverse of that previous episode that rose above the emptiness of its major plot device, this one gives us a strong through line but honestly what it does is kind of underwhelming.

I like the fact that the Constructicons are an initially neutral force, driven by their own desires and not any sort of allegiance to either faction. And I like the idea of them being pulled between the factions through each giving their own biased view of the conflict. With all of this driven by the oddly endearing friendship struck up between Bulkhead and the Constructicons, it should work well.

Should, but doesn't. At least not entirely. I think the biggest thing that holds it back is that most of the issues are driven by two things: First the Constructions, while obviously naive and unaware, are required to be mind-numbingly stupid and gullible in order to get duped the way they do and it hurts them at characters to know that they have the mental faculties of literal children while they drink and leer their way through the episode. And second, most of the major issues that drive things could be sorted out if the characters just stopped and freaking talked to one another like adults. That is one of the most hated bad writing tropes that boil my blood. It's one thing for characters to miscommunicate when there's a reason or explanation, but this doesn't have that beyond "the Constructicons are idiots." And that doesn't excuse Bulkhead or any of the other Autobots. The irritation of this being one of the ways things unfold as they do was enough to take me out of the episode and hold it back from getting a better grade than it did. It's certainly a "your mileage may vary" issue and I wouldn't be surprised to see others say it didn't bother them and they liked the episode a lot more, but for me it was something I couldn't look past once it was front and center.

Spoiler

-It's been a few episodes but the Autobots are still repairing the city. They sure did a looooooooot of damage.

-As they work Bumblebee notices Lugnut and Blitzwing stealing construction materials.

Remember when the Decepticons were threats? And fighting even one of them was a significant trial? Bumblebee and Ratchet manage to fight off Lugnut AND Blitzwing without much issue. Granted the pair retreat after just a short fight, but it's still a big difference from where we started.

-Later that evening Optimus and crew call it a night, but not Bulkhead. Mostly because he's managed to cement himself to the ground.

-Meanwhile a pair of vehicles at a construction site absorb a couple of allspark fragments. And from this we meet our newest bots.

-Said bots begin to talk in stereotypical new york(ish) working class accents like all good construction workers and bicker about their names, which they don't know. So they each get a bit of a line of sight name. The cement mixer has a manufacturer badge for "Mix Master", though he declares that name is too long and he'd rather go by "Mix" while the excavator sees a sign for "scrap" only for not-Mixmaster to say that name's too short and so christens him "Scrapper."

And yes *ding* Fanservice (g1)

It's like the weirdest episode of Bob the Builder ever (note: I have never actually seen an episode of Bob the Builder)​

Interestingly in spite of seeing multiple construction vehicles around Detroit in the familiar green/purple deco of the classic Constructicons, these two are more of a muted yellow with gray. The wiki suggests that maybe the color is a Generation 2 reference, but it would seem that only a specific production run of Constructicons released in Europe featured gray accents mixed with the G2 yellow color and that it was not even necessarily uniform across all members of the team.

But with that said, our voice actors are a pair of regular cast members pulling double duty. Scrapper is Tom Kenny while Mixmaster is Jeff Bennett.

In Japan Mixmaster is Daiki Nakamura. This is his only Animated role (and last Transformers role overall) but he was previously Rhinox in all dubbed iterations of Beast Wars. He's also notable for being the Japanese dub voice of Chief Wiggum in The Simpsons, Jason the Red Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (yes, Japan dubbed a show that was itself a dub/recut of a show they themselves created. Everything's a circle), and Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Japanese Scrapper is Masashi Endo. His only other Transformers role, and indeed one of his very limited voice acting roles overall was as Scorponok in Beast Wars dubs. He is mostly a live-action actor, though maybe not a famous one as one of the only things the wiki points out he did was a shlocky, lurid, low-budget shock/horror movie called "All Night Long 2" with Blackarachnia dub actress (from both Beast Wars and this show) Ryoka Yuzuki.

Oh yeah, and we've had a name swap since G1 Scrapper was a front-loader. This one swipes his alt mode from Scavenger.

-then, like the Dinobots before them, they reflexively transform to robot mode. Fitting of their names and voices, the pair look like schlubby construction workers, with Mixmaster being short, fat, and having a massive facial-hair appliance that mimics a mustache/muttonchops combo while Scrapper is tall and gangly with a pronounced jaw. Both have hardhat style helmets as well. They're fun designs, even if it makes little sense for Mixmaster to have both a cement mixer and a front-mounted plow/bucket.

All that's missing is one of them having a visible butt crack​

-The pair have a deep discussion of the nature of their existence, only for it to be interrupted by the need to catcall a red sports car that drives by.

It's very close to me giving a fanservice ding for referencing Sideburn from RiD, but I don't think it quite fits the bill.

-Meanwhile Bulkhead is still trying to work with the concrete. I don't know how, but he manages to make it explode. And the explosion is sufficient to dislodge a crane carrying a set of girders.

-The Constructicons save Bulkhead and set about fixing all the damage he caused as well as doing his job for him while they ignore all the questions about what they are.

-Then they take off to get some oil, which plays out like a bar scene except the "keg" they're tapping is an oil tanker in the harbor. Bulkhead's a little uneasy about the heft, but keeps his mouth shut.

-Bulkhead eventually does object and the others tease him for being a "puny little yellow compact"

Then he takes them back to the Autobot base where the rest of the team are less than impressed.

-This leads to the trio destroying more of the base than is usual for Bulkhead. Which I guess isn't surprising since it's basically three bulkheads.

-they start playing frisbee with a giant metal disc from somewhere and in the midst of screwing around one toss ends up severing Sari's pigtails.

She angrily complains that they "won't grow back overnight."

We'll just see about that  

Don't mess with the 'do​

-Optimus breaks up the party and is not impressed with Bulkhead's new friends. Bulkhead defends them as "not being evil or anything"

-Cut to the Decepticons, continuing to haul construction materials. Only now it's daytime and the Constructicons save the pair. In return Blitzwing dupes the pair into coming with them as pack mules.

-After getting their stolen parts to the mine where the 'cons are hiding out, Lugnut prepares to take the Constructicons offline only for Megatron to stop him. This Megs certainly isn't like any others.

-Lugnut is so uncoordinated that the force of retracting his punch (and presumably also getting away from the Constructicons so they won't see him trying to crush them) causes him to stumble backwards down the mine shaft.

we're really intent on taking away the scary, threatening mystique of the Decepticons this season. It's like "alright, we've had our time of the autobots being seriously, scarily outgunned, we'd better dial it back now so they can be clowned a little more easily.

-Lugnut's pratfall even comes with the standard comedy "I'm OK!" after he crashes through... something.

-Megs decides the Constructicons still have value.

-Megatron shows them his space bridge plans. Somehow in spite of only being earthborn bots, they know what the space bridge is and how to build it.

-Megatron is pleased. his smirk is... unsettling.

It practically screams "somebody is going to die"​

-Cut back to the city where Bulkhead is looking for the Constructicons and we see a stretch of Detroit highway.

Is this the Autobots' doing? Or did some weirdo actually construct an elevated highway to look like this? Did Sumdac Systems invent a City Planning bot with an AI based off playing Rollercoaster Tycoon?

Each option seems somewhat plausible.

I guess all the downward hills and slopes might improve fuel efficiency​

-Bulkhead finds the Constructicons being chased by the police. Thinking this is only persecution of some sort, he stops the police bots with ease only to get the full story from the Constructicons about their working with the Decepticons.

-That said, they were unfamiliar with how manipulative and evil the Decepticons are so they get annoyed and head back to the Decepticon base to settle the score. This'll go well.

See? It went about as well as you could expect.​

-Only Megatron plays dumb about Bulkhead's story and spins a yarn about the Decepticons are oppressed and under the heel of the wicked Autobots (who are somehow "cunning" in spite of also being "imbeciles")

-Then he plies them with oil. Fun little detail as Megs has the oil barrels twisted so that they look less like beer cans and more like goblets. Megatron even clutches his like a brandy snifter.

Classy​

-Megs pitches them on the freedom of being a Decepticon and says they have to make a choice.

-Meanwhile at Autobot HQ Optimus lays into Bulkhead for being so lax with the Constructicons. Right on cue they show up and demand the allspark fragments the Autobots have while also taking a shot at Optimus for being a "dipstick."

-Bumblebee: "Hey! He's our dipstick!"

Honestly, the goofy face he makes is better than the line. There's something about the extra lines under his optics that makes it funny.

It's a bit of an "I'm watching you" look.​

Optimus appreciates the support but seems confused by them admitting he's a dipstick.

-Cue a surprisingly action-heavy brawl between the Constructicons and the Autobots. Prowl in particular gets some flash.

-Optimus complies with Mixmaster's threat to turn over the allspark or see bumblebee scrapped, but he tries to use it like a stall tactic only for bulkhead to show up with the allspark container and just fork it over without a second thought.

Optimus' "Bulkhead!" exclamation gets a little deep/growly and sounds positively Megatron-ish (Beast Wars Megatron, that is)

-everyone turns on Bulkhead for giving up so easily, but his "trust me, I know what I'm doing" comment indicates he's got a plan.

-Because it turns out the oil he gave the Constructicons before he left was spiked and they begin to backfire and get sick.

-Then they explode...

-turns out he added the additive from the cement mixing earlier on. He retrieves the Allspark and then threatens to slag the Constructicons.

-But the Constructicons have lost their memories from the explosion, so Bulkhead just seems like he's being spiteful over their betrayal.

-The Constructicons bail, Bulkhead causes a ton of property damage in his anger (undoing a lot of the work he did to start the episode) and Optimus consoles him by suggesting that there's good in the Constructicons and maybe they'll make the right choice eventually because they're still redeemable as long as they aren't wearing Decepticon symbols.

That's quite the reversal from where he stood a few minutes ago. But it is where we wrap up.


Fanservice Tracker
G1: 1 (total: 24)
G1-Marvel: 0 (total: 1)
Beast Wars: 0 (total: 4)
Non-Series-Specific Japan: 0 (total: 1)
Masterforce: 0 (total: 1)
Overall: 1 (total: 31)

Pros
+The alternate take on and design of the Constructicons is kind of fun, if a little limited to just making htem gag characters

+Bulkhead's war between his new friends and his old one is entertaining and compelling

+It's fun watching Megatron scheme and manipulate



Cons
-Obvoius the Constructions are meant to be dumb, but the plot requires them to be insanely dumb and gullible to a fault

-lots of problems that could be solved with better communication (which is often a mark of bad writing when the communication issues aren't explicitly part of the presented problem

-In spite of this being all about potentially turning over the Allspark, things feel surprisingly low-stakes

 

Seems a little heavier than some candy.   Maybe a light snack in this case?

Now that I think about it, this is a good time to be doing it. Not like they need to sleep.

Credit where it's due, he does go back to help. And of course Optimus would want to help them out.  

Well, if this was the Detroit from Robocop, these street races would be downright tame.  

You know if this was Hot Shot or Sideburn or Ironhide they would've let him have the boosters!

feels like one of those old GI Joe PSAs, or the ones they filmed for Transformers G1 but thankfully never aired.

Between this and Masterson, did Detroit go through a retro-90s phase?

Well, I mean she's still alive, so they had to have figured out human dietary needs.

I laughed. That was pretty damned good.

This is like Optimus running into that web in 'Along Came a Spider'. No way Bumblebee could've missed Bulkhead!

Sorry, Bumblebee, but this isn't something you have to do yourself!

That was pretty damned sudden and effective of Blitzy, there.

Sometimes it's good being a kid so you can ignore the danger.

This is why he HATES machines!

Kudos for being clever and some quick-thinking on her part.  

We also got a Galaxy Quest shout-out. I am not complaining, mind. I love that movie.

Again, would Sideburn or Hot Shot or Energon-Ironhide be thanking their benefactor? I don't think so!

I agree with both of them and found the lack of communication to be SO fucking annoying!

I acutally find them helping out to be heartwarming and the amount of damage, considering the fight in the season-one finale, to be quite realistic.

Eh... Bumblebee's stingers don't do anything to them, and it takes some clever thinking to inconvenience them, but they both get back up without much damage.

Just like the Dinobots and Wreck-Gar. Definitely a pattern, here, and I like the consistency.

Neither have I. I used to watch Shining Time Station and love the Thomas the Train Engine segments.

I was really digging that conversation, too.  

I really like how they improvised that... thing to save him.

Cheers was one of the very first sitcoms I ever saw.I was and still am a hardcore Sam/Diane 'shipper and will always headcanon them getting back together after the series finale. And no, you can't stop me.  

This part always angered and befuddled me. Shouldn't Optimus and the others be treating this with a LOT more seriousness than how they did? Or helping Scrapper and Mixmaster more or... or something?

Gotta love those character models.

Come on, Optimus! Talk to them!

yeah. He recognizes an opportunity when he sees it!

I laughed at that, too.  

That smirk is more unsettling than just about any 'angry' expression any other Megatron's had.

I'm getting queasy just looking at it...

the fact that Megatron didn't kill them is a definite plus.

he's just so damned good at this!

"Hey, I'm the cool Optimus!"  

Well, even in an episode like this Animated remembers foreshadowing and Chekhov's gun.

Bulkhead honestly comes off as a fucking idiot, here.

All right, onto something more pleasant. Jazz, and his recolor Jackpot!



Jackpot is from the old Subscription Service and is in vehicle mode on the left. Jazz is on the right. Transformation is very intuitive and easy. Great articulation, and I love the nunchuks. They have a string on them for some swinging action! the pair of stasis cuffs Jazz is holding is from a third-party upgrade kit, the same one that had Ratchet's better electromagnet upgrades.

 

Yeah, gotta go with Master Blaster being another dud of a human villain.

It's stereotypical but I do kind of like the Constructicons having stereotypical blue-collar Construction worker attitudes. Though yeah, it does make them come off as pretty gullible.

 

It's the future, anything could be legal.

Discount Major Bludd!

Well, in the 22nd century, Detroit is one of the safest cities in America. Duluth, on the other hand, is a rancid shithole where only the damned and the insane live.

Take a seat Prowl, Bulkhead is the true Cyber Ninja.

"Did you think you could hide?!"

I'm not really a fan of the Animated Constructicons. I don't hate them, but I don't really like them either.

"I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode."

I think Lugnut needs to take a sabbatical on Dinobot Island to learn a little finesse!

Starscream's not the only one with a good smirk!

The Autobots are just trying to bring a little bit of Cybertron to Earth!

Megatron is a master actor, he should have went into show business instead of being an interstellar tyrant.

That's because Megs is an elegant spawn of a glitch.

Damn, Bulkhead! You scary!

 

I’m still bummed the Constructicons never appeared on the toy side. I could had done pictures of them chasing red cars with Sideburn….

 

I actually hadn't even noticed there were no Constructicon toys. That's shocking considering they log multiple appearances in the series. Arcee, for example, appeared in a similar number of episodes but rarely ever had much action, I don't believe she ever transformed, and she was mostly important via flashbacks and the like but she got a toy (one that was seemingly notoriously difficult to find. Kind of like... well... everything now.

 

I think Marty Isenberg said that the reason Hasbro never made Constructicon figures was because the writers were planning on bringing in Devastator at some point and Hasbro didn't want to make figures until all of the Constructicons were introduced so they could figure out how they combined. And since that never happened, they never got made.

 

I am popping in briefly to say I really love your commentaries on the rewatches, i've been lurking since Armada & its been fun <3
Its been interesting seeing the fanservice easter eggs I missed within Animated!
I may or may not comment from time to time  

 

Something I neglected to mention in the Rise of the Constructicons review: The episode never aired in Japan. No reason is given but it's suspected that its heavy focus on characters that didn't have toys to sell might've been a contributing factor. As a result its Japanese dub was not seen until the series was released on DVD over there.

This will hold true for a subsequent episode heavily featuring the Constructicons (but not another one, which only serves to raise questions about their broadcast decisions.

Thanks. Glad to have you aboard and happy to have you back with any additional contributions or comments you want to make at any time!

 

EPISODE 23: A FISTFUL OF ENERGON
Tumbleweeds optional.

Spoiler

Youtube

Tubi release
Transformers: Animated S02:E07 - A Fistful Of Energon

There's a lot to like about this episode and a lot of things that made me want to love it. But instead I think it has to settle for merely being liked with some reservations thanks to a couple of particularly annoying bits that really stuck with me for some reason.

The first and most consistently present across the episode is the attitude Prowl adopts. He gets an extra piece of tech and suddenly becomes a swaggering, egotistical jerk eager to run off and do everything himself because of how highly he rates his abilities. This is somewhat in defiance of what we've seen from Prowl before. Because it's the sort of behavior that he chastised others (like Bumblebee) for. It's not that he lacked confidence, but he was always cautious and careful and thought everything through. But suddenly with a mild boost in fighting power he becomes everything he's previously complained about.

I wouldn't care about this so much if there was any sort of foreshadowing that Prowl had this side of him (which shouldn't be a big deal in a show like this that loves its foreshadowing) but there's nothing. No real indication that Prowl is this much of a loose cannon or has this much of an ego. Really it feels like this should've been meant for Bumblebee instead of Prowl except that Prowl has a fancy upgraded toy to sell and Bumblebee doesn't. So we get this kinda awkward, out-of-nowhere twist to make the episode work.

Besides that, the other major focus of the episode is the debut of what will be Starscream's hook for the rest of the series: Clones!

This is a big deal. Something that changes the series significantly. But the reveal is just kinda... there? I mean everyone's surprised, but this should shock the Autobots and Decepticons. It doesn't though. It's kinda like "huh. That's weird." and it just feels like a massive under-reaction to such a crazy twist. It absolutely deserved to be sold harder than it was.

Those two things really suck the enjoyment out of the episode for me and made it harder to really love the great fights, fun Starscream twist, overall synchronicity of the plots, and the excellent return of Lockdown. So in the end a great episode ended up being a pretty good one. But it could've and should've been much better.

Spoiler

-Out in the cold reaches of space the Elite Guard's ship travels somewhere (presumably home) when a massive explosion blows a hole in the hull and Starscream escapes, swearing vengeance against Megatron.

-Meanwhile Prowl is on Dinobot Island watching some deer. Though a comm signal from Ratchet says he's actually there to look for the Dinobots.

-Oh, and Bulkhead's there too, drinking a barrel of oil. I'm picturing him having a giant cooler full of ice somewhere just off screen.

-Apparently the Dinobots have been "rampaging" which Prowl disbelieves until Grimlock comes storming into the clearing, breathing fire everywhere and not really caring for the damage he causes. This forces Prowl to stun him with Ratchet's EMP, which he borrowed for the mission.

-With Grimlock unconscious, Prowl figures out the source of the rampage. Grimlock has a thorn in his foot. Well, it's actually between his toes which makes me question why it's even hurting him in the first place.

Ah yes. It's the age old fable of the motorcycle and the robot dinosaur. A classic, to be sure.​

-Ratchet has to instruct Prowl on emergency "surgery" to get the spike out, but ends up relying on Bulkhead because Prowl has skinny weakling noodle arms.

-Prowl says they'll need Sari's key to fix the damage. But Optimus says that won't be possible right now because she and Bumblebee left on "an important fact-finding mission."

me: "Uh huh. Sure. They went to goof around somewhere."

Optimus: "...to somewhere called 'Five Banners Rollercoaster Kingdom'."

me: "Yep, there it is."

-Side note: The notes and references section of the wiki page for this article is stuffed with entries. Some of them, like noting that "Five Banners" is a take on the real-world "Six Flags" theme parks are sensible. Others, like the subsequent suggestion that the fact the name contains the word "kingdom" means it's a potential link to Disney World/The Magic Kingdom. There are a couple of other sketchy ones that feature plot points which I will address when we get there.

-As this is happening Ultra Magnus contacts Optimus to say that Starscream escaped. He says he would've contacted them sooner but the ship's tachyon transmitter is missing. Of course it was stolen by the Decepticons and we cut to the 'cons base where Megatron is listening.

I get that he took the original transmitter, but how does that allow him to tap into Autobot communications? If I stole the modem from your house it wouldn't mean that I could get onto your network once you got a replacement.

-Prowl hears this and heads into the ark (which, remember, is now wedged in a mountainside on the island) to use its scanners to look for Starscream. He finds an allspark fragment on the moon and suggests he and Bulkhead take a shuttle that's on the ship to go check it out. Bulkhead, for once, is the voice of reason.

-Prowl backs down and Bulkhead is happy, only he just got duped and now it's worse: Prowl decided to go after Starscream alone.

Optimus and Ratchet are not impressed even if Prowl says this makes tactical sense (debatable)

-Prowl tries to duck out of the conversation with fake static sounds but it includes a lot of non-staticy noises. Ratchet agrees with my less-than-impressed take as he says he thinks Bumblebee's fake static is a lot more convincing.

-On the moon Prowl searches the wreckage of the Decepticon ship and ends up getting jumped by Starscream. How unexpected that him going there alone would have negative consequences!

-Thankfully Starscream is slow as heck and Prowl manages to throw one of his shuriken things into Starscream's null ray.

-So Prowl gets the drop on him and using his hologram generator and the EMP he easily knocks the Decepticon out and cuffs him.

That's when Lockdown shows up. Wearing a poncho for some reason (ostensibly probably a reference to the namesake of the episode, A Fistful of Dollars.)

Obviously he stole it off of someone.​

-So now Lockdown and Prowl are having it out while Starscream lays there (having regained consciousness) providing commentary and heckling.

-It's a fun fight with Prowl using his jetpack and the EMP while Lockdown has a chainsaw and grappling hook in his hook hand.

-They get so wrapped up in the fight that they don't notice Starscream has escaped and blows up Prowl's shuttle.

-He then flees to Earth with Lockdown in pursuit. Prowl hitches ar ride on the outside of Lockdown's ship, which is now begging the question of why Cybertronian ships are airtight

-Prowl sneaks aboard and proposes a deal with Lockdown where they team up with Prowl providing the means to track Starscream while Lugnut has the ship and sensors.

-Lockdown also uncharacteristically offers up some of his unused modifications to Prowl to help out. Specifically a set of what appears to be samurai armor.

Aren't ninjas and samurai kind of polar opposites?


You know what? This looks cool enough that I don't even care.​

-This is one of those annoying reaching trivia entries on the wiki: Because A Fistful of Dollars is a loose(ish) remake of the Japanese film Yojimbo (which in turn is actually potentially a loose adaptation of a Dashiell Hammett detective noir novel, Red Harvest. But that's neither here nor there for our purposes), it was remarked that Prowl's samurai armor is a nod to the Japanese movie's influence/origin. You know, instead of just being the fact that they were trying to sell a Prowl toy with the upgrade.

but people do love reaching with assumptions that anything that looks like something must actually be that something.

-Back at the plot, Lockdown transforms and his car mode still has the big engine sticking out of the hood even though that engine was actually formed by Ratchet's EMP generator (which is currently stationed inside Prowl's forearm.

-The samurai armor manifests as a motorcycle sidecar when Prowl transforms. neat.

Sidecars are less cool though.​

-They find Starscream rather easily. Only something is odd this time. He's purple for some reason.

Oh hey, it's..... Gonna be honest, I can never remember which G1 style seeker ended up being the purple one. Hotlink? I don't know. Skywarp had some purple I think, but he doesn't count.​

-And a massive coward.

-Prowl really enjoys his samurai armor. So he decides to mess with Starscream before he takes the 'con down.

-The pair capture the oddly miscolored Starscream while Lockdown says that Prowl reminds him of himself as if it's the highest of compliments.

-So with the bounty secure, Lockdown contacts the bot offering the reward for Starscream's capture: Megatron.

Prowl is, somehow, shocked and aghast at this.

Have you not been paying attention, Prowl? It's Lockdown. Of course he's working for Megatron.

-Lockdown rightly points out that obviously the Autobots wouldn't have issued the bounty, so who else would be paying so much for Starscream's capture.

-Prowl tries to get the jump on Lockdown, but like an idiot he stands far too close as he points the EMP at Lockdown's head. so the bounty hunter is easily able to wheel around and shoot him with a bola to bind Prowl up and immobilize him.

Why are you suddenly such an idiot, Prowl?

-One cut later and Optimus has shown up. He's quite pissed at Prowl for his recklessness and willingness to continue the chase on his own. And just like me, he's confused about what's driving Prowl's attitude change.

-Ratchet says it's "mods and upgrades" suggesting that Prowl's attachment to new tech that boosts his strength is making him overconfident. Sure, that might explain the recklessness now, but not how aggressive he was at the very start. Not to the immediate extent that it was when he first went off to catch Starscream.

-As the conversation continues Prowl gets angrier and more indignant about being questioned or disrespected and this just feels out of character. He was the bot who was annoyed at Bumblebee's swaggering devil-may-care attitude last season and now he's acting just the same if not worse without any prior suggestions that this type of personality was laying under the surface. At least not to this degree. It almost would've been better to reveal some sort of personal enmity towards Starscream that's driving him to act so out of character rather than "he got all jacked up on sidecar and went nuts." (in this clumsy metaphor "sidecar" is basically "steroids" and yes, I have just ruined the joke by explaining it.)

-But there's no time to dwell on this as Lockdown gets away with Starscream and they get attacked by... Starscream? This one's red and white.

What? That could be any fighter jet.​

-And this one is manipulative sycophantic. He doesn't want to fight with the Autobots, he wants to strike a deal to get rid of Megatron. For peace, apparently.

This is the best episode review he's ever seen. Though really they're all great.​

-Also he tries to suck up to each Autobot in turn but doesn't remember Bulkhead's name (and seems apologetic about him having that name once Bulky reminds him). Ouch  

-Prowl takes off and subdues this Starscream with ease, but his flashy, aggressive tactics cause a bunch of collateral damage, including smashing a bird's nest full of eggs (a callback to earlier in the episode where he protected a nest full of birds from being crushed in a fight.) and Starscream compliments him on his direct, take-charge combat style as Ratchet lambastes him for his lack of concern.

Finally, it seems like he gets that what he's doing is bad. And just in case it wasn't clear, here's some sad music to hammer the point home!

"...am I the Hot Shot of this story?"​

-Weirdly nobody is spending that much time questioning how there's 2 Starscreams. Seems like that would be something important to figure out.

Prowl says he'll get rid of the mods once he's captured the other Starscream. Because he can quit any time he wants. Just like Star Saber and stock footage.

"Shut up! I don't have a problem! I totally have a handle on it!"​

​

"Aww yeah, that's the stuff. What? I can stop any time I want! I just don't want to right now."​

-Prowl heads to the warehouse that I think is actually Lockdown's ship, but he manages to give away his position almost immediately when he knocks a bolt off of an overhead beam and Megatron hears the noise. Why was there a random bolt up there?

-Prowl's now surrounded, but this time he's got backup as Optimus and the others crash through the door.

-Arriving late, Bulkhead trops the other Starscream and Megatron is confused. Lockdown tries to bail b ut Megatron is having none of that.

-And now the plot is revealed: the chests of the two Starscreams open and we hear the voice of Starscream (the real one this time!) who shares that he's implanted bombs in the two "clones" and intends to kill everyone there.

-Megatron is having none of this though. After preventing Lockdown from leaving earlier, he and the Decepticons all just bail now. What I noticed was weird was that Megatron's transformation leaves him halfway between bot and helicopter mode so that he can still stand on his feet until he takes off. That's a little weird.


Unnamed in this episode, the Starscream clones are identified on TFWiki by information provided in the Allspark Almanac, which gave them each serial numbers 2716057 (the red and white one) and 3370318 (the purple one). This is an incredibly obtuse reference to Futurama, where those numbers are the serial numbers of main character Bender and his "evil twin" Flexo respectively.

-Optimus says that the bombs would destroy half the city (together? or apiece?). Prowl says that they can't get the bombs out or contain the blast, so he takes off his mods and attaches the booster jets to the Starscreams before welding them together and setting the rockets off. This shoots the clones into the sky where they detonate right in the vicinity of the fleeing Decepticons but cause no city damage. The city is safe but Prowl loses his mods in the process

-Lockdown contacts Prowl and proposes a partnership but Prowl has a change of heart and suggests that he won't work with the bounty hunter and that he won't use anymore upgrades. We'll just see about that. I've seen the toyline listings, after all. (and yes, I've watched the show before. but it's less fun to operate from that perspective.)

-Up on the moon Starscream sits in the ruins of their old ship, cursing Megatron for the increased bounty that the survived Megatron has put on his his head. But he's confident that he'll be able to operate effectively with his new army of clones.

Begun the Clone Wars has...​

*cue ominous music sting*

*roll credits with upbeat rock song*

Now that we have the massive clone army reveal, I can say that this is the other questionable "reference" on TFWiki. According to its entry, the clones are "obviously" a reference to early G1's tendency to feature nameless, often uniquely or blandly colored seekers to pad out the Decepticon ranks. Except that's a tenuous link to make beyond just "there were then and are now a lot of plane bots." The generic seekers in G1 were explicitly not Starscream and were never stated as teh result of cloning or any other sort of technology. They were either distinct characters (or what became distinct characters in the case of eventually named bots like Hotlink, Nacelle, Acid Storm, Sunstorm, Ion Storm, etc) or nameless, unimportant generic nobodies that you weren't really supposed to pay attention to sort of like the gaggle of excess Reflector bots. These clones are a) explicitly clones and not just random other bots, b) explicitly still basically Starscream-like in voice and elements of behavior, c) not generic and d) have a particular shown origin and purpose/plan beyond simply filling out the numbers because the animators are lazy and the writers didn't think things through ahead of time.

Suggesting that the clones are an homage to classic Decepticons is like suggesting that any Unicron Trilogy Optimus was an explicit homage to Star Saber because they were white/red/blue bots with power-up super modes.

Fanservice Tracker
G1: 0 (total: 24)
G1-Marvel: 0 (total: 1)
Beast Wars: 0 (total: 4)
Non-Series-Specific Japan: 0 (total: 1)
Masterforce: 0 (total: 1)
Overall: 0 (total: 31)

Pros
+Prowl's action sequences are cool

+The starscream clones are a fun twist

+Lockdown's back!

+Various plot bits come together quite well

+There are a couple of really good laughs



Cons
-Nobody seems as freaked out by teh fact that Starscream has clones as you'd think they should be

-Prowl's aggressive attitude comes out of nowhere and seems like it's in direct defiance of everything we've learned about him as a character so far

 

Two kinds of people in this world; those who enjoy Dollars Trilogy homages and those who don’t.

I do.

Fun thing to note. Even though Prowl’s samurai armor form would get a toy later, it was actually just a show creation intended for this one episode not meant to a promote an upcoming toy. Hasbro just really liked the idea of Prowl in samurai armor.