Beast Wars is definitely my favorite series. G1 is great and it comes in at a close second but I grew up on Beast Wars and it's just so kick-awesome! The story is excellent and the acting is amazing. I love the fact that Megatron took that name because he felt himself worthy of the title. No one gave it to him. For most of my life Gary Chalk was Optimus and David Kaye was Megatron. Every time I hear one of their voices I automatically think of Beast Wars. Just everything about that show was so great and if it wasn't for Beast Wars I wouldn't be a Transformers fanboy.

 

Gorilla Warfare
written by Greg Johnson

This is one of my favorite season 1 episodes of Beast Wars and not just because Optimus goes on a Pred-stomping rampage. For one, the episode opens on one of the more unique locations and a personal favorite; a cliff-top lake that forms twin waterfalls. It really stands out compared to the generic mountains and flat plains that we've seen so far.

Primal's conducting a survey of the local plant-life with Dinobot along as backup in case of Predacon ambushers. As one might expect, Dinobot thinks the whole mission is a waste of time. He and Primal go back and forth a little on how best they could be spending their time.

Dinobot: "Strategy!"
Primal: "Knowledge!"
Dinobot: "Tactics!"
Primal: "Exploration!"

Actually there's a great line in here that perfectly sums up Primal's opinion of the Predacons and the Beast Wars overall at this point in time.

Primal: "Dinobot, I signed on for this mission as an explorer. Just because we bumped into Predacons is no reason to stop learning new things."

He's right, of course, but his attitude indicates that he doesn't really view the Preds as much of a credible threat. Right now he seems to still be in the mindset that Megatron and his crew are just a ragtag band of small-time Predacon rogues. Oh how quickly he's about to change his mind...

The weird plant they're observing spits out a spiked ball that latches onto the back of Dinobot's neck right where he can't reach. He's all freaking out and Primal just laughs, seeing how Dinobot was outsmarted.

Primal: "That's how it spreads its seed. You see, we've learned something."
Dinobot: "Yeeees. From now on I shoot my dinner salad before I eat it."

Hehe. Dinobot would've been a riot to have around during Beast Machines. But anyway, Scorponok pops up right about then and starts shooting at them. He's picked a wonderful spot to ambush them from; right at the edge of the waterfall. Primal and Dinobot dive for cover behind some boulders and exchange fire.

One of the things I really like about this episode is the use of terrain. For example, Scorponok blasts a boulder and sends it crashing down on Dinobot, pinning him between two boulders. Then Scorpy tags Primal with a special Cyber-Bee, but not before Primal can return fire and knock Scorpy back onto a log. The log gets dislodged and goes over the waterfall. Nice stuff. It's like whoever designed this particular set-piece was trying to find a couple cool ways they could use the environment to make the battle a little more fun.

Dinobot hefts the boulder off of himself and carries Primal back to base. Aaand sometime later... Primal is in the CR chamber getting repaired while Rhinox delivers the grim analysis. The Cyber-Bee has rerouted all of Primal's vital functions into itself. There's no way to remove it and he can't transform with it attached. If they do yank it off, Primal has all of a minute to live and then the Cyber-Bee explodes, taking out everyone, "within sprinting distance."

Dinobot recongizes the symptoms and informs the group that Scorponok's Cyber-Bee is intended to turn Primal into a coward incapable of leading. And about that... shots are fired from inside the CR chamber! Primal tears the door clean off its hinges and steps out of a thick cloud of steam.

Primal: "Alright, who wants some?"

Oooh, he's mad! He threatens to blow away anyone that tries to remove the Cyber-Bee! Rhinox grabs him and with the other Maximals they're able to get him to calm down some, but it's taking everything in Primal to fight his newfound aggression. He orders his crew to lock him up and disarm him. Apparently Scorponok's little invention backfired and made Primal into a war machine instead of a coward.

Short scene where we see Scorponok in his little corner of the Pred base... tinkering away with whatever junk he manages to find, I guess. It's just so hard to picture Scorpy as anything other than a dolt. It's weird to see him in an almost lab-like setting. We find out he has an antidote to the Cyber-Bee thing that's making Primal rage out of control.

Back at the Axalon Cheetor goes to visit Primal in the holding cell. Primal is still twitching mad and all, but he seems to have it under control some. He's still talking like his old self and says that if he can't stop the rage, maybe he can at least redirect it back at the Predacons. Yeah! Now that's the Primal I know! Cheetor sets him free and they both head to the bridge.

On the bridge Rhinox, Rattrap and Dinobot are discussing how to get the antivirus that Scorponok has surely developed. Things start getting a little snippy between Rattrap and Dinobot when Primal interrupts. They're all shocked to see him out of the holding cell, but he seems remarkably under control. Primal says that he intends to take all this newfound fighting instinct and aggression he's got and turn it right back on the Preds... with the help of his crew. It all sounds good, but Primal gets a little too excited and shoots a ceiling light. Alarms start blaring and red lights start flashing. Oooooooooooh! Loud, annoying alarms making Primal angry. Flashing red lights making him angry! He starts shooting the alarm klaxons! Everyone ducks for cover, but Rhinox makes a daring attempt to tackle Primal. Rattrap and Cheetor pile on but Primal throws them all off. Even Rhinox!

That does it! Primal's not waiting around anymore for his crew of losers to develop some courage! If they're not with him, then he's going to attack the Pred base all on his own!

Primal: "It's like Dinobot says- (coy look from Dinobot)- We've gotta' hit the Preds the only way they understand: hard, fast, and right where it hurts!"

Primal politely takes the elevator outside. I swear, I was expecting him to shoot a hole in the roof and fly out. It's been a while since I've seen this one.

Anyway! New plan! The Maximals contact the Predacon base and warn them that if they don't want to get slagged all to scrap, then they better hand over the antivirus. Sounds reasonable enough, yeah, except that Megatron isn't worried about one crazed Maximal. He's got a whole crew of battle-ready Predacons to deal with the situation. So great! All Cheetor managed to do was tip off the Preds that Primal was on his way. New plan! The Maximals all race to the Pred base to help out, because you know Primal's going to be needing that backup whether he wants it or not.

The Pred base! Primal's flying right for it and dons his "battle armor". Now for anyone reading this that's never seen Beast Wars before, Primal's battle armor doesn't consist of him combining with another Maximal, he doesn't have a trailer of any kind that becomes armor, he doesn't have a whole set of remote vehicles that become gestalt limbs, he doesn't gain any new weapons or anything. Primal's "battle armor" is a faceplate that covers his mouth. And that's it.

BECAUSE THAT'S HOW HARDCORE HE IS!!!

He blasts a hole right into the hull of the Pred base and flies in. Tarantulus is dispatched to deal with him. They meet within moments (Primal's making it real easy for people to find him) and Tarantulus fires his crossbow at him. Oooh, score one for the spider! Wait, what the- Primal CAUGHT the crossbow arrow! He waves his finger at Tarry in a, "Tsk. Tsk." motion and- OMG- he's walking forward!
Tarantulus unleashes the machine gun spider legs of doom! In what has to be one of the coolest scenes ever from season 1, Primal marches through all the bullets and lasers (or whatever he's shooting) until he's point blank with Tarantulus. He picks the Pred up off the ground and impales him to the wall with his own crossbow arrow. OH... MY... GAWD.

Waspy is sent in next and... why even prolong the suffering. Waspinator is scared out of his mind at the mere sound of Primal's footsteps. Primal tears through a wall, grabs Waspy, yanks him back through and plows him through another wall. And just for good measure, Primal blasts Waspy when he's down.

By this point the other Maximals have shown up. Terrorsaur and Blackarachnia are sent out front to deal with them. I just have to say that I like seeing those two working together. For some reason I always liked to imagine that if Blackarachnia hooked up with anybody else other than Silverbolt, it would've been Terrorsaur. They just seem to work fairly well together. So they're doing their thing out front and Cheetor manages to sneak his way inside the base...

... Great moment where Primal's walking down the dark halls of the ship. He looks tired and battered. He remembers what Cheetor said earlier about not letting this thing tweak him out of control. It's a nice moment and really stands out to me. You can see the real Primal come through during this sequence for a moment.

Primal reaches Scorponok's lab finally but the antidote is nowhere to be seen. Megatron, who's been in beast mode for this entire episode, steps out of the shadows holding the antivirus. If Primal wants to live, then he has to swear allegiance to the Predacons. Megatron smiles and chuckles at his clever self. This trick might have worked on a cowardly Primal, but Megs is dealing with super-heated, raging mad Primal and he's not having any of it!

Primal rips the Cyber-Bee off his chest and says, "Here's a little trick I learned from a flower!" No matter how he says that, it just can't sound cool or tough. The Cyber-Bee (now a bomb) latches onto the back of Megatron's neck and he runs for dear life to find someone to remove it.

Cheetor dashes in just in time to catch the antidote that Megatron had thrown up in the air (in terror, presumably) and injects Primal with it. I always notice the really bad animation during these 4 seconds. Whether it's Cheetor running over to Primal or the fact that his hand isn't on the handle of the antidote speargun half the time, it's just a really awkward scene. But hey, who cares. The rest of the episode's been awesome.

They flee the base and elsewhere... Megs finds Scorponok and has him remove the Cyber-Bee just as it explodes in their faces. The Predacons are dead! ... until the next episode. Seriously, this is like the second or third time now that the Beast Wars should've been over. Bah!

Sometime later... Primal is back in his quarters aboard the Axalon resting up. He wakes to find Dinobot watching over him. Claiming it was merely his shift to keep watch, Dinobot makes his way for the door. He states that he's glad to have Primal back home and back to normal and even cracks a smile. Awww. Primal looks over to his side and sees that there are some flowers on his desk next to the bed. They're the same flowers from the start of the episode. He looks back to Dinobot, but the scaley lizard is already half-way through the door and doesn't look back.

That pretty much sums up Dinobot's whole character, doesn't it? He actually does care but he'll never say it. I like it. It's a nice way to end the episode. Anyway, one thing I have to say before I wrap it up for this one. We've seen characters turn evil in many other TF shows and even later in Beast Wars itself. What makes this episode stand out is that Primal hasn't really turned evil. He's turned badass. He still gets to rampage and shoot his guns wildly and do all the things that the "turned evil" characters do (like all the Autobots turning evil in "Attack of the Autobots"), but it's still Primal underneath it all. He's not mindlessly evil. He knows what's been done to him and he's doing everything in his power to turn this weakness into a strength and use his newfound power against his enemies and not his friends. It makes for what is probably the most fun and most interesting take on the concept of having a good guy do and say radically different things that they normally never would.

Great episode. One of my favorite in the entire series. And coming up next it looks like we have "The Probe". Did I mention that the sequence of episodes on Rhino's dvd set is all screwed up? Yeah, it is. I'm going by the traditional episode guide, and not the order they put them in. Anyway, that's all for now. I leave you all with some pics.














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That episode had some really great direction and animation. The scenes with Optimus fighting Tarantulas and Waspinator were both very well done. And some great moments for Dinobot. I always laugh at Dinobot's line after they tip off the preds, "It seems only Optimus can truly think like Optimus".

 

Awesome episode. It just shows that how how awesome the Boss Monkey many time in the show.

 

Man, when I was little, I thought this ep was the shit! It still is, too. Awesome Primal is awesome.

 

A guy on another board asked if I would take a pic of Primal's incredible "SUPER MODE" armor, and so here it is!

 

Beast Wars was my soap opera for years. The first Transformers I ever owned were Transmetal Cheetor and Transmetal Tarantulas. It opened up a whole new universe for me.

 

The Probe
written by Craig Miller and Marv Wolfman

It's been a few months now that our beasty buddies have been stranded on Ear- uh... I mean a strange, prehistoric planet with TWO moons. TWO MOONS, so you know it's NOT Earth! But as I was saying it's been a while and things have started to settle in. Everyone's used to the primordial surroundings by now. What do you think, shall we expand the scope of things a little? How about we start with a shot of Cybertron?

WOOOOOO!

*sigh* I guess it kind of loses its impact now, but back in 1996 when this episode was being aired for the first time, I was flipping out. Afterall, this is the 11th episode in the series. At one episode per week, that's 11 weeks without seeing Cybertron or anything beyond the small scope of the rocky landscapes. And if you count from the time that G1 ended to the opening shot of this episode, the wait had been even longer.

But finally we see Cybertron. No longer is this simply a new show with a couple of passing references to some old, forgotten toon from the 80s. It's official now. This is a Transformers show and this is Cybertron we're seeing. *swoon*

The Axalon has long since gone missing, so the Maximals on Cybertron send out several temporal probes to search for, and hopefully locate, the missing ship and its crew.

Cut to the Maximals still stranded on the blue/green planet (not Earth). Primal, Dinobot, Rattrap and Cheetor are on their way back to the base. It's pretty mellow and with the Axalon in sight, Cheetor decides to race Rattrap to the ship. Primal and Dinobot give each other a look and shake their heads. It's a one-second moment but I like it. It's almost like after "Gorilla Warfare" Primal is starting to see some validity in Dinobot's warrior point of view. Or maybe since Dinobot was the one stressing strategy while psycho Primal was all about blowing everything up, he (Primal) can see a little more clearly that Dinobot isn't about mindlessly blowing things up. Gotta' put some thought into first.

But anyway! I'm rambling today, I know. It's a good episode! Primal calmly says, "Maximize," and transforms. *ahh* Such a nice change from all the screaming, "HENSHINS!", and "TRANSFORMS!!!" of the anime series. Primal flies in front of the racing cheetah and rat and drops down right in front of them. Cheetor smacks into Primal and bonks his head. Very uncool, right? Primal reprimands Cheetor, saying his fooling around left him wide open to attack. What if he had been a Predacon scout?! Primal's attitude about the Preds has really started to change now since the last episode when he all but brushed them off as a minor nuissance.

After the lecture they finish their walk back to the Axalon, where Rhinox is hard at work. Seems he's detected the probe that Cybertron sent out while the other Maximals were away. I love how he keeps tuning their equipment and it sounds like a HAM radio. That's classic.  

Dinobot: "It's probably a Predacon trick... or something worse."

Hm... I kind of get the feeling that Dinobot already suspects it's a probe and that he doesn't think it's a tirck at all. More on that later. They're able to boost their long-range sensors and confirm that it is in-fact a temporal probe. Rhinox cuts the celebrations short and tries sending it a signal. Unfortunately, there's too much interference for the signal to get through. The party... is over.

Primal: "You did your best, Rhinox. No one could've done more."
Rattrap: "Yeah, fearless leader is right."
Rhinox: "No he's not."

I love that exchange. Anyone else would, y'know, take it in stride and be cheered up just slightly, but not Rhinox. He sees right through the good-intentioned kindness. BUT! There's still a chance they can contact the probe! Yeah, this is Rhinox's pick-me-up! He's practical, he's a realist, and he knows that the probe will make a second pass by the planet on its way out of the solar system! All they need to do is build a stronger transmitter and boost the signal!

*gasp!* And a beautiful shot of the probe as it passes by Saturn. Er- I mean, you know, a planet that has a ring around it. Not Saturn, because they're not on Earth. SLAG!

Not a moment to lose! The Maximals locate the highest patch of land they can find, and it happens to be in Predacon territory. No choice! Must build, must build, slag it! No worries, Tigatron's watching their backs.

And somewhere nearby... Tigatron spots Waspinator flying aimlessly around and blasts him out of the sky. That was easy. Too easy, in fact. Turns out Waspy was merely bait to lure out any roaming Maximals, and Tarantulus is right there to surprise Tigatron with his new invention; a transformation-lock lens. I hope you like your fur coat, Tigatron, because you'll be wearing it for a while! He's trapped in tiger form!

Tarantulus: "It woorks, how gratifying."

Aw, that's just cute!

The other Maximals hear the missle/laser fire and send Cheetor off to help. Dinobot offers to assist, but Primal wants him to stay in case their construction site comes under attack.

Dinobot: "Well, of coourse. We wouldn't want to miss our chance to go home."

Ah, one of my favorite pieces of dialogue in the show. Dinobot says that he's still a Predacon despite their alliance and that when the Maximal ship arrives to rescue the Maximal crew, he'll be lumped in with Megatron and all the rest of the Predacons. Primal assures him that he'll personally see to it that Dinobot will be treated like a Maximal.

Dinobot: "And what makes you think I want to be."

Zing!

Cheetor arrives to help Tigatron (after the snowy tiger got beat up some), but Tarantulus uses the lens on him too! Two down and four to go.

Tarantulus: "Isn't life just full of surprises."

Oh, and before I forget, "Don't cats ever get tired of being stupid." It's the running gag throughout this episode. Everyone thinks cats are stupid in this episode. Who knows? Maybe one of the writers was having a bad week with their cat.

Back at the Axalon Rhinox is putting the finishing touches on the transwarp signal booster. He's just matching the artificial signal to mimic their transwarp engines so the probe can pick up on it. He checks the clock to see where the probe is and... a hologram of the whole solar system comes up.

There's a giant yellow sun at the center of it, and several planets rotating around it that look like... Mars, Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter... uh... yeah. They've all but said that they're really on Earth and this only helps confirm it. But Two moons, man! Two moons! Ah, whatever. We all know it's Earth.

Anyway! The probe passes by... a... blue planet with a vertical ring. Which one is that, Neptune or Uranus? I can never remember. *checks real quick* It's Uranus. Love those shots of space. They look so pretty!

Back on the planet! Optimus is trying to contact Cheetor and Tigatron to no avail. He doesn't even realize that Scorponok and Terrorsaur are hiding right behind a boulder not more than 50 yards away. Scorpy records the footage of the Maximals building stuff and sends Terrorsaur back to base to show Megatron.

At the base the Predacons puzzle over what the structure is (Tarantulus figures that one out in 2 seconds) and why they'd risk building it in hostile territory. Just then the deep space scanner goes off. They've detected something!

Cheetor: "The probe!"
Megatron: "Probe? (Oh, Snap!) Prepare for full-scale assault! Bring everything you've got! Now, Now, Now!"

The Preds, ALL the Preds, tear out of the base, leaving Tigatron and Cheetor to escape unnoticed. They make quick use of the Predacon CR chambers and are able to transform again. All they have to do now is reach the battle before it's too late (it took them a while to escape, I'm just summing it up real quick).

The Maximals have completed the signal array. They're just waiting on Rhinox to deliver the replicated transwarp signature. And Scorponok isn't waiting for anyone! He blasts Dinobot right in the back! He's down! He fires a couple more missles at the structure, but Primal blasts them out of the sky. Scorpy goes to fire a missle at Primal and- OMG- RATTRAP BLEW HIS CLAW-HAND OFF!!! Dinobot gets back on his feet and finishes off the one-handed scorpion, but they know the rest of the Preds are on their way...

The probe! It's coming back around Earth!

OMG, Terrorsaur! He shoots! They shoot! Everyone shoots, nobody gets hit. Terrorsaur flies away. OMG! More Predacons! Megatron, Blackarachnia, and Tarantulus snuck up behind the Maximals while Terrorsaur distracted them! The Preds are really good at this baiting tactic today, I notice. Anyway! BATTLE!

Dinobot runs right into the beam of the Lock Lens and reverts to his beast mode. Before he even knows what's going on, Blackarachnia kicks him in the head about... 30 times. He's down! Rattrap gets a little does of revenge and blasts Blackarachnia backwards until she falls off a cliff.
He goes over to check on his veloci-buddy and gets hit by the lens too. Rat mode! Stuck in rat mode! They both get blasted across the ground by Megatron. Dude, that lens is messing up the whole Maximal team!

Tarantulus throttles Primal (how often do you see that?). Good bit here, Primal swings his sword and Tarantulus catches it with his other hand! Primal still has his forearm canons though, and punches a hole through Tarry at point blank range. And then Primal gets hit by the Locking Lens too. The whole team has been trapped in beast mode! They're completely defenseless!

Megatron fires a missle at the signal array, but Primal won't let it be destroyed without a fight. He picks up an I-beam and *BATS* the missle! Of course, the missle explodes on impact, which always made me think of the horrible reverberations that must've gone through that thing and right into Primal's hands. You ever hit something solid with an aluminum baseball bat and feel that horrible pain in your hands? Multiply that by about a thousand.

Primal's on the ground and Megatron takes the opportunity to *GRIND* his heel into the monkey's back! Crazy pain! *takes a picture*

This has been a crazy battle so far, but you know who they forgot about? Rhinox. And he's right there to knock Megatron clear across the battlefield. He's down! Rhinox goes over to install the disc with the replicated transwarp signature when he's hit by the lens. Rhino mode! NOOOOOOOO! But really, how was he to know there was some crazy new device on the field?

It's so awful! He keeps trying to Maximize to no avail and as he slowly trucks his way over to Primal, you can see Megatron groggily reviving in the background. Hurry up already! He hands the disc off to Primal, the only one with hands capable of inserting the disc in beast mode, but it's too late. Megatron is back on his feet.

Megatron: "No Predacon will become a Maximal prisoner while I rule."

Ah, how sweet! He fires a missle at the signal array in glorious slow-motion. The explosion rocks the area and sends Primal and Rhinox flying through the air. This, I believe, is the first time the Predacons have had a real solid, clear-cut victory and it's such an event, that the explosion is played a few more times with Megatron's echoing laughter filling the room. Oooooh, so evil.  

Time to finish the job. He moves in to finish off Primal and Rhinox, but the cats show up! First order of business is to destroy the Transformation-Lock Lens. With that out of the way it's two against one. But you know what? Megatron is feeling mighty happy with how the day's gone and and doesn't feel up to anymore fighting. He heads for home... and the Maximals... don't.

Mmmm- mm! I love this episode! I'm sure there's plenty more that can be said about it, but this is running a bit long as it is (I think). I guess I'll leave it as is, but this really is one of my favorite season 1 episodes if you couldn't already tell. Love it! Oh wait, there is one more thing- I didn't hate Tigatron in this one!

Next up- Victory.














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So, when is this great review series going to continue, i wonder  

No time for it currently, Mako?

 

See this is why Animated needs to have an episode like "The Probe". It shows that our heroes that many things are on the line.

Good episode!

 

Hmm... it has been almost a month since I posted the last review. I should probably step the pace up a notch. This week I think I'll try doing one a day Monday-Friday. See if that works.  

 

Don't overwork yourself on these ep reviews Mako!

 

Awww! That's sweet.   We'll see how it goes. It really only takes about an hour to write the review. It's doing all the other junk that seems to eat up time.

 

Been a while, right? Yeah, that's college for you. Completely overwhelmed by homework and huge blocks of reading. I swear though, I'm going to get this thing going again. Right then, where'd we leave off at?


Victory
written by Wendy Reardon

This episode opens inside the Axalon where everyone's crowding around the TV to watch their new favorite soap opera: "As the Preds Burn", courtesy of a spy camera that Rattrap secretly installed in the Pred base.

It seems that Megatron has been using what precious little energon the Preds have to conduct experiments in growing artificial energon crystals. Unfortunately his experiments have all been complete failures thus far. Terrorsaur, Waspinator and Scorponok look on with growing contempt as this latest experiment results in yet another failure. Megatron demands another crystal immediately. You can just see where this is going. The Predacons revolt!

Cheetor: "Now aren't you glad we got cable?"

I've been waiting so long to quote that line.   Yes, Cheetor, yes I am. *Grin!* The Maximals watch the revolt unfold as the Preds open fire on Megatron. He takes cover, but the experimental energon crystals are hit and detonate. The monitor goes static. The explosion at the Pred base is felt miles away inside the Axalon.

Whoa. The Predacons just blew themselves up.

There's more a sense of complete bewilderment than anything else. The tone is kept reserved, as the Maximals go to check out the Pred base and confirm the destruction. Smoke is billowing from the wreckage and the ship lists. We all know it's a trick, but honestly- the Preds are really going the distance in making it believable. How badly did they have to trash their base to make it realistic?

Primal: "We may have to accept a rather unexpected development, friends. It looks like the Maximals have won the Beast Wars."

Ohh, tsch. I know what he meant, but it came across all wrong. It's unexpected that the Maximals won? Way to rain on the parade. No, no, I'm sure he meant that it was unexpected that the Predacons blew themselves up. Oh well, minor point.

So they head into the Pred base and the whole place is just in shambles. Rhinox is scanning for signs of life but coming up with nothing. It's off to the engine room to see what they can salvage and use to repair the Axalon.
The whole time Dinobot is just completely somber despite Rattrap's constant needling. After the engine room is deemed secure, Dinobot stalks off down a corridor to look for any survivors. Watching as he goes, Rattrap delivers what happens to be my favorite bit of dialogue in the episode. Basically he says that despite their alliance, Dinobot is still a Predacon at heart and only sided with them, because he knew they'd win. Now is not the time to drop his guard, because there's just no telling what Dinobot will do next. Good stuff.

And! And just down the hall even Cheetor is playing practical jokes on Dinobot with some of Tarantulus' spare spider legs! Crikey, it's a wonder that Dinobot didn't bite his head off right there! Ohhh, I swear, Cheetor's going to pay for that later. You just know Dinobot's thinking about cheetah tar tar.

Anyway, mission accomplished. They got the engine parts they were after and there's no sign of Predacon life. They head back to the Axalon.

Repairs are the top priority now. I just love seeing more of the Axalon. Seems like we've seen only the command bridge and a couple side rooms. The engine room looks pretty cool too.
Dinobot arrives after much contemplation and informs everyone that he's not returning to Cybertron with them. Convinced that he'd only be seen as a Predacon criminal, staying behind on this primitive world unequaled in power seems like the better choice.

Primal: "It will eventually lead to your destruction."
Dinobot: "Eventually... Eventually can be a very long time, Optimus Primal."

Ooh, snappy! One of my favorite lines. Dinobot doesn't wait for everyone to start tearing up and exits the Axalon. Rattrap, for the first time today, seems surprised and maybe even a little disappointed that Dinobot's not coming with them.

Outside- Dinobot stomps around surveying the vast wilderness that he intends to conquer. He steps over a narrow crack in the ground and proceeds on his way. But it's a deep, canyon-like crack in the ground and at the bottom are all of the Predacons in hiding.

I'm not sure how long the Predacons have been hiding in here, but the events of this episode seem to span the course of at least a couple days. Tarantulus is munching on field mice and slobbering all over Terrorsaur. Terrorsaur is just losing his mind being cramped up in such a tiny crack in the ground. Claustrophobic? Maybe. The best part is the revelation that Waspinator has been cuddling Tarantulus like a stuffed animal when he sleeps at night! Awww! And even more, that Tarantulus was completely aware of this and let him do it anyway! Awwwww! That's so sweet!

It seems the whole plan began when Terrorsaur accidentally tripped over the cable to the Maximal's spy camera (was it really that blatant?). Having discovered the spy cam, the Preds hatched this plan to fake their own deaths and let the Maximals repair the Axalon. Then, once the repairs were complete, they'd jump out of the crack in the ground and steal it from them!

Sounds fairly foolproof until Dinobot happens to spot them down there. OH SNAP!!! Every Predacon comes thrashing out of the tiny canyon and gives chase! Dinobot runs like mad back towards the Axalon (managing to take out Terrorsaur and Waspinator in the process).

But it's too late! The Axalon is already prepping to lift off. The engines are warming up and in the condition that the ship is in, there's just no way to shut it off.
Dinobot is shot down! He can't move! He can still shoot though and holds the remaining Predacons at bay as long as he can... which isn't long. I know it's only four Predacons running at the base, but they're cranking up the epic music that usually only gets used when the Vok are on the scene- and it works! It totally works! This feels epic!

Cheetor and Optimus Primal head outside with blast shields to try and rescue Dinobot. I love those blast shields. So cool. Tigatron is here too and can't stand the idea of sitting idly by while everyone else is fighting.

Rhinox: "Sit down!"

Tigatron: "But Optimus and Cheetor get to-"

Rhinox: "I SAID SIT!!!"

Pure awesome.

It's a crazy fire fight, but Optimus is able to get to Dinobot and secure him. Seems Terrorsaur's recovered though and nails Primal right in the back. A crazed Cheetor fires wildly at Terrorsaur before getting himself taken out by Megatron. See, that's what happens when you don't pay attention.

The Predacons all charge the Axalon, but are easily dispatched by the ship's auto-canons (which were being operated by Tigatron). However, the Axalon is lifting off ever so slowly. The epic music has ceased. All we can hear now are the roar of the engines as the ship inches ever higher. Cheetor manages to crawl his tattered body onto the elevator platform as a weary Optimus carries Dinobot in his arms. He looks completely exhausted, but he digs deep and summons the last bit of his strength to throw Dinobot up onto the platform. With one last burst of energy he jumps and latches onto Cheetor's hand. It's going to be okay! They all made it and now they're heading home for Cybertron!

Not if Scorponok has anything to say about it. He fires off a missle that breaks the grip Cheetor had on Primal and in deafening silence, Primal falls to the ground in slow-motion. I swear, this episode is epic.

Cheetor: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"  

At the very last second Megatron jumps onto the Axalon before it's out of range and makes his way inside. Long story, short- he takes out all the Maximals and decides to savor crushing Rattrap in his T-rex jaws. Just that Rhinox doesn't go down so easily and hoists himself back up onto his feet. If you were wondering what kind of a powerhouse Rhinox was, check it out- he PICKS Megatron UP and PILEDRIVES HIS FACE into the elevator platform. Then, just for fun, he STOMPS Megatron's butt out the hatch and lets him fall back to the Earth. You don't mess with that rhino when he's in a bad mood.

The ship's controls were damaged during the battle though (there's a big T-rex tail sticking out of the console, slaggit!) and the Axalon plummets once more towards the planet! Sirens are blaring, red lights are flashing, everything's flying through the air and no one can get to the control panel to try and right the ship. But then, by some miracle, it's Optimus! He's flying right at them and catches the frickin' Axalon! Well, more like he helped guide the ship to a soft landing, but still- that had to be some kind of super strength.

The mission was a failure, but everyone's glad to have Optimus back. Rattrap and Dinobot are back to throwing insults at each other, so really- it's not all bad. The end!

Between this episode and the last one (The Probe), I kind of see a two-part story. It's like, with the Probe we were all starting to wonder where the search parties were and what was taking them so long. Then, after failing to contact the probe, we get this episode which shows the Maximals trying to leave the planet (rescue is out of the question at this point). And there's the developing story of Dinobot's apprehension of returning to Cybertron. So now we see that there is no rescue party coming and the Axalon is never going to fly again. The Beast Wars will be going on for some time after this. Also, love that despite being called "Victory", this whole episode is somber. The sky is gray and overcast the entire time. There are no celebrations- even when they think the Preds are all dead. Everything's got a kind of slow, quiet, stillness about it in this episode. Maybe that's why everything seems so incredibly dramatic at the end when the epic music cranks up and everything becomes very loud. All in all, just a great episode all around.

Next up- Dark Designs














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Dark Designs
written by Ian Weir

Lots of good stuff happening in this episode, so let's get right into it. The Maximals are out looking for energon, but they've reached a dead end. And already we get a great line.

Primal: "Well as far as dead ends go, at least this one has a view."

You know, I really like little moments like this. I'm not sure when it began exactly, but it feels like the dialogue of the show has matured a little. Not "grim and gritty" matured, but in the sense that the characters are able to express thoughts and feelings you don't normally see in an action cartoon based on a toyline. Like in the last episode when Rattrap pointed out that Dinobot's insults were a little lame (but was happy to hear them) instead of taking offense. Anyway, the unproductive trip goes south when the Predacons launch a sneak attack from above on a rocky mountainside.

SHAKEY CAM!!!

The camera is shaking everywhere! This is the only time I can recall seeing the shakey cam used *this* much, but for the most part it works. Makes the action seem that much more crazed and frantic. Except that sometimes the shakey cam shakes around when characters aren't moving or shooting or sometimes it wants to get shakey on an empty landscape. No, wait! I can see someone's foot in the bottom of the screen! Great shot of Tarantulus blasting away, but it doesn't look like his feet are on the ground.

BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE SHAKEY CAM!

Rhinox keeps firing on the loose rocks just above the Predacons until he causes an avalanche that buries the whole lot of them. Ah, that was easy. With that done, the Maximals head for home. Primal comments that Rhinox really did a great job. Some quick wits and sharp thinking- yeah, yeah. Sounds like leadership material to the boss monkey, but Rhinox is happy where he is- bringing up the rear.

Here's a moment that always stuck in my head as odd. Tarantulus is digging Megatron out of the boulders and the first thing Megatron says when he gets the rocks brushed off his face is how he's impressed with the rhino and would like to make him a Predacon. It's just kind of funny, seeing that he's still completely buried in boulders. No coughing or yelling or anything. He already concocted a brand new plan while he was buried! That's how fast he is!

Sooo... the Maximals are trekking back to the Axalon and Rhinox is bringing up the rear... about a mile back. It's no trouble at all for Tarantulus to snare the lumbering slow-poke in a stasis web and kidnap him. Sometime later Rhinox wakes up to find himself shackled inside the Predacon ship. Megatron is going on, blah blah blah, so what does Rhinox do? Yeah, you know it, he's not even afraid. Meanwhile, the Maximals have finally noticed that Rhinox is no longer behind them. Rattrap hacks into Rhinox's personal communicator and they can hear the whole thing.

Megatron: Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Rhinox: "I'm dying of boredom here."
Megatron: "Blah, blah, blah, Transmutor, blah, blah, Make you a Predacon, blah, blah, blah."

Megatron hits a switch and Rhinox is struck by four bolts of energy. When he comes to again, he's sporting a new paint job! All the gold bits on his robot mode are now silver and his eyes are glowing EEEEVIL red! They made him into a Predacon! Now, before we move on, let's consider Megatron's little plan here for a second. Last episode we saw how easily Rhinox stomped Megatron's face into the ground. We already know how smart Rhinox is. Now you take all that power and intelligence and combine it with the treachery and deceitfulness that Predacons are so well known for and... how was this supposed to benefit Megs again? Hehehe.

SO! Having heard all this, the Maximals decide that they must rush in and rescue Rhinox. Except, a wry grin comes over Optimus Primal's face as he realizes that Megatron just bit off more than he can chew- with both mouths AT THE SAME TIME! *L* Yes, I know that was lame, but whatever.

At the Pred base, Megs has just finished giving Rhinox the grand tour and now it's time to get down to business. He wants info about the Axalon that only Rhinox would know- security codes, ship layout, the basic stuff. But it seems that Megatron is having some kind of trouble with the holo-projector that displays all his tactical data. Oooh, Rhinox is so not impressed, and he makes sure to rub it in.

Rhinox: "Gee, I hope it's still under warranty."
Megatron: *glare*

Hehehe. Oh, the fun is only just beginning. Rhinox heads down to see if he can't help Scorponok figure out what the problem is. Oh hey, Scorpy figured it out real quick. Someone yanked the modem right out of the computer.

Rhinox: *fake surprise* "No!"
Scorponok: "But yes! See for yourself!" (not the actual quote from this episode, but still a quote from a movie I like if anyone knows it.   )

Scorponok turns his back for a moment and we see the modem in Rhinox's hand. He crushes the evidence! Oh hey, he found some big stacks of crates to play with now.

Scorponoky: "Hey, hey! Be careful with that!"
Rhinox: "Oh, I'm being real careful. See, I'm standing over here, and it's all gonna' fall that way." *shoves*
Scorponok: "NOOooooooo!"

Scorpy's out of the picture. Megatron and Waspinator arrive sometime later and discover his mangled corpse. Waspinator is ordered to cart Scorpy off to the regeration tank and no sooner has he done so, then he's nailed by another crate! Rhinox loves those things. Waspy takes a hard hit to the head and starts flapping all over the base, thinking he's the ancient Insection, Shrapnel. Blackarachnia and Megatron look on in disbelief.

Blackarachnia: "Shrapnell? That was a Decepticon from the Great War over 300 years ago."

Couple things about this scene. One, I love seeing Megatron and Blackarachnia together. I always got the impression that early on he took a liking to her, being that she was fairly intelligent, and kind of took her on as an apprentice. We'll see some of his tutoring in later episodes (needless to say, it doesn't last). Secondly, as rabid fans of Transformers, we all know who Shrapnel is, so it's no big deal to us. But for Blackarachnia, who's never been to Cybertron, to be able to recognize the name of one random Decepticon out of countless soldiers from over three centuries ago really says something. This won't be the last time she shows her superior knowledge of history either, which always gave me the impression that she had a strong interest in cybertronian history. It makes sense, really. Since she's never been to the homeworld, she naturally wants to learn all she can about it. The fact that she seems to know minute details that no one else picks up on just goes to show how into Cybertron's history she is. *imagines her with sexy librarian glasses and a data-pad in hand*

Anyway, Waspinator finally konks out while mumbling the old, "More than meets the eye," catch-phrase. Rhinox is mighty pleased with himself and just stomping down a random hallway when Terrorsaur pops up. He's got Rhinox all figured out, and why not? This is usually Terrorsaur's game! He wants in on the action, but Rhinox is running a one-man show. He grabs Terrorsaur by the neck and threatens to make pterodactyl hotwings out of him if he doesn't keep quiet. I'm shocked. He hasn't had any compunctions about scrapping everyone else so far. Why not do the same to Terrorsaur? Ah, well, never hurts to have a little back-up just in case, right?

Back on the bridge, Megatron's checking over the security cameras and spots both Tarantulus and Blackarachnia poisoned with their own cyber-venom and strung up in their own stasis webs.

Megs: "What's going on around here!?!!?"
Hehehe.

Outside- the Maximals have managed to sneak right up to the Pred base undetected. It seems they're still listening to everything going on through Rhinox's comm. link, because they seem aware of all the chaos going on inside. Rhinox is doing such a good job of taking out Predacons, that they decide to let him keep running amok a little while longer before they charge in for the rescue.

Scorponok has finally gotten out of the regeneration tank and tells Megatron everything. His timing is great. There's only two Preds left in the base (not counting Scorpy or Megs). It's pretty obvious by now. We find Rhinox just wandering about as he usually does when Megatron confronts him.

Megatron: "Traitor!"
Rhinox: "And?"

Eeee! Rhinox is just too awesome as a Predacon. Looks like Megatron brought back-up though. Scorponok and Terrorsaur surround Rhinox. Do you see concern in those rhino eyes? Hehe. With a few well-chosen words, Rhinox convinces Scorponok that he should really beat up Terrorsaur.

Scorpy: "Mango!" *headbutts Terrorsaur*

The two Preds knock each other around until Rhinox grabs them both by the collar. Laughing, he smashes them both into each other and tosses them down to a lower level. He gives the departed Preds a farewell wave. Aww. Evil Rhinox laughing evil laughter is just cool. And the wave is cool. You know what? I think we still have one Predacon left to take care of. Rhinox busts out the chain-guns of doom and fills Megatrons knees full of shrapnel! OH! YEAH! Megs falls off his floating platform and hits the floor below, followed by Rhinox shortly. And now it's time to gloat. Oh, Rhinox, your plan was almost perfect, but you just had to gloat at the very end, didn't you? Yeah, he happens to be standing right in the center of the Transmutor the whole time he's gloating. Megatron shoots the activation lever and suddenly Rhinox is reverted back to a Maximal.

Time for the Maximals to get their old buddy out of there! They blast a hold through the wall and raid the ship! RETURN OF THE SHAKEY CAM! Except this time it's being used much better than in the first battle. I have to say, this probably ranks as one of the coolest little battles in the show. Dinobot and Scorponok are having a brutal beat-down. Scorpy is landing punches non-stop, even as Dinobot grabs him and hoists him off the ground, Scorpy keeps punching and punching. Very awesome. Also very awesome when Dinobot rams Scorpy's head into his spinning blades.

Total James Bond moment when Primal is flashing his blades all over the place and Megatron just shoots him. Hmm... *imagines Megatron with Sean Connery's voice* It's not too much of a stretch. Primal ain't giving up! He leaps in the air and Megs falls on his back, catches Primal with his feet, and kicks him clear back up into the air AND THEN blasts him twice before hitting the ground! Hard-frickin'-core! Primal finally gets in a hit and it's pretty much the game-ender. He chops off Megatron's arm!

The Maximals all fall-back just as the Transmutor explodes. Rhinox is safely back and they head for Maximal territory. Later... it's just the Maximals kicking back. Rhinox is smelling the flowers and he makes some really bad joke about how being a Predacon feels like having 3 gigs of attitude rammed into a 2 gig hard-drive or some such techno-nonsense. Oy, but at least the other Maximals get a laugh out of it. Dinobot shakes his fist.

SHAKEY CAM ON THE SHAKEY FIST!!!
THE END!

Woo, 'nother great episode! The only thing I really have left to say about Dark Designs is that, it's this episode that really drives me crazy about how Primal reacted to Tankor in Beast Machines. It was the same situation; Rhinox got captured and reprogrammed by Megatron. Yet for some reason in Beast Machines, Primal thought it would be wrong to remove the reprogramming. Something along the lines of it would make them just as bad as Megatron. Well, in this episode we clearly see that the plan all along was to rescue Rhinox. And then what? Let him stay in the Axalon as a Predacon? Hell no! The implication was always that they would find some way to remove the Predacon programming and restore him to his true self. That's the Optimus Primal I know.  

Next up: Double Dinobot














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I heart Beast Wars!

 

BW's CGI was actually pretty good, considering the general level of CGI tech back then. XD

 

"Victory" is my favorite season one episode while "Dark Designs" is one of Rhinox's crowning moments in the show.

 

And another review! I'm trying to catch up for all the Fridays I missed in January.  

Double Dinobot
written by Rowby Goren

Ah, yes, the standard evil-clone episode. Seems to be a hallmark of sci-fi shows, but what the heck. It's a good episode anyway. We're in Predacon territory and it's a dark and stormy night! Claps of thunder and lightning flash across the sky. Inside the base Megatron and Scorponok are playing Dr. Frankenstein and Igor as they bring to life a perfect clone of Dinobot; a scene that will be repeated again in Feral Scream part 1 with Waspinator playing Igor. Waspy makes a better Igor than Scorponok any day, but what we have here is fine. Megatron's master plan for today is to send the clone over to the Axalon and have him cripple the base from within. Easy enough. First order of business is to get rid of the real Dinobot.

Cut to a sunny day over in Maximal territory. We find the real Dinobot wandering about on patrol and bored out of his mind. Aww, he's so cute when he yawns! He's ambushed by Terrorsaur and sent flying head-first into a rock by explosions. His reaction?

Dinobot: "At last! An end to the boredom!"

Terrorsaur deftly dogdges several blasts from Dinobot and glides for the safety of a nearby cave. Dinobot pursues and once he's deep inside, Terrorsaur reveals himself and causes a cave-in that buries Dinobot in rock. Now I must say I do love this cave. It's not really dark (while still being dark enough) and has these willowy lights kind of breezing around. I should know what those are called but I'm at a loss. Just a cool little locale and it's the only time we'll ever see it.

Terrorsaur escapes through a vent in the ceiling of the cave and reports back to base. Phase one complete! Megatron sends in the clone... And at the Axalon the fake Dinobot hobbles into the command center with a story that he seems to have whipped up on the spot about how the Predacons are preparing to mount a full-scale attack. They need to send everyone that they can to stop them!
Primal doesn't seem too concerned though. There's no sign of Predacons on the ship's scanners, and he's convinced that Sentinel and some auto-guns can handle the Preds. He orders Dinobot to take Rattrap out to confirm the location of the Preds, but you can tell that Primal is already growing suspicious by Dinobot's strange behavior.

Dinobot and Rattrap make it to sector Omega, where Dinobot claimed the Preds were. There... appears to be a whole lot of nothing. Oh, I see- they're just over the next ridge. Okay, well that makes sense. Rattrap transforms to robot mode. Time to shred some Preds. Oh? What's this? Dinobot still in beast mode?

Rattrap: "What are you waiting for? Settle into the metal."

Hehe, I always liked that line. But alas! Being just a clone, the fake Dinobot cannot transform! With a little quick thinking, he reminds Rattrap that they're only supposed to confirm the Predacon's position, not start a fight. They can do that better in beast mode. Rattrap is understandably shocked by the caution and lack of battle-lust shown by the raptor but shrugs and reverst to stinky rat mode. They come to a narrow chasm with a river of lava flowing below. Rattrap finds a fallen log across the chasm that he starts climbing, when Dinobot gives it a good kick.

Rattrap: "What are you doing!"
Dinobot: "I should think it would be obvious even to a vermin like you!"

*kick kick kick!*

Finally the log gives way (he really had to work on that thing) and goes careening into the chasm. The log is burned to ashes and Rattrap quickly finds himself surfing a large, jagged rock that's floating in the lava. Lava rapids! Deadly rocks! Lava waterfall! Rattrap transforms to robot mode at the last second before going over the lava-falls. Just like any good video-game, he leaps from rock to falling rock and makes his way back up the lava-fall until he finds solid ground. I'm having flashbacks to Super Mario 2 on the NES here (my least favorite of all the NES Mario games). He's still halfway down the chasm but spots a loose boulder nearby. Tossing a couple of his portable bombs underneath it, he blasts the boulder sky-high and rides it all the way up to the top of the chasm.

Back in the cave... Dinobot has dug himself out from under the mound of rocks! And that, my friends, is the last we'll see of the cave. I miss you, cave. I miss you bad.  

The raptor clone hobbles back into the Axalon once more with news of disaster. Rattrap was taken hostage by the Predacons! Except that Rhinox is in that area now and sees no sign of Predacons or Rattrap. But still! Something must be up. Primal takes Cheetor along with him to find out what's going on. And now the whole base is in the hands of the clone. Oh, just one problem. He can't turn the Axalon over to Megatron just yet, because Optimus activated Sentinel and the base shields before he left. Hope you know the deactivation code. No? Well, how hard could it be. Dinobot types a few keys.

Dinobot: "There. *THAT* should do it."
ELECTROCUTION THROUGH HIS FINGER!!! BZAAAAAA!

He tries again. ELECTROCUTION TO THE SNOUT!!! BZAAAAAA! Oh my gawd, the pain! *L*

Meanwhile, Cheetor and Optimus arrive at the lava chasm and hear the explosion from Rattrap's bombs. They rush over and find him safe and sound. Oh, and he's got a great story to tell them about Dinobot. They call Rhinox back from the field and everyone rushes back for the Axalon.

The real Dinobot arrives home and commands Sentinel to stand down. Inside, the Dinobot clone is still trying to figure out the deactivation code from the safety of the floor, when Sentinel deactivates. That's a stroke of luck. Hehe, he doesn't even know.

Dinobot: "Clone 1 to Megatron..."

I'm just quoting that, because it's the closest thing we have to an actual name for the guy. I like to call him D.D. myself (for Dinobot Doppelganger or Double Dinobot) or DeeDee, hehehe. Clone 1 works too, I guess, but it's so dry. Anyway! He informs Megatron that the base is devoid of Maximals and completely unguarded; free for the taking. And, and... what's Dinobot doing with his tongue? Okay then... uh, yeah. Megatron acknowledges and proceeds towards the ship.

There's a reckoning to be had inside the Axalon when the clone meets the original. That clone is a good trash-talker until the real Dinobot transforms to robot mode and whips out the spinning blade of death. The clone shrinks back in terror. Upon discovering that his replacement is unable to transform, the real Dinobot reverts to beast mode to make it a fair fight. Hehe, no sooner is he in beast mode and the clone smacks him upside the face with his tail! The two of them thrash each other and tear apart the bridge, wrestling and throwing chairs at each other. Finally one of the Dinobots goes down but which one??

Dinobot (??): "Megatron will reward me for this."

Not good! Dinobot goes to meet Megatron outside the base. The raptor lays on the flattery pretty thick. Thick enough that Megatron considers having all his troops cloned. But first it's down to business. Megs heads for the Axalon as a sly looking Dinobot watches... and reactiavtes Sentinel! Megatron is blasted by all the autoguns clear across the ground!

Megatron: "So, you're just as treacherous as the original Dinobot!"
Dinobot: "Correction. I *AM* the original Dinobot."

He transforms revealing that it is indeed the real one and they have a little showdown. It's the classic battle of power levels as lasers try to overpower lasers. Megatron digs his T-rex tail into the ground for added leverage, which just looks cool. Just then the rest of the Maximals return from the wild goose chase and end the struggle with a couple well-placed missles. A full barrage of firepower from the other 4 convinces Megatron that he should call it a day and go home. Really, he doesn't seem too bummed about having lost until everyone starts shooting at him.

The Maximals survey all the damage done inside the Axalon by the battling raptors. Rattrap is still a little suspicious that there ever was a clone. I mean, where's the evidence? Where is this guy? Dinobot remarks that his clone was quite handsome... and tasty as he flicks what's left of the clone out from between his teeth.

Optimus: "Dinobot... you're disgusting."

*grin*
There's not really much else to say, I guess, although I did like seeing Terrorsaur being a badass for once and not getting shot down or anything. Scorponok has one of his better scenes at the beginning (after he's done paying homage to Igor). I like how they've portrayed Scorpy during the last few episodes. Sometimes it seems they have a hard time deciding if he's an inventor, a complete dolt, or the bruiser of the group. But yeah, the Scorpy of the last couple eps is my kind of Scorpy. What else, what else.... D.D. is awesome. I always laugh when he gets shocked by the computer! I even feel a little bad for him, but it's hilarious during his final try when he's hiding beneath the computer console.
I've watched the big battle between the two Dinobots over and over, and I swear that the clone actually won. If you pay close attention to who's where during the whole match, I'm pretty sure it' the clone that won. And then his one line after the fight makes it seem all the more like it's the clone. So who knows. Maybe it was the clone that won and at the last second (off-screen) the real Dinobot revived and ate him. Or... I don't know, maybe quipping, "Megatron will reward me," was some clever joke that only the real Dinobot got (assuming it was the real Dinobot in that scene). Oh well.

Next up: The Spark














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