So the other day I rewatched the 1986 movie, and one thing was really sticking out to me, that I didn't think about before. Why do the Decepticons go out of their way to attack Autobot City? Autobot City may have been a base, but it's clear that the Moon Bases are the real threat, as Starscream puts it. It's where their HQ is. And when Megatron hears what Starscream says, he doesn't answer it. He says "You're an idiot, when we slip by their early warnings in their own shuttle and destroy Autobot City, the Autobots will be vanquished forever!" Completely avoiding addressing the Moon Bases. And it's not as if they were going to turn around with the ship and sneak by. They went straight for the city. Why ignore the Moon Bases? Optimus even said they can't support a full scale assault, why can't they just ambush them on both Moon Base? Could Megatron somehow had intel that Autobot City was Metroplex, and as a result, feared the Autobots summoning it to Cybertron? What if Optimus Prime was trying to hide the Autobot City, and Megatron perhaps had no way of approaching Earth to confirm if it was there or not? And perhaps the reason he completely dodged Starscream's question was because he didn't want any other Decepticons knowing about Metroplex? I feel like as a warlord he would want to hide information of a potential giant superweapon, so his soldiers don't cower trying to fight it. It's just that this appears to me to be the only logical reason to attack Autobot City first, rather than the moon base. Does this seem like a possibility?
Autobot City is where they get their Energon. The script and storyboards make it clear that Autobot City is also a MASSIVE hydroelectric dam. This isn't super apparent in the movie except if you look closely at the pan-shots they painted the dam into the cityscape. Plus the dialogue makes it even more apparent. EDIT: The raw artwork the Toei people made for Autobot City, visible in the background more than once but never in focus. Optimus drives ACROSS the dam to get to Megatron: Now that I look closer it's also got a wind farm! Sweet! They were churning out some serious Energon. Between 2, if not more, generation sources. No Energon = No Resources For The Autobot Assault on Cybertron. That's why Optimus sent Ironhide on a 'special run' and Megatron decided to annihilate their efforts at the source. Most of the Autobots' personnel seem to be in Autobot City and the Moonbases are a front line outpost. There are generics drawn into the Autobot City scenes that make it clear that it's populated and only named characters seem to be present on the Moons. Autobot City is the most important military installation to long-term Autobot survival. That's one thing I like a lot about the movie: instead of a brainless scheme Megatron is made threatening through the use of real gritty military tactics. There is no war if there is no fuel for the war. There is no need to attack the Moonbases if there's no Energon to send there. Starscream is an idiot. He would cast the Autobots off the Moons and they'd live to fight another day and Autobot City would still be churning out Energon all night and day. Wasting resources on the Moons while the Autobots still have the full stock of Autobot City and time to coordinate may end up costing the Decepticons the war. Metroplex as a toy was on the table in 1986 but most of the movie was conceived in 1985 and any 86 toy that wasn't a movie-original did not make it into the movie. Metroplex wasn't even a consideration for the movie and retconned into Season 3. There's no need for fanon based on retcons when the movie itself offers an even better explanation: Wars are won by resources and won by resources first. Destroying the source of most, perhaps all, Autobot resources is the most prudent and deadly effective tactic.
Japan released a pre-movie cartoon, if I am not mistaken it's called Scramble City. Since the cartoon came out in April 1986, the Autobots built Autobot City (Metroplex) why couldn't they use him in the movie?
It's not that magical "pre-movie cartoon" people keep making it out to be. It's an OVA that consists half of footage from previous episodes (most notably the pilot and "The Master Builders") and half of newly-made footage with a very flimsy plot that is the most blatant lengthy animated toy commercial from that era in existence, highlighting all the various toy features of the combiner teams and also featuring Metroplex and Ultra Magnus for a brief bit. It's not intended to "bridge the gap between season 2 and the movie" as people have been claiming for the past two decades or so. Its basically "The Autobots build Metroplex, here is Ultra Magnus, and now let's see some combiner action". No characterization, no deep plot aside from "robots fight each other, and more robots keep getting sent in". It's only that mystical magical super special episode you've never seen if actually you've never seen it. Once you've seen it, it becomes "this thing does soooo not live up to all the hype". Had it been released in Hasbro's markets back in the day, it would be considered the most boring episode ever that just happens to have Ultra Magnus, Metroplex and Trypticon in it and ends in a cliffhanger that's never resolved. But it wasn't released in the US, so instead it became that ridiculous holy grail. Imagine G1 Ironhide had been a Japan-exclusive toy. (Actually he was never released in Japan as a Transformer prior to 2001, but just imagine the idea.) Imagine that underwhelming toy were the holy grail of the 1984 Transformers toy range for US collectors. That's what "Scramble City" is.
Aside from what others posted You got to keep in mind, that was made and released by Takara for their markets The G1 cartoon was not a Japanese anime that was translated into English and brought over to the west Hasbro/Sunbow/Marvel likely didn’t even know Takara was making Scramble city till after it was released or soon before.....under Hasbros business model for Transformers, Hasbro handled the fiction while Takara provided the toys
As Perceptor explains in "Five Faces of Darkness," Metroplex's transforming cog was damaged, hence his inability to transform and participate in the battle.
While most of the veterans of the war stayed on the Moonbases, it seems that there's a sizeable force of Cybertronians in Autobot City. Also, it seems that the City was also populated by the Autobot's human allies. Perhaps Megatron knew that the humans seemed to aid in his defeat so many times that he intended to destroy them to increase his chance of winning the war overall.
I've heard of this description of the city before, but never seen any artwork for it. Thanks for posting, that thing looks beautiful.
Metroplex was in the movie. He wasn't named, but you clearly see white parts of him during the Transform scene, like his tower and the Slammer tank. In Season 3 they explained that Metroplex's cog was damaged during the movie; this is why Springer & Arcee had to Transform him manually to battle station. And Scramble city was not part of the U.S. cartoon continuity. It would have fit nicely (nice to see Carly, Chip, Ultra-Magnus's debut, and Metroplex getting built), except it also debuts Trypticon who was only built on earth After the movie; thus losing continuity. Too bad!
