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Cartoon Viewing Club: Zob's Thoughts on "The Master Builders"
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Zobovor
Apr 14, 2016, 7:18:08 PM4/14/16
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Posting this early because I'll probably forget to do it if I wait until tomorrow.
"The Master Builders" is episode #32 of the original Transformers series. In some ways, the true beginning of the second season wasn't until "Dinobot Island" parts 1 and 2 (the first episodes to introduce all the new 1985 characters) and this episode immediately follows the two-parter, making it one of the earliest episodes to feature the new batch of season-two characters. It first aired on October 8, 1985. The episode is credited to David N. Gottlieb and Herb Englehardt. Gottlieb wrote for M.A.S.K. and the 1980's revival of the Jetsons, while Englehardt also worked on both shows as well as Centurions and Thundercats. This was their only Transformers script.
For the second season, Hasbro was very specific about their new toys featuring in the series (frequently at the expense of the 1984 characters who were not Optimus Prime or Megatron or Starscream, as it turned out). The series bible included a breakdown by episode of which characters were scheduled to appear. One episode was a Blaster showcase; another needed to feature Omega Supreme; yet another was supposed to focus on the Triple Changers. This episode was the result of a Hasbro mandate to do a story about Grapple and the Constructicons.
In 1994, this was one of the episodes selected to air as part of Transformers: Generation 2, despite the fact that neither Grapple nor Hoist had G2 toys. It was clearly selected due to being a Constructicon showcase episode (of course, the Constructicon toys were available during G2 in yellow, and later orange, but not the classic green in which they appear here). Note that the on-screen titles for the Rhino and Shout Factory DVD releases show the episode title incorrectly as "The Master Builder" rather than the actual title, "The Master Builders," in plural. This was a mistake inadvertantly created by Rhino when they were forced to reconstruct the titles, which were missing from the prints of the episodes that were available to them. (I provided them with screen captures of the original title cards, so I can't be held responsible for this goof!)
So, our episode begins with Powerglide swaggering through the skies with his usual aerial bravado, until he's discovered by Skywarp. Powerglide responds promptly and manages to blast Skywarp's wing, disabling him. Starscream appears, however, and successfully guns Powerglide down. There's no real reason for the Decepticons to pick a fight; Powerglide isn't carrying vital equipment or information, and he's not on a secret Autobot mission. The Decepticons just happen to notice him in the air, and therefore they must shoot him. This is pretty much the first time we got to see an aerial dogfight between Autobots and Decepticons, which would become more common after the introduction of the Aerialbots.
Elsewhere, we are introduced to Grapple and Hoist in their first major appearance in the show. Technically, they were present in the background during "Dinobot Island," but they didn't really do much. Anyway, Grapple is a creative type, like Wheeljack, but he's also a sensitive artist, like Buzzsaw (or the tech specs version of Buzzsaw, anyway, since he never really exhibited this behavior in the cartoon at all). He's cobbling together a small-scale model of an invention, a solar power tower, which is designed to collect energy from the sun. As he shows off the invention to Hoist, you get the sense that the two are good buddies who hang out together a lot. The dynamics between the different Autobots is always interesting to me. There are so many of them that most of them never interact directly with each other, or at least not in any meaningful way. We know how Brawn feels about Perceptor and how Cliffjumper feels about Mirage, but what kind of relationship does Jazz have with Smokescreen? How do Huffer and Inferno feel about each other? We'll never really know. You have to really extrapolate from a lot of meaningless interactions (I tend to think that Sunstreaker and Hound don't like each other much, but I freely admit that's my takeaway from maybe two lines of dialogue from "Dinobot Island").
The animation models for Grapple and Hoist are not entirely consistent with the appearance of the Hasbro toys. Grapple is typically shown with an orange helmet, when his toy's helmet was actually black like Inferno's. Hoist, meanwhile, appears with a black helmet (or dark grey) when his toy's head was actually green. (Also, oddly, the wheels on Hoist's feet are always colored white.) Both characters were drawn with gun-arms (Grapple's left arm and Hoist's right arm), which reflected a function of the toys, whose fists could be replaced with launching missiles. Hoist was, of course, just a redeco of the Trailbreaker toy with a different robot head and a tow truck assembly instead of a camper shell; despite this, Hoist was drawn much fatter and squatter than Trailbreaker in an effort to differentiate the two. (They appear together on screen in "Blaster Blues" and the difference is extraordinary.)
While their animated looks were devised by Floro Dery, I suspect one of Dery's assistants created the rear-view drawings for each character, without the use of the Hasbro toys as an aid. This results in Grapple's crane arm (which hangs off the head of the toy) disappearing completely when he transforms, and Hoist's tow assembly (which is on the toy's back) also disappearing completely. Hoist is especially funny because you can actually see a very small piece of his tow assembly behind his arm on his front-view drawing, but somebody interpreted it as a useless flap attached to the back of each arm.
So, Grapple and Hoist present the invention to Optimus Prime with the intent of winning his approval. Wheeljack seems to like it, but Prime is a tougher sell. The pair of Autobots find him in the control room, learning the basics of basketball from Spike. (Well, Prime is rather tall, I guess. He'd definitely have an advantage on the court.) There is a cute moment where Prime refers to bouncing the basketball as "drooling" instead of dribbling. When he throws the ball back to Spike, instead of "think fast!" he tells him to "compute quickly!" Oh, those wacky alien robots. Anyway, Prime is suitably impressed, but duly concerned. There have been so many instances of Autobot inventions falling into Decepticon hands that, at this point, Prime doesn't even want the thing to get built. It would be too much of a temptation for Megatron to want to steal it, so Prime's answer is "no." He's so patronizing as he tries to let Grapple down gently. "How do you intend to protect it from the Decepticons? Perhaps you... didn't think of that?" Oh, don't be so sanctimonious, Prime. You didn't think about it, either, when Wheeljack came up with the immobilizer. Just sayin'.
Grapple is voiced by Peter Reneday, a newcomer to the show who also played the Master Renegade in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, and would go on to perform Splinter on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (If you ever watched the Legend of Prince Valiant on the Family Channel, he also played King William. That was a great show, and also featured Michael "Chip Chase" Horton playing a character named Arn.) Hoist is portrayed by Michael Chain, previously playing Powerglide, and would also end up being cast as Red Alert (whose voice is essentially just a crazy-sounding Hoist). Why do both Autobots have pseudo-English accents? Not sure.
Grapple and Hoist respond to Powerglide's distress call, but Grapple's mind is still on being rejected by Prime. He's fully convinced he's in the right, but aside from grousing bitterly about it, there's not a lot he can do about it. As they're returning from the repair run, though, taking a shortcut through a rocky canyon, Grapple proposes that they simply build the solar tower anyway, with or without Prime's consent. Hoist is more of a by-the-book guy than Grapple, and balks at the idea of going against Prime's wishes. Grapple's argument is, essentially, that the potential benefit to the Autobots outweighs the risk of the ever-present Decepticon threat. The Autobots aren't really hard up for energy resources ("Enter the Nightbird" suggests that they have the energy reserves of the entire world on tap) but you have to admire on some level what Grapple is trying to do. He's passionate about his work and he doesn't want small-minded buerocracy to stand in his way. Who can't relate to this on some level?
What he doesn't know is that the Constructicons are nearby and are witness to this exchange. Scrapper seems to recognize that he can turn this situation to his advantage, so he arranges for his team to trap them in the canyon, burying them waist-deep in a combination of cement and rubble. ("Constructicons!" Grapple exclaims, sounding exactly like Splinter.) Cut to commercial. Oddly, when this episode aired on the Sci-Fi Channel, they opted to forgo the commercial break until after Scrapper's dialogue with Grapple and Hoist is concluded, possibly due to the fact that the original break takes place only five minutes into the episode, instead of the traditional seven-minute mark.
So, with Grapple and Hoist as his captive audience, Scrapper offers them his proposal. He heard them talking about the power tower and offers his help. After all, the Constructicons were great admirers of Grapple's architecture back on Cybertron. (This is the first indication that the 1985 characters have "always" been around and not just recently-created Autobots, which is later supported further in "Desertion of the Dinobots." This also directly clashes with the idea that the Constructicons were created on Earth, as told by Megatron in "Heavy Metal War." We hadn't gotten to "The Secret of Omega Supreme" by this point in the show.) Bonecrusher gets a little hostile towards them before Scrapper orders him to back down--"We've got no grievances against these two," he says. This is a far cry from Decepticon jets who just randomly attack Autobot planes for no apparent reason. Grapple is intrigued.
Scrapper claims to have deserted Megatron, citing creative differences. Understandably, Grapple wants proof that the Constructicons aren't just trying to play them for suckers. Nearby, a Decepticon surveillance camera transmits this entire exchange back to the Decepticon base, where a betrayed Starscream says he wants the Constructicons DE-constructed. Megatron decides to wait until they return to the base so he can question them directly. When they arrive, Megatron's got all the Decepticon jets training their guns on the Constructicon group. Megatron demands an explanation. Scrapper cowers before him, offering a stuttering explanation that it's all a trick designed to lure the Autobots into a false sense of security. Each of the Constructicons gets a chance to speak in his own defense. (They keep finishing each other's sentences, like they all share one brain. Actually, I suppose they kind of do, after a fashion.) Now, was Scrapper always operating with Megatron's best interests in mind, or is he only fumbling for an alternate cover story now that he's been caught in the act? It's difficult to say. Up to this point, Scrapper has never acted disloyally towards Megatron (not counting when the Autobots reprogrammed him in "The Core," which was not his fault) but we'll see him make a couple of bids for leadership later on, once in "Triple Takeover" and again in "The Transformers: the Movie." So, it really could go either way.
Whatever his true motives, Megatron accepts Scrapper's explanation. When Scrapper explains that they need to prove to Grapple somehow that they're on the up-and-up, Megatron replies, "Then you must give him my most precious possession!" What, is Megatron going to hand over his fusion cannon? No, actually, he's going to provide the Constructicons with a cache of energon cubes, sending them back to Grapple with a story about how the Constructicons "stole" the energy from Megatron. This, in and of itself, cannot be considered proof of anything. The Constructicons could have gotten energon from literally anywhere. However, it's sufficient to convince poor, gullible Grapple into entering into a partnership with the Constructicons. Grapple really hasn't thought this through very carefully. How did he expect this was going to end? With the Constructicons joining the Autobots? With each group peacefully going their separate ways?
Hoist is clearly the more practical-minded of the two, and is still concerned that the Constructicons may be trying to deceive them. Nonetheless, Grapple is determined to see this through to the end. He doesn't go with the Constructicons when they visit a human construction site and taking some building materials. Maybe he would have objected to the idea of stealing from the humans, or maybe he would have found a way to justify it in his mind. (The construction foreman, in a brief but memorable turn by John Stephenson, has the classic reaction of freaking out when he realizes there's nobody driving the Constructicons. Between this show and Knight Rider, it became cliched rather quickly.)
There's an odd scene where Scrapper and Grapple are reviewing the solar tower blueprints together, and Grapple is holding the page with his gun-arm. Being an early episode of this era, five or six scenes were used from this episode alone to build the end credits sequence, so there are lots of moments you've seen many times, like Hook lifting a girder with his crane arm and transforming to robot mode so that it lands neatly in his arms. "As soon as my power tower is finished," remarks Grapple, "I must find a place to sign my name... in very large letters!" He's clearly quite pleased with how things are coming along... and totally oblivious of the betrayal to come.
Back at the Autobot base, Optimus Prime is still playing basketball, and this time he's suckered some of the Autobots into playing with him. Much, much shorter Autobots. They've even built a gigantic robot-sized basketball court in front of the base. The Transformers have experimented with human sports games before (a football game in "Atlantis, Arise!" and an impromptu baseball game in "Child's Play") and the writers must really like the juxtaposition, because they always seem to come back to the idea of alien robots playing Earth games. This is one of the few peeks we get into Autobot recreational activities. Frequently, they play a reactive role, only stirred into action by the Decepticons' scheme-of-the-week. It's not often that we actually get to see what they do before the Decepticons strike, though. One supposes that now that there are so many new Autobots on active duty, it's become necessary to introduce them to Earth culture. (It's all newbies like Inferno and Tracks and Smokescreen who are playing ball with Optimus. Ironhide and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker already learned to play basketball months ago, apparently.) When Prime suggests to Tracks that it's time to go in for maintenance, Tracks explains that he hasn't been able to find Hoist anywhere for a check-up. Spike confirms that Grapple and Hoist have been gone for the entire day, because this is the sort of thing Spike keeps track of. Prime decides to send Powerglide off to locate them. (Sure would be nice if all the Autobots had been equipped with GPS trackers.)
Meanwhile, the Constructicons appear to be feigning incompetence, seemingly as a way to get Grapple to do much of the hands-on assembly himself. Scavenger professes that his work is too sloppy; Hook claims he needs Grapple to instruct him several times because "I don't think I've got it just yet." Hook's delivery, in particular, is fairly sinister and suggests strongly that he's tricking Grapple into doing the work for him. I'm actually not sure what purpose this serves, except perhaps to slow down the labor. The Constructicons aren't idiots and should have no trouble following Grapple's plans, and yet they feel the need for this elaborate subterfuge. (Maybe they're trying to keep Grapple distracted to give Scrapper time to incorporate the "fancy doors" into the tower's design, the ones Grapple and Hoist end up getting trapped inside of.) Grapple, meanwhile, is getting more and more excited about the culmination of his dream. "It's amazing what friends can do together!" he proclaims. Scrapper is officially his new BFF. It's around this time that Powerglide finally spots the two wayward Autobots--he calls them "lost sheepacrons"--working with the Constructicons and notifies Prime. (I cannot express in words how stupid the names for the various Cybertronic fauna always sounds. Turbo-fox. Retro-rats. Please, just shoot me now. It's one of the dumbest things about this show and I always just tend to pretend it doesn't exist.)
Grapple seems flummoxed by the problem of how to get the sun-focusing sphere to the top of the tower. He's a crane truck, and he can't figure out how to get this piece to the top of the tower? What's wrong with climing to the top, transforming to vehicle mode, lowering his hook, and grabbing it? We saw Hook doing as much earlier during the construction. Nonetheless, Scrapper steps in with an alternate solution, as the Constructicons combine together into Devastator and finish the job. As soon as the assembly is completed, somebody blasts a hole in the ground and the Autobots fall into it. Megatron rears his ugly face and declares the "Autobot fools" to be of no further use. "And now the gullible twosome will perish in their own tower!" he promises, and this is the last we see of Grapple and Hoist for quite a bit. Cut to commercial!
After a couple of 1980's-era advertisements for Starriors action figures and Hot Wheels Crack-Ups, we come back to find the energon cube production well under way. Clearly, the creation of the power tower was everything Optimus Prime feared it would be. The Autobot strike force is already on its way, however. Optimus has brought most of his heavy hitters in tow... Brawn, Ironhide, Cliffjumper, among others. He may play basketball with Inferno and friends, but when it comes time to get down to business, Prime relies on his old standbys. Well, and Warpath, because, let's face it, the guy is a tank.
It's interesting how much things can change. Not too long ago, in "The Autobot Run," Megatron froze the Autobots in their vehicle forms and they were completely helpless. In this episode, they actually attack in vehicle mode, shooting lasers through their headlights or out of specialized pop-up panels. (Basically, this cartoon foresaw the invention of the Stealth Force toys but beat them to it by 26 years.) Megatron tells the Constructicons, "You know what to do!" and they respond by combining into Devastator... very... slowly. Seriously, when they just needed a tall robot to attach the final piece of their LEGO set, they connected together in a pretty big hurry, but now that they're actually in a combat situation and expedience would be prudent, Scrapper and Mixmaster are just sitting there on the ground, in leg mode, taking turns glowing blue for some weird reason. The Constructicons never did this before or since this episode and I just don't get it. (I also don't like the "glowing" sound effect they use throughout this episode, because it just sounds like a bunch of seashells being shaken around in a champagne glass.)
This episode marks the first speaking role for Ramjet, who appeared in the background during "Dinobot Island" but didn't do much besides fill up some energon cubes. This is more of a proper introduction to him, as Megatron singles him out specifically to intercept Powerglide and take him down. Unfortunately, Powerglide gets close enough for Devastator to take a swipe at him, but he makes contact with poor Ramjet instead. This is not Warpath's first role in the show (he got to fight Blitzwing in "Dinobot Island," and he makes a technical appearance in "A Prime Problem") but this is the first time we hear him communicate in sound effects. "WAK! ZAK! ZORGE!" It's such an odd vocal mannerism. It does add to the fun and quirky nature of the character. (He sure isn't making fun sound effects when Devastator reaches into the ground and sticks his hand up directly underneath Warpath, throwing him aside. How did he manage that, anyway? It totally defies physics as we know it. His hand would need to be able to detach from his wrist.)
In the end, it's up to Smokescreen to save the day. The Decepticons gradually get more and more savvy about dealing with a one-trick pony like Smokescreen as time goes on, but this is the first time in the show he gets to strut his stuff, and he uses it to maximum effect. He manages to sneak up on Devastator--"Just call me the Autobot who isn't there!"--and then makes a big show of making his presence known. Predictably, Devastator tries to kick him into next Tuesday, but Smokescreen zips away at the last possible second, and Devastator's foot makes contact with the tower instead. The Autobots let loose with all their firepower, and a concentrated effort by all the Autobots present causes the mighty titan to fall... right into the tower, utterly demolishing it. A few moments later, the individual Constructicons, a bit battered, can be seen climbing out of the rubble.
Megatron has never been bad at realizing when the tables have turned. He effects an immediate retreat, with the damaged Constructicons flying off after him. In the aftermath of the encounter, the Autobots cheer, but Prime is concerned about the ultimate fates of Grapple and Hoist. It falls to the Autobots to start digging through the debris in the desperate hope that their friends are still alive somewhere. They continue the search well until sunset; Brawn discovers the miniature power tower model, but still no sign of the wayward Autobots. Finally, Brawn happens upon a set of doors with some very familiar shapes embedded within them. ("Anybody want some economy-sized wall plaques?" quips Ironhide. This is literally his entire contribution to the episode.) True to form, Scrapper has incorporated the bodies of Grapple and Hoist into the tower's design. (We know he does this because his Hasbro tech specs tell us that he does. He'll do it again later in "Triple Takeover" when he builds the bodies of some damaged Autobots into a throne.) Oddly, in the Japanese translated version of this episode, Grapple and Hoist deliberately hid themselves in emergency shelters until the Autobots showed up!
So, Brawn delivers a couple of swift punches and the wayward Autobots are freed, if feeling a tad sheepish. Now, it's time to own up to their role in affairs. (Also, they are both damaged for exactly one scene, and then by the next scene, they're good as new. We know Transformers have automatic repair systems, but apparently they work crazy fast.) They will go back home to get patched up, but Prime's punishment for them is to return to the scene of the crime and clean up the mess, just the two of them. Considering they were freely cooperating with their mortal enemies, this is surprisingly lenient. No lambasting Grapple for disobeying orders, no accusations of them being traitors... they're just handed a broom and dustpan and expected to tidy up. That poor construction foreman is probably never going to get his raw materials back, though. Somewhere, there's an office building that never got built, and it's all Grapple's fault!
Grapple and Hoist briefly reflect--not on the dangerous decision to work with the scheming Decepticons, but about how impressive the tower was, at least while it was still standing. I'm not sure they've learned the correct lesson here. As the victorious finale music plays, I can't help but feel like we're being rushed. Like the music is being played at a too-fast tempo, just to fit the end of the scene correctly. Sometimes, the medium is the message. If you know the music well enough, you recognize on some level that the scene, and the episode, is about to draw to a close. In the episode's final scene, Grapple chucks his solar tower model on top of the pile, transforms, and drives off into the sunset.
One of the reasons I love this episode so much is because of the heavy focus on Grapple, a creative artistic type who I can (of course) strongly relate to. Hoist is a fun character, too, and he improves any episode into which he is inserted ("A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" and "Hoist Goes Hollywood" are two of my other favorites, and he's heavily featured in both of them). After a season and a half of the same old stale, wooden repartee with the likes of Sideswipe, Bluestreak, etc. it was great when the show was invigorated with fresh meat, and some more interesting character archetypes than what came before. In 1984, pretty much all the Autobots were straight shooters. You had Brawn, the tough guy. Ironhide, the ornery guy. Cliffjumper, the impulsive guy. They were all very basic straight-and-narrow heroes and you could only tell certain types of stories with them. Suddenly in 1985 we get Powerglide and his over-the-top bravado and Warpath with his zany enthusiasm and devious Smokescreen and paranoid Red Alert. This new batch of characters was so much more colorful and interesting.
And there's something compelling about the Constructicons pretending (or maybe not pretending) to be good guys. They've always been different from the other Decepticons, partly because they all transform into ground vehicles like the Autobots. (And given that Grapple is a construction vehicle, it's no wonder they feel some kind of camraderie with him.) The show wasn't completely consistent about this, but the Constructicons usually got the same low-pitched flanging as the Autobots, not the high-pitched tinny effect used for Decepticons. Maybe that doesn't mean anything (the Dinobots and Insecticons got unique flanging, too). The Constructicons have a history of being almost good guys, though. Again, even if you ignore the Autobot reprogramming from "The Core," they were also on the straight and narrow according to the "Secret of Omega Supreme" flashbacks. With all this reprogramming going on, it's a small wonder their loyalties may be divided.
This remains one of my favorite second-season episodes. It's very straightforward and there's very little left to interpretation, but not every episode can be "Enter the Nightbird." Sometimes the half-hour toy commercial just needs to focus on showing off the toys, and this episode does it very well.
Next month, I want to look at "Auto Berserk!"
Zob (my viewing club, my rules)
"The Master Builders" is episode #32 of the original Transformers series. In some ways, the true beginning of the second season wasn't until "Dinobot Island" parts 1 and 2 (the first episodes to introduce all the new 1985 characters) and this episode immediately follows the two-parter, making it one of the earliest episodes to feature the new batch of season-two characters. It first aired on October 8, 1985. The episode is credited to David N. Gottlieb and Herb Englehardt. Gottlieb wrote for M.A.S.K. and the 1980's revival of the Jetsons, while Englehardt also worked on both shows as well as Centurions and Thundercats. This was their only Transformers script.
For the second season, Hasbro was very specific about their new toys featuring in the series (frequently at the expense of the 1984 characters who were not Optimus Prime or Megatron or Starscream, as it turned out). The series bible included a breakdown by episode of which characters were scheduled to appear. One episode was a Blaster showcase; another needed to feature Omega Supreme; yet another was supposed to focus on the Triple Changers. This episode was the result of a Hasbro mandate to do a story about Grapple and the Constructicons.
In 1994, this was one of the episodes selected to air as part of Transformers: Generation 2, despite the fact that neither Grapple nor Hoist had G2 toys. It was clearly selected due to being a Constructicon showcase episode (of course, the Constructicon toys were available during G2 in yellow, and later orange, but not the classic green in which they appear here). Note that the on-screen titles for the Rhino and Shout Factory DVD releases show the episode title incorrectly as "The Master Builder" rather than the actual title, "The Master Builders," in plural. This was a mistake inadvertantly created by Rhino when they were forced to reconstruct the titles, which were missing from the prints of the episodes that were available to them. (I provided them with screen captures of the original title cards, so I can't be held responsible for this goof!)
So, our episode begins with Powerglide swaggering through the skies with his usual aerial bravado, until he's discovered by Skywarp. Powerglide responds promptly and manages to blast Skywarp's wing, disabling him. Starscream appears, however, and successfully guns Powerglide down. There's no real reason for the Decepticons to pick a fight; Powerglide isn't carrying vital equipment or information, and he's not on a secret Autobot mission. The Decepticons just happen to notice him in the air, and therefore they must shoot him. This is pretty much the first time we got to see an aerial dogfight between Autobots and Decepticons, which would become more common after the introduction of the Aerialbots.
Elsewhere, we are introduced to Grapple and Hoist in their first major appearance in the show. Technically, they were present in the background during "Dinobot Island," but they didn't really do much. Anyway, Grapple is a creative type, like Wheeljack, but he's also a sensitive artist, like Buzzsaw (or the tech specs version of Buzzsaw, anyway, since he never really exhibited this behavior in the cartoon at all). He's cobbling together a small-scale model of an invention, a solar power tower, which is designed to collect energy from the sun. As he shows off the invention to Hoist, you get the sense that the two are good buddies who hang out together a lot. The dynamics between the different Autobots is always interesting to me. There are so many of them that most of them never interact directly with each other, or at least not in any meaningful way. We know how Brawn feels about Perceptor and how Cliffjumper feels about Mirage, but what kind of relationship does Jazz have with Smokescreen? How do Huffer and Inferno feel about each other? We'll never really know. You have to really extrapolate from a lot of meaningless interactions (I tend to think that Sunstreaker and Hound don't like each other much, but I freely admit that's my takeaway from maybe two lines of dialogue from "Dinobot Island").
The animation models for Grapple and Hoist are not entirely consistent with the appearance of the Hasbro toys. Grapple is typically shown with an orange helmet, when his toy's helmet was actually black like Inferno's. Hoist, meanwhile, appears with a black helmet (or dark grey) when his toy's head was actually green. (Also, oddly, the wheels on Hoist's feet are always colored white.) Both characters were drawn with gun-arms (Grapple's left arm and Hoist's right arm), which reflected a function of the toys, whose fists could be replaced with launching missiles. Hoist was, of course, just a redeco of the Trailbreaker toy with a different robot head and a tow truck assembly instead of a camper shell; despite this, Hoist was drawn much fatter and squatter than Trailbreaker in an effort to differentiate the two. (They appear together on screen in "Blaster Blues" and the difference is extraordinary.)
While their animated looks were devised by Floro Dery, I suspect one of Dery's assistants created the rear-view drawings for each character, without the use of the Hasbro toys as an aid. This results in Grapple's crane arm (which hangs off the head of the toy) disappearing completely when he transforms, and Hoist's tow assembly (which is on the toy's back) also disappearing completely. Hoist is especially funny because you can actually see a very small piece of his tow assembly behind his arm on his front-view drawing, but somebody interpreted it as a useless flap attached to the back of each arm.
So, Grapple and Hoist present the invention to Optimus Prime with the intent of winning his approval. Wheeljack seems to like it, but Prime is a tougher sell. The pair of Autobots find him in the control room, learning the basics of basketball from Spike. (Well, Prime is rather tall, I guess. He'd definitely have an advantage on the court.) There is a cute moment where Prime refers to bouncing the basketball as "drooling" instead of dribbling. When he throws the ball back to Spike, instead of "think fast!" he tells him to "compute quickly!" Oh, those wacky alien robots. Anyway, Prime is suitably impressed, but duly concerned. There have been so many instances of Autobot inventions falling into Decepticon hands that, at this point, Prime doesn't even want the thing to get built. It would be too much of a temptation for Megatron to want to steal it, so Prime's answer is "no." He's so patronizing as he tries to let Grapple down gently. "How do you intend to protect it from the Decepticons? Perhaps you... didn't think of that?" Oh, don't be so sanctimonious, Prime. You didn't think about it, either, when Wheeljack came up with the immobilizer. Just sayin'.
Grapple is voiced by Peter Reneday, a newcomer to the show who also played the Master Renegade in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, and would go on to perform Splinter on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (If you ever watched the Legend of Prince Valiant on the Family Channel, he also played King William. That was a great show, and also featured Michael "Chip Chase" Horton playing a character named Arn.) Hoist is portrayed by Michael Chain, previously playing Powerglide, and would also end up being cast as Red Alert (whose voice is essentially just a crazy-sounding Hoist). Why do both Autobots have pseudo-English accents? Not sure.
Grapple and Hoist respond to Powerglide's distress call, but Grapple's mind is still on being rejected by Prime. He's fully convinced he's in the right, but aside from grousing bitterly about it, there's not a lot he can do about it. As they're returning from the repair run, though, taking a shortcut through a rocky canyon, Grapple proposes that they simply build the solar tower anyway, with or without Prime's consent. Hoist is more of a by-the-book guy than Grapple, and balks at the idea of going against Prime's wishes. Grapple's argument is, essentially, that the potential benefit to the Autobots outweighs the risk of the ever-present Decepticon threat. The Autobots aren't really hard up for energy resources ("Enter the Nightbird" suggests that they have the energy reserves of the entire world on tap) but you have to admire on some level what Grapple is trying to do. He's passionate about his work and he doesn't want small-minded buerocracy to stand in his way. Who can't relate to this on some level?
What he doesn't know is that the Constructicons are nearby and are witness to this exchange. Scrapper seems to recognize that he can turn this situation to his advantage, so he arranges for his team to trap them in the canyon, burying them waist-deep in a combination of cement and rubble. ("Constructicons!" Grapple exclaims, sounding exactly like Splinter.) Cut to commercial. Oddly, when this episode aired on the Sci-Fi Channel, they opted to forgo the commercial break until after Scrapper's dialogue with Grapple and Hoist is concluded, possibly due to the fact that the original break takes place only five minutes into the episode, instead of the traditional seven-minute mark.
So, with Grapple and Hoist as his captive audience, Scrapper offers them his proposal. He heard them talking about the power tower and offers his help. After all, the Constructicons were great admirers of Grapple's architecture back on Cybertron. (This is the first indication that the 1985 characters have "always" been around and not just recently-created Autobots, which is later supported further in "Desertion of the Dinobots." This also directly clashes with the idea that the Constructicons were created on Earth, as told by Megatron in "Heavy Metal War." We hadn't gotten to "The Secret of Omega Supreme" by this point in the show.) Bonecrusher gets a little hostile towards them before Scrapper orders him to back down--"We've got no grievances against these two," he says. This is a far cry from Decepticon jets who just randomly attack Autobot planes for no apparent reason. Grapple is intrigued.
Scrapper claims to have deserted Megatron, citing creative differences. Understandably, Grapple wants proof that the Constructicons aren't just trying to play them for suckers. Nearby, a Decepticon surveillance camera transmits this entire exchange back to the Decepticon base, where a betrayed Starscream says he wants the Constructicons DE-constructed. Megatron decides to wait until they return to the base so he can question them directly. When they arrive, Megatron's got all the Decepticon jets training their guns on the Constructicon group. Megatron demands an explanation. Scrapper cowers before him, offering a stuttering explanation that it's all a trick designed to lure the Autobots into a false sense of security. Each of the Constructicons gets a chance to speak in his own defense. (They keep finishing each other's sentences, like they all share one brain. Actually, I suppose they kind of do, after a fashion.) Now, was Scrapper always operating with Megatron's best interests in mind, or is he only fumbling for an alternate cover story now that he's been caught in the act? It's difficult to say. Up to this point, Scrapper has never acted disloyally towards Megatron (not counting when the Autobots reprogrammed him in "The Core," which was not his fault) but we'll see him make a couple of bids for leadership later on, once in "Triple Takeover" and again in "The Transformers: the Movie." So, it really could go either way.
Whatever his true motives, Megatron accepts Scrapper's explanation. When Scrapper explains that they need to prove to Grapple somehow that they're on the up-and-up, Megatron replies, "Then you must give him my most precious possession!" What, is Megatron going to hand over his fusion cannon? No, actually, he's going to provide the Constructicons with a cache of energon cubes, sending them back to Grapple with a story about how the Constructicons "stole" the energy from Megatron. This, in and of itself, cannot be considered proof of anything. The Constructicons could have gotten energon from literally anywhere. However, it's sufficient to convince poor, gullible Grapple into entering into a partnership with the Constructicons. Grapple really hasn't thought this through very carefully. How did he expect this was going to end? With the Constructicons joining the Autobots? With each group peacefully going their separate ways?
Hoist is clearly the more practical-minded of the two, and is still concerned that the Constructicons may be trying to deceive them. Nonetheless, Grapple is determined to see this through to the end. He doesn't go with the Constructicons when they visit a human construction site and taking some building materials. Maybe he would have objected to the idea of stealing from the humans, or maybe he would have found a way to justify it in his mind. (The construction foreman, in a brief but memorable turn by John Stephenson, has the classic reaction of freaking out when he realizes there's nobody driving the Constructicons. Between this show and Knight Rider, it became cliched rather quickly.)
There's an odd scene where Scrapper and Grapple are reviewing the solar tower blueprints together, and Grapple is holding the page with his gun-arm. Being an early episode of this era, five or six scenes were used from this episode alone to build the end credits sequence, so there are lots of moments you've seen many times, like Hook lifting a girder with his crane arm and transforming to robot mode so that it lands neatly in his arms. "As soon as my power tower is finished," remarks Grapple, "I must find a place to sign my name... in very large letters!" He's clearly quite pleased with how things are coming along... and totally oblivious of the betrayal to come.
Back at the Autobot base, Optimus Prime is still playing basketball, and this time he's suckered some of the Autobots into playing with him. Much, much shorter Autobots. They've even built a gigantic robot-sized basketball court in front of the base. The Transformers have experimented with human sports games before (a football game in "Atlantis, Arise!" and an impromptu baseball game in "Child's Play") and the writers must really like the juxtaposition, because they always seem to come back to the idea of alien robots playing Earth games. This is one of the few peeks we get into Autobot recreational activities. Frequently, they play a reactive role, only stirred into action by the Decepticons' scheme-of-the-week. It's not often that we actually get to see what they do before the Decepticons strike, though. One supposes that now that there are so many new Autobots on active duty, it's become necessary to introduce them to Earth culture. (It's all newbies like Inferno and Tracks and Smokescreen who are playing ball with Optimus. Ironhide and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker already learned to play basketball months ago, apparently.) When Prime suggests to Tracks that it's time to go in for maintenance, Tracks explains that he hasn't been able to find Hoist anywhere for a check-up. Spike confirms that Grapple and Hoist have been gone for the entire day, because this is the sort of thing Spike keeps track of. Prime decides to send Powerglide off to locate them. (Sure would be nice if all the Autobots had been equipped with GPS trackers.)
Meanwhile, the Constructicons appear to be feigning incompetence, seemingly as a way to get Grapple to do much of the hands-on assembly himself. Scavenger professes that his work is too sloppy; Hook claims he needs Grapple to instruct him several times because "I don't think I've got it just yet." Hook's delivery, in particular, is fairly sinister and suggests strongly that he's tricking Grapple into doing the work for him. I'm actually not sure what purpose this serves, except perhaps to slow down the labor. The Constructicons aren't idiots and should have no trouble following Grapple's plans, and yet they feel the need for this elaborate subterfuge. (Maybe they're trying to keep Grapple distracted to give Scrapper time to incorporate the "fancy doors" into the tower's design, the ones Grapple and Hoist end up getting trapped inside of.) Grapple, meanwhile, is getting more and more excited about the culmination of his dream. "It's amazing what friends can do together!" he proclaims. Scrapper is officially his new BFF. It's around this time that Powerglide finally spots the two wayward Autobots--he calls them "lost sheepacrons"--working with the Constructicons and notifies Prime. (I cannot express in words how stupid the names for the various Cybertronic fauna always sounds. Turbo-fox. Retro-rats. Please, just shoot me now. It's one of the dumbest things about this show and I always just tend to pretend it doesn't exist.)
Grapple seems flummoxed by the problem of how to get the sun-focusing sphere to the top of the tower. He's a crane truck, and he can't figure out how to get this piece to the top of the tower? What's wrong with climing to the top, transforming to vehicle mode, lowering his hook, and grabbing it? We saw Hook doing as much earlier during the construction. Nonetheless, Scrapper steps in with an alternate solution, as the Constructicons combine together into Devastator and finish the job. As soon as the assembly is completed, somebody blasts a hole in the ground and the Autobots fall into it. Megatron rears his ugly face and declares the "Autobot fools" to be of no further use. "And now the gullible twosome will perish in their own tower!" he promises, and this is the last we see of Grapple and Hoist for quite a bit. Cut to commercial!
After a couple of 1980's-era advertisements for Starriors action figures and Hot Wheels Crack-Ups, we come back to find the energon cube production well under way. Clearly, the creation of the power tower was everything Optimus Prime feared it would be. The Autobot strike force is already on its way, however. Optimus has brought most of his heavy hitters in tow... Brawn, Ironhide, Cliffjumper, among others. He may play basketball with Inferno and friends, but when it comes time to get down to business, Prime relies on his old standbys. Well, and Warpath, because, let's face it, the guy is a tank.
It's interesting how much things can change. Not too long ago, in "The Autobot Run," Megatron froze the Autobots in their vehicle forms and they were completely helpless. In this episode, they actually attack in vehicle mode, shooting lasers through their headlights or out of specialized pop-up panels. (Basically, this cartoon foresaw the invention of the Stealth Force toys but beat them to it by 26 years.) Megatron tells the Constructicons, "You know what to do!" and they respond by combining into Devastator... very... slowly. Seriously, when they just needed a tall robot to attach the final piece of their LEGO set, they connected together in a pretty big hurry, but now that they're actually in a combat situation and expedience would be prudent, Scrapper and Mixmaster are just sitting there on the ground, in leg mode, taking turns glowing blue for some weird reason. The Constructicons never did this before or since this episode and I just don't get it. (I also don't like the "glowing" sound effect they use throughout this episode, because it just sounds like a bunch of seashells being shaken around in a champagne glass.)
This episode marks the first speaking role for Ramjet, who appeared in the background during "Dinobot Island" but didn't do much besides fill up some energon cubes. This is more of a proper introduction to him, as Megatron singles him out specifically to intercept Powerglide and take him down. Unfortunately, Powerglide gets close enough for Devastator to take a swipe at him, but he makes contact with poor Ramjet instead. This is not Warpath's first role in the show (he got to fight Blitzwing in "Dinobot Island," and he makes a technical appearance in "A Prime Problem") but this is the first time we hear him communicate in sound effects. "WAK! ZAK! ZORGE!" It's such an odd vocal mannerism. It does add to the fun and quirky nature of the character. (He sure isn't making fun sound effects when Devastator reaches into the ground and sticks his hand up directly underneath Warpath, throwing him aside. How did he manage that, anyway? It totally defies physics as we know it. His hand would need to be able to detach from his wrist.)
In the end, it's up to Smokescreen to save the day. The Decepticons gradually get more and more savvy about dealing with a one-trick pony like Smokescreen as time goes on, but this is the first time in the show he gets to strut his stuff, and he uses it to maximum effect. He manages to sneak up on Devastator--"Just call me the Autobot who isn't there!"--and then makes a big show of making his presence known. Predictably, Devastator tries to kick him into next Tuesday, but Smokescreen zips away at the last possible second, and Devastator's foot makes contact with the tower instead. The Autobots let loose with all their firepower, and a concentrated effort by all the Autobots present causes the mighty titan to fall... right into the tower, utterly demolishing it. A few moments later, the individual Constructicons, a bit battered, can be seen climbing out of the rubble.
Megatron has never been bad at realizing when the tables have turned. He effects an immediate retreat, with the damaged Constructicons flying off after him. In the aftermath of the encounter, the Autobots cheer, but Prime is concerned about the ultimate fates of Grapple and Hoist. It falls to the Autobots to start digging through the debris in the desperate hope that their friends are still alive somewhere. They continue the search well until sunset; Brawn discovers the miniature power tower model, but still no sign of the wayward Autobots. Finally, Brawn happens upon a set of doors with some very familiar shapes embedded within them. ("Anybody want some economy-sized wall plaques?" quips Ironhide. This is literally his entire contribution to the episode.) True to form, Scrapper has incorporated the bodies of Grapple and Hoist into the tower's design. (We know he does this because his Hasbro tech specs tell us that he does. He'll do it again later in "Triple Takeover" when he builds the bodies of some damaged Autobots into a throne.) Oddly, in the Japanese translated version of this episode, Grapple and Hoist deliberately hid themselves in emergency shelters until the Autobots showed up!
So, Brawn delivers a couple of swift punches and the wayward Autobots are freed, if feeling a tad sheepish. Now, it's time to own up to their role in affairs. (Also, they are both damaged for exactly one scene, and then by the next scene, they're good as new. We know Transformers have automatic repair systems, but apparently they work crazy fast.) They will go back home to get patched up, but Prime's punishment for them is to return to the scene of the crime and clean up the mess, just the two of them. Considering they were freely cooperating with their mortal enemies, this is surprisingly lenient. No lambasting Grapple for disobeying orders, no accusations of them being traitors... they're just handed a broom and dustpan and expected to tidy up. That poor construction foreman is probably never going to get his raw materials back, though. Somewhere, there's an office building that never got built, and it's all Grapple's fault!
Grapple and Hoist briefly reflect--not on the dangerous decision to work with the scheming Decepticons, but about how impressive the tower was, at least while it was still standing. I'm not sure they've learned the correct lesson here. As the victorious finale music plays, I can't help but feel like we're being rushed. Like the music is being played at a too-fast tempo, just to fit the end of the scene correctly. Sometimes, the medium is the message. If you know the music well enough, you recognize on some level that the scene, and the episode, is about to draw to a close. In the episode's final scene, Grapple chucks his solar tower model on top of the pile, transforms, and drives off into the sunset.
One of the reasons I love this episode so much is because of the heavy focus on Grapple, a creative artistic type who I can (of course) strongly relate to. Hoist is a fun character, too, and he improves any episode into which he is inserted ("A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" and "Hoist Goes Hollywood" are two of my other favorites, and he's heavily featured in both of them). After a season and a half of the same old stale, wooden repartee with the likes of Sideswipe, Bluestreak, etc. it was great when the show was invigorated with fresh meat, and some more interesting character archetypes than what came before. In 1984, pretty much all the Autobots were straight shooters. You had Brawn, the tough guy. Ironhide, the ornery guy. Cliffjumper, the impulsive guy. They were all very basic straight-and-narrow heroes and you could only tell certain types of stories with them. Suddenly in 1985 we get Powerglide and his over-the-top bravado and Warpath with his zany enthusiasm and devious Smokescreen and paranoid Red Alert. This new batch of characters was so much more colorful and interesting.
And there's something compelling about the Constructicons pretending (or maybe not pretending) to be good guys. They've always been different from the other Decepticons, partly because they all transform into ground vehicles like the Autobots. (And given that Grapple is a construction vehicle, it's no wonder they feel some kind of camraderie with him.) The show wasn't completely consistent about this, but the Constructicons usually got the same low-pitched flanging as the Autobots, not the high-pitched tinny effect used for Decepticons. Maybe that doesn't mean anything (the Dinobots and Insecticons got unique flanging, too). The Constructicons have a history of being almost good guys, though. Again, even if you ignore the Autobot reprogramming from "The Core," they were also on the straight and narrow according to the "Secret of Omega Supreme" flashbacks. With all this reprogramming going on, it's a small wonder their loyalties may be divided.
This remains one of my favorite second-season episodes. It's very straightforward and there's very little left to interpretation, but not every episode can be "Enter the Nightbird." Sometimes the half-hour toy commercial just needs to focus on showing off the toys, and this episode does it very well.
Next month, I want to look at "Auto Berserk!"
Zob (my viewing club, my rules)
No One In Particular
Apr 14, 2016, 11:38:43 PM4/14/16
to
On 4/14/2016 6:18 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> There's an odd scene where Scrapper and Grapple are reviewing the solar tower blueprints
>together, and Grapple is holding the page with his gun-arm. Being an early episode of this
>era, five or six scenes were used from this episode alone to build the end credits sequence,
>so there are lots of moments you've seen many times, like Hook lifting a girder with his crane
>arm and transforming to robot mode so that it lands neatly in his arms. "As soon as my power
>tower is finished," remarks Grapple, "I must find a place to sign my name... in very large
>letters!" He's clearly quite pleased with how things are coming along... and totally oblivious
>of the betrayal to come.
>
Hoist is very naive. He fits the profile of the artist/builder who is
> There's an odd scene where Scrapper and Grapple are reviewing the solar tower blueprints
>together, and Grapple is holding the page with his gun-arm. Being an early episode of this
>era, five or six scenes were used from this episode alone to build the end credits sequence,
>so there are lots of moments you've seen many times, like Hook lifting a girder with his crane
>arm and transforming to robot mode so that it lands neatly in his arms. "As soon as my power
>tower is finished," remarks Grapple, "I must find a place to sign my name... in very large
>letters!" He's clearly quite pleased with how things are coming along... and totally oblivious
>of the betrayal to come.
>
slightly scatterbrained and dismissive about anything not directly
relating to his work. He takes the Constructicons almost at their word
(that really wasn't much in the way of proof!) because deep down he
*wants* to believe them. Surely artists are intelligent enough to be
above the petty squabbles of the lesser talents (like Optimus)?
> Meanwhile, the Constructicons appear to be feigning incompetence, seemingly as a way to get
>Grapple to do much of the hands-on assembly himself. Scavenger professes that his work is too
>sloppy; Hook claims he needs Grapple to instruct him several times because "I don't think I've
>got it just yet." Hook's delivery, in particular, is fairly sinister and suggests strongly that
>he's tricking Grapple into doing the work for him. I'm actually not sure what purpose this
>serves, except perhaps to slow down the labor. The Constructicons aren't idiots and should have
>no trouble following Grapple's plans, and yet they feel the need for this elaborate subterfuge.
>(Maybe they're trying to keep Grapple distracted to give Scrapper time to incorporate the "fancy
>doors" into the tower's design, the ones Grapple and Hoist end up getting trapped inside of.)
(who they assume are too young to interpret a more subtle display). In
story-more difficult. I get the feeling that Scrapper could have built
his special doors right in front of them and Grapple would have not
noticed a thing...or even complimented him on the construction
technique. Hoist, on the other hand, might have noticed something, so
you're theory about keeping them busy might work there.
> Zob (my viewing club, my rules)
>
and Grapple were never my favorites. (I'm not a creative type myself,
sadly.) All in all it's not a bad little episode, but it would have
been nice to see some type of consequences for the two Autobots beyond
"clean up the mess. By yourselves. In a place we know to be within the
reach of any or all of the Decepticons". In my head I can imagine a
scene a few days later, where Optimus is wondering where Hoist and
Grapple are. He sends Powerglide out to find them, and discovers their
charred wrecks in the canyon near the ruins of the power tower.
Megatron, it seems, holds a grudge. But that's a story we wouldn't be
able to tell back in those days.
Brian
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 15, 2016, 1:35:31 AM4/15/16
to
On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 4:18:08 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> Posting this early because I'll probably forget to do it if I wait until tomorrow.
>
> "The Master Builders" is episode #32 of the original Transformers series. In some ways, the true beginning of the second season wasn't until "Dinobot Island" parts 1 and 2 (the first episodes to introduce all the new 1985 characters) and this episode immediately follows the two-parter, making it one of the earliest episodes to feature the new batch of season-two characters.
It is such a typical Second Season episode it is almost ridiculous. I like the Second Season, so this is not a bad thing.
> Posting this early because I'll probably forget to do it if I wait until tomorrow.
>
> "The Master Builders" is episode #32 of the original Transformers series. In some ways, the true beginning of the second season wasn't until "Dinobot Island" parts 1 and 2 (the first episodes to introduce all the new 1985 characters) and this episode immediately follows the two-parter, making it one of the earliest episodes to feature the new batch of season-two characters.
> It first aired on October 8, 1985. The episode is credited to David N. Gottlieb and Herb Englehardt. Gottlieb wrote for M.A.S.K. and the 1980's revival of the Jetsons, while Englehardt also worked on both shows as well as Centurions and Thundercats. This was their only Transformers script.
> For the second season, Hasbro was very specific about their new toys featuring in the series (frequently at the expense of the 1984 characters who were not Optimus Prime or Megatron or Starscream, as it turned out). The series bible included a breakdown by episode of which characters were scheduled to appear. One episode was a Blaster showcase; another needed to feature Omega Supreme; yet another was supposed to focus on the Triple Changers. This episode was the result of a Hasbro mandate to do a story about Grapple and the Constructicons.
> In 1994, this was one of the episodes selected to air as part of Transformers: Generation 2, despite the fact that neither Grapple nor Hoist had G2 toys. It was clearly selected due to being a Constructicon showcase episode (of course, the Constructicon toys were available during G2 in yellow, and later orange, but not the classic green in which they appear here).
> Note that the on-screen titles for the Rhino and Shout Factory DVD releases show the episode title incorrectly as "The Master Builder" rather than the actual title, "The Master Builders," in plural.
> So, our episode begins with Powerglide swaggering through the skies with his usual aerial bravado, until he's discovered by Skywarp. Powerglide responds promptly and manages to blast Skywarp's wing, disabling him. Starscream appears, however, and successfully guns Powerglide down. There's no real reason for the Decepticons to pick a fight; Powerglide isn't carrying vital equipment or information, and he's not on a secret Autobot mission. The Decepticons just happen to notice him in the air, and therefore they must shoot him.
> As he shows off the invention to Hoist, you get the sense that the two are good buddies who hang out together a lot.
> The dynamics between the different Autobots is always interesting to me. There are so many of them that most of them never interact directly with each other, or at least not in any meaningful way.
> We know how Brawn feels about Perceptor and how Cliffjumper feels about Mirage, but what kind of relationship does Jazz have with Smokescreen? How do Huffer and Inferno feel about each other? We'll never really know. You have to really extrapolate from a lot of meaningless interactions (I tend to think that Sunstreaker and Hound don't like each other much, but I freely admit that's my takeaway from maybe two lines of dialogue from "Dinobot Island").
You also have to sort of guess how characters might get along since they don't interact on screen. We never got a Perceptor/Wheeljack episode, which is a real shame because it would have hilighted the similarities and differences.
> The animation models for Grapple and Hoist are not entirely consistent with the appearance of the Hasbro toys.
> So, Grapple and Hoist present the invention to Optimus Prime with the intent of winning his approval. Wheeljack seems to like it, but Prime is a tougher sell.
> The pair of Autobots find him in the control room, learning the basics of basketball from Spike. (Well, Prime is rather tall, I guess. He'd definitely have an advantage on the court.) There is a cute moment where Prime refers to bouncing the basketball as "drooling" instead of dribbling. When he throws the ball back to Spike, instead of "think fast!" he tells him to "compute quickly!" Oh, those wacky alien robots.
> Anyway, Prime is suitably impressed, but duly concerned. There have been so many instances of Autobot inventions falling into Decepticon hands that, at this point, Prime doesn't even want the thing to get built. It would be too much of a temptation for Megatron to want to steal it, so Prime's answer is "no." He's so patronizing as he tries to let Grapple down gently. "How do you intend to protect it from the Decepticons? Perhaps you... didn't think of that?" Oh, don't be so sanctimonious, Prime. You didn't think about it, either, when Wheeljack came up with the immobilizer. Just sayin'.
And what about fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses? Optimus could have saved the environment.
> Hoist is portrayed by Michael Chain, previously playing Powerglide, and would also end up being cast as Red Alert (whose voice is essentially just a crazy-sounding Hoist). Why do both Autobots have pseudo-English accents? Not sure.
> Grapple's argument is, essentially, that the potential benefit to the Autobots outweighs the risk of the ever-present Decepticon threat. The Autobots aren't really hard up for energy resources ("Enter the Nightbird" suggests that they have the energy reserves of the entire world on tap) but you have to admire on some level what Grapple is trying to do. He's passionate about his work and he doesn't want small-minded buerocracy to stand in his way. Who can't relate to this on some level?
> What he doesn't know is that the Constructicons are nearby and are witness to this exchange. Scrapper seems to recognize that he can turn this situation to his advantage, so he arranges for his team to trap them in the canyon, burying them waist-deep in a combination of cement and rubble. ("Constructicons!" Grapple exclaims, sounding exactly like Splinter.) Cut to commercial.
> So, with Grapple and Hoist as his captive audience, Scrapper offers them his proposal. He heard them talking about the power tower and offers his help. After all, the Constructicons were great admirers of Grapple's architecture back on Cybertron. (This is the first indication that the 1985 characters have "always" been around and not just recently-created Autobots, which is later supported further in "Desertion of the Dinobots." This also directly clashes with the idea that the Constructicons were created on Earth, as told by Megatron in "Heavy Metal War." We hadn't gotten to "The Secret of Omega Supreme" by this point in the show.)
> Bonecrusher gets a little hostile towards them before Scrapper orders him to back down--"We've got no grievances against these two," he says. This is a far cry from Decepticon jets who just randomly attack Autobot planes for no apparent reason. Grapple is intrigued.
> Each of the Constructicons gets a chance to speak in his own defense. (They keep finishing each other's sentences, like they all share one brain. Actually, I suppose they kind of do, after a fashion.)
> Now, was Scrapper always operating with Megatron's best interests in mind, or is he only fumbling for an alternate cover story now that he's been caught in the act? It's difficult to say. Up to this point, Scrapper has never acted disloyally towards Megatron (not counting when the Autobots reprogrammed him in "The Core," which was not his fault) but we'll see him make a couple of bids for leadership later on, once in "Triple Takeover" and again in "The Transformers: the Movie." So, it really could go either way.
> Whatever his true motives, Megatron accepts Scrapper's explanation. When Scrapper explains that they need to prove to Grapple somehow that they're on the up-and-up, Megatron replies, "Then you must give him my most precious possession!" What, is Megatron going to hand over his fusion cannon?
> No, actually, he's going to provide the Constructicons with a cache of energon cubes, sending them back to Grapple with a story about how the Constructicons "stole" the energy from Megatron. This, in and of itself, cannot be considered proof of anything. The Constructicons could have gotten energon from literally anywhere.
> However, it's sufficient to convince poor, gullible Grapple into entering into a partnership with the Constructicons. Grapple really hasn't thought this through very carefully. How did he expect this was going to end? With the Constructicons joining the Autobots? With each group peacefully going their separate ways?
> Hoist is clearly the more practical-minded of the two, and is still concerned that the Constructicons may be trying to deceive them. Nonetheless, Grapple is determined to see this through to the end.
> He doesn't go with the Constructicons when they visit a human construction site and taking some building materials. Maybe he would have objected to the idea of stealing from the humans, or maybe he would have found a way to justify it in his mind.
> Back at the Autobot base, Optimus Prime is still playing basketball, and this time he's suckered some of the Autobots into playing with him. Much, much shorter Autobots. They've even built a gigantic robot-sized basketball court in front of the base. The Transformers have experimented with human sports games before (a football game in "Atlantis, Arise!" and an impromptu baseball game in "Child's Play") and the writers must really like the juxtaposition, because they always seem to come back to the idea of alien robots playing Earth games. This is one of the few peeks we get into Autobot recreational activities.
> Frequently, they play a reactive role, only stirred into action by the Decepticons' scheme-of-the-week. It's not often that we actually get to see what they do before the Decepticons strike, though. One supposes that now that there are so many new Autobots on active duty, it's become necessary to introduce them to Earth culture. (It's all newbies like Inferno and Tracks and Smokescreen who are playing ball with Optimus. Ironhide and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker already learned to play basketball months ago, apparently.)
> When Prime suggests to Tracks that it's time to go in for maintenance, Tracks explains that he hasn't been able to find Hoist anywhere for a check-up. Spike confirms that Grapple and Hoist have been gone for the entire day, because this is the sort of thing Spike keeps track of. Prime decides to send Powerglide off to locate them. (Sure would be nice if all the Autobots had been equipped with GPS trackers.)
Complete aside, but did you know that al Qaeda has performance reviews? Full bureaucracy. Just something I learned recently.
> Meanwhile, the Constructicons appear to be feigning incompetence, seemingly as a way to get Grapple to do much of the hands-on assembly himself. Scavenger professes that his work is too sloppy; Hook claims he needs Grapple to instruct him several times because "I don't think I've got it just yet." Hook's delivery, in particular, is fairly sinister and suggests strongly that he's tricking Grapple into doing the work for him. I'm actually not sure what purpose this serves, except perhaps to slow down the labor. The Constructicons aren't idiots and should have no trouble following Grapple's plans, and yet they feel the need for this elaborate subterfuge. (Maybe they're trying to keep Grapple distracted to give Scrapper time to incorporate the "fancy doors" into the tower's design, the ones Grapple and Hoist end up getting trapped inside of.)
> Grapple, meanwhile, is getting more and more excited about the culmination of his dream. "It's amazing what friends can do together!" he proclaims. Scrapper is officially his new BFF. It's around this time that Powerglide finally spots the two wayward Autobots--he calls them "lost sheepacrons"--working with the Constructicons and notifies Prime. (I cannot express in words how stupid the names for the various Cybertronic fauna always sounds. Turbo-fox. Retro-rats. Please, just shoot me now. It's one of the dumbest things about this show and I always just tend to pretend it doesn't exist.)
"Turbo-fox" is stupid because the Transformers think humans are stupid and are talking down to them.
Also, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are "brothers". ("But Optimus," Spike exclaims, "brothers don't make out like that!")
> Grapple seems flummoxed by the problem of how to get the sun-focusing sphere to the top of the tower. He's a crane truck, and he can't figure out how to get this piece to the top of the tower? What's wrong with climing to the top, transforming to vehicle mode, lowering his hook, and grabbing it? We saw Hook doing as much earlier during the construction. Nonetheless, Scrapper steps in with an alternate solution, as the Constructicons combine together into Devastator and finish the job.
> As soon as the assembly is completed, somebody blasts a hole in the ground and the Autobots fall into it. Megatron rears his ugly face and declares the "Autobot fools" to be of no further use. "And now the gullible twosome will perish in their own tower!" he promises, and this is the last we see of Grapple and Hoist for quite a bit. Cut to commercial!
> After a couple of 1980's-era advertisements for Starriors action figures and Hot Wheels Crack-Ups, we come back to find the energon cube production well under way. Clearly, the creation of the power tower was everything Optimus Prime feared it would be. The Autobot strike force is already on its way, however. Optimus has brought most of his heavy hitters in tow... Brawn, Ironhide, Cliffjumper, among others. He may play basketball with Inferno and friends, but when it comes time to get down to business, Prime relies on his old standbys. Well, and Warpath, because, let's face it, the guy is a tank.
> It's interesting how much things can change. Not too long ago, in "The Autobot Run," Megatron froze the Autobots in their vehicle forms and they were completely helpless. In this episode, they actually attack in vehicle mode, shooting lasers through their headlights or out of specialized pop-up panels. (Basically, this cartoon foresaw the invention of the Stealth Force toys but beat them to it by 26 years.)
>Megatron tells the Constructicons, "You know what to do!" and they respond by combining into Devastator... very... slowly. Seriously, when they just needed a tall robot to attach the final piece of their LEGO set, they connected together in a pretty big hurry, but now that they're actually in a combat situation and expedience would be prudent, Scrapper and Mixmaster are just sitting there on the ground, in leg mode, taking turns glowing blue for some weird reason. The Constructicons never did this before or since this episode and I just don't get it. (I also don't like the "glowing" sound effect they use throughout this episode, because it just sounds like a bunch of seashells being shaken around in a champagne glass.)
> This episode marks the first speaking role for Ramjet, who appeared in the background during "Dinobot Island" but didn't do much besides fill up some energon cubes. This is more of a proper introduction to him, as Megatron singles him out specifically to intercept Powerglide and take him down. Unfortunately, Powerglide gets close enough for Devastator to take a swipe at him, but he makes contact with poor Ramjet instead.
> This is not Warpath's first role in the show (he got to fight Blitzwing in "Dinobot Island," and he makes a technical appearance in "A Prime Problem") but this is the first time we hear him communicate in sound effects. "WAK! ZAK! ZORGE!" It's such an odd vocal mannerism. It does add to the fun and quirky nature of the character.
> In the end, it's up to Smokescreen to save the day. The Decepticons gradually get more and more savvy about dealing with a one-trick pony like Smokescreen as time goes on, but this is the first time in the show he gets to strut his stuff, and he uses it to maximum effect. He manages to sneak up on Devastator--"Just call me the Autobot who isn't there!"--and then makes a big show of making his presence known.
> Predictably, Devastator tries to kick him into next Tuesday, but Smokescreen zips away at the last possible second, and Devastator's foot makes contact with the tower instead. The Autobots let loose with all their firepower, and a concentrated effort by all the Autobots present causes the mighty titan to fall... right into the tower, utterly demolishing it.
> Megatron has never been bad at realizing when the tables have turned. He effects an immediate retreat, with the damaged Constructicons flying off after him.
I also would have liked Blaster to record that command and replay it in another battle -- the Decepticons would have all shrugged and flown off.
> In the aftermath of the encounter, the Autobots cheer, but Prime is concerned about the ultimate fates of Grapple and Hoist. It falls to the Autobots to start digging through the debris in the desperate hope that their friends are still alive somewhere. They continue the search well until sunset; Brawn discovers the miniature power tower model, but still no sign of the wayward Autobots. Finally, Brawn happens upon a set of doors with some very familiar shapes embedded within them. ("Anybody want some economy-sized wall plaques?" quips Ironhide. This is literally his entire contribution to the episode.)
> So, Brawn delivers a couple of swift punches and the wayward Autobots are freed, if feeling a tad sheepish. Now, it's time to own up to their role in affairs. (Also, they are both damaged for exactly one scene, and then by the next scene, they're good as new. We know Transformers have automatic repair systems, but apparently they work crazy fast.) They will go back home to get patched up, but Prime's punishment for them is to return to the scene of the crime and clean up the mess, just the two of them. Considering they were freely cooperating with their mortal enemies, this is surprisingly lenient. No lambasting Grapple for disobeying orders, no accusations of them being traitors... they're just handed a broom and dustpan and expected to tidy up. That poor construction foreman is probably never going to get his raw materials back, though. Somewhere, there's an office building that never got built, and it's all Grapple's fault!
> Grapple and Hoist briefly reflect--not on the dangerous decision to work with the scheming Decepticons, but about how impressive the tower was, at least while it was still standing. I'm not sure they've learned the correct lesson here.
> One of the reasons I love this episode so much is because of the heavy focus on Grapple, a creative artistic type who I can (of course) strongly relate to. Hoist is a fun character, too, and he improves any episode into which he is inserted ("A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" and "Hoist Goes Hollywood" are two of my other favorites, and he's heavily featured in both of them).
> After a season and a half of the same old stale, wooden repartee with the likes of Sideswipe, Bluestreak, etc. it was great when the show was invigorated with fresh meat, and some more interesting character archetypes than what came before. In 1984, pretty much all the Autobots were straight shooters. You had Brawn, the tough guy. Ironhide, the ornery guy. Cliffjumper, the impulsive guy. They were all very basic straight-and-narrow heroes and you could only tell certain types of stories with them. Suddenly in 1985 we get Powerglide and his over-the-top bravado and Warpath with his zany enthusiasm and devious Smokescreen and paranoid Red Alert. This new batch of characters was so much more colorful and interesting.
> And there's something compelling about the Constructicons pretending (or maybe not pretending) to be good guys. They've always been different from the other Decepticons, partly because they all transform into ground vehicles like the Autobots. (And given that Grapple is a construction vehicle, it's no wonder they feel some kind of camraderie with him.) The show wasn't completely consistent about this, but the Constructicons usually got the same low-pitched flanging as the Autobots, not the high-pitched tinny effect used for Decepticons. Maybe that doesn't mean anything (the Dinobots and Insecticons got unique flanging, too). The Constructicons have a history of being almost good guys, though. Again, even if you ignore the Autobot reprogramming from "The Core," they were also on the straight and narrow according to the "Secret of Omega Supreme" flashbacks. With all this reprogramming going on, it's a small wonder their loyalties may be divided.
They are more loyal to each other than to the Decepticons as a whole, definitely. They are not as separate as the Insecticons, though, who operate with their own agenda at pretty much every encounter.
> This remains one of my favorite second-season episodes. It's very straightforward and there's very little left to interpretation, but not every episode can be "Enter the Nightbird." Sometimes the half-hour toy commercial just needs to focus on showing off the toys, and this episode does it very well.
> Next month, I want to look at "Auto Berserk!"
Sure, "Auto Berserk!"
Zobovor
Apr 15, 2016, 9:31:36 PM4/15/16
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On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 9:38:43 PM UTC-6, No One In Particular wrote:
> He takes the Constructicons almost at their word (that really wasn't much in
> the way of proof!) because deep down he *wants* to believe them.
Maybe he heard that they used to be good guys back during the Golden Age. Maybe he figured, well, they're builders like Grapple, so how bad could they really be?
> He takes the Constructicons almost at their word (that really wasn't much in
> the way of proof!) because deep down he *wants* to believe them.
> I get the feeling that Scrapper could have built his special doors right in
> front of them and Grapple would have not noticed a thing...or even
> complimented him on the construction technique.
> In my head I can imagine a scene a few days later, where Optimus is wondering
> where Hoist and Grapple are. He sends Powerglide out to find them, and
> discovers their charred wrecks in the canyon near the ruins of the power
> tower. Megatron, it seems, holds a grudge. But that's a story we wouldn't be
> able to tell back in those days.
Zob (maybe if it had been a third-season episode...)
Zobovor
Apr 15, 2016, 10:21:58 PM4/15/16
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On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 11:35:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> It is such a typical Second Season episode it is almost ridiculous.
One of the things I like about it is that we get lots of episodes about good guys turning into bad guys ("Attack of the Autobots," "The Dweller in the Depths") and some episodes about bad guys becoming good guys ("Fire in the Sky," "The Core") but this is different. Hoist and Grapple never join the Decepticons, and in this episode, the Constructicons haven't defected to the good guys. It's just a bunch of robots with a common goal who have agreed to set aside their differences to build something. This show tends to be really black-and-white about allegiances, and when there is an Autobot-Decepticon truce, the writers always go out of their way to point out that it's a) a temporary allegiance only and b) circumstances have to be really unusual to warrant it.
> It is such a typical Second Season episode it is almost ridiculous.
> Did they not care about Hoist? No one cares about Hoist, do they?
FEATURED CHARACTERS
This is a list of episodes which will feature or "star" the new TRANSFORMERS toys. They will not be necessarily be produced in this order. A show starring one of the new characters can (and should) include one or more of the other new characters.
31 Insecticons
33 Constructicons
36 Shockwave
37 Triple Changers (Blitzwing and Astrotrain)
38 Triple Changers
41 Perceptor
44 Blaster (also feature Soundwave)
47 New Decepticon Planes (also feature Powerglide)
50 Hoist (tow truck)
51 Smokescreen
52 Tracks
54 Beachcomber
55 Sea Spray
56 Warpath
57 Omega Supreme (also feature Devastator)
58 Omega Supreme
So, at least one episode called for Hoist specifically. (I assume this was "Hoist Goes Hollywood.")
> Color blind people wouldn't know that, of course... Was there ever any in-
> universe explanation for Transformers adopting new color schemes for G2?
Not many characters in the G2 comics actually adopted their new color schemes, and no mention was ever made of it. (I came up with explanations for most of the new color schemes in my "Children of Cybertron" fan fiction. The Constructicons went yellow so they could secretly infiltrate the construction site for Autobot City. The Dinobots broke into Wheeljack's workshop and painted themselves, like children taking crayons to the wall. Lots of convoluted explanations that I'm very proud of.)
> I definitely watched only a single Master Builder in this episode, so I think
> Rhino got it right.
> That relationship is one of the better parts of the show, actually. It really
> makes Grapple less unrelatable -- if Hoist likes him, how bad could he be?
> You also have to sort of guess how characters might get along since they
> don't interact on screen. We never got a Perceptor/Wheeljack episode, which
> is a real shame because it would have hilighted the similarities and
> differences.
They do share a scene in "Cosmic Rust," so there's that.
> Imagine what Transformers would be like if the animation models resembled the
> toys more closely. I think Optimus would be improved, but a lot of the others
> just would have looked weird.
> Prime is such a complete dick in this episode.
> How many times has humanity been nearly destroyed by Megatron at this point?
> Wouldn't it have been better to let Megatron just have the energy he needs if
> he vows to leave? Megatron has no interest in Earth, this could have worked.
> Grapple doesn't really seem to care about the consequences so much as getting
> to build his masterpiece.
> I am convinced the entire "canyon" was built by the Constructicons as a trap.
> Hoist sticks with his friend, despite thinking his friend might be making a
> big mistake. It's something I wish got a little bit more exploration and
> dialog.
> It is so, so weird. I just wonder what would have happened had there been
> another season like the second, once they ran out of common games. Soccer
> seem reasonable, but then Hockey? Lacrosse? Badmitten?
> I think you're reading too much into this. They are clearly getting Grapple
> to do more work, but just because they are lazy or mean.
> That scene, with Megatron standing over the crater. How many times have I
> seen it? Thousands?
> They never do this again, I believe. I would have happily accepted that
> technology was improving, and the Autobots were slowly becoming warriors.
> They also wanted to run behind the tower to transform into Devastator, to
> maximize the surprise, as if there is anything else Constructicons do in
> battle.
> Will no one kill Powerglide? Sigh.
> Grapple's masterpiece really isn't that durable, is it? Devastator is about
> the size of the tower, and the tower completely collapses on contact.
> I also would have liked Blaster to record that command and replay it in
> another battle -- the Decepticons would have all shrugged and flown off.
> Again, I think Hoist is just being a supportive friend. He knew it was wrong
> to build it against orders, it all went to crap, and he stands by his friend.
> I think that they could have done spotlight episodes with the older
> characters and given them a bit more depth too. Ironhide isn't just ornery,
> he's a proto-Kup, and I can always hear him saying "Well, Ah'll be a drunken
> redneck" even if he never said it.
As for Ironhide, what about "The Immobilizer"?
> I never got the impression that the Constructicons were anything other than
> bad guys.
> Have we done "Atlantis, Arise!"?
Zob (TRAITOROUS HYDRO-WEASEL!)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 16, 2016, 3:35:45 AM4/16/16
to
On Friday, April 15, 2016 at 7:21:58 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 11:35:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> > You also have to sort of guess how characters might get along since they
> > don't interact on screen. We never got a Perceptor/Wheeljack episode, which
> > is a real shame because it would have hilighted the similarities and
> > differences.
>
> I think they spent some time together in Super God Masterforce, but I never really sat down and watched it. I could barely get through Headmasters.
I don't remember them in Masterforce at all. By the way, Masterforce is much, much better than Headmasters.
> On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 11:35:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> > You also have to sort of guess how characters might get along since they
> > don't interact on screen. We never got a Perceptor/Wheeljack episode, which
> > is a real shame because it would have hilighted the similarities and
> > differences.
>
> I think they spent some time together in Super God Masterforce, but I never really sat down and watched it. I could barely get through Headmasters.
> > How many times has humanity been nearly destroyed by Megatron at this point?
> > Wouldn't it have been better to let Megatron just have the energy he needs if
> > he vows to leave? Megatron has no interest in Earth, this could have worked.
>
> The problem with that idea is that if Megatron got all the energy he needed, it would have been impossible for the Autobots to win the war for Cybertron. Letting Megatron rape the Earth and then leave would have been okay for Earth on the short-term, but bad for the Autobots in the long run.
With the Solar Power Tower, there would have been no Earth raping. Not even any uncomfortable groping.
> > Wouldn't it have been better to let Megatron just have the energy he needs if
> > he vows to leave? Megatron has no interest in Earth, this could have worked.
>
> The problem with that idea is that if Megatron got all the energy he needed, it would have been impossible for the Autobots to win the war for Cybertron. Letting Megatron rape the Earth and then leave would have been okay for Earth on the short-term, but bad for the Autobots in the long run.
And, Optimus and the Autobots claimed to want to protect the humans. Compared to a dead, empty world, the humans safety and a new home is a reasonable deal.
> > I think you're reading too much into this. They are clearly getting Grapple
> > to do more work, but just because they are lazy or mean.
>
> I didn't get "lazy Constructicons" from that scene. Devious, certainly, but it's never been clear to me just why they're going to such elaborate lengths to pretend they don't know how to build things. Maybe they're saving their energy, getting Grapple to use up his own power reserves so he's too weak to fight back when they turn on him?
> > Will no one kill Powerglide? Sigh.
>
> He's constantly getting almost-destroyed, and he refuses to let Ratchet finish fixing him in "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide." So, naturally, he lives forever and ever.
> > Again, I think Hoist is just being a supportive friend. He knew it was wrong
> > to build it against orders, it all went to crap, and he stands by his friend.
>
> We see in episodes after this one, like "Auto Berserk," that they're still pals. So, Hoist doesn't even hold it against Grapple. That's really cool.
> I'd probably regard characters like Sideswipe or Huffer very differently if they actually got a showcase episode. Then again, we did eventually get episodes that focused pretty heavily on Bluestreak ("Trans-Europe Express") and Brawn ("Microbots") and I don't think they really built on them much more than they already had. Brawn actually became more of a jerk.
>
> As for Ironhide, what about "The Immobilizer"?
> > I never got the impression that the Constructicons were anything other than
> > bad guys.
>
> They used to be good. Omega Supreme got messed up by the robo-smasher, but with a lot of effort he can talk normally and can still work up a tear in his eye. The Constructicons got reprogrammed, but there must be a tiny bit of goodness still left in them. I think that's why they wanted to work with Grapple.
Gustavo Wombat
Apr 16, 2016, 2:54:55 PM4/16/16
to
Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 11:35:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> Grapple doesn't really seem to care about the consequences so much as getting
>> to build his masterpiece.
>
> I understand the drive to create. It can and does override all worldly
> concerns if you allow it to.
Once you start working with Decepticons, you've crossed a line and need to
> On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 11:35:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> Grapple doesn't really seem to care about the consequences so much as getting
>> to build his masterpiece.
>
> I understand the drive to create. It can and does override all worldly
> concerns if you allow it to.
reassess. Grapple doesn't do this at all.
I recently took a job at a particularly vile corporation, because I get to
work on a project I have wanted to do for close to a decade, and which can
only be done there. I thought about it for a long time before accepting,
because they do so many terrible things otherwise. So, I get it, you make
compromises in your life to do the things that drive you.
We saw none of that with Grapple -- he didn't reflect on it, not
significantly. He didn't compromise, he allowed himself to be used because
he refused to consider the consequences.
Transformers characters are generally simplified and drawn with a broad
brush, but Grapple just isn't a good person. He allows his flaws to
dominate him, and he is incredibly self centered.
>> I am convinced the entire "canyon" was built by the Constructicons as a trap.
>
> Could be. It wouldn't have taken them very long to dig out the trench if
> they had been watching Grapple and knew in advance that they wanted to intercept
on the spur of the moment. It has video feeds connected to the Decepticon
base for instance.
If it wasn't for the camera, I might shrug and accept it as terrible
animation by someone who never actually saw a canyon. But, freakish geology
AND hidden cameras? This is clearly artificial.
I suspect that Hoist and Grapple happened to stumble into a half-finished
trap, which was good enough for the two of them. Somewhere, there was a
grand plan that was sacrificed for this. How do we know it was a grand
plan? Because Decepticons don't do small plans.
This wasn't a plan to shoot down Powerglide, then trap the rescue team and
kill them -- that would have been a great plan, whittling down the Autobot
forces. If the Decepticons thought like that, we would have seen that
behavior on other occasions.
--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.
Zobovor
Apr 16, 2016, 5:18:26 PM4/16/16
to
On Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 12:54:55 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Once you start working with Decepticons, you've crossed a line and need to
> reassess. Grapple doesn't do this at all.
Working with the Decepticons, in and of itself, cannot be considered a bad thing. Prime cooperated with Megatron to get rid of the exponential generator in "Countdown to Extinction." They cooperated again to stop the Insecticons in "The Insecticon Syndrome." (Interestingly, both missions required Prime to fire Megatron in gun mode.) Prime would later cooperate with Megatron again in "The Revenge of Bruticus" to save the Earth. Grapple sees this sort of behavior and comes away with the lesson that it's okay to work with the enemy sometimes to achieve your goals. Grapple sees the power tower as a boon to the Autobots. It's a noble aim. (Also, he didn't set out with the intention of seeking out the bad guys and having them build it for him. He and Hoist probably would have done it by themselves if Scrapper hadn't come along.)
> Once you start working with Decepticons, you've crossed a line and need to
> reassess. Grapple doesn't do this at all.
> Transformers characters are generally simplified and drawn with a broad
> brush, but Grapple just isn't a good person. He allows his flaws to
> dominate him, and he is incredibly self centered.
So, my point is that the engineering crew were not exactly Prime's best and brightest. Inferno can't follow orders. Red Alert is crazy. Smokescreen can't be trusted. Warpath is BLOOEY BLAMM KA-ZOWIE ZINGO. I tend to think these guys are more fun to watch than the first-year characters. They're all so boring and straight-and-narrow. Sideswipe, Prowl, Cliffjumper, none of them have any solid character flaws. Grapple deciding that working with the Constructicons is a good idea? That could never happen in season one.
> I suspect that Hoist and Grapple happened to stumble into a half-finished
> trap, which was good enough for the two of them.
Zob (I'm so bad with backgrounds)
banzait...@gmail.com
Apr 17, 2016, 10:42:37 AM4/17/16
to
This is one of my favorite episodes of all time. After I saw this when it originally broadcast, I just had to get my hands on a Grapple toy. (I guess Hasbro's evil schemes were working back then.)
I see a lot of people here jumping down Grapples throat for his poor judgement. I like to think that it was not such a character flaw in Grapple, but just a momentary lapse of judgement that we all run into from time to time. Let's not also forget that Grapple suffers from clinical depression, largely due to the ongoing war.
I see this episode as Grapple struggling to make an impact to the Autobot cause, since he is not exactly built for war. This explains why Optimus quickly points out that he didn't consider how to protect his creation from the decepticons.
In the end, Grapple just fell prey to rationalization. One of my favorite lines of any movie is from the big chill. "rationalization is better than sex... Ever try to go a week without a rationalization?"
So, lay off grapple, we have been close friends for 30 years!
-Banzaitron
I see a lot of people here jumping down Grapples throat for his poor judgement. I like to think that it was not such a character flaw in Grapple, but just a momentary lapse of judgement that we all run into from time to time. Let's not also forget that Grapple suffers from clinical depression, largely due to the ongoing war.
I see this episode as Grapple struggling to make an impact to the Autobot cause, since he is not exactly built for war. This explains why Optimus quickly points out that he didn't consider how to protect his creation from the decepticons.
In the end, Grapple just fell prey to rationalization. One of my favorite lines of any movie is from the big chill. "rationalization is better than sex... Ever try to go a week without a rationalization?"
So, lay off grapple, we have been close friends for 30 years!
-Banzaitron
Gustavo Wombat
Apr 17, 2016, 3:47:40 PM4/17/16
to
It seems out of character. Why work on a Plan B, when Plan A will destroy
the Autobots once and for all?
It's one of the things I don't like about him as a character. An
incrementalist would have slowly beaten the Autobots long before this, but
he is always going for the grand schemes. I mean, big points for thinking
big, I guess, but it hasn't had any measurable results.
> Wait, is this the same canyon the Autobots got trapped in during "Auto
> Berserk"? I need to watch those scenes really carefully.
remembered the time he was malfunctioning, and assumed that he was always
like that. And he would be right.
Gustavo Wombat
Apr 17, 2016, 4:11:49 PM4/17/16
to
<banzait...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is one of my favorite episodes of all time. After I saw this
> when it originally broadcast, I just had to get my hands on a Grapple
> toy. (I guess Hasbro's evil schemes were working back then.)
> I see a lot of people here jumping down Grapples throat for his poor
> judgement. I like to think that it was not such a character flaw in
> Grapple, but just a momentary lapse of judgement that we all run into
> from time to time. Let's not also forget that Grapple suffers from
> clinical depression, largely due to the ongoing war.
I think it is just me that finds Grapple's "poor judgement" bothersome. Had
> This is one of my favorite episodes of all time. After I saw this
> when it originally broadcast, I just had to get my hands on a Grapple
> toy. (I guess Hasbro's evil schemes were working back then.)
> I see a lot of people here jumping down Grapples throat for his poor
> judgement. I like to think that it was not such a character flaw in
> Grapple, but just a momentary lapse of judgement that we all run into
> from time to time. Let's not also forget that Grapple suffers from
> clinical depression, largely due to the ongoing war.
he been given any reason beyond getting to build his masterpiece, even a
flimsy reason, it would have been more excusable.
Grapple could have been led to believe that the Constructicons wanted
energy to just get off the planet and get away from Megatron and his war,
or something like that. Or that the Constructicons wanted to overthrow
Megatron and end the war. Or any number of things that would have made it
worthwhile to defy Optimus for a greater good that never pans out.
But none of that was given as a reason. He just got a "we've left Megatron,
let's build this together" from the Constructicons.
He didn't even say "Once Optimus sees it working, he will change his mind."
It wouldn't have been hard to add some rationalization to the story --
Hoist is right there, questioning it, so there could be explicit dialog.
> I see this episode as Grapple struggling to make an impact to the
> Autobot cause, since he is not exactly built for war. This explains why
> Optimus quickly points out that he didn't consider how to protect his
> creation from the decepticons.
to find a way to secure it -- build it in front of the base, or in the
center of Omega Supreme's tracks, or something.
But, Optimus did have a point. And building it in the middle of nowhere
with a bunch of Decepticons of questionable loyalty was a terrible option.
It ensures that the tower cannot be protected.
> In the end, Grapple just fell prey to rationalization. One of my
> favorite lines of any movie is from the big chill. "rationalization is
> better than sex... Ever try to go a week without a rationalization?"
> So, lay off grapple, we have been close friends for 30 years!
leaf of rationalization. This isn't a "the road to hell is paved with good
intentions" story, because there were never any good intentions presented.
You are rationalizing on Grapple's behalf.
Zobovor
Apr 17, 2016, 6:35:24 PM4/17/16
to
On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 1:47:40 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Why do we know this?
>
> It seems out of character. Why work on a Plan B, when Plan A will destroy
> the Autobots once and for all?
I think Megatron recognizes that he's not completely infallible. It would be foolish not to have back-up plans in place in case his current scheme fails. He can't anticipate every variable, after all.
> Why do we know this?
>
> It seems out of character. Why work on a Plan B, when Plan A will destroy
> the Autobots once and for all?
In "Kremzeek!", Megatron either creates or discovers Kremzeek (it's never really made clear), and he sends it off to deal with the Autobots while he uses an energy magnet to drain electronic devices of their power.
In "Roll for It," Megatron has been missing for a while. When he finally returns via space bridge, Rumble reports that Reflector has been spying on the anti-matter lab and has learned the secret access code, and Megatron already knows exactly what Rumble is talking about. This means Megatron already had plans in place to secure the anti-matter formula before he went missing; i.e., during the space bridge test run in "Transport to Oblivion."
In "The Autobot Run," Megatron gets Skywarp to zap the Autobots with the transfixatron, but he's also getting the Constructicons to build a gigantic Autobot-crushing machine.
You can also kind of infer it from the order of the episodes. If Megatron has been foiled in episode #33 or whatever, and by episode #34 he's already in the middle of a new plan, then the early stages of plan #34 must have been going on during episode #33. (Just for example, how long did it take to build the Autobot costumes worn by the Decepticons in "Megatron's Master Plan," and how long did it take to modify the Decepticons to be able to retract their wings and air intakes in robot mode to be able to wear them?) I imagine that sometimes Megatron learns of an invention or a discovery and then he drops everything right away to obtain it (the Negovator from "Auto Berserk"; the Heart of Cybertron from "Microbots") but how long had he been watching Shawn Berger before he decided he would make a worthy ally?
I don't think it's out of character. Even Galvatron did it, later on. "And, if my current plan fails, there's always my ultimate weapon!" Granted, he was bluffing, but the Autobots found it to be a believable enough scenario.
Zob (the real shocker is that Galvatron had actually come up with a plan at all that day)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 17, 2016, 9:43:49 PM4/17/16
to
On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 3:35:24 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 1:47:40 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > Why do we know this?
> >
> > It seems out of character. Why work on a Plan B, when Plan A will destroy
> > the Autobots once and for all?
>
> I think Megatron recognizes that he's not completely infallible.
He doesn't act that way, despite the many, many times he has failed. He has the relentless optimism of someone who believes that this time, he has solved all the problems and that this grandiose plan will work.
> On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 1:47:40 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > Why do we know this?
> >
> > It seems out of character. Why work on a Plan B, when Plan A will destroy
> > the Autobots once and for all?
>
> I think Megatron recognizes that he's not completely infallible.
> It would be foolish not to have back-up plans in place in case his current scheme fails. He can't anticipate every variable, after all.
> In "Kremzeek!", Megatron either creates or discovers Kremzeek (it's never really made clear), and he sends it off to deal with the Autobots while he uses an energy magnet to drain electronic devices of their power.
And, Megatron, with the attention span of a golden retriever, seeks to immediately use his discovery to disrupt the Autobots without waiting for the plan he is working on to come to a spot where the disruption would be most effective.
Megatron is opportunistic. Not good at figuring out when to exploit an opportunity though.
> In "Roll for It," Megatron has been missing for a while. When he finally returns via space bridge, Rumble reports that Reflector has been spying on the anti-matter lab and has learned the secret access code, and Megatron already knows exactly what Rumble is talking about. This means Megatron already had plans in place to secure the anti-matter formula before he went missing; i.e., during the space bridge test run in "Transport to Oblivion."
Meanwhile, Megatron was building the space bridge to better transfer energon back to Cybertron, the Autobots stumbled into it, hilarity ensued and the plans were interrupted.
He wasn't working two plans, he was working one plan, and building some infrastructure.
The space bridge is also the only piece of technology that he bothers to revisit, another problem Megatron has as a leader. Part of this is just the structure of the show, where most things have to go back to the status quo, but in-universe, it shows a terrible inability to build from his failures.
> In "The Autobot Run," Megatron gets Skywarp to zap the Autobots with the transfixatron, but he's also getting the Constructicons to build a gigantic Autobot-crushing machine.
> You can also kind of infer it from the order of the episodes. If Megatron has been foiled in episode #33 or whatever, and by episode #34 he's already in the middle of a new plan, then the early stages of plan #34 must have been going on during episode #33.
>(Just for example, how long did it take to build the Autobot costumes worn by the Decepticons in "Megatron's Master Plan," and how long did it take to modify the Decepticons to be able to retract their wings and air intakes in robot mode to be able to wear them?)
> I imagine that sometimes Megatron learns of an invention or a discovery and then he drops everything right away to obtain it (the Negovator from "Auto Berserk"; the Heart of Cybertron from "Microbots") but how long had he been watching Shawn Berger before he decided he would make a worthy ally?
Megatron must have something running to monitor news reports, telephones and such, since opportunities come up and fall into hands pretty often. But, he lacks the self-restraint to not act on them immediately.
> I don't think it's out of character. Even Galvatron did it, later on. "And, if my current plan fails, there's always my ultimate weapon!" Granted, he was bluffing, but the Autobots found it to be a believable enough scenario.
> Zob (the real shocker is that Galvatron had actually come up with a plan at all that day)
It's a problem with the structure of the show -- Megatron is not allowed any lasting victories, not even partial victories. So, after so many episodes, he is the biggest loser possible.
Zobovor
Apr 17, 2016, 10:42:54 PM4/17/16
to
On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 7:43:49 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> He has the relentless optimism of someone who believes that this time, he has
> solved all the problems and that this grandiose plan will work.
I'm really turning into a Decepticon Apologist here. I really, genuinely, sincerely believe that Megatron's a charismatic leader. He inspires the others. Even if he's not completely sure a plan will work, of course he's going to sing its praises. Megatron's never going to show the others his doubts or his worries. (Even if you think you and your children might get eaten by zombies, of course you promise them that everything will be okay. It's just something you do.)
> He has the relentless optimism of someone who believes that this time, he has
> solved all the problems and that this grandiose plan will work.
> It's a problem with the structure of the show -- Megatron is not allowed any
> lasting victories, not even partial victories. So, after so many episodes, he
> is the biggest loser possible.
You're right, though. If Megatron won more often, it would be easier to respect him. I tend to think the campaign on Earth is atypical of his career as a whole. Whether it's due to limited resources or lack of trustworthy personnel or his unfamiliarity with Earth, he's not as effective as he normally would be. We hear through flashbacks all these stories about Megatron wiping out the ancient Autobot leaders or reprogramming the unwashed masses with his robo-smasher or taking control of other planets. He's obviously capable of greatness under ideal circumstances.
The biggest loser possible wouldn't be Megatron, though. It would be Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe. Both characters (and, really, every villain from children's cartoon shows... Gargamel, Shredder, etc.) are limited by the medium and are basically required to lose in every episode. Megatron licks his wounds, retreats, and tries again later. Cobra Commander throws a temper tantrum and starts screaming and throwing things like a toddler. In-universe, at least the Decepticons still respect Megatron at the end of the day and still follow him into battle. Cobra Commander is such an ineffective loser that even the other members of Cobra begins to recognize this.
Zob (he is pathetic but I do love him so)
No One In Particular
Apr 18, 2016, 12:09:46 AM4/18/16
to
On 4/17/2016 9:42 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> You're right, though. If Megatron won more often, it would be easier to respect
>him. I tend to think the campaign on Earth is atypical of his career as a whole.
>Whether it's due to limited resources or lack of trustworthy personnel or his unfamiliarity
>with Earth, he's not as effective as he normally would be. We hear through flashbacks all
>these stories about Megatron wiping out the ancient Autobot leaders or reprogramming the
>unwashed masses with his robo-smasher or taking control of other planets. He's obviously
>capable of greatness under ideal circumstances.
>
> You're right, though. If Megatron won more often, it would be easier to respect
>him. I tend to think the campaign on Earth is atypical of his career as a whole.
>Whether it's due to limited resources or lack of trustworthy personnel or his unfamiliarity
>with Earth, he's not as effective as he normally would be. We hear through flashbacks all
>these stories about Megatron wiping out the ancient Autobot leaders or reprogramming the
>unwashed masses with his robo-smasher or taking control of other planets. He's obviously
>capable of greatness under ideal circumstances.
>
> Zob (he is pathetic but I do love him so)
>
Megatron always bounces back from a smashing defeat. He is nothing if
>
not resilient. Cobra Commander just kind of childish.
Brian
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 18, 2016, 3:36:24 AM4/18/16
to
On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 7:42:54 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 7:43:49 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > He has the relentless optimism of someone who believes that this time, he has
> > solved all the problems and that this grandiose plan will work.
>
> I'm really turning into a Decepticon Apologist here.
I think there is a difference between the Decepticon Apologists, who say that the Decepticons were the good guys, and just trying to say that Megatron is competent.
> On Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 7:43:49 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > He has the relentless optimism of someone who believes that this time, he has
> > solved all the problems and that this grandiose plan will work.
>
> I'm really turning into a Decepticon Apologist here.
> I really, genuinely, sincerely believe that Megatron's a charismatic leader. He inspires the others.
> Even if he's not completely sure a plan will work, of course he's going to sing its praises. Megatron's never going to show the others his doubts or his worries. (Even if you think you and your children might get eaten by zombies, of course you promise them that everything will be okay. It's just something you do.)
> > It's a problem with the structure of the show -- Megatron is not allowed any
> > lasting victories, not even partial victories. So, after so many episodes, he
> > is the biggest loser possible.
>
> He must have had victories to achieve what he did.
> There's probably a story about him arriving on Monacus, terrorizing the populace, and making Lord Gyconi do his bidding. It wouldn't have made a very good episode of children's television, but it's clear that he must have emerged victorious because by the time we see Gyconi, Megatron has already set up an arrangement by which he receives a cut of the arena profits, and Gyconi is clearly terrified of Megatron.
For instance, if he adapted the Transfixatron into a smaller, less powerful version, and installed it into one of his troops, it would be a powerful weapon in battle even if it only lasted for a few moments. And, it would be seizing a small, permanant victory out of a temporary defeat.
> You're right, though. If Megatron won more often, it would be easier to respect him. I tend to think the campaign on Earth is atypical of his career as a whole. Whether it's due to limited resources or lack of trustworthy personnel or his unfamiliarity with Earth, he's not as effective as he normally would be.
This is sad. It's like bum fighting.
> We hear through flashbacks all these stories about Megatron wiping out the ancient Autobot leaders or reprogramming the unwashed masses with his robo-smasher or taking control of other planets. He's obviously capable of greatness under ideal circumstances.
> The biggest loser possible wouldn't be Megatron, though. It would be Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe. Both characters (and, really, every villain from children's cartoon shows... Gargamel, Shredder, etc.) are limited by the medium and are basically required to lose in every episode.
If Megatron succeeded more often, he would also be able to have bigger setbacks, which would have made the show better. It wouldn't have to be something like slaughtering everyone in Quebec and seizing the power of Montreal Bagels, but what if he had gotten to keep Nightbird? Or if he enslaved the Atlantians and used Atlantis for a base for a dozen episodes before the Autobots freed them?
He needs to succeed at least occasionally, or he isn't a credible threat.
> Megatron licks his wounds, retreats, and tries again later. Cobra Commander throws a temper tantrum and starts screaming and throwing things like a toddler. In-universe, at least the Decepticons still respect Megatron at the end of the day and still follow him into battle. Cobra Commander is such an ineffective loser that even the other members of Cobra begins to recognize this.
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