Remember how I was wondering about when Transformers: Robots in Disguise would get back around to Steeljaw? Well it didn’t take long. Speak of the devil…
He’s tracked down Kickback in an attempt to get him to join his new, not-incarcerated crew. Kickback remembers last time, but Steeljaw swears it won’t be like that again. Kickback isn’t falling for that, tells Steeljaw that he’s running with a new crew anyway, and pump kicks Steeljaw halfway over a garbage pile before running away.
Russell has taken to keeping trophies from his adventures with the Autobots in a display case he found in the scrapyard. Denny approves, because he’s a massive hoarder. This actually becomes a problem later, but that will have to wait.
The sudden hole left in their base team is glaring. Strongarm tries to get Grimlock to get down with team dynamics, but he’s too impulsive for any of that. This drives the major conflict of the episode, as twice they wind up screwing each other over because of it; first time drives Strongarm off a cliff, the second gets them tagled up in the cables to a winch. Both times it’s costly, and could’ve been avoided if Strongarm didn’t assume that Grimlock would act exactly as Sideswipe would.
But anyway, they get a signal from an abandoned quarry, and go to investigate. We meet their Decepticon, Saberhorn. He’s a beetle, and they notice that he’s digging for some ore. He also wants nothing more than to get Bumblebee one on one, which he gets because of the dynamic between Strongarm and Grimlock. He’s a fencer, and prides himself on his skill in the sport, and he beats Bee both times they fight. I’d almost dare to say they were going for a Basil Rathbone feel to him.
He escapes from the quarry, but they track him to the steel mill that Steeljaw was using as a base. It’s back in business however, and that’s where Denny and Russell come in. The ore happened to be used in the production of the hulls of Cybertronian ships, which meant that Saberhorn had plans to leave at some point. Russell wants some of the ore as a trophy, and stupidly runs in to grab some. This screws Bee over, since Saberhorn’s quick to figure out that Russell is a weak point for him. He forces Bee into a viaduct and sends molten metal his way, but Strongarm and Grimlock come to his rescue. Razorhorn gets away when Grimlock chucks him through a wall.
As it turns out, the database had no info on Saberhorn. By checking with one of Windblade’s caches, however, Fixit finds that he was, in fact, on the Alchemor. Why he wasn’t on the prisoner manifest remains a mystery for the time being.
At the end, it cuts back to Kickback entering a crashed ship in the middle of nowhere. He moves past several other Decepticons on the way to the bridge. He passes Saberhorn in the doorway, and reports to Scorponok and… uh…
They send him away after taking the bag of crap he brought them. They begin lamenting how useless their underlings are. And who should show up but Steeljaw, ready to work his usual ,mojo after trudging through the swamp.
So Transformers Robots in Disguise gave us an arc. I’m guessing he’ll start by convincing them they should help him spring his posse from prison. After that is anyone’s guess.
Final Thoughts:
- Spell check also seems to hate Hasbro names. Probably because the usual format is “Nounnoun”.
- I like that they gave Saberhorn a parrying dagger. Usually, fencing characters only come with the one sword.
- It’s funny how Russell didn’t burn his hands off with that drop of metal, which should’ve still been hot.
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