Somehow, the season premiere of Transformers: Robots in Disguise slipped past me. As well as nearly three other episodes. Which is a shame, because with this one they set the tone for the season.
As far as the first three episodes were concerned, they generally dealt with The Scavengers. Along with their (reluctant) Mini-con partners, they’ve been raiding locations significant to the Autobot/Decepticon war on Earth. The Mini-cons in particular are odd; they all transform into weapons. They also have the ablity to take over the motor functions of any bot holding them. This leads to a few unintentionally hilarious scenes where they try to fling themselves into a character’s hand. The only thing the audience really knew about them was that they were running from something on Cybertron. And that something happened to be revealed in this episode.
The scavengers headed out to an automated ship in the middle of the ocean. I swear, they’ve kept that up just to screw with me. Anyway, they’re all out there to find some artifact that is apparently very powerful. They easily find it, and they really luck out. They found a Dark Star Saber, specifically one Megatron forged himself. But the Mini-cons took advantage of the lapse in attention the saber afforded, and stole the scavenger’s ship. And wouldn’t you know it, but who should suddenly walk through a ground bridge onto the ship but the very person they were running from.
You ever notice how something comes along and you didn’t realize that you’d wanted it the entire time? Starscream is that thing. And they got Steve Blum back as his voice, too, which is good. Because it’s physically impossible for me to hate that man’s voice.
Starscream doesn’t initially notice the saber underfoot. Instead, he questions Clawtrap (the Scavenger leader) about his Mini-cons. When he realizes that Clawtrap has nothing for him, he sends all of the Scavengers into the ocean with a single swipe of the sword. He notes that the sword is resisting him, though. He then orders the bounty hunters he hired to find his Mini-Cons.
Back at the scrapyard, an artifact that the team has just recovered is accidentally activated by Jetstorm and Slipstream. Sideswipe destroys it, because it’s basically a high-power EMP that could fry all of their brains. He then acts like a dick to the Mini-cons; everyone calls him on it, too. Just as he’s about to apologize to Fixit, they realize that Jetstorm and Slipstream are in a fight.
The Mini-cons broke into the scrapyard in search of the relic Sideswipe destroyed. They manage to beat back all of the bots with their preferred tactic, notably leaving everyone unharmed. When they realize that what they want is no longer an option they leave. The Bee team give chase, leaving Their Mini-Cons behind… to wind up getting captured by the bounty hunters. Starscream reprimands them for failing to get the right Mini-cons. He does, however, weasel the fact that Bumblebee’s on Earth out of Fixit.
He delivers an ultimatum to Bumblebee by hologram; turn himself over peacefully, and no one dies. Bee takes the deal, since it’s the only way to ensure the Mini-cons safety. Just as he’s left through the ground bridge, Optimus returns. They had called him earlier, and they need him now more than they had before.
Look, Transformers: Robots in Disguise got me with this one. I wasn’t expecting a favorite to get dropped on me unexpectedly.
Final Thoughts:
- I would’ve guessed that this half of the season would’ve been all Scavengers.
- Steve Blum. That is all.
Starscream! Starscream! STARSCREAM!
4/5
“Great”
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