From kendrick@io.com Tue Oct 10 12:49:48 CDT 1995
Article: 24259 of alt.toys.transformers
Path: news.io.com!io.com!not-for-mail
From: kendrick@io.com (Kendrick Kerwin Chua)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: TF Weekday 10/10 - Auto-Bop
Date: 10 Oct 1995 12:47:21 -0500
Organization: Illuminati Online
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Status: RO
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TF Weekday Oct 10 1995 - Auto-Bop

The EI/AD: It's ultra-sound hypnotic suggestion, the wonderful evil
invention as wielded by Soundwave, your friendly neighborhood emergency
broadcast system...

The plot: Raoul from 'Make Tracks' and the Bop-crew (Potblack and
Rocksteady) are ejected from the property of a hot new club called
"Dance-a-tron" after they try to perform their breakdancing act outside.
They run into Tracks and Blaster on surveillance of Decepticon activity,
who rescue them from the street punks threatening their lives. Tracks and
Blaster go into the club and notice a TON of incongruities, like
construction workers dancing with housewives and the like. After a subway
conductor goes bananas and Tracks is captured, Blaster figures out that
the club is a front for somebody hypnotizing humans and forcing them to
work on the construction of a mysterious building. Blaster hurries out
there, but not in time to stop Potblack and Rocksteady from being
hypnotized. Raoul figures out that water breaks the hypnotic spell, and
rescues the rest of his crew so they can release Tracks. While the four of
them chase down suave club-owner Starscream, Blaster takes down Soundwave
in a classic fight scene. Tracks seeds the clouds, raining out all of the
Decepticons' hypno-slaves and then proceeds to beat Starscream in a really
cool aerial stunt show.  Tracks and Blaster knock over the building, and
they all live happily ever after... Except for Blaster, who has to play
music for the Bop Crew until they earn enough money to buy a new radio.

The characters: More of the street-smart Tracks, who shows off not only
his protective side but his dauntless heroism. I wish that they'd make
his vanity just a little more caricatured, but it's also nice to see that
there's a honest-to-Primus Autobot Warrior under the polish. Blaster is
hedonistic and fast-talking, and makes a wonderful foil for the
antiseptic and terse Soundwave. You wonder why they didn't make more of a
big deal out of their supposed rivalry until the Japanese series (where
they were blown away and rebuilt as Twincast and Soundblaster,
respectively) And Raoul comes off again not as your know-it-all squishie
who saves the day, but a smart street punk with that survival edge that
saves him. Not much more than cameos out of Megatron and Starscream, and
the Bop-crew is your standard sidekick fare.
   Side note: listen closely to Potblack's voice... It's Rumble's voice
unprocessed and not quite so exagerated. This same voice is used a lot by
Frank Welker for your standard street punk. Bo from 'Garfield and
Friends' has this same voice, as does the movie-lot ghost from 'Ghostbusters'

The plot holes: Why not kill Tracks the instant he's captured, rather
than by stringing him to the sound system? Either Starscream was being
sadistic and torturous (which is believable) or the writers wanted him
rescuable (which is just as believable). Also, why hypnotize humans to do
your work for you, when it's so much more energy efficient to simply blow
away a few blocks in Chelsea and Manhattan and build yourself? It seems
that the Decepticons may not be doing as well as a lot of people think if
they have to resort to an appearance of legality in order to get their
evil schemes accomplished. Also, they never quite explain why the subway
conductor goes nuts, although we are to assume that he was under
Soundwave's control for the purpose of eliminating the Bop-Crew. Leave it
to Decepticons to think that entertainment industry competition is worth
killing over. :)

Moving pictures: Cool animation, with lots of anime-girl cheesecake, and
that's all I'll say about that. :) Funky club outfits and stock
breakdancing moves really mark this episode as the most dated of the TF
shows. Except for Auto-Bop, the TF story could happen as easily in the
70s or in the 90s. Tracks shows off lots of neat gear in his car mode for
street survival, including an under-the-hood grappling hook and laser
guns hidden in his headlights. His winged transformation is also drawn
exactly like the toy's transform; in 'Make Tracks', he simply sprouted
wings. Here, he has intake vents and tail fins just like the toy. And
kudos to the effects animators for bringing us sparking train tracks,
cool sonics weapons on Blaster and Soundwave and a crumbling building.

The cuts: A little dialogue at the beginning, but not a lot was noticably
cut... Although I do remember the fight scene between Blaster and
Soundwave being much longer than it was.

Toys they should reissue: Tracks in a G2 format. The guy definitely
deserves a snazzy black paint job and BIG wings. Blaster would be nice to
have too. Maybe they should release the Twincast and Soundblaster molds
in America with the original names and G2 symbols on them. For those of
you who didn't already know, Twincast is Blaster in blue and dark grey,
and Soundblaster is Soundwave in black and chrome. Muy cool.

Quotables:
"Let's do a Michael Jackson, man!"
"What?"
"Let's beat it!"

"Unusual hiring practices these clubs have..."

KKC, I'm afraid your rule Brittania mania doesn't ring so true...
--
kendrick@io.com - Kendrick Kerwin Chua - WTB: 80s Transformers and GIJoe toys
"What would you have me do with Washington,Destro? Pepper it with spitballs?"
Necronomcon FAQ home page at http://www.io.com/~kendrick/necronomicon or anon
FTP at io.com:/pub/usr/kendrick -Personal home at http://www.io.com/~kendrick