From kendrick@io.com Sat Oct 14 20:09:24 CDT 1995
Article: 24436 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 10/12 - The Key to Vector Sigma, Part I
Date: 14 Oct 1995 20:09:02 -0500
Organization: Illuminati Online
Lines: 94
Message-ID: <45pmve$s7p@bermuda.io.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bermuda.io.com
Status: RO
X-Status:

TF Weekday Oct 12 1995 - The Key to Vector Sigma, Part I

The EI/AD: The Stunticons, Megatron's answer to his ground-forces gap.
Also worthy for Alien Device mention is Vector Sigma, the super AI
creation machine at the center of Cybertron. No disco ball jokes, please.

The plot: After failing to steal an experimental super fuel guarded by
the Autobots, Megatron sends Rumble to steal four cars and a
tractor-trailer. Megatron himself turns these into remote-controlled
transforming robots and dubs them the Stunticons. Megatron takes his new
warriors to Cybertron via the space bridge, and steals a key from Alpha
Trion which allows him to enter the Vector Sigma chamber and give
personalities to the Stunticons, who declare themselves; Motormaster,
Dead End, Breakdown, Drag Strip, and Wildrider. Prime is alerted by
Teletran-I and takes a team of Autobots up to Cybertron via Omega
Supreme. They rescue Alpha Trion but are too late the stop the
Decepticons, especially after tangling with Centurion robots guarding VS.
The Decepticons return to Earth and begin wreaking havok on the roads;
when they attack the US Military, the boys in green mistake the
driverless Stunticons for Autobots. Meanwhile, having lost only the
battle, Prime decides to fight back by building his own air warriors, and
the story goes on...

The characters: Nice fleshing out lines come out of folks like Blaster,
Alpha Trion and Soundwave. Rumble really shines as he shows off not only
his loyalty but his ability to use his relatively small size to his
advantage... Who else would have been able to pull off stealing the cars?
Megatron gets to be frustrated, technically able, and then jubilant over
being able to pull off creating the Stunticons. The Stunticons don't get
much characterization out of this episode beyond their Mouseketeer Roll
Call sequence when they're first created... But Drag Strip's claim that
he lives to obey is a little bit at odds with his tech spec personality.

The plot holes: Prime and company combat the Centurion Robots guarding
Vector Sigma by sending out crowds of repair drone robots to distract
them, finally leading the entire sorry bunch over a high precipice. How
is it that with only a few seconds' work, Ratchet and Wheeljack are able
to reactivate a robot nearly as complex as themselves AND tell it what to
do? A theory has been proposed that all they did in this episode was
repair each drone far enough to get its own self-repair systems working,
but this doesn't explain the direction part. Other than that, the only
real hole is the way Vector Sigma works. Since the ultimate Transformer
origin was not yet fleshed out, and this episode is evidently pre-Furman
and pre-Primus, we can forgive the deux ex machina that Vector Sigma
otherwise represents.

Moving pictures: Above par for a TF episode which is essentially NOTHING
but a new toy commercial. Action Sequences are mostly flawless and
smooth, with lots of jumping Stunticon cars and beat-up military
equipment. Curiously, the animation fails when there isn't a lot going
on; a recycled sequence of the Stunticons walking in single file is jumpy
and has sloppy character overlap. Transforms are also a little
inconsistent... But seeing as how these are the Romita Stunticon designs,
that can be forgiven. You wonder just how that Countach spoiler ends up
on Breakdown's back when in the toy it's on his knees. One really
horrible scene is the space bridge trip back home, where you see each
individual robot physically flung through the space bridge portal and
flying up the purple beam. It's silly and simplistic, and fans of science
fiction with matter transport beams probably cringed when they first saw
that.

The cuts: Specific and unnecessary cuts, across the board. One was
Rumble's establishing line, 'Whatta you gonna do? You can't exactly drive
after them!' Also, the scene where Prime and company run into an
explosion in the Cybertron underground is cut. However, an expository
scene afterwards DESCRIBING the cut scene is not! The fact that this
episode survives this mutilation is a testimony to the strong story of
David Wise. USA, are you guys listening? Tell your Sci-Fi Channel execs
to stop trying to gouge more funds and provide more quality
entertainment. That way you can charge more for advertising since your
viewer base will be more steady.

Toys they should reissue: A G2 attempt to re-release the Stuntions in
gaudy new colors was shelved, as the back of the Botcon94 Breakdown card
shows. Perhaps they should scrap the Scramble City designs and make new
Stunticons from the ground up, ones that look and feel like the Romita
designs. Making them to scale with Diaclone Autobot Cars wouldn't be a
bad move either.

Quotables:
"I am Motormaster. I swear loyalty to you!"
"I'm Dead End, and I guess I'll have to do what you say."
"I'm... I'm Breakdown. I'll obey too."
"I'm Drag Strip, and I LIVE to obey!"
"My name's Wildrider, and I wanna bust sumpin' up!"

"We are El Losto!"

KKC, dreams are for sleeping...
--
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