From kendrick@io.com Mon Oct 16 10:12:45 CDT 1995
Article: 24490 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 10/13 - The Key to Vector Sigma Part II
Date: 16 Oct 1995 10:07:29 -0500
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TF Weekday Oct 13 1995 - The Key to Vector Sigma, Part II

The EI/AD: I guess in this episode, Scramble City gestalt technology can
be called the alien device. Not really an evil invention, because the
Autobots have it as well as the Decepticons. The Key itself turning great
virgin forests into heavy metal runs a close second as a TRUE alien device.

The plot: Optimus Prime decides to rebuild some old Cybertronian
transports into earth-style airplanes and give them life as Megatron did
with his cars. Alpha Trion sacrifices himself to reactivate Vector Sigma,
and the Aerialbots are born: Silverbolt, Air Raid, Fireflight, Skydive,
and Slingshot. Merged with Vector Sigma, A3 reports that the Key is a
hazard to all life on Earth, and Shockwave the one-eyed eavesdropper
shares this info with Megatron, who drops super-fuel manufacturing to do
circuit tests on the key. Meanwhile, Prime and Co. overcome the Centurion
robots and board Omega Supreme enroute to Earth. Prime tells the story of
the exile to Earth, and after they land Omega blows up from the stress of
heavy travel (and that big gash in the side of his rocket mode). Megatron
discovers that the Key changes the molecular structure of organic
material, making it metallic, and begins to turn the Seattle forests into
a New Cybertron. The Stunticons and the Aerialbots face off for the first
time in front of the military base, and the boys in green realize that the
Autobots WEREN'T the ones who stole the super fuel, imagine that.
Meanwhile, the Aerialbots get disillusioned with protecting humans and
working for the Autobots. Silverbolt, made leader of the group by Prime
after displaying a fear of heights in their first encounter with the
Stunticons, applies some light reverse psychology on his team to convince
them that what they're doing is wrong. Prime and Co. engage Megatron in
Seattle and lose badly until the Aerials show up. The Stunticons show off
their merging trick, and form Menasor. The Aerials respond by merging into
Superion. Superion is almost beaten until Omega shows up, newly repaired
by Ratchet and Sparkplug. The Decepticons run away, and Silverbolt does
the Heroic Act(tm) by flying to dizzying heights to destroy the Key and
restore Earth to normal.

The characters: The Aerials have never been very fleshed out.
Silverbolt's fear of heights was supposed to be a subtle personality
hook, and not an all-encompassing writing gimmick. Air Raid is supposed
to be a party dude. SkyDive is supposed to be the brains of the
operation. Fireflight shows off some of his patented child-like wonder
when he introduces himself in the opening Mouseketeer roll call. The only
one who's developed at all is Slingshot, the egotist who's trying to
cover up his own faults. Since Starscream isn't around, Megatron gets to
play scientist by messing around with the fuel and the key. Soundwave
shows that he's not infallible by carelessly tripping over that root; of
course, this leads to the serendipitous discovery of the Key's abilities,
so some may argue that Soundwave did this on purpose to allow Megatron
the joy of discovery, but that's stretching things a bit. :) Oh, and they
can't seem to make up their minds what voices the gestalts should have.
Menasor has a deeper voice than he did in Masquerade. Superion has that
Neil Ross 'Swoop' screechy voice. Interesting to note that Peter Cullen
does Superion's voice in 'War Dawn.' Oh yeah, Cullen is responsible for
Vector Sigma's voice too.

The plot holes: Only one really obvious one; how in the heck does an
alien power supply change pine wood to aluminum? Is this some new method
of preserving Christmas trees? A convenient plot device that isn't
explained well at all, but this is Marvel, so they're forgiven. :) One
other tiny plot hole is Prime deciding on Silverbolt being the leader
long after the team is created. Come on, the guy is the biggest and forms
the central core of Superion, who else could lead? His sense of
responsibility doesn't hurt any either, although I could see SkyDive
doing the leadership thing.

Moving pictures: Cool and dumb animation intermixed. The Really Big Fight
in the Middle, where the evil cars and heroic wingthings first meet,
shows off some really nice animation, even if it's fewer frames per
second than Toei is usually known for. Motormaster transforms from one
mode to the other mid-transit at least three times, and the Stunticons
show off a lot of their trademark stunt driving, something they don't
seem to do much of after this episode. The Really Big Fight at the End,
however, is very disappointing. Lots of messy and awkward sparring in
vehicle modes only, with very little effects animation or expository
dialogue to back up the weak action. More in...

The cuts: Almost the entire fight with the Centurion Robots is cut out,
opting instead for a quick deus ex machina escape via Omega Supreme. IMO,
if they wanted to cut anything they should have chopped a lot of the
unnecessary bits from the RBFatE. Sometimes I wonder if Sci-Fi is worried
about messing up the musical score or not when they cut.

Toys they should reissue: The Aerialbots are already G2ized... Why not go
the whole nine yards? They're not quite as Romitized as the Stunticons
are; each one retains his cubical head, more or less, and their transforms
are identical to the toys'. Maybe Aerialbots scaled to size with the
Seeker-Skyraiders would be nice, like having Stunticons to scale with
Autobots cars.. The hole in this request, of course, is that the
Skyraiders and the Heroics aren't to scale with EACH OTHER. The solution
to this, of course, is to redo the Stunticons and the Aerials as Diaclone
toys, with usable cockpits and gigantic shooting spring-loaded cannons.
:) Shyeah, and we'll see that the day they make an Arcee toy.

Quotables:
"Somebody say something about a miracle?"

KKC, I have had no sleep for 54 hours now. I keep spending money I don't
have on toys I don't need. I keep kicking walls and destroying things
with hammers. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm feeling more than a little
misogynistic after the events of this past week. I'm lookin' California and
feelin' Minnesota.
--
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