From kendrick@io.com Wed Sep 27 08:57:21 CDT 1995 Article: 23503 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 9/27 - A Plague of Insecticons Date: 27 Sep 1995 08:54:04 -0500 Organization: Illuminati Online Lines: 108 Message-ID: <44bl1s$a5h@bermuda.io.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: bermuda.io.com Status: RO X-Status: TF Weekday Sept 27 1995 - A Plague of Insecticons The EI/AD: No single identifiable EI/AD, although arguments could be made both for the Decepticon escape module and the cloning beams of the bugs. The plot: Megatron and his boys intercept a distress call from Bali meant for the Autobots, farmers screaming about giant robot insects. They fly off to discover a missing Space Cruiser(tm) escape module that crashed in Demon Swamp four-million years ago. While Bombshell, Kickback, and Shrapnel kick the tar out of Skyfire's scouting team, Prime and the wheeled warriors get delayed by a village celebration and tunnel under a mountain. Megatron befriends the bugs and gets them to do a lot of his pointless fighting while he and his boys make energon cubes out of a local oil refinery. The bugs fail to stop Prime and Co. from making it for the Really Big Fight at the End, where Spike saves the day by remembering that rubber tires will insulate against Shrapnel's lightning. After Megatron loses a hand-to-hand fight in the water, the Insecticons choose the better part of valor, eat all of Megatron's cubes and hightail it out of there, chased by a bunch of irate Decepticons. The Autobots count their blessings. The characters: Bombshell, Kickback, and Shrapnel aren't quite well defined yet, this only being a first-season episode, post-Ultimate Doom as evidenced by the appearance of Skyfire NOT being found in your grocer's freezer. This episode is more a gee-whiz-lookie-what-they-can-do- with-their-special-powers show, so we see the Shrapnel do his lightning, radio-control gig and his cloning trick, Bombshell do lots of fancy weaponry work and Kickback take out Skyfire with one hit. We also see Wheeljack fly, Windcharger use his magnetic beams, Trailbreaker use his forcefield, and Sideswipe use his pile drivers. Lots of dramatic mid-air catches of falling robots too, and we have your requisite human saving the day. Interesting that they foreshadow Spike actually BECOMING a Transformer when Wheeljack jokingly suggests that he needs a motorcycle transform mode. Perhaps a Laser Cycle recolor, now that Fort Max's origin is up in the air? Nah. On that note: Spike says that he isn't yet old enough to drive. It's 1985 and the guy works on oil rigs without child-labor lawyers all over him, so we can presume that he's like 14 or 15, right? That means that by 2005, he's about 34 or 35. Actually, that sounds about right, now that I think about it. Never mind, no nitpick there. The plot holes: I won't ask how in the heck the Autobots DROVE from Oregon to Bali. Maybe they used their Ultimate Doom hydrofoils, or maybe in this universe there's a international roadway or something, it's moot. The fact that Megatron identifies the bug hive as a Con escape module suggests that the Insecticons were part of the original contingent that attacked the Ark four-million years ago... Does that make them faceless seekers or Reflector look-alikes or casettes from before? Actually, the names suggest that maybe they were a gunnery or weapons team from long ago. Or maybe Megatron is just plain wrong about it. Only their idento-computer knows for sure... Speaking of which, is the IC as powerful as Teletran-one? Thundercracker postulates that it rebuilt the bugs into their present forms for survival on Earth... Did it also rebuild them and program them with local language as it popped up, like Teletran-one did for the Ark survivors? Oh, and the village celebration is a cheap deus ex machina method of delaying the fight. Also, Megatron orders Soundwave to "release the Ravage cassette," suggesting that the tapes are mindless drones and not TFs in their own right. Feel free to disagree. Moving pictures: Witness ye the origin of the subspace weapons storage theory. In a purple glow which is clearly not an animation error, Kickback transforms in the RBFatE and calls his rifle out of thin air into his right hand to blast a few unsuspecting Autobots. Other than that, the animation is about standard, not too hot, but with very few really glaring errors. Bumblebee does his usual witty yelling and screaming when the Insecticons spray them with gunfire on the farm, but he's nowhere in picture and Spike, Brawn, and Windcharger are all moving their mouths. Kickback occasionally loses his hind kicking legs, and Bombshell occasionally lost his faction insignia. Also, nobody seems to be able to decide just how BIG Skyfire is... Apparently, he grows and shrinks as needed; he's relatively small in this episode, able to take off from inside Autobot HQ. Nice anime-ish shot of Prime throwing an oil-tanker (!) at Megatron in the ocean fight scene. The cuts: Crud, they cut some of the best lines. Wheeljack's comment about Sideswipe's proton-powered pathfinder is a punch line with no preceeding joke, as they cut most of our Lambo Rambo's monologue. They also cut Prime's comment to "stand back" as he transforms and rams his way through the last few yards of rock under the mountain. A few witty lines during the RBFatE are also cut, as is a little exposition at the beginning of the episode. The whole show is a Hasbro commercial, so I don't see where they get off cutting the show to fit in MORE Hasbro comglomerate commercials. To make the point clear: every commercial during TF is a Hasbro commercial of one flavor or another, among them Kenner Batman figures, Mortal Kombat figures, Karate Fighter action sets and any number of girls' toys I'm not too familiar with fron Tonka, Kenner, and Hasbro. Toys they should reissue: I've said before that the Insecticons need to come out again, perhaps in a gift set. The toy market is ripe for more gross-out appeal toys, if the Real Monster figures are any indicator. Quotables: "Look at the bright side... at least they didn't bring that sawed-off nerd Rumble with 'em." "Taste lightning, Autobots!" "It tastes terrible." "I'm no flyin' ace, but he needs help!" KKC, strike a pose... -- 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