From kendrick@io.com Thu Oct  5 12:49:25 CDT 1995
Article: 24020 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 10/5 - Quest for Survival
Date: 5 Oct 1995 12:49:10 -0500
Organization: Illuminati Online
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Status: RO
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TF Weekday Oct 5 1995 - Quest for Survival

The EI/AD: The Morphobots, hungry aluminum venus flytraps from another world!

The plot: From Arkansas to Zaire, the Insecticon hordes are eating human
beings out of existence. While the Decepticons convert hydrocarbons to
Energon, Cosmos is out near Flouron III retrieving robotic insecticide,
but is held up near an asteroid by mysterious metal tentacles. Covered
with spores that sprout into plants, Cosmos crashes. Megatron hatches a
plan to destroy the insecticide, and orders the Insecticons to stay away,
an order they interpret as treachery (what is Megatron hiding?) Perceptor
discovers that the plants are Morphobots, thought extinct but actually
reproducing like crazy on a search for mechanical food. Prime and the
Autobots rescue Cosmos but lose the Insecticide in the Really Big Fight at
the End. Then the Insecticons fly over the mountains, seeing the forest
of Morphobots as food, when in fact it's the other way around. The plants
devour the entire Insecticon army except for the three originals, and the
Decepticons all run away. The Autobots send the plants away to someplace
where they'll be useful, and everybody lives happily ever after... until
next episode.

The characters: Snippets and snippets, which is good, considering how
this is not a single-character focus episode. Smokescreen plays field
commander and Prime confidant, and Cosmos is your lonely but stalwart
space explorer. You get Blaster's annoying exuberance, Huffers whining
cynicism, and Hoist's cheerful bedside manner all rolled together in one
episode. The Decepticons are fleshed out a bit too; Soundwave actually
laughs when Starscream is shot down. Speaking of which, we get one of the
classic 'shoot first, think later' scenes when Starscram fires a shot
into the Morphobot forest, only to have it deflected back at him. Blaster
plays his trademark Cold Slithor tunes to burn a path through the plants.

The plot holes: Sending the Morphobots away from Earth is a good idea,
because they don't fit into our ecostructure. Sending them to another
planet that just happens to be inhabited by robotic insects is not
necessarily a good idea. You wish there was more explanation here,
although the only reason for the spaceship was to throw in that joke
segment of Perceptor in the lab, surrounded by newly-grown Morphobots.
Also, the idea of morphobots or mechanical insecticide at ALL suggests
that there is an entire method of metallic ecostructure, parallel to or
similar to organic ecostructure. This is the kind of thinking that leads
a lot of fans to believe that TFs are silicon based organisms that just
LOOK like robots to us.
   Also, take a close look at the Autobot group that is initially sent out
to investigate the Morphobot menace, and the one that actually gets
there. Smokescreen and Ratchet mysteriously disappear, and Ironhide and
Blaster appear in their place. The same happens with the Decepticon as
well; you see Megatron, Thundercacker, and Skywarp  fly out of the sea
portal, but you see Ramjet, Dirge, Soundwave, Starscream, and Blitzwing
get there.

Moving pictures: Nice animation. Not without its faults, but nicely done
with very few shortcuts taken. Hordes of Insecticons are mostly animated
uniquely, rather than repeating footage over and over again. Same goes
for the morphobots. Nice shot of Bumblebee transforming at the beginning,
where the windows on his chest go from opaque to transparent suddenly yet
smoothly. Excellent panning footage of Megatron transforming and landing
in Soundwave's hand too, even if they did leave out the transform sound
effect. The effect of Tracks on fire isn't realistic, but it is nicely
done. Lots of cool transforms too; Thrust pulls up into the air jerkily,
dragging his legs up into his transform as if it were painful. Too bad
Kickback's humanoid face is stuck at the bottom of his insect head for
some mysterious reason.
   Side issue: Does anybody else wonder why they draw Blitzwing looking
exactly like the toy? I mean, on other drawings they have the sight of
mind to omit certain silly or unrealistic details. On Blitzwing tho, they
left in the folded tank treads that fit under his wings. In real life,
that design would never fly. Perhaps it just didn't look like Blitzwing
with realistic wings, or maybe Romita got lazy one night.

The cuts: Agh. Like four whole minutes is cut out of the first segment,
among the best of them the scene where the American farmers take to the
hills and a lot of witty Insecticon one-liners. A scene where Cosmos is
flying away with lots of little glowing spores on him is cut out, as well
as a bit of exposition near the end where there's gloating/mourning about
the destruction of the insecticide. The story is strong enough to survive
these cuts, but it's still painful to notice them.

Toys they should reissue: Insecticons, dammit. In a gift set and in new
colors, dammit. Real Monster toys are a indication that gross-out toys
are back in, dammit.

Quotables:
"Big spender..."

"Hold tight, Cosmos, we'll be back before you can fire a sparkplug!"
"Where'm I gonna go?"

"Warpath, I want to blast a path through to Cosmos."
"Hey! No problem, Prime! The only thing you have to worry about is ZAP!
   how big a path you want! BAM!"

"Blaster! No music, please!"
"...Who says plants aren't intelligent? The Morphobots are repelled by
   your music!"
"Yeah, just like the rest of us!"

"Just don't stand there with your cockpits hanging open, you fools!"

"You didn't tell us they'd bite back!!!"

KKC, I lost all my baby fat! I woke up this morning, looked in the
mirror, and noticed that all my baby fat was gone! Where did it all go?
Who took it? Will they give it back? More importantly, do I WANT it back?
--
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