From kendrick@io.com Fri Nov 24 09:48:39 CST 1995
Article: 26787 of alt.toys.transformers
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From: kendrick@io.com (Kendrick Kerwin Chua)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: TF Weekday 11/24 - The Rebirth Part II
Date: 24 Nov 1995 09:47:58 -0600
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TF Weekday Nov 24 1995 - The Rebirth Part II

The EI/AD: Binary Bonding... an Evil Invention? Maybe, maybe not. But
both Autobots and Decepticons figure out Headmaster and Targetmaster
technology on their own, in different bits and pieces.

The plot: Spike and Arcana use Brainstorm's plans to bond the Nebulan
rebel commanders to five Autobots as their heads; Gort with Highbrow,
Stylor with Chromedome, Duros with Hardhead, Arcana with Brainstorm, and
Daniel bonds with Arcee, whose head becomes his life-support system. Back
on Cybertron, Optimus Prime uses the matrix to talk to Alpha Trion who is
still merged with Vector Sigma; Trion tells him that it was VS who
arranged for Galvatron to steal the key, and that a new Golden Age of
Cybertron is at hand which depends on the merging of a human and a
Cybertronian, all of which confuses the Zenon out of Prime. The
Decepticons are torturing the captured Autobots on Nebulos for
information; as the Hive observes from far below, the Autobot Headmasters
give the Decepticons a sound beating despite 2 to 1 odds against, and
blow up their ship. The Hive, led by the nefarious Lord Zarak, captures
the Decepticons and orders them to remove their heads for Binary Bonding.
Cyclonus suggests that only the animals become heads, and allows the Hive
to alter instead the others' weapons into exo-suits; Targetmasters are
created. Nightstick bonds with Cyclonus, Fracas with Scourge, Blowpipe
with Triggerhappy, Aimless with Misfire, and Caliburst with Slugslinger.
Spasma bonds with Apeface, Krunk with Snapdragon, Grax with
Skullcruncher, Monzo with Weirdwolf, and Vorath with Mindwipe. While
Zarak works on another secret project, the Autobots happen across
Cerebros, who is heavily damaged and babbling about a city he found. The
newly empowered Decepticons attack, managing to steal the Plasma Energy
Chamber Key from Brainstorm thanks to Mindwipe's enhanced senses and
Krunk's quick hands, but not before Brainstorm can scan Nightstick's body
and steal the secret of Targetmaster tech from him. As the Decepticons
retreat under Zarak's orders (much to the annoyance of the Cybertronians)
the Autobots create their own Targetmasters, the six rescued Autobots
merging with the troops of the rebel forces; Recoil with Kup, Haywire
with Blurr, Firebolt with Hot Rod, Pinpointer with Crosshairs, Spoilsport
with Sureshot, and Peacemaker with Pointblank. Prime arrives on Nebulos,
having left Magnus in charge on Cybertron, and arrives to see the wonder
of Binary Bonding. He leads an assault on the Decepticons and they manage
to retrieve the key, but just then Zarak's secret project emerges from the
ground below; he has rebuilt the old Hive city into a gigantic
transformer known as Scorponok, and he attacks the Autobots. To be
continued...

The characters: Did I say yesterday's episode was a toy commercial
already? At least the Mouseketeer roll calls in this episode are done in
the vague context of establishing dialogue. Watch how despite the silly
story, the character interaction stays interesting and heated between
bonded pairs; Arcana's wisdom and easy-going nature is a perfect foil for
Brainstorm's flashes of inspiration and impatience. Highbrow is a
supercilious pompous braggart bonded with Gort, the most approachable,
blue-collar easy-to-get-along-with guy among all the Nebulans. The
Decepticon pairings are even more interesting because they're
deliberately chosen to generate conflict; Fracas and Scourge are both
fanatically loyal soldiers, but to different masters, which makes them
inherently incompatible. Aimless has great ability smothered by apathy,
whereas Misfire lacks any ability but has good intentions. Vorath is the
consummate scientist bonded to Mindwipe, the ultimate mystic. They can't
see eye to eye on how to do ANYTHING. Too bad they don't explore the
interactions between the other bonded pairs; maybe if this episode were
the beginning of a new series rather than the wrap-up of the old one,
we'd have seen more of the inner conflicts.
   Check out some of the familar voices; Krunk sounds mysteriously like
Starscream, and Brainstorm sounds a lot like Sideswipe. I've included at
the end of today's review the cast list from 'The Rebirth', courtesy of
the Botcon 94 book.

The plot holes: All the minor plot holes can be explained away by the
fact that Vector Sigma is omniscient and seems to be manipulating events
to bring Cybertron to a new Golden Age. Well darn it, when did Vicky
learn how to do that? Vector Sigma was previously shown to be nothing but
a super-computer that could generate tons of AI code to give a
Transformer life... Are we suddenly being asked to believe that it runs
the show like a big puppet-master, like Primus? Why does Daniel's
exo-suit look like an exo-suit? Everybody else gets a faceplate and a
funky-cool colorful powersuit that matches the decor of their binary bond
partner. But Daniel gets a big white exo-suit just like the one he wore
in the movie. When the Decepticons are captured by the Hive machines,
they're dropped down into a pit and land on a conveyor belt in the city
which is to become Scorponok; why is there already a Decepticon symbol on
the tower in the background? And not really a plot hole, but did anybody
else half-expect Prime to get Powermastered in retrospect? :)

Moving pictures: My only big complaint about the animation this time
around is that the coloring is inconsistent. They can't seem to decide if
Brainstorm's faceplate is gold or silver. When the Targetmasters
transform, they lose their color schemes and become generic grey and
purple guns occasionally. Lots of the Headmasters have incorrect colors
on the fringes, like Chromedome's dark grey crest or Apeface's purple
mouthplate. Also, the merging of heads and bodies isn't quite as slick as
it ought to be; often you don't see a bottom edge to the head when it
lands, making the animation seem amateurish and two-dimensional. Do watch
for that cool scene where Apeface and Snapdragon finally transform into
their jet modes. The shots of the Nebulans sitting inside the Autobot
heads are very cool, giving us a vantage point that's never been done in
Transformers before or since.

The cuts: Can't tell. First time since Botcon I've seen the episode, and
the one they showed at Botcon happened to be the Sci-Fi Channel cut.

Toys they should reissue: Saved for the next review...

Quotables:
"Noble Autobots make me wanna puke!"

"Do as I say or you will die!"

"They stole my idea! I'll sue!"

"OK! Now I'm frightened!"

TF Weekday Extra: Rebirth cast list

Susan Blu        - Arcee
David Mendenhall - Daniel
Stan Jones       - Weirdwolf, Scourge, Pounce, Zarak
Dan Gilvezan     - Snapdragon, Hot Spot, Goldbug, Rollbar
Michael Bell     - Brainstorm, Gort
Frank Welker     - Pinpointer, Galvatron, Chromedome
Neil Ross        - Six Shot, Fracas, Crosshairs, Monzo, Pointblank
Stephen Keener   - Fortress Maximus, Mindwipe, Hardhead, Scorponok,
                      Scattershot
Rob Paulsen      - Cloudraker, Haywire, Chase, Fastlane
Johnny Haymer    - Caliburst, Swindle, Highbrow, Recoil
Danny Mann       - Lightspeed, Spoilsport, Freeway
Steve Bulin      - Peacemaker, Onslaught, Strafe, Sureshot, Searchlight
Milt Jamin       - Aimless, Blast Off, Grax, Stylor
Chris Latta      - Krunk, Skullcruncher
Peter Cullen     - Slugslinger, Nightstick, Optimus Prime, Wingspan
Charlie Adler    - Silverbolt, Vorath, Duros, Triggerhappy
Jack Angel       - Cyclonus, Arcana, Ultra Magnus
Dick Gautier     - Groove, Apeface, Hot Rod, Firebolt
Jared Barclay    - Sinnertwin, Cerebros
Corey Burton     - Wideload, Spike, Pounce
John Moschitta   - Blurr, Punch, Counterpunch
John Stephenson  - Kup, Alpha Trion

KKC, bet half of ya didn't realize there was so much character doubling
up there. :) Ok, who wants to team up with me to go harass Hasbro to use
our voices for the Beast Wars cartoon? I think I've come up with a
suitably gruff and gutteral voice for that Barbearian guy... :)
--
Kendrick Kerwin Chua - "Oh the bubbles, they tickle my - *GASP* Tchaikovsky!"
kendrick@io.com - WTB: 1980s Transformers, US and Japanese, and GIJoe figures
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