From kendrick@io.com Tue Oct 31 09:28:21 CST 1995
Article: 25221 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 10/31 - Thief in the Night
Date: 31 Oct 1995 09:21:58 -0600
Organization: Illuminati Online
Lines: 94
Message-ID: <475eum$qme@bermuda.io.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bermuda.io.com
Status: RO
X-Status:

TF Weekday Oct 31 1995 - Thief in the Night

The EI/AD: Super energon made from Carbombyan oil allows Trypticon to
recover from his injuries faster, making it this episode's lame excuse
for an evil invention...

The plot: While the Autobots review the footage of Metroplex's fight with
Trypticon (from Five Faces of Darkness) Broadside and Seaspray comb the
ocean floor for Trypticon's remains, finding instead only footprints.
Meanwhile, Trypticon and Octane have safe haven in Carbombya, a
Meditteranean country ruled by the very corrupt Abdul Faghadi (the same
arab ruler from Five Faces of Darkness). Angered at their continuous use
of his oil to make super-energon, Faghadi threatens to call in the
Autobots unless they leave. Octane and Trypticon steal Fort Knox and then
a bunch of world monuments to earn their keep, making Faghadi reasonably
happy. When the Autobots investigate where Fort Knox used to be, Grimlock
finds some of the super energon and detects a lot of dinosaur transform
static, prompting the Autobots to investigate their own for the crime
until Perceptor discovers the origin of the energon.  Octane faces down
Galvatron, saving himself for the moment by offering the super energon.
Trypticon steals the Kremlin, but is stopped by Metroplex. The humans get
confused, thinking the Autobots are the ones stealing the monuments. The
Autobots get to Carbombya and beat the heck out of the Decepticons,
Metroplex throws Trypticon into the ocean AGAIN, and Faghadi swears on the
graves of his ancestor's pets never to work with the Decepticons again.

The characters: Lots of simplistic characters, as opposed to the
potentially neurotic personalities we could have seen from the TF
Universe. Trypticon is supposed to be self-loathing and cynical, hiding
his hatred of himself under his hatred for everything else. Instead of
being a low self-esteem poster boy, he's just a brainless lizard with big
guns ("Trypticon big hero! Shoot up ship!") Octane is supposed to be a
mean spirited bully, miserly and manipulative. Instead he's opportunistic,
ambitious and forward-thinking. Is this episode supposed to happen before
or after Starscream's Ghost? I'm not sure of that at all. Broadside is
supposed to hate the water, being the ultimate example of a robot out of
his element. Instead, his whole dialogue is nothing but nautical cliches,
straight out of a WWII movie. Good thing we have Faghadi to spice up an
otherwise really boring episode... For those of you who don't get the joke
or weren't paying attention to world affairs in 1986, Libya's president
Moamar Ghadafi was accused of running various terrorist activities around
the world, like car bombs. Too bad that this is a very non-PC example of
propogation of stereotypes. Cute appearances from Scamper, Six-gun and
Slammer, Metroplex's bonded buddies who all participate in the
interrogation of the guys with dino-transform circuits.

The plot holes: Dino-transform circuits? What a contrived way to cook up
tension within the Autobot ranks. At least they had the decency to keep
this plot element out of the main story. I could smell a dino-transform
plot brewing. Ok, if Autobot City is on the west coast of the U.S., and
Carbombya is in the Meditteranean, and Trypticon walked due east after
being thrown into the ocean the first time... How the heck did Tryppy get
>from  the Pacific to the Meditteranean? Did he tunnel under the
continental plate or something? I won't even talk about the silliness of
picking up monuments and stealing them, or the fact that the Taj Mahal is
a tomb and not a palace.

Moving pictures: Sub-par animation throughout, although the simple bits
with just humans running around are pretty nicely done, all things
considered. At the risk of being tasteless, I have to point out the
closeup of cleavage on one of the passengers on the cruise ship that
Trypticon tries to blow up. That is one of those strange things (like the
nude pin-up seen in 'Kremzeek') that Toei occasionally does for no apparent
reason.

The cuts: Can't tell. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've seen
this episode. I hope they didn't take out anything that firmly links this
with 'Starscream's Ghost'.

Toys they should reissue: I'm broke, so I won't talk about toys that
they'll never make that I don't have the money to buy. I will say that a
Trypticon with Zone armor would be really cool to have. For those of you
who haven't seen it, Trypticon is one of the nine great generals of the
Destron army in the Zone OVA episode that was released. He has sharper
teeth, big horns, a cape, and carries a huge freaking club a la Goryu.

Quotables:
"Do you know how of of our oil they are using to make that... that...
whatever you call that beverage they drink."
"Energon, your eminence."

"As supreme military dictator, king of kings and president-for-life of
the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya, I order you out
of my country by sunset tomorrow."

"There's no cause for panic! We're protected by international law!!!"

KKC, expects a really long, unnecessary thread about the nude pin-up in
Kremzeek that you're all scrambling to find now. :)
--
Kendrick Kerwin Chua - "London? You put the Eiffel Tower back... in London?!"
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