G1 Episode Review of the Week

[Rodimus Primal]

Allright guys it's time to start this off. The G1 Episode we are going to begin with here is the BEGINNING of Transformers to many of us. Originally aired as the miniseries "The Transformers" it later became known as More than Meets the Eye. It's three episodes long and fully action packed and introduces us to the original lineup of Transformers.

 

Synopsis:

 

Part 1: After millions of years of war on the planet Cybertron, the heroic Autobots decide to leave Cybertron in search of resources to rebuild their homeworld. Their enemies, the evil Decepticons, follow them and board the Autobot shuttle(Which we know as the ARK). Their battle causes the Ark to crash on Earth into a volcano. Four Million Years later in the year 1984, the volcano erupts causing the onboard computer, Teletraan 1, to reboot and rebuild the Transformers. The Decepticons awaken first taking on their Earthborn vehicle modes and go searching for energy and a place to build a base. THe Autobots awaken as well(thanks to Starscream) and plan to find and stop the Decepticons. Optimus Prime orders Hound and Cliffjumper to spy on the Decepticons which only ends in Hound being wounded. Prime then prepares to strike full force at the Decepticons and they battle on an oil rig, where Spike and Sparkplug work. After stealing some energy, Megatron destroys the oil rig leaving the Autobots to save themselves as well as the humans.

 

Part 2: The Autobots put out the fire and rescue the humans. Spike and Sparkplug Witwicky decide to join the Autobots and help them. Spike not realizing it, brings Soundwave into Autobot HQ where he and Ravage use Teletraan 1 to learn about energy resources on Earth. Trailbreaker, Hound, and Mirage teach Spike about their special abilities. Spike then sees Soundwave stealing information and sounds the alarm. Soundwave escapes but Ravage is captured. Soundwave gives Megatron the information about Sherman Dam. The Decepticons attack the dam and start producing energon cubes. The Autobots get an alert and come to the rescue but are outmatched and the Decepticons leave with plenty of energy. The Decepticons then continue pilaging energy when Megatron plans to attack the mines of Burma with their glowing red crystals. The Autobots arrive but send Sparkplug and Bumblebe in to blow the mines and trap the Decepticons. The duo succeed but also get buried. The explosion causes Optimus Prime to start rolling down the hill.

 

Part 3: Prime lands on his side and the rest of the Autobots help him get right side up and to transform. They then rescue Sparkplug and Bumblebee only to see the Decepticons escape as well. Ironhide pursues them and Bluestreak follows. Skywarp shoots Ironhide down so the Autobots return to base. Hound thinks of an idea to bring the Decepticons to Autobots so that they have the advantage. The Autobots allow Ravage to escape who then reports to Megatron about a rocket base. Hound creates the illusion and the Decepticons attack. But the Decepticons turn out to be fakes while the Decepticons attack the real rocket base. The Autobots then decide to attack the Decepticon HQ where the Decepticons are getting their shuttle ready. The battle is epic but the Decepticons leave in their shuttle. Prime borrows Sideswipe's rocket pack and attempts to stop the shuttle. Megatron orders Optimus Prime shot out of the sky. Prime hits the ground hard but he turns out okay. Prime realizes that Mirage is missing. On the Decepticon shuttle Starscream and Megatron fight about leadership. Mirage had snuck aboard and uses this as his chance to blow the panels on one of the shuttle's console. Megatron attacks him but Mirage escapes while the Decepticon shuttle crashes into the ocean. Thinking the Decepticons are finished, the Autobots then plan to return home after the world decides to give Optimus Prime the energy he needs for Cybertron. Unknowing to them, The Decepticon shuttle sits at the bottom of the ocean and Megatron emerges from it.

 

Obivously a pilot, this was meant to be a stand alone story if it didn't take off but left itself ready to begin an ongoing series. This firmly establishes the Autobot and Decepticon conflict as well as some of the relationships between characters. Optimus Prime and Megatron are clearly rivals, Starscream wants to usurp Megatron, Ratchet does repairs etc. All was started here. Wheeljack goes down in history as the first Transformer seen animated in the series.

 

Something to note, the Autobots can fly and some of the Transformers Mass Shift, namely Megatron, Soundwave, the cassettes, and Reflector. This is something that becomes regular but the fact the Autobots can fly(BUT NOT WELL) is downplayed eventually. Also some TFs have arm weapons that come out when the fist slides into the arm, most notably Prime's energy axe and Megatron's energy mace (which disappear after this episodes.) Also Prime makes use of his trailer with both Roller and the trailer itself folding out to become cannons.

 

All in all this was a great beginning to a great series that we all know and love. SO PLEASE, take the time and watch it either on DVD or on Youtube and post your thoughts.

[Capt.S.G.Wiseman]

An alien planet with transforming robots? SOLD!!! From the opening narration to today, I've been a fan. I believe this was the first show that I had watched that had robots that not only talked like humans, but were many differant colors. Cybertron its self was just mind blowing to see at that age.

 

Part 1: When watching the special features on the Micheal Bay film, he mentioned that his Cybertronians would not have Earth car and truck parts in their robot forms. I still get a chuckle out of Jazz's chest clearly being a Porche and O.Prime looking like a semi.

The ships were very cool. I remember constructing many ships like those out of cardboard boxes, colored paper and Crayola markers when I was a kid.

"The Autobots awaken as well (thanks to Starscream)". Considering all his screaming about defeating the Autobots, his incompitence keeps them alive. @lol@ But one turn deserves another. Bonehead Cliffjumper lets the Decepticons know they are alive and kicking, taking away any element of surprise. @grumpy@

 

Part 2: The show starts off by showing what the Autobots can really do in disaster areas (force fields, liquid nitrogen? Sweet @cool@ )

Then when they started showing Spike all their other tricks, I realized how diverse the action could be. My favorite scene is when Megatron bust through the wall at Sherman Dam, fires his canon through the roof and yell "I AM MEGATRON, LEADER OF THE DECEPTICONS! YOU WILL DO EXACTLY AS I SAY!" I always imagined seeing that in a live action movie trailer.

 

Part 3: Seeing Prime take a blast like that and still get up showed me how tough he is, Hound's holograms showed me how usefull they could be, and Starscreams cowardness made the Decepticons that much more interesting. I also noticed that Jazz was definatly Prime's first lieutenant in this series. In later episodes it's unclear to me who is second in command.

[Destro]

What started it all; awesome!

 

Of all of g1, this was at the top of the heap, imo. I liked how many of the characters had their own special powers (nice to see that again in animated): hound's holograms, mirage's invisibility, jazz's hook, etc.

 

That being said, the idea of the ark hanging out of the side of a mountain in a populated area, and no humans ever investigating it, has to be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) plotholes in transformers history.

 

I liked how Mirage and not Prime took down the decepticon ship; great to see someone other than the "fearless leader" at the center of the heroics.

 

Soundwave is awesome. 'Nuff said.

[Wheeljack35]

The one that started it all for me

 

I remember it was on the week before the GI Joe mini series

 

I love it the story of they needed power and how that storyline was trashed by the time season 3 came along

[synch]

cause they had power by then didn't they?.. The decepticons were pushed back & the autobots had been on earth long enough to build a bunch up

[Wheeljack35]

cause they had power by then didn't they?.. The decepticons were pushed back & the autobots had been on earth long enough to build a bunch up

 

 

??? What are you talking about?

 

At that point in time the Decepticons had control of Cybertron

[Capt.S.G.Wiseman]

cause they had power by then didn't they?.. The Decepticons were pushed back & the autobots had been on earth long enough to build a bunch up

 

Not at this piont. The Autobots had not had the chance to gain enough energon, and the push back of the Decepticons was a heroric

act by Mirage.

[Action Figure Soundwave]

MTMTE is one of the Best Episodes of G1 ..... I thought that it would've been cool to have a widely released seeker jet that was "lavender" ... cause you see several generic seeker jet and they were all lavender.... I would've loved to have army built them.....

 

Note : I personally still watch it through my VHS Tapes..... I hate the socalled "Original" animation that Rhino had to use....I can point out alot of things that was wrong in alot of the season 1 DVD set , compared to what they showed on Sci Fi channel years ago , and even compared to those VHS Sets Rhino Released..... You guys know what I mean....

[Capt.S.G.Wiseman]

Note : I personally still watch it through my VHS Tapes..... I hate the socalled "Original" animation that Rhino had to use....I can point out alot of things that was wrong in alot of the season 1 DVD set , compared to what they showed on Sci Fi channel years ago , and even compared to those VHS Sets Rhino Released..... You guys know what I mean....

 

Actaully, I have NO idea what you mean.

If you want to PM me what you mean, I'd be glad.

[Rodimus Primal]

Rhino released a select group of random G1 episodes on VHS about 8 years ago before releasing Season 1 on DVD. THe Season 1 DVD has MUCH MORE errors than the actual broadcast originals. The biggest error was in the scene where the Decepticon shuttle takes off after the battle in ep 3. It wasn't there in the Rhino DVD but is there on all other broadcast versions. Apparently Rhino used the rough finals that weren't broadcast because they had to have final editing done. This was only prevelant in the Season 1 DVD box set. Season 2 and 3 used better negatives.

 

I love the errors that were current throughout. In MTMTEp2, Huffer is saved by Brawn. Huffer thanks Brawn but it's Brawn's lips that are moving instead of Huffer's. In p3 Megatron aims at Starsceam on the shuttle. His head looks like it was mis animated.

Also there were plenty of occasions where a Decepticon had a miscolored Autobot symbol and vice versa. I loved how many errors were in G1.

 

I too would LOVE to see more odd color Decepticons. I would have bought the army building seekers too.

[DPrime]

Great episode, hard to beat in the entire series. I'm gonna have to watch it again after reading all this.

[Rodimus Primal]

Please do so and post about it. It's the point of the discussion.