Dave's Beast Wars II Ramblings: Episodes 1-43 (complete series) Thanks to Raksha, I have copies of all 43 episodes of "Beast Wars Second," the cel-animated anime series Takara is using to fill in the gap between the end of the first season of translated BW eps and the movie that uses parts of the U.S. second season. I don't speak Japanese, but have read a few other posts about the eps and will be incorporating information from them here (thanks to Doug Dlin, Ultraman Ace and anyone else I'm forgetting who has provided translations and summaries). The theme song is done by a girl-group (or at least a group with a female lead singer...the ads used a lot of overbright lighting) called Cyber Nation Network. The main sponsors are the ubiquitous Kabaya (which has the Lego license in Japan), Panasonic and Kellogg's. Before I go into the episodes, here's some general comments on characters and factions. The Cybertrons (Maximals) always say "Henshin" (change) to transform. The Destron (Predacons) say a transliteration of "Transform" which comes out like "turansuforuma" or something close. Artemis and Moon act as a sort of "Greek Chorus" for the series, adding exposition during the episode and summarizing it at the end. Only occasionally do they actually interact with the characters in any way. Artemis, a cute female android, has a serious crush on Scuba, but kinda likes Starscream too. Moon, a transforming rabbity thing, does travel to Gaea a couple of times to help out a tiny bit. Episode 1: The New Army Is Here! We start off with Convoy and Apache (Prime and B'Boom), pre-BW forms, on patrol in one-man crafts. Apache does some hot-dogging and gets in trouble, Convoy saves him but is presumed lost in the process. Back at the Cybertron base, the rest of the gang is sitting around in downtime. None of them have beastforms yet, and it seems that they don't have ANY transformation modes yet. Nor, as we later find, do the Destrons. They're all your basic stripped-down ball-and-rod style robot bodies. The only hint of the beast modes is that Diver (Spittor) can do the unsettling head-extension trick. Apache is deep in the cups, guilt-stricken over getting Convoy killed. Then there's an alert. The Destrons have come to planet Gaea and started plundering its mysterious Argonmoa Energy. The annoying cutesy female android Artemis and her incredibly annoying cutesly robot mouse-thing (Zone Bunny looks like Inferno next to this thing) Moon send off a distress call, and Our Heroes get the mission. And, of course, get shot down by the Destron cruiser. Oops. Landing, they find that there's something toxic to their robot forms on Gaea. It might be the Destron pollution, or it might be the Argonmoa, I dunno. So they scan local wildlife to get beast forms (theory: these guys were all primed to take alternate modes, but removing an alternate mode takes a lot of effort, so they were waiting until they really needed to be able to transform). The Cheetor-like Kid hopes for a cheetah or an eagle, but ends up stuck with a weird thing the animators think is a Tasmanian Devil. So he becomes Tasmania Kid. Diver becomes a frog (and can shoot his head out of his frog mouth and wave it around on a prehensile stalk, which is REALLY freaky), Scuba becomes a jet-propelled squid, Bighorn a bison, Apache a mandrill. Once everyone has gotten together, they head off to the Destron ship, which is emitting some kind of toxic cloud. They immediately get trapped by a defense system, and Starscream, BB, Thrust and Dirge all come out to shoot at them a lot while Megastorm and Galvatron (who is still bluish purple at this point) laugh. Despite having wings on their backs, apparently none of these Destrons can transform yet. Oops. Then a mysterious white lion shows up and disables the security system, allowing the Cybertrons to kick butt on the unprepared Destrons. Kid has a wrist-rifle, Bighorn extends his horns and fires energy from them (in a later ep, he also gets a...and I'm pretty sure this is what they called it...barf missile), Diver's spare frog legs pop up and fire water blasts, Apache has his chest rocket launchers and Scuba uses the Clawjaw hand weapon as a Boomerang O' Doom. The ship is disabled, and everyone bails. [Later note: Not Barf Missile, it's Buffalo Missile. Oh well.] General comments: The animation is fairly cheap, with lots of static shots and the like. Megastorm is played for laughs, always getting his head bashed down by Galvatron. In general, it's not a great beginning. Episode 2: White Lion, Run! The Cybertrons follow the white lion for a great distance, eventually coming upon their crashed ship, which managed a relatively soft landing on autopilot. Then the lion reveals himself (well, we already knew from the credits who it was) as Lioconvoy, and Apache weeps with joy. Meanwhile, the Destrons have fixed their ship and uncovered an alien computer that towers over everyone. Apparently it is somehow linked to the crystal sphere imbedded in Galvatron's chest, and he manages to activate it, drawing in power, information and two new forms. Unfortunately, it's too much for him to handle, and he falls into a coma. He also turns pink at this point. However, the machine is now on, and Megastorm sees a golden opportunity to prove himself. First he pulls out a quartet of what look to be Protoforms, totally blank slate robots (even in late episodes, there's still a few of these "blanks" running the ship's controls). Using the alien computer, he creates new bodies for the Autorollers. He sends them out to start blowing things up (possibly to search for Cybertrons, but it's not clear). Then he puts his existing warriors in the chamber, giving jet modes to Dirge, Thrust, Starscream and BB. BB definitely acts as muscle for Starscream. Dirge and Thrust like to pick on Starscream, but he sics BB on them and they end up splatting into a cliffside. That accomplshed, Starscream and BB continue to search for the mysterious white lion who caused them so much trouble earlier. The Cybertrons have noticed the havoc being wrought, and have rushed in to help save the animals and put out the fires that the Autorollers were starting. Kid's contribution is to urinate on the fire. Seriously. Scuba proves to be quite powerful when he causes an underground aquifer to burst up, shattering the ground and spraying water over all the fires. The lion who saved Convoy and was the basis for his new form is found to be injured, and Lioconvoy takes his place, letting himself be captured by BB. Back at the monolith, Megastorm gloats over the helpless pink Galvatron some more, then finally uses the machine on himself, getting his tank mode. He walks out to find Starscream and BB bringing him the lion...which has escaped the net. Lioconvoy springs out, jumps up on the monolith and generally scares Megastorm and crew into leaving. Laaaaame. General comments: Y'know, as this episode went on, I almost thought Megastorm was going to redeem himself, and stop being such a wuss like he was in the first ep. He's planning, getting things done, generally acting competent...and then one salvo from Lioconvoy and he turns tail without firing a shot! Sigh. Episode 3: Bighorn's Fury This is basically just an average night on a MUSH put to animation. Characters wander around, chat and look for trouble. No discernable plot other than "Bighorn needs to learn to calm down." Everyone gets a chance to show off some powers, like Lioconvoy's spinning lion's-head shield (which the toy actually has, according to a commercial) or Bighorn's Buffalo Missile. Megastorm's main gun is nasty, but seems to take forever to warm up and fire, giving anyone time to get out of the way. Galvatron is still comatose and still pink. And the Destrons are still worrying Artemis by draining Angolmois Energy. And Moon is still annoying, but thankfully Artemis is now regularly hitting him with a big Skuld-hammer. Admittedly, I was kinda sleepy when I watched this one, but it didn't seem to be much more than an excuse to get everyone fighting. Epsiode 4: The Lake Trap This seems to be Kid's equivalent of The Web. Runs off, gets in trouble, precipitates combat, gets scolded. While spying on a construction job the Autorollers are working on, Kid notices the real Tasmanian Devil (which has taken to hanging out with him) digging, and realizes he could use his beast mode to burrow under the building and plant demolition charges. He gleefully sets off a few of these before a defense system catches him. Boom, he's in a really pathetic cell (maybe the Destrons didn't finish building the brig?) which he promptly escapes by transforming to beast mode and jumping into the ductwork. The Destrons aren't totally clueless, however, and not only are the ducts booby-trapped, they have sensors so Starscream knows where Kid is at all times. Poor Starscream, catching grief from above as Megastorm chews him out, and grief from below as Dirge and Thurst goof off. When the other Cybertrons come to find Kid, they also run into the security system, and Starscream uses images of Kid evading traps in the ductwork to blackmail them into waiting quietly for a ship to come out of the lake and capture them. Of course, the Destrons DID hide their base in a lake, so of course Scuba and Diver are swimming around ready to help out. When the Tasmanian Devil provides a distraction, Scuba and Diver sneak in to deactivate the defenses and free the others. While Diver's applying his fists to the computer problem, Scuba and his nifty new gun free Kid and the end up running from the Destron jets. Then the rest of the Cybertrons get in, the tables turn, and a self-destruct mechanism is activated, so everyone bails and the Destron ship detaches from the base and leaves. When the base detonates, it destroys the lake and most of the surrounding forest. Lioconvoy then lectures Kid about leaping before he looks, and unlike Cheetor, Kid seems genuinely sorry. Character Summary: Episodes 1-4 Lioconvoy - Big, dull Optimus type personality. Apache - Warrior, a bit impetuous but also guilt-driven. Doesn't seem to get very consistent characterization yet. Tasmania Kid - Your basic hotshot kid with an attitude, although there's a chance this will moderate now. Mildly embarrassed by his form, but finds it more and more useful. Diver - Loves freaking people out by extending his head. Beats Kid at board games. Something of a cypher otherwise. Scuba - Roger Moore's James Bond, with a more bookish slant. Has a dry sense of humor, always keeps his cool, very competent. Always enters a fight laughing. Bighorn - Roid Rage. Big strongman with a temper he can't control. Rams his head into cliffsides in frustration when he gets mad. Seems to be affected by the color red, like the stereotypical cartoon bull. Galvatron - Grimaces and gloats a lot, then goes into a coma and turns pink. Stays pink, and too powerful for anyone's good, really. More on him after he wakes up. Megastorm - Initially toadies to Galvatron, his big brother, and gets whacked on the head for his efforts. When Galvatron goes into a coma, Megastorm becomes a lot more self-assured, but he still has trouble with authority figures on either side, fleeing from Lioconvoy. A lot of bluster. He has a green tongue. Starscream - Third in the food chain of command, he seems to be an able lieutenant, but has trouble leading through anything but intimidation. If BB wasn't at his beck and call, he'd be the whipping boy of the Destrons. Contrary to some early reports, he's not effeminate. In fact, he's one of the more masculine Destrons. BB - Zero personality. Big dumb guy who does what Starscream says. Dirge & Thrust - Beavis and Butthead, Japanese style. Autorollers - No real personalities demonstrated, they may not even be totally alive, depending on the nature of the protoforms they were made from. Autojetter seems to be a bit of a pyromaniac, however. NOTE: I didn't take much in the way of notes for the next several episodes. So entries will be a bit light until I get to #17. Episode 5: Galvatron Revived Galvatron finally comes out of his coma, and he's so powerful initially that Megastorm can't even look directly at his Spark without being blinded. Galvatron goes out to fight the Cybertrons first in robot mode, which is ganged up on. Then he turns to drill tank mode and has more success, until Scuba manages to squeeze a water geyser out of the side of a VOLCANO and drop Galvatron into a crevasse. Everyone enlists the Fallign Rock Faction and Galvatron is buried. Then Galvatron digs down and taps into a current of the Angolmois energy being mined at the volcano. He accesses his third form, that of a dragon, and grows to immense size. We're talking Trypticon level here. He's now officially unbeatable. Until Megastorm blasts the insane Galvatron from behind, shattering the rock outcropping the dragon was standing on. Galvatron falls into the lava and sinks out of sight. Starscream sees Galvatron do this, but says nothing. At the end, a battered Galvatron staggers in, unsure of exactly what happened, and in need of rest. He's out of action again for a while. Episode 6: Mystery of the Ancient Ruins Remote probes pick up some ancient ruins, a giant face carved into a hillside, with a temple atop. Angolmois energy readings are picked up, so it's decided to send a small team to investigate. Lioconvoy will go, and take one other. Apache suggests drawing straws, and when everyone else draws a long straw, he laughs and heads off on the mission. After he leaves, it's discovered they were ALL long straws. On the way, Apache flashes back on the reason he's so loyal to Lioconvoy, and so eager to be the one to come along and make sure his leader is safe. Back in another battle, before either had an altmode, Apache was badly wounded and a transfusion from Lioconvoy saved his life. At the ruins, there's a little Indiana Jones-style tombcrawling, as a shadowy monstrous figure lurks in the background. This turns out to be the Insectron Mantis, who nearly defeats Lioconvoy and Apache by himself, with his razor-sharp flying discs and his hypnotic martial arts techniques. But something about the Angolmois energy concentrations in the area combine with Apache's rage and allow him to access his battle platform mode, which one-shots Mantis through a wall and over a river of lava. Before Lioconvoy can try to save Mantis, the Insectron laughs and flies away under his own power. Meanwhile, BB is bombarding the temple from outside, and it collapses just after everyone gets out. Episode 7: The Insectrons Arrive In preparation for some new base, the Autorollers (under the supervision of Starscream and BB) are razing some forest. BigMos and Tonbotto (Transquito and Jetstorm) arrive and pick a fight, which is over pretty quickly, the Insectrons leaving by air. Both sides set out to find these Insectrons (the Cybertrons were already looking thanks to Mantis). Starscream sets up a number of energy net traps, one of which catches Dirge and Thrust. But another catches BigMos and Tonbotto, who are then freed by Starscream, who claims to be a Cybertron. Tonbotto squeals with delight, pulls out an autograph book, and says in horrible touristy English, "Ooooh, Cybertrons? Please sign!" While his use of touristy English eventually goes down, it's laid on THICK for this and the next couple of episodes. Anyway, Starscream gives the two a data disc, then has BB shoot down the just-freed-from-the-trap Dirge and Thrust to prove they're Cybertrons (Dirge and Thrust will get shot down a couple of times to help further the charade). The disc is brought back to the Insectron fliers base and Mantis examines it. It claims that Lioconvoy and the others are Destrons who are wearing false Cybertron symbols. When flying around later, BigMos and Tonbotto find Bighorn and Kid, and proceed to whup the tar out of them, including the use of what's basically a fuel-air bomb. But when things start to sort out a little, BB fires missiles at everyone, scattering them and leading to confusion. Episode 8: Friend or Foe? Insect Robo Starscream places another data disc for the Insectrons to find, presenting futher evidence of the crimes of Lioconvoy and his crew. Honestly, I forget what happens here other than more fighting between the Insectron fliers and the Cybertrons, but by the end, the Insectrons are even more dubious about Starscream's information. Episode 9: The Strongest Tag Team? Time to introduce the land-based Insectrons: Powerhug (Retrax), Scissorboy (Powerpinch) and Drillnuts (Drillbit). The day starts as Drillnuts and Scissorboy emerge from their tunnels and test out a Predacon Detector that Drillnuts has designed. The antennae on it are insect antennae. Then Powerhug rolls up and almost flattens both, stopping just in time. The detector detects something, which turns out to be the trio of Kid, Diver and Bighorn out looking for Insectrons. A fight breaks out, but it's fairly light-hearted. Bighorn and the sumo wrestler Powerhug tussle, with the early rounds going to Powerhug but final victory to Bighorn, who is unfortunately too worn out to transform after this. Kid and Scissorboy banter as they fight, and Kid jokes by tossing a boulder into Scissorboy's pincers, saying "Rock beats scissors!" Diver keeps dodging Drillnuts's drill, so the Insectron tries some missiles. One lands in the dirt and doesn't go off. Both incurable tech-heads immediately start taking the missile apart to see why it didn't explode. As things start winding down, BB drops a spread of missiles into the group. They're all too worn out from fighting each other to fight back, so the sides scatter. By this point, however, pretty much everyone's doubting that the Insectrons aren't on the same side as Lioconvoy's crew. The next three eps kinda run together in my memory. I may be mixing elements together. Episode 10: Galvatron Runs Wild (Listed elsewhere as being episode 12, but makes more sense here) Tired of being put down by Starscream and the others, the Autorollers walk out on a group meeting to enact their own plot to take out the Insectrons, who seem to be moving closer and closer to an alliance with the Cybertrons. Some Autorollers head out to deal with the Insectrons, while the rest work on an energy pipeline. Scuba discovers this and uses his ability to drill through solid rock to infiltrate the base. Outside, at one of the pumping stations, Starscream decides to deal with the rival Autorollers, and has BB open the valve to maximum before the system's ready to take energy. The pipes start breaking and both Scuba (who has been discovered by this point) and the Autorollers are in danger of being drowned in lethal Angolmois energy. To make things worse, the flow of energy wakes Galvatron from his stupor, and he charges out and bites into the pipeline, sucking down Angolmois like brew from a beer bong. He grows to enormous size and starts rampaging. Meanwhile, it's time for a peace overture. Kid (and presumably others) goes out into the forest with a box of oil (acts like beer to Transformers) as a gift. He runs into Mantis, who is very suspicious and terrorizes Kid. But Scissorboy remembers how, in their fight, Kid didn't really seem like a bad guy, and he intervenes. Scissorboy vouches for Kid, and he's taken to the central Insectron base, where he's shown the disc Starscream displayed. He disputes its veracity, and they go to talk to Lioconvoy. The Autorollers attack and capture Kid and Scissorboy, who they start marching back to Autoroller base. Powerhug rescues them by starting an avalanche which sends everyone over the cliff and into the river. Back at the disaster scene, the Autorollers and Scuba work together to escape, and manage to turn off the flow, causing Galvatron to collapse back into his stupor. At the end, BigMos and Lioconvoy shake hands and celebrate their alliance. Episode 11: Danger! Scissorboy Starscream, who seems to intrigue for its own sake, has another clever plan. If he can no longer convince the Insectrons that the Cybertrons are their enemies, he'll use the last of his waning credibility to lure them into a trap. He sets up a party with tainted oil, and sends an invitation to the Insectrons, a sort of "no hard feelings" gift. Scissorboy and Mantis are with Kid at the time, though, and get to see the effects on the drugged Insectrons when they arrive. The Insectrons are totally loco, fighting with each other and with anyone who tries to break them up. Megastorm congratulates Starscream on a great plan. At the very least, the Insectrons will kill each other...and they may take a few Cybertrons with them. Then Galvatron staggers in with a hangover while the others are talking. Seeing the leftover cases of tainted oil, but having missed the part about them being tainted, he pops open a few for some of the "hair of the dog that bit him." This...is bad. Soon everyone's fleeing the ship as Galvatron drills his way out. Back at the first fight, it's Scuba to the rescue. Turns out that dousing the victims in water makes them come to their senses, although the accumulated pain of the fighting also catches up with them. Now Galvatron comes in, giant and drunk as usual. It takes the combined efforts of Insectrons and Cybertrons to dunk him in the water. BigMos uses his third mode here as well, catching Galvatron's giant tail in his pincers. Episode 12: Autorollers, Roll Out! (Listed elsewhere as episode 10, but makes more sense as the title of this ep.) The Autorollers have decided that maybe they need to form their own faction. But to do so would require more muscle than they have now. Not a problem, Autostinger points out. They can use the Insectrons. Autostinger confronts BigMos and the audience finds that BigMos owes Stinger (his pre-Autoroller name). Back at what seems to be the same big battle from Apache's flashback in episode 6, Stinger had BigMos at his mercy and didn't kill him. BigMos owes Stinger his life and loyalty. Reluctantly, BigMos and Tonbotto go along with the Autorollers. They proceed to attack the Cybertrons, much to the dismay of Lioconvoy, who thought BigMos was an ally and a friend. The battle goes on for a while, but then BigMos has had enough. Time to thrash out their differences in private. Autostinger, Autojetter, BigMos and Tonbotto go away to have things out, and are followed. In a cavern, the four fight it out until BB barrages the outside with missiles (using stock footage from episode 6), but the fight ends with BigMos free of his debt. Episode 13: Predacon General Offense! The first half of the episode is a new battle which is literally spliced together from parts of previous fight scenes. Missiles launched in a forest land in a desert, that sort of thing. After the dust settles, the Cybertrons get together to reminisce on how they met the Insectrons, leading to a clip show of episodes 6-12. I get the impression that the Insectrons are also leaving at the end of this episode, since they don't appear again with the exception of BigMos and Tonbotto in a short scene in episode 23. Episode 14: Combined Giant Tripredacus (or Tripledacus) A mysterious new batch of Transformers has arrived from south of the border. Standard thrust-and-parry skirmishes happen throughout the episode, with the newcomers taking a larger and larger role until finally combining into Tripredacus at the end, scaring the crud out of Starscream and BB. They're the Jointron Brothers! DJ (Cicadon) doesn't really have any unique quirks, but like the others he peppers his speech with Spanish words, dances all the time, has maracas shaped like him, and has the attention span of a fruitfly. Calls everyone "amigo." Motorarm (Ramhorn) initially speaks in a constant operatic register, not so much talking as performing. Gimlet (Seaclamp) uses the word "muchas" in just about every phrase, often totally inappropriately. Sample line: "Muchas quesas!" (Much cheese) Episode 15: The Cheerful Jointrons Cheerful to the point of being a plague. They've moved in to the Cybertron ship, decorated it with banners and cacti and stereotypical Mexican stuff (they're Meximals?). They've dressed the other Cybertrons up in panchos and sombreros, and put fake mustaches on them. Salsa music is cranked up on a cheap stereo, and the Jointrons are trying to get a conga line going. Apache, naturally, berserks. Then the Jointrons discover the joy of control panels, and over Navi's objections start pushing buttons, slamming panels, and setting off a signal flare. This is a Bad Thing, because the ship can't move and is protected by an invisibility screen. Thrust and Dirge see the flare and decide to check it out. They manage to catch everyone with their pants down (metaphorically) and take over the ship while Lioconvoy's out. But they can't leave in the scout ship front part, because the controls were bashed in by Gimlet. So Diver has to fix them first, at gunpoint. Meanwhile, Thrust and Dirge are offered some cans of oil. Predictably, they all get noisily drunk, and when the real fight breaks out, Thrust and Dirge are useless. Episode ends with the Jointrons still partying, having apparently learned nada. Episode 16: A Terrible Combination Plan? Starscream has devised a bacterial weapon which adversely affects organic altmodes and is generally nasty to Cybertrons. He has also figured out how to merge with BB for a superjet, and BB uses his tank mode for the first time this episode. BB doses most of the Cybertrons with this bacterial agent, which seems to also act as a modelock, keeping them from transforming. The Jointrons, who are out partying, are also hit. They try to merge, but keep coming up with bizarre and unworkable combinations. They seem doomed.... Then Moon transforms to its robot mode and flies to Gaea, tossing a rock at BB to distract him just long enough for a mysterious iron-suited figure to arrive. This giant figure beats up on BB and seems immune to the bacteria. The suit is cracked open to reveal all six of Lioconvoy's crew huddled inside. Apparently the bacteria only works for a short time before being purged, and the Jointrons are now able to merge as well. Starscream and BB run away. Episode 17: Who Is The Leader? At the Destron ship, everyone's trying to figure out a way to overcome the advantage that the Jointrons give the Cybertrons. The monitors display a sort of "Random Gestalt Night" sequence, with various failed attempts at merging Destrons into a larger robot mode. Megastorm is playing with a Galvatron toy and taking out his frustrations on it. Meanwhile, the issue of who leads the Jointrons has been brought up, and it's apparently something none of them has considered before. Each has his good points, but it degenerates into rock-paper-scissors (which is kinda hard since they do it in beast mode and have no fingers). Starscream has a thought. The Jointrons can't form Tripredacus if one of them is missing, so why not set out to capture one? Once one is captured, the other two will be easy pickings. Then they can dissect the Jointrons and try to figure out how this combination thing works. Back with the Jointrons, they've found a Destron base under construction, and they get the brilliant idea to try and take it out. Whoever does the best job gets to be leader! So they go back and, well, steal one of the scout ships. Of course, they also argue over who should fly it, so it's in constant danger of crashing. The others give chase in the remaining scout ship, and Kid is able to get into the stolen ship just in time to crash-land it. Unfortunately, BB's there with his net missiles, and he snags Motorarm. Then Dirge and Thrust use snare cables on the other two Jointrons, and they fly off, with the Cybertrons giving chase on foot. Scuba pops out of a waterfall to save Motorarm (and it seems here that Artemis has a crush on Scuba), and a Buffalo Missile knocks Thrust and Dirge for a loop long enough to free the others. The Jointrons tearfully promise never to fight each other again, then merge to form Tripredacus and drive the Destrons off before blowing the new base to ash. Episode 18: Black Lioconvoy In the ruins of a modern-style city, the Autorollers discover a Plot Device. It's a "copy machine" that makes solid energy duplicates of any object placed in its scanner beam. But when BB copies himself, the duplicate turns out to be mindlessly destructive (well, noticeably moreso than BB) as well as black in color (inanimate dupes were normal color). Dark BB almost trashes the ship before being destroyed. Megastorm is about to destroy the copy machine, when Galvatron stops him. He has a plan.... The copy machine is placed where a Cybertron will find it, and Kid manages to trip over it. He brings it back to the ship, where he finds Bighorn and Scuba fighting over a comic book. Kid has the solution! He makes a copy, and now there's two. Bighorn gets frustrated and eats his, however, possibly because he couldn't understand all the big words. }-> Then a copy of Lioconvoy is made, almost by accident. Copyconvoy whups everyone present and runs off into the woods. Starscream tries to recruit Copyconvoy for the Destrons, but apparently Copyconvoy doesn't like them either, and he drives them off. Then he sends the Cybertrons a message saying he was confused on his creation, but he's calmed down now and wants to meet them. It's a trap, of course, and he makes copies of all the other Cybertrons as well. Things look bad until the copies are lured into range of a gun emplacement hidden behind a waterfall, and they're blasted. Copyconvoy is destroyed when the copy machine itself is blown up. Kid laments the loss of such a nifty device. Episode 19: Space Pirate Seacons! The Seacons arrive in their spacefaring pirate ship, and immediately set out to mine Angolmois from the seabed. Scylla bounces between an oh-so-sweet voice and a real "Rosanne Barr/Arnold/etc on a bad day" voice, depending on her mood. The Cybertrons notice the oil kicked up as the Seacons drain Angolmois from a well in a sunken Atlantis-like city, and go to check it out. Scylla immediatly falls for Scuba, who has to spray ink to get out of her grasp. Meanwhile, on the surface, Kid is using his tail as a fishing pole, and reels in Halfshell. Halfshell manages to beat up on most of the Maximals until they get him to flip over. Pouring on the firepower, they think he's destroyed. Surprise, he's not even hurt. And now he's spinning around like Gamera with a buzzsaw attachment. The other Seacons come out and they form God Neptune, who seems unbeatable. Fortunately for the Cybertrons, Scuba and Diver are on the Seacon ship and have stolen it. Infuriated, God Neptune swims after them, using his sword to part the water and slow them down. They abandon ship just as God Neptune arrives to find they left another present...an explosive charge in the Angolmois hold. This blows God Neptune apart and forces the Seacons to put their efforts into keeping the ship afloat, end of episode. Episode 20: Who Is The Strongest Warrior? The format for this clip show is that Artemis and Moon are holding a sort of teleconference from their moonbase, to answer the question of who's the best of the transformers. In the end, it comes down to Scuba versus Starscream, and there seems to be a prize of some sort, possibly a date with Artemis. Both take a dive. Episode 21: Scuba Is Saved Scylla pines for Scuba. Bighorn laments his lovelife in general, but finds a four-leaf clover, taking this as a sign his lovelife will soon improve. Scylla traipses off to deliver a love letter to Scuba. Artemis fumes with jealousy. Bighorn makes the clover into a pendant, which he ties to his tail. Scylla finds Scuba, who flees from her in panic, and she's devastated. Bighorn stumbles across Scylla's location just in time to see her crying, followed by Sea Phantom (Overbite) grabbing her to take back to the ship (she had left without telling Halfshell, causing an embarrassing moment when a Destron spyflight came by). Of course, he rushes in to save the fair maiden. Scylla initially thinks the voice in the distance is Scuba, and rejoices...but when she sees who it really is, she opens fire. He chases all the way to the ship, and Scylla finally deals with him by blasting him with a plasma energy kiss. Literally. A big pair of lips that floats over to Bighorn and zaps him. Bighorn falls in the water and loses his pendant, not to mention some of his will to live. By this point, enough shots have been fired to attrack lots of combatants, and God Neptune forms. Or tries to. Scylla has bailed AGAIN, and is off cuddling with Scuba. Scuba blasts her, and she returns to form God Neptune with the others. Eventually, the Seacons are driven off and the battle ends. Scylla is pining for Scuba. Bighorn is pining for Scylla. The end. Episode 22: Megastorm's Reckoning In the first scene, Megastorm meets with Halfshell, apparently proposing an alliance between them to deal with the Cybertrons (and perhaps Galvatron too). But when he gets back to the ship, Megastorm finds that the current plan is to eliminate the Seacons, who could potentially get to all the Angolmois energy first. Six mines will be dropped, each of which giving off a false Angolmois signature to draw in both Seacons and Cybertrons. With luck, they might finish each other off, but the mines can also be detonated to do the job. While Thrust and Dirge plant the mines, Megastorm runs off to try and warn Halfshell. Each Seacon ends up fighting a Cybertron (Scylla transforms to robot mode for her fight, which looks slightly feminine...athletic more than curvaceous) and Lioconvoy shoots down Dirge and Thrust, who lose the remote control for detonating the mines. Through a complicated series of events and trajectories, Megastorm manages to be on top of FIVE of the mines as they are detonated remotely. Including one that is stuck to Sea Phantom's head and carried to Megastorm's position just before going off. The other one blows up harmlessly. Megastorm gets hoist on his own petard. Repeatedly. Episode 23: Showdown In The Sea Galvatron talks to the Seacons, apparently giving them some kind of rather unpleasant ultimatum, because they break into tears afterward. LOTS of tears. The ship SINKS under the weight of tears. The upshot is that the Seacons need to destroy the Cybertrons. Scylla uses Bighorn's feelings to lure him into a trap, and gets Kid in the trap as well. But then Scuba shows up and things degenerate into a free-for-all, with the whole love triangle thing getting a lot of comedic time. Lioconvoy first demonstrates his flight jets when he's forced to take on God Neptune solo for a while. The fight is generally going badly for the Cybertrons, so Moon transforms and flies to Gaea to try and figure out a way to help. Spotting the pirate ship's flag, he gets an idea. Galvatron and the other Destrons arrive, and things get even worse. Galvatron gets the Seacons to keep fighting, and they reform God Neptune to attack. Just then, BigMos and Tonbotto fly in and distract God Neptune with acid in the face! (So far, this is the only appearance of the Insectrons in new footage since episode 12.) They then carry Lioconvoy up to God Neptune, where he uses two barrages of missiles and then his LioCyclone to break up God Neptune. In the epilogue, Moon reveals that he used the flag as a message to attract the Insectrons to the fight. Episode 24: To Face The Setting Sun Bighorn discusses his lovelife with the Jointrons. This is a bad idea, since the Jointrons are not only incurable romantics, they're also incurable goofs. They dress up as squids and lure Scylla out with a faked letter from Scuba, then capture her and stuff her in a bag. The Seacons come looking for her, and the Destrons come looking for the Seacons (who apparently stole something from Galvatron), and the Jointrons end up in the middle of a whole big mess. DJ demonstrates his ability to be a walking smoke machine, which gets them out of one sticky situation, but there's so many sticky situations they eventually get stuck, and Scylla gets free. God Neptune and Tripredacus then fight for the first time, with Tripredacus ending up the victor. In the epilogue, the Jointrons run away from a rather annoyed Bighorn. Episode 25: The Last Battle The situation with the Seacons has become intolerable, especially from Scuba's point of view. Lioconvoy heads out to the Seacon ship to try and come to some sort of resolution, while Starscream and BB spy from a submarine. A duel is proposed: strongest warrior on each side fights, losing faction has to leave the planet. Of course, the Seacons bend the rules, arriving as God Neptune. Thanks to the ever shifting rules of size on this show, God Neptune is easily twice as big as Lioconvoy today (sometimes they're nearly equal). Meanwhile, the Destrons try to interfere, causing a number of side fights. Megastorm finally tries to cheat and take out Lioconvoy, but he misses and sets off a geyser of Angolmois energy. The Seacons admit to defeat and leave the planet. Once in space, the Seacons encounter a strange blackness which sucks them in! They don't come out, and as of episode 28 have still not been seen, so they might have been destroyed by the darkness, the identity of which is revealed in the next episode. Episode 26: Enter Liojunior! Nemesis cruises through space, destroying all it touches. It's a sort of rocky, spiky thing that looks vaguely like a submarine with a giant eyeball at the front, and it belongs to Galvatron. It's probably what the Seacons encountered. Pursuing it are two Cybertrons, Skywarp (Magnaboss Silverbolt, and he's male, not female as earlier guessed) and Santon (Ironhide). Back on Gaea, Angolmois geysers are appearing all over, and it seems to be having a negative effect on Lioconvoy's energon matrix. Then he encounters another lion near where he was first healed by Gaea, but it runs off without speaking. Kid and Diver meet the lion and fight for a bit before it speaks. The young lion (pre-teen voice) claims to be the son of Lioconvoy, so Kid names him Liojunior. Then Lioconvoy and the others arrive, and Liojunior calls Lioconvoy "mama." Lioconvoy explains that he's a guy. Okay, "papa" then. Lioconvoy does a "bwah?" take. Before anything can be sorted out, Galvatron attacks, followed quickly by the arrival of Skywarp and Santon. The two new Cybertrons force a merger with Liojunior, who they've apparently been looking for. Magnaboss is formed, and can speak with the voice of any one of the three, it doesn't seem to be a unified personality. Lioconvoy doubles over in pain from his Matrix. Cliffhanger ending. Episode 27: Megastorm Reborn! After a recap of last episode, Galvatron attacks, quickly putting the inexperienced Magnaboss on the ropes. But Magnaboss recovers and shoves his sword through Galvatron's chest, opening a big wound that bleeds Angolmois. Now Skywarp (who has teeth in his beak) and Santon explain their mission. They've been watching Nemesis, and apparently Galvatron has summoned it to Gaea to drain all the Angolmois now that enough damage has been done to the planet that the energy is spouting out all over. For his part, Liojunior feels abandoned by his father, then finds out his matrix is linked to Lioconvoy's. While it was healing Lioconvoy, the spirit of Gaea created a duplicate of his matrix and infused it into another body, one which would grow more slowly and be more fully a part of Gaea. Both open their Matrix housings, and energy streams between them, stabilizing Lioconvoy's problems. Meanwhile, Starscream and BB (in surgical scrubs, no less) operate on Galvatron successfully, saving his life. But Galvatron's still too weak to fight, and the Cybertrons have a new combiner team. Megastorm decides to take radical action and dip himself in the Angolmois. He has a change of heart at the last minute, but anticipated that and made sure he wouldn't be able to back out. He falls in and dissolves. His essence drifts for a while, thinking about Galvatron's power and so forth. Then he's reborn as Gigastorm (Trypticon remold)! In his initial blundering about to get used to his new body, he nearly knocks Liojunior into the now-evil Angolmois current. Lioconvoy saves his son, helping resolve some of the issues between them. Together, they drive Gigastorm back into the pit, where he drifts off. Episode 28: New Weapon: The TakoTank (Octo-Tank) This episode marks a new set of opening credits, which focus on Lioconvoy's crew, the Magnaboss team and the Destron Cyborg Beasts. A new opening song is used, "Super Voyager," also by Cyber Nation Network (who performed the old "Get My Future"). Beast Wars sausage snacks are advertised in the first break. This product scares me. It's not quite Kendrick's "If they put the Transformers name on dog food" level, but it's close. At the start of the episode, Gigastorm has shrunken down to Galvatron's size and entered the ship to check on things. Then he uses his new power to boss everyone around before going on another rampage for fun. The Magnaboss team is sent out to find Gigastorm and stop his rampage. They lure him into a box canyon, where everyone has assembled. They shoot at him, then shoot at the ground and the canyon walls, burying him. Meanwhile, Starscream and BB are tracking the arrival of a spaceship. When it lands (badly), Ikard (recolor of Scuba), still in protoform mode, steps out and asks if they know where he can find Scuba. They shoot at him, and he takes off. Meanwhile, Thrust and Dirge have brought in the Destron ship, which winches Gigastorm out of his hole. But Ikard's next landing includes a bounce off Gigastorm, knocking him back into the hole, this time head first. This gives him time to greet his relative Scuba, copy his beast mode, and deliver Scuba's brand new Takotank. Scuba gets Gigastorm on the ropes while showing off all the cool things the toy, er, weapon can do. Then Magnaboss uses a Voltron-like "Magnablade" trick to blast Gigastorm and send him running. Ikard takes off, warping out of the system just before Nemesis arrives. Episode 29: Dark Planet Nemesis This is mainly a clip episode, used to help the animators catch up. While on Gaea Galvatron immerses himself in books of ancient lore, the Seacons encounter Nemesis and are sucked into its gravitational pull. They send out an SOS, which is picked up by both Artemis and Navi (the Cybertrons' ship computer). On hearing that the Seacons are in trouble, the Cybertrons reminisce about their experiences with the crusty space pirates. At the end, the Seacons enter Nemesis and find a viewscreen. Galvatron appears on it and gives them a spiel about the place. Halfshell starts to act defiant, but then caves and they all plead for their lives. Galvatron is pleased, and then goes back to his books, pondering how he might defeat Magnaboss. Episode 30: Gigastorm's Treachery Nemesis passes "Saturn" (this isn't supposed to be our Solar System, but it has all the same planets, apparently). While Galvatron is unconscious, feeding on Angolmois, Gigastorm decides to try and kill him with a big honkin' chainsaw. The chainsaw blade shatters. Meanwhile, Scuba takes his new Takotank out for a spin, and LioJunior detects a disturbance in the Angolmois flow, setting out in about the same direction. Back in the ship, Santon and Skywarp fill the others in on Nemesis. At Destron HQ, Starscream and BB come upon Gigastorm and stop him from continuing to hack on Galvatron. Then the Angolmois levels drop, and after a bit of a struggle, Gigastorm gets at the access panel and turns up the flow. WAY up. Trying to overdose Galvatron. But this turns out to be just enough to wake him up. Just in time to see that the various Cybertrons running around the place have found the latest Angolmois pumping operation and are attacking it. Galvatron has the base sealed once the Cybertrons are inside, then mindlinks to Nemesis using his spark. Nemesis devours the rings of "Saturn" and uses the energy to blast at Gaea. Specifically, the base the Cybertrons are trapped in. Galvatron and Gigastorm go to check for survivors, and a free-for-all ensues. Then Gigastorm backstabs Galvatron and the two start to struggle. It almost seems like Gigastorm might win, until the Destron ship arrives. Galvatron commands it to use its shrink-ray on Gigastorm (it's how Giga gets inside the ship), and then picks the tiny dinosaur mech up in one claw. Immediate goals accomplished, Galvatron takes his forces and retreats, as Nemesis continues to draw closer.... Episode 31: The End Of Starscream Starscream has decided that he wants some of that Angolmois for himself, and he plots to go after a new source that sensors have located. Dirge and Thrust are eavesdropping, but get discovered by Gigastorm, who was also listening. Gigastorm decides to go out and lay a trap for his rival, Starscream. Meanwhile, Kid has decided to take a joyride in the Takotank. Unfortunately, the first button he pushes is apparently the "travel as fast as you can in the direction of the Destrons and then self-destruct" button. Ayah! And, as usual, LioJunior senses a new Angolmois source rising, and runs out after it, with several other Cybertrons chasing after him to keep him from running into trouble alone. Yep, by chance or design, everyone's converging on the same spot again. Gigastorm has just laid his explosive charges when EVERYONE arrives, so he hides behind a mountain. Scuba manages to deactivate the runaway Takotank, but by this point it's obvious there's a good reason to stick around...and then Starscream and BB show up. The jets barrage the place, then enact their Starscream Pattern, a death-blossom-like attack run that glasses over the entire area. But it's not enough, and the Cybertrons burst through the glassy ground. After some discussion of desperation plans (like jumping into the Angolmois flow below and hoping to survive), Starscram and BB run up the white flag and surrender. "Yay, Cybertrons! We wanna be Cybertrons!" Gigastorm has heard enough, and triggers his bombs, dropping the two traitorous jets into the Angolmois flow below. They emerge as Hellscream and Max B, and both can still fly in their beast modes! They seem almost unbeatable until Scuba has the Takotank grab them and hauls both down into the Angolmois, briefly appearing to sacrifice himself (but, since he is Da Man, he survives). Hellscream and Max B emerge near Gigastorm and there's a brief standoff, but Galvatron arrives to break it up. Artemis, far from being turned off by Starscream's hideous transformation, is now even more enamored of the Destron than before. [Late note: What I called the Starscream Pattern is actually the Formation Scream.] Episode 32: Lioconvoy Assassination Plan Character note: Navi, the onboard computer in the Cybertron ship, starts using a mobile unit extensively this episode. It's the same model as appears in the Beast Wars Neo manga. Dirge and Thrust decide that they need to do something. Everyone's getting more powerful and stuff, and they haven't accomplished anything in ages. So they decide to kill Lioconvoy to prove themselves worthy. Initially they capture Liojunior and plan to use him to lure in Lioconvoy, but they're unable to deal with Skywarp, and get whupped when the three Cybertrons merge to form Magnaboss. They decide this plan isn't working, and they need a new approach. So they attack Lioconvoy directly and get pretty much thrashed. Autostinger and Autocrusher show up and haul their carcasses off to where Gigastorm is waiting. They plead with him for another chance, and he chuckles ominously before transforming into his base mode. He has an offer for them. He needs some allies to keep Hellscream in check, so he offers to give Dirge & Thrust more power. By transfusing his own Angolmois into them, he transforms the two into Dirgegun and Thrustol (it's pretty clearly pronounced Thrustol, not Thrustor or somewhere between the two). A little taken aback by their new looks, the two nonetheless love the extra power and head out to test it. Thrustol finds he can freeze people with a touch of his dippy head blade [the Trash Horn], and Scuba ends up in a block of ice. Then Dirgegun tries out his sonics [the Blast Leader] on Kid and Bighorn, but finds that Thrustol isn't immune to them. Finally, they feel confident enough to head after Lioconvoy again. Liojunior's link warns him of the attack, and he starts to head to the rescue...a good thing, since D&T are doing pretty well now. Liojunior runs them over with the cycle from the Takotank, and they flee. New bodies, same losers inside. And Santon boils some water to thaw Scuba with. However, there's a definite tone here that while they keep winning battles, they're slowly losing the war. Episode 33: The Great Angolmois Freezing Operation Time to do something longterm! While Bighorn and Liojunior play in the forest and befriend a couple of chipmunks, Lioconvoy works on the plans for a new big cannon. Also, the Insectrons are back and helping design stuff, including a new freeze ray that they're going to use to freeze the Angolmois. A holding operation, but an important one. They equip the Takotank and both scout ships with freeze rays and go out to stop the Angolmois geysers. Out there, they meet the Jointron Brothers, who are rolling boulders over the geysers. One is too big to cover with a small boulder, so they combine and drop a small mountain on it. Liojunior is impressed. Needless to say, Galvatron isn't happy about this all. So he uses his spark to uplink to Nemesis again. It eats "Jupiter" (a gas giant that looks like an upside-down Jupiter) and then uses the energy to blast Gaea. The eruptions get worse. The Cybertrons redouble their efforts, but it's getting harder now that Dirgegun and Thrustol are breaking up the ice where they find it. Gigastorm and the others show up, and Bighorn fights to protect his chipmunk friends. Then they get the idea of freezing Gigastorm with the anti-Angolmois weapons, and immobilize him. Thrustol accidentally freezes him more. A few minutes of silly fighting on ice ensues, but then D&T get their acts together and free Gigastorm. Gigastorm uses his Angolmois Breath (the toy apparently has a spray gimmick added) to melt all the other ice, but Magnaboss's Magna Blade flings out enough ice to patch things up and make the Destrons flee. The damage has been slowed, but Nemesis is still out there.... [Later note: I guess Japanese commercials aren't as constrained in terms of not implying untrue things about their products...it really does look like Gigastorm has a spray gimmick added in one of the commercials, but I'm told he doesn't.] Episode 34: Knock Out Nemesis! Artemis and Moon, as well as Navi, determine that if Nemesis reaches Gaea, the planet will be destroyed. At this point, the Cybertrons unveil the big ol' cannon they've been building. It's designed to tap an Angolmois source and fire a beam capable of destroying Nemesis. Dirgegun and Thrustol spot the Cybertrons hauling the cannon across the land, and report in. Hellscream analyzes their scans and convinces Galvatron that it could indeed destroy Nemesis if allowed to fire...the Angolmois it would use for power would bypass the artificial planet's defenses. So the Cyborgs are sent out to trash the cannon. While D&T head for the one being pulled along, Hellscream plays a hunch. He's not sure that's the real cannon. He has Max B use his Max Vision to look through the ground...where he sees the Takotank hauling the real cannon through an underground river! The two dive into the earth and start to close in. Dirgegun finally manages to use his sonics without taking out Thrustol, and the pulling crew is stunned. Thrustol pops out his leg blade [Gash Sword] (which pops up like, well, a phallus) and slices open the cannon... which turns out to be a fake, filled with Cybertrons who pop out and beat D&T up. Meanwhile, Hellscream fires torpedoes that destroy the gun the Takotank was towing. Aha, both were decoys, and Magnaboss now merges, grabs the real gun and races for an Angolmois source. He manages to lay down the Angolmois taps and start powering up the gun, but then Gigastorm and Galvatron appear. Magnaboss just stands there and takes punishment so that the gun can finish powering up, but a stray shot severs the taps, and the gun is just shy of enough power. And to make matters worse, Magnaboss has been broken apart by this point. New plan. Santon and Skywarp act like face-limpets while LioJunior uses his Angolmois Ball power (he can manipulate the "good" Angolmois) to finish charging the gun. FIRE! The beam lances out millions of miles, but just as it is about to hit Nemesis, the gun overloads and the beam vanishes. I won't even START to explain why that's so wrong. Drilnuts is despondant over the failure of his invention, LioJunior feels like he's blown it for everyone, and the Destrons leave the scene while gloating. Until Gigastorm pratfalls into the Angolmois. In the final scene, Lioconvoy consoles LioJunior. Episode 35: LioJunior's Revolt? Since discovering he can sling Angolmois Balls on his own, LioJunior has gotten even bolder in his strikes against Destron mining operations, and Galvatron seeks a way to neutralize him, or at least reduce his effectiveness. During another assault, LioJunior is stopped by Hellscream, who's smart enough to explode the Angolmois Balls before they reach him, and Galvatron takes the opportuity to appear as a hologram and order LioJunior dumped in the Angolmois stream. Once there, both appear on a sort of mental plane and debate the nature of their struggle. Galvatron is cool and clever, LioJunior brash and forthright, rejecting the arguments. But no matter, as a seed has been planted. LioJunior crawls out of the fissure and returns to base with the others, but he seems to be acting strangely. Very strangely, in fact, since he tries to kill Lioconvoy on sight! He's more powerful than ever, and claims Destron loyalties. When other measures fail to contain him, Santon and Skywarp force a merger in the hopes of keeping him bottled up, or even curing him of whatever madness he has. Unfortunately, his will is also stronger than ever, and he takes over Magnaboss entirely. He moves a bit slowly and stiffly, but a slow Magnaboss is still very dangerous. Scuba and Diver come to the rescue in the Takotank, but also end up getting tossed about. Finally, LioJunior's spirit manages to break out from behind the evil shell and meets Lioconvoy on the spirit plane, where he explains things. Back in the physical world, Lioconvoy uses his Matrix to draw the darkness out of LioJunior, curing him but also becoming shrouded in a dark aura. Then the Galvatron hologram appears and draws the dark energy out of Lioconvoy, who is left spent and weak. Galvatron has shown that both of them can be corrupted by the Angolmois, and is well pleased with himself. Episode 36: Emissary of the Fourth Planet As Nemesis travels past a planet that looks a lot like Mars, a step pyramid on the planet opens up and releases a glowing energy ball that races ahead of Nemesis. On Gaea, the Cybertrons work on another Nemesis-buster cannon, but are distracted by the arrival of the energy ball. Navi goes out into the field to check it out, and it turns out to be another cute little floating computer thing. Hellscream, meanwhile, has been using his axe-nose as a spycraft to keep an eye on all this, and he's ordered to get his hands on the new computer. After importing some plot point information to the Cybertrons, the emissary leads them to an alien artifact. But Hellscream and Max B swoop in and grab the emissary, only to lose it again to Skywarp. Magnaboss keeps the two Cyborgs busy while Lioconvoy, Apache and Navi continue following the emissary. It leads them to an underground complex. Moon decides it's time to go bother people again and flies down to Gaea. Unfortunately, for some reason Moon is now invisible, and the battle between Magnaboss and the Cyborgs is too loud for Moon to be heard. The emissary leads Lioconvoy and the others to a giant computer, a counterpart to the one that gave the Destrons their vehicle modes. When the emissary links up to it, it tells the story of Gaea. An ancient civilization invented Angolmois as an energy source to solve their energy needs, but it turned on them and became evil. They fled the planet in a mighty fleet of ships, leaving behind two androids on their moon as sentinels. The androids Artemis and Moon. During this tale, LioJunior finally notices Moon, being able to see the bunny because of his link to Gaea. The computer finishes its tale and absorbs the emissary into itself. Then everything starts to shake. Something bad is happening. Magnaboss and Moon enter the room just in time to see the computer enact its doomsday protocols. Nemesis cannot be allowed to have the Angolmois, so it will crash the moon into Gaea and destroy the planet, Angolmois and all. And it's not going to let anyone stop it.... Episode 37: Crisis of Planet Gaea Lioconvoy, Apache and Magnaboss fight a losing battle against the rapidly regenerating claws of the computer while Navi goes for help. The Cyborg Destrons impede the arrival of this help, but meanwhile Galvatron realizes what's going on and calls them off. The moon's getting uncomfortably large in the sky. Sending the others away, Galvatron lurks over to the computer room and watches from the shadows. At this point, the computer has stopped trying to actively defend itself and is just hiding behind a wall of regenerating arms while it waits for the moon to arrive. Navi points out an access point where she could enter and try to convince the computer to reverse its actions, and everyone attacks that point. No good. The defenses regenerate as fast as they're destroyed. That is, until Galvatron unleashes a "Matrix Blast" from his spark crystal. Only Lioconvoy notices that this blast comes from someone other than the Cybertrons. Navi goes in and frees the emissary, who puts the moon back in its proper orbit. Afterward, Lioconvoy faces down Galvatron and points out he knows what happened in the computer room. Galvatron scoffs and claims purely selfish motives for his act, then proves it by shooting Lioconvoy. Galvatron retreats before the other Cybertrons can arrive, and then uses his ship to bombard the computer into tiny pieces so it can't ever try to bring the moon down again. Episode 38: Fly Out! Planet Gaea All other options have failed, and Nemesis continues to draw closer. The Insectrons work feverishly on a starship capable of reaching Nemesis before it gets to Gaea, but Hellscream's spy-nose sniffs out what's going on. The Cyborg Beasts all attack the secret hangar, and the Autorollers and Jointrons pop up and join in on the melee. Hellscream and Max B (who now says "Max Na ja" or as some have interpreted it, "Max Roger." I've listened carefully to him saying it a dozen times every episode for 43 episodes, and while the "r" may be in the script, it's not in what comes out of the voice actor's mouth.) concentrate on blowing the cover off the secret hangar, with some success. Then Gigastorm shows up and the Cybertrons have no option but to blow the entrance and sacrifice the base. Then things get even worse as Galvatron and the Destron ship arrive, so Magnaboss forms to fight Galvatron. It's crisis point: the ship's not fully ready, but if they don't launch now, they never will. So they launch, with an add-on booster driving the ship (which is the micro-carrier thing that was sold with little SD Magnaboss and Tripredacus) up a long ramp. A VERY long ramp. Magnaboss, Takotank and the rest of the original Cybertron crew manage to make it onto the ship and inside, leaving the Jointrons and Insectrons behind. Hellscream figures out what's going on and starts shooting at the ramp, with Max B finally blowing up the very end of the ramp, the bit that finally curves almost straight up to launch the ship into the skies. But Tripredacus flies up and straightens the ramp at the last second. They're off to outer space, with the Destron ship in pursuit (the Cybertrons' original ship crashed and was never made spaceworthy again). Episode 39: Assemble, 39th Warrior Despite its name, this episode does not introduce anyone new. In fact, it's a clip show. Bits featuring most of the characters are shown, with an emphasis on the origins of the Destrons and their current forms. After this, there's a long sequence where most of the canned transformation sequences are strung together in thematic groups. At the end, Artemis reaffirms her crush on Starscream/Hellscream, and Moon reaffirms a low opinion of this crush. Episode 40: Revenge of the Space Pirates The Cybertrons have too much of a lead on the Destrons, but Galvatron is not worried. He's made arrangements for just such a contingiency. The Seacon ship comes out of Nemesis and opens fire ont he Cybertrons, who are shocked that the Seacons have turned on them. Between the advantage of surprise and the Seacon ship's superior weaponry, the Cybertrons are forced to make a rough landing on an asteroid to make repairs. Lioconvoy heads over to the Seacon ship, which has landed nearby, to ask them what's up. Halfshell seems zombified, and his eyes have the same purplish cast that LioJunior's did when he was under Angolmois corruption. In fact, all the Seacons have been corrupted, and they brutally attack. Magnaboss arrives and duels with God Neptune, the two combiners being pretty evenly matched. Meanwhile, Nemesis approaches the moon...and worse, it seems that the Cybertrons won't have the fuel to reach it! God Neptune, being utterly ruthless while under the influence of Angolmois, gains the upper hand in the fight. But Scuba, who was repairing the ship, finally sees the flare of battle, and comes to help. Everyone dogpiles onto God Neptune, with the Takotank adding the final quadruple- Nelson hold. An Angolmois Ball from Magnaboss shatters the God Neptune link and also flushes the evil Angolmois out of the Seacons. They wake from their mind-controlled slumbers and fill the Cybertrons in on what they remember (meanwhile, Scylla goes looking for Scuba, who hides in his Takotank). The situation is dire, however. Nemesis is too far away, and the battle used up too much fuel. Artemis starts to pray, activating the Great Computer (presumably the one from episodes 1-3, not the one destroyed a few episodes ago) and calculating a slingshot orbit. Moon is sent to tell LioJunior of the plan, and the Cybertrons pile into their ship and aim for the moon. A giant image of Artemis then appears over the moon's surface to guide them into the proper trajectory, and they slingshot around the moon with enough speed to reach Nemesis. The Seacons, for their part, remain on the asteroid to recover from their ordeal. Episode 41: Breaking Into Nemesis The Cybertrons reach Nemesis just as it is coming into high orbit (like, several times the distance of the moon) around Gaea. Galvatron uplinks to Nemesis and activates the defense cannons, which shoot the Cybertron ship down. Gigastorm and the Cyborgs leave the Destron ship and land on Nemesis to check for survivors. But the ship is empty...and counting down. BOOM. Meanwhile, the Cybertrons ride down to the surface on the Takotank, far distant from the crash site. They find a ramscoop collector and decide to use that to enter the giant artificial planet. But it's a suicide mission, and only Lioconvoy and one other will go. Everyone volunteers, but Lioconvoy picks Scuba and the Takotank...Scuba will have to find a way to destroy the planet. LioJunior protests, but is overridden. Then Gigastorm and the Cyborgs find the Cybertrons and attack. Scuba and Lioconvoy head into the ramscoop opening and find a corridor to follow. Doors close behind them with ominous clangs, and they find they've been herded into a trap by Galvatron. While the battle rages outside, Galvatron attacks Lioconvoy and slowly gets the upper hand. Then Scuba blinds Galvatron with a blast of ink from the Takotank. While Galvatron is distracted, Lioconvoy orders Scuba to continue on and find a way to destroy the planet, then he engages Galvatron in combat again. Scuba finds the power core just as Galvatron breaks away from the fighting and links with Nemesis again. Suddenly, derricks prepared by the Autorollers flare to life, joined by natural upwellings of Angolmois. The energy streams through space and into Nemesis, flooding the ship and temporarily stopping the fights both above and within. LioJunior senses that Lioconvoy's spark is in danger, and rushes into the Angolmois flow.... Episode 42: Legend! The Green Warrior Staggering through the Angolmois-filled corridors, LioJunior runs into Galvatron, who warns LioJunior that Lioconvoy is beyond help. LioJunior refuses to believe this, and runs off down a side corridor. Galvatron heads to the surface, where he tells everyone the fate of the two Lios. Gigastorm rejoices, but is told to temper himself...the battle is not yet won. Santon and Skywarp try to go after LioJunior, but Galvatron blocks them and the melee resumes. Galvatron is so full of Angolmois energy now, however, that he can ignore all attacks thrown at him. Inside, LioJunior is overcome by the Angolmois and falls to the ground. He hears Lioconvoy's voice urging him onward, but is unable to move. Realizing that the Angolmois flow makes the Destrons unbeatable, Artemis once again prays, linking to the Great Computer...and moving the moon itself to block the flow of energy! Now all this evil Angolmois is pouring into the moon, which starts to kill Moon. With the corridors free of Angolmois, however, LioJunior is able to wake up and find the mysterious sphere that now holds Lioconvoy. Lioconvoy seeths with green energy, but is trapped within a sphere generated by the evil Angolmois and Galvatron's devices. LioJunior will not be turned aside, however. Glowing green, he leaps into the sphere.... Outside, the Destrons are concerned about the moon blocking their Angolmois, but not too worried about the battle. Then, suddenly, one of the Angolmois collectors glows with an unearthly green light...and the Lion of Gaea, the Green Warrior, rises up from it! Galvatron thinks it's just LioJunior, and orders Gigastorm to dispose of the nuisance. But none of Gigastorm's attacks have any effect, and a Green Typhoon sends him sprawling. Episode 43: Farewell! Lioconvoy Badly injured, Gigastorm apologizes to Galvatron for failing, tears in his eyes. Then the light in his eyes goes out...he's dead. Galvatron swears vengeance for his brother. Transforming to drill tank mode, he rams into the Green Warrior, splitting him apart into Lioconvoy and LioJunior. Before the fight can go further, however, the Takotank bursts through the ground. Scuba gets out and, using visual aids, shows how he's rigged Nemesis to explode. Nothing can stop it. The Destrons are somewhat concerned about this, but Galvatron refuses to leave without his revenge. He transforms to dragon mode and flies off, calling for the Lios to follow him and finish this in private. The other Destrons get their courage back and start shooting again, and on the moon, the defenses are failing and Artemis's control center starts to shatter as Angolmois pours in. In the place of the duel, Galvatron is able to supercharge the area with evil Angolmois. Feeding on it, he grows to immense size and is impervious to the strongest attacks Lioconvoy and LioJunior can throw at him. So the two once again merge to form the Green Warrior, launching a Green Typhoon attack that fills the area with good Angolmois, paralyzing Galvatron and draining power from him. Nemesis starts to shake apart, and Scuba shows up piloting the Destron ship (he can hotwire anything, man). He evacuates the Cybetrons, leaving the Cyborg Destrons to their fate. A stream of hot magma or Angolmois touches Gigastorm's foot, giving him a hotfoot and shocking him back into consciousness. (Aside: this was just so cheap and cheesy. At least in the manga he stayed dead, making the vengeance scene more poignant.) The Cyborgs jump on Gigastorm, who manages to launch into space and drift away from Nemesis. Galvatron is back to normal size, and his place of power is shattered. But he has one last weapon...should he die, the spark crystal in his chest will explode, destroying all around him. The Green Warrior transforms to robot mode and attacks anyway, but at the last second splits apart. Lioconvoy shoves LioJunior out of the way and impales Galvatron's spark with his Lioclaws. BOOM. Everything explodes. Artemis and Moon have barely survived. The Cybertrons find themselves floating in an empty darkness...until Lioconvoy and LioJunior appear and light the area with green. LioJunior managed to haul Lioconvoy out of the kill zone. Then a bright light appears and sends out a glowing path, a path the Cybertrons follow. Without a translation, I can't say if it was a pickup ship from Cybertron, or perhaps they had all died and were going to join the Matrix. And as we fade out, we hear Gigastorm and the Cyborgs shouting as they drift through space without motive power.... And now, a sneak preview. The tape I got with episodes 29-43 on it also had the first half of the first BW Neo episode. I don't know the title, but here's a summary of what I saw: Open with the new theme, "Love For Ever." It's not as good as the Victory or Masterforce themes, but it's better than either BWII theme. Then we get a short, Bond-film-like piece where a Destron battleship ravages a Cybertron base. A lone figure leaps between shots of the battleship and crashes in on Magmatron in his control room. It's Big Convoy, the One Man Army! He blows up the ship with his Big Cannon and we go to title. No origin story for Magmatron in the anime, he just IS. As are his followers. Afterwards, Big Convoy is summoned back to Cybertron, which seems to be a cloaked planet now. Once inside the cloak, it's a study in dark and light...bright points of light shine out of windows, but no light falls on the actual surface. Big Convoy goes before the Convoy Council to receive his new assignment, to recover the Angolmois Capsules scattered by the destruction of the Nemesis. He's to be saddled with raw recruits, freshly created by Vector Sigma (this is a guess...Vector Sigma's name is mentioned, but he may have a different relation to this mission). Meanwhile, aboard the Gung Ho, the recruits show off their transformations and introduce themselves. Break sounds like a brash teenager, Stampy like a 10-year-old, Longrack like a high school upperclassman, and Heinrad isn't quite as hazy and unfocused as he seems in the manga. Corahda almost sounds like an adult, but he can't resist showing off either. They decide to set a trap for whoever's been assigned to teach them. Big Convoy arrives to find an empty bridge. Then a hemispherical shell drops down on him from above! The recruits, giggling, rush out and salute the shell, introducing themselves and very pleased they've put one over on the commander. They raise the shell to find...a gun? Big Convoy was holding onto the inside the shell, and he drops down to kick some butt. The recruits suddenly realize just who their commander is, and are terrified. Big Convoy thrashes them all, including Stampy, who was cowering behind a control panel. Establishing who's boss, eh? The Gung Ho launches, and Navi (or a relative of the Navi from BWII) helps give the mission briefing. The enter warp in a REALLY bad special effect (looks like a cut-out of the ship was moved along a starfield) and soon are at their target. I didn't see enough of the episode to tell if it was Gaea or not. The recruits are launched in their bullet sleds to the planet surface. Below, the Destrons lurk (Sling, oddly, is shown standing on his hind legs, as if he were a Spinosaur and not a Dimetrodon). They launch into the air and transform to attack, shooting down several sleds. Stampy bails out and hides in the grass, but is puzzled by a giant flower he sees. SNAP! Stepped into Sling's trap! The Destrons surround Stampy, and help is coming in the distance...and then the tape ends. Hey, getting 15 and a half episodes on one tape is a feat.