And now for one of....
those episodes. The ones where you just kinda go... huh?
City of SteelWe open on New York. We see the Twin Towers, the Statue of Liberty-and Laserbeak buzzing by said Statue. He flies around and shoots a manhole cover with eye beams. Said cover... levitates up, allowing him egress into the sewers. Maybe it was a transmission beam? He flies up to some doors, shoots again and they open too. At least it's consistent?
Scavenger of the Constructions is being raised up on a platform while Hook acts snooty. And sounds snooty, too. Scrapper snaps back that the plans were the hard part and that the others botched them up. Megatron takes it in stride. "SILENCE! I want you working, not nagging at each other like hyper-driven chatteroids!" Soundwave reports no Autobots in the vicinity, so Scavenger whacks at the roof of their underground base. Long Haul bitches that he's hauling debris. "I didn't join this outfit to be a dump truck!" Where's that shot of Pinkie Pie with the trombone again?
Mixmaster rolls up and does his syllable repetition. "Right-right-right, Mega-mega-megatron!" He squirts acid at the base... and a large block of rock falls on the platform. We cut to aboveground... and it's the Empire State Building?!
We cut to the Ark as they see a news report of the Empire State Building's sinking. Prime surmises it's Megatron, natch. "If we don't get to New York City soon, there won't be a city left to get to!" Bumblebee takes off, forgetting Spike. Prime radios Sparkplug to tell Wheeljack to meet them in Central Park. And we cut to Wheeljack and his group using hydrofoils to asss by the Statue of Liberty. Laserbeak passes by, too.
Back to Prime and
his group, and then to the Decepticon base. L:aserbeak reports them heading to Central Park. How did Laserbeak know
that was where they were headed? Megatron orders Scavenger and Long Haul there. At the park, the Autobots roll up when Rumble, Frenzy and Soundwave show up and do this rather neat little pre-battle taunt.
Rumble. "Don't you tourists know hanging out in Central Park-"
Frenzy. "-can be hazardous-"
Soundawve. "-to your health?"
Bumblebee's blasted in the rear and blown off his tires. Rumble
and Frenzy utilize piledrivers while underground, Scavenger uses his sensors to track Prime. He bashes the ceiling so hard, cracks form on the screen. :p Okay, a layering problem with the cells. On the ground, Prime tosses Soundwave before the ground gives way. He lands in Long Haul's bed and Megatron does something... clever. "I've severed your motor relays, Prime. Welcome to the wonderful world of suspended animation!" He flies up out of the hole, orders the Autobots out of New York City and declares it to be his!
We cut to... some time later, when Megatron shows off his new headquarters. I... guess it's the Empire State Building. Oh, and the Autobots are still there. A bit... odd.
How flippin' quickly did it take for the COnstructicons to rebuild the building?! I know they can move fast, but da-yum!
We cut to the Brooklyn Bridge as humanity begins a mass exodus. The Autobots are stuck in a traffic jam, but Spike has an idea. They take an offramp. Back underground, Megatron boasts that North America will soon fall. He also goes slightly paranoid over Prime's chassis. Understandable since Prime's eyes are flashing. He has Hook disassemble him. "With finesse, and pleasure!" He transforms and uses a lightsaber, so obvious I'm not gonna even use striked script.
We cut to after and Long Haul dumps out the remains of Prime. Cre-epy! Megatron pulls some wires trailing from Prime's skull and Prime... talks. Well, no 'throat', just a speaker behind the mask-possibly. He sends out telepathic radio waves and his arms... float over and grab onto Megatron's shins.
They... somehow knock Megatron over. He orders the COnstructions to dispose of the parts, "But the head is mine!" He's got a trophy room back on Cybertron with Sentinel Prime's head, methinks.
We cut to... Spike swimming in the East River. He
is superhuman. No, he's on Bumblebee's shoulders. They wade to a storm drain. The Autobots enter it and... it's
really spacious. Mirage scouts ahead, invisible. Fortunately Hound can track him. In another part of the sewers, Scrapper, Long Haul and Hook gloat about what they've done with Prime's chassis. All except for his right arm and laser rifle. Scrapper gropes for words and Hook helps him out. Scrapper tosses the arm into Long Haul's bed as they transform and go topside.
Back with the Autobots, Ratchet grouses. "I feel like I'm in some messy swamp, not under the biggest city in North America!" I'm fairly certain that's Mexico City, but I can't vouch for 1985. Hound's sensors suddenly indicate Prime's behind them... and a large alligator-like robot appears. With Prime's colors, and chest windows. They can't fight him without risk of alerting the Decepticons, so they trap him on an abandoned subway car. Ratchet hotwires it and it rolls on the tracks. "Train leaving for Madison Avenue, Park Avenue Lexington Avenue... and the River!"
Topside, the city's being converted into a neo-Cybertron. Skywarp just
shoves a car into Mixmaster's feeder and out pop a lot more girders than what's put in. Subspace? Mass shifting? Something? Starscream even... agrees with Megatron's plan! "The place is finally starting to feel like
home!"
That's actually kind of a sad line if you think about it... which I will.
Underground, Hound locates Prime's head... sitting on a shelf. They're horrified. Ratchet pulls his wires and he can sense his legs. He sends out waves and they... float over. And they realize the alligator was part of Prime! They track it down and Ratchet, Mirage and Hound wrestle him over. Prime sends out telepathic waves and it stops. Okay,
that made sense. We get an awkward, "This Allagiatacon is big and heavy!" No, really?!
One scene change later and Prime is almost himself again. "Thanks for helping me... pull myself together." He tracks his arm aboveground and has Mirage radio the others. We cut to Ironhide's group as they're walking down the street. Bluestreak spots Prime's arm, hooked up to the top of one of the towers. It turns...
We cut to Megatron at the Empire State, seeing Prime's together again. He orders Soundwave to fire and the arm... well, it fires! Soundwave presses the same button over and over, which somehow aims the arm and fires it. It does quite a bit of damage, but then again it
is Prime's gun.
The Autobots retreat, transforming and rolling out. But Bluestreak and Hound fall down a hole. Rumble's driving a train at them. A closeup and... it's Frenzy. And it's Frenzy throughout the rest of the scene. They blast at it, eventually blowing the car up. Did I mention there was no visible weaponry on the train?
We cut to Bumblebee and some more Autobots as 'battle taxis' approach, this time deploying weaponry. Okay... this is
kinda cool and makes sense. Megatron could also overhear what Spike says... from the screen. And inside Bumblebee. "Not anymore. More Constructicon handiwork coming up!"
"Right you are, human!" Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker drive right over the taxis while Prime transforms. The Autobots roll right to some gun emplacements manned by the Constructicons, but they miss. Prime rolls around a corner and
crushes the battle taxis, then swipes the gun emplacements, taking them out. He rolls up to Ironhide and where his arm is. The two run up to the tower and Ironhide deploys a grappling hook and pulley. Hey, that's Jazz's ability!
Ratchet goes up, too.
Spike thinks they need help. No they don't, kid. Soundwave notes they're out of cannon range. i think he means they're out of the firing zone. Megatron calls in the seekers for an air strike. They transform and buzz the tower. Ratchet and Ironhide are glass half-empty and fell, respectively. "They can't miss!" "Neither can we!" And... yeah. Ironhide and Ratchet are hit, but so are the seekers, who crash
through the tower. Skywarp calls to land but Starscream calls him a coward. Pot, this is kettle. You're black.
Sideswipe flies up and lands on Starscream's back. "Say uncle or I'll shove your nose in your afterburner!" "Uncle!" And Sideswipe manages to wrestle Starscream into the river. "Gee, I didn't know Decepticons had uncles!"
Megatron calls for Devastator. The Constructcons transform into vehicle mode and then combine. There's pretty neat shot of Wheeljack rounding a corner, seeing them and then freezing in terror. Devastator knocks over some buildings and climbs the tower. At the same time, Bumblebee and Spike... somehow have entered the control room? Well, if Laserbeak and Ravage can do it to the Ark...
Soundwave... spazzes. "Intruders, INTRUDERS!!!" Megatron shoots at them, chases them... and manages to shoot the control console. The arm's now inoperative. Soundwave launches Laserbeak
and Buzzsaw to chase after them.
Outside, Devastator has Prime. And he simply uses Prime to knock Ratchet and Ironhide through the outer wall. Awesome!
"Devastator says your end is near!" On ground level, Wheeljack is operating some helicopters. "I saw this once when I linked my databank to an old Earth televison transmission. I think it was celled... King Kong." Okay, points lost for the last bit, but still cool that Autobots are watching the classics. The choppers fire missiles at Devastator, but they do no damage and knock the helicopters out of the sky. Hound comforts Wheeljack. "Don't let it get to you, Wheeljack. Maybe Devastator saw the same picture!" A thousand points and an energon cookie for that.
Inside the tower, Ratchet and Ironhide wake up... and hear Megatron above them, shouting orders. They fire at the ceiling and Megatron and Soundwave go tumbling. "Nice shooting, sport."
Bumblebee and Spike reach the top of the tower and shout out that the arm's not under Decepticon control anymore. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw fly out of
nowhere and fire, sending them scrambling. Prime sends some radio waves to the arm and it blasts Devastator, sending him tumbling down-with Prime. Ratchet hangs Ironhide out a window and Prime's saved. Devastator... crashes and reverts back to the COnstructicons. Rather battered, too. Megatron swears vengeance as he flies off.
We cut to Prime, trying out his arm. It sounds like squeaky hinges on an old gate! We see New York, restored to its former 'glory'. How long did that take?! The Autobots transform and roll out, the last shot being Bumblebee's bumper and an 'I love NY' bumper sticker.
ThoughtsMeh, not the best episode. Not the
worst, but not the best. And either there's some massive time jumps or Transformers can build stuff like 'that'. *Snaps fingers*.
Good to see the rebuilding of New York going well, too. Must've been spared the damage inflicted on the Mid-Atlantic States.
Not caring about scale since 1984. Just like Hasbro.