Episode 7 Cube
Synopsis: Bumblebee learns how he first met Windblade and relives a Golden Age encounter with a young Starscream and his Seekers.
What we liked best
I find it super cool how this show really just embraces all of what may be called G1 into one big package. In this episode we saw that Windblade retained everything we know of her through the IDW comics,like her being a city speaker, comes from caminus - William-James88
I love the idea of Cube, a sport that could be the cybertronian equivalent of football (soccer for US readers!) and a nice introduction for how Windblade met Bee. - ZeroWolf
We got to see Starscream shine, not as a backstabbing weasel, but as an impatient and devious rascal! It was also nice seeing more of the culture aspect of Transformers, since we saw a game of Cube (a mix between rugby and, funnily enough, the fictional Quidditch). Here, we get to see how Autobots and Decepticons used to act like together before the war, something that is more apparent in the later episode "Maccadam's." Something else nice was the appearance of two of the Coneheads (besides a cameo in "Allspark"). And hey, Windblade is from Caminus in this continuity too! And there was this bot that looked like Trailbreaker. I can go on... - notirishman
What we liked least
The main confrontation here is Bumblebee and Windblade vs Starscream, Ramjet and Dirge. Now that sounds like par for the course for a Transformers cartoon, but my problem with taht is that it was a flashback sequence from before the war. After the previous episode, Megatron is my Hero, went out of its way to show that it was not always the same old story and that villains were not always villains, we get this episode here that just discards all that. Starscream and his goons were always villains, which is pretty dull. - William-James88
That not much thought was actually put into Cube past the concept. This would have been a perfect chance to put some cameos into the teams. You could have had future Decepticons and Autobots on the same team, enhancing the idea that the war really separated everyone into two sides. - ZeroWolf
While it was cool seeing the Coneheads, they didn't speak at all... like at all. Also, Bumblebee is totally jet-cist. - notirishman
Our overall thoughts
I found this episode rather dull in general since I did not care much for the backdrop being a Cybertronian Quittish game. I did like seeing Dirge and Ramjet, despite of course making them act just as goons in an era where we could have seen something more interesting. - William-james88
A fun but flawed episode, while the whole subplot with Starscream could have been done away with, it had its moments, I'll echo Williams comments here about Windblades integration with a lot of her IDW backstory appearing, I love it. I also like how it is just not even going to attempt to answer the question about why there is fembots, it just accepts it and moves on. While in terms of the on-going narrative, this episode adds nothing but it is a good character episode - Zerowolf
It was a good, well balanced, fun, episode! It was generally pretty entertaining!- notirishman
Episode 8 Terminal Velocity
Synopsis: Bumblebee explores a nightmarish memory of his visit to Velocitron while Windblade pilots the shuttle in a relentless dogfight with the Decepticon Seekers.
What we liked best
It is always fun when any kids cartoon gives you some semblance of inner machinations, lie the writers really thought something through. I felt that here in a great scene where a group of Seekers, headed by Slipstream, go after Windblade who is piloting a Decepticon ship. The way Windblade looses them is by heading out into space where Slipstream cannot chase her, and I found that super cool since it revealed to me that in this rendition of the franchise, when you take on an earth based alt mode, you take on all its components, including its mechanical limitations. That was a great example of showing and not telling. I also loved everything with Blurr but I won't spoil anything. - William-james88
I liked the dual nature of the episode. We had a creepy showing at what cosmic rust was capable in one half, while in the other there was a frantic dogfight between Windblade and the Seekers. Also Hot Rod! There was also more use of the colony idea. - Zerowolf
Ooh, this episode took a dark turn. Pretty much, this episode introduces the "Plague of Rust" which you can think as Cosmic Rust, but on steroids. It is shown reducing planets to nothing! Blurr was a nice bonus to see, and so was Hot Rod, who are both well personalized in this episode. Back to what I was saying, this is a drastic dark turn for the show, as there is some major death. Also hey, Acid Storm and Thrust were in this episode! - notirishman
What we liked least
It's odd but for a show where the designs are very fun, they settled on the least exciting design for Hot Rod's alt mode. The character has always had a flashier and unique car mode that easily sets him apart from others. But here it is just a box. - William-james88
The dual nature is also a bit of a double edged sword as we could have done with seeing more about Velocitron. There was also a mystery hinted with the worker (who is a reuse of Wheeljacks animation model) but is never played upon. - Zerowolf
It was a bit anticlimactic. Since we didn't get attached to those who end up dieing within 10 minutes, their deaths didn't have much of an impact. We also only saw Blurr use his fast speed once, which I'm indifferent about, actually. But seriously, how did Bumblebee forget/ignore that there was a guy obviously holding a plague that kills planets?- notirishman
Our overall thoughts
Much better than Episode 7 with nice nods to cosmic rust and some fun action set pieces. - William-james88
This is another filler episode or at least it seems it on the surface. Nothing is really advanced but we know a little bit more about the universe this series inhabits. Will we see more about the rust in future episodes? Was Hot Rod aboard the Ark? I can't wait to see what this show has in store. The dramatic shift between this episode and the last cannot be understated, ep 7 was bee and Windblade fighting to stop Starscream being a jerk, ep 8 was about bee and Windblade fighting to stay alive. - Zerowolf
It was a dark episode, but I liked it! But, I mean, Mr. Bee, I don't wanna go... - notirishman
