Transformers Rescue Bots: Introducing Servo the Rescue Dog!

FWIW, that video is made up entirely of footage from previous episodes (even Heatwave's "rescue dog" line) except for the few shots that specifically feature Servo.

When I first saw that picture for a split second I thought "Voltron Force's Yellow Lion is joining Rescue Bots!"

even servo is better than kicker

Admittedly I haven't been watching Rescue Bots, so the first thing I thought when I saw this is that they're trying to win over the Paw Patrol crowd.

Shadowdodger wrote:Admittedly I haven't been watching Rescue Bots, so the first thing I thought when I saw this is that they're trying to win over the Paw Patrol crowd.

That's too funny viewed your comments with my son the similarities are funny!

padfoo wrote:

Shadowdodger wrote:Admittedly I haven't been watching Rescue Bots, so the first thing I thought when I saw this is that they're trying to win over the Paw Patrol crowd.

That's too funny viewed your comments with my son the similarities are funny!

To darn funny next they will be making my little pony's as transformers

...Isn't something like this usually a bad sign?

Metroplexsmash wrote:To darn funny next they will be making my little pony's as transformers

I'm all for it, so long as they have her:



...Turn into this:



(No, seriously, she's the pony version of Beast Machines Megatron, and I will not be convinced otherwise.)

Episode 68 -

Heatwave's taking Doc, Graham, Frankie, and Cody over to a Drilling Platform No. 6, A.K.A. "Old Faithful", an offshore oil platform that went dry. They're going to check it out since new owners just bought it and want to turn it back on.

High Tide is here! And huge! Like, Omega Supreme HUGE!

Short theme song.

High Tide's even got an Omega Supreme-esque head and claws.

High Tide can separate himself from his giant ship body into a smaller component, kinda like how a Headmaster can separate from its Transtector.

Hi, Optimus.

High Tide has a very slight, very subtle West Country accent, and is much taller than Heatwave (almost Optimus's height).

Optimus puts High Tide in charge of the team during their training (though, Optimus secrtly lets Chief know that High Tide has much to learn from the team as well).

High Tide finds humans to be beneath him, not worth his bothering with.

Servo appears to be High Tide's personal assistant, for maintenance and supply retrieval and such.

Surf's up, Boulder! Cowabunga!

...Until he hangs far too much more than ten and goes for a sinking nosedive.

High Tide's component altmode is a submarine.

The oil rig is in pretty bad shape. Rusted beams, missing struts, exposed wiring, dangerously corroded well cap... makes one wonder who bought this rig and why they thought it could be useful again.

Blades saved Milo from drowning, but because he left his training under High Tide to do so, High Tide chewed him off for it. However, Cody and Heatwave stood up to High Tide for Blades, getting themselves kicked of High Tide's ship for their insubordination.

Back at the rig, Doc states that the whole area is far too unstable for future drilling with any rig, and that one tremor could trigger a disaster. And that's all it takes for the well cap to burst shortly after he speaks that. A massive oil spill followed by an intense fire is unleashed.

Whoa, Servo can transform into a bin on wheels.

Heatwave: "Rescue Bots, surf to the rescue!"

Doc and Frankie are saved, the rig collapses and explodes, but the well cap refuses to stay in place.

High Tide combines with his ship to become its Mega-Bot mode.

With High Tide stepping down on the cap, the others secure it into place.

Since's Doc's floating lab was destroyed in the fire, Optimus requests that High Tide remain on Earth for a little longer, which he accepts. And Servo is allowed to stay with the team.


High Tide -- MICHAEL BELL!!!!!


Well, this certainly was a surprise! We get a brand new Autobot character who is not only chums with Optimus, but also a very indignant character. He's rude, obnoxious, bossy, condescending, demanding, strict, harsh; just about the opposite of everything one would expect for a role model character in a young-age children's cartoon. A very flawed character. And yet, that's a big part of what makes him so interesting. He's such a stark deviation of the normal kinds of good guys that, until now, the most we had of these characteristics came from Heatwave and Kade, but both of them have come a fair ways from when they each first started out at the beginning of the series. Now, we get this new guy who makes both of them look like legitimate upstanding citizens, and it's such an engaging experience to see a good guy so uncooperative and arrogant in this show that usually only has those who act out like this in villain roles. On top of that, he was even voiced by a G1 veteran to boot!

Have you studied High Tide's body?

I see Dreadwing's head (just a coincidence)

And then we have Flipper patterened Feet, scuba tanks, and external engines... short of an outright figure with knees, I'm going for Gen. SeaSpray. Too bad Dreadwing blew up the real Sea Spray, or we could have gotten another of the Prime Wreckers ticked off the list.

And pleasently pleased: I was ex[ecting a reskin of Heatwve's boat form, as a cost saver but High Tide seems to have an all knew model. So good for them for not cheeping out

Flashwave wrote:And pleasently pleased: I was ex[ecting a reskin of Heatwve's boat form, as a cost saver but High Tide seems to have an all knew model. So good for them for not cheeping out

Well, High Tide has his own toy that Hasbro would want to sell, so the animators would be obligated to make him look like his toy.

Though, I concur with the Dreadwing thing, but primarily in the eyebrows. His Mega-Bot mode, however, is straight up "Omega Supreme as a boat".

So does this mean High Tide will get a dino mode like the rest of the team? Doubtful, and I don't know what "dino" he'd take (personally, I'd suspect a plesiosaur or mosasaur, but worth speculating (not that the main team has used their dino modes that much).

Archanubis wrote:So does this mean High Tide will get a dino mode like the rest of the team? Doubtful, and I don't know what "dino" he'd take (personally, I'd suspect a plesiosaur or mosasaur, but worth speculating (not that the main team has used their dino modes that much).

Not sure why he'd need one since Quarry's been arrested and Humungado's back in his movie.

Sabrblade wrote:

Archanubis wrote:So does this mean High Tide will get a dino mode like the rest of the team? Doubtful, and I don't know what "dino" he'd take (personally, I'd suspect a plesiosaur or mosasaur, but worth speculating (not that the main team has used their dino modes that much).

Not sure why he'd need one since Quarry's been arrested and Humungado's back in his movie.

Considering Evan and Miles keep escaping incarceration (it's amazing they haven't been outright exiled from the island), I doubt we've seen the last of Quarry.

Archanubis wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Archanubis wrote:So does this mean High Tide will get a dino mode like the rest of the team? Doubtful, and I don't know what "dino" he'd take (personally, I'd suspect a plesiosaur or mosasaur, but worth speculating (not that the main team has used their dino modes that much).

Not sure why he'd need one since Quarry's been arrested and Humungado's back in his movie.

Considering Evan and Miles keep escaping incarceration (it's amazing they haven't been outright exiled from the island), I doubt we've seen the last of Quarry.

I hope so. Quarry's awesome.

But with a dino toy of his own for Hasbro to sell, I can't see High Tide (or the other two forthcoming recruits) getting a dino mode.

Sabrblade wrote:

Archanubis wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Archanubis wrote:So does this mean High Tide will get a dino mode like the rest of the team? Doubtful, and I don't know what "dino" he'd take (personally, I'd suspect a plesiosaur or mosasaur, but worth speculating (not that the main team has used their dino modes that much).

Not sure why he'd need one since Quarry's been arrested and Humungado's back in his movie.

Considering Evan and Miles keep escaping incarceration (it's amazing they haven't been outright exiled from the island), I doubt we've seen the last of Quarry.

I hope so. Quarry's awesome.

But with a dino toy of his own for Hasbro to sell, I can't see High Tide (or the other two forthcoming recruits) getting a dino mode.

I expect us to get more of High Tide's Mega Bot Mode figures before we see a dino. And anyway, I think the Dino thing was a combination AoE tie-in and a shot across the bow for the dinosaur car changer toys that the cartoon ran with.

I'm thinking the Epic Optimus Prime figure could've been better served by being High Tide. It would be the all-important scale, You could do a FLip-change High Tide as the head (or, not)

Anyone found the latest episode yet?..The Last Of Morocco.....coz the regular YouTube poster hasn't put it up yet!(which he usually does on a Saturday night) I know Amazon & torrent sites have it already.....but you have to buy the series or episodes on Amazon....& I'm not a fan of torrent, also.....hasbroepisodes also have it on YouTube! but it's not available for viewing in the UK.

Stuartmaximus wrote:Anyone found the latest episode yet?..The Last Of Morocco.....coz the regular YouTube poster hasn't put it up yet!(which he usually does on a Saturday night) I know Amazon & torrent sites have it already.....but you have to buy the series or episodes on Amazon....& I'm not a fan of torrent, also.....hasbroepisodes also have it on YouTube! but it's not available for viewing in the UK.

It's up -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gev8Mm3OZbA



Episode 69 -

Frankie got accepted to a science camp that she and Cody applied for, but Cody didn't. But if he would be in if he were to take a catch-up math class. Though, Cody doesn't seem that interested.

Instant time portal in the sky! Hot air balloon coming through!

When asked what year it is, Chief doesn't give an answer.

Verne somehow seems to know Heatwave.

Verne has met (or will meet) Cybertronians!

Verne and Morocco met at the London Exposition of 1862. They shared scientific findings, and Verne trusted Morocco enough to give him one of the two prototype devices Verne had been working on. But soon after, their interests went in different directions. Verne focused on exploration to further the advancement of mankind. Morocco, however, worked to advance only himself, tried to make himself younger, stronger, and wealthier. Verne feels guilty for having not intervened, having been so caught up in his work that he let themselves drift apart.

But the morning he left Paris in 1869, he received a message consisting only of some coordinates and the present day's date.

High Tide! He's giving the team a lift to the designated coordinates.

Servo's a Cybertronian Helper-Bot.

Chief overboard! A whale's threatening to eat him! Go Heatwave!

"Power Up and Energize!" -- Chase is using a winched hook

There's a camera on the whale. And the creature somehow seems intelligent enough to motion the team to follow it (as well as to respond to Chief's doubts of it "saying" anything).

High Tide escorts Verne, Chief, and Cody underwater, following the whale straight to... the Nemo. Morocco's undersea base.

Morocco is more aged than ever.

Morocco got the Nemo back in a forced trade of his Verne Device to Madeline Pynch. He had intended on outsmarting her, but with the device, he can't run his Chamber of Youth. However, he took a chance at sending a message on a piece of paper through time to reach Jules Verne over a 140 years in the past.

Morocco could have traveled back himself had Verne shared the energy source of the Verne Device with Morocco, but Verne had taken an oath to never reveal that secret.

Chief attempts to arrest Morocco, but he's ready for such measures. He traps the three in a force field and, using the ant-controlling device that he's since modified into controlling undersea beasts, orders whales and an octopus to attack the team's ship.

The beasts have sunk the ship! And the Bots can't beat what they refuse to kill!

Chief is willing to surrender, but High Tide ain't!

High Tide, Mega-Bot Mode!

Utterly flabbergasted by the sheer enormity and might of High Tide, Morocco surrenders, but begs to use the Chamber of youth when they return, or he shall perish (YES, he said the word "PERISH") within days.

Morocco's young again, and behind bars again.

Cody calls Frankie and tells her that he's going to take the math class so he and her can go to science camp together.

Verne wants to take Morocco back in to the past to serve his sentence in his own era, but Chief declines Verne's offer since the present day facilities are far more secure, and he doesn't want to risk Morocco escaping again.

Cody suggests using the Verne Device to erase Morocco's memories of his life as a villain, thereby giving him a second chance as a new man. However, Graham notes that the younger Morocco of 1869 is already living there, so bringing back the present day Morocco would cause a problem of there being two of him in that year. So Verne says that he'll instead take Morocco to the future, where he can visit him.

Boulder sees that Verne's energy source is none other than an energon crystal. It interacts with the Verne Device in a special way, creating the ability to travel through time. It is how he met the Autobots in the future. And he knows of what Heatwave's destiny is.

Morocco escaped! Again.

He's getting away with the balloon!

Heatwave cuffs him to the balloon whilst holding onto Blades, and helps Verne into the balloon, which disappears into the time portal.

Blades blurts out that Heatwave is going to meet Verne again in the future.

Verne and Morocco made it to Paris in the future, and Verne seemed to succeed at erasing Morocco's memories.



Diedrich Bader -- Jules Verne



Oh man. That was awesome. Even at his greatest moment of vulnerability, Morocco still proved competent enough as a villain, only being stopped by High Tide's Mega-Bot Mode. And even when he seemed to finally be beaten, he still couldn't be stopped. It took a last-ditch attempt at a point of no return for him to ultimately be stopped for good, and then a method of ambiguous morality to cease his term of villainy. Yeah, I'm not too keen on his mind having been erased against his will to forcibly change him into another person. That's more stepping into questionable territory since it's essentially playing god with a person's life. But on the other end of the spectrum, Jules Verne was a neat addition to the episode, serving as the perfect scientific counterpart to Morocco. And what's more is that he served to foreshadow things to come in the show, with his having already met Cybertronians (specifically Heatwave) in a future scenario. I hope we see him again real soon. Maybe he could be involved in the season finale.

You know what I don't like? That Dang Boat's mass shifting. The squid had it nose down completely submerged, and then it ransformed. So if you assume Mega Bot is Length of boat mode+Half again for concealed thighs+Bridge tower's height) It still should be freakin huge enough to be intimidating but it should not be that dang big. And I'm not gonna buy "Convienent Sandbar for it to stand on" in deepwater ocean. Around Griffin Rock? Sure, but not there.

You know what I don't like? That Dang Boat's mass shifting. The squid had it nose down completely submerged, and then it ransformed. So if you assume Mega Bot is Length of boat mode+Half again for concealed thighs+Bridge tower's height) It still should be freakin huge enough to be intimidating but it should not be that dang big. And I'm not gonna buy "Convienent Sandbar for it to stand on" in deepwater ocean. Around Griffin Rock? Sure, but not there.

You know what I don't like? That Dang Boat's mass shifting. The squid had it nose down completely submerged, and then it ransformed. So if you assume Mega Bot is Length of boat mode+Half again for concealed thighs+Bridge tower's height) It still should be freakin huge enough to be intimidating but it should not be that dang big. And I'm not gonna buy "Convienent Sandbar for it to stand on" in deepwater ocean. Around Griffin Rock? Sure, but not there. [/rant]

since the present day facilities are far more secure,

Um, can we get a second opinion on that?

Flashwave wrote:

since the present day facilities are far more secure,

Um, can we get a second opinion on that?

What's funny is that that claim came back to bite him when Morocco escaped again.

But, I do believe that in spite of Morocco's escaping it, the modern day facilities are still more secure than those in 1869. Imagine how swimmingly Morocco could get outta one of those.

Feel like we've lost track of the long-running Transformers: Rescue Bots animated series? Zap2it is here to help out! With the latest episode of season 3 (The New Recruits) introducing Salvage and Blurr, the rest of the episodes seem to deal with the new arrivals and whatever they might actually be up to, and leading up to the arrival of Servo the Cyberdog. Check out the synopses below!

E19 The New Recruits Rescue Bots find they have new recruits to train, but these newbies are hiding a dark secret.
Sat, April 25 2015 1:30 pm EDT

E20 Rescue Bots Academy Cody and the Rescue Bots must teach Blurr and Salvage everything they need to know.

Sat, May 02 2015 1:30 pm EDT

E21 A New Hero A solar flare knocks out power in Griffin Rock; Blurr deserts the Rescue Bots and steals the ship.

Wed, April 22 2015 5:53 am EDT

E22 Four-Legged Hero Cyber-Dog Servo puts the Rescue Bots' undercover status in jeopardy.

Wed, April 22 2015 5:53 am EDT

E23 Endangered Species The Bots go to extremes to protect endangered woodpeckers discovered by Boulder.

Wed, April 22 2015 5:53 am EDT

E24 More Than Meets the Eye An injured Chase uncovers many mysteries while Doc's magician sister visits Griffin Rock.

Wed, April 22 2015 5:53 am EDT

Sabrblade wrote:It's up -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gev8Mm3OZbA

"Video has been removed by User"

Archanubis wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:It's up -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gev8Mm3OZbA

"Video has been removed by User"

Gotta be quick when they go up. YouTube eps don't last more than a day or so.

Another outlet - http://www.watchcartoonslive.com/transf ... f-morocco/

Sabrblade wrote:

Archanubis wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:It's up -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gev8Mm3OZbA

"Video has been removed by User"

Gotta be quick when they go up. YouTube eps don't last more than a day or so.

Another outlet - http://www.watchcartoonslive.com/transf ... f-morocco/

Thanks

Someone posted "The New Recruits" on DailyMotion early. I kind of like Salvage; has kind of a "Southern country boy" feel to him, and he's a bit of a tinkerer. Not quite the trained engineer Boulder is, but I can see the two working with Graham on projects. Blurr on the other hand... well, there's room for improvement in his case. Saying any more would spoil the episode.

Archanubis wrote:Someone posted "The New Recruits" on DailyMotion early.

WAHOO! I missed the YouTube upload and don't have an Amazon Instant Video account, or an iTunes account, so now I can see it!

Episode 70 -

There was an earthquake on the previous night. Graham, Cody, and Frankie are checking out the sensors on Wayward Island for info on the quake.

They're checking out the cave where they previously found Ira.

An aftershock helped to unearth the spaceship that was previous glimpsed at back in episode 63.

There's someone inside it.

Short theme song.

The Bots examine the ship and note that it's ancient, way before their time. Heatwave thinks it looks like a cargo ship.

New purple guy thinks he's home and gives each of the "Cybertronians" a hug.

Purple guy's Blurr, "fastest transport pilot in the galaxy and two-time winner of the Cybertronian 500."

Blurr says that he and his loader, Salvage, got hit by a huge meteor storm that caused their ship to crash-land on Earth. That was ten thousand years ago.

Salvage can't remember anything after the crash. His stasis pod was damaged.

Salvage has taken an interest in recyclables, as he likes to tinker with odds and ends.

Blurr doesn't seem to want the others to find out what happened to his ship in the past.

Optimus has come to meet the newcomers.

Salvage and Blurr have chosen their new altmodes.

Hey, Optimus's Rescue Trailer is back. Wish it could turn into its toy's winged jetpack mode, though.

Optimus has talked with Chief about Blurr and Salvage staying with the team as Rescue Force Recruits. Prime makes this offer to the two (despite protests from everyone except Boulder and Cody), and while Salvage is honored, Blurr seems less concerned about being a Rescue Bot than he is about getting keep his sweet wheels.

Optimus requests that Heatwave and his team become Blurr's and Salvage's teachers, and only Chase accepts the task directly (the others are either surprised or in disbelief).

Cody volunteers to mentor Salvage. He takes the big guy to the local junkyard, where Salvage feels like he's in heaven.

Blurr and Heatwave have a race on Heatwave's obstacle course behind the firehouse.

Blurr wins by faking a crash.

Blurr alludes to possibly having had a vehicle mode back in the past, when he didn't have one when he was found in his ship earlier.

Don's trapped under a crane at city hall.

Blurr pull's Don and his car free of the crane, but fails to realize that Don's car was the only thing keeping the crane from falling over. After he yanks the car loose, the crane comes crashing down. While Blurr jumps out of the way, the others grab the crane before it could have fallen onto (and killed) the injured Don.

The crane's also threatening to fall onto city hall. Blurr is really not good at helping.

Salvage used his technical know-how to tinker up a uni-directional dynamic electromagnet out of junk to pull up the crane from the other side.

"Power Up and Energize!" -- Heatwave uses the jackhammer that cam with Bumblebee's toys to finish repairs on the crane.

Optimus has come to confirm what really happened in the past. Though it's true that the ship did crash-land on Wayward Island in a meteor storm, it was Salvage, not Blurr, who risked his life to save the cave people. Blurr wanted to stay with the ship, but Salvage couldn't ignore the humans. Salvage had Blurr help him build a raft to get the humans off of the island, but one of them went missing. Blurr had promised to go find the missing person, but Blurr never came back. Salvage sent off the other humans and went looking for Blurr. Salvage found the missing caveman (Ira), but Blurr was nowhere around. Salvage took Ira to the cave, where he gave Ira an amulet of energon to protect him. But then the ship closed, trapping them both inside.

Blurr attempted to start up the ship to get off of Earth instead of keeping his promise. He was going to leave Salvage behind, thinking he was too slow to make it back to the ship in time. The two bots fought, which scared Ira away. Then the meteors started hitting the cave. All they could do was go back into stasis and hope for the best.

After further consideration, Optimus feels that the team shouldn't give up on Blurr, and Boulder and Cody are the only ones still willing to give him another chance.



Jason Marsden -- Salvage
Max Mittelman -- Blurr



Wow. This one was surprisingly heavy. We got two new Autobot characters and one of them is presented as the black sheep of the family. At first, it seems as though Blurr was gonna be a case similar to Prime Smokescreen, in which the new guy is a rambunctious rule breaker who drives the more experienced members crazy, while still being endearing to the audiences. Instead, we got this turned on its head with Blurr instead depicted in a manner that reveals a shameful past marked by selfishness, cowardice, and an attempted betrayal of Salvage. He was going to abandon Salvage and leave him for dead. Even though Blurr's motivations for doing so had no malice or animosity, it's still surprisingly dark for this kind of show, yet it wasn't dealt with that darkly as much as it was dealt with more solemnly. and the episode even ends with nearly everyone having lost their respect for Blurr, with their being unsure if they can ever trust him. What's more is that very little action happens in this episode, as the majority of the episode is taken up by the characters just standing around talking to each other about very important matters. However, this episode wasn't all doom and gloom. On the upside, Salvage is a very charming addition to the show. Though he kinda feels like yet another Animated Bulkhead-esque character like Boulder (being a big green lovable lug who is mechanically talented and artistic), he felt unique enough to be likable in his own right. Though it was Blurr I was looking forward to the most before watching this episode, it's Salvage whom I look forward to seeing more of in the end.

Salvage looks like he's going to fit in with the rest of the team just fine, despite the others' initial objections to him and Blurr being part of the team. I also like how the writers make a point that Salvage and Blurr weren't friends, even though they were the only two on the ship (Salvage even mentions that they didn't interact much beyond what their jobs entailed). They'll probably develop Salvage a little more, but I think this episode's pretty much established his niche.

This is not the most complimentary incarnation of Blurr that's appeared on TV (not so sure about the comics). As you mentioned, Sabre, this Blurr is a self-invested coward who isn't leaving a very good impression on anyone at the moment - I mean, the guy made the rather easy-going Salvage angry enough to attack him. I suspect Blurr's going to have the most development in the next couple of episodes especially since the episode description for "A New Hero" pretty explicitly states that Blurr will steal the Sigma. At the moment though, he's not off to a great start - about the only ones who are willing to give him a chance right now are Optimus, Cody, and Boulder, for differing reasons. Heatwave's the most vocal at the moment (though that's not really anything new) and I suspect the two won't be on the best of terms - and I'm not sure Blurr will endear himself that well to High Tide if the latter appears in the next episode. It's almost a blessing High Tide didn't appear in this episode - he may have mellowed since his debut, but I can imagine that him chewing out of Blurr would still have been a lot worse than Heatwave's was.

We'll just have to wait and see how these two fit into the old Rescue Bots dynamic.

Thought: (Or Fanfiction fuel) of all people, Heatwave goes to HighTide for training advice, since he doesn't want to look like he's letting Prime down, giving High Tide a chance to shine again, ad buid on his past and past interaction with Heatwave.

Yeah, probably more FanFiction fuel, I just hate to see High Tide become "Token Boat guy".

Yep, gonna love Salvage. Just hope he doesn't become "Magic gadget saves the day" dude. And I think I'm gonna love what they do with Blurr's development, even if I don't end up loving Blurr.

Makes me sad that Medix and Hoist couldn't become characters too. Medix, you could right off as Ratchet in the Cybervirus ep, but poor Hoist.

I need a Salvage figure. He might have to be the first RB figure I buy, but I'm just too attached to figures with knees and elbows.

Any one else feel sad for Ira again, having seen his family, a wife or sister sent off to sea without him? And on those same lines, those poor cavepeople on a wooden raft with NO steering in the OCEAN? Not sure that was your brightest idea there, Salvage.

Since the Wiki is currently deeming Blurr to be the same guy as the Velocitronian Blurr from the Exiles novel, I wonder if Salvage could originally have been a Junkion, as I think it woul be cool if both of the new guys had hailed fromm both of the colony worlds featured in that book.

Though, it would alo be cool if High Tide had some connection to Aquatron, but I can live with him being a native Cybertronian.

Thoughts on time that bug me.

-Heatwave says that Salvage an Blurr's ship is "Before theur time."
-The Rescue Bots went into stasis sometime prior to the abandonment of Cybertron, some million or three years ago? (As seen in the pilot, when they say that they need to contact Cybertron Command) Di the Energon Eater Ep. establish a timestamp on that rescue?

Sabrblade wrote:Since the Wiki is currently deeming Blurr to be the same guy as the Velocitronian Blurr from the Exiles novel, I wonder if Salvage could originally have been a Junkion, as I think it would be cool if both of the new guys had hailed fromm both of the colony worlds featured in that book.

Though, it would alo be cool if High Tide had some connection to Aquatron, but I can live with him being a native Cybertronian.

But is there any reason to believe that or is this edmacated speculation based on continuity, because there's thrirty thousan Blurrs running around the Unicron Trilogy too. (or he's running so fast he can be in multiple galxies at once, a speed mirage, if you will.) he mentions being a two time winner of the Cybertronian 500, which implies Cybertron, alhough with no idea as to when that was, I suppose it could have been pre-colony . Doubtful, but possible

Archanubis wrote:It's almost a blessing High Tide didn't appear in this episode - he may have mellowed since his debut, but I can imagine that him chewing out of Blurr would still have been a lot worse than Heatwave's was.

I'm not so sure High Tide wouldn't have just told Blurr to hit the road, regardless of who else was in the room and what they thought about it.

Flashwave wrote:Thoughts on time that bug me.

-Heatwave says that Salvage an Blurr's ship is "Before theur time."
-The Rescue Bots went into stasis sometime prior to the abandonment of Cybertron, some million or three years ago? (As seen in the pilot, when they say that they need to contact Cybertron Command) Di the Energon Eater Ep. establish a timestamp on that rescue?

I don't recalled the Energon Eater episode establishing a time stamp on the events that sent the Bots into stasis. I do believe that they had been out for awhile, and their attempts to contact HQ were being met by silence; that may mean that while the Bots left before Cybertron went dark and when they tried to contact Cybertron in that episode, they weren't aware that it was now a dead planet (Heatwave at least seems familiar with the war, which means either the team left during the initial stages, or the team was briefed on current events when they arrived on Earth).

I will admit Heatwave's comment is odd, as is Boulder's comment that he's never see that particular class of ship. It's possible Heatwave's familiar enough with Cybertronian ship designs to tell that it's an older class of cargo hauler (as opposed to one that was commissioned after the bots went into stasis), but the class was rare enough when they were active that the team hadn't encountered it before the episode. Considering how long Cybertronian ships can (and apparently do) stay out in the vastness of space, it's probably not surprising that it stayed in service long enough to crash in prehistoric Maine - though why Ira and his kin are European looking cavemen instead of a proto-Native American people has me scratching my head...

BTW, was Optimus always so much taller than the Rescue Bots? Last couple of appearances, he looks like he's twice as tall as anyone on the team.

Flashwave wrote:Yep, gonna love Salvage. Just hope he doesn't become "Magic gadget saves the day" dude.

For some reason, I'm expecting Salvage and Boulder to wind up making junk art together at some point.

Flashwave wrote:But is there any reason to believe that or is this edmacated speculation based on continuity, because there's thrirty thousan Blurrs running around the Unicron Trilogy too. (or he's running so fast he can be in multiple galxies at once, a speed mirage, if you will.) he mentions being a two time winner of the Cybertronian 500, which implies Cybertron, alhough with no idea as to when that was, I suppose it could have been pre-colony . Doubtful, but possible

Granted, the RB Blurr info was put onto the Prime Blurr page prior to Blurr's debut in the cartoon, so it's kind of a case like how RID Grimlock's info and RID Sideswipe's info were each put onto the pages for their respective WFC counterparts ahead of their cartoon debuts. Prime Blurr and RB Blurr could be two different guys, but for now the Wiki's defaulting to its typical treatment of Aligned characters unless otherwise is stated.

However, what I was saying was just how I think it would be cool if the two new guys in this show each came from one of the planets from the Exiles novel.

Archanubis wrote:BTW, was Optimus always so much taller than the Rescue Bots? Last couple of appearances, he looks like he's twice as tall as anyone on the team.

Looking over previous episodes he appeared in, it seems so.

"Rescue Bot Academy" is up on WatchCartoonsLive.com and available for purchase on Hasbro Studio's YouTube channel. I'll hold off on my thoughts on it until Sabrblade posts the synopsis tomorrow.

Archanubis wrote:"Rescue Bot Academy" is up on WatchCartoonsLive.com and available for purchase on Hasbro Studio's YouTube channel. I'll hold off on my thoughts on it until Sabrblade posts the synopsis tomorrow.

Looks like it popped up online as a random torrent download.

Since I found a YouTube upload of it that hasn't been taken down yet (as of this typing), I might watch it early and post about it tonight instead of waiting.

EDIT: Just found out that it was another case like last episode, winding up on Amazon and iTunes early. If the YouTube upload goes down, here's a Dailymotion link.

Episode 71 -

Back when Bumblebee first appeared in his debut episode in season 1, Chief Burns noted how the sudden presence of a new Rescue Bot on the island might draw unwanted attention from the townspeople, yet the presence of newcomers Blurr and Salvage (and their obvious lack of human operators/partners) causes no such problems from the townsfolk. I guess Chief must have clued in the public on the arrival of two more Bots offscreen.

Blurr sure is reluctant to help the other Bots from being crushed by the platform.

Short theme song.

The whole thing was just a VR training simulation. Looks to be the same VR system as the one seen back in "A Virtual Disaster", only here it's used for rescue training instead of a video game.

Blurr didn't help for tactical reasons. Someone had to be free to handle things in case the rescue went wrong. Heatwave disagrees, citing teamwork as being more important, and suspends Blurr from Rescue Force training until further notice.

Heatwave left Optimus a voice message about things not working out with Blurr. Gotta wonder what Optimus was doing at the time for him (or anyone) to not be at the base to take Heatwave's call.

Each of the four Sigma-17 Bots are gonna school Blurr and Salvage on separate things, in a "Rescue Bots Academy".

Chase's curriculum takes the form of clip show style video logs of previous missions, on which they must take notes for a quiz.

Emergency call. A window washer is trapped on his malfunctioning hover platform. Blades and Boulder go out, while Heatwave and Chase remain on call. And after some persuading, Blurr and Salvage are allowed to go on the mission as well.

Salvage speaking to Kade is essentially Jason Marsden talking to himself.

Blurr nearly got the window washer killed!

Naturally, Chief is borderline furious with Blurr's rashness and carelessness.

Boulder suggests Blurr and Salvage might come to understand humans better if they learned more about them, starting with the Burns family. Enter Chase with more video clips.

Blurr and Salvage inquire about human genders and affections. Cue Chase trying to explain, and then showing more clips.

Blades notes how Cody seems to attract "falling objects". More clips from Chase.

The Burnses like to play a variation of Basketball that they and the Bots made up called Burns Ball.

Cody tells Blurr how he's a lot like how Heatwave was when he first came to Earth, always wanting Optimus to reassign him to something better. Blurr's not too sure he's cut out for this kind of stuff (just like Heatwave), but Cody's not going to give up on him.

Blurr mentions having been to Velocitron! "Nice planet. All roads, no speed limits, great spot to relax."

The voice chip from the window washer platform is used in an upgrade Salvage helps to install into the Sigma. It's call the Empathically-Reactive Voice-Interactive System, or ERVIS for short.

Blurr's out running red lights and speed limits, and without a driver.

Blurr toppled the statue of Horace Burns!

Jerry sees that Blurr was driverless. Luckily, Chief convinces him that it's a new experimental self-driving race car meant to making racing safer.

Heatwave. Is. CROSS!

Blurr is confined to the firehouse until further notice.

Blurr discovers the Sigma's hangar hidden under the basketball court.

Blades has finished the training video he was putting together for his own teaching session of Rescue Bots Academy.

Blades video is less clip show style and more of a homage to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Blurr overhears Heatwave deciding that, as soon as he hears back from Optimus, Blurr has to go.

Blurr's stolen the Sigma and takes off into the sky!

TO BE CONTINUED...



Lacey Chabert -- Southern Belle Voice
Maurice LaMarche -- Platform Voice
Jason Marsden -- ERVIS
Steve Blum -- Bad Kids TV Voice



Well, this episode sure had some surprises in it. For one, Chase's clips gave the initial impression of this being a typical clip show episode, but it wasn't. Chase's clips were only a small portion of the episode. Another surprise came in the form of ERVIS, who seemed to be added into the episode rather abruptly and for little reason, as though it were instead a seeding for something else to come later. But what surprised me the most was how the episode veered away from how I was expecting it to go into being something else entirely. What I was expecting was simply that, Blurr and Salvage being schooled by the Bots, combined with Chase's clips, that this episode could be used as sample episode to show to a new viewer what this show is like in a nutshell, with Blurr serving as the audience's gateway character in getting to understand the nature of the show. But that all changed when we started getting more of a serious-toned plot in the second half, with Blurr becoming more and more distant from the rest of the team, culminating in his outright abandoning the team altogether in a cliffhanger ending. On top of that, we got Blades' video with its MST3K-style setup and Blurr referring to Velocitron.

But at the root of it all, what this episode really did that made it stand out was show just how difficult training a young newcomer can be, especially when it's one that doesn't want to learn or go along with what he's being told. In past series, we got such difficult characters as Hot Rod, Cheetor, Nightscream, Side Burn, Wedge, Armada Hot Shot, Energon Ironhide, Cybertron Hot Shot, Animated Bumblebee, Prime Smokescreen, and RID 2015 Sideswipe. All were as inexperienced and hard to work with as Blurr, but all of them still tried to act in line with their teammates most of the time. No matter how much trouble those guys caused, they always managed to come around by the end of the same episode in which they got into trouble. With Blurr, however, he consistently remained uncooperative, and Heatwave was ready to give up on him and toss him to the wind. I honestly cannot think of any series in which the leader/mentor of the rambunctious youngster ever became so irate with said youngster that he even considered giving up on the kid. Every one of those Optimuses (and RID 2015 Bumblebee) was still willing to give their guy a chance and believe that he was capable of following orders and being a team player when things would get hairy. This show, this young-aged preschool-aimed show, however, is the one that is willing to take its kid's misbehavior all the way into the territories of line-crossing insubordination and desertion, and likewise have its role model leader character get so cross as to want nothing more to do with said guy.

In many respects, this is WAY more fascinating than the relationships we've seen between the various Optimuses of the past (and RID Bumblebee) and their respective rebellious kid characters. Of all the TF cartoons we've ever gotten, it's THIS show that is willing to go as far as it has with this kind of relationship. An extent that is probably the most realistic and dramatic of any version of the leaderbot/kidbot relationship we've ever had. And arguably the least kid-friendly version, at that. This episode shows just how sugarcoated so many other versions of this relationship have been depicted up until now. The other versions would have the conflict between the leader and the kid usually resolved by the end of a single episode, with any new conflicts to come in later episodes being all new conflicts. Here, we started with Blurr's reluctance to comply with rescue commands in his debut episode, and said confict has continued straight into this episode, and has only gotten worse, ending with both parties resorting to extreme decisions. This is how character development is done, and done well! This show is one-upping a total of 11 other shows in how its handling the discontent between the leaderbot and kidbot. They don't see eye to eye, they flat out don't like each other, and they don't resolve everything (or even anything) by a single episode's conclusion. The story of their relationship just keeps on going and growing from episode to episode, with no signs of their situation improving.

In a word: Boss.

Sabrblade wrote:Well, this episode sure had some surprises in it. For one, Chase's clips gave the initial impression of this being a typical clip show episode, but it wasn't. Chase's clips were only a small portion of the episode. Another surprise came in the form of ERVIS, who seemed to be added into the episode rather abruptly and for little reason, as though it were instead a seeding for something else to come later. But what surprised me the most was how the episode veered away from how I was expecting it to go into being something else entirely. What I was expecting was simply that, Blurr and Salvage being schooled by the Bots, combined with Chase's clips, that this episode could be used as sample episode to show to a new viewer what this show is like in a nutshell, with Blurr serving as the audience's gateway character in getting to understand the nature of the show. But that all changed when we started getting more of a serious-toned plot in the second half, with Blurr becoming more and more distant from the rest of the team, culminating in his outright abandoning the team altogether in a cliffhanger ending. On top of that, we got Blades' video with its MST3K-style setup and Blurr referring to Velocitron.

But at the root of it all, what this episode really did that made it stand out was show just how difficult training a young newcomer can be, especially when it's one that doesn't want to learn or go along with what he's being told. In past series, we got such difficult characters as Hot Rod, Cheetor, Nightscream, Side Burn, Wedge, Armada Hot Shot, Energon Ironhide, Cybertron Hot Shot, Animated Bumblebee, Prime Smokescreen, and RID 2015 Sideswipe. All were as inexperienced and hard to work with as Blurr, but all of them still tried to act in line with their teammates most of the time. No matter how much trouble those guys caused, they always managed to come around by the end of the same episode in which they got into trouble. With Blurr, however, he consistently remained uncooperative, and Heatwave was ready to give up on him and toss him to the wind. I honestly cannot think of any series in which the leader/mentor of the rambunctious youngster ever became so irate with said youngster that he even considered giving up on the kid. Every one of those Optimuses (and RID 2015 Bumblebee) was still willing to give their guy a chance and believe that he was capable of following orders and being a team player when things would get hairy. This show, this young-aged preschool-aimed show, however, is the one that is willing to take its kid's misbehavior all the way into the territories of line-crossing insubordination and desertion, and likewise have its role model leader character get so cross as to want nothing more to do with said guy.

In many respects, this is WAY more fascinating than the relationships we've seen between the various Optimuses of the past (and RID Bumblebee) and their respective rebellious kid characters. Of all the TF cartoons we've ever gotten, it's THIS show that is willing to go as far as it has with this kind of relationship. An extent that is probably the most realistic and dramatic of any version of the leaderbot/kidbot relationship we've ever had. And arguably the least kid-friendly version, at that. This episode shows just how sugarcoated so many other versions of this relationship have been depicted up until now. The other versions would have the conflict between the leader and the kid usually resolved by the end of a single episode, with any new conflicts to come in later episodes being all new conflicts. Here, we started with Blurr's reluctance to comply with rescue commands in his debut episode, and said confict has continued straight into this episode, and has only gotten worse, ending with both parties resorting to extreme decisions. This is how character development is done, and done well! This show is one-upping a total of 11 other shows in how its handling the discontent between the leaderbot and kidbot. They don't see eye to eye, they flat out don't like each other, and they don't resolve everything (or even anything) by a single episode's conclusion. The story of their relationship just keeps on going and growing from episode to episode, with no signs of their situation improving.

In a word: Boss.

I think you hit the nail on the head there, Sabrblade. I can't really think of anything to add.

I will say that the episode does do a good job of showing how alienated Blurr feels from the rest of the rescue team, even from Salvage, who, by comparison, has pretty much fallen into place. How much of that is Blurr not making an effort and the team not exactly being all that welcoming towards him (especially Heatwave) the episode doesn't make entirely clear, but it does make clear that Blurr isn't fitting in. Blurr does, however, come across as a bit hypocritical when he accuses Heatwave of "taking the easy way" when he later steals the Sigma and runs off (and pretty much proves Heatwave's point). We'll see how things go down in the next episode.

And yet another episode has been put onto Amazon early. Seems to be a trend with all these latest episodes.

Episode 72 -

A "last time on..." segment. That's rare for this show.

Blurr ignores ERVIS's emergency alert about a situation in the Sigma launch hangar, and orders him to set coordinates for the Silicon Flats of Hydrus Four, "where the racing is fast, the energon is high-grade, and the locals never need rescuing."

The team's out looking for Blurr, unaware of his having taken off in the ship. Um, HOW do they not know this? Surely the ship's takeoff would have shaken the whole firehouse, not to mention that the door to the hangar and its exit were both left open when the ship took off. It's a pretty hard thing to miss.

Some solar flare activity has appeared. Apparently Doc has been detecting it for some time now. When it reaches the atmosphere, it can cause electro-mechanical problems, including with the Bots.

Cody's still trapped in the hangar, with more catwalks threatening to collapse on him.

Short theme song.

Cody contacts Servo via the whistle High Tide gave him, alerting Servo to return to the firehouse. The others rendezvous to follow him.

Cody's found and Salvage saves him before Heatwave catches and tosses away the fallen catwalks.

Optimus is contacted about Blurr's theft of the ship.

ERVIS updates Blurr about Cody's endangerment, Cody's rescue, five unread messages from Optimus, and the incoming solar flares.

The flares darken both the ship in space and the town back on Earth, and continues to harm the Bots.

Both Graham and Boulder suspect a Corona Mass Ejection at play. Sort of a super solar flare.

The team has to check out the town to see if everyone there is alright, but the Bots' lights and sirens and other non-essentials are still out. Though Chief and Chase will head to Doc's to see what he can do to help.

Blurr gets the Sigma restarted, but a communication satellite is heading straight for the ship.

Blurr gets the ship out of the way, but the satellite had been affected by the CME, and is now falling out of orbit on a trajectory toward Griffin Rock. Estimated time of impact is 30 minutes.

Some power is back online, but not enough to raise the island's protective dome. The island's residents must be evacuated to the underground shelter.

Salvage still hasn't given up on Blurr and jury-rigs a transmitter to contact him with.

Wow. For a second, the episode made us think that Blurr just might feel guilty enough to want to go back and stop the satellite, what with his hesitation to resume course to Hydrus Four, but nope, he says to resume course. Wow.

Oh, nevermind, he rethought his rethinking and ERVIS reverses course back to Earth, ready to shoot the satellite with the Sigma's laser blasters.

Unfortunately, the laser was just recently installed (being the upgrade to the ship that was installed last episode) but wasn't finished before Blurr took off with the ship. So it can't fire.

Salvage reaches Blurr and patches him into the others.

Boulder and Graham instruct Blurr on how to get the laser working, but it'll only work at 10% capacity. So Blurr decided to fly in ten times closer, which will put him in the path of the exploding debris. The ship, and Blurr himself, could be destroyed.

Blurr destroyed the satellite...

...and the Sigma.

Oh wait, the explosion just triggered the ship's cloaking shield. It's there.

Chase wants to court-martial Blurr for grand theft spaceship.

Hi Optimus.

Optimus performs a "Rite of the Autobrand"-style branding on Blurr and Salvage, and states that they have proven themselves to be Rescue Bots... at another Earth location.

Choral music closes the episode.



Okay, let's not beat around the bush, here. We all saw Blurr's redemption coming. It's in the episode title, even. We knew he'd have to come around and help out in some form in the end, or else run the risk of becoming one of the most despised-by-the-fandom Autobot characters ever. So it was predictable that he'd have a change of heart because it was inevitable. That said, it was still a good episode, if a bit confusing in places like with how literally NO ONE except Cody noticed the giant alien spaceship lift off at the end of last episode, or why Blurr and Salvage are suddenly reassigned to some other location by Optimus. Why did he do that? It took this show nearly 70 episodes to give us new Rescue Bots (High Tide is a guest star and not a Rescue Bot), and just as they were getting adjusted to working with our heroes, Optimus comes along to put them on a bus. Boo!

But, don't get me wrong, it really was good. The danger of the satellite falling out of orbit was gripping enough keep up interest in it, and Blurr's progression as a character came to its natural next step of development for one such as himself who had zero interest in rescue missions having to learn to get used to that kind of action. And three episodes of this development was ample time for it to occur in a manner that was both realistic and dramatic.

I just don't get why they can't stick around for good. Salvage is even voiced by series regular Jason Marsden, so he's not even a guest voice role. What's wrong with adding more Autobots to the main cast? Prime suffered this same problem with not getting a new main Autobot until season 3 with Ultra Magnus and then upgrading Wheeljack to full time status (he was just a guest in the first two seasons). I really hope that the new RID series doesn't suffer from this as well, as it's great when new faces added to the main team since it opens the door for new (and sometimes better) character dynamics between old and new characters. It's like Hasbro Studios is too afraid of changing things that much with its TF cartoon main character lineups, when every show that's ever come before theirs have had next to no problems with bringing in new faces. At the very least, this team needs its own full-time "Sixth Ranger" (well, "fifth", but you know what I mean).

Sabrblade wrote:I just don't get why they can't stick around for good. Salvage is even voiced by series regular Jason Marsden, so he's not even a guest voice role. What's wrong with adding more Autobots to the main cast? Prime suffered this same problem with not getting a new main Autobot until season 3 with Ultra Magnus and then upgrading Wheeljack to full time status (he was just a guest in the first two seasons). I really hope that the new RID series doesn't suffer from this as well, as it's great when new faces added to the main team since it opens the door for new (and sometimes better) character dynamics between old and new characters. It's like Hasbro Studios is too afraid of changing things that much with its TF cartoon main character lineups, when every show that's ever come before theirs have had next to no problems with bringing in new faces. At the very least, this team needs its own full-time "Sixth Ranger" (well, "fifth", but you know what I mean).

I have to agree; not sure why Salvage and Blurr couldn't have stuck around a little longer, if only to see them obtain a little more training, especially since I think Blurr still needs a little more development if only to make sure his "redemption" sticks. I think there would have been plenty of ways to feature the new 'bots without them completely stealing the spotlight from the original four.

As for the "sixth ranger" character - something tells me Servo is serving as this atm.

How many eps in the season? Seems like this would be a good ending for it, but I think this is only episode 21 accoring to Amazon?

I'm hoping Prime expounds more on that whole "Rescue Teams elsewhere" thing in Season 4...

Flashwave wrote:How many eps in the season? Seems like this would be a good ending for it, but I think this is only episode 21 accoring to Amazon?

26 episodes for season 3. So 78 episodes total. Six more episodes to go for the season.

The site that usually provides links to watch this show's episodes online has been extremely lackadaisical with doing so for the latest episode, so I haven't seen it yet and am wondering if anyone knows where it might be found to watch online?

Sabrblade wrote:The site that usually provides links to watch this show's episodes online has been extremely lackadaisical with doing so for the latest episode, so I haven't seen it yet and am wondering if anyone knows where it might be found to watch online?

Don't ask me, I depend upon you! i though the last several were Amazon.com jumping the gun, but they must have taken them back down cause its behind an ep

AT LAST!

Episode 73 -

Mrs. Luskey sounds like a valley girl.

When helping the motorist move his car, Boulder goes really CGI (save for his head, for some reason).

Short theme song.

Mrs. Luskey incorrectly called Cody "Jody".

Though Servo did a good job at saving Poopsie from traffic, Heatwave and Chase express some concern over Servo showing too much sentient behavior that he could blow their cover.

From now on, Servo must act only on command when out in public. Boulder and Cody want to help him get used to that.

An armored van delivered a diamond collar for Poopsie to the Luskey mansion. Poopsie doesn't seem to like it, though.

After seeing a news report about Servo, Poopsie grabs the diamond collar and runs off.

Mayor Luskey calls Chief believing that the diamond collar was stolen.

Poopsie brings the collar to Servo, buries it, and then wants Servo to dig it up, which he does. Heh, dogs.

Uh oh. The team sees Servo with the collar and suspect him of having taken it.

Surprisingly, Kade of all people stands up for Servo by pointing out an alibi: The drain pipe that he and Servo were working on earlier is now fixed, which Servo had finished by himself while the team was out looking for the collar. And he was with Cody and Boulder all morning before that, so Servo couldn't have had the time to go over to the mayor's mansion to steal the collar (and we know he didn't).

However, regardless of whether he's innocent or guilty, he was still acting on his own, and Chief states that if Servo can't get passed that, then he might have to be given back to High Tide.

Kade and Graham return the collar to the Mayor, and fib that the collar was found on the ground, as though the "thief" dropped it, and that they'll "keep looking for the thief".

Cody and Boulder help Servo learn how to behave as a robot.

Poopsie tries to give Servo her toy bone, but Servo can't accept it without a command.

As Poopsie chases a truck, Servo is torn between having to follow commands and saving Poopsie. He ultimately chooses the latter.

Poopsie wanders into a museum to chew on a T-Rex skeleton. Pulling out one bone causes the whole thing to collapse.

Servo appears out of the rubble and is accused of having destroyed the skeleton.

Poopsie nearly gets crushed by a fallen toolbox, which instead knocks a man off his ladder. Servo saves the man, but is accused of having knocked the ladder over himself.

Servo smashes an uninstalled window to save a skateboarder from crashing into it, much to the irate chagrin of the men who were carrying the window.

Heatwave and Chase are through letting Servo run free, for though he is a Cybertronian Helper Bot, they see him as having been anything but helpful.

Poopsie's entered the zoo cage of the cross-eyed lion!

Servo had to disable the zoo's power to let himself enter the lion's cage, but in turn he's made an opening for other animals to break free.

Servo's saved Poopsie, but now the gorilla's gotten out of its own cage.

Heatwave scares the gorilla back into its cage.

Servo finally succeeds in dropping off Poopsie back home.

Mrs. Luskey refers to her husband as "H.B."

Both Poopsie and the mayor get taken by a trash-collecting bot.

Servo is apprehended by the team.

Security footage reveals to the team that all of Servo's actions were less vandalism and more attempts to save Poopsie and other people. But he was still acting on his own. But but Cody argues that each emergency necessitated Servo to behave the way he did, and Chief concedes that Servo was justified.

The mayor and Poopsie are about to be eaten by a Scrapmaster. Luckily the team arrives just in time to stop it.

Servo is allowed to stay with the team, and Graham explains to the mayor that Servo acts the way he, er, it does due its programming.



Nicole Dubuc -- Mrs. Luskey
Jeff Bennett -- Anthropologist
Poopsie is uncredited, but was previously voiced by Dee Bradley Baker



Though a bit of a step down from the last three episodes, this episode wasn't meant to be as big a deal as the Blurr/Salvage trilogy, so while it was a smaller scaled episode, it was still decent in its own right. Servo proved that he could hold an episode focused on himself, and for a character limited by his having to basically be an animal, he was surprisingly expressive and emotive as a character. We could really feel for him when we needed to, and could also root for him when he did something great. His being a dog was of no consequence in our being able to relate to him, as we could really get invested in his ethical dilemma of having to choose between doing what was by the book and doing what was morally right. However, one thing in this episode did bug me, and that was the whole "Servo must not act on his own" thing. The whole time, I kept thinking "Can't they just tell people that Servo has advanced enough programming to behave the way he does?" And in the end, that's what was done, so why couldn't they think to have done that sooner? Sure, if they had, then we wouldn't have had the episode as it was, but come on.

Next episode is online early.


Episode 74

Boulder can take pictures with his eyes.

Boulder, Cody, Frankie, and a disgruntled Kade are bird watching in Blossom Vale. Kade's reluctantly filling in for Graham as Boulder's driver since Graham was too busy. The trip was Chief's idea.

Boulder mentions that Cybertron had nothing like Earth birds. Guess he either didn't know about the bird-like Cybertronians like Laserbeak, or simply considers Earth birds different enough.

Full theme song.

"Power Up and Energize!" - Boulder uses a dual-barreled water cannon to spray some brown liquid to stop the branch Cody and Frankie are falling on from hitting some baby birds, as well as to help lower their fall so Boulder can catch them.

On the trip, Boulder says he spotted 27 of the island's known bird species. But he can't recognize the woodpeckers he saw and can't find an entry on them in his book.

Doc discovers that the woodpeckers are a species thought to have been extinct, the golden-crested woodpeckers, which Dani states that these ones are the first ones seen in 40 years.

Doc insists that no one must find out about the birds until he can contact the proper authorities, and that they must be protected as an endangered species. The last thing they need are a bunch of tourists traveling through their habitat.

When Boulder brings up the notion of creatures who need protection from humans (as their mission is to protect humans), Chase points out the irony and moral dilemma in that notion.

Heatwave is the only Bot unwilling to protect the birds, as it's too off-mission for him.

Blades's advice to the baby birds trying to learn how to fly: "Just do what I did the first time. Close your eyes and scream."

The Bots do their best to guard the birds while Heatwave and Kade have to handle all of the city emergencies by themselves.

Mayor Luskey overhears Kade talking about the endangered birds (into his comm to his dad) and orders him to come clean.

The Mayor goes behind Kade's back and calls a press conference about the rediscovery of the golden-crested woodpeckers. He lets word slip to Huxley that the Burns family might know who made the discovery, and Huxley calls Cody. Huxley is determined to find out who found the birds, so now the Bots' undercover status is once again put in jeopardy.

Boulder's going to talk to Huxley using a voice changer and Cody says that the person demands to remain anonymous.

The voice changer winds up giving Boulder a cute little girl's voice.

And then it switches to a deep scary voice.

Boulder shuts off the voice changer and speaks with his real voice, which is okay since Huxley's only ever heard him speak as a robot.

Boulder failed to convince everyone to leave the bird alone.

Kade is confronted by the mayor and Huxley, and to cover up for Boulder, he claims to be the one who found the birds (not as a means to take the credit, but legitimately to keep Boulder's identity safe).

Kade is forced to give away to birds' location, much to the disappointment of his family watching him on TV at home.

The mayor abruptly announces his decision to build what he calls the Woodpecker Wonderland Luxury Campgrounds in (coincidentally) Blossom Vale.

The Burnses arrive ahead the tourist crowd to close up Blossom Vale, but the mayor soon gets a court order to open it back up for unlimited camping immediately.

As the tourists set up their campsites, sparks from Mr. Hunter's campfire drift to his firewood pile and start a fire that spreads to engulf the entire surrounding area.

I just noticed that Chase's cockpit has a backseat even in robot mode (Frankie's seated behind Chief).

In the aftermath of the fire, the woodpeckers are gone.

As in DEAD.

They state that they couldn't save the woodpeckers, and Chase refers to the incident as "the RE-EXTINCTION of a species".

No, wait, the team just thinks the birds are dead. Doc, however, confirms that he had leg-tagged the birds with tracers earlier that day. His computer tablet shows that the birds flew away to the next valley when they saw the fire. They're all okay, babies included.

Doc also thinks that they'll eventually return to their home in Blossom Vale since they're so territorial.

Cody asks if there might be some form of a balance to be found with the woodpeckers. A way for them to be safe while people can still see them. This give Doc an idea.

The mayor opens up the Luskey Bird Sanctuary, a haven for endangered birds. Only a few people at a time will be admitted so as not to disturb the birds. And webcams set up around the place will allow people from around the world to observe the woodpeckers as they rebuild their population.



Diamond White -- Little Girl Voice
Jeff Bennett -- Birdwatcher
Steve Blum -- Darth Vader Voice (yes, that is seriously what it is credited as!)
Parvesh Cheena -- Camper



Well, this episode was certainly not a bad one. Far from it. IT was just a simple... "cute" episode, with an animal activism message. It's fine for a show like this to have a message about endangered species every once in a while, but as a concept, it's not something that hasn't been done before. Luckily, there was enough humor and character focus to make this one entertaining, like with the voice changer malfunctions, or with Boulder and Huxley actually getting to speak with each other for the first time ever. Though, we literally had the whole "Bots' undercover status put at risk" threat just last episode, so to see it brought back up again so soon kinda felt like they were treading old waters. We need some new investment to keep us intrigued here, or it's gonna feel like they're running out of ideas. Both Morocco and Quarry have been beaten, so that only leave Madeline Pynch to deal with, and she is still out there. Whatever "ultimate sacrifice" the Bots are gonna make in the finale, it better be worth it.

Sorry if I sound like I went off topic there, but this show has done so much before now that episodes like this one, while nice, just pale in comparison to the many better ones. This show capable of so much more, and I really want it to keep being good. If not more intense then at least more funny would be fine.

Got link?