« Transformers: The Headmasters ep 27 »
Straight pimpin'.
"Miraculous Warriors, Targetmasters (Part 1)" 奇跡の戦士ターゲットマスター (前編) () (Kiseki no Senshi Targetmasters (Zenpen))
Production company	Takara, Toei
Airdate	12 February 1988
Writer	Yoshihisa Araki
Director	Masao Itō, Fumiji Kitazume
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

With the Decepticons having fled Earth, the Autobots begin the clean-up operation, but a discarded bomb threatens the planet's safety. Can the newest Autobot arrivals save the day? And what are the Decepticons planning now?

Synopsis

Impossible physics is your friend.

Following Scorponok's defeat at the hands of Fortress Maximus, the Decepticons have abandoned Earth, leaving the Autobots to pick up the pieces and eradicate all memory of the villains' presence from the planet. The four Headmasters are charged with locating and disposing of the plasma energy explosives that Scorponok had planted in various locations around the Earth, while Fortress arranges to help restore areas still suffering from damage caused by the Decepticons. He appoints Spike as head of the project, at which point Wheelie says that he will call on some of his friends to aid in the effort as well, although Daniel is not convinced he has any.

Chromedome accidentally set us up the bomb.

Meanwhile, Chromedome and Hardhead have discovered a collection of five linked explosives in the heart of a volcano, and are in the process of carefully removing them when a volcanic tremor activates the timer. To deal with the situation as quickly as possible, the pair Cross-Head On and manage to escape from the cave with the explosives as lava laps at their heels.

On Earth, Spike and Arcee attend a conference at the United Nations in preparation for the clean-up operation. Daniel continues to poke fun at Wheelie due to the failure of his "friends" to appear—but just then, three Autobots—Pointblank, Sureshot and Crosshairs—swoop down out of the sky, land in front of the two youths and greet Wheelie. Daniel is genuinely impressed by these cool-looking warriors and compliments Wheelie on his friends, but Pointblank seems surprised to hear them referred to this way. Wheelie stutters and stumbles, but Pointblank cuts him off and asks to see Fortress; when Daniel moves off to lead the way for the new arrivals, Pointblank takes Wheelie aside and demands to know why Daniel thinks they are his friends. Wheelie apologizes—in fact, this trio are his superior officers!

Meet the new guys!

Back at Autobot City, Fortress attempts to figure out how to deal with the looming detonation of the bombs Chromedome and Hardhead discovered, but finds that there will be no time to defuse them. Just then, Wheelie and Daniel arrive with Pointblank, Sureshot and Crosshairs in tow. Famous amongst Autobots for their expertise in battles throughout the universe, Pointblank cautions Fortress that Earth will never truly be safe until the Decepticons are totally wiped out, but Fortress has more pressing concerns in the form of the impending explosion and invites the newly arrived Autobots along as Battleship Maximus takes off.

Meet the other new guys!

Chromedome and Hardhead are still trying to escape the volcanic caverns, only to find themselves trapped by a rockslide. Battleship Maximus arrives in time to dig them out, and they bring the plasma bombs on board, so that they may fly them out into space and allow them to harmlessly detonate in the void. While Spike is busy leading the Protectobots, Technobots and Trainbots in destroying the Decepticons' abandoned Earth headquarters, Battleship Maximus races to get to a safe distance. Pointblank and co. offer to fly ahead with them, tossing out a veiled insult at the Headmasters in the process by making it clear they are stronger and faster, but Fortress refuses. Soon, they reach the safety zone, and are about to release the explosives into space, when suddenly, a small craft appears on their radar, broadcasting an SOS. The ship is a refugee craft from the Headmasters' adopted homewold of planet Master, carrying six escapees that are being pursued by Sixshot and a trio of Decepticons familiar to Pointblank and his team—Slugslinger, Misfire and Triggerhappy. While they engage them in battle, the refugee ship docks with Battleship Maximus, and Twincast translates the escapees' words, revealing that the Decepticons have turned their attention to planet Master, returning there and attacking it. Eager to prove themselves the better of Pointblank's team, the Headmasters spring into action against Sixshot, but while they are dealing with him, the Master refugees try to do their part by bringing the explosives aboard their craft and flying them out into space. Slugslinger makes for their ship as it flies by overhead and Pointblank tackles him, but just then, the explosives go off, bathing Slugslinger, Pointblank and their teammates in a wave of plasma energy...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Continuity notes

• Scorponok and the other Decepticons have fled Earth in between his defeat at the end of the previous episode, and the beginning of this one.

Animation and technical errors

• Appearing in an establishing crowd scene alongside Skyfire is Ironhide—who died in The Transformers: The Movie. Not that he's unique in this sort of thing.
• Also appearing in the crowd scene is a blue and white Optimus Prime.
• When Arcee shakes hands with Spike, she appears to be abnormally small. Not that this series is unique in that sort of thing either.
• When Wheelie remembers the battles Pointblank, Crosshairs and Sureshot had fought, Slugslinger appears as one of the defeated Decepticons.
• When the Protectobots unite, Defensor has green eyes instead of blue.
• When the Autobots receive the SOS transmission from the refugees, there's no sound.
• Fortress has a dark gray fist instead of a light gray fist when he says to open the hatch.
• Fortress has a dark gray fist again when he tells Twincast they have to stop the refugees from taking the bombs.
• When Highbrow leaps up with the others to do the scrum attack, he has a light gray head instead of black.

Continuity errors

• For some unfathomable reason, the Master refugees speak only in unintelligible Mini-Con-style beeps and whistles in this and all subsequent episodes (they require Twincast to translate for them here, but when they become Targetmasters their partners are also able to understand them). This totally unexplained trait is limited purely to these six Master natives, with none of the Headmasters having this problem, nor any of the other robots from Master that we have met, or will meet, such as Abel, Jack or Kirk.

Trivia

• The Targetmaster-partners-to-be are never referred to by name in The Headmasters.
• This is the third episode of The Headmasters to feature an insert song; it features the debut of "Destron Sanka", and also features a reprise of the one insert song previously used in the series, "Tate! Ikari no Headmasters". These two songs are the only ones used in the series.
• Pointblank's rather dismissive attitude towards Wheelie (for which he can't really be blamed) is the start of a trend of him being something of a dick to most of the other Autobots. Why? Because he's a professional soldier.
• Couldn't the Autobots have destroyed the Decepticons' base this easily... much earlier?
• As the future Targetmasters fly to meet Wheelie, the Chrysler Building can be seen in the background. This is surprisingly geographically accurate, assuming they're coming down 1st Avenue.
• As Fortress works on the problem of the bombs, his screen displays what appears to be technical information for a computer processor, possibly generated by the CP/M operating system.
• According to the booklet included with the Pioneer DVD release of the series, the last part of this episode was interrupted by a special news report on its original broadcast in Japan.

Foreign localization

English

• Title: "The Miracle Warriors, Part 1" (Omni Productions dub)
• Original airdate: January 17, 1993

• Title: "The Miracle Warriors - The Targetmasters: Part One" (Shout! Factory sub)

• Highbrow utters "Thank the AllSpark they failed." in response to the Decepticon bomb plot failing, in the first ever namedropping of the AllSpark in Generation 1 media.
• Still, Twincast refers to his Mini-Cassettes as Deployers.
• The Pit is again referred to.

Mandarin

• Title: "Yǒngzhě Jiànglín: Mùbiāo Zhànshì (Shàng)" (勇者降临：目标战士(上), "Brave warriors come: Targetmasters - Part I")

Italian

• Title: "I soldati dell'Apocalisse, i Target-Masters - parte 1" ("Soldiers of Apocalypse, Targetmasters - Part 1")

Spanish

• Title: "Los Guerreros Milagrosos" (America)

Home video releases

LaserDisc

1996 — Transformers: The Headmasters Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2002 — Transformers: The Headmasters — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — The Takara Collection Vol 1 — Transformers: Headmasters (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers: Headmasters (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2011 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.