Secret Orders! Destroy the Autobot Base!!
From Transformers Wiki
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 Well, if they're secret, how are we supposed to know what to do? | ||||||
| "Secret Orders! Destroy the Autobot Base!!" (Himitsu Shirei! Cybertron Kichi o Hakaiseyo!!) | ||||||
| Production company | Takara, Toei | |||||
| Airdate | 6 December 1988 | |||||
| Writer | Toyohiro Andō | |||||
| Director | Yoshikata Nitta | |||||
| Animation studio | Toei | |||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | |||||
Installed as a double-agent within the Autobot ranks, Clouder begins a sabotage scheme that sets up their base for an all-out Decepticon attack.
Contents |
Synopsis
Still believing that the Decepticon spy Clouder is one of them, the Autobots have welcomed him into their base. As Minerva spends a quiet afternoon showing him around, he sneaks into the Barrier System room and downloads information on Autobot Base's location. Cab and Shūta find him, but he claims he was just mesmerized by the equipment, and he and the Headmaster Juniors go on to relax with cartoons and cookies.
A little later, Clouder excuses himself from the Juniors' company and leaves the base in his transtector. Once out of range, he transforms to his Decepticon falcon mode and meets with the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors, who are waiting in the forest nearby, handing off the downloading information to them. His flight does not go unnoticed, however, as Metalhawk witnesses him emerging from the trees and spots the Juniors below. Unaware that this Decepticon falcon is Clouder, he returns to the Autobot base and consults the computer records for an identification, only to discover that access to the system has been locked out. When he asks the Autobot Juniors who is responsible for tampering with the computers, Minerva takes the blame, but Hawk suspects they are covering for their new "friend".
Meanwhile, beneath the ocean, the Decepticon Juniors have delivered Clouder's information to the other Decepticons, who are operating out of Overlord's base mode. Obtaining the base's location is only the first step in the plan, as they must now await Clouder's delivery of the plans to the compound. The young Godmaster wastes no time in going about this task, sneaking around the base and planting explosives which detonate within a matter of minutes. When Hawk and the Juniors race to investigate the damage, Clouder enters the control room and downloads the necessary data. In response to the news of the explosions, Ginrai and the Autobot Godmasters return to the base from Canada. Hawk voices his suspicions to Ginrai without naming names, but Ginrai takes his meaning, and they go outside to speak freely. Ginrai throws out Hawk's claims and defends Clouder, but Shūta overhears them and tells the other Juniors. While he and Cab share in Hawk's suspicions, Minerva protests the innocence of their new "comrade".
"I've got drumsticks!"
After night has fallen, as the assembled Autobots prepare to conduct a base-wide search, their computers suddenly go haywire as they are hit by jamming waves. The waves are the work of the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors, who are preparing for their next rendezvous with Clouder—Cancer has accidentally started broadcasting the waves early, tipping the Autobots off to their presence. Cancer cuts the waves off, and Metalhawk and Ranger head out to investigate. Clouder follows them out, professing to have been ordered to do so by Ginrai, and breaks off from the group to meet with the Decepticons in his falcon form. As he hands the Juniors the data, however, Metalhawk catches them in the act and hears Clouder referred to by name by the Decepticons. With the identity of the traitor confirmed, a battle between the two erupts. Ranger and Lightfoot arrive to help, and together, they bring Clouder down. Clouder is subsequently imprisoned in the Autobot base, and much anger and regret ensues, particularly from Ginrai and Minerva.
The data stolen by Clouder, meanwhile, is brought back to Mega and Giga by the Juniors, and they order Hydra and Buster to attack a city in order to draw as many of the Autobots out of their base as possible. Predictably enough, Ginrai and the Godmasters head out, at which point Overlord transforms to vehicle mode, and he and the Decepticon Juniors roll out for their attack on the Autobot base. As they mass on the mountain ridge overlooking the base, Clouder triggers his remaining bombs with a concealed detonator, and as the explosions tear through the base, destroying their communications systems, the Decepticon onslaught begins!
In the city, Ginrai and Godbomber clash with Buster and Hydra as the other Godmasters aid in rescues and repairs. Knowing that the success of the Decepticons' strategy rides on their drawing the fight out, Buster and Hydra try a new formation—Hydra leaps onto Buster's shoulders, and they merge their Chōkon Power in a mighty "Chōkon Scramble" attack! Unaware of the fate of his comrades back at the base, Ginrai fights on...
As the forest around the Autobot base burns, a fierce attack from the Decepticons destroys their weapons system, and a final missile strike cuts power to the entire complex. As Metalhawk and the Juniors look out at the Sun cresting the horizon, the looming form of Overlord's base mode appears, and the ringing laughter of Mega and Giga can be heard...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
|
Human Autobots |
Human Decepticons |
Notes
Animation and technical errors
- When the Autobots realize that Clouder is the traitor, the "eyeholes" on his Decepticon insignia, as well as the hole in the crest, are colored purple, instead of black, like his armor.
- Clouder's hairline seems to drastically recede once he's tied up.
- During a pan from Buster and Hydra to Super Ginrai and Godbomber facing off in the city, the entire right side of Hydra's body, including his entire right leg from the thigh downward, is missing. The layout of the shot indicates the missing portion was intended to disappear out of the right side of frame, but his cel was positioned improperly, too far to the left.
- During the push through the forest toward the Autobot base, the rails on Giga's tank are a light gray, when they should normally be the same teal color as Overlord's shins/ramps.
- During the rescue scenes in the city, there's a terribly blatant animation loop in which three people run past Ranger a number of times in quick succession.
Continuity errors
- The sun is beginning to set as Clouder's explosives go off... and yet it still isn't dark by the time that Ginrai and the Godmasters arrive... having travelled from Canada to Japan. Not the only time that Masterforce has had characters travel large distances in next to no time, but come on.
- At the end of the previous episode, Ginrai looked at Clouder in an over-the-shoulder look as though he were suspicious of Clouder for something. But, in this episode, when Hawk tells Ginrai that he suspects Clouder to be a traitor, Ginrai openly states that he fully trusts Clouder and denies the possibility of him being a traitor. Why would he look at someone he fully trusts in a suspicious manner?
Continuity notes
- Clouder "joined" the Autobots in the previous episode.
- The "Scramble" in "Chōkon Scramble" appears to refer to Buster and Hydra's rudimentary combination, since "Scramble" was the term used to refer to the power of combination in Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers, "Scramble City: Mobilization" and the associated manga.
Real-world references
- The cartoon that the Headmaster Juniors and Clouder are watching appears to be a slapstick version of Aesop's fable, "The Tortoise and the Hare".
- As Giga and Mega begin their assault on the Autobot Base, one of the shots of ordinance being raised into position is an almost-exact rendition of the Aries Ib lunar lander being lowered into the Clavius moonbase as seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Trivia
- This episode features the debut of the third and final set of eyecatches (commercial bumpers) for the series. They feature God Ginrai, Grand Maximus, BlackZarak and Overlord, with the God Ginrai bumper being repeated at the conclusion of the episodes, rather than a fifth unique one being used, as has been the case in the past.
- The insert song "Kiseki no Transformer" features once again. For the last time this time.
- Although it's not the first episode of Super-God Masterforce to go out on a cliffhanger, it is the first to actually have "To Be Continued" appear at the end.
Foreign localization
English
- Title: "Destroy the Autobots' Headquarters" (Omni Productions dub)
- Original airdate: January 27, 1991
Home video releases
- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce — DVD Box 02 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — The Takara Collection Vol 2 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome)
2008 — The Transformers: Super God Masterforce (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Super-God Masterforce (Shout! Factory)
