Cube (episode)

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Put the teams on the field and get 'em pumped up right 'Cause all my rowdy friends are here for Monday night!
"Cube"
Season	1
No. in season	7
Production company	Allspark Animation
Airdate	September 30, 2018 (Xfinity X1) October 12, 2018 (CN app/website) October 13, 2018 (USA)
Writer	Randolph Heard
Directors	Robert Cullen & Ehud Landsberg
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on YouTube

Bumblebee learns how he first met Windblade and relives a Golden Age encounter with a young Starscream and his Seekers.

Synopsis

Inside the Decepticon scout ship, Windblade trawls the ship's computer for Decepticon intel, but is unable to turn up anything useful. Bumblebee, on the other hand, has found a heavy-duty weapon, but is more impressed with his other find: a glowing cube that he can't identify, but Windblade immediately recognizes. Despite Windblade's best attempts to remind him of his love of the game of cube, he can't recall anything about it, so she instead opts to simply patch into his mind. Inside his mind, Bumblebee is overwhelmed by the amount of cube-related memories he has, and Windblade points him in the direction of a relevant memory...

Are you ready for some cube?

On Cybertron, in the years before the war, Bumblebee finds himself ejected from a sports stadium, unable to get in to watch the Cube World Championship. His interest is piqued, however, when he observes a group of jet Transformers—Starscream, Dirge, and Ramjet—making their way into the stadium, accompanied by their "honored guest" Windblade. Bumblebee gets the idea of hiding behind Windblade and sneaking in past the guard, but finds himself caught out by an incredulous Starscream and thrown out yet again. Undefeated, Bumblebee steals a costume from the stadium's cube mascot, using it as a disguise to gain entrance, but unexpectedly finds himself thrown into the center of the arena to perform!

In the grandstands, Windblade is amused by the "mascot's" dance before the game begins, pitting the Iacon City championship team against the challengers from Polyhex. Iacon gets the upper hand early in the match, but Bumblebee's jubilant celebration is cut short when the real cube mascot, who is not pleased with the deception, arrives, and after a brief scuffle Bumblebee abandons the disguise. On his way out, however, he crosses paths with Windblade, who's amused by his performance. Windblade reveals that she's from Caminus, and only recently befriended Starscream and his Seekers after arriving on Cybertron; on learning that the Camien doesn't know anything about cube, Bumblebee tries to teach her the rules of the game as Polyhex scores the first goal. When Starscream and his underlings catch up with Windblade, however, they're not pleased to see her fraternizing with the yellow 'bot, and a brief scuffle between Bee and the Coneheads ends when Starscream uses his prestige to convince arena security to have Bumblebee ejected from the stadium yet again.

Out on the streets once more, Bumblebee turns to walk away dejectedly... until a mental projection of Windblade's head instructs him to sneak in through the back door. Inside, Windblade explains that her Cityspeaker talents allow her to telepathically interact with others, but the conversation ends when the two spy the three Seekers skulking around the back of the arena, Starscream muttering about his boredom with the match and intent to "spice up" the game. The pair spy on the villains as Starscream creates a custom cube with its own rogue AI. Though some quick reflexes allow Bumblebee to down Dirge and Ramjet, Windblade helping to keep them distracted as he scuffles with Starscream for control of the spiked cube, they eventually both lose grip on it and it flies through the launch pipe to the stadium, Bumblebee launching himself after it. The rogue cube starts knocking players down left and right before Bumblebee manages to grab it, sending him on a wild ride as he tries to control it long enough to absorb the energon and score a goal. Winding up outside the stadium with the cube now inactive, Bumblebee invites his new friend to ditch the Seekers and join him and his friends at a local oil house.

Bumblebee asks who won, but Windblade tells him that all anyone can remember is his ride on the cube. When Bumblebee suggests that they play a round of cube on Earth, Windblade agrees... until they remember that neither of them actually know the game's rules.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"A Decepticon triple-barrel ion shoulder cannon! Can't wait to try this out."

—Windblade likes cannons.

"I can't believe it! They picked me! I'm gonna be the best cube mascot ever!"

—The cube mascot considers this to be the highest possible honor.

"Ha-ha-ha! It must be pretty humiliating to be a cube mascot."

—Starscream disagrees.

"You know Starscream?"
"I wish I could unknow him."

—Windblade and Bumblebee commiserate about the Seekers.

"Mess with me? I get it. Mess with my game...and you get it."

—Bumblebee has had it up to here with Starscream.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Bumblebee mentions his favorite "old oil house," foreshadowing the eventual appearance of Maccadam's in a future episode.

Transformers references

No cutting trails on his watch.

• Windblade notes that she's from Caminus, a planet first introduced in the 2005 IDW continuity and the homeworld of that universe's incarnation of Windblade.
• Starscream describes the cube's AI as being "designed by scraplets".
• The Security Guard-Bot is colored suspiciously like Generation One Trailbreaker. This paired with the body type shared by the guard, cube players, and cube mascot ends up resembling Trailbreaker's own, this is most likely a Trailbreaker homage.
• Astrocycles are mentioned as a unit of time-keeping.

Real-world references

But can it run Crysis?

• The "useless training program" Windblade finds on the scout ship's computers is Pong.
• While there are obvious differences (we'll start with the "ball" literally having a mind of its own, and go from there), cube would not be entirely unfamiliar to a human who played rugby.

Trivia

• In the later episode "Maccadam's", Shadow Striker reveals that Iacon City was the winner of the match, and that Polyhex had defeated Kaon in the semifinal round.

Animation and technical errors

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Le cube" ("The cube")
• Original airdate: October 28, 2018

German

• Title: "Cube" ("Cube")
• Original airdate: November 25, 2018

Hungarian

• Title: "Kocka" ("Cube")
• Original airdate: November 18, 2018

Indonesian

• Title: "Kotak Petunjuk" ("The Clue Cube")
• Original airdate: December 1, 2018

Italian

• Title: "Il Cubo" ("The Cube")
• Original airdate: November 3, 2018

Japanese

• Title: "Cube no Taidai" (キューブの大会, "The Cube Tournament")
• Original airdate: May 24, 2019

Malay

• Title: "Cube"
• Original airdate: December 1, 2018

Portuguese

• Title: "Cubo" ("Cube")
• Original airdate: November 20, 2018

Home video releases

DVD

2019 — Transformers Cyberverse — Intégrale Saison 1 (ESC Éditions) — French audio only
2019 — Transformers Cyberverse — Terminal Velocity (Beyond Home Entertainment)