Trans-Europe Express

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Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf dem Stunticon
"Trans-Europe Express"
Production code	700-59
Season	2
No. in season	44
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	December 23, 1985
Written by	David Wise
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

In a plot to obtain a Cybertronian weather-controlling device, the Decepticons stage a fake race across Europe.

Synopsis

This has got to be the widest track ever.

Megatron is looking for the Pearl of Bahoudin, and goes on a rampage through Istanbul to find the one person who knows where it is. After interrogating the sage Abdul Ben-F'aisal, whom Megatron finds in Istanbul, and kidnapping archeologist Professor Teranova, Megatron finally zeros in on the location in the Galata Valley and has the Constructicons digging to retrieve it.

Meanwhile, the Europa 2000 is underway, and among the drivers in the race are the Autobots: Bluestreak, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Tracks, and Smokescreen. They are hoping to win the million dollar grand prize to give to charity. Also in the competition is Auggie Cahnay, America's top driver, whose car is a custom design from Symultech Industries. The engine is made of a new energy-resistant alloy, and the Autobots have been instructed to keep an eye on Auggie, as his car may be a target for the Decepticons. This is easier said than done, as Auggie's personality and driving style are both a bit uncouth, and it's not long before he's rubbing everyone the wrong way. At one point, Bumblebee literally has to yank him out of his car to criticize his behavior.

Aware of their proximity to the finish line, Megatron sends the Stunticons to take out the Autobots and steal Auggie's car. Motormaster and his group successfully put everyone but Bluestreak, Bumblebee, and Tracks out of commission and make off with the vehicle. While trying to evade the Stunticons, Bluestreak stumbles across Professor Teranova, who snuck away from the Decepticon camp and now explains to him what Megatron is up to. The Pearl of Bahoudin is a powerful jewel that can cause "worldwide disaster". The three remaining Autobots regroup along with Auggie, who insists on going with them to get his car back. They speed through the finish line, winning the race; though the race announcer eagerly anticipates their return for an interview, they keep right on going to the Decepticon camp.

"I need to feed Bumblebee from the palm of my hand, or else he will get angry."

Tracks, Bumblebee, and Bluestreak locate the Decepticons as Megatron finds the Pearl of Bahoudin. Megatron reveals to the Autobots that the content of the Pearl is, in fact, the power core of a weather satellite from Cybertron that crashed on Earth millions of years ago. Unearthed and exposed to the atmosphere in the 14th century, its power caused terrible storms that threatened to destroy the land until a Persian seer encased it in a golden, bejeweled shell. Using the parts from Auggie's car, Megatron plans to build a device that will utilize the jewel's power to control the elements and rain destruction down on anyone who stands in his way.

"By the power of Greyskull!"

The Autobots are attacked, though Bumblebee snatches the Pearl from Megatron. Seeing that they are outnumbered and outgunned, Bumblebee opens the Pearl, releasing its power and causing a massive twister that scatters everyone. The Pearl core itself is sucked up and lost in the storm. Megatron orders a retreat, saying that they can watch from the safety of their home base while the Earth is destroyed from the core's power. They leave behind Menasor, who proves to be more than a match for the three smaller Autobots. Auggie jumps in his car and takes off, seemingly to run away, but really to drive his car off a nearby cliff and into Menasor's head, delivering a crippling blow and knocking out the giant. Bumblebee has himself sucked up into the twister so that he can catch up with the Pearl. He finally scores a successful shot and destroys the jewel.

After things calm down, the Autobots conclude that Megatron must have set up the race from the beginning to snag Auggie's car, meaning that there's no prize money for anyone. Auggie remarks that he should take the gold casing of the jewel as payment for his destroyed car, but instead gives it to the Autobots to sell for charity, before walking off with a grudging farewell. Meanwhile, the race announcer is still waiting for that interview with the winners... but everyone else has gone home.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

[Megatron and Soundwave smash their way into the sage's home]
Abdul Ben-F'aisal: So, you've come at last.
Megatron: You have five seconds to tell me the location of—
Abdul Ben-F'aisal: The Pearl of Bahoudin? I know.
Megatron: If you know so much, then you know it would be unwise to refuse me.
Abdul Ben-F'aisal: You have caused enough damage in Istanbul for one day. The legends say the Pearl is buried in the Galata Valley, near the Alibey River.
Megatron: You have been wise to oblige me.
Abdul Ben-F'aisal: Perhaps. But...once you have dug up the Pearl, you may not find it so easy to put back...

—Warning duly noted, Abdul. And IGNORED.

Lesson of the day: Never call Bumblebee short.

Everybody gets a turn!

"There's only one charity I care about: ME! I want that million bucks!"

—Auggie Cahnay, born to win

[Bumblebee yanks Auggie right out of his fancy car and holds him aloft.]
Bumblebee: Listen, you! Didn't anybody ever tell you about fair play?
Auggie Cahnay: I'm gonna win that million bucks!
Bluestreak: Keep driving like that, and you won't live long enough to win it. Not that that would be any great tragedy, but some decent people might get hurt!
[Bumblebee drops Auggie onto the ground.]
Auggie Cahnay: I got a race to win!
[Auggie jumps into his car and drives off.]
Bumblebee: What a creep.

—Bumblebee and Bluestreak totally road-rage the asshole Auggie Cahnay.

"So help me, if one more of those metal maniacs gets in my way..." [Motormaster blocks Auggie's way, and Dead End pulls the human out of his car.] "That does it, and I'm not takin' it anymore!"
"That's right, 'cause we're taking your car."

—Auggie Cahnay is car-jacked by Dead End.

Notes

Continuity notes

• We get a brief flashback to the crash of the Decepticon starship; its jungle crash site is reasonably consistent with the ship's location as shown in "Microbots".
• This episode has the final appearances of Bluestreak, Smokescreen and Sunstreaker with spoken dialogue. From here on, all of their appearances are as silent cameos.
• This episode is one of four prior to the 1986 movie in which Optimus Prime does not appear.
• Symultech Industries, the company that custom-built Auggie's car, would later be mentioned in Hirofumi Ichikawa's Binaltech story. According to Dead End's system description, Symultech was responsible for building the body that was originally intended for Sunstreaker, but ended up getting hijacked by the Decepticons to create Binaltech Dead End.
• Much is made of the "weird metal" that Auggie's car's engine is made out of... but at no point is the metal actually named. The dialogue script has Wheeljack propose in a deleted line that it's "triple-adamantium" (misspelled as "admantium"), which Auggie refuses to comment on. Confirmed comic geek David Wise was surely thinking of Wolverine when he wrote that line.
• Auggie Cahnay is mentioned in the American dub of the 2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon episode "Skid Z's Choice". That episode states that Cahnay had died and Skid-Z is seemingly possessed by his spirit. Likewise, that episode features a race called the Europa 400, named after the Europa 2000 from this episode.

Real-world references

A flawless portrayal of Istanbul circa 1985, we're sure.

• According to writer David Wise,^[1] the title of this episode was directly taken from the Kraftwerk album of the same name (which in turn is named after the former international railway service, more correctly known as Trans Europ Express).
• Megatron's first interrogation victim "swears by the beard of the Prophet", that prophet presumably being Muhammad. A moment later, the second interrogatee mentions a mosque.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • X-Wing engine whine and TIE Fighter roar as Megatron and Soundwave leave Abdul Ben-F'aisal's home and land at the valley.
  • Death Star slamming door sound is used when Soundwave ejects Rumble.
  • Deflected Seeker bolts and clashing lightsabers as the Pearl is exposed to the atmosphere in Megatron's flashback.
  • More lightsaber sounds as Bumblebee cracks open the Pearl's casing.
• Star Trek sound effects:
  • The Original Series Enterprise door opening sounds when Soundwave is scanning for the Pearl

Animation and technical errors

• When Megatron fires a warning shot at his second interrogation victim, a missile-launching sound effect is used instead of the usual fusion cannon sound.
• Coloring errors:
  • As Megatron asks the mystic about the pearl, his ab controls are uncolored.
  • In the first shot of his scanning the valley for the pearl, Soundwave's chest is missing its gold frame. Two shots later, his arms are missing their red stripes. And the sound effect for his chest opening should be the "Star Trek door" effect, but since that's used for the scanner, a different sound plays.
  • "There's only one charity I care about" - Tracks' rear window section (behind his head) is gray; only the top portion should be gray, while the rest should be blue.
    • The same error repeats much later, in the close shot of the three surrounded Autobots.
      • And a third time as the Autobots react to Auggie driving away.
  • Smokescreen's forehead crest is blue instead of yellow as he and Tracks transform.
  • In the overhead shot of the race's start, Tracks' whole roof is yellow.
  • Sideswipe has light gray tires just before he and Sunstreaker get blown off the road.
  • Dead End's head has too many yellow bits just before he transforms back to car mode.
  • "This'll shake you off!" - Wildrider is light gray instead of his usual dark gray.
  • After Scavenger picks up the Pearl's energy readings, Megatron's Decepticon sigil is colored red.
  • As Dead End takes Auggie's car out of Motormaster, the "eyes" on Megatron's Decepticon symbol are painted in purple (they should be gray).
  • As Bluestreak jumps to avoid Breakdown, his chest is almost entirely black. Breakdown's Decepticon sigil is coloured red.
  • As Megatron and the other Decepticons chase after Bumblebee, Megatron's feet are coloured grey like the front of his legs.
  • When Menasor initially marches up to the Autobots, Bluestreak is colored like Prowl.
    • The error repeats as the trio is cornered by Menasor.
  • "The Pearl is lost!" - Soundwave's forehead has some white on it that shouldn't be there.
  • Bluestreak's eyes are red instead of blue as he climbs the cliff to escape Menasor; when he turns to leap onto Menasor's arm, part of his hood/chest is missing.
  • As Menasor prepares to smash the cornered Autobots, his inner arms are purple instead of light gray. Of course, they really shouldn't be there at all: Dead End and Drag Strip aren't supposed to attach to Menasor's arms; they're supposed to be his arms.
• When Wheeljack scans Auggie's car, the engine is located in the back. However, when the Decepticons try to remove the engine, all the work is being done in the car's front.
• As they transform to join the race, half of the Autobots (Bumblebee, Wheeljack and Bluestreak) have the ascending pitch sound effect instead of the descending effect.

Someone's overcompensating for something.

• As Bumblebee catches up to Wheeljack and the camera angle changes to an overhead shot, the crookedly drawn background of the road continually edges close to Wheeljack, then pulls back as the animation loops, creating the impression that the image is jerking back and forth. In the same shot, Wheeljack is missing his green hood details.
• In the first shot of Scavenger and Scrapper, they both have misdrawn heads, and Scavenger's legs are fused together.
• As Soundwave reports to Megatron about the race, he has two eyes instead of the usual red visor.
• After running Bumblebee off the road, Auggie can be seen driving through a pack of cars that has the sheer cliff face on the right side of the screen, despite having just driven on a road that had the cliff edge on the left side. Additionally, Wildrider and a deformed Jazz are visible in the pack of human-driven cars.
• The reversed cel and background problems continue as Auggie pulls away from the rest of the drivers, but are fixed as Bumblebee and Bluestreak catch up to Auggie.
• As the Stunticons appear in Sunstreaker's rearview mirror, they continue rising from behind the horizon until they are floating above the road.
• In the overhead shot of the Stunticons surrounding Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, Dead End moves under Sideswipe.
• Dead End's first shot uses Megatron's fusion cannon sound effect. After the commercial break, it has the usual (correct) Decepticon laser sound effect.
• Reversed cel problems continue during Wheeljack and Motormaster's chase scene. When Wheeljack initially appears on the location, the Black Sea is on the left side of the screen as he drives up the road, but as the chase progresses, the sea is now on the right side of the screen, as if they had turned around during the chase or were driving on the opposite coastline.
• Motormaster makes a U-turn on a two-lane cliffside highway. While this kind of crazy driving was specifically shown and explained to be part of the Stunticons' abilities, Motormaster actually achieves it by driving into the shot, shrinking in the process, until he's small enough relative to the background matte to make the turn!
• Tracks's scan of the Stunticons has Wild Rider labeled as "WIRD RIDER."
• After Drag Strip pushes Auggie's car into Motormaster's trailer, as the trailer door closes, Drag Strip's Decepticon sigil turns into a purple blob.
• Scavenger reports that "Hey! There's something glowing down here!", but no such thing is seen in the animation.
• When Bluestreak picks up Auggie from the side of the road, Professor Teranova is not present inside the Autobot. Yet when the Autobots arrive at the site of the Pearl's excavation, Teranova can be seen exiting Bluestreak along with Auggie.
• During Megatron's retelling of the Pearl's history, as the villagers dig it up in the fourteenth century, the animation depicts it as already having the "pure gold protective casing" that was made for it afterwards.
• When Breakdown hits the cliff after missing Bluestreak, despite an explosion being animated, no sound is heard.
• Megatron's mouth doesn't move when Bumblebee grabs the Pearl right out of his hand. Of course, he also just stands there while Bumblebee drives right up to him, leaps up onto his arm and grabs Pearl.
• After Menasor smashes the ground to stop Bumblebee from escaping with the Pearl, a large crack forms in the earth, yet it vanishes when Bumblebee reacts to the Pearl rolling away.
• As Megatron and the Decepticons fly away from the battle, Sideswipe is shown next to Megatron (it should probably be Soundwave). The same error happened in "The Secret of Omega Supreme".
• When the Autobots react to Auggie's apparent escape, Bluestreak is animated mouthing Tracks's line.
• When Auggie jumps from his car (from the passenger side), he is not wearing his helmet, but it reappears after Menasor is defeated.
• Auggie's car isn't nearly as long as it should be when it crashes into Menasor.
• Menasor starts falling over before Auggie's car actually hits him.
• Superhuman Auggie:
  • After leaping from his car onto the cliff edge, Auggie lets go and drops about 30 feet onto solid rock, but lands on his feet like it's nothing.
• As Bumblebee drives towards the tornado, he's layered incorrectly. It looks like he's driving above the ground for a moment.
• The gold casing around the pearl clearly cracks in half, yet as Auggie and the Autobots walk away from the battle, it's back together (and still making the sound effect as if the pearl is still in it!).

Continuity errors

• Professor Teranova frees himself with some kind of lamp device that the 'cons have left sitting around... but we have no idea what the thing actually is or why it's there or anything.
• Somehow, Megatron knows much of the human history and legend surrounding the Pearl, yet still needs to speak to Abdul Ben-F'aisal to know where it is hidden.
• Auggie Cahnay is reputed to be the best driver in the US, and the implication is he's also one of the best drivers in the race, yet twice in the episode, he is seen having to barge his way through the pack from behind.
• Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Smokescreen all use "shortcuts" during the race. Doesn't seem very sporting, does it?
• Professor Teranova flees from the Decepticons, who are "two miles past the finish line". The finish line is in Istanbul. Bluestreak still hasn't made it to Istanbul when he finds Teranova; in fact he's still in the wilderness. So the good professor fled all the way into town and all the way back out the other side. No wonder he's collapsed in the dirt when Bluestreak finds him!
• On seeing the approaching Stunticons, Bumblebee somehow deduces that "Now they're after Auggie's car!" After he and Tracks avoid them, Bumblebee makes the rather non-sequitur observation that "Boy, they sure gave him the road!" The two lines seem to indicate that Auggie was supposed to be involved in the scene, but he's not shown.
• Auggie attacks Scrapper with a blowtorch. Where did it come from?
• Professor Teranova is last seen in the shot where Bumblebee loses the Pearl, not even reappearing in the post-battle scenes. Did he fall into Menasor's earthquake crevasse?
• The tornado that the Pearl and Bumblebee are sucked into is blowing over the Galata Valley while it is active, but when Bumblebee destroys the Pearl, it is suddenly over a huge forest, where he is eventually found in a tree.
• How does Auggie have the pearl at the end when he gives it to the Autobots when Bumblebee destroyed it?

Geopolitical errors

Not to Scale.

Quite a bit of real-world European geography pops up in the course of the episode, including the cities of Istanbul, Turkey; Paris, France (with the Eiffel Tower); Italy; and the Black Sea. Being the G1 cartoon, of course, this means a lot of it is portrayed wrongly in one form or another:

• Istanbul is drawn as though it were medieval Russia, with lots of onion dome towers.
• Paris is shown with a number of skyscrapers around the Eiffel Tower. In real life, almost everything in the city is six stories or less.
• The Arc de Triomphe is shown at a regular intersection; it actually sits within a large traffic roundabout.
• Wheeljack says it's 2,000 miles total; because we are nitpicking here, we'll point out that the actual route is closer to 1,600 miles.
• The map of Europe is, erm, very inaccurate.

Trivia

• Auggie Cahnay's car has automatic transmission, which is unusual in a race car.
• At least one other car in the race appears to have "Citanes" endorsements.
• Apparently Soundwave's scanner thingy can't distinguish solid rock from not-solid rock.
• This episode is one of several from late in Season 2 in which characters get severely smashed and beaten up - perhaps a precursor to the violent demise of several characters in the then-forthcoming animated movie. Other such episodes include "Triple Takeover" with its throne made of smashed Autobots, "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2" in which Omega Supreme explodes, "Masquerade" which sees the Stunticons beaten to a pulp, and "War Dawn", where characters - both generic and otherwise - drop like flies.
• David Wise, infamous for recycling ideas from old stories for his later work, reused the weather-control device climax of this episode for his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) story "Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X".

Foreign localization

French

• Title (European French broadcast and DVD release): "Europa 2000"
• Title (Canadian French broadcast): "L'Europa 2000"
• Original airdate: ?

• All the logo transitions were cut. It is unknown if it was that way for the original broadcast or if the episode was chopped for the DVD release.
• Like in the Japanese dub, the Pearl of Bahoudin is called the "Pearl of Jehuddin".
• Professor Teranova says "This is Professor Taranova speaking.", despite Megatron calling him Teranova in his first scene.
• The translator chose to say "Machine à contrôler le temps", but it can be confusing since "Temps" can mean either "Weather" or "Time" in French. The machine can be confused with a time machine.
• Name-dodging:

• Megatron's line "Energy reading, Soundwave!" becomes "Energy reading!".
• Megatron's line "Scavenger! Prepare to dig!" becomes "Come on! To work!".
• Tracks' line "Wheeljack, come in! Wheeljack? Sideswipe, this is Tracks... do you read?" becomes "Hello, Wheelie, answer! Hello? Does anyone hear me? Hey, Autobots, are you here?".

• Missing lines:

• The announcer does not precise the race starts in Paris. But to be honest, the Eiffel Tower is enough to understand.
• All the dialogues during the start of the race are not dubbed. Consequently, we can just watch almost 40 seconds of cars driving and roaring.
• Sideswipe and Sunstreaker almost don't talk in their scene. Sunstreaker only says "I've got a funny feeling about this!" and Sideswipe answers "You guessed right, these are Stunticons!".
• Scavenger does not precise he's found something in the hole he digged. Consequently, Megatron simply says "Hurry up and dig, hurry up! In a few moments, the Pearl of Jehuddin and absolute power will be mine!".
• The race commentator does not... comment the end of the race. He just announces that the cars are arriving and then does not talk until the Autobots are fully gone.
• Bluestreak's line "All right, get in!" is missing.
• In the two scenes in which Auggie attacks Scrapper with his blowtorch, both of them don't say anything.
• The lines Bumblebee says when he's chased by Motormaster are missing.
• Tracks' line "Bumblebee, they don't have a weak spot!" is also missing, despite his mouth moving on screen. However, he says the rest of the phrase, replaced by "Wait a second!".
• Bumblebee doesn't say anything as he drives to the tornado. His only line is when he arrives, saying "We need to stop this joke!".

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "La perla di Istanbul" ("The Istanbul Pearl")
• Original airdate: ?

• Bumblebee's line: «What a creep!» is not present in Italian, so you can see him moving his mouth without talking.
• Bumblebee goes to take the pearl before Smokescreen finishes to tell him to get the pearl.
• Menasor is called by his English name instead of the Italian one.
• The final line of the episode is changed from: «Somebody wants to go out and grab us some diner?» to: «Can you get something to eat for yourself?». It looks like the announcer cares for others more than himself!

• Title (dub 2): "Trans-Europe Express"
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Yōroppa Ōdan Tokkyū" (ヨーロッパ横断特急, "Trans-Europe Express")
• Original airdate: June 6, 1986

• The Pearl of Bahoudin is called the "Pearl of Jehuddin" in the Japanese dub. This was actually the pearl's preliminary name in early draft scripts of the episode. As such, it seems evident that the Japanese dub of the series used early scripts for dialogue translations rather than the actual broadcast scripts (which accounts for many of the numerous errors in the dub).

Mandarin

• Title (dub 1): "Qìchērén Dàjiǎngsài " (汽车人大奖赛, "Autobot Grand Prix")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: ?
• Original airdate: ?

• This episode's original translated title is currently lost due to a glitch in the only known surviving copy of the audio track.

Home video releases

LaserDisc

1995 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Megatron Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1999 — The Transformers — Decepticon Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2: Vol. 7 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 3: Series 2.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 13 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Volume 06: Stagione Due Parte Quarta (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part Two (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

References

External links

• Episode Dossier at The Cybertron Chronicle
• Episode dialogue script with deleted lines
• Episode model sheets