War of the Dinobots

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"War of the Dinobots"
Production code	#700-07
Season	1
No. in season	10
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 24, 1984
Written by	Donald F. Glut
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Snarl and Swoop are added to the Dinobot roster... and just in time!

Synopsis

Meteorini Chipper—ah, forget it.

At an observatory, Chip Chase and his colleague Jeff spot an unidentified meteor through the telescope. Its strange readings cause Chip to call in the Autobots, who soon arrive. Chip's already calculated when and where the meteor will land, and Optimus Prime decides that the Dinobots will be useful backup when it does.

At Decepticon headquarters, Megatron is watching video footage of the Dinobots and raging about how the dim-witted robots have defeated his warriors. Though Starscream protests that the Dinobots are brilliant as warriors, Megatron insists they must have weaknesses and orders Soundwave to find them.

Soundwave finds the Autobots in a derelict area waiting for the meteor to arrive. The Autobots take cover as the meteor crashes down. Once it has crash-landed, Optimus announces that they must analyze it, and blasts a clunk off for Wheeljack to take back to headquarters. Leaving the Dinobots to guard the meteorite, the Autobots roll out for home. As they drive, Optimus announces that he's decided to get Ratchet and Wheeljack to build two more Dinobots, and Spike and Chip offer to help. Back at base, Chip selects a Stegosaurus and a Pteranodon for the alternate modes of the new Dinobots.

Me Grimlock say "Pull!"

At the meteor site, Soundwave scans the Dinobots' brains while in hiding and reports back to Megatron. The Decepticon leader declares Grimlock is arrogant, Slag is hostile, and Sludge is stupid. He vows to use those weaknesses against the Dinobots.

Megatron's forces arrive at the meteorite's location, and after the Dinobots trash the Seekers, Megatron comes forth and feigns humility. He wonders aloud why the Dinobots, as powerful as they are, follow a weaker leader such as Optimus Prime. The Dinobots debate Megatron's logic and conclude that Grimlock should be leader and they need to destroy Optimus Prime. The three seekers spirit away the meteorite, and Megatron suggests a plan to the Dinobots which will help them eliminate Optimus.

Dinobots—built to rule!

At the Autobot base, Prime and Ratchet oversee construction of two new Dinobots: Snarl and Swoop. During this, Wheeljack discovers the meteorite's energy is highly unstable. Trailbreaker manages to encase the fragment in a force field just before it detonates. Fearing a huge explosion, Optimus Prime rushes out alone to warn the Dinobots.

At the base, Ratchet and Wheeljack have Snarl and Swoop do a test run of their powers. Bluestreak, Ironhide, Sideswipe and Prowl attempt to stop the new Dinobots, but get their cans soundly kicked, though Bluestreak claims the Autobots would have won if the fight was for real.

Prime arrives at the crash site to find the meteorite gone. As he attempts to contact headquarters, the Dinobots attack him and he reluctantly fights back. Though he puts up a good fight, Optimus is unable to defeat the Dinobots by himself. Despite his pleas that they're friends, the Dinobots blast him unconscious, however, Grimlock stops Slag from finishing their former leader off, a restraint that Prime attributes to their Autobot training. The Dinobots instead take Prime to the Decepticons. In a nearby canyon, the Decepticons are draining energy from the meteorite, though Starscream's warning that the energy appears unstable is dismissed by Megatron. The Decepticon leader is outraged when the Dinobots turn up with Optimus. When Starscream asserts that Grimlock won't destroy Optimus because he's soft, the Dinobot leader shoots Starscream. Optimus attempts to warn Megatron about the unstable nature of the meteorite, but Megatron believes he's lying.

"Um… please let go. That hurts."
"You mine now…"

At Autobot headquarters, Sparkplug and Chip are concerned because Optimus hasn't reported in. Teletraan I alerts Wheeljack that the meteorite has been moved and is about ready to blow. Snarl and Swoop are sent to stop it.

Megatron finally notices that the energon cubes they've been filling are unstable, moments before the pile of cubes explodes, throwing the nearby Decepticons aside. Starscream is in mid "I told you so" when Swoop and Snarl arrive. A vicious battle ensues, during which the two new Dinobots appear to be equal to the three original Dinobots and the evenly-match fight shows no sign of abating. A blow from Snarl sends Grimlock dangerously near the destabilized meteorite, and as the Decepticons flee, Prime pushes Grimlock to safety, shielding his body as the meteorite explodes.

Realizing that Prime is both strong and has concern for his troops, Grimlock orders the Dinobots to attack Megatron. The Decepticons retreat, and Grimlock asks for Prime's forgiveness as the other Autobots arrive. However, Optimus Prime merely declares that the meteorite menace is over and they should go home.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Well, meteor or no meteor, Optimus Prime, it's great not worrying about the Decepticons for a change."
"I always worry about the Decepticons, Spike."

—Spike Witwicky learns that Optimus Prime really needs a vacation.

"I’ve seen enough! My finest warriors defeated by those primitive, pea-brained beasts. Revolting!"

—Megatron on the Decepticons' failure to defeat the Dinobots.

"No matter how many times I see it, it's always outrageous."

—Chip Chase, wondering if they are truly truly outrageous.

Grimlock: "We destroy Optimus Prime!"
Slag: "And him, Grimlock, be new leader!"
Sludge: "Hail him, Grimlock!"

—The Dinobots plan their coup.

"Great! I'm finally gonna get in a fight!"

—Sideswipe, finally seeing some action after being largely ignored for several episodes.

"In a real fight, we'd've creamed 'em! ...mmm, maybe."

—Bluestreak, after getting pummeled by the new Dinobots

"I do not want to fight you, but you leave me no choice."

—Optimus Prime's warning to the Dinobots.

"You, Megatron, tricked us! Make us fight good leader, Optimus Prime. Prime risk own life to save us. Bad Megatron!"
"Decepticons, retreat now, quick, at once!"

—Grimlock switches allegiances again and puts the fear of God into Megatron.

"Optimus Prime, can you forgive? Me Grimlock was jealous of you."

—Grimlock, actually showing humility for once.

Notes

Production information

• First draft script: 6th July 1984
• Script revised by Ron Friedman: 15th July 1984
• Final script: 22nd July 1984
• Returned to the US for telecine: 16th November 1984

Continuity notes

• The footage of the Dinobots that the Decepticons watch doesn't match up with any scene from their previous appearance ("S.O.S. Dinobots"), implying that the Decepticons have had at least one more run-in with the Dinobots since then.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Prime can... make his fist crackle with energy??
  • Soundwave can snake out a long tentacle-like listening bud, to cover whatever distances between him and his subject he can't cover.
  • He can also (in accord with his bio) remotely mind-read other Transformers, this time by means of a little widget that pops out of his head with a doofy-sounding DOING! noise.
  • The Seekers can deploy grappling claws at the end of long cables.
  • Ironhide creates metal by spraying it out of his fingertips onto the floor.
  • Prowl uses a laser fired from his retracted wrist to slice the metal into smaller pieces.
  • This may be the most bizarre implementation of Trailbreaker's force field ever. To contain the meteorite fragment's explosion, he starts spinning, disappearing into a black blur. One might presume that this is done to invert the force field, keeping the damaging forces inside instead of outside. (Using this ability causes him to vanish from the animation!)
  • When he first appears Snarl is seen holding his sword, the first of the very rare times any of the Dinobots' swords appear.
  • Swoop can extend his robot arms in dino mode if he needs to give somebody a good shove.
• The derelict area where the meteor lands is shown to be across the river from a somewhat largish city which goes unidentified during the course of the episode.
• Huffer has evidently changed his tune about the Dinobots, as he helps build Snarl and Swoop in this episode.

• Snarl, in a rare move for a Dinobot, actually uses the word "I". All the others always say "me", with the exceptions of Sludge from "S.O.S. Dinobots", and that time Grimlock was a genius.
• The energon cube that Soundwave fills is a bit odd; after he creates it, it just floats in mid-air. He then fires his gun into the meteorite, which obligingly sends a stream of energy into the cube. How the heck does that work, exactly?

Real-world references

• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Luke deflecting seeker ball bolts is repurposed as Slag powering up his horn lasers to fire on Optimus. A lightsaber ignition is used in the same sequence as Prime loses his laser rifle, followed by Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi cutting into some machinery during their duel on the Death Star.
  • Death Star firing/Alderaan exploding, + X-Wings diving, as the Dinobots take off to return to Megatron.
  • Millennium Falcon engine burst as Snarl and Swoop take off from Autobot HQ.

Animation or technical glitches

• During the scene in Decepticon headquarters when Megatron is watching footage of the Dinobots, there's a short line above and below his fist as if to make it appear to be shaking in anger. Perhaps a shortcut note for the animators that never got carried out?
• Coloring errors:
  • Reflector's center bot is missing his green coloration as he turns toward the deactivated viewscreen.
  • Soundwave is missing his yellow stripes as he lands in the city.
  • Soundwave's cheek guards are blue instead of white as he edges toward the Autobots.
  • In our first shot of the Dinobots, Slag's chest plate is red instead of white.
  • In the first shot of the Autobots awaiting the meteorite, Hound is colored as Mirage.
    

    

    Okay, sure, Slag's cheekguards are the wrong color, but it's still a totally sweet shot.
  • Slag's head is miscolored (as it so frequently is):
    • As Optimus prepares to blast off a fragment of the meteorite (gray).
    • As he transforms to listen to Megatron, and again as he points out that Prime will resist Grimlock (white sides).
    • As the Dinobots turn around after the first commercial break (starts red, turns gray).
    • As Megatron humbly offers a strategy (red helmet, white face).
    • As the three Dinobots form up to confront Optimus Prime (gray with red forehead).
    • When the Dinobots investigate Prime's body after blasting him (gray with a red dot - he's a Hindu!).
    • As Slag proposes melting down Optimus (white sides, red face, a combo that happens so frequently it might be an alternate color model.)
    • As the Dinobots land at the new meteorite site (gray).
    • In the shot after Grimlock shoots Starscream.
    • At the beginning of the battle between old and new Dinobots, as Slag and Sludge transform to their dino mode (and again when this clip is replayed in reverse, minus Grimlock, after the meteorite exploded).
  • Grimlock and Sludge's heads are light gray instead of black after Prime blasts the meteorite fragment.
  • After the Seekers' second pass over the Dinobots, two Thundercrackers fly over the Dinobots, both with wrongly-colored air intakes.
  • Thundercracker still has blue air intakes in the diving shot after the Dinobots transform.
  • "You are stronger than all the Autobots!" Megatron's waist-sides are gray instead of red, and one of his buttons is blue instead of red.
  • "Optimus Prime is leader now. He will fight if Grimlock lead!" - in addition to his miscolored helmet, Slag has somehow acquired Sludge's already inexplicable glowing orange mouth interior.
  • Grimlock's hands are yellow as the Dinobots watch the Decepticons haul the meteorite off.
  • The Ark is silver-gray instead of orange in the first establishing shot of Autobot Headquarters.
  • As the Autobots are finalizing construction of Snarl and Swoop, Brawn (who is working on Swoop) is colored with a yellow back, a light blue side, and gray limbs.
  • Bluestreak's center head crest is red instead of gray at two points during his fight with the Dinobots.
  • As the Dinobots prepare to unleash their final attack on Optimus Prime, Grimlock's torso is colored gray instead of yellow.
  • Sludge's helmet-sides are once again light gray as the Dinobots carry Optimus toward Megatron.
  • As Grimlock tells Megatron that he'll terminate Optimus at his discretion, only the center of Grimlock's visor eyes was colored.
  • Soundwave's visor is blue, and his forehead is visor-red, as he recoils from the about-to-explode energon cubes.
  • As Grimlock transforms to start the battle, the end of Prime's rifle is colored gold, as if it were one of Grimlock's claws.
  • Slag's horns are yellow instead of red as Swoop drops his tail.
  • Optimus has a blue square around his neck as he runs to save Grimlock.
  • Thundercracker is shown crashing alongside Megatron as the meteorite explodes. As Thundercracker hasn't been shown in this scene at all, and Starscream was last seen taking off alongside Megatron, it probably should have been Starscream.
• As he acknowledges Megatron's order, Soundwave's visor splits into two separate eyes, then reforms. Throughout the shot, he's missing his eject button and waist belt control buttons.
• When Spike "sees" the meteoroid, it's streaking across the sky as if heading somewhere else entirely, yet somehow it lands almost right on top of them.
• Optimus blasts a fragment off of the meteor at night, transforms during the day (courtesy of a shot recycled, unaltered, from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1"), leaves the scene around dawn, and drives off into the dead of night.
• In the first shot of the Dinobots guarding the meteorite, Slag's eyes are the same red as the rest of his face, and Sludge's helmet is largely white instead of black.

" 'Down the breast by the arrow direction' ?"

He does have some buttons on the arm rest, but nothing for them to control.

• As Megatron rants about the Dinobots' weaknesses, Soundwave is missing his insignia.
• As usual, the stock animation of the docking tower of Decepticon Headquarters emerging from the water makes it look like it's tilted about 30 degrees from vertical.
• As the Dinobots prepare to fend off the Decepticon attack, Slag's Autobot insignia is missing as he exults about getting to fight.
• As Megatron starts to talk down the Dinobots from fighting, Grimlock and Sludge's flame breath is layered behind Megatron, despite their being in the background.
• An oddly edited shot has Sludge's face filling the frame, just as Slag answers Grimlock's question about liking to fight.
• "Hail him Grimlock!" - the Dinobot cel layers shift back and forth making them appear to be shaking. Or perhaps highly caffeinated. Just prior to this, Grimlock's back/dino mode head is black. As Slag starts to speak, his face turns white.
• No wonder Sparkplug is puzzled by the blueprints. They're labeled with a rather garbled title of "Out Line Plan Desge".
• After his bizarre force field use, Trailbreaker is nowhere to be seen in Wheeljack's workshop.
• When Snarl first introduces himself, his chest is missing the Autobot insignia. When Swoop lands next to Snarl to make his introduction, Snarl's insignia is present.
• When Grimlock fires Prime's rifle at Starscream, it gets the normal Autobot sound effect, instead of its own unique sound.
• Chip doesn't appear to be doing anything to roll his wheelchair as he and Sparkplug run through Autobot Headquarters.
• Only one of Wheeljack's "ears" flashes as he reports the meteorite's location.
• Improbable viewpoints:
  • The meteorite is on-screen before Chip has asked Wheeljack to "get a fix on it".
  • Teletraan then provides a ground shot of the valley (minus the Decepticons, Dinobots, energon cubes, etc.)
• Megatron's gun barrel is bigger than his head as he gets to his feet after the explosion.

Rhino DVD release

• When Wheeljack says "I can't wait to get to work on this", his side light things do not flash. In addition, the meteor's glow effects are different.
• When the Dinobots talk of rebelling against Prime, Slag's face is miscolored, Sludge's mouth moves to Slag's line, and after Grimlock raises his arm there is a zoom take on Slag.
• As Snarl is introduced, Swoop is entirely too dark.
• When Swoop first transforms into Pteranodon mode, the Autobot symbols on his wings are incorrectly colored purple.
• The energon cubes are miscolored in one scene.
• When the Dinobots carry Optimus, Slag is miscolored again.
• When Starscream says Grimlock will never betray Prime, he is colored as Thundercracker.
• At two points, Starscream's fingers are colored grey instead of blue.
• As Swoop carries Snarl, Snarl's torso is colored like Swoop's body.
• When Megatron and Starscream land, Starscream is miscolored again.
• When Slag and Sludge transform back to robot mode, their transformations are reversed. They start in robot mode but transform into dinosaur mode.
• As Grimlock confronts Megatron and Starscream, Starscream is once again colored as Thundercracker.
• When the Dinobots take Optimus to Megatron, Starscream is in Thundercracker's colors.
• When asking for forgiveness from Optimus, Grimlock's eyes are not colored.
• The remastered DVD releases of this episode use an incorrect closing credits sequence, which overlays the text credits from Season 2 over the animation from Season 1.

Continuity errors

• Chip calls the Autobots, because "they're the only ones who can save the Earth". Despite being charged with this awesome responsibility, the Autobots don't actually do anything to ward off or contain the meteorite. It's okay, though, because its actual explosion isn't even enough to damage Optimus and Grimlock, who are maybe fifty feet away when it goes up.
• Optimus Prime is amazingly cavalier about blasting the supposedly dangerous, glowing, energy-laden meteorite with his laser rifle.
• In the long shot of the Autobots standing on the mountain about to test the new Dinobots, Optimus can be seen in the distance driving away from Autobot HQ, despite the implication that some time has passed since he left.
• Slag can be clearly seen wearing a jet pack on his back when the Dinobots leave to deliver Optimus Prime to Megatron, despite it being previously established that the Dinobots can fly without such equipment. The jet pack appears to be based on Skyfire, complete with a blue "cockpit", white body and red thruster modules!

Astronomical errors

It's Pizza the Hut's home planet!

• A meteor is a chunk of rock that's in the process of burning up in Earth's atmosphere, a process that rarely takes more than a few seconds. As Chip has plenty of time to observe the incoming projectile, it's clearly still a meteoroid, a chunk of rock that's just floating around in space.
• Despite this, the meteor(oid) is trailing a flaming tail, as if it were already entering Earth's atmosphere. To the writers' credit, Prime refers to it as a meteorite once it's landed.
• Assuming our first view of the meteor/oid is meant to represent what Chip sees (there is a barely-visible telescopic outline around it), the object would have to be huge to be so highly detailed in a distant view from Earth. Such a huge object would be catastrophic for humankind if it hit Earth.
• We later learn that the thing is only about 30 feet across, though, which makes it way too small to be such a regular round body.
• Chip's telescope is apparently so sophisticated it can pick up the sound of the meteorite from across the vacuum of space, including its jet engines.
• A celestial impactor on Earth typically leaves a crater about 10 times its own diameter and annihilates both itself and pretty much everything in a much larger radius around it. Our meteorite here smacks into the middle of an urban downtown area, remains completely intact, and leaves no damage more substantial than a flattened Quonset hut and a largeish pothole.

Trivia

"Me Grimlock before, me Grimlock after. Head no matter, always sexpot."

• Grimlock's head has been redesigned, though the old version still crops up in a few future episodes. However, the old design remained predominant in the comics all the way until Grimlock evolved into an Action Master in "Still Life!". The second head design would be used in all incarnations from then on.
• In an earlier draft of this episode's script, it was not Chip who discovered the meteorite, but an original character named Doctor Lynn Hyashi. In a deleted subplot, Sparkplug's jealousy of her technical expertise would have paralleled Grimlock's jealousy of Prime's leadership. Writer Donald Glut would later repurpose the character for the Challenge of the GoBots episode "Destroy All Guardians". Despite her removal from the script, a model sheet of Dr. Hyashi was created (seen at right)

Dr. Lynn Hyashi

• When Megatron orders the footage of the Decepticons' defeat by the Dinobots turned off, there's a lingering shot of Reflector looking a little alarmed. This is an artifact of the original script for the episode, in which footage from S.O.S. Dinobots was supposed to be replayed. Showing a rather detailed, gruesome battering the three-in-one Decepticon received from the Dinobots. As this scene was storyboarded, then cut from the previous episode, it had to be removed from this episode as well.
• This episode marks the only occasion in the entire series that a normally functioning Autobot willingly battles a normally functioning Optimus Prime ("Dark Awakening" and "The Return of Optimus Prime" don't count, as Prime was a zombie in the former and Rodimus was infected with the Hate Plague in the latter). The Dinobots have quite a bit of success, too... somebody could have used some lessons from them.
• This was one of the six episodes featured on the Revenge of the Fallen console game, and the three on the PSP game. However, it was erroneously named "War on the Dinobots". It was also, unfortunately, the Kid Rhino remaster.
• Seriously, Optimus Prime does not forgive Grimlock at all.
• This episode makes a cameo in the 1994 film Léon: The Professional, as Natalie Portman's character fights with her sister over the television, shortly before Gary Oldman turns up and murders pretty much everyone. Fun times.

Foreign localization

French

• Title (European French broadcast): "Une si belle planète" ("Such a beautiful planet")
• Title (Canadian French broadcast & European French DVD release): "La guerre des Dinobots" ("War of the Dinobots")
• Original airdate: ?

• In the European French dub, Megatron calls Soundwave "Shock" again.

German

• Title (Generation 2 dub): "Krieg der Dinobots" ("War of the Dinobots")
• Original airdate: July 30, 1994

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "Il meteorite" ("The Meteorite")
• Original airdate: ?

• In this episode Slag is called "Tricec", despite his Italian name being "Tricex".
• Since Ironhide's Italian name is Falco, which means "hawk", Chip's line: «No wonder he's called Ironhide» is changed to: «We've been protected by a hawk's wing».

• Title (dub 2): "La guerra dei Dinobots" ("War of the Dinobots")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Nazo no Kyodai Inseki" (謎の巨大隕石, "The Mysterious Giant Meteorite")
• Original airdate: August 24, 1985

• As opposed to the Dinobots being unable to finish off Optimus Prime because "traces of [their] Autobot training remain in [their] circuits", Optimus explains it as "the safety circuits installed in [their] computers haven't broken".

Mandarin

• Title: "Dàzhàn Jīqì Kǒnglóng" (大战机器恐龙, "Fight against Dinobots")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "A Guerra dos Dinobots" ("The War of the Dinobots")
• Original airdate: ?

Serbian

• Title: "Rat Dinobota" (Рат Динобота, "War of the Dinobots")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

VHS

1985 — The Transformers — Volume 9: "War of the Dinobots" (Family Home Entertainment)
1997 — The Transformers — War of the Dinobots (Malofilm)

LaserDisc

1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — Transformers — Original Series: Volume One (Sony Wonder)
2002 — Transformers — Complete Original Series: Deluxe Edition (Sony Wonder)
2002 — The Original Transformers — First Season Collector's Edition (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Volume Two (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Collection 1: Series 1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 2 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — Classic Transformers — Series One: Part Two (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 02: Stagione Uno Parte Seconda (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete First Season: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — The Complete First Season: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Roar of the Dinobots (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• First draft script, submitted 6th July 1984
• Finalised script as of 22nd July 1984
• Model sheets and background layouts