Microbots

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In the '80s, every cartoon had to have a shrinking episode.
"Microbots"
Production code	#700-33
Season	2
No. in season	18
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	October 7, 1985
Written by	David Wise
Animation studio	Toei, Anime R
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Perceptor, Brawn, and Bumblebee must shrink themselves to go inside Megatron and retrieve an artifact, the Heart of Cybertron, that gives him enormous power.

Synopsis

"We've passed here for the past 20 years! How could we never have spotted this before?!"
"Every time we passed here, you pointed to that rock with the funny shape on the other side of the road, Mike."

While digging for Mayan artifacts in South America, a group of archaeologists stumble upon an ancient spacecraft. As news of the discovery is broadcast on the news, Soundwave and Megatron recognize it as the Decepticon ship they traveled to Earth in four million years ago. Megatron states that there is something on that ship which he wants, and sets out to get it.

Meanwhile, at the Autobots' headquarters, Perceptor is using a shrinking-enlarging device to repair one of Ironhide's memory chips while being insulted by Brawn for not being a soldier. Bumblebee walks in and tries to make him stop, when Optimus Prime orders Brawn and Bumblebee to follow him to South America along with Ratchet, to stop Megatron from obtaining what he wants.

Now you will experience the full power of the dark side.

As Megatron's troops blast their way through a rainforest in order to avoid satellite detection, Starscream manages to first miss blasting a tree and then get attacked by a giant snake, to the amusement of Rumble and the Constructicons. Meanwhile, Ravage has met his match in the form of a real jaguar, which attacks him but Ravage slaps it and it flees. The Autobots arrive and decide not to burn the forest down, because Optimus says "that's not our style".

Megatron gets through the forest first, and reaches the ship. Blasting it open, he retrieves the ship's energy core, the Heart of Cybertron. Hook implants it into Megatron's torso, vastly increasing his power level. Optimus Prime then arrives and orders the Autobots to attack, but they are all defeated by Megatron's new ability to continuously fire energy from his fingertips. The Autobots only manage to escape when Optimus orders Smokescreen to generate a smokescreen, allowing them to bring a hill down on the Decepticons.

Soundwave superior. Lightweights inferior.

After limping back to base, Wheeljack creates a force-field to keep Megatron at bay. Perceptor hatches a plan to shrink himself, Brawn and Bumblebee to microscopic sizes in order to infiltrate Megatron's body and disconnect the Heart of Cybertron.

Meanwhile, the Decepticons sit around and get plastered overcharged on energon. After Megatron rambles on about the "good ol' days" and passes out, Powerglide delivers the tiny Autobots into his body. This wakes up Megatron, who fires a few parting shots at Powerglide. Finding that none of his warriors can even stand up (or in Laserbeak's case, fly straight), Megatron departs to destroy the Autobots himself.

"You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire."

Perceptor, Brawn and Bumblebee make their way through Megatron's body, avoiding his electro-sanitizers, until they reach the Decepticon's brain. The others have to restrain Brawn from destroying the brain, since the fall would likely cause the Heart of Cybertron to explode. Megatron reaches Autobot headquarters and begins firing on the force field protecting Optimus Prime. The miniaturized trio ride one of Megatron's evil brain impulses to the Heart of Cybertron, which Perceptor disconnects while dodging more brain impulses. Taking the heart, they make a dash for safety as the shrink-ray's effects begin to wear off. Megatron, deprived of his weapon and knocked flat by Optimus, is shocked by the sight of three rapidly-growing Autobots jumping out of his shoulder joint, and flies off.

Observing that the Heart of Cybertron has become unstable, Brawn tosses it two thousand miles into the sky, at which point Perceptor detonates it with a blast from his cannon. After this, Brawn shows much more respect for Perceptor.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Nice scenery."
"Yeah, let's waste it! I hate nice things."

—Rumble and Scavenger are why we can't have nice things.

Starscream: Get this thing off me!
Cobra Commander: I was once a man, A MAN!

[Starscream shoots at a tree and misses]
"Good shot, Starscream!"
"Shut up or I'll blast you, punk!"
"Hey, hold that pose! I wanna remember you that way!"
[A snake wraps itself around Starscream's neck]
"Help! Get this thing off me!"
"I think it looks stunning on ya!"

—Rumble and the Constructicons laugh at Starscream.

"He'll blow us away if we attack."
"He'll blow us away if we just stand here! Charge!"

—Ratchet and Cliffjumper debate whether or not to attack the powered-up Megatron.

Brawn: Are you defective? How're we gonna do that?!
Perceptor: Simple! We use my transmat reduction beam to shrink down to microscopic size. Then, we crawl into Megatron, and rip the blasted heart out!
Optimus: What do you think of his intelligence now, Brawn?
Brawn: Ahhh, I reserve judgment.

—Brawn is just being pissy at this point.

Megatron: Decepticons: a toast. To the imminent destruction of the accursed Autobots!
[The Decepticons begin drinking Energon]
Starscream: Energy! We won't need to conserve it after tomorrow. We can bleed this planet dry!
Rumble: [hiccups] Boy, these are good. [hiccups] I needed to refuel. Energy!
Megatron: Energy! Energy!
Thundercracker: Hey! This stuff's the greatest! [passes out]
Megatron: Ah, those were the good ol' days, back on Cybertron... Didn' hafta... sneak around in these... ugly Earth disguises, heh...
[Powerglide arrives]
Powerglide: Time to cut the jets and glide...! What in the world?
Megatron: Good ol' Cybertron! Land... of the metal moon!

—The Decepticons give us what is quite possibly the intentionally funniest scene in the series.

"How come it's so quiet?"
"Because he isn't engaging any of his main brain functions."
"Then I got a honey of an idea. Let's bash brain!"

—Brawn and Perceptor in Megatron's cranial chamber

"What are they?"
"Brain impulses... evil brain impulses!"

—Brawn and Perceptor discuss Decepticon neuroscience.

"It's all over, Prime!"
"Not until every last Autobot program is erased, Megatron."

—Megatron anticipates the destruction of the Autobots, as if it was a new thing.

"You filthy retrorats!! Rrrarrgh!!"

—Megatron, realizing that three Autobots have been messing with his insides.

Notes

Production information

• First draft script: 15th February 1985

Continuity notes

• The Decepticon ship is the same one last seen in the series pilot episode, "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1". A decade later, it would be given a name and a central role in the Beast Wars cartoon episode "Nemesis Part 1".

Maybe this is how Teletraan I is able to detect "evil presences".

• Scavenger detects traces of cybertroid alloy, suggesting the Decepticon ship is made of it.
• Hook uses cyber-forceps.
• We learn quite a bit about Megatron's physiology in this episode:
  • He can fly at least 600 miles per hour (100 miles in ten minutes, per Prime's reading of Teletraan I.)
  • He has an open spot amid his chest circuitry for the Heart of Cybertron, much like Ultra Magnus and Hot Rod have reserved spots (holes) for the Matrix.
  • He has a wristwatch on his left wrist, which he looks at while flying around (causing concern for the Autobots within his shoulder joints). Oddly enough, this has precedent.
  • While drunk, Megatron rants about disliking his "ugly Earth disguise", yet in 2005, he still has the same alt-mode. Surely he could have found time to change his gun mode if he really hated it that much! Maybe he doesn't like his troops' alternate modes, or perhaps he simply despises the concept of taking Earth alternate modes to begin with.
  • Evil brain impulses!
• Perceptor compares the explosion of the Heart of Cybertron to a "hyperbomb", which could level the planet.
• Warpath actually fires shells from his cannon, rather than the usual lasers.
• Warpath's Tech Spec weakness comes into play: he is "helpless if upended".
• Megatron calls the Autobots "filthy retro-rats".

Real-world references

• The pulsating sound heard when Perceptor and company approach the Heart of Cybertron within Megatron is the same one used for the Dalek control rooms in all episodes of Doctor Who since its debut in 1963.

Animation and technical errors

• The excavation site changes radically between shots. When the archeologists first strike the Decepticon ship, they're digging downward into flat ground. In the next shot, they've removed an entire hillside, while still standing on flat ground. In the third shot ("this thing's been here longer than the hill!") the hill has become much bigger.
• Coloring errors:
  • As Soundwave is looking at the giant computer in Decepticon Headquarters, the white parts of his face guard are blue for a split second just as he turns to call for Megatron.
  • As Perceptor unshrinks Ironhide's microchip, Perceptor has a red Decepticon symbol.
  • Scavenger's head is colored light gray instead of dark gray as Rumble mocks him for missing.
  • After Megatron hands the Heart of Cybertron to Hook, Hook's head is white instead of black.
  • Perceptor's eyes are white instead of blue when he reacts to the damaged Autobots.
  • While Perceptor is giving his monologue about shrinking down and going into Megatron, Optimus Prime's waist is red instead of white.
• When the Constructicons laugh at Starscream, they use Rumble's laughter while Rumble is talking. This laughter is reused a second later by Rumble himself when he is done talking.
• Megatron gives the order to "cut the ship open". Hook proceeds to blast a huge explosive hole in the vessel.
• Appearing/disappearing Autobots:
  • In three different scenes, only Ratchet, Prime, Bumblebee and Brawn are shown making the journey to South America. After the first commercial break, however, lots more Autobots just show up in the middle of the battle (Cliffjumper, Bluestreak, Ironhide, Huffer, Smokescreen, Windcharger, Hoist...)
• The doofy shot of Megatron firing upwards at the Autobots on the hill keeps getting re-used, even after the Autobots are no longer attacking from the hill.
• Optimus falls forwards down the hillside, but ends up on his back in the very next shot.
• One gun, many lasers:
  • In the same sequence of shots, multiple beams of energy are streaking in towards the Autobots from multiple directions, despite Megatron only having two hands to fire the beams from. (There's no on-screen evidence that the other Decepticons have joined in the firing at all.)
• When Smokescreen finds Prime, he's lying in a completely different spot than where he fell after getting knocked out.
• The damaged Autobots include Ratchet and Hoist, who didn't have a mark on them when the battle concluded. They also include Wheeljack and Gears, who weren't seen at the battle at all.
• When the Decepticons get drunk, Soundwave is seen drinking amongst the crowd, despite having a faceplate. Maybe it can drop down like that of Dead End (as seen in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3").
• Flying Autobots:
  • As Brawn leaps up to attack the electro-sanitizers, he has a flight sound effect.
• After he leaps back down, the top of his backpack is yellow instead of olive green.
• The animation of Megatron stepping aside to avoid Warpath's shells is played twice in a row, which means the first shell's explosion is missing in the second shot.
• In typical cartoon fashion, the energy shield shatters like glass, complete with breaking glass sound effects. The Dome of Invulnerability went down the same way in "Atlantis, Arise!"
• When Prime opens fire on Megatron, his shots don't quite reach the whole, oh, maybe 50 feet of distance between him and Megatron.
• After Megatron falls, a closeup shot shows the joint in Megatron's shoulder. The next shot is a tighter closeup; the joint has suddenly gone from solid to hollow (allowing us to see the Autobots running past.)
• As the three Autobots flee Megatron's interior and start to return to their normal size, the Heart of Cybertron grows right along with Brawn during the first growing spell.
• The line "But it's destabilizing. It could explode at any second!" is voiced by Brawn, but Perceptor's mouth moves. The line sure sounds like it was written for Percy.
• When the Heart of Cybertron is supposedly 1,500 miles above the ground, it's still in front of the night sky clouds.
• As he shoots at the Heart of Cybertron, Perceptor's laser blast is given a rocket sound effect.

Continuity errors

• The archaeologists at the beginning of the episode are digging for Mayan artifacts in South America, though in the real world the Maya civilization never reached further south than modern-day Honduras.
• Megatron rather strangely identifies the vessel as "a Decepticon ship", as if he's never seen it before, despite later verifying that it is "our ship".
• Optimus is hesitant to cut down a path so his forces can drive through. Yet he does EXACTLY that in "Changing Gears". Did he have a change of heart or does he have something against African Jungles? To be fair, in this episode the Autobots had plenty of time to reach the Decepticons, while in "Changing Gears" the ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM was about to be vaporized by its own exploding sun.
• Do the Decepticons really need to carve a path the size of an interstate highway? Wouldn't a single-file pathway be a lot quicker?
• The Decepticons' ship was depicted as being the same size as the ship used by the Autobots in the opening episode, but here it's considerably smaller.
• Would the ship's vital, fragile power source really be that close to its exterior hull?
  • Would said hull also be quite vulnerable to a small hand-held weapon?
• Was there nothing else in the ship that would be of value to the Decepticons?
• Why on Earth are the Decepticons sitting around in the middle of the desert somewhere? And how does Powerglide know to find them there?
• Prime has "all available Autobots" move out to attack Megatron. Responding to the call are... Cliffjumper, Windcharger and Warpath. What happened to everybody else?!

"Why don't we install it in Optimus, Perceptor?" "Because you're an idiot, Brawn."

• At one point, Brawn proposes killing Megatron from the inside (by PUNCHING HIS BRAIN TO PIECES). Perceptor stops him, saying that if he fell while flying, the impact could detonate the Heart of Cybertron. But while they're having this debate, Megatron lands, so it wouldn't seem to be a concern anymore. Perhaps even a short fall would have been enough? Maybe not, since Megatron falls right over when Prime shoots him a moment later! Also, with Megatron's change in orientation, the room that Perceptor and company are in should really undergo a 90 degree gravity shift, but nothing changes.
  • As a sub-point, why do they never employ that tactic afterward? The hardest part is getting inside Megatron.
• Why is it so hard for Perceptor to reach the wire that's right in front of him? He's not damaged or anything!
• For that matter, why did he have to cut all three himself, when Brawn was ready and willing to help? It didn't seem like a particularly complex procedure.
• We're not doubting the strength of the almighty, indestructible Brawn or anything, but... can something as tiny and light as the Heart of Cybertron really be thrown 2,000 miles into space?
• For that matter, Perceptor's tracking report means the Heart is moving at about 250 miles per second. Wouldn't it have incinerated in the lower atmosphere at such speeds?

Trivia

Huffer charging at Megatron...

• "Microbots" features some of the most beautifully animated sequences in the entire series: Ratchet tumbling into the camera as he's shot, Soundwave trying to outrun the avalanche, Brawn ripping apart the electro-sanitizers, Cliffjumper getting hit by rocks, Warpath's shells closing on Megatron...
• When Perceptor shoots down the Heart of Cybertron, the numbers "37564" appear on his targeting display. In Japan, this combination of numbers is a play-on-words, where combining the first syllable of each number in Japanese creates "minagoroshi" meaning annihilate, massacre, kill them all, etc.
• Brawn's assertion that "five of us are functional" actually accords with the animation; Prime calls on Ratchet, Grapple and Hoist, and Bumblebee and Brawn are shown still standing in the preceding shot. Amusingly, Grapple is never seen in the animation at all.
• Decepticons make funny, happy drunks.
• Writer David Wise recycled much of this episode's plot from his He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode "Day of the Machines". Mainly, the plot in which the heroes have to shrink themselves and crawl inside a machine to disable it. He would further recycle the script for a Mighty Orbots episode, "Leviathan," in 1984, and again, almost word-for-word, in parts of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) episode "Shredder and Splintered". That same He-Man episode was also cannibalized for the Transformers episodes "Day of the Machines" and "Kremzeek!".

Foreign localization

French

• Title (Canadian and European French broadcasts): "Les Microbots" ("The Microbots")
• Title (European French DVD release): "Microbots"
• 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.
• Perceptor calls Brawn "mon gros" ("big boy").
• The whole dialogue between the Autobots as they walk in the forest is missing.
• Scavenger's lines are missing as he's looking for traces of cybertroid alloy.
• Megatron's line "Hook! You cyber-forceps!" was misunderstood by the translator, who thought it was "Look! Your cyber-force". Consequently, that is what Megatron says even if it does not really make sense.
• The drunk Decepticons scene is very softened. Rumble's hiccups sound more like "Ah!", and Thundercracker's line "This stuff's the greatest!" is replaced by "I've been craving indigestion for a while". Plus, Megatron speaks pretty normally during his indigestion. The very strict French censorship laws of the time may have something to do with it.
• Powerglide's lines as he arrives above the Decepticons are missing from the dub.
• Perceptor's line "Thanks, Bumblebee!" is missing after he got saved.

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "Nel corpo di Megatron" ("In Megatron's Body")
• Original airdate: ?

• Megatron's speech about "good ol' Cybertron" was changed by having him saying: «Those were good times for our beloved Cybertron! Then you didn't have to fight with anyone to get your own energy! Do you remember it?», which in quite off-character since it makes it look like Megatron dislikes war. Then Megatron proceeds by saying: «Good ol' Cybertron, I'll never forget what you managed to bring me: life!», a sentence which totally makes no sense but, after all, he was drunk, so... whatever...
• Instead of saying that the Decepticons have "over energized", Powerglide explicitely says that they were drunk, which is quite the opposite of what happened in the French dub.
• When the Autobots get to Megatron's shoulder joint, instead of saying: «Just hope he doesn't make any sudden moves.», Perceptor tells Brawn to not make any sudden moves.

• Title (dub 2): "Microbots"
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Micro no Kesshi Tai" (ミクロの決死隊, "The Micro Suicide Squad")
• Original airdate: December 27, 1985

Mandarin

• Title: "Xiǎo Jīqìrén " (小机器人, "Small Robots")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Microbots"
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

VHS

2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 12: Size Matters (Rhino Entertainment)

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 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 3 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 7 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 04: Stagione Due Parte Seconda (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 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 — Season Two, Volume One: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Episode Dossier at The Cybertron Chronicle
• First draft script, submitted on 15th February 1985
• Model sheets and background layouts