Secret Weapon: D-5

« Transformers: Robots in Disguise ep 8 »
Shouldn't there be a heart flashing on the screen?
"Secret Weapon: D-5" 謎の兵器! D5 () (Nazo no Heiki! D5) "Mysterious Weapon! D5"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop
Airdate	May 24, 2000 (Japanese) September 17, 2001 (English)
Written by	Kazuhiko Gōdo (Japanese) Marc Handler (English)
Director	Yoshiaki Tsutsui
Animation studio	Studio Gallop

Another train heist.
Autobots to the rescue
Is this a rerun?

Synopsis

The Predacons mug the absent-minded Dr. Yoshimoto to steal a disk that belongs to Dr. Onishi. His fellow scientist tries to fight off Dark Scream by tossing a fire extinguisher. A fire engine arrives, and the Predacons think it might be Optimus Prime. So Slapper licks the disk up and the three retreat.

T-AI and Optimus wonder why the Predacons are so concerned with stealing a regular disk. Prowl and Side Burn are contacted to be placed on alert.

That's one evil-looking train.

Under the sea, the Predacons look at what's on the disk: Images of a steam locomotive branded "D-5". Knowing only that the train holds some importance to the doctor, Megatron orders his goons to capture it. In the same room, Dr. Onishi mumbles something about Grampa.

Coincidentally, Koji happens to be attending a demonstration running of the D-512 Stanwich Steamer train ("Grandpa") with Dr. Yoshimoto. Midnight Express and the Autobot Brothers also attend, waiting for the Predacons to attack. The train pulls into the station where Koji and the rest of the crowd of observers are waiting. They board the locomotive and start to enjoy their trip on the anachronism. The rest of Team Bullet Train arrive to make sure the train is protected as much as possible. Oh, and Side Burn and a cow ruin Kelly's day—moo!

"I've been working on the rail-" No, I'm NOT going to finish the song!

Sky-Byte begins the Predacons' attack on Grandpa, attempting to invade the train's interior by sneaking down the train's smokestack, but he's quickly knocked off course by a face full of smoke. Dark Scream tries to grab onto the top of the train, but receives a face full of smoke when the train goes into a tunnel. Not entirely giving up his fight, Dark Scream gets up, but is literally railroaded by Rapid Run. Slapper gives his shot at invading the antique, but Midnight Express notices the amphibian attacking Grandpa and evicts the interloper. The two battle on a beach, and the Autobot clearly has the upper hand. The dastardly Gas Skunk waits ahead with a weapon, and when the train passes, he traps the two remaining train-bots in a pulse field that disturbed their fuses, but Grandpa, having no fuses, passes through.

Whose bright idea was to put a cleaning station AT THE OCEAN?

Grandpa pulls into the station successfully, and the human passengers disembark, but as soon as they're off, the Predacons commandeer the vessel. The bullet trains chase after the hijacked machine, but Sky-Byte diverts the train away from its protectors. T-AI determines that the train's new track will lead it into the water, but Midnight Express refuses to let Grandpa fall into the ocean. The train derails, and Midnight Express jumps into the water after it. Underwater, Megatron tries to grab the falling choo-choo, but Midnight Express snatches the train before it literally falls into the enemy's waiting hands.

Afterwards, Koji and the Autobots understand how the endurance of the relic is a symbol of hope.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I told you you can't use nitro glycerine instead of nitrous oxide; it doesn't work like that."

—Doctor Yoshimoto's associate informs him he fails at science.

"They seem to be afraid of this fire engine. Must be some new kind of phobia. I'll look it up in my psycho guide book."

—Doctor Yoshimoto analyzes the Predacons.

"This is a police operation. Your dates are not relevant."
"They're relevant to me, bro! You shoulda seen that classy chassis!"

—Prowl and Side Burn sum up their personality clash.

"That smoke's a menace! It's clogging up my air filters!"
"He's blowing his stack because you made him mad. Steam engines are very sensitive."

—Rapid Run and Midnight Express discuss "Grampa".

"I know what this is about. I've fallen under some ancient vehicle curse, right?"

—Kelly bemoans the running joke that is her life.

"You messin' with me, pal?! What are you thinking?!"
"I was thinking toads have big mouths and small brains."

—Slapper gets burned by Midnight Express.

"Someone's in the kitchen with DAAARRRKK SCCREEAAAMM."

—Dark Scream raises the question of who'd want to be in the kitchen with him...

Notes

Differences with Car Robots

• In Car Robots, T-AI explains to Optimus that the disk stolen by the Predacons contains information on Doctor Onishi's hobbies. Robots in Disguise prolongs the mystery of the disk by leaving this out and simply having her rattle off its technical specifications.
• The scene of Prime wondering what the disk might contain is extended for Robots in Disguise with some repeated footage. Aside from this instance, this is the first episode of Robots in Disguise not to employ this method to extend the episode's run-time. To make up the time lost instead, a brand-new scene is created, made out of animation from "Spychangers to the Rescue" and inserted in between the scenes of T-AI calling up the Autobot Brothers and Doctor Onishi being scanned on the Megastar, which shows Prowl and Side Burn responding to T-AI's summons, and Side Burn requesting (in vain) that he be excused for a date with a red sports car.
• Sky-Byte and Gas Skunk suggest that "D-5" might stand for "Dynamite-5" or "Diamond-5" in Car Robots, while in Robots in Disguise, they propose "Destructor-5" and "Dilithium-5". Dark Scream and Slapper's suggestions of "Destron-5" and "Danger-5" are the same in both versions.
• Koji knows the disk has been stolen by the Predacons in Robots in Disguise, but has to be told about it by Yoshimoto in Car Robots.
• In Robots in Disguise, both Midnight Express and Doctor Onishi refer to the D-512 train with the nickname "Grandpa". In Car Robots, Midnight Express calls it "Ancestor", while Doctor Onishi merely mumbles "popo" in his sleep, which is Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a train.
• In Car Robots, the Autobots are guarding Professor Yoshimoto, rather than "Grandpa" itself, and the Autobots do not realize what the Predacons are after until they make off with the train towards the end of the episode.
• Team Bullet Train are not part of the guard duty in Car Robots. In the scene with the Autobot Brothers stand guard, Prowl then gets snippy with Side Burn for (logically) suggesting Team Bullet Train take over, prompting Side Burn to irritatedly bump into him and point out that the brothers can't very well follow a train on tracks. In Robots in Disguise, Prowl takes issue with Side Burn grousing about missing his date, and Side Burn's bump is reimagined as a good-natured "nudge-nudge wink-wink" elbow as he describes the attributes of the car he's had to stand up.
• Robots in Disguise shortens the scene of "Grandpa" leaving the station by just a teeny bit.
• Rather than threaten Sky-Byte as they do in Robots in Disguise, Car Robots has Team Bullet Train bemoan the fact they cannot fight properly in train mode.
• In Robots in Disguise, Rapid Run argues that "Grandpa" cannot understand them; in Car Robots, he's pointing out how they're here to protect Professor Yoshimoto, rather than the train.
• When Dark Scream threatens "Grandpa" with "round 2" in Robots in Disguise, he's shouting a warning to Slapper in Car Robots.
• After Gas Skunk's pulse attack fails, Car Robots cuts to Megatron on the Megastar. Robots in Disguise cuts to a commercial break after the failed attack, and so once the show returns, an establishing shot of the Megastar floating beneath the ocean (taken from earlier in the episode) is added before the scene moves to Megatron.
• When Slapper and Gas Skunk try to pull the switch in different ways, Robots in Disguise has them fight about which way is right, while Car Robots has Slapper just goofing around deliberately.
• Where Car Robots cuts directly from the image of the tracks poking out over the cliff to Megatron in the water below, Robots in Disguise adds a dissolve between the two shots, shortening their total running time.
• When Midnight Express prevents Megatron from catching Grandpa, Robots in Disguise has Megatron frustrated and swearing that the day of reckoning will come (and come soon), while Car Robots has him unfazed by this interferecne, confidently bellowing and chuckling that even if with "the weapon", the Autobots will never beat the Predacons.
• Before he starts raging about the failure of their mission, Robots in Disguise adds a new composited scene of Megatron, seen from behind, watching footage of "Grandpa" on one of his screens.
• In Robots in Disguise, Megatron angrily realizes that the vintage train was not a secret weapon but just a hobby of Dr. Onishi's. As his minions try to sneak off to avoid punishment, Megatron rages at them for their being "beaten by an old steam engine!" In Car Robots, however, Megatron's still somewhat in the dark about D-5's true nature and demands to know what it really is. As his minions try to sneak off avoid telling him the truth, he yells at his minions to "get back here" to explain themselves.
• The message of the episode's final scene differs across the two shows. In Car Robots, Koji believes that his father likes "Grandpa" because it harkens back to a simpler time before society relied so much on speed and high-tech equipment. Given that this is a bit of a silly metaphor in a show about super-advanced robots that regularly race at high speeds to save humans, Robots in Disguise goes for more of a "Little Engine That Could" metaphor, with Koji believing that his dad's love for the train was because of how it symbolized perseverance.

Continuity errors

• When "Grandpa" fell into the ocean with his coal-burning furnace still going, he should have exploded. But that would have just broken Midnight Express' heart... or circuits, or whatever.

Transformers references

• Dark Scream suggests that D-5 stands for "Destron-5".

Real-world references

• In the train, Dark Scream sings "I've Been Working on the Railroad".

Trivia

• Numerous characters from both factions—most notably Midnight Express—go through this episode either suspecting or flat-out insisting that the steam locomotive is actually alive and sentient. Yeah.
• And speaking of which, the Predacons actually get beaten by the locomotive. No wonder Megatron went looking for better help.
• There's no real reason apparent why Optimus Prime is in battle mode and Team Bullet Train have formed Rail Racer in the last scene—they're just watching the train with Koji...
• Kelly's red sports car has the number plate J41-98.
• "Grandpa" is a JNR Class D51.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "L'arma segreta" ("The secret weapon")

• Again, at the beginning of the episode, the fire truck is referred to as a "firefighters car", despite not being a car.
• Interestingly, when the Predacons try to guess what does "D-5" stand for, "Dilithium-5" is changed to "Dynamite-5" and "Destron-5" is changed to "Demolisher-5". Curiously, "Dynamite-5" was used in Japanese for what became "Destructor-5" in English.
• "D-512 Stanwich" is misnamed as "D-5 Stanwick".
• When Yoshimoto and Koji talk about the disk, this dub has a pretty big translation mistake since Koji's line: "Yeah! The Predacons took it, but they won't get away with it!" is changed to: "Yeah! The Predacons kidnapped him, but he will get home!", so, instead of talking about the disk, he's actually talking about his father, despite the fact that Yoshimoto was clearly talking about the floppy.
• Kelly's line: "Ha! Gave him the slip! Not too bad!" becomes: "Ha! I left him behind! Well done, Kelly!", thus having Kelly actually naming herself, something that never happens in the English dub.
• Some of Midnight's lines are wrongly voiced by Rapid Run's actor.
• Dark Scream singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" is changed by having him singing three Italian songs, one for each time. The songs are "Binario" by Claudio Villa, "Il cavallo scalpita" from Cavalleria rusticana and "Fatti mandare dalla mamma a prendere il latte" by Gianni Morandi. The last two are slightly modified to fit better in the scenes.

Portuguese

• Title: "A Arma Secreta: D-5" ("The Secret Weapon: D-5")

Home video releases

DVD

2000 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 2 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Volume One (Maximum Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 1 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Battling the Predacons (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Special Edition 2-Disc Set (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season One (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)

External links

• Secret Weapon: D-5 on RiDForever.info