“We bagged a beaut’ Winston!”
In a rundown neighborhood, a couple of punks spot a nice set of wheels they can steal. They hope inside for a joyride and start playing some tunes on the funky boom box they find inside.
They take the car to their boss Winston to get their payday, but the hot wheels and funky boom box reveal themselves as Tracks and Blaster! Optimus Prime and the Police arrive on scene to make arrests and then they head back to their local base – Sparkplug’s garage.
Optimus Prime orders Cosmos and Powerglide to patrol the skies, and Seaspray to patrol the seas for Decepticon activity. Tracks meanwhile heads out for a drive and finds himself victim of another theft attempt. As Tracks is shot at as he attempts to get away, he crashes and is damaged – preventing him from being able to transform. He’s discovered by a young man called Raoul who vows to fix him up and sell him to the Gettys brothers.
Tracks reveals his identity, but it doesn’t stop Raoul’s determination to sell him.
“You’re a pretty cool guy… for a car!”
Just as Raoul finishes fixing up Tracks, a couple of thugs come to threaten him for not getting a stolen car to them on time. Fortunately, Tracks is now able to Transform and comes to Raoul’s rescue. As the thugs flee, they mention that the robots are supposed to be on their side, which piques Track’s interest. The thugs get away after a pursuit, but Tracks is still keen to learn why the Decepticons would be working with car thieves, so Raoul takes him to where the Gettys brothers house their stolen vehicles.
“Time to go undercover….as a stolen car!”
Tracks infiltrates the stolen car operation, just as Powerglide spots Starscream in the area while on his sky patrols. Cosmos joins Powerglide as they attempt to purse Starscream, which eventually leads to a battle in a shopping mall. The mighty jet manages to escape, but the Autobots report back to Optimus Prime, who has an idea where Starscream might have been headed.
“500 altogether, as promised Megatron…”
Tracks has followed the stolen cars to Megatron. The Gettys brothers are expecting to be paid for their delivery of the cars, but what they weren’t expecting was the payment to be made in fusion cannon blasts. The Decepticons have constructed a plant which is feeding the stolen cars into. After a brief episode which almost results in his destruction, Tracks reveals himself to the Decepticons, but is vastly outnumbered. He flees but just as he’s about to run out of power, his Autobot comrades come to his rescue!
It turns out that Megatron has been converting the stolen cars into remote control cars that they can control. They set them out in the city to cause carnage, and the Autobots head out to intervene. As they battle the stolen cars, they fins that they have been converted into transforming robot drones!
With Blaster’s help, the Autobots are able to shut down the robot drones, and head to the Decepticon plant to shut it down. Their efforts are paused briefly as Megatron captures Raoul. Megatron underestimates Roul’s smarts though, and he’s able to disable Megatron. This creates the window the Autobots need to destroy the plant and enable the Autobots the breathing room to start converting all the stolen cars back into normal vehicles.
Key Scenes, Plot Points and Characters:
Being able to fly in vehicle mode is one of Tracks’ unique features that gets showcased in this episode. A lot of story and action is contained in this episode without it feeling like it’s been forced or crammed in. Despite the episode being heavily featured around Tracks and Raoul, lots of other Autobots and Decepticons make appearances and impacts.
The Verdict:
There’s nothing at all I can fault about this episode, it’s fun and action packed with a good story. 10 energon cubes out of 10!
Afterthoughts:
There are many Transformers episodes that are real standouts. It didn’t occur to me before writing this review that this was one of them. It may not have the deep dive into the Transformers back-story that other legendary episodes might have, or an epic one on one battle between Prime and Megatron, but there’s truly nothing I could fault about this episode. Writing this review made me realise what a truly great episode this is, and if you haven’t seen it before, it’s well worth a watch!
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