Sideburn's Obsession

« Transformers: Robots in Disguise ep 7 »
[sic]
"Sideburn's Obsession" スピードブレイカーの危機! () (Speedbreaker no Kiki!) "Speedbreaker's Crisis!"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop
Airdate	May 17, 2000 (Japanese) September 15, 2001 (English)
Written by	Yukiyoshi Ōhashi (Japanese) Richard Epcar (English)
Director	Akira Katō
Animation studio	Studio Gallop

Side Burn likes sports cars
Megatron is in disguise
Fatal attraction

Synopsis

Megatron's milkshake brings Side Burn to the junk yard

It all starts with Side Burn chasing down a weird-looking red car. Alerted to his brother's lovesick pursuit by a report of two speeding vehicles, Prowl tries to stop them, but his compulsion to follow traffic laws means he stops at a red light and loses them. Side Burn follows the car into a junkyard and is shocked and upset to discover that the red car is actually Megatron. (Which brings up an interesting point, does Side Burn care about the car's gender?) The Predacons apparently know about his taste in cars and used it to trick him. Side Burn is then captured by the Predacons and is now part of their evil plan.

The next day Optimus and Side Burn's brothers are all worried that he hasn't checked in and go out to search for him. They are stopped by the Predacons who leave a message that if they want to see Side Burn again, Optimus has to go get him alone. Optimus decides to go, against the wishes of his soldiers who know it's a trap.

Cue "Dueling Banjos"

Meanwhile, Koji is with his friend Carl and Carl's father at a car crushing facility. The Predacons attack and order them to leave. As they run, Koji spots Side Burn as their prisoner and stays to see if he can help. Inside the Predacons tell Side Burn their plot. They're going to use Side Burn to lure Optimus into a trap and then hand him over to Megatron.

Back at the base Prowl and X-Brawn convince T-AI to send the Spychangers to help Optimus. The two brothers decide to help out by going in disguise. Sadly it doesn't seem that Prowl has any imagination (he's wearing a NO ENTRY bib and holding a NO ENTRY sign while asking his brother to guess who he is) and X-Brawn tells him that it's the dumbest disguise he has ever seen. Thankfully X-Brawn has imagination...but no taste; he and Prowl wind up in vehicle mode but covered in goofy looking paint jobs.

I want to ride my tricycle. I want to ride my trike.

Meanwhile, the Predacons are curious as to why Side Burn is into red sport cars. Side Burn then tells a woeful tale of when he was a classic blue sports car and how he met a classic red sports car, but after a tragic accident Side Burn was left all alone. Now the Predacons are all feeling sorry for him, particularly after hearing how, when Side Burn was just a young tricycle, a red tricycle was his first love. Of course, as an irritated Sky-Byte reminds them, Side Burn is from Cybertron and was never a classic blue sports car or a tricycle.

Optimus finally arrives and, even though Side Burn tries to warn him, is captured in Energon ropes. Outside, Prowl and X-Brawn arrive and witness Megatron arriving. Fortunately he doesn't notice them and goes inside the building. Inside, Sky-Byte hands over Optimus, and Megatron uses this moment to use the helpless Autobot leader as a punching bag. (Low, Megatron, even for you.)

Outside, Prowl and X-Brawn need a plan to help their brother and leader. They spot Koji and contact him through his phone. Prowl asks him to switch on the magnetic machine so he can get into the building unnoticed. As the machine lifts him into the air the Predacons all agree that Prowl is one ugly car. As Prowl lands on the conveyor belt he transforms and blasts the machine which powered the Energon ropes, freeing Optimus and Side Burn. The Spychangers suddenly show up and Optimus and Side Burn decide that it's time for payback. After a rousing fight, the Predacons flee back to base, where Sky-Byte neatly shifts the blame onto Gas Skunk and Dark Scream.

Side Burn apologizes and says he'll never chase a red sports car again. Sadly (and very predictably), the moment he promises this a red sports car whizzes by and he tails it screaming that he thinks he's in love.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Predacons	Humans
Side Burn (2) Prowl (3) Optimus Prime (8) T-AI (9) X-Brawn (10) Hot Shot (15) R.E.V. (16) Crosswise (17) Ironhide (18) W.A.R.S. (19) Mirage (20)	Megatron (1) Sky-Byte (4) Gas Skunk (5) Slapper (6) Dark Scream (7)	Kelly (11) Koji Onishi (12) Carl (13) Carl's father (14)

Quotes

"Oh baby, you're looking fine, you know I can't resist a red sportscar!"

—Side Burn, admiring Megatron's ass.

"Oh man, what a downer."

—Side Burn, realizing the sportscar he's been admiring is actually Megatron in disguise.

"Sometimes you're as stubborn as a Packbot!"

—X-Brawn, on Optimus Prime's predilection for self-sacrifice.

"I know it's not right to seek revenge. Think we should just turn the other fender, maybe cut 'em a break?"
"Let's teach these creeps a lesson they won't forget!"
"Works for me!"

—Side Burn and Optimus Prime

Notes

Differences with Car Robots

• Robots in Disguise splices an extra shot of Prowl into the pursuit at the beginning of the episode, suspecting that there is something odd about the "red sports car".
• Robots in Disguise digitally recolors the traffic lights Prowl stops at, so that the green light is actually green, instead of the blue normally used in Japanese cartoons. Have a read here for more details on the history behind this coloring oddity. Incidentally, while it's obvious from the visuals, Car Robots makes super-certain we know by having Prowl loudly announce that the red light is the reason he has stopped, while Robots in Disguise just has him grouse about Side Burn.
• After Side Burn and Megatron turn into the staging area for the Predacons' trap, Robots in Disguise shortens the scene a little by cutting down on Side Burn's flirtatious dialogue. In Car Robots, among his general flirts is the proposal of a date to the real-life Rainbow Bridge.
• Side Burn is bound with an "electric rope" in Car Robots; Robots in Disguise dubs these bonds as energon chains (see Transformers references, below).
• As ever, Robots in Disguise removes the Japanese toy ID numbers from the member select program screens. For the first selection, as in "The Secret of the Ruins", only the Autobot Brothers' numbers are replaced with their names; the Spychangers don't get that luxury until they get their dedicated member selection later in the episode.

• In Car Robots, Prowl responds to T-AI's call with an image of his face on his internal dashboard screen. Robots in Disguise replaces this with a newly created scene of Prowl appearing on one of T-AI's screens in the Autobot base.
• X-Brawn and Prowl are much more adamant that Prime allow them to undertake the Side Burn rescue mission in Car Robots, claiming that he is their brother, and their responsibility. The result is the same, though Robots in Disguise does cut out the shot that ends the scene, which is of Prowl looking down solemnly.
• In Car Robots, as Dark Scream sets up the energon chains, the scene repeatedly cuts back to Sky-Byte as he thinks over his plan. In Robots in Disguise, Dark Scream monologues for the whole scene, with the cut-backs to Sky-Byte serving no purpose.
• In Car Robots, T-AI turns down X-Brawn and Prowl's request for the Spychangers to be sent out on the basis that only Optimus Prime can give the order, eventually relenting when she is told that Optimus is in danger. In Robots in Disguise, she simply doesn't want to recall them from an assignment they're already on, and is talked into it.
• Robots in Disguise adds in extra clips of Hot Shot and R.E.V. rolling into action.
• When the episode returns to Side Burn in the clutches of the Predacons, Robots in Disguise adds in a panning shot of the exterior of the scrapyard to establish the scene.
• Robots in Disguise adds CGI POV targeting shots as Optimus Prime and R.E.V. draw beads on Megatron and Gas Skunk, respectively.
• Extended scenes created for Robots in Disguise by looping and repeating footage include:
  • Sky-Byte gloating over Side Burn's capture.
  • Sky-Byte laughing as Side Burn is bound.
  • Prime requesting T-AI run the member select program.
  • T-AI calling Prowl, and talking to him on his internal screen.
  • Prime telling Prowl to wait before he pursues Slapper.
  • Prime swearing he'll rescue Side Burn.
  • Dark Scream's monologuing as he sets up the energon chains.
  • T-AI and Prowl talking about the Spychangers.
  • Optimus demanding the Predacons hand Side Burn over.
  • Several of X-Brawn and Prowl's exchanges in the scrapyard.
  • Prowl's conversation with Koji over his communicator.
  • Megatron threatening Gas Skunk and Dark Scream.

Animation or technical errors

• Side Burn's name is incorrectly spelled as one word in the episode title.

Continuity errors

• T-AI says the Spychangers are "on assignment", but when she contacts them, they're not actually doing anything.

Transformers references

• Slapper mentions Vehicon drones.
• The Predacons bind Side Burn with energon chains, previously seen in the original The Transformers cartoon episode "S.O.S. Dinobots".
• For their failure, Megatron sentences Gas Skunk and Dark Scream to The Pit.

Trivia

• This was Wayne C. Lewis's favourite episode to work on.
• The red car Side Burn chases at the end of the episode has a license plate 97–99.
• Prowl's "Jet Boosters!" attack involves... throwing his gun at his opponent (Megatron bats it aside). Unsurprisingly that's the sum total of Prowl's contribution to the fight. Way to go, genius.
• While chasing Side Burn (and Megatron), and despite the fact he's running both lights and sirens, as well as having taken over control and responsibility for a high-speed pursuit originally requiring four police cars, Prowl stops at a red light of an empty intersection. He later claims that "they lost me". Presumably he also doesn't arrest criminals who state that they "didn't do it, man".
  • In Car Robots, he stops at the light due his insistent need to "obey the traffic laws all the time, even now." Sounds like Side Burn ain't the only obsessed one, here.
• Starting this episode, the title sequence for Car Robots has Team Bullet Train appearing in CG rather than traditional cel.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "L'ossessione di Sideburn" ("Sideburn's obsession")

Portuguese

• Title: "A Obsessão de Sideburn" ("Sideburn's Obsession")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

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

• "Sideburn's Obsession" transcript on RiDForever.info