Recruits Part I

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"Little robots from outer space need your talent to win a Cube match against Kremzeek."
"Recruits Part I"
Season	1
No. in season	1
Production company	Allspark Animation
Airdate	December 8, 2018
Writer	Nicole Dubuc
Director	Ray Quigley
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on YouTube

Optimus Prime picks Hot Shot to be part of a new team of Rescue Bot recruits, but even Hot Shot himself has doubts he's up to the task.

Synopsis

Come on and slam
And welcome to the jam

Hot Shot and his friends are engaged in a game of Cube on Cybertron, though Hot Shot manages to neglect his teammate while scoring. As his disgruntled friends leave, Hot Shot finds himself in the presence of none other than Optimus Prime. Optimus has an offer for Hot Shot — he wants to recruit the young Autobot for a new team of Rescue Bots. Hot Shot has his doubts, but is baited by Optimus into agreeing, and one quick space bridge trip later, Optimus leaves him in the Rescue Bot Training Academy on Earth. The startled Hot Shot is rapidly introduced to fellow recruits Whirl, Medix and Hoist, who list off their rescue expertise before asking what Hot Shot does. He claims to do a bit of everything, which impresses the others, but Wedge is more skeptical — Whirl explains Wedge won a competition to earn his spot at the center. Further talk is interrupted by Heatwave appearing on a nearby monitor to welcome them and order them to the briefing room.

"Too bad you can't practice getting taller, boys."

The recruits are awed at getting to work with Heatwave. He instructs them that they need to keep their status as aliens secret, and hands them badges to give them new Earth modes. Wedge is bemused by Hot Shot's new ATV form, questioning its usefulness as a rescue vehicle. Heatwave takes them outside and has them show him their moves. However the other recruits are surprised by Hot Shot's antics as he kicks a road cone like a ball. Heatwave next takes the team to the simulation gymnasium, AKA "Hero Hall", for a simulated team rescue. He sets up a simulation involving a burning building and directs them on the rescue — while Hoist and Medix attempt to rescue the test dummy Tough Luck Chuck, Whirl is assigned to extinguish the fire using cans of foam passed to her by Wedge and Hot Shot. Unfortunately, Hot Shot's attempts to pass on the foam cans are met with failure, and he instead decides to use a fire hose to put out the fire. Despite the others' warnings not to use water on a grease fire, he lets loose and the mission promptly ends in a failure. The other recruits unload on Hot Shot, who admits he never undertook rescue training.

Later, Hot Shot wanders into a room and encounters Cody Burns. Though Hot Shot instinctively changes to his alternate mode, Cody explains that his family has worked with the Rescue Bots for years. Cody gives him a pep talk to the effect that Optimus must have seen something in him to assign him to Rescue Bot training. Hot Shot rejoins the others, promising to work harder to help the team. Wedge immediately challenges him to a stacking contest, which Hot Shot loses badly. Demoralized once more, Hot Shot resolves to return to the Cube courts on Cybertron.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Humans	Others
Hot Shot's friends (1-3) Hot Shot (4) Optimus Prime (5) Whirl (6) Medix (7) Hoist (8) Wedge (9) Heatwave (10)	Cody Burns (12)	Tough Luck Chuck (11)

Quotes

"Optimus Prime! I didn't know you were a Cube-head. Uh, wanna play?"
"Perhaps another time."

—Hot Shot meets Optimus Prime.

"He seems cool."
"Cool? Try epic. He's basically a Prime. Do you know how many lives he's saved? Disasters he's stopped? We're lucky he even knows we exist."

—Hot Shot and Wedge discuss Heatwave.

"Hey guys! Miss me?"
"Do you really want an answer to that question?"

—Hot Shot and Medix

Notes

Continuity notes

• This episode is set an unclear amount of time after the end of Transformers: Rescue Bots. Cody notes that he and his family have worked with the Rescue Bots for "years", and the fact Optimus can freely move about Cybertron without being targeted by the High Council suggests it takes place after the events of the Robots in Disguise series finale.
• The training center was built during the last season of Rescue Bots, originally conceived in "New Normal" and completed in "The More Things Change...", though here it has been slightly redesigned and moved to a more mountainous area compared to its previous beachfront location. It's not explained why it took so long after its completion for them to actually conduct training classes in the training center - long enough for Cody to well and truly grow up. But then, this wouldn't be the first time Heatwave took his sweet time.
• Elma, the center's holographic command and security system in previous Rescue Bots episodes, is noticeably missing.
• The center's GroundBridge was previously described as being a dedicated two-way link between the center and the fire station on Griffin Rock, and incapable of going anywhere else. In "Upgrades", it was revealed to be capable of going to China and the U.S. western coast. However, it now appears to have been upgraded to a full space bridge, capable of travel to Cybertron.
• New Earth-based modes have previously been obtained by scanning; however, the recruits are given theirs by simply attaching a badge to themselves. The mechanism for this is not explained. Perhaps the badges are analogous to a flash drive and contain the pre-scanned data already loaded? If so, Wedge's criticism of Hot Shot's alt-mode seems misdirected given he didn't actually choose it.
• One of the items on display in Heatwave's office is Cody's go kart Rolling Thunder.

Transformers references

• Two of Hot Shot's friends appear to be based on Arcee and Blaster, but they go unnamed.
• Cube is a sport introduced in the Transformers: Cyberverse episode "Cube".
• Optimus comments that Hot Shot might find Earth to be "more than meets the eye" because of course.

Trivia

• Optimus and Bumblebee have been redesigned from their appearances in Rescue Bots, now using variations of their evergreen designs like their counterparts in the concurrently-airing Cyberverse.
• Heatwave lists Bumblebee as part of his team, despite Bumblebee not being a part of the core faculty at the Academy. Bee doesn't appear in the show at all until "Bee Prepared", when he shows up as a special guest professor, before eventually becoming a regular in the second season.
• For this two-parter only, Optimus is voiced by Jake Hart under the alias of Hiro Diaz. All subsequent series appearances would see him voiced by Jake Foushee, who also voices his counterpart in the concurrent Cyberverse cartoon.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Nouvelles recrues, première partie" ("New recruits, first part")
• Original airdate: ?

Spanish (Latin America)

• Title: "Reclutas Parte 1" ("Recruits Part 1")
• Original airdate: 30 June 2019