Scramble City: Mobilization

The name or term "Scramble City" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Scramble City (disambiguation).

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"Scramble City: Mobilization" スクランブルシティ発動編 () (Scramble City Hatsudō Hen)
Release date	April 1986
Written by	Toyohiro Andō
Directed by	Yūji Endō
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Megatron is determined to halt the completion of Metroplex, the Autobots' new transforming city. To do the deed, he throws every combiner team the Decepticons have at them. The Autobots counter with their own combiners and things get ugly.

Synopsis

In a secret subterranean factory, the Autobots and their human allies work diligently on their "Scramble City" project, constructing a giant mobile fortress under the direction of Ultra Magnus. When the Decepticons detect magnetic fluctuations emanating from the concealed base, however, Soundwave's cassettes investigate; despite resistance from Blaster and his tapes, Ratbat manages to penetrate the cavern and discovers the construction work.

Megatron dispatches Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and the Constructicons to attack the factory, but their way is barred by an Autobot contingent led by Optimus Prime. When Ultra Magnus, monitoring the battle from the base, sees the Constructicons merge into Devastator, he sends the Aerialbots to join the fight. Their added firepower fells Devastator and sends the Decepticons retreating, and in retaliation, Megatron deploys the Stunticons. The Autobots roll out to confront them, and the battle soon escalates as the two combiner teams form Superion and Menasor. Using Scramble Power, the two super robots shift their limbs for optimum power, but after a few reconfigurations, Fireflight gets confused and attempts to connect as the wrong limb, crashing into his team-mates and falling off. Menasor seizes the opportunity and disengages Wildrider, who attaches as Superion's leg, with painful results for the air warrior. Optimus Prime takes action, blasting Wildrider off and allowing Fireflight to recombine with his team, at which point the Combaticons arrive to tip the battle in the Decepticons' favor as Bruticus.

Back in the Autobots' factory, Scramble City has finally been completed, and Ultra Magnus has it transform to mobile fortress mode and sends it to join in the battle along with the Protectobots. Menasor and Bruticus have already defeated Superion as the team arrives, but as Defensor, they protect the other Autobots as Scramble City transforms into its robot mode—Metroplex! A single blast from Metroplex's cannon defeats the two Decepticons, but as the Autobots celebrate their victory, the nearby ocean parts, and from its depths arises Trypticon!

Featured characters

(For the purposes of this list, the portion of this OVA that is composed of clips from other episodes is not counted.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ultra Magnus (1) Grapple (2) Bumblebee (4) Streetwise (5) Blades (9) First Aid (10) Groove (11) Hot Spot (12) Blaster (17) Steeljaw (18) Ramhorn (19) Optimus Prime (28) Jazz (29) Tracks (30) Warpath (31) Smokescreen (32) Ironhide (33) Silverbolt (35) Slingshot (36) Fireflight (37) Skydive (38) Air Raid (39) Superion (45) Metroplex (53) Defensor (54)	Soundwave (13) Megatron (14) Ravage (15) Ratbat (16) Laserbeak (17) Starscream (20) Thundercracker (21) Skywarp (22) Mixmaster (23) Bonecrusher (24) Long Haul (25) Hook (26) Scrapper (27) Scavenger (28) Devastator (34) Motormaster (40) Drag Strip (41) Dead End (42) Wildrider (43) Breakdown (44) Menasor (46) Vortex (47) Blast Off (48) Swindle (49) Onslaught (50) Brawl (51) Bruticus (52) Trypticon (55)	Spike Witwicky (3) Carly (6) Chip Chase (7) Sparkplug Witwicky (8)

Notes

Animation and technical errors

The concept of the whole combiner-limb-switching thing is practically the whole point of "Scramble City", and is completely wrecked by repeated coloring errors.

• When Menasor reconfigures his limbs for the first time, Wildrider becomes his right arm and Breakdown his left, while Dead End becomes his left leg, and Drag Strip his right. However, as soon as they connect, their colours change back to those of the limbs as if they were in their traditional positions (Breakdown is coloured maroon like Dead End, Drag Strip is off-white like Breakdown, etc.). Though frustrating, it is at least understandable how the error occurred; some of the errors that will follow it are real head-scratchers, however.
• The original colouring error continues into the next shot, as Superion kicks Menasor.
• In the very next shot, as Menasor falls over from the kick, he is both drawn and coloured with his traditional limb configuration, as if no switching had occurred.
• Next, when he catches the lunging Superion, his right arm is correctly drawn and colored as Breakdown. While not fully visible, so we can't tell who it's drawn as, we can see his right arm is incorrectly colored as if it were Drag Strip.
• Immediately after that, as Menasor swings Superion around, his arms are correctly drawn as Breakdown and Wildrider, except they're on the wrong sides... and they're colored like Drag Strip and Dead End (so in this shot, we get a yellow Breakdown). Drag Strip and Dead End are drawn in their correct positions as his legs, but are of course miscoloured as Breakdown and Wildrider.
• Then, as Menasor looms over the fallen Superion, his left arm is correctly drawn and colored as Breakdown, while his right arm is correctly drawn as Wildrider, but colored like Dead End.
• When Menasor launches his arm to replace Superion's leg, the arms are drawn correctly as Breakdown and Wildrider, but are both colored like Dead End! Wildrider is in the correct colours when he attaches to Superion, however.
• As Menasor fires on Fireflight in the next shot, we return to the original error, as his limbs are drawn in their correct, reconfigured positions, but colored as if in their traditional arrangement.
• This error still in place as approaches the fallen Superion, but when he lifts his gun, his left arm is correctly drawn and colored as Breakdown. It snaps back to a maroon Lamborghini when he clocks Superion one.
• As Superion strikes back, Breakdown (left arm) and Drag Strip (right leg) are drawn and colored correctly, while Dead End (left leg) and Wildrider (right arm) have their colors swapped.
• When the angle changes and Menasor falls over, his right arm is Breakdown once again colored like Dead End, while his right arm is... well, it's colored like Drag Strip, but it's hard to tell exactly who it is. It has a visible spoiler, so it's either Drag Strip himself or a miscolored Wildrider, but in another unusual goof, whoever it is, they're attached upside down, because that spoiler is up at Menasor's shoulder instead of his wrist.
• For the rest of the episode, his limbs are drawn as being in their alternate configuration, but are colored like their standard configuration, up until Metroplex dispatches Menasor, at which point it's Breakdown (left arm), Wildrider colored as Dead End (right arm), Dead End colored as Wildrider (left leg) and Drag Strip (right leg).
• Throughout all of this, Superion undergoes several similar errors, but ultimately, they're far less noticeable; the four smaller Aerialbots are virtually identical in limb-form, making it hard to tell if they've changed positions, or if they've been colored wrong. Probably most noticeably, when the Aerialbots undergo their second reconfiguration, the 'bot attaching as Superion's right arm is colored red like Fireflight, but the leg that falls off is explicitly Fireflight; once he reconnects, he's coloured like... look, I dunno, whichever Aerialbot normally goes there. Nobody knows that!
• My head hurts.

Continuity notes

• The discrepancy of the timing of Trypticon's creation would eventually be resolved over thirty years later by Hayato Sakamoto's Unite Warriors and Legends stories, which explained that in Japanese continuity, Trypticon gets rebuilt and renovated from the ground-up each time he is destroyed in battle.
• The cliffhanger ending would eventually be followed up in Legends Vol. 42.

Trivia

Metroplex poster artwork, or half of it, anyway

• This OVA was released about a month before "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1" and "Part 2" first aired in Japan, making this the actual first onscreen appearance of Superion, Bruticus, and Defensor in Japan, and one of the first Japanese appearances of Menasor, who also appeared in the first issue of the Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers manga released that same month.
• The title sequence for "Scramble City" is newly created for the OVA, and features segments of the second season opening and clips from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1". Similarly, the closing sequence combines clips of the season 2 closing, "More than Meets the Eye" and "The Master Builders".
• The first seven minutes of the 23-minute-long "Scramble City" consist of a series of clips from "More Than Meets The Eye, Part 1" and "The Master Builders", retelling the Transformers' struggles on Cybertron, their departure for and awakening on Earth, and the creation and importance of Devastator, followed by the title card for the OVA.
• The cliffhanger that "Scramble City" is left dangling on was never resolved (at least not til 31 years later), as no further installments were produced. Although a "Scramble City 2" is often referenced by fans, this is, in actuality, an extended stop-motion toy commercial that's also named "Scramble City", which merely retells the animated episode with the added inclusion of Galvatron.
• Chronologically, "Scramble City" features the first animated appearances of Ultra Magnus, Ratbat, Ramhorn, Steeljaw, Metroplex, and Trypticon.
• Both Metroplex and Trypticon have different character models in "Scramble City" that were later replaced with new designs for the third season of the cartoon. Where Trypticon's "Scramble City" model is not particularly toy-accurate and would be updated to better reflect the appearance of his action figure, Metroplex actually looks more like his toy in "Scramble City", down to the angling of his limbs and positioning of his accessories in his alternate modes. Trypticon's early model would also be used for his appearances in the Marvel Comics series, but "Scramble City" was the only notable appearance of Metroplex's original look.
• This OVA marks the first time Chip and Carly are seen in the same episode. What took them so long?
• Trypticon's roar is that from the kaijū Baragon, who uses heavily modified Godzilla roars.

Trouble with Toei

• Toei, the Japanese animation studio that co-produced "Scramble City", has been unwilling to license the OVA to third party distributors outside of Japan. In 2006, Sony was unable to secure the rights to the audio track from Toei and were forced to replace it with a non-optional commentary track. Metrodome and Madman Entertainment circumvented dealing with Toei altogether by releasing a low-quality, fansubbed version of the OVA (with burnt-in subtitles, of course). Shout! Factory attempted to negotiate professionally with Toei, but were outright denied in their requests, forcing them to leave the OVA off their releases of American and Japanese Transformers cartoons. They were likewise snubbed in their attempts to release the Zone OVA, which Toei also co-produced. Despite Toei's outright refusal to cooperate with foreign distributors (their reluctance runs deeper than just OVAs, as they routinely offer incomplete masters of their other shows to foreign distributors), the OVA has been released multiple times in its complete form in Japan by Pioneer/Geneon.

Home video releases

LaserDisc

1995 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Megatron Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1999 — The Transformers — Decepticon Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — The Transformers: The Movie — 20th Anniversary Special Edition (Sony) — Audio commentary by Rik Alvarez and Alex Weiner only.
2007 — Transformers: The Movie — Ultimate Edition (Metrodome) — Japanese audio with burnt-in English subs and optional commentary by Chris McFeely.
2007 — Transformers: The Movie — Special Edition (Madman Entertainment) — Japanese audio with burnt-in English subs and optional commentary by Chris McFeely.