War Dawn (episode)

This article is about the cartoon episode. For the mobile game event, see War Dawn (Legends).

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Masterpiece Megatron and Smallest Optimus Prime face off.
"War Dawn"
Production code	700-58
Season	2
No. in season	43
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	December 25, 1985
Written by	David Wise
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Trapped in Cybertron's past, the Aerialbots learn the truth about Megatron and the rise of Optimus Prime.

Synopsis

Do yourself a favor; don't fly coach on Autobot Airways.

Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker are racing through the skies with the Aerialbots in hot pursuit. They have kidnapped human dignitaries for unknown, but certainly nefarious, purposes. The Aerialbots are debating amongst themselves in pretty stark terms if humans are worth saving. After they outmaneuver the Decepticons, Starscream dumps the hostages in mid-air. He and the others escape as the Aerialbots break off to save the humans.

Back at Autobot headquarters, the Aerialbots talk amongst themselves about their admiration of the Seekers, to the ire of the other Autobots. Teletraan I breaks in before the argument gets out of hand and alerts Optimus Prime to strange energy readings emanating from Cybertron. They board Omega Supreme and head into the stratosphere to investigate.

Under the ocean, Megatron gripes about the Aerialbots and losing air supremacy. Soundwave reports in that the Autobots have left Earth, and Megatron goes after them across the space bridge. On Cybertron, Megatron explains that he has a time machine called a Kronosphere that he planned on using to steal energy from the past. Now, he wants to set a trap for the Aerialbots and send them back into the past.

As tradition dictates, Slingshot and Starscream greet one another by pulling each other's finger.

The Autobots arrive on a dark and dingy Cybertron, and are attacked by Starscream and the others. Slingshot tries to get the Decepticons to stop attacking and talk to them. Starscream and the others drop down for a chat while Silverbolt frets. After gaining their trust, Starscream leads them right onto Megatron's Kronosphere. Silverbolt tries to warn them that it's a trap but it's too late. Megatron activates the device, intending to send them back to the beginning of time. The Aerialbots are encased in a purple bubble and disappear.

Seconds later, Optimus Prime and the other Autobots ram through the wall of the building and attack. Prime shoots the machine in order to stop it from trapping the Aerialbots in the past. The Decepticons retreat and Optimus orders the machine repaired. He estimates it has sent the Aerialbots 9 million years into the past to Cybertron's Golden Age.

"Hi, I'm Machobot... who are you?"

The bubble bursts and the five planes reappear on Cybertron, but it's a different world than the one they left. This Cybertron is bright and alive. The Aerialbots admire the scenery and argue about whose fault it was that the planet was trashed. Slingshot isn't ready to blame the Decepticons and says they are misunderstood. They are interrupted by a small 'bot who introduces himself as Orion Pax. He works at the docks unloading energy shipments. Orion's friend Dion and girlfriend Ariel introduce themselves too. Dion alerts them to come outside and see the new type of flying robot that everyone is talking about. The Aerialbots go out and see Megatron, Soundwave and Shockwave flying overhead. Orion and Dion admire the flying robots, and Silverbolt warns them away from their hero worship. But does anybody listen to him? Nooooo.

After Orion goes back to work unloading ships, he is approached by a visitor who introduces himself as Megatron. Orion shows him around but when they reach the energy storehouse Megatron orders the Decepticons concealed outside to attack. When Orion tries to stop him, Megatron mercilessly shoots him and his two friends. The Aerialbots arrive after the battle to find the three Autobots inoperative.

Back in the present, Megatron is planning a counterattack to regain the Kronosphere. In nearby wreckage, Shockwave spots the body of a Guardian robot, sans head, and Megatron plans to reactivate it. Meanwhile, Optimus, Wheeljack, Ironhide and Ratchet are still trying to repair the device.

Hot lead is the right of all sentient beings!

In the past, the Aerialbots are carrying Orion's lifeless body to someone who can help. Slingshot is singing a very different tune now; he swears revenge on Megatron. A mustached figure from a doorway calls to them and suggests they go someplace else for help. Decepticon attacks have caused severe casualties among the Autobots. After the Aerialbots ask again, he agrees to fix Orion. After an unknown amount of time, the stranger emerges with a rebuilt Orion Pax, now going by the name Optimus Prime. Prime and the Aerialbots rush off to join the battle, while the stranger muses about rebuilding Ariel into a female warrior named Elita One.

Just as the tide of battle is turning in the Decepticons' favor, Megatron is confronted by Optimus Prime, who takes out the entire Decepticon front line by himself. Meanwhile, the Aerialbots have returned to the docks to find the Decepticons raiding the energy stores.

Flashing to the present, the time machine has been fixed, but Megatron and the Decepticons attack. To further complicate things, they let loose the Guardian Robot against the Autobots.

Back in the past, the Aerialbots set energy pack charges to blow up the storehouse in order to keep the energy out of Megatron's hands. Unfortunately, they are trapped inside because Decepticon warriors are blocking the exits. Silverbolt orders Slingshot to blow up the storehouse anyway. Just as the charges go off, the Kronosphere scoops them up and brings them back to the present. They merge into Superion and take out the Guardian Robot. Megatron retreats and an enraged Slingshot yells after him.

As they head back to Omega Supreme, Silverbolt describes their adventures in the past, and Optimus finally recognizes the Aerialbots as the ones who saved him. Ratchet demands to know what's going on and Optimus starts to tell the tale.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Silverbolt (4) Slingshot (5) Fireflight (6) Air Raid (7) Skydive (8) Ratchet (10) Ironhide (11) Optimus Prime/Orion Pax (12) Wheeljack (13) Omega Supreme (14) Dion (17) Ariel (18) Alpha Trion (23) Superion (24)	Starscream (1) Thundercracker (2) Skywarp (3) Megatron (15) Soundwave (16) Transport drones (19) Warriors (20) Shockwave (22)	Human leaders (9) Guardian robots (21)

Quotes

"All this fuss over some stupid humans."
"'Stupid humans'? They only happen to be half of this planet's leaders."

—Slingshot and Silverbolt

"There's only one way to get those Aerialbots off our tails and that's to... dump the chumps!"

—Starscream right before he dumps the chumps, er, humans.

"Are those guys crazy?"
"Crazy, or even dumber than I suspected."

—Skywarp and Starscream talking about the Aerialbots who stopped fighting and want to "talk" to the Seekers.

Starscream: Okay buddies, we'll talk. What do you want to know?
Slingshot: I want to know why Optimus Prime thinks you're evil.
Starscream: That old rust bucket doesn't know a thing about Decepticons. Stick with me. I'll teach you some things about the Decepticons, all right.
Silverbolt: I don't believe this!

—Starscream prepares to school the Aerialbots.

"Those little twerps. They're tryin' to switch sides!"

—Ironhide comments on the dubious loyalty of the Aerialbots.

"The Decepticons. Boy, this'd be a great time to get to know 'em!"
"You've just got to learn things the hard way, don'tcha?"

—Slingshot and Silverbolt

"A warrior doesn't need a head! Just a good, strong body."

—Megatron reveals one of his guiding philosophies, re: the downed Guardian Robot

"You may not recognize him. He is no longer Orion Pax. He is the first of our new defenders... Optimus Prime."
"I was wrong, my friends. I admired Megatron merely because he was powerful. I failed to see how he used that power."

—Alpha Trion introducing Optimus Prime.

Optimus Prime: You've caused enough destruction for one day, Megatron!
Megatron: I haven't even started!
[Megatron fires several shots at Optimus Prime, all of which bounce off harmlessly]
Megatron: [shocked] You, who are you?!
Optimus Prime: Your worst nightmare!

—Megatron and Optimus Prime confront each other for the first time.

"You’ll never get away from us, Megatron! We won’t stop fighting until you’re finished! YOU HEAR!?"

—Slingshot finally learning to aggressively hate his Decepticon enemies and not want to make peace by befriending them.

"It all began about nine million years ago..."
"Oh, great! It's gonna be one of those long stories!"

—Optimus Prime and Ratchet, after the latter demands to know what's going on.

Notes

Continuity notes

• This takes place "a few weeks" after "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2", according to Optimus Prime.
• Starscream is seen effecting repairs on Skywarp.
• This episode introduces a lot of major mythological elements from the Generation 1 cartoon, including the origin of Optimus Prime and Elita One and showing the start of the Third Cybertronian War.
• While the Decepticons often threaten or injure humans, this is the first time they are shown explicitly trying to kill them via a direct act (Starscream dropping them from the sky).
• Coincidental or not, this episode marks the return of Starscream after a three episode hiatus, after Megatron seriously injured him in "Hoist Goes Hollywood".
• Cybertron has a river!
• The Aerialbots essentially succumb to that old time travel cliché of becoming their own grandfather, as they're instrumental in the (re-)creation of their own creator, Optimus Prime.

Dion, dyin'.

• Dion's fate is never revealed in the episode. Fans speculated that he was also rebuilt and reformatted by Alpha Trion into a familiar character, with Ultra Magnus and Ironhide being the two most popular suspects. Timelines presented yet another outcome: he was rebuilt into... Dion. Ultimately, Hasbro confirmed years later that the character died from his wounds and was never rebuilt into anyone else.
• This episode is one of the two episodes before the movie featuring a genuine female Transformer.
• The headless guardian robot reactivated by Megatron and co. is totally the same one Megatron decapitated in the past, and the ruined building housing the Kronosphere is the very same warehouse the Aerialbots destroyed.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Starscream's interior apparently has enough room for 7 14 10 humans.
  • Shockwave repairs the Guardian Robot with beams from his eye.
• The events of the minicomic "64 Cybertron Urban Defense Robot GADEP" take place around this time period, showing Megatron raiding more energon storage facilities.
• Dion's profile in Timelines #4, "Wings of Honor", gave a name to the specific area of the docks which Orion and the others worked. Storage yard 67 was named for e-HOBBY Orion Pax and Dion's Japanese identification number.

Real-world references

• The sound effect in the opening shot, as the three Decepticon jets swoop past the camera, is a common one used in many Looney Tunes cartoons, particularly for the Roadrunner.
• Star Wars sound effect:
  • Millennium Falcon engine burst as Silverbolt explains the importance of the "stupid humans."
  • Falcon engine burst again as the Aerialbots take off on Cybertron.
  • Falcon engine burst again as Orion (one of those old bots who can't fly) flies up to attack Megatron.
  • Some kind of blaster sound when Silverbolt fires at the fuel, and an X-wing laser sound as his laser lands.
  • Clashing lightsabers as the fuel warehouse explodes.

Animation and technical errors

More like Orion Lips, huh huh?

Orion Succulent Luscious Lips. And his buddy, Silipsverbolt.

"Aerialbots! Unite, and transform into... each other!"

• Throughout the episode, the characters' colors are somewhat grayed out and desaturated.
• The quality of the character artwork is noticeably low. Throughout the episode, characters frequently have odd proportions, imprecise delineation, fat necks, curves where they should have straight lines... and the animators display a real fondness for putting big round juicy lips on just about everybody, from the Aerialbots to Orion and company to Megatron. Despite all this, a few random closeups are drawn at a much higher level of quality, in the distinctive Toei style.
• Rather than count all the times it happens, we'll simply note that Starscream is missing his wing Decepticon insignias in many, many shots.
• In the close-up shot of jet mode Silverbolt, he's flying with his landing gear down (odd in itself, plus it wasn't there in the shot immediately before), and his Autobot symbol is just a featureless red rectangle.
• The air battle is filled with errors:
  • Slingshot is coloured like Air Raid when Skywarp is bearing down upon him
  • Skydive fires purple lasers, instead of the usual Autobot orange, at Skywarp. When the lasers hit Skywarp in the next shot, they're orange.
  • The black panels on Thundercracker's hull are mis-aligned as he flees from Slingshot and Fireflight.
  • When Slingshot and Fireflight fly past the camera, Fireflight has three thrusters.
  • Slingshot's cockpit is unpainted as they climb after Thundercracker.
  • Starscream's air intakes are gray instead of red as he prepares to dump the humans.
  • The same set of cries is recycled three times in a row as the hostages fall, and later on again for the Aerialbots as they're launched back in time.
  • Starscream initially dumps 7 hostages. In the next shot, 14 hostages fall past the Aerialbots. In the shot after that, the Aerialbots rescue 10 hostages.
  • And those "dignitaries" sure dress quite casual, especially the two that seem to sport mohawks! They must not have been at work when captured!
• Coloring errors:
  • The top of Slingshot's head is consistently colored white in this episode, where it was orange in "The Key to Vector Sigma."
  • While Megatron berates the Seekers for allowing the Aerialbots to defeat them, Starscream's lower right arm is coloured red instead of blue.
  • Shockwave's chest window is colored the same purple as the rest of him as he flies over the loading docks.

    

  • As Wheeljack works on the Kronosphere, the inside rims of Optimus's chest-windows are glass blue instead of red, and Wheeljack's "ears" are curved when they should be straight.
  • As Alpha Trion decides to rename Ariel into Elita One, his chin is white rather than gray.

• Omega's tank component just flies off-screen when he transforms to base mode, and doesn't reappear (and it likewise flies in from off-screen when the same sequence is used in reverse on Cybertron.)
• The Autobots enter Omega's rocket component through the thruster, which ignites like 1 second after they all walk in. Autobot flambé, anyone?
• Megatron's gun barrel is drawn bulbous and rounded as he communicates with Soundwave.
• The Decepticons exit the space bridge elevator not into Shockwave's spic and span Decepticon Headquarters complex, but into a beat-up abandoned green building. Possibly the animators conflated 'con HQ with the warehouse where the Kronosphere is set up.
• Omega Supreme disappears in a couple of frames during his transformation sequence. A second later, the animation skips backwards so that Omega is shown lowering his arms to his side twice in a row.
• "Those Autobots are weird" - Skydive, Air Raid and Fireflight are all flying with their nose landing gear down.
• When Silverbolt notifies Prime about the other Aerialbots leaving with Starscream, Prime's smokestacks are drawn totally wrong (they're white instead of gray and are sort of melting into his trailer).
• "I don't buy that story about everything being the Decepticons' fault" - Slingshot's chest is too wide, and his arms and head are too small.
• When Fireflight asks Orion what he does, Orion is drawn mouthing the words.
• The bottom of the screen has thin black lines on it for several shots just after the Aerialbots meet Orion.
• When Orion and the Aerialbots enter the loading bay for the first time, we see a vehicle that shares Dion's vehicle mode and colors unloading cargo. Right after that, Dion drives into the hangar from outside.
• Skydive explains to Fireflight why Megatron wouldn't recognize them 9 million years in the past. Skydive is then shown mouthing Fireflight's "Huh?" reaction to his own statement. Huh?
• It's Dion who mouths Orion's line of "What I'd give to meet them."
• The next few shots suffer from some choppy editing. The scene abruptly cuts away from Slingshot asking "So what's the big deal?" to Megatron and Orion at the warehouse. Dion's line "Oh wow, it's one of those flying robots" gets cut off by a shot change, as does the background music.
• The cube-bots take off into the air, but their flight sound effect gets cut off half-way through the shot.
• Ariel is shown with the Aerialbots running back to the warehouse, but she's already in it (and gets shot down by Megatron) before they arrive. That was reused from the scene when Silverbolt said "That was Megatron".
• When Ariel is shot by Megatron, her cel is not properly aligned with the background, so one of her legs floats over the energon cubes.
• After all the fuss over those "new robots who can fly", Orion gets a jet sound effect as he jumps up to attack Megatron.
• As Megatron flies out of the warehouse, his cannon is on his left arm.

• Thundercracker (in addition to having the wrong voice) is missing the metallic flange in his voice as he notes how the guardian robots used to give the Decepticons "a pounding back in the old days." In the same shot, Skywarp's helmet seems to have been swapped with Megatron's.
• In the aerial shot of Megatron's transport drones entering the warehouse, they disappear before reaching the doorway.
• As the Aerialbots observe the drones entering the warehouse, the drones are colored like Dion rather than their correct olive green and purple. The error repeats a moment later as the last drones enter the warehouse.
• "...Then, blow it up." - the drones are shown driving in to the warehouse, in front of the cubes, but they're mislayered, miscolored and misplaced.
• When the Aerialbots return, they appear a few seconds apart for some reason. Silverbolt transforms immediately and is missing his side windows. The rest of the Aerialbots simply run out of the energy field, but they're also given transformation sounds (which doesn't make sense as they were already in their robot modes in the past).
• As the Aerialbots start to form Superion, Slingshot and Fireflight form Superion's legs while Skydive and Air Raid form his arms. While this is different to their traditional placement, as Scramble City-type limbs, not altogether "wrong". However, once Superion is complete, Slingshot and Skydive have morphed into each other, likewise for Fireflight and Air Raid, resulting in the "normal" Superion.
• Megatron and the Decepticons fly out of the building, but the next shot shows them flying over the hole on the roof rather than through it.
• As the Autobots walk off into the sunset, Slingshot's canopy disappears.
• When originally broadcast, the audio for the entire second act of "War Dawn" played at a slightly pitched-down rate, deepening all the characters' voices not massively, but certainly noticeably. Kid Rhino corrected this when they released the episode on DVD, but unfortunately, when Shout! Factory went back to the broadcast masters for their original audio tracks, this error was re-introduced to their DVD of the episode. The uncorrected version was also uploaded to YouTube by Hasbro in 2021; unusually, since all the other episodes uploaded were the Rhino versions.

Continuity errors

Splat

It's a chaise longue, but from... THE FUTURE!

• The humans the Seekers dump at the beginning of the episode somehow don't die after plummeting several hundred feet and landing on the metal bodies of the Aerialbots. Your wiki editors are somehow unsurprised by this.
• It is unclear why the Aerialbots (bar Silverbolt) are so impressed by the Seekers considering the ease with which the Decepticons were defeated.
• Optimus Prime somehow knows exactly what the Kronosphere is doing despite the fact he was out of earshot when Megatron said it.
• Silverbolt's line "That was Megatron... I'm sure of it" makes no sense - Fireflight and Skydive already identified him several scenes earlier.
• Speaking of these scenes, it's not clear at all why the Aerialbots are rushing back to the docks because of Megatron - they were at the docks when Megatron flew past, and were never shown leaving; and why is Ariel with them? Did the animators think she was supposed to be included with the... Aerialbots?
• In "The Search for Alpha Trion", Optimus Prime had no idea that Alpha Trion was his creator, despite the fact he has a direct interaction with him here.
• Skydive's assertion that "there's no way we can get out of here" seems dubious - they're a combiner team!
• Flashbacks in this episode depict the Autobots on Cybertron nine million years ago using energon cubes, despite the pre-movie cartoon's otherwise-consistent presentation of the cubes as the province of Decepticons alone, about which the Autobots knew nothing before 1984. The actual term "energon" is never used to refer to the cubes in this episode, however, so it may be an error on the animation level, rather than the scripting level.

Trivia

• Orion Pax's design appears to be based on an early Ultra Magnus concept–distinct from the Powered Convoy recolour that ultimately formed the basis for that character–by Floro Dery.
• In an interview on the Kid Rhino DVD set, writer David Wise says that the meeting between Orion Pax and Megatron happened differently in the original version of the script. Megatron was to blast Orion's arm off and then use it to decapitate him. Sunbow, fearing the scene was too violent, had it changed.
• Also according to David Wise, the addition of Orion Pax to the script was a fairly late one; originally, the victim of Megatron's first attack would have been a generic robot, but the idea that this generic was a young Optimus Prime was the idea that brought the rest of the episode together.
• In a separate interview, Wise stated that Ariel and Dion were both originally meant to die in the episode. He had been unaware of Elita One, and had not intended for her and Ariel to be the same character when he wrote the episode; the connection was added after the fact by the show's story editors.
• For whatever reason, voice actor John Stephenson wasn't in this episode and thus Thundercracker and Alpha Trion had different voices; Alpha Trion's voice was Corey Burton's, and Thundercracker's was that of voice director Wally Burr (this could be explained by the Alpha Trion that appears in the episode being a younger version of the character, but there is no such excuse for Thundercracker). Burr also filled in as Jazz in "Kremzeek!" and Ratchet in "Masquerade".
• When Skywarp gets shot down, he transforms to robot mode. The same animation is used again, recolored, when Thundercracker gets shot down... and two more times on Cybertron when the jets approach the Aerialbots to talk. Hey, who would ever notice?
• Footage from this episode was used to represent a historical video in "Transform and Roll Out", the opening movie for Transformers Animated. Most notably, a shot of Dion shielding his eyes with his hand was used out of context to represent an Autobot saluting.

Foreign localization

French

• Title (European French broadcast): "L'aube des temps" ("Dawn of Time")
• Title (Canadian French broadcast & European French DVD release): "La guerre du passé" ("The War of the Past")
• Original airdate: ?

• Olivier Destrez makes a big return. He was the voice of Spike during the first season, and has not been heard since Heavy Metal War. In this episode, he only dubs Slingshot.
• Albert Augier finally takes back Soundwave. Georges Atlas dubbed him during Augier's absence but kept him for several episodes after his return.
• During the opening scene, the entirety of the dialogues of the Aerialbots and the Seekers is not dubbed. The only phrases are the Aerialbots saying "We have to understand why earthlings have problems with each other." (the opposite of the original idea), and another one answering "We'll see that later, we have fighters behind us!".
• The conversation between the Aerialbots in plane mode when they arrive on Cybertron is entirely missing.
• Optimus Prime's lines "Ten-to-one they're walking into a Decepticon trap." and "That's what you think, Megatron!" are missing.
• Ironhide's phrase "That was before the war, they must be somewhere in the golden age of Cybertron" is dubbed by "That was around the Middle Age of Cybertron, just before the One Hundred Thousand Years' War".
• As usual, in order to avoid pronouncing their names, the Aerialbots say "Nice to meet you! We are Autobots. Aerialbots! We are, like, a little team".
• When delivering the phrase "It's really a thrill to meet you sir!" to Megatron, Francis Lax only says "It's really a thrill to..." and heaves a big sigh of boredom instead of finishing the phrase. Hold on Francis, it's almost the end of season break!
• Of course, "How much longer, Wheeljack?" becomes simply "How much longer?".
• Superion's phrase "Now, Guardian." is missing.
• For some reason, it's Francis Lax who deliver's Wheeljack's final phrase "What happened to you guys in the past anyway?", despite Albert Augier voicing him during all the episode.

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "Viaggio nel passato" ("Journey into the Past")
• Original airdate: ?

• At the beginning, when talking via screen to Soundwave, Megatron misnames the Aerialbot as the Autobots. The fact that he was asking if they were with the Autobots makes this pretty odd.
• Ironhide's line: «They must be somewhere in the golden age of Cybertron» is badly cut.

• Title (dub 2): "L'alba della guerra" ("The Dawn of the War")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Hikiokosareta Sensō" (ひきおこされた戦争, "The Caused War")
• Original airdate: September 12, 1986

Mandarin

• Title: "Huí dào Guòqù " (回到过去, "Return to the Past")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: ?
• Original airdate: ?

• This episode's original translated title is currently lost due to a glitch in the only known surviving copy of the audio track.

Russian

• Title: "Na zarye voiny" (На заре войны, "At the Dawn of the War")
• Original airdate: ?

Toys inspired by this episode

GuArDian robot… ExPensive toy.

• Collector's Edition 67 Orion Pax (Takara, 2005)

e-HOBBY exclusive redecos of the original Generation 1 Targetmaster Kup and Mini Vehicle Wheelie toys, representing Orion Pax and Dion as they appeared in this episode... sort of. Not really. But still.

• Collector's Edition 64 GADEP (TakaraTomy, 2008)

An e-HOBBY exclusive redeco of the original Generation 1 Omega Supreme toy (specifically with the retooled head from TakaraTomy's Encore "reissue") in a color scheme inspired by the Guardian Robots seen in this episode.

• Timelines Dion (Fun Publications, 2010)

A redeco of Henkei! Henkei! Hot Rod (itself a retool of Universe Deluxe Class Hot Shot) representing Dion in the color scheme he sported in this episode, available as an exclusive free figure for members of the official Transformers Collectors' Club. Also included is a redeco of Hot Rod/Hot Shot's gang-molded Mini-Con partner Jolt representing a "Micromaster" named Cop-Tur who is unrelated to this episode.

• Kre-O Orion Pax (Hasbro, 2014)

The Transformers: Kre-O Character Encyclopedia came with an exclusive Kreon of Orion Pax, based on the cartoon model.

• Power of the Primes Leader Class Evolution Optimus Prime (Hasbro, 2017) / PP-09 Optimus Prime (TakaraTomy, 2018)

A Deluxe-sized toy representing Orion Pax based on his appearance in this episode that transforms into a truck cab based on Generation 1 Optimus Prime's alternate mode, with a trailer that can combine with the cab into Orion's "evolved" form Optimus Prime.

• Legacy A Hero is Born 2-pack (Hasbro, 2022)

A 2-pack of Orion Pax, retooled and redecoed from Studio Series 86 Kup and Alpha Trion, retooled and redecoed from Studio Series 86 Scourge. It also includes Vector Sigma and its Key. Vector Sigma is perched atop a removable translucent stand.

The set was listed for sale as a Hasbro Pulse Con 2022 exclusive, and began appearing in Hong Kong stores shortly afterwards.

• Legacy: Evolution War Dawn 2-pack (Hasbro, 2023)

A 2-pack of Dion, retooled and redecoed from Studio Series 86 Kup, and Ariel retooled and redecoed from Legacy "Prime Universe" Arcee. Ariel has been renamed to "Erial", likely for trademark purposes, and comes with a new accessory of a blaster modeled after the one Elita wields in "The Search for Alpha Trion".

• Age of the Primes Alpha Trion

A new Voyager-sized Alpha Trion for the Age of the Primes toyline is modeled after his appearance in the episode, down to the short 'stache.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1986 — The Transformers — Volume 12: "The Secret of Omega Supreme", "War Dawn", "A Plague of Insecticons" (Family Home Entertainment)
1986 — The Transformers — The Key to Vector Sigma & War Dawn (A.M.T. Video Gems)
1988 — The Transformers — The Key to Vector Sigma & War Dawn (V.I.P. Video Gems)
2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 5: Return to Cybertron (Rhino Entertainment)

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.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2: Vol. 7 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 3: Series 2.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers — Le Fantôme dans la Machine (UFG Junior) — European French audio only.
2009 — Transformers — Volume 06: Stagione Due Parte Quarta (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part Two (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Episode dialogue script
• Episode model sheets