Terror! The Six Shadows

« Transformers: The Headmasters ep 8 »
"All I can give you is a name: Edgar Neubauer."
"Terror! The Six Shadows" 恐怖! 六ッの影 () (Kyōfu! Mutsu no Kage)
Production company	Takara, Toei
Airdate	September 4, 1987
Writer	Toyohiro Andō
Director	Masao Itō
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Trainbots take center stage when six shadowy figures attack countries all across the world.

Synopsis

"We're Cold Slither, you'll be joining us soon."

The Trainbots have brought Daniel and Wheelie on a trip to their birthplace of Japan, but the fun is brought to a crashing halt when a video transmission cuts into a large-screen television on the side of a building, displaying a shadowy robotic figure who demands the entirety of Japan's energy, or he will destroy the country. Unable to identify the mystery mech, Ultra Magnus contacts Athenia, and Rodimus Prime and the Autobot Headmasters depart for Earth.

On Chaar, Cyclonus and Scourge are incensed that anyone other than the Decepticons would dare to steal Earth's energy, and vow to steal it from the unknown robot, despite a strange lack of interest in their plan from Galvatron and the Decepticon Headmasters. Heading to Earth, they receive no more help from a relaxing Sixshot.

Daniel and Wheelie realize that it's going to be a long wait at the doctor's office.

Back on Earth, the Autobots have discovered that, in addition to Japan, five other countries have been threatened by shadowy beings—the United States by a giant gun, the USSR by a tank, Great Britain by a winged wolf, France by a jet and Canada by an armored car. The Trainbots, however, are not worried, convinced that their six-strong team can handle the six blackmailers, but their relaxation is interrupted by the discovery of Ratbat, spying on the group. Ratbat escapes and returns to Soundblaster, who reports back to the Decepticon base that the Autobot Headmasters have come to Earth. Cyclonus and Scourge, however, are more concerned with the revelation that there are six enemies to fight, even if Sixshot is not.

As long as Sixshot stays in the foreground, he and Raiden are the same size.

In London, the winged wolf shows itself, and the Headmasters and Metroplex head out, only to arrive too late. While they are there, however, New York is attacked by the giant gun, and both the Autobots and Cyclonus and Scourge are unable to get there in time to stop it. As Rodimus speculates that the blackmailers will hit Japan next, Daniel and the Trainbots enter—the brash young Headmasters are disgusted that they have been shopping in Tokyo while everyone else has been worried about the blackmailers. The Trainbots profess to have been patrolling Japan while Daniel went shopping, but an argument ensues, and when Daniel tries to intervene, Chromedome silences the boy, causing him to run from the room. Chromedome follows, seeking to make amends, and discovers Daniel playing with a toy ninja star that he purchased. Intrigued, Chromedome learns from Daniel of Earth's stories of ninjas, and their ability to appear in many places at once, and the stories stir up the memory of the time an energy-stealing ninja able to duplicate himself and transform into six shapes visited planet Master and killed his friend Abel. Realising that the ninja is definitely their blackmailer, Chromedome vows revenge.

Sixshot clones always cooperate perfectly, unlike some others.

Tokyo soon comes under attack from the robotic villain, and the Trainbots plead to be allowed to defend their homeland. Rodimus allows it, and the team heads for Earth, merging into their combined form of Raiden to thrash the blackmailer. The fight takes a new twist, however, when Cyclonus and Scourge arrive with Trypticon, and the Headmasters rush to the Trainbots' aid, fending off Trypticon while Raiden deals with the blackmailer's various forms. Transforming into jet mode, the villain flees, but is pursued by both the Autobots and Cyclonus and Scourge, and when he is finally brought down, his identity is finally revealed—Sixshot! Duplicating and transforming to wolf mode, Sixshot savages Raiden, but the Headmasters, seeking to avenge Abel, beat him down and send him retreating.

Back on Chaar, an enraged Galvatron—in on the plan the whole time—pummels Cyclonus and Scourge for their incompetence, while on Earth, the Headmasters and Trainbots reconcile, and all is well.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Shouki (2) Kaen (3) Getsuei (4) Seizan (5) Suiken (6) Yukikaze (7) Wheelie (8) Scattershot (10) Ultra Magnus (11) Broadside (12) Rodimus Prime (13) Chromedome (14) Brainstorm (15) Highbrow (16) Hardhead (17) Metroplex (26) Abel (27) Foo (28) Raiden (30)	Sixshot (1) Scourge (18) Galvatron (19) Cyclonus (20) Skullcruncher (21) Weirdwolf (22) Mindwipe (23) Ratbat (24) Soundblaster (25) Trypticon (29)	Daniel Witwicky (9)

Notes

Continuity notes

• For Transformers fans who already own his toy or otherwise know Sixshot's deal, it's really quite easy to forget the fact that this is the first time he has displayed his six-changing abilities in the series (indeed, it is the first time he has transformed at all, aside from the commercial bumper), hence the confusion of all the other characters. It also does not help the story that you can tell it's blatantly him from the second his robot-mode silhouette appears.
• In addition to debuting Sixshot's transformations, it also introduces his assorted ninja-related powers, including the ability to create numerous solid-light duplicates of himself (and, apparently, the ability to remain entirely cloaked in shadow, even in the middle of a shade-free, sun-baked desert). He'll be making good use of this power, and more, later in the series.
• The Trainbots merge into Raiden for the first time in this episode, but this is treated with shockingly little dramatic flourish, especially for Japan—in fact, absolutely nothing special is made of this first combination at all. Perhaps it's because we've been seeing them do it in the opening credits for eight episodes already, completely stifling any sense of surprise about the whole thing.
• Along with "Thief in the Night", this is another episode which proves that the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse didn't occur in the animated series continuity. It's almost like it was produced before that happened, or something!
• Wheelie once again wields the seldom-used slingshot that he used against Grimlock in The Transformers: The Movie.
• Following on from the events of "Cosmic Rust", the Statue of Liberty is no longer a green patina thanks to the—apparently—long-lasting effects of Perceptor's corrostop solution applied in 1985. However, unlike "Cosmic Rust", the Statue of Liberty is depicted in its correct brown-ish non-patina copper color, instead of the silver color depicted in the initial episode.

Transformers references

It's past 2011 now, where are these toys?!

• When Daniel drops the box, several figures that could be Transformers figures fall out. BUT they show a surprising amount of articulation for toys during the time the show was made. Looks like they correctly guessed that Transformers figures would be more articulated by 2011!

Real-world references

• The Decepticon Headmasters are playing Poker when Cyclonus and Scourge go to bug them.
• Chromedome presents information back to Rodimus on a VHS tape. So futuristic!

Animation and technical errors

• When Sixshot attacks Tokyo in robot mode in the final stages of the episode, rather than being entirely shrouded in shadow, as he has been up to this point, he is in full colour. Although it was always astonishingly obvious that he was Sixshot just based on his silhouette, this must surely be a mistake, as the shocked reaction to his true identity does not come until he is blasted from the sky some minutes later.

Since they introduced the congestion charge, the fog has really cleared up.

• London is depicted as a fog-shrouded forest that people ride through on horseback. For God's sake.
• Ultra Magnus is sporting his all-white antennae again in this episode.
• During the flashback, the mysteriously shadowed Sixshot is using Twincast's weapon, which is also mysteriously shadowed.
• When New York City was last seen in "Only Human", it had tons of ridiculously goofy "futuristic" buildings about it, so tall they dwarfed even the World Trade Center. These buildings are nowhere to be found in this episode, and New York appears as it did in the '80s.
• When Sixshot attacks Tokyo, he's as big as a combiner, then later appears at normal size.
• Cyclonus and Scourge fail to make the transformation noise when they transform to retreat.

Trivia

• This episode originally aired in a double-bill with "Cybertron Is in Grave Danger, Part 1" on September 4.
• What appears to be part of the Ark can be seen in an outside shot of Autobot City, although the ship was destroyed much earlier in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5".
• Apparently stores are perfectly happy to sell toy ninja stars to a little boy with no parental escort and accompanied only by an annoying orange alien. This was aired in the '80s, though.
• From what the episode shows, Galvatron's plan seems to boil down to having Six Shot pretend to be a third party, threaten and attack a bunch of nations by himself (things the Decepticons do as a group all the time as is) - and that's it. Maybe it made more sense to him.

Foreign localization

• Title: "The Shadow of Evil" (Omni Productions dub)
• Original airdate: September 6, 1992

• The Omni Productions dialogue script included on the Metrodome release of the Headmasters series gives the episode title as "The Show of Evil".
• According to the dialogue script, the shadowy Sixshot is "Saul" and Scattershot is "Garth"... and so are Cyclonus and Scourge, who were named as such in the previous script! (The un-shadowy Sixshot is listed under his own name.) As Cyclonus and Scourge are consistently Saul and Garth in the script otherwise, these identifications were presumably in error.
• Shouki's lines are listed as coming from "Hard"—the script's shorthand for "Hardhead"—even when Hardhead himself appears only a few lines prior. Kaen is referred to "Powell", and Soundblaster's lines come from "Bulada".
• Shockingly, the script gives a name to the generic worker robot who speaks before Abel! He is identified as "Foo".

• Title: "Terror of the Six Shadows" (Shout! Factory sub)

• The point that Japan has succeeded at generating energy at the bottom of the ocean is glossed over as an unspecific "successful energy generating program".
• Foo's single line of "Get out, energy gangster." is translated as "Go away you thugs!" The plural in the translation makes little sense, as Sixshot is acting alone in the flashback and has yet to perform his clone illusions.

Italian

• Title: "Paura! Le sei ombre del mostro" ("Fear! The monster's six shadows")

• After the six attacked states are listed, from how the laugh is dubbed it actually look like it's coming from the room where the Autobots are, making it look like one of them laughed.

Mandarin

• Title: "kǒngbù de liù-gè yǐngzi " (恐怖的六个影子, "The Terrible Six Shadows")
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Tenj zla" (Тень зла, "The Shadow of Evil")
• Original airdate: July 8, 1994

Spanish

• Title: "Espectáculo Malévolo" ("Malevolent Spectacle")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

All releases listed feature the original Japanese audio with optional Omni dub and English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

Laserdisc

1996 — Transformers: The Headmasters Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2002 — Transformers: The Headmasters — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — The Takara Collection Vol 1 — Transformers: Headmasters (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers: Headmasters (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2011 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.