Chaos (episode)

This article is about the Generation 1 cartoon episode. For the alien creature featured in the episode, see Chaos (alien). For a list of other meanings, see Chaos (disambiguation).

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Kup discovers a very distant cousin (twice removed) of that big green, fire-snortin' lizard.
"Chaos"
Production code	700-92
Season	3
No. in season	7
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	September 30, 1986
Written by	Paul Davids
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

A discovery on Goo forces Kup to face a demon from his past.

Synopsis

"Give me your snack, kid."

Near Goo, a Skuxxoid is using a bazooka to fire strange crystals at random pieces of junk. However, Blast Off spots him and they start firing at each other. Cornering the Skuxxoid on Goo, Blast Off demands to know with what he was being shot. The Skuxxoid shows him the crystals. He says that they are hard to find, but he knows where the planet is.

On Cybertron, Kup is telling a story about one of his encounters with an Ick-Yak to Blurr, Wheelie, and Grimlock. An Ick-Yak had cornered Kup on Dread, but Kup managed to trick it into walking into the quick-mud. Grimlock says he heard that a monster named Chaos lived on Dread, and asks Kup if that's true. Kup freaks out and tells Grimlock never to speak of Chaos again. However, Wreck-Gar contacts Cybertron, telling them of a discovery he made. Using Sky Lynx, the Autobots go to investigate. On Goo, they discover a destroyed Earth Defense Command station. Grimlock is shocked, as the station was made of the strongest metal in the galaxy. Kup, however, recognizes what did it: Death crystals. The Autobots ask what death crystals are, but Kup is hesitant. At that moment, Blast Off appears with Runamuck riding on him, firing death crystals. Escaping on Sky Lynx, the two Transformer shuttles play a game of cat and mouse, until Runamuck destroys a comet, allowing Sky Lynx to escape.

Kup finds all the UK exclusive characters.

After escaping, the Autobots demand answers. Kup explains that one hundred-thousand years ago, when he was on Dread, he was captured by Orbs, a slaver race. He was forced to work in the death crystal mines under extremely hazardous conditions, facing attacks by wrecks of shrikebats. Kup managed to sneak away from his work detail, heading into the caves, where he found a group of imprisoned robots. As he was preparing to free them, Chaos appeared. Kup was so frightened that he fled, leaving the robots behind. He's never forgiven himself for leaving those other robots behind, and now the Decepticons know about the death crystals. The Autobots resolve to stop the Decepticons before disaster should strike.

Kup's early years as a Lion Tamer weren't going too well

On Dread, it turns out that Galvatron is not content to use them merely as ammunition—he's building a cannon that will fire death crystals at Cybertron, destroying the planet with one shot. Landing away from the Decepticon camp, Kup takes Blurr to do some recon. During their search, the Predacons arrive, with Razorclaw and Rampage taking on Kup, with the others knocking Blurr into the quick-mud (which has the benefit of shutting him up). Grimlock, Wheelie, and Wreck-Gar head to help, while Sky Lynx separates. Heading for the two Autobots, Grimlock mauls Razorclaw as Wheelie and Wreck-Gar fire, while Sky Lynx rescues Blurr from the mud. As the Predacons retreat to inform Galvatron, Sky Lynx follows to further investigate.

"What's in there?" "Only what you take with you."

Heading for the camp, the other Autobots arrive to attack the Decepticons, and the Predacons form Predaking, managing to get a lucky shot on Sky Lynx. Kup is trapped in the mines of Queeg Mountain due to a random shot, and immediately goes to find Chaos. Finding imprisoned robots, he frees them, just as Chaos arrives. The beast has death crystals embedded into his skin, but Kup has a plan. Using another opening in the volcano, Kup leads the robots to freedom, and uses Galvatron's death crystal cannon on Chaos, which also causes the volcano to erupt. Sky Lynx manages to rescue the Autobots, who flee into space. Sky Lynx has been injured, but Kup is sure that he'll be okay. It actually reminds him of the time he was riding the shuttle Jonagar and was trapped in a space whale. As the other Autobots bemoan another tale, Grimlock commands them to be quiet, as he loves Kup's war stories.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Kup (3) Blurr (4) Grimlock (5) Wheelie (6) Wreck-Gar (7) Sky Lynx (8)	Blast Off (2) Runamuck (9) Galvatron (12) Astrotrain (13) Razorclaw (14) Headstrong (15) Rampage (16) Tantrum (17) Divebomb (18) Predaking (19)	Skuxxoid (1) Dread slaves (10) Chaos (11)

Quotes

"Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a lynx! It's Sky Lynx!"

"This could be the galaxy-busting case I've been waiting to sink my sensors into."

—Kup, thinking he's Nightbeat.

"Secret-keepers always weepers! Tell a friend or heads will bend!"

—Wheelie starts getting violent.

"Sky Lynx! If he's come after the cannon, he's gonna get himself obliterated!"
"Obliterated? By you grubby Predacons? That'll be the day!"

—Tantrum and Sky Lynx trade barbs.

Notes

Production information

• First draft script submitted: 12th April 1986
• Revised script submitted: 28th April 1986
• Script finalised by Flint Dille: 29th April 1986
• Dialogue recording: 19th May 1986
• First draft storyboards completed: 4th June 1986 (Artists: Su-yong Jeong, Dell Barras, Romeo Francisco, David Shin)
• Storyboards slugged (by Norm McCabe) and finalised: 16th June 1986

Continuity notes

• This is the second time that Kup would narrate an encounter with an Ick-Yak. He first mentions them in the movie.
• The Ick-Yak was not the only monster Kup mentioned in the movie to make an appearance. The bat creatures that harried Kup and the other slaves were labeled "shrikebats" on their character models.
• Galvatron orders the Predacons to merge into Predaking before sending them off to get the Autobots, but when they encounter the Autobots, they are back in their individual beast modes.
• When Kup first mentions Dread, Grimlock asks about the rumors of Chaos living there; Kup tells the Dinobot to forget he ever heard the name. Later, Kup mentions Chaos, and Grimlock asks who that is. Apparently he took Kup's instructions a little too literally.
• Having learned from their previous adventure on Goo, the Autobots send Blurr to "shut off the goo" so they can walk on the planetoid's surface.
• Predaking shows some rather flagrant on-screen size-changing - he forms, then grows visibly larger.
• Sky Lynx's cabin includes a pair of piloting yokes. Apparently he can be piloted like a standard ship, as Wreck-Gar and Blurr are shown manning them.
• Predaking uses a snazzy purple lightsaber in this episode to slice off a boulder and cave in the Autobots.

Real-world references

• Wreck-Gar's quips and quotes are mostly generic:
  • He paraphrases cigarette health warnings with the "Nine out of ten doctors and the surgeon general agree, that death crystals can be hazardous to your health."
  • He laments getting shot with a cry of "Zip-Lock bag not locking!"
• The story of Jonagar and the space whale is a thinly papered version of the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Millennium Falcon engine burst both times that Sky Lynx takes off from Goo's surface.
  • Diving X-Wings and TIE Fighter roar as Blast Off and Sky Lynx chase through the planetary ring system, and again as Sky Lynx transforms to his separate modes on Dread, and again as he takes off for his "recon mission". If one listens very closely during the latter, at the very end of the sound, the sound of Darth Vader's breathing and the TIE engine when heard from inside can be picked out.
  • Falcon engine whine as the Predacons return from their fight with Sky Lynx.
  • Clashing and sparking lightsabers as Predaking slices a boulder loose.

Animation and technical errors

Distinguishing characteristics of a non-AKOM episode: 1) Doesn't suck.

The animation and artwork is among the show's best. Characters are consistently drawn and colored; they're generally well proportioned and on-model. Minor details abound: characters stay in the correct relative positions between shots, Kup hangs on to his detector device during the battle until he puts it down, Headstrong paws the ground before charging, and Blurr even gets his blurred visual trail effect, which every other episode forgot about.

• There's an odd silent moment at around 3:13, as the computer beeps and blurbs without any dialogue. This space was originally occupied with dialogue from Casey Kasem as Teletraan II, which was deleted after he departed the series following behind-the-scenes issues on "Thief in the Night". One of Kasem's lines actually does survive, that of Imprisoned Robot #2, who begs, "We've got to get back to our home planet!"
• Coloring errors:
  • Kup's helmet rims are the same light gray as his face as Blurr transforms lands on Goo.
  • As Kup and Blurr exit Sky Lynx on the planet, Kup's Autobot symbol is purple instead of red.
  • Sky Lynx is missing all his red bits just before he transforms on Goo - they're colored white and blue instead.
  • Tantrum's head becomes all-black as he transforms into Predaking form, then returns to its correct red.
  • Predaking's eyeband is the same orange as his helmet when he first forms; combined with how low his helmet sits, it makes it look like he doesn't have a face at all!
  • Blurr's helmet flashes between light and dark blue as he sinks into the swamp.
  • Headstrong's beast legs are yellow instead of black as the Predacons return from their first fight with the Autobots.
  • As he says, "Commence hunting season!," Galvatron's Decepticon symbol is red instead of purple. This happens again just after Sky Lynx passes by him.
  • Just before firing the crystals at Chaos, the triangles under Kup's eyes are the same color as his eyes (they should be white like the rest of his face). The same error occurs several shots later, as Wheelie worries about getting Sky Lynx patched up.
• Blast Off's vehicle form is swollen up like a balloon, and missing its tailfin, as Runamuck tells him to dive lower.
• A whole series of shots repeats after the first commercial break. Mostly it's just characters shooting at each other, but in one, Kup puts aside his detector and dodges a death crystal blast - meaning he puts the detector down twice in a row!
• As Kup remembers his first encounter with Chaos (over 100,000 years ago), there's a camera pan over the slaves in the mine. Later, when we first see that Galvatron is on the planet, the same pan is played in reverse. In fact, almost every scene from Kup's story is recycled to show the present day. Not much changes on Dread, apparently.
• Blurr sinks entirely into the mud puddle, but he's half out of it and is able to grab Sky Lynx a few shots later.
• As he delivers the "9 out of 10 Autobots" line, Wreck-Gar only has 6 fingers extended.
• When Kup frees the imprisoned robots, one of them, round in shape, keeps appearing and disappearing between frames.

Continuity errors

• Kup has his early model (the one used for flashbacks in this episode) in the present while examining the damage on Goo. He is colored gray like he should be in the present.
• Just as the voicing of minor characters took a hit in consistency after the Movie, so too did the appearance of the series' various planets. Primarily, this means Cybertron and Chaar, which both appear in many episodes. In this episode, Cybertron's actually moderately consistent with its pre-Movie appearance, but it is shown with two moons. The pre-Movie episodes never showed it with any moons at all, while the Movie showed at least three - though the dialog and action implied only two, both devoured by Unicron. The existence of other moons was vaguely hinted at by Victor Caroli in the prologue to The Transformers: The Movie.
• Wasn't Goo destroyed in a previous episode? Of course, this might not have been #8739-B.
• Kup sure extrapolates a lot of info from Wreck-Gar's short and cryptic statements about what's been happening on Goo!
• Kup and three slaves are saved by Sky Lynx, but what about the rest of the slaves still on the planet? They've still got Galvatron, Astrotrain and the Predacons to deal with, if they weren't burned to a crisp by the lava!
• We get that the damage caused by the cannon was bad, but Sky Lynx's monitor shows the whole planet belching a plume smoke into space.

Trivia

• This episode would be the last time Casey Kasem would ever voice a character in Transformers. He can briefly be heard as one of the robot slaves in Kup's first flashback to Chaos, screaming, "We have to return to our home planets!" The voice actor call sheet for this episode shows that he performed for Teletraan II, only to have his lines deleted.

Note his knees, belt and backpack.

• Like most movie characters, Kup had an alternate character model. In "Chaos", the animators cleverly used the alternate model for Kup's flashbacks.
• An early title for the episode (as well as the titular antagonist) was "Mayhem".
• The early script also called for organic alien slaves, who even had character models developed. The final, aired version replaced these organic slaves with robots. Jim Sorenson posted their designs on his blog. These models appeared in the episode only very briefly, in one shot, as Kup frees the prisoners (pictured); they were later reused for two members of a party of aliens who rescue Octane after he gets stranded in space in "Starscream's Ghost".
• One of the escaping slaves is just a gray sphere! A ballobot, perhaps?

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Chaos"
• Original airdate: ?

• This is one of the only episodes whose two different dubs (France and Canada) have survived time.
• Concerning the European French dub:

• Usually, Blurr talks like any other robot in the French dub. However, just for one phrase (the one about being a team), Albert Augier makes him talk very fast like in the original version. He does not continue and goes back to normal speed after this.
• Galvatron's phrase "Predacons! Merge to become Predaking!" is dubbed by "Predacon! Hurry up, I need you!", like if Predacon was the name of Predaking. Again, later in the episode, when Galvatron says the exact same phrase in the original version, the dub says "Predacon, you need to get in position right now!".
• The grunting sounds of the Predacons are absent. The same goes for the sounds of the bats.
• Kup actually names some robots!! Wheelie (despite saying "Whilee"), Grimlock, and... "Unican" ? Wreck-Gar has been called "Attilus" in the Five Faces of Darkness episodes.
• Blurr's gibberish has been dubbed in two different ways as he sinks in the mud, before and after the commercial bumper. Before, he says "Don't let me sink any further, I'm too young to die!" and after the break he says "One can't just leave a worthy Autobot in a situation like this!".
• After being called "Salvatron" and "Sky Lynx" before, Sky Lynx is called "Stylynx" throughout this episode.
• Kup precises how he managed to get out of the Space Whale, he actually found a way to make it sneeze a dozen times.

• Concerning the Canadian French dub:

• There is a little harsh cut during the scene between Kup and Grimlock who wants Kup to tell the story. He says "Me Grimlock says-" and it cuts on Kup's sad face.
• Wheelie's line "Secret-keepers always weepers! Tell a friend or heads will bend!" is dubbed by "Grimlock is angry, I think you should tell everything, otherwise he will get angry!".
• When talking to Predaking, Galvatron uses "vous", which means either that he continues to consider Predaking as 5 distinct robots, or that he uses the very polite formula.
• Like in the European dub, Blurr's gibberish has been dubbed in two different ways as he sinks in the mud, before and after the commercial bumper. Before, he says "Help me, help me, help me! I feel like I'm sinking and if I sink further, I'm going to take my (incomprehensible) and I-" and after the break he says "Please, I sink deeper and deeper, the deeper I sink, the more I disappear, I don't like it when the (incomprehensible)".
• After telling that Sky Lynx has been hurt from the fighting, he adds "We have to patch him up, otherwise he'll bleed, won't he?".

German

• Title: "Tödliche Kristalle" ("Deadly Crystals")
• Original airdate: ?

Italian

• Title (first dub): "Il mostro Caos" ("Chaos the Monster")
• Original airdate: ?

• When the spaceship makes noise because of the death crystal, in this dub the noise is not present. Still, Grimlock claims that the ship is making noise... are you hearing things, Grimlock?

• Title (second dub): "Caos" ("Chaos")
• Original airdate: ?

• The title suggests the name of the monster being "Caos", making this a rare case in which a character is called by its Italian name rather than the English one in this dub.

Japanese

• Title: "デスクリスタル" (Death Crystal)
• Original airdate: January 30, 1987

Mandarin

• Title: "Hùndùn Guài" (混沌怪, "Chaos Monster")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "O Caos" ("The Chaos")
• Original airdate: ?

Polish

• Title: none (title card was cut; same as intro and outro)
• Original airdate: ?

• Lots of omitted names (both characters and fractions) and even when there are names, there are mistakes - Blurr is called Bot, Grimlock - Gremlock and Sky Lynx is Sky Loose (sic!).
• Astotrain's line which mentions Unicron is simply "We'll see how you [Autobots] feel when we get you" - Galvatron still replies "Yes, I know".
• Name "Chaos" is pronounced phonetically in English - result is "Keyas".

Russian

• Title: "Khaos" (Хаос, "The Chaos")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

LaserDisc

1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1: Vol. 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 4: Series 3.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 15 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2010 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Episode Dossier at The Cybertron Chronicle
• Voice actor call sheet and dialogue script
• Gallery of full episode storyboards