Christmas in July

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"You kind of set off an eternal winter...everywhere."
"Christmas in July"
Season	1
No. in season	9
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	April 28, 2012
Writer	Brian Hohlfeld
Director	Patrick Archibald
Animation studio	Atomic Cartoons
Watch this episode on YouTube

Cody, his family and the Rescue Bots have to stop a snow storm in July when a weather machine goes haywire.

Synopsis

"Not the hair! Not the hair!"

Huxley Prescott reports on the heatwave currently gripping Griffin Rock, which Mayor Luskey demonstrates by breaking an egg on the sidewalk so it can fry. Nearby Cody and Frankie sell lemonade. Chase disapproves of their illegal commercial venture, but Chief Burns is more concerned at Chase's lack of air conditioning. Heatwave and Kade provide water for the kids to cool off. Surprisingly, it turns out to be not only hot enough to fry eggs, but to set them on fire, and soon the Mayor's chef hat has caught alight too. Luckily Heatwave and Kade put him out.

Cody arrives back at the fire station in search of more ice and finds Boulder looking up information on seasons. Boulder's confused by the concept and wants Winter now so he can see some snow. Cody has trouble explaining the concept to him, but it gives him an idea. He visits Doc Greene, who knows of an old weather machine, predating Greene's arrival on Griffin Rock. They venture into the "Best Left Forgotten" room and find the weather machine in perfect condition, though Frankie doesn't think much of Cody's idea of using it to create a snowfall.

The fact that he's a giant alien robot makes this all the more adorable.

They start setting the weather machine up in the town square, while Frankie, preferring the summer, heads down to the river. Cody is annoyed when the Mayor takes the credit for his idea, but his honor gets his comeuppance when he tries to fib on Chase's speaker. Doc Greene also lets him start up the machine. The square is soon blanketed in snow and the humans start playing. Boulder is disappointed that the Rescue Bots don't get to enjoy the snow as well, since they have to keep up the pretense of being ordinary robots, but their human partners lead them to a back alley where Cody had Doc Greene test the machine earlier. While Graham keeps watch, the Rescue Bots get to have their play in the snow, though Boulder turns out to be a terrible aim with a snowball which amuses Heatwave greatly. One of Boulder's snowballs strikes a tree in the square, knocking down a branch that breaks the weather machine, sending it out of control.

"Arendelle's in deep, deep, deep, deep snow."

With Winter temperatures all over Griffin Rock, Doc Greene quickly discovers that the machine's control panel is broken and has to take it back to his lab. With the roads snowed in, the residents take shelter in City Hall and Cody joins them to coordinate the rescue effort. The team splits up and starts lending help where necessary. Cody checks with Frankie, who's enjoying the frozen-over river. As Blades and Dani help free cars from a frozen bridge, Heatwave prevents an out-of-control car from ploughing into them. Meanwhile, Boulder and Graham help Doc Greene reach his lab and clear the snowdrift in front of it so he can get in.

"Snow, it had to be snow. She couldn't have had tropical magic that covered the fjords in white sand."

Back at City Hall, a new problem rears its head—the roof is in danger of caving in under the weight of all the snow. The Mayor attempts to get out, only to find that the door is blocked with a snowdrift, and Cody calls an emergency. Boulder arrives first and clears the door, letting everyone out. They next use Cody's idea to save the building—Boulder props up the roof while Dani flies Blades upside-down to clear the snow. With the building safe for now, Cody checks with Doc Greene, who completes repairs on the weather machine and uses it to reverse the weather. Summer returns to Griffin Rock.

Cody contacts Frankie, only to find that the ice on the lake has broken up, and Frankie is now trapped on a piece which is heading downriver towards a waterfall. Blades is still too frozen to fly, but the rest of the team head to the river. Boulder uses a snowball to knock a tree branch down, which Frankie grabs onto. With everything safe again, Cody looks around for Chase, but the Rescue Bot is some distance away, laughing and making snow angels.

Back in the fire station, Boulder finally understands seasons, and Cody reveals some snowballs he kept in the freezer, which he and Boulder use to pelt Heatwave.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Humans
Chase (5) Heatwave (8) Boulder (9) Blades (10)	Huxley Prescott (1) Cody Burns (2) Frankie Greene (3) Mayor Luskey (4) Charlie Burns (6) Kade Burns (7) Doc Greene (11) Graham Burns (12) Dani Burns (13)

Quotes

"Don't look at me; nothing on this planet makes sense. Hot dog, but it's not a pet!"

—Blades

"And somewhere over here is the invisible telephone. *gasp!* It's missing! Hahaha, just kidding! ...I think."

—Doc Greene

"Snow comes from the sky? I had no idea!"

—Blades

"Nice try, green bean! You couldn't hit the back side of Unicron with a Lobbing ball!"

—Heatwave on Boulder's snowball skills.

Notes

Continuity notes

The Ark of the Covenant is probably somewhere in here too.

• The "Best Left Forgotten" room is part of the Hall of Inspiration, which won't get named until "Small Blessings".
• Doc Greene appears to be repairing the weather machine with the same tool Heatwave was menacing Blades with in "Hotshots". Or at least a human-sized version of same.

Transformers references

• Heatwave refers to both Unicron and Lobbing, the latter sport first appearing in the Transformers: Prime episode "Con Job".

Real-world references

• Christmas in July is a real thing, plus the name of a 1940 movie.

Animation and technical errors

• The weather machine is covered with snow shortly after the branch falls on it, but after the commercial break, it's mostly uncovered.
• After Mayor Luskey comes flying out of the town hall, a group of people run out past Chase. A number of them run past him twice.
• Charlie Burns doesn't get out of Chase before he transforms after arriving at City Hall during the snow storm.

Trivia

"The cold never bothered me anyway"

• Chase's vehicle mode lacks air conditioning.
• Although some specially modified real-life helicopters can perform barrel rolls and loops, sustained inverted flight of the type Blades performs in this episode is aerodynamically impossible. Of course, he is only pretending to be a helicopter, but as a trained pilot, Dani shouldn't even consider it possible.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Noël en juillet" ("Christmas in July")
• Original airdate: ?

German

• Title: "Weihnachten im Juli" ("Christmas in July")
• Original airdate: 28 February 2013

Hungarian

• Title: "Karácsony júliusban" ("Christmas in July")
• Original airdate: 15 February 2013

Indonesian

• Title: "Mesin Pembuat Salju" ("Snowmaking Machine")
• Original airdate: ?

Italian

• Title: "Natale a Luglio" ("Christmas in July")
• Original airdate: 11 June 2017

Portuguese

• Title: "Natal em Julho" ("Christmas in July")
• Original airdate: 21 March 2013

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

2013 — Rescue Bots — "Energize" (Shout! Factory)
2013 — Rescue Bots — "Weihnachten im Juli" (EDEL:kids) — German and English audio
2013 — Rescue Bots — "Cody on Patrol" (Beyond Home Entertainment)
2015 — Rescue Bots — "Complete Season 1" (Beyond Home Entertainment)