Auto-Bop

« The Transformers ep 52 » Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers ep 52
Go ahead and mock '80s clothing, but in twenty years, they'll be mocking what we wear.
"Auto-Bop"
Production code	700-51
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 13, 1985
Written by	David Wise
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Tracks and Blaster uncover a hypnosis plot. A funky hypnosis plot.

Japanese title: ブロードキャストVSサウンドウェーブ (Broadcast VS Soundwave)

German title: "Gefährliche Hypnosekraft" ("Dangerous Hypnosespower")

Synopsis

Just the usual Manhattan commuter crowd.

Raoul and his friends Poplock and Rocksteady are trying to make some spare cash, breakdancing on the sidewalks of New York City. Unfortunately, the management of the Dancitron nightclub doesn't like competition, and sends a mob after them. The trio grab their tape deck and flee, riding a wheeled dumpster until it's brought to a sudden halt. They're soon surrounded by armed thugs, but luckily Tracks and Blaster are in the city, and come to the trio's aid. While fighting the thugs off, Tracks is surprised to notice one of them is a man in a business suit.

Raoul introduces the rest of the Bop Crew to the two Autobots, who say they're monitoring Decepticon activity, and now suspect there's something strange going on at the Dancitron. The pair enter the club and admire the immense sound system. Soon Blaster is dancing with an apparently blissed-out patron, while Track notes a number of oddly-dressed dancers—a garbage man, a middle-aged woman in a bathrobe and curlers, and a man dressed to the nines. In an upstairs booth, Starscream and Soundwave observe the two Autobots.

Mind the paint job.

Meanwhile, the Bop Crew are taking an elevated subway train when it unexpectedly begins gathering speed. The driver, entering a hypnotised state, pulls the accelerator lever to full and smashes the control panel with an iron bar. Raoul pulls the emergency cord until it breaks, but the brakes are ineffective at stopping the train. Fortunately Tracks and Blaster happen to be walking nearby, and are able to halt the train. They find the sabotaged control panel, however the driver has already fled.

Tracks sends Blaster, Poplock and Rocksteady to check with Teletraan I while he and Raoul go to check out the Dancitron again. On the way, the pair spot an active building site—somewhat of an odd sight at 1am, and even odder when they notice the workers are more inappropriately-dressed people, including some of those previously seen at the Dancitron. They're quickly spotted by the workers, and Tracks drags the gate shut to prevent the humans from attacking them, though that doesn't stop a workman on the building itself from firing red-hot rivets at them.

Oooh, kinky!

Poplock and Rocksteady are offered free tickets into the Dancitron and eagerly accept, believing they'll be able to investigate on their own. The duo enter the club and are soon hypnotised by the music. Arriving at the club, Track leaves Raoul outside and encounters the boy's two friends inside. They lead him to two Decepticons, who use the club's hypnotized patrons to ensnare him and bind him to the club's sound system. Starscream reports to Megatron that the building construction is on schedule.

Having consulted Teletraan I, Blaster arrives at the Dancitron to find Raoul waiting outside. The pair enter to find Tracks, with Blaster tracking an ultrasound signal. Raoul encounters his two friends and, remembering Blaster's warning about the hypnotic sound, plugs his ears with a paper napkin. They chase him, and he soon finds Tracks, but is overwhelmed by the hypnotized dancers. As he soon discovers, the hypnosis can be broken by simply getting the victim wet, so he triggers the club's sprinkler systems, freeing the patrons from their trance. The Bop Crew swiftly frees Tracks and they pursue Starscream.

Soundwave and Blaster in a two-bot reenactment of You Got Served.

Blaster squares off with Soundwave at the club in a sonic "battle of the boom boxes"; the two are nearly evenly matched, until Blaster uses the club's sound system to amplify his abilities and drive Soundwave off. Tracks engineers a rain cloud which de-hypnotises the humans working at the building site. This also flushes out Starscream, who chases Tracks. The Autobot flies through the partially completed building, and the larger Decepticon damages his wing trying to follow, forcing him to retreat. Blaster arrives and uses the Dancitron speakers to bring down the building.

Tracks offers grateful thanks to Raoul and his buddies for saving his life, saying that if there's anything he can do for them... and it turns out there is. The trio lost their radio in all the chaos, and until they earn enough street cash to get a new one, poor Blaster will make an ideal replacement.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Tracks (5) Blaster (6) Teletraan I (9)	Starscream (7) Soundwave (8) Megatron (10)	Raoul (1) Poplock (2) Rocksteady (3) Furg (4)

Quotes

"That's what I call a riveting experience!"
"I don't know why I hang out with you, man."

—Tracks makes a terrible pun after being shot at by a guy with a rivet gun, and Raoul calls him out on it.

"Foo on this jive! My main machine's in trouble!"

—Raoul

"I've been waiting a long time for this, you poor excuse for a sound system."
"All talk...no shock."

—Blaster and Soundwave, right as their sonic duel begins.

"Yo, the dude's gone crazy!"
"Yeah... like a fox!"

—Poplock and Tracks.

"Heeheeheehaahaahaahaahaahaahaaaaa...."

—Soundwave, as he momentarily gets the upper hand in the sonic duel between himself and Blaster. This is one of the few times in the series that Soundwave is heard actually laughing, and coming from him in that quiet, metallic monotone of his, and in this context, it is actually kinda scary.

"I'd say your nightclub just went out of style."

—Blaster to Soundwave, after he won the sonic duel.

Notes

Animation or Technical Glitches

• In this episode, Raoul's skin color is colored slightly lighter than his last appearance in "Make Tracks".
• The windows on the back of the train appear behind Tracks instead of in front.
• Towards the end, when Tracks gets chased by Starscream, at one moment inside a building Ramjet is shown instead of Starscream.
• When Starscream contacts Megatron, Megatron's insignia is red instead of purple.
• When Blaster first enters the club, there is a brief second where one of the women dancers appears to be topless.
• When Blaster is about to fight Soundwave, the left side of his face is white.
• Presumably the train which the Bop Crew were riding on was heading away from the Dancitron, and at high speed. Yet Tracks and Blaster just happen to be walking in exactly the right place to see it speeding along when they were in the club the last time we saw them.
• Why didn't Poplock and Rocksteady go with Blaster as Tracks told them to, and how did they get to the Dancitron ahead of Raoul and Tracks, who were driving? The scuffle at the building site didn't hold Tracks up that long.

Real-World References

• When confronted by the gang of thugs employed by Dancitron, Raoul suggests they "pull a Michael Jackson".

• While fleeing from the thugs, Raoul wishes their blaster (boom box) was "THE Blaster". Rocksteady retorts that Raoul "knows the Autobots like I know Prince".

• When first meeting Blaster and Tracks, Rocksteady responds to Blaster's implication of trouble-making with "Hey! We were just breakin' in front of the Dancitron (shifts from two open palms and a shrug to one thumb extended pointing behind him) and these Road Warrior rejects tried to bounce us out."

Trivia

• When Tracks and Blaster enter Dancitron, the song playing is an instrumental version of the song performed by Cold Slither from the G.I. Joe episode of the same name.

• This episode is one of two pre-movie episodes to not feature Optimus Prime.

• This episode is also noteworthy for pitting the two tape decks, Soundwave and Blaster, against each other, in an intense sonic duel. It turns out that Soundwave is actually somewhat the more powerful of the two, and Blaster had to augment his output with some nearby additional speakers to best his opponent... the cheater...

• It is never established within the episode itself just what the Decepticons are trying to accomplish with their hypnotize-people-to-construct-a-building plot. However, according to the official Sunbow synopsis included in Metrodome's DVD release: "... the boys and the Autobots pursue Starscream to the skyscraper—a new Decepticon headquarters being constructed by the hypnotized patrons from Dancitron." Oh. Well then.

• At one point, the show does a flashback to a warning that Blaster gave Raoul less than a minute earlier. Just to make sure nobody forgot.

• This episode features the second of only two instances in the series in which Soundwave laughs. The first was in "Quest for Survival".

• When leaving the building site to head to the Dancitron, Tracks inserts Raoul into his chest before transforming to vehicle mode. Weird.

External Links

• Dossier at the Cybertron Chronicle