Surprise Party

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"Surprise Party"
Production code	700-97
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	October 9, 1986
Written by	Steve Mitchell Barbara Petty
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Daniel and Wheelie's first team-up! Oh noes!

Japanese title: ビックリパーティー (Surprise Party)

German title: "Die Geburtstagsparty"" ("The Birthdayparty")

Synopsis

It's a good thing you called me, they've stolen your cyber-kidney.

Spike and the Autobots throw a surprise party for Daniel, but it is interrupted by an attack from the Combaticons. Wheelie gets caught in the crossfire and Ultra Magnus throws himself over the boy Autobot to save him from being shot. After hitting the shuttle bay and destroying several ships, the Combaticons retreat. The attack was a coordinated effort by Galvatron to disrupt a peace conference to be hosted on Cybertron the next day.

That's a karaoke machine. Right now it's playing the end of "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" by Journey.

Daniel and Wheelie want to throw Ultra Magnus a surprise party, but no one knows the date of his creation and it isn’t on file in the Hall of Records. An annoying and clumsy Custodiobot tells them that the information must be stored on the lost Autobot storage asteroid. Daniel and Wheelie steal a garbage ship and head out to find the asteroid and the info. Unbeknownst to them, their movements are being watched by Cyclonus, who evidently doesn’t have anything better to do than spy on garbage ships. Galvatron orders his troops to follow it.

Stuck in a meteor shower, Daniel and Wheelie crash on an asteroid that—surprise!—happens to be the asteroid they were looking for. While they are exploring they are attacked by scaly flying eels and take refuge in a cave, which turns out to be the opening to the records. Inside, sentry robots attack them for asking for the wrong file name. To make matters worse, the eels have found their way inside and attach themselves to Wheelie. Just as they are about to be shot by the drones and eaten by the eels, both menaces are destroyed by Cyclonus and the Sweeps, who take the pair hostage and interrogate them.

Apparently Deathsaurus isn't the only Decepticon who likes small children.

Cyclonus reprograms the asteroid into a collision course for Cybertron and then sends Spike a message that he’s holding Daniel hostage. The Autobots have two choices: destroy the asteroid and kill Daniel, or let the asteroid hit the planet and kill all the peace delegates.

Ultra Magnus takes Sky Lynx to the asteroid. The Sweeps attack, but Magnus makes short work of them, then heads after Cyclonus. They pound on each other as Wheelie sneaks by and presses the convenient self-destruct button. Cyclonus runs off and the Autobots and Daniel escape in Sky Lynx as the asteroid blows up.

Safe on Cybertron, Daniel explains how they got into this mess, looking for Ultra Magnus’ birthday. Spike declares today as Ultra Magnus’ birthday and everyone cheers.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Warpath (2) First Aid (3) Rodimus Prime (4) Wheelie (5) Groove (6) Ultra Magnus (7) Perceptor (17) Custodiobot (18) Sentry drones (20) Blaster (22) Sky Lynx (23)	Galvatron (9) Scourge (10) Cyclonus (11) Combaticons Swindle (12) Blast Off (13) Brawl (14) Onslaught (15) Vortex (16) Sweeps (21)	Daniel Witwicky (1) Spike Witwicky (8) Old peace delegate (19)

Quotes

"I don't know, Wheelie. This seems an awful lot like stealing to me."
"A ship we'll only borrow! We'll have it back tomorrow."

—Daniel is led into a life of crime by Wheelie.

"Invalid file name! Invalid file name! Invalid file name!"

—The asteroid security drones are pissed over Daniel's use of incorrect syntax.

"You are insolent, Earth boy."
"Heh, thanks."

—Cyclonus vs. Daniel Witwicky

"If my superb physique would pass through the tunnels I would join you."
"Forget it."

—Sky Lynx and Ultra Magnus

"Happy birthday, Ultra Magnus! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

—The Autobots and humans make merry.

Notes

Animation or technical glitches

"Hi, I'm Rodimus, and this is my twin, Not-Optimus"

• The "CONTROL ROOM" door Spike opens at the beginning has circular yellow buttons beside it (in the long shot) that change to square red buttons (when he presses them).
• When Spike opens the door, space is seen behind him, even though he was just in an enclosed hallway.
• Ultra Magnus is missing the white circles on his waist during the surprise party.
• As the Autobots fire on the Decepticons and vice versa, First Aid's chest is colored mostly white.
• In a few Combaticon shots, Swindle is colored green. Since he's in jeep mode, it makes him look just like Hound!
• When the Combaticons retreat, Bruticus is seen running with them instead of Onslaught.
• As Daniel asks if the shuttle can still fly, Wheelie is missing his Autobot symbol.
• As Daniel talks to Wheelie about setting up the party for Magnus, the white circles on Magnus' waist are red.
• As Daniel and Wheelie ask him about Magnus' birthday, Perceptor's chin is white.
• During Daniel and Wheelie's conversation with the librarian bot, Wheelie makes their request but it's Daniel's mouth and hands that are moving.
• Early in the season, Cyclonus' chin and eyebrows were grey (the same color as his face). In Starscream's Ghost, they were both purple. Here, his chin is purple and his eyebrows are grey.
• As Daniel and Wheelie enter the cave, a scene transition runs, but the background music and sound effects play over it instead of the usual flip-change music.
• As he shoots the sentry-bots, Cyclonus' gun uses the sound effect from Galvatron's cannon.
• As Cyclonus pounds a control panel, his chin is the same color as his face.
• In one shot of Blaster and Spike talking to Daniel, Blaster's helmet is almost completely white.
• When Ultra Magnus points at Cyclonus through the monitor he has six fingers.
• Just before Ultra Magnus enlists Sky Lynx's help in finding Daniel, two Rodimus Primes can be seen guarding the entrance to the Peace Conference.
• While Ultra Magnus and Sky Lynx are fighting the eels, Sky Lynx has a red Decepticon logo—twice.
• The first shot fired by Ultra Magnus at the Sweeps uses the sound effect from Optimus/Rodimus Prime's rifle. The subsequent shots have the usual Autobot laser sound. Then Magnus fires his shoulder rockets, and they too use Prime's rifle sound (they had their own distinct "fwoosh" earlier in the show).
• As Ultra Magnus fights Cyclonus, his shoulder missiles appear and disappear between shots.
• When Wheelie blasts through the cell door, it's missing the line down its the middle.
• On the asteroid, as Wheelie, Daniel, and Sky Lynx wait for Ultra Magnus, Sky Lynx speaks but it's Wheelie whose mouth is moving.
• The word "welcome" is spelt "wellcome" over the entrance to the peace conference, and later Wheelie activates the asteroid's "auto destrut sequences".
• Right after Wheelie presses the button, Ultra Magnus' head is all-white. As he stoops over, his face morphs into an indistinct shape (Cyclonus is missing his Decepticon symbol during this shot).
• Cyclonus' eyebrows are missing as he comments on Wheelie activating the auto destruct.
• Since Ultra Magnus's mouth is moving at the end of the episode, it looks like he's wishing himself a happy birthday!

Continuity errors

• The Combaticons fire at the Autobots from some kind of rocky outcropping next to the shuttle hangar. A Rocky outcropping on a machine planet.
• First Aid, the pacifist, sure loves shooting guns!
• The Hall of Records on Cybertron has stacks of human-looking books inside.
• Wheelie just flies the shuttle right into a meteor shower. Was he not paying attention at the controls?
• Does the asteroid have an oxygen-rich atmosphere? Because Daniel doesn't have a space suit...and neither the vacuum of space, nor a lack of oxygen if there is air, seem to have an effect. Maybe it's part of those superhuman abilities those Witwickys have...
• Sky Lynx flies over to the asteroid, but his top section disappears when he lands, and doesn't reappear until the Autobots escape from the asteroid.
• Cyclonus's hostage-taking plan isn't executed very well. He puts Wheelie and Daniel in a cell that Wheelie can escape from by just driving through the door. Cyclonus is totally unaware of their escape, not having assigned a guard or anything to watch them.
• Not only does Cyclonus spend his time watching garbage ships, but the fact that one of them is off course is apparently reason to alert Galvatron. Okay...
• Apparently no one is sad that the storage asteroid has been destroyed. How many priceless pieces of information have been lost?

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1991 — Transformers — Thief in the Night / Surprise Party (Tempo Video)

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. 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 4: Series 3.1 (Madman Entertainment)
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)

External links

• Dossier at the Cybertron Chronicles