Prime Target (G1)

This article is about the Generation 1 episode. For the live-action film series book, see Prime Target (book).

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...This pretty much speaks for itself.
"Prime Target"
Production code	700-50
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 14, 1985
Written by	Flint Dille Buzz Dixon
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The big-game hunter Lord Chumley begins hunting Autobots, and he's gunning for Optimus Prime.

Japanese title: ターゲットはコンボイ (Target wa Convoy, "The Target is Convoy")

German Generation 2 title: "Jagd auf Prime" ("Hunt for Prime")

Italian title, dub 1: Il cacciatore ("The hunter")

Italian title, dub 2: Bersaglio Optimus ("Target Optimus")

Synopsis

Over the Arctic, Oktober Guard One is flying an experimental jet, when it is suddenly speared by a submarine under the ice. She ejects, but the plane is captured. It turns out that the plane was stolen by Lord Chumley, a game hunter, who tells his manservant Dinsmoore that he needs one more thing to complete his collection...the head of Optimus Prime.

"Dinsmoore, I believe the Autobots are about to suffer a series of unfortunate events!"

Heading into town, Tracks and Bumblebee spot Blitzwing and Astrotrain and head after them. However, it is actually a trap set by Chumley. Back at the Autobot base, the Autobots are watching a soap opera which is interrupted by a news broadcast about the theft of the plane. Apparently, the Soviet Union is accusing the United States of America of the theft, which the United States denies, and the two countries are ready to go to war. Having not heard back from Bumblebee and Tracks, Prime orders the Autobots to search for their friends. However, Chumley has devised several traps for the Autobots and manages to capture Jazz, Beachcomber, Grapple, Blaster, and Inferno, the latter of whom sends a message to Prime about the capture. Not wanting to risk the others, Prime orders the Autobots to return to base.

And you thought Hasbro safety tests were tough.

While they regroup, Cosmos sends a message to Prime, saying that he's found the missing bots, who are being held in (poorly designed) traps intended to prevent them from escaping. Chumley himself contacts Prime and requests his presence. Pissed at seeing his friends tortured, Prime overloads Chumley's screen and orders the Autobots to remain at the base.

However, Megatron has been keeping an eye on the events and feels that Chumley, though a flesh creature, may be useful...especially since he's done more in two days than Megatron has done in two years, which Starscream takes the time to point out. Unaware that Chumley is only after Prime, Megatron sends Blitzwing and Astrotrain (surprise, surprise) to make a deal between Chumley and the Decepticons.

Arriving at Chumley's castle, Prime finds himself in a "well researched" mock-up of Cybertron. He unleashes a monster on Prime, but Prime is able to defeat it. Heading down a corridor, Prime finds a young woman imprisoned, but leaves. Blitzwing investigates, and gets trapped in a goo-net intended for Prime, much to Astrotrain's irritation. Finally, Chumley sends out a mechanical scorpion, but Prime is shot in the back by Astrotrain and apparently killed. Furious that his prize has been ruined, Chumley takes the Decepticons prisoner and defuses their energy weapons.

Blackarachnia's debut was not the most glamorous.

Knowing that Prime is alive, Bumblebee sends their coordinates to the Autobot leader, who enters the castle. A mechanical spider is dispatched, but Prime destroys it and heads into Chumley's control room. Dinsmoore hides in a tank while Chumley frees the Decepticons on the promise that they'll fight the Autobot. Instead Astrotrain and Blitzwing go after Chumley to "See how he likes being hunted." The Autobots are freed by Prime, and Blitzwing and Astrotrain retreat after realizing that they are unarmed. Chumley is left at the mercy of Prime.

The Autobots return the plane to the Soviet Union, with Chumley strapped to its nose. The world thanks Optimus Prime for his efforts in solving the mystery.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Tracks (4) Bumblebee (5) Blaster (9) Grapple (10) Beachcomber (11) Jazz (12) Optimus Prime (13) Inferno (14) Windcharger (15) Huffer (16) Ironhide (17) Warpath (18) Hoist (19) Cosmos (20) Mirage (21) Prowl (24) Bluestreak (25) Ratchet (26) Wheeljack (27)	Blitzwing (7) Astrotrain (8) Megatron (22) Starscream (23)	Oktober Guard One (1) Dinsmoore (2) Lord Chumley (3) Hector Ramirez (6) Russian sentry (28)

Quotes

"She's a lovely specimen, Lord Chumley, but, there's a frightful international row brewing over it."
"Ahhh. These things blow over... Remember the Boer War?"
"Painfully, sir."
"Oh, yes, well. Everybody else has forgotten it."

—Dinsmoore and Chumley are older'n hell, apparently.

News Announcer: "We interrupt 'As the Kitchen Sinks' for this special news bulletin."
Jazz, Blaster, Beachcomber and Grapple in unison: "Awwwwwwwww..."

—The Autobots do not like to miss their soaps.

"Amazing. A booby trap that actually captures boobies."

—Optimus Prime says "boobies".

"Bah! Impenetrable! Blitzwing, how do you get into these messes?!"

—Astrotrain vainly tries to free Blitzwing

"Decepticons! Trust them to spoil the hunt."
"Yes, sir. Just like the Humane Society, in a way."

—Chumley and Dinsmoore

Chumley: I say, old chaps. If I free you, will you fight Optimus Prime?
Astrotrain: Trust us!
Chumley: There he is, lads! Ha ha! Give him a good thrashing!
[Astrotrain immediately tries to stomp Chumley]
Astrotrain: See how you like being hunted!
Chumley: But—you said—
Blitzwing: Never trust Decepticons, flesh creature!

—Chumley gets a lesson in Decepticon ethics.

Notes

Animation and/or technical glitches

• When Optimus Prime and the Autobots at HQ first transform, Optimus' headlights aren't colored white (they're the same red as his body).
• When the fire hose/tentacle trap ensnares Inferno it's shown breaking off his wrist communicator twice.
• When Optimus signals the Autobots of the change in plans, his cab is shown to have rear windows (it's probably a layering error where the front windows got copied).
• During the scene when Chumley contacts Optimus at the Autobots headquarters, both Inferno and Jazz can be seen standing next to Optimus even though earlier, they got captured by Chumley.
• When Chumley is tracking Optimus as he drives towards the castle, the display shows Optimus "driving" in the sky. There's no ground drawn in! The next shot also has no ground, but also no sky, just Prime and a purple background.
• A large number of sound effects are missing or oddly truncated throughout the episode. Inferno smashes his way into the burning building without any smashy-smashy-type noises, and a second later his wrist communicator is snipped off in total silence. Prime shoots a bear trap with only about a fourth of his usual blaster sound effect; a second later he throws open a castle gate, which only makes half of a clang.
• Likewise, there are a few lines of dialogue present in the episode's shooting script that are dropped from the final version. This in and of itself is hardly unusual, except in one instance, an odd technical glitch results. In the script, after Prime flattens Chumley's robotic scorpion, Chumley entreats Astrotrain to "help [his] machine to its feet," and Astrotrain replies "Certainly!" In the finished episode, however, Chumley's request is removed but Astrotrain's response is not, leaving the Decepticon randomly saying "Certainly!" for no apparent reason.
• A billboard urging viewers to "Don't drink and drive" has a second message to "Don't fly drive".
• When Blitzwing says "Never trust Decepticons, flesh creature", Chumley mouths along. A few seconds later Blitzwing says "Look out, the Autobots are free!" in Astrotrain's voice.

Continuity errors

• Oktober Guard One received a sonar reading from beneath the ice while flying over in her jet. Sonar doesn't work that way.
• Any other cartoon (or real-life) jet would have completely exploded either upon being struck, or upon smashing nose-first into the ice.
• Why is footage of the "top secret Russian jet fighter" being shown on the American nightly news?
• Jazz and Inferno are briefly seen at the Ark when they were actually captured by Lord Chumley. Jazz is Warpath's height.
• It looks like Blaster is simply "transformed" by the billboard hands (how they knew to do this to him specifically is a mystery). Why doesn't he transform back when Chumley grabs him?
• When Bumblebee radios Prime, the blades swinging at him conveniently disappear.
• Speaking of Bumblebee, wouldn't the constant transforming make him run out of energy? He seems pretty lively when busting into the place at the end!
• Chumley calls his simulation a "Well researched mock-up of Cybertron." How does he know what Cybertron looks like? And does Cybertron have big dragons, women in distress, massive spiders, etc?
• Chumley's devices seem to change from "capture" to "kill" about the time Prime recalls the Autobots to base. Both Windcharger and Huffer narrowly escape traps that seem likely to inflict major damage, at the very least (an onrushing train and a drill descending from a streetlight, respectively).
• Optimus walks into a spiderweb that's right in front of him.
• Somehow Chumley's castle is big enough to hold a fighter jet as well as around 10 transformers. Blitzwing and Astrotrain even fly out of what must be one massive window opening.
• Some of the Autobots freed by Optimus Prime aren't the same ones that were captured: Ironhide, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Prowl, and Bluestreak bust into Chumley's control center along with Prime. Jazz and Bumblebee are there too (correctly), but what happened to the others who were captured (Tracks, Beachcomber, Huffer, Blaster and Inferno)?
• How did the Autobots drop the jet off without the Russian soldier noticing?

Real-world references

• Dinsmoore was apparently alive for the Second Boer War. At least, we're assuming it's the second one, since the first one happened in the 1880s. If he was alive and could remember that one, he must be some sort of super human.
• Chumley boasts of having hunted Javanese tigers.... which were actually hunted to extinction by the late 1970s. Bastard.
• The show As The Kitchen Sinks the Autobots were watching is a reference to the show As The World Turns.
• Chumley bears some resemblance to Major Minor from Snagglepuss cartoons (even down to having a head plaque ready for his next target), just hugely more resourceful and effective.
• The news report refers to the capturing of the Soviet jet as the highest point in US-Soviet tensions since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Trivia

• The Oktober Guard are a Soviet special operations force from the G.I. Joe cartoons and comics.
• The newscaster the Autobots observe on television is Hector Ramirez, a crossover character who originated in G.I. Joe and went on to appear in numerous other Hasbro/Sunbow cartoons.
• The plot of the episode appears to be loosely based on The Most Dangerous Game.
• There was a 1914 silent film called Lord Chumley. It probably didn't have Autobots in it.
• Several of the Autobots are revealed to be fans of an Earth soap opera entitled As the Kitchen Sinks. Clearly, they've been away from Cybertron too long. Even better, Optimus groans when it's interrupted.
• Beachcomber carries enough change with him to pay a tollbooth.
• Chumley has several unfathomably improbable traps and devices. The most hilarious are a pair of giant hands that come to life from a billboard to fold up Blaster into his tape mode (somehow forcing him to shrink at the same time). The list also includes a giant fully-animated mechanical scorpion that is impervious to Optimus Prime's laser fire, some sort of instant-hardening liquid which is also impervious to Astrotrain's blaster, a giant mechanical black widow, a "holographic projection rifle" that projects fully-animated 3D images of Astrotrain and Blitzwing, giant mechanical tentacle arms (which can somehow be transported by a comparatively tiny forklift), a set of heavy steel girders which can assemble themselves into a cage while in freefall, and some kind of dragon.
  • Furthermore, he's somehow worked quite a few of his traps and gadgets right into publicly-owned infrastructure. A suction clamp comes snaking out of a toll booth; a giant drill comes out of a street lamp while clamps emerge from a manhole; and railroad crossing gates descend at his command.
    • Obviously, he's insanely rich. In addition to all the crazy technology he uses for recreational purposes, he's seen to own a submarine, a sprawling clifftop castle, a fully operational steam locomotive, a custom-modified car wash, an apartment building (which he casually burns), a veritable fleet of flatbed and other trucks, a heavy construction crane (and presumably the entire construction site where it's located), a taxi cab, a fire truck, and a barge.
      • He also has the money to build a replica of part of Cybertron just to hunt Optimus in.
        • Seriously. What does this guy do for a living??

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

Laserdisc

1995 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Megatron Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1999 — The Transformers — Decepticon Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2: Vol. 6 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 3: Series 2.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Volume 05: Stagione Due Parte Terza (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part Two (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)

External links

• Dossier on the Cybertron Chronicle