The Secret of the Ruins

« Transformers: Robots in Disguise ep 6 »
This looks familiar...
"The Secret of the Ruins" ギガトロンの襲撃! () (Gigatron no Shūgeki!) "Gigatron's Raid!"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop
Airdate	May 10, 2000 (Japanese) October 11, 2001 (English)
Written by	Junki Takegami (Japanese) Tom Wyner (English)
Director	Yoshiaki Tsutsui
Animation studio	Studio Gallop

Predacons attack.
Invasion of the city.
Sky-Byte finds ruins.

Synopsis

I'm telling you the cafe is right around here!

In daylight, in the middle of Metro City, Megatron and his Predacons attack, hoping to draw out the Autobots. T-AI contacts the Autobot Brothers, but can only find Prowl and X-Brawn, who report they're busy looking for Side Burn and Koji, who've gone to explore some old ruins. T-AI orders Team Bullet Train into the city instead. The three trainbots transform and walk through the city towards the Predacons, who immediately attack with Gas Skunk's acid breath. Railspike uses missiles to ignite Gas Skunk's breath, and the incompetent skunk runs around, frying his two teammates. From the base, Optimus Prime notes that the Predacons apparently aren't trying to heist some energy supply, and he is suspicious that the attack might be more than meets the eye.

Sky-Byte, who wasn't at Megatron's attack on the city, explores a mountain range, looking for mysterious ruins, which the Predacons learned about by using the psycho-probe to take the information from the mind of Dr. Onishi. Sky-Byte spies Side Burn, who is in the area with Koji to search for the same ruins, which Koji explains were left by the "Piyuma" Native Americans.

Koji, I can't see!

Koji and Side Burn find the ruins and enter inside on foot. Sky-Byte, who has followed the pair, fires missiles inside after them, trying to trap them inside. Side Burn detects the missiles in advance, and he tries to race through the cave (passing by Kelly, who also happened to be exploring the ruins). After he eventually dodges the missiles, Side Burn radios a mayday message to base for help.

The Predacon Trio continue to get beaten by Team Bullet Train. Megatron, tired of waiting for Prime, engages the Autobots. Instead of helping out in the city, Prime goes to aid Side Burn.

Jaws V: The Reconciliation

Sky-Byte, unaware that he's failed to kill Side Burn and his human friend, and also unaware that more Autobots are on the way, voyages into the ruins to find whatever made them so important to Dr. Onishi, assuming that it must be a source of power. Prime arrives and uses his Flying Fist to knock Sky-Byte down some stairs. Rather than fight Prime, Sky-Byte grabs the chest that holds the ruins' prize and races outside.

Megatron, hearing that Sky-Byte has completed his mission, calls off the urban attack. Instead of letting him escape unharmed, Team Bullet Train combine into Rail Racer and deliver a solid punch. The wounded Megatron retreats in his jet mode.

Exiting the ruins, Sky-Byte runs into the Autobot Brothers. The three blast Sky-Byte, who drops the chest in defeat. Prime catches the chest. With both Predacon attacks over, the Autobots open the chest and discover the prize: a photo of Koji and Dr. Onishi that the doctor stashed in the caves last time he and his son visited them. But more importantly, in the frame of the picture, the Autobots find a microchip that could advance the plot.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Predacons	Humans
Optimus Prime (6) T-AI (7) Prowl (8) X-Brawn (9) Railspike (10) Rapid Run (11) Midnight Express (12) Side Burn (15) Rail Racer (18)	Megatron (1) Dark Scream (2) Slapper (3) Gas Skunk (4) Sky-Byte (13)	Dorie Dutton (5) Dr. Onishi (14) Koji Onishi (16) Kelly (17)

Quotes

"It's the talking car. And guided missiles—but they didn't talk."

—Kelly

"Now, Autobots... Let's see how you do against a real opponent. You'll soon discover that all your powers combined won't be enough to defeat me."
"Do you talk this much all the time, or only when you've got two mouths?"

—Megatron fails to intimidate Rapid Run.

Notes

Differences with Car Robots

This episode's Robots in Disguise dub was completed prior to 9/11, but it was not set to air until a few days after the tragedy. Due to several scenes involving the mass destruction of buildings by the Predacons, the episode was promptly pulled before it reached air and underwent extensive re-editing and re-dubbing to make it appropriate for broadcast. Consequently, the episode did not air until much later, well into the multiple-episodes-per-week schedule the show was keeping at the time. The original English version of the episode has never been released in any form; this list notes all the differences between the original Car Robots episode and the heavily-modified second Robots in Disguise version.

• The changes begin right away. The whole opening scene of the Car Robots version of this episode is original animation, depicting Megatron crashing through a building in Shinjuku late at night. Crowds of terrified onlookers watch as he declares that he will make them all kneel at his feet, after which the Predacon trio pop up on the roof of a building, then leap down. Gas Skunk unleashes a gas attack, melting and corroding a building, and the scene ends on a shot of the city's skyline, as black smoke rises up from it. This scene was almost entirely replaced for Robots in Disguise, and a new opening was created by recycling clips of Megatron's arrival from "Battle Protocol!", sans any destruction. The only pieces of footage to survive from the Car Robots version of the episode are the cityscape, the Preadacons leaping down and Gas Skunk attacking; even the end of his attack is cut short, so as not to reveal the damaged building.
• In Car Robots, Gas Skunk implies he could shoot gas out his butt if he wanted to, but chooses not to for decency's sake. Robots in Disguise plays it as him forgetting he's not a real skunk for a second.
• Robots in Disguise once again replaces the Japanese toy ID numbers of the Autobot Brothers and Team Bullet Train with their names. The Spy Changers are briefly seen scrolling past, and Robots in Disguise just deletes their ID numbers without bothering to replace them.
• Everyone is just sort of... more... pissy in Car Robots. Prowl is annoyed at Side Burn's disappearance, X-Brawn thinks he's chasing red sports cars, Optimus laments "I can't do anything with these guys!" and T-AI moans that the brothers' timekeeping is poor. In Robots in Disguise, they have the decency to be worried about Side Burn, and Prowl suggests calling up Team Bullet Train to stand in for them while they search.
• As Team Bullet Train is summoned, Robots in Disguise adds a quick shot of the member select program screen before each character appears, with their names flashing. Got to remind the kids at home which toys to ask for!

• Railspike's intro scene is mirrored in Robots in Disguise, which him driving across the screen from right to left, instead of left to right as we was in Car Robots. The same is true of the scenes of the Predacons gathering on a rooftop, and Dark Scream spotting the Bullet Trains approaching.
• Robots in Disguise adds one of its CGI POV targeting shots as Gas Skunk prepares to fire on the trains, and another as Railspike fires back.
• After Rapid Run and Railspike give each other a thumbs-up, Robots in Disguise cuts out a short scene in which Midnight Express mistakenly believes they're playing rock-paper-scissors, and gets yelled at by the others. The joke is repeated a little later into the episode, after the trains take down the Predacon trio, and is again cut from Robots in Disguise.
• The first rock-paper-scissors gag is followed by a scene transition that involves an Autobot symbol quickly filling up the scene and receding; it's the first time it has been used in Car Robots, but it will be seen again. Robots in Disguise mostly excises these and uses its own CGI scene transitions, as it has been doing since the first episode.
• In Car Robots, Sky-Byte perches himself on a rocky peak and scans the horizon. Robots in Disguise added a commercial break just before this, so the panning shot of the skyline is moved to before Sky-Byte sits down, to serve as an establishing shot for anyone just joining the show after the break, rather than as Sky-Byte's POV.

• Robots in Disguise cuts a short scene of Japanese wordplay when Sky-Byte first sights the entrance to the ruins. In Car Robots, the Payuma ruins are known as the real-life Cappadocia ruins, and Sky-Byte takes the name at face value, beliving it must have some connection to the mythical Japanese water monster known as the Kappa. In two deleted shots, he mistakenly recalls the name as "Kappa's Navel" and "Kappa's Plate", imagining them in his patented comedy thought bubbles. The gag runs on into his flashback, where Megatron believes it's called "Kappa's Bellybutton", causing Sky-Byte to facefault, a brief action also cut from Robots in Disguise.
• Sky-Byte's flashback to Megatron giving him orders is also quite heavily altered for Robots in Disguise. In Car Robots, Sky-Byte asks Megatron why he is attempting to conquer an insignificant planet like Earth, prompting Megatron to tell him that there is something important hidden somewhere on it (though the implication is that even Megatron doesn't know exactly what it is). In Robots in Disguise, they just talk about prying "secret information" from Doctor Onishi's brain. The flashback is also shortened for Robots in Disguise, as a long downward panning shot of the Megastar is removed.
• Side Burn and Koji's conversation about the ruins is shortened down for Robots in Disguise. The Car Robots version also carried on the "kappa" gag, as Side Burn mispronounces "Cappadocia" as "Kappamaki", a kind of sushi roll with cucumber (he says he prefers tekkamaki, literally an "iron roll"). For Robots in Disguise, this was changed to him mispronouncing "Payuma" as "pie humor," which he considers his preferred style of comedy.

• Yet more POV shots! Car Robots includes some POV shots of its own, one when Sky-Byte watches Side Burn and Koji, and two more as his missiles track them. Robots in Disguise replaces them with their now-standard CGI efforts.
• Yet another POV shot is added to Robots in Disguise a minute later when Midnight Express targets Gas Skunk with his rifle. After he successfully blasts the Predacons, Car Robots has Midnight Express be very happy with himself, as it's his "first win". Railspike and Rapid Run give him a thumbs-up, and he sags, believing he has lost another round of rock-paper-scissors. The sag is cut from Robots in Disguise.
• In a rather obvious cock-up, Robots in Disguise takes shots of Megatron's shadow looming over the Bullet Trains, and of the trains looking up at the villain in claw mode, and moves them to after he transforms into dragon mode, creating a visual continuity error.
• In Car Robots, Optimus thinks that the mayday signal causing his chest to glow is chest pains caused by worrying! Ha!
• One last time for now: Robots in Disguise adds a CGI POV targeting shot as the Autobot Brothers prepare to fire on Sky-Byte.
• Scenes that Robots in Disguise extends with looped and repeated footage include:
  • Optimus asking T-AI to activate the member select program.
  • T-AI doing so.
  • Prowl telling T-AI they can't find Side Burn.
  • Prime telling T-AI to call up Team Bullet Train.
  • Railspike and Rapid Run watching as Midnight Express stumbles through traffic.
  • Rapid Run and Railspike's banter about Railspike's aiming abilities.
  • Rapid Run giving Railspike a thumbs-up.
  • Prime remarking that something smells bad.

Animation or technical errors

• After Side Burn ditches the missiles and transforms, the smoke around his feet appears to move backwards and forwards.

Continuity errors

• Optimus Prime describes Sky-Byte as "very clever."
• Dark Scream's "center laser" acts as a freeze-ray whereas it's never been used as such before.
• Speaking of Dr. Onishi, he has his glasses back — they were left behind when Megatron kidnapped him back in Battle Protocol!.
• When Megatron arrives to battle Team Bullet Train, he transforms from his giant hand mode into his two-headed dragon mode. As he flies toward Team Bullet Train, he is suddenly in his hand mode again, and when he lands, he is back in his two-headed dragon form.

Transformers references

• Doctor Onishi is subjected to the mind-reading psycho-probe, a callback to the mind-reading device from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide". It is even noted to run at 90,000 volts per scan, as the original did.

Real-world references

• Images in Dr. Onishi's mind include the Statue of Liberty, Arc de Triomphe and London's Tower Bridge.

Trivia

• One of the few factoids known about the original dub of this episode was that it featured Dorie Dutton making a reference to "robo-terrorism of the mid-1980s". Dorie's dialogue had to be re-recorded to remove this line when the episode was redubbed ("terrorism" having become a no-no word), but evidently regular actress Tifanie Christun wasn't available, as T-AI's voice actress Sandy Fox performed the role.
• Sky-Byte comments that at 90,000 volts, Dr. Onishi won't survive many attempts to probe him. It's amps that determine how lethal an electric current is (stopping the human heart requires around 1.5 amps, never mind 90,000), and volts determine the pain of the shock, the latter of which doesn't matter much if you're in a coma. It seems Sky-Byte is very considerate about the suffering of creatures...
• This episode shows one of the only times a Transformer has switched to robot mode while carrying a human passenger. Rather than being squished to death, Koji is ejected. The same thing happens in "The Human Element". In Transformers: Prime Miko survived inside Bulkhead during his transformation in "Darkness Rising, Part 4," but was not ejected. Several episodes later, Agent Fowler similarly remains safely inside of the transforming Optimus Prime, but inexplicably winds up in his hand; in the movies this also happens, Optimus Prime in Revenge of the Fallen and Bumblebee in Dark of The Moon ejects Sam Witwicky during transformations.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2000 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 2 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Volume One (Maximum Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 1 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Evil Intent (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Special Edition 2-Disc Set (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise / Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation / Action Man (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season One (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)

External links

• "The Secret of the Ruins" on RiDForever.info