Call of the Primitives

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Prim and Proper
"Call of the Primitives"
Production code	700-112
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 18, 1986
Written by	Donald F. Glut
Directed by	Masami Obari
Animation studio	See Notes section
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity

All Transformers with animal modes are summoned to battle a being called Tornedron, the little brother of Unicron.

Synopsis

Having your energy drained changes your paint job.

Somewhere, an energy creature begins feeding off other forms of energy—slowly, at first. Then his creator gives him an energon cube. The creature grows and spreads out into the universe. Soon, it attacks Cybertron. The Autobots attack it, but it simply drains their energy from them. The creature's creator is pleased with him, saying he's done better than his predecessor, Unicron.

Ravage, why are you running away?

On Earth's Moon, Rodimus Prime is leading a group of Autobots against the Decepticons. However, the Dinobots, Predacons, Terrorcons, Sky Lynx, Trypticon, and the animal-form Mini-Cassettes are all summoned by a mysterious voice. They leave the battle, and Galvatron orders a retreat. Suddenly, the energy creature arrives and drains the energy from both Autobots and Decepticons (including Rodimus Prime and Galvatron), as well as Earth and the Moon and Cybertron.

Most of the departed Transformers are riding Trypticon. Naturally, tempers flare after Headstrong picks a fight with the Dinobots by insulting Grimlock, so Sludge suggests they stomp him. The Preds stick with their teammate and fight the Dinobots, and the Terrorcons decide to fight everyone. At Sky Lynx's suggestion, Trypticon shakes himself and causes his passengers to stop fighting. They arrive on an ancient planet near the center of the galaxy. After touching down, Sky Lynx assumes command of the group, despite the objections of Razorclaw and Hun-Gurrr. Finding a cave, they encounter a strange entity. He explains that he summoned the Primitives, all animal-based Transformers, to come to fight Tornedron, the energy being who was created by Primacron. The entity, who was once Primacron's assistant, explains how Primacron created Unicron but was nearly destroyed by his creation. After Unicron's defeat, Primacron created Tornedron as a replacement. Primacron's assistant hopes that the Primitives' simple instincts will allow them to defeat Primacon's complex plans.

Ptooie

Suddenly, Tornedron arrives and drains Trypticon of his energy. Trypticon crashes, and Grimlock is believed destroyed. Sky Lynx attacks, only to have his energy drained as well. Slag leads the Dinobots in retreat, while the other Primitives split up, believing that Tornedron can't catch up to all of them if they go separate ways. Unfortunately, they prove to be wrong, as Tornedron separates into four parts to track them all down. He easily dispatches the Mini-Cassettes, chewing on Ratbat in the process. Headstrong declares that it would be better to fight and die, and the Predacons form Predaking, only to have their energy sucked away as well. The Terrorcons try to fight back, but are also drained. The Dinobots ambush Tornedron, but they too are dispatched. Declaring victory against the Primitives, Primacron orders Tornedron to return home back to his lab. Unknown to Tornedron and Primacron, however, Grimlock has survived his impact from Tyrpticon, and he secretly follows them.

Two scoops of raisins

At his base, Primacron is having trouble controlling Tornedron, ordering him to stop. Tornedron refuses to take any more orders and declares that he intends to feed on Primacron, and that all of Primacron's failsafes have failed, realizing that Tornedron is rebelling against him. Grimlock breaks into Primacron's lab to find that Primacron is a tiny little monkey-like alien...thing. Grimlock grabs Primacron and orders him to reverse his damage, but Primacron declares that he's tried everything. Grimlock fixes things easily: He throws the reverse switch, which reverses Tornedron's energy polarity, destroying Tornedron and restoring the life energy to the drained Transformers and planets of the galaxy. In celebration, Grimlock destroys Primacron's lab, declaring it the "smartest" thing he's ever done.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Springer (15) Ultra Magnus (16) Rodimus Prime (17) Slag (19) Snarl (20) Grimlock (21) Sludge (22) Blaster (23) Kup (25) Cliffjumper (26) Jazz (27) Bumblebee (28) Wheelie (29) Blades (30) Slingshot (31) Swoop (32) Sky Lynx (36) Ramhorn (42) Steeljaw (43)	Sweeps (3) Rampage (4) Razorclaw (5) Galvatron (6) Cyclonus (7) Scourge (8) Hun-Gurrr (9) Rippersnapper (10) Sinnertwin (11) Blot (12) Cutthroat (13) Divebomb (14) Tantrum (18) Headstrong (24) Abominus (33) Predaking (34) Trypticon (35) Soundwave (37) Ravage (38) Ratbat (39) Slugfest (40) Overkill (41)	Primacron (1) Tornedron (2) The Oracle (44) Unicron (45)

Quotes

Soundwave's chest opens and all of his cassettes eject, much to his surprise.
"I'm malfunctioning! Ejection is self-activated!"

—Soundwave deals with a very common problem among male bots.

Blaster's chest opens and his cassettes leap out.
Blaster:"Hey, something's happened to me too, and it's not on the top 40!"

—See! It wasn't just an inappropriate joke!

"Now remember, before you do anything, think, 'Is this what Sky Lynx would do in my position?', and you will not go far wrong."

—Sky Lynx's sensible instructions to the rest of the Primitives.

"I have summoned you here to tell you a tale of long ago."
"Oh, me Grimlock love long ago tale!"
"Then allow me to tell it."

—The Oracle slaps Grimlock into place.

"Suffer my rage, monster! I will show you no mercy! You will rue the day you crossed Sky—aaahhh!"

—Sky Lynx's righteous fury at the deaths of Trypticon and Grimlock.

Headstrong: Sky Lynx is destroyed! Who will lead us now?
Slag: I, Slag, lead Dinobots away, till I get better idea.
Hun-Gurrr: Best idea yet! We run too!

—Strategy is not their strong suit.

Headstrong: I detest fleeing, I would rather die fighting!
Razorclaw: He is right! Predacons, unite!
[The Predacons combine.]
Predaking: Tornedron... face Predaking! To the end!

—The Predacons decide that it is better to fight and die than live with the knowledge that they ran.

"Only you can save the world now, Grimlock."
"Me Grimlock feel important!"

—The Oracle rests the fate of... erm, the universe, on Grimlock's shoulders.

Grimlock: [chuckles] "You are creator?"
Primacron: "Unfortunately....yes."
Grimlock: "Grimlock laugh at little wimp who cause big trouble!"

—Grimlock, about to give Primacron a wedgie.

Primacron: We are finished!! I've amplified the energy parameters, minimized the drivormenter, redirected the ion flow! I've tried EVERYTHING!
Grimlock: Me Grimlock solve problem! Wuh!
[Reaches over and pushes switch]
Primacron: Of course, the reverse switch! Why didn't I think of that?!

—The universe's greatest genius gets one-upped by....Grimlock. Wait. What?!

Grimlock: Grimlock saved universe! Grimlock hero! [Grimlock stomps in victory, causing the place to begin to collapse]
Primacron: Stop it! You stupid—!
Grimlock: Why you call Grimlock stupid?
Primacron: You've ruined my lab!
Grimlock: Me Grimlock think that is smartest thing I ever done!

—You know, that probably is the smartest thing he's ever done.

Notes

Where am I from?

• The art style in this episode is very different from all others in the Generation 1 series, with highly stylized "anime-like" character models and proportions. Although popularly claimed to be, the models are most assuredly not those designed by Studio OX; they're simply more stylized versions of the standard animation models, lacking the additional toyetic touches and copious mecha-greeblies found in the OX designs. It is widely believed that this lone episode was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, though little evidence has been found to confirm this. Masami Obari is credited as the animation director.

Animation or technical glitches

• In the second overhead shot of the Autobots during the opening battle, Rodimus is missing his (freakin' huge) spoiler.
• When we first see him, Wheelie is missing his Autobot logo.
• When Blades, Slingshot and Wheelie open fire on Tornedron, the first shot is fired before they even raise their weapons.
• As Tornedron in the form of a giant bug steps over the bodies of Blades, Slingshot and Wheelie, its glowing aura is on a lower cel than their bodies, making it appear to pass under them, despite the fact they're lying on the ground.
• When the Dinobots are being summoned, Sludge is referred to as Sweep.
• Galvatron's sporting a red Decepticon insignia when he calls in Trypticon.
• In the scene when Ravage and the other animal Mini-Cassettes eject from Soundwave, Cyclonus looks bigger than Galvatron due to wrong cel stacking (Galvatron should be on the background).
• Grimlock's whole neck is supposed to be gold, but the back of it is gray in several shots.
• As Sky Lynx tracks the signal, we see waves of energy expanding out towards him. In the next shot, they're flowing out from him.
• As the Predacons start firing on the Dinobots while inside Trypticon, one of the glowing effects doesn't quite match up with Headstrong's horn as it should (he moves his horn to the right position a moment later).
• Some of the Decepticon Primitives' lasers have the sound effect of Galvatron's cannon. So does Trypticon's laser later on.
• When Grimlock drops off the cliff, the other Autobots "slide" into the picture.
• When Sky Lynx tells the Dinobots to find the "alien" a star can be seen on his leg.
• When Tornedron drains Predaking's power and fall over, the Predacons transform on top of Predaking.
• When Grimlock gets out from under Trypticon, his forearms are huge and his chest looks more boxy than usual.
• Restoring the energy to the Moon also appears to rearrange all the craters.
• When Rodimus' team is restored, Rodimus is lying face up (he was face down), Ultra Magnus' shins are blue instead of white, and Blaster's chest is missing its detailing, switches and Autobot logo.

Continuity errors

"Look alive, people! Uh, no offense, Windcharger."

• The depressions on Rodimus's shoulders are white again in this episode.
• Rodimus also carries a gray gun (instead of red) that doesn't have the usual Prime rifle sound effect.
• Unicron's head is gray (like a rock) during a camera pass. The last time we saw it, it was in bad shape, but still had the usual coloring.
• When summoning the Primitives, they forgot all about Laserbeak and Buzzsaw! Instead, Soundwave unleashes two new cassette Decepticons: Slugfest and Overkill...who are then never seen again. Gee.
• Sky Lynx asks Grimlock if he's all right as he's falling down a cliff.
• Windcharger is seen running around on Cybertron, despite having been killed in The Transformers: The Movie. But hey, that happens all the time.

Transformers references

• This episode marks the last appearance of the Dinobots, Trypticon, Ravage, Jazz, and Unicron in the western cartoon...bummer.
• A part of Primacron's assistant becomes the Matrix of Leadership. How he ended up on Cybertron remains a mystery.

Foreign localization

"Eject—operation: Understudy."

German

• Title: Das geheimnisvolle Orakel ("The Mysterious Oracle")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: 原始の呼び声 (Genshi no Yobigoe, "Primeval Call")
• Original airdate: June 5, 1987
• Episode preview art published in TV Magazine inexplicably displays Slugfest and Overkill as if they were the stars of the episode.
• In Japanese continuity, the scene where the Primitives encounter the Oracle is set in the past; apparently, the Primitives arrived there via time travel. This is done to accommodate the idea that the Oracle later evolved into Vector Sigma and later Primus.

Trivia

Me Grimlock like Predacons and Terrorcons Cajun style

• Unicron's origin is a bit...random.
• When Grimlock uses his flame breath on the Predacons and Terrorcons, they start to cough...cause that's what you do when you're being hit with fire reaching several hundred degrees.
• This is the first and only time in the cartoon Swoop fires his wing blasters.
• One of Grimlock's two on-packaging bio weaknesses comes into play in this episode: His lack of speed. He is unable to get clear of Trypticon's falling body even at his top speed. It ends up being a blessing in disguise, though, as it obscures him from Tornedron's vision.
• This episode seems to resolidify the Dinobots' position as freakishly powerful (which took a beating in Season 3), as Grimlock alone seems to be a match for three Terrorcons and two Predacons, and the only Autobot sent flying is Swoop, who takes a blast to the chest early on. Also, the Dinobots seem to handle Tornedron with the most finesse.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1988 — Transformers — Call of the Primitives / The Girl Who Loved Powerglide (Tempo Video)
1989 — Transformers — Fight or Flee / Call of the Primitives (Tempo Video)
1992 — Transformers — Super Video (Tempo Video)

Laserdisc

1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 2 & Season 4 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 5: Series 3.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2006 — The Best of The Transformers (Madman Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers — The Classic Episodes (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 Chronicle