Jaws of Terror

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Jaws of Terror
Publisher	Kid Stuff
Cover date	1986
Writer	John Braden
Art	Pablo Marcos and Judith Marcos
ISBN	ISBN 0-87660-183-2 ISBN 978-0876-60183-9
Page count	24pp

The Decepticons plan to locate the Autobots' recovery base and steal all of their fuel!

Synopsis

An explosion prompts Soundwave to come rushing out from the underground Decepticon base, wondering if their dwindling oil supply has exploded. He finds that Megatron has destroyed Shockwave! Well...turns out he destroyed a model of Shockwave. But next time it'll be for real! That'll teach Shockwave to try and usurp Megatron! Soundwave humbly suggests using Shockwave's own logic and reasoning against him, and points out that Shockwave has been gaining power by delivering more oil to the Decepticon warriors.

A group of Dinobots is flying toward the Autobot base, having left their jungle-filled "recovery base" deep below the Antarctic. As Optimus and Prowl monitor, the Dinobots come under Decepticon attack. Slag grumpily notes that traveling in a large group was a bad idea, and he turns around to return to the recovery base alone—but Ramjet knocks him out of the sky. Prime sends Ratchet to repair Slag at the recovery base.

The Decepticons are tracking Slag, however, and take note of how he enters the recovery base—the location of the Autobots' oil supply! Megatron activates the thermo-borer, intending to use the oil against them.

The thermo-borer breaks into the Autobot base, where Ratchet is repairing Slag. Alarms go off, prompting Megatron to pull back, but not before Ratchet fires a device at the thermo-borer. Ratchet returns to his repairs, annoyed that it's taking so long, as he needs that time to reactivate the remaining Dinobots, still trapped in tar pit cocoons.

Prowl reports that things are quiet and that Ratchet's Memory Scrambler Mine should have erased the Decepticons' records of how to find the recovery base. Unfortunately, the Decepticons have countered the device with a new Beta Blocking Shield and still have the locations of all Autobot bases. Ignoring Soundwave's suggestion that they stealthily siphon off the Autobots' oil supplies, Megatron instead orders an attack aboard a giant vehicle known as the Crusher.

The Crusher begins slicing into the Antarctic ice shelf, cutting loose huge icebergs, which raise ocean levels and flood Earth's cities. Prime launches the Autobot superjets to counterattack. Ratchet and Slag flee as the Crusher begins to bore its way into the recovery base, noticing that the tar pits are beginning to boil and erupt.

Suddenly, hundreds of Dinobots burst from the tar pits, freed by the Crusher's vibrations. As Ratchet and Slag join the attack, the Crusher is ripped apart. Soundwave and Megatron escape in the escape pod.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Slag (3) Swoop (3) Sludge (3) Optimus Prime (4) Prowl (5) Ratchet (7) Grimlock (8) hundreds of Dinobots (9)	Megatron (1) Soundwave (2) A model of Shockwave (3) Starscream (6) Skywarp (6) Ramjet (6)

Quotes

"Stop running off at the tape, you mecho-wimp!"

—Megatron gets in his daily dig at Soundwave

Notes

Educational VHS

• An "animated" "educational" VHS version was also available, using chroma-key to animate the static pictures cheesily, with the storybook text superimposed on the bottom of the screen. There's also a vocabulary builder before the story, and a "memory game" (multiple choice quiz) after.

Animation and/or technical glitches

• Starscream is mistransformed in robot mode with his nosecone in "conehead" mode and his feet still flipped up while his vertical tail fins are oddly positioned upside-down as if to serve as his feet.

Continuity Notes

• This book marks a significant shift in the art style. Where the previous three books relied mostly on package art with the occasional animation model and toy-detail, here the illustrations are almost entirely toy-based. Nowhere is this more obvious or awkward than Megatron's pelvis.

• The character's voices are a bit different too, though there's still a lack of cast information.
  • Soundwave has had a vocorder effect laid over his voice, making him sound much more like his Sunbow cartoon counterpart.
  • Megatron's voice has changed as well. Though not necessarily closer to Frank Welker's portrayal in the cartoon, he at least sounds a lot less like another iconic '80s cartoon villain.

• The above changes carry over to the next book in the series as well.

Trivia

• Toy-based Ratchet is pretty awesome.
• HUNDREDS of Dinobots. That even blows away the 1985 mural.
• Slag can fly around in his Triceratops altmode.
• Slag also gets a speaking part! That's unusual for a Kid Stuff original story, since Optimus, Prowl, Megatron, and Soundwave usually do all the talking.

External links

• Jaws of Terror at Steve-o's Transformers Site.