Voice Actor Drama
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 And somewhere in the world, a Unicron exists. | |||||||||
| "Voice Actor Drama" | |||||||||
| Original presentation | July 31, 2004 | ||||||||
| Written by | Simon Furman | ||||||||
Rhinox built a machine to create a pile of new characters!
Synopsis
Rhinox has built a device to deflect Unicron's attempts to pull victims from other universes. The Autobots deflect two such attempts, but are only partially successful: instead of being transported to Unicron, the victims end up on a frozen planetoid.
A bickering Rattrap, Silverbolt, and Waspinator are sent to help the victims, but Unicron sends Reptilion, Sunstorm, Ruination, and Perceptor after them as well.
As a side effect of Rhinox's device, a vortex opens in space and sucks in Autobot stellar freighter OTFCC, piloted by Bumblebee, an endlessly moaning Tracks, and Cosmos, from the past. The OTFCC picks up the Maximals' distress signal in the nick of time: as Sunstorm attacks the Maximal ship, they're saved by being transported to the Autobot shuttle.
After shooting down Sunstorm, the Autobots and Maximals travel to the planetoid, where they both save the victims from the Decepticons and Bumblebee and Cosmos from Reptilion's explanation of the current Transformer canon. Two groups of Autobots have been stranded there, each from a different parallel universe: Landfill, Side Burn, and Prowl, from a Viron timeline; and Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, another Prowl, and Ironhide, hailing from a universe both unknown and undersized.
The various groups fight off the Decepticons, and the Autobot ship is sent back to its own time.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots/Maximals | Predacons/Decepticons | Mini-Cons |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Anything could happen between here and Earth! [silence] Anything could happen between here and Earth! [music starts] Thank you Vince."
- —Bumblebee
[actors do "shaken spaceship" motions]
"What's happeniiiiing?!"
"It's bad actiiiiing!"
- —Tracks and Bumblebee
"Onboard, three intrepid Maximal warriors!"
"Ohhh, Waspinator wanna go home now."
- —The narrator contradicted by Waspinator
"That's Sunstorm or at least a Sunstorm. Looks like Unicron's been recruiting again!"
"Eh, yeah, that or Walmart's released another bunch a' exclusives."
- —Silverbolt and Rattrap
"Another character! Thank god!"
- —Scott McNeil glad to see McConnohie has joined after five minutes of voicing the whole play himself
Reptilion:"I ask you, can it get any worse?"
Bumblebee:"Hey, you! Decepticon! Step away from that crevasse!"
Reptilion's actor: [looks down, confused, at stage]
"Why does he keep doing that, announcing his attacks?"
- —Optimus Prime on RID Prowl
Bumblebee: "Budiansky would've never done this to us."
Notes
Production
- The cast:
- Michelle Carolus: Optimus Prime, Side Burn
- Simon Furman: Narrator
- Dan Gilvezan: Bumblebee
- Michael McConnohie: Tracks, Cosmos
- Scott McNeil: Rattrap, Silverbolt, Waspinator
- Clive "Outtsyder" Ramroop: Prowl (Spy Changer), Ruination
- Daniel Ross: Reptilion, Prowl (non-Spy Changer)
- Music and sound effects were done by Vince DiCola. Some tracks were from a new CD he'd produced, which could be bought at the convention.
- This live-action script reading took place Saturday night at OTFCC 2004.
Continuity
- The OTFCC crew come from "the Generation 1 era" but which one isn't said. Tracks is complaining that if you're not a -master or Pretender, you're a "second class citizen".
- A 1984/5 Autobot complaining about the recent gimmicks was previously done by Furman in "Starting Over!".
- Silverbolt has met Sunstorms before but doesn't recognise this one immediately. Which makes sense as there's a at least one other Sunstorm involved in the Universe War!
- This is Reptilion's first mission in charge.
- Despite its tongue-in-cheek nature, the story is still part of the Universe storyline; in fact, chronologically, for years it was the last finished portion of the story, as 3H lost the Transformers license before the last issues of the Universe comic could be completed. The end of the Universe conflict would later be seen in the pages of "Revelations Part 2", a Cybertron-themed comic in the Collectors' Club Magazine.
Other trivia
- As usual with such convention performances, the characters frequently break the fourth wall. For example, Reptilion plugs The Ultimate Guide in dialogue, while Rattrap plugs Transformers Universe #½, which was never actually released. Oops.
- Bumblebee jokes that some day, there'll be "Transformers who don't even transform!"
- In a sneaky nod to the convention's split from 3H Productions, Tracks announces he's from ship 3H and then immediately corrects it to OTFCC.
- Reptilion mocks the Generation 1 Autobots with how the current Transformers continuity is too complicated for them to understand now. "And don't get me started on the Japanese variations!"
- Side Burn and Prowl have their 2003 Universe toy colors. Landfill is based on the yellow redeco released under Robots in Disguise.
- Prime, Magnus, the other Prowl, and Ironhide are based on their Universe Spy Changer incarnations.
- Robots in Disguise Prowl refers to Carolus's Prime as "he". "Ask Vector Prime" would later retcon that this Prime is definitely female.
- Sunstorm and Perceptor are referred to by other characters, but have no dialogue. Ironhide, Landfill, and Ultra Magnus appear only in the art for the story, and are not specifically mentioned anywhere in the script.
- Waspinator likes "Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom". (So the others shot him)
