Transformers: Energon Official Guidebook

« Transformers: Energon Official Guidebook
Publisher	Reader's Digest
First published	October 26, 2004
Written by	Michael Teitelbaum
Continuity	Energon
ISBN	ISBN 0794405045 ISBN 978-0794405045
Page count	48

Transformers: Energon Official Guidebook is, in many ways, the most coherent guide to the Energon universe, seeming to represent the original American story treatment for the series before it was mangled in Japan (and rendered almost incoherent when translated back over), and substantial changes were made for the comic book version. As a result of this, several key points that were either unaddressed or glossed over in both the comic and cartoon versions make their way into this book.

Notes

• Energon has the special property of boosting Transformers' power and performance by an order of magnitude. For species seeking to use it for other purposes, Energon is simply a powerful clean-burning power source, not magic.
• In the peaceful years after Armada, the Autobots established cities all over the Universe. Some of Earth's cities are located in Mexico (Jungle City), England (Plains City) and Egypt (Desert City).
• Kicker's battle armor was made at the Autobot Research Center on Cybertron where Rad works. When wearing his suit Kicker is known as "B Kicker." Suuuure he is...
• Demolishor, Cyclonus and Tidal Wave were all security officers when the series began. Demolishor was in charge of security and defense at Ocean City. Cyclonus and Tidal Wave were the heavy-hitter security contingent for Lunar City and Asteroid City, respectively.
• In the first episode of Energon, Optimus Prime was training young Autobots in the martial arts discipline Kumite.
• Rodimus is Inferno's brother.
• Strongarm's axe returns to his hand when thrown, boomerang-style.
• Signal Flare is the greatest Energon welder among the Omnicons.
• Terrorcons are able to clone themselves. The 'named' Terrorcons are in fact the originals, who lead feral packs of their own clones. The original models are more intelligent than the general body of Terrorcons.
• The Terrorcons' Energon-candy-thingies are called "Energon storage pockets," not Energon chips like the Autobot version.
• Insect-type Terrorcons are the rarest. Unlike the other Terrorcons, Insecticon can clone himself at will, swelling into an army of several hundred while on the battlefield.
• Kicker was 16 when Energon began and 8 years old when he first visited Cybertron. His sister Sally is 13 when the series begins.
• The Mini-Cons that form the Energon Saber were trapped in raw Energon for some time and when they emerged the metal of their bodies has been replaced with pure raw Energon. (This is similar to the process Tidal Wave underwent, having large portions of his body replaced by pure refined Energon after accidental contact with a large amount of Raw Energon caused them to begin to decay.)
• Carlos and Rad are 22 years old in Energon.
• Alexis is 21 and is a Public Information Officer working for the Federal Government of Earth.

Errors and oddities

• Optimus Prime returned to Cybertron when he sensed Unicron's power growing and was given the Spark of Combination in a special ceremony to boost his power. Uh... that didn't happen. At least not in any continuity we saw.
• Hot Shot has two powerful weapons- his enormous speed and "a powerful blaster attached to his body." o.O;
• Scorponok (as in all Reader's Digest books) is described as having four modes, apparently an error stemming from an awkward language addressing his construction vehicle/scorpion mode.
• "Demolishor is a re-scanned version of the Autobot missile tank."