Headmaster (episode)
| The name or term "Headmaster" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Headmaster (disambiguation). |
A disgruntled Sumdac employee seeks revenge and profit by taking control of one of the Autobots and sending him on a rampage.
Synopsis
Stats
- Written by: Michael Ryan
- Directed by: Ben Jones, Shunji Oga
- Original airdate: March 15, 2008
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans |
|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"I'm sure it wasn't that bad. You saved the city."
"After destroying half of it."
"Not helping."
- —Sari Sumdac gives Bulkhead a peptalk, and Bumblebee just rips the poor guy.
Optimus: "I just don't see the logic in trying to recreate an image with such primitive tools."
Prowl: "I believe it's more about creating something from one's imagination, like this one for instance."
Bulkhead: "Actually, that was an accident I had with Ratchet's blow torch."
- —The Autobots discuss art.
"Total OWNAGE!"
- —The Headmaster...many many times.
Bumblebee: "See? What'd I tell you? Your vision and my hands. It's magnificent. It's inspiring.
[Smoke alarm sounds as the statue begins to blaze]
Bulkhead: "It's on fire!!"
Bumblebee: "OH! I got it! Uh...no problem!! Um...where's the fire extinguisher?!"
Bulkhead: "Attached to Prime!"
Bumblebee: "Ooh...OK, problem."
- —The Autobots pay the price for never having taken fire safety class.
"I got a way with machines."
- —Captain Fanzone after smashing the control panel. The man's a bit scary.
Other notes
Continuity errors
- Captian Fanzone is driving his old car again after Snarl (Animated) totally crushed it in Blast from the Past.
Transformers references
- The Headmaster concept was originally part of the Generation 1 series & has seen sporadic use in other series since.
- Optimus tows a trailer with a certain paint job. Awesome. Somewhere, a kitbasher is already working on a version he can sell you.
- When Captain Fanzone switches Bumblebee's radio to something he likes, Bumblebee switches back to the previous radio channel.
- The song that Bumblebee likes is the same song that Soundwave dances to in Sound and Fury.
- Daniel Witwicky appears again, crying his eyes out because of Bulkhead accidentally breaking a reporter-bot. His mother has her first speaking role in the series, as well. Or maybe she's just some random woman.
- In their endless generosity, the Autobots send an innocent cobbled together robot in to do their explosive, suicidal dirty work.
- When the Headmaster unit detaches from Bulkhead, it transforms similarly to the Headmaster exosuits, with the face of the head on as a sort of backpack.
- When the core of the sun core was about to explode, Optimus volunteered to go in and stabilize it himself, killing himself in the process. He sure likes to do this.
Real-world references
- Among the works of art that Tutor Bot shows Bulkhead to inspire him are Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night, and James McNeill Whistler's Whistler's Mother.
- The original Headmaster unit bears a striking resemblance to the Jet Pilder from Mazinger Z.
- The Headmaster unit also resembles the head of Marvel Comics supervillain Galactus.
- Masterson plays "Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots" with his Headmaster drones.
- When Bulkhead creates an image of the Autobots, he does so with the sound of a dot matrix printer.
- In the scene with Bulkhead painting his hand, Bumblebee's pose (one leg behind his head, carrying a baby, in front of an overturned Jeep) is a direct reference to the 1980 film Airplane!, in which the main character is in a mental hospital and is painting a very similar image, with a live model. (Bumblebee is missing the tommy gun and explosion backdrop, however... but he does have one of his stingers deployed, close enough for the first one.)
Miscellaneous trivia
- Unlike Isaac Sumdac himself, Masterson is capable of building a fully transformable, mobile robot. This, along with his lack of regard for human life, just goes to show that Megatron is working with the wrong guy.
- This episode is the first one were Sari did not abuse the key, only using it to make a working robot to save the city.
