The Road to Winning a New Fanbase
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| "The Road to Winning a New Fanbase" (Atarashii Fan-sō Kakutoku e no Michi) | ||||||
| Airdate | July 6, 2015 | |||||
| Writer | Kotaro Ishidate | |||||
| Director | Kotaro Ishidate | |||||
| Animation studio | DLE | |||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Optimus, Bumblebee and Lockdown discuss their new toys and how to gain popularity.
Synopsis
[edit]The trio has gotten their hands on the new Q-Transformers toys that match their appearances, greatly pleasing Bumblebee who thought their previous toys were a bit too realistic and kinda scary. Lockdown just wants to know why their toy and cartoon designs differed to begin with, and though Optimus Prime is reluctant to talk about this "delicate matter", he eventually admits that nobody was expecting their cheaply made five-minute-episode cartoon to actually be popular. He reveals that female customers now make up over 40% of people who buy Transformers toys, which suggests Q-Transformers has helped widen the fanbase with its cute designs. Lockdown protests that these new fans would just be upset by toys that don't look like the cartoon characters, but Optimus and Bumblebee write him off as being too pessimistic, seeing the original toys as a "necessary sacrifice" that led to these new ones being made. Plus, their PR activities have even led to the expansion of the Q-Transformers line with more characters being added! Though Bumblebee also lets slip that the new toys aren't selling as well, prompting more protests from Lockdown.
Lockdown asks if they'll be talking about Mystery of Convoy again this season, but Optimus tells him to forget about that crappy game, shocking Lockdown with the sudden insult of the game he spent so much time defending. Bumblebee explains that they will instead be discussing ways of making Transformers more popular and winning the franchise new fans, putting Optimus on the spot for ideas. He suggests turning the franchise into Mito Kōmon, a show known for its long-lasting popularity, dubbing his partners "Bum-san" and "Lock-san" after its Suke-san and Kaku-san. Bumblebee in turn names him "Mito Convoy", or "Mitocon" for short, a name the three have a good laugh at. Optimus realizes this would let them use sex appeal to their advantage by including a bathing scene with a female ninja.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
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Notes
[edit]Continuity notes
[edit]- Optimus's array of images from the previous season include Lockdown being punched from "Mystery of Return of Convoy", Bluestreak from "Mystery of a Certain Psychic", Bumblebee and Optimus in their G1 forms from "Mystery of Convoy", and the group with Autobot troops in the background from "Mystery of Return of Convoy".
- Optimus Prime recalls how Jazz compared Transformers to Mito Kōmon in "Mystery of Convoy".
Transformers references
[edit]- Just as every episode of season 1 contained "Mystery of" in the title as a reference to "Mystery of Convoy", every episode of season 2 contains "The Road to" in the title as a reference to "The Road to Earth", the Japanese name for "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1".
- Mito Kōmon was also the inspiration for Mito Prime.
Real-world references
[edit]- As of this season, the trio have their talks outside of various Aeon facilities in Japan. This episode takes place outside of AEON MALL Makuhari New City, Makuhari.
Trivia
[edit]- Season 2 also introduces an ending theme, after which Optimus Prime looks to a falling star and comments on something from the episode. In this episode, he ponders Bumblebee's revelation that their toyline is selling worse.
