Bumblebee to the Rescue!
Optimus Prime and the Autobots go to Autobot prison!
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 Hello, DAD. I'm in JAIL! | |||||||||||||
| "Bumblebee to the Rescue" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Books | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 1984 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Dwight Jon Zimmerman | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Steve Ditko and John Tartaglione | ||||||||||||
Synopsis
Meet the Autobots! They're nice. Meet the Decepticons! They're not nice! Optimus Prime is super-smart and can split into three pieces! But Megatron would love to wreck the Earth and smash the Autobots.
At Decepticon headquarters, Megatron has a brilliant plan - trap the Autobots and put them in a special Autobot Prison! Then the Decepticons can rule the Earth forever!
Meanwhile, Sideswipe and Bluestreak are racing to see who is the fastest, with Sparkplug serving as judge. The result is a photo finish, which incites the two Autobots to argue... until they're interrupted by the Decepticons! Starscream and Thundercracker attack with deadly sleep nets, knocking the Autobots and Sparkplug out. "ZZZZZZZ!" snores Sparkplug.
Meanwhile, Optimus Prime and Gears are walking in a canyon when Rumble (G1) attacks with an earthquake. Gears attempts to warn Prime of the danger, but his words are horribly scrambled. Prime uses his Combat Deck to blast the falling boulders and sends Roller for help, but it is no use. Ravage (G1) ambushes Roller and Soundwave KOs Gears by yanking a bunch of wires out of his neck. Prime has no choice but to surrender to Megatron, lest the Autobots be executed.
At the Decepticons' prison, it is revealed that Trailbreaker has been captured as well, leaving Bumblebee the only Autobot still free. The Decepticons dismiss him as harmless, but Bumblebee has a plan. Sparkplug and Spike build a giant cardboard cutout of an Autobot warrior and prop it up outside Decepticon headquarters. In the ensuing confusion, Laserbeak flips out and runs away, and Megatron leads a horde of generic Decepticons to face their new foe, leaving the prison unguarded. Sparkplug and Spike flee, their ruse a success. "A fake Autobot!" Megatron realizes soon after.
Bumblebee unlocks the Autobots' prison door, freeing them. Prime leads the troops to teach the Decepticons a lesson! Trailbreaker traps Soundwave and company with a force field, Bluestreak and Sideswipe shoot down the jets, and Prime wraps an iron bar around Megatron. Bumblebee is feted as the hero that he truly is. Hip Hip HOORAY, indeed.
Quotes
"We must trap the Autobots and throw them into my special Autobot prison! With the Autobots behind bars, we can rule earth [sic] forever!"
- —Megatron reveals his greatest scheme yet
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
- Various activities are interspersed through the story, including The Transformers' Name and Face Match!, connect-the-dots, mazes, and unscramble-the-messages.
- That is seriously the scariest Sparkplug ever.
- Gears is apparently powered by a pair of heavy-duty, three-pronged power cords. Like, the kind you can buy at Home Depot.
- The art isn't nearly as nutty as that of "Decepticon Patrol". Nearly everyone is based on their animation models except Bumblebee, Gears and Rumble, who are entirely based on their toys, Megatron, who uses the early "black helmet" model, and Trailbreaker, who is a HIDEOUS HOMUNCULUS with huge goggles making up most of his head.
- Bluestreak is largely drawn as Prowl throughout the story, at one point having his police lightbars. His name is mis-parsed as "Blue Streak" in one of the activity games.
- Seriously, Trailbreaker's model in this story is horrifying.
