Spychangers to the Rescue
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 OK, who had the chili? | ||||||
| "Spychangers to the Rescue" (Ninja Robo! Spychanger Sanjō) "Ninja Robo! Enter the Spychangers" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop | |||||
| Airdate | 26 April 2000 (Japanese) September 13, 2001 (English) | |||||
| Writer | Kazuhiko Gōdo (Japanese) Richard Epcar (English) | |||||
| Director | Yoshiaki Tsutsui | |||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | |||||
Hot Shot, Crosswise, W.A.R.S.,
Race Exertion Vehicle,
Ironhide, Mirage
Synopsis
Under the cover of darkness, the Predacon trio try to steal the Plutonium Energy Generator, but Optimus Prime and the Autobot brothers are there to stop them. During the battle, Optimus admonishes Side Burn for his reckless behaviour—if the generator is damaged, it may leak deadly zirconium gas. Fortunately at this point the Predacons retreat. (Don't worry, there's more to the episode than just that.)
Koji wakes up to the sound of a honking horn. He rushes outside and greets his friend Karl and Karl's father. The three leave for a biking trip.
The plutonium energy generator is loaded onto a truck and transported across the city. The Autobot brothers follow closely behind the generator. Side Burn develops a mild fear of the elements inside the generator that would be harmful to Transformers, but Prowl keeps his brother in line. Traffic slows down due to Slapper's hacking the systems used to control the highways. The Autobots suspect something is afoot, but stay in position.
Koji and company are also stuck in traffic, as is Kelly.
The Predacons leap through traffic, approaching the truck carrying the precious generator and chasing off the driver. The Predacons steal the energy generator off of the truck while the present Autobots are busy transforming. Because the traffic prevents the Autobots from firing, T-AI deploys three of the Spychangers. Hot Shot, R.E.V. and Crosswise reveal themselves to the Predacons, who decide to retreat with the generator rather than to stay and fight. Naturally, the Spychangers give chase.
The Predacons leap off the highway and into the water, and the three Spychangers follow and transform on the beach. The Predacons knock the three down using their lasers, but help comes to the three Autobots in the form of W.A.R.S., Ironhide, and Mirage. The six soldiers dizzy the Predacons by literally running circles around them. But in the fight, the generator is dropped and rolls out of the sea into the grasp of Sky-Byte. Slapper and Gas Skunk retreat with the generator, but the battle escalates further with the arrival of Prime and the Autobot brothers. However, Prime decides to let the Spychangers handle the Predacons on their own.
On the verge of being beaten, Sky-Byte decides that he can at least prevent the Autobots from getting the generator—by destroying it. The Spychangers leap to block his Tsunami Blaster. With all six Spychangers harmed by the blast, the Predacons grab the generator and get away. As the four regular Autobots regret the loss, the Spychangers laugh and reveal that in the confusion, they replaced the generator with a decoy, disguising the real one as a rock by draping a cloth over it.
In the Predacon base, Megatron is pleased. But his pleasure turns sour when he tries to activate the decoy generator and it bursts open to reveal a mocking statue.
Koji and Karl, having finally gotten out of traffic, enjoy a bike race together. Optimus watches, glad that Koji is still able to enjoy himself despite the fact that the Predacons still hold his father, and promises again that they'll get Dr. Onishi back.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"You know, sometimes that Autobot worries me."
- —Optimus Prime regarding Side Burn.
Side Burn: Listen, bro, I'm not feeling very well. I have to go see my mechanic.
(Prowl rear-ends Side Burn)
Prowl: You'll feel a lot worse if you don't get back in line!
Side Burn: Hey, cut it out! Can I go return a video now? Otherwise they'll charge me a late fee.
Prowl and X-Brawn: The answer is no!!
- —Side Burn fails miserably at getting out of his assignment.
"They don't pay us enough for this!"
- —A truck driver reacts to his truck being attacked by giant robotic animals.
"You Autobots oughta be more careful. You just might hurt some innocent bystanders if you keep that up."
- —Slapper
Notes
Differences with Car Robots
Animation or technical errors
- When Karl's dad's car pulls up, it has a green bicycle on the roof. When Koji emerges from his house, he's pushing a green bicycle, and the bike on the car is now yellow (and they swap colours again for the next shot too).
- The member select for Crosswise erroneously reads "CROSSWIRE", and Hot Shot's name is displayed as one word.
- A shot at the beach has Sky-Byte being drawn with a different mouth again.
Real-world references
- X-Brawn mentions that he's traveling down "Osaka Boulevard".
Trivia
- The Spychangers, unlike the other Autobots, don't recognize Sky-Byte.
- Before the member select for Hot Shot, R.E.V. and Crosswise comes up, a bunch of strangely irrelevant English text about design management scrolls past. It seems to mention Ikea a lot, however these references were removed for the DVD release.
- Among the abilities displayed by the Spychangers are: camouflage; driving on any flat surface, no matter the angle; driving on water; and somehow producing a statue disguised as a plutonium energy generator out of nowhere.
