A Test of Metal
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 Is it possible to enjoy yourself too much? | ||||||
| "A Test of Metal" (Nerawareta Buildmaster) "Targeted Buildmasters" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop | |||||
| Airdate | 6 September 2000 (Japanese) September 29, 2001 (English) | |||||
| Written by | Kazuhiko Gōdo (Japanese) Richard Epcar (English) | |||||
| Director | Yoshiaki Tsutsui | |||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | |||||
Build Team foils a heist
Commandos are poor losers
Oil's well that ends well
Synopsis
The Commandos have stolen some energy from the East Power Station, and Optimus Prime sends Team Bullet Train to stop them. While fighting with Rail Racer, Ruination doesn't notice that the Build Team is taking the energy. In a lull in the action, Rail Racer and the Build Team escape through the Global Space Bridge. After being chewed out by Megatron, the Commandos become frustrated that the Autobots can use the Space Bridge as an escape route and make disabling the Space Bridge a priority. They decide that destroying the Build Team is the only way to disable the Space Bridge for good.
In order to flush out the Build Team, the Commandos start attacking construction sites, saying they will continue to do so until they can face the Build Team. Optimus Prime wants the Build Team working on the Space Bridge so he doesn't tell them what is going on. Instead he sends in the Autobot Brothers and Team Bullet Train to stop the Commandos' rampage without success. Wedge eventually finds out about the construction sites, but Optimus orders him to continue working on the Space Bridge. The Build Team can't hold back, however, and defy Optimus's orders. They sabotage the Space Bridge so they can fight the Commandos without interruption.
The Commandos find the Build Team to be of little challenge as fighters, easily beating them, and the Autobots regroup and merge into Landfill, who doesn't have much more success in fighting Ruination. The Autobot brothers, attempting to come to Landfill's aid via the space bridge, end up in the middle of nowhere thanks to Heavy Load's sabotage.
Landfill takes the fight underground by digging a pit and finding underground caverns. Weapons fire causes the caverns to fill up with oil up to the combiners' armpits. Ruination pleads with Landfill not to fire because it will ignite the oil and destroy them both. Landfill fires anyway, determined to stop the Commandos' construction site rampages. The blast, however, doesn't actually destroy either team. The Commandos are blasted into the distance and the Build Team is blasted a short distance. But they are on fire. Optimus Prime arrives just in time to put them out.
The Autobots take a relaxing swim in the remaining oil pools. Wedge apologizes for disobeying orders and Prime tells him not to worry about it.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"I'll ask you nicely. Give us the energy you stole right now!"
"You're a little mixed up. If I was gonna give it back, I wouldn't have stolen it!"
- —Railspike's tough talk is confounded by Mega-Octane's air-headed yet oddly compelling logic.
"Two can play that game, choo choo chump!"
- —Mega-Octane demonstrates his Wildean wit.
"That guy is definitely weird."
- —Kelly's assessment of Side Burn. She is correct.
"If the Build Team doesn't show up here right now, we're gonna blast every construction site and crush every tractor, like this and this and this and this!"
- —Armorhide, whilst stamping repeatedly on a crushed bulldozer to emphasise his "point". The guy has issues.
"Let go of me, you overgrown go-kart! When I get a hold of you, I'm turning you into a skateboard!"
"Hahaha! Wedgie Boy!"
- —Wedge and Mega-Octane exchange utterly bizarre taunts.
Ruination: I guess you weren't as tough as you thought you were, Autobot weakling.
Landfill: Well, you're as stupid as you look.
- —Combiner comebacks.
Notes
Differences with Car Robots
Animation and/or technical glitches
- After Ruination's fight with Rail Racer, there's a Predacon-Predacon scene transition when it should technically be Decepticon-Decepticon (even though the Commandos don't go anywhere and it seems to be solely to avoid animating him decombining).
- When Landfill is having a Strength Test against Ruination, Landfill's eyes are very very small.
Continuity errors
- The entire power plant appears to explode in the very first shot, but is mostly intact a few seconds later.
Trivia
- Sandy Fox does not appear to be voicing T-AI in this episode (her voice is a little bit deeper, and the reading a little flatter), but the identity of the stand-in actress is not currently known. Five'll get you ten that she was on Digimon!
- The energy the Commandos steal is only ever referred to as "energy", even though it's presumably oil (unless humans have worked out how to make energon). Whatever form the energy is supposed to be taking, the power plant seem to store it in comically gigantic blue gas cans, designed at the perfect scale for evil robots to waltz in and steal them. How thoughtful!
- Having previously sat out the events of "Landfill", stalwarts Sky-Byte and the Predacon Trio are once again absent from this episode. What's an incompetent henchman to do, eh?
- Scourge, meanwhile, takes an oddly minimal and inconsistent role; he stands with the Decepticons as Megatron chews them out at the beginning of the episode, and appears once more to confront the Autobot Brothers during one of the Decepticon construction site raids, but is otherwise completely absent, playing no role in the finale whatsoever.
- This episode features a heck of a lot of stock transformation footage, with Railspike, Rapid Run, Midnight Express, Rail Racer, Wedge, Heavy Load, Grimlock, Hightower, Landfill, Optimus Prime and Ruination (twice!) all receiving extended transformation sequences to
pad out the running timeincrease the drama.
Home video releases
- DVD
2000 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 6 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)
