"City of Steel"

Transformers Classic Episode #19

Written by Douglas Booth

"This sure isn't little old New York anymore.  Megatron's turned it into one big fortress!"

The Decepticons have set up operations under New York City in preparation to transform the city into their new base of operations.  Returning from a scouting mission, Laserbeak informs the Decepticons that the Autobots aren't around, enabling the Constructicons to initiate the first phase of Megatron's plan--severing the Empire State Building from its foundation and lowering it on a special lift for subsequent conversion into the building which will serve as Megatron's headquarters in the soon-to-be transformed city... of New Cybertron.

The Autobots get wind of the news reports that the Empire State Building has disappeared, and travel to New York, realizing the Decepticons must be the culprits.  Upon their arrival at Central Park, Soundwave and his cassettes keep the Autobots busy; underground, Scavenger scans for Optimus Prime, digging through to the surface and causing Prime to fall into Long Haul's waiting truck bed.  After immobilizing Prime, Megatron orders the Autobots and humans out of the city--and if the Autobots interfere, Prime wil be terminated.

Even though he's helpless, Prime's presence still concerns Megatron--so he orders Hook to disassemble him.  Megatron taunts the head of Optimus Prime, which is still functional; Prime responds by summoning his disassembled arms remotely, which grab Megatron's legs and knock him to the floor.  Megatron allows the Constructicons to dispose of Prime's body parts in whatever manner they choose, but Megatron wants the head for himself.

Meanwhile, the Autobots sneak back into the city via the sewer system in order to try to recover Prime.  They encounter a strange, robotic alligator creature, which temporarily halts their progress until they trick it into boarding an old abandoned subway train, which the Autobots activate, carrying away the beast.  Hound is tracking Prime with his sensors, but can't figure out why he's detecting Prime behind the Autobots, instead of ahead of them.  Once they locate Prime's head, they realize that the rest of him was rebuilt into the Alligaticon they found earlier.  Prime detects his legs nearby, and is able to summon them remotely.  The Autobots then catch up with the reptillian beast, and Prime helps them to gain control of it.  Ratchet manages to reassemble all of Prime except for his right arm, which is still in the posession of the Decepticons.

The Constructicons have converted more of the city into a Decepticon-style fortress, and mounted Prime's arm and gun on top of the redesigned Empire State Building as its main weapon.  The Autobots run for cover after it starts firing on them, but Prime, Ironhide, and Ratchet scale the building in an attempt to recover Prime's missing arm.  Megatron and Soundwave, from inside the Empire State Building, detect them.  Megatron orders the Constructicons to combine into Devastator, who follows them up the building and grabs Prime.  

Meanwhile, Spike and Bumblebee have snuck into Megatron's control room.  When Megatron spots them, he immediately opens fire; they trick him into blasting his own control console, nullifying the Decepticons' control over Prime's arm.  Optimus remotely commands the gun to blast Devastator, who tumbles off the building and into the pavement.  After the Decepticons flee, the Autobots restore the city to its former state.

First Appearances: Buzzsaw.  

Transfacts:

• This episode incorporates many of the myths and famous events commonly associated with New York, such as the urban legend of alligators in the sewers, as well as Devastator's re-enactment of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building.

• Mixmaster can convert cars into steel girders for use as raw materials after they are loaded into his mixing drum.