"Money is Everything" Bloopers

SYNOPSIS FOR "MONEY IS EVERYTHING"
PLOT OVERSIGHTS	DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS
ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY	TRIVIA ANSWERS
JUNKIONISMS

TOTAL NUMBER OF BLOOPERS: 42
GREAT LINES:
DIRK MANUS: "Slimy, worm-fingered creep!"
QUINTESSON: "Unlikable, dry-skinned biped."
TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

What was the reason Strafe gave as to why the Technobots were assigned to toe EDC science unit?
What was the name of the device Dirk Manus planted on the recreator?

NOTES:

This episode was the first on-screen appearance of the Technobots and Terrorcons, even though the next episode, "Grimlock's New Brain," tells the story of how the Technobots were created.
When Marissa Faireborn arrives on the scene, she says, "We are narrowing on target. ETA: 26 seconds." Well, just for fun, I timed the scene, and when Hun-Grrr collides with Scattershot, it's been exactly 26 seconds! I love it when they pay attention to details like this.

PLOT OVERSIGHTS: (3)

Back in "The God Gambit," several Transformers visit a world called Titan in 1985, inhabited by Transformer-sized robot worshippers. It seems to be one of Saturn's moons, since we see a Saturn-like planet in the background at one point. When we fast-forward to 2006, Dirk Manus explains that Titan has been terraformed, presumably by humans. If these two Titans are the same, that means the robot-worshippers were kicked off the moon so humans could colonize it!
Well, I don't know about the rest of the Autobots, but the Technobots can obviously fly. All five of them are soaring through space, unaided, at various points in this episode. (Before you tell me that Autobots can fly in space because it has no gravity, that's still flying. And in six episodes' time, Galvatron will make the unquantifiable statement, "Autobots can't fly!")
After Dirk Manus betrays the Quintessons, one of the Quints picks up the recreator in frustration and throws it at Marissa Faireborn. Why, is it suddenly no longer useful to him? Quite an irrational act for one of so logical a race.¹

DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS: (4)

When Hun-Grrr approaches the Technobots and grumbles, "Hun-Grrr not hungry anymore..." his monster mouths aren't moving.
When Marissa explains that Computron has "a computational ability of 200 supercomputers," it's actually Computron's mouth that's moving.
As Abominus ambushes the Lazy Sue, when he guns down Scattershot he's moving his mouth, but not making a sound. This scene is used later, and the second time he's making some grumbling noises.
As Manus explains what the recreator is to the Technobots, Lightspeed's mouth is moving.

ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY: (35)

When the Earth Defense Command station alerts Captain Faireborn that they've detected the Lazy Sue and the Terrorcon, in the shot of the base interior, the entire scene is wobbling around.
This isn't exactly a blooper, just a costume change. Every time we see Marissa Faireborn, she's wearing her white, unadorned EDC outfit. For some reason, in this episode alone, she's got on some snazzy white suit with epaulettes and braiding across her chest. If you ask me, she looks like a high school drum major.
On Earth, when Hun-Grrr heads right for Strafe, Strafe actually flips over before Hun-Grrr ever hits him. It's kind of funny to watch.
When we first see the Technobots inside Autobot City, Lightspeed is missing his Autobot symbol after Afterburner races off.
When the Technobots first combine into Computron, Lightspeed, Afterburner and Nosecone start glowing and leap into the air. First of all, they don't glow in later episodes. Second, Scattershot and Strafe aren't evident in this scene. We don't see the entire transformation sequence, though, so let's just assume we missed 'em. But finally, Lightspeed and Nosecone form Computron's legs. So why do they leap into the air?
After Computron has combined, his eyes are Decepticon-red instead of Autobot-blue. They're blue in every other scene.
In the first scene where Computron speaks, considering whether to trust Dirk Manus, his left forearm is light red instead of brown like it is in later scenes. (I think it should be white, since Strafe's legs/rear jet half form the forearm. I guess that entire forearm disappears into subspace somewhere.)
When Computron reaches the conclusion to help Manus, his same forearm isn't attached to his arm! It looks like it's connected to his hip.
As Dirk is chatting with the Quintessons over his communicator and Marissa shows up, Dirk's eyes and eyebrows slip halfway off his face, then assume their original position. (I've hear of shifty eyes, but this is ridiculous.)
When Lightspeed is "mooning" over Saturn's rings (sorry... sorry), the side and bottom of his nose is red, while the front of his nose and rest of his face is silver. Suffice it to say, the entire nose should be silver.
When Strafe is strafed by Abominus (woo! I'm full of 'em tonight), Lightspeed is hit next and his entire face is red. (I think he's embarrassed by my puns.)
When Abominus blasts Strafe and Lightspeed, the blasts from his gun are blue. When he shoots Scattershot, the burst changes from blue to purple. In the aforementioned recycled scene of Abominus shooting and muttering to himself, his blasts are purple also. And when he tries to take out Dirk's ship on Titan, they're blue again.
As Dirk makes his way toward Titan, in the scene with him fiddling with the controls (with the voiceover of Afterburner explaining what he'll do to Manus) the entire frame is shaking again. I honestly don't know if this is intentional or not--it would make sense for the ship to be buckling if Abominus were shooting at it, but there's no indication that Abominus ever actually scored a hit--no alarms are going off, and there are no sounds of laser fire or explosions.
After the timer mechanism activates and Abominus reverts to the Terrorcons, when Rippersnapper complains, "Rippersnapper don't want to stop now!" his body shifts back and forth while his head remains still.
Blot's got a weird backpack. I say "backpack" because it's supposed to fit on the back of the toy. In this episode, it sticks up almost like a periscope. I have this bizarre feeling that Blot's character model shows the backpack separate from his monster form, possibly with lines to indicate where it connects to him. I strongly suspect the animators completely misinterpreted the relationship of the character to his accessory. He's drawn correctly in "Grimlock's New Brain," by the way.
After the Lazy Sue is downed and the injured Technobots approach it, Strafe's leg is in one shot and it's colored entirely red, like Lightspeed's.
I think a different team of animators took over after the second commercial break. The Technobots are drawn much more dynamically, and they're slightly different colors (Strafe is a darker shade of red, for instance). This is just a guess, but I wonder if the same guys who worked on "Call of the Primitives" came in to do a few scenes. Also, just about any time there's a red Autobot with a red Autobot symbol (like Optimus Prime), the symbol is drawn in white outlines (personally, I think this is a bit distracting). Well, the new animators very sensibly draw Strafe and Scattershot's symbols with black lines and color them red and--guess what?--you can still see them!
When the Technos are running from the Sharkticons, Strafe's helmet is red instead of white.
After the Technobots reach the edge of the ledge, the Sharkticons start firing at them again. First of all, their guns are suddenly different than they were before the commercial. (More evidence of a different animation team at work. The Sharkticons' character models weren't provided with guns, so the animators made one up, just as they often do with Arcee.) Second, the beams they're firing are flat blue, not glowing. The animators forgot the backlighting for the laser beams for this one scene.
When Marissa arrives in her ship and drives the Sharkticons away, she's wearing her space suit from "Five Faces of Darkness" parts 3-5. I'm not sure when she had time, but I guess she put it on at some point after she launched (and after she read my "high school drum major" remark).
After Afterburner and Nosecone arrive, at one point Nosecone sideswipes a couple of Sharkticons, and they blow up as soon as he knocks into them! He doesn't even use his drill. What, does a Sharkticon's fuel tank explode if you hit him in just the right spot?
When Marissa suggests they leave Manus to rot on Titan, Strafe is carrying Lightspeed, who was injured in the battle. Lightspeed's arm is around Strafe's neck, but his arm is white like Strafe's body instead of red.
When Manus explains to the Technobots that the Quintessons have got the recreator, his tongue is orange! (First the eyes, now the tongue... you get the feeling this guy is Not Quite Human?)
As Manus leads the Technobots to the Quintesson base, a panel on Strafe's chest turns from white to red.
After Manus saves Marissa from the Evil Killer Vines (well, Strafe did, actually, but moving right along) he kisses her a couple of times. The first time, her head is down too far and you can still see her mouth. Dirk must be kissing her nostril. Just another odd human custom, I suppose.
As the Technobots are dematerialized by the recreator, Afterburner's face is orange instead of silver.
After Sinnertwin grabs Marissa to stop her from striking Dirk and then drops her in front of the other Terrorcons, Rippersnapper is colored like Blot. Blot's colored like Blot, too.
When the Quints order the Terrorcons to destroy the Technobots, as they charge, Blot's backpack is much lower than it was earlier. Also, Cutthroat's bird head is brown instead of yellow.
When the Terrorcons merge, as Hun-Grrr turns into Abominus' body, his arms are colored like Abominus' arms as they retract into his body.
After Abominus fires and raises his fists in anger, a panel on each of his arms flashes from blue to grey.
When Computron blasts Abominus back into his component Terrorcons, as they all fall to the ground, Sinnertwin is colored like Blot. And yes, so is Blot. (I like typing that name. Blot. It's fun. Blot. Blot.)
As Computron approaches the Terrorcons, the panel on the center of his chest and a panel on his right side both turn from red to maroon.
When Manus and Faireborn pick up the recreator, Dirk's shoulder pad flashes from blue to orange. Also, when he looks at Marissa, either she's missing her lipstick, or she's attempting to swallow her lower lip.
When Lightspeed transforms and alerts Marissa that the Quintesson credits are missing, he's missing his symbol in the close-up.
Near the end when Manus opens up his treasure chest and discovers that the Quintesson creds are actually more mimic dust... well, the credits don't disintegrate in his hands like they did earlier in the episode. They sure look like real credits to me.

TRIVIA ANSWERS:

"Somethin' about us still bein' new and havin' to work with the humans."
A nuclear nullifier.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
¹Endora 60