Optimus Prime, King of BloopersTransformers Cartoon Bloopers

...and Mini-Bloopers

INTRODUCTIONSUBMISSIONS | CATEGORIES | THE TRANSFORMERS | BEAST WARS | BEAST MACHINES | ROBOTS IN DISGUISE


OPTIMUS PRIME:  "Don't worry, Grapple.  We all make mistakes."
GRAPPLE:  "Not me.  Not like this."
--"Desertion of the Dinobots" part 1 (TF)


Introduction

I've attempted to analyze several times over the years exactly what it is that I find so fascinating about documenting bloopers, and I've never been able to pinpoint it.  Part of it, naturally, stems from my love of trivia; no sense in restricting that only to what the creators did right, when this page clearly demonstrates there's a plethora of information regarding what they did wrong.  I also do it to set the record straight on some of the details, since the number of inconsistencies within these shows sometimes makes it difficult to tell where the truth ends and the mistakes begin.  (I still can't tell sometimes, honestly.)  More than anything else, though, I do this because I get a kick out of it.

My intent, by the way, is not to tear apart these episodes, but rather to celebrate them.  Nobody is a bigger fan of the Transformers cartoon shows than me, and analyzing the details of the episodes is one of the ways in which I am able to enjoy them.  Sure, I'm perfectly capable of just sitting back, suspending disbelief, and watching the show without picking it to pieces.  I also take great pleasure in discovering new things about these show; this just happens to extend to the mistakes as well.

Compiling a comprehensive list of bloopers for a given episode is rather time-consuming.  It sometimes takes me several days to jot down all the notes, monopolizing the TV and VCR, and a couple more days to get it all typed up.  Since I wanted to address a bunch of other G1 episodes than I'd done so far and also wanted to sink my teeth into the other series, I decided to write up mini-bloopers.  They're not nearly as comprehensive, but they do still address all the major gaffes in a given episode.  In the list of links below, episode titles that are in bold type are the more thoroughly exhaustive lists; the rest are mini-bloopers.

Submissions

I get more e-mail about the bloopers section of the ZMFTS than any other part of the site.  If you found a blooper I didn't catch, feel free to write to me about it.  (The movie's been done to death, though.  Can we please move on?)  If I agree that it's a valid blooper, I'll add it to the site and credit you for it as soon as it's convenient for me to do so.  It's possible that I won't see it as a blooper at all, though.  Don't take it personally if I disagree; I just have my own ideas of what does and does not constitute a genuine blooper.  

Remember that the mini-bloopers are not meant to be a comprehensive list of errors.  Send me submissions for those if you like, but keep in mind that the chances are very good that I already know about that particular blooper, but felt it wasn't significant enough to add right now.

By the way, just because it's possible to justify a blooper with some creative explanation doesn't mean that it shouldn't be listed here.  I mean, just about every mistake can be rationalized away if you try hard enough.  For this reason, I'm not particularly interested in arguments that what I've listed on these pages might not actually be mistakes.  My job is to document this stuff; if you want to justify them in your mind, be my guest.  I'm not looking for No-Prizes, guys.

Categories

Bloopers are listed in the order they appear in the episode, and are broken down into six categories (the number after each heading indicates the number of bloopers an episode has in that category):

Plot Oversights and Changed Premises:  Anything having to do with the content of the script itself, including the storyline, information contained in dialogue, etc.

Sound Effects and Dialogue:  Any blooper relating to the mechanics of the soundtrack, including background music, voice amplification, sound effects, and voice acting.

Animation and Continuity:  Drawing, coloring, and animating mistakes (both CGI and by hand) all fall under this category.

Cartoonisms:  A sub-category focusing on the impossible physics and scenes that could have only come from the Warner Brothers studios or Japanese anime.  These tend to be especially prominent in Beast Wars and Robots in Disguise.

Junkionisms:  I thought it would be fun to translate some of the pop culture and TV references that have insinuated their way into the show.  These pop up in every incarnation of the cartoon, but it seemed appropriate to name the category after Wreck-Gar's happy little band.

Generation 2:  A sub-category entirely devoted to changes made when episodes were aired for Transformers: Generation 2.

 I've also included some trivia questions for the die-hard Transfan; some of the best lines (and cheesiest lines) from the episodes; and some notes about the episodes themselves that I thought were noteworthy, but not necessarily mistakes.  One day I'll be including pertinent screen shots and .wav files as well, but that will have to wait until I get the proper equipment.


The Transformers

1.  "More Than Meets the Eye" part 1

2.  "More Than Meets the Eye" part 2

3.  "More Than Meets the Eye" part 3

4.  "Transport to Oblivion"  

5.  "Roll For It"  

6.  "Divide and Conquer"

7.  "Fire in the Sky"

8.  "S.O.S. Dinobots"  

9.  "Fire on the Mountain"  

10.  "War of the Dinobots"  

11.  "The Ultimate Doom" part 1

12.  "The Ultimate Doom" part 2

13.  "The Ultimate Doom" part 3

14.  "Countdown to Extinction"  

15.  "A Plague of Insecticons"

16.  "Heavy Metal War"

17.  "Autobot Spike"

18.  "Changing Gears"  

19.  "City of Steel"

20.  "Attack of the Autobots"  

21.  "Traitor"  

22.  "The Immobilizer"  

23.  "The Autobot Run"  

24.  "Atlantis, Arise!"  

25.  "Day of the Machines"  

26.  "Enter the Nightbird"  

27.  "A Prime Problem"

28.  "The Core"  

29.  "The Insecticon Syndrome"  

30.  "Dinobot Island" part 1

31.  "Dinobot Island" part 2  

32.  "The Master Builders"  

33.  "Auto Berserk"  

34.  "Microbots"  

35.  "Megatron's Master Plan" part 1

36.  " "Megatron's Master Plan" part 2  

37.  "Desertion of the Dinobots" part 1 

38.  "Desertion of the Dinobots" part 2  

39.  "Blaster Blues"  

40.  "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court"  

41.  "The Golden Lagoon"  

42.  "The God Gambit"  

43.  "Make Tracks"  

44.  "Child's Play"  

45.  "Quest for Survival"  

46.  "The Secret of Omega Supreme"  

47.  "The Gambler"  

48.  "Kremzeek!"  

49.  "Sea Change"  

50.  "Triple Takeover"  

51.  "Prime Target"  

52.  "Auto-Bop"  

53.  "The Search for Alpha Trion"  

54.  "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide"  

55.  "Hoist Goes Hollywood"  

56.  "The Key to Vector Sigma" part 1

57.  "The Key to Vector Sigma" part 2  

58.  "Aerial Assault"  

59.  "War Dawn"  

60.  "Trans-Europe Express"  

61.  "Cosmic Rust"

62.  "Starscream's Brigade"  

63.  "The Revenge of Bruticus"

64.  "Masquerade"  

65.  "B.O.T."  

The Transformers: the Movie

66.  "Five Faces of Darkness" part 1

67.  "Five Faces of Darkness" part 2  

68.  "Five Faces of Darkness" part 3

69.  "Five Faces of Darkness" part 4

70.  "Five Faces of Darkness" part 5

71.  "The Killing Jar"  

72.  "Chaos"  

73.  "Dark Awakening"  

74.  "Forever is a Long Time Coming"  NEW!

75.  "Starscream's Ghost"  NEW!

76.  "Thief in the Night"  NEW!

77.  "Surprise Party"  NEW!

78.  "Madman's Paradise"  NEW!

79.  "Nightmare Planet"  NEW!

80.  "Ghost in the Machine"  NEW!

81.  "Webworld"  

82.  "Carnage in C-Minor"

83.  "The Big Broadcast of 2006"  

84.  "The Quintesson Journal"  

85.  "The Ultimate Weapon"

86.  "Fight or Flee"  

87.  "The Dweller in the Depths"  

88.  "Only Human"  

89.  "Money is Everything"

90.  "Grimlock's New Brain"

91.  "Call of the Primitives"

92.  "The Face of the Nijika"

93.  "The Burden Hardest to Bear"  

94.  "The Return of Optimus Prime" part 1

95.  "The Return of Optimus Prime" part 2

96.  "The Rebirth" part 1

97.  "The Rebirth" part 2  

98.  "The Rebirth" part 3


Beast Wars

1.  "Beast Wars" (part 1)

2.  "Beast Wars" (part 2)  

3.  "The Web"  

4.  "Equal Measures"  

5.  "Chain of Command"

6.  "Power Surge"  

7.  "Fallen Comrades"  

8.  "Double Jeopardy"  

9.  "A Better Mousetrap"  

10.  "Gorilla Warfare"  

11.  "The Probe"  

12.  "Victory"  

13.  "Dark Designs"  

14.  "Double Dinobot"  

15.  "The Spark"  

16.  "The Trigger" (part 1)

17.  "The Trigger" (part 2)  

18.  "Spider's Game"  

19.  "Call of the Wild"  

20.  "Dark Voyage"  

21.  "Possession"  

22.  "The Low Road"  

23.  "Law of the Jungle"  

24.  "Before the Storm"  

25.  "Other Voices" (part 1)

26.  "Other Voices" (part 2)

27.  "Aftermath"  

28.  "Coming of the Fuzors" (part 1)

29.  "Coming of the Fuzors" (part 2)  

30.  "Tangled Web"  

31.  "Maximal, No More"

32.  "Other Visits" (part 1)

33.  "Other Visits" (part 2)  

34.  "Bad Spark"

35.  "Code of Hero"

36.  "Transmutate"  

37.  "The Agenda" (part 1)  

38.  "The Agenda" (part 2)  

39.  "The Agenda" (part 3)

40.  "Optimal Situation"

41.  "Deep Metal"  

42.  "Changing of the Guard"

43.  "Cutting Edge"  

44.  "Feral Scream" (part 1)

45.  "Feral Scream" (part 2)

46.  "Proving Grounds"  

47.  "Go With the Flow"

48.  "Crossing the Rubicon"

49.  "Master Blaster"  

50.  "Other Victories"  

51.  "Nemesis" (part 1) 

52.  "Nemesis" (part 2) 


Beast Machines

1.  "The Reformatting"

2.  "Master of the House"  

3.  "Fires of the Past"

4.  "Mercenary Pursuits"  

5.  "Forbidden Fruit"

6.  "The Weak Component"  

7.  "Revelations Part I: Discovery"  

8.  "Revelations Part II: Descent"  

9.  "Revelations Part III: Apocalypse"  

10.  "Survivor"  

11.  "The Key"  

12.  "The Catalyst"  

13.  "End of the Line"

14.  "Fallout"

15.  "Savage Noble"

16.  "Prometheus Unbound"

17.  "In Darkest Knight"

18.  "A Wolf in the Fold"

19.  "Native Soil"

20.  "Sparkwar Part 1: The Strike"

21.  "Sparkwar Part 2: The Search"

22.  "Sparkwar Part 3: The Siege"

23.  "Spark of Darkness"

24.  "Endgame Part 1: The Downward Spiral"

25.  "Endgame Part 2: When Legends Fall"

26.  "Endgame Part 3: The Seeds of the Future"


Robots in Disguise

1.  "Battle Protocol!"

2.  "An Explosive Situation"

3.  "Bullet Train Rescue"

4.  "Spychangers to the Rescue"

5.  "The Hunt for Black Pyramid"

6.  "The Secret of the Ruins"

7.  "Sideburn's Obsession"

8.  "Secret Weapon: D-5"

9.  "Mirage's Betrayal"

10.  "Skid-Z's Choice"

11.  "Tow-Line Goes Haywire"

12.  "The Ultimate Robot Warrior"

13.  "Hope for the Future"

14.  "The Decepticons"

15.  "Commandos"

16.  "Volcano"

17.  "Attack from Outer Space"

18.  "The Test"

19.  "The Fist Test"

20.  "Wedge's Short Fuse"

21.  "Landfill"

22.  "Sky-Byte Saves the Day"

23.  "A Test of Metal"

24.  "Ultra Magnus"

25.  "Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion"

26.  "New Warriors, Assemble!" (Japanese title; not aired)

27.  "The Two Face of Ultra Magnus"

28.  "Power to Burn!"

29.  "Fortress Maximus"

30.  "Koji Gets His Wish"

31.  "A Friendly Contest"

32.  "Peril from the Past"

33.  "Lessons from the Past"

34.  (not aired)

35.  (not aired)

36.  (not aired)

37.  (not aired)

38.  (not aired)

39.  (not aired)

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SYNOPSES FOR THESE EPISODES

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This Page Redesigned 4/19/2000
Last Update: 2/6/2002
©2002 Inspiration Studios
Optimus Prime screen capture courtesy of The Obscure Transformers Site