"The Face of the Nijika" Bloopers

SYNOPSIS FOR "THE FACE OF THE NIJIKA"
PLOT OVERSIGHTS	DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS
ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY	TRIVIA ANSWERS

TOTAL NUMBER OF BLOOPERS: 39
GREAT LINES:
ULTRA MAGNUS: "There's only one thing to do... find the missing piece!" RODIMUS PRIME: "Good idea. Where do we go, the neighborhood universal emulator shop?"

TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

What were the odds the Quintessons gave the Transformers of surviving passage through the quadrant lock?
How long ago did the Quintessons originally visit planet Samojin?

NOTES

There's a fun little scene where Ultra Magnus is transporting Perceptor's body in microscope mode and then transforms as the Quintesson ship flies overhead. When Magnus spots the ship, he peers at it through Perceptor's lenses for a second. I've always loved that bit.

PLOT OVERSIGHTS: (10)

Sky Lynx tells the Autobots to "don your rocket packs" as they near the Quintesson ship. This creates a continuity error, since the Autobots apparently needed no such rocket packs to fly through space in "Forever is a Long Time Coming" or "Carnage in C-Minor."  (See Animation and Continuity below.)
After the Autobots discover the Quintesson quadrant lock, Perceptor's suddenly in microscope mode when the Quintessons open the lock to suck the Autobots inside. (Of course, if he hadn't transformed, he wouldn't have gotten stuck in microscope mode while passing through the warp, and Katsudan couldn't have stolen his universal emulator.)
Supposedly, the Quintessons built millions of robots back on Cybertron. I'm rather surprised that they recognize Perceptor and refer to him by name, especially since they're able to identify him in his microscope mode. Back when the Quintessons ruled Cybertron, nobody had a transformed-mode.
Speaking of Perceptor, this universal emulator of his must be a handy little gadget. Based on its name, I take it that its purpose is to serve as a substitute for just about any computerized component. So why didn't Perceptor use it to replace the damaged space bridge control panel in "The Revenge of Bruticus," for example?
Also, what purpose could possibly be served for Perceptor's personality to be contained within the emulator? He would never be able to use the component himself, since he'd shut down the moment it was removed.
After crashing on planet Samojin, Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus have to abandon Blurr so they can look for Perceptor. Well, what does Ultra Magnus transform into? A... car carrier? Why doesn't he just carry Blurr? (Incidentally, Ultra Magnus does carry Perceptor in his car carrier mode later in the episode. It's the only time he carries any kind of cargo in vehicle mode in the history of the series.)
Many of the Samojins refer to Transformers as "devil-spawn," or robots spawned by the "devils," the Quintessons. And yet, according to Katsudan's account of the Quintessons' original visit to Samojin, no robots were present. The Quintessons did all the work of sabotaging the Kodori god themselves. (I also find Katsudan's account of the raid highly circumspect. Somehow, I just can't picture Quintessons going for joyrides.)
One of the plot points of this episode is that everything on Samojin has an incredibly dense molecular structure. That's the whole reason Blurr was so badly injured when the Autobots crashed.  At one point, though, one of the Samojins hits Rodimus in vehicle mode with a mace, and he is undamaged. One of them also throws a mace at Ultra Magnus, and Rodimus blows it up with a missile.
I am very surprised that the mob witnessing Blurr's execution didn't attack Cyclonus and the Quintesson, who were standing amongst the crowd in plain sight. The Samojins obviously have a great deal of animosity towards the Quintessons, and they obviously know what the Quints look like, as evidenced by the very good likeness of the stick puppet that one of them burns. If they're so bent on killing Blurr because they recognize him as a "devil spawn," why not Cyclonus?
Once Blurr is dumped in the lava, he manages to transform, saying, "Hood in place, wheels in place, bumpers in place..." The problem is, when he accelerates out of the pool, there are no wheels in evidence, because he doesn't have any. They made the same mistake that the historical narrative about the Autobots did from "Starscream's Ghost," which called him "the fastest car on wheels."
After Perceptor, inhabiting Nijika's body, gives the Quintesson his universal emulator, the Quintesson orders, "You will now repair the isolator key." I thought the whole point of obtaining the emulator was so that they could replace the isolator key to re-open the quadrant lock.

DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS: (7)

The background music that they used for the battle between the Autobots vs. Decepticons vs. Quintessons is a peculiar choice. It's not exactly what I'd call "action packed."  (It's the same theme used later in "The Return of Optimus Prime" when Jessica Morgan tells Rodimus that she's got Optimus Prime at her father's lab.)
When the first Quintesson realizes that the Autobots "must not be allowed to examine the lock!" another Quintesson responds, "Except, perhaps, from the inside," and none of his faces is moving its mouth. (I guess he forgot to face the camera.)
Of course, Perceptor's personality can't be contained within his universal emulator, since he's still able to say, "He's removing my insignia!" even after Katsudan has extracted it.
Blurr actually slows down his speech to a normal rate in this episode when he tells Rodimus and Magnus to leave him behind--probably in a serious attempt to make himself understood. It's been hinted that he has a problem with his timing program ("Fight or Flee"), so I would think that he has to make a conscious effort to talk slower. What's strange, then, is the fact that he keeps doing this on and off for the rest of the episode, even when talking to himself. Is he just practicing? Or does he just occasionally slow down, just like Wheelie occasionally doesn't rhyme?
I think the Quintessons are pronouncing the name of planet Samojin incorrectly. Near the beginning of the episode one of the Quintessons pronounces it "sah-MOH-jin." Later, in Katsudan's flashback, the woman who is summoning Kodori pronounces it "SAH-moh-jeen."
Seems like Cyclonus' voice has changed yet again. It's still Roger C. Carmel doing the character, but his voice is much deeper and laid-back. Actually, he sounds exactly like the Quintesson who captured Sky Lynx in "The Quintesson Journal."
After Blurr is dumped into the pool of lava, a moment later he rockets out in car mode, but we never hear a transforming sound effect.

ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY: (22)

We've swapped back to the Korean character model for Rodimus Prime in this episode. The panels inside the tops of his shoulders are maroon instead of grey, the wheels on his shoulders are incorrectly black instead of maroon, and he's missing the wheels on his forearms for most of the episode.
At the beginning of the episode, Sky Lynx says he's detected something peculiar and Ultra Magnus asks for a visual display. Cut to a shot of Sky Lynx's monitor, which already shows the quadrant lock. Then the screen activates, and the quadrant lock is suddenly glowing. Also, this glow actually extends past the bottom edge of the screen.
When the Quintessons spot Sky Lynx entering the fray, the Quintesson floating on the left side of the scene is missing his mouth for an instant.
Sky Lynx suggests the Autobots wear their rocket packs before they enter the battle, but no rocket packs are in evidence as they exit Sky Lynx. If they're anything like the jet packs from "Dinobot Island," we'd be able to see large, grey shoulder straps on the Autobots.
When Sky Lynx blasts Galvatron with his mouth laser, Sky Lynx has a Decepticon symbol on his forehead.
One of the Quintessons decrees that planet Samojin must remain in darkness forever; in this scene he's using his Suspicious Face (green head with the spikes on top). In the next scene when he says the Autobots must not be allowed to examine the quadrant lock, the bags under his eyes and parts of his face are a much darker grey.
The Quintesson ship is stationary in space; when Sky Lynx blasts it, the ship gets knocked back a little. Inside the ship, the stars outside the window are moving at considerable speed, but suddenly in the next interior shot, the stars have stopped moving. (Those are some serious brakes!)
When the Quints realize the Transformers have survived passage through the space warp, the Quintesson wearing his Smiling Face (orange helmet) has a grey moustache, like the rest of his face, instead of black.
After the Autobots crash on Samojin, Magnus is caught in some vines, and the wheels on his feet are blue instead of black.
As Magnus turns asks Rodimus and Blurr if they saw where Perceptor landed, the little red circles on his torso disappear.
When the Quintesson with the Smiling Face (orange helmet) turns to the Sharkticons and orders them to retrieve Perceptor, his moustache disappears.
I'm not entirely sure how the universal emulator works, but it baffles me that Katsudan can take this thing, which is longer than his Nijika doll's head is wide, and shove the thing inside what's left of her face, and yet it fits like a mask.
I guess the Sharkticons thought it was a really neat idea when Kup ripped off one of their spiked tails and hurtled it like a morning star in The Transformers: the Movie, because two of them are carrying their tails that way in this episode. (It's kinda funny, when you think about it. Since that's how the tail worked in the movie, that's how they designed the toy. And since that's what the toy does, naturally, they included it in this episode!)
When Katsudan punches the Sharkticon and picks him up to throw him, his spiked tail is purple instead of blue.
One of the Sharkticons was in robot mode and the other in shark mode when Katsudan defeated them. When the flying platform returns them to the Quintessons, however, they're both in robot mode.
Here's an odd one. When the Samojins attack Rodimus and knock him off the cliff, the cab pops out of the trailer portion, and is shown to be identical to Hot Rod's vehicle mode (minus the engine). He transforms to robot mode, lands, then transforms back into Hot Rod's vehicle mode, and the trailer reconnects.
When Cyclonus and the Quintesson are on the planet, the Quintesson is holding a device in his tentacle to locate the universal emulator. In the very next scene, the device is gone.
When Perceptor explains to the mob what the Quintessons have done to their world and the Quintesson says, "The doll is possessed! Don't listen!" his moustache is light blue instead of black.
After Cyclonus flies off with Katsudan in tow, he fires at the mob on the ground, but his blast passes in front of a spear that one of the Samojins in the foreground is carrying. It makes Cyclonus look very tiny.
As Ultra Magnus drives back with Perceptor as cargo, Hot Rod (engine included, this time) is driving with him, not Rodimus. When Hot Rod transforms, Magnus is missing his vehicle-mode missile launchers. Then when Magnus transforms, he faces forward so the truck cab forms his chest, instead of facing backwards so the truck cab forms his back. (This is the scene I noted above where he peers through Perceptor like a telescope for just an instant.)
On the Quintesson ship, it sure is considerate of Cyclonus to wait before blasting Blurr in order to give Magnus plenty of time to pounce him, isn't it?
Just as Sky Lynx flies toward Samojin, two figures in the upper right corner of the screen fly out into space. Who are they? I imagine one of them was supposed to be Cyclonus, but who the heck is following him??

TRIVIA ANSWERS:

One chance in 82.5 million.
About 5000 years.