"Five Faces of Darkness" part 5 Bloopers

TOTAL NUMBER OF BLOOPERS:  91

GREAT LINES:

BLITZWING:  "Sometimes it's better to be known for one's enemies."

TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

1. How long did the Quintessons estimate defeating the Autobots would take?
2. Name the members of the Autobot intercept squad.

NOTES:

• Do Pipes and the rest of the new characters from the intercept squad look strangely familiar to you?  They should.  The toys for Pipes, Outback, Swerve, and Tailgate were all based on the Huffer, Brawn, Gears, and Windcharger toys, respectively.  Their robot heads and chests were modified, but the vehicle modes and basic body shapes are identical.  Cliffjumper also got re-worked into a toy named Hubcap, who never made it to the cartoon.

PLOT OVERSIGHTS:  (5)

• During the battle on Cybertron, at one point Ultra Magnus confronts Dirge and Ramjet.  With a mighty swing, he punches each of them into a wall and they each blow up.  In other words, Magnus kills Dirge and Ramjet.  What the heck kind of Autobot is this guy, anyway??  (In Magnus' defense, these guys do show up in a few episodes later on, so maybe he didn't just kill them in cold oil.  I should also note that if they are indeed dead, this marks the first Transformer deaths in the history of the television series.)
• As Trypticon looms ever-closer to Autobot City, Blaster exclaims, "One city transformed, coming up!  Cogless or not, we're gonna fight!"  Given that Metroplex can't transform without the transforming cog, how does Blaster propose to do this?  (Remarkably enough, he somehow manages it, since in a later scene Metroplex is in battle station mode before the cog has been installed!)
• Once the Predacons begin their attack on Io, what do Blurr, Wheelie and Marissa do?  They run away from from protection of Sky Lynx's transport module.
• After Predaking is defeated, Razorclaw retreats and Headstrong orders, "Razorclaw, come back here!"  Rather presumptuous, given that Razorclaw is the Predacon leader!  (There seems to be a lot of that going around.  On Earth, Mixmaster is giving orders instead of Scrapper.  Is it "Pretend You're the Sub-Group Leader" day or something?)
• It seems like as soon as Blaster pulls the lever inside Metroplex, he changes to his robot mode.  Does this mean Blaster, Pipes, Blurr, and those Autobots we saw cheering a moment ago are all rattling around inside Metroplex while he battles Trypticon?¹

DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS:  (13)

• In the recap from part 4, Galvatron's voice isn't amplified when he says, "Very well, Junkions.  Then you will share the Autobots' fate!"
• At the beginning of the episode, Kup's mouth isn't moving when he announces that the blast took out the whole defense system.
• There are a couple of lines of dialogue in this episode that don't seem to belong to any known characters.  The first is when Pipes' intercept squad is lying in waiting for Trypticon.  Somebody says, "It'll be passing above us soon."  I can only assume that's supposed to be Swerve or Tailgate, but since neither of them shows up again, there's no way to know for sure.
• The other line of dialogue is when we cut to Autobot City.  A voice asks Blaster, "Where is the transforming cog now?"  I'm thinking this might be Rewind, the robot sitting nearby with his back turned to the camera, except if that's the case, he gets an entirely different voice in "Forever is a Long Time Coming."  (I suppose it could just be Eject colored wrong.)
• When Dirge and Ramjet prepare to attack Ultra Magnus, their voices are muffled.  I guess this makes sense if they're communicating with each other via radio.  After Magnus dispenses with them and confronts Galvatron, however, their voices are muffled as well.  (One could argue they are communicating via radio as well, but Galvatron's voice goes back to normal when he says, "Another time, Autobot!  There are worlds to conquer today!"  Why would he cut the transmission off  before saying that?)
• There's a strange edit on the videocassette release.  When Blitzwing goes to report to the Quintessons only to overhear their plans, part of the shot of Blitz hiding behind the doorway is cut.  The dialogue remains intact, however; this means the entire soundtrack lags by about three or four seconds.  In this version, it looks like the Sharkticons are the ones saying, "Down, understand?" to the Quintessons.  Furthermore, Blitzwing leaves the Quintesson ship before he even hears their entire plan!
• When Sky Lynx first transforms, there's no transforming sound effect.
• Also, Sky Lynx is snarling and cawing in this episode.  This is the only time he ever does this.
• After the "meteor swarm" arrives, as the glowing aura wears off of each Predacon, he makes a transforming sound effect.  Why?  There's no indication that they were in their animal forms when they arrived.
• Also, Predaking makes a transformation sound effect just about every time he moves!  (Somebody definitely went a little transformation-happy with the sound effects.)
• Judging by later episodes, it's definitely Headstrong who yells for Razorclaw to come back, but Tantrum holds his arm out in protest.  (Neither of them move their mouths, either.)
• Mixmaster orders the Constructicons to fire at Sky Lynx, but Scrapper's face plate is moving.  
• After Pipes installs the cog and notifies Blaster he can transform the city, Blaster responds, "I hear you, Metroplex!  Flex!"  It doesn't make any sense for him to say this since both Blaster and Pipes are inside Metroplex at the time.  I think what he meant was, "I hear you!  Metroplex, flex!"

ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY:  (73)

• In the very first scene of the episode, there are two Moon Bases orbiting Cybertron!  They're seen again as the Quintesson ship approaches Cybertron.  Were there really four moons the entire time?  Or did the Autobots construct two new ones after Unicron gobbled 'em up?  (Or maybe Unicron regurgitated them when we weren't looking.)
• In the group of Decepticons, several Sweeps and Cyclonuses (Cyclonii?) are colored like Breakdown, Wildrider, etc.
• When the Autobots are all standing around taking about their strategy while the Decepticons attack, the animators didn't even bother to produce their own drawings.  These are all character models--Kup and Springer (in "toy" design mode) from the front, and Ultra Magnus and Rodimus from the back.
• Also, in the long shot of the Autobots all standing around while the Decepticons attack, Springer is facing Ultra Magnus, who is standing next to Kup.  In the medium shots of Magnus, however, both Springer and Kup are behind Magnus.
• After Magnus pops back up after the first Decepticon blast, he's got a Kup face.
• Rodimus has a Hot Rod face when he says to Magnus, "Your courage will be remembered."
• In the next scene there are two Cyclonus-style robots, one of which is colored like Dirge.  Also in this scene, the panel on the top of Galvatron's chest is red again instead of purple, and Cyclonus' gun is blue-and-black (I guess the colorists thought it was part of the Dirge-robot).
• When we first see Pipes change to his robot mode, he doesn't so much transform into robot mode as he does morph.  (His transformation, by the way, doesn't follow the toy at all.  The bottom of the toy forms the back of his robot mode, not the front.)
• As the intercept squad fires on Trypticon, Tailgate and Swerve have guns identical to Outback's.  (The toys don't come with weapons, so guns weren't supplied with their character models.  I guess going with Outback's gun makes sense.)
• Then in the next scene, Beachcomber is suddenly with the Autobots in place of Swerve.
• When Pipes asks Powerglide for a damage report on Trypticon, Pipes is missing his face!
• There is a space background behind Powerglide as he assesses Trypticon's condition.  (I guess ol' Powerglide can fly reeeeeally high.)
• When Trypticon transforms to his dinosaur mode, the front of his battle station forms his dinosaur head.  In later (and correct) episodes, the front of the station forms his tail.  This is consistent with the toy, as well.  (I also just want to point out that the transformation is drawn Very Badly.)
• Back in Autobot City, on Blaster's monitor we see space, the final frontier... with lots of static.  Then the Quintessons appear on the monitor to intercept Blaster's transmission, replacing the static but still in front of the same backdrop.  In other words, the Quints are floating in space while picking up Blaster's signal?
• After this little intrusion, Blaster alerts Sky Lynx with a handheld communicator.  Wait a minute.  Blaster's sitting in this huge communications room, and this rinky-dink little doodad can reach all the way from Earth to Jupiter??  (Why in the heck didn't Blaster use this thing to keep in touch with Marissa?)
• When we cut to Io, Blur and Wheelie are standing in mid-air as they fire at the lipoles (which still aren't flapping their wings, I might add).
• In the next scene, there is a blue-sky backdrop behind Marissa.  That's right, folks--even in space, she has her head in the clouds.
• There is another blue-sky-and-fluffy-white-clouds- background when Wheelie drops the transformation cog.
• I suppose now is as good a time to ask as any:  Why doesn't Trypticon have any eyes?  As far as I can tell, the place where a T. rex's eyes would normally be are completely blank.  (Oh, I can hear you already.  "Maybe that laser on the top of his head is his eye."  "Maybe they're just colored dark grey like the rest of him."  "Maybe he has sophisticated scanners and doesn't need optical sensors."  Yeah, and maybe whoever designed his color model forgot to give him eyes!)
• As Pipes is rallying the intercept squad (in yet another blatant example of alternate-mode nepotism--if you transform into a truck, you get to be leader!), Beachcomber is colored like Wildrider.
• As the Constructicons watch nearby as the Autobots get stomped (literally, in Swerve's case), Scrapper's face plate disappears to reveal that his red optic visor covers his entire face.
• In the row of vehicle-mode Autobots firing at Trypsy, Bumblebee has got a roof-mounted gun like Outback's.  Now this is carrying the whole "all the minibots have guns like Outback's" thing a bit too far, don't you think?  (I also question how Pipes can make his smokestacks point in that direction...)
• When Swerve transforms to robot mode and begins firing, his Autobot symbol is light blue.
• Warpath's eyes are missing (?!) when he orders Teletraan One to activate the defenses.
• There are no fewer than six Cyclonus jets flying around after the first commercial break.  (A moon can also be spotted orbiting Cybertron again.)
• Ultra Magnus' eyes are too small as he shoots at all the Cyclonuses.
• When Magnus knocks Ramjet into the building, Ramjet's colored like Dirge right before he explodes.
• During Galvatron and Magnus' confrontation-that-doesn't-amount-to-anything, Galvatron's got his "toy" design as his head begins sparking.  What's really interesting is it changes to the "movie" design as soon as he jumps up before transforming.  (if your VCR has a freeze-frame capability, watch for the difference in the shape of his chest and his kneecaps.)
• When he transforms this time, his arm cannon flies off and a new cannon emerges from his body.  When he transforms back to robot mode, though, his arm cannon just appears back on his arm.  (I'm beginning to think they're disposable... like Dixie cups.)
• After Galvy and Magnus' encounter-that-doesn't-amount-to-anything, there's a Cyclonus-jet flying around that's colored like Dirge again.
• Bumblebee is present with the Autobots fighting on Cybertron at one point.  (Must be Hubcap.)
• When Perceptor tells the Autobots to "meet your fate valiantly," his Autobot symbol is white.
• In a later scene with Perceptor we have Streetwise, colored like Red Alert.  (Or maybe Blades.  I can't tell.)  Also, it looks like Soundwave is standing right behind them.
• Back on the Quintesson ship, the Quint's tentacle disappears for a single frame as he points to the diagram of the Large Switch.
• When Sky Lynx arrives in shuttle mode and transforms, the lynx module disappears completely, and his bird legs are blue instead of red.  He's also got a Decepticon symbol on his forehead.  (This deserves further inspection.  Sky Lynx appears so frequently with a Decepticon insignia that believe the character was originally intended to be a Decepticon.  I can only assume they made the allegiance switch because they needed a foil for Predaking, but didn't get around to changing all of the model sheets the animators had lying about.)
• Here's another Character Design Oddity: all of the Predacons' eyes are yellow!  As you know, nearly every Decepticon in existence has red eyes.  I find the Predacons' yellow eyes especially unusual, considering that their faces are also yellow.  (I should think this made it difficult for the animators to figure out exactly where these robots' eyes were in the first place.)
• Aah, the magic of lazy animation.  When the Predacons first appear, every single one of them is a direct lift from their character models.  (Just check their TFU profiles.  They're even holding their guns in the exact same pose.  Of course, they're carrying swords in the very next scene.)  They're not colored quite right, though--the top front of Razorclaw's chest is orange instead of black; Divebomb's entire body is yellow when it should be black with a red torso and yellow chest plate.
• Speaking of Divebomb, did the Quintessons ever skimp on his transformed-mode, or what?  All he does to convert to his eagle mode is close his eagle-head helmet and spread his arms!  (The toy is slightly more complex than that... but not much.)
• When Sky Lynx whaps Divebomb with his tail, the backlighting for Sky Lynx's rocket engines shifts out of synch.
• The lynx module has already transformed, but when Marissa and co. run away from the safety of its cover, it's back in transport mode.
• Blurr is back to his "toy" design when he's running from Razorclaw.  (Hey, I'll shut up about the "toy" designs when the animators quit screwing up and using outdated character models!)
• When Sky Lynx's two modules connect back together in shuttle mode, they're aligned rather crookedly.
• Just about every time Predaking moves, his animation "echoes."  Again, why?  (Answer:  Same reason he's making a transforming sound effect.  Somebody thought it would look cool.)
• When Sky Lynx wraps his tail around Predaking's head, Pred is missing his eyes!  You get the feeling Unicron is sending agents out to steal eyes for him (ref: "Ghost in the Machine")?
• When Predaking falls over, he's missing the wings on his back.
• After he falls, he separates into his component Predacons--Headstrong, Tantrum, and Rampage can be seen on screen.  When Sky Lynx fires at them, however, Razorclaw has taken Rampage's place.
• Right before the second commercial break when Blaster whines, "If Sky Lynx don't show, call this the end!" his Autobot symbol is perfect.  This counts as a blooper because, quite frankly, I don't think the folks who animated this episode were capable of drawing an insignia that well; it was obviously traced from a model sheet.²
• Some animator forgot what the transforming cog even looks like.  When the Io group disembarks Sky Lynx, Wheelie is clutching a giant gear that looks like he got it from Spacely Sprockets.  A moment later it's back to its normal spherical, pseudo-Matrix shape.²
• The outer space background shows up again, this time on Earth--once in a scene with Marissa, and another a few moments later with Blurr.
• I hate commenting on the way characters are drawn, but that is a ridiculously poor-looking Laserbeak that tries to intercept Blurr.  
• The wall of Decepticons that attempts to stop Wheelie include Kickback, Bombshell (with grey eyes), Shrapnel, and... another Shrapnel.
• Yet another spacescape, courtesy of "Asleep at the Wheel" Akom, when Wheelie throws the cog to Sky Lynx, and again when Sky Lynx mows down the Insecticons.
• In a scene of the Autobots cheering atop Autobot City, Streetwise is colored like Dead End; somebody else is colored like Scrapper; and I could swear that's Frenzy up there as well!  ("Hi, Mom!")
• Blitzwing has an Autobot symbol when he reports to Galvatron concerning the Decepticon Matrix.
• Rodimus is missing his Autobot symbol when Blitzwing falls toward the Autobots.
• When Blaster initiates Metroplex's transformation into robot mode ("Metroplex, flex!") the cheek guards on his helmet are grey instead of red.¹
• In dinosaur mode, Trypticon has a little race car on his chest named Full Tilt.  (We never see the car by itself or in its robot mode... but in case you were wondering why it looks like Trypticon has a car on his chest, that's because he has a car on his chest.)  Anyway, it disappears several times during Trypsy's battle with Metroplex.  
• When Metroplex picks up Trypsy and throws him, he curves impossibly upwards.  (This sort of maneuver might make sense if they were, say, in a Dyson Sphere, but...)
• When the Autobots are all standing around Metroplex and cheering, right behind Blaster is Ratchet, also colored like Blaster.  (There's another robot, colored entirely white, who could be either Ratchet or Ironhide.)  Also in this scene is Sunstreaker, colored like Bumblebee.
• After the Sharkticon pulls the Large Switch, when Rodimus shows up the Sharkticon raises his hand and the blue glowing aura from the Large Switch shows right through his hand.
• Suddenly Rodimus's gun is black with a light blue barrel.  It should be entirely black (or dark red, depending on what episode you're watching).
• When Galvatron first approaches the Large Switch, it comes up to his neck.  Then in the next scene as he prepares to pull the switch, it's only at waist-level.
• Also, Blitzwing is wearing an Autobot symbol for most of the time he's in the Room with the Large Switch.  I guess he was pretty quick to jump on Rodimus' offer to switch sides, eh?  (I hear the Autobots have a good pension plan.)
• After the Transformers on Cybertron are nullified, we switch to an establishing shot of Cybertron... in order to show all the frozen Transformers on Earth.  Does this seem right?
• Among the frozen Autobots on Earth is Sludge in robot mode, colored like Grimlock.
• Back on Cybertron, Blurr is present with the other frozen Transformers (he should be on Earth).
• In the next scene of Freezy Bots™ there is a Sweep with pink wings.  They should be dark grey.²
• The next shot (when the Quintesson taunts, "Your war is over, Transformers!") has Rewind colored like Jazz.
• The frozen Blitzwing is suddenly holding his sword when the Quintessons show up.
• When Spike grabs Rodimus' gun, it's missing the wings on either side of it.
• Only three Quintessons manage to make it to the escape pod.  What happened to the fourth?  Also, as they enter the pod, their energy beams are misaligned with their bodies.
• Who gave Rodimus his gun back so he can point it at Galvatron near the end of the episode?  Spike had it last, and neither he nor Rodimus is carrying it as they chase after the Quints.
• Five Cyclonus-style jets fly off with Galvatron.

TRIVIA ANSWERS:

1. Less than 20 hours.
2. Pipes, Powerglide, Warpath, Beachcomber, Bumblebee, Outback, Swerve, and Tailgate.  (The latter two were not named in the episode.)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

¹Liam Kavanagh
²Parallax