"Roll for It" Bloopers

SYNOPSIS FOR "ROLL FOR IT"
PLOT OVERSIGHTS	DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS
ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY	TRIVIA ANSWERS

TOTAL NUMBER OF BLOOPERS: 115
GREAT LINES:
"Have a... safe journey, Megatron."--Shockwave, as Megatron takes the space bridge back to Earth. This slightly less-than-sincere farewell is the only indication in the series that Shockwave might have it in for our dear Decepticon leader.

TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

What was the name of the plant the Decepticons raided for spare parts?
What was the name of Dr. Alkazar's computer?

PLOT OVERSIGHTS: (11)

This episode seems to be a direct continuation of "Transport to Oblivion." At the end of that episode, Starscream flew off with Soundwave and Skywarp. In this episode, Soundwave and Thundercracker are with him.
Megatron explains in his communique to Starscream that "we will attack the laboratory as planned." They never made any mention of the laboratory in "Transport to Oblivion," so they must have planned it prior to the last episode. (I guess it wasn't a very important mission, since they spent so much time playing with their new space bridge and chasing Bumblebee around in the last episode.)
When Megatron returns to Earth, Rumble and Laserbeak are already standing there, waiting for him. How did they know he was coming back? Or were they just going to stare at the space bridge receiver like lost puppies until Megatron returned?
I find it completely ridiculous that Chip is controlling a technologically sophisticated Autobot such as Prowl using keyboard commands from a personal computer. Watch this--hit CTRL+ALT+T and he transforms to police car mode! CTRL+SHIFT+S works his police siren! Aah... you get my point. (Now if he were using a mouse, it would be a completely different story. Wink, wink.)
Prowl, by the way, manages to single-handedly blow up just about every single airforce jet at this plant. It may have been Chip pulling the strings, but that still doesn't cast a very positive light on the Autobots. But wait, there's more of this later...
Chip may be physically challenged, but he's got superhuman upper body strength. Somehow he manages to shred a 5 1/4" floppy disk like it was tissue paper. (Those things are just about impossible to destroy with your bare hands--I should know; I've tried.)
Okay, let's deal with the issue of antimatter. Megatron seems awfully surprised when he finally manages to generate the stuff. Doesn't it seem a trifle peculiar that Decepticons, who are easily thousands of years ahead of us in technology, have never developed it, but some flesh creatures on a rinky-dink, backwards mudball have managed to come up with it?
Also, I don't think that Dr. Alkazar discovered antimatter at all. For one thing, all you need to create antimatter is to throw a bunch of atoms around in a particle accelerator until two of 'em collide and destroy each other. There really isn't any special formula needed for that. Besides, antimatter supposedly annihilates normal matter as soon as it comes into contact with it. If Starscream had really blasted Hound and Prowl with antimatter, they would have been, well, atomized.
When Optimus drops off the Autobots, on the way to the lab Sunstreaker says, "C'mon guys--we gotta get those antimatter cubes before it's too late!" How does he know they have antimatter cubes? He can't see them because he's not in the lab yet, and since Autobots don't use energon cubes it doesn't seem readily evident that the Decepticons would contain the antimatter that way. Of course, Megatron demonstrates similar clairvoyance when he retorts, "It is too late!" Again, I doubt he heard Sunstreaker's remark before the Autobots even entered the room.
I also find it hard to believe that Sunstreaker would bash right through the wall to the lab, given his preoccupation with keeping his paint job impeccable. (This is yet another example of wanton disregard for human property. What's even worse, is Jazz and Hound have each made their own personal holes in the wall of the lab!)
After Prime knocks gun-mode Megatron out of Starscream's hands, Starscream shrieks, "Skywarp, help! Get the antimatter gun!" Um... "the antimatter gun"? Has Starscream forgotten that this gun transforms into the leader of the Decepticons, or is Starscream intentionally omitting Megatron's name to spite him?

DIALOGUE AND SOUND EFFECTS: (12)

When Prime sends Bluestreak and Prowl after the Decepticon jets, Bluestreak laughs without opening his mouth.
Shockwave's eye isn't flashing when he speaks as it did in the last episode.
At Dr. Alkazar's lab, the security guard says "Hi, Chip!"; he's voiced by Chris "Sparkplug" Latta. A second or two later he adds, "Welcome back!" in a different voice (Dan "Bumblebee" Gilvezan), and doesn't move his mouth. He has this second voice for the rest of the scene.
At the aircraft plant, when Starscream is complaining that Megatron can't be trusted with the antimatter formula, Bluestreak adds, "He sure can't, manifold-mouth!" and Prowl moves his mouth as well. (What's also odd is that Bluestreak and Prowl are facing each other, not the Decepticons, when they respond to Starscream.)
After the first commercial break, when the Decepticons arrive at the lab, Rumble does a funky laugh with no electronic amplification. He sounds more like Mixmaster.
In perhaps the most widely-recognized blooper of the series, after Ravage captures Chip, Soundwave says, "Excellent, Ravage!" and his voice isn't amplified. This is particularly noticeable with Soundwave because without the electronic flanging, he completely loses the monotone, sounding more like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.
After the Autobots arrive at the lab and Starscream carries Chip into the lab perimeter, Starscream does a weird cackle. (It certainly isn't the trademark Starscream laugh we've come to know and love from later episodes. I guess the voice actors were still getting down some of their characters' mannerisms.)
Just out of curiosity, when Hound uses his holograms to disguise himself as a boulder, do his holograms also provide the sound of the boulder rumbling along the desert landscape?
When Sunstreaker delivers his first line in this episode (see Plot Oversights above) he's got a different voice than he did in "More Than Meets the Eye" part 2.
The fins on the side of Wheeljack's head are flashing orange when he talks in this episode. In "More Than Meets the Eye," they flashed blue.
When Sideswipe and Sunstreaker launch themselves to combat the Decepticon jets, Sideswipe says, "All right, bro, let's go!" but Sunstreaker moves his mouth.
After Teletraan I takes control of Skywarp and he starts blasting the Decepticons, Rumble screams, "Help!" but Skywarp moves his mouth.

ANIMATION AND CONTINUITY: (82)

Thundercracker is light grey, like Starscream, in the opening scene.
Then when the Decepticons head for the power plant, Thundercracker's black with red stripes on his wings. Also in this scene, Soundwave is colored a light blue. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they were using an early color model for him, since he was this same color in one of the animated spots for a 1984 toy commercial.
Inside the plant, when Starscream transforms, his helmet is grey instead of black.
Then, when Soundwave lands, Starscream's face is light grey (like Thundercracker's) instead of dark grey.
When the security guard picks up the phone on the wall to call for help, the receiver doesn't appear to be resting on a cradle of any kind!
Also in this scene, Thundercracker is colored like Skywarp.
In the brief shot of Thundercracker and Soundwave firing at the guards, Soundwave is missing the yellow border around his cassette window.
When Soundwave begins generating energon cubes, his cassette door is open. Usually, it's closed. Also, the cubes he's producing appear to already be full of energy--they're opaque and glowing. Empty cubes are transparent.
As the Autobots arrive at the power plant, Prime's front bumper is red and blue instead of light grey. Also, the side of his front tire is white instead of black, and his headlights are placed incorrectly--they're too high.
When they transform to robot mode, Prime is missing the details on his legs.
Also, when the Autobots arrive, Cliffjumper is on Prime's right and Brawn is on Prime's left. When Cliffjumper pushes Brawn out of the way, he runs in from Brawn's left. This means Cliffjumper ran behind Prime and Brawn, only to run back up to Brawn again and push him aside. It's technically possible for him to do this, but why in the heck would he want to?
When Cliffjumper is throw backwards and collides with Brawn, Brawn's helmet is orange instead of grey.
Then, when Prime gives the warning, "Cliffjumper--above you!" Cliffy's fists are grey instead of black.
Starscream is missing his arm-mounted guns when he bumps into Prime right before taking off. Also in this scene, the horizontal stripes on Prime's chest are red instead of grey.
When Starscream transforms to jet mode, the tip of his nosecone is red instead of grey.
When Soundwave is showing off the skills he acquired from the Ministry of Silly Walks,¹ the chain-link fence he runs into actually jumps forward as he breaks through it.
There are a lot of continuity errors concerning Prowl and Bluestreak in this episode. The first one is that Prowl is in the lead when he and Bluestreak chase Soundwave, but an instant later, it's Bluestreak who collides with the Wavemeister.
After Starscream catches Soundwave in tape deck mode, Thundercracker is colored like Starscream again.
I don't believe we've ever seen Bluestreak transform before, but his first transformation in this episode is inconsistent with later scenes. Here, his legs pops out of the bottom of his vehicle form, and the trunk of his car mode forms his pelvis. In fact, the back of his car mode should form his legs, just like Prowl.
After Bluestreak fires at the jets, Prowl's suddenly the one in robot mode, and Bluestreak is lurking in car mode next to him. Then there's a close-up of Bluestreak in robot mode again. Then Bluestreak is back in car mode and Prowl transforms to his police car mode. This time, however, each of Prowl's legs rotates 180º instead of his entire waist spinning around. Then (snicker) Prowl runs over Prime's foot.
As the Decepticons limp off into the sky, Starscream's air intakes (that's "the sticky-out thingies on either side of his cockpit," for the aeronautically challenged) are dark grey instead of red.
On Cybertron, when Megatron first speaks to Starscream on the monitor, Megatron's Decepticon symbol is red instead of purple.
On the monitor, Thundercracker is colored black, and Starscream's intakes are grey again.
In the next scene, the right side of Megatron's helmet was not colored in, and since the animation cel is transparent you can see the background behind him through that part of his helmet.
The space bridge is behaving differently in this episode--the receiver on Cybertron is spouting an orange burst of energy instead of pink, and the portal that opens in the sky is square instead of circular. Is this because Megatron is making a Cybertron-to-Earth trip and not vice-versa?
Outside the lab, the security guard opens the front gate for Chip and co. by pressing buttons on what looks like a very large calculator.¹ ("Doctor Alkazar, please dial the extension that's the square root of 32... Doctor Alkazar...")
When Laserbeak chases Bumblebee, he's in the desert, but when Spike suggests heading for the underground parking garage, suddenly they're in a city.²
Also, Laserbeak takes a few more shots, and suddenly the parking garage has instantly destroyed itself. No explosion or anything.
When Laserbeak returns to Megatron, Megs is missing his symbol.
At the aircraft hangar, Starscream's helmet is red when he's ripping off the jet wing.
When Bluestreak and Prowl arrive, Prowl's waist doesn't spin around at all this time when he transforms.
In the next scene, both Autobots are missing their symbols.
A moment ago, Starscream was fitting Thundercracker with a new wing from one of the Earth jets, which are all a uniform grey. When Bluestreak shoots the component out of Thundercracker's hand, however, both his wings are blue again.
In the next scene, when Thundercracker warns the Autobots they don't have Prime and Brawn to help them, he's colored like Skywarp again. (Guys, he's not in this episode. Just put the color model away...)
No subspace for Ravage today. When he pops out of Soundwave, his guns swing out from his sides instead of materializing out of nowhere.
When the Decepticons fire, the panel on the front of Prowl's chest is white instead of black.
Earlier, Reflector spied on the security guard to learn the access code to the lab: 295. When Reflector punches in a completely different number--493--the doors still open!
When we see Chip's room through the window, he has a college pennant that reads USC. This is rather peculiar, since the University of Southern California is reputed to be a big party school. It really doesn't seem like the ideal schooling for Chip the computer genius.
When the Decepticons enter Dr. Alkazar's lab, the front panel on Reflector's chest is grey instead of green.
As Prowl makes contact with Chip's computer, Chip's phone has an "X" symbol instead of a "_*". Also, his phone was on the right side of his computer when we first see it, but when Prowl calls, it's on the left.
Right before Bluestreak zaps Starscream, Bluestreak is colored lighter than usual, as though the blast were illuminating him (similar to the scene with Megatron shooting Ironhide in the last episode). The problem is he's colored this way before he ever fires.
At one point, the jet plane Prowl is operating has Decepticon insignias on its wings!
When Prowl flips the switches in the plane's cockpit to launch the missiles, it looks like they're being shown on a monitor. It can't be Chip's computer monitor, however, since Prowl's hand isn't being displayed on the screen--it's in front of it.
When Prowl calls Chip "a human after my own central processor," the wheels behind his shoulders are white instead of black.
Three missiles launch from the jet's right wing; then we cut to a shot of the Decepticons; then we cut back to the jet, which fires the same three missiles from the right wing again.
When the Decepticons flee the aircraft factory, Skywarp and Thundercracker are shown retreating (as well as Starscream, so it's not just Screamer miscolored).
At the beginning of this battle, when Soundwave ejected Ravage, he was right-side up--the top of the cassette formed the top of his body in jaguar mode. When Ravage returns to Soundwave, however, he flips upside-down before entering Soundwave's cassette door. This begs the question, does Soundwave have two sets of cassette heads--on the top and bottom of his cassette drive? Or are his cassettes not magnetic tapes at all?
Also, when Ravage enters Soundwave, the Wavemeister's missing the red stripes on his wrists and the yellow stripes around his cassette door.
When Megatron discovers where the antimatter formula was transferred to, his Decepticon symbol is missing its "eyes" and the triangle on its "forehead."
When Megs notifies Starscream of the formula's location, Soundwave is light blue again and good old Thunderwarp (or is that Skycracker?) is back.
In the next scene, Starscream's nosecone is red.
When Starscream and Thundercracker land near Chip's house, the tops of Starscream's air intakes are grey instead of red.
The same footage of Soundwave ejecting Ravage inside the aircraft factory is used again outside Chip's house--including the backdrop of the factory ceiling.
Chip's room now sports two (different) college pennants, bearing the letters SUN (I have no idea) and YAL (the "E" on the end is obscured by the other pennant). Yale seems like a perfectly reasonable school for the Chipster to receive an education, but why does he have pennants from two other schools? Incidentally, when Ravage arrives there are now three pennants on the wall.
Ravage overlaps Soundwave as he jumps behind the Wavester to drop Chip inside Starscream. Also in this scene, the Waveinator's eject button is blue instead of grey. (I also question Starscream's fuselage opening when he has a perfectly serviceable cockpit, but you know what? This episode needs such help that I'm willing to let that slide.)
Outside the lab, Starscream is carrying Chip, but Chip's missing when the Decepticons land on the foyer. Also, in the first shot, from left to right they are Soundwave, Starscream, and Thundercracker; in the next scene Screamer and Thundercracker have switched places.
When the Autobots show up, Prime's front bumper is red again.
Brawn's arms pop out of his sides when he transforms to robot mode. Earlier in the episode, they came out of front of his jeep mode (which becomes the top of his robot mode).
Mirage is missing his shoulder launcher when he first shows up. Also, when he returns from Invisibility Land, there is no rectangular prism surrounding him the way it did in "More Than Meets the Eye."
A curiosity: Why does Mirage, who has turned invisible, leave footprints--while Hound, who is disguised as a rock, does not? I suppose Hound might be incredibly thorough and is using his holograms to disguise his footprints as well, but why not do that for Mirage as well? The "real" answer, of course, is that in the Marvel universe, invisible characters are either a) drawn entirely in white, or b) leave footprints which, conveniently, none of the other characters ever notice.
When Soundwave activates the lab computer, his face plate has got some extra lines on it that make it look more like a beak. There's a longer shot of the same drawing when he increases the power.
Megatron is missing the trapezoids on the top of his chest when he marvels at the antimatter.
The cubes Reflector brings to fill with antimatter appear to be already full (they look the same as the cubes Soundwave produces earlier in the episode).
When Starscream prepares to shoot Bumblebee and the humans, he's holding his gun again. (Okay. I admit that he's allowed to hold his weapons. But this still get categorized as an oddity because he never does this in later episodes.)
Then, when Mirage shoots the gun out of his hand, the blast remains on the screen even after the gun flies off.
After Prime crashes through the wall of the lab, he's got round, twin headlights instead of the single square ones.
When Megatron tosses his antimatter cube at the Autobots, it's entirely black. (Just about every time something is inked in completely black is because it was supposed to glow, but they forgot to add the paint for the backlighting on top of it.) Then, when it flies over the Autobots right before it detonates, it's empty.
As the Autobots transform to retreat, Ironhide definitely has a one-piece transformation. I guess the animators finally gave up on his MARB base, realizing its complete uselessness.
Back at Autobot Headquarters, in the establishing shot of the volcano, their spacecraft is grey instead of orange.¹
At the lab, Starscream is in plane mode, being loaded with antimatter cubes. Then we pan over to the other Decepticons standing around in robot mode... including Starscream. (Later dialogue indicates that the jet being loaded with cubes is actually Thundercracker, but since there are a total of four Decepticon jets in this scene there's really no way they could have gotten it right...) Also in this scene, Reflector's arms are dark grey instead of light grey.
In the very next scene, when the 'Cons fly off, robot-mode Starscream and Thundercracker have switched places.
As the Autobots are socializing in the control room, Ratchet's forehead plate is white instead of black; the panel on the top of Jazz's hood is white instead of blue; and Sideswipe's shoulder is grey instead of red.
After the Decepticons are detected, when Prime gives his John Waynesque inspirational speech, his eyes are flashing between blue and light blue as he speaks.
When Sideswipe and Sunstreaker prepare to engage the Decepticons, the components on Sideswipe's shoulders are red; they should be white. Then, when he and Sunstreaker launch, the components are black.
Later, as the two parachute back down to Earth, Sunstreaker's front windshield is yellow instead of light blue.
When Megatron asks for the antimatter cubes, Thundercracker transforms to robot mode, and then produces two cubes out of thin air. Did he pluck them out of subspace, or what?
Megatron's transformation to gun mode was recycled from "More Than Meets the Eye" part 3.
Then, when Starscream catches him, the background fades from bright blue to grey with clouds. I think they were trying to match the background of the recycled footage (above), but didn't get it quite right.
When Megs reverts to robot mode, he appears to be coming together from four separate parts. Suffice it to say, his robot mode is one piece. Also, his upper face is black.
Besides Megs looking really silly when he ejects the antimatter cubes from his chest, he appears to eject three or four of them. Thundercracker only gave him two.
Near the end, when Chip is sitting atop Sunstreaker's shoulder, in a close-up, Sunstreaker's entire helmet is grey.
As the Decepticons fly away, why aren't the Decepticon jets in their jet modes? It's possible they're too badly damaged, but earlier the Autobots could transform after exposure to an antimatter explosion.

TRIVIA ANSWERS:

Ace Aircraft Factory. The name of the factory can be read on the building in the establishing shot of the place.
Betsy Brainiac.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
¹Frank Gerratana
²The Weeter

©1999 Inspiration Studios