Scramble City

After the intro that features no new animation whatsoever, we're treated to a long flashback of the history of the Transformers, beginning with their war for superiority on Cybertron, Starscream's foul mouth and their departure into space for a new energy source. As we all know, the Decepticons follow after, get into a brawl inside their ship and Earth's g-forces drag them down, causing the Ark to crash into a volcano and stay there for four million years, when the dormant volcano mysteriously erupts.

Awakened, the Ark's spybot is sent out to create new transformations for the occupants to help them adapt, and Skywarp is the first to be revived, and soon all the Decepticons are back in action and willing as ever to conquer this world. It completely skips over how the Autobots are brought back, opting to merely state how they fight against Megatron's dastardly schemes, though it just shows them getting caught in the explosion of an oil rig and then suddenly appearing in a field attacking Devastator, who proceeds to wipe the floor with the Autobots.
 

Of course, this cliffhanger means nothing at all because it was all recycled animation a flashback! Seven minutes in and we finally get to the real deal: Ultra Magnus, the Autobots and their human buddies are beginning construction on Scramble City, located far away from human civilisation with a primary goal of totally overpowering all Decepticon gestalts, and the narrator continues to say how radical the thing is by stating it's the most powerful Autobot creation ever. We guessed.

Over at the Decepticon headquarters, Megatron notices something peculiar: "A change of magnetic field in Point 2667?" Whatever this means, he commands Soundwave to dispatch his cassettes there, and in no time at all Ravage, Laserbeak and Ratbat arrive at the destination, detecting massive energy waves, but are attacked by Blaster!
 

Steeljaw and Ramhorn are ejected to take care of those meddling pests, but don't do terribly well, letting Laserbeak and Ratbat sneak inside the base and discover the construction of Scramble City. Megatron naturally doesn't approve of such a scheme, and sends out the Constructicons to clean up that mess; Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker tag along, since they haven't done a thing in the ten minutes this has lasted, except for demonstrating their potty mouths.

Over at the Ark, Optimus Prime notices Decepticons readings on the radar, and they're heading straight for the secret factory! The secret of Scramble City must remain one, so he and the Autobots roll out to take care of them.

I always love those instances where two alliance symbol scene change things happen in the same minute.

Starscream and his cronies intercept the group and has a battle of wits against Optimus, and not much is achieved by either party until the Constructicons form Devastator, who lobs a boulder at them and ends up wounding Optimus Prime. Ultra Magnus, watching the events on a monitor at the factory is worried for his leader, and sends out the Aerialbots, who get a fifteen second commercial boasting of their skills.

Totally contrasting how they fared in the flashback, the Aerialbots turn the tide by knocking Starscream off his cliff and blasting Devastator to the ground with relative ease, forcing the Decepticons to retreat. Back at their base, Megatron is none too pleased about their defeat and ignores Starscream's claim that he'll do better next time, for he decides to send the Stunticons out, who are "the Decepticons' newest potential in this war."

Elsewhere, the Autobots are rolling out again. Another of those in-the-same-minute things, again. I like to point them out.
 

The Aerialbots find and attack the Stunticons, softening them up for the Autobots' ambush, but in their robot modes the Stunticons are expert sharpshooters, blasting the Aerialbots out of the sky like floating ducks, turning the fight into a ground-based battle. Optimus commands them to "open up Scramble Power all the way," leading into them forming Superion; the narrator helpfully explains Scramble Power for us.

"Four of them can fuse to anywhere on the arms or legs except for the one who is the body and displays Scramble's power."

In a nutshell, expect plenty of switch-a-roos!
 

The Stunticons fight back feebly, their shots dealing no damage at all and the group are promptly kicked away by Superion. Megatron, who is watching the fight at their base, commands them to form into Menasor and kick Superion's ass, and they follow his instructions pretty well, but before he can stomp on the gestalt's chest, the Aerialbots use Scramble Power to swap their pieces around, conveniently allowing them to evade the attack and power up at the same time. Unwilling to be left behind on the power scale, Menasor does the same.

Superion drops a flying kick on the gestalt, knocking him against a cliff, but the second attempt is foiled by Menasor grabbing his legs and swinging him around before throwing him into another cliff. Although using Scramble Power to avoid a devastating punch, they cock up pretty badly by failing to decide who acts as what leg, giving Menasor the opportunity to funk him up by inserting his arm as the gestalt's leg. Fireflight is none too pleased.

Optimus Prime worries for Superion, and contacts Ultra Magnus to ask if Scramble City can be mobilized, but it can't be until the check-ups are done. Until then, all Superion can do is writhe around in pain while Menasor's gun is aimed at his head, but Optimus gets a plan of firing at the Decepticon leg up close, successfully freeing it and allowing Fireflight to gain his rightful place as the leg that kicks Menasor in the robot balls.

While Superion beats the shit out of Menasor, the Combaticons show up and fire upon the Autobots before forming Bruticus, helping Menasor back onto his feet and putting up their dukes. How will they ever get out of this sticky situation?

At that time, the check-up on Scramble City is conveniently finished, allowing it to be raised above ground and turn into it's mobile fortress mode, speeding to the scene of the fight while flattening rocks under it's immense power, just to show that it is badass.

The Protectobots are also dispatched, but seriously, Scramble City!

Bruticus and Menasor double team Superion, the latter of them holding him up while the former just beats him senseless, but the Autobot gestalt can no longer take the pain and they seperate, leaving a wounded Optimus Prime and the other Autobots the new targets of the giant beasts. The combined mode of the Protectobots shows up, Defensor, but no one cares about them; even the Decepticons completely ignore him, because Scramble City is on the way!

Scramble City transforms into it's utterly humongous robot mode, Metroplex, and fires a single blast from his cannon that blows the Decepticon forces sky high. The day saved, Optimus Prime thanks Ultra Magnus for his hard work, and also Metroplex for being such a badass mofo. However, an explosion from the ocean!

The Autobots stare in awe as the sea parts to reveal the incredible might of the Decepticons' secret project: Trypticon! His eyes glow as he steps forward, staring straight at Metroplex; what destruction will be caused by this tyrannical beast? Stay tuned to find out!

Well, that's what you could be doing if this wasn't just a one-off thing. That's a cliffhanger there.

The most you did in this was slap Starscream, Megatron, you're in no place to sound threatening.

Just to unnecessarily point it out, Optimus Prime shooting the Decepticon leg of Superion is the most any of the characters who don't get in-show commercials do. The only Autobot who doesn't get a shopping list of why they're great to actually talk (aside from Optimus Prime) is Bumblebee, and it's just "hey Spike I'm gonna go take a break." Significance!

Despite appearing frequently to launch a new attack squad or shout at his lackeys, Megatron is really lacking animation in this episode. He does get a few unique pieces of animation, but a majority of the time it's just that ugly close-up of his face staring blankly with his mouth moving. Lazy.

Thanks to dodgy subtitles, it sounds like Soundwave is sending out Eject, one of Blaster's cassettes!

Eject doesn't appear in the episode at all, so that further complicated things until I remembered Soundwave owns Rumble and Frenzy.

Transformer city robot trivia!

This is the only instance of Trypticon having eyes.

Scramble City uses a different, more toy-accurate head than his appearance in season 3 and Headmasters. Differences include the "wrinkles" he has, separate eyes and squared parts on the "horns".

Starscream is awesome! Despite continuing to fail miserably and losing his trademark high-pitched voice, he says "bastard" like three or four times in this twenty two minute OVA. That's wild!