The Autobot Run

At some race circuit, Spike and Chip are watching the cars finish a race when Chip thinks it would be an awesome idea if the Autobots held a race for charity or something. Spike thinks that it would be swell but they need to ask Optimus Prime about it first, and as Bumblebee arrives to take them back to Autobot base they don't notice that Laserbeak is following them.
 

Meanwhile, the Decepticons are gathered at a ghost town where the Constructicons are busy building Megatron's new device -the transfixatron. As they complete this new machine Laserbeak returns to them and Megatron finds out about Chip's race for charity idea and says that he'll put that information to good use later, and then he decides to test his new toy to see if it works.
 

Starscream starts to moan about the transfixatron being useless so Megatron gets him to transform and be shot with it. The blast hits him but he doesn't feel anything, so Megatron tells him to transform... but he can't! The transfixatron is a device that locks a Transformer in their alt mode. Megatron then reverses the process so Starscream can change back once more and then says that they'll go and use this on the Autobots as the Constructicons start building the second device Megatron wants.
 

At the Autobot base, Chip's idea goes down well with everyone but Huffer so most of the Autobots transform, leaving behind Huffer, Wheeljack, Ratchet and Brawn stay behind to guard the base. A few minutes later the Autobots are all lined up ready to go and they transform, with Bumblebee being the only one in the group not to take part, staying with Spike and Chip instead.
 

The race starts and the usual things happen, with Sunstreaker showing off to all the others by zooming away as fast as he can, but nobody sees Skywarp teleport in, armed with the transfixatron. He blasts the entire group of Autobots but none of them can really tell what just happened so they continue on regardless.
 

The race ends and as the Autobots do some stunts for the crowds, Mirage picks up incoming Decepticons on his scanner so Optimus tells everyone to transform, but they can't! This makes them all easy targets for Megatron and friends who disable all of their communicators and then lead them away as Bumblebee takes Spike and Chip back to the Autobot base to see if Wheeljack and Ratchet can do anything to help.
 

When they get back they explain to the others what happened and as Huffer goes into his "well I told you so but did anyone listen noooooo" argument Chip finds out about the transformation lock from Teletraan-1, and Wheeljack and Ratchet work on a way to counter it. Meanwhile the Decepticons show the Autobots how they are going to die - at the claw of some crushing machine the Constructicons made. Hound uses his holograms to contact the Autobots at the base.
 

This hologram gets through to the Autobot base and Chip uses Teltraan-1 to find out the location of where it is being projected from. Wheeljack has finished on his counter device, which is a grenade which should let the Autobots be able to transform again. As they roll out, Megatron has selected Ironhide to be the first one to be crushed into scrap metal.
 

Wheeljack's group arrives just in time but the other Decepticons immediately open fire on them all, which results in the grenade being tossed around a lot until Chip gets it. He rides down a hill and throws it at the Autobots just as Ravage crashes into him, but the grenade explodes and the other Autobots can finally transform again.
 

With Megatron's main plan ending in failure, he gets the Constructicons to transform into Devastator, who promises the Autobots death. All of the Autobots open fire on this particularly large foe but he easily trashes nearly all of them, but he doesn't see Wheeljack and Cliffjumper get to the transfixatron and fire it at him.
 

Wheeljack's theory is that the device will cause Devastator to fall apart, and this proves to be correct as the gestalt breaks up back into the six Constructicons. Megatron can't believe that the Autobots have managed to beat Devastator but he then sees that the Autobots are coming for him and the other Decepticons and as they are outnumbered, they retreat. A few seconds later the transfixatron is destroyed by Ironhide and Trailbreaker.
 

With the machine in flames Optimus says that they'll head back to the base as Ratchet starts to complain about all the repairs he'll have to do and that being an automotive genius isn't all that it is cracked up to be, which leads to some weak forced laughter from Spike and Chip.

This is the second in a trio of episodes which feature the poorest animation in this season - with "City of Steel" and "The Core" being the other two. The usual colour oddities pop-up again, such as Chip Chase having a blue jacket, and there are general other strange things like the many uses of character models when characters are standing still and even Shockwave appears on Earth in this episode - this is almost definitely an error however.