Grimlock's
New Brain

The Transformers episode 89
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For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Grimlock becomes a genius.
Original USA broadcast date: November 14th, 1986

Contents
1) Synopsis
2) Notes
3) Errors


Synopsis

The Autobots have constructed a new power generator deep with Cybertron. It's Grimlock's job to activate it, but he messes things up by throwing the wrong switches, and Rodimus has to help him get it right. Cosmos and Sky Lynx return to Cybertron, but they both malfunction and crash. More Autobots begin to malfunction, so they get Teletraan II to investigate. They find out that it's a problem with the master power generator, which is sending unidentified force waves up the central shaft. Rodimus, Magnus, Kup and Grimlock head to the generator.

The team split up, but it's Grimlock and Kup who find the generator first. Grimlock smashes it up and bites into it, but in doing so, has his intelligence greatly boosted. Meanwhile, the Skuxxoid and Slizardo are the ones responsible for the generator sabotage, and want payment from Galvatron. But he has found out from Ratbat that the Autobots have already repaired the generator. The Decepticons have no more anti-electrons to provide to sabotage the generator with, but Slizardo knows where more are: inside Unicron's head. The Decepticons head to Unicron, whilst on Cybertron, Grimlock has found out about the anti-electrons. With Cosmos and Sky Lynx being repaired and Omega Supreme away on a mission, Grimlock constructs a new shuttle so the Autobots can get to Unicron.

As the Autobots approach Unicron, they're seen by the Decepticons, who are already inside. They fire on the Autobot shuttle, causing it to crash. Galvatron has the Terrorcons attack the Autobots, but Grimlock heads off by himself. He quickly constructs a new group of Autobots: the Technobots. These five Transformers consist of Scattershot, Nosecone, Lightspeed, Strafe and Afterburner.

Cyclonus and Scourge drain the remaining anti-electrons from Unicron and pass them to Galvatron, but as soon as he gets them, the Technobots destroy them. They then start fighting the Terrorcons, but the Terrorcons reveal that can transform into one giant robot: Abominus. The Technobots go back to Grimlock, but he tells them they can defeat Abominus be forming Computron. The Technobots transform and unite into Computron, who says his computation capacity is nearly infinite, but he lacks the intelligence to feed his capacity. Grimlock uses a device to transfer his intelligence into Computron, turning Grimlock back to his regular self.

Computron fights Abominus, and defeats him by using intense vibrations to shake him apart. The Decepticons retreat, so the Autobots return to Cybertron. There, Rodimus gives a speech, saying that the new generator is functioning flawlessly, and their future will be more secure now the Technobots are among them. He wants to thank Grimlock, but then the Autobots realize he's not actually there. Sludge says Grimlock is right here -he loves to fish with the Dinobots. Grimlock says it was no fun being a genius all the time, and it's much better to be good old Dinobot Grimlock.

Notes

-The Secret Files segment for this episode is about Ultra Magnus.

-Broadside can be seen a couple of times near the beginning, but he's using a new character model which looks more like the toy.

-Swoop is entirely absent from the episode.

-Slizardo was previously see in The Gambler, but he apparently split from Devcon and has gone back to working with bad guys.

-Rodimus Prime briefly reverts to Hot Rod when the Autobots stumble out of the shuttle wreckage. Some think this is an animation error, but it's a deliberate change -the dialogue script states Hot Rod rather than Rodimus.

-The episode introduces the Technobots and Terrorcons, whilst this episode first aired in November 1986, the toys for these character wouldn't be available until 1987. The Terrorcons get no explanation to where they came from, but the Technobots at least do -although it's pretty ridiculous, as Grimlock is seemingly able to make them all within a few minutes!

Errors

-Wheelie, Kup and Blurr are much smaller than they should be during this shot.
-The wrong background seems to have been used for this shot -the Autobots are meant to be on Cybertron, but the background is a rocky terrain.
-Teletraan II displays the wrong image during this shot -it talks about the power generator being deep with Cybertron, but displays a bunch of stars in space.
-Then a couple of shots later, Teletraan II is now displaying the correct image, but the monitor has grown massively in size.
-Rodimus overlaps Perceptor during this shot.
-When Ratbat's footage is first displayed, a space background is used. But when it's next seen, the background is completely different.
-The lighting effect for Scattershot's engines is misaligned during this shot, lagging badly behind Scattershot as he flies over the Terrorcons.