Fight!! Victory Leo



God Ginrai is reborn as the ferocious Victory Leo, but will he be a threat to the Autobots as well as the Decepticons?


 * English/Malay dub name:  "Go to Battle, Victory Leo"
 * Also known as: "Fight, Victory Leo"

Synopsis
With the Shuttle Base berthed on a small Hawaiian island, Perceptor and Wheeljack begin the process to reconstruct God Ginrai according to the design specifications created by Star Saber. A tense atmosphere fills the base, with Jean hit the hardest. The Multiforce soon find something to take their minds off the situation, however, when they discover Hellbat's Breast Animal spying on the base. Machtackle and Dashtacker fall victim to the Breastforcer's hypnotic waves, but Wingwaver avoids them and engages the villain in an aerial battle above the ocean. Hellbat escapes by diving beneath the waves, and quickly makes his way back to the submerged Thunder Arrow, where he reports to Deathsaurus on the apparent death of Ginrai. Additionally, Hellbat has discovered a large stockpile of energy in western America, which the Decepticons quickly mobilize to attack while the Autobots are low on manpower.

Back in the Shuttle Base, the Autobots gather as the reconstruction process is completed, and the recreated, reborn God Ginrai emergesnow, he is Victory Leo. Jean and Holi sneak into visit Victory Leo while his freshly-connected circuits are still stabilizing, and overjoyed to discover that he still possesses some of God Ginrai's memories, and knows their names. Suddenly, Victory Leo convulses in pain and asks that they leave him to rest. Mere moments after they depart, however, a screaming Victory Leo comes smashing through the door, transforms into his lion mode, and begins rampaging through the base. The Autobots chase Victory Leo to the medical bay, where Perceptor and Wheeljack are working on Star Saber's wounds, and Jean gets between the feral Autobot and the Supreme Commander. After a few tense moments, Victory Leo turns and bounds out of the room, and Star Saber and Perceptor explain that Victory Leo's circuits are not yet properly balanced. As Victory Leo returns to his room to stalk around, a tearful Jean looks over a scrapbook of photos of God Ginrai, refusing to believe that his friend is alive within in the animalistic Autobot.

As if things weren't bad enough, the Autobots are soon alerted to the appearance of the Dinoforce on the "Energy Road" that leads to the energy stockpile in America. The Multiforce head out to investigate, and are met by Hellbat and Leozack while the Dinoforce attack the approaching tractor-trailer, which is carrying a full load of energy. The Multiforce merge into Landcross to fight back, but the Dinoforce form Dinoking in response, and the two combiners battle while Laster and Braver arrive to tackle Liozack and Hellbat.

At the Shuttle Base, Blacker prepares to join the fight, but Star Saber stops him, aware that he is still not fully over his own injuries. Star Saber attempts to head out himself, but can barely even stand, when Victory Leo, still in beast mode, appears in the doorway. Star Saber decides to send him out in his place, despite Blacker and Jean's reservations, and Victory Leo wastes no time in flying to the battleground. He crashes into Leozack and Hellbat in mid-air, knocking them out of the sky and making short work of their Breast Animals, and then turns on Dinoking. Separated from his battle staff, Dinoking grabs the nearest weapon he can find: one of the canisters of energy from the tractor-trailer. Before he can hurl it, however, Victory Leo opens fire and strikes the canister, causing it to explode, blasting Dinoking into his component parts. The Decepticons retreat, as the shocked Autobots watch Victory Leo take off into the air.

Everyone returns to the Shuttle Base, to discover that Star Saber has summoned Greatshot, hoping that he will take over from God Ginrai as commander of the Sector Two Defense Force. Greatshot is unsure, but Star Saber highlights his own injured condition and the Autobots' diminished manpower, and Greatshot takes the job, on the basis that he reserves the right to quit without objection. Star Saber accepts, but as the furious roars of Victory Leo echo through the base, the Autobots realize that they must awaken the heart of their friend God Ginrai within Victory Leo before it is too late...

Stats
Written by:  Toyohiro Ando

Original airdate: 27th September 1989

Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Continuity errors

 * Dash tells Waver to take the drivers of the energy tanker to safety, but it is Tackle who drives up and carries them off. Which is only sensible, really, since getting on a boat wasn't going to do them much good in the middle of the desert.

Transformers references

 * Ginrai and Star Saber received their fatal injuries in "A Deadly Battle". The former's reconstruction process began in the previous episode.
 * Blacker's doing a bit better than them, but is still not entirely over the wounds he received in "Crisis! Ambush in the Desert".
 * Greatshot returns after his last appearance in "Crisis! Ambush in the Desert".

Miscellaneous trivia

 * This episode broke from the show's normal schedule by airing on a Wednesday, only one day after the previous episode.
 * Yet another episode to eschew one of the show's two stock title cards.
 * As in the previous episode, there is an oddly conscious effort to refrain from naming guest-stars Wheeljack, Perceptor and Minerva, identifying Perceptor only as "the Autobots' greatest technician."
 * Victory Leo's "flight mode" (like Sixshot's "Wingwolf" mode, Overlord's "space jet" mode and BlackZarak's "dakatsu" mode before it) is not part of the toy's official instructions, as it was created by the production staff of the anime by fiddling around with it.