Fight to the Death on Planet Hive!!




 * English/Malay dub name: "The War on the Hive Planet"
 * Otherwise known as: "Battle to the Death on the Beehive Planet"

Detailed synopsis
In deep space, the Decepticons aboard Scorponok set course for the planet Hive, only to come across a ship full of the planet's inhabitants. The Hive inhabitants immediately recognize the Decepticon insignia on Scorponok's hull and turn to flee, broadcasting a warning to their planet before their ship is blown to pieces.

Some time later, the Autobots aboard Battleship Maximus, in pursuit of the Decepticons, happen upon the ruins of the Hive spaceship, and Chromedome goes to investigate the remains. The sole survivor, an injured Hive soldier, almost shoots Chromedome, until he identifies himself as an Autobot, and takes the soldier back to Maximus for medical attention. After telling them about planet Hive and the Decepticons' impending attack, he hands Chromedome a pendant, asking him to give it to his son Makk, and dies.

On Hive, as the approach of Scorponok is detected, the planet's Queen Bee issues orders to enhance defences, but because not all of the ships that are currently off-planet are able to return in time, the access tunnels leading to the city within the planet cannot all be closed, allowing Galvatron, Sixshot and the Horrorcons to invade. The city's children are evacuated to the queen's castle, but one young boy is unable to follow, and it caught on the battlefield.

Back out in space, the returning Hive ships cross paths with Battleship Maximus, and, mistakenly believing them to be Decepticons, they open fire. Hardhead is all in favor of returning the sentiment, but Fortress refuses, and Chromedome, Hardhead and Brainstorm fly out into the path of the lasers, trying to make the Hive soldiers realise the truth. Even this meets with failure, however, and although Fortress is insistent on sticking to the plan, Chromedome refuses and heads down to planet Hive on his own. Exploring in vehicle mode, Chromedome encounter the stranded young boy, who he discovers is Makk. Informed of his father's death at the Decepticons' hands and given his pendant, Makk helps Chromedome gain audience with the Queen Bee to prove their good will. Chromedome manages to convince the queen that he and the other Autobots are here to help, a revelation that is punctuated by the Decepticons' arrival at the doors of the castle, having decimated the planet's military forces. As Chromedome tussles with the Horrocons, he is shot out of the sky by Galvatron and Sixshot, and lands in the energy moat surrounding the castle. Galvatron then summons Scorponok down to the planet to press the attack, as the Queen Bee contacts Battleship Maximus and calls upon the Autobots for help. In the midst of the ensuing battle, Chromedome is able to absorb enough energy from the moat to re-energize himself, and the four Headmasters use the "Master Shot" attack, opening fire on Scorponok and the Decepitcons with Battleship Maximus's main cannon. To deliver the final blow, Fortress transforms into Fortress Maximus, slashing Scorponok across the chest with the Master Sword and forcing the villains to retreat.

Stats
Original airdate: 11th December 1987

Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * This episode features the first re-use of Fortress Maximus's transformation sequence from "Head On!! Fortress Maximus." As noted in that episode's article, the Autobot insignia on his chest is missing its "jaw" during this footage.

Transformers references

 * Planet Hive is the first stop of the Decepticons interplanetary energy-gathering quest, begun in "Daniel Faces His Biggest Crisis Ever!!"
 * Inhabitants of Hive become drained of color when they die, not unlike Cybertronians, as seen in The Transformers: The Movie and several early The Headmasters episodes.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * The "Master Shot" attack is a lot more mundant than it sounds - the Headmasters just pull the cannon off the side of Battleship Maximus's central tower and fire it. This gun, of course, is one of the Fortress Maximus toy's hand-held weapons, though Maximus never wields it in robot mode in The Headmasters.
 * When Chromedome re-energizes himself from the energy moat, the narration points out that he does it with Makk's assistance, and the animation seems to indicate that Makk is holding something that helps the process along. What this is or how it works is not explained - perhaps it was intended to be his father's pendant, which would give that whole sub-plot a point, but nothing is gone into on the topic.
 * Although you might assume that Scorponok immediately retreating after taking one bit of damage is simply a product of 1980's Saturday-morning-cartoon-villain logic, there's actually a bit more to it than that, as will be revealed in "Find MegaZarak's Weak Spot!!"