Blast from the Past

Professor Sumdac upgrades a trio of animatronic dinosaurs from a local theme park, but the creatures develop minds of their own and become rampaging Dinobots, bent on destroying the Autobots.

Stats

 * Written by:
 * Directed by:
 * Original airdate: January 12, 2008

Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Transformers references

 * The island Prowl takes the Dinobots to may be a reference to Dinobot Island.
 * Grimlock's robot mode looks exactly like G1 Grimlock's with a few changes.

Real-world references

 * The entrace of Dino Drive is remarkably similar to the entrance of Jurassic Park in the movie of the same name, and music reminiscent of the Jurassic Park theme can be heard during some of the Dino Drive scenes.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * This marks the first time the Dinobots will be used in a Transformers TV series since G1. There is much joy.
 * The Dinobots' color schemes are lifted directly from the G1 cartoon, with some minor variations. This is most obvious in Swoop's torso being blue, rather then the red featured in G1 Swoop's comic and toy incarnations. The Diaclone version of G1 Swoop's toy likewise had a blue chest, so this is possibly an homage, but is more likely coincidence.
 * Unlike G1, the Dinobot's alt modes actually match up with how dinosaurs are depicted in the fossil record (Less sluggish, more mammal/bird-like, Grimlock bent over horizontally, no bow-leggedness, etc)