Great Turn-Around! Autobots



Cancer experiences a very unhappy New Year!

=Super-God Masterforce issue #11=

Script: Masumi Kaneda Art: Ban Magami


 * Major characters (in order of appearance): Mega, Giga, Cancer, Browning, BlackZarak, Javil, Guzzle, Sizzle, Grand Maximus, Overlord
 * Originally published: February 1989

Detailed synopsis
Forbidden by Lord Giga from returning to his home country, China, to celebrate the Chinese New Year, Cancer disobeys him and runs away with Browning. What Cancer is unaware of, however, is that he was forbidden because his Decepticon family had wanted to celebrate with him, having spent all day making decorations, only to discover Cancer's tearful note.



Unfortunately for Cancer, BlackZarak attacks China with the Sparkdash in the middle of his trip, and it’s not long before Grand Maximus arrives on the scene, carrying the Autobots into battle to stop the Decepticons. As the Autobot Godmasters grapple with the Sparkdash, BlackZarak spots Cancer and, after getting over his initial surprise, seizes the boy with the intent of using him as a bargaining chip to keep the Autobots back. After unleashing his “Spear Hurricane,” generating a cyclone blast with his spear which envelops Grand Maximus, BlackZarak spots Overlord approaching from the air, but is more than surprised when he transforms to robot mode and brutally attacks him, outraged by his treatment of Cancer and dismissive attitude to humans. With BlackZarak weakened, Grand seizes his chance, leaping out of his battleship and assuming his Pretender form – without shrinking! The giant-sized Pretender Grand crashes into Overlord and BlackZarak with a “Big Mode Pretender Shell Power Kick!”, and the Godmasters follow it up by firing all their weapons on the Decepticons as one, creating a huge explosion, and sending the two villains fleeing.



In the aftermath of the battle, a startled Ginrai wants to know the reason for Grand's excessive size, and Grand explains that in ancient times, the Pretenders did not shrink, remaining enormous in their suit modes, spawning legends of giants among early man. Back then, Grand says, man learned and grew thanks to the teachings of the Transformers, but now, mankind and Transformers are truly equals.

Back at the Decepticon base, Cancer is disappointed in himself for not trusting his family, but Mega forgives him, and Browning notes that running away never solves anything.

Aww!

Items of note



 * This issue was published in February, which is, of course, when Chinese New Year occurs.
 * Grand's smallest Headmaster component (identified in the toyline as "Gran") makes his only fictional appearance in this issue, since he never appeared in the animated series.
 * Similarly, this issue features a brief appearance by robot-mode Grand outside of his Pretender shell. The only other time this occurs is for a few seconds in the anime episode, "Crisis! The Day of the Downfall of Humanity."
 * The idea that Pretender shells are able to grow to giant-size is exclusive to the manga. Presumably, it's an attempt to offer some sort of fictional justification for the size of the Pretender toys' shells - they're wildly out of scale with the rest of the toys in the line if one assumes the cartoon's position of them being human-sized, but with this idea that they can be giant-sized, it's all good! Of course, this was never a problem for the Western fictional representation of the Pretenders, since they remained giant-sized at all times.