Microbots



Perceptor, Brawn, and Bumblebee must shrink themselves to go inside Megatron and retrieve an artifact, the Heart of Cybertron, that gives him enormous power.

Japanese title: "The Micro Suicide Squad"

Detailed synopsis
While digging for Mayan artifacts in South America, a group of archaeologists stumble upon an ancient spacecraft. As news of the discovery is broadcast on the news, Soundwave and Megatron recognize it as the Nemesis, the Decepticon ship they traveled to Earth in four million years ago. Megatron states that there is something on that ship which he wants, and sets out to get it.

Meanwhile, at the Autobots' HQ, Perceptor is using a shrinking-enlarging device to repair one of Ironhide's memory chips while being insulted by Brawn for not being a soldier. Bumblebee walks in and tries to make him stop, when Optimus Prime orders Brawn and Bumblebee to follow him to South America along with Ratchet, to stop Megatron from obtaining what he wants.

As Megatron's troops blast their way through a rainforest in order to avoid satellite detection, Starscream manages to miss a tree and gets attacked by a giant snake, to the amusement of Rumble and the Constructicons. Meanwhile, Ravage has met his match in the form of a real Jaguar. The Autobots arrive and decide not to burn the forest down, because Optimus says "that's not our style."

Megatron gets through the forest first, and reaches the ship. Blasting it open, he retrieves the ship's energy core, the Heart of Cybertron. Hook implants it into Megatron's torso, vastly increasing his power level. Optimus Prime then arrives and orders the Autobots to attack, but they are all defeated by Megatron's new ability to continuously fire energy from his fingertips. The Autobots only manage to escape by destroying a hill, burying the Decepticons under rubble.

While Optimus Prime creates a force-field to keep Megatron at bay, Perceptor hatches a plan to shrink himself, Brawn and Bumblebee to microscopic sizes in order to infiltrate Megatron's body and disconnect the Heart of Cybertron.

Meanwhile, the Decepticons sit around and get plastered overcharged on energon. After Megatron rambles on about the "good ol' days" and passes out, Powerglide delivers the tiny Autobots into his body. This causes him to wake up and go to destroy the Autobots himself, as the rest of his forces can't stay on their feet.

Perceptor, Brawn and Bumblebee make their way through Megatron's body, avoiding his electro-sanitizers and riding his evil brain impulses. They eventually reach the Heart of Cybertron, disconnect it, and get out of Megatron just as the shrink-ray was wearing off. Brawn throws the Heart 2000 miles into the sky, at which point Perceptor blasts it. After this, Brawn shows much more respect for Perceptor.

Stats

 * Stats

Featured Characters
(''Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notable quotes
"Nice scenery." "Yeah, now let's waste it! I hate nice things."
 * Rumble and Scavenger, the latter sounding very familiar.

[Starscream shoots at a tree and misses] Rumble: "Good shot, Starscream!" Starscream: "Shut up or I'll blast you, punk!" Rumble: "Hey, hold that pose! I wanna remember you that way!" [A snake wraps itself around Starscream's neck] Starscream: "Help! Get this thing off me!" Rumble: "I think it looks styling on ya!"
 * Rumble and the Constructicons laugh at Starscream.

Brawn: "Are you defective? How ' re we gonna do that?! Perceptor: "Simple! We use my trans-mat reduction beam to shrink down to microscopic size. Then, we crawl into Megatron, and rip the blasted heart out!" Optimus: "What do you think of his intelligence now, Brawn?" Brawn: "Ahhh, I reserve judgment."
 * Brawn, Perceptor, and Optimus Prime

Megatron: "Decepticons: a toast. To the imminent destruction of the accursed Autobots!" [The Decepticons begin drinking Energon] Starscream: "Energy! We won't need to conserve it after tomorrow. We can bleed this planet dry!" Rumble: [hiccups] "Boy, these are good. [hiccups] I needed to refuel. Energy!" Megatron: "Energy! Energy!" Thundercracker: "Hey! This stuff's the greatest!" [passes out] Megatron: "Ah, those were the good ol' days, back on Cybertron...Didn' have to...sneak around in these...ugly Earth disguises." [Powerglide arrives] Powerglide: "Time to cut the jets and glide!...What in the world?" Megatron: "Good ol' Cybertron! Land...of the metal moon!"
 * The Decepticons and Powerglide in what is possibly the funniest scene of the original cartoon.

"Let's bash brain!"
 * Typical Brawn.

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * When Optimus is telling the Autobots to leave the base, Perceptor has a red Decepticon symbol. No wonder Brawn doesn't trust him.




 * When the Constructicons laugh at Starscream, they use Rumble's laughter while Rumble is talking. This laughter is reused a second later by Rumble himself when he is done talking.


 * Most of the Autobots do not follow Optimus to South America, but appear anyway halfway through the battle with Megatron.


 * Ratchet says "do" twice in a row when talking to Bumblebee at the end.


 * When the Decepticons get drunk, Soundwave is seen drinking amongst the crowd, despite having a faceplate.


 * When Perceptor said the Heart of Cybertron was going to explode, the voice that came out of his mouth was Brawn's.

Continuity errors

 * The Decepticons' ship was depicted as being the same size as the ship used by the Autobots in the opening episode, but here it's considerably smaller.

Transformers references

 * The Decepticon ship in this episode was later dubbed the Nemesis by the episode of the same name in Beast Wars. The ship itself is not named in "Microbots".

Real-world references

 * The Japanese title is apparently a reference to DC Comics' Suicide Squad.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * This episode is perhaps the only one to show drunken Decepticons. This is a real bummer, because they make funny, happy drunks.
 * The pulsating sound heard when Perceptor and company approach the Heart of Cybertron within Megatron is the same one used for the Dalek control rooms in all episodes of Doctor Who since 1963.
 * Megatron apparently has a wristwatch on his left wrist, which he looks at while flying around (causing concern for the Autobots within his shoulder joints).
 * At one point, Brawn proposes killing Megatron from the inside. Perceptor stops him, saying that if he fell while flying, the impact could detonate the Heart of Cybertron.  Once Megatron landed this wouldn't seem to be a concern anymore, but the Autobots still choose to remove the Heart of Cybertron rather than bashing brains.  Perhaps even a short fall would have been enough?
 * Megatron already has a open spot between his chest circuitry for the Heart of Cybertron, much like Ultra Magnus and Hot Rod have reserved spots (holes) for the Matrix.

Keywords
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Cyberforceps, Proton boots