The Autobots find themselves outnumbered when facing an Insecticon Clone Army and look to find a robotic insecticide to destroy them. However, their problems are just going to get bigger when spores from alien plants on Cosmos begin to grow rapidly...
Quest for Survival (Japanese title: "Operation: Survival") is the twenty-ninth episode of the second season of The Transformers and is the forty-fifth episode of The Transformers series overall. It is overall the forty-fifth episode of the G1 Era of Transformers.
Summary[]
The Decepticons have turned the Insecticons' cloning ability to new heights, to be an unstoppable force that will devour Earth's food resources and convert it into Energon. Like a horde of mechanical locusts, they will devour Earth's crops and cause the human race to starve to death. However, it seems an Autobot strike force lead by Smokescreen has finally had enough of the Insecticons' shit, and make an attempt to stop the Insecticons. However, there are too many in number, and the strike force has to retreat. Back at the Autobot base, Smokescreen explains what happened to Optimus Prime, when Bumblebee, Spike Witwicky, and Cosmos contact Prime, saying that they found some robotic insecticide on Floron Three, which causes Skids, a new Autobot member who was apart of Smokescreen's strike force and transforms into a Honda City Turbo, to question what robotic insecticide even is. As the terrific trio leave, however, something grabs hold of Cosmos, and he is barely able to escape.
Returning to the Decepticon base, the Insecticons convert the food they've eaten into Energon, but only get one Energon cube each. Megatron claims that this is because of the costly energy conversion process, but in another room, the Decepticons are busily converting massive amounts of energy into Energon. Megatron muses that the Insecticons would be deadly if they weren't so stupid.
On his re-entry to Earth, Cosmos discovers that spores from whatever attacked him are growing across his hull, and he is losing control of his systems. Bumblebee and Spike manage to abandon ship before Cosmos crashes, and go to get help. Arriving back at the base, Bumblebee discovers that spores are attached to his body, but Ratchet manages to get them off and have Perceptor analyze them. Prime attempts to contact Cosmos, only to discover that the valley he crashed in has been overtaken by the plant-like machines. As the Autobot leader leads a rescue mission, Laserbeak learns of the insecticide, and reports it to Soundwave. Megatron takes a team to retrieve it before the Autobots can... and in case he might need the insecticide himself.
At the base, Perceptor and Prowl discover that the spores are Morphobots, a plant-like species that the Transformers believed was extinct. They contact Prime, warning him that the Morphobots are particularly fond of robotic lifeforms. Elsewhere, Thrust is overseeing the Insecticons, when Megatron orders him to warn the Insecticons to stay away from the valley. The Insecticons suspect that Megatron is hiding something, and attack Thrust (who escapes with his Millenium Falcon engines), after which they take the entire clone army to the valley.
LA LA LA, NOT LISTENING!
At the valley, the Decepticons arrive first, only to discover the Morphobots. Starscream, wanting to save Cosmos, nab the insecticide, and get everything over with, fires first, only to have the blast from his null-ray deflected right back at him. Before Megatron can choke a bitch properly admonish Starscream, Soundwave detects the Autobots. Megatron decides to let Prime do the work of getting the insecticide for him. Warpath fires a blast only to get nowhere, and Ironhide's liquid nitrogen only freezes them momentarily. Blaster then gets a brainwave and begins broadcasting, which causes the Autobots to get ear rape once more and also causing the Morphobots to recoil. Bumblebee, Ironhide, Hoist, and Blaster take Cosmos out of the field.
The venus fly trap from outer space.
Once they're out, Megatron and the Decepticons attack, destroying the insecticide. However, the Morphobots also attack the Decepticons. As things get bad, the Insecticons arrive like the Royal Air Force. Megatron believes the noble creatures are coming to save them. Obviously his logic circuits fail to tell him just how many things are wrong with his hypothesis. Believing them to be food, the Insecticon clones fly straight into the field, and the Morphobots consume all the clones. The original Insecticons manage to escape, and the Decepticons follow.
At their base, the Autobots have loaded the Morphobots into a shuttle, intending to take them to a world with a large robotic insect population. Ironhide even says that it "was a good idea". However, Perceptor contacts Optimus Prime and requests that a second shuttle be prepared "real soon", as the Morphobots he has been studying have become a little too friendly for his tastes.
Stats[]
Original airdate: November 5, 1985
Production number: 700-44
Written by: Reed Robbins and Peter Salas
Featured Characters[]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulars
Guests |
|
Notable quotes[]
[Megatron hands each of the Insecticons a pathetically tiny energon cube]
Shrapnel: "This is all?! (all?)"
Megatron: "Oh, I'm afraid so, Shrapnel. The transfer process is costly, and uses a great deal of energy. Maybe we'll do better next time."
Bombshell: "Thanks for nothing!"
Kickback: "Big deal..."
Shrapnel: "Big spender. (spender)"
[Megatron leaves and enters a transfer room filled to bursting with energon cubes]
Megatron: "Muahaha. If the Insecticons had brains, they'd be dangerous! MUAHAHA!"
- -- Megatron reflects on the Insecticons' gullibility.
"Hmm. Very interesting."
"What is it?"
"Hmm? What is what?"
- -- Perceptor and Prowl, a typical conversation with a scientist.
"Who says plants aren't intelligent? The Morphobots are repelled by your music."
"Yeah, like the rest of us."
- -- Optimus Prime stating the obvious, and Huffer being a little ungrateful to Blaster, who is repelling the Morphobots
"Just don't stand there with your cockpits open, you fools!"
- -- Megatron, being dragged along the ground by a Morphobot.
"The Insecticons! Those noble creatures have come to save us, despite the danger to their own lives."
- -- Megatron, seriously overestimating his allies who come charging in like the cavalry.
"Our friend Megatron is in trouble."
"If I wasn't so hungry, I'd stop to help him out. HAHAHAHAHA!"
- -- Kickback and Bombshell both showing how an 'ally' should act.
"You didn't tell us they'd bite back!"
- -- Kickback, realizing that plants do bite back.
"I don't believe it! Those plants just ate the Insecticon army!"
"But those three ingrates got away!"
"I think we better get out of here!"
- -- Starscream and Megatron which ends up with, of course, a retreat.
Notes[]
Animation and/or technical glitches[]
- In one shot, there is a RED (not purple, red) Decepticon insignia on Shrapnel's head.
Continuity errors[]
- If the Morphobots can't be harmed by explosives and laser fire, and they can hogtie Megatron in a matter of seconds and sling him around like a bag of bolts, how did the Autobots manage to round them up and put them inside the rocket ship?
- In A Plague of Insecticons, Kickback declares that there is no spray capable of stopping the Insecticons. And yet, robotic insecticide...
Transformers references[]
- References
Real-world references[]
- After Blaster finishes with the Morphobots, Optimus claims he has just gone platinum, an honor in the world of music when making records.
Notes[]
- This episode marks one of several instances of Soundwave laughing. He laughs along with Megatron when Starscream fires at the Morphobots.
- In outer space, Cosmos' flying saucer mode is giant enough to hold Bumblebee and Spike with plenty of room to spare, but by the time he is rescued he is not much bigger than Bumblebee's alt mode. Maybe the pressure of being under the Morphobots shrank him?
- When Laserbeak returns to Soundwave, the hatch doesn't close automatically; Soundwave uses his left hand to close his chest manually.
- First appearance of Skids (out of only 2 in the whole cartoon!).
- Blaster repulses the Morphobots with an instrumental version of the song Cold Slither played in the G.I. Joe episode of the same name. This is the last episode the instrumental is played in.
- Blaster transforms into a halfway form between his cassette player form and his robot mode.
- Okay, seriously... robotic insecticide?
- In the Beast Wars cartoon, Rattrap used a similar trick on Waspinator (BW), resulting in one of Waspinator's many destructions.
Keywords[]
Robotic insecticide, Morphobot, Energon convertor
External links[]
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