The Gender Bender!
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AllSpark energy turns a junk pile into a sentient robot who tries to help the Autobots, but ends up doing more harm than good.
Summary
Garbage is piling up all over Detroit, as the trash-bots are malfunctioning and Sumdac Systems CEO Porter C. Powell refuses to repair them until the city and he can come to an agreement on payment. In Powell's office, a technician demonstrates a new form of the nanobots that caused big problems a while back, designed this time to break garbage down to its component molecules, quickly and cheaply solving the garbage problem (while allowing Powell to charge the city a hefty fee).
Elsewhere, the Autobots are trying to patch up their still-damaged reputation by helping pile garbage into scows. Ratchet ends up getting into a shouting match with an old man whose car ended up under a garbage mound, resulting in the car being dumped in the river and the two old grouches almost coming to blows. Captain Fanzone arrives to break up the scene and remarks that Ratchet needs to work on his "people skills". Prime agrees and assigns Bumblebee and Sari to try and help out Ratchet while they work more on the garbage problem. Ratchet is not happy with this.
Just before the Autobots depart, though, Sari's key glows, but she quickly disregards this...and misses the emergence of a junk-robot from the scow, brought to life by an AllSpark shard. The confused machine tries to figure out his identity using the scraps around him, but is unsatisfied with the results. Spying a passing blimp with a sign for the Detroit police department with the slogan "We're Here to Help", the robot happily goes about trying to find some police for some help with his identity.
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Stats
- Written by:
- Directed by:
- Original airdate: May 3, 2008
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
Quotes
"I am Wreck-Gar, and I dare to be stupid!"
- —Wreck-Gar. Yes, but does he count his chickens before they hatch?
Other notes
- This episode was first shown on Friday, April 25th, at BotCon 2008. The version aired still had the time-code running in the top-left corner.
Continuity errors
- Why doesn't Sari or Ratchet react to the Allspark Key when it starts to glow, indicating the presence of Allspark energy?
Transformers references
- Wreck-Gar interprets Lugnut's incoming rocket punch as an invitation to a high-five, and he happily delivers the universal greeting.
- Wreck-Gar's shifting allegiance and red optics as he faces down Ratchet on the garbage scow appear to be callbacks to the original Wreck-Gar, who appeared to be an enemy to the Autobots at first, complete with red optics.
- The Animated incarnations of Spike and Carly, who made a cameo in the pilot episode, re-appear with speaking lines and even get their names called out.
Real-world references
- Wreck-Gar's "I dare to be stupid!" is, of course, a reference to one of "Weird Al" Yankovic's most well-known songs, "Dare to be Stupid", a Devo "style parody" that appeared on the soundtrack to the original animated movie.
Miscellaneous trivia
- Even Megatron gets annoyed from Lugnut's constant worshiping.
- Aside from Wreck-Gar, Weird Al also voiced the Sumdac Systems technician who explains the new version of the nanobots to Porter C. Powell.
This cartoon episode article is a stub and is missing information. You can help Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki by expanding it. |