The Mystery of Planet Master

« Transformers: The Headmasters ep 2 »
Nobody was willing to take the blame for the missing chunk of planet.
"The Mystery of Planet Master" マスター星の謎 () (Master-sei no Nazo)
Production company	Takara, Toei Animation
Airdate	July 10, 1987
Writer	Toyohiro Andō
Director	Takao Yoshizawa
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

After learning of the origins of the Headmasters and the planet Master, the Autobots race to recover the missing Matrix.

Synopsis

In Soviet Russia, chicken tastes you.

As the battle between the newly arrived Autobot Headmasters and their Decepticon counterparts rages on Cybertron, Daniel Witwicky, Wheelie and the others observe from the distant base on Athenia. Daniel, for one, is impressed by the newcomers. Elsewhere, Galvatron transforms to blast at Optimus Prime, knocking the Autobot leader down, but Hot Rod retaliates and Galvatron is forced back. Optimus decides to leave the other to it and go check on Vector Sigma. In another part of the battle, the Autobot Combiners face off against the Decepticon Combiners. The Autobots are left scrambling for cover when a shot from Bruticus brings a nearby building down. As the Athenia observers watch, Fortress brings his battleship, Maximus, into range and starts firing on the Decepticons. With the combiners down and under heavy fire, Galvatron calls a retreat.

Fortress mistakes Kup for a cheeseburger.

The battle over, Hot Rod invites the Autobot Headmasters back to Athenia. Kup recognizes Fortress as an old friend of his from Cybertron. Fortress explains how he and the other Autobot Headmasters are refugees who fled the planet millions of years beforehand and established a civilization on the planet Master. After their race honed their transformation skills to turn into heads so they could control larger bodies, several of their number rebelled under the leadership of a shadowy figure named Scorponok and were banished from Master, only to join up with the Decepticons.

"Will you stop following me around already?"

Meanwhile, Optimus Prime is attacked by Decepticons but, aided by the ghostly figure of Alpha Trion, overcomes them. On Athenia, Fortress is surprised to hear that Optimus hasn't taken the Matrix with him—it's been left on Earth to recharge. Fortress believes Optimus will need the Matrix to control Vector Sigma, and Hot Rod attempts to communicate with Optimus, as only he knows where the Matrix is, but to no avail. Hot Rod decides to head to Earth with Blaster by space bridge to hunt for the Matrix.

No sooner have the pair reached Earth than Blaster spots Ratbat hanging on the wall in Autobot City. As Ratbat flees, Blaster sends Steeljaw after him. Ratbat leads them to a storeroom where Soundwave is hiding, but the Decepticon drops a smoke bomb and escapes. Soundwave and Sixshot are soon ordered by Galvatron to find out why Hot Rod's on Earth.

OOOOOH YEAH! Dig it! Macho Mech Blasty Savage doin' the elbow drop, yeah!

The Autobots pinpoint likely locations for the Matrix and begin searching. Sixshot and Soundwave spot the Aerialbots heading for a cache of Decepticon energon in the desert, and send the Stunticons to intercept them. Meanwhile, Hot Rod and Blaster look in the Arctic. When Soundwave spots the pair there, Galvatron orders him to go intercept them. The two Autobots have already run into trouble in the form of the Predacons. As the Predacons attempt to merge into Predaking, Hot Rod interrupts them by driving into the middle of their formation, but Menasor arrives soon after. Superion also turns up and keeps the Decepticon combiner busy. Soundwave and his cassettes arrive to pick off Hot Rod, but Blaster and his team leap to the rescue, culminating in a one-on-one battle between the two communicators that ends with their mutual destruction. Soundwave's exploded remains are recovered by his cassettes, while Blaster dies in Hot Rod's arms, and the young Autobot vows to complete his mission.

Back on Athenia, the Autobots react with sorrow to Blaster's death. Wheelie begins playing the tape Blaster left him, and Fortress announces that the Headmasters have to go to Earth to help Hot Rod.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Darn that Soundwave. EEEEUUUAAAAAAGH!"

—Galvatron on the death of Soundwave.

Hot Rod: Billy, you okay?
Blaster: Not really... find the Power Pack! Rescue Optimus Prime. Go...
[Blaster turns gray]
Hot Rod: Billy, I promise you, I'll get those dirty scum for you.

—The epic lackluster death of Billy Blaster.

Notes

Transformers references

• This episode revisits the concept of Transformers becoming drained of colour whenever they die, as seen in The Transformers: The Movie. In this case, however, Soundwave and Blaster turn white when they meet their ends, rather than various shades of grey, which instead recalls "Call of the Primitives", where the same thing happened to all Transformers when they were drained of all their energy.
• The Centurion droids from "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1" reappear, once again guarding the path to the mega-computer. However, this time they are significantly easier to dispose of, cry out with voices as they fall, and Optimus Prime refers to them as Decepticons.
• Although Scorponok will not appear for five more episodes, a silhouette of him appears in this episode. Notably, the silhouette is of his Transtector, which will not be unveiled fully until "Explosion on Mars!! MegaZarak Appears".

Animation and technical errors

• In the opening battle of the Autobot and Decepticon Headmasters, Hardhead goes after Weirdwolf. However, he transforms his transtector to tank mode, disconnecting head mode, with a call of "Head On."
• When Hot Rod fires on Galvatron shortly after Optimus is hit, the laser blasts are coming from a location to the left of his gun barrel.
• The Cybertronian building Bruticus fires on and collapses crumbles as if it was made of rock, not the metal of a robotic world.
• As the tale of the Headmasters-to-be is recounted, Fortress is shown leading civilians onto spaceships, looking as he does now. This, of course, is wrong—he should appear as his smallest Headmaster component (Spike, in the English cartoon), as he's not a Headmaster yet.
• The three tapes Blaster ejects after finding Soundwave in the storeroom all use Eject's tape model, in the next shot turning out to be Eject, Rewind and Ramhorn.
• Blaster's cassettes are suddenly the same size as the Predacons.
• Wheelie is at least twice his normal size in this episode. Whereas Daniel normally reaches the small Autobot's shoulder, he's only at waist level here, seen most clearly when Daniel cries on Wheelie's arm after Blaster dies.
• Optimus somehow manages to hide behind a piece of wall that is entirely insufficient for him to do so.
• Menasor tells Hot Rod that he will back him up despite the fact that he wants to capture him.

Trivia

• Steeljaw has abruptly developed the power of speech with this episode. Although his fellow animal cassette, Ramhorn, previously talked in "Forever Is a Long Time Coming", Steeljaw never indicated he had the gift of gab until now.
• In the English dub, Steeljaw is shockingly unaffected by Blaster's death. After Blaster's tragic last words the only thing he says is a cheery "ALRIGHT CHIEF!" after Rodimus tells him to continue on.
• Raiden actually first appears in this episode, although it's nothing more than an extremely short cameo. And he's forced to run off thanks to Bruticus.
• People who haven't seen it think the fight between Blaster and Soundwave is awesome. It's really not.

Foreign localization

English

• Title: "The Tale of the Master Star" (Omni Productions dub)
• Original airdate: July 19, 1992

• Title: "The Mystery of Planet Master" (Shout! Factory sub)

• The review of the last episode shown before the title card is omitted.
• Blaster refers to his Mini-Cassettes as "Deployers" when noting their sensors. This term is consistently used in this translation.
• In the original, the "energy" on Earth that was being used to recharge the Matrix was left unspecified. Shout!'s subtitles have it to be plasma energy.
• Fortress is referred to as "Cerebros". This will continue throughout the series.

Italian

• Title: "La storia del pianeta Master" ("The history of Planet Master")
• Original airdate: ?

• After Chromedrome offers to help Hot Rod and Wheelie says that they can't, Chromedrome asks: «What do you mean we can't?», but then Wheelie says: «Why? Because you don't know Earth». It looks like there was some dialogue confusion since that's an aswer to "why", not "what".
• At the end of the episode, Chromedrome calls Hot Rod by his Japanese name.

Mandarin

• Title: "Master-xīng zhī Mí" (玛斯塔星之谜, "The History of Planet Master" )
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Istoriya planety Master" (История планеты Мастер, "The History of Planet Master" )
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

Laserdisc

1996 — Transformers: The Headmasters Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2002 — Transformers: Takara (Sony Wonder) — Omni dub only.
2002 — Transformers: The Headmasters — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — The Takara Collection Vol 1 — Transformers: Headmasters (Metrodome) — Optional commentary by Chris McFeely.
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome) — Optional commentary by Chris McFeely.
2007 — The Transformers: Headmasters (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2011 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.