Scramble City (diorama)
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Scramble City" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Scramble City (disambiguation). |
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| "Scramble City" | ||||||
| Release date | April 1986 | |||||
| Written by | Toyohiro Andō | |||||
| Animation studio | Toei | |||||
Takara employees take their toys out to a sandbox and throw them at each other! Excitement!
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Synopsis
After the introduction to the exciting world of the Transformers as well as the current state of combiner technology via a show of Devastator combining, Optimus Prime instructs the Autobots during a roll call to be careful about keeping Scramble City a secret. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 From the Decepticons' temporary base of operations, Megatron orders Soundwave to eject Laserbeak. A Prime Problem
Laserbeak deploys and swoops through the desert and spies Metroplex. Laserbeak videotapes Metroplex and reports back to Megatron. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 At Autobot HQ, Hound reports that Laserbeak has discovered Scramble City. The Immobilizer Blaster deploys his new cassettes to guard the base. Optimus Prime deploys the Aerialbots into action as Megatron arrives accompanied by the Stunticons. The Aerialbots form Superion, the Stunticons form Menasor and both combiners hug "clash". Both start going crazy with the Scramble Power to maximize their skill, until Menasor deploys Dead End who latches onto Superion's leg and immobilizes him.
Optimus Prime orders Jazz to summon the Protectobots to battle. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 The Protectobots leave Scramble City to come fight. Not to be outdone, Megatron orders Soundwave to summon the Combaticons into action. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 The Combaticons and Protectobots arrive on the scene at the same time, combine into Defensor and Bruticus and then tag team with Superion and Menasor. The four toy super robots then proceed to stare at each other. Optimus Prime then decides not to take any chances and orders Scramble City to transform into mobile fortress mode and enter the fray/staring contest. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 Scramble City transforms into fortress mode, arrives on the scene and then turns into Metroplex.
Just to make absolutely sure they win, a ball of light crashes through the sky (well, less "crashes through the sky" and more "floats around awkwardly on fishing line") and heralds the arrival of Metroplex's City Commander, Ultra Magnus. Megatron gets ticked and orders his own City Commander to enter the skirmish: Galvatron! More than Meets the Eye, Part 3 Galvatron arrives in the same fashion (floaty light thingy) and, in cannon mode, fires his crazy wriggly laserbeams at Ultra Magnus who is in vehicle mode. Magnus and Galvatron both transform and go at it. The battle finally kicks in full throttle as both factions clash in a massive all-out brawl (or rather, nobody moves yet everything around them completely explodes). Then, without warning, the earth quakes and the battlefield cracks in two as the menacing Decepticon City, Trypticon, emerges from the ground with Real Motorized Walking Action!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
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Notes
- This OVA was put together via stock footage of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers episodes and stop-motion animation of the actual toys. Much of the stop-motion footage was also used for TV commercials advertising the toys in Japan.
- The title as it appears on the screen simply reads "Scramble City". However, the narrator announces the title as "Scramble City: Mobilization Episode" ("Scramble City Hatsudō Hen"), which is the full title of the OVA's animated counterpart.
- This is not canon with Japanese continuity. We can't stress that enough, people.
- Plotwise, this OVA is an exact duplicate of the animated "Scramble City: Mobilization". The only difference in story (outside of economical alterations due to the limitations of the medium) is that this features the very first appearance of Galvatron in Japan. This rather infamous continuity error is thanks to Hasbro's intention of keeping Galvatron's identity as Megatron a secret, hence the rank of City Commander. Takara threw the Galvatron toy into the OVA, believing he was just another subordinate of Megatron's. Many early pieces of Studio OX artwork in TV Magazine also featured Galvatron as a subordinate of Megatron. These continuity glitches were later retconned by writer Hirofumi Ichikawa for e-HOBBY, where it was revealed that the Galvatron seen in those story pages was in fact a dimension-hopping Galvatron II. So, if you want, you can pretend that this Galvatron is actually Galvatron II. Whatever gets you through the night.
- Despite being a duplicate of the animated "Scramble City", this OVA featured a newly recorded voice track from the cast of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers. Galvatron has no lines of dialogue whatsoever, though.
- After the OVA ends, the audience is treated to a painfully long segment where the narrator shows us each and every toy featured along with their individual prices.
- Due to the battle footage using toys, it is free from the numerous coloring errors that plague the animated version.
