No matter how much I try to resist, I just can't stay away from those Transformers and all of their mishaps.  Actually, the more I watch these old episodes the more I wonder how in the world I ever sat glued to my TV day after day because of this show.  At least now I've moved on to better things, such as porn or Three's Company.

Realizing that no one on Earth has ever bought a Gears toy, Gears decides to get himself kidnapped so that he can be showcased a little more.  After abducting him, Megatron removes his Super Dee Dooper Special Transducer Maximizer Oscillation Chip which somehow powers a solar energy collecting device.  For some reason, the Autobots want Gears back and charge to the rescue, obliterating the Solar Needle and restoring Gears to his old, grumpy, peg warming self.

This episode has a hilarious moment where Starscream and Megatron burst into uncontrollable laughter like maniacs and then both stop abruptly for no apparent reason.  If you'd like to see this for yourself, you can download the clip.

• When saving the miners at the beginning of the episode, Optimus tells the Autobots not to fire because they might injure them.  He does this about ten minutes after all three of the miners have run way out of the way.
• At one point Skywarp transforms and carries away Gears.  He somehow carries Gears underneath his body though, which I can't understand for the life of me.
• Gears sure is flimsy.  Not once but twice his chest panel flips right open at the slightest touch.
• In every shot showing the sun being zapped by the Solar Needle, it's only a couple miles off the ground.  I seem to remember the sun being at least a mile or two further out into space than that.
• As always, Megatron's plan is doomed from the getgo due to his incompetence.  However, it is a pretty good plan.  What I don't understand is why he didn't just use his Solar Needle on a different star that the Autobots wouldn't be able to track.
• So... the Autobots drove to Africa?!
• In typical Autobot fashion, they completely demolish the jungle in order to clear a path to drive to Megatron's hideout.
• During this scene, Optimus Prime jumps a canyon in truck mode.  I couldn't help but think of the same stupid and ridiculously impossible scene in that turdball movie Speed.
• Starscream goes to shoot Gears but misses and hits the Solar Needle instead.  In the ensuing long shot, we see that Gears is at most two feet away.  Great aim on those Decepticons.
• Several times throughout the episode they mention how the sun will erupt and destroy the universe.  I somehow don't think that the sun is that important to the rest of the universe.
• Optimus says that the one weak spot in the Solar Needle is the hole on the very top.  Cliffjumper, always out to hog the glory, jumps at it to shut it down.  It works, but the spot he actually hits is nowhere near the "only vulnerable spot" Prime mentioned.
• Something doesn't strike me as being quite right about Megatron granting Optimus one last request.  No wonder he always loses.
• How did Optimus Prime know where Gears's circuit card was in the Solar Needle?  He must have helped build the thing for Megatron.

CHANGED PREMISES

• Soundwave ejects Ravage just by doing some dramatic hand gestures.  In the past he always had to hit the "Eject" button.

ANIMATION FLUBS

• When Soundwave ejects Laserbeak and Ravage (as just mentioned and as you can see in the image above) Starscream and Thundercracker--who were both standing right next to him in the shot immediately prior--both vanish.
• When Starscream and Thundercracker reappear, they've switched places.
• When the miners call for help, Optimus turns away from the monitor to his left and calls the Autobots.  They all run in from his right.
• As the Autobots run in from the wrong direction, Sunstreaker runs past Gears twice.
• The three miners all continually swap voices throughout the scene.
• After being kidnapped, Gears is in some sort of electrified metal cage.  Then suddenly it's gone for the entire rest of the episode.
• When the Autobots arrive at the Space Needle, Cliffjumper has a totally different voice, sounding like Gears.
• Starscream delivers Skywarp's line "your circuit stays right here!"
• Megatron shoots some rocks from high above to fall on the Autobots.  When they "fall" though, they come in parallel to the ground as if they'd been thrown from the same height, not knocked down from above.
• PizzleWig Almighty is there a lot of recycled footage in this episode.  Megatron backhanding Starscream, Megatron transforming and being fired by Soundwave, and Optimus's transformation all get used many, many times.  At least it's finally a different version of Optimus transforming.
• I don't normally mention painting errors since there's a lot of little details on the Autobots and Decepticons, but for some reason Megatron's Decepticon emblem is dark grey throughout the entire episode rather than its usual purple.

- Danimal