Shockblast: Rampage

« Transformers: Energon ep 21 »
Oddly enough, of the three generics about to be blasted by 'ol Shock, the redshirt survives. For now... then he gets better and quits being a redshirt.
"Laser Wave: Rampage" "Shockblast: Rampage" 大暴れ! レーザーウェーブ () (Ōabare! Laserwave) "Rampage! Laserwave"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	28 May 2004 (Japanese) July 3, 2004 (English)
Writer	Akira Okeya
Director	Naoki Ōhira
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

Shockblast disables Cybertron's energon grid, while Kicker tries to convince the Autobots to listen to Alpha Q.

Synopsis

This is kind of cool... wait no it isn't.

Ironhide careens madly across the surfaces of Unicron's head, with Kicker at the controls and Misha screaming in terror. Alpha Q is excited at the prospect of joining forces with the Autobots and gaining freedom at last; Kicker is also happy over the prospect of bringing Unicron's head to the Autobots.

Autobot troops continue searching for Shockblast. As the escaped fugitive watches from the shadows, a guard refuses Wing Dagger and Padlock entry to a restricted area, and the two head onwards in their search. Shockblast wastes no time in killing the guard after they leave and leaping through the doors. He lands in the "energon core" chamber, which blasts him.

Rad reports on Shockblast's intrusion, and Prime, Inferno and Hot Shot head that way. Padlock and Wing Dagger arrive first and find Shockblast lying inert, but it's just an act. Shockblast takes Padlock hostage, holding off the Autobots as Prime and company arrive. He exits... and kills Padlock on the way out. The doors are sealed behind him. An infuriated Wing Dagger futilely tries to bash his way out of the Primus chamber, while Hot Shot contacts Rad to open the doors.

Shockblast radios Megatron, demanding to be rescued. He informs Megatron that there's a huge cache of energon on Cybertron, enough to revive Unicron, and offers to disable the energon grid so the Decepticons can infiltrate the planet. Megatron sends his troops to help, despite Tidal Wave's warnings about trusting Shockblast.

Dude, hang ten!

Rad detects the Decepticons approaching the planet with a mobile fortress, and he powers up the energon grid. Prime and company continue their hunt for Shockblast.

Starscream and the troops arrive at Cybertron; Shockblast, who's been put in charge, orders them to crash the mobile fortress into the energon grid, over their protests. A huge explosion ensues; Shockblast uses the distraction to destroy one of the energon towers. Terrorcons and Decepticons swarm in through the resultant hole in the energon grid.

Shockblast links up with the Decepticons, and he and Tidal Wave immediately begin squabbling. When Shockblast begins picking on Tidal Wave, the Decepticons fight among themselves.

Rad redirects the energon grid to blast Shockblast. Megatron arrives and orders the others to rescue Shockblast, and Tidal Wave reluctantly does so. Shockblast delivers one last blast, destroying another tower, before Megatron orders a retreat.

Admit it, you always wanted to see this.

In the wake of the battle, Wing Dagger recriminates himself for letting Shockblast get away. Jetfire radios in with news that Kicker is on his way, with Unicron's head. Alpha Q hopes he's doing the right thing.

Jetfire is shocked to see Unicron. Prime and company arrive aboard the Miranda II, as does Rodimus. Optimus demands that he release Kicker; Rodimus refuses until Optimus listens to everything he has to say. Optimus is prepared to use force to get his allies back, and the two come to blows, while the puzzled Kicker watches. Summoning the Energon Saber, Kicker gets between the two and orders them to stop. He pleads with Optimus to listen to Alpha Q's plans for Unicron. Optimus reluctantly agrees, at least until Megatron is dealt with. A deal is struck, and he and Rodimus shake on it.

Aboard Unicron's body, Shockblast bashes Tidal Wave for failing to cover him adequately during the battle on Cybertron. Megatron orders him to lay off. Shockblast leaves with Snow Cat and Demolishor. Megatron tells Tidal Wave that he'll eventually be allowed to deal with Shockblast himself, and that an attack on Cybertron is nigh...

Kicker leads Optimus and the rest back to Alpha Q, and Optimus prepares himself to listen to the alien's tale.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I can't believe we've actually joined forces with the talking Q-heads!"

—Kicker reflects on his newest ally.

"Don't trust Shockblast. Shockblast BAD."

—Tidal Wave is both eloquent and succinct.

Notes

Differences with Super Link

• As Ironhide careens across Unicron's head, Super Link has Kicker essentially saying to Misha, "Ha ha, this scares you? Keep it up, Ironhide!" In Energon, he just says "Relax, everything's under control."
• The part where Shockblast kills the orange Autobot has a lot of Energon exclusive dialogue, including the guard's screaming and whistling, and Shockblast grunting and a giving small monologue.
• Alpha Q's opening lines are a bit mangled in Energon. He says "It is time to bring him to us", even though Kicker's already been brought before Alpha Q. Then he says "He sees it!" as Ironhide stops in front of nothing. In Super Link, Kicker notices that the stars are moving relative to them, meaning that Unicron's head is moving, but this reaction is missing from Energon, instead replaced with the bizarre observation that "We're moving at light speed on Unicron's head!"
• Energon inserts some strange dialogue from Rodimus about Unicron's body moving. It's supposed to be about his head moving. Y'know, like, the thing that they're inside of and have control over.
• Energon scrambles Kicker and Ironhide's chat about bringing the head to Optimus; in Super Link, they're worried about what he will think, while in Energon, they're just like YAY WE DID A GREAT THING GO US.
• For some reason, Energon changes the first mention of Primus's chamber into "the energon core". A moment later, it's the chamber of Primus, as intended.
• Hot Shot's bizarre "Who are they?", referring to the two Autobot guards, is an Energon addition, as is Prime's rather excited "Let's go find out!" reply. In Super Link, it's more along the lines of "What was that?" and "Doesn't matter; we're going our own way."
• Energon's animation omits some anime teardrops falling from Wing Dagger's eyes as he mourns for Padlock, even though the sound effect for it remains audible. The Energon animation also gives Wing Dagger blue eyes, while in Super Link, they're green.
• Five seconds after informing Optimus that Unicron's head is approaching, Jetfire is shocked and alarmed at the sight of...Unicron's head.
• Kicker tells Optimus that "we're coming through the warp gate", even though they're already right there. A second later, Rodimus comes through a warp gate.
• For once, someone was paying attention: the dialog for Super Link indicates that the Decepticons are using several mobile fortresses; Energon changes it to just one, as shown in the animation.
• Energon's animation is missing an energon glow effect over Optimus as the Decepticons retreat.
• Energon's animation is missing a brief slash of highlighting white light as Kicker steps between Rodimus and Optimus.
• After the battle, Snow Cat and Demolishor lead Shockblast away to be repaired. Energon adds dialogue that makes it sound like Shockblast is taking them away.

Pain Count

• "Uh?": 11
• "Let's do this": 1
• "Aw man": 2

Animation and technical errors

To be fair, translating is tough.

It probably went down like this at the animation studio:
Worker A: "They left the background out!"
Worker B: "It's ok, here's a sketch to tide us over for now- we'll fix it in post-production."
Worker A: "It goes out TODAY!"
Worker B: "WHAT!?!"

• When first broadcast, this episode was titled "Laser Wave: Rampage", using Shockblast's Japanese name. Amazingly, it was fixed when the episode was rebroadcast. The 2014 Shout! Factory DVD release of the series, however, uses the original incorrect title for the episode.
• Prowl's forearms are moving in a hilarious “weight lifting” movement, almost as if he's eager to join something, despite only discussing Unicron's body moving.
• In the middle of a quiet moment, Hot Shot yells at Inferno to suggest they Powerlinx...even though they're standing right next to each other.
• Misha's hair flows freely from the back of her space suit helmet. It even flaps around from all the wind that's blowing around in the airless vacuum of deep space. Somehow this does not kill her.
• When the Decepticons raid the energon tower, Snow Cat and Demolishor transform into robot mode when they are already in robot mode.
• There are a few instances where Shockblast is miscolored pink, which is likely an older CGI model as this color variant was used in promotional material in TV Magazine.
• Optimus Prime speaks with Inferno's voice as he confronts Tidal Wave and Shockblast.
• Tidal Wave's CGI model fluctuates in size throughout the episode; going from the same size as the other Decepticons, to being ginormous, to being correctly scaled.
• In the scene that shows Optimus and Rodimus fighting with Kicker in the background, the ground they are standing on is a rough sketch, with a visible signature and some Japanese characters. Apparently, it was either overlooked or the animators sent in an incomplete print of the episode running low on time, as had happened in the past with several episodes exported to America.
• Once again, Rodimus's model is sized too big throughout the episode.

Continuity notes

• This episode reveals that the purified energon stars are what prevents the Autobots from being harmed by the energon grid.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Shockblast's back kibble is used as antenna to contact Megatron.
  • Shockblast calls out "Shockblast!" as he fires his cannon in satellite mode. Does this mean his attack call out is named after him, or is it the other way around?
  • Demolishor and Snow Cat's new bodies are shown to be capable of withstanding raw energon stars much like Megatron's body can.
  • Shockblast's head can pop out of his satellite mode, Sweep-style.
    • Ironically, he is also the first satellite Transformer to use this feature—the second being Revenge of the Fallen Soundwave.
  • Megatron uses his Hyper Mode for the first time. This is the first instance of it being referred to as such on-screen.
  • Jetfire's gun can fire flares.
• Powerlinx forms:
  • Optimus Prime Super Mode
  • Powerlinx Inferno with Hot Shot
  • Powerlinx Rodimus with Prowl
  • Energon Saber

Trivia

• Kicker repeatedly refers to Alpha Q as the "Talking Q-Heads".

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "La furia di Shockblast" ("Shockblast's Rampage")

• Kicker never calls Alpha Q "Talking Q-Heads", in fact, the line: "I can't believe we've actually joined forces with the Talking Q-Heads" is changed to: "Someone would thinks everything that's happening to us is incredible.

Home video releases

VHS

2005 — Transformers: Energon — Volume 3: Shockblast Unleashed (Paramount)

DVD

2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 006 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Energon — Volume 3: Shockblast Unleashed (Paramount)
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)