Transformers: Robots in Disguise Pilot Episodes Review

-Gregg Dietz (@ChubRockGeek)
Reviews Editor

They soon learn the ship had over a hundred Decepticon prisoners within Stasis Pods, but all its inmates have escaped. It is now up to them to recapture all escaped Decepticon prisoners before they cause further harm on Earth. With the aid of two humans, Russell and Denny Clay, and the Dinobot Grimlock (who was a prisoner of Alchemor before siding with Bumblebee). Bumblebee leads this rag-tag team to protect Earth from the Decepticon prisoners led by Steeljaw.

I love the idea of doing this rag-tag group of autobots. They don't work great together yet, but they will. It’s clear that they wanted to have a more loose dichotomy with the characters than they have in the past. Having 3 characters complete for approval from a single leader is really interesting to watch especially when the leader didn't even want him there in the first place. Im also a big fan of Grimlock as not only a good guy but the dim witted muscle of the group.

This series takes place after the Transformers Prime series, primarily after the Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising tv film. The plot goes that many years after the events of Predacons Rising, Cybertron's genesis has made a new generation of Transformers. Earth no longer remembers the Decepticon-Autobot conflict as Cybertronians stopped visiting the planet. Bumblebee has since become a seasoned police officer and despite his fame, he chose to be a humble peacekeeper.

He soon starts to see visions of Optimus Prime. thought to have died after restoring Cybertron. Optimus calls for Bumblebee to return to Earth as a new threat appears. With the help of Sideswipe (a rebel "bad boy bot") and Strongarm (an Elite Guard cadet partnered to him), the trio made it to Earth to discover a crashed maximum security prison ship called the Alchemor and its steward Fixit (a hyperactive Mini-Con with faulty wiring).

The visuals are pretty fun in that its not something I see all the time. The backdrops all look like hand drawn paintings with the characters and action as cells overlaying it. The characters all have a fully fleshed out designs but have a cell shaded look to them which I thought was neat. I really enjoyed how they kept the classic idea of what makes the original show so much for kids, having each character look so unique in visual design and colors. Point is, I want the toys.

My gripes are that because it has a “Monster of the week” vibe to it, I hope it doesn’t become too stale. My issue with this format is it can get too involved in hunting down the new bad guy and the character development goes by the wayside. I feel that the writers will keep the good development going but we shall see. The other gripe I have is with this whole “celestial” optimus prime they have going on. It makes little sense and there is far too much mystery behind it, lets hope they show more on this.

Overall I really enjoyed watching this and I will continue to check out where this series plans on going. If Prime was any indication of these writers competence to keep an interesting show going, then I have faith that this will be a fun series. I give Transformers: Robots in Disguise Pilot Episodes an 8 outta 10.

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