Mystery of the Ultra Magnus

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See, without "the" in the title, this could have been about any Ultra Magnus.
"Mystery of the Ultra Magnus"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop
Airdate	March 30, 2002
Written by	Tom Wyner
Director	Osamu Sekita
Animation studio	Studio Gallop

Clips about Magnus?
Megatron's not Galvatron?!
In the wrong order!

Synopsis

I could look at footage of Optimus Prime being beaten up ALL DAY!

Deep underwater in the Megastar, Megatron complains that their more recent attempts to destroy the Autobots would have succeeded if it weren't for Ultra Magnus, and Scourge points out that Magnus has both helped and hindered the Autobots. Megatron decides to look back at Magnus' actions, starting with his arrival on Earth and interference at the oil refinery. After reviewing the footage, Megatron notes that Magnus didn't identify himself to the other Autobots, which Scourge suggests was to maintain the element of surprise. They continue to review Magnus' actions—disabling the Autobot brothers and once again fighting the Decepticons.

As Megatron observes, back then they expected Magnus and Optimus to join forces, but as the footage shows, this didn't happen, and Magnus attacked Optimus. He complains once more that Magnus always easily defeats Optimus whilst the Decepticons always fail in the same task, and dismisses Scourge's excuse that Magnus keeps interfering.

They continue reviewing the fight between Magnus and Optimus, along with the subsequent rescue by the Autobot brothers and Prime's recuperation on the island. Sky-Byte suggests they could use the fact that Optimus and Ultra Magnus are brothers in some way, but Megatron points out they learned this quite a while ago, and they need to get rid of the pair for good.

On the other hand, NEVER PLAY THIS PART AGAIN.

They resume viewing the footage with the arrival of Megatron and the Decepticons on the island and subsequent "strategic withdrawal" under fire from Omega Prime. Megatron observes that even after they left, hostility remained between Magnus and the other Autobots, and wonders why. He also recalls a later battle in which he was easily beating the Autobot brothers until Ultra Magnus turned up and was able to call on some new energy and super-charge the three brothers.

Having reviewed all of the footage, Megatron demands his troops tell him how to defeat the Autobots. When they're unable to, he informs them that the Matrix is the key, and to defeat the Autobots they have got to get hold of it.

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in pre-recorded footage.) (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Fool! We learned that a long time ago! Perhaps the MIND PROBE will improve your memory."

—Megatron is a kind and encouraging leader (in some alternate reality).

Notes

Production notes

• This is the final of three recap episodes created solely by Saban Entertainment for the English dub, replacing the three recap episodes of the original Japanese version ("Gigatron's Ambitions Revealed!", "Assemble! New Troops", and "Gelshark's Blues"). As such, every single bit of animation in this episode is recycled from preexisting footage.
• Originally, the English dub wasn't going to have any recap episodes at all, with the initial episode count slated to be 36, three less than the original count of 39.^[1] However, when "Attack from Outer Space", "Landfill", and "Sky-Byte Saves the Day" were banned from U.S. broadcast due to censorship following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, that further reduced the episode total down to 33. To make up for the loss of the banned episodes, three brand-new recap episodes were created by Saban to restore the total back to 36 episodes. But then the three banned episodes ended up eventually airing in markets outside the U.S. anyway, bumping the total count back up to the original 39.
• This episode originally aired as the very last episode of the series to premiere on Fox Kids. When released on DVD in the United Kingdom, it was placed as the 35th episode of the series, the same numerical placement as the third Car Robots recap episode, "Gelshark's Blues". Like the previous two clip-shows in the series ("Hope for the Future" and "Lessons of the Past"), it is totally different from its Car Robots counterpart. But while those two episodes had a basic similarity of subject matter to the Car Robots episodes, this one has anything but. Where "Gelshark's Blues" featured Sky-Byte sadly ruminating on the Power Up of the Autobot Brothers, the emergence of Fortress Maximus and Megatron's transformation into Galvatron, "Mystery of the Ultra Magnus" does away with this wholesale, and is largely a retelling of the early adventures of Ultra Magnus.
  • However, in either its original broadcast or official DVD placements, this episode is seriously out of chronological order (see the next section below for more).

Continuity notes

• The fact that Megatron is still Megatron and not yet Galvatron in this episode places it at least somewhere before "Peril from the Past".
• The past events observed by the Predacons and Decepticons are from "Ultra Magnus", "Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!", and "The Two Faces of Ultra Magnus".
• Megatron reminds Sky-Byte that they learned "a long time ago" that Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime are brothers, which they likely overheard Magnus and Prime mention during their confrontation with Megatron and the Decepticons in "Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!"
• By the episode's end, Megatron develops a new interest in obtaining the Matrix from Optimus. While he never does this in any other episode, "Power to Burn!" is the only episode in which the Matrix does come under threat by the Decepticons. Combined with the fact that "Power to Burn!" is the last episode in which Megatron is still interested in Ultra Magnus at all (before his attention is fully redirected at Fortress Maximus for the rest of the series, starting with Maximus's titular debut episode), this would strongly suggest that the episode is set chronologically between "The Two Faces of Ultra Magnus" and "Power to Burn!"

Animation or technical errors

• This episode is, presumably, supposed to be titled "The Mystery of Ultra Magnus", but apparently someone copy-pasted a "the" into the wrong place for the title card, or something. It wasn't the first time that Robots in Disguise suffered from a typo'd title card, but this error was not corrected on the R2 DVDs (although the correct title was listed on the packaging).

Transformers references

• Megatron makes reference to working for a council. Per the episode's original airing order, Megatron (as Galvatron) had previously stated in "Surprise Attack!" that he is in service of the Predacon Council, a dub invention not found in the original Car Robots version and likely inspired by the Tripredacus Council from Beast Wars. Per either this episode's DVD placement or its proper chronological placement, this is the first mention of the council before it is later elaborated on in "Surprise Attack!"

Trivia

• Before it aired, online sources listed the title of this episode as simply "A Clip Show".
• It has nothing to do with Dion.
• The moral of this: flashbacks ruined transformers.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "Il mistero di Ultra Magnus" ("The mystery of Ultra Magnus")

• In the scenes taken from "Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!", Optimus still misnames Alpha Trion as "Alpha Tyron" and refers to him as a female.

Portuguese

• Title: "O Mistério de Ultra Magnus" ("The Mystery of Ultra Magnus")

Home video releases

DVD

2005 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)

References