Shūta and Grand's Masterforce Super-Secrets!

« Transformers: Super-God Masterforce ep special »
"Shūta and Grand's Masterforce Super-Secrets!" 秀太･グランドのマスターフォース超ひみつ! () (Shūta-Grand no Masterforce Chō Himitsu!)
Production company	Takara, Toei
Airdate	1989
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Loose ends? What loose ends?

Synopsis

An inquisitive Shūta looks over a video record of the Masterforce War, and turns to Grand for answers to some questions he has. Shūta first asks about the war on Cybertron, and he and Grand watch footage of Fortress and his crew departing for planet Master, where the Headmaster Juniors transtectors would ultimately be built. Grand explains that he is Fortress's younger brother, and was part of the crew. He became a Headmaster on Master, and then went on to join up with Metalhawk and wind up on Earth, where he became a Pretender and helped support civilization on the planet.

The pair next turn to the origin of Godmasters, and Grand says that Devil Z stole them from an area of space known as G Nebula 89. In order to charge them with the energy of Earth, he scattered them over the planet. Grand takes a moment to single out the one great mistake Devil Z made in his plan—he didn't realize that over half the Godmaster transtectors that he stole were intended for Autobot use.

Next, Grand shows Shūta footage of Fortress Maximus's final battle with Scorponok at the North Pole, which ends with the destruction of the villain's MegaZarak transtector. Grand details how, following this clash, Scorponok had a new transtector built for himself and became BlackZarak, but before he was able to connect himself to it, he was captured and brainwashed by Devil Z.

This mention of Devil Z prompts Shūta to ask: what exactly was he, anyway? Grand explains that Devil Z was a "super-energy lifeform" from "the far reaches of the universe". As the pair review Devil Z's fusion with BlackZarak and his plan to exterminate humankind, the conversation turns to just how generally great humans are. Grand views them as the noblest beings in the universe, but Shūta thinks that super-robot lifeforms are cooler. Grand says that if the two races can trust in one another, and work together, then they are as one, and can achieve any dream—a unity exemplified in Godbomber, who, Grand explains, was given the same powers as Master-Braces, allowing him to link with human beings and respond to their thoughts and wishes.

This leads Grand to ask Shūta what his personal dreams are, and Shūta says he wants to become as strong as Ginrai (by playing soccer), and study under Metalhawk so he can follow in his father's footsteps. Grand remarks that Metalhawk is a good guy, and says that the Autobots probably wouldn't have been able to protect the Earth without him. Then, Shūta returns the question, asking Grand what his dream is, and Grand replies that he wants to become a great warrior, like Optimus Prime. This reminds Shūta of a question that has been bugging him—why does Ginrai look so much like Optimus Prime? Grand explains that this is because the transtector which Ginrai bonded to was originally intended for Prime, but since a human bonded to it, it became a much more powerful being.

Finally, Shūta questions whether or not he's going to be introduced to the new Autobot leader, and Grand fulfils his wishes by showing him some footage of Star Saber and the Brainmasters battling Deathsaurus and the Dinoforce on the Moon. The two viewers vow to do their best, until there is peace in the universe.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• This featurette was included with the video release of the final episode of the series, and aims to explain some story points which were not fully fleshed out in the course of the show itself. Many of them feel like retcons that don't quite make sense if you think about them in detail.
• Case in point—the origin for Godmasters given in this featurette totally contradicts the one given in "A Strange Friendship: Cancer and Minerva", which claims that Godmasters were all formerly one god-like Decepticon entity which split into separate pieces. Generally speaking, this new origin makes more sense, and explains the powers of Godmasters and Ginrai's resemblance to Optimus Prime in the process. At the same time, though, the old origin is occasionally referenced in Japanese media (most notably, in one of the timelines published alongside Kiss Players media, even though a different timeline from the same line included this origin instead), but the two are mutually exclusive, and this one is generally held to be the "canon" one. The other one was told by Giga, after all, and it's not likely that Devil Z was going to tell him the truth about where the Godmasters came from.
• The Transtectors are established to have come from G Nebula 89, a location introduced in the Victory cartoon. How and why they were made there is unexplained. Exactly when Devil Z stole them is also left vague; within Masterforce itself, it has to have been at least 17 years ago (since Lightfoot is 17, and was a baby when his father found his Transtector), but the implication is definitely that it was a long time ago (Giga's version of the story says it was in "the ancient past"), and later media would give a date of thousands of years. Which leads to...
• The connection made between Ginrai and Optimus Prime is vague and invites a lot of questions. The featurette doesn't explain exactly how the Transtector was to be used by Prime. It can't be a way to restore him to life after his most recent death, since when Devil Z stole the Transtectors, he wasn't dead yet. The waters are further muddied when Shūta says that "a hero from planet Master" was supposed to combine with the trailer, creating "Super Convoy". Does this mean that the trailer wasn't meant for Prime, but to be used separately by this hero from Master? Or was this hero going to become a new Prime? Going by the "thousands of years" date for Devil Z's theft, that would place its creation when Prime was believed lost, offline on Earth for four million years.
• 25 years later, these longstanding puzzles, and more, would be addressed by the Transformers Legends manga—specifically the "Super Ginrai" and "Grand Maximus" chapters—which explained that the Transtectors were built thousands of years ago in an automated factory in the G Nebula, run by a computer created by the Oracle.
• The other significant revelation from this featurette is that BlackZarak is, in fact, a new incarnation of Scorponok. However, while this was never explained in the show itself, it had already been made clear in the manga telling, and in BlackZarak's own on-package bio. Consequently, since it's not something that was previously unknown, Shūta does not have to ask if he became BlackZarak, but just states in passing that he does.
• Although the narration is newly recorded, visually, the featurette is entirely composed of clips taken from "The Mystery of Planet Master", "The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 2)", "Rise Up!! Pretenders", "Terror! The Decepticons' Manhunt", "A Strange Friendship: Cancer and Minerva", "Friend or Foe!? The True Form of the Monster!!", "Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter", "Life? Death? The Desperate Lightfoot", "Destroy Godbomber!!", "The Ultimate Combination!! BlackZarak, the New Lifeform", and "The Brave Hero of the Universe - Star Saber".

Home video releases

DVD

2003 — Transformers: Victory — DVD Box 02 (Pioneer LDC)