The Master Builders (episode)

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"Nigel gave me a drawing that said 18 inches. Now, whether or not he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem. I do what I'm told." "But you're not as confused as him, are you. I mean, it's not your job to be as confused as Nigel."
"The Master Builders" "The Master Builder"
Production code	#700-31
Season	2
No. in season	16
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	October 8, 1985
Written by	David N. Gottlieb Herb Engelhardt
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Grapple and Hoist ally themselves with the Constructicons.

Synopsis

I think you'll need to join Weight Watchers.

Grapple shows Hoist a working model of a Solar Power Tower he wants to build and the two of them take it to Optimus Prime. Optimus is occupied at the moment because Spike is teaching him how to play basketball. Optimus likes Grapple's concept, but rejects the plan because it would be difficult to defend the tower against an attack.

The Autobots are interrupted by Teletraan I, alerting them that Powerglide has been shot down by Starscream and Skywarp. Hoist and Grapple take up the task and depart to repair the Autobot plane. During their return trip to the Ark, Grapple attempts to convince Hoist to build the tower with him, regardless of Prime's orders. Hoist protests, pointing out they can't do it alone, let alone disobey Optimus.

Their conversation is cut short when they are trapped by the Constructicons. Scrapper says they've left the Decepticons and proposes a joint project. Grapple, enamored with his solar tower idea, agrees, but wants proof of their partnership. They promise to bring proof back and fly off.

Chillin' out, maxin', relaxin', all cool/and shootin' some b-ball outside of the school...

On their return to Decepticon headquarters, the Constructicons are confronted with several weapons pointed at them, as well as an enraged Megatron, who confronts them with video tape of their conversation with Grapple. They all swear loyalty to Megatron, and insist they plan to betray the Autobots. Satisfied with their explanation, Megatron lets them go with a present. They return to Grapple and Hoist with "proof", an entire truckload of energon, they claim they have stolen from Megatron. Convinced that they are working in good faith, Grapple and Hoist agree to the partnership. The Constructicons are soon stealing construction materials from the humans for the project.

Meantime, Optimus is playing basketball with Tracks, Inferno and Smokescreen. After he shuts Tracks down during a drive to the net, Prime notices that Tracks needs maintenance, but no one knows where Hoist is. The Autobot leader sends Powerglide out to find the missing Autobots. Powerglide finds the solar tower and reports back.

Look, up in the sky!
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
No, it's a sun-focusing sphere.
Well, that's disappointing...

Grapple is in his element, directing the Constructicons as the tower is built, and blissfully unaware of their deception. The Constructicons merge to form Devastator in order to place the sun-focusing sphere at the top of the tower. With the last piece in place, the tables turn. Megatron attacks Grapple and Hoist and claims the tower as his own. The Decepticons get to work collecting the energy.

Dammit, I've ruined another garage kit.

The Autobots arrive and attack, quickly overwhelming the Decepticons, who retreat behind the tower. The Autobots follow, to find that the Constructicons have formed Devastator and he's not so easy to defeat. Prime tricks Devastator into trying to kick Smokescreen but he kicks the tower instead. A few more rounds of laser fire send Devastator crashing into the tower, demolishing it. Megatron and the Constructicons retreat.

The Autobots dig in the debris to try and find Grapple and Hoist. Brawn discovers them encased in a sheet of metal and punches it apart. Grapple and Hoist apologize for the trouble they've caused. Prime is in a forgiving mood, but says they have to clean up the mess themselves. As the others drive off, Grapple and Hoist fondly remember the tower.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Move over, blue skies. Here comes old Powerglide, king of the cloud chasers, sultan of the stratosphere, ace of the air."

—Powerglide, king of self-esteem.

"Well, if he's not impressed, I'll... be depressed."

—Grapple worries about whether Optimus Prime will agree on his proposal for a Solar Tower.

"Am I 'drooling' correctly?"
"The word is 'dribbling', Optimus!"

—Optimus Prime and Spike play basketball.

Megatron: "Ahhh, my loyal Constructicons. You are loyal, aren't you? No! You're traitors! And you can't deny it."
Scrapper: "Megatron, y-y-you got it all wrong!"
Hook: "We're still working for you, and for the glory of the Decepticons."
Bonecrusher: "You see we eavesdropped on their plans."
Long Haul: "Plans to build a whopper solar tower!"
Scavenger: "That'd produce megawatts of energy."
Mixmaster: "Energy we can use to destroy the Autobots. Get it, Get it, heh-huh?"

— The Constructicons try to explain themselves to a furious Megatron.

Bonecrusher: We'll just help ourselves if you don't mind.
Long Haul: Or even if you do!
Construction foreman: Who me? M-mind? Why should I! hehe... he. [tears up his blueprints]

—The Constructicons rob a hapless building site.

"As soon as my Power Tower is finished, I must find a place to sign my name... in very large letters."

—Grapple as the Solar Power Tower is approaching completion.

"Watch out Spike! I'm driving for a layoff!"
"It's called a layup, Prime! And watch out for Tracks!"

—Optimus Prime gets basketball lessons from Spike.

"'Get this.' 'Bring that.' I thought I was finally gonna build somethin'!"

—Long Haul after being told to bring another solar panel.

"Man, look at that! That's so tall, the top is in a different time zone than the bottom!"

—Observing the Solar Power Tower, Spike demonstrates that you don't need to understand geography if your best friends are giant robots.

"There'll be other towers to design and build, Grapple."
"It was magnificent... for a little while, wasn't it, Hoist?"
"Incredible. Absolutely incredible."

—Hoist and Grapple, amid the ruins of the Solar Power Tower.

Notes

Production information

• First draft script: 25th January 1985
• Script revised: 30th January 1985
• Dialogue revised by Ron Friedman: 31st January 1985
• Dialogue recording: 11th February 1985

Continuity notes

"This Master Builder will thwart the Kragle and save the realm!"

"Two can play at this game, Soundwave..."

• Scrapper claims that the Constructicons admired Grapple's work back on Cybertron. This contradicts the earlier statement in "Heavy Metal War" that the Constructicons were built recently on Earth, but fits with the later accounts of their history given in "The Secret of Omega Supreme" and "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4".
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Powerglide has a video camera that extends from his nosecone, right in front of his canopy.
  • The Autobots can shoot lasers out of their headlights when they drive into battle. The idea never crossed their minds in "The Autobot Run". One is tempted to fanwank the error away by saying that the events of that episode inspired them to install these extra armaments.
  • Tracks has twin missile launchers in his car mode hood.
  • Devastator uses his eye beams yet again. He loves those things!
  • Cliffjumper's glass gas resembles a snowball or comet, and can be repelled by a strong wind (possibly a call-back to his bio weakness, which says that he must remain upwind of it or fall victim to its effects.)
  • Megatron has a compartment in his chest that holds a pair of binoculars. We get a look inside the same location of his chest during "The Revenge of Bruticus", and needless to say there ain't no binoculars there.

Real-world references

• "Here Comes the Sun!" Grapple says, completing his Solar Power Tower model and quoting the title of a Beatles tune.
• The Autobots make their second foray into the sports world, as Spike teaches Optimus Prime about basketball. Prime learns to drool dribble the ball, spins the ball on one finger, and orders Spike to "Compute, quickly!" as he passes the ball to him. Later, Prime quotes the stereotypical sportscaster ("He shoots, he scores!") while driving for a layoff lay up. Later still, he rolls the basketball across his arms and shoulders.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • When Prime leaps toward the basketball goal, he gets the Death Star firing/Alderaan exploding sound effect sequence.
  • Megatron takes off from the ruined power tower with the same sound effect. The Constructicons follow him with the rest of that sound effect, along with some X-wing Fighter diving sounds.

Animation and technical errors

• One gun, many lasers:
  • Skywarp only has two weapons to fire, yet about a dozen different laser beams are shown streaking past Powerglide.
• Skywarp's under-wing insignia are missing throughout the opening sequence.
• As Wheeljack gives Grapple his thumbs-up, the glow effect of his flashing "ears" is misaligned from the ears themselves at the start and end of the shot.
• Teletraan I gets the radio-muffle on its voice as it announces that Powerglide has been shot down.
• Hoist and Grapple are both drawn far bulkier than normal when they head out to collect Powerglide.
• Improbable viewpoints:
  • As Scrapper treaties with the Autobots, a random rock opens up, and out pops a video camera. While this does explain how Megatron and Starscream can watch the conversation from Decepticon Headquarters, it raises the question of just how many random rocks the Decepticons had to load up with cameras to ensure that they'd actually catch something. Why not have Laserbeak do the spying?
  • The camera's angle changes during Scrapper's speech, even though it's clearly fixed in place.
  • The camera's angle has changed again when Megatron shows it to the Constructicons.
  • The view of Grapple and Hoist that Powerglide relays back to Autobot Headquarters is clearly not taken from a moving airplane.
• Scrapper's eyeband turns gray as he points toward Long Haul approaching with the energon cubes.
• Coloring errors:
  • As he welds alongside Hoist, Grapple's butt changes from gray to orange.
  • Scavenger's face is almost entirely dark gray as he discusses his welding troubles with Grapple.
  • Devastator's back, i.e. Long Haul's cargo bed, is purple throughout the episode. It should be green.
  • After Brawn finds the ruined model of the Solar Power Tower, Cliffjumper steps into the frame, colored yellow like Bumblebee.
  • When Grapple picks up the ruined model, one of its solar panels is gray instead of gold.
• Flying Autobots:
  • Prime leaps toward the basket with a flight sound effect.
• Tracks is supposed to be emitting some kind of malfunctioning-type of noise as Prime helps him to his feet, but it's barely audible as such.
• Tracks is missing one of his missile launchers as Spike runs up to join the group on the basketball court.
• In a bizarre stylistic decision, the Constructicons' second combination sequence does not feature the transforming sound. Instead, as they convert to their combined forms, they get a sound effect normally reserved for energy effects. Each one glows blue after transforming, accompanied by an even more bizarre tinkling noise.
• As usual, the apportionment of Devastator's components is off; Long Haul forms about 90% of the torso, with Hook forming the remainder (it should be split almost evenly between them.) Everyone else is correct, which puts this episode ahead of most of its contemporaries.

Then later, he's this size.

• Not that Devastator isn't out of whack in every episode, but when the Autobots first approach them, Scrapper's shovel alone is several times taller than the Autobots. When Devastator is about to kick Smokescreen, one of Devastator's legs is roughly three times the size of the Autobot.
• Inferno appears for a single shot during the battle, standing alongside Optimus as they rock in the breeze from Devastator's hand-swipe. Though he was playing basketball earlier in the episode, he's completely absent from the battle group before and after this single shot. Best guess is that it should have been Ironhide.
• As he and the others fire on Devastator, one of Powerglide's laser blasts doesn't quite line up with the corresponding sound effect.
• Prime is missing the horizontal lines on his tummy grille as the Autobots cheer.
• When Optimus orders the other Autobots to free Grapple and Hoist from the rubble, the perspective of the shot with the Autobots makes it look like Tracks is the same size as his minibot teammates.
• As Hoist and Grapple first face Prime, Grapple's front bumper is bent in the middle. This may be meant to signify damage from his captivity... but the damage disappears after this one shot.
• As Prime accepts the pair's apologies, Hoist's right arm is missing, as is the top of Grapple's left arm.

Rhino DVD release

The Master Bait—uh, Builders

• When remastered for DVD by Rhino Entertainment, the re-created title card for the episode was incorrectly rendered as "The Master Builder". This title appeared on all associated material included with the DVD set, and can be seen in the screen shot at right. Oddly enough, while the same incorrect title card appears in the 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" edition by Shout! Factory, the correct title appears on the DVD menu and the box set's episode guide.
• The Rhino Entertainment release of this episode uses an initial take of the scene at the opening of the third act, which is depicted with a sunbeam effect over the image. The shot then pans over to a background painting of a door that doesn't open on cue to setup the next scene of Megatron walking through the already open doorway. The broadcast master take of this shot was corrected with added animation of the door opening after the panning comes to a halt; however the sunbeam effect was also removed at the same time. This short sequence was not replaced with the as-broadcast footage for the Shout! Factory DVD release.

Continuity errors

It's to get them closer to the sun, obviously!

• The solar panels seem to be the only essential component of the tower. Why do they need to be up on this huge cumbersome tower? Couldn't they simply build them into the top of the volcano, thereby satisfying Optimus Prime's security requirements? (For that matter, why aren't they already tapping into the geothermal energy of the lava beneath?)
• In robot mode, Grapple and Hoist could easily have leaped over the boulder that first blocks their path. We'll give them a pass and say they were just panicked.
• Scrapper leaps down onto the boulder after the first commercial break... but he already leapt downward off the boulder when dodging the Autobots' fire.
• A giant paper blueprint? Really? The super-advanced space robots haven't switched over to a paperless office yet?
• Optimus's "Battle formation! Roll!" order is kind of strange, since the Autobots already appear to have both items covered.

Trivia

• This episode introduces a slightly modified color model for Devastator. In his previous appearances, that, erm, protrusion on the front of his pelvis was green with purple sides, but is changed to solid purple, while the portion of his torso underneath his chest plate is changed from purple to green. However, the new model mistakenly colors the "jet port" on the top of his chest plate green instead of purple. This new color model would be used for all future appearance by Devastator that were animated by Toei; unsurprisingly, AKOM never got the memo.
• The Autobots have a color-coded alert system. When Teletraan I discovered that Powerglide was shot down he called for "condition magenta". When Optimus Prime discovered Grapple and Hoist were working with the Constructicons, he called for "disaster code blue" and ordered a strike force to assemble.
• Unlike Tracks, Grapple and Hoist appear to have been unconcerned with where and how the Constructicons procured their building supplies.
• Seriously, can you imagine the size of the ball that the Autobots need to play basketball?
• Due to the initial script running short of required runtime, the scenes of Powerglide being shot down and the Constructicons' raid for building materials were added in revisions. Evidently, adding these new scenes was still not sufficient, as Devastator's second combination sequence was staggered for an inordinate amount of time on the storyboards.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Les maîtres constructeurs" ("The Master Builders")
• Original airdate: ?

• All the logo transitions were cut. It is unknown if it was that way for the original broadcast or if the episode was chopped for the DVD release.
• Grapple's line "Landslide!" is missing.
• Hook's line "More panels, Long Haul, and be quick about it!" is missing. This results in a long moment just looking at Long Haul on top of a ladder.
• Scrapper's line "Merge into Devastator!" is strangely translated by "Prepare him!", despite the name of Devastator usually being one of the only left intact in the dub.
• Megatron calls Ramjet "Ratchet" too.
• Warpath's sounds as he shoots Devastator are absent from the dub.
• Scrapper's line "Megatron! Come back!" is missing.

German

• Title (Generation 2 dub): "Der Energieturm" ("The Energy Tower")
• Original airdate: July 2, 1994

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "Il grande progetto" ("The Great Project")
• Original airdate: ?
• Title (dub 2): "I costruttori" ("The Builders")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Master Builder" (マスタービルダー, "The Master Builders")
• Original airdate: November 22, 1985
• After Megatron looks through his binoculars, the dub has him ordering Blitzwing to intercept, not Ramjet (even though Ramjet is clearly the one who takes off at Megatron's command). Ramjet is even dubbed with Blitzwing's voice.

Mandarin

• Title: "Jiànzhù Dàshī " (建筑大师, "The Master Builders")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Os Mestres Construtores" ("The Master Builders")
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Gore-stroyiteli" (Горе-строители, "The Sorry Builders")
• Original airdate: ?

Toys inspired by this episode

• Masterpiece MP-35 Grapple (TakaraTomy, 2017)

A redeco and retool of Masterpiece Inferno, Grapple includes the model and the blueprint for the Solar Power Tower, a new handgun, and the screwdriver to build it, all from this episode.

Home video releases

LaserDisc

1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 3 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 6 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 04: Stagione Due Parte Seconda (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• IMDb's page for this episode
• Teletran93's page for this episode
• Digital restoration of revised script dated 30th January 1985
• Full episode script, as revised by Ron Friedman 31st January 1985
• Model sheets and background layouts