BW Pilot Review: Robots In Disguise 2015

That was the only copy I could find and the pilot didn’t even have it.

The new Transformers: Robots In Disguise (not to be confused with the 2001 series adapting Japan’s Transformers: Car Robots) was previewed on Cartoon Network last weekend. I was not able to see it and on-demand only has the first episode. Finally I got tired of waiting and looked for part 2 online.

The new series (continuing off Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters, which I sadly only saw a few episodes although I’ve seen all of the regular show) is minus Megatron and appears to be Optimus lite (although he’s still in there) with the leadership role now in Bumblebee’s hands in a way that made a lot more sense than how IDW did it. It’s back on Cartoon Network (good luck, RID 2015, and heaven forbid a girl likes the show, right Young Justice?) while Rescue Bots remains on Discovery Family (formerly The Hub) and I have to wonder if they’re still considered the same continuity. Optimus was supposed to have died according to this show but that show has Optimus popping up and becoming a triple-changer with a new dinosaur mode joining his truck mode.

So how does the show compare to its predecessor and (possibly former) counterpart? Quite well, actually.

In the new series the ghost of Optimus Prime reaches out to Bumblebee and sends him back to Earth. Why? That’s not really clear. Unless Optimus somehow detected the distress signal from the Autobot prison ship carrying interesting forms of Decepticons, some kind of animal hybrid, but why send Bumblebee instead of somehow alerting Autobot command? They might have even sent Bumblebee since he has knowledge of Earth. Instead he breaks into a space bridge at a museum to travel to Earth.

Since the event of Prime, Bumblebee is now a cop, forced to take along by-the-book trainee and fangirl Strongarm–or rather she invites herself quoting regulations and forgetting she’s cuffed to an Autobot punk kid named Sideswipe. (Personally, I think she just wants to tag along with one of her heroes to Earth and is using regulations to invite herself.) They also meet Fixit, a Mini-Con who worked on the prison ship until it crashed, and Grimlock, one of the prisoners who doesn’t seem like a bad guy (certainly not a Decepticon, even though he bears the Decepticon brand and has the name of a Dinobot who in comic continuities might as well be a Decepticon). They also make the acquaintance of a divorced man and his son as they track down the escaped Decepticons while trying to keep Transformer existence a secret. I like the plot but I already looked at that in the preview and there are no real changes. Even Optimus isn’t sure what the universe is planning to do with him.

I had a joke that would induce nightmares so I avoided it.

Bumblebee is pretty much what I was expecting. He’s the team leader and not exactly thrilled about it. He spends the pilot trying to convice Strongarm not to follow him, and she does so at every opportunity. When called upon Bumblebee can give orders, and they’re good ones, but surprisingly it IS the regulation spouter and not the young rebel who keeps disobeying him. Optimus assures him that he’s ready to lead a team of his own and we’ll see what happens. I plan to love seeing how he handles this new reality and as usual he’s my favorite Autobot on the show. (This only changed with Animated because as much as love Rattrap Bumblebees shouldn’t act like Rattraps. I defaulted to Optimus on that one.)

I’m not sure what she’s a larger fan of, regulations or Bumblebee.

Strongarm, as I said, is so obviously a fan of Bumblebee to the point that she wants to tag along to Earth and have adventures like he and Optimus did. In fact, Bumblebee has to remind her that he isn’t Optimus. (Maybe she’s actually a fan of Optimus and latches on to Bumblebee because he used to serve under Optimus and she thinks she can learn vicariously through Bee?) At first you think it’s just because of the regulations that a rookie has to stick with her trainer, but when Russell (we’ll get to the humans soon) runs off to find his dad, Strongarm blatantly uses it to disobey Bumblebee and join in…and promptly screws up Bumblebee’s plan to stop the Decepticon of the week, Overbite (who powers up by eating metal and was arrested for eating a whole city back on Cybertron). She’s brash and only follows the rules when she can use them to her own end. She’ll be interesting to watch but she is my favorite of the not-Bumblebee Autobots.

“I make everything look good.”

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the other three Autobots. Sideswipe is, as Bumblebee described him, a good kid who just likes to get into trouble. Bee and Strongarm arrest him for doing donuts in the monument to the Prime cast (which you would think would be difficult considering his Cybertronian mode is a hovercar) and he gets dragged along. With Bumblebee in charge I guess someone else has to make the connection to the obligatory kid, and that’s Sideswipe.

Not to be confused with that other Grimlock. For one thing he doesn’t refer to himself as “Me, Grimlock”.

My history with Grimlock is well-known to long-time BW readers but the short version is the only ones I’ve liked are the original TV version, the Animated version that was a lot like him anyway, and the Prime comic version under Mairghred Scott (who is actually the script editor and writer’s assistant but couldn’t get her comics canon to the show or this would be a different Grimlock). Well, here’s a fourth version. I guess it will come out as things go on why he’s wearing a Decepticon symbol and why he was on the prison ship because outside of wanting to fight he seems like a rather fun guy. Although for a toyline and TV show called Robots In Disguise, a mechanical dinosaur (since Hasbro has dropped organic looking animals in favor of all-mechanical) would tend to stand out on Earth. He’s the muscle of the group and will at least serve the team well.

“You want me to plug into your arm?”

The caption joke for Fix-It comes from the fact that he doesn’t appear to be a traditional Mini-Con, just a smaller Transformer (in the old days we’d call him a minicar) that doesn’t look like he connects to a larger Transformer and give him or her a power boost. He also doesn’t appear to transform despite his toy being able to do so. (I think he turns into a truck.) Unlike Grimlock, Fix-It does have a vocal glitch, as keeps getting the word he wants wrong and going through a few ones until he gets the one he wants. He mentions having faulty wiring so that’s probably the cause. I think he’s the comic relief but one of the good kind, one that actually serves a purpose on the team with helping finding the rogue Decepticons.

The humans for this tale, Denny and Russel, are both good characters, and it’s nice to be able to say that about all the human allies in a Transformers series again. No version of Miko, Kicker, or the Witwicky parents this time around, and that makes me happy. Denny runs the scrapyard serving as the Autobots’ base of operations. Russel doesn’t like his dad calling him “Rusty” and he doesn’t appear to get along with him (he isn’t happy being in the formerly boring scrapyard while his mom in in Copenhagen, when there’s a city so nearby–I’m guessing he’s a city boy), but he honestly loves his dad, as shown when he rushes to the scrapyard to warn him about Overbite, and later helps rescue his dad from Overbite again. Denny is a laid-back type but not the stereotypical hippie type that tend to annoy me. I’m hoping for good things from these two as the series progresses.

Overall, I really like Robots In Disguise. The tone swerves away from the ultra-serious Prime (which occasionally had some laughs, usually from Miko’s annoying antics with Bulkhead, but was otherwise a serious show) by making the character a bit more light in nature and more fun to watch. I liked Prime but there were times it just got very depressing for the heroes and this series is a better balance of serious and fun, like Rescue Bots, so it will sadden me if they aren’t in continuity with each other any more. Speaking of which, why isn’t Bumblebee contacting Agent Fowler or the  three kids who worked with him before, especially Raf, who he was best buds with. (Then again, Raf nearly died in one episode because super-serious, so he may want to protect him, but still, I’d think getting Fowler’s help in tracking down the Decepticons while keeping the Transformers a secret again would be a good idea.) I hope this gets addressed but even if it isn’t this may turn out to be a good show. I’ll be looking out for more episodes.