Explosion on Mars!! MegaZarak Appears

« Transformers: The Headmasters ep 15 »
Looks like another Tequila Sunrise...
"Explosion on Mars!! MegaZarak Appears" 火星爆破!!出現メガザラック () (Kasei Bakuha!! Shutsugen MegaZarak)
Production company	Takara, Toei
Airdate	October 16, 1987
Writer	Toyohiro Andō
Director	Jōhei Matsūra
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

With Fortress Maximus out of power and the destruction of Mars looming ever nearer, Scorponok reveals his true face at last.

Synopsis

Mars destroyed by its own nougat filling.

As Arcee desperately tries to contact the Headmasters on Mars, Highbrow and Brainstorm undergo repairs for their injuries and the Decepticons continue with their plan to blow up the planet. Spike deduces that the energy used against Fortress that drained him of his power was plasma energy, released in the destruction of Cybertron, and realizes that the Decepticons' goal in destroying Mars must be to generate more. Alerted to this fact, the Autobot Headmasters redouble their efforts to locate the Decepticons' bombing co-ordinates and attack the Decepticon Headmasters. Fortress orders the Trainbots to join them from Athenia, and they soon arrive and lend a hand.

Every arthropod has this dream. Hello tiny bipeds! *Squish!*

Meanwhile, Scorponok has been informed that the bombs have been planted in two of the three key sites on Mars, and relocates to planet Zarak, where work on his secret project there is in the final stages. He orders the Decepticon Headmasters to pull out of the conflict on Mars and join him on Zarak, prompting the Autobots to investigate. Fortress contacts Ultra Magnus on Earth, who dispatches Twincast to spy on the Decepticon base on Earth to learn what the villains are up to. Rewind sneaks into the base and watches as Soundblaster calls on Sixshot to join the Decepticons on Chaar. After he reports back to Twincast, Twincast opts to follow the ninja through the space bridge to the Decepticons' base there so that he can observe the meeting that is being held.

Aw snap.

Weirdwolf, Mindwipe and Skullcruncher meet their leader on Zarak, as Scorponok steps out of the shadows at last—then, as assembled Decepticon forces watch through a viewscreen, the surface of Zarak cracks and the entire world is torn asunder. From the core of the planet emerges Scorponok's secret project, his own colossal transtector! Transforming his new craft from city mode to the form of a gigantic robot scorpion, Scorponok sets course for Chaar to collect the Decepticons, just as Twincast is spotted by Soundblaster, and a brief battle between the communicators and their cassettes ensues before Twincast escapes.

Fortress flees the doomed planet of Mars. Afterward he's taken in by a kindly couple who teach him to fight for truth and justice.

Back on Mars a little while later, Fortress receives Twincast's report and readies for his impending battle with Scorponok. He does not have long to wait, as Scorponok appears in the skies overhead while the Headmasters and Trainbots are battling the Terrorcons at the final bombing site. Battleship Maximus, however, is still drained of all energy and unable to transform, and after Scorponok smashes his way through the Headmasters and Trainbots, he transforms into his own massive robot mode and begins to pound on the helpless craft. Then, the report comes that all the bombs have been put in place, and Scorponok orders Soundblaster to detonate them. The key bomb clusters in the polar regions explode, and a chain reaction occurs, sending a string of explosions tearing through Mars. The Decepticons pull out as the planet erupts in flame all around them, but Fortress has one last ace up his sleeve—Battleship Maximus is able to absorb some of the energy released in the explosion, and, back to full power, Fortress Maximus emerges from the conflagration and cleaves Scorponok's shoulder with the Master Sword, forcing the villains to retreat. Although the Decepticons may have been forced back for now, Mars has been lost, and the Autobots' toughest battles are still ahead of them.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Continuity notes

• This episode represents the culmination of various plot threads that have been running throughout The Headmasters thus far.
  • Having remained hidden in shadow since his debut in "The Four-Million-Year-Old Veil of Mystery", Scorponok finally steps in to the light in this episode.
  • The construction of Scorponok's transtector was foreshadowed back in "Rebellion on Planet Beast", and brought to the fore alongside the Decepticons' activities on planet Zarak in "The Shadow Emperor, Scorponok".
  • The fate of the Beastformer slaves who were forced to construct it remains unclear.
  • The power of plasma energy was introduced in "The Dormant Volcano Mysteriously Erupts", its origin tied back to the events of the "Cybertron Is in Grave Danger" two-parter.

It's not unfair to say that with the wrapping-up of these story points, the series becomes largely directionless—with Galvatron's return in the next episode, it launches into a very random planet-hopping story arc that serves no real purpose but to vary the scenery, until Galvatron is removed from the series again, and focus shifts back to Scorponok and his plans.

Animation and technical errors

e-HOBBY duo-pack with Enemy? Pretty please? Pretty pretty please?

• As the Trainbots watch the monitor on Athenia at the beginning of the episode, Shouki's lower right leg is colored white, while the left is colored blue.
• When initially conferring with Spike, the back of Fortress's head is brown instead of blue. In the next shot, he is missing some of the chest detail surrounding his insignia.
• When Twincast ejects Rewind and Steeljaw, Rewind's forearms are colored gray.
• Thrust's wings appear to be attached to the underside of his forearms. A moment later, Dirge is colored like Thrust.
• Rewind is colored as Steeljaw when he spies on Sixshot while in cassette mode.
• As Sixshot arrives on Chaar, Blitzwing is present, and his head is purple. In the same shot, Soundblaster is missing the red stripe around each forearm.
• Just after Soundblaster punches up the Mars status on screen, there is a peculiar robot standing behind Sixshot's right. It looks like Slugslinger, but his colors are all wrong.
• The tapes Twincast ejects to fight Soundblaster are all colored like Steeljaw.
• When Soundblaster ejects cassettes to fight Twincast, one of them is the Rumble/Frenzy robot model... but he's been miscolored in Seizan's yellow-and-black color scheme, complete with blue optics and white forehead stripe. Seizan and Rumble/Frenzy both have that "one gun poking up over their right shoulder" thing going on, which is probably what led to the misunderstanding, outlandish as it is.
• Rippersnapper and Cutthroat are shown to be among the Decepticons watching from Chaar when Scorponok unveils his transtector... while Raiden is fighting Abominus on Mars. Mmn.
• When Scorponok lands on Chaar, Tantrum is colored blue and grey. In the same shot, Soundblaster is colored in the traditional blue of Soundwave. The right-side of his helmet is left uncolored and stars can be seen through it.
• When Scorponok transforms into robot mode, he doesn't appear to have his shield. When it cuts to him walking towards Maximus, his shield is on the left arm as per his character model, but when it cuts to him actually stomping Maximus, it's on his right arm.
• Just before the Terrorcons merge, Brainstorm and Highbrow can be seen fighting alongside the other Headmasters, despite the fact they're supposed to be back at base. A few minutes later, they arrive at the fight for real.
• In general, this episode's animation is lackluster. It resembles some of Toei's poorer efforts from season 2 of The Transformers.

Trivia

• The "MegaZarak" spoken of in the title is, of course, the Japanese name for Scorponok's transtector, the giant robot that we in the West also know as Scorponok.
• When the Autobots first learn of Scorponok's plan to blow up Mars, their reaction is one of horror. They also mention the incredible damage the Mars' detonation will surely bring to Earth, which is made even more direct by a series of still images showcasing the potential destruction. Yet when Mars actually is blown up Earth seems to get off without any damage whatsoever. Okay, then.
• The loss of Mars isn't much of big deal throughout the rest of the series either. The Autobots don't even bother to update their space-maps to reflect its destruction when traveling through the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt.
• Raiden inexplicably whips out a broadsword and powers it up like a lightsaber before getting slapped silly into his constituent trains by Scorponok before he can hit anything with it. This would go on to inspire the "Kōken" accessory included with Raiden's MPG toy some thirty years later.

Foreign localization

English

• Title: "Mars Explodes! The Scorpion Appears!" (Omni Productions dub)
• Original airdate: October 25, 1992

• Title: "Explosion on Mars! Scorponok Appears!" (Shout! Factory sub)

• The review of the last episode shown before the title card is omitted.
• The MegaZarak transtector is referred to as... the "Scorponok Transtector", despite the Headmaster himself already being named "Scorponok". The Destron City mode of the transtector is subtitled as "Decepticon Headquarters".

Italian

• Title: "La distruzione di Marte - Appare Lord Zarak!" ("The destruction of Mars - Lord Zarak appears!")

• In the recap at the beginning of the episode, the narrator calls Fortress "Fortress Maximus". In a later scene near the end of the episode, he instead calls the character "Maximus".

Mandarin

• Title: "Huǒxīng Bàozhà! Sàkè Jùrén Chūxiàn" (火星爆炸！萨克巨人出现, "Mars Explodes! Scorponok Appears")
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Vzryvy na Marse! Scorponog Poyavlyaetsya" (Взрывы на Марсе! Скорпоног появляется, "Explosion on Mars! Scorponok Appears")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

LaserDisc

1996 — Transformers: The Headmasters Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2002 — Transformers: The Headmasters — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — The Takara Collection Vol 1 — Transformers: Headmasters (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers: Headmasters (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2011 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.