S.O.S. Dinobots

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Wheeljack? Consult the Book of Armaments.
"S.O.S. Dinobots"
Production code	#700-05
Season	1
No. in season	8
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	October 27, 1984
Written by	Donald F. Glut
Animation studio	Toei, Ashi Productions, Nakamura Production
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

The Autobots create the Dinobots, but can barely control these new powerful warriors.

Synopsis

As the Autobots discuss whether or not the Decepticons are behind the tremors they've been experiencing recently, Spike Witwicky notices the tremors are stronger near one of the rock walls of the Autobot base. Ironhide's sensors detect something odd behind the wall, so the Autobots break through, finding a cavern. Spike explains to the surprised Autobots that the bones scattered around the cave are dinosaur fossils, which pique the curiosity of Optimus Prime and Wheeljack.

Elsewhere, Soundwave and Reflector stake out the Great Falls hydroelectric power facility, and return to the Decepticon base once they have enough information.

Spike takes Hound on a tour of a natural history museum to further illustrate his paleontological crash-course. Hound snaps a few holograms of dinosaur bone displays, which he played back for the other Autobots. Wheeljack and Ratchet are inspired, believing that they could construct robot versions to use against the Decepticons, and Optimus gives them permission. A laborious construction ensues, based on designs drawn up on Teletraan I, with all of the Autobots taking part.

When the TV no work, Me know how to fix it!

Meanwhile Megatron announces that the Great Falls constitute a perpetual power source that will let them take over the universe forever. On his order, the Decepticon forces fly out to take the dam.

Wheeljack unveils the three new additions to their ranks: the Dinobots Grimlock, Slag and Sludge. Impressed by the giant Dinobots and their ability to transform into dinosaurs, Optimus asks for a demonstration of their other abilities, and Wheeljack has them disintegrate the rubble from the earlier excavation. As Wheeljack explains that he's looking to upgrade the Dinobots' limited intelligence, the trio suddenly start attacking the Autobots. Grimlock heads for the control room, pursued by Bumblebee and Spike, but the pair are unable to prevent the Dinobot from trashing Teletraan I. Bumblebee does manage to lure Grimlock away from the room so Ratchet can start the long repair job. As the fight continues, Optimus orders the Dinobots destroyed, but Wheeljack manages to disable them with his magnetic inducer. Despite Wheeljack's pleas, Optimus orders them decommissioned, and the three Dinobots are sealed in the rock cavern, never to be activated again.

Holy Hell!

The Decepticons arrive at the Great Falls, and the humans try to reach the Autobots via Teletraan I. Their distress signal goes unheard, as Teletraan I is currently offline thanks to the Dinobot rampage. Ravage trashes the humans' communication equipment, and the facility falls under Decepticon control.

With Teletraan I out of commission, it's up to individual Autobot scouts like Hound to be on the lookout for Decepticon activity. Hound's sensors detect the ransacking of the Great Falls plant, and he alerts Optimus. Optimus leaves with a strike force, ordering Bumblebee to stay behind to guard the base.

The Decepticons are gathering energy from the dam as energon cubes, and Megatron assures Starscream that he has a plan for when the Autobots arrive. When the Autobots do arrive on a cliff overlooking the falls, they're unable to detect any Decepticons, but the foe soon pops out of their hiding places and attack. As his warriors keep the Autobots occupied, Megatron connects his fusion cannon directly into the Great Falls' power output. He blasts the cliff-face where the Autobots stand while Rumble bashes at the ground, causing the cliff to crumble and sending the Autobots falling into the raging waters below.

Disobeying orders, Bumblebee arrives at the Great Falls and picks up Spike, as Megatron orders the Autobots retrieved and prepared for destruction. Bumblebee and Spike return to the Ark, informing Wheeljack and Ratchet of the Autobots' failure at the Great Falls. Wheeljack decides to reactivate the Dinobots. He has secretly developed a series of memory components that would upgrade the Dinobots' brains. Despite Bumblebee's protests that it goes against Optimus's orders, they install the new components, and the Dinobots awaken. Still relatively simple-minded, they are now much more intelligent than the mindless monsters that first appeared. Sludge, Slag and Grimlock agree to follow Wheeljack's orders, and blast their way out of the side of the volcano.

I've warned you about that, mighty Megatron.

The Decepticons have the Autobots trussed up with energon chains. Just as the Decepticons are about to execute the captives, the Dinobots arrive with Wheeljack. Wheeljack takes out Megatron with a gyro-inhibitor shell, resulting in Starscream declaring himself leader on the grounds that Megatron has literally just fallen. The Decepticons take to the air, but even with air superiority, they find themselves being tossed around and battered by the Dinobots. As Megatron transforms and latches onto Starscream's jet mode, Wheeljack spots his fellow Autobots' weapons, and uses them to free his friends. The Dinobots blast Megatron, who finds himself faced with both the Dinobots and the freed Autobots. He quickly calls a retreat, and the Decepticons turn tail. Wheeljack and Bumblebee brace themselves for reprimands for disobeying Prime's direct orders, but Prime concedes he was wrong. He accepts the Dinobots as the newest members of the Autobot forces. The Autobots cheer the decision, and the Dinobots growl their approval.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Well I'll be a Cybertronic bolt-bat!"

—Sideswipe

"Heck, robot satanic hellspawn nuclear explosive suicide troops might be useful too. Whip us up some of those while you're at it."

"Robot dinosaurs might be useful. You have my authorization."

—Optimus Prime gives the okay to make the Dinobots, because sure, why not?

"Maybe Hound's got glitch-mice in his databanks again!"

—Bluestreak, mocking Hound's radar accuracy, to the amusement of no one

"Nice shootin', if you were aimin' for the sky!"

—Rumble goading Bluestreak

Rubsigns save lives!

"Which ones... friends?"
"Ones with... face like this... uh, I think."
"That... good enough for Slag."

—Slag and Sludge determine friend from foe by using faction symbols.

"If on Decepticon turf you happen to tumble, look out robot, 'cause here comes Rumble!"

—Rumble's clever combat banter

"Heat seeking missiles seek heat!"

—Skywarp's slightly less clever combat banter

Notes

Production information

• First draft script: 29th June 1984
• Script revised by Ron Friedman: 7th July 1984
• First draft storyboards completed: 25th July 1984 (Artists: David Russell, Doug Lefler, Gerald Moeller, Lindsay Dawson, Bob Smith, Brian Ray).
• Returned to the US for telecine: 17th October 1984

Continuity notes

• The natural history museum that Spike and Hound visit might be assumed to be in Central City, later shown in "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1" to be located near Autobot Headquarters.
• After being almost totally ignored (or completely absent) for the first seven episodes, Windcharger finally gets his first speaking line.
• Wheeljack is shown working on the memory upgrades for the Dinobots before they're even built!
• Flying Autobots:
  • Gears takes to the air to attack the Decepticons at the power plant, and Wheeljack flies alongside the Dinobots. These abilities are never explained within the cartoon itself. However, according to the Tech Specs, these two (along with Sideswipe) are the original Autobots who are SUPPOSED to be flight-capable; Gears is equipped with compressed air boosters and Wheeljack has solid-fuel rockets in his arms. Gears would never be shown to use his flight capabilities again; Wheeljack, however, will fly again in "A Plague of Insecticons" and actually use his arm-rockets in "The Core" and "The Autobot Run".
  • The Dinobots are also shown to be able to fly in robot mode under their own power; they will consistently retain this ability all the way through Season 2 and the Movie.
• "We do... as told... for now." Grimlock's first lines already foretell the trouble that the Autobots will have keeping the Dinobots in line.
• The Dinobots are shown to be incredibly tough and resistant to damage. Nothing the Decepticons do leaves so much as a scratch or scorch mark, not even shots from gun mode Megatron. This too is consistent through Season 2 and the Movie.
  • Slag's neck frill can reflect Optimus Prime's laser rifle blast back at him.

As noted above, Hound's glowy bits were bright blue in the original broadcast version.

• Powers and gadgets:
  • Ironhide is equipped with a sonodar sensor array that extends from his forearm, capable of penetrating solid rock. The findings of the sensor are displayed in the windshield in his chest.
  • Sideswipe is equipped with piston arms, that allow him to punch through stone walls. Here, they are simply heavy protrusions that he slams into the rock to break it up, but when they show up again in "A Plague of Insecticons" they actually operate like pneumatic jackhammers. His pistons are also misinterpreted as a hand-held jackhammer in "Fire on the Mountain".
  • Trailbreaker's force field is rendered as a glowing yellow sphere that comes from the space between his upraised hands. (Well, hand, since the other one is a gun.)
  • Wheeljack fires a "magnetic inducer" from his shoulder cannon to stop the rampaging Dinobots, and later nails Megatron with a "gyro-inhibitor shell", launched from the same. Both of these are weapons Wheeljack's tech spec says he has and fires from his shoulder cannons.
  • Per the original script, Thundercracker was intended to use his sonic boom powers in robot mode during the Decepticons' attack on the Great Falls by slamming his fists together. As he was attacking the tourists from earlier - whose other scenes were cut - this scene was excised as well.
  • Hound uses a cheekguard-mounted communicator to contact Autobot Headquarters, along with a button on his stomach that lights up parts of his helmet while he's transmitting.
  • Optimus has a similar cheekguard communicator, along with little antennae which slide out of the larger antennae on his head.
  • Thundercracker attempts to torch the Dinobots with a flamethrower, which shows up again in "The Ultimate Doom, Part 2". This weapon is probably based on his tech spec's mention of incendiary guns.
  • Skywarp still packs heat-seeking missiles, per his tech spec bio.
  • Starscream drops small bomb-missiles on the Dinobots. These may or may not be from the launchers concealed in his air ducts, which are used in "Fire on the Mountain".

• Megatron actually refers to his fusion cannon by that name.
• Laserbeak does not appear but is mentioned in this episode, as Megatron credits him for gathering intelligence at the Great Falls.
• Per his tech spec bio, Sludge proves adept in the water. He also uses his seismic stomp to retaliate against Rumble's earthquake power.
• Rumble getting hit by Sludge's quake while using his piledrivers causes them to break off.
• < < What makes Starscream the leader? Megatron's lost his equilibrium! > >

Real-world references

• Dinosaurs, obviously. And a natural history museum, and a lame joke about "heavy metal" in reference to Hound.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Death Star turbolasers are used as the sound of Bluestreak firing at Rumble.
  • Luke repelling Seeker bolts with his lightsaber is used as the sound of the Decepticons lifting off under Starscream's command.
  • Clashing lightsabers are used as the sound of Slag's horns powering up.
  • More lightsabers as the Dinobots fire on Megatron and Starscream.

Animation or technical glitches

Yomtov-licious!

Don't even think about it, e-HOBBY!

• Coloring errors:
  • Wheeljack's ears flash orange in this episode, rather than the usual blue. It's a convention that also appeared in "Roll for It" (an episode which has a similar art style to this one.)
  • Ironhide's cheekguards are gray instead of red as he explains his sonodar sensor.
  • The exposition-spouting tourist visiting the Great Falls hydroelectric power plant has hair that turns from red to black from one shot to the next.
  • In his introductory shot, Slag's head is miscolored, mostly gray instead of all-red. This is the first of many, many, many times that his head and face will get the wrong colors.
  • Another frequent coloring error has Sludge with gray on the sides of his dino head, which should be all-gold. It pops up numerous times in this episode.
  • When the Decepticons arrive at the Great Falls plant, Rumble is colored like Brawn.
  • As Skywarp and another Decepticon land, a foreground Decepticon Seeker's leg is colored a deep yellow (an error, but as close as Sunstorm ever came to appearing on Earth in a Generation 1 cartoon.)
  • As Megatron claims control of the dam and the Decepticons strike silly poses, two background Seekers appear to have Bluestreak's colors.
  • As Skywarp and Thundercracker strafe the Autobots, every single Autobot is miscolored, including Sideswipe painted as Sunstreaker, Bluestreak as Trailbreaker, Brawn as Hound, Optimus Prime as Sideswipe, Hound as Ironhide, Trailbreaker as Gears, and Mirage as Bluestreak.
  • Rumble's pile driver tips are the same blue-purple as the rest of him when he lands, but are red in a close-up shot a second later.
  • Sunstreaker's hands are yellow in the shot of him, Jazz, etc. reacting to Rumble's earthquake.
  • As Prime rolls toward the falls, his smokestacks are red.
  • "Nice shootin'!" Rumble's eyeband is gray instead of red.
  • When Gears flies up to Soundwave, his truck roof (on his back) is red instead of blue.
  • Optimus's chest is the same blue as his head as he struggles in the water. As the Autobots move past camera, he morphs into his usual red.
  • Ratchet's head crest is white instead of gray as he works on Teletraan-1.
  • While the Autobots are trapped in Energon Chains, Optimus is colored entirely blue and Trailbreaker is a light grey rather than black.
  • Starscream's entire cockpit cowling is yellow after the transforms, rather than just the canopy.
  • Rumble's shin is all-yellow as he and the rest of the Decepticon group take off.
  • When Skywarp drops bombs on Grimlock, Grimlock's an overly-dark shade of gray.
  • Rumble's colors are reversed as Sludge's crevasse knocks him over.
  • After they transform to retreat, all three Seekers have entirely gold nosecones. A pan across the three jets shows Starscream, Thundercracker, and a second Starscream in place of Skywarp.
  • Sludge's face is black after he returns to robot mode.
• Brawn's lines don't quite time up with the animation; he says "let's clean up this mess" while in the middle of tossing rocks everywhere; and he says "Hey, there's a cavern in there!" while gaping at a huge opening that must have been revealed much earlier in their dig.
• Wheeljack likewise says "Feels like stone" before he's even picked up one of the dinosaur bones. His ears don't flash for the first part of his line. And the top of his chest is colored windshield blue when it should be metal armor white.
• Jazz clearly isn't with the group that enters the cave; yet he abruptly pops up out of nowhere to say his line.
• Only the front of Wheeljack's ears flash for his "I'd sure like to know more about 'em" line.
• Spike identifies a Brontosaurus during his tour of the museum's dinosaur exhibit, though there does not appear to be a Brontosaurus on display. Though, to be fair, it may just be Spike's error, or the Brontosaurus skeleton might be out of the camera's view. (Also, at the time this episode took place, Brontosaurus was a deprecated genus, but that's just picking nits, especially since the genus has now been reinstated.)
• Wheeljack's ears are drawn as mishapen white blobs as he and Prime first call up the image of the dinosaurs on Teletraan 1.
• Wheeljack is missing his wings as he works on the helmet-brain units.
• The Decepticon Headquarters docking tower is rather clumsily animated against the background matte, shaking a bit as it lowers. When the tower lowers, the source of the streaming bubbles lowers with it!
• "I suppose you've devised a brilliant plan..." Starscream's intakes are shown behind his shoulders, rather than on top of them.
• The top of the docking tower is missing as the Decepticons fly out it.
• Wheeljack's line of dialogue, "Autobots, meet Dinobots" is delivered by Ratchet.
• As Wheeljack introduces the Dinobots, the foreground characters slide magically against the background scenery due to an error in animation.
• As the Autobots react with shock upon seeing the Dinobots, all three audible lines in the scene—"Look at the size of those things", "Great Cybertron", and "Holy heterodyne"—are animated as being spoken by Bluestreak. The lines were evidently not scripted as belonging to any specific characters, as they are provided respectively by Peter Cullen (using neither Prime nor Ironhide's voice), Dan Gilvezan (sounding like himself) and Gregg Berger (who shouldn't be voicing any of the assembled Autobots!).
• Wheeljack is missing his wings as he's introducing the Dinobots.
• As Huffer mocks the Dinobots, he says: "Dinobots, huh? I thought you were supposed to make dinosaurs!" The emphasis, of course, should be on the "saurs".
• Optimus Prime's line, "Interesting, but what else can they do?" is delivered by Cliffjumper.
• As he opens his mouth to clear the rubble, Grimlock's dinosaur head has whole bunch of extra joint lines, based on his toy's detail. This detail never appears again.
• Bluestreak gets Optimus Prime's laser rifle sound effect for his shoulder launcher blasts.
• As Slag shoots him, Sideswipe cries out in Bluestreak's voice.
• As Grimlock heads into the control room, he just slides across the frame, rather than being animated with leg motion, etc.
• Grimlock clearly destroys the big main screen with the lolipop next to it. Yet as Bumblebee tries to get away, he passes this same screen, totally intact, while the explosion comes from somewhere else (unless there's two big screens with lolipops?)
• Ratchet rights a tipped-over Bumblebee in the thick of the Dinobot rampage. After Bumblebee drives away, the section of Ratchet obscured by a foreground Bumblebee is still missing.
• As often happens, Prowl has Sideswipe's voice as he asks "Doesn't anything get to this guy?"
• Prime's missing his grille lines as he declares that the Dinobots must be destroyed.

• As he fires to deactivate the Dinobots, Wheeljack's missile launcher swings around and clicks into place, pointing forward. Only... it was already pointing forward just a second earlier. In fact, it's never shown pointing in any other direction.
• After standing in front of the cave lamenting the loss of his creations (aw, poor Wheeljack!), Wheeljack moves out of the way as the Autobots open fire to seal the cavern. Yet as the rocks come down, he's back in front of the cave.
• After Optimus signs off from Hound's transmission, his head does a strange little back-and-forth bob. As the view pans out from him, we see Bluestreak, whose headcrest is gray instead of red.
• As the Autobots roll out, they kind of slide sideways across the floor of Autobot Headquarters.

They just left Gears and the others at the bottom of the river.

• Appearing/disappearing Autobots:
  • Wheeljack is shown in the lineup of Autobots leaving HQ; yet a moment later, it's shown that he stayed behind to continue working on stuff.
  • Not nearly enough Autobots are shown in the energon chain lineup.
• "Endless energy, Starscream!" Megatron is missing his waist details.
• When Optimus tells the Autobots to fight, his line is clipped off at the end, telling the Autobots to "fight ba-".
• Just before Gears tumbles into him, Bluestreak is standing there waving a fist in the air. It looks like he was supposed to be shooting, but the laser fire wasn't animated.
• Bluestreak is knocked over by Gears, but is standing and firing in the next shot.
• Megatron is shown laughing, but there's no vocalization to go with it.
• Megatron's missing his insignia as he and Starscream look down from the cliff.
• "We shall retrieve their short-circuited carcasses..." Megatron's slow-moving lip-flap doesn't keep pace with his speech.
• "I've been working on a little research project." Once again, only the front of Wheeljack's ears flash.
• As the Autobots struggle against the chains, Megatron suffers another severe lip-flap malfunction. The energon chains to bounce and move like a single solid object; this is apparently supposed to show the Autobots struggling against their bonds, but it doesn't really work very well.
• Yet another vocal malfunction for Megatron after Wheeljack shoots him; he makes a falling-over "Whauurrrrrr!" sound long after he's already fallen over.
• "And whatever punishment you have in mind..." Bumblebee is missing his insignia, has yellow "cheeks" instead of white, and appears to have borrowed Bumper's rectangular chest.
• The closing scene features Optimus announcing that the Dinobots... will stay! And everyone is happy, and everybody cheers! Everybody except the background music, which is a tense, frantic piece normally reserved for cliffhanging crises and catastrophes.

Continuity errors

• So, why didn't Wheeljack just give the Dinobots their cognitive upgrades before he activated them and showed them off?
• The data gathered by Reflector and Soundwave leads Megatron to conclude with relish that the Great Falls contain enough energy to vanquish the Autobots and control the universe... but that's really nothing new. The Decepticons have targeted hydroelectric power sources before.
• What is it about falling into the river that is so devastating to the Autobots? We've seen that Autobots can deal with being in the water (Hound in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2", various Autobots in "The Ultimate Doom", Springer, Kup, and Arcee in The Transformers: The Movie, etc.). It's possible that the fall itself damaged them, but the Autobots are clearly shown struggling around in the water. Then again, Optimus Prime needed Jazz's help to escape the rushing river in "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2".
• It's possible the editorial pace of the show plays with time and space, but taken at face value, the Autobots build three Dinobots in the span of time it takes the Decepticons to decide to attack the Great Falls.
• So... what caused the tremors? Once the Autobots found the dinosaur bones, they completely lost interest in the mystery that kickstarted the whole thing in the first place.

Rhino DVD release

Pretty colors are more important than things making sense!

• The chapter stops for this episode on the Rhino DVD are: Opening / Old Bones / "Dinobots Must Die" / Fusion Power / Permanent Dysfunction / Dinobots Will Stay.
• Though all G1 episodes released on DVD by Rhino were altered in some way, both with additional sound effects and unintentional changes induced by not using the finalized broadcast masters, this one is particularly screwed up:
  • The Rhino version uses a faulty take for the shot where the Dinobots demonstrate their power by clearing rubble. In the DVD, the blasts from the Dinobots' mouths are missing, and the rubble does not vanish. The broadcast version, though, has both effects, which were reinstated on the Shout! Factory release. (See illustration).
  • "Look at the size of those things!" In the shot where Bluestreak speaks the three lines in three different voices, the Rhino version features an additional error: Huffer's mouth is also moving in unison with Bluestreak's for all three lines.
  • As the Autobots walk around the unnamed museum, they pass a pair of street punks looking at a display. While divided into grey and blue parts in the broadcast version, the display was rendered entirely blue in the Kid Rhino version of the episode, making it look a bit like a computer terminal. This random color change was not undone in the Shout! Factory version.
  • When Hound contacts Autobot Headquarters with a recon report, the glowing lights on his chest and forehead are blue in the broadcast version, but red in the DVD version. This was changed back in the Shout! Factory release.
  • ...When Spike says the line "Is it much farther, Hound" the broadcast version has his mouth move with his speech but the Rhino version has his mouth stop at the word "much" with his mouth hanging open in the rest of the sentence and this error is uncorrected in Shout! Factory's version.
  • When the Autobots arrive at the Great Falls and they transform from vehicle mode to robot mode, the shot of Bluestreak is reversed, and he is shown transforming from robot to car. The broadcast version used the correct take, as does the Shout! Factory release.
  • Not so much a goof, but the Rhino DVD version of this episode has a rainbow visible at the Great Falls when Megatron lands. This is not in the broadcast version and was removed when Shout Factory corrected the scene.
  • When Megatron transforms into a gun to attack the Dinobots, the background matte is misaligned, showing only the sky and not the ground.
  • And before the shot mentioned in the previous error, the camera pan from the Dinobots to Megatron is jumpy.

Trivia

The rules of Decepticon fashion dictate that no two members of a flying group can use the same arm pose.

Reflector's fate - deleted from two episodes

• Though the holographic dinosaurs illustrated in the episodes matched some of the concepts of the early ‘80s, their depiction is outdated by today's standards. The dinosaurs in the show are the sluggish, tail-dragging cold-blooded variety not in keeping with more modern theories of warm-blooded, bird-like animals.
  • Also when the holographic dinosaurs are shown, a Brontosaurus is seen living alongside a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus. In reality, Brontosaurus lived in the Jurassic Period, while Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus lived during the Cretaceous Period. So basically, they were separated by millions of years, but apparently, in a cartoon, that doesn't matter.
• At one point in the script's development, Megatron was going to proclaim himself "Megatron of Cybertron" when taking over the power plant. This was briefly amended to "Megatron Septimus Five of Cybertron", before being altered to "I, Megatron, declare this facility Decepticon domain!" as the finalized line.
• A scene deleted from the episode storyboards (pictured at right) shows Reflector receiving a brutal beatdown from all three Dinobots. This scene was scripted to be repeated in future episode War of the Dinobots, as the Decepticons watch video footage of their defeat. As the scene was deletd before the episode was animated, its re-use was cut as well.
• This episode shares the slightly stylized artistic style of "Roll for It". Note the strange poses that the Decepticons strike while flying, Optimus's unusually rounded head, Bumblebee's somewhat flattened head, and the little bits of shading seen on characters's faces in closeup.
• This was one of the six episodes featured on the Revenge of the Fallen console game, and the three on the PSP game, though it is in astonishingly low quality.
• Prime's characterization is a bit off in this episode; Wheeljack has just created living, sentient beings... and once they show they have free will by attacking the Autobots, he orders them sealed in a cave. Once they wipe the floor with the Decepticons, their brutality is a-okay. Apparently, freedom is the right of all sentient beings that fight on his side.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "S.O.S. Dinobots"
• Original airdate: ?

• Concerning the European French dub:

• Megatron calls Soundwave "Shock".
• When Megatron loses his equilibrium, "equilibrium" was not translated in French and kept this way in the phrase, resulting in the equilibrium being a mechanical piece that was damaged by Wheeljack.

German

• Title (Generation 2 dub): "Die Dinobots" ("The Dinobots")
• Original airdate: May 21, 1994

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "La nascita dei Dinorobot" ("Birth of the Dinobots")
• Original airdate: ?

• Rumble and Slag are called "Scarlet" and "Tricec" in this episode, despite their Italian names being "Tartar" and "Tricex".
• The heavy metal joke is not well rendered.

• Title (dub 2): "S.O.S. Dinobots"
• Original airdate: ?

• The same filter used for Transformers is applied to Spike in two of his lines ("Or maybe he just can't respond!"/"We've got to try to save him and our friends!").

Japanese

• Title: "Dinobot Tanjō!" (ダイノボット誕生!, "The Dinobots Are Born!")
• Original airdate: August 17, 1985

• The Dinobots' roars are replaced with library tracks of classic movie kaiju roars (mostly an altered version of Baragon's roar from Toho's Frankenstein Conquers the World).
• Cut: Following Spike's line, "There goes an Autobot with guts" and Ratchet charging, the close-up of Spike's head and Ratchet repairing Teletraan-1 have been cut. The sequence resumes at Sludge firing his laser eyes.
• Cut: After Prime yells "Roll out!" and transforms, the following footage of the Autobots driving out of the Ark behind him, the pan across the base interior and the footage of Wheeljack working on the Dinobot brain upgrades have all been cut.

Mandarin

• Title: "Jǐnjí Hūjiào " (紧急呼叫, "Emergency Calls")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "S.O.S. Dinobots"
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Na pomoshch, Dinoboty!" (На помощь, Диноботы!, "Help us, Dinobots!")
• Original airdate: ?

Serbian

• Title: "S.O.S Dinoboti" (С.О.С Диноботи, "S.O.S Dinobot")
• Original airdate: ?

Toys inspired by this episode

• Masterpiece MP-27 Ironhide (TakaraTomy, 2016)

Included with Masterpiece Ironhide is a wrist-mounted sonodar dish, as well as a readout image of dinosaur bones that can be slipped behind his windshield based on the tools he uses in this episode.

Home video releases

VHS

1985 — The Transformers — Volume 3: "S.O.S. Dinobots" (Family Home Entertainment)
1997 — The Transformers — War of the Dinobots (Malofilm)

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 — Transformers: The Complete Original Series (Maverick)^[1]
2002 — Transformers: Generation 2 (Sony Wonder)
2002 — Transformers — Original Series: Volume Three (Sony Wonder)
2002 — Transformers — Complete Original Series: Deluxe Edition (Sony Wonder)
2002 — The Original Transformers — First Season Collector's Edition (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Volume Two (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Collection 1: Series 1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 1 (Metrodome)
2006 — The Best of The Transformers (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Classic Episodes (Metrodome)
2007 — Classic Transformers — Series One: Part One (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 01: Stagione Uno Parte Prima (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete First Season: 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)
2011 — Transformers — L'Attaque des Autobots (UFG Junior) — European French audio only.
2014 — The Transformers — The Complete First Season: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Roar of the Dinobots (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

References

External links

• Episode Dossier at The Cybertron Chronicle
• Episode script as revised by Ron Friedman 7th July 1984
• Model sheets and background layouts
• Gallery of first draft storyboards