The Insecticons were pretty popular for rarely ever appearing on the cartoon.

Since I currently have the biggest case of writer’s block ever in the history of internet bloggers, and because I want to exploit the new Transformers movie as much as possible, I’ve decided to repost all of my reviews of the old Transformers cartoon. Keep in mind that these are all pretty old and hastily written by me while under the influence of Surge soda and diet pills. Enjoy!

Transformers: A Plague of Insecticons

The last time I wrote an article of Transformers on the site, it was about the first appearance of the Dinobots. I believe they were the first new Autobots introduced on the show that didn’t originally come to earth on the Ark. Today, I thought it would be fitting if I took a look at the first new wave of Decepticons: the Insecticons.

The Insecticons were pretty popular for rarely ever appearing on the cartoon. I believe they came to Earth a couple of episodes earlier, when Cybertron was sucked into Earth’s orbit. The show doesn’t really go into detail of how they arrived though, but one thing is for certain, they do make an immediate impact…

A bunch of Autobots, Spike, and a forrest ranger are riding around in the woods when they notice a bunch of trees that have apparently been eaten by something. The humans seemed confused, but the Autobots immediately recognized that only the Insecticons were capable of doing this…

Argh! Not two mintues into the episode and I have to bitch like a geek. Assuming that the Insecticons were from Cybertron, how’d they become insects? And even if they were, there aren’t any trees on Cybertron? Fortunately for me, I am able to shut down my brain in instances like these and just enjoy the show. If not, somebody probably has already written a FAQ on it.

Another thing about Transformers is that there are a shitload of FAQs and sites explaining the theories about them. Like, you guys probably wondered where Optimus’s trailer goes when he’s in robot form or why Megatron appears to be one of the bigger Decepticons, but when he transforms, old Megsy is the size of a pistol. At one point in time, I wondered about shit like that too… until I discovered this huge faq written by some guy relating Transformers to subspace and quantum mechanics. It was a surprisingly good read and it actually made some of the discrepancies seem plausible.

But back to the episode. The Autobots get whupped on by the Insecticons and have to high-tail it and run away. Megatron, obviously impressed by the power of the Insecticons, seeks them out in order to form an alliance between the two factions. He plans on using the Insecticons and then double crossing them when he no longer needs them.

The Decepticons then attack a power plant (yes another one) as a “gift” to the Insecticons. The power plant isn’t an ordinary one, and when the Insecticons feed on the electricity generated there, they start growing to tremendous proportions. It’s really insane how the Insecticons really were. I’m surprised that they haven’t replaced all of the other Decepticons.

They find Shockwave spying on them, and decide to give Megatron a little surprise of their own. Bombshell implants a mind control device into Shockwave’s head, turning him into their spy. Once again another sign of just how bad ass the Insecticons were. I must admit, before watching this episode, I thought they were just blah. They’ve moved up several rungs on my list of favorite Transformers. (I’ll do that article one day too…)

Back at Autobot HQ, Spike discovers that the new unstable form of energy that the Insecticons fed on at the power plant will make them explode, kinda like when you feed Alka Seltzer to a seagull. Of course the Autobots can’t idly stand by while this happens, so they decide to find a remedy.

Meanwhile, the Decepticons attack again while they are on a roll. This time, it’s to some defense base in order to steal some “secrets”. Megatron also decides that after this mission, it would be a good idea to destroy the Insecticons.

Shockwave manages to download all of the necessary data and the Decepticons are ready to take flight… until the Insecticons decide that now would be the best time if they struck. Bombshell implants his mind control device on all of the Decepticons except Megatron, rendering them to do his bidding.

All seems lost for Megatron, until he decides to team up with the Autobots. Prime explains to him what is about to happen to the Insecticons if they don’t shoot them with some blue goo thing; that the Insecticons will blow up and destroy the world. Megatron turns into gun mode and allows his mortal enemy to weild him. They manage to cure two of the Insecticons, but it’s too late for Shrapnel…

I swear I wish I could have made a gif of Shrapnel blowing up, because it’s probably one of the funniest scenes in Transformer history. It’s kinda ironic too, because his name is Shrapnel, and he blew up, and uh… shrapnel… and uh… yeah.

But even when he’s blown apart into a billion pieces, it doesn’t stop him. You see, the Insecticons also have the power to put themsevles together. Big surprise. At this point, I wouldn’t be shocked if they walked on water or turned their flesh into bread.

Badly outnumbered, the Insecticons decide to retreat to return to fight another day. Megatron, which the Decepticons free from Bombshell’s control, regroup and immediately follow the Insecticons to extract their revenge. It isn’t going to be pretty…

A plague of Insecticons was a good episode. Of course, the plot isn’t anything to write home about, but it had a lot of intrigue and action… well, about as much as a cartoon made for selling toys to seven year olds can be.

Score: 7.8

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