From Season 2 of The Transformers. While helping to break up a car-jacking ring, Tracks becomes damaged and lost in New York. He becomes unlikely friends with the human Raoul, and the two work together to uncover a Decepticon plot.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bad Samaritan: Tracks is damaged after escaping car thieves, and can't transform or safely drive. Raoul finds him and takes him somewhere he can repair him...because he wants to sell him. Ultimately averted when Raoul decides that Tracks is a nice guy and he doesn't want to sell him.
- Batman Cold Open: The episode opens with two car thieves stealing a car with a boom box in the back. When they get to their buyer, its revealed that the stolen car and boom box were Tracks and Blaster, respectively. They catch the thieves as Prime and the cops show up.
- Big Applesauce: The episode takes place in or around NYC.
- Big Damn Heroes: After being seen by the Decepticons, Tracks (who's low on power) and Raoul are cornered and about to be destroyed...until Sideswipe, Bumblebee, and Jazz show up, saving them.
- Blatant Lies: When Tracks is knocked out and about to be destroyed, Raoul runs up and tells the Decepticons that Tracks (who they don't recognize) is his car, and that he strapped a bomb to it. The Decepticons believe him, and Megatron orders him to go disarm the bomb. Raoul uses this chance to wake Tracks up, allowing them to escape.
- Car Chase: Tracks and Raoul versus the crime ring leaders. Despite Tracks being able to fly, the ringleaders manage to escape.
- Chekhov's Gun: When they first meet, Raoul admits that, other than cars, his hobby is graffiti, and he shows Tracks a spray can he keeps in his jacket. Later, when Megatron is using him as a hostage, Raoul opens the door to Megatron's chest and sprays the paint in, stunning him long enough to allow Raoul to escape.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Geddis Brothers stole all of the cars for Megatron because the Decepticons promised them one million dollars. When they deliver the cars and ask for the money, Megatron starts shooting at them.
- A Day in the Limelight: Optimus Prime and the more prominent Autobots have a smaller role, with the focus being put on Tracks and Raoul.
- Declaration of Protection: Tracks does this for Raoul a few times, most notably when he yells at Megatron for taking Raoul hostage.Tracks: If you harm one hair on his head, I'll personally carve you into scrap metal!
- Defiant Captive:
- Played with when Raoul steals Tracks. While he's not really Raoul's prisoner, he can't drive away until Raoul repairs him, and gives him plenty of snark for trying to sell him.
- Megatron, when his plan starts failing, takes Raoul as a hostage, threatening to hurt/kill him if the Autobots don't retreat. Raoul responds by spraying paint into Megatron's chest.
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: While their real mission is to figure out what the Decepticons are doing in New York, Prime, Tracks, and several other Autobots are willing to help break up car-jacking rings or help with traffic accidents whenever they're nearby.
- Extremely Short Time Span: The entire episode takes place in one night.
- Failed a Spot Check: When he's in line to be disassembled with the other cars, Tracks has a very visible Autobot symbol painted on his roof...and none of the Decepticons notice.
- Fantastically Indifferent: Zig-zagged. While some humans freak out when the cars they've been driving in suddenly turn into robots or start talking, most of them barely react to seeing the Autobots. To be fair, giant transforming robots are probably a common sight by this point (the cop's remark to Optimus, "Thanks to you our crime buster program's a smashing success!" suggests they've been in the city helping out for a while).
- Flying Car: Even in his alt mode, Tracks can fly.
- Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: When the Geddis Brothers throw Raoul, Tracks catches him. Realistically, even if he wasn't thrown very far, this should have resulted in at least some painful bruising for Raoul.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: The plot kicks off because Tracks (after successfully catching some carjackers) decides to go for a leisurely drive through the city.
- Internal Reveal: That Tracks is a Transformer is this to Raoul.
- Joisey: This is where the Decepticons set up their base of operations.
- Kick the Dog: Megatron pulls one when he not only creates an army of mindless drones to attack New York, but he didn't even pay the humans he'd enlisted to steal the cars that made said drones.
- Laser-Guided Karma: While Raoul did help the Autobots end the Decepticon attack, he still was willing to steal Tracks (as well as the parts he used to fix him). So, Tracks volunteers him to help Sparkplug, Ratchet, Wheeljack and Hoist repair all five hundred of the stolen cars.
- No-Sell: At the beginning, a car thief shoots at Prime. As expected, it does nothing to him and he simply tells the thief to surrender as the cops show up.
- Odd Friendship: Tracks is an Autobot warrior who's against crime and fights for what's right. Raoul is a human car thief who's not above breaking the rules. While they clash at first, the two quickly form a strong bond. It probably helps that Raoul is painted as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Scenery Porn: The episode features several shots of New York City that are surprisingly beautiful.
- So Long, Suckers!: Starscream says this as he's escaping the mall. Unusually for this trope, he actually gets away.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Notably, Rumble is the one to suggest this, rather than say, Soundwave.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Tracks and Raoul slip into this once or twice.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Apparently, there's a simple wire under Cybertronian hoods that, if cut, severs their body's connection to their main computer and leaves them a normal vehicle. Raoul cuts it by accident, and it later almost gets Tracks killed when it disconnects again. Also, Megatron is defeated by spray paint; admittedly the paint was sprayed direction into his innards, but an advanced mecha like Megatron should be more resistant to something like this.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Geddis Brothers aren't seen again after Megatron shoots at them.
- Your Size May Vary: Continuing the cartoon’s lack of regard for scale, not only can Starscream enter Macy’s to cause a panic, but Hoist is seen driving the much smaller Huffer in a traffic jam.
