After being beaten by the Autobots once again, Megatron hatches a plan to create a team of Decepticons that will give him supremacy over the roads. To counter the new Stunticons, the Autobots create the Aerialbots. But they are hardly the fighting force that was hoped for.
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: Megatron plans to take the superfuel formula back to Decepticon headquarters to start mass-producing it but then, Shockwave calls up Megatron to let him know about the Autobots having created the Aerialbots. The Superfuel formula is never brought up again.
- The Bad Guy Wins: While failing to turn Earth into a new Cybertron, thanks to the Stunticons Megatron did successfully steal the superfuel he was initially after. Though we never actually see what he ultimately does with it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Superion and Menasor are voiced by Frank Welker (using his Sludge voice) and Roger C. Carmel (using a heavily modulated version of his Motormaster voice). All subsequent appearances would have Ed Gilbert and Regis Cordic doing the roles.
- Facing Your Fears: Silverbolt was a low-level carrier in his previous life, so high altitude battle can leave him disoriented. Optimus appoints him Aerialbot leader to focus on the mission at hand.
- Fight Fire with Fire: After being beaten by the Autobots, Megatron creates the Stunticons in order to give them an edge on the road. The Autobots counter this counter by creating the Aerialbots, giving them an edge in the skies.
- Foreshadowing: Optimus Prime on Alpha Trion's Heroic Sacrifice:Optimus Prime: One Autobot gave his life so that six may be born.
- Frame-Up: Unintentional, but because the Stunticons are ground vehicles, the military base they attack easily mistake them for Autobots. They hold the real Autobots at gunpoint, but the Stunticons's gung-ho attacks against them clear their names.
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: Silverbolt cries "So long, cruel world!" when he's falling after destroying the key to Vector Sigma.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Autobots need to find another Key, after Megatron already used one, to awaken Vector Sigma in order to give the new Aerialbots life. Being a first generation Transformer, Alpha Trion happens to be a "Key" himself and offers to merge his lifeforce with Vector Sigma because they share the same matrix. Optimus objects, but Alpha Trion insists and soon sacrifices himself.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Megatron gets the idea to call the new Decepticons "the Stunticons" after Rumble admires their stunt driving.
- Mecha-Mooks:
- Vector Sigma is guarded by Centurion droids, who lack laser weapons but are Nigh-Invulnerable. They stop the Decepticons for awhile until Megaton's Key to Vector Sigma allows him to command them. They are then used against the Autobots.
- Maintenance drones are shown too. They are more simple robots who are intended for manual labor, lacking any combat capability. The Autobots get a bunch of them working to use against the Centurions. The first batch are easily destroyed but the second ones are able to lure the Centurions into a chasm.
- Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: The Aerialbots have a bad impression when the human army mistakes them for Decepticons, and decide they want nothing to do with them. Silverbolt shows them how humans and robots can work together, making Earth a place worth fighting for.
- Worf Had the Flu: After returning to Earth, Omega Supreme explodes for no other reason than to make the fight between Superion and Menasor one-on-one.
- Wrestler in All of Us: One of the Centurions takes out a Maintenance drone with a German Suplex.
