Transformers Animated

Transformers Animated is a Japanese/American animated television series based on the Transformers toy line. The series debuted on Cartoon Network on December 26, 2007, and has been shown on NickToons in the UK since February 2008. The series also appeared on Toonami Jetstream premiering on February 15, 2008. It is produced by Cartoon Network Studios and animated by The Answer Studio, MOOK DLE., and Studio 4°C. The series has 42 episodes (two sets of three interrelated episodes make up two 90-minute made for TV movies) across three seasons. The European Jetix began to air the series on September 10, 2008. The series began its broadcast in Japan on April 3, 2010, on both TV Aichi and TV Tokyo. The Japanese version of the cartoon was slightly rewritten to tie into Michael Bay's Transformers trilogy. A fourth season was initially planned, but was cancelled. It's later revealed that the cause for the cancellation was lack of promos, and Cartoon Network placed it in weekday morning timeslots.

Transformers Animated was adapted into comics and published by IDW Publishing in 2008. The book used cartoon screen captures arranged in comic book style panels. In Japan, a manga adaptation titled Transformers Animated: The Cool was created by Naoto Tsushima and serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Kerokero Ace magazine in Japan.

The series' continuity is separate from any other previous Transformers series, despite using footage from the first series (The Transformers) in its first episode as a historical film. Despite being a Cartoon Network original series, the show was aired on Nicktoons in the UK, Jetix/Disney XD in the rest of Europe and finally, back in the states The Hub started airing reruns of the show on July 9, 2012.

Season 1
In the first season, the Autobots settle into their new situation and learn about Earth culture and customs, all of the while defending Detroit from various threats. Megatron's disembodied head, which has been in Professor Sumdac's laboratory since the ship crashed, comes back to life and manipulates Sumdac into building him a new body, pretending that he is an Autobot. Blitzwing and Lugnut arrive on Earth searching for Megatron, while Blackarachnia targets Optimus Prime, blaming him for her techno-organic mutation. New Transformers introduced in the first season include the Autobot Arcee (who only appears in Ratchet's flashbacks), the Decepticon Soundwave, the bounty-hunter Lockdown, and the Dinobots Grimlock, Snarl and Swoop. Several human villains are also introduced, including Nanosec (who can run at extreme speeds), the Headmaster (who pilots a machine that attaches to and controls large robots) and Meltdown (who is covered in a toxic and corrosive substance).

Season 2
In the second season, the Autobot Elite Guard members Ultra Magnus, Sentinel Prime, and Jazz arrive on Earth to retrieve the Allspark, only to learn of its destruction in the season 1 finale. While Sentinel completely disbelieves Optimus' claims, Optimus and his team are eventually able to convince Magnus of Decepticon activity on Earth. The main theme for season 2 is the discovery of small fragments of the Allspark littered across the city, while the Decepticons work on building a Space Bridge back to Cybertron. New characters introduced in season 2 include: the Autobots, Omega Supreme (who was revealed to be Optimus Prime's team's spaceship), Wreck-Gar, Wasp, and Blurr, and the Decepticons, Shockwave, Swindle, Mixmaster and Scrapper, the human villain Slo-Mo (who is able to slow down time), and Starscream's army of clones, Thundercracker, Ramjet, Skywarp, Sunstorm and Slipstream (none of the clones are openly referred to by name in the series, the names listed come from the toy-line, while Slipstream was retroactively given her name by Hasbro).

Season 3
Following the events of the season 2 finale, Sari is shocked and distraught over the revelation that she is a robot, and instantly assumes that her "father" built her, refusing to believe Sumdac's claim that he discovered her as a small, mechanical baby. Prowl does some research and discovers that Professor Sumdac was in fact telling the truth, and deduces that Sari is a Cybertronian Protoform (the early development stage of a Transformer) that scanned Professor Sumdac's genetic information. Sari later gives herself an upgrade using the power from her Allspark key, remaking her body into a taller, teenage version of herself.

Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Shockwave (disguised as the Autobot Longarm) sabotages several Elite Guard operations in preparation for Megatron's return, unaware that Megatron and Starscream are lost in deep space. Suspecting that the double-agent may be the escaped convict Wasp, Ultra Magnus sends Sentinel and Jazz back to Earth to find and apprehend Wasp, who has found his way to Earth to exact revenge on Bumblebee for framing him. Soundwave and Arcee reappear in season 3, with Soundwave being accompanied by minions: Laserbeak and Ratbat. New characters introduced in season 3 include: the Constructicon Dirt Boss, the Autobot scientist Perceptor, Prowl's mentor Yoketron (who only appears in Prowl's flashbacks), and the Elite Guard members Jetstorm and Jetfire.

Autobots
The Autobots are the protagonists of the series. Many Autobots on Cybertron are employed with a military force called the Autobot Elite Guard, with the main leader holding the title of "Magnus" and high-ranking lieutenants holding the title of "Prime". The main cast of Autobots in the series are a team of low-ranking maintenance workers led by Optimus Prime, who discover the Allspark (the legendary source of all life on Cybertron) hidden on an asteroid. The majority of Autobots in Transformers: Animated transform into non-military terrestrial vehicles and carry non-projectile weaponry such as swords, shields and axes.

Optimus Prime — Optimus Prime is the leader of the Earth-based Autobots and transforms into a red and blue fire truck. He is noble, compassionate and chivalrous, but often doubts his own leadership skills. His weaponry includes a battle axe, retractable grappling hooks and an arm-mounted cannon that shoots fire-dousing foam, and in the series' third season Prof. Sumdac builds Optimus a jet-pack, enabling him to fly.

Ratchet — Ratchet is an elderly Autobot medic and veteran of the war against the Decepticons. He is grouchy and short-tempered, often having little patience with his younger team mates and initially being hostile towards humans, but he becomes calmer and more tolerant as the series progresses. Ratchet transforms into a white and red ambulance, and is armed with retractable, wrist-mounted magnets that generate electro-magnetic blasts.

Bulkhead — Bulkhead is a large and powerful Autobot who transforms into a green SWAT armoured truck and wields two wrecking balls that are stored in his arms. Despite his size and intimidating appearance, he is a gentle and passive Autobot, but can often be clumsy and dim-witted. His colour scheme is an homage to the Transformers: Generation 1 Autobot Hound.

Prowl — Prowl is a reclusive Autobot ninja who transforms into a black and gold motorcycle and is trained in the Cybertronian martial art of Circuit-Su. He is fascinated by organic life, and enjoys spending time around plants and animals on Earth. In the series' first two seasons, Prowl's weaponry included a pair of shuriken stored in the wheels of his motorcycle mode, and in the third season he acquires a suit of samurai armour that transforms into a sidecar and features retractable swords. In the finale of the third season, Prowl sacrifices himself to reassemble the shattered Allspark and destroy the "Lugnut Supremes" (three Omega Supreme-sized robots built by the Decepticons), and his dead body is returned to Cybertron.

Bumblebee — Bumblebee is the youngest member of Optimus Prime's team. He transforms into a yellow hatchback car and is armed with two electric "stingers" that are stored in his arms. He is impulsive, self-confident and takes great pride in his speed, but he also tends to be reckless, hyperactive and obnoxious.

Ultra Magnus — Ultra Magnus is the supreme commander of the Autobots and leader of the Autobot Elite Guard. He transforms into a blue and white Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, and wields the Magnus Hammer, an enormous hammer passed down to each new Magnus and capable of summoning lightning. In the third season, Ultra Magnus is attacked and nearly killed by Shockwave, and if the planned fourth season had been produced, his death would have been shown.

Sentinel Prime — Sentinel Prime is Ultra Magnus's second in command and Optimus Prime's rival. He transforms into a blue and orange pick-up truck fitted with a snowplough, and is armed with a lance and shield that can project force-fields. Sentinel is hot-headed and arrogant, often rushing into situations without thinking, and acting rudely towards Optimus and his team. Following Shockwave's attack on Ultra Magnus, Sentinel becomes a temporary Magnus, but gradually turns Cybertron into a military dictatorship.

Jazz — Jazz is a laid-back member of the Autobot Elite Guard, and transforms into a white and blue sports car. Like Prowl, he was trained in Circuit-Su by Yoketron, and his signature weapons are a pair of nun-chucks. He joins Optimus Prime's team on Earth in the final few episodes of the third season, and if the planned fourth season had been produced he would have become a regular cast member.

Blurr — Blurr is an Elite Guard intelligence agent who transforms into a light blue race car. He is extremely fast in both vehicle and robot modes, and also speaks quickly, so much so that others often find it difficult to understand what he is saying.

Jetfire & Jetstorm — Jetfire and Jetstorm are twin Autobots who transform into Cybertronain fighter jets (being the result of an experiment to create flight-capable Autobots) and combine into a larger robot named Safeguard. Jetfire is orange, white and yellow, and has fire-based powers, while Jetstorm is blue and has wind-based powers. Both twins are naive, hyperactive, and speak in stereotypical Russian accents.

Decepticons
The Decepticons are the primary villains of the series. Despite being a military force, unlike the Autobot Elite Guard they have no clear hierarchy, Megatron is the sole leader and every other Decepticon is his inferior. The majority of Decepticons transform into military vehicles, mainly aircraft, and carry projectile weaponry such as guns, cannons and missile launchers.

Megatron — Megatron is the ruthless, manipulative and tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, and the series' main villain. He transforms into a grey helicopter gunship, and is armed with two swords (which form the rotor blades of his helicopter form) and a large fusion cannon. In the pilot episode "Transform and Roll Out! Part 1", an explosive planted by Starscream destroys Megatron's body, and his remains fall to Earth, where they are discovered by Isaac Sumadc. His disembodied head remains in Sumdac's laboratory for fifty years, until energy from Sari's Allspark key accidentally brings him back to life. Megatron then tricks Sumdac into thinking he is an Autobot and manipulates him into building a new body for him, which is completed in the season 1 finale. If the planned fourth season had been made, Megatron would have upgraded into another new body, this one a triple-changer with a tank and fighter jet for vehicle modes. An action figure was designed for this new body, but was never mass-produced or released at retail.

Blitzwing — Blitzwing is a triple-changer, able to transform into two different vehicle modes, a fighter jet and an assault tank. He also has a split personality represented by three different faces which spin around in a similar fashion to the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe character Man-E-Faces. They include a red face who is always angry, a blue face who is calm, rational and hardly ever expresses emotion, and a black face who is comically insane. All three of Blitzwing's faces speak in a stereotypical German accent, with the angry face having similar speech patterns to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Lugnut — Lugnut is a large, hulking Decepticon who transforms into a purple military bomber plane and has immense physical strength. He is fanatically devoted to Megatron, agreeing with everything he says and regarding any Decepticon who questions or doubts him as a traitor.

Starscream — Starscream transforms into a red and silver harrier jet, and like most incarnations of the character he is a scheming traitor whose main goal in life is to overthrow Megatron as the Decepticon leader. In the Pilot episode "Transform and Roll Out!, Part 1" Starscream attempts to kill Megatron by planting an explosive on his back. When Megatron returns in his upgraded body, he kills Starscream for his treason. A scattered shard of the Allspark later brings Starscream back to life, but when Prowl and Jazz re-assemble the Allspark in the third season finale, he dies again when the shard keeping him alive removes itself.

Shockwave — Shockwave is a Decepticon spy and double-agent, who poses as an Autobot named Longarm Prime, with his mission being to sabotage Autobot Elite Guard operations on Cybertron. As Longarm Prime, Shockwave transforms into a construction crane, and when out of his disguise his vehicle mode is a tank. In both forms, he has the unique ability to stretch his arms and legs to great lengths, which is why his Autobot form was dubbed "Longarm". His natural color scheme is purple and black, but while in his disguise he changes his colors to grey, teal and black.

Blackarachnia — Blackarachnia is a Decepticon who transforms into a techno-organic spider. She was once a female Autobot named Elita One, who was close friends with Optimus and Sentinel, and had the ability to temporarily imitate the abilities of other Transformers. During a scouting mission on an alien planet, Elita One, Optimus and Sentinel were attacked by giant spider-like aliens, and as they escaped Elita fell into a cave full of the spiders, so Optimus and Sentinel left the planet believing she was dead. She tried to fend off the spiders with her imitation ability, but became infected with their venom and mutated into a techno-organic. Calling herself "Blackarachnia", she joined the Decepticons. Blackarachnia's sole motivation is to return to her normal self, with her hatred for both her mutation and Optimus (whom she blames entirely) driving her close to insanity.

Waspinator — Waspinator was once an Autobot Elite Guard cadet named "Wasp" who attended Elite Guard boot camp with Bulkhead, Longarm (Shockwave) and Bumblebee. To cover his own tracks, Longarm manipulated Bumblebee into framing Wasp as a Decepticon spy, and the disgraced Wasp was wrongly imprisoned. Becoming insane and blaming Bumblebee for ruining his life, he eventually escapes from prison and goes to Earth to get revenge. Blackarachnia used Wasp as a test subject in her experiments to create techno-organic Transformers, fusing him with wasp DNA, and upon becoming techno-organic, he takes the name "Waspinator". As Wasp, he transforms into a hatchback car similar to Bumblebee, but green instead of yellow, and as Waspinator, he transforms into a giant green wasp.

Starscream's Clone Army
In the second season, Starscream creates several clones of himself using an Allspark fragment and blank Protoforms stolen from Yoketron's dojo during the war. Each clone's personality is an embodiment of one of the original Starscream's own personality traits. None of the clones are referred to by name in the series, the names below come from the toy-line, and the name "Slipstream" was retroactively given to the character by Hasbro.

Skywarp — Skywarp embodies Starscream's cowardice, and as such is terrified of everything around him. His color scheme is black, purple and silver.

Thundercracker — Thundercracker embodies Starscream's ego, and constantly brags about his superiority. His color scheme is blue, silver and red.

Ramjet — Ramjet embodies Starscream's dishonesty, and speaks entirely in lies. His color scheme is cream and burgundy.

Sunstorm — Sunstorm embodies Starscream's sycophancy, and constantly praises those around him, even his foes, for their actions. His color scheme is yellow, red and cream.

Slipstream — Slipstream is a female Starscream clone with an aggressive and sarcastic personality, and has complete disdain towards the original Starscream. Her color scheme is purple, teal and silver.

Human Protagonists
Professor Isaac Sumdac — Father of Sari Sumdac, he is a good-natured but a bit of scatter-brained scientist who designs and tests robots at Sumdac Tower. He is incredibly slow on the uptake - Megatron is able to keep him satisfied with flimsy excuses, and when Bulkhead is ordering him around in a transparent attempt to keep him safe from Dirt Boss, even winking and explaining himself in private, Isaac still takes his cruel behavior as genuine. Fifty years ago, Isaac found Megatron after he crashed onto Earth. It is through studying Megatron that many of Sumdac's technologies are introduced. He is convinced by Megatron (who until now had been inactive and silent) to keep his existence from his "friends" (the Autobots) a secret until Megatron can get a new body built; unaware of the true origins and motivations of the Decepticon leader. While he did not like that Megatron added the fire-breathing capability to the Dinobots without telling him about it first, he was sympathetic in understanding that Megatron was simply experimenting with the Earth technology in order to make a new body for himself. But when he learned about the Decepticon's true origins, he was horrified and began to regret what he was doing. Before the event with the Allspark, it can be inferred that Professor Sumdac was going to tell Sari that she was a robot. After the events of "Megatron Rising" Pt. 2, Megatron is holding Sumdac captive, forcing him to help construct a Space Bridge back to Cybertron. He is also coerced into creating a dampener system that prevents the Decepticon's energy signatures from being detected by the Autobots. In "Autoboot Camp" he transmits part of Megatron's conversation with Shockwave to the Autobots, alerting them to the presence of the double agent, though the transmission was too blurry to show a clear image of the spy. In "A Bridge Too Close" Pt. 2, Isaac had to use a Headmaster unit to cut off Starscream's head so he himself could destroy Megatron, though this ultimately fails. He is eventually rescued in the end. When Sari notices robotic circuitry in her arm, Isaac tells Sari that they need to talk, and in "Transwarped" it is revealed that he found Sari as a Cybertronian Protoform which patterned itself after him; his initial encounter with Sari is also responsible for causing the white streak in his hair. At first, Sari is initially furious with him for withholding the truth from her. However, when he protected her from the Headmaster, they were able to reconcile. Professor Sumdac has been stated on numerous occasions to be a "genius" when it comes to reverse-engineering technology, and this seems to hold true.

Captain Fanzone — Captain of the Detroit police force who dislikes new, advanced machines, including the Autobots in general. He is in charge of the Detroit police force. His on-duty vehicle is a yellow sports hatchback, which was scanned by Bumblebee for his Earth mode. One of the recurring themes of his character is the destruction of his hatchback in one episode (by the Dinobots in "Blast from the Past" and by Blitzwing in "Velocity") and its sudden reappearance a few episodes later - all in the same beat-up condition. In "Total Meltdown", he is shown to be in charge of deciding which tech the police department will use, and has had problems with both Prometheus Black's bio-tech and Isaac Sumdac's robots. In "Survival of the Fittest", he was forced to team up with Prowl (who Fanzone later respects) and Bulkhead at the time when they went to Dinobot Island to investigate a lead on Sari's kidnapping which was orchestrated by Meltdown. His catchphrase, usually uttered when a machine malfunctions on him, is, "This is why I hate machines!" Despite his dislike for machines he has a somewhat friendly working relationship with the Autobots. He officially aids the Autobots (and Sari) in protecting the city of Detroit, (directly or indirectly) as a law enforcer. He is usually on hand to arrest the various supercriminals defeated by the Autobots. He is one of few "friendly humans" to have regular contact with the Autobots, besides Sari and Prof. Sumdac. His most recent adventure with the Autobots has him accidentally transported to Cybertron, along with Ratchet in "This is Why I Hate Machines".

Human Antagonists
Aaron A. Archer/The Angry Archer — A Robin Hood-styled human villain who uses a bow and arrows (with the arrows being somewhat similar to Green Arrow's trick arrows) to commit crimes. He appeared briefly in "Home Is Where The Spark Is" robbing an armored car until he was captured by Optimus Prime and given to the authorities. He later appeared in "Garbage In, Garbage Out" briefly teaming up with Wreck-Gar, giving him his name in the process. He was a member of the Society of Ultimate Villainy in the episode of the same name.

Nino Sexton/Nanosec — Appeared in the episode of same title. Nino Sexton is a petty crook who Megatron drafted to help him acquire Destronium to recreate his body. The reward was all the money from Dr. Sumdac's private account. He provided Sexton with Sumdac's experimental speed suit, which enables the user to speed-skate at blurring speeds. However, overuse of the suit's abilities results in Sexton's body displaying symptoms of old age (as if he was speeding through time). Only a recently upgraded Bumblebee (with Sari’s help) could match Nanosec's speed, tricking the crook into chasing after him until he completely aged to a weak old man. Captain Fanzone then took him into custody. In "S.U.V.: Society of Ultimate Villainy" his youth was restored by Slo-Mo (whom he expressed a romantic interest in) and joined the SUV. It was Nanosec who coined the groups name, after briefly considering "The Fast and The Villainous".

Prometheus Black/Meltdown — First appearing in the episode "Total Meltdown", Prometheus Black was a biotechnology engineer who attempts to replace robots on the Detroit police department with humans with bio-amplification tech, with Porter C. Powell supplying the test subjects. After Cyrus Rhodes went wild upon his attack on Bumblebee, Black's funding was cut by Powell. He soon developed acidic powers after augmenting Bumblebee's hydraulic fluid with his steroids in his research to find a means to penetrate Cybertronium alloys, accidentally breathing in the vapors when the now-acidic liquid spills over his lab. He could melt through practically anything, while donning an anti-melting suit to control his abilities. With his new-found abilities, Meltdown attempted to kill Isaac Sumdac for his outdoing of him. Only by Ratchet containing him in a magnetic field was he stopped from assassinating Sumdac. He returned in "Survival of the Fittest" forcing the Dinobots to attack intruders while he was working on a way to create transforming humans. Attempts on adult subjects (including his own lawyer) failed, so he kidnapped Sari to use, both as a more successful subject and as part of his ongoing vendetta against her father. He was beaten after Fanzone tied an acid-proof blanket around his body. He is broken out of prison in "Black Friday" by the Dinobots under the orders of Blackarachnia, who wanted Meltdown to remove her organic half. Meltdown instead attempted to remove her technological half and use her in his experiments, but was stopped by Optimus Prime. In the struggle, Meltdown's acidic body made contact with his genetic modifier, which reduced him to a puddle while destroying the device itself. However, Meltdown eventually started regenerating himself.

Cyrus "the Colossus" Rhodes — A small old man with gray hair and former wrestler, he uses the biotech steroid pistons provided by Prometheus Black to stimulate the steroids injected in his body and grow in size and strength. Sharing the same ideology as Black, Cyrus first appeared in "Total Meltdown" to grapple with Bumblebee to show the superiority of Black's research. However, Cyrus went on a berserker rampage as a result before Prowl took out his steroid pistons. However, Meltdown rebuilt the pistons to withstand Cybertronium metal (of which Prowl's weapons are made off) and recruited Cyrus to prevent any interference as he went after Sumdac. But once it was revealed that loud sounds are his weakness, the Autobots used this to their advantage to defeat him. When Meltdown organized Sari's kidnapping, he had Cyrus guard Sari to the point where he was tricked in the bathroom. After being beaten up by the Dinobots along with the mutants, Cyrus is taken into custody. His name is a reference to the Colossus of Rhodes, while his abilities are similar to those of the DC Comics villain Bane.

Mammal Mutant & Fish Mutant — Two mutants seen working with Meltdown in "Survival of the Fittest", one a bat-like like Frankenstien monster created from Meltdown's lawyer and the other a shark-like creature with various sea-creature bodyparts like octopus tentacles and a crab claw. The two were beaten by the Dinobots along with Cyrus, managing to run off. The two mutants later returned in "Black Friday" to aid Meltdown in keeping anyway interference until Swoop and Snarl arrive to aid Optimus and Grimlock. The two mutants are very similar to the Decepticon Pretenders Bomb-Burst and Submarauder in appearance.

Professor Princess — A villain who appears during the episode "Sound and Fury". Her appearance is that of a young girl riding on a model horse called Powdered Sugar (who is similar to a My Little Pony doll), and she uses toy-themed weaponry. Her only motivation so far seems to be the destruction of violent toys and games. She was defeated by Bulkhead (whom she believed was a giant toy) who decapitated Powdered Sugar. She returned in "S.U.V. Society of Ultimate Villainy" as a member of the villainous group.

Henry Masterson/Headmaster — An ex-employee of Sumdac who was fired for his Headmaster exosuit being a potential war machine which Sumdac Systems doesn't make. He has an intelligent but arrogant personality, and has a habit of using netspeak. Masterson seems to enjoy the destruction he causes. Using Bulkhead's body, Headmaster held the city hostage to promote his invention by taking over the power plant. Though the day was saved, the Headmaster escaped when he activated his "back-up systems" and changed into a small robot (similar to the original Headmasters). He later returns when he was rehired by Porter C. Powell, with his criminal actions nulled, to spearhead Sumdac Systems' entry into the military weapons business, with Masterson taking Sentinel Prime's body for his experiment. After being caught, Captain Fanzone was unable to arrest him due the various loopholes Powell pointed out. One of Masterson's Headmaster units was confiscated by Megatron to use on Bulkhead, but during the battle over Megatron's space bridge, Isaac Sumdac uses it to behead Starscream in a failed attempt to use his body. Following Isaac's return, Masterson and Porter were fired and Sari angrily "evicts" them both from Sumdac Tower using her energy blast power. He attempted revenge on the Sumdacs using his Headmaster on Starscream's body, but Optimus Prime was able to protect them, eventually egging Masterson into activating Starscream's transformation sequence, which severed the incompatible Headmaster unit. He was then arrested by Fanzone's police. His Headmaster unit later combined with a forklift and an Allspark fragment to become the Constructicon Dirt Boss.

Master Disaster — A host and organizer of a pay per view television show named Speed Demon in the episode "Velocity". He invited racers to race in an underground racing circuit for his pirate broadcast and earned his money through the audiences. He possessed an Allspark fragment remote control that enabled him to control the cars to fix the races but solely used it to control a blue color racing car Bumblebee deemed "Blue Racer" to do his dirty work. During the scuffle between the Autobots and the Decepticons, Master Disaster was arrested by Captain Fanzone and his illegal racing ring was shut down.

Slo-Mo — First appears in "S.U.V. Society of Ultimate Villainy". Her costume is Roaring Twenties-themed and she speaks with a Chicago accent that goes with that era. A former worker in a clock factory, She discovered a piece of the Allspark imbedded in a timepiece, which had the power to slow down and reverse time around anything and anyone she used it on. She gathered together the criminals of Detroit to form a crime syndicate. It was revealed at the time that she used her timepiece on Nanosec's speed-suit to restore him to his rightful age (on a related note, she does have an interest to him). After allying her group with Swindle, who wanted to use the Allspark fragment to power his new weapon, she was doublecrossed and lost her timepiece. She and her criminal allies then joined forces with Sari and Bumblebee to defeat Swindle. She was later arrested by Captain Fanzone when she and the other villains attempted to get away in a time-frozen Swindle.

Porter C. Powell — He is the Chairman of Directors at Sumdac Systems. He was first seen when he cut off Prometheus Black's experiment fundings. After Isaac Sumdac was abducted by Megatron, Porter had disapproval of Sari running the company in his absence. After he found no legal documents on Sari Sumdac, he ended up taking over as the CEO of Sumdac Systems as a result. Once CEO, Powell rehires Henry Masterson to use his Headmaster units to begin Sumdac Systems' entry into military weapons making. Porter even used loopholes to keep Masterson from being arrested. In "Garbage In, Garbage Out", he and Mayor Edsel get into an argument about the recent garbage crisis (since Porter won't repair the malfunctioning Trashbots until the mayor agrees to a renegotiated and more lucrative contract) which ends with Ratchet threatening to throw both of them into the river. In "SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy" he had the name of Sumdac Tower changed to "Powell Tower". In "Black Friday", he is approached by Grimlock and Optimus Prime, who wanted Meltdown's genetic modifier. Initially refusing, Powell is convinced to give it to them after Grimlock attempts to eat him. He attempts to have the Autobots arrested for this, but Captain Fanzone refuses to do so. Following the return of Isaac Sumdac, he and Henry Masterson were fired and Sari angrily "evicts" them both from Sumdac Tower by hurling them into an awaiting elevator via a "shockwave of energy". However, as revealed in the "Human Error" 2-parter, Powell obtained full rights to Soundwave's original schematics while CEO, and mass-produced a massive toyline for Christmas with Sumdac legally powerless to stop it. However, due to Soundwave using the toys to control the minds of the citizens of Detroit, Powell is bankrupted when he has to refund every customer, starting with Sumdac.

Episodes
Transformers: Animated is a 42 episode Japanese/American animated television series based on the Transformers toy line and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. The series debuted on Cartoon Network on December 26, 2007 with "Transform and Roll Out", a 90-minute movie special later broken up into three episodes for re-runs. Following the debut of the movie, the series properly began on January 5, 2008 and ended on April 5, 2008. Season 2 began just 2 weeks later on April 19, 2008 and ended on July 5, 2008. The series returned with the third season on March 14, 2009 and ended on May 23, 2009. The series also appeared on Toonami Jetstream premiering on February 15, 2008.

The first two seasons of Transformers Animated were released on DVD in 2008, but the third season wasn't released. Shout Factory has since licensed the series for two DVD releases: one for the third season, and another for the entire show.