The Insecticons have enslaved some humans and are mining oil on a Pacific island! Oh noes!!
Contents[][hide] |
Synopsis[]
As the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean, a quartet of "Autobot superjets" under Skyfire's command departs from Guamfor a routine patrol. Suddenly, Skywarp leads a sneak hit-and-run attack.
Monitoring these events, Prowl and Optimus Prime are puzzled by the Decepticons' strategy, a series of hit-and-runs around the Pacific rim. The next day, yet another attack occurs near Sumatra; the Decepticons flee over the Himalaya Mountains.
The Decepticons are trying to keep prying Autobot eyes away from the island of Buru, where they are running an oil mine to capture the island's plentiful and pure oil. The Insecticons, capable of withstanding the jungle humidity and filth, have enslaved the native human population with their special toxic fluids. Venom directs the work of the zombie-like slaves.
Meanwhile, at the Decepticon underground weapons development center, Megatron is ready to take his new oil driller and transporter, cleverly disguised with some tree branches, to Buru. Venom's slaves aren't drilling fast enough for him, and Megatron has new ways to motivate them.
Optimus and Prowl haven't heard back from their scout, Bumblebee, for several days now. And they won't, either, because Bumblebee has been captured, joining the ranks of the... slaves of the Insecticons!!
Megatron and Soundwave arrive over Buru. Venom refuses Megatron's order to drill faster, saying it's impossible; this prompts Megatron to pitch a fit. Venom comes aboard and stares silently at his leader; Soundwave thinks he's worried that Megatron will take away his command. Before Megatron can throw another fit, Prowl and Optimus Prime arrive, flying to the island. Rather than attack them, Megatron figures they can be enslaved as well.
Prime and Prowl land; Prowl's "uncanny sixth sense" lets him suspect Decepticon presence even before they observe the camp's zombie-like workers. They realize that it's the work of the Insecticons, even as they come under attack.
Megatron laughs and activates his drill/transport. It flies into the jungle, and its laser borer blasts into the surface. Prime and Prowl are being overwhelmed, until the Dinobots arrive and crush the Insecticons underfoot. Prowl detects a heat source that can only be the turbine fans of an oil transporter; they go after it, figuring they can rescue Bumblebee later.
Megatron drills up more and more and more oil, until his transporter is overloaded. As the Autobots and Dinobots approach to attack, the transporter gives out and sinks into the mud. Soundwave and Megatron escape aboard a mole escape pod, vowing that the battle will continue!
Featured characters[]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes[]
"What's all that jungle stuff on top of it for, master?"
"You tape-filled nitwit! That's camouflage!"
- —Soundwave and Megatron
"You talk to him. You seem to have a way with insects."
- —Megatron can't seem to deal with the silently staring Venom
"This place smells of Decepticon evil to me, chief. I feel it in my rivets so strongly, I'd almost be willing to bet Megatron himself isn't too far off!"
- —Prowl, Autobot master logician
Notes[]
- An "animated" "educational" VHS version was also available, using chroma-key to animate the static pictures cheesily, with the storybook text superimposed on the bottom of the screen. There's also a vocabulary builder before the story, and a "memory game" (multiple choice quiz) after.
- Every child who took the quiz did so well too!
- Blaster appears on the inside title page, but isn't mentioned in the story.
- Like the first three original Kid Stuff readalong books, this one only has speaking parts for Optimus Prime, Megatron, Prowl and Soundwave (presumably due to voice actor constraints.) Normally this is hidden pretty well, but here it stands out rather awkwardly, as Venom just stares silently at Megatron for no reason, while Soundwave speculates about what he must be thinking.
- This is all the stranger, since Slag just broke the 'only four speaking characters' convention in the previous book.
- Since Venom has no cartoon appearances to date, there was no standard for his voice to match, whereas every other speaking character in these books was also a regular in the Sunbow cartoon. No one could have complained that Venom "didn't sound right" had he spoken. Instead, we can complain about never getting to hear what he sounds like.
- The oil transporter, which looks like something Prince of Space would be piloting, flies around with its ungainly landing gear extended.
- The "Insecticon warriors" are a couple of tank-like vehicles.
- Bumblebee never actually appears in any of the illustrations.
- The "oil mine" appears to consist of a surface-based pumping operation. How this makes it a "mine" is unclear.
- The Insecticons consistently tower over humans here, never demonstrating an ability to shrink in their alt-modes.
- The slaves are controlled by "the poisonous fluid injected into them by Insecticon stingers". Though Bombshell is one of the three Insecticons shown present, his cerebro-shells are never mentioned, despite being a staple of every other Insecticon mind-control story.
- Thanks to the usual abrupt ending, the Buruvians and Bumblebee are all still mind controlled at the end of the story. While cerebro-shells are usually surgically removed or just shrugged off through willpower in other Insecticon tales, we can't just assume anyone got better here, because there's no mention of any antidote to their fluid. And since this is the last of the five Kid Stuff read-along books, for all we know, getting stung by Insecticons was the permanent death of Bumblebee and the humans' free will!
- Still, unlike the previous four books, this one has no globally apocalyptic events, what with all the violence being conventional Autobot/Decepticon firefights, so...yay.