The Gambler
Title card via TFWiki, fan-archive fair use
Smokescreen gambles on an alien casino world to win back energy the Decepticons have stolen.
The Autobots are returning to earth after their adventure on Aron's world, when their "toy rocket" space ship suddenly comes to a halt. They are captured by an alien captain named Bosch. Bosch deactivates them and intends to sell the Autobots as slaves in exchange for energon. However, Smokescreen's tube malfunctions and he remains functional, though temporarily immobilized.
Smokescreen learns that Bosch is a gambler. After demonstrating his ability to manipulate a slot machine, he takes Bosch's proposition to go to Monacus, a gambling asteroid, and win enough energon to repower Bosch's ship in exchange for the freedom of the rest of the Autobots.
Bosch and Smokescreen end up at the "Pit of Destruction" arena of Lord Gyconi, a local swindler, where they use the Autobots as collateral for a very high-interest loan of energon chips. At a casino, Smokescreen builds up quite a stack of winnings and lets it all ride on one last bet, but one of the casino workers breaks his link with a slot machine and he loses everything. Unable to buy back his friends, Smokescreen vows that Gyconi hasn't seen the last of him.
Meanwhile, Dirge and Ramjet arrive on the planet in Astrotrain and head towards the city. They are followed by a mysterious blue Autobot.
In a local tavern, Smokescreen meets the mysterious Autobot, who introduces himself as Devcon; he's a bounty hunter searching for Decepticons.
In Gyconi's lair, Ramjet and Dirge shake down the big green frogman for a share of his profits. He invites the two Decepticon planes to stay and watch the upcoming battle in his arena: the Autobots versus the Animaliens. Before the show, Gyconi fixes the fight by giving the Autobots unstable energon which will wear off and make them defenseless.
The fight begins as Optimus Prime, under Gyconi's control, takes on an ugly red lizard animalien. At first the Autobot leader holds his own, prompting a lot of patrons to bet on him, but then his power runs out and he's overcome. Inferno is forced into the arena for the next match, but before it starts, Smokescreen fills the place with smoke and forces everyone out. Ramjet and Dirge chase him down, but he's saved by Devcon.
Gyconi and the Decepticons load up Astrotrain with energon cubes in order to make a getaway, but Smokescreen, Devcon and Bosch confront them. During a fierce firefight, Smokescreen uses his smoke again to confuse the Decepticons. They take off aboard Astrotrain and Devcon chases after them, taking Slizardo with him as a partner.
—Bosch has a stroke of bad luck.
—the Coneheads play enforcer on Lord Gyconi
—Lord Gyconi talks up his gladiator show.
—Bosch and Smokescreen
- Michael Charles Hill originally wrote this story for Challenge of the GoBots, in what became the episode "Gameworld". But he disliked the interference and rewrites forced on him by story editors Jeff Segal and Kelly Ward and felt The Transformers was the perfect opportunity to get the story done right.
- This is one of the only two pre-movie episodes in which Megatron does not appear, the other being "The God Gambit". Both have Astrotrain and two Seekers in them.
- Before the BotCon comic, the overwhelming majority of the fandom spelled Devcon's name Defcon, which is closer to the pronunciation given in the episode and has a real world meaning. Many in the fandom were up in arms about the spelling; however, the comic spelling is based on the original script and is now considered the "correct" spelling.
- This episode follows the events of "Child's Play".
- Back in the pilot, energon cubes were suggested to be a recent creation of the Decepticons on Earth, and have almost exclusively been used by them up to this point. This episode may be the first to suggest the substance is used by non-Cybertronians.
- This episode introduces the rather curious notion that Megatron is somehow involved in the galactic gambling trade, sending his thugs to make sure Gyconi isn't taking a cut for himself on the side. "Sea Change" will likewise show that Megatron's interests extend well beyond Earth and Cybertron; the exploratory trip at the beginning of "Cosmic Rust" also fits this pattern.
Screencaps via TFWiki (Teletraan I), used under fan-archive fair use.