RID - Autobot World Tour

Plot

The Autobot Away Team are chasing the bug-like Shocksprocket, but following being shocked by their target's electricity, Sideswipe realizes that Earth's trees don't conduct electricity and uses a branch to smack the Decepticon unconscious.

Optimus contacts the scrapyard and asks Fixit to send a stasis pod or them to capture Shocksprocket inside, but before they end the call, Fixit informs the team that their next Decepticon target is on Mount Everest.

Russell, along with Fixit explains that he saw a Decepticon, which was mistaken for a yeti on a film documentary on Everest, whilst the Autobots aren't convinced about the proof, but agree to go.

Fixit identifies the Decepticon as "Abominus". Windblade recognizes the name as a Decepticon that she captured in the past on Cybertron, and remarks that he's a hermit that protects his "property" with dangerous weaponry.

Elsewhere, Bumblebee's team of Autobots approach a newly detected stasis pod, near to the scrapyard. When they find it, they find the Decepticon seemingly deactivated, and are worried that he died in the crash, until he wakes up and uses his optical abilities to hypnotize the Autobots into not wanting to fight him, before they fall asleep....

Optimus' team arrive by Groound bridge at the base of Mount Everest in their artic camo to help with hiding from the film crew on the mountain. The team slowly climb the mountain, but don't find it too difficultm, until Drift is almost shot by a hidden blaster, he manages to avoid it and destroy the turret. Windblade recognizes it as Abominus' work, and theorizes that he's booby-trapped most of the weapon in the same way.

Back at the Scrapyard, Russell is watching the program, where he sees that the Autobots were caught on camera, but have also been mistaken for yetis, and the explosions from the booby-traps are mistaken for a yeti celebration.

Russell tells Fixit to contact Optimus' team to warn him about the humans being nearby, but Fixit tells him that he can't get a clear signal through the atmosphere in the area. Russell asks how the film crew are able to do so, and Fixit guesses that it's due to hi using relays on the mountain, but he cannot hack into them to use it for communication without being exposed

On the mountain, the film crew are concerned that they will lose their contract with their station if they don't get any good footage for the show, before heading up further.

Elsewhere on the mountain, the Autobots continue their trek, avoiding the turrets etc along the way, however, along the way they accidentally set off a small avalanche, the team manage to brave the avalanche, but Slipstream is separated from the rest of the group....

Bumblebee's team wake up from their "attack" from the Decepticon Brakepad, but feel different than usual, and feel "lazy", they return to the scrapyard, where the Humans and Fixit worry about their conditions. Fixit learns from them that the Decepticon's name was Brakepad, which worries him.

Fixit brings up Brakepad's dossier and reveals that he used his optical powers to render the security forces lazy and unwilling to stop him whilst he stole whatever he wanted. Russell comes up with a plan, knowing that Brakepad isn't too physically strong, and requires the targets to have eye contact with him for the powers to activate...

Back on the mountain, the team are worried about Slipstream, but Drift points out that he has been trained to figure out a situation like this himself,,.and would agree that the mission is more important that just his safety. The team don't like abandoning him, but agree wit Drift's decision nonetheless.

Elsewhere on the mountain, Slipstream wakes up and worries about being alone, but soon remembers his teachings and evaluates the situation. He deduces that the team must have continued with their mission, so if he keeps heading to the summit he'll eventually find them. Slipstream then finds the Human film crew and hides from them, deciding that hhis current mission is to make sure they don't find the Autobots, or get killed by the hidden booby-traps set by Abominus.

Back home, the Autobots have been forced by Russell and Denny to take them back to the stasis pod's location, where they assume Brakepad to be still (due to his notorious slowness). The Humans trick the Autobots into believing that Brakepad's powers will make the Autobots have to do some hard work.

Before Brakepad can use his powers on them, the Humans put some over-sized sunglasses on Bumblebee and Strongarm (Grimlock is meanwhile sleeping). By doing this, they stop the ability from affecting the Autobots, Grimlock is coerced into knocking the stasis pod into Brakepad, leading him to fall in, and get locked in.

Russell is glad, but wonders how he will convince the Autobots into bringing the stasis pod back to the scrapyard for them...

On the mountain, Slipstream leads ahead of the Humans, and takes out the weaponry, protecting the Humans in secret, he reaches a fork in the path, and causes a small landslide to block the path leading more directly up, allowing him to abandon the Humans and go towards his allies.

On the other side of the summit, the Autobotss find a door, which they assume is Abominus' lair, but are worried that they haven't found any more traps lately. When they enter the lair however they quickly trigger a spike trap, attacking them from the walls. They manage to evade them, but find Abominus at the end, who simply sends them into an electrified cage.

With them trapped, Abominus reveals his master plan to cause a massive avalanche with explosives to get rid of all the "intruders" on "his" mountain, so he can be aloe with himself and his weapons.

Soon, Slipstream finds his way to the lair whilst Abominus is out placing some more explosives. Slipstream reunites with his team and disables the cage. The Autobots make a plan...

Before long, Abominus returns to his lair where he sees some footage of Slipstream in the tunnel, so he goes to attack him in their, unfortunately for him though, this was just a looped video, and he has been lured into the tunnel for his own booby-traps to be used on him instead.

After he has been injured enough by the traps, Abominus is placed in a stasis pod, but the Autobots discover that the film crew have found the entrance to the lair. The Autobots are worried, but Sideswipe has a plan...

Back at the scrapyard, the Autobots are almost returned to normal from their battle with Brakepad. Russell is watching the film crew's live program again, where he hears some audio footage the crew got from the mountain of the "yeti" shouting at the crew to leave and never return. Russell recognizes the voice as Sideswipe's

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Drift - Race Car

Slipstream - Buzzsaw Deployer

Jetstorm - Buzzsaw Deployer

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Bumblebee - Muscle Car

Strongarm - Police Cruiser

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Fixit

Decepticon

Abominus Captured by Away Team

Shocksprocket Captured by Away Team

Brakepad Captured by Bee Team

Human

Russell Clay

Denny Clay

Loren Fortean, the Presenter

Ernie, the Cameraman

Brigadier Wilson, the Mountain Guide

Notes

• This story is the first to be set in Season Two, set some time after the team are forced to split apart in the series premiere.
• This story implies that the "Away Team" was a purposeful thing, and not just caused by a Ground bridge accident. Whilst this COULD be the reason for why the team took so long to return to the base, as they just took this as an opportunity for more captures....but it seems a bit of a stretch to me....
• The Away Team are shown to have their artic camo modes here, and we already know about their desert camo from the cartoon, so did they have a "jungle camo" for the opening scenes too?
• An electricity sparking Insecticon that isn't Shrapnel? I call shenanigans!
• I mean it's not like they're worried about possibly reusing names from other characters in the Aligned continuity, one of the other Decepticons in this issue is called Abominus!
• Russell's old favourite program, "My Miniature Mustang" is of course a riff on Hasbro's popular "My Little Pony" franchise. Whilst probably a coincidence, the name also evokes the IDW group "Triple M"...but I can't see a connection other than the acronym.
• I don't know how seasons and episodes of a program livestreamed in small segments works.....

RID - The Trials of Optimus Prime

Plot

Optimus leads Bumblebee's team into battle against some Decepticons, but end up being helplessly outnumbered and outgunned, causing the entire team to be killed.

Micronus ends the simulated battle, and gloats that Optimus isn't as ready as he had hoped, Micronus heals Optimus' false wounds. Optimus begs to be allowed to return to Earth so he can aid Bumblebee in his mission, and prepare for the upcoming trouble there. Micronus is hesitant but goes to ask the other Primes for their opinions. Once with the others, the Primes flat out refuse, but one of them, Liege Maximo, begins to mock how useless and weak Optimus seems to be, then quietly decides to "help" Optimus with his training too.

Micronus gives Optimus the bad news, but Optimus is still insistent. Micronus simply sets up another test, and creates a recreation of and Earth city, and has Optimus protect some holographic humans from some attacking Decepticons. Whilst Optimus deals with three of the Decepticons, Maximo suddenly enters the simulation, and hides, taking control of the last Decepticon, to make it a lot more powerful.

Optimus is able to defeat the powerful robot, but Micronus is concerned, as he is certain he didn't conjure up something that dangerous for Optimus to fight with. Maximo seems happy that he's messed with the training unnoticed, and plots to cause more mischief.

Micronus opens a portal to Earth for Optimus to watch Bumblebee's team through for a break, whilst he goes to investigate something by himself.

On Earth, the Autobots are playing a football game with Russell, whilst Bumblebee is in the command centre doing some work.

Optimus is happy after seeing his friends again, but it is cut short when Micronus returns and closes the portal. Micronus asks Optimus to go get recharged, whilst he prepares for the next training exercises. However Maximo has been secretly watching them and decides to play with Bumblebee as well...

Back on Earth Liege Maximo sends Bumblebee a fake image of Optimus, and using that image, tells Bumblebee that he has had a change of heart, and has now joined the Decepticons, and that he's coming to attack the Autobots soon. Bumblebee is disturbed, and thinks about how to tell the rest of the team, but Fixit suddenly declares that another Decepticon has appeared on his sensors, Stinkbomb, who is a demolitions expert.

The Autobots head out to Crown City Bridge, where Stinkbomb was detected where they engage the Decepticon, however Bumblebee is distracted when "Optimus" appears in the water beneath them and continues taunting Bumblebee with him switching sides. Sideswipe pushes Bee out of the way as Stinkbomb throws a bomb at him, but ends up being badly injured in the process, unnerving Bumblebee that it was because of him.

Stinkbomb sets off his tail-bomb which allows him to escape, whilst the Autobots try to prevent damage, and get the injured Sideswipe to safety. They head back to the Scrapyard for repairs without their target.

In the Realm of the Primes, Maximo closes his portal to Bumblebee and turns his attention back to Optimus. He finds the Autobot meditating with Micronus, and decides to strike, sending in several small attack-bots to hit him, with Optimus assuming this is a test to keep himself aware at all times. Micronus levitates both of them, and reveals that he didn't create those holograms, and someone else is messing with him, he creates a pyramid for Optimus to wait on top of, whilst he goes to talk to the other Primes about the situation.

Back on Earth, Sideswipe is taken to Fixit for repairs, and Bumblebee seems distracted still. The team grow worried, and due to his lapses in judgement lately and strange attitude, Fixit thinks their leader is suffering with brain rust.

Micronus meets with the other Primes, where he learns that they haven't attacked Optimus, and they then realize that Maximo is missing...

Elsewhere in the realm, Maximo goes after Optimus again, and creates a copy of Bumblebee, but turned evil, and claims that he's there because Earth was destroyed and he was sent to the realm as punishment of some sort. "Bumblebee" attacks Optimus, Optimus is able to defeat the copy, believing it to be a test of Micronus' again. Micronus then returns and tells Optimus that he didn't create the Bumblebee clone, but he thinks Maximo did.

Maximo is annoyed that Micronus is messing with his new "toy" and decides to "play" with Bumblebee again instead.

Bumblebee thinks he's located Stinkbomb on the scanners again, but it turns out to be Maximo's Optimus clone's eyes playing a trick on him. "Optimus" continues with his declarations of evil, but Bee is starting to believe this is all just a trick as well. Bee attempts to destroy the scanner to stop the imposter's messages, but the others stop him, and confront him about his "brain rust" but Bee convinces them that he's fine, and that someone has been sending him fake messages from Optimus. Despite how it sounds, the team respects Bumblebee and believes his story, just in time for them to go after Stinkbomb again.

In the Realm of the Primes, Maximo has a tantrum about how boring the Autobots are. He conjures up a small army of attack-bots, and plans to send them to attack Bumblebee and the others.

Elsewhere, Micronus explains who Maximo is to Optimus, and how despite not really being evil, he is mischievous and will cause problems if he can. Optimus notes that the fake Bumblebee seemed to give up when he didn't believe he was real, which makes Micronus believe he has a chance against Maximo's efforts after all. 

On Earth, Bee and the others locate Stinkbomb refuelling himself, and building a new tail-bomb, during the battle however, Bumblebee notices Optimus looking at him evilly again.

Maximo is ready to mess with Bumblebee again, but is suddenly interrupted by Micronus, who confronts his attacks on Optimus and Bumblebee. He tells Maximo to stop with his games, but Maximo ignores him, and continues with his game with Bee.

The Optimus clone on Earth begins screaming at Bee, which catches the notice of everyone in the group, confirming for everyone that Bee hasn't just been seeing and hearing things. The group manage to defeat Stinkbomb, and capture him, essentially ignoring the copy of Optimus, and ruining his schemes.

Back in the realm, Optimus is encountered by "evil" versions of all of Bumblebee's team, claiming that he's failed them again, but he realizes straight away that it's just Maximo's tricks again, and easily destroys them.

Following their defeats, Maximo goes off him a tantrum again, moaning about how unfair it all is. Micronus reappears before Optimus and commends him for his defeat of Maximo, and promises that he will be punished by the other Primes accordingly. He also reveals that Maximo has been messing around with Bumblebee as well, but he managed to fend off the attacks too. He opens a portal so Optimus can tell Bumblebee what was happening.

Back on Earth again Sideswipe has woken up, and everyone is gathered around him. Optimus communicates with them, and assures them that this isn't a trick this time, and the two thank each other for not being deluded by their attackers. Optimus promises to be joining Bumblebee on Earth just as soon as he can, once his trials are over, so they can really be a team again, like the old days...

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Semi Truck

Bumblebee - Compact Coupe

Strongarm - Police Cruiser

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Fixit

Drift - Race Car (Mentioned)

Jetstorm - Buzzsaw Deployer (Mentioned)

Slipstream - Buzzsaw Deployer (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Stinkbomb Captured by Team Bee

Megatron - Jet (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Micronus Prime

Liege Maximo

"Deep Voice" Prime

The Other Primes

Solus Prime (Mentioned)

Human

Denny Clay

Russell Clay

Other

Holograms and Illusions

Primus (Mentioned)

Unicron (Mentioned)

Notes

• This story shows a couple more of Optimus' trials in the realm of the Primes, which is what he spent most of season one doing.
• This story also shows that Optimus is able to communicate with Bumblebee and the others by utilizing portals in the realm of the Primes. It also shows that other Primes are able to do so too.
• Liege Maximo is shown to be one of the Primes in the realm. None of the others (bar Micronus) are identified, but Solus is mentioned in an expressive form, implying that she isn't there for some reason. It's a bit confusing since the last we saw them, Optimus, Maximo and Micronus were all dead and were sent here...so why wasn't Solus?
• The only other one of the Primes described here is mentioned as having a deep voice, this could honestly be any of them, but I would guess either Vector Prime or Prima due to him seemingly having the final say on decisions.
• Liege Maximo is shown to be able to manipulate his horns to create hard-light holograms or illusions, much like the character he's loosely based on, Loki from Marvel comics.
• The main difference between Micronus' holograms and Maximo's seems to be that Maximo's can actually cause physical damage to others, whilst Micronus' are just cosmetic.
• Micronus' attitude towards not trusting Maximo is more than likely due to him manipulating Megatronus into killing Solus Prime back in the early years of their existence .
• Micronus hints that Optimus may be learning some things from the other Primes as well as him before he leaves the realm, but we haven't been shown that to any extent in the cartoon or comics yet.
• Despite him creating a small army and planning to attack Bee's team on Earth, Maximo appears to give up on the idea before the end of the book.

Sig-Pub - Transformers Robots in Disguise #1

Comic Title: Look Before You Leap!

Writer: Richard Mead

Artists: Dan Khanna and Evan Guantt 

Letterer: Terry Sambridge

Price: £3.49

Plot

Bumblebee and Strongarm wonder how they're going to get Springload into a Stasis Cell from the make-shift cage they made for him, so they decide to call the Scrapyard to send Sideswipe with a Stasis Cell before he can escape.

Before long, Sideswipe, along with the Humans arrive at the temple where the Autobots attempt to put him in the cell, but Springload manages to escape by clinging onto the lid of the casket, attacks Sideswipe with his acid-tongue and runs off. The Autobots give chase, but Springload manages to evade him.

Not long afterwards, the Autobots locate Springload inside a film studio, where they find Springload mistaking some prop-treasure for real treasure from the city of Doradus. The Autobots go in for an attack, but Bumblebee and Strongarm get trapped by some of the studio's gadgets (trapdoors etc) but Sideswipe manages to trick Springload into running from him, right into a backdrop-wall painted to look like an open field, knocking out the Decepticon.

Bumblebee congratulates Sideswipe on his success, and has him get the Stasis Cell from the temple again, before Springload can escape once more.

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee - Sports Car

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Strongarm - Police SUV

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Fixit 

Decepticon

Springload - Hooded Jeep

Human

Denny Clay

Russell Clay

Notes

• This series from Signature Publishing replaces Titan as the UK Transformers comic exclusive provider.
• This story is set just after "Rumble in the Jungle" and explains just how Strongarm and Bumblebee got Springload into a Stasis Cell.
• The comic is actually reasonably good, compared to the magazine itself anyway.
• The way he was defeated in this issue, I guess Springload has no spacial awareness....

Other Features

Transformers RID App Advert - Comes with a scan shield!

Transformers RID ID Form - Just fill in your info for your own use....yeah....

Meet the Autobots - Meet the Autobots! (well 6 of them anyway)

Grimlock Route Puzzle - Guide Grimlock to Underbite

Fire When Ready! - Reprint of IDW Robots in Disguise #0

Odd One Out Puzzle - Find the odd one out from the Decepticon pictures

"Posters" - I can't really call them posters, but saying "pictures" sounds stupid

Spot the Difference Puzzle - Guess what you do here...

Draw Optimus Prime - Do a grid copy image of Optimus in vehicle mode

Colouring - Colour in some pictures of Steeljaw and Bumblebee

Fact File - Information on Bumblebee!

Transformers Post - Fixit asks for mail and pictures for future issue

Competition Time! Win a Mega Optimus Prime toy!

Make a Door Hanger - Destroy the back cover to make a crappy door hanger!

Back Page - Pretty picture of Bumblebee running at you, next issue is November 20th

IDW - Robots in Disguise Animated #3

Written by: Georgia Ball

Art by: Priscilla Tramontano

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Edits by: John Barber

Plot

The Autobots are hanging out in the scrapyard talking about their favourite TV show "Bin Battles" and how they would have done better in the show than the actual contestants. During this discussion, Fixit informs Bumblebee about his research into Clipshade, and locates another of his Cybercomrade allies, a Buffaloid named Overhead, who has been located at an abandoned storage facility 40 miles out of the city Bumblebee splits the team into two groups, Bee, Grimlock and Strongarm will go after Overhead, whilst Sideswipe, Denny and Russell go out to the other Storage facilities in the area, so as to distract Magnus' team whilst they go after their real target.

Whilst the Autobots are busy, Overhead steals the cargo from a security team working at the Crown City Municipal Bank, by disguising as their van, and drives off.

Later, Overhead returns to the abandoned storage facility that she's using as a hide-out, where Bee and the others are already waiting for her. The team try to confuse her and capture her in the same way they defeated previous Buffaloid prisoner Terrashock, but she is revealed to be smarter than her co-prisoner, and is able to fight off the Autobots, but does end up surrendering when she points out that all she wants to do is go back home, and offers to give up her real boss, since Clipshade is just a stooge. She gives the Autobots a transmitter with a signal that will call out her boss, so long as they don't put her back in a stasis cell.

Bumblebee and Grimlock head away to set up the transmitter, whilst Strongarm babysits Overhead, and Sideswipe is still stuck at the other storage units, where Denny has become engrossed in bidding on the storage units himself.

Before long, someone responds to the transmitter, who is revealed to be Clipshade. Bumblebee exposes himself and asks how he escaped from Ultra Magnus' custody, but after a short fight, Clipshade reveals that he's a double agent working for Magnus, and he was captured originally, and on purpose to get himself engrossed into the Cybercomrade Sect as a spy to try and find out who the mysterious head of the group is

At the storage unit, Strongarm wanders into the unit, and realizes that the equipment stolen by Overhead isn't actual just random junk, it's all ingredients for a space bridge! Overhead gets herself easily free from her cuffs and knocks out Strongarm, before taking her equipment revealing herself to be the head of the Cybercomrade Sect.

Soon, the Autobots, including Clipshade arrive at the storage unit, where Clipsahde reveals himself to be an actor actually named Spectrosynth. Afterwards, Magnus and his team appear, and say that it's time for answers....

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee - Sports Car

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Strongarm - Police SUV

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Fixit

Ultra Magnus - Truck Cab

Arcee - Motorcycle

Bulkhead - Off Road Vehicle

Clipshade/Spectrosynth - Sports Car 

Autobots in Flashback (Flashback only)

Decepticon

Overhead - Security Van

Megatron - Space Jet (Mentioned)

Cybercomrade Sect (Mentioned)

Human

Denny Clay

Russell Clay

Security Driver Joe

Joe's Co-worker

"Collector Kenny" (Mentioned)

"Kenny's Uncle Gene" (Mentioned)

"Bargain Billy" (Mentioned)

Notes

• "Bin Battles" is a parody of programs like "Storage Hunters"
• Being a Buffaloid, Overhead shares a character model, with some minor differences with Terrashock, but unlike him, she isn't an enforcer.
• The "Morton Donuts" sign is missing some letters that makes it spell out "Moron Nut" when Denny is hanging it up...HAH!
• Overhead's comment that her "compartments have compartments" is similar to Rung's comments on his own body in More Than Meets The Eye.
• Some of the Autobots in the flashback look a little familiar, with some appearing to resemble Prowl and Blades, and one even seemingly having TFA Grandus' head model.
• The mystery of Clipshade's gun not working last issue is unceremoniously revealed here to be because it's not a gun, it's a light projector....ahem...
• So...why exactly couldn't Magnus and the others tell Bee and his team about Clipshade being a double agent?! Even if they only told Bumblebee it would have made sense!