Back on Cybertron. Here the archvillan Megatron talks with the henchman left on Cybertron at the start of the show, Shockwave. Shockwave's character never did settle down to anything specific. He was usually intelligent, loyal, crafty and obedient, sort of like a butler. He made most of the rest of the Decepticons look like fools, largely because he didn't participate in the every-weekday humiliations undergone by the rest of the villans. For a while he talked with a slightly English accent, but they dropped it again. Like Megatron he transformed into a large gun that shot purple beams.

Here's what cybertron itself looked like. I think this was about the only stock shot they had of it. Not bad for 1984, even if the idea wasn't all that original at the time. When Decepticons get drunk on Energon, they would reminisce about this planet.

This happened about four times per half-hour episode.

... to sell things like this. I'm not sure why so many ads were run during Transformers for girls' toys; I never met a girl who liked the show or thought (correctly) its viewers were anything but typical immature little boys. This was a doll with LEDs in the side of her head (earrings, I think) that blinked. The doll had her own TV show also, I think the premise of which was that she was a rock star dependent on her computer to maintain a glamorous appearance.

strive on, fall back or turn tail.