Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the next episode’s recap? Wait for the recap.
A new Decepticon menace is on the loose – Filch, and she can fly! Can the Autobots stop this compulsive thief from stealing everything in sight? Meanwhile, Danny has to hold off a suspicious television producer, Larry LaRue, and prevent him from discovering that there’s more than meets the eye to his father’s scrapyard! But when Russell gets kidnapped, can Danny hold off Larry and get his father rescued? And how will Bumblebee and the Autobots stop a flying Decepticon?
“Collect ‘Em All” is the seventh episode of the first season of Transformers: Robots in Disguise. It’s the sequel series to Transformers: Prime, and revolves around Bumblebee and his group of cadets on Earth, with a subplot involving Optimus Prime pursuing a mystical mission in the afterlife. This episode sees the Autobots facing their first flying menace, Filch, and a human antagonist Larry LaRue too.
“Collect ‘Em All” continues the spate of filler episodes. It introduces a new Decepticon that’s fairly interesting (and female!), but Filch is far too dim-witted to pose a serious threat. Her power and toughness levels are also inconsistent, and while she may have the superior advantage of the skies, she’d rather get into melee action, which is strange. The human story might be fairly interesting in another Transformers series, but over here it just seems like a plot that’s put in to pad out the episode.
Highlights
Strongarm’s moment of awesome
OK, I have to admit, Strongarm suddenly punching Filch out of nowhere was pretty cool. Up till now we haven’t really seen her doing anything awesome or groundbreaking, so to see her break out of that mould and slo-mo punch Filch was the highlight of my day. Unfortunately that didn’t last too long, but hey, let’s hope that her punching improves and her hand-to-hand combat matches her size and frame soon!
Grimlock to the rescue!
I know I’ve complained about Filch being less than intelligent, but Grimlock’s simple-mindedness can be pretty endearing at times, especially when he comes to the rescue in this episode. Granted, holding up a bridge isn’t much, but at least it shows that even if Grimlock doesn’t have the vehicle alternate mode that the others have, he more than makes up for it in other ways.
Letdowns
Why is Filch so much more simplistic than the other Decepticons?
It’s very, very strange to see Filch being so… dumb. The thing is that she isn’t a villainess that uses brute strength, unlike Terrashock from a few episodes ago, yet she can only mutter single words. Usually, intelligence is in inverse proportion to strength, but Filch doesn’t quite seem to have the strength levels of Terrashock. It doesn’t make sense and Filch seems like a very incongruous villainess as a result.
Filch’s defeat seems implausible
She can stand up to laser fire, Transformer punches… but not a steel beam that drops on her head? Mind you, the steel beam is much, much smaller than her, being only perhaps half the size of her neck. If a giant boulder that’s twice the size of her head landed on her, I would understand, but this tiny steel beam thing doesn’t work. Her defeat is an anticlimatic cop out.
Human story is tiresome
Did we really have to spend so much time on Larry LaRue? What value does he bring? It’s not like he’s a threat to any of the Transformers, besides discovering their existence. And if this is a sequel series to Transformers: Prime, how are the Transformers still a secret?
“Collect ‘Em All” has a fair bit of action, but its focus on the human story makes it a tiring and boring episode. I really hope that Transformers: Robots in Disguise bucks up and gives us better story and action soon, because it’s a quarter through the series and things are already slowing down.
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