Headscratchers / Transformers: Rescue Bots

• If Blades was previously a land vehicle, where did his name come from?
  • He may have previously had blades of the chopping variety, rather than rotor blades.
    • That's certainly a possibility, he may have even had wrist blades similiar to those used by Arcee.
  • Or a construction vehicle; the front pushing-part of a bulldozer is called a blade.
    • This seems less likely, due to Cast Speciation... Boulder's the teams engineer, so a construction vehicle would likely fit him better.
  • Maybe he was some kind of water based vehicle?
  • He was the team's medic so, maybe his name refers to medical blades instead of rotors.
• Why do the characters have noses?
  • They probably contain advanced chemical sensor packages. Heatwave even mentions having olfactory sensors in "Four Bots and a Baby".
• In "Rules and Regulations", Chief tells the Bots not to go to Griffin Crest, as there is an EMP generator that'll knock them (and any other piece of tech) out in the area, and decides to not tell them about it. Why not just tell them? After all, at this point the team has dealt with a rampaging robotic T-rex, nanites, and a good amount of other crazy tech gone awry, so they would understand a need for a contingency plan or five.
• Why are there no Decepticons in this show? I know this is supposed to be a Lighter and Softer version of the franchise, but come on...
  • The Rescue Bots are workers, not soldiers. If they got in a brawl with the 'Cons, preschoolers everywhere would be forever traumatized by the sight of Megatron ripping off Heatwave's head.
  • Or Starscream ripping Chase's spark out of his chest.
    • Though it would be nice to see a Decepticon on occasion, the Rescue Bots are not excactly made for combat, are they? They are, however, much more useful for potential improvement of public relations.
  • Because the Frontline team (Optimus, Bumblebee, Arcee, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Smokescreen, Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus are already fighting the Cons and even if they did pop up, Team prime could Ground Bridge in, so there's no need for them in a combat role.
• This show has been confirmed to be set in the same continuity as Transformers: Prime. Yet in the aforementioned show, Optimus Prime says that only 5 Autobots remain on Earth.
  • Presumably, this takes place after the "Darkness Rising" five-parter.
  • Though there is the possibility that, due to their relatively young and inexperienced natures. Optimus has opted to keep them secret even from his own team. Probably for their own protection. Even though that decision wouldn't make much sense to anyone else, it wouldn't be the first time an Optimus made a weird decision like that.
    • Though you think Prime would have mentioned them at least once to the other Autobots (Bee aside), it does makes sense he would keep them a secret. The less they discuss (and know, in the event that one of them were captured and Mind Raped by the 'Cons) about the Rescue Bots (who are obviously not Warrior Class bots and much better at saving lives than fighting a war directly (for example, Heatwave's only weapon is an improvised fire hose. Meaning water. May be a whip if he needed it, but primarily slagging water!) and their mission, the less likely they'll be targeted by Decepticons.
    • Edit: a tinge of Fridge Brilliance if you will, Prime keeping them a secret makes sense. While it would be nice to have a 'Con show up every once in a while, really the The Rescue Bots are not Combat Bots and have no weapons or training to make them capable of defeating one Decepticon, let alone an entire army. They are, however, the best at what they do, which is saving people. The less involved they are with the 'Cons, the less likely they are to get pointlessly slagged when the Autobots really need them for what they're good at. Because, really, though some extra fire power would be nice for Prime and his team, they really don't need more soldiers as much as good relations with the humans (whose planet they've brought a war to), particularly humans with much more advanced technology than the rest of the world. Where transforming, talking giant robots are a curiosity at best. Like, say, Griffin Island perhaps? If these humans can get used to them and eventually accept them as allies, they will ultimately be able to provide the Autobots with the backup they so desperately need and, assuming the war ends with the Autobots as the winners, a sanctuary for the survivors where they can live in peace amongst humanity and even get assistance in locating and mining energon. It was actually quite a pragmatic and strategic move on Prime's part when you think about it.
  • Where has it been said that it's in the "Prime" continuity. As far as I can see, this show is it's own continuity, with slightly "chibi-fied" (for lack of a better phrase) Transformers characters instead of the full-sized ones from Prime. Even Optimus is portrayed as "chibi-fied" in his appearances.
    • Video interview with executive producer Jeff Kline and voice actor Steve Blum, who work on both shows. ''Rescue Bots'' talk, including confirmation of continuity, starts about three minutes in.
  • The creators of the show confirmed "Prime" and "Rescue Bots" both take place in the same universe. I imagine that if the Rescue bots ever appear in the "Prime" series, they will be given new looks to fit in on the show.
• Why is it that after Trex was repaired and repurposed, does he still have damaged skin. Shouldn't that have been repaired too?
  • Which would be scarier to a potential burglar: a dinosaur, or a dinosauroid Terminator?
    • Who would be dumb enough to rob Doc Greene? Unless you're specificlly after high technology like Doctor Morrocco was, there's definitely safer places to loot, with less chance of said loot being more trouble than it's worth even if you do manage to get away with it.
    • Well in a season 3(/4 depending on how you see it), thieving duo Evan and Miles sneak into the lab to reprogram some toys based on the Rescue Bots to steal for them. So villains may not always want to sneak in to take stuff just manipulate it. Of coarse the fact Evan and Miles got in shows Trex isn't good at his job.
• I know the whole robot in disguise thing is because the people wouldn't be able to accept aliens but why don't they just handwave it by saying that the rescue bots have AI or something?
  • Media. If you tell people the bots can think for themselves the first thing people are going to think of is all the robot apocylpse movies they've seen over the years. Think The Matrix or Terminator series. A robot on a leash sounds much safer then a robot that can one day decide it doesn't want to serve you anymore.
• In the comic, when Blades laments that his vehicle mode flies when he is afraid of heights, Chase says he is a good pilot and would have liked a flying altmode. Why didn't they just switch? It's not that difficult for Cybertronians to change their alternate modes. In Transformers Prime, Airachnid did it just by scanning a new one. Why did they stay the same when they both would have been happier switching?
  • Airachnid kept her drill mode; either it wasn't a proper alt mode or she's a triple changer. The Transformers franchise has actually been very consistent about changing alt modes not being casual. I can only think of one occasion, in any part of the franchise, were an existing alt was overwritten without trouble.^note The second movie, Skids and Mudflap. Aside from that, they seem to need to be in protoform, or use an external machine to remodel themselves.
• How does Chase arrest people? Police cars have caged backseats for criminals, but Chase doesn't seem to have a backseat at all. Where does Chief Burns put them? Especially in Small Blessings when he has to arrest TWO people. Even if he put them in the front seat with him, how did he fit two of them?
  • Chase does have a backseat. Frankie rides in it in one episode. It's small but it is there.
• What Rises Above, the solution was simply "Blow it up?" They were out in the open now, their communications should have been working, and it's likely there was some other helicopter on the entirety of Griffin Rock, not to mention Ground Bridging them out, the Jackhammer, or Fowler's helicopter.
• Why aren't Evan and Myles in jail? They've committed enough class-A misdemeanor and class-C felony crimes to warrant rather lengthy jail sentences, and yet every seven or eight episodes they're off ripping something off again.
• How is Mayor Luskey still in office? A mayor who has caused, directly or indirectly, so much chaos and danger to life and property through his shortsightedness, stupidity, and tendency to leap first and look never, should have been impeached and booted off the island ages ago.
  • Maybe no one else ever bothers to run for mayor.
  • The citizens finally decide they've had enough of Luskey's carelessness in "Mayor May Not" and elect Chase as mayor. He turns out to be even worse.
• How has Huxley not been arrested yet? How many times has his actions nearly cost a person their life?
  • Some of Luskey's actions could've also put him in jail, too.
• I know the crew said they thought the Decepticons would make the show too dark and that Season 2 takes place concurrently with Season 2 of Prime and it's pretty much implied that the Liquefier "Odd Bot Out" is one of the Iacon relics, but this policy raises a serious plot hole: if it's an Iacon relic, why the hell aren't the Decepticons after it? You'd think Megatron would send Soundwave, Dreadwing, or Knock Out after it or go after it himself.
• One thing that confuses me, a few civilian bots not being called in by Prime to come to Cybertron for the episode "Regeneration" is understandable. But the idea that Optimus wouldn't call in somebody like High Tide seems pretty far-fetched to me.
  • It's probable that High Tide doesn't want to fight. He's an old bot and some of his dialogue hints to him having been a solider in the past, so maybe he's retired from the battlefield to a more non combative role. He is a teacher to the Rescue Bots and wants to help them be better rescuers to save lives. Also I doubt Optimus would force High Tide to be on the front lines if he didn't want to.

• So since this continuity is the same as Prime, how was Dr.Morocco able to build artificial transformers with ease? When we see MECH in Prime they need to go through several steps to even build one. find a transformer and dissect one(Breakdown), constantly monitor and scan them when they scan an alt mode(Airachnid), learn more about their biology and Energon fuel source(Starscream) and a T cog(Also Starscream) to make one bot, while Dr.Morocco can just make an army.
  • Theres a line in 'The Reign of Morocco' where Morocco states one of his clients is "seeking highly advanced weapon technology" and "is building an army". If thats MECH (and why wouldn't it be?), this suggests they've been sharing intel and resources for some time now.
  • After looking in to how the Morbots perform, I think the answer is a bit simpler. They only look like a transformer. They may have a robot and vehicle mode like a Transformer, but in terms of durability and general performance they fall far behind. Compare the Morbot's capabilities to that of Nemesis Prime's and clear difference in ability is shown. MECH recreated a Transformer "from the cranial chamber to heel strut" Morocco just built his in their shape and still used all earth tech. MECH wanted Quality, an army of super robot soldiers, Morocco wanted Quantity, an army to show off his skill and superiority. In simple terms MECH is a genuine recreation, while Morocco is a cheap knockoff.