The Four-Million-Year-Old Veil of Mystery

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"The Four-Million-Year-Old Veil of Mystery" 四百万年・謎のベール () (Yon Hyaku Man Nen Nazo no Veil)
Production company	Takara, Toei
Airdate	August 28, 1987
Writer	Yoshihisa Araki
Director	Akinori Ōrai
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Scorponok lures the Autobot Headmasters into a trap on the planet Praum, where they must call upon all their training to survive.

Synopsis

Dark alley, obscured by shadow, creepy glowing eyes: this guy is totally legit.

While Galvatron complains that he's surrounded by worthless incompetents, the shadowy Scorponok arrives on Chaar to converse with him. Scorponok complains that the work is preventing him from getting revenge on Fortress, but Galvatron screams at him to do his job. Scorponok gathers the Decepticon Headmasters in preparation for his new plan.

On Athenia, Arcee receives a report that their base on desert planet Praum is under attack, but as Blurr points out, they're shorthanded because Rodimus Prime is on Earth to oversee a new energy discovery. Fortress and the Autobot Headmasters volunteer to head over and sort the Decepticons out. When they arrive on Praum, the Autobot base is dead quiet, and they split up to look around, though Fortress has to warn the others that there might be landmines. They find many bodies, but when they call out for survivors, someone lets off a gun from the base's defensive wall. The Headmasters venture inside and find a puzzle—the Autobot holding the discharged weapon is already dead. Fortress swears to avenge the victims.

Rodimus laments that since receiving the Matrix he never gets invited to the good parties.

Meanwhile, in Autobot City on Earth, Rodimus discovers that Ultra Magnus has no knowledge of the supposed energy source. Confused, the pair set out to find infantry unit P-21 who had called in the find from central Asia. They reach the facility to find the occupants have been slaughtered by Decepticons. When Ultra Magnus finds that the energy data is still there, Rodimus realizes something's up and contacts Athenia. Arcee plays back the recording of the energy report, and Rodimus quickly spots Mindwipe's silhouette in the background. Realising that the Autobot Headmasters are walking into a trap on Praum, Rodimus hastily departs aboard the Trainbots.

First person to make an "I don't like sand" joke gets banned.

On Praum, the Headmasters finish their search of the base having found only corpses. The Autobots are soon caught by surprise when every one of the base's exits are sealed, and the domed structure begins to spin, burying itself in the sand. The Headmasters are pinned against the walls as the cackling voice of Scorponok promises them their doom. Outside, the Decepticon Headmasters lament that this method of dispatching the Autobots is no fun at all. The dome finally stops spinning, and the Autobots attempt to break out, only for a torrent of sand to come rushing into the buried structure. They begin to recall the events that transpired when they first reached planet Master

Four million years ago, their ship was forced down onto Master and they trudge through the desert, only to be caught in a sandstorm. Narrowly surviving a tornado, the Headmasters are next sucked into a whirlpool sand and have to struggle to get free. Not only did they have to contend with the desert, but with acid rain and deadly ice ages. They survived, and developed Transtectors, learning the hard way to connect with them and transform.

Remembering this, the team perform a "Cross-Head On," exchanging Transtectors to boost their powers, and escape the sand-trap. They clash with the Decepticon Headmasters waiting above, who perform a Cross-Head On of their own, at which point Galvatron and Rodimus arrive. The Headmasters step between the two leaders, requesting that they take the Decepticons on themselves, and manage to hurl the villains into the sand-trap themselves. Astrotrain plucks the Decepticons from the trap, and they retreat as the Autobots look on.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"He's dead. Darn it!"

—Chromedome runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

"Loyalty is tactically useless."

—Galvatron on Cyclonus's worth.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Referenced previously in "The Mystery of Planet Master" and "The Great Cassette Operation", Decepticon Headmaster leader Scorponok makes his first proper appearance in this episode. He is, however, permanently shrouded in shadow, and will remain as such (even in fully lit rooms) until "Explosion on Mars!! MegaZarak Appears".
• When preparing to switch heads, Highbrow calls Chromedome "Chrome." This is the name of Chromedome's Headmaster robot form in the Japanese toyline, although at no other point in the animated series is it indicated that the small robots have different names when they are not connected to their Transtectors. In the same scene, Hardhead calls Brainstorm "Storm" - this is not the name of Brainstorm's Headmaster in the Japanese toyline, where it is called "Cana" (a squishing-up of Arcana). What this means is anyone's guess... perhaps Hardhead and Highbrow's heads are named "Hard" and "Brow"? Or perhaps they're nicknames?
• The Autobots previously exchanged heads in "Rebellion on Planet Beast"; the Decepticons do it for the first time in this episode, and it is named for the first time as the "Cross-Head On." The process is supremely ill-defined - one would assume that it would simply allow the different robots to employ the different strengths and weaknesses of the individual Transtectors, but instead, it serves as a very generic save-the-day power-up that energizes them for no apparent reason. Quite how the other four switching heads makes Fortress suddenly able to get free is glossed over. Perhaps he was always able to and was just sticking around for moral support?

Real-world references

"Save me, Jebus!"

• As Brainstorm wonders if they reached Praum too late, he makes the Sign of the Cross.

Animation and technical errors

• When arguing with Arcee (what else do they do in this series?) Kup and Blurr's Autobot insignias are rendered instead as little red squares. A few moments later, Kup's insignia disappears completely. Later in the episode, Kup and Blurr are sporting Decepticon insignias.
• Ultra Magnus's antennas change color multiple times throughout his appearances, from completely white, to their correct blue and white, to one side correct with the other all white.
• Right before Rodimus boards the train, the rim of his helmet is colored grey.
• In the aerial shot of the Headmasters-to-be trekking through the desert on Master, Fortress is drawn as his Transtector, not his smallest robot form. This is rectified as the angle changes.
• During the flashback, as the sand gives way under Chromedome's feet, said feet are those of his Transtector, not his small robot mode.
• When Fortress tells the Headmasters to remember their training, Brainstorm is colored like Highbrow.
• As the Headmasters are sealed in the dome trap, Highbrow's rotors are violently ripped off. After switching heads with Brainstorm, however, they are suddenly back without explanation.
• For Galvatron's first few shots on Praum, he's missing his arm cannon. When it finally does show up, the barrel is initially purple.

Trivia

• Praum is stated to be "northeast" of Athenia. This is an absolutely nonsensical direction to use in relation to objects in space.
• The character referred to as Scorponok is, of course, the small Headmaster figure that, in the West, represents Lord Zarak. However, while the larger robot that we recognize as Scorponok in the West (called "MegaZarak" in Japan) and Lord Zarak are separate characters in Hasbro fiction, thanks to the mechanics of Japanese Headmasters, here, they are the same guy; hence it's not particularly inappropriate to continue referring to him as Scorponok, even if you're trying to anglicize the names, as we do here on TFWiki.net.
• The Headmasters took a two-week break between the airing of the previous episode and this one.

Foreign localization

English

• Title: "Four Million Years—the Veil of Mystery" (Omni Productions dub)
• Original airdate: August 30, 1992

• The Omni Productions dialogue script included on the R2 release of the Headmasters series gives the episode title as "4 Million Yrs . The Evil of Mystery ". "Veil" was originally written in where "Evil" was, then crossed out in pen and replaced.
• The dialogue script also reveals depths of madness as yet unheard of from the company. According to it, Cyclonus is "Saul" and Scourge is "Garth", who informs Galvatron that "Bronco" (Scorponok!) is there to see him. Scorponok would later be identified in scripts as either "Sogi" or "Chandler".

• Title: "The Four-Million-Year-Old Veil of Mystery" (Shout! Factory sub)

• This episodes begins a common tendency for characters to use "scrap" in place of rough language found in the original dialogue. As it occurs in nearly every episode after this, it's somewhat pointless to note its presence at every point onwards.

Italian

• Title: "Il ritorno del passato, Leaderbots in pericolo!" ("Past comes back, Headmasters in danger!")

Mandarin

• Title: "Sìbǎiwàn Nián de Zhēyǎn Xiànxiàng zhī Mí " (四百万年的遮掩现象之谜, "The Mystery of Four-Million-Year-Old Phenomenon of Veil")

Home video releases

Laserdisc

1996 — Transformers: The Headmasters Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2002 — Transformers: The Headmasters — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — The Takara Collection Vol 1 — Transformers: Headmasters (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers: Headmasters (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2011 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory) — Japanese audio with optional English subtitles only.