The Transformers (TV Series) Heavy Metal War (1984) User Reviews

First Appearance Of The Constructicons

[Kenorv · 7/10 · 26 June 2006]

Heavy Metal Wars marks the first appearance of the constructicons in the Transformers G1 cartoon. This episode probably creates as much confusion as any episode in the Transformers series as far as I'm concerned. For starters, Megatron says in this episode that the decepticons built the constructicons on earth but in "The secret of Omega Supreme," Omega says that the constructicons came from cybertron and were originally good robots.(though it was never mentioned that they were ever autobots, just that they didn't start out as decepticons) Then in "The Five Faces of Darkness" the matrix shows Rodimus Prime how the constructicons built Megatron. So how the writers went from Megatron building the constructicons to the constructicons building Megatron is beyond me.

Then later in Heavy Metal Wars, Megatron is fighting Prime one on one but with the combined powers of all the decepticons. Megatron actually beats the crap out of Prime worse than he did in the movie, even landing a cannon shot in Prime's chest, yet Prime doesn't die. He's badly damaged but the other autobots are still able to repair him. So how his wounds in the movie are fatal yet not so in this episode is beyond me too. Maybe they needed Ratchet and Wheeljack to repair Prime in the movie, I don't know. Then again Wreck-gar probably could have repaired Prime and the other "dead" autobots since he repaired Ultra Magnus in the movie and later Springer in "The five faces of darkness." Any ways, this all just shows some of the inconsistencies and contradictions with the Transformers G1 cartoon. This episode in particular since the writers made a complete 180 with the origins of the constructicons later on. I know that this is just a kiddie cartoon but if the writers want to include a real storyline to it then they should have done a better job of making sure that there weren't any inconsistencies or contradictions.

"Nothing defeats the Devastator! Nothing!"

[jerekra · 10/10 · 27 June 2009]

Heavy Metal War is one of the best episodes from the original Transformers series. It has a great battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron, and also is the first episode to feature the Constructicons.

Megatron challenges Optimus Prime to a one of one battle with the loser being forced to leave Earth forever. To help ensure his chances of winning, Megatron uses the power chip rectafiers from all the other Decepticons to gain their powers and become more powerful. Megatron also sends the Constructicons to destroy Teletran 1 so that his cheating will not be detected.

This is a great episode. The battle between Megatron and Prime is interesting. I always wondered how the Autobots could not suspect anything unusual as Megatron is using abilities that he never used before.

The main reason for this episode standing out is that it is the first to feature the Constructicons. The Constructicons are truly one of the best groups of Transformers ever. They get to do quite a lot in this episode and seeing them merge together to make Devastator is awesome.

Also the Dinobots get to appear again. They make any episode better in my opinion.

So overall this is one of the best Transformers episodes out there. One of the best from season 1 and one that I highly recommend.

Less than meets the eye

[Fluke_Skywalker · 6/10 · 19 June 2016]

The Transformers: S1 Ep. 14 "Heavy Metal War" (1984) - Plot; Megatron challenges Optimus Prime to a one on one battle, with the loser and his soldiers to be exiled into deep space forever. Unbeknownst to the Autobots, Megatron has found a way to siphon the powers of his Decepticon subordinates into himself.

Collecting 70s-80s toys is my primary hobby, and as an 80s kid I have a love for the early G1 'Transformers' era. But for various reasons I'd focused on other lines over the years. That all changed when I bought my first G1 Transformer (Sideswipe) on eBay yesterday. To celebrate, I decided to pop in an episode of the original TF cartoon.

This isn't the first time I've revisited the original 'TF' since my childhood, but it is the first time in several years. While I find 80s 'toons like 'G.I. Joe' and 'Thundercats' entertaining on a level beyond simple nostalgia, the same hasn't been true of the TF episodes I've watched. Making my choice based solely on its high IMDb rating (8.3), I watched "Heavy Metal War". No, it's not about a rock-off between Iron Maiden and Megadeath, but a face-to-face fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Sounded like fun. Sounded like.

There are some decent moments here, but overall it's pretty typical of what I've come to expect from the classic Sunbow series--Shoddy animation, stilted dialog and weak, predicable storytelling. - 6/10 - One of the things I've always liked about the classic 'TF' series is its voice cast. Sharing many of the same actors as 'G.I. Joe', they really do bring a lot of personality to their characters.

• Another thing I like about 'TF' is that the lasers and missiles can hit their targets. Being robots--even sentient ones--I suppose it was okay for the characters to take direct hits where their human counterparts over in the 'G.I. Joe' universe could run into a hail of laserfire and not even get singed.

• I really love that they left in the great commercial bumpers.