Episode 38: The Toy Arena of Plastic and Blood

Dick is taking a nap, while Johnson is attempting to get the Season 1 DVD of *Roseanne* out of Dick's DVD player, without waking his best friend. Johnson uses the occasion to make Dick wet his bed by putting his hand in warm water because that totally works. This causes Dick to wake up just as Butterscotch Ripple knocks on the door to his room. The centaur has come to ask Dick and Johnson to return to the dimension of sentient toys with him. The toy world has developed a class system and is putting on violent gladiatorial fights for sport. Butterscotch fears that this development could soon have a negative impact on the human world as well. All of them squeeze into the magical cabinet that originally gave Butterscotch sentience, and find themselves in the toy dimension.

The toy dimension has turned into a blasted, apocalyptic wasteland under a perpetual thunderstorm. they spot toys from all directions traveling towards a toy city. Asking some of the travelers, the three learn that all toys are being called to participate in "Plastic Sport," a tournament to the death put on by **Mrs. Potatohead**. The toy tater has gone mad after issues in her relationship with Mr. Potatohead and is using her Potato Army to force toys into her blood sport, threatening to destroy all that refuse to answer her call. In an attempt to accelerate their journey to the city, Johnson, who has taken the form of a Stretch Armstrong, catapults them forward, but severely injures himself in the process.

Arriving at the fighting arena, they watch toys fight each other through several rounds, the losing toys being torn apart and discarded. Also, **Megatron** and **Optimus Prime** are there. After arming themselves with spare parts, they engage the guards. Impressed by Johnson's fighting skills, Mrs. Potatohead forces him to join the tournament, and he quickly finds himself in the arena, facing **Rob the Robot**. During the battle, Optimus gets hit by crossfire and is fatally injured. Meanwhile, Rob the Robot appears to gain the upper hand over Johnson, and, seeing his friends in danger, Dick front-flips into the arena. Mrs. Potatohead calls for an additional opponent to be added to even the odds and the current tournament champion, **Bruce Lee (action figure)** is forced to enter. Dick refuses to fight his idol and takes Lee's punches while trying to reason with him. Johnson manages to take out Rob the Robot, but a new fighter, **Skipper** armed with a gun, immediately replaces Rob. Butterscotch quickly inflates himself through his airhole and launches at Skipper, disarming her and knocking her out of the ring.

The fighting is interrupted when Butterscotch gives a passionate speech, appealing to all toys to set aside their differences and come together with the power of friendship to take down Mrs. Potatohead. This causes Bruce Lee (action figure) to stop beating up Dick, but before anyone else can react, Mrs. Potatohead herself enters the arena in a giant mech suit put together from various construction toys and attacks them all. In her villain monologue, Mrs. Potatohead reveals that she has killed her husband and wants to prove to the world that she is a superior toy by destroying all other toys in toy world. Dick, Johnson, and Butterscotch are overwhelmed by her power, getting grabbed and thrown around. Dick, who has been tossed high into the air, aims at the tyrant tater, channels all his willpower, and lands one devastating punch. Mrs. Potatohead's mech suit is destroyed, but, refusing to surrender, she attempts to shoot Butterscotch. At the last moment, Dick grabs the projectile and throws it back at her, causing her to explode and release evil energy of trapped souls, and potato toy parts. As the smoke of the explosion clears, the evil energy coalesces into a doll version of Paul Lynde. The toy explains that it is yet another simulacrum of Dick and Johnson's nemesis, sent to plot against the two. It taunts the heroes that the real Paul Lynde can only be destroyed in the real world, before it vanishes.

## Behind the Scenes

The fate of Optimus Prime is unknown and it is unclear whether this Optimus Prime is identical to the one that was befriended by Dick and Johnson in Episode 34 and became one of their many permanent house guests.