This five-part miniseries has a different opening animation than the rest of the season's episodes.
This Season Three opener takes place a year after the events in Transformers: The Movie (1986).
The character model of Autobot Jazz makes an appearance, however he is identified as "Munka Spanka". His original voice actor Scatman Crothers had passed away not long before the episode was finished, and they probably didn't want to make the character he played appear. His appearance wasn't altered, and this led to a lot of confusion for the viewers. It is, however, more likely that either Jazz or the name "Munka Spanka" are errors, given the sub-par production quality of the mini-series.
The script called for Sparkplug to join Blaster and Outback in searching for Decepticons in Carbombya. He is not present in the finished episode and his only line was given to Blaster
Throughout the third season, Earth is shown to have reached a superior technological status in 2006. Even developing interstellar travel. This is believable, as for over two decades, humanity has had working relations with the Autobots; a technologically advanced alien race. And has received aid in advancing at an accelerate pace.