Transformers: The Wild Boy of Quintesson Book Review

Hey, this is Frank Todaro, otherwise known as

Starscream, and you're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. This is Optimus Prime, and you're

listening to all things Transformers. Hello and

welcome to All Things Transformers. I'm your

host, Steve Mechatron, and joining me on this

adventure into the Transformers fandom is TFG1

Mike. Hello. Hello. So you are now the number

two Beast Wars fan. No. Okay. I know as of this

- Not on my show. I know. As of this recording,

you have not listened to that episode I recorded

with Daryl the Cybertronian Beast from the Transmissions

podcast, but - Just go listen to it when you

get done with this, because it isn't really a

like he's he likes the Beast Wars toys, but he

has no interest in the show or any like. Where

is Wars or Beast Wars 2? So because Beast Wars

2 and Beast Wars Neo are not. No, they are not

the same. But again, if you go listen to the

episode, he explains why he gave himself. The

name of the number and it's just a big joke it's

it's all in fun it's not you know. It's not the

end of the world here it could be you don't know

no no no no trust me it's not so we're here in

another episode of all things transformers and

we're going back to my childhood we are yes it

was nineteen eighty six so. You were, it was

either, cause I don't have the actual, see that's

the one thing I don't like about copyright dates

sometimes is that they don't always, they give

you the year, obviously, but they don't give

you the like month of the year that, you know

what I mean? So 1986, I was six years old. If

this was the end of the school year. From 1985,

you know what I mean? Like that whole thing or

the new school year. You were either born or

you weren't born yet. Yep and Six -year -old

me. Oh boy Who yeah, and I'm actually looking

at the Wikipedia or the the TFWiki article about

it and it doesn't it just says copyright 86 It

does not give a year. So anyway, we are here

to talk about a Transformers book This is one

of the Transformers story book story books from

Marvel books a Big Looker story book is what

it says the Transformers more than meets the

eye the story of wheelie the wild boy of quintesson

Okay, first of all just want to say for the record

folks Yes, we know the planet is called quintessa.

Yes. We know the five robot robot head bots are

the quintess like we get it. But with how this

story is written, calling him the wild boy of

quintesson and calling the planet quintesson,

it makes more sense than having to redo it almost

40 years later. So this is written and illustrated

by people I do not know. I have never known.

The screenplay was done obviously by Ron Friedman

written by Sonia Black Woods and illustrated

by Earl Norum. This is basically a 24 page storybook

and it's basically the story of how. It's basically

the section in the movie where they find, you

know, skip scare over there. That's a ship. Who

cares as long as it flies. So it's a alternate

version of that. Think of this as one of those.

What if script? Yeah, what if or think of this

as one of those script things that never came

to light Like one of the screenplays that Ron

Friedman wrote for the film, but never actually

happened because Wheely now get this and the

reason why I wanted to talk about this is because

I wanted to talk about this in order to bring

up how I Started reading as a kid like at this

point. I'm in first grade, I believe. Just leaving

kindergarten, going into first grade. So I was

learning to read. I was six years old. You know,

I mean, I'm sure I'd read little golden books

and things like that, but I didn't start reading

Berenstain Bears until like second grade. So

anyway, the story has Wheelie and his parents

crash land on Quintessa in a corkscrew ship.

We know the corkscrew ships were the quintesson

ships So how could a family of Autobots have

a corkscrew whatever you know what I mean, so

that's that's different the fact that they mentioned

that he has parents and I think this goes to

the fact of We don't want to mess with the whole

vector Sigma thing. We don't want to mess with

the whole primus Not that Primus was a real major,

major thing back then, but like in order for

young boys to read this, if this young boy of

Quintesson is crash landing, of course, how's,

how, you know, how's this isn't, even though

this was done in the eighties, not a lot of kids

flew by themselves, even though I flew by myself

a few times. Anyway, point is, is that I think

they did this to say, Hey, this will be more

relatable. to the children who read it kind of

thing. And what I love is in this book is it

each page is like paragraph and a half on one

side and then a giant really nice illustration

on the other side. So it reads fairly, fairly

well. And they explain how scary the quintessence

are and how each side, you know, has five heads

and You know, they explain how evil and, and

vicious the construct icons. Wow. That's not

what I mean. The shark to cons are. And it goes

to show you how wheel is a really is a survivor

and how he was too fast for them. And then it

basically him out in the middle of the jungles

of quintessence with his little blade that he

eventually. He has a slingshot and he has like

this little it's kind of like Megatron's blade

that he stabbed prime with kind of but there's

an image of him here. Where he has like I want

to say it's like one of the lays you would get

if you went to Hawaii kind of thing but it isn't

it's it's actually I think it's a necklace made

of shark decon teeth is what it is so he has

this around his neck and he's going to survive.

being on Quintesson. So compared to Wheelie,

the boy Autobot Hot Rod had a very carefree life

on Earth. He was never lonely because he had

a lot of Autobot friends. The wise old Autobot

Cup and girl Autobot RC were two of them. Sludge,

Slag, Swoop, and Grimlock were his Dinobot friends.

The reason why I'm saying reading this part of

the book is because... The book specifically

is titled the wild boy of quintesson So I think

and this is just my own personal opinion here

That they were doing the whole This is a boy.

This is a girl. This is so kids could learn the

difference in the genders kind of thing That's

just my own personal Personal thing so We basically

have the scene where they're loading up the ship,

but instead of the ship being loaded up for them

to escape, it's so they can bring supplies to

the base on the moon, the second moon of Cybertron,

which is essentially moon base two where Bumblebee

and Spike were. This does not say anything about

Optimus. This does not say anything about a battle.

This does not say anything about anything. And

the only three we see besides the DinoBots, the

only main Autobots we see are Hot Rod, RC, and

Cup. So imagine me, little six -year -old me,

not seeing... I didn't see the movie in theaters.

I didn't see the movie until maybe 87, I think.

Again, back then, the... Physical media release

from theatrical release was six months to a year,

if not longer. So I think I read this first.

This does not have Springer in it anywhere. At

all. Doesn't even mention him, Ultra Magnus,

Blur, doesn't mention anybody. So this is what

I think of when I think of, oh, that's why I

call Springer a homewreckin' mofo, because...

I never as a child I never knew the damn character

So they all you know So the Autobot ship takes

off and then somehow the quintessence or what

is it here? It's uh, oh The flight was smooth

sailing at first, but as they flew deeper into

space the ship began to rattle and sputter uncontrollably

So the ship is gonna Basically crash land that

it lands safely but it lands on quintesson so

this is how they meet up with wheelie and. We

see in one of these panels the actual panel that

is the cover of the book. We leave flinging the

fire rocks with his little slingshot here the

stuff that hit grim lock in it why boy hit my

nose you know so the. The Autobots land, Wheelie

is in front of them, but the Sharkticons and

the Quintessons are behind them, so the Autobots

don't see them. It's an ambush. Wheelie saves

them, and this next page, page 18 out of 24,

says, once the Quintessons were out of sight,

Wheelie turned to go. Wait, who are you, Hot

Rod asked? Wheelie stopped and stared at the

strangers, puzzled. Could they be his own kind?

Finally, come to rescue him, he wondered. He

answered Hot Rod. Wheelie, my name. Wheelie asks

same. Hot Rod introduced everyone to their newfound

ally. They all had questions for Wheelie. What

are you doing here? Are there others like you?

How long have you lived here? Before long, each

side knew the other's story. Suddenly, Wheelie

said, Quintesson's returned to finish fight.

Wheelie said, get out of sight. He led Hot Rod

and his group away from the crash area. So on

this page, on the very next page where the images

are, you have the Dinobots and Cup kind of bringing

up the rear. You have Wheelie leading them, RC

right behind Wheelie, and then Hot Rod right

behind RC. This is just me and my craziness,

folks. I look at this image and I see Wheelie.

as Mowgli from the Jungle Book. Hot Rod is Baloo

the bear and Cup is Bagheera the panther. I don't

know who R .C. would be. No clue. But literally,

I'm looking at this image and I see Jungle Book

characters and it's all because Wheelie has this

Sharkticon necklace around his neck. And there's

another fight. The Dinobots transform into the

dinosaur modes and all that with the quintessence

and, you know, really helps them get to the corkscrew

ship, which Hot Rod immediately fixes up. Hot

Rod sees what the problem is. And one of my friends

on Facebook, I believe he's also a friend of

Pecan Court Michael, Michael Wilson. Sorry, Jim,

but I'm going to call you out. I posted about

this and I just posted, hey, I got this. I remember

this from my childhood. This is the title of

it. And he's like, but wasn't the planet named

Quintessa? And I'm like, yeah, but that would

make no sense with how this book is written and

whatever else. And, you know, so instead of leaving

Wheelie behind, they bring him with them, obviously.

And, you know, at the end of it, Hot Rod says,

wait a minute. We're not leaving you behind climb

aboard friend wheelie smiled eagerly climbed

into the spaceship as they sped off to the blue

yonder Willy gazed at the planet which was home

for such a long time. He sighed a deep science

and wheelie gone from quintesson This book is

just something that I had remembered Barely and

what I remember about it is I always had it checked

out of the school library at the time and I think

I ended up Maybe and my mom probably killed me

for this ended up incurring maybe 50 bucks in

late fees because I would never return it. I

always wanted to read it as a kid and I would

just read it and read it and read it and read

it. This was my smaller version of Transformers

the movie for a long time until I actually got

scarred by the death of Optimus Prime. You know,

so there is that. It's just a fun little thing.

It's just a fun little memory. I love on the

back of it. It says look for these other great

transformers books transformers sticker adventures

transformers supersize coloring books transformers

hardcover story books and transformers coloring

and activity books So it's just I wanted to do

something different with this episode of the

podcast because As much as we're gonna talk about

at least one news item here in a moment a few

moments I just don't want HTTF to just be us

reacting to the news and while we've been sort

of more positive with the news lately, sometimes

the news can make us not want to be positive.

Yeah, that's true. And this is a piece of Transformers

history because it's, like I said, it's a 24

page mini version of the movie that takes out

everything else. except for that one section,

which is the section on Quintesson. Like it doesn't

even say about, you know, it shows him that the

Quintessons are going to feed him to the Sharktocons,

but it doesn't, you know, doesn't show slag,

you know, knocking down the door or any of that

kind of stuff. Doesn't show slag and Grimlock

fighting. Doesn't show hot rod fixing cup or

any of that. It's. just solely focused on Wheely.

And I really want... Wheely gets such a bad rap.

Like, look, I get it. The character is what the

character is or what he was. I would love for

a really great Wheely story to be written, whether

it's in rhyme or not. But that's part of his

character. That's part of who he is. But the

fact that this says he had parents and he came

from somewhere and then, you know, If you watch

the movie, he's just there. There's no real explanation.

He's just there. It's just another one of those

little things that remind me of why I like the

Transformers franchise so much. I get it. Yup.

Friend find look behind. Who say that? Friend

find look behind. You go wrong way, you fool

I say. Me Grimlock fool. Picture you got, no

fool you not. Me Grimlock no like you. Alright,

and the only news story I wanted to bring up

is something we already talked about recently.

We had mentioned that the Legacy Wave 1 Voyager

was out at UK retail. I saw Pia retweet an image

from some other account. And we talked about

the new packaging the legacy packaging with the

no window where you could just reach in and touch

the figure which i was going baffling. Yeah yeah

i would rather have the closed box packaging

then. Then this i don't even mean the window

packaging i mean the new supposedly you know

the twenty twenty two packaging that's coming

the close so somebody. Somewhere I don't know

where this is but somebody somewhere pulled off

bulkheads head from the bulkhead legacy figure

That why would you Because people are scum That's

true. I mean honestly, why why would you steal

like I? Get that plastics going up in price I

get that you know you can make a killing on scalping

people on eBay or That you can make a killing

with parts on eBay But don't be a scumbag like

just be honest if you own it Go for it. Like

I I'm butchering a war for Cybertron Galvatron

and I have plenty of parts Right. I've got the

figure Yeah, yeah, you bought it you can do with

it what you want to it, you know Yeah, there's

no reason to steal. No, stealing is bad, folks.

It is the Eighth Commandment, after all. Do not

steal. If you don't know that not to steal, something's

wrong with you. Yeah. I think the more of these

that we see with missing heads. Yes. I think

they're going to go back to the old packaging.

Oh, they better. Or at least putting the the

plastic window and I get they're trying to save

plastic. I really do. Yeah They're better off

just putting the whole thing in cardboard Yeah,

like nobody's nobody's asking them to not Like

I'm not sitting here saying oh, it should be

all plastic. No In the in the background of this

image that I will hopefully link it shows a picture

of I believe it's scourge It's one of the sweeps,

but it's the same thing. Okay, whatever. It's

got the clear plastic. Yeah, but it's got the

clear plastic window packaging. And, you know,

if we're not supposed to be doing that anymore,

then go to full cardboard, all -enclosed packaging.

I mean, I get it. They want the children of the

world to be able to see the figure. But I've

seen so many of these types of packagings that,

and most of the time when I did see them, they

were like, Preschool kids toys at the dollar

store that some kid has ripped open like these

pack these open Book box, whatever packagings.

They don't last now because kids will be like

oh I can touch the figure. Yeah, I'm gonna rip

his head off Yeah, well or it's people just oh,

I want that head for a custom You know, I mean

I saw a kingdom beast Megatron with a shattered

piece of plastic in the front And like just just

the the it was the box if the figure was fire

But I mean, you know in the back of your head.

You're like I need the head but you know, it's

like I'm not scum No, yes, then you really figure

like that entire figure for someone else. Yeah

Yeah, don't be scum. Ladies and gentlemen. I

mean, I you know, I try my best not to be scummy,

but you know there's just certain things this

is why I'm glad I'm really not into the toy thing

I mean I am still but I'm like I'm not even buying

funko stuff anymore hell can't even buy funko

transformers anymore cuz they put them behind

non fungible whatever the hell so But yes, just

a quick little episode this time around talking

about Wheelie, the wild boy of Quintesson. Like

I've already said, I just felt like talking about

something different. And in the next episode,

Megatron is going to be giving us his mega -customs.

So tune in for that. Would you like to give people

a preview before we close this one out? A preview?

Some sort of audio something like I'm beast Megatron.

I'm on on the gurney or whatever. I don't know

Well, well, well it seems I Would be working

on a new body Yes sands of beast mode. Yeah,

it's got all robotics in it Yes Alright, you

can tune into that next time here on All Things

Transformers, and be sure to follow IamAtTF2

and Mike. You can also follow AtGeekCastRadio,

AtAllThingsTFV3. You are at what, sir? At SCP

-21. And Megatron? He has a Twitter, doesn't

he? At BWTF, Megatron. No. No, idiot. It's at

BW underscore Megatron. Yeah Oh God we're all

going to hell speak for yourself I wish to speak

to my lawyer.