Free Flowing Discussion on the Various TF Generations

Check out all things transform us with Steve

Megatron and TFG one mic. I could dig it You're

listening to all things transformers version

2 .0 Hello and welcome to All Things Transformers,

episode 25. This particular episode, albeit it's

two months after the previous episode, and is

going to be the only one before the TFCon rundown.

This one features myself, TFT1Mike, and Matrix

Prime of the now defunct TFWire. This episode

of All Things Transformers is brought to you

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30 -day trial to give you the opportunity to

check out their service So we are with Steve

and Jesse from The now -defunct TFYer Steve,

as we all know, originated over there on War

Stories 1 .0. And we're here to just have a free

-form discussion on waning interest in Transformers.

So I'm not alone in that one? No. Nothing comes

to Steve now. I'm so burnt out now I can understand

why you quit doing it years ago. See? I and it's

not that I don't like the franchise still because

I do but I like certain splintered aspects of

it but the way they go delving into the news

and all the you know the aftermarket crap and

then just it's I don't know it's and then the

way the fandoms constantly like Biting each other's

ankles. It's just it's ridiculous at this point.

So I just I haven't even watched transformers

prime since probably I don't know, whatever the

last episode of... Well, it hasn't aired. It

only aired the first 15 episodes of season 2.

It's on a hiatus right now. I quit watching it

about, like, 8 or something. Yeah. I don't...

Transformers Prime is honestly the only thing

that interests me when it comes to Transformers

right now. I could care less about the toys.

I could care less about... You know, the... I've

never cared about the comics. I am very psyched

and interested for Fall of Cybertron. Outside

of those two things. I don't care at this point.

I have you know I'm 32 years old so At this point.

I used to be oh g1 or nothing, but as I've grown

and aged and quote -unquote matured You know

I've become a lover of all of the generations

of the franchise and minus the unicorn trilogy

because let's face it that just fucking sucks

um But like, I like G1 for its aspects, I like

Beast Wars and Beast Machines for their aspects,

I like Animated for what it is, and I absolutely

love Prime for what it is. But the fandom is

like... It's so... I mean, it's... It's like

setting up a risk game and you have warring nations

all over the place. It honestly is. The Transformers

fandom is the most splintered thing that I have

ever seen in any fandom. At least G .I. Joe the

only choice you have is you know what size figure

you want Well, but there's also real American

hero versus Sigma 6 which Sigma 6 sucks And then

that's really the only the only thing that they

argue about those Sigma 6 and in standard G .I.

Joe yeah, yeah um but the thing is it's like

I Am you know I've said this before in other

shows that we've done here at get cast radio

network I'm moving on to other stuff. Yes, I'm

still watching Prime. Yes, I'm still paying attention

to that, but I just went to TFW2005 .com tonight

for like the first time in like three months.

Ditto. I just don't care. Because half their

news is third party stuff. Or toys. Well, third

party is toys, but... Or regular toys. Right.

I mean, the regular toys, they're alright. They're

cool. Some of the stuff is pretty cool, but some

of the stuff like that arachnid from Prime, oh

my god, that's one of the worst figures ever.

That might even beat out Supreme Cheetor, and

Supreme Cheetor was bad. Yeah, I've heard the

horror stories already online. So Jesse, as Steve

pointed out, you got out of this years ago. At

the right time. Exactly. Like, what? What was

the boiling point for you? Because for me, it

wasn't so much Transformers, it was more so Mattel

and their craft that made me stop collecting.

But like back then, what was it for you that

just made you say, fuck this, I'm done? I think

I realized that it was becoming way too obsessive.

I was spending way too much money on them. And

outside of reviewing them at the time, I know

a lot of people review toys now just for the

money. that they're getting from YouTube. My

account wasn't monetized, so I was just reviewing

them for the people that wanted to see them.

As soon as I was done reviewing them, they essentially

went into storage. So I haven't played, I don't

remember what the account is now, the number

of storage tubs that I have that are containing

all my toys. But there's just way too fucking

many of them. so I've been wanting to actually

go through them like weed them out and get rid

of a number of them so yeah for me I guess it

was just just becoming way too obsessive I was

spending way too much money on it I've been saving

quite a bit of money so yeah I just wanted to

direct my money somewhere else yeah I know when

Revenge of the Fallen came out you know The movie

is what it is, a giant pile of retgar dung. But,

you know, when that movie came out and that toy

line came out, Spada jumped in full force. He

spent, like, 700 bucks on that entire line. And

I'm like, dude, wow. I just, you know, I just...

Especially the movie toys. Like, there's, and

I have said this before, there's only, I think,

two... Movie line toys that I ever wanted. I

had one of them at when I was still collecting

it was the movie Ruins of the Pollen Ravage The

only other one I liked was the Dark of the Moon

Shockwave. I thought that was pretty cool Other

than that, I just don't care and I would get

to the point where Collecting Transformers it

would be Okay, I would go to Target and Walmart

because that's pretty much the only stores I

would go to is the local Target and Walmart up

the street from me And I would buy the rest of

the stuff online But I would go up to Target

and Walmart and they would have the same stuff

every single day. I would go maybe every two

weeks. It wouldn't be like I would go daily.

It wouldn't be like I'll go weekly. I'll go like

every two weeks, twice a month maybe, and see

if they had anything new. And if they had like

maybe one or two figures that I wanted that are

new, I would bring them home, display them. Two

weeks later, I'd be like ... Yeah, I don't care

to display this anymore. And I took it up to

the local comic shop and resold it. You know,

it was like, it was one of those things where

it's like, I don't know why I'm collecting this

stuff anymore. I just don't. And then online

retail is like freaking nightmare. You know,

I know, Jesse, you kind of got fired up. About

the Bruticus pricing on BBTS That's just fucking

insane. Well, it's not just Bruticus It honestly

is not just Bruticus you look at any BBTS pricing

now I don't know because I I get into collecting

in 2008 So I get into it very late in the game

when it came to the you know collectors market

of this current generation so I didn't know anything

about Big Bad Toy Store in its heyday or in its

early days and everything else. When I came in,

they had already switched to the multiple shipping

options. Say you've got a deluxe figure that's,

I don't know, what's an average price for them?

$16, $17 .99 plus $8 .39 UPS ground shipping.

that's you know close to twenty -something dollars

which isn't bad it's almost what you pay in the

store but you know you get these big sets and

these more expensive things and it's like oh

my god the markup on it is just insane see Big

Bad Toy Story used to be the place to go to if

you've ever been I guess I first discovered them

I want to say back in 99 right before car robots

hit So that's when I started to buy, that was

like, I guess the very first time I started to

get into actually collecting. Cause that was

like the resurgence of like G1 -ish type transformers.

So yeah, that was like the heyday for Big Bad

Toy Store and they were like, always trying to

find the best ways to accommodate the collector,

their customer service was top notch. I still

hear that their customer service, I guess, is

pretty good. Yeah, their customer service is

good. I mean, it's email -based, but it's good.

But their prices used to be reasonable. I can

understand marking them up a little bit. But

looking at this Ruticus figure, I mean, this

figure specifically, they're charging $105 for

five Deluxe figures, which is more expensive

than the San Diego Comic Con exclusive. limited

in number and only available in certain locations.

Yeah, I'm looking at the Bruticus page where

it's the two sets. Well, it's a case of eight

with Bruticus and then there's the Bruticus set

of five. Then there's the individual figures

and they want $22 .99 for each individual figure.

As I said, if you choose the UPS ground, that's

like $8 .29 in shipping. Here in Kentucky, there's

no there's no additional sales tax, so it's just

the cost plus the shipping. So that's close to

$31, $32 for at least one of these figures. That's

ridiculous. I didn't even look at the individual

pricing. So if you look at the set of five, or

it comes out to $21 a piece, then they're adding

on an extra $2 if you just want to buy them individually.

Yeah. Yeah, so there it's like $22 .99 apiece

for the individuals then you're paying for the

shipping and I looked at the shipping yesterday

Yeah, and I think it's I think the cheapest was

Let me add this to the cart real quickly here

new shipping rates. It is $7 .39 so that comes

UPS grown So I'm spending over $30 for what essentially

is like a $10, $11, $12 figure Yeah, well, I'm

not spending that I think you know honestly,

I would love to just At this point in my life.

I would love to just save save them up and Just

buy the masterpieces because they were they announced

masterpiece sound wave coming out in December

of this year and I've said on many of our shows

in the past, I want a Masterpiece Soundwave with

Masterpiece cassettes. And they're finally doing

it. And it would probably be the only toy I would

ever own at this point anymore. And even the

MP10 that they released, I would love to have

that. Because the older MPs, the prices on them

are just so god -awful. I mean they're just I

mean I know Masterpieces the the ultimate end

-all be -all for for a Transformers character,

but Holy God the prices on them are bad But yeah

as far as just having It's I don't know the interest

is just gone. I mean, it's It's still there a

little bit. I still love the cartoons. I still

love all that stuff. But the interest in the

toys is zero. That's the toy side of things.

What are your thoughts and feelings on the fandom?

On the what? On the fandom itself. On the fandom

itself, there are a lot of cool people. There

are a lot of really nice people. How about as

a collective whole? They're a lot of flakes see

the cuz Okay, when it might converse is with

more of them than I do but some of the ones I've

had to deal with are just Flat out a pain in

the ass and some of them are, you know, genuinely

nice, but Those are the ones that aren't fully

invested They're they're dipping in other areas

as well That was another main reason for me to

get out of it completely because it was getting

the fandom just seemed like it was getting way

too vile and There's way too many third party

stuff coming out and don't get me wrong. I like

some of the third party stuff But I think it

does take At least a little bit away from the

actual transformers themselves in the product

the full product line Well, I think part of what

hurts it too is that Hasbro never makes anything

either a fully detailed B goes and makes things

that people would you know, I mean I know they

can't make people happy 24 7 that's just impossible,

but You know There are sets that they could have

made or should have made and didn't and that's

what where the third party comes in But at the

same time the third party makes so much crap

that either adds on to it or it's just Reproductions

of stuff that it's just unneeded See the thing

with the fandom is and I and I don't want to

single people out because the last time one of

our other hosts Singled people out One of our

other friends get really pissed because she is

friends with some of those people when it comes

to the TFW website You know the people that run

their podcast. They're all cool people I don't

particularly like listening to that show because

of one of the hosts Styles of mr. Loud radio

announcer guy, but that's his style. That's how

well, that's how he does his show and that's

all well and good I know he's a genuinely good

guy, but Every interaction that I've ever had

on TFW 2005 has been a bad one when it comes

to the forums because There are too many moderators

and there's not enough moderation It's like everybody

is a quote -unquote supermod or can do whatever.

Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. Yeah. At

the time when I was trying to promote our Beast

Wars Beast Machines podcast, I had already on

TFW in the Transformers discussion thread, posted

a thread about my G1 review show. And no one

ever said anything about it, so I went ahead

and posted a thread about the Beast Wars Beast

Machines podcast we did. And all of a sudden

I get this message from this moderator, Cybertron

Soundwave, or whoever the hell he was, saying,

you can't promote blah, blah, blah, blah, if

it hasn't blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking,

hold the fucking phone. We're all transformers

fans here, right? Don't people want to know about

new things going on with transformers? Well,

this podcast is something new that we're doing

for Beast Wars and Beast Machines He's like,

oh if you continue to post it and blah blah,

we'll ban you blah blah. I'm like Fine, fuck

it. Whatever. I got the same thing back in the

day with that CF wire I think I actually I think

I got a temporary ban at one point Yeah, they

what they told me was you couldn't promote it

within the forums. If you wanted to promote it,

it had to be like just within the signature.

But that's so stupid. That is, I'm, I'm sorry.

That is so dumb. If you're a site about transformers,

you would think that you would want. as many

Transformers things on there promoted or said,

hey, here's something new. If people want to

go listen to it, they can. If they don't, they

don't have to. It's there. If people want to

comment on it, fine. But that's just so dumb.

But you look at TFW, Cybertron .com, sites like

that, they're so huge that they're like up yours

to the little guy. It's you know, just a matter

of how long they can stay afloat I've sent in

sir. I've tried over the years sending in several

different news items When I was the first one

to know about them and I've never gotten a reply

from well as long as you if you're not Grandfathered

into that whole system. Yeah, you're not gonna

be acknowledged whatsoever. So it's like when

I was doing Because I'm involved in the Beast

Wars dark glass video. Yeah Because I produce

it I voice casted whatever When I went to TFW

with because it was suggested to me that I should

go there And It just you know that and some other

transformer sites, I just got bashing because

we were doing it in the first place And then

the the fact that you know, it's like oh well

blah blah blah, you know, and they're just starting

their opinion anyway Yeah, it's like it's you

know a fan service video. It doesn't really matter

in the grand scheme Yeah, I wasn't looking for

an opinion. I was looking for people that wanted

to audition. Yeah You know, so I mean, it's just

it I don't know I just I I don't even log into

the site I check it for news periodically, but

I haven't like you Mike I haven't been there

since probably the last episode of the show Yeah,

I I like tonight was the first time I had gone

to TFW to see if any new prime news about the

cartoons return. But I haven't gone there since

BotCon. I just don't care. I like what I like

in the Transformers franchise and that's that.

The only Transformer website that I even continue

to frequent is the AllSpark. And then I don't

even go there for the news. I go there just for

the general discussions. But AllSpark has always

been kind of it's been close -knit, but it hasn't

been They haven't treated their people like shit

like the other site. Yeah, it's it's AllSpark

is not this huge conglomerate that I mean they're

big, but they're They did want to take over TF

wire one. Oh, did they? Yeah So there's a little

bit of a story there a bit You mean they wanted

to just directly take it over from you and not

let you do anything with it anymore? No, well,

that's kind of why I didn't want to do it. They

wanted to make it part of, because it sort of

originated from the AllSpark. That's where it

was posting. That's where all the original hosts

came from, because I was just asking on there

if anyone was interested in joining. Yeah. So

once we started getting a number of listeners

and... people were responding to it on the AllSpark

because they actually let you post them, you

know, about the fact that you actually have a

podcast. Yeah. So once people started to get

into it and were responding to it, and then I

don't know if you know, I'm trying to think of

his name over there, the AllSpark, the voice

over guy there, the voice actor guy. Daniel Ross.

Yeah, this is his name, Mouth04. Yeah, Mouth04.

Yeah, he was he was doing some voiceover work

at the time and they wanted to bring him in as

as a host on the show Or bring that bring the

whole podcast into their site and then bring

him in as a host on the show And I didn't really

want to give up control over it. So I'm like

now I'll pass. Yeah Then they ended up doing

like their own little podcast thing here a few

shows here and there but I don't know I don't

think that's survived. Yeah, a lot of them haven't

or a lot of the other sites have started partnering

together for the sake of having the podcast.

For instance, like this one, I don't do it just

to cover the news like all the other shows do

because... there's enough of them out there.

Yeah, we are always at least two to three weeks,

maybe a month behind on news when we record our

podcast. And the funny thing is, is I do get

listener feedback from the show. Yeah. And people

say that, you know, they're looking for a good

TF podcast. You know, granted, ours isn't as

frequent as everyone else's, but we don't feel

the need to cover every little, you know, thing

that pops up that's not really that important.

Like they've mentioned podcasts in their feedback.

Yeah. uh... saying that they tried to listen

to this one in that one but the host had uh...

problems that a lot of podcast host have been

think they're they're funny when they are ten

you know uh... podcast that they don't stay on

topic in the history too far and you know and

it's just it's funny listening to these are reading

these feedbacks from people that agree with our

views more so than some of these other The bigger

podcasts is I listened to a number of them for

a while. And after a while, because I was also

like, specifically when Revenge of the Fallen

and Dark of the Moon were out, Steve and I were,

you know, as he said, we were always, you know,

two weeks or so behind from everybody else. But

we were constantly podcasting during those two

films. So. Like I would voice my opinion and

while I'm interested in hearing what other people

have to say At the same time if it coincides

with my own opinion. Why am I gonna listen to

that? You know, it's one of those things where

At this point in my life and at this point in

our networks lifespan we are constantly creating

content That you know, that's what our main focus

is on I think at this point now I listen to maybe

outside of our own stuff, I listen to maybe five,

maybe eight different podcasts that have nothing

to do with our network. Other than that, I love

listening to podcasts. It just depends on who

it is and what the subject is. If there's a host

that talks like this, or if there's a host that

talks like a Charlie Brown adult, yeah, I'm not

listening to that shit. It sounded like an impression

of someone I know yeah Somebody that disappeared

from the net Oh Oh God but you know, it's one

of those things where it just I'm just sticking

to what I like within the Transformers fandom

and if other people like what I like, hey cool,

if they don't, whatever, I don't care, I'm not

gonna sit here and attack someone that thinks

Beast Wars is better than G1 or thinks that Prime

is better than Animated or thinks that, you know,

G1 is the end -all be -all. We all know G1 has

its issues, but for me specifically, I can still...

go back and watch most every episode and still

enjoy myself watching it because that's what

i grew up with you know beast wars and beast

machines tell both of those series tell an amazing

story and i can go through and i can watch both

of those series um so yeah i i don't know i just

i'm to the point now where Transformers is not

the biggest thing in the world for me anymore

I'm not that huge into Transformers anymore like

is I Think the most exciting things in the the

fandom right now are yes I'll watch prime again

when I get a chance. I have various series season

and serious DVDs that I've either A, reviewed

or B, I like watching from time to time, even

though they're on Netflix, so it's actually useless

to have the DVDs at this point. I like the films,

but I can kind of give or take on it. I mean,

I like them for watching a film, but story -wise,

they're so batshit in the wrong direction. It's

just... Insane and I'm not even looking forward

to the fourth one at all. I don't even care 2007

the the first film and revenge that was the best

one in my opinion I will agree to a certain extent

the original one was good to the original film

and revenge of the fallen for me are if They

show up on TNT or TBS or something like oh, hey,

I can watch this But you know I don't actively

seek them out dark of the moon I had the most

fun watching because it was such a cool and unique

story They got rid of that bitch And you know

they kind of dropped the humor a little bit.

Thank God there was no you know giant ass on

the screen You just like the Lincoln Park sign

no not not even no No The song in the third film

sucks the song in the second film which was made

for the film sucks And and what I've done if

it doesn't have optimus prime talking over it.

I don't give a shit And that's the way uh -huh

he likes it But you know, you know I've I don't

know what it was. I had a recent G1 bug crawl

up my ass and I started watching the series on

Netflix again. You know, issues aside, I still

love watching those episodes. So, really enjoying

that. And like I said, Prime, the Prime cartoon.

You know, the Prime cartoon for me is like...

Like what beast wars and beast well what beast

wars was for Steve where it was an amazing compelling

story And I can see past all the little plot

holes that everybody else complains about in

prime Because I see the bigger picture as far

as what the story is that they're telling but

there are some people that are just like ooh

That this sucks. Oh, this isn't g1 ball blah

the whole point behind transformers prime is

maybe it's, you know, someone our age who might

have kids, who maybe this is their kids' generation,

you know, this is their kids' version of Generation

1. You know, on Rescue Bots and all that stuff,

I don't pay attention to. You know, hey, it's

a great thing for kids that they're doing two

separate Transformers cartoons, one for more

so the fans and one more so for the kids, and

that's great, but... I don't know, I just...

I just don't care anymore. I'm The only thing

I'm excited for is like the dark glass video

obviously and then of course I'm going to TF

con this year I'm only going to Saturday because

honestly, I don't care about the dealer rooms,

and I don't care about you know the Friday crap

I'm just going to Saturday. Yeah gonna go for

the the voice actor panel stuff and The the script

read Autographs and all that and other than that.

I don't really care. Yeah I've been told I need

to go to the bar thing with them later afterwards,

but that just depends on Well, what I feel like

doing the bar thing usually ends up in Someone

singing karaoke here. Well, and it's Scott McNeil.

Yeah. Yeah go figure Yeah, I can just imagine

rat trap singing karaoke Yeah transformers, it's

it's over It's just fucking over There goes the

podcast I wish to speak to my lawyer.