Cosmic Rust, Starscream’s Brigade, and The Revenge of Bruticus

Hello and welcome to the 14th episode of the

TFG1 podcast recorded on April 24th, 2009. I

am your host, Michael Blanchard, with a special

guest co -host, Michael Wilson. Hello, Michael.

Hi, it's not actually April 24th. It's actually...

Yes, we know it's not actually... yeah, but that's

when it's... the record dates are. So... Oh,

we've recorded on the 24th. Yes. You mean it's

published on the 24th? Yeah, no. Yeah, both.

Fantastic. We record them early, but we post

-date them. You want to try it again? No, we're

just going to leave this the way it is. Stop.

You can edit it, right? Hello, this is Michael

Blanchard back with you again on the TFG1 podcast.

I am tired of doing these by myself, so I have

my co -host with me who is a podcast newbie and

he is kind of raw, so just kind of bear with

us. His name is Michael Wilson. Hello, Mike.

Hi there. Now what do you prefer, Michael, Mike?

I go by Michael. Okay, alright. So why don't

you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself

like what kind of transformers fan you are and

Like what's your favorite shows out of the out

of the the fandom and all that stuff? Okay, I

I dig it all I Collect pretty much everything

I have an extensive collection Probably more

than than most people that I know of and there's

a lot of people out there that I know that have

a lot Yeah, yours is by far the biggest I've

ever seen. I have thousands. That's putting it

mildly. You can almost have millions. I wouldn't

go that far. But yeah, there's a lot of them.

And I recognize it's a sickness. There's something

wrong with me, very, very wrong with me. And

I have way too many transformers. But on the

other side, it's the only thing I collect. uh...

you know i don't have the gi joe and he maddened

and the indiana jones just transfer what's cool

it's good i mean you know and it's always good

to be down with the sickness and say to them

well you know let's see if you can get that reference

let's not say let's see if you can get that down

with the sickness reference course most people

that listen well yeah i can watch dot of the

debt it's it's upset yeah uh... yeah i'd just

wanted to i was tired of just having uh... myself

drawn on even though i love generation one and

i love rewatching these cartoons i just wanted

someone you know to kind of bounce off of and

you know just have somebody you know Here with

me doing it and unfortunately Steve slash Megatron

Could not do actually he didn't want to do episode

14. He didn't like Majority of the episodes that

we're gonna be reviewing today There hasn't been

any real email from as far as feedback You can

always go over to the Predacon Empire comm forums

and join there and there's tons of TFG -1 stuff

there. Really isn't anything going on with me

so far. What's been going on with you, Michael?

Well, I just got a briscoe in the mail from Thailand,

and I was very excited. Briscoe being the head

for Fangrey. He's one of the junior headmasters

at Decepticon. And this guy's been sitting on

my shelf for about three years without a head.

And I finally got one, so that's kind of exciting.

Briscoe County robot head. Briscoe, yeah, that's

right. It's Bruce Campbell sitting on top of

the giant robot. Oh my God. With a big chin.

He says, my name is Bruce. Oh, big chin, huh?

It reminds me of Sentinel Prime. I think Sentinel

Prime's chin was based on Bruce Campbell. Probably.

He's only missing the chainsaw arm and he'd have

it all. You know it would probably be beneficial

to animated if Bruce Campbell actually voiced

Sentinel Prime. Oh, that would just piss off

all the tick fans. But no, I do think Bruce Campbell

would be an awesome voice. We should talk to

Derek Wyatt about that and say, dude, Bruce Campbell,

talk about it. We need Bruce Campbell on Animated

saying, hail to the king, baby. That's what we

need. Yeah, that'd be pretty cool. Actually,

my only Bruce Campbell watching has been from

the Adventures of Briscoe County Junior. Oh,

you're not an Evil Dead fan? I'm not a horror

fan, so... Dude, you are missing out. I don't

do horror. No, no, no. My mom made me watch Freddy

when I was like five years old and that scarred

me for life. Oh, man. Yeah, so I do not do horror.

Um, well, you got anything else to say that you

want to say, Michael? Uh, no, that pretty much

wraps it up. That was my excitement for the day.

Alright, we're gonna get into some episodes today.

In this part of the galaxy? Our sensors show

no sign of life. Exercise caution. They may be

deceiving our sensors. It sure looks like a ghost

planet. Too bad I was looking forward to blasting

a few Autobots. It's not like the Autobots to

leave a whole city to decay. inscriptions too

bad none of us reads ancient Autobot Starscream

keep your grubby fingers off that it could be

a booby trap what trap this is a prehistoric

communication device you uneducated goat If Cybertron

be your home, far away never roam. Hear my message,

listen and fear. Danger comes, the end is near.

Just like us, you soon will rust. All shall be

turned to dust. What is this in my chest hole?

It looks like some sort of rust! That is ridiculous!

We are rust -proof! Placing my chest won't be

enough! Nor will your minimal knowledge! I need

an expert! Order the Stuntacons to seize Perceptor

and bring him to me! Do as I say! statue the

earth humans constructed okay people this is

a mutiny no no hijack I mean we're taking over

this boat snap to it everybody The captain's

coming! Coral Stop will keep the Statue of Liberty

safe from acid rain or anything else that's harmful.

How did you ever come up with the formula, Perceptor?

I must apologize, but I am unable to reveal anything

about the compound. Hey, fellows! Catch this

wild action! Humanities you are my mortal enemy

and You have a unique opportunity preceptor to

gain peace in return for a favor What sort of

favor solve this little problem of mine? If you're

serious about peace Megatron then begin by surrendering

your new weapon if you cure me The weapon is

yours! Very well. You've been infected by a metallic

plague, Megatron. Impossible! Only organic forms

of life can be infected by disease. This is a

rare metallic infection. Legend has it, it wiped

out entire races of robots. Like the Black...

First up today we have Cosmic Rust and according

to the little booklet that comes with the DVD

a little blurb in there says Astro Train inadvertently

infects Megatron with an ancient rusting disease

that he picked up on a mission to deep space.

Megatron kidnaps Perceptor forcing the Autobot

scientists to cure him with a new chemical the

Autobots created to prevent corrosion. And the

first bullet point first couple of points I have

for this episode are As I just said to begin

the episode Megatron and a bunch of the Decepticons

are traveling an astro train to a distant planet

This planet has a giant Autobot symbol on it.

Can you be any more obvious? You can see it from

space Exactly. I mean this thing is almost half

it takes up half that side of the planet How

did they light up a giant Autobot signal the

size of a continent? The Decepticons are very

leery of being on the planet. Starscream finds

a communications device and activates a message

from an ancient Autobot. Ok, didn't you have

something to say about that? Didn't you tell

me something off air about when Starscream goes

over to the control panel, doesn't he start humping

it or something? No, he doesn't hump the control

panel, he humps the lightning bug. He finds that

lightning bug and he's like, I'm just going to

fuck this lightning bug right here, man. He's

like, you know, it's been a while and we're not

going to discover female Autobots for a while,

so I'm just going to bang the hell out of this

lightning bug. The ancient Autobot... though

he does he's you know kind of cryptic yeah very

cryptic as far as what he says but you would

think that you know they would get the hint let's

get the hell out of here i don't think we should

be here it's supposed to be scary yeah well uh...

with season two coming to a close uh... only

i should have mentioned in the uh... in the intro

that we are viewing the final five episodes of

season two uh... yeah with these final five episodes

uh... everything started getting a little bit

more scarier and a little bit more space here

uh... before the movie uh... let's see but i

digress actually they find a lightning bug weapon

and steal it as astrotrain leaves the planet

an asteroid is coming up behind them and megatron

shoots the lightning bug weapon at it shattering

it two pieces of the asteroid hit astrotrain

and megatron uh... you're not supposed to shoot

a giant -ass lightning weapon at a giant -ass

asteroid, knowing that it's going to split into

two pieces. Well, in his defense, he didn't really

know that. Well... I mean, if you think, I'm

gonna shoot this and it's going to explode in

a shrapnel and perforate me, then you probably

wouldn't shoot it. But the question becomes,

why the hell is there an asteroid following them?

Is it a sentient asteroid? Is the cosmic rest

sometimes... I think it is. I think that's part

of the plot point. That it's an intelligent asteroid

that chases them? Well, no, not that it's an

intelligent asteroid that chases them. The fact

that the cosmic rust is on the asteroid. And

I believe it does get on AstroTrain, but I'm

not for sure. Yeah, it looked to me like the

only one who was really infected was Megatron.

And he was having a rough time of it. They barely

get back to Earth and Megatron demands that the

Stuntacons kidnap Perceptor to analyze the disease

Megatron has. Perceptor tells the evil doer,

yes I said evil doer, that he has been infected

with metallic plague called Cosmic Rust. Okay,

yeah. Perceptor realizes that Megatron's lightning

bug heat ray is the energy source that the cosmic

rust germs are feeding off of. Perceptor says

that they should destroy it before he cures Megatron.

What are you laughing at? No, I'm just thinking.

He's like, well, that's my new weapon. I'm not

letting you destroy my new weapon. It's like,

dude, you have other weapons. You have the fusion

cannon on your arm that's pretty much powered

by Black Hole. That's pretty powerful in and

of itself. I don't see why you just don't use

that. You don't really need the giant bug. You

know, aside from placating Starscream's hormonal

urges. God. Starscream eats it, man. You're sitting

up all night with it. Wow. I'm sorry. No, it's

fine. It makes for good entertainment. He's like,

you know what? No, you can't have it. No, it's

mine. It's mine. It makes me wonder. Is there

an ulterior motive there? Is there something

else he's planning? But they never really get

into that in these episodes. Well, you know,

G1 Megatron is not the smartest cookie in the

box. However, the leader isn't thrilled at this.

Perceptor gives the leader the Korra Stop that

he and the other Autobots have created. Megatron

and the other Decepticons are about to be cured.

Cosmos is flying through space, and he radios

Blaster to tell him that there is no more antibodies

to make the Korra Stop anywhere in the known

universe. I do remember this. You were talking

to me about this off air. It wasn't Perceptor,

it was Cosmos. And I remember Cosmos saying antibodies.

No, he didn't he did he didn't dude. I'm so gonna

play it for you. No, you're not I'll play it.

I'll play it back later, and I will you know

I'll I'll I'll recant myself, but he said antibodies.

Yeah, he's actually says there's no more ingredient

X and But yeah, I mean the digress back where

you have Megatron I do like the fact when Megatron

is infected that... I believe it was either Soundwave

or Starscream tries to hold his hand and his

fucking hand just falls right off. I love that!

I don't know if he was shaking his hand at Perceptor,

but the hand fell off and Perceptor, like an

idiot, picks it up. Oh, see, I thought somebody

was trying to hold his hand and it fell off.

No, Perceptor picks it up and he looks at it,

and it's like, dude, you know this stuff is covered

in flesh -eating zombie germs, you know, and

you pick it up if you're bare hands. I'd be looking

around for some salad tongs or something to pick

up the nasty, gross, deteriorated, severed hand

of Megatron so that I wouldn't get it all over

myself. And what do you know? In the next scene,

what happens? He's tied to a bomb, covered in

the shit. It's your fault. You should have been

playing with it. Yeah. Then the aerial bots,

who I didn't think were in this episode at first,

are filling in Optimus Prime on what they found

by following Blitzwing in an attempt to rescue

Perceptor. When Megatron contacts Optimus Prime

and tells him that he is giving Perceptor back,

but at noon, the bomb attached at the end of

his microscope will blow him to bits. That was

genius. When the Autobots get to Perceptor, Prime

attempts to save him, but Perceptor tells him

that he'll be infected. Optimus saves Perceptor

anyway and takes him back to the Autobot base.

Teletran 1 finds out and explains where the cosmic

rust germs come from. uh... then basically malfunctions

because of prime touching it ratchet and blaster

are infected too but this is because megatron

is outside the base with the heat ray letting

the autobots suffer see they never actually clarify

is it the energy from the bug or is it the heat

ray itself that's causing the spread of the disease.

Well, Perceptor said it was the energy emitting

from the bug. Right. So you would think that

the best way to make them suffer would be to

move the bug inside. Here's my ultimate weapon.

Oh, by the way, don't stand too close to it.

Kind of defeat the purpose considering that he

was willing to give up his own hand to keep the

bug. Yes. Let's see. Else, what was it, okay.

At the Decepticon base, Megatron learns from

Laserbeak that the Autobots will be saved if

they can get some of the chorus stop off of the

statue. Oh, that's why they didn't try to make

more. They went to go scrape Lady Liberty's ass

to get some of the chorus stop off of it. That's

what it was. They have the matter, uh, regenerator,

or the matter duplicator. Oh yeah. Yeah, so if

they can just get a little bit off of Statue

of Liberty, they can make as much as they want,

despite the fact that nobody seems to think this

thing works, but that's the giant plot holding

ball. It's like, what does this better replicator

do? Could I possibly use it to create as much

energy as I could possibly want? Oh no, it doesn't

work that way. No, that would kill off the entire

premise of every episode. The Autobots are already

at the statue when the Decepticons get there

and the battle ensues. The Aerobots merge into

Superion and destroy the lightning bug heat ray

forcing the Decepticons to retreat. The Autobots

get the cure and save the Statue of Liberty all

at the same time thus ending this episode. And

we are going to stop here. Now for our thoughts

on this episode As I mentioned in the synopsis

seeing what the cosmic rust did to Megatron was

just funny and It he looks almost as bad as when

prime beats him down in the movie And I know

we haven't gotten to the movie yet, and we will

in episode 16, but yeah The cosmic rust effects

were very unique and cool to see I laughed so

hard from Megatron's hand fell off uh... i think

one of the more funny moments of one blaster

says he is too young to rust technically this

was impossible for any of the rest which is you

know is what megatron brings up in the in the

beginning of our can't be rusting and then you

know his hand falls off yeah yeah so what are

your thoughts on this episode well there was

a few neat interesting moments there uh... uh...

one that i thought was funny was Perceptors is

trying to get the the matter duplicator to work

properly and You know, it's fading out and I'm

assuming because it's infected with the rust

and he just hauls off and kicks it Like a jukebox

just smack the hell out of it that pops up Yeah,

I thought that was funny and the Toward the end,

you know The septicons are going to attack the

Statue of Liberty to to destroy it so that the

the Autobots can't get the core stop can't get

a sample of the core stop to duplicate and You

know, they all kind of pop up from behind the

limbs of the statue That was funny. You have

prime kind of hanging off the top of the top

of the statue dangling their shooting at menasaur

Which I thought was funny. Yeah, that was that

was pretty Pretty funny. I predicted this will

happen in live -action version in the next Bane

movie You'll have this awful god -awful ugly

Bayformer Optimus Prime hanging off the crown

of the Statue of Liberty in Transformers 3. Wait

for it. Hopefully, hopefully Transformers 3 will

have somebody else directing it instead of fucking

Bay. no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no Yes, Megatron exiled

me. Me, Starscream. He made a fool out of me

in front of the other Decepticons. They'll never

respect me as a leader now. What the? A wing

from an old fighter plane the flesh creatures

used in their wars. There must be more of this

stuff lying around here This thing must be huge

Reminds me of that two -faced loudmouth blitzwing

Yes, if Megatron can have his blitzwing so can

I Me and what army Up next is Starscream's brigade

and according to the little booklet Megatron

can no longer stand Starscream's treachery and

banishes the second in command to Guadalcanal

that's what it is Guadalcanal they don't separate

the words so whatever in the South Pacific Starscream

discovers that the remains of several World War

two vehicles and decides to create his own team

of loyal subjects, the Combaticons. And before

we get into the synopsis, I must point out that

the Combaticons were in an episode of the cartoon

that Steve and I talked about last episode. I

forget which one it is exactly. You want to find

out which one that is, you can go back and listen

to TFG1 Podcast episode 13, now available on

iTunes and ParticonEmpire .com. But yeah, it's

a complete fuck up as far as the continuity.

Oh, I didn't remember which one it was. It was

aerial assault. Anyway, but... So he appeared

or did they... The Combaticons. All of the Combaticons.

Blastoff, Swindle, all of them. appeared in aerial

assault before they were even ever built in this

episode. That's funny. Yes. So, we start this

episode off in the Guadalcanal. In 1943, World

War II is going on and we see... In black and

white. Yes, that was very, very cool. Nice touch.

Yep. We see an amazing aerial battle and fighting

going on. Then it fast forwards through time

to 1985 at the same location. the Decepticon

stronghold at the Decepticon stronghold Starscream

is running off at the mouth as usual about how

he could be a better leader than Megatron I've

said this plenty of times before in past episodes

I am so sick and tired of the Megatron Starscream

power struggle I am like so sick of it First

of all, I want to just shoot fucking Starscream

and get it out of the way. Second of all, I want

to shoot Megatron on the motherfucking foot because

he is so stupid, he just doesn't - he just -

why doesn't he just shoot the - the - GAH! Well,

it's - it's part of the, uh, you know, the dynamic

of the two characters that they, you know, they

- they feed off of each other. Yeah, I know,

but it's frustrating. That and it makes for good

TV. Yeah, that's true too. Megatron then tells

Soundwave to have Laserbeak get Starscream out

of his sight. The Birdbot flies over the island

where the remnants of the World War II battles

took place and drops Starscream. Starscream comes

to realizing that Megatron has exiled him and

he finds all the old battle equipment from World

War II. Starscream builds his own army of bots.

It really shows off his scientist stuff in this.

The fact that he was a scientist and he has the

know -how to do this type of thing. What drives

me crazy is he puts all these pieces together

out of old parts and he's got an old plane and

the plane actually turns into a helicopter. And

it made me think, didn't they have helicopters

in World War II? Maybe they didn't. Don't think

they did. Okay. Yeah, so they didn't actually

have helicopters in World War two But at the

same time they didn't have space shuttles either

So you have these old rusted out vehicles they

kind of turn into well I mean if they start off

as authentic World War two vehicles They kind

of turn into modern vehicles. Yep in a sense

of how cool would it be if you had a World War

two Bruticus? Yeah, it was literally made out

of and oh, wait a minute vortex is yeah I mean

if they actually had like vortex was You know,

an old World War II level fighter plane. Oh,

it kills me. I just forgot his name. What's the

leader's name? I don't know, but I really can't

talk too much about Vortex because... Oh, onslaught.

But I mean, as far as onslaught, onslaught was

a half track. And he was from... becoming a world

war two level half -track into uh... you know

that the semi truck with the with the guns on

the back and you know if the it would be really

cool if we had uh... world war two vehicles you

know that were uh... that you work at that would

be kind of cool uh... they did something very

similar in the comic books uh... he then goes

to the space force restroom and goes what I'm

rambling. Well, stop rambling, dammit. I'm sorry.

I told you about this all week long that one

night we were going to record and I even asked

you this morning when you were at work and sober

if we were going to record tonight. and you said

yes and you let your wife talk you into drinking

and getting drunk and yeah before there was no

drunkenness involved hey man i'm a grown man

i know my limits i'm talking to some college

kid here who thinks to the point of uh... i'm

just i'm just lying on you in hell Starscream

then goes to the Space Bridge location and demands

to be allowed to use it. On Cybertron, Starscream

gets the personality chips of several renegade

Decepticons that Megatron had imprisoned. Starscream

will implant these personalities into the bots

he has built. He puts the personality chips into

the vehicle modes and tells them to transform.

First of all... It was already established that

Vector Sigma is the only one that can grant personalities

in life. Now, I understand that these personality

chips were from different actual molds or bodies,

but... I don't know, that was just weird to me.

I don't think they actually established that

part of the mythos yet. I mean, the idea that

Vector Sigma can bestow a spark upon a... Yes

they did. Yeah, well, did they already? Yep.

I thought that came later, like post -movie.

Nope. It was the key to Vector Sigma. It was

that two -parter. Well, as far as, you know...

Where the aerial bots and the Stuntacons were

created. See, I had always, you know, retconned,

post -rationalized it to say that these personality

chips were kind of like a spark chamber. And

that you could, you know, pull the personality

out of a robot just by yanking the spark chamber

out of it. And you could store it indefinitely.

The spark never dies. Yeah, I could see that.

But I don't think that that idea had been established

that far back. No, I don't think it had either.

Starscream has created the Combaticons. Brawl,

Swindle, Blast Off, Vortex, and Onslaught. Starscream

wants them to follow him in dethroning Megatron,

but the Combaticons ask what's stopping them

from pounding Starscream into a pile of dirt.

I'll tell you what. Actually I was reading that,

it looked like a deflowering Megatron. No, it's

dethroning! Megatron looks nothing like a giant

metal bug. He's already kicked your ass once

this episode. You don't want to try that shit

on him. To which the evildoer replies that he

hasn't equipped them with energy absorbers so

they can't refuel. At a dedication ceremony to

Optimus Prime, Jazz and Cliffjumper are there

to cut the ribbon when Starscream and his army

attacks them, kidnapping Jazz and Cliffjumper.

With the intention of stealing their energy absorbers.

First of all, Jazz has a kick -ass sound system

that no one can stand except for him and Spike.

Why the hell didn't he just friggin' transform

and Blair the music? They had their asses handed

to them pretty handily, but I think that was

the point. Yeah, it was. They wanted to show

that these guys, these new combat icons are pretty

powerful and they can take on seasoned veterans

like Jazz and Cliffjumper. At the island, the

Combaticons and Starscream celebrate the victory,

but the Combaticons start to argue and Starscream

tells them that there will be no energy absorbers

for any of them until they can capture three

more Transformers. So clearly Starscream doesn't

care which faction of Transformer he captures

to put the energy absorbers into the Combaticons.

equal opportunity. Basically, yeah. Yeah, he's

pretty much pissed at the world. Yeah. Shockwave

contacts Megatron and informs him that the Renegade

Decepticons have been liberated. Megatron assumes

that the Autobots did it, and he heads to their

base to get back what is his. Megatron, Skywarp,

Durge, and Thrust attack the Autobots, and Megatron

demands that the Autobots give back the personalities

of the Renegade Decepticons. I'm gonna continue

with this with the second one because it would

make more sense the next bullet point Optimus

Prime demands that the Decepticons give back

Jazz and Cliffjumper Megatron has no idea what

Prime is talking about and realizes that maybe

it wasn't the Autobots that stole the personalities

Megatron and the other Decepticons are waiting

for Starscream at a train yard when the sniveling

bot shows up and introduces his army the Combaticons

and they are going to destroy Megatron How does

it slip through Megatron and Shockwave? How does

it slip through Shockwave that Starscream has

gone to Cybertron, he has used the space bridge

which opens into the chamber that Shockwave is

always in. Now granted, Shockwave is probably

out getting drunk on Energon or something like

that. He had to pee. Yeah, he had to pee. He

had to stuff out to pee. He had to do a bumblebee

oil leak from TFO7. I'm going to leak on your

head. I need a government agent. I just gotta

pee on him. I need a Sector 7 agent. What kills

me though is that Starscream walks up to the

space bridge and says, yeah, I'm kind of going

through. And Thundercracker and Skywarp are there

and they're like, no, you're not. And he points

the gun at his head and says, yeah, I am. At

this point, why didn't they just redirect him?

deep into space. So yeah, sure, have fun, and

you're gonna be trapped in the Space Bridge buffer

until hell freezes over. See, that's the other

thing that doesn't make any sense to me. The

Space Bridge in G1, they don't actually, I mean

Shockwave, when they first When they first introduced

the Space Bridge in the first season, Shockwave

says, you know, it has to have a receiving code,

it has to have this, it has to have that, it

has to be precise timing. But every other episode

after that with the Space Bridge, we're automatically

supposed to assume that it is set to Cybertron

and that's exactly where... Whoever goes through

is going to it. It doesn't mention anything about

not concentrating anymore about not you know,

whatever else and At this point, it's just an

elevator. Yeah, pretty much. You push the button

and it goes bing and you walk in The door opens

again and there you are. Yep, and assuming shockwave's

not taking a pee. There he is too. Yes, exactly

Stars okay. Okay, just remember Starscream is

saved by swindle who fires upon soundwave but

hits the lights in the train yard, oh yeah, he

hits the lights in the train yard going dark

and allowing the others to escape. However, Dersh

and Ramjet are injured and that brings the absorber

count to four. You know what I don't understand

is, you know, Swindle being swindled. I'm really

surprised he's not going over there with a wrench.

Just ripping out energy absorbers. It's like,

these are all mine now. I'm gonna sell these

to the nearest Transylvanian general. I'll see

you later. Swindle has gotten his full personality

yet, but that will come in season three when

he tries to go up against Galvatron That was

a bad idea At the walk yeah, that was a really

bad idea At the Water and Power Plant, Starscream

and the Combaticons are recharging. When Megatron

attacks, Megatron has the Constructicons merge

into Devastator, but Starscream has prepared

for this and tells the Combaticons to merge into

Bruticus. I thought that was Defensor. Yeah,

you're right. But you notice earlier in the episode,

I think it was, Megatron says, hey Stonicons,

you got to show up for this. And they're like,

screw you. Yeah, exactly. And that's foresight,

because basically, you have the Constructicons

who merge to form Devastator. And then Bruticus

merges and promptly beats the snot out of Devastator.

Devastator being the first and therefore the

weakest of the combiners, but you know the Stuntacons

don't show up until later. Yeah, they show up

at the very end and save Megatron's ass. Actually,

that's the last bullet point. The Stuntacons

finally arrive to save Megatron from Bruticus.

They unite to Minasaur, and after Minasaur attacks

Bruticus, Megatron has Astrotrain banish Starscream

and his army to a barren asteroid, thus ending

this episode. Now for our thoughts on this episode.

This was a pretty good episode. It gave us somewhat

climactic end to the Starscream Megatron power

struggle. The animation and sound was solid.

As I've said many times before, the production

on the show has gotten increasingly better over

the first two seasons. I think I mentioned this

in the last episode of the podcast as I said

before There's a major continuity flub the combaticons

were in were in an aerial bots episode before

they were even built And then the only other

synopsis about who the combaticons are So yeah,

what are your thoughts Michael? I mean, like

I said earlier, these are the last five of season

two are some of my favorite episodes in Star

Streets Brigade. And the following, you know,

the follow -up to Revenge of Bruticus are probably

two of my favorites, period. I really love the,

well, I want to say the Bruticus character, but

there's not a whole lot of characterization there.

He's just like, I'm big and dumb. But I really

like the toys. The Bruticus mold and the following

later on, the Ruination mold, are some of my

all -time favorites. Really dig those so this

is really a cool You know cool idea, and it really

introduces some ideas that that are they kind

of make their way even further into the end of

the mythos Does the Bruticus toy have the three

spots on this back? You don't know we'll get

into that more in the revenge of Bruticus, but

I mean yeah, he's got The twin cannons that right

on the back of the semi truck in vehicle mode

those plug into his back. So technically he's

only got two big dots, or two holes I should

say, and that's where the cannons plug in. I

should probably pull it out just to look, but

no, I don't think they are there. Which is strange,

you know, because I think in the cartoon, and

again this is the Revenge of Bruticus, but I

think in the cartoon they show the three spots,

but they don't really show the cannons, which

I thought was strange. No, I don't think so either.

They conveniently remove them for that. On to

the next episode. I must protect Cybertron from

all hostile threats! Up next is the Revenge of

Bruticus. To go to the little booklet we have

Starscream abandons his team immediately following

the events of Starscream's brigade. But the Combaticons

have their own ideas such as taking over Cybertron

and destroying Earth. And the Autobots' new merge

group the Protectobots may not be enough to stop

them. Let's see, we begin this episode as Starscream

and the Combaticons are still on the exiled asteroid.

Starscream can no longer stand it, and he flies

off into space. Blastoff is towing the asteroid

to Cybertron, where Shockwave is testing the

holographic imaging machine. Now, why I called

it a holographic imaging machine instead of a

projector? I don't know why. Maybe I, at the

time, was not realizing how the hell to spell

projector, but I don't know. It makes holographs.

Looking back on the asteroid, I understand that,

you know, you have a lot of stuff to do and you

can only cram it into a 22 -minute episode. But,

you know, it almost seems like Starscream's there

about 15 minutes and he goes, screw you guys,

I'm going home. And then, almost immediately

then, Blastoff begins towing the asteroid back

to Cybertron. And, you know, didn't they confer

a little bit and say, oh, you know, Starscream

says I'm gonna leave and... Uh, you know, Blastoff

says, well, I was going to tow us back to Cybertron.

You sure you don't want to stick around? You

know, because that would be cool too. No, I think

he was already towing it, because it was moving.

Oh. Well, they got there pretty quick. Well,

yeah, he got there pretty quick. But, I mean,

I think when the episode first starts off...

They're already being towed. He's already towing

them. So, I just don't think they clued in Starscream

as to what... where they were going to exactly

you know where they say that would make sense

considering that starts from can fly through

space that he would be there as well so you've

got uh... shockwave there with his uh... cone

-headed minions and they're they're they're shooting

at uh... the holographs or the whole crap holographic

enemies flying around uh... it uh... I was kind

of concerned as far as why the drones look so

bad. Nowadays, Decepticon drones are kind of

a given, because you have the Transformers video

game that came out with the Transformers movie

in 07. But back then, drones, there was no such

thing as drones. I was like, what are these?

Why can't we have seekers as drones? Wouldn't

it make sense that there'd be a small army of

multicolored seekers there? That would have been

much more cool. Yeah, it would have been cooler,

but it wouldn't make any sense because the animators

would have gotten all the color schemes wrong

That that's the beauty of it. That's how you

end up with no Sunstorm you know no no I'm talking

about like Starscream and his colors having Thundercracker's

voice and vice versa. That's what I'm talking

about That's that's fine, too. That can be all

that can all be retconned Then the asteroid carrying

the Combaticons arrives on Cybertron. Shockwave

and his drones are defeated by Bruticus. The

giant robot takes Shockwave, puts him in his

cannon on his back, and shoots him into deep

space on Earth. That's before, I want to say,

that was after he picks up in gun mode and actually

guns down all of the head robots. Oh, well that's

why I said... The, you know, Shockwave and his

drones are defeated by Bruticus. And then he

- Technically the drones are defeated by Shockwave.

No, the drones ARE Shockwaves! What? The drones!

The drones are in Shockwaves? Yes, the Cybertronian

drones. Shockwave has control over them. Oh,

granted. Alright, yeah, fine. So they're not

exactly autonomous. Next time you record with

me, you are going to be sober, sir. I am thoroughly

sober, sir. Like I said, I'm fine. I can drive.

It's cool. The other thing I was going to mention

was the fact that Brudicus grabs a hold of Shockwave

and picks him up and says, you control the giant

sentinel robots. And I'm thinking, wait a minute,

there's no giant Sentinel robots here, there's

just little shrimpy cone heads. Wouldn't it be

cool though, if Bruticus had to fight, maybe

a dozen like Omega Supremes in the blue and silver.

That would have been awesome, but again with

the animation errors. They would have all been

the wrong color. I wouldn't have cared. Still

would have been cool. On Earth, the Insecticons

and Decepticons are draining energy and the Autobots

arrive to stop their plan. However, the Insecticons

have multiplied and are invading an inhabited

neighborhood. The next bullet point says, the

Autobots cannot fight them with all the humans

around. The Autobot -based Perceptor is showing

Spike the universe and explaining that it goes

on forever and ever. This next part of the bullet

point says, it should be noted as Spike and Perceptor

are looking at this, it shows Shockwave is tumbling

through space when he collides into Starscream,

and they attempt to team up to regain control

of Cybertron from the Combaticons. While you

were looking over there at the Dogstar, did you

happen to notice that giant purple gun floating

through space? Yeah, exactly. Going back, I was

going to say, the insecticons, first of all,

I hate insecticon armies. Because it's like,

you know, there should only be three, first of

all, and they shouldn't be able to multiply.

You know, because... First of all, it's it's

kind of dumb and second of all that you would

think with an army that size They could easily

overtake the the Autobots because there are the

septicons are always whining about there's too

many of them We're being overrun. You have a

army of insecticons and all they do is eat I

mean they could land on the Autobots and just

eat them the thing that I find strange about

all the different factions of Decepticons, whether

those be combiners, loyal, non -loyal, whether

they be Insecticons, Predacons, whatever. Megatron,

especially in G1, Megatron doesn't trust anyone

other than like Soundwave and his little... cassette

deck things. Yeah, his immediate family. Yeah.

I mean, so, you know, the Incyclicons, I really

don't care for myself. I actually, one of my

very first, which I no longer have, which I don't

even care to have, one of my very first Transformers

toys when I was a kid was Bombshell. I thought

Bombshell was cool as hell. Yeah, well, no, they're

very cool characters. Yeah. But again, there

should only be three. Yeah. If there was just

three of them, I'd be okay. But there's the animation

shows like dozens floating through the air. And

then they have to evacuate the humans and Optimus

Prime says, you know, protective bots, get out

here and help us. And they're all hanging out

in a garage. They just drive out of the garage,

hi. This is also another instance of where the

fuck do the protective bots come from. According

to the key to Vector Sigma, you have to go there.

I mean, anybody can build robots, but in order

for them to get cybernetic personalities, you

have to go to Vector Sigma for them to get it.

So where the hell did the Protector Bots come

from? I don't have any idea. See, for some reason

I was thinking that the Matrix of Leadership

could bestow life. The Matrix wasn't introduced

yet. Well, no, it wasn't considered the matrix

until the movie, but it was the fact that the

optimus prime because he was prime He was he

was able to do that. No, and I'm not even gonna

go with Last week's episode and the primer prime.

We're not even gonna go there God! No, you're

just being contradictory! No, I'm not! Yes, you

are! No, I'm not! In the episode of Prime Problem,

when Megatron clones Optimus, thank God they

did not use it in that, because that would just

be so cheesy. Oh lord. On Cybertron, the Combaticons

realize that the Decepticon technology has advanced

so much since their imprisonment, Spike and Perceptor

reach Prime and inform him that the energy signals

coming from Cybertron show that Earth's orbit

has been altered and it is heading straight for

the sun. Can anybody say Megatron's master plan?

Yeah, pretty much. I mean this marks the second

time as far as I know That's some evildoer whether

it be metron and the rest of the Decepticons

or some renegades or insecticons Whatever have

you that try to send either the Autobots or the

earth into the Sun? Let's either that or heat

up the Sun or explode the Sun thus baking the

earth just yeah, that's true or bringing Cybertron

into Earth's orbit creating all kinds of They

only did that once. Well, yeah, they only did

it once. Actually, they don't show the effects

of Earth, but something I've noticed throughout

the series, if you look at that episode, the

Ultimate Doom, and you look at Rebirth, exact

same thing. Megatron in the Ultimate Doom is

going to bring Cybertron into Earth's orbit.

Galvatron in Rebirth builds a rocket onto Cybertron

and shoots the planet to Earth. I digress. The

Autobots head for the space bridge, but Megatron

has the Insecticons steal the space bridge controller.

An escape with it back on Cybertron, Shockwave,

and Starscream have tricked the Combaticons with

the holographic projector. Well, I actually used

the holographic projector anyway. Yeah, you figured

out how to spell it. Yeah, really, ain't that

the truth? But they actually run out of energy

fighting the fake holographically projected enemies.

Yes, they do. They retake the transport chamber

but Shockwave finds out that the space bridge

receiver has been altered to send the Earth into

the Sun. Shockwave attempts to correct this issue

but Starscream blasts him. He also attempts to

contact Megatron and that's why Starscream blasts

him. On earth the Autobots are still looking

for this bridge control when stuff wait once

what is oh? That's right. Let later in the episode

Starscream calls Megatron and Issues him an ultimatum

since when Starscream still has the upper hand.

Yes exactly okay? I remember that now It's been

a while On Cybertron the combaticons realize

that they've been had This is like I said right

right when they decide that Starscream loses

his upper hand. Yes exactly and they go all berserker

Yes, that was a clerk's reference Did he just

say making fuck The Autobots and Decepticons

on Earth realize that they'll have to work together

in order to stop Starscream and the Combaticons.

Once on Cybertron, the combined efforts of the

warring factions release Starscream and Shockwave,

but the Combaticons come in and demand that Starscream

is their prisoner. A battle begins and Starscream

tells Optimus Prime of the three spots on Verticus'

back that will deactivate him. Thus beginning

the lies. Because... And I will get into this

at the very end of the episode because it has

shown that Starscream somehow... devises a plan

to trick the Autobots into believing that Bruticus

is deactivated. Now maybe, possibly when Optimus

shoots the three things, maybe it paralyzes him.

Kind of like the only comparison I can think

of is when Obadiah Stane uses that little paralyzer

gadget on Tony in Iron Man. But obviously Optimus

wasn't that close. Oh my god. You like, shh,

and he comes up and drops. You're kind of drooling

a little bit. Ew, fucking Trekkie. Oh please,

like you've never watched Star Trek. You knew

what it was. I know what it was, but I'm not

like one of these obsessed fans. I actually was

staying a weekend at a foster home when I was

younger. And the foster father was a huge, like,

one of these, oh my god, I can't... you know

mitten box another one is that you know i know

my god i only touched the box and it didn't even

move i just touched it to look at it wasn't like

i was opening the fucking thing anyway you get

you get finger crease and i really just yeah

i think that the truth it destroyed it's like

like four thousand of its ten thousand dollar

value uh... anyway it's terrible The Earth is

saved, and Prime says that Bruticus is a menace

to both Autobots and Decepticons. Megatron has

Starscream destroy him, or so it would seem.

The episodes with the Autobots return to Earth,

and Megatron praising Starscream for his plan

to allow the Autobots to think that Bruticus

has been destroyed. to make it look like it was

blown up when in fact they were... and Megatron...

Optimus Prime is remarking on the way out the

door. Well, Megatron was awful nice about showing

us the way out and not having the door smack

us in the ass as we were leaving. That's because

they were hiding Bruticus behind the curtain

there. Pay no attention to the giant Mega Combiner

robot gestalt thingy behind the curtain. Thus

ending this episode. Now for our thoughts on

this episode For me there really isn't a lot

of notes I actually should mention I forgot about

the last bullet point in the synopsis which says

Megatron tells Starscream that he may return

to earth as his subordinate and They will rebuild

Bruticus to obey only Megatron. It actually has

his head pulled open So yes, it does brain pan

exposed reprogram him to only obey Megatron.

Yes, exactly. I like the ending to the episode.

It shows once again how underhanded and sneaky

the Decepticons really are. I just can't get

past the continuity error. That really is bugging

me. That has got to be my biggest gripe about

this kind of two -parter episode, especially

when you've already previewed them in a previous

one that they weren't even built yet. So what

about you? Well, I kind of you know dig Starscream's

mentality when he's like I'm just gonna send

the entire planet to the Sun and you know Shockwave

says well Megatron is on it Starscream says cool

So he calls Megatron and says You know, I'm just

gonna send you and everybody else hurtling into

the Sun if that's cool. Yeah, and Megatron's

like No, no, you don't and but the clincher here

is what Starscream says, you know I'm gonna rule

the universe and I don't care if I'm the only

one in it It's gonna happen buddy But that that

to me kind of sums it up for Starscream. Yeah,

which is why it's so, you know, so Anticlimactic

at the end when Megatron turns to Starscream

and says we're going back to earth and you're

gonna be my bitch and Starscream thanks him for

it Yes, basically. It should be noted that the

sending Earth into the Sun thing was not Starscream's

idea, though. It was on the... That's how the

Combaticons were going to get rid of Megatron,

the Autobots, and the entire planet. Yeah, because

they're on the revenge list. Yeah, and they're

on the revenge list, and Starscream just took

credit for it. Well, you know, it kind of fit

in. He's thinking, I could do without a planet,

and if Megatron's on it... all the better exactly

works for me but yeah that really summed up Starscream

for me in a nutshell of that episode yeah Starscream

is one of those very clear -cut characters there's

no depth to him whatsoever and you You know what

he's about. He's about being, like I've said

in several of the descriptions, a sniffling little

Decepticon. That's all he is. He wants what he

wants when he wants it, and he attempts stupidly

to go after it most of the time, and he ends

up at the end of the giant fusion cannon. At

the wrong end of a giant fusion cannon. Yes,

at the wrong end of the giant fusion cannon.

Alright, on to the next episode. Works at the

optics plant those Stuntacons raided and at first

I thought those driverless cars were Autobots

Wild huh optimus Stuntacons mistake it for Autobots.

Yes, and it's given me an idea I Hope this camouflage

paint comes off jazz. I'll quit griping. You

still the same side swipe inside, right? Ratchet

your own designer wouldn't know you win charger

man optimus. You're a dead ringer for motor master

Did you have to say dead ringer spike? They're

ready optimus the new staticons breakdown alias

side swipe dead end alias jazz Wild Rider alias

wind charger and drag strip drag strip aka Mirage

once stolen Ruby and red wasn't it? Okay then,

we're ready. But remember, the success of this

mission depends on absolute secrecy. Under no

circumstances must you follow us or break radio

silence. Understood? Yeah, but I don't have to

like it. Alright then, Stuntacons, let's roll

for it! is less than a mile away. Can't get there

too soon for me. Me too, Windcharger. I'm anxious

to get some Decepticon metal. From now on, I

suggest we call each other by our assumed names,

Brickton. Coolant, we got company. Laserbeak!

Laserbeak didn't attack, so maybe we fooled him.

But the real trick is fooling Megatron. I don't

like being a Stuntacon. Hey man, zip that lip!

Strange, isn't it, Megatron? How safely the Stuntacons

drive today? So is not ti - What have you? What

was all that noise? Great Cybertron! Looks like

an earthquake hit him. Yeah, Spike. And judging

from those empty cells, it was an earthquake

named Menasaur. You are dismissed. Perhaps you

should not have dismissed them just yet, Megatron.

As always, Starscream, you missed the obvious.

The weapon is complete, and the Autobots are

totally unaware of its very existence. Are they,

indeed? Say, Boss, what's that weapon gonna do,

anyway? What? You forgot. It will fire the most

destructive ray of all! More powerful than any

laser, it will create a chain reaction in whatever

it touches, producing instantaneous destruction!

Imagine my turning that ray on the Autobot's

headquarters! Perhaps when it's gone, someone

will put up a memorial... Face! Up next is Masquerade

and according to a little booklet it says, Megatron

is assembling a new device and sends the Stuntacons

out to procure the needed parts. Learning of

these missions, Optimus Prime, Windcharger, Mirage,

Jazz, and Side Swipe intercept the Stuntacons

and imprison them in the Ark. The Autobots disguise

themselves as the Stuntacons to discover and

thwart Megatron's plans. And Michael is going

to be taking over the synopsis that I wrote so

he can butcher it as much as he wants. I really

don't care. I get free reign. Heart blosh. Yes,

exactly. Okay, so we'll begin the episode with

Megatron sending the Stuntacons out to retrieve

three components to build some sort of weapon.

It'll actually say what kind of weapon it is.

They just send them out there. and Starscream

even remarks. Are you sure it's a good idea to

send these guys out there? Because they really

don't know their own ass from a hole in the ground.

Megatron says they have very unique configurations,

so they're the guys. Do you have anything to

say about the initial plot line? No, not really.

It's just, I'll have more to say once we get

into it. Yeah, once we get into it, because I'm

reading it through as you're breaking it down.

OK. So basically we have the Autobots see the

Stonicons. They say, oh, well, we have five Decepticons

going at ground level. Bingo, it's Decepticons,

or Stonicons. And they head out to stop whatever

that they are doing. Yep, pretty much. Hoist

and grapple I swear Between hoist and grapple

and red alert and inferno. I don't know if you

listen to my other episode when it was a while

back They are the four gay g1 characters. I Swear

to God you see at this point. They've run out

of voices. You know they they they try different

Voices, you know, you got Casey Kasem, and you've

got Dan Gilgamesh and you know Colin doing doing

prime and I hide and and they sound enough a

lot different where you know You can tell them

apart. But by the time you get to 40 characters

40 Autobots or so you got to go with inflections

or You know Chat key phrases catch phrases like

warpath booms and pow because at that point they

all start to sound the same Yeah, you didn't

have some with a gay lisp You know then you wouldn't

understand who's who I'm not even talking about

the voices being gay. I'm talking about the actual

characters Just the way that they come off. Oh,

I thought it was just there No, not no, no, not

the voices not at all the voices the characters

themselves, but anyway The basic plot of this

is that the Stundicons are captured by the Autobots

and the Autobots have, Jazz has this cool kind

of paint thing and Sunstreaker's like, oh, it's

not gonna mess up my beautiful chassis, is it?

No, it washes right off. You know, and uh...

You're passing up the most epic part. Which would

be? Well, the Autobots split up in their special

teams, which... is pretty much you know a rather

large toy commercial because they introduce all

these different maybe not introduced but they

bring it out a lot of different characters but

they catch everybody but Optimus gets Motor Master

yeah and the way he does it is awesome yeah just

plain chicken But I guess it's playing chicken,

but I mean it's like this huge epic head -on

collision where it's fire smoke brimstone Nobody

can see what's going on. Everyone's wondering

if prime is dead. You know primes not dead But

the fact that it's like oh he could be you know

and they draw it out for about a minute Just

wait another year. He'll be dead So yeah, but

Optimus wins. And for me, especially as a little

kid, how cool was that? Fuck yeah, Optimus Prime

won. It kicked his ass. Anyway, so suffice to

say, Stunacons are captured. And the Autobots

get this great idea that they are going to disguise

themselves as the Stunakons in order to figure

out what Megatron is actually up to. Because

they have these pieces of this weapon, but they

don't really know what it's for. So they head

to this crater where the Deceptikons are hiding.

And the Constructikons are there building this

super weapon as Prime and the crew. drive up,

but they never bother to see, you know, exactly,

well they're all fools when it comes down to

it. They don't say, what's the password? Well

there is no password. Security is so lax that

this group of, you know, poorly disguised Autobots

just drives into their base. Well I do have to

say that the paint and all that stuff and the

change over from their original molds to the

impersonation colors It was pretty much spot

on, and out of all of the Decepticons, the only

one that voices concern is Starscream. He actually

says that, you know... He was the smart one this

time. Yeah, exactly. He was probably the only

time in the entire series. Well, whatever. No,

no, he was the smart one. He was a scientist.

He's never wanted to not tell everybody that

he's... He's the smart one. Yes, exactly. So

long story short, I was going to say the constructive

stunta. I don't know what the hell I was going

to say. Well, the constructive cons left. The

fake sonocons are there. And suddenly the real

sonocons show up. And they both merge. Now, I

have a problem with if this is supposed to be

just paint on the Autobots, how the hell? Can

they merge big magnets? Yeah, they're holding

off your dear life, you know, you realize if

you don't hold on really tight, we're all gonna

die And then Soundwave pipes up and says, Real

Minasaur has special powers. We never knew anything

about Real Minasaur having special powers. And

what he brings out is a big fucking sword. Oh,

give me a break. No, no, I think he shot him

with his underarm cannons. They killed him with

B .O. It's like P you okay. All right. We give

up. All right, we give up and You know, they

probably the Autobots once they were found out,

you know, they probably would have had their

asses handed them but They have reinforcements

is showing up and once again, you know Megatron

and crew Decide that they are outnumbered and

minasaur in particular You mean you think with

minasaur there and the construct icons not too

far away at that point then it would have been

fairly easy for them to gang up on the entire

Autobot army and just waste them right there.

Didn't Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons

leave Minasaur to deal with them? And then Minasaur

said, oh no, you're not leaving me, and then

he flies off. I didn't really catch it that way,

but maybe. Thought that's what happened. I don't

know. I'd have to go back and watch it and I'm

too lazy for that Well still When the when the

Autobots do disassemble they they pretty much

pour everything they've got in the menace or

oh, yeah, even the the shoulder missiles are

firing and Nothing is doing any good against

menace or so I'm thinking you know he probably

could have taken up Yeah, probably could have

Even with you even with the reinforcements. Yeah,

probably but regardless see this would have been

a good thing To introduce those Decepticon clones.

Oh no heads. Yeah, that's like well. Yeah, see

now we're not Outmatched now now. We've got a

small army of cone heads We're gonna call it

right here running right here and now Yep, so

that pretty much ends the synopsis for this episode

Now for our thoughts on this episode. This was

very cool seeing the Autobots disguised as Decepticons.

Not sure if that has happened before this episode,

which I don't think it has. I remember the Decepticons

disguise themselves as the Autobots in Megatron's

Master Plan. But it is nice seeing the Autobots

thinking outside the box. Uh, there was one animation

flub I noticed at the end where Starscream and

Soundwave retreat, Soundwave transforms into

his tape deck mode and flies next to Starscream.

What the fuck, that has never happened before.

Anytime you see Soundwi - Sound - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

- Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi - Soundwi

We're not going there. We can edit that out in

the post, right? No. No, we don't edit anything

over here. We leave it all in. We let it hang

all out. It's like Jim Carrey said in Liar Liar.

How's it hanging? Short shrivel, noise to left.

but uh... you never see in the entire series

anytime that sound wave is flying whether he's

flying next to megatron whether he's flying next

to derge astro train whatever so you never see

he's always in robot mode you never see him in

tape deck mode unless he's on top of somebody

like if star scream is flying at level and sound

wave is in tape deck mode sitting on top of the

jet then i can believe but a flying tape deck

i don't fucking think so not so much no not so

much so what are your thoughts on this episode

uh... i can't take it uh... i like i like the

whole premise uh... what i was wondering is why

wouldn't at some point make a try to try the

same thing literally you've got superior the

aerial bots, right? And they're the best flyers

that the autobots have, but the the Subticon

Army has plenty of seekers that they could easily

just repaint and make them look like the aerial

bots and then wander in directly into their camp.

I mean, I think that would be really cool. Honestly,

what we really need is to see some Kitbashers

take the Superion, maybe an older one, maybe

even a newer one, like an Energon Superion, Superion

Maximus, and repaint him into seeker colors.

Repaint the limbs into seeker colors. That would

be really neat. That would be a really cool thing

I'd like to see. I'm not really sure I actually

think I'm trying to remember what episode it

was there was an episode where in earlier earlier

either in season 1 or season earlier in season

2 I forget that iron hide and a whole bunch of

other Autobots have to go to Cybertron and Megatron

is gonna hurt them with acid rain, because apparently

acid corrodes the autobots. Only the autobots.

And they have like three Cybertronian jets. One

is white, one is red, and one is green. And I

made a note in that episode, are these three

the future Cybertronian molds of Durge, Thrust,

and Ramjet? Because that's the other thing. You

never see where... Durs thrust and ramjet come

from never see never see that actually the the

green one was acid rain or acid storm I think

originally at a bot con they they mentioned that

they wanted to name him acid rain or something

like that But they ended up with the name acid

storm Because the green one or the yeah, it was

a transformer the classics line. They had a green

seeker Oh, okay. Well, I don't know. It was supposed

to have been that one from that particular episode.

Uh -huh. You have any more thoughts on Masquerade?

Actually, no. I think I've diverged enough from

the topic. Thanks. Alright. On to the last episode.

Let's go. You know what we ought to do for the

science project? What? Build our own robot! Yeah.

Whose idea was it to look for parts in the dump?

Well, we can't afford to buy parts, and there's

lots of perfectly good junk here, so I think

that... Save it! But look at this! I bet this

is good for something. I don't know what just

yet, but... What's gonna happen if they catch

us? We're gonna be expelled! I'm still not too

sure we can do it. Hey, guys! I got a name! I

call it a biotronic operational telecommunicator,

which pretty much describes its function. If

you say so. If you take the first letter of each

word, you get bot. Also short for robot, bot.

And this will be the final episode of season

two, the very anticlimactic bot. To synopsize

this episode, in a battle with Defensor, four

out of the five combaticons are damaged and Swindle

sells off their parts. A group of high school

students get Brawl's personality component and

install it in their science project robot called

Bot, and it's like biometric... optotronic...

I don't even remember what it... Telecommunications

bio... Biometric optical telecommunication something

or other. I don't remember I do know that it's

a Bears an uncanny resemblance to the Beast Wars

neo Unicron toy If you're familiar with that,

you know, I've seen pictures is just a big round

ball But it was me is that the the high school

students Are the two Koreas? Yeah of 80s fame

Corey Feldman and Corey Haim I can't prove it,

I'm sure they didn't get paid royalties for this,

but you look at them and the one Cory has this

horrible rictus grin plastered onto his face

the entire episode and the other one has this

horrible mullet looking thing and you know it's

Haim. Yeah, I think the only thing that I've

seen either one of them in, I actually have the

DVD of it. Corey Haim was in a movie called Double

-O -Kid and that is the only thing I've seen

him in and it's the only thing I will ever own

of theirs on how to be the one of them on DVD.

That's because you don't like scary movies. You

go back far enough into the Friday the 13th line

and you end up, I believe it's Corey Feldman.

Corey Feldman has I forget his name, but but

some kid who ends up in the several episodes

Yeah, I'm not really sure so let's see insert

and Yeah, the lost boys no lost boys in this

episode. Yeah To make a long story short the

Autobots need to stop the the rope the the robot

that the kids have made before it destroys the

school In searching for the missing part to the

combaticons Megatron put a bomb in swindles head

that will explode in 15 hours Unless he can get

the combaticons rebuilt and merge into Bruticus

medic Metatron what the hell is a meta as from

freaking dogma Jesus Christ Kevin Smith on the

brain. Hello Megatron's plan in this episode

is to blast the moon out of the sky so that the

Decepticons can control the oceans of the earth

The kids listen to Brawl's communicator and find

out about the Decepticon plan, and then they

warn the Autobots who call in the Protectabots.

And they end up finding Brawl's personality component,

which looks like a touring device or something.

An Enigma machine from World War II, kind of,

except with all the keys. I don't think we covered

how exactly the pieces ended up in. Yeah, we

did. Yeah, the combaticons were damaged and swindle

sells off the parts. Yes Yes, swindle sells off

the parts and somehow the Transylvanian general

Yeah, or the carbamia general whichever you prefer

see later on the Jumping ahead here, but when

he actually has to retrieve the parts Yeah, attacks

the Russian army. Yeah, that that that is true.

It's like are they Russians? Are they Transylvanians?

Are they carbamians? Therefore there's who cares

it was more Middle East whereas this was definitely

somewhere snowy like Siberia Yeah, it could be

plus. I think car bombia comes in Actually it

came in in an episode earlier this season, but

it also comes more into play in season three

You would never get away with that nowadays No,

not really The kids are in the Autobot headquarters.

They use Teletran 1 to gain control of the Decepticon

weapon and fire it upon them, causing them to

retreat. After the battle is over, the girl that

helped out with the other two boys asks them

for spare parts so they can build another robot

to which the boys grab some duct tape, put it

over her mouth, and leave the base, thus ending

the final episode of Season 2. Especially in

a base with giant fucking robots. Because that's

what Ratchet uses to repair the giant fucking

robots. Exactly. We got duct tape, don't we?

Ah, there we go. Sorry about this. We're going

to duct tape your voice box back. I hope that

works for you. You'll probably not be able to

speak except through radio chatter, but the duct

tape works in 99 .9 % of the cases. oh my god

that's funny sorry about that but uh oh you know

what i wanted to break something else up about

the uh the kids the kids you know basically the

most annoying part of this episode and pretty

much any other episode we have humans involved

but um i guess we can uh i'll cover that later

yeah the uh yes so we are going to go on to our

thoughts Now for our thoughts on this episode.

As I said in the very beginning of the synopsis,

this was a very anti -climatic season ender.

At least with Heavy Metal War in season 1 we

got some suspense as if the Decepticons would

return or not. Or I should say when they would

return. But this just, well, sucked balls to

quote Birdman Dodd. It reminded me of Autobot

Spike. the episode that actually began season

two, which I hated that episode. I borrowed heavily

from some classic American literature. Well,

and film. Frankenstein. Yeah, exactly. I just,

I didn't like this episode. I wish that they

would have, well besides that, I wish that they

would have thought more to the point of, hey,

We have a movie coming up. We're going to be

doing a movie in between a season set. So let's

put a little spin on it. If they had added the

Scramble... if they had actually Americanized

the Scramble City Japanese episode introducing

Ultra Magnus and all of them, if they had kind

of tied it in... Yeah. A little bit. I mean,

you end Season 2 on such a very bad fucking note,

to the point where you don't know what's gonna

happen, and then you open the movie with Unicron

and, I forget what they were freaking called,

one of them was called Kranix. Kranix, yeah.

On some strange planet, yeah. Ublis, yeah. Ublis!

Ublis, it's Unicron! Help, help me! It's like,

oh fuck, I knew he was coming this way, but yeah.

Help me save my multicolored Bunsen burners,

for Christ's sake! Yeah, but we'll get into that

in another movie discussion. I'm not entirely

certain that these episodes were in the right

order to begin with. I think maybe they were,

you know, kind of recorded in one order and then

showed on TV in a different order. Well, you

mentioned before how Bruticus was introduced

in an earlier episode. and it's entirely possible

maybe that episode was the one that was supposed

to be the season under and they just got flip

-flopped it could have been i'm sure somebody

knows out there i i'm not sure but i'm just postulating

i don't know either i just know that especially

with a lot of um again going back to my inspiration

to even start the tfg1 podcast was a podcast

i listened to called world's finest podcast which

is uh michael de yeah well it's a plug but I

plug them all the time so I mean my sockets are

filled with plugs to .net and yeah let's not

even go it's just that sounds dirty yeah shut

up anyway the point is they go by production

order because it's easier for them right well

when I looked at the cartoons on the DVDs I said

okay well this is how they're listed I broke

them up into either four or five or six episodes

per podcast episode depending on where the...

I broke them up basically on the two to five

part story. I didn't want a two part or split

up between podcast episodes. So that's how I

broke them up and that's how it kind of seems

like they were out of context or whatever. But

I broke them up. Regardless of where you split

between the episode podcast. Oh, yeah. Yeah,

but I'm just saying that you know, it's entirely

possible that maybe in Japan Bot came before

cosmic rust Aerial assault is where the the flub

is aerial assault has the combaticons not cosmic

rust Well that yeah that too. I'm saying but

could have been anywhere It may not have been

the last episode. Maybe that was yeah But for

this for the US set and for this being that's

that's what it is Yeah, I just thought it was

fucked up. It is so what are your for your thoughts?

Well, I had a lot of thoughts You know starting

with you know the beginning of the episode you

they basically say In a fight against defense

or in the combat icons as bad ass as the commands

are Defensor kills him with one shot Just hey

there. He is in the middle of the road He's dead

and then as he walks off he kind of remarks over

his shoulder You know call the streets and sand

and tell them there's shit in the road They gotta

come pick it up And I'm thinking you know it's

too bad that these episodes are so you know short

and tight you know because This battle could

have been easily five ten minutes. They could

have rustled around knocks and buildings over

you know Gojira style, but but it's just one

shot. Okay boom. He's dead That was easy, yeah,

clean this shit up. Granted, it's nice to see

Swindle crawling out of the rubble and saying,

ooh, I'm gonna make some money. But Swindle says,

I think his exact words were, where am I gonna

get all the spare parts to rebuild these guys?

And in the end, he doesn't go out to find spare

parts. He literally sells all the parts off.

You know so I think I'm not sure if it was somewhere

lost in the plotline But yeah, I think swindle

at one point intended to Rebuild his buddies

so that they could you know fight another day

I Seriously doubt that because of his nature

No seriously, I seriously doubt that because

of his nature because if you look at how if you

look at how the episode progresses Yeah He doesn't

Doesn't even give it a second thought not until

he doesn't give it exactly What do you regret

what you've done? Well, I regret having a bomb

in my head And the whole time for the rest of

the episode you can hear it ticking he's like

the crocodile it's pretty obvious Yeah, you hear

something. Yeah, that's my fucking head But the

other point that I want to make about this episode

is the girl. I kind of expected her to be a double

agent the whole time, because she's wearing Constructicon

green and Substicon purple in this horrible,

horrible 80s get -up. I mean, the two choreos

are in horrible, horrible 80s get -ups as well.

But she looks particularly bad. And it's like,

you look at her, she's wearing Decepticon collars,

you know she's evil. But in the end, she's not

so much evil, she's just arrogant. Because the

boys, even in the beginning, they're like, oh,

please don't pair us up with her, please don't

pair us up with her. And they do, and the teacher

was like, haha, I'm screwing you guys by pairing

you up with this nimwit. And at the end, it's

almost as if she has a redeeming moment. Because

at the end, she's like, Yes, I can program this

robot to fire the giant laser against its creators

because I can do anything and At the end it doesn't

come across so much as her redeeming moment.

It comes across as her saying I'm an arrogant

bitch Pretty much did it come across that way

for you because that's kind of what I got out

of it see now that you mention the fact that

The guys could have basically been copied off

the two quarries. I've been trying to throw out

your whole little speech there. I've been trying.

Well, no, I'm not saying it in a bad way. I'm

saying throughout your voice in your talk. My

half -dead brain cells are trying to think of

who the hell she could be as far as like an eighties

type brat pack model type of character because

at first in the beginning of the episode she

wants nothing she's like really skeptical I don't

know if we should do that kinda like the key

nerd scientist yeah yeah really big stick in

the mud and then she ends up being almost a bit

to where the two guys yeah well yeah smarter

than they are but All three of them are fairly

smart. I mean, they're all, even though the guys

try to act like jerks and jock types, they're

all fairly smart because they even say, uh, in

the episode the guys are like, oh yeah, we can

do this and we can do that and this that and

the other thing and everything else and then,

yeah. I don't know. But, yeah, she did kind of

come off as a bitch at the end and I'm glad they

used to fucking duct tape. Even if we don't know

where it came from. That's right. I pulled this

duct tape out of my hair. Does this duct tape

smell funny to you? That's Rattick's duct tape.

That's what he used to duct tape Bumblebee's

voice box back in. Which is why you can only

hear him through the radio. This is going to

lead into a giant bay rant unless we just end

it right here. Yeah, we need to end this. Thanks

everybody! Bye! The TFG one podcast has all your

80s goodness with full coverage of the generation

one cartoon and Beyond this is Mike the Birdman

Dodd saying live free or die hard and listen

to this goddamn podcast Are you a fan of transformers

yes Then be sure to visit PredaconEmpire .com,

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Alrighty next time on the TFG1 podcast Steve

slash Megatron and I will be discussing season

two of the G1 cartoon We will be discussing the

overall good or badness of the season And I'll

be talking about the looks of the box sets and

what's included with them Yeah Box sets, let's

not even get into that. Thank you for joining

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you for listening until next time