24 – Season 4 – The Rebirth

Hello and welcome to the 24th and final episode

of the TFG1 podcast. I'm your host TFG1 Mike

and I'm joined by Steve Megatron. Hello sir.

Hip hip hooray. How are you? Great. And Michael

Wilson. Hello. Hey how's it going? It's going.

And up next you're going to hear the rebirth

theme and then the general chat. Hello and before

we get into the episodes today on the 24th episode

of TFG1 podcast I would just like to point out

something About the rest of season 3 and then

rebirth is that Springer is completely absent

So my theory in the only human review if it had

happened would have come true Yes, he's dead

and he's gone boom Other than that this is the

24th episode the final episode for now Technically,

this is this is it for for TFG one. I am joined

by Steve Megatron. Hello, sir Yes And Michael

Wilson. Hello. I'm still here. Yes, you're still

here You know, you're actually probably going

to be playing a larger role down the line So

I recommended you to Steve for co -cast because

I know nothing about GI Joe I Mean I know stuff,

but I'm not like that. It's not like do you want

I'm not that passionate about it So so yeah that

but that'll be something further for you to do

yes In podcasting and you'll have to find all

that details out from Steve because I have nothing

to do with that I like that show. I like that

show too. You haven't even started it yet. I

mean, G .I. Joe, you douche. Oh. So what's been

going on with you guys this week? I guess Michael

can go first. I can't say that anything has been

going on with me this week. It's, you know, the

same old same old. The deck isn't done yet. I

haven't bought any new toys. So Yeah, I'm horribly

horribly boring The deck isn't done yet because

you've been cleaning out your closet No, I'm

not the one building the deck We have a contractor

building the deck, but it's been raining and

on and off like it rained a little bit today

He's almost done. I'd give it maybe three four

more days of solid labor, but We're still waiting

on some parts to come in for the railing. We

need some skirtboard. I think it'll probably

be over in a week to get it all done. That's

better than a week, than four months. I guess.

We have both of our sons' birthdays. Gavin's

was the other day, wasn't it? Yeah, Gavin just

turned one. Aidan will be three August 29th.

So we're having a single birthday party in the

middle. So August 15th. So the deck has to be

done by then. And I'm going to see what we can

do about maybe a little backyard landscaping.

Cool. Yes. Put it in the water park. He's already

got, yeah, he's got like a flip. Slippin' slide.

Did you ever fix your project 365 that I told

you about? Probably not. I've actually had people

that commented very often on my Flickr account

that are, you know, sending me emails saying,

what's up, man? You have an update in a month.

And I'm like, yeah, I've been busy. I got shit

to do. After he linked me to the Octane image,

which I put up for the Toycast thread, the display

images thread, I was going through it and looking

at it. Okay, cool. He put blaster up except the

fact that he's wrong about one blaster first

premiered It wasn't in the movie. He was in season

two Found me out. You didn't see the you didn't

notice which one of those images were mistransformed

though No, I wasn't looking that close people

are usually pretty good about pointing out. Oh,

yeah, you screwed that one up Well, majority

of the ones like closer to the end of the 212

images is like monster bots, which I don't consider

as transformers. The monstructor? Yeah. Oh, well,

because they weren't introduced before rebirth?

I don't know. Yeah, no, they weren't. They were

in the Japanese continuity. Well, we all know

how I feel about the Japanese continuity. didn't

fucking exist. If there would have been a few

more episodes there in season four then maybe

they would have shown up with the rest of the

MicroMasters. So what's been going on with you

this week Steve? Too many episodes. Too many

episodes. I think I almost died of shock. Died

of shock? After adding them all up? Yes. Too

many way too many No, no, this isn't watching

stuff. This is our content that he's talking

about Yes, I released movie we can review late.

We had two episodes of TFG one last week So we

had a double shot of that. We had a double shot

of a TTF this week We had a tune cast. We had

three toy casts. I believe there was a headshot

a new lunch table and coming soon a cober cast

yes which once table we have nothing to do with

so i mean that that that's just like a across

link promotion but you know what they they did

pimp out our shows yes all of us nice all of

us know that uh... well i mean i uh... it's just

completely blowing away the uh... like a weekly

schedule or some such or no not really it's what

it boils down to is me being board no seriously

like Like last night when I recorded Toycast

9, it was like, OK, I have nothing to do. I got

on Skype, talked to a couple of guys, said, hey,

do you guys want to do this? We just did it.

And then my other buddy, OptimusGarageGary, he

came on a little late and said, hey, what are

you guys talking about, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And that's where the ATTF's SDCC special came

from, because we're all trying to look at the.

the new images for the SDCC stuff last night.

And that's, you know, really where it came from.

I mean, now that TFG1's over, I'm concentrating

on MWIRE and Tooncast, and that's pretty much

it. Right. Well, I would say, though, that there's

nothing wrong with... And those shows are weekly,

so... Yeah, I was gonna say there's nothing wrong

with having a buffer. So, I mean, if you end

up recording two shows back -to -back just for

the fun of it, because you got some spare time

and some buddies, it probably wouldn't hurt to

maybe... hold one back and release it at a later

time so that way you don't have to scramble like

you've been scrambling well i mean i wasn't even

scrambling last night i just recorded them for

the hell of it and of course you know i tried

my hand at the editing since since with this

call recorder i can record both sides of the

audio and i don't because i'm i'm not one that

knows how to how to mesh up audio like steve

does so i think you know what the hell And I

just told Steve about it, and I was like, you

know, if you want to put them up, fine. If you

want to wait, fine, whatever. But I just wanted

to let him know that I recorded them. And then

I put them all up anyway. Now, that was not my

decision. That was on him. So guess what? You

can't blame me for that. So the onus is on Steve

now, Steve. It's OK to have a buffer. I don't

like being behind. You're ahead of the game.

You're not behind. I mean, in my mind, I'm always

behind. Oh, yeah. Okay. There's a joke there

somewhere. Yeah, there's a joke there somewhere,

but I'm not going there. This is too lazy to

pull it out right now. Yeah. Yes. Do we have

any other general chat that we want to talk about

before we actually get into the final three episodes

of G1? Scourge is the best Decepticon in the

saga? Um, hmm, possibly. Maybe. Yes. I'm prejudiced.

What do you mean? What do you mean? Are you talking

about g1 scourge? Of course. He's talking about

g1 scourge I've got a milk crate full of broken

transformers If anybody wants them if anybody

wants them send a reply on Twitter to be Ken

court Michael p e c a n t g m i c h a e l m o

u s e and uh yeah i mean literally it's just

a box or milk crate full of broken transformers

that i don't really have any use for and i'm

not going to give them to my boy because they're

all broken they're missing like heads and arms

and shit like that but i mean if there's a kit

basher out there who couldn't live without them

then Yeah, I'd be willing to part with them.

Um, I should let everybody know that probably

before the before the the outro and the and the

closing theme I will be playing the full David

wise interview from the Season four disc off

the Rhino set because I think it's a very interesting

interview copyright be damned Yeah, we don't

care about copyright Did you listen to the end

of Headshot? Yes, I did. I was like, oh my god,

no. What the hell did he put on there? You're

talking about not being happy with me putting

the Beast Machines theme on ATTF. I was like,

what the hell is that? Yeah. Whenever you get

a chance, Michael, go over and listen to Headshot

Episode 4. OK. Which, that's not in iTunes yet,

Steve. What? What's that? It's not in iTunes

yet. That's because I didn't submit it to iTunes.

That's one of those ones that I'm not really

meaning to get out completely. Well, no, but

I mean it would be nice to have it in iTunes.

I don't know, whatever. That's where the majority

of people go when they want to subscribe to podcasts.

Yeah. Well, that one's more so a rant so they

can get that one exclusively from geekcastradio

.com. That makes sense. All right. Well, I think

we're going to get into some episodes today.

Optimus Prime! I'm... I'm okay, Ultra Magnus.

Ever since I released the energy of the Matrix,

I've had these overwhelming feelings that something's

going to happen. Something big. A Decepticon

attack? Bigger than that. Something... unbelievable.

Optimus Prime! We got every Decepticon in the

known universe heading right down our throats!

It's starting. All right, first up is Rebirth

part one. And actually, the way we're going to

do this, we are going to talk about them individually

so you guys can hear the audio in between the

segments like normal. But we're going to have

it as just one long discussion at the same time.

So in part one, all three, the whole saga was

written by David Wise. It is the year 2007, and

while life is peaceful for the Autobots, Optimus

Prime has seen worrisome visions of the future.

In their first movement in months, the entire

Decepticon Armada attacks Autobots sitting on

Earth in search of the key to the Plasma Energy

Chamber, a volatile energy source. With the key

in hand, Galvatron leads his forces to Cybertron,

where he sends Scourge deep into the planet to

activate the Plasma Energy Chamber. Surge of

plasma energy strikes an Autobot shuttle sending

it and its crew of 12 clear across the galaxy

Where it crash lands on the planet nebulos? There

are Autobots There the Autobots learn of the

nebula in Civil War with their evil masters the

hive the battle reaches a new level when five

of the Autobots volunteer to Merge with the nebulons

creating a new breed of transformer the Headmasters

This I you know my I think these three episodes

are probably ones that Michael and I are going

to disagree about For the majority almost the

entirety of all three The first thing I noticed

when I started watching these I did watch them

on the rhinos that it shows as Regular episodes,

but it also shows them in movie form like the

VHS was First thing I noticed in the title sequence

was shiny robots No, because if you look at the

very beginning of the title sequence where it

shows hot rod cup and blur They're like they're

like glossy shiny and then it combines new animation

and Season the part of the season 3 intro as

far as visual Well, you know where the shiny

shit comes from, right? Not sure I want to even

answer that ask that question It comes from headmasters.

Oh, yeah Thought I was gonna turn it to a dirty

joke I should know you by now and you're talking

about crap like that, but um, he did say headmaster

The other thing like just as far as the title

sequence what I noticed was the Metroplex city

mode that's driving down the little street before

it transforms looks miniaturized It doesn't look

like Metroplex's actual size in the cartoon as

far as the city mode. I did not notice that.

Well, there is a picture over on PredaconEmpire

.com slash CafeSpark under the G1 screenshots

thread. You can go over there and look at it

because I took a screenshot of it. Enter now.

Yes, enter now. Join the Empire. Surrender to

us. Would you like to know more? Yes. All your

sites belong to us. Hey kids, look, it's Goldbug.

It's Bumblejumper. It's Bumblejumper. Oh god.

Optimus Prime's been having overwhelming feelings.

That's those hormones. I knew that was going

to get a bad joke somewhere. Son, I think it's

time we had the talk But I have to talk to Alpha

try on I have to go in the matrix. I have to

merge with it That's almost as bad as the crotch

joke crotch -formers crotch -formers more than

meets yeah yeah i'm not going there no more than

meets the pie um anyways uh punch follows wingspan

and pounds to see what they're up to they attack

him and then steal a black key from the vault

um I would like to mention um and I guess I could

wait until the thoughts but not really going

to since majority of my thoughts go along with

the synopsis but um I really do like punch counter

punch I thought that was a really cool character

what What? I don't like either one. It's like,

you can't see right through him, he's like, hey

you guys, I'm a Decepticon now but I'm pretty

sure that there's another Autobot around the

corner and he looks just like me except turned

around, here I am! Yeah, but the difference is

where Punch doesn't have a faceplate over his

mouth. And Counterpunch does. And they're different

colors. Ooh, pretty colors. Half expectancy punch

kind of, you know, leaning around the door jam,

you know, and then with his other arm kind of

reaching around to make it look like he was somebody

else grabbing his own head and kind of like rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I knew it'd take you a minute to find out. No

it wouldn't. I was waiting for the same thing

to happen so I could do it over your voice. No,

I don't know. I don't know what I like about

him. I like the fact that everybody knows I'm

a fan of the Triple Changers and I just like

the fact that he's kind of like a spy body even

though he doesn't have that big of a role. I

just like the fact that he can change like that.

I don't know. It's kind of cool. Well, I know

in Headmasters he... ends up using that feature

way too many times to the point that his logic

circuits become confused and he becomes mostly

decepticon. Yes. So you're going to bring up

Headmasters enough to the point where Mike is

going to want to actually review. Japanese TV

shows. I have a feeling that if we did it It

would only be like a one -shot episode and it

would not be on TFG one podcast G1 ends with

rebirth period end of story If Steve wanted to

do it, yeah, it would more so be Yeah, I was

gonna say it'd be on all things transformers.

It would not be on this not Yeah, that's a good

call. Yes very much so So the next thing I have

written down here is The Decepticon attack is

a diversion. Prime and Magnus must find out for

what the diversion was for though. The Decepticons

head for Cybertron and the Autobots try to get

there before them. Optimus explains what the

plasma energy chamber is. If this thing existed

for millions of years, why the hell are the Decepticons

just finding it now? Probably because Megatron

was smart enough not to mess with it. Yeah, that

might be the case. I think I brought it up in

episode 22 that I believed that the writing in

Rebirth was bad or at least faulty in the sense

that Galvatron never has a plan. He never had

a plan all through season three and now suddenly,

hey, I've got this brilliant idea. I think I'm

going to X, Y, and Z. The master plan has yet

to be shown, but the fact that he has a plan

shows me that this is poorly written. Well, I

mean, not that I'm trying to kiss David Wise's

ass or anything, but I do have to kind of stand

up for him because the majority of his episodes

that he wrote throughout the series were fairly

good ones, especially War Dawn, which was originally

intended to be the most violent Transformers

episode ever. the um... i know this is going

off topic of rebirth but the uh... the scene

where uh... orion packs meets megatron megatron

uh... ripped his uh... you know shot him ripped

his arm off and we did see that but david says

in the interview that i'll play later that uh...

what you didn't see was that megatron actually

decapitated orion packs with his own arm uh...

i don't know uh... you know I don't understand

if maybe he had written more to it in the sense

that maybe Cyclonus was there saying, Galvatron,

I really think we should do this, and maybe we

should do this. And Galvatron's like, well, could

we kill more Autobots that way? And Cyclonus

would be like, sure, yeah. So it's actually somebody

much smarter. and much more strategically minded

calling the shots and then Galvatron just going

along with it. I could see that. I mean I can

see where you're coming from but again like I

mentioned to you off air in that same interview

that will be played later at the end of this

episode David Wise said that Sunbow called him

up wanted him to do a five -parter that would

be the entire fourth season of the G1 cartoon

and then he got another call saying Sunbow had

a budget cut it's now a three -parter so he had

said in the interview that a lot of the story

was lost. Right, and that may have been part

of the story. We can't know for sure, but I think

that would have made a stronger plot line. Oh

yes, very much so. Plasma energy is lethal. It

is raw energy and will kill any metallic or robotic

being. That's a good thing to have in the middle

of a robotic metal planet. The factions start

a battle while Scourge is trying to sneak down

to the plasma energy chamber to open it. Brainstorm

and the others, along with Spike, follow him.

Once the chamber is open it overloads Scourge

and blasts the Autobot shuttle halfway across

the galaxy. Just on Brainstorm, he reminds me

of Wheeljack. Really? I was thinking of Perceptor.

No, hell no. Fuck Perceptor. Wheeljack because

Wheeljack always had the crazy inventions and

stuff and you know you would think that I'm sorry,

but you know Head you know humans inside Autobots

bodies. That's a nutso idea if you think about

it It works. I think it doesn't work, but that's

something that I think Wheeljack would would

come up with if he had the chance If he was still

alive Once crash landing on Nebulos, the Autobots

are captured by Nebulon Rebels. Spike tries to

reason with the Rebels and fails. The Decepticons

show up and a battle ensues. Back on Cybertron,

Optimus tells Fastlane and Cloudraker who...

I know they were introducing a whole bunch of

characters, but who are these guys supposed to

be? Mean like what kind of transformers are they

part of the techno? I don't know part of ten

about they part of the throttle bots or what

faction They're twins. Okay? No fast landing

cloud. It's kind of like a pounce. Oh, okay Other

twins and then when they put they have different

alt modes Well fast landing cloud raker have

the same robot mode, but one turns into a jet

one turns Think I got a picture of them to him

on my flicker, okay? Flicker don't flicker anyway

Anyways When he tells them to search the planet

for the key afterwards he transforms alongside

Magnus Ultra Magnus has a different transformation

in season 3 He when he transformed from robot

to to the the missile truck. He like turned around

like Like, say he's facing you, for him to transform

into his alt mode, he turned around and his truck

came down. In this one, he transformed like Optimus

does with the cab, and then his trailer came

up like Optimus does. Oh, kind of, yeah, I saw

that. It was cool because they were side by side.

I liked it, but I just thought it was kind of

weird because I was so used to the other one.

Yeah back on nebulos or nebulon or whatever because

they actually say they actually call the planet

two different things they call it nebulos and

then They call it nebulon, which is that's a

that's a flub Maybe nebulon is the capital. I

don't know Or whatever the yeah back on back

on nebulos or nebulon or the fuck the plan is

called the Decepticons arrive and a battle begins

Gort realizes that the Autobots Yeah, but the

Decepticons are the bad guys and Yeah, so basically

they release the Autobots Decepticons come in

kick -ass take a whole bunch of hostages During

the battle Daniel is injured and spike asks them

if there's anything that they can do for him

They attempt to save his life by putting him

on life support until a more portable way comes

along Before all are after that Gord explains

what the hive is and who they are and And we

are introduced to the Nebulon Rebels, which I

will... screw it, I'll go through and read them.

Eros, Stylor, Arcana, and Gort are the main leaders,

and then you have the Sharpshooters. Pinpointer,

Firebolt, Recoil, Haywire, Peacemaker, and Spall

Sport. These six Sharpshooters all become the

Autobot Target Masters, which we will talk about

in the next part of the discussion for this.

Let me see. Alright, so after these introductions,

Spike and Brainstorm realize that the only way

to destroy the Hive is to combine the Nebulons

and the Autobots into Headmasters, thus ending

this first part of the story. And here is that

audio. And we're gonna move on to our thoughts.

We'll be right back. Alright, it is now time

for our thoughts. As I said before, Michael and

I are probably going to have the largest disagreement

over these episodes because everybody knows the

majority of my notes is the synopsis and I can

kind of form my own opinions off of what he has

written down or whatever if he's taking his own

duty and take notes on these episodes because

he doesn't like them. Yes, I'm throwing you under

the bus There is a bus involved. Yes I you know

I was watching these and there was really nothing

to write down unless I was gonna sit and write

down the names of All the new toys that were

introduced. It's like oh wait first. We have

to introduce these 20 new characters and Oh,

look here's six shot. He's shows up for 30 seconds

and destroys all of the aerial bots the aerial

bots are like should we combine and maybe kick

his ass? No, let's let him kick our ass. So they

all get taken out You know and then then oh now

that now that that's happened. Let's go ahead

and introduce another 15 characters. So there's

all these characters being introduced in this

mate monster, you know battle royale and You

know where we were we're kind of lacking any

any story And yeah, you know you're gonna say

oh, but there's a story. Well. Yeah, we get a

group that is sent clear across space You know

farther than then really anyone has ever gone

before and Stranded there they end up very quickly

followed by a group of Decepticons who don't

have you know the same Plasma energy a fuel engine

that they had now hold on hold on I I do have

to dispute that because Scourge does say in the

episode that ship left a particle trail a mile

wide all we have to do is follow it and we'll

catch up with them soon enough. So just as far

as how far as they cut up with how fast as they

cut up with them is probably a timing issue on

the episode because you don't want to waste like

you know two or three four or five minutes on

the Decepticons traveling in space trying to

find the Autobots. Well, let me put this in terms

that Steve will appreciate, which means I'm going

to roam into Trek. You have Voyager, right? Voyager

gets shot from the Alpha Quadrant to the Delta

Quadrant. Billions of miles away, or not miles,

but yeah, billions of miles away, or light years

away. It's going to take them 80 years to get

back. And that's kind of how I equated this plasma

energy, shooting the Autobots clear across the

universe. And they're like, wow, man, we're kind

of stuck here. What are we going to do when our

ship's blown up? And holy crap. And the Decepticons,

oh, they get there about two hours later. I just

didn't think that made any sense. And not only

do they do it, they show up. But then they...

Easily get their ass handed to them by very very

human with the exception of the green tinge,

you know human looking characters the frogmen

The I know they don't have their asses handed

them right away the Decepticons the Decepticons

kick them. Well the Autobots shown up and The

minute they see these guys they capture them

with their energy whips Okay Okay, yeah, okay,

I thought you were talking about when I thought

you're talking about when the Decepticons showed

up and the battle started, okay Yeah, so they're

like ha ha finally we can kick some ass and we're

gonna start with these schmoes But you know the

nebulons, you know show up with their energy

whips and quickly capture Yeah, now we're talking

about nine A million years of Decepticon warfare

that these guys have survived, especially Cup.

I mean, shame on you, Cup. And the Nebulans capture

them without a second thought. It's like, ha

-ha, we have you now, and you're in our power,

and we're going to take you to our cave. They're

like, you know, al -Qaeda. No, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Again.

the geocast radio network in the tfg1 podcast

is not responsible for anything michael wilson

says on this podcast but uh... okay that's neither

terrorists not really okay okay okay okay stop

stop stop hot only against the established government

of the planet so which the government is evil

and it enslaves people all they don't sleep anybody

because they have their own workforce service

robotic exactly the machines enslaved people

for the for the time So, okay, you know, the

only reason why I can kind of make sense of it

and kind of overlook the fact that the Autobots

got captured right away was because they weren't

looking for a fight, they were acting all peaceful

and everything else, and these people just, you

know, decide to capture them. And it was, you

know... Yeah, yeah very easily I might add well

right, but it was my original point is supposed

to plot point though Because they eventually

released them they eventually team up and then

all this other crap happens Well, they release

them after they get their ass handed them It's

like oh crap. They're the septicons are kicking

our shit all of them down the street backwards

We'd better let these guys go so they can cover

our ass Exactly So we have these Orion slave

traders right and hiding in caves that having

their ass handed them and the only thing they

can do is Let the Autobots go and then somehow

con them in the tearing off their own heads now

now that that's inaccurate because Spike was

the one that brought it up and brainstorm was

the one that brought it up earlier when they

were on Cybertron And I do have to kind of go

back to those beginning scenes of this first

part of the three -parter. I'm sorry. I Understand

optimus is back. That's that's all well and good.

I I enjoy that They made hot rod a bitch in this

episode No, seriously first. He should be shut

the hell as he shut the Shut the fuck up sons

of Whatever anyways But no seriously that they

took his characterization down so much all he

is good for is Racing against blur and beating

blur Other than the fact that blur is like halfway

neurotic during the race and doesn't pay attention

to what he's doing You know, you know what the

only way this could have been better is if Galvatron

and prime were having a one -on -one battle to

the death and Just as prime was about to win

Hot Rod ran up behind Galvatron and said, oh

no, you don't Galvatron and got prime killed

again Yeah, but if you watch headmasters you

won't have that issue Because this whole three

-parter doesn't exist. After the return of Optimus

Prime that ends Season 3 and then Season 4. We're

in the United States of America, dammit. You

know what? They should have made it. They should

have. And it would have been great. It would

have been great. Yeah. Well, you know, it's not

Transformers without Prime dying. Well, and see,

that's the thing. In Japan, in Headmasters, they

killed Prime again three episodes in. He merged

with Vector Sigma, and Rodimus came back, and

then only to revive Prime again in the Headmaster

series later on as the Power Master Prime, only

to kill him off again in Victory and bring it

back as somebody else. So do we do you have any

thoughts over this first? First part of the part

of the story Steve as far as this episode goes

There wasn't really a whole lot of plot or character

development it was just mostly go -go -go and

a lot of the characters were hit or miss and

you either saw characters from earlier seasons

or ones that only made like a quick ten seconds

of Scenes, and then we're never seen again Yeah,

that's true. I mean I I do really like the overall

story with Optimus Prime though that that I think

that does have a Whole lot of good stuff into

it, but let's just well. Yeah All right well,

I think we're gonna move on On the next exciting

episode of Transformers, the operation to merge

the Autobots and Nebulons into Headmasters is

completed. Hey, Neuros! Welcome to the club!

Glad to be aboard! But the Decepticons make a

sinister deal with the Hive and counter -attack

as Decepticon Headmasters and Targetmasters.

Decepticon Targetmasters, attack! Decepticon

Headmasters, destroy! While on Cybertron, Optimus

Prime merges with the supercomputer Vector Sigma

and discovers the deadly secret of plasma energy.

One bolt did all that? It is raw energy. It seeks

out any entity that transforms matter into energy.

New headmasters, new targetmasters, and colossal

new super robots, all in part two of The Transformers

Rebirth. I think we're in trouble! Last episode,

the Decepticons stole the key to the plasma energy

chamber, the forge where the Autobots were created

millions of years ago. The Autobots regained

the key, but a blast of plasma energy blew the

Autobots clear across the galaxy. They crashed

on the planet Nebulos and were captured by Nebulon

rebels who feared that the Autobots were controlled

by the evil rulers of Nebulos known as the Hive.

But after the Decepticons landed on their planet

and waged a brutal battle taking five of the

Autobots prisoner the Nebulon rebels agreed to

help the remaining Autobots and so with danger

looming from every side and his son Daniel gravely

wounded Spike attempts to unite the Nebulon rebels

and the Autobots into a new life form the headmasters

All right, we are going to move on to the second

part of the discussion and I know you guys have

already heard it but seeing as how the We had

some technical difficulties, I have to read this

again. Optimus Prime delves into the Vector Segment

to look for guidance and discovers not only the

location of his missing shuttle crew, but also

that the very future Cybertron is at stake on

Nebulos Cyclonus and his Decepticons are captured

by the Hive and so are born the Decepticon Headmasters

and Targetmasters. Let's see. Rebirth, part two.

We basically have the Autobots now have the headmasters

They're now merged they're gonna destroy some

hive machines The Decepticons are interrogating

me capture Autobots when the new headmasters

show up and pretty much kick their ass and get

their friends back Optimus Prime uses the shell

of a matrix to merge with vector Sigma He learns

of how dangerous the plasma energy is and finds

the key chambers a key to a miracle The Hive

capture the Decepticons and make a deal with

them to get Target Masters and Headmasters so

that they can overcome the Autobots and regain

the key. The Decepticon hidden Target Masters

are Target Masters are Nightstick, Aimless, Cannon

Burst, Blowpipe, Freakus, the Headmasters, whatever.

I think he says Freakus in the show. That's just

the way I spelled it. I think he says Freakus.

What the hell is a Freakus? pronounced fracas

look it up anyways the headmasters are spraznuck

krunk monzo and two other ones don't rex whatever

grax is the uh the alligator oh yeah that's right

skull cruncher yes the autobots find cerebrose

and get him back to the caves just as the decepticons

attack with their new target masters The Decepticons

regain the key, but not before Brainstorm gets

the skin of Nightstick to make the Autobot target

masters who are Recoil, Firebolt, Pinpointer,

Haywire, Peacemaker, and Spall Sport. Throughout

the battle, R .C. gets the key from Scourge,

just as Zarek comes up from the ground in the

new super headmaster, Skormunok. Thus ending

the second part of Rebirth. Do you guys want

to say anything about the actual plot before

we go into our thoughts? No negative. All right,

so we're going to our thoughts next All right,

we are gonna go on to our thoughts for the second

part of the rebirth episode Let's see, I think

we left off with Me trying to defend optimus

in the story and Michael just basically shooting

everything down saying he is a Rodimus from season

three So basically, you want Optimus to come

back to life, but then you insult them for the

way they bring him back and the way he acts.

Yeah, I want him to be the Season 1 Optimus Prime.

I want him to be the Optimus Prime who's the

bearer of the Matrix with 9 million years of

accumulated auto -bot wisdom. I want him to be

the one who stands up and says, I have the grand

vision and the master plan and this is how everything

should be because I'm the leader and everyone

knows that I'm going to make the best decisions

and lead everyone in the right direction. Whereas

here, he's kind of unsure of himself still yet.

We're harkening back to the end of season three

where he's like, I just don't have a plan. I

don't have the matrix anymore, and I'm not entirely

sure what to do next. And he's still kind of

here now. But even without that plot device,

when he couldn't come up with a plan, you knew

shit was bad. I mean, if Optimus can't come up

with a plan, there's something really, really

wrong in the universe. Well, there's obviously

something wrong, because not only does he not

have a plan right off the bat, but now he's going

on intuition. He's kind of like, oh, I had a

dream, and it was a nasty dream, and I think

something bad is going to happen. the season

one prime, season two prime wouldn't have had

bad dreams. He would have just known from experience

and prior knowledge of how the world works and

how things are supposed to be. Whereas here,

he's like, well, I'm ahead of a bad feeling about

this. I know you're going to make this connection

later on between Beast Machines and You know

g1 here or rebirth for that matter. Yeah, but

you know, I'm kind of making the equation between

prime having visions and Optimus primal, you

know kind of commuting with the Oracle where

you know, he's like spouting off, you know mystical

mumbo -jumbo and he says to everybody else. Oh,

the seeds of the future are buried in the past,

don't you know? And everyone else is looking

at him like, man, you got to screw loose. And

clearly you're not fit to lead. And Cheetor actually

picks up the mantle and leads in his stead because

the guy's a nutcase. Whereas here, Prime says,

I'm having visions. And everyone else goes, hey,

wow, Prime's led us fine for the last nine million

years. If he has a vision, he's got a vision,

not a big deal. Well, I mean, the beast The beast

stuff will get into once we start the beast and

leash podcast eventually Whenever some really

nice listener will donate the DVDs to me anyways

Seeing as how the other record didn't go through

I wrote this time to say that they will end up

in your stocking I'm having visions and I know

how it's going to happen. Everyone looks at me

and says you are clearly a nutcase and not fit

to lead and kicks my ass off the show. Which

is entirely what I would expect to happen to

Optimus here because he's not the same Optimus.

Yeah, I mean I will agree with you that he is

different, but then again the guy has died twice.

So yeah, he's tired of it. Death does change

people. It's not Transformers without Optimus

Prime dying, though. Well, it's like Primal.

Yeah. They gotta kill him, too. Yeah, well, not

only that, but he stayed dead. Well, Prime stayed

like how Primal was in Beast Machines for the

most part. Like, he was taking like little visions

and things from, you know, Vector Sigma telling

him what to do. yeah but i mean as far as as

far as the death of uh... of the primes primal

actually stayed in the work that whereas technically

not and they have been given him a chance to

come back yet well they did in the comics they

brought him back okay well as far as the tv series

he's dead all in universe yeah anyways uh...

do you have any thoughts on the second episode

steve You cut me off. Screw you. I didn't cut

you off. No, I'm just messing with you. No, I

don't have any comments. Are we talking synopsis

comments or thoughts comments? At this point,

I'm not really sure. I thought this was the thoughts

section. Oh, okay, because we just read through

the synopsis. Not sure. I would come out and

say, though, that You know, they're describing

the hive and they're saying the hive lives deep

underground and machines do everything for them

now and their bodies are withered husks, you

know. And we meet them and Zarek is like... you

know, kissing the 44 inch pythons, going, mwah,

mwah, you know, check out these big guns! Yes,

this is... What are you going to do when Serik

wraps his 44 inch Scorponok pythons around you?

I do actually have to bring something up about

the Hive underground city, but just to go back

a little bit, yes, this is the thoughts for the

second part, not the synopsis version. The fact

that when the Decepticons get tossed down into

the Hive, they end up on the conveyor belt if

you look on the conveyor belt you actually see

the beginning parts of Scorponok with a Decepticon

logo on it okay if the if the hive don't know

who the Decepticons are what they are how the

hell is there part of Scorponok in there with

the Decepticons logo on it Yeah, it looked like

Scorponok in city mode. I didn't see the logo,

but I was like, oh, check it out, Scorponok.

I know what's going to happen next. I'll go back

and I'll take a screenshot for you, because yeah,

I was like, why is that there? And of course,

that's going to come into play a little bit later

in the episode, as the episode ends, where Scorponok

comes out of the ground after the Autobots regain

the key. And then, yeah, we'll talk about that

in the... third part of this discussion on rebirth.

So I think we're gonna go on to the next or the

actual final part of the episode. On the next

exciting episode of the Transformers, Galvatron

transports Cybertron itself into Earth's orbit.

There he opens the deadly plasma energy chamber

and the sun begins to go nova. While on the distant

planet Nebulos, Spike races against time to create

a super headmaster that can defeat the Decepticons

once and for all. The fate of the Autobots, Cybertron,

and Earth hangs in the balance. But who will

survive the most titanic Transformer battle ever?

Find out in the Earth -shattering conclusion

of The Transformers Revert. Last episode, Galvatron,

the treacherous leader of the Decepticons, tried

desperately to gain possession of the key to

the mysterious plasma energy chamber. The battle

for this key led to the distant planet Nebulos,

where a group of Autobots united with Nebulon

rebels to become headmasters and targetmasters.

Two Autobots are better than one, Psyclonus!

So that's where Gort and his rebels have been

hiding. The heads of those metal beings become

robotic exosuits. and where the Decepticons joined

forces with the Merciless Hive. Remove your heads.

Let the transformations begin. To become Decepticon

Headmasters and Targetmasters, risking his very

existence, Optimus Prime entered the supercomputer

Vector Sigma and learned that plasma energy can

destroy machines, robots, even entire stars.

Ennihilate them! But this information may have

come too late Zarak evil leader of the nebulon

hive has succeeded in turning the hives entire

city into a new Decepticon super robot the most

powerful ever created All right, and finally

up today is the third part of rebirth according

to the booklet The saga of the Generation 1 Transformers

comes to a close as Galvatron ignites a powerful

rocket engine on his homeworld, moving Cybertron

closer to Earth. Fortress Maximus and Scorponok,

the largest headmasters ever, battle on Nebulos,

while the activated plasma energy chamber ignites

the sun, causing it to go nova. The fate of Cybertron

and every transformer in creation rests in the

hands of one brave human. If you guys want to

give us some initial thoughts or if somebody

wants to read the first couple of bullet points

that I have because I'm putting the booklet back

in the DVD case here. Take it away, Steve. The

final episode starts with Scorpionok capturing

RC and Daniel as a result of them being headmasters.

The Decepticons all board Scorpionok and decide

to blast off and head for Cybertron, leaving

the Autobots stranded on Nebulos and spike their

building out of the remnants of the old Hive

City. back before they had psychic powers, creating

the start of Fortress Maximus. Yes. The Decepticons

have reached Cybertron, where Galvatron and the

rest of them are battling Ultra Magnus, the remaining

Autobots. The Headmasters and Targetmasters give

the Autobots a beating. The one line I wish I

got, I didn't get it, was when Magnus said, if

only Optimus Prime hadn't left us. It's true,

but pointing out the horrible decision -making

that optimus has inherited from Rodimus. Oh Lord,

you Rodimus hater. But Galvatron wants the organic

beings out of their bodies until Zarek tells

him that he has the key in his city banks. Galvatron

is forced to go along with the headmasters because

they have what he wants. Back on nebula spike

fixes cerebrose and convinces him to help in

the fight to get Daniel back Optimus gets a vision

from Alpha Trion telling him that no harm can

become of the key to the plasma energy chamber

That is a key to a miracle which I know I've

already said that today The Cybertron is gone

the Autobots head for Earth because that's the

one place Galvatron would take it um again, you

know Michael and I are gonna disagree but this

May not be the best of plans, but at least it's

a plan and it actually is a copycat of ultimate

doom as far as taking Cybertron into Earth's

orbit Which they don't actually show on earth

that it actually that Cybertron's gravity does

anything to earth like it did in ultimate doom

Yeah, you think if you brought a moon Well, literally,

Cybertron is about the size of our moon. But

you bring it that close to the planet, there's

going to be all these tidal shifts. You're going

to get all sorts of horrible things happening

on either side, either planet, actually, due

to the gravity wells. But they don't go into

that here. All they say is Galvatron is hell

-bent on destroying everybody on both planets

and blowing up the sun. Which, you know, it makes

a good plan. Yes, I guess it makes a better plan

than what he normally had in season 3. Well again,

Galvatron shouldn't have a plan. But as far as

plans go, it's not a bad plan. I mean if you

want to take out a whole solar system, that would

be the way to do it. Let's see, where do I leave

off? Okay, Galvatron has the key and is going

to put a time delay on opening the... I'm sorry,

if... Pressing one button when scourge opened

it in the first episode Automatically activates

it. Why the hell is this thing gonna have a delay

timer on it? What kind of sense does that make?

It makes almost as much sense as having a giant

off switch Oh, I have wondered about that a cursed

switch Oh wait, there's a button here that reverses

the polarity somebody get me Grimlock On Nebulos,

Spike and Cerebros find the Hive City and use

it to build the Autobots own super headmaster,

Fortress Maximus. One thing I did notice that

I haven't noticed a lot since the movie, Hot

Rod, when Optimus is like, I don't know what's

going on but I'm gonna find out and he transforms,

as they're all driving up, when hot rod transforms

back into robot mode he does a flip just like

he did in the movie a couple of times so it was

that alternate transformation um alter magnus

tells prime that he galvatron has the key nebulons

want to destroy the key but prime says no it's

the it's not to be harmed the nebulons are headed

to destroy the key anyways Boy, them people don't

listen, do they? They head to Scorponok to stop

the Nebulons from destroying the key. Cyclonus

captures Optimus and the others. Which, again,

energy stuff. Energy stuff? The energy bars.

Oh, yeah. As soon as Optimus drives in, energy

bars come down on them, holding them captive.

Yeah. Yeah, okay. He's like, I'm going to immobilize

you with the energy whips. There you go, now

you're screwed. Galvatron opens the chamber,

Spike and Cerebro show up with the Autobot Super

Headmaster Fortress Maximus, and basically a

battle ensues with Fort Max pretty much not allowing

the Decepticons to do shit because there's so

many guns on the thing. A battle ensues between

him and Scorponok, which I thought that was super

cool. I actually took a screenshot. It's on the

forums, PredatorEmpire .com slash CafeSpark,

that the Scorponok and Fort Max are like face

to face. It was like, you know, just the kind

of like a wrestling pose type of deal. Like I'm

going to get in your face now. So I thought that

was that was pretty cool. After Fort Max knocks

Scorponok back into city mode, he transforms

and Spike heads to rescue Daniel. He frees Prime

and the others and argues with Optimus about

rescuing his son, gets Daniel and R .C. free,

but the chamber has been opened already. All

the Autobots are dying, or dead, and Prime breathes

to Spike that the chamber must be closed. Spike

says that it won't stop the sun from going nova.

And, you know, prime says vector sigma promised

a miracle. Spike gets the idea to reverse the

rocket's polarity, which that seemed illogical

to me. There's the reverse polarity. Yes. Switch.

You hit the switch and it reverses the polarity.

I don't know. So, you know, they... They reverse

the rocket, bringing the excess solar energy

straight into vector sigma. This restores Cybertron

and the Golden Age has come again. Optimus Prime

tells Cerebros that there may always be Decepticons,

but he has a different task for him. Nebulos

Prime tells the Nebulons that they must become

masters of their own fate, and he tells Cerebros

that he will live there as the world's guardian.

The episode and the G1 series ends with Galvatron

and Zarek arguing over who will rule the galaxy.

up until about three days ago, ruled a planet.

And now he's just kind of floating through space.

And I have to evoke Team Rocket again. Because

when they finally blew up Scorponok, it just

kind of went... Team Rocket blasting off again.

So you've got Galvatron and Lord Zarek bickering

back and forth. uh... forever i think i actually

have that uh... but here is the end of g one

There's a giant rocket crusher about 2 ,000 meters

away. Can you reverse its polarity from output

to intake? It can be done, I suppose. Then do

it! I'm gonna shut down the chamber! Instead

of putting out energy, it's gonna drive in, straight

to vector sigma. Hold your breath, everyone,

and pray. solar energy restored Cybertron. Daniel,

are you all right? Now that you're here, Arcee.

Cerebros, we're all safe. I'm very glad to hear

that, Spike. And now that you don't need me anymore,

please deactivate me. What? Are you out of your...

I don't want to fight anymore. Please, Spike,

shut me down forever. No way. You've got to see

this. Thanks to you and spike You don't have

to fight anymore Yeah That's just really really

cool Yes, and you know David wise even said in

the in the interview that you know They wanted

to give the Autobots a happy ending and as prime

said even though there may always be Decepticons,

you know At least they have a happy ending for

now. At least their planet's revived. And yeah,

I mean, for the entire season three, they had

control, the Autobots had control of Cybertron,

but it was still a rundown wreck. They can happily

go and blow up everybody else's. Here we go.

We're not getting into that. We're not getting

into that. I'm just saying. The whole time they

say Cybertron is so much better, but now finally

Cybertron's restored. And I know you're going

to make the parallel, but in not the same way.

I'll make the parallel when we get to the thoughts

section. Steve, do you have any initial thoughts

on the plot for the third and final episode of

Rebirth? Steve? Steve! That's him story. No,

he's gone. Yep Steve left didn't even realize

that Well, we can close off the synopsis here

and yes, we can do that so we're gonna go on

to our thoughts All right, it is time for our

thoughts on rebirth part three, this is the final

part of the story Overall I think this is a nice

ending for the Autobots at least Of course the

the Decepticon thread is always gonna loom But

at least it's you know not friggin headmasters

where optimus prime dies again You know so You

guys have any thoughts on the final part of rebirth

I liked the third episode basically because there

was actual character development here. There

was stuff going on that didn't have to do with

introducing 20 new characters. That's because

they were already introduced. Well yeah, exactly.

I mean in the first episode they introduced 20

new characters. In the second episode they introduced...

you know, all the target masters, all the headmasters.

And now that everybody's introduced, well, with

the exception of Fort Max, right? Everyone is

introduced, they can start fighting, and we can

see where this is going to take us. Yeah. Oh,

yeah. So, you know, on that level, I mean, I

think that was what's really aggravated me about

the first two episodes was there's very little

story going on because we're Constantly being

introduced to new characters, you know, even

if it's just hi, my name is pinpointer and I

shoot things You know, do I really need to see

that? Granted I did because you know, they're

introducing all new toys, but at the same time

it's like man, you know There's too many introductions

here. Yes What did you think Steve? Well, it's

definitely the best of the three Yeah, and it

wraps things up rather nicely instead of With

really any big loose ends, but it just Shows

that things will continue as they always have

throughout the series. Oh, yeah And I will take

this opportunity to point out the only part I'm

going to point out really is a comparison is

when in rebirth where they take the energy from

the Sun and revitalize Cybertron And then in

Beast Machines, in game part three, Seeds of

the Future, Primal and Megatron get into a battle

and a giant explosion happens. All of a sudden,

all the sparks from the Maximals or the Beast

Machines, Transformers, people, whatever, are

back. Rattrap's back, Cheetor, Blackarachnia,

Silverbolt, everybody's back. Cybertron has been

reformatted into a techno organic planet And

I think that you know that it does resemble rebirth

very much just in that aspect of the two storylines

being You know kind of the same As far as the

reformatting of the of the planet now Whether

that's you know if people want to disagree, that's

fine but that's just the way that i see it and

because i think that's where they got uh... the

uh... you know where these machines got that

storyline was reformatting the planet yeah it

was from G1 i think the big difference here is

that in G1 the planet has been ravaged by the

great war still hasn't been properly rebuilt

uh... and with all this access plasma energy

or sun energy or whatever, going into vector

sigma then being able to rebuild the planet and

encode it in gold, no less, which is kind of

neat. Whereas in these machines, the planet is

in fine shape and I'm assuming because the recoding

in gold happened thousands of years previously.

In that timeline. Yeah, but you know the planets

in fine shape But it's just devoid of life Yes,

yes of you know Megatron's virus but when all

these sparks come back somehow that also Changes

the planet from you know pure metal into the

metal and kind of a metal and Organic mix a techno

-organic planet. Well, I mean I I agree with

you there As far as the differences, but I mean

the main the main similarities that I'm pointing

out is in both cartoons in both episodes that

you know, they are Similar in how the reformatting

goes but yet they're different But I mean it's

still you know when I first saw that in Beast

Machines when I first ever watched that on the

DVD I'm like, oh wow, it's rebirth Beast Machine

style Yeah, yeah, I can see that. I mean, I actually

thought the end of Beast machines was much more

epic than the end of rebirth. Oh, yeah I will

agree with that. Yes Yeah, um and before we move

on I will play X. Oh, what wait what huh? Sorry.

No, go ahead. I was gonna say I actually had

the thought that I was gonna throw out there

Okay, well throw it out there. Okay, then Well,

you know, I think we had mentioned earlier about

Cerebros his alt mode being like a little tiny

Fort Max. Yes Yeah, and I thought that that the

scale was thrown completely out because there's

Autobot standing there in front of a you know

a Forth max half their size, but it was in fact

Cerebros in his alt mode. Mm -hmm Yep, which

I thought was kind of strange But you know harkening

back to Cerebros and his I don't want to fight

anything You know, I'm gonna go back to Peridrone

where the whole planet's full of pacifists who

don't want to fight And and you know Rodimus

Prime basically comes in and says yes You will

fight you a bunch of pusses because if you don't

I'll put my foot in your ass You're just a Rodimus

hater, but I mean you know I I will bring this

up now Throughout the entire g1 cartoon there

has always been in one season or another one

character who does not want to fight Season one

it was mirage season two was Actually season

two and three I believe was first aid I know

it was first aid in season three. I don't know

who it was in two and then obviously you have

cerebros here So at least they're trying to give

off some good message and not just total cartoon

robot on robot violence No, they just had robo

hippies Robo hippies right peace man Well, there's

a scene that they didn't show here where uh...

you know uh... spike is working on cerebral sin

and cerebral says you know i'm not gonna fight

you can't make me fight and spikes as you know

you're a giant push your fight with the like

it or not and then hot rod comes in and says

you're a giant push your fight whether you like

it or not no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no He's

he's basically saying that skylinks comes in

and shits out a giant pile of guns That's what

happens And then spike says that's a huge fucking

pile of guns skylinks I think I'm gonna put that

on the sides of my city and next thing You know,

you've got this city with an impossible amount

of guns raining down fire on the Decepticons

skylings shit out all that that's what happened

going god he had enough doesn't to arm an entire

planet oh my god you are crazy uh... so before

we move on to the uh... next part of the episode

i'm going to play this as this world's guardian

thank you all comes from it's a miracle we finally

got this flying jump pile of your state You were

the idiot who opened the plasma energy chamber

Galvatron. Silence! There is much to do. We will

attack other planets. We will suck them dry.

We will rebuild the planet a hundred times more

powerful than Cybertron. And I will rule the

galaxy! Who will rule the galaxy? Me! It is my

destiny! We shall see Galvatron. And I must say

about the clip and I didn't mention this before

is I mean majority of these voice actors for

the most part are ones that have been throughout

the entire series with the exception of Vincent

Price who played Zarek the only other place as

far as animation that I know him from was he

was the the headmaster and I don't mean robot

but the headmaster for the 13 ghosts of Scooby

-Doo Yeah price Well, he was in he voiced the

character in that oh As far as voice acting goes

though, he's an animal Well back in the day Vincent

Price was like Mr. Horror. Um, but that's I didn't

realize that he was he was Zarek because I was

thinking Zarek has a very cool voice and price

Yeah, I didn't realize it was fantastic and before

we go on to our overall G1 recap and I'm going

to talk about the season 3 part 2 and season

4 set. I think we need to hear Rat Trap just

because we kind of talked about Beast Machines

earlier. Somebody called me up. I don't think

it was Jay. I don't know who was it was somebody

at Sunbow and I can't remember who now Sorry,

whoever you were and said we're doing a five

parter Transformers And we want you to write

it and it's going to be the whole season. It's

just gonna be this five parter. Yeah five parter

and Keyword there five parter and I went sure

because you guys pay more for your scripts than

Marvel ever did Cool. And also, it's a Transformers,

and I hadn't done it for a year and a half, and

I actually sort of missed it. And I went, OK,

show me what you got. And he said, well, we've

got these new characters. We've got these things

called head masters and target masters. And when

they show me the thing, and I count it, it's

something like 130, because the heads become

robots, and the bodies are robots, and the heads

become vehicles, and the bodies become vehicles,

and the weapons of the heads also are robots

that become, you know, And it was like 130 characters

or something like that. And I was like, I can

do this. Five parts. I can do this. It's basically,

you know, there are times when you can't do what

you want and what you do is you take your marching

order. And this was what we call the toy parade.

It was literally like, get the toys out. It's

just to show the toys. You know, and it was the

nature of it was, you know, it's not like I could

go, oh, no, my artistic integrity will not allow

me to do this. Give me some other transformer

toys. to write about because those were the toys

for that year's wave of Transformers. The problem

was, I mean there was a clever idea, they were

clever ideas as toys, but they didn't really

make for great characters because you have these

sort of, you have these double robots and they

were like a line. There was like twelve headmasters

and there were twelve target masters and there

were twelve and how do you start differentiating

and doing character and you know all that kind

of stuff when you've got these guys who are sort

of more or less identical so basically the first

problem that faces you as a writer with a show

like that is how do you introduce like a hundred

and thirty how do you create because we couldn't

ideally I would just take them as like they were

created before the beginning of the show and

now we're coming on. They're pre -existing. That

saves you a lot of headache. But the thing is,

there were like Autobot headmasters and there

were Decepticon headmasters. And it's like, well,

wait a minute. They both thought this idea up

independently. It's like, you have no choice

but to show how they make it about how they got

created. Because first of all, it's such a wacky

idea. And second, it's like they both sides have

them. So obviously, You know, I mean, that leads

you to suggest one side comes up with them, and

the other side goes, oh, darn, they've got, you

know, which we had as one of them doomsday devices,

you know, and now we've got to make our own headmasters.

So the story immediately became about how these

characters came into being, and... I thought

I actually did a fairly clever idea of coming

up with this whole idea of this planet where

there was a rebellion and there was this thing

called the Hive and they were just mind people

because they're going to go in the heads of the

headmasters and all that kind of stuff. And that

became the thrust of the plot. And I, you know,

worked on characters for the individual headmasters

and whatnot and it was like really, it was really

tight. With five episodes it was really tight.

But it managed to play out as sort of a semi

-character thing. And I wrote the story outline,

and I turned it into Sunbow of the whole five

-parter, and they called back and they said,

we love it, it's great, everything's wonderful,

we've had a budget cutback, it's a three -parter.

And I went, you've got to be freaking kidding

me. A three -parter? And I did some very quick

math in my head, and I said, you know, if we

brought these, with all the different characters

we have to introduce, the new Transformer characters

to introduce, if we brought them out like sequentially,

We would be bringing on a new character, something

like every 28 seconds. I mean, literally. It

was somewhere between 30 and 90 seconds. I forget

exactly. I have to redo the math. But it was

ridiculous. So they said, just bring them on

in gangs. Just bring on all 12 at once and all

12 at once, which is what we wound up doing.

It's still the silliest thing in the world for

these guys. It's not so much that they come on

and they've got these individual personalities.

I don't know. go to, what is the machine that

gives the Transformers their personalities? Oh

god, there's 18 ,000 fans out there going, it's

Vector Sigma! Okay, Vector Sigma. I don't think

they got their personalities from Vector Sigma.

Oh, because they were organic in nature. We actually,

because of the, we actually use people in this,

the hive minds and whatnot. So they would have

personalities, although they really had nothing

much to do with their personalities before they

became headmasters. But I loved how, it's like,

but they have to have the name. You know, yeah,

I'm bullseye and I'm, you know, I'm big brain

and I'm, you know, it's like, it's like more

importantly, it's not just that I've been turned

into this weird cybernetic creature, but I got

this neat name, you know. So what we wound up

doing was cutting out just a chunks of story.

and plot -like substance out of the thing, and

just bringing these guys on in gangs. So while

that obviously didn't thrill me, there was one

thing in doing this that I really liked, and

to this day I still like about those three episodes,

which is I kind of knew going in this was going

to be the end of the Transformers, and of course

it wasn't the end of the Transformers, but it

was the end of these Transformers. There was

no place in the plot, really, for Optimus Prime,

because there was so much stuff going on. But

I loved Optimus Prime. I was very glad that they

brought him back, and I think it was Marv Wolfman

who brought him back. I was talking the other

day to Wendy Peeney, who is one of the great

comic book creators of this or any generation.

She does ElfQuest. And she's a big cartoon fan,

and she mentioned... or I mentioned Optimus Prime,

and she said, the greatest leader character in

the history of, like, you know, superheroes.

I said, absolutely right. He is, like, one of

the greatest characters I've ever written for.

And the reason he works so well, and the fans,

I mean, the fans brought him back, right? I mean,

they killed him off in the movie. Why'd they

kill him off? Well, the toy was not selling anymore,

right? And the fans just screamed, and they had

to bring him back. Early on, I heard from my

friend Bryce Malek, who's the story editor of

the first 65 Transformers co -story editor with

Dick Robbins, that very early on, Jeffrey Scott,

who's a very well -known animation writer, was

brought in to do some development on Transformers.

And his big contribution was on Optimus Prime,

he said, he's Abe Lincoln. And I was like, that's

brilliant. Of course, with malice toward none.

Here's this guy who's there stuck on Earth. They're

in a desperate situation. He's got all these

fractious personalities who are constantly, you

know, butting up against each other and having

rivalries and whatnot. And he's the guy who can

handle all of them. Just the most fantastic leader,

even though he's a straight arrow and he really

has no irony or anything. Just a great leader

character. So, um, and in fact, such a great

leader character that I actually, there was a

show I did called Kremzik, which was about these

little energy demons, and I always called it

my, my Road Runner episode of Transformers. It

was the Transformers we tried to, where we tried

to do a Road Runner cartoon, because Megatron

sends this little guy over, this little ready

kilowatt energy guy, and he can jump into any

of the Autobots and immediately shut them down,

make them go crazy, and they make their heads

spin around, they shut down, and like 92 % of

the Autobots get clobbered in the first like

three minutes of this thing. Spike and his dad

come up with this way of insulating optimus prime

and like three other the last three remaining

ones And they chase after me jumps into their

screen. He's off to Japan He can ride this this

character can ride radio means anything electrical

we can ride on he's in Japan They got to take

Omega supreme and go over to Japan They're there

and there's this and they're chasing him and

it just gets worse and worse and worse and worse

and worse And all the way through they keep there's

a running thing up. They keep asking prime. Okay

What's the plan? Who's had time to think of a

plan? What are you talking about? So what was

wonderful about that was because he was always

such an in -control character, when he says the

situation is out of control, you really believe

it. It's really out of control. He was a great

character, and I wanted to involve him deeply

somehow in these final episodes of the original

Transformers. So I came up with this whole idea

of... this mystical vision coming to him from

Omega Supreme that all of this horrible stuff

that was happening with this whole new war that

seemed to be happening was actually for a good

purpose. And the good purpose winds up being

the rebirth of Cybertron. And granted, it was

corny the way we did it, and certainly not the

most scientific. We pulled all the energy out

of a sun or something silly like that. Those

are the moments I call, OK, engage the bologna

drive. But that it finally gave the Autobots

a happy ending, that they got Cybertron back.

And in a way set up, if they had wanted to take

it this way, where here the Decepticons are now

completely exiled and disenfranchised, and the

Autobots have the planet that they've been fighting

over all these years. Optimus Prime is something

as massive to do as basically solving what has

been the Autobots problem from show one, which

is our home world is destroyed and we're stuck

on Earth. I loved being able to do that. That

was worth just bringing on those gangs of headmasters

and target masters in huge numbers and they had

no characters to speak of and you couldn't follow

who was who or what was what. The basic problem

and why we couldn't do what I was talking about

with doing character stories is just the toy

line. There were too many toys, they were all

too similar. That was a slight problem. I did

a two -parter called the Keta Vector Sigma, where

we created the aerial bots, who were the flying

Autobots, and the Stuntacons, who were the driving

Decepticons. Those are vehicles that neither

side had had before. And they were like, I think,

four each or five each. And you can only give

one or two of them really strong personalities.

So whenever you have a gang, you just are not

doing your strong character show. And I mean,

we had like 100, I swear, it's like something

like 130 on this. It was, you know, that the

show, that those three episodes remotely are

watchable is like almost a miracle. But I really

did all the stuff, the stuff with the head mass

and what I didn't like, but the stuff with Optimus

Prime, I just loved, I loved being able to write

that character again. How Cerebros sort of came

to be the lone voice in the wilderness is...

It just sort of came out of logical thinking

and again It's something that got cut way back

when it went when it got scrunched down from

five episodes to three but You assume that the

intelligent people are going to become the heads.

It's just logical thinking and That then led

me to think well, you know an intelligent person

would be against all this war and therefore we

must have a character who says What he really

is, is Adlai Stevenson. in the Situation Room

or the Oval Office or whatever where they're

having the meetings on the Cuban Missile Crisis

and do we blockade? Do we actually go in and

attack? And all these generals are pushing for

these hawkish moves against Cuba. And Adlai Stevenson

said, why don't we just openly talk with them?

And nobody wanted to do that because it sounded

like appeasement, like what Neville Chamberlain

had done with Hitler. And, but somebody had to

do it. Afterwards, JFK said somebody had, Adelaide,

Adelaide did the thing that somebody had to do.

And my feeling was somebody had to, had to say,

you know, this is wrong, no matter what, this

kind of violence is wrong. And also I thought,

oh, what a sneaky little thing to put in a Sunbow

show, where there's like the sort of the wall

to wall, no consequence violence, because there

were, and this also coming from a guy who tried

to write, the single most violent episode of

Transformers, which was called War Dawn. It got,

it got, I actually wrote a sequence that was

so violent, they cut it, that Sunbow or somebody

cut it back. I don't know if you remember War

Dawn, but that was, it's actually one of my two

favorite episodes that I wrote. It, we had created

the aerial bots who were the flying Autobots.

And they were young and naive. And I thought,

well, there's, There was something about Rambo

was really big at the time and and and and in

Schwarzenegger movies and one and there was a

sort of love of this sort of macho Character

and and I thought what if somebody could see

the reality behind that? So I had these naive

new newly born Autobots go well. You know the

Decepticons are really powerful. That's you know

You know maybe we're on the wrong side these

guys. You know Kevin Iron will And the leader,

who's sort of the insecure one, going, you know,

guys, not really. So what we then did was threw

them back in time. That leads them into a Decepticon

trap on Cybertron that throws them back in time

to literally two days or a day before the war

between the Decepticons and the Autobots started.

And they get to see firsthand the consequences

of war. They make friends with a robot named

Orion Pax and his girlfriend Ariel and another

robot. And there was some wonderful bonding stuff

that they wound up cutting out of the episode

which would have made it. The script was perfect.

The episode had a few problems. And they bond.

And they go, wow, these are great guys. And then

the war starts. I said, I'm going to write the

first shop in this. millennia -long war between

these two forces. And it's going to be because,

okay, if you haven't seen the episode and you're

a Transformers fan, just turn the volume down

now, okay, because this is spoiler warning, okay,

spoiler ahead. Orion Pax is going to be reborn

as Optimus Prime. But he needs to be killed first

to be reborn as Optimus Prime. And so he's going

to be the first one to get shot, and he's going

to get shot by Megatron. And this is Megatron's,

even though chronologically, obviously, we'd

seen a whole lot of Megatron before this. So,

you know, really in the chronology of the show,

this is the first bad thing Megatron ever does.

I always believe that the villain has to kick

the dog, and the harder the villain kicks the

dog and the nastier the villain kicks the dog,

the better it is because the more you go, oh,

yes, when the villain gets it at the end. So,

in the script... Orion Pax, soon to be Optimus

Prime, comes up to Megatron and goes, hi, what

are you doing? Oh, I'm just doing some unloading.

And he goes, well, you're not supposed to be

in here. And Megatron goes, oh, I can be wherever

I want. And he whips out his blaster. He shoots

Optimus Prime at point blank range. And this

they actually did keep in. He shoots Orion Pax

right in the shoulder at point blank range. That

part they kept in. He blows his arm off. And

this they didn't keep in. He takes his arm. and

decapitates him with it. That they cut. But I'm

the guy who wrote the anti -war scenes, and I

have this sort of weird duality about me. But

that was probably, and that never made quite

final error in that form. But the scene is still

moderately disturbing, even the way they did

it. But I just love that, just to knock his head

off with his own arm. And then when he's reborn

at the end of the episode, his opposite of his

prime, and Megatron goes, who are you? And he

goes, you're our worst nightmare. Boom, you're

like, yes. Last night I was talking to somebody

and they said, you know the new turtles are looking

for a writer. Why don't you go talk to them?

And I was like, you know, I did 100 episodes.

I think I made my statement in that. And then

I was thinking, is there any show that I would

ever, if they brought to me that I ever want

to write before again? And it was Transformers.

Turtles will always be my favorite show because

I am those four guys I just took myself or who

I wish I was and broke myself into four pieces

and put it into those guys But number two would

absolutely have to be transformers because they

were such great characters That's why it still

lives is is not you know it isn't because of

You know the width the G and all the folding

and all that What got it started was like any

of these kids phenomenons from from Transformers

to Pokemon to Power Rangers is it's the thing

kids get that adults totally don't understand

You could see the kids could do the transformations

with it, you know in two seconds and their fathers

would be going You know and it makes kids feel

empowered But what kept what has kept such a

strong fan base alive is They're just great characters.

It was a great situation. It somehow or other,

this very crass commercial setup of we've got

192 toys that we need to publicize came together

in such a way that it was the lightning in the

bottle that you every once in a while hear about.

And I was actually thinking just last night,

you know, I wish they'd bring them back. I actually,

I have a couple of story ideas. So in my heart,

it's second only to turtles. I really enjoyed

working on it. Alright, because this is the final

episode of the TFG1 podcast, episode 24, which

I just realized will be released on the 24th

day of the month. I don't know how the hell I

worked that into being ironic, but we're going

to talk about the season, well I am going to

talk about the season 3 part 2 and season 4 DVD

set. I think this is my favorite, just the box

itself is my favorite set overall because you

have a purple an orangeish Autobot logo on the

front of it. The special features that are on

this set, besides the digital transfer and the

Dolby Digital surround or Dolby Digital 5 .1,

there's an interview with David Wise. I believe

there is some PSAs on here. And then there is

the, you can actually watch Rebirth as a film

instead of the three episode type. you know to

be continued type deals um so that's really cool

again it opens up and we see um the actual scene

where the nebulons have excuse me captured all

of the autobots and it doesn't really open up

anymore to to reveal another scene because this

is actually the thinnest set out of all of them

um out of all the rhinos sets um Again, it's

you know, the discs are color -coded to the back

of each one of their things purple yellow and

gray Overall, you know just for this set by itself.

I you know, obviously if you're a G1 fan, you're

gonna want the Even though the audio and the

Rhino things are screwed up and it's not the

true audio broadcast audio It's still good to

have them because at the time it was the only

version of the G1 cartoon that we had on DVD

And of course Shout Factory has released their

complete series Matrix Edition, which I have

been officially proven wrong. All of the subsequent

seasons of individual sets that Shout Factory

will be putting out, all of those features like

the Autobot Triple Changer in the first season

set is actually on the Matrix set. Kevin, my

co -host over at Tooncast told me that... All

of the features that are in he said it actually

says season one features season two features

season three features So he said there's like

three full discs of special features, which I

think is super super cool Nice yes nice So I

think we're gonna start with Steve on overall

g1 memories what you know Out, you know, just

include anything and everything you'd like to

talk about Like what was your favorite? maybe

episode or what was your favorite moment or favorite

quote or whatever? Probably my favorite characters

overall that I think withstood the entire run

of the series would have to be Prime and Starscream.

Two of the characters that I most enjoyed throughout

the entire saga next to Megatron who disappeared

after the movie. As for my favorite episode,

I would have to say probably next to the Starscream

episodes, I'd have to say the return of Optimus

Prime was the most epic for me. Probably the

second part, actually. Just because you get to

see Prime actually get back into the thick of

things. little bit unsure of him's More human

than what he's been in the past. Yeah, and probably

Although there were a lot of gimmicks and screw

-ups and some of the show I think overall it

was a great show to watch for the 80s and one

not to be missed so If one has a chance I would

recommend getting it from shout Factory Yes,

and I did see Shot Factory actually replied to,

I guess, a question one of my other Toycast hosts

sent in to them on Twitter. GeneralTechno asked

them something about the Matrix set, and I didn't

see what he asked, but they replied to him, we

did not bring all of the Matrix sets to Comic

-Con. You will have four to five weeks after

Comic -Con to still order one, and it will still

be available, so hopefully some generous listener

will. Go to the website and get one for me because

I don't think I'm gonna be able to come up with

the money in that amount of time to To get one

and I really don't want to miss out on it No,

they're not no they are not shop factor has specifically

said that they will not be for general release

at all They are an exclusive Set type of deal

through them through the transformers collector

set comm once they're sold out. That's it They

won't make any more, I don't think. But I remember,

because Techno had asked them a couple about

a month ago if it was ever coming to general

release, because he doesn't like ordering online.

And they said, no. As of right now, it is not

coming to general release at all. See, and that's

why I'm just because, one, I can't afford to

drop that much money at once. I'm just going

to buy them separately as they get released because

chances are I'll get them on sale for like 17

bucks and in the long run we'll save about 50,

60 bucks even though I won't get the cool case.

You won't get the cool case, you won't get the

voice actor panel. That's going to be online

within hours. I'm sure at some point I'll see

it. What are your overall memories, favorite

episodes, favorite characters from G1, Michael?

I think most of my favorite characters come out

of the first and second seasons. I really like

the Dinobots. I really like the Insecticons.

Soundwave. was always one of my favorites. We

didn't hear a lot out of him, but whenever he

was on the screen, it was exciting for me. And

again, I'm talking about my 12 -year -old self.

I really like those early characters from 84,

85. Yeah, I mean I do have to agree the first

two seasons had a lot of great characters I will

always my main Decepticon favorites will always

be Soundwave and Aster Train As far as the Autobots

Optimus is a given I Did like blaster, but I

didn't like him as much as I did Soundwave And

then obviously hot rod he was cool Rodimus but

that's just my picks and then as you know the

movie came through I mean the movie is just epic

yeah yeah there are some flubs in it you know

obviously with dead iron hide floating across

the battle platform on the but i mean you know

that is just a thing if anyone you know my god

told me this one time if i think it's actually

on our episode sixteen roundtable on if anyone

wants to get into animation they should watch

it you know go to animation school or it should

be recommended viewing that they view tf tm just

because it was you know done so well musically

and Just the story itself was very, very good.

Would this be, and I know, Steve, you don't have

kids, but would this be something that you guys,

the overall cartoon, showed to your kids? Yes.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I've actually shown it to my

nephews. I remember when Armada was out and they

showed Unicron and... You know, there was all

these things going on and my nephews were like,

oh, I love Unicron and that's the coolest thing.

And it's like, you know what? You haven't seen

Unicron yet. I'm going to show you Unicron and

it's going to blow your mind completely. And

yeah, we sat down, we watched Transformers the

movie and their mind was sufficiently blown.

Yes. I may actually have to go watch that while

I'm. While this is recording to edit after a

while, after we're done here. But I think we're

going to go into the closing unless you guys

have any final thoughts on the G1 cartoon overall.

Would you like to say anything, either one of

you? No. I was going to say, if I had to pick

a favorite episode, it'd probably be the first

one when the Autobots could still fly. Yeah Yeah,

but they introduced the characters and you know

Prime you know has an axe and Megatron has the

flail and it's just it's just a terribly cool

introduction to the characters Yes, yes, it was

so we are going to End this part of the show

and then go into the I'll probably put some ads

in In between this in the outro, so we're gonna

leave you with this Never quit us on! This world

is ours! Optimus Prime shall die again! What

is this? Now light our darkest hour. Stan Bush

here and you're listening to the TFG one podcast

fulfilling all your generation one transformers

needs 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. This is TFG1 Mike and we just ended

the 24th episode of the TFG1 Podcast. I would

just like to thank everyone, thank all the listeners

for listening. Please continue to listen. If

you're six months down the road and you're like,

oh wow, I want to remember G1 but I don't have

the DVDs or I don't have the new Matrix set or

whatever else, you can come to the TFG1 Podcast

on iTunes and GeekCastRadio .com. Listen and

reminisce about this awesome 80s cartoon. I would

like to thank all of the listeners again I very

much appreciate it. This was my first podcasting

thing And I believe I found my voice in doing

this considering I do Nine other shows with my

buddy Steve Megatron over on geekcastradio .com

So this is just an awesome run. It was an awesome

ride I'm sorry to see it end, but I wanted to

end it on a good note, which was the rebirth

saga. So please tune in to the TFG1 podcast.

Thank you for joining us here on the TFG1 podcast.

There are several ways to get in contact with

us or leave feedback for the show. The first

is you can visit the geekcastradio .com website

and find all the other GCR and podcasts there.

The second is that you can stop by PredaconEmpire

.com slash CafeSpark and get all your GCRN slash

Transformers discussion topics there. The third

is you can leave us show feedback on iTunes.

Yes, please do this. We need reviews. Five star

feedback is appreciated. The fourth is you can

visit our forum topics over at earth -2 .net

under the self -promotion section. And the fifth

is the email address, which is dfg1podcast at

gmail .com. You can also follow us on Twitter.

The show name there is TFG1 podcast mine or whoops.

Yeah, and what are your all's Twitter's? SCP

-21 And mine would be pecan court Michael P E

C A N C T M I C H A E L M O U S E Mickey Mouse,

and I would just like to say before I go into

the closing line The TFG1 podcast is ending.

This will be the last live episode for a long

time Probably until I can get a matrix set and

I will probably come back with a 25th episode

It's been just awesome doing this. This is my

first podcast Originally it was going to take

two years But I fast -tracked it to six months

Due to geekcastradio .com launching. Yes, exactly

and all the other shows that we're doing right

now You know, it's just been a complete blast.

I've enjoyed, you know a lot of the email and

a lot of the Twitter's, you know people have

uh... followed me on their uh... special interactions

and uh... interview yes i cannot thank stan bush

enough for the interview that he did with me

on the sixteenth episode that was so super cool

uh... and you know i'm just glad that this will

be out there for as long as steve and i are alive

i guess i don't know uh... you know what you

can always go to itunes and search for it you

can go to the the cast radio website and uh...

You know, look for episodes there, which it also

has the Feedburner link there. So for now, I

am TFG1Mike with Steve slash Megatron Phillips

and Michael Wilson saying the immortal words

of Optimus Prime. Autobots, roll out! Perhaps

for the last time. And thank you for listening

until we meet again.