Origins of Eric ‘Plow King’ on Customizing Transformers

Hey, it's Jack here, and I'm listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, it's Jack. Make

sure you check out All Things Transformers. I

listen when I'm riding around Jasper with RC.

This is Optimus Prime, and you're listening to

All Things Transformers. Hello and welcome to

an all new generation of all things Transformers

as we get the origins of any and all Transformers

fans that we can. I am of course TF2 and Mike.

Joining me this time around is our lovely guest.

He is the king of customizers in the Transformers

world or at least one of them anyway. And I was

told by someone else that they wouldn't do any

other podcasts with me until I had this guest

on. So Nemesis Predaking, you owe me podcasts.

Damn it. There you go. It was of course, Eric,

AKA Plow King. How's it going? It's going. Sometimes

I wish it would stop, but it's going. Right,

right. So we have 25, 26. I need to round these

questions out at some point or another, but we

have 25, 26 questions that we ask all Transformers

fans. First of all, and you told this story to

me. When we did our test recording, but since

I don't publish test recordings, I will have

you retell it. Where'd you get the name Plow

King from? Because it ain't from the Simpsons,

apparently. Correct. Ah, white gold. What's this?

What's that? Ah! I don't... Hi, Ohoma! Say hello

to the Plow King! Uh... So back in the day, I

work at a wastewater treatment plant. And the

area that I was, I guess, quote unquote, responsible

for is where we actually took the, we call it

sludge, out of the wastewater. And this piece

of machinery has plows on it. And so I just took

that name and... Also, at the time when I first

started signing up at Ford's, I actually had

a black Jeep with a snow plow on it. Okay. So

I just put all that stuff together and, you know,

the Simpsons was just a convenient reference

at the time. And, you know, when everybody hears

plow king, they automatically Take it as Oh since

his reference. Okay fine We can roll with that

Sure, why not and the funny thing is specifically

for this episode I actually went back and looked

at some of the Plow King stuff on the Simpsons

and I Blame Homer Yes, Homer never gave Barney

that first beer Barney would have been a college

-educated Yes. Oh, man. Yes. Oh, could you, Barney?

After all I've done for you. Lacrimosis to dyspeptic

as ebullient is to effervescent. All right. Harvard,

here I come. Psst. Barney, my dad's asleep. Want

a beer? I don't know. The SATs are tomorrow.

I've got two words for you. Mellow out, man.

All right. Just one. It'll get you off my back.

Hey, where have you been all my life? Homer Simpson,

you jackass. That's right. All right, getting

into Transformers. These first five questions.

You know are getting to know you so the audience

can get to know you even though we probably already

know some of these answers. Did you grow up with

Transformers and at what age do you remember

first noticing the franchise? I want to say it

had to be either eighth or ninth grade. So like

14, 15, maybe somewhere in there. Oh, you're

a late bloomer. Yeah, I can, I can remember.

You know Russian home after school because the

g1 cartoon was coming on TV So I can remember,

you know, this was probably You know had to be

like 85 86 somewhere in there. Yep. I can remember,

you know after school Russian home You know,

I live here in Michigan and it was either channel

20 or channel 51 of the two Uh, and you know,

rush home, get in the house, turn the TV on,

grab a big old cup of Kool -Aid and sit back

and watch Transformers. Awesome. Awesome. Very

cool. Yeah, I did that and, uh, later on got,

you know, discovered the comics and stuff like

that. And, uh, what happened though, one day

I rushed home and You know back then is not like

how TV is now. It's amazing right when you think

back You know, you know back then you had TV

guy. That was it. Yeah, you know I remember rushing

home and turning on a television and there were

no transformers. I was like What the hell, you

know, so maybe it's coming on later. So I'd stay

stuck around and didn't come on later. So then

the next day I rushed home even more so You know,

so maybe it's coming on earlier. No wouldn't

come on earlier. It was just done. You know,

it had come to an end Yeah, I think with you

being older And because you're saying 80 86 87

you were 14 15 in middle school. I was just starting

kindergarten at that point. So Yes, yes, sadly

I am Young old person anyway, you know, so I

think it was just shy of you know Your age range

with you know, you're not being you know young

enough at the time to get the whole Full -body

experience I guess because I never got to see

the the theatrical G1 movie in the theaters I

never got to see that. My parents were rather

strict. So I fell off after that. It was like,

OK, well, ain't no Transformers on. I'm going

to go outside and play. And that was it. I kind

of fell off after that. And I mean, I noticed

there was stuff that came on after the Beast

series and all those others in between. But I

don't think I picked up another TV show until

Cybertron came out. Oh, wow. So it was that big

of a gap. Wow. All right. So what Transformers

generation is your generation and why? It would

have to be. Well, it wouldn't have to be. I like

a little bit of all of it, but I would probably

have to give reference to the original, the G1,

because that's what I grew up on. That's what

hooked me when I was a kid and because of that,

I'm still hooked to a degree now. I can't go

in a toy store without going to the toy aisle

to look and see what transformers they got in,

if any. When Toys R Us was still open here. I

own days after work, you know, if it was a hard

day or a rough day or whatever, I would go to

Toys R Us after work and just stare at the toys.

You know, just stand there and look and be like,

oh, this is new, this is new. And you know, that

was my thing. Yeah, absolutely. So what other

generations of Transformers do you like besides

G1? I love the animated stuff. I know that caught

a lot of flack when it first came out. That was

probably, if I had to rate the shows, Transformers

animated would probably be number one for me.

After that would be Transformers Prime. And after

that, I will probably go back to G1 and then

whatever else I've seen will fall in after that.

But Transformers animated just, I don't know

if it just reminded me of that era when that

excitement and the lure of when I was that 14,

15 year old kid rushing home. And then the magic

of the whole line. you know, rest in peace, dear

Wyatt, but the the magic of the whole line was

that I could go to the store and I'm saying this.

I mean, I'm staring at animated lockdown on my

desk right now as I'm talking to you. The magic

of the whole line was that I could go to the

store and buy exactly what I just saw on TV.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, exactly. You know, Carmo,

Altmo, you know, granted, there have to be some

liberties here and there, but that line was just

amazing. I love the show. I love the toy line.

It just did something for me. And, you know,

shortly after that, Transformers Prime came out

and it was the same, but You know, it didn't

grab me as much as animated did it it's still

grabbing me, you know It's still some there are

some toys from that line that were, you know,

pretty much, you know Dead on like the first

edition Optimus Prime Beautiful toy love that

thing. Yeah, you know and and there's some other

ones in there, you know, first edition starts

great stuff like that but I'd have to say animated

definitely That generation would definitely be

my tops Awesome. Awesome. Yeah animated was something

very special Do you like or loathe the Bay verse

or are you indifferent to it? I'd say right now

I probably Have become indifferent Okay When

it first came out It was crazy. I can remember

when the very first movie hit the theater. I

actually went and pre -bought tickets. This was

before you had to app on your phone and you couldn't

pick your seats. I went to the theater after

work. I bought the tickets for the show, went

home. We had already planned it. We went opening

weekend, that was a rarity for me. We would never

go to see anything opening weekend. We would

always wait, let the crowd die down, go. We went

opening, I think it came out Friday, I believe

we were there Friday, if not Friday, we were

there Saturday. And just to see that on the big

screen, the opening sequence would black out.

Yep, that you know, I will never there's things

always tell people I will be on my deathbed Getting

ready to give up my last breath and that'll be

one of the things I remember Yeah, you know there

there's things in your life that you know, you

will never forget and into and to me that just

like just to see all that on the big screen that

was Mean that was something for me, you know,

I really enjoyed it but Having said all that

as the movies went on Yeah, you know, I Didn't

even you see so I watched one two and three So

four was what age of extinction four was age

of extinction five was the last night and then

there's bumblebee. Okay, so I tried to watch

four. I don't think I've ever watched four completely

through. Okay. You said five was the last night.

Yep. Had not seen five all the way through to

this day. Bumblebee actually enjoyed it. Yeah.

And I was shocked because, you know, I have an

eight year old now. So, you know, We more so

took it for him Right, you know, there's always

bumblebee, you know, and that's what they do

This is it's marketed towards kids and if adults

can get enjoyment out of it. It's a win for them

as well yeah, so yeah took the kid to go see

bumblebee and actually enjoyed it now have I

You know, there's just some movies that I can

watch over and over again No matter how many

times their own TV Mm -hmm Bumblebee ain't there

but No, you know, I see it once or twice and

I'm good, you know, if there's nothing else on

then yeah Maybe you know just let it be background

noise or whatever. But uh, right, you know, it's

it's uh It was definitely an improvement and

I I'll admit I'm looking forward to rise of the

beast just to see what they do Yeah, absolutely.

I think that's the thing now is that because

they don't have the Bay verse of Bay at this

point, because I believe it was Travis Knight

that directed Bumblebee. I'm not looking at any

information folks, so if I'm wrong, I'm sorry.

With him directing and whomever else is still

on the crew and whatever else i feel like bumblebee

was a tipping point bumblebee they wanted bumblebee

to be a restart and it was and it's going to

be in i don't know what's gonna be going on rise

of the beast i see the news i see the photos

just like everybody else online things like that

we talk about it here on the podcast but. Until

i see an actual trailer i'm cautiously optimistic

about rise of the beasts. mm -hmm and with me

it's almost like my interest is I guess twofold

because I'm also interested in the toys mm -hmm

you know I'm I love you know enough spoiling

one of your questions but I love jazz he's one

of one of my favorite characters and According

to the movie. There is a Porsche in the movie

But it's not jealous. It's mirage. Oh These aren't

spoilers. They're like you said everybody see

yeah Yeah, and and I'm just I'm hoping that you

know, the toy is decent enough and I mean, I'm

not gonna lie, my plan is that if they release

a Porsche and it is Mirage, my plan is to make

it jazz. Of course. A little head swap, little

custom work here and there, and boom, I'll have

a movie jazz that's not a Pontiac Solstice. No

offense, the Pontiac Solstice is out there. A

movie jazz that isn't ripped in half. Exactly.

God that killed me that just What was your very

first transformers toy My very first One I can't

remember to age But it was tracks all about tracks

I got it from a store and I'm getting ready to

age myself again I got it from a store called

SS Kretzky. I think they belonged to Kmart at

one time. Ah, okay. They were like a smaller,

not as big as Kmart. Yeah, it was SS Kretzky

and it was Autobot Trax. That was my first Transformers

toy. And other than that, you know, I was You

know, my parents are from the south. They grew

up poor. They struggled. They moved north and

got a job working at the factory and made the

best life they could for their kid. Having said

that, I did not. The rumor is only children get

all they want. No, not true. Other than Transformers,

I think that was probably my only legitimate

store -bought Transformer. If I had any others,

it was because of trade or somebody gave me something.

But other than that, it was GoBots. I was a GoBot

kid. I would save my allowance and on Friday

or the weekend or whatever, my mom would you

know, go to Kmart or Kresge or, you know, Montgomery

Ward or Kingsway or whatever. And I would take

my little allowance money with me. And I think

for like right around two, three bucks, you can

get you a go -bot back then. I had plenty of

go -bots. My first go -bot was Pumper. Oh, wow.

He was the red fire truck. And he actually came

with a little ladder. And it was like a little

nozzle that was supposed to be for water, but

he could hold the nozzle as a pistol. But that

was my first Gobot. And I kind of, I'm going

to admit, I liked the Gobots a little bit better

because I had a bunch of Hot Wheels and Matchbox

cars too. So the Gobots scaled pretty well with

my Hot Wheels stuff. Very cool, very cool. It

was like a win -win for me. Yeah, I always I

had hot wheels and I had other things and I had

some go -bots but in my house for me as an only

child it's like oh There's one thing the Autobots

and the Decepticons can team up on the go -bots

The go -bots are the villains of the story Well,

you already mentioned it, you can go into more

detail, but who is your end -all be -all favorite

character from any Transformers incarnation?

You can pick one Decepticon, one Autobot. Okay,

well, the Autobot, that's kind of like, as I

kind of already said, that would be Jazz. My

favorite Decepticon would be, hands down, it

would be Megatron. And I say that because...

Not just you know, it's not just because it's

an infatuation with the bad guy thing right but

as an older adult I Understand him more than

Optimus Prime You know I'm saying yeah here here

here your people have been you know abused and

criticized and And you just wanted what was best

for your people. And you went about it the best

way you knew how. It's almost like a Negan situation

walking dead. Yeah, you know, I compare. I compare

those two a lot, you know, it's, you know, the

same like the same thing with Thanos, you know,

no spoilers. You can't, you know. You can't pick

and choose, because if you pick and choose. You're

interfering with what you're trying to do. What

it is you're trying to do. You know, you want

the best. So, you know, just this is how I'm

going to go about doing it. You know, with Thanos,

it was a snap of the finger. You know, let fate

pick who stays and who goes. You know, with Megatron,

it was the, you know, was it peace through tyranny?

Yep, you know, I mean I understand that because

You know you can and don't misunderstand me.

I'm not like some You're not the villain you

just you understand the villains You understand

his attitude towards what he was trying to accomplish

just went about it in The quote -unquote incorrect

way, right? But and my thing is is that the incorrect

way because that's what we've been taught Right.

Yeah, you know, I mean, you know, is it is it

is it cool to you know, it's my slap You didn't

turn the other cheek. No No, no, I'm not I'm

not gonna live my life like that and I think

that In those instances, Megatron, I know these

are all fictional characters, but Megatron, the

Negans and the Thanos and all that, they've tried

that. You can't turn the other cheek because

there's always gonna be somebody out there that'll

be right there to step in and take advantage

of that situation. And they'll exploit your kindness

as a weakness. You know, it's like, uh, you know,

again, I know this ain't a spoiler, but the baseball

bat scene with Negan, he had to do that because,

you know, like he said, you came into my camp

and you killed my people while they were sleeping.

What chance did they have? None. Yeah, it's all

about perspective and it's all about. Eventually,

people are going to lash out. When you have someone

that's been beat down and trottin' upon, eventually

you get tired. I tell people all the time, sometimes

you get tired of being a nice guy. I mean, if

there was anything out of the Nolan trilogy we

can get is, you know, you know, you can only

be the hero so long to see yourself become the

villain. So exactly. Are there any Transformers

characters you hate or dislike? You know, I'm

gonna say no. Okay. There can be some aggravating

ones or some irritating ones. Right, yeah. You

know, actually hate or dislike or you know, I

would say no. Okay. Over your lifetime as you

got older, did your interest in the Transformers

franchise grow stronger or get weaker? Well going

back to like I said when I was a kid That whole

little time period you know from when it quit

coming on TV and I Watched a little bit of beast

stuff here and there, but I never really did

get off into it Really didn't do any toys And

oddly enough is what made me come back to it.

The wife and I were on vacation in Florida and

we had rented this hotel room. It was me, my

wife, my cousin, her husband, my mom and dad.

It was like this big old room was almost like

an apartment unit. It had a full kitchen and

everything in there. And we were like, all right,

cool. So instead of spending money going out

to eat every night, we'll just go to the grocery

store, stock up the fridge and, you know, come

home and cook whatever, blah, blah, blah. So

we go to Wal -Mart. And like I said, I'm a big

old kid. You know, I'm going to go to toys. I

go to the toy aisle in this Wal -Mart down in

Winter Haven, Florida. I see this green blue

and green box with a green Jeep inside I'm like,

what is this and I pick it up and I'm looking

at it like transformers alternators. What is

this? I'm looking at it enough, you know turn

it over on the back and I see I'm like, holy

crap this turns into that It's like 20 bucks.

Hell. Yeah, so you know I did buy it and you

know, get back to the hotel room, crack it open,

and I fiddled with that thing the whole time

I was down there. And that re -sparked or, you

know, ignited the spark again, you know, the

transformer desire. And, you know, I was all

in. Transformers, alternators, that is what brought

me back. And that's the only reason why I'm here

now, because if it wasn't for Transformers Alternators,

there would be no plucking. At least it wouldn't

be me. It may be another one, but it wouldn't

be me. Right, right. Because honestly, that's

what started it all, was I got home and I jumped

on the internet. did all this research and stuff

I could trying to find out everything I could

about this magical new line called Transformers

Alternators. It was a win for me at the time

because during that time one of my hobbies was

model car building and I loved the 124th, 125th

scale and Alternators were for most part uh 124

scale licensed vehicles so i'm doing all this

research and looking stuff up and i find this

website and for the life of me i cannot remember

what this website was called it was the first

one i joined and the reason why i joined it was

because i saw these pictures of customs that

people were doing with these alternators and

i was like holy shit you can do that with this

and But yeah, it was alternators that, you know,

brought me back in because at that point it was

like a, you know, it was like Transformers, eh,

you know, but, you know, I wasn't like all in.

Yep, yep. And then one alternator later and all

these years later, look at you now. I know, right?

It's an addiction. I need therapy. We all need

therapy. Was there ever a moment where you where

you were done with it, like just walk away? Yeah,

a couple of times. again that little you know

dark phase or you want to call it from the G1

cartoon to discovering alternators and I said

it was uh I'd see them in this I'd see the toys

in the store and you know the whole beast era

thing just did nothing for me you know a robot

turned into a snake nope cool looking but There

was still no drive to get me to Yeah, you know

to go for it Yeah, you're you're solely in the

robot vehicle Campaign, you're not in the yeah.

Yeah, so and then that's okay. That's cool I

mean, you know, not everyone has to be a Beast

Wars fan, right? Not everyone is a Beast Wars

And I'm ready. There's some that I like like

you know Kingdom Megatron and It was the target

exclusive one T -rex and I even got the Jurassic

Park Repaint the Jeep. Yeah. Yeah the dress part

Jeep said I even got that because Even though

I'm not a bees guy. That is a very cool toy.

That is a wonderful update to You know what?

I remember, you know My next door neighbor kid,

you know, he had them and maybe I played with

it for a minute or whatever and You know from

what I can remember. It's a great update, you

know, yeah, I do have I did actually go out and

buy Dinobot But there's a reason behind that

as well Okay, it was one TF con and Stu and Andrew

and Purple Bot Alex, if any of you guys are listening,

I know you guys will remember this as well. Scott

McNeil was the one of the guests at a TFCon in

Canada one year. And I'm gonna tell you right

now, that is a very down to earth guy. You know,

I've been to him with Gary. Gary, he's a wonderful

guy. I love him as well. You know, someone who

can meet these people and they're, you know,

they're They're I want to say normal Yeah, exactly

hold a conversation with you, but I can remember

Scott Because at the hotel we were at you couldn't

smoke inside you had to go outside on the local

area and I can remember Scott coming out there

multiple times a night just hanging out with

us shooting the ship with us, you know, it's

not like Not like we had to go get him and get

him to hang out with us. He'd come out there

and be like, here you guys are. And we'd just

stand around and bullshit and laugh and have

a good time and drink and be merry and all that

good stuff. And I bought Dinobot just to remind

me of that TFCon. Impressive. That was a good

one. Very cool, very cool. Yeah, that's that's

awesome. I mean Yeah, I mean if you buy a toy

just because you want a memory of something or

you know you look at like Anytime anyone looks

at Beast Wars Dino, but the first thing they

think of is obviously Scott Scott did the voice

and and all that so yeah, that's awesome What

is your transformers personal anthem song examples,

but you don't have to choose these The Touch,

Dare, et cetera. Is there any music from Transformers

that you would consider your anthem song? If

I had to pick one, it would be, and it is not

because of any, it was in a movie, so yeah, but

Battle Without Honor or Humanity. It's the music

that was playing when Junker, Bumblebee, Scanned.

the new concept Camaro. Okay in the 2007 movie

he's driving up in the tunnel and you hear that,

you know, yeah and that is You know, I'm a jazz

guy first. I love jazz Yeah, you know it just

something about that Line right there every time

I hear that I was like, yeah, that sounds slick

as hell. I Mean whoever did the Whoever was in

charge of picking the score for that scene You

did a fantastic job. Yeah. The music was done

by Steve Jablonski on that. I don't know if he

was specifically told to do that specific sound,

but yeah, I just, yeah, that music, man, that's

one thing I'll give the Bay verse there. The

Steve Jablonski store scores are some of the

best Transformers music. Oh yeah. Yeah. Just

absolutely love them. And since you are a huge

jazz fan and I try not to trot this story out.

Too often, but I've interviewed Phil Lamar a

couple of times. Oh, sweet. Okay. As you know,

Phil Lamar, voice of jazz and animated. Yes,

sir. The second time I interviewed him or might've

been the first, I forget which one it was. I

asked him about what It was that they wanted

for jazz is voice did they say anything about

all could you do a scat man could you not do

a scat like do you did they want you to avoid

things did they wanted he basically said they

wanted it to be an original thing and then he

goes into this like. He just says if they told

me to do scat man it would just be like and he

went into it and i'm like holy crap. Yeah, I

mean cuz I would have I would have loved to been

able to do a scatman crothers That would have

been Megatron! You're going down! Scatman behind

me because seriously I feel like scatman just

rose up from the you know May the man rest in

peace and all that like like seriously I was

like holy crap That had to be awesome Yeah it

was How often do you go back and rewatch any

of the Transformers cartoons? I don't want to

say regularly, but I do from time to time. Like

I'll be flipping through and. You know, there's

like nothing on TV or, you know, nothing that

is on TV. And you know, I'm going to watch some

animated today or, you know, I'm going to watch

some Transformers Prime today and. You know,

and I got. have animated prime you know with

today's technology you pretty much got all the

stuff anyway but you know is I will find myself

going back and watching animated and prime more

than anything hmm those are like those two are

my you know my nostalgic particular as I should

say Whenever I'm feeling nostalgic, I can watch

those and they'll tickle that spot for me and

I'll be good for a while and something will happen

or I'll read something or something will pop

up and I'll remember and be like, oh yeah, I'm

going to go find that episode and watch that

episode. Just not too long ago, for whatever

reason. the kid and I watched the animated episode

that had Soundwave in it. Sound and Fury? Yep,

and it was for some reason the kid was talking

to me about Soundwave and I was like, yeah, he

was in animated and my kid was like, was he?

And I was like, yeah. And I was like, hold on.

But Winn found it and he was like, oh wow, that's

Soundwave. And I was like, yeah. Very cool. Very

cool. Are you a Transformers comics fan? I'm

gonna say probably not Okay, I've looked at a

few but you know, I've had people give me some

You know some some some collections to read and

you know, I've I read uh, I know I did Megatron

origins Mm -hmm. I know I did hearts of steel

that may be Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I mean, not everyone's

going to be a fan of the comics. I mean, I jumped

on IDW phase two and I've reviewed all of those.

The current run, I need to catch up with it,

but I think through the first 20 issues, I felt...

The IDW 2 .0 went from, I want to say, even though

IDW had the license since 2005, 2 .0 started,

I want to say 2012. So from 2012 to, you know,

whatever. And, you know, they built up with Unicron,

and the Unicron was the last thing they did before

they rebooted into the current version of what

the comics are, and I was like, okay, great,

but now that that's over with... I have no idea

what's going on in this new generation, but that's

okay. I'll catch up at some point. Right. How

big or small is your Transformers toy collection?

I have the reveal the shield jazz figure. It's

probably outside of alternators. That is probably

my most favorite toy that there is. If you count

the legitimate releases of that toy, you had

United Jazz, you had the regular Hasbro Jazz

that we got over here in the States, and you

had what, three exclusives? Stepper? Yeah, I

think so. Was it Tred Shot, Kick Over, and then

Shattered Glass? Mm -hmm. So what, six? Yeah,

something like that. So I probably own that mold,

I'm gonna say a good 50 times over. Okay. And

each one of them is a different character. Mm

-hmm. You know, there may be multiple jazzes

like... Not only do I make customs, but I'll

buy customs from other artists So like, you know,

I may have like two or three different jazz's

I may have Two or three different shockwaves

from the same mode You know, but for the most

part they are all I'd say if I own it 50 times

over 40 of them are individual one -off character

Very cool. Very cool. Then I got some I still

got some alternator stuff pretty much Any custom

alternator I did a purge of the collection years

ago long long time ago And the same thing with

alternator there were probably what 20 For 26

official releases Right. I think it's about that.

Yeah, I think I think right before I got rid

of everything I had over a hundred alternators.

Oh Wow, and you know, they were all different

characters, you know some made by me some made

by other artists and What idea was when I wanted

to downsize? A lot of the stuff I kept, a lot

of the custom stuff I kept, and the retail store

bought stuff I parted ways with. I got some customs

by Autobot X23, Cliffjumper 69, Purplebot, of

course, Nemeziz, Predaking, Stu. Chance formers

and other great artists do not like saying His

name out loud because it just does not sound

Right for a man to say this but his username

is delicious Peter Okay He is on TFW A great

guy. He does some fantastic work. I have a few

of his pieces ScopeBot is another one. I'm gonna

throw a way back name out there that some of

the newer guys may not know. There was an artist,

went by the name Lobo. This guy, if there had

been 3D printer technology back then, he'd be

his own third party company by now. If you ever

want to see his level of skill, just do a Google

image search of parts of Steel Megatron. He made

that from scratch. Wow. In your spare time, anybody

listening, you want to see something, Google

it. I know there are some images out there still

on the internet. He made that just based on pictures

from the comic. Dang. And, you know, there's

some other guys, you know, super quiet. He was

another great guy, you know, a great artist.

Redline, just so many of them out there. It was

the alternator heyday was, you know. I missed

those days. It was fun. You know, it was. It

almost felt like a family, you know That's the

crazy thing is now Like when we when I was first

getting into it, I mean I've been a Transformers

fan since I was four or five years old But the

whole online community thing. I wasn't in the

early heyday. I wasn't online 2002 2003 looking

at Transformers. I started around 2006. Okay

And 2006 to now, I don't know where the shift

happened, but it seems like just to me personally,

everybody has their own clicks. Everybody has

their own circles. And if you want to join any

of those circles, you have to basically give

them a metric. fuck ton of energon in order to

do so. I mean, there are a lot of communities

that are really, really nice and really, really

welcoming and it's amazing. And I've talked to

some amazing people, but I just feel like there

are a lot of Transformers fans out there that

are just so high school clickish and it just

doesn't, that's not what it's about folks. It's

about all of us being able to talk to each other

and, hey, I like Hot Rod. I like Beast Wars.

I'm a fan of Beast Wars. You're not. Just because

you're not doesn't mean, okay, you're not a fan

of Beast Wars, then let's talk about something

else. I completely missed out on alternators.

I saw what they were and I was like, oh, transformer

model kits. That's cool. It's not for me, but

it's cool. But you know what I mean? I don't

know. No, no, I can get you. I do. I understand.

It just seems like everything is just, it's not

the, it's not as fun as it used to be. And that's,

and that's, I think a huge, huge problem in the

Transformers fandom. Do I have fun with the Transformers

fans that I interact with and that I do podcasts

with, or I have discussed? Yes, absolutely. I

love hanging out with those people. I love mentioning

things to those people. I love pestering Stu

to do podcasts because Stu should be talking

more. If you're listening, Mr. Predaking, sir.

You know, it's just one of those things, man.

It just, I hate to say it, but right now it seems

like Transformers fans and people getting along

with each other, those were the good old days.

You know, it's just sad. It's, you know, what

you're saying has some, you know, it's. Back

then, I was a moderator. Like I said, the first

board I joined, but like me, I cannot remember

the name of it. I'm offending anyone. I apologize.

I just can't remember. Probably in, I want to

say 04. I'd have to look at the date just to

see for sure. I want to say oh 304 somewhere

in there Maybe in it maybe even oh five I joined

the TFW 2005 Right, and I still closed stuff

there to this day. I'm not as Active as I was

back then but you know back during the You know,

alternators were kind of sort of coming to an

end of their popularity, maybe. I was a moderator

back then. It was me and two other guys that

moderated the customs forum. And, you know, we

would talk from time to time outside the forum.

And from what I can remember, You know not putting

words in anyone's mouth, but I Know I felt that

same way what you're saying now Yeah, I felt

that then that you know There was like a change

in the atmosphere Yeah You know it had become

very clickish You know not just not the board

but just members of the board Yeah. Um, and at

times I found myself getting caught up in that.

And, you know, it just didn't like that, you

know? Yeah. Like, it's like I said, like, I'm

hugely proud to be included in several circles

that I will mention. I'm on the transmissions

discord. I'm on other things and I absolutely

love interacting. Like I know I can go on that

those channels and those texts, whatever's and,

and say, Hey, my name is Mike. And my favorite

character is hot rod. And no one's going to come

back at me and say, well, you're wrong for liking

that care. You like the whole. Right. Opinion

is right or wrong thing. It just, it has never

sat well with me. Opinions are opinions. I like

something. If you don't like it, okay, let's

find something we do like, you know, I mean,

like, it's not the end of the world. Not yet.

Anyway. When did you first start customizing

Transformers toys? It would have to be in 05

Okay, and why did you want to start customizing?

I saw what the other cool kids were doing No,

I uh, I said I had that little lapse where I

had fell off and You know at the time I was You

know into model car building and I discovered,

you know alternator sound at Walmart Did some

research when I got back home and found out that

there was this whole world where people were

taking transformers and repainting them and customizing

them into other things and I was like, oh wow,

I could probably do this because you know In

my mind, I was thinking, okay, I could take what

I know from model car building and just practice

that on these robots that transform into, you

know, like you said earlier, model cars. And

I was like, okay, yeah, cool, I can do this.

And so, you know, I studied for a while. You

know, like I said, Lobo, he was one of the main

guys on there. Uh, another great guy, rest in

peace. Uh, Bill, uh, his board name was TF master.

Uh, I believe he was a guy ahead of his time,

uh, highly skilled. There's some other guys out

there, uh, Jeff, wheel jack, um, just a bunch

of guys that, you know, we're, we're killing

it in, in during the alternator days and. You

know, I seen what they were doing and I was like,

man, I have to try my hand at this. Right. So

the first thing I did was I went out and I bought

another alternator hound and using my real life

Jeep as a triplet, I made a robot after my real

life Jeep. Very cool. Very cool. And he had I

can't remember the name now. He had some stupid

ass name. It wasn't even, it wasn't Plow King.

It was something dumb. And Lobo actually came

in and Lobo commented in the thread and he was

like, why don't you just call him Plow King?

I was like, you know, like light bulb moment.

And I was like, okay, yeah, cool. Yeah, I could

do that. And that started it. And You know, from

there, I made another one and another one and

another one and another one. You know, to this

day now, you know, like I'll feel like kind of

like what I said earlier about the rise of the

beast Mirage toy. We we know it's a Porsche.

Mm hmm. So I'm I'm not even looking to get it

just because it's Mirage. You want it because

it's a Porsche because it's you're going to.

Yeah. Because I'm exactly I'm going to my best

effort is I'm going to make it jazz Mm -hmm was

I upset that jazz wasn't a Porsche to begin with

a little bit. Yeah But you know, I wasn't you

know enraged and you know, you know throwing

shit at the screen because you know, it was a

Pontiac Salsa's and not a Porsche but You know,

you know, it's and that's I do that a lot Even

with today's toys, like I'll go in the store

and I'm not going to lie to you, I look at everything

and I try to figure out, especially if it's a

car, figure out how I can make it jazz. Yeah,

I do that with everything. And I was going to

do that with legacy skids, because if you if

you look it up, they actually have a car. It

resembles skids and it is in the same livery

as jazz was. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing, and

I don't know why this is, I've, I've mentioned

this on the podcast recently and it just, it

just kind of bugs me. I don't know if it's a

Porsche thing, if it's a licensing thing or whatever.

If you can't have the number four, then have

no number. Jazz was never 14th in line, damn

it. Right. Like, I don't know, like again, I

don't know what it is, why some of the newer

jazzes are number 14 instead of number four.

Right. No clue, but that just bugs me. Well,

somebody, somebody pointed out. And I can't remember

if it was factual or not, but I think somebody

pointed out that it was in some Product lineup

or whatever and Jazz was item 14 on that paper

That just I know it sounds I Could be in this

misstating this But yeah, I could have swore

I read that somewhere with and like you said

it was because of you know copyright infringement

Whatever like that, you know, they couldn't release

this car and put the number four on there Okay,

so, you know put the number four on there believe

off the martini racing stripes Yeah, you just

could have put a plain old black four on there

and called it done, you know because I mean Repro

labels or toy hacks they always come through

with the decals Yeah, you know, they always come

through with the labels to you know fill in what

Hasbro chose not to or couldn't do you know because

of No possible copyright infringement, but hell

that show didn't stop them from releasing, uh,

what was it? Revenge of the fallen dead end.

Yeah, true. I mean, you can't tell me that that's

not supposed to be an Audi. Yeah, that's true.

We couldn't get the licensing. Okay. But you

cannot tell me that that's not an Audi. Yeah.

So, you know, they can do what they want. I think,

you know, they just. You know, maybe they don't

want to have to deal with the headache, you know,

like the whole thing with alternators if you

if you've ever seen I used to have a book and

It was all about alternators and vinyl tech And

on the is it the inside cover or the back cover

There is actually a Drawing a mock -up of alternators

bumblebee as a Volkswagen And the reason why

we never got it was because I Guess Volkswagen

was like absolutely not, you know, no No war

machines, you know, they I guess they viewed

a robot as a war machine You know, they were

like absolutely not, you know, it's kind of like

the it was almost the same thing with Honda and

Alternators a wind charger and drag strip Over

here in the States if you bought them you did

not get the barrel for the gun Right. Yeah Because

they said something about you know, no no weapons

like that or whatever So over here the engine

was a scanning tool You know, but you know You

could yeah, and you are correct with the numbering.

I'm reading here on TF wiki net Basically this

for the studio series figure jazz is based on

his appearance in the original generation one

cartoon features the number 14 on his side, a

combination of the racing numbers on his original

Generation 1 toy and the Generation 2 toy, according

to designer John Wharton, with the intent to

keep it fresh in the alternate universe of War

for Cybertron and ensure customizers could choose

which number they preferred. Coincidentally,

it is also the release number of his Diaclone

toy. Okay, okay. They didn't just pull 14 out

of their asses. Nice. I like that I Mean that's

like giving hot rod a Screwdriver instead of

a saw blade like okay, but at least there's a

reason at least there like and I never knew like

I've never really looked into it But I knew it

always bugged me and I'm like, okay, let's figure

it out What's going on with you, Jazz? Because

damn it, man, you are number four to all of us.

Right. Exactly. The choices that they make, we

don't always understand them, but that's why

they have the big shot attorneys and everything

working for them. Yeah. Hey, you should do this

and don't do that because if you do this, this

might happen. Yeah, there were as far as alternators

go there were 13 waves in assortment one from

oh three to oh five and five waves in assortment

two from 2005 to 2006 and there's like There's

like nine there's ten toys in wave one Oh, there's

ten toys in assortment two and I can't even add

up how many are in assortment one So, alright.

Everybody is safe. Wife, kid, pets, whatever.

The house is on fire. What is one Transformers

toy you would run in and save? Oh crap. Just

one? Yup, just one. Not like... All the copies

of the word? No! Son of a gun. I've stumped him,

folks. Oh man, yeah, for real. Man, I honestly

cannot pick just one. Alright then. Can I pick

a line of them? Sure. Okay, if I could save just

one, I would save all my lockdowns. You would

sacrifice jazz, really, for lockdown? Yep, I

would save all my animated lockdowns. Everyone.

Okay. Including the cards. Very cool. Very cool.

Not counting your custom work, what was the most

money you spent on a Transformers toy or toy

item? Toy item could be a piece of art, a cell,

an autograph, that kind of thing. Not including

anything custom Well not including the the money

you spend you know to do your custom work, okay?

But yeah, you can yeah the customs that you've

made fine, but what I'm saying is What's the

most money you spent on one on a trend on a transformers

toy or toy item? I'd say about 300 Cool We're

somewhere for one item here right around three

Interesting if you could voice any transformers

character, who would you who would it be and

why? Hmm I pick Hmm Maybe Unicron Okay, just

because of the power in his voice, uh -huh and

then after that I would say Well Grimlock just

because really yeah because of the fun in his

voice Hmm. Very cool. Very cool Who is your favorite

Transformers actor now this obviously means voice

actors but They're all actors. Right. I have

to say I love Peter's voice, but I've never met

Peter in person. I love Gary, Gary Chalk, great

guy. I've seen him at a couple of TF guns. But

yeah, as far as voice, I would say Peter's Optimus

Prime voice. But as far as a person, I would

say Gary Chalk. Very cool, very cool. This can't

be anything that's coming out, and I don't even

know what's coming out, but this can't be anything

that's coming out or they've already released.

What is your dream masterpiece figure? masterpiece

we're talking official right yeah it would have

to be jazz yeah they still haven't done one of

him yet no they have it everybody else and they

mama has but yeah you know for whatever reason

Hasbro has not and like oh this this 14 Billionth

version of Starscream with a slightly different

color cape and a crooked crown will sell more

I would definitely I would definitely be down

for and I would have said blackout, but we saw

blackout so I can't say him Yeah But that hasn't

been announced or we don't know is coming if

it's coming. I would definitely go with jazz

Yeah Where do you land on the rumble is blue,

frenzy is red, frenzy, rumble is red, frenzy

is blue debate? I'm a ripped fur guy. Yeah, same

here. I mean, for me and everyone hears this

every time I ask this question, I go by cartoon

logic because that's what I knew first. Yeah,

me too. So purple and black. Yeah. You can have

them in any color as long as one of them is purple

and one of them is black. If you could create

any Transformers fiction, toy, cartoon, comic,

etc., what would it be and what story would you

want to tell with it? That's a good one. I'm

not a big comic follower, so perhaps this has

been done, but I would love to go deeper into

a storyline with Decepticons. There have been

multiple Decepticon stories, but I don't like,

what would you mean going deeper with them? I

would tell a story from start to finish. I would

tell the story from their perspective. Okay.

Because like I said, we've all been told time

and time again that the Autobots are the good

guys, the Decepticons are the bad guys. Now,

is it the Autobots that are telling us that?

Yeah. I would love to hear. You know it like

they keep talking about these walking dead spin

-offs. I would love a storyline on Negan and

the Saviors Okay from start to finish Yeah, you

know I would love something like that because

It gives you the other side of the coin Yeah,

because you you know all our lives. We've heard

that you know oh good guy good guy good guy they're

the bad guy and you know well why are they the

bad guy right yeah what happened what transpired

in his life that got him to the point to where

he is now you know in my in my in my job um and

you know back in the day i'm sure i was called

this you know way back when But, you know, you

can... Some people like to toss around the word

disgruntled. Oh, he's a disgruntled employee,

you know. Yeah. Okay, so by definition, disgruntled

only means that you're unhappy with your current

situation. You're unhappy with the way things

are going right now. That's all that word means.

But you have people that will turn that... Into

something bad to where when they say oh, he's

disgruntled people will shy away from you Because

you're disgruntled. Yeah, you know My standpoint

has always been well, let's talk to them. Let's

find out why Why are you disgruntled? You know,

what can I do? To ease what you feel You know

and and I would approach If I had to tell a story,

that's how I would tell it. Why are you siding

with the Decepticon? What did you feel was greater

in their cause than it was in the Autobot cause?

Lack of a better word. I would tell the story

just from their perspective, because that's what

they've done all the other times. They tell the

story from the Autobot's perspective. They don't

tell the story from. Yeah i mean i think idw

2 .0 is done this. A little bit i have to go

back and read to figure it out but. They tried

to and they succeeded in doing so telling really

unique stories so i know listeners know this

you may not know this. In idw 2 .0 there are

there's. The Death of Optimus Prime one shot.

The books then branch out into two different

series, Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets

the Eye. Robots in Disguise is the political,

at least it started out this way, the political

thriller type thing that is set on Cybertron

with Starscream in charge. More Than Meets the

Eye is Rodimus and his band of merry men going

out and searching for the Knights of Cybertron.

And the two of them converge and meet up at times

throughout the series' runs and things like that.

It is really, really great storytelling, but

I don't know if there has ever actually been

one specifically what you're explaining. So if

there has been, folks, we're sorry, but if there

hasn't been, hey, there you go. There you go.

This is cash cow. All you gotta do is milk. Move

over Autobots. What is the one piece of advice

that you'd give the Transformers fandom and TF

collectors in general? Enjoy it for what it is.

Absolutely. That is almost everyone's answer

to that because you know, that's what it's there

for is to be enjoyed. Yeah. Alright folks, we're

going to take a quick break. You're going to

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All right, we are back. Do you have anything

that you're doing currently that you'd like to

promote? Are there any customs you're working

on that you want to tell people about or anything

like that? No, not really. I just... Just finished

up one posted it on TFW of me and a friend a

friend and I Like say animated lockdown is one

of my favorite moles as well as a toy we were

tossing about some ideas and the idea of doing

a alternators homage to animated Grimlock What

I did was I took animated Grimlock, I took his

head from the dinosaur and I took a animated

lockdown figure and I modified it to accept Grimlock's

Dinobot head on it. Painted the vehicle up a

little bit different. Pretty much followed The

paint scheme of the alternators Grimlock toy

Right, right. That was my latest and it's somewhere

on TFW right now Very cool. Very cool Alright

folks want to thank you for joining us here in

all things Transformers If you'd like to get

in contact with us to leave feedback for the

show There is several ways to do so visit the

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to and comment on all of our content Follow us

on Twitter at geek cast radio for the network

at all things TFV3 for the show I am at TF2 and

Mike. What is your Twitter? Holy crap, it is

uh, I think is at plow underscore King Okay,

I think that's what it is. I'll have a link in

the show notes folks. Don't worry For now, I

am TF2 and Mike with Eric aka plow King Transform

and transcend with us next time here on All Things

Transformers! Sweet. Your magnetic powers won't

work on these cables. Carbon fiber. Non -metallic.

You decepticon scum! No, I'm not one of them.

Name is Lockdown. I'm what you call a bounty

hunter. Hahaha, yeah. I wish to speak to my lawyer.