Origins of Matrix Prime on Transformers Fandom

Be sure to check out All Things Transformers

with Steve Megatron and TFG1 Mike. Optimus, the

word is spot on smooth. It's a crime. Hey, I

wonder what these gizmos are for. I think it's

time to shred some bread. What do you say we

give these new bods a test drive? I am transformed.

This is Optimus Prime, and you're listening to

all things Transformers. 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 TF2 and Mike Steve Megatron

is um He's I don't know what he's doing. He's

off somewhere. I don't know. He's playing with

his rubber ducky or something who knows Joining

me this time. Hopefully in a TF wire triple threat

or a TF wire trifecta is the guy that created

the TFWIRE podcast, website, all that stuff,

Matrix Prime, aka Jesse. Greetings, everyone.

Greetings. Hello, hello. Alright, so before we

get into any of these questions and before I

give people the spiel on why the questions are

here or whatever else, first question we have

to ask you is... When or where did you come up

with the nickname matrix prime because that's

been your handle for as long as I've known About

your urban, you know associated with you and

whatever else. So how did that come about? Yeah,

so good. That's a good question. That was on

my list here. Come on Mike We just kind of spring

certain things on people, you know, except green

and stupid, right? So it dates back to when when

my family first got the internet at their house

I started high school in 96. And that was pretty

much as I was going into my freshman year in

high school. That's when we got our, the summer

before we got our first computer. So growing

up, you know, I was playing just like video games.

Wasn't playing PC games because my family never

really was into computers and everything. But

once we, once I finally got into high school,

I finally convinced him that's like, hey, you

know, I'm gonna be writing papers. I need, I

need a computer here. So they ended up, ended

up buying a computer. But when we first got the

internet, we ended up getting AOL. And I was

just going with a bunch of different screen names

at the time. I think that was around the time

that the Spider -Man cartoon was on Fox Kids.

And I was a huge fan of the Venom character.

So I started using Venom as a screen name and

Venom having some sort of numbers after it and

things like that. At some point, I just... At

some point, I started getting back into having

an interest in Transformers for whatever reason,

because I guess I was just exploring the internet

at that point and just kind of seeing, you know,

there's other fans out here that are still interested

in this thing that I grew up with. And, you know,

we're just checking out all these images, all

these sound files, you know, all the WAV files

out there. He said, he said, wave files, folks.

It just goes to show you how old we are. I mean,

I actually set up my first, quote unquote, website

on the AOL web space that they used to give every

person. I was just stealing images from other

fan sites and stealing sound files and just throwing

them up there and just having my own personal

space of these things. So, I don't know, it was

at some point that I just took the name Matrix

and I already liked the character Optimus Prime

and just kind of slapped them together. So, I

would say probably somewhere in the 97 -98 time

period. Oh, sweet. It was a long way to get back

to that. So, basically, you're coming up on your

20th anniversary or so. Something like that,

yeah. All right, so here on ATTF as I said in

the first three episodes the first episode was

Steve and I just having an overall discussion

basically not really answering the questions

But basically telling our stories of how we get

into or out of transformers Second episode was

out from the soul third episode was pecan from

Michael and now we're gonna have this trifecta

of TF wire here Hopefully if if Spada responds

to my email anyway We have 21 questions that

we ask Actually, before we get to that, can I

throw one other thing into the Matrix Prime story?

Sure. So, I've been using that name, as I told

you, since about 97, 98, something like that.

And I was using it, I was a heavy poster or heavy

lurker, I didn't do quite as much posting as

I did lurking, but on the AllSpark, and that's

where I used the screen name on there. I tried

to register it on all the different Transformer

forums as well. And I have successfully done

that so someone hasn't stolen it But I saw someone

posting under the name quote -unquote matrix

prime. I don't think they had the underscore

on there So mine is matrix underscore prime and

just used as matrix prime come to find out And

you can ask him about this if you get him on

here. I'm positive that was spade at one point

He tried to steal your identity. Wow. I called

him out, like I didn't know him at the time,

and I called that person out, and I don't remember

if I ever got a response or not, but I'm almost

positive it was Spader. Wow, that's awesome.

All right, so we ask any and all Transformers

fans, even though we just started this new generation

of ATTF, we ask them 21 Transformers -based questions.

Now, why 21? Well, to steal a line from the Nostalgia

Critic when he does his top 11, we like to go

the extra mile. And then some. And then some,

yes, that's right. So, question number one, and

I say this, I preface this question before I

even ask it to everybody who I know is or was

or continues to be a Transformers fan, I know,

I get it. But in case we ever talk to anybody

who didn't immediately, you know, didn't grow

up with the franchise, did you grow up with Transformers?

And at what age do you remember first noticing

the franchise? Was it the first part of that

question and we have to say yes? But I think

I was I think I was a little bit young at that

point because the series debut the cartoon debuted

in 1984, correct? Right. Yep. That was also this

there was an 85 84 84 because the toy line came

out in 84 right in the cartoon The line came

out before the cartoon the cartoon ran from 84

to 87. Okay, perfect Yeah, okay. So at that point

I would have been three because I was born in

81 So I don't remember I remember watching the

original g1 cartoon on TV But thinking back on

it it must have been at that point in syndication

in reruns Because I don't remember watching it

until somewhere around the 95 96 time period

So you saw it when it got bastardized by g2 no

no no no that was that was some time in like

early 90s right 90 91 92 something like that

No, no, no, I remember the original I want to

say I watched it on Fox like my local Fox affiliate

was showing it after school cool awesome What

transformers generation is your generation and

why? Well, so being born in 81 growing up with

g1. I'm gonna have to say g1 however And this

kind of bleeds into you. I believe your next

question, but one of my all -time favorite transformers

Generations is the Beast Machines one Mm -hmm

Yep, that's one thing you and I have in common.

I think that I think we're the only two people

That that will actively defend Beast Machines

until we take our dying breath There are just

some people that just don't get that serious

So as a kid, what was it about g1 that really

directly what was it about the cartoon or the

toys or Any of that stuff that kind of brought

you into the franchise as far as liking and all

that? Well, so for me, I've thought about this

for quite a while now. After getting your questions,

I think a week ago, a week and a half ago or

something. Something like that. But on this one

in particular, I think it's just thinking about

the 80s itself and especially the late 70s and

early 80s. I think it's just the time period

itself. Technology was starting to blow up. You

know, robots were definitely an in thing. Like,

I remember looking at, like, the wish list catalog

every Christmas, and there was, like, you could

buy, like, a robot butler. And, like, you don't

see things like that in magazines anymore. They

don't even do the wish list. They don't even

do the wish list magazine, which is unfortunate

because my brother and I would look through there

for hours at things we wanted for Christmas.

Oh yeah, absolutely. But I think it's just the

time period, and being someone who's always enjoyed

technology, that taking that next logical step

to robotic life forms or whatever, I don't know,

it was just something that always appealed to

me. Yeah, you said technology was booming back

then. According to Samsung, it's still booming

today. Alright, what was your very first Transformers

toy as a kid? My very first Transformers toy

as a kid, and I only know this because my parents

told me this, was my original G1 Wheeljack. Oh,

cool. And my grandma, my mom's mom, gave it to

me for, I want to say my birthday, but it might

have been Christmas. I was born in December,

so it's roughly the same time period. Don't you

hate that? I mean, luckily, it's at the beginning

of December, as opposed to the latter end of

December. So yeah, my grandma gave it to me,

and I don't know if it was for my birthday or

for Christmas, but I still have that toy. It's

pretty beat up. It's complete in the sense that

the robot portion or the car portion has all

of its pieces. at least all the die -cast pieces.

It doesn't have the windshield dome piece to

it. And I'm missing the accessories to it. But

in terms of the car itself, and then transforming

into the robot itself, It has all the pieces.

The only caveat is that the arm, and I want to

say it's the right arm, is broken. There's a

tab that kind of holds it in place once you pull

the arm out, and that's completely broken off.

So it will hold in place in car mode, and it

will stay there in robot mode. You just can't

really move it around. Belongs in the museum

it's I mean it's pretty beat up and but it still

has a lot of the the white paint on it Which

is surprising because I have it in like this

transformers collectors case and all my g1 toys

are still just thrown in there Alright now this

is number five is a little silly because I don't

know if people do I don't know if people do this

as kids I myself and my friends did this as kids

and this is before the damn term of live -action

role play came up But that's essentially what

it is growing up. Did you and your friends ever

pretend to play transformers? It's a school recess

or after school or basically before people needed

Pokemon go to go outside and exercise, right?

So I was thinking about this question too, and

I want to say so we didn't up but I want to say

that we did well we never dressed up just to

be clear here we just you know we would all be

outside we would say oh I'm optimist primer oh

no I'm so you know you know that kind of thing

and then we would just all so basically fight

each other so I definitely did and I want to

say that I did in what so probably kindergarten

first grade at this point I want to say that

I did you know with like the neighborhood kids

growing up But I don't really remember it all

that much. I just know that I did I really remember

playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles more at

school than I did anything else Yeah, absolutely

All right Who is your end all be all? Favorite

character from any Transformers incarnation.

This is basically that question Megatron puts

his fusion cannon to your head and says choose

and you can choose Autobot and Decepticon so

technically you can pick two but And who are

your favorites? Absolute favorites. And this

is where he blows me away because of my answer.

It's without a doubt G1 the the cartoon version

G1 Starscream I love the characterization of

that particular character. I love the Chris Lada

voice. I think it's just an excellent pairing.

And I was sad to see the character die in the

Transformers movie. I'm glad they brought him

back as a quote -unquote ghost. And then killed

him again. And killed him again, which is unfortunate,

but I don't know how a robot comes back as a

ghost, but I'm glad that they were able to bring

that character back in some fashion. Mm -hmm,

so Starscream the only one I would say so that

was a Decepticon I would say as an Autobot probably,

you know hands down. It's got to be Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime and I would say that's probably

for every That's probably for every version of

the Transformers that I've watched. She's either

prime or primal. It's like a really really good

character So what are some of your others besides

those two that you like so looking at g1 I would

say Megatron for sure. I definitely like that

character. I really prefer him more than the

Galvatron character they ended up turning him

into. Unless you look at the Transformers movie,

then I really like that character. But when they

went from the movie to the cartoon, it's like,

I don't know what you lost there in transition,

but you definitely lost something. I love crazy

Frank Wilker Galvatron. I really do. Like, don't

get me wrong, you know, Spock as Galvatron is

great, and may Galvatron really rest in peace

at this point. But I just love crazy Frank Wilker

Galvatron because it's just such a different

voice from his Megatron voice that he used. Yeah.

And I get that the character was supposed to

be a bit crazier, which they absolutely showed

you in the animation with like the electricity

like flying through his head there. I just preferred

like the movie version as opposed to what we

got in the cartoon I would say the g1 bumblebee

really like that character In fact growing up.

I know in the transformer live -action movies.

They try to like throw in these human characters

as like some sort of I don't know a relatable

character for the the viewing audience, but But

for me the the g1 bubble be character in the

cartoon along with spike because they were a

really good pairing Was a way of introducing

kids to the characters and actually, you know

bringing them into the storyline And I think

I thought they did a really good job with that

When they when they moved to season three after

the movie, you know kind of lost that and they

were introducing us to other characters But I

really like that that you went up there. There's

one moment I think is it five faces Which one

which episode is it? Oh god, I should know this.

I know all 98 episodes There's one episode where

It's it's stars. It's one of the Starscream ghost

episodes, okay where Bumblebee an adult spike

have to head into Metroplex's brain vault because

oh no, yeah, it's scourge in Starscream. That's

what it is stole the eyes of Metroplex and then

the dummy dropped one they had to get one from

Tripticon. All right, so on the flip side Any

transformers characters you absolutely hate like

you just can't you'll never pay attention to

the character in anything G1 hot rod I'm going

to shoot you now. I Like the the transformers

the movie version of hot rod. You just don't

like see I don't like season 3 I don't like the

way they the direction they took that character

at all. Yeah Just this whiny little bitchy character

and I didn't I just didn't like it at all And

maybe if it would have been okay if it was like

a couple episodes, but it was like the entire

season It's just I get that he doesn't recognize

the fact that or doesn't believe in himself to

be a leader But there's got to be a better way

of showing this Yeah, there probably could have

been but it is what it is. Yeah Now I know this

to be true. I don't know the exact story, but

I know this to be true. And again, some of these

questions kind of bleed into each other, but

nine and ten. Number nine, over your lifetime

as you got older, did your interest in the Transformers

franchise grow stronger or weaker? Well, so I

would say I've had this happen to me a couple

of different times. So obviously growing up as

a kid, really strong, because I had the toys,

watching the cartoon, as I started to transition

from preteen into teen, going from elementary

school to middle school, kind of lose all interest

in playing with toys and things like that. It

wasn't until I got the internet again, like I

said, in high school, where I started to get

an interest in Transformers again, just because

I was like, oh, something from my childhood,

my childhood's sort of coming to an end now.

I'm in high school, but it's sort of a way to

relive that because I didn't have access to the

cartoons. They weren't being shown on TV. Or

at least my parents didn't have cable. We ended

up getting a satellite, I want to say in like

97 or something. So I didn't grow up with cable.

So I wasn't able to watch any reruns on there.

They quit showing it on network TV, even in syndication.

So I wasn't watching the cartoon. And any of

the toys I had were just the original Toys that

I grew up with the g1 toys and they were stuck

in the collectors case buried in my closet So

we had once we got the internet I was you know

starting I just wanted to see if there was other

people out there that were also thinking about

this so there was So I started to gain an interest

in that again, and it wasn't until a transformers

2000 aka car robots aka robots in disguise Hit

in Japan That's when I started to gain an interest

in the toys again, because at that point I had

like a disposable income and I was, I really,

really enjoyed those toys. So I started buying

them from import stores. And then at some point,

you know, I was collecting for this long period

of time. And then I started the ETF wire podcast.

And at some point I just got tired of doing the

podcast and I just lost interest in buying the

toys. Not to mention the fact that buying the

toys became a really expensive thing because

at the time I was buying them and reviewing them

And I was reviewing them really just for the

fun of it I wasn't really doing it for you know

The AdSense money a lot of people who review

it now do it for the AdSense money but at that

time if you go back and look at my first Transformers

toy review on there and I'm not just saying this

because I'm on the show, but if you go back and

look at the time stamp for when I first uploaded

my first toy review on there, I'm without a doubt

one of the first that was doing Transformer toy

reviews. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you and Spada

are the first two. You were the first one, and

then he came along shortly after that. I was

just doing it for the fun of it. It wasn't until

some years later after I had had a number of

toy reviews up online before I started throwing

in adsense on my stuff. And at that point, I

wasn't really uploading anything. So any revenue

I was getting was from stuff that had been uploaded

previously. So I wasn't getting revenue from

that and then taking that revenue money and then

buying new toys and keeping the cycle going like

a lot of people do now It was just you know,

I was spending my personal money on it was getting

really really expensive and there was other things

I wanted to do like, you know I just purchased

a house this year. So I was saving up for that

So yeah, at some point my interest just waned

and I quit doing it. I'm still kind of, if we

look at peaks and valleys, I'm still in a valley

right now. I do look at some of the transformer

news. I still hit some of the news sites every

couple of days just to look to see what's out

there. Just because I'm someone who is interested

in in the live -action transformer movies, which

I'm sure we'll talk about here at some point

in the future But oh, yeah But so I'm just trying

to keep abreast of that information because I

know like they're filming here in in Michigan

for some scenes And I've tried to be an extra

in the last three when they filmed here in Michigan.

I haven't been successful, but I've tried But

yeah, so right now I'm still sort of in a valley

but you know, I still check out the news every

now and then Yeah, going back to the... You were

pretty much the first one. I don't know if you

saw this. I'll have to send you a link to it.

My good buddy Paul, aka Optibotamus, who does

a lot of the YouTube stuff, has been doing it

for a few years. He was at TF Expo this year.

They gave him his own panel basically to give

people his story and his history with YouTube

and doing Transformers reviews. He essentially

cites you and Spada as the inspiration to getting

into the whole... transformers youtube thing

that's pretty cool yep um all right so with the

internet giving birth to the fans and everybody

having a voice but about what they like or don't

like about transformers do you find that your

voice gets lost in the shuffle Or do you just

shout louder? Well, I would like to say that's

what the TFWire podcast was. All right. Well,

let's parlay the question into that then. Tell

us the story of how TFWire came into existence.

Well, so essentially, I want to go, I don't know

exactly when the This Week in Tech, so the Twitch

podcast first started. That was like after Tech

TV closed down. and they shuttered all the shows.

Yeah, it was somewhere at the end of 04, beginning

of 05, right? I want to say it's somewhere around

that time period, yeah. So I started listening

to that, and that's back when it was good. I

started listening to that, and I really liked

how they were taking these weekly news stories

and then just kind of discussing them. So as

someone who was... I was pretty active on the

AllSpark at the time. and but I would check out

you know all the transformer new sites and Every

single one of them was doing the exact same thing

It's like I don't know where I don't know who

their sources are where they get the information

from and I don't really care But wherever they

get the information from it seems like one person

or one site will post it And then the other sites

will just kind of grab onto that and just post

like the same exact thing Maybe a little bit

of commentary, but essentially it's just kind

of reposting what everyone else has So you essentially

have like I don't know how many is it like three?

four big transformer news sites out there? Nowadays,

there's TFW, which have been around for a long

ass time. There's AllSpark. There's Tformers.

Cybertron. Yeah, Cybertron. So about four, something

like that. But like I said, they essentially

all have the same thing. So I sort of saw like

this... this whole, this void that was there.

It was like, everyone's posting this information

and they go out on the forums to kind of discuss

it, but no one's, you know, it's just all text.

Here we are moving into, I don't know, more multimedia

type stuff on the internet. And again, this was

like in 2005 and it's like, no one's doing this.

So we did have, we did have Brian Kilby doing

Radio Free Cybersron. But at the time that I

started the podcast, he wasn't, he wasn't doing

it then because his, his pod or his, I guess

it's a podcast now at the time it was like internet

radio show. They, they weren't doing it. Like

they started that back in 98, 99, something like

that. So, you know, that came way before the

TF wire podcast. And I really enjoyed listening

to that as well, but he stopped doing it. So

I'm like, there's no one really, there's like

a void here and no one's really doing this. So

I decided to just. kind of do a test episode

by myself, which is really terrible, by the way.

If anyone can still find it, my website's down.

I can talk about that in just a second. But if

anyone's heard that, I think it's on YouTube

right now. You want to go check that out? But

it's really terrible. Anyways, I just wanted

to talk about the news and get other people's

feedback and kind of throw ideas around and just

kind of bounce off each other. So that's kind

of what I did. I went to recruit some hosts and

I did that on the AllSpark and everyone, all

the original hosts were people who had posted

on the AllSpark quite regularly. So yeah, that's

just kind of how it started. And the first crew

you had was you, PiratedTVPro and Awas64, right?

Awas64 and Debuster Prime, yep. Debuster Prime,

that was the other one. And then eventually you

found Spada and Ryan and... All that. Is there

going to be a reunion show? I saw rumblings on

Twitter a little while ago about, yeah, we should

do this. Yeah, so I don't know about that one

yet. I recorded a new episode, it's probably

been a month or so ago now, and threw it out

on YouTube just to see if there was any interest

there. And a few people threw some comments on

there. So they really liked it. Hey, it's nice

that you're back. I'm like, I'm not really back.

I'm just kind of trying it out to see if anyone's

interested in this. But I would like to get together

with Spada and Ryan to potentially record something.

Awesome. How often, oh no wait, I missed one.

What is your Transformers personal anthem song?

So which song from Transformers, like The Touch,

Dare, any of the other instrumental stuff over

the years from the various series, what would

be your personal anthem song? So definitely have

to go with The Touch. I mean, I think anyone

who watched Transformers, watched Transformers

the movie, Really enjoys that song. What's what's

the other one that Mark Dare? No, the other one

that Marky Marks in that was the name of that

movie. Oh, he plays the porn star, right? Isn't

it in that movie? Well, Unites. That was the

touch. Same a touch. Yeah. Okay. The touch. Yep.

So definitely the touch, which is kind of funny

that it's in that movie. Porn star. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. I also I also love Dare. So I got to get

those two out of the way. But I also love instruments

of destruction from from the movie. So same soundtrack.

Yeah, and one of my all -time favorites is the

season one and season two outro to the g1 cartoon

It's got a got a very melancholy type Sound to

it and for whatever reason it just kind of resonates

with me and I really enjoy it Yep, absolutely

All right. How often do you go back and rewatch

any of the transformers cartoons? Oh, man, so

I've bought I bought the rhino the original rhino

release Before seasons. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think

was broken up into It's yeah It's season one

and then season two part one season two part

two season three part one and part two and then

season four So is that like five sets? Is that

what it is? Yeah, that's okay So I bought all

those and I never made it all the way through

So I have those and if you if anyone out there

has those I'm also on one of the extras I think

on season two part one when they do the BotCon

2002 retrospective Oh cool I'm not I'm not in

one of the interviews but you can kind of see

me walking around in the dealer room at that

point I've got like bleach blonde hair You can

see me in that and then I bought I bought the

first two seasons of Beast Wars and watched all

of those and then for whatever reason didn't

buy season three. And then I bought I really

wanted to watch Beast Machines and they didn't

have that out on DVD at the time. So I bought

a bootleg set. Can I say that out here? I bought

a bootleg. I bought a bootleg set on eBay because

I'm like, they're never going to release this.

And they ended up releasing it. So then I bought

the official version of that when they did that.

And I watched that all the way through. So, again,

that's one of my favorite series. and then they

released the big Matrix version that had all

the G1 episodes on it. So I bought that and I

started to make my way through it. And again,

I couldn't get all the way through it and I quit

watching it. I would get the Matrix set just

to watch the bonus features, just to watch all

the interviews that are on that thing. Those

are pretty good. That's what I would get the

Matrix set for. Yeah, so I have the original

series a couple times over, but I don't think

to this day I've watched every single episode.

Even growing up as a kid, watching it in first

run syndication then, and then watching it in

syndication later on cable or on satellite, I

don't think I've ever seen the entire series.

What are your, since we're talking about the

cartoon series, what are your thoughts on any

of the recent incarnations? Animated Prime, the

new robots in disguise. So I've, I watched...

Let's see, animated. I haven't watched Transformers

Animated. I'm trying to think of which one that

is. That's the one with David Kay and... Okay,

yeah, yeah, yeah. ...Gorilla Prime and Megatron

and it's the Cartoon Network one. That one's

been a couple years ago, right? Ten years next

year ten years well It's been next year 2017

is the tenth anniversary of Transformers animated

and the first Bayverse film actually Ten years

since the first Bayverse film came out now that

I think about it when I bought some of those

Transformers animated toys I was living in an

apartment, and I haven't lived in an apartment

in quite some time I Guess yeah about ten years

ago well Yeah, so I kind of enjoyed that one.

There was certain episodes I liked more than

others, but overall I think I appreciated that

series more so than the Cybertron series or the

Energon series. Armada, that was the word I was

trying to think of. Armada, Energon, Cybertron.

So I definitely liked that one of the newer ones.

I've watched most of Transformers Prime. Didn't

watch it the Beast Hunters. Is that like season

three season three? I haven't watched that one

yet. I think it's on on Netflix, but I haven't

watched that one yet Overall, I like that one.

I feel like it's kind of slow sometimes especially

with the human characters Like I feel like the

human characters don't need to be there That's

the only show in Transformers history outside

of g1 where I feel that the human characters

are Superior to any other like okay, I would

take Jack Miko and Raph over kicker and his people

any day. Yeah, but his name's kicker. Come on.

No Kick kicker in the nuts. That's how I feel.

I Hate that kid Yeah, I don't I remember the

character I remember I think I even have a toy

of it didn't they release the toy like a human

version of him on a motorcycle I think so. I

don't I'm almost positive. I have that buried

away somewhere But yeah, I think I really enjoyed

the animated one. I've enjoyed Prime so far of

what I've seen of it. I haven't seen the new

Robots in Disguise at all, other than a few quick

clips of it. I think my nephew watches that.

New Robots in Disguise is essentially them taking

animated and Prime and meshing it. So it's the

story. It's a continuation of Prime. The 2d and

it's not 3d animation anymore. It's a it's the

2d anime, you know That's the best way I can

describe it. It's basically taking transformers

animated Transformers prime, right? Basically

melding them together In a really really horrible

digivolves. I don't know I like I like from what

I've seen about robots in disguise It is I've

seen the first two seasons. It is pretty good.

It's very it's very cool, but it's just it's

You gotta take Take some time to get used to

it. Supposedly, we all love Transformers comics.

Which incarnation do you love and why? Uh, yeah,

supposedly. When you say supposedly... As I said,

I sat down one afternoon and I'm thinking, okay,

Transformers, Transformers, Transformers, what

can I ask people about Transformers? I got to

like question 12 and I'm like, what else can

I ask? And then I just started going, okay, cool,

this works. Some people have comic stories, some

people don't. That's fine. You just turn out

to be able to don't. So with me, I think it's,

I don't know that it's necessarily the comics.

Like I grew up. I want to say it was in my early

teens. I was heavy into the Superman comics.

It was along the timeline of the death of Superman,

that whole story arc. So I started buying it

then, the Superman comics, and I continued buying

it, I think, out of habit at that point, for

like two or three years after that whole arc

came to an end. And so the Superman comics are

primarily what I have and primarily what I read

When it came to transformers, I didn't really

read those at all as a kid Later in my later

teen years when I started buying transformer

toys again You know to collect them as opposed

to play with them. I started looking into some

of the original G1 comics and I do own some of

them I'm just not a big fan of reading Comics

at all. I guess other than that the Superman

story arc because for whatever reason that that

story arc resonated with me and I think the whole

comic thing also goes back to Simon Furman and

it's like whenever I go to the news sites and

I see something with comics His name comes up

and I'm like, I'm just so sick of seeing his

name I mean IDW has done a great job for the

last four or five years. I mean they've really

like if you start with They have a one -shot

death of Optimus Prime. That's where their story

kind of starts And then it goes into more than

meets the eye and robots. Well, it used to be

called robots in disguise. They shortened it

to transformers now. But at the beginning, it

was more than meets the eye and robots in disguise.

Two transformers ongoing. I don't know. Well,

I hesitate to suggest more than meets the eye

to you. But I know Ryan is about ready to jump

through his computer and bash my head in. With

wheelie because of saying that I hesitate to

suggest this to you. The only reason why I hesitate

to suggest more than meets the eye to you is

because it's led by Rodimus and you don't like

Rodimus. I don't like the cartoon version of

Rodimus. The character itself, I don't mind.

It was just the characterization of that particular

character in the cartoon. Okay, so basically

if you start with the IDW, Death of Optimus Prime,

you can then go to More Than Meets the Eye, number

one, and Robots in Disguise, number one, and

you can either pick a path, you can read them

both, or read one or the other, whatever else,

More Than Meets the Eye, it's the most emotionally

scarring Transformers storytelling that I've

ever seen. James Roberts, the writer on that

book, This man does things to Transformers fans

that no one has ever done with these characters.

I mean, it just... Do I have to like call the

police or something? Just the way he writes the

stories and the stories that he comes up with

and the way they work in any kind of homages.

It's just it's amazing, amazing writing. It really,

really is. So it touches you emotionally, not

physically. OK. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no. You will have physical reactions

to what you read, but yeah, no. 15 might be a

stupid question because I remember you said you

sold a lot of stuff. No. I remember a few years

ago you said, oh, I'm either giving it all to

my nephew or I'm selling it. I remember that.

But anyway, I could be wrong. No, I mean, I probably

said that, yeah. Yeah. How big is your Transformers

toy collection? Well, it's... I want to say it's

hundreds, hundreds big. I don't know the exact

count. I have sold some stuff, mainly loose figures,

but definitely not enough. I bought a house back

in March, and I don't have any of my toys here,

to be honest with you. They're still in my parents'

basement, and I need to get them out of there.

But I think I have 25 to 30. 25 gallon tubs of

transformers Now a lot of those well, I won't

say a lot of them some of them are still boxed

still carded So when you have figures like that,

and you put them inside of the you know these

storage bins They take up a lot of space So you

have to have a number of them when you have a

number of figures that are still packaged to

store all of those So like I said, a lot of them

are still packaged, but also a lot of them aren't.

And yeah, I just have, I have way too many of

them. Like I said, I have sold some. I do want

to sell more. I just, I don't have them here

at my house, so I can't physically go through

my inventory of them and see what I want to get

rid of yet. Right, right. All right. What is

the one? Transformers toy, you could never part

with ever, like the one that you'll take to your

grave. Does it have to be just one? Yes. No.

Well, then I'll probably, I'll have to say my

G1 Wheeljack then. So that was my first one.

But if I could extend it beyond that, I would

say my entire G1 collection, because my... To

be honest, my entire... I'm talking about original.

I'm not talking about reissue. I'm not talking

about any of those. So just the original. My

original G1 collection is not very big. It fits

in... I have the Transformers collectors case,

the one that's more... I know there's a couple

different versions of them out there, but mine's

the one that's taller than it is wide. if that

helps anyone. But all the G1 toys that I have,

like original G1 toys, fit inside there. So it's

not very big and that collection isn't very big.

All right. What was the most money you ever spent

on a Transformers toy item ever? That's a good

question. I want to say on a single figure, it

was roughly $200. What was the figure that one

was the brave max from car robots Cool, which

I've told this story on tf wire. I don't know

if I've told it on any of your podcasts or not

But uh so again that was at the time it was like

late 1999 early 2000s I'm choking to death here

And there was a local import store they had like

all sorts of like anime stuff And stuff like

that at in Ann Arbor, Michigan and it was called

the whizzy wig and I remember they had a really

crappy website at the time and I don't think

you could buy from their website But you could

see like what their inventory was So I'm like,

oh look at they have this brave maximus figure

in in stock. So I drove to Ann Arbor Again, I

live in Michigan. So I drove to Ann Arbor. It

was about It's about 45 minutes from where my

parents lived. I was still living at home at

the time And if anyone's seen the Brave Maximus

figure, it's obviously a recolor and retool of

the Fort Max figure, and it comes in a really

giant box. So I think I got the last one, and

I was there, I got it, picked it up. And they're

like, do you want a bag for that? I'm like, a

bag? How the hell am I going to fit this? How

are you going to fit this in a bag? So I'm like,

sure, I'll take a bag rather than carry this

box around. So they have this giant, giant Hello

Kitty bag. They stuck it in. And I'm walking

around downtown Ann Arbor with this giant Hello

Kitty bag looking ridiculous. But I ended up

with my figures. I was happy. There you go. Awesome.

So an individual figure, I would say about $200.

I think that's what that figure was. But if you

were looking at... the most I've ever spent on

a Transformer. Before Hasbro started releasing,

re -releasing G1 figures and before Takara started

doing it as well, or at least doing it mainstream,

I guess, they had like this, I want to say it's

called Collector's Series. It came out around

the same time as like Car Robots. Or roughly

that time period and they were releasing them

in like two packs So there was like oh we could

buy you know two of the seekers together or you

could buy two of the autobot cars together And

they were really expensive and I want to say

they were like 225 250 Something like that. Maybe

they were like 325. I don't remember exactly

but they were ridiculous and that was buying

all of them Oh, wow So I was spending a whole

bunch of money on those, and yeah, it's just

ridiculous. So now, yeah, there's some of the

figures I still have boxed, and they're stuck

inside their plastic prisons, and that's where

they've been sitting since. All right, question

18, the ultimate question here. Do you like Loth,

or are you indifferent to the Bavers? So I have

mixed feelings on this. When I first saw the

original Transformers movie, So that came out

in 2007, correct? Yes I'm like, oh, you know,

I'm we've been talking about on the TF layer

podcast all excited about it I even got my I

went to like the preview night I even got my

parents to go to the preview night which was

like two days before it was like officially supposed

to come out and We went and saw it. My parents

loved it. I walked away. I'm like, this doesn't

feel like Transformers at all After subsequent

viewings, I think I saw it like twice more at

the theater. So after subsequent viewings, I

sort of fell in love with that first Bay movie.

Second movie, again, that was the one that was

in that they made during like the writer's strike.

So you could tell the script was not finished

at all. Just throwing stuff at the wall to see

what was stick. And I didn't I didn't really

like that one at all. I think they completely

ruined the Devastator character. But They ruined

it with one single edition and one bad John Turturro

joke Yep clang clang The third movie I thought

was a little bit better I thought that was more

in line with the first movie And then the most

recent one so age of extinction. I was I thought

that was more missed than hit So again, I'm sort

of a mixed bag when it comes to the the baver

stuff. I don't I don't necessarily hate it I

just think that's been done better in some of

the earlier movies than what's been done as of

late. So the Bay - And Steve Megatron's gonna

kill me for this, I don't care. So the Bayverse

is essentially going the route of Star Trek.

Either the odds are good or the evens are bad.

Evens are good and the odds are bad. So if that's

the case, then our next one should be really

good, right? Alright. If someone gave you a chance,

IDW, Hasbro, whoever could - You could create

any kind of Transformers fiction, whether it

be written, animation, whatever, create your

own toy, comic. What would you want to create

and what story would you want to tell? So this

is a really good question because there's a certain

time period in the G1 cartoon we know nothing

about. And that's a time period between the end

of season two and Transformers the movie. So

I would like to see you know, obviously animated

at least for me because I have to help with the

comics I want to see I want to see an animated

version or a cartoon that takes place between

the end of season two and Transformers the movie

to see you know How did they build this Autobot

base that would become Metroplex? How did how

did they you know? I guess have their bases back

on Cybertron's moons. Like how did any of that

stuff happen? And it's just like there's a whole

huge gap there, which I realize they did for

the toys, because they're like, you know, we

want to scrap all these old toys and introduce

these new futuristic ones. So from a marketing

standpoint, that makes sense. But from a storytelling

point of view, it doesn't really make any sense,

because we went from, I'm assuming, in the cartoon

timeline, it follows, you know, like the actual

timeline, so like 1985, 2006, for the end of

season two, and then we're jumping to 2005. Well,

what about all that time period in between? Yeah,

really. So I mean stuff happened there. We just

don't know anything about it So I if we're if

I was able to create some sort of fiction, you

know, that's what I want to see I Don't think

this is true but because I have my own story

that I've told over the years about My dad selling

off my he -man stuff. No, do you have a my parents

got rid of my toys story? Do not so my parents

were pretty cool in that sense They didn't get

rid of any of my stuff with the exception of

bump and jump for my Atari 2600 dad But other

than that no they didn't really get rid of any

of my stuff unless you know I was done with it

I said it was okay to get rid of I still have

all my all my original G1 stuff I mean I mean

I mean essentially you're you're using your your

parents basement as your storage, you know, compartment.

So I mean, oh, God, could you? I know this will

never happen because I don't think any will ever

want to pick it up. But oh, my God. Transformers

Storage Wars. Oh, just nothing but storage bins

with transformers. Oh, my God. That would be

hilarious. You know, good old Dave. OK, final

question. What is the one piece of advice that

you would give the transformers fandom and? Collectors

in general so I have two things here so one one

for each so for the fandom specifically I would

say just respect everyone's opinion If you I

mean if you're posting on on on transformer forums

like I used to It seems like whenever you have

a different opinion people feel like you're attacking

them personally as opposed to, you know, their

opinion. And it's not even that you're trying

to attack their opinion, it's that you may just

have a differing opinion, and they take it the

wrong way, and it's almost as if you're attacking

them as a person. But, you know, that happens

in real life, too. I've had that happen to me.

I've done that to other people. You just have

to recognize the fact that you're doing it, and,

you know, kind of take a step back, and look

at what you're posting, and look at what you're

saying, and it's like, is there a better way

I can be saying this? You know, I'm not... Trying

to attack the person or make it feel like I'm

not attacking that person So just kind of respect

everyone's opinion and watch what you post and

and things like that When it comes to the collector

specifically, I would say just make sure your

collecting doesn't get out of control a Number

of years back. I wrote a wrote a blog article

called the sickness of collecting and Brian Kilby

actually brought it up on Radio Free Cybertron

and had it as a discussion point on there I don't

remember exactly what it was that they talked

about specifically in relation to the article,

but it seemed to resonate enough that he picked

it up and talked about it. But I see a number

of different people out there, one you may be

talking with next. There's like this giant, giant

collection and he's like, we're talking about

Spada here in case you're wondering. He just

had a post on there, and I'm not hating on Spada.

Love Spada. Hope we can do another podcast again

together, Spada. This is just because I love

ribbing him, yeah. That was what I was thinking

of. Just because I love doing that, especially

with Wheely. I was waiting for that. Thanks for

a good time to bring it up. You just posted like

he's like, oh I went down the basement I think

it was the basement and he's like I found this

brand new toy that was in the box. I didn't even

know I have the stuff that you don't even know

you have so just make sure it doesn't if you're

collecting make sure it doesn't get out of control

and you know, make sure you're well within your

your What's the word that I want here well within

your Ability and means to control right? Yeah,

exactly. Good way to control your urges people

Right not not everyone needs to be drunk on energize

not to say spade. It doesn't not come Damn microbots

Yeah, that was that was when I was looking at

this question And I was just thinking about something

he had posted on Twitter, and it was like yeah

I didn't even know I had this and it had been

there for a while I think it's just like you

just be aware of what you're collecting and if

you are just make sure it's not getting out of

control Yeah, there's there's a lot. There's

three people that I know That either one of them

has a storage unit that is filled with stuff

that is not in their house Spada, I don't know

what his situation is. Hopefully we'll find out

next time. I think his son is just like swimming

in toys. Yeah, exactly and then my buddy Peacock

or Michael who we just Did an episode with two

weeks ago before yours at your episode will air

he has a closet in his office in the basement

of his house that is just filled to the top with

unopened transformers. I'm like, dude, go donate

all that stuff to Toys for Tots. Well, and the

reason I even wrote that article a number of

years ago is because I found myself doing that.

Like I just was just buying these toys and I'm

like, I felt like I was addicted to doing that.

And I'm like, I recognize that fact. I took a

step back and I'm like, whoa, I'm blowing all

this money on these toys. I could be doing other

things with this money. And then I'm like, all

right, I'm just taking a step back. And that's

kind of when I started to get out of the fandom

itself. It's just like, you know, I recognize

the fact that I have some sort of issue here

and it's just it's getting out way out of control.

So I just need to take a step back, stop doing

it and and kind of see where it goes from there.

So awesome. Awesome. All right, where can the

people find you online to interact with you,

sir? Oh, that's a good question. So they can

find me on Twitter. So I'm at matrix underscore

prime. You can also find me on YouTube. I'm youtube

.com slash matrix underscore prime. Maybe I'll

put the links. I don't even know. No, it's matrix

prime. There's no underscore. Underscore. 2 .com

slash Matrix Prime. That tells you how often

I upload things on YouTube. Before we started,

it took me like 15 minutes to get on Skype because

I couldn't even remember my username. And once

I found the username, I couldn't remember the

password. Yeah, well, you're one of the few rare

people. No, you're one of the rare people that

have been in my circle of Transformers friends

that You know, have kind of gotten out and they

haven't pulled you back in yet as far as, you

know, just throwing your light, you know, basically

Megatron said it best. Why throw away your life

so recklessly? Uh, um, but yeah, all, all Jesse's

links will be in the show notes for people to

go catch him on Twitter. Can I, can I, can I

pimp the latest episode of TFWare? Sure, absolutely.

So if you go over to my YouTube, so again youtube

.com slash Matrix Prime, I recorded episode 204,

so that's the most recent episode of TFWire,

about a month ago. And that was just me by myself

just kind of getting, you know, feedback, listener

feedback to see if anyone wanted the show to

continue. I even brought up some really old questions

from Spada back when he was just a listener to

the podcast as opposed to a host. that I answered

on there. So if you want to go check that out,

again, it's youtube .com slash Matrix Prime.

And if you have any interest in seeing the show

continue, I guess just post your comments in

there and let me know. Cool. Awesome. All right,

folks, I'd like to thank Matrix Prime, aka Jesse,

for hanging out with me for this past... painless

hour or so. And next time hopefully we'll have

Spada, if not we'll have somebody else here on

All Things Transformers Origins. Hopefully Steve

will be able to join us. And if you do have Spada

on there, he can hate on me too, sorry. It's

all cool, bro. And use the power of the Matrix

to light our darkest hour. That's it for us here

on All Things Transformers. Transform, roll out,

transform, transcend, all that good stuff. And

people, stay away from the drunk energon cubes,

please.