Origins of PecanCtMichael on Transformers Fandom

Hi, this is Abby Collins and you are listening

to all things transformers Welcome to an all

-new generation of all things Transformers as

we get going on another Origins episode. And

I'm Steve Megatron. Joining me is TFG1Mike. Yep.

And today's guest is Peekon Korn Michael. Hey,

how's it going? It's going. Welcome back. Yeah,

well, yeah, welcome back. Yeah, I don't even

remember the last time he was on an episode of

this of ATTF what no no never yeah, no, well

not the origins but all things transformed in

general I don't remember the last episode you

were on and the funny thing is is when I recorded

optimus solos Origins episode for this. He said

oh so if you can't quote Michael has to live

up to me, huh? I'm like okay sure that's that's

the way you want to play it's the competition

it's okay you came first chicken or the egg it

was the chicken definitely the chicken well in

that case optimus solo came first oh crap all

right where that's going but anyways anyways

uh As you've heard folks over the last past two

episodes the one with Steve and myself and the

one with myself Asking optimus solo I've got

we've got 21 questions all about transformers

to ask our guest and since Steve let off the

episode I'm gonna start off with question number

one. So Michael even though we all know this

is an obvious answer. I asked this this first

question here because in case of anyone we've

talked to that we don't particularly know all

that well. So did you grow up with Transformers?

Yes, I know it's a stupid question. And at what

age did you remember first noticing the franchise?

It's a stupid question, Blanchard. Just stupid.

I was in fifth grade when Transformers came out

on TV and I was collecting He -Man at the time,

but I got a few Transformers for my birthday.

so that became my new obsession so fifth grade

roughly roughly 11 yeah cool cool never before

have i seen a more impressive group of lethal

fighting machines and pretty good looking if

i do say so myself against Megatron. Are you

insane? I think I just sprang an oil leak. Silence,

you fool. Megatron is a worthless pile of scrap

metal compared to my genius. Brilliant observation,

brilliant. But your genius pales in comparison

to the genius of our leader, the original Starscream.

I could listen to this one all day. What are

you talking about? I am the original Starscream.

Liar. and the original Starscream. I never said

I was the original Starscream. You just did right

now. No, I didn't. Yes, you did. No, I didn't.

Yes, you did. No, I didn't. Oh, haven't you figured

it out yet? He's a pathological liar. Each of

us clones represents one aspect of your personality.

He's a coward. He's an egomaniac. He's a suck

-up. He's a li - I am not! So, which part of

me did you come from? Don't ask! This is going

to be a long orbital cycle. What Transformers

generation is your generation why? Not that we

don't know this one already, but... You already

know why. G1! I was around for the original,

and I was at a very impressionable age. So I

would sit and stare at the box art. for the packages,

you know, and wonder how I could recreate these

scenes. So you mean to tell me even as a child,

you didn't open your toys and you left them in

your closet like you do now? You know, it's creepy.

Yeah, I kept a lot of the boxes and yeah. And

although I have a lot of the toys that I had

when I was little, my mom threw away all the

boxes. She wouldn't let me keep them. Yeah. So

for a long time, though, I had Soundwave in the

box. And I didn't have the box and it went for

Optimus Prime, but I had the styrofoam. And I

would always put him back in the styrofoam and

put the styrofoam on my shelf when I was done

playing with him. Okay, then. Hey, hey, don't

knock that. I cut the... No, no, no, hey. Well,

I was going to say I cut the backgrounds off

of the boxes that are... On on like whatever

the figures are if they're large enough figures

like say for instance like the Titans return

Combiner wars like Megatron. Yeah, where is everything?

Yeah, I got the background out and I put it behind

him in my display case So now he's got like this

kind of cool techie background There you go.

And I also kept all of the not the instruction

book list, but Transformers used to come with

the these fold -out sheets that had all the characters

on them. I had those taped on my wall, so like

front and back. Nice! Alright, what other, besides

G1, what other generations of Transformers do

you like? It's easier to list off the ones that

I don't like. That's kind of like eating food.

There you go! The food groups are chocolate and

caramel. Let's just relist off what I don't like

in food. There you go. So as a toy collector,

I have all the toys. Except for the pretenders.

So I guess I don't like pretenders. Well, they

really were robots in disguise and nobody likes

them. Nobody likes a 40 foot tall human in a

spiked helmet. That's just weird. They're lies

they're selling us lies Lies damn lies. It's

weird because I used to not like the I Said the

minicons that many kinds. I'm sorry. What the

hell is called the? Micro machines the micro

masters. Yeah, I used to not like those either,

but then I went bottom wall so Now I guess I

like them I guess But I mean, like, outside of

the G1 stuff, outside of the toys, what other

generations like Beast Wars, Animated, Prime...

What else do you like? Yeah, we have a thing

for Animated. I really like the Animated series.

I really liked the Beast Machine series. I mean,

even though it was short. Even though the toys

were not very good? The toys were kinda crap.

I still like those, yeah. Those were fun Yes,

so What was your very first transformer toy as

a kid? Pretty sure it was g1 sound wave And I

had the first set of four tapes for him and I

want to say if not at the same time around that

time I had Ratchet and Optimus Prime Then followed

up. I want to say around Christmas. I got snarl

and the Devastator gift set At one point I had

a picture of me holding up the Devastator gift

set at Christmas and I have no idea what happened

to that Yes, I want to say sound with actually

I want to say if you want to say my first transforming

toy quote -unquote, right? I gotta tell you the

story, I gotta tell you the story. I had the

knock -off Soundwave. Toy Transformers toy! No,

I had the knock -off Soundwave. The one that

didn't have cassettes. It just had like an AM

radio with arms and legs. It was awful. And I

was like, this is awful. Why did I get this?

And as a follow -up present, I got the actual

Soundwave. So for this year for your birthday,

we're gonna just let it suck and the next year

you get the good one when it's less expensive

Something like that. Yeah Growing up now this

this happened to me a lot and this is just the

way I start this question out growing up I I

would always Thank God that we didn't have the

term back then but essentially it's live -action

role play But we would always, you know, at school

at recess or after school, my friends and I would

always say, oh, I'm this character. I'm that

character. We all just fight each other. Did

you ever have an experience like this with your

friends growing up? I might have been too old

to go running around yelling pew, pew, pew. But

we talked about them a lot. I mean, me and my

friends would talk about the Transformers and

the stories that we watched on TV. I remember

being at school. A friend of mine was telling

me that there would be a jet combiner like Devastator

except with Starscreams And I was I know and

I was like no way you're full of crap, you know

And then superior and came out You know that

kid this is awful that kid was always a compulsive

liar So to this day, I don't know if he was full

of crap or if he actually knew ahead of time

somehow Might have been just a really good guess.

Yeah, he's full of crap. Wow. Yeah. Cool story,

bro. Traitor! He's only malfunctioning! So, who

is your end -all be -all favorite character from

any Transformers incarnation? Basically, if Megatron

put a fusion cannon to your head and you had

to choose, who would you choose? This is gonna

be a heroic answer so that Megatron can say,

such heroic nonsense. As he holds the fusion

cannon to my head. Does anyone not answer this

as Optimus Prime? Yeah, actually so low answered

it as cliff jumper for the Autobots. Well Well,

what I've been allowing people to do is pick

one from from each side So I want out about one

decepticon. He picked a cliff jumper and sound

wave. All right Well, I was actually thinking

like proto man's got Rodimus and Michael I just

got lug nuts So maybe not them, but I'm gonna

go with optimus prime on the Autobot side mainly

because Optimus Prime was sort of a surrogate

father figure Just as he was for tons of other

latchkey kids in the 80s, you know, we Parents

are divorced don't have fathers at home. We come

home. We let ourselves in Make our own dinner

in the microwave And listen to Optimus Prime

be fatherly They had those great commercials

at the end of the shows that uh, you know, they

would teach you about how to live life You know,

I don't think they had that for transform They

weren't very many of them. Yeah what he's talking

it traditionally most 80s action cartoons for

boys had PSA is because Yeah, you know and knowing

it's half the battle it's not it's not an every

episode it's thing It's not on every episode.

I mean, Optimus Sol and I have been going over

the last five years now, or five years next year,

for the Masters of the Universe stuff from Filmation,

and wow. 130 PSAs for the He -Man series. Yeah,

those are pretty good. I mean, once you get over

the fact that orcos really don't character. Anyone

want to see some magic? Yeah, I think you better

do your disappearing act. Sometimes I feel that

I am not appreciated. See you later! Nice car.

Should we borrow it? Nah, that's stealing. Come

on, I'll ask for permission later. Looks more

like you're asking for trouble now. Tracks! I

figured I wouldn't get caught. That still wouldn't

make it right. Think how you'd feel if someone

took your car. Pretty lousy. And if you got caught?

You could end up in jail. Remember, taking something

that isn't yours just isn't right. It's stealing.

Now I know. And knowing is half the battle. The

Transformers! Uh, yeah. Shots fired! Shots fired!

Yeah. Pork chop sandwiches! That's my favorite

PSA. Pork chop sandwiches! That's funny. So Optimus

for the Autobots, who for the Decepticons? I'm

gonna go with Starscream Wow Wow, I didn't have

a Starscream either when I was little I I got

thrust for some reason Starscream is awesome

Starscream is awesome He is in certain incarnations

and certain other incarnations not so much definitely

not combine or worse Starscream Are we riffing

on Frank Todaro because I like Frank but I do,

but that voice acting in that series was horrid.

That whole series was awful. The writing was

awful. The voice acting was awful. It was like

a wannabe G .I. Joe Renegades. No, it was horrible.

At least Renegades had the characterizations

down. This show was like, wait a minute, Rodimus

isn't acting like Rodimus. Starscream isn't acting

like Starscream. Windblade, even though she's

only been in the comics, isn't acting like Windblade.

I mean, it's like, somebody wrote Windblade as

comic book RC, and somebody wrote Starscream

as Beachcomber. It's like, why? How is this even

happening? And Megatron is not Megatron. There's

no Megatron. Certainly doesn't sound like them.

Well, that's part of the voice acting, but no,

I'm talking about just the script, just the writing.

Oh, I know. The plot was awful. There was no

character development. They just assumed that

you knew who these people were. And then they

turn right around and display the fact that you

didn't know who they were because the writing

was so bad. The characterization was terrible.

It's just... It's like they tease us for a year

and a half and then they give us this giant lump

of crap. It's a crap. I don't know how Hasbro

allowed them to even make this thing. I'm sorry,

they're going to do Titan's Return next. I was

like, but there is another. It's like, no, it's

a sister. It's like, so we must keep this enigma

of combination away from the combiners at all

costs. Oh, here, Victoria, and you can have it.

We were just kidding. We didn't mean to lead

a full on assault on the city's capital in order

to destroy it for the last five episodes. Only

because Metroplex is like, you've been a bad

bot. So dumb. Well, you know, two episodes earlier,

Metroplex says, don't let this happen. And I'm

like, don't let what happen? Don't destroy it.

Don't let Megatron kill Starscream. Don't let

Starscream use it. I have no idea what's going

on here. And who the hell is Metroplex? Anyway,

I don't know the character we haven't introduced

fully. I mean, you know who he is, right? Yeah,

sure, you know who it is. Yeah, we just saw his

arm rise up and, you know. Yeah, oh, by the way,

I'm the master of puppets and I can make kombiners

move, or I can make titans move. Okay, Mary Sue,

you know, now that you spent two whole episodes

attacking Optimus Prime. Why am I now envisioning

Metallica's song playing behind this show? I

don't know. Because nothing else matters. Alright,

I didn't mean to fall into that rat's nest I

I just watched the last episode today and I was

so did I like what a Crap be crafty cap to this

crappy series The only thing that I enjoyed was

like I enjoyed the animation style to some degree

But that was about as far as it went. I did not

I didn't like any of it I liked I liked this

the CG of the bots themselves But like the animation

part of it where they're actually moving isn't

very good the background owns the the tweening

Uh, everything was just bad. I didn't... I just

didn't like it. I was expecting something really

cool. Actually, I was expecting, uh, like G .I.

Joe Renegades. Now that I've mentioned it. I

was hoping for that. I was hoping for it, yeah.

Because I liked that series. I thought they really

breathed new life, like PG -13, if not R -rated

life, into these old characters that I liked.

And I was like, well, this is really neat. And

this series did none of that. It was, I just

didn't like it. It was a crap. It was crap! But

yeah, anyway, Ratsnest, I don't even remember

what question we're on now. Yeah, we're on number

seven now. What are some of the other Transformers

characters you like? All of the characters sort

of recur over the generations, so it's hard to

say which one exactly. I like to see how characters

are updated over time. And we just talked about

Starscream, so I'll continue. I'll always love

Starscream. He's a pretty consistent character,

except for that crap combiner board series. But

like I was saying, G1 Starscream is different

from Armada Starscream. And Armada Starscream

is different from animated Starscream. He goes

in a slightly different direction. I mean, they

try to stay consistent as an arch type. Arch

type? Archetype yeah, there you go. I I'm gonna

have to default to the wiki for that one, but

Don't even start Don't even friggin start, but

he anyway, but with Starscream though is a little

bit different He's time and that's and that's

usually do a little bit to the writing and a

little bit to the voice actor Who is breathing

life into the character? And I just like that

so it's hard to say like oh, I really like Jazz

because you know scatman crothers is completely

different from there is animated appearance Well,

yeah film or yeah more yeah film are you know

the funny thing is when Lupus convoy and I chatted

with Phil Lamar. Yeah, we asked him Did they

want you to do your own thing or did they want

you to do scat man? He said once you got scat

man in your head. You can't do anything else

and I said I said something along the lines of

Can we hear what your scat man jet and he just

went into it and it was just like It was like

Scatman Crothers came back to life, people. Yeah.

It was amazing. I heard that one. It was really

awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, because I would

have loved to have been able to do a Scatman

Crothers. That would have been... Megatron! You're

going down! You know, but... But again, you know,

it's a lot of the voice actor, and to a certain

extent, it's the writing. And each character

is... each character should be... You know, a

new experience and something to make you go,

oh wow, I really like what they've done with

this character. Unless you're Transformers Energon.

That kind of carries over into question number

eight. Oh, okay. Let's get into eight then. Are

there TF characters that you hate? I really dislike

Rodimus Prime. I'm going to shoot you now. It's

a pity you Autobots die so easily, or I might

have a sense of satisfaction now. Arise, Rodimus

Prime. Optimus. Hey, it is his fault prime died

in the first place It might be his fault, but

his leadership skills suck. Oh No You spent all

of season three whining about what would optimus

do? I gotta get optimus. I gotta save optimus.

I gotta give optimus back the matrix I want to

be hot rod. I want optimus way way way. Why why

why why it's just terrible terrible character

And then he didn't get good until Headmasters,

and then even then he didn't matter. You know,

I think I skipped Headmasters. Well, I watched

the fan dub. Other than that, it's, yeah. Yeah,

exactly. Yeah. So, I think everybody, everybody

kind of craps on Wheelie. You know, I mean, I've

seen Wheelie evolve. over the last couple generations

too, and every time they bring up Wheelie, he

still kind of sucks a little bit. But I don't

have an active dislike for Wheelie just because

he's annoying. But you have an active dislike

for Rodimus. The character, you know, and again,

maybe I'm just harping on G1, but you know, there

are versions of Rodimus where he never becomes.

You know the leader of the Autobots where it's

like, okay, this isn't so bad You know you take

animated for instance where you've got a Rodimus

and he's a prime, right? I think you're pretty

sure Yeah, so you've got Rodimus Prime Stay cool,

Monomus, and try to hold out a little longer.

The Elite Guard forces are strained to maximum

as it is. Sir, I don't know how long we can keep

the cars from the Space Bridge. The cars are

going after every Space Bridge on the periphery.

We can't let any of them transwarp to Cybertron.

I can assure you, Commander, that the Cybertron

Space Bridge Nexus is fully guarded. We'll be

ready for anything that comes through. Count

on it. Ironhide! Braun! Transform and fall back!

We need to protect the space bridge! base bridge

operational oh sorry cyclonus oil slick help

free spitter and secure the perimeter you'll

have to get past me first deceptor creeps you

say that like it's a difficult thing autobot

And He's pretty cool. He actually comes across

as kind of badass until he gets turned into rust

and I mean, there's been other other Rodimus

this is they're actually putting a Rodimus in

the next movie to right am I right am I He's

kind of black and orange. I don't think he looks

very erotomously. Yeah, it's the car itself is

Overall black with red and orange bits on the

sides in the front. Yeah, no, they call them

holler rod I Thought it was like I thought I

was like hey Rod he goes ha He's gonna be the

Hollaback Rod. Hollaback Rod! Yeah, and then

they're gonna have King Arthur slay him. Well,

that's what bothers me is King Arthur is gonna

slay Optimus and then Optimus will pass the matrix

onto Hot Rod and Hot Rod will have to light our

darkest hour. Now, how do I know this? Because

that's what happens every time. Hot Rod, your

pants are full. Give it to bubble be you waste

of space Give it to pretzel card first You're

gonna make me say it aren't you you turn into

a pretzel cart, I thought you were made of sterner

stuff Over your lifetime as you got older did

your interest in the transformers franchise ever

Get did it get stronger or weaker and nine and

ten are kind of like almost the same question

But they're not really because ten is was there

ever a moment in your life where you just stepped

away from transformers completely Let's start

with nine then um over the years my interest

has risen and fallen Here I'm gonna get a chart

watch this, okay Wait, you know, you can't see

this is the wrong media. Yeah. Yeah. All right

Audio only can't see this can't see my my stunning

PowerPoint presentation here Seriously, I I loved

it as a kid, you know, and then I put all my

toys into a box until I was in my 20s and I suddenly

had disposable income and a friend of mine at

work who had Beast Wars Megatron on his desk.

And this was Transmetal 2. You and Steve worked

together? I didn't know that. Exactly. You know

what's cool is when you get your first job downtown,

and you show up on the 30th floor overlooking

Lake Michigan, and the buddy in the cube next

to you has Transmetal 2 Megatron. That's a cool

job. That sounds like me. Yeah, so So so from

around 1999 up until energon Transformers energon

came out roughly I liked armada, but energon

lost my interest. I didn't like the animation.

I didn't like most of the toys To a certain extent

the armada toys were so so like yeah But armada

or energon really just killed it for me And I

got back in around the tail end of Cybertron

and Transformers Cybertron and then lagged a

little bit around the movies in 2008 or so and

Animated But no, I was I watched animated Yeah,

yeah, he's really had lagged until the movies

and I said there was also animated. Yeah. Yeah

Well, I'm currently in a slump again, although

I'm very interested in the new headmaster toys

coming out Don't know how many I want to get

Titans return. I've got a blur here on my desk.

I haven't opened yet I'm afraid one of my business

lose his head Yeah, that's that's one thing.

We always known about peeking on court Michael

He buys all these toys and just leaves them in

the closet ever opens them You get you know you

could take all those on open toys to toys for

tots and make some kids You know Christmas really

happy they go very happy Yeah, it's like oh man

somebody gave me this five -year -old transformer

in a box. Why the hell? Somebody give me the

series from five years ago Hey, sorry kid. They

were just lying. They're lying in a huge pile

under my desk, and I had to do something with

them Wait, let me let me grab something random

from the underneath my desk here real quick.

This is a that's what she said This is a train

transformers dark of the moon cyber verse Autobot

ratchet lunar crawler. Oh My god, it's actually

pretty cool. I know I got it Yeah, I clearance

for 1124 1124 is clearance really well is originally

15. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, that's kind of cool

I mean just random crap from underneath my desk.

I got dark of the moon to it sure That's funny.

Number 10? No, I didn't answer 10. Oh. Yeah.

Yeah. Was there ever a moment in your life when

you were through with everything TF? That's a

clever question. I'll tell you. No. Between ages

13 and 23, I think, is when I was completely

through with TF. I've been collecting the toys

since 1999. Even when I wasn't thrilled with

the franchise content, I still kept up with the

toys. I mean, I learned my lesson after Transformers

Energon, because there were lots of late run

toys that you just can't find after the series

ended, like Galvatron. I mean, he's a repaint

of Megatron, but it's hard to find. eBay on the

secondary market. They're they're expensive That's

unfortunate It is well, you know like who the

hell wants to enter John toys. I bless this series

sucked ass And it did but you know, I'm a completionist

and there's still a couple from that series that

I don't have Like Galvatron Oh, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Shall

we let it all out? I'm still reeling after the

thought of the internet giving birth to fans.

Just breathe, internet! Breathe! Push, push!

All right. Damn it! Merry Christmas, dammit!

That's right. I'll answer. You know, honestly,

I've never really participated in the fandom.

I'm just not social and I don't interact with

people Aside from like podcasting with you guys.

Yeah, I interact with you guys, you know and

You know it's funny I I went to BotCon for years.

I went I was at BotCon from like 99 until about

2010 before I actually started talking to people

there And it would not I mean I would recognize

people if any people I recognize now You know,

they're there every year and they volunteer every

year and Every year I'd see them and go. Oh,

hey, you know, I know you but I'm not going to

talk to you I mean, it's like Ben Yee every year

I saw Ben Yee and I recognize Ben Yee, but I

wouldn't talk to him Every year I saw David Willis

and I knew David Willis, but I wouldn't talk

to him You know it took a while. I think it was

like 2010 when I finally said hi to Brian Kilby

and And now if we see each other conventions

we hang out a little bit But I mean it took me

a long time to actually communicate with other

people in the fandom Yeah, I don't know why I

mean honestly if I just speak up and like you

said if you just shout louder You know, maybe

things would be different. I don't know. I was

surprised, you know, you'd have upstarts that

would pop up and get crazy popular in the fandom.

And I'm like, hey, I've been here since 1999,

you know, I mean. And I guess it's RFC. Oh, older

than that, geez. No As far as you keep saying

99 and all's I can think of is Brian's slogan

for RFC. We're the original Transformers podcast

since 1999 Well, yeah, I remember when Brian

was Yeah, I remember when Brian was doing the

podcasting. I mean you could barely download

anything back then If you six came out of Betty,

that's basically what it was it was it was crazy

and you know, I understand why he took the break,

you know, cuz he's just Basically waiting for

the technology to catch up with what they were

doing. Yeah, but I mean your radio I think so

We can ask him when we have him on yeah, but

what's yeah, like I said, I mean it's uh It would

kill me because it'd be like wow, you know, I

have this huge collection and if I just took

some time out of my busy day and You know, maybe

made YouTube videos or something. I'd have a

comfortable side income You know, I mean there

are people who who are doing very well for themselves

as far as I could tell just doing YouTube videos

of Transformers Yeah, and these guys get free

toys sent to them. So it's like why the hell

can't that be me? You know, and the reason is

is because I don't speak up I never have I am

content just to be a a non -interactive cog in

the Transformers fandom. So you're the missing

cog in Metroplex, huh? Exactly. I like to think

of myself as one of Unicron's missing eyes. Heptacon

and Metroplex, they're the same thing, it's alright.

Same wall, same wall. They each have giant eyeballs.

Honestly, I think if you're gonna replace Unicron's

eyes, it'd probably be like Fort Max's eyes.

He's got to have huge eyes. Yeah, but still by

season three Fort Max wasn't even a thing yet.

So that didn't happen until rebirth. Metroplex

and Triplicon are like the Gigantors, which doesn't

even match Unicron. So Unicron had tiny eyes

and a big old eye socket. Sure, yeah, it's sunken

eye syndrome His eyes were bigger than this play.

Oh wait, that's wrong Well, he didn't have back

our eyes What is your favorite transformers personal

personal anthem song My personal anthem song.

So if you if you had a Transformers personal

anthem song, which Transformers song would it

be? I Don't know which would be my theme song

if there was a guy Carrying a boombox on his

shoulder behind me at all times. What would be

playing out of it? Is that we're asking? Yeah

Okay, cuz that's kind of cool Exactly, exactly.

It'd be Twincast. Oh, he went there. It would

be Stan Bush. Yeah. You got the touch! That's

in my head all the time. It's just like a running

soundtrack. It comes out while I'm in the shower

or driving my car, usually when there's no one

else but Blanchard around. You know not that

he's in the shower with me. I'm just saying no

new we live in different states. Yeah, thank

god for that Yeah, you don't want to talk to

steve about where that rupee where that rubber

ducky ended up rupee Rubber rupee ducky, you're

the one You make bath time lots of fun. Oh, yes,

Robbie ducky Robbie ducky side of me The themes

the theme song and the interstitials to the g1

cartoon are always kind of Popping up in my internal

monologue. So you know like uh in between the

commercials and we go and you'd have like jazz

drive around the transformers logo and transformers

are shooting it shit, you know that that that

and um Just the transformer the the original

the original uh theme song more than for me hearing,

uh since they since intro to records release

the twenty five track uh... transformers the

movie score couple years ago it was twenty fourteen

actually uh... it's twenty five track almost

a full score it's got almost everything the was

instrumentals from the movie It was the first

time I ever heard the Coronation music without

Starscream babbling on, so where you see the

constructicons playing the horns, that's actually

part of the song. That's not just a sound effect

from the constructicons. And I just absolutely

love that song. How often do you go back and

watch any of the Transformers cartoons? Well

the benefit of having children is that you can

introduce them to all your old cartoons Exactly.

That's true. Yeah, so my kids were really into

Transformers animated well Aiden in particular.

I don't know about Gavin, but Aiden and I watched

Transformers animated together Aiden really liked

rescue bots and then I showed them the Transformers

movie with Unicron not the Michael Bay stuff

And they really like that too. That's that's

uh, they've seen that a few times actually because

we've got a DVD Well, you're gonna have to get

it on DVD again because blu -ray DVD release

just came out for 30th anniversary And that's

the clearest picture you're ever gonna see I'm

gonna wait for the 3d version No, there's not

gonna be a three. Oh, please. Okay, tell me.

Yeah Okay next 8k in 3d That'll be awesome. Yeah,

I'll take it It comes with a cheese sandwich

In the box, that's why it's in a metal tin to

keep this sandwich nice and warm After after

it's been in a truck from Atlanta that cheese

sandwich is so be bubbly when you open up the

tin Salmonella yummy Number 14 We all love Transformers

comics, so which incarnation do you love and

why? Gotta remember there's been three companies

that have done it too, so I know you know and

the thing is I've I used to really like comics,

but I've never been into Transformers comics

When Transformers first came out. I didn't even

know there was a comic series It was years and

years and years before I found out, and by then

it was like, eh, not interested. I remember when

Dreamwave started doing their Transformers, and

the fansites were flooded with Pat Lee art. And

Lee had a very particular style, but that was

the only quality Transformers art out there at

the time, so it was like, this is the best thing

ever! Even though now it looks kind of kind of

silly and you know you look back on a style and

go wow Why are they all big and blocky and why

does he have so many lines? And what's going

on with all this stuff and and but back then

it was really really cool You know what I really

liked was the Transformers versus GI Joe in World

War two those were pretty good Yeah, that had

some great visuals by Jay Lee And Jay Lee, I

really liked Jay Lee back when he was in his

prime doing stuff for Marvel. What else? The

original War Within series was great. And it

introduced us to the new Cybertronian forms.

Yeah, it was still DreamWave, yeah. You know,

it was only the first one, because I want to

say... There were three more Withins. Yeah, exactly.

But who did the design for the first one? I think

it was... Look it up in the wiki blanchard. You

know you wanna it was um All right fine who did

the design it was uh? It's right on the top of

my head. He he was he's really really really

good But he did the designs and it was like okay

cool. We've never seen Cybertronian Vehicle modes

for most of these characters. We've never seen

Cybertronian robot modes. It's like you can make

the vehicle mode And have them transform into

something that looks like a VW bug, but that's

not right, you know They should have a Cybertronian

alt mode and a Cybertronian robot mode and this

was the first time they'd actually ever done

that and It was just really I thought it was

really cool. I liked it a lot. I bought the first

series after that I want to say by the time the

third series came out the designs were looking

kind of weak I mean, they were really trying

hard to say, oh, this is their Cybertronian alt

mode, which looks kind of like a car with no

tires. And then just their regular Transformers

robot mode is their alt mode for that, or their

robot mode. I didn't like that as much. But the

original ones were good. It was sort of a precursor

to the War for Cybertron alt modes. Yeah, I like

those a lot better, but that wasn't technically

a comic. I want to say those alt modes ended

up in the comics just because they were so cool.

I think they did. Yeah, War for Cybertron, Fall

of Cybertron, those were... I know Fall of Cybertron

ended up in the IDW just because... Yeah. Yeah,

that's what they went with. But yeah, I like

those. You're talking about the Dreamwave War

within, right? Dreamwave? Okay, so it's Furman

and Figueroa Yeah, Figueroa did a lot of Figueroa.

Yeah Okay. Yeah, he did the designs. He's amazing.

I know spectacular he actually did like fan fan

art Back in the late 90s I mean he was amazing.

He did this thing called uh, oh What was it called

like the never -ending war? That was really really

good. And then when he actually became a Dreamweb

artist, it was like, oh, yeah, man, you've earned

this My current favorite my has to be the the

more than meets the eye comic series Is the writing

there is fantastic and the art is usually pretty

good But I've only read up to the last crossover

event, which I want to say was Dark Cybertron.

I had to been like a year ago Yeah, I was dark

side returned because combiner wars was the next

event Yeah, see now. I haven't gotten that far.

There's a lot of like I want to say I know Megatron

joined the lost light and I haven't read those

yet Yeah, I think I want to say it was like what

27 or something was less when I read I'm not

sure what the number was. Yeah, it's 20 Yeah,

27 was dark so they the ending to Dark Cybertron

and then 28 started the whole new second season

new journey with Megatron being Overlord of the

Lost Light that's as far back as I can remember

honestly because I I Stopped I still love the

IDW stuff. I loved everything I read up to Dark

Cybertron, but I stopped reading it because I

don't know I just Kind of lost interest for some

odd reason, but I want to pick it up again sometime

next year Yeah, I kept telling myself. I would

grab the trade paperbacks, and I just haven't

yeah I Haven't been at a comic store in a long

time to be honest me either. I just I just get

the true whether it's single -issue or trade

I just get the trades on comics ology. It's just

so much easier Yeah, I don't know. I like it's

like newspaper. You know I like having it in

print in front of me Yeah Yeah, I don't know.

Also, if I manage to get to TFCon in Chicago

this year, then you can get them all signed,

because apparently they're all going to be there.

Yep. Like, everyone's going to be there. Yep.

Crazy. Well, that's because Transformers can

major convention they have for the rest of this

year, seeing as how BotCon is no more. All right,

how big is your Transformers toy collection?

And you can also talk about how it's the only

toy collection you have. I only allow one collection,

and there's a reason for that. It's because I

own one of each. And if I collected more than

one thing, I would have to own one of each of

all of that, too. You'd have to own another house.

Exactly. I'd have to just buy another house.

That's how big my collection is. The only toy

that I know he has that is not Transformers.

Exactly. I sent his wife, Chrissy, I sent her

a message for his birthday a couple years ago.

This is years and years ago now. Five or six

years ago. Yes, five or six years ago. I'm like,

hey, look, these just came to Toys R Us. I know

he's technically not allowed any other toys in

his collection. But we both love this cartoon,

Phineas and Firms. It would be really cool if

he had this Dr. Doofenshmirtz versus Agent P

thing. She got it. Yeah, she got it. I still

have it on my desk. Surrounded by thousands of

Transformers on my desk. So how big is it? 10

,000 figures. Yeah, I've got one of each, except

for the pretenders, since I guess I don't like

those. And then there's books and comics and

snow globes and party hats and what -have -you.

Do you have the MicroMasters? I do. I have all

the MicroMasters. Yeah. Do you have the Action

Masters? Yeah. Oh, I don't like Action Masters.

That's right. They don't transform. They don't

transform. It's like those... I have one. I have

jazz. It's like those 12 inch... statues that

they sell at the toy store now for the transformer

movies. Yeah. For kids that don't transform.

I'm like, what is the point of a transformer

that doesn't transform? You know, I think for

kids, they're just happy to carry around this

thing that's about a third of the size that they

are. My son had all of them, like not all of

them, but like, and he got them from grandma

and he didn't like them very much. He wanted

these transformers because they transformed.

You know, it's funny, on top of my desk, I've

got Side Swipe and Steeljaw. And they're 12 inches

tall, they don't transform, they look like they

have like four points of articulation. I don't

know what the target audience is for these, but

they say age is four and up. So, more power to

them. I don't think they actually sold very well.

Probably not. Got mine on clearance I Didn't

actually buy it. Actually. This was a birthday

present the last two birthdays. I got just a

huge stack of transformer stuff and The thing

is it used to be really hard to buy stuff for

me because I had one of everything already and

the last Last year or so, especially since robots

in disguise came out. I really haven't been buying

anything Except for the combiner war stuff. I

bought a lot of the combiner wars so You know

Christy and the kids would just go to Target

and just buy me all the robots in this guy's

stuff So I've got like piles of it at least they

didn't go in the back Yeah, they didn't break

into the store so You need to retell this story

just so it's right and it's out there because

it's been years since anyone's probably To hear

Blanchard tell the story, I drove my car through

the front doors straight back to the toy aisle.

I jumped out with two machine guns and shot down

everything within a five mile radius and then

took the toys I wanted and walked home because

my car was trashed. That's not that's not really

what happened that that's that's an exaggeration

on your part It's funny though is like every

time the story is told it gets a little bit more

grandiose not quite that grandiose but I'll tell

you what happened is they Target when I say they

I mean Target Target it was my go -to store,

you know, they're right around the corner The

Toys R Us is too damn far away to go there regularly

Walmart same thing, you know, but targets my

go -to store. So I go to Target all the time

and Check for the Transformers now they hadn't

restocked in Probably about two or three months.

It was I want to say this was like after the

Christmas rush No, no is before that before Christmas.

So they hadn't Stocked up for a while because

they were waiting for Christmas is what happened

and just before Christmas they get their shipments

in and then and then everything gets filled up

so it was maybe November ish I want to say when

I went in and they didn't have anything on the

the pegs yet but they did have a huge palette

of Hasbro boxes and they all had the Transformers

logo so I was like I really really want to know

what's in those boxes You know and and I don't

necessarily want to wait for them to open the

boxes So I just started opening the boxes so

I opened them all up You know and I was just

stacking stuff pulling things out of the out

of the boxes I'm setting on the side because

that's what I wanted and this lady comes up to

me and says You can't open the boxes and I said

but I did and then I opened another one and she's

And she's like But but you're not supposed to

and I'm like look what I found I Show her this

huge stack of transformers that I'm like I'm

taking these home Open them all and I'm like,

yeah Just go so at that point I took all my transformers

and I went and I went checked out and I probably

bought like 10 or 11 Because they had cases and

cases of them and I was I really had a you know

serious itch to scratch there as far as Transformers

purchases go because I didn't usually go that

long without buying anything it sounds like one

time I got yelled at because I tried to buy a

DVD off the shelf once Before it was actually

on sale because they put it on the shelf like

three hours beforehand. Oh Yeah And I was like

- Street date has an exp - No, I don't care,

man. It's on the shelf. I was like, it's on the

shelf. Like, I'm like, you got three shelves

full of these. Like, I can't take when I buy

it? No, you have to wait until midnight. I was

like, you're gonna be crappin' me, man. Like

- Yeah. You know, you got to put a tarp over

that shit or something, you know, but to hear

Blanchard tell the story It's like looks like

you went in with an armored convoy and then exactly

took all about Honestly as grandiose as it got

it's basically I came in in a stealth suit you

know like total ninja gear and snuck into the

back room and on the on the top of The the highest

shelf, you know, I climbed up there and tore

open the wrap Wrapping on a on a palette of toys

and then sneakily grabbed all the ones that I

wanted and snuck out the back door Yeah, and

that and all of these at the time were what animated

toys a lot of them were animated Yeah, I want

to say a lot were animated and there was other

stuff Somewhere like I'm on my on my blog that

I haven't touched in like four years, you know

There's a story about it. But yeah, I think a

lot of them were animated Oh, no, I know. Yeah,

because that was that was right around the time

when Wyatt says Derek J. Wyatt said something

about hey guys go to Target $5 shockwaves with

Bumblebee and I'm like wait what I actually walked

Target that day that he tweeted that and I'm

like, hey cool five bucks for a transformer great

time That's a clearance from $15 to $5. That's

a clearance from $15 to somebody got fired over

that Somebody got fired over that. I mean that

was I bought like six of them. I went to different

targets and bought a bunch of them There's they're

in the closet somewhere still Yeah, I had a bunch

Number 16 Steve number 16 is What is the one

Transformers toy you could never part with ever?

Just one Yeah, so if you're let's say for example

not this would happen, but let's say an unforeseen

Circumstance would happen that your basement

flooded and you can only save one transformer

story. Who would that be and why? Would suck

Maybe fort max so if my house is on fire, I'm

throwing that one out the window wife kids and

fort max Maybe they're in that order. What about

the dogs and the cats? They'll figure it out.

You can't get another Fort Max. Exactly. You

know, it's what it comes down to is Fluffy's

great and we all love Fluffy, but we can get

a new Fluffy. You can't get another Fort Max.

If this thing melts to the fire, I'm never going

to be able to replace it. You know and that's

kind of a funny answer but at the same time I've

got two Fort Max's now so I would be hard -pressed

to decide which one I would throw out the window

because I've got a plan in place and have a fireproof

box that you you store them in well that's about

it you know I need to install like foam fire

retardant foam in the ceilings that just sprays

down on my collection okay and that would serve

the dual purpose of putting out fires and dusting

Because you honestly who wants to dust you got

this much shit who wants to dust all this stuff?

I don't want to be speaking of your collection

and how you have it displayed Why don't you tell

everybody what you did a few years ago with your

shelves in your Way you have it set up now remind

me. What did I do? How you got that set up what

you have currently with the setup with the the

cabinets my shelving units Oh, this is more than

a few years ago. This was a Right around the

time my son was born I want to say we were having

the basement redone and In my office my wife

has an office and I have an office downstairs

And in my office I had oak shelving units put

in and they're six foot tall and two feet deep

and About 12 feet across, you know, and each

one is there's There's four of them and each

one's about the size of a refrigerator like an

industrial size refrigerator and And I can attest

to this because I was sitting inside each one

of them doing the staining as I stained I stained

in polyurethane to all the oak including the

insides And then the contractors put them in

and put the doors on and I ordered the doors

To have uh, oh What's that glass called? What's

the you know, they're live? Yeah, they have lots

of plexiglass So there's a plexiglass on the

doors And there's locks on each one and then

on the very end. I've got a little like utility

cabinet That has the light switches in it so

all all of the top lights there's two I guess

six shelves, but the the The top two have plexiglass

bottoms. And then the bottom two have plexiglass

bottoms. And there's lights in the top in the

middle. So I can turn on the lights and they'll

shine down through the, well, if they're not

completely packed, in which case many of them

are, but the light will shine down through each

level down to the bottom. It's really neat. Essentially

what he... Tried to do folks as he tried to light

his darkest hour. Yeah. But, you know, what I

found out, though, is that two feet is way too

deep. Yeah, I mean, shelves are usually about

a foot deep and the guys in the back, you can

barely see even with the lights on. It's like,

oh, yeah, these aren't these aren't displayed

very well because they're all standing on top

of each other. That means you just have to rotate

them out every so often. With the guys back in

the front. That means you need a really good

fight scene. Exactly. So the guys are down. I

couldn't imagine how big of a fight scene. Yeah,

so anyway, two feet deep, six feet tall, 12 feet

across, standing room only for my figures. I

got a lot of guys in. Dead Tops eat your heart

out. The what? Dead Tops eat your heart out.

Dev Toss. The Ikea shelves. Oh, I don't yeah,

you know this that's the other thing that bothers

me is the way that I have these displayed is

that The the doors are all closed and locked

so it's it's not really conducive to me Just

grabbing one off the shelf and playing with it

That's why I have my Ikea shelves on the other

side of the room. So I've got These are like

two by four Cubes that you get it like target,

you know, and each one has one of those folding

fabric container units that you and My wife bought

me a bunch of those to surprise me because I

was running out of space on my shelves over on

my little cubicle shelves, so she bought these

containers and You know fabric foldy cube containers

and just dump them all in And so now now my toys

aren't really on display anymore on these cubicles,

right? They're just dumped into a container and

the containers shoved in there So the idea here

is if my boys want to play with what's in the

red one power core combiners They can pull out

the power core combiners bin off the you can

hear him This kills me every time because it's

like they should be in a museum And instead they're

in a bin on a shelf Then they can work or a combiner

should be in a museum who said that power core

combiners are awesome Okay, they might be a cool

toy, but they're not museum -worthy All right

fine. I'm just saying you know they should be

they should be on display not so much You know

in a band yeah, yeah, they should be in a band.

They should be on display What was the most money

you ever spent on a Transformers toy item over

the years? Probably Fort Max I got a really good

deal on him though. He's he was maybe 300 bucks

He's out of the box. He's missing one of his

big blue guns, but I got a really good deal I

got a complete trypticon and a metal chested

Predaking together for my 350 once But yeah,

but that was for both of them Yeah, I mean if

we're talking about like one transformer, then

it's probably you know fort max but We pretty

much any time I go to bot con I'll drop about

a thousand dollars and this last one I probably

dropped two and And that's like nothing compared

to like what other guys spend. You know, I know

like Thorazine You know, he did I see him with

I see him I think it was I think it was last

year's TF con Chicago I saw him and you know,

we didn't talk about so much what we bought or

what but you know afterwards he was tweeting

about stuff that was like holy crap the head

of cost like a thousand dollars by itself I Mean,

you know, he yeah, he bought some really expensive

stuff. I was surprised. He's probably if I can

get him he's probably gonna be one of the The

other interesting guess we're gonna have on this

thing because yeah him and his obsession with

seekers. Oh my god Well, he had a seeker obsession.

He had everything Yeah, like everything No, no,

he uh last year when I talked to him he was swapping

out He was selling a lot of his his uh seekers

swapping them out for other stuff that he wanted

but he was buying I I want to I don't remember

exactly but I want to say it was like transformers

victory stuff from japan Stuff that's like a

thousand dollars in the box, you know, just ridiculous

stuff. That's expensive I mean, I bought I bought

my brave max I want to say for 250 in the box

and I was like, wow, that's a really good deal

I bought something huge and the two of us were

walking out together and Out to the cars, you

know on our way out and I got this big s4, you

know brave max in the box And I was like, wow,

this is my last big purchase. I think I probably

spent like Over a grand, you know with this probably

maybe fifteen hundred this weekend and he Didn't

say anything, you know He's just like wow, that's

really cool, you know, he wasn't like look what

I got, you know But but after the fact I saw

a bunch of stuff that he was talking about. It's

like holy crap Oh, you know what? No, that was

uh, that was the last bot con in st. Charles

They said it was Chicago, but it was actually

st. Charles's about as far away from Chicago

as you can get and still call it Chicago But

that's I saw him there. That's when I bought

the the brave max and I was like, what'd you

get? Couple of things. I probably spent more

than I should. Oh, really? Wow, you're gonna

get trouble with the wife. Yeah, ha ha And yeah,

and then after the fact it was like holy crap.

He bought that Wow I mean, there are some people

whose collections put mine to shame but not many

There's only one that I can think of Just guess

he's Canadian Arsenal or a protoman good old

protoman anyone's to shame he's got a really

neat collection, but I want to say he he's Centralized

you know he is he collects like rare Rodimus

stuff. Yeah, you know yeah, he's got a lot of

stuff, but I mean he's got some really amazing

Rodimus stuff Oh, yeah Who else you know, and

I want to say Like P off probably has a bunch

of really nice stuff, but but they give him shit,

you know Take all this shit for free. I'm like,

how do you get a gig like that? That's amazing

Number 18 is gonna be very decisive here. So

Steve take away Do you like or loathe the Bay

verse or are you indifferent to it? Oh, man I'm

indifferent, I gotta say. I'm kind of comfortably

numb at this point. There's just been so many.

I really hated the designs at first, but they've

gotten better over the years. At this point,

the robot modes are basically human, and the

stories, if you can call it that, are ridiculous

mousemashes of old G1 cartoon storylines. You

know the second movie is just painful to watch.

It's just bad bad bad bad But at the same time

if it keeps the franchise popular and viable

for the next generation Then you know I'm all

for it bring on more movies Yeah, I'm sure every

time a Michael Bay movie comes out I'm gonna

be the first one to complain about it, but yeah,

I saw the first movie at the Was it the 2007

or 2008 but 2007? Yeah, I mean I saw it there

with with a whole bunch of other Transformers

fans at Botcom and you know, everybody was like

yay, you know and It's like they everybody cheered

at the right times and and You know, they laughed

at the right times, and we were all on the same

page. But then the minute you go to see that

movie with non -Transformers fans, it just makes

you cringe and go, ugh. Because nobody's cheering

with you, and nobody's laughing with you, and

everyone's just kind of like, why did I pay money

to see this? Because this doesn't jive at all

with what I remember. I listen to a podcast called,

every now and then I listen to it when I catch

something that I want to hear them. rip on it's

a podcast called tranquil tirades they essentially

review bad movies or what they feel to be bad

movies they've gone through all four of them

and each of those podcasts is over three hours

long because they go into detail of why things

wrong with with those movies yeah um yeah all

right so If you could create... I was hoping

for your guys' take on it. I'm waiting for Steve

to go, Oh God, I hate Michael Bay. Steve? I'm

not a fan, but I will watch them as forgettable

popcorn movies. But I don't care for them overall.

I haven't even shown my kids. Don't. Wait till

they're older. My kids won't. They can appreciate

how bad it is, you know? Yes. Wait until they're

older. Wait until they can appreciate how bad.

Uh, for me, I like them. Well, only one I don't

like is Revenge of the Fallen. The first movie

was was pretty awesome seeing optimists and you

know and hearing Peter Cullen and all that The

third one was all right. I think they went a

little too Spock with Sentinel, but it's it was

nemois So, you know, there you go boy. Yeah The

fourth one was... Fourth one for me was a breath

of fresh air because no Shia LaBeach, thank God.

And I know it's not his fault, blah, blah, blah.

I don't care. He's still a bad actor. But we

do get Optimus Prime straight up murdering Frasier.

So... Die, Frasier! Go back to your radio show.

Exactly It's like so Peter Cullen, how exactly

do you feel about the bloodthirsty nature of

your movie counterpart? Oh, they're all the same

characters like shut up Peter It just collected

a paycheck man kill my childhood The only thing

I really like aesthetic wise did not like about

Age of Extinction Was that super fast transformium

bullshit? Oh my god Did they make it out of unobtainium

it's yeah, it's it's like watching a Really really

giant horribly twisted slinky go back and forth

You remember when transformers animated came

out and people were like I don't like the Tasmanian

devil transformation That's how I felt about

that that when they it's like they're not really

transforming. They're kind of Disassembling and

reassembling into a different form. It's it's

not Transformation he's not it's it's not like

the car is jumping and turning and twisting and

shifting its pieces together into a new form

It's literally they're disintegrating and reintegrating

into something else that that was a turnoff pretty

much If you could create any kind of Transformers

fiction, whether it be a toy, a comic, a story,

a cartoon episode, a cartoon series, whatever,

what would it be? What story would you want to

create with it, and why? I am not creative. If

I could tell a story about Transformers, it would

be, I don't know, something obscure, like...

Like the adventures of the rescue bots before

they got stasis locked in space so you know yeah,

you know you change them up a bit and Trade in

some background characters and something like

that. You know put them on a bigger ship with

more guys With their back stories and how they

play off different personalities and maybe look

into what happened to all the other Transformers

rescue groups and because I used to be more and

prime was like I didn't realize there were any

out there. I mean, honestly, there could be like

a bounty hunter picking them off, you know, like

a bounty hunter just going, you lock down, lock

down versus heat wave. How cool would that be?

That would be awesome. That would be fun. Yeah,

you know, we'll get we'll get it animated. We'll

have Steve Bloom come in, you know, it would

be sweet. Steve Bloom and Lance Henriksen. Oh,

yeah. See now I am creative I take that back

yeah This would be cool this should happen Yes,

yes it should All right number 20 Steve you have

a my parents got rid of my toy story Heck yeah

Well not for transformers actually I kept all

my transformers in a box Because that was the

last That was the last toy collection I had So

they stuck around my mom would just assume that

I didn't want toys that I stopped playing with

So when I stopped playing with he man to go to

transformers Those toys disappeared. Yeah, I

had a lot of he man. I had like a steamer trunk

full of he man I Had Castle Grayskull and point

dread and I had snake mountain I had Probably

20 of the figures and maybe a 10 maybe a dozen

of the vehicles in this big old steamer trunk

It was maybe three foot by four foot It was this

huge trunk that opened up and I had taped like

shelves in there set all my guys on It was really

cool And then I started playing with transformers

and it disappeared And prior to that, yeah exactly

Prior to that was my Star Wars collection, which

disappeared when I started playing with Eman.

And the Star Wars, I was my Star Wars collection

started when I was like four or five. And when

Star Wars first came out, I had all the vehicles.

I mean, I had I had the the X -Wing and the TIE

fighter and the the sand speeder, not the sand

crawler. I didn't have that, but I had like the

the speeder. What do they call that thing? The

sandspeeder. The sandspeeder? It like hovered,

right? Yeah, this thing, yeah. Yeah, I had that.

And then, you know, it just kind of went on from

there. I had a lot of Star Wars toys. And those

disappeared. And I want to say at one point,

my mom like sold them in a garage sale for like

40 bucks or something. And yeah. You know, I

would have loved to have those. You know, my

Star Wars figures would have been great to have

as an adult. The He -Man 2, for that matter,

would have been awesome. I mean, there's been

times when I've seriously thought about going

back and, like, buying the He -Man and saying,

you know, there's probably only, what, 50 or

60 of them. I could buy them. I could buy those.

They're extremely just... Don't even just stick

with transformers, man. They're extremely expensive

for a lot of those old ones. Yeah, I can imagine.

Yeah, you know, it's funny is I'll see them at

garage sales and they'll be like stink or, you

know, and and he doesn't have his weapons and

he doesn't have his his chest harness, you know,

and he doesn't smell anymore. It's like, you

know, just this black and white colored he man

with a mermaid mermaid mermaid head of the Merman

head, you know. And it's like because they all

had the same body basically And yeah, it was

like merman colored in skunk colors, but you

know it would When I was little it was like wow,

this is my new favorite toy because he smells

funny Or moss man who's basically beast man with

with green green frocking all over him. Yeah,

you know, it's like Wow, this is the coolest

toy ever now and it's just always a gimmick and

I really enjoyed them And I kind of wish I still

had them. It's kind of like how I felt about

Transformers in my 20s. I could own all of the

combiners that I wanted when I was little. And

that's where it started. All right, final question,

number 21. What is one piece of advice that you

would give the Transformers fans or the Transformers

collectors at large? Collectors don't have kids

Too late Steve There you go, that's the problem

before I had a wife I spent a lot of money on

Transformers and my collection got huge and Well,

the takeaway here isn't not to get married though

since my wife would also buy me stuff, you know,

she would Well, she has her collections and they've

changed over the years whereas mine have mine

have have not changed But you know I would get

her stuff for her birthday or for Christmas that

related to her collection and she would get stuff

that would relate to my collection and sometimes

I'd actually I'd have to tell her you know, I

don't have this or I don't have this or these

are the things I'm looking for and You know it

take a little doing but she'd give me something

really neat and then eventually she'd have a

whole catalog I remember when we first started

talking, you showed me one of your website posts

where you had this whole list of what you had

and what you didn't have. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah,

I did. Well, it was a funny thing. I had like

an Excel spreadsheet that I could export to the

website. And I don't think it's still visible

anymore from the website. But yeah, I had like

a spreadsheet. And then she could look at it

and go, oh, wow, this is what I would buy. And

that was that lasted for a while, but Yeah, the

takeaway here isn't don't get married because

you know wives are awesome But you know we were

young and we had disposable income and and we

just bought crap Kids eat your disposable income

Yes, literally literally because you have to

feed them and they're expensive so You know,

once you have kids you can't buy as much stuff.

So that's my advice to collectors, don't have

kids. Alright folks, I think that's going to

do it for us here on All Things Transformers.

This episode was recorded while, it's actually

being released while I'll be on vacation out

in California to see my fiance Jen. We will have

another new episode somewhere around October

20th or so. Steve any final words before we close

it out? No, there's just great catching up and

rediscovering some of the things that We may

or may not have known about you over the years

You knew all that stuff. I know Yeah, it's been

a while since we've actually done a podcast together.

I know yeah Yeah, I can't remember It wasn't

the Star Wars thing was it? Yeah, that's what

I was saying at the beginning of this Last time

you were on this show with Steve and I or when

you were on any other show with the rest of the

GCR I don't remember when it was it was a while

back. Yep. All right, folks You can follow at

all things TF v3 on Twitter You can follow myself

TF to and Mike at geocast radio for all the other

network updates Steve. What is your Twitter?

SCP 21 And Michael pecan court Michael all right

transform rollout transform transcend The seeds

of the future are lied buried where in the past

in the past Sorry Wow, it was been so long since

we've actually got to riff humorously in such

a way Would you like some wine with that wine

Thanks, I've got plenty here good yeah, I think

this podcast has been very autobot Lee There

has been has been a little too too. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, you're right. Yeah, anyway This humor can

go no further this is bad sodomy Lubrication

star scream