Origins of Ryan Merkley on Transformers Fandom

Hey everybody, this is Dan Gilbazan, voice of

G1 Bumblebee, and you're listening to All Things

Transformers. 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 of course TF2 and Mike

and it is time once again for another Origins

episode. Steve Megatron. Megatron's off with

some sort of cold or something. He's got some

sort of, um, Vox virus or something. He's off

playing with his rubber ducky. Uh, he should

have said Cosmic Rust. Well, he's a Beast Wars

fan. Yeah, I know. I mean... Well, Beesore is

Megatron, not... Yes, I know, but he's still

Megatron, I'm just saying. It's Megatron's grandsons.

As you can hear, today's guest is Ryan of the

Island, Flo Merkley. Hello, sir. Yay, hello.

Yay. So it's time to transform and transcend

here on All Things Transformers. And yes, I know

a lot of these questions are stupid people, okay,

but... and i know that ryan and i have talked

about transformers for the longest time obviously

he was on tf wire with jesse and spada and all

of that but most of the questions that i've crafted

here for you know people i haven't talked to

because that was the goal with this this these

origins was Stories we have not heard so question

one is a little stupid for you because obviously

you did do this Did you grow up with the Transformers

and at what age do you remember noticing the

franchise? You haven't answered the other bit,

so I don't think it's that bad anyway I mean

yeah, I grew up with it the first Age seven or

eight I mean my brother had them He's older than

I was so like he had the originals as in like

Optimus Prime and Megatron By the time I was

old enough and into them a I had sort of inherited

his And be you know, we were into the headmaster

stage and that kind of thing What generation

is your generation and why And that's a tough

question We'll get to stuff that I'm not a fan

of later, but yeah You know, I grew up with generation

one and that kind of thing but You know as you

know, we keep doing shows on them. I love the

the comics current IDW stuff Mm -hmm But I mean

I've loved the other shows too. I love Transformers

Prime. I thought it was great For all the flaws

in the first season, I loved Transformers Animated.

I loved the toys. Wasn't a huge fan of the Unicron

trilogy. Is anybody a huge fan of the Unicron

trilogy? I'm seriously asking because... It has

its moments. Its issue is... This is gonna sound

bad, but I'll say it anyway. It has the sort

of very Japanese storytelling in that there's

some really good moments in it, but man, is it

spread out. You know, if you were to take something

like Gundam Wing as a great example and pair

it down to about 20 episodes instead of, you

know, about 60 or however much it is, it's really

good, but... they spread out the good ideas like

crazy also i mean there's a lot of people who

grew up with it i mean i know people who grew

up with the unicorn trilogy that really like

transformers now so yeah i know a lot of people

like armada i know some and i'm specifically

talking the cartoons i'm not talking the toys

i know a lot of people like armada i know a lot

of people like the cybertron cartoon very few

people that i've run into And I would say in

the last 10 or 11 years have openly admitted

that they like energon. I Don't know what are

they used for fuel that only meant the TV show

So There's those your car robots. I loved the

toys. Yeah for that wasn't a huge fan of the

series but Don't know I like most of the generations

of it All right, so you've mentioned Prime, you've

mentioned Animated, what are some of the other

ones, and what did you like about each one of

them? So I mean, I've mentioned those. Prime,

I just loved the show. I don't think I ever got

any of the figures, oddly enough. If I did, I'd

definitely want to get a knockout or some of

them. Although, with knockouts in the comics,

at some point you'll probably see a Generations

release. Yeah, at some point he will, probably.

But anyway, I loved that. Transformers animated

and mentioned, I liked both the show and the

toys for that. I still have a handful of those.

I've mentioned the others, geez. Obviously, oh

geez, the one I didn't mention, Beast Wars, which

I loved. Beast Wars, and to a lesser extent,

Machines, although I still liked Beast Machines.

Beast Wars have got a decent amount of the toys.

They were quite good and absolutely adored the

show. Beast Machines, I probably liked the toys

a little bit more than the show. Yeah, I'm the

opposite. Those Beast Machine toys were crazy.

I liked a good number of them. Some of them are

fantastic. Like the Jetstorm mold still gets

released and re -released now because it was

really good. What was your very first Transformers

toy as a kid? So my memory is not great of my

childhood. The one that I remember, and this

is probably... Partially will not probably it's

most certainly responsible for some of my attachment

to the character But I definitely remember getting

night beat which would have been 88 Because that's

when he was released And that's one of the first

ones I definitely remember as being absolutely

my own As well as some of the other headmasters

eyebrow hardhead Never had any that's just the

Decepticon headmasters The only I'm trying to

think Decepticon headmasters See I was more into

what characters That I liked that got them You

know so For me it ended up being the target masters

that I like so obviously a hot rod get a target

master Cyclonus got a target master that kind

of thing so it depended on the character that

got the upgrade. I didn't have any Target Masters,

oddly enough. I had friends with them, but didn't

have them. There's a bunch of them I always wanted,

and then as the comics would go on, I'd always

be interested and want a lot of the characters

from that. Especially since in the end, the comics

ended up... Running a little bit longer than

the toys did But the comics would use Characters

they in particular Simon Furman with his writing

would use characters who were really obscure

and just never appeared in the show But he also

liked using a lot of the pretenders and guys

that nobody else ever used Now obviously nightbeat

was one of those we'll talk about the comics

a little later, but I remember you know as a

kid. I still I still wanted guys like bludgeon

Thunderwing Not knowing at the time of course

thanks to not having the internet that you know

a lot of the pretenders toys were not very good

For anyone who doesn't know they had the pretenders

had an outer shell and he had a tiny Robot on

the inside the robot would transform Mm -hmm

and had the usual generation one pose ability

which was basically a brick but still and then

The issue was the outer robot or the outer shell

which was sort of the the main one that was ever

featured in The comic books the shell didn't

move at all. Yeah Yeah, it kind of reminds me

of Magnus in IDW Know he's not technically a

pretender, but the whole Magnus armor minimus

ambus thing That's what that kind as soon as

that was revealed to me. I'm like oh, okay, so

he's kind of like a pretender Except he has actual

posability. Yeah exactly Pretenders were not

a good idea. It's funny that the comic books

actually kind of used them as heavily as they

as they did Yeah, absolutely uh... again this

is going to be a weird question for you but uh...

growing up did you and your friends ever pretend

to play transformers it's a school recess or

something i'm not sitting there so i'm not saying

uh... technically the eighties version of what

is known as live -action roleplay now not sitting

there saying that you played with your toys with

your friends obviously we've done that is children

but it's one of those things where i didn't believe

that uh... no i don't remember that So you want

to tell that story? I mean, I don't know that

there's a story behind it definitely happened

as kids like who played as you know different

things There were no electronics when I was Obviously,

yeah, I mean the closest thing we had I shouldn't

say if there was no but you know, it was years

before Even the Gameboy so electronics and stuff

weren't great. But yeah people would uh... you

know you bring your transformers to school and

sometimes you know you'd be like that character

mhm absolutely yeah i mean for me electronics

back then unless doing what you just said about

bringing your character to school you know you

bring one of the old you know noisemaker flash

guns or whatever the the early days of laser

tag kind of guns thing um... well for us the

first electronic at school i remember is the

game boy so i don't remember i mean i'm sure

somebody had one of those uh... crappy lcd games

or something like that but if you brought stuff

to school it was usually like toys it was an

action figure or whatever I know the Autobot

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

character from any Transformers incarnation?

You got to pick one Autobot and one Decepticon.

I know what the Autobot is, obviously, but what's

the Decepticon? It's Night Beat, although it

is close. I'll get into that on the other side.

Decepticon's probably, again, growing up comics,

Shockwave. I mean, he was the coolest in the

Generation 1 comic books. And then now I still

adore him because I mean I loved him in the IDW

stuff Even though at this point he's long deceased

Always loved shockwaves the idea of this Well,

I mean a the imagery of them the Cyclops Mm -hmm.

He always looked really neat and he looked different

than pretty much everybody else. Yep and he acted

different than anybody else. The whole, you know,

he would say what he was saying beforehand, like

interrogative, why were you doing this, or the

emotionless kind of speech patterns that he had,

especially in the comics. I always loved that.

And then I really liked him on stuff like Transformers

Prime. I thought he was terrific on that. Awesome,

awesome. And we all know your Autobot is night

beat, so... Want to explain that one? Night beats

like I said before it's probably because I got

the toy is a huge reason up But I also really

liked him in the comic book. So the generation

one comics from Marvel now I'm talking about

the US stuff because obviously and wasn't getting

the UK comics over here at that point right he

was introduced and Remember the series that he

was introduced in he was introduced in the matrix

quest series Which was in the 60s as in numbering

in the 60s and Yeah, he was just different than

everybody else. They had this idea of Him being

a detective which nobody else kind of ever had

any sort of you know traits like that and even

back in the generation one you know books he

didn't seem to care much about factions or that

kind of thing he just kind of he was very sort

of aloof and you know robert's in more than meets

the eye very much has taken those portions of

him In a Megatron in one sequence even asked

night beat if the Decepticons had ever tried

recruiting him Because he's not he you know,

he's not hung up on the science that kind of

thing and his conversation with quark He's at

least somewhat sympathetic to the early Decepticon

cause uh... yeah before megatron perverted yet

before it got a little extreme obviously but

also i mean he genuinely he does actually care

about people he just isn't very good at showing

it's all the time and the neck the upcoming issue

uh... tomorrow's you know for example is really

good conversation with him and wrong like he

genuinely He genuinely does care, but he's not

the most socially -adapt Transformer. Yeah, I

have yet to get into Lost Light, so... Oh, that's

right, yeah. That's alright, you're not spoiling...

Because by the time we get to Lost Light, I probably

will have forgotten you telling me this, so...

What are some of the other Transformers characters

you like? Could be from any generation, doesn't

matter. So on the Autobot side, my number two

has always been Fortress Maximus. that is mostly

a result of the comic books so fort max without

cerebro yeah i never had the toy uh... yes cerebro

never spoke if i remember right in the comics

uh... he was still Bonded to Max. But anyway,

I liked the idea of this insanely powerful Transformer

who just absolutely wasn't interested in the

war and just wanted peace And it's continued

since then actually I really like his IDW version

even though he's very Different to say the least

he started out as the prison warden And then

ever after everything that happened to him on

garrus nine. He was a little shall we say trigger

happy Very happy. Yeah, and I've liked seeing

his kind of like redemption slash changes To

him in his overall character arc So yeah, I'm

really glad he's kick still kicking around. I've

always loved sound wave Back to the Decepticon

side as I swap over. That's pretty obvious. I

mean, I don't know of many people that don't

like Soundwave. Yeah, I don't know of many people

either. I'd almost be curious about that actually.

If there's any Soundwave hate out there. But

yeah, those are big ones. Optimus Prime. There's

always a fan of, always liked Megatron as well.

So I mean the big two, but... Yeah. What, um...

If you had to pick your favorite and least favorite

of Soundwave's cassettes, who would they be and

why? Ooh. Favorite thanks to the comics, especially

his most recent one, would be Ravage. Okay. Both

halves of him. uh... that's you know that's two

mediums that he has been ripped in half now and

in the comics for ravaged uh... the uh... uh...

you know the comics one made me sad uh... i really

liked him but yeah he was probably my favorite

geez least favorites uh... man I'm not always

a fan of Rumble and Frenzy. Okay, so since you

said that... Which one is which color? Which

is which? Rumble is blue, Frenzy is red, or Rumble

is red and Frenzy is blue? I believe my stance

is Rumble is blue slash purple. Okay, good. Yeah.

Because I've always liked Buzzsaw and Laserbeak,

and to be honest, some of the others, like Slugfest

and Overkill, don't appear enough. I liked Ratbat,

but man, he seems to die, you know, after not

too long in any continuity, so... Well, you know,

once you become an evil sender, you know, there's

no going up from that. Yeah, I wasn't sure how...

laser beacon buzzsaw were going to be portrayed

in the IDW, you know like I've read all of the

robots in disguise stuff and everything else

obviously we did a whole you know month -long

event about it and I'd covered it before that

but I'd forgotten how well when you get a writer

in there that actually write diet like they're

essentially the comedy relief laser please if

you can both saw her in the book but since this

guy's comic it's so there is uh... so the reason

why i asked you favorite and least favorite because

in the end only service because of any other

transformers characters that you actually hate

that you just downright despise uh... i think

there's very is taking aside one uh... medium

of transfer so this is not a movie stuff oh yeah

i know that's not really like even we really

doesn't bug me uh... i mean in the comics and

just not a huge fan of any of the human stuff

Because it's been done to death and I mean the

cost of stuff It was based from was not particularly

good nor was all hail Megatron, so those were

kind of the dark ages of the IDW runs. Yeah,

they're the ones nobody speaks of But you know

teach their own But yeah, there's no way I really

hate like I didn't I never got the wheelie hate

of generation one. I mean, okay, you know, he's

kind of annoying in the movie, but you know,

so were the junkie ons. When you're a kid, because

they're, you know, beating up your heroes and

that kind of thing. So not really. Yeah, we is

not angry at prowl, but I think everybody is

at this point and you're kind of supposed to

be so yeah Cuz he's a jerk Yeah, I was gonna

say spade is never around enough for us to hate

wheelie enough Over your lifetime as you got

older have you Seen that your interest in the

transformers franchise has grown stronger or

gotten weaker Yes, and it sort of ties in with

the other one. So as for which It's grown. I'd

say stronger over time, but there were definitely

times when it was weaker and Question 10 is was

there a moment when you're through with everything

transformers? Well, yes, I stopped doing the

TF wire podcast Mostly because of stuff that

happened that year and that year being the release

of revenge of the fallen And the reason was a

I did not enjoy the movie but be more than that

the Stuff that was happening. So generations

had kind of gotten the axe So I wasn't happy

with the toys because they had pretty much shut

down the line i was really enjoying now of course

it would come back but i'm just saying at the

time uh... the comic books were not enjoyable

at the time this was the uh... tail end of all

hail megatron uh... a miniseries that was meant

to be six books that was stretched out into twelve

so we were at the tail end of that and i mean

man did it show that they're stretching it out

so i wasn't enjoying those So, you know, you've

taken away toys comics and the movies So what

else was there that I wasn't a huge fan of and

so And unfortunately the TF wire kind of died

because Spada was feeling the same sort of things

and Did just Yeah, I mean that was rough and

it's funny because this is something I You know

definitely desperately want to bring up with

him. Should we talk with them? But I remember

it really well that one day Years later I went

into the my local comic book shop And on the

shelf was one of the IDW comics And it had a

cover that for whatever reason made me really

curious about picking it up. The cover was Overlord

fighting a whole bunch of Autobots. And the issue

would be the more than meets the eye issue in

which he fights everybody on board the lost light.

read it and I was hooked again and it's weird

because I had known that there was something

kind of missing from my different sort of fandoms

and that kind of thing and I didn't know what

it was and yeah it turns out yes it was you know

transformers I just if had been feeling odd to

me that I wasn't interested in them. And it would

be, you know, a Roberts comic that brought me

back. So I mean, that's one of the many reasons

I love his work, but I mean, it got me right

back into it. And the other moment I remember

when my fandom waned was when I did the stupid

thing you do as you get slightly older and I

sold all my Transformers toys at a yard sale.

Which was a horrible idea because I had well

over a hundred Generation one figures. They were

all in great shape I had all the accessories

and of course I sold them for next to nothing

And they're worth like an absolute ton and I

had some rare ones in there. I Had a road buster

with every one of his accessories and everything

was you know, like I said in perfect shape Jetfire

as well Or sky fire or whatever the toy was called

now I don't even remember anymore which one,

he was Skyfire in the show. Yeah, he was Skyfire

in the cartoon. Yeah, I think the toy was called

Jetfire. Now he's just Jetfire period. With the

internet giving birth to the fans and everyone

having a voice about what they like and don't

like about Transformers, do you find your voice

gets lost in the shuffle or do you just shout

louder? No, because I was famous for a while,

baby. I mean, during the days when TF Lyre was

big, like, holy cow, were we putting in lots

of numbers. I almost forgot if I can swear on

the show or not. Yeah, you can. But as for afterwards,

it doesn't really bother me. There is I guess

part of it too is I like the stuff that's really

popular but also I'm not you know get to this

later, but I'm not super interested in fighting

with people like if they enjoy aspects of Transformers

or the universe that I don't enjoy that's perfectly

fine. I don't need to argue online I don't need

to argue, you know third party versus Masterpiece

lines or Etc etc because I mean I don't Have

a it doesn't you know, it doesn't bug me if people

like the different things I'm just happy they're

enjoying the different the differences in the

series I think that's what makes it great is

that there are all these incarnations I find

even the toys. It's a lot like comic books if

I don't like a writer's run on a comic book I

just, you know, wait for the next one, because

somebody new is going to take over and maybe

I like what they do with that particular character.

And Transformers are exactly the same. You know,

if you don't like the movies, well, there's always

stuff like Generations. If you don't like Generations

but you really like the movies, well, there's

one every few years. Like, you know, there's

pretty much something for everybody. And then

the comics have literally taken that something

for everybody, which is nice, because we've talked

about this on the other show before. When we

grew up, there was one female transformer. And

she didn't even have a toy. uh... there were

other ones that showed up in one episode of the

cartoon in chromia and uh... moon racer and firestar

thank you i can never remember firestar's name

i always remember firestar because in that episode

it was it was a little one in optimus it was

moon racer and Oh god, was it moon racer and

prowler? But it was like fire star and iron like

I remember in in that episode that they always

it seemed to me that they were trying to team

off like couple up The yeah, let's raise them

bots. So yeah, they always did and you know Your

relationship was constrained to the only one

was optimus and Alita pretty much in every series

but then here come the current IDW ones where

they actually Have different characters and different

relationships and everything else and there's

legitimately, you know more in terms of something

for Everyone now there's far more representation

Than there used to be although it's still very

bad if you were to look at the numbers and stuff

but you know they're working on it and that's

really nice and you know in terms of characterization

there's something for everybody as well I'm sure

there's people that really like you know Prowl's

ability to think ahead and be very sort of calculating

and that kind of thing there's you know there's

Megatron has completely sort of changed and is

definitely a different Character than previously

and is a lot more three -dimensional and interesting

So yeah, I mean that's what I really like about

it is there's there's also so many characters,

right? I mean we had 900 characters in generation

one That's a lot of guys to work through. Yeah,

it is. So, you know, there's like i said there's

legitimately someone in something for everyone

and i think it's gotten better over the years

which is really nice absolutely uh... what is

your transformers personal anthem song so is

the touch your song is there is any of the other

instrument i was like there 86 soundtrack on

my iPod, always have. I have each version of

it. I actually have the original CD version of

it too. Yeah, so do I. Kicking around, like the

original CD release. Yeah, I do too. It's over

on my shelf. And of course, yeah, I've gotten

the 20th anniversary one, or sorry, 25th. And...

Yeah, I always like to sound for music by the

way. I've always liked the soundtracks to the

live -action ones Steve Jablonski is really good

Yeah, why does he keep doing that anyway? You

know must be one heck of a page must be I mean

uh... you know i have i've always liked their

and i've always said i've said this i've i've

interviewed stan bush over ten times and almost

ten years at this point but i've said i've always

said this when it came to transformers the movie

there was two anthems for two different characters

the touch was always optimist is being and there

was always hot rods because that's what plays

in each of their scenes Um, and what I love about

dare is that middle instrumental part of it where

he's not actually like there's no it's not stan

singing the song. It's just instrument. I love

that For me, maybe it was the synth that eventually

got me into Nine Inch Nails and everything else.

Talking about the movie, obviously that was a

huge moment for all of us. Ronimus Prime, always

loved him, to the point that when they announced

DX9 Cary, which was a third party masterpiece,

Ronimus Prime, was all over that Ecstatic when

they announced that and yeah, he's one of my

favorite figures Folks I don't think you're ever

gonna listen to another podcast or it has someone

saying Stan Bush helped me love nine -inch nails

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just very

strange that the synth part of... I went backwards

too. I went backwards from NIN over the years

as well, and I love a lot of his influences,

which is stuff like the Eurythmics. Anyway. How

often do you go back and re -watch any of the

Transformers cartoon series? I watch the movie

a hell of a lot. I've seen it at least a hundred

times, probably quite a few more. Now which version?

You're watching the new Shout Factory version,

right? Now I'm watching the Blu -ray. Okay. Back

then, I mean, I started wearing out the Canadian

VHS release from Rhino, because they were the

first ones to re -release it after the initial

release. And I remember, you know, just picking

it up at Zellers. I saw it because I was looking

around for it. The internet was in its infancy

at this point. By the way, Transformers for a

while on the internet was the biggest thing.

You would search for it and get hundreds of pages.

As results and even if you were to look up stuff

like Star Wars and Star Trek you wouldn't get

that much It was nuts, and I'm talking like the

days of you know when a 14 -4 modem was brand

new I think we had a 9600 when they were new

and That's what I was using Also, I mean, I remember

when the internet was just bulletin boards, but

anyway So I knew of the Rhino release of it on

VHS and I just I Remembered parts of the movie.

It's funny I'd pick I picked up the movie and

then watched it and then realized holy cow. I

Blanked out a lot of this movie because it was

really traumatic about It was really true, you

know really traumatic seeing all the characters

died For me as a kid and I had actually forgotten

huge points of it to the point that I'd ever

watched it so Yeah, that was Interesting for

me, but yeah, I remember that as for the cartoon

series, uh, I Rewatch certain episodes really

frequently Other stuff not as much as for sitting

down and you know going through the whole show

Not a whole lot, I mean I've done it before I've

done it a few times, but not super often Yeah,

I do it every now and then there's too much new

stuff to get through half the time I mean see

for me right now like I have, like, I recently

liked someone put together all of the Combiner

Wars Prime, whatever that Machinima series was.

Somebody recently combined it all into one long

YouTube video. It's like 51 minutes long or whatever

it is. And I'll go back and I'll watch it eventually,

but like, I'm not currently watching Robots in

Disguise. I have never really gotten into Rescue

Bots, because Rescue Bots, I'm not saying it's

a bad show. it just skews more towards the kids

than it does the collectors and that's fine that's

what it's supposed to do uh... this idea and

that's what i didn't mention to in terms of uh...

talking about there's something for everyone

we now have you know we're back to having a kids

version of have one for a little older and then

we've got the movies uh... absolutely absolutely

all right uh... c we all love transformers comics

are at least most of us do there are a couple

people out there that i know that have zero interest

in in checking them out there are uh... which

information do you love and why so you don't

know you know uh... i don't know you're gonna

say that Mean we're in a golden age for them

and you know, I've commented a bunch of times

that as bad as I He eyes nitpicky as I absolutely

am on The John Barber stuff His is still far

and away, you know, some of the so much better

than a lot of what I grew up with and that kind

of thing. It's terrific. So, yeah, that's this

is not a hard one for me. I want to get into

Robert's, which is, you know, his stuff is some

of the best comic work I'm reading period. And

I put some of the best comic work I'm reading,

including his. right up with some of the best

like literature and books I'm reading so yeah

it's really good it's very good it's 22 because

you mentioned you know people not being interested

in the comics I know so many people we got an

email about it don't know anything about transformers

but they've started reading the comic books because

they've heard they're so good and they're just

really good stories with really good characters

so and it's always good to turn the younger generation

onto something that is so good because obviously

our good buddy wrote mr roebuck over there uh...

you know we we turned our buddy andrew you did

uh... turned andrew roebuck onto the transformers

comics and he's pretty much consuming everything

at this point isn't he yeah i mean all of the

current ones i've you know the i'm not trying

to disparage the older stuff but there's no you

know if you don't have any attachment to it or

anything else there's no real reason to go through

it especially when there's so much stuff to go

to get through yet it's currently i mean we've

three current Comic book series running and they're

all good. So How big is your transformers toy

collection at this point Lord It's smaller than

it used to be because I'm trying to I've tried

to parent down to I keep you know the best or

my favorite version favorite I should say of

a particular character with the exception of

my absolute favorite characters. I thought you

were made of sterner stuff. So for example, like

Fort Max, I've eventually paired it down to the

third party warden, which is based on the IDW

design, which is one of my favorite figures.

You know, Shockwave, I have the Quakewave. Third

party because it's based more on the comic design

versus the masterpiece was the animated design

Ravage, I've got the ocular max third party one

because he's a gorgeous and be in line with the

masterpieces I've got the lost light crew as

many have been released in either generations

or third party Because I love that comic In the

end definitely I still have a decent amount of

generation one figures. I still have over a hundred

anyway It's not what it used to be. I think at

one point. I was probably around three Three

four hundred But I've really tried to scale it

down because I mean you've only got so much room

room to display everything I mean for a while

I had you know, the Predacons were Just in a

box somewhere for example, and I thought like

well, that's a problem Because I really like

predicating and I really liked those figures

so yeah need to Know What is the one Transformers

toy you could never part with ever now heaven

forbid anything happens, but let's say your apartment

gets flooded or whatever What's the one you're

gonna go in and save the most well first I save

Harley Okay, obviously First I say partly do

you would do kitty cat who? Stopped climbing

over me which is making this podcast way easier

now number two Is I saved my computer and the

number three is Masterpiece Optimus Prime I Love

that figure. It is the perfect transformer. My

number two is warden My number three is the DX9.

Carrie, probably my number four already, is Carnifex,

also known as the third -party masterpiece -style

overlord. He is gorgeous. He even looks evil,

slash like a sadistic a -hole, I mean. For me,

if I had him, it would probably be Masterpiece

Soundwave, and I would let Prime die. a masterpiece

and i do like him quite a bit as well uh... the

masterpieces are just so good they've gotten

so good and and and and and and and and and and

and and and and and and and and and and and and

and and and and and and and and and and and and

and and and and and and and and and and and and

and and There's a couple companies that are Getting

there will say Yeah, there's yeah, there's a

lot of them What was the most money you ever

spent on a transformers toy The most I remember

is about 200 bucks and I've done that quite a

few times The unicorn statue cost me two hundred

dollars Importing masterpiece optimus prime from

Japan cost me 200 bucks Canadian Carnifex cost

me 200 little over 200. I think he cost me 225

Canadian Try to remember I've like I said done

it quite a few time fort max I got a really good

deal on the original That cost me two hundred

and some odd dollars and then I resold it for

a profit Well years later, sorry I resold it

I wasn't looking to profit at the time. It just

right. Yeah worked out that way That's a weird

thing. By the way, I've made I don't know how

much money like reselling these it's just I kept

them and then You know, I decide I'm gonna get

rid of this and I try to sell them at cons and

I try to Kind of sell them for you know, if somebody

comes up and says like well, I'll give you this

for it I'll sell them for the lower prices that

kind of thing, especially at a convention because

I know It's being purchased by somebody who cares

about it and who you know is actually interested

in it So I mean, I don't mind going lower and

that kind of thing, but man, I've still made

like crazy money on them. It's this weird investment

thing, I guess, with Transformers. Yeah, it is.

All right, so do you like Lowe's or are you indifferent

to the Bavers? Oh, I think we're pretty clear

on what I feel of it. But listen, I mean, it's

not for me. You know, you look at what I like

and the shows that we've talked about. I like

I like stuff like Breaking Bad, The Shield. I

like these, you know, deep drawn out character

dramas. And in terms of that, in terms of my

film and that kind of thing, too. And then, you

know, I like like long stories that were. Thought

out in advance stuff like the expanse and other

stuff like that. So I mean it's not really aimed

at me and I try you know, whenever we're just

kind of shooting the shit on a podcast or something

I'll make jokes and stuff about it because I

think it's funny But I mean, I don't, you know,

if you enjoy it, enjoy it. It doesn't matter

what I think about it. You know, I say the same

thing. I try to say the same thing at certain

points when I'm trashing a movie, when I'm in

critic mode and I'm doing my writing and stuff

that the majority of my reviews, you know, it's

my opinion. There's certainly stuff that is not

subjective that film. and games and the like

can be evaluated on but it's just how much it

annoys you that is very different there might

be a plot hole in a movie that somebody can see

and it doesn't bother them at all they don't

care about it and that's perfectly fine different

people are different same with video games or

you know maybe i don't like how you know a game

looks but for somebody that's their favorite

art style so you know it's again like the movie

stuff isn't for me but there's all this other

stuff that is or that I enjoy and you know what

happened in oh nine or so with it seems like

all the stuff I enjoyed got axed so all of a

sudden there was nothing really for me And I

just kind of walked away from it and stopped

paying attention for a bit because I mean there's

so much other stuff too You know, I'm a huge

comic book nerd in general and we had you know,

the rise of the Marvel Universe and everything

else Happening at the same time. So there's all

this other stuff for me to pay attention to Absolutely

Alright, so you pretty much have your own I threw

I'd sold my own transformers toys, but my parents

got rid of my toys story What is the one piece

of advice that you would give the transformers

fandom at large and the transformers collectors

in general relax Knock on wood. It's not as bad

now as it used to be But man, I mean for a while

there's so many flame wars and that kind of thing

But I mean I said it before, you know, if somebody

enjoys the movies Let them enjoy the movies.

You don't have to you know, get up on a soapbox

and talk about how much you hate it and some

of this stuff still happens there are people

that hate the comic books for example and Just

constantly complain about them Online like if

you don't enjoy it a why are you still reading?

It's my favorite thing and then be I mean Why

do you you know have to or feel the need to try

to trash it to everybody else? You know, there's

been stuff I don't like and you know, I mentioned

the movies I don't you know, they're not for

me, but I try really hard not to turn every show

where we talk about them into a just a complete

Trashing of everything else. So yeah, you know

Why I and why would you want to do it either?

So yeah, that's true I mean, you know, I interact

with transformers fans that I have common interests

with I'm not I stopped visiting the the fan forum

sites and things like that. Because a lot of

them are bad. Well, you know, I don't want to

sit here and bash anybody, but we all know the

history of TFW 2005 and some of their forums.

No comment. We all know that history. It's like

having to insert the matrix of leadership into

everything. But yeah. So that's Ryan's origin

story for Transformers. I have no idea who we're

going to have on here next. No clue whatsoever.

Hope everyone has enjoyed the episode. New episodes

of ACTF will be coming sporadically, as always.

Steve and I like to save up the news and things

like that and talk about what we want to talk

about. We're not into breaking, you know... isn't

breaking transformers news type of podcast every

knows that uh... next origins might be later

this month it might be in june we just don't

know yet it just depends on who we can get we

can wrangle up with some energy on goodies i

guess you could say uh... where can the people

find you online sir at night beats on twitter

is probably the best place You can follow at

all things TFV3 on Twitter, I am at TF2 and Mike

on Twitter, at GeekCastRadio on Twitter for all

the other network updates. As always, go to geekcastradio

.com, check out all of our podcasts and written

content and everything else like that. Transform,

transcend, transform and rollout, and we'll catch

you next time here on All Things Transformers.

Hmm, strange. One would think a greeting would

be the next step. Tried all the hailing frequencies,

no response. Scanners. Nothing up there, nothing.

Oh man, this is getting weirder and weirder.

I smell something. Someone's here. Someone we

can't see. What do you think it is, Big Bot?

Not what. Who. Huh? After the Great War, a few

Decepticons were granted amnesty. Most have retired,

but rumor has it that one was reprogrammed and

rebuilt as a Predacon. Ha ha ha ha!