Origins of Protoman on Transformers Fandom

Hey, it's Jack. Make sure you check out All Things

Transformers. I listen when I'm riding around

Jasper with RC. This is Optimus Prime, and you're

listening to All Things Transformers. Hello and

welcome to an all new generation of all things

Transformers as we get the origins of any and

all Transformers fans that we can. I am of course

TFU and Mike. Joining me as always, Steve Megatron.

Hello. Hello. How are you? Good. That's good.

That's good. Today is today. Today's guest is

a GCRN veteran who has. 27, now 28 podcasts under

his chassis since 2009. As you can hear him laughing,

I'll introduce him in a moment once I'm finished

with this. He was one of the founding members

of Toycast and a very good friend of ours. It's

the goddamn Purda Man. Yo, baby. Yo, $2 ho. What's

up? How you doing, guys? That's right. He's that

hot rodin teenager, not from Dimension X, but

from Cybertron. And yeah, it is time to Transform

and Transcend here on all things Transformers.

Steve, take it away. So did you grow up with

Transformers and at what age do you remember

first noticing the franchise? So my first touch

with the brand was I was three years old and

I had a next -door neighbor that was two years

older than me that It was kind of like my best

buddy, like one of your first best friends that

you have. And I did everything he did. He was

the older kid. Right. And him and his mom were

going to be go seeing a movie in our local theater.

And we had like that one theater that we would

all go to. And it was going to be a movie. Could

have been any movie. And I was going to go see

it regardless of what it was. What was that movie?

This movie called Transformers, the movie had

no idea what I was getting myself into. It was

my next door neighbor, Victor. He was going to

go see a giant robot toy movie. Sure, why not?

What's the worst it could be? Go to see that

movie. I fell in love with it. Like sensory overload

is probably the best way to describe it. Because

when I think back to that day, it was just like,

man, I couldn't take in everything that was because,

you know, Think about the perspective of like

your first introduction to anything Transformers

is the 86 movie. So what is Optimus Prime to

you? You know, he's there and then he dies, you

know? I always compare it to like people who

go into Star Wars Episode IV where like, you

know, you're introduced to Luke Skywalker and

Obi -Wan dies and you go, oh, that sucks. You

know, Obi -Wan died. We're supposed to be sad,

but that Luke guy, we got to continue his story

and see where he's going because he's the chosen

one. And I kind of compare that to Transformers

where if your first experience was the 86 movie,

Optimus was the Obi -Wan character that after

he passes, you're still looking at the journey

of this hot rod character. And that's kind of

what happened with me where I was introduced

to the movie. I fell in love with the Transformer

brand because of it. I go home after seeing the

movie and I'm like, I want it. play with these

toys. I want to see these toys. I asked my French

Canadian dad that I want the red and yellow robot

and he goes and you have to understand this was

like I want to I didn't see it obviously the

first week. I think it was like two or three

weeks after it aired in theaters and I know that

he just went to this like clear out place across

the street from our house that clearly was selling

like discount 1985 product and he got me blaster.

Red and yellow robot. He wasn't wrong. It wasn't

Hot Rod, and that ended up being my first Transformer.

And then I caught this and that of season two

episodes that were on the air in repeats. And

I almost saw no season three episodes, probably

just because of the distribution in Canada. But

then when G2 came around, that really was my

chance to revisit the brand heavily, not just

the older toys that I got to miss that were repackaged,

but just the older episodes that were also, in

a way, repackaged. For a modern audience and

by modern I mean as modern as 1993 could be so

that was really my first Experience with the

brand and then of course at all domino effects

from there. Yeah, I can definitely relate to

a lot of that So what TF generation is your generation

and why even though I think I might already know

this one people say like, you know, like You

know, I was born in 83 Right. So, you know, early

83, so I'm technically a G1er, as they would

list me, you know, grew up like, you know, generation

one was my first taste of it. I, you know, G2

was a big part of that, too, because of the 90s.

But look, I've I've dabbled in it all, watched

it all. And while I'm labeled as a G1er, I still

think Beast Wars is the greatest thing Transformers

has ever done. And and I feel that It's the series

that despite my favorite character is Hot Rod.

Despite that, you know, I love those car designs

and stuff. I just lean on Beast Wars so much

because it was just so good. And when Beast Wars

was out between 95 and 99, that was exactly my

high school years. Grade seven to in Canada,

we go into up until grade 11. And then there's

it's foggy that area. But, you know, ninety ninety

five to ninety nine. That was Beast Wars is run.

That's when I was in high school. and it was

just freaking amazing. So I wanna say I'm a G,

I'm labeled as a G1 guy just by technicalities,

but I feel like I'm a Beast Wars guy at heart.

Like a 90s kid. But I'm not. I'm just waiting,

waiting for one of these guests to say, oh, my

generation was Transformers animated and for

everybody that's listening to lose their shit.

It already happens. It already happens all the

time. The conversation we had off the air about

Armada. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I totally agree

as far as Beast Wars is concerned of it being

just kind of the pinnacle of everything. So that

being said, what other generations of Transformers

do you like? Well, obviously Beast War - Beast

Wars was born out of that time in the 90s and

we have to give Batman 1989 Batman Tim Burton

and Batman the Animated Series Tim Burt - Tim

Burt - Bruce Tim a lot of credit because those

two properties showed toy companies that you

could tell a compelling story and still sell

a bunch of frivolous toys that have nothing to

do with the story, like, you know, Arctic Attack

Batman and, you know, stuff that's not in the

show. And the show doesn't have to exist to sell

toys. So you could tell an ongoing serial story

and you could still, you know, which then led

to X -Men, the animated series, Spider -Man,

the animated series, gargoyles, Men in Black.

And then, of course, all the mainframe stuff,

Beast Wars reboot, Shadow Raiders, all these

compelling, well -written 90s cartoons. that

yeah, there was the goal to sell toys, but they

didn't have to dumb it down to sell toys because

they knew that you could still sell that Cheetor

figure and have a deep, compelling story about

characters and stuff like that. So Beast Wars

will always be my number one, even though I love

the 86 movie and I love G1. Beast Wars is just,

anytime someone says to me, G1's better than

Beast Wars as a show, I just ask, why? And they

really can't explain that answer. And I don't

want to be fighting with people, but it's like,

tell me why. I'm really curious. I'm really curious

why. After that, I would follow on Transformers

Animated. Again, same kind of spirit. Derek Wyatt

was a fan of the brand. Marty Eisenberg, who

also was a show runner for it. people who really

understood the characters and how to tell a story

with a smaller cast instead of just trying to

sell toys. There's a reason why the Transformers

animated toy line is as short as it is. It's

a very short toy line. It's actually the shortest

main line of Transformers outside of machine

wars in terms of like product put out, measured

against fiction and stuff like that. So it's

very fascinating. But then you add on to the

fact that, oh, There's the Japanese stuff, Master

Force, very unique take on Transformers with

humans and stuff like that. I have a very soft

spot for Transformers Master Force because it

was trying to be different than everything that

was Transformers at the time. And after that,

you know, what do you want to throw in there?

Let's throw in a little bit of victory. Let's

throw in a little bit of maybe even Cyberverse

isn't too bad, the new series. You know, there's

all Transformer series have something to enjoy

about them. They're not all perfect 100%. Even

something like Beast Wars has its growing pains

in like season one. But in general, I think they

all have something to add. Just some are clearly

superior than others. Agreed. Yeah, I can't disagree

with any of that. So do you like or loathe the

Bayverse or are you just indifferent to it? The

Bayverse is a necessary evil in terms of here's

the reality, okay? And again, people are going

to hate the truth. The average moviegoer, the

average consumer of product is not the sharpest

person in the world. Maybe the person listening

will believe that they are the contradiction

of that, but most people don't want something

too complicated. When 2006 came around, Transformers

Cybertron was on its way out. Transformers was

in a weird place. doing terrible in toy sales,

but it wasn't exactly shaking things up either.

And Hasbro really needs something to be different.

And the truth with the Transformer brand was

every time there was a renaissance for Transformers,

it was just after coming off of one of its worst

years. So when Beast Wars came out, which completely

shook up the brand, it was coming off of the

terrible sales of Generation 2. The project Generation

2 did not work out. Let's put it this way. And

if you actually dive deep into Beast Wars' history

and why it was created, it's super fascinating.

It was pretty much like McDonald's making suggestions

and stuff because they wanted to do a toy promotion.

And it was them that were going like, yeah, let's

do animals. Like, yeah, that'd be cool. And characters

like Prowl became Cheetor. Characters like Megatron

that were supposed to be like a sea turtle ended

up becoming a crocodile and then a T -Rex. It's

very fascinating when you dive into that history.

But essentially, Transformers always, when it's

at its lowest, it then bounces back with something

different. And regardless of people love or hate

those movies, the one thing that it did great

about for the brand was it targeted an audience

of people that normally would have not been Transformer

fans. That 2007 movie, which is a decent movie

for a beginning, middle and end, it did its job.

And we could spend all day explaining the specifics

of why it is so much better than let's say the

others from a writing standpoint, primarily because

of the writer's strike in 2009 and Michael Bay

having less involvement with that first movie.

But at the end of the day, we have pretty much

a brand that was kind of in a weird place in

2006. Then this movie comes out. And it did the

same for Transformers as it did for X -Men in

2001, Spider -Man in 2002, and the Avengers in

2009. It became a more global thing. It became

a more interesting thing to a lot of countries

that just didn't have exposure to Transformers,

but now they have this movie to be their exposure

to Transformers. And I saw firsthand people that

I knew my entire life. that knew I was a Transformer

fan that had no interest in the brand. They might

have been a Star Wars guy. They might have been

a, I don't know, I want to say like, you know,

Tokidoki collector or vinyl collector or something.

And then all of a sudden, because of this Michael

Bay movie, good or bad is your own opinion. And

in my opinion, most of them pretty bad, but good

or bad, regardless, people connected with them

in a way that we connected with. those television

shows of Transformers. And they're going out

and buying a blackout figure, or going out and

buying a Starscream figure. And to me, at the

end of the day, if they're consuming something

and then it makes them want to leave the theater

and then go to Toys R Us, Walmart, Target, whatever,

and then buy the product, it did its job. If

the fiction is crap and the story is boring,

well, that's a whole other story. That's a whole

other statement. That's what we could go back

and go out. Beast Machines was crap. Oh, we could

go back and go transform robots in disguise.

2015 was crap. That's a whole other discussion.

But if it sells toys, then it did what it was

supposed to do. And I'll tell you something.

2007 movie, 2009 movie, even more so. Regents

Fallen is garbage as a storytelling movie, but

it was the peak of transformers will never be

as high as it ever was than it was in 2009 and

2010. it'll never be as big as it ever was since.

I used to never think that was even possible.

I used to say 1985 was the peak of Transformers'

pop culture shake, because 1985 was like peak

G1. Everyone was parodying Transformers, bootlegs,

everything. If you saw a transforming toy, it

was a Transformer, even if it was a go -bot or

a converter or a mic changeable. I thought we

would never reach that. And then in 1997, Beast

Wars hit it big. It was number one selling boys'

toys. It beat out the N64 at Toys R Us and everything.

So Beast Wars is huge. But it still wasn't that

G1 peak that 1985 was. And I was like, oh, we'll

never be there. We'll never have that again.

And then Revenge of the Fallen came around and

said, hold my beer. And it was like, we're going

to show you how to sell toys like we never sold

toys ever before. And it just killed it. Just

killed it. So those movies necessary evil Regardless,

it's me. There you have it To give to give a

good perspective Yeah, the the movies have not

they've paled in comparison since so yeah, just

despite what they've tried so You mentioned that

your first transformer was blaster. What what

is like one of your your favorite? transformers

that you got as a kid? Well, the irony is, is

despite the fact that I have one of the biggest

transformer collections in the world, literally

between 1986 and 1995, I had about 12 figures.

It was Blaster, a broken G1 Optimus Prime trailer

that I got from a thrift store and a bunch of

Micro Masters that I literally like traded with

friends at schools, like those four packs. And

that was it. And that was literally my whole

entire Transformer collection forever. And of

course, you can mix in a few bootleg GoBots in

there, but that's a different story. And some

McChangeables, McDonald's stuff. But it wasn't

until Beast Wars came around that really my collection

started to swell. And of course, you know, 95

was also the beginning of the internet. So I

started learning about the online fandom and

buying online. And then 1999 with eBay really

opened the floodgates. But if I had to say some

of my favorites, like from my childhood, I loved

that blaster toy. I used to pretend he was my

Autobot City just because he was so big and my

little Micromaster's paled in comparison. I loved

Overdrive, aka Hyperdrive, aka my stand -in Hot

Rod figure at the time, little Micromaster. Those

were the ones I loved as a kid. As a teenager,

obviously Transmetal Cheetor, you know, was another

really good one. Just turning my head. Transmetal

Cheetor, Original Cheetor, Optimus Primal, Depth

Charge, another really good one, K -9, all those

Beast Wars ones. At that point, I'm not so much

a kid, but a teenager, but, you know, falls into

that, I guess. Growing up, did you and your friends

ever pretend to play Transformers at, say, school

recess or something? So, like, you're going to

say, I'm going to be Hot Rod, and this, that,

and the other thing. Odd transitional era. Again,

discovering Transformers in 1986. What came out

the year after that? Some Ninja Turtles. Did

we pretend to be Ninja Turtles? Yes. I came around

to Transformers right when it was on its way

out and the Turtles took over the world. Unfortunately

not. Oh boy. Alright, question seven's a big

one, because I already know one answer, but we

actually give people four choices, and they can

choose four of these. Who is your end -all, be

-all, favorite character from any Transformers

incarnation? You can pick one Decepticon, one

Autobot, one Maximal, one Predacon. Obviously,

Hot Rod for Autobot. If we're not allowed Hot

Rod, I'll... No, no, no. You're allowed. How

dare I deny you your favorite kit? Come on now.

Because it's so cut and dry. You know what I

mean? You Google Proto Man Hot Rod, you're going

to see the museum as people call it on Google.

I told... I told Steve off -air, he's like, oh,

I only have this, this, and this. I'm like, OK,

well, fine. Doing the All Things Transformers

featured banner for Protoman is going to be easy

because it's all Hot Rod all the time. Talk about

doll, Daniel. So obviously Hot Rod for Autobot.

For Decepticon, I have to go with Shockwave.

At long last, I serve you, my liege, under my

true colors. Rise, Shockwave, my most loyal servant.

Always loved Shockwave. Going back and reading

the Marvel books with Simon Furman and stuff,

and Bob before that. I don't know, just really

liked Shockwave. I loved the way he was depicted

there. Maximal, that's a tough one. I want to

say Cheetor just because of his growth overall,

like even going into Beast Machines. But Dinobot

really also slides in there too. You know, so,

but I'll go with Cheetor just because he has

the more long -term length. It's a crime. Hey,

I wonder what these gizmos are for And Predacon,

I'd have to go with Beast Wars Megatron, because

I think he's the greatest Transformer villain

of all time. Any series, any faction, anything.

And I've said to David Kay, who I've hung out

with, I've said to David Kay, that depiction

is probably one of the greatest depictions. Like,

I used to say... Long before Josh Brolin got

to be Thanos and everything, I was like, you

should have been Thanos. You know what I mean?

It was so weird for me because I had already

seen Beast Wars and Beast Machines. It was so

weird for me watching X -Men Evolution. and apocalypse.

And I'm like, wait, what? Wait a minute. What

the hell is Megatron doing as the, yeah, you're

right. You're a thousand percent right. You want

a weirder one? Like during around that time too,

David Kaye, voice of Beast Wars Megatron for

people that don't know. He was also doing a male

enhancement commercial, Cialis. So you would

be on the radio or you'd be like, you know, listening

to the television. And then you hear in the background,

you know, a non Sean Connery sounding beast wars

Megatron, because that's what he said his Megatron

was. Sean Connery meets a snake. Do you have

problems in the bedroom? Yes. You know, it's

just like, oh my goodness. So funny stuff. Are

you looking for stiff competition? Are you looking

for stiff competition? Oh my God. All right.

What are some other Transformers characters you

like? Um, I will I lean more towards this comes

from my background in racing and street racing

and mechanics I love the race car transformer

character. So Nitro convoy aka override I like

the male version slightly better because the

original dub really did a good job of making

him like a cocky street racer Nitro convoy from

Galaxy Force also known as Cybertron Road King

from Transformers Master Force also known as

uh slapdash in the english dub i guess they never

really did an english dub uh from master force

uh he was the power master formula one car i

really like in idw the depiction of blur in that

one uh spotless spotlight blur by casey collar

uh is probably what probably no joke top five

favorite transformer individual issue comic book

of all time just because of the racing culture

of Transformers and how it's depicted and it's

so similar to the real Formula One world. So

I really like that a lot coming from that world.

You know, like it's just, it was like, ooh, you

guys, someone did their research, you know, like

it really hit close. So I love those a lot, like

just those race car kind of Transformer characters,

but you know, at the same time, really like Windblade,

like the way she's being made into kind of the

Wonder Woman of the Transformer brand. I like

how she was being built up. Who else? Who else?

Obviously, again, Beast Wars. Practically, almost

everyone on Beast Wars is my favorite character.

How could you not like Terrorsaur? How could

you not like Waspinator? How could you not like

Rhinox, Primal, Rattrap? Everyone's a 10 out

of 10 character. It's so tough with that show

to ignore them, so I just include them all. They're

all good. Yeah absolutely because and even beast

wars i'm going to say something controversial

here folks and i'm not gonna call it a hot take

because i hate the whole hot take culture we

currently live in however i will say the proto

humans in beast wars are easily. the best humans

outside of cartoon versions of Spike and Sparkplug.

I would say Master Force, but, you know. Okay,

I will say specifically the American cartoons.

Okay, yeah. Let me try to think about that one.

The only other one it may be Sorry. Sorry, because

again, if we're not counting Japanese stuff,

because as much as people don't like Energon,

like as a show, the Japanese version Super Link

Kicker was much better depicted in that one.

And I mean, look, Kicker was wielding the Star

Saber sword and cutting down Transformers, so

pretty badass in my opinion, you know? Are there

any Transformers characters you hate? Only one

really people ask me this a lot and it's it's

kind of funny. I've never been a fan of Night

Scream from Beast Machines and It's a double

dose. It's number one. I don't like his his toy

like he had like a weird oversized extremely

fragile out of scale toy and then in the show

it's like it's like you know cheeto was supposed

to be the kid character in the original one he's

not this beast machines now he's you know he's

evolved to kind of a leader character so they're

like we need a new and they're like hey remember

how like hot rod was the kid character and now

he isn't so we have wheelie how could we like

channel that wheelie vibe but make them also

have an extremely ugly design you know like his

design is ugly he has that weird like i don't

know Brad Pitt like 90s haircut. It was so weird,

like his design, the fact that he has to scream

and a little thing comes out of his, it's a weird

design. His origin is kind of weird, because

hey, there's Bats on Cybertron, apparently, and

the organics and stuff. So there's a lot of weird

things lumped in with him. Outside of that, there's

very little other characters I hate. I agree.

It's something where, like, you know, you could

be kind of passive on someone. We're like, oh,

Bullhorn from Master Force. He kind of did nothing.

Or like, you know, like, even like you could

say, like, someone that could say, like, oh,

you know, my favorite character in G1's cartoon

was Thundercracker. And it's like, OK, tell me

your favorite Thundercracker line. But even those

ones, I don't hate them. You know what I mean?

They're just kind of there. I can tell you my

favorite Thundercracker line. OK, go ahead. But

even without our new weapon, I can fry your circuits

extra crispy. Megatron would love it. But that

geeky Starscream would take all the credit. On

the other hand, if I let you wreck our new weapon,

Megatron might blame Starscream, which would

make me very happy. Thundercracker! You putrid

traitor! What's the matter, fearless leader?

You and Starscream look real geeky! Maybe the

Autobot's answer wins after all! Does he have

to make that awful thunder noise? I've got a

headache! And they call themselves Decepticons!

I have a good one, it's Reflector. Alright Reflector,

let's see what you can see. Either that's Thundercracker

or Skywarp. No, that's Thundercracker. Is it?

Okay. I don't remember. There's a lot of characters

that kind of could fly under the radar in terms

of boring. There's no one I've ever really hated.

Like I think Starscream's the only one where

it's, excuse me, Night Scream was the only one

where it was just like, eh, if he wasn't here,

I think you would kind of help the show a little

bit. You kind of move it forward a little bit.

Yeah, probably. Over here, and I know what the

answer to this one's going to be. I think Steve

and I know it all, almost all the answers. We've

had a few spoilers here, folks. But over your

lifetime, as you got older, did your interest

in the Transformers franchise grow stronger or

get weaker? Oh, stronger, of course. I mean,

we're considering where, I mean, this is an answer

that really has to do with every individual.

But I mean, considering where I am in the brand

now. Yeah, and the opportunities that I got like

if you would have told me in high school Yeah,

you know like you're gonna write tarantulas as

bio one day and and like, you know Manipulate

how he's gonna be Unicronian and stuff I would

have never believed it and then those opportunities

came for me that you know that I would be able

to write official Licensed Hasbro bios for Beast

Wars characters and stuff that I you know grew

up in in high school So, you know, it's obviously

got stronger And then, of course, the podcast

and everything really becoming a big part of

my day -to -day life and stuff. So, of course,

200%. Yep. All right, Steve, take over. This

is getting quite amusing. Alrighty. So, was there

ever a moment in your life when you thought you

were through with everything of Transformers?

The only time ever. ever, ever, ever that there

was just a glimmer of a second where there was

doubt was back in 1997 when I discovered that

the Transformers came from a Japanese line called

Diet Clone and Microman that had nothing to do

with the brand. That it wasn't like, I remember

reading all of that and then learning about it

online. And to this day, I think the website

was called Pre -Transformers. That was the name

of it. The the individual created I don't know

who he is but big shout out to him because he

opened up my mind This this proto man's mind

all those years back then not knowing that and

I remember going like oh that kind of sucks You

know that transformers wasn't an original It's

like imagine if like you learned years later

that the x -men were really just like a ripoff

of like Some Chinese, you know comic book and

it was just repackaged for our market in like

the 60s it would totally like change your perspective.

And considering that I had this romantic vision

of what Transformers was up until 97, and then

reading that, it kind of made me go like, man,

that kind of sucks. And it kind of like lowered

me a little bit on my feelings about the brand.

But then as you start digging more and you learn

about the history of it and, you know, like you're

looking at Soundwave's instruction booklet for

G1 and you see that there's this blue tape across

his chest because they were hiding cassette man

written on it. You know, you start to appreciate

just the deeper lore of it and how the people

that created it back in the late 70s for Diaclone

and Microman were still with that brand to this

very day. You know, like Yoke -san and Takashi

Kuniharu and all of those guys. Kojanono, that's

another one too, the guy who created Sunstreaker,

the very first car robot. Those guys are still

around in a lot of ways. So I appreciate that

even though they came from something different,

The people who gave life to them are still around

to give life to them years after that when it

became a transformer brand So I think that was

the only time that ever happened But otherwise

it just kept getting stronger and stronger as

as every iteration came out It might even be

you know It might be a weaker iteration than

the past one like let's say an armada or an energon

but I still dived into it as much as if it was

the greatest thing ever just because I love the

brand so much and I was always interested in

learning more about new characters and new twists

and turns. So that's probably the best answer

I could give. That's a very good answer. Thank

you. So with the internet giving birth to the

fans all having a voice about what they like

or don't like about Transformers, do you find

that your voice gets lost in the shuffle or do

you think that it just gets louder? It's going

to be an arrogant answer with that one because

of my place in the fandom? No. But I think that,

again, that's an answer that's uniquely to other

people. I've said this for years. With any fandom,

there's always going to be 10 % of people that

are absolutely just a waste of space. And depending

on how big that fandom is will determine how

much of a headache that is. So if a fandom only

has 100 people in it, then that 10 % means, oh,

there's 10 guys that are dicks. And then when

that fandom is 1 ,000 people, 10 ,000, 20 ,000,

and before you know it, a forum or a message

board or a Twitter account has a million Transformer

fans, you could kind of get this perspective

where it's like, oh, you're going to get lost

in a lot of the G1 or you're not a real fan.

I've had guys tell me that I'm a phony, that

I'm not a real fan because of, let's say, my

love of beast wars let's say or something well

that's just prime and that's fine look that's

fine look they want to say because i know who

i am and that's all that really matters you know

like you know to say i'm a phony and then i just

cut like i wish the camera was on and i could

just look around and go okay like yeah sure fine

but i mean my voice doesn't get lost i mean again

i I don't want to say it. I'm going to come off

as bragging, but... Okay, so stop, stop, stop,

stop. Since you don't want to brag about yourself,

I'll brag about you for you. Look, folks, as

soon as he opens his mouth and spits his knowledge

upon you, you are just going to be schooled no

matter what. I don't even know. I think it was

because of our late great friend, Gary Clark,

that you and I even... I think it was because

of him that you and I even kind of connected

at the time. And like I said, at the beginning

of this podcast, we've done at this point in

time, 29 podcasts since 2009. Even when you and

I are talking off air for 40 minutes before we

start an hour and 40 minute show, it's just simple,

nonsensical. You know, it's common sense. It's

just regular Canadian dude. I mean, who loves

Transformers? I mean, you know, that's what it

is. Being Canadian helps because you don't have

to have crazy political stances or anything like

that. You can just be a dude. There you go. I

think that's what helps me a lot. But yeah, look,

let's put it this way. I do a live stream every

Saturday. There's three different people. both

former and present from Hasbro that are in those

chats. My voice gets heard. It gets heard. Let's

put it that way. Nice. Yeah. And people know

who I'm talking about. I don't want to call out

their names, but they know who they are for sure.

So what is your Transformers personal anthem

song like? For example, Stan Bush, The Touch

or maybe a theme from one of the programs. There

was a small transformer convention in the UK

called Auto Assembly and they had a theme song

called Ground Zero, which was, I believe, Stan

Bush changed it into something else. But that

really sums up the brand, the fandom and everything.

In a cold, far away world A battle is raging

between evil and good From the stars that came

here to earth Caught in their struggle through

the whole universe I think he changed up the

song and then they used it for something else

for the movies later on. I think they just called

it Transformers. Look up Ground Zero Stan Bush.

It's an unknown song that he did for a con or

something. I think it was like a theme for like

Auto Assembly 2008. I could be wrong on this,

but I love that song. That song really encapsulates

what's so cool about Transformers and just the...

the lore of it like it's just a very different

kind of song that he wrote specifically for that

con and yeah i think i've heard that one that's

that's uh that's the one where he says transformers

defenders of truth that's the remake version

okay before the word transformer was never used

with it because it was used for like a I'll use

a determined unlicensed convention. So it was

like Grand Zero. I like it. It's a good one.

You could say Dare, you could say The Touch.

Those are freaking classics that go unrivaled.

Even stuff like Hunger and Instruments of Destruction.

If you're like a huge Decepticon fan, that should

probably be your go -to Instruments of Destruction.

And then some of the Japanese ones, like, oh

man, like I, if you had to ask me, probably what

my favorite transformer theme of all time is,

it's Honono Overdrive from Car Robots. That is

like, oh man, I could sing that word for word

in Japanese for you. I love that song. That's

why we ask, what is your personal anthem? Yeah,

I would, you know what? I'll go with that one.

Cause Honono Overdrive is, it's hot blooded.

badass like You know just driving Transformer

theme and it's just it's it is without a doubt

my favorite transformer theme of all time without

a doubt ask it like like people who know me personally

in real life like they at one point that was

my my My alarm clock just to get out of bed because

it would just be like it would wrap you up You

know you wake up for work or something be like,

yeah, let's do this, you know Love that love

and be like what the hell is that song and with

the siren at the beginning? It's like oh, man

Anyways, yeah, I'll go with that one. Very cool.

Awesome. Awesome So how often do you go back

and rewatch any of the Transformers cartoons?

I find myself watching the 86 movie minimum once

a year And twice because of TF con sometimes

because they would play it in there like they

played on the big screens But minimum once a

year Beast Wars, I keep catching myself, because

what I do is sometimes I'll do like an edit for

something, like I'll take a scene from Beast

Wars, I'll do some kind of funny edit or something

for the podcast, and then I just catch myself

just watching the whole episode when I was just

supposed to be there for that one clip from,

I don't know, Guerrilla Warfare or Power Surge

or something. So I'll just be like, man, I'm

just gonna take the next 21 minutes and just

watch this and remind myself why I love this

brand so much. You know, it's funny you say that

because in order to produce the top 100 Transformers

characters countdown, which sadly you did not

participate in for the GeekCast Radio Network,

I went through almost every single American episode

and recorded almost every single second of audio,

not including intro and outro themes. Every vocal

performance, I probably have an MP3 of it. Wow.

Yeah. Well anyway, but yeah, like I think Beast

Wars I still revisit once in a while just because

of just you get it It's it's the same thing that

happened was when I finally got the 86 movie

on VHS. I would Throw it in the old VHS player

for them kids who don't know what I'm talking

about. It's kind of like a DVD player except

uh Less life life simplicity skills, I guess

Um, and it's one of these things where I would

be like, Oh, I'm just going to watch just the

opening scene with Unicron and maybe, you know,

the, the death of, uh, of the Autobots in the

shuttle. Uh, you know what? I'll just, I'll just

finish, I'll just finish the attack on Autobots

scene. Uh, you know what? Maybe I'll just watch

after you Starscream throws out, you know, and

I just would find myself watching the whole movie.

And it's kind of the same thing now with Beast

Wars, where it's like, I'll just watch that one

clip just so I could clip something. And then

I just, I just find myself end up just, you know,

just fucking watching the whole thing. It's so

good, so good. In terms of the comics and stuff,

once in a while. The comics that I find are more

like, I don't know, the comics, I find that you

read them once and then I think that the impact

is not as strong, where I think the only book

I've ever went back and reread I'd have to say

was probably Simon Furman's regeneration only

just because I really like that one. I know it's

a weird one. A lot of people are like, really?

Simon Furman regenerate? I liked what he did.

Simon, Simon Furman does some good shit sometimes.

And, and regeneration was one I read it like

when it first came out and then I went back and

reread it just to kind of like refresh myself

on it. And I was like, oh yeah, that was pretty

good. You know, so that's one I could think of.

Yeah. Which you just answered the last question

Steve has which is We're reading books. Yeah,

we all love TF comics, which incarnation do you

love and why? See that one You know, what's a

funny one? I loved what what dreamwave was doing

with the g1 ongoing and I kind of I kind of wish

it continued Me and Josh Perez, Josh worked with

them and he was one of those guys that was just

kind of like, you know, and it wasn't even because

of work. It was just like, man, I really liked

what they were doing. You know, like I liked,

you know, War Within. War Within was like for

the longest time, it was like, this is the prime

origin story. This is my, like to me, like. If

I had to pick a prime origin story, I loved what

War Within was doing. I loved Dreamwave. Dreamwave

was great, and a lot of people, I know they rag

on Pat Lee and stuff and everything that went

on behind the scenes, which is totally factual.

I agree with that, too. But I liked what they

were doing at the time. They were, you know,

maybe it was one of those things, you know, burn

twice as hard, burn out twice as quick. You know,

maybe that was one of just kind of one of those

things with Dreamwave. But it's something that

I love that. Simon Furman's run of the Matrix

quest up until the end of issue 80 of the Marvel

books great Bob stuff with shockwave at the beginning

great Let me try to think of the GI Joe Dreamwave

versus transformer book was fun Tom sicoli's

Go bots book was great. So off -the -wall great

book if anyone wants to read I don't want to

talk about so so many spoilers The one book that

a lot of people are shocked that I don't praise

a lot, and it's funny because I'm such close

friends with them, and maybe that's what created

that, James Roberts' Run Amore Meets the Eye.

Okay books, not like, you know, the people like

them a lot. I, anyone who's been to a Transformer

convention in the past five years, they're always

seeing me with James. I've known James for a

while, and James even himself, he rags on me

because he knows how I'm not a big fan of how

he's written Starsaber. for all that stuff, he's

like, oh, someone will come to him at his table,

like, we'll do a signing, and they'll be like,

oh, I love how you did Star Saber, and then he'll

just turn to me and go, yeah, at least some people

like it, you know? I have a very specific, in

my mind of what Star Saber is as a character.

I love, like, Star Saber was the first ever Japanese

toy I bought. I, you know, used my own money

working at a telemarketing place to buy this

$150, oh, imagine, only $150. Minton bought The

One Star Saver from eBay back in 1999, I want

to say. And I just had a close connection with

that character, loved Transformers Victory because

it was so cool. And James's version just didn't

gel with the Proto Man. So, you know, there's

parts I like about the book, but there's a lot

of parts also, let's just say. not my cup of

tea. That's all I'll say pretty much. I did,

and sadly we don't, maybe I can mend this relationship

at some point or another, my buddy Ryan and I,

the uneven flow, we did the entire run of IDW

from phase two up until the end of, you know,

when Unicron shows up. So, you know, what hooked

me was I believe it was my other buddy Ender,

was like, oh, look at what happened to Shockwave

with, you know, with Shadow Play and all of that.

You know, the whole thing with Shockwave, I was

like, I'm sold. And again, again, I love Shockwave's

easily one of my favorite Decepticon characters.

In my mind, I see I hope this isn't spoilers

for people, but whatever. In my mind, not Onyx

Primal. Not in my, excuse me, in my, because

the way that Aaron Archer was writing the original

13 and stuff, and how that was being built up

with the Covenant of Primus, not how I would,

you know what I mean? It's just, you know what

it is, and it's not against James, people could

love it, don't attack me for it, it's just I

guess how, the way that it would settle in my

own fan in, I guess is the way to put it. Not

how I would do it. And it's not in the way that

like, you know, I could look at Armada blur and

go, that's not how blur should be, but that's

Armada blur. You get it? Yeah. Yeah, no, yeah.

Each of these characters, like Armada blur is

not the same as G1 blur. Yeah, it's not. It's

so I could, I could let that slide. But when

I see like James's, you know, there's some really

good ideas there, James. You have a lot of really

good stuff. And then you do these things and

I go, James, you know, like I loved, you know,

Overlord, like there's certain things that were

really good. And there was other things that

are like, yeah, come on, James, you know, like.

It is what it is. It is what it is. That's a

topic, like a lot of times people ask why I don't

talk about the comics on the podcast, because

I have a lot of opinions that are very spoilery

to kind of talk about, and some people still

haven't read the book, so I'd rather they read

them and form their own opinions. I'd rather

they not just take mine, which is the worst thing.

I've seen people that I see them parrot my opinions,

you know what I mean? And I don't like that.

Form your own opinion, and I won't be like, oh,

you're wrong. You're wrong. Those books are terrible.

Everyone's allowed to make their own stuff. You

know what I mean? But my favorite character is

Hot Rod. Historically, for the longest time,

one of the hated characters of all time at one

point. People still have the incorrect assumption

that he killed Optimus Prime. He didn't. Megatron

fired the gun. Anyway. Read the original Marvel

run of the remakes of the comics. That's all

I said. Technically, it's Blaster's fault. Oh,

Lord, here we go. Here we go. He called Prime

to Earth. Uh -huh. Yeah, so that, you know what?

It's Blaster's fault. No, no, no, it's not Blaster's

fault. It's Ultra Magnus' fault. Blaster, tell

Radia, tell Perceptor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So technically,

it's Ultra Magnus' fault that Optimus Prime is

dead. We couldn't deal with it, man. It always

falls on Magnus. The pressure got to him. I can't

deal with that now. Yeah, that's one very interesting

thing about IDW 2 .0 that I absolutely love is

what they did with Magnus. I thought that was

so cool. Interesting take. And I appreciate that

they brought it over to the toys afterwards.

Again, that's stuff I like. You know, that stuff

that's like, okay, you know what, there was a

Magnus, but there's other Magnuses. Okay, cool.

And it plays with the idea, because here's the

thing too, it plays with the idea of what's under

that armor. Because historically, for the longest

time, before Dreamwave did it, we didn't talk

about that. No, because we all knew it was just

a white Optimus Prime. When they did Masterpiece

Ultra Magnus, not the first white repaint, the

actual Magnus Armor Magnus, they decided to tackle

it where it's like, what white Optimus? Because

that's kind of how it was always done. It wasn't

until Dreamwave went, hey, we looked at the toys,

there's something under there. And then all of

a sudden Takara's like, oh really? And then there

was like a sea of white optimist repaints afterwards.

Like literally a year after that book came out,

you could literally look at the timeline. It

wasn't until that last issue of war, I think

it was called War and Peace, volume two, you

know, that that happened, you know? So it's.

All right. Speaking of the toys, my next section

is all about toys. You have to promise me not

to roll your eyes with one of these questions,

because I am going to be bringing something up

that you just don't generally care for, and that's

okay. Just promise me don't roll your eyes when

I ask it. Okay. All right. Number 16. How big,

because I know it's not small, how big is your

Transformers toy collection? Number undetermined.

Last I was counting was at 15 ,000. It's a lot.

It's a lot. Wow. Yeah, it's a lot. But you have

to understand, every minicon, every Japanese

minicon, every stupid fast action battler 2007

movie toy, every single tiny turbo changer, every

single real gear, every single titanium, you

know, like I'm not even talking main line. I'm

just talking. Right. Yeah, you're talking sub

-lines. I'm like, holy shit. Every single every

single peep like like my PVC Japanese PVC collection

of G1 transformers is bigger than most people's

transformer collections, you know That's a hundred.

It's 120 figures, you know, so it's like It's

just, we're not even talking G1, Beast Wars,

you know, like... Yeah, yeah, yeah, just the

sub -lines of those lines, the mini -lines, yeah.

The videos are out there, the photos are out

there. Oh yes, they are. Don't take my word on

it, just look at it. You'll understand. Look,

folks, whether it's All Things Transformers,

whether it's Toycast... I just want to cut you

off, but... I'm not the largest collection in

the world. Okay, but wait a minute. Whether it's

All Things Transformers, whether it's Toycast,

whether it's whatever, in the GCRN circle of

friends, Proto Man has the largest Transformers

collection in the world, just with the people

that we know. Not to mention... Not to mention

the rest of the house that's not transformers.

That's a discussion for another day on Toycast.

Actually, you were on for about 40 minutes in

episode 100, but we have to have a longer discussion

about that later. Shout out to my friend David

Cabal. He's like, what don't you collect? Because

he knows the other stuff I collect. He's like,

God damn. The okay right there folks That's why

we call him the goddamn proto man because every

reaction to anybody that ever talks to this man

It's like goddamn man. What don't you collect?

It's pretty crazy I Bought I legit bought a house

with the intention of the collection more than

anything else I went into the house would go

like a realtor would bring us to the house went

straight to the basement And I was like I got

to see the basement the basement was garbage

I don't care how good the kitchen is, I don't

care how many master bedrooms, you know, walk

-in closet, basement was garbage, I'm out, I'm

out. And then we found this amazing 12 and a

half, and then I just dominated seven rooms with

toys. It's nuts, it's nuts. You know what? It's

something that I grew up around that. My father

is a toy collector. And again, go on YouTube,

type Proto Man Father's Day special. I went to

my parents' house and interviewed him about his

toy collection. Just to give people a perspective

of where that comes from. I will embed that video

in the post. Okay, the question I said you cannot

roll your eyes at, but I know what your opinion

is of it already. how do you feel about non -transforming

transformers like this awesome funko pop nemesis

prime i'm holding in my hand look look you know

what you know i will say this and this is factual

uh probably the least popular segments on my

podcast ever, or whenever I bring up Funko Pop.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying. And I'm just

gonna tell you, I guarantee you, maybe not all

of them, but on a lot of them, you can see one

voice shouting louder than everybody else in

the positive when you do those, and that's most

definitely me, because I'm like, I don't normally

do the whole keyboard warrior thing. When it

comes to Funko, I will. You know what though?

The one thing I will say in the defense of Funko

Pop, because a lot of times with other hardcore

toy collectors, because again I run conventions

so I talk to these guys all the time, they always

compare it to Beanie Babies. And I always tell

them, you can't throw in this case because Beanie

Babies never had a show that they could rest

their laurels on. Like 10 years from now no one

could go, oh I really liked Lucky Bear because

of that episode or that episode or what was it,

Peanut the Elephant that was like the rarest

Beanie Baby at one point. Because at the end

of the day, a Funko Pop Darth Vader is still

a Darth Vader figure. Exactly. Where 20 years

from now, it's still a Darth Vader figure. And

so that's where it might not hold its MSRP of,

what is it, 12 .99 or whatever? Whatever it is,

yeah. I wouldn't know because I don't buy them.

But it's something where it's like at the end

of the day, you'll still get something for it.

And the one thing I'll also give Funko Pop, If

there's ever a time where there's a character

that doesn't have a figural version of them,

Funko would probably be that place. What you're

saying right now is what I was about to say to

you. The only half of the reason why, besides

the fact that I came from Mighty Mugs, and Mighty

Mugs are kind of the same thing. Oh yeah, before

it's time, practically. Yeah, practically. So

with Funko, and I've said this forever, To my

knowledge, unless it's in doll form, there is

no action figure of Cavity Sam from Operation,

from the board game Operation. I'm sitting here

looking right at Cavity Sam Funko Pop, and he's

in action figure form. Anyway, that's a whole

- Just one more to add. I'm a big - Simpsons

guy. I think everyone is really when you think

about it Love the Simpsons always loved the radioactive

man comic books because they actually bongo entertainment

Which was the guys who did the Simpsons comic

books? They did a radioactive man comic book

line collected them as a kid always wanted a

radioactive man action figure They never made

a legitimate radioactive man action figure They

made a Funko which which again, it's like, you

know, you would and Simpsons had a playmates

Lime. Every character, they did Rainier Wolf

Castle Radioactive Man. They never made OG original

Radioactive Man, you know, up and at them. Wow.

So, heaven forbid, but you, your wife, pets,

whatever, everybody is safe, but something happens

to the house that is unrecoverable. What is one

Transformers toy you could never part with ever?

It's a tie between my first blaster it decided

a valuable on my first blaster or my first hot

rod figure ever got. Yeah and that question was

it has nothing to do with value it has to do

with losing every basically you're losing everything

what would you run into save. Well, God damn

it. Talk about a sensory overload. Again, it's

something where it's like people tell the lucky

draws, the prototypes. No. For me, it's like

if I'm going to lose everything, then I want

to walk out of that at least with the first,

like that blaster figure. And then the question

happens, you lose it all. Where do you go from

there? Probably would just start up from the

beginning again. As crazy as that sounds, with

the connections and doing cons and stuff, I think

I'd be able to build it back. It would obviously

take a long while and it would be a lot slower

than before where I was really going crazy at

one point buying. I'd want to save something

that I feel is irreplaceable. as opposed to if

I lose super hybrid Rodimus Convoy, which is

like this rare prototype I own. As crazy as that

sounds, that's something that won't hurt as much

as that first blaster figure, which I still love

to this day. Yeah, because your first figure

is as long as you still have it, which you just

said you do. But, you know, some people don't.

But, you know, that first figure means more to

you than any. I love showing it to people. Because

it's so beat up. It's been it's been in sandboxes

and it shows that it's it's been loved, you know

and and and and I have a g1 blaster in my display

That's like pristine perfect and everything and

then I have the variant with the open door chest

non open door chest battery I'm crazy with the

variance, but I have all those versions, but

then I have this beat up broken antenna on one

of his head original 1985 version that my dad

And that will be more important than any other

Transformer in my collection, probably. Yeah,

absolutely. What was the most money you spent

on a Transformer toy or toy item? I was hoping

you were going to say item, because it would

be an item, not a figure. We'll do both, just

for the hell of it, just because people are...

Most expensive item was Super Hybrid Rodimus

Convoy. uh mint in the box one of probably three

in the world i hate saying the number uh two

thousand one hundred dollars uh wow yeah uh but

it's it's it's worth it it's just it's you just

don't see the story behind that was takara made

those along with galvatron and rc and then there

was a huge power failure in japan Combined with

a huge heat wave. These were made out of soft

vinyl PVC plastic They almost all got destroyed

the one that I have The arms are warped and the

legs are warped, but it's still pretty together

and it has the box still I managed to get it

from a collector that like, you know, there's

certain collectors that they're off the radar

They just have these crazy collections and they

just yeah secretly he was just unloading He was

getting into other stuff and he just got rid

of his transfer and it was Japanese collector

and Going through friends of friends and friends

managed to get it I always say it's not about

how much money you have in the world like if

Bill Gates tomorrow wanted to buy every transformer

you still wouldn't be able to have what I have

because it's more about opportunity than it is

money and those were opportunities and Man, like

that thing is it's a piece of history It's something

that I would like to You know, I don't care if

they reissue it. I would like it if it ever got

reissued because it has a cool aesthetic to it.

It was done in that Ox design. Japanese Rodimus

style has great box art that uses control art

that never really has been used anywhere else

in Transformers War. A very weird piece. And

that's like toy wise. Then when you go down,

there's all kinds of lucky draws and weird stuff.

Item wise, same thing. 2007 movie comes out,

the original writer of the 86 movie Ron Freeman

goes, huh, people like Transformers now. I wonder

if I got anything in my garage when I worked

on that. He goes through his garage, guess what

he finds? Animation cells. Of course. Tons of

them. He brings these animation cells to Tony

Bacala of TFW 2005. Tony obviously pieces out

these cells and go, I know who's going to want

this cyclonus. I know who's going to want this,

and I know who's going to want these four cells,

Abrodamus and Hawthorne. Four animation cells,

$2 ,000, right to Ron. Oh, my God. So $500 apiece.

Ron sent them to me. He did a handwritten letter,

and then he sent me a Polaroid of him and Stan

Lee together when Stan was still with us. Oh,

wow. Because him and Stan Lee are like best friends

in real life, and so he took a Polaroid with

Stan. And they're holding like Iron Man animation

cells for some reason. And it's a nice signed

everything as an extra like because when you

send a guy $2 ,000, he's going to make an effort.

So nice handwritten letter, you know, oh, sorry

about killing Optimus Prime. Thank you for buying

this. And just these really cool cells that came

from the early production. And what's cool about

the cells is if you look at the Rodimus cells

written in Little ink it says old hot rod because

they didn't know the name yet for the character

for the trademark. So oh Little cool piece of

history there too with saving like unicorn was

called ingest or and Little things like that.

They didn't they didn't know the names yet for

some of those characters. So Voice acting is

usually one of the last steps when it comes to

creation and stuff So knowing the names on a

script and Ron Ron said there was like four different

scripts and you know, that's a topic but yeah,

so that that's and and what's crazy is like when

you get under that 2 ,000 there's stuff that's

coasting in that area, but There was a time there

was a time. I was making really good money but

still living with my parents. And when you're

working a really good paying job and you're not

paying rent or food or anything like that, you

can kind of do stupid shit like that. Today,

it would be a different story. Like, I mean,

buying Unicron from HasLab was kind of almost

like, ooh, yeah, that's gonna hurt. And that

was like 600, but back then, 600 would have been

nothing, you know? All right Yes, I know you

don't have one but again the reason why I asked

this not anymore Not the mortgage The next question

the last question I have for this section I know

you don't have a story like this But the reason

why I asked this is because at six years old

my dad said I was too old to play with toys and

sold all I do have a story. It's not Transformers,

but I might as well share it anyway. Do you have

a my parents got rid of my toys story? And so

I think this is the first time ever talking about

it publicly because it's a it's a cool story

that happened to be a good thing that came out

of COVID. Let's put it this way. The only thing

my parents ever got rid of of my toy collection.

because again coming from a family of a father

that was a toy collector why would that even

happen there was no like crazy garage sale where

everything got liquidated the only thing my mother

ever got rid of that hurt was when i was a kid

i had a huge pedal car pedal car huge one of

kit from michael night from night rider um and

it was cool about this pedal car it even had

the lights on the front and you pushed a button

you pushed a button on the dash and it talked

and everything my mom gave that away And then

years later, I end up finding out this thing

is super rare. Like there's very few of them

out there. So I was always on the lookout for

this car, right? COVID happens, right? And then

all these people who need money quickly start

getting rid of these top tier ticket items. It

shows up on eBay. I show it to my mom. I'm like,

well, remember this? And my mom's like, do you

want it? I'm like, no. And she's like, I feel

so bad about getting rid of it. And you like

telling me as a kid, like, how could you do that?

She's like, we'll pitch in 50 -50 and we'll get

it. And so we bought the kit car. It's in my

garage right now. Isn't that ironic? The pedal

car is in the garage. And there's this great

photo of me when I was like, I think two or three

years old of me in that car. And what I want

to do one day when I have kids, I want to take

my son, take a picture of him in the car. Yeah,

like me with it when I was two and like I want

it just that was the only time that's ever really

happened because we were in a family where like,

you know, my dad was a toy collector. So like

that garage sale would never happen because my

dad's mind was like, oh, you're getting rid of

stuff that's valuable. What are you doing? Yeah.

Yeah. You know, it was it was a big pedal car.

And I think because it just took space in the

house that we lived in at the time. Probably.

Yeah. Yeah. That's I think her logic. I remember

having I didn't have the pedal car. I had the

Knight Rider Big Wheel and I loved it. It didn't

have lights or sounds, but it had the red scanner

sticker. I didn't even care if it was stickers.

I just had it and I just enjoyed the hell out

of it when I was a kid. You didn't even really

seriously the Knight Rider Big Wheel that was

like. Everywhere. Erdl did the toys, like they

did all the toys and stuff. I think what the

Michael Knight was like a nine inch figure. They

did all of those, they did the die casts, and

then Erdl did the Powertrons, which are their

bootleg of Transformers. And there is an official

100 % transforming Knight Rider robot figure

out there by Erdl. Look it up, Powertron Knight

Rider. You know so that exists. I didn't know

that there was a big wheel though. That's interesting

really I try to pride myself on this knowledge,

but there's always something to learn as I always

say there's all you can always learn something

All righty, so if you could voice any Transformers

character Hot Rod, Hot Rod, Hot Rod I can't even

hit my meme button so Steve can ask the questions

and I'm like, you don't even have to Without

question, I just feel like everything I've done

up to this point That's the last thing I need

to do what voice a character but more specifically

that character because I got to write Hot Rods

bio for like Bokan stuff So I felt like got that

done. You know, I got to write comic books that

featured him as a character in it got that done.

So You know Judd Nelson step aside brother Give

me a chance Let's just fulfill that bucket list.

Talk about doll, Daniel. Outside of that, I don't

know, an original character would be cool. You

know, something like a cool racing character.

Make a new character. That'd be cool. Not just

an old one. Yeah, that's that's kind of how I

feel with B -Sports Megatron. Well, David Kay

is yes, I can't even imagine. You can't replace

him, but I can do the voice. Yeah, you can't

replace him, but Steve can get his blessing to

replace him. Archaic and the junk guzzlers, how

dare they? Unwilling as I must to follow my namesake's

instructions, and yet it all will be down to

this. A day of reckoning with those who made

us slaves. I can't do it, but yeah. Steve, take

it over. Yeah, well, do you remember when Kingdom

dropped? Yeah. Do you remember the vitriol that

came out afterward? I was not happy with it.

It is what it is. For fun, I wrote down the lines

verbatim of some of the lines that were read

in Kingdom for Beast Megatron and I redid them.

Which is sad because it's Netflix with their

voice acting which they could have hired you

because there's no union. I would have done it

for free. I would just love to be a part of a

voice cast to some degree. If not Hot Rod, I'd

like an original character. I'd like to make

it my own. I don't want to do Rhinox and... Richard

Newman's history is there or something. I'd like

to do something where it's like it's a character

That could be me, you know, it can be my own

and it's not something that's like selfish It's

more like I feel bad like if I did a Tigatron

There's you know, remember is gonna be compared

to the original and that's harder. That's that's

that's a big hill to climb Like I feel like what

was his name who did robots in disguise? Neil

Kaplan Neil Kaplan, you know, like Neil like

when he had to do primal assuming prime and You

know, he had the toughest job of doing that,

because even when Gary Chalk did Prime and Armada

and stuff, he had that Primal lineage, at least,

with him. So he was able to get away with it.

Same thing with David Kay with Megatron. And

those were Armada versions and stuff. So it's

a little bit different, too, you could argue.

But it's always tougher when you have to do a

character that has such a history, and people

have such a strong association. Like, imagine

a Starscream today that doesn't have anything

even slightly relating Chris Latta. Rumbling

in there doesn't exist. It can't it can't exist

it can't you know? Like you look at a wasn't

Michael Dobson that did or was a pop of Paul

Dobson whoever did the Dobson that did Armada

Starscream and on what is it Paul? Okay, you

know like I think Every single one of them. They're

just channeling Chris Lada, you know, it's just

there and you can't take that away So it's something

where it's the same thing where whatever character

is gonna come You kind of don't have that ability

to be original anymore and actually voice act.

There's this high expectation of you've got to

do your own take. You know, you're doing a Grimlock,

me Grimlock, me Grimlock. You're stuck in that

kind of bubble. And yeah, you could try to do

something different, but then right away you

separate the fans. Some people might like your

new take. some people might not like it so it's

so much safer like there was a character in cyberverse

that was called thunder howl right they could

have easily called that character like silverbolt

like beast war silverbolt but then right away

now everyone's expecting a scott mcneil silverbolt

performance you know you call it thunder howl

and now it could be whatever it needs to be you

know what i mean and that's the that's the safe

thing so i would love like an original character

you know so i'm like in a racer bot or something

it'd be cool I will say, though, that there have

been several voice actors to distinguish themselves

when voicing Starscream. Yes, most of the Starscreams

that we get sound. They have a lot of isms in

them. I remember a year, almost a decade ago

now, when we interviewed Steve Bloom. Steve Bloom

said they wanted him to do his own take on it

for Prime. But when they wanted him to do like

to impersonate Lada or to bring out a Lada part

of it, they would basically in the booth, just

give him jazz hands. Once he got jazz hands,

he was like, okay, this is G1. I have to, you

know, flip anytime that prime Starscream is going,

you know, over top of prime Megatron. It's like,

that's blooms Lada Kenny. Kenny did an interesting

job because Kenny had to voice them all with

the clones and everything else and Yeah, yeah,

well he he he also channeled more of lot I feel

then like Steve Bloom or then what Frank Todaro

has done and all three of those takes not to

mention Not to mention animated has Sue blue

voice director. So she's really you know, probably

getting that g1 flavor to Derek Wyatt also probably

influencing it. When it came to voice acting

in animated, there was a strong push for G1 with

that. Look at the voice actors that were taken

for some of those characters. Their original

voice actors. Because of Derek just going, hey

Sue, could you get John for Blair? Hey Sue, could

you get Judd for Hot Rod? Even getting Weird

Al for... even though it's not Eric Idle, but

you see the connection. So it's like, you know,

there's a lean on that too. There are two moments

in animated that one I cried and one I fell out

of bed on a Saturday morning. The one I cried

at, and it's just because, and you know, Daniel,

because you're the same way as I am, super Rodimus

fan boy. As soon as he opened his mouth and it

was Judd, I was like, holy shit. And then when

we all knew that it was Corey Burton doing long

arm and shockwave. When the colors changed in

season three, I literally I was watching it on

Cartoon Network. My true colors. That was really

when that scene happened, I literally fell out

of my bed and I was. Funny story with with Judd

with animated. I wish I still had my old flip

phone that shows how long ago this was Because

me and Derek we got pretty tight like in 2008

2009 he would he texted me and he's like judge

recording the lines right now and And then he

sent me and I wish I still have the flip phone

But I don't know if and then he sent me an image

when the prototype for the hot rod figure came

out Uh -huh, and he had it in his hand and he

sent me in this low quality You know flip phone

photo and he sends it to me and there's a little

caption jealous bitch Yeah, well because for

people who don't know some of the visual aesthetics

of hot rodder are based off of me and So there's

that like small connection where Derek was always

like poking me like hey, we're recording the

lines now Oh, hey, like I got the prototype,

you know, so Good stuff. Good memories back.

Derek's a really cool dude. Like it's such a

shame that he only really kind of does the West

Coast shows now, but like, I would love to see

more of Cogs in the future. Yeah. I said something

to him in the middle of the night one night about

Motor Master. Oh, no, I know what it was. Again,

this was back when Animator was in production.

He was like, I need to see the back of Motor

Master's head. And I'm just like, fiddling away

on my phone at the time or whatever on my computer.

I'm like, here you go. He's like, oh, thanks,

you know. According to Teletran 1, Motor Master

should be coming down this road right about now.

Well, look who's here, the old king of the road.

When I'm finished with you, you'll be king of

the junkyard. Optimus, you're not going to play

chicken with that recall model, are you? He's

got no choice, Spike. Motor Master's gotta be

stopped! I've been waiting for this a long time,

Prime! Ready, so who is your favorite voice actor

from Transformers? Probably David Kay. And close

second would have to be probably Scott McNeil

just because of their raw talent, I'd have to

say. It's so funny how you kind of get desensitized

because David Kay has probably been the most

common voice actor we've ever had at TFCon to

the point that I don't even think David knows

how much I think he's the greatest voice actor

of all time despite the fact that we've sat and

had dinner together. But he doesn't know that,

you know what I mean? Like you're sitting across

from it's like oh by the way this guy's sitting

across me thinks you're like the greatest fucking

voice actor of all time He'll know now Well,

maybe I guess he listens if he listens I I agree

with you by the way like because like it's it's

something where and that's where the desensitized

come is because we have like a section in TF

con staff area, we're like guests could just

come and get a free buffet and sit down and eat

and everything. And so many times it's just us

with the, like, I just have this one memory,

it's called the David table, which was, it was

David K, David Wise, rest in peace, one of the

original writers for G1 and stuff. It was just

David K, David Wise, me and my buddy Jaws D.

And I think Ultra Primal was there too. And we're

all just sitting there and it's just like, hey,

is the broccoli good? That's okay. You know,

just, just hanging out. And again, one of those

surreal moments where you would have told Teenager

Daniel. Oh, you're gonna be you just be casually

having dinner with the source Megatron You're

gonna continue doing that over and over every

time he's you know, we're doing cons together

and stuff You know, so him and scoffing Neil

scoffing Neil just goddamn. I mean, it's Scotty,

you know, like Look up look at just Beast Wars

just the best words alone like just Beast Wars

alone with his characters Let alone everything

else, you know Like Scotty doesn't get enough.

If we have to pick a G1 guy, I'm going to go

with, and this goes against my fellow Canadian

Montrealer. I'm not going to go with Peter. I

think Frank Welker is a fucking like 10 out of

10. Oh yeah. And that question, no, you don't.

It's just simply who is your favorite Transformers

voice actor or actor? I mean, whatever. David

K will be number one, Scotty number two, and

if I have to lean into G1, I'll go with Frank

Welker just because, I mean, the way he delivers

Megatron lines, like he does some bangers, man.

Let me tell you. The way he switched. Megatron

for prime and went with a different like, I remember

him when, when prime was coming out when they

were talking about it and whatever else and how,

you know, he's like, Oh, X number, you know,

30 years ago or 20 years ago or whatever it is,

you know, I was using this part of my voice,

but now that prime is here, I have to switch

because the other part hurts my voice. It's called

blood on the mic. No, absolutely. Yeah. Some

of those guys, it's more just for self -sustaining.

You know, you can't do that anymore. Absolutely.

G1 Megatron? No! I'll crush you with my bare

hands! Transformers Prime Megatron. And one shall

fall! You, Optimus Prime! G1 Megatron? I would

have waited an eternity for this. It's over,

Prime. Transformers Prime Megatron. This is nearly

the beginning! I now possess enough dark energon

to reanimate Unicron himself! So, what is your

dream masterpiece figure? You know what's funny?

I've always been... We'll go for the obvious

one, then I'll go for something that's a little

different. The obvious one is that I've been

very hypercritical of the masterpiece Hot Rods

and Rodimuses we got, just because they just

didn't get it right. And then we got Studio Series

86 Hot Rod, which I think is the greatest toy

ever made. And I just go, why wasn't the masterpiece

toy this? So I feel whenever they do decide to

revisit that character again, and I think they

will, just like they've revisited Prime three

times. So I think that they're going to probably

because Hot Rod's like one of those upper tier

characters that they'll probably be like, oh,

we'll do it again in 10 years. You know, some

anniversary. He's the eighth of the core seven.

Yeah, well, yeah, the legendary seven. For people

that don't know, honestly, even me, I don't think

he's part of that. Oh! So for people that aren't

aware, the Legendary 7 is an internal term from

Hasbro that's used for licensing and marketing,

which refer to the most popular characters regardless

of anyone's past knowledge of the brand, meaning

that people who know Transformers even in a lesser

sense will know who the tape guy is, or the Bumblebee

guy. So the Legendary 7 is Optimus Prime, Starscream,

Megatron, Soundwave, Bumblebee, Grimlock. uh

who am I forgetting uh Soundwave and Devastator

so those are the seven that everyone of any walk

of life even non -transformer fans remember one

of those guys and when you get into the second

tier then that falls into uh Jazz, Prowl, Shockwave,

RC's kind of moving up on that because they need

some girl representation I dare I say Windblade's

almost taking that over out of nowhere But understandably

in a lot of ways from a marketing standpoint

and then I feel and this is coming from me So

if it's coming from me, it's and I'm being honest

hot rods kind of tier three in their opinion

Maybe not from a trademark standpoint. They'll

always protect it now that they got it back But

it's a it's a tier three character for them in

a lot of ways But that being said I feel that

when they do decide to revisit that character

because he's still beloved in Japan Japan hot

rods a big deal Especially Rodham is convoy They'll

look at that Studio Series 86 figure and go,

let's go boys. Let's make it perfect this time

around. Let's get that. It's the Fleur -O -Diery

design, as I call it. They'll get that perfect.

But if there is a dream one that I feel like

Hasbro and Takara will never do, and thus it

would have to be a dream, I'd have to say Road

King from Masterforce. I don't think they'll,

because someone could say, oh, gee, one blur.

They'll do it. Yeah, they'll do it eventually.

There's certain ones that are just a matter of

time. You know what I mean? Oh, absolutely, yeah.

And then there's ones that it's like never going

to happen in a million years, and that's Road

King. That's like Nitro Convoy. There's certain

ones that, so that's a dream one. And like you've

already said, especially with what they're doing

with Studio Series, whether it's 86 or 96 or

whatever, the Studio Series brand and how good

they are making those figures. That Commander

Class Rod, if I wasn't just collecting Funko

Pops, I would have Rodimus and Galvatron on my

desk right now. When you have a Voyager Class

Hot Rod figure that does, that's... I don't know

what the MSRP is in the States, what, $29 .99

for a Voyager? When that does everything and

more than 10 years of masterpieces have tried,

that really says a lot about the modern engineering

for some transformer toys. Well, it's, I mean,

even the core class, like the core class Soundwave,

I mean, maybe you guys don't have it, but anyone

who owns it knows exactly what I'm talking about.

It's spectacular. Look what they did. And then

you go back, like, let's say 15 years and you

look at like titanium six inch Soundwave. and

you just go like, well, you know, like it really

shows how much they learned throughout the years

and developed and they got some really talented

people who are doing some great designs and stuff.

The only thing that sucks is just the prices

right now and plastic is kind of crazy. I almost

feel like imagine if we had cheaper plastic prices

like they did in 2009 and 10 and stuff like that.

but with the engineering they know today. Because

that's the only weakness that we have today is

some toys have to have less paint filled out,

you know, gang molding. Like the Studio Series

Rodimus, it's only complaint I could give is

yellow knees. You know, because they had to gang

mold it to save money on the factory floor. So

they couldn't make it orange. They had to do

it with something. So being that we've we've

already talked about that where do you land on

the I? Have no idea what all right all right.

I will I will do it. It's fine Where do you land

on the rumble is blue frenzy is red or rumble

is red frenzy is blue debate I've had this answer

for years. You know what it is the correct one

It's gonna rock your mind rumble is purple and

frenzy is red. Well, that's okay. I completely

agree. Cartoon accuracy. I completely agree with

you. I usually say rumble is purple. Frenzy is

black because and what I love about the movie

continuity was whoever worked. I want to say

it's Eric Siebeneller, but they were just trolling

because frenzy frenzy from barricade. Every time

they did a repaint of that mold, meaning like

you take the deluxe class barricade and it had

a frenzy that came out of the chest. Every time

they did a repaint of that mold, it was silver,

white, red, blue, black. I think they did like

a matte gray color. They did every repaint possible

just to go frenzies everything. But I go with

purple because when I look at my masterpiece

rumble, It's purple. So that you know, just have

to come to purple. Completely agree. So that

whole furb or rubber, whatever the caption is

that's been percolating for years. Rumble is

purple. Frenzy is red. That's my answer. There's

no blue. What blue? A Diaclone toy? That's light

blue. So if you could create any Transformers

fiction toy, cartoon, comic, whatever, what would

it be and what story would you want to tell with

it? I can't answer that because it's been sitting

in my head and one day it's going to be pitched.

Nice. I will say this. What War for Cybertron

was doing where it was a more dark or gritty

kind of story is kind of what I wanted to do,

but I don't want to have the limitations of a

CG asset budget. Because the problem with doing

CG is that while it's pretty, it limits you when

it comes to characters and storytelling. And

by assets, I mean backgrounds. Look, you can

love Transformers Prime all you want. It had

five backgrounds the entire show. Like that was

that was its biggest weakness was like when when

Jack is driving around in Transformers Prime

If you could zoom out that set it's like it's

three corners of a block. Here's the burger joint

Here's the school and here's where the street

race happened and we're gonna use these three

scenes in perpetuity forever where just the year

prior with animated because it's It's CG. It's

not CG. It's it's cell shaded and it's that kind

of stuff and it's cell work to the animation

It's limitless You can have a thousand characters,

you can have one character, you don't have to

have repaints. So what I'm pitching is something

that's more traditional animation that Netflix

is more in tune to with their anime division

with, let's say, Castlevania and the stuff that

they do there. And it's something that isn't...

forced to make a hundred iron hide repaints and

reflective repaints and You know, like I it's

it takes you out of it as a hardcore fan. Sometimes

you know that I don't want to go too much into

it because Let's put it this way it's a conversation

I don't want to you know that one day we're gonna

look back. Let's put it that way. There you go

and then the thing of it is is I want i don't

necessarily want a generation one continuation

i want war for cybertron. In the cell shaded

generation one style that's what i want like

you take masters universe revelation you say

what you want about the story about the characters

about the kevin smith bullshit say what you want

about that but the masters of the universe animation.

The Master Universe Revelation animation is what

I want for Transformers. Understanding Revelations,

I don't want to go off topic. Understanding Revelations

is understanding the Michael Bay movies. No,

no, and I'm not trying to say that's good or

bad. Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion

of how they reflect, but it's understanding business.

And going to your mention of generation one stuff,

Hasbro, how they're always going to tackle it

now is keeping trademarks. They got to protect

stuff. True. So the days of beast, I did a tweet

about this very recently. The days of like Beast

Wars coming out of the gate and going, all right,

here's our trademarks. Optimus Primal, Rhinox,

Cheetor, Dinobot. You know, like all these trademarks

that never existed that like just came out of

left field. My view was Kenner at the time. So

that also makes a difference. You would never

have that today. If today, Beast Wars came out,

Cheetor would have been called Prowl. Rattrap

would have been called Cliffjumper. You know,

Rhinox would have been called Ironhide. Like

they would have, no joke, they would have, and

Optimus Primal would have been Optimus Prime.

They would have just to keep and protect trademarks

instead of making new ones that they have to

also protect those and keep in the patent office.

And so today, when you write stuff, unfortunately,

you're kind of boxed in with, hey, like, We haven't

used Overlord in four years. We'd really like

it if you worked them in there. And that's the

same problems that even Bob had to deal with

back in the day. You know, where it's like, hey,

here's this new toy, write it in. So you just

got to be a good writer. You just got to be clever.

I got to learn how to do that, working with both

TFCon and BotCon, because when they make a box

set, and those things are literally ... grab

bags of characters you got to tell a story with

those grab bag of characters and when you do

like a tfcon year and it's like hey you're gonna

have this random headmaster uh fortress maximus

and uh what was another one and uh and uh rat

bat tell a story with those three characters

And you just sit down and think of something.

And that's where you show your chops. You know

what I mean? Where if you could tell a good story

or bad story. And Bakhan was good with that,

too, where you would get some years that, like,

you looked at every character was in that box

set. It was like a little bit of everything,

you know, so you had to be good at telling that

story and having fun with that. So, yeah, I know

I wasn't for me. And I think you said this recently

in the last couple of months or whatever for

me personally. 2008 and 2011 are the two best

BotCon sets they ever did. You mean the sets

are just like the year overall, like the location

and stuff? No, the toys, the fiction, all of

that best. Probably in terms of, and not just

in terms of wealth and value and also just because

how good they were, yeah, I would say those two

years. 2008 Shattered Glass, 2011 Animated, and

if I was able to do... my 2017 set, which one

day, maybe one day, it's been said publicly on

some podcasts, but I kind of hope they get lost

in the ether because BotCon is making a comeback.

So who knows what might happen? Hey, as long

as you give us the exclusive, I don't care. You

don't have to say it now. You can say it in 10

years or five years or whatever, as long as we

get to break the news. It's something I have

to ask Brett. Well, obviously. He's the new number

one, so we'll have to talk to him. Yep, absolutely.

All right, last question, and then we're going

to take a quick break and come back to close

the show. But last question, what is the one

piece of advice that you'd give the Transformers

fandom and the Transformers collectors in general?

Be open -minded. Stop being closed -minded. Stop

being selfish. Stop being closed -minded. This

is a near 40 -year brand. everyone had their

G1, meaning like I grew up with 86 movie, you

splash a couple years later, some kid grew up

with G2, you splash a couple years later, some

kid grew up with Beast Wars, you splash a couple

years later, some kid grew up with Armada or

Prime or animated or those movies. Stop being

selfish. The fandom has that problem sometimes

where they think that they're in a vacuum. and

everything has to be what they want. And if it

doesn't happen, best example, the recent news

of the latest Titan class we're going to be getting,

Metroplex, right? And a lot of people were vehemently

complaining how it's not G1 Metroplex. And I

point out to people, look, I understand that

it's been, what was it, 2013 when it came out?

I understand that it's been... eight years since

that last one came out. But it had like five

different releases. It's out there. It exists.

Now granted, it's expensive now in the secondary

market, but it's out there and it exists. Now

ask that kid who grew up on Transformers Cybertron

how many, you know, remakes of his Metroplex

or as it was called Megalo Convoy in Japan, how

many of them exist of his character? Two? There's

the original toy and there's a little PVC figure.

That's it. You know what I mean? So he's allowed

to get his Titan class when you had three different

versions of Scramble City 86. Metroplex exists.

You have the San Diego Comic Con one, you have

the Japanese one, you have the retail one. You

know, like, it's out there. It exists. Let someone

else get a step at bat. And that's be open -minded

and don't be selfish. That's the biggest problem

that the fandom has had for years. It's why I

don't really participate on message boards. because

it's a dumpster fire. Because I read it sometimes

and I go, you know what? And you know this too.

People ask me, why don't you follow anyone on

Twitter? You have so many followers. Look how

many people I follow on Twitter. You know why?

Because I don't care. I really don't. I don't

need to hear other people's opinions because

everyone's allowed to have their own opinion.

Because everyone has a different walk of life,

background, where they came from, how they were

affected, different nostalgia. And in the same

way that I can look at Street Sharks or King

Arthur and the Knights of Justice or Bots Master

or Mummies Alive or these weird 90s toy lines

or Biker Mice from Mars or Cowboys of Mu Mesa

and go, man, I love these toy lines. But someone

who is a little older that saw those in the 90s

and go, this is trash. You know, that's cool,

man. But I grew up with that stuff and I like

it. So it's cool, it's no problem if you don't

like it, it's not gonna change anything. In the

same way that, and I've said this for years,

people have a favorite color. And that favorite

color will decide what color the most expensive

car you get or a pair of shoes you buy. That's

how much your favorite color is. But I'll tell

you something, your best friend, your mom, your

kid, your son, your wife will have a different

favorite color. and it doesn't create a war over

it, even though how important it is to people.

So just be open -minded. It'll do you very good.

Trust me, it did me a lot of good. It'll do you

a very good too. Absolutely. And that's a story

nine million years in the telling. All right,

folks, we're going to take a quick break. Come

back to close the show after this. What was that

universal greeting again? Never mind. I remember.

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Toycast. Alright folks we are back here in all

things transformers talking proto man's origin

story within the transformers franchise and as

proto man has mentioned over the last Almost

13 years that he's been on the geocast radio

network. He is One of the organizers, or he was,

you still are. I mean, it's not like you're not.

When the world we're in right now, are we anything?

That's true, but he is one of the organizers

of TFCon, which is Canada's largest transformers

convention. And regardless of COVID, apparently

from October 22nd to October 24th, 2021, TFCon

Baltimore is happening at the Hilton Baltimore.

That's the USA show. Yep. That's the USA show

for 2021. The Canadian show for 2021 is on the

dark side of Cybertron. Friday, December 10th

to December 12th, TFCon Toronto at the Hilton

Mississauga. I can't read the rest of that. But

anyway, yes, TFCon Baltimore, TFCon Toronto.

And then this also says March 11th, 2022 to March,

I don't know, TFCon Los Angeles. Oh my God. Now,

let me tell you something. I don't want to step

over the other two, but TFCon LA, when they did

it last time, man, I've been to a lot of bot

cons back in my day. that was like Bokhan level

crazy and I will say this I've never seen that

many voice actors in one place in my life and

I've been to again like 17 Bokhans I've never

seen that many like that LA show so if that LA

show is gonna be any indication like the last

one whoo don't miss out that's gonna be like

a G1 reunion extravaganza Assuming I'm not making

I don't want to make any promises but chances

are because we're in their their backyard most

of these people Yeah, it's gonna probably happen.

Yeah, absolutely Alright, so really quickly.

Let's talk about what you know about Baltimore

cuz Colin is doing that one here in the states.

You are not doing that when you're not even Attending

because it's so difficult in these times. But

anyway, what it what information do you know

about Baltimore that we can pass on to our listeners?

Well, I know that in terms of the voice actors

that are going to be there, I know Gary Chalk

is going to be going over. That's pretty much

it. Okay. Alrighty then. Waiting for the motorcycle

to pass. That's a lie. That's just RC. She's

downstairs. It's okay. We have Xavier Paul that's

going to be there from Transformers, Cyberverse.

I believe that's his first ever Transformer convention.

So that's a unique one, at least in terms of,

because Venus is going to be there. Gary's going

to be there. I don't want to say it's old hat.

It's always new for somebody. But these are Greg

Berger, who's Grimlock. Those guys have been

to multiple Transformer conventions. But Xavier

being there, so that's kind of a unique one.

For people who don't know, he was dead end in

Cyberverse. So that's kind of cool. Bob being

there is pretty cool too, because he hasn't done

a lot of shows. So he's pretty another unique

one to get in terms of like guests to be excited

about. So those are some of them that I would

want to point out more than the others. Because

to me, I really like the shows where you get

a guess that they've only done one. Like for

the longest time, Frank was that. Getting that

one Frank Welker show. Oh yeah. I remember that

one. Yeah, so but that's why this so those are

the guys that if like sometimes they won't like

What's -his -name bumper Robinson who did Bumblebee

from animated? He did one show and then never

did it again So anyone who went to that box on

was a very lucky person in 2008. Yeah You got

like yeah, so, you know, you want to go to those

shows you want to go to those that I have unique

people I find Good opportunities like I was a

opportunity over anything else Absolutely And

then in the darkness of the dweller in the depths

in December of 2021, we have TFCon Toronto. Yeah,

that one's still like, there's not really much

to talk about because how the con works is we

don't really like hammer the other one until

the other one's done yet. Right, right. If you're

someone who's looking forward to Toronto show,

let's put it this way, once Baltimore, like literally

the day after Baltimore's done. Go check the

website it then stuff will start dropping it.

It's more from an organizer standpoint It just

makes sense to kind of just we're focusing on

one when that one's in the rear view mirror Absolutely

next one, but again December 10th of the 12th,

you know, they had the Hilton Mississauga Midadale

Beautiful hotel. Love it. They're cool place

good food, too You know usually hotel foods pretty

garbo, but they have pretty good food They have

good deals and stuff like that in terms of like

guests and stuff again. It's it's still pretty

early like we're you know It's something that,

again, after Baltimore in October, go check out

the tiofcon .ca for the Canadian one as opposed

to .com. There'll be more updates and then we'll

learn because right now if you go to the website,

it's still all the voice actors from 2019. Yeah,

I was looking at that. I was like, oh, wow, he

already has all the things set up. And then I

looked at it again, and I'm like, oh, that was

the guest list from 2019. Got it. It's just because

of the weirdness of how the world has been. Well,

yes. No, absolutely. Yeah. Everything's kind

of crushed together right now. We're just trying

to, you know, it is what it is. Like I said,

after Baltimore, if you're looking forward to

Toronto, check out the website frequently. After

Baltimore ends, there'll be updates for sure.

I almost guarantee, like, literally the next

day. Maybe not the Monday, but like the Tuesday

when everyone's like settled in for sure. Very

cool. Very cool. Oh, wow. Baltimore has got a

lot of artists. Holy crap. Andrew Griffith, Casey

Coller, Livia Remindelli, and Josh Burcham. Wow.

That's going to be cool. Probably more to probably

probably I mean this is just as of this recording

which is October 11th 2020 a lot of times a lot

of times the artist Ali has a lot of a lot of

dudes that that Usually their announcements don't

happen until like two weeks before the show or

a week before the show or sometimes days before

the show even just to keep the The interest you

know as it's leading up to it because you also

have walk -ins They'll be like, oh, you know,

maybe so -and -so is gonna be there. That's pretty

cool. Yeah, absolutely Anything you want to say

before I run through the outro Steve? It's been

great having this breakdown and behind the scenes

looking to the life of Proto Man. As interesting

as that could possibly be. So what would happen

in a world, in a world, where Rodimus has to

fight Proto Man? As in from the Mega Man? Uh

huh. Kidding me It's it's apples. You know what

people always ask me like what would you think

of like a transformers Mega Man crossover? For

people to know proto man's a character from the

Mega Man series I I think that like dr. Light

would have to rebuild everyone to be bigger It's

funny in the Mega Man universe there is like

transformer like kind of characters like there's

a character called turbo man that actually is

a transforming like car Yeah, like a hot rod

kind of car as in a hot rod like a speed hot

rod car. Yeah You know, so it kind of exists

in In Mega Man lore that there is transformers,

but they're they're very tiny. They're they're

human sized. So Very cool. Very cool. It'd be

cool. It'd be cool to see though. But again,

it's all in the writing That's how you write

it. Yep. All right. Thank you for joining us

here on All Things Transformers. If you'd like

to get contact with us, we'll leave feedback

for the show. There are several ways to do so.

Visit the website where you can listen to and

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TFV3 is for the show. I am at TFJU and Mike Steve.

Don't forget, you have two Twitters now. At SCP21

and at Steve Phillips VO. What is your Twitter,

protoman, in case people want to follow you?

At protoman. You can check that one out. I post

usually just podcast segments and once in a while,

cool toys that I have in my collection. I like

to do little photo shoots and everything on my

Insta. which I linked through my Twitter. Very

cool, very cool. Become a fan on Facebook, go

to facebook .com slash geocastradio network.

I believe Transformers Slag is over there on

Facebook too, isn't it? Yes, Transformers Slag

podcast, the number one Transformer podcast in

the world, I'm just going to say it. Thank you

Social Blade for letting me know that. I didn't

know that for a while until someone pointed it

out to me. YouTube is probably the best way to

listen to it. Also, we have it on Facebook. We

have it on Patreon. We have it on Twitter. I

post all the separate segments usually in general

if you want to keep up to date. I always say

follow me on Twitter or even I have a website,

theprotoman .com, which kind of shows all the

stuff I work on usually. Follow me on Twitter.

I usually post everything I'm doing. Whenever

this goes live, I'll post that on there too,

you know, so. Awesome. That's probably the best

way to do it. Very cool, very cool. For now,

I am TF2 and Mike with Steve Megatron and Protoman.

We hope you transform and transcend with us in

the next time that we talk to you here on All

Things Transformers. It's a pity you are about

to die so easily, or I might have a sense of

satisfaction now. Optimus. I wish to speak to

my lord.