Favorite Transformers Cartoon Characters

This is Optimus Prime, and you're listening to

All Things Transformers with Steve Megatron and

TSG -1 Mike. Transform and roll out! You're listening

to All Things Transformers, episode 35, recorded

Saturday, December 5th, 2009. See if you're Michael.

Hello. How are you? Good just recorded headshot.

Yes, we just recorded headshot. We last night

we There's a lot of things that I want to do

before I die and last night I accomplished one

of them and won't find out what that is until

next week Yes, let's just say a famous voice

actor Got interviewed by us last night As we've

said before, All Things Transformers is kind

of going more of discussion ways, but we will

be bringing up some news items. There really

isn't a whole lot. I'm just mainly looking at

TFW. I know PIAW has gotten a hold of Transformers

Animated RC and Cybertron Mode Ratchet. They

both look very awesome. I can't wait to get those

figures when they eventually go to general release.

Excuse me. There's an article on here muddy mugs

wave 3 released at us retail 2005 boards member

clone Manager reports that the latest wave of

transformers muddy mugs are finally hitting us

retail latest assortment consists of jazz shockwave

g1 jazz g1 shockwave movie bumblebee and movie

optimus prime and Exclusively exclusively available

through the diamond distributors and to us stores

the sighting was made in a twist or us in California

If it's exclusively available through Diamond

and Toys R Us, oh boy. I have a pre -order on

BBTS. Maybe BBTS has a deal with Diamond that

they're their online seller or something because

I know that I have a pre -order for Shockwave

on their website. It doesn't really matter because

a couple weeks ago before they actually hit retail,

there was a posting on Cybertron .com about a

eBay auction. for the the exclusive uh... two

thousand nine wave of of mighty mugs and i bought

one and i've already paid for it and it's coming

in should be coming in sometime this week or

next week i'm not really sure it's coming from

like taiwan or something but it is the actual

like uh... for people who listen to toy cast

up for a man that points out that for people

in canada they don't get the packaging that we

get here in the U .S. with each character on

the boxes. They just get like an Optimus Prime

packaging, which kind of sucks for the Canadians,

but I looked at all these and they are the U

.S. packaging with the covers and stuff. We may

be running contests either on Toycast or here

or whatever. I may give away the movie Optimus

and movie Bumblebee. because I just don't like

them. Just, I don't know, Mighty Mugs, you know,

people have heard me say it on Toycast before.

They're for collectors, they're for, you know,

people who are into G1 and stuff like that, and

I just don't think that they should apply the

movie aesthetic to a Mighty Mug. For me, it just

doesn't really appeal to me. I understand they're

trying to cash in on Revenge of the Fallen, which,

you know, that's more than fine. Coming up in

January, we will have The Beast Unleashed. We're

going to be recording the episode zero for that

next Thursday. It will be out next Friday. And

the interview for that we did last night will

be out next Saturday. I was going to ask you

something. What the hell was I going to ask you?

Damn it. Lost my damn turn of thought Yeah So

anyways, I think we can go into the discussion

now The discussion today is going to be our favorite

overall Transformers cartoon characters and this

is specifically cartoon characters has nothing

to do with their comic continuity or anything

else and we're going to go by series. We each

picked three out of each series. The series we

are going to be covering or talking about is

Generation 1 Beast Wars slash Beast Machines

since technically they are the same show even

though those are different characters in Transformers

Animated. You can go first. What's your first

G1 favorite character? Well, my first favorite

G1 character even though I'm a Megatron anyway

I think this is going I have a feeling that Optimus

Prime would have to be my favorite of that show

just because he's the most noble out of all of

the Autobots and he obviously puts himself in

the line of fire more than he lets anybody else

go I would have to say he's the most awesome

leader out of all the shows that I've watched

especially transformer related for the Autobots

or Maximals or whatever. Yeah, I would tend to

agree with you because that was my actual first

character as well. I know when Peter Cullen,

I know when he's been interviewed he said he

was approaching like a John Wayne type of character

feeling for G1 Optimus. And, I don't know, he

just doesn't seem like someone who would do something

wrong because it was the easy way out. He's always

this altruistic leader where, you know, you have

to do the right thing. And he'll take the hard

road if he has to. Uh, yeah. Which he does a

lot. He got blowed up real good. And he let himself

die for the cause. Yes, exactly. And, you know,

a lot of our characters may or may not cross

over, so, like, Optimus was one that we both

enjoyed, so I'm not going to go into a whole

separate discussion of him. My second character

is Rodimus Prime. You can call him Hot Rod, Rodimus

Prime, whatever. I have always been a fanboy

of this character. It just, you know, it's...

It's about, really, his story throughout the

cartoon. Well, he started in the movie, but throughout

the cartoon, he's basically a kid in an adult's

body, and he has to learn the hard way and make

the hard choices. And I think he does that very,

very well. And even though we all know the Matrix

is just a plot device, I think it's really, really

cool. just the way that they portrayed his character

arc. Yeah, I like him as well but I wouldn't

say that he's in my top three. My other top character

I would have to say is of course G1 Megatron

because let's face it without him, my other favorite

Megatron would not exist. Exactly. So I definitely

like him. he's a lot more menacing than the other

Megatrends although the Beast Wars one I'll give

him two in a minute obviously but this one he

has that raspy voice he just has that evil you

know twisted sound to his voice even though he's

you know still bound by some court kind of ethics

as far as his henchmen are but he's he's definitely

a very like he thinks everything out more so

than when he got converted to Galvatron. Yeah,

Galvatron was just pure emotion. Yeah, he just

went off half -cocked, whereas the G1 Megatron

went all by logic on what he knew and what he

thought would benefit him best. Yes. My final

one for G1 is Soundwave. for some odd reason

i don't know if it was my obsession with cassette

decks back in the eighties or what it was but

i always like soundwave and his little minions

he was just really super cool on that same vein

i did like blaster but blaster really isn't i

like blaster he's cool and i like his cassettes

but he's really not soundwave is what did it

for me i actually i had a friend a long long

time ago Who actually had a sound wave toy and

I tried to steal it a couple of times didn't

work, but I tried to Because I because I loved

I just loved the g1 sound wave character. Of

course you have Frank Welker Frank Wilkins voice

vocoded to have that really really cool robotic

sound Yeah, but I can understand, you know, you

know people First of all, I am a G1 fan first

and foremost. I will always be a G1 fan I will

always be that obsessed in the recesses of my

mind. I will always be that obsessive fanboy

from G1 however In this day and age with all

the technology and all the blah blah blah I can

see why they didn't go that route because they

wanted something a little bit more menacing and

Even though technically it is the doctor claw

voice It sounds a lot better for the character

model in the film than it would have I think

if it was the G1 voice Yes, and no You know,

it's debatable. Yeah. Oh, yeah it is. Um, who

is your um? First Beast Wars Beast Machines choice.

I didn't say my final. Oh, yeah. Sorry G1. Sorry.

My final G1 I would have to say is Starscream.

Yes. Yes, because I like the job Chris Lada did

on the character as well as I just like Starscream's

whininess and drive to try and become leader

of the Decepticons undermining Megatron all the

way until the bitter end at the hands of the

resurrection of Megatron. Although that still

didn't stop him. You know if you think about

it between Beast Wars and Beast Machines or between

G1 and Beast Wars Beast Machines Starscream has

been alive all that time. Yeah, he's not the

only one from G1. Well, not really. I mean, it

did show Soundwave. Well, yeah, Ravage, but it

showed when Megatron... I mean, you know, we're

gonna get into this once we get into Beast Unleashed,

but, you know, on the agenda when Megatron's

on the arc, it shows G1 Soundwave, and it shows

G1 Optimus. Granted, Megatron tries to blow his

head off, but, uh... You know it did that they

did show some of the June characters Okay, who

is your first Beast Wars Beast Machines character

like we don't already know Megatron Yes Yes,

I would have to say that is my ultimate favorite

Beast Wars character Although when I first started

watching this show the funny part about it was

I adopted Megatron optimus primal It's my favorite

to begin with and then which I created my online

persona as Optimus Primal When I first created

my knockoff of the original Maximal Central site

Certainly thereafter I got bored with the name

and I decided that Megatron sounded so much cooler

after watching the rest of the show and Yeah,

so I've kept that name ever since although That's

also where I got my inspiration for Predacon

Empire was through Megatron. I love the sound

of the voice, I love the work that David Kaye

does on that. I think with Beast Wars Megatron,

he has, and again, Beast Wars and Beast Machines,

it's time travel. Well, in Beast Wars, more specifically

Beast Wars, it's time travel. Whereas... Time

and space. Okay, well, whatever. I'm just going

with the flux capacitor because it's just easier

to deal with time than space. You know, they

come from a different time. They come from a

time in the future and they go back to prehistoric

Earth before, like, somewhere in between. Like,

G1 happened. Like, they crashed on Earth. then

it went like four million years later so sometime

in between 1984 and the four million years before

it you have the Beast Wars characters coming

in and I think honestly the Beast Wars Megatron

is the smartest Megatron of all. Beast Wars and

Beast Machines because there really is no difference

between the character at all it's the same characters

just the design changes as far as the look of

characters. He is probably the smartest Megatron

in the entire cartoon series, I think Yeah, I

just say he's the most devious because if you

look what he does in Beast Machines Yeah, it's

so much farther than any other Megatron has gotten.

Oh, yes. I've gotten a few You know, we've mentioned

before that I don't know if we actually mentioned

it on air We've mentioned it off of each other

that we're gonna have custom art for each episode

of the Beast Unleashed podcast and I've gotten

a few shots of the The mini Megatron and you

should know what I'm talking about From Beast

Machines when his spark. Oh Yeah, yeah Yes, exactly

Yeah, I'm trying not to give too much away because

we're gonna be discussing it at some point For

my first Beast Wars Beast Machines character,

honestly I'm really going by design of the character.

I mean, I like the character, obviously, but

when I was writing these down, I was going for

more of the design of the character. And I do

like Optimus Primal. My favorite version of him

in this, though, is Optimal Optimus. I think

that is just one of the greatest designs for

that character yet. I did like the transmetal

Optimus, the blue ape. I didn't really like his

alt mode. though. I don't know, I just didn't

like it, but you know, a giant blue ape on a

skysurfer, heck yeah. But Optimal Optimus, he's

pretty much a giant version, like if you took

G1 Optimus Prime and like enlarged him by 600

feet, really. I know I'm probably... I know I'm

probably exaggerating on that number, but I don't

know, for some odd reason I always like the Optimal

Optimist design better. Optimist Primal is probably,

outside of Cheetor, just Optimist Primal in general

throughout both Beast Wars and Beast Machines,

has the most character development outside of

Cheetor, and I'll get into my Cheetor discussion

here in a minute after you do your next one.

because you know he's basically in Beast Wars

he is a war commander whatever and then in Beast

Machines he has to deal with his failings from

what happened at the end of the Beast Wars and

he has to find a balance obviously between the

technological and the organic I don't know I

just for some odd reason that design for Optimus

Primal always just I just always liked it Who's

your next pick for your favorite character in

Beast Wars, Beast Machines? I would have to say

Optimus Primal is my second favorite because

he's, you know, obviously the complete opposite

of Megatron and they both have opposite views

of each other which is why it's so hard for both

of them to try and win. Yes. Because they're

on such opposite levels on everything they do.

Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, it depends on

which series you're talking about, whether you're

talking about Beast Wars or Beast Machines, but

in Beast Machines, I listened to, I believe it

was, I watched the interview on the Beast Machines

DVD with Bob Scare, and he said that, you know,

Megatron is an extremist in his views. He will

always be an extremist. He does not want to learn

anything new. And throughout Beast Machines,

Primal has to learn, he learns and adapts. Like

at first, Optimus starts out in Beast Machines

as an extremist as well, like it has to be all

organic. Because he thinks that's what it is,

or he thinks that's what it's supposed to be.

And Megatron is on the opposite side and saying,

no, it has to be all technological, or whatever.

But Optimus learns as he goes along, whereas

Megatron doesn't want to learn anything new.

Yeah, Megatron, pretty much after he's gotten

control of Cybertron... is pretty much shut down

mentally on anything new. Yes, exactly. My next

pick is... It's Cheetor, but one of the ones

I like the best right now since I'm watching

Beast Wars is Transmetal Cheetor. I liked that

design of him the best in the Beast Wars cartoon

so far. Cheetor is basically Rodimus Prime. hot

rod slash ride on this prime of beast wars beast

machines he starts out as a really young kid

really young cadet type and as the cartoons go

along where you know eventually by the end of

beast machines he is the new leader he a lot

has changed since since the beast wars ended

and beast machine started and he learns as he

goes. I mean, there are even a few episodes in

Beast Machines where he actually removes Optimus

from command because Optimus can't make, you

know, sound decisions at the time. The Cheetor

toys. I mean, I know we're talking mainly characters,

but the toys, I don't know, I looked up on Cybertron

.com about the Transmetal Cheetor and I think

that is the one that most... translates from

the cartoon design to the toy. I did have the

Transmetal 2 Cheetor toy. I never took it out

of the package because I read the instructions

and it just it looked so hard to transform and

I eventually sold it. I just I don't know. I

mean now that I'm starting to get back into collecting

not really on a major scale but you know I'll

buy toys here and there or whatever but Cheetor

for me honestly is probably if If somebody told

me that I had to pick a number one character

out of Beast Wars and Beast Machines, it would

be Cheetor. It just would be because he is so

much like Hot Rod and Ronimus. He just is. Yeah.

I think my final favorite character in this would

have to be... Damn, through the Beast Saga. That

makes that difficult. Yeah, it does. because

those are obviously my top two favorites yeah

i would have to say probably rat trap and i'd

have to say rat trap because he's such a smart

ass through the whole show we're all gonna die

yeah and well he didn't really do any of that

in beast machines which kind of sucked to not

see him do any of his kind of original characteristics

it's kind of like he just kind of got thrown

by the wayside Well, not really. I mean, he evolved

too, but I mean, he more so took on just kind

of a, I don't know, just a calmer existence,

whereas like all the other characters, some got

darker, some got, you know, really emotional

over stuff and, you know. See, I... But I loved

his character in Beast Wars because he was so...

He was really sarcastic and he... He knew how

to undermine everybody, including some of the

Preds. And I loved how he blew away people like

tarantulas. Here's a couple belly bombs with

your name right on them, and throws them on his

hands, and takes off, and just ingenuitive. And

I liked his transmetal form the most. Yeah, his

transmetal form was awesome. I do have to kind

of disagree with you, because. Even though his

character progression wasn't as obvious as Cheetor's

was, he did grow from Beast Wars to Beast Machines.

He wasn't as much of a smartass. Throughout the

entire version of Beast Wars, he's constantly

being chided by Optimus or DinoBot. Him and DinoBot,

they're like two old married people. They just

are. you know but when it comes to beast machines

I know the episode I think it's part of the end

it's not the end game episode but it's it's in

that final final three episodes he has to save

botanica and He finds a way to do that but it's

gonna compromise the shields that they're trying

to protect the giant Megatron floating head that

they've taken over and You know, he's like, you

know screw it. I'm not gonna lose you, you know,

we need you blah blah blah So he saves her and

then of course, you know cheeto or not. It was

like what you know rat trap What did you do?

I did what I had to do You know and he doesn't

apologize for it. No, he doesn't because that

Well, but that's a huge character trait for him

that he that's a huge character development for

Rattrap because Yeah throughout Beast Wars so

far. Yeah, granted. I'm only into the middle

of or the end of season two, but He will help

save people but not very often Yeah in Beast

Wars in Beast Machines He's he grows, but he

it's not as noticeable as say Cheetor's is Are

you done talking about Rattrap? Yes. My final

one for Beast Wars Beast Machines is Jetstorm

slash Silverbolt. I liked the Beast Wars version

of Silverbolt a little bit. Wasn't too thrilled.

Now, Silverbolt, did he change in Beast Wars

at all? I know he is a Fuzor when we first see

him. But after that form, did he change at all?

In Beast Wars? Yes. No. Okay, I don't really

like that form of him. I just don't ask me why

I just I don't like it the robot version of it

is okay, but the Yeah, the bird dog mode just

doesn't doesn't really do it for me The one thing

I do like what they did with him is they actually

gave him a theme like the dun -dun -dun You know

and I will be grabbing some of that audio and

we can put it into the show once we start Beast

Unleashed, but I really liked Silverbolt once.

Actually, I like Jetstorm as well. Jetstorm in

Beast Machines who would eventually become Silverbolt.

Jetstorm is one of the evilest jets that I've

ever seen in a Transformers cartoon ever. I mean,

he even outdoes Starscream for the most part.

I mean, he is just one of those... He's like

a sick psychedelic sadist who... Yeah, he's pretty

twisted. Yeah. The only thing I don't like about

his character model is his... Mouth? No, not

even that. On the plane. On the alt mode. Not

the robot mode, the alt mode. He can turn his

neck like a fucking duck. Like his cockpit, it

can turn from left to right. That's just weird.

I mean, it's not like so overpowering that it

makes me hate the design. I don't hate the design

at all, but I don't know, it just weirds me out.

And then once Black Arachnia figures out that

he is Silverbolt and she gets him to be reformatted,

I don't really like the eagle form of him, of

his Beast Machines alt, but I like the robot

form. The robot form is just awesome. I don't

know if it's the fact that he has a purple face

or what the deal is, but I just like his Beast

Machines form more than I did the Beast Wars

version for Silverbolt. Yeah, yeah Who is your

final one for peace wars beast? Oh wait didn't

we already do that? I'm not thinking today ladies

and gentlemen Yeah, what what that I didn't do

it leave alone my name George. Yeah, I've done

a bad team George my first Character for we're

gonna move into transformers animated I picked

three characters that we all know them, but they're

not the obvious choices. My first character is

Shockwave. Now, let me explain. I understand

why they set up the long arm slash shockwave

thing in the cartoon. It's a story plot point.

I get it. However, Wish that they would have

just left the long arm crap alone and just had

him be shockwave this shockwave is way Way more

vicious and vile and scheming, but at the same

time. He's still loyal He's always had that loyalty

to Megatron Like the original g1 exactly you

know they're almost identical and in fact. They

are pretty much identical outside of their alt

modes because Corey Burton voices both characters.

Corey originally voiced G1 Shockwave and he came

back to voice the Transformers animated version

of him. And I think that Mr. Burton put a very,

very dark voice in the shot. I mean, it's still

the G... The G1 Shockwave, we never really heard

talk that much. I mean, he wasn't... You know

there are a couple of episodes in like the first

and second season of G1 where he does like talk

to Megatron through the TV or the radio commlink

or whatever, but we never really heard him talk

that much. No, not really. And in this, in Transformers

Animated, oh my god, this has got to be one of

the best shockwaves ever. And I love what they

did with him in Season 3. He is gray for the

most part of the cartoon. And I don't know if

it was a plan to do this in the cartoon because

a repaint of it came out. But there was a Target

exclusive purple shockwave, G1 color shockwave

in the Transformers animated style. And I have

that figure, it's in the other room. And it's

just it's just so I think it makes the character

look that much better than it does the gray version

And they did that in the cartoon close to the

end of season three They have a scene where where

shockwave says, you know, like yes Lord Megatron

I can serve you finally in my true form and he

changes Yeah, I definitely like that character

as well. See, animated was kind of hard for me

to read to begin with considering I had doubts

about it when it first aired. But after a while,

I've come around to it. Yeah, I've come around

to it as well. But I'd have to say the Optimus

Prime, not only because it's David Kay, but just

because it was a different change to the Optimus

Prime character, whereas most of them he's been

some old veteran of everything and seen all,

done all type thing. And it was just nice to

see a fresh look on his particular character

instead of just, you know. being done with the

same old, same old type stuff. And just having

him in experience and not the first in command,

although he ended up to the point where he grew

to the status of the original by the end of the

show. Right. I think with Optimus in TFA, I read

on the TFW2005 .com, they did an interview with

Mr. K. And they asked him about the sound of

Optimus. They said that this is supposed to be

a younger Optimus. It's not supposed to be the

Optimus we all know. And they asked him, how

did you approach the voice? Did they want you

to have a younger sounding voice? He said, honestly,

they wanted that. And we recorded it like that

a little bit. But that's pretty much his own

voice. It's a little bit higher pitched. But

it's pretty much David Kaye's everyday voice

that he uses. And I think that, you know, that

works a lot better than a younger sounding voice

for Optimus. Oh yeah, no doubt. My second favorite

character for Animated is Blur. The Blue Racer!

And one of the reasons why I like Blur in Animated,

he has a very sleek futuristic car design. John

Machida Jr. reprises the role as Blur. I don't

think that you could have gotten anyone else

to do Blur because Blur has always been the fast

talker. There's only one episode in the entire

G1 series where he actually talked like a normal

person. Like, you know, really slow and he enunciated

each line that he said. But it was just so so

awesome to see him in this and to hear machine

to do the voice again I have the the deluxe toy

of him actually I have two of them. I have a

robot version and a a Car version and it's just

so so awesome. Unfortunately My previous favorite

character had to kill him very very unfortunate

turned him into a huge in some senses, but also

brilliant on the character of Shockwave's part.

Yeah, he just hands the cube to Cliffjumper and

says, yeah, put this in the incinerator, it's

just trash that I had laying around. He says,

actually, I believe, I don't know the line right

now, I'd have to go back to my season three episodes

and watch the ones that I have downloaded. I

believe he actually says something to the effect

of and actually gives a hint as to what it is

And it's funny when I first got my I believe

I got Shockwave No, I got blur before I got my

shockwave my my my purple shockwave and as soon

as I got my purple shockwave The first thing

I did was I took blur out Had blur laying on

his back and I had shockwave basically standing

over him with shock waves very long Gun pointed

right at his face, and I took a picture of it,

and I put it online a while long time ago a few

months ago And I said this should have been the

original two back because the the target exclusive

shockwave comes with the activators bubble be

and Everybody knows how I don't like activators.

They're just too small for me, but anyway Who

is your final? character for animated I'd have

to say that... Well, I'd have to agree with you

on Blur. I actually liked Blur a lot in the show.

You know, he wasn't featured very long. But yeah,

definitely I'd have to say Blur. I'd have to

also say Megatron. Just because... And it was

different to see him play this type of role and

have a different voice. But I thought it did

fit the character very well, and I actually was

very pleased with how he came out. Yeah, it's

Cory Burton doing the voice for Megatron as well.

And he just knocks it out. I mean, this is probably

the most vicious sounding Megatron, even beyond

Beast Wars Beast Machines. Just the way the sound

is in the voice. Yeah, I could give that to you

because, I mean, he had more of just kind of

a grizzled sound whereas the other Megatrons

didn't really have that. Yeah. It was more of

an embittered version of Megatron being that

he was the one that was crushed by the Autobots

instead of pretty much the other way around.

So, I mean, yeah, he was a pretty badass and

pissed off. Yes, and I really enjoy his alt mode.

First of all, they got the G1 gun sound for his

fusion cannon, which is just awesome in itself.

His alt mode is like a helicopter slash jet thing,

and it's just great. One of the best alt modes

I've seen in a while for Megatron. So, yeah.

takes it up. Yes, that pretty much does it for

this episode of All Things Transformers. I haven't

written up an ending for this show yet. You can

follow us on Twitter. My name is TFG1Mike. Yours

is SCP -21. Yes, you can also email us at tfg1podcast

at gmail .com or steve at geekcastradio .com.

You can call the voicemail line 502 -526 -5821.

I think we are going to sign off with this.