Interview with Jim Sorensen on All Spark Almanac

Hi, this is Stan Bush, and you're listening to

the Geekcast Radio Network. Fighting the war

for Cybertron, till all are won. This is Optimus

Prime, and you're listening to All Things Transformers

with Steve Megatron and TFG1 Mike. Transform

and roll out. You're listening to All Things

Transformers, episode 48, recorded Thursday,

June 17th, 2010. We have more than just TFG1

Mike. We have... We have Dead Air. You forgot

my name, didn't you? Oh, you want me to introduce

myself? Well, yeah. And also we have a special

guest this week. We have Spada from the now defunct

TFWire. Defunct, the greatest two words of the

English language. That would be the lack of funk.

I didn't know the TF wires defunct when I was

just listening to that Oh, when did I unsubscribe?

I accidentally unsubscribe because iTunes completely

mucked up my entire podcast list Well, you know,

the funny thing is we're still getting listeners

You know the old stuff is still up yeah, yeah,

they ended it at episode 200 And it was actually

a pretty crappy episode, if I do say so myself.

Shoot high, right? Yeah, shoot high. Really,

though, the reason we ended it was because it

just got to the point where we didn't have a

lot of free time anymore. And when we ended it,

there was no news happening. Yeah. I mean, there

was nothing happening. I mean, literally, we

had several weeks of zero news. Well, I can see

that. The show that I'm on, The Beast Unleashed,

we actually don't do a whole lot in the way of

news, so we don't so much suffer from that. Well,

it's a cartoon review show so there'd be a difference

It's not an actual news podcast and and I honestly

am because there's so many out there already

regardless of transformers or gaming it doesn't

matter what Fandom you use there are so many

out there that do it so much better. I honestly

don't care to do news podcasts whatsoever I just

don't I mean we do a TTF and we We select some

stories from TFW that we want to comment on,

but it's not like a hard -hitting news thing.

So yeah. Probably better that way. Yeah, probably

better that way. I like having a niche to fill.

Well, it is convention season, and Michael is

going to BotCon. Spader, are you going to BotCon

as well? No, I am not going to BotCon. Okay.

I want to, but it never seems to work out. Yeah,

they do tend to rape you with the money situation

there. I feel the same way about E3. I would

love to go to E3 at some point. Isn't E3 just,

didn't they make that a couple of years ago into

just press people? Uh, yes. Yeah. Yes, and it

was the year that they were in Santa Monica was

the last year that they did non press people

where they had date public days. Yeah, I think

it was 2008. The 2008 or 2007. Yeah, it was 2007

or 2008 because last year's. No, it was 2008

because last year's was the first. Proper in

quotes return of e3. Yeah, and then this year

has just been from what I understand nuts Well,

I know that the booth babes are back because

for a while there they banned the booth babes

That was that was for when they were in Santa

Monica Oh, and I thought that since they had

brought them back that that meant that there

was public They brought them they brought them

back and they Really kind of toned down what

they can and can't do this year But they were

definitely back last year because there was a

they had like the booth babes for Bayonetta and

all those other Strange show games. Yeah shows

game. Yeah It's mostly animated shows nowadays

anyway, so yeah, that's true Well, I guess my

holy grail would have to be San Diego Comic -Con

done If I can't go to E3. Yeah. That would be

kinda cool to go to San Diego Comic Con, if it

even stays in San Diego. I heard at one point

they were gonna move it to LA. Oh, that would

just be a huge cluster. Yeah, it would be. Plus

there's too much smog. Well, no, I mean, I've

been in LA traffic and you put 10 ,000 people

in the middle of LA and you're gonna be in trouble.

Sorry, the official numbers for E3 this year

were just released and it was something like

45 ,000 people attended E3. Wow. Geez. Yeah,

and you couldn't slap that down in the middle

of downtown LA and not have Armageddon. Yeah.

So, I guess the first news item I'm gonna bring

up is, and this, Michael can really comment on

this, of course it's not happening until July

I think, Transformers 3 to shut down Michigan

Avenue for three and a half days. Wow, is Chicago's

business center just gonna die? It's gonna take

a huge dump, yes it is. Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean,

they're only gonna close it, well I should say,

they're gonna close down LaSalle. which is right

in the middle of the banking district. It is

the banking district, right? They're going to

shut that down for three days. I think like four

to eight hours a day for three days. And then

Michigan Avenue, which is the business district,

not so much business, but a commercial, a commercial

district, a magnificent mile. They're going to

shut that down for a few days. Yeah. According

to what that's going to be like. I mean, Michigan

Avenue is like, Four lanes through the cross

and it's always packed the the story here at

TFW says Chicago's Michigan Avenue also known

as magnificent mile will be closed to foot in

vehicular traffic on July 15th at 8 p .m. Through

July 19th at 5 a .m. So they're closing it for

three and a half straight days. It's not like

certain hours They're closing it for three and

a half straight days I don't know. These are

office buildings all around there. I used to

work in one. I still have friends that work in

those office buildings. I'm going to see if I

can't get someone to take some video for me.

You're probably not allowed to go to work that

day. Yeah, that would suck. Here, we'll pay you

to take the day off. Not only Chicago, but Bay

has just obtained the rights to film on the National

Mall in DC. That's huge. And you know how Bay

is about his airplanes? How are they going to

put airplanes around the National Mall? They

haven't done that in the last 10 years. Once

or twice on accident, maybe. It's going to be

extremely difficult because that's closed airspace.

Yeah, exactly. That is not airspace that you

are easily able to fly in. The president's not

even allowed to fly there. The only vehicle that

is allowed to fly in that airspace is Marine

One, which is the president's helicopter. Right,

right. There was a huge blow -up. I want to say,

it wasn't long after Obama was elected, but Obama's

press secretary did a fly -by photo shoot of

the National Mall. and there was an airplane

buzzing around and nobody really knew what was

going on and there was a huge outcry because

you know they don't know is it gonna is that

uh terrorists or what the hell is another another

guy in a Cessna floating around you know for

publicity what's going on here and it turned

out it was the publicist uh who had contracted

this plane to fly around take pictures yeah publicity

stunt run But no, I mean nobody had any clue

and a lot of people freaked out and I'm assuming

somebody got fired over that. But I'm not for

sure but it's a huge deal to fly a plane over

that and we all know that Michael Bay is going

to want to fly really low. He's going to want

a helicopter or an airplane to buzz the Washington

Monument or something. And he is going to want

to blow something up. in front of the White House.

Independence Day was one thing because it was

a model, but I'm sorry, I find it very disturbing

the thought of the movie Transformers tromping

through the National Mall. Well, they said it's

gonna be a car race, and a car race to me kind

of means, well, maybe it's just gonna be cars.

I can't imagine them not transforming at some

point. Now, there are roads that parallel the

National Mall, and there are a few roads that

snake through the ends on either end, but there

aren't any roads that go through the National

Mall. Like, they don't go straight through. There's

a buttload of sidewalk though. Oh, there is a

ton of sidewalk. Yeah, I mean, there's literally

a parade route on either side of the reflection

pond. So there's plenty of room. It's not that

big. There are large sections of grassy areas,

but I'm from this area. I'm from the DC Baltimore

area. I really don't want to see Optimus Prime

driving through the National Mall. It just rubs

me the wrong way. Yeah, I think a lot of that

they're probably just gonna have to fake. Yeah,

the last time I was there it was wintertime and

apparently it was like a rare snowfall or something

and everybody freaked out. And I took the metro

there so I actually didn't see the roads. Oh,

snow in the more than five inches of the Baltimore,

Washington area will pretty much shut both cities

down. Yeah, no, it was probably about two, two

and a half inches. The only people there were

the ones at the skating rink. And I walked along

the mall and I looked up at the Washington Monument

and I saw the lights and I had some hot chocolate

at the skating rink and then I took the metro

back to my hotel. Yeah, that's nice. that was

nice but i mean there there was no shortage of

walking space i'm sure they can really isn't

i'm sure they could put a car in there somewhere

no driving down the sidewalk damn it yeah but

i i i can see them you know somehow doing some

type of car race there or you know if you want

to completely cgi and and tie in some modeling

you can you could have You know, somebody run

into the Sears Tower. To run into the Washington

Monument and knock it down. We don't need that

Sears Tower, knock it down too. The stairs are

going to show up again, yes. He and his giant

balls. That's one of those dog scoots where he

gets on his gets on his butt and scoots his balls

across the floor right into the White House.

I just thought of something completely tasteless.

What if the Stuntacons are in this movie and

the four limb guys decide to drive up the sides

of the Washington Monument? Oh no. Then you know

what they have motormaster You've seen the pictures

of the motormaster There he's gonna be a bot

con and pictures. Oh, no, it's badass. It's a

semi truck. It's painted black It's got purple

flames along the rear fenders and on the side

It's got written in you know, you know kind of

like how barricade had to enslave and punish

Oh god, it says these wheels are made for crushing

It's it's pretty cool. It's a cool -looking semi

-truck and I've got the YouTube video going up.

Oh My oh wow, it's it's a cab -over It's a cab

-over truck like the original prime was too.

It is. Yeah, that's that is pretty badass It's

got the windows up on top of the cab Just like

motor master. It's very cool and I would I'd

like to I'm gonna enjoy seeing it but the fact

that it exists makes me wonder if it's gonna

show up in the movie and if he's there are the

rest of the son of cons gonna be in the movie

as you know the Autobots are gonna have a combiner

next time because the Decepticons possibly possibly

well it all depends on how well they could sell

it because I don't think the I don't think the

Devastator figure sold all that well No Sadly,

I haven't bought one yet. I'm waiting for it

to come down 20 bucks on clearance You mean the

big ones the big one. Yeah. Oh I bought the legends.

Yeah, I like the legends I just don't see the

point in buying that that big ass box set if

You know, it doesn't really transform it anything

So what do you think about Motor Master Steve?

Steve Steve has dropped No, he hasn't he's he's

falling asleep probably You you think a motor

master potentially there it's gonna be a bot

con But what do you think of its possibility

of being in the film? I could see it being in

there, but at the same time. I don't think he'll

do another combiner Let's hope not because the

first one really sucked. Oh, I'd like to see

some combiner on combiner action Actually, I

would like to see since they're bringing in shockwave

have the Dinobots. No. Because they they seem

to be the ones that battle with shockwave quite

often in various forms of the fiction. That makes

sense, yeah. I don't so much see it happening

because Bay basically said a long ago that he

hates Dinobots and they won't be in his movies.

Nothing says they couldn't have Grimlock at least

or ultra Magnus or somebody. Oh I'm I Would be

interested to see maybe some of the characters

they introduced in the 1986 movie showing up,

you know and have Mike bitching wine because

there's a Bay former Springer floating around

and oh god, that'd be hilarious triple changers

things like that Springer steals RC away. Well,

he can have those RCs. I don't care about that

now. The two remaining RC sisters, the one that

didn't get killed off, he steals them away from

Rodimus. Sorry, Rodimus, you get no love. I hope

to God, honestly, I hope to God Bay never uses

Rodimus Prime in the films. I hope they never

even hit that part of the... Transformer lore

of Galvatron, Rodimus, and Unicron. I hope they

just keep that right out of the live -action.

I was actually hoping for Unicron. Do you know

how ridiculous that would look in the live -action?

You know how ridiculous the second movie was?

It couldn't get much worse. Yes, don't say that!

Michael Bay says, alright we have explosions

and a hot chick, but no plot. Is that okay? But

she turns into Unicron. Oh my god! It's a hot

chick that's a pretender that turns into a planet

-eating monster! Oh my god! And then that's the

end of Sam in the first 10 minutes. Talk about

a giant clitoris. Oh my, oh, he went there. Yes

I did. And Michael Bay has officially pushed

back feminism to the 1960s. Thus, ultimately,

reaping everyone's childhood. Everyone's childhood.

Yes. It's like the clitoris comes with a giant

jaw and then the labia minora wrap around in

the claws and begin chewing into Washington D

.C. And there's explosions! They really don't

know how to bite Lincoln's head off. It tastes

like copper. Like a big penny. And this is me

walking out of the theater. That was a Nickelback

I sure didn't need back. Oh, stop. I will pay

you to stop. Actually, if you want to pay me

to stop, you can get me two RCs at Vakon. Anyway.

Oh, you know what? I was just at Toys R Us the

other day. They had RCs up on the shelf. I'm

telling you, go to Toys R Us. They will be there.

Yeah, right. The Toys R Us here sucks. They just

do. What do you guys think of the box art for

Counterpunch? I thought it was cool that they

had his headlights turned on. But I don't know.

I mean, for a character whose main deal is he's

two different cars and two different robots,

the fact that they just put one car on the hood.

No, he's only one car two different robot forms

Right. No exactly. So I mean the fact that he's

got you know, two three distinct forms And they

only put the car mode on the on the box. I found

that a little disappointing Well, they show their

heads One looks like hot shot yellow. It looks

like sound wave Yeah, it's true The only um Well,

it pisses me off about the TFCC figures Well

now that they're actually doing real figures

and not you know five years for one dildo is

that The price to first of all the price to even

be in the club second of all the price if you're

not in the club Don't mind paying $80, but it's

gonna be something that I actually really like

one It has to be like some sort of rare thing

that I really want. I think it's only 40 bucks

a year Well for the club membership, but if you're

a non -member, it's what is it like 80 bucks

to buy the toy? Right, so I mean you pay half

that to get in them into the end of the club

you get your membership you get your comic book

once every two months and if If you're going

to make it to BotCon, it's significantly cheaper.

Honestly, that was the only reason I was a member,

because I went to BotCon every year, and the

membership practically paid for itself. Have

you been to any BotCon, Spada? Unfortunately,

no. That does it. We're hitching a ride in Michael's

suitcases because there's three out of the four

hosts on this show have never been to a BotCon.

Yeah, what is wrong with you people? Do you want

to give us $1 ,200 a piece? I was going to go

in 2007, but my plan, you know, up to Providence,

but it just fell through. I mean, it completely

fell through. Oh, that was a fantastic one, too.

And I really wanted to know, but it was like,

okay, you know what? This year, I just got married

and I just bought a house. Yeah. So, yeah, no.

Yeah. See, that happened to me a couple of times

where, oh, are you going to VidCon? No, I'm getting

married. Oh, are you going to VidCon? No, I'm

having a baby. You know, that type of thing.

But back before fun publications got it, it was

significantly smaller. And it wasn't as expensive

And it was in like Fort Wayne, which is a couple

hours away from my house And then there was one

year where it was in Gary, Indiana murder capital

of the world No, yeah, it's never been in Gary.

Yes. Wasn't there one year that it was? Yeah

No, I went no they had it in Chicago one year

and and then that was before they switched to

the Fun Pub and then Fun Pub the first year they

put it in Texas And I think that was oh five

yeah, where is it this year Disney world Florida,

Florida, okay So that'll be cool Yeah, because

the the Providence, Rhode Island one was actually

That one was pretty close the Cincinnati, Ohio

one was close ish and then the other close one

for me was Anaheim And then where's your Disney

he's involved? No, I'm sorry Anaheim is in California,

so I was thinking of Anaheim, Florida Yeah. No,

the one in Cincinnati wasn't that far away. The

one in... Oh, you know what? I'm thinking Kentucky,

but no, that was Cincinnati. Yeah. Yeah, right

over the river is Kentucky. Yes, unfortunately.

Well, there was one in Lexington. Yeah, that

was 06. Yeah, that wasn't bad. Yeah, I was almost

gonna go to that one. But again the money issues

is just cuz for you know if you show up on You

don't have to register. You can just show up

on an open day and it's like 10 20 bucks to get

in Yeah, exactly But if you're a Transformers

fan like all four of us are you're gonna and

it's your first time going to something like

that You're gonna want the full experience. So

you're going to have to pay close to two grand

to get the full experience Yeah, you know, honestly

the first year I want was like 98 and I didn't

buy anything I just showed up and looked around

and thought well this is really cool now the

next year I went I spent probably about 300 bucks

but I mean that wasn't a full experience it was

just I showed up on a Saturday I paid 20 bucks

to get in I spent some money I bought some some

Japanese well the Japanese car robot line and

I was all excited because it was like Look, it's

new cars that transform into robots. It wasn't

until like the next year and the next year and

the next year that I actually started registering

and getting the exclusive toys. Have you guys

seen the images? I know Spade has seen them.

Have you guys seen the images of Generations,

Deluxe, Wave 3? Deluxe wave 3 sound wave and

the Sound waves dark mount Megatron. Oh, yeah.

Yeah What do you guys think of those? I Think

that the the photoshopped cop or photoshopped

versions of The pre -production, you know hand

-painted versions look really sweet, but they're

not gonna look like that in hand Yeah, that's

what sucks it was kind of like in I want to say

oh seven or oh eight at that BotCon there was

the first time they showed pictures of cyclonus

and it was like look it's you know classic cyclonus

and everybody shit themselves because he was

so gorgeous and When he finally came out it was

like wait a minute this isn't nearly as nice

as what you said it was gonna be and that was

because you know, it's just I actually wrote

a blog post about this on my site, and you have

this beautiful hand -painted pre -production

version that's been all Photoshopped to look

shiny and pretty. And then it's a far cry from

what you actually see. Once it goes through the

approval process as a Hasbro, they say, oh, we

can't add this paint application. We can't use

this paint application. And oh, this is the silver.

This is too expensive. We're going to have to

use a dull metal or a dull gray. Not even a gun

metal gray, more like a brown almost. So you

get it in hand. Sure, it's a nice mold. and it's

a nice figure as well articulated and it looks

like G1 Cyclonus but it's not what they promised

us a year and a half earlier at BodCon. I'm looking

at the sound wave and I mean yeah I get the point

it's not gonna look all shiny like this but I'm

so glad they put in the homages to G1 with the

cassette deck looking thing his little shoulder

thing I don't know if it's a missile launcher,

whatever the hell it is, and his gun. I mean,

it looks like they just ripped it right off the

cassette deck. The old Juke said. Oh, this is

going to be awesome. In fact, I was having a

Facebook conversation with Frenzy Rumble, and

he had said that he was interested in making

it bigger. Yeah, he said something about making

it leader class. Yeah, well, expanding it in

size, each piece individually in size by 150%.

with this plastic stuff called Hydrospan and

I had responded that you know but yeah I said

I said by the time that he gets done with it

the the chest is going to open up and Ravage

is going to jump out so yeah I mean I wouldn't

doubt I wouldn't put it past the guy you know

I I like the sound wave figure but there are

some things looking at the robot mode that just

bug me something If you look at his midsection,

it just seems like that whole midsection is just

empty. Or that his, like, waist is sitting on

this extended post or something. I don't know

what, it's, I'm not sure what it is. I'm wondering

if there's a mistransformation here. Because

it just, it looks like something is missing.

Maybe that's just me being, you know, weird.

No, I you know I think that you know you're Well

probably why you think that there's something

missing in his waist is because look where his

his Forklift looking thing goes right under the

tape deck. He basically has a waist right that

I Think he looks great, but they're just some

little design choices that bug me if you look

on his back just below where his kidneys would

be, you've got his tires. Wheels, yeah. And I'm

actually thinking there's a chunk that's shooting

out on either side. It's possible those are supposed

to fold in and fill in his midsection a little.

Either that or the tires are actually connected

to those pieces coming off his hips and they're

just folded up on his back, his lower back. But

besides Soundwave, the one that really was striking

to me is actually Megatron. I was just looking

at him. I'm sorry. I was just looking at him.

I was agreeing. The pose they have him in, forget

the pain apps, forget the shininess. The figure

appears to be significantly more posable than

what we've seen prior. And that really makes

the figure more appealing to me. He looks really

good. I like the shoulders, the shoulder joints.

I'm sure his hip joints are going to be the same

way. But it looks like his feet swivel. Yes,

that was what I was going to say. He's going

to be very poseable. It looks like there's actually

a posability point in his feet. Yeah. What do

you think Steve? I would have to say that I really

like the Megatron and I agree that he does look

very posable. I like the monster fusion cannon

that's actually attached to his wrist. Even with

the significantly different colors on the figure.

two previous Megatrons, I'd have to say he's

a pretty nice mix with quite a bit of detail

compared to what we've gotten since pre -Unicron

Trilogy. Yeah. One of the things I'm very happy

about with the War for Cybertron line, at least

what we've seen so far with Optimus and Bubblebee,

is they come in robot mode. So if I wanted to

get Megatron, I would only have to get one of

him because honestly that alt mode just does

not impress me whatsoever. Yeah, it kind of looks

like a ballista. Oh, for Megatron? Yeah. I'm

not thrilled with the current... with the trend

right now with Megatron of, okay, his alt mode

is some kind of transportation vehicle for the

cannon. Yeah. I'm not too thrilled with that.

I'm wondering... It really limits the designers,

I feel. This alt -mode for Megatron reminds me

of Ravage's re -entry mode from Revenge of the

Fallen. It honestly does. I'm wondering though,

in the robot mode, if the gun, if the fusion

cannon, if that's detachable. I think it is,

because if you look at the arms, those form the

treads in vehicle mode. Just from what I can

see here, I'm willing to bet it is. Yeah. Yeah,

you can't really see the sides, but I'm not seeing

treads on the sides of this thing. I am. It looks

to me like his legs wrap around the sides of

it. If you look at the very bottom, if you look

at the gun and then just look a little bit left

to the middle of the figure and all the way down,

the treads, his arms actually butterfly open

to form the treads. There's that little bit of

black at the very underside of the figure. That's

the treads. The tread isn't really on the ground.

They're laying flat. They're pointing at angles.

I don't know if you guys have played the demo,

but all of the vehicles, if you played the leader

class character on this... On the Decepticon

side, it's a hover tank. It's not a real tank

with treads It's just kind of this weird hover

tank thing. Yeah a lot of people I don't I haven't

played the demo. I probably won't I don't know

if Michael or Steve have I don't have the Xbox.

Yeah, I I honestly Could care less for multiplayer

demos if I ever get war for Cybertron if I ever

get a computer that can actually play it or upgrade

this computer that can actually will be able

to play the game. I'm getting it for the story

mode. I'm not getting it for multiplayer whatsoever,

because that multiplayer thing just doesn't impress

me at all. I'm the same way. I'm very much a

single player guy, but I'm renting it. I have

a Gamefly membership, so I'm definitely going

to rent it and play through it. I have a real

problem with the Unreal 3 engine, which is, you

know, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, War for

Cybertron. Everything's brown and gray. I mean,

I'm kind of old here. My eyes aren't that good

anymore. And I have a hell of a time trying to

discern. Like, some of these multiplayer matches

are pretty frantic. It's like okay. Where the

hell am I? Speaking speaking of age back on June

2nd Michael had a birthday he turned 37 and Tomorrow

hopefully this episode will be up before tomorrow

the 18th Steve's birthday is tomorrow, and he

will be two thousand four hundred and thirty

three I think Yes, I know Yes, Steve is the youngest

out of all of us It's just a pup. Woof. Do you

guys have anything else you want to bring up?

Are there any other news items that were really

interesting or popped out at you guys? Well,

did you guys want to talk about Terror Dive and

Tomahawk, the other two? The new, brand new molds

that were shown? Didn't somebody say Terror Dive

could be a depth charge? Look at his head, yeah,

his face. I could see that. Yeah, I could see

the resemblance. I like the trident. Yeah, the

trident looks awesome. I love the trident. He

just looks like a really cool figure. From what

I've read, though, his alt mode was modeled after

an animated Starscream. So, you know, we might,

yeah, we might be looking at maybe a repaint

with a new head a little bit farther down the

road. I was thinking he was modeled after one

of the original G .I. Joe Jets. The Conquest?

Yeah. Oh, maybe. Oh, wait a minute, I thought,

yeah, Ozbutton, yeah. Isn't Animated Starscream

modeled after the Conquest? He's more modeled

after a Valkyrie from Macross. Except with the

specifically the vf -19 from the macross series

All right, I'll buy that yeah Transforms the

same damn way Sorry, I'm really bitter about

that No, I like that figure oh I hate that figure.

I'm sorry. I just I was gonna say actually digging

through my closet If you you know know about

my closet, I gotta clean it out full of transformers,

but I was cleaning it out and found An animated

Starscream just in a box and it's like well hell

I've already got one on the shelf. I guess I'm

just gonna have to leave this one in the box

So yeah, anyway, go ahead. Well, I got a I got

animated Starscream the same day that a Bandai

redo of the Macross Valkyrie came out. The same

day that I got that. And I'm like, ah, there's

the same damn figure! Why do they pay $200 for

this Bandai piece of crap? I shouldn't say that

right now. Those are nice. The Bandai one is

actually staying together. My Starscream, I took

him out of the box and his legs fell off. He's

utter crap. No, I've seen pictures of the...

Oh, what did they call them? It was kind of like

the Maycross Masterpiece Edition, where they

came in like a book. Yeah, a masterpiece. It's

literally what they're called. Oh, those are

really expensive, but they look so good. I would

so love to see, you know, like a G1 Jetfire repaint.

That would be nothing we'd never see it because

it's you know Bandai, but it so would be very

cool Well moving on what do you guys think of

the helicopter Tomahawk figure? Yes, I think

that he looks like a knockoff of Armada cyclonus

I Was wondering if somebody was going to say

that It's kind of disturbing he pretty much is

the exact same figure. Just not as bulky, it's

more fleshed out. Yeah, I'll buy that. Yeah.

He looks kind of like somebody who had taken

the Armada Cyclonus and kind of bay -formered

him. I liked Armada Cyclonus. I mean, he didn't

have a lot of articulation. Oh, who was the tank?

From Armada. Yeah, he and Demolisher were my

favorite figures from Armada. Yeah. He got plenty

of repaints. And repaints, and repaints, and

repaints. I like repaints. Sometimes they're

okay. Oh, I like them just for the sake of having

them. I don't like, I mean, you know, I know

you guys talk about the cyclonus thing, but this

kind of ties in. I'm sorry. I'm a big fan of

shattered glass the BotCon part of it, but I

cannot stand that they made a shattered glass

cyclonus He's basically and I know I can't believe

I'm saying this and other Rodimus or hot rod

fans are gonna hate me for this. He's basically

a hot rod jet That's all he is as far as the

color scheme. I oh god I agree with you, but

it's just we I don't know where they got that

color scheme from it's just like okay random

and they renamed out what's his name on night

stick into crew next or cronics or whatever the

hell its name is yeah exactly same damn thing

are but it's unicron it's unicron no that was

their name are bliss and cronics I don't know,

it's something like that. I thought it was Arbalus.

No, it's Orbalus. What are we gonna do now with

all these juicy fruits that we have in this bottle?

My god, the medicine is spilling out everywhere!

Help me clean the mess up! Where's the mop? I

just opened up a big can of spam. Why are you

mopping this poop deck, you moron? It's like,

yo, dog, I heard you like planets, so I put some

planet in your transformer so you can plant it

while you're transforming. Oh. Oh, shit. What

are we going to do now? That's one huge jawbreaker.

Oh, god. It's the ghost of Orson Welles, give

in shape! So what do you guys think of Transformers

in 3D? No. No. No. My opinion of 3D in general

has always been just saying no to 3D. I would

say I'd have much more of an opinion if I didn't

have to go to bed. Yeah, I just don't And I don't

know spade if you want to continue on with this

for the next 10 minutes I know Michael has to

get up early so we may I don't know if you want

to still continue Michael That's fine. But as

far as transformers in 3d, it's bad enough. We

saw Simmons ass in IMAX. We don't need to see

it in 3d. Oh Yes And then he turns around. I

don't need to see that in 3D either. Yeah. Yeah,

you'll have to take the ass so big that you'll

see every detail of his crack of his ass. Every

bum. I think that the problem with the fight

scenes in the first movie, and to a lesser extent

the second movie, is that things are so zoomed

in and floating around and flying so quickly,

and it's all blurry. If it's in 3D, it's going

to be just one big headache. You're not going

to be able to see what's going on again, and

this time you're not going to be able to see

what's going on in 3D. So, I just don't think

it's gonna help. IMAX, yes. 3D, no. Oh, IMAX,

of course. Yeah, but no. No, we don't need to

see Simmons' ass in 3D or IMAX. Well, maybe Simmons

got killed when the railgun... No, he didn't,

but... Unfortunately, no. He was crushed by a

falling... He was crushed by a falling ice cream

truck. No, it never seems false. You know what

the sad thing is? Simmons really was the best

character in Revenge of the Fallen. Oh yeah,

he had the most life and development to him.

As far as humans. Think about that for a second.

The guy who is supposed to be the comic relief

is a more developed character than the main characters.

What do we know about Michaela? Honestly, what

do we really need to know about Michaela? She

gets humped by Wheely. Exactly. At least she's

getting humped by Wheely and not somebody else.

And we're not going to make that joke anymore,

so that's done. But honestly, I have now formed

the opinion, and I will have this opinion no

matter what Bay misinforms us on or actually

gives us as far as information on the third film.

If I go see it in theaters, that's if I go see

it in theaters, I'm going to see it for... Hearing

Peter Cullen voice Optimus Prime and seeing the

actual fucking robots, I could give a shit less.

You could put Pee Wee Herman, Barney Fife, and

Balke from Perfect Strangers in the human roles

and I wouldn't care. Please don't give him any

more ideas. Hey, come on now. I dropped the wheelie

joke dude, come on. The chat saying they're coming

to get us Talk about yes replace John Voight

with William Shatner that was that'll go over

real well Oh Who knows maybe we could have a

human version of Galvatron with Spock Nuts and

think he's Captain Kirk Crap But yeah, yeah anyway,

um Do we want to continue with this or do we

want to just let Michael go and we'll just continue

without him? Well, I should probably get to bed

as well. Yes Just want to bring up one of the

reasons other than the BotCon stuff That we one

of the reasons why we're doing this interview

or this episode is because I interviewed Jim

Sorensen who is a co -author of All Spark Almanac

1 and 2, which I think is coming out at the end

of June. He didn't give me an exact release date.

And I also talked with Stan Bush, who his new

album, Dream the Dream, is coming out in late

August. So I guess you'll hear those next, and

Megatron closed the show. Excellent. Yes. He

says that every time. Yeah, I know I was hoping

for some Barney jokes, but no that didn't happen

Tiger friend Okay, so this has been all things

transformers. We're out of here folks. We'll

continue this later See ya up next is the Jim

Sarnson interview then Stan Bush Take it like

a real bot You might feel different when the

slime they spew out melts through your armor

plating and rots your circuits from the inside.

Really? I've had some experience with organics,

and believe me, nothing good can come from contact

with them. Isn't that right, Optimus? You're

doing great. Thanks for having me. You're very

welcome. Thanks for being on the show. So what

have you been up to lately? Lately is in since

finishing up the Almanac 2. Yeah. Well, I've

been laying the groundwork for whatever my next

project is going to be. Nothing I can talk about

yet because we don't have anything signed yet.

But I'm trying to get my fingers onto some interesting

properties. Hopefully, I'll have something I

can talk about. Not too distant future, few months

maybe. Cool. Are you going and how excited are

you for BotCon? I am definitely going to BotCon,

I go every year. I don't think, that's not quite

true, I've missed one since 97. But I have a

good excuse, I was in Japan that year. Which

one did you miss? 2000. Oh, okay. I missed BotCon

2000, although I, or maybe it was 99 actually.

Maybe it was, whichever one had Jim Burns. I

think that's his name, the fellow who plays Inferno.

Inferno, yeah, I'm not sure which that was. That

might be 99, but I did go to Bakhan Japan, 98,

so my count is about right. What was your favorite

part about working on All Spark Almanac 2? Well,

I'd have to say getting the chance to work more

closely with Hasbro this time out. The first

three books I've done have focused on more the

cartoon side. The two ARC books were for generation

one cartoon models, so I got to work with folks

like Bob Budiansky and Flora Derry and folks

like that, which was pretty neat. And then the

first All Spark Almanac, I got to work closely

with Matt Youngberg, a little bit more with him

this time, but I got to work with him and Derek

Wyatt and Marty Eisenberg. But this time, I actually

got the chance to work closely with some of the

Hasbro folks, like Eric Cybernell. So that was

really neat for me to see that side of the house.

Besides season three of Animated, what other

goodies can we expect in the book? Well, as you

might have gathered from the previous question,

the answer to the previous question. The toys.

Yeah. Yeah, there'll be coverage of the toy line.

I know there is at least one fellow on one of

the message boards who said he was very disappointed

with the all -spar hominac, because we didn't

go into the toy line. So maybe he can revise

and revisit his opinion, at least as far as the

second volume goes. And the nice thing, I think,

about the all -spar hominac, too, is it very

much bookends what we start in one. It's a very

similar format. It'll look great on the... shelves

together and that you put them together and it

really tells the entire story of animated soup

to nuts seasons one two and three the cartoon

side of things the toy side of things and then

with the interstitial we get to explore Other

areas like we get to go into merchandising a

bit the last one we covered the UK Titan comics

and this one we cover The the video game we go

into a little bit of detail on we go a little

bit behind the scenes there so so just about

every aspect of the animated gestalt is covered.

I use gestalt in more of the psychological term,

unless the combiner term. Yeah. I'm a huge Rodimus

fanboy, and as we all know, Rodimus was in the

cartoon for all of eight minutes in season three.

Yes, but he was played by Jed Nelson, so that's

pretty awesome. Yes, he was. How much coverage

does he get in the book as far as not just the

model sheets, but as far as like, bio and story

and all that? He has a full bio, actually one

of the longer ones, and of course the model sheets

are all there. They're some of the bigger ones,

and then we have his toy, his box art, so there's

quite a bit of Rodimus in there. I don't think

you'll be disappointed. Speaking of the bios,

who writes whose bio this time around? Because

I know last time you had... think was it slipstream

writing blitzwings bio or vice versa you had

different characters write different characters

bios so who does that this time around well to

go through all of them would be exhausting I

don't know if it would be all that much fun for

your listeners but most you know all of the main

characters on both sides get to write at least

one or two bios or or examinations of other sort

of concepts, backgrounds and culture and whatnot,

just like we did in the first book or episode

reports. And then many, almost all of the minor

characters that had any sort of appreciable amount

of screen time in the show get to write a bio.

Not quite all of them. There's a couple of omissions.

I don't think Rodimus actually gets to write

anybody's bio, but there's a pretty wide range

of voices represented in the bios. Very cool.

What are universal streams? Universal streams?

What are they? Yeah. Well, this is actually a

concept that was invented by M. Cypher. And Greg,

I think his name is pronounced Seppalack, but

I'm not 100 % sure on that and Trent True. But

Greg and Trent, who do a lot of the fiction for

Vakon and for Fun Publications, the text stories

that wind up on the Fun Publications website

if you're a fan club member. And if you're not,

you should be, assuming you're listening to this

podcast. Because they have some pretty excellent

fiction. You get really pretty neat toys. Looking

forward to the dev comments here. But anyway,

they invented this concept for their trans text

stories in the Axiom Nexus City of classifying

each of the major sort of continuity families

like Generation One or the Unicron Trilogy or

Mata into universal streams. And then they could

further narrow those down by numbers and Greek

letters to designate. when they came out and

what kind of medium they were. So you can sort

of take the real world application of the fiction

and map it into the fictional universe. And this

is a concept that I was fortunate enough to play

with a little bit in the first All Spark Almanac.

And in the second All Spark Almanac, we continued

that trend. And in the first one, we introduced

a new one. They had, I think, They'd given us

Tyrion, which is the movie, and Primax, which

is for Generation One, and Oryx, which is for

the Unicron Trilogy, and Malgus, which is for

animated. So they'd given us four. And I get

to give us, it wasn't actually from me. I spoke

to M. Cypher about it, and he told me that Quadwall

is the one for the real world. So I got to introduce

that in this book, and in the last book, in the

All -Spark Almanac, one. And in two, I get to

keep playing with that concept. So you'll learn

a few more. universe stream designations. I think

that the really hardcore fans, the fans that

like that sort of thing, will be surprised and

pleased by that. Very, very cool. How many quote

unquote special pages are there, like the Garbage

O's and or Venus? Oh, that's a good question.

In the first book, I think, don't quote me on

this, but I think there was round about 15 or

20. In this book, even though we had fewer episodes

to cover, we only had the 13 episodes in season

3 and there weren't really any new comic stories

for us to cover. We sort of used them in other

parts of the book, so you see them in the culture

section in some other ones. I think it's close

to about 25 -ish. Even though we had fewer pages

to play with or fewer episodes to play with,

we actually got more of those. So if you liked

the really weird stuff, like the... the scroll

written by Vector Prime, or the newspaper, the

Detroit Palo Press. There's a lot more of that

in this book. And certainly, I think Bill and

I had a lot of fun coming up with some of those.

And we actually had some pretty talented fans

come up with some of those pages, too. We had

a guy named Chris Vera, who posts under Veritas,

I think. He did something for us. David Willis,

who posts his walkie, or its walkie, and does

the short pack comic, he did two pages for us,

as it turns out, or at least some of the graphics

for them. I think you'll like what both of those

guys did. Awesome. Okay, as we all know, season

four was slightly planned, but it never actually

happened. Is there any material in the new book

from Season 4 at all? Oh yeah, definitely. There's

a lot of the book. At least 15 or so pages of

the book are devoted to things that didn't actually

happen. Not just Season 4, but other ideas that

might have happened or were discussed that didn't

actually make it into the shelf. or the brand

will be covered. That definitely includes season

four. You'll learn some new stuff that hasn't

come out yet. Hasbro and guys like Marty and

Derek were really great in working with us and

helping to get some of that out. We didn't want

to give everything away. We get asked a lot,

give the complete, total secret of Sari's origin

and what's up with there. And the answer to that

is no. It's actually not something that Bill

and I know, and it's not something that we pressed

on. I'm sure if we really took out Derek or Marty

and got him drunk, they'd tell us, but ... But

it's not ... I don't think this is the right

venue for it, because ... I think it's a really

good profiles book, but ultimately the All -Star

Almanac is basically a profiles book. It's a

guidebook. It's a lot of fun. I think there's

a lot of humor in it. There's a lot of new information

in it. There's a lot of things that you didn't

already know that Derek or Marty or Matt or Eric

was kind enough to share with us that were out

there. There's a lot of stuff that Bill and I

just made up and got their blessings on. something

sort of that big you know it's sort of the central

one of the central mysteries that drives the

show i don't need to be the same emotional impact

to just haven't been down on a page as somebody

some of the being told to us or even worse be

out of universe and just say you know again i

don't know the answer but you know it it turns

out sorry is uh... is megatron's daughter it's

like there wouldn't be any any real kick to that

where do you know if they can do it in the comic

book or maybe bachan story or hasbro can do it

opposite webisode or a direct -to -video movie.

I don't know if any of these things are actually

possible or feasible. Certainly, at least as

far as I know, none of them are in the works.

Not that I'd be in the loop about that, but it's

always possible that we'll get something along

the lines of these in the future. I would even

say that if there's enough sort of fan interest

and demand, it's likely, at least for things

like a Bakhan set of animated figures or an IDW

miniseries. I think if the fans make their voice

heard, that's something that might well happen.

I know the creative people involved in the show

would be very keen to do it. So I wouldn't want

to rob them of that sort of climax. Right, yeah.

I think it's kind of sad that for some strange

reason Hasbro will not put out season three on

DVD yet. I don't know why. I mean, I don't really

know one way or the other, but I wouldn't think

that would be Hasbro. I would think that would

be one of its licensees. Well, I read on TFW

at one point, tfw2005 .com, that one of those

Hasbro Q &As and says, the answer was, at this

time, there are no plans to release Transformers

Animated Season 3 on DVD. Now, whether it's...

Hasbro or Cartoon Network or the conjunction

of the two, I don't know. But I think it's kind

of sad that we don't have that DVD regardless

if the brand is kind of, I hate to say it, but

dead. As far as... The brand is completely dead.

They wouldn't have said yes to the All -Star

Almanac, too. I can tell you, I mean, I don't

know the specifics of what's going on, so all

I can do is speculate and I don't really want

to do too much of that. But I can tell you that

the... The team at Hasbro is really keen and

enthusiastic for animated. If they weren't, they

wouldn't have let us do the All Spark on the

Neck 2, and they wouldn't have been as incredibly

supportive and giving of their time. They certainly

didn't have to do that, but Eric and Aaron were

very involved in making this book, and it wouldn't

be the same without them. So I have to assume

it's not... There's not some sort of dark empire

that wants to keep the DVDs away from you. I'm

sure that Hasbro and the people there would...

Well, again, like I said, I can't really speak...

Right. Well, like I said, the story said that

on TFW, and this was reported a couple of months

ago, that as of right now, back then, there were

no plans for it to be released. So, I mean, there

is a possibility that it would be released, but

I just wish it was already. Oh yeah, I do too.

Actually, it would have made making the book

a little easier. I wouldn't have had to ... I

had them all saved on TiVo. Yeah. It was smart.

But if I had it on disc, I would have been able

to pop them into my laptop and take them with

me to the coffee shop and work there instead

of having to sit in my living room, which is

the end of the world. It would have made my life

a bit easier. One of my co -hosts, Michael Wilson,

he co -hosts the Beast Unleashed podcast, which

is our Beast Wars Beast Machines Review Show,

and Toycast, which originally was Transformers

Toycast. We review Transformers toys over podcast

form. His wife found, she's a school teacher,

and she found, you know how schools have scholastic

book fairs? And she found Transformers, It'd

be All Spark Almanac and she got it for him and

he goes, oh wow, this is great. This is just

like this book, this big book I have right here,

except it doesn't, it just has, the smaller version

just has the character images. It doesn't have

all the text. It's all about Decepticons, humans

and culture, I believe. They cut out the episode

guides, Detroit and the settings chapters. Will

there be a scholastic version for two? I didn't

know there was gonna be a scholastic version

for one. I found out about it when I got a big

box from IDW full of, I didn't know what was

in there. I said, oh, that's weird. IDW sent

me a box of something. And I opened it up and

there's the scholastic version. I'm like, wow,

actually, no, that's not quite true. Bill got

the box and opened it. I was in New York at the

time. So Bill got... you know his copies of it

he's like Jim they they sent me this the all

-spark almanac only it's tiny and there's pages

cut out of them like are you screwing with me

what was it? He goes no no no seriously he took

a picture of it but you know he's the uh he's

like the hardcore graphics guy I'm more the writer

guy so you know he could manipulate photos so

I was still you know slightly scared and then

he said no no I'm looking through it and it says

it's scholastic I said oh actually that makes

sense So I don't know for sure if they'll do

this. They might. But I don't really know what

the decision -making process is behind how one

of those books gets made. What is the release

date for volume two? I don't know exactly, but

I believe it's late June. So if I had to guess,

I'd say probably June 30th, since it's going

to be a Wednesday. But I don't know that for

100%. You kind of talked about this at the beginning.

I just have a couple more questions. I was going

to say, what's next for you after Almanac 2?

Well, nothing I can specifically talk about,

since there's nothing. I don't have any specific

deal in place. I've been investigating what other

sort of aspects of the brand would be worth exploring,

and I've been looking at some other brands too.

So we'll see if anything comes of that. I'm sure

that It won't just be my blog. I'm sure that

at some point in the future I'll be working on

some other crazy guidebook or art book or making

of or something. What do you think of War for

Cybertron? You know, I'm not really a video game

guy. I wasn't as a kid. In fact, I remember being...

Being in college and playing ultimate 7 and it

was actually an old game at the time I think

ultimate 8 had come out by the time I was doing

this but I was I was making my way through ultimate

7 and it was Finals week and I really needed

to stay for my finals, but I was just like addicted

to this game So I wound up doing something I

almost never do I I downloaded what the cheats

were for the game and I I basically like fast

forward to the end of the game and I beat the

game just so I could work on my finals without

having this you know quest hanging over my head,

but But you know since then I don't know, maybe

I'm just getting old, but I just haven't kept

up with the latest console. I have a Nintendo

Wii, and I do the Wii Fit all the time. Every

day, I'm on the Wii Fit. But other than that,

I hardly ever play the modern games. So I have

to say, the advertisements they put out look

really, really cool. I think it's great that

they've gotten guys like Peter Cullen involved

with The Voice. It really helped to cement it

as, yes, this is a legitimate... Optimus Prime.

I think it's a neat avenue for exploration in

terms of the scope of the game, the prequel to

the Earth stuff. I like Simon Furman's War Within

and the things like Megatron Origin. I like when

you go back to Cybertron and see early parts

of the conflict. And it's great when they do

it in modern times because now... there's this

sense that you have to design the characters

that are Cybertronian mode. More than meets the

eye, Soundwave turns into a lamp post, but he

has the exact same robot character model. It

certainly was a step up from Gobots, which had

them on Gobotron as police cars and motorcycles,

which was really silly. But the modern interpretations

of Transformers, from Beast Wars on, have always...

given them redesigned modes for both their robot

and their vehicle modes. And I think the work

within designs are great. I think they look really

cool and the toys look really neat. But I'm probably

not going to wind up getting the game. I have

a buddy who's into it, so I'm sure I'll go over

to his house and play it a little bit. Maybe

it'll be the one that makes me decide to get

the new PlayStation, but I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical.

Not of the quality of the game, just of my own

desire to Yeah, it's like am I am I really gonna

spend 25 hours non -stop on this game? Yeah,

and and and and of course if you don't have the

console It's not like you're paying $50 for the

games like you're paying $250 for the game exactly

exactly Yeah, I I think it's a nice Quote -unquote,

I guess new continuity, you know, like you said

going back to the the pre -earth stuff and having

the war on Cybertron and just seeing that, I

think it's great. I'm not a big fan of multiplayer.

If I did get the game, I'd be getting it for

the single player, for the story modes, just

to see what the story is. I think that's pretty

much all I have for you. Where can people interact

with you on the web? I am so overexposed, it's

not even funny. I am all over the place. Probably

my blog is the easiest place to just straight

interact with me. I usually post two to four

times a week. I do reviews of comics. I've been

going through the G1 Marvel run and Transformers

about one issue a week for a while now. I'm up

to the early Simon Furman stuff. And I also do

some other stuff. Like on Tuesdays, I try and

post new animation models from G1. Even though

I've done, at this point, two and a quarter books

or so, I did both the ARC and the ARC2 and the

collected version, which had a lot of extra material

in it. But I still have tons and tons of models.

So every Tuesday, or almost every Tuesday, I

post some new models. I call them the ARC Addendum.

And they sort of use the aesthetic of the ARC.

I use the branding there and the same fonts and

whatnot. So it kind of looks like pages that

could have been the ARC. And in fact, some of

the early ones, were actually literally pages

that I made up for the ARC and I just didn't

have room for. But now mostly I'm making new

ones. So I'm there. I post on Twitter as Sentinel

Prime. But the trouble with that, or I don't

know, the trouble, but the thing to remember

there is I'm posting in character as Sentinel

Prime. I'm kind of a jerk. But, you know, an

in -character kind of jerk. Stupid funeral. Exactly.

He's got a big ego and he has a phobia towards

it. I mean, he's Sentinel Prime, you know, animated

Sentinel Prime. And I do that on Formspring too,

which I... Yeah, he answers way too many Formspring

questions. Oh my gosh. Well, people keep asking

him, you know. I mean, I actually delete the

ones that are really duplicative or just somebody

chilling a YouTube video. But even with that,

I'm up to almost 1 ,000 questions. I'll probably

hit 1 ,000 questions tonight or tomorrow. Wow.

It's fun for me. It's just like creative exercise,

because of all the characters in animated that

I got to write for, his voice was the easiest,

came the most naturally. I've always gravitated

towards the sort of egomaniac characters. I don't

know what that says about me, but I have. I dressed

up as Zap Brannigan for Halloween a few years

back. I dyed my hair blonde and everything. I'm

walking around in what's effectively a skirt.

Got some strange looks that Halloween. I was

in New York City, too, so I was down in the village.

In retrospect, I maybe was sending signals I

didn't mean to be sending. But I love Zapp Branigan.

Looking forward to the new Futurama in a couple

of weeks, too. That'll be, I think, BotCon night,

or the night after BotCon starts, the new Futurama

will start. I probably won't actually get to

see that for a few days. characters like Sentinel

Prime and Captain Stern. Well, you can always

have somebody build you a Sentinel Prime costume

for the next Halloween. Actually, one of the

things I do on my blog is I've been reviewing

the War of the Worlds TV series. Now, I don't

know if anybody remembers that. In fact, I think

maybe everybody who remembers that is already

posting on my blog and commenting. syndicated

television show from the late eighties and in

theoretically it's in continuity of the nineteen

fifty three george pal or the world's movie this

makeup but but theoretically there's the same

continuity they want to be about this guerrilla

war between a small team of human scientists

and these aliens in hiding to take over human

bodies it's it's really not all that good it's

kind of can't be in front of dark but but really

cheesy and and even at the time it wasn't great

so now horribly dated and all the actors look

really 80s and not in a good 80s way like Ashes

to Ashes which is all stylized 80s. I feel like

British cop dramas Ashes to Ashes and Life on

Mars are great by the way, but it's sort of that

bad 80s hair and not very self -aware 80s stuff.

But I've enjoyed going through it and the thing

was that the basic premise of Leaps of the First

Season was that the aliens didn't die from our

bacteria. They went into hibernation. And in

the 80s they started to revive because the radiation

from like nuclear testing and nuclear waste was

starting to kill off some of that bacteria and

they were starting to wake up. So they would

inhabit human bodies and then they would have

these like they'd be all pale because they're

aliens and they're getting killed by radiation

poisoning. So they'd have open sores and then

rashes all over so they'd have to keep changing

bodies. And you know the aliens from More of

the World had these you know three three -pronged

fingers and green arms and they could Access

this arm from within their human host and get

this third arm popping out of their chest so

that The reason I'm bringing this up is because

it's a Halloween costume that I've wanted to

do for a while And maybe I'll do it this year

is to be one of those war of the world aliens

So I'll put pale makeup on my face and I'll give

myself some radiation scars. That's something

I get to any costume shop You know really cheap

and as long as you buy a chin that prosthetic

with it Well, if I wanted to be Sentinel Prime,

but no, no, no, these guys are pasty wheat -chin

aliens. They're not strong, powerful, like Sentinel

Prime, but the piece de resistance of the costume

is going to be that I'm going to get a fake left

arm and have it sort of dangling from my side,

and then my actual left arm will be underneath

my shirt, and I'll put on, you know, a green

covering, and I'll have this third arm that can

burst out. And no, the left arm wouldn't actually

fool anybody if you looked, but you don't...

look at somebody to see if they have a fake arm.

Just assume that their arm is their arm. So I'll

actually have this third arm that comes out.

And nobody will get it. I've explained it, so

I suppose if I were to bumb it to anybody who

listens to the podcast, they might get it. But

certainly, nobody on the street is going to get

a pale guy with sores and a third alien arm coming

out of his stomach, as anything. But it's my

tribute to War the Wolf. Last year, I think I

was solved the mole man. That was a fun fest,

and that was a good one, if you watched that

show on Adult Swim. I rarely watch Adult Swim,

so I don't know. Maybe some of the listeners

do, but I don't. It's all of the moment. It was

brilliant. I don't know if it's coming on DVD

yet, but it was a parody of the Sid and Marty

Croft sort of live action show. So they had this

really, really horribly cheesy, but correctly

horribly cheesy costume and people walking around.

Oh, God, it was hilarious. I don't go for the

really random adult swim stuff, but that was

just spot on. If you ever watched Land of the

Lost as a kid and watched it seriously, you would

sort of appreciate Poke Fun at that style. Besides

Sentinel, who is your other favorite character

in Animated? There's a few really good ones.

I tend to gravitate towards the characters that

are sort of new to the series. I mean, I know

Sentinel Prime existed beforehand, but he tended

to be a cipher. He tended to be introduced high,

get killed, and then Optimus Prime could take

up the mantle. Whereas here, he was this wonderful

rival. He had a fleshed out personality. He never

died, which is a first for him. And I gravitated

towards him, I think, because they helped, well,

because I do like egomaniacs, and they fleshed

out the new characters. So I'd have to say...

the characters other characters that I like would

probably be guys like lockdown and Lugnut because

even though I think some of the names had been

used before really those are new archetypes and

I Obviously we've already seen it with them with

lockdown that there's a you know that there's

a g1 or there's a movie version of lockdown coming

out I wouldn't be at all surprised if if characters

like Lugnut and bulkhead didn't get the same

treatment, but I I think the idea of your sort

of Frankenstein -ing himself monster, like lockdown,

taking pieces from his prey is really cool. And

then Lugnot is just wonderfully loyal. You know,

fanatically loyal. He's a zealot in the name

of Megatron. And I guess you could probably find

a few characters like that. I mean, I suppose

Inferno from Beast Wars would probably count

as being a character like that. But there aren't

so many. And of course Inferno from Beast Wars

is pretty much insane, whereas Lugnut... Lugnut

is basically all there. Aside from being very

loyal to Megatron, he's basically intelligent,

capable bot. Yeah, Inferno had some faulty programming.

Yeah, Inferno is pretty crazy, but Lugnut I think

less so. I mean, Blitzwing is the crazy one.

And actually, it's a great interpretation on

him, too. Oh, yeah, it is. But yeah, I'd say

look not in lockdown. I know you said other,

but I'm giving you two. Well, yeah, that's fine.

Those two got a lot of fun. I like bulkhead,

too, as a sort of new addition to the universe.

But characters like Bumblebee and Rodimus Prime

and whatnot, they basically seem fairly similar

to some earlier incarnations or at least earlier

roles that existed in Transformers. I mean, Bumblebee

is less the everyman and more the youthful hotshot

character, but it still feels more like a character

we'd seen before, whereas those guys, not as

much. And I really appreciate that. I like how

fresh animated felt. Oh, yeah. It felt fresh,

but it also felt like a G1 updating a little

bit. Yeah, they did a... I mean, it's because

of the people involved, but they really did a

great job of capturing what was important and

what worked about the Generation One and earlier

shows, not earlier than G1, but other earlier

Transformers shows, like Beast Wars and whatnot,

and taking what worked and making it feel like

it fits in the same, I don't want to say universe,

but the same, like you were exploring some of

the same tropes. And yet, it really did feel

fresh and new. They changed enough that it ...

I think that they ... It's hard to think of what

they could have done better, I think. They had

a new aesthetic. They had a new timeframe. You

had Optimus Prime as the inexperienced commander.

I mean, you've seen that a little bit before.

Things like Optimus Primal was not the flyest

full statesman. But you put them all together

and it worked really well and actually there's

some parts of the All Spark Almanac too where

I had gotten the chance to talk with Marty about

why he made certain choices and what the thought

process was behind some of those and it'll explore

why he made some of the specific choices he made

that worked so well. So I think fans will like

seeing behind the curtain. if I can Wizard of

Oz for a bit. Those are nice Wizard of Oz visual

reference joke sort of thing in the book that

I think people like. Pay no attention to that

beachin robot behind the curtain. I don't think

Sentinel is involved in that one. That's funny.

Alright well I would like to thank you Jim for

joining me here and I'd like to ask you to hold

the line and we'll be back after this. I am retgar!

I dare to be stupid! Hi everyone, this is Mike

TFJU with the GeekCast Radio Network and This

Week in Geek. I have the great privilege to talk

with Stan Bush, the master behind Transformers

The Movie, the music for the most part. Hey Stan,

how are you? Hey Mike, how's it going? It's going

pretty good. I guess we're just going to jump

right into it. How excited for BotCon are you?

Oh, tremendously excited. It's going to be fun.

Yeah, getting ready to head out to Florida. That's

where I grew up, so it'll be like going home.

Yeah, that's right. I didn't think of that. They

are holding it at Disney World this year. Wow.

Yeah. Now you've been in the last, what, two,

three years? Two Botcons? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, last

year they had it here in LA and I was at that

and actually performed with the band at Paramount

Studios in the back lot there. Yeah, and so this

year at the one in Orlando. I'm not going to

perform with the band, but I'll be on hand for

autographs and panels and so forth. It'll be

a blast to meet a lot of the fans. Plus, they're

unveiling the new Transformers War for Cybertron

game. That'll be exciting. Yeah, it's funny you

mention that. I think it was Game Informer. I

don't regularly listen to their podcast, but

there was a couple of news items about six months

ago. When news from the War for Cybertron video

game was starting to come out and they had this

this little music Diddy in there, you know part

of the music and I'm like wait that sounds like

and it was just an an instrumental riff it was

like a three -minute story instrumental riff

I'm like wait, that's only something Stan would

create and I had asked you the last time I talked

to you I believe it was Late last year something.

I don't know It's been about six months since

you and I have talked as far as one of these

little records, and so what's the deal with Stan

Bush and Warren for Cybertron? Well, my song,

Till All Are One, Transformers theme, which is

on the last album, the End of Life album. They're

using that, the Till All or One is going to be

part of the game. It's like the intro and then

the outro when it plays over the credits. Anyway,

it's very exciting. I'm thrilled about that.

The other cool thing is that they're using the

Touch for the ad campaign for the game. All the

GameStop stores across the country are playing

the Touch in a continuous loop. cable TV commercials

as well as Internet, and even theatrical commercials

for the game. Yeah, I've seen the GameStop ad

on the Internet. It's funny as all, get out.

They make a joke about the song, I think. Well,

it's actually a funny joke because they have

Shockwave make Soundwave transform into his...

former tape deck form, and it starts playing.

And they're like, oh, why'd you pick this song?

That's so funny. Yeah, it is actually. So the

new album, I know you mentioned In This Life,

but you have been working on a new album. Has

it been completed yet? Actually, we just finished.

We mixed and mastered it. It's taken a year and

a half and it's coming out in August, so very

excited about it. The title is Dream the Dream,

and that's the title song. It's some of my best

work. I was concerned for a long time about how

am I going to top in this life, because that's

been pretty much the pinnacle of my work. But

I think we've got another winner here. It came

out to be a great album. And you mentioned that

it will be released in August. There's no actual

date, though, set right? Well, towards the end

of August. August 27th is the official date that

it comes out in Europe. In my deal with the European

distributor, I have a license deal over there

and also in Japan, but I'm not supposed to release

it in the States before that. It will be towards

the end of August when it comes out, but it will

be available. People can check stanbush .com.

Oh, one other thing I should mention too. I don't

know if you recall, last year I did a totally

different version of The Touch with a different

melody, different music and everything else,

but the same lyrics called Sam's Theme. That

is on the album. That's on the new album. So

it's kind of a really cool bonus track thing.

So that'll be a little thing for the Transformers

fans, because it didn't come out. I hadn't written

the song yet when this life album came out. So

it'll be on the new one. Very cool. Has there

been any, so you said that the album is completed

as far as the music, but what about as far as

like design, like cover art and all that stuff,

has that been? Yeah, the cover art, I've seen

that and it's really cool. It's like this surreal

picture with a, there's like this outdoor scene

with a girl on a couch draped with red and there's

like the birds and It's kind of an ominous dark

sky thing. It's just very cool because Dream

to Dream being obviously a dream theme, you know,

it all works. It's very cool to look and cover.

I'll have to send it to you sometime soon. It

will be posted on the website. Very cool, very

cool. So if you're not performing at BotCon this

year and just doing panels, will you try to?

Will you try to explore more of the convention

that maybe you weren't able to the last couple

of years because you weren't performing? Yeah,

I'd like to actually. I do know that Activision

is planning to do some kind of promotional events

with me at BotCon and also probably Comic Con

as well. I'm planning to go down there to San

Diego Comic Con in July. In addition to that,

they always schedule me for a couple of panels

and so forth. And of course, there'll be a table

where I'll be a lot of the time. But yeah, I'll

definitely make the rounds. Because it's cool

to be able to see and talk to everybody. And

it'll be a blast. Very cool. Very cool. So after

the new album, Dream a Dream, after that goes...

After that hits, you know, shelves and stores

and all that. What's next for you? What's the

next project you're going to work on? After the

new album comes out? Yeah. Well, it'll probably

be some performing. The label in Europe will

very likely bring me over there. I did shows

in Europe like... three years ago when the End

of Life album came out. I did a little European

mini -tour and a couple of festivals and so forth.

I'll probably do that and be doing promotion

here in the States as well. It'll be cool. Awesome.

Very awesome. I would like to thank you for joining

me here. I think this is going to wrap it up

for us. I guess we will be back after this. This

is Mike TF, John Blanchard with Stan Bush. See

you next time, folks. Okay. Take care, Mike.

I wish to speak to my lawyer.