Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising Review

Be sure to check out All Things Transformers

with Steve Megatron and TFG1 Mike. No, that wasn't

Donald Duck. That's one of our customers that

calls on the phone at my job. Can you hear me

now? Yeah. Steve, just start saying some stuff,

because I need to make sure that the call recorder

is going to pick you up. No, I mean actually

fucking talk you moron don't make fucking sound

effects If you don't stand for it, oh shit, I

screwed that up If you don't stand for something

you'll fall for anything there we go Why don't

you go suck on your rubber ducky? You suck on

your rubber ducky during podcasting? Episode

54, I'm your host, Steve Megatron Phillips, and

joining me is how he always is. Like TFJL Blanchard,

hello. Hello, and for his All Things Transformers

debut is Optimus Solo. Hello, or half of me is

here. Yes, half of you. I feel like I read a

handicap read. Nah, I shouldn't piss too many

people off. It's the zombie transforming Optimus

Solo. Must have brains. Must have dark energon

in brain Yeah, it just sounds like uber fun.

Anyways, how's it going guys? It's going. I've

had better mornings. That's all I've heard. That's

funny. Yes, and in any case Ah, I see, said the

blind man. It's episode 39, it's the last debut,

so. Oh, okay. Well, I don't remember that fucking

back. That's just it goes with the zombie theme.

I'm back from the dead. Yes, we'll get into that

in a little bit. So what have you guys got going

on? I just finished giving everybody an in -depth

look of what the hell we're doing at GeekCast

Radio for the next two years. No, the only thing

I've done recently is updated the Transformer

Prime page at BehindTheVoiceActors .com. Yep.

Yes, because you have much goodness in there

now considering it's finally debuted. Yeah, I

think I should credit because less than a few

hours after it debuted I already had all the

sound clips up there and all the new pictures,

so. Well, of course you'll get the credit, duh.

And I'm in the process of... these to the PredaconEmpire

.com site nice from YouTube so excellent yes

I'm quite pumped about that traffic yes no no

blow is too low in this show oh hello but um

yes today we are discussing the First two parts

of the darkness rising. Yay Yes, I guess I will

let you go first Kevin since You have the major

information on it so far and I just having watched

it and still in shock of too many similarities

So I'll get into my section later when we actually

discuss it You just want like reaction type deal

basically, yeah, I mean I was I don't think it's

a secret between at least between us that I've

been pretty excited about the debut of this for

a long time Just because mainly the main reason

that why it was because it was the first time

that we're gonna get Peter Cullen and Frank Welker

together again You know since g1 So I was pretty

pretty pumped for this going into it I've been

counting down the days and I'm just gonna say

after I watched those two episodes. I definitely

was not disappointed There are little things

here and there that may have bugged me or little

things that I might have had a problem with,

but overall, just for the first two episodes

of a new series, it's not scaring me away. It's

definitely keeping me pumped up for at least

the remaining parts of this five -part mini -series

and for the rest of the series. I'm pretty stoked

about it now. You know, I'll get into some of

the reasons why later, but overall I have a pretty

good reaction to these first two episodes. What

about you, Mike? Well... I know you have a few

problems too, but... Well, I'll get into my problems

with the actual episodes later, but my initial

reaction to it was... You know, ever since Revenge

of the Fallen, because that movie made so much

money, regardless of the story quality of Revenge

of the Fallen, regardless of what that film is,

no one can deny that it made Hasbro a shit ton

of money. Look how long the Revenge of the Fallen

toy line went on. They're just now changing that

up, obviously. And when this first hit, And I

thought it was great, just like you Kevin, thought

it was great that Welker and Cullen were going

to be back together again voicing Prime and Megatron

and everything else. I was still skeptical because

of the fact that Friggin Orsi and Kurtzman were

attached to it. Now, I will say right up front,

those two guys can write other stuff very well

compared to what I saw in the Transformers films.

I'm sorry, they're not the Transformers fans

they claim to be. At least Kurtzman isn't. Kurtzman

always was the one, as far as I know, that always

claimed to be this big, huge Transformers fan.

So when I heard that they were attached to this,

I was like, oh great, it's gonna be a fucking

tie -in between Revenge of the Fallen and Dark

of the Moon, or Dark Moon, or whatever the fuck

the new one's called. I swear, Pink Floyd needs

to sue Michael Bay. I don't know, well, probably

not, because it didn't go onto YouTube. But right

before they did the two Prime episodes, they

had two different half hours. One was a Hubworld

show that was all on Transformers Prime. And

then next, they had a sneak preview that had

15 minutes of GI Joe Renegade preview and 15

minutes of Prime preview. But in the Hubworld

one, they went to Orsi and Kurtzman, who were

sitting at this table or whatever. And they went

into them for a kind of a... Don't know it wasn't

really like an interview is more like a little

spoof type thing but in it I can't remember which

one said it but they're like, oh, you know, what's

your idea? It was supposed to be kind of them

brainstorming and the ones like, um, let's have

Megatron barf and the other ones like no This

isn't the movie. This has to be good. Yeah, I

saw that So that was my initial thinking going

in that it was going to be a tie between revenge

and dark And I was like, oh god, I don't mind,

like, comic book tie -ins or prequels or, you

know, in -betweens or whatever else, but a cartoon

in -between? And then we found out that it's

gonna be based right after Exodus, or supposedly

after Exodus and War for Cybertron. I was like,

oh great, War for Cybertron continuity, I'm liking

this now. At first, because we had only seen

a bunch of rough cut animatics, I didn't really

care for the animation. At first, now, seeing

the episodes, it's great. I think it's really

awesome. And I'm glad it's going to be its own

thing and has nothing to do with the films, thank

God. They made a really good choice with that.

So I'm really stoked. From what I've seen of

the two episodes, I'm really looking forward

to it. I couldn't stop thinking that it was a

combination of look -wise, just look and feel

-wise. It was like a combination of the movie

look, as well as like, it had Beast Wars feels

to it to me. It didn't to me, but that's because

I saw more of War for Cybertron, more animated,

and the movie kind of crossed between the three.

Gotcha. Yeah, it's pretty much like what Steve

just said. it's movies were set up a completely

different three d feel compared to right now

i have played i think it wasn't necessarily like

the the uh... i don't know if it was more of

the the animation of the design but like when

they were talking to like it just make a corner

there just focus on those guys for some reason

i just had that i got a vibe from these tours

for some reason but yeah i i understand that

it's a little bit more of a combination of of

you know war for cyber trying in the movie but

It just had like this little Beast War -esque

type feel to me. It's probably because it's more

darker and it's probably the first actual dark

series. I mean, look at this. That's probably

why. Pretty much the first episode somebody dies.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's not like in animated where

Prime died and then was brought back. No, this

was an actual like... Death. Cold -blooded death

kill. It was like more than a death. Yeah, it

was more than a death. Yeah, but I mean... It

had more of a Beast Wars vibe in that sense.

Yeah, that's probably it. It had more of an animated

feel in the sense of how scrawny some of the

characters were, and then it had bulkhead on

top of it. Granted, it was a darker version of

bulkhead, more of an adult version, but he was

still in there, which I would have rather seen

Ironhide. Actually, I... I mean, I liked Bulkhead

better in this than animated, but I would like

to see, like, a more G1 -esque Ironhide in it.

Yeah. For me, I am of the opinion now that I've

seen the first two episodes that I love kick

-ass Bulkhead. He's awesome. And the fact that

Kevin Michael Richardson voices him, oh my god,

yeah. He did have some funny lines. Yeah, I love

that. I never, ever liked. bulkhead and animated

i just didn't you know i'm sorry if that offends

people but it's just. I just didn't like bulkhead

at all and animated i thought he was a little

worse and a little too clumsy and you know i

get that that would that is the way he was meant

to be but this bulkhead this kickass bulkhead

is just is awesome. Yeah, I'm a fan of the bulkhead

so far I didn't see the animated one, but I've

only heard bad things about them, but I'm a fan

of this and this newer one so far yeah, honestly,

I'll say that this this bulkhead was a lot nicer

and as far as The various other characters sound

wave was a major letdown for me. Yep Yeah, just

because it sounded more like a female ask voice

with the vocoder over top and it was just a scrawny

body. Something about it just, I don't know,

peeved me. Yeah, well the female voice though,

to be fair, that's just a replay of RC. Yeah,

that was him playing the transmission from RC

so it wasn't necessarily his voice So we're kind

of left not knowing if he can talk or if he can

only replay other people's voices Which would

be kind of lame considering they've already impaired

Bumblebee like they did in the films which I

would still have actually given to the voice

Yeah, we have R2 -D2 A mouthpiece like they tried

to pull a Beast Wars -esque thing there Yeah,

it would have looked better with the mouthpiece

if they would have left the top and bottom part

like they did primal of the mouth faceplate yeah

his face just looks weird that's why it looks

weird is because you're expecting to see something

there that's not there i mean the faceplate itself

the origin you know it looks it looks movieish

well he looks like if you took the actual helmet

off he looks like he could be like some weird

ass bad looking like freak robots The faceplate

is movieish, but his face overall, I think the

problem is, the problem that I have with it is

that his mouth movements just look weird, and

I think it's because under the faceplate, his

whole face, his whole, like, his mouth, his nose,

or whatever else, it's like freaking, you know,

builder white or stark white. It's not gray or

anything like that. I mean... i don't know it's

just weird i mean uh... that's the only real

complaint i have about optimus is his mouth just

the way that they've got his mouth moving is

just weird as far as beast wars influences where

i kinda got it was the way that the city or whatever

the terrain is as far as the three d animation

with the characters interacting with the environment

i kinda got that Like from what Beast Wars was

in the beginning kind of like when Cheetor ran

across the field Steve Yeah, and like Beast Award

Beast Wars part one the very first episode That's

where I kind of got Beast Wars from is more the

environment rather than the actual characters

That might have been what it might have been

a combination of the environments plus the darker

tone that just made me think it like I said I

couldn't pinpoint why I was thinking that but

I just kept thinking as I was watching it But

as far as sound wave, you know, I agree with

you as far as the you know I'm hoping that at

some point he actually gets to be able to talk

but the one thing I'm not upset about is how

he looks I think he looks a bit too scrawny though

to be sound wave Well, not necessarily the body

part, but just the actual the actual face I don't

know if you got a close -up of it of his face

or not, but I'm looking at him on Behind the

voice actors. Yeah, like just the actual face.

I think it's pretty badass I agree that he's

too scrawny body wise, but I don't know. Yeah

sound wave is probably the most Disappointing

as far as the fact that he didn't talk and he

is a little scrawny I think the faces is only

redeeming quality Yeah, I'd have to say so and

I'm personally hoping that they redeem it by

giving it Walker's voice Yeah, that'd be cool.

Like granted a more, you know Grungier sound

waves, but have them in there have Walker do

it. Yeah, and and really I mean I know there

will eventually will probably be more more Decepticons

add into the mix but with only three of three

main guys to begin Having one of them not talk

kind of I don't know you only got three of them

anyway Like at least at least was bumblebee.

There's four other Autobots to talk so I mean

I can somewhat deal with r2d2 in the background,

but That's an insult to R2, I'm sorry. That's

exactly what he sounded like. That's what they

made him sound like. I cannot fucking stand this.

This is the other major problem I have with this

cartoon so far. And it's not just these episodes,

I'm sure that I'll have it throughout the entire

cartoon if he doesn't ever get hit of any kind

of actual voice talk. Is that, ugh, this is the

one thing I hate. You've got, how many voice

actors have done Bumblebee in the past? Quite

a few. Okay. Dan Gilva's an aside because I read

an interview on TFW at one point that he basically

said that the people at Hasbro or whatever else

want nothing to do with the old style of Bumblebee

which includes his voice which sucks. I think

that's a complete disservice to his talent and

what he created in G1 but give the fucking car

a voice. you know you have three kid characters

you don't need a kid robot i know that uh...

uh... who was it somebody made the comment in

the episode one of the uh... might have been

ratchet somebody uh... some of the snarky remark

to one of the kids and so you watch cartoons

with bumblebee back at the rc yeah back in base

or whatever yeah and i'm thinking bumblebee is

not supposed to be an all all out kid character

yes he is a kid character in most parts but emasculate

him that's just ridiculous well that's kind of

like they just lumped him in there and just said

all right here you go yeah I can deal with him

in the background being this mute guy or whatever

for a little while but yeah like you said I just

hope at some point him and Soundwave get voices

but I have a feeling at least Bumblebee won't

yeah RC I can honestly say I was impressed with

just like ballcat as well as ratchet just because

Their designs looked fairly well. I mean RC kept

kind of a movieish look, whereas Ratchet went

more G1 style. But between the two, I would have

to say that I wasn't disappointed with their

looks or their voices. It was a cool difference

to hear between them. Nobody should be disappointed

with Ratchet's voice for the simple fact that

He was the question in Justice League. Jeffrey

Combs voices Ratchet. Yeah, but for people that

don't know that... They tried to. ...you diddley

squat. Well, for the people that do know that...

I don't care who voices it to some extent, it

just has to sound good with the character. I

agree. Like, you couldn't have, like... Gary

chalk played this optimist prime. Whereas he

played all the ones in the unicorn trilogy. It

wouldn't fit No, that's you know, whereas Colin

is good for it. It's it's you know these g1 vibes

from certain characters that makes it so that

You can have characters that sound similar to

their original likeness kind of like ratchet

and NRC. All right, and I mean and then even

bulkhead sounds similar to I made so I mean they're

still keeping kind of true to the various characters

right except for Starscream hang on one second

because I think you and I are gonna come down

on the fence on that one uh... as far as radicals

and jeffrey combs voicing in the only reason

why i bring up the fact that he voiced the question

in justice league is because every time ratchet

open his mouth and said something i kept hearing

the question in my head i kept hearing anything

that the question has said in in the in the old

justice league cartoon so that's why i brought

that up because i thought it was so cool that

because jeffrey combs voice both i'm thinking

all right it's kind of a conspiracy theorist

now Um, before Steve gets into his Starscream

rage, uh, people are actually gonna be shocked

at this. People know that I'm not a Starscream

fanboy whatsoever in any incarnation. Anti -Secret

Prick. I like Skywarp and I like the Colpeds,

I just don't like Starscream. But, um, honestly,

I gotta say, this Starscream I like. Can't believe

I want to do this but I agree with Mike this

Starscream I like simply because It wasn't anything

that sounded like anything that has come before

it wasn't a Steve Steven Bloom voices him and

it wasn't Like, it wasn't trying to be a copy

of Chris Lotta. No disrespect to him. He did

an awesome job as G -1 Starscream and Cobra Commander

in G .I. Joe Real American Hero. But I'm glad

that they got somebody that made a distinct voice

for the character and just not some copycat trying

to, you know, pan to us fans for, you know, fan

service. Well, and I think one reason I like

him is because he... I think he balanced the...

The part of his character that's like the little

inferior bitch to Megatron combined with the

part that's really underneath it a much stronger,

sneaky, sly type character. I think he balances

those two things pretty well in his voice. He

does. So I was not upset with the Starscream.

Now see, this isn't the first time he's made

his... It's been nine years since he's been in

a Transformers franchise being rid for three

other characters, but I myself do not like the

Starscream and here is why. Oh, wait a minute

here. I got to back you up on this because he

was an animated. I'm just going as far as what's

on. Are you talking about Starscream or are you

talking about Steven Blum? Steven bloom. Oh,

okay. Well you needed to say that Okay, but um

Mr. Technical But anyways, I Don't like Starscream

and here's why it's because and it's not necessarily

because he doesn't sound like the the original

incarnations It's I can deal with the voice It's

that there's no resemblance to anything Starscream

in the design I am the design like I could see

if they wanted to retrofit it and not make it

look g1 I can understand that I can get past

that like You know, there's been several different

designs for this character This one I didn't

know if he was a fucking crony a drone. Yeah,

that's true. That's true He is the least like

any of his Prior images out of all the characters.

I mean even animated Changed it up enough that

you could tell who he was But he was different

Yeah, every other character has at least some

resemblance to either g1 or whatever that you

know like in bulkhead's case obviously animated

But all of them have some type of resemblance

to g1 that you can identify the character except

for Starscream I will give you that it was At

some point hard to tell if you were looking at

one of the eraticons or whatever They're gonna

be called or if you were looking at Starscream

I mean, even Soundwave looked pretty close. I

mean, as far as head wise. Right. You could tell

who he was by the head, at least even before

he started speaking and before the vocoder. But

Starscream, I was completely unhappy with the

design. I wish they would have taken a more I

don't know. It looks like they tried to go too

much movie on this one. Yeah, it should have

been a little more war for Cybertron. Yeah, it

should have been more war for Cybertron, similar

to how Megatron. is portrayed and a few of the

other characters. But I mean, it's too much of

a physical change that it just kind of offsets

me. The voice, I'm not disappointed with it,

but I wish there would have been a little bit

more shrillness to it. Not necessarily like a

lot of, but I mean, just something not necessarily

whiny, but something just kind of like... out

there with the voice. And again, I mean, we're

just giving our first impressions, so... I mean,

granted, he hasn't had much room to stretch in

this role yet, so I mean, it could come later.

Right, exactly. The other thing about the design

that I find is, yes, I agree with you guys, it

should have been a little bit more for Cybertron,

but the first thing I saw when I saw Starscream's

model was, oh, it's animated, but it's in a different

color, because if you look at his whole head,

His whole head is pretty much a movie -esque

design of the animated character from Transformers

Animated. That's what I saw him as. I didn't

see Transformers Animated in that head. I just

saw some kind of a random drone out of that.

And then the only thing that could even make

you think something about it is the fact that

he had red on his head and he had wings and he

was the only one in charge. Yeah. That's the

only thing that led me to believe it was Starscream.

Other than that, I didn't know it was Starscream.

Yeah, he most resembled one of the live -action

movie characters where it was just a bunch of

pieces of metal just thrown together, it seemed

like. Which character designs do you guys like

the best so far? Just out of the Autobots and

Decepticons, obviously we're not talking about

humans or anything, but just out of those main

characters so far, is there one that you prefer

over the rest? Out of the Autobots and Decepticons,

I'm kind of in a massive tie with certain characters.

Bulkhead stayed very true physically to the animated

style. So in that, I can see that he was very

well. I was kind of a fan of Ratchet just because

they gave him kind of a mixture between all of

his different incarnations. And came out with

this kind of badass Look for him kind of staying

similar to his his older fashions like he has

more of a animated vibe to him as Far as far

as like how the the helmet set up and some of

the physical aspects So I mean in that I could

tell right but um I Agree with you. I think ratchets

my favorite design for the Autobots But as far

as like Prime is exact pretty much to his movie

form so I mean I can't really say much there.

Bumblebee, it looks like they tried to copy the

Camaro because they can't get the Camaro license

for the cartoon obviously but it looks like they

tried to copy that too much. Him it's kind of

like meh. And I would have to say second to Ratchet,

I would like Megatron. Yep, I'm agreeing with

you on that. With the two toys, I would buy should

they come out. Yeah, I definitely like Ratchet

and Megatron the best, with RC probably coming

up next. For me, for the Autobots, it's Ratchet,

RC, and Bulkhead. For the Decepticons, obviously,

Megatron. Because Megatron most resembles...

War for Cybertron. I mean there's a little bit

of G1 in there obviously with the bucket head,

but What do you think of the teeth? The teeth

are badass. I know it made him look really fierce

besides the razor blade endings to his helmet.

Yeah Like it had a nice a nice G1 vibe to it

only more more fierce of it. Yeah, it was like

a G1 slash War for Cybertron Yeah, and it was

much more I'd love this design. I wish they would

have used it in the movie Me too This would have

been I mean considering look what they did with

prime They basically just transferred him over

to the cartoon and he looks perfect, you know

I mean prime I wouldn't complain about you can

tell exactly what what's about him. I wish they

would have went a little bit more In the vibe

of this Transformers prime for the movie for

the primal or for Optimus Prime design, but I

would say that if they would have transferred

these particular designs to the movie, I think

it would have had a lot better outcome as far

as the visual aspects of it. Well, yeah, because

the problem with the movie half the time is that

you don't know what you're looking at. Well,

you don't know what you're looking at. It looks

like a bunch of garbled metal and you can't tell

even by the head or any similar similarities

in design who it is. In every incarnation of

every one of these characters, they've kept certain

aspects the same, so that you can identify them.

Even Bumblebee has more of a gold -buggish head

to him than anything else. So I mean, in that

you can kind of resemble him, you know, and he's

yellow. But I mean, they kept enough of certain

characters the same that you could tell who's

who, other than Starscream. I know Kevin's gonna

kill me for this. I'm not just Bumblebee anymore.

I'm a gold bug. Yeah, shut the fuck up. And that's

how you'll be known as from now on. Has there

been a... I mean, I know we're doing this whole

five part mini series thing to launch the thing,

but is there an actual theme to the show? A theme

song? That was one thing I was disappointed in.

There's, I wish they would have had a theme song

music. I mean, that's one thing that's been,

even a short one, something memorable. Beast

Wars had it, G1 had it, even through its four

seasons. They didn't even necessarily have a

song, but something. There's something on the

end credits. My only thing is, and this is what

my assumption is, I also watched, and I know

this isn't, you know, this is Transformers. Friday

night I had watched the Young Justice premiere

movie on Cartoon Network. That didn't have a

theme either, and I'm thinking what these TV

networks are doing is when they're doing... Not

necessarily. What they're doing is they're teasing

us with these movies and five -part series and

whatever else to get the show launched. And to

make sure, obviously Transformers Prime, now

that it's aired, obviously it's going to go for

at least one season. We don't know how much more.

I know that there have been rumors that they've

said they want to get it, you know, three, four,

five years down the line, but we just don't know.

It depends on how well it does. I can honestly

see with what they've got going so far. I mean,

granted, it's only the first two episodes of

the five -parter. With the story that they've

got going on so far, as far as the dark energon

and not rehashing the AllSpark. I could see it

going on for at least three seasons. And the

other thing they have it going for is it looks

enough like the movie that they can still live

off of it. Yeah, and they can write off of the

next movie when it comes out for a long time.

Look how long they wrote off the toys for the

second movie after the second movie was already

come and gone. So this should have some shelf

life because it's not like it's going to be something

where they need to move it out of the way when

the movie comes out. Oh, right. No, exactly.

As far as the theme, what would you guys think

of if there was someone who, uh, sung the Transformers

theme, you know, robots in disguise, all that,

all them damn lyrics, to the background of the

War for Cybertron music? Would that work? I don't

think that would be bad. As long as the theme

has some type of darker feel. See, that's the

thing, the War for Cybertron music. I don't know

if you've heard it, Kevin. Yeah, it's got that

darker feel. It has that darker feel. I would

have loved it. And the actual person that would

be singing it wouldn't be able to sing it obviously

like they did in G1. Right, exactly. Pretty updated

and kind of have that same dark feel, but I wouldn't

be upset with that. Or if it was just a musical

theme, I would be fine with that too, but it

needs something instead of just throwing up a

few of the, whatever, the producers and whoever

it was that they threw up there. Yeah. Um Yeah,

that was one thing I have noticed like for both

of them, and I actually even wrote it down I'm

like is there no theme to this I'm thinking like

I said I'm thinking because they're doing this

five part miniseries I'm thinking once the show

actually fully launches like weekly or whatever

whatever it's daily whatever it's gonna be And

we get into regular episodes. I'm sure there

will be a theme Let's um, oh real quick before

because it's kind of the same thing we talked

about the beginning But one thing that I did

like is at the end when they show the credits

they actually credit every single Speaking role

in that particular episode. Oh cool It's not

a generic credit where they just throw up the

same thing every day every episode the credits

were different for season 1 and or for Episode

1 and Episode 2 they actually gave the bit parts

I mean, I had to pause it in order to write them

all down for voice actors and stuff, but like,

for example, even that Sierra chick that was

in the one little brief part comes up in the

credits, but just for that episode, not for the

other one. Right. So I was like, that's pretty

sweet. And they did the same thing actually for

G .I. Joe Renegade, so I'm happy. Now, let's

talk about something that has long been an angst,

I guess, for Transformers cartoon history. Humans.

Yeah, humans now humans in g1 never bugged me,

right? Obviously, you know in the unicorn trilogy

are the worst thing ever. Yes Oh, yes by far

and so far humans in this one. I am NOT annoyed

with I'm not I'm not necessarily loving them,

but I'm not hating them I think that what's her

name Miko or Milko or whatever the hell her damn

name is the chick I think she has a potential

to be kicker ish If she gets too excited Because

I noticed when I was watching that Jack kind

of had to you know tone her down a bit but Overall,

I actually like these guys. They're not they're

not that bad Yeah, I think they're all three

not not that bad so far I get kind of a g1 vibe

from the main male character Jack yes, yeah Yeah

Can you know who do you know what I get from

RAF? I get the now to me Jack seems more like

one of the one of the Witwick he's obviously

from G1 and Raft me he reminds me of the the

kid in the wheelchair from G1 Oh Chip Chase.

Yeah Yeah, because he's kind of the nerdy guy

and a little softer spoken and that's why maybe

it's because they both remind me of the G1 thing

humans Even though I wasn't too concerned. I'm

just glad they don't annoy me Yeah. I did like

Agent Fowler. Ernie Hudson. Oh, I loved his.

I loved the voice work with that one. That was

kind of a cool character to throw on there. It

kind of touches on how animated had... Fan Zone?

Yeah, Fan Zone. It also touches on, and I hate

to bring this up, but it also touches on the

whole government thing. with revenge of the fallen

and and simmons that's true too yeah but but

he's a likable character yeah yeah so far we

haven't met a human character that annoys the

piss out of me yeah i i can honestly agree with

you on this one um kind of i don't know i know

we're talking about the humans but i forgot to

mention when we were talking about the bots a

little bit what did you guys think of the holographic

rider on rc i liked it it works yeah thought

it was kind of a neat little touch because otherwise

it's like how do you have this motorcycle going

around with nobody on it well see that's the

thing though you're you're going back to animated

and I know you haven't paid that much attention

animated Kevin but um yeah not yet that that

that that comes in summer next year but anyway

um one of the first things in animated when all

the Autobots there got their alt forms there

the earth alt forms bumblebee snarkily asks Prowl,

well you know you're a motorcycle with no driver

rider or whatever how you know how is that you

know blending in and then Prowl brought up this

this holographic projection of a of a police

cop on a motorcycle and that's the other thing

with RC technically RC is movie design but she's

animated Prowl As far as some of the rest of

her design because if you look at her and you

look at Prowl They're almost the exact same as

far as the comparison way that their Thing goes

and I don't mind the holographic thing. What

about you Steve? Yeah, I think that's a pretty

good idea because That goes back even as far

as the G1 comics for Marvel And they didn't have

in those comics, they didn't think about holograms.

No, they had a little thing that popped out of

the seat. It was like a dummy. Oh, so it's like

Men in Black 2. Yeah, like a robo -dummy. It

was kind of cool. But yeah, I'd have to say that

definitely the hologram thing is pretty neat.

Yeah. I thought it was very nicely done. What

about the, uh, I've got a couple more things

I just have written down. What about the, uh,

Autobots having their base in the side of a mountain?

That's a nice touch to G1. I thought so too.

And I thought it was kind of cool the way it

kind of opened and closed. Where it wasn't just

like something had crashed into the thing, it

was like they had actually gone in there and

made it their base and had like doors that would

be kind of hiding it and stuff like that. Yeah,

that was more of a, uh, uh, Beast Wars vibe to

it. And the other thing we need to realize with

that design and the way that the base is, one

thing we haven't really touched on is, so far,

and this is kind of based off movie, really,

the Autobots have been on Earth for three years,

so this isn't just your average retelling of

G1. Like, the events of War for Cybertron have

already happened, they've already landed on Earth,

and they've spent three years on Earth. So it's

not like... You know, the art goes out, the nemesis

follows, the nemesis shoots it down, they crash

land. You know, 10 minutes pass, everybody wakes

up. You know, it's not that thing. It's setting

up, that's one thing I did like and so far I

am liking, it's setting up continuity within

itself. Yeah. So and this is the first time that

you know, obviously after the three absences

that they all thought that decepticons were gone

there They're learning that they're there and

then megatrons making his reappearance How about

the the ground bridge? I Like it it's a it's

a reference to Armada actually, I think At first

I was thrown off, I'm like, what is this warp

thing they're going through? But once they actually

called it a ground bridge, and once Ratchet kind

of explained it a little bit, I was like, that's

kind of a cool touch. That ground bridge thing

actually existed in RID. Okay. I've seen enough

of it to know. Alright, well that's... The one

place I remember it was the very... because I've

only seen... the very first episode of Armada.

That's the only episode I really care to see.

Oh yeah, I'm sure they've used it in there a

couple times too, but... Well right, because

the whole thing in Armada was that Optimus Prime

said, oh we have to go to Japan and they're in,

I don't know, somewhere in the US. And the kid

was like, well how are we going to get there?

Oh, we use a series of bridges. And I was like,

oh, okay. So when I saw the ground bridge, I'm

like, oh alright, that works because As ratchet

explained it they don't have Parts or something

to fix to use interstellar space travel, so they

can't use a space bridge Yeah, I like that's

though That's the reason I like the ground bridge

was because there was that explanation that we

don't have the capability yet of making a space

bridge Otherwise, we wouldn't really be here,

so I kind of like that explanation But in it

also gives them a way to obviously travel around

you know earth freely so i'm i'm gonna dig in

that part in you know for some of the didn't

recognize it from but you know control your from

our from red or whatever you know i was like

oh this is kind of cool touch that i haven't

seen before but obviously it has been done before

but the little second me is like the only problem

is is like uh... you gotta make sure you get

those coordinates just right because if you get

it off by even like a millisecond you're gonna

end up in the middle of l a traffic on a freeway

destroying cars Yeah, that's true. And I also

liked that when they were talking about, I can't

remember who it was, but RC or whatever, Ratchet

told her to go to Sickbay. I was like, Star Trek,

yes! Get to Sickbay. I mean, I know all kinds

of different things, I've used that term, but

I liked it. Get decontaminated, go to Sickbay.

What do we think of Zombie Cliffjumper? Oh my

god. That was something completely off the wall,

not even thought of, and disturbing all at the

same time. That was the worst. I mean, I know

Megatron blowing up at point blank range in the

movie was kind of brutal, but this was one of

the most brutal deaths I think an Autobot has

ever had to deal with. look at it for a second.

He didn't even get to just die. No, he got brought

back to die again. But I mean, just go through

his whole scenario. He gets beat up by a bunch

of drones. He gets stabbed in the chest by Starscream.

Then he gets freaking stabbed with the dark energon.

Then he gets sliced in half. Then he gets thrown

to the first story of the mine, then thrown to

the second story of the mine, and then freaking

blown up. I'm wondering if, now I noticed, I

believe it was on, I think it was on the BBTA

page, where it says guest stars or guest voices

or whatever it is, and you guys have listed The

Rock as guest voice in Cliffjumper, or it might

have been in the credits of the actual show that

I saw this, that he was just a guest voice. I'm

wondering, well obviously then I'm gonna bring

him back since he is dead, but I kinda wish that...

You know, they would have killed somebody else.

He would have been cool to have The Rock in the

show for a while. Yeah. I mean, I can see that

they wouldn't be able to have The Rock that long.

or with his whole action movie star career yeah

well i'm just saying like he's got he's got different

stuff going in he's not that experienced as far

as a voice actor goes so maybe they weren't you

know 100 and i'm always like cliff drummer has

always been one of my favorite characters so

i was kind of bummed that he died but if someone's

got to go out that's the freaking way to do it

yeah and i know everyone's like oh he'll come

back he'll come back he'll come back because

they explain that dark energon brings you know

has the power to revive the dead etc and you

know everyone loves the rock so they're like

oh he'll be back but i'm like if I'll actually

be pissed off if they bring him back. Yeah, I

have to agree. I think they should just keep

him dead. Yeah, because otherwise it loses the

effect. Yeah, and he went out with a bang and

that's the probably the best death I can think

of. Yeah. For an Autobot. I mean, if you're going

to die, you're going out fighting all the Decepticons

and then you're going to get turned into a zombie

and then cut in half and then blow it up. But

another thing. Another reason why I don't think

we'll see him because they actually put a line

in there with the kids When they all three said,

you know Like the one was like robots with whatever

robots with feelings and then jack was the last

one and he said robots who can die Yeah So I

mean, I'm pretty confident that we're not going

to see him again. Yeah, we're probably not going

to see him again. It was nice that, you know,

Cliffjumper got his actual own personality and

not just a repaint of Bumblebee. And it worked

with his personality being the one that was like,

I don't need backup. I'm the one. Yeah. So I

can do whatever I want. And it works because

they didn't necessarily know the Decepticons

were there yet. Yeah. So I think it was perfectly

done. I thought it was kind of weird that. It

seemed and I know it's me reading into this and

I like this a hell of a lot better than the alternative

But it was kind of weird at first for me to see

that Kevin knows where I'm going with this, too

It's kind of weird for me to see that supposedly

he and RC had something going on And oh well,

you'll see that there's a big difference There

is no hot rod in this cartoon. There is no rod

in this Prime, so it's okay. Like I said, it's

better than the alternative. Although I would

love it if Springer showed up at some point.

Asshole. It's funny. It's funny. Gogdog from

TFW. I follow him on Twitter and he was posting

fake spoilers of TF Prime. And one of the spoilers

was RC gets pregnant and has Springer's baby.

Nice. Oh god, that's funny. What if RC had a

zombie baby? Oh god. What about, oh, I know what

we haven't mentioned yet. What do you guys think

about the very last scene with the little, like,

I don't even know what you want to call it, the

little guy crawling off the set, the little robot,

like, spider guy that gets touched with a dark

energon? Oh, the Ratchet's tool. Yeah, that's...

That was kind of movie -esque. Yeah, it's kind

of like movie -esque frenzy and it's kind of

a little creepy. Steve, why don't you talk about

Megatron for a bit? We haven't really touched

too much on Megatron. Steve says no. Where did

Steve go? Well, another thing before he talks

about Megatron, something that we didn't discuss

yet was the fact not only that Bumblebee was

like an R2 -D2, but that they Kind of made it

seem like Raph can understand him. I like that,

it's okay. Yeah, because when they pull up he's

like, you know, he's not here for you, he's here

for me. And he's like, how did you know? And

he's like, you can understand him or whatever?

That was kind of interesting. Yeah. I mean, you

needed somebody that could understand him. I

mean, obviously the bots could understand him,

but putting a human character in there that could

understand it makes it easier for us to understand

what's going on. Yeah, I am so looking forward

to seeing more of this series. Yes. Yes. Really

quick, Steve, give your thoughts on Megatron

before we close out the show. I think the way

they introduced him with the space bridge and

the whole ominous feel and then when Starscream

was giving orders and everything and then Megatron's

like, I'm back. I'm the badass. You're listening

to me. Hmm, and then he was gonna use him as

a science project and Starscream was like wait.

We have a dead Autobot you know just kind of

pawning it off and But you know Megatron being

on his little powwow journey for Dark Energon

from Unicron was kind of Kind of awesome to say

the least Leading that Megatron is going to be

one hell of a force to be reckoned with for the

rest of the saga right of Unicron One of the

things I want to bring up before we close the

show really quick is dark energon because I love

again This is kind of war for Cybertron continuity,

and we didn't really get into like the whole

backstory that optimus told About but they are

following war for Cybertron continuity in the

dark energon You know Megatron says oh, it's

supposedly can revive Robots or can no no no

I don't think that's the case. I think that it's

poison for Autobots obviously And it can revive

and replenish Decepticons only, obviously, since

it's the blood of Unicron. And I absolutely love

the fact that they're using Dark Energon. That's

so awesome. I love the fact that they alluded

to, my army will come. Yep. Yep. Alright, so

I think we're going to close up here on all things

Transformers. Transformers Prime, Kevin, when

is it going to air again? Or when's the next...

The 29th, the first episode will re -air, the

30th, the second episode will re -air, and then

starting with the rest of that week we'll get

the third, fourth, and fifth parts. But after

that, we're going to have a little break because

I haven't seen it yet on my schedule through

December 10th. Yeah, what I noticed with, and

again I'm going to cross over genres here, when

I watched the Young Justice film that Cartoon

Network premiered the other night, they ran ads

during it saying, oh, the series starts in January.

for young justice. So I'm betting Hub will do

something similar with Prime. They'll show this.

And then say January, February, they'll actually

start the series. Well, with the Renegades, that

was only a two -part starter. So they've already

shown both parts, and then they'll replay that.

But that one's starting in all earnest, like

the whole season starting on December 9th or

10th. So I was hoping Transformers wouldn't have

that big of a break, but we'll see. I mean, because

it's a five -parter, they could make it last

a little longer. Yeah. All right. Megatron, why

don't you close the show? The first rule of Robot

Fight Club is... Don't talk about robot fight

club We'll punish the Autobots build the Decepticons

excellent years This is optimus prime and you're

listening to all things transformers with Steve

Megatron and TFG one mic transform and roll out

Hey guys, it's Optimus Solo from GeekCast Radio

Network's The Telecast coming to you with an

important message about our Listener's Choice

episode. That's right, for the first time in

Geetcast Radio Network history, we are giving

you, the listener, a chance to choose the topic

in one of our shows. This is how you can cast

your vote for what the topic should be. Head

on over to geetcastradio .com and click on the

telecast tab at the top of the page. Once there

you can find our complete Season 1 schedule with

all 35 episodes. Please look this over because

we would hate for you to cast your vote for a

show that is already on our schedule. Once you've

done this, just scroll to the section titled

Listener's Choice and click on the comments button.

All that's left for you to do now is to cast

your vote through a comment. For example, you

might say, Hey, I see that Nick Arcade is not

in your Season 1 lineup, so I'd like to cast

a vote for Nick Arcade to be the Listener's Choice

episode. It's that simple. So please go cast

your vote for your favorite show and stay tuned

for episode 34 to see which show becomes our

very first Listener's Choice. That does it for

now. This has been Optimus Solo from the Telecast.

Hey everybody, it's Optimus Solo from Geekcast

Radio Network's new show, The Telecast, with

some important information on our theme song

contest. The rules for this contest are pretty

simple. In Season 1 of The Telecast, we will

be covering 33 classic hit shows from the 80s

and 90s. Obviously all of these shows had theme

songs, which sometimes can be the most memorable

part of a show. This contest is going to test

your memory on those theme songs. How is that

you may ask? Well, because we have taken 32 of

those classic theme songs and smashed them into

one three -minute clip. Your job is to identify

the order in which these 32 shows appear in that

three -minute clip. Also, you must be able to

identify which one of the 33 shows was left out

of the clip. Some of the shows should be fairly

easy for you to identify while others may be

a bit trickier. For a list of all of the shows

in season one and more information on the contest,

visit the telecast page at geekcastradio .com.

Also remember to tune in to every episode of

the telecast because each episode will contain

that show's theme song in its entirety at the

beginning of the show as well as the three minute

contest song towards the end of the show. This

has been Optimus Solo from the telecast saying

good luck and happy listening. You are listening

to all things transformers Maximals maximize

I wish to speak to my lawyer.