Transformers Generation 2 Retrospective

Me Grimlock say you're listening to all things

Transformers! Driving to save the world from

the evil Decepticons, the heroic Autobots are

led by Optimus Prime. He's more than meets the

eye, he's a robot in disguise. Transformers!

Going ballistic to destroy the Autobots and conquer

mankind, the evil Decepticons are more than meets

the eye. Transformers! Heroic Autobots versus

evil Decepticons with the fate of Planet Earth

hanging in the balance. Transformers Generation

2. And now, through the magic of the Cybernet

Space Cube, the computer enhance stories of the

Transformers. Transformers Generation 2. Hello

and welcome to All Things Transformers Version

2 .0 Episode 36. I'm your host, Steve Megatron

Phillips, and joining me again in this episode

is... DfJ on mic. Peacon Court Michael. Hey,

how's it going? Welcome back, guys. Yep, we are

here once again and this time it's to talk about

Transformers Generation 2. My initial disdain

for G2 has nothing to do with the comics, the

toys, any of that. It's the fact that it wasn't

a new cartoon series. It was a repackage of Generation

1. As far as the cartoon goes? Yes. Oh, OK. I

was going to say, because a lot of the toys were

repackages of Generation One. So I can see how

that would be a bit of a letdown, but well, Megatron

was never a tank before. Well, you know, they

had the Dinobots. Well, had the Constructicons.

They had the Minibots or a small subset of the

Minibots. Yeah. Some of the cars like Inferno

and Jazz, they got they got repaints. The secret

jets. Oh, yeah. Well, I shouldn't say jets, but,

you know, a couple of them got repaints. The

aerial bots, the combaticons, they all got repaints

and they're cool if you like day glow. If that's

your thing, you know, then yeah. But yeah, a

lot of those G2 toys are hard to find. I want

to say I still have one. They were KB exclusives,

weren't they? Uh, most likely. No, they were,

I mean, KB did sell a heck of a lot of them,

but they were not KB exclusives. Okay. I just

remember them, well, I remember seeing them at

KB. Yeah, they carried them very heavily as as

well as when they did machine wars machine wars

was a KB exclusive Okay. Oh, yeah machine wars

was yeah, definitely KB, but all the ones that

I have that are in package I'll have the KB stickers

So that's the only one I mean, I don't I don't

have any record in my personal collection of

people buying any from Toys R Us. Let's say Funny

thing about Generation 2 is I remember seeing

them all in KB Toys. A giant display case and

this is when I was already into Transformers.

We'd gone to local pawn shops and picked up certain

G1 Transformers and I'd gotten into it. Anyways,

we went to... Kb toys one day and I forgot my

wallet at home and my parents of course were

like no You can't spend your money because you

didn't bring it with you and I was like, well

I didn't know we were coming to the mall to keep

you toys Yeah, like or I would have brought it

with me and they're like guess you should have

carried it and there's like a big wall of transformers

and I'm like drooling over this and I see this

prime and All these other and at the time optimus

prime actually costs like 20 bucks to which I

was sad because I had like 40 and I was like

I'm gonna buy this and I'm gonna buy that and

they're like nope you're screwed and then so

I went back the next weekend and the entire thing

of g2 was gone I was so mad but um we ended up

going to a pawn shop again the same one we got

our generation one stuff from and I ended up

picking up the g2 optimus prime complete at the

time which I no longer have anymore which I'm

kind of sad to say Now is that the repaint of

G1 or was that laser? It's the repaint of G1,

but the cab was a little bit brighter colors,

more vibrant. Plus he got his guns, which attached

to his trailer from the clip on Autobot logoed

soundbox that went on the front. Right, right.

The rest of it was pretty much repaints. But

on the side of the trailer said Optimus and it

was black and it looked really bad ass. Yeah,

I've actually got one on my shelf now. I've got

two of them. I've got one of them positioned

in robot mode and one of them positioned in vehicle

mode. They're standing in front of laser. Yeah,

that's another one I wanted, but never got. But

I do have the G2 Megatron tank, the green one.

He wrote Megatron. Oh, no. The big one. The big

one. Yeah. I don't have his little pistol that

he's got or the bullet, but I do have the rest

of it complete. I actually picked that up at

a flea market in Florida on vacation. I got it

for two dollars. Holy cow. Because the guy didn't

know what he had I saw it on the table and having

you know The internet at the time like early

internet and I was like I knew what that is I

know what that is and I had 20 bucks and the

guy was like two bucks and I said, okay Cuz he

didn't know what it was and he thought it was

just a tank and then I was like I have Megatron

I've got I've got that Megatron somewhere. He's

not on my shelf. I think he's he's in a box He's

a he's in like the box that he came in But he's

packed away somewhere cuz I didn't have enough

room for him on my shelf But I liked hero Megatron

and hero optimus Just cuz it was like the first

well, it was the first optimus that came out

that wasn't You know like that that that that

g1 Exactly. Yeah I mean, he's got he's kind of

like the Michael Bay version with a long nose

on the front of the cab. And he's got these rockets

that if you push really, really hard on this

air pump, they shoot out. It's yeah, it's a cool

figure. It's not, you know, fantastic. But that

was about the time when, you know, you start

seeing ball joints, some of the figures and better

articulation. So no, it was it was head and shoulders

better than some of the older optimuses And the

same we go for Megatron. I mean even though he's

purple He's so cool. That's That purple skull

color scheme really did start in g2 and then

it evolved with you know, Tyrannosaurus Rex Well,

you know decepticon purple, you know, yeah it

came pretty in g1 but well, yeah, but I'm saying

like Megatron like you know it was purple on

the g one was is it the septic on logo there

so uh... since then megatron has had an affinity

for the color purple especially when you're a

crime took him over here at all for all for all

uh... i remember uh... i think i remember about

the g two toys are really liking them almost

more than the generation once some of the generation

one stuff is The shininess of them specifically

with like sea spray and the gold version of bumblebee

the vacuum metal. Yes Absolutely loved to go

because there was I had there was a sea spray

a bumblebee and a cliff jumper. Yeah, I had original

bumblebee but his His transformation wasn't always

yeah And the tires peel off. Yep, exactly. And

I remember later getting Throttlebot Goldbug,

because yes, ladies and gentlemen, whether you

like it or not, in Return of Agumas Prime, Bumblebee

got turned into Goldbugs. But anyway. I'm not

just Bumblebee anymore, I'm a gold bug. That's

what we'll call you from now on. Gold bug. I

was like, uh, I kind of like being Bumblebee.

Screw you, gold bug. I like the new design on

the gold bug toy, but I wish that the color...

Oh, no, no, no. Compared to the Bumblebee toy,

the gold bug toy actually looked more like it

had a better design on it. as far as the overall

aesthetics and how the toy actually worked, because

it was a throttle block versus a regular, just

regular mini car. Yeah. I just wish he was a

little bit more gold, and that's why I like the

gold version of the original Bumblebee. He's

shiny. He's super shiny. I have this huge stack

of unopened toys in front of my display cases,

and I can't see into that. Shelf that has like

my 87 88 toys in it so I can't see gold bug Because

I got this huge stack of stuff here that Chrissy

keeps telling me that I'm gonna have to put somewhere

but but yeah, I the thing I liked about the the

g2 toys and they started I I want to say they

started this with the They're not called the

cyber jets I was gonna say they're not called

secret jets. No, they're cyber jets and there

there was I think four decepticons and four Autobots,

but they all had this spring loaded transformation

where you would push like the back of their tail

fin and the whole thing would kind of it was

like on a ratchet system that would fold them

in half and the transformation is pretty simple,

but You know, you can do it really easily. They

just snap into place. And the shoulders, the

elbows, the hips, the knees, everything is ball

-jointed. Their head swivels around. They're

very poseable. And they're just really cool toys.

But I really like those. And I was really surprised

how cool they were when I first started getting

into the G2 stuff. Yeah, my brothers actually

used to have the cyber jets. Oh all of them and

It was kind of strange seeing some of them Especially

how quickly they could break. Oh Don't break

my cyber jet, bro Yeah, I like this and I want

to say that the machine wars they just repainted

a few of these They Want to say they did a few

of them. Yeah I'm looking up for the machine

wars jets at the and I'm not seeing which ones

exactly Match up side by side with the cyber

jets, so I could be wrong But yeah, I Really

like the color schemes on some of these I mean

we literally have like orange and red tiger stripe

jet Hooligan Hooligan and the one was a it's

a stealth bomber, but he is black with flames

air raid that he's cool Yeah, I couldn't tell

you their names offhand. What Santa's I remember

most of them You know, you know the funny thing

too is a lot of these g2 guys had their names

on them as stickers The the gray one that was

jetfire The great camo Jetfire. Yep. I Yeah,

see he's cool because the wings actually spread

up he actually goes into like The the wings flip

out into attack mode He's just really cool. Some

of these had like flick missiles like pressure

missiles that would shoot And then I want to

say the later ones had like bombs Underneath

on the undercarriage that would pop off and would

become their gun And I don't think those are

actually cyber jets and this might be something

different The jet fire cyber jet was was very

white and and gray and it was it did look like

white and gray tiger stripe It was it was camo

the white and gray and an area black strafe was

green and brown And then you have the other cyber

jets of Hooligan, Space Case, and Sky Jack. And

Sky Jack was a black and red. Space Case was

like a checkered white and blue. Yeah. OK. And

then you have... I love that color scheme. So

that's where they got the color scheme for...

Oh god, what's that? Repaint? Was it Sky Shadow?

Yeah, Sky Shadow, they got it from Sky Jack.

The red and black color scheme. Sky Shadow was

one of the generation repaints. Exactly, yeah.

Yeah, I love that color scheme. I know they've

done a repaint of Space Case, and I know they've

done a repaint of Hooligan, and I forget exactly

who it was now. Or what I don't even remember

what series it was or one again repaint was um,

oh geez, it's a Crap dammit Michael start predicting

stuff. Yeah, I remember what am I gonna talk

about? Yeah, I don't remember this I'm looking

at the tiger stripe for hooligan. He's um, I

want to say it was one of the movie toys that

they repaint No, it was um, oh God the one with

the trident. Oh crap Deep Dive, Depth Dive...

Ah crap, I can't remember. I know what you're

talking about, yeah. And the sad thing is he's

probably... I probably have him and he's in this

pile of toys I haven't opened. I have no idea.

I can't even see inside here anymore. Was he

homage'd in Revenge of the Fallen? Because he

was called Fear Swoop in Revenge of the Fallen,

but it had this Hooligan's exact paint style.

I'm looking on my my fallen shelf here to see

if I can spot him and I don't I don't see him

offhand But yeah, no, I mean like I said I've

seen a lot of cyber gent repaints over the years

and it's like wow It's cool that they would pay

homage to these g2 guys That people may or may

not have ever seen I definitely think with Generation

2 that they definitely pushed the envelope more

on the colors of the robots. I think also not

only to sell more toys, but to kind of grab more

attention because they released them in a particular

set and never deviated in Generation 1. In Generation

2, you get some new molds plus some imported

Euro molds. So it was kind of... they were trying

to definitely push the the envelope and not keep

it too nostalgic because They were pretty much

battling Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers at the

time so they were being decimated Terrible Yeah,

I'm actually looking online here to see if I

can find the repainting and I'll see it It says

the Hooligan mode was redecoed to make G2 Jetfire.

It was also used to make Robo Master's R blade,

Universe Windshear, and Timeless Ricochet. Huh.

OK, well, that's great. But I don't know. I really

like the, like I said, the spring -loaded transformation.

And that is something that you see later on in

the basic beast. Beast Wars. I want to say the

early ones. So I if you look at like Beast Wars

rat trap The first one that came out He's a he's

like a little spring -loaded guy, you know, he's

still got I Don't want to say he doesn't have

flick missiles, but he still has that, you know

weapons that you can stow away inside his inside

his mold and they did that yeah, they did that

for a lot of the like the Oh, I don't know the

four I don't remember his name the frog the insecticons

a lot of the basic ones that that you know You

would just trigger it and they would just flop

out into spinner iguanas optimus primal Megatron

Sore They were all they all had that But I really

like those I thought that I mean some people

don't like that gimmick, but I kind of dig it

It's kind of like the animated activators where

you touch them funny and they transform. Yeah,

I kind of dig that. But do they like it? You

got to touch them just right. If they respond

and they like it, you're doing it wrong. Oh,

yeah, stop. So yes, then. But then we have the

random Generation 2 commercials and you have

Victor Carolee. They're rating a good 90 percent

of them. Yeah. Then they try and play around

with putting Transformers stuff to orchestral

rap. What? Yeah, there's there's reference to

it. I have to. Yeah, listen to that is back then

it would have been like what run DMC? It was

pretty bad, but then you have you know the spite

cybernet space cube of You know a lot of the

lot of the toys and comics were Victor Corollie,

but as it progressed you have Starting with the

season 2 and 94 stuff you have Gary Chalk Starting

his first foray into the Transformers world Doing

The narration and Various TV station announcers

for it. That's sweet sweet molasses It's it's

just funny that's that's the first time he's

actually involved with Transformers and you know

the end of Victor Corolla the beginning of Gary

Chalk and then He gets to do it again, like two

years later in Beast Wars. And the funny thing

about the 3D and this stuff is. You get to see

3D robots and and Dinobots, and then you get

to see it again. That was just the intro, right?

Yeah, just the Cybernet space cube and intro

crap. Randall Ng, Randall Ng went back and did.

He went back and redid that. that initial intro

with with more up -to -date graphics and it looked

really sharp. But he's a genius and it's he is

awesome. Yeah, that's true. He's very, very genius

with his work. It's yeah, it's insane. The level

of quality he has. Yeah, he's a good guy. Yes,

definitely. Especially his. Transformers Gangnam

style. Everyone and their brothers trying to

steal. I know that's horrible From the guy you

always suppose someone else stole my video. I

reported them It just shows you the popularity

level of it, it's not good until someone tries

to steal it The one I was thinking of for the

redeco was hunt for the Decepticons terror dive

There you go for the the one that had the trident

the the black and orange redeco for the jet that's

what i was thinking i was on for this concern

i know randall is awesome randall and when he

teams up with dr smooth it's just it's just amazing

i actually asked him a couple years ago if you

would come on the show for interview uh... it's

actually both of the wood and he said i'll see

you back to you so i'll have to have a lot of

us in the unit see if see if we can get at least

him on you have to get back now Yeah, I'll have

to see if that's still a possibility. I get the

impression that he's shy I mean, I don't know

him personally. I just know from Facebook and

from chatting back and forth but Like when you

see pictures of mini chief at the halo convention

a lot of pictures of mini chief No pictures of

Randall. Yeah. Well the focus is on his work

I mean that he did build the costume for his

son. Well, that's true, but I mean No one's gonna

say hey randall. Let me get a picture of you

and your kid Because I would totally do that

and be like let me get a picture of you I don't

know. Um, no, yeah, you're a nice guy top -notch.

Yeah. Yes Um, I mean, I mean heck if we can get

40 minutes out of chondalancy I'm sure we can

get enough time out of randall to talk about

his work Har har I'm not making fun of it, I'm

just saying that, you know, it's... Sometimes

interviews are hard. As far as G2 goes, I still

enjoy seeing a lot of the toys. Well, I was going

to say, do either of you have any familiarity

with any of the comic line? No. The G2 line?

Yes. I didn't read it. Per se I would I remember

bits and pieces of it like I remember the the

art style being a lot better it was It was more

boxy more robotic. We're sketch -like It was

a 180 from what Angie Weldon was doing with the

G1 Back in the day, I want to say I was reading

martial law and that shared Don't want to say

an art style, but it was it was informed by martial

law in that there was a lot of attention to detail

there was a lot of Like graffiti like written

on on people's armor or on their guns, you know

things were More detailed in that, you know,

if someone was getting blown up you would see

it if somebody's shooting a gun there's shells

everywhere you know there's a lot there's an

awful lot of uh action oriented type uh you know

it's just more exciting uh series and it would

have been forever in a day since i've actually

looked at one of those though i want to say i

i actually had some after after reading some

of the the g1 uh comics, I had gotten a CD from

a friend that had all of the original comics

scanned on the CD. And they had all of them except

for G2. So I mean, I've read all the originals,

but I had not actually gone through and read

all the G2 ones. Familiar with them, but, you

know, I don't remember exactly what happened.

The the interesting thing is you have Simon Furman

writing it Which is actually fitting that he's

finishing off the g1 regeneration into g2 because

he's introducing characters and aspects that

would surface in this g2 comic So he's actually

building a bridge to his own series. That's kind

of cool Which I've skimmed over some of them,

so I definitely am interested in picking up the

regeneration trades But you have the GI Joe series

Is where G2 starts out and there's five issues

and it starts off with a raggedy ass Megatron

They they find because the Destro's castle can

transform Okay, it's it's definitely sir, it's

it's definitely strange I still have those comics

It was during the Ninja Force part of the comic

series. Oh, when everything in G .I. Joe was

day glow too. Yeah. And well, there's a large

transcarpathian castle that Destro and Baroness

are at. Destro and Baroness are working with

the G .I. Joe at the time before they get brainwashed

back to Cobra. And it says that He promised the

Joes by transforming the castle to create a distraction,

while elsewhere Megatron sees the transformation.

And he marches his butt over there, and he's

kind of crotchety and cranky. So he ends up coming

up to Cobra in exchange for Cobra building him

a new body, which is the tank. And this super

experimental rail gun that this human doctor

creates No, it's Dr. Biggles Jones, it's a female

character in the show Oh the lab coat yeah, and

so index with a lab coat over it. Yep. Yeah and

So she's kind of she's like a female doctor mindbender

in essence. She starts out kind of nice and meek,

and then she turns into mindbender essentially.

But Cobra Commander, you know, rebuilds Megatron

with this new upgraded Cybertronian technology

and and Megatron promises to give him Cybertronian

tech in exchange for this body. So. Megatron's

running his whole agenda behind the scenes mindbenders

coming back to life and Megatron's just kind

of watching everything going on and you know

commenting and Well Prime catches wind of this

Sending, you know, he's talking to bumblebee

and one of the moon bases or something and then

sends five Autobots to go after Megatron And

the team's led by Hotspot. And then you have

Steeljaw, Chase, Bron, Override and Skydive.

Megatron rips Override into pieces with his bare

hands. And incinerates several other ones, blows

a few other ones away. I think the only one that

gets away is Skydive. because he deactivates

himself so that he doesn't have an energy signature

and the Joes load him onto the Ark with Spike.

And then Megatron's, of course, floating around

on the Ark and you find out the technology hands

Cobra is laced with viruses. Of course, it's

useless. So then that's the end of that. And

then this has continued in Generation 2 of the

comic. And then the first cover of the Generation

2 comic is like one of those kind of lithograph

type covers, fold out battle covers, which I

had both editions of. And then, you know, that's

the 12 issue run. You see J -Oxus, the new Decepticon

warlord of the ultimate Cybertronian race. Megatron

comes in in the second issue after blowing Fort

Max away. It's rather hilarious. OK. But then

Bludgeon comes in finishing off the G1 line and

then, you know, J -Axis is fighting the Optimus

and Megatron and they discover the origins of

Cybertroni and evolution and all this other stuff.

So it's it's a really interesting series. that

really didn't get much legs to grow. So the regeneration

one ought to help explain some of it. Wow. Yeah,

I'm actually looking at the TFWiki now at the

at the covers. And they are just really, really

cool. Well, and the funny thing is, is they have

this Derek Janager, who did the pencils and Manny

Galan. picked up a lot of the guys slack and

then the younger did most of the covers. And

it's really rough, but it's really cool. Oh,

yeah. No, it's it's really neat. Oh, and there's

the grimoire back to looking like robots and

not like human faced. Yeah. I'm looking at the

the cover for. Episode or episode for issue one

here, and it's like you got that attention to

detail again where Optimus Prime ears get shells

stuck in his head And he's like leaking energon

into his eyes, and it's yeah, it's kind of it's

real rough. Yeah, it's kind of hardcore And it

says this is not your father's Autobot Does That's

funny, and then the next one says Fort Max gets

the axe killing frenzy dynamite Alas for bludgeon

I slew him well With the skull yeah, that is

cool. Oh yeah, cuz bludgeon's a skull yeah prime

target Death is a foot Optimus Prime and Megatron,

enemies and allies. I kind of wish that I read

these now. The swarm. They have like this swarm.

It's like the almost like the hate plague, but

it like incinerates transformers upon touching

them. Is this kind of like a combination of cosmic

rust and the hate plague? Basically. Wow. It's

it's pretty hardcore. I don't know if that's

really, really cool or really, really derivative.

That's sure if he has to open up the matrix to

destroy it then that's really really derivative

Then they they of course you know the war world

is there and you know they plan on star screams

treachery And then using the creation matrix

so That of course you have the war world of pain

and Then they have the end of the road for transformers

generation 2 and it's consumed by the swarm and

That's the only issue I don't have But I have

read it like the digital reading of it and You

get Primus involved you get a bunch of other

They have an entity known as the liege Maximo,

which I was always confused of who the hell he

was Is that like setting themselves up for another

Series or well the Liege Maximo is supposed to

be evil Infinite evil the counter force to good

in the universe that cannot be truly defeated

So it says when the first primes were created

so was the Liege Maximo Robot who now considers

himself the opposite The ultimate evil so he's

like the original Decepticon basically sitting

at the hub Okay network of planets That's not

at all. Is he going to get in a fight with a

Unicron to see who the bigger badass is? I think

he's like Unicron is like, you know, the top

evil and then Liege Maximo is like right below

him. He's he's supposed to be one of the original

13. OK, then. Which I would have liked to have

seen more. interesting information about him

but yeah it's I think that they kind of mentioned

him somewhat in Transformers Prime yeah I've

heard the name pop up here and there but again

I didn't really know the it's kind of like G

-axis you know I'm kind of familiar with You

know the idea it's like yeah, he was a bad guy

that came out in g2, but I don't know much about

him It would be essentially like the fall one

Worthless and trustworthy And then they revived

g2 again in the timelines for the conventions

at one point yeah for i think i think g2 was

the 2009 convention or well that yeah that's

when uh the hartman brothers brought simon firman

back to write for him yeah and i i didn't really

consider many of those canon but no no i'm talking

about like more recently i think it was was it

2009 or 2010 that they did generation 2 again

Yeah, it was 2010 that they did Generation 2

again without the Hartmans. Oh, okay, well. At

BotCon. Pete Sinclair was one of the editors

and then they had Trent Troop who did the...

I don't think that was 2010. It was. I got it

pulled up. He, the Trent Troop guy, he was one

of the guys that wrote it. Yeah, yeah. But he

also was one of the guys that did Theft of the

Golden Disk. Can't say I don't think I went to

that one because I don't think I got the g2 box

set I've never been to botcom I don't know if

I ever want to go I'm really surprised too because

when in 98 99 when I first started going they

had them here in Fort Wayne in Indiana and That

wouldn't have been that big of a truck for you

Yeah, well hell they had it an hour and a half

away in 2006 in Lexington. It wouldn't have been

that big of a trek they had it Yeah, they had

it again another hour and a half away at Cincinnati

for 2008 I would have died to go to the shattered

glass 2008 I would have been awesome. I was there

for that one. I was in the Chicago. Yes And we're

back to all things transformers we had a technical

glitch where TFG 1 Mike disappeared on us. It

was unfortunate. Yes. But, you know, the internet

is for... That's not for that. I guarantee. No,

it's Starscream's ghost, got him. Or the Cybernet

space cube. Cybernet space cube, blame it on

the cube. So, I guess we'll wrap this up. because

we've pretty much covered everything like we

mentioned off air. So anything else you want

to bring up before we say, you know, aside from

the fact that I was kind of getting out of Transformers

collecting by long before that G2 came along.

I mean, I was in college and was still interested

in like toys and like going in and seeing what

toys were there. But by then I wasn't buying

any more toys. I kind of wish I had though because

they actually reissued the G1 Dinobots for the

G2 line and you know, I love Dinobots and I especially

like these because they issued them in different

colors. So I mean you can get a slag and a snarl

in green or a slag and a snarl in red. They had

Grimlock in blue. There's a really rare turquoise

Grimlock that is floating around on eBay for

a jillion dollars. Wow. Yeah. Well, I exaggerate.

I don't know how much it is. But I remember when

I was actively trying to buy up G2 toys like

10 years ago, you know, they they were fetching

a premium for the turquoise. Yeah, I didn't even

know that they. had them. Yeah, well, like in

different colors anyway. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

No, they they they started off in G2 by re -releasing

them in the same colors. I don't know the difference

between a G1 and a G2, you know, gray Grimlock,

you know, because they look the same. But then

after that, they re -released them in green.

They re -released them in red. Took me forever

to get a green snarl. could not find a green

snarl, and I ended up finding one at BotCon for

a good price. But yeah, I got a goodly selection

of multicolored G2 Dinobots that I really like.

I think they're cool. I also find it kind of

funny that G2, in addition to having the different

Dinobots, Had the auto rollers the go -bots the

laser cycles The go -bots are the funniest to

me because it's just it's like the action masters

that are almost like worthless Well, I mean the

go -bots were like literally go -bots, you know,

I mean I mean the When you think of cheap -ass

transformers with a really crappy transformation,

you know, that's what I Think of when I think

of go -bots and the the g2 go -bots because at

that point hasbro had bought the go -bots name

Uh, you know those figures are Not very good.

They're I mean they're they're they're little

small like race cars I think that's what they're

supposed to be is like race cars that transformed

Yeah, like matchbox cars that transformed in

cheap plastic, but uh, you know later on They

ended up like for the robots in disguise line.

They repainted all those. And yeah, I remember

that. Oh, they were really collectible then.

They didn't call them GoBots anymore, you know,

but they I bought a buttload of those. And the

funny thing is now, I mean, they didn't sell

all that well, the GoBots and G2. I mean, so

if you try to go back and find some of those,

like you try to find. uh... uh... ago but optimist

or go about megatron and it's like good luck

you know and they have little guns the same as

they had little uh... in the in the r a d line

and you know you may find an optimist but you're

not gonna find this little gun it's annoying

that i think i want to say those had to have

been kb exclusives well maybe people just didn't

buy they think maybe I'm not a hundred percent

on that. I don't know I was gonna say I've got

a bunch of them And I'm looking in my shelf here,

and I don't see them on my shelf. I must have

them packed away Hmm yeah, I don't know but I

mean they're a novelty. It's kind of neat But

they're not as cool as You know some of the other

one like rotor force those actually had like

little spring rotors this Shut up, you know,

and they're too big to poke your eye out. So

I mean, there's a bonus, right? Yeah, I dig those

I didn't collect the g2 toy line. Like I said

until until after I actually got a bunch of other

G1 stuff and I just wasn't that interested in

the non G1 stuff but I want to say my wife got

me like a box of G2 toys In an auction eBay auction.

She gave it to me for Christmas or something

or Valentine's Day I forget it's a long time

ago and at that point I'm like these are cool.

I want them all Yeah, and then got all hardcore

just started buying them, but they're hard to

find I Mean especially at a decent price nowadays.

Yeah, a lot of the old stuff is very hard to

find. Yeah Well, I mean that's the nice thing

about BotCon or you know back when I used to

go I would show up and there would be a decent

selection of g2 stuff. There'd be a decent selection

of old You know g1 There's always a table that

just had a hundred combiner sets, you know, it's

like Remember that that pawn stars episode where

the guy had like just a rose of of Devastator

and 10 superions lined up in various states of

completeness. That's what these tables look like

at BotCon. Or at least one of them that I remember.

There was one guy, he literally just had a whole

table, six foot long table full of combiners

just lined up. Just come and get them. It's really

cool. If you haven't been to one of these, you

really gotta go. I haven't been to BotCon, but

I've seen some of that kind of stuff at TF con

yeah It's it's really neat seeing old Figures

and yeah some figures and things you'd never

think you'd ever see Wow, holy cow. I didn't

even know those existed like the first time I

saw a metro Titan, holy cow, you know Freaking

amazing But yeah, a lot of this old g2 stuff.

You've never seen before I Didn't even know this

existed Well, like one of the the funny things

about g2 the The ATB the advanced tactical bomber

star scream then actually was used in Beast Wars

2 right, right as Star scream, I believe right

and then the Dreadwing they just recently redeco

that into the Megatron for IDW. Oh, no, no, no.

The, yeah, the bomb. The Dreadwing with smoke

screen. They just turned that into the. No, that

stealth bomber look, they turned it into a figure

and now they're selling it. It's not. It's not

the same one. It's not the same set. No, I've

got like four of those. Cuz I've got the Japanese

one and then I've got the the g21 not I've got

Cliff jumper and smoke screen or it wasn't cliff.

It was a cliff jumper and smoke screen. I Think

it was cliff jumper and smoke screen it made

then and and then they repainted that again for

oh It wasn't robots in disguise. It was What

did they repaint that for It might have been

robots in disguise that they repaint. Yeah, it

is. I'm looking right at it. He's uh, they repainted

them in gray They're green He looks really good

Yes, yeah, no I dig it but It's like how many

of these you really need, you know, but that

but the one that That actually was supposed to

be Megatron and Starscream That was never released

Huh. Yeah. No, there's they made a couple couple

of them. They made a couple I want to say like

two of them were made and then maybe one or two

more were actually put into sample boxes This

is test releases Okay in Ohio. Oh They're releasing

a high I thought those are never yes in very

limited quantities. Okay. Well, there's a very

limited amount of them floating around I've seen

them on eBay And well, I take it back like 10

15 years ago. I saw them on eBay and They were

ridiculous It was like okay. I'm never gonna

own one of those it's like It's like cookie crisp

jazz or something. It's like Never gonna own

one of those or what was that Pepsi Prime? It's

like yeah, they exist, but they're $5 ,000 so

I'm never gonna buy one. I almost wonder if you

could find one on Not not eBay, but a shelf life.

Oh, I don't know. Because they that's all stuff

that people are just trying to sell on their

own. Yeah. Of stuff and. I see like the like

they have the generation to go bot Megatron on

there. Oh, really? Yeah. Cool. I periodically

cycle through there ever since we did our interview

with the guys from Shelf life you can actually

find a lot of figures on there and you basically

how it works is you put how much you're willing

to pay if you ever you know if that figure ever

comes to that price level and If it ever hits

whatever price you're willing to pay for it it

automatically does the transaction. Oh wow And

because it hooks up to your PayPal and then if

If it automatically matches up then you It they'll

they'll ship you the thing and your money automatically

goes through which I found kind of interesting

I've sold a number of figures that way really

through there. Let's go Works works pretty well

And you don't even have once you've listed on

there and put it on there You don't ever have

to babysit it because it sends you an email.

It'll just let you know Yep, it says hey you

have money and then I'm like, oh I should sell

it But yeah, they have some comics and they have

some figures on there too the only g2 figure

I see on there is the the go -bot Megatron Some

people sell them some people don't it's a collection

type site But yeah, I thought that would be an

interesting place to try for generation 2. Yeah

Check it out Was gonna say cuz I I'm still looking

for a generation 2 ramjet Looks like they have

a couple of the cyber jets on there and Like

air raid and jetfire I Don't know sale and I

got those like electro and jolt those were the

the guys that had the lights built in Kind of

like the laser prime. Lead foot and ransack,

I'm still looking for a couple of those. Those

were the rotor force. Don't have those. But,

I don't know. Like I said, you go to BotCon to

find these. That's probably your best bet. Yeah,

here we go. I don't have a g2 I don't have a

blowout go bot firecracker go bot They're just

making shit up at this point Bumblebee Megatron

soundwave and prime I don't have Just this is

weird. I got like this list that I printed out

that I used to take the botcom with me with like

pictures of everything so if I see it in it in

a In like a booth or something or if it's under

glass I can look at it and go ooh, I need that

ooh need need totally need that you know it's

sad too because every year I'd go and I pull

up my list and I go oh I don't have that I need

one of these any one of these and every year

you know the prices go up it's like well this

of course you know this year you can buy it for

five bucks but next year is ten bucks it's like

you know and after a while you get sick of paying

five bucks for a you know scrappers gun or something

like Like no like like one year. I went I need

a blasters gun g1 blaster. I'm like I need a

g1 blaster gun the guys like oh Yeah, that's

gonna cost you Like seriously, I think I paid

like 15 bucks for blasters gun one year. It's

just that's it. I know uh What do I got here?

I got like oh? Yeah, like the micro master headquarters.

I'm missing a gun and a missile And it's like

yeah, good luck even finding these and if you

do they you know, they're gonna charge you 20

bucks for a missile Like seriously god forbid

you need a head for a headmaster Well, it'll

be interesting to get back into the the convention

thing, you know, they got BotCon coming up I'm

not gonna go to BotCon but like TF con in Chicago.

I'm definitely going to that Uh, there's an anime

convention in Chicago that DC Douglas is going

to He's uh, he's the voice of um chase on rescue

bots. We're gonna go see him. I'm pretty sure

we're gonna go see him. Yeah, um And then you

know, they've got c2 e2 here. They've got chicago

comic con Uh, which is like right next door to

where tfcon is gonna be You know, what's this

is the same weekend or is it no, no, uh, no,

um I want to say C2E2 is like in the March. Ah.

And Chicago Comic Con is I want to say August.

Yeah. But yeah, so there's I mean, I I'm kind

of really interested to go to TFCon because for

years I've been saying, yeah, I'm going to go

to the one in Toronto. That's an eight hour drive

for me. You know, it's like I'd like to visit

Toronto. I'd like to see it and you know, kind

of hang out there for a bit But yeah, it's an

eight -hour drive You know, there's a lot of

people that I know there who go every year and

it would be really need to go hang out with them,

but I Went to Niagara one year when Christy and

I first started dating we drove up to Niagara

and that Like I said eight -hour drive and it

was it was fun. It was interesting. It was a

nice tourist trap type of thing to do But you

know, we drove we were within ten miles of Toronto

We could see it from where we were on the on

the was it Queen Elizabeth Highway? Okay, yeah.

Yeah, we're like, oh look over there is Toronto

but Yeah, I guess it's a bit of a schlep. So

it's cool that they're coming to Chicago because

You know, I live in Chicago or damn close to

it Close enough to it that I can say I live in

Chicago and get away with it. Yeah. Yeah I'm

Going to try my damnedest to get there this year

I'm telling you you come here you you shack up

with me for a couple of days and we'll drive

in together I Will definitely try and make that

a thing and make it happen. Yeah, I guess I'll

just you just drive down here It's what's uh,

it'd be what three three and a half hours for

you to drive to Chicago Maybe about three maybe

four at most. I could do it. My wife worries

about me. I have this Bad habit when I drive

but falling asleep I used to do that. I mostly

do I mostly do if I'm Driving and there's other

people in the car if I'm by myself and I'm rambling

by myself for some reason I can stay awake. I

don't understand it. It's weird. Yeah, it's it's

strange, but Yeah, I think I could definitely

make the track. Yeah. No, I mean, it's not that

big. Like I said, we've driven to like Lexington,

we've driven to Cincinnati back when Vodcom was

in places other than Pasadena. We used to go

every year and, you know, we'd make a weekend

of it. But yeah, it's not that not that bad of

a drive. And I said, you don't have to worry

about hotel or anything. Come check up with me.

And I live. Yeah, 45 minutes away not bad from

here, you know, I mean well, I mean If I'm driving

rush hour, it's gonna be a little bit longer

but on a Saturday on a Sunday now, it's 45 minutes

You know and what we can hang out. It'll be cool.

Yeah Won't be anything So I think we'll close

out this episode of all things transformers and

Sorry TFG one or TFG2 Mike. Just not the same.

TFG2 Mike. We'll call him TFG2 for the rest of

the episode. Just this once, yeah. Yeah, just

this once. Well, he is going to do the TFG2 podcast

with the Cybernet Space Cube and everything.

I know he hates that cube. The YouTube version

with the video will have the CyberCube. Cybernet

Space Cube. It'll transform into Mike's TFG1

logo and then transform back into TFG2. Oh, that's

asking a lot. I know It'll collapse and on itself

TFG So Yes, thank everybody for thank you for

listening to this episode even though it Change

direction halfway through because Mike disappeared,

but sorry about that We'll be back next time

when we talk Beast Wars and machine wars somewhere

in the world Michael Blanchard is cussing It's

like the crocodile hunter like I was telling

you off air boy what we have here is a TFG one

Mike This sounds very French, I don't know I

know. I can't do an Australian accent. Oh, you

can't? Oh, I used to love Steve Irwin. Yeah.

He's just protecting his babies. Oh, he wants

to bite me. He wants to bite me real bad. That's

okay. He's just protecting his babies. Mike just

wants to smack his face on the desk. As hard

as it goes. All you'll hear is FUN FUN FUN FUN

and then you'll be like RARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARAR

Look at him. He's hitting his head up against

the desk. I bet that's gonna hurt. Don't don't

don't at least I hope that's what he's doing.

Oh my. Good night everybody. Good night everybody.

Good night TFG with Mike. Stop that. Stop it.

Nice. The best part is he'll never know. He's

gonna get all pissed off when he hears that.

I'm not editing it. That would be funny, like

three star streams and a baby. You could pull

that off. Oh my god. Three seekers and a bitch.

No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Well, no, that

technically wouldn't work. I was going to say

my two Megatrons and me, but yeah. Me, myself,

and Megatron. Oh my god. Was trying to make a

my buddy reference I was like, how can I get

My buddy, my buddy.