Transformers 30th Anniversary Celebration, Transformers Animated Review

Hey, this is Sorry, and you guys should check

out All Things Transformers with Steve, Megatron,

and TFG1 Mike. It's a cool show. My auditory

circuits are go. You're listening to All Things

Transformers, version 2 .0. You gotta tune up

or tune out, old bot. This is why I hate machines.

So, which part of me did you come from? Don't

ask. Ah, this is going to be a long orbital cycle.

welcome to all things transformers version 2

.0 this is episode 40 and we are continuing on

with the 30th anniversary celebration of the

transformers this time around we are getting

animated we're going to talk about transformers

animated the cartoon series the toys the books

everything about it the characters the voices

the actors all that good stuff I am your host

TF2 and Mike Steve Megatron well Megatron has

a very very bad organic virus He has no he has

nothing but a beast mode at this point. He's

a very noble soul So he couldn't be with us tonight,

but I have here as you can tell by the laughter

I've begun court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it

going and Superstar writer illustrator only man

to have an official Hasbro licensed Transformers

tattoo, Mr. Bill Forster. Hello, sir. Hi, superstar,

huh? Eh, well. That's a little bit of an exaggeration.

Oh, come on. You know, I don't know how many

people follow Bill on Facebook, but the Transformers

animated sketch cards that he's been putting

out lately prior to BotCon 2014 are amazing.

It's like, yeah. Yeah, it's like you're channeling

David Wyatt. It was just... Derek Wyatt, not

David Wyatt. That's what I said! You said David.

It's Derek, damn it. Yeah, that's what I said.

Derek Wyatt. I steal everything off of Derek,

so yeah. Oh my god. Derek Ghost did all of Bill's

cards. It doesn't look like the ghost of Derek

Wyatt. David Wyatt? What? Um, but thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, they were fantastic. Yeah, you

had a pretty good experience this year for BotCon,

didn't you? And you brought along a little friend

to help you out to make sure people didn't bother

you. A little friend? Are you talking about Crimsy?

Yes, Crimsy. We had a great time. It was a real

high -energy show, and there was a lot of kids

and girls at it. And it just seems like the property's

growing and growing and growing, getting more

and more fans. So it was really a lot of fun.

Absolutely, and my girlfriend I wanted to contribute

so she made me some plush crime Zeeks that tagged

along so that was kind of fun That's awesome,

they turned out really nice I'll let her know

she'll appreciate that How long are they gonna

be in her shop I don't know, to be honest with

you. I mean, the idea was just to make a couple

of stuff crimsy, just to add a little bit of

dimension to my table. Kristen just wanted to

help me out. But when they opened up the show

on Friday, we sold four of them immediately.

So she said, geez, maybe I should just make more

of them and put them in the shop. So I assumed

they'll be there as long as people want them.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. The reason why I ask is

I was going to put a link to the shop in the

post. Oh, yeah. Please do so. She'd appreciate

it. Absolutely. Alright, we are here to talk

about Transformers Animated, which had a huge

milestone just before BotCon from the fine people

over at Shout Factory. We finally have all 42

episodes in one 6 -disc complete series DVD set.

We finally have an officially released Season

3. It's absolutely amazing. Yeah, and we finally

have it tell me tell me on come back and tell

me when they release season four. Oh Shut up

season four never happened. You know David Wyatt

has this closet stop calling You need to stop

turning into Dan Gilbazan Why Terry Wyatt But

yeah, Shout Factory released the complete series

set and there are four brand new commentaries

on it, three that have never been heard, well

actually all four have never been heard before,

but there was one on Garbage and Garbage Out

in the Old DVDs, but the Transwarp three -parter

has new commentaries with Matt Youngberg, Marty

Eisenberg, Derek Wyatt and Susan Blue and David

Kay are on all four of them. That's all new?

Yes. Oh, that might be worth picking up then.

I take that back. I take it all back. I'm going

to buy it. I told you. See, this is what happens.

You don't listen. I know. Yeah, exactly. What?

What? What? I'm getting old. Shut up, goofy.

Alright, so Transformers animated started in

2008. I believe I could be wrong No, December

12. It premiered December 26 2007 And then ran

through 2008 2009 and so on so forth I Wasn't

the biggest I actually was probably one of the

Haters of this series when it first started simply

because simply because I didn't care for the

animation style Because how my how my transformers

watching goes it goes g1 beast worse beast machines

and then Animated I skip over that those crappy

four cartoons in the middle Yes getting rid of

the unicorn trilogy was the best thing they could

have ever done so for me going from beast machines

to animated it was a huge huge design change

and difference and I you know back then it was

you know I could barely and that was the other

thing that kind of turned me off to it is not

necessarily more so the series but what Cartoon

Network has continually done ever since then

they constantly jerk air dates around and everything

else and I honestly by the time season 2 came

up and I was really starting to get into it I

could never find the damn new episodes. I constantly

found repeats on Cartoon Network. It wasn't until

season three that I was really, I figured it

out. Okay, Saturday at 10 or 1030 or whatever

the hell it was, Eastern time. Okay, it's gonna

be season three and that'll be awesome and I

and I the season three is where I had my turnaround

point Michael when did you first? Were you on

board when it when it first started or yeah,

I mean I was pretty well sick of the unicorn

trilogy So even when they first posted the first

picture And we the world got their first, you

know taste of what Derek I'm going to say it

right now from now on, but got the first taste

of what Derek was going to present to the world.

Half the fandom went, eh, you know, and the other

half went, no, demon, demon, you know. And there

were a lot of people who just said, no, you know,

I was kind of on the fence. I said, it's got

to be better than what we had. I don't know the

context of it yet. I just got a picture here.

It doesn't look awful. It's different. But, you

know, let's stop and see what the animation is

going to look like. And when we finally got a

look at at the art or the actual animation, the

writing style, you know, the the voice acting,

it all came together for me just immediately.

Boom. You know, the first episode, I really liked

it. And I was really surprised to hear that you

didn't like it. I was like, how could somebody

not like this? This is awesome. I mean, it's

different. It's it's really different. But it's

still it's. It's really cool. Uh, like the, uh...

Oh. I don't even know what it's gonna be called

yet, but the new Transformers series they're

coming out with now, where it's like Bumblebee

Prime and his team of misfits. And the animation

style is... Oh god, what a terrible name. They've

already used that. And they got a comic book

called that. It's a terrible name. But, uh, the...

The whole idea is it's different and it looks

different and they've done something weird with

the storyline You know and they're introducing

these characters that you know, hey, we might

not like this, you know change is bad But you

know based on my experiences with again with

animated I'm willing to give this the grain of

salt that it deserves until it actually comes

out What about you, Bill? Were you on board with

this when it first came out, or what was your

initial reaction to it? I was. I mean, I appreciate

that, you know, things that are different are

scary, and when things are scary, you immediately

tend to not want to be part of it. And when Animated

was first premiered and, well, we've seen the

first images of it, I appreciated that people

were very leery of it and very scared of it.

But I come from... being a fan of Bruce Timm

and Shane Glines. And to me, it just looked like

the Transformer equivalent of that style that

came about with Batman animated and stuff where

it's simplistic. And I immediately took to it

and then just kind of grabbed onto it and said,

yeah, it's going to be the Batman animated of

Transformers. It's going to be fantastic. And

when we met Derek, which was very early on, we

got a chance to see a lot of behind the scenes

and see a lot of character designs before a lot

of people got a chance to. And I was on board.

I thought it was great. And I think the fact

that it had sort of a whimsical feel, I think

added a lot to it too. I mean, I just think it

went in a lot of different directions. It had

a lot of potential and I think it was very appealing.

So yeah, I was on board from the beginning. Well,

you have that inside track. Going back, I think

it holds up very well. There are a few jumps

in logic that my suspension of disbelief just

refuses to even. I know when we did the Transformation

Animation podcast, when we reviewed all these

episodes individually, beat by beat, a lot of

us mentioned the fact that Sari's Key works on

toilets. That's a little... That is way above...

My suspension of disbelief just cannot disbelieve

that. It's a futuristic toilet. It's a robot

toilet from New Detroit. Japan has futuristic

toilets. Maybe it's one of those types of toilets.

It's got a bidet built in. Oh god. They're toxic.

Yeah. It's a robot bidet. It wants to discuss

your leavings as you, you know, hey. All I can

think of is Mater in the bathroom in Cars 2 now.

Exactly. That kind of robot toilet. Yeah, no.

I think because the show has a lot more whimsy

to it than what we've dealt with before, with

earlier incarnations of Transformers, I think

you're able to have a broader sense of what you

believe in, your ability to disbelieve, or suspend

disbelief rather. I think it just lends itself

to not worrying about the little details and

just going along for the ride. Because it is

very whimsical and light -hearted and more about

Moving the story along and joining yourself than

it is about details and drama Yeah, I'll buy

that Yeah Yeah, no, I mean no I I do like the

series I'm just saying like initially there were

several things about the first two seasons that

I just Well, you're wrong I've been telling him

his opinion has been bad for years. Your opinion

is just wrong, sir. All right. Do we have...

Bill, what are some of your favorite episodes?

Oh, some of my favorite episodes. I like Garbage

in and Garbage out a lot. Weird Al. And so I

really, really love that. Let me think now and

now you're putting me on the spot. Anything with

Grimlock in it, I like. Auto Bootcamp was a good

one. I really appreciate that one. Not only because

it progressed the story a lot, but you just got

a chance to see Cybertron. You get to see a lot

of some new characters. So that was a lot of

fun for me, I thought. What about you guys? For

me, I really liked the elite guard when jazz

showed up and I mean people really like jazz

yeah Phil Lamar is animated zone scat man he

really is no he really is his voice for that

style of jazz really really worked I love filling

anything he does Yeah, I had no idea he was vamp

in Metal Gear Solid 2. I had no clue You know,

but Phil he's he's an amazing voice actor we've

talked to him several times and for me elite

guard and Honestly right above that has to be

at least trans war part one because hello the

return of Judd Nelson Even though they cosmic

rusted him Jerks You know people really attached

themselves to the team charge sort of The team

charge scene and if you really look at it, it's

only a couple of minutes. Oh Yeah, absolutely

people people absolutely loved it Yeah between

that and endgame the very final moment of endgame

that I I swear that last 57 59 minutes or 50

59 57 59 seconds of music some of the best One

of the best little pieces of Transformers music

I've ever heard I'm gonna have to go back and

look at it. I'll listen to it Other episodes

I liked I like Society of Ultimate Villainy only

because... What? I liked it. No, no, that was

a fun episode. That was a fun episode. Dude,

you've got... I'm not complaining. No, I like

the... I'm gonna go back here a few years and

remind you that I was the only one who liked

the human villains. And here we have like, you

know, the human, you know, League of Evil. And

all together at the same time, but you're like,

yeah, I like that one. Like, what? Wait a minute,

you don't even like the human villains. Wait

a minute here. All right. The only human villain

I don't care for is Professor Princess. I loved,

I loved slow mo. And the reason, the main reason

why I love the SUV episode is because of You

know, press the red button. It's friggin' Fred

Willard as Swindle. That's some of the bet. Fred

Willard. I can't remember off the top of my head,

and I'm not gonna sit here and look it up to

see, but I can't remember who voiced Swindle

in G1, but whoever did, Fred Willard was an amazing

update version of Swindle. Fred Willard was great.

That was before the whole Fred Willard sex scandal

thing. You always have to go deep don't you do

I was just saying it was a whole weird Fred Willard

thing and But no, he was awesome. I actually

started following him on Twitter specifically

because I liked I like this uh His voice acting

as swindle What about you Michael, what are some

of your favorite episodes I liked I like Megatron

rising. I like the Oh, I want to say That's Cory

Burton as Megatron. Yeah, you know his Megatron

was just Dead on it was like all this is clearly,

you know, what Megatron is needed for a long

long time up until they actually brought back

G1 Megatron Frank Walker. He was yeah National

Treasure Frank Walker Right on the tip of my

tongue there and I couldn't get it out, I'm sorry.

But yeah, before they actually got Frank Welker

back to do it, you know, Cory Burton was the

definitive Megatron voice. In my opinion, you

know, he's just like, Decepticons, rise up! Yes,

that's awesome! I really liked the Constructicons.

I was really hoping they would make more and

have them combine. They always got the impression

that's where they were headed with that. Yeah,

because they had a head and they had two body

parts. They already had an Autobot that consisted

of two body parts that folded together in half,

which was awful. But I would have bought that

for the Constructicons. Two body parts together

with a head on top. I would have bought it. Five

servos of Doom. They have Yokitron, who was named

after Hideyeki Yoke. Who is the Japanese designer

who designed Megatron way back in? 19 What was

that when he first said that would have been

like 78? I have no idea dude. No because remember

the original Megatron was a a Micro change toy.

Oh, yeah So yeah, so that would have been like

years and years before the actual Transformers

So, at one point, uh, Hideyaki Ioki, I want to

say in 2008, he showed up at BotCon and I met

him. Uh, he was - Yeah, I remember you talking

about that. Yeah, he was talking to Matt Teager.

And I walked up and I'm like, hey, Matt, you

know, cause I talked to him 10 minutes earlier

and he's like, hey, you know, he's like, this

is Hideyaki Ioki. And I'm like, holy cow, it's

so good of you to come. And he's like, ah, I

gotta go. And, uh, and it was, I'll never forget

because as I was talking to him, some other guy

who just talked to Peter Cullen and signed his

G1 mint in package optimus prime walked over

in front of us and had him had Yoke sign His

optimus prime too. I'm like holy cow. That is

awesome because I was just momentarily jealous

but Yeah, so yeah, there was that and the voice

actor was George Takei And they get a little

bit of the two, uh, you know lockdowns backstory

and a little bit into jazz's backstory and It

was uh, you know a lot of cameos in that episode

So yeah, that might have been one of my favorites

Another one I remembered is a human error Oh,

yeah Yeah, human error is gonna come back up

later I think this year on Tooncast Beyond because

it's part of I I'm trying to do something a little

different for Tooncast Beyond this year I'm gonna

have two spotlights a Golden Age of Animation

spotlight this summer and then this winter I'm

starting my first annual 25 days of Christmas

since I spent an entire afternoon going through

the entire internet looking for every US based

Christmas cartoon special I could ever think

of and human error part one and part two are

part of the action block episode. Let's see,

I love to bridge too close. I love that two parter,

the season two finale. We finally kind of get

to see Omega in action. As much as I love Phil

Lamar and I respect him for everything he does,

I was a little bit let down that he kind of,

well, Kevin Michael Richardson was Omega originally,

and then Phil took over for him. I think Phil

does a fine job, but I still like KMR's version

a little bit better. I'm not sure that I'd be

able to pick them apart. Oh, I can. Yeah. I've

watched enough KMR and I've watched enough Phil

Lamar stuff to be able to tell the difference.

Let's see, what's the other episodes that I liked

I like Predacons Rising that that ending was

really funny the beast animals Right. Yeah, the

Beast Wars reference at the end of that You know

overall I gotta say throughout the entire series

I was ready for fan zone to get squished and

then they went and made this is why I hate machines

and Basically made him go to a place filled with

machines and then I kind of really felt sympathetic

for the guy All right Were they were there any

episodes we didn't like necessarily hated or

just don't care for Probably won't put on a watch

list or anything like that. I can't think of

anything I thought it was a such a solid show

that if there was something I didn't like I kind

of just Don't remember, you know There was the

sorry no one's home episode. Oh Yeah, you don't

like sorry at all. I like sorry. I love Tara

strong I don't like Home Alone. Oh, yeah. And

I don't like the idea that you've got Macaulay

Culkin in the Autobot headquarters, you know,

causing trouble for the Constructicon Joe Pesci.

I just didn't like that episode. I thought that

was terrible. I must have seen that episode a

thousand times and I don't know if I ever specifically

said, oh, those guys are Joe Pesci. or whoever

the other guy was. I thought it was just a pun

on Home Alone in title and basic story only.

But yeah, now I'm forever gonna see Joe Pesci

in it. Thank you. Exactly, exactly. It all comes

full circle. Back in the day, I remember Blanchard

having an issue with the headmaster. The only

time I've not had an issue with the headmaster

is when he comes back for the final time in Starscream's

body, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious

when Optimus Prime calls him a noob and says,

well, I bet you can't transform in that body.

and he goes to try to transform and he's like,

I'm guessing the bot's body -eye jack has a much

smaller head. That was the best part about Headmaster.

But he cut his own head off? Yeah. I like the

homage that there's a head and you have to put

a human inside. I like the homage of Headmaster.

I just don't like Masterson. He's one of the

human villains that I just don't care for. You

know, when he first appeared, I was, you know,

when you hear his voice, I was like, oh, I'm

going to hate this character. He's just going

to drive me crazy. This character, people like

that drive me crazy. But he grew up, very, very

quickly, he grew on me. And I kind of seen him.

I liked him. Yeah, those people, you know. And

I want to say meltdown. I want to say, I mean,

I. Liked the idea of meltdown. I like the story

arc that he had. I mean he had a pretty much

a beginning and middle and an end But I was that

was the last we saw him. He turned into meltdown

and there he went Yeah, and they went a different

direction in season 3 toward the end of season

2 and season 3 but I Honestly think at that point

he would have been too powerful to ignore Yeah,

yeah, I'm assuming he reconstituted himself like

Sandman Lord what that's God can you imagine

if there was ever a live -action movie based

on this series Thomas Hayden Church as meltdown?

Oh Wait and there was that that episode about

race cars. I think that's where they introduced

blur. Oh Yeah velocity. Yeah, and that was just

yeah that was I mean I get it they wanted to

have a too fast too furious type episode, but

it didn't do anything for me. Alright, so favorite

characters, Bill, for the Autobots? Oh, Autobots.

Bulkhead really captured my heart. I really like

Bulkhead a lot. I'll choose that. Okay. You don't

have to just choose one. I said characters, not

character. I liked Ratchet a lot, because he

reminded me of myself, because I'm kind of a

crotchety old man. So I really got into Ratchet,

bulkhead. I mean, I really appreciated a lot

of the characters, but those two stand out a

lot for me. What about the Decepticons? Starscream.

Starscream and all the clones. I love what they

did with the clones. That was just such a clever

idea, and it was executed so beautifully, and

I really thought that was a lot of fun. Yeah,

Tom Kenny killed that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I always

get drawn towards Starscream, but that might

be my favorite incarnation of him. Michael, for

the Autobots? It's hard, you know, because you

love the main cast so much that you can't just

pick one that's like, they're all your babies.

Didn't say you had to pick one you can pick multiple

Are you are you old guys not listening to me

seriously all of them? No, you can't catch them

all michael I really liked um, I want to say

aside from the main cast right? I like jazz sentinel

prime Is one of those characters you just want

to hate? It's just like god. This guy is such

a jerk, but he's he just steals every episode

he's in yeah Yeah, um, I Really like ret gar

What little screen time he got, you know, because

it's weird Al you can't not like him. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah and as far as septicons go I I want to say

I like everything that crease summer does so,

you know black erecting a Was it was a cool character

for me? Let's wing with his with his three personalities.

That was yeah. Yeah. Like I said, it's hard.

It's hard to pick you one for your favorite because

they're all so awesome. Yeah. Cuz as you're talking,

I'm sitting here going like, oh, I really like

Lugnut. Lugnut was just phenomenal to me. Oh,

yeah. Lockdown. Lockdown. The great and glorious

Megatron. Yeah. Yeah. I got to write his voice

for the Almanacs and I just had so much fun with

that and it just to to to He's just a really

fun character, but like I said lockdown to is

another character that really saw Lance Henriksen

when he first opened his mouth. I said, holy

cow. That's Lance Henry as Bishop. I'm gonna

die Yeah, I mean, yeah Lance Henry the honestly

the the guest casting on this show was just blew

me away. Yeah Yeah, you know, it's like the guy

to open his mouth and oh my gosh, it's so blue

or oh, it's crease summer or not uh... chris

or like we're now as we're now fred willard uh...

yeah is all of them which is poor there's too

much what what about you mike uh... for the auto

bots i liked optimus he's a little bit younger

what is so amazing in this series as you have

the ultimate villain voice actor the only guy

in transformers history ever switch sides david

gayes optimus prime I like Optimus. I like him

for the fact that he is a little rusty around

the edges. He's a younger version of Optimus.

He's not Peter Cullen's status, but he has also

seen more action than the rest of the core cast

outside of the core cast. I love Grimlock. If

they couldn't have gotten Berger to do Grimlock,

David Kay. does a great grimlock. We're going

to go down the cast list and see who else David

Kay voices and we're just going to preempt you.

No, there are way too many. I'm actually looking

at it now. There are way too many. I haven't

pulled up. I bet you're going to pick Lugnut

too. Actually no, Lugnut is one of the characters

I cannot stand from this series. Really? His

endless pontificating needs to stop. That's part

of what makes him awesome though. No. Jazz, I

love jazz. Blur, for what little screen time

Blur had and for what little voice time he had.

Yeah. Simply amazing getting Meshida back. Yeah.

There is no... That's more of the guest voice

acting that came in that was spot on target.

Absolutely. But see, here's the thing. You know,

not that I... wish any ill will towards mr machida

but if anything ever happens that guy who would

then do a fast blur no one david k no you'd love

it no shut up um i like that i like the jet twins

for how ridiculous they are Everybody loves Sentinel

for how ridiculous and over the top he is. He

also uses a robot version of the tick, and I

couldn't stand the tick. But the Jet Twins, for

the simple fact that it's Tom Kenny as Jetfire

and Phil Lamar as Jetstorm, they work so well

together. First off, shame on you for not liking

the tick. But yeah, they worked off each other

very well. They had such a great speech pattern.

Absolutely, absolutely. Even though he doesn't

talk and we don't have a voice actor for him,

the half a second Cyclonus showed up. Absolutely

love that. Swindle, Fred Willard, we've already

talked about that a lot. And honestly, Rodimus

is number one. Even though he doesn't have a

lot of screen time, Rodimus would be my number

one character. More of an awesome guest voice

acting. Yeah, but I was more so interested to

see how they were gonna... animate him as far

as giving him an animated style. I know that

he... doesn't he show up in some of the other

bad Transformers US cartoons? Isn't there Erotimus

and Energon and etc etc etc? I think there was,

yeah. I've seen some really... since between

G1 and animated I've seen a lot of really...

A lot of Rodimus is that I just really don't

care for the design for so I kind of knew going

into season 3 if he was going to show up that

Derek Wyatt and the rest of the team would pay

really good close attention. And his animated

design works so well. It really does. I think

they made his neck too long. Nah, actually he

had a really good toy. The Rodimus toy was really

nice and there was some really good repaints

out of that toy. Any characters we don't like

You know, I think dirt boss got on my nerves,

yeah I have to agree with that. Yeah. Yeah You

got a problem with that you got a problem with

that you got a problem with that like uh Make

it stop only way the only way dirt boss would

have been so much better using that speech pattern

as if it was really Burgess Meredith doing the

voice. That's the only way that would have worked

for me. Yeah. I'll take that. Yeah, I'll go along

with your question. Um, let's say I didn't care

for, uh, well, I should say I didn't care for,

um, uh, oh, I'm blanking on the name now. Uh.

Poor to see pal. Yes. Thank you. There you go

Cuz he was my other choice was like Portis and

I just didn't like him as a as a character Yeah,

yeah. Oh The other Decepticon I meant to mention

as far as the liked and I can't believe I completely

forgot this Cory returning his shockwave even

though shockwaves colors were completely wrong

for the first two seasons Yeah, you didn't like

some wave I like Soundwave. No, I like Shockwave.

I didn't even mention Soundwave. You know, when

you said, yeah, I was actually expecting you

to pop out with, but that was the wrong guy.

Never mind. I was excited when I first saw Soundwave.

I was like, yeah. And the white version of Soundwave,

which I totally would have bought as a toy. But

by the time season three came out, I want to

say... They stopped putting the enemy the toys

out because they were flooding the shelves with

Was it the second movie Probably like it movie

toys. Yeah, it was a shame because we lost a

lot of a lot of good toys Some of the toys that

only came out in Japan that I totally would have

bought if they'd come out here You still can

buy those Japanese toys and conventions and online

Yeah, but you know for a hundred bucks. I don't

know. I mean Is it worth it to have a red Grimlock

or let's say a Bumblebee with a Scuba suit? I

don't know. It was worth it to get the blackout.

Oh Yeah, I totally would have bought a blackout.

Yeah. Yeah. No, but that was a bigger toy that

thing was yeah Yeah, he was Voyager. No. Yeah,

he was easily over a hundred bucks and that was

before shipping from Japan. So It was it was

a really tough call because you know, the the

series is on its way out and there's a whole

lot of other toys coming And I was like, man,

do I really want to buy this? I don't know but

yeah now you can't find it. Yeah. Yeah I remember

it was actually I don't remember what weekend

it was, but it was a weekend that I think it

was the weekend that the episode aired where

Shockwave finally reveals his true colors. I

remember watching that episode I had just woken

up. I remember watching it and I'm like... Holy

crap. Okay. I gotta put my hand out before my

head hits the ground here cuz I literally almost

fell out of bed at that moment and then I you

know, I get up I get around and I get to my computer

and I'm looking at this and I'm saying I'm seeing

Derek J Wyatt tweet out about holy crap Target

sale all transformers animated toys $5 bucks.

Yeah, I Went up to Target with my $5 and I looked

for the shockwave and bumblebee 2 -pack just

to have purple shockwave Yeah, I bought like

three or four of them It was a brand but you

buy three or four of everything I think back

I don't want to say that back in the day I used

to buy one or two like I need one in package

and one for my shelf You know, I don't do that

anymore about way back then. Yeah, maybe Yeah,

the sunstorms were five dollars, too And I bought

like five or six of those because they're still

sitting in a closet waiting for the day I gained

enough energy to paint them into the other seekers

Exactly exactly a lot of people did paint him.

What was the The the yellow I think I paid full

price for the yellow ratchet. I think he came

with the gold lockdown Right. Yeah Yeah, but

that was full. Yeah, but no when I when I saw

that they had they had to have mispriced those

those were brand new toys Sure, and yeah, and

for some reason they're on the shelf for five

bucks everywhere And I went to two different

targets. I got a bunch of them they're still

in my closet somewhere and I was like, yeah,

you know, and that's so much because I was hoarding

them like some people, you know, I didn't sell

them all on eBay immediately, but because I really

like that. I really like the animated toys. Well,

the kids in my family got a shockwave for Christmas.

So, yeah. Yeah. Actually, a bunch of a bunch

of kids in my family got Starscreams. Is it yeah,

because at one point they're all on clearance

and I was like, haha I'm gonna share the gift

of cut Tom Kenny with everyone. I know They're

all on clearance, but you had to basically raid

the back room at a target to find them all Yeah,

that was years later. Wasn't it? No, that was

during animated. All right, I think so he Just

to give you some context, Bill, there was a story

Michael told me about his toy hunting. And at

one point, he went into the back room of a Target

store. I did not go into the back room. He's

telling the story. What happened is they hadn't

restocked at Target for a very long time. Because

again, they were kind of in between movies. And

maybe maybe somewhere at the tail tail end of

like a generations line or something or maybe

classics line I forget exactly what I bought

but at one point I walked down the aisle the

toy aisle and they had just cases and cases of

transformers on the floor and I'm thinking you

know, I could crack these cases open right now

and Take a peek and see what's in there or I

could wait for them to stock the shelves and

have all the scalpers come and take all the good

stuff So, you know, I pulled out my car keys,

you know, tore off the tape, opened the box,

and I was like, oh, this is awesome! And I bought

like one of each. And I just went through all

the boxes. And, you know, I was almost done.

I had a huge pile that I was gonna buy. I probably

bought like 10 toys. And I had a huge stack.

And this lady, you know, who worked there, walked

up to me and said, you can't... You can't open

these boxes. And I looked at it and I said, but

I already did. And I said, look what I found.

But you can't. I said, well, I can still buy

these, right? And she looked at me and said,

yeah. I said, all right, then have a good night.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Here you stuck the rest

of these. I'm done. But yeah, so no, I bought

like 10 that day. But you know what? When I came

back a day or two later, they not only had those

toys from those boxes up, but they had more.

I bought maybe two or three more. But yeah, and

it was like, I mean, honestly, they hadn't restocked

in a month or two. And I was starting to get

my Jones, you know, and I really needed new toys.

Only remember which ones exactly it was, but

I had a blog post about it somewhere I could

probably look it up, but it's not that important

But every once in a while Blanchard trots out

that story like like I'm in all black and ninja

stealth suit You know climbing along in the rafters

of the back room ready to drop down on a case

of transformers Don't even sit here and lie.

You know you would do that if you could. And

then the employee turned the corner and said,

hey, you get your damn hands off that box. And

I threw down a smoke grenade and said, Ninja,

disappear! Ten years from now, that story will

have reached those proportions. Hasn't it already?

No, no, not yet. You make it sound like I'm just

like... you know, kind of sneaking in tiptoe,

da da da spy versus spy. And I'm looking around

making tippy toe noises as I sneak toward the

cases. You're doing all of this while eating

some jello pudding pops, right? There's one,

there's two toys out of the entire toy line that

I absolutely do not like. one nearly caused me

physical injury the other i just feel is is uh...

i remember that short for uh... the uh... the

other one is that i i just feel that the toy

is way too short in stature like it just doesn't

feel like the way it should it doesn't look the

way it should it it is so accurate for the design

but it just doesn't the size is all wrong so

the one that injured me what i was really excited

for because as michael said earlier we're talking

about the characters I also love Blitzwing from

this series. As soon as Crazyface Blitzwing said,

let's all dance around the maple, I just cracked

up. I thought that was a hilarious line. I go

Christmas, I think it was 08, 09. I think it

was 09. Blitzwing was one of the toys that I

wanted to talk about on toy cast which is now

a retired podcast during the key cast reader

network So I got him got at home and took me

about 20 minutes and nearly pretty much Almost

bent my entire thumbnail back trying to get the

damn toy out of the packaging Even with scissors

to cut the wires because they intermingled on

instead of just having three twist ties at three

points on the toy They intermingled them all

on the under I had to actually try halfway transform

the damn thing to get it out of the package Oh,

you wee lab. Did you break a nail? Thank you.

I think I chipped a nail. There's a difference

between chipping a nail and a nail basically

being folded all the way back off your finger.

That's why you don't like the toy itself? Huh?

That's why you don't like the toy itself? Yes,

that's why I don't like the toy itself. You just

had a bad experience. Yeah, pretty much. And

then Soundwave. The toy for Soundwave is... Just,

ugh, it's too small. It's a little squat. Yeah.

Yeah, it's just way too small for my liking.

But look at the bulkhead toy. It's a good toy,

but he's, you know, I want to say he was a Voyager

and he's, you know, shorter than RC. To me, the

toy that was too small was Lugnut. Oh, yeah,

you know, Lugnut still kind of towers above everyone

except for Voyager Prime and Lockdown. Locked

on always amazed me because he like unfolded

in half and was like 10 feet tall I mean, this

is really big toy. Yeah. Yeah He towers over

everybody The funny thing with earth mode Voyager

Optimus is I had bought one because I was you

know back when I was collecting toys I was like

Michael I need to have one for actually I well

I did it for two reasons. I had to have one to

display in robot mode and one to display in vehicle

mode. At the time, I wasn't really too particular

about the packaging. And I had found one for

robot mode, but I hadn't found one for vehicle

mode. And I went on to entertainmentearth .com

and got one from them. And I'm looking at my

two primes. I'm like, one of these things just

doesn't belong here because the one on the left

doesn't have a autobot symbol on his left arm,

and the one on the right does. And I'm like,

what in the hell is going on here? Did they screw

me out of my autobot symbol? It turns out that...

You had a variant. No, it wasn't a variant. It

was Earth Mode Optimus, but it turns out that

apparently the first... Apparently, Entertainment

Earth got that very, very first raw shipment

in, and apparently the first shipment of that

toy that had ever... Had been released didn't

come with a sticker on its left arm, so they

did screw you out of the mouth about some more

well Entertainment Earth didn't Hasbro did all

right? Yeah, yeah That was Hasbro Yeah You know

I really wish a lot of the unreleased toys would

have come out. I know some of them did yeah,

but like was it Not toxic oil slick. What was

the swim? Mercenary Swindle. I wish Mercenary

Swindle would have come out because that was

a cool version of that toy. Waspinator. Yeah,

he was better as Wasp. Well, I mean, even as

just a green bumblebee with no retooled face,

just a green bumblebee like they had advertised

would have been fine. I would have bought that.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, Rachel's face would

have pushed it way over the edge, but I would

have bought it I could have sworn he was gonna

have I think he did have purple eyes Yeah Yeah,

that that would have been or you know what they

could have done is they could have really you

know milked us all for some money and released

us like a Not a not a leader class a Crap, what's

the next Voyager they could have released a Voyager

bumblebee with electronics that he would have

electronic paint So you press a button it changes

to wasp you press a button it changes back to

bumblebee I don't know if we're there as far

as technology goes. Oh Come on now Maybe not

maybe not back then. Maybe do one of those Zartan

things where if you throw them in the snow it

just turns gray That would have been cool 10

was my favorite. I always just put them in the

sunlight and watch them change colors Now do

you think as far as toys go do you think that

the the BotCon 2011 set is is a like Canon animated

or Sure, why not? Yeah, something is sure why

not, but I'm torn because I don't have them so

I Don't have them either, but they are canon

If they are canon before... Go ahead, Bill, I'm

sorry. I'm sorry. You go right ahead. They are

canon because I have the comic and the comic

takes place after Optimus returns to Cybertron

at the end of Endgame. And in the comic, it's

a story of Sideswipe and Cheetor being basically

bosom buddy cops. And so, yes, the Stuntacon

job is absolutely canon. Awesome and again, you

know, I don't own them. So I kind of feel bad

about that. That was one of the I want to say

2010 Maybe I did make the 2010. I want to say

2010 was when I stopped going to bot cons. Yeah,

you went to 2010 I think you didn't go to 2011.

Okay. Well, then it was 2011 that I stopped going

That was the year that the the animated set came

out. Oh, it was a nice set, too. I really liked

it That set was amazing. I actually have because

I don't know if I've mentioned this on all things

Transformers, I know you know this Michael, but

I am a huge supporter of Kali Kari Shoka and

her Puggle Formers. I actually had her, because

I knew I was never gonna be able to get the toys

themselves, I actually had her make me a set

of Puggles based on the 2011 set. And when I

got the comic, I was able to take pictures. of

the Puggles next to their comic counterparts.

That's funny. Yeah, I'm crazy. But no, that BotCon

2011 set is by far one of the best sets they

ever put out. It really is. Yeah, it just seems

like every time I don't go, I kind of regret

not going. Yeah, but the part about it as well

is the customization class that year did Minerva

out of the RC mold. Yep, even if you track down

that box set and get the toxitron you're still

gonna be missing that Minerva You still don't

get a Minerva. Yeah That turned out really nice

too. I've seen pictures of it. Yeah there I want

to say there is a guy on TFW 2005 I've seen his

thread in the Customizations and I forget what

they call their customization thread is something

Something I forget what they call it. But this

guy, he does hand repaints of the RC mold and

he's done one of... Oh, Craminy. What's the new

maker it's got? Wind... Wind... Wind blade. Wind

blade. I want to say wind razor, but it's wind

blade. He did a beautiful retool of it into wind

blade with the whole head piece. Right, right.

It's gorgeous. And he also did a chromia. Uh

-huh. It's yeah, it's just beautiful. I was like,

wow I mean and again if if Hasbro made those

I would totally buy it. Well, actually now they

are yeah They're making you know, it's funny

I Hate I hate to bring it up again as far as

BotCon goes but the pictures that came out of

BotCon, you know They have a they have a beautiful

RC in in kind of Transformers Prime style. They

have a beautiful chromia in Transformers Prime

style and then they have this very classic uh

transformers classics looking wind blade yeah

and it's like man if that if that wind blade

looked like the comic this beautiful art that

they put in the comic that's it's not traditional

transformers art but it's gorgeous the art is

beautiful the coloring is beautiful it's it's

just a just such a nicely done comic uh but it

looks a lot more like the prime style You know,

I only walked past it a couple of times just

kind of glass glanced over at it, but it looks

pretty good to me It looks nice and sleek, but

you know, maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I

thought it was pretty cool You know, honestly,

I think if they made slipstream With fans on

our wings that might be more what I would expect

it to look like Okay. Yeah, because again, there's

a lot of There's a lot of greebles, you know

In the sense that they put a lot of detail in

there that you don't normally see Like in a in

a more of a streamlined For like a better term

more like a like a prime toy, right? Not to be

the dead horse since we're not all looking at

the pictures together, but you know It's like

man if they had made a toy that like like the

chromia that looked like they lifted it off the

You know lift it off the off the comic book page

for that wind blade. Oh, that would have been

epic But I think they made the design for that

before long before They decided you know what

that what what the art style the comic was gonna

be? Yeah Overall animated was a good run. It

was highly successful a lot of cool toys There

are a few toys that I'm sure a lot of people

wanted to burn in hell Your finger What was the

toy that wait wait what was it this this might

not have been an animated toy But you had a toy

that you're playing with and accidentally shot

the missile and it went behind your desk And

you're like, there's no way I'm gonna be able

to move this desk And I want to say it was an

animated toy Well, that was when you sent me

the Optimal Optimus. One of Optimal Optimus'

missiles. And one of our fans actually mailed

me a separate missile. You know what, you eventually

had to move out of that apartment. You got it

back, right? Yeah, I'm actually downstairs from

the one I used to live in. Yeah. No, I remember...

uh... my buddy out the bottom is uh... he at

one point i think it was activators it was one

of the star screams toys that's is some of these

he had some sort of physical injuries similar

to what what what happened to me about you know

that bending a fingernail backwards or so all

of all of all of all of all of all of all of

all of all of all of all of all of all of all

of all of all of all of all of all of all of

all of all of all of all Blasphemy because it

pissed him off so much I Love the activators

line those were awesome Animator was highly successful

I What I was gonna say was before Michael interrupted

me was sorry outside of a few of the ones that

I couldn't personally like As much as I love

ultra Magnus. I never got that toy into into

missile truck mode. I watched like three damn

different video reviews to figure out how to

transform the... I'm like, screw it, I'll just

leave him in robot mode. It's an awesome robot

mode. It is, very much so. The, uh, the leader

class? Yeah. Oh, he's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I got the, uh, the Roadbuster repaint of

that. He's on the shelf. The, uh, the original

Ultra Magnus colors I've got still in the box

in the closet, but the, but the Roadbuster repaint

was gorgeous. He's just a fantastic toy. Any

other anything else we want to bring up about

Adam? Well, I guess since bill is here we can

I think we we talked to Jim about the Jim Sorensen

about the all spark almanac but I Don't remember

because I think when we interviewed you guys

for the legacy book. It was the first time we

actually talked with you personally What was

your experience putting both the almanacs together?

Well, you know We did the ARC books, character

models from the G1 show, and we went to VotCon,

and we're sitting in a panel when they're talking

about charge forms animated, and Derek was on

the panel. And we said, hey, there's our opportunity

for another book. That's how we're going to expand

ourselves into the next project. And we went

and spoke to Derek about it, and he was all for

it. And we just were... immediately swept up

in this thing and we realized we couldn't just

take these these models and put them on a white

piece of page and just say like here's Optimus,

here's Jazz, like we did with The Ark, because

The Ark's kind of a little, it's a lack of a

better term, academic looking, it looks like

a reference book, it just isn't gonna lend itself.

So we sat around saying, what are we going to

do to fill the space, to kind of make it more

in keeping with the show? And we said, well,

let's put episode guides in and do character

bios. They said, yeah, but you read thousands

of character bios a year, and episode guides

are always boring. How do we make this more interesting?

How do we do it? Nobody wants to really read

an episode guide unless you're a hardcore fan.

How do we make this accessible to the kids who

are watching the show and what have you? And

I got it in my head that it would be brilliant

if the whole book was narrated by Sari. And I

went to town arguing this. I was like, we'll

just have the whole book in Sari's voice. And

Jim said, well, what if we just do everybody's

voices, everybody gets to speak. And we do the

whole thing in universe and we kind of came up

with this idea that, you know, if Optimus talks

about jazz, then you not only learn about jazz,

but because it's Optimus' voice, you kind of

learn a little bit about Optimus in this point

of view. And we're like, yeah, this is a brilliant

idea. How do we then take that into the episode

guides and make the episode guides interesting?

Well, let's make it a what about a report or

a Megatron's log and then it became well what

if this is in a newspaper what if we it would

just escalated into this very organically escalated

into this like a love letter to the show and

it was just probably the most fun I ever had

in my life was writing these books. My experience

with it is I wish I could do 10 more of these.

They were really well done. They were very well

done. Thank you. Thank you. Because I could so

hear... Slipstream doing a bio for whomever side.

I don't have the book in front of me whoever

she wrote them Thundercracker. Yeah But you know

we were going through like who's gonna talk about

who and you know who gets to speak and for what

episode guys We made a rule and that is nobody

can talk about themselves Unless it's Starscream

stars Man that must really have gotten sentinels

goat since he loves to talk about himself You

know one of the greatest things that came out

of those those books was the the yatter page

the Transformers version of Twitter I love that

that was Jim. That was solely Jim One more one

morning to kind of get started and he had been

up all night making that and he was really He's

like, what can we do to make it better? And I

was like, no, that's it. You just take it and

put it in the book. It's So you guys like lock

yourselves in a room and write these Sometimes

we collaborate and sometimes you kind of like

walked away and did our own thing So some of

the like like a lot of this is bio Well, me and

Jim both wrote together. And then other situations

like whenever Sentinel speaks, it's Jim. Whenever

an eight -year -old girl speaks, it's me, you

know? And it's just, we just assigned characters

to each other. But sometimes, I used to work

down at LAX Airport at the time. And I ride a

motorcycle, and I used to work at like four o

'clock in the morning. And I would find myself

on the highways driving to the airport in the

middle of the night or early morning in the darkness,

just shouting out the character voices to just

kind of come up with ideas. So I'd be on the

motorcycle doing lug nut or doing Megatron. And

that's how I wrote. Nice. Yeah. I've actually

I've actually got mine open now I've got two

of the the first one the first one I have a full

-size one with all the text in it and I have

a smaller one that was sold to elementary schools

through um, yeah Oh, what's it called? It's elastic,

right? And it's kind of it's the same. It's got

all the pictures, but but almost none of the

text Yeah Yeah, yeah, but I mean the the tell

you this is this is just brilliant text. I mean

because it's written so well that like when you

when you read let's see let me find one real

quick here it's like uh yeah it's like i'm looking

at bumblebee's bio and it's written by bulkhead

and when you read it you immediately go into

bill fagerbecky yeah yeah i mean you you you

you see the text and it immediately puts you

in that mind even before you get down to where

it says signed bulkhead you've kind of got that

that character in mind already yeah so you really

learned about the two characters at once yeah

yeah yeah no it's it's uh like i said i mean

when you're reading it to yourself it comes out

in that voice right this is so good and the pictures

i mean honestly you guys must have gotten like

just a brain dump from derrick wyatt oh they

were just giving us hard drives to work off of

yeah This is so, you know, it's good. It couldn't

have been better if it was like stickers, you

know It's like Decepticon Cybertronian forms.

It's like Cybertronian Starscream. I just would

appeal them out and put them on my wall These

are so yeah, this is so awesome That reminds

me of those fathead things You ever seen those

commercials? Order the super order the sports

star order spider -man Take it out, peel it off,

slap it on your wall, there you go. Somebody

got me a fathead movie, Optimus Prime. Oh my

god. Yeah, and he's up on my boy's wall upstairs.

Wow. Yeah, he stuck him up on the wall. He likes

him. Transformers Animated, you know, even...

Even going back and watching see that's the beauty

of the shop factory DVD set is You can watch

all 42 in one place instead of having to go to

three or four different DVD cases like with the

paramount DVDs I can put in disc one, start at

transform and roll out, and go all the way to

disc six and end with end game. Right. And it's

one, not that I... 21 hours later, no bathroom

breaks, just watch the whole damn thing. Oh,

come on now, are you kidding me? I couldn't go

21 hours of posting on Twitter without posting

on Twitter and Facebook. Besides, I watch all

the crap on my computer anyway. There you go.

Anyway, Transformers Animated, absolutely awesome.

Great series, great brand. Too bad we didn't

get a season four because of what Derek had said

would have been in season four, would have been

awesome. I was so waiting for a Shattered Glass

episode. I so wanted that. Did he say there was

going to be a Shattered Glass episode? Yeah.

Really? Yeah. There's there's models of optimus

out there in shattered glass optimus colors and

stuff and there's actually models out there of

the the logo in shattered glass colors So yeah

Bill final thoughts on animated I just a wonderful

show and it's a show that you know, I just did

back on yesterday And I still have people coming

up to me and saying, do you have any information?

Will there ever be a fourth season? Will there

ever be a restart? Will there ever be another

Almanac? So there's still tons of interest. And

I think it really shows the success of the show

when you still have people doing that. Little

kids doing that. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Well,

the little kids do it because they might have

parents that watched it and then they showed

their kids. You know, that's the kind of thing

nowadays where you've got someone like Michael

who has two boys, he's gonna show his boys hopefully

all of the good versions of the Transformers

cartoons, none of the four bad ones. Oh yeah,

they've seen Transformers the movie. They had

to start them off on the good stuff early. Yes,

exactly. Arbless, look, it's Unicron! Yeah, it's

Unicron. Run! Yes. Coming up next on All Things

Transformers in episode 41, we are going to be

going prime time. We're going to be talking All

Things Transformers Prime coming up next. Bill,

where can the people check you out online? Oh,

I'm on Facebook, and you can find me on Twitter.

I use my real name. And BillForster .com. It's

my art blog. Awesome. Michael, what about you?

I'm on Twitter. I'm on Facebook. Um, you know

call me at home Say hi Okay, then and of course

you can find me tfg1 Mike on Twitter Facebook

everywhere else You can also follow at geek cast

radio on Twitter for all the other network updates

until next time Transform roll out and we will

catch you late That is unless you don't think

you can handle transforming it is pretty difficult

especially for a new such as yourself Nobody

calls me a new So I'm guessing the bottoms body

I checked his head is a lot smaller Rodimus to

Elite Guard command! We are under attack! Repeat,

requesting backup, we are under attack! Stay

cool Rodimus, and try to hold out a little longer.

Elite Guard forces are strained to maximum as

it is. Sir! I don't know how long we can keep

the cars from the space bridge. The cars are

going after every space bridge on the periphery.

We can't let any of them transport the Cybertron.

I can assure you, Commander, that the Cybertron

space bridge nexus is fully guarded. We'll be

ready for anything that comes through. Count

on it. Ironhide! Braun! Transform and fall back!

We need to protect the space bridge! Base bridge

operational. Oh, sorry. Cyclonus, oil slick.

Help free Spitter and secure the perimeter. You'll

have to get past me first, Decepticrease. You

say that like it's a difficult thing, Autobot.

Cosmic Rust! I, Starscream, have taken over Transformers

Prime Time. Call me Lord. No Starscream, we will

not call you Lord, but we will announce that

the GC iron is bringing everyone Transformers

Prime Time. That's right, before we get into

the TFG1 redone, we enter the Prime Universe.

Join your hosts, TFJ and Mike, Steve Megatron,

Optimus Solo, and Peek on Court Michael as they

cover all 65 episodes of Transformers Prime,

the comics, the toys, and more. We will also

have a commentary on Predacons Rising, interviews

with writers, voice actors, and more. All in

the latest Transformers Review podcast from the

GeekCast Radio Network, you can find TF Prime

time on iTunes and www .geekcastradio .com. And

remember... One shall stand... And one shall

fall.