Transformers 30th Anniversary Celebration, Transformers Prime Review

Starscream here, and I am Lord and Master of

All Things Transformers. Don't tell Megatron.

You're listening to All Things Transformers,

version 2 .0. welcome to start it now flip the

switch how about now how about now I'll wait

how about now well hello and welcome to all things

transformers I'm your host Steve Megatron Phillips

and joining me in this adventure into transformers

prime is uh... specialist so it's okay and pro

that you know i like uh... uh... uh... thanks

uh... uh... so transfer was prime was the next

cartoon after animated uh... however it was kind

of sad about that i know michael wilson was uh...

hugely disappointed that the first five part

was going to be transforming zombies Initially,

I wasn't upset because of that. I was upset because

they didn't do anything with it Did we all see

darkness rising the first five parter when it

first came out or did we all wait I So when you

say we all what do you mean? I mean like you

because all four of us. I watched him I watched

yeah, yeah So that means it was just you waiting

I think No, I didn't wait. I don't have the hub,

so I had to find other methods, but I watched

them. Yeah, I didn't have the hub either, being

Canadian, but please, it's the internet. It took

me like about five seconds. I had the hub. There's

usually somebody on TFW that has torrents. Well,

yeah, there actually was an official torrent

thread for that, so it wasn't a big deal. Um,

no, yeah, we all pretty much watched along when

it, you know, while it was airing. I don't think

there's an episode that I missed, whether it

was eventually after I did get the hub or even

before then. Um, you know, fully CGI show, you

know, current generation CGI, not 1996 CGI. That's

what people have to, have to realize about Beast

Wars. That's CGI was, you know, nearly 20 years

ago at this point. Um, I'd argue it. I'd argue

it. I think that some stuff that mainframe was

doing in season 3 and with another show they

were doing that was around that same time frame,

Shadow Raiders. Yeah, War Planet Shadow Raiders.

That was some stellar stuff that in all honesty

I think almost 20 years later holds up. Oh no

no no, I'm not saying it doesn't hold up, I'm

just making fun of the people that... make fun

of beast wars CGI that is saying oh the CGI in

beast wars that's crap compared to now well it

was twenty years ago morons alright so Transformers

Prime we have Peter Cullen back as Optimus Prime

we have Simile Montano as RC Kevin Michael Richardson

as a much better bulkhead Jeffrey Combs, you

have a question from Justice League Unlimited

as Ratchet, Frank Welker slash Will Friedle as

Bumblebee, James Huron as Wheeljack, Nolan North

as Smokestream, and Michael Ironside, Darkside

himself, as Ultra Magnus. What do we think of

the Autobot team? You know what? from a voice

acting standpoint, especially. I mean, you also

left out Mr. Dwayne Johnson as Cliffjumper temporarily.

Yeah, that was two episodes. Yeah, I know what

I'm just saying. Like, that was the big hype.

That was the big hype about the show when it

first started was that, oh, James, you know,

like Dwayne Johnson, the rock. And I remember...

Sue Blue, who only did the voice directing for

the first, I believe it was four episodes before

a personal matter kind of took her out of the

game. But it was one thing that I remember she

talked about in an interview that I read was

that because they had The Rock in those initial

episodes and because Frank Welker didn't... go

cheap either he wasn't cheap to be in this show

along with peter cullen and stuff that if you

actually look at the first season there's a lot

of shortcuts that were taken uh... for money

wise for the voice acting which is i mean people

complain will probably doesn't talk uh... sound

wave doesn't talk and if you actually analyze

each individual episode they they pretty much

give the bulk of the voice acting to the cheapest

uh... voice actors which no offense to steve

blum great guy or Bloom, Blum. Great guy, great

voice actor. But in the category of voice actors,

at that time, it's not so much so now, but at

that time he was still an anime voice actor,

which are kind of like the lowest paid of the

television voice actors. I mean, in the tier

of voice acting, it's like video games about

as low as you go, and then there's commercials,

and anyways. So you had Steve, who was Starscream,

who got a lot of voice acting in, and who is

it that played RC again? Similarly, yeah, like

those were the two and of course the kids who

were all like I mean What God like the kid who

plays rap is like 11 years old at that time,

you know, yeah, like he was really young But

all of them also they were kind of like the cheaper

Paid voice actors so they pretty much rap, you

know They ride it out having RC Starscream and

the kids take a bulk of the episodes and if you

actually look at it RC is the only character

that talks in every single episode of the entire

series where like Peter Cullen disappears well

not disappears, but he just won't talk for six

episodes or what they did with Frank Welker Megatron

He just disappears for practically a majority

of this first season Soundwave doesn't talk You

know Starscream is the cheap actor so he's gonna

get all the talking in Dwayne Johnson's gonna

die early on and then I believe it's I forget

who takes over his grunting someone else, but

As when he's zombie like they took a lot of shortcuts

to make that first season affordable on a voice

acting standpoint so and it was it was mainly

because of Dwayne just to get him in to do five

lines, which It's kind of sucks, but I don't

particularly I wish they would have gotten someone

that could mimic him from when he comes back

and out of the past the out of the past episode

because i think that was billy brown i could

be wrong i'm looking at the the info here but

i didn't click on the guy's name to see if that

was the episode that he voiced to cliff jumper

but it just didn't When he came back and out

of the past as that flashback, it just didn't

have the same weight to it as when The Rock was

doing it. I mean, I get it. The Rock is super

expensive to have. Oh, especially. At that point

in this point now, he's a TV star, movie star.

I think even at that point, he was working on

G .I. Joe or something. To have him at all was

one thing. No offense to Frank Welker and Peter

Cullen. They're in big blockbuster movies, but

they're still in it as voice actors Where this

is a movie star? Yes What the overall core team

RC ratchet bulkhead prime bumblebee? What do

we what do you guys think of them Steve? I Don't

know to begin with I wasn't a big fan of all

the random characters I've never I mean at least

this iteration like I I hated bumblebee not talking

Yeah, I that was one thing that that's bothered

me since the 2007 film It's just I can't stand

that the It's like okay, we have r2d2 with a

c3po like body, okay, thanks and then Then we

have you know bulkhead which was a carryover

from animated and then we have RC which was kind

of a amalgamation of the old RC mixed with the

film verse version. So I mean, it's I mean, and

then you have Ratchet, of course, who's kind

of almost like his animated version. So, I mean,

it wasn't too bad. I just I wasn't totally sold

on it because I wanted more of like an iron hide

instead of a bulkhead and so on. Think for me

I was I was super fine with what they did with

bulkhead because you know, no offense to Bill

whatever his last name is that did him an animated

the animated version of bulkhead even though

that's where that character kind of originated

he was too Silly clumsy silly. Yeah, like I forget

what episode it is. It's I like to break things

It's because of Derek Wyatt. Bulkhead was pulled

from a character from a show called Mighty Orbots.

I mean, Mighty Orbots is a lot of what Derek

pulled from when he was creating animated characters.

And there was a character named Wrench that if

you watch Mighty Orbots, you just have to watch

the intro of the show. And you'll see Wrench

and you'll be like, oh man, that's where Bulkhead

came from, like 100%. Yeah, I don't mind I forgot

about that. I don't mind that bulkhead is clumsy

that he he is supposed to be that that Overbearing

brute type that doesn't know his own strength

or screw He's supposed to be the screw -up, but

when you make him super silly like in the episode

Where is thy sting and you're like no guys and

you turn him into a friggin squeak toy like a

dog chew toy When he's bouncing around his friggin,

that's when I kind of mind when that kind of

stuff happens. So Kevin Michael Richardson is

bulkhead in Prime. I was fine with that. I was

kind of surprised that Sue didn't do RC. I'm

happy. There was. There was. Right. Right. No,

no, no. Right, no, I understand that but I'm

saying like when the cast was first announced

it was Sumo Lee Montano as as RC and I'm like,

okay That'd be kind of cool and you know have

someone a little bit different But I was really

kind of surprised that Sue blue didn't do it

and I understand there were complications because

she had personal matters come up You know, I

remember when this first came out everyone was

complaining of oh, it's it's just Movie it's

a movie cartoon. It's just movie designs. There

are slight tweaks There are first of all the

movie designs look a hell of a lot better in

CGI At least in my opinion Bumblebee the r2d

to be I don't mind it because it's not radio

B from from the movies at least radio B speaks

Kind of yeah, I mean kind of Leonard me why quotes

is speaking Maybe. I don't know. Well, you know,

I think it was, was it the, yeah, it was the

Simile Montano interview we did, Michael, where

I asked her how they did that in the scripting

process or in the voice sessions. Yeah. She says

Frank did it. It was Frank reading the lines,

except they just put in. They dubbed over him.

Yeah. He was reading, but they didn't use his

voice. Right. And I am, you know, I'm perfectly

fine with that. I would have loved if they could

have gotten Johnny Young Bosch to do it, because

he did it in the Cybertron games from High Moon

Studios. Let's get Bumper Robinson back. I really

like that. No! That's not gonna happen. There's

a lot of stories about why you'll probably never

see him again. Oh, I want to hear those stories.

We'll talk about that. Oh, you'll hear you'll

hear those stories Well, you know our friend

um cremini the name escapes me now, but it but

uh You call called me Terry You Mike and you

Terry you could be Terry like Yeah, it's - yeah,

Dan Gilbazan. Yes, Mr. Gilbazan, you can call

him whatever you want. Call me - You can do this

for free. Call me whatever you want. Well, again,

that's what I was saying, you know, Dan Gilbazan

probably would have done Bumblebee for free.

You know, as much as I love Dan Gilbazan, I would

have loved to have seen him in this. I'm very

happy with - even though it took up until the

last episode of the series for them to do this.

You had two lines! Well, and then he had the

movie! And then he's going to be in the new series.

He's going to be in the new series. Batman is

Bumblebee. Come on. All right. All right. OK.

Well, as long as they bring him over into the

new series. But well, he's going to be the same

character that last episode. He's got two lines.

He had maybe what? Five lines in the movie. Yeah,

but it's better than than nothing. And they're

setting, you know, they're setting him up. Just

think about this, though. Eric Matthews is Bumblebee.

All right. I have to see it in practice because

at the same point, you could also say David Kay

was Megatron in the Unicron trilogy. Didn't mean

anything. Didn't really didn't didn't save anything

in that one either Beast Wars Megatron is you

know Megatron in the unicorn trilogy granted

Yes, it's the after -dub process of anime But

I think you have to see it you have to see it

in practice before you judge it It's Beast Wars

Megatron with no actual emotion and talking really

fast really fast Yeah, you know they could have

given bumblebee to David Kay, and then it'd be

like hat trick The one voice actor to play all

three main characters. No, no, no, no, no. Oh,

come on. No. All right. Let's... Michael, what

are some of your favorite episodes from the series?

I don't have any. You know, we've talked about

this before and I had some problems with series

one and series two and that I felt that they

were you know treading over old ground and In

the times when it looked like they were doing

something new and interesting they kind of threw

it away after a couple episodes like Transformers

zombies that sounds really cool. I really like

that idea and then Within two or three episodes.

Okay, that's gone, you know I'm trying to think

what else did they do that was new in series

one or series two, but I really can't think of

anything It's like, you know, we went back and

we did Unicron again, I mean and they said oh

it's new and different because he's in the center

of the planet Okay, okay, let's talk about Unicron

for a second. Why? No, no, no, hold on, because

you always bring this up, that always just that

old staple, blah, blah, blah. Unicron in G1,

Unicron in the movie, as we all know, was the

super giant monster -eating planet, okay? Now,

think about the psychological message behind

Unicron in Prime. He is the center of the Earth,

or he is part of the center of the Earth. The

center of the Earth. They're basically saying

that Earth and all of its inhabitants are evil

because Unicron is the center of the planet.

It was poorly thought out because I think there

was way too much stuff that could have been read

into that that just would not add up because

it's Earth, because it's us, which I mean, it's

like, well, he's, you know, Unicron is the Earth.

And there's just so much that I mean, again,

one of the many things that they brought up and

then never followed up upon. You know, it's like,

I mean, if such a revelation like that, which

was like the end of season two, if such a revelation

like that would come up, you'd think that it

would come up again and it would be an explanation

or something, because it's the same thing. It's

like, hey, did you know the minicons were created

by Unicron? That became the premise of the entire

rest of Armada, because that was such a ground

-shaking thing. And it's the same thing. It's

like, did you know Earth? is Unicron, you'd think

that at some point it'd be like, well, what are

humans? What is magma? What is volcanoes? What

is life itself, atmosphere, everything? Nope,

let's sweep that all under the rug. The second

prime forgets he's Optimus and he's Orion Pax.

I did kind of like that though, that they were

really getting this amalgam continuity put together

when they... you know put in the whole thing

of him turning back into a ryan and not remembering

anything and still thinking which they also swept

under the rug after three episodes which exactly

Trust me everything Michael saying I'm gonna

just reiterate the same again because there was

way too many things in this show That'd be like

hey remember this and then two episodes later.

Nope Hey remember like there was there was I

swear to God at even some points And I don't

even care about the human characters But there

was one point that I honestly thought that they

were gonna delve into Raph's background Because

it seemed like they were getting at this thing

where he had a bad relationship with his family

And that's why he was so close would be and never

went home. And these were the early episodes.

And then even that got kind of like, nope, forget

that. Everything's fine. There was way too much

of that. The problem is that the trio of humans

in this series are the same archetype that has

existed in all the past human trios of Transformers

from the anime series. Just they would kind of

tweak it. Like say Armada, right? You had Rad,

who is the more level -headed main character

guy Carlos that's the hey I'm the minority fun

guy and then you had You had Alexis, that's the

smart one who has to take care of the other two

idiots. All they did was, is when they took those

three archetypes, they put it in Prime and they

twisted it. And then now it's like, Miko is the,

hey, I'm the minority fun one. And then Jack

is the more, I'm the level -headed one that's

got to make sure no one does anything stupid.

And now we got Tech Guy, who has a computer that

could do anything. And only he could understand

Bumblebee. computer could hack Cybertronian technology,

even though it's only a 32 RAM Apple, you know,

which is like, I mean, that's one thing I always

hate is whenever you have like that tech kid

who's, you know, hacking advanced alien technology

with his like, you know, his beat up, you know,

Macintosh computer. So he had a Will Smith's

computer. I do remember that, I do remember that

when we talked to Stephen Melching, he did tell

us that the writing for Wrath was supposed to

be more than what it got to be. Yeah, well that

was the vibe I got from the beginning. I'm like,

there's going to be more to this character. And

I actually didn't like him at all because he

was just so, he just... He just didn't belong

in all of this. I mean, Jack, he had his dark

side and there was some kind of thing going on

that could be more. Miko was just crazy enough

to be enjoyable because of all the crap she would

get into, but you just had Raph that was just

the most phoned -in sci -fi character that is

just so boring. I hate that kind of character.

And it's like, it's Jeff Goldblum without the

Jeff Goldblum. I'm Chip Chase. That's just it.

But Chip Chase, it's like, I mean, you're talking

a 30 -year -old piece of animation. You could

get away with that cheesiness. But today, after

the era of the 90s, and Batman, the animated

series, setting the bar, and Beast Wars setting

the bar, we kind of have this higher expectation

of our character development now, and not just,

I'm a wheelchair kid who could rip a bee drive

floppy disk in half. like it's a little more

than that so it's just I didn't like like Miko

I liked Jack had his moments and Raph I just

hated Raph was just like oh you didn't have to

be in the series but that wasn't all that I hated

about the first season you know there's more

it's like when they introduce Wheeljack it's

like there's no Wheeljack that's drift You know

stop it just because he has swords, and he's

not a damn scientist knock it the hell off You

sound like off the bottom is for crap sake well

I I mean it's a kind of complaint then so I mean

there's that they didn't yeah And my problem

was is that they didn't really try to do anything

new and different with with the franchise They

didn't really introduce anything new that was

enjoyable until season 3 And then you get dragons

out of the blue whoo look dragons and it was

also let's dial back the human thing Let's you

know a lot of like a lot of people who I talked

to everything they love about season three Was

the common things that were just so painful about

season one season two being almost completely

absent Which was more of an emphasis on Cybertronian

lore So again character development at least

from even Cybertron itself a lack of humans are

not using them at all more higher stakes characters

either being being killed off or put out a commission,

which is always good for excitement because you

never knew who could die and when. It made it

more enjoyable. Unfortunately, the way Season

3 started off was kind of... which is like, we

have a premise and then we're going to forget

that premise. They tossed the artifact search,

the got to catch them all out the window, and

they said, okay, we're going to do something

new and interesting. I don't want to say a return

to Beast Wars toys, but that's essentially what

they are. All the dragons transformed by standing

up. It literally was Transmetal, some of them.

It's got beast aspects, but it's also got a vehicle

mode. I like that. And suddenly I'm invested

in the series. I enjoyed it. My kids played with

the dragons. It made me kind of want to go back

and kind of get some of the earlier toys that

I didn't already have because I Just didn't feel

like collecting the series. I didn't like it

But yeah season three really kind of saved that

series for me and then to cap it off with the

movie You know, I think I think that I Don't

want to say the movie was my favorite part But

I want to say I really enjoyed like the last

couple episodes of season three where they where

they brought everything together Please do not

tell me you're gonna start saying the movie was

the best thing in the series because it made

it end Please do not tell me I was not gonna

say that no good I was a little disappointed

with the movie, but but what it wasn't like I'm

so glad it's over Yeah, it was I mean I could

handle another season Steve what about you? What

are some of your favorite episodes from the series?

I mean, I don't really have any particular favorite

episodes per se I of course like when you know

whenever Megatron gears up and kicks massive

ass, but I also like the the revival of Optimus

Prime later on which Anybody with you know, anybody

with a brain can figure out that they're gonna

play that card every show Kill Optimus Prime.

Oh, no, he comes back from the brink of death

just barely and then You know you have that going

on you have you know Megatron terraforming the

planet you have You know shockwave being brought

in who's depth charge? He did a good job being

shockwave I'll give him that he was good as shockwave.

He wasn't just playing Depth Charge, I wouldn't

say that. No, I knew that, I was just... Okay,

you just need to get that out of you. When we

talked to him, he was very adamant, I'm Depth

Charge. Not Def Charge, Depth Charge. For me,

I have a lot of favorites, and I understand,

you know, looking at this series with a more

critical eye, that there are a lot of things

that they tried to do that they flip -flopped

on and everything else, but the whole thing with

Megatron, like Flying Mind, and the whole thing

with Cortical Psychic Patches and everything

else, I really dug that. I will say that... Oh,

you mean um... Ratchet. Oh, no, no, no. Synthetic

energon. I liked that though. We never really

got any more of the speed energon. I asked Steven

if that was going to come up again and it never

did. Another forgotten plot point. Well, we'll

get to that in a couple of weeks. Here's the

thing with Prime. Okay, Daniel, I know you don't

like the humans, and that's fine. It's not that

I don't like the humans. I find that while I

enjoyed Miko, while I enjoyed Jack, they did

have their places in some episodes. I just found

that it's... everything that we've ever loved

about transformers when we always say what was

the best series or what did we love the best

about transformers from fiction you always gotta

take a step back and realize that either humans

were absent or they were so not used at all or

so really the background, that it didn't affect

the story. But these kids were constantly being

thrusted into that. It was just told they have

to be there. They have to be part of the base.

They're part of team prime. They gotta be playing

video games and have a couch there. It's one

thing to have like, oh my god, now his name escapes

me, Agent... Fowler. Agent Fowler. It's one thing

to have Agent Fowler. Okay, military dude that's...

You know and even then he really didn't do much,

you know in terms of action or a contribution

of anything He was just kind of he was damaged.

He was like damage control. It's just like well,

you know, it's what happens when you allow Winston

zettimore to get old and fat He's not gonna do

anything. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna hate on

a gold buster, you know, but It's just like it's

one of those things that the humans in this movie

Movie in this series were really just forced

to be there like I get Miko had her moments there

was moments that's like, that's kind of funny,

or yeah, hey, it's kind of cute the way she is

with Bulkhead. But it wasn't like, oh my god,

she's so key to all of this grand scheme of things.

Same thing with Jack. There was moments where,

hey, there's some character development with

him, or there's some kind of story with him.

But it's not like, oh man, if Jack wasn't there,

this whole story would just totally crumble and

it wouldn't be able to move forward. That's why,

to me, Raph is my least favorite, because he

didn't have to be there at all. uh... he he we

if there was just two humans it would have been

just the same like it there's nothing missing

at all with with jack out with the raft it's

just the typical bumblebee says something in

only raft seems to know what he's saying which

i always hate that you know because but but then

eventually went away because the rest of the

auto boss knew what he was saying which maybe

maybe raft was faking it the whole time i don't

know there is that's totally what he said yeah

here's here's my thing as soon as the first episode

premiered as soon as everyone saw miko everyone

is like oh my god she's the worst female in transformers

no i didn't think that at all no no i know i

know i know you didn't i'm just saying as soon

as i saw the first as soon as i saw darkness

rising part one or how if they i forget if they

showed it all at once or whatever i don't remember

um but as soon as everyone saw miko they're like

oh no Not another one of these kinds of girls,

oh god. She's worse than Sari, she's worse than

Carly, she's... No. Miko is by far one of the

best human females in Transformers history. In

fact, all human females up to this point, with

the exception of Sari, have always been like

the stereotypical like... babysitter mom character

and i could pull this all the way back like you

start with carly it's just like she's just there

when she becomes older she's just there then

we fast forward to master force with minerva

minerva's babysitting the other two human headmaster

jr. she's the older one taking care of of cab

and shoota then you fast forward to like i mean

if you want to even like nitpick with stuff like

victory alumina she's just there then you go

fast forward okay Jack and Una, I'm not gonna

use Una, let's just skip that one. But then when

you go to Armada, you know, Alexis, babysitting.

You go to Energon, and it's like you have Misha,

she's just there. And with Kicker's sister, she's

just there. You go to Cybertron, which is known

as Galaxy Force, with Lori, same thing. Babysitter,

the older one, she's just... mother character

again. It's always been that same archetype,

this entire span of it. Sari came around, became

a protagonist, and then, but hey, we all got

flipped on our heads because, hey, you know why

you liked her so much? Because she's a transformer.

So in the end, she wasn't even a human character.

So then we skip Sari, and then we end up with

Miko. And Miko was the first five seconds we

were introduced to her, OK, she's different.

She's wild. She's fun. Maybe there's something

more to it. So I kept an open mind. I didn't

judge right away and go, oh, she's so crazy getting

in the line of danger like that. She's like,

screw you. I do what I want. Up to this point,

I just listed it off, every female has just been

there. I'm not going into movie verse with Michaela

at the time, but I'm just saying animation -wise,

manga -wise, comic book -wise, they've always

just been there or doing a motherly role. So

it was a big change for a human character and

that's why I didn't hate her. I mean, everyone

was jumping the gun and judging, but I saw it

from a different angle completely. Was okay the

the one episode that I absolutely love what they

did with Miko was season 3 chain of command I

Kid you not as soon as I realized she was eventually

gonna go into the apex armor. I'm like exosuit.

Yes nice reference Because as soon as she put

that exosuit on I was like, oh my god, that is

so cool because It's one of the few times that

a human fighting against a transformer on an

equal, you know, an equal level is understandable

or justifiable where again the movies where it's

just army men with their regular machine guns

taking out advanced Cybertronian technology it's

just that but if it's Cybertronian technology

against Cybertronian technology wielded by a

human I could believe that when kicker had the

energon saber and he was cutting in half you

know battle ravages I could believe that when

it's master force and it's humans using the transtector

headmaster technology against other Cybertronians,

I can believe that. But again, the other times

it's been used, when it's human guns, it's just

mosquitoes. You know what I mean? That's how

it should be. The movies don't handle it properly.

They never did. They never will. I will always

reiterate that. But Miko in the Apex armor, love

it. It was funny. It was great. Using Starscream

as the receiving end of that just adds to it,

of course. Again, a good use of that character.

And what I expected of that wild and fun female

protagonist that didn't exist up to this point.

Who are, out of all the voices, who are our favorites,

Michael? Steve Bloom. Without a doubt. I love

everything he does. Proto Man? That's a tough

one, because in all honesty, I really like Knockout.

Not just the way he, you know, the limited screen

time he had. Great job, great lines. Frank Welker,

he had his moments, but I think that everything

that we loved about Frank Welker as the original

G1 Megatron was because he was playing off of

such a great Chris Latta. Like that was just

such a good pair, where this Frank Welker with

Steve, Steve did a great job on his own. I will

admit that, I loved Steve too. But I think that

his chemistry with Frank wasn't as... good. I

think it was more just he cowered a little bit

whenever Megatron was around and there wasn't

really good banter between the two of them. I

liked Jeffrey Combs' Ratchet. I thought he did

a great job. Grant, he was really channeling

G1 Ratchet almost, which was, what's his name,

Ormix? What's his name? G1 Ratchet. Couldn't

say. But I found that he was almost channeling

even that a bit, which because he was a little

bit crotchety too on top of the animated ratchet.

And that episode, oh my God, where he just went

all like, who, like I loved that. That was great,

it was funny. Stronger, faster. Stronger, faster,

yeah. Good job of that. Some of the others, I

mean, RC, there wasn't... too much that pulled

me in there. I liked Miko, but again, the limits

of what you could do with that character for

voice acting characterization. Arcee, it was

kind of the phoned in hero girl character, which

there wasn't much to it, unfortunately, which

I would have liked if there was more, but I mean,

there was like this thing with Arachnid. Arachnid

wasn't too bad either, but again, it was the

same thing. It was just kind of like they had

that one... character line that they had to act

and they didn't go beyond that. RC was, my partner

is dead. Now my other partner is dead. Now this

partner might die. Gotta protect these partners.

Oh hey, the murder of my partners are here. Now

I must protect them. That was the constant...

Stream of that character and the voice acting

didn't allow it to go beyond that where a character

like knockout It's like he you know at one point

even goes to the Autobot spoiler for anyone who

was listening to this, but it's like He has that

way to shift around, go for the team that's winning,

worry about his paint scheme, but yet he's a

scientist. So there's a lot of different, it's

what David Kay did when he did Beast Wars Megatron,

because there were so many aspects to the character,

you could really create a character around it.

What about you, Steve? Favorite voices? I liked

Frank Walker's new iteration of Megatron. Yeah,

we got it before you. I'm sorry to interrupt

you. We got to talk about this because G1 Megatron

He was going in a higher much higher octave and

this one he went lower. Oh, he didn't go I am

Megatron You know, it was more it wasn't as raspy.

It was more there was a lot more gravel to G1

Megatron and yeah, you know He's old now. He

can't do the gravel like he could before So maybe

he can but he can't keep it up Well, for anyone

that played the movie video games for PlayStation

and whatever back when the 2007 games came out

for PlayStation 2, that was kind of the Megatron

he was playing up. It was like, I can't do that

voice anymore, so here's this instead. And it

did its job. I like it. It works, you know, but

it's not the same, exactly. It doesn't have to

be. yeah see for me it doesn't it doesn't have

to be because i was on record let me tell you

something the one that i left out peter cullen

um i love peter cullen don't get me wrong but

the entire series, he was phoning in the lines

like there was no... I'm playing the same voice

I've done for 25 years. Optimus, can we go stop

the Decepticons? The Decepticons must be stopped.

If they do not stop... Optimus, should we get

a pizza? Pizza is the right of all... It was

just... Oh my god! Peter, please! He's like,

how many times do I have to say this frickin'

line, you know? Just say it again, one more time,

Peter. You know how much we're paying you? Say

the freaking line. Can't you just take it from

my old recordings? Well, that's just it. That's

why, like, with Peter Cullen, that's why I didn't

mention him at all, I love the guy. Don't get

me wrong, he is optimist, but this whole thing

was just speech, speech, speech. So at least

with Welker, he at least was doing something

different. It wasn't him going like, star scream,

you imbecile, you know? There was actually a

little something more to it. If you've ever heard

Peter Cullen and the few lines he has in Rescue

Bots, he just phones that in. Exactly, it's the

same. I literally think he was sitting in his

bathrobe. With the script. Exactly. And it's

not even the same character from G1. It's not

even saying that, oh, he's just channeling that.

It's just that in his mind now, like he said,

like in recent interviews, that now he feels

that G1 Prime is like his brother, who's like

this military soldier. So now his vision of what

Prime is, is perfect soldier. Where if you look

at, if you actually go back and watch G1, He

wasn't like that, G1 Prime. It was John Wayne.

It was John Wayne. It was a little more loose.

It was, you know, you know, side swipe. Give

me that rocket pack now. You know, like there

was there was a breaking point. There was there

was joking, you know, are we going to get back

home, Prime? I don't know. You know, like there

was there. That's a literal line. You know, like,

I don't know, Mirage. You know, like it's just

there is where now would be like, we will get

home, Mirage. One way or another, Sideswipe,

I require your rocket pack. Rocket pack? Yes,

Sideswipe, I need it now. You know like, it would

be handled completely differently by him today

because of what he feels Optimus Prime is now.

Which is amazing when you look at Movie Prime

again, but whatever. We'll get to that in a couple

of minutes. We haven't gotten to give me your

face, or... Oh, no, no, no! Stop, stop, stop!

That is a whole other podcast episode. Alright,

here's the thing, and I'm gonna go on record

as saying this, you know, as much as I enjoy

watching the old G1 episodes and enjoy hearing

that version of Megatron, I am now going to say,

this is my official opinion, Prime Megatron is

easily the best Frank Welker Megatron we've ever

had. I loved it. I will say this again, unless

if you don't have Chris Salata, that's not what

made G1 Megatron. And it's the same thing with...

for Prime, I think he just needs someone to play

off of that really made it good. It's always,

you know, you're an idiot, Starscream. The playback

in... You're an idiot, Starscream. He never had

great lines on his own, you know? I think maybe

like, sure, such heroic nonsense. There's always

those ones from the 86 movie. But in general,

it's always been playing off of someone else.

You know, it's always been like that. That really

worked. I'll buy that. Will say the one thing

the one voice the one line that they could have

done this entire series Soundwave superior Autobots

inferior. I my jaw hit the floor when that happened

I think it was a given they had to give Soundwave

a voice sooner Okay, yeah, but they threw that

in as fan candy. Yeah, it's just fans going like

come on. Give us something Yes, yeah, they did

do that, but just the fact that it's Welker in

a booth, saying the line, and then they took

the old vocoder, you know, dusted it off, and

put it to its place. You know, it just... So,

so awesome. That's funny, I don't even remember

him having a line. When was this? It was, it

was only used once. It was when he was captured

by the Autobots in their hangar. Yeah, it was

in Season 3, Episode 10, minus one. I just remember

them cracking his faceplate, and there being

like a smiley face there. Yeah, I thought well

that's kind of cool. Yeah, I kind of like that.

I mean that's funny, but I don't remember him

actually speaking I mean that was that would

be neat the line is right after that happens

now now How pissed off would we all be if they

gave him the art to do to voice? It's like, all

right, that makes Starscream shut up. That's

when there'd be a riot. Makes Soundwave shut

up. Exactly. But see, that's what made Soundwave

so awesome. OK, I know everyone complained in

the beginning, but that's what made Soundwave

so awesome in this series. He didn't have to

talk. He was a robot of action. Well, I like

you like you would stomp his foot and everyone

would get attention. Exactly I kind of dug that

but at the same time also because I understood

why he wasn't talking because of budget reasons

So I kind of let that slide but that's again

me looking at from the different angles But at

the same time it would have been cool if he talked

but you know, I mean let's put it this way soundwave

talked and animated and At the same time that

really didn't make him any more awesome or any

less awesome than what he wasn't animated. So

Probably All right, so What about the toys now

Michael you said you weren't into the the toys

at all, you know, what's funny though is They

screwed up the toy line so badly So our Hasbro

just took such missteps with this toy line that

it wasn't difficult to go back and get a lot

of them on clearance Oh, that was my story Transformers

Prime Megatron Earth mode. I just I haven't gotten

him because I didn't want to spend the money.

The leader class? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I got him.

On clearance. That might kill me. So here's the

here's the problem with the Transformers toy

line. Printer was prime toy line. It they started

with these really awesome first edition ones.

Well, you're able to fuck in Canada. Yeah, well...

Man, did we not hear the end of that from every

American that wanted those clothes. Dude, dude,

could you get me a Prime? Could you get me a

Bullcat, a Cliffjumper? The scalping, let that

begin. Oh, man. They did the first editions.

Now, the first editions weren't exactly... You

know... We all know that, you know, size, you

know, scale is just non -existent in toys sometimes,

and that was one of the problems with the first

editions, and then they went to the robots and

disguise part of the line and whatever else.

You take a first edition RC, put her next to

a RID Optimus Prime, And she's basically the

same size as Transformers Prime Optimus in the

later lines. I loved the first edition stuff.

I loved how it looked. I think some of the other

ones down the line just weren't... That grit

like I think you hit it on the head the RC of

the robots in the skies in my opinion is the

better of the two It's it's more show accurate

in terms of design. I like the cyber bra if you

will was more accurate The scale is more accurate

where but I will say that the B is better The

cliff jumper is better. The prime is better.

The bulkhead is better I'm trying to look at

my display here. The Starscream, you didn't have

much of a choice anyways because the Voyager

was way too big. What else was there? I think

that was it, right? Oh, and they had the Viacom,

which again, it's apples and oranges because

the Robots in Disguise one's a little bit different

in design, but I think to have both would just

make sense because the bulkier army up, but whatever.

Which so you wanted the Voyager Megatron Steve

or what was there a leader Megatron? I don't

remember a leader. They had a leader They had

a Voyager and they had like a deluxe Something

from the 2 -pack. Yeah, I just I I wanted into

the Voyager the the the leader I just died never

got it The McDonald's Megatron looks like, oh

my God, that is so hard. Why would you even bring

that up? No, no, no, no, I'm just saying. I'm

just looking at them. I have them looking at

them, and I'm like, why would you even bring

these up? Just saying, the McDonald's Megatron

looks, I don't know, it's crazy looking. For

me, if I was going to have one of these guys,

it would probably be the... The bigger one the

one one of the Voyagers probably the more shinier

Voyager because that's more show accurate actually

know the Like you said Proto Man the the 2 -pack

the the first edition to back because he's I

think that of the first edition stuff I think

the Prime was a real home run I think it got

the colors just right and it comes with two weapons

that attach over the fist that really get add

to that hand swapping gimmick of like oh here's

your gun hand here's your sword hand and to me

like I remember when that first came out I saw

once locally here and everyone was scalping it

because that was the hot ticket item that came

him and bulkhead and but the prime honestly like

that that first prime is gorgeous I I still stand

like that's probably one of the better toys of

that entire line including beast beast hunters

I was about to say beast machines But I mean

then the Japanese even did their own repaints,

which are a little nicer too, but I'll get into

that after Did you see the Dark energon toys

that came out of that people's exclusives? Yeah,

big bad toy star exclusive those were hey, and

you know, it's funny BBTS had them at At BotCon

and they were trying to get rid of them and no

one really cared. Oh, yeah, I got them all like

half off Yeah, that's what it was Or less. Yeah,

I got a ridiculously good deal on them and I

got them all but I like them I like the colors.

I dig clear repaints. Those are always cool.

Yeah, but I think like, you know, like the thing

with the whole toy line as a whole was number

one They were doing a heavy push on the cyber

verse gimmick. We had a lot of play sets because

we had like What's the name of wheel jack ship

these the? Was it Star Hammer something? Yeah,

yeah, and then you had the energon drill that

came with with knockout and then they did the

the armors and then they did the big optimus

maximus Which was kind of like the return to

big play sets even that were yeah Totally that

worth the 40 bucks they wanted. Oh, no clearance

for 20 totally worth it but at the same time

there was that big push from the cyberverse angle

and like every character got a cyberverse toy

and then there was new characters so that was

cool. I like those. You know in the commander

scale which also was introduced in this the commander

scale was introduced which is the larger cyberverse

stuff for leader characters or big bulky characters

instead of just having a bumblebee that's the

same size of a bulkhead which would be silly.

So which something that unfortunately like say

the movie legends and the movie cyberverse stuff

suffered from But then you had like I mean there

was actually some interesting engineering that

when beat when I became Beast Hunters And they

really had to like think up of oh, here's this

character, but he's gonna have like beast parts

on him There was some interesting takes on it

which were cool like the Starscream as as a you

know pterodactyl thing homaging to like maybe

pterosaur or you know, just Having the ratchet

that there was very Dinobot in design Like specifically

like a mix of Dinobot and transmetal to Dinobot

and head sculpt there was the line had a lot

of hits or misses But it was interesting in general

There were some there were some cool toys. There

were some not cool toys, but I didn't hate it

too much I didn't hate it too much at all. There

was there was a lot of interesting stuff again

the smaller Megatron. Maybe you didn't need it

if you had the Voyager one. And I think any of

that weaponizer stuff is kind of passable for

the common collector like us that want to have

a really nice representation. That's more of

a gimmicky thing. But the Deluxe Voyager price

point gave us a lot of really good molds, really

good sculpts that are being used as exclusives

today and repaints. I mean, we got that... We

got... One of the bot con exclusives is yeah,

isn't one of the bot con exclusives of repaint

a Megatron Well, not only that one of the yeah,

one of the bot con exclusives, which was made

to alpha try on Which was also with the introduction

of kind of like a third faction and kind of using

the novel Which was kind of the characters name

is under wing. Yeah, not Thunderwing the lion

God his name escapes me right now. I'm looking

right at that wasn't it wasn't razor claw raise

not razor claw It's the blue the law man. Do

I have to look this up? You know, it's the pirate

guy, you know Yeah, that dude with the pirate

leg, you know that guy there's a guy yelling

listening to the podcast going like Hell you

know this, you know It's just escaping me right

now But it's just like, you know They introduced

him and he had his own faction and stuff and

that was something that was also from The novels

that were going on for the line continuity. So

you're supposed to be a pirate though Yeah, he

was a pirate, but he was kind of like his own

thing. You know, which was really cool that because

he had his own logo, his own faction on the box

instead of just being Autobot or Decepticon.

Yeah. It was just really cool to have that there,

to have Rumble and Frenzy. And then when the

Japanese kind of took hold of this whole line,

when they brought in the whole arms micron concept,

which was now there's going to be all these mini

con attachment, mini con ports, buildable figures

that are like little model kits with stickers.

You can have mini cons that are based aesthetically

off of their big, bulkier characters. So you

had OP that looked like Optimus, BB that looked

like Bumblebee, and you know, like OP turned

into a gun, Bumblebee turned into like a double

-bladed knife. A lot of interesting takes this

whole line had in general. And I think also from

an exclusive standpoint when SDCC did Shockwave's

lab, which was a really, really cool box where

you open it up and it's actually like, you know,

Predaking in his like protoform like in a tube

and shockwaves at the console like just nice

looking stuff. Just you want colors Yeah, exactly.

I liked a lot about this line. A lot. Like from

a toy standpoint. And hey, later on we got repaints

like, here's Bludgeon. We're going to have a

Bludgeon in this. They did Flame War from a repaint

from RC for the Legend scale. Not the recent

BotCon one, but the Legend. They gave us a Huffer.

They gave us a Trail Cutter. So they were still

giving us those G1 homages. When they did a Target

exclusive and they repainted Optimus Prime, it

was There was a Thunder Clash homage, which was,

again, a nice little nod there to that kind of

fan -wank stuff that I really dig. Bulkhead,

when he got a Beast Hunters toy, they gave him

the Roadbuster kind of color scheme. There was

so much of that, and I appreciate that. You got

a Prowl. Exactly, you got a Prowl from the Blue

Streak, and then Blue Streak ended up getting

a more show -accurate kind of color scheme afterwards,

too, with the Legends thing. There was a lot

of... fan wank there that I really appreciated.

I really liked that they did that kind of stuff.

And that's the stuff that to me always saves

the line and really gives it a little bit more

character for me. And not to mention there was

actually bios on the back too explaining why

they looked the way they looked or whatever.

And pack -in stories too. Every instruction manual

had a chapter explaining an extra piece of this

pack -in story with these new iterations of colors

or characters. Like, if you picked up the gigantic,

big Ultimate Optimus Prime with that Dragon Blaster

backpack, the pack -in story actually explained,

oh, Ratchet built this for him, and it's used

to take out Predaking, and you can continue the

story in Chapter 37, which is found with Ultimate

Predaking. Again, stuff I appreciate from a fictional

standpoint. Yeah, absolutely. Now, here's the

question of the hour. Are you happy or sad that

Erotimus was not put into this show or this line?

He was. His name was Smokescreen. No, no, no,

no. News! Yes! News! No, he wasn't. No. That's

what I said from day one. I was just like, you

could have called it Rodimus, and I would have

believed it. Hey, you know what? Smoshman, as

a G1 character, had very little characterization.

He was kind of, I don't want to say he was crotchety,

but he was just kind of like the grizzly kind

of war character from G1 in The God Gambit. And

I believe it was, he had like one or two lines

in Hollywood Hoist. And then, you know, the name

just kind of just coasted along and it was just

like, oh, hey, here he is as a Armada character

just because we couldn't call it hoist at the

time. So now the, you know, the grapple hoist

character is going to be called Smokescreen.

And he's also grizzled kind of warrior. The name

was just been kind of thrown around. And then

we get this Smokescreen character, which is he

is more or less Smokescreen in design as in the

G1 Smokescreen and even more so when he got his

recolor. But uh... character wise it was just

like it was totally rodham is hot rod with he's

gonna be the next one to be the leader he's the

young guy he's the you know trained by alpha

try on you couldn't have set it up more yet they

do that though and i think that they set it up

but they didn't they didn't do what we the fans

were expected reality is still and the sad thing

is that there is a hot rod in that continuity,

if you count War for Cybertron as part of that

continuity, which technically it is, even though

I kind of disagree with it by the way it was

handled, but it is, in the War for Cybertron...

DS games, the very first one, Rodimus is in it,

and he's a playable character, but they called

him Hot Shot, which was even more confusing.

And an insult to injury. What was even more confusing

is he was called Hot Shot all the way back, I

think this was like 2010. before Transformers

Prime the series came out. So he looks like Hot

Rod, he sounds like Hot Rod, he transforms like

Hot Rod, but he's called Hot Shot. Then Transformers

Prime comes out, they release a toy called Hot

Shot. It's blue, it has the aspects that are

like, it's an amalgam of the Cybertron version,

the Armada version. There's no real characterization

to this outside of the bio. So then it's like,

you know, people are questioning, is this the

same? Hot Shot is the Hot Rod homage in the video

game. Again, me digging too deep than one should

have to dig at all. And then Smoke Screen comes

around in season two, season three, that just

mucks up things even more and go, geez, you know,

like, this is freaking Hot Rod right here. Do

I want him in it? Honestly, no, because, I mean,

there is enough characters as it is to bring

in something like that. Hot Rod's an important

character. You bring him in. when something is

going to be related to the Matrix or a passing

of the torch, or if you don't have that young

character that you already had. You already had

Bumblebee, you already had Smokescreen, to bring

in Rodimus or Hot Rod would just be to have another

young character to goof around with Bumblebee

and everything, which I think there would be

already too much of that. And that's why people

are like, oh, would you want Rodimus in the movies?

No. Why? Well, no, that's just a flat no anyway.

Because everyone who was a Side Swipe fan really

got their Side Swipe when he was in the movie,

or Jetfire, or Hound, which was really bulk.

Anyways, I don't want to get into it, but yeah.

We'll get into that. Alright, final thoughts

on Transformers Prime, Steve? Overall a good

series. I would have known where they were going

to take it if they were to go on another season

or so. Because they did kind of leave it open

and again, I guess we'll kind of find out when

the new series starts but Because it's all connected

But I really enjoyed the the new takes on the

characters in this a nice detractor from the

piece of shit that is the bavers So I it's I

I would said that I bring this is my my close

second to Beast Wars and my favorites What about

you, Michael? Final thoughts? I kind of feel

bad that... You should! No, I feel bad about

a particular thing. I feel bad that I offended

Stephen Melching. At one point, I brought it

up in a public forum that I was not happy with

the writing from season one and season two, and

that they just kept retreading the same old canon.

And when are they going to do something new and

interesting? And... In reply, Stephen Melching

says, I'm right here, Michael. And I went, ah!

And I replied and said, you know, I still stand

by what I said. Sorry, but I still stand by what

I said. When are you going to do something more

interesting? And the next season, we get Dragons.

So, you know, I kind of ate Crow there. What

about you, Proto Man? I always say it every time.

Tons of potential. budget -wise, voice acting

-wise, everything wasted. Wasted potential. I

think that considering the amount of money that

they had behind every episode, the CG, I mean

they won awards for this CG, that's how good

the CG was. All of that... I think they could

have done something really big really big really

well put together But I think they kind of fell

short of what they were trying to do Confused

what they were trying to do. I guess it's the

best way to put it. I don't know, but I just

feel wasted potential I'm not saying it's horrible

like oh my god worst Transformers series ever

But I think that it could have been so much bigger.

It really could I mean when you bring in Unicron

It's supposed to be big You know what I mean?

You do not bring in Unicron in a series that

spans 52 episodes total plus a movie, and Unicron

is allocated to three of those 52 episodes. I

think it was 65. Yeah, 52 is just season one

and two. That's not helping their case then.

So then the point is you do not allocate him

to three episodes out of the entire series, and

then, oh hey, he's lingering in the movie. at

the end. That's not something you do. You build

worlds around Unicron. You don't build temporary

three -parter story arcs. You do not do that.

For me, I love the CGI. I wish they were content

I wish we had a season four and I don't know

where the new so you're telling where's animated

season four before you oh stop Get over it get

over it say that to everyone at bach on that

weekend. That's it It's already been done hell

Derek's already talked about all the stuff that

would have happened in season four most of it

They remember so no no if there was a season

four I'd be interested to see where they go at

after the movie. Now, I do know that the new

series is kind of picking up where Prime left

off after Predacons Rising. I'm interested to

see how they basically amalgam the animated style

and the CGI of Prime. It's going to be interesting

to see that. I'm very happy that Friedel is returning

as Bumblebee. For Prime itself, I really enjoy

it. There are probably going to be moments...

when later this year myself, Steve Megachon and

Pekonk Michael here will, you know, nitpick the

hell out of the show when we talk about it in

Transformers Prime time coming up later this

year from the GCRN. But overall, I still love

the show. Don't get me wrong. Like that's the

thing. Like there's a lot of things that's better

than there's a lot. But it's just I feel it could

have been so much more. You know, like the thing

is Armada did not have the budget, did not have

the voice acting, did not have the potential,

but at least it was kind of able to tell a story

at the end, you know, despite all that things

going against it where this, it had everything

going for it. It had the support of Hasbro 100%,

and I think that it could have weaved such a

more beautiful web than what was given. Well

said. Steve, you want to close it out? Because

I think that's going to do it for this one. Alrighty,

so thank you for listening to all things Transformers

and we'll catch you on the next episode where

we talk about Michael Bay's travesty of a franchise

of the Transformers films. Transform and roll

out!