Top 10 Transformers Voice Actors and Character Voices

Starscream here, and I am Lord and Master of

All Things Transformers. Don't tell Megatron.

Hey everybody, this is Dan Kilbazan, voice of

G -1 Bumblebee, and you're listening to All Things

Transformers. You're listening to All Things

Transformers, version 2 .0. things transformers

know your ears do not deceive you I am TF2 and

Mike Steve Megatron had to go on a five -year

journey into space at this time this is episode

47 of all things transformers version 2 .0 this

is somewhat of a contention amongst myself and

the other two hosts at least one of us at least

two of us out of the three agree the other one

gets a complete F for his homework I get an A

for effort You get an F for effort. There are

two Fs in effort, thank you. You can get one

of them. You get a double negative F, you get

an F minus. Well then he gets an A. No, he gets

an F minus, that's what he gets. Joining me is

Optimus Solo, hello. Hi, I'm here. And Pecan

Court Michael, hello. Hey, how's it going? It's

going. All right, so originally we... We weren't

sure what the hell to do with this countdown.

It was originally going to be top ten Transformers

voice actors, our favorite voice actors, talk

about them and the voices that they do. And then

Optimus Solo just pointed out, well, we might

as well just have all top ten Frank Welker episodes

because that's pretty much, you know, Frank Welker

did every single voice ever. That's right. Which

he didn't. Did you see on my Facebook while earlier

I posted Gary Oldman? No. god uh... all it's

article that would get a little bit of uh...

you know that we'll get a little bit actually

just watched uh... the fifth element again it

was just kind of on cable uh... well anyway uh...

so we had an option of either a top ten favorite

transformers voice actors or top ten favorite

transformers voices Two of us have gone with

character voices and Michael Wilson who gets

an F - went with the voice actors. I cheated.

That way I get more than ten. Do you have anything

you want to add to this, Kevin? No. Okay, we're

gonna take a quick break and we'll come back

with the top ten after this. Well, if you've

got a better idea, my auditory circuits are go.

Alright, we are back and we're gonna go with

the cheater first. What is your number 10? Transformers

voice actor my number 10 Transformers voice actor

is Fred Willard Who voiced animated swindle?

He just he made he made that character for me.

I've always loved swindle, but Fred Willard really

just Made that made it that whole series was

full of good You know cameos voice actor cameos

or celebrity cameos But Fred Willard was one

of my favorites. So he gets the number 10 spot

as animated swindle Kevin what is your number

10 favorite transformers voice? My favorite 10

favorite character voice man. This is kind of

hard to narrow down but It's going to be my first

entry in the countdown from none other than Frank

Welker. And it's a different take on Frank Welker

voice and maybe not one that you'd expect me

to list in the top 10 here. But I'm going to

go with a G1 character and that would be Rumble.

I liked that voice because it was a different

tone, different pitch than what we're getting

with a lot of them. Also, he got a lot of cool

lines. in the writing of G1, in the writing of

the movie, etc. He ended up being fortunate enough

to have better lines than a lot of the other

characters sometimes. But I liked what Frank

Walker did with that voice. He, you know, raised

it up a little bit, had a little more of a younger,

higher pitched, fun sounding voice there, you

know, possibly with a tiny bit of an effect there.

But I just liked, I like listening to rumble

talk much better than most of the other cassettes

that did talk. And let's give a shout out to

Frenzy, who had no lines. Yes. No, he did. He

had lines. Yeah. You always hear rumble. Rumble's

like, let's rumble, rumble style. Or he'll say,

well, in the movie, he's like, nobody calls,

yeah, nobody calls a subway uncrasomatic. I mean,

there's just just funny, funny lines. Well, after

that, after that, Frenzy says, let's kick tailgate.

Does he? Yeah. See? That's an example of him

not getting as good a line as I am. He gets no

love. Just no love whatsoever. How about you,

Mike? Uh, number 10. G1 Soundwave. Busting out

Soundwave already. You know, I... I love G1 Soundwave.

Everyone can say, oh, it's just Dr. Claw with

a vocoder. It may be, but G1 Soundwave was awesome

and cool, and I really dug him. The only reason

why he's not higher is because I like a lot of

voices more than that as we go along. So Michael

who is your number nine favorite voice actor

quick change the subject My number nine is Tara

strong Because I will never apologize for liking

Tara strong She did a lot of it why would anyone

have to just say well, you know We're gonna go

through this list and there's gonna be a lot

of iconic transformer voices and Tara strong

isn't I mean animated she did sorry she did slo

-mo, which was really cool I mean, I like the

you know the kind of 1920s gangster things she

did with slo -mo she did slipstream which is

a Character who is very popular with a fandom

now, you know Strika which is a character that

is not really all that popular with a fan But

I mean she did a bunch of voices For animated,

but but not so much You know animated isn't the

the quintessential transformers series And she

didn't do anything. I heard Kevin just fall out

of his chair why? Because you just said something

bad about animated Well, you know, I mean out

of the 30 Transformers series are you know lines

or so the animated isn't yeah, I love it But

but I mean it's not it's not my all -time favorite

It's not most people's all -time favorite and

a lot of people may say Tara strong. What voice

did she do? In transformers because I mean she's

got a lot of voices outside of transformers and

she's very popular But the fact of the matter

is she's beautiful. She's funny I I just I just

love Tara strong to death and I will never apologize

for digging Tara strong Yeah, then your number

nine favorite transformers voice I guess my number

10 and my 9 were kind of oddball ones, maybe

under the radar type of characters. Also, maybe

not a voice actor like Michael just talked about,

maybe not a voice actor you think of when you

think of the Transformers franchise. I'm gonna

go with the G1 character voiced by Hal Rail.

Hal Rail did the voice of Shrapnel in G1. I just

really enjoyed listening to shrapnel do anything

in g1 He was cool in most of this, you know,

he probably outshined the other insecticons I

think that's pretty safe to say as far as the

voice work and the lines he was given So I really

love shrapnel. I think I didn't realize hell

real did the voice He's pretty famous voice actor,

but not one that you would think of immediately

when you think of transformers. So my number

nine was shrapnel from g1 It's a good choice.

Now he was just at TFCon in Toronto, right? Yep.

I'm crossing the fingers and hoping he comes

to Chicago too. That'd be cool. I think so, from

what I've heard from our TFCon buddy. Did he

not also do Snarl? Yes, I believe he did. I think

without looking at behind the voice actors calm.

I don't know. I think he did. Yes My number nine

is transformers prime Megatron Really, you know,

you've busted out sound wave and Megatron already,

you know, I bet you thought that Steve was gonna

be here. So he was gonna offset a little bit

for you. No, not at all What Frank Welker did

to update Megatron and still have it somewhat

sound like the G1 Megatron was amazing. First

of all, he saved his own vocal cords by going

to the other end of the spectrum. Instead of

going high, he went low. And there are times

where he is yelling as this Megatron, and it

is just... I just... I love... Transformers Prime

Megatron? I know Steve is gonna, you know...

comment on the website about this, but Transformers

Prime Megatron in the overall car version of

Transformers, not the beast version, but the

car version, Transformers Prime Megatron is easily

the most badass villain we've ever had. He's

up there. Mm -hmm. Just to answer the question,

Hal Rayl did a snarl, he also did pipes, and

he did one of the sweeps. Poor pipes. Ha, pipes.

Yeah for pipes he got blown up All right, Michael

number eight favorite voice actor I'm gonna go

with one of my all -time favorite voice actors

here Steve Bloom Besides being the definitive

voice of Wolverine, which has nothing to do with

Transformers Steve Bloom play Steve Bloom played

Starscream in Transformers Prime. He was heatwave

and rescue rescue bots one of my other favorite

series because for various reasons right and

he has been in a bunch of the transformers video

games because he is in the guinness book of world

records as the most prolific video game voiceover

actor yes i love steve bloom he's fantastic when

they announced him as star scream Everybody was

waiting for him to give them a sample of what

Starscream was gonna sound like for prime and

he said I'm sorry I can't not yet and when he

did The internet exploded just like they're exploding

right now at this moment over the Batmobile pictures

from BBS Yeah, but seriously though when he revealed

the voice and what it was going to be it was

like, oh my god Yes, that so works for what transformers

prime was. Yeah, I mean the definitive You know

Wolverine voices Steve Bloom, and I was afraid

that Starscream was gonna be Wolverine. I mean

not that I would have complained, but it wouldn't

have been Starscream, right? Yeah, yeah, no Kevin

your number eight favorite voice My number eight

I I absolutely love the job that this guy did

with this character and I guess most people would

think if I was gonna say this character in my

countdown that I'd be talking about a different

voice actor. My number eight is gonna be Unicron

and the rendition. would be from Transformers

Prime, and that would be John Noble, who does

the voice there in Transformers Prime. Oh, you

know, I thought you were going to go Orson Welles.

Yeah, that's why I said most people would probably

think I was going to go that direction. But I'm

actually going with the John Noble version on

this one at my number eight spot, because I didn't

know what to expect when Unicron was going to

appear in Transformers Prime. Was expecting to

not like the voice of it, but John Noble did

wonders with that voice He had the deep booming

sound that you expect, you know Orson Welles

like but he was able to act On top of voice if

that makes sense it wasn't just giving us a voice

But he was acting through that voice and that

it was probably one of my favorite voice voice

work in Transformers Prime. So, number eight,

John Noble, Unicron, Transformers Prime. Absolutely.

I'm gonna have to go back and hear clips of that

because I... Oh, you're gonna hear a clip of

it at the end of this episode. Yeah, I just don't

find it that memorable. I'm like, I don't remember

what he sounded like. Are you serious? No, I

don't. The one line that I remember him saying

is, what is this I sense? The taint of Primus?

Let's be the taint of Primus Taint something

That's awful. See now again, I think honorable

mention I would have went with Orson Welles as

Unicron just because He's so quotable like the

five lines that he have are ingrained in my brain

forever He then he died 20 % of his voice work.

The rest of it is just Nelson Shin filling in

Yes, very much so All right number eight for

me Unless he's done sound wave Megatron. Are

we getting an afters prime next? Number eight

for me is the guy with A million action credits

at this point. He has played Bishop in X -Men

Evolution. Oh, there you go. Oh, no, wait. He

has played Panthero in the 2011 Thundercats.

He has played, um, who else? Well, he was Killawog

in Green Lantern the Animated Series. None other

than Mr. Kevin Michael Richardson as Bulkhead

in Transformers Prime. Oh, I should have picked

him. I love Transformers Prime bulkhead. Oh,

yeah. The character voice, even though it's just

Kevin Michael Richardson's almost regular voice,

the all of them are Kevin Michael. Just yeah.

Well, yeah. But I mean, like just. What what

makes me so proud of this guy as this giant green

robot in this character is honestly. uh... the

Scraplets episode he screams like a little girl

yes bulkheads you know this you know god knows

how tall you know twenty five foot tall robot

you know giant hulking thing used to be a wrecker

screams like a little girl in front of this little

itty bitty Scraplet so funny bulkhead in prime

You know, no offense to the acting skills of

Bill Fagerbachy, but I'm sorry, Bulkhead and

Prime erased everything in my memory of Bulkhead

from animated. Because Bulkhead and Prime, I

think if I counted it up, he had maybe in the

entire series run five times where he was really,

really stupid and dumb acting. but the character

or you know pairing him up with Miko I know a

lot of people don't care for Miko fine but pairing

the two of them up and you know having the really

really you know having bulkhead actually act

like a decent character and have him act like

he actually is getting to like what Miko likes

having him like heavy metal is just amazing just

heavy metal music was just awesome so absolutely

love kevin michael richardson as bulkhead and

that that character and they did something with

that character they i mean they they've done

it okay they i guess this is a standard for bulkheads

because they did do it in transformers animated

where that bulkhead was a space bridge genius

bulkhead and genius for animated should not go

in the same sentence. But in Transformers Prime,

they kind of did the same thing where he could

read the hieroglyphics at some point or another.

So really absolutely love that character and

love Kevin's voice for that character. I like

Kevin in everything I hear. And again, it's usually

his basic speaking voice. So when you hear him,

it's like, oh, it's Kevin Michael Richardson.

But it's awesome, every time. Yeah, absolutely.

He's got a great voice. Absolutely. Michael,

your number seven favorite voice actor? Number

seven, Cory Burton. Which character? Well, you

know, I'll tell you. All of them. Not quite.

No, I mean, he did a lot of characters, but I

particularly like G1's Shockwave and how... how

he transitions years and years and years later

into animated shockwave. Absolutely. Animated

shockwave, I think you've made this argument

before, animated shockwave is actually better

than G1 shockwave. Well, the only reason why

I say that is because G1 shockwave and the entire

hundred and something... Episodes that are well

90 something episodes that show had he says ten

things out of 90 something episodes He's the

Boba Fett of g1 yeah I Would be if you had to

pick one character that was it would be yeah,

and honestly when you were little once you had

you know I think everyone had an office prime

and a sound wave and if you're lucky you got

a Megatron and maybe a car or two But everybody

wanted to have a shockwave. Mm -hmm. He was the

laser gun that made lights and noise Yeah, there

you go. No, no he was and and he was animated

Megatron which is In some in some circles some

people's favorite Megatron So there's that Yeah,

I mean I do like him as animated as animated

Megatron and something different for for Megatron

So that was interesting and cool All right, what

the hell number number seven Kevin yeah, you

know I will go back to g1 with this one. I guess

Probably a lot of people would be expecting this

to be towards the top of my countdown I guess

I'm only putting it up at number seven and not

lower because it is basically The same voice

that he used for another iconic 1980s character.

My number seven would be Chris Lada's G1 Starscream

That's a pretty iconic voice. Yes, it's basically

the same as Cobra commander There's more hissing

in G .I. Joe But it's still a very cool voice,

very unique. I don't really know how he did that

to his voice, and I would never want to do that

to my voice. But everybody loves Starscream,

so that voice was very cool. I guess when I was

making my countdown to, even though I had a bunch

of people listed originally, that I was eliminating

people that just used their regular voice. Not

that that's not still good voice acting, but

if we're talking about unique voices, I guess

I was trying to think of something different.

And for this is like a prime example of something

different. This is not Chris Lauda's voice. I'll

buy that. Back in the 80s, you go, Chris, buddy,

how do you do that Starscream voice? It's like

cocaine. Lots and lots of cocaine. I don't even

feel my throat right now. Right. So, yeah, Chris

Lauda Starscream number seven is very neat. And

can't be redone ever again. Can't do it ever

again. Nobody can ever do that anymore. My number

seven... It does not compute. My number seven...

Well, I love the version in G1. I think it was

a hell of a lot funnier and better done almost

25 years later and animated. And I'm talking

about Mr. Micromachete himself, John Machete

Jr., as Blur in Transformers Animated. Zippy?

I don't think I've ever been called Zippy before.

Zippy. Absolutely love Machete coming back to

do Blur. And I think that the creators and the

producers and everybody for Animated, when they

set out to do that, I think it's season two episode,

it might be season one, I'm not looking at what

he said. Season two episode, Velocity. where

we have the street racing thing and the Blue

Racer shows up and, you know, we see the Blue

Racer. As Transformers fans, we all know it's

Blur, but the big question is, who's going to

be voicing him? And I was as shocked as Bumblebee

was when Blur actually finally spoke, and I loved

every minute of it. I think they gave him better

lines in the new series that they did in the

G1 series, because it seemed like they... It's

all it seemed like that they were taking into

account This might be total bullshit, but it

seemed like they were taking into account the

fact that he was going to be translated into

Japanese With a lot more lip flaps for the same

for the same line or something. So they said

just repeat the same thing three times It's like,

okay You're doing video game lines just hurry

up and do them repeat everything ten times. Yeah

I didn't like g1 blur for that reason because

I mean he wouldn't go on a diatribe Like it wouldn't

be something that would just take longer to say

like perceptor It was the same thing over and

over and over and over again, or he would say

the same thing three times in slightly different

Verbiage, you know, but it would be this it would

be the same point three three times in a row

It would just be said really fast. Whereas an

animated they gave him that monologue That he

just spat out I think they were probably worried

I think they did that intentionally back in the

day because they were worried kids wouldn't Be

able to follow what he was saying. So they're

like, oh just say it three times, but it'll still

be fast But then they'll still hear what you

said, you know, I don't think that was necessary

kids didn't have any trouble Following him on

micro machines. They bought the hell out of those.

Yeah, I think whoever was doing the voice directing

there just didn't Quite understand that no, we'll

get it No problems, I blame Wally Yes, we can

all blame Wally Burr Because you can't leave

a Wally Burr session unless you're actually bleeding

Nobody goes home. It's right eight hours later

machete just says can I just say the same thing

three times? Just go with that John Michael your

number six favorite Transformers voice number

six my favorite and yours Scott McNeil Scott

McNeil mainly did Beast Wars stuff. He did a

smattering of other things, but In the Beast

Wars lineup, he was Dinobot, Rattrap, Silverbolt,

Waspinator And he's just fantastic. He's a great

guy You know, I've had the chance to meet him

a few times and talk with him because he talks

with everybody at length I think I've actually

got a recording of him once that I brought back

Yeah, but yeah great guy fantastic voice actor

You know, he's one of the few that I've actually

heard live who speaks to himself Lawlessly just

jumping back and forth It's it's a shame that

You know, they didn't use him more more prominently.

I should say in other lines because he is such

a great actor Kevin your number six. All right,

everybody that said bad things about me earlier

can take them back My number six will be Orson

Welles version That's a cop out. Ranked up a

little higher, huh? They're different. They're

different takes on it. I appreciated John Knowles.

I'd rank him in the top ten, but Orson Welles

is even that much better. Maybe I'm just a sucker

for that type of sounding voice in this franchise,

but yeah, there was almost nothing better than

hearing Orson Welles as Unicron and as a kid

during Transformers the movie. Yeah. And it was

just like pure intimidation and respect. It just

sounds like a really fat guy just trying his

best to breathe. That's the actuality. Then proceed

on your way to oblivion. Man, he sounds like

he's out of breath. Floating through space must

be hard. Unicron was a very old character. He'd

been through a lot. It's like when you just wake

up, it's like your wake up voice like when you

don't quite have it together yet There's a planet

just waking up man, give it a break It's like

are you okay? I'm gonna die in two weeks We are

not being friendly to transformers voice actors

who have died Exactly. Orson Welles is like,

it's peas. It's peas, damn it. I can't do it

justice. What was that? The peas? It's in July.

In July. Why would you say in July? That's right.

He tore into that guy. All right, my number six.

My number six is going to cause controversy because

I know Kevin's going to scoff at me. Scoff? Yeah.

Yeah, you will. You're going to do it again,

too. My number six, they'd been teasing us for

three and a half seasons, almost 64 full episodes.

We had nothing but beeps. Until Batman showed

up and voiced Bumblebee in Transformers Prime.

Kevin Conroy? No, Wilfredel from Batman Beyond.

Wilfredel, Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World.

Who? Oh my god. I wanna hear Kevin Conroy do

Bumblebee. That would've been hilarious. You

know, I... Wow. Oh, yeah, he was, yeah, he was,

yeah, he was. 2011, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you

know, how do you say, Lionel would have been

a good Bumblebee voice. Okay. Sure, it's young

and, yeah, it's so commanding. Yes. I absolutely

love that they finally gave Bumblebee a voice.

What I liked more about Bumblebee's character

in Transformers Prime, yes, it was R2 -D2B, but

it was better than the crappy Radio B in the

movies. But what I loved about it is how everyone

else basically interpreted, I think one of my

favorite scenes out of Transformers Prime with

Bumblebee and the rest of the cast is when he's,

when he basically makes the sound for loop -de

-loop and RC says, oh, loop -de -loop. I just

absolutely love that. But when they finally gave

him a voice and it was Will Friedle, it was like,

oh my God, that is amazing. It wasn't Danny Gilbertson,

so I was like, meh. You know what honestly I

don't unless and this will never happen because

The creators of Volkswagen will never never ever

ever ever ever ever ever let Hasbro do it again

Unless it's a bug It can't be it can't be gilvazan

all right like if I was gonna choose a different

bumblebee character I would pick From the games

war for Cybertron follow Cybertron with Johnny

young Bosch, okay? Um, cause I like that voice

for Bumblebee as well. But I mean, it just, it

just really meant something for me that we hadn't

had a Bumblebee voice for 64 episodes. And then,

you know, to bring in someone that I actually,

you know, I knew what they were from, like John

Noble is Unicron. It's a cool Unicron voice,

but until I looked him up online, I didn't know

anything he had done previously. So for me as

a carry, you know, Bumblebee as a character,

knowing the person that is doing the voice, it

really appeals to me as well. Now, is Friedel

returning for the new series? Yeah. Oh, OK. Well,

yeah. All right. I'll buy that for a dollar.

It's for it. Well, I mean, more than a dollar.

But 25. I love it. But I mean, I I'm hoping I'm

crossing the fingers that the new series is going

to be a little more fun, a little a little more.

Looks to be a little more animated if you will,

you know Yeah, but if it's if he basically pulls

that off be a meld between Prime and animated

as far as I can tell with the design of the show

That's what I'm thinking just a glance and from

the previews that I've seen We can cross the

fingers. Yep. All right, Michael. You're a number

five favorite Transformers voice actor number

five David K Just because he's awesome. Oh that

low, huh? What what five? Should he be higher,

you know, it's Steve. We're here. He'd be like

number one bitches But I'm not Steve but you

know Beast Wars Megatron iconic Megatron voice

You know not to be surpassed by Welker, you know,

but still pretty pretty great I thought he was

fantastic as animated optimus And I might even

give him some appreciation for animated Grimlock

because he's no Greg Berger, but he made me like

Grimlock. Oh, yeah. What about you, Kev number

five? All right. Top five here. Yeah, I think

you had him. in the wrong number position. I

think he deserves to be higher. I'll go with

my second Frank Welker on my list, and that would

be G1 Soundwave. Probably my favorite voice as

a kid. Drops down to number five now as an adult,

I guess. But yeah, I mean, yeah, maybe cheap

because of the vocoder, but everybody thought

Soundwave sounded cool. Like, he was the most

robotic sounding transformer we got, I guess.

So It just sounded right. It sounded different.

It had a cool effect and it made you want the

toy. It made you like the character. It was,

again, it was one of those things for me, even

that I like more was that he was obviously a

man of few words. So it was like when he did

talk, everybody was paying attention because

it seems like this is going to be important because

he doesn't talk all the time. So I don't know.

I enjoyed what they did with Sound Away from

G1. Not number five I Mean if I really wanted

to put sound wave higher I would have added the

prime version of him because of one line One

line he had yeah, my number five is swindle from

transformers animated. Oh my god, I I like swindle

in g1 but He never really... Every time I saw

him, he said like one or two lines, and then

Galvatron was just ripping him a new one half

the time. Well that was later, but early on he

had like one or two episodes all to himself.

Man, I still... I think Fred Willard made him

cooler. I have to agree. Just... Just the way

that Willard's voice is and the way that the

character, I mean, this guy, the only time he

was ever shocked is when he gave birth to Optimus

Prime. Because that doesn't happen every day.

No. And for those of you who. tried to erase

transformers animated from your memories there's

a point where optimus prime comes through uh...

swindles personal the space bridge her personal

personal work drive he basically comes out of

the guy's chest a little pocket universe there

yes yes it's weird i can't remember that i'll

find a video it was later yeah Yes, I had to

suppress that memory. I was traumatized What

does this show you guys keep talking about? Shut

up you jerk Michael number four favorite voice

actor number four Mr. Greg burger. I have to

make sure that I pronounce this right because

for some reason there's two G's and Greg Greg

yeah You know, Greg did a couple of voices, but

my favorite, I think everyone's favorite is G1

Grimlock. And, you know, and there was an arc

to Grimlock where he started out like badass

and really kind of really, really dumb. And then

as he became more of a Daniel's puppy in season

three, he got more lions. Give him a crown, give

him an apron, make him go cook the chicken. There

you go. He had more lives, but he was still kind

of silly. He was still dumb, but he was more

silly than leadership material. They didn't surround

him with his other Dinobots, and he's just kind

of like comic relief at that point. But when

he came back and did Grimlock again for Fall

of the Cybertron, it was... It was like, wow,

it's almost like Frank Welker coming back and

doing Megatron again. It was like, wow, this

is the best thing ever. And you just salivate.

Aw. Awesome. Kev, number four. That's my number

four. My number four. I haven't gotten there

yet. And Steve would appreciate it. So I will

go to the World of the Beast Wars for my number

four. Michael kind of mentioned it already, but

Scott McNeil's version of Dinobot That's a really

hard voice to do it's a hard voice to mimic yeah,

and It also in his performance you got that I

mean obviously the character is both good at

times and bad at times etc. He's kind of like

straddling that fence a lot and You get that

from the voice If you hear that voice, you're

not quite sure is that coming from a good character?

Is that coming from a bad character and the inflections

that he does and I just really really liked What

he did with Dinobot during that series? It's

probably one of my favorite characters from that

series at times. So first Beast Wars for me,

Scott McNeil Dinobot That's a good choice for

as far as you know Scott McNeil voices. I want

to tell a quick Scott McNeil Dinobot story in

that One year not too long ago. I want to say

was 2010 maybe he was nominated voted for and

won our Dinobot piece for his Dinobot won a place

in the Transformers Hall of Fame and They had

a dinner and and and I was there Scott McNeil

was there. He was maybe two tables in front of

me And they basically snubbed him. They snubbed

him! Every character that wins, they have a little

montage that Hasbro put together. It was really

awesome. It showed off all of the DinoBot scenes.

And did they ask him to come up and say a few

words? He was sitting right there next to the

stage. They could have said, Scott McNeil, this

is an iconic character brought to life by you.

This isn't G1. Dinobot or any other dinosaurs

this is this is You know your Dinobot that that

you brought to life and people love you for it

And he's in the Hall of Fame now. Would you like

to speak on his behalf? Nope, they just let him

sit in there eating his bad chicken Like no,

I'm I guess I'll just sit here. Never mind. Do

they do other voice actors talk for the other?

Don't want to say that they did I believe they

did I don't want to say that they did maybe they

weird Maybe they did in previous years. I'm not

sure maybe they thought they were short for time

I would have got up and stormed off. Well, yeah,

that was awesome. Fuck you guys Stomped out of

the ballroom, but maybe they were you know, like

I said, maybe they were short for time and You

know Scott is known to be long -winded. They

didn't want him up there for half an hour I don't

know, but I I've kind of felt bad for him. He

was sitting right there They could have easily

called him up and had him say a few words They

could have even nudged him a little bit and says

keep it short Scott, you know, right off the

mic, right? But but no nothing. I know I was

really surprised I would I would have given I'm

sure the whole ballroom, you know would have

stood up and given the man a standing ovation

because That was his character Kev number four

Scott McNeil a dynamite This is gonna shock a

lot of people this is probably gonna cause people

to drop their eye devices and mp3 players All

right It's easier than saying all of the different

damn names that Apple has. Number four is Bender

himself. Hot Rod Rodimus Prime G1. Oh, I'm like,

who did John DiMaggio? I was already writing

down John DiMaggio. I don't know where we're

going with this, but I'm going to keep writing.

Is that the Transformers voice? I don't remember.

I would have picked him. John Bender himself

from Breakfast Club. Oh, you know, Mr. Judd Nelson.

What'd you say? It's like now everybody's caught

up to us. Yeah, exactly. The way Mike's brain

works, folks, sometimes we just go fucking nuts

and enjoy the ride. I wasn't sure what to think

of them bringing in, like, hot young actors to

do a lot of the new movie voices. Other times

it was not hot or young. It was Orson Michaels.

Indeed, it was John Machida. I'm just saying,

not hot, not yarm. I'm talking about... Robert

Stack, how do you feel about being a hot young

actor? Well, I know standard, you're old as shit.

Talking about some of the other voices. They

were basically bringing in all new voices for

these new characters, and Bender from the Breakfast

Club is not somebody I imagine voicing a Transformers

character. I didn't even remember his name from

the Breakfast Club. I don't either. I still don't.

Sue Blue, how do you feel about being a hot young

actor? I want to run your shit someday. I want

to run all this shit someday. Great job, Sue.

Yeah. Rod, Rodimus Prime, you know, Nelson, Judd

Nelson gave an amazing performance with that

voice. The character basically gets no real love

from the fandom because none whatsoever. He's

no leader. Give us Optimus Prime back. Give us

the leader that basically failed us 20 different

times throughout the entire series. Hot Rod and

Hot Rod slash Optimus Prime never actually got

a chance to lead properly. Wow, that could be

a whole episode all to itself. Yeah, exactly.

You know, I don't want to offend Protoman here

by bad mouthing his favorite character too much,

so I'm just going to leave it at that. Number

three Michael number three Christopher Collins

Also known as Chris lotters There was like who

what John DiMaggio What do you want to start

scream? You know what? I didn't know which I

thought was funny. He was G1 Wheeljack You know,

it's for I did not know that all these years

I didn't know that until I looked on IMDB and

I was like, holy crap. He was wheeljack Which

is cool. Um, and also another one. I have my

favorite characters from G1 transformers Old

snake Also known as old Cobra commander because

he was Cobra commander Yeah, yeah, so he was

Yeah, I really I really like Chris Lotta's work

back in the day and you know, it's so much anymore

that well, that's You know every once in a while

I hear him turning over in his grave, but but

that's That's all I hear from him anymore. It's

like what what? But this the spongebob guys playing

star -screen presser Russell Russell Russell.

Oh, there he is Damn it. They brought in all

those hot young voice actors Number three is

also somebody that you had already mentioned,

but I feel like he should be higher And that

would be Frank Welker. My last time I'll mention

him. Not going to talk about him again. Megatron

from Transformers Prime. Or Megatron from just

about any other incarnation, but I guess if I

have to choose one I'll go with his portrayal

during Transformers Prime. Yeah, he did a great

job. So gotta have one of Frank Welker's Megatrons

on the list, so I'll put him at number three.

See, now, you should be allowed to include G1

and Prime and then do, like, an essay on, you

know, the comparing and contrasting the two.

Right. I'm sorry, I just was trying to keep it

together. Yeah. Assholes. A bunch of fucking

assholes. I like how they brought a young and

hot guy to come play. I wanted to introduce Frank

Welker as that, but I couldn't get it out. Yeah,

I could face either Number three my number three

is RC from Transformers Prime Simile Montano

brought so much to the voice into that character

The character is in of itself RC finally got

a time I got time to kick ass in this show and

she does Because let's face it RC and G1 while

Sue blue is amazing as a voice actress. Yeah,

she was basically The RC the character was the

ho that every other male Autobot tossed around

what? Just in favor of somebody Montana coming

in and replacing Susan blue because she's a hot

young actress She is very attractive We had a

nice conversation with Sumo Lee and it was...

I don't think we went in that direction. No,

she went in a completely other direction. She

told us the story of the time that she was at

a voice acting studio and she was pregnant. And

she didn't want anybody else to know that she

was... Well, no, what it was was she was pregnant

and she didn't want anyone to know that her water

had broken. But no RC as a character in transformers

prime she kicked so much ass the rivalry she

had with it reacted was amazing The emotion that

was brought to the character with the events

that had happened to her was absolutely awesome

So yeah, that's why she comes in. She just got

better Better and the lines and as she got better

they gave her better lines and better moments

You know, there was a lot of Just emotion and

inflection there that that we hadn't seen previous

to that. Absolutely. Absolutely. I was gonna

say, you know, Sue Blue's like I am totally running

this shit and what what? Sumo Lee Montana's better

than me is our CEO. Where's that Blanchard? Find

his ass. Yeah number two Michael number two I

command you to do a number two Peter Cullen Is

my number two and I know you're already guessing

who number one is Peter Cullen is my number two

because he is optimus prime He's you know, he

is optimus prime And when they brought him back

for the movies, it was it was pretty fantastic.

I was that's not Optimus Prime I'm not I'm not

saying that g1 Optimus Prime equals movie prime

Bay former prime I'm saying that he he voiced

both of them Did he voice them equally? No are

the same character? No, no, but he voiced them

both and I was very happy When they brought him

back to play in the movies Because if they had

chosen anybody else I Wouldn't have been as happy.

I probably would have gone. I'm not gonna say

I would have boycott at the movie I would have

seen it. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it

as much, you know it's like if Keanu Reeves had

played Optimus Prime would have been like you

know, we brought in somebody young and hot like

Keanu Reeves and It just didn't work. He was

like Optimus Prime stands up and goes whoa Only

I only use Keanu Reeves because Keanu Reeves

is in the matrix and his opposing, you know,

the the antagonist in the matrix was Hugo weaving

Who they did bring in exactly this is see where

it comes And one more thing Peter Cullen played

g1 ironhide Which was another one of my favorite

g -wing characters, you know, cuz he just had

this this weird southern drawl type of thing

going on and They didn't have Peter Cullen reprise

his role as iron hide in the movie Streetwise

and Slugs slinger slugs slinger really and wingspan

and nightstick Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, he had

a whole bunch of stuff He did a bunch. He did

a bunch. I mean, I don't want to say and a guy

named Joe some kind of Joe Number two Kevin Let's

wrap this up It's almost fucking 1 a .m. here,

damn it. Let's go. Oh, the Grinch that stole

Transformer voice fun. He's one of those big

long canes that he can, you know, pull you off

the stage with like in a vaudeville act. Yep.

Man, we're having way too much fun. We need to

wrap it up. Number two, I'm going to go back

to Beast Wars for my second voice from Beast

Wars and... Call it cheap I guess but I'm gonna

go with the same voice actor another Scott McNeil

voice my number two all -time Transformers voice

would be waspinator from Beast Wars I didn't

find him as annoying as maybe some people did

I don't know if people found him annoying or

not He had he was doing a voice that typically

could come across as annoying, but he did it

in a way that it wasn't to me And he just had

a lot of funny lines, he had a lot of funny dialogue

and parts within the Beast Wars series, obviously

a lot of humor. It was like the Starscream, but

not as annoying as Starscream is sometimes. So

I really enjoyed Waspinator and Scott McNeil's

version and what he brought to that character.

So Waspinator, probably a strange pick for some

people, but that's my number two. Yeah, it's

good. I like that character. For a second there,

I thought you were gonna say Doug Parker as Waspinator

as Starscream in the possession. Oh boy, my number

two... You are a huge Transformers geek, aren't

you? My number two is Cheetor from Beast Machines.

When he got to Beast Machines and he was a little

bit older in... James Corlett? Yes, Ian James

Corlett. Who's gonna say he? I was going to say

the Emperor, for crap's sake. I always want to

call him Ian Michael Corlett, but that would

be wrong. That would be wrong, yes. I have called

him that in the past, and I have been elected,

thank you. Ian James Corlett, as an adult cheetor

in Beast Machines, absolutely loved the way he

changed his voice between Beast Wars and Beast

Machines. Changed his voice through Beast Wars?

Well, yeah, yeah But when Cheetor got to beast

machines, he was the adult he was You know the

erotimus prime of beast machines and he was the

one basically bitch slapping a prime into doing

the correct thing I have given him the title

prime somewhere You know because honestly it's

at one point they said okay big bot can't lead

anymore he's he's got his head too deep in his

hippie ass and it's time for someone else take

the reins and cheetor took the reins and he did

he he did really well he did very he did very

well and uh honestly he he probably should have

been cheetah miss prime cheetah miss primal oh

god cheetah miss primal awesome oh boy but one

more thing before we before we go on uh Ian James

Corlett another one of my favorite voices is

the conductor in dinosaur train Yes Daughters

in that too. Yeah. Yeah, I want to see both of

his kids are in that. Yeah, I think it's on just

Did he play an ongoing role? I thought so. Okay.

Yeah, I think they both are in that his daughter

does more voice acting, but they're both in dinosaur

train Yeah, I love that show Love that. I've

seen the live -action version with my kids at

the theater nearby and it's it was awesome yeah

yeah okay proceed all right number ones what

are our number ones michael number one frank

welker that's it and you know friend the story

as i posted on my facebook earlier i thought

it was i thought it was funny it's like uh you

know frank welker does all the voices in g1 Oh,

no, I said Frank Walker voices everyone in g1

transformers And then I said, you know, what

do you mean by everyone and I posted the the

the Gary Oldman scene in Leon Where he where

all these cops are getting killed and and Gary

Oldman the detective says You know go get me

everyone And it says what do you mean everyone

and he goes? And that's that's how I feel, you

know, it's like so Who does Frank Walker voice?

It's like It's like with the exception of the

ones that we've noted earlier like Chris Lata

and Lynn and Cory Burton it was Dan Gilbertson.

It was pretty much Frank Walker. He did like

ten dozen voices and At least a dozen in this

first episode Yeah He did like everyone it's

a frank welker is a national treasure and i've

said it before and i'll say it again Many times

i'll say it here now. He is a national treasure.

I don't care how much they pay him double it

Kevin you're number one. All right here. Um Optimus

prime just I don't care what uh what you say

mike. Um because I was picking versions of each

one specifically, like I did with Transformers

Prime Megatron as the one I had to pick. I will

go with Optimus Prime and I'm going to go with

the version of his voice from the Bay films.

Really? Yes. Why? I want to hear. I do. I want

to know why. Because for me, it's and this might

be not so much as the maybe the voice. per se,

but it's it's the best part of the Bay films.

Number one. It's so it's the thing that brings

us back so much to 2G1. But I honestly think

he did a lot with that voice. I'm not saying

that he had great dialogue written for him. And

some of the stuff's just straight up corny and

cheesy and whatever. Stupid and horrible writing.

But he steps when he steps on the lawn and he

breaks the. The fountain was like, my bad. But

it was more so for some of his monologues and

whatnot. I just felt like he was putting more

emotion and more thought into the acting part

of his voicing compared to, let's face it, when

he did the G1 version of Optimus Prime, he had

done that voice at that time in about 12 different

cartoons, at least. Yeah, he didn't he does have

multiple voices of which obviously Michael alluded

to with the fact that he did Things like iron

hide etc. So he has multiple voices But he used

his exact Optimus Prime voice in a bunch of different

cartoons as both villains as heroes So he was

doing it a lot at that time So I think it was

just something that he was just kind of doing

without almost without thinking Fast forward

to the Bay years of you know all these years

later He hasn't done as much voice work outside

of You know the stuff he's done with Eeyore and

some of these other things but it had been a

while since he had been doing the amount of voices

that he was doing in the 80s and I think with

that time and being able to do this voice again,

he really kind of took it to heart and And put

some thought in behind it and at that point it

wasn't just him doing another version of this

voice It was him doing an iconic voice. That's

loved by generations of people Yeah, that is

the voice right optimist prime and I just felt

it Yeah, and what he was doing, you know, I'll

totally buy that. Yeah, so that's my number one

is Optimist Prime Peter Collin I could pick multiple

versions But I guess I'll go with the Bay version

just for what it meant to me in that movie and

without it I really would have not had as much

fun with those movies When I did have fun with

those movies, which wasn't always yeah, all right

wrap this up Mike we gotta go At least they have

a whole new cast for this new trilogy. Alright,

my number one, obviously, even though G1 Optimus

is not a good leader as far as a character, he

isn't! I showed you that video. It's true. Can't

wait till G2. Sitting there playing basketball

with the other Autobots while like should be

planning against the Decepticons. Give me a break

I would rather have that than someone who's gonna

go wine and other people that he doesn't know

how to lead It goes to this person that you're

saying is a bad leader. But anyways Is Optimus

Prime Peter Collin g1 as much as I don't really

care for his leadership style and a lot of the

fuckups that he had in G1. There is no denying

Peter Cullen as G1 Optimus is the best Optimus

voice. You talk about f -ups. Yeah. Didn't your

favorite character make the ultimate biggest

f -up in Transformers history? Which would be

what? Causing Optimus Prime to die. That was

off -screen. We don't know what happened. It

was all black back then. Show yeah, pretty sure

that happened twice and he dropped the matrix

No, he didn't drop it now. Wait a second here.

He dropped the Matrix Optimus dropped it out

of his hand that he picked it up. How is that

having him drop the major? He killed himself

remember that He told he opened up his chest

and said what happens if I died Alright, we're

gonna go to another quick break. We'll come back

if we have any honorable mentions after this.

Possible! No Autobot flies! Rules were meant

to be broken. You gotta tune up or tune out,

old bot! Who in the pits of chaos is that? So

we are back and it is time for honorable mentions.

Michael, do you have any honorable mentions?

Uh, I think earlier I mentioned Orson Welles.

Um, how? Think I really think I talked about

everybody, you know when you guys all made your

suggestions that were different from mine I kind

of just nodded and agreed and said yeah, that's

a good choice, especially Kevin Kevin had a lot

of good choices And I will consider those my

honorable mentions Okay, then Let me ask have

you have about 50 honorable mentions I kind of

disqualified people that were just doing their

regular voice, but that doesn't mean I didn't

appreciate it. I really love obviously Casey

Kasem as Cliffjumper and I thought for a second

about making an all dead voice team. They still

haven't found Cliffjumper's body, so... So Casey

Kasem's Cliffjumper from G1, Michael Bell, when

he did Prowl from G1 even though it's just his

normal voice was cool, Dan Gilvezana's Bumblebee.

I assume that's Chris Lauda's regular voice as

Wheeljack, but it might be... Dan Gilvezana's

still alive, hold on. No, no, I was... If I was

gonna follow the the way that you did it Michael

and and picking voice actors I probably would

have Found room near the number nine or ten spot

for David so beloved for Depth Charge from Beast

Wars, Shockwave from Transformers Prime, and

some other smaller roles that he did. If you

want to go with the Transformers, the movie,

I mean, it was real fun with Leonard Nimoy, Eric

Idle, Lionel Standard as Cup, John Machito. So

those were, those were cool guys. I didn't talk

about Beast Wars, some of the other actors, but

besides David Sobovoff for Depth Charge, I liked

Alec Willows as Tarantulas. I thought that was

a fun character, Venus Terzo as Black Arachnia.

Mmm. Yeah, so those are some some of the other

kind of ones that I was thinking and one other

Frank Welker character that I didn't mention

before would have been sludge from g1 I Don't

know why I just felt like throwing another Frank

Welker reference in there What lines does he

have? Oh and the other one that was on my list

I almost forgot Roger Carmel as Bruticus in g1

That was kind of a fun little voice for a second

For me, I only have three. One of the three is

I want to see a voice -off between the two characters,

the two voice actors. So one of my honorable

mentions is Silverbolt from Beast Machines because

I liked the darker Silverbolt than the comedy

version he did in Beast Wars. Michael Bell as

Swoop in G1. Me Swoop? No, I see nothing. Absolutely

love that. And here's the voice -off that I want

to happen. You get into a recording studio, you

have Michael Bell at one end and David Kay at

the other. Two Grimlocks fighting. That's what

I want. Michael Bell? Greg Berger. I was so confused

for a second. Yeah, shut up. I've heard I've

heard people say, you know, Greg Berger, what

do you think of David Kay doing Grimlock? And

he's like, I thought he was fantastic. He's not

me, but I think I think we asked him that. I

don't remember. I thought I thought I heard that.

And what is that UK group they do they do interviews

with? Oh moon base too. Yeah. Yeah, they they

when they brought him out for their auto assembly

I think they didn't they didn't Yeah, they did

an interview of like it was like a bunch of them

all sitting in a hotel room Just listening to

the great burger stories and it was awesome You

can find that on YouTube it's worth seeing I

will say that the best Transformers written book

is You know Dan Gilvazan. My Life is a G1 Transformer.

Bumblebee and me. Oh my god. The audiobook version

of Dan Gilvazan's autobiography and talking about

the Transformers. I just, I love that. This is

just so awesome. It's a fun book if you haven't

already heard all of the stories live. Well,

yes, but what I what where I get my laughs out

of it is like when he's doing the disclaimer

at the beginning Yeah, where he says these are

the stories as I remember them. So if they're

wrong go write your own damn, right? Yeah, no,

I'm gonna be really interested to see what new

voices we get in Transformers robots in disguise

coming up in 2015 What are you looking forward

to in the Transformers mythos, Kevin? I mean

he talked about and I guess I could have I should

have paid more attention to the game voices because

there was some cool voices from the games. He

would talk about the new series and obviously

said that it's a blend or possibly it looks like

it could be a blend between prime and animated.

I guess if I was saying what I was looking forward

to I will look forward to that if it tilts slightly.

more towards the prime side of that. Okay, when

I say this, and I say this because I've read

people that have, you know, I've seen the BotCon

images and I've seen the people that are involved

with it at BotCon this year say that it's a blend

between the two. Where it's a blend is the animation.

It's 3D background, but it's 2D animation like

what animated was, so it's not full CGI. Right,

no, I've seen the pictures and everything. That's

what I mean by a blend. I'm just hoping I was

talking about more of the overall feel of the

show. But honestly, I don't know if I'm looking

forward to a whole lot of anything in the Transformers

universe at this moment in time. Is that mean

and depressing? I don't know. Well, if you want

to try something new, I would suggest the IDW

comic book series that are currently going on.

Because there's some interesting things that

go on in there. They're not like anything. You've

ever experienced before I think I'm just gonna

shift over to Star Wars for a few years That

might be a safe bet More to look forward to Yeah

All right, well I think that's gonna do it for

this episode of all things transformers I have

no idea what's gonna be happening in episode

48. We may or may not be talking about toy lines

It may or may not be Just a recap and a report

over from Toycast episode 60. I don't know yet.

It's gonna be a clip show of all of the offensive

things that were said in this episode that have

been cut out. Yeah, don't cut anything out. That's

not fair to the listeners. They miss out on some

good stuff. I love it. Everyone always complains

that I never edit, and when I say I'm gonna edit

shit out, everybody complains, don't edit it

out. You know, I just listen to... Tooncast episode

100. Yeah There's three different moments where

you guys are like edit point take this out edit

edit point right here We will delete this You

know, you've never done any work before well,

you know why start now I remember back in the

day. It was like this is a free show You know,

you get what you pay for, people. I ain't doing

work. Oh, wait a second. I never said that. I

may have said that. It was on the subtitles.

No, go back to TFG1, and I remember pretty vividly.

Couldn't be more true, though, for you people.

Mike, I want to ask you a question, Mike. Nah,

TFG1 Mike, I wanna ask you a question. This part

has been edited. Ha ha ha, you'll never know

what was actually here.