Transformers Classics Volume 3 (Issues 26–38)

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Welcome to all

things transformers, which is crossing over with

the pull bag for autobotley april 2023 I'm of

course tfg and mike joining me as always for

these autobotley marvel universe Transformers

things is steve megatron. Hello, sir. Hello Hello,

oh boy Volume three. Ah, so yes, we are here

and we're gonna get right into it volume three

collected I did collected edition IDW universe

that IDW is someone that collected it and But

it's the Marvel comics continuing on. From 87

to 88, this is issues 26 to 38. I'm going to

say right now. Yep. Yep. I'm going to say right

now. Issue 38, my favorite. It gets better, though.

So if you like 38, the rest of it's going to

be kind of up your alley. Let's hope. I'm going

to get this out of the way now so I don't spend

the next however the hell long we're going to

spend talking about this. Five colors, one page.

Use more color! I know they can't now at this

point, but... First up, issue 26. A funeral for

a friend. Optimus Prime is dead and Ratchet has

spent the last ten days trying to unsuccessfully

repair him. God. Yeah. That one's quite interesting.

because Ratchet's throwing himself a pity party.

Yes. And I know this wasn't the thing back then

because the character wasn't even really, you

know, I mean, the character was established,

obviously, but the saying and the characterization

did not happen until 2012 or 2013 with Prime.

All as I can, as I'm reading this, all as I keep

hearing Ratchet say, insert character, but I

needed that. Like, all I can hear is Prime Ratchet

and Jeffrey Combs voicing Prime Ratchet. Bulkhead,

I needed that. Bumblebee, I needed that. And

I guess it was a much, and I know it's the way

the light is, but the one panel here as we start

is Ratchet's going through the machinery. Optimus

Prime is pink. Hoo boy. Well, at least it's a

different color, sort of. I mean, still red -ish,

but... Yeah, what did you think of this one?

I thought I Liked that ratchet got everybody

else up and running. Yes, you tried and he tried

with prime and then I liked seeing the the sick

bay mm -hmm, and then it was sad seeing him haul

off prime, you know like well Nice knowing you,

Prime. Yep. And then he's he's starting to repair

and he goes to the the used auto parts. Looks

like a one steak sauce logo. Yeah. And. You see

this, you know, the criminal and and then he

he gets inside ratchet and he's like, oh, let's

fiddle with this. And, you know, he's starting

to tear out, you know, parts of ratchet. With

with a screwdriver. With a freaking screwdriver,

no less. Yeah, I... Orange, you glad to use the

screwdriver? Oh, Lord. I cannot. So, we all know

that, you know, human villains and Transformers

are normally, most of the time, they're one -dimensional.

This whole thing that gets into this arc about

the mechanic and... All of that, I'm just like...

It's another one of those annoying humans. At

least if they'd gone with, I don't know, somebody

better. I don't know. I can't even totally fathom

what they should have done. Yeah, I can't either.

And the funny thing is specifically about the

character of the mechanic. When I'm reading this,

I'm like... Okay, so he has his little assistant

named Juan. And my first thought was, wait, Juan,

isn't that the kid that Trax was driving? No,

that was Raul. But Raul was the kid that was

helping, almost helping the Decepticons with

their evil car wash, which isn't there an evil

car wash in this arc somewhere? Oh, yeah. The

car wash of doom with Ratbat. Yeah, Ratbat's

car. Ratbat! Get in your damn tape deck you idiot.

Oh Boy, I know ratpats different than whatever

but but yeah, no like as soon as I heard One

of the mechanic I'm like, wait a minute. Is this

make tracks? Is like are we gonna get to see

tracks in this and I I don't remember if he does

actually appear not but like that was the first

thing I thought of but yeah humans in Why is

it for the last I'm gonna say 40 years because

we are you know X number of months away from

it being 2024 and 40 years of the cartoon and

the franchise and all that why is it that the

humans are always the ones that just like our

second fiddle to the robots look it's transformers

it's supposed to be the robots but like If you're

a good writer, and I'm not saying Budiansky is

not a good writer, I'm not saying that at all,

but if you're a good writer who is using robots

and humans, you would think that you'd be able

to write both equally well and not have the human

characters be the most despised things. Like,

I think most, and speaking for myself, I'm going

to say in a generalized tone, most of us Transformers

fans, can't stand humans half the time. It's

like we watch it for the robots, we read it for

the robots, give us the robots. And then we get

G .B. Blackrock and the mechanic and Blackrock

isn't written badly at all, but it's like it's

these it's not even because it was done in the

80s that it was the standard. I can't believe

I'm going to say this. Knight Rider had better

human villains than these Transformers comics

do. And Knight Rider, at times, is a very, very

cheesy 80s television show. Well, even the original

Transformers was pretty cheesy. Mm -hmm. Oh,

absolutely. Dr. Arkeville and don't even get

me started on Sean Berger. Oh, God. Oh, boy.

We'd be here all day. Hey, folks, go listen to

the TFG1 podcast. You won't hear all that crap.

I will say, though, even though they are still

using just five of the same colors, a lot of

the colors in this arc, in these stories and

these issues, they're a lot brighter. They're

not like they use like yellows and oranges for

backgrounds when most of the like, especially

with Ratchet, because Ratchet is white and red.

So you have to use a different color. He's going

to turn Batman Beyond invisible. You put a white

robot next to a white wall kind of thing. Yeah.

And of course, we get to see Prime in his casket.

Mm -hmm. On the Ark. Literally, on the Ark. They're

like, well, it's I don't even know if it's the

arc. I think it's just like a space shuttle It's

just not about shuttle. But yeah, it's like the

one that the the Maximals, you know tied Megatron

to yeah Yeah, pretty much it's and but you know

again, it's it's way out. Oh, yeah, that's easily

an Autobot shuttle That's but yeah, but it's

like it's not the arc, but it's the same kind

of design of you know all of this and oh wow

i okay well no for so i'm looking at this panel

like i'm i'm seeing the full like the optimus

laid out in the thing but in the top left hand

corner i'm finally like really realizing where

it says uh elsewhere atop us starlit blah blah

blah It's omega supreme Standing next to the

shuttle with optimus prime rescue style in his

arms at first because again folks unless I zoom

in on things I have 2200 vision I am legally

blind at first. I thought that was prime standing

there in front of his own coffin He's that talented

he can die and hold himself hostage exactly,

you know Oh, man. Yeah, issue 26 was interesting.

I'm kinda glad it's over. Issue 27 is Trypticon

versus the Dinobots. So they bring Trypticon

to Earth? Or they bring him to somewhere? They

bring him somewhere! Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's

what it is they the Decepticons send him to capture

the arc but so basically they send him to earth

and I Love Love the TF wiki TF wiki net folks

Whoever wrote this I forget if it was if it was

Whoever whoever does these articles? King of

the Hill is the title of the story here. Trypticon,

he's come to Earth to steal all our propane and

all our propane accessories. Yeah, Trypticon

comes to Earth. The Autobots still need to pick

a new leader, since apparently there's no Matrix.

So, they pick Grimlock. Me Grimlock not Podcaster!

Me Grimlock King! Yeah, that I'm not. thrilled

with, it showed how bad Grimlock actually is

and why he should never be trusted. Yeah, poor

Grimlock. He's just... And again, I'm sorry.

I'm not trying to take away from the comics here,

folks, but you have to understand. I was a cartoon

kid. This is my first time reading any of this

shit. And I'm not saying shit, I'm not trying

to call it shit, but just in general. And my

first thought was, yeah, Grimlock proved to be

a better leader of the Dinobots when he got his

new brain and actually got some intelligence

versus whatever the hell is going on with him

here. And I know we're gonna get a bunch more

Grimlock once Simon Furman takes over because

Simon Furman has a hard on for the Dinobots Like

I said, I like I like Tripticon here I like him

showing up on earth. I think that's very cool.

I love the designs I can't believe I'm actually

saying this I love like the panel where Tripticon

first shows up it says Tripticon the ultimate

Decepticon killing machine Okay, technically,

I know they mean that he is killing for the Decepticons

But the way that sounds in my head is like, oh,

he's killing the septic. He's killing his own

kind. Oh great but the way he looks here the

way he's drawn and Surprisingly, there are more

than five colors in this panel, but he's not

bad. He's drawn that way Wow, you pull the Jessica

rabbit out of your hat, that's amazing He's not

even drawn badly. The quote sounded funny. Yeah,

I know, absolutely. Go ahead. I can't stop laughing.

Go ahead. Just say whatever you're gonna say.

But yeah, then you see Grimlock trying to assert

himself. All hail Grimlock, leader of the Autobots!

Yeah, and perceptors just like I'm just going

with it. Yeah We might as well go with it for

now until you know, two years later when I'm

more, you know dynamic hero shows up Young young

Autobot hot rod there, but What I do like about

this is that again the whole like real life of

it being set in Oregon and Washington and that

kind of thing and all of that. I think that's

really cool Again, I like it being in the I like

the transformers when they're either in an unknown

city that you'd like It's not New York. It's

not LA. It's not Boston. It's not Chicago. It's

just whatever standard City that it looks like

a city building or if it's in a place that you

just don't think to And the Pacific Northwest

has always been what they've been, you know known

for because that's where the art crash whatever

else but like Yeah, so I like that part of it

for this issue and generally I liked I liked

this this issue because it was really cool seeing

Tripticon versus the Dinobots because normally

you didn't see that in the cartoon because by

the time Tripticon and Metroplex came around

It was the two of them fighting each other and

the Dinobots were god knows where so yeah Up

next, we've got, we will read all the whole story

thing or all the issues at the end folks, but

issue 28, mechanical difficulties. Oh boy. So

on this trade so far, what are you thinking?

I like it. I just, it's just not like. I like

the stories so far. We're only three issues in

and I'm liking the stories. I just wish it was

a different art style. That's my only like, I

may complain about the five colors, blah, blah,

blah, but the stories themselves, I think they

are well written stories. I just think that the

human characters are. unneeded but the Transformers

stuff between the characters of the Transformers

like you know blaster and bumblebee or blaster

and and gold bug because doesn't What what happens

here doesn't gold bug get doesn't bumblebee get

killed or get because he turns into gold bug.

Yeah during this trade. Yeah, he kind of got

destroyed already by the Earlier stuff and so

that's kind of the way so that's right So he

technically already is gold bug. I was and again,

that's I think that's my confusion is that his

head Looks golden, but the rest of his body is

basically the yellow Beetle versus the gold beetle

that he would be in the in the cartoon series

So again, the color definition is off. But yeah

between blaster gold blood gold bug Wow gold

cold blood Yeah Yeah, yeah, that's that's right

Between that and in crimlock is like wait new

orders wheeljack is Grimlock is pretty much a

jerk Yeah, crimlock is is not as jerky as and

as useless as some of the humans, but he's damn

near close So yeah, I'm so far up until this

issue that this issue 28 here The first two,

I really did enjoy them. I thought it was fun.

This issue here, I feel like it's all about the

mechanic and it's... I don't know, it just doesn't...

I don't like the mechanic at all. Yeah, I don't

either. I'm happy when the powers that be relinquish

his capabilities. I do find it funny in this

issue that Grimlock makes himself a crown. Yeah.

Yeah, he did do that, didn't he? Yeah. Oh, which

one? The one on the left. I've always liked the

way, you know, the whatever steel alloy sparkles.

Oh, Jesus. And then and then. You know, he's

already wearing one and he has two in his hands

and then Blaster, you know, we couldn't find

the mechanic what you failed, you know, and so

It's just yeah, and so Grimlock doesn't seem

very concerned and so they're going after the

mechanic on their own Yeah, and yeah it's And

I think the thing I don't like about issue 28

is like we said it's just The Autobots and the

humans. There are no Decepticons in this issue

at all. That changes quickly. Well, obviously,

but that's what I'm saying, though. The reason

why I don't like issue 28 is because while I

do like the Autobots and I like what's done with

them, as far as what they're going up against,

it's like, why? Just why? Well, we get the triple

changers now. Yup. Triple changers. and the the

scraplets and like our own personal cosmic rust

god yeah all is we're missing is bulkhead's girly

scream did you just scream like a little girl

no maybe scraplets get those things away from

me and again as someone who never read these

before I never liked the whole thing with it

being Sparkplug Witwicky and Buster Witwicky

and then come to find out later in this trade.

It's like, oh, it's actually his older son or

younger son. It's Spike's brother. I was like,

oh, OK, that's that's fine. Oh, shit, what are

we going to do now? But yeah, so we get this

issue. Crater critters and we get the scraplets

and. we get blaster and the humans and everybody

else trying to destroy these these cosmic rusting

things and that last panel of this is this issue

man gold bug looks a little bit worse for wear

there um i do like like you said the triple changers

show up uh astrotrain blitzwing and octane I

thought that was awesome. I thought that's great.

And I love that. Wait, why? Wait a minute. What

did I miss here? Why is Scrooge? Isn't Scrooge

dead? Yeah, he was. Oh, they brought him back.

Well, Ratbat, too, is the leader of the Decepticons.

Right. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, where is

what? Well, remember, Megatron blew himself up

in the space bridge. That's right. He blew himself

up. Yeah. He went kaboom. Yeah, Megatron, Kaboom,

and Galvatron no more. See a Ratbat is li - Ratbat

out of everybody has to like Soundwave would

be a better leader. Anybody would be a better

leader. I do wish we did get more, and I know

this couldn't have happened, but more animation

stuff with Astrotrain, Octane, and Blitzwing,

because I do think the three of them together

did work really well. I thought that was great.

On to issue 30. Let's see here, issue 30. Oh,

boy. So we have Autobots, Decepticons, and Humans

in this one. And this is all about the throttle

bots and the cure. Oh boy. I just don't care.

And they're all like rusting out and eating alive

and triple changers, blaster, the throttle bots.

Yeah, everybody. Everybody's getting eaten alive

by these scraplets. These these scraplets are

just, you know. And then they they form their

own like Scooby Doo the weak monster. Yep, very

much. Yeah get on your phones scour the internet

and Scooby -doo this shit. Apparently water is

the cure for all of the infected Transformers.

Well, I think it's a special type Like something

from Black Rock Yeah, yeah gold bugger ranges

for Black Rock to have water tribute Yeah, it

doesn't exactly explain like what kind of like

is it is it? Irish is it is it Poland spring

is it is it you know, is it Fanta water? Maybe

maybe it's fat. Maybe Coca -Cola can get their

their Water in here somehow. I don't know Yeah,

so far I'm not Like I said, I was enjoying these

and now I mean other than the inclusion of the

the triple changers like this whole scraplet

thing is just kind of Yeah, I'm not a fan of

the Scraplets. This beginning part of the arc

of the storyline, I am not a fan. Yeah, no, not

at all. It gets interesting in the next one,

however. Yes, because next one is it begins the

Car Wash of Doom. All right, the Car Wash of

Doom issue 31. Oh, Buster, you moron. Okay, so

Shockwave is back and he and Ratbat are basically

doing a Megatron Starscream thing, like who's

the better leader? Got it, got it. Yeah, and

that will be a continuing storyline with Shockwave

and Starscream through pretty much the end of

this Marvel run. Wow. So just... Don't count

either one of them out. Yeah. And I just can't

like shockwave. I could take Sirius as a leader

because he has an interesting robot mode and

he has an interesting alt mode. Ratbat is a cassette

bat. Like he he does not look like a Decepticon

leader at all. And I'm on the panel where he

says to Shockwave, you must learn how to be more

energy efficient, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm looking at his design, and I'm just like,

OK, I know that's technically the design of the

character, and that's fine. The colors are what

they are. But he just looks wrong sitting just

flying next to Shockwave. I don't know. As you

can tell folks I go back and forth on my enjoyment

or my utter disdain for this series I might as

well make a good attributes and a bad attributes

list like what pros and cons cons humans Bad

coloring not enough colors like pros. I like

the sir. I like character Development between

like gold bug and blaster and all that, you know,

so Well, I like that we got, you know, the cone

heads in this and we got, you know, the insecticons

and the various other facets of the Decepticon

army. And the funny thing about this one is it's

more about the Decepticons versus the humans

than it is the Autobots, Decepticons and humans

because you got, and this is the way the TF Wiki

lists it. So I don't know if it's right or wrong.

blue streak and bumblebee so is he is he back

to being bumblebee again or is it still it's

still gold bug in the book isn't it anyway you

got two autobots and then you got like 12 decepticons

which is normal i guess but like yeah it's a

little a little one -sided and then there's the

humans and the cliff that they can all go yeah

anyway Oh boy. I am really starting to like some

of the colors that they're using, so there is

that. But yeah, these human characters, they're

all forgettable. Besides Buster and Sparkplug

and maybe Blackrock, the rest of them are all

just like there. Wow. Get used to some of them

because they're not going away Buster more or

less goes away goes away. Yeah, and is eventually

replaced by like spike Yeah Which is more of

what we're used to anyhow. Yeah And I want to

I don't know if it's is it this issue or At some

point during 87 -88 prices on comic books went

up folks. Oh No, okay. Well, I don't know. I'm

gonna have to look at these again But like I

just now noticed that we've gone from 75 cents

US to a dollar US on the covers in the trade

air I'm like, oh my god, they went up a quarter

comic books went up a quarter wait 399 now 399

more like four five six seven eight nine ninety

nine depends on the depends on the issue you're

buying true and yeah So anything else on on this

issue? Specifically, I mean I'm not a fan of

Buster and that whole dynamic but the the whole

thing with black rock and rat bat was interesting

and you know in the the sense of Kind of reminded

me of darker the moon. Mm -hmm. Oh Yeah, very

much. So yeah, he's He's easily the Patrick Dempsey

of the complex series at this point. Yeah So,

yeah, it's yeah, I didn't much care for this

issue We get to the next issue which is a used

Autobots Never buy a used Autobot without a Carfax

history report. Thank you TFWiki for that laugh,

because yeah, used Autobots. Oh boy. So Vortex

is attacking the Throttlebots. Yeah, shooting

them on the highway. Then I find it funny that

blaster transforms and stands on two of the throttle

bots and uses them escape, you know Yeah, yeah,

he's using chase and roll bar I'm like wait what?

Wow, that's that's interesting And yep I can

tell you're just playing lost. I'm lost, but

man, these stories are just like... Oh, God.

Again, I love Blaster. I think it's hilarious

that he's riding to... First of all, okay, so

I'm at the panel where... Pay attention to where

you're driving, Rollbar. Pull over to the left.

Fast! This image like it's giant ass blaster

standing on two throttle bots these robots are

what maybe 70 80 90 maybe a hundred tons of weight

or whatever like how can you a giant robot person?

cassette deck But you're on a cassette deck in

your robot mode, but how can you stay how can

these two Autobots handle your weight like oh?

That's My suspension of disbelief is not being

suspended very well And and yeah, we get to let's

see oh boy this must have brought back memories

for you we get to big steve's used cars yeah

i wouldn't say it was like you know memories

for me because i didn't remember that it even

had that name but yeah i'm saying because of

your history not because of but like just seeing

the name like oh right i used to work at one

of those i didn't own one but i used to work

at one Oh boy So, yeah go big Steve's used cars

And just hear you yelling at one of your kids

Yeah, we're tops that car Where's all this car

come from? I know basically you pulling up a

Bernie Mac maybe Oh Bernie we miss you Yeah So

yeah, that's This comic man And wait a minute

They're in a all right. They're in the US car

lot. Where do they get the Department of Defense

contract? Oh, I see. It's the it's a list of

the Autobots Oh Steve you're in trouble now Big

Steve Ludwig. Oh boy, he looks like a Ludwig,

too. He looks like a lug nut. I like that, too.

Yeah, so the rat arrives, R -A -A -T, folks,

to collect the Throttlebots in there, intercepted

by the Combaticons. Oh boy. I wonder how lost

people get with reading IDW, and then what freaks

me out even more is that as we get onto the next

issue after this, it switches over to being like,

oh, this is a part of the UK book, this isn't

a part of the US book, because in the TF Wiki,

if I hit, it's so weird, it freaks me out. If

I hit on the TF wiki, Transformers US number

32, if I hit that forward arrow, it switches

the titles and UK is on top and US is on the

bottom. Wait, what? So yeah, Steve's used cars.

You got anything else you want to say about your

former used car lot there? No, no. So between

used cars and car washes of doom. And rust you

know and a mechanic and You know and and like

proverbial rust Unicron Save us. You're our only

hope please and it literally goes all over the

place. I know That's what makes it like almost

unbearable. Yeah Again, it goes to prove to you

that back then in those days. It wasn't much

better well In some regards in some regards,

but my point is is that comic books back then

At least for this series. It seems more like

for the US Transformers run It was kind of like

trying to do a cartoon of the month or a cartoon

of the week kind of thing where Certain issues

didn't some issues tied back into other issues

other issues didn't some some of them were just

you know villain of the week types things and

we are or I'll speak for myself. I am at a point

in my life where I can deal with and enjoy certain

villain of the week type things, but most of

the time I want a beginning to middle to end

comic series that has continuity throughout.

Now sometimes continuity gets jumbled and gets

screwed up and whatever else, but at least it's

continuity and at least it's not like seven stories

in one comic book issue. Or whatever, like seven

different plots in one thing. And the same thing

with movies and TV shows and cartoons. Like,

you know, you don't need seven different plots.

So how are we going to do Man of Iron? Because

Man of Iron has four parts to one issue here.

We do with what the marble run has. Yeah, I know,

but. Like, did you enjoy this? Was this something

you liked? Do you like having four parts in one

issue? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Like, I'm not

trying to derail the podcast or anything else.

I'm just curious because, again, this is... The

Man of Iron issue. The Autobots travel to England

to track down the source of the coded Cybertronian

signal, but the Decepticons aren't far behind.

And literally, there are four parts. Part one

is first encounter. Part two is kidnap. Part

three is you've got friends in low places. And

part four is Battlefield Castle's Dan Cham. I

will say that the coloring is the best that we've

ever had. Abs, I agree, 100%. You know why it's

the best we've ever had it? Because the UK did

it? Well, there's that, yes, but also it's because

that over in the UK book, they're actually using

dark colors for backgrounds. They're not using

white, or they're not using yellow, or they're

not, I mean, they are, but like, The general

gist of the page, the general gist of the outline

and yeah, the art here is much better. Man, maybe

we should be covering the UK run. Screw this

US crap. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. So

yeah, the man of iron issue. Basically we've

got. It's okay. I need to know if Stan sham is

a real castle because or if it's just fictional

to this The castle of stench names medieval castles.

Oh Okay, so it is a real okay. It is based off

of a real place Okay, I just look at that name

and I'm thinking wait a minute. This was Covered

dated for October November 1987 Stan sham No,

folks. Stan Bush is not a sham. Stop it. That's

all I can see in that title is Stan Sham. Stop

calling the man a sham. He ain't no sham. Trust

me, I know. What else do you want to say about

this one? Nothing. These were not my favorite.

Yeah. I do like that we finally get Jazz and

Trailbreaker and Holy crap, Optimus Prime is

alive. Right. This is the UK book. This is not

the US book. Good, right? But again, we get jazz,

we get Trailbreaker, we get Blue Streak, we get,

you know, all of that. I think that's cool. I

think that's great. Again, seeing characters

that I know and that I like, I think that's the

interesting thing with this issue. And again,

the darkness of the backgrounds, because most

of this is at night, and even the... The lines

on the human, the humans look much better in

the UK version than they do in the US version.

Must be a better colorist. Probably, most likely.

Let me just double check here. Let's see. Man

of iron creative. Let's see. The script was done

by Steve Parkhouse. The art was done by John

Ridgeway for parts one and two and Mike Collins

for parts three and four. The colors, spelled

with a U, that's incorrect, but that is what

it is. It's British. Yes, I know. Josie Furman,

not as in Simon, but spelled differently, is

on one and two. Gina Hart is on three and four.

And then Richard Starkins does the letters. So

yeah, I mean, the UK stuff for... for this is

really, really great. And now we get back to

U S and our scheduled program, a child's play.

Oh boy. I wonder who's Chucky Buster or spike.

At this point, probably Buster. Just imagine

Buster coming back at us and that Grimlock and

his, his gold helmet, you know, sparking orders.

Blaster defies Grimlock. Grimlock, leader. Blaster

is leader of traitors. The blaster's in the right,

you moron. I know, because he's a moron. He's

like, me Grimlock King! Mm -hmm. Yeah, I... You

get combaticons and Defensor and... Mm -hmm.

Which, it's the first time I think that we see

Defensor. Yeah. Like, I know we've seen, uh,

the Protectobots. Yeah. Yeah, this is, I'm, I'm

pretty sure this is his first appearance here.

Yeah. So, yeah, I like that. But yeah, the...

And we get, uh, again, this, this story just...

Again, I like seeing Bruticus and Defensor fight.

I less... I like seeing Blaster stepping in to

confront Bruticus himself. I like how Bruticus

examines the child's fallen form and how Blaster

knocks him out with an electrical shock from

a downed power line. Is this the first time we've

seen Hotspot in this series, or has he been in

here before? I want to say he's been in here

before. Okay. Interesting. We started a Matrix

-induced vision shared between Optimus Prime

and Buster Witwicky. That was from the Special

Teams Have Arrived Second Generation, or whatever

the hell that was. I don't know all these comics.

People know that I don't know them. I'm reading

these for the first time. Yeah, I'm hoping when

we do get to the like I think that's gonna be

next year's thing at this point You know for

us to go through the IDW continuity of this because

I guarantee you by the end of August I'm going

to be all marveled out at Transformers What else

do we want to say about what issue are we on?

Thirty five child's play. I mean, I like the

fight with. The combiners, I can't wait till

Grimlock is dethroned. Yeah. And then the the

Autobot, you know, handcuffs more or less that

the children take off blaster. You know, I loved

And then, you know, Grimlock's sadistic self

with the, you know, the arc shooting at Blastoff.

Yeah, that was a little... With the humans. Yeah,

that was, yeah, come on now. Come on, Grimlock.

He goes to show you. He doesn't care, though.

No, he doesn't care at all. Grimlock, you heartless

dinosaur. That's right. And... Then we get to

the next issue, which is the Space Hikers story.

A group of children are caught in the crossfire

of inter -autobot politics. Okay, Skylinks showing

up is cool. Wheeljack is great. Blaster, always

great. Combaticons. love seeing them I like how

different the art like the cover on this one

is like so dark with the with the little like

Jetson looking space kids and and and Skylinks

looking like on the cover like he's going to

basically eat them which is kind of scary but

then the first few panels like well the first

panel where you have Skylink showing up It's

like all black and pinkish purple because he's

in space and flying and we get more of what,

what, what, what I liked in the UK books was

basically dark backgrounds and, and light, you

know, color schemes for the, for the characters

in the foreground and stuff. And this, this to

me is where the series kind of turned with the,

with the art, because you're not just seeing

the standard yellow white. Blue backgrounds.

I mean you still see some of that but mmm, I

want to say 80 % of this is is nice and you know

spacey and dark and cool I Did like the kids

getting to play around in there and then them

having I find it funny that they had blast off

they picked him up put him inside and They're

all huge compared to him. Mm -hmm cuz mass shifting

went to toy size Yep. Yeah, absolutely it did.

But I like this issue. I think this issue is

fun. I think seeing Skylinks is really cool.

Of course, he's still his arrogant self that

he's ever been, you know, let him try to follow

me through here. Like, oh, Skylinks. Optimus

Prime, will you please return and just, you know,

disintegrate Grimlock so his crown can just fall

down the stairs and you can just st - oh wait,

that's not Optimus Prime and that's not Grimlock,

I'm sorry, that's uh, that's uh, Galvatron st

- right, right, whoops, wrong scene. First of

all, Grimlock, the Dinobots don't have wheels.

Dino bots rule out Someone thinks he's someone

thinks he's a prime He's a I Think it is crap

though that he shoves the You know makes the

humans go out, you know, yeah, that's like flushes

about like yeah with blaster and The other Autobots

see that Skylink saves them and is battling Grimlock

and the Dinobots and Blaster. They're like, all

right, we need a new leader. Yeah, big time.

We've needed you here for a long time. Yeah.

Grimlock was less predictable than a random number

generator. Grimlock being anything but predictable

like that's that's Grimlock. That's that's what

he is like He he don't care, man He just doesn't

fucking care and that's not the good sign of

a good leader Yeah, this issue again, like I

said what I liked about it the the darker backgrounds

And I think this is like where the art kind of

comes into it for me Hoping we kind of stick

with this any final thoughts before we get to

issue 37 Mmm no, okay issue 37 toy soldiers.

I love the cover. I think the cover is awesome

Mayhem Mall gotta love it Some oh wait, no, maybe

not Suburban shootout mayhem mall. Oh boy at

the mayhem at the mall. Oh god So there have

been things I'm not trying to bring a real world

into this but I don't Guns don't solve issues

folks. That's all I'm gonna say So yeah, so this

one we get... Again, I have to comment on the

quote in the TFWiki. Mommy, I want one of those

giant orange toys! No, you don't, kid. No, you

don't. Yeah, this I can't say is a... No favorite

no, I Like that we see the Predacons here and

obviously we're talking about the original g1

characters folks not not time -traveling beasts

from the future but How Buster is the only one

that couldn't Approach the Grimlock command that

arc without being molested is beyond me But yeah,

so there's buster there's Grimlock there's all

that stuff And again the giant robots pouncing

on the little toy robots like The Predacons attempting

to pounce on the little toy throttle bots. I'm

just like what the hell You know I'm talking

about the big one of the biggest cases of bullying

ever I love the newspaper robots strike again

I do love the way that the Predacons do look

though Yeah, they They they certainly add to

the the fun factor here Absolutely they do Then

you get rat bat leading the charge yeah, and

then the Autobots are you know in little toy

cars? Yeah, which I was like why? Yeah. And then

you know, of course. It goes to. Ratbat capturing

everyone. Yep, Ratbat gets everybody. And we

get to. My favorite issue and not just because

it's the last issue, but any thoughts on? Nope.

Okay. So the last issue for this trade is issue

38. Oh boy. Trial by fire. Let's see, someone

call the exterminator. Oh, well, that's because

the cover is the giant Scorponok. That's that

makes sense Yeah So this for me folks is basically

like a comic book version of the rebirth, which

was the the end of the Transformers cartoon series

I pretty much sort of is the same story except

they Move around various things they start off

with one of the nebulons Galen or gallon He is

the intermediary for the robot known as Cerebros,

who is part of the peace -loving nebulons versus

Lord Zarek and the Hive and all of that. So basically,

if you've seen Rebirth, you've read this issue

of the comic. You don't necessarily need to read

this, but I did enjoy reading this. Thoughts

from you, sir. I like that they brought in the

Headmasters, although there's actually kind of

a point here where they're setting up the the

Headmasters comic. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and again,

I mean, you know, David Wise, you know, because

of budgetary reasons, he got cut from five parts

to three. I think, you know, three parts Fitting

in whatever it was that he fit in there. He did

a damn good job So, you know it is what it is

and the fact that you basically fit those three

parts into this one issue as far as like the

overall Origin of nebulos and and having them

come to earth and all that basically Yeah, this

this does a really good job. And like I said,

this is my favorite issue of the entire trade

I really dug this I thought this was really good

So yeah, absolutely. Gort, and Arcana, and Doros,

and Stylar Man, and Krunk. Oh god, Krunk. No,

folks, not Emperor's New Groove. Think 40 years

ago. There were a couple of characters in here

that I did not get, though. One specifically,

like everybody else, I remember them all. But

who in the same hell is Grotesque? I'm looking

at this thing, right? Oh, he's basically a cross

between Ratbat and a pug. No wonder he's called

Grotesque. Yeah, I'm I'm not exactly sure I think

that there they might be a part of the the there's

like the monster pots or the Yeah But yeah, I

enjoyed the fact that we finally got something

different Yeah, different odds different, you

know different kind of continuity going into

the the headmasters comics, right? Yeah Yeah,

so grotesque you you are correct grotesque and

the monster boss joined fortress Maximus and

abandoning Cybertron so that's that's what it

is, but seriously folks his his alt mode looks

like a bat a lizard and a Frank the pug from

MIB got together and had a baby like that's literally

what the the alt form looks like Um, but again,

not trying to crap on this. I really do enjoy

this. I think it's great. I think it's fun. I

think it's interesting. And yeah, favorite issue

of, of them all. And I do like that we do get

Galen passing Cerebros on to Spike. I think that's,

you know, once he's at the point of death. He

asks Spike to forgive him for his earlier blindness

and all that and everything else. I think that's

cool. That's interesting. I've never not said

this to people that I am absolutely a fan of

Rebirth. So seeing it here, I was like, oh, wait,

hey, wait a minute. I like this. What's going

on with this? This is cool. This is good. This

is interesting. This is fun. I don't know what's

gonna happen in issue 39. We'll find out next

time here on the podcast. But like, this gives

me a glimmer of hope. Sort of, I guess. I don't

know. Because the rest of these issues are just

all over the place. This has a beginning, middle,

and end that makes sense. I don't know. Yeah,

I... This is the only one that I actually liked

from this volume. Beyond that, I kind of was

like, you know, I could do without. Yeah. Yeah,

exactly. I could do without. So, yeah. Overall,

Are we going to, do you want to do this individually

by issue or do we just want to do an overall

rating for the whole thing? I want to do an overall.

Okay. Zero to five. What are you going to give

it? I'm going to give it a two. I did not care

for most of this stuff in this run. Yeah. These

issues, man, these 11 issues, 10 out of them

or just. Like we've said all over the place for

us. I Don't like the human stories at all For

the most part I'd like seeing spike and all of

that in that final issue and with Cerebros and

all that because that's what I know from the

cartoon but And I was kind of sort of serious,

but I have no plans on having us do it but I

really think we should have just switched to

the UK comics because seeing that art in the

middle, I'm like, this is so, this is like a

million times better than what the US was getting

at the time. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm getting,

would you give it a two and a half or a two?

I'd give it a two. I'm also going to give it

a two. I would give it lower, but. the that final

issue just kind of like reminded me of like oh

i mean i like some of the characterizations overall

yeah but yeah but the whole point of the story

and the art and the whatever the characterizations

are great i love blaster i love what gold bug

was doing i love all that stuff i love seeing

sky links i Enjoyed seeing Grimlock even he even

though he was a psychopath, but you know, I enjoy

the character stuff It's just the way the stories

unfold and the way that they are told 10 out

of 11 of them are just subpar at best Maybe I'm

wrong. I don't know but I Know so up next here

in Autobot Lee April. We're gonna get to Volume

four of the Transformers classics, the U .S.

Run, this will be our final issue, final Autobotly

April episode for this year. Autobotly August

will kick off where we continue on volumes five

through seven, and we finish off the Marvel U

.S. Run. So that will be happening in August.

I think we're going to have to take a quick break

and hear some ads and some other stuff. We'll

come back to close the show after this. So, get

Altered Get Geeky with the Altered Geeks, every

Friday on the Geekcast Radio Network. It's audio

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show drops on Tuesday mornings on the GCRN website

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to the Marku42's universe podcast from the universe

and beyond. Transformers! You are receiving this

transmission from the Rod Pod. Upload pending.

Standby for soundtrack transfer. I am Maggie.

And I am John. And we are trapped, hurtling through

space in a ship shaped like Rodimus' head. The

ship, for reasons we haven't been able to determine,

contains the entire run of the IDW Transformers

Phase 2 comic. Which chronicle the events following

the end of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons.

So we figure we may as well read them all in

order and report our findings to you. Stand by.

Stand by. Upload complete. Now. The Rod Pod.

Look for us at marriedwcomics .libson .com, at

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can be found. So, uh, till all are one. Till

all are one. Hey all, P. Awe here, inviting you

to come over and check out my channel on YouTube.

It's just youtube .com slash P. Awe, P -E -A

-U -G -H. We got Transformers for the most part.

We got some action figures. Whatever really strikes

my fancy and looks cool and feel like checking

out. So come over here. We got some tabletop

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Thank you all for watching. I hope everybody's

having a great time and just come over and have

some fun. youtube .com slash PR, thanks. What

was that universal greeting again? Never mind,

I remember. Ba -weep -gra -na -weep -ninny -bong.

Hey guys, it's Rodimus Primal and be sure to

check out my YouTube channel. Join me as I have

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reviews and more. You can also follow me on Twitter

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at Rodimus Primal Show. Transform and roll out

and be sure to check out my content. Till all

are one. Last big party of the summer, folks.

Let's go out with a bang! From old school G1

all the way up to Cyberverse and beyond. And

you don't want to miss Empire of Rust, the world's

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all are welcome. Triple Takeover Toycast. Alright

folks, we're back here on all things Transformers

and the pull bag. Marvelous, you are leaving

me very unimpressed. No response? Really? Nope.

Alright, well, I don't know. At least we only

have one more of these trades until August, so

there's that. And I'm sure you'll feel sort of

the same way with IDW, maybe, I don't know, but...

There might be parts of it. I'll like and I'm

sure I'll like some of the art and some of the

storylines. Yeah, but I Was not like a huge Fan

of their stuff. Anyway, like I started collecting

at when IDW got the license Yeah, I liked the

spotlights And I liked some of the 1 .0 stuff

But then when we got down to it, I just. Hmm.

Yeah, it probably went a little too real world

for you, even though it was just comic characters.

And I don't mind it to some degree, but I feel.

Yeah, I just hmm. Well, because I'm a glutton

for punishment and this is all things Transformers,

I'm sure Ryan and I are going to finish off the.

what is technically the 3 .0 run, the one that

you and I started that we just couldn't finish,

the 2019 continuity, the one after Unicron kind

of thing, because there are six volumes, yeah,

of four, five, and six, so we'll finish that

off at some point later, whenever. anything else

you want to bring up under any of that before

I run through the closing anything you want to

promote anything you're doing that you want to

let the people know or any of that kind of stuff?

I mean I might be interested when I hear the

IDW stuff when it's concerned with let's say

The when the Beast characters come right? Yeah.

Well, I'm saying I know that the Beast Wars characters

like they do the Beast planet. Oh You cars. Yes.

Yes. Yes. I don't know if we've I don't know

when that is. I don't remember if that I don't

remember I don't know Yeah, absolutely So alright,

well then that's gonna do it for this episode

of all things transformers and the pull bag visit

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Radio Network and also check out all things Transformers

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will be the final time for now, Transformers

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GeekCast Radio Network. Please, Scooby -Doo this

shit. I have to do that for like 20 minutes.

I wish to speak to my lawyer.