All Things Transformers

Transformers Classics Volume 4 Review

E417 April 27, 2023 1:31:38 EXPLICIT
All Things Transformers Transformers Classics Volume 4 Review
0:00 1:31:38
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About this Episode

We discuss Transformers news, including the latest Rise of the Beasts trailer, the Transformers One voice cast, and new product reveals like the Robosen Optimus Prime and the Legacy Evolution Nemesis. Then, we dive into the IDW reprint of Marvel's Transformers Classics Volume 4, covering issues 39 through 50, written by Bob Budiansky. We analyze the episodic nature of these classic stories, the introduction of Power Master Optimus Prime, and the climactic Underbase Saga.

Hey, this is David Kaye, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. This Transformers

Tuesday, it's a can't -miss podcast that transforms

your world. Just saying. This is Optimus Prime,

and you're listening to all things Transformers.

You've just jumped inside the pull bag. Join

TFG1 Mike and the rest of the comic crew here

at the GCRN as they make their great escape into

comics. From DC, Marvel, and Image to IDW, Boom

Studios, and Xenoscope, we have everything right

here. We cover things like Transformers, He -Man,

Super Heroes, TMNT, and Radiant Black. Yeah,

we have all that and so much more. It's all inside

the pull bag here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

So, without further ado, it's time to talk about

the comics we're reading right now, here inside

the pull bag. Hello, and welcome to All Things

Transformers and the pull bag. That's right.

I am your host, Steve Megatron, and joining me

on this adventure into the Transformers fandom

is TFG1 Mike. It's episode 442. Who knew of ATTF?

And this is episode 519 of The Pull Bag, ladies

and gentlemen. And I have a Transformer. Of course,

I hit it and it doesn't work. More than meets

the eye. Autobots, roll out! I have Peter Cullen

in the palm of my hand, just like I have David

Kaye. Yes. In the palm of my hand. Not going

to lie, that is pretty cool. Absolutely. 18 bucks.

That's all that. And all I need to do is get

a battery that goes to my knockoff Masterpiece

Megatron. And you can voice it. Well, and I could

press the button and it will talk. Oh, cool.

It will do lights and talk. Nice. So, yeah. That

is so cool. So we're here. We have six quick

hit stories. And then, because this is also the

pullback, we're going to get into Transformers

Marvel U .S. Volume 4. More than meets the eye.

We'll get into that after the news, folks. But

first up, we have Lorenzo D. Bonaventura talks

about Transformers Rise of the Beasts. Character

arcs dominate the story. All right. Well, in

a two -hour movie, I don't know how that's going

to happen. But this is what he says from Collider,

who sat down with him for an exclusive lengthy

interview about the upcoming movie Transformers

Rise of the Beast. I think the overall architecture

of this movie is definitely. Definitely unique

for this movie. And it's always going to be influenced

by what we did in the Bay movies in certain respects

because that's how the robots have been rendered.

But just like in Bumblebee, we gave them a different

spin. Same here. I think the way to talk about

this is what were our goals in making this. In

making Bumblebee, our objective was to see how

far, frankly, we could create intimacy in a movie

with a robot. Well, AI is a thing now, folks.

And it was a conscious attempt not to make the

biggest scale, but to center the story around

an emotional construct. I think the movie is

very successful in what it did. There were fans

that complained there was not enough action,

but it was very well received as a movie, blah,

blah, blah. So our first objective was to figure

out how do we hold on to the emotionality of

the experience for the humans that are going

through it. And our decision was to give them

character arcs that are more significant than

we've done before. Transformers live action writers,

right? It's hard to say that about Shia LaBeouf

in the first movie. You know, he goes from being

a young man essentially to a man, right? In this

case, Anthony Ramos and Dominique. this is flashbacks.

Characters are both characters who are trying

to find their way in life. Yada, yada, yada.

So character arcs and okay, sure. Again, I don't

know how many character arcs you can fit into

a two hour, three hour, seven hour movie. I'm

quite honestly done with crappy films. Uh, I

find it funny. Deadline dot com reported this

and they went. Oh, we have. They're like the

first and this is totally related, but not related.

Right. You know, the first Transformers animated

movie is is is being cast or whatever. and i

had to roll my eyes dj goes you've missed the

point like i i need to find what what he uh what

he said but all right well while you're looking

for that so we're going into this and we're going

into transformers one so we're switching from

rise of the beast to transformers one last thing

i'll say about rise of the beasts is that the

quote -unquote final trailer because we are recording

and probably releasing this somewhere around

May 2nd, May 3rd, May the 4th be with you. Revenge

of the 5th, Revenge of the 6th, all that stuff.

So we're releasing this approximately one month

before Rise of the Beasts hits theaters. So I

assume the most recent trailer, which I'll probably

throw in here somewhere. For centuries. Our kind

has stayed hidden on Earth. But darkness has

found us again. Prime. This is about the fate

of all living things. Unicron is coming. Unicron.

I thought we were boys. You want it? Come and

get it. You brought a human here? I'm nobody.

I ain't even seen nothing. I'm not even seeing

anything right now. This is not our war. Optimus,

we must trust each other to protect the home

we all share. How big can this guy be? Uh, he

eats planets. So, like, way bigger than a planet.

In the end, everything you cared for will be

consumed. Maybe there's another way to save our

home. You've never faced anything like this.

Let them come. hate it. I liked it. I like what

I saw. I'm interested. But I'm not going to go

to the theater to see it. I don't leave my house

half the time. I don't leave my apartment half

the time. So that is what it is. So switching

from that to Transformers 1. You sent me this.

And I don't even have to scroll up in our Facebook

chat to see. You go, I don't say this lightly,

but Fuck this. And then you put the link to the

story. And we'll get into the casting of Transformers

1 in a moment. My reply to you was, oh, FFS,

obviously. For fuck's sake, I'm so tired of insert

actor here. And the only blah, blah, blah. So

let's get into this casting. So casting for Transformers

1. First of all, I actually love the name. Because

it's basically telling you, look, this is the

beginning. This is not tied to anything else.

We're not trying to tie it back to Beast Wars,

Beast Machines, animated, G1, G2. This is a new

beginning. I like that. I love that. I think

that's great. Transformers 1, O -N -E. Absolutely

love that. The animated voice cast includes Chris

Hemsworth. I'll tell the characters in a moment.

Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry. Scarlett

Johansson, Keegan -Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and

Lawrence Fishburne. Now, those are the ones that

have been reported as of this recording so far.

Chris Hemsworth is playing Optimus Prime. Why?

Hence my comment. I know. I am so fucking tired

of Hemsworth. Look, he's an okay actor. He's

fairly good. Well, it's not even that. The thing

that irritates me is they're not giving the actors,

like, the voice actors their due. Like, these

people that have worked their butt off to get

these characters on screen. Yeah. And they're

just like, eh, what are you, Chop Lava? And,

like, they don't, like, they instantly, and I

get it, they're going for the name appeal, which.

Yeah. to each their own on that. I am sick and

tired of like the Marvel people showing up. Yeah.

And it's more so just, I just don't care anymore.

Like it's done. And I would prefer that they

like, it's like what they did with the Mario

movie. Yes. Let's put a bunch of names in there

that people know, but ultimately I don't, I don't

have a love for, for when that happens. It doesn't

make me want to go see the movie. What makes

me want to see the movie is that I can tell that

the, the casting is competent and the story is

competent. If it's not, it's an instant, like,

no, yeah, I, I have, and it, it, it boils down

to writing. If the writing sucks, like there's

not, there's no, absolutely. It does. Yeah. And

I feel like there hasn't been a decent transformers

movie made in years because the powers that be

continue to, you know, garbage in garbage out.

Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is, is that you, I

understand they're going for high value celebrities

to get this to mass appeal to mass audience,

not just us who have been fans all our lives

kind of thing. I understand that. But that's

not what this needs to be like. You could give

these roles to John Bailey and Jason Marnosha,

the Optimus and Megatron. Yeah. And you give

it to them. You could give it you could give

it to who they really should give it to, which

is obviously Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. But

with their age and they're trying to start a

new generation, give it to people that either

sound like they can play the role competently.

Yeah. Like, it doesn't have to be a sound alike

of Peter Cullen and Frank Walker. Yeah. Just

give us like competent. You know, competent actors,

you know, in the place, and I don't want to see

a Beast Wars Megatron. Yes, Megatron. You know,

give me something with some, you know, I don't

know, just surprise. Exactly. Give me something

with some gravitas, man. Yeah. And the thing

is, like, I'm still going to see this. Like I

said, I'm probably not. I'm going to wait until

it hits Vudu or whatever streaming service. It's

going to hit probably Paramount Plus or whatever

the hell. And I'll watch it. We'll talk about

it. We'll discuss it with the Mario movie thing.

I haven't even seen it yet. I know it's coming

out on digital May 9th later this month, but

I've seen plenty of people discuss it. I've seen

plenty of clips of it where I'm OK with. The

voice cast that's there. And I love what they

did with Charles Martinet, who is the the original

voice of Mario kind of thing. So I like that.

It's all right. And the Mario movie is freaking

I've heard it's freaking fantastic. And obviously

I've seen it. It's actually really good. Yeah,

absolutely. And we'll cover it. And that's not

it. And again, they had big actors in it, but

I didn't care about that. Yeah, I like the story.

Yep. Absolutely. Like you said earlier, it all

depends on the writing. I just can't envision

Thor as Optimus Prime, because really, outside

of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I only know

maybe four of Hemsworth's other films, Ghostbusters

2016, the two Extraction movies, and something

else that I can't remember off the top of my

head at this point. He played Captain Kirk's

dad in the reboot of Star Trek. Okay, now. I

mentioned that. But that was good. Right. Okay,

good. See, that's the thing. If he uses the voice,

like if he changes – if he doesn't go into Thor,

if he doesn't make Optimus Prime Thor, if he

doesn't make him that – but if he goes with Kirk's

– if he goes with George Tiberius Kirk – I think

it was George. I know it was Tiberius. It was.

It was George Kirk. Okay, well, whatever. The

point is, is that – If he uses that kind of voice,

I'll be okay. And I'm still going to check it

out. I'm still going to see how, because I need

to know how Hemsworth is going to do that character.

I don't, without looking it up, and I don't feel

like looking anything up right now, Brian, Tyree,

Henry, I have no idea what else he's done, but

he's voicing Megatron. Scarlett Johansson voicing

Alita. OK, fine. I like her voice. That's that's

fine. Don't you find it funny, though, that they're

going to do like Orion Pax and Megatron and then

it's Alita one instead of Ariel? Yeah. Well,

yeah. See, I mean, technically they are the same

character, but yeah, it should be. Yes. This

is the origin of Optimus and Megatron as friends

and then enemies and whatever else. Like you

draw from the lore. Don't try and reinvent the

wheel. It's not needed. Yeah, exactly. Keegan

-Michael Key kicked ass as Toad, so I'm interested

to hear his bumblebee. Jon Hamm did something

recently. I don't remember what the hell it was,

but Sentinel Prime, okay, fine. And then my favorite,

I cannot wait. I wish it was George Takei, but

it's not. But Lawrence Fishburne, freaking Morpheus

as Alpha Trion. Which that should be like A3.

Yeah, absolutely. Cannot wait for that one. All

right. Up next, we have I found this on Twitter

and this is like you were kind of ranting about

the Transformers one thing and all that. And

this is it's funny because DJ Deadline brought

it up. Oh, you got it. OK. And he goes in one

headline. You made everyone despise a movie due

to historic incompetence. Because they put is

the headline. Yeah. Paramount Animation, Hasbro

and E1 are teaming on the first ever acclimated

or animated Transformers movie. First ever. First

ever. Yeah. And then the just below it, Twitter

puts a you know how they were doing like the,

you know, fake news thing. Right. It says readers

added context. They thought people might want

to know an animated Transformers movie came out

in 1986. Yeah. And I was like, yes. Yeah, I just.

Yeah. I just I thought it was hilarious that

that came out. And then and then Ben Yee. Yeah,

he gets in there, too. And and he's like. Deadline.

The first Transformers film was a 1986 animated

feature. The Transformers, the movie. I understand

president of Paramount Animation said this was

the first, but they were mistaken. I would recommend

a correction be posted in the article. Exactly.

I'm like you people like and this is what this

is what drives me nuts. And I've mentioned this

with even job interviews. With when they refer

to to writing. If you're going to write an article,

make sure it's factual. Yeah, exactly. And I

get you can't know everything, but a simple Google

would have done wonders. Google is your friend

for everything at this point. And don't try and

be clever with the titles. Yeah. And what's funny

is a lot of people were just backing up the argument

by posting images saying Hasbro, really? And

then posted images of Transformers the movie.

And so somebody goes, you know, OK, so I didn't

see this Transformers the movie in the 80s with

the theme sung by by a lion. I love how journalists

like to rewrite history these days. And I posted

that one just because, like, it's. Yeah. And

I get it. Like, you're not if you're not into

it, you're not going to know. And I do get that.

I give them some some wiggle room there. However.

To just do a Google search. Yep. Even when I

wrote tech articles and I had to write them for

Macs and I didn't have one, I just would do a

Google search to find what I was looking for.

Absolutely. I don't know. All right. Yeah, no,

absolutely. You are absolutely 100 % correct.

And I don't know what the hell has happened.

to the art of journalism. I don't know. It's

become like, who can we pay the least amount

of money and do the laziest job? That's why they're

rewriting people with AI. Exactly. And this is

a complete topic that we are going to cover on

Geekcast Radio, the flagship podcast here at

the GCR, and at some point soon in the future,

because this is a whole topic we can all... I

have... Huge issues with AI and creating writing

and all that wibbly -wobbly, wacky, wackadoo

stuff that AI does. All right. Up next is something

that, again, just like I'm tired of Chris Hemsworth.

I have nothing against the man personally. I'm

just tired of seeing him everywhere kind of thing.

And I get it. Yeah. I'm tired at this point of

RoboSan. Yeah, I get the appeal of the Transforming

Optimus, but I don't care about their product

because, one, I'll never buy it. It's too expensive.

It's too expensive, and I understand why it's

expensive. Don't get me wrong. It's a good artistic

marvel. Yeah, but you need to have a mansion

in order to use it. Yeah. I mean, I don't even

know. I would have to look online to see if I

can find what the actual square footage of my

one -bedroom apartment is. I know I could probably

put him over here on the carpet where there's

nothing currently right now. But again, cost

and whatever else. But Robosen, we are going

primal. Autobots, assemble. Prepare to embrace

the next level of the battle. RoboSend's Rise

of the Beasts Performance Optimus Prime rolls

out online May 25th, 2023. And it's basically

Rise of the Beasts Optimus, you know, in the

RoboSend and whatever else, and I'm sure it's

going to have Peter Cullen's voice and all that,

but it's the Rise of the Beasts design. Okay,

fine, great. I'm not going to buy it. Like, if

I wanted... So you're talking about the original

RoboSend one. I waited to see what else they

were going to do with that, and then they finally

released the RoboSend one. They actually released

the trailer, and the trailer comes with... So

it's kind of like MP -01 versus MP -04 kind of

thing. MP -04 came with the trailer. MP -01 did

not. And if I want a full Optimus Prime, whether

it's auto -converting or not, I want not just

the tractor, I want the trailer too. That's the

whole point. And then the second to last story

we have, and I think this is kind of cool. Unicron

.com posted on Instagram that Delzord asks, is

the face of Optimus Prime in this movie designed

off of the legendary voice of Prime Peter Cullen?

And he tagged Stephen Caple Jr., Transformers

Rise of the Beast, blah, blah, blah. And it looks

kind of like Peter Cullen, a little bit. I mean,

Prime doesn't have a mustache like Peter does.

Well, actually, it does if you look really closely.

Yeah, it has kind of like the outline. The formation

is there. Yeah, it is kind of there. But, yeah,

I do think that's cool that they're paying attention

to that kind of detail. I wish they'd pay attention

to other kinds of details. The other thing that

I noticed from Unicron .com on Instagram. is

Coleman Downing will be the voice of Unicron

in Rise of the Beasts. I have no idea who this

person is. I've never heard of them. I'm going

to have to look them up after the show because

I'm not clicking through 70 hundred IMDB things

to find him at this point in time. So I thought

that was cool. And then finally, just before

we hit record for this episode, folks, we do

have. Final product shots of Nemesis, the ship,

the robot for the Transformers Legacy Evolution,

whatever multiple title things the line is. She

looks good in robot mode. I like all the poses,

but I love the ship. I just, I want this and

I want the Ark just to sit on my shelf and I

would never transform them out of their ship

mode, their alt modes. It looks so good. I don't

mind it. It's a Titan figure. I probably won't

ever get any of them. Just because I could get

a Beast Wars Masterpiece character for the same

cost. True. But again, this is G1. If there was

an Axalon... See, this is what I'm thinking.

I'm biased. I would probably do it just so I

have the ship. I would never transform it. I

would just have the stinking ship on my... my

desk. So, um, most of my posts on my personal

Facebook page folks are memories from like three,

four, five, 10, 11, 15 years ago kind of thing.

And the other day, um, actually as of this recording,

it was 15 hours ago. Memory came up from 13 years

ago when I took a screen cap of, I think it's

in the first, whenever they first reveal the

Axalon, like after it crashes and it's all snowy,

it's the snow scene of where the Axalon finally

crashes, where it finally ends up in the cartoon.

And I just posted 15 hours ago, but winter is

over because Facebook wanted me to post the picture

again after 13 years. So this is my thinking.

With them having the Ark and having the Nemesis

now, I think they're going to eventually get

to the Axalon and the Dark Side. If they can

pull it off with these two ships, they can pull

it off with those two ships. And I really love

the way the Ark looks and Nemesis. she looks

great too. The arc, he looks fine. He looks great.

And this looks great as well in both modes. I

just would never have it in robot mode. That's

just me personally. But yeah, so I think that

could potentially possibly be coming. Anything

else you've noticed before we head to a quick

break? Well, I, I have, In addition to some of

those things, we we have the the Transformers

Takara Beast Wars versus sets. Oh, yes. I missed

that. Is it on TFW? It is. They've got presently

there's there's going to be one of. I mean, obviously,

we know Primal and Megatron. Yeah. which people

are sorely disappointed with the Megatron because

they didn't really change all that much in the

way of the colors over the Kingdom one. Uh -huh.

And then there's Rhinox and Scorponok. Oh, boy.

And then Waspinator and Cheetor. Yeah, that's

a good combo. That'll work. And they gave Cheetor

the Netflix body. Well, no, the Netflix paint

job where he's actually got the proper blues.

OK, yeah, they don't have a close up picture

of them yet. And Waspinator was pretty close,

but it looks like they've also changed like the

wing color. It's not that purple like it's the

translucent with the shade of purple. So it's

not like completely purple, purple. It looks

like the show. So, yeah, I'm I'm excited to see

what it looks like. I already have all of these

figures. I don't care. Like, I'm not going to

buy the same toy again for a different paint

job. I'll just paint it. Yeah. But I thought

it was interesting that they're coming out with

that. And then the the R .E .D. prime Starscream.

Has been revealed. Yeah. And to be honest, like

his wings pop off and you can change the hands

and you can put his no ray on. I kind of like

it. I mean, there's some lack of color for sure,

and there's some bending of some of the rubberized

plastic, which that's the main gripe I have with

modern toys, is the rubber. You can't paint it,

and then once it's bent, it's screwed. And then

they figured out a way to repurpose the War for

Cybertron Megatron figure once more. Nice. As

minor Megatron. Like the origins Megatron. Interesting.

Like that paint job. And he's got the caution

tape and they don't show what his head looks

like or his hands yet. Okay. But yeah, that's,

that's one that they're, they're working on and

people are screaming in the post, please no more

siege. Megatron repaints remolds. I'm good for

now. I promise. And then there's red Grimlock.

Okay. Coming as well. Cool, cool. He looks pretty

decent. The R .E .D. ones, I'm looking forward

to, but at the same time, I'm waiting for more

Beast Wars. Yeah. If there's a Megatron, I'll

get him. If not, I'll probably pass on anything

red. I've been tempted for Starscream, Ultra

Magnus, and G1 Megatron. And even Prime to some

degree. But I like the option to transform them.

Yeah. If I have that option. So, like, for instance,

I found, I forget what the site's called. Yeah,

it's Ally Express. Yeah. Okay. So, anyways, you

can find. Transformers figures or just about

anything. You can find knockoff versions of figures

on their site for like a fraction of the cost.

And so I found a knockoff alligator Megatron.

Nice. And he's he's oversized. So he's deluxe

instead of basic. Nice. That's cool. And and

it was like 12 bucks. shipped nice and i found

quick strike same same deal right and i was like

okay that i i could because i mean you're gonna

pay 30 to 60 just for those brand new from the

hasbro and you're lucky if you can get them yeah

and then these are oversized so they're the size

of a deluxe so i was like okay for that i could

i could you know toy around with them tweak the

colors you know remold things as i see fit but

it you know it gives me a bigger figure to go

on my shelf very cool i was like all right well

that's that's cool so anyways yeah i i've gotten

into those a little bit but yeah i think i think

i'm good as far as that stuff goes i'm working

on my star trek ships now yes yes you are that's

a whole other defiant thing that we'll talk about

later. Yeah. Other conversations. Yes. Yes. So

the last thing I found before we head to a break

and come back with the comic review is, have

you had any interest in fig pin? You've heard

of them or anything, you know, that they're the

pin company that does various like enamel pins

and things like that. They have an optimist.

Yeah. I've, I've heard of them. I just haven't

looked into them. I put the link to the latest

one in our Facebook chat, so you can click on

that really quick. So they have so far Optimus,

Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, Jazz, and Soundwave.

And they're all the G1 designs. Well, they have

Hot Rod and Galvatron, too. That's the new story

that, yeah, exactly. And I don't dislike FigPen

at all. I think it's a kind of cool thing and

whatever else, but... I was, like, I never had,

like, oh, my God, I need another Optimus. More

than meets the eye. That's the only Optimus I

need at this point. Like, I don't need another

Optimus. I wish I had a Megatron as far as, like,

a voice Megatron -wide. You know that... That

doesn't really count. Well, you know what they

do with them, right? Mm -hmm. You have an app,

and you can scan them? Yep. I don't know how

much I care about a digital item. Well, true,

right, but it's also a physical thing. It is

also a physical thing, and it's not hidden behind

an NFT wall or anything else. So, yes, the two

new Fig Pin announced two new items for the officially

licensed Transformers Collection Hot Rod and

Galvatron. Each Fig Pin is crafted in cast zinc

alloy inlaid with... hard enamel, and is finished

with an electroplated nickel coating that include

their own display cases. Both are scheduled for

release mid -May 2023. These new characters join

the first ones, as I already said, and I've already

saved these website links to FigPen because I

will most likely buy these in June because I

kind of dig them. I've seen a lot of other FigPen

stuff, and I've never really like, oh my god,

I have to have these. Hot Rod and Galvatron,

I kind of have to have them. I like the Prime,

but that's about as far as it goes. I like it

because it's got that animation feel, but it

also looks like what's on the cover of the Transformers

the movie DVD. So that's the only reason I like

it. But unless there was a Beast Megatron or

Optimus Primal, I don't think I would ever get

any of these. But I do like them to some degree.

I just don't. Not something I would necessarily.

Yeah. And again, for me, it's like I'm not like

Hot Rod and Galvatron. That's that's pretty much

all I need. Like, I don't need any of the others.

I don't want any of the others. Hell, I didn't

even see this story until I was scrolling for

the other one that you were talking about with

the two. The two new whatever figures of whatever

it was you're talking about a moment ago. And

then I ran into this and I'm like, ooh, we'll

hunt. So we're going to take a quick break. We're

going to come back with Marvel Comics Transformers

Classics Volume 4, reprinted by IDW Publishing.

And we're going to talk issues 39 to 50 right

after this. This is Megatron. Leader of the Predacons,

and you're listening to All Things Transformers.

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So listen to the Marku42's Universe podcast from

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the eye with the Triple Takeover ToyCast. Hosted

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Sixo and TF Square One, this informal and chilled

out series of discussions cover everything from

vintage Transformers to Mask, Diaclone, Microman

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Transformers is undermanned and unprotected.

Ours is for the asking. Predacons, terrorize!

All right, folks. On the pullback, I'm sure you

probably fast -forwarded to this moment 30 minutes

later. Transformers Classics Volume 4 Starscream

is the cover for this one. Very obviously G1

cover. And this one, as I mentioned, includes

issues 38, 39 to 50. These were published from

April of 1988 to March of 1989. The stories we

have in this are the Desert Island of Space,

Pretender to the Throne, Totaled, People Power.

Oh, God, we're going to skip that one. The big

broadcast of 2006, the Cosmic Carnival. Oh, God,

more humans. No. Mastercon from Mars, Cash and

Carnage. It's Carnage, but the way it's Car -Nage.

Weird. Clubcon, The Flames of Boltax, Cold War,

and Dark Star. These were all written by Bob

Budiansky, and all of them were done by, for

the art, was done by Jose Delbo, inks by Danny

Belondi, letters by Bill Oakley, colors by Neil

Yamatov. I'm slowly getting to be okay with this

series, I guess. Yeah, I mean, it gets better.

For sure. You've been saying that for three episodes

before. Yes, it is. This issue is where I start

getting interested. Okay. Oh, man. So Fort Max

gets the shaft. So we start back with Buster

on the island, and we have Ratbat and Shockwave

and dealing with Buster, and Buster's giving

them lip. And all that. That's how it goes in

the Transformers world. Yep. I do get a little

excited because they start wiping out humans

a little at a time. Like, we stopped seeing them

as much. Yep. Yeah. GB Black or BG or GB Blackrock

and all that stuff. But they add more humans

in, too. Like I mentioned, issue 42, I'm like,

no. I think if I remember right, 39, 40, and

41 were all kind of really good robot kind of

stuff. And then issue 42, it's like, hey. Nebulos.

And the Nebulons, I don't mind some of it. I

like when the Nebulons work with the Autobots.

I like when the Nebulons are in the Autobots'

bodies or when they have the exosuits or whatever

else. Oh, wait. Rebirth is what I like. Whoops,

this isn't the cartoon. This is the comic. But,

yeah, so this issue, we have an island that's

going to go, an encapsulated island that's going

to go into space. Oh, God. It's the space needle.

Yeah, pretty much. It really kind of is. This

issue, man, just, I'm. I feel like Ratbat being

the leader, technically. What I was just going

to say, I am still tired of Ratbat as the leader.

Like, put Soundwave in charge. Put Shockwave

in charge. Fuck, put Starscream in charge. Be

careful what you ask for. Yes, I know. Yes, I

know. It's coming. I know. I understand. But

I'm saying, like, Ratbat... senator rat bat or

whatever the hell he like he's a bat that supposedly

turns into a cassette i don't know i i don't

know this first issue is issue 39 just and then

we have for the next one for 40 we have introducing

the pretenders I never I was already out of Transformers

toys when pretenders kind of like hit the scene.

And I was like, it's a cool concept. I think

it's interesting. But I was like, OK. I don't

know. I just don't know anymore. The pretenders

aren't bad. I do think it's funny that we get

Prime in a digital world and he just thinks he's

a character still. Yeah, in a video game. That

is funny, and that was cool. But again, this

issue, just like the last one, 90 % human, 10

% robot. And I get it. You want to have human

characters relating to human readers, but we

also relate to the robot's characteristics. Peter

Cullen and everybody else from G1 always says,

oh, Optimus Prime is like a mix between John

Wayne and Abe Lincoln or whatever the hell. And

that's great and that's awesome. And I love G1

Optimus Prime, but, man, this comic. And, yeah,

it's like he thinks he's in a video game. It's

like, okay, that's a cool concept. That's an

interesting concept, but. At the end of the day,

and all of this Pretender stuff with them in

the tubes and whatever else reminds me of the

episode Only Human, where Rodimus, RC, Ultra

Magnus, and Springer were turned human by Victor

Drath and Cobra Commander. Everything is for

sale, Mr. Drath. Oh, boy. I have that clip somewhere.

I'll probably erase my own voice and put that

clip in there because obviously Chris Lotta does

it better than me because it's his voice. But

yeah, this issue, I don't know, what were you

feeling with this one? Did you like it? Did you

not like it? For the Space Needle? Or for issue

40 with the Pretenders? The Pretenders, yeah.

The Pretenders, I didn't mind it because we got

Optimus back in Goldbug. And we got to see Some

of the Autobots. Getting more or less birthed

from Prime. Prime is Jesus. Yep. And and then

we see, you know, Prime starting to. He still

thinks he can be recreated, but he goes back

in to infiltrate the Decepticons. And I just

loved it. And Scorponok is just kind of confused.

What is going on here? Yeah, Scorponok is like,

you know, a deer in headlights or a robot deer

in headlights. But Scorponok is a better leader

than Ratbat. Yeah, I will concede that. But at

the same time, he's an idiot, too. He's an idiot,

too. It's like that old thing. From the Jim Carrey

Grinch. You're an idiot. You're an idiot. You're

an idiot. Yep. Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot. All

idiots all around us. I believe on page 48. So

at the top of page 48. It says, Commander Scorponok

said we would surprise them. Now isn't the time

to be recalling the words of that micro -brained

moron sub -marauder. And the reason why I'm bringing

this up is because you have, again, yellow blasters,

white. with, like, yellow and orange flame kind

of things from them being blasted. And the Scorponok

side characters are blue, are red, and the other

robots are all blue. This is the original red

versus blue. Red laser, blue laser. Oh, God.

Yeah. Issue 40. And... And the ending for Prime,

you know, where Prime is like, I must admit,

though, these recent events have helped crystallize

my purpose. My reason for being is suddenly clear

to me. I certainly do. And now I know what it

means to be a warrior, a leader like never before.

I will never forget. Never. And then next up

is Grimlock versus Blaster. I love the battle

you demanded, Grimlock versus Blaster, and about

100 more Transformers duking it out, too. I love

that. I will say, before we get into issue 41...

I don't know if I would have liked this as a

kid if I had seen this. I mean, I liked comics,

but again, I was always a cartoon kid, not a

comic kid. But as I was reading through this

in order for us to discuss this on the show,

I'm like, I would much rather read this as a

prose novel than see... Like, no disrespect to

any of the people doing the art on this series,

but... The way they're telling the stories, the

way Budiansky is writing the stories, I feel

like it's better as a book or an audiobook than

a comic. Yeah, I mean, I can see that. It's just...

Yeah. It is what it is. Yeah, it is what it is.

We can't change it now, but... So we get issue

41 and Skrank totaled. Because Prime, you know,

he just can't seem to grasp that he's not a cartoon

character anymore. Yeah, he's not a cartoon character.

He's not a video game character. And he keeps

blowing himself up. And then they just see his

parts laying on the ground. So let's see. Transformers,

the Transformers, the movie. Dark Awakening,

and technically he didn't die again after it,

but Return of Optimus Prime. No, then he died

again in Headmasters, like Episode 3. Oh, okay,

well. In the original 98 episodes, Dark Awakening,

he came back as a zombie, and then Rebirth, he

came back as himself. I do love the end of that.

I always have. I mean, I love Rebirth in general.

That's just me. But I love the end of that where

Dick Gaudier, may the man rest in peace, as Hot

Rod is like, or whatever. He's like, but the

Matrix is empty. And Optimus is like. It's up

to all of us to fill it again. Uh -huh. Yeah.

That's the line. Yeah, man. I don't know. I might.

Somehow, and I know this is going to sound stupid,

and you're going to probably take offense to

this. Ladies and gentlemen, I might assign Steve

Megatron to do volumes 5, 6, and 7 with somebody

else. I don't care who he picks, but I don't

know if I can continue with this. Again, I like

this story, but I don't know. It's the format.

If it was a different format, it would be fine.

I don't know. Yeah, anything else we need to

talk about for issue 41? I'm trying to see here.

Okay, Blaster versus Grimlock, and that's a whole

thing. And then they finally come together. Oh,

we work better together than apart or versus

each other. So there's that. Omega Supreme shows

up. Anything else on issue 41 that you want to

talk about? Well, I just like the fact that they

head to the nebulos, you know, or they're beginning

to head in that direction, despite idiot Grimlock.

Yeah, despite idiot Grimlock. I think it's funny,

though, that they just take his crown. Take it

off, you know. I like the fact that there's finally

a showdown between Blaster and Grimlock. Yeah.

But. And then it's just, it gets real confusing

because of so many things going on. I do find

it funny, though, as they raid the Ark. Uh -huh.

There's the bodies of Starscream, Frenzy, Skywarp,

Thundercracker, Buzzsaw all being shipped off.

Yep. It's like, this will come back to play.

Oh, yes, this will come back to play. This will

come back to bite you in the ass, Autobots. Oh,

Lord. I do like Buddy Jansky's writing in these

issues, though. I think it's really good writing.

I think it's an interesting Transformers story.

You know, so there will come a certain point

where the art and the writer changes. Oh, great.

Well, that's not this trade. That's probably

the next one. I think it starts in the next.

I like this next issue. This is probably one

of my favorites of the group. Issue 42? Yes.

Okay, take it away. I love it because it starts

off with two of the Power Masters going off in

Darkwing and Dreadwind, and they combine. Power

Master guys are just eating away and getting

fuel. And that's how they're fueling these Decepticons.

And then you see the throttle bots show up more

or less. Yeah. You know, Slapdash, Joyride, Getaway,

Goldbug. And then funny enough, the Nebulons

look human. They're not green people. And they're

asking. the the leader of the this this group

galen to build uh or help them build optimus

prime right you know and they're like oh well

you know you're gonna poison yourselves we poisoned

all the supplies for transformers to not live

here that's why they have the power masters and

uh It's great because the Autobots are just not

a match for these Power Masters. And Bumblebee's

Goldbug is pleading with them. And like, please,

just load Prime, build him a new body. And they

build him and he looks slightly off, like slightly

different. They finally program him. And then

he's slowly having an issue. and then they're

like, combine with your trailer. And he's like,

oh, the trailer. And he's like, oh, wow, this

is the most power, you know. And then he still

thinks he's in a game. Yep, he still thinks he's

in a game. Until he has pain hit him. Yeah, the

pain hits him, and then all of a sudden he's

like, oh, this is real life. Yikes. You know,

and then, you know, he drops to the ground. And

I love this look for Prime. Yeah. I love the

Power Master look. I love how powerful he gets.

And then the other guys become... Power Masters.

And then Prime just goes in there and just mops

the floor with the Decepticons. Yep. And. You

know, Haikyuu. Haikyuu is the one in Prime, I

believe. And he's he's got a pretty cool suit

and he pops out to talk to them. And, you know,

basically they all have to leave Cybertron. Pretty

much. Yeah. And. But. His story, like Haikyuu,

sticks around through the remainder of this series.

Right, yeah. Haikyuu is interesting. I think

he's cool. He's just one of those characters

that you kind of want to read, you kind of want

to know more about him kind of thing. Oh, you'll

get to learn more of his personality as the thing

continues, as the series continues to go on.

Yeah, very cool. If you're wanting to learn more

about him, you'll get your shot. Absolutely,

absolutely. I'll let you take the next one because

I don't care about this one. Yeah, so talking

about Power Master Optimus Prime really quick.

Yeah, you're right. I like the design. I like

the shot on page 97 of Volume 4. I think not

Decepticons. I just like the way he's standing

there. And I went on eBay just to see what original

Power Master Optimus Prime is going for. Now,

it goes for various prices. And not that I'm

going to buy one of these anytime soon. I'm not.

But there is a price on here for buy it now.

Power Master Optimus Prime Transformers G1 1987

original box and instructions. Now, if it doesn't

include, I'm going to make sure the listing actually

includes, especially for that price. I'm not

paying that price for just the box and instructions.

Because I think this is a scam. I don't know

if it is or whatever, but I remember having Power

Master Optimus Prime as a kid. And he was so

very, very cool. But yeah, I mean, he's... So

this listing is $290, but it's like a complete,

with the box, with the instructions. It's not

necessarily... It's not MSIB. It's not mint and

sealed box, but... it's it's damn near close

and i remember as a kid i always used to play

with the big optimus prime uh uh head that is

supposed to be the the power man but man i love

this toy as a kid so good all right i need to

stop looking at ebay because i will make bad

financial decisions not that i don't do that

anyways but um but yeah this next issue can just

fuck off Okay, moving on. Yeah. Oh, no, wait.

Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. No, no, no. This is...

Rodimus first. Yeah. Rodimus versus Galvatron.

I thought that was okay. Speaking, you know,

the big broadcast 2006. I like this. I actually

like the art. I like the story that's in this.

I could do without Sky Lynx, but everybody could

do without Sky Lynx. I like seeing Astro Train.

Some of these frames in here are pictures I put

on the ATTF post about us recording this episode

on the Facebook page for all things Transformers.

And, yeah, no, this isn't the one that I just

say, you know, screw it. But, no, this was okay.

This is kind of cool. This is kind of fun. It's

the next one. It's issue 44. Really? The Cosmic

Carnival? Yeah, I get it. It hurts. Oh, Marvel.

Oh, Generation 1 Marvel. The one thing I am enjoying

is seeing how many various colors they can make

the Transformers letter logo. on each issue.

I'm like, okay, that's an interesting color.

Wait a minute, what'd they do there? At the beginning

of this cosmic, and we're not going to go through

all of Cosmic Carnival because we're just not.

It's whatever. But the beginning of this, I'm

like, wait, isn't that Skylynx? No, it's some

weird silvery snake serpent looking thing in

space. I'm like, okay. And it's hurtling towards

Earth, and they're bringing all their cosmic

carnival peoples. What's Optimus doing here?

Earth children. Oh, it's Goldberg. Earth children.

Down in front. Oh, man. Some of the time I can

take this, like the Rodimus issue, like the Power

Master Optimus Prime issue, I can take those

seriously and very much enjoy them. When you

have four kids, With giant robots. I just can't

take that seriously. And then they start a whole,

or they go to a whole carnival, an actual carnival.

This feels like Optimus Prime playing basketball

all over again, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, it

pretty much is. Nope, not for me. And this one.

I don't like that issue. No, it just... No Cosmic

Carnival for me. Yeah, and again, we talked about

this in, I think, volume... We've probably talked

about it in all of them, but when we recorded

volume two a few months ago and we recorded volume

three... there is at least not at this point

i know there's going to be at the end of this

trade but there is no real continuity from like

i love the the whole thing at the end of every

issue next time on blah blah blah like this one

says next time flash decepticon skogren becomes

Hollywood's latest movie star, MonsterCon from

Mars, premieres at newsstands near you in 30

days. Obviously, because comics come out monthly.

I like the way they do that, but again, issue

45? Skullgrim is a character I've never cared

about, and this story didn't make me want to

care about him any more or any less than I already

do or don't. Skylynx is here. That's fun. But

there are at least, I want to say, 12 humans

or something. There's a lot more, again, that

80, 20, 90, 10, 70, 30 of humans versus Transformers,

and I just don't care. Yeah, so I will preface

this with saying the next couple issues suck.

And I'm... Yeah. So... It's very... This is the

problem with the Marvel run. It's very hit or

miss. It's very episodic. It's very, like, it

has no... Like, you've known me for 15 years.

Oh, my God. You've known me... We've known each

other for 15 years now. 2008. Wow. It... And

there is no continuity. I'm a continuity person.

I'm not saying every – like if we started out

issue 39 that continued the story from the end

of issue 38 like it did because it went from

– at the end of issue 38, Buster was on the island,

issue 39, Buster's on the island as it starts,

and then it goes into something else. That's

fine. Have through lines. Have something that

is going to – I'm not on video, folks, but I'm

doing all these hand gestures as I'm sitting

here talking about this. But yeah, they were

really trying to make this once -a -month comic

an episodic television series that just was Adventure

of the Week. And while I liked some of it, like

I said, the Power Master and the Rodimus vs.

Galvatron Adventures of the Week were good for

me, the rest, not so much. Yeah, I, yeah. And

then we get to the good stuff, because... Oh

no, we have to salvage the Seacons. I never knew

about the Seacons, because they weren't in the

cartoon, but issue 47... Actually, no, so this

is, okay, so the Seacons are in this, but this

starts... The Underbase Saga Part 1. So this

starts the continuity of a four -part series.

And as I'm reading through this, I've noticed

it before, but I've never noticed it more than

I do now. At the top of that first page where

Starscream is, Stan Lee presents the Transformers.

So flippin' cool. Absolutely love that. So Club

Con, apparently Starscream and other Decepticons

have started a vacation, what do they call those

damn things? A timeshare. They've started a timeshare

where they're like, oh, get in me. I'll be your

plane to the island or I'll be your plane to

this. And that's interesting, I guess. I don't

know. But it leads to interesting things. That

it does. That it does. So what were you thinking

with this first part of the Underbase saga? I

was wondering why Starscream was a, like a cruise

ship. Yeah. As the other Autobots are kind of,

you know, having a battle and some of them watching.

things. I find it funny that Grimlock is hanging

out with Prime and Fort Max. Yeah, that was hilarious.

And Prime finally pipes in. And then we get,

you know, Blaster and some of the other ones

and then Starscream's, you know, fake commercial

for their residential island underground. Yep.

And I hate Ratbat. Yeah, that's all that needs

to be said. And then they have Jesse. Yeah, they

have Jesse. And they're in the Seacons. I don't

like the Seacons. Yeah, I never got the appeal

of that. Every other combiner, I kind of get

why people like or dislike the combiners. Like,

you know, Devastator, which Devastator is very

likable. Oh, Minasaur, Defensor, Computron. I

know I'm now naming all just Autobot ones, but

I get the appeal of all the other combiners.

I never got the appeal of the Seacons. I think

it's funny, though, that Blaster leaves his cassettes

for surveillance and after he coughs them up.

And then she manages to escape. Yeah. And one

of the other, you know, and then Star screams

like, you know, sorry for the incident. You know,

sorry for the incident on the beach earlier.

Thank you all for coming, humans. You know, it's

just I don't know. It's just really weird. Not

a character for him, but I happening to know

what happens to him later. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

It's entertaining. Yeah. And the whole time I'm

reading that scene, the beach scene with Starscream,

it makes me think of, is it? No, it's not Prime

Problem. It's The Master Plan, two -parter, where

you have Sean Berger. and the Decepticons force

the Autobots to go into the sun and all that,

and they leave Earth and whatever else, and Sean

Berger and Megatron take over kind of thing,

and you have Starscream dressed up as Optimus.

That's what this makes me think of, and very

comical for Starscream. So that's very cool,

very interesting, and very well done. Anything

else on 47? Nope. All right, issue 48. The return

of Megatron. The end of Optimus Prime, question

mark, exclamation point, question mark. I think

this is probably the first time in 48 issues

that I actually like Megatron's face and black

helmet. Because if you zoom in on... Megatron,

he has this smart... It's not a smirk, it's more

of a smile, but it's kind of like a... It's a

devious smile kind of look, and I really dig

it. This cover is so good for issue 48. We start

with the flames of Boltax, and more humans. Get

off my comic. More humans, more Ratbat. At least

Starscream is giving him lip. Starscream always

gives lip. Well, yes, but, like, it's freaking

Ratbat. Like, come on. Well, and then he's showing

him, like, a flashback. Yep. Of Prime. Yep. And

the Underbase. Yep. What do you think of the

concept of the Underbase? I think it's interesting,

like, this all -knowledging, you know... uh resource

for them i i like the idea of it right uh but

i also see that as another one of those mcguffins

yeah yeah another another plot device but i i

do like the idea of it yeah it's a plot device

but it's a plot device that actually functions

properly It's not just another broken innator

kind of thing. It's not just a Matrix. It's not

just AllSpark. It's not just the normal Transformers

MacGuffins. It's not a solar needle. It's not

a space needle. It's not an ultimate doom where

they're going to fire into Cybertron and bring

Saturday to that. And of course, this being the

powerhouse, powerful thing that it is, Starscream

wants it. Duh. Yeah, why wouldn't Starscream

want it? Exactly. Didn't see that coming a mile

away. Oh, wait, we did. So. But I do love Megatron.

Clearly, the objective is Boltax, comrades. A

blatant. A violation of our neutrality agreement.

Then we should destroy them, Commander. Ruckus,

you micro -brain buffoon. They are unwittingly

showing us how to avoid every one of Bulltax's

traps. Again, if this was in written prose book

form, I would be eating these words up. Because

it's in the format it's in, I almost don't care.

Almost don't care. Almost. But the next page,

Optimus Prime, our destination lies before us,

Autobots. I love this panel of Optimus. I love

the way it's... Ladies and gentlemen, we've done

four trades of this series, and I've always said,

five colors, that's it? Come on! How the shading

and shadows are done to show Optimus being transformed

from his trailer truck mode to the robot mode

is amazing. I am going to make you do so many

damn different things for this banner. You probably

won't because whatever, but I'm going to try.

But I love this image of Optimus. It is so fucking

good. Absolutely amazing, wonderful things with

Optimus here. And it's just so simple. It's such

a nice way to get the character in an action

pose in a static. comic like literally like we've

talked about it before there was a rise about

a decade ago or so of motion comics where you

could buy motion comics and they move into all

kinds of special things this like i could see

this panel here in a motion comic and like just

be flipping out like he's basically doing pretty

much that's what it is so yeah This one panel

is almost my favorite thing of this entire trade.

It's a shot of Optimus Prime transforming. Oh,

God. Somebody shoot me now. Wait till you get

home. Shoot him now. Shoot him now. Wait till

you get home. Well, I say he does have to shoot

me now. So shoot me now. So Optimus gets, you

know, lasered into this, the underbase with the

power. And this is kind of where. Starscream

comes in and realizes, oh, the power. And all

that. Megatron wants to... With ultimate knowledge

comes ultimate power. Decepticons and that knowledge

is mine for the taking. The Autobots of Cybertron

are as good as terminated. You talk, because

I think my voice is about to give out. So, yeah,

there's... Then you have the issue 49 and 50,

because I'm going to kind of roll them together.

Absolutely. 49 is just them, various Autobots

and Decepticons, racing to find their end goal.

And you get to see... Skywarp or Thundercracker

actually come back in one scene. You see the

Seacons combine. You see, you know, kind of the

clashing of the leaders between Starscream, Zarek

and Ratbat and. The Autobots all conversing with

Blaster and Prime and, you know, seeing the the

human being confronted by Starscream. Who takes

him? which is Buster, the brother of Spike. Yes.

And kind of leaving everyone to fight each other

on the island while Starscream has gotten away

with the human who has the device to signal the

Autobots and he kind of dumps him. Yeah, pretty

much. When it suits his needs. And then the,

you know, the under base, it shows up in the

next issue and it kind of reminds me of a golden

Borg cube. Yeah, it does. As it smashes through

things and you see Buster freezing to death with

a transmitter to keep the Autobots busy and the

aerial bots, you know, save them. Yep. And then

we get Spike. You know, putting his brother in

Fortress Maximus to kind of reheat him. And so

a Fortress Maximus has been reduced to being

a microwave for humans. Well, that and he's about

the size of Power Master Prime. He's not a city.

Right. Yeah. So he fits on a ship with everybody

else. And, you know, you continue to have everybody

fighting while. Spike is there, and then Starscream

is in his ship chasing down the underbase by

himself, which seems to be a theme. He does this

in G2. Yeah, Starscream is all alone. And so

the Autobots and Decepticons stop fighting and

learn that they need to stop Starscream. And

so they take off on the the luxury world and

Starscream gets out of the ship and gets hit

by the underbase. And he's like, fill me with

your unholy power. And which kind of reminds

me of when he got zapped in Combiner Wars. Yeah.

Which is probably where they got the idea. So

anyways, they shoot, you know, from the ship

and. Starscream was able to absorb more power

from the underbase than they expected and just

rips the ship apart. Yeah, he rips the ship apart

and then he gets ripped apart because he's absorbed

way too much power. And then he starts becoming,

you know, they're realizing that they underestimated

Starscream. Big time. Mm hmm. And yeah, the the

they're all together collectively on the arc.

Which is somehow rebuilt completely. They did

it off camera. Yeah. And in Starscream is battling

all of the flyers. Of course he is. And knock

them all out with one shot. Of course he does.

And then he's he's. damaging everyone as he's

starting to get these mechanized bits on him,

almost like Dr. Doom in the first Fantastic Four

film. Yep. And they're all collectively blasting

him, all collectively fighting him. And Starscream

continues to take them all down as he kind of

grows. And somehow he's holding off the entire

Autobot and Decepticon army. No matter their

capabilities. Yep. And you get to a point where

he's just. He's like, I'm Starscream, the destroyer.

Yeah. And it has very little of his armor still

intact. Completely, because he's just kind of

bits and pieces of under base and Starscream.

Yeah. And then he's the size of Omega Supreme.

Picking up the Washington Monument to swing it

and. Omega puts it back down and then Starscream

kind of looks like a mix between like the Grinch

and something at one point as he's fighting Fortress

Maximus. I can kind of see Starscream as the

Grinch. So, yeah, so he kind of flies off and

then, you know, you get Scorponok running off

on his own after he blasts Prime. And. He's trying

to. Get the underbase as well. Yeah, everybody's

after the underbase, folks, because it is the

most powerful thing in the Transformers world

at this point. Yeah. And. You know. Prime is

like, I didn't want it before and I don't want

it now. Yeah, exactly. And then. You know, the

underbase completely enveloped Starscream. Yep.

And Prime is like, as I expected he would. Yeah.

And he grows huge to the size of, like, almost

a Unicron and is touting his power. And as he's

in his monologue, he blows himself up. They blew

up. Because the power of the underbase was too

great for anyone being to possess and sent him

into madness and destroyed him. So Prime actually

saved Scorponok and so they made amends. Yeah.

This was by far the best issue of this entire

trade. I like, like I said, Power Master and

I like the Rodimus Galvatron stuff, but this

issue here was by far... The best. Because you

only had Buster and Spike. You have like a million

other Autobots and Decepticons. And I will have

the link in the show notes for this, folks, so

you can go look at the TF Wiki article that lists

them all. Because I'm not going to read all these

names. Yeah, so these stories, I like them. But

I don't know. Again, I don't – if I want something

that's episodic, I will watch an 80s TV show

or a 90s TV show. Like if I want something with

straight continuity, that's what I want. And

it's not a knock against this because I know

what this was when it was made. It was supposed

to be a new adventure. every month and then they

gave us the underbase saga with this continuing

as i mentioned before through line and it just

got like i wanted like i want underbase adventures

all the time now like i want everybody after

this thing i want them to somehow show where

instead of like not a starscream can be destroyed

by the underbase that's fine but like Let's say

Skywarp gets a hold of the underbase, but it

does something to him. It changes him somehow.

It doesn't destroy him, but it, like, transforms

him into something else or whatever. I think

that would be really cool. But, again, this is

Marvel from the 80s. Not going to happen now,

but it would be cool. Yep. So classics volume

four, I am probably zero to five on our GCRN

scale, which everyone can click on the link in

the show notes for this episode to find the scale

on our website, geekcastradio .com. I'm probably

going to give this a straight three middle down

the road, maybe a 3 .5 just because of issue

50 and how good it was. But yeah, I'm in that

range. What about you? I'm the same boat. I like

when the art changes. to be honest. Because that's

when we start getting into some different territory,

even. Because they kind of take this and run

with it, but they also change the direction that

it kind of goes, and it gets more serialized

and less episodic. Cool. Cool. Very cool. Very

cool. All right, folks. We are going to go to

a quick ad break. You're going to hear some stuff

and some ads and some other stuff for other things

that I like to promote all the time, like simplistic

reviews and triple takeover and transmissions

podcast and altered geek and toy cast and tune

cast and all that other good stuff from us here

at the GCRN. And we'll be back with final thoughts

and previewing of what's coming up, both on all

things Transformers and the pull bag right after

this. Hello, all sentient beings. Want the latest

on everything going on in the Transformers multiverse?

Check out the Transmissions Podcast Network.

We've got weekly podcasts covering everything

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forth transform and transcend your toy collecting

today while listening to toy cast hey welcome

to the last comic shop podcast a comic book podcast

that actually talks about comics yep each week

we open the shop up and read and discuss a comic

sometimes we pair that up with comic book movies

or tv shows or not lots of times it's just comic

books And sound effects. Oh, yes. Definitely

lots of sound effects. So tune in on all the

major podcasts and platforms to The Last Comic

Shop Podcast. Or check out our library of evergreen

shows at www .lastcomicshoppodcast .com. All

right, Steve Megatron. All things Transformers

and the pull bag. We made it through the first

part of Transformers Marvel U .S. Classics. We're

going to do another one of these where we cover

the rest of the series in August. So we got three

months to prepare. Yeah. I don't know. I don't

know either. All things Transformers, there's

a bunch of stuff that Steve and I are going to

be talking about for planning for the summer

kind of thing and various different things and

episodes and whatever else, not just news, but

I have ideas that he doesn't know about yet and

all that good stuff. Isn't that always how it

goes? Yes, well, usually I have so many ideas

in this broken -ass brain of mine. It's like,

let's do this, let's do this, let's do this.

When are we going to do any of this stuff? I

don't know. So, and for the pull bag, at least

I have a clear thing for that. Episode 520 will

be us doing Star Trek Defiant number one, which

is Morph breaking off of the Star Trek series

that IW going into the Defiant. Eduardo is going

to be joining me for G .I. Joe World on Fire.

Joe Reed will be back for... TMNT Reborn Volume

2. My buddy Christopher Tabaxian, Christopher

Moose Morton will be joining me for... They did

a four -issue Gargoyles series. I forget which

company did it, but they brought Gargoyles back.

So he's going to join me for that. That'll be

sometime here in May, I think, if it gets recorded.

And then in June, Radiant Black, we're going

back and redoing Volume 1. I will need co -hosts

for that, so if there's anyone out there that's

interested, please let me know. You can send

your submissions to feedback at geekcastreo .com.

Just put Radiant Black comic series reviews in

the subject line. Eduardo will be back to talk

G .I. Joe Castlefall with me. Heather Haughey

-Prime will be back talking The Kill Lock Vol.

2. And then after that, there's a few other things,

and then we get to Autobotly August 2023, where

we cover volumes 5, 6, and 7 of the Marvel U

.S. run, and a couple other things, too. So that's

what's coming up. What do you got going on? Prepping

for some interesting things. Coming up for the

network and job prospects. Yay, job prospects.

That's good. Hire the men, folks. End of story.

And working on models of Star Trek ships. Yes,

yes. Yeah, so that's going to kind of be it,

folks. Check us out on the socials. It's all

things TFV3 on Twitter, at ThePullBag on Twitter.

I am at TFG1Mike on Twitter. Obviously, you can

go to geekcastradio .com, get all the stuff there.

We have all the shows and even my own fictional

character Facebook page on Facebook, so check

all that out. What about you, sir? Where can

the people interact with you? At SCP21. All right.

Megatron, close the show. Excellent. Yes. Autobots,

roll out. No. Yes. No. Side guns. Terrorize.

No. Oh, fuck. More than meets the eye. Ow. Take

a drink. Wrong type of show. Well, it doesn't

have to be alcohol. I didn't say take a shot.

Autobots, roll out! I wish to speak to my lawyer.

Facebook .com slash ThePullBag. Send us an email,

feedback at GeekCastRadio .com. Follow us on

Twitter at ThePullBag and at GeekCastRadio. So

until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you.

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