Bad Spark, Code of Hero, and Transmutate Review

Sentinel online. Now loading the Beast Unleashed

podcast. This episode of the Beast Unleashed

podcast features Stephen C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard,

and Michael Wilson. They will be covering three

more episodes of Beast Wars season two Really

quick. This is gonna be a quick intro cuz yeah,

anyway, it's gonna be a quick intro Michael went

to BotCon. We just finished recording as of this

we finished recording the BotCon post show for

all things transformers and He had a chance to

briefly talk with Scott McNeil yet He did not

ask for an interview with for this show. What

the hell dude. Come on. I Did tell him At least

I did get it. Yeah, I did get a short audio clip

Which was nice of him to do for us considering

that the BotCon guys were right there telling

us to move the line along as quickly as possible

Yeah, I did take up, you know a good three minutes

of his time and I did mention hey We've been

trying to reach you on Facebook and he said I

know I know but I get so much chatter on Facebook

that it just it scrolls by too quickly and I

never see it so I mean he He acknowledged that,

you know, we or at least somebody, someone, you

know, sent him a couple of messages on Facebook.

So unless people constantly send him messages

on Facebook, I mean, I sent him a couple of private

messages on Facebook. I didn't post anything

to his wall about the interview because, well,

now that the cat's out of the bag that we want

to interview Scott McNeil, obviously, you know,

there's no secret in our next, you know, interview,

if we ever get it. But what were you saying,

Mr. Wilson? Before us we have asked him and we've

even asked his co -workers or previous co -workers

Yeah, Alex if you will to get in touch with him.

Yeah, I don't think it's a secret but you know

I've seen his wall Once he friended me, you know,

you can get Nancy and I had no idea that there

was 5 ,000 fangirls You know who? probably weren't

born when You know, Beast Wars and Beast Machines

came out. But, you know, they all want to be

a fan of the guy who did Wolverine. Well, yeah,

I've sent him numerous private messages on Facebook.

I'm sure he gets like a thousand a day. I sent

him one earlier when his little thing showed

he was online, not idle. I don't know if he got

it. Yeah, we'll find a way at some point hopefully

before the 30th episode of the show which will

be the final episode So yeah, I think we are

just gonna get right into the episodes Long -range

recon report this kiddies keen sense of discovery

is uncovered a mondo stasis pod But it's thoroughly

thrashed it plowed into a big load of residual

energon, and it's branded with a big Bad -looking

X. Just hang on, I'm on my way. Silverbolt, you're

with me. Primus help us all if that thing survived.

A big stasis pod? A big soldier, yes. Blackarachnia,

horsemanator, prepare for a recruitment drive.

Whatever this protoform is, I wanted flying the

flag of the Predacons, not the Maximals. Always

eager to welcome a new comrade in arms. Spiders

spin their webs, yes. But I spin them larger.

as female is undertaking a journey. How dangerous.

Especially if I catch her first. Perhaps it did

expire. What is this thing, Big Bot? The dark

secret of Axelon's journey. It was originally

an attempt to replicate Starscream's mutant indestructible

spark with a Maximal. Indestructible? I'm afraid

not. Well, it was a mistake to even try. Though

brilliant, it was hopelessly treacherous and

incapable of being recycled. It was put on the

Axilon for what reason, Optimus? To dump it.

Somewhere far. Someplace barren. Next up today

is Bad Spark. The original air date is February

22nd, 1998 and it was written by Greg Johnson.

What is the mystery of Protoform X? In the jungle

there lies a single oversized stasis pod with

a seemingly dead transmetal inside. Optimus Primal

and Megatron both know that this prize must be

theirs. But can any Maximal or Predacon stand

against the might of the deranged transformer

contained within that pod? okay um rampage premieres

here which yeah is it's kind of obvious um waspinator

splat alert cheater got him um let's see wow

energon storming tornado that was a cool energon

storm we ain't in Kansas anymore exactly I love

Rampage's voice, but the character in general,

not so much. I'm not sure why. What do you mean

by that? It's like a darker version of Tarantulas.

Pretty much, yeah. Well, I mean, at least it's

not another spider, but a crab I can deal with.

I don't know. I've never really liked the character.

See, I don't really see him as a Tarantulas.

Tarantulas is more of a mad scientist who's constantly

trying to do his own thing. Whereas with Rampage,

he's more of a... I don't know. I think I read

he was described as like Hannibal Lecter. Well,

he is, but he's got the appearance of a darker

tarantulas. Yeah. Like the physical form in robot

mode. The robot mode, yeah. Oh, just from the

legs sticking out the back? No, the face. The

legs, the face, the whole kind of structure of

how he is, I guess. Yeah. Let's see. Cheetor's

hands slash cat head are his gun. That's kind

of funny, but at the same time kind of corny.

I mean, I love Cheetor, but when I first saw

that, I was like, wow. Well, handguns, cattail.

Cheetah fart. Yeah, cheetah fart. Don't even

remind me. Actually, I specifically did not write

that down here, because it's just like, all right,

yeah, blowing off. Yeah, he says, yeah, I've

been meaning to blow one off for quite some time.

Oh, you know that reminds me though. She's blowing

one off because he's got energon build up build

up, right? Yeah Little what the electrical thing

that kind of shocks their body now that they're

transmittal they just blow off Yeah, but no I

was surprised to see that there's actually energon

around because I thought it was all boiled off

when the moon exploded This and most of it Yeah,

most of it was. It was either destroyed or converted.

Yeah. But I just thought it was strange that

Chidor was fluxing, even in his transmittal body.

It's like, shouldn't he be immune? I mean, first

of all, why is there energon around? It should

be stable energon, which doesn't affect them,

or it should have been burned off. And then secondly,

shouldn't he be immune in his transmittal body?

I mean, I could see Dinobot being affected or

you know, Rhinox, but White Cheetor. That didn't

make any sense. Um, let's see. Rampage is the

first triple changer in the cartoon. Well, I

guess you could count Rattrap with his wheels,

but not really. I think all the transmetals have

a third vehicle mode. Well, I mean, Cheetor has

his jets. Rattrap has his wheels. And Primal

doesn't have a third. Primal only has two on

the surfboard. But I mean, Rampage actually physically

changes his crab mode into another completely

different mode. I mean, it's not just one thing.

It's his gun, it's the treads thing. There's

like three or four pieces that move around for

him to become in an entirely different mode,

whereas Rattrap, all he does is just put his

wheels down. I mean... Well, he puts the wheels

out, pulls his four legs in. Yeah. Basically

the same thing as Tarantulas. Pulls his legs

up, puts the wheels down. But I think because

Rampage is a bigger toy... That he has a little

more wiggle room and I say bigger toy because

you can tell the tank mode here the tank mode

being Displayed is just a ploy to sell the toys.

There's not a whole lot of purpose for that He

could have easily just pulled his big -ass gun

in in robot mode. Yeah It's like well, it's kind

of cool the way they did the rotating viewfinder

But you know what I mean? Yeah, but I'm not entirely

sure if that was really necessary to show unless

oh look kids. This is what he does in toy mode

Yeah, I got two more here, and then that's pretty

much it that I have for this episode Energon

blade wielding Megatron. Oh my god. That is artwork

for this episode. Holy crap I love that image.

That was so awesome. He's got a little you know

when he said that he's like computer create a

blade you know blah blah blah yeah yeah and I

thought he wanted like a sword and then he whips

out a scalpel and I was like oh oh man this is

not gonna end well surgery exactly my surgical

strike and then um welcome rampage my new servant

to the beast wars They tried to go for epic there.

I don't know if they pulled it off. I think they

did cuz holy crap. Yeah, I like them Yeah, and

the other part that he said What do you say?

Welcome to the Predacons rampage you shall be

an honored member So long as you never forget

one important fact about your new life It's mine

That does rule yes it does And then he crushes

his spark. Well, what I thought was cool was

that this is the first time we've seen him extract

a spark. I don't know if he got the whole thing.

It looks like he got the whole thing, but I think

he did. No, it's half of it. Yeah, it looks like

the whole thing, but I think he only got half.

But now you project this out to Beast Machines

and he extracts a planet full of sparks. But

he perfected it after the fact yeah, he sneaks

into everyone's house with this little scalpel

Then he used the the new way the extractors Yeah,

well yeah, I don't know if he had like a virus

that did the whole planet or what but oh he did

he created it in season 3 But yeah that It was

kind of an interesting foreshadowing. Yes. What

did you have for this one, Steve? Alrighty, then.

This is the first one where Silverbolt and Black

Rackney actually start appreciating each other,

although they don't want to admit it. Mm -hmm.

Tarantulas is found to be actually scared of

something when Rampage dismembers him. Oh, yeah,

yeah, yeah. Disarmed him. Yes, literally and

every other piece of his body Yeah, they did

intend on rampage being Hannibal Wachter ish

Yeah, or more so at the end, but um they cut

that out What was it they allude to the fact

that uh You know protoformax was an attempt to

create duplicate of star screams indestructible

spark which references G1 It also ghost and possession

It explains that that's probably why star screams

records were sealed and no one could actually

find out anything about him Yeah, it also rep

it also represents because the way that Primal

says it is it was a experiment to reproduce Starscream's

Indestructible mutant spark so you could also

count it as a reference to the mutant heads of

the Beast Wars toys Those are actually battle

masks that was the original intention and then

Mainframe chose not to use them because they

found them to be ugly so Yeah Because they didn't

have real faces. Yeah, yeah that that was like

that that was like I don't know what that series

was supposed to be. I can't remember the name

of it, but uh Where it was where beast machines

ended up machine wars No, not machine wars. That

was a KB toys thing It was that other series

that was never produced. Oh transdark. Yes It

almost was like a transtech look before transtech

existed. We find out later that if you're not

pretty enough, they blow you up. Yes, many, many

times, like Waspinator. I was referring to Transmutate,

but yeah. Well, that's the end of the day. Different

episode. This also shows Dinobot. talking to

Primal about how, you know, they should attack

and Rhinox throwing a couple retorts back to

Dinobot and then Dinobot ends up hooking up a

machine to his side transferring something which

it doesn't ever tell until season 3 technically.

It doesn't actually fully reveal it but you can

kind of get the gist of what happened with him

transferring something to the Sentinel computer.

Yeah, well that yeah the little tube coming out

of his arm out of his chest Yeah, and I was wondering

what is that for? What is that doing? That could

explain something that happens about his character

for season 3 Mm -hmm the whole sentinel thing

and oh I got it. I got it. Yes. Yeah, that's

obviously where he got the personality and the

DNA That makes sense. DinoBot had basically a

line where he said, it may yet be up to me as

he's doing this. And I'm thinking, what does

that mean? Is he referring to something else?

I mean, I wasn't sure if he was foreshadowing

Code of Hero. Yeah, that's what he was. OK, because

I didn't understand it. He's hooked up to a machine

and he's saying, it may yet be up to me. What

does that mean? What was he referring to? And

they didn't really explain it in this episode.

No, but it's it's revealed in the next episode.

Oh, okay. Overall good, but kind of creepy episode.

Yeah. Yeah, very, very creepy. What about you,

Michael? What do you got? I like the damage models

on Blackarachnia and Silverbolt. Yep. I love

it when they trash characters and then they,

you know, give them nicer... damage models. I

think that's awesome. I like Protoform X, but

I was wondering what happened to Protoform's

A through W. I think it would be cool to see

where those went to and how the indestructible

spark program mutated them. I'm surprised there's

not a whole line of a slash fiction about, you

know, protoform K or something I do like the

scene that they they go and they show back in

the past of them restraining protoform X before

sealing them in there and you see primal's original

face and you see two robots which are kind of

Insinuated to be like right Rhinox and rat trap.

Yeah, I Couldn't tell who that was supposed to

be. I just assumed it was Generic thoughts they

if you read the dawn of futures past they even

allude to some of that in there Hmm neat I like

the the way that they you know Megatron had black

arachnia bugged and They would yeah, they would

keep You know switching the scene back to the

Predacons and they were literally sitting in

the dark listening to a monitor Yeah, it was

like a talk show. Yeah, it's like a radio Yeah,

1920s radio. I was reminded of uh, you know,

again, we're gonna we're gonna go there but I

was reminded of a scene in the Rocky Horror Picture

Show where they were the Magenta and Columbia

were eavesdropping on Janet And they said, you

know, they have the line that where they both

say tell us about it Janet And I'm watching Megatron,

you know in the dark, you know huddle over the

radio thinking about that scene I I don't I don't

know if you noticed this but after Megatron bugged

black arachnia It shows underneath his hand underneath

his chair. Yeah, there was a spider bug there

Yeah, there was a spider bug from tarantulas

bugged Megatron It was funny, because he just

said, oh, spiders will leave their webs, but

I spin mine bigger. And just as he says that,

Tarantulas is ponying him. Pone! Gotcha! Right

under his command chair. Yeah, except I think

Megatron kind of lets him do it, because he knows

Tarantulas has great potential for usage later,

as revealed in the last two episodes of Beast

Wars. Yeah, yeah. And the only last thing I had

virtuous as, let's say, Silverbolt. They may

not be as Autobotly as the Autobots, if you will.

The fact that the Axelon has a dark secret. So

they were Predacon -ly? Possibly, yeah. Although

it's just like, you know, they're supposed to

be the good guys and yet they have these illegal

medical experiments that they're dumping off

on uncharted planets You know that seems kind

of twisted Yeah, not very Autobot Lee but you

know, it's like we have they lost their way it

kind of reminds me of Transformers animated where

you know, you've got ultra Magnus and he's got

to make these hard decisions like Do we perform

medical experiments on Autobots to create jets

or combining jets? How do we maintain our dignity

and yet fight a war? Not easy questions. Decisions

have to be made. But this is the first time that

they've actually brought that up in Beast Wars.

Maximum leadership may not be as as as autobot

Lee, you know, or it may not be as noble as As

you would expect them to be being the good guys,

right? Yeah, maybe they're just savages Oh and

another first this is the first time they bring

up Primus, yep Rhinox said primus help us. Yeah,

they took it from the ATT threads Okay, that

makes sense, but that yeah, so I thought that

was interesting and you know 20 years later.

They would be a primus toy You know Dun dun dun

yeah, but yeah overall. I thought it was an interesting

episode a nice introduction to Rampage, I think

it would have been interesting if they would

have pursued his Hannibal Lecter persona a little

more I mean they basically showed that he has

no problem dismembering people and throwing their

parts around and you know like like almost like

a predator Right, you know they come in and skin

them and then hang their their arms and legs

from trees Well, I think cool to hear him do

the Hannibal Lecter thing where he goes I Think

that was in the original script that would have

been cool as hell He says it later. I want to

say it transmutate. He actually says something

like, I want to eat your brain with fava beans

or something. No, he's like, come here tarantulas.

I have something for you. OK. No, no, OK. On

that note, we are moving on. There's gotta be

something we can do. He's too far gone, even

for Stace's luck. Well fought, my friend. You

saved the valley. You saved the lives of those

who live here, and of those who are still to

come. Then, there is nothing to regret. Like

I said, you're just a blasted, slag -spouting

Saurian, but... But it's nice to know where you

stand. Upwind a few for preference, vermin. Tell

my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the

ill deeds, along with the good. And let me be

judged accordingly. The rest. be silenced. Let

his spark join the Matrix, the greatest of Cybertron.

His Code of Hero. Special Cartoon Network preview,

March 9th, 1998. Regular syndication premiere,

April 25th, 1998. And it was written by Ian Ware.

Living his presence on prehistoric or strategically

Megatron employs the Golden Disk to pinpoint

how he will change the future to rewrite the

timeline and ensure the Predacon rule. Dinobot

learns of this and gives his all to stop the

Predacons from incinerating the valley from which

the humans are destined to evolve. Wait, what

I voted for him every day No, I think he voted

for swindle but anyway, um Okay. Okay. We all

know that this is easily the best episode out

of season two However, Dinobot holding a pistol

in peace mode is just strange Well, there was

that Oh, there was that scene, and I forget the

episode now, but it's like the Old West where

he's basically coded and weapons and ammo. No,

no, no. My note says no. Yes, it was. I agree.

But he was in robot mode. My note says him holding

a pistol in beast mode is strange. Oh, yeah.

But he does have opposable thumbs, so I think

he can get away with it. Oh, Jesus Christ. Dino

Bot loves riding transmetals. Because he forces

Tarantulas to drive into Megatron or something.

I'll need a ride. Yeah. My faithful steed. Waspinator

Splat Alert. Dino Bot stomps on his head. Dino

Bot stomps on his head? Yeah. He stomps on everybody's

head. I thought Waspinator got his head blown

off by the rampage. That's later. Oh, okay, because

I thought that was funny. I had alluded to this

last week before I basically wasn't able to record,

but that scene where Dinobot shoves Waspinator's

head in the Rampage's gun barrel, it reminded

me of Hancock, where he's in prison and he says,

your head is going in his ass. And then they

keep pushing and pushing and finally he's like,

are you sure you want to ride this train? They're

like, oh, yeah I am so glad I never saw that

whole movie cuz that was a great movie No, that

was the only I think that was the only time you

actually had to shove someone's head up another

person's ass But it was fun. I sent you the clip

too. I know I watched it. Unfortunately, and

I oh is it funny? I think I've lost some brain

cells. I left so hard Are you sure you want to

ride this train and they're like, oh, yeah The

funny thing is there's like a crowd of convicts

around them and they're all like we're gonna

kick his ass And then he shoves the guy's head

at the other guys and the other guys are all

standing around like throwing up you know, so

Dino bot always gets good shots in on Megatron

It's ever since we've started reviewing this

show ever since the very first episode Whenever

these two are going at it and fist fighting,

Dinobot always gets in the good shots. Dinobot

takes the golden disc out as he dies. This battle

reminds me so much of TFTM. Yeah, the whole battle

with him and the Predacons. Him against all the

Predacons? That doesn't remind you of... I mean,

obviously, Dinobot's not a truck, but I mean,

it's basically Optimus going down the ramp, you

know, running thrust over on his grill and everything

else and jumping up and shooting everybody. I

can see how you could equate that, yeah. Yeah.

Because the whole reason why I equate it is when

he dies, when Dinobot dies and he... He does

his I -beam thingy with the disc. It reminds

me of Prime, you know, crouching and then taking

his two fists and just slamming. Never! Yeah.

Yeah. And then my final note for this one was,

oh, Dinobot dies a hero. Yeah. Hence the title.

Yep. And we need to talk about the title, though,

because everybody calls it different things.

It is Code of Hero. It's not code of a hero.

It's not code of the hero. It's not. It's code

of hero. Three words. Yeah. Who else cried when

Donobot died, huh? Not me. I shed a tiny tear.

That's the equivalent of my openly weeping. I

think it was awesome that Primal and Cheetor

did a flyby. Yeah. Wow, the fliers did a flyby.

He had a noble funeral. It was nice. I was thinking

as he was being dissipated into the ether, what

Rhinox had said about when a spark is extinguished,

the universe weeps. It was very poignant. I thought

they did it very well. They killed him off in

a good way. he is death had purpose and and you

know the game when i sent off and he had a great

sunset scene you know he's like now i go down

to meet my fate and then behind it was the sunset

that was awesome what did you uh... what do you

got for this one steve already then uh... they

i like how they showed dino bites quarters once

more Yeah, with the skin. Yes. Can't forget about

the skin. I like that Dinobot, like you guys

said, had the gun and rode tarantulas and basically

ended up getting shot anyway. They had that awesome

scene of Dinobot in front of the sun as he's

watching. Megatron blow up the the mountain clip

and Show that he he knows that Megatron can change

the future so he has to Basically put a ringer

in the whole effect Yeah Says now I have no choice

Yep, and he was the only one close enough. So

of course he's gonna be the only gets screwed

That's how he wanted it though Yeah, he wanted

to go down, destroying everyone in his path.

Yeah, I mean, he was ready to kill himself at

the beginning of the episode. I mean, he knew

he was going to die one way or the other. He

knew at the last episode, he knew he was going

to have a final stand. Yeah, yeah. So I mean,

he knew it was coming. But then, yeah, he basically

said, OK, it's all on me. I'm doing it. Yeah,

I mean, die to hero. Yes. I like all the carnage

that Dinobot inflicted upon all the Predacons,

basically shoving all their own weapons into

each other. Your head, his ass. No. Anyways,

I would much rather prefer you start doing the

Team Rocket references versus that. I just thought

of something that Steve was bringing up with

the forest battle here. You could also equate

this to, unfortunately, to Revenge of the Fallen.

where Optimus Prime is going against all the

Decepticons. Eh, kind of. Only this was much

more epic. Well, true. Because this lasted all

episode, whereas Prime's lasted all of five minutes.

They didn't bring him back to life five minutes

later. They didn't climb aboard a teleporting

English jet in order to save him. True. Yes.

I like where Quick Strike goes up to Dinobot

and goes... what's a warrior without weapons

and then he says a warrior still and then proceeds

to beat his ass instead of zapping him beat his

ass with no weapons yeah yes um i like where

megatron came up to dino bot and uh basically

mocked him uh saying face it your old technology

obsolete what can you do and then dino bot smacks

his stick after he beat Megatron with his stick

and did nothing. He smacks his stick into a rock

and then knocks Megatron on his ass, takes the

Golden Disk, destroys it with his last ounce

of energy as the Maximals come to him. The little

scene between Rattrap and Dinobot, you could

see their... Gay love unwinding in the middle

of everybody. Oh Yikes talk about it up there

They had those close moments all season and all

last season so odd couple moments not so much,

you know Today I want to break out into this

for real quick, but when I was in line to talk

to Scott McNeil at BotCon there was a person

behind me and Carla Her screen name was lady

jet too, but she writes slash fiction for transformers

animated and She was telling me the story, and

I thought it was very interesting and very well

thought out up until the point where she told

me that Prowl and Jazz were gay lovers. And then

I went, what? Yeah, I think you just lost me.

So no, not that I have anything against that

type of thing in its own context, but I don't

think that Transformers should be doing that.

They've been doing it since g1 there's four g1

transformers that are gay together And what's

his name inferno and red alert and hoist and

grapple Inferno and kicker what no, that's our

motto Talk about beating in the closet. No, they're

beating in the cave. Anyways. Suffice to say,

they shouldn't have gender at all, let alone

be gay. That's all I'm saying. Exactly. That's

all I'm saying. But then they had Optimus Primal's

eulogy for Dinobot of he lived a warrior and

died a hero, let his spark join the matrix of

the greatest of Cybertron. Yeah. Which I thought

was pretty cool of Primal. Yeah. It was very

well done. Yes Another thing I noticed and this

was a technical error Dinobots funeral Rattrap

like when they're disintegrating his body Rattrap

is in his pre -transmetal body, but his head

is transmetal I Didn't even catch that Way before

the wiki I noticed that a long time ago because

we were sitting there were like Why is he classic

Rattrap? He likes that look better. But yeah,

I think they did that on purpose. Really? To

some extent. Oh, just so that he would have his

last few moments with Dinobot as his original

form. Yeah, I guess Bob Forward couldn't believe

that the production team who had viewed the scene

hundreds of times still couldn't get it right.

And not catch it. Yeah, yeah. Used the wrong

model. I don't know that's quite regarded in

my opinion One of the the best quotes from this

episode Rhinox goat looks at primal says remember

that transwarp cell explosion and primal glares

at him He's like, okay stupid question. Yeah,

you know that one that blew your ass up. Oh,

yeah that one He's like never mind I think I'll

go hide my closet I like the fact that the human

took Dinobot's tool and beat the snake and then

went Yeah, the human was actually the human or

the early human I guess you the humanoid or whatever

the hell he's called Actually, that's Gary Chalk.

Oh I know. Yeah, I thought that Gary Chalk did

the primate voice. Yep But this wasn't the first

appearance of the proto human though No. This

is kind of weird. I read this off the wiki though.

It says, Megatron orders the destruction of the

pre -humans to prevent the development of mankind.

It says that they're insinuating most of these

humans were probably Witwickese from this tribe.

I thought it was interesting that Dinobot single

-handedly brought about the Stone Age. Yeah,

the actual use of stone tools. There you go I'm

surprised. He didn't like say this is a wheel

and This is how you create one. Oh, but wait,

that's coming up later in season 3. Oh Yeah Cheetor

yes Professor cheetor So we have the the creation

of the there the instigation of the Stone Age

of mankind and the creation of the wheel Yeah,

all by maximals Yep. What else you got for this

one, Steve? What is it? Silverbolt, Black Rat,

and the Inferno appear, but do not talk. Huh.

Whatsoever. That's a first for Inferno. He likes

to talk, even if it's dumb. Yes, my queen. Go

back to your digging hole. Maybe they thought

Scott had enough lines in this one already. Probably.

He exceeded his quota for the episode. Yeah.

You know, because Dinobots is his main man there.

But they took a lot of quotes from Shakespeare

for Dinobot. Yeah. Yeah. And one other thing

I do have is Rand Page crushes a butterfly, which

is practically like a cliche right now. Yeah.

Well, that and it's kind of like referencing

a sound of thunder. Yeah. Yeah. Altering the

timeline, which they keep using things like this

throughout the beast wars and beast machines.

This is like the third or fourth hour. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. But the butterfly. Yeah, the butterfly

dies. And it's like, oh, you know, it's symbolic.

That was Waspinator's cousin Butterfina. Butterinator.

Oh, Duke could use that for something, make the

whole town of Danville slippery. Anyways, that's

a Phineas and Ferb reference, never mind. To

cover the entire Tri -State area! What do you

got Michael Not much else to be honest, I really

dug the the Shakespeare quoting Shakespeare for

the last time You know, which made me wonder

I don't remember how season 3 went but I know

that like Dinobots clone comes back or Transmetal

Dinobot comes back Does Transmetal or Transmetal

2 Dinobot I forget which one but did they quote

Shakespeare or is it just No, I don't think he

does. No. No, so not nearly as interesting. They

kind of switched from Shakespeare to Primus so

I like the the disc reader claw Megatron uses

to read the golden disc. Yeah at this point.

It kind of makes me wish I had actually bought

that extension for the toy I want to say the

Lucas Brothers or Unicron .com produced that

They did. Yeah, they had the reader extension

and the discs. You could buy those. And I remember

thinking, eh, I'm not a big fan of Beast Wars.

I don't have that toy. I probably don't need

that. I kind of wish that I'd bought one now.

And I was surprised that Tarantulas made an appearance

here, since in the last episode he was systematically

dismantled by Rampage. Yeah, that means nothing.

Look what he pulls himself from before. Yeah,

but usually, and again, these weren't written

by the same person, but usually they have some

type of continuity where they'd show the character

coming out of the CR chamber or something. Yeah.

But that's pretty much it. I mean, I really like

this episode. I don't think that Dinobot as a

character would have chosen to die for the humans.

I don't think that that was real. I mean, they

said it before that the Predacon code of honor

is not the same as the Maximal code of honor.

I don't think that he would have chosen to die

for somebody else. But the fact that he got to

take out pretty much all of the Predacons in

the process was exactly what he wanted to do.

Yep. And yeah, I mean, if Primal... Had been

you know any any less of a maximal He would have

called a full -on attack Base instead of having

a funeral for for Dinobot. It would have been

like what they're all busted up Probably, you

know hiding in a CR chamber right now. Let's

let's take their asses out now That's what that

about would have done if anyone else has been

killed instead of you That's true. Yeah, but

yeah, that's what I was thinking I like the episode.

Yeah, it is a very very good episode Very well

written very well foreshadowed in previous episodes.

It all came together here. Yeah, it did Alright,

so we are gonna move on I am telling you, the

things coming out of these pods is just getting

weirder and weirder. We should welcome what is

different, not fear it. Well, thank you, Mr.

Sunshine. But this ain't exactly a tea party

we got breaking out here. They are your enemies.

Join with me and destroy them. He lies! Predacons

will only use you. We extend the hand of friendship.

Creature is the property of the royalty! Transmutate.

Do not speak. None shall hurt you now. Come with

me. Come. I will protect you. I am your friend.

Your only friend. We must save it. Save it? Give

real, Bolt. We're lucky to be in one piece. Optimus,

thank the Matrix. And finally up today we have

Transmutate. The special cartoon network preview

was March 10th, 1998. The regular syndication

premier date was May 2nd, 1998. It was written

by Kristy Marks. Yay, gem in the holograms! Silverbolt

and Rattrap discover another stasis pod, but

this one contains a strange malformed transformer,

unable to speak clearly and lacking the specs

of a scientist or a warrior. The transmutate

is both puzzled and puzzling. Silverbolt sees

in the simple machine a kinded spirit and an

innocent Predacon Rampage sees something as well.

Another one -of -a -kind freak alone as he is.

Okay, now I gotta get this out of the way first.

When I originally bought these three seasons

from Rhino and I did my 24 hour 36 hour marathon

watch of the entire Beast Wars cartoon all three

seasons within like a day and a half When I got

to transmute it. I was like what the hell is

this and why the hell am I watching it? However

over some sequent watching I actually have seen

what the episode is and I will allude to that

a little bit later in my notes, but First thought

I had was our rampage. What a fool you are trying

to steal back your spark You know Megatron never

get back, you know, you have to try though. Yeah,

that's true Well, I was testing him still at

that point. He hadn't learned to accept it Yeah,

I love sentinels urgency in the voice for the

transmutates pod Just Just the way Ian pulled

that off with Sentinel was just awesome, I mean,

because I have never heard Sentinel talk like

that before. Silverbolt makes a reference to

Dark Designs' episode. I have no friggin' clue

what reference it was, but I know he makes a

reference to it. I was about to say, how did

he make a reference? It was after the... The

sentinels urge. I don't know. I take notes as

I watch the episode So my notes are pretty much

from beginning to end of each episode, so I have

no clue It it happened right before a rat trap

says what in the name of my great RC is going

on here Okay, Tigatron's gone so thus silverbolt

takes up saying thank the matrix This is what

I said earlier When I viewed this episode again

multiple times I am a handicapped person and

I was peer pressured to no end when I was in

elementary school I was picked on all the time

or anything else and you know peer pressure is

is a bitch This has to be their version of the

episode in every other cartoon TV show of how

things differ from what we normally are and Treated

it also is a peer pressure episode from both

factions You have rampage on one hand and silverbolt

on the other pulling transmutate in in both directions

and I think that You know, now that I've watched

this a couple of times, that I really do like

this episode. You know, I have to make a complete

180 opinion from what I had before. Because again,

at the time when I originally first saw this,

during that marathon watch, I was so overloaded

with action. When I got to this one, I'm like,

ugh, God, what is this? What are they doing?

But yeah, I don't know. No, allow me. Ooh, crab

squish just as good as spiders. I was gonna say

we should mark our calendars here because Michael

has willingly switched one of his You know ill

-planned hair brained opinions with a well thought

-out educated opinion shut up Well because he

always bitches at me all the time about my changing

opinions or my initial opinions Dammit, I'm right

and you're blatantly wrong, but it's like I'm

right cuz that's my opinion and it's like, okay

Well now you're changing your opinion so that

you're more right which you know shows growth.

Yeah proud of you young man Young I'm only seven

years younger than you. Holy crap old fart Silverbolt

makes a very good point and again rampage wants

it to be evil. I Don't know. It's it's this whole

thing Between the two of them between silver

bullet and rampage And it is basically peer pressure

Yeah, what kills me is that Transmutates basically

too dumb to go either way. Yeah, it's like You

know, I'm not really it's basically like almost

like animal. It's it's pure neutral. It's like

I'm not gonna be evil I'm not gonna be good either.

I'm just I'm just too dumb wait wait animal as

in a Muffet animal or just an animal in general

You know, like a dog or a puppy. OK. OK, well,

you shouldn't have said that. Puppies are neither

good nor evil. They're just neutral. They're

not going to bite you because they're mean. They're

going to bite you because you're being mean to

them, that type of thing. OK. I know I shouldn't

have made this note, but I did, because it did

happen. Transmutate, go boom. Splat alert, first

and last. What I was wondering is did and I'm

like we're jumping right to the end here, you

know, but did Transmutate sacrifice itself to

save silverbolt and rampage from a jump from

each other or Did it just happen to land in the

wrong spot? No, it did it to save them. Yeah

like the fact they were fighting Yeah. Because

at the end, I forgot to write this down, but

at the end on a subsequent reviewing of this

episode, it says after he goes boom and it's

just his head, he looks at Silverbolt and says

friend good. And then he looks at Rampage and

says friend dark. And then he goes I hurt. And

then he goes clunk and his neck like snaps. Or

his head falls off or something happens. I don't.

Well, I mean, if you stumble in front of a car,

you're going to hurt. Yeah. But the question

becomes... If you stumble in front of a moving

car, it'll hurt worse. Especially if Steve's

driving. Yeah. Did you stumble in front of the

moving car or did you purposefully throw yourself

in front of it in order to save your friend who

was going to be run over if you didn't? That's

the question. And I kind of got the impression

that... Transmutate was just kind of hovering

down the side of the cliff and landed in between

the missiles It wasn't like, you know, oh, I'm

performing a noble sacrifice I don't think that

there was enough intelligence there to perform

a noble sacrifice. I Think there was enough it

just couldn't actually Relay what it was thinking

but subconsciously I think it did it. Yeah, I

agree Yeah, I could go either way, but I just

Didn't think that and then at the end Again,

it's confirming. Hey, I have a friend. That's

good, and I have a friend that's bad, but I'm

neither and I can't be yeah My I have two more

job voicing transmutate which granted there isn't

that much of a voice there, but the fact that

First of all she's been the voice director of

transformers since God knows how long second

of all It's nice to actually see her in the cartoon

again, of course. Well, you can count animated

with RC, but barely. And then my final note was

this episode barely featured Megatron, if at

all, except for in the beginning of the episode.

I like where he had the ball that split apart

and did his little holographic. Yeah. And he

circled, he did that holographic head thing.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let me talk to the

freak. Yeah said You know, I thought it's full

I Thought the pollen newstone did the voice for

transmute a but then I looked online and saw

that it was so blue It's so blue. You can tell

it's so blue though You know, honestly, I thought

that the I thought it was either Venus Torso

or the other way I Didn't realize this super

like came out of retirement here to do a quick

voice She came back and animated Well, no, but

this was ten years ago. I yeah, I mean she wasn't

doing voice work anymore as far as I know Yeah,

she was in the directing for the most part. But

yeah, she did voice casting and directing. Yeah

So I mean and granted she does a great job because

we love everything she's done and you know We

love it when she comes back, but I I just didn't

hear this and say oh, that's so blue I heard

it and thought, wow, that must be Venus Torso.

As much as I wanted, like everybody else wanted

animated season four, thank God it kind of didn't

happen because if they brought Springer into

it, oh my God, holy crap, don't get me started.

Anyways, Steve, what do you have for this one?

Alrighty then. I like, of course I like the reference

that Rattrap made to RC. Oh, some soup blues

in the episode. Yes, considering she's in it.

I also like the other clip he says about, man,

I'm telling you, the things coming out of these

pods are just getting weirder and weirder. Yep.

I liked it when he said the nutty erector set

took a walk. I like that too. I like the fact

that although on opposite sides and Yeah, completely

not interested in anything other than transmutate

rampage and silverbolt are both fighting over

Like she's some kind of trophy Yeah, I think

they were my my mutated nuclear advanced wife

I Honestly didn't see the person purpose and

and then really fighting over her I say her because

it's so blue not because it supposed to have

a particular gender but personally I could have

done without this episode I mean it wasn't bad

it wasn't good but I think we needed something

between Code of Hero and the agenda. Well, yeah,

they were trying to put something a little lighter

for character that you don't honestly give a

rat's ass about. And honestly, I honestly don't

think it's a light episode, because this is,

like I said before, this episode is dealing with

a lot of peer pressure issues. You know, it's

dealing with the fact that almost every single

Maximal, except for maybe Optimus Primal, makes

fun of Transmutate. Which pisses off Silverbolt.

Yep. And again, Silverbolt being the most noble

lifeform ever, it kind of makes you question

how noble Maximals really are. How autobotly

are Maximals in general. I'm so sick of you using

that damn word. I wish you never fucking created

it I had forgotten that I that I said that and

then you brought it up at one point You're like,

oh you create words. I'm like what the hell you

talking about? But now that you reminded me of

it. I like it so much. I want to use it all the

time You've been using since TFG one. I know

And that's that's the problem The whole point

of this whole podcast is to get I mean, yeah

I did the first ten or so episodes or you know

nine or so episodes of TFG one And then I brought

Steve on and then episode 14 I brought Michael

on and then like the last what I was gonna say

no, you guys can't shut him up Well the thing

is You know the whole point of the beast unleashed

was to get the three of us back together to actually

make it through an entire episode set of a podcast

Granted Steve got killed one episode, but that

doesn't really matter Yeah, it happens eventually

everybody gets killed buried in the backyard

and resurrected by Megatron Yeah, it's common.

Yeah with with Waspinator playing some strange.

Oh no no no we're not going there shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut

up! In any show outside of Tooncast that I will

do this. You smug son of a - You're the smug

son of a bitch. Yes. Take it to the cleaners,

TFG -1 Mike. There, huh. Oh, that was a little

rock sugar there. No, no, no, that wasn't Rock

Sugar. That was Axelon feedback from when Rhinox

went in Megatron's face. Oh, is that what that

was? Yes, and I didn't forget that. That's why

Rhinox became Tankor. Okay. See, that's the quick

and witty I was talking about. That's awesome.

Yeah. All right. What else for this one? I got

a little something. Okay. A little something,

something. I did the I Did the the red fish I

lens vision for transmutate they kind of showed

that off a little bit where everything's kind

of oh, yeah Yeah, I dug that I thought that was

kind of cool In the beginning You see Megatron

and he's sleeping, but he's got something in

his arm And I'm like what's in his arm? What

is that? It's like a little tube or something

like he's feeding. I wasn't sure what it was.

Maybe it was like an alarm to let him know if

there's somebody sneaking up behind him. It's

poop in a bag. It's poop in a bag. Eww! Eww,

yeah. This is for you, Rampage. You can squish

your soul. No, I just rub it on his spark. Talk

about spreading DNA feces. Yuck. He'll feel it

later. That's right. It'll soak in. Oh, god.

The transmutate face is just creepy. Yeah. I

don't know if Mike will pick up on this, but

it kind of reminds me of Odo from DS9. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's just a creepy face to

begin with, you know? Yeah, you put cold, dead

red eyes in there and give it a creepy smile

and it's like, ughh. You were just fucked up

looking. You know what that looks like to me?

A rejected character model from Reboot. Uh, eh,

maybe. See, I've never seen Reboot. I might be

the only B -Sports fan who hasn't seen it. I

only saw the first season, I didn't see past

that, where it got all weird. The face of this

character looks like one of the main female villains

In reboot Yeah, it's just creepy creepy face.

I mean, it's a kind of weird androgynous kind

of a You know not a very well -formed bronze

statue type of thing Yeah, just just creepy otto

look yeah And to be honest, I was surprised that

Megatron overlooked the power that Transmutate

has just because it's ugly. It's like, yeah,

the thing can do what would be considered like

an energon scream, right? Yeah. Almost like an

EM pulse attack, where everything around it suddenly

drops. Or it's almost like a night scream. As

much as I like Alessandro Whatever that guy's

name is who did the voice for him. I dig his

work. I just don't like that character To digress

Megatron looks at this thing and says ah you're

worthless, you know, cuz you're ugly and Or you're

dumb, you know, that's how you can't transform

And you can't transform. Yeah, you're in your

mama dresses you funny And I couldn't believe

that Megatron would be so short -sighted, because

he could have literally taken Transmutate and

trained it to be a killing machine. And not just

point it in one direction and say, go kill, but

almost like a Cobra bat, battle android trooper.

In the original tech specs for the bat, They

basically said they would drop these things off

on the battlefield and it would kill everybody.

It just keeps shooting at everything that moves

until it gets blown up itself. And, you know,

Megatron wouldn't even have to teach this thing

to be bad, it just instruct it. I'm going to

drop you in the middle of this battlefield and

you just shoot at everything until it's all dead.

Ah, cannon fodder. Yes. Exactly. But I mean it

was so powerful and and the fact that it was

dumb as a brick Would only play to his advantage

because it would be that much more manipulatable

Yeah, it's personality would be that much more

malleable and I'm very you know prime primal

I could see him going oh This is much too dangerous

that this shouldn't be allowed to live. We have

to put it down or No, he wanted to put it in

stasis lock Which is pretty much, you know, it's

basically the same as putting it down. He would

have just put it back in the pod and see what

happens. Feel like shaking up a Rubik's Cube

or... Yeah, put it in a working pod. They could

have put it in a stasis lock and kept it on ice

forever, I suppose. But it's the same as putting

it down. It's a mercy killing. And again, not

very Autobot -ly. To use that word to death,

but you get the idea. But Megatron, on the other

hand, does not have... these noble tendencies.

It's not a matter of what's the best thing for

this creature or how do we, you know, how do

we do the most humane thing for it. As far as

Megatron is concerned, it should be how does

it increase my power and how can I use it as

a weapon? And clearly, you know, you kick this

thing in the teeth a couple of times and then

drop it over the side of the ship and let it

land in the middle of a group of, you know, Maximals,

it's going to blow everything up. And then he

waltzes in and cleans up the mess. How he could

miss this is just beyond me Seeing as though

in every other episode. He's one step ahead of

everybody except tarantulas I think I wanted

to turn it into aluminum siding My summer house

needs new siding I needed to rebuild the side

of my bathtub. Thank you very much Michael Think

that's about it. Well, I go ahead Doofenshmirtz

house in the suburbs Doofenshmirtz is ex -wife's

house in the hills There is ex -wife's house

in the head in the hills That was funny, yeah,

they sing it too All right, so That's going to

do it for us. You're probably going to hear a

couple of quotes. And then I have one more thing.

Oh, oh, shit. Not so much pertaining to transmutate,

but I got a message from Stefan Tarnowski. Oh,

yeah. For pronouncing that right. And he quoted

my favorite Megatron line on Facebook, which

it has to do with intelligent conversation. Oh,

yeah. I kind of like Steve to repeat it. Okay,

um... Why do you always talk to yourself, Megatron?

I don't know the line all the way. Because I

have a penchant for intelligent conversation.

Oh, that? Okay. Jesus Christ! Okay, remember

what I said about quick and witty? Alright, you're

losing it here. Shut your pie hole, fool. Because

I have a penchant for intelligent conversation.

Yes. Yeah, I love that line. I think I think

it's hilarious and Stefan had quoted it Wrongly

and and I gave him I gave him hell over it But

yeah Yes, and Apparently Stefan however you say

his last name. Sorry Stefan. I'm assuming is

turnowski. Yeah turnowski Apparently he is a

super fan of this show and apparently he lives

in Canada and apparently because Apple and iTunes

are dumb and they have different countries for

their store. We can't see the review He wrote

us so Stefan if you will screen cap your review

of the show and email it to me tfg1mic at gmail

.com We will read it next time we do an episode

and we will totally post it on the website just

to prove that Canadians love us Yes, exactly.

Yeah, so special shout out to Stefan. Yeah turn

out ski Uh, you know for his his uh, his his

loving us because you know, we enjoy being loved.

Yes All right, so is that jump in here with uh,

yeah never mind wait jump in with Barney log

Okay. That's all I got. Chocolate panties, yes.

Okay, and on that note, we'll be back after...

Shut up! Sing Narwhal Megatron. No! Narwhals,

Narwhals, swimming in the ocean. Okay, we're

done with this. Ah, Christ. Hey, this is Cheetor

and you're listening to the beast unleashed podcast

Ultra gear this is quote number one remember

that transwarp cell explosion Okay, stupid question

this is quote number two One lonely turncoat

battling on against impossible odds I'm almost

touched Fortunately, such moments pass quickly.

End quote number three. What's a warrior without

weapons, eh? A warrior still. Thanks for joining

us here on The Beast Unleashed Podcast. As always,

get in contact with us, we'll leave feedback

for the show. Visit the website GeekCastRadio

.com and join the forums, PrediconEmpire .com

slash Nexus. Leave the show's feedback in iTunes.

Again, if you live in any other country other

than the United States, you must take a screen

cap of it and email it to us. You can either

email it to Steve at GeekCastRadio .com or TFG1Mike

at gmail .com. Follow us on Twitter, Beast Unleashed

is the show Twitter, TFG1Mike is mine. Michael,

what is your Twitter? PconCTMichael. And Steve?

SCP -21. Become a fan on Facebook, search Geekcast

Radio Network. We hope you enjoyed this episode

of the Beast Unleashed podcast and join us next

time when we will be reviewing the final story

or the final three episodes from Beast Wars Season

2, that being The Agenda. For now, I am TFG1

Mike with Steve Megatron Phillips and Michael

Wilson. Megatron, close the show. Oops, I did

it again. Thank you for listening until next

time