Beast Wars Parts 1, 2, and The Web

This is Megatron. This is the glorious Megatron.

And this episode of the Beast Unleashed podcast

features Stephen C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard,

and Michael Wilson. Hello and welcome to the

world's first ever Beast Wars Beast Machines

Review podcast. This is the Beast Unleashed podcast

brought to you by the GeekCast Radio Network.

I am your host TFG1 Mike and I am joined by Peek

On A Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it going?

It's going and Steve Megatron. Hello, joined

by the guy that's not mentioned first. Good Lord.

And technically, you probably should be because

you may be a bigger fan of this particular genre

than either one of us. Well, first of all, I

am a fan of the show. I did watch all three seasons

within 48 hours of when I first got the DVDs.

So I had to suffer through the painstaking of

watching it on cable television for three years.

That's right. He actually had to watch the commercials.

I mean, if there's like a level of fandom that

includes... Exactly! Yeah. Well, alright. Here's

the thing. Normally I say, because for the majority,

Steve's outside of my own voice, which is pretty

much on every show that we do, Steve's voice

is the second voice that is on pretty much every

show that we do outside of Toycast. so i have

the second point usually shut up i usually say

as usual or like on all things transformers he

will say this is steve megatron and joining me

as usual is tfg1mike so that's why i put his

name last because i usually say and as usual

because he's always the one that's that's co

-hosting or hosting with me on a lot of the transformer

stuff so you know he kind of blew it out of proportion

on the decade in review he's like what do you

mean what as usual I was trying to be funny at

the same time kind of like now except I was pissed

that night so there's a slight difference in

tone I thought you were pissed this time no like

wait a minute my name isn't the first one in

lights okay cryo tech is that what that was I

would just have to kill another Before we get

into our episode discussions today I would like

to let everybody know that we have decided on

when this show will be released. It will be released

every other Monday. uh... the reason for that

is because i wanted people to have something

to look forward to on monday's and because of

the scheduling we're not going to make it a weekly

show uh... it would just be too difficult with

all the other weekly stuff that i particularly

have to do and i know uh... the two guys to my

left are both married and they have real lives

on like i do so speaking of married uh... michaels

wife nearly confused the hell out of both of

us asking if We were supposed to record the other

night for this show. I said, no, no, no. I'm

just posting that it's coming up. Yeah, you were

being a little confusing. She basically said,

Mike just posted that he's going to do the podcast

tonight. And I'm like, what? That's not till

next week. That's not what I said. When I read

it, I assumed that you meant research. I didn't

read it as, oh, you're podcasting tonight. When

I posted that, it was right before I started

watching the episode so I could do my research

and write my notes. That's what it was for. You

are correct, sir. So, and she just kinda like

blew it out of the water. I'm like, no, no. She's

like, well, wait a minute. Well, no, no, no,

no, no. Because I had already told her, you know,

well, we're doing this next week. And she's like,

oh, wait a minute. I think Mike's jumping the

gun on ya. No, no, no, no, no, no. I was watching

the episodes. I think before we get into the

episode discussions, we need to talk about the

voice actors and the characters, which isn't

something we really hit on. in the episode zero

because we were kind of talking about reviewing

Theft of the Golden Disk. The voice acting in

this, I think, is superb. Oh yes, ultimately

awesome. Yeah, I like that they're, well, I want

to say with the exception of a few characters

that are more cartoony, but they're almost like

people using their own conversational voices

especially with Gary Chalk and Cheetor I mean

with Rhinox to a certain extent you know he's

a little gravelly you know and and I want to

say Scorponok is a little cartoonish and you

know Megatron David Kay's way over the top on

him but everyone else is more along the lines

of just so you know it's not like the superhero

voice it's exactly regular kind of conversational.

I'm like, uh, whereas Scott McNeil's character's

off -the -wall type of voices. Well, yeah, they

have to be, though. It's Scott McNeil. Yes. You

know, I mean... He has to be able to differentiate

the different voices. They can't all sound like

Scott McNeil. True, very true. It's really cool.

So I'm going to refer to my handy -dandy voice

actor guide that's on PredaconEmpire .com. Yes,

it's hidden amongst all the other stuff. Actually,

it's not even that hidden, it's actually just

in the information tab. There's just a Beast

Wars tab in there. I guess I'll do a quick rundown

of Maximals and then Predacons and should I leave

something out, which I probably won't. Just correct

me. First off we have Optimus Trimel, the leader

of the heroic Maximals, which is voiced by Gary

Chalk. Pretty much his second -in -command for

the start of the series, or at least for Beast

Rinox, which is Richard Newman. Cheetor, which

is Ian Corlett. Rattrap, Dinobot, and Silverbolt

are all Scott McNeil. Silverbolt obviously is

not among the starting cast of the show. A -Razor

is Pauline Newstone. Tegatron is Blue Mancuma.

Depth Charge is David Soboff. I didn't know this

until I actually looked it up, but the Maximal

ship computer is actually Ian Corlett as well.

The male voice, you mean? Yes, well, the Maximal

Sentinel. Right, right. And Transmutant Una is

Susan Blue. Cool. Yep, and then, uh, well, Tiger

Hawk is also Blue Man Kuma who did, uh, Tiger

Tron. Yeah. As for the evil and dark Predacons,

which all vary in voices depending on whatever

their form happens to be, we start off with Megatron,

which is David Kay, Waspinator, Scott McNeil,

Black Arachnia, Venus, Terrazo, Scorponok is

Donald Brown. Tarantulas, Alec Willows, Terror

Sword, Doug Parker, Inferno, Jim Burns, which

also, like various other character voice actors,

jumped over to Beast Machines later on. Quickstrike,

which is Colin Murdock. Hittin' Page, which is

Campbell Wayne. Again, Transmetal 2 Dinobot,

which is Scott McNeil. And the Predacon ship

computer, which is Elizabeth Savonkoff. I know

we're not there yet, obviously, because we're

just starting this show. But since we are talking

about the voice actors, for some odd reason,

even though I don't really like the character

of Rampage, I love the voice. That voice is just

so just really creepy. Yeah. As it should be.

Well true, but I mean it's just I don't know

I When I first heard it when I cuz you know me

personally When Beast Wars first came out I didn't

even know it was Beast Wars. I thought reboot

was the next Transformers cartoon but I still

don't know what reboot is. I know it's a mainframe

product. I just Not sure anyways So when I watched

when I watched the season all the way through

when I watched the just specifically the Beast

Wars three seasons all the way through. I could

have sworn I had heard this voice somewhere else.

I haven't looked him up to see what else he's

done in, but it was a voice that I could have

sworn I heard before in voice acting. Off to

IMDB we go. Michael, who are some of your favorite

characters or voices from this? Oh, yeah, that's

a good question. I do dig Megatron, because again,

he's over the top. And I was trying to count

how many times he said yes and no. And I lost

count. I didn't realize it was so prevalent in

his speech. It's just all the time. Yeah, he

actually... I think I mentioned that in last

episode, at least for the... Yeah, you're supposed

to send out a link to that video that had the

compilation of all the times he said yes and

no. I think it's like, if I remember correctly

from the last episode, from the episode 0, I

think it's like 55 yes and 45 no, or it's something

like that where the yeses outweigh the nos or

something. Yes. Yeah, but it would still be very

cool to see. Yes. Link that on Facebook or something.

Yeah, I need to do that. 166 times 4. Yes, and

54 times for no. Oh, well, there you go. You

got it wrong, but. Yes, I have the video. I will

post it. And one thing we need to mention before

we, I mean, since we are talking about the voice

actors, Steve and I had the great privilege to

interview Mr. K himself. That was the first interview

we did. And then Michael and I had the privilege

to interview Gary Jock. Very cool. Yes, very

cool. Yes, very awesome. He uh, Michael was like,

you signed my monkey. Gary's like, yeah, I signed

a lot of monkeys. I was expecting him to go,

I remember you! That didn't happen. I was gonna

say, you hit on my wife, you remember that? He

probably hit on a lot of wives that day too,

I don't know. You know what, honestly, seriously,

if I was married and... Optimal Optimus, or Gary

Chalk, or whoever hit on my wife, I wouldn't

mind it if a Transformers voice actor hit on

my wife. Oh, God. You see, that'd be wrong. It's

like, you know, you can... This is gonna come

out so wrong, but it's like, okay, you can sleep

with my wife as long as you talk to her in Optimus

Primal's voice. It's like, God, the seeds of

the past are buried deep in your ass! She doesn't

even give me that you get out of there Gary maximize

So, you know with my here who doesn't actually

have a wife and doesn't really see the intricacies

involved here But I'm actually you know I'm becoming

angry at the thought of somebody else giving

it to my wife. Let alone while shouting lines

from the show. I can understand where you're

coming from, but as a Transformers geek, or maybe

not wife, maybe having a voice actor hit on your

wife isn't, maybe like a girlfriend or something,

even then that's a stretch, but still. I mean,

if Scott McNeil hit on your girlfriend as Waspinator,

that would be kind of cool. Oh, well, I mean,

Christie and Scott McNeil had a long conversation

once with his girlfriend. Married again? Well,

we were married at that point. The first time

that we had... Huh? You said her name was Christie.

Christie. Oh, okay. Well, when Christie and I...

God, this was 96 when we met... Gary Chalk, you

know, and he was just, you know, he was whispering

something in her ear and she was giggling and

she, and I was like, what did he say? And she's

like, oh, he's hitting on me. I'm like, oh my

God. But at first I'm like, how cool is that?

You know, Gary Chalk's hitting on my girlfriend.

But then later on, when Christy had the conversation

with Scott McNeil at a BotCon, this was only

a couple of years ago, I wasn't actually there

for it, but they, they, for some reason had Scott

McNeil signing while Hasbro was doing their presentation.

And I was in the presentation because, you know,

that's the whole reason you're there to see what

Hasbro is going to do next year. And Christy

was basically out talking to Scott McNeil because

there was nobody there in line and she was there

just hanging out with him. You know, and she

said, yeah, we talked with him, talked with his

girlfriend for a while and he was doing all the

voices. And I was saying, no, no, don't know

that one either. That's crazy. I'm like, you

know, you watched all the shows with me. How

could you not know that voice? She's like I just

couldn't place it. It's a long time ago Yes,

I did find out what other stuff Rampage voices.

Mm -hmm. He was in GI Joe extreme as Clancy he

was also in Various he -man shows as Skeletor

in the early 90s He's been a Nick Fury agent

of SHIELD. Was he? Baron Strucker. Wait, as the

voice or that was him? That was him. Wow. That

dude is old. And he's in Action Man as Dr. X.

Wow, I'm gonna have to go back and watch Nick

Fury after this then holy crap cuz damn Cuz Von

Strucker he was old and wow anyway, um Anyway,

yeah, I'd have to say my favorite Characters

to the show would be I guess I'm not gonna hide

that obviously. My name is that all over the

place. Yes and I I went nuts when I actually

got to interview David Kay. That's why I've started

doing pre -show and post -show records for interviews.

That way we can kind of go nuts before we actually

talk to the people so we don't actually geek

out on them like I did with Stan Bush the second

time we talked to him. That was the first time

I talked to him. Like I said, the second time

I talked to him. Oh, okay. Mr. Professional.

Although, I am waiting to hopefully someday talk

to Scott McNeil as well. That would be pretty

cool. He is very cool to talk to. Yeah, that's

what I've heard. If we ever do get that interview,

and I'm not saying we will or we won't, I don't

know. I can pretty much tell you that interview

is going to go on longer and longer and longer

because from what Michael tells me, he likes

to tell stories and he will just sit there and

talk i was actually surprised when michael and

i uh... interview chalk because we did not i

didn't ask him like i did david k i didn't ask

him i said how much time do you actually have

any idea that we just went right into it and

we ended up with over an hour of of interview

conversation of course Poor guy's dog is crossing

his legs. Yeah, he did like three of them within

a two -week time span. Yep. Yeah, I different

shows. I mean it was it was kind of crazy I'm

gonna do busy guy. Yep. Yep. Just like the rest

of them. Okay, they became barely had enough

time to talk to us Yeah, but he made time though.

Yeah, he which was really awesome of him. Yeah

Good guy. Oh, yes. So what are your other besides

your namesake? What are your other? Favorite

characters Steve? Um, I would say that I like

the whole rat trap dynamite dynamic till married

couple. Yeah. Yeah I Really a lot of the characters.

I really like all of them the only ones that

I Could care less about I would have to say it

would be Quickstrike, Scorponok, Eraser, and

I think that's pretty much it. Yeah. For me,

I really like, I really like Cheetor. I think

Cheetor is kind of like my number one for the

show because he's like hot. Basically, he is

the Beast Wars version of Hot Rod because he

starts out really young and by the time he gets

to Beast Machines, he has the most character

development and the most maturity out of the

characters that have gone along up until then.

He gets the most mature out of everyone. Outside

of having a Matrix scene with Cheetor, he basically

is a Hot Rod slash Rodimus type. I also like...

I like Rat Trap, but it just depends. I liked

his Transmetal One form the best. I don't really

like the whole original Beast form, because Rats

Ew. He's more of a dick. in the beginning. True.

He's like, you know what? Screw you guys. I'm

just along for the ride. And if someone's going

to get their ass shot off, it's going to be a

you. And then toward the end, well, not the end,

but toward when he becomes trans -metalized,

he's more a team player. It's less mercenary.

Right, exactly. Ones that I don't like, would

have to be I don't well tarantulas is gonna be

number one and I will get into that later once

we talk about the web who's good don't say it

yet wait till I won't wait till that episode

what was the other one tarantulas scorponok and

I think it all boils down to I can't stand bugs

And again, I will get into that further once

we get to the web. So do we have any other final

introductory type thoughts? The guidance system's

failing! Oh man! This is ridiculous! We're an

exploration ship, not a battle cruiser! No choice!

Our ship was the only one that could lock onto

Megatron's warp signature! Shields are doing

a major fade! Plasma cannons to full power! Now,

where's the fun in that? A little torment, I

think. First, yes. Side gun. Ah, rupture. The

stasis hold is failing. We're going down. Launch

all pods. Get them into safe orbit. In the first

episode we are going to be talking about today

is Beast Wars Part 1. Much like the TFG1 podcast,

there is a booklet. I will be reading the synopsis

from the booklet. There was a special preview

in April of 1996. The regular premiere date was

September 16, 1996. And of course, this episode

was written by Bob Forward. Out of a warp gate

in space, two interstellar ships appear, one

Maximal and the other Predacon. They exchange

fire and crash land on the planet below. With

Energon levels too high on this planet, the Maroon

Cybertronians reconfigure their sequences, assuming

new beast odes to better protect themselves from

Energon overload. Blames Megatron for leading

the Predacons to a planet other than Earth while

the Maximals begin to explore this uncharted

world. Ousted from the Predacons, I should say,

Donobot challenges Optimus Primal for leadership

of the Maximals. Do we have any opening opinions

on the plot of this episode before we get into

our actual discussion? I do! Yes, you do. Of

course I do. Actually, the first time I watched

this, and this, again, was a long time ago, I...

Oh, okay. You're talking about the first time.

Never mind. Well, yeah. Well, the first time

I actually saw this, I didn't realize that the

Golden Disk was so prominent. And it was years

later when I first saw Theft of the Golden Disk

that I thought, well, how does this Golden Disk

even fit in? I thought it was something they

just kind of came up with in the third season.

I didn't realize that Dinobot had it in his hand

in the first episode. So I thought it was interesting.

First episode they land Dinobots got it in his

hand. He's like, what the hell we're supposed

to be on earth then it makes me wonder if they

were supposed to be on earth because they knew

that the The arc was on earth or as Megatron

says they're just there for the energon Well

now see I would debate that though because as

it'll as we will find out later in the As we

go along throughout the podcast, the... Oh, what

did Rhinox say? The transwarp driver, whatever

the heck it was, can travel through space and

time. So they can be anywhere on a planet. But

Megatron knew, regardless of whether you had

two moons, he knew deep down, because eventually

that whole plot is brought out in season two,

of him going to Earth. And I think... What it

says later on in the seasons is that he is secretly

searching for the Ark. I mean we'll get to that

at some point down the road. Is that a retcon?

No, I don't think so. I don't know, Steve? They

always meant to have it play out like it did.

The more the series progressed, the more they

tried to tie it back to G1. Episode 3, you've

got Starscream in it, so, I mean, they're...

Well, I mean, they did make a lot of mentions

and, like, fan wank in there in between, but

it was still supposed to be a standalone. Yeah,

I thought it was interesting how they mentioned

The Great War. See, that's what makes me think

that it wasn't a rea... I mean, I know that I've

seen the interviews and the special features

on these DVDs, but I'm sorry. This is not a standalone

show from the get -go. It isn't. If you take

Beast Wars parts 1 and 2, and you take More Than

Meets the Eye from G1 parts 1, 2, and 3, it's

pretty much the same episode, just different

characters and different setting. I'm not saying

that's a bad thing. No, but that was about the

only logical way to start off the new show. Yeah.

No, I mean, any Transformers show, they should

land. They should send out the eye in the sky,

scan vehicles, or animals in this case, and gather

up their altimodes and then introduce themselves

with a nice 5 second stock footage transformation.

Right, and I'm not saying that it's a bad thing

that they did that. I'm not saying that at all.

I just noticed it more. Like when I first did

my 48 hour watch through, I was watching for

enjoyment. I wasn't watching for review. I wasn't

I wasn't prepping for this show. I was just watching

for Enjoyment because I just the first time I've

actually owned the Beast Wars DVDs ever So I

didn't really catch up on it But when I was watching

these first two episodes part one and part two

of Beast Wars, I Really caught on to it That

holy crap. They're starting it just like they

started you one which is good. I'm not saying

it's not good Who wants to go first with their

thoughts? Steve, do you want to go first? Actually,

I'll probably let you guys go first and then

comment after. Alright, well, I don't have a

lot of notes for this episode. I do have some.

Again, as I just mentioned, my first note is

same type of battle scene as in More Than Meets

the Eye going back to a G1 reference. Transformers

look great in 3D. Yeah, I got to argue with you

there Okay, go ahead Well, I mean granted they

look good. I mean and in 1996, you know, this

was state -of -the -art This is about as good

as you were gonna get with the with the computer

animation but You know after having watched Avatar

last week. You know, it's like, you go back and

you watch these over again and think, oh my god,

this is awful. No, no, no, okay, first of all,

you cannot compare Transformers, whether it's

truck, not monkey, whatever, you cannot compare

that to fucking Avatar. I know, it's not, it's

not, you know, you... pure real -motion 3D with

photorealism and whatnot. But when I was watching

The Theft of the Golden Disk, I was thinking,

man, this is really, really dated. And it occurs

to me that maybe they were trying to make it

look dated so that it would mesh better with

the actual TV show. Well, they were, because

Steve wasn't Theft of the Golden Disk done 10

years after? Yes. Yeah. Well, I thought. Maybe

it's just bad animators. I didn't realize it

was holy crap. You know, it's just as bad as

the TV show It's actually worse quality in some

regards Yeah, well, I mean again it gets the

point across the animation is good enough that

you can see them emote and you can see what the

action is but as far as you know any any type

of scenery or explosions or You know anything

that has anything other than the fact that they're

talking to each other and Occasionally shooting

each other it. It's just not as pretty as I think

you did I think it is for the for the time that

this was out You know as you said this was pretty

much groundbreaking stuff. This is this had never

been done before as far as I know Yeah, and you

know you can compare it to today's standards

and say oh, yeah, it's not as good. That's fine

but for me coming from an nostalgia point of

view where I had never actually fully seen the

show all the way through when it was on air so

I didn't know how good or how bad or whatever

I just think they look cool in 3d because I mean

g1 wasn't really 3d no at all So, you know, my

next note is about the intro scene where they

get shot down. Mike will really like this because

it's a callback to our TFG -1 Skylinks discussion

when they jettison all the pods. That ship is

shitting in space. It kind of spirals out of

control and it's just shooting out a spiral of

these little turdlets. Yeah. And then they all

have blinking lights. Blinking turdlets. Flashing

pieces of shit. We heard it here first. That's

right. Well, again, they introduce all these

things in the first episode that makes you wonder,

what the hell is this for? Why is it so important

to shoot these pods out into orbit? They don't

explain it for a long time, but it makes you

wonder, what do you mean the Great War? They're

foreshadowing something. What are they talking

about? They don't go into it. But they throw

out a lot of ideas really quickly that beg to

be expounded upon. Very true. And if you've watched

all the episodes in a 48 -hour span, you already

know. But if we were looking at it from the point

of view of never seen it before, just now sitting

down to watch it, it throws out a lot of ideas

there that make you want to come back and see

what's going to happen next. I still can't believe

you never watched Beast Wars. Who? You. No, I

didn't watch it in 1996. I did. In 1996, I was

getting my first job in Chicago. I was about

a year or two away from getting my first job

in Chicago. The first time I'd put on a tie to

actually going to work. Yeah, I had just gotten

my bachelor's degree. And it was not a time for

watching cartoons and doing that type of thing.

That wasn't until much later when I had more

leisure time and disposable income. So no, it

just wasn't on my radar back in 1996. Years later...

Closer to 2000, you know again more more time

on my hands more disposable income When I started

getting back in the transformers that you know,

I realized what what peace force was but by then

Takara had already started bringing back vehicles

Right, right vehicle modes with their car robots

and that's what really brought me back was the

car robot series and it was probably another

couple of years on top of that before I went

back and watched the Probably 2003, and I'm not

sure what year I said I might Gary talk, but

I believe it was about kind of 2003 that I went

back and watched the Beast Wars episodes on DVD.

One of my other notes is G1 did have some funny

moments in it, but it wasn't a comedic show.

This is a comedic Transformers cartoon. Well,

some of their characters are clearly comedic.

Oh yeah, well I mean, you know, take Rattrap

for example. Rattrap and Dinobot are basically,

and I will say this throughout the entire span

of this show, all 30 episodes, that Rattrap and

Dinobot are the old married couple once they

meet, but they are pretty much doing the same

thing once they land on Earth. You know, Rattrap's

basically questioning Primal's command, same

thing with Dinobot with Megatron. I like Optimus'

comment after Rattrap says something. He's like,

just no, please don't. I find this show to be

very funny at times, and I like it. I forget

which episode it was. I think it was the web

where actually Megatron gets shot in his head.

I don't want to say explodes, but hits a wall

and all his teeth fall out and yeah, it's very

slapstick Yeah, it had a Looney Tunes moment.

Yeah. Yeah, that was a dream sequence in the

web Yeah, and then eventually you end up with

Waspinator as in the comic relief. Yes I do like

how they well first of all there is I noticed

a slight difference between this sky spy and

the G1 sky spy the fact that instead of just

the thing spinning on the satellite they actually

put out a energy field around it to scan them

in red and I thought that was very cool I like

how they how they pretty much showed off prehistoric

earth I thought it looked really good well again

it's As good as they can make it look Um, I don't

mean to complain, you know, it was it was 96,

you know It was as good as they could do it.

But yeah I will probably say this every single

episode of this podcast again. The music in these

is just awesome Yeah, I really noticed the music

I really know it and and and not just the intro

theme The theme for each character. Not since

Thundercats have I found a cartoon that has a

theme, a musical note theme for almost everything.

Almost everything. Not everything, but almost.

Yeah, they did a good job with that. For some

strange reason, I really like the sound Cheetor's

gun makes. I have no idea why. The gut gun? Cheetor's

gun, yeah. The intestinal fluid gun? He's like,

wait a minute, is this a colon blaster? Which

end is this? We have the colon blow cannon. The

colon blow! He's like, wait, I had beans for

lunch! You're going down, mister! Well, it does

hold his stomach casing. You know where I've

seen the colon blow from? Saturday Night Live.

No. National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Oh, yeah.

Anyways, oh. Have that in there. It's a cereal

when Saturday Night Live is a commercial. Okay,

well. I think it's like an energy drink kind

of thing in this, in Van Wilder. In National

Lampoon's Van Wilder, it was a laxative. That's

what I thought. Yeah. It's a good name for a

laxative. Cohen Blow, yeah. Cheeto, I didn't

really find too much, I mean I know Michael you

don't like the, you know, you're going to keep

saying, oh it's as good as it can get for 1996.

I didn't really notice a whole lot of animation

flubs like I did in the G1 episodes, but I did

notice something about Cheeto in the scene where

he's running away from the battle. This is after

the dream sequence. I believe it's after the

dream sequence when they're going back to base.

When he's running in robot mode, It looks weird.

He looks like he has something wrong with his

leg or he's got his underwear on too tight or

something. I was going to say I had something

wedged up his ass, but... I do like how they

leave you on a cliffhanger. I think that's really

cool. Yeah, it's a nice way to snag you to continue

watching. What are some of your notes there,

Michael? Well, I like the sheer amount of character

development in this episode. I mean, it's mostly

lopsided on the maximal side, but you get a really

good feel for who the maximals are. Or not so

much Dinobot. He gets a lot more character development

in the second episode once he actually says,

oh, I've decided to be coming. But the rest of

the team, you really get a feel for what type

of personality they have right out of the gate.

And it's probably the second episode where you

really start to see Primal as an extension of

Optimus Prime, where he's just so selfless. But

this episode, you get a really good idea about

Rattrap, who's mercenary. In it for me, you know

if it were I don't want to equate him with like

Han Solo, but he's like look princess I'm just

in it for the money and You know you give him

like my my cash and I'll be going now You know

and you know like Han Solo he turns out good

in the end, but you know he's just a dick in

the beginning Cheetor, you know is your young

and brash character and you know Steve equated

them with hot rod. I was thinking more like I

expected him without Rod. Oh, okay. Well, I was

thinking more like like a well Yeah, every bumblebee

character that's ever been. Yeah, if you color

him yellow, you know, it's gonna be young and

brash true Yeah, but you know, he's just I'm

just gonna run out there and do whatever I damn

well please as quickly as possible and It gets

into trouble every time and I'm wondering You

know, how many episodes in this first season

are gonna be, okay, we gotta go bail Cheetor

out of the frying pan. Because it seems like,

especially as early as episode three. Even episode

one, yeah. Well, gotta go dig his ass out of

the fire now, because there's a giant bee just

hanging out minding his own business, and he's

gonna transform and shoot at it. What the hell,

Cheetor? Yeah, he was practicing shooting like

a stormtrooper. He's like, did I hit him? No.

Oh no, I suck. All right. Round two, fight. Fight.

Well, no, I mean, he can't hit the broadside

of a bard. It's kind of sad. But yeah, again,

character development, dig it. The other thing

that I thought was weird is probably more character

development on the maximal side. Do they all

rename themselves? It's like, do they have different

names before they land and say, oh, look, I kind

of look like a cheetah. I guess my name is Cheetor.

I don't know. Steve could probably tell more,

but I don't think so. I think Optimus was Optimus

when he... See, the problem with... I know they

did Theft of the Golden Disk 10 years after the

show was over. The problem with Theft of the

Golden Disk is they show none of the current

Maximal characters whatsoever. So you really

don't get a whole backstory for Primal, Rhinox,

Rattrap... Steve? Yes, they never actually list

their proper names. prior to Beast Wars, the

only ones that actually had set names were Optimus

Primal and Megatron, although some of the, like,

Predic... had similar sounding names, but they

never actually mentioned what the Maximals' names

were. Well, I mean, eventually, they start calling

Optimus Boss Monkey, which is... I dig better

than Optimus Primal, to be honest. He's a big

ass monkey. Because he's the boss monkey. Yeah,

I dig that. But yeah, I just wasn't sure how

that came about. I mean, for all we know, the

writers actually had names for them before they

chose their Earth mode names. I don't know. Did

you catch the Dinobot slash Starscream vibe right

off the bat? Oh yeah, definitely. and Dinobot's

like, alright, you screwed up and now I'm gonna

be the leader. And, you know, as opposed to,

you know, smacking him down and calling him an

idiot, like G1's Megatron would do, B -Square's

Megatron, turns on him, has his lieutenant, blasts

him out of the, you know, kinda does that Team

Rocket thing, and Dinobot blasting off again,

and ding, out on the horizon. I think so. Yeah,

they get it from Dinobot. Damn thieves. I know.

Yeah. Well, maybe not. Dinobot didn't actually

go ding, but it would have been priceless if

he had. If they ever go back and remake these,

they should include the ding as he shoots off

into the horizon. I'm getting it now that you

guys are talking about it, the whole Starscream

reference. But as the episodes, as we progress

through our podcast episodes here. Will be constantly

saying pterosaur is just like Starscream because

oh, yeah, I mean after Dinobot defects to maximals

pterosaur It takes up the mantle yeah pretty

much Well, I mean Dinobot ends up being By the

time you get through part two you start seeing

his good qualities You know his sense of honor

his skills things like that. It's not just bluster

and bravado And this, you know, senseless need

to be the leader. He's actually got something

to back it up with. But just for that first initial

scene where he's like, you failed and you suck

and I'm better and I'm gonna be the leader. And

Megatron just goes, ah, you're dead. Or banishes

him. Whereas you would never see that in G1.

In G1 it was, forgive him over and over and over

again. Yeah, he would just shoot him and say,

uh, get back to, you know, swabbing the boob

deck, go over there. Yeah, yeah. And Beesworth's

Megatron's like, uh, yeah, take a hike. Yeah,

take a hike, we'll see ya. He's like, I don't

need your traitorous ass. Well, what I, you know,

and this goes right back to, uh, the graphics,

let's say, the computer. animation here what

I'd like to see is you know wouldn't it be neat

if they could go back and tweak some things and

you know I'm a big fan of like first -person

shooters like an older one that might run on

an average PC nowadays would be like fear fear

was really good first -person shooter but the

thing about the graphics there is that if you

have a lower if you have a PC they can't quite

generate the horsepower to run the game, you

can dial back the graphics, cut down on anti

-aliasing, so there's a lot more jaggies. You

can use a lower resolution set of skins for all

of the models, things like that. You can set

it so that... You don't see as many trees or

mountains in the background, or the water doesn't

reflect anymore. But if you crank up the graphics,

you get higher resolution models. You get lots

of trees. You get fluttering leaves in the trees.

The water is rippling and reflecting. As far

as I can tell, for the most part, it relies more

on your video card. If your video card is capable

of displaying these things, everything gets prettier.

And I wonder, well, I mean, somebody would have

to go back and create higher resolution skins

for these models and maybe tweak the polygon

counts a bit because they're all very blocky.

I mean, with a little work, I think that these

could be brought up to speed and they would look

really, really pretty. It would look more like

a movie. I'm not sure. I would have to do some

research on this. I read Gort Lacy's and David

Lambert's reviews of these DVD sets on tvshowsondvd

.com. One of them made a comment that Rhino has

lost the rights to the Beast Wars DVDs. I have

to argue that because I bought them from Rhino

.com. So my question would be, can Rhino still

sell the DVDs without actually owning the rights

to the property? I don't know. Because if they

can, then I bought them from Rhino .com. If they

still have the rights... I'm not sure if that

was an extension of my question. or if you're

changing the subject. But I don't think that

selling the DVD would have anything to do with...

Wait, what I'm saying is... Sorry, I'm trying

to get through in a roundabout way. Steve and

I have been talking about the Matrix set, the

G1 Matrix set. Factory just re -released. And

he had said to me a couple of times that he would

love to have Shout Factory re -release the Beast

Wars DVDs in a remastered form like what you're

saying. Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean that would be

very cool right when you remaster though That's

like, you know tweaking the color at the 2d level

or things like that I'm talking about actually

going in and tweaking the code that generates

the 3d animation, right? No, I understand that

but but frame probably threw all that shit away

long ago doesn't exist anymore. It's rainmaker

Yeah, they probably deleted that crap They only

acknowledge their animation. I mean they acknowledge

it, but they don't have anything on their site

about it other than like Beast Machines images

Yeah, that's kind of sad. Yeah, I know I actually

Like some of the darker tones for the Beast Machines.

I like the image is better, but as far as the

character designs and Everything I like Beast

Wars better, right? So you know the when you

get into we're a far long cry from beast machines

But when we do get into that, you know, the animation

is better. The lighting is better the I Want

to say that the the skins the models everything

they crank it up, you know, so it's it's really

nice It's much nicer than what we'll find in

Beast Wars. And what I'm wondering is as we get

Do you have any other notes that you want to

impart on us? About this actual episode? Yeah,

yeah. Why doesn't Rhinox have a giant tongue

on his chest? He does. He doesn't have a tongue

on his chest. No, he doesn't. That's part of

his jaw. It's like the palate there. There's

no tongue. OK. It's his face. His tongue transforms

into his head. There's just nothing we can do

about it. Oh, that's gross. Wait, wait, wait.

Steve's basically saying, ladies and gentlemen,

that Rhinox's tongue is his face. Oh my god.

Why is Rhinox running his head up against my

shoulder? He's tasting you. He wants to see if

you'd be good for dinner. Well, actually, I think

his tongue's actually on the top half of his

jaw, I would say. To actually put it into perspective.

how it would be transformed. I can't think of

the fucking word I wanted to say but anyways.

Don't you find it disturbing when they transform

especially like Dinobot. Dinobot's whole head

pops off and like splits in half and the top

part just jumps onto his chest. We'll get to

that in this episode actually once we start talking

about the web. Any more notes Mr. Wilson? Not

for this one. Okay. Well, alright. Steve? Well,

hang on a second, Steve. So Steve, what are your

thoughts on Beast Wars Part 1? Well, although

I didn't actually write any notes. I like how

it started off like G1, you know, that just...

I liked it actually as a newcomer to the whole

Transformers franchise when I first saw this.

I had no prior knowledge to G1 until actually

later on, almost season 2, was when I actually

had seen G1 episodes. So that's when I actually

got the connection. But I definitely like in

this episode you actually get to see Megatron's

pre -beast form which he's the only Transformer

and the entire Beast Wars saga that you get to

see Pretty much prior to other than I believe

you do get to see black arachnia at some point

interstasis button, but It's it's not really

as detailed as megatrons. I kind of thought he

looked like an action master. Yeah, he pretty

much did yeah Which they also managed to inflect

in his Pre -beast Wars comic and the after the

Golden Disk only different since he had a battle

armor. Yeah, but um, I Like how they they had

to adopt Beast forms. It was something different

The toys along with it were very detailed similar

to the show. I mean as good as it could be for

the time The whole all the voicing was in my

opinion, pretty cool. Waspinator actually was

a far cry from what he ended up becoming later

in the show, being that he didn't have a neck

in part of this episode. Oh, I didn't catch that.

I didn't notice. I was thinking the same thing

about Cheetor. Where's your neck? Well, and then,

yeah, infamous Waspinator firing his pink eye

lasers similar to Dinobot, and you never see

those again. Hmm. It's only in this episode Wow,

that's kind of like a optimus prime in this is

a Axe arm over the Hoover Dam there over the

dam where it's like, you know, he's never gonna

use that again You know, they bring it out in

the first episode. It was a selling point Yeah

But uh, yeah that they didn't use the right head

anyways They I mean this episode was really good

for what it was for being a 3d show But they

did have a lot of animation errors, which is

to be expected for launching a new show and trying

to Trying to you know render all this and get

it perfect which at the time was unacceptable

Yeah, get it right Unless they did manage to

correct most of it. One of the other major issues

with this episode is, did you notice Cheetor

actually spent 90 % of this episode in robot

mode and didn't have energon overload? Yep. And

everybody else, like the Predacons were only

in it for like five minutes and then they all

were like collapsing on the ground. It's the

spots. The spots reflect energon. Yes, kind of

like the sun. That's why he's yellow. He bathes

in energon energy. Like Superman. You didn't

get the energon farts like in Bad Spark. Let's

not jump ahead of ourselves. Anyways, though,

I would say that this was a very awesome start

to the Beast Wars saga. Remember, we still have

to talk about part two, so we're just talking

about part... I understand, Captain Obvious.

But I did like how Dinobot traded right off the

bat. Kind of reminded me of Starscream. Although

his role got replaced, basically, in that Starscream

part. uh... and i like how it ended cliffhanger

of dino bot challenging primal they're on this

narrow narrow bridge that you can tell somebody's

going to fall off at some point he says none

shall pass believe me when it's the second episode

coming up next here uh... i have a note about

that anything else steve besides that i'd have

to say that uh... bob forward who wrote the first

two episodes. I would say that his writing pretty

much kicks ass. Yeah, it does. I'm not going

to get into the third episode yet, which was

by the other famous writer of Beast Wars. All

right, Datilio. I'm not thrilled with that episode,

but I'll discuss that later. We'll get to the

web later. Yes, but um, yeah, I'd have to say

that's all the thoughts I have from this episode

so far. Alright, um, well, up next is Beast Wars

Part 2. They must stay in beast form as well,

and I will handle Optimus personally. Galaxy,

it has come to this, Optimus Primal. Face to

face, tooth to claw. Yes. Have you anything to

say? I'd say that's Prime. Let's do it! Surrender

Megatron! You're trapped! Okay, for Beast Wars

Part 2 according to the booklet here, Megatron

interrupts the duel between Dinobot and Optimus

Primal, but both Maximal and Predacon alike are

distracted from this fight when everyone notices

a huge positive crystal energon in a nearby mountain

peak. Now it is a race for this unstable power

source with an imminent and explosive battle

amidst the powerful but dangerous energon. What

did you guys think of the overall plot for this

episode even though that that was a kind of a

short synopsis again I'm reading these out of

these out of the booklets, but Just the overall

storyline of this episode. What did you guys

think? Steve you can go first Well, I like how

It finally shows the fight break out between

primal and Dinobot and you see how honorable

both characters are right So you can kind of

see an appreciation and a cooperation forming

with Dinobot's honor, of course. He finally joins

the Maximals anyhow, and nobody trusts him. And

Primal's pretty much saying, yeah, I'll give

you a shot. And Rattraps. Pretty much trying

to say that Dinobot's just using them. He's going

to betray them. Don't trust them. He's a bad

guy. Yeah. So they all end up finding and on

their way to, I believe, go back to their base

or go back to, they were on their way somewhere

and ended up getting in a battle with Wasp Leader,

Terror Sword, and of course Dinobot. Fires finally

yes and fires blindly and then they end up blowing

up a mountaintop and you can see energon which

everybody starts going towards Where you see

a massive massive bath? That wasn't done I thought

you when you said dynamite I thought you meant

when he was firing at Waspinator and managed

to hit the the cave roof above their heads. Yes,

is that what you're talking about? Yes. See,

that wasn't the mountain. It wasn't the mountain,

but okay. The mountain already happened, I think.

The mountain already happened. Yeah. Because

that was Scorponok that fired the missile, and

he's like, Megatron, the missiles, they're going

to hit the mountain! And that's how the energon

was, uh, was revealed. Yeah. I don't like the

idea of a missile in that much. was following

what you were talking about as far as you know

they don't they don't have any reason to trust

Dinobot and here he is uh you know blowing the

ceiling out from above them and you know stalactites

coming down hitting people yeah i i definitely

liked how uh they had everybody pretty much fighting

their their long series long counterpart uh in

on this mountain All in beast form. And you finally

see Dinobot pretty much return the favor to Primal.

Right. You know, for Primal saving him. Right.

By deflecting the missile causing the whole mountainside

to blow apart while Megatron being a retard decides

to transform in this giant mountain. Which has

to be, in my opinion, the stupidest thing you

could ever do. If you're going to overload, there's

no point. Yeah. No, I thought that was kind of

dumb. But then again, I thought he was going

for a dramatic death. Yeah, you never know. But

Megatrons are not defeated easily, as he will

come to say over and over and over and over.

I think we should have some sort of count for

this show as far as just cheesy, cheesy lines.

Because there are a lot of cheesy, and this show

does date itself very, very badly, with some

of the cheesy lines. The first note that I wrote

down was Taste of the Bad Kitty, which is what

Cheetor said to Rat Trap, I think. What? He said...

Taste my bad kitty. Oh taste of the bad kitty

Like how would you like a taste of the bad kitty

and rat traps like I'll rearrange your spots

or something I don't think rat trap wants robo

pussy Taste of a bad kitty come get some my one

nitpick for this episode goes to the it's got

spots Anyways, go ahead, Mike. That's right.

My one pick of this part two is when the Optimus

DinoBot battle. When Primal transforms, he has

his feet turn around. It's like he's turning

around backwards. His feet turn like almost right

on the beginning part of the bridge where it

thins. Like the ground starts off and it goes

thinner and thinner and thinner. how the hell

did he not fall off of that in mid -transformation

because it doesn't look like it's wide enough

for him to step around. I know this is a nitpick,

don't get me wrong, I understand it is, it totally

is, I completely admit that, but it just doesn't

look right. I like it better later on when he

just kind of hops up and then swivels at the

torso. Whereas now he's actually kind of like

walking around in a circle while he's looking

at you. It's like, that's just creepy. He's like,

let's do the square dance. Square dance transformation.

Honestly, you know, really, I'm probably going

to have, I may have nitpicks about storyline.

But as far as the way the actual, and I mean

we've kind of already argued about this a little

bit, these things just look so damn good to me.

The cartoons themselves. I don't know why, don't

ask me wrong, don't ask me why, I have no idea.

And then my next note is the battle of the beasts,

which goes to the battle on the mountain. The

the optimus versus Megatron battle. Mm -hmm.

Yeah, that was well done. And again, even though

Supposedly this isn't supposed to be continuation

of g1 this episode ends just like more than meets

the eye part 3 ended Huh pretty much You'll have

to elaborate a little bit well, the only thing

that's missing is where Megatron and g1 says

I don't know, that's a con out of it, I don't

know. I mean, I thought that the Optimus Slosh

Megatron battle was a little more epic than the

Optimus Dinobot battle. I mean, the Optimus Dinobot

battle should have been epic because, you know,

I mean, it was literally, you know, they were

fighting for leadership of the Maximals, and

it ended up just them kind of grabbing each other's

hands and pushing. Who can push the other one

off of the... the precipice faster. And they

kind of did that until Megatron comes along and

orders everyone to fire on them at once. And

again, stormtroopers, they can't hit the broadside

of a barn. They should have taken Optimus, Dinobot,

and the entire precipice out on the first volley.

Not the mountain behind them. You know, you mentioned

how you like how the Optimus Megatron battle

is at the end. We are going to have custom artwork

for each of these podcast episodes and the art

image for this episode is where Megatron has

Primal pinned and his little, well not little,

but his Tyrannosaurus head is basically trying

to swallow Primal's head. That's going to be

the art for this episode. What other notes do

you have Mr. Wilson? And nobody's talking I'm

sorry he's breathing or something stop breathing

It's either Darth Vader's dark helmet I haven't

decided yet So yeah Beast Wars episode or Beast

Wars part 2 Michael Yeah, well um had a couple

things I wanted to bring up, which was, you know,

I mentioned that in episode one, or part one,

I should say, yeah, they had a lot of character

development for all the Maximals. Not so much

for the Predacons, with the exception of, like,

Megatron. And part two, there was, you know,

a little bit of personality came up for some

of the Predacons. But mostly it was DinoBot.

They really kind of fleshed out Dinobot, which

doesn't really count because he's a Maxwell all

of a sudden. But I like that. I mean, it's nice

to get that out of the way real quick. I like

the idea that there's actually a personality

here that's not just talking heads. And the fact

that when they blow up the mountain... Yeah,

you would expect there to be a lot again. This

is probably limitations of the CGI, but you would

expect there to be a lot more debris It's a mountain.

I mean it should be like, you know devastation

for miles around and and You know, I was remembering

uh, I Want to I forget the name of it right off

hand, but it's a Pierce Brosnan movie where there's

a volcano Speak Yeah, yeah that one Yeah Dante's

Peak and in the beginning it's like the volcano

explodes and there's fire and brimstone and ash

raining everywhere and it's you know piercing

people's craniums and it's horrible and oh the

humanity and you know here it's like boom oh

duck there's a little dirt in the air you know

I kind of expected more but yeah I again You

know, state of the art for 96, but not quite

what I was expecting. Other than that, you know,

I think it was a good follow -up to part one,

and it set up the rest of the season very nicely.

Yeah, yeah, I will agree with that. This set

up the show, the Beast Wars 2 Potter set up the

show very well. And again, we can compare it

as much as we want to G1 more than meets the

eye. But as you guys said earlier, every Transformers

show has to have some sort of starting off point.

If you look at Animated, they're pretty much

doing the exact same thing they did in G1, with

the exception of the fact that in that, Optimus

Prime is watching what happened in G1. But anyway,

that's neither here nor there. That's not the

show. But, you know, same basic premise. Again,

I like my little line about the whole stasis

pod thing. I thought that was really cool that

I came up with that because that sounds like

something that Mr. Wilson would come up with,

not me. I was thinking that when I was watching

it, but I, for some reason, didn't write it down.

That is shitting in space! It's just shooting

at... huge spiral of turds. I thought it was

cool, but at the moment I was thinking something

more like, what are those for? I know what they're

for now, but at the time I was really trying

to focus on what is somebody who's never seen

this before going to say? The Axelon shooting

baby eggs. Baby Axelons? Baby eggs. Oh baby.

Oh, God. Okay, do we have any other thoughts

on the Beast Wars Part 2? I don't believe so.

Okay, up next is... Reverse squiggly! Sorry,

that was the Tetris God. Up next is the web.

Brother, you need a maintenance spot badly. You're

in a stasis web. It drains away the energy, but

leaves the flesh alive. At its current setting,

this will take only a few moments. But I find

a slower pace makes the vital fluids taste so

much better! The final episode that we're going

to be talking about for this episode of the Beast

on Leash podcast is called The Web. The original

air date is September 18th, 1996 and it was written

by Larry DiTillio. Beyond the Maximal perimeter

and on a mission to test Rhinox's new communications

device, Cheetor sees Scorponok investigating

a cannon that broke free of the Predacon ship

during its crash. Later scouting Predacon headquarters

for the cannon, Cheetor is captured and finds

himself locked in beast mode, zapped of all his

strength and stuck to Tarantulas' stasis web,

a prisoner within the arachnid scientists layer

uh... i'm gonna go first cuz this is for me anyway

this is pretty much going to turn into a headshot

because holy crap i hate this fucking episode

what right off the bat you hate it hate this

fucking episode and uh... the only good thing

about this again as i've said earlier in this

episode of the podcast first off As the episode

opens, it's spanning over the planet, and it

shows just how beautiful Earth once was. Now,

if you want to argue animation, fine, but just

the background and the way that Earth used to

be in prehistoric times before we humans came

and mucked it up. Um... I think that was the

caveman that all fucked it up, actually. Okay,

well... Anyway, um, okay... Blame the caveman.

Anyways, um... Okay, I hate bugs. Which includes,

but isn't limited to, scorpions, spiders, wasps,

and pretty much everything else. That's it. You

know, we were talking about bad transformations

earlier. So basically the non -dinosaur or Predacons,

all of them? The only Predacon that I can actually,

yeah, pretty much anything that isn't a black

arachnia I can stand because she ends up being

good. But I'm sorry, tarantulas? Just fucking

ugly. First of all, you were talking about bad

transformations earlier with Dinobot. You know,

Tarantulas' spider face becomes his stomach.

That's disgusting! That's just... That's just

nasty. That's just nasty. Then he can look at

you with the lemon eyes. That is weird. You know,

what I think is weird is he's got these big googly

cartoon eyes and... in spider mode, and then

he transforms and he's got more of a visor. And

I'm like, you know, I'm really glad he's got

the visor, because I'd just be pissed off if

he had eight googly eyes on top of his head,

all looking around in unison. Like Blackarachnia

and Beast Machines. Yeah, it is spooky. I'm glad

she could cover that shit up. We'll get to that.

Wouldn't you like to see that when you're kissing

her? It's like oh my god, yeah This is the episode

that has the dream sequence that we're talking

about earlier after cheetor goes offline of the

dream sequence showing Was that star streams

jet mode? Yes. Okay, this is I thought but the

colors though. It looked a bit more like a thundercracker

Well, everything was purple there. So I don't

know. Yeah, they they had like that Like tell

it up your accuracy in there. So I mean it was

kind of What I was wondering about that particular

sequence is it's it's Cheetor's dream sequence

and yet you've got a g1 seeker in there It's

like well, why is he dreaming about g1 seekers?

He played with them when he was a little spark

They get tiny Cheetor in his bedroom with little

seekers hanging from the ceiling on fishy wine,

you know, I like this one Who's that? Starscream!

He's my favorite, he has null rays! Then they

recalled him. He'll shoot your eye out, kid.

That's one of Steve's favorites. No, they called

him because they locked away everything about

Starscream in the archives. Oh, I wasn't aware.

That comes later, though. It comes later Yeah

going more for Michael's benefit than it is for

your Steve I'm going to link to the in the Skype

window here to the screen cap thread on Predacon

Empire because my next note for this episode

is You spider on cat rape. That's just wrong

Go ahead, Steve. This is tarantula raping cheetah.

Sticky web pussy. Oh my god. Oh my god. Look

at that kitty. He's like, no. The tarantula's

like, give it to me. Give it to me. Look at the

way he's dressed. He's asking for it. God. You

know what I think? See, now in Japan, they probably

actually have the eight -armed tentacle porn

action going on here. Oh, that's not even the

worst part! After the image that I have on here,

the - Worst than tentacle porn. Well, no, I'm

talking about the - No, not worse than tentacle

porn. I'm talking about the image that's on the

website here. That - Oh. is not the worst image.

The worst image is the next frame where it pans

out like going to commercial. It actually shows

Tarantulas' full body like this, but the whole

full shot of both of them. And it just, ugh,

I can't even. And then he starts adjusting the

web, and he starts kind of, you know, moving

up and down on Cheeto. Shut the hell up, damn

it. What are you doing? Oh my. I think I like

that. Go with it, Cheetor. Just go with it. Stop

it, dammit. Is it just because he's a spider

that's freaking you out? Because, I mean, if

it was like... Yeah, pretty much. If it was like

Blackarachnia, you'd be like, oh, cool. I don't

think Silverbolt would let her do that, but anyway...

I think Cheetor wanted Blackarachnia anyway,

so that's besides the point. That's probably

fine. We're not at that point yet. That's what

happened in Superhero. I'm feeling a bit disturbed,

a little queasy here. You know, somehow, whenever

you get on the episodes, they tend to hit this

downhill curve. I'm sorry. I think that's just

because we have this, like, dynamic going. Well,

that's good. I mean, that's what makes this a

fun podcast. Well, I mean, it depends. I mean,

if you have listeners that enjoy plumbing the

depths of depravity, then sure, all right, yeah.

I can see how that would be a good thing. Otherwise,

I'm just creepy. Because I don't like this episode

whatsoever at all, I would rate it a... First

of all, we're not gonna do a rating scale unless

we actually figure out if we're gonna do one

later, but I would give this episode three fucking

zeros. I hate it that much. The only other good

thing I found about this episode was Rattrap

has smart battle skills when he needs to use

them. Yeah. Definitely one of the first episodes

you actually see Rattrap thinking of other people

and Showing how ballsy he can be in an episode

where he's not hiding and saying you go get your

ass shot off and this also began the Well, I

mean he actually fought these words part two,

but This is actually one of the first battles

that it's just one -on -one tarantulas first

Rattrap and then it just keeps going throughout

the entire saga until You know, deaths do they

part. Well, in the second one, when they all

gathered on top, I should say the second episode,

they're all gathered on top of the Energon Mountain

and they all pair off. And it's like, OK, now

here we have Rattrap versus Tarantulas. And I'm

wondering, you know, is this the first pairing?

Is this like where they pick their nemeses? Because

here you've got again, you know rat trap versus

tarantulas. I Mean true cheaters there, but he's

just kind of hanging out. Yeah No pun intended

not yeah, I'm not really sure Steve you can go

next with your notes because I have nothing more

to say as far as notes Well, I would have to

say that I don't like this episode, and it's

not just because of the RoboWeb thing. I would

have to say it's mostly because it didn't feature

really anybody for the most part. I don't like

the entire cave, just spending the whole episode

down there. Not much really went on besides Rattrap

saving Cheetah's ass. And why I can't say this

episode is when it was on cable they played this

one fifty thousand times So every time it went

on reruns you'd see this one at least twice a

week Wow, yeah, but uh, yeah, they they had a

lot of I Don't know. I just I didn't like this

episode very much. There's not It was a throwaway

basically It's odd that they would have a throwaway

so quickly. I mean, I thought that this episode

was more about building up Cheetor's personality,

building up Rattrap's personality so that he's

not just a dick all the time, and actually introducing,

well, introducing Scorponok, for one, because

really all you've heard of him so far is, And

here we're actually seeing him, I'm second in

command. You're going to do what I say. And Tarantulas

is essentially giving him the finger from the

shadows, disappearing. And you're learning a

little bit more about how Tarantulas operates

where he's, I want to say Tarantulas is kind

of like. The the rat trap of the of the Predacons

where rat trap on the maximal side is more the

mercenary Hey, I'm just gonna do my own thing

and you guys, you know cover my own ass and you

guys do your own thing. Whereas on the Predacon

side you've got Translous who's already has his

own layer set up. He's completely separated himself

from the group He's doing his own thing and later

on you find out he's actually got his own agenda

Yeah, and we will find that out later. We're

not going to talk about that now. Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, you know, they're literally two sides

of the same coin. Yeah. Oh, no, I agree. Before

we, you know, you're talking about Rattrap. So

before you go into your full notes there, Mr.

Wilson, I got to mention something in part two,

I believe it was part two of Beast Wars, where

Rhinox basically says, you know, cover fire.

And he goes, I'm not, you know, Rattrap says

something about not going out. Yeah, cover fire.

They need it, we're giving it to them. They fix

them up by the back of the head. Oh, shoot. Damn

it. But the funny part was right before that,

when he kind of looks at him, he's like, he taps

him on the head. I like that. That's so cool.

Well, no, he's just kind of taking advantage

of his size there. I mean, yeah, he's like, look,

I'm the biggest fucker here, so you will follow

my lead. You will do as I say. But the fact that

he actually picks him up bodily and kind of aims

him, all you got to do is pull that trigger and

I'll aim for you. And then they're making their

retreat, their strategic withdrawal, and he's

got a gun in one hand and a mouse in the other,

and he's still backing up. I thought that was

funny. The one thing I like about Rhinox in the

beginning, this whole beginning part of the show,

or the beginning part of the series, is his guns.

His guns are so cool. He's got the Gatling gun.

Yeah, that's so cool. I look forward to when

they have the Rhinox episode. Oh yeah, when he

goes bad. I haven't really gotten into his character

builder arc yet. I do like that episode and yeah,

that's one of the better ones featuring a spotlight

on Rhinox. It is definitely better than the other

Rhinox -centric episode that is not going to

be named because it is completely throwaway and

it is a piece of written garbage. Okay, we'll

get to that later. Yes. I think you know what

one I'm talking about. You probably do, but I

can't think of it at the time, so you can tell

me off air. Steve, do you have any other thoughts

before Mr. Wilson fully takes over the show?

No, I just... Well, actually, one of the favorite

quotes that I have down is when Tarantula says,

I hate that rat. I hate that rat. That's a good

line. Yeah, but I mean yeah as far as everybody

everybody gets at least one good line here and

You know, it's not a one -person centric episode,

but Yeah, they do have everybody gets a little

bit of everybody involved I should say it's a

little bit of character development and that's

why I don't think it's you know a complete throwaway

It's not like hey, we're gonna get the Maximals

and the Predacons together and we're gonna have

a baseball game and whoever wins wins the Beast

Wars or something retarded like that. We're going

to have a food eating contest and have explosive

farts the size of this. Stand by me where they

have the pie eating contest and they're throwing

up all over each other. We're getting off the

topic here. So what are your other thoughts?

Well, my question is, will the real McGuffin

please stand up? Huh? Well, you know what a McGuffin

is, right? Yeah. It's kind of a plot device that

has no bearing on the actual story. It's just

kind of there to push things along Well, we start

off with this communicator device the cheaters

like I'll test it out for you and you know suffice

to say that they've only got one and At the end

of the episode they basically say we don't have

any more parts to make anymore. So why make one

right? And later on in the series they they can

all communicate just fine without him anyway

So here we've got this this item that you know

really has no bearing on the rest of the You

know the mythos of the series, but they're just

gonna You know they might as well just said Cheeto

is gonna go off for a stroll today I was gonna

say although I could have swore that there's

an episode where they actually do make a new

comlink for everybody they do I Don't remember

which one it is, but they do and that's why I

think It might either be right before Transmetal

1 or right after. Yeah, I'm wanting to say that,

too. I'm not sure at what point. The Transmetal

bodies, at least for the ones that have the Transmetal

bodies, shield them better when they're in robot

mode when they're out in the field. So they don't

always have to be in beast mode when they're

near the energon fields or whatever. I could

be wrong. I don't know. Well, that and the energon

was all detonated in the season finale of season

1. Well, that's true, too. Well, there's that.

And well, I mean, the fact that they've got this

communicator that they only make one of and it

breaks by the end and they can, you know, they

complain about it. But it doesn't really contribute

much. But then there's another McGuffin, which

is the mega cannon. Right. Yeah. They take the

mega cannon out. That's a big deal. And then

finally, Scorponok scurries away with it. And

what do they do? Do they ever install it? Do

they, does Megatron pat him on the back? He's

like, good job! Have a cookie. Well, yeah, but

um, yeah, this Mega Cannon, although they, even

in the wiki, they don't mention anything about

this cannon again, I like to think that they

end up using it in Season 3 and go with the flow,

because he has that railgun cannon. Uh, yeah,

okay. I like to think that that's the cannon

that it... originated from was this episode,

but there's no actual canon on this. Yeah, yeah,

I could see that. Yeah, but I mean, maybe that's

why you guys don't like the episode mainly, is

because you've, you know, you're gonna double

MacGuffin just to build a plot. No, I'm not.

It's like there's character development, but

how do we get these characters together in one

spot to develop them? Well, we make up shit.

You know, the shit that comes and goes and disappears

and has no bearing on anything else. Well, I

can't speak for Steve, but I know why I hate

the episode. It's the whole bug thing. Well,

you're gonna hate a lot of them because there's

a lot of bugs. There was not a... Maybe not bug

on cheetah humping, but there's going to be bugs

involved. It's not bug on cheetah humping, it's

bug on cheetah raping. It's not a hump, it's

a rape. Timor is a prisoner with this jackass.

He is not saying, yes please, please hump me.

He is held against his will. It is considered

rape. There was no insertion involved. You can't

prove a thing. Okay. You know, it's a dry hump.

There's no laws being broken here. I did transfer

fluids, though. I know the law in Canada -da

-da -da -da -da -da. And I have in the know!

No, we're not, no. I don't know that we're gonna

go down on the show, no. Do you have... That's

your cackle here. The only other thing that I

was wondering about was as far as Cheetor goes

you know I mean after after this traumatic traumatic

experience that he that he has you know he I

want to say has a deeper appreciation for just

how horrible tarantulas is and I I'm pretty sure

that the part of the episode where he has the

dream is before this but you know he's he's perched

on top of this tower in Cybertron And he easily

blows away Scorponok. He easily blows away Pterosaur.

And there's Megatron and pew -pew! Knocks him

out with one shot in his head. Kind of does that

weird thing where it hits the wall and the teeth

fall out. And he's like, ah, and the kitty. And

then he sees the eight eyes peering at him from

this little dark crack in the wall. And he completely

loses his shit. And he can't shoot to save his

own life, and it's like, whose dream is this?

Anyway, why am I having such a problem here?

You know, he's just scared to death of Tarantulas.

And I'm wondering, is this foreshadowing for

Tarantulas is gonna rape my ass, or is it, you

know, really he has a problem with spiders? Possibly,

but the thing is though, what I would say is,

Tarantulas has him hooked up to this thing. Oh,

wait, no. No, that was before. No, that was before.

Yeah. I think he has a phobia of the spiders,

because I think there's even comments later in

season one that he goes, ew, when there's spider

tarantulas web stuff on him. Right, but, well,

now... You can see where that came from now.

Right, yeah, you can see where that came from,

though, now. But... Before he gets captured by

tarantulas when he has the dream sequence and

I you know cuz I was getting confused I thought

he had it while he was with if he had had it

while he was with tarantulas what I would surmise

is That even though haven't seen it yet. It was

tarantulas is mind control Soundwave ask my brainwashing

that would be bombshell not soundwave. I was

thinking animated soundwave Okay, well still

very it originally Mixing my genre here, but

anyways um Yeah, if it had happened during tarantulas

is holding him I could see that it could be part

of that But since it didn't you know my point

is kind of mute there, but I don't know I was

actually for some reason thinking it occurred

after this scene, and then it's like I just got

my ass raped by a spider now I'm having spider

nightmares, but no the dream sequence was before

this and You know I had read somewhere that Cheetor

has these foreshadowing type, you know, ESP type

dreams. Kind of like Rodimus? Does Rodimus have...?

I thought he did it. Oh no, I'm... Proceletizing

dreams? I'm trying to think what the word, profetizing,

profiteering? No, not profiteering. I'm thinking

of when he... I'm thinking of when he short -circuited

himself and journeyed in and learned. Nevermind.

Oh, no, Cheetor's not a dumbass if that's what

you're asking. Oh no! Anyways. Did you guys notice

in this episode they actually had a, uh, in the

dream sequence, uh, foreshadowing to Rattrap

rescuing him? Yeah, yeah! So, I mean, there's

foreshadowing that Scorponok and, uh... Translates

are gonna get the upper hand on him and then

here comes red trap and and plus there's Starscream

in there and guess who makes an appearance later

Yes Starscream's ubiquitous ghost. Oh, yeah,

but that's that's down the line Yeah, but I mean,

yes our screen. Yeah, it makes you wonder You

know exactly how what else he's gonna predict

He's the Nostradamus of the Maximals. Do we have

anything else that we would like to say on these?

Square piece. No, we're not doing Tetris God.

Do you have anything else that you want to mention

about the web? I believe we've wrapped it up.

Alright, we will... Actually, I will say we will

be right back at this point because we're going

to go into the outro. We'll be right back. This

is the quote of episode one. Oh, for bootin'

up code! Thank you for joining us here on the

Beast Unleashed Podcast. There are ways to get

in contact with us or leave feedback for the

show. The first... www .ecastradio .com and find

all the other GCRN podcasts there. The second

is you can stop by predaconempire .com slash

nexus. Those are our new forums where you will

actually be able to see the image of the spider

raping the kitty. Get all your GCRN transfers.

It's worth it. It's worth it. It's there. Third

is you can leave the show feedback on iTunes.

Just a little quick note about this. When Steve

first put this in iTunes back in June of 2009,

we had already had 20 subscribers and the show

hadn't even started yet, so please... What the

hell is oh, okay never mind So yeah, please leave

us reviews and iTunes the fourth is you can visit

yet another great geek culture website WWW dot

Earth dash to dotnet and their forums in the

self -promotion section are our threads for the

shows and The fifth is the email address, which

is beach that beast only podcast I got it right

second. These are a leash Beast Unleashed. Is

this like some kind of honey site? It's beastunleashedpodcast

.gmail .com. We now have a voicemail line. Call

us and leave us your thoughts on each episode.

Be sure to say which show you're leaving a message

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You can follow us on Twitter. The show name there

is Beast Unleashed. Mine is TFG1Mike. Steve,

what is your Twitter? SCP -21. And Michael? Pecan

Court Michael. We hope you enjoyed this episode

of the Beast Unleashed podcast. Join us next

time when we will be reviewing three more episodes

from Beast Wars Season 1. Those being Equal Measures,

Chain of Command, and Power Surge. For now, I

am TFG1 Mike with Steve Megatron and Pecan Court

Michael. Seeing any moral words of Optimus Primal,

that's just prime. And thank you for listening.

Until next time. Well, at least Megatron's gone,

and so's the Energon, so it's over! Can we go

home now? No, Rattrap. For now, we're stranded

here with the Predacons on this unknown planet.

Megatron may be back, and there is still more

Energon. If they ever get enough, they could

conquer the galaxy. So for now let the battle

be here on this strange primitive world and let

it be called Beast Wars! You are listening to

the Beast Unleashed podcast.