The Beast Unleashed

Dark Designs, Double Dinobot, and The Spark Review

E6 March 8, 2010 1:12:46
The Beast Unleashed Dark Designs, Double Dinobot, and The Spark Review
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About this Episode

Steven C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard, and Michael Wilson analyze three episodes of Beast Wars: Season 1. The team breaks down the plot devices and character development in Dark Designs, Double Dinobot, and The Spark. They also discuss specific voice acting moments, trivia references, and the series' portrayal of Sparks.

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'm your host, DFG, Mike, and I am joined once

again by Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. And Pecan

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

good. Today we will be covering three more episodes

of Beast Wars Season 1. So how have you been,

Michael? Not bad. Not doing very much, actually.

Just kind of hanging out. Uh -huh. Yep. Did you

ever find Perry? No, I did. Actually, I almost

bought a Perry the Platypus t -shirt. Oh, my

God. I did. I was... I'm assuming you mean that

that's for either Aiden or Gavin. No, that was

for me. Oh, my God. I totally dig it. Yeah, I

was gonna get the hoodie. And they only had the

hoodie in youth sizes. And I was like, man, I

should get Aiden a hoodie. But I wanted a matching

hoodie so we could do the father and son thing.

I thought that would be cute. And I couldn't

find the matching hoodie, so I just decided against

it. Yes, we are so going to have to do a GeekCast

Radio episode of Phineas and Ferb. Yeah, I love

that show. At some point. Don't know when, but

at some point. Aiden's fixated on it. Yeah. It's

like, yeah, I watch it because he watches it.

Yeah. Actually, I started watching it because

I found out that Ashley Tisdale, who started

out on Sweet Life of Zack and Cody, voices Candice.

And I was like, wait, she does voice acting?

Oh. I didn't realize that. Yes. That's the boring

and uneventful and completely unentertaining

life of Zack and Cody. Oh, come on. Anyway. I

can't stand that show. Well, anyway. There's

a lot of Disney shows I can handle. Can't handle

that one. I'm bringing back Boy Meets World.

Actually, that is finally getting the fourth

season DVD release. After so many years of being...

Are you freaking kidding me? It's taking this

long? Yeah. I have an entire series. Yeah, well,

just head on over to TV shows on DVD, search

for Boy Meets World, and you can read all about

it. Yeah. And for those of you that decide to

buy TV shows online Yeah, I didn't even get to

ask yeah, how are you Steve? Yes, um Never buy

a TV show from eBay unless it is like one of

those ones that is a power seller and a huge

you know e -cellar Because if you buy it from

anybody else you're pretty much gonna get raped

on DVDs, like I've been searching for them in

the animated series, the complete series, mind

you. And granted, there are some that are legit

on eBay, but they cost an ungodly amount of money.

And the other ones, they're all disguised to

appear like they are the official copy. But upon

further inspection and comparing them to Mine

looked almost identical, with the exception of

the various typos all over the packaging. And

not to mention on the underside of the disks,

where they have the little information burned

into the signet ring of them, they have the numbers

on the disks are spelled wrong. I mean it's just

it's just retarded and it's it's a Chinese bootleg

knockoff and So I told this guy after actually

somebody contacted me first and said Yeah, I

just bought the same thing from this guy. It's

a bootleg so we collaborated in our information

and Sent this guy something and he's gonna supposedly

give a full refund with My um Had to pay nine

dollars shipping to send this fucker back to

him, so I'm not quite a happy camper So I gotta

buy them all as separate seasons Just wait dude

because I mean we're gonna be getting to that

eventually you know on tune cast down the line

Why don't you just wait? Because my mom's already

ordered them She bought it from Barnes & Noble

where their actual legit copies from Warner Brothers

Where I know that they're actually going to be

legit copies and mind you when I opened up the

bootleg copies of this collector set I I copy

the bonus disc just because you know there's

only one and see that's what really pisses me

off Yeah, well, no, it's not bad. I mean There's

only one like true special feature Tied into

btas on that disc the rest of it's just like

promo stuff or Upcoming stuff with DC Universe

animated original movies, which is kind of stupid

They could have you know put a lot more special

features on that than just the one Anyway, I

mean it would have been cool to see but I mean

I'm not that concerned with it now I'll have

that and on another side note. I got a new Well,

it's not new. It's my dad's old monitor. It's

a flat panel Sony 19 inch, which is a four inch

bigger difference than what I had before on my

CRT. And it doesn't squeal when I turn it on.

That's always good. Yes, picture is very nice.

It's always amazing when you upgrade from a CRT

to a flat screen. Because you don't think it's

going to be that much different. And then you're

like, wow. Yeah. I've been waiting for this day.

It's always exciting. But yeah, anyways, that's

pretty much all that's been going on with me

lately. Alrighty then, well I guess we will get

into some episodes. private club or can anybody

join let me be the first to welcome you everyone

meet our new Predacon up first today is dark

designs after witnessing Rhinox's deft defense

of the retreating Maximals, Megatron orders Tarantulas

to capture the Star Wars scientist. Tarantulas

does just that and reprograms Rhinox as an evil

Predacon. Learning of this shocker, Optimus Primal

surprises his fellow Maximals by taking no action

and allowing Megatron to keep his brainwashed

prisoner. What does Primal suspect that the rest

of the Maximals don't? I actually, this is a

pretty cool episode. This might be one of my

favorites so far. Yeah, it is definitely one

of my favorites so far. And yes, Michael, from

when we were doing our Toycast talk the other

night, I think it was episode 45, the Chaingun

of Doom's chain does turn when the gun is firing.

And it has the BOLOs attached. Yep. Which I never

noticed before, and I'm thinking to myself, did

they just put the BOLOs on in this episode? I'm

sure they were there before, I just never noticed.

Hey, wait, I thought once Megatron reprogrammed

a bot that programming could not be undone, G1

reference. Yeah, that's... I don't know, it's

just, it's dumb. You know, I get what they were

going for this. This was just a plot device episode.

Right, well, I mean, I get what they were going

for it, but it's like, um... Wait. So he reprogrammed

him. but he didn't really reprogram him at all.

He just hit him with a laser that didn't work.

No, I think he turned him into a Predacon because

number one, he changed colors. He went from the

green and the gold to a green and a silver, and

he had... Like a neon green afterwards with a

silver. Yeah, well, he looked good. I thought

it was cool. Oh, yeah. I would have liked to

seen a toy of this. Yeah, and he had a Predacon

symbol on his head. Well, the symbols on this

side of his forehead changed to Predacon symbols.

So I really think that he was a Predacon, but

his darker instincts came out to the foreground

of his personality that way. Oh, right. And I

don't think, I mean, before I did my initial

run through of all three seasons, and before

I watched it for this, for just, you know, for

doing this, I had seen Beast Machines before

I had seen all these Beast Wars episodes, so

I, you know, this foreshadows him going evil

in Beast Machines. Right. It was a practice run.

Yes. Um... Yeah, so when you bring that up, it's

like, why would Megatron do that again? Yeah,

exactly. Knowing what happened the first time.

I'm posting you guys a link in the window here

just to the Dark Designs episode page. Scroll

all the way to the bottom of the page, you will

see a caption, Grape any purple edition not sold

in stores, or anywhere else for that matter.

Yeah, that is pretty weird. But you think with

all the other repaints that this mold had, it'd

be a layup to do the evil version. Yes. In fact,

I'm surprised they released... like a Fox Kids

recolor and didn't use that one. Yeah, that's

true. I like the fact that Megatron bit off way

more than he could chew. That's funny. The Waspinator

splat alert. I'm actually torn with this because

I've already gotten the quote audio for my favorite

quote of the episode or a really good quote for

the episode. May have to put this at the very

end after the end theme I don't know but he turns

into shrapnel and he starts just going nuts More

than usual well that I mean this is before they

introduced the whole spark concept But it makes

you wonder if he if he wasn't shrapnel Maybe

maybe he was and shrapnel something went wrong

when they when they underwent you know, Predacon

downsizing. Yeah, that could be it. I don't know.

No, he couldn't be Shrapnel. It's possible. Shrapnel

turned into one of the Unicron lackeys. Yeah,

because Shrapnel became a sweep. Oh, yeah, I

guess. He'll sweep you. Reference my latest blog

post, you'll see. wrote a blog on it? No, back

when I was doing research for episode 16 of TFG1,

I painstakingly went through that scene of where

they get changed over and got screencaps of all

the Ones to see what they were into what they

become. Right. Let's see, Dinobot and Optimus

get their asses handed to them at the beginning

of the big battle. And then after that, oh damn,

Optimus slices Megatron's Toronto arm off. Slices

his arm off. He sliced completely off. Holy crap.

He's like, give me your arm. What kills me though

is that there was a total Indiana Jones moment

there. Yes. Where, you know, you've got Optimus

Prime, Primal, with his swords, swinging them

around and Megatron's just like, yeah right.

pulls out the blaster. It just shoots him. You

almost see that Harrison Ford smirk when he...

Yeah, right, I got the gun. Here, take it. You

know where to shove it. Yeah, but then he gets

his arm lopped off afterwards, so... And my last

Rattrap. Gotta love Rattrap. Okay, I'm totally

not remembering that line. That was the last

line that retret made before while they were

extracting Rhinox when the base is blowing up.

Oh Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it was one of the funniest

quotes of the the the show. Yep There was a lot

of really funny quotes in the show. So I don't

know. I that one didn't jump out at me Well,

it was good. See I was gonna say technically

it's a throwaway, but at the same time it's not

it's an entertaining throwaway with a very basic

plot device. It's one of those episodes that

you could stand to watch numerous times. Oh,

I could watch it forever. Normally, I don't go

all biblical, but one of the reasons why this

line stood out for me was because it's actually

comedy biblical. Bill Cosby had an album back

in 1969, Bill Cosby himself. where he's talking

about Adam and Eve in a comedy skit. And because

Eve took a bite of the apple at the end, Bill

Cosby, he's acting like, what would God say?

He's like, okay, everybody out of the pool. So

that's where I recognize this from is being a

line from the Bill Cosby CD. And that's why it

jumped out at me. That makes sense. really good

lines. Optimus Primal says, yes. When Scorponok

is recovered from underneath the electrical rubble,

Megatron calls him an idiot and Waspinator says,

idiot is comatose. Or idiot is not responding,

idiot is comatose. I died. I thought that was

so funny. There's a nice scene where Rhinox is

pitting Pterosaur against Scorponok. And he's

like, look at him, he's smirking at you. And

Pterosaur goes, he's a smirker! No, Scorponok

said that, not Pterosaur. Oh, he said it about

Pterosaur, that's right. Because Pterosaur's

always smirking. Well, he's Starscream, what

do you expect? Yeah, but I mean, Scorponok...

and his most competent, then does a complete

somersaulting flip over Rhinox to attack Terrorsaur.

I thought that was very cool. And funny. But

I think Waspinator had the best lines. I mean,

after he got the shit smacked out of him and

went and met Loopy. But he was singing the G

-1 theme song. Yep. That was great. I was literally

laughing out loud four or five times through

this episode. The writing was just awesome and

they kept bringing it out. Yeah, they did have

a lot of funny lines and a lot of good play on

characters, especially with the Predacons for

once. And it was just nice to see somebody go

in there and just kind of rattle their cage That

was well done they really made a good use of

all the characters I Mean and you know, especially

right now They you know brought more of his personality

out and kind of explained that he doesn't really

want to be the leader He's more than happy to

be a support guy, you know until he turns evil

and then he's like You know, heaven doesn't want

me and hell's afraid I'm gonna take over. Pretty

much. You okay there, Mike? Yeah. Yeah? You didn't

even say, I don't know. It's not time to take

a drink yet. I don't know. Swag swag. That's

right. What about Tuesday? It's the Beast Unleashed

drinking game. If Mike doesn't know, everybody

takes a drink. No. We'd all be drunk before the

end of the episode. Exactly, that's the whole

point. Some of the things that I liked during

this episode were the battle scenes in the beginning.

It was all very shaky camp. I mean, it was like

the whole camera was moving back and forth and

there's gunfire flying everywhere and people

getting shot down. It reminded me a lot of the

Storming the Beaches of Normandy and Saving Private

Ryan. Mm -hmm, you know I'm talking about yeah.

Mm -hmm. Everything's kind of sped up and moving

around and It was neat. I mean it was you know

1996 CGI so it wasn't you know as cool as saving

private Ryan but you know that it reminded me

a lot just the way they they they rendered those

scenes but It made me wonder what the heck were

the Maxwell searching for anyway It's like isn't

there an entire mountain of energon and yet they're

out in the middle of nowhere getting themselves

stuck on precipices looking for it Doesn't make

it it just didn't make any sense to me and you

know and on top of that They're supposed to have

sensors that let them know when Predacons are

sneaking up on them. Well, their sensors don't

quite work outside the base and they were looking

for LadyBot That they just didn't want you to

know what it was off screen so they're like,

hmm, let's let's get Rhinox in there and Yeah,

let him let him just get taken cuz uh, they're

gonna screw themselves and then we'll go save

them and then we'll walk home That's the flowers

Yes, a little bit of sniffing. We're gonna sniff

some flowers. Uh Kind of plant you like did you

notice optimus reading again at the end? Mm -hmm

This is the second time I've seen him crack open

a book. I'd be interested to see what he's reading.

He's reading The Covenant of Primus. He just

started it. He won't finish it until the end

of the series. The First Church of Primus. Oh,

that is really screwy too because by the end

of Beast Machines he's all spiritual and shit.

Yep. You might be right. I am your Moses. Who

else caught the Wanko the Saiyan reference? I

did. That was based on a Transformers fan. Well,

it's about Benson Yee though. Oh, Ben Yee used

that as a screen name. Wanko the Saiyan was a

minor character in the Hitchhiker's Guide to

the Galaxy series. Hmm and that is where been

ye got the name Interesting. Yeah, so I I thought

that was funny that When he said that I was like,

oh, it's it's wonko that why would they reference

wonko the same that makes no sense But uh, you

know, it's just a second earlier. He was referencing

g1 shrapnel And I was like how cool would it

have been for him to have been shrapnel? Yes,

but he couldn't be shrapnel because shrapnel

was turned into one of the sweeps Well for all

we know maybe one of the sweeps was turned into

Waspinator Unicron was dead by then who has that

power? Well, no the idea is is that And this

is if you read more into the you know the the

background I don't know if this is fan fiction

or if this is actual, the thing or what, but

the Autobots and the Predacons, or I should say

the Autobots and the Septicons, in order to conserve

energy, were downsizing themselves into smaller

Maximal and Predacon bodies. And that's where

the Maximals and the Predacons came from. Now

the ones that didn't, Which you know, I'm not

I'm not entirely sure who didn't but like if

you look at like Ravage, you know Ravage underwent

the the Predacon downsizing and that's how he

got his Jaguar mode or Turn to a cassette. Hey,

how cool is that? We'll get to that we'll get

to that Yeah, but the suffice to say, you know,

there's there was supposed to be you know stragglers

who just Didn't undergo the downsizing and but

the majority of them did And the idea that maybe

one of the sweeps downsized into a Predacon body,

but the downsize went wrong and he reverted back

to shrapnel. Or maybe there was something even

worse going wrong and he ends up being Waspinator,

a completely different character. He got hit

with cosmic rust. Cosmic something. It ate the

unicorn shell. I mean, I'm really surprised there's

not fan fiction out there that goes a little

bit more in the detail. It might not be canon,

but you know who would know? Brian Kilby would

know. Ben Yee. Well, Ben Yee might know. I've

never actually spoken to Ben Yee. He was a consultant.

Was he? Yeah, he's a consultant on all things

Beast Wars. I sat next to him once in a... a

Hasbro presentation at one of the BotCons and

I recognized him but I was too shy to say hi.

I totally should have been like, you're Ben Yee,

but I didn't, I was shy. You're that one guy

that has that one site that has to do with Beast

Wars. Yeah, because at the time that his site

was called, you know, Beast Wars Transformers.

Yeah, that was before they changed it to Ben's

World of Transformers. Yeah, because it kind

of expanded past there well after Beast Wars

You know hit the dust. Yeah, exactly after they

canceled the series or even actually after they

canceled Beast Machines But you know it was a

long time ago. I remember way back in the day

when he was putting up Beast Wars information

on that site. I thought that was a site ever

That's back in the day when I stole from other

people to create my site We still steal from

people to create our sites. That's the whole

reason why I didn't build a site for myself,

because I've been a huge Transformer fan for

the last 10 years, but I was never really interested

in doing a site on my own, because there were

other people out there who were doing a better

job, like Ben Yee was doing it at the time, Transfandom.

was like my go -to site they then split up and

I don't remember exactly the backstory but TFW

2005 came off of that and I guess all the people

who wrote the news for Transfandom went with

TFW 2005 and within a year or so Transfandom

was defunct too but it's like well these guys

are doing a fantastic job with their site they

obviously have ties to people in Hasbro. That

was back when Orson was writing. Aaron Archer

was putting out spoilers on TFW 2005 under the

username Orson. And when it became known that

that's who it was, it was a huge stink because

Cybertron .com and what's that other site called?

Allspark? Allspark, yeah. They were complaining

because it's like, well, why don't we get attention

from Aaron Archer? And there was a big stink,

and Hasbro basically made Aaron stop. See, that's

just retarded. They should have just been like,

oh, we get a little sneak preview of information.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, why can't we all just get

along? We can't share. Yeah. But yeah, and eventually

Orson quit posting. Yeah, that's lame. Yeah,

well, I mean, he didn't exactly post well back

then. It was all very cryptic. But it just went

to show that the guys at TFW 2005 had an inn

inside Hasbro. They knew people there. Oh, yeah.

And it's like, well, I don't know anybody there.

What can I write? What can I put on the web that

is going to beat that shit? So I just never bothered.

I mean, I'm sure ten years later, you know, whatever

side I put up may have built up a following,

but I just wasn't motivated. It's okay, neither

are we. Well, I don't. Well, no, I'm just surprised

that, you know, again, that I even put forth

the effort to do this, because... Excuse me?

No, I'm serious, because it's like, what the

hell have I done in the last 10 years? I haven't

built up any sort of user presence. I don't contribute

to the boards. I don't have a website. I mean,

I'm a big fan. But honestly, am I very social?

Man, especially. Well, you're fun to talk to.

So anyway, Dark Designs. Moving right along.

Steve, what are your thoughts? Overall, I'd say

it's a good episode. Recommend watching this

because again, it's also a foreshadowing to later

season of Well a later incarnation of the show

anyhow But it also kind of shows Rhinox's dark

side right Okay, I guess we will move on to the

next episode perimeter shield online Sentinel

now active Optimus will rue the day he left this

clone alone. Now, what was Megatron said to do?

Oh, yes. Please enter deactivation code. Deactivation

code? Megatron said nothing about that. Well,

I'm sure I can figure it out. Do it! Code incorrect.

Scanning user. User identified as Dinobot. Beast

mode. Yes, yes, yes! I'm Dinobot, and I order

you to deactivate! Maximal energy signature not

present. Please enter deactivation code. Code

incorrect. Megatron said this would be easy.

Sentinel, stand down. Perimeter shield deactivated.

Yes, I've done it! Clone 1 to Megatron. Megatron

here. Report. Phase three accomplished. Defense

grid deactivated. And the Maximals? Ah, for the

wild vermin chase. The base is yours. For the

taking. Excellent. Yes. I'll be there shortly.

Megatron out. Not betrayed, Megatron! Dino -Bots,

MAXIMIZE! What are you waiting for? Transform!

So I can finish you with honor! I... I can't!

Of course! You're nothing but a clone! Well,

far be it from me to fight an inferior foe! Don't

share your stupid sense of honor! and completely

unguarded. It almost seems too easy. Megatron!

Where are the others? Preparing an ambush for

those Maximal fools. Then when they return here,

I'll finish them with their own defense grid.

is an inspiration to me. You are a most enchanting

creature. I may just clone the rest of my troops.

And now, my leader, the prize is yours. Sentinel,

activate perimeter shield! So, you ungrateful

clone. You're as treacherous as the real Dinobot.

Correction! I am the real Dinobot! So, you managed

to best my clone after all. A pity. Up next is

Double DinoBot. What? Double D's. You dirty old

man. That makes me giggle. Megatron creates a

near -perfect replica of DinoBot, flawless in

every way except that the Sarian simulation cannot

transform into robot mode. Meanwhile, Pterosaur

traps the real Dinobot within a nearby cavern,

and the Maximals are none the wiser. Megatron's

mission for the clone, enter the Axilon and disable

Sentinel. Well, I was watching and I only wrote

two notes and then as we were talking about dark

designs I was thinking about oh crap. I only

have two notes What the hell am I gonna say about

double dino bot and then I added another one,

but my first note was When dino bot transforms

the head spinning oh it kind of reminds me of

the exorcist When he when Dinobot transforms

from beast mode to robot mode his head spins

360 like the chick in the exorcist And it makes

the sound of the top on the ground. Yeah It's

one of those party raffle spinner things See

now the horror movie that I was reminded of was

Frankenstein Not so much scary as The Exorcist

gets older. That's because you read the wiki.

No, well, actually the wiki only mentions Mary

Shelley. They don't say anything directly about

Frankenstein. No, it does. In the beginning,

just from, you know, seeing countless Frankenstein

movies, and the young Frankenstein from Mel Brooks

was just as good. But Megatron in the beginning,

he's... You know, kind of got the whole mad scientist

thing going on, and I really expected him to

be like, it's alive! Alive! But he didn't, and

that was kind of a letdown. You know, it's funny

you mentioned the whole, um, Frankenstein thing,

because, again, it just shows my dedication to

this show, or to any of the shows that I do research

for, when attempting to find really cool artwork.

I got a freeze -frame screen cap of Megatron

black and white as the lightning flashes and

that'll be the art for this episode. Oh, neat.

And black and white, so you were thinking about

that too. This is my thing with this episode.

Megatron treats him like it's basically his son,

as well as a pet, because he pets him on the

head. and tells him what a good Dinobot he is

and says, yeah, even though you can't transform,

you're still number one to me. And then, of course,

he has some weird and disturbing fixation with

Dinobot because, again, he uses this in season

two. Or no, I'm sorry, season three. Season three.

And he does the mad scientist thing again, creating

a Dinobot, except this time it can transform.

So I mean, it just goes to show you. Megatron

has a soft spot for Dinobot. Well, the thing

about Dinobot 2... I wish I could quit you. Well,

yeah, Dinobot clone number 2 was he was created

with half of Rampage's spark and Transmetal 2

driver. So that's why he could transform. Plus

he was experimenting with the cyber raptors in

episode 3, I believe it was. Right, right. Sentinel

has super awesome defenses against imposters.

Punch, punch, punch, code, click. It sounded

just like that too, right? Well, because the

clone didn't know the code and Sentinel would

shock him every time he tried to enter the wrong

code. And I noticed the Sentinel voice every

time the code was wrong, the voice would get

deeper and more vicious. It's got a personality,

or a sense of humor, I should say. And then my

final note for this, I know this is very sad,

but... He was very tasty. He was quite tasty.

Whatever he said. I thought that was funny. Oh,

you know what? I don't think either one of you

have seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show. No.

Okay, because there's a funny quote in The Rocky

Horror Picture Show. where they're all sitting

around at dinner, and they said, you know, well,

what about Eddie? What happened to Eddie? And

Frankenfurter says, that's a rather tender subject.

Another slice, anyone? Because he cooked Eddie.

And they were eating him. Yeah, that's exactly

why I will never see that fucking movie Oh is

funny and they're all sitting around the table

and they've got like a bite in their mouth and

they're chewing and then they go Everybody except

Rocky Rocky's like what it's just eating more.

I got a rocky didn't get it Yeah, so I thought

that was funny. Steve, any other notes you have

for this one? Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

He came out fine! We're not doing another one!

Actually, he picks it out of his teeth, he flicks

it out of his tooth, and it flies and lands on

Optimus. You're disgusting. And then he just

grins like, haha, you know you want some Dinobot.

Uh, yeah. I guess they kept the skin of that

clone. It's later seen in Maximal No More and

Code of a Hero in Dinobot's room. And they show

his room. Oh. Yes. Cool. So he does like, he

kept a trophy. After he ate him. That's a rather

tender subject. Another slice anyone? In between

all the damn video links the two of you always

talk about in freakin' Rocky Horror Picture Show,

this show is certainly going down a very dark

hole. I'd like to spread some DNA on those double

D's. Anyway, yeah, so I God come on Michael rat

trap rat trap surfs again in this episode. Yeah,

but they liked the the surfing music Yeah, that

was kind of cool it would have been cooler with

surfing music but they were trying to ratchet

up the tension because he was floating in lava

and I couldn't tell at first if he was Floating

on the log that he had fallen Well, he was on

a log and then the log fell in the lava and he

I guess fell on a rock because I thought You

think he was on a log river? Float on our lava

river on I don't think how could this how could

this rock be floating? It didn't make any sense

But I mean it seemed like he was floating down

this Lava River for a good 20 minutes. I mean

the episode was really slow That part was very

slow actually and it never really caught up but

What I did like was the the Dino Bot in a mirror

sequence Yeah, the Dino Bot clone and Dino Bot

coming face to face and they're like You know

each other's accent actions and I liked it I

thought it was funny. It was probably, for me,

like the highlight of the episode. Especially

when, you know, contrasted with the DinoBot on

DinoBot battle. Because as badass as DinoBot

is, I kind of expected it to be a little more

fierce when fighting himself. I really expected,

I mean, considering the fact that he ate him

later, I was kind of expecting to see a lot more

carnage. Yeah, that would have been cool to see.

I thought so, and it just didn't happen. Yeah,

they could have torn each other's arms off and

beat each other with them. It would have been

epic. But it just was not to be. The G1 throwback

was DinoBot saying, as you command, mighty Megatron.

Oh yeah. Yeah, I thought that yeah, I thought

that was kind of cool. Oh You better know something

else He ate it up Well besides that um yeah one

of Megatron's quotes was after of course getting

his ass thrashed He's like well. I guess my revenge

was must be postponed until next week Same bet

time same bet channel basically And then there's

a trivia bit. This is while the DinoBot clone

is trying to deactivate Sentinel, a holographic

Maximo logo appears with Cybertronix saying,

who is this Putz Scally user, which I have no

idea what the fuck that means. The term is Putz.

Yes. Putz Scally user. And then. It says the

shot changes to behind the projection as some

more text appears next to diagram that says hey

Ian go fuck yourself Making one wonder whether

Ian Corlett or Ian Pearson did to piss off an

animator. Then the words Merv Griffin display

That's unexpected I'd like to spray my DNA on

your double D's Okay, travel down this big dark

hole I'd like to surf down your lava river. Oh

boy. Next step please. Yeah, I think we have

to move on because this is just going down a

very dark tunnel that I don't want it to go.

I was getting late and we're all getting slapped.

And we got another, yeah, and now we got another

episode still. Take this! Take this! You're Rhinox.

How'd you know? I'm not sure, but I think I owe

you my life. Let's say we're even. You were a

little late this time, Optimus. Fortunately,

Air Razor took care of business. They'll be salvaging

Terrorzor for days. Welcome to the Maximals.

My pleasure, though I'm still not sure what to

make of all this. Yeah, if you're smart, you'll

make treks. Pay no attention to the rodent. He

was born with a major glitch. You'll get used

to everything, including them. Maybe. Now, how

about a tour of the base? When a spark goes online,

there's great joy. And finally up today is The

Spark. A damaged stasis pod crashes to Earth

after its orbit decays. Megatron sends Skopronok

and Blackarachnia to secure it, while Cheetor

heads toward the crash site as well. Already

on the scene, Rhinox races to save the life of

the dormant Maximal within the pod. As soon as

this episode opens you people who have already

seen Beast Wars will know just by seeing the

bird that, oh, this is Air Razor's premiere episode.

Well, if you knew who Air Razor was, I mean,

if you didn't know... Well, that's what I'm saying

for people who had already seen it. Yeah. Well,

considering when they introduced Tigatron, it's

like, there's something falling from the sky,

and look, an animal. You know, and this time

it's, there's something falling from the sky.

Oh, look, it's an animal. Yes, I have a note

about about that a little bit later, so we'll

save save on that one hopefully nobody steals

my thunder on it, but As I was watching and I

thought it was an inter I don't know why I thought

it was an interesting story at the time because

I Just got into the point where Rhinox is racing

to the pod and it's like wow Rhinox is in action.

That's Kind of rare. I don't think we've seen

that so far unless he's with everybody else.

Because he's always back at the base tinkering

with whatever he tinkers with. It's rare to see

him solo out in the field. Ryan Alex explaining

where sparks come from reminds me of Rodimus's

trip into the Matrix. Well, this was the first

time they really talked about the spark. Right,

but I mean still it's a it's a history lesson

type of thing so it reminded me of Rodimus's

trip through the matrix where we learn the Autobot

Decepticon history Yeah, except Rhinox isn't

idiotic and suicidal. Oh knock it off Oh Poor

Cheetor because he just can't get a break Because

he was um, I thought he did pretty well for himself

Well, you know he did but it's you know He he

says can a guy get a break because all these

Predacons are around attacking him and he got

his ass handed to him by black arachnia Yeah,

but well granted he's got three separate Predacons

attacking him it you know Normally, one would

be enough and he'd give his ass handed to him.

I mean, I think he did pretty well, considering.

Oh, no, I'm not saying... I'm not... I just sympathize

for the guy. I mean, damn. Can't, you know, can't

he get a break? The Waspinator Splat Alert. He

go boom from Energon Geyser. That's gotta be

the most interesting one yet. He got Energon

DNA sprayed on him. Alright, we gotta stop that.

That is just wrong. You brought it up. I didn't

say anything about it. You brought it up. We're

gonna have to break out the 70s porn music. A

-wow -tick -a -wow -wow -wow -wow. I think you

just did. John Holmes hanging out under the ground

waiting for the ospinator to sprite. And my final

just smiling in the background, maybe because

his other transgendered half has arrived. Because

they become Tigerhawk later? Yeah, I didn't catch

that so much, but I mean, again, unless you've

seen the entire series, you wouldn't know. Yeah.

I know, I've seen the entire series, but again,

it was a long time ago that I actually watched

the whole thing. I'm trying to watch it with

a fresh pair of eyes now. I know, but... As opposed

to an old pair of eyes. I got those too. I was

actually interested in watching these with my

boy. Just to see his take on it. And I... He's

not really interested. Terrible. He wants your

Constructicons, but he's not interested in Beast

Wars. No, you know, I think right now he's more

into Mickey Mouse and Phineas and Ferb. And Beast

Wars isn't his bag. And that's okay. Maybe in

a few more years. We'll see. You gotta brainwash

him while they're young, man. What's wrong with

you? Well, I'm kind of a dork. Yeah, I don't

know if I want him to be a Transformers fan,

basically, because then he'll... be climbing

all over my shit and trying to find me. This

is like a true ten -year -old. That's why you

get him into like, Batman or something. That's

right. Nobody wants to fly to Michigan and steal

all Steve's toys. Shit, I'll give them to you.

Michigan's not that far away. We could be there

in a couple hours. Wow. Okay, what do you got

Michael? I like the character development in

this episode. Yeah. I mean, Tarantulas is still

scheming. I mean, as soon as he sees that pod,

he's like, oh, I'm going to get this one, and

denied. I like the banter between Tigertron and

Cheetor, the big cat and little cat. Yeah. I

thought that was funny. That was pretty cool.

Yeah, and Blackarachnia finally has lines. I

mean, we really got to see her, you know, kinda

come into her own this time. She had lots of,

you know, witty banter. A lot of trash talking

with Cheetor. You don't see that very often.

Yeah, and trash talking with Scorponok as well.

She's like, why do you gotta be such a brown

-noser, Scorponok? What's up with that? And so

yeah, she had a lot of lines. And I was really

surprised, because up until now, she's had maybe

two in an entire episode. But yeah, lots of character

development, lots of new stuff that we've never

seen before. We'd never seen a spark. That's

a completely new concept. The idea that a transformer

has a soul, but it's electronic, and it can be

transferred from place to place. Don't think

we've seen repair mode before and it looked like

no that was definitely something new Yeah, that's

like. He's just like okay. I'm going to sleep

now and the Audi goes And while he's under he's

dreaming You know right acts. It's like here.

Here's Robo school Yeah, well, I thought it was

weird because you've got We've seen You know

the the maximals go into the repair bay and while

they're in there You can access their core consciousness

and talk to them But you know this is a little

different in the sense that he's he's kind of

putting himself in repair mode and yet his core

consciousness isn't doing its own thing and I

wasn't sure if he was actually conversing with

Rhinox there or if Rhinox was actually connected

to him somehow, or if that was just a dream?

I think it was just, it's a badass thing, but

I think it was just a dream because Rhinox was

doing stuff to Cheetor. He was taking his, what

was it, controller chip or ion sphere thing or...

whatever the hell it was that they need to audio

vibratory reconciliator device yeah something

like that so I honestly think it was just a dream

sequence yeah it was a dream sequence to give

us the exposition of where a spark came from

but it was a dream sequence that was later repeated

at the end of the episode yeah so it's like he's

precognitive yeah we also see a protoform for

the first time Like, the whole thing. Like, in

a casket. And, uh, and Protoform Jelly. Eww.

Just kinda messed with... I'm like, wait a minute,

he's like jello, and they're kinda jiggly, and

then suddenly it's a robot. Talk about spreading

your double DNA all over the place. I'd like

to spread my Protoform Jelly on your spark. On

your double D sparks. Oh, crap. Uh, yeah. On

your Lisa sparks. Um... And yeah, don't even

bother googling that. So yeah, there's the Protoform

and the Protoform Jelly that's all new. We've

never seen that before. I mean, it was just a

very well written episode where they kind of

came in and said, we're just going to introduce

you to a whole bunch of new shit that's really

going to be important for the rest of, not even

the rest of the series, but the rest of, you

know, trans former dome, you know, even when

you get in the beast machines That's the whole

premise Megatron steals all the sparks. Yep They're

gonna blow your mind That's right And then at

the end whoop out pops air razor Look Rhinox

made a baby Oh god! He did look a little maternal

there at the end. The cheater's like, who's your

daddy? Who's your daddy? It's almost like my

line of TFA Optimus coming out of Swindle's chest.

Oh look, Swindle gave birth to Optimus Prime!

Cause of the Drain's Warp thing? Yeah, came out

of, yeah. Once again, Pterosaur looses his head.

Yes. How many times are you gonna do that? I

don't know. As many as it takes. He should have

stopped while he was ahead. Okay, you can stop

while you're ahead. Right now! Knock that off!

Yeah, but uh... Yeah, this episode wasn't nearly

as slow as Double Dinobot, and they introduced

a lot of interesting things. It's like, yeah,

how long can you watch Rhinox agonize over this

casket? Granted, there was some action going

on in the background. You've got Cheetor back

there trying to buy time for Rhinox. It worked

out in the end, but it's like, man, this is kind

of dragging a little bit. Again, not dragging

nearly as much as Rattrap floating down a lava

river without any surf music to accompany it.

But it was still, I can't call it a bad episode

though, because there's just so much new stuff

being introduced. I would say it's cool just

for the fact that, yeah, we did get to see what

a spark actually looks like. A little bit more

in depth than the stasis pods, which I always

thought the stasis pod was a pretty interesting

concept. But the fact that they're basically

robo -goo in this pod. I like the term photoform

jelly. Yeah, I mean, it was something different.

Whereas before they're like, we will rise from

your eggs, you know, it's like, uh, that's kind

of gay. Uh, it's just a little different. Rise

from your eggs? What was that? That was in the

movie. Oh, ew. Yeah, that was just so stupid.

Who wrote that shit? Was that Michael Bay? You

only wish it was Michael Bay. Somebody? No, no,

I said robo -jism somebody give rat trap a jismop

Like we haven't gone too far over anyway in these

episodes I mean now we're we're five episodes

into this podcast and every single episode has

almost been gold No one's gonna let their young

children listen to this and that's why it's tagged

explicit That's why it's tagged explicit. It's

the kids that buy the toys You see and they they

they steer the parents into spending behavior

wait wait wait wait wait wait Ten -year -old

kids are going on eBay saying I want that $2

,000 beast wars optimus primal. That's gold.

I don't think so I really really want that $75

mints in package waspinator and you know and

when you bought it for me you're gonna make sure

that Scott McNeil signs it. And if you don't

then I'm going to make DinoBot do his thing to

you. Do we have anything else on this particular

one? No. I was going to complain. Actually, now

that you mention it, Scott McNeil, now that I

mention it, you guys friended Scott McNeil on

Facebook. Yes. I have sent him two friend requests,

and I think both of them were ignored. He doesn't

want to be your friend. He doesn't! Maybe I said

something to offend him, I don't know. I sent

him two messages requesting interview and he

has yet to reply to me I saw him active in the

chat and I tried sending him a moment just saying

you know hey Mr. McNeil just to get a response

he logged off so I don't know what really he

uses Facebook for because I don't like okay I

know we're getting way off topic of the spark,

but people like David Wise or Flint Dilley or

Mar Wolfman, they actually post status updates

of like, I don't know, whatever. I see Scott

accepting friend requests from other people.

And I see people tagging him in videos and whatever

else. But I don't actually see him really doing

anything. I even wrote on his wall and he still

hasn't replied to me. So either he's really busy

or he just doesn't like Facebook. Well, I mean,

he's a really talented guy. I'm sure he's in

demand. I'm sure he's got lots to do and probably

doesn't have a whole lot of time to mess with

Facebook. But at the same time, Because I have

a friend request pending, I see his posts. And

he's always friending other people. Scott McNeil

has friended so -and -so and four other people.

And I'm like, well, he hasn't accepted my friend

request. I dig Scott McNeil. It's not just Beast

Wars. I follow some of his other stuff too. And

I'm just not sure. I'm sure he doesn't listen

to this, but if he did, I'd be like, what the

fuck Scott McNeil? You know? Not quite those

terms. Yeah, it'd be more something more like,

why? No, because, you know, I've met him, God,

four, maybe, well, three or four times, and my

wife has talked to him. It's not as if he doesn't,

you know, what? What are you laughing about?

Because maybe he wants your wife. Look at the

chat! Shut up Steve! He's supposed to read it

in the chat window! What the hell! I should have

mute myself so Michael doesn't complain that

I'm typing too loud and then you go ahead and

fucking say it! It's entirely possible he's seen

pictures and said hey, you know, that's one hot

chick he's got there, I think. Probably going

to talk to her on Facebook. You should have her

try and request him and see what he does. It's

that would be funny. I need to have her change

your avatar to show a little more cleavage and

And then Facebook request them and see how that

works I know it's booby Wednesday This is how

we do it Transformers fan pimps out wife to voice

actor Yeah, it's just that my complaint was you

know, I'm a fan I dig him I take his work, and

I friend request him at least twice, and he's

responding to other people, and yet I'm feeling

kind of left out because I was ignored, that's

all. That's all I'm saying? At this point, I

am more asked to... I have feelings too! What?

I said, I have feelings too! And that just fits

so perfectly with it. I know. Well, you know...

At this point, I am more apt to get an interview

from Melissa Joan Hart than I am from Scott McNeil.

Are you totally going to interview Melissa Joan

Hart? No, but I'm just saying because I friended

her on Facebook and she responded. But what I'm

saying is... That's kind of cool. What I'm saying

is that... Well, it may suck for you and hurt

your feelings that he hasn't friended you it

sucks for me that he has friended me and hasn't

Replying to my very polite friendly professional

requests for an interview for our show Anyway,

we're getting way off topic of the spark. So

oh, yeah, you see now Yeah, I'm actually thinking

Melissa Joan Hart Yeah, yeah, sorry Anyway, I

said leave Clarissa and Sabrina alone. I said

leave Clarissa and Sabrina alone. Oh, I was about

to say, you know, she was a little young and

Clarissa explains it all. I don't think I would.

That's jailbait. Yeah, I don't really, I'm not

sure if I would find that attractive. For you,

oh, for you it's probably, no. It's not a jailbait

for you. What? She was born in 76. Well, and

Clarissa explains it all, though. Oh, okay, well

that character, right, but I'm just saying. She

was like, what, 15? Younger. I don't know. She

was like 12. Ah, Jesus. Yeah. Uh... No, she was

much hotter when she was older, but... And when

she did that Maximum Spread, I thought I was

gonna die. Okay. Again, way off topic. Sorry.

She was hot in that maximum spread, though. You're

right. The spark. Do we have anything else to

say about Eric's premiere episode? Did you see

Melissa Joan Hart in that Esquire spread? Oh

my god! I'd like to spray some DNA on those two

of you. Oh god. I think I got it down now. I

can do it without cracking up, which is fine.

The spark! Anything else to say about the spark?

No, sir Steve This obviously introduced a spark

to the Transformers mythos Cheetor calls black

rachnia ugly. Oh That's right, I know and then

he hits on her later in season 3. Oh That was

funny Yeah, you know, it's like, you know They

kinda gave her a lot of curves, but they didn't

give her hands. That's what the other guys are

for. Nah, it's just creepy is what it is. What?

He's got these claws and it's like, you know,

stay away from my junk. You got claws and shit.

I can use my mandibles. This is the quote of

episode 5. Irony sport I take over and you head

straight for the recycling bin You are listening

to the beast unleashed podcast, okay, so I think

we're just gonna close this because Yeah, there

has been more randomness in the fifth episode

of this show then I Think any other episode we've

done ever. Oh boy Thank you for joining us here

on the Peace Unleashed Podcast. There are several

ways to get in contact with us or leave feedback

for the show. First is you can stop by geekcastradio

.com and find all the other podcasts there. Second

is you can stop by PredaconEmpire .com slash

Nexus. Those are our forums. Third is you can

leave the show feedback in iTunes. 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 the message for and your name. The number

is 502 -526 -5821. We have Twitter. The show

name there is Beast Unleashed. Mine is TFG1Mike.

And Michael, what is your Twitter? And Steve?

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Beast

Unleashed podcast. Join us next time when we

will be reviewing The two -parter of The Trigger.

Yes, it's going to be a very short episode for

episode six. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with Steve

Megatron Phillips and Michael Wilson. Megatron,

close the show. Oh, yes. I am very, very unhappy

at tea. Oh, yes. This is Megatron, and you're

listening to the Beast Unleashed podcast. Oh,

yes. Yes! What are you buzzing about? Negative,

negative, negative. I am Shrapnel Decepticon

here. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Shrapnel? That was

a Decepticon from the Great Wars three centuries

ago. He's Wacko. Wacko? No! Wanko! Wanko!

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