Decepticon’s Exit – The Finale

Hey, this is Sari, and you're listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network of Podcasts. Greetings,

former Decepticons. This is Starscream, and you're

listening to Transformation Animation Podcast.

My name is Optimus Prime, and this episode of

Transformation Animation Podcast features Stephen

C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard, and Michael Wilson.

welcome to episode 20 the final episode of transformation

animation podcast i am your host d of june mike

and joining me is steve megatron hello hello

optimist solo hello yeah that kind of failed

dude and the late and unprepared pecan court

michael hello hey how's it going it's going So

what have you been up to, Optimus Solo? You've

been kind of like dead in the water for a while.

No, I sure haven't. I've been pumping out all

kinds of Christmas content at BehindTheVoiceActors

.com, watching lots of movies to try to get as

many movies in as possible in 2011. I counted

it, and I saw 35 movies this year. Of the new

ones that came out in 2011. So, yeah, did a blog

for the top ten movies of the year. Besides pumping

out content behind the voice actors and watching

movies, not a whole lot in the online Internet

world. That needs to change in 2012. That's your

New Year's resolution. I'm giving you your New

Year's resolution. You need to be online more.

I'm sorry. What about you, Steve? What have you

been up to? Nothing. No, I finally beat Arkham

City again. For like the seventh time? Well,

I beat all the side missions. And I have all

the extra skins for Batman. So, yes, I got the

new Batman Incorporated one as well in there.

And I pretty much have been taking over Twig.

Tweaking over there. Tweaking Geekcast Radio.

What else have I been doing? Oh, yes. I've been

doing side jobs. Doing virus removal on people's

computers. Oh, sweet. I'm doing one as we speak.

Nice. What about you, Mr. Wilson? What have you

been up to? Mr. Wilson! Hey, hey! I just started

my vacation. Yes. The university pretty much

shuts down from yesterday until after Christmas.

Or actually, until New Year's. So I'm off work

until next year. Sweet. Yeah, so... My amount

of free time has expanded exponentially. Which

has then been decreased by all the rims you are...

Yeah. All the skies you've been rimming. All

the skies I've been rimming, exactly. Yeah, well,

that was... Yeah, I'm spending a lot of time

playing Skyrim. But it's a fun game. I like it.

And for me, I've been getting blogs ready for

GCR. I'm going to be syndicating some of the

GCR stuff over on Twig. We're doing this show.

Next week, we've got the Year in Review podcast.

I've got two more Jump the Sharks to get through,

and then that's pretty much it until the first,

second week of January. Got any decorations up

on that house, Mr. Wilson? Oh, heck yeah. Heck

yeah. We are recording this two days before Christmas,

and it will be posted the day after Christmas.

So, Merry Christmas. Happy Boxing Day, everybody.

What? Merry Boxing Day to all. There you go.

I'm not Canadian. That's a Canadian thing, isn't

it? Yeah. They don't all have Christmas? They

have Christmas in Canada. What are you talking

about? No, I didn't say that they didn't. They

do, but Boxing Day is a Canadian thing. Boxing

Day is like... It's like celebrating Grandma

getting run over by a reindeer. Grandma getting

run over by a reindeer. Sorry. Like, Happy Hanukkah,

Happy Kwasa, Happy Boxing Day? No, get off my

lawn! Happy everything. There you go. That works.

Okay. So tonight we are going to be embarking

on the final journey for Transformation Animation

Podcast. And after this, we will be getting into

our discussion. I'm Sentinel Prime, and I approve

of this message. All right, so we are back. And

the way that we are breaking down the finale

for Transformers Animated, our coverage here

on Geekcast Radio Network, is we have several

categories. Overall favorite episodes. Overall

favorite characters. Best moments from the series.

Worst moments from the series. Overall least

favorite characters. overall least favorite episodes

thoughts on the toys which will probably just

be me and michael talking about that thoughts

on the almanacs and then we're going to do the

final thoughts on tfa as a series so kevin what

are your um overall favorite episodes starting

with me Excellent. I have five. There was five

episodes that I made it easy for myself because

I rated each one, obviously, if you remember,

throughout the podcast. Right. I had one that

got a 7 .5, and I had four that got 8s. So my

7 .5 one was A Fistful of Energon, episode 23.

That was pretty cool, and there was really no

humans in it. Not the greatest ending in the

world, but it was fun. Lockdown, Omega Supreme,

Bounty on Starscream. It was good stuff. Then

my four eights were, one of them was for This

Is Why I Hate Machines. We got to see Shockwave

show his true colors. We had the whole Ratchet

-Shockwave showdown, which was cool. And it was

cool to see kind of like the political side of

Cybertron and the humorous side of Starscream's

character. So I liked that one. That was episode

40. One of my other number 8s was the episode

right before that, episode 39, which was Decepticon

Air. You got to see Alpha Trion, Swindle. They

mentioned the Quintessons and Nebulos and the

Coneheads. It was just a cool episode overall.

Then episode 34, Where is Thy Sting? We got a

nice start to that episode with Jazz and Ultra

Magnus. We had the wasps slash bumblebee idea,

which I thought was a pretty cool idea. Only

bad part about this episode was the Jetfire Jetstorm

appearance. So yeah, I liked that episode and

liked the ending of it. And then my final one

was episode 7, way back from the beginning, The

Thrill of the Hunt. Some cool... Homages with

the Hector Ramirez thing. I don't know. I just

kind of liked this episode overall. Probably

because there was no humans, but those are my

five favorites. All right. What about you, Steve?

What are your overall favorite episodes? Okay.

Don't laugh. There's nothing funny about this

crap. Yes, yes there is, because you're struggling

over there. Why am I struggling? I don't know.

Just let him speak, Mike. I'd kill you with a

spoon. I like the Transwarp three -parter, which

counts as one episode. I like Predacons Rising,

because anything to do with any type of Beast

Wars, doesn't matter to me if it's in continuity

or not, I like it. I like the Endgame saga. I

like Garbage in Garbage Out, because you have

Ruttgar, aka Weird Al, who rules. And the Megatron

Rising, just because he comes back and kicks

some ass. Exactly. What about you, Michael? What

are your favorite episodes overall? Do we have

time for this? Wow! There's a lot. Talk about

hitting below the belt. I'm just going to go

down the list. There's only 35 of my favorites.

Hold on. 35 out of 39, yeah. So you already know

which ones are my least favorites. It's the last

four. Yeah, pretty much. I think I have a special

liking for anything that has more than one part.

So Megatron Rising Part 1 and Part 2, A Bridge

Too Close Part 1 and Part 2, Transwarped has

all of three parts, and all of them were awesome.

Endgame Part 1 and Part 2 was really, really

good, especially that final parting shot. The

exception that proves the rule here is Human

Error Part 1 and Part 2. And, you know, I liked

the concept of them. being in a virtual world

and waking up human, but not for two episodes

worth. That got a little bit old. Aside from

those, some of them that I really liked were

Elite Guard, where they introduced Elite Guard,

introduced Ultra Magnus, who was just a great

character, Five Servos of Doom, which had lots

of ninjas. Which Kevin doesn't like ninjas. I

don't like cyber ninjas. I was about to say,

who doesn't like ninjas? Oh, Kevin doesn't like

ninjas. Never mind. It's a subset of ninjas I

don't like. They have them in G1, technically.

I know, and I didn't like them then either. Well,

it's more than just ninjas. I mean, you've got

George Takei coming in there, voicing Yoko Tron.

Yeah. I was going to say Yoki -san, but Yoki

-Tron is the actual character. Yes. Yeah, Yoki

-san is the guy it was modeled after. Right.

Again, really, really cool. They throw this so

much homage into one episode. It's just pretty

amazing. But I'll leave it at that. For me, pretty

much the same thing. 35 out of 39. You're cheating

all these things. I always have these categories.

Oh, whatever, mister. I'm going to list two movies

at number seven, and yes, I'm going to cheat

because I can't pick. Anyway, I really dug Transform

and Rollout, the original quote -unquote film

that introduced the series. I thought that was

a pretty neat thing. Megatron Rising. I really

liked Sound and Fury. I thought that was a nice

way to introduce Soundwave. It was a unique way

to introduce him. The Elite Guard, Jazz, is just

awesome. Agreed. Auto Boot Camp, I like this

for the continuity aspect and seeing the backstory

of Bumblebee and Bulkhead and all the other bots

and just seeing where they came from. You guys

already mentioned a bridge too close and transwarped.

Steve and Michael. I did, yeah. Bridge Too Close

and Transwarp. It's not our fault that you hate

the series. I just listed five episodes I liked.

Anyway, of course, for me with Transwarp, you

know, the first five minutes, after that, everything

else is gravy, but the first five minutes was

the best. Where Is Thy Sting? I did like that

one. I liked Decepticon Air. I thought that was

a unique thing. It was a unique concept of having

Transformers reenact a Nicolas Cage movie. Who

got to play Nicolas Cage? I forget. Probably

Sentinel. No. This is why I hate machines. I

love this one because we actually get to see...

More of Cybertron. That's the one thing we hardly

ever saw in the series. I mean, even once the

Elite Guard showed up in Season 2, we didn't

really get to see a lot of what was going on

on Cybertron until This Is Why I Hate Machines.

And, of course, Endgame for that final parting

shot. All right, Kevin. Overall favorite characters.

All righty. We got a top ten list here. I have

to give an honorable mention to Starscream's

head, though. To start off the list here. Honorable

mention to Starscream's head. And then you guys

are going to disagree with my first two, but

my tenth most favorite character is Bulkhead.

No. I'll just get the first two out of the way,

since you're all going to disagree. My ninth

one is Lugnut. No. So I like those two. I like

those two. Some of them are just kind of side

characters, but number eight I put Blur, even

though he wasn't there very long. And number

seven I put Rekgar. I thought the scenes Rekgar

was in were all good. Even if he was in a couple

crappy episodes, his scenes were good. Number

six I have Ultra Magnus. He was just badass.

Number five I have Blackarachnia. I thought she

had some of the most... I don't know, complex

character development in the entire show, and

they actually did a good job developing her character,

so like her. Except you hated when she cried.

Yeah, that's different. That's coming up later.

Number four would be Swindle. He was just cool.

He was way cooler than he was in G1. He was very

cool. This is one of the only characters they

did better in animated than they did in G1. So

Swindle gets a lot of credit there. Number three,

Shockwave. Number two, Lockdown. I already know

what number one is. And, of course, number one

is jazz. Yep. What about you, Steve? Favorite

characters? I would have to say, in no particular

order, I like Megatron. I would have never guessed

that. I like Rengar. Would have never guessed

that. Ha ha ha. Shut your face. I like Blur.

Jazz. And... I like Ultra Magnus as far as he

looks, but he was a little bitch in the show.

The problem with Ultra Magnus is he was very

underutilized. I mean, he was this, you know,

overall... I mean, he's basically the Transformers

version of Thor. as far as with the hammer and

everything else, but he's so underutilized. And

as I said when we were talking about the episode

where Shockwave was going to finish him off,

I was half expecting him to wake up and just

bitch slap the hell out of Shockwave, which didn't

happen, and I was kind of disappointed at that.

I mean, he is a very cool -looking character

when he is in action. He's a very awesome character,

but he was just too underutilized. Fair enough.

What else, Steve? I like Shockwave just because

same voice actor, direct homage. So, yeah, that's

just the same thing with Border. That's why I

like those two. Pretty much that's it for me.

I mean, I liked Prime 2, but he wasn't my favorite.

Yeah. But, yeah, I like pretty much those, and

that's about it. What about you, Michael? Favorite

characters? Well, let's see. I liked Angry Archer

and Meltdown and Nanosek and Professor Princess.

Can we edit this out? I'm just going down the

supervillains. Just to make your eyes twitch.

The twitchy eye. If you could put in the sound

clip of a twitchy eye, that would be awesome.

Actually. I liked... You know, I have to clarify

here that there's some characters that kind of

popped in just for a second, like Yokitron, and

I'm not going to mention those. Right. Although

some of those guest appearances are the best.

But I really have to agree with Kevin that Black

Brachnia had perhaps the most fleshed out background,

the most interesting background. but also Etchit

had a lot of backstory here and his was very

interesting the Skywarp clones all of them I

mean I just really enjoy what they have to say

it's just really funny Swindle And Lockdown,

who, you know, may be the exceptions to the rule,

but they showed up more than once. Oh, yeah.

Swindle popped up a few times. Lockdown popped

up a few times where I really didn't expect him.

Which was kind of like when Starscream had a

bounty on his head. It's like, how did that happen?

Well, Starscream did, you know, try to destroy

Megatron, so of course Megatron's going to put

a bounty on his head. Several times, yeah. But,

yeah, Lockdown. Anything by Lance Henriksen is

going to be awesome. I love Lance Henriksen's

voice. I mean, as an actor, he's pretty cool.

He's done a lot of neat stuff. But as a voice

actor, it's always cool to watch a cartoon and

hear him because you know it's him. I would almost

say the same thing about Swindle. Oh, yeah, Fred

Willard, yep. Fred Willard is awesome. In fact,

I was watching TV. This had to have been, like,

yesterday. Or today, even. No, maybe yesterday.

But we were watching altogether too much Hub

now in the morning. Yeah, so Hub has these Old

Navy commercials. Yeah, and he's doing the voiceover

for Old Navy. Yeah, he's not in the commercial,

but you can tell it's his voice. Oh, yeah. And

it's like, oh, that is so Fred Willard. How cool

is that? Yeah, so that's kind of neat, too. I'd

say lastly, you know, there's Megatron. And I'd

have to say that I don't want to say I was disappointed

with this Megatron at first because he wasn't

G1 Megatron and he wasn't like the Beast Wars

Megatron. He's his own entity. He's his own person.

He has his own personality. And the more you

hear from him, the more you enjoy his personality.

Oh, yeah. You come across, you know, he's very

powerful and yet he has a guile to him. Yeah.

Yeah, he's smart and powerful, and he's manipulative,

and it just comes through. And some of that is

inferred. It's like, well, did he really mean

to pit Lugnut and Shockwave against each other

like that to get what he wanted? Yes, yes, he

did. Yes, yes, he did. Well, they don't come

out and say it, but it's like when you think

about it, you go, wow, he is the smartest guy

alive. But yeah, he's just... I don't want to

say in retrospect, but yeah, he's so likable

as a bad guy. And more so than maybe some of

the other Megatrons. Barring possibly Beast Wars

Megatron. You know, no disrespect to David Kaye

and what he did with Beast Wars Megatron, but

I am so glad that they went in a different direction

for Megatron. Because we've had David Kaye as

Megatron to this point. from Beast Wars to Armada,

Energon, and Cybertron. So I'm glad that they

went in a completely different voice direction

for Megatron this time, and I'm very glad in

this series that they did not attempt to get

Frank Welker back, because obviously that's what

happened in Prime, and we'll get to that way

down the line. Any other favorite characters

for you, Michael? All of them. Yeah, all the

humans. They're all my favorite. Love them all

equally. As far as me, what I like about Optimus

Prime is his overall character development through

the series. He is the young leader. He is trying

to atone. Not really atone. He's trying to live

up to what Ultra Magnus is and what Cybertronian

leaders of the past are. And he does have a lot

of good character development because by the

time you get to Endgame, he's ready to lead.

I mean, he is battle ready. He's battle hardened.

He's seen it all. He's died like 20 million times.

You know, I mean, he's ready to run shit. So

that's why I liked Optimus. Sure, does he have

his, oh my god, what the fuck leader moments?

Sure he does. Even G1 Optimus had his what the

fuck leader moments. So, Swindle, I mean, Fred

Willard as Swindle. I mean, how more... How much

more awesome can that get? It can't. He could

sell your own mother to you, for Christ's sake.

I wouldn't buy her. I like Soundwave mostly for

the homage that he is with the tape deck stuff.

I did like the new take on Ratbat and Laserbeak.

I thought that was kind of cool. I like that

his voice is vocoded, but I wish it would have

been Frank and not Jeff Bennett. No, Frank just

would have done Dr. Claw. No, no, no. Vocoded,

dude. No, no, no. Not this Dr. Claw stuff. As

I said in the very beginning of this podcast,

I will always maintain this opinion. This entire

series is Ratchet's story. If you look at...

Every single episode. It starts with Ratchet

telling backstories as the old Autobot. It, you

know, continues to his past days as a medic,

you know, pretty much killing Arcee. And then

getting her back on her feet and getting her

back to life and everything else. So I really

liked all the stuff with Ratchet. Rodimus Prime,

well, you know, it's Rodimus. And it's, you know,

it's... Should have been Springer. Shut up. It's...

Fuck, what's his name? Judd Nelson reprising

the role. I really dug Blitzwing in this. I thought

Blitzwing was hilarious, specifically the crazy

face. I thought that was just so funny. Oh, Quitcher's

sighing over there. I think it was a funny gimmick

the first couple of times. And finally, Blur,

just because of John Machida. And Shockwave,

too, is one that I kind of... glossed over but

Shockwave and Blur are probably the two best

I mean I know Blur only really showed up twice

but you know he has an overarching story from

season 2 into season 3 so I just love that about

them so you forgot one wait what you forgot one

what did I forget you didn't say anything about

Jazz oh shit what is there to say about Jazz

that hasn't already been said I mean Fair enough.

You know, I almost wish that... I know they wanted

Phil Lamar to do his own spin, and I love that

he put his own spin on it, and I love he has

the jive talk that Jazz has, but just hearing

his scatman was awesome, and I almost wish that

there was a little bit more scatman in Jazz.

I think that would have been really awesome.

So moving on to best moments from the series.

Kevin, you got anything? Yeah, I do. I liked

most of the scenes on Cybertron. I liked the

way they did the scenery. I liked the way they

did the backgrounds for most of those shots,

minus a couple. Those were cool. I liked, I don't

know, like 90 % of the flashback scenes, except

for that one instance where they... early on

did stuff that made no sense but uh but most

of the like especially the prime magnus flashbacks

were really cool um as well as a lot of the ratchet

ones so i like the flashbacks i like the scenes

on cybertron um i liked any scene that jazz was

in um i liked the i'm gonna pull what you did

to me do you have a specific i even wrote that

thinking of you actually i wrote that thinking

of you i said if he can do it i can do it um

i like most of the uh Scenes in which we see

Starscream's head or Bulkhead's head without

a body. I like Starscream a lot more in Season

3 especially, his comedic moments. I liked way

back in the beginning when Lugnut was talking

to Megatron in Lugnut's own head. when he was

hearing Megatron talk to him, and that was kind

of funny because nobody else really knew. I liked

the G1 homages, the more subtle G1 homages, like

Kremzik, Hector Ramirez, and then mentions of

the Quintessons and stuff like that. That was

cool. And let's see, one more best moment. Prowl

dying, I have written down here. Oh, you sadist.

Sorry, that's all I got. Prowl is a hero. Yeah.

That's all I got, guys. Why is Tina Turner's

song We Need a Hero flashing into my head? Ow.

Because you're lame. Shut up. I bet TFA Megatron

would kick your ass. I bet your TFA Megatron

would get zapped into a portal and just get stuck

there because he's a doll in my house. What about

you, Steve? Any best moments from the series?

Well, let me see. Best moments of the series,

I'd have to say the introduction of Wrecker,

the revival of Megatron, Starscream as just a

floating disembodied head, which was awesome.

I agree. The trash compactor of Blur. Hey! I

didn't say that it was, like, it's not the worst.

It sucks what happened to him. But that was quite

interesting. You've never seen somebody get turned

into a damn cube before or get destroyed. Through

the power of the cybernetic space cube. A .K

.A. Blur. But yeah, those would be my primary

reasons. Awesome. Wait, I have that written down

twice. Holy crap. What about you, Michael? Favorite

moments of the series? Oh, let's see. All of

them? Every last one. I really like the Blackarachnia

reveal. Yeah. And along came a spider when we

found that, well, you know, they don't beat you

over the head with it completely, but yeah, she's

a lady of one. It's like, oh, yeah, of course

she is. But the key part about this particular

episode is that it shines a spotlight on the

root cause of so much of what has gone on throughout

the whole series. You find out why Blackarachnia

had to leave the Autobots. You find out why Sentinel

Prime hates Optimus Prime. Yeah, you find out

why Optimus Prime washed out of the Academy,

ultimately. I mean, there's all these different

things like dominoes that fall into place directly

due to what happened in this episode. Oh, yeah,

I completely agree. Yeah, the only other one

that came close was Thrill of the Hunt, which

was Ratchet's first flashback, where, again,

as you mentioned, a lot of what happens in this

series directly relates to Ratchet. So, yeah,

a lot of what goes on afterwards, you find out.

had everything to do with that episode. But yeah,

the Blackarachnia reveal is, I believe, key.

I really liked the Beast Wars cameo in Predacons

Rising, even though it wasn't really a Beast

Wars cameo. Yeah. Shouldn't read too much into

that, though. Don't read it too much into that,

that's right. I liked... I can't remember if

this is Endgame 1 or Endgame 2. What? The point

where Megatron actually remembers Optimus Prime's

name. And he's like, oh, you do remember my name.

Because it was an ongoing thing. Maybe two or

three times it happened where he's like, my name

is Optimus Prime. That was... It was after...

It was after he said it. After he said, my name

is Optimus Prime? I think so. I don't remember.

It's been so long since I watched the episode.

I think it had to have happened in at least the

first episode, where he has to tell Megatron

who he is. And then later on, it happened at

least once or twice more, where he's like, okay,

seriously, you know my name, don't you? But at

the end, at the very end, right before he stomps

on him, he says, okay, Optimus Prime. And he

says, haha, you do remember my name. But I like

that a lot. That was... That was cool. That was

like, all right, you have arrived. Megatron knows

your name. And maybe one of my favorite shots,

at least the one that I would like to see most

put into a background screen for my computer,

is the end shot where Prime has the hammer and

the Matrix of Leadership, and they have Megatron

tied up, and they're kind of coming off of Omega

Supreme. I'm pretty sure that's on the site somewhere,

but that's an awesome shot. That's a fantastic

shot. And an excellent way to end the series.

Oh, yeah. For me, Megatron finally getting his

own body back and basically just handing the

Autobots their asses in Megatron Rising. That

was awesome. He jumps out of the tower. He's

like, ha ha. Yeah, that was great. Star screams,

you interrupted my speech line. I love that.

The only time I will have anything good to say

about these two characters. I loved it in the

Halloween episode when the bumblebee bat was

crawling all over a tented bulkhead. I thought

that was kind of cool. I liked all the holiday

episodes. You know, seeing Blur. And just having

John Machida back. Swindle, the same thing. I've

come around to liking Angry Archer. He's the

only human villain I actually like. Anything

with Jazz. Anything with Rodimus. Well, the first

five minutes he had. Anything with Shockwave.

Except the fact that he killed Blur. I don't

like that. I mentioned earlier the character

development for Optimus. And all the cameos,

you know, both in This Is Why I Hate Machines

and at the end of Endgame, you know, you freeze

frame that, you can see every major Transformer

in history so far. Well, for the most part. Yes,

you can. I disagree. Booyah! The ones that they

wanted to put in there. You just went from everyone

in history. Anyways. I like Kevin Michael Richardson's

version of Omega Supreme a little bit better

than Phil Lamar's. Phil Lamar did an excellent

job, but I just think Kevin Michael Richardson's

voice fits Omega a little bit better. I think

that's pretty much it. Worst moments of the series.

Before I let Kevin go, let's just get this out

of the way right now. The key, Nuff said. I don't

need to say anything more about the fucking key.

Is there a particular use of the key that you

find most offensive? I got one later on. Oh,

Lord. I felt for sure you were going to jump

on the magic toilet. Yeah, that is my specific

one. Is that the specific one? Yeah. My worst

moments, unfortunately, I mean, I have eight

of them. Well, I have eight repeating ones and

one separate one. But the problem with the worst

moments for me is that they are all repeated.

It's not something that's done once. Like, my

favorite moments only happen one time. But my

least favorite moments happen throughout the

series, and it's why the series. It's not good,

but here we go. First off, the key. That is number

one repeated bad moment, and specifically when

it's used in a toilet. A toilet with a keyhole.

That is number one. Move that aside. Number two

is all of the different moments that include

what I call Transformers speak. We've been over

this, but it's just terrible. What is it, transform

-ups instead of push -ups? But they're actually

transforming when they do it. That's so stupid.

I like it. Just trying to change regular, everyday

words into Transformers words bugs the crap out

of me. So that's number two bad moment in the

series. This one's cheating, but number three

is any moment having a human in it. Sorry, the

humans are terrible in this series. Even when

the lead characters are humans? Yes. Number four

is when human traits are given to Transformers,

when they are drinking and sleeping and crying

and doing things that Transformers would never

do. I hate all of those moments. I loved the

good homages, but there was some terrible ones.

A dog named Sparkplug. Well, they did rectify

that later. No, they didn't. Yes, they did, because

they do have a human named Sparkplug, too. But

there was just so many bad homages, and especially

the Beast Wars reunion at the end of Predacons

Rising. Moving on. Anything with the Headmaster

unit continuously showing up was terrible, although

I did like the Transformers that were just heads

walking around. I just didn't like the other

end of the equation. I thought he counted as

a human character. Yeah, that's why I don't like

the Headmaster unit at all. Oh, okay. I'm saying

I like the heads of the Transformers when they

lost their bodies were all right, but not the

bodies that had the Headmaster unit on them.

I'm not talking about the Headmaster person.

I'm talking about the actual Headmaster unit,

the stupid -looking robotic head that got put

on other people's bodies. That's what I didn't

like. It wasn't so much the human character.

The anime transformation power -up sequences.

Hopefully everybody knows what I'm talking about.

The two minutes of stock footage? And we've been

over that with the whole lights flashing and

colorful backgrounds instead of the actual backgrounds.

And then just two more. I just have written down

here cyber ninja bullshit. Especially when they

gather all of the pieces at the end there. pieces

of whatever you want to call it. Allspark or

whatever. And then lastly... Yeah, that whole

thing. And lastly, sorry being a robot. That's

one of my worst... That was the one that wasn't

repeated, though. That was just a separate one.

Those are my least favorite moments from the

series. Alright. Steve? Everything. Come on!

Everything with a... Human in it? A villain that's

not a Transformer? A non -recurring Transformer?

Sentinel Prime? What else can I say I hate about

it? What's that? Sentinel Prime was a recurring

character. I know, but I hate him anyway. Okay.

That character should have never been included.

There was a period in there and not a comma.

I'm sorry, I misheard that. He was a POS. Yeah,

I think that about sums it up. Any scene that

included those should have been re -erased from

the series. Yeah. You're no fun. Alright, Michael,

do you have any worse moments? I'm not going

to go with the... A trail of worst moments there

that happen all the time. I want to go with specific

worst moments. Keyholes in toilets. Well, no.

I didn't question that. I just nodded my head

and said, yes, that could easily happen. I lock

my toilet all the time. With a key. How dare

you use my toilet. Everyone must get your permission

to take a shit. You never know. Nobody wants

to reach your hand back there and fish around

for stuff. You'd much rather get an upper decker.

Sorry. I didn't like it when Lugnut became Comic

Relief. I mean, I really liked Lugnut. I don't

want to say I liked him. He was kind of my least

favorite character, but... Oh, I already broke

it up. We're not going into least favorite characters

right now, but as far as the opening Decepticons,

he was kind of my least favorite Decepticon.

And the problem, though, is that he started off

as a complete badass. He was the strong guy.

He was the Decepticon equivalent to Bulkhead.

Yeah, and he had the punch of kill everything,

and he was like, he was just... overzealous in

his worship of Megatron. And that was his only

flaw. But as we get forward, we introduce new

Decepticons like Shockwave, and we... I don't

want to say Lugnut takes a back seat to some

of those, but yeah, in some cases he does. And

he's used more for comic relief than being a

badass at that point. And that's kind of... I

don't want to say a failure of the writing, But

it was. It was, yeah. Another failure of the

writing. And again, this happens around the same

time that Lugnut becomes a comic relief, and

that was when Shockwave breaks character. I mean,

I like Shockwave. I want to say G1 Shockwave.

I like Shockwave, the cold, calculating bad guy

who uses logic above all else. And I really enjoyed

it when he turned purple, which was awesome.

I was like, woohoo, he's purple. That should

have been one of my fave moments, actually, when

he attained his true colors. True colors. But...

That's why I love you. Shut up, Steve. That wasn't

even Steve that said anything. Was it? Shut up,

Steve. I didn't say shit. No, that wasn't Steve.

That was you, Michael. No, no. That was me. That

was Kevin. That was Steve. That was somebody.

It wasn't me. I know that because I was on mute.

All right. Anyway. Anyways. So don't be afraid.

Yeah, that's you right there. That was just the

first one. Anyway, so Shockwave breaks character.

I digress. Shockwave. At some point, Shockwave

goes from calm, cool, calculating to. You know,

kind of knocking over Lugnut and laughing at

him. And going, ha ha! You know, and that...

I want to say it only happened in one scene.

But it bothered me to the point where it was

like, that's not a shockwave. And I didn't like

that. I didn't like it when Sari found out exactly

what she was and why she was there and didn't

tell anybody. She's Megatron's kid. I know exactly

why I'm supposed to be here. Why? Well, I'm sorry.

The series just ended. I'm Megatron's kid. Exactly.

I'm Megatron's toenail. He's clipping his toenails

one day. He wanted a robot girlfriend. He made

a robot girlfriend and made a robot baby. Oh,

my God. Can we move on, please? Lastly, I didn't

like it when Bill Feigerbecky died. He didn't

die. I thought he died. I don't know where the

hell I heard it or what made me think this. When

we explained this to you in that episode, the

character he played on that television series

died. The actor did not die. I thought he died,

though. And I was like, it's a shame that this

talented, wonderful human being who did this

character we all love died so tragically young.

And I didn't know he didn't actually die. That's

a great moment. He's not dead. Yeah, that was

like my least favorite moment. I thought I heard

Mikey died. Mike. I don't know. Least favorite

moments. Oh, okay. We're there. I didn't know

if he was done yet or not. Check it out. Oh,

God. Holy cow. Everybody always complains that

Bumblebee is no longer a Volkswagen. It's not

G1 Bumblebee. It's not Dan Gilvezan. You know...

I didn't complain. Well, what I mean by everybody

is all the dumbasses on TFW that don't know what

the fuck they're talking about. I seem to remember

you being the first one that said, I hate this

show. This is all crap. That's not Bumblebee.

Well, yeah, but I've learned since then. But

at least I gave reasons why I hated it. I didn't

just say, oh, I hate this because it's not G1.

Well, it's not necessarily just about G1. Well,

for most people it is. But anyway, Bumblebee

can be whatever alt mode that you want him to

be. I don't care if he's a Camaro. I don't care

if he's a Mustang. I don't care what kind of

car he is. But Bumblebee's characterization in

this was not lovable, was not fun -loving, didn't

feel like he had anything to offer a friendship

to sorry for. He is loyal to her. That's about

it. His voice, I'm sorry, Bumper Robinson, his

voice is basically Beast Boy, and I hated Beast

Boy's voice. I was going to say, he was Beast

Boy. Bumblebee's voice sucks. And this version

of Bumblebee is doing stuff that you wouldn't

think a Bumblebee would do. Are we talking about

moments or characters? No, I'm talking about

basically the moments. Can you name a particular

moment? The moment is Bumblebee's horrid character.

Anytime he interrupts Prowl, when Prowl is trying

to meditate, anytime he decides that he needs

to open his mouth, pretty much. And bullshit

comes out. Exactly. Anything with Professor Princess,

that bitch does not need to be in this series.

Ever. So we're just talking about characters.

No, I'm talking about moments. He's talking about

them crazy bitches. Bulkhead as a human, the

entirety of that scene was just god -awful. Not

even taking the fact that I don't like Bulkhead

in general. I gotta poop. And Michael already

mentioned this, but I'll mention it again. The

fact that they start storylines and never get

to fucking finish them. That was a pretty important

chunk of storyline, to be honest. Yeah, it was.

Why reveal that she's a robot and then say, oh,

we're not going to tell you the rest of it? We're

not going to tell you the rest of it because

Hasbro pulled the plug because they would rather

put more into this shit movie called Revenge

of the Fucking. Anyways, moving on to least favorite

characters. Kevin, what are your least favorite

characters? Okay, I got another top ten list.

Least favorite characters. For number ten, this

is the one I'm cheating on. I really don't like

the main characters. There's very few main characters

that stand out. And it's not a good situation

when the cameo and guest appearances are better

than the main characters. So I have to give one

spot to the lack of cool main characters. Number

nine is all of the seeker clones. Just didn't

care for the clones. I did think there was some

creative dialogue and some writing there that

was good, but I just didn't care for the idea

of Seeker clones. Aw. Sorry. I did like the dialogue

with them, though. Number eight, Prowl. Fucking

bastardized with my favorite G1 character. Moving

on. Seven, Blitzwing. The voice work here was

atrocious. Probably the worst voice work in the

entire show for Blitzwing. I just... Even when

he was fighting with himself? Yeah, it just was

bad. The voices were bad. It did get old pretty

quick. Sentinel Prime is number six, and it's

not his fault. That's how they wrote him. They

wrote him as a very dislikable character, and

so I disliked him. Number five, Red Alert. I

know that's kind of cheap because that was one

scene. You don't like the gender bending, we

know. No gender bending. I apologize to all of

you, but number four is Yokotron. What? Yep.

Cyber ninja bullshit. Number three is Stryka.

Yeah, we talked about that earlier. Number two,

Jetfire slash Jetstorm. I think people can agree

with me on that one. Are we going in order of

horribleness? Because I think that should have

been number one. No, that was number two, so

it is almost the worst character. Only beaten

out by number one, human villains and Sari. All

of the human villains and Sari. Now, I didn't

mind the other human characters. I didn't mind

Falzone and... and some of the more, some of

the just general human characters, but the human

villains, the cheap, like, kiddy human villains,

and then, sorry, the human slash robot. That

gets my number one spot. I was going to say,

because she's not really a human. No, but she's

portrayed as one, so she counts. Steve, least

favorite characters? Okay. Sentinel Prime. Humans.

Non -transforming villains. Prowl. Yes! Bumblebee.

You're just kissing up at this point. Bullhead.

Lugnut. Is that it? Everyone they introduced

in the first episode hates them all. What about

you, Michael? Least favorite characters? Well,

I'm not going to go out and say, oh, I hated

all the main characters, because that's just

rude. Honestly, why are we here if we don't like

the main characters? That was a good question.

That was what I was questioning the entire time.

Well, we didn't know that until we started watching

the show. Now we realize what we really don't

like. Three episodes into it, and I said, God

damn, it's Optimus Prime hateful. No, but seriously,

hold on a second. Seriously, go back and review

the part of this episode that we just recorded

where we listed our favorite characters. Three

people said Blur. We had multiple people say

Rekgar, Ultra Magnus, Black Ragnion. Three people

said Swindle. Three people said Shockwave. Three

people said Jazz. None of those are main characters.

Yeah. I'm just saying. I mean, they become mainstays

because they have more than two episodes. But

yeah, the original five Autobots or six, however

the hell many Autobots there are, yeah. Outside

of Megatron, we did not name a... I said Ratchet,

didn't I? I know, but we had like... Okay, you

and Mike said Ratchet, but nobody was saying

Bumblebee. Nobody was saying Bulkhead. We had

Megatron. I'll give him the credit. And I said

Optimus for his character development. That was

just one person. Well, I thought Optimus was

implied. No, Optimus was never implied. I really

think Prowl should have had more backstory before

they killed him off, but okay. Anyway. Anyways.

Anyway. My least favorite characters would have

to be... I'll start off with Grimlock, because

I know that's going to be the most controversial.

Fire out of the head. Just throw it out there.

Add it in there. Edit. Yeah, Grimlock. I mean,

honestly, I think we've had this conversation

before in the past. The Dinobots were misused.

Yeah. It's not so much that, at least for me,

it's not so much that I don't like the Dinobots

in the series. I don't... What I don't like is

the misuse of them. Well, it was a constant throughout

the series as far as introducing groups of characters

and doing nothing with them. I mean, it would

have been really cool to see the whole group

with Rodimus and all those guys again. We didn't

see any. We saw them once. We saw the Dinobots

misused. I mean, at some points they were just

introducing characters to introduce characters.

And they had no plans of doing anything with

them. Right. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, he'd

show up and he wouldn't. say anything important

and then wander off and the rest of them didn't

say anything at all. And one of them turned out

to be a dog. Grimlock, I really think that he

deserved better from this series. Agreed. Didn't

like Safeguard, Jetfire, Jetstorm. I don't know.

I can't understand a damn word they're saying.

Maybe that's... And they look stupid. Why? Yeah,

and they look stupid, and they transform horribly,

and the Combine Mode is just crap. And especially

when you look, and you'd have to break out the

Allspark Almanac, if I can get it out of my noggin

here. The second volume actually has a picture

of what Safeguard should have looked like, or

at least what Safeguard was meant to look like

in Transformers Hero. Or heroes. And it looks

at least twice as good as what we got. Maybe

not good enough to actually be built as a toy

or included as a character because it's still

kind of a lame concept. But, you know, I think

that, yeah, that character should have been scrapped

with heroes because it was just so bad. And once

they found out that they couldn't do it the way

they wanted to, they should have just scrapped

it and wrote somebody else in. But no, I just

didn't like it. I didn't like Waspinator. I didn't

like him at first, but it grew on me. No, I mean,

at first it was like Wasp in Auto Boot Camp,

and he's kind of a dick, and he's mean to Bumblebee,

and it's like, oh, it's anti -Bumblebee. And

you start seeing the possibilities here. And

then at the end... You know, he says his first

word is Waspinator and he's like, you know, he

says something like, I want to get revenge on

Bumblebee. And what may or may could have been

misconstrued as something close to Scott McNeil's

voice. And maybe that's my biggest gripe because

it wasn't Scott McNeil. But, you know, I mean,

they threw him in there a little bit later and

it was kind of, you know, kind of not. a great

episode, and then they transform Wasp into Waspinator.

And at that point, it's like, hey, maybe they'll

have Scott McNeil do the Waspinator voice. And

no, it wasn't. It wasn't Scott McNeil at that

point either. And I... Yeah, I just didn't like

that character. I can see that. I can see not

liking the change from Wasp to Waspinator. I

felt bad for him because the writers hated him

so much. Yeah. He's like... She's like, get in

that pod so I can torture you. And he goes, no,

thank you. And it's like, yeah, I feel bad for

hating you now because you're going to die horribly.

First you got framed. Now you're going to be

mutated. I just can't catch a break. Yeah. Waspinator

has plans. I don't know. I mean, I wanted to

like him. There's potential there. More potential

than even Grimlock, you know? First of all, I

couldn't get over that it wasn't Scott McNeil.

And two, I just didn't think they used that character

very well. And lastly, I didn't like Blackout.

And again, it's one of those blink if you miss

some characters. He was only in there for half

a second. But it's a character they based off

a movie character. Yeah. And that's enough for

me to hate him right off the bat. I mean, yeah,

he's a giant helicopter. That's cool, right?

But, you know, you look at his head. They couldn't

even make a head for him because he's a movie

character, and movie characters don't have heads.

So he's got, like, this star thing. I think Give

Me Your Face Optimus Prime would disagree with

that because he does have a head. He just claws

at shit until his face comes off. No, I mean,

literally, it's like a star with eyeballs on

his chest. And that's his head. It's really bad.

And, yeah, I mean, granted, in the movie, the

first movie, when Blackout actually transforms,

that's the first transformation you see. It's

totally cool. And he lays waste to an army base,

which is awesome. But here, it's kind of a knockoff

of a Bayformer. Yep. And it just doesn't make

me happy. Not like Stryka makes me happy. Oh,

God. Stryka kind of made me equally and oppositely

unhappy, or happy as it made Kevin unhappy. It

must be. Sorry. It's like an inverse reaction.

So, yeah, as much unhappiness as it caused Kevin,

it caused me happiness, if that makes sense.

But, I mean, the thing of it is that she's only

in two scenes, and for it being an homage to

Beast Machines, it's not, you know, it is Tara

doing the voice. What? And I love Beast Machines,

so I should like it, but I just don't. It's like

when you see Cyclonus. It's like, fuck yeah,

Cyclonus, you know? And, yeah, that made me happy.

It was cool. And, again, he's blinking, you miss

him, and you never see him again. More characters

thrown in there just to throw in there. Yeah.

Just to throw in there. Just for you to go, wow,

I like this series again. I'm going to watch

and see if they ever show up again. And then

just be disappointed. You're so disappointed.

At the end, it's like, they never showed Cyclonus

again, man. Where's Hotshot? Shouldn't there

be a whole episode of Hotshot? To appease the

Unicorn Trilogy, people? Sadly. Yeah, so I mean

there's – it was a hot shot. So yeah, so there's

that. But I mean that pretty much rounds out

my least favorite characters. But I mean that's

not to say that I didn't like the main characters.

Not to beat that dead horse, but I did like them.

All right. So for me, I – I was about to name

all the main characters. No, not actually. My

overall least favorite characters, as I said

before, Bumblebee. I mean, I pretty much already,

you know. He has one intelligent moment in the

entire series when he decided not to unplug RC.

Other than that, he sucks. How about that in

the first episode where he dives into the nanite

monster? That was not an intelligent moment.

He was being heroic. Yeah, and failing miserably.

I thought that was pretty heroic. They could

have picked any other mainstay Transformers character,

whether it's from comics, whether it's from G1,

whether it's from Beast Wars, whether it's from

whatever, to have that fifth place on the team.

Yet they created this... Dumbass bulkhead. Main

character. Shut up. Could have put Springer in

there. That would have been great. Would have

been great. Let's not go there. Actually, I think

in season four, they had intended to bring in

Ironhide. And that would have been fine. But

starting off the series with a character that

they created for the series, no. Prowl, again,

I think maybe I would have liked it. Shut up.

I think I maybe would have liked Prowl a little

bit more if they had gone with the original white

design and not the black design that they actually

ended up with. That, I believe, would have been

more of an insult because a lot of people...

When I say a lot of people, I mean Kevin. A lot

of people say, oh, it's not really Prowl because

he's more of a hound personality. Well... Well,

no, I was actually thinking, how was the... Hound

and Mirage. It's a combination. It's a mashup.

Okay. Well, granted. Right. Granted. So I'm thinking,

you know, maybe people would have liked him better

if he were green. Although a green police motorcycle

wouldn't make that much more sense. I would have

liked him better if he didn't exist. At the end,

he didn't. Thank God. He's a ghost of Prowl.

One of the reasons why I don't like Prowl is

at the very beginning of the series, he's...

Pretty much forcing and throwing his beliefs

around on everyone. Knock, knock, knock. The

front door. Oh, it's Prowl again. Don't answer

the front door. It's Sunday. Don't answer the

door. Don't answer the door. It's Monday morning,

10 o 'clock. Don't answer the door. They're going

to come anyway and knock on your door. Whether

it be a... Anyway. What are your other least

favorite characters, Mike? Lugnut. Again, they

should have used Astro Train with Blitzwing.

I hate Lugnut. I liked him. I think Astro Train

maybe should have showed up as part of Team Char.

I think he was there somewhere. You just missed

him. That would have been awesome. Yeah, if they,

like, get rid of Blackout, put in Astro Train,

that would have been epic. Yeah, that would have

been. At least then we'd get to see him. Yeah.

Pretty much all the humans, but specifically

Nanosek and Professor Princess. They both suck.

And the last one, which this is no surprise to

anyone. That fucking Snowplow. The only good

thing about Sentinel Prime was his Cybertronian

armored vehicle alt mode. Everything else about

that character, I have no remorse for him. He...

basically made his own bed and he's going to

sleep in it now because he is a giant fucking

douchebag. And I get that we're supposed to,

you know, love to hate this character, but he

was so just, Oh God, I wish they never, so unlikable.

Can, can we rewind the recording to when you

just said that, uh, when we went to your least

favorite characters, I said, they're all going

to be main characters. And you said, no, they're

not. And then you rattled off all main characters.

All the main characters. Anyways. No, they're

not. We can't do that? Okay. You know, all right.

All right. Here's not a main character. All the

kids who make fun of Sari, with the exception

of Daniel, even though he makes fun of her as

well. But, I mean, all of the children in the

series, that was dumb. Didn't like that at all.

There, so that's what I mean. That doesn't justify

your lying to me. Shut up. Moving on to... I

don't appreciate your ruse. My what? Your clever

attempt to deceive me. Anyway. Overall least

favorite episodes. For me, pretty much anything

that isn't listed in my favorites. So, pretty

much the last four episodes of the series. You

know, Threes of Crowd sucked. Nature Calls sucked.

You know, there's... Velocity was alright. And

Sorry No One's Home. Yeah, there's a... That's

the four I picked! Anyway. Alright, so, Kevin,

what are your least favorite episodes? All right.

Well, I was trying to come up with five like

I did for my most favorite, but I had to have

six, so I apologize. I had two that I gave three

out of tens, and that was Velocity, episode 21,

Pointless Racing episode, and episode 27, Sorry

No One's Home. Yeah, those were both terrible

episodes, so I gave them threes. Then it got

worse. Then I had two twos, one of which was

Total Meltdown. I don't need to say anything

more. And the return of the Headmaster. And the

least... Well, the most terrible episodes in

the series would be Nanosek, which got a 1 out

of 10. And Human Air Part 1 and Part 2 got a

1 out of 10. See, I seem to remember you saying

Nature Calls was really, really bad because they

shouldn't go camping. I think I gave it like

a four, so it didn't quite make the worst of

the worst. So Velocity, Sorry There's No One

Home, Total Meltdown, The Return of the Headmaster,

Human Air, and Nanosek. What about you, Steve?

Worst or least favorite episodes? Least favorite

episodes? Yeah, ones you just can't stand. Okay,

Nanosek. Headmaster. Return of the Headmaster.

I think those are pretty much the main three

that I really can't stand. I can tolerate the

other ones, but those are the three that I really

can't stand just because of who's in it. All

right, Michael, least favorite episodes? Yeah,

I think I already covered that. I didn't like

Velocity. I didn't think that that pushed along

the story at all. They could have possibly reused

these characters. I mean, thrown them in somewhere.

I don't know, anywhere. I mean, technically they

introduced Blur, but they didn't say this is

Blur. Right. I didn't think it was Blur because

he didn't transform. It wasn't until much later

where you go, oh, the blue racer is Blur. True.

I didn't like Sorry No One's Home. I didn't like

Home Alone, the movie, at all. And that basically

kind of biased my opinion on the show. I didn't

like Nature Calls. I kind of had... Again, the

same as Velocity. I kind of had the feeling that

this was a throwaway. Just really no reason to

do this. I mean, they may have uncovered Megatron's

body toward the end as a barnacle monster. But,

yeah, I mean, I think they could have found a

better way to do that than to wrap a crappy episode

around it. And I didn't like Three's a Crowd.

I mean, I... It's like... I can see where you

wouldn't like the Headmaster, the Headmaster

unit, but now we take a Headmaster unit and a

forklift and an Allspark piece and make another

character out of it. And sadly, it's a character

that's not for other Constructicons. Right. Yeah,

so that kind of bothered me. And all he does

is dance around saying, you got a problem? You

got a problem? Yeah, I had a problem. Just was

as thrilled with this one. Yeah, and, you know,

it would have been different if they had, after

that episode, if they had wrapped it up with,

look, they combine, or look. Three more Headmasters

or three more Constructicons. That would have

been cool. But no, they didn't. They ended up

with Scrapper on an island with a beard and a

dog. And a soccer ball named Wilson. I just,

yeah, I don't know. I think that was just a failure.

Didn't like what they did with that at all. I

said I disliked four out of the 39. I liked 35

of the 39, so those are the four that I disliked.

Yeah. Now this next section is probably just

going to be Michael and I, because I don't think

Kevin really has any interest, and I know Steve

doesn't. Thoughts on the toys. The toys overall

were great. You know, Safeguard is definitely

for children. It's not for a collector. Tell

me. All the repaints that they did I thought

were pretty cool. The Megatron Deluxe mode, the

Cybertronian Megatron Deluxe mode, that sucked.

I wish there were more Leader Class figures.

I think, you know, that was kind of underutilized.

Leader Class Bumblebee. No. No, no, no, no. I

mean like Leader Class Starscream, Leader Class

Blitzwing. That doesn't rip my thumbnail off.

Thank you very much. I would have preferred to

have seen a Leader Class Omega Supreme. Oh, yeah.

That would have been awesome. Or an Ultra Class.

Yep, that would have been awesome. Supreme Class.

Yes. The Shockwave repaint, the purple repaint

was an awesome, awesome toy. I like the Blur

toy, obviously Rodimus and Arcee and all that

stuff. I wish we would have gotten some of the

stuff that we hadn't. What about you, Michael?

Overall thoughts on the toys? What I liked about

almost all the toys, without an exception, is

the amount of personality they put in. I mean,

if you look at... Like Bumblebee, he's got that

smirk. He can do all the poses. He's a very poseable

figure, so he can do all the poses from the show.

A lot of characters just exude the personality

that they portray on the show, and they mold

that into the face, and in some cases, even into

the repaints. I liked that. I liked the fact

that they made multiple size classes. Yeah. I

mean, some people don't like the activators.

I hate those things. They're too small for me.

Again, we can go back to the toy episode for

this, but I like the fact that they were easy

to transform and they were small. You don't want

to have to buy five or six repaints of the Voyager

-class figures. You know, like Starscream. They

could have made a Voyager -class Skywarp and

a Voyager -class, I don't know, Dirge. They did

make Voyager -class Skywarp. Maybe I'm thinking

of Thundercracker. Yeah, that's right. Yeah,

so, you know, basically what I'm saying is there's

these repaints that you expect to see. Right.

Or you would like to see. Like the Seeker Jets.

And you don't want to spend $20 - $25 for each

one. Well, you can get these smaller ones for

$5 or $6 or whatever the price point was at the

time. To a lesser extent, you could say the same

thing about the Legends class figures. But they

really didn't do much with the Legends class

figures. I mean, the Activators technically were...

I mean, even though they had the gimmick of the

Activation... The Activators were technically

the Legends class figures for Animated. No, not

really. I mean, there are Legends class figures.

There's an Optimus and a Prowl and a Bumblebee

and a Starscream. Actually, I thought there was...

Yeah, there's a Ratchet there, too. I'm kind

of peering into my cabinet to see what I can

see here. But, no, I mean, there could have been

more. I think at the time there were a lot more

movie -style Legends class figures. Yeah. That's

the issue. The movie Legends drowned out anything

that Animated tried to do. Yeah. Honestly, I

could have done without the Legends for Animated.

I don't particularly like them. I would much

prefer to see more Activators. The Activators

that they were coming out with, especially some

of the repaints, were questionable. Oh, yes.

Well, I mean... You know, like the Grimlock repaint.

It's neat, but eh, you know. They had the Lockdown

repaint. It was a bandit lockdown or something.

Yeah, that was just dumb. Yeah, it's like, why?

Where's my white repaint of Soundwave? Why can't

I have that? Something that relates to the show.

Where's my... Galvatron repaint of Megatron.

Things like that that would have been cool to

see. Yeah, but I liked the toy line. I didn't

feel at any time as I was buying them, I didn't

feel like, God, I could skip this. Right, yeah.

It wasn't like that at all for me. I was actively

hunting for these figures, and some of them were

really hard to find. Oh, yeah. Well, you know,

you had to go in the back room of Target and

steal a bunch of them. Exactly. Literally, I

had to go hunt for them where I shouldn't have

been hunting. Exactly. Steve or Kevin, do you

guys have any one -note thoughts on the toys?

I know you guys don't really pay attention to

the toys, but did you guys want to say anything

about the toys? The only reason I didn't buy...

and couldn't buy any of the toys. They're probably

one of the only lines of Transformers toys. I've

never bought a single one. It's because they

look like Transformers animated characters. And

it's the toy line that they're from. Sorry. I

like my toys to look a little more sophisticated.

But you bought the movie toys? No, I have a couple.

They look more sophisticated than the animated.

No, that purple animated shockwave is probably

the single most sophisticated toy that Animated

Line ever put on. I know they don't look like

they're for little kids. Oh, that Leader Class

Ultra Magnus? That's a great toy. I don't know.

I didn't see all of them. I saw the ones that

I saw on the shelf the most, and that turned

me off enough. Oh, like the oil slicks that clog

the shelves? Yes. Nobody wants that toy. What

about you, Steve? Well, I didn't buy any because

of money issues. Right. For the most part. Otherwise,

I would have had maybe the Megatron, Ultra Magnus,

probably Prime, just because I like having a

couple of each. Yeah. So, but yeah, I'd have

to say money was the main issue for me. Yeah.

All right, so now we're going to do a couple

of quick thoughts on the Jim Sorensen, Bill Forrester,

Transformers animated AllSpark almanacs. Kevin,

have you seen these at all? No. I mean, have

you even? You've never seen them. Okay. Steve,

where do you want to start with? Just some general

thoughts. Wow, that was weird. General thoughts

on the Almanacs. Genital thoughts. Shut up. Not

genital. Shut up. That's not what I said. He

likes that word. I got plenty of genital thoughts.

Would you like to hear them? X is down there.

I knew he was going to do that. Steve, general

thoughts on the Almanacs? I'd have to say overall

that it's pretty neat seeing some of the alternate

styles. or directions that things could have

gone in. And in some of them, I wish they would

have taken up the alternate, and then some of

them, I'm glad they didn't. So, I mean, there's

a lot of nice features in the books themselves

that kind of help understand the show a little

bit more. Yeah. What about you, Michael? I think

these are great books. They're fantastic resources.

I liked the second one a little more than I liked

the first one. I mean, the first one is awesome.

Again, it's a great resource. A lot of fantastic

art in there. But the second book, the second

volume, really answered some of my questions

about Season 4 that I had. It showed a lot of

images of prototype toys. It showed a lot of,

you know, the repaints that never happened. And

I just found it a lot more interesting than stuff

that I already knew of. Right. I mean, there's

a lot of creativity going into both books. It's

just really well written, and I really enjoyed

both of them. But the second one was a bigger

treat than I thought it was going to be, and

I kind of wish I had bought it sooner. Because,

I mean, you said, oh, we're going to have an

episode on it. And I was like, ah, fine, I'll

buy it. But, yeah, I wish I had gotten it sooner.

It was really great. Yeah. They are really great

art books, and it's an insightful journey into

what Transformers Animated was. I mean, you have

four words written by Derek J. Wyatt and, who

was the other one written by? Matt Youngberg.

You know, you've got all the little, ins and

outs of what season like little things that you

might have missed watching the series like wyatt

toys or you know swindles uh fact sheet of what

you know his his journal of who ordered what

and who owes what and all this and all that the

the second volume has Yeah, his ledger. The second

volume has a lot more to offer as far as the

season four, potential season four stuff, what

could have happened, the look of making the resin

models and the toys and all that, and it's just

very, very awesome. So we are going to take a

break. You're going to hear some ads. I'm going

to come back to close the show. Transformation

Animation Podcast will be back after these messages.

2012 marks the 30th anniversary for Masters of

the Universe. We here at the GCRN are celebrating

with a brand new series of podcasts. The Powers

of Greyskull series will cover every episode

of every MOTU cartoon. Yes, even that crappy

New Adventures stuff. Join Optimus Solo and TF2

and Mike as they tell tales of Eternia, discover

the myths of Etheria, become masters in space,

and finally masters of Greyskull. You can find

the Pogs podcasts on iTunes and the web at www

.geekcastradio .com. Good journey! I have been

itching to give my new wheels a spin. Besides,

any species that could come up with a sweet ride

like this can be all, man. Soundwave, jam that

transmission! Rumble Frenzy, Ravage Ratbat, inject

Operation Interference. No, there will be no

Operation Interference. I am TFG1 Mike, and you

should be listening to my very first podcast,

the TFG1 Podcast. 24 episodes covering the entire

US run of the 1984 Transformers cartoon. I also

have a few supplemental episodes and an interview

with Stan Bush. I bring in guest hosts who will

be full -time co -hosts in Steve Megatron and

fan of the show now co -host P. Concord Michael.

So check out the TFG1 podcast. You can find it

on iTunes and the web at www .geekcastradio .com.

Transform and roll out! Ah, welcome to my throne

room. future tales. The Beast Unleashed podcast

is over, not gone. You can hear more of this

great podcast discussing all the episodes of

Beast Wars and Beast Machines on geekcastradio

.com. We include voice actor and writer interviews

with stellar hosting by Steve, Mike, and Michael.

Head on over to iTunes, Or the net. Or else I

will send you my vehicles to extract your spark

and destroy you. Yes. You can now hear the...

You'll have a chance to win money. Downloading

is quick and easy. Just find Stitcher in the

App Store. During registration, hit the promo

code box and enter geekcastradio, all one word,

to get automatically entered to win $100. The

latest episodes of the shows will be waiting

for you in your favorites. You'll get access

to lots of other amazing shows, too. Always available

to you on demand. No zinking. It's Stitcher Smart

Radio. Don't forget to enter promo code KEYCASTRADIO

when you register. You gotta tune up or tune

out, old bot. Is this thing on? Oh, goody. Why,

hello there. It's your deviled Uncle Joker here.

I bet you're asking yourself, what could I be

possibly doing here of all places? Well, I'm

laughing at the fact that this new podcast presented

by Geekcast Radio is called Legends of the Dark

Knight. Who the heck knew the bat was so popular?

Join Steve, Mike, and sometimes Tala for reviews

on the greatest DC animated universe cartoon

to ever meet Gotham City. So join moi for the

talk of the town, or I'll send Captain Clown

after you. He gets mighty angry when he doesn't

get to have his garbage skull. So put on a nice

big smile. And join us for the next Geekcast

Radio Network podcast. Legends of the Dark Knight.

Now back to Transformation Animation Podcast.

So we are back and... Kevin is still with us.

We haven't kicked him back to Cybertron. I don't

think he's going back there anytime soon. It

was cold and dead, and there was no golden age,

right? It just wasn't entertaining enough at

Cybertron. On Cybertron, it was disappointing.

So, final thoughts on Transformers Animated as

a series. For me, Transformers Animated is a

nice departure from the crappy bullshit that

we get in the Unicorn trilogy. It does have its

issues, sure. but it's a nice take on the Transformers.

I thought it was a nice, different way to look

at it. And one of the things that people, now

that I hear them mentioning, is, oh, I don't

like the anime -style -ish of it. Well, the thing

of it is, is the art direction and the anime

style of the animation, the art direction is

coming from Derek J. Wyatt, who before this worked

on Teen Titans, which that show is heavy anime.

Even more anime, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's not

a good thing, folks. No, it's not. I liked that

series. I thought it was great. You know, TFA

has its moments, has its awesomeness, it has

its down points. Overall, I still can enjoy certain

episodes. So what about you, Kevin? Final thoughts?

I mean, there's a handful of good episodes. There's

a handful of good characters. The voice work,

for the most part, minus a handful of characters,

is pretty good. I mean, so there are good things

about it. it has the huge downside of the actual

overall look and style, which most people can't

get by. And it's always been said that if you

can get by that or get used to the style, that

there's some great writing and great stuff in

there. But I can tell you that that's a lie.

That's just not true. No, even if you get past

that, you will still be left with a shitty -ass

written show. But overall, I will put it ahead

of the Unicron trilogy, even though I have not

seen the Unicron trilogy in its entirety because

it's so bad. Trust us. We are not lying to you

when we say Armada and Energon suck. It boils

down to this. Beast Wars and Beast Machines are

light years ahead of this. No one should argue

otherwise. Transformers Prime is way better than

this, even only through one season. Oh, really?

Yes, G1 is way better than this. So those shouldn't

even really be in the argument. Those four, Beast

Machines, Beast Wars, Transformers Prime, and

G1, are in a league of their own. So what it

comes down to is, is Transformers animated better

or worse than R .I .D., and is it better or worse

than the Bay movies? I don't count the movies

because those are live action. I'm just saying,

in the Transformers TV movies, life franchise,

whatever, I don't know. I'd have to go back and

watch all of Rid. But honestly, I would put this

one in the Bay movies. I might even put the Bay

movies ahead of this. Wow. There's something

wrong with you in that instance, dude. I know.

Those are the three. You have the four that are

way above, Beast Wars, Machines, Prime, and G1.

They're on a different level. Then you have the

Bay movies. RID, and this in the middle group,

and then you have the Unicron trilogy at the

bottom. Where you put them in those groups is

up for debate, and you can have your opinions,

but there's three separate groups of Transformers

shows slash movies. Huh. There's a top, middle,

and bottom, and this is in the middle. Steve?

I wouldn't say it's the best series. It's not

the worst. I'd say it's somewhere in the middle.

I would rank it better than RID or the Armada.

Energon, Cybertron. Did you watch RID? I watched

all of them. Okay. So I can make that statement,

whereas Blanchard cannot. Oh, I've seen a couple

episodes of RID. A couple episodes doesn't constitute

having seen it. Oh, yes, it does. No, because

you can watch a couple episodes of Transformers

Animated and think it's great. Or you can see

a couple and think it's the worst. Hence why

I liked Transformers animated before we started

doing this. I saw a couple. It was fantastic.

And then three seasons later, you're like, oh,

God, don't make me do that again. Pretty much.

So, Michael, final thoughts? I really enjoyed

the series. I'm one of those few people, apparently,

that can get past. the human characters. They

can get past the tweaks that they made from the

G1 counterparts. I actually enjoyed this more

than I enjoyed Beast Machines. No, no, Beast

Machines, you know, while a continuation... Of

Beast Wars, which Beast Wars, honestly, is probably

the best written cartoon series ever. It's in

its own league, to be honest. But Beast Machines

did not continue that. The characters continued,

but honestly, were they the same characters?

No. They were written by people who had no respect

for the original characters or the original series.

who didn't even watch the original series or

anything about it. I mean, there's just no way

you can carry on characters like that. It was

a dark series, and it had its moments, but overall,

wasn't that great? Disagree. Nah. Background

animated, dude. So, background animated. Honestly,

if you had to put them in order, you know, it's

like, you've got Beast Wars up at the top, and

you might have, like, Energon at the very end.

And, you know, for my money, Beast Machines is

toward the end. And this is closer to the top.

You are on drugs. And honestly, I might even,

if I had to place this in a continuum, I might

even put it ahead of G1. Mainly because the characters

here are similar enough to G1 where... Oh, hear

me out here. They're similar enough to G1 where

it's like, hey, you got that G1 goodness going

on, but there's a story arc here, which G1 never

had. There's a story arc in Transformers Animated?

Yeah, several. Several that are never finished.

which make them the same as one -off episodes.

Well, you know, you've got, like, the whole Ratchet

Omega Supreme story arc. You've got the whole

Leader One. Well, there's a story arc in G1.

As much as there is in animated. No, in G1, there's

the overall idea. There's good guys versus bad

guys. No, they start on Earth. You have a Megatron

-Optimus feud until it climaxes in the movie,

and then you have the Rodimus Prime picking up.

That's all the overarching story. it's not a

story that's good guys