Diving into Geek Collections, AMC, Batman Forever Cut & WB Discovery

Hello, and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host, Steve Megatron. And joining me on

this adventure into geekdom is TFG1 Mike. Hello.

If you would like to subscribe or keep up to

date on this podcast, please visit us on geekcastradio

.com. I've also noticed a great uptick recently

on Geekcast Radio. Plus, there's a lot of awesome

geeky articles coming out from Mike, myself,

and Optimus Solo. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yes,

and lots of TV show stuff. I'm doing a lot of

podcast writing lately, so you won't find much

of that there, but I may branch out soon. So

in this episode, we're back on the cusp of the

16 year anniversary of the podcast network, the

big one six. Somebody take away our licenses.

We haven't even gotten them yet. Well, in two

years we can drive, drive the Internet, that

is. No, there's there's been some interesting

developments while I was. Some that happened

after I got back and some while I was on vacation.

And a lot of it's movies, movie industry related,

you know, between like AMC and WB and Discovery

and things of that nature. So I think without

further ado, we'll get into it with. The initial

article that you posted to, which was AMC. Yeah,

this is pretty much a nothing burger. So I started

following Pop Culture Brian on Instagram and

Facebook. There's this guy that does pop culture

news and other things. And it's just a it's an

easier way for me to consume news than to sit

there. and read a news article kind of thing

yeah article after article after you know just

it's like okay get to the point yeah which is

why i like a lot of certain youtube video shows

and things like that on certain topics it just

depends on what the topic is so i saw this and

i was like oh no because i haven't been to a

movie theater since 2018 literally the the anniversary

re -release of transformers the movie or whatever

it was in 2018 when karen and i went to see that

at the time was the reason the last time we went

to see a movie at the time and i just don't go

to movie theaters i'm perfectly fine waiting

like right now i would love to be able to see

lilo and stitch i've seen and i mean lilo and

stitch 2025 live action is pretty much not shot

for shot but it's pretty much outside of a few

live action plot points that they had to change

to accommodate live action which i'm fine with

i don't care all these people that's a whole

other topic or whatever but oh my god all these

people freaking out about how oh my god it's

not the same as the animated movie from 20 something

20 23 years ago however how long it's been get

over it right What? The 23 years before the live

action? Well, just the time frame. I saw things

where people were freaking out because they changed

the fact that... The social worker, the villain,

the CIA agent, all that stuff. Well, and then

they changed the fact that when they were doing

the hide -and -seek scene, it was a cabinet instead

of a dryer. Oh, God. yes like the original was

a dryer and then they and then they edited it

to look like a cabinet on disney plus which i

agree with i agree with that change okay see

that's the thing that's the other problem i'm

currently having i'm current and that's another

topic i actually want to take this over to geekcast

radio at some point and do a show that might

be our 350th episode of geekcast radio Might

be a fun one to get a roundtable with DJ. Oh,

you have no... Well, you don't even know what

I'm going to bring up. Is this an off -air conversation

or an on -air conversation? No, I'm just going

to give you the headline. No, I'm just going

to give you the headline in a nutshell. Subscription

services and how... They are the new drug of

the 21st century and how they guilt trip you,

bribe you, and cajole you through 50 different

screens before they allow you to actually cancel

them. I have been without Disney Plus for about

a month or so. I have been, and normally I pay

for that annually, and I wasn't able to do the

annual subscription this year. Once I get paid

again, I will be buying the annual subscription

so I don't have that problem for the next year

or so. Same thing with YouTube Premium. The first

time in at least, I want to say, 11 years, I

do not have YouTube Premium currently. And I

feel like I'm in the Stone Age of 2007. literally

i forgot what it was like watching youtube ads

youtube premium is absolutely love youtube premium

and i'm not saying that to take away from the

creators on youtube whatsoever because youtube

does any of i forget what the the the money i

forget what the numbers are for it but anyone

who has a youtube premium subscription whether

it's monthly or annually youtube creators as

long i think i i think and i could be wrong about

this so people can correct me as long as you

watch enough of that creator they get a percentage

of the youtube premium subscription that you

pay for or something okay somehow as long as

you pay for a youtube premium subscription somehow

it goes back to the creators i forget what the

actual details are on how it gets back to the

creators but it does get back to the creators

so that way you don't feel like you're making

them lose out revenue by not having ads and paying

YouTube directly for a subscription. So YouTube

does share part of, I would have to research

that and I'm not clicking on anything right now

because I'm too damn lazy to do so. But I do

remember reading that at some point. But right

now I'm without those things and I'm slumming

it and that's okay. So I didn't even realize

I thought Lilo and Stitch was still in theaters.

I didn't even realize it was on Disney Plus yet.

Well, I don't know if it is. I just I was saying

the animated one. Oh, the animated one. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The animated one had the dryer scene.

They changed it in the live. And again, the light

from again, I've seen practically every spoiler

and it's not a spoiler. Like I said, I've already

talked about the changes. They made Cobra Bubbles

an actual CIA agent instead of the social worker

former CIA agent. They added in Tia Carrere,

who was the original voice of Nani, as the social

worker. That's cool. They made the original voice

of David from the cartoon, from the animated

film, and those... From the original 2002 film,

they made him the boss. They made him Nani's

boss in the live action film. Mrs. Asagawa, I'm

probably saying that wrong. From the original

film, the actress, the lady that voiced her in

the original animated film, she's who plays the

neighbor in the live action film. So like the

lady that says. dog he's no dog this is a dog

that lady that's in the in the trailers um so

i like what they did with it even though i haven't

seen all of it from all of the clips and everything

i've seen and oh my god the way they are the

way that all of the creators online are remixing

some of the stitch scenes to various music tracks

holy crap It's hilarious. They are taking the

water gun fight scene and where he, it's not

his slowdown. It's not when he's ready to fire

the water at, at Lilo, but it's when he does

the bam, bam, bam. When he does that, he does

that in the trailer. He does that fast. People

slow it down. So it goes. bam bam bam and they

put oh my god i got i'm gonna end up inundating

you with some of this stuff because it's so creative

and so good how they're you i look i'm all in

on lilo and stitch it's the only disney live

action i will ever say i'm all in on i don't

know if i would be all in on on them doing any

sequels but I mean, the thing is literally broken

every box office record ever at this point. It's

heading towards a billion if it isn't already

there now. I don't funny how that works. Yeah.

Well, it's Disney. I don't think it's at a billion

yet, as far as I know. But yeah, no, the so yeah,

the the AMC thing. So the AMC thing is basically

they're going to do a premium. ad thing before

all of the other ads and all of the other previews

which uh which brian uh pop culture brian uh

already pointed out that a cinemark and and regal

have already been doing this so it's basically

that's why i say it's a nothing burger amc is

just jumping on the bandwagon of the other theaters

that have already been doing this And I know

most people are going to say, oh, well, just

figure out the timing of how long that ad break

is and just, you know, buy your tickets and show

up to the movies 30 minutes late. Well, remember

back in the day, like they used to show, I mean,

they only used to show commercials and extra

trailers and things like that, but they used

to just get to the point. Yep. But it does seem

like they're adding more and more and more and

more. It's been a couple of years since I've

seen a movie in theater. Yeah. Luckily, I don't

go to AMCA, go to like Cinemark because that's

all that's around here. But I don't. I don't.

And this is I mean, we've discussed movie theaters

at Nauseam before, too. I don't miss. The movie

theater. And I know that's kind of. Almost like.

sacrilegious to say is a you know geek podcast

but i don't miss the commercials i don't miss

waiting to see the film because i mean like i'm

counting on the film of being between this time

this time like i don't want to spend excess time

there yeah and then there's the other aspect

of i i saw an article kind of along these lines

and i can't find it right now um But it was along

the lines of people just like the time of the

movie theater kind of being done. Just, you know,

at least for like our generation, our era, just

because it's like it's easier to just watch it

at home in the comfort of your own home, eat

your own food. You don't have the obnoxious person.

that or people that are making it more or less

difficult to watch the film yep uh because they're

noisy and obnoxious and that's kind of where

i'm at with it like i don't miss going to the

theaters anymore and i used to miss it so it

it is kind of sad in that regard But I honestly,

I haven't missed it in years. It's just been

one of those things where it's just more convenient

at home. And streaming's kind of created that.

It's fostered it. It's brought it in. It's made

it easy to do at home. And I don't see me ever

really going back to the theater unless there's

something I just have to see. Yeah, I thought

I was going to have to see Stitch on the big

screen. I thought I was going to have to see

Mission Impossible on the big screen. Oh, by

the way. And I first heard this from pop culture

Brian when he was talking about Stitch's box

office and Mission Impossible's box office. And

I know other people have said this, but. I need

to use stitching impossible everywhere now because,

Oh my God, I love that. But it's one of those

things where I wanted to actually see both films

in theaters. I really wanted to. And at the end

of the day, I just couldn't. And I'm just like,

okay, I'm not missing out on anything. Really.

I'm missing out on sticky floors. I'm missing

out on, on theater that probably, and I live

in a. town that i don't even know where the nearest

i mean i know where the nearest probably cleanest

theater is is probably in indianapolis but i've

lived here in anderson indiana northeast of indianapolis

for three and a half years now almost three years

now and i've never looked for a movie theater

in this town so i wouldn't even know what kind

of movie theaters or what kind of whatever in

this town Stitch is at $772 .5 million. Oh, it's

going to hit a billion before the end of the

summer. I guarantee it. Not quite surprising.

No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. None whatsoever.

So moving on to the next one, we have Warner

Brothers putting the kibosh on Batman Forever,

the Schumacher cut. Why? Do they just not like

money? Like literally? First of all, your director

unfortunately passed away in 2020. Your lead

actor from this film. passed away a couple of

months ago, and it's the film's 30th anniversary!

Why aren't you putting this out? Because they

don't like money? Somebody just take that stupid

cane of his and just hit me in the head with

it over and over and over and over again. I feel

like... I feel like whoever is at Warner's going

back in, or if there was anybody going back and

forth over this at Warner's, this is your brain

on the box. This is my brain on the box. This

is your brain, my brain, your brain, my brain.

Does anybody else feel like a fried egg? Like,

seriously, who the hell's brain wasn't on the

box when they made this decision? It's 30 years

later. I understand why initially 30 years ago

they went for the more comic bookie. They went

for the more jokey. They went for the more kid

friendly because I was 15 at the time when this

movie came out, you were nine. It's probably

because of the reception that Batman and Batman

returns received. Oh no, you can't, you can't

blame that on that. No. Okay. You 30 years later,

you cannot blame. The first two films on the

fact that right now in 2025, they're not releasing

the Schumacher cut. The Schumacher cut, at least

according to this article. No, not now. I'm saying.

No, yes. No, no, absolutely. That that's, that's

what it was. Absolutely. 30 years ago. Absolutely.

The reason why there was no Schumacher cut at

the time, they wanted a more colorful, a more,

but what I'm saying now is. the schumacher cut

that was supposed to be released until wb put

the guy bosh on it was the more psychological

it was what does this article say it says kiva

goldsman claimed to have seen the cut there's

definitely about 35 percent more psychological

realism more about guilt and shame goldman told

the playlist whatever the playlist is i've never

heard of that publication Joel's first cut had

all of that, but preview audiences weren't ready

for it. They just wanted the humor and the action,

so a lot of it got trimmed down. Still, it was

a cool film. If it's a cool film for the 30th

anniversary of the damn film, release the Schumacher

cut. We are recording this quite literally a

week. literally yeah we are yeah literally a

week before the 30th anniversary to the day june

16th is when batman forever came out 30 years

ago one week from today next monday june 16th

is the date that batman forever came out 30 years

ago Why won't you people release this? It's not

going to hurt anybody to release this thing.

It's not going to tarnish the film that you did

release. It's only going to give those of us

who care about the thing a more in -depth look

at what was originally proposed. And like I already

said in the show a few minutes ago, your lead

actor is no longer with us and your director

is no longer with us. So let us relive the original

dream of the legacy of those people. We're not

going to be taking children to see this cut here.

Like, this is for adults, people. This is not

for kids. Hell, even the original. The original

movie was PG -13. PG -13, for those that don't

know, is for children. who are 13 and older.

So basically, teenagers and young adults to adulthood.

We're not taking little Timmy at six years old

to see this movie. But it's not going to happen,

because WB just doesn't want it to happen, and

they suck. You suck! Next. What else sucks? Well,

I mean, I don't know if this sucks, but it's

interesting. Warner Brothers' discovery to split

into two separate public companies by 2026. This

hurts my head. Current CEO David Zasloff will

helm the streaming and studio company, which

includes the movie businesses and HBO Max, while

CFO Gunnar... Wyden Fels will oversee the global

network side of things, including CNN, TBS, and

Warner's other cable channels, and basically

reverses the entire 2022 merger of WarnerMedia

and Discovery Communications. So what I don't

understand about this, if it's going into two

separate companies, what is the second company?

So the other one will be Discovery. and the other

one will be Warner Brothers. It's showing in

one of the images that I found about it, it shows

WB will have HBO Max and WB, and then Discovery

will have Discovery, CNN, OWN, ID, Food Network,

TBS, TLC, HGTV, and TNT. Okay, because... But

the thing about it is, is Warner Brothers has

been tossed around. Yeah. It's like the. It's

like the. Like the ex -girlfriend nobody wants.

Yeah. Which is sad because of its legacy. But

yeah, it is sad because of its legacy. Like,

I mean, it was AOL Time Warner. I mean, it was

Time Warner. You know, it it's it's jumped around

and changed names so many times that. It's losing

its relevancy. I mean, it's almost like CBS and

Paramount and Viacom. Yeah. You know, Viacom

had CBS and Paramount, then they split and it

just became Paramount CBS. Then they merged back

together and became Paramount. Yeah. It's like.

Yeah. But I mean, Comcast is doing that with

NBC Universal. I mean, this this part of it's

like six months old, but. um they're spinning

off like their cable channels the tv network

side of it so like msnbc cnbc and like usa yeah

like they're wanting to move move those and then

keep their other stuff you know on the peacock

service and um Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know.

It's it's a really strange time in television

history right now because it's either going streaming

or dead. Yeah. Or they're just dying or floundering.

Jim. So I do find it funny, though, that Warner

Brothers Discovery is. Essentially. And I feel

like if this doesn't take. After the split, either

somebody big is going to buy them out like a

Netflix or a or a Disney or a Comcast or something

like that, or some of these. Are going to go

away for good, and then people will just have

like random buying rights of various tentpoles.

yeah so speaking of tent poles here i looked

at the because originally you sent me a linkedin

link for this and i looked at the cnbc article

that that person linked in their in their post

so i'm on the cnbc article and i've read this

paragraph four times in the last hour and a half

In preparing for this podcast. And I'm going

to read this again. Because even though you've

already said it four times. I have to say it

again to myself. Because I have to see if it

makes sense to me. Because it. Either it's me.

Or it's written poorly. And I can't tell. So

I'm going to do this again. And I'm sorry. But

I have to. WBD. Will separate into a streaming

and studios company. Which will include. It's

movie properties and streaming services, HBO

Max, which they still haven't changed the name

back to yet. And a global networks company. OK.

See, I think I either read that too fast or.

Because that just kind of jumbled all together

to me the first 40 times I read that this paragraph.

That the global networks companies part of it

was like. Oh, isn't that all the same thing?

No, it's not, obviously. Duh, Mike. I'm dumb.

My brain no work so well no more, everybody.

Why should I be a podcast? I quit. I retire.

Good night, everybody. Anyhow. Serious. No, seriously,

dude. I'm serious. I've been trying to figure

out what you're talking about, like with the

two company thing for 40 minutes. And I'm like,

what is he talking about? Oh, God damn it. Pretty

much. I don't know, man. And it's all because

he wants to consolidate and everybody's consolidating

now. Everybody wants to cut down or cut loose

or cut this or cut. Everything is merge this,

merge that four or five years ago or however

the hell long it's been. And now everybody's

like, cut the fat, cut the fat, cut the fat,

cut the fat, cut the fat. And it's like, but

you're still going to have the same thing just

in two different. So moving to the main topic

here. Yes, main topic. Yeah, since those are

some interesting geek news in our top three,

or the, as we used to call it, the 10 -minute

blitz. Yes, the 10 -minute blitz. Geek collection

habits. Yes. Which this is far more entertaining.

Yes, but you completely ignored. My reference.

I didn't catch your reference. Are you serious?

I don't even know if it registered. It probably

didn't at this time of night, but we didn't have

a topic section in the script, so I went and

I made a topic section for the script, and I'm

like, oh, interesting, because you had mentioned

something about topics and geekdom. Mm hmm. G

.O .T. My G .O .T. is better than the actual

G .O .T. Geekdom of topics. The top date, the

topics of our geekdom. Or you could do togs like

pogs. No, I had to explain what those were to

my kids recently, and they were on. It was like,

I don't know if it was on Boy Meets World or

something else like. Probably. It was probably

Boy Meets World. Yeah, I think it was a Boy Meets

World episode. My kid was like, what is pogs?

And I'm like, well, it's these things that, you

know, my heart hurts so much. I'm like, I'm so

old. But no, I. For one, I've been enjoying like.

Recollecting again as an adult, plus I've got

a 3D printer. Which makes it even nicer. So I

can print things. You don't need to collect things.

You can just collect print files and print them.

Print the shit yourself. If they exist. Yes.

Well, that's what I'm saying. You can just collect

the print files and print it yourself. If it

exists. Yeah. But yeah, I. So like I, I've recently

printed multiple like Dragon Ball Super or Dragon

Ball GT figures. just because one they don't

either they don't have a figure of them or they're

so obscenely priced that it's like oh this isn't

worth it and it's like do i need them to move

not really i mean the ones that do it's nice

um i mean for the most part i don't repose them

but there are there are times where i do um typically

when i run out of room and i have to reshuffle

my geek collection which I need to take a new

picture of mine just so that I can put it in

this episode post. Yes. I have like I have a

Beast Machines Megatron that I still have yet

to finish printing or not printing a painting.

It's it's more so I have to figure out what I

want to do with it. Yeah. And how much detail

because I'm not unhappy with it where it's at

to where I would leave it alone. But at the same

time, I'm like, I should probably put a little

bit more work into them. But I've printed, like,

starships. I've printed, like, captain's chairs.

I've printed, like, for my Power Rangers, like,

the pedestals for the heads, like, for their

helmets to go on. And I've printed risers in

my cabinet so that I can actually see all of

the figures. Yep. And I've printed some morphers

and some, you know, Star Trek badges, heads for

Transformers and add -ons for them and so on

and so forth. stasis pod parts and um so like

my my collecting habits have kind of been if

it had this strong resonance with my childhood

and then part of it is like oh shiny oh shiny

you know it's like it's like oh new version of

something i used to have but it's better kind

of like the uh the trans metals you know the

trans art trans metals or the uh um you know

the the lightning collection transformer or net

transformers power rangers and then um you know

like oh we don't have an optimal megatron well

i'll just 3d print ahead and put it on optimal

um so i mean i've i've had a lot of fun with

those aspects as well of like just kind of trying

to reclaim like things i had back then or things

that i was like i'm too poor i don't have it

yeah um because i mean that was part of it too

is like i i just i legitimately didn't have um

the income to purchase some of these things yeah

exactly and then it just made me remember like

Toys R Us and KB Toys when I used to go in there

and window shop. Yep, absolutely. What kind of

prompted the idea, though, was I saw your you

were like, I'm redoing my collection here, my

display case. No, no. And I was like, I was like,

oh, that's kind of neat. Like, I didn't think

about like, you know, like the Funkos like fit

perfectly in those shelving units. and absolutely

these are basically mainstay from walmart they're

three shelved shelving units and basically because

the thing with funko pops folks is they don't

transform they don't move okay well sometimes

the arms might move or the head might move no

the arms no the arms don't move the head moves

but right left to right other than that most

of the time they don't move And the great thing

about the Funko Pops is easiest toy to get in

and out of the box. You don't have to destroy

the box. You don't have to throw away the boxes

if you don't want to. You can put it right back

in and it doesn't affect the value as long as

you don't hit the box up against the side of

a desk or anything. As long as you don't put

a crease in the box or put a... cut an edge in

the box you know what i mean like as long as

you don't actually damage the box opening the

box itself to take it out to take a photo and

put it right back in a box is not gonna deteriorate

the thing's value of anything so that's one of

the reasons why i love the funko pops is they're

the easiest toys for me to open in and out of

the box and not have to worry about it and when

i was and not to i'll let you finish in a second

but when i sent you that photo it was more about

yeah i'm kind of figuring this out as i go i

don't know what i'm doing with it but i'm like

i'm going to end up paying you for a a uh arc

optimus prime 3d printed command chair at some

point before the end of the year because i need

matching chair And I need matching matrix too,

but the center of that matrix has to be blue.

You can't futz it and just make it all orange.

Well, yeah, that, I mean, I, well, I would have

done more with the other one, but you were kind

of like, that's fine. That was fine. But I'm

saying like for the Autobot matrix, it has to

be special. The Decepticon matrix, it didn't

work anyway. It was fake. But yeah, no. But yeah,

no, folks. Once you see the post, you folks,

if you're listening to the sound of my voice

right now, y 'all better go over to geekcastradio

.com and look at this episode's post because

the pictures he's going to put in that post,

I don't even know what else new he's going to

do to his display. He's got light up cabinets.

He's got robots in there that actually function.

He's got robot clean. He's got Rosie the robot.

She cleans his shelves for him every time. I

do not have Rosie the robot. Yes, you do. No,

I don't. Thanks for listening to this podcast.

mike's gonna die now yeah yep yep but uh no i

mean i've i've i've been just kind of building

up the the collection more or less like just

having fun with it and um A couple of years ago,

I didn't have squat left. Like this is all stuff

that I've accumulated in the last like seven

years. Um, give or take, uh, there's very little

left of my original collection in there. Like

it's funny because some of the things I reacquired,

like the, um, like I have a, uh, the McFarlane

Batman, um, the, uh, thrilling 30 figures. I

had all those, the, uh, the one Megatron that's

when they did the 10th anniversary and it looked

like kind of a mix of trans metal and not like

the robo version of like Megatron folks. Let

me tell you next year in 2026, I guarantee you.

We're probably going to end up doing an episode

a week for all things Transformers leading up

to whenever the hell we get a 30th anniversary

Megatron because he's going to be fucking whoring

out himself for Megatron. I guarantee you. You're

going to be like. I have my obsessions, but I'm

kind of over my obsessions at this point, and

we'll talk about that here in a minute, but I

can't imagine what next year is going to be like

for Beast Wars because... If they do anything.

Oh, yeah, they better. They better, but they

won't. Revive the brand. Like, if Beast Wars

didn't happen, we wouldn't be here. Like... Like...

They better do something. They better do something

big. I hope so. I really do. I hope that they

honestly do a Beast Machines Megatron. Yeah,

that would be nice. Like a legit one, or if nothing

else, the Days of Future Past Megatron. But again,

I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know

either. But let me tell you, folks, whatever

does or doesn't happen next year, he's going

to be difficult to live with because next year

is the 30th anniversary of Beast Wars. And now

they may do a trans metal Megatron akin to their

dragon. You got the dragon, didn't you? I did.

And I also repainted it. Of course you did. And

I got a third -party head for it. Of course you

did. Because it had, well, it had robots in disguise

Megatron head. Yeah, that's true. And I was looking

at it, and I was like, this is not the correct

head. Yep. No, and it looked nothing like him.

And then, I mean, looking back at it, now I can

3D print the head for it. Well, yeah. you there

are versions of it out there that i've seen some

though there's like this one version that somebody

did for an optimal megatron and it looks like

they plucked it out of the cartoon yep um but

same thing with with uh you know the the transmittal

2 megatron like i've seen that one too and um

i legitimately I mean, I like the one I have

on it, but I mean, if the other option was available,

I would have gotten that at that time. But no,

I've really enjoyed just kind of rebuilding my

Megatron collection and I have Masterpiece and

I have I have like the IDW Megatron. Yep. Which

I 3D printed. Yep. So that makes him cool too.

And then So, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's. It's

definitely one of those things like I've got

my Star Trek, I've got my G1, I've got select

G2. And when I say select G2, I mean, I got J

axis with the. And again, this is like one of

those things where I customize them based on

appearance and the need. I could have painted

him, but I also opted to do the repro labels.

Yeah. And retro labels are awesome. They really

are. I mean, it added some nice, you know, shiny

aspects to them that I really wasn't going to

do. I could have done it with G2 Megatron, the

tank War for Cybertron, you know, select series.

Yep, yep. But I opted instead to get the upgraded

chest. where it juts out like the actual original

G2 figure did. Very cool, very cool. And then

I 3D printed his shoulder cannon and other stuff.

I mean, it doesn't transform with all of that

on there, but it could with some of it, but I

don't ever transform them. And I turned my War

for Cybertron Netflix Optimus Prime into G2.

Because it fits more that G2 aesthetic. Right.

Then. Then the. Like. For instance, I'm getting

the. Knockoff Studio Series 86 Optimus Prime.

Right. Because he. Looks like Optimus Prime.

So I'm I'm super stoked for that one. And I don't

know if I'll ever transform it per se. But. I'm

excited for it, plus it doesn't come with a trailer.

Which has been my beef with every Optimus Prime

that's come out in the last like. Decade. But

we figured out tonight through the magic of video

and me showing you comparisons and you showing

me photo comparisons. of why you don't want the

actual thing so it is nothing to do with the

trailer folks it's they put season one optimus

prime's head on ss86 the coloring of ss86 optimus

prime's head is a light blue from season one

of the cartoon it is not the dark metallic blue

that he has in the movie So that's what Steve's

real hang up is for SS 86 prime from Hasbro.

It isn't the fact that it comes with the damn

trailer. It was the color, but it was just the

wrong head. Like the design. It wasn't, wasn't

right. Like for the film. And I think like, I

mean, do I have room for the trailer? No. Could

I have put it in there and had prime stand on

top of it? Certainly. I could have had my Autobot

sitting on top of it going, you know, haha, Decepticons.

That's right. I have the high ground. You could

have had Thrust popping out of the back of the

trailer like Optimus ran him right through. I

don't think you have Thrust, but, you know, Thrust

was the one he ran over. No. i think i got star

screen like still like legacy but yeah but the

point that yeah but um but no i mean like i but

i i mean i but it's amazing the stuff that is

out now oh absolutely compared to way back when

because like i remember like i just remember

We were just happy to have the toys. Yeah, I

mean, we were just happy back then just to have

it. But nowadays, it's like, oh, I can get show

accuracy? Oh, I can get this add -on kit or this

upgrade kit? Oh, I can get Prime? Yeah, and that's

all thanks to third -party people. But it's sad

it takes a third -party to do it. I understand

that, but... I mean, I'm happy for it. Don't

get me wrong. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I know.

I know. But the thing about the third party community

and the third party section is that they're also

fans. Like, I'm sure if you were to present yourself

to Hasbro with your either your stasis pod or

your cloak Megatron that you 3D printed or whatever.

they would look at that and be like, oh, it is

feasible. We could do this. We might not financially

be able to do it, but it is possible in the future

that we could do this kind of thing. And it takes

fans to tell these companies, hey, look, this

is what we want. We give you money, you give

us stuff. I remember that quote. That's right.

It's not mine. It's Ender's, but it ain't mine.

But I quote it all the time. And it's a good

quote. It is, it is. But I mean, like I, I'm

thankful for these, these 3d artists that make

these things like these designs. Cause like I've

got, I've got a stasis pod. I've got captain

Kirk's command chair. I've got, I've got like

all these different, all these different, figure

design things i've got starships that like the

enterprise e and then i got the enterprise um

the original one i've got the enterprise g from

a card i've got you know i used to have the xenizer

morphers and now i have them again because i

3d printed them and um i have the classic morpher

which i've never owned although with playmates

designing their own um if those ever hit store

yeah they're gonna be like 20 bucks i'll probably

get one at that price um but you know at the

same time it's like it's almost cheaper for the

hobbyists to take over the toy industry yeah

where we're kind of at right now which is really

weird yeah it's Very strange. Very, very strange.

I mean, I'm almost to the point where it's like,

oh, I don't really need all of these. You know,

I mean, I don't need any of it, but but it's

like I can almost just like, oh, they don't have

it. I'll I'll find somebody who made a file and

printed myself like it's like. As long as it

exists, like I didn't want to buy a. 20 year

old version of Dragon Ball GT Vegeta but I bought

a 3D print file that I can get a more show accurate

version of the same character which I was like

I'm more apt to do that because I want more of

the show accuracy like I don't I'm not one of

those like it's the same reason like I don't

have anything against Funkos yeah i don't personally

care for them but it's because they just don't

resonate with me and what my version of standards

are like for you you're like i'm never going

to pose them i'm never going to transform them

it doesn't matter to me like i just want i just

want character yeah that's the coolest thing

about them is whatever pose that funko decides

to put them in that's the pose they're in there

i mean like i said outside of their head turning

left or right There is no real pose. Whatever

Funko decides to do, that's what is done. Like

literally right now, as we're talking about this,

I'm looking at upcoming releases for Red Turbo

Ranger, Red Zeo Ranger, and I cannot believe

they're doing this, but I need it. I have to

have it. Damn it, Mike, don't cry. They're doing

the Black Dino Thunder Ranger. They're doing

Tommy from... Yes, they're doing Tommy from Dino

Thunder. Helmet or no helmet? Helmet. Of course,

helmet. Yeah, no. And if they ever do a chase

of this thing, it better be the invisible version,

because damn. that would be cool as hell that

would be an awesome chase for this for the for

the dino thunder thing but yeah there uh i'm

about to uh send this to you right now so you

can see it i got lucky when i was collecting

the legacy collection uh -huh and you got the

dino thunder i got the dino thunder but what's

funny is i didn't have to wait for it I was doing

my well, I was doing my rounds at work and like.

A lot of our locations are by Walmarts. And.

I was like. I just got up here. It's lunchtime.

Let's go hit up Walmart. And I went in there

and I think it was like in August or something

of whatever year it was. And. um it was in wyoming

i mean i'm in colorado but yeah i stopped at

the wyoming one because it's literally like right

next door to a location yep and um i was like

okay let's uh let's see and i saw it and i was

like do i want it do i not want it because like

at the time i was like i was like I'm, I'm really

like, I don't need it. Like I was, I was really

heavily weighing it. And then I saw that the

master morpher was about to come out and this

was like the next month and I can get my hands

on master morpher. And I'm like, well, what better

way to achieve the goal than to, um, just collect

what I could. And I was like, I want, If I can't

get the Master Morpher, I want all the Tommies.

Yep. And so I got my hands on Zeo Red from like

BBTS. And then that was the last one. I got Dino

Thunder Black at the Walmart. But the funny thing

is, I didn't get it up. I didn't get it the first

time I saw it. Oh, no. I got it. I went up a

month and a half later. Oh no. And I was like,

I wonder if it's still going to be there. And

I went up there and sure enough, it was still

on the shelf. And I was like, yoink. Yoink. And

then, um, and then I saw that everywhere it was

selling out, but it was like, it literally had

come out like two months prior and everybody

was trying to get their hands on it, but it was

just not available. And I'm like, I just happened

upon it by accident. lucky me and so um but yeah

i mean i can i can relate to it i like that one

specifically because it gave me the adult tommy

head with the spiked hair yep and i in turn did

not put that on the uh um the black dino ranger

i put that on the green ranger because my my

green ranger it came with the you know the the

evil you know like after because i got the remaster

one that didn't come with the shield which i

was a little bummed about and then um so i ended

up getting the that and then i 3d printed the

dragon shield nice for the green ranger and the

red ranger and then i printed a silver one for

the black ranger because i was like oh it looks

nice um but no i mean i've and that's kind of

the thing with with the collecting it's like

and you know this as well as i do i get all in

um to the point like when tron legacy came out

i was like do i need the disc no i don't need

the disc now i could 3d print the disc if i really

want it but i don't care anymore now when tron

aries comes out i may change my tune and just

3d print one anyway but um Right now I've been

relegated to like Dragon Ball related stuff in

Transformers and I'm waiting on like a new Cobra

Commander for the Deke series. Battle Armor,

like the full seven inch figure. Yes. So I'm,

I'm super excited for that one. But, and then

there's like a, and it also seems like every

time I get going on my geek collection, um, the

companies come out with more stuff. They come

out with stuff after, you know, um, cause like

I, I made my own custom captain Kirk from generations

with the vest and to sell toys is making. you

know the same exact stinking figure but it's

gonna be accurate and i'm and i'm like well they

yeah they've got me i'm not gonna not get it

um so it'll it'll be fun either way but i just

thought it was funny i'm like yeah of course

they're they're they get the license they're

gonna do it justice and then i'm gonna be like

i gotta get it of course But that's kind of,

again, the beauty of the geek collections nowadays.

It's like, I'm older, I collect what I want,

and then you get either the better renditions

that the companies produce or somebody's 3D printing

exactly what you're looking for. Exactly. Absolutely.

Yep, yep. As for me, I don't collect anything

anymore. What are even collections? Nobody knows.

No, I've really been slowing down in the last

few years. I did the math. I started recollecting

stuff in 2017, so it's been eight years since

I started doing the Funko collecting stuff. I've

sold stuff. I've bought stuff. I've kept most

of the stuff that I've... absolutely felt that

I absolutely could not part with kind of thing.

But there have been plenty of things where I'm

like, Ooh, I don't need that anymore. I have

no real attachment to that anymore. I'm okay.

Letting that go or, Hey, I have to pay this bill

or, Hey, I have to do this or I have to do that.

And it's like, eh, sacrifices must be made. Whatever

it is, what it is. Uh, and my thing with the

Funko pop collecting has always been, it has

to be a character or it has to be a show or a

cartoon or a movie or a comic or something that

like, you're not gonna see me go out and buy.

the entirety of the Game of Thrones Funko Pop

set. Not that I could. Those things are just...

The value on those are just... It's out of my

reach. Not that I would anyway, because I have

no interest. But it's one of those things where

you're not going to see me with... I'm trying

to think. It's a different character that I don't

care about. God. I don't know. Like, you're not

going to see me with a Mr. Bean or what's his

nuts from the office, Dwight or Michael Scott

or whatever. Like, you're not going to see any

of that. Like, right now, the two. Biggest parts

of the collection are... Ow. That was my finger.

Stupid desk. Ugh. Yes, folks, can you tell I'm

having problems this time? Well, not like any

other time. I'd say the two biggest franchises

I currently have are Transformers and Turtles.

He -Man would probably be a third if I still

had a third of my He -Man collection that I used

to have for the Funko Pops, but that would be

a close third for those. But Transformers and

Turtles has been the two biggest ones that I've

tried to keep up with. I don't have all the Turtles

stuff, but I do have the black and white chases

for the comic versions of the Turtles, because

those were the ones I wanted, because if I was

going to be comic accurate, I wanted it to be

the black and white chases. Funny story about

that, about going after what you want. This is

a couple of years ago now, so this isn't anything

current. This is a couple of years ago. Have

you ever been to a whatnot auction? No. Don't.

Just don't even let yourself be tempted. And

I'm not saying that because whatnot is bad. I'm

not saying that to like, if you ever want to

try it, sure. Fine. Go ahead. Here's somebody's

$15, whatever code to do, whatever you want with

whatever. Cause that's what people do that do.

What not auctions is like here, here's my code

to do whatever. And that's fine. I'm not, not

making fun of whatnot folks. I'm not, I'm just

kind of saying out of my mouth. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

not whatnot. But I used to be because my thing

is, if I'm. As long as I as long as everything's

paid for and I have extra funds to spend and

I want to help the people that I watch on YouTube

that are Funko Pop creators like Slapshot Pops

or the Poppin Duo or this person or that person

or whomever, they run whatnot auctions. They

sell they buy and sell Funko Pops. And, you know,

through them and through other people, I've found

others and whatever. And I was in a whatnot auction

one night and I just so happened to be in a whatnot

auction that had the entire set of the chases

of the TMNT line of the comic line of the black

and white chases. And I had already bought like

three of them. I think there's six in the set.

Yeah, because it's 131 to 136. I think that's

right. I guess I could just look over at my shelf

and figure it out. Yeah, there's six in the set.

So I had half the set. I got down to the final

two. And everybody in the auction realized, finally,

after like an hour and a half. Oh! Mike really

must want these. We're going to now make him

pay for the final two. I would have to look at

my phone and I would have to look at the whatnot

records on my phone to tell you. Maybe I can

tell you folks next time in the next episode

of. uh got here on ag or whatever we're gonna

do this for geek topics geeks of topics or geekdom

of topics uh but uh i think for one of these

things i ended up spending close to 75 80 90

dollars i mean i can see that i mean that's okay

and again i don't want to say that that's not

normal I don't think that was normal back then

for this specific line, even though it was a

black and white chase. These, I believe, had

just come out or maybe come out like six months

previous to when this happened. So they were

fairly new. It wasn't like it was a grail from

like 2013 or something. This was. fairly new

and i understand chases are rare and this that

thing and everything else but like i'm used to

spending two three hundred dollars for five or

six like okay perfect example did i i think i

if i forget which episode of all things transformers

it is because this is altered geek and we've

kind of mixed and matched the two here tonight

but when i talked about the transformers nfts

that i bought for my buddy the ultra magnus and

the cheetor and the rc and the blitzwing the

newest the wave 2 wave for that yep i think in

total i paid him 350 for four funko pops i know

some people have shelled out 350 for one funko

pop depending on how limited it is or depending

on how much of a con exclusive it might have

been so I'm not sitting here saying that people

won't pay more for these things. I'm just saying

in my experience of trying to get this thing,

the experience that I had that night was like,

oh, Mike's getting all the turtle chases. We're

going to make Mike pay in the end. And it is

what it is. But hey, I got him. So. That's how

I felt when I was trying to do the Power Rangers.

Just because they were kind of selling out everywhere.

I'll tell you what, to get your hands on the

Legacy Collection Green Ranger or Red Ranger,

the remaster, was not easy. In fact, the remaster

Red Ranger, everywhere I tried, would sell out

um actually hasbro had discontinued the line

right around release and so pretty much anybody

that had pre -ordered it wasn't getting it um

like i had it at bbts and the date kept changing

it kept changing kept changing and i was like

i am not gonna end up with this and then i tried

ordering it from like from uh like ally express

and other places and it was not working um and

so i ended up getting from bbts um i ended up

getting the regular jason figure right without

the dragon armor which that was the reason i

was getting the other one was to get the dragon

armor which i was like it's kind of a crappy

way that hasbro did that yeah they shouldn't

have done that they did it so they could resell

the same figures over again well yeah i know

but i'm saying they shouldn't have done that

no um so anyways i so i got that one and then

i was like uh i i just got the 3d printer at

some point near to that um and i found the file

somebody had made one and i was like okay this

is this is going to be good you know i'll see

how it turns out and my old printer printed it

like garbage like it did not come out at all

but it was also like the file like and that's

something i've had to learn um some of the files

are not optimized correctly right and they print

like trash oh no and then you get other ones

that are made really well and they print really

well without any you know supports or any any

additional need Um, and so I, I experimented

with that thing. Like I tried cutting it in half

and gluing it together and I tried, you know,

all these other methods and eventually got it

at a weird angle, like almost like kind of cockeyed.

And then it, it printed perfectly with my, my

gold filament. So I didn't even have to paint

it. Um, and then, I was like, OK, this works.

Let's print another one. And so that's how I

ended up with it. But and it does fit the figures,

which was nice, but it was it was still not fun

to have to go through that process. But I mean,

I've. Like the stasis pod, that was like a holy

grail figure, you know, thing when I was a kid

and. I had my hands on one. Does it fit like

some of the figures? No, I mean, it fits a deluxe

or a basic or. you know, modern deluxe and a

core class, but it doesn't fit anything bigger

than that unless I printed it larger. Yeah. But

again, it's still, I'm not unhappy. Yeah, absolutely.

But yeah, I mean, geek collecting has certainly

changed quite a bit. Absolutely. It has. holy

crap has it definitely has so my question to

the listeners would be what are you some of your

like kind of like holy grail geek items what

are some things that you were able to like maybe

get from you know third party or from 3d printing

or kit bashing or or just things that you've

managed to find at you know auctions or you know

just other places because I'd be kind of interested

to hear what what people's experience were trying

to obtain, you know, these figures that they've,

they've been hunting for to complete their collections.

Absolutely. And remember folks, nobody needs

a collection intervention. I mean, Mike is right.

Worst show ever. I'm glad I don't, I've not actually

seen that. Are you serious? You've never seen,

they're like geek collectors, like, hold on,

let me, I'll, we'll, we'll dig it up after the

show, but yeah, let us know what you guys, what,

what you guys are enjoying and what you guys

think. You can let us know on our, either our

Facebook page or on geekcastradio .com. You can

send us an email feedback at geekcastradio .com

and let us know what you think there. So I think

that about does it for this episode. Yep. So

until next time, get altered, get geeky with

the Altered Geeks.