IDW Beast Wars Reboot and Virtual Conventions

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Boom shakalaka Hello and welcome to Altered

Geek, I'm your host Steve Megatron Phillips and

joining me in this adventure into geekdom is

TFU and Mike Hello, hello Hello, yes We're back

Yes We're back for another week and Steve's not

locked out of his house this time. His family's

back home from their Michigan trip and Funko

Pop Blitz finally came out after a year of being

teased. So I'm actually in the middle of playing

it right now as we're recording this. So anyway.

So yeah and during that interim period I played

Transformers War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron

and beat them both and then I also played Streets

of Rage 4 and I beat that too. All in the span

of a week. Exactly because we have no lives.

Well at least we didn't last week. Well I did

it at night and because like all of my evening

production schedules got cancelled. That sucks

and yeah, well One of them like the guy totally

like forgot Not a huge deal like it happens.

Yeah And then he was supposed to Record again

tomorrow Which was a Thursday and Then he's like

yeah, I'm gonna have to reschedule until the

after the 28th he's like because My kids friend

got rona and oh no warranty now and I was like

no and then another guy Like our whole office

shut down for like two days she's because one

of our co -workers got the rona and They were

like they found out like three days later. They're

like, oh, yeah, he's uh, he's got it. So everybody's

Locked out of the building from here on out and

took for the next two days We're gonna have a

deep clean come in and everybody has to be tested

and test negative before they can come back to

work Which don't get me wrong. I totally get

it. I understand. I'm perfectly fine with protocol

Because honestly like I don't need it and nobody

else wants it and if I'm in the production facility

I don't want the actors getting it Exactly, so

Now granted I was in the basement so I was doing

production I was doing you know I had a separate

entrance for all them so because we had different

protocol for production crew It was a little

bit different so like all that was needed is

I needed to test negative In order to continue

production because I had taken on the role that

our media department normally does in the production

booth and they they're backed up with multiple

other projects and they're short -handed because

we had somebody else take a job somewhere else

and something else you know go on and so just

the normal day -to -day business shit that always

happens when stuff hits the fan yeah well I mean

this time of year is there's a lot of projects

that are time -sensitive that have to get done

and true so I I says hey look I will run the

control room I will run the production. I will,

you know, I'll deal with all of it. I'll do the

production, like be the producer. I'll be the,

you know, all the steps. Our director was still

piped in through like IPDTL, which is basically

like a Skype, but it's low latency and very good

audio quality. And we don't record through that.

It's just enough for him to connect to the board.

Yeah, exactly. So we use that and we use team

viewers so we can keep the timestamps and he

can record everybody. We started experimenting

about halfway through production because we had

a scene where I had to play one or both of my

characters and talk to this other actor and I

asked the director I says I Think we can get

away with this. I said, how do you feel? I said,

I think I can go in the other booth, which is

nowhere near the control room we have the one

actor in the normal audio booth and then I went

into the the makeshift one that's in the actual

video studio like we have moving blankets and

it's like secluded by like 18 feet from the next

actor and who's also surrounded by moving blankets

for sound purposes and he says Yeah, go for it.

He's just set up the file and I had all the project

files ready to go and so all he had to do was

hit record and I was in the booth and the other

guy was in the booth so we were able to record

so because that worked We've gone through and

I've been doing that every day now Sweet so I

mean it works out I get to play the characters

and I get to run the control room and I get the

director in on it Kind of running it and it's

it's been great except for the one day that we

had three actors and like myself and two other

actors and they were on Microphones and I happen

to be on one that I didn't realize didn't record

No, like I could hear myself over and everybody

else could hear me which was a good sign we it

was recording on the master record but it wasn't

recording on the isolated track and so because

it didn't do it on the isolated track i had to

come in early the next day and redo all of the

lines i did the day before um no i did them but

i felt like i had a better performance because

the actors were there um there you go the sarcasm

like everything i had to do it was you know it

was it was a lot of fun so So yeah, so now I'm

dealing with the issues of not only actors catching

COVID, but I'm also dealing with the fact that

we have all these different fires going on in

Colorado right now. And some people live pretty

close to these fires in the mandatory evac zones.

And so one guy that had the coronavirus one week

this week. was fine and last week he was kind

of he was still under lockdown and this week

he was fine and he's got the Mandatory notice

to evacuate his home In that hurry it today and

so oh no, so he was supposed to come in today,

and he's like well I'll try and make it in later.

I'm like dude. Don't worry about it your house

Yeah, I'm like we can record this anytime like

it's not a huge deal I mean it is but it's not

like as much as your home like I can get done

anytime in the next month I just I'm a stickler

for my time frame and yeah, so anyways I'm still

dealing with multiple actors and then of course

I've had two actors where their father's passed

away on the same day. Oh no, and So they have

next week off so I have no access to them either

for another week and so that's already delayed

so like our two -week production has stretched

from two weeks to Whenever two months. Yeah So

I'm a little freaked out so we moved our schedules

around so like our season 17 that we normally

do in November Or like the season we do in November

is being pushed to the January February recording

and we're doing like the the short episodes in

November to kind of bridge the gap A little bit

to use certain actors that we know we're gonna

be around Right like myself or some others like

I play Like this season I play four characters,

the last season I played three or four, the season

before that I played, I played one, and then

the one before that I played four and the one

before that I played four. So I rather enjoy

getting to play multiple characters. So it doesn't

bother me in the slightest to be in the booth.

Right. And they just made my other character,

my secondary one, a regular two. And I was like,

yes, he's resident in town, so he will be there.

They turned him into a judge, which was my suggestion,

so I'm pretty happy So and then during that that

time frame I also went vehicle hunting and as

I mentioned that I was going to be getting a

vehicle 2007 Chevy Colorado crew cab z71 4x4

fully loaded and I went picked it up two days

ago or it's like three days, according to when

this is released. But right. Yeah. But yeah.

So I mean, it's it's super nice. It's got all

the colors and interior and like literally every

feature I exactly wanted on this truck when I

saw them come out back in 2004. So so, yeah,

as soon as I saw these things come out and I

was like, yeah, I would love to have one of these

trucks. It's the like this deep red color that

I always wanted and everything. The only thing

that's on it that I don't like is it's got a

topper. Right, but you can always take the topper

off. Yeah, I can take it off and I want to get

a tonneau cover except for the fact that if I

do that, because you have to put the rails on

the rails of the truck, I can never put the topper

back on. So I cannot get a tonneau cover. So

it's kind of one of those like kind of screwed

either way. For now, I'm going to live with it

and then we'll just kind of see how it goes.

Right. And I eventually want to get like a spray

in bed liner and I want to get some other things

done to it. But in the interim, it's it's not

bad. And I did have to buy key fobs for it, which

I bought on Amazon. I took it to the dealer.

The key fobs like I got two of them for like

15 bucks on Amazon. And then I ran it at the

dealer for like 50. And so I got that done today

and I was quite happy about that and then Mary

goes it doesn't beep the horn when you when you

lock it and I said I'm like, I know I'm like

but it does what it needs to do and I said, yeah

it bothers me but I wasn't gonna sit there nitpick

at him at the dealer and So she you know, she

looked at it and I says just give me a little

bit So I watched a YouTube video of a guy doing

the process of it Right within five minutes.

I had the feature activated on the truck and

it's a little bit more intuitive because like

a lot of the older stuff They don't have it all

built into the the dash the digital display.

That's in the vehicle They didn't start doing

that stuff until like 2010 on anything and so

So I activated that but you know, there's a few

other things I got to Add or replace or fix on

it that because it's an as -is vehicle like It's

13 years old, so there's a few things I still

got to do to it, but ultimately I can do it myself,

which is nice. But yeah, I'm super excited about

driving that truck. Cool. As for me. Oh, boy,

where to begin? As I said last week and I think,

oh, shut up, you stupid train. Last week and

probably the week before and probably the week

before that I should have my stuff here soon

and now it is going to be here Monday October

26 2020 I Will be literally You know people don't

realize the length that I I mean they I'm sure

they do but like the links that I put into podcasting

at times I'm gonna blow all that out of the water

because I haven't been able to do it. November

30th of this year would have been a year since

I last actually recorded a show. Yes, we've put

things out since Karen and I moved out here to

Washington State, but November 30th was our last

day in our house back in, you know, in the house

back in Illinois. So, technically, all my stuff

had to be before that date. So, yeah, I'm gonna

be podcasting my ass off starting October 26,

2020. I don't know what I'm gonna be doing, but

I'm gonna be doing it and doing it the right

way it needs to be done. The way the cookie crumbles.

Okay, George Takei. Oh my. Oh my. Yeah. No, I

was doing like a Jim Carrey joke from Bruce Almighty,

but oh, yeah, but it was in the archive. I heard

your archive was. Yes. Oh, my. That's how the

cookie crumbles. Yeah. Yeah, that's just disturbing

on multiple levels. But anyways. So, yeah. And

as far as other things. Watched in and we we

talked about it on future imperfect and I have

yet to edit at this but We talked about Star

Trek Lower Decks and yeah Surprisingly I enjoyed

it as did the rest of the panel As opposed to

Star Trek Discovery and Picard, which I thought

I'd like Picard, but because it's so blasted

dark and the terrible writing as far as the characters

and The only episode I've fully watched besides

the very first episode was the the Riker episode

and I just I don't I I've said this on this show

and other shows that we do You guys you and Dodd

and Alex and everybody else you guys are the

die -hard Star Trek fans. I'm more of a casual

Star Trek fan Yes, I watched TNG as a kid and

all of that, but that was so long ago. I don't

even really remember it, but like I have Zero

design like it's just not in my realm anymore.

I respect it. I love it for what it is, and I

love the people that love it, and that's great.

But I just. Tune out like everything I've done

this year since I haven't been podcasting has

been stuff that I'm like, oh, I really should

like I watched. the entire marvel cinematic universe

like in um timeline story order so not film release

order but like you start with captain marver

um obviously captain america then you go to captain

marvel and yeah yeah yeah i did that i watched

all of the fast and the furious films because

i like those films the only one i haven't seen

yet is hobson shaw but whatever but like i've

done all this stuff this year since i haven't

been podcasting And I'm like, ooh, I have so

much to podcast now about because I've been doing

all this other stuff. And just Star Trek has

just never been one of those things for me that

I felt like, oh, I need to watch all of this.

I watch it because not only am I a diehard, but

also I'm a glutton for punishment. And I say

that because I enjoyed all the old stuff. It

took me years to like DS9 or Voyager or Enterprise.

but I appreciate them all now and Discovery I

have so many issues with season 2 I didn't mind

as much although there were aspects of it that

just drove me up a wall and then Picard there

were aspects I liked and there were other aspects

I wanted to but it was just it was a train wreck

and As much as I wanted to hate lower decks because

it's animated and then uses a little bit of Rick

and Morty -ness Yeah, they didn't do a terrible

job. Yes, they had some characters that I didn't

care for but I could actually remember their

names Yeah, it's saying a lot cuz like yeah,

it's short They're they're bite -sized and they

had some cameos from people or they had callbacks

to older series like they had They had a couple

of actors like Q show up in one I'll be a brief

briefly they had Ryker and Troy and Right so

It got to be pretty good. I was I was happier

than I expected to be And then they've revealed

that they're gonna have Captain Janeway return

for the Nickelodeon cartoon series Cool that's

coming and so I'm excited about that and then

there's a Captain Pike TV show coming which I'm

excited about that So I'm hoping that despite

the few that I don't like The ones that you do

like will be good enough to, yeah. Cool. You

know what surprised me, and I know you don't

care about this, I mentioned earlier about Fast

and the Furious. Think in 2016 maybe or I don't

I don't know it's a while ago 2016 2017 they

did a fast and furious spy racers It's a Netflix

original animated series and I wasn't sure if

I was gonna like that that was another thing

in the last year or so that I've I've watched

them like they actually just released a second

season I didn't think it was gonna get a second

season because it's been so long since the first

season was released It was like oh watch this

second season at some point Obviously, I think

I mentioned last week about Cobra Kai and loving

all of that. I just have this this whole renewed

thing of because I haven't been doing it so long.

I've been out of the game and I've been like

I said last week and go to last week's post folks

and click on all those podcasts that I put in

the show notes, you know, just listening to other

podcasts again and finding. Not just going back

to the ones I had been listening to for years,

but finding other ones and new ones, and getting

new followers, and creating a whole new base

for us, and whatever. It just, it's... I just

need my computer. That's all that's missing at

this point, and obviously, like I said earlier,

it's coming. It's just taking sweet time. Well,

speaking of podcasting... Yes? I won a scholarship.

with podcast movement this year. Yay, go Steve.

Yay. What's funny is I think I applied to it

last year, but they're really kind of giving

it all out this year because, well, it's virtual.

Right. They've been doing it every summer since

2014. I've been trying to go since 26, well,

since 2015, actually. I tried when I worked for

the blaze I tried Thereafter there wasn't really

any opportunity or any Well, let's put it this

way I could have gone on free Through panels

and I could have made it for free. However, I

would have had to pay for transportation and

right Hotel and everything else there was just

no way that was gonna happen and so I kind of

just gave up on it and I tried to do it again

this year and things didn't line up again and

Then it went virtual and I saw that they were

like Hmm, that's uh, let's do scholarships and

let's try and I was like, well What have I got

to lose? I don't have to go anywhere. I can sit

and watch it from my computer. So Exactly, so

I applied and then I got an email yesterday which

was Tuesday this week and They were like Congratulations,

you won the scholarship for podcast movement

this year, and I was like yay, so I posted it

on Twitter So yeah, it's a virtual trade show

get networking you get some education you get

a bunch of panels you get Just a ton of stuff

and I'm very excited to be Going and attending

even though it's all virtual this year and hopefully

I'll be able to Learn quite a few things I can

translate to generally here, but my day job so

Absolutely, that is awesome. It is it is Yeah,

I mean honestly like You know how I've been and

most of our listeners should know if you if you're

listening to this show You've listened to other

geek cast radio shows where I'm more frequently

those I'm a person that I don't care about leaving

my house or my apartment or whatever you my living

situation Like I don't have to go anywhere. I

won't go anywhere. I prefer being home and and

just so The whole thing with, you know, virtual

conventions and things, I'm like, yay, yay, I

can, I can actually go to conventions if I so

choose to, you know, the whole thing with, you

know, like, like New York Comic Con just happened

virtually. And I subscribe to their YouTube channel

so I can see whatever panels that I would like

to see off of their stuff. So I don't actually

have to spend God knows, you know, and don't

get me wrong. conventions are great they are

but I personally am not a crowds person at all

I get claustrophobic if there's four people in

the elevator kind of thing so yeah this whole

virtual stuff with conventions and things I'm

absolutely loving that so As long as I get the

content, virtual or whatever, that's all I care

about at this point, so... Yay, virtuality! Yay!

Yay! Yeah, so anyways, I'm excited about being

part of it. Very cool, very cool, that's awesome,

dude. Yeah, I'm hoping I learn quite a bit. Quite

a bit! Pretty sure you will. More than likely.

Yeah. I also get access to the recordings of

a lot of the keynotes and breakout sessions and

various learning things and some of the live

networking and I don't get all of the add -ons

because I'm sure there's some of those. Yeah.

But it'll be all right. It'll be good. Yeah.

It's a start. It is it is so yeah, there's and

there's there's names from like big companies

on there's like Gimlet there's How I built this

there's Kevin Smith there's Yeah, there's just

there's a ton of people Mark Marin Yeah, there's

just there's a ton of different people that are

headlining it this year, so It'll it'll be fun.

I'll Look forward to doing a wrap -up after Yeah

For sure for sure So and also in other awesomeness

IDW Yes IDW Publishing. They've gone and done

it. What I've been clamoring for for years. Yes,

they have. They did it on purpose. They're like,

this Steve guy, man. Or it could be the fact

that next year in 2021 it's the 25th anniversary

of Beast Wars. I think that's more along the

lines of... No, no, no. It's funny. I'm the reason

they're making it. That guy who's this weird

clone of David Kaye man like Yes Megatron is

gonna be terrorizing IDW next year Yes, yes he

will Very often yes So yeah, they it says IDW

reboots beast wars so 90s kids can have their

transformers, too That's one of the labels that

it says on one of the websites Which is kind

of funny The art is very stylized. It's by Josh

Burcham. Yep Little tidbit for people that don't

know Ultimus Prime From the all things Transformers

logo was done by Josh Burcham Years and years

and years ago Can't remember when that was I

want to say was like 2006 Probably it was way

before we met I know that you had already had

Ultimus at that point so Well, it's good. It's

funny cuz I did a fanfic thing a long time ago

where I created the character Ultimus Prime Which

was basically like a clone like a white cloned

Optimus Prime before they said oh Magnus underneath

is a white Optimus Prime I had him as a white

optimus prime, but he had a fusion cannon and

so when I Envisioned the character it originally

was a prime looking figure and then I eventually

changed him into I Changed him into My truck

right I got it in 2008, in May of 2008. What

had happened, what had happened is he needed

an influx of cash due to tax season. Okay. And

I was like, and he was, I think he was doing

these for like 50 bucks at the time. Okay. And

I was like, Oh, I have to do this for 50 bucks.

And at the time I had, I didn't have disposable

income. I just was like, I gotta, I gotta have

this. And so like, I just was like, here, PayPal

money. Exactly. I was like, I was like, draw

me a figure. And so, um, so I told them all what

I wanted. And so I have like virtually every

piece of the process as he went through. Very

cool from the sketches, you know, like he had

bigger feet to begin with he had more of a Decepticon

looking face and colors and then so I had some

of the colors changed and lightened up and some

things shortened and Yeah, he he came up with

the the look of it and then I Have been using

it ever since cool yeah so i i love that so in

the future i might have to have an update with

my new truck yes you might have to have two ultimus

primes yeah or i have uh that's a that that's

an ultimate problem right there i have a megatronus

there you go that too beast wars megatron as

a you know as my truck yep there you go So anyways

yeah, so I had that made and so anyways he's

he's doing this in the art shows Megatron in

the background it shows Optimus Primal in the

front it shows Cheetor shows Rattrap Rattrap's

almost got some like steampunk looking glasses

on him and then you have you have Rhinox and

then you have I'm not sure if this is night screen

or it almost reminds me of the Optimus Primal

Bat figure that came out originally Yeah It could

be either or we don't know yet a new character

called Nix That's what it's called. Oh, okay.

There you go. Now. We know yeah read the article

Steve Yeah, it says this is basically, you know,

this is written by Erica Burnham Yep with art

by Josh Bircham and says in February we'll launch

with issue number one containing 30 pages of

story and bonus content the Transformers Beast

Wars comic series will welcome fans to a future

of Cybertron populated by scientific -minded

Maximals and action -oriented Predacons when

the successor to the Megatron name steals A golden

disc and a ship capable of traveling through

time only optimus primal and a team of maximals

rat trap rhinox cheetor in a new character called

nyx can stop them nyx a Little tidbit there.

There was a character called onyx primal Right,

which was like a dark version of optimus primal

as a bat For one of the recall years and years

and years ago. Yep so Yeah, it's basically gonna

be like a similar plotline to the original but

it's gonna be a reboot. Yeah Yeah, and they said

with it being, you know 25th anniversary it says

we couldn't pass up watching a new series in

tandem with the 25th anniversary and Yeah, they

said that they're gonna have the characterization

the drama the jokes and a fresh start with a

series that will feel at home for fans of 25

years and first timers alike Very cool. Very

cool. Yeah, so there's gonna be like cover a

which is Josh Birchum cover B is done by Fico

Osseo and two retailer incentive editions featuring

art by Dan Schoening and Nick Brokenshire. Oh,

very cool. So, yeah So I'm very enthusiastic

and honestly I'll probably pick up multiple covers

because I'm a fiend for awesome art. Yes, yes

you are. We both are. Yes. I like the cover especially

where Optimus Primal's riding Megatron like he's

in robot mode and he's riding Megatron and Megatron

is biting his hand. Yep Like his sword up in

the air like he's like hi ho silver Yeah, that's

hilarious Yeah, it looks so cool. It's gonna

be so fun IDW is just so on top of things Absolutely

loving what they're doing. I I haven't caught

up. That's one thing. I wish I could have here's

the thing folks I have Optic atrophy with the

stigmatism So basically i was born legally blind

quite literally i've actually been to the school

for the blind several times in my life kind of

thing. And even with correction i only get up

to a certain amount of vision. So i need to have

especially comics and things like that i need

to have it on a big screen i've been on my phone

for the last year with everything internet wise

podcasting watching stuff whatever reading stuff.

As much as I always will say nothing but positive

things about Comixology and their Guided View

and just using their service altogether, reading

comics on my phone is not conducive to me actually

enjoying doing it. So that's the other thing

about getting my computer back is I have so much

IDW Transformers to catch up on. And I'll actually

be joining you as far as some of it. Some of

it, yes. Just depends on what it is and whatever.

Obviously, Beast Wars is a given, because if

I had anybody else in the Beast Wars thing, you'd

probably lock me out of the damn server and shit,

so... Your file would come up and it would say,

deleted. Yeah, exactly. You'd be like, what?

I just recorded this. And I'd be like, no, you

didn't. Yeah. You'd be like, it was not recorded.

Yeah, I'm like, but I have the backup right here.

No, you don't your computer Computer and I I

deleted your file and I removed it Your original

co -host is no longer part of geek cast radio.

He has been booted for violation So anyway, it's

funny. We're talking about computers and violations

and things like that. I have not my Karen actually

pointed this out to me. I have not actually checked

it out yet. I don't want to actually check it

out until we have our TV mounted in the living

room, which the mount. came this week and i don't

know if our old buddy michael powers still listens

to our show at all because you know i suck as

a podcaster apparently not anything he said but

it's just what i say all the time but i i i go

to mike whenever i need like certain technical

stuff and i'm like you're the tv guru dude where's

the best place to get a mount from he's like

oh model price i get my stuff from them all the

time they're highly reliable i'm like okay cool

Amount just came in two days ago through two

or three days ago. So Yeah It's gonna be awesome.

So anyway, the whole point of this is Karen pointed

this show out to me called next from Fox And

my first thought was they're making a TV show

off of the Nick Cage 2007 film next really come

on. No Don't do that But actually it's this whole

other it's kind of like person of interest where

this AI is either taking over or has taken over

or it's really cool So I kind of can't wait to

check that out Maybe something we can end up

doing over in studio or something because it

looks really fun Hmm Yeah, so I mean other than

that I don't really have anything else going

on per se I did dig out all of the Darkglass

project audio files and I managed to find them

all Scattered across multiple folders and drives

So they're all backed up now so that I can actually

work on it Yep, so I'm hoping I can get that

out for the 25th anniversary of Beast Wars next

year You know since we'll have you know Transformers

war for Cybertron Kingdom and then having You

know, this new comic, maybe I can get dark glass

and, you know, have the good actors that participated

involved. Yep, exactly. So, yeah, I don't know.

It just seems like it's like, yes, New York Comic

Con just ended. Yes, Apple just had their latest

event, but. I haven't I've been paying attention,

but I haven't been paying attention. So what

you're saying is Android for the win. Yeah. Just

irritated me now. Just a little bit. Android

for the win. Oh wow. What? Next Wednesday, October

21st, 2020, it's back to the future day. Oh no.

They need somebody needs to take us back Uh -huh,

you know, so we know that we're gonna have a

corona virus and we're gonna have You know wildfires

burning down everything. Oh Wow, man, they're

not fooling around Who? Amazon and back to the

future day I'll have to put this in the show

is partnering with back to the future or vice

versa they it's currently unavailable but Jigawatt

the action figure Jigawatts on here the Funko

pop for Doc Brown is on here What is this this

is the back to the future Playmobil is on here.

What's this one? Another Playmobil. Very cool.

Lots of stuff. Back to the Future clothing. Good

lord. Yeah, lots of stuff on here for Back to

the Future Day next week. Blu -ray of the film

trilogy. 30 bucks. Not bad. Nice. Yeah, so lots

of stuff. So, I think that about rounds it up.

I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. Heaven forbid we

let a podcast drag on and we talk about things

that apparently we know nothing about. We shouldn't

talk about them on podcasts. Deleted. This part

has been edited. You'll never know. That's such

a funny joke. Too bad nobody gets it. Nobody

gets it. Nobody gets it but us. No, no, no. Anyways,

you'll never know what was here Man so anyways

We have been Steve Megatron and TFG and Mike

Saying get altered get geeky with the altered

geeks That's my line