Transformers Generation 1 TV Soundtrack Review

This is Optimus Prime, and you're listening to

all things Transformers. Welcome to... Oh wait,

that's not my voice. The Transformers! More than

meets the eye! The Transformers! Hello and welcome

to All Things Transformers! This is episode 167,

I'm of course TF2 and Mike, Jimmy is the obvious

creator of the show, Steve Megatron, hello sir!

Ah, excellent, yes! Yes, and we have a very special

guest this evening, we have... Alex grinding

in the gears Richie. Hello, sir. Hello. Hello.

I'm very special Yes, we are all special here

And we are here because Alex was able to get

a review copy of the every tunes records release

of the Transformers generation 1 television score

Yeah, it was weird. It's one of those things

where I was looking for the movie, uh, soundtrack

cause it had been reissued. I think. Was it a

couple of years ago for, uh, the 30th anniversary,

you know, special vinyl and I'm, you know, I'm

not a super big collector, but I had, I do have

a decent record player and I was like, it'd be

kind of neat to have. And when I was scrolling

through the Amazon listings, I went, wait, there's

another vinyl album. And I'm like, okay, well,

maybe that's just like, from the first glance,

I'm like, okay, maybe that's just the score.

just the Vince DiCola stuff. Like just, oh wait,

no, it's the TV show. And like that had never

been released before, as far as I knew. No, it

hadn't until Every Tunes Records released it.

Like you said, I think last year or something.

I know the DaCola score, like you said, got released

for the 30th anniversary. And I don't have the

vinyl of that, but I have it on digital, so.

Yeah, yeah. And the thing is, you can argue with

vinyl. You get the little clicks and pops occasionally

and hiss and that. Which, you know, to me, I

think it's kind of fun because anybody can listen

to a digital track and, you know, here it'd be

pristine and perfect, but it adds something to

the nostalgia factor for me to hear it like that.

But the big thing for me is the artwork, like

just having the physical, big, you know, 12 inch

art, you know, you don't get that with digital.

And if they give you like a, you know, an image

of it online, it's not the same as being able

to pick something up and look at it. So when

I went, uh, I, you know, I did a little research

and like, who put this out? And I'm like, okay.

You know, it's a, a small label that they have

a few different labels that they run under. There's,

uh, enjoy the tunes, enjoy the ride records.

And I contacted them because they're putting

out a lot of stuff. That's like, um, they had

like the mobile combat soundtrack, but like not

mobile combat from the movies, like from the

arcades, like they're doing weird things like

that. And, uh, the newest release coming out

is, uh, uh, the soundtrack for Elvira. Yeah.

Her movie. I'm like, that's like a deep cut.

They did, uh, tales from the crypt and you know

obviously it's a lot of halloween themed stuff

right now but um and they have like the the fresh

prince of bel -air single like in a 45 single

or the cheers theme and like the vinyl will be

colored to make it look like beer or something

like that so when i reached out to them i said

hey you know could we check this out because

this is interesting and they were able to work

out a deal to send one up here which you know

I forgot how expensive it is to send things through

the mail from the States to Canada when it's

like a large, you know, vinyl that can be fragile.

So, um, you know, I eventually made its way up

here and was in, you know, pristine condition.

And, you know, I made sure that listened to it

and then you guys had a chance to listen to it.

And what did you think? I absolutely love this

stuff. I'll say this now. Anyone is a... ...air

-weather Transformers fan, looks at the franchise

at a glance, constantly complains about... ...ever.

It constantly says, oh, the cartoon was just

a giant toy commercial. No, it really wasn't.

Love having the music outside of the actual show

because I've wanted this for so long because

there are so many things in that music Well things

I want to get out of the way here the original

theme putting in closing was done by and Bryant

and Ford Kindler the actual score is done by

Robert I can't see that. Robert J. Walsh. Dig

this I think this is super cool. I like you Alex

like with this I don't mind hearing a little

bit of the record scratch, you know the the scratches

and the little like it adds a Unique quality

to it. It's not just Digital restoration which

there's nothing wrong with digital restoration,

but Sometimes you got to go old school Yeah,

it really makes it feel like you're listening

to the 80s, if that makes any sense to anybody.

The thing is, I'll get my two tiny little gripes

with it out of the way first. There would have

been room on this record, based on the length

of it, to fit in the season two and season three

opening themes, maybe even the closing themes,

and they weren't included here. That's really

the only... Things that I think they could have

you know put in to improve it What did you think

Steve when you first heard this I really enjoyed

it I Coming from someone who who enjoyed the

series it's it's Really funny when you sit down

and listen to it though because you can listen

to elements of the Tracks as it kind of weaves

in and out of each different Tone and you can

actually picture the episodes Happening while

you're listening to it of where that would have

fit you know, like the optimist prime theme whenever

he shows up or you know the The the generic one

that kind of just happens whenever something's

going on And it was it was really cool listening

to it and I liked how it got more quasi season

2 season 3 at the towards the end of the second

side. But yeah, I have to agree that my only

gripe is they didn't put season the season three.

And I think season two intro, I didn't hear that

one either. Yes, season two wasn't in there.

But like if you had to skip one of the intros,

maybe season two, you could have skipped. But

season three, I feel is it's like, yeah. That's

what I want to hear with like clean audio Exactly

Yeah, that's that's like my favorite theme out

of them all just because when I started watching

generation one It was on the sci -fi channel

and it was reruns Like in the early 90s and they

had season three on there a lot and season two

would show up occasionally as with season Season

one, but I primarily saw season three episodes

on there. And so like for me that kind of resonated

more And so I really enjoyed the upbeat music

and it fit very well after you know post movie

universe Now I'll let you guys in on a little

you know a little secret that sort of like might

shatter my nerd credit, but I had never seen

G1 as a TV show until I was like Nearly 15 16

17 or maybe even older as a little kid. The first

thing I ever saw was the movie And we had it

on Betamax. And I still have that cassette. I

don't have a Betamax player. But my dad had gone

to the video store and rented another Transformers

video cassette on VHS and then threw some magic

trickery, made a copy to our Betamax machine.

And it was the Five Faces of Darkness from season

three. He edited them all together so that it

only had one intro and he presented it to me

as like when I was like five years old as Transformers

the movie 2 So I I literally only thought that

there were two movies and then there were no

TV shows Because you have like unless you're

when you're six or seven, you have no idea So

I didn't know that it was an actual TV show probably

around till around after Beast Wars came out

or even later Wow So to me, I didn't know The

Transformers had a different theme song other

than season three. Interesting. Yeah. Because

from what I can tell from this release and from

their information, as far as I remember season

one and season two, the theme was pretty much

the same. So you're probably getting at one theme

already. Both seasons. Cause I know obviously,

as you said, season three is different. Season

three is all new, all different. Um, but I mean,

some of the animation changed in the season two

opening, but I don't think the actual theme song

changed. Yeah, season two had the one where it

starts like, pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

I went through all my childhood years not even

realizing that there was like 100 episodes or

more of that show. You know what I mean? Like

I just thought, I thought there were these two

movies and you know, one of them, my dad had

just written Transformers 2 on it. There were,

which is if you think, well, originally it was

supposed to have a hundred episodes. Yeah. Sadly,

sadly, rebirth got cut. Rebirth was supposed

to be a five parter. they cut it to a three -parter,

so it ends on a really weird number. I mean,

yeah, it isn't 98, obviously, is an even number,

but that's really weird to end any TV show on

that. And I know for syndicated purposes, they

ended up cutting the movie down and making it

into like five parts. So when they sold it for

like syndicated packages, the show ended up having

like 103 episodes or something weird like that.

Yeah But no listening to this for the really

for the first time outside of It's initially

in and I love it. It's like I love when they

released a movie score by Vince we only got clean

versions of all of the majority of all of the

tracks from the film and I just love that companies

will do this kind of stuff. I think it's really

super cool that they did this. We're in a weird

space now where it's like, this isn't released

on CD. This isn't released on iTunes or a digital

platform. It's by a boutique vinyl company putting

out not super crazy price, like $25 American

vinyl pressings that you're not going to know

about unless you're a super fan. This is this

weird space where the super fan will find it,

but I would be willing to bet that 90 % of super

fans like us didn't even know about it. I just

stumbled across it on an Amazon listing. Didn't

it come out last year? I think so. I think it

might have. I want to say it did. Yeah, I'm pretty

sure it came out last year. Yeah, I think it

did too. Yep, July of 2018. But either way. I

mean, hey, you know, we know. Canada was August

of 2018. So, yeah. But still, the fact that like,

you know, it sort of went, I think, under the

radar and it just, you know, popped up in my

radar because I was looking for something else

completely. Now. One thing I noticed with this

is when you listen to the show as a kid, you

think, oh, it just has regular cartoon music.

But then you go and listen to this now in the

clean version. You're like, wait a minute. They

didn't just do like the standard, like, you know,

stuff that filmation or other crappy cartoon

companies used to do where they put like really

generic music. There's a lot of composed pieces

here that aren't just like the standard, I don't

know, background music. This is like, like slightly.

computerized with synths, but most of it is like

jazz music. It's like traditional jazz and I

never really would have noticed it had I not

listened to it separately. That's the cool thing

about being able to listen to the music that's

in whatever show, cartoon, live action, whatever.

That's the greatest thing about being able to

listen to it separately. You hear everything.

You don't just hear the little clips of, ah,

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, Transformers will be right

back after this, or whatever it is for those

opening and closings for going, you know. Um,

that was one of the coolest things about the

Vince Ticola score that they had, not this company,

but the other company had released, I think Intrata

Records had released that back in 2014. The cool

thing about that was the track called Closing

In, which is, um, where they're trying to escape

Galvatron and all of that and everything else

where cyclonus attacks. I can hear the music

as I'm watching the movie, but don't pick anything

out of it because you have all the sound effects

and the vocals and the whatever during the track

is like hey there is so much more here Oh, for

sure. Um, like I, and I know that, you know,

before we recorded this, we had a bit of a discussion,

uh, on, you didn't care for, or you thought it

was weird, the season one intro at the beginning

of this record, how it sounded off to you. Yeah.

I always think that because it's the original

recording. It's not what we saw on TV because

on TV they, they changed it. They did whatever

they did to it. Yeah. Like I was doing some like

listening to it and then finding clips on YouTube

where you know, somebody tries to get the best

quality copy they can of just the intro and listen

to them back and forth. And what I can tell is

on the TV show, even though like the sound effects

and everything might've been in stereo, they

mixed everything down to mono. And then they

did some compression stuff to it so that like

the low parts are higher sounding and the high

parts are lower sounding. So it sounds a little

more monotone. And in doing that, they sort of

muffled up some of the layers of the vocals specifically.

And then you add a whole bunch of stuff like

all the sound effects and the explosions and

just all the craziness that's happening on screen

that your eyes follow what the screen is doing.

So you're not really listening as deeply into

it as you would if it was just a pure audio track.

So listening to it, I'm like, there's stuff that

we hear in this version that you would just not

have heard. Like there's a whole male and female

voice that I don't remember ever hearing in the

TV show. I don't remember hearing it at all either.

Yeah Eve thoughts Well, yeah, I mean there there

were sounds that I don't remember hearing when

I watched it originally and I think that's like

what you guys were saying that You're paying

attention to everything else going on. It's not

it's not even registering with you And implicit,

you know, it's it's also buried by the dialogue

and the explosions and everything else going

on so I mean It's really cool to hear how it

all actually sounds. Pure and clean, although

this is like a fan number's dream to have this,

but. I was thinking like think about how many

people have made their YouTube videos or whatever

and they're using little clips here and there

for fair use purposes and they've had to like.

Manipulated as best they can to cut out things

or whatever. This is like the cleanest you're

ever gonna get Yeah, and and it's like, you know

short of them releasing You know digital copies

of those master tapes You know and and I can't

see them like the market for that's even smaller

then like there's There's more people out there

that would want to collect the vinyl, you know

as like a collector's item Then would want to

collect just a pure digital file unless they're

like you or I or other podcasters I mean, here's

my thing. Like I said, I love that they released

it on vinyl. I wish they would have released

the vinyl copy on digital as well, not digitize

it, release it as it is, record it into your

computer as it is off of the record and like,

you know, hear those scratches, hear this, hear

that, hear that intermittenance between the tracks.

Some companies have done that. Sometimes you

buy a vinyl now and it'll come with like an iTunes

download, but I'm not even counting that. I purchased

a, it was the first album from Rush, the Canadian

band, and it was for their 40th anniversary.

And it came with a digital download code and

I went, okay. So I figured it would download

from iTunes. Well, no, it downloaded from their

server, whatever it was. And it was literally

like a recording of the vinyl. Like, and it was,

you know, not of your particular vinyl, but like

they in the studio recorded one of the vinyl

records to, you know, a digital track. And that's

what they gave out as a digital copy to people.

And that would be very cool. Yeah. I mean, it

wouldn't take up much because it's not that much

storage space it would use. It would be kind

of neat if they did that. It would also be very

cool to do that, but it would also be very cool.

Searched this on like Spotify or something They

just put like it just pops up like hey, here

you go. Like here's the That might actually I

think because this is a smaller boutique company

there They're not even like owning the rights

in perpetuity Like if you look at their releases,

they'll be like we're making 500 of these and

that's all their license to make Yeah, so so

like what is cruel though is that their stuff

doesn't sell out like immediately fast like it's

not impossible to get their things So like they're

not doing such a limited run that there's no

chance of you getting it but like of this they

have the the Megatron splatter Optus Prime splatter.

That's just to get the different colors of the

vinyl those sold out those were the first pressings

I had an option of, like, what would you like

us to send you? We have Optimus Prime, Megatron,

and Starscream Split. And I went, Megatron. And,

you know, between those, if you go to their website,

when you buy things, they do show how much they

have in stock of each one. And it's not like

they're making them like different prices for

each. It's just, you know, they'll have a pre

-order price for special editions and that's

about it. But I think The fact that they went

into a second pressing here, some of their stuff

has only ever gotten one pressing. It means that

they're selling enough to warrant renewing their

licenses for it. Absolutely, yeah Well in the

end the other thing like if with this doing well

It leaves me optimistic for like a Beast Wars

one down the road And that's what I was gonna

get to is that's the one I think a lot of people

like they like this but a lot of people would

want that one because You know, I don't think

we really Like subconsciously even think about

how good the soundtrack was for Beast Wars like

we might but like the average fan doesn't like

you remember a couple things like you remember

the The sort of exploring the jungle type music

they would play. Oh, yeah, but other than that,

you know What is you know what pops out of your

mind right away? It's because it was blended

so well into the show that you don't really know

But I know they put a lot of you know time and

effort into all those tracks, too Same thing

with Beast Machines. I mean, I remember the music

from Beast Machines way more than I do Beast

Wars, and I love both series. But like you said,

the jungle music, some of the calmer music, main

theme from Beast Wars, but Beast Machines, every

time they have an action scene in that show,

I know those notes back to front. This might

be from... Probably a different studio that owns

the rights to that. But what I could see them

doing, and I really hope they do, is a G .I.

Joe one. Because the music was shared. Some of

it was between the two shows. They used similar

music. But there is some incidental music that's

very different for G .I. Joe. But it would have

all been produced at the same time by the same

people. I guarantee it's the same composers.

And it's probably in the same vault somewhere.

your favorite track off of this alex uh because

they all blend together to me uh from the first

side uh let me see i'm gonna look at the title

it's like the second or third song um bridge

to icon's good uh what is the one i'm drawing

a blank okay you'll probably be able to um To

remember it based on my description of the episode.

I remember it from You remember in it might have

been season three I know the songs would have

been used in earlier seasons, but where the the

song sticks out most to me in season three when

they go to What was it the planet that was doing

that like the Olympics or something and They

had that one alien that goes and sabotages everything

He's riding in that weird little ship. Yeah,

that was the octane and sandstorm episode. Okay,

that song. That song sounds so crisp and clear.

But you know what I'm saying? I just can't remember

the order on the record because I'm listening

to it side by side and it blends together and

there are similar motifs between them, but That

and also the song that is used, I think, in the

pilot, in the very first episode, just before

they even get to Earth when they're being chased

on Cybertron. And that's used very, very often

in the show. That opening track after the theme

with the Cybertronian music thing, the really

wailing, screaming thing in the very beginning,

I'm like, oh, wow, that is so crisp. The other

thing, I don't know about you guys, but the second

half of Side B, is that all like conceptual stuff

that wasn't used in the show? Because it sounds

very different. Yeah, I think it is because I

was listening to it and I wasn't familiar with

any of it. It sounded very season three -esque.

Yeah, it has like, there's some like, you know,

certain melodies in the background that sound

familiar. But it almost sounds like this was

music that was written down but never actually

recorded and then they had somebody record it

later. Because it doesn't even sound like it's

from the 80s. It sounds like 80s music recorded

now. So I'm looking at the side B track listing

on our website. I can tell you one reason why

some of these may feel like Season 3 is because

they are, most likely. Track B8 is Mad Planet.

I bet that's from the episode where... No, it's

Webworld, when Galvatron goes nuts. Let's see

here, from the secret... The other reason why

I know it could be season 3 from B8 on is because

from the secret files of Teletran 2, it wasn't

season 1 or 2, that was definitely season 3.

So they might have these last few tracks here

be from season three. Maybe it's the Transformers

medley. That might be unused stuff because it

just sort of abruptly go from like sounding like

everything else on the record to sounding very

modern. But it's such a great thing for them

to have. been able to do this for Hasbro to go

to them or they go to Hasbro and say, Hey, we'd

like to do this for you guys or however that

deal was made, whatever. I'm just glad it was

finally out there because we had been hearing

stuff about this. Like it came out last year,

came out in 2018. So I know I've been hearing

about Hasbro releasing the original G1 score

at least since 2012. And I know that people have

been asking for it. It's just, I feel like we

might've seen news about it. Maybe a couple years

ago and then nothing and it just sort of maybe

life moved on and we completely, you know, it

dropped off our radar Yep, and then last year.

Boom. Here you go. It's finally here Yeah, and

then they actually put their pressing info. So

they're doing 750 of each color Which you know,

that seems about right considering, you know,

this isn't gonna be a record that sells millions

obviously But as far as like, you know Big G1

fans that also collect vinyl. That's probably

the right sweet spot there. Like I would think

a thousand would be cool, but the fact that they've

got three different colors, you know, that's

that's a pretty good, you know, diverse amount.

Absolutely. Any final thoughts, Steve? No, like

I said, I just I hope that it did well enough

that we can see a Beast Wars or a GI Joe or.

See the funny thing is I did look at this Alex.

Yes, you are right the exact same composers that

did this are Did the the GI Joe? Composing as

well. I swear I saw a news article two years

ago Maybe it was right. Maybe it was three years

ago right around Beast Wars 20th anniversary

where hey a soundtrack might be coming Again,

it was one of those stories just like this one.

I saw this G1 score story where it was like,

hey, this could be coming. Then it was years

and years and years and nothing happened. Then

boom, all of a sudden, hey, here you go. Well,

I guess this is one of those things, right? And

it looks like if you go through the artwork on

their website, they also have a ThinkGeek Bumblebee

exclusive color. I'm feeling like maybe if we

had seen any article on it, it was probably through

thinking. Now, I will say one thing from having

it, it has a gatefold vinyl where you can open

it up and it does have a really cool piece of

art in the inside where it lists all your tracks.

But if it wasn't a record, I would just like

to have it as a poster. Like that's how cool.

Absolutely. Yeah, that is an amazing. Yeah, that's

an amazing shot. That's an amazing G1 art thing.

Yeah, absolutely. And all the robot modes, it's

got Optimus transforming on it and very, very

cool. Yeah. The artwork that was done for this

was amazing. Oh, yeah, totally. It looks it looks

like some of the art they've been reusing for

quite some time, actually. You know, it's weird,

but it kind of reminds me of the art. I had a

friend who had Transformers bed set, where he

had bed sheets and pillowcases. That's sort of

what it looked like back in the late 80s. They

used this art for everything, dude. They had

bed sheets, they had towels, they quite literally

used it for everything. So that's probably...

No, it's true that they did that So we are getting

a Titan class Omega Supreme And then war for

savagery on siege gallery Titan class Omega Supreme

he looks kind of cold As crazy expensive as the

unicorn probably it's probably gonna be about

half Yeah, I don't yeah, it's like I see that

and I'm like, that's cool I kind of would like

to have went money though instead Well, it's

funny you mentioned that Jesse matrix prime of

TF wire He actually brought up something about

that the other day can't find the exact tweet

now, but he mentioned how The the pricing Has

just seemed to kind of skyrocket and the quality

has kind of gone down and things that you could

have gotten for Like a lower price point So like

a deluxe back then was like, you know 999 but

they're the equivalent of like 20 bucks now or

1999 now and He's like You know here it is I

found it Yeah, he's like two hundred and forty

dollars for five figures. This is why transformers

is in the state It's in and then I says yeah,

I like the you know Beast Wars masterpiece But

they're super expensive and a lot like a lot

of the new toys look either cheap or cost two

to three times What they did 20 years ago for

a small figure? He says there's also a mixed

message about the target audience There's a cheaper,

younger -looking line that's just as expensive

as the line targeted at collectors, i .e. the

continued rehash of G1. So I think that, too,

it's just gotten so overpriced. It's almost like

they've given up on the casual slash casual collector,

and they're only going for the big whales. Which

is unfortunate. This supreme is the transformers

war for Cybertron siege Titan Omega supreme $160

on big bad toy store comm And see here's the

thing like Unicron There's no way I had to crowdfund

that if they got it They got it if they didn't

they didn't which they did yeah Cron was funded.

I'm still surprised it was Yeah, well they probably

pulled out some sort of tricks out of their hats,

but here's the thing unicorn at $600 Mattel did

not yeah. Yeah Mattel Mattel did snake Mountain

or $600 Yes, we would like to pay rent first

before we have these things but the These other

figures that aren't like unicorns friggin large.

You can't put unicorn in stores at that price

So. I know some people listening to this will

say, oh, but he was only five seventy five still

twenty five dollars off of six hundred. You know,

it's more like a prestige piece if you if you're

the collector that has everything or, you know,

I almost feel like it's for stores. If you're

like a retro nostalgia pawn shoppy type, maybe

gaming store, you might want to have that to

be like a window display piece. Like if you can

use it as a way to entice people into your store

as like a talking point, cool. I don't really

see anybody spending that kind of money on a

toy though. I just, I kind of gave up on him

a while ago. Now, you know, when we say this

and you know what, I'm willing to bet like something

weird will happen and in like six years, Uh,

we'll go to our local, you know dollar tree and

there'll be somewhere there'll be like a unicorn

sitting in a corner for a dollar Because it got

cleared and stuff by somebody because you know

weird things like that have happened before Oh,

yeah, it's happened to a unicorn before That

is now, um, I think Was it earlier this week?

I sent you guys I think saying, uh, you should

listen to chris jericho's podcast because he

had kick -acks on to sort of bring it back to

the music. The band where they used a couple

of their songs in the Transformers movie soundtrack,

but under the different names, Spectre General.

Did you guys get a chance to listen to it at

all? No, I didn't. Oh, that's okay. It was basically

just them reminiscing and how they were at one

point sort of like the biggest rising Canadian

rock slash metal band, which is arguable. I think

he was just... playing it up because they're

from the same province, but it was interesting.

Basically, their management and the producer

of the movie screwed them over really hard. They

were paid to write the music and then told they

couldn't use their name because Walmart would

not sell the soundtrack or the movie. If they

had the name kick acts because it was too close

to kick ass And I'm like that seems kind of harsh

but then I've heard of Walmart doing things like

that before and especially since it was the mid

80s who knows but Apparently they do not own

the rights to nothing's gonna stand in our way

So they receive no money for that They actually

received no money. They got so screwed out of

it. They received zero dollars from any residuals

from the movie or the soundtrack at all. Because

when they changed the name on there, the name

of Spectre General was owned by the producer

of the movie. So they basically get nothing,

but they ended up fighting in court and they

got the rights to hungry. So they do play the

stuff live when they go on tour, but yeah, they

don't it's kind of it's one of those weird situations

where it's like wow They got screwed and they

had two of the better songs. I Just thought it

was interesting because like it's one of those

bands where they disappeared for like 25 years

and then it popped up sort of now out of nowhere

and Just when we were getting ready to record

an episode like this new Chris Jericho does a

podcast with them I you know, I look back on

that score and I'm like I Don't know I love the

original score for the movie I really do and

by score I mean soundtrack the original 86 soundtrack

Dan Bush Vince Dakota all that specter general

weird Al all those ten tracks I'm like I don't

even like You just said I don't even know who

the hell like Spectre General never heard of

them because they want a band Obviously, you

know, yeah again like, you know, it's the whole

Simpsons flu shot thing all over again It's one

of those things where Made it up just for this

or they did this just for that and it's just

so crazy song is still a great song though Yeah,

well, that's the thing cuz like as under their

real name a kick -axe they had three albums and

then they're one of those tales of management

where their management companies basically stole

all their money didn't pay any of their bills

while they were on the road then got arrested

while touring Canada had all their gear confiscated

and went bankrupt as a band and they weren't

allowed to play for seven years as part of the

court settlement because their management team

basically put everything on credit and then ran

away with the money. You don't really see that

happening anymore, but that sort of stuff happened

in the seventies and eighties. If you really

didn't have, you know, a good team, you could

trust. So that's why you didn't hear of them

because they did these three albums and right

when they finished the third album, they did

the movie. And when they did the movie is when

all this crap happened. So they just disappeared.

So they couldn't even tour supporting, you know,

songs for the movie or anything. Wow. Yeah, and

then looking at the other the other bands in

there like well Stan Bush is Stan Bush. We all

know him But like NRG who the hell are they?

Like actually, yeah The thing is they sound decent

like they sound like a classic 80s band like

that could have had more hits but Never heard

of them Then you look at like lion I've heard

of lion, but they like Again, one hit wonders

if that and that's it. Like, and of course weird

Al is like the most famous person out of anything

on there. Yep. So weird Al is the most famous

because he's the one that broke out. Has had

all like, don't get me wrong. I love Stan Bush.

I've interviewed the guy. God knows how many

times in 11 years that I've been podcasting.

Whatever point is. you know in 11 years of podcasting

I've talked to Stan Bush six different times

and Basically for the transformer stuff whenever

something like that comes around like when he

did the guitar the epic guitar mix for touch

and Done other things for dare and things like

that Almost got to see him 2016 because I was

at the BotCon concert in Louisville It just,

it was too crowded after the show and I just,

I couldn't get over there to him. That's fair

enough. Those kind of venues get crazy anyway.

But yeah, like it's, it's funny how like almost

nobody made it out of this, but yet it's one

of the most iconic soundtracks, you know, of

the eighties. Like even people that maybe aren't

even normal casual Transformers fans. you know

if they've seen the movie at least once as a

kid they'll remember most of the songs like as

much as people always say oh Transformers it

was just a you know a giant toy commercial i

almost feel like the movie was like a commercial

like a giant music video yeah i can see that

it kind of really was i mean if you think about

it Like every scene is tied to the song. And

it's not a case of like, you could plop any song

in there. Each song is perfectly suited for the

scene. Wow. Like especially, well, like think

of hunger, right? When they crash land and that,

you know, they're, he's trying to put, um, cut

back together. Like it wouldn't have worked,

you know, with, you know, a different song in

there necessarily. And they become so iconic

as we listened to like, how many times have we

seen that movie? I've seen it a couple hundred

times more. Probably. Like my Beta Max cassette,

basically it's busted right at the part where

Unicron blows apart because I kept rewinding

it so many times because I love seeing them explode.

So it gets to that point and the tracking goes

way off. And again, I haven't seen it on that

tape in like 10 years because I don't have a

player, but I remember... I would come home from

school in kindergarten and grade one. And like

my routine was I'd come home and instead of watching

TV, I would pop in the cassette and watch it.

So that was like at least 80 times when I was

five and like another 80 times when I was six.

I mean, it's, it is. Even though it does have

its animation flaws because people have pointed

them out for years now. It is still one of the

greatest pieces of animation from the 80s well

and so dramatically better than the actual show

like if if You compare other like movies based

on 80s properties or even 90s properties They

usually don't improve the camera angles the animation

quality the shading the composition of the shots

They're basically just like throwing up an extended

episode on you know in the theaters and that

happened like well think of uh um what was it

the oh was it the go -bots movie rock lords whatever

yeah that basically just like it's like a five

-part episode and they just threw it up there

and they did that for so many different shows

um like even even the g .i joe movie didn't have

the same budget you could tell like they they

really really tried their best with this like

You know, it wasn't going to approach the levels

of like a big Hollywood picture, obviously, because

imagine what if they had given it like 15 million

dollars? You know, I think the movie was made

for like less than eight. So I always find it

funny when they're like, it was such a big flop.

It's like, really, was it? Because because it

didn't make the 100 million dollars you expected

to make back then, it's probably made like 500

million dollars in the year since on like home

video releases. But yes folks if you have a chance

the link will be in the show notes head on over

to Enjoy the ride records or enjoy tunes or whatever

they're whatever they're called So head on over

there to that link in the show notes and pick

yourself up a copy of the transformers generation

one television score very very awesome Where

can the people find you online, Alex? You can

find me online. I'm usually monitoring the twig

handle at This Week in Geek. If you want to contact

me direct, you can just fire off an email to

alexatthisweekingeek .net, or I'll be lurking

pretty much everywhere on Facebook. Steve, what

about you? They can find me on the Twitters at

scp21. And at TFG and Mike. Also follow at all

things TF v3 on Twitter and at geek cast radio

for all the other network updates from us Going

to announce this here and Steve has no idea.

He kind of has an idea, but he has no idea Next

year in the 36th year 36th anniversary of transformers

Things transformers in the geek cast radio network

is going to be launching a top 100 transformers

characters countdown Somebody must not have read

my Facebook post earlier. I read the vote. So

what you're saying is... Transmutate number one?

Ah ha ha. Megatron. Yes. Now, because it's top

100, you could have multiple iterations of...

That's the thing. We have to avoid. Because let's

be honest, before we get into it on the actual

top 100... We all know that Beast Wars Megatron

is better than the original and that's gonna

start fights He is better because he actually

did something the original didn't he took over

Cybertron Yeah, and you know what? I'm actually

willing to Say that optimus is better, too Only

because like they did more characterization on

they gave more personality on Beast Wars That's

primal. Yeah, and he succeeded, too But yeah,

that should be a good one. That's not gonna be

hard though. Like because how many fans actually

know a hundred of them? And again, like you have

to figure this out behind the scenes But like

you just mentioned it could be any character

from any any iteration kind of thing The way

I'm thinking of it for that is like the characters

that say fit in the IDW comics that are just

Rung He's a comic character from IDW. He has

not been, to my knowledge, in any other video.

So, as long as it's made into a cartoon or movie

sort of thing? It could be anything. I mean,

I'm just saying though, it could be any character.

Yeah. I'm probably going to come up with the...

Guidelines. Yeah, I'm going to come up with the

guidelines for it because I have an idea of how

I want to lay it out so that it doesn't get confused.

because there's so many different iterations,

I'm going to create three letter acronyms for

every series. Fair enough. Just to kind of keep

it kosher and clean and that way we can kind

of filter through. I already know who's going

to be number one now. It's going to be Waspinator,

but it's going to be Starscream possessing Waspinator.

Starscreaminator. Starscreaminator, there you

go. Cause I mean, yeah. I mean, can you think

of anything better or, or, you know, in, in the

top pretty high up, we're going to have Dinobot.

Oh yeah. Dinobot definitely deserves top 25 at

least. Um, absolutely. So yeah, that's coming

next year from us here at the GeekCaster doing

it work and all things transformers. Um, we've

done. That Steve five or six top 100s I Think

we've just finished our sixth one with the the

wrestling one. Yeah, and I'm getting totally

destroyed by the comments And I keep saying bring

it on It's funny We have no idea when another

all things transformers will come up folks because

we're doing this simply because Uh, we find something

we want to talk about. It's going to sit here

and, Oh, this is what who's sponsor website of

FW, whatever. This is their, their toy sponsor.

And these are the, I'm not doing that anymore.

So I think like anytime there's like a new show

announcement or, you know, a new product line

of something comes out that we find interesting.

You know, we'll hop on or hey, if maybe they

put up more records or maybe there's, you know,

I wouldn't be surprised if we start getting,

um, you know, new DVD releases. I don't know

how long Shout Factory still has the rights for,

but don't be surprised if we start getting Blu

-ray releases of TFG1. Yeah, they did. Shout,

I think still does have it. Um, they did a Blu

-ray release of the movie. Oh, so there is that.

And they said that release was a 4K remaster.

So who knows, there might be a 4K release eventually

too. And if there is, that means that we'll get

new digital copies online too. So that would

be something interesting. The only thing they

can really do now, because they've released all

the Japanese ones too, right? If they really

wanted to, it would be do dubs for some of those.

Yeah, we tried to get that done. When headmasters

was coming out? Because we were doing a dub of

it on TF cog years ago. I played Scourge and

I could play him just like the season three voice.

And we are season four either way. So yeah, we

we we heavily produced one of the dubs and sent

it to them like high quality and everything.

They're like we can't use it. And they're like

because even though like they can't get any of

the people back or half people are dead or you

know It's it's just it's probably a right weird

thing where it is it is but it was so well done

that They should have just hired all of us Conceited

is you know what I wouldn't be surprised if it

turns into like you're doing a fan project But

you see that happen occasionally online where

it'll pop up you know in Like fan translating

communities, like there's entire websites devoted

to doing subtitles for shows that never got subtitles.

And I know at one point they started doing dubs

for those sorts of things too. And I guess it

just depends on how dedicated people get to it.

Oh yeah. Yeah. And we, we had a number of episodes

done, so it would have been nice. Yeah, it's

neither here nor there absolutely I think that's

gonna do it for us We're gonna close out with

a couple of the the cool tracks from this and

we will catch you next time here on all things

transformers Excellent. Yes Let's go in the stew.

I wish to speak to my lawyer.