YouTube Experiences and Transformer Toy Reviewing

Sentinel online now loading the geek cast radio

network of podcasts You're listening to Hello

and welcome to Geekcast Radio episode 17. I am

your host DFJ and Mike and joining me is Optobotamus.

Hello, sir. Hello, gentlemen. And live in person

is Pia. Hey, how you doing? Of course I'm pointing

to him, but nobody can actually see it because

this is audio. But yes, Pia is actually in my

apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the

first and probably only time this will ever happen.

I don't know. Sign the autographs until five.

Yeah, they're $65 per signature. Wow, that's

pretty expensive. You're a rip -off, dude. I

got to pay for $300 figures that I get from Stool

and Trinkies to visit except for the green toy.

Yeah, the $65 bit that I said is a joke on Leonard

Nimoy because that's what he was charging at

FanX last year. Bastard. Well, it is Leonard

Nimoy. Yeah. Yeah, see that's the thing. I don't

know jackass When I was living out in Michigan,

I would go to a lot of not necessarily conventions

but trade shows for Sports cards and things that

nature and they would get a lot of hockey players

that would go down there and I'd want to go get

their autographs and It was always funny that

it They charge depending on what they're signing.

It's like they'll charge you ten dollars to autograph

a puck But if you're gonna autograph a jersey,

they're gonna charge you a hundred dollars So

I'm like really does it matter that much what

you're putting your name on? I mean the person's

coming. They're coming with the item themselves

and You charge accordingly depending on whatever

it is that I just thought that was really stupid

and silly For $35 or buying an autographed jersey

for $100 every one thing, but if you're bringing

your own stuff Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean,

I remember um, I don't I don't know what it's

how Hockey related you guys are hockey knowledge.

We guys are there was a guy named Yarmer Yager.

Oh, yeah He played for Pittsburgh played for

Washington. I think for a little while I met

him when he was playing with Pittsburgh. He came

through the Detroit area and he charged it was

I can't I don't remember the exact thing but

he literally charged you and everything and all

he did was just sat there wouldn't even look

up at you had a little associate guy next to

him that slid him whatever it was that you were

signing you had to hand your object to that guy

and then he would slide it to yager who would

just sign it and then like pass it off and he

would never look up or anything and I'm like

I'm paying $65 for you to autograph this piece

of paper for me and you can't even look up and

make eye contact with me? Yeah. Fuckin' terrible.

My main thing about any kind of convention, whether

it's BotCon, TFCon, Auto Assembly, whatever,

if you're, well, Auto Assembly especially, but

I mean, if you're paying to go to a convention,

if you're paying for airfare, you're paying for

the convention cost, you're paying for whatever

exclusive box set, whatever, if you're paying

for all that and all that is going to the convention

people, the people that they bring in as guests

should sign your stuff for free, period, end

of story. That's just the way it should be. I

would agree. It's free at BotCon, isn't it? I

think so. Yeah, you just have to get in line

and usually the lines are ridiculous. But I mean

they get anywhere you do that with so many famous

you're going to have to get in line somewhere.

That's true. Well, I will be going to BotCon

in 2011 and I'll be giving autographs away for

free. Yeah, today's episode is all about YouTube.

Now, Paul, you had brought this up to me about

doing some sort of YouTube episode. Yeah. I thought

it would be a good idea. Yeah. And I guess I'll

go ahead and ask you guys the questions that

I have written down. And Ben can see these. Paul

cannot. So it's kind of an unfair advantage.

Ben and I have talked. I mean, you told me how

many questions you have. And Ben and I... have

talked enough that we can pretty much ramble

and rant off of anything. So coming up with two

questions would have been enough to fill plenty

of time because we'll go off on tangents like

you wouldn't believe and still somehow end up

having a fantastic time together. By all means,

carry on, sir. Okay, what was the main reason

you joined YouTube? Was it to just watch videos

or upload them as well? Paul, answer first. That's

a good question. Now, I'm 31 years old and I've

been a lifelong Transformer fan. I mean, I grew

up with it when it was actually out on television.

I remember watching it, loving it, and as I got

older, I grew away from it. Naturally, as people

do, you stop playing with toys when you're a

kid. The movie came out, the first movie came

out in 2007, and out of sheer, I don't even know,

actually I do remember what happened. Our house

had to get tented for termites, and we went to

go stay in a hotel for the week. And we had to

go buy groceries and everything. And while we

were at Walmart, I was walking down the toy aisle

and I found the first movie Ironhide figure.

And I'm like, you know what? Why not? I'll buy

it. So I bought it, came back to the hotel room

and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out

how to transform the thing. These instructions

are horrible. I'm like I don't remember ever

having this hard. I remember as a kid I could

open up anything put it together Transform or

whatever without ever looking at the instructions

and It was I was kind of my ego was bruised a

little so I was like well I got to figure out

something and I thought of YouTube and I went

on YouTube and I did you know just typed in some

searching and It was actually Matrix Prime was

the first reviewer that I saw uh... followed

by at that at around the same time it was uh...

bulk matrix, beta and diancis or simon who for

the most part i've become friends with all of

them i don't talk to jesse nearly as much as

i used to but uh... matrix prime but uh... so

i was watching the video and i figured out how

to transform him and if i remember correctly

he came packaged in his vehicle mode so i'm like

okay this is cool So I was able to transform

him and then the video ended and I'm like, well,

now how do I get him back? And I, I, I filled

with it. I couldn't figure out. I'm like, well,

this is a bunch of happy horse crap. So I couldn't

find any videos. There's nobody at the time that

was showing that was doing a lot of these videos.

It was very, very minor. Like I said, those were

the three probably biggest ones. at the time

yeah and there wasn't many other people and the

other people that would do them they had horrible

cameras and the quality was just terrible I couldn't

see what was going on so like you know what screw

this I'm gonna do it myself so I around October

the October of 2007 I made my YouTube channel

and uploaded and it was very simple it was a

little I want to say maybe $25 Logitech web camera

that I set up on a TV dinner tray and hooked

up to my computer, the computer was sitting right

next to me, and I didn't know anything about

recording videos or anything, and I just pointed

a camera at it, and I'm like, hey, this is Optobotamus,

and I'm gonna be doing this transform, blah,

blah, blah. And that was essentially the start

of it, and was that the majority of your question?

Yeah, well, I first signed up for YouTube, like...

like a year and a half before I even put anything

on it. I can't even remember, I may have been

to watch a video, I can't remember, I signed

up. And I'd forgotten I even had an account over

there. And then I bought a flip camera when my

daughter was born. Just as something, mostly

just a little handy little, it was easy to get

the videos onto the computers, we could send

them to my parents when we had Kira. And then

one day, it was right around the time, That like

there were all those really cheap animated figures

on eBay when they were like 10 bucks 10 15 20

bucks Like months before they were due out and

I started buying some of those and honestly And

this is funny because it was back before we were

all partners and now that I know about all that

stuff like it like I don't I don't dig on Paul

But like the whole reason I started doing my

own Was because when I wanted to see like I was

waiting for my lockdown to come in and I think

you had gotten it before me Yeah. It was actually

your video that was in like three parts. Yep.

And I was like, what do you need three parts

for? This is stupid. I just want to see the robot.

So I started shooting my own videos. They started

off as just I had the flip and I'm like, wait

a minute, I can do this. And I had a white shelf.

And it was just a matter of just doing a real

quick transforming, showing it off. I didn't

get into it. So it was just like. It was what

I was looking for in a video where I just want

to get a feel for the toy without getting real

in -depth with it And then and just shoot him

real quick and then like so I think most of my

first videos were under five or six minutes And

just to let people see him. It wasn't a matter.

It wasn't even so much a figure out the transformation

Everybody was like, oh is this figure cool? Is

this figure cool? And I figured since I was getting

them early might as well show them off a little

bit. So yeah, technically I'm all your fault

It's all me. It's funny, a lot of people have

always asked me, they said, well, one of the

questions, and I hope I'm not going into one

of the questions that you're going to ask, but

a lot of people ask, why did I want to become

a partner? And Ben, you touched on it a little

bit there, that I was doing three -part videos.

It's always been my shtick that I do transformations

in both ways. I've always done that and a lot

of people have said that they love that and that's

fantastic but I hated the fact that I had to

do three different videos for it and I really

could have cut it down to two but I liked kind

of giving a little backstory on it a little bit

so that that's where the third video came up

and people would always ask me why did you want

to become a partner and at the time I didn't

care about any and back then you didn't make

a lot of money you didn't make hardly anything

yet and i mean we we we all had very little subscribers

and it was we weren't getting any news uh...

what separate separate you've been i mean it's

new soon as you jump on the scene well part of

it was a part was just a few years in advance

And like I was saying I wasn't going back like

I wasn't like slamming your videos at the time

I know like I definitely see the peel of one

video from rope from car to robot one video from

robot to car and then like just kind of a wrap

-up video like I thought I thought the layout

was good it was just a matter of like I just

like You're right, there weren't very many people

doing them, and what I was looking for was just

a quick little, oh, okay, just to get an idea

of the figure, because I figured it all out when

I got it. I just wanted to see just a quick little,

kind of like just a teaser preview, and nobody

was doing them, which is why I started doing

them. I wasn't knocking the three video thing.

Oh, no, no, no, I know, I know. But people ask

me why I did it that way, or why I wanted to

become a partner, and it was really just so I

could eliminate that, have a little bit longer

videos, but have only one video. That was really

the driving force for me to become a partner.

What you guys are talking about ties into one

of the questions, so we can talk about that.

What are the advantages of being a partner? Do

you prefer being a partner now? I'm not going

to ask you guys about the monetary thing. That's

your own personal business. the advantages of

longer than a fifteen minute video and one of

the things i i i i've always liked about paul

since i started watching his videos is the fact

that he is pretty much out of all the youtube

reviewers that i do watch he's the only one that

does reverse transformations well i mean and

like i said that was the only reason why i stuck

with that whole thing was because when i first

started it's what i wanted to see just just like

what ben was saying he just wanted to see a specific

little thing. What I wanted to see was, how do

I transform Ironhide back into a truck? I'm like,

I can do that. That's no problem. That'll be

my little niche. The reverse transformations

were less of a thing with the animated line because

they were so simple. It wasn't like the movie

figures where you really kind of need somebody

to... They absolutely were. The benefits, I suppose...

And you gotta remember that until recently, it

wasn't 15 minutes. People only got like 10 minutes

and 59 seconds on YouTube. I mean, they just

recently upped that. Right, but they upped that

for the general YouTube, like me. But as far

as my understanding of the partnership is, you

guys can have videos. Yeah, I mean there's post

a 26 minute I think is we all yeah Yeah, that

optimist primary we're into the fall and leader

optimist review. I think is my longest video

Yeah, yeah, and I mean, you know I've seen you

know Vangelis put like I think the entire Derek

J Wyatt panel from TF con up which is 51 minutes

I mean you guys have and and that's what I think

we have don't we have like a gig limit? Well,

actually, I mean, from my understanding and what

I've seen that YouTube partners have a 20 gigabyte

limit. Okay, okay. And, I mean, however long

of time that you want to put in there. I mean,

they upped it because they wanted to expand people

that are partners doing more independent film

type of stuff. Well, and also just because HD

videos. HD videos. Yeah, exactly. So much space.

Yeah. I mean, every one of my videos right now,

because I'm using full 1080p HD, every single

one of them is at least one and a half gigs in

size. Wow. And it literally jumped from my standard

camcorder, which it was one of those, one with

the little cassettes, I forgot what they're called.

mini DB mini DB's those on those little things

yeah it literally jumped from 500 megabytes or

whatever to about one and a half to two gigabyte

in file size so for for that I mean it's fantastic

I was always for some reason I was having a huge

problem uploading any videos that were two gigabyte

in size and I'm like why am I having this problem

well there's there's a whole separate special

uploading thing that you're supposed to use that

I never knew about. I'm like, okay, well, I found

it. But my longest video is actually 38 minutes.

And that was my review of the Predacounts and

Predaking. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the stalls are

hard to review all in one go because you got

the five individual ones as well as everything

else. Yeah. Yeah. And my style is just naturally

going to be longer in general because I'm not

just cramming them together I'm like well you

know here's paradigm or whatever you know I mean

paradigm dive bomb paradigm I just went retarded

right there for a second you know I mean I'll

sit there and you know here's here's dive bomb

or whatever you know and I'll go through here's

the origins of the guy here's how you transform

and that just takes up more time so so yeah definitely

having the larger size is a huge benefit I like

putting out the higher quality videos I know

Ben does as well and in doing that you need to

have an HD camera and I really want to give a

lot of credit from my side of things to Vangelis

because he was really one of the very first if

not the first to be shooting transformer videos

in HD and I saw and I saw how great they looked

and I'm like oh my videos look okay and then

I saw his I'm like I don't look like crap So

I just naturally migrated. My thing about watching

anything on YouTube, it's got to be something

I'm interested in. I had posted a video response

to one of your VLOGs, Paul, about, you know,

you had asked something about, you know, what

do you guys watch on YouTube as far as the toy

reviewers? And honestly, it boils down to if

it's something I'm interested in. Mean like nine

times out of ten Ben has transformer stuff unless

he's on Iron Man kick. Yeah, that was a week

Whatever. I know I mean they're cool, but I mean

it's like and then of course you get the fans

like Jesus, get back to the Transformers already.

The thing is, like, Iron Man, okay, fine. I kind

of get Iron Man if I do, like, just an action

figure, but, like, I was reviewing some of the

Robotech figures, which are really cool figures,

and, I mean, like, they're like, oh, just get

back to Transformers, and I'm like, I just turned

a jet into a robot. I mean, like, I realize it

doesn't say Transformers on it, but, like, why

are you bitching? You know, like, it's like,

what? Yeah. There's a lot of that that we tend

to deal with. I don't mind. I don't mind people

doing different, you know, we all have different

stuff from our childhood. Outside of Transformers,

I love Masters of the Universe, and I love the

old toys, and I love the new toys, and yeah.

I still like you looking over there to do it

on Castlevania Skulls. You still find a way to

bring up the masses of the universe. You need

conversation that I'm a part of. Oh yeah, but

really what I'm getting at now is that I love

that stuff and I love watching people who do

reviews of that stuff. And the only person that

I've found really that does a decent job at a

good video review, whether you believe he's not

too much impartial, is Pixel Dan. It goes back

to... Like I watched Vangelis's video when he

had the crystal clear Sons of Cybertron animated

set it just goes for me it goes to if it's something

I want to watch if it's something that I want

to know about or I want to see and There are

there are often there are oftentimes people and

I'm gonna try to keep this as friendly as possible

that will will be accused of pandering to the

masses and No, on YouTube? Not, no. Not on YouTube.

What am I saying? I see a lot of times where,

I mean, I'll even admit that it can be easily

said of myself. But whenever any time anybody

says that to me, I'll simply say, you know what?

I mean, I grew up with Masters of the Universe.

I grew up watching and reading Batman and Superman

comics and things of that nature. I grew up playing

with Ninja Turtle toys. And I saw Terminator

2 at the theater, at the drive -in, I saw it.

Same thing with, it was Predator 2 that I saw,

but not the first one. I mean, so Pete, I mean

Ghostbusters, it was, you know, I mean all of

these things. It's not necessarily that I'm pandering

to the masses. Iron Man has always been a big

fan of mine. I predominantly liked the comic

versions of him. Not so much, you know, anything,

you know, cartoon related or anything of that

nature. But, you know, so when all this stuff,

when I do these reviews, they're genuinely things

that I enjoy. And like you were saying, Mike,

you like watching things that you enjoy. You

can't really bitch at somebody for doing Ghostbusters

right now because we finally got a decent Ghostbusters

line after how many years without one? Two years

ago, two and a half, three years ago when I started

doing these videos, there wasn't a Ghostbusters

line to collect. It wasn't that I was starting

to review them just because people want to see

them and I'm pandering to them. They didn't have

them three years ago. I like Transformers, I

focus on Transformers, but I'm allowed to like

other things than Transformers, and I do. Go

ahead, Paul. I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, what

I was going to say was, the thing about the Ghostbusters

thing is, unfortunately, Ben didn't really take

this on, because I don't think he wants to wear

it during reviews, and he doesn't really show

himself on camera anyway, but you could have

done the costume. I could have. And the thing

is, part of it, I don't know, somewhere I got

camera shot in my life, but it's not even so

much that I don't like being on camera. It's

just every video I watch of somebody reviewing

something where they're on camera with the toy,

one, you're not seeing the toy because it's zoomed

out to fit them in and then they're holding this

little action figure and it doesn't show up very

well. And two, it just seems like it's a... It's

more of a look at me, look at me instead of look

at what I'm showing you. And I wanted one of

my videos to be like, here's the toy. I don't

matter. I don't want it to be about me. It's

supposed to be about, hey, here's the toy. Here's

what you're getting. Have a good look. Decide

if you want to buy it or not. I couldn't agree

more. Yeah, and that's why. The only reason why

I even got an account. was because so I could

like comment on stuff. I think that's why, I

think it may have been my first time. And it

wasn't even when I was, it wasn't even... you

know it was before when i was just like commenting

on stuff that i was it wasn't before i was doing

you know what watching the toy review stuff it

was just in general and you know for me personally

you know i'm pretty much your general youtuber

i'm the type of person that i do it for fun you

know and i don't go through the lengthy transformation

bios everything else i hold the figure out here's

the figure here's my thoughts on it That's it.

I kind of have to be in the damn camera shop

because I only have a webcam at this point in

time, so it's kind of like it's a no -brainer.

Yeah, I mean, it's all a matter of, you know,

it's done for fun. The stuff that we do, we genuinely,

I know, I mean, without a shadow of a doubt that

Ben is a Ghostbusters fan. And that when these

things come out, it's genuinely something he

cares about and he's excited to show it. There's

enthusiasm there. And that's what I appreciate

and that's what I like seeing. There's countless

people that will message me and be like, I'm

going to start doing reviews. What do you think

I should do? Which one do you think? Or what

do you think I should do a review of? Messages.

I can get into messages. For a 45 -minute podcast,

I don't know if it sells. Yeah, without a doubt.

What I'm generally saying is that people need

to understand that you have to enjoy what you're

reviewing. For the life of me, I do not consider

a lot of people actual Transformer reviewers.

I'll run the subject real quick. I'm going to

say this here, so now whenever I get the question

eight times a day, like I tend to get, I can

just link to this podcast and you'll get the

views, whatever. People do ask me like, hey,

watch my videos or I want to get started in podcasting

or I want to do YouTube video reviews. Can you

give me any advice? And you know what? Here's

my advice. Make sure that what you're showing

off is well -wit. I mean, I'm guilty. Sometimes

in my computer room when the light messes up,

you know, it happens. But try to make sure what

you're showing is well -written in focus and...

do something, make sure that you're enjoying

doing it. Because if you're not enjoying it,

it comes through. And if you're enjoying it,

and if you're clearly enthusiastic about what

you're reviewing, then that will make up, that

will help cover some of the flaws if maybe your

camera angle's off a little bit or whatever.

Just have fun doing it and make sure you've got

a decent clear shot. that's it you don't have

to there's no secrets to becoming a partner I

didn't I didn't finagle anything I didn't sign

up for subscribers I didn't go to any how to

get hits on YouTube websites I sat down I just

started doing something I had fun doing it and

people came to me all right now let me ask you

this is there now I've looked at the YouTube

partnership thing that they have on their website

and what the the requirements are I don't even

know they're right environments I mean well When

I became a partner, honestly, I didn't know anything

about it. It started off on my own little site.

Like I said, I think I had six people watching

it first. I started posting some videos like,

hey, here you guys, if you're all going to watch,

I did a video. I think my first one was Animated

Blackarachnia. Nobody had it yet. I'm like, here,

go check it out. And I didn't know anything about

it. I didn't know what I was doing. I knew I

could upload videos to YouTube, and that was

it. And then one day, I actually was on Sean's

channel. And somebody went, don't worry, that

whole situation gets blown far more out of place.

But I was on his channel and somebody said, hey,

congrats on becoming a partner. And I didn't

know what that was. And so I was like, partner,

what is this? I wasn't working towards it. It

wasn't some goal I was trying to achieve. I just,

partner, what is this? And I looked up what a

partner was and said, hey, you can apply for

this. And if you get it, Basically, you let us

put ads next to your videos and you could see

some money. I'm thinking, why not? I'll give

it a shot. How can it hurt? I figured I was going

to be making maybe 10, 30 bucks a month. That's

enough to buy a figure or two. That's money I

didn't have coming in. Great. I applied for it

and I got it. I didn't know any other requirements.

I just said, submit my channel, whatever, and

just stumbled into it. And then I had a whole

bunch of people coming at me like, why are you

trying to be like Sean? You just have to have

everything. And I'm like, what are you talking

about? I'm just kind of flying blind here. I

found out about an option that YouTube could.

Offered I signed up. They gave it to me the end.

That's all there was to it I mean like well my

question was gonna be is is there does YouTube

tell you you have to have a certain number of

subscribers because a Friend of mine who is on

YouTube who runs a series called superhero mugs

He said that in order for him to get partnership

that needed a thousand subscribers. No idea how

they judge that I have no idea how they how do

you partner who doesn't. They haven't released

the criteria. I'm kind of hearing feedback. Technical

issues, that's okay. It happens every time I'm

around. Everybody wants to sit there and say,

I know Sean likes talking quite often about partnership

and things of that nature. a lot of people like

trying to flaunt certain knowledge about it uh

my uh the bottomist channel that i made not too

long ago doesn't have a thousand subscribers

and i have partnership on that already okay i

mean it i i mean i i don't know if there's a

certain criteria what what they have created

uh they probably if they have created any they're

not letting us know it's It just seems like it's

a matter of if I mean you I mean people need

to understand that you know they want to become

a partner That's fantastic, but Google which

owns YouTube has to make money as well They're

not going to put a person on YouTube as a partner

if they're not going to be able to get views

mostly to I think that's really what they look

at. How many views you're getting, how often

you've produced content. It's really for them

about how can we promote ourselves. It really

isn't about you so much as what does Google get

out of it. It seems to me like if you're putting

up regular videos once a week or so. You're getting

people to look at them. Then then you'll probably

make partner. I mean like I but I honestly they'd

list no specific criteria I don't remember seeing

anyone I signed up I've never heard anything

specific about how they how they make that call

right now Everything we're talking about now

is pure speculation on our part. I really have

no idea how they do but that makes sense They

want to make money too. So yeah, what? What other

toy reviewers do you guys watch Ben you honestly

like I can't think of any way to say this without

sounding like a giant jerk and I'm going to get

crap. I really don't watch any of them. I'll

watch some of Paul's reviews sometimes. I've

watched a couple of years. It really just depends

on what I'm looking for, what's going on. I don't

... Again, to try to say this politely as possible,

there are some people who live on YouTube and

that's kind of their social outlet and they're

there all the time. I don't ... I don't do that.

I'm not knocking yet. No, no, no. I'm not laughing

because I know what you're talking about. I have

a job. I have a doctor. I have a wife. I have

a family. I don't sit on YouTube all day. Sometimes

when I upload my videos, my wife will be sticking

in the background. That's because it's so weird.

But I do it all day. If I upload a video early

in the day, I'll spend a lot of time that day

on YouTube. because I try to answer questions

as they come up and when a video first goes up,

I get a lot of questions like that or I'm checking

to make sure it's uploaded all the way to make

sure that the ads are placed. There's maintenance

that first day of video, but I just don't click

around on YouTube. When I'm on YouTube, I'm either

uploading a video or responding to mail or responding

to some questions on my videos. I don't traipse

around YouTube that often. It's nothing personal.

I think all these other reviewers are beneath

me. It's nothing like that. I just don't spend

a lot of time watching videos on YouTube. It's

very much like me. What was that, Ben? I said,

I'll generally, if Angelus puts up something

that seems funny, I'll watch that. Like I said,

I watch some of your reviews. I've watched a

couple of that MGO guy's reviews. Actually, I

actually got one featured on my channel right

now. I'll watch my friend Gary's reviews, Optimus

Scourge, because he puts them up every now and

then, and he's a buddy of mine. But yeah, most

reviewers, I don't really... They don't really

watch a lot of YouTube videos YouTube it's a

new trailer for movie came up. It's on YouTube,

you know, that's what I watch on YouTube I don't

watch what were you gonna say Paul? Ben and I

I consider us I mean we do other things but I

consider what we do I consider us transformer

reviewers People like um and again this isn't

me bashing or anything, but I don't consider

Sean a transformer reviewer right now So I mean

he's probably done one in the past two months

I don't know, but I mean so so you're talking

you're talking to you know me and Ben who are

fair I mean and again not to sound like we're

overconfident or you know tooting our own horns

but we're fairly large in terms of the transformer

reviewing of on YouTube and With that comes a

lot of people that want to talk to us Yeah, no

lines. There's such controversy behind this whole

Transformers YouTube community. I mean a lot

of it's made up a lot of it is there are some

idiots that just need to Go away down a little

bit. You know what it is It's the best way that

I've ever heard it described and it comes from

my girlfriend who's a sixth grade teacher She

says that the it's high school drama Yeah, it's

really what it is and the thing is you know Ben

and I were both in our 30s We're adults about

this whole thing the majority of people that

are involved in the whole drama thing That's

created our high schoolers, and it's it's what

they do. It's how they function and YouTube has

become Not as big, but it is a version of MySpace

and Facebook. It's a social networking thing.

Is MySpace even relevant anymore? I don't know.

Well, I just threw it out because I am 30 and

I still have a MySpace page. You're absolutely

right. It's a lot of... And again, there's nothing

wrong with kids. There's nothing wrong with younger

people. They ascribe a lot of what they think

or what they want to be going on. Especially

with Sean. Sean and I have bumped heads a few

times on YouTube. And it's usually made out to

be far, far more than it really is. Last year

when he was having some problems, a bunch of

us made videos saying, hey, look, you just need

to take a break and get it together. And nobody

was slamming him at that point. That sucks to

be in that situation. And a lot of us were just

saying, hey, here's some advice. And people were

like, oh, you're tacky, Sean, you're tacky, Sean.

And then the recent thing was just a, if you

go back and watch, if they were still up, if

you actually watched all the videos involved,

you would see that this wasn't. Nearly the big

deal that everybody tried to make it into me

one person Decided to uh to take it to the next

level and was just so insistent about it that

everybody every troll and every kid wanted to

see their own thing about it, but there was You

know like I am NOT out to get Sean booted off

of YouTube everybody That's the one thing I get

like why are you trying to kick him off of YouTube?

I'm not I'm not I don't care. I don't think about

him most the time Just you know I've tried what

like I think the only the only reason why I ever

tried to watch one of his videos was because

the only early Release thing that I've ever gotten

was I got the wave 3 muddy mugs to turn the transformers

muddy mugs with shockwave and jazz and I ordered

them from Taiwan what it was it was it was that

eBay auction that was yeah Yeah, it was one of

those eBay auctions, and I'm like okay Well,

I know I really don't care if I'm the first one,

but am I what would I be the first one to get

it? to get it up there. So I went and looked,

I said, Transformers Mighty Mugs G1 Shockwave,

and Sean had a video of it. And I nearly lost

all my brain cells watching and listening to

his voice. Well, no, I'm not trying to bash the

guy. I'm not trying to bash the guy. I'm saying

just the way he sounds and the way he talks and

the way he presents his video, I personally cannot

watch that. That's that's pretty much what I'm

saying and that goes to what we were talking

about before about everybody has their own Everybody

wants Whenever like there are times when we brush

and every time I've got I've gotten in any sort

of YouTube drama Like I've never felt like like

I've never gone into it being I'm gonna be the

bad guy here You know what? Yeah, you know it's

never been about specifically maliciously attacking

anybody. It's never been about You know just

being mean for the sake of being mean, you know

what I stand everything I've ever said on YouTube

I stand behind it 100 % But the thing is that

everybody wants it to turn into like oh, you

know, oh this YouTube drama It's it's so and

I'm like and it's not that big of a deal, you

know, I said my piece I was done with it. It

was out of my hair Yeah, but I want there to

I mean like this there's plenty of room for Every

single person on YouTube to have their own little

niche and do whatever they want, you know, like

If I don't like you or we have some issues, I

just avoid you. It's easy to do. Everybody keeps

expecting, like, oh, when's the next big blow

up going to happen? That's not how we look at

it at all. People look at it like it's some sort

of ongoing thing, and it's not. It's just we've

all got our spaces, we've all got the people

who watch us, and in some cases, some of those

people... People who watch me also watch Paul

so watch Sean also watch Dian says, you know

any of the other reviewers like there's kind

of a group But that doesn't mean that you know,

yeah, we don't all have our own free room to

run I've got my own channel. Nobody else can

come on channel unless I let them I'm happy with

that, you know, it's not yeah, that's cool Do

you guys think that? You'll be reviewing on YouTube

for say the next 20 30 years or do you see a

stopping point? Geez. I don't know. I do it when

it's fun. If you look back at my channel history,

you'll see that there have been times when I've

taken three and a half, four weeks off. If it

starts wearing me down and not being fun, I just

stop for a little bit. Then I get a whole bunch

of messages like, are you okay? Are you going

to wear it? I'm fine. I just take a break. Do

I see myself doing it forever? Honestly, I had

originally intended that since it started with

Animated, I would end it with Animated. When

the last figure came out and technically that

that's happened I mean, I guess that Rodimus

and iron heart are the last that we know of so

far retail ones Yeah, then I kind of grew into

like I'm having fun doing it. I'll do it while

I'm having fun with it You know, we're using

some of the money every month To pay for things

you have house repairs and stuff like that. So

as long as that's beneficial Yeah, I'll keep

doing it. I mean like but if it's not if it's

not fun, I won't do it anymore But I don't see

it ever becoming so not fun that I'll never do

it again. If that makes sense, if it starts getting

to be too much of a pain or kind of a hassle

or just too much crap to deal with, I just take

a break. Just don't worry about it. I put it

out of my brain and then when I feel refreshed,

when I've taken my break, I come back and I do

it again and it's fun again. Lately you've been

doing all the new stuff type of thing. Most of

the videos you put out is there's no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no not just

videos that are of new toys that are coming out,

but do you see yourself going back into your

collection and stuff you haven't reviewed? Oh,

certainly. And the thing is, I've done that a

few times, and not just the cup and the blur.

If you go back, you'll see some old toys. The

thing is, right now, I had a while where I was

doing some old Beast Wars toys, like I did Tiger

Hawk. The thing is, right now, I'm doing new

stuff because... That's what I have to review.

One, I got so far ahead so far long ago that

the only way I get new toys anymore is by getting

the new new stuff. I can't walk into a retail

store anymore and be like, I had that for four

months. I had that for four months. Just how

it started, it snowballed quick. But I've gone

back through my collection a few times and been

like, oh, I haven't reviewed this. But as of

right now... I went back and did some classics.

But as of right now, I have nothing I haven't

reviewed. All my transformers on my shelves,

they've all been reviewed. I may dip into the

handful of GI Joes I have. I may go back and

do some of the new DCUC that I've gotten that

I haven't reviewed yet. I just get that G1 Blaster

that I'm going to be reviewing soon. Like that

and I'm probably gonna go since I have him now

probably gonna go and get his cassettes like

Grand Slam and Rain Dance So you'll see that

one coming up. Yeah, but but but really as of

right now like I'm reviewing stuff as it comes

in because that's all I've got left to review

I mean, that's fine. I just I wasn't sure I mean,

you know, you've been on what a year year and

a half two years now I've been on three years

three years now. It was there's a lot of videos.

You've done three years. So Yeah, March of 2007

when those first animated toys started coming

out. Yeah Yeah, so I mean it's like you know

you you know a lot of the channels that I watch

Whether it's toy reviewers or just you know people

that blog or whatever if they have over a hundred

videos It's like wow that's a lot of stuff to

go through to find us so like if you're looking

for I mean and most of the time the YouTube search

pops up like if you search Well animated Rodimus

the first thing that's gonna come up is that

special surprise review yeah So, I mean, you

know, what about you Paul? Will you be going

back and reviewing some of the older stuff? I

mean, I kind of... I kind of always have done

that. I kind of... I like trying to mix it up

every now and then. It's just getting in like

Silver Hawks and old Ninja Turtles and stuff

like that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean that's...

I might be doing some Rock Lords soon. Oh, and

I see those. I had a... Gold nugget. I don't

even know that name. It was nugget Oh, I love

that thing when I was a kid and somehow some

way I lost it and It's played to me for years

and every time somebody mentions Rock Lord's

I think of that guy and I go and look on eBay

And I can never find one that I'm happy pain.

Yeah, so I'm getting some as part of a trade

from a guy He's got like four Rock Lord's on

trade and trading some stuff for so That'd be

cool. That would be very cool I mean, I like

doing a lot of the older stuff, and actually

I'm doing my finishing touches on my Berserker

Predator, and then after that I was actually

going to do my Encore reissue of Metroplex. I've

been sitting here... Ah, I shake my fist at you.

I had one of those coming on the way from Kapow

Toys, and the package has just disappeared. It

was shipped like a month and a half ago. Nobody

knows where it's at. I wanted to... I mean, I

got mine... It's probably been about a year now

that I've had it, but when our old roommate moved

out, I moved all of my stuff into her room and

made it my own office up here, and I gave my

girlfriend her office back. And in the move,

literally going from one room to another upstairs

in our house, I somehow lost the left hand of

Metroplex. And I was like, and I've wanted to

review it for so long, but I'm like, I can't

review it without him having a hand. So I was

trying to find a decently priced one on eBay,

and they're like $10 and $6, and I'm like, for

a hand, come on. So I went on to Transformer

Land, and I found one, I think it was $3, and

I'm like, all right, I'll buy it from there.

So I just got that the other day, and I've been

wanting to do that guy, because he's sitting

there on the shelf. I mean, I like doing I like

doing a lot of older stuff. It's it's fun things

that go back into my childhood I really enjoy

I have I just bought one of the extreme Ghostbuster

ecto one car and I should hopefully have that

tomorrow or Monday at the latest and I mean that's

back from the 90s I mean, I love doing it. I

can't see myself slowing down too much. I mean,

I talked to them. You mentioned, you know, who

are some of the people that you watch on YouTube.

And one of the friends that I've made is JP Mitchell.

And he and I talk all the time. And we sit there,

and we kind of joke back and forth about, you

know, various things that we're going to do.

And with older stuff, It's almost more entertaining

because it's stuff that I had as a kid or I wanted

as a kid and I'm able to get it now as an adult.

When I first got Skylinks, I think I still have

the video up on my YouTube channel, I told the

story about how I wanted Skylinks when he came

out so bad. I loved dinosaurs when I was growing

up and I loved space and I was like, oh wow,

they just took the two and put them together.

This is a perfect transformer for me. My parents,

they didn't have a lot of money when I was growing

up and they couldn't afford to buy that for me.

I don't even remember how much it cost. And one

day I was playing with my cousins and we were

running back and forth in the back of an alley

and in a dumpster was a box for Skylinks. And

I took that thing out and I kept it and I played

with just the box. And so when the Encore Skylinks

was released, Got it. I'm sitting here on my

kitchen table. My girlfriend was looking at me

I got a little teary -eyed because it reminded

me of that time in my childhood and I was like

this this is this is why I collect this stuff.

This is exactly why I mean I couldn't get this

stuff as a kid for whatever reason and Now I

can get it now I can appreciate it and I can

just have so much fun with it that I don't want

I can't see myself stopping but it's I consider

this, and I was talking to my girlfriend about

this actually too, that the whole YouTube thing

with us doing reviews and stuff and getting a

whole bunch of subscribers and making money and

doing all that fantastic junk, I really consider

to be very similar to the whole bot or the dot

com era where everybody was making money. Yeah,

everybody was making these dot -com websites

and then all of a sudden that bubble burst and

that and then everybody was done I mean I really

kind of expect next year to be the last Grant

big thing because that's from what I understand

from what I've heard It's gonna be the last movie

at least Michael Bay says it's gonna be the last

one. He's gonna be part of So are we gonna get

another Transformers movie? I have no idea and

with that our sales and you know interested transformers

gonna go down You never know. I think it really

depends on the fandom. I think the payments and

stuff will certainly go down. It'll probably

take a year and a half or so for all of that

to really die off. But just like Paul's saying,

I think trying to actually make a living off

of YouTube is ridiculous. It's nice. I look at

it as... Found money every month, you know, like

we are plugging some away in the savings some

of its going You know, we're working on putting

in a new, uh, you know heat pump in the house

You're using some of the stuff like that saving

up towards that But it's certainly useful. It's

it's nice to have it. I don't bank on it as a

This is part of my income every month and this

is you know Like I'm going to rely on this for

the rest of my life to pay my bills because like

it can stop Anytime, you know like YouTube's

a pretty big deal, you know right now But you

know like at Facebook, you know, not Facebook

MySpace, you know MySpace was the big thing five

years ago and you know, who knows it's I certainly

hope it lasts at least another year and a half

or so that'd be nice But I hope we at least just

get a heads up on hey, we're going to be distributing

a program in X just so I can specifically make

that one last final chance to make sure I've

got enough put away to pay for the taxes that

next year. Just to be safe, so it doesn't just

cut that off like, oh, by the way, next week

no more YouTube payments. Well, okay, that would

suck. I'd be okay. I would suck, but I don't

think it's something that's gonna be around forever.

And I don't count on it being around forever.

Although, like I said, even if they take away

the money, I'll still shoot videos because I

do have fun doing them when they're fun. Exactly.

It's a nice way to offset the cost of buying

the figures. I mean, that's really the way I

look at it. I mean, I go and I'll spend X amount

of dollars buying something. And in my mind,

I'm like, you know what, it's not so bad. I mean,

buying early figures. You know, I'll pay $100

for a deluxe figure, whatever the case may be.

I mean, that's just an example. You're still

paying $100 for deluxees? Oh, God. You want to

talk to Mike about that for me? Not you, Mike.

Let's not get into that. give him a conversation

for me so that I don't have to pay that much

anymore and honestly outside of you guys I just

cannot see me personally there's no way I could

pay a hundred bucks for deluxe for you that's

gonna be out three months or four months or it's

gonna be twelve I mean I get I get why you guys

do it because of the YouTube thing, I get that,

don't get me wrong. Like I said, even when you

do that, even when you spend 60 bucks on a figure

to get it two months early, I'll put that video

up and it'll make $170, at least. It's not like

it's a, everybody's like, oh, I can't believe

you spend more than retail on these figures.

Sometimes I get them for less than retail, sometimes

I get them for right about retail, sometimes

I pay a little more. It's not like it's not hurting

me, you know, it's an investment in And I hate

talking about like it's a business because I

know I said it is fun I enjoy doing it but like

when it comes to stuff like that, you know, like

I'll make back what I pay for a figure just by

putting the video It's just the same way a grocery

store spends $5 ,000 on a shipment of breakfast

cereal because they're going to turn around and

sell it for $10 ,000. That's what it is. It's

not hurting me. still get to keep the breakfast

cereal and play with it. It's not like just selling

something. I get a figure early. I get to satisfy

my curiosity. I get to play with it. And the

cost is pretty much nil because it earns back

what I spent on it. And that's why I said that

I kind of exclude you guys because what I'm specifically

talking about is the people that go on eBay.

Gotta look at these things. that'll look at these

things and you know hundred dollars for whatever

yeah for one that's basically what i'm talking

about not really talking about is you guys going

back to do it i'm talking about people going

ebay to buy the figure to buy it what'd you say

paul i was gonna say how how much was it for

uh animated astrotrain do you remember pen animated

what astrotrain or not astrotrain between i think

the first one sold for like five hundred dollars

Wow fifty five hundred dollars. That's ridiculous.

And then like two weeks later. I got mine for

I think 60. Yeah The highest price figure I that

I know of that got sold early was I know Not

me, but I know somebody paid For that second

leader jetfire that came out somebody paid a

thousand dollars Yeah, that's ridiculous Wow

Yeah, that's nuts. And then the second highest

one I know that the other leader of Starscream

Review that went up shortly after mine, that

guy paid, I think, $800 for that. Is that thanks?

Yeah. Yeah, I'll name drop. I mean, it's kind

of getting back on that people are going to do

their thing and they're going to do whatever

they want and that's... That's fine and dandy.

If you want to put yourself in a position where

you're going to get kicked out of your house

or you're going to get your car repossessed or

whatever the case may be, and if you choose to

do that, ultimately it's your decision at the

end of the day. I feel safe paying $100 for a

deluxe figure or whatever, knowing that my bills

are going to get paid. Yeah, exactly. It never

gets to a point where I can't pay bills because

of it. It's all after regular payments are taken

care of. Right. And that also goes back to what

you were saying earlier that you don't consider

the YouTube partnership stuff general income.

Yeah. It's nice added movement. It's certainly

gone into our general income pool. Right, but

I mean as far as paying the bills every month,

it's not something that you're specifically relying

on this income from this video website. each

month to pay your general bill. I'll freely admit

that during the summertime with my store, I have

a hockey equipment store. Sales are ridiculously

low during the summer. People don't buy hockey

equipment during the summer. So I have to go

into my savings constantly and my girlfriend

doesn't work. She's a teacher. She only gets

paid 10 months out of the year. It's also a teacher,

but she gets paid year round, so that works.

My girlfriend could have but because of California

the Union they have it worked differently Which

sucks? I mean it's it's terrible. You know she

gets more money in the months that she does work

Yeah, you know as or the alternative was you

know you can get paid 12 months a year But you

get paid a little bit less you know because some

of it is taken out of those ten months and going

to those other two So I mean it's not a big deal,

so the YouTube money. I mean is a big help during

the summertime for us. And next year, you know,

in November, my girlfriend and I were, I gotta

stop calling her that, she yelled at me the other

day, my fiance, she and I, next November, we're

planning on getting married. So, I mean, and

next year during the summertime, the new movie

comes out, and I don't wanna say I'm relying

on it, but I'm hoping that we're gonna have a

fairly good summer so that some of that money

can go towards. Having a nice a nice wedding

or a honeymoon or something that nature so it's

it's it's not something I'm relying on I mean,

I'm not going to die or anything, but it's it's

it's a nice bonus It's very helpful to have at

times, but you know you can't you can't rely

on it You can't make it your life. You can't

make it your living people like You know Shane

Dawson or shake all you know all those people

they can because They get paid $100 ,000 a year

from their app. People like Fred and Lisa Nova,

they're big enough that they can get by with

some of that. But even then, if you two were

to go belly up, they'd have to start looking

around. Right, exactly. I mean, it's not something

that, you know... I'm not putting my day job

over YouTube. Exactly. One, I love my day job.

I think it's great. And two, I'm just not putting

it over YouTube. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of...

I mean, it's one of those things where... I've

talked about this before with close friends of

mine that we sit there and, you know, we'll be

like, you know, we're never going to have that

many subscribers. I'm like, we might. I mean,

you look at how it's, you know, just... continuously

going. And I mean, I'm at like 17 ,000 subscribers.

Ben, I know you're at like over 20 ,000. Yeah.

There was never a time that I would have said,

you know, I'll have 17 ,000 subscribers. Yeah.

I was happy when I hit, I think, 700. I was amazed

when I hit 700. Yeah. And now I'm going back,

like one of my videos, like, I know you already

had one, do it. My leader options review was

getting real close to finally hitting a million

views. Oh yeah, that's huge. That's huge. It's

like, oh my god, seriously? But just looking

at the sheer amount of views, I think my page

has had some 34 million total views since I put

it up. That boggles my mind, because like I said,

it started off just like a, I'll do it for fun,

I've got a camera, why not try it a couple times,

and then I just started doing videos regularly.

I can't believe that there's that many people

that come. Yeah, so I mean when I when I talked

to I mean I talked to a JT Mitchell about this

more than more than anybody else But I mean he

just went over I think 10 ,000 subscribers or

something like that. I'm like you remember I

went up to I'm like you remember like last summer

when we were talking about this You didn't think

that you would get that far and here it is, you

know Just a year later and here you are. It's

you know, the same for me. So it's I mean, I'm

sure it'll eventually it'll slow down but Mean

it amazes me at this at this point in time. It

genuinely does I'm like people are I mean and

I'm not getting and I look at this and I pay

attention to maybe Maybe more than I should I

guess but I'm like, all right I have 17 ,000

subscribers, but this video that I just posted

only has 3 ,000 views like Wait a minute. Yeah,

yeah, it's coming to your channel every day,

right? so but it's but it's a nice it's a nice

number and like you said, I mean I have the it's

the deluxe uh deluxe side swipe review why why

deluxe side swipe i have no idea but that one

went over a million views and i'm like that it

amazes me and i'm like that is the coolest thing

in the world and and i'm closely watching i have

one of uh one of the lolly figures that i have

that i posted a while ago that's closing in on

on a million as well and it's it really does

astonish me Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it's so cool,

but everybody out there. Thank you for watching

our YouTube videos We do I do appreciate it tonight,

you know, like I'm trying to let it go to my

head I'm sorry for some of you guys think I want

to jerk or you just know, you know I mean I remember

when you first came on the scene and You were

doing and a lot of people were talking to me

about you and the biggest I would say the biggest

gripe that I constantly kept hearing is that

you're so monotone, and you don't have any emotion

in your voice, and you just sound like you're

there. And I'm sitting here, and then after talking

to you and getting to you, I'm like, do these

people, do they even know what they're talking

about? Yeah. Like, I'm enthusiastic, but that's

the thing. Part of it, I work in public radio.

So I've kind of got that culture, and now we're

going to be listening to blah, blah, blah. I

have that kind of... I just don't see the point.

People get mad at me. People say like, oh, you

love every figure. You don't hate a single one.

I'm like, I don't like several of the figures.

I mean, some of them, there have been a couple

where I've been like, and this figure is such

a piece of crap, like RC or whatever. But whenever

I do a review, I say, OK, and here, I'm a little

disappointed. The articulation's a little limited

here. You can't move his arm around this way

because of the ball joint or because of the molding.

but since I don't get mad and be like, and then

this piece of crap right here doesn't work, and

people think I don't get mad. When I do a review,

I generally try to say, okay, here's the figure,

here's what's great about it, here's something

that I don't like so much. uh... you know make

your own decision that i don't want to i don't

try to get super enthusiastic about something

i don't try to get super depressed about something

because i'm not there to make up people's minds

i get people sending me emails should i buy this

figure or this figure and i'm like well which

one do you like more you know what i'm not going

to make up their minds i'm just there to kind

of give a look at the figure show it off i mentioned

things that are bad i mentioned things that are

good and a lot of you at the end i'll say you

know it's it's decent figure i like it it's cool

And people take that and be like, you're always

saying everything's cool, and you never say anything's

bad. I'm like, watch my video again. I say all

kinds of flaws about the figure. I just don't

say, and then, this is stupid, and this, I just

don't get worked up about it. There's no point.

Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. I mean, I

get those emails a lot, too. Some people do.

People be like, oh, sorry. People be like, hey,

Paul, should I get Human Alliance Jazz, or should

I get Bumblebee? I'm like... Okay, well get both

of them. Yeah Yeah, it's it's one of those things

where It has to be a toy that you like it and

that's one of the things that kind of peeves

me about the YouTube stuff is And I know it's

got to peeve you guys, that people keep asking

you about that and asking you, you know, which

one should I get? Like Ben said, make up your

mind and get what you can afford. If you can

afford a deluxe class figure and you have six

to choose from, get your favorite character.

Right. I mean, it's not complicated, but I hate

using this term. Other people do and I can't

stand it. It's a huge peeve of mine. I hate the

term fans but people who consider themselves

fans of Ben's and my work value our opinion and

I understand that and that's fine I don't have

a problem with that it's very flattering but

you know we're not your heroes we're not somebody

that you should look up to people people get

like that and people think that people look up

to you know other people we are not that We're

not that, we're not anybody special. Make up

your own mind, become your own person, watch

our videos, see the good, see the bad, and when

you get out there to a store, like you said,

if you got $10 and there's six figures in front

of you, pick the one that you think you're gonna

like the most. I mean, that's really what it

comes down to. I mean, a figure that I think

is fantastic, I mean, I hated the animated legend

Starscream. To the point I put him in boiling

water and beat him with a hammer and then put

him in my garbage disposal I hated the thing

a lot of other people let me count. Why did you

I love that thing? You should have gave it to

me. I'm like, well Okay, that's fine. Go buy

your own. I Mean, it's it's a wonderful bit I

mean, it's wonderful that you like the figure

but everybody's gonna have their own opinions.

I mean Transformers Revenge of the Fallen movie

Typically, you know people people found it enjoyable.

I would say it was bashed by critics So I mean

And the first one people, you know people like

I mean whatever I mean, I mean, you know when

you do like movie reviews and everything I mean,

that's the only kind of analogy I think of you

do it. It's your opinion Yeah, and and like you

and I we kind of talked about this on the previous

occasion that Everybody's got opinions. But it's

a review when you're able to follow it up with

facts and reasons why you have that particular

opinion. Review something and if you like it,

great. If you don't, no skin off of our back.

And I think that's a good stopping point. Paul,

do you have any final thoughts on the whole YouTube

thing before we close this out? Well, like Ben

said, I want to... tell everybody how much I

appreciate them. I feel bad, honestly, when I

do videos every now and then where I thank people,

I feel bad that I can't go through and list everybody.

I really do want to say thank you to everyone.

And it's an honor that... Same when I do the

contest. I hate not being able to send 20 ,000

people a toy. Exactly, exactly. I mean, it's

the same. And to the point where... I've kind

of decided to stop doing contests on my YouTube

thing because there's so many people. My last

contest I did, I did it through Twitter because

I have like less than 700 followers on Twitter.

I'm like, well, that's a little bit better. People

have a little bit better of a chance, but I just

really appreciate everything that all the support.

Like I said, I don't like saying fans, but I

suppose one could say that I have fans. It's

an honor. to go into your guys' home and it makes

me feel good that you guys value my opinion.

So all I can do is say thank you from the bottom

of my heart. Did that sound insincere? No, that's

fine. That's pretty much what I was going to

say. I think YouTube's great. I have a lot of

fun there. Thanks to everybody who watches. I

appreciate you coming in. Like I said, I'm sorry

I can't list every single person's name all the

time because that would take forever. I don't

like thinking of the term fan because I never

did this to be about me. It was always about

the toys and I try to keep it about the toys

and that's all there is to it. It's funny, I

was watching Auto Assembly just kind of pass

and I was watching a video that Diancis did and

how people come up to him at Auto Assembly and

ask him for his autograph. I'm of the mindset

that nobody's gonna do that to me when I go to

BotCon. But, I mean, that's just the type of

person I am. I don't think that I'm anything

special. But if it happens, I don't know how

I'm gonna handle that. That's gonna be weird.

I mean, we joked about it earlier, but it's really

kind of gonna be, I'm like, why do you want my

autograph? I mean, seriously, I mean, you want

me to sign something? What are you gonna do with

it? Maybe you should bring Battle Cat for protection.

Well with the real battle cat my real one. Yeah

Yeah, he's he's kind of a pushover all you have

to do is give him a little bit of milk or Or

any kind of dairy products and he'll let you

do whatever you want or whatever you want Yeah,

all right, so that's gonna do it for this episode

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this episode of GeekCast Radio with the special

live broadcast from my house with Pia, which

you'll join us next time. I'm TFG1Mike with Octobotamus

and Pia, and we will catch you geeks later.