Home is Where The Spark Is, Total Meltdown, and Blast From The Past Animated Episode Roundup Review

I got a vibe tells me I should be sitting in

on this scene for a while. My name is Optimus

Prime and this episode of transformation animation

podcast features Stephen C Phillips Mike Blanchard

and Michael Wilson Hello and welcome to episode

2 of transformation animation podcast. I am your

host TFJU and Mike and joining me is Steve Megatron.

Hello. Goodbye Hello This is not AOL. Thank you

very much AOL is a dead Function you were the

weakest link. Goodbye And Peek on Court Michael.

Hey, how's it going? It's going. We just finished

an interview with a voice actor for Transformers

Animated, the one, the only David Kay. Very,

very cool. Even though Steve kind of poofed in

the middle. That's right, I like poofing. Is

that what the kids are calling it these days?

Something like that. Lord Yeah Probably all said

and done with audio and everything else the interview

is probably gonna run like close to an hour,

but the actual discussion is like like 55 58

minutes so very very cool to talk with David

about animated conventions Toys action figures

his su blue impression Makes me want to interview

Sue blue that much more. Yes. We have to get

her on this podcast. Yeah, definitely I See Steve

is in voice mode very close. Yes. I'm in very

good voice mode So what have you been up to Steve

besides going insane? You act like that's something

different mostly I've been getting people emailing

me about joining up with other transformer audio

plays lately, which is good news. Yeah, that's

quite strange to me, because last I thought I

was not wanted, because every time I get on a

project, it gets canceled. So I'm hoping these

actually, you know, happen. And Michael hasn't

been going into Target and stealing transformers

from the back of the store. Not at all. His obsession

is strong. It's hard it really is But no, I have

been buying anything lately. I was really hoping

to see that final wave of classics toys and that

just didn't happen and since then all the stores

have been stocking up on movie toys and although

there are a couple of those that I'm partial

to I I've actually been saving my money. That's

that's good. I guess yeah, the only The only

one I'm remotely interested in, which I'm actually

kind of getting out of the toy collecting game.

I just I don't go to the stores enough. I'm too

poor to to buy Big Bad Toy Store's inflated prices.

Oh, hey now. The good people at Big Bad Toy Store

who are sponsoring us, I think. Right. No, no,

no. I mean that with all due respect. I understand

they have to do markup, but you go into a store.

Of course, you know, that takes gas money and

all that stuff or whatever else. But you go into

a store, you find Dark of the Moon Voyager Megatron

for, say, 15, 16, 17 bucks. You go online to

Bitback Toy Store, you find it for $25 plus $8

and something shipping. You know, I don't have,

right now, I don't have the financial means to

be buying stuff, so I'm kind of really getting

out of the toy collecting game at this point.

I will say, as far as Dark of the Moon toys go,

the only one that I would really super want is

Shockwave. That Shockwave is amazing. Oh, God,

is that an ugly figure. No. You know what? Shockwave

should not have, like, pincers. you know, for

a face. I don't like it. Can't recommend it.

I did get the Power Glide. I like that one. I

was very, very tempted to buy the Starscream

Repaint, the Deluxe Thundercracker. Almost bought

that one. I was ready to pull it off the shelf

just because it's Thundercracker and he's blue

and red and he's perfect. But, you know, I said,

you know, holding off on that by any more transformers

i'm not going to do it uh i've got like 3000

now i think i have enough yeah oh that's funny

um yes and i've just been podcasting like normal

um actually i'm trying to i have for those of

you who may not know i know steve knows this

and i'm not sure if michael knows this but i've

been writing poetry since i was about 14 and

back in 2007 i published my first book of poetry

Which I still have 35 copies of so if anyone

wants a copy $15 shipped send an email to tfguandmygetgmail

.com I need a new cell phone damn it Yeah It's

like yeah, we don't give a shit, so we'll get

into the episodes next Okay, this is definitely

not me This party is getting up Somebody's gotta

shut down that assembly line! This looks like

a job for wheels on heels! Hot, hot, hot! Who

needs sensitive? Smashing stuff is fun! Thick

-bolted moron. Let me crush that smile off your

face. So first up is home is where the spark

is. The Autobots continue to defend the city

while making their home in an abandoned automobile

plant. Sari set them up in. Sari uses her key

to accidentally revive Megatron's head who promptly

learns that Starscream's betrayal. Megatron controls

a small pocket bot to search for the all spark

in the Autobots base. But when he doesn't find

it, he takes control of the machinery in the

plant to kill the Autobots. The Autobots hold

their own and emerge victorious and ponder who

could have controlled the pocketbot in the first

place. Dun dun dun. Dun dun. Yeah, that pretty

much covers it. Thanks. OK. Oh, man. When I first

saw this one, when it aired on TV. Was like who

the hell is this craptastic character angry Archer

indeed really? I was like oh my god the villains

in this show suck for sooth Then again, you know

we you know come to find out later down the line

angry Archer was based on Aaron Archer the the

Brent one of the brand managers it has bro, so

I Guess it's okay. It kind of looks like him

Yeah, a little bit a picture of Aaron Archer.

Yeah, it kind of looks like him You know it looks

like him in a very bad ill -fitting green arrow

costume It's really sad Yes, it is very very

sad. I don't think Aaron sounds like that. You

know he doesn't know he doesn't exaggeration

He'd fit right in at the Renaissance Fair That's

funny. He's a rejected DC comic character. Oh

wow, speaking of DC comics characters, why is

Optimus reminding me of Batman? He has a gadget

for everything. He's got his axe, he's got his

grappling hook, and he's got his fire hose thingamabob.

I don't know, just every time I saw him use the

grappling hook, I'm like, wow, it's Optimus Prime

Batman. Where does he get those wonderful toys?

Toys. Why is it when I heard the line that bulkhead

said all people want me to do is break stuff?

It the first thing I thought of was limp biscuits

song break stuff I'm not familiar with that one.

How's that go? Yeah, it's Anyway, we don't want

to hear you sing. That's okay. You know, I wasn't

going to sing anyway, okay good I I like how

all the Autobots have different reactions to

their newfound fame Yeah, like B loves it. He

thinks it's awesome and Prowl hates it Grumpy

Prowl is grumpy. Yeah Yeah, one of the things

that I noticed with the Autobots is you have

key characteristics. For each character you have

a certain characteristic. Optimus, he's a young

leader who's learning as he goes. Prowl, he's

a zen -like bot who prefers to sit back and watch

what is around him. Ratchet, well, he's Ratchet,

damn it. His character hardly ever changes in

Transformers history. He's the cranky old bot.

Bulkhead, the bot who can't get out of his own

way and always ends up messing stuff up, and

Bumblebee, the bot who is always about speed

and being a dick. Pretty much sums it up. You're

a little hard on the beaver there, Wally. Wow,

I'm not even going there. I'm just not even going

there. Leave it to be a little rough on that.

Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct. Yeah, yeah. Let's

not go there. Oh, that was the gratuitous. Yeah,

the gratuitous. Yeah. And a lot of people, I

don't know, but I know some people didn't really

agree with Prowl's characterization because he

has a way different character base in this series.

And we'll find out why that is later. Not to

spoil it for anybody. But to the first time viewer,

the whole Zen thing could be really off -putting.

I don't think so. I mean, we can't assume that

this is the G1 character. True. So, you know,

I mean, considering that Optimus Prime is a captain

of the ship and that leader of everybody, right?

I mean, that alone throws all of the characterizations

from G1 out the window. That's true. All right,

so if this particular character, you know, you

have to take it with a grain of salt All right,

you know, he's he's the loner type. He's not

used to working in a team we know we find out

straight from the get -go that he's You know

the first to jump in and try to do everything

himself right? so of course, he's going to want

to spend more time alone and You know just enjoying

his own surroundings Yeah, and yeah No matter

how many and when I wrote that note about prowl

beings and it was the scene where he and optimus

are talking and Prowls talking about you know

being one with nature and watching the cat kill

You know stalk the bird or whatever else and

of course Bumblebee pops up in the middle. Yeah,

what are we talking about guys? Yeah, he's still

a dick It's just a terrible way to put it He

just is I know I think he's just very energetic

and you know, he At a certain point maybe you

could consider him to be obnoxious But I think

that you know, he's just wanting to be in the

middle of things he wants that attention He goes

pretty far to get the attention later on like

I said, you know in the first episode last episode

last week's episode It's gonna take me a while

to actually get to like Bumblebee because I cannot

stand him at this point So we have we switch

gears and we have Megatron awakening What who

where? Where am I what am I looked up to? How

did I get here? Why are the Autobots still online?

star scream Yeah, that would suck it's like am

I am I dead Look, there's Starscream. He's he's

ratting himself out because he's a dumbass. Yes,

okay He just gets busted right off the bat. He's

thinking you know if I had my pimp hand. Oh there

it is It's somebody's frickin chair wonderful,

okay? Pimp and strong my pimp hand is strong.

It's some decks ass warmer wonderful and flash

creature. I'm using it as my commode. Stop it.

Stop it. I wasn't really happy with the way the

sorry's key wakes up Megatron. It's like as if

this isn't an overused plot device already. Well,

I mean, we can all agree even Kevin doesn't like

it, but we can all agree from the get go. I mean,

this isn't like, you know, go to seasons. have

a movie, introduce this huge plot device in the

Matrix of Leadership, and then use it throughout

Season 3 and Rebirth. This isn't like that. They

have this, you know, this feature movie, they

introduce it because she gets it in the movie,

and by the time the end of the movie, she's already

used it twice, once on Prime, once on Prime,

and it's just the biggest plot device in this

entire show, and it's just getting old and annoying

already. Yeah. Anyway So Megatron uses the pocket

bots and You know some decks response to this

is oh wow. I didn't think I fixed these pocketbots

You would think that pocketbots would be commonplace

You know giant rope not giant robots But let's

say regular size garbage can robots are commonplace

police spots are commonplace But little tiny,

you know, let's say insecticons for lack of a

better term. Those aren't normal household fixtures

by now? I guess not. Eh, it's surprising considering

that in the end of the day we're working on nanobots.

Right, but the other thing is like in the beginning

of the episode when Sari first goes to his lab

and first breaks in with her key, which again,

ugh, but she first breaks in and She stands in

the doorway and then he comes up and he says

he's like up up up up up not even you are allowed

in my private lab a blah blah blah blah blah

and he's like yawning like he he's been sleeping

for days or he hasn't any sleeping days or anything

he's been up working for a week a week straight

and hasn't slept And he sits there and he drinks

the tea. I gotta tell you, that is the worst...

Oh, I'm sorry. I like Derek J. Wyeth's designs,

but I'm sorry. I kinda almost agree with Kevin

when he says his humans are kinda bad. When some

deck is gulping the tea, you can see the old

man crease line in his neck. I was like, oh my

god, he's gonna pop a fucking vein. But the guy

hasn't slept in like days. He hasn't slept in

days, I know. So he's like, oh, did I create

these? At some point, I don't remember. I'm not

even thirsty. I'd like another one of those,

please. I'm not even hungry. I think I'd like

a horse. I can bring me a cow and I'll cut off

the pieces I want and send the rest home. Yeah,

I did not like Sumdak. He's funny. I mean I could

see why he's there, but yeah, he's kind of a

useless Plot device. I like him. He becomes more

important later. Yeah, he's okay, but just in

this specific episode. It's like Really? Yeah,

I I like him. I think he's an interesting character

Well poor prowl prowl just can't get a break

No, he can't yeah, he is no peace and quiet.

He can't watch his nature documentaries. He can't

sleep in a tree He just you know no one's giving

him a break here kind of feel bad for him Yeah,

it's yeah, he just man I can see why he's frustrated

Yeah And of course half the time his frustration

comes from oh guess who the dick of the show

bumblebee Still being rough on the bee I'll admit

I don't care for him all that much in the show

But he does become more likeable the more I agree

that he does become more likeable But as of right

now, he is the biggest douchebag in Transformers

history I mean bumblebee is like second only

to kicker at this point in my mind. Oh god So

rough I don't know, you know in this episode

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves here, but

he he has a learning experience and in the next

episode he has a learning experience and You

know, he just he grows as a character continuously

Now granted three four episodes down the road.

He's gonna relapse and be an idiot again, but

he's progressing Bumblebee is the he's He's kind

of like Spider -Man. He's not... Spider -Man

is not as bad as Bumblebee in the dick area,

but it's one of those things where Spider -Man

has all this growth, and then something, just

some big thing will set him back, and just take

all that care... Oh, God. No, it's a better reference

if I do it this way. Bumblebee is the animated

version of Shia LaBeach. Uh, at least I... You

go a little too far on that one. I know. It's

reaching. My final note was, Transformers should

not play Twister. And that's at the beginning

scene when Sari first does the slumber party.

I did like how Bulkhead tried to get into her

sleeping bag. It barely fit over his toe. I did,

no I didn't even fit over his top. Oh my god.

Steve, what do you have for this one? Um, I have,

well, I like Megatron and his big glowy like

purple and blue electrical self when he comes

back online and he looks fucked up. Oh yeah.

But it almost like in a sense kind of reminds

me of beast machines Not necessarily the fact

that he's kind of fucked up, but the the sense

that I Mean he kind of has like a g1 ask a look

to him which I mean that's pretty much typical

of all Megatrons, but He has more of a beast

machines tied just because when he comes online

he ends up Connecting to a bunch of networks

of machines causing problems for the Autobots.

Right. Oh, yeah. I can see that. Because he's

plugged into a computer and that's the only way

he can... Yeah. Good call. Yeah. Where's my body?

What antiquated system am I hooked into? Yeah,

yeah. I like one of his jokes. He had, uh, you

Autobot fools are the keepers of the AllSpark?

This must be some cosmic joke. Angry Archer,

like I said, rejected DC Comics character, don't

care for him at all. That gets thrown into the

lot of all the rest of the human villains, which

I could care less if they were in the show. In

retrospect, I kind of like how they throw in

a couple human villains for the group to kind

of whet their appetite for. get their feet wet

with as far as they're not heroes right there

they're stepping into this you know not really

you know they're they're they're a janitorial

crew in space so these human villains kind of

give them a little bit of a taste of what it's

like to be heroes before the the decepticons

show up and trounce their asses yeah i mean the

human villains by themselves i think the only

one so far and and we'll get to this eventually

that's the only one i cannot stand out of all

the human villains that's the only one i cannot

stand might be my favorite oh god only because

mike doesn't like it except i thought i have

to take the opposite stance of blanchard yes

no ice Whereas Transformers Prime did the human

element right? I don't think this exactly hit

it I understand they were going for a kid point

of view, but I still don't like it I like Megatron's

coming back online I am Megatron Kind of like

the movie yeah, he's kind of like But in this

it's almost better than the first movie where

he immediately says it like Hugo Weaving immediately

says it but in this Corey Burton's version he's

like I am mega mega It's kind of like he's stuttering

and I like that a lot. That was cool. Well, he's

damaged He's coming to terms with the fact he's

not in front of prime anymore Yeah, sorry No,

go ahead. I think I'm messing up my judicious

use of mute. I'm sorry I was clearing my throat

there and then it occurred to me. I might be

live Feel free to edit that out Yeah, that's

happened to me before actually didn't like it

I like the computer references that they have

in this Looks like somebody forgot to defrag

his hard drive. Hey, yeah Even though it's like

antiquated like it's just still cool to see And

there I don't like the twister thing. I'll just

be honest on that. I think it's I understand

I mean and again, this is more so catered church

children so I can kind of see where Some of these

little stupid things come up Well, the other

thing is sorry is in her Well, yeah, but that's

not what I was gonna say what I was gonna say

was sorry in her own way is trying to teach them

about Human life and human interaction, but it's

coming from an eight -year -old little girl.

So You have to think at the time. What would

an eight -year -old little girl be into and whatever

else? You know, this isn't g1. This isn't This

isn't no and I know I know everybody knows that

this isn't g1 but This isn't G1, this isn't Spike

the 16 year old boy who is into giant robots

and wants to help them and teams up with Wheeljack

to create the Dino, but this isn't that. So I

mean, this has its own flavor. I see where the

kid angles come in. But yeah, Transformers, especially

Bulkhead. Bulkhead should not play Twister. He

can barely walk straight, let alone play Twister.

Yeah. He's like a walking like foldable cosmos

bowling ball like Figure yeah, I like how Prowl

wins at the end. Well, that's because Prowl is

the most agile Ninja yeah, he jumps down and

whoo I win and then jumps away rookies just a

little too bit flexible Yeah Where's a lead of

one when you're really neater? Oh wait, we'll

get to that. Never mind. We'll get to that later.

Yeah, we'll get to that much later. Never mind.

What else did you have, Steve? Well, besides

those... Trying to see. Edit point. Don't fuck

yourself. Yes. I like how Megatron eventually

reveals himself to Sumdak and... That doesn't

come till later. Shut your face! I don't care.

Now, child, I will show you true fear. I like

that quote. I just thought that was funny. Yeah.

Yeah, that doesn't happen until two episodes

from now, though. But he reveals more Cybertronian

technology to Sumdak in order to get a new body.

So that Sumdak can learn... If I teach you, will

you learn? Yeah, that's all I got, though. Thank

you, Yoda. Yeah, I like the fact that they live

in an abandoned auto manufacturing plant in Detroit.

Because, like, that's what Detroit is known for,

and that's pretty much all they're known for.

And it just kind of, you know, leads into the...

at some time in the future... their auto manufacturing

just takes a total dive and you know if it wasn't

for uh if it wasn't for the some dac robotics

industry then the whole city would just fall

into the into the lake there very true and i

thought it was funny i thought it was ironic

let's say you know it's it's an abandoned auto

manufacturing plant and now they live in it yeah

was i thought it was really strange i didn't

place this as you know like a uh an industrial

facility i just thought it was like a big warehouse

and it wasn't until they show all of the mechanical

alarms and all the all the stuff and uh going

on and that it occurred to me wait a minute they

built cars here so yeah that was kind of like

a duh moment later on but you know once i figured

that out it was like oh man they're you know,

car robots that live in a building where they

used to make cars. But what's really funny though

is that Bulkhead finds himself in a Saw movie.

Bulkhead, I would like to play a game. You know,

they tie him down to a conveyor belt and move

him slowly to a machine that's going to crush

his head. I just thought that was funny. Expected

to see the you know the the puppet toddling around

on a tricycle We really we really ought to do

that we got a we got a mash of those two together

somehow like that would be funny But bumblebee

finds out that speed doesn't always work he's

not gonna be able to just you know Motor is way

through everything very quickly as possible he

has to master the Prowl's technique stillness

and then strike Which I think he did once successfully

and you could see the beads of sweat coming off

his face since he tried to Stay still he just

couldn't do it Yeah, and then once he does do

it then that's the only time he has to do it

I Thought it would have been cool if he would

have been like like proud it like four or five

times in a row if you just Jump and then stop

and the jump and then stop But he did it once

and it was like all right, he's learning but

it looked like he was about to you know, drop

a spleen Right, but you know he he he he learns

and he disables the assembly line. So, you know

good good for him but I think You know the key

moment that comes from this is at the end where

bumblebee is starting to learn from Prowl where

he not that's so much old what a good lesson

but he's actually learning uh... it's actually

training under proud at the end oh yeah i agree

uh... peace still his character is not developed

enough for me you're probably going to be the

bumblebee well he gets there towards the middle

of this episode but just those few beginning

scenes is just like, will his dickery have no

end? It doesn't end anytime soon, no. Find out

next week on Transformers Animated! Do we have

anything else for home is where the spark is?

Uh, no. Oh, you know, I thought that, I thought

the uh, uh, bulkhead quote was funny where he

said, this earth stuff is hard. It's just a...

it's like, oh, you have no idea. Alright, we're

gonna move on. Guess you didn't get the memo

about the acid that melts through anything? Fools!

Nothing can hold me! Suggestions on how to stop

him? Hey, how about using the one thing that

stopped us? Hurry! The auto defense field! Gotcha!

You can't melt what you can't touch! They let

him stew in his own juices. Big help you were,

Bulkhead. Why didn't you just draw a big bullseye

over that oversized chest plate of yours? I gotta

admit, kid. For a little bot, you got a great

big spark. You showed a lot of courage taking

that hit for Bulkhead. Sorry about yanking your

crankcase. I was just having a little fun. Little?

Did you say little? No! I mean... Yeah, no, but

I didn't mean I may be small but I'm scrappy

And I can run circles around your big old rusty

chassis, you know, I got major skills It's gonna

be impossible to live with now, isn't it? Oh,

yeah big time So up next is total meltdown After

having his funding cut by Porter C. Powell, Cyrus

the Colossus Rhodes goes berserk during a demonstration.

Prometheus Black experiments with the fluid leaked

by Bumblebee, which results in Prometheus becoming

meltdown. With his new melting powers, he vows

to eliminate Isaac Sumdack, but the Autobots

prevent him to carry out his ominous plan. The

first thing I thought of was a Roid Rage episode,

really? You know, I'm getting ahead of myself

here in this one, but Cyrus reminds me of Bane

on Batman. Yeah, and that's really where my roid

rage line comes in. It's basically Transformers

version of Bane, but it's less awesome. He's

got like the huge drug pumpers on his back. I

mean, he's clearly on Venom. Oh, yeah, something

like that, yeah. Well, at least Bumblebee finally

got all the punches I've been wanting to give

him because he got pummeled by Cyrus. Yeah, but

yeah by Cyrus Yeah, I Just like did fist bumps

in the air like yes. Yes. Yes Well, it kills

me though is you know, we talked about how bumblebee

loves attention Yeah, and he loves the spotlight

so much that he turns to professional wrestling

It's like man, how much attention do you really

need? This is pretty ridiculous, you know, but

he gets in there and just gets a snot beat out

of him Which was kind of cool. It's like who

you call a little guy as he pounds him in the

dirt but You know, sorry uses our key to heal

him halfway through the fight And you know as

if we haven't used the key enough already It

would this be considered cheating Yeah, pretty

much But then again, I mean really then again

sorry using her key on bumblebee is no more cheating

than Colossus Rhodes is doing with his steroids

so I mean It's kind of like an even playing field

here. I Suppose but I mean, you know The steroids

are built into him. It's part of him. It's kind

of like bubble be in the stingers, but she really

underutilizes here Yeah You know, but you know

the the the key is completely external to him

So by him getting a second wind it's not really

fair Not that it helps him any because he is

trounced again. Anyway, see that's the thing

That's why I don't consider her or using the

key on him during the match cheating because

as you just said it didn't really help He still

got beaten the shit out of I like how he's Bleeding

actually he's on the ground and he's bleeding

from wounds You know, which I thought was cool.

I mean it comes back later, you know, he's supposed

to bleed. It's part of the plot, right? But uh,

that was funny. It reminded me of predator If

it bleeds we can kill it I think and the whole

point or one of that One of the whole A points

of this episode is that it's Prometheus versus

Sumdac and trying to get the, you know, the city

contract for who's going to patrol the city,

whether it's Sumdac's police robots or whether

it's Prometheus's roid raging people. And this

is where the reference I mentioned last episode

comes in. So we don't have a repeat of that unfortunate

incident with the captain's wife They don't really

go into that right no They don't really go into

it But after some deck says it you can they cut

this the fan zone and he just kind of like grimaces

The conference is over and some decks like We'll

talk to my regards to your wife I thought that

was funny that in in Detroit you've got You know

a giant robot police officer that looks vaguely

like the Ed 209 So you've got the some deck systems

Ed 209 and he said well He doesn't say it, but

I was thinking you have ten seconds to comply

Well like the Ed 209 it gets blown up, but I

was kind of wishing that they had pushed that

You know, that analogy a little bit closer. Yeah.

Let's see here. Okay. I get they have to show

all the Autobots transforming. And eventually

when we get to meet the Decepticons, they'll

have to show them transforming. I'm already sick

of the stock animation of the transform scene.

I already know how they transform. I don't need

to see it again. Was gonna say there's an episode

coming up where they they start doing the the

tornado transformation Yeah, it's not as vexing

as I thought it was gonna be But it's yeah, it's

still like you know I'd rather watch the stock

footage then watch them spin around a little

tornado, but Yeah, yeah, it's uh and I forget

what episode of this when they first start doing

it I'm not seeing it in my notes right away,

but so it must be like seven eight or nine or

something yeah a few episodes down the line yeah

yeah once we started doing it's like ah what

is that yeah yeah my final note and the only

really real smile i got out of watching bumblebee

was was hey watch the paint job which is a nice

g1 sunstreaker reference oh yeah it's when he

got hit by when bubble got hit by by the acid

What else do we get? What do you got for this

one, Steve? Well, uh... I don't really care for

this episode, particularly. I think it's more

so, again, another human villain. Yeah. I just...

yeah. This is a cool human villain, though. Granted,

I will give you that. It makes me think about

Blight from Batman Beyond. In a sense. Oh, yeah,

well he's powers and Batman Beyond Okay, you'd

have to see the show to actually know he's like

Yeah, Derek powers and Batman Beyond got toxic

chemicals spilled all over him and he ended up

this radiation energy slash skeleton that was

Basically take DC. Oh that comic. Oh, yeah. I

know. Yeah, that was yeah. I like that guy Yeah,

this is kind of like I see the resemblance now

that Steve pointed it out That's the first thing

that I thought about when I saw this and I was

like, yeah, this is pretty much But it's it's

a cool take on it But I still think Batman did

it better Yeah Not a bad villain though. I would

say that if they had to have any of these human

villains in here This would be the only one I

would accept I mean, this is the only one that's

really powerful enough to defeat an Autobot.

True. The other ones are like, uh, you know,

talking to them and they're like, get off my

lawn. You know, it's like, I have a bow and arrow,

you know, or, you know, or, you know, just something

lame, you know, and this guy's like, I can melt

your face. What's your power? I can shoot acid

at you. That's pretty scary actually I mean All

he needs is like a second pair of jaws to come

out bust through your skull and he'd be an alien

Wow Don't don't know I might be stretching it

with the analogy there, but no I do like this

bad guy Yeah, he is very cool And this won't

be the only time that we see him so very very

cool Yeah, what's cool is that he comes back

with something that's actually relevant to g1

Yeah, we'll get to that we'll get to that later.

Yeah. Yeah, we'll get to that much later Yeah,

but I like how they mix them in. I mean he this

is your your classic mad scientist gone bad Yeah,

yeah, yeah, he's working with the super steroids

and stuff that you know He really shouldn't be

toying with God's domain You know and he's he

it turns around and it bites him You know, yes,

you know, they don't actually show him getting

Splashed or infected or whatever it is, you know,

but it's like one second. He's like, ah, you

know on the next second He's he's crying acid

from it from his, you know sunglasses, which

is just messed up my eyes They would have shown

it but maybe they they thought that it was a

little much for little kids or something Well,

it isn't Batman after all they can't show you

know, somebody getting killed or mutated I Don't

know they showed well that's that's later. I'll

save that for later um well Steve um well I Don't

know I just I don't like this episode other than

that other than the character I don't really

care for the episode and it there's yet another

all sparky usage There's... We should so start

a count of how many damn times this key has been

used. At this point it's... Too many to count.

It would be on three hands. I'll have Kevin go

back and I'll make him do it. Or I'll ask him

to do it. And then we'll keep track from here

on out. No, I'll ask him to do it from here to

the end of the show. Because he always likes

pointing out, oh my god, they're using the fucking

key again. So... Since Kevin likes to point it

out all the time. Yeah, so we'll have a special

sound effect maybe that plays. It says, all spark

key, plot device, hello. Plot device goes here.

Insert plug. Every time it happens. What do you

have for total meltdown, Michael? Well, first

of all, you know, Captain Fanzone is a crooked

cop. How do you figure? Well, it's like, at the

beginning, he's got, you know, the skybox seats

with Prometheus Black and he's watching the wrestling

match. And he's like, yeah, thanks for all the

gifts and the blah, blah, blah. And, you know,

you're not trying to, you know, sway the police

department area. And he's like, oh, no, you know,

yes, he is. Yes, he is. And you took every fricking

bribe. That's why you're up there and then the

skybox, you know, okay Well, I can kind of argue

that because that was the way that Prometheus

was presenting his method of protecting the city

Yeah, and granted it's it's more on Prometheus.

Yes fan zone is in the wrong for for taking this

stuff But it's more on Prometheus trying to blot

You know trying to bribe him rather than fan

zone is an out -and -out dirty cop and you know

fan zone is nowhere near Mr. Training Day over

there Denzel Washington. Thank God Yeah on the

one hand I kind of like that because he's not

the one trick pony he's not I hate machines and

that's his one line, you know here he's actually

Interacting with other characters in the show

that doesn't involve him hating machines, right?

Yeah, it's like well, okay. I'll kind of buy

that you know And then the whole fan zones wife

debacle You know, they kind of it's kind of adding

to his character Yeah, so that was welcome for

me. You know the other big part of this episode

was You know quote -unquote bumblebee is little

Yeah, we sure you know and the whole time it

was Puns or or you know, it's like, oh he comes

up a little short. Yeah even Prowl gets in on

it, and he didn't get exactly what he said, but

it was something funny. And BallKid's like, oh,

the ninja bot gets in a good one. Everybody's

in on it. And Bumblebee is just so overly sensitive

about it. Yeah. He's just like, what do you mean,

little? It's like, oh, sorry, little guy. Oh,

didn't call you little. It's like and it keeps

up for like 10 minutes. Yeah, it gets old. Yeah

I mean it's it's adding again to his to it to

his character, right? He's the littlest one I

get it, you know I mean we sat through three

or four episodes of that in Beast Machines up

until Rattrap finally got the you know, the giant

at 209 body from Megatron, right? And it partially

it makes me wonder You know, at what point is

Bumblebee gonna get a giant ED -209 body? Well,

we already had the ED -209 reference in the police

robot, so... Yeah, but I mean, this isn't helping

Bumblebee. I mean, at a certain point, he gets

his booster rockets. That doesn't help him either,

though, so... Does it really help, though? It

doesn't make him any taller. I mean, I'm expecting,

you know, like ultra Magnus power armor for him

So he'll be taller than prime and be like, oh,

you know that type of thing. This is not our

motto. Thank God That's right. We can't defeat

Megatron power up But again, I I did like meltdown

The name is meltdown, you know, they mean, you

know, you're a super villain when you take an

You know an alter ego name, right? And he shoots

acid which is awesome. I really like that. He's

chasing some deck around and what I didn't understand

is Why wouldn't Megatron step in and help some

deck? You know considering From Megatron's point

of view some deck is the only person that knows

he's He's alive, right? He's the only person

that can help him get his body back And yet there's

this crazy guy running around shooting acid at

him well As I said before, Megatron hasn't revealed

himself. Megatron's still trying to figure out

what the fuck's going on. I don't know. In the

last episode, we've seen that he can take control

of machinery. There's an awful lot of robots

running around in Sumdak's lab. Yeah. Well, that's

robots. This is a guy that spits acid. There's

a big difference. Yeah, I was just I was expecting

you know Megatron like you know hey, that's my

meal ticket Yeah, keep off of him. Are you gonna

have to talk to me? But again Because he hasn't

because Megatron has this whole thing and we'll

get to this next episode Megatron hasn't revealed

himself to even some deck yet. Yes Megatron has

you know interest in some deck, but as I said

before Megatron still trying to figure out what

the fuck That's okay. You're right. Yeah, he

doesn't reveal himself to some deck until the

next episode right so Megatron just wakes up

and sees the Starscream thing and then he sees

the Autobots his first thought is I Gotta go

destroy the Autobots or I gotta have these little

nanobots go destroy the Autobots And I believe

it's I believe it's in the end of this episode

or it might be in the beginning of the next episode

Where he says to himself? He says well, maybe

I need to reveal more of my Cybertronian stuff

to Sumdack so he can do whatever, but it's not

until the next episode that we'll be talking

about today that he actually truly reveals himself.

So Megatron going after Meltdown would have totally

fucked the entire story. Right, yeah, I'll buy

that, sure. Another comic book tie -in. and this

one this is really stretching it okay so the

first comic book tie -in you've got cyrus as

bane on batman and he bane the whole thing on

bane as he gets huge by using a steroid called

venom speaking of venom this is where we stretch

cyrus doesn't like high frequency sounds just

like venom on spider -man yeah the symbiote suit

no it's not a stretch at all Okay, yeah. And

that's like ink on Batman Beyond. Yup. Well,

it all ties back to Batman Beyond. Yup. But no,

I was just thinking, I'm putting two and two

together in my head and I'm like, wow, I wonder.

And I'm thinking, you know, this passed through

their minds when they wrote this. I mean, I had

to have. I like Ratchet's line of... When optimus

tries putting the bell over meltdown and he's

like scratches like didn't you get the memo of

the guy? Who can melt through anything? That

was my first thought was what is that bell gonna

do was he gonna ring the bell Well, it's over

his head. I mean that would suck sure, but the

guy doesn't have ears Don't think it's gonna

do any good But again bubble be learns and he's

progressing as a character to the point where

He takes one for the team at the end I'll give

him that yeah, I'd give him that but like the

first 20 minutes is like I'll give him the last

eight minutes of the episode the first 20 I Mean

he's shown himself to be very brave, you know

at the at the end of the the movie in the beginning

or Where he throws himself off the parking garage

into the giant worm thing. Yeah Yeah, you're

going down You know, I mean the exactly yeah

Yeah, and here he jumps out in front of the acid

shot. That was you know meant for somebody else

You know as annoying as he could be he has a

heroic streak in him. He's a brave little guy

I will agree. He has his moments. Unfortunately

His dickish moments outweigh his good moments

at this point in time All right. Well, just wait,

you know, eventually he's gonna be in the leak

art not in the series he's not only in 24 season

4 right that's funny we have anything else for

total meltdown yeah nope all right we are moving

on I can't thank you enough and again my apologies

for the glitch in their programming you call

breathing fire a glitch I suppose I was overly

inspired by you Autobots and your powers. I should

be more careful when I try to reverse engineer

alien technology. So what will you do with them?

Keep them in the energy cage for now, then melt

them down first thing in the morning. Melt them?

After all, they are still just mindless machines.

But I... I sense something. A life force. A spark.

What if they are more than just mindless machines?

That's an awfully big what -if, Prowl. But I

think Professor Sundak is right. These things

are far too dangerous. Come on, Autobots. Let's

roll! They do look kinda happy. Thanks again

for your help getting them here. And thanks for

keeping it a secret from the others. Dino -Bots

won't cause any harm here. And with a little

holographic trickery, no one will even know they're

here. Do you really think it's the right thing

to do? Just because something is big and lumbering

and destructive... Doesn't mean you give up on

it. And finally up today is Blast from the Past.

Megatron has just made himself known to Isaac

Sundak and tricks the inventor into thinking

that he is an Autobot. He then helps him in reprogramming

some robotic dinosaurs after Bulkhead accidentally

destroys them at a robotic theme park. While

Sundak tries to rebuild them, Prowl teaches Bulkhead

how to think and move, which doesn't work. Behind

Isaac's back Megatron upgrades these dino bots

Grimlock snarl and swoop and Yes, the snarl is

the Triceratops and yes Slag is now a curse word

in transformers lore. So These are to become

his new attack drones, but during their rampage,

both Ratchet and Bumblebee try to use an EMP

attack to disable them. However, Sari's key gets

pulled into the mix again, which gives the Autobots

a small semblance of spark. Megatron tricks them

into attacking the Autobots because all the cars

are bad. Or robots bad. This forces the Cybertronians...

to battle them it is during this fight that bulkhead

proves to be exactly what the Autobots need to

be need him to be to stop the Dinobots his muscle

more than a match for you suck at this shut up

I know His muscle is more than a match for the

dinobots muscle some Dak thinks it would be better

to Dismantle the dinobots and prime agrees but

Prowl who senses a life force inside them going

back to his He is the Mystic Rhino of this series

He and both head without primes knowledge take

the dinobots to an island. So we have Dino bot

island reference Okay, that about covers it.

Thanks. Yeah, if they if some of these synopsises

weren't so long I wouldn't suck at them, but

Wikipedia has varying lengths of each one Like

it's not like I'm reading from the books anymore

because there were no books with the DVDs I thought

we weren't gonna do synopsises for these How

else are we gonna get the thing out anyway? Um

seriously bulkhead destroys every car while driving

He's not that big of an SUV. I mean, he's not

that big of an APC. He's an armored personnel

carrier. He's huge. He's not that... Like, APCs

are big, but they're not that big where they

take up the entire street and destroy every single

car. He's clumsy. Oh, God. You know and again

like the last episode it's like they beat you

over the head with it bumblebees small He's little

you know and then this one they beat you over

the head with it. Well Ken's big He's he's really

big and he bumps into things and he's klutzy

and You know they they try to to work on it.

You know prowls is You know trying to train him

To not be clumsy. I guess which fails which fails

right you know, but you know at the end Getting

ahead of myself here. It turns out I know it's

you know that they need his brute strength and

it's like Life lessons So Megatron this is where

Megatron reveals himself, but let's keep my existence

a secret Yeah, you know again, I don't want to

beat this what that doesn't work Obviously not

later on it doesn't it does for now Well, you

know like if you have like two girlfriends and

you tell the one girlfriend, you know, oh god

is a secret I can't believe you're equating Megatron's

secret existence to having Two girlfriends. Oh

god. Okay, so between us if you will, you know,

it never works because they all I always find

out Yeah, you know eventually or your body gets

replaced and you know, you jump out of a mountain

or something It's one of those things where with

bulkhead They're trying to change him Just let

him be what he is. I mean, yeah, the guy is clumsy,

but they're He's to the point where he's so clumsy

and large. He's too big to be gentle. He just

is it's just not his style and it's you know,

it's kind of like somebody oh Actually, this

kind of goes back to transmutate. Oh, I want

you to be this. No, I want you to be this Why

don't you just let them be what they are, you

know? So what you're saying there is you like

bulkhead, so it's bad to change him. But you

hate Bumblebee, so it's perfectly OK to change

him. There's a difference between a regular character

flaw of being super clumsy and just being an

outright dick to people. I don't think he does

it on purpose. He's just a little on the naturally

obnoxious side. Megatron creates the Dinobots,

yay. And then, of course, he tricks them. They

feed on your bones. I so didn't really care for

the whole thing of tying the fossils and the

fossil fuel into car robots. Bad. Yeah. You'd

think this far in the future everything would

be solar powered or something. Exactly. At the

time this is you know in g1 wheeljack creates

the Dinobots Right and in animated Megatron's

head creates the Dinobots Right yeah, that's

as far as it goes. I just couldn't think of anything

past that Of course my mind Wasn't the the Japanese

series called car robots and of course the Dinobots

must destroy car robots. Yes That was the Japanese

name for robots in disguise. Yes, although Derek

J Wyatt claims. It's not the reason why that

was in there That's fine. I mean, you know, we're

just eluding, you know, we're we're finding connections

that probably aren't there and as podcasters

that's what we do, but Stupid nature come back

and fight Grimlock transforms me Grimlock like

After gets pooped on I I really like the fact

that they they gave him a robot mode and you

know, he comes back all the Dinobots come back

and they play pretty substantial roles later,

but you know, I was really expecting these guys

to You know just be throw away. Yeah. Oh, they're

not real They're just robots and then we're gonna

put them on an island where they can graze and

shoot flames at birds And then at the end he

transforms And it's like whoo And you know the

other two transform, but they don't show yeah

the other two transform. Yeah, I mean that I

just thought it was cool, but when Again jumping

right into the middle of the story here when

we've already talked about the end but Megatron

adds I forget the term we use but you know modifications

Yeah to into their their design and he tells

them I designed you I created you, you know,

I'm your leader and You know Grimlock gives him

the finger says no all But Megatron says well

I added modifications like flame breath, you

know, and someday it gives them the third degree.

It's like Why would you have flame breath? And

he says, well, I'm sorry. I wanted to build a

new body for myself and I thought I'd try some

stuff out on these, you know, which should have

raised huge red flags for some to act to begin

with. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's like, OK, so you're

a psychopath and you are controlling my robotic

empire at this point. Yeah, but it didn't say

anything about. the ability to transform it does

well some uh megatron said he added modifications

and some deck is like modifications as in plural

and he goes yes yeah you're right he didn't actually

say what the second mod was well and that's what

makes me wonder now sorry's key affected all

of them And what makes me wonder is, is that

how they ended up with Sparks? Probably. They're

not. They're not just machines anymore. They

have been granted life by the AllSpark. Right.

Or at least, sorry is key. They don't come out

and say that, but you know, Prowl is like, I

think I sense something within them. And the

question becomes now, did the AllSpark also give

them robot modes, or the ability to transform?

You've got You know random cars and thingy garbage

trucks that can suddenly transform from the use

of the the all spark fragments Yeah, but but

here it's like well, so They give they get a

spark and a robot mode from sorry is key. I mean,

that's huge Steve I was gonna say technically

it it probably does but it doesn't maybe it's

something that Essentially got and I'm saying

this with a grain of salt because Megatron of

could have programmed it specifically into Grimlock

Being that he's the only Dinobot that transforms

yet all three of them are alive Okay Whereas

future robots get all spark fragments, which

is what ultimately gives them life. I mean, with

Grimlock, it could be a combination of the two,

like Steve said. Megatron could have programmed

an alt mode, but Megatron is not an all -giving

life source. So maybe when Sari boosted the EMP

with her key, Maybe giving them life Allowed

them to access the alt mode. Maybe it was there

in the it's kind of like when you have An app

like say you have a game on your computer running

it, but you have other stuff running in the background

You know it could be something like that, okay?

It was the only analogy I could think of yeah,

so this is another one of those where you know

we asked Derek Wyatt, and he's gonna be like

You're thinking too much into this. Just don't

overanalyze. But that's the point of reviewing

the show, is to overanalyze. Did he get their

robot mode from Megatron, or did he get it from

Sari? Or from G1 Wheeljack, which is, you know,

my preferred... I'll totally buy that. Steve,

what do you have for Blast from the Past? First

of all, I like the introduction of the Dinobots

granted in their archaic form to begin with this

kind of Interesting to see how that they eventually

fix them to or quote -unquote fix them To be

more, you know realistic and which they were

brought to life I like how Megatron revealed

himself just kind of talking out of nowhere just

you know assumed acts talking to the tutor bot

and then Megatron just is like, yeah, I never

knew that either and then he's like what you

know, it's just I don't know. It's just crazy

Yeah, he's like you talk I've been pulling parts

off of your face for decades I thought maybe

you should go with the chicken sandwich today

He's like could I borrow the all sparky Yeah

But yeah, I like that. I like how Megatron finally,

you know, comes back and then basically talks

a bunch of shit that gets Sumdac to believe that

he's on his side. Yes, I'm an Autobot, but don't

tell anybody. Don't tell anybody I'm here. Don't

tell Optimus. Let's keep it a secret from all

my other girlfriends. Yes, I just thought that

was kind of interesting that he just pulled that

one. All the while he's you know, I like the

fact that he tested ideas out on Grimlock that

he never actually used Yeah, which helped fill

the plot void of trying to create the actual

classic Grimlock in a sense. Oh Yeah, and I I'd

love how at the end he just all of a sudden goes

and transforms and pulls out the Energo sword

With flames on it. Yes, I love that. That's awesome.

And the flaming sword was cool. Yes, definitely

cool. And it's funny how Megatron comes up with

his name. For Grimlock. Yeah, I'm locked in this

grim situation or whatever it was. My prospects

are grim. Locked in this prison of a lab. Yeah.

Grimlock. That is some awesome writing right

there. Mm -hmm. This is where you start actually

getting into some good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I like this episode. I actually I found myself

thinking more of Jurassic Park in the beginning.

You can't help but think of Jurassic Park when

they first go to the dinosaur exhibit. I mean,

yeah, you're right. You can't help. But think

about Jurassic Park, right? It's called dino

drive and as soon as you drive up they I don't

want to say cue the Jurassic Park theme music,

but it's very similar to the Jurassic Park theme

music. Yeah And then later on when they when

some deck reintroduces them he's like I give

you The dino bots and then cue the Jurassic Park

theme music again. It's it's cool. I mean, I

really like Jurassic Park. It's a classic, right?

But I think they were pushing this a little heavily.

Yeah. Yeah, they kind of were. And it only happens

for one episode. So, I mean, it's not like, you

know, it's not a total plot device like other

things are. To take it a step further later on,

when you hear Grimlock roar, his roar is just

straight Jurassic Park T -Rex. It's not as long

as trumpeting, but it's it's almost like they

took a sound clip from it. Yeah, I'm sure that's

possible No, they're they're really pushing the

analogy and I like it again because I really

like Jurassic Park But you know, it's at some

point, you know, it goes from homage to to oh

shit Yeah, that is kind of funny. Anything else,

Michael or Steve? Do you guys have anything else

on Blast from the Past or anything else we have

to cover for it? I don't think so. I have a couple

ideas here. I like the teamwork between Bumblebee

and Ratchet. This is the first time that Bumblebee

uses electricity and Ratchet uses the magnetism

together to create an electromagnetic pulse.

Or it's like a like a like a super laser of some

sort But you know they're they're using it against

the Dinobots and things seem to be working out

pretty well But then sorry jumps in and plugs

their key in now It plugs a key into a bumblebee

while they're doing it now. This is probably

the point where All of them are granted sparks,

but at the same time the super laser they're

using Against the the Dinobots melts off their

skin Yeah, it met a little traumatizing I mean

Well, they were gonna be in Beast Wars, but now

they're an animated I know well, it's kind of

cool because it's like well, you know, they were

dinosaurs, but now they're Straight g1 homages,

right? I mean, it looks like Grimlock. It looks

like swoop. It looks like slack or snarl snarl

snarl i'll show you a slag that's a big pile

of slag oh sorry my name's snarl snarl snarl

snarl but uh yeah i just thought that was funny

it just melts off their skin and i'm thinking

this is pretty traumatic here i mean if i was

a little kid i'd be like fuck man Mean, I don't

know I know that the three of them are obviously

G1 homages And I know that slag has become a

curse word in the transformers You know lore

now based. I don't I'll a slag Slaggity slag

slag slag slag it Like I know that's becoming

transformers curse word now and all that stuff

I understand why like I get that they There's

two levels here. I get why they used the T -Rex,

the Triceratops, and the Pteranodon, because

that's what the original three Dinobots were.

Well, no. There were five. No, yeah. It was what

three of the original five were, because Snarl

and Swoop didn't come to later. My question here

is, instead of using the Triceratops, why not

use the Stegosaurus and call the damn thing Snarl?

Because that's what Snarl was in G1. That's a

good question. That's a really good question.

The original three, now that I'm actually using

my brain and thinking about it, the original

three was the T -Rex, the Triceratops, which

was Slag, and the Brontosaurus, which was Sludge.

Sludge. Technically, there's no such thing as

a Brontosaurus. He's a Brachiosaurus. Whatever

he is. Had to throw that in there. But you know,

Sludge does make an appearance later. Right,

but what I'm saying is because of the whole name

change, why not instead of using the Triceratops

and calling the damn thing Snarl, which was a

character's, you know, completely different,

why not use the Stegosaurus instead of the Triceratops

and just call that Snarl instead of using, you

know, Slag's form. Right. That was just the first

thing that popped into my head when I really,

you know, started thinking about it. Personally,

I prefer the Stegosaurus over the Triceratops.

When I was little, the one Dinobot that I actually

owned was Snarl. And his tail fell off. But that's

neither here nor there. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. No,

it's all right. So. Me, GripLock. So I think

we're going to head to some ad. What? Sorry Just

one more thing that At the end the whole moral

of the story here or the whole moral of the B

side of the story is the bulkhead? Wins out not

by following prowls advice. We're kind of like

bumblebee did but just by being himself and And

you know, I mean he's good at breaking stuff

at the end. They're just like dude. Just just

break stuff and He he goes all bulkhead smash,

you know, just He runs through it just beats

a snout out of all the the Dinobots. He just

out of brute force and you know all of the Bulkhead

isms that come along with it where he's like,

sorry my bad But I like that at the end, you

know, he just he wins out just by being himself

which yeah, you know It's it's uh, if you can't

grow up and be a ninja then you should at least

try to be yourself Exactly So anything else?

Nope. Alright, so we're gonna move on to some

ads and then we're gonna head to Cybertron where

we have Stranded Kevin, Optimus Solo, and we'll

be back with the outro. Here is quote number

one. Inject. Operation interference. No, there

will be no Operation Interference. I am TFG1Mike

and you should be listening to my very first

podcast, the TFG1 Podcast. 24 episodes covering

the entire US run of the 1984 Transformers cartoon.

I also have a few supplemental episodes and an

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Tune in. I don't understand the purpose of the

opening scene with the archer character. Maybe

we'll see that character again, but as far as

a first -time viewer of this episode, I have

no idea why that scene was part of the episode.

Then we get to the actual Transformers. Once

again, every time I hear David Kay's Optimus

Prime voice, I cringe. But I do like that Prime

has bolas all of a sudden. I like the weapons

in this series so far, so give them that. My

main problem with this episode, even though it

does... develop the character of Prowl, it turned

Prowl, which is one of my favorite G1 characters,

into one of my least favorite Transformers characters

of all time. Apparently he's an emo bot that

likes meditating and he likes nature. Why couldn't

we have just named Prowl Hound, so at least we

were somewhat accurate with a character that

likes nature? Whatever. And sorry, your key is

not wicked cool. I'm sorry. Oh, I did it again.

Other than that, I mean, it was a pretty basic

episode. I like Megatron's line of I have no

hands. That was kind of humorous. I'm not 100

% sure why Megatron can see everything that's

going on. They didn't do a real good job of explaining

why he can see what the little robot thing is

doing. But I can look past that. This episode

did do a good job of setting up Megatron's character.

It was all a character development episode for

me, Prowl and Megatron, so the action that was

taking place in the episode is kind of, you know,

it's not even important. But the animation is

awful. Bum will be squirming on when he gets

picked up by that little hook grapple thing.

These Transformers are made of metal, and I wish

they would have told the animators that. They're

not elastic. Overall, not a great episode, not

a horrible episode. I'll give this one a 4 out

of 10. Let's move on to the next episode which

is total meltdown written by Rich Fogel. Oh my

great God this episode is terrible. What's bulkhead

drinking in the beginning? That's just a question.

It has nothing to do with why this episode is

terrible. The episode goes a horrible down a

horrible path right from the beginning when we

find Bumblebee in a wrestling arena. What the

fuck? Of course, we get a couple more key uses

from Sorry, and a great key. I'm glad that's

in a part of this series. I'll eventually stop

mentioning it, and you'll just have to assume

that it's terrible and it's used in every episode.

Praise the dialogue in this series up to this

point. The dialogue in this episode is fucking

terrible. Way to cut him down to size, came up

a little short, let's have some more small jokes

just... laced throughout the entire episode.

The dialogue's terrible in this episode. Prometheus

Black is a decent character. I like him, even

though I have no idea what type of accent he's

using. First of all, it changes off and on throughout

the entire episode. And then second of all, it

matches no accent that I can think of. But the

character itself I like. As far as the meltdown

character being able to go through, they call

it Autobot Alloy. So was that something that

the writers couldn't come up with what Autobots

were made out of? So they had to say Autobot

Alloy? and should we then assume that meltdown

only affects Autobots and because Decepticons

must be made out of a different alloy altogether?

Just a little picky part, but why is Optimus

even in this episode? Sorry is giving the orders.

Optimus is just in the background doing nothing.

I don't even know why he is in this episode.

And why when Bulkhead is getting meltdown by

meltdown, why doesn't he let go? He just keeps

the hand holding it as he's melting down. Let

go, that would be your first reaction. This episode

is two different halves. The first half of this

episode is absolutely bat shit stupid. It does

get a little better in the second half, but overall,

I'm sorry. This episode gets a 2 out of 10. This

is... maybe one of the worst. It was going to

be the worst Transformers episode in the entire

Transformers franchise that I've ever seen. The

second half of the episode saved it. I'm still

giving it a 2 out of 10. Now let's go to Blast

from the Past written by Kevin Hopps. So we're

getting different writers here all the way along.

Hopefully Rich Fogel doesn't do too much more.

Blast from the Past, I actually like this episode.

I'm going to look past that word. The teacher

in me that goes crazy because we're teaching

kids incorrect information, he mentions in the

first part that we're talking about the Jurassic

period. And then they show a bunch of dinosaurs

that are not from the Jurassic period at all.

So I have a little bit of problem with that.

Bulkhead did turn retarded at a part of this

episode, but he gets better at the end. It's

a great storyline though. At first I thought

they were gonna go the storyline which is how

Megachon became a dinosaur type figure in Beast

Wars. You know I haven't seen the series so obviously

I don't know what Megachon's form eventually

is, but I like the idea of this is how the Dinobots

came about. It's a good storyline. I'm not sure

why the key changed the type of material the

dinosaurs were made out of and turned them into

these Cybertronian characters, but that's the

fucking key, so we'll ignore that. The Grimlock

line, it looks grim, me being locked in this

lab and then Grimlock using the name, that's

great. with the whole dinosaur angle and the

whole Dinobots and Grimlock and all that until

they do the whole cars and trucks feeding on

fossil fuels nonsense that's too big of a leap

guys you're stretching a little bit too far with

that I was with you with the whole angle The

car's truck is bad because they eat fossil fuels.

That's kind of lame. Another kind of cool line

there when they call the equipment prehistoric.

I really like the zoom deck and the Megatron

angle and how they're interacting and the dynamics

there. That's one reason why I like this episode.

And Prawn and Bulkhead end up not being so bad

in this episode, not quite as annoying as I was

finding them earlier. I do have a question though.

Why is Grimlock the only one that can talk? They

don't really touch on that at all. Maybe they'll

touch on that later, but Grimlock's the only

one that talked and then all of a sudden he turns

into this kick -ass robot mode at the end. I

just dig this episode so far. I mean it's not

my favorite Transformers episode of all time,

but so far in this series this is the best we've

seen. I'm giving this one a 6 out of 10 and now

I'll spin it back to the rest of the guys. So

we are back and we'd like to thank our Cybertronian

correspondent I only have two notes out of what

he was talking about As far as Megatron being

able to see what the pocketbot was doing Megatron

is hooked into some DAX system. He can control

The robots so that's how he was able to see what

was going on When the pocketbot was in the Autobot

base As far as the key we all agree all four

of us agree that The key is the biggest fucking

plot device ever. The thing with the key about

giving the Dinobots life and changing the way

they look and all that is because the key has

the AllSpark in it. It has energy from the AllSpark

in it. So... The key gives the Dinobots life,

I guess. Michael, do you have anything you want

to add or respond to Kevin about his notes? I

thought he trounced on a total meltdown pretty

bad. um and just basically saying that the writing

was was not as good because uh of all of the

you know quote -unquote short uh puns that are

directed toward bumblebee and i mean honestly

from a writing point of view it's not easy to

come up with that many puns so i think i think

i think the writers need a little more credit

uh and then from blessed from the past uh you

know i Not I'm not sure if I like that episode

as much as he did I mean if you're A total Grimlock

fanboy, but yeah, you're gonna love this one,

but I'm not as much I really like the the Dinobots,

but I think After reading enough Simon Furman

stuff. I'm kind of sick of him They're sick of

Grimlock at this point because Simon Furman just

uses him way too much As far as I will say as

far as Grimlock being the only one to talk I

believe and I'm not trying to spoil this for

you Kevin, but I believe that Grimlock is the

only one that talks throughout the entire series

probably because they Had everybody on the cast

doing multiple voices at the time and they maybe

couldn't have hired other actors. I don't know

So there's that what about you Steve anything

to reply to Kevin on Um, I kind of agreed with

some of the things he said I still think optimus

he still needs to give him a chance Optimus he

does optimus is not ass. He's actually one of

the better ones It's just cuz he's so young and

that's not what everybody expects get out of

the g1 Yes So, with that, thank you for joining

us here on Transformation Animation Podcast.

There are several ways to get in contact with

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name 502 -526 -5821 We hope you enjoyed this

episode of transformation animation podcast and

wish you'll join us next time We'll be reviewing

three more episodes from Transformers animated

season one those being the thrill of the hunt

nanosec and along came a spider For now I am

TFG1 Mike with Michael Wilson and Steve Megatron

Phillips. We'll tap you again next week