Interview with Dan Gilvezan on Legacy Transformers Voice Acting

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, everybody,

this is Bumblebee, and you're listening to the

TFG1 Podcast. Cool, huh? Hey, everybody, this

is Dan Gilbazan, voice of G1 Bumblebee, and you're

listening to All Things Transformers. We better

check this out. Hello and welcome to All Things

Transformers and the TFG1 Podcast. I am one of

your hosts, TFG1. Mike, joining me is Optimus

Solo. How have you been? It's been a while since

you've been on All Things Transformers and the

TFG1 Podcast. Yeah, I've been busy with our Cinema

Geeks Podcast. We've been covering Westerns all

year, classic Westerns, and the Planet of the

Apes franchise currently, so that's where I've

been. Yeah, I was like... I understand the Westerns

and that's fine after the, was it the Cary Grant

or the Hitchcock? Yeah, it was Hitchcock before

the Westerns. And I was like, wait a minute,

where are these apes coming in? Why are the apes

getting into the Westerns at the same time? That

was weird. Counter -programming against ourselves.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But

check out the Cinema Geeks, folks, only on the

GCRN. We have returned from Cybertron. We are

back here on Earth with the latest interview

in our long -running series of interviews here

on the GCR. And this time, we welcome back into

the podcast, after 14 years, the voice of Spider

-Man, Bumblebee, and many others, Mr. Dan Gilvezan.

Hi, Dan. How are you? Hey, guys. What's happening?

Not too much. We're excited to get you on here.

trending recently with some social media comments

and videos surrounding the Optimus Prime Awakening

Short. And we will get to that shortly. But before

we do, we just wanted to catch up a little bit.

So Mike has a couple of questions for you. Sure.

After all, it has been 14 years. Yeah, absolutely.

So first of all, how the heck have you been since

the last time we talked with you in 2012? Well,

still alive, still kicking, still working. Still

doing voiceover stuff. I just did a movie last

year. And I'm doing lots of conventions this

year. I've been all over the country. In fact,

I'm going to Houston on the 17th and 18th for

their convention. That's this month. So I've

been doing a lot of stuff and writing as well.

So I've been pretty busy. Just got a new puppy,

too. So I'm taking with her. Yeah, we have a

sweet little puppy now. Yeah, yeah. But everything's

been great. Yeah, I saw one of those puppy videos.

I'm like, uh -oh, that's a lot of trouble. Yeah,

she is so cute. You just look at her and those

big dark eyes bore into you, and your heart does

a flip -flop, and you just fall in love. It's

impossible. You mentioned writing. Are you writing

another autobiography? No, I've been writing

some some one acts. Friends of mine who are actors

have bemoaned the fact that there are no two

person scenes that are really do anything for

them, really, you know, that are three minutes

self -contained kind of thing. So I've been working

on some of those for friends. And that's been

working out kind of nicely. Comedy is a little

drama here. So that's that's taken up some of

my time. But it's no, no, no autobiographies

at this point, although. I'm sure we'll get into

this later, but I don't know whether you're aware

of it, but I was sitting on an interview with

Peter Cullen. I have it right here. I'm looking

at it right now. After he passed, we were all

just really, really sad about losing Peter. I

thought, this is not doing anybody any good sitting

on my hard drive, so I went ahead and put it

up. People have really been appreciative. He

was really open with me, and we were actually

at Le Petit Chateau, which is where he would

be every Thursday night having a martini or two.

And I sat down with him one night, and we had

a very intimate conversation where he shared

stuff, I think, with me that he probably never

shared before with any other interviewer since

because we were friends and colleagues. So I

was really happy to be able to do that for the

fans so they could have something to kind of

hang on after Peter went away. I think one of

my favorite lines out of that interview is you

were talking about all the stuff that Peter had

done. And one of the parts is Joan Stewart played

your wife and he asks you. How do you know all

this stuff? I looked it up. You're anal. You

leave my anus out of this. That's right. Children

could be listening to this. Speaking of which,

Dan, we did want to give you a chance. That was

kind of one of our bullet points and segued nicely

into that. But we did want to give you a chance

to talk a little bit about Peter. If you had

anything else that you wanted to mention, you

know, to reflect on your time recording with

him or what you think about when you think about

kind of his legacy. Not just when it comes to

the Transformers franchise, but kind of his legacy

within the voice acting community as a whole.

Well, you know, Peter had been, you know, I met

Peter. My gosh, the first time I met Peter, it

must have been like 1981 when I was doing Spider

-Man and his amazing friends. And he came on

to do there was an episode, I believe, that the

Hulk was in. And Peter was both Banner and the

Hulk. And that's the first time I met him. So

we're talking a long time ago. And over the years,

we worked on a lot of stuff together. I think

he was on Dino Riders with me. He may have been

on Sektars. I'm not even sure. And of course,

you know, Transformers was a big thing because,

you know, we did a lot, a lot, a lot of episodes.

And so I was with him a great deal. Unbelievably

facile talent. One of the sweetest. Next to Frank,

who is the sweetest man in the universe. He was

probably the second sweetest, just never had

a bad word to say about anybody, was always professional

with what he did, and I considered him a really

dear friend. The last time I saw Peter was at

the TFCon in Burbank. That was this spring. And

he had been in treatment and had been pronounced

cancer -free. He was sitting in a van by himself

waiting to be driven back. And I just went up

to the van and I put my hand over his and I said,

Pete, I'm really, really glad to have you back.

And he turned and he had tears in his eyes and

he said, thank you, friend. And that was the

last time I saw Peter. Yeah, I know. It's just.

You know, there's no way to get around the sadness

and also the great loss to, you know, the Transformers

franchise because Peter had many more years,

many more voices left in him. So, you know, and,

you know, we're all getting up there. We're all,

you know, all of us G1 guys are, you know, some

of us are there. My gosh, Oppie, Alan Oppenheimer

is in his 90s, for God's sake. And he's still

going to conventions. You know, more power to

him. But, you know, we're all getting up there.

So, you know, grab us while you can is my point.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Speaking of anniversaries

and things, the 40th anniversary of the Transformers,

the movie. Can you believe it's been 40 years

since that thing was in theaters? Yeah, I know.

It's pretty crazy. I remember when it came out

and, you know, it didn't do that well. It wasn't

that popular until it became sort of a cult item

among Transformers fans. And now it's hugely

popular. And the music is... I remember we were

at... I was at a... This is some time ago, but

I was at a 25th anniversary, I think. um of the

release and it was at a local theater here and

they had michael bell and greg berger and myself

and a few other people who lived in la and i

was sitting next to peter or to michael bell

at the back of the theater waiting because we

were going to do a q a after the thing and the

music is and they had the thing cranked up to

11 you know and it was bang and bang and bang

i turned over to look at michael and he's He

was asleep. I couldn't believe how anybody could

fall asleep in the middle of that movie. That's

one of my vivid memories of going to that movie.

That's crazy. Speaking of, you mentioned that

it didn't do too well originally. Have you at

all been keeping tabs on how it did with this

40th release? Because it actually made some decent

money. Yeah, it did well. Well, you know, it's

achieved kind of a cult status. And there are

so many Transformers fans all over the world

that I'm not surprised that it did well. And

I was pleased, certainly, that it did well. And,

you know, this thing just keeps growing and growing.

It gets bigger and bigger every year, it seems

like. It was fun. I have a six -year -old daughter,

and the two of us went to see it. And she doesn't

know a whole lot of Transformers. She doesn't

have a knowledge or background in the franchise

necessarily, but she still cried when Optimus

Prime died. So it was quite the moment in the

theater there. Great. So we traumatized a new

generation. Hey, that's the only way to do it,

right? I suppose so. It's like a baptism of fire.

That's right. You're not a true Transformers

fan until you've watched Optimus take his last

breath. Right. The first thing I asked her afterwards,

though, about her reaction. commented on the

music. She was a big fan of the music. That was

rock and roll. It was. That's some head -banging

music, man. At least the theater that I was at,

they had that thing wailing, man. It was really

something. The funny thing about the money with

the movie and it making a lot of bank back now

with the, I think it was like 4 million or something

or other for that. They extended how many shows

they were going to do. Yeah, exactly. But my

thing is in total. It only took 40 years for

it to make its budget back. Which shows that

in this business, if you're patient, you know,

things will work out for you. Patience is a virtue.

That's right. Do you have any specific memories

of those recording sessions or the film specifically?

And kind of how was that different from when

you guys recorded the actual series? Well, I'll

tell you, I actually did not record with the

group. You'll recall that during that period

of time, we were all very, very busy doing animated

series to back up each toy line that ever came

out. I can only assume that when the main cast

came in to do it, I was not available. So I came

in later, and it was just me and Wally and the

sound engineer and some folks from... from the

studio so i you know and i didn't have that many

lines really if you if you watch the movie you

see me and spike at the beginning and then i

kind of disappear completely and then but i am

in the big dance number at the end so at least

i survived so um so that i don't have that great

a memory but i'll tell you i have another this

is okay this is breaking story for you i have

another interview that i did with scott brownlee

Way back, way back in the day before Scott. Scott's

actually doing. By the way, if you don't know,

he was our sound engineer. He was there for every

episode that was recorded. He pushed the buttons.

He did. He did all the sound stuff. He checked

the microphones. He did all of that. Scott was

really knowledgeable about what went into the

technical aspect of it. And I was interested

in hearing about that. So and this was about

the time I interviewed Peter and we're talking

like, I don't know, must have been like nine,

10 years ago. I still have that. And I'm considering

putting it up, too, because he talks about how

they how they they treated the voices because

they're the slight robotic quality to it. Nothing

that's too heavy, but there's something kind

of there. And I just I told him, well, I assume

that you just added a little buzz to the to the

voice. Right. He looked at me like I was crazy.

He said, oh, no, no. There were like four machines

they had to use. They rented them actually to

go through and get the quality that Hasbro was

looking for and that Sunbow was looking for for

those voices. So it was much more complicated.

Plus, he had some great stories. You talk about

the the movie. He had some great stories about

Orson Welles coming in with his little dog. So

I got to release that. I'm going to do it maybe

in the next couple of weeks because it's kind

of a fascinating interview in itself. Very cool.

So when the film came out back back then in the

80s, did you have a chance to I know some actors

stay away from the end products and some some

like to watch them. Did you watch the movie originally

back then and kind of. as it's had its different

anniversary things, have you been someone who,

who has watched it a couple of different times

in the theaters or how has that experience been

for you? Well, I've seen it a few times because

of, you know, doing Q and A's for like the anniversary,

that type of thing. I didn't see it when it first

came out. And to be honest with you, I wasn't

that interested in it because. And this is, you

know, completely unfiltered Dan Yildizan. I was

not happy with the script that they did. They

actually took all of the main characters and

made them very minimal characters. Right. And

then they used a bunch of, I guess you could

say, stars or celebrities, you know, Eric Idle

and Nimoy and all these other guys. um and used

them as like the main portion of the thing and

i thought this is you know you're not being true

to to what the uh the the audience is expecting

you know i i mean i i it came out fine but i

was not happy that uh spike and bumblebee were

pretty much relegated to the first couple of

minutes and then they were gone and that was

true of a lot of the characters and of course

they killed many many characters so when i when

i read the script um i was like this this I'm

not too thrilled with the way they're handling

this. And this is my opinion. You know, that's

just me. And it's because I tend to be very protective

of what we did back in the 80s, from 84 to, I

guess, 87. You have another story about how I

found out we were done, too. Remind me to tell

you that. So, yeah, I wasn't really, you know,

too thrilled about it. I'm happy that people

enjoy it and I'm happy that it's gone on to be

popular. So don't get me wrong. I'm not disparaging

the movie at all. I just wasn't pleased with

the kind of the the angle that they took, I guess

you could say. Well, and I think that was something

as you know, the prime audience, because I was

I grew up in the 80s. That was something that

was hard to take as a as a child, too, because

it was all the characters that you had. grown

to uh appreciate like love whatever the the case

may be for those first uh you know however many

episodes aired before the movie and and it was

hard too i think that's what kind of like led

me to other franchises afterwards i think i got

interested in maybe turtles the turtles or different

things that came after that because i was like

well they just they just killed off everybody

that i liked or or they you know like i said

brought in so many new characters that it was

jarring as a as a you know an audience you know

fan as well yeah well it's interesting you should

say that because that's been my take since you

know since it came out. I know you don't like

this and I understand and I respect it, but here's

my, here's my trajectory. All right. I saw Optimus

prime die and I saw the, the whole movie and

everything else. And over the last 40 years of

my life, I was six. I didn't see the movie in

theaters, but I was six when all that happened.

And hot rod, Rodimus prime is my favorite character,

but how I found like, like kevin said he went

on to other franchises i did the same thing i

thought transformers was done after the movie

no seriously like as a kid i thought okay well

unicron's head floats away and transformers till

all are one and everything else like that's what

i thought i thought It was done. I ended up in

some video store. I found a VHS copy of something

called The Rebirth and whatever. And I saw that

and I liked that. That was okay. But there was

one thing. I think it was during the return of,

I think it was the return of Optimus Prime. That

was right before The Rebirth because that was

the season three ender. When I saw that. And

I saw that certain number of other characters

died off or were supposedly died off and they

then were able to bring them back. I know you.

Yeah, I know what you're going to say. Go ahead.

You know what I'm going to say. Yes, I do. Go

ahead. But it's because I love because you were

back. I'm not just plain old Bumblebee. I'm a

gold bug. You went and said it, didn't you? You

went and said it. Yeah, it's well known that

I was not happy with that decision. I understand.

It was a toyetic decision by the company. I get

it. Let's take a super popular character and

do some... I don't even know if there was any

design changes. We'll just paint him... There

was. Okay, great. We'll paint him gold. Because

everybody bought Bumblebees already. Bumblebees

were already all sold out. Nobody wanted Bumblebees.

I had a Bumblebee. Everybody had a Bumblebee.

But nobody had a gold bug. So, once again, it

was totally unnecessary. It was totally toy -centric,

as you said. And it didn't last that long, unfortunately.

It didn't. And the only reason why I like it

is because, again... He wasn't gone. He wasn't

dead. He wasn't gone. He was back. He just had

a new paint job. The toy, I remember the toy

because I had the Goldbug toy. I think it was

not a jump starter, but it was one of the pullback.

Jump starters were a different thing, but he

had forward motion. Oh, really? That was his

gimmick. That was Goldbug's gimmick was that

he had the activate feature where if you pulled

him back and let him go, he would enroll. I think

that was what it was. I could be completely misremembering

it, but I just liked it basically in spirit.

Bumblebee made it through the whole series, even

though they had to give him a new paint job.

Well, yeah. I mean, I was happy about that. Actually,

as the series went on, there were 95 episodes.

98. 98, sorry. And I was called every week at

the beginning, every week. There were actually

12 of us, original voices. And we did the first,

I guess, 13. And then, you know, it started actually

as a five episode strip show and they wanted

to see if it was going to work and it worked

really well. So they went on with more. But as

the show went on, I did less and less. My call

would be every two weeks and then maybe every

three weeks. And I was like, oh, I see what's

happening here. I see it pretty, pretty plain.

I was still involved even up to the very end.

So I was happy. But it was, you know, Bumblebee

had had performed his mission, which was to sell

a bunch of toys. And so they needed, you know,

they needed shelf space for the other for the

other toys that were coming out all during the

time. So and, you know, it was a toy based series.

It was based on a toy line. So, you know, that's

the bottom of everything. What I'm amazed at

is. The people who created it, the Flint Dillies

and all these guys, the guys behind the scenes

who created this world, did an incredible job

of setting up a world where you could go almost

anywhere. And they have, with Beast, with Animated,

with all the different types of series. And it's

all based on this premise that these guys came

up with, which is pretty freaking brilliant.

And I think that's one of the reasons. I mean,

there's been tons and tons of shows during that

time that you won't even remember the names of.

But because of the way this thing was constructed

and the names that they gave them and just the

care that they took, it turned out to be something

much, much more than just a backup of a toy line.

So you teased it earlier with how you guys found

out that it was coming to a close. So did you

want to share that? with us now? Yeah. Um, yeah,

we had, uh, let's see, I was at a, uh, an industry

event and, uh, I was sitting in my seat waiting

for it to happen. And I felt somebody poked me

in the back and I turned and it was Chris Lana.

And I said, Hey man, what's going on? What's

the deal? And he goes, Hey, you know, uh, transformers

is over. I went, what, what do you mean it's

over? Yeah. We did the last one, uh, last week.

It's all over. It is. Yeah. Are you sure Chris?

oh i'm sure and that's how i found out there

was no rap party there was no announcement it

just ended and I was kind of upset and sad about

that because we'd been together for such a long

time. And it's traditional. I did a show for

Hanna -Barbera called Pound Puppies. And after

the first season, there was a big wrap party

of Spider -Man and his amazing friends. After

the first season, there was a big wrap party.

Stan was there and all the cast was there and

all of the animators and all that stuff. Nothing

with this. It just ended. And that kind of made

me sad. Yeah, that is that. That's crazy. Yeah.

And that's how I found out. Chris Latter told

me. So I'm curious because, you know, obviously

in the eyes of the fans and the audience, like

it's easy for us to group, you know, different

actors that were in shows together. But I was

curious when it came to that group that was involved

with Transformers, you know, especially the ones

that were heavily involved. How often? I know

you guys see each other again and you work together

again in different shows and things of that nature.

But how often do you interact with the other

actors throughout the years from the TV series?

Well, because of the way it works now, everybody's

at home doing recording singly. So the only time

I see these guys are at conventions. I mean,

the last time I saw Michael Bell was at a convention.

I saw Greg Berger recently. I was with Townsend

Coleman not that long ago. I don't know. Townie

did some of these, I think. So that's the only

time because the whole thing has changed. Back

in my day, the entire cast would be gathered

at one time and, you know, everybody would be

together and it would be, you know, one great

big party. And although we did have some work

to do. There ain't no session like a Wally Burr

session, baby. Oh, jeez. Don't even talk to me

about that. You know, everybody, any hardcore

fan knows about Wally and his quest for perfection.

And I got to say, you know, Wally would drive

me crazy as he drove everyone else crazy. But,

you know, the proof is in the pudding. I listened

to an episode not that long ago just to kind

of, you know, get my feet wet again. And the

voice work is really, really good. I mean, the

animation shows its age. But to me, the voice

work and the camaraderie that was created is

really good. You guys did an amazing job. There's

a reason why so many people involved in that

show did have the sheer number of credits to

their name when it comes to especially the voice

acting world. Well, yeah, first of all, I mean,

that was not to pat myself on the back, but that

was a creme de la creme of voiceover talent in

L .A. at the time. You couldn't get anybody any

better. And I was like, so I was thrilled because

it was only my second show. The first was the

Spider -Man show. Spider -Man. Yeah. And so I

was thrilled to be a part of this. And I really

felt I had to up my game to keep up with, you

know, people like Frank and Peter and Michael,

who'd all been they'd all done tons and tons

of stuff before that. What about for any of the

anniversaries? You mentioned that, you know,

they've done some Q &As and things of that nature.

Has a small group of, you know, the cast got

together for some of those events? No, not really.

No, it's kind of like, you know, it's like a

show, man. You know, when you're doing the show,

everybody's in love and everybody loves one another.

And I'll see you all the time. It's going to

be fantastic. You're like a brother to me now,

you know, and then you don't see anybody anymore.

It's just because the show is over now. Occasionally

you'll strike up a real, real tight friendship

with one or two people and that may go on. But

generally not, you know, generally we're not

a group of people who, you know, hang out and

play pool on Friday. You know, so as I said,

the only time most of us see each other is at

the conventions or like the thing we did last

year for Hasbro, which was the 40th anniversary

of the series. And we redid the first episode

live, which was a lot of fun. So those are the

only times that I really see these guys. And

it's always a treat to hang with them. But, yeah,

it's it's not like I mean, it's a it's definitely

a club. You know, it's like somebody goes through

the army with somebody and that like binds them

for life. You know, somebody needs a kidney and,

you know, I'm there for you. It's that type of

thing. I'm not saying that, you know, that kind

of intensity was involved, but it's that kind

of camaraderie that that sort of wove us all

together. So when we do see another of us, it's

like. Ah, another club member. Come here, my

friend. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously getting into

voicing Bumblebee in the last 40 years, most

people know you as G1 Bumblebee, but you've had

some chances to voice Bumblebee. In other projects,

you voiced him in Transformers Devastation for

video games, and then that was in 2010. In 2026,

you voiced Bumblebee for N .G. Smoove's Dawn

of War project. What was your experience like

in each of those projects? How did they compare

to your original experience? Well, there was

really no comparison because, you know, once

you enter video games, as I'm sure you know,

and most listeners know, all of the voices are

done one at a time. It's you alone in the studio

and you just use an iPad. Now there's not even

any scripts anymore. There's, you know, you flip

an iPad, but, you know, it's just line after

line after line. Whoop, can't go there. Better

try here. Oh, that's locked. Got to find a key

or whatever it's going to be. And just, oh, you

know, oh, no. And at the end, then all the screaming

takes place where you're falling and you're getting

killed and all of that. Luckily, they keep it

to the end. So that's completely different. That's

completely different. Now, for Randall, who's

also behind the smooth stuff, he's been a friend

of mine for a long time and he's done some wonderful

stuff for me. And I was more than happy to jump

in and help him with his presentation. And as

far as the video game went, I mean, I was really

glad to revisit the character. And I think that

they did a beautiful job with kind of invoking

the G1 aesthetic in the game. And it was apparently

very popular. So I'm always thrilled to go back

to it like that. And that's another issue that

we may want to talk about. Yeah. That's where

we're getting right now. Perhaps we buried the

lead a little bit, but I did want to... One of

the main reasons we wanted to invite you on the

show today and do this interview is because obviously

we've seen the social media posts, whether it

be some of the text posts you've made, some of

the videos you've posted and things of that in

regards to the Optimus Prime Awakening short

that followed the movie 40th Anniversary Edition

in theaters. And we wanted to give you another...

outlet another platform to kind of fully share

you know what your reactions were to that what

your thoughts were and opinions about you know

some of the stuff revolving around that bumblebee

character and what you've expressed online okay

well first of all did you guys sign the petition

yes yes that's the correct answer um all right

let me let me start at the beginning and what

happened was they released um I knew that they

were going to do the 12 minute kind of add on

to the to the 86 movie. I didn't know what it

was about. I knew it was some sort of reclamation

for Peter or Optimus, rather. And I knew Frank

was involved as well. But I saw a piece that

just just a hunk of it that was on the Internet,

you know, not the whole thing. And here comes

Bumblebee. He's evil, of course, which I wasn't

quite understanding. And he doesn't have my voice.

And I was like, wait a minute. Wait just a minute.

That's my guy. What's happening here? Oh, Hasbro,

what's happening? And what's happening was, and

this is my surmise, I don't know any of this

100%, but it looks to me, judging from the rest

of the cast list that I looked at, that they

went to Canada for the rest of these voices besides

Peter and Frank. And the reason that they go

to Canada is because the Canadian Actors Union

do not require the producers to pay residuals.

So it's cheaper for them. That's what they did

with Beast Wars. Way back in the day, we did

G1 and then came Beast Wars. Beast Wars was next.

Am I right? Yes. OK, so Beast Wars was next.

They took the whole thing to Canada. Now, none

of us were happy about that. In fact, we were

really bummed out and pissed off about that.

These were all brand new characters. So we couldn't

really say, you know, I own that. That's me.

You know, yeah, these are new characters. So,

OK. And they did a great job. You know, David,

David Kaye and Gary Chalk. Yeah. Yeah. Gary Chalk.

Absolutely. And Gary's great. And so they had

some great talent working on it. In this case,

I felt like this is a chance to go back to the

origins and use the G1 voices. They also had,

I think, one of the Insecticons, which was who

was played by Hal Rail. And that was also voiced

by, I guess, a Canadian actor. So I thought,

what can I do about this? What can I do? And

I talked to some of the fans and they said, you

should do a letter writing or an email writing

campaign. And you should put up a petition to

say to ask Hasbro, not tell Hasbro, not demand,

but ask Hasbro. If they would consider using

G1 voices, the original G1 voices, the ones that

are still around for any G1 centric projects,

it only makes sense. It keeps the tradition going,

the fans. And I'll tell you what, if Hasbro decides

to do this, and we don't know, I haven't heard

a word from their side. So nobody knows. We're

over a thousand signatures on the petition right

now. And we can use, of course, a lot more. Obviously,

the more signatures we have on the petition,

the more weight it's going to bear. And also,

we did put out some of the at Hasbro email addresses

of these executives who are in charge of these

types of decisions. And a lot of people had emailed

them. So I'm not sure what kind of an effect

that's going to have. It's either going to impress

them or piss them off. That was my only question

about about. You're giving out the information

and stuff like the petition I agree with and

everything else, but giving out their email addresses,

is that? Just ask them a question. Oh, I understand.

If it was their personal email account, yes,

that would not be right. These are available

online. You can find them almost anywhere. And

generally, the people who work for a company,

it's usually their first and last name, sometimes

separated by a period. at whatever company they're

at. So it's not like some kind of major secret

that we let out. I would never, ever ask my fans

or anyone. I didn't think you would. No, I would

never ask them to, you know, they all have personal

emails and I would never, even if I knew it,

would never put that out. So I thought this was

still fair game because, you know, we're talking

about basically, as I mentioned before to the

fans who questioned me, this is a business decision

these guys are making. There's no animosity on

their part. They're just doing what they do to

try to help the bottom line, basically. My point

is, I think the goodwill that they will engender

by this, the positive feelings toward Hasbro

by the fans, is going to more than make up for

the tiny, tiny, tiny bit of money that they're

going to have to pay in residuals. Besides, YouTube

videos pay so little. And these guys are making

they're making billions of dollars off of this.

It's not going to hurt that bad, guys. No, not

at all. To use the G1 actors. And I know the

fans would be absolutely ecstatic about it. I

mean, the hardcore, you know, Transformers fans,

the ones who consume the media, the ones who

buy the figures. They're the ones, you know,

they're the ones who are going to go, all right,

Hasbro, you did the right thing. All right. So

that's what I'm hoping for. I don't know if it's

going to happen. I actually don't know what's

going to happen. I would love Hasbro to put out

a statement to say we've heard you and we've

decided to do as you've asked and use the G1

actors, the ones that are surviving, obviously,

for energy. You know, I would just look I would

love to see some sort of statement like that

come out. Don't know if it's going to happen.

May not. But at least we will have made ourselves

our voices known. I think there's been two things

that have always bugged me over the years and

I've been, you know, somewhat very steeped into

voice actors and the history and chronically

in their, you know, work and credits and things

of that nature. And I think one thing, there's

two things that bug me in the world of, I guess,

Hollywood or outside of it. But number one is,

you know, like we talked about before when they

go the celebrity, the quote unquote celebrity

route. Yeah. And, you know, they just get a big

name who may not be as skilled. in the actual

art of voice acting. Not that some haven't done

a decent job, but it seems like it's taken away.

And I don't know how much that name really does

anything to sell the project. You know what I

mean? I don't know if they really get an ROI.

I don't know if some type of study could be done

or has been done on that or whatnot. But that's

one thing that's bugged me. The second thing

is when it's not just bringing a new character

in that is voiced by a... a celebrity star or

something like that, but also when it's a character

that already exists and the original voice actor

is still working and able to recast it in any

way, shape or form. And we've seen that done

in a variety of different franchises and properties.

And I think both of them always sit not so great

with the, with the fans and you know, the community

that's consuming the art. Yeah, I think you're

right. I think, you know, I think there's a,

There's many levels of fan, obviously. There's

some super hardcore fans. There's some ones who

are really into it. And then as it spreads out,

there's some people, as I said on one of my posts,

it's like some people out there who are Transformers

fans don't give a damn. And it's fine. We're

not talking to them. You know, it's fine that

you don't care whether they use the new voice.

And even somebody commented, I've had a few negative

comments, which I thank them for because at least

they took the time to say something. You know,

so somebody commented that, you know, step aside,

let the young people, you know, do their thing.

And I was like, you know, excellent, fine, excellent

point. That's not how we're feeling. But, you

know, you may feel that way. That's fine. That's

not how a lot of us are feeling here. The really

hardcore fans that I'm that I'm hearing from

and associating with the response to this campaign

has been remarkable. I mean, that. The petition's

only been up for, I think, like five days or

six days, and we have something like 1 ,100 and

some signatures, and we got a lot really fast.

So I want to try and keep the word going out

there and just keep building on it because, as

I said, the more signatures that we can show

Hasbro, the more they're going to go, oh, wow,

this matters to a lot of people. And that may

help with their decision, whatever it may be.

Have you gotten any feedback or response from

fellow voice actors that have seen what's been

going on or that you've clued in on? Yeah, I

sent an email to Michael, to Hal, to Greg Berger.

to John Machida, to a few other people. And they

all got back to me and they said, well, I just

signed a petition. Thanks for doing this. And

I'll put it out. Yeah, they're all they all feel

the same way, obviously. I mean, as actors, sometimes

you become involved with the character so deeply

that it becomes almost a part of you. I have

a great affection for the little yellow guy.

I have a great affection and a great. Feeling

in my heart for him and I feel protective of

him and to see him with someone else's voice.

It just it does something to me. It's like, what?

Wait a minute. Did I just switch reality somehow?

Did I walk into a different timeline here? Why

is this not the regular voice of Bumblebee from

the very beginning? And I think it's just. But

I think it's just that Hasbro doesn't really

have – I don't know how to put this. I don't

want to piss them off because I'm not angry with

them. I'm more confused by this decision. I'm

not angry. I mean, obviously, they paid Frank

and Peter, and they have been even through the

movies and all of that. But I just – it doesn't

make any sense to me why you would take a legacy

character. That was begun 40 years ago and then

bring him forward in time and give him an entirely

different voice. Right. Especially when the voice

actor is available. Now, when we did the 40 year

table read last year, there was Greg Berger was

there, although he you know, the Dinobots didn't

come in until episode, I think, 13. So it wasn't

they weren't even part of the original cast.

So but Greg did a great job with what he had

to do. But, of course, Peter and Frank were there

and myself and Michael Bell. And I can't remember

who did Starscream. Please help me. You guys

know he's really good. Frank Todaro, maybe? Yes,

Todaro. Todaro is really great. So if you're

going to do Starscream, give it to Todaro. That's

awesome. You know, that's great. Get somebody

who can do a great sound alike. But for the guys

who are still around to do the characters, use

them. But I just don't think it hits Hasbro in

that way. I think they're more, I don't know,

I don't think they're that finger in the pie.

You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. I understand

what you're saying, and I respect what you're

saying. I want to give you a counterpoint. Optimus

Prime Awakening, most of it is Optimus in the

afterlife. So think of it as a... dream sequence

kind of thing so when bumblebee appears to him

in the afterlife and it's evil bumblebee or it's

a it's optimist thinking that he's failed bumblebee

or something and as far as all my research jared

lemaster who is the voice actor who is doing

the voice this person is brand like he doesn't

have a lot of credits to his name he's like literally

brand new uh the lines are that the exchange

from optimus and bumblebee is bumblebee starts

the exchange and i'm not even going to try to

put on voices when i do this but What have you

done? I'm sorry, old friend. One day you will

understand. Where are you going? To light our

darkest hour. In the short, the way the master

voices Bumblebee, he's angry. He's dark. He's

not your Bumblebee. Just like you don't like.

I'm not just Bumblebee anymore. I'm a gold bug.

Just like you don't like that. Just like you

don't like that. upgrade of the characterization

of your character when i watched this i didn't

hear your bumblebee i think i i guess i'm on

the same side as dan with this one because and

i think that's been something that's been somewhat

confusing i think for some of the folks online

and some of the reactions and things of that

nature is there's been a lot of different bumblebees

over the years right and your point with this

one specifically dan is that Even though Bumblebee

may have existed in the live action films or

in some other, in Transformers animated and all

these different iterations, it was different

properties. Whereas this one is specifically

calling, it's being played after the 86 movie.

It's the G1 Bumblebee. And that's what really

has triggered the reaction for you, if I'm correct.

You're absolutely correct. You've just watched

a 90 minute movie. And he talks like this. And

then you get to the end, and he has a totally

different voice. So that, to me, was like, I

don't understand the thinking behind this. Although

it may just be, hey, we're going to save money

if we go to Canada. He's only got a few lines.

Give it to a Canadian actor. It's fine. And this

would have been totally different if this had

existed in some other... It wasn't playing after

the 90 minutes. It wasn't connected to G1. It

was just a... totally different interpretation

of all of this, then that would be a different

thing. I get that. But in counterpoint to that,

let me give you this. I was asked to do a video

game called Spider -Man Shattered Dimensions,

where they were using four actors who had performed

the voice before, and they wanted me to do Bumblebee.

And when I heard it, I thought, oh boy, it's

going to be that upbeat, great Bumblebee. No,

this was Miguel O 'Hara. who's much darker, who's

much, the voice is deeper. I did my Bumblebee,

I did my Spider -Man, but with a different approach.

If you asked me to do the evil Bumblebee, it

wouldn't be this guy necessarily. You know, it

would be something deeper, perhaps, or something

a little more sinister. You know, I think you

could still use the voice and still get that

effect. You know what I'm saying? And then it

almost translates even better because you still

get the hint of the other character behind it,

right? Exactly. I think it's more effective that

way for sure. Dan, I did want to give you a chance

too to like, obviously we'll post something or

whatever, but as far as the petition that we've

mentioned multiple times, how can people find

that online? Yeah, it's easy. Go to change .org

and in the search box, just put in G1, it'll

come right up. Yeah, and I'll have a link in

the show notes. Okay, great. Yeah, if you just

put in G1 in the search box, it's the first thing

that pops up. I'm happy to say that we've had

a lot of response. There's something strange

that they say petitions with more than a thousand

names have a five times better chance of winning.

And I didn't quite, and I still don't quite understand

what that means. What do we win? Do we get a

prize? Do we get, like, beanies? I'm not sure.

It's currently sitting at $1 ,162. I just pulled

it up. Yeah, I mean, we're doing great, but I

want to keep it going because, as I said, the

more signatures, the more it's going to have

weight with Hasbro if they get a chance to look

at it. Apparently, at the end, When we decide,

OK, we're done with the petition, we want to

present it, that change .org actually presents

it to the people that are listed at the bottom

who are the decision makers. So I'm looking forward

to that. And I would assume many of them. on

Monday came in to a lot of extra emails in their

boxes. And as I said, it either pissed them off

or they thought, wow, there's a lot of people

who really care about it. I don't know which.

So I hope we haven't pissed them off. I didn't

mean to. I'm all for Hasbro. Hasbro gave us some

great opportunities and continues to, and they

continue to put out great product. I'm just coming

from this one angle and asking them about this

one particular thing, and that's please. If you

can find it in your hearts, use the G1 talent

that still exists for any G1 -centric character.

If you do a G1 throwback series, please use the

G1 actors. The fans would bend over backwards

for you. You would be golden to them. It would

be a giant PR plus for them, I think. And the

fans that are, you know, especially if you're

trying to introduce it, let's say, to a new generation

or, you know, you know, the kids like my my daughter

and things of that nature, the the parents that

are making those decisions are the ones that

grew up with that cast. Yeah, it makes sense.

Like, you're absolutely right. Yeah. I just would

like to see, you know, the legacy honored in

that way. And that's as simple as that. Yeah,

I agree. Thank you. Are there any other projects

or anything else you've got going on that you'd

like to remind the listeners about before we

close out the episode, sir? I can't. There is

one thing I am working on, but there's an NDA

involved, so I can't talk about it. But it's

similar. I will say it's similar to the work

that I did for Robeson the last couple of years.

I don't know if you're familiar with that. Very

cool. Yes, yes. Now, Robeson, God bless them.

They didn't hire some guy for 500 bucks off the

street who sounded a little bit like Bumblebee.

They got me. And they didn't pay a huge, I mean,

they paid a decent amount of money, but it wasn't

like an incredibly insane amount of money. But

they were respectful enough of the continuity

to use me for that figure, for both of them,

as a matter of fact. They've done the same thing,

obviously, for Peter and Frank. They did the

same thing with Berger. I understand. Well, I'm

not supposed to say that. You have inside information.

We'll have to get that from you off air. Sort

of. Let me just say this. As they add more Transformers

to their line, they will be looking at the G1

actors. Yes, they will. Yeah, they're not going

to be, you know, hiring some kid who might sound

a little bit like it for, you know, $100. So

my hat's off to them for that. And I have to

say it was a total pleasure working with them.

The guy who really, my point person was Logan

Webster, who has his own company and works with

them and, you know, puts all this stuff together.

It was absolutely a dream. And it was, you know,

once again, you know, it was by myself, but at

least, I had that sort of upbeat feeling behind

me. And when we finished actually recording,

Logan said, is there any other phrases that you

might want to include? And I came up with a few

that I thought might be. And one of my favorite

ones is some of my best friends are humans, which

we added to the repertoire. So I was just really

pleased that Robeson took the time, made the

effort to use the original voices. And I think.

And obviously, well, to my mind, at least, it

improved the final product. Very cool. Very cool.

Is there anywhere online where the fans can interact

with you that you'd like to inform them about?

Well, I'm on Facebook. So if you want to, you

know, Facebook message me, you can. Or if you

want to be. I've had a lot of friends in the

last week or so. And I'm happy to do that. I'm

also on Instagram. And I'm also on TikTok. There's

all of that stuff. And, you know, if you want

to say something or if you have something that

you'd like me to consider, I'm more than happy

to answer you. I want to be as connected with

my fans as possible now, especially now when

we're trying to get this done. Absolutely. Very

cool. Very cool. We would like to thank Mr. Gilbazan

for taking the time to chat with us in this special

TFG1 podcast and all things Transformers interview.

Optimus and I will be right back after these

messages from these other awesome Transformers

podcasts. They may be damaged beyond repair.

Who? Tell me. Cop and Wheelie? Blur and Steeljaw?

Bumblebee? Then let's find them and get them

into the repair bay. We'll need your help. Cybernet

Space Cube. Race of the Transformers. Transformers

Generation 2. Wrong. This is not Generation 2.

This is Generation 1, done right. The year will

be 2014, and from secret staging grounds on two

of Cybertron's moons, the valiant podcasters

prepare to reclaim their reputations. September

17th, 2014, the TFG2 podcast premieres 45 podcast

episodes dedicated to all 98 episodes of the

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as they redo TFG1 and get it done right. You

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was a very old ad for the TFG1 podcast. I am

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when. But enjoy that. Old ad. Hey, toy fans.

This is John, also known as Iacon Dispatch. You

can find me on pretty much every social network

at Iacon Dispatch, where I share cool Transformers

and Star Wars stuff that I like. Thanks so much

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for once again letting me contribute to it. Definitely

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And guiding me on this journey is author Michael

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folks. My name is Mike and I am the host of the

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tell you all about my show. Good thing. I've

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My guests are independent artists who tell their

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Make good choices. Emerging from the dark humor

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20 episodes covering all three seasons of the

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We'll also have cast and crew interviews, so

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ToyCast. I'm finished. They are all restored.

I see you're no worse for wear than I was. Optimus?

Optimus, you're alive! You're alive! I don't

believe this! I don't believe this! Do you guys

believe this? It's Optimus! Optimus Prime, by

gosh, is it really you? I must be dreaming. No,

this is real. I'm back, and now so are you. I

can't begin to tell you how great it is to have

your back, Optimus. It's great to be back up.

Yeah, let's go kick some Deceptitale. I'm already

willing and able. You can't keep a good robot

down, you know what I mean? Let's go, let's go,

let's go. What are you waiting for? Chill out,

Blur. We need a plan. Okay, Optimus, what's the

plan? I have no plan. All right, folks, we are

back here in the special interview of Mr. Dan

Gilvezan on All Things Transformers and the TFGN

podcast. And ladies and gentlemen, I am planting

the seeds of the future, which technically lie

buried in the past because I was supposed to

have this done in 2014. But the TFG1 podcast

will be coming back because we're going to do

it right this time at some point. And what better

way to start it off in the summer of 1987, or

in this case, 2027, when the series actually

ended. So that'll be coming up. Uh, and all that

good stuff. Where can the people find you online,

sir? And search me out at optimist solo. You

can search the cinema geeks out, uh, on YouTube,

Facebook, uh, et cetera. And you can get into

contact with all stuff. And if I ever released

another video, you can also find stuff on the

geek showcase. I do have two of the, uh, the

blaster hanger boxes of the transformers, the

movie trading cards that I'm about to do a video.

When I open those, I know you get the same, uh,

The same 10 cards in all of them, but there's

two inserts in each box. So we'll see what those

are. Yeah, there's two inserts. I'll post that

on the Geek Showcase. Yeah, I need to see if

I can find those. I just want to buy them off

eBay and get all the cards all at once. I mean,

the first few times I was at Target, they were

completely empty. The last time they had probably

two pegs worth full. Oh, wow. Very cool. I think

they're like 20 bucks. Nice. Very cool. Very

cool. All right, folks, that's it for this episode

of all things, transformers and the TFG one podcast,

uh, transform and transcend. And we will catch

you next time. It isn't even dead. Oh shit. What

are we going to do now?