Interviews – IA-CON ONLINE's RoboApollo

We're going to turn Cybertron into a giant mud

pit! The Beast Unleashed Podcast. This is Optimus

Prime, and you're listening to All Things Transformers.

Hello, and welcome to All Things Transformers.

I'm your host, Steve Megatron. Joining me in

this special episode is TFG1 Mike. Hello. Hello.

As I said, this episode is special. And in it,

we're joined by Robo Apollo, aka Apollo. And

if you're not familiar with her, she's the founder

of Iacon Online, the new virtual convention for

Transformers fans. Welcome. Thanks for having

me on, Steve and Mike. Absolutely. Thanks for

joining us. You're welcome. So... I have to ask,

just because we're here to discuss the convention,

but tell us a little bit about the idea and what

inspired Iacon Online. All right. Well, Iacon

Online, where all are one, is a not -for -profit

Transformers convention for fans. by fans. The

event is free to attend and it's going to be

running online January 30th and 31st of this

month. We are hosting panels with official Transformers

contributors and artists as well as highlighting

those within the Transformers community. We're

also going to be hosting a virtual artist alley

and cosplay competition. So it's just really

exciting with how big this whole event is getting.

So what happened was last year, back in August,

I'm actually looking at the tweet where this

idea came from originally on August 26th. A certain

TF convention was canceled. And because of the

pandemic and I will not name it. And I was super

disappointed. Like I'm sure everyone was just,

especially with how dark last year was and still

how it is this year too. But anyways, I put the

thought, the idea out there on Twitter, anyone

interested in participating in a TF online event

in October since. And I'm going to redact this

name of the convention was canceled. And so I

got a huge response from that tweet. It got 66

likes. There are people retweeting it. All these

comments, people asking me, like, what do you

have in mind? And I said, well, you know, I just

wanted to do a one day fan event. So that's where

the idea was born originally. I created a Discord

server from there and people joined. We started

having meetings weekly about it. And we soon

realized, oh, yeah, we're not going to be able

to do this in October. And then we talked about

doing it November. Then one of the people on

the call was like, no, we need to push this out

a few more months. We're planning an online event.

And so that's kind of where the idea came from

for this convention. What is something unique

you wanted to do with the convention? Well, something

that I wanted to do unique with it was to highlight

the fact that we're all fans. and the importance

of fans in the Transformers community. Obviously,

Transformers wouldn't have survived 35 years

if it didn't have such a strong fan base. So

I really wanted to highlight that, and especially

the passion of the fans and fan creators, fan

artists especially, and people who... create

fan content like podcasts and videos and animations

and whatnot. So that was a real driving spirit

behind it, especially because what's happened

over the last year plus now is all these conventions

have been canceled. And it's such a bummer. I

know it's a bummer for you both. I know it's

a bummer for myself. And there are a lot of artists

that rely on these conventions selling their

merchandise and their commissions in order to

make their bills, especially because a lot of

people have lost their day jobs, too, because

of the pandemic. And, you know, I wanted to think

of a way where I could help people. And by putting

on an event like this, this is going to. My goal

is that I hope that artists really benefit from

this event and it's able to help them get through

these rough times as well. Yeah, I mean, you

know, it's not Transformers' fault Beast Wars

had to save it twice. Yeah. Yeah, I think Mike's

hinting at something there. A particular panel

that I'm, I'm putting together. Yeah. So yeah,

I, I, I've been having fun and I love the, the

way that this has been coming about and the,

the discord channel. And as I've noticed being

on there, there's a ton of artists, a lot of

different variety and people that are very talented

at art that. is something i'm not very talented

at um but it's been enjoyable seeing that and

then seeing the the the guests that have been

lined up um some of the you know different people

that have been uh communicating through you know

the the just general chat or the toy chat or

other things um but what what are some of the

hurdles you've had to overcome with doing a virtual

convention You know, one of the hurdles so far,

but I don't think it's going to be a hurdle anymore,

was figuring out the tech aspects of it. So in

regards to putting on a virtual event, you know,

everything's online. It's not like you're going

to a different room to go check out a different

panel or, you know, going to Artist Alley in

person. It's how do you... organize the infrastructure

for these different types of interactions like

Artist Alley or getting autographs from voice

actors or commissions from artists or even just

participating in game shows or panels as well.

So it's just figuring out the logistics and the

technology that's required to run those things

was the biggest hurdle. We have an amazing person

on our team named Suna and who's in charge of

our technology and is going to be our broadcaster

for the event. a pro at this. We've done numerous

tech tests and we're going to be set for the

event. That's awesome. Very cool. Very cool.

Thanks. Yeah. And I've got to give a shout out

to Charlie for organizing our discord for the.

the official discord for the event which um you've

been able to peek around and it hasn't been released

to the public yet but um as you've seen like

artists are busy getting their uh stores ready

for the public yeah and it's it's very um very

well organized i was to be honest i was quite

surprised at how you were able to use Discord

and make it so clear cut. I did a virtual panel

or not panel, but a convention earlier this fall.

They had podcast movement and I was fortunate

to be able to be a part of that. And they had

a couple of different avenues of how they did

things. And I found it rather difficult to grasp

and kind of cumbersome in how they made it work.

I have to say that I really enjoy how well and

how easy it is to navigate Icon Online's Discord.

Well, thank you for that. And thank Chali for

that, though, because she's the one who organized

it. So I'm really grateful for her expertise

in that. What are some of the panels at the con

you're excited for? I'm I can't announce everything

yet because, you know, we're just waiting. What

we're doing is we're announcing things on social

media first and then I can make announcements.

But for stuff that's been announced and I can't

say what their panel is yet. I am super excited

about the Cybertronic Spree. Super excited. Like

this is not. This is nothing like they've done

before, my knowledge, what they're going to be

doing for our event. So I am very, very excited

about that. I am very excited about the Transformers,

the movie 35th anniversary panel that Joe Troutman

is organizing. And I am very excited about that

one. And also the Alita One panel. I'm very excited

about. There's just so many that, you know, I

can't say what they are yet, but I am really,

really excited about them. I'm excited about

the one that Anna Malkova is on. I'm going to

be hosting that, so I will leak that info. So

I am super excited about that one. She's one

of the current Transformers artists, isn't she?

Yeah, she's the main artist for IDW2. And what's

really cool about her is like many of the Transformers

artists is she started out as a fan artist and

became pro. Yeah, that's very cool. It's well

and funny enough. I happen to know a couple of

fans that ended up becoming voice actors and

I know what they did before. Because I. I was

a fan dubber with the Transformers community

for a number of years, specifically with like

Headmasters. Like, I don't know if you've ever

heard of TF COG. I've heard of it, but I haven't

seen anything from it. So there's there's a group

of people that have been doing this since like

the early 2000s. And people like Daniel Ross

and. frank tadaro and people like that have have

and john bailey they've all come out of doing

these fan dubs and kind of work their way into

actual voiceover which has been interesting uh

to see happen so i think that's super exciting

and i love frank's version of star scream like

in war for cybertron like it's just so good like

um I think he's probably the best Starscream

since Chris Lotta. My top three are Lotta, Bloom,

and then Frank. Same. Yeah, I think that those

are probably the three strongest we've had out

of the various iterations over the years. I agree

with you both on that one, that's for sure. They're

certainly not doing a bad impression of Chris

Lotta, which is always a bonus. Put your own

spin on it just a little bit. Have the same kind

of whine to it, but a little bit different. So

who are some of the guests that we can expect

that have been announced? Well, I'm actually

going to pull that up. In regards to official

guests, we've got, I mean, I can list them all

that we've got that we've announced so far. There's

still a few we haven't announced yet. But we've

got Andrew Griffith, you know, who is also an

artist at IDW. We already announced Anna. David

Marriott. David Sobolov. Who's also a voice actor.

He does Shockwave and Blitzwing. Depth Charge.

Yes, and Depth Charge as well. Super excited

to have him. He's also offering autographs for

the event. It's an IOCON online special. There's

more information about that on our website. We

also have F .J. DeSanto. We've got Flint Dilley,

Frank Todaro, Greg Berger. Jason Marnocha, who,

by the way, is my favorite Megatron now, which

is probably blasphemous to say, but I think he

does a fabulous job as Megatron. We've got John

Moshita Jr., Lindsay, and I'm probably going

to butcher her last name, so I apologize. So,

Lindsay Rousseau. Sounds right. Sounds right.

Yay. Next, we've got Livio Ramondelli. We've

got May Cat. We've got Matt Murray. Next is Shane

McCarthy. Stan Bush. And the Cybertronix Spree.

Specifically, Shockwave, RC, Hot Rod, and Rumble.

All the best characters. Well, they're all good,

but I really love Shockwave from them the most.

And then we also have Thomas Steer and Vince

DeCola of announced guests so far. Very cool,

very cool. It's a very, very nice mixed bag and

loaded official guests for sure. Thank you. You

know, one of the things about this event, you

know, another thing is, you know, at the tagline,

it says we're all are one is all of us may have

had a different starting point in Transformers,

but we really want to bring everyone together.

We want to make sure that there's a variety of

voices heard, you know, whether they're official

guests, you know, we want. people from different

backgrounds, different Transformers series to

just come together and be a part of this event.

Oh yeah, totally. And like I said, it's nice

seeing such a variety from the various iterations,

whether it be from the movie, whether it be from...

G1, Beast Wars, War for Cybertron. There's just

a nice mix between everybody on there. Thank

you. It's been a huge surprise to me, quite honestly,

with how big our event is getting. Originally

when... we'd started planning this, you know,

my vision for it was just to be, you know, a

small fan run event during the day for maybe

a few hours. And I'm just really proud of what

my, the team's built and what, you know, how

big this has grown, you know, it's just really

amazing to me to see, you know, where we've come

so far with this. Absolutely. And it's one of

those things where. because we can't do in -person

conventions, online stuff has to be what is done.

And as long as you, the way I've always, I mean,

in my youth, I may have said, oh, G1 forever,

screw everything else. But, you know, for the

last, you know, 11, 12, 13, 14 years now, I'm

like, we all have interests within the Transformers

fandom, no matter what it is, just because. I

read the comics at IDW doesn't mean somebody

else isn't going to read the comics at Dreamwave

or wherever, or just because, you know... War

for Cybertron is not G1. War for Cybertron is

its own cartoon. It's its own continuity. It

draws things from G1. It does not take away from

the original 84 cartoon. The 84 cartoon is still

there, whether it's DVD, whether it's on a streaming

app or whatever. No one's taking that away from

anybody. Again, the whole thing of we are all

one. We are all in this. We're supposed to all

be in this together. And it's one of those things

where it's like when I set up... We have this

thing on the podcast here called Transformers

Origins. When I set that up, I crafted questions

that... Where I tried to... Except for the Bayverse.

I mean, I respect those fans, but... Those movies.

But it's one of those things where I tried my

best to appeal to everybody. So whoever's on

that, obviously certain people are going to have

more specific, like they're G1 fans and that's

fine. But the questions still need to be asked

kind of thing. Okay, so what are some of the

other aspects of the con you're looking forward

to that we haven't mentioned yet? Um, you know,

for stuff we haven't mentioned yet, you know,

there's also fan run panels. You know, the spirit

behind this event is, you know, that this is

a fan run event, you know, and obviously the

official guests are fans too. But we wanted to

make sure that fans had their voices heard and

were able to have. the opportunity to host fan

panels. So we've got a ton of fan panels that,

you know, that we're going to be announcing over

the next two weeks. And I am really excited about

them. One of them is your panel, Stephen. Yes.

Or Steve, I'm sorry. One of them is your panel

I'm super excited about. So the Beast Unleashed.

So I am really looking forward to seeing that.

We've got so many other fan panels, and I wish

I could say more, but I can't say anything until

they're officially announced. But I am super,

super excited about them. Awesome. Yeah, I'm

excited to see what comes out of the convention

as well. So it should be a very interesting and

fun weekend. Yeah, and something I wanted to

bring up, too, is we're not charging for this

event. It's free. Everyone who's participating

in this event, like all these official guests,

fans who are making fan panels, they're doing

this for free. we're doing this for free, the

organizers, we're not getting paid to do this.

And we're all putting, you know, so we're doing

this out of the love of the Transformers franchise.

We're not doing this to make money. We're just

doing this because we want to give back to the

world, you know, during this dark time right

now and just create something. beautiful that

we can share with everyone and have a really

fun, fun time, you know, fun weekend. So, um,

I'm super excited. I think it's going to be amazing.

Um, you know, not to toot my own horn, but, um,

I'm just, I'm really just blown away by everything

with it. So I just wanted to make sure that I

said that, that we're no one's making money off

this. I mean, obviously artists and artists alley

are going to, but you know, that's. that's fine.

You know, they need to make money and, you know,

this is giving them exposure to make sales on

their merchandise. Oh, totally. Yeah, absolutely.

It's one of those things where, like you said,

it's something that we need right now. Like I

remember, and I know supposedly they're coming

back this year at some point, but I went to the

Stan Bush Vince DeCola concert in 2016 at Essentially,

Kentucky ruined BotCon because the last official

BotCon convention was in Louisville, Kentucky

in April of 2016. I didn't go to the convention

itself, but I was able to go to the free concert

that Stan and Vince had done. And ever since

then, it's like, yeah, TFCon is there and that's

amazing. And I love that TFCon has... branched

out to all the cities that they've that they've

branched out to but now that we're living in

the world that we're living in now we need something

that we can just go to and say hey i was a member

of or i was a participant of iacon online and

it was a cool thing i like this or i like that

or whatever and we can all just come together

as one Exactly. You know, it's going to light

our darkest hour. I was going to say that and

you beat me to it. Sorry, Steve. No, it's fine.

I was like sitting on it and Mike's talking and

I'm like, I'm going to say it. I'm going to say

it. And then it came out. Yeah. We were all on

the same page. It's all, we're all same wavelength

converging. Thankfully you're not going the other

way with the, with the sayings. Cause I mean,

In the other universe, it would be till all are

gone. Oh, yeah, that's true. We don't need the

hate plague here. No, just the Matrix. So you

mentioned off air before we started recording

a little bit of this, but did you grow up with

Transformers or like what age do you remember

first noticing it before you kind of got reintroduced

to it later? Yeah, so I was telling you both

before the show started, you know, that I didn't

get into Transformers until I was an adult. But

what happened was I was born in 86. So, you know,

Transformers had been on TV for a few years before

I even. was alive and i remember in like the

late 80s there were reruns of transformers on

tv and i remember the intro you know with like

the seekers running in and you know and then

like ratchet showing up and um You know, and

I really remember Starscream and I couldn't understand

why Megatron was mean to him. And actually, I

have a really funny memory where like I was watching

Transformers and I was like a real little kid.

And I was like. maybe six inches from the TV,

like just staring at it. And my mom comes in

and she's like, get away from the TV. You're

too close. And so like I scooted back and then

once she left the room, I like moved back in.

But like, I even remember then like not understanding

stuff from it. Like, you know, when they fly

in, I still, I didn't get how they could fly

and stuff, you know? when they weren't in their

alt modes, even as a little kid, as a very curious

little kid. And then when I was a little older,

Beast Wars came out. And I was a huge fan of

Beast Wars, but I actually, I don't know if I

was oblivious or what, but I didn't realize it

was a Transformers show. But I was really into

it. I really remember liking Beast Wars Megatron.

and David Kaye yes yes so I just and I was really

into dinosaurs too so like because of Jurassic

Park so that like you know him being a T -Rex

and just being Beast Wars Megatron I mean you

can't get better than that so I watched Beast

Wars regularly and then I didn't really You know,

I didn't really watch any other Transformers.

Like I really got into anime, you know, like

a lot of us did at that time. And then in 2017,

I was visiting a friend and they were like, hey,

let's go see this Transformers movie. And it

was Transformers The Last Knight. we go and see

it and in theaters. And I just remember thinking

Megatron was super cool in that. Like, I didn't

really get the movie. I was like, okay, like

it starts off like King Arthur and then like,

wait, what's happening. But like, I really thought

Megatron was cool from that, like just his design

and the voice acting and everything. So I did

a Google search on Transformers. I discovered

Transformers Prime because of this fan art image

I saw of Starscream where it said, I'm not going

to say the expletive, but it said, expletive,

I'm fabulous with his hand on his hip. And then

I'm like, what? Like, it made me laugh. And I'm

like, what is this? I clicked on that, discovered

Transformers Prime, and then the More Than Meets

the Eye series written by James Roberts. And

ever since then, I've been hooked. Very cool,

very cool. Yeah, I can kind of resonate and relate

with that story. I'm also a child of 86. I grew

up with. How dare you, Michael Blanchard. Hey,

I'm the old man around here. Leave me alone.

Get off my lawn. I burned it first. Yes. So.

I yeah, I grew up and watched Beast Wars as well.

And I knew it was Transformers, but like I didn't

really understand it. And I saw the original

Transformers on the sci fi channel on their like

reanimation block that they had. So I saw a bunch

of rando episodes from season one, two and three.

And, you know, like the rebirth of Optimus Prime

and things like that. And. But I really resonated

with Beast Wars. What's funny is I took the moniker

of Optimus Primal originally when I first started

getting online, and then I quickly switched to

Megatron, and then I kind of went Steve Megatron,

and then it's just stuck. He can't get rid of

it at this point. He tries. He tries to reinvent

himself. I did try it, and I just accepted it.

I'm like, dude, just accept it. You are who you

are. I am Megatron. Yes. I love doing that voice.

You're very talented with it. When we interviewed

David Kaye a number of years ago now, he's probably

said this to other people at conventions, but

to my knowledge, it was the very first time.

He's like, oh, well, second to my own voice,

that's the best one we've got. Yeah, so. Yeah,

go ahead, Mike. Yeah, okay. Okay, so you can

pick one from each side. What are your favorite

characters? Decepticon and Autobot or Maximal

and Predacon, whichever. Starscream's my favorite,

hands down. I really love most of the versions

of him. Some people find him annoying. I don't.

I really think he has a good backstory in most

of his stories, like especially Armada and even

in G1, you know, the one episode with him, you

know, and the whole thing with Skyfire and that

whole backstory shows, well, oh, he actually

cares about someone, you know, and yeah, so he's

my favorite hands down. um autobots um my favorite's

jazz and um he's sleeping right now but i got

a corgi last year and i named him jazz so sweet

yeah and um he's very much like the character

he's named after um but yeah i really like jazz

i wish there were more figures of him um but

i've got a studio 86 figure coming out Yep, I've

got it on pre -order. Or if you're one of the

lucky ones that can find it at Target. Yeah.

I know, right? I've been frequenting AllSpark

on their Discord, and we've been giving each

other tips on how to obtain these Kingdom and

Studio 86 figures. I have Scourge. That's why

I just sit back and pre -order and just wait,

and that way I don't have to stress out about

any of it. yeah it's um it's fun finding them

in the stores but like i live in portland oregon

which is probably like the most collectors live

here like stuff is so hard to find i actually

have to drive like into washington to find stuff

usually wow yeah hi neighbor yeah pretty much

and then like no seriously i'm in vancouver Oh,

you are? Oh, hi. Hi. I'm in Colorado. I have

four targets. Yeah, we know. You're thousands

of miles away. Yeah, be quiet. But I have four

targets within my driving vicinity, so it's very

convenient if you need to find something. Plus,

if you give them the DPCI number, they can look

it up immediately for you, and they love it.

So yeah, Mike, the other day I drove to... vancouver

to the target um i'm trying to remember the street

over there probably on the fourth plane yeah

yeah it's the fourth plane one and i found um

oh i always forget the coneheads names but it's

the red one yeah that's what everybody's been

losing their mind over that one this week yeah

Yeah. He's the hot commodity now, but yeah, I

had the drive over there to get him. They didn't

have them out. So I was just like, do you have

this in stock? And they're like, Oh yeah, we'll

go check. But the whole store, like the transformer

section looked totally ransacked. Like there

was some random kingdom stuff, but it was a hot

mess. I figured out that at Walmart, they just

don't care. They don't stock. Mine still have

everything since before Black Friday, but all

the targets around me have been ransacked. Something

terrible. What's funny is I see a ton of Kingdom

Rattrap, but I see none of the other figures

anymore. Isn't Rattrap the core class? Yeah,

he's the $10 one. That's why you see a bunch

of him, because he's the tiniest bot out of them

all. And he's the cheapest one out of them. Oh,

yeah. I mean, I got that, too. But but but yeah,

I the super targets, on the other hand, they

restock daily. So if you call them at about like

one o 'clock in the afternoon, they tend to have

things that weren't there at like eight or nine

or ten. It's rather convenient. I've figured

out the time frame. I'm writing that down. Note

taking time, folks. Time to go on a toy run.

I figured if you called them first within your

vicinity and give them the DPCR number, not only

will they tell you if it's in stock in their

store, they will tell you if it's in stock in

a nearby store. That's always good. That's what

I did with Megatron. And Scourge. Yep. I believe

you have some either Maximal Predacon choices,

too. Oh, yeah. Well, Predacons, it's obviously

Megatron. There's no questioning that. Maximals...

From what I remember of the show, like, Dinobot,

was he one? Like, I mean, I know he was a Predacon,

but he switched sides, right? Yeah, yeah, he

switched to Maximal. So, like, does he count

as one? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he

manages to trade her so many times, nobody knows

what side he's on. Yeah, I remember liking him

a lot, and then I liked Rattrap a lot, too. Which

is convenient because Scott does both. Nice.

I watched, what was it? I watched, it was one

of the season two or season three episodes, but

he, I got to listen to Scott basically talk to

himself doing Dinobot and Waspinator and Silverbolt

and Rattrap, like all within the same, like same

scene type stuff. And then he's trying to do

a quick strike impersonation. It was maximal

no more, I think. Yeah, I think that's what it

is, yeah. Yeah, it was humorous to me because

he's basically talking to himself the whole scene.

That's so funny. That's like the old G1 days

when, you know, oh, wait a minute, you know.

Wally Burr's like, hey, somebody just talked

over him. No, no, no, Wally, it's just Frank.

He's talking to himself. He has seven characters

he has to do. Yeah, I've... I can relate. I've

done that to the voice director of the audio

drama. He's like, at this point, he just accepts

it and he's like, okay, we're just going to put

him on the same track and he can talk to himself

all day and that's fine. What you need to learn

to do to mess with your boss there, the voice

director, you need to learn to have the cricket

come from the other side of the room. Because

that was one of Frank's bits. Oh, make a cricket

come in? Yeah. Cause he made it, he made a cricket

sound come out of the, come out of the board.

I remember one of the other Wally stories was

one of the old Wally board were voice acting

voice actor stories was there was a cricket in

the studio one day and they're like, no, sorry,

Mr. Sound engineer. And sorry, Wally, that's

just Frank. And he made it come out of the soundboard.

Like literally like there was an insect in the

soundboard. That's hilarious. I got to do that

now. Yep. That takes skills. True. But Steve

has them, so it works. Yeah, they have fun messing

with me now. They're like, what do you got? We

got a voice. We need you to do it. And then they're

like, we have a talking bird. What do you got?

And I was like, okay. So. So what is your favorite

Transformers generation? And why? Oh, I really

like Transformers Prime a lot. That's my favorite.

Pretty solid choice. You get the two greats as

the leaders. I just really think... I know the

animation is a little outdated now, but I really

liked the unique designs for the characters.

I really liked the music. The music really set

the tone of that show and the narrative. The

voice acting was brilliant. The story was really

good. It was the only Transformers show that

made me cry. Every time I watch it, it just gives

me chills. They did such a good job with everything,

with the story and the characters. It was just

done really well. Which episode made you cry?

you know it was actually the final one um because

like just with how like you know the you know

megatron's story ended you know with bumblebee

killing him you know because optimus didn't want

to kill megatron ever you know i think he he

thought that megatron you know would be able

to redeem himself but um you know just that actually

really surprised me. I didn't see that coming.

I didn't think they were actually going to do

that. So just seeing like the reaction of all

the characters and then, you know, that actually

brought some tears to my eyes, you know? So,

and also the movie too, but, you know, but yeah.

I think for me, what got me so excited at the

end of Prime was, Yes, Batman Beyond is the voice

of Bumblebee. Finally, Bumblebee gets a voice.

Mm hmm. Yeah, and I could kind of get that like

it was kind of like you were uncertain on what

happened to Starscream and then Megatron just

gets like totally shafted at the end of the episode.

And you're like, oh, so that's how they're going

to end it. And it was like just, you know, a

shock. And then when they brought him back and

he was, you know, enhanced by Unicron and brought

back and then he's just like at the end of it,

he's just like, I'm done. I don't care. Yeah,

exactly. And then they flipped it and killed

Prime. Yeah. And that was really sad, too. It's

just like, wait, what? Like, no, can't he have

a happy ending? Like, it's just so messed up.

I mean, at least they brought Prime back in RID.

um and for the 2015 series even though it was

like way weirder animation and a different plot

line like that didn't focus on prime or megatron

and i mean it had prime in it but he was kind

of sporadic and then you come to find out that

star scream and some of the other guys were you

know came back yeah i actually i've tried watching

that show and like um i couldn't get into it

but um i should give it another chance i know

what happens in it but that's from the um it's

like is it the force continue is it the force

continuing continuality sorry like i can't speak

right now um you know because like i think that's

part of um like rescue bots is in that timeline

too right Rescue Bots was its own thing. RID

2015 is a direct, it's not a direct, but it ties

into Prime. It's the next 2D adventures of Prime,

but it did tell its own story until they finally

brought Prime into it. Yeah, they brought Prime,

they had Ratchet show up, they had a couple of

the people from Prime that weren't in it in there,

and then they brought Soundwave back and Starscream.

Starscream came back in his G1 body. That's cool.

It got better, but there was a lot of episodes

that, honestly, I feel like Cyberverse was more

well done. Not only in design, but story. If

you haven't seen Cyberverse, I feel like it was

kind of glossed over because it became a YouTube

show. Oh, I've seen it. It's so good. Like, I

do think it's very, it was underrated. You know,

and I wish it would have gotten more syndication.

I also wish the figures were better from it.

And yeah, I really liked what they did with Cyberverse.

Just, you know, especially season three. Oh,

yeah. That was so good. So good. It was just

like, Oh, you know, new, are we allowed to say

spoilers on the show? You know, I just really

liked seeing, you know, the Autobots and the

Decepticons team up against the Quintessons.

You know, I thought that was brilliant. It was

just really well done. Totally agree. I wish

they had more time for the episodes though. Like,

you know, if they could have given that show

like, you know, 20 minute long episodes, I think

that would have been really good. And then, you

know, just even having like Tarn show up in a

show is super cool. Yeah. I think, and I mentioned

this on a previous ATTF episode here, I think

they were trying to experiment with. the YouTube

thing with doing the short form episode thing,

because I said this on the other episode as well.

I said, basically, Hasbro has to, they don't

have to, but they want to cater to all of us,

the old fans, the young fans, the kids, the fans

that, you know, have kids that grew up on it

that have kids now kind of thing. So they have

to dig their stuff into all these different pies

and pots. And I think that was a experiment of

will this work and then it did to an extent and

then now for us older fans we have you know war

for cybertron which is 22 minutes and whatever

else so who knows yeah well and i think um you

know even with cyberverse i know that was aimed

at kids there was a lot of dark stuff in there

oh yeah you know like with um like starscream

like getting murdered by megatron for two minutes

like that was pretty dark well and then like

megatron x you know where he took the matrix

and he slaughtered prime and the autobots and

came over and he's like you're doing it wrong

pretty much yeah it's just um yeah it was wild

and then like um deadlock and you know hot rod

you know got in that fight to the death and you

know hot rod survived but you know deadlock didn't

wasn't cheetor in that show yeah he was in that

show too yeah he disappeared on the rust planet

or something like that or died somewhere thereafter

but um yeah he yeah it's always funny to see

when beast wars pops up in something yeah i think

that's really cool that um you know he showed

up in there and that like you know they do easter

eggs for beast wars because beast wars did revive

transformers in it i i feel and this is partially

what my panel is going to focus on is how it

continuously kind of puts another like little

shot and jolt into it because like an idw rat

trap gets used a lot mm -hmm that's true yeah

and primors they had um optimus primal and so

and then now with war for cybertron we have kingdom

so Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Like, um, you

know, like I got Cheetor from the, um, for the

toys from that, from Kingdom and I transformed

him. It's the most fun I've had or transforming

a Transformers figure in a long time, you know,

getting him into his, you know, robot mode. And

I'm saying that in air quotes, you know, in this

Cheetor form, like, um, I think that's super

cool. Um, you know, that, um, And it is. It's

the most fun I've had with transforming a figure

into its alt mode and stuff. So I really do think

Beast Wars is going to revive the fandom. And

we'll have to see how it is in the show for Kingdom.

Oh yeah, totally. And of course, I'll discuss

more about it on my panel. So people have to

go pay attention to that. shameless plug but

yes but um yeah i mean i'm i'm interested to

see what they do with kingdom i i'm hoping mike

knows i've been going oh boy here he goes he's

gonna go i have a broken record it's here he

goes he's gonna go into his anxiety over the

voice acting i i hope that they get people that

at least if if they're gonna go with a totally

original take i'm fine with that If they try

to have people do impressions and they're bad,

it's going to sound so much worse. I'm going

to re -dub it if they do. Because I can do multiple

of the character voices. I'm fine with that.

And I know sound -alikes. Yeah, I hope the voice

acting at least is that they hit it spot on because

I'm not going to lie, I was not a fan of Optimus'

voice at all. in earth rise and siege like it

was i don't get it i i agree because when he

started to get emotion it he broke character

so often in his uh impression he couldn't hold

the voice and that was that's part of the problem

with when you're having somebody do an impersonation

like megatron i can do in my sleep when i have

a cold i can do them even better um but like

you know for me to say I can do it spot on like

David Kaye is kind of, you know, it's, I can't,

I mean, I can get like 98%, but there's still

that other 2 % that makes his unique and special.

And that's the same thing with Peter Cullen and

Frank Walker with their takes is, you know, you

can get people that are 98 % like, um, you know,

John Bailey can do a pretty good impression of,

of, uh, ultra magnus and of uh optimus prime

but then you've got guys like uh dr smooth who

can do a pretty spot -on peter cullen optimus

prime you know and so i mean like i don't have

a problem with him in because i believe he played

him in cyberverse um But it's a different rendition,

like different kind of style. Whereas here, I

feel like he kind of broke character. And there's

I mean, I'm not knocking the actor because like

he did the best with what he's got and what he's

told to do. It's just like the voice actors talking

at really slow pace. Yes. Which drove me nuts.

I figured out if you go 1 .25 on Netflix at their

normal speed at their speech, the animation goes

faster than what you expect. The audio is correct.

That's good to know. But it really helped during

the Megatron -Gelvatron scene. But I really love

what Jason Marnosha and Frank Todaro did with

their characters. I think that they're like the...

And Alita 1. I think that those three were pretty

much the spot on, like the best. even though

their original takes there, they were the spot

on, like you, you felt the character, you felt

the emotion in it. You, you know, you had the

full range of everything going on with their

character, whereas it didn't feel like they were

doing a pale impression. They were just doing

their own thing. Yeah. And I really feel like

they brought their own losing words, thoughts,

words, but like, I feel like they really. brought

those characters to life they weren't just doing

impressions they actually you know they were

acting and developed their voice for those characters

and had found those voices for their characters

because Megatron doesn't sound like Frank Welker's

Megatron at all in my opinion no and honestly

I'm fine with it it sounds good Yeah, no, he

does a really good job. And, you know, I was

actually reading something about like why he.

you know, Megatron talks so slow and it actually

makes sense is that, you know, since he has so

much power over the Decepticons, like he can

talk as slow as he wants, you know, pretty much

it's like each word is calculated. So, you know,

maybe that's what they were directed to do, but

that actually makes sense to me. Like, it's like,

oh yeah, that's why he talks slow. It's because,

you know, he's just, you know, every word has

power behind it when he speaks. i i think too

that he he's contemplating everything i think

that people make him out like he's this dumb

evil ruler in in some regards and you can tell

that he's very conflicted because there's things

that like he doesn't agree with prime but he

doesn't necessarily want to go off the rails

like um shockwave wants him to do like shockwave's

like yep let's commit genocide let's do it and

megatron's like let's hold up there. I want to

do it this way. Shockwave's like, but I have

this way. He's like, no. Remember, I'm the leader,

not you. It's kind of funny to see that dynamic

that Shockwave's kind of pushing him, needling

him to become this evil person when he's very

conflicted on how he wants to go about his goals.

Yeah. And I think it's really interesting to

the shockwave Megatron power dynamic in War for

Cybertron, because I know in IDW one, you know,

shockwave, you know, pull, you know. and schemed

all in planned everything that happened in that

you know so it's like um it was really cool seeing

that dynamic again too and i do think that um

the megatron that jason played in war for cyrotron

yeah he was very conflicted i mean you could

tell just um in his voice when he's going to

visit, you know, those Decepticons in that one

district, you know, the one they're thinking

about harvesting into energy for their spaceship.

And, you know, you can tell he's just like, you

know, conflicted completely in that whole interaction.

Yeah, absolutely. And honestly, like, like I

said earlier, and like we said earlier, it's

not, you know, Frank and Peter are not going

to be around forever, heaven forbid, but you

know, they're just not. And you're going to need

to find some people to either do their own thing.

Create a new version. Yeah, and this is why I'm

perfectly fine with Jake and Jason. Yes, I know

Jake has a little issue with his emotion part,

and he gets too Batman Dark Knight gravelly,

but overall... I love Jake's stuff that he did

with Optimus in War for Cybertron Siege and Earthrise.

And Jason Marnosha as Megatron is like, it's

so good. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I would put and

again, this this, you know, is kind of a testament.

I would obviously I'm going to put David Kaye

as my number one, but I would probably put it

and it would be a hard tie here. But I would

have to put. frank as his transformers prime

megatron is number two and then jason marnosh's

is number three um and then probably the g1 is

four and but honestly like they're they're all

there's there's a little bit something different

even when the same actor's doing it in different

programs because i know jason did it in the prime

wars trilogy and he had a faster delivery and

it sounded a little bit different yet in that

so um yeah i mean it's it's you kind of get this

new generation and get a new version every, you

know, so many years and it's, it's kind of refreshing,

but it's also giving new fans something that

they can cling to. Like we cling to the old stuff.

Right. Absolutely. Exactly. So if you could voice

a character, who would you want to voice? Oh

my gosh. I did not think about this. You know,

um, you know, I haven't, obviously I've not thought

a lot about this, but, um, you know, if Nautica

ever becomes on in a show, I'd like to voice

her or flame war. I think that would be fun.

Very cool. Very cool. Very cool. And who is your,

uh, like if, you know, Let's imagine that all

of them are still with us because I know a few

of them have passed away over the years. But

who is your favorite Transformers actor? Well,

I really like Chris Lauda, you know, as Starscream.

You know, he's my favorite hands down. Like,

I really wish I could have met him. You know,

so. I can say that he's my favorite, but I do

think that Peter Cullen, if I'm thinking about

like favorite voices, I really do in voice actors.

I think it's Peter Cullen. I mean, I think he

just has, you know, to quote Stan Bush, the touch,

you know, like it's just, his voice is really

magical. The way he talks is optimist. It is.

It's like, he's an inspiring, approachable. leader

um you know who's a strong leader but also kind

too like as he said in interviews and i think

those are really good qualities um that anyone

should strive for and i think um it's especially

lacking in this time right now and um i just

um i really do think that um the you know the

Why people love Transformers so much is because

of Peter Cullen and his acting as Optimus. It's

a big part of it, I think. Absolutely. So I think

that about wraps it up. Thank you for joining

us, Apollo. You're welcome. Thanks for having

me on. And of course, we look forward to Iacon

Online. Where can the good people find out more?

Well, to find out more about Iacon Online, go

to our website, which is iacononline .wordpress

.com. We're also on Facebook. Instagram, Tumblr,

and Twitter. And our username is at IaconOnline.

So please make sure that you follow our accounts

and sign up for notifications. We have a lot

more announcements that we have not made yet.

Like, as I hinted at during this interview, there's

a few more guests we're going to be announcing.

We're going to be announcing panels. You know,

we've announced a few already. We're also announcing

artists that are going to be featured in our

artist alley. And they will be in our Discord

and also we'll be advertising them on our website,

too. Oh, come on. Can't we get one exclusive

announcement? Come on. Oh, my gosh. Well, I mean,

if you go on our website right now, there's a

guest on there who hasn't been announced officially

yet. I mean, but his photo is on there. So that's

the hint you need, people. Yeah. But yeah, so,

and I'm very excited to have him as part of our

event. So yeah, it is, this is just so exciting

and it's just grown beyond what I thought. In

regards to me, because I'm a fan artist, I'm

on Twitter and Instagram at Robo Apollo. um,

just felt how it sounds and follow me to find

out more about Iacon online or to see my art

or see pictures of my dog. I've been posting

a lot of pictures of my dog on there's jazz.

So, um, yeah, thank you both for having me on.

You're very welcome. So Thank you, as always,

listeners, for tuning in to All Things Transformers.

I've been your host, along with TFG and Mike.

And, of course, you can interact with us and

the show on Twitter, at AllThingsTFV3, and this

episode's post on Facebook, as well as geekcastradio

.com. So until next time, transform and roll

out. Yeah.