Transformers Fandom Sites and Masterpiece Dinobot News

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 Phillips, and in this episode I will

be flying solo. So yeah, the main thing here

is I'm launching a new endeavor, but before I

get to that... What's been awesome with you with

Transformers this week? For me, it's been a variety

of things. So I'm gonna just get right down into

it. I launched a new website this week and it's

Transformers related. So if you're kind of looking

for a home within a home that's kind of not...

Really, Transformers... More so, it's Transformers,

but it's not full of the drama or the loss of

other boards. So if you're one of those lingering

Transformers fans that doesn't have a website

to go to, and you follow the GeekCast radio network,

and you enjoy the various Transformers podcasts...

I've launched allthingstransformers .com, which

is currently a sub -domain of AlteredGeek at

the moment. It redirects that because I don't

have the funds to move this domain to where I

need it in order to connect it in the way that

I should have actually done it. So it's a little

bit different. So yeah, anyways, it's not hurting

things in the grand scheme of things. I've revamped

the Twitter account at allthingstfv3, and it's

got a Facebook page, which you may be wondering

what's happening there. Well, it's already established.

It's the old TFN... Facebook page, and that's

because the TFN, some of you may not know the

history of it, and I'm gonna get into this, too.

The TFN was a old Transformers site from the

90s or early 2000s, like 2001 or something. I

followed it from about 2003 onward. It went through

a variety of webmasters and versions and died

off and then got sold to this d -bag web host

that bought it for a ton of money. The original

webmaster... well, I should say one of the secondary

webmasters managed to basically something happened

with it. I'm not entirely sure, but if you go

to the .com of it, transformersnetwork .com,

it doesn't go anywhere anymore. It's still owned

by that moron, but he managed to Kind of put

the kibosh on the site and there were people

that were still willing to run it for him even

though he owned it And he didn't plan on doing

anything with it updating it it got inundated

with spam bots and the forums It used to be a

halfway decent site, and we had a good community

going that being said fast forward I was running

Predacon Empire at the time of one of the revamps

and I was using one of the the previous themes

of the site and I purchased it from the guy that

designed it, which is neither here nor there.

I haven't had connections with that dude in years.

So yeah, I rebuilt the site a couple of times,

Predakine Empire, and then there came a point

where I was doing Geekcast Radio and I just was

like, you know, this is just ridiculous. I'm

trying to rebuild this original site that I built

all in HTML, which if I'm just going to go that

route, I might as well just re -upload the original

site. I wanted the ability to have easier news

posting plus the original posting ability no

longer works with my my paid software head at

the time and then the the thing with the site

was it just it wasn't really my passion and so

now I was left wondering what am I going to do

and so I bumped into this webmaster that used

to own the Transformers Network, and because

we attempted to purchase the domain from this

guy to rebuild the site, and he just wouldn't

budge, the original webmaster went and bought

the transformersnetwork .com. Now, mind you,

I built the site. I did all the work on it. I

rebuilt it. I filled it with, just so that there

was something there, I filled it with all of

my downloads. I filled it with the fan dubs that

I had on Predacon Empire. I filled it with a

variety of graphics. I filled it with all of

the podcasts from Geekcast Radio and Predacon

Empire that were Transformers related. And so

we got into this kind of crossroads and I should

have seen the writing on the wall of the website

at the time. And it was when Got ousted as the

graphic designer and they ended up winning or

going with somebody else and I was like, okay,

this is kind of I was a little bit hurt and a

little bit Irritated with it because I put all

this work into the site and then just to have

somebody Go through and basically trash everything

I designed and then redesign a lot of it which

kind of pissed me off because I was kind of meant

to be the co -webmaster and none of it was done

without authorization. So it started the kind

of rocky battle. Plus, there was a lot of forum

dissent between moderators, between the webmaster,

the owner of the site, and myself, and all of

these moderators and staff and people that were

just coming back to the website after years.

It originally started off pretty nice and decent

and then again, I should have seen the writing

on the wall and took my money and ran essentially,

but I didn't. I tried to smooth over things.

I tried to calm everyone down. Eventually, the

moderators left and then it was just pretty much

me and a few forum lurkers. So I kind of knew

it was dead at that point and I should have made

a duplicate of it and The person actually ended

up borrowing money from me and never repaying

it It wasn't much Just so that everybody's aware,

but it's still the principle of it. That's a

little bit irritating They went black web kind

of disappeared gone like without a trace couldn't

get a hold of them nothing and then I tried to

get the website back up and running and of course

no information there either and then they kept

linking it to a bunch of these junk postings

of things and I just couldn't I couldn't deal

with with the garbage they're in and like I said

it kind of it kind of upset me a little bit as

far as how the page is being used and to watch

it kind of go down the crapper like it did. So

I decided since this site's been down for a long

time and I was even locked out of all of the

social profiles which I couldn't understand.

Like this person went like bonkers, paranoid

with people. And I tried to give the benefit

of the doubt until it kind of got to this point

where I just couldn't deal with it anymore. So

I've tried renaming the page. The only thing

I have access to at this point that I didn't

do is the Facebook. And so that's kind of a roundabout

way of saying that I've retitled everything and

I'm waiting on an official Facebook name change,

which they're fighting me on, despite the fact

that they're trying to say that the appeal for

the name change may result in misleading or unintended

whatever in the guidelines. And I'm like, it's

still a website. It's still about Transformers.

It's still the same topic material. It's just

a title change. You can't change the title. I've

changed all the graphics. I've changed everything

else. It links all the way to all things Transformers

now. I'm attempting to go through archive .org

to recover information that was on the website

that I put in that I can see. Then I'm going

to go back through my Predicate Empire backlogs

of files and rebuild the website. A little note

of the podcast end. All Things Transformers version

3 .0 does 100 % work on the website. The version

2 .0, 1 .0, The Beast Unleashed, and the Transformation

Animation Podcast may or may not link to... their

files on Blogtalk Radio. They may link to a spot

on geekcastradio .com, which is unfortunate because

those are originally exported from that site

and removed based on the fact that I was running

out of web space and it was killing the server

at the time. And so I've got to go back through

and change all of the linkage to the Blogtalk

Radio links. And so once I do that, the... those

will be functional again. However, I am working

on a collaboration with some fan -dubbers to

put the Headmasters fan -dub that I've been working

on for years on the website and I've created

a page already for episode 7 of Headmasters and

I have to go back and get the rest of them. There's

like one or two I'm missing. The rest of them

I had in my backlog of Predacon Empires so I'll

be able to re -put them in there. That just goes

to show you how long this dub has been going

on. Episode 8 is getting ready to come out in

about two weeks. So there is that. TFCOG, among

other websites, is reviving itself due to the

fact that everybody involved wants to get back

in on Beast Wars Neo. And they're gonna finish

Beast Wars Neo, they're gonna get through...

Finish Victory, which only has like three episodes

left. They're gonna get through... Master Force

and Beast Wars 2 and all these other So it's

kind of nice to see all these revivals coming

back and kind of speaking of sites that aren't

coming back I remember visiting like the Cybertron

archives tf archive dot net I think might have

been dot net or dot org. It was one of the two

but It was one of my favorite sites also to surf

at when the TFN went down And that's where a

lot of people migrated to was the the Cybertron

archives and I'm kind of missing that site a

little bit, too I wonder whatever happened to

it. I I'm gonna do a quick Google Cybertron archive

Because there was TF archive and then there was

the Cybertron archive And it was kind of it was

kind of nice to see the site It showed up in,

funny enough, in Beast Machines, not the site,

but the title, where the Maximals went to the

Cybertron Archives. Because there is tfarchive

.com, which has been around forever. It links

to TransFans, it links to TransMasters, Unicron

.com, and TFA, they all spark, tfu .info, Radio

Free Cybertron. I remember the... It just shows

my age. I remember all these old sites. I remember

Transfandom, which is gone. I remember, like,

Predacon Empire that's gone. Vector Sigma. BeastMachine

.net. Transformers Source. There were so many

websites that were great at the time. Not only

in design, but in content. And they're just all

gone. And the funny thing is, is if you go to

look for the domain names, they are still not

available because the original owners have been

paying for them for years and won't let them

go. Because I have been trying for the last 10

years to get my hands on every one of those domains

and I cannot get a hold of them. Because when

they get close to expiring, they re -up them.

For like a year or two and so then I put them

on my back burner I let them sit and then I just

kind of wait and yeah, I've been waiting for

all of these for years and We'll have to see

if if eventually They they come back the The

the TF archive net I believe was the name of

the other side site and That site's been down

for years unfortunately so It's kind of funny,

like I said. Everything is old is new again.

Although there is the Cybertron archive. It's

tfarchive .eu. That is the current version of

the Cybertron archive, Cybertopia. They call

it the TCA still, NeoRanger, one of the lead...

admins at the website went and rebuilt under

this domain, which is almost like a PHP BB type

setup to some degree. I kind of miss the site.

I may actually visit them over there. I kind

of miss a lot of the old Transformers fandom.

What are some sites that you guys miss? There

are just so many of them that used to be around

that it's crazy when you go to look at it. Oh

look, I still actually have an account on tfarchive

.eu. It's been so long since I've been there,

I forgot about it. the Transformers Network ad

in there, and the Beast Wars Dark Glass in there,

which I'm gonna add the stuff I have from Dark

Glass over on, because there used to be a Dark

Glass project website as well, and I'm gonna

add all that content over on all things Transformers

eventually. So it'll be kind of a grab bag of

fan -sourced material, along with some content

that's... So, it won't be like as newsy or current

events or any of that. It'll be more so coverage

of content and original content related to Transformers.

So, not to mislead or send anybody in the wrong

direction for that. So, yeah, it's just crazy

when you go look through it. Yeah, bigbot .com,

Cybertron Alliance. Yeah, it's just crazy. Getting

into some awesome Transformers news the Combiner

Wars web series is actually now available on

YouTube which Is good to hear because I didn't

actually have access to I Think I could watch

them on machinima. I don't think it cost anything

to do it on there the the go 90 or whatever It

was I couldn't access it. I think he had to pay

for it or I could be wrong But Titan's Return

will be debuting in North America in about a

week and a half. It's kind of cool to watch these.

It kind of gives you a different perspective

on what G1 would have been like if it had had

CG animation as opposed to what we got in the

80s. But you also get a lot better writing, a

lot better aesthetics, graphics, all that kind

of stuff. I kind of wish that they would go this

route with a TV series, at least aesthetically,

and maybe have people from the IDW verse write

the series and kind of give us something original,

but I like it for what it is. Let's just leave

it at that. There's also the fact that... Masterpiece

Beast Wars Dinobot has his first look and prototype

and new CGI renders which I'm still a huge fan

of all things Beast Wars and the the Masterpiece

line. I only have a Masterpiece Optimus Primal

and that's because I had the original Optimus

Primal as a kid and quite honestly that toy sucked.

But I sold it years ago, and I was like man.

I wish I had an optimus primal And I was like

you know eventually they'll come out with a masterpiece

and sure enough they did so I bought it Mind

you I traded in a ton of toys optimal optimus

and whatnot and all that just to get it, but

still neither here nor there, but I I don't have

masterpiece cheetor. I don't have masterpiece

dino bot I would love to have my hands on the

entire masterpiece Beast Wars line as it comes

out But the next one I'm gonna hold out for is

Beast Wars Megatron and get that because I I

have a Dinobot figure But it's a piece of garbage

universe one that it just falls apart. It's it

is literal garbage So I'm hoping that this one

does everything that it's advertised to do it

looks it looks spectacular. It looks show accurate

It looks solid unlike the other toys where they're

all like pieces and weird machinations of it.

But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing

some colored art of Dinobot in his completed

form and not just the CGI renders of it to kind

of see what they do with it. But additionally,

the... The Transformers Robots in Disguise combiner

force, season three, is almost at an end. We're

almost done with that series before they start

launching the next one, which is Transformers

Cyberverse. And we're only a couple days away,

honestly, from the UK getting the final episode

of Robots in Disguise called Freedom Fighters.

And I'm not gonna spoil anything because the...

The previous episode is not in the United States.

You can find it if you know where to look on

YouTube or elsewhere. But I personally found

it on YouTube. But they've been yanked since

then. I just caught the previous episode. But

you get Team Prime from Transformers Prime returning

along with part of Team B that went back to Cybertron

with Prime. And you get to see why everybody's

going after Team B. Optimus and What's truly

going on so? I'm kind of stoked to see what they

do As we go on through the series and then then

yeah the last episode there's there's a rumor

that Megatron will be back and they've been hinting

at it throughout the season with Starscream having

his new body and having Soundwave return and

trying to call Megatron and phone home essentially

It would be nice to see Megatron kind of come

back in the fold and just thrash him and I think

they're supposed to I could be wrong. I I can't

100 % remember what they they said they were

going to do but I believe there was supposed

to be a Like a little mini movie type thing at

the end of it I believe I could be wrong. I would

love somebody to correct me if they know better

than I But I remember them saying something about

like a film that would tie it all up and and

conclude this Transformers run so Yeah, just

let me know on that. I'm I've enjoyed the series

as a whole, but it's not been particularly good

As opposed to like Transformers Prime, I don't

like the aesthetics more so than anything, or

the campiness of it. Maybe they're trying to

capture Generation 1 in some regards and mixing

it with a little bit of Transformers Animated

and Transformers Prime and getting this, and

that's kind of what we got. But anyways that

about rounds this episode out I just wanted to

give an update mostly on what's going on in the

state of All Things Transformers and as far as

some of the fandom I'm hoping soon. I'll be able

to jump into Beast Wars 2 And and actually do

the first few episodes of it. I'm gonna probably

watch them on TF cog more so because those guys

dub it and Yeah, I want to support them and I

enjoy their content, so we'll just kind of see

how things go. So until next time, transform

and transcend till all are one.