Power Rangers 25th Anniversary and Creative Movie Concepts

Do you start your day? Deciding which video game

you're gonna play? You fight with your family

Go for which is better, Marvel or DC? The geek

of all your friends Cause you know what Batman

beats Superman This is the right place to be

So turn up the volume cause you're an alter -geek

Hello and welcome to Altered Geek, I'm your host

Steve Megatron Phillips and joining me this week

is Mike the Birdman Dodd. That's right. You're

one and only geek from Twig, the flagship of

stupidity. I'm joining Steve this week as we

decide to do things a little bit different here

on Altered Geek this week. We're going to do

things with bringing you the news that is, that

was, and forever shall be from the world of geek,

nerd, and dweeb. But we're also going to do something

a little bit more fun this week, a little bit

more interactive, if you will. Oh, yes. Yes.

This will be a lot of fun, actually. So in the

meantime, I think we should get to... The Power

Rangers news which is which is awesome, and I

was vaguely aware of it, but I wasn't like fully

Knowledgeable Yes, as of this recording, we're

recording this on Tuesday, August 28th. This

is National Power Rangers Day. It has been declared.

And today celebrates the 25th anniversary of

when the show first premiered on Fox Kids Television,

where it was shown in over 100 markets, reaching

over 5 million kids during its premiere. And

Nickelodeon, who now has the exclusive rights

to Power Rangers, I think through 2021, I want

to say. if not beyond that, showed the anniversary

episode called Dimensions in Danger, which was

basically the huge crossover. Now, every couple

of years, they'll do a crossover episode. Basically,

every series typically crosses over with one

another if they can. And this year was they brought

back Wes from Time Force, Tommy. Oliver, who

is everyone's favorite Power Ranger, Gia from

Super Megaforce and Megaforce, Koda from from

Dino Charge, Steve Cardenas, who was the second

Red Ranger from Mighty Morphin. They brought

over. Did they have him as the Mighty Morphin

or did they have him as Turbo or Zeo? They had

him as Mighty Morphin. Actually, they actually

did have Zeo in this, which really surprised

me. They had Tommy has this new Morpher. So by

the way guys spoilers if you haven't seen the

episode too late now fuckers Tommy turns into

the black dino charge ranger turns into red zeo

Turns into white mighty morphine green mighty

morphine and Yeah, he does all those, but he

doesn't turn into red turbo, but there is the

pink turbo ranger. So cats there nice. I think

who else is there? I know I'm missing people.

Oh, there's Gemma from Power Rangers RPM. She

was the silver RPM Ranger. Um, I know I'm missing

others. I know. Oh, there's TJ from Power Rangers

in space. And yeah, basically, the plot of the

episode is a guy called Lord Dravon. So not Lord

Dracon would have, which is from the Power Rangers

comics, but I'll talk about that in just a minute

or two wants to shatter the dimensions and have

an army of evil Rangers at his and Madame odious's

command and West the red time force Ranger comes

across space and time with Gemma and coda to

basically stop him and What you get is more or

less better than way better than the legendary

battle from Super Megaforce. Not as cool as once

a Ranger and just a little bit less cool than

Forever Red because Forever Red had Serpentara

get taken down like a bitch. You got to get a

guy on a surfboard. Come on. But overall, it

was really cool. It ran the full 30 minutes on

Nickelodeon. I have a feeling there'll be an

extended cut. Probably on Netflix in a few months

So yeah, it was actually pretty cool. And if

you've been following Power Rangers over this

last year Boom Studios has been doing this awesome

comic book series Started in issue 25 ran through

go -go Power Rangers number eight and I think

ran through issue 12 which just came out this

last month Finally ends in shattered grid number

one shattered good finale number one It comes

out tomorrow, so new comic book day. It's not

out yet. And we see what happens when Lord Draken

goes across all the dimensions, literally beating

the crap out of other Power Rangers, stealing

their powers, and he's become this almighty Power

Ranger god. It's so badass Steve like I haven't

been excited about comics in years the last time

I bought comics Legitimately was when I was reading

the My Little Pony series about three years back

and then I stopped and I heard about shattered

grid, which is basically evil Tommy Oliver kills

real Tommy Oliver in our dimension and there's

no way to bring him back Yeah, he shatters the

grid. And Jen, the pink time force ranger comes

back and times like, I can't go back any further.

What's happened is now history. So I can't fix

it. And they're like, No way. I'm like, Yeah,

this is kind of permanent. So he's going across

time kicking the crap out of Rangers stealing

all their powers. He's evolving. And currently

they're fighting on the mood like when we last

left our Rangers. Um, every ranger that had survived,

so certain rangers from my other teams, you might

see parts of SPD or RPM, Dino Charge, Mystic

Force, Dino Thunder, whatever, come together

with the now canon Hyper Force Rangers, who was

the show put on by Geek and Sundry, I think it

was Geek and Sundry, Hyper Force, and now they're

canon, they're officially canon. They team up

and they charge Lord Drakkon's moon base. And

now there's a new Megazord made up of the Jungle

Fury Megazord, the Zeo Megazord, one of the Ninja

Steel ones, I think, and something else. And

they're like, what the hell do we call this thing?

Like, well, why don't we survive first and then

we'll worry about naming it. So it's pretty cool.

Like I said, it's... I haven't been excited about

a property like this in forever. Like I started

collecting the legacy toys last year or just

the the end of the end of the year before last.

I had to sell some of my toys to buy my wheelchair

last year. My wife, God bless her, found a killer

deal, got most of my collection back. My friend

Jen. Who's an artist who does some things for?

Terrible warriors if you want to look her up.

I think on deviant art or Etsy I think she goes

by jelly swirl studios or jelly soup. I think

it's jelly soup. Um, you should look her up She's

pretty she's pretty legit. I'm actually familiar

with her a little bit just because she interacts

with the show Yeah, yeah, so she got me some

of my stuff back. She got me all the Mighty Morphin

light figures actually weird little bit. A friend

of the show, a friend of Twig, a guy named Cleva,

I met him at PAX East a couple years ago, is

actually coming up to visit me here in my hometown

of Guelph now. So I haven't seen this kid in

like almost seven years. He's coming up to Guelph

to talk Power Rangers tomorrow. So my life is

nothing but Power Rangers right now and I'm kind

of excited about this. So yeah, I mean, there's

gonna be some cool things coming up for the property

in the next year. Beast Morphers is the new show

that's being adapted by Hasbro and Saban Brands

for next year. And it's basically like, it was

based upon another Sentai show that was very

spy focused, like James Bond, but with Power

Ranger stuff. This one... It kind of reminds

you of Power Rangers RPM, where there's this

computer virus that becomes sentient and starts

kicking the crap out of things. So it looks cool.

They showed off the first full trailer at Power

Morphicon, which was about a week ago, which

is the Power Rangers convention, what happens

every two to three years. And they had so many

full casts at Power Morphicon. Another neat thing

that was announced is there's a new line of toys

coming out since Bandai has lost or sold the

license rather to Hasbro. They're gonna have

a new line of figures called the Lightning Collection,

which is an anthology collection of figures.

So very similar to Bandai's legacy line where

they were six inch and they be different waves

of figures. You might get Mighty Morphin, Zeo

or in space or whatever. This time they're gonna

do an anthology. So you might get muddy morphin

mystic force and turbo or something So I don't

know that's pure speculation on my behalf But

they showed off the white ranger Mm -hmm, and

he's got swappable heads and accessories sound

effects It looks really sweet and they're gonna

be able to keep the price point of about 20 bucks

us Nice, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm gonna

collect My Mighty Morphin. I didn't want Zeo

when it was on TV. I did. I would get Turbo because

I did like the movie, which is a guilty pleasure

of mine. It's Power Rangers, man. It's got Tommy

in it. And if they did RPM, I would buy them

in a heartbeat. RPM or SPD SPD. I'm just finishing

now. I've been watching that show for like a

year. I have five episodes left and I every time

I go to watch it. I'm thinking I don't want to

finish this. I don't want it to end and it's

one of the best Power Rangers series I've ever

seen. I love that cast RPMs probably my favorite

though because it was basically Power Rangers

meets the Terminator is it was dark people died.

uh the one girl essentially dooms the world because

she wanted out and it's it's it's crazy if you

get the time watch power rangers rpm you will

not be sorry so anyway now that i've ranted about

that for about 10 minutes or so um yeah go go

watch some power rangers i'm sure you will not

be sorry i said if you're gonna watch anything

and start fresh start with rpm spd is pretty

cool dino thunder has tommy in it it's the return

Of Tommy and actually watched a lot of these

and gone back. Yeah, just because Just previously

I've watched them sporadically just based on

Who's in them? Mm -hmm. So like I've watched,

you know, like some of the stuff around Like

I didn't watch the series that that had forever

read. I just watched the specific episode Yep,

same here. I think that was it wasn't lost galaxy.

I want to say Was it Time Force? No, that one

was... Dino Thunder? No. No, Dino Thunder was...

That one was the one with Tommy as the Black

Ranger. Yes. Which I did watch all of that. I

did watch Time Force, In Space, Turbo. I pretty

much watched it all the way through Zeo and then

I stopped watching and then I started watching

again. I periodically had watched like Turbo,

In Space. I watched some Time Force, Dino Thunder.

RPM, I never really got into. Samurai, I really

didn't get into. Megaforce, I watched. Oh, Megaforce

was terrible. Megaforce was terrible. On a multitude

of levels trying to copy what Mighty Morphin

was. But I did enjoy even though it was a crap

cameo at the end. Yeah, the legendary battle.

It was a cool idea, just poorly executed. which

was kind of crappy. I mean, honestly, I'm going

to tell you, go back and give RPM a shot. I think

you'll be really genuinely surprised by it, especially

if you stick with it past the first 12 episodes.

It gets a little there. One of the things I liked

about RPM is it doesn't feel like there's many

filler episodes. It feels like everything is

pushing the plot forward in some capacity. Haven't

seen samurai too much. I like the theme song.

I like the character design that I just don't

like the characters Although that being said

one of the one of the girls from it in in the

Power Rangers shattered grid comics Jaden leaves

and leaves I can't remember her name Leaves her

Lauren leaves Lauren as the new Red Ranger Which

is kind of cool. That's the second female Ranger

outside of SPD's a squad where there was a female

Red Ranger. So that's kind of cool But yeah,

I mean I'm surprised how well the show has endured

over 25 years Considering how goofy the concept

is In how many times that they keep getting the

older Rangers to return. Oh, yeah, I mean I'm

pretty sure if you promise Jason David Frank,

hey, we'll give you 25 bucks in access to the

catering truck. I'm pretty sure he'll show up.

Oh, yeah. Actually, the person that surprised

me the most to see in this was Steve Cardenas

as Rocky. Really? Yeah. And he had speaking lines.

So I was like, that's awesome. I'm surprised

they had cat back in it. Yeah, especially as

Pink Turbo. Yeah. And Um, I mean, it doesn't

surprise me that they had, um, uh, the, I'm trying

to remember the, the Rangers, like the, the blue

space Ranger TJ, like, it doesn't surprise me.

He was there because like, he's kind of been

in a lot of the stuff. And he's aged remarkably.

Almost everybody on that cast has aged remarkably

gracefully. Like in time force red he he comes

back quite often too. Yeah, Wes. Yeah, he comes

back At power morphicon and they had Jen back

and she's aged remarkably great I would have

liked to have seen her come back, but I guess

they only had so many female spots So they gave

that the Gia and the cat so I'm pretty happy

with that all things considered. Mm -hmm I'm

definitely down with that and then they had they

had one mega force Ranger come back Yeah Gia

which it's weird. She's involved in something.

I think it comes out next month. It's Tommy uh,

so Jason David Frank Gia and I think it's just

those two and the guy who played Ryu in the bat

in the Sun Street Fighter movies It's for Power

Rangers Legacy Wars and Ryu gets a power coin.

It becomes the Ryu Ranger So yeah, it like like

go on YouTube type in Power Rangers Street Fighter

You'll see the bat in the Sun movies, but if

you see the one from this past summer from comic

-con It's Power Rangers Legacy Wars G fuel and

some of the company sponsored this little short

and It looks kind of awesome. Actually like you

get to see like the Rangers sentries from Lord

uh dragon's world but you also get to see the

black dino thunder ranger the pink zeo ranger

i think shows up and they're just fighting m

bison and other bad guys from street fighter

it looks really cool if goofy as hell but really

cool looking plus the dragon zord is trash and

the mega zords like all beep shit um it's i don't

know it's i'm surprised that how many properties

work with Power Rangers because now that Hasbro

has it like we talked about this months ago when

the merger went through. Just imagine the possibilities

of Power Rangers Transformers. Like my god, wait

till next year San Diego Comic Con. If there

isn't a Dinobot themed Power Rangers recolor,

I will eat my hat. It would surprise me if they

didn't take advantage of that synergy because

they already have all the molds for all the friggin

Dinobots Yeah, just recolor the power of the

primes of the combiner's stuff or the transformers

generation stuff and re -release it. We'll buy

it. We're stupid Anyway, I'm hype I'm Mike and

this is the news. Yeah, like basically seriously

I just want to fanboy out over this forever.

Like I'm literally as of this recording I'm debating

whether I want to stay up till three o 'clock

in the morning or set my alarm to 12 p .m. Pacific

time because I'm gonna presume that's when the

comic app will switch over to tomorrow and the

new comic will be available. I can't remember

ever a midnight release for a comic. And I want

to say there are midnight releases for this.

See, I didn't even know there was a thing. Yeah,

I know. Like, it doesn't happen often. But it

does happen every now and again for certain major

events. And I want to say Power Rangers Shattered

Green is one of those things where if the store

gets enough demand, they would do it. But I know

Boom Studios has been really active on Twitter

showing off this really cool hollow foil variant.

Variants for these comics have been really awesome,

like all the different covers. There's been some

fantastic artwork coming out of them. I wish

I could name the artist. I just, I don't know

them. But the writer, Kyle D. Higgins, started

the run on Power Rangers all the way back in

issue zero, I want to say, and that was like

two years ago. Well, he also wrote a lot of stuff

for DC before this. I really want to check out

the stuff that he's written because if this is

the quality I can expect, wow, I know any property

he gets will be in good hands. Blanchard was

following his Nightwing because he enjoys the

character of Nightwing. And so when Kyle Higgins

did that and then came over to Power Rangers,

he was all for it. I would like to see Kyle Higgins

take on Ninja Turtles. I think that'd be fun.

Or Ghostbusters. Basically any of the big properties,

I'd like to see what he could do with. Although

he did say on Twitter, he'd love to take on Spider

-Man. That'd be interesting. Higgins around Spider

-Man could actually be really cool. And I actually

tweeted at Higgins and a bunch of other people.

I'm like, dude. For the love of all that is holy,

can you please make a tabletop role playing game

out of this, which there is a new Power Rangers

board game coming out called Heroes of the Grid.

And it's a cooperative two to five player board

game where you have to defeat various monsters.

There's like a green with evil expansion. There's

a shattered grid expansion coming out. It comes

out next March. I want to say it looks pretty

cool that they were showing it off. at Power

Morphicon, there's various scenarios you can

build so it's never the same game twice. I think

it's like $80 to get in on it. I think if you

want just the base game, but if you pay $140,

you get that and all the expansions that are

coming out plus all the stretch goals. So it's

expensive. I think it's still got a fair chunk

left on its Kickstarter. So don't quote me on

that. But it was funded in less than eight hours.

So, look for that on store shelves next year

at some point. What else can I yip about Power

Rangers for just a minute, or other fun things?

Batman the Animated Series? Yes, that comes out

on Blu -ray on October 30th, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited by how this looks, because

I own the DVDs. Yep, same here. They don't look

that crisp. Now, here's a question. Did you buy

the DVDs in the smaller releases or did you buy

them in the big box set? Smaller releases. Okay,

because I got the bigger box set for them, which

I got in 2007 -2008, and evidently that set is

somewhat hard to find now. Well, I actually have

a story. And it kind of ties into this. And it's

the whole thing that when you want something

legit, you just pay the money. You don't try

and go on eBay and find it. Because years ago,

shortly after the network was started, Blanchard

was showing me his version of the complete box

set, Collector's Edition. I bought mine on eBay

for About half Because you couldn't find it anyway,

and so I bought it on eBay and then we're looking

at it and comparing the boxes and everything

and I had a bootleg from China where half the

words were like misspelled or like letters were

missing from certain things and Animated was

spelled wrong Some of the other stuff was wrong

on it although all the DVDs were there So there

was whatever the special disc was that came with

it, like the behind -the -scenes disc for the

bootleg. I think I watched it before I sent it

back to eBay and got my money back because it

was a bootleg. And that wasn't the only time

I've gotten a bootleg from eBay. The other time

I bought Arkham Asylum and it was a bootleg.

Yeah, I I did that and then so I ended up going

to Walmart and buying the the individual DVD

boxes of each season of that and Batman Beyond

When I bought my box set I did it How to phrase

of those sounding like an asshole So this is

before blockbuster closed down And we're walking

through Blockbuster at the time me and some of

my college roommates and my friend at the time

Pierce Was this ridiculous Batman fan and he's

like, oh man. I really should get that Batman

series I mean the only one here and blah blah

blah and at this time I just gotten paid and

I'm thinking I kind of like Batman. That show

is pretty cool. So I think I bought it out of

spite. He's like, I want that. And then I'm just

thinking, well, if you're not going to buy it

now, I might as well. And then I found out it's

gone for stupid expensive. I'm actually just

going to look it up on eBay right now as I'm

kind of curious to see how much it's currently

going for. I know that price will drop. Because

the blu -ray will have more more special features

and whatnot and that's kind of another interesting

topic of When you have something that is a collectible

and then the company decides to come up with

something that's even better than the original

version that you bought Mm -hmm us making your

originals basically garbage So I'm looking it

up right now. We're currently Let's see, best

match, I want prices highest first. The box set

is currently worth $361 currently. But let's

see, I'm just curious here. Let's see how much

it's sold for recently. That box set has sold

for, yeah, $361. Nice was the last one that was

sold now one sold a couple of weeks ago for 132

So the value varies you're you're at least gonna

get if I had the value of this thing at about

150 bucks But you could get up to I'm gonna say

you could probably get a reasonable 200 for this

if there weren't many listings on eBay Yep, because

right now the seems the average price is about

128 to 130 But it doesn't pop up that often So

that's kind of cool just to know that Hey, someone

got a steal at at $85 man. I should have sold

this thing off a couple of years ago Yeah, and

that's that's kind of a boat that I'm into I

have all this Star Wars stuff mm -hmm and Because

Hasbro's decided to come up with the black edition.

Yep of everything Every one of these figures

is worth nothing Yep, because the market falls

right out of the bottom and Star Wars is the

worst of it. I remember years ago when I used

to collect Star Wars, the big thing was the VOTC

collection, which is still as far as I know,

still fairly sought after. But the black collection

in the sixth scale has all the posability of

the VOTC at a higher scale, higher price point,

but it's much nicer. I only have I have three

figures in this scale. I have a storm trooper,

a snow trooper and Django Fett. And when I look

at the older figures from, say, the not the force

awakens collection, I'm trying to remember not

power of the Jedi, because that was like late

power of the force. Yeah, power of the force

and power of the force to those those. Those

figures are worth nothing because those were

in the 90s where they were all super buff and

then after Phantom menace and attack of the clones

Figures were I don't know. They were okay. I

think between revenge of the Sith and Just after

VOTC the vintage trilogy collection I think that

was the best Star Wars had been because everything

was superposable. The three and a half inch line

looked really good. The sculpting was really

nice. The vehicles looked amazing. We actually

got vehicles. The black series in the three and

the three and a half inch scale or smaller, I

think looks stupid. But the black collection

in the six inch looks amazing. One of the things

I saw, there were actually there's black Black

collection vehicles. I know I saw that because

I was I have all of the vehicles from the original

trilogy. And like I've sold off the the new boo

Starship. I've sold Boba Fett's vehicle. I've

sold one. Yeah, I've sold an X wing. I've got

a snow speeder. I've got a at at walker um steve

if you didn't live four hours away i would so

get those off you i because they're gorgeous

display pieces i don't have the millennium falcon

i believe my stepdad kept that um i have darth

vader's tie fighter um i have all of the 12 inch

line from the phantom menace and uh the original

trilogy uh I have a variety of other creatures.

I have a ton of the card game and comics, but

I'm about to offload all of it soon. I'm putting

some of it in the yard sale that's worth nothing.

And the rest of it I'm taking to a flea market.

Actually, speaking of that myself, I've posted

a couple of pictures up on Twitter. I've posted

of my Power Rangers collection. It's of a bookshelf.

Now before that was my geek library. That was

my resource archive I'm actually taking a lot

of those books I had on that shelf to a local

bookstore. Hopefully this week or next week Just

to try and offload them try and get a bunch of

trade credit Towards I I don't even know what

at this point I'm just trying to downsize right

now because I realize a lot of a lot of my information

as As cool as it is having it in a book I can

always just get it off the internet and the information

will likely be more up -to -date more accurate

Yeah, I nice, but I just I can't hold on to as

many as I used to yeah, I I personally like to

I like to Get the most up -to -date best -looking

version of whatever it happens to be I don't

have I have nostalgia for the character and for

the appearance during that timeline, but I don't

have nostalgia for the specific figure if it

wasn't so accurate. Yeah, like for me, um, when

like to talk about Power Rangers again, when

the lightning collection comes out, I will look

at my Power Ranger legacy collection from Bandai

and whatever figures are best looking will get

kept. The figures that are not as good looking

will get sold or traded off for something. Cause

there's always there's always purists out there

like in star if star wars collecting has taught

me anything there's a there's a collector for

everything um especially if you keep it in really

really really good shape so i'm uh kind of hoping

that the lightning collection will be nicer and

i can find things because uh some of those figures

man for bandai legacy are worth way more than

what they should be and i'm not a big fan of

that like um For example, to get a green ranger

figure, I looked this up today on Amazon. People

want $150 on eBay. That's about the average price.

The Power Morphicon exclusive Lord Drakken figure

averages about 120. And the figure's only been

out for a year, maybe a year and a half to at

most. That's nutty that a figure can be that

short packed or that sought after. that the value

jumps that much. When I collected Star Wars,

I kept most of my Revenge of the Sith stuff until

the VOTC stuff came out and then I upgraded all

of my clone troopers, all my storm troopers to

what the newest versions were because they looked

better, they were better posable, they fit on

vehicles better. But that's one thing I've always

liked about Star Wars. The vehicles stay pretty

much in scale. Although with The Force Awakens

and The Last Jedi, their stuff was a little less

consistent because Poe Dameron never fit in his

X -Wing as well as he should have. You've really

had to jam him in there to fit him in that cockpit

properly. So that was kind of a pain in the butt.

But just some of the collectibles that you've

mentioned. You've had a beautiful collection,

especially that Royal Naboo Starship. I know

that goes for a good chunk of money. I sold that

on eBay, I think for around 150 bucks. That's

not bad. I think you probably could have gotten

more, but did you have a walker? It was pushing

it. Yeah? It cost, it killed me in shipping.

Oh yeah. It's such an awkward shape. And then

I figured out you could take the nose off of

it. Oh. Which helped. Because it's such an awkward

shape I had that problem with another thing too

that I shipped. I can't remember exactly what

it was, but it was another Insane I'd have to

look it up. It was it was a weird angle Which

seems to be the problem with a lot of these toys?

If they're vehicles, I came close to selling

the ad at at one point But it just it didn't

go for whatever reason. I did sell, I had a Darth

Vader helmet, which was like a reproduction type

thing. And it went for about 35 bucks. I mean,

I've had most of the items go like well over

50 or so items, but it's still, it kind of overall

just, the process has kind of sucked just trying

to offload. a lot of these items. I think, what

was it I sold? Yes, like I said, I sold the Boba

Fett Slave one. I have, I had three of the action

figures storage bins that were shaped like the

Millennium Falcon. Which I have two left at this

point. Yeah, I don't know. I sold a number of

the 12 -inch figures that were new in box, mostly

the Queen Amidala, which was kind of funny that

those went away. But yeah, I don't know. I'm

not sad to see them go really all that much just

because none of it's worth anything and I'm not

going to be displaying any of it. I did manage

to find an old Captain Kirk figure I had from

Playmates back in the 90s from when they had

the original series characters all sold as a

set in that original series cardboard box TOS

bridge. I did find my Captain Kirk from that

in this collection because this was all stuff

they saved. From when I was a kid and kind of

put some of my own collection in with some of

their collection that were they were going to

give to me when I got older so I've been thinking

about this just because I've noticed Walmart

has been reissuing certain toys Walmart's been

reissuing Transformers recently. Yeah, they got

the rights to it after Toys R Us closed and I've

been thinking about it, but I can't justify though

those prices. In Canada, for example, they want

$50 for a reissue Starscream. I'm pretty sure

Starscream, when he came out, retailed for about

$15 .99. Now, I'd be willing to pay $30 .99 for

a reissue, but $50? You're out of your damn mind.

They were $40 at Toys R Us. Yeah, and they want

$100 in Canada. for the for the Devastator box

set. You can buy a knockoff Devastator at the

dollar store for like 10 bucks. Yep. And it's

the exact same mold. Mind you, the plastic is

crap. But still, it's a functional Devastator.

And I was just like, you've got to be you've

got to be kidding me. And they want $40 for hot

rod non -target master. Come on, you've got to

be kidding me. And I remember when toy not when

not when toys are when Walmart had the masterpiece.

reissues you could get a thundercracker and skywarp

I think for like 100 bucks and that's worth it

for a masterpiece figure. But for a reissue G

one, you're kidding me because I think they also

had ultra magnets a couple years ago. And prime

and I think they went for 50 60 bucks each and

that's not terrible. Those are at least worth

it in my mind. Anyway, see I the only ones I

see Because I used to own masterpiece prime.

Mm -hmm. I sold him I bought him for $60 and

target When he came out and I think 2005 or 2006.

Yep MPO one, you know, they never made one that

scale again because he was unfortunately taller

then 90 % of the masterpiece figures. So it wasn't

in scale, even with some of the later ones that

came out. So that's why they kept coming out

with masterpiece primes after that. But loved

the figure, sold it on eBay, doubled my money.

I bought mine for 25 bucks in package. See, I

bought it in package in the store, but they had

an entire aisle of this figure at the time. I

can't remember how I buy. I think it was at a

store that was closing. That probably is what

it was. I think so, but I'm not 100 % sure. Either

that or I bought it private. I can't remember.

I sold all my Transformers. I had to drive three

hours to sell them, but I made like $700. So

I paid off one of my wife's tickets or something

because she got a speeding ticket or something

stupid. That's where most of my toy money goes

these days. Only you can hear her in the background

She says to That's marriage folks, uh, but yeah,

um, I don't know it's Collecting is sort of now

that I'm older and a little bit wiser and a little

bit downsizing I'm starting to learn what really

matters. I mean, I was actually talking about

this the other day with my friend Tristan We

were talking about this on Twig. Video games,

for example. Right now, the big push is to get

physical because a lot of these companies are

moving towards digital, so people want physical

copies. I'm the opposite. I want digital so I

can take it with me everywhere. I'd rather have

it tied to an account in the cloud, or I can

just download it to my Xbox One or my PS4 or

my Switch or whatever. as opposed to lugging

around a crap ton of physical disks. And since

I moved two years ago, the movers ripped me off

and I'm missing all these games. This wouldn't

be a problem if I had them all digital. So I

don't know, it's kind of funny how our collecting

habits change as the technology and as we get

older, things change. Because I know we've talked

about this a number of times in the show, For

example, if I'm going to collect comics, I'm

only doing digital. You're selling off your collection.

You're focusing on other things now. It's kind

of it's like the nerd circle of life, if you

will. Speaking of a news item, I don't know whether

you talked about it last week. Did you talk about

the song of joy that came out of Warner Brothers

television last week? No. Okay, the Song of Joy,

the long national nightmare is over, Steve. The

Big Bang Theory's ending. I'd like the show.

Shut up. It's over. Oh my God. It wasn't that

bad. 279 episodes. It's over. Next May. I'm so

happy. The only thing I'm excited about it ending

is the fact that one started grating on me when

they had Howard and Bernadette have two kids

and you never see them. Yeah, I think Well, okay.

Here's a question. I'm gonna propose to you because

I proposed it to Tristan on twig When does a

show run its course? How many episodes should

you be able to tell a complete story? Until it's

no longer relevant So you're willing to keep

going as long as you've got something to say

as long as there's something to say and as long

as it's still relevant and when I Mean by that

is I think the Big Bang Theory Is finally hitting

that stage only because they've taken all of

these quote -unquote geeks from their stereotypical

And very heavily stereotypical geek nature and

turned them into fully functional human beings

that have a geek tendency like normal people

By the end of the show which I think Kind of

finally fulfills that which people were complaining

about the first like five seasons So I think

that at that point it's run its course, but there's

also shows like Supernatural for instance 12

seasons plus it's going on 13 this year. That's

nuts and to be honest It should have ended at

the end of Season five. Oh, well it that's the

original end date and that's when the original

creator left the show But the problem was is

they left it on a cliffhanger. Mm -hmm and it

was like the bookend for that creator and they

dragged it in season six and seven and part of

eight when they got a new show writer season

nine was getting better again and they were tying

up loose ends that were created in the first

five seasons throughout these later seasons and

honestly they should have quit at 10 or 11 because

they, they went to basically like, they went

all the way up to God at this point. So like,

how do you trump that? To me, like it was kind

of like that was another logical ending. And

then they, they threw another like monkey wrench

in it. That really wasn't a monkey wrench, but

they made it into one. and then they dragged

it out and opened up a whole other can of worms

with alternate dimensions because they ran out

of stories to tell in the current dimension.

I was talking with Tristan about this and I brought

up Supernatural as an example of a show that

still surprisingly has legs and another show

I think that had a picture perfect ending if

it had ended when it was supposed to. was Buffy

the Vampire Slayer. That show should have ended

at 100 episodes when Buffy died and the final

shot was Buffy Summer, she saved the world a

lot. And the world is safe from glory and the

hell dimension and all this other shit and Sunnydale

is saved rather than at the end of season seven

where she fights the first evil and Sunnydale

is destroyed. Sure, it was unending. It was okay.

But I don't think it lacked is I don't think

it has much impact as The star of the show sacrificing

herself to do the right thing But I digress because

when a show makes money and for example like

supernatural you want to keep it going Sam with

Big Bang Theory the show is infinitely profitable

with merchandising and syndication rights 12

seasons a show has A syndication run is typically

five seasons, 100 episodes. That's what you want

to get to. You can sell your rights off. Well,

look at Law and Order and all these different

shows like that. Yeah. How many seasons of that

do you honestly need before it's repetitive and

it's old? Don't get me wrong. I know that they

take real court cases or real crimes and incorporate

them into the show. So it stays relevant. But

at the same time, You can just turn on the news

Like why do I have to watch a? dramatized procedural

that that talks about the news the same way the

news does except it's taking it from a different

angle and less garbage and it's it's actually

more intelligent than what the news actually

portrays it most of the time and I Just would

rather watch anything else other than that at

that point But like I don't know I think Like

I said, I think there's shows where they run

their logical course and, you know, one to three

years, there's certain ones that run their course

and like up to seven or eight. And then there's

other shows that they can kind of go on for a

little bit longer. But I honestly think that

you get kind of 10 years. You're kind of long

in the tooth at that point. Like it's you kind

of you kind of stepped over to that second decade

or that second. generation of television to where

things have evolved, and you're kind of just

grappling on because you were there before. I

mean, one of the shows I think defies expectations

in this regard is Doctor Who, because the show

constantly reinvent itself when they have a new

doctor or a new actor portraying the doctor.

Which keeps it fresh. Yeah, which keeps it fresh.

I mean, sure, there are plot threads that wrap

up from previous incarnations of the doctor.

Like, for example, the Dalek and the bad wolf

storyline continuing on, even as far as Matt

Smith, I think you could argue, where they meet

up with the war doctor in there, stuff like that.

So, I don't know, it's kind of funny that this

show, Big Bang Theory rather, has impacted so

much of geek culture. for better or for worse,

depending on who you want to talk to. I didn't

say that it's done it for worse or for better,

but there have been some entertaining and funny

aspects to it. Absolutely. I will totally grant

you there have been some really genuinely funny

moments on that show. But I think as I've said

on this show in previous years, the show could

be nerd blackface at times. which I know is a

very offensive term to use but just the fact

I think it made geeks look stupider at times

by we became a joke a meme and I don't know maybe

I'm just too sensitive towards it because I think

we're sensitive towards it to some degree because

we were there before it became mainstream yeah

yeah it's sort of like hey man we we're not all

weirdos like this sort of thing. And you know

what? I think you hit it right on the head. We're

just we were there before it. And it's not like

we were there before it was cool. But it kind

of rubs me that way. So please don't think I'm

a geek hipster, folks. Yeah. But yeah, on a lighter

is going to fail miserably. But did you want

to try the pitching your own movie slash TV show?

Okay, tell me how this works. Okay, so this card

game is called by the rights and It's it's a

movie pitching party game. Basically It's it's

basically something you do when you're you know

Looking for a laugh of absurdity or a drinking

game, you know or something to that degree anyways

What what the aspect of is that you're a struggling

screenwriter and nobody's buying the scripts

you're selling. And then you, you know, basically

you're trying to pitch a movie to a producer.

And so they give you four stacks of decks of

different cards, like a genre, a descriptor,

a hero, and a plot. And then you have to create

the story around that. Okay. You know, obviously

it'd be modified because it's a podcast and there's

two of us. So I think it would be interesting

to modify it in the sense that we both collaborate

into whatever the card is pulled for each of

them and kind of build on that and create a,

whether it's an intelligent or an absurd story

using any of these things. And I have the eighties

expansion too. All right. So I don't know what

route you want to go, whether it's 80s or you

want to do a mix or you go nuts. Go nuts. OK.

Let the cards decide. Let the cards decide. So

I'm going to grab a genre. All right. First card

I pull is a parody. OK. So that's that's our

our genre. All right. So descriptor. And some

of these are like hilarious, too. World Famous

is the descriptor. I have a feeling this is going

to be terrible. Let's pull the blue card. Hero

is the rookie cop. And the plot is getting sucked

into a video game where they must beat every

level in order to return home. Okay, so basically

we're looking at a parody of Wreck -It Ralph

is how I'm seeing this. A world famous rookie

cop. Axel Foley. No, wait, he wasn't a rookie.

No, kind of maybe. If you consider his first

film. Okay, so Axel Foley gets sucked into a

video game and he has to save the world by going

through parodies of other 80s cop movies. So

he has to go through Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal

Weapon, 48 Hours, Die Hard, A Stakeout. And I'm

trying to think, what's another 80s cop movie

that you'd have to go through? Tango and Cash

and Turner and Hooch. And Police Academy, Police

Academy. That would be hilarious actually. So

there we go. Who would his partner be? Um, has

to be, has to be... his polar opposite. John

McClain and their comic relief is Al Powell playing

the exact same character from Die Hard. Okay

and then the sound effects for the entire movie

would have to be from Police Academy. Yep he

does every sound effect. Michael Winslow, there

will be not any other sound effect. It would

just be Michael Winslow. Yep, the entire time.

Which would be hilarious, actually. You'd have

to do the soundtrack, too. Yes! No, soundtrack

by Jan Hammer is the guy who does the Miami Vice

soundtrack. So it'll be very synthy sounding,

but it'll sound awesome. Or Wang Chung. Well,

isn't Beverly Hillscop like... Kind of synth,

too. He is. I'm trying to think. I don't know

who did the sound. Harold Faltemeier did the

soundtrack for that. So, you know what? That

would be awesome, too. So get Jan Hamer, Harold

Faltemeier, and they combine on the soundtrack

with a single by Wang Chung. I put way too much

thought into this. That's part of the fun of

it. And who would the villain be? Oh, easily.

Hans Gruber. So Alan Rickman, trying to think,

who else? The bad guys from Beverly Hills Cop

2, who was also Grissom from CSI. Okay. And the

henchmen are nothing but ninjas. Ninjas. Because

every 80s movie somehow always had to have a

ninja. I know it was really weird like Die Hard

had a ninja. Beverly Hills Cop I believe had

a ninja. Yeah there was always somebody who knew

martial arts. Yeah it was it was it was like

a like their their token like martial arts. Yeah

it was like what and they had they always had

somebody like that in police academy too. Yep

there was always some random badass martial artists

so okay what else we got? Let's see. So we have

a very inventive 80s movie for one. Do you think

that this would stand, like if they were to have

done this movie like today, it's just a fun parody

movie, it had everybody still been alive. Do

you think that this would have been something

that could have gotten made in the way that we

got the... I think so if you could have gotten

you could have made this movie in the late eight

in the late 90s to the early 2000s. Because you

needed certain people to be alive. And this is

when the parody genre was really ramping up.

So this was in the era of scary movie, epic movie,

date movie, shit like that. Yeah, yeah, I'd say

there's a possibility this could have succeeded

even if it was a lower budget thing. As long

as you had Eddie Murphy and John McLean, help

me out. What's his name? Bruce Willis. Bruce

Willis. If you could have got them on board,

everybody else would have just fallen in line.

Plus Wang Chung, they're like, oh my God, people

remember us. So I think you could have honestly

had this happen because this would have been

a killer soundtrack. It would have been honestly

like quite fun to go see too. I can already see

the movie poster and the tagline of this movie

would have been, do you have enough quarters

to save the world? What would you title the movie?

Pixelated or something like that or Beverly Hills

Cop 4. I'm trying to think here. 8 -bit heroes.

That's it. That's good Eight -bit heroes you

have somebody to save the world somebody needs

to create a poster for that this would be off

if you you even make this in perler bead art

so easily or just take one of those 8 -bit Photoshop

filters and just put it over Eddie Murphy and

John McLean and just put Donkey Kong in the background

and You would have it basically. It's pixels,

but with Eddie Murphy and Bruce Willis Yes, this

needs to happen. This would be hilarious. I'm

going to try and work on this tonight just because

it would be funny. Alright, let's do another

one. Alright, let me put those cards down. Alright.

Trying not to grab something that's similar.

Okay, genre, puppet. Okay. This is gonna be really

weird, I have a feeling. Descriptor, cyborg.

So, puppet, cyborg, okay. I have no idea where

this is going. Con artist. Okay, puppet, cyborg,

con artist, okay. This could not have come up

any funnier. planning to rob three Las Vegas

casinos simultaneously Okay, so I'm seeing oh

Actually, okay. I can actually do this. I I can

do this Okay, so you set this in the reality

of the of the video game slash tabletop role

-playing game shadow run which has orcs dwarves

and trolls and elves Which would be portrayed

by puppets? Cyborgs since they have Chrome in

that world. So like wired reflexes cyber eyes

and metal legs and arms and shit and the con

artist part comes in so a cybernetic troll Decides

he's he's he's out of jail. He needs money. So

basically you remake oceans 11 with Middle Earth

and their There you go. It's Shadowrun 7. It's

Shadowrun Oceans 11. The only civilized location

is like your Las Vegas. Yeah. And it's all Las

Vegas. It's all practical effects. So they're

all puppets. Now, I'm not saying they have to

look like Muppets, but think practical special

effects. So yeah, this could be... frankly this

would be friggin awesome if you could make a

cyberpunk practical effect heist movie I would

go see this every day just to make sure it cracked

number one at the box office hell I want to make

this movie that would be funny actually it's

actually kind of funny that that puppet came

up considering we had that Melissa McCarthy movie

come out yeah Which evidently it didn't do too

well. It only cracked. It cracked third place

with 10 million dollars, though it wasn't the

worst performance. I think it's the worst performance

of her wide release career, but not the worst

performance of her career, which is kind of crappy

because the idea is great. But here in the movie

itself, it falls very short on its jokes. Yeah,

it's it's very lowbrow. That sucks. I had such

high hopes for that movie. But had they had they

done it differently we could have ended up with

this Yeah, exactly. We could have had a cyberpunk

heist movie. That would have been awesome So

scale on one to ten how well do you think this

would have done in theater if you put this movie

out now it would do awesome simply because people

are hyped about the cyberpunk genre because people

loved shit like The Matrix, Blade Runner did

pretty well. People remember movies like Johnny

Mnemonic and Strange Days. The Shadowrun Role

Playing Game, it's still pretty popular in certain

circles. And there was the movie Bright, which

came out on Netflix about a year or two ago.

And I think people liked it for the most part.

It introduced the idea of urban fantasy with

orcs, dwarves, and trolls existing in the world

with guns, computers, and the internet. Yeah,

I think this movie could actually be really successful.

You just have to lay the basis of the world down

first and really be nothing but practical effects.

If you could have me convincingly believe that

a troll carrying an assault cannon was robbing

the Bellagio, I am there yesterday. Because and

I say practical effects because as much as I

love Lord of the Rings I'm a little sick of CG.

I want makeup. I want practical effects. I want

puppets I want stuff that looks good on I want

something has weight to it stuff that looks like

it has momentum So I think stuff like that can

be really successful because my big problem with

the last Hobbit movies is there was a lot of

CG and CG is cool and everything but it will

never be practical. Oh, no, no. And that's that's

probably why, you know, like the The Force Awakens

was better than like the Han Solo movie. Exactly.

Because you need practical. CG is cool. CG in

the right places is cool. But you will never

beat something you can see, feel and touch. Yep.

I definitely am on that boat with you. I like

the fact of practical effects over a ton of CGI.

I think that's part of why the Christopher Nolan

Batman films did so well too. Exactly, because

they had real guys doing the stuff. It felt real.

It was rooted in reality as opposed to superheroic

fantasy. Which is okay, and I think that works

for his style of filmmaking. So let's do one

more before we round out the show. Okay. So let's

see. Okay, we got period piece. Okay. Which could

be anything. Alright. I'm gonna take from my

80s pile. Grizzled. Okay, the descriptor and

then let's see Special forces team fighting a

cybernetic hitman sent from the future Okay picture

this it's the 1940s a grizzled hard -boiled Special

forces team sent behind enemy German lines has

to fight an experimental German Terminator sent

from an alternate future where the Germans won.

So this Terminator is sent back in time to assure

the success of Hitler. So it's still Arnold?

Yeah, it's still Arnold, except he's a Nazi.

So his Austria... It's gonna be, oh my God, this

could be freaking awesome. If you had World War

II units fighting a Terminator, just imagine

a T -800 exoskeleton punching a tank and it flying

across the battlefield. Like, oh my God, this

could be awesome. Terminator 1942. I'm stealing

this idea for a role playing game. Oh my God,

this could be so cool. But yeah, okay. So, the

special forces team led by um i want to see has

to be someone iconic i want i want someone not

i want someone who's an old movie star who could

pull this off uh sean connery yeah sean connery

leads a team of scottish commandos or uh sas

commandos so the scots are there with them so

it's a british sas team sent behind the enemy

lines In Berlin, they're there to steal something,

and then they find out the Nazis have this future

tech, and the Terminators come back to help them

win the war. And the British SAS has to stop

them before the Terminator can give them, like,

future Hydra -like weaponry, which would overwhelm

the Allies. I could see that. And we'd call it

probably, like, Future Shock, or... dawn of fate

or something like that. Like Future Shock. And

that and the future, the the the poster would

be the Terminator's exoskeleton foot on top of

a Nazi war helmet. And you just see the skulls

in the background and the ruined theater of war

of 1942. I can see that. That would be my god,

can somebody out there draw this? Because that

would be oh my god, and it would be there's no

fate, but what we make for ourselves And it would

be Sean Connery Arnold Schwarzenegger um Put

Vin Diesel in there for fun and I don't know

maybe I want someone plucky and funny Jenny Knoxville

no Actually, you know what he could work because

he would be willing to do his own stunts And

he would be great comic, comic relief. And you

have Linda Hamilton in there as the great, great

grandmother of Sarah Connor. And she's escaping

the Germans. So it's like a quick Easter egg.

You blink and miss it, but it's there. She's

a nurse. Yes, that could work. That's where she

works in the work ethic to you have to fight

for yourself and you got to do all this and when

the time Comes down to it. You got to be ready

to fight Sarah. So yeah, there you go There she

learns from great great grandma Connor who was

a nurse during the Second World War and she escaped

to England and then came over to the States Yeah,

sounds like we're next Terminator movie there

we go screw this new one I want this one Nazi

Terminators That would be Bach. That would be

so cool. Oh my God, man. See the possibilities

with a randomized card game. Oh yeah. Like we

have three awesome movie posters here. A troll

holding bags of money with like an M60 machine

gun walking out of the MGM Grand. And it's like,

I can't think of a tagline, but it would just

be called heist. Shadowrun heist or something

like that. And then we have 8 -bit heroes. We

just call the other one puppet work. That's good.

See, we have this figured out. We should be in

Hollywood, Steve. Who would think so? Someday,

man. Someday someone will hire me to come up

with really cool ideas like Nazi Terminators.

And remember, folks, Always punch Nazis. They

could be a secret Terminator. You don't know

this. Yeah, you don't. You don't. So let us know

if you've liked this segment, if you liked the

ideas here, or if you have suggestions for things

we should use depending on what card is pulled

in the next game. And yeah, just sound off, give

us comments, and let us know what you liked.

Absolutely, guys. So be sure to interact with

the show in a number of ways. You can reach us

on Twitter, Facebook, and I think you guys have

an Instagram too, right? Yeah. So Steve, if they

wanted to get a hold of the show, they would

do so by going to at Altered Geek. So until next

time, folks, I have been Mike the Birdman Dodd

from Twig, the flagship of stupidity, joined

with Steve Megatron Phillips. And as always,

get geeky with the Altered Geek.