Recapping Season 1 of Transformers Animated

Will these infernal setbacks never end? The revolution

begins now. I got a vibe tells me I should be

sitting in on this scene for a while. Hey, it's

David Kaye, voice of Beast Wars Megatron and

TFA Optimus. You're listening to the GeekCast

Radio Network. Jazz here, and I'm jiving to this

episode of Transformation Animation featuring

Mike Blanchard, Stephen C. Phillips, and Michael

Wilson. Bow, bow. Bow, bow, bow. Sunday, Sunday,

Sunday. Hello, and welcome to Episode 6 of Transformation

Animation Podcast. I am your host, Steve, Jim,

and Mike, and joining me is Steve Megatron. Hello.

Good day. Pecan Court Michael, hello. Hey. How's

it going? It's going and making a return trip

from Cybertron Optimus solo. Holy hell. How did

you afford that shuttle admission? Actually,

it wasn't as bad as you thought because I got

a discount. If, uh, any of my body parts came

back on the wrong side of my body. Well, what

happened is he got the price line negotiator.

I wonder what kind of transformer William Shatner

would be. Well, you know, they have made them.

They've made improvements on the space bridge

recently. I got a good deal. Today we are going

to be recapping Transformers Animated Season

1. So what's going on with you, Kevin? Oh, good

God. Well, life on Cybertron is kind of boring

at the moment. Not a lot of stuff going on. Well,

it is a barren, dead planet. Yeah, I've basically

been walking around trying to find something

or someone for weeks now, and no luck. For a

second there, I thought you were going to say

you've been trying to find someone or something

to do. Well, that too. But no, not much going

on on Cybertron, sorry. What about you, Steve?

What's going on? Oh, Lord. I didn't know how

much you can stretch yourself until you have

no time to do everything. Yes, because I'm working

on several sites right now, one hopefully for

money and then between trying to do little things

at other ones. And been doing somewhat like waiting

for authorization on behind the voice actors

contest thing that's coming as far as what the

hell is going on. Yes. Our rampage for Dark Glass

is MIA. I contacted both the backup and the regular,

so they are officially back on the market for

people to audition for. I tried that, and it

doesn't turn out as well. It comes out quite

bad. Yes, so on top of that, I've been on Voices

.com auditioning for many, many things lately.

I think I've done over 50 auditions. Got nothing

yet. Some of them have been reviewed and they

haven't actually finished their things. Some

of them have. I'm in the middle of doing 20 more

tonight. And then I'm also doing a bunch of fan

dubs that are more so like audio play fan dubs

based on Japanese anime, which I die in every

single rendition. So I have a ton of lines and

then a bunch of shrieking and getting burnt up

in ovens and like right now I'm doing the Black

Butler series which I had no idea what the hell

it was before getting into it. And I also was

doing Phoenix Wright as one of the fat old lawyers

that's supposed to be nuts so I used Master Roshi

as the template. But yeah, so that's what I've

been doing lately. Other than that, nothing.

What's going on with the family Wilson there,

Michael? Dennis! Ha ha! No. We just started Fall

Ball, which is like T -Ball, except in the fall.

So we went out and got Aiden a new baseball bat

today. He was all excited. Yeah. My company has

already drank the Microsoft Kool -Aid. So they've

been trying to prod me into SharePoint development

for the last, like, six months or so. And I finally

broke down and went to a SharePoint development

conference. So I spent the last three days there

learning all about SharePoint development. And

that's, oh, so exciting. I'm on the edge of my

seat. Yeah. Well, at least you had a little bit

more fun and exciting stuff with Phineas and

Ferb across the second dimension. We talked all

about that in the GCR episode. That's right.

That was, yeah, we must have watched that show

about 10 times just over the weekend. And then

we had the podcast about it with Ryan Mead. Yeah.

That was interesting. I mean, I hope that, I

hope people listen to that. And, you know, maybe

we'll get her. The video version that I put up

on YouTube of the mashup of images with just

the audio under the images, it started at like

10 views. Within an hour, it went up to like

75 views. Two days, three days later, it's at

nearly 175 views. Nice. So, yeah, there is that.

But, yeah, super, super fun stuff. I'm trying

to sell a bunch of furniture I don't need on

Craigslist. Let's see. Trying to sell these stupid

books of poetry. Actually getting ready to move

upstairs to supposedly what's supposed to be

the best apartment in the building so I won't

be in this shithole anymore. I'll actually be

in an actual apartment that I can actually unpack

crap in. That'll be good. Yeah. Temporary living

sucks. Come on. Shut up. Time for celebration.

Shut up. Hold on. So other than that, not much

else is going on with me. So I think we're going

to take a break. You're going to hear some audio

and we'll come back with the recap of season

one. It's as though humans are forever at war

with nature. Beauty literally falls from the

sky and they immediately rush to spoil it with

their machines. They won't rest until all of

nature's beauty is. Have you even heard a word

I said? So we are back. And the way that each

of us is going to do this is we've got three

or four or five different categories. We have

favorite episodes, favorite characters so far

in the series, favorite moments, least favorite

moments, least favorite characters so far, least

favorite episodes, and then our overall thoughts.

Yeah, buddy. Why don't we let the Cybertronian

correspondent go first with favorite episodes

from season one just to see if he has any at

all. Oh, the first time viewer does have some

favorite episodes. The first one, which I don't

have a lot to say about it, but I just liked

it overall, was episode, I believe it was episode

11, Lost and Found. I just kind of liked it.

I liked the play between Blitzwing and Lugnut.

Megatron was cold and calculated in that one.

And it was just a fun episode overall. I mean,

it wasn't nothing to write home about, but I

just liked it overall. I also liked the two -part

Megatron Rising, just because Megatron's rising.

I mean, come on. I tend to like two -parters,

and I don't know. This one was good. You had

a good interaction between Lugnut and Starscream.

You obviously have Megatron making his whatever

you want to call it. Return. Return, so to speak.

So I really liked the two -part. But overall,

my favorite episode of Season 1, and this should

not come as a surprise, The Thrill of the Hunt.

And I'm sure other people will be able to talk

about that one, but it just had a lot of cool

stuff in it. Yeah. What about you, Steve? What

are your favorite episodes from season one? I

guess Megatron Rising. You didn't write anything

down, did you? I didn't write anything down,

but that's more so because I don't like season

one. So, therefore, I'm going off the wiki for

reference points. And I would have to say my

favorite episodes are Megatron Rising because

Megatron actually gets back into the battle.

Good times. Yes. What about you, Michael? Well,

I'm going to have to go with Thrill of the Hunt

for the triumvirate. Just because, you know,

it's Lance Henriksen. And he's awesome. And we

had a lot of backstory filled in. Basically,

we were tossed into this crew, and they basically

say off the cuff, well, we've never even seen

a Decepticon. It's like, well, what the heck?

Where'd everybody go? And now we find out about

the Great War and Ratchet's place in it. We got

a Susan Blue appearance. Yeah, you get Sue Blue

thrown in there. You know, you kind of come for

the last Hendrickson, stay for the Sue Blue.

And like I mentioned when we talked about this

episode, the number one reason why this is the

best episode of season one, no humans. Yeah,

that doesn't hurt. I want to say the other episode

that didn't have any humans was Along Came a

Spider. Yeah, that was decent. Yeah, well, you

know, we get Alita One, who's insanely overpowered.

And then she becomes Blackarachnia, who is even

more insanely overpowered. And, you know, no

humans. So, hey, kudos there. I would say Megatron

Rising, but you knew it was going to happen.

Yeah. You know Megatron's head is going to get

his body back. He's been trying all season. Not

necessarily that it was going to happen in the

season finale two -parter, but you knew it was

going to happen eventually. Yeah, I mean, for

all we know, hey, he's going to stay ahead in

a jar for the remaining however many seasons

and then pop out just before the series ends.

But no, we get him at the end of season one,

and that's good enough for me. I'll take that.

Basically, the... Well, I don't want to say the

only ones that are any good besides that are

Thrill of the Hunt and Along Came a Spider. But

they're two of the few episodes this season that

don't introduce human villains. Ah, yes. And

that's kind of been the running detractor as

far as what hardcore G1 fans are concerned with.

Right. What about you, Mike? I like the three

-part. Opening movie, Transform and Rollout.

Megatron Rising. Same reasons. I really love

Sound and Fury just because it's Soundwave. What?

I like lots of parts of that and I dislike lots

of parts of that one. Well, it's Soundwave. I

don't care. That part was cool. Soundwave was

cool. Soundwave basically... He outranks any

other bad part in that episode. It would have

been even better if he wasn't a kid's play toy.

Well, it was an interesting way for them to introduce

him instead of just have him show up. That could

have been like a light post. Oh, look, I'm Soundwave.

Oh, I'm here. Where'd he come from? I don't know.

Ta -da! There he is! Whee! It's been nice how

they introduced him because it was like, A master

plan of Megatron. Oh, I'm going to introduce

this little guy, and then he's going to get bigger,

and then he's going to get bigger, and then he's

going to get bigger, and then he's going to be

my new body. It's going to be awesome. Check

this out. And basically it doesn't work out for

him, which is kind of cool in and of itself.

Yeah. It's like, here's my new pair of pants.

Wait, he won't let me wear them. The pants are

walking away without me. Oh, this kind of sucks.

Maybe I can negotiate with the pants. Would you

like to, you know, join up with my head and what's

left of me? At least be able to control the zipper.

I used to be ahead of my time. Get in my belly!

Oh my god. So those are the best episodes of

Season 1, people. Yeah, we're going to move on

to favorite characters. I'm going to start this

one off. I really dig Blitzwing just because

mainly I dig the crazy, the random Blitzwing,

but I like how his alt modes are tied into his

personality, and the Autobots eventually figure

that out, and that's how they defeat him. I like

Ratchet a little bit. He's growing on me. Optimus,

I like that they've taken him and made him younger,

but haven't made him as douchebaggery as Rodimus

Prime was in G1. No. And of course, you know,

Megatron. I mean... It's Megatron. He could be

a head, he could be a tank or truck, he could

be anything. He would still be menacing as all

hell. This Megatron is distinctly different from

any iteration of Megatron we've seen before,

though. True. I still dig him. Yeah. Alright,

so who are your favorite characters then, Michael?

For me, Ratchet really stands out. Basically,

because this is the first time they've introduced

the old medic. Previously, when you wanted to

have a character that was old and crotchety and

had been around and seen it all, you looked at

Cup. And here, it's like, well, we don't have

a Cup, but we can have... Ratchet be Cup, except

he's kind of Dr. Cup. That's a good one. Dr.

Cup with wheels. Exactly. But this characterization

keeps coming up. I mean, we see it again in the

movie, the Bay movie. We see it again in Transformers

Prime. Basically, you've got this old crotchety

doctor. And the classic Ratchet, the G1 Ratchet,

wasn't like that at all. No. Ironhide was more.

Ironhide was more like, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

I mean, he wasn't, Ironhide wasn't as old and

crotchety as Cup. No. Cup takes the cake, right?

But, yeah, I mean, this Ratchet is more of an

Ironhide than a Ratchet. That's a theme for this

whole show is they like to bring in these new

characters and, or these same characters, but

then give them a different character's personality.

Right, well. Optimus Prime is Rodimus Prime.

Ratchet is Ironhider Cup. And then what was the

other one, I think? Prowl was more like Hound,

in my opinion. Yeah, I'll buy that. Again, I

think that they were leaning more toward, you

know, classic, what do they call it? I don't

want to say iconic characters, but they're going

for... Almost like a trope. Almost the same tropes

that they borrowed against 14 Titans. You know,

again, Bumblebee being Beast Boy and Bulkhead

being Cyborg, etc., etc. But the thing with Ratchet,

though, is not only is he, well, not only do

they start off with this new characterization

for him that persists over time since then, but

he also gets the best backstory. You know, he

was old. He's old now, but when he was young,

he was in the war. He was, you know, field technician

or field medic and treating RC and fighting lockdown

and all these things. I mean, it's stuff that

even stuff that hasn't been introduced yet. But,

you know, he's been around. He's got a lot of

backstory. He might get some of the best backstory

out of the whole series, to be honest. And we've

only seen a little bit of it yet. Not to give

too much away for Kevin, but yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, but no, I mean, he's probably one of the

standout characters. I agree. He's been given

the most attention so far as far as character

development out of the Autobots. What do you

think, Kevin? I tried really hard to come up

with an Autobot that I liked. Can't do it. I

really can't do it. I'll give like a half of

like to Bulkhead and a half of like to Ratchet.

Ratchet, for the reasons you just said, he's

had the most character development. He seems

like the most complex character so far. And I

don't even know why I say bulkhead, but he doesn't

annoy me as much as the other ones do, I guess.

Not yet, at least. You only hear my bad so often,

right? Yeah. If I had to pick my three favorites,

they'd all be Decepticons. Number three would

be Megatron. just because I like this version

of Megatron, and it's just kind of cool to see

how he's developing. The second would be Blackarachnia.

Even though we just got the one episode, it was

pretty cool, the transformation. I liked what

they did with her backstory. My favorite character

so far is Lugnut. I can't really explain it other

than he cracks me up. He legitimately makes me

laugh in almost every episode he's been in. And

I don't know why, but he just strikes a chord

with me. So Lugna's my favorite character so

far in season one. I don't see him as being very

comedic. For some reason, he makes me laugh.

The scene when the episode where he's talking

to Megatron, but Starscream can't see him, can't

see that he's talking to Megatron and he thinks

he's talking to himself. Like, I don't know.

There are some very funny parts in that. Oh,

see, now I thought Starscream was funnier in

that one. There's some really funny Starscream

moments. I mean, Starscream's a little more comedic

than he really should be. I don't know. I just

like Lugnut. I can't explain it. Maybe I'll be

able to explain it later in another season. We'll

have to ask General Techno about that and see

what he says in the deep discussions about the

finer points of Lugnut. He takes obsession to

a whole new level. But anyway, Steve, what are

your favorite characters so far? I would have

to say that my favorite characters are, well,

Optimus Prime. Just because it's a different

take on him. They've never gone this direction

with one before. They're always, you know, militaristic.

They know pretty much everything. And this one,

he's, you know, basically doesn't know shit.

He's useless. Which is refreshing. to say the

least. I like Ratchet just because the same reasons

you guys said, crotchety old man. And it's quite

nice to see, I don't know. And I know they carried

over a lot of the animated characters to TF Prime

in some regards, like Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee,

in a sense. So, I mean, it's kind of, you know,

they obviously get something right in this show

with those characters. And, of course, you can't

go without saying Megatron and Starscream are

definitely... Starscream, of course, is more

G1 in this than some of the previous renditions.

But Megatron is definitely something totally

different that we haven't seen in Transformers

since Beast Wars. So, I'd have to say those are

my favorite characters thus far. Yes. Getting

into favorite moments for me, in Megatron Rising,

when Megatron just throws down. I mean, he kicks

the Autobots' asses all over the place. That

was awesome. In the very beginning of the season

when Starscream sent Megatron to his doom. And

then, of course, in Megatron Rising when Megatron

gets his revenge on him. The you interrupted

my speech line. I love that. That's awesome.

The only good thing I will ever say about Bumblebee

was when he was dressed up as the vampire and

he was crawling all over Bulkhead. I thought

that was a little bit funny. Anything with lockdown

is great. What about you, Steve? Favorite moments?

Probably where Soundwave got to have the giant

body. Yeah. Just because it was weird seeing

him go from this itty -bitty little drone to

this gargantuan robot that pulled tentacles to

get machines to put him together. Just, that

was kind of strange. I like Megatron getting

thrown back together, of course. I like his 3D

element that they had, basically showing his

skeletal remains to Lugnut. Yep. I like Prime's

freaking hammer when he goes, or not his hammer,

his axe when he goes and uses it against Megatron

or just whatever. It's just, I don't know, that's

such a badass thing that he's got this time around.

And my axe! You can kiss my axe! I don't do a

very good Gimli, so. What about you, Kevin? What

are your favorite moments from season one? This

is hard. I had a couple small ones that are just

kind of more G1 nods or whatever, but I liked

what I'm calling Hector Ramirez news reporter

take. I mean, that's what it seems like to me.

I'm not saying that's exactly what they intended

to do, but he's appeared a couple different times.

I just remember seeing him in the old school

Transformers, G .I. Joe, and a couple different

other 80s shows, so that was kind of cool. The

little appearance of Kremzik. Yeah, that was

awesome. I liked seeing that. Back from the first

opening three episode, whatever you want to call

it, the way that they began working on Bridges

and at the end of the episode they ended working

on Bridges. I like full circle moments, so I

liked that. As far as some bigger moments, obviously

when Megatron comes to life, that's something

that comes into his new body. That's kind of

a cool moment. My two favorite moments from Season

1, though, number one would be, like I said before,

when Lugnut and Starscream were having the conversation

where Lugnut's talking to Megatron in his head

and Starscream doesn't know it. I just think

that's a hilarious bit between the two of them.

And then the other one, probably my, and this

might be why I put Bulkhead as one of my favorite

characters, just for this moment, but when Bulkhead

has no body, I actually thought that was hilarious.

That was kind of cool. Like, the interaction

between him and Bumblebee while Bulkhead has

no body, I didn't expect to like it, but I really

liked that scene, so that was probably my favorite

moment of the whole season. Awesome. Yeah, I

like the giant Bulkhead head walking around on

the tiny little Tudor Bob body. That was funny.

What about you, Michael? What else did you like

from season one for favorite moments? I liked

the very brief appearance of Professor Princess.

I just dig this as a character. I didn't actually

do this. I was thinking about it, but there's

a scene in the Phineas and Ferb movie where Isabella

is writing a... No, don't you even dare. Shut

up. Move on. She's riding a giant rocket -powered

unicorn. And I was actually going to take a clip

from that and put a little, you know. Don't even

desecrate Phineas and Ferb. Put a little mask

on her and make her look like Professor Princess.

Do it. Send it back to me. What do you think

of Professor Princess now? Because there's no

way that he'd be able to go, oh, okay, well,

you can't diss on Isabella. Whatcha doing? No

way not to like that. What else did you like?

I liked the scene of Blast of the Past where,

at the end, Grimlock transforms. That was great.

I was like, oh, okay, cool. This is going to

be cool. Yeah, I'd have to go with the old standby.

I liked it when Megatron got his body back. The

whole reformatting. He basically reformats the

entire lab into his body and then bursts out

the roof and goes, Your asses are now line. I

like that a lot. I liked at the end of Along

Came the Spider where, and Kevin's going to hate

this, but I kind of liked it when Black Lightning

cried. But not just that, but the whole reveal.

I mean, the whole episode, they've been beating

it over your head. She's Alita 1. But when it

was revealed to Optimus Prime and he suddenly

recognized and said, oh, my God, you're, oh,

oh, crap, you know, that scene. It was really

cool, and it just kind of lent a vulnerability

to her, and then culminating at the end when

she cries. And again, she's totally able to cry

because she has an organic half. And again, she's

been through a lot. She deserves to cry, but

it was just so unexpected, and it was really

nice, and it was a nice chunk of character development

for her. And it's too bad that we don't see much

more of her until much later. Yeah. I only have

two least favorite moments because the least

favorite moments weren't even in the script until

Kevin said, oh, I added them. Bumblebee's hard

character. I just, I know he gets better, but

I just cannot stand him in season one. And this

show kind of goes to prove that power corrupts

absolutely. Anything with the key, enough said.

I mean, seriously. That is an understatement.

I have perused. Oh, God. All of my notes. We

do not want to be here all night, so you need

to keep it to a top ten list. No, no, I don't

have very many. I've perused all my notes, and

I have come up with the for sure worst moments

of season one, and they're just small moments.

Okay. You already talked about any moment involving

the key, but the creme de la creme was the keyhole

in the toilet. Agreed. A terrible moment of season

one. We've already had feedback on that, and

it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there

should be a keyhole in the toilet. Yeah, just

everybody needs a toilet key. And for listeners

who may just have started listening to this show,

first of all, go back to episode zero and start

from the beginning. Second of all, if you want

to get the... The context of what Michael just

said, go back to episode five and listen to,

what was the episode? The one with the Dinobots

and Meltdown. Total Meltdown? Yeah, no, I think

it was after that. I don't know. Survival of

the Fittest. Yeah, Survival of the Fittest. Yeah,

Survival of the Fittest, that's what it was.

What else, Kevin? My second one would be the

entire wrestling match that Bumblebee is involved

with. Yeah. Third would be, and like I said when

we talked about this episode, it's the history

teacher in me, but the incorrect alignment of

calling it dinosaurs from the Jurassic period

and then showing a bunch of dinosaurs that are

not from the Jurassic period. That bugged me.

Another one would be a dog named Sparkplug. That

rock. And my last one would be Blackarachnia

crying. It's not because she didn't deserve to

have an emotional moment. It was because of the

actual tears coming out of her eyes. Because

she's not half organic? Still. Would you rather

she cried, like, webbing or something? No, I'd

rather she not cry. I'd rather she, like, broke

down to the point, like, maybe she, like, went

to a knee. Or maybe she, like, kneeled down.

Or maybe she, like... showed emotion in a way

other than crying would have been fine for me.

It goes to another point, which I'll bring up

later. But those are my least favorite moments.

What about you, Steve? Least favorite moments?

Any moment that a human appears. Okay, well,

the only exception I make to that is Spike and

Carly. Any moment he is involved, any moment

a human appears. Any moment a toilet appears.

I think I smell a drinking game here. Oh, God.

Transformers Animated, the drinking game. Take

a drink. But, yeah, that and the fact that this

season is overall the least interesting part

of the entire three seasons. All right, so...

You already went, didn't you, Michael? For least

favorite? I don't think I did. No. I don't remember.

Do you have any least favorite moments? I liked

them all. Up until we get to least favorite episodes.

Individual moments, I liked everything. Episodes,

there's some that shine more than others. And

some that don't shine at all. Yes. Getting into

least favorite characters for me, Bumblebee.

I said a second ago, he's just a dick. That's

all it is. Bulkhead, why did they create this

character for the show? Why couldn't they have

brought in like a prowl? Or, well, no, why couldn't

they have run, like, a blue streak or a sunstreaker

and sideswipe? You know, anything but bulkhead,

I mean. I do agree with that point. I always

hate it when you have a library of hundreds of

characters why you have to invent a new one.

Yeah. Well, again, I think it's because of the,

you know, the tropes. You know, you have to have

your Beast Boy. You know, you have to have your

giant hulking guy who's... Really, really strong,

but not really agile. Out of the hundreds of

characters that were in Transformers, the original,

there wasn't any that fit that mold. Well, what

Michael is saying is that because most of...

Yeah, it could... I know it comes later, but...

Okay. But what Michael is saying is because most

of the creators or most of the crew on this were

on Teen Titans, that's where Bumblebee and Bulkhead

as Cyborg. I'm just saying, I think Brawn or

Warpath, I know some of them make a little appearance

later on, but they could have been main characters

in this form. Oh, yeah. I could totally see a

Brawn, actually, but he's at that point. Well,

actually, at that point, they had already lost

the copyright, the trademark to Brawn, so they

would end up having to call him X -Brawn again

or something like that. True. Like in Robots

in Disguise. But I don't think I would have been

happy to have classic G1 Brawn be portrayed as

kind of dopey and clumsy. Sure, he's really strong.

You would just throw out, like, if you didn't

use Vulcan, you would throw out that entire character.

You would use whatever other characteristics.

Again, I would say no, because there's these

character tropes that they're adhering to. They

want the big, dopey, strong guy. What about the

green construction vehicle guy? Lost my mind

on. Not Hoist, but... Oh, yeah, no, Hoist was

the green one. Was he? Yeah. Grapple was the

yellow one. I don't know. Prowl. Prowl needs

to stop throwing his beliefs all over the fucking

place. Prowl needs to be renamed Mirage Hound.

I would have accepted a Mirage if they would

have named him that. Prowl is supposed to be

the freaking militaristic guy of the group. He's

supposed to be the... Well, he is a police motorcycle,

but he's supposed to be the... He's supposed

to be the policeman of the group. And finally

for me, least favorite characters. I will never

like this character. I don't care how many other

people like it. I don't care if there is one

fanboy out there that obsesses over him that

he has to have like six different puggle formers

of the same damn character. Lugnut. I fucking

hate Lugnut and his constant pontificating. Oh

my god. So wrong. I would gladly deal with Inferno

saying my queen every five seconds than fucking

Lugnut. Okay, tell us how you really feel. I

just did. Get it all out. He wants to be fucking

Lugnut. Least favorite characters? I could almost

list all the Autobots. But mostly Prowl, only

for the fact that that is one of my favorite

characters of all time in the Transformers history,

and this is not Prowl. They should have named

him something else. Bumblebee, like you said,

is a jackass. And I hate Rodimus Prime in this.

You mean Optimus. Oh, I'm sorry, Optimus Prime.

Yeah. As far as Decepticons, the only one I can't

stand is Blitzwing. And that's mainly because...

He's the only one most people like. I'm so distracted

by when he talks to try to come up with what

accent he's trying to do in that one. because

it's nothing I've ever heard in my entire life.

And I like the story about how he got his alt

modes, and I like that he has different faces

with different voices, but something about him

bugs the shit out of me. I don't know. I'll take

a lug nut over Blitzwing any day. It should have

been Astrotrain, goddammit. But anyway, Steve,

least favorite characters? Octane. I don't like

Bulkhead. I don't like Bumblebee. I don't like

Blitzwing. I don't like Lugnut. I don't like

the Dinobots. Why are you watching this show

again? I hate the humans. Because better times

come. Damn it. Let me see. I changed my least

favorite characters to every human hero. person

that they brought in. The villains. Yes, the

human villains. You can't make it a blanket all

humans because... Okay, I hate all human villains.

The construction workers are awesome. I hate

all the villains of the humankind. I don't like...

Spike and Carly and Daniel. I can deal with that.

They were a one -shot. They keep coming back.

They keep coming back, but they don't really

serve a purpose. They don't do anything. They're

just there for window dressing, but it's cool

to see them. Yes. But yeah, I think those are

the characters I hate the most. This list will

grow. Wow. Michael, least favorite characters

from season one? I don't know. I hate to say

it, but I'm not terribly fond of Bulkhead. Most

people aren't. I think none of us are. Well,

yeah, just because he, you know, he is... I liked

him without a body. I liked him in TF Prime.

I liked him if they would have just kept him

with just the head. He was ahead of his time.

So basically, if Kevin Michael Richards had done

the voice here... I think it would have been

much more. Yeah. If he wasn't constantly tripping

over himself... Yeah, if he wasn't playing Patrick

from SpongeBob, I could... Get past him. And

see, that's one of the coolest, you know, regardless

of Bulkhead's characters, his characteristics,

that's one of the coolest things about this show.

Patrick is an Autobot. SpongeBob is a Decepticon.

Yes. I'm kind of bothered by the Dinobots. Not

so much Grimlock, because he actually speaks.

They've got cool robot forms that are wasted.

Exactly. It's like, why? Again, why are they

even there? Is that where the whole thing about

having characters not talk started? In the Transformers

history? I don't think so. There are fantastic

episodes of Samurai Jack that are awesome. No,

I mean the Transformers characters that don't

never speak. Oh, I don't know. I hope not. I

don't recall that ever happening in G1 or Beast

Wars. I think it wasn't until the movie where

it's like, oh, we can't afford a voice actor

for Bumblebee, so here's an old Star Trek voice

clip. I interrupted your next pick, though, for

a character. I'm sorry, Michael. I'm sorry, who

did I say? Something after whatever we just talked

about. Oh, no, I was talking about the Dinobots

and the fact that two of them don't even speak.

And in The Rise of Megatron 1, they make it a

point to reveal to Optimus Prime that they're

alive still and go to the island and they try

to recruit their help. And not only do most of

them not speak, but they don't actually do anything.

Yeah. I mean, they don't show up at the end and

pitch a hand against Megatron, despite the fact

that they're on Dinobot Island. So it's like,

why did they even introduce them here? I shouldn't

say that. Why did they even show up in Megatron

Rising at all? And secondly, why the hell don't

they talk? Agreed. Yeah, so that's my main kind

of nitpicks. There's really not enough Decepticons

to really complain about them. Yeah. I mean,

I don't hate Lugnut. with quite the ferocity

that Blanchard does. You know, I mean, honestly,

they show up in, what, two episodes? Yeah. I

don't think it's that big of a deal, really.

Starscream shows up more often, but I like Starscream.

Yeah, Starscream's good. Yeah, I mean, he's not

my favorite, but, you know, I dig him. Fair enough.

That about covers it. Oh, as long as we're covering...

You know, worst characters there. I want to throw

in Nanosek. Yes, he is the number one, maybe.

Worst character in the season. Yeah, exactly.

Number one worst character. I like some of the

other... I mean, I'm not a total human villain

hater. I like some of the other ones. I kind

of dig Angry Archer. You know, just because he's

a unique character. It's really cool. It'd be

easy to say, oh, well, that's... Green Arrow.

But no, he talks like a Renfair reject. It's

awesome. Again, I like Professor Princess. She

was in there all of two minutes and for some

reason everyone hates her for it. She distracts

from the rest of the episode. It's like she had

two minutes on screen. I don't see the big deal.

But Nanosek had the entire episode and he was

just kind of annoying. I was kind of hoping he'd

die at the end, really. He did in my mind. He

may as well have. He comes back. Well, he's dead

in my mind, so that's okay. Well, he comes back.

He'll be reincarnated. He cloned him. He's like,

what was his name? Nino Sexton II. Nino Sexton

Mark II. Nino second second. What did you want

to say, Kevin, earlier? Nothing. Oh, okay. Moving

on to least favorite episodes. Wait, wait, wait.

You cannot say all of them. Wait. For me, I just

have four. Number four would be Nanosek. That's

a third. That's a third of the episodes you didn't

like. I had mine let down at two. I'm not spending

too much time on these damn things. So, number

four would be Nanosek. Number three would be

Headmaster. Number two would be Survival of the

Fittest. And the number one worst episode in

the entire season, Nature Calls. Disagree. What?

You like Nature Calls? No, I disagree that that's

the worst episode of the entire season. No, Nature

Calls is the worst episode of the entire season.

I don't know about that. Nanosek might be the

worst episode. I have... There's so many... Pieces

of shit. But there's two that smell worse than

the rest. My second worst is Total Meltdown.

What? I hated that episode. There were so many

problems with that episode. The writing dialogue

was terrible. They had a wrestling match with

Transformers involved. And there were just inconsistencies

in the plot. I didn't like it. I like the villain.

No, the villain. That's the best human villain.

That is the best human villain that we've had.

But it's tarnished by the rest of the episode.

But no, the worst... Hands down, the worst episode

of the entire season was Nanosek. Yeah. I'll

buy that. I don't even want to talk about it

because it'll make me mad. Steve, least favorite

episodes? Least favorite episodes? Yeah. You

want me to list them? You cannot say all of them.

You must have some favorites in there somewhere,

but yeah, like, I don't know. Top three least

favorites. Okay. Nanosek. Yes. And... Hmm. Headmaster.

That was also awful, yes. I liked Headmaster.

Boo. And... Home is where the spark is. Yeah,

I can agree with that. Mike, how is when nature

calls worse than nanosec? Nature calls is worse

because that's prowl and everybody's saying you

have to, you know, that's the whole message of

nature versus technology and saying that, oh,

my God, what if you never had these machines

anymore? What would you do? And it's like, stop

pushing your beliefs on us, God damn it. I think

I struck a chord. No, not really. Michael, least

favorite episodes from season one? I'm going

to have to round out the consensus with Nanosek.

You're alone, Blanchard. Exactly. With the exception

of maybe introducing another human villain, Nanosek

really didn't do anything to progress the story.

I mean, it's just another one of Megatron's attempts

to regain his body that fail. I want to say the

only redeeming factor of that is that Bumblebee

gets his booster rockets, which look really cool

on the toy. Yeah. And he hasn't had them before

or after. But it's like, hey, they're on the

toy, which means we have to somehow get them

on his body in the cartoon. So they throw this

whole giant steaming piece of crap story around

the booster rockets to get them in there. And

I want to say Nature Calls is a bad episode too,

but there's one thing that redeems Nature Calls.

And I'll sum that up in two words. Zombie robots.

You know, when the space barnacles get them and

they turn into zombies, that is awesome. I like

that. I don't like how they resolved it. I don't

like how they got to that point. But I dig the

zombie robots. Nature Calls is one of those episodes

that I can't put it as my worst episode because

I almost just ignore that it happened because

it seems like so pointless to me. But it didn't

piss me off like Nanosek did. Yeah, well, and

at the end they find Megatron's body. So Megatron,

after like four attempts, finally gets a body.

Yeah. Which leads us to the end of the season,

which did rock. Yes. So, Kevin, overall thoughts,

season one. All right. Transformers Animated

Season 1. I obviously came into this like most

people did back in the day when it first aired,

worried about the designs and worried about the

look. I've gotten used to the look of the actual

Transformers. The look of the humans still sucks

to me. I just don't like the designs on the humans.

I don't like the way they make them look. I do

like the... The backgrounds and some of the scenes

and stuff like that, something about the humans

I don't like. I don't like, I know I mentioned

this before and I think Michael responded, I

don't like the anime hyperdrive look that happens

when we go to fight each other. I know that's

a staple of anime, but I can't stand it. When

it's just all different colored diagonal lines

in the background and then a transformer in the

foreground. I don't like that. It almost seems

lazy, really. It's like, why couldn't you have

some of the background in there? You could blur

the background. You could do something crazy

with the background, but just to put diagonal

lines of color, I don't know. So those are my

biggest issues with the look of it. As far as

actual storytelling and whatnot, like I said

with Black or Acne of Crying, my major problem

so far is the human traits that the Transformers

have. We've seen them sleep. We've seen them

cry. I think we've seen them eat and drink. I

don't know. It doesn't bug me enough that I would

like... stop watching the show, but they're just

minor things where we've never seen this type

of stuff before and I just don't know how I feel

about it yet. I may grow to like it, but I'm

undecided at this point, I guess. There's a couple

times, going back to the look, where the Transformers

look like they're made of rubber instead of metal

with the way they bend and the way they move

that bug me. There's the consistent use of let's

just throw a random plot line or a plot background

like a Halloween or birthday party, or this event

or that event. Well, Halloween, I will say, had

a specific point. No, I understand the point,

but it just seems like they're coming up with

all these different events or special days and

then throwing a Transformers story around it,

which seems lazy to me. I love the way they've

done the backstory so far. They haven't done

a lot of them, but I love what we have gotten

for backstories with Blackarachnia and Optimus

Prime with Ratchet and Lockdown and stuff like

that. So the backstories have been excellently

done for the most part so far, and I love that.

I guess the only other issues I have, number

one, the whole Autobot alloy and Destronium.

I don't want to get into it, but I just don't

like the fact that we're saying that Autobots

and Decepticons are made of two different things.

Well, now, I did think about that when you said

it originally. I didn't think of this. If you

go back to G1 and you go back to, I think it's

Five Faces of Darkness where the Quintesson...

You're not going to quote me Five Faces of Darkness.

Hold on. Hold on. When Rodimus goes back into

the Matrix, they say the Autobots were one product

line. The Decepticons were another product line.

So think of it... They still made it the same

metal, though. I don't know. The toys are all

die -cast. Come on. I'm just kidding. And my

biggest problem, this is the last thing I'll

say about season one, and the main reason why

I don't like season one, besides all the humans

and the key, was the whole setup of Sari being

the guardian of the key. It just bugs me as a

central aspect of the entire story of season

one, that you have a little girl holding the

most important piece. of Cybertronian equipment,

whatever you want to call it. And I'd hate how

they handled it where they finally wised up and

said, maybe one of the Transformers should watch

that, which is what they should have done to

begin with. And then they write that into the

story that that's how Megatron gets the key is

when the Transformers are finally protecting

the key instead of Sari. I just don't like that

whole spiel. But what if she's not a real little

girl? I don't care. It's still stupid. Steve,

overall thoughts, season one? Agree with Kevin.

You cannot cop out like that. I can too cop out.

Michael, anything to add? I agree with Kevin.

Yes! Actually, I had something I wanted to throw

out there too. You know, people complain about...

When I say people, I'm looking at Kevin. People

complain about... The way some of the characters

look, like the human characters, maybe the way

they're animated, they don't look right. It's

not my style. Half her head is like her mouth.

And I kind of get it that that's the style, especially

if you're a fan of the Teen Titans, that's the

style. You're used to it by now. It's not quite

as animated as the Teen Titans, but it's close.

But the saving grace for the art here is the

backgrounds. Yeah, the backgrounds. All the backgrounds

are fully realized. They're all painted. It's

gorgeous. Just really, really good stuff. And

it can be a little disconcerting when you have

the, you know, maybe rubbery Transformers in

front of these gorgeous backgrounds. That's,

I think, my major problem. Yeah, and sometimes

you don't even notice it, but if you just, after

like the fifth viewing, right, if you just forget

that the robots are there, that the people are

there, and you look behind them, it's really

sharp. I forgot one other thing I want to throw

in there, too, that I really like, and I agree

with everything Michael just said. Another thing

that I really like is the weaponry used so far

in Season 1. I like Prime's axe and his bolus

and some of the other weaponry that's being used.

I do like that. Megatron's swords are kick -ass.

I haven't seen any weapons that I haven't liked.

Yeah, I like the fact that the weapons are integrated.

Yeah. In a sense, and it kind of reminds me back

of... Oh, damn it. I can't remember his name

now. The writer. The one who basically said that

if you are a weapon, you don't need to have weapons.

Flint Billy? No, no, no, no. He wrote for...

He wrote for Beast Wars. Oh, it's either Larry

Dottilio or Bob Forward. No, no, no, no. Marv

Wolfman? No, the other guy. There's not too many

more that have major roles in Beast Wars. Unless

you're talking about Robert Skewer from Beast

Machines. Bob Skewer. Yeah, okay, I'm sorry.

My apologies to Bob Skewer. I totally blanked.

Yeah, Bob was the one who said. If you are a

weapon, you don't need weapons. If you can turn

into a tank, you don't need a gun. Or if you

can turn into a gun, you don't need a gun. Exactly.

Something like that, yeah. But basically you

don't see Bumblebee hefting around a bazooka

because he can slam his arms together and make

stingers. Although I will say the gun that Optimus

Prime carried around in the last live -action

movie was pretty kick -ass. Did he carry that

gun around? I don't know, but he dropped it at

the end after he used it, and that thing was

huge. The giant Gatling guns? Yeah. No, he had

his regular gun, his G1 style, whatever you want

to call it, shotgun rifle thing. Yeah, but he

had these big old Gatling guns hanging off his

arms. Yeah, that's a little bit... He had some

massive weapons, but I'm getting us off track.

Well, later on, and that's a spoiler, but...

Prime gets some pretty cool weapons, too. He's

got a lot of weapons. He's got his axe. He's

got his foam sprayers. Bolas are awesome. Yeah,

you got Bolas. I don't really consider Bolas

to be a very good weapon. I just like it because

it reminds me of Panther and Thundercats. Okay,

how about that? Sure. Two points to Thundercats.

Or not Panther, excuse me, Tigra and the original

Thundercats. My bad. Oh, no, see, I didn't like

that. Tiger had like a whip type of thing that

looked like a set of nuts. Somebody had the bolas

with the balls at the end of the rope thing or

whatever it is. Yeah, I don't remember. I think

it was Panther. Panther had nunchucks. Yeah,

Panther had nunchucks. No, but we're getting

off track here, but they all had secondary weapons.

Yes, Panthro had the nunchucks, but I think he

also had the bolos because Panthro was the one

that invented all the damn things. Genius. Yeah.

Papa Cosby. There we go. Okay. So there's that.

Papa Cosby. That's awesome. Okay. All right.

Back on track here. What were we talking about?

I don't know. Final thoughts on season one. Yeah,

I totally agree with Kevin. I know Kevin doesn't

like that this Optimus is young and he's more

Rodimus type. I don't agree with that. I kind

of like that they went with a younger Optimus,

and they did it a little bit differently. He

does have his own backstory. I could stomach

the younger Optimus if he didn't have his pity

parties like Rodimus used to. That's my problem.

They're not really as bad as Rodimus. No, Rodimus,

like, entire episodes were, I'm not as good as

Optimus Prime. Yeah, it wasn't quite that bad.

Oh, it was. Yes, it was. No, no, I'm saying this

one isn't quite that bad. Well, see, and that's

the thing. At the very beginning of this episode,

the only time this season that we see the hierarchy

of Cybertron, that being Ultra Magnus and Sentinel

Prime, the dick that he is, you know, the only

time that we see the hierarchy in this series

is the very beginning of the episode. And the

only thing Ultra Magnus says to Optimus is, don't

try to be a hero, Optimus. It's not in your programming.

I mean, that's really the only thing. So, I mean,

you don't have this Optimus. you know, going

around like Rodimus did in season three and rebirth

saying, Oh my God, I suck. Oh, no, there's just

nearly as emo, but it comes across in his leadership

style where everything he says is kind of halting.

Like, okay. Um, all right, guys, we're gonna,

we're gonna, sorry. Sorry. He's leaving. And

he's like, all right, guys. Um, all right, let's

do this. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's clear

that he's a very young leader. He has a ways

to go. They've stated already, you know, he is

an Academy bot. They haven't actually explained

how he washed out or why he washed out. And again,

that's a lot of backstory that comes later. But

no, I appreciate the differences, the liberties

they took with these characters and how different

they made them from, you know, G1. And I don't

have a problem with that at all. I mean, I like

this new Optimus. Yeah. Maybe I'll grow to like

him. The animation style for me, just in general,

there are certain aspects, like when I'm really

looking for issues with it, there are certain

aspects that I cannot stand. Like I found a screenshot

that the animation is so awful, the modeling

on Bumblebee in car mode is just, he looks like

he's a scrunched up Volkswagen. That's what he

looks like. But in general, I don't dislike it.

There are certain things, you know, sometimes

the explosions are a little bit too much. But

other than that, the style of the animation is

great. And I think that throughout this series,

as we go along, even though we may have one or

two one -off episodes, the overall story of these

Autobots, of these Decepticons, it ties all back

together. I mean, by the time Season 3 and all

the continuity and all the backstories start

happening, it really made me look back at these

first, you know, 16 episodes and really see,

oh, yeah, I can see that now. Okay, that's cool.

Especially the next season. Once you watch it,

you look back and you see where all the building

blocks were laid ahead of time in Season 1. You

can see how everything was planned ahead. The

only thing, and I said this last episode, the

only thing I wish that they would have done with

this season is have Megatron Rising Part 1 be

the season finale. And just have it end on the

cliffhanger of, oh shit, Megatron is alive, he's

in the sky, and just... end it because part two

it picks up and it resolves itself immediately

and then when we jump into season two next time

you know it's like oh well all this happened

and all that happened and that's great but i

just i just didn't feel like there was enough

of a cliffhanger for season one there's no sense

of urgency at the end yeah not at all i agree

but considering that there was no six month gap

between season one and season two. It was like,

okay, next week, season two. Yeah, that's, that's

true. Uh, Steve, anything to add before we go

to the ads and all the breaks and all that stuff?

Nope. Transformation animation podcast. We'll

be back after these messages. Hey, Tara strong

here. And you're listening to the geek cast radio

network. No, there will be no Operation Interference.

I am TFG1 Mike, and you should be listening to

my very first podcast, the TFG1 Podcast. 24 episodes

covering the entire U .S. run of the 1984 Transformers

cartoon. I also have a few supplemental episodes

and an interview with Stan Bush. I bring in guest

hosts who will be full -time co -hosts in Steve

Megatron and fan of the show now co -host P.

Concord Michael. So check out the TFG1 Podcast.

You can find it on iTunes and the web at... www

.geekcastradio .com Transform and roll out! Ah,

welcome to my throne of future tales. The Beast

Unleashed podcast is over, not gone. You can

hear more of this great podcast discussing all

the episodes of Beast Wars Beast Machines on

geekcastradio .com. We include voice actor and

writer interviews with stellar hosting by Steve,

Mike, and Michael. Head on over to iTunes or

the net or else I will send you my vehicles to

extract your spark and destroy you. Yes. Now

back to Transformation Animation Podcast. That's

right, we are back. And before this episode,

we recorded it today. Michael did his own video

mashup of Transformers meets Jigsaw. What the

hell did you do? I was listening to the previous

podcast that we did. Specifically, the one for

Home is Where the Heart Is. Or Home is Where

the Spark Is. Home is also Where the Heart Is.

Yeah, exactly. Home is where the saw is. But

the scene where Megatron has taken over the warehouse

and is basically immobilizing all of the Autobots

and basically trying to kill them, there's a

scene where Bulkhead is grabbed by the pincer

arms and put on a conveyor belt when he's going

to get his head smashed. And the comment that

I had made was, you know, how did Bulkhead end

up in a Saw movie? And I thought, well, how cool

would it be if I took, you know, Jigsaw and stuck

him in there and said, you know, Bulkhead, I'd

like to play a game. You know, so I thought,

you know, this shouldn't be that hard to do.

It probably took me about three hours to put

together. And the sad thing is I didn't start

until like 11 o 'clock, so it was really, really

late by the time I got done with it. And then

I ended up going back and re -editing it. It

took more time, and I was really tired after

this. But it turned out nice. It turned out funny.

It was pretty funny. Yeah, it was a bit of a

surprise. It's like, okay, I've seen this episode.

I know roughly where this falls into place. What's

going to happen? What makes this different? And

then, boom, it's Jigsaw. He's like, hello, Bulkhead.

Oh, man. Oh, no way. I kind of threw a twist

in there and killed Bumblebee, too. That's excellent.

Yeah, I dug it. I thought it was cool. Nobody

but us is actually going to see it. I will put

it in the post. I will link it in the post. God,

if we ever get to interview Bumper Robinson,

he's going to hate us. He's going to hate you.

Because you're like, Bumper, you've been a dick

for like an entire season. Thank you for joining

us here on Transformation Animation Podcast.

As always, get in contact with us and leave feedback

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-5821. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Transformation

Animation Podcast. We wish you'll join us next

time when we'll be reviewing the first three

episodes from Transformers Animated Season 2.

Those being The Elite Guard, The Return of the

Headmaster, and Mission Accomplished. Oh, God.

No, this is where it gets good. This is where

it gets cool. Return of the Headmaster scares

me, but okay. Son of a bitch! At a point, be

a piece of shit. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with...

Michael Wilson. And Optimus Solo. And Steve Megatron

Phillips. And we'll tap you again next week.

Ew. Oh god, worst train wreck ever. Burnt toast!

Okay, what's his malfunction? Technical glitch.

It happens. I laughed, actually. It is not a

glitch. It is Megatron, and he commands us to

deliver him the key. Megatron? Did you just say

Megatron? Did he just say Megatron? There is

no Megatron. Megatron is offline. Terminated.

I did it myself. Saw it myself. You interrupted

my speed!