Proving Grounds, Go With The Flow, Crossing the Rubicon, and Master Blaster Review

Sentinel Online. Now loading the Beast Unleashed

podcast. This episode of the Beast Unleashed

podcast features Stephen C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard,

and Michael Wilson. This is Megatron, and you're

listening to the Beast Unleashed podcast. Ha

ha ha ha ha! Oh yeah! world's first ever Beast

Wars Beast Machines Review podcast. This is the

Beast Unleashed podcast, brought to you by the

Geekcast Radio Network. I am your host, EFJ1Mike,

and I am joined by Peacon Court Michael, and

we have yet again, for the second time in this

podcast's lifespan, killed Steve Megatron and

buried him in Michael's backyard in a shallow

grave. And I hope Megatron resurrects him soon,

because we're going to have a birthday party

for my boys back there this weekend. I can't

have rotting Steve in my backyard. A rotting

Steve. That's funny as hell. It'd be a shame.

It's like, all right, kids, go play. There's

a dead body over there. Don't worry about him.

Megatron's going to revive him any day now. Just

leave him where he is. Today we're going to be

reviewing four more episodes from Beast Wars

Season 3. So how have you been, sir? Not awful.

Yeah? Yeah, that's pretty much it. That's the

best way to describe it. Actually, I've been

playing with power core combiners lately in order

to get ready for our power core combiner review

episode tomorrow. Yeah, I'm going to have to

really break the mold on that episode and talk

about Mighty Mug's Iron Man Mark VI. Oh, man.

You're just going to be quiet. You're just going

to be quiet, and Brian and I will talk about

stuff that matters. I don't dislike power core

combiners, but at the same time, they're not

something that I want. I don't know. They're

pretty awesome. No. Pretty awesome. Someone else

has been going on with you. Didn't you take a

couple of trips this week or something? Did you

go to some events or something or other? Events

or something? Well, we went to touch a truck

last weekend. That sounds so wrong. It does,

you know, and the trucks don't enjoy it. Stop

buckling my axle! Exactly. Quit touching my horn.

Quit touching my horn. And that's basically what

it was. The town over from us has a thing called

Touch a Truck every year. And they line up trucks,

like a garbage truck or a fire truck or a semi

truck. And this year there was a payloader, which

was cool. They had a police car. An army vehicle,

I think they got from the local National Guard.

It was fun. They had them all lined up in a parking

lot, and you show up. It's free, and you bring

your kids, and they let the kids climb on them.

So we got a bunch of pictures of Aiden and Gavin

in a fire truck and playing with the nozzles.

Exactly. The fire truck's like, don't touch my

nozzle. Oh, I feel so dirty now. I feel so used.

But, yeah, so we used all the trucks, basically,

and climbed up in them. And, you know, I actually

got to sit up at the payloader, which was very

cool for me because, you know, payloaders are

awesome. And, you know, it was fun. We spent

a little time there just playing. And Aiden ran

into some little friends from preschool and swim

class because they're doing swim class now for

the summer. Cool. Yeah, and it was nice. I'm

surprised we haven't posted photos of that yet.

Yeah, you're way behind on blogging. Of course,

I really can't say much either. I'm way behind

on blogging, but you do it way more than I do.

Yeah, I keep meaning to. Generally, when I...

We'll do something, we'll take pictures of it,

and the fact that we have pictures of it means

I have to write a blog post around the pictures.

And we just haven't... Besides the touch of truck,

I don't think we've done a lot of stuff that

required pictures. I think a while back now,

there was some Facebook post you made about a

blog post or something or other, and I commented

on it. There was a comment back and forth between

you, me, and Chrissy, your wife, about... Why

is it that you have to do all the blogging and

she doesn't blog at all? I mean, it says michaelandchrissy

.com. Yeah. She doesn't blog. I don't know what,

you know, she's mentioned before, oh, maybe I

should write one of these. And it's like, yeah,

that'd be fine. You know, I would welcome that.

I think that'd be great. But she never does.

She's just not into it. She's too into that scrapbooking.

Yeah. Yeah, she just signed up for another scrapbooking

event. She's going to abandon me for three days.

Well, at least she didn't dismember you this

time. Yeah. It's always fun, too. Oh, boy. I

have, well, unfortunately, I've had to start

paying rent, which that's $220 a month that I

could be using towards other things. So there's

that. Yeah. It's barely even rent, to be honest.

I know, but still, I haven't had to pay rent

in over five years. It's more expensive than

free. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, but that's going

on. I've actually gotten a... buttload of toys.

I got, I think since the last record, I got War

for Cybertron Optimus, Muggle B, Mighty Mugs

Iron Man Mark VI, SDCC 2010, Mighty Mugs Prowl,

which I talked about in, well, it'll be next

week or the week after is episode of ToyCast

with Proto Man, episode 68 of that show. Just

today as we're recording this, I got the Challenge

at Cybertron set, the three -pack of classics,

Rodimus and truly hot rod colors, Cyclonus and

Galvatron. Galvatron's a junk toy. He is. Galvatron's

a piece of shit. Well, I think Galvatron was

originally supposed to be a Voyager. Yeah. And

they shrunk him down to a deluxe. And they did.

They decided that they couldn't do it at that

price point. So they shrunk him down. And the

problem with him being that small is that everything's

very, very fragile at that size. Yeah. Things

are breaking off, and they don't seem to fit

right. And when you transform him, you get the

idea that if he were just a little bigger. Maybe

there'd be more room to twist this around here,

or maybe I'd be able to pull this arm around

where it's supposed to be better. But because

they literally just kind of microed him, it's

just not as good a toy. Yeah, I wish this would

have just been a two -pack with Cyclonus and

Rodimus, because the Cyclonus in this... is way

more TFTM movie accurate as far as colors. The

U .S. version, because I've got the two of them

right here, and I'm not turning this into a toy

cast, but the darkness of the purple of the U

.S. version and then the light lavender color

of the Henke version, this one with the three

-pack is like right in the middle, and it looks

like he looked just like in TFTM, even though

he didn't speak. which is unfortunate. And you

know that they had this box set in mind a year

ago, you know, or two years ago when they were

deciding what color scheme to go with the general

release. Oh, yeah, this was planned. It's like,

you know, we're going to release this kind of

crappy deco, and then a year later, well, bam,

now we're going to release the good stuff. Yeah,

but I'm glad I've got it. Of course, because

of Rodimus and Cyclonus, I have to get another

one so I can have two more for alternate mode

purposes. But very, very cool. I also got, what

else did I get? I got my first Puggleformer from

Kali. I don't think I've mentioned that on this

show yet. Very, very cool. Nice little Shatterglass

Rodimus thing. What else did I get? I won a contest,

but I'm not going to reveal what that is just

yet. I'll talk about that next episode. Because

by the next episode, that will have been hand

-delivered to me. Hand, yeah. No, no, no. Hand

-delivered to me. I'll tell you off -air what

that means. Okay. I got a... I went over to mattycollector

.com, and I looked at their SDCC stuff. And,

of course... As we all know, their MOTUC stuff

and all that sold out. Mattel also does the Disney

Cars Tunes things, and they had this exclusive

Tokyo Mater thing, and I didn't think it was

light -up -and -sound stuff, but apparently it

is. So I had them in the package. Of course,

I searched and searched and searched for my Phillips

screwdriver. I can't find it anywhere in this

apartment. So I call, and when you go on Manicollector

.com, they said if you have any product questions,

call Mattel. Don't talk to us. So I called Mattel,

and I said, is this figure able to come off of

this stand and just be by itself? And they said

yes. Well, apparently you have to unscrew every

single screw, because there's one screw for the

battery pack, but there's three other screws.

for the bottom of the thing, and, like, I've

actually destroyed the box, because it comes

in, like, this nice little window, small box,

because it has a display of the Tokyo Mater episode,

like, Tokyo in the background, so I've destroyed

that, and I can't get him off the damn thing,

because he's, like... He's not glued on there,

but it's like he's bolted down, and it's like,

holy crap. And they've shown pictures where he's

able to be by himself, a tow truck, a souped

-up tow truck by himself. And it's like, holy

crap. So, yeah, I have to find a Phillips screwdriver.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I already mentioned,

I already teased up the contest that I won, so

I'll skip that. The other thing that I have coming

in to thank me for adding him to the show, Optibotimus,

he, no one's going to be able to watch this because

he keeps them private, but he used to do Masters

of the Universe Classics reviews, and he still

buys the figures, he just doesn't review them

because he doesn't want to do that, I guess.

but he has all the ones he had already done private.

I said, well, let me see them. I'd like to see

his opinion on them. So he sent them to me on

YouTube, and in one of his things he said he

had an extra Adora figure, and I'm like, ooh,

really? And, of course, I'm thinking this is

last January that she came out, this past January

2010. I'm thinking there's no way in hell he's

still going to have this mint -in -box Adora,

this extra figure. So I DM him, I say, you know,

do you still have her? He goes, yeah, I'll send

her to you as a thank you for having me come

on the show. I'm like, oh, cool. So yeah, that

should be here by Saturday. Cool. Yeah, very

awesome. Other than that, not much else is going

on. We have a huge thing in two weeks on the

26th of August that we are going to be doing

here on Beast Unleashed, and I'm not going to...

really tease it any more than that. Let's just

say we've gotten yet another voice actor interview

from Beast Wars. And unfortunately, while it's

great that we got it, and Steve is really the

one that deserves all the credit, even though

we killed him in this episode, he actually got

all this set up together and everything else,

so unfortunately it is not the one, the only

Scott McNeil, but it's still cool, so Yeah, I

think I'm about done. So are we ready to get

into some episodes? Sure, why not? Let's do that

then. I don't know how Fang survived my venom,

but a triple dose should drop him. Fang Primus,

I found you! Nothing to say for yourself, eh?

Yes, Doc! Huh? This is between Predacons. First

up this evening is Proving Grounds. The original

air date was February 14th, 1999. It was written

by Arthur Sellers. The Maximals look on as Rhinox

scans Blackarachnia and discovers the shell program

encoded in her core by Tarantulas. Rhinox explains

that the separating it would free the spider

of any last vestiges of Predacon control, but

could also wipe out her mind. Frustrated, Blackarachnia

goes off on her own to the forests outside, but

stalking her is the Transmetal 2 hunter known

as Dinobot. My first note was, Wowzers, Blackarachnia

calls Cheetor out on his crush. Did you just

say Wowzers? Yes, I said Wowzers. Yeah, I thought

that was funny. She's like, you, quit staring

at my tits. I know you're doing it. I know you're

doing it. You just fucking stop it. I keep waiting

for Steve to chime in. Yes, but we killed him.

I think we should like, you know, pause briefly

in between lines and then just filter him back

in later after the fact. No. Make it so it sounds

like it. Kind of like photoshopping him into

the picture. No. So it sounds like he was really

here. He's deader than a doornail. Ah, well,

just taking up space in my backyard. See, I don't

have a backyard, so I couldn't put him where

I live, so yeah. Let me see here. What the fuck

was the weapon that TM2 Dinobot had? That was

like a holoprojector. Oh, okay. That's why when

Blackarachnia jumped at him and tried to attack

him, he kind of, like, flickered. Right, right.

I really liked the holo, well, holo Dinobot,

I guess you'd call him. Yeah. Yeah, I did, too.

I just, at first, I wrote that note down when

I first saw it, when I just first saw the weapon.

And it didn't actually activate yet. So I'm thinking,

what the hell is that? I don't know if you've

ever played it, but there's a game called Portal.

No, I've never played it. It's short and sweet,

and it's endearing. If you ever played it, you'd

be like, oh my god, this is the best game ever.

But it's like that. By the time you get to the

end, you think it's the best game ever, no matter

what. But there's these gun turrets that look

like that, and it's kind of like a pod. And then

it splits open, and the gun barrels pop out.

And the coolest thing about these particular

gun turrets is that they talk when you get close.

And they're like, hello, are you still there?

Oh my god. It's funny, it's funny because when

they kill you, they're like, I'm sorry. It's

just really funny. But no, this thing, the holoprojector

reminded me kind of like of a portal gun turret.

Did you notice the games Rattrap played? Yeah,

Street Fighter. Well, Street Fighter in... In

Beast Wars style, because it's him versus Megatron

with the background of the outer doors of the

base, of the new base. Yeah, yeah. And then the

other game was, which is like a million Wasp

Lander splat alerts. Yeah, that was like a, well,

I wouldn't say Doom, but I think it was supposed

to be more like Wolfenstein 3D. Yeah, yeah. The

original, which is really, really old. Yes, yes

it is. Now hold still, this will hurt. Of course,

when I first heard him say that line, at first

I thought he was going to say, now hold still,

this won't hurt a bit, kind of like Lockdown

in Animated. Yeah. Oh, man. I just keep seeing

this whole, you know, physical violence against

women thing over and over and over again. And

it's like, man, what's going on? It seems to

be a recurring theme. Granted, she's, you know,

look at the way she's dressed. Clearly she's

deserving of a beating. Yeah, really. I'm just

goading listeners at this point. I'm kidding.

I don't really think like that. Yeah, exactly.

It seems like everyone's trying to hold her down

and beat her up lately. Yeah. Well, she actually

gets back some stuff because, damn, she shoots

Silverbolt, then she headbutts him. This is just

not Silverbolt's day. But you gotta love the

damage model. It's like, I'm gonna beat the shit

out of you, but you look cool beat up, you know?

It's kind of nice. Yeah, it seemed like everybody

got a good damage model. What do you have for

this one? Because my last note was, while this

episode was fun, it barely featured Megatron

and kind of just meh. You know, I don't know.

I like the use of Blackarachnia, and of course,

if you have Blackarachnia, you have Silverbolt.

And I like the idea that that, you know, Dinobots

out there, you know, kind of mentally sparring

with Black Ragnia for a bit and kind of dragging

her into a trap so that he can rape her. It's

essentially what's happening here, right? I mean,

he's literally, you know, kind of luring her

into a dark alley so that he can have his way

with her. You know, not condoning this, I'm just

saying. But, yeah, I don't know. I'm thinking,

why can't we have another Rhinox episode? Yeah.

Does every episode have to be about Blackarachnia

and Silver Bowl? I get it. They're in love. It's

sweet, but come on. Yes, we need another trip

down the low road. No, we get that later. No.

I don't think we need that here, but, I mean,

seriously, you know, let's have a nice. Rhinox

episode. Let's have an episode all about Quickstrike.

Quickstrike brushing his teeth and having Fritos

in front of the TV. God, not another Blackarachnia

Silverbolt episode. Come on. Oh, boy. Wow. I'm

sorry. That's just the way it comes across to

me. Yeah, no, I agree. I'm not disagreeing here.

I'm just trying to figure out where to go from

that. Oh, well, no, that was the return of the

snake rejuvenator. Snake? I should say so. Well,

yeah, I remember when Cheetor had the green snake

coming out of his eye. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It wasn't out of his ass, it was out of his leg,

get it right. That was clearly his ass. It was

not his ass. And now we have Dinobot, who's got,

I think it was purple, a purple snake coming

out of his chest. Yeah, it came out of his spark.

Yeah, well, you know, wherever you keep it, in

your ass and your chest. Well, it's because,

the reason why is because his spark is half of

Rampage's, and Rampage's spark is indestructible,

so that's why that that's there. Well, no, I

just assume that, again, I think you mentioned

in that last episode, which I forget the name

of it right offhand, but that's how they regenerate.

And Blackarachnia, not knowing that that's how

they regenerate, made the mistake of turning

her back on Dinobot. Oh, yeah. Yeah, while his

purple snake rejuvenator was taking care of his

wounds. I love this model of Dinobot. As far

as the design, the alt mode, and the robot mode,

I think it's a hell of a lot cooler than the

original Donabot, as far as the design aesthetic.

Yeah. So, you know, I've got the toy, and after

playing with the toy, I can tell you that it's

kind of crap. Well, it probably is, because they

didn't know how to translate from cartoon to

toy. Well, no. Actually, I think it's the other

way around. I think they made the toy and then

handed the toy over and had them scan it and

make a 3D model out of it. But, I mean, if you

look at him, especially the way his hands are

and the way his arms are, I mean, literally,

it's all hinge joints. And the poseability is

compromised, to put it that way. And then you've

got this big -ass tail. that, you know, looks

cool on screen, but in reality, it's, you know,

you can't do a whole lot with it. And at least

the last one, it was split in half, and you could,

you know, spin it. You know, like a, I don't

know, like, you know, like the helicopter blades

that he would use as a weapon. But you can't

even do that with this. This is just a big chunk

of plastic that's in the way. Well, I'm not saying

I enjoyed the toy. I like the cartoon model.

So... Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think I like

the last one better. Just in that, you know,

I mean, he had proper arms and, you know, proper

legs and such. And they took some liberties,

but, you know, I think he made a better model

on screen. Whereas this one, it's, you know,

they spent a lot of time focusing on his face

because the rest of him kind of looks like ass.

Well, you know, I guess once you take a look

at enough pictures of his entire body, it's like,

ugh. Do we have anything else to say about Proving

Grounds? Do we have anything else to say about

this episode? I like, in the beginning, I like

when Black Reckon was trying to stalk Dinobot.

Not realizing that he was leading her into a

trap, but, you know, and she's kind of jumping

through the trees. Yep. And it reminded me of

Predator. Yeah, I'm like, dude, if she could

turn invisible and have, like, what do they,

like, infrared vision. Yeah. Yeah. That would

rock. Well, yeah, yeah, one of those things I

picked up on. But one of the closing quotes,

Optimus lands and says, you both look like scrap.

Just off the cuff, the two of you, you look like

you have excellent damage models. Really nice.

Someone put a lot of effort into making you look

like you got the crap beat out of you. Speaking

of that, you know, Dinobot. He was injured, but

he didn't really get much of a damage model.

No. He had like a sparking shoulder. Yeah. And

then the rejuvenator tentacles came out and kind

of focused on his arm and fixed that. But the

rest of him wasn't so much beat up. I don't think

this Dinobot is meant to be damage model worthy

like the original Dinobot was because... Let's

face it, he's entirely metal as far as his entire

body goes, and he's meant to be a more vicious

version of Dinobot, especially since Rampage

is still alive. Of course, once Depth Charge

does him in, then we'll see slightly the older,

more nobler Dinobot once he gets a nemesis. Yeah,

this one's meant to be... The cartoon's over

10 years old. Fuck spoilers, damn it. If people

haven't watched this cartoon, which they should,

you know, by now, I don't know. I could see if

this was like we're reviewing the episodes as

they came out, but, you know. Yeah. Yeah. But

this Dinobot, this TM2 Dinobot that's under Megatron's

control. fully under Megatron's control, because

even when Blackarachnia tried to get him to sway

over, he's like, nah, I'm just going to kick

your boyfriend's ass. Oh, you know, one thing

that I thought Steve was going to bring up, mainly

because I read it in the wiki, and he does that.

Oh, wow, you just called him out on his own show,

and he's not even here. Holy crap. Exactly. When

he comes back to life, he'll call me out for

that. No, he does that. That's like his thing.

In fact, most of the time I won't even mention

things in the wiki because I know he'll bring

it up. But one of the things that came out in

the animation error list was there's a scene

where the Maximals work out where Silverbolt

and Blackarachnia have gone and a green piece

of metal. Kind of clips through Rhinox's chest.

And I read that and thought, you know, I didn't

see that. And I, you know, knowing that Steve

was going to mention it, I thought I'd go back

and look it up. And yeah, it does. It's very

brief. And if you didn't notice, if you didn't

notice it, you would just assume it was another

one of the teeth in his chest. You know, he's

got the teeth. And it's kind of like a little

piece of green right next to one of the teeth.

Yeah. It was tiny. I can understand why the animators

just, you know, either didn't notice it or left

it in. But, you know, if you have way too much

time on your hands, you'd probably notice it.

Or if you'd watched it 15 times and then went,

ooh, what's that? You might notice it. Yeah,

I watched it once and I didn't notice it. Oh,

yeah, I didn't notice it either, but once I went

back and read the wiki, I was like, wait a minute.

I'm going to go back and see that. Yes. So, anything

else on Proving Grounds? Home, Rover. Yeah. I

was trying to come up with a clever acronym to

combine the two of them. Like Spider Doggy Bot

or Spider Wolf Fly Thing. I don't know. Oh, God.

You're not going to have one of those Brangelina

showman's names, are you? I don't know what the

hell I was thinking. Brangelina. I hate that.

Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. So it would be

what? Silverarachnia or Blackbolt or... Black

Boltenina? Black Boltenina? Or Silver Arachnina?

Okay, we're just pulling stuff out of our ass

here, folks, so we're going to move on. Home,

Rover. Get that compression tower back upright!

Once those others have located our targets, it

will be time for a final test. At full power!

Oh, man. Are you sure you can't move? Shut up

and push. To the water. If only we hit the simplest

piece of standard... Up next is Go With the Flow.

The original air date was February 18th, 1999.

It was written by Bob Forward. Cheetor and Rattrap

teach the proto -human children simple machines

and defensive techniques. High above, Megatron

aims a gigantic cannon at the Ark. Unfortunately

for Megatron, activating the weapon might short

out Predacon's circuitry, so Tarantulas suggests

forcing the pre -human children to completing

the last steps of the firing sequence. That's

a horrible synopsis. I'm sorry. Rhino, what the

hell were you people thinking when you wrote

that? That's about what happened, right? I know

it's about what happened, but I don't know. It's

just horribly short for me. I don't really like

it, but whatever. This wasn't the most fantastic

of episodes. There's not a whole lot to tell

here. Tudor the teacher. Awesome, yet tragic.

Yeah, I'm wondering where he got the chalkboards.

It's like we have all this advanced technology.

How about some chalk? Okay, sure. Yeah. Can anyone

say slave labor episode? That's right. Megatron

sweatshop. There you go. It wasn't much of a

sweatshop, though, because, I mean, he really

had to work for it. Oh, yeah. And see, this is

really where, even though he's currently dead

and Megatron has to revive him, this is really

where we need Steve in this episode, because

there's so many awesome lines from Megatron in

this episode. Oh, trash. That's right. Oh, boy.

He's like, no, over there. That one. No, no,

no. Oh, God, you're killing me, kid. It was just

some really funny stuff. Oh, yeah. Splat alert

for all Preds. When the machine backfires. Not

at the end, but at the beginning when it first

goes to... Oh, when it starts up? Yeah. They

all get shocked? Yep. Megatron's gun has... Shocking

results. Hey, Chidor is Transmetal 2 now. He's

supposed to be more powerful than before. Why

the heck does he get blasted so good in this

opening scene? Because, well, it's point -blank

range. It basically snuck right up behind him.

But see, that's the thing, though. They made

him seem, in Feral Scream, like he's this all

-knowing badass. Transmetal 2 Batman wannabe.

Yeah. And now he doesn't see the thing... I think

when he's dealing with the children, he almost...

He almost reverts back to his pre -teen voice,

even. A little bit, yeah, but not much. He's

not quite acting like, oh, I'm the big tough

guy. Yeah. I'm not sure if I've said this before.

I don't remember if I did or not. I think you

might have made a comment about a pizza thrower.

But that charges weapons coming out of his mouth.

It looks like he's spitting firepower like Fire

Mario. It just does. Yeah, turtle power. I was

surprised that DepthCharge finally took some

time away from his never -ending quest to defeat

Rampage. Yeah. And he really came through this

episode. He had a lot of screen time, and Rampage

didn't have any. There was no Rampage here, which

kind of explained why DepthCharge was so helpful.

No, he was in the cave scene. I don't know. Briefly,

he was in the cave scene. I don't remember him

seeing him at all. Yeah, he was in the cave scene.

I don't know. He was. I'll have to go back and

look, but I'm thinking that if he was there,

and I don't remember seeing him, but if he was

there, Death Charge would have been all over

him. Like, stink on doo -doo. But see, that's

the thing, though. Death Charge... And Rat Trap

and Cheetor never got to the cave because of

the blasting from the weapon. What I'm saying

is, when they first went to fire it up and everybody

got splatted, Death Charge was... Not Death Charge,

Death Charge. Jesus Christ. Rampage! Rampage

was there because I remember seeing him scream.

I guess I could be wrong, but I could have sworn

I remember seeing Rampage in the cave when they

all got shocked. Yeah, well, it would have been

odd that if he were there and then suddenly not

there at all for the rest of the episode. I don't

know. Waspinator delivers Fleshy Bot, then goes

splat. And then falls to pieces. I thought it

was funny that he's trying to bring her back,

and the whole time she's just chipping off arms.

And she's just like, what's this do? Smack, smack,

smack. And there goes his leg and another leg.

Well, she remembered what Cheetor told her. When

you're battling bots, aim for the hinges. So

these proto -humans aren't as dumb as Megatron

thinks they are. Waspinator calls and he's like,

Megatron, I have fleshy female bot, but there's

a problem. Is she injured? No, is she injuring

Waspinator? Oh, then it's normal then. Rigor

it and make sure she isn't harmed. Situation

normal. Yeah, yeah, situation normal. It's funny

because you know what snafu stands for. Yeah,

situation normal, all fucked up. That's what

I was thinking. He says, situation normal. And

immediately I chime in with, yeah, all fucked

up. Oh, wow. I thought that was funny. And he's

like, you know, I don't give a rat's ass about

you. Here's my rat trap. Oh, wait, you can't

have my rat trap because I don't give a rat trap's

ass. And, you know, he's basically more worried

about. at least getting someone in there to help

him with this electrical problem he's got. Yes,

and that goes into the next note, poor Megatron

dealing with a simple mind. He's like, yes, yes,

no, no, not there, over there, no, yes, no, fine,

just whatever. Whatever, yeah. But he's so exasperated,

he's just like, oh man, I can't shoot you. I

want to. Because if it would have been any of

his own people, he would have been like, all

right, that would have been it. I'm just going

to kill you. Depth Charge is a boat, and Rat

Trap is paddling. That was so freaking sweet.

No, it was dumb. It wasn't that dumb. The best

part is yet to come as the episode closes. Fried

flounder? Tail smacks rat trap? Damn, that was

a good ending. He reaches up, cuffs him upside

the head. Yeah. That was funny. Yeah, it was.

Oh, man. This episode wasn't as funny as The

Low Road is, but this was pretty good. The Low

Road wasn't funny. It was dumb. The Low Road

was funny. I don't think so. What do you have

for Go With The Flow? This is another one of

those situations where it would have been nice

to have Steve here because he would be able to

confirm this. I think this is the first episode

where they actually name Chalk and Una. They've

been in the episodes before, but I don't remember

them having names. Yeah, when they were – was

it last week? Yeah. Or not last week. Last episode

on Black – yeah. They've never named them until

now as far as I know. Yeah, that's what I thought.

And it's weird because I had seen them named

in the wiki. But in the episodes, I'm thinking,

I don't think that they've named them yet. I

don't know where these names are coming from.

And here they named them, and I thought, oh,

well, now I feel dumb because I should have known

this. Yeah. But, yeah, there's a... There's a

what? Yeah, dead air. I'm sorry. My brain just

went... What I don't get is that you've got this

disruptor cannon, right, that... When you try

to start it, it has electric feedback that shocks

everybody. Yeah. And they don't like this, so

they're going to get outside help. Well, once

it's activated, right, they're all standing there

while it's running, and it's still pumping out

sparks or electrical feedback, and they don't

seem to mind. It's like, well, shouldn't it be

a little safer at that point? It just didn't

make any sense to me. Yeah, not a lot of things

with the disruptor thing made any sense to me

either. Yeah. It's like, you know, why not, I

don't know, get Tarantulas' spider drones to

do it then? Because apparently you had to use

a wrench to smack the screws in. Using a wrench

as a hammer. Yeah. I'm a hammer. Pound, pound,

pound. Alright, that's fine. Whatever. Can't

touch this. Yeah. Hammer time. Did you notice

that the disruptor cannon kind of looked like

a huge gold staff weapon? Yeah. From Stargate?

Yeah. I thought that was neat. But overall, again,

could have done without it. And it's sad, too,

because the last episode I'm bitching because,

oh, it's another Blackarachnia Silverbolt episode.

And this one's not. It's clearly about Una, for

the most part. And the fact that the proto -humans

can be taught. That they learn. And that's nice,

but again... huge, glaring plot holes here. I

don't know. I don't want to say maybe better

writing could have fixed this, because generally

the writing is really good in this series. And

this one wasn't horrible, but still, it just

seemed like... I'll admit, it was a... It was

a filler episode because, I believe, and I'm

not too sure on this, this episode replaced an

episode called Dark Glass, which Christy Marks

wrote, which apparently was deemed too violent,

maybe. I don't know. Look it up on the wiki and

see what you can pull up. I know it's there,

but... Yeah, I saw it. I didn't read it. Yeah,

there was something about Dark Glass that I think

it explained a whole bunch of stuff from the

end of Season 2 or something. Or to tie up to

now, to where we were just with proving grounds.

And maybe the network said, or Mainframe might

have said, no, we're not going to do that. And

this episode replaced that. So this is basically

a filler episode. I do like that they're showing

Cheetor actually has a functioning brain and

actually does some good. He's trying to help

these kids and everything else. That's very cool.

They're not just showing them in constant war,

even though Megatron still has a scheme up his

sleeve. They're showing us that the Maximals

do other things. other than fight the Predacons

constantly. Hmm. So. Well, I didn't actually

read it. I'm going to have to go back and do

that. Oh, because, I mean, you know. I don't

think the script is there. I just think information

about it is there. I'm not sure. I think the

only, I don't even think the script is available

anywhere other than whoever, you know, probably

Chris and Miss Marks might still have a copy

of it. I'm not really sure as far as Dark Glass

goes. We need to talk to her. Yes, I'm working

on that. I've been meaning to talk to you about

it, but you're never around when I want to talk

to you about it. So, anyway. Anything else on

Go With The Flow? No, not so much. Alrighty then.

So, we're going to move on. Holy crap, I just

pulled a Steve Ace Ventura thing. Damn it! Attention.

Attention. Attention. Shell program T -70 in

jeopardy. Blackarachnia. Tarantulas to Megatron.

How, Lieutenant? What news? I've just learned

the Maximals are tampering with Blackarachnia's

shell program. Impossible. They wouldn't chance

that unless... Unless she's passed the access

codes on to someone else. Optimus, no doubt.

Of course. Which fits in nicely with our little

plan for him. But what of Blackarachnia? She'll

never survive the attempt. The shell I implanted

in her has certain... safeguards. Excellent.

But just to be on the safe side, I believe we'll

give the Maximal something else to worry about.

Yes. Up next is Crossing the Rubicon. The original

air date was February 22, 1999, and it was written

by D .C. Fontana. Blackarachnia attempts to upgrade

herself with Megatron's Transmetal II driver.

She collapses and begins suffering from seizures

in effect of the coded program left within her

by Tarantulas. Rhinox volunteers to perform a

risky operation that will sever the Predacon

code from Blackarachnia's core consciousness.

Hmm. Yeah, they're really failing me on these

plot synopses. Because they're not that, well,

and I need to, you know, everybody knows between

TFG1 podcast and the Beast Unleashed podcast,

I use booklets. Well, for the most part, I use

the booklets. TFG1, there was a couple of times

where I wrote out long, drawn -out synopses,

but ever since then, I've used the booklets that

come with the DVDs as long as they have synopses,

and yeah, Rhino is really failing me on this

one. Damn Rhino. This series is so sci -fi writing

with all the mad experiments. Not that it's a

bad thing. It's just, I mean, mad experiment

after mad experiment after mad experiment. For

science. Yeah. No. Not for science. For science.

Mad science. Weird science. Anyway, let's not

go there. There will be no Anthony Michael Hall

in this episode. Thank God the Energon surge

interrupted the PDA. It happens a couple times

in this episode. Yeah. Thank God. That surgical

table, whatever it is, looks like an oversized

cereal bowl. It does! Because she gets up and

she gets into it, and it's deeper than what we're

led to believe from the other Maximals standing

around it. It looks like a freaking cereal bowl.

Once it actually spins up and puts her up against

the wall. And then you see just how big it is,

but yeah. I really liked the designs on the insides

of Black... Wow, that sounds so horrible. Yeah.

The designs on the inside of her consciousness

were very awesome. Oh, as far as... Yeah, you

know, I... I keep waiting for the Johnny Mnemonic

interface to come back, and it just doesn't.

But no, this was neat. I really liked the Rhinox

submarine. The Rhinox submarine, yeah. Yeah,

just like the Beatles song. Yeah, Yellow Submarine.

We all lived in a Rhinox submarine. Oh, God.

So now we have two songs for this podcast. We

have Depth Charge Fish Pants, which will never

happen. Never happen. If we were going to bring

that up, it would have been in the last episode.

Never happen. I was going to spare you the Depth

Charge Fish Pants song. And now we have Rhinox

Submarine. Oh, God. I like the Rhinox Submarine.

You're going to have to. Pull up lyrics for Rhinox

Submariner and put them on the comments of this

episode post. You already did on DepthChargeFishPants,

so you can do it for this. That one was easy.

So, I'm sure you can figure this out. Not a whole

lot of lyrics. You're a smart guy. Come on. We'll

figure something out. Pop goes the crab cake.

How many times does she call him Kraft Cake?

I don't know. How many times does she call Megatron

Grapeface? Uh, you know, I thought she said Rapeface.

No, she said Grapeface. And I was like, oh, what?

Wait, I'm, no. No, with face raping action. Hasbro,

do not listen to this. Isn't that essentially

what Michael Bay's Optimus does? Oh, wow. He

runs around raping faces. Give me your face.

Ah, my face has been raped. Oh, wow, it hurts.

That spider is dead. Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.

Maybe. Because there's part of it before... Oh,

they do a cutscene. They could have sworn...

Maybe they didn't do a cutscene. I thought they...

When they left her after she did supposedly die...

Yeah, she actually flatlines. Yeah, she flatlines.

But I believe as they're leaving, as they pan

out of the shot, they show the TM2 driver. Yeah,

it starts to... Yeah. And then it goes to another

scene, and then it comes back to that, and it

shows it hovering over. So yeah, I mean, you

know she's not dead. I mean... Well, I think

she's dead, but the thing is going to bring her

back to life with tentacles that come out and

go into her body. Nobody expects the tentacle

porn. Oh, it's like a repeated theme here. The

second or third time it's happened. Yeah. And

it's like, okay, so we have this. I mean, literally

unconscious female and tentacles. Okay, where

are they going? Oh, oh, oh, yeah. So it was,

yeah. Nobody ever expects the tentacle porn.

No. I really, I didn't expect to see this next.

No, I didn't expect to see this, but this was

just awesome. Silverbolt's eye going red. That

was nice. He was very pissed. Yeah. He's like,

I think I'm pissed off. And, you know, he goes

through all this effort to defeat Tarantulas.

He could have just dropped a rock on him. Because

that's really, you know, you do that and he's

out. He's gone for the episode. Yep. Transmetal

2 coming at you. in relation to Blackarachnia's

new body, which I really like the body model

on her Transmetal 2 versus her original. I've

never liked her original robot mode. Is it because

she's only wearing a bra? No, I don't know what

it is. I just don't like that original model,

but I really enjoy this new model. See, I always

liked the original one, but the new one's nice

too. It's, you know, it's just, she's wearing

a bra. It might be considered like a sports bra.

You know, it's, you know, tight, keeps them all

pressed up against her so they don't bounce when

she runs. But, I mean, literally, it doesn't

seem to be a whole lot there. No. If that makes

any sense. Round and round and round Rampage

goes, and where he stops, nobody knows. The spinning

of Rampage, that was funny. I didn't so much

like, you know, when he hit the wall. I thought

maybe he should have... Hit a rock. No, just

gone over and disappeared, you know, so we could

have a nice Team Rocket moment. No, we didn't

have Team Rocket moments. Well, I mean, granted,

he went through the wall. Yeah, he went through

it. Technically, that might have been a Team

Rocket moment, but not so much. There was no

ding there. Yeah, there was no ding. And my final

Blackarachnia, Transmetal 2, she still has no

real fucking hands. Yeah. I just get these weird...

Yeah. I like that when Silverbolt reaches out

and takes her hands and I'm like, she's got no

hands! It's creepy! Just creepy! So what were

you thinking about this one? Well, there was

a line... from Megatron earlier where he says,

oh, yes, this fits in nicely with our plans for

him, meaning Optimus. And I'm thinking, ooh,

foreshadowing. That's going to line up... With

the next episode. Exactly. Generally, when they

foreshadow things, it's usually a couple episodes

ahead, so I was surprised that this one paid

off so quickly. Yeah. Did you see the Transmetal

Ducky? Yes. It's funky looking. I had to stop

and take a good look at it. You mean the shot

of him going into the monitor with it in his

hand, you mean? He's in the tub. Yeah, exactly.

I think I grabbed that as a picture way back

when, so that might be alternate art for this

episode. I'm not sure yet. Yeah, I thought that

was funny. Yeah, it was. The anti -maximal missile.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was like Tarantulas had this

rocket launcher, and on the front of the missile

had a little maximal symbol with kind of a cross,

like a ghost X across it, which I thought was

kind of neat. He says, goodbye, my treacherous

creation, and then fires it off. I thought that

was very... It's a nice touch. You could have

just fired off a regular one of those nuclear

missiles with the little nuclear insignia on

the front of it or something. I thought that

was a nice touch. Quick and easy. Yes, very much

so. I forget what episode it was. It was a couple

back, but I think Steven made a big deal about

Tarantulas using his leg guns. Yeah. And I honestly

didn't remember seeing him do it. It was like

a blinker, you miss it type of a thing. In this

episode, he uses his shoulder guns. Yep. His

shoulder pads actually have circles in them that

are supposed to be guns. Yeah. And I wasn't sure.

It's like, well, is this what he did last time,

or did he actually use his leg guns? I think

he used his leg guns last time. I don't think

he's used his shoulder guns until now. Yeah,

honestly, I think the shoulder guns make more

sense with the Transmetal Bomb. But no, I mean,

I thought it was cool. It just surprised me that

it wasn't on his legs. Or that he didn't use

the legs, he used the shoulders. Was he in...

He was in robot mode, though, right? He was in

robot mode, yeah. I think what Steve was saying

with the leg guns was he was in the bike mode

at the time that he used them for the legs. Oh,

really? That's interesting. The one where he

and Quickstrike and whoever else was with them

come... Was it... What was that episode? Cutting

Edge. Yeah, it was in Cutting Edge. It was the

last episode of the podcast. I'm not sure. I

don't really, but I think if I remember correctly,

Steve said that he was in alt mode. He was in

alt mode when he used the leg guns. Okay. I don't

know. Again, it was a blinker, you miss it type

situation, and I blinked. And you missed it.

I missed it. I don't remember seeing it. I'll

have to take your word for it. Yeah, I can't

remember for the life of me, because honestly,

as I'm watching these episodes, I'm not going

back. I'm not ready to have the show over, but

I'm constantly going forward, and I'm not going

back and re -watching them. And of course, eventually,

maybe a year or so down the line, I'll come back

to Beast Wars and do a marathon watch of it again.

But once we finish this show, I probably won't

watch these cartoons for a while. Right, right.

Well, you know, at that point, we'll have Beast

Machines to watch. Yeah. I should say, next week,

when we do the last three episodes of Season

3. Well, we have the last three episodes, and

then we have the recap. But after the recap is

Beast Machines. Right, right, yeah. So I'm really

looking forward to that. The recap or Beast Machines?

No, I hate recaps. Well, they're short and sweet.

I mean, come on. You can't complain saying, oh,

I'm going to be up until 3 a .m. doing this.

I mean, they're like 30 minutes, like 20, 30

minutes. It's not, I mean, hell. Not a lot of

time wasted. Yeah, time wasted. It's like, haven't

we talked about all this stuff already? Well,

yeah, but, you know, we're going to do it in

a very small episode now. Oh, okay. Well, it's

more of a top ten type of a thing. You know,

like our favorite overall, just discussing the

season. And I've said this before, and you know

this, I've said this before. It's a top, you

know, it's us discussing the overall season arc,

story arc, favorite characters overall from watching

the entire season, and favorite episodes. That's

pretty much what the recap episodes are. Right.

And then we move on. But I'm really looking forward

to watching Beast Machines again because it's

been a while. Anything else? Do you have anything

else for which episode? Oh, yeah, crossing the

river that there is no river in this episode.

Oh, yeah. Well, you've got to read the wiki for

the background there. But the idea there is that

the Rubicon is a river in Italy. pronounce rub

icon. Okay. Kidding. Yeah. I'm a little slow

on that one, but I got it now. Took a second,

yeah. No rubbing icons. No rubbing of the icons.

There will be no rubbing icons. Will they change

color if you touch them? Exactly. Talk about

signs of rub. Come on, it's a G1 reference. Exactly,

there you go. Yeah, I see what faction you are.

I'm Decepticon, damn it. Yeah, you know, it's

weird. I'm looking at the wiki now, because I

was actually going to read it verbatim, but I

think we have enough from our other podcast.

I don't see it offhand, which is killing me because

I just read it earlier. But what it comes down

to is the Roman generals were not allowed to

move past this particular river. And I'm not

entirely sure why, but the idea was we hold the

line here at this river and make sure the invading

armies don't come in. So they were not allowed

to cross that river. But at one point Caesar

as a general, General Caesar or whatever his

name was before he was Caesar, he did. And that

in turn caused a civil war that led to Rome being

a – like a city -state to being an empire. So

the idea there is once you've crossed the Rubicon,

you've – You've passed the line of no return.

There's no going back now. The die has been cast.

Gotcha. Yeah, and that was the whole point of...

The Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia. Right, Blackarachnia

has crossed the Rubicon. She's a Maxwell now,

there's no going back. Okay, anything else on

crossing the Rubicons? The Rubicon? What did

you think of... I don't want to say Blackarachnia's

new mode, but I mean, her face in general is

just funky looking. The spider face, you mean,

or the robot mode face? Well, both, really. The

spider face is kind of funky, but the robot mode

really is what I'm thinking of. Actually, I had

Steve mock up the last shot of the episode as

artwork with Silverbolt with his eyes closed

and her new face. It's okay. It looks more good

guy -ish than her other face did, I guess. She

just doesn't seem like she would be evil now.

And, of course, she's got the shell program gone,

and she is now maximal. But, I mean, I don't

know. No, she's not purple. She's blue. Yeah,

she's a smurf. If you choke a smurf, it turns

green. The gold lines, the gold outline stuff,

like around her cheeks and her nose and her headband

here, they look like some sort of masquerade

ball mask. You know how you go, like if you're

going to, well, Mardi Gras. They have all those

weird masks and crap like that. That's what it

kind of reminds me of. Just the gold pieces on

her face. Because they're not actually... It

looks like it's more armor than it is a part

of her face. Hmm, okay. I don't know. Her spider

mode is probably, just going off of memory from

seeing it earlier today when I watched the episodes,

is probably the spider mode I like the second

best out of all of them. It's the one that I'm

least likely to cringe at. Because she doesn't

look like a spider anymore. Doesn't look like

a spider at all. But I think that when they first

show her, she's got these weird tentacle things

on top of her head that kind of move on their

own accord. Which bothers me a little bit. And

then what I noticed in Master Blaster coming

up is that she's got ears. Yeah, she does. And

I'm just not thrilled with the ears. I mean,

you know, I understand if you're a cheetah and

you've got cheetah ears, but she's a spider.

Spiders don't have ears. Spiders don't have ears,

yeah. Well, unless you're Spider -Man, but then

they're covered up. Yeah, they're under your

mask at that point. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, I'm,

again, not as thrilled. I think she's got a weird

shaped head, like her profile. Her head is shaped

funny. And it's not like, oh, she's wearing a

helmet funny. It's like, no, that's her head.

Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. The gold pieces

on her forehead and around her cheeks. That's

why I think they look like some sort of mask

type of deal because it's not a part of her face.

Clearly, like in the next episode when we get

to Master Blaster, you can see her talking and

you can see her chin moving, but it's separate

from the gold piece that's next to her fucking

cheek. So it's almost like it's an armor. I don't

know. Shall we just move into the last episode

of this episode? Sure. She's in that episode

too. Yeah, I know. Unfortunately. We're almost

begging for Una to come back at this point. Lever!

Police! It's Lever 2000 for all of your 2000

body parts. Oh crap, we do not need soap commercials.

Finally up today we have Master Blaster. The

original air date was March 1st, 1999. It was

written by Eric Torin. Waspinator leads a sortie

to the Ark as a diversion for a more devious

mission. Tarantulas implants a device inside

Optimus Primal that allows Megatron to control

the Maximal Leader. With the help of Quickstrike,

Megatron plans to enter the Ark using Primal's

access codes. Dun, dun, dun. And this was what

you were referring to in the last discussion

where they had plans for him. This is what those

plans were. Right. Yes. Damn, not five minutes

into this one and Waspinator gets a splat alert.

Was it only five minutes? It wasn't even five

minutes. Huh. It wasn't even because they...

Oh, that's right. He flew right into that one.

Yeah, because Megatron said, yeah, Megatron said,

Waspinator, you will be subcommando for this

mission. And he did another thing like he did

with Inferno last episode of the podcast. You

know, always send the boob in first type of move.

And it's like, where are Waspinator's troops

at? Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah, Dawn's on him. I'm

kind of in trouble. Yeah, and then cut to Megatron,

and he goes, oh, diversion is always better when

you're trying to be sneaky or something. I don't

remember what the hell he said. Deception is

the better part about it. Yeah, that's what it

was. Deception is the better part. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. But I thought it was funny. You've got

these two great big hands on either side of Waspinator,

and it's like, are those hands? Oh, crap. Yeah,

he got flattened. Just squashed him. Yeah, he

got flat. Which I thought was funny. I still

say, and I will continue to say until we do the

Season 3 recap of Beast Wars, that the Chaingun

of Doom from Season 1 was the best and funniest

splat alert ever. Well, I like the Chaingun of

Doom, but I also like the Waspinator Ginsu. Oh,

yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like three or four

of them. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah,

so let's see here. Tarantulas goes back to elementary

school and he shoots one mean spitball. Yeah,

what is up with the blowgun? I mean, I understand

it's like a Poison Dart analogy, but, you know,

you've got guns. Honestly, now. Come on. Come

on. I just thought that was dumb. Yeah, but the

first thing I thought of when I saw it before

we started, when I watched these episodes before

we're going to record this episode of the podcast

is, oh, wow, it takes me back to elementary school

and spitballing days. Oh, boy. I don't think

I mentioned this before. I might have. I'm not

sure, but the Blackarachnia screams must have

done a number on Venus Terzo's voice. Seriously,

because those... And they're going to get worse.

Yeah. Once we get to Beast Machines. Yeah. Oh,

yeah, that's right. I wasn't even thinking. I

was like, what, the next couple episodes? No.

Once we get to Beast Machines, they get worse.

So, Blackarachnia's Transmental Tube Body has

the Force with it, huh? That's right. She's like...

Telepsychotic. Telepsychotic? I like that. That's

funny. She can move things with her mind. I was

going to say with her unstable personality, but...

See, and I wish we hadn't killed Steve, because

I know he's going to be kicking himself in the

ass when I read this next note. I know he wanted

to be here for this specific episode. This is

the episode where Megatron gets G1 Megatron's

spark. It was terribly cool to see G1 Megatron.

Yes. And speaking of Megatron, I wonder if at

all possible... Megatron, we actually killed

you, so you're going to have to revive yourself.

Huh? Continue with the episode or do you want

to go back to sleep? Sure. Okay, so... Well,

at this point, we just started Master Blaster.

Yeah, we just started it, so... After my note

about Megatron getting a G1 Megatron Spark, the

Core Implosion, oh noes. Oh, yeah. That's kind

of an afterthought, really. Yeah. Inferno is

the big bad wolf. Let me in! Let me in! Eh. I

think it kicked him out. Yeah, I know. It's like,

I really, for me, I think the majority of this

episode really centers around Megatron getting

into the Ark and trying to pull an optimal Optimus

with G1 Megatron Spark. And then subsequently...

and beginning. Yeah. I don't really like the

fact that they had to pull the whole Quickstrike

controlling him thing because, of course, but

it was kind of funny because then we have the

and Megatron are going at it. Megatron's thinking

it's Quickstrike and he goes, Primal, it's you

again! Surprise! I love that. That's so awesome.

Well, you know, as dumb as Quickstrike is, he

can whip ass with a giant Autobot body. Not hard

to do when you're using Optimal Optimus. Exactly.

I mean, that's essentially what Optimal Optimus

is. He's an Autobot body. Yeah. I mean, he's

literally, when he's standing in the arc, he's

looking, you know, looking around. pretty much

almost at eye level with the other Autobots.

He's big. Yeah, he's huge. Yeah, I mean, and,

you know, he's standing in front of Teletraan

and, you know, it doesn't look like he's looking

up at it. No, he's looking right at it. Exactly.

I don't know why I wrote this down, but this

is my last note for this episode. That's one

hot -footed ape. I'm not sure what the hell happened,

but... That's probably when he transformed and

shot off after Megatron. Oh, that's... His feet

are actually behind him. Yeah, that's right.

They're clearly feet. Yeah. No, I know. What

smells like ape feet? Yeah. Change your shoes.

What did you step in? Oh my god, it's on fire.

Oh. So, I guess we'll go to Steve, since he hasn't

been here for the majority of this episode. What

did you think of Master Blaster? Well, most certainly

this would be my favorite of the four from today.

I like the fact that each Maximal gets ambushed

one by one until they're all gone. And Megatron's

a little comet like Pokemon. I almost have the

whole set. Yes, the episode is much better with

Megatron here. Yes. We keep lamenting the fact

that you're not here to do the lines. It's like,

god damn it. Yeah. Stupid friggin' alarm and

cell phone. Yeah. But yeah, I like this episode

overall. I like Megatrend's little comment on

how Optimus got his power from Prime Spark, and

he's going to mingle his spark with... G1 Megatrons.

The snake scene with his stomach was kind of

disturbing. No. Damn it, you stole it. Damn it.

They probably got it from that. They're like,

hmm, let's mix a little bit of binal tech in

here. And Megatron's smiling in a weird way in

this big pink spot in the center, or red spot

in the center of his chest. I have a question

about his chest in robot mode. We all know the

Transmetal One Megatron, his head goes behind,

his dino head goes behind him on his back or

wherever it goes. What is, what the hell is his

chest supposed to be? It seeps through. I was

going to say it's almost like a Power Master

Prime situation where, you know, even though

that's not really his windshield, it's kind of

like a hidden windshield to make it look like

a windshield. So even though it's not a dinosaur

head, it's kind of like a fake dinosaur head

to make it look like there's a dinosaur head

there. Oh, okay. If that makes sense. Yeah, that

kind of makes sense. I liked how it split open

and kind of moved out of the way. Yeah, for its

spark. Yeah, the spark chamber opened up and

then you've got... The tentacle porn. Tentacles!

Yeah, I'm like... You know, they're just going

to ease up on the tentacles here because it's

starting to get monotonous now. At least they

only used it this time. It could have been worse.

Yeah, it's like spiky tentacles. It could have

been like four or five of them. I mean, one,

even though it had spikes on it, is probably

enough. At least he didn't make his tentacle

grow stiff. Oh. Oh, it's not detonated. Yikes.

The sad thing is once he actually gets a hold

of the spark, you don't know who's raping who.

Because G1 Megatron's trying to get away. Yeah,

it's whipping around and he's like, whoa, whoa,

down doggy. And yet he doesn't actually get away.

Nope. He completely absorbs him. Yep. Tarantulas'

betrayal. Yeah, you'd think that would be dangerous

as far as that. I love how Tarantulas makes Quickstrike

drop. Like I tried into the lava. He just kind

of disappears and you see his hand flowing down

like Terminator. That's an entitled sequence.

Yeah, yeah. That was a good death scene for Megatron.

I was actually thinking, whoa, here we are at

the end of Season 3, and they're going to kill

him off. Not that they're going to, but I can

imagine if you're watching this for the first

time in 1997 or whatever, 1998, that this scene

would probably make you completely freak out.

I was like, what the hell? And then all of a

sudden I see this... little dragon arms start

flowing out of the lava and staring at Tarantulas

from behind and then Tarantulas is like, he turns

around and he's like, oh shit, oh shit, yeah.

And then he like kind of drops a little bit of

spider niblets on the ground and then, you know,

Megatron comes up and is marveling at his new

form. Yes. Had the toy come out yet? I mean,

was there? Yes, I owned it. Oh, okay. So at that

point, you know he's going to change. Yes. Oh,

okay. That's pretty exciting. Yeah, I wasn't

sure if it was like, oh, he's dead, what now?

Or if it was like, okay, he's just transforming.

Or he's evolving, let's say. You knew he was

going to evolve, though. He played with Megatron

Spark. Yeah. But I mean, you know, they dropped

him in the lava. That's basically how they killed

off Laserbeak and Scorponok. Laserbeak? No, Quickstrike

and Pterosaur. No, Pterosaur and Scorponok. Laserbeak

was a repaint of Pterosaur. My bad, sorry. Yes,

but they fell into the lava and they were transmittal

and they died. Yeah, exactly. So that must mean

that Megatron plus Megatron equals no death.

He's immortal. That's probably why his spark

is having issues as far as the next show. I figured

that the lava just wasn't that hot. Well, he

actually throws tarantulas in the water. Yeah,

but tarantulas technically isn't... Cybertronian

by nature. Or, you know, Autobot Decepticon nature.

He's a spawn of Unicron. Uh, where'd that come

from? Uh, well, Megatron's made several references

to the fact that he's a spawn of Unicron, and

plus, Strangelus has said that he's not of Autobot

Decepticon origin. Yeah, I remember him saying

that in a previous season. He said that numerous

times throughout the series. I always thought

that he just meant that he was working directly

for the Trifredicus Council. Well, why else would

he keep continually trying to destroy the Ark?

He's like, it wouldn't affect me. He's like,

what the hell do I care? Yeah. He's like, I'm

going to take a big -ass dump on top of you.

I'm going to take a big -ass dump of Dark Energon

on top of you because Dark Energon is Unicron.

Okay. It's a War for Cybertron reference, man.

Come on. I know, I know. I wouldn't know. I haven't

played the game. But anyways, so technically

if Tarantulas blew up the Ark, Megatron would

still survive. Yeah. His body would not survive,

but his spark was still in Megatron. you know,

as far as the Beast Wars Megatron, so therefore

he would live on. Huh. Anything else, Steve?

Let me see. I like this. Read the wiki. That's

what I'm doing. This is not hard to come up with

stuff, though. I love this episode. Okay. I like

the... Oh, yeah, and the ice. You never see him

shoot the ice. Oh, yeah. It's used this once,

and then he's all fire after this. It was very

cool, though. I expected him to break his arm.

Snap it off. An optimal optimist sickle. It's

an optimal sickle. Wow, that sounds so wrong.

He's like... I want to bite some monkey. Oh,

boy. Anyways, Tarantulas is like, By the pit

you live, I am not easily destroyed. And thanks

to your treachery, my power is greater than ever.

Let me thank you. He had an excellent entrance.

Yes. can suffer your treachery, Lieutenant, but

not your incompetence. Treachery requires no

mistakes. Uh, yeah. This might be my, uh, favorite

Megatron, uh, alt mode. That's, it's, this one

is my favorite, but, uh, a close second would

be his Transmetal form. Mm, I really like it.

There's so much raw power between the two. I'm

just not a big fan of his dinosaur modes, you

know, Transmetal or otherwise. But, no, the dragon

mode is really cool. I really like the dragon

mode. I just like the impressiveness that his

robot form gives off. Yeah, because he's just

big. I mean, well, you know. Well, as far as

the show, like, he goes... I mean, the toy isn't

much different. I mean, it's a little bit bigger

in size, same with the Optimal. However, in the

show, they're pretty much eye -to -eye after

this. Yeah. Yep. And, you know, Megatron is quite

a bit larger than the rest of the Predacons other

than Rampage at this point now. Right, right.

I dig the roar. Oh, yeah. He's got a great roar.

I mean, it reminds me of, I don't know if you've

played Bioshock 2. Nope. Oh, man, when the little

sisters come after you, or not the little sisters,

the big sisters. Once you've harvested enough

of the little sisters, a big sister will come

and try to find you. And, you know, you know

when they're coming because they let out this

horrible screech, and it sounds, you know, like

the Megatron roar. It's a horrible, horrible

noise. It's like fingernails on chalkboards.

Really loud. While the dragon mode is not my

favorite, I'm getting used to it. I still say

Transmetal One, Shiny Purple Dino is better.

However, I will say that I love the wings. The

wings on that thing are awesome. Oh, yes. Now,

I wish they would have done a color -accurate

toy of this. For the most part, it is just completely

red. And there aren't much paint differences

as far as the figure. There's no things detailed.

The head's pretty much just black with four orange

squares on it and green eyes. And he's got that

shitty grin on his face. But the rest of the

figure looks... The form looks pretty damn close

to the show. But the colorations are not accurate

by any means. Now, I thought that the wings,

you know, they weren't a... They're in no way

show accurate in color, but I thought that they

had different shades. No, the... Like, on the

metal -istic parts on... As far as his wings

and his dragon head, yeah, they do transition

a little bit, but that's about the most detailed

the figure gets. As far as the robot mode, it's

pretty plain. It's a lot of solid color instead

of more like the show, which would have been

nice to actually see better detail as far as

color. Again, they didn't do this, so this would

be something nice to see a repaint of in the

future for some new updated version of it, kind

of like they're going back and redoing them.

If they ever come back and do a 15th anniversary,

then a nicer version of this would be great.

I want to say they repainted this as Cryo Tech.

They did. And I had both of them on my desk for

a long time. I still have the Vangatron on my

desk. The Cryotech I would probably get if it

weren't for the fact that I have a cheap ass.

Oh, no, I love the Dragon Mold so much that I

bought that one. And they have repaints of this

at big lots. They're cheap knockoffs. It's actually

bigger. You know, I never took mine out of the

package. I've got the black one and the silver

one. They look awesome. They're sharp. I liked

it. You know, and it's like $10. So it was totally

worth it just to display it in the package. I'll

never open it because, you know, it'll disintegrate

when it touches the air. Oh, yeah. They're by

far no, you know, quality product. No, but they

look really good. So, Master Blaster. Yes, and...

Oh yeah, and then a special note, the toy does

say Transmetal 2 on it, even though it's a Transmetal.

If it weren't for the fact that basically they're

saying the lava is what made Megatron become

the dragon. Otherwise, he probably would have

been killed if it weren't for the fact he's being

upgraded. And then he's primal and the episode

tells Black Ragnia that Megatron gained control

of Teletraan even though he's the one that did

it. Right. They call it Teletraan. I know. At

one point in this episode, which is retarded.

I know. Well, the thing about... I don't think...

No, Megatron never got control of Teletraan in

this. Tarantulas did. Well, Megatron had to make...

primal gain control of it to get in. Right. He

had Quickstrike open the door for him. Right,

but that was Quick... I mean, it was Optimus,

but it wasn't really, because it was Quickstrike.

But after that, Megatron went into the lava,

and then Quickstrike and Tarantulas went into

the base, and Tarantulas said, Quickstrike, give

me direct access to Teletraan 1, and he did the

little I -beam thing through Optimus. And a little

keyboard popped out and Tarantulas with his ugly

ass deformed hands started typing away. And I

have just a couple more notes. Okay. They actually

returned G1 Megatron Spark to his body, although

it's never actually shown. It was released afterwards.

At some point after... Some events in Nemesis

Part 2, but before they took the ride home, there

is a quick scene of that floating around, plus

on the DVD, which is not complete. It's just

kind of a rough animation clip. Yeah, it's a

rough cinematic. Yes, but it actually got released

through BWTF, Ben Yee's website, at the time

before they threw it on. The DVDs. Yeah. Megatron's

head, when he says that he's almost collected

the whole set, is the wrong colors. It's already

his dragon colors for his head. Oh, really? Yes,

all the colors are exactly the same. It's just

that they accidentally screwed up a couple scenes

early and then... The next scene after he says

that, it's back to the standard Transmetal head.

Uh -huh. Pretty noticeable clip for the most

part. Yeah. But yeah, they also made with BotCon,

they made... Tie -ins to this episode with the

power suit frame used by Quickstrike is later

used by the VAC to create Primal Prime and Primeval

Dawn. Oh, cool. And the universe. They used the

alien transmittal driver in this to create Primal

Prime. Somehow. For the most part, I would say

this is one of the better episodes out of the

four today. You did have a lot of... It's mostly

a Megatron -centric episode, which hasn't pretty

much been done since season one. Yeah. So it

was quite nice to see that. What do you got for

this one, Michael? Basically, pretty much the

things that Steve already covered or that we

already talked about. I liked the better look

at Optimus' insides when the little spider was

inside of him. It was kind of funky. I liked

Megatron's death scene and subsequent rebirth.

And I liked Tarantulas finally showing his true

colors again. After several episodes of playing

nice, you know, inexplicably, he's like, ha ha,

I'm in charge now. Well, he doesn't have that

much longer to do it either. Very true. But that's

really all I had. Alrighty then. So, I think

we are... You're going to hear, I don't know,

clips, quotes. I'm not sure exactly what Steve's

going to put in here. He'll probably put some

whole rant about how he missed 95 % of this episode.

So I guess we'll be back after this. Hey, this

is Cheetor, and you're listening to the Beast

Unleashed podcast, Ultra Gear. We'll return to

the Beast Unleashed podcast after this. Here's

quote number one. By the way, thanks for coming

after me. It was sweet. As was the way you confessed

the truth to Optimus. Who will make a maximal

of you yet? In your dreams. I like myself just

the way I am. And I... Quote number two. Hardly

be any fun at all. Yeah, for you, Creepazoid.

Love the new look. Goodbye! You missed. And you're

ugly. Not too shabby. Quote number three. Let

me in! The only thing worse than a salesman is

a pushy Predacon. Auto guns online. No. Quote

number four. I can suffer your treachery, Lieutenant,

but not your incompetence. Treachery requires

no mistakes. Megatron, no mistakes. End quote

number five. Seems quiet enough. Enter the dragon.

I'm a Matrix. Get the Teletron One. Quickly!

Go! Primal, it's you again! Surprise! Now, back

to the Beast Unleashed podcast. I want to bring

up something before we close. Steve had mentioned

the full animatic special feature that's on Season

3. And I'll cover this more once we get to the

recap of Season 3. I want to put a call -out

or a fan question out to all the fans of the

show. In the description of this, it says, let's

see, To guard the dormant Generation 1 Autobots

and Decepticons from the Predacons to find a

way to return home, casualties will mount on

both sides as the Beast Wars roar to an epic

conclusion. Season 3 features first appearance

of fan -favorite Depth Charge, the defection

of Black Arachnia, and the debut of Agnomatic

Tigerhawk. I should say the transgendered Tigerhawk.

My question is, and maybe Steve will answer this,

I don't know, because I know Steve's a fan, but

how the hell is DepthCharge a fan favorite? He

was only in one season. Because he was the new

badass of season three. Still no replacement

for Dinobot, though. No, but he was a different

type of replacement. He wasn't exactly trying

to replace Dinobot himself, but the dynamic that

was Dinobot, because he argues with Rattrap constantly

throughout Season 3. And Rattrap's like, I think

I found someone else to piss off. Yeah. What

else is... Steve, do you have anything you want

to say? I don't know, because I don't want to

just close the show and be like, oh, well, we

kind of fucked Steve over for this episode. Well,

I would have to say that as far as episodes today,

I would say Master Blaster, of course, would

be my favorite. Crossing of the Rubicon, although

was not one of my favorites. I do like the episode.

It was nice to see Black Ragnia finally get upgraded.

Yes. And it's kind of weird seeing the inside

of a Predacon as far as the programming chip.

Right, the whole interface. Yes. Go with the

flow. I would have to say it was... A pretty

good light -hearted episode. A lot of comedy

clips between the humans. Now, I did mention

in that part of when we did talk about Go With

the Flow that that is a replacement episode.

It's basically a filler episode. That was where

Dark Glass was supposed to have been, correct?

Yes. This was definitely a replacement for it.

Can you, like, without... Just off the top of

your head, do you remember what Dark Glass was

supposed to be? Because I think I said something

in the episode about it being a continuation

or a conclusion from Agenda or something. Wasn't

it a conclusion from Season 2 or something? What

it was was Dark Glass was supposed to be a reference

to... And this episode, Dark Glass, was written

by... Christy Marks. Christy Marks. And Larry

Dottilio was the only one to have another copy

of it at the time. And they, I believe, were

going to give away copies of it and then decided,

nope. They actually said that it was rumored

as a lost episode that was to feature Rattrap

attempting to restore the original Dinobot's

personality to Dinobot 2. Okay. And when the

episode was refused, Go With the Flow was made

instead. This says something about Dark Alas

was written for Season 2 and rejected by the

editors, but they were saying that it was replaced

by Transmutate, but it still wouldn't have applied

considering DinoBot wasn't even made yet until

Season 3. Yeah. 2 wasn't made yet until Season

3. It was going to be more or less Rat Trap,

Shanghai, Dinobot, inputting his information

from the old data tracks on Maximal computers,

despite the fact that it was technically into

Sentinel, which you could kind of infer that

he made two copies. And he's supposed to have

snuck out. And the old Dinobot emerges for a

short time. And then Rhinox says something about

he's only a shadow of his former self. Yeah.

Did they ever give a reason why this episode

was never made other than... It was too dark

for a showrunner's program. Because apparently

it's like... Although I don't see how it's too

dark because they had a metallic gargoyle in

Gargoyles that... had half a personality that

was just freaking evil and then the other half

that was, you know, noble. Yes. So this would

basically be the same type of element because

the old Dinobot and new Dinobot would constantly

fight for control over the body in this episode.

Oh, so it's kind of like a me, myself, and Irene

thing. Kind of. And it doesn't actually seat

into it. Like, all of a sudden when... Well,

we'll discuss that next episode as far as Dinobot,

but it doesn't actually seat until the final

episode of Beast Wars. Right, right. One other

thing I want to mention before I close this out,

because we are kind of running long in the tooth

here. I noticed, and I don't know how the hell

this is, but several times, Maximal Computers,

it's Sentinel voice. Sentinel was taken by Megatron.

In all four of these episodes, I've heard the

Sentinel voice today. Have a nice day. No, I'm

serious. Yeah, that's the art computer. I'm not

talking about that. I'm talking about the maximal

bass computer stuff. Sentinel's voice was again

there. I don't know why, because if they don't

have the Sentinel program, how can it be Sentinel's

voice? But whatever. I want to give a shout -out

to Glade Packer, a very cool guy. He runs the

Game is a Foot podcast. It's a Sherlock Holmes

podcast, and he's been listening to the show.

I also want to give a shout -out to Godspeed,

again, for sending me an alt -mode war for Cybertron

Optimus Prime. Also, of the PredaconEmpire .com

slash Nexus forums, Wing800 helped me out immensely

where Michael Wilson left me dangling and sent

me two missiles plus the orange gun for Optimal

Optimus. So my Optimal Optimus is now complete,

no thanks to Michael Wilson. Oh, very nice. Yes,

very, very sweet. I've had a lot of generosity

come my way from the fans, and I want to thank

every one of you guys for sending the stuff that

you've sent. Very, very cool of everybody. Where's

mine? Hey, shut up. You're getting a free DVD

copy of G .I. Joe the Movie from Shout Factory.

Shut the hell up. Yes, that has still yet to

arrive, but I will be quite happy when it does.

Blanchard's got free accessories thrown at him,

free puggles thrown at him. Hey! Wait a minute.

I get the grand scheme larger. items. Okay then,

yeah. I'll take it. Throw some toys at me. Yeah,

I was on Facebook last night and Glade popped

in and we chatted for a bit and that was very

cool. He likes the show and that means that aside

from the three of us and at least two other people,

five people like the show. Well, this is a very

dark show, so... We have gone to no end to not

hide that. I mean, that fact is not hidden. Ever

since this show started, it's gone down the just

dark, humorous path. It's always gone down the

crapper. It's just a matter of opinion. From

a certain point of view, yeah. At least it's

not TFG1 where it's like, oh, this happened.

This happened. That happened. That happened.

Oh, I like this. Oh, Skylynx is shitting guns

out of his ass and, you know. Then you hear him

crap in his pants. My pants are full! My pants

are full! So what we're saying here is that the

shows are no fun unless we're just taking the

low road all the way. Yes, and the low road is

awesome. Energon farts and all. No. Yes! Burn

in your infernal hell. And on that note... Thank

you for joining us here on the Beast Unleashed

podcast. As always, get in contact with us or

leave feedback for the show. Visit the website,

geekcastradio .com. Comment on each episode post.

And while we appreciate other hosts' feedback,

it doesn't really count unless it's listener

feedback. Yes, we're talking to you, Kevin, even

though you probably don't listen to this show.

Join the forums. PredaconEmpire .com slash Nexus.

Leave the show's feedback in iTunes. Follow us

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Beast

Unleashed podcast. Join us next time when we'll

be reviewing the final three episodes from Beast

Wars Season 3. Those being Other Victories and

The Nemesis Two -Parter. For now, I am TFG1Mike

with Michael Wilson and who else? Steve. Megatron

Phillips. Yes, Megatron, would you like to close

the show, seeing as how you weren't on half of

it? Yes. Mwahaha. That's not Megatron's voice.

I know that. What the hell? Under the sea, depth

charge fishpads. Who wants to kill Rampage for

you and for me? Depth charge fishpads. Whose

manta ray goodness is misunderstood? DepthCharge

FishPants. Who sounds like Batman and Clint Eastwood?

DepthCharge FishPants. Ready? DepthCharge FishPants.

DepthCharge FishPants. Everybody now. DepthCharge

FishPants. DepthCharge FishPants. Thank you for

listening, I guess. Until next time. Excellent.

Yes.