The Final Episode

Sentinel Online, now loading the Beast Unleashed

podcast. This is Megatron. This is the glorious

Megatron. And this episode of the Beast Unleashed

podcast features Stephen C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard,

and Michael Wilson. Hey, this is Cheetor, and

you're listening to the Beast Unleashed podcast,

Ultra Gear. Hello, and welcome to the 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, D .F. John Mike, and I'm joined once again

by Pecan Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it

going? It's going. Steve Megatron? Hello, hello,

hello. As today... In the final episode of the

Beast of the Lynch podcast, we'll be recapping

the entire Beast era, both the cartoons and the

toy lines. So Steve, how have you been? Excellent.

Yes! Yes, I'm having fun looking over all the,

um, the, I don't know, the things to come, as

well as, uh, Recapping the episode despite the

fact that it's it's a sad sad day Yes, I know

nobody else feels that so well You know it's

it's one of those things where I look at it as

an accomplishment You know 30 episodes plus interviews

all What is it 70 78 episodes of both series?

Or in 78 episodes of cartoons in total Something

like that, I don't know. Math sucks. Um... Didn't

we go through the math in the last episode? Let's

see, 26, 26. 52. 54. Yeah. 54. Yeah. My math

stinks. Not nearly as bad as Blanchard's, but...

Whatever. Figure that out already. It's, yeah.

Anyways, you know... So the way I look at it

is, you know, we've done a good accomplishment

in this show for however long, you know, we're

still alive, we'll still be around in iTunes

and on the feed and everything else, so, you

know, people who are like, oh, well, you know,

this is... Fairly good show, and we want to listen

to more, because we love Beast Wars, we love

Beast Machines, or we hate Beast Machines and

we love Beast Wars or whatever. You know, they

have this show, and as I've said before, and

I've beaten this point into the ground, we are

the only people ever, so far, to do a full -on,

in -depth, episode -by -episode review of Beast

Wars and Beast Machines. There's probably a reason

for that. You say that like it's a bad thing.

Well, what's nice though is when the 20th or

let's say the 25th or whatever anniversary of

Beast Wars comes around, people who are just

discovering it for the first time can reference

this podcast as a supplementary material. Exactly.

exactly and and even though we've we've taken

actually it wasn't even I mean it well we weren't

even two episodes in and this show took a very

very dark turn I think this this podcast has

been the darkest humor we have ever done here

at the key cast radio network I said hard. It's

going to be hard. Not exactly. It's going to

be hard to not repeat that in the future because

like I said, like we have said, I suppose in

our future endeavors, I don't want our podcasts

to be so black humored. Yeah. Which I don't think

they'll get down that hole. I honestly don't.

Yeah, I don't think so either. I mean, it started

with. To be honest, the whole dynamic between

Tegatron and Snow Stalker. Oh, the bestiality.

And it's trickled downhill from there. Yes, yes

it is. And I would like to take the opportunity

to thank Gary Chalk, David Kaye, Ian James Corlett,

and David Soboloff for all the amazing promos

that they've given us for specifically this podcast.

And let's not forget Kristy Marks, Larry DiTilio,

and Bob Skewer. Right. Well, yeah. I didn't want

to forget them, but I was specifically talking

about the voice actors at first. Just... Shut

up, Megatron. All excellent writers. Yes. Excellent.

Yes. Each and every one. Yes, very much so. It's

just amazing. Just, you know, everybody that's

talked to us just specifically for these two

cartoons. You know, I think I'm going to save

what I was going to save for the end there for

the next part. Oh, boy. Yeah. Save it. You know,

I've got a perfect way to end partly in this

show. So, Michael, what have you been up to?

Well, today I paid the muffler guy $800 to replace

my catalytic converter. Ouch. Ouch. Yeah, it

was awful. I was very unhappy. I mean... It could

have cost me $2 ,000 if I had gone to the dealership,

but I just went to Shmo Muffler guy on the corner

and he quoted me one price and then charged me

about four times more. Not more than I expected,

right? But still, I was like, well, all right,

fine, just fix it. My car is never going to passion

missions. if I didn't get a new catalytic converter.

So it had to be done. Yes. You also have a movie

-going buddy now in your eldest son, Aidan. That's

right. We get to see movies together. He's only

been the two so far, but he's been really good.

And I'm kind of anxious to take him to see like

Cars 2 and things like that. Yeah. Yes, and I've

just been doing the usual podcasting and all

this other stuff and kind of stressing a little

bit where we're reworking some of the existing

shows to not have them. be released and kind

of revamping some shows that are already existing,

like MWIRE and stuff like that, just so they're

a little bit more fresh than they already are.

But right now, between now and New Year's Eve,

we have, I think, including this episode of this

final episode of Beast Unleashed, we have 15

releases that I have to do work on. So, yeah.

That's what I've been doing. Yes, I know, I have

no life. So exciting. Yes, exactly. Like nobody

didn't already know that as it was. Shut up,

Steve. Shut up, Rattrap. Yeah, alright, alright.

You know how many pieces of waspinator I got?

You know how many pieces of waspinator I got?

I don't know. List them all. I'm sending Rattrap

and Cheetor to assist. And I think what we're

going to do here is we've got several different

topics. And the way that I've devised these topics

is basically we're going to start with Beast

Wars, obviously. So favorite episodes of Beast

Wars and then favorite characters from Beast

Wars. Favorite episodes of Beast Machines and

favorite characters of Beast Machines. During

those two records, those two segments, Beast

Wars will be one segment, Beast Machines will

be another, so in between those you're gonna

hear random audio. So up next we're gonna talk

about our favorite Beast Wars stuff. Alright,

so first up is our favorite episodes of Beast

Wars, and I don't know if you guys made a list

I just listed off different episodes from each

season that I absolutely like and absolutely

can watch pretty much any time So I'm gonna start

with Beast Wars the two -parter that started

the series off. I thought this was very well

done uh... some of the other ones i have in my

list for beast wars are double jeopardy better

mousetrap the probe dark designs the low road

all roads lead back to the low road no not bullshit

before the storm other voices pretty much all

the really good ones from beast wars i pretty

much listed all as my favorites because that's

the one those the ones i like like code of hero

uh... the agenda what are you laughing at? the

code of the hero Code of Hero. Optimal situation,

Feral Scream, Master Blaster, other victories,

and Nemesis two parter. I really like the storytelling

that they've done with Beast Wars in the cartoon

because Larry and Bob can swear up and down that

they... Had no intention of connecting it to

G1, but I think that was one of the like I saw

a G1 reference and almost every episode and maybe

that's me reading into it too much, but Obviously

the whole crashed earth in the in the Beast Wars

two -parter that was just like The arc and the

nemesis crashing Right. No, there were parallels

there and there were references to G1. They they

wanted to put themselves in that G1 Continuity,

but I don't think it was decided until much later

That that planet was actually earth and that

the arc was there, right? But no the g1 references

were over there. Definitely. Yeah I was throughout

the whole series. Yeah I think one of my most

favorite episodes in season one specifically

out of the list that I have on here is Dark Designs.

I absolutely love that when Rhinox goes evil,

or supposedly goes evil. Right. That was, I have

to say, probably my favorite episode. Yeah. What

about you, Steve? What are some of your favorite

stuff, favorite episodes from the three seasons

of Beast Wars? Well, I would have to say that,

to start it out, I'd have to say the prequel,

Theft of the Golden Disk, would definitely be

one of them. just for the sake of it showing

prior to Beast Wars Part 1. Right. And it has

David Kay. So you can't get much better than

that. So then I would have to say the Beast Wars

two -parter just because it was epic and it was

a grand opening to the show that once you watched

it, it drew you in. And from there, I liked Possession,

which was one of the major episodes that tied

in G1. I mean, it was spotted prior too, but

it was one of the major ones featured. Starscream?

Yes, I love Starscream and Beast Wars. Is Starscream

gonna be in it? Starscream's gonna be in it.

I just thought of something. Wasp Screaminator.

Just stop. What? That's why in the Transmetal

body they gave him a jet form. What? Come on.

Wasp Screaminator? Come on, Michael. I scream

in a meter The in a tour In a tour reference

a column urinator there. We're done with it Spell

urinator you are I You are an ater There's an

eight an actual numeral eights in there somewhere

yes the duke like eight in ater But yes, and

then more of my favorite episodes I'd have to

say, I loved the coming of Fusor's two -parter

just because it had a different vibe to it and

the grand revival of Optimus Primal. The course

agenda was awesome because you get to see more

G1 references. I loved Optimal's situation for

many reasons. And then from there, I liked some

of the other little smaller episodes sprinkled

between in season three. But I would obviously

have to say the Nemesis two -part would be my

grand finale. And the Nemesis part two, I would

have to say is my ultimate favorite episode of

Beast Wars. Just because it's the final battle

before they punk Megatron's ass and take him

home. So they say. Yeah, we all know that didn't

work out so well. What about you, Michael? Well,

they're all good. It's like picking out your

favorite kid. It's hard to choose, though. It

is. There are just so many gems in the three

seasons. I really liked Dark Designs, of course.

I liked, you know, Code of the Hero. Code of

Hero. The Code of the Hero. I liked the optimal

situation, I liked the Nemesis. I mean, all of

them are really, really good. It would probably

be easier to pick out the ones I don't like.

Yeah, I get to agree with you on that. Yeah,

I wasn't thrilled with, like, Transmutate. You

know, no offense to Kristy Marx, but... I just

didn't like that character. Yeah, I was kind

of vexed at the end and Christy kind of cleared

it up for us in an interview, but I just didn't

like that one. The Low Road, I know this is like

Mike's favorite episode, but I... It's not my

favorite episode, I just think it's hilarious.

Well, I just think like like like I I agreed

with you guys up until I saw it again, right?

Well, that's what I think really differentiates

this series from you know The Beast Machines

is that they have room in this series to just

do an entire episode on fart jokes Which is fine.

Okay, great, you know, but I Didn't like it.

It wasn't like you know, not my bag, man But

other than that, I really... I mean, there were

some filler episodes that was like, well, maybe

we could have passed on that. But for the most

part, I mean, there's a lot of foreshadowing

going on, you know, foreshadowing future story

arcs, you know, secrets almost conspiracy -like

being woven through the story. And then it ended

on a really strong note. So, I mean, there's

nothing not to like here. I mean, you know what?

Well, yes there is. There's the Low Road and

Transmutate. Well, you know, I didn't like Transmutate

at first, just like you guys don't like the Low

Road. I mean, I know you don't like them for

separate reasons, but, you know, and I went back

and I gave Transmutate another fair, I think

I gave Transmutate a fair shake, and I like it,

but it's still, it's not an episode that I would

just watch because I want to watch it. I don't

know, it's just one of those things where it's

not a bad episode, but it's still, like I said,

it's not something that you can watch for enjoyment.

Up until the whole time Steve and I were plotting

this whole thing out, this whole podcast, and

we were discussing it and everything else, and

I was like, oh, I haven't really gotten to it

yet, because I was still in my original marathon

watch before we even started the show of the

cartoon. And I hadn't gotten to it yet. I was

like, oh yeah, I agree, I agree. I don't like

it. It sucks. And then I got to it, and I just

found myself laughing through the entire freaking

episode. It was so hilarious. And then he became

Giggles. Oh yes, I love this episode. It makes

me laugh. It does! It does, because it's not

so much the fact that it's Rhinox energon farting,

it's the fact of what happens when he energon

farts, like the effects to the base and everything

else. The other thing I gotta say is that I like

the giant explosion it showed in space. And then

he starts saying, Uranus is bleeding! Oh my god.

Other than that, I don't really care for that

episode. I gotta give high praise to all the

writers, but specifically Larry DiTillio and

Bob Forward. Larry DiTillio can write some awesome

stories. He really can. Absolutely. Bob forward

can too, but I mean I mainly knew before this

I knew Larry as a writer on He -Man and even

though the He -Man Masters of the Universe 1983

cartoon was specifically one -shots, there were

some pretty compelling half -hour cartoons back

then and Larry just didn't disappoint with this

cartoon either. Right, that was another excellent

interview that we had. Yes. Oh so excellent.

Larry's a good guy. Yes, yes, he is So Steve,

do you want to talk about the comic really quick?

Yes and and to tie this in It actually does bridge

the gap and I'm not talking about the the fan

productions Made for bot cons because one I haven't

read them. So I'm not very well versed in them

to I do know that they they do to somewhat some

way tie back into it and but I don't know how,

but I'm going to stick to the IDW comics. Since

it takes place during Season 2, where people,

some of the, basically Magmatron gets tired of

the bullshit on Cybertron, is sent by the Tri

-Predicus Council to bring back Megatron, and

he activates all of the stasis pods that were

left behind, and Razorbeast is a maximal sent

from Leo convoy to infiltrate and he turns half

of the pods into Preds and half into Maximals.

So you have again another warring faction in

the gathering. They also revive Ravage from Beast

Wars, which is cool. But between the gathering

and the ascending, it is chronologically phased

into a few seconds into the past or something

or into the future to the point that The beasts

of the regular world can't see them, but they

can see the others. It's weird how that works,

but during the ascending, they could see Depth

Charge coming out of the water when he finally

came out of his pod and everything. They thought

they were attacking, and they're like, no, you

idiot. He can't see us. They were phase shifted.

Yes. Faze me out, Scotty! Yeah, thank you, StarTron.

So basically, there's this character named Shockerac,

who basically looks like Rampage and is indestructible

and has the Dark Matrix and all this other bullshit.

He's on Cybertron with Heralds of Unicron and

he's supposed to be the new form of Unicron or

the new coming of Unicron. And through some kind

of weird dark energon that they pull in there,

Magmatron basically tells him, look, you're a

tool. And he's like, oh, shit. So he kills himself

and gets locked in the nether zone of the chronologically

phased, sending Magmatron back out. And of course,

Cybertron's been ravaged by this giant war going

on between these groups. So at the very end of

the comic, to take this full circle, you see

Megatron Coming down from the sky, landing on

the ground, and you see the Maximals that are

left saying, wow, good thing there's no other

threats coming our way. Cybertron's pretty much

in ruins, and Megatron's standing there basically

taking survey of the area like, aha, fuck you.

And so that's basically the instant prequel to

Beast Machines. Right, yeah, I'm probably gonna

have to find that comic at some point and read

it. You can actually find the trade pretty cheap,

actually. Cool. So I guess we're gonna talk about

some favorite characters. And for me, here's

my list. Cheetor, duh. Waspinator, Megatron.

Rhinox, Chaingun of Doom. Rattrap, Silverbolt,

and obviously Optimus Primal. You're just naming

them all. No, I'm not. You left out the dead

ones. Yeah, exactly. I left out Pterosaur, Scorponok,

and everybody else. Airazor? Yeah, Airazor, Tygesher,

and everybody. One of the things, and I've brought

this up before, and one of the reasons why I

love Cheetor is he's pretty much Rotomus Prime

for Beast Wars. Well, yeah, but you know hot

rod to Rodimus Prime, but you know what I mean,

it's kind of like getting to watch hot rod grow

up Yeah, instead of just having some you know

idiot kid who you you know basically gets optimus

prime killed Getting handed the matrix now you

have an idiot kid who kind of grows into an idiot

young man You know who then grows into a more

accomplished leader Yeah, okay. Well, I mean,

it's the same thing, only stretched out between

the beginning of Beast Wars, where he doesn't

take commands, and at the end of Beast Machines,

where he's an oracle, seer, and leader of Cybertron,

so. Yeah. And by the time you get to the end

of, you know, season five, let's call it, you

don't mind him being the leader. It makes perfect

sense. Whereas in Transformers, the movie, you're

like, hot rod, what the fuck, you might as well

give it to Bumblebee. Hey. You fucking Rodimus

Prime hater. Anyways, you hot rod hater. One

of the reasons why I love Cheetor is, as Michael

just said, the evolution of the character. I

like Cheetor for each incarnation, pretty much

each body type he's had. Each body mold. His

beginning is Transmetal 1, Transmetal 2, and

then obviously Beast Machines. Because, as I've

said before, it's... you know him getting older

growing up and I really like that they brought

that character development in and it's I like

how they continued it in Beast Machines even

though Beast Machines was a separate production

from Beast Wars. I'm glad they didn't just say

oh well here's all these characters but they're

not gonna have any of the same personality you

knew of them as in Beast Wars so because sometimes

that can happen. As far as Waspinator, poor Waspinator.

Poor Waspinator. He goes splat a lot. And I still

say my favorite Waspinator splat alert was the

chain gun of doom. You didn't? Oh, well, no.

I kind of liked the time that he was cubed. Yeah,

I like that one too, but just the sheer... This

year of violence that the Chaingun of Doom brought

to Waspinator was just awesome. The other one

I really, really like is when Dinobot shreds

him into paper. Yeah, when he was torn into shreds,

I like that. And Megatron in Beast Wars was very

comical, very funny, always talks to himself.

I liked him, but... Honestly, I like Megatron

darker. I mean the comedy side of Megatron is

great for what Beast Wars is and was, but I don't

know, I just I like the dark Megatron that they

portrayed in Beast Machines. I like both. I like

the darker one better. But we're not talking

about Beast Machines. I know, but I'm just saying.

Overall, I mean, as far as this one, he was just

hilarious because he's surrounded by idiots Well,

he did recruit him True I don't think he recruited

them to be his army per se I think he just recruited

them to be fodder in the theft of the Golden

Disk They just happen to still be hanging around

when he escaped and landed it in the Beast Wars.

Well good thing they did For his sake Well, yeah,

I mean Five maxes. One Predacon. That would have

been a different story. A world of hell. I don't

think they dug far enough into the planet core

for that. Anyways. What would have been really

funny is if he was by himself and talking to

himself. You there, go hook up the autoguns.

No, you do it yourself. Then he would really

have a split personality talking to himself.

That would be a problem, yeah. That would be

hilarious. Yeah, I can see that. Well, you know,

if he had a detachable dino head and dragon head,

he could make them go do it. At some point, he's

giving orders to his rubber ducky. That's so

funny. Rhinox is kind of meant to be, I guess,

a mystic in this. I think really where I really

liked Rhinox was when he was using the Chaingun

of Doom or when he was in Dark Designs. Other

than that, I mean, he does have some really great

lines. I love the loudspeaker. the thing in one

of the episodes where there's this giant lot

of loudspeakers that he's talking to Megatron

through, and there's this feedback noise at the

end. I like that. But Rhinox really isn't on

the top of my list of fairly good character.

I mean, he's a good character. He's a nice set

off to this, and he's kind of like an Ironhide

for Beast Wars, except he has Mystic Rhino powers.

hide mixed with a brawn and a ratchet all rolled

into one. Yeah. With a little bit of wheel jack

in there. Yeah, I don't know who you would mix

ratchet wrap with. He's more of a wheel jack

mixed with Mirage. Yeah, and then of course silver

bolt. What are you going to say, Michael? I so

don't see that, but yeah, okay. Well, wheel jack

in the sense of he builds things. And Mirage,

in the sense that he's cocky, doesn't care for

the mission, and he can get in and out of places

without being seen. Okay, I'll buy that to a

certain extent, but I really think that Rat Trap

is, pardon the pun, his own animal. He's a rat

in a trap. Exactly. No, I mean, his whole personality

is very unique. It's just different from normal

characterizations you would find in these cartoons.

Yes, I would have to agree with that. And the

lone wolf, the lone hero of the bunch, the altruistic

hero always has to be a heroic character, Silverbolt.

When I first saw Beast Wars, I didn't really

care for Silverbolt because he was so cheesy,

but he's grown on me. I still prefer Beast Machine's

version better than Beast Wars, but that's just

me. I like him overall, but I don't know where

he would rank for me. Obviously, Cheetor and

Waspinator, they're my top two. And of course,

Optimus. What do we want to say about Optimus

Primal? We follow Optimus. Period. Period. Now,

now, you're getting ahead of yourself there,

Michael. Oh, man. I like all the references to

Optimus Prime for Optimus Primal. Obviously,

more so when he gets optimized in optimal situation.

You mean optimized? I said optimized because

his name is OptimalOptimus. It's not like autobotly.

It doesn't sound right. It sounds fine to me.

I need to make up more words. You'll get your

chance in tap. Oh, there's plenty of made up

words in tap. What else do we want to say about

favorite characters Steve? What do you want to

say about like Megatron or whatever? My original

favorite character was Optimus Primal. I would

have to say to start out with when I first saw

this Although Megatron was a close second Now

nowadays like actually since Probably 2004 of

watching it on onward from there. I've loved

Megatron since then and I haven't deviated from

it. But I definitely like the designs and the

looks of both characters. I love how polar opposites

they are on everything. Both their personality

styles. Primal is more of a gung -ho leader,

you know, willing to try anything, you know,

especially when he says things like, you know,

sometimes crazy works and then you got Megatron.

using anybody and anything he can, including

the proto -humans, to further his needs. You

know, the death of Tarantulas. I mean, things

like that in general just show how freaking cocky

he is. And I just love the menacing voice that

is thrown onto Megatron as well. You know, I

just realized something. Besides the fact that

Steve can... pretty much copy the sound almost

just like David Kay does Beast Wars Megatron's

voice. He has another thing in common with David

Kay. Steve liked Optimus originally and then

he switched to Megatron. David originally played

Megatron and then he switched to Optimus. Although

he originally I think auditioned for Optimus

Primal and Beast Wars as well, didn't he? Right,

but... As we all know, he's the only Transformers

voice actor ever to switch from bad to good.

Or anything. True. But, um, yes, that is kind

of cool. But, uh, so I definitely have to say

Megatron's my number one. Just because his grand

transformation all the way through to the end,

he's just a beast. To, you know, put it lightly.

And then, yes, plan words. I don't have to say

Optimus Primal, secondly, just because he had

some of the most awesome lines towards the end

in Season 3. He had also this growth between

the series that I'd have to say I definitely

liked on him, and especially for the fact that

they tried to harken back to Optimus Prime with

him a little bit. After that, I'd pretty much

say that... There's only a few other ones that

stand out in my mind. Rattrap just because of

all his witty, sarcastic remarks and the fact

that he blows the shit out of both Waspinator

and Tarantulas on almost an episode by episode

basis if he gets the chance. Yeah, very true.

And he looks cake ass. And you can't diss the

belly bombs with people's names on them. Yeah,

no, you can't diss the belly bombs. You also,

Michael Wilson, cannot diss the Transmetal One

Rattrap. I love that design. Uh, I can't, yeah.

No, you can't. You're not allowed. I love the

Transmetal One Rattrap design. I like both of

those, but I don't like his beast machines, but

I'll get into that. Yeah, we'll get into that

a little bit later. And then from there, I'd

have to say, I think it's pretty much tied between...

He's like Wasp, an editor with his constant explosions,

babbling to himself, pissing and moaning throughout

the series because he's getting the short end

of the stick, as always, and you can't help but

feel bad for the guy. Screwed throughout season

one and then season two he thinks he's making

an alliance with Dinobot who throws him in the

electrical field Gets him compacted and then

he has to drag himself to the CR tank. He gets

sliced to pieces. He gets shot with a chain gun

He gets blown to pieces. He gets shot by his

own comrades when he traitors and the humans

kick him off the planet. I mean Jesus if anybody

hit it hard it was Waspinator True and I'd have

to say Depth Charge is my final just because

I like the design, I like the gruff voice, and

I like the fact that he didn't take any shit.

The only scene of Depth Charge that I absolutely

loved was at the end of the episode where Megatron

had that disruptor... Where's the R2 driver?

Oh, the disruptor cannon. Yeah, the disruptor

cannon. And at the very end where Rattrap makes

a snarky fish comment and DepthCharge just smacks

him with his tail. That's all he could do. I

know that's all he could do. He was already a

boat. It's the first thing your boat can do to

you. It could have been like, you really want

to test me right now? I could just drown you

right here and just let you sink. How about a

little swim? My point is it was funny. Right

there. Okay, we are Shut up Larry the cable guy

Michael what about you as far as favorite characters

or I mean even least favorite characters I guess

I guess we get into that here in a second, but

as far as favorite characters for Beast Wars

I like the characters that had you know, the

ongoing story arcs, you know, like Dinobot has

a definite arc where He's evil, but then he's

good. And then he goes, well, maybe I shouldn't

be good. And then he says, well, maybe I shouldn't

be evil. And then finally sacrificing himself

for the good of the humans that were on Earth.

There's a great storyline for him, a lot of personality.

Blackarachnia had another very interesting storyline

where she's evil, and then she's kind of like...

the flirtatiousness with Silverbolt, and then

finally gets swayed to the good side. Maybe there

were too many Silverbolt and Blackarachnia episodes,

let's say, toward the end, but it was a really

good run for her. This one doesn't really fall

into that category. but I really liked Tarantulas.

Shit, yeah, I forgot him too. Yeah, well, he's

easy to forget because he's one of those background

characters that you're really surprised didn't

die along with Scorponok and Pterosaur. He's

still around, you know? But no, he's the guy

that knows what's going on. He's the only one

in the whole series that had a freaking clue.

Yeah. And he's got his own thing going on there,

he's got his own base, he's got his own army,

if you can call it that, whenever he gets Quickstrike

and Blackarachnia anywhere near him. And his

spider drones. Yeah, he's got his own little

army of spider drones. He's just got everything

under control and he could probably have pulled

off the Beast Wars on his own if given half the

chance. Well, he tried. Oh yeah, a couple times.

To the point where I was wondering if he was

going to get that chance. And he came close.

And I was really upset when he died. And his

mannerisms are really interesting. He just had

a cool personality. When he was allowed to shine,

when he came to the forefront, it was like, oh

wow, this is a really cool character. He was

creepy as hell. Exactly, yeah. But it just wasn't

as often. as, you know, let's say a Blackarachnia

or a Dinobot. So, you know, there's that. You

know, it's weird that these are all good guys

that I like the most. I don't know what's sad

about Dinobot, though. They had such a fascination

with Dinobot over the entire Beast Wars that

they kept bringing him back in random forms between

clones, cyber raptors. the original Dinobot,

the clone Dinobot, I mean the Transmetal 2 one,

and it's almost like one of the Simon Furman

things. Loves his Grimlock. Loves his Grimlock.

Grimlock keeps coming back. You know, I almost

wish that the story, and I'm starting to interrupt

you Michael, but I almost wish the story would

have taken a slightly different turn for Dinobot

2, and I'm not saying that I don't. Agree with

what they did with Dino, but obviously he had

to go out on you know the the the note he went

out on but I almost wish when they got the season

2 that they would have Transmetalized him in

the clone design because I prefer the Transmetal

2 clone Design just that whole aesthetic to the

original Dino bot design Yeah, I Well, you know

what? I shouldn't say I don't like that design.

I should say I don't like the toy. Well, the

toys throughout Beast Wars didn't do them justice.

Yeah, so we'll get to that a little bit later.

Yeah, no, I mean, just the, you know, there's

barely any articulation. It's just not ever a

good toy. It's got this huge rubber tail that

gets in... that gets in the way of everything.

It's just a big pain in the ass. But to digress,

you know, Cheetor's story arc as well as far

as him evolving and growing was really nice.

So there's one good guy that I liked. I don't

think I really had any characters that I didn't

like. I couldn't stand in every now and then

I could stand inferno, but for the most part

inferno outside of his voice I just I couldn't

stand the characteristics of him because As Megatron

so eloquently put it the ant has a glitch or

whatever Megatron said in that episode With that

is an excellent point in that even though there's

some characters like you know Let's say quick

strike that are just plain dumb Or inferno who's

you know got issues, but you know he's got it.

He's got his place You know right they they need

cannon fodder basically on the bad guy side,

so but the point I'm trying to make is that they

were infused with enough personality that You

know you didn't want them to just die off outright

like poor terrorist or did the I mean, it's just

the writing to a certain extent, but At some

point, it's the voice actors. Oh, yeah. And the

voice actors here just top -notch guys shot it

out of the park every time, possibly with the

exception of that quick G1 Megatron cameo that

sounded like ass. But other than that, just really

top -notch work, and you really got a feel for

the characters. And early on, The animation wasn't

all that great. Maybe it was harder to convey

emotion or, you know, mannerisms with that old

ancient 1996 style animation. But it always,

you know, the context always came through because

the voice actors did such a good job. Yes, very

much so and I'm hoping that at some point when

if we if I don't I of course no one knows if

this is true or not I'm hoping that I've shot

factory does get their rights to Beast Wars to

be able to re -release them on DVD in Some anniversary

capacity or whatever that we get those Videos

that were on YouTube about the behind -the -scenes

of Beast Wars things. I I hope to God those are

on a DVD at some point Yeah, because let's be

honest outside of the complete first season DVD

where you had interviews with Larry and Bob and

you had a couple other things The the Rhino Beast

Wars DVDs as far as special features really suck

No, no, it's not just lacking they flat -out

fucking suck halfway decent was season one in

terms of the case. It doesn't bend or break.

Yeah, I liked all three season cases. I thought

it was really cool the way they designed them

and stuff, but just the features itself. You

only had an interview with Larry and Bob, so

that kind of stinks that there was only those.

Well, the UK version or Australian one, whichever

it was, actually looks halfway decent. But we

got screwed. That's just the way the beastie

crumbles, I guess. I don't know. That's just

the way the spider crumbles? No more spider -cat

rape, thank God. I wasn't bringing that up. I

said specifically like as in tarantulas getting

crushed by a rock. Oh yeah, the rock splats.

Yes, that's why it crumbles. Yeah. Um, so do

we have any, of course we're gonna do a final

thoughts of everything at the end of the episode,

but do we have anything else we want to say about

Beast Wars, whether it be episodes or characters?

Uh, I don't think that I've seen a cartoon since

that, uh, has been, you know, is consistently

well written. Yeah, I can honestly agree with

you. Yeah, I mean animated maybe in the sense

that... certain parts of it were a little derivative,

but it was G1 reimagined in such a way that it

was so captivating, but it was like, wow, that's

really cool how they did that. And they had enough

respect for the fans that they drew upon. Every

aspect every genre. Yeah or every transformer

series over the years and You know, I really

liked that but I can't say that I Mean the art

was really well done and the animation was pretty

good but you know, no offense to Derek J Wyatt,

but it it wasn't as groundbreaking as What we

saw in 96 and then in 97 and 98 the uh the consistent

improvements in animation to the point where

by the by the end of the third season you didn't

even recognize uh well you did you know you recognize

characters of course but you know the improvement

was so huge that was like wow uh it was almost

like you know chicken scratch When they started,

now it's like, wow, it's a beautiful painting.

It's a horrible analogy, but you see where I'm

going. You get the point. And on that horrible

analogy, we're going to head to the Beast Machines

discussion. Who would it kill you to raise a

shovel? Respect my authority! Now for the Beast

Machines discussion. For me, I actually saw this

whole series before I went back and saw Beast

Wars, and I absolutely love Beast Machines. My

first note for favorite episodes basically was

all of them, but if I was to pick four of my

favorites, in Darkest Night, the Spark War three

-parter, Spark of Darkness and the Endgame three

-parter were some of my favorites. Just the overall

storytelling and just the fluid, strict continuity

that they kept themselves to is what I love about

this series. Yeah, I could see that. Okay. Just

amazing and I just... You know say what you want

about the whole religious aspects of this show

and and everything else and people say oh Well,

they're they're cramming it down our throats

and this that the other anything else. I just

look at it as a cartoon I just look at it as

a continuation of Beast Wars hell Larry DiTillio

even told us that if they had the chance to do

a season for Beast Wars They probably would have

taken them back to Cybertron. He didn't say that

they would do this specific idea obviously, but

I mean, let's face it, this was the first cartoon

that throughout its entire history, throughout

its entire run, had them on Cybertron the entire

time. Every other Transformers cartoon has been,

oh, well, we were on Cybertron, we had to leave,

we're on Earth now, or we're on planet Nexus,

whatever, you know? You know what I mean? So

it was kind of refreshing to have a Transformers

cartoon on Cybertron. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would

almost say that it's nice that they're on Cybertron,

but they didn't have to ruin it. Yeah, you don't

like the purple flowers. Get over it. I don't

like the Maximal's designs, period. I like Cheetor's

design because it... It's an evolution of the

way he... I don't mind his face, it's the rest

of him. I like the techno -organic bodies. I

think they look good. I could probably do without

the weird transformation. With the exception

of Botanica, because hers was kind of cool, she

had this weird spiral helix thing going on, but...

Everyone else was just, you know, your arms are

growing out of your chest there and your head

is sucking into your body like an amorphous blob

and it's really kind of creepy. Oh, we so have

to throw in Spada's line again, Steve. Where's

my man? I have to find him. I have to quote unquote

save him according, you know, blackarachnia.

Oh God, that was so hilarious. Yeah, I mean the

character development from Beast Wars to here,

I mean... It's them back on Cybertron. They find

out they lost and whatever else and they have

to find out what the hell actually happened.

You know, I know Michael in previous episodes

has kind of ragged on the flashbacks in Beast

Machines to Beast Wars stuff because it doesn't

look that great. I think it looks fine. And it

was only like two or three second flashback.

And it was nice to see the Beast Wars designs

again. But overall, I mean, this series, the

animation was ten -fold better than Beast Wars.

You have to know in some areas. Yeah, I mean,

like I said before, the animation just got better

and better and better. And if you count Beast

Wars as... Or, I'm sorry. If you count Beast

Machines as like Beast Wars Season 4 and Season

5... then the natural progression there is about

right. In the sense that the improvement between

Season 3 of Beast Wars and Season 1 of Beast

Machines is roughly about what we saw between

Season 1 and Season 2 of Beast Wars, or Season

2 and Season 3 of Beast Wars. a huge improvement

in was the difference between season one of Beast

Machines and season two of Beast Machines. I

mean, the natural progression there just wasn't

there. In fact, I think they went back a little

bit, especially in Beast Machines when they tried

to include flashbacks that were not re -rendered.

I mean, when they literally took screenshots

from Beast Wars Season 2 and put them into a

flashback scene, that was just awful. That's

unconscionable. I liked it when they went back

and re -rendered some scenes from Beast Wars

that were... You know That were with new models.

I mean that was nice like when they showed how

the crew Crash landed on Cybertron and they showed

their old button their old, you know bodies the

transmittal bodies aren't there in Rhinox's case.

There's his regular body Yeah, you know and and

they but they re -rendered them with new models

and they looked really really good So they show

that they can put effort into this. But then

they turn right around, somewhere in Season 2,

I forget exactly, but they turn right around

and show them in hindsight. It was very pixelated,

it looked like ass. It just seemed to me like

the animation was taking a step backward. I don't

know, I kind of disagree because I like the animation

all together for Beast Machines. I mean, you

know, yeah, I will kind of agree with you on

the fire effect. Sometimes the same fire effect

over and over and over again was kind of, whatever,

you know, they need something new. But like,

once they get to like that final 3 Potter and

all the animation with the... the sparks in the

chests and everything else. I thought that was

really cool, even though Rattrap looked like

he was making some Dragon Ball Z pose. Yeah,

that was a cop -out. I honestly think toward

the end there, they said, you know what? We're

canceling the series and we're not giving you

any more money for animation. So just do with

what you got. And at that point they said, well,

you know, we could... We might be able to put

a little window on their chest and, you know,

we could do that. Well, Bob told us and he also

said in the commentary for the episode 25 that

Hasbro said, well, we want to be able to see

the sparks in their chest. Can you go back and

do this? He goes, well, they're already, everything

as far as season two has already been done except

for this Penelope episode. That's how they went

back and did that and put the sparks in the chest

and all that stuff. Right. Well, what I'm saying

though is that it really looks like they ran

out of money. Could be, I don't know. Even the

sparks in the chest, they probably could have

done it better. It's like, and then we turn into

pinballs and randomly bounce around. and hit

people. It just didn't make any sense. And it

was really poorly done, in my opinion. So do

you have any specific favorite episodes? I do.

I really like the weak component. I liked, you

know, the giant mech unit that Rattrap got. I

thought that was cool. I like, you know, the

animation there was, you know, the animation's

good. for the most part for the whole series

and uh well let's say season one more so than

season two for those reasons that i mentioned

before but you know this is where they really

show off the dark silhouette against a bright

background yeah the black and red yeah you've

got in the citadel the entire citadel is lit

up in these garish red colors, blood red, and

it's very dark and everyone is kind of seeing

a silhouette or you can barely make out their

features in the dark. I really like the way they

did that. It was just really, really cool. And

the lighting effects when they're in the dark

but then they shoot a weapon and everything kind

of lights up for a brief second. It was just

really well done. I really liked it. And it's

sad that I just went on a tirade about how awful

the animation was in Season 2. I really like

the animation in the weak component. And then

Spark War, I really liked. All three parts, I

should say, but mostly because they introduced

the new generals. And I really like the new generals.

I mean, I like them more than... You know most

of the the Maximals Kind of sad Yeah, but so

is that I'm thinking well, what if we turned

it around and made it about episodes I didn't

like but how there were so many See, the thing

is, for me, for Beast Machines, and I've said

this before, and I'm probably, again, it's probably

a point I'm running into the ground, I like,

I honestly like the entire series. Good or bad,

I like the entire series. It's like I told Bob

when we interviewed him. When I got this DVD

set, I was so excited. I sat down and I had,

I don't know, snacks or whatever it was, and

I sat down for, you know, at least two or three

hours, watched... Probably through the first

two discs and then the next six hours. I watched

the other discs as well So I mean I I just I

overall really really enjoy this series. What

about you Steve? I would say that for Beast Machines.

I definitely like The series as a whole I like

the continuity in it There's some episodes that

I could care less for, some characters specifically

I could care less for, but the grand scheme,

the overall, despite the fact that they didn't

tie some of the character personalities into

Beast Wars and somehow stumbled upon them later

in season two, irked me a little bit. Overall,

even despite some of the designs that I don't

like, I liked everything. I liked Megatron getting

a little darker just because it shows that age

is worn on him. I liked Primal kind of losing

his mind because he's just so stressed with everything.

He's like, ah, forget it, I don't care. And then

Cheetor's like, optimal, pick up your balls and

kind of do your job or I'll do it for you. You

know, so I mean, it's kind of just... A lot of

it's role reversals, a lot of it's nice to see.

As far as episodes, I pretty much just like...

I like the end episode. I like the spark of darkness.

I like the fact that they brought Rhinox into

the fold and Silverbolt from these stores. And

I pretty much like the first two episodes of

Beast Machines, but... Other than that, the other

ones are kind of like... I like them, but they

aren't my favorites compared to the other ones.

Right. And yes, the animation, I believe, did

get better in some areas. In most areas, but

I'm still not... I still prefer some of the aspects

of Beast Wars better. Yeah. Getting into the

I guess we can get into the characters here Nobody

is gonna expect anything less from me, but Cheetor

top character I really enjoyed the darker version

of Megatron Tanknox, Rhino or whatever you want

to call him Jetstorm and Silverbolt and then

Thrustinator Optimus Primal, I'm glad Cheetor

basically stood up and said, fuck you, I'm taking

over because you're not doing this job right.

But at the same time, I can be sympathetic to

Optimus because, as Bob put it so succinctly

in the commentaries on the DVDs, Optimus pretty

much fumbled the ball at the three yard line

and lost Beast Wars. Because here on Cybertron,

Megatron's in charge. So I can kind of sympathize

with him as far as his guilt, but I don't know,

I don't feel that he had the same character quality

that he had in Beast Wars. Yes, the voicing of

him by Gary was awesome in Beast Machines as

well, but I just didn't like the way the character

took that turn. And I know Michael will agree

with me. I know everyone's hated character in

this series is Night Scream, or... Hate him.

Or, I guess we could say Frenzy, which became

Night Scream. I agree. But, you know, one of

the reasons why I liked Jetstorm was because

he was so just... I don't want to say despicable,

but he was so sadistic and so just hilarious

because you've got Blackarachnia trying to make

this play on thrust because she thinks thrust

is silverbolt. Well, oops, Jetstorm was silverbolt.

And the two of them, Jetstorm and Blackarachnia,

even have a few exchanges of hints of playing

around with each other and teasing each other.

But I love the way they brought Silverbolt back

as the Dark Knight. I just enjoy that much more

than the annoying, you know, cheesiness of the

hero character that he was in Beast Wars, and

I really love his robot mode design. What about

you, Michael? Again, which ones do I not like?

No, I think as far as the ones you don't like

it's got to be night scream don't like night

scream and night screaming noble Well, I I don't

like the way that noble ended. Yeah that way

I didn't like that. I mean, I thought it was

a nice Well when I say it's a nice Twist yeah,

it's like a twist. It's like whoo. He's actually

Megatron. It's kind of like the the orange spark

Or, ooh, it's really Megatron. It's like, it's

so obvious to everybody but the Maximals that,

oh my god, look, it's Megatron, ooh. You know,

of course it's Megatron, you dumbass. But, you

know, who do I like the most? It has to go down

with the bad guys, you know? I really liked Jetstorm,

because he's such a chatty bad guy. He's just

like... You know, I'm here and I'm gonna talk

you to death. I like that Yeah, cuz he's got

great lines. He's funny And Also, yeah Megatron

what was it wasn't as strong of a character through

here I mean like like we said before toward the

end of the series he may have Gotten back some

of his personality from Beast Wars, but he was

just so grim Early on I mean, it's just I almost

want to say most of the characters just sported

inconsistent personalities From Beast Wars and

that's what initially turned me off from the

series If you know what I mean, yeah sort of

the end, they picked up again. You know, Rattrap

became more like Beast Wars Rattrap. And Megatron

became more like Beast Wars Megatron. But, you

know, for the most part, it was, it just wasn't

the same. It's like, is this your Beast Wars?

No, that's not my Beast Wars. It just didn't

seem like a continuation of the of the first

story even though it is even though it is yeah

exactly but uh yeah i mean i uh i really like

tank or uh and that's just because he became

rhinox you know uh or specifically dark designs

rhinox yeah which was you know again dark designs

was one of my favorite episodes of the beast

wars uh But you know, I mean he starts off with

such a simpleton and then you know kind of like

tarantulas becomes very close to winning You

know the Beast Wars all on his own or it that's

the Beast Wars but then the current conflict

on Cybertron He almost I mean if he had just

planned ahead a little more He could have took

it all for himself. It would have just would

have been him. I Like that and again, I like

botanica's transformation I'm not sure if I like

botanica so much. I mean, it's not, oh, she's

a plant former. I hate plant formers. I kind

of dig that concept, to be honest, but I don't

know. I dig the concept. I dig how she was introduced

in that very aliens type send up where they go

into the ship and it's all covered in bio. ooze

or whatever and then they gotta chase this monster

out of it and around and whatnot. I liked that.

I don't know. Maybe I do like this character.

I like the fact that Botanica and Rattrap hooked

up. Maybe that's the part that I like least.

Maybe that's it. I don't know. Rattrap doesn't

deserve a girlfriend. No poon for you retrap

well like when he likes talking about it, and

he was watching the videos That's right six flags

over my Cybertron right here, baby. Well. He

was watching them in the black or acne and cut

the tube That's right yeah, I was watching that

was watching that speaking of black or acne I

I love Venus Torso's voicing of her, but she

basically turned into a whiny little bitch. That's

what she was told to do. Yeah, most likely. You

know, I really like Venus Torso as Blackarachnia

more so in, again, more so in Feast Wars. But

how good is Cree Summer as Blackarachnia? Yeah,

she does a very very good job as black arachnia,

but again, that's sorry. Yeah, that's in the

future Yeah, I again really liked Venus Torso

as black arachnia more in the first series than

the second I mean it for the most part. It was

just a carryover, but there was an awful lot

of her just I Don't want to say screaming, but

it was like ah No, no it was there was there

was ten times more screaming in Beast Machines

than there was ever in Beast Wars The only thing

about Blackarachnia that I'll really say is that

I This is the Beast Machines design of Blackarachnia

and the cartoon is probably the only cartoon

model I absolutely love Because the other ones

are just too too spidery and too creepy for me.

Oh That's right. You're afraid of spiders. Yeah,

that's right. Anyways, Steve, what about you?

Oh Obviously, my favorite character. Megatron.

Megatron. Yes. And that's because I, for some

reason, like that kick -ass form he turns into

with his dragon. And I like the fact that he

does still turn into the dragon. And that he's

still a smart ass, even after it all. Especially

when Primal's like, what is this place? I call

it my throne room, Optimus Primal. Just screwing

with them in that sense and then you know say

maybe if you'd won the beast walls things would

be different You know, so I mean between that

I love that I don't like what they did with primal

on this Or ride trap for that matter so I I could

care less I'd have to say I like The nice twist

they took on Rhinox with tank or Yeah Just because

it kind of calls back to the dark designs Where

he stuck it to the to the man which was Megatron

both times only this time Megatron kind of expected

what Rhinox was going to do because He allowed

it to happen and be he learned what Rhinox did

the last time So he knew what to look forward

to so I like Rhinox's is tank or Another character

I like his thrust just because it's waspinator

who doesn't really get to blown to scrap until

the end of season two and He's got inferno's

voice basically and He's kick -ass Well, it's

Jim it's Jim Burns voicing thrust, but it's not

though. It's not the inferno voice No, but you

can still hear inflections of it Yeah, yes on

occasion yeah But I'd have to say I like all

three of those characters, and yes, I know they're

all via cons. As for the Maximals, I'd have to

say I like Silverbolt just because he went from

being this Stun Buck citizen type character to

a kid out of my way, I'll kill you. You know,

just complete polar opposites. It was crazy what

they did to him. I wasn't too fond of his robot

chicken form or his robot form for the most part,

but it kind of grew on me a little bit by the

end of the series. But I'd still say that he's

still a pretty badass character. Other than that,

I don't really care all that much for half the

other characters. Let's be honest, this is a

series that didn't have a whole hell of a lot

of characters. I mean, you've got the six Maximals,

because I'm counting Silverbolt and Rhinox. You've

got Megatron, his drone, and then Thrust Tankor

and Jetstorm. Then you got the two new generals,

Strika and Obsidian later, but I mean, it's not

like Beast Wars where you had... multiple Maximals

and multiple Predacons come in. So, I don't know.

I guess, do we have any other thoughts for Beast

Machines? No. No, not really. I want to say though

that I'm as many faults as I find with Beast

Machines. I'm not sure quite who's to blame.

I really want to blame the animators because

or maybe Hasbro for cutting off fundage, you

know, but but I after spending two hours talking

with Bob's gear, I just don't want to blame the

writers because he seems like a Great guy, he's

really got his act together. It sounds like he's

done really amazing things in the past. To branch

off a little bit, we just got the complete series

of Wolverine and the X -Men. And I primarily

got it to watch myself, but Aiden is enjoying

it too. But right up front, they have the love

triangle between Wolverine and Jean Grey and

Cyclops and You know, I had no idea but Bob Skewer

was the guy who invented that. Yep So, I mean

the guy's got a distinguished career. He is a

contributed to canon across, you know multiple

franchises I I I don't think that we can blame

him You know unlike what everyone else says,

but I don't think we can really blame him for

for the problems that this series had A lot of

it had to do with Fox. Yeah, exactly. He told

us as much. But I mean that and there's again

animation problems here and there and I'm sure

I'm almost positive they cut fundage toward the

end. Just said, you know what, we're not going

to pursue this anymore and we're not giving you

any more money. That's why the optimal design

came out of the closet and the tarantulas and

the depth charge. Yeah, with it, you know instead

of creating entire new Models like with transmute

a they said oh, you know, we really got a you

know piece this crap together with what we already

got Yeah, you know, it was just a mess and the

visual storytelling was awful You know fight

scenes with an entirely made up of close -up

shots of people's faces it it just it was just

really bad and Again, you know, I don't want

to I don't want to say oh Bob you suck, you know,

cuz I don't think it was his fault No, I don't

want to place the blame at his feet Somebody's

fault Someone's head shall roll for this crap.

But uh, you know, it just wasn't I hate to say

it. It wasn't Larry to tell you It doesn't compare

to Beast Wars, but you know, yeah There's that

All right, so up next we're gonna get into the

toys discussion for both of these series The

beast unleashed podcast but whole bag and Finally

up today, we're going to get into the toys from

Beast Wars and Beast Machines. First up, we're

going to talk about several different Beast Wars

lines. Really honestly for me, the only toys

that I really want out of the Beast Wars line,

I already have one of them. Actually, there's

a couple of them. I want the Transmetal One Megatron,

the purple T -Rex Megatron. I want the TM -1...

Optimus Primal, Blue Surfin' Ape, I love that

toy. That toy's awesome. It's an awful toy. That

toy's awesome. Well, if you don't want yours,

I'll take it. And then Transmetal One Cheetor,

I absolutely love that toy as well, because I

love the design and the cartoon. Other than that,

I mean, outside of what I've seen, like, when,

say, Ball Matrix, aka Spada, has done Beast Wars

reviews of the figures he has, I really don't

know a heck of a lot of about the Beast Wars

toys, so this is mainly probably going to be

Michael talking about them. Because I just I

wasn't into toys back in 96. I was 16 years old.

I was supposedly growing up, which I still haven't

done yet. So I guess take it away, dude. Who

me? Yeah, you. Sure, I'll take it. Starting with

the Beast Wars toys. I really think that they

started off strongly You know, we've talked about

this in I think a couple of the toy cast episodes

where the The Scout size they didn't call them

Scout back then but they're literally the basic

size toys Had a lot of the features of the the

later g2 toys and that you know, they've got

ball -jointed shoulders, ball -jointed elbows,

ball -jointed hips, ball -jointed knees. Some

of them actually had ball -jointed ankles, which

made them very, very posable. They had the spring

gimmick, spring -loaded gimmick, so that you

didn't have to do a whole lot of transformation

here. You would just fold them up, and so the

spring locked in place, and then pull their tail,

and they'd just... spring in the robots And you

know straighten out their arms and legs a lot

of them had hidden weaponry Where like we're

at trap for instance. It's two parts of his gun

The the the stock and the the barrel that plug

into the flanks of his mouse mode his rat mode

And they pop those out and then plug them together

and he has a rifle These just made for really

really good toys And there were a lot of them.

There was maybe eight core characters in the

cartoon, but there were dozens of toy characters

that never showed up. They showed up in the comic

books, but not so much in the cartoon. later

on when you get into Transmetal toys those were

I want to say a step down because you know you

start to lack let's say you don't get that spring

-loaded gimmick anymore for one and for two you

don't get much of the hidden weaponry anymore

it seems like everybody just has a tail weapon

At this point, my tail comes off, and it becomes

a whip. Everyone's got a whip. I hate that. It

gets to be annoying. And then further down the

timeline, in Transmetal 2, it seems like they

do away with the articulation and poseability

altogether. Like I was complaining earlier about

Transmetal 2 DinoBot. I mean, literally, I can

barely find any articulation on this guy. His

legs don't move. He kind of has elbows, but not

really, because his shoulders don't actually

move. He can move his head back and forth. But

I mean, literally, if you're talking about five

points of articulation on a figure compared to,

let's say, the basic size rat trap from 1996

who, you know, fully posable. He's insanely posable

for a toy of that era. It's just a huge letdown.

And it seemed like all of the deluxe sized Transmetal

2 toys had that issue. I'm actually looking at

the shelf like, well, maybe there was a couple

that were good, but not so much. Weren't as bad

and again like the scout -sized fusors They they

had the the ball -jointed shoulders and elbows

and knees and hips and and those weren't all

that awful But you know, what do they turn into?

Eh kind of crap, you know The whole My robot

mode is actually two robot modes merged together

is silly Some of those toys turned out okay.

I mean, I like the one that turns from the bat

bull into a robot. I like the one that turns

from the elephant orca into a robot. But to put

the icing on the cake, toward the very end of

the toy run of Beast Wars, you end up with the

mutants. And there was only four made, one of

which being Soundwave. But literally, they had

no robot mode. It was just beast mode to beast

mode. Which yeah, you know, I own them. Well,

I kind of like him, you know, they're very colorful

They're pretty to look at but they're just you

know, there's no robot mode. What the hell? No,

so that's that's my take on on the Beast Wars

toys overall Oh except for the big ones, you

know, whenever you've got a giant toy. I think

I like those more like a tiger Hawk was a great

big toy. He was awesome. I really liked him.

The Transmetal 2 Megatron, the Red Dragon, I

really, really like that mold. That was a lot

of fun. Optimal Optimus, eh, you know, I can

kind of give or take him, although I really liked

the Red Repaint of him. I think the Red Repaint

came in the Beast Machines line, though, as...

I forget what it was called now. And lastly,

I really like the combiner sets. They had the

Magna Boss. I think it was called Magna Boss.

It was the three Maximals. It was an elephant

and an eagle and a lion that combined into one

big guy. I mean, that's a really cool figure.

It's a really cool figure, and it's a shame they

didn't use that somewhere. Anyway, but that's

my take on the Beast Wars toys. What does Steve

think about the Beast Wars toys? I don't know.

Where is Steve? Is Steve on? Did he drop? Steve

is here. Actually, I thought I had dropped because

I was rambling for a good 10 minutes there and

nobody said anything. No, you didn't drop. So

yeah Steve your take on Beast Wars toys Definitely

I'd have to say I like the Granted there wasn't

that much detail on the initial Beast Wars toys.

I Mean there was but there wasn't I mean, that's

why they did the revisited Especially the optimus

primal in the Megatron not a lot of paint I think

what's that? I think the detail is there, where

the molds themselves have a lot of detail molded

into the plastic, but each one has maybe two

colors. Two color plastic, and maybe a little

bit of accent paint, but that's it. There's just

not a whole lot of painted on detail. And I'll

agree with you 100 % on that, but there's details

that are completely wrong as well, such as the

original... Megatron and Beast Wars Optimus Primal

release that they had Primal's chest piece was

kind of wrong. His face plate was kind of his

face was goofy I mean between the two of them

their heads were goofy and there were there were

other aspects too that weren't Show accurate.

Oh And that's what they went back in and fixed

in the anniversary editions. Yeah, I mean I personally

don't own them I want them but they cost too

damn much to go back and buy just because I didn't

have money up front the first time. But I mean,

there's several other figures that they look

damn close enough, but still have a few issues.

But I would have to say that definitely the figures

for that are still very well done, unless you're

getting like a basic figure where the ball joints

mean that pieces are going to pop off. Oh, that's

the best thing about ball joints is they pop

off, but they snap right back on. Unless you

got one with loose joints and then they just

keep doing it Yeah, oh what's the worst is when

they have loose joints in the ankles because

then they won't stand up They got cankles. I

had a laser beak like that where he just would

not stand and I guess you can put like nail polish

I think on the ball and then pop it pop it back

into the joint and that'll that'll steady it

Yeah, I heard something about putting glue in

there and not having it attached but letting

it dry so it would add like a layer Yeah, yeah,

well, that's like clear nail polish. Yeah, so

you have a thicker ball in the ball joint I suppose

but yeah, I mean I would definitely have to say

that the The Beast Wars figures were done fairly

well overall Yeah, I did own a lot of them at

one point, but I had to sell them for money other

than My Optimus and Megatron collection. Yeah,

I Didn't buy these toys when they first came

out. I didn't own any Beast well, I shouldn't

say that I did own a cheetor and a canine I bought

them in a garage sale in like 1999 or something

So I owned a couple but I didn't have all of

them You know, what do you mean all of them all

of them until a couple years back and I just

got a wild hair at my ass that I wanted to fill

out that part of my collection. And then just

went on eBay and started buying up lots until

the last couple. It was really hard to find like

a Dinobot and a Waspinator complete, right? But

those were the last couple of ones that I had.

I think my wife got me Mint on card waspinator

See I have a mint on card Dino bot Fox kids edition.

Oh Nice. Yeah. Yes, and it my brother actually

bought it and then on the tail end of when he

didn't like Beast Wars anymore or transformers

for that matter yeah, and It was like here you

can have it and I was like, oh, okay. So I kept

it in the box nice You know who's hard to find

is that Grimlock Repaint. Grimlock is a repaint

of Dinobot I should say. You know I used to own

that and I had to sell that one as well. It was

open. But the only issue was that the hands tend

to crack and almost break. Oh really? Yeah. They

were really flimsy for that matter and then part

of the legs were kind of flimsy as well. It was

a badass looking figure. Yeah it's neat. Yeah,

it is very cool. But and granted, I regret selling

all the Beast Wars figures I did sell because

I was broke and had job issues. But honestly,

if I could find them for cheap, I'd probably

buy them all again. Yeah, well, not this day

and age. You can't find them for cheap, I bet.

No, it's getting harder and harder. Yeah, but

yeah, I mean, eventually some will Some will

probably get re -released, some of them will

get remastered again, because they're going to

keep revisiting it off and on. One of the weirdest

sets that came out was the Dawn of Future's Past

BotCon Edition set, which were all basically

Cybertron or whatever figures. At the time that

those came out, my My obsession with Megatron

was at an all -time high and I was looking on

eBay constantly for that new Megatron figure.

I didn't have the money at the time either to

buy that figure on eBay, which I wish I would

have. I could have bought him on eBay at the

time for between $125 and $180 and it sells for

$1 ,500 on eBay now. I was just looking at my

blog post on that. I think we bought him for

$100 at BotCon. And Chris, he turned right around

and sold hers. Buy it now, $315. And that was

like the day of that he came out, turned right

around and sold it. It's like, whoa, maybe we

should have held onto it because now we can get

$1 ,500 for it. But at the time, we were thinking

we were really making out, right? Well, because

normally they don't go up that high in price.

Yeah, the highest, I mean, outside of like the

rarest of the rare G1 stuff, like obviously Ford

Max, but I mean, the highest of the high Transformers

I've ever really seen go really high is like

Shutterglass, Rodimus, and Optimus. But, uh...

It's just the bot toy. No, I know that. I mean,

I'm sure there are other toys. that probably

fetch a higher price, but those are the really

high ones that I've seen. Well, it depends on

what you consider high. It's like, you know,

some of the... Anything over $25. Oh, okay. Well,

there you go. Yeah, like some of the power masters,

some of those target masters, a couple of head

masters, you know, will run you $75 to $100.

Yeah, but... As far as some of the Beast Wars

toys, I mean, mainly the way I've seen them is,

like, through, uh, Bulk Matrix's reviews, Spada's

reviews. Um, and... I just... I like the show

-accurate ones. The other ones, the repaints,

the remolds, whatever... No. Just not my cup

of tea, I guess. What, you're talking about,

like, the newer ones, or...? No, like the mutated

head ones and repaints of characters and stuff

like that for the original Beast Wars line. You

know what I really like is, I want to say the

10th anniversary repaints out of Japan, which

were nicer than the 10th anniversary repaints

that came out of Hasbro. Yeah. Those were really

sharp. Oh yeah, I'd have to agree with you. Yeah,

really nice stuff. I didn't get any of them,

because they were really expensive up front.

After a while, you started to see Big Bad Toy

Story clearancing them out and selling them for

15 bucks each. And even then, it was like, man,

I just can't justify it, because how many copies

of this mold do I already have? Seriously, it's

like the Cheetor. It's like, well, I got one

with green eyes. I got one with red eyes. I've

got a Tigertron repaint. You know, it's like

in the shadow or the, you know, the black repaint,

uh, shadow cash. I don't know what they call

that shadow panther. Yeah. I've got that. I got

a black repaint. Uh, and now I got a 10th anniversary

one. Do I really need the Japanese repaint? Because

that's, we're just talking overkill here. Uh,

just could not justify it. Yeah, but Yeah What

else do we want to say about the Beast Wars toys?

Not much I mean I have one of the Japanese ones

that came out it was a a repaint of the the polar

bear They called him barbarian oh Okay, get it

It's like Barbare. He's a bear. Oh, bad joke.

Oh, yeah, exactly. Really bad joke. Well, it's

not a joke. That's what they call it. But it

was a Japanese exclusive figure. And there were

a few really nice Japanese exclusive figures

that came out. One of them was the... God, I

want to say Slapper, but that wasn't his name.

The frog. Spitter? Spitter yeah, it was a spitter

not the transmittal spitter with the original

spitter. Yes in Japan. They did a green one and

I don't think they call them spitter they call

something else I forget what they call them,

but It was a green frog and he came with a little

mountain playset And it was you know, it was

like mountain playset spitter And from what I

understand he's very rare very hard to find Yeah,

so I don't have that one But yeah, there was

a year of a couple of European releases that

were basically, you know slight redeco's You

know, I've got a couple of those But but yeah

that big big green frog is just hard to find

Someone's got him So final thoughts on the Beast

Wars toy lines I'll be very distraught if they

don't bring the X1 Ravage or X9 Ravage rather

out for like a 15th anniversary figure. Yeah,

I would like to see that actually. Yeah, I mean

they brought it to America once as a BotCon Tigatron

figure. Yeah. I don't have that one. I didn't

go to BotCon that year. I was getting married

or something. Something important he says nonchalantly.

I was getting married or something. I was doing

something Yeah, you know the other one that I

missed I was having a baby or something, you

know Something like that, you know Yeah, there's

always that so I missed out on that one I really

like I really like one that they I can't find

one of them at a decent price The same year they

had the pink Transmetal to turn a black arachnia

figure and they call their RC That was awesome.

And they have a Sioux blue voice chip. Oh That's

cool. It is terribly cool. Yeah, I would love

to have one of those two but anyway, what I come

down to is I would really like to see a reissue

an American issue, let's say of the the the Japanese

ravage the x9 toy That would be really nice.

And Steve, do you have any final thoughts on

the Beast Wars toys? I would have to agree with

Michael on the X9 Ravage. I'd like to see that

one. And I'd like to see them do the same treatment

they did with the Beast Wars Revisited or Reborn

with the classic Beast Wars. Optimus Primal Megatron

where they went back and redid it, show accurate,

or as much as they could with those physical

models. I'd like to see them redo the Megatron

and Optimus of Transmetal and Transmetal 2, or

their ascended Transmetal, where they merged

with the Generation 1 Sparks. Well, you have

that. You have Red Dragon Megatron and you have

Optimus. But it's no different than the Dinosaur

and Optimus and Megatron from Season 1. They

went back and redid them correctly. I'm just

saying Optimal has a few issues, as does Transmetal

Dragon Megatron. They're subtle, but they're

an easy fix, I believe. I would think that with

all of the toy technology design, everything

that we have nowadays, they could find a way

to go back to Beast Wars and even Beast Machines

and make actual cartoon accurate toys. They probably

won't do that unfortunately, which kind of sucks,

but getting into Beast Machines toys... Every

single Beast Machine toy I've seen I don't like.

I think the only one that I absolutely liked

was the - I think it's a purple Japanese version

of the Silverbolt figure because he was kind

of color accurate to the show. But I want cartoon

accurate toys from Beast Machines, dammit. There

are a couple. They don't look that great though.

And if you count that giant -ass cheetor, there's

something wrong with you. No, not the giant -ass

cheetor, but like Blast Punch, Optimal... Blast

Punch, Optimus Primal. I will give you that one,

yes. They came out in the red line. He came very

late in Beast Machines. I don't think it was

red. But he came very late. Who else? Who else

was good? The Rattrap wasn't an awful likeness

in beast mode. Robot mode was so -so. I mean,

you could configure him so he had wheels for

feet, but you could also configure him so he

had actual legs. I want to say the regular deluxe

sized Cheetor wasn't bad. That was pretty good.

I mean, he's a little too shiny. to be Cartoon

Accurate, but he wasn't awful. And then when

you get into the basic -sized vehicons, like

the Scout Tankor is just dead -on Cartoon Accurate.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's awesome. Don't you mean

the tank or tank drone not the actual tank or

figure? No, he's a tank. He's called a tank drone,

but it's a tank or figure, right? But I mean,

let's be specific the original tank or actual

the figure that was actually called tank or from

beast machines look nothing like tank or well

No, he was like a like a Voyager size figure.

He was a bigger figure. Yeah, and no he didn't

look much He had a passing resemblance, but no

it wasn't tank or the the scout size tank drone

was a very good tankor. The scout size thrust

was a pretty good thrust. The deluxe size thrust,

not so much. It was passable resemblance, but

not so much thrust, whereas the small one was.

It was just really nice. There were some figures

in this line, even though they weren't Cartoon

accurate I still really really liked Like the

deluxe sized jetstorm, you know, I mean this

is a really cool figure They repainted him I

want to say three or four times This figure came

out in dark blue first And, you know, he locks

into place really well. He's got two firing rockets.

He's very well articulated. In jet mode, he's

even got the nose cone that goes back and forth.

You know, like he's looking around. It's a really

cool figure. They repainted it in a lighter blue

for the drone. So, I mean, he's got drones that

look just like him. They repainted him... And

I can't remember which line it was now, but they

repainted in white and red for a jet fire. What

line was that, Steve? Red. Was that red? I don't

know. I don't see them on my read shelf. Universe.

Was it Universe? I want to say so. I'm looking

down on my Universe shelf right now. I know they've

repainted in purple for Skywarp for the Universe

line. And that was pretty awesome. And I want

to say they repainted him in orange and called

him a G -axis. Yeah, that's more so. Yeah. So

I mean, this is a really cool figure. So much

so that, I mean, they repainted the hell out

of it. I would have bought the hell out of it.

They could have repainted it as thrust and dirge

and thundercracker. I would have bought it. I

just would have bottom up had the whole lot.

What else did they have that was really cool?

This is the first line that you're going to find

a battle unicorn. A battle unicorn or unicorn?

No, it's a unicorn. It's a freaking unicorn with

a horn. It's a horse with a horn. Oh my god.

Dude, it's a cool figure. It really is. In robot

mode, he's just armored and he's got this big

-ass axe. It's a cool figure, really. I say again,

I would much prefer cartoon -accurate toys to

fucking unicorns. The unicorn was cool. There's

a lot of basic size figures that didn't appear

in the cartoon. Kind of like Beast Wars, right?

That just didn't appear in the cartoon. There's

a wolf. Who is very cool. There's a lion. He's

more deluxe eyes. I forget I forget any of their

names There's a shark and the shark is really

kind of neat There's a snake You know, and if

you're not familiar with the Japanese ones and

you don't know who Corhadra is then this might

be the first snake you've ever seen them in the

Transformers There was also a sub line of Dinobots

That were mostly well, no, they were all repaints

of the Japanese I want to say Beast Wars Neo

figures But you know still hey Dino bots, you

know They weren't they didn't have that techno

organic look that they were really striving for

with some of the other Maximals You know, they

just look like dinosaurs, but hey, oh, yeah cool,

you know Yeah, I mean this was the first time

that I'd seen Some of these but it was like wow,

this is really really cool. And you know, uh,

I Forget was it a magma Tron the combiner Yeah,

they actually turned him into a Predacon like

added him to cannon as a Predacon Yeah, that's

a cool figure. That's not quite as good as magma

boss As far as combiner's go, but it's still

kind of a cool figure Yeah, and then you You

have to include the Lucas Brothers Unicron comm

expansion pack to then that had the The key to

vector Sigma that you can have what any of the

figures hold in their hand it included Cheetor's

scimitars So he's got this big ass sword on his

hand. It had a stand for black arachnia so that

she could do like a You know the the karate kid

crane pose and still be able to stand They had

a stand for thrust deluxe size thrust so that

you know, I mean he had feet It's kind of like

Rattrap, where you could have one wheel under

him, or you could split them off and turn those

into feet. But if you wanted to pose him with

just the wheel, they had a stand that came in

that set. Not everybody had them. I think they

sold them online, but you could pick them up

pretty easily at BotCon if you were there. But

it was just neat accessories. Oh, one more thing,

too. They had vehicles. In this suit and this

toy line and not like, you know, it's not like

vehicles like I'm a transformer I transformed

from almost like the action master line No, oh

you're talking no you're talking about the weapons

the deployers Yes, the deployers were like little

animals that transformed not in the robots but

into weapons So you could have a, you know, the

bird, the bird's name was Che, or Chi, and Chi

would transform into a crossbow, or like a bolo

weapon or something like that. Oh no, the armadillo

named Dillo turned into a bolo weapon. So it's

kind of like a combination headmaster, target

master, but in beast form. Yeah, it was literally

like a little robot. Not a little robot, I'm

sorry, a little animal. that would turn into,

yeah, kind of like a Target Master type of thing.

And they sold them as basic size figures. And

then they turned around and sold them again as

repaints. And there's three of them. But that's

not what I was talking about. I was talking about

the actual, it's like a car. It's like a big

cheetah head that you stand on. And a basic size

figure can stand on it. And as it goes forward,

There's like claws or arms that come out of the

front, and they spin. And then there's a gun

that comes out of the cheetah's mouth. It's a

cheetah head that they drive. It's a cheetah

head car that they drive in. Che che che che

che. Che che che che. And they were called...

What did they call them? Ow. No, I mean, it was

a car, literally. And there's like a steering

column that actually reaches around and grips

onto your scout -sized figure. and holds them

in place while he drives. They had a cheetah

head, and they had a dragon head for the bad

guys. And then they repainted them. So they had

a cheetah colored one, and I think a black cheetah

colored one. Yeah, there's the black cheetah

with silver spots. And then they had a red dragon,

and then they had a black and purple dragon.

I mean, they've got like little cars, you know

how if you've got X -Men and the X -Men get,

or Wolverine's always got a fricking motorcycle

he rides around on? Right. Well, this is kind

of like a little vehicle, like a little motorcycle

for your scout -sized Beast Machines figures

to ride on. I see. And I've never seen that prior

to that or, well, with the exception of the Action

Masters where some of them had little cars, you

know, that drove in, but... you know or is that

what you were talking about steve the the deployers

not the deployers uh the what were the the the

the i wish i can remember what they're called

but it's literally like a cheetah head and a

dragon head that's a car that you drive around

it i can't remember what the hell they're called

uh is it kind of like big wheels no no it's like

it's like almost like a chariot thing that they

stand on. Oh, okay. There you go. It's a chariot.

Yeah. The chariot formers. Well, you know, it's

cool. It's almost like on the Action Master line,

they stand on top of, you know, the said chariot

type vehicle, and that's their weapon. Right.

Or Starscream was a robot, but he flew in a jet.

He had his own jet. And Prowl was a robot, but

he rode around on a motorcycle. Optimus Prime

was a robot, but he drove a semi -truck. Now,

mind you, this has to be a semi -truck like the

size of a football field, because, I mean, they'd

still have to be big. They can't be like Transformers

that are man -sized that drive around in regular

semi -trucks. But to digress, these are vehicles

that Scout -sized figures, basic -sized figures,

can stand in and drive around. And they're neat.

I want to say you can pull them back and they'll

spring forward, but I'm not entirely sure. And

it's been a long time since I've played with

these. the front is clear so it makes me wonder

if they've got like a sparking action or so I

don't know I don't want to speculate you know

I don't want to take one I'm gonna take one off

the shelf hold on maybe just move this guy you

don't want to speculate we always speculate on

this show yeah no he's not sparking or anything

but He's got, like I said, he's got these arms

that come out of the front. And the wheels are

kind of, you know, have like a rubber coating

on them so they catch the floor. And when you

roll it, the arms spin like drill arms. And then

he's got that gun that comes, it's like a missile

launcher in the mouth. And with a button, you

can press the button on either side and the missiles

launch. And then there's another gun on the top.

And on the back of the gun, there's these grippers

that turn around and grab ahold of whoever's

standing on the back of the vehicle. Is this

Twuff? No. Yeah, like I said, they were... Yeah,

anyway, we're probably spending way too much

time on this than what we need to, but it's still

kind of a cool footnote on the series. You know,

I think mine and Steve's ultimate goal, and I

know this will never happen because Takara will

never do it because they only care about what

they care about, we want a Cartoon Accurate masterpiece

Beast Machines cloaked Megatron where the feet

aren't hanging out of the fucking bottom. You

asked for too much, sir. It's not really that

difficult, if you think about it. Yeah, when

Michael showed me that figure, I saw a picture

of that figure. I'm like, really? Because at

first, there was a toy cast where Michael and

I were doing something beast related. And I think

it was when he sent me Optimal Optimus. And at

first, I thought, well, because he said dragon

Megatron. And I'm like, oh, well, Steve already

did that on an episode. He goes, no, no, no.

beast machines dragon megatermine what are you

talking about and they show me a picture of him

like oh really that's how they got away with

the clothes that's that's the things like yes

seriously that looks like ass you know yeah but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but No other than they should have been a hell

of a lot better considering the time frame they

were made in. True. Very true. So I think that's

going to do it for us. We're going to go to some

commercial break here. You're going to hear some

ads for some of the other shows. And we'll come

back with our final thoughts. Now back to the

beast unleashed podcast It is time for final

thoughts on the beast era of Transformers Really

honestly for me. This is probably the best Transformers

cartoon Writing for both series regardless of

how you feel about the religious things in beast

machines or whatever Overall the overarching

story the comedy bits the darkness of beast machines

I just I love it all there isn't I mean there

are some episodes in beast wars I don't care

for but you know all roads lead back to the low

road And it's just great the only thing I think

that possibly Might give this a run for its money

when it comes to writing is actually Transformers

Prime Yeah, I could see that Because even though

we've only seen what Michael hasn't seen it,

but even though we've only seen the five -part

miniseries for Transformers Prime They're combining

the continuity of Transformers Prime war for

Cybertron the game and Exodus the book as All

-in -one continuity and I just I love that about

that series But as far as Beast Wars and Beast

Machines, I do kind of prefer Beast Machines

to Beast Wars. I like Beast Wars for what it

was. I don't dislike it. I like the evolution

of Cheetor, as I've said before in this episode,

but I really liked Beast Machines a whole hell

of a lot. What about you, Steve? I still have

to say Beast Wars was my favorite just because

it was a combination of everything. Combination

of, what do you mean, everything? Like comedy,

action, just everything all together. I mean,

it had the best of both worlds in it. It wasn't

just a kid's cartoon with people shooting at

each other. It had a little bit of everything

for everybody. Yeah, and it was just really well

written. Plus, it gave you plenty of opportunities

for more toys. Great. He had to throw a best

of both worlds reference in there, didn't he?

Yeah, Star Trek. Gotta love it. No, that's not

what I was talking about. I was leaning toward

Hannah Montana, yeah. Yeah. No, I'm not gonna

break on into song. I was about to. You would.

Too damn much Disney Channel. That's the problem

here, folks. Yeah, we have that, too, and we

watch it quite a bit, so. Really? Yeah. Why?

Because it's the only thing good on television.

So you don't have kids, so there's no reason.

We have, like, basic cable, so that's the only

thing that we watch. Oh, see, now, before I had

kids, I watched a lot of, like, TLC and - My

wife watches that. It drives me nuts. History

Channel, yeah, we watched a lot of that, but

now that we have kids, it's Disney Channel all

the time. I mean, not that I don't like Phineas

and Ferb, you know, because that's a great show,

but we just watch way too much Disney. And Michael,

your final thoughts on the Beast era? You know,

it's strange. I come at it from a slightly different

perspective than Steve. in that I wasn't a fan

when it first came out. It was years later. I

think I was a fan of Beast's machines, and then

I started buying up all the toys probably closer

to 1999 and 2000, especially in 2000 when...

The robots in the skies line came out in Japan

And I started buying up those through the imports

dealerships, but You know I wasn't a fan of Beast

wars when I first came out though, so it took

a while and you know for a while there I was

really avoiding it. You know because it was the

whole truck not monkey mentality Monkey is truck.

Not necessarily. Monkey is truck. It was like

truck, not monkey. I was just avoiding it. A

few years later, and it was literally ... I've

got a lot of Transformers, and I've got a lot

of G1 Transformers, and then I've got pretty

much everything that came after Beast Wars so

I have this huge gaping hole in my collection

that was Beast Wars and I finally said all right

fine I'm gonna watch it and I'll buy the toy,

you know, I'm gonna watch it is what it came

down to I wasn't so wasn't sold on the toys yet,

but Once I watched it You know, it was like instant

fan. This is amazing stuff. It's incredible and

then I wanted all the toys so You know That's

really what kicked me off on Beast Wars. Beast

Machines, it wasn't so much, oh my god, this

is a fantastic show, I want to own all the toys.

For me, it was more a reintroduction to Transformers,

and Transformers was kind of my favorite cartoon

when I was younger, 10, 11, 12 years old, whatnot.

And at that point, it was like, wow, maybe I'll

buy a few and put them on my desk. I want to

say when car robots came out in Japan and suddenly

you've got real life accurate vehicles that turn

into robots. At that point I started buying a

lot of Transformers out of Japan and really Started

buying up all of the the American releases that

I could find too and just got obsessive about

it And that was you know, 99 to 2 ,000. I didn't

realize that I didn't know at the time that All

those Japanese toys were gonna end up in America

anyway with them with only slight changes, right?

you know like the American version has this big

-ass Autobot logo on the front hood and in Japan

they did But Yeah, I mean, like I said, I wasn't

a big fan at the time. I just kind of got the

bug later. Yeah, I'm in the same boat, actually.

Back in 1990s, I don't count G2. I'm sorry, the

toys may be awesome, but that cartoon sucks.

Because it's nothing but G1 episodes in a fucking

cube. I don't think there was a G2. Serious it

was it's right. All right. I know but everybody

calls that g2. So whatever. Okay Yeah, there

will be no TFG there will be no the TFG to podcast

no never because it's gonna be nothing but me

cursing at that goddamn cube, but for me for

me I had caught an episode of Beast Wars, I don't

know, it was like 6 o 'clock in the morning,

like right before school, at one of the placements

that I was at, one of the foster homes I was

at, I'm not sure. And I caught an episode and

I didn't really catch the whole thing because

I had to catch the bus, but I saw like Optimus

Primal's robot mode from season one. I was like,

you know, and I heard the voice and I'm like,

I'm trying to think back. I'm like, wait, that

doesn't sound like the voice. Of course, back

then as a kid, I didn't really know that Peter

Cullen, you know, names of the voice actors didn't

register with me as a kid. And I was like, wait,

that doesn't sound like the old G1 Optimus. And

I just kind of dismissed it and I never really

saw another one until later. And then... I didn't

even find Beast Machines when it originally aired.

I found it much later. And I love both cartoons.

I mean, yeah, they've got their flaws. But I

mean, if you're just going to watch them for

sheer enjoyment, you can watch them for just

sheer enjoyment. And as I said before, it's a

fluid continuity, even though they're two different

series as far as the production people on each

series as far as writers and stuff. It is a fluid

continuity unlike G1 or G1, even though they

had like two, three, four parters, you've got,

you know, other individual episodes as well.

And I just, I absolutely love the Beast Air Transformers

now. Truck not monkey equals monkey is truck.

Equals two suppose two equals four. Silent take.

I mean, there's still folks out there that are

like G1ers. Yeah, and sometimes those folks can

be really anal retentive. Well, considering that

there's an additional 15 years of Transformers

history going on that they're kind of denying.

But I can understand some people who say, oh,

you know, Optimus was better. And it's kind of

like at that point, you're getting into kind

of a Kirk Picard debate. I can see that. It's

understandable. I don't want to get into a card

debate. We're not getting into a Star Trek debate

on this podcast. Exactly. Your geek is showing.

Honestly, I'd rather have that debate than to

bring in Uh, you know Unicron Trilogy Optimus

and say, okay, which one is better? Oh, no, we're

not. No, no, no. You shall be smited if you do

that. Smote you good. Yes, I shall smite thee.

I thought that's what she said. Do we have anything

else we want to bring up about the Beast era

before we close out the Beast Unleashed podcast?

Definitely if you obviously haven't checked out

everything of the show or you've skipped across

episodes, be sure to go back and actually watch

them, especially with an open mind. Yeah, especially

when it comes to the low road. You know, I'm

going to burn you in the low road. You can't

because we live in different states and this

is the last episode of this show, so this will

be the last time that I bring up all roads lead

back to the low road. You know, I would say that

except there's this magical little thing called

the I know secrets about you that... Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Let's not go there. That has nothing to

do with this podcast. We've already, you know...

I could be a dick and bring it up. I think that

if you've never seen the Beast Wars series and

you like Transformers animated, then you should

really go back and see Beast Wars just to see

where some of these characters came from, like

Blackarachnia, Waspinator. These are not G1 characters.

These came from... Beast Wars, and if you contrive

it in such a way, you might even be able to say

that Transformers Animated was the origin of

Beast Wars Waspinator. I know Derek Wyatt sees

it that way, but I believe he does. I think I

read that he had said that at one point. But

regardless, there's even a scene where Blackarachnia

is teleported away into a jungle. I don't want

to say she sees Rattrap and Optimus Primal and

Cheetor, but she sees their animal counterparts

there in the jungle. And I think she says something

like, ah, for crying out loud. Yes, you're getting

way ahead of yourself. What I'm saying is if

you haven't seen Beast Wars, you're not going

to get the joke. And for me that was like a highlight

of the Transformers animated series was like,

oh my god, what does this mean? What does it

mean? You know, it's like, you know, it's like

a monkey finding an obelisk, you know, and beating

it with a stick and saying, what does this mean?

Why is this here? And not being able to understand

it for millennia, you know, and then for some

reason drawn to Europa. Okay, yeah, um Alright,

so really quick before I go to the outro Beast

Wars on a scale from 1 to 10 Michael. What do

you give the series? Oh? What's my context? Out

of all overall 1 to 10 or no just Beast Wars

itself overall 1 to 10 What do you what do you

rate it? I would so give it a 10. I would crank

that fucker up to 11 Okay, Steve oh You just

had to go there 22 for me 22 And and beast machines

Michael overall just just but you know just the

series itself He's struggling folks. No, I want

to give it better than a six, but I can't out

of ten Yeah, yeah, I think six six and a half

out of ten. I'll give it a nine I Agree nine.

So thank you for joining us here on the beast

unleashed podcast for the last time There are

several ways to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show. Visit the website geek

cast radio com Join the forums predicate empire

comm slash nexus. Yes. Those forums are kind

of dead right now Oh Okay, good Leave the show's

feedback and iTunes. Please do this. I want to

we publish episode 30 We will address it in all

things transformers As far as if anyone leaves

us iTunes reviews It will be covered in all things

transformers also will be covering the new transformers

show transformers prime and When the eventual

Beast Wars dark glass fan project gets done that

will also be covered in all things transformers.

Yes Follow us on Twitter. The short a Mary's

beast unleashed minus TF2 and Mike Steve. What

is your Twitter? I am PecanCTMichael. And we

will respond in in kind on that show So we hope

you enjoyed this final episode of the beast unleash

podcast for now. I am TF2 and Mike with Michael

Wilson Steve Megatron Phillips Thank you for

listening and remember to unleash the beast in

you Steve you're gonna have to edit this out,

but I'm going to be putting in these last few

words as part of the outro. all 39 episodes of

Transformers Animated plus the toys. Megatron

closed the show. wasted. Robert Docky, you're

the one. My balls are always bouncing to the

left and to the right. I believe that my great

balls should be held every night. X is down there.

So long, folks.