Titans Return and the Origins of Ultimus Prime

This is Optimus Prime, and you're listening to

All Things Transformers. Hello and welcome to

All Things Transformers, I'm your host, Stephen

Megatron Phillips, and in this episode, I have

returned. With two weeks off, I've decided it's

time to jump back into the Transformation Cog

and into Fortress Metripsimus, as it were. and

talk some Transformers news as well as some things

to come for the podcast. There will be some more

Transformers Origins podcast coming up in 2018,

as well as some more review -styled Transformers

content. So in addition to all of this, there's

been a little bit of stuff going on. Transformers

Titans Return, we have the... first five episodes

of the Prime Wars trilogy out and with the last

episode leading with Overlord finally more or

less shattering glass with Rodimus Prime here

at the end with the Decepticon Matrix. That's

my insinuation because of what's going on and

Megatron kind of uncovering the plot. I think

that it's not bad as a series so far, but it's

definitely not all that great either. It's kind

of interesting to see the the the evil Rodimus

beginning to to show up and the whole thing with

Overlord. I don't know too much about the character

of Overlord other than I know that he's been

in other mediums of Transformers, and getting

to see Megatron kind of going against this guy

and kind of saying that he thrashed this guy

before kind of leaves you to wonder what's going

to happen. But yeah, the whole thing with the

emissary and going towards Fortress Maximus has

me intrigued as well and with the combiners and

everything that's going on. And the Cybertronian

Council kind of out of commission other than

Perceptor. So yeah, I'm kind of, I'm gonna watch

it, of course. I mean, I don't think it's the

greatest as far as stories. And I think that

it's kind of a casualty of the five to 10 minutes

episodes that they're trying to fit these in.

And so you're getting a really choppy Transformers

show. And I feel like the Transformers, you know,

Combiner Wars, Titans Return, this whole saga

or trilogy of shows, I think it's attempting

to do what G .I. Joe Resolute did many years

ago and failing miserably at it. Whereas Resolute...

Yes, it had the five to ten minutes story arcs,

kind of piecing together this whole interconnected

story by the end of it. I think that this is

a lot choppier and in kind of... I don't dislike

the animation. I dislike the kind of choppiness

of some of the animation and the voice acting.

I find a lot of it to be lacking. And I don't

know if that's because I've been spoiled with

working on the Hetmasters content, which granted

was animated by professionals. Not saying that

these guys aren't, but the fact that these were

animated differently and then the fact that fans

are putting these to basically the whole thing

of the... the fan dubs, you have them trying

their best to sync it up the best that they can

with the content that they're given. And so,

I find it interesting how this has been playing

out, but like I said, I find it kind of lacking

in its entirety. That being said, Episode 8 of

the Transformers Headmasters, Six Shades of Terror,

is released on YouTube and Vimeo as well, with

a downloadable copy coming to All Things Transformers

website, attf .alternkeep .com. It's got Sixshot

in it, John Bailey as Cyclonus, myself as Scourge,

among other people in it. There's a little bit

of fancy editing on the YouTube edition. of the

Fandub. It's under Prime Productions ULTD on

YouTube is the account that it's under, the channel.

I'll put a link to it and embed it in the episode,

but it will be coming to a download of the...

episode on All Things Transformers. And then

we'll have, I'm working on getting the rest of

the Headmasters series downloaded as well onto

the website. So with that being said, there's

a little bit of news. TF2 and Mike got married

last week and I've... flew out to Chicago thanks

to him and I was his best man at his wedding

and Michael Wilson was there as well. Kind of

a reunion of the Beast Unleashed podcast people

there. So it was a lot of fun and we kind of

conversed a little bit about some of the podcast

stuff, a little bit of just kind of nitpicking

at each other, narwhaling it. um, badger, badger,

badger, badger, mushroom, mushroom, uh, stuff

like that, like we did in the beast unleashed

podcast. And then of course, uh, we were talking

about how TF con is going to be, uh, well, the

TF con fall edition, not the, uh, TF con Toronto,

the, uh, the other one that's in, uh, um, Chicago,

uh, will actually be there, I believe. in October

of 2018, which Michael Wilson's about an hour

from there, and Blanchard, TFG1 Mike, actually

lives there now, so there may be a possibility

of having the three of us show up there. Kind

of hard to say at this point, but you never know.

Some of the things that kind of got passed over

because I didn't record an episode mostly because

I just didn't have time in this past week It

was kind of rough for me between the flying and

then everything else going on So I really didn't

have time to record anything and I didn't honestly

feel like it and I wasn't sure if I was going

to do another episode before the end of the year,

but I think that I owed it to everyone on the

podcast to kind of Let them know what's going

on and in the fact that no the show's not gone

not dead or anything I probably will still do

this show until the end of the year even though

despite Previously said an altered geek that

I wasn't going to I've got a new found Interest

in the fandom as it were and So that being said

there's job openings at Boulder media for transformer

CG movie and cyberverse Boulder Media Limited,

formerly Media Studio, is hiring talent to work

on their Movieverse, Transformers CG, 3D content,

and Cyberverse, among them being 3D production

co -coordinators, environment concept designers,

senior pipeline TD, facial rigor, texture artists,

character modelers, set modelers. If you're a

Transformers person that's... Been involved with

a lot of the stuff in the fan capacity and get

the chops to actually go into this and do this

Legitimately, this would be your like kind of

opening if you've been doing this stuff in the

past It's definitely interesting to see And then

of course there's this stuff from Tokyo Comic

Con show floor images. They have a lot of the

There's like this thing of transformers X Street

Fighter II crossover figures. And then they've

got the masterpiece 39 Sunstreaker, 40 Targetmaster

Hot Rod, and 41 Dinobots kind of displayed. Not

in color, but seeing him in battle and around

the other Maximals is definitely awesome to see.

And then you get the Prime 1 Studios statues

of Optimus Primal. standing there with Waspinator

and RoboBits. And then you get to see Megatron

standing around with Dinobot bits. So it's pretty

interesting to look at just from a fan perspective,

other than the fact that the Megatron thing never

happened. And honestly, I would love to have

my hands on this. So yeah, it's pretty freaking

sweet. And the Transformers Authentics line is

starting to come out. The Authentics Bravo, kind

of flagged under the Generations banner. Bravo

is kind of interned by Hasbro to distinguish

two assortments with the same name. There's an

Alpha and a Bravo. Completely new set of toys,

first assortment and priced differently. Different

size class. They're mostly, you know, used on

vehicle assortments and whatnot, but... I'm seeing

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream,

and a Grimlock. There's still very chintzy -looking

figures that transform, but I think that this

may be something that kind of ties in between

Cyberverse and the whole Combiner Wars thing.

And then, of course, Michael Bay is commenting

on the future of Transformers. No surprise there.

saying on his Instagram about the live -action

movie franchise, well, $4 .5 billion later, hundreds

of millions of people saw the Transformers movies,

I'd say it's a great run. Any studio would take

this franchise's serious success. That said,

now it's time to take it in a new direction.

Doesn't say whether he's leaving, but more or

less saying that they're going to change things

up. So... Yeah, I don't know quite what to think

about that at this point. Funny thing is, is

I was searching for a while back old All Things

Transformers episodes and trying to find the

old archive information and I came across this

player .fm slash en slash featured slash transformers

and it comes up with the best transformers podcasts

list and among them is WTF at TFW. Radio Free

Cybertron, Transmissions, All Things Transformers,

Moonbase 2, Transformers YouTube Community, Modcast,

Transformers Chronological, Prime Podcast, it's

from optimusprimecast .com, yeah. They started

with Beast Wars and moved beyond. Kind of sounds

like something we did eerily in the past. Transformers

in Beer podcast and then another transmissions,

Transformers in Toys. So yeah, it was kind of

nice to be included in that list despite the

fact that it happened so long ago. Yeah, I'm

pretty... Excited with where this podcast has

gone and where it will go next year I do plan

on adding segments next year and I'm going to

be bringing some old features back like maybe

ask Megatron and Maybe some little nuggets of

the the fan dub arena that I've been involved

with for years and Some other stuff related to

that anyway And then kind of whether we think

that I'm gonna try and get some people that were

involved with Darkglass to possibly speak up

on some things or allow me to use some of said

content for something in the future. So we'll

kind of have to wait and see what happens. I'm

very optimistic on some of it though. So what

do you guys want to talk about as we close the

end of the year? What are some listener questions?

What are some things that you'd like to see brought

up on the podcast? I've definitely been wanting

to get a lot more feedback and a lot more interactive

with you, the listeners, and my friends in the

Transformers community. So let me know what you

guys think. This is kind of going to be a...

a little bit of a short episode, but it's not

gonna be super long, but I'll probably come back

with a real quick tidbit here and close out the

episode, so we'll be back after this. And we're

back. So, on the second half of the episode here,

yeah, I... I do have a little bit of listener

feedback. This is from Brad Mull who says, and

this was pertaining to Masterpiece DinoBot, yeah,

I haven't seen the 3Di effect before posting

last week. Loved the accessories with them. As

for the Maximal team, Takaro's 30th anniversary

beast bots last year in more animation -accurate

colors so they fit in with the Masterpiece beast

line. We won't see a Masterpiece Rhinox, Rattrap,

or Blackarachnia in the foreseeable future. It's

also why Masterpiece Primal is the size he is

to fit in with the previous generation. releases

if we wanted to be a scale nazi they all should

be between masterpiece ravage and masterpiece

b -size titans return doesn't make a whole lot

of sense the storytelling is worse than rescue

bots which is weird as it's meant to be comic

inspired and aided fans yeah so i mean i'm kind

of kind of in the same boat there i mean i get

it um Still, you know It's it's interesting to

to kind of See where they may take it in the

future. Anyway That being said I also for the

rest of the year I'm putting out a special Promotion

for my teespring store so you you can get our

special store, alteredgeek .com slash go slash

teespring free. So until the end of the year,

you can get free shipping on all things in the

Altered Geek store. So that includes any of the

Altered Geek shirts, any of the Future Imperfect

shirts, all things Transformers. There's a couple

with Ultimus Prime and the Transformers logo.

and then just some with Ultimus Prime on his

own. I will say that I have liked the quality

and the level of customer support as far as Teespring

is concerned, as well as the fact that it will

help pay for all of this. So if you do want to

support the podcast, that's probably the best

way to do it. I did kinda mention in a previous

episode that I was gonna give a little information

regarding Ultimus Prime. And you may be asking,

well, how did this character come to be? Well,

Ultimus Prime was basically a brain child of

mine from the early 2000s, I created this character

because I was trying to more or less find my

own version of an Autobot without using one that's

been established. I used to also be a member

of a variety of RPGs online, but they had an

RPG, basically a tech spec creator website back

in, I don't know, 99, 2000. Maybe even 97, somewhere

in there. Anyways, I signed up for it and the

unfortunate part was somebody stole my idea.

Because, you know, being young, stupid, you know,

you just punching all your information. Anyways,

it went on this website. Well, somebody stole

the character, the entire premise of it. Ultimus

Prime I designed is a white semi of basically

a clone of Optimus Prime. Basically, if you took

off the armor of Ultra Magnus, you have Ultimus.

And that's essentially what I created back then.

And somebody actually turned it into a part of

a story back then and wrote this whole story

surrounding this clone of Optimus that they made

and basically I said that he was a clone of you

know carbon copy of Optimus same physical design

but you know an error and his reprogramming to

more of a militaristic version of Prime which

is why he's got a fusion cannon and so basically

this is This is essentially what I had mixed

with part of what they had. So Ultimus Prime

was a valiant Autobot general who was rebuilt

to be the new... leader of the Autobots and Cybertron

after Prime disappeared, he was originally intended

to be a carbon copy, given the exact same physical

design as Optimus. However, the Autobots made

an error and attempted to reprogram his mind

to more closely resemble Optimus's. As a result,

the Autobots were led for a time by a robot with

psychological problems. Optimus left Cybertron

in an attempt to keep the Decepticons from spreading

their tyranny and managed to strand a group of

them with his own troops in the Galus' solar

system. The Galus thing, that was a part of that

story. The rest of it was pretty much me. And

then he says, where the war raged on for four

million years as he attempted to protect the

original natives of the system and keep the Decepticons

from leaving. In that time, he regained his true

personality, purging himself of the artificial

optimists. elements in his mind and became the

strong leader he was meant to be in his own way.

A difference between the Primes is that Ultimus

takes a less protective and more cooperative

attitude towards smaller lifeforms, treating

them more as equals. He is also less grim than

his prototype and possibly less compassionate.

He has a no -nonsense attitude. He knows what

he has to do and does it. Ultimus later becomes

leader of a very special group that helped create

him. He leads the special assault team called

the 431 Strike Force. And then he was a part

of this thing on the Cybertron archive that I

created this next element for, which was called

the War Zone. And it says, I wrote, Ultimus during

his short tenure in the War Zone has seen many

battles. He has even been destroyed. However,

he, as well as many others, always has a plan

ready to follow. He took a spark and placed it

in a Holloway Minner, which he used for a short

time to participate in the war once more. In

other words, He didn't have a physical body,

but he could manifest himself as a hologram with

his spark. It says eventually his body was restored

and he began the fight once more. Soon thereafter

he fought in a tragic battle at J -Axis in which

he was blasted into a space bridge. He crash

landed in this time and timeline. It was the

late 1980s. He scanned a GMC S -15 pickup to

become his current form. His body was still weak

from the travel and he went into stasis lock

in an underground Autobot bunker. of his design

now laying dormant until an autobot crisis his

need for him to be restored to functional status

um so yeah i took my old 89s15 pickup and uh

had a uh had a uh drawing uh designed of him

and uh i can't remember who it was um but he's

an artist colorist for a lot of the IDW and at

the time part of Dreamwave too. I remember it

was around tax time he needed to do his taxes

and he was doing commissions at 50 bucks a pop

and I had this done around the time that I originally

started All Things Transformers which is kind

of funny because I tried to incorporate this

as like a mascot at some point to Geekcast Radio

and it just didn't quite work right. And then

having him as the mascot of all things transformers

actually fits really well because I created the

character and this is an original design that

I asked for Because I sent him a picture of optimus

prime told him I wanted the fusion cannon and

then I wanted my GMC truck and at first I was

gonna make him a decepticon and then I was like

nah make him an Autobot and so He was kind of

like dark brown, you know gray and the eyes were

red and then we changed it to blue and then there

was a lot of detail added in there. There was

like an ultra shine version and then there was

like the kind of gradient paint job on it and

so I, while I like both of them, I like the more

animated tone to them with the kind of color

shading different over the gradient and But anyways,

I loved this design and So I used it for The

the podcast art actually for version 3 .0 and

instead of the spark chamber I used for Well,

actually what's funny is though the all things

transformers version 1 & 2 I used part of the

cafe spark logo from that website They used to

be around was an old forum and I took the name

after that went belly up which I'm using it again

in a sense with the forums on allthingstransformers

.com. But the art was never really totally 100

% original until I did this and I was kind of

like, okay, this is good. But yeah, I love this

character. I love that truck that I used to have.

I did eventually turn him into a Maximal and

kind of give him a new body as well at some point.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun to create this character

and if I ever find that story with Ultimus Prime,

I'll post that and maybe some of the art at some

point because I still have all of it that they

used for this storyline. But I thought it would

be kind of cool to give a little bit of background

information on Ultimus Prime and kind of... Given

an eye into to how my brain works with with some

of my Transformers love anyway, so Anyhow, I

think that's about rounds it out for this episode

of the podcast There'll be one more before Christmas

and I probably won't have one the week of New

Year's Which means I'll be back in January after

that point with a new episode. So if you have

any questions, comments, suggestions of topics

or anything you want to see in the podcast, just

let me know. Because I'd really like some fun

conversation in the next episode. So to kind

of end the year, like maybe what are some of

your favorite parts of the podcast or some of

the favorite things in the Transformers fandom

as of late. So just let me know. So until next

time, transform. and roll out.