Top 100 Countdown – TRANSFORMERS CHARACTERS – Part 1 – Introduction

Hey, this is Frank Todaro, otherwise known as

Starscream, and you're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. You got the touch! This is Stan

Bush, and you're listening to the Geekcast Radio

Network's Top 100 Transformers Characters Countdown.

Why throw away your life so recklessly? No, Megatron,

we're not throwing our lives away recklessly.

You are now listening to the GeekCast Radio Network's

Top 100 Transformers Characters Countdown. Holy

crap, that's a Casey Kasem mouthful. This will

be featured on the GeekCast Radio podcast, all

things Transformers, the TFG1 podcast, all the

other Transformers things that we do. Soundwave,

jam that transmission! Rumble frenzy, ravage

ratbat! Eject Operation Interference. Oh, Slag,

no, I don't think so, Soundwave. We are not going

to be jamming that transmission, because I am

one of your hosts, TF2 and Mike, joining me,

as always, Steve Megatron. Hello, sir. Hello.

And returning to the Transformers feeds, we have

our Cybertronian correspondent, who apparently

has a new little Kremzeek running around his

house. It is Mr. Optimus Solo. That is a good

name for her right now. It's that age. It's that

age. She's just, yeah, she's mobile. It's scary.

Exactly. Get used to it. It gets worse. Yeah.

And she's so freaking tall that, yeah, she can

already reach and stand up and fall out of everything.

Yep. So, fun times. She's in the 94th percentile

for height. Oh, wow. Well, you're what, like

6 '7"? No, I'm only 6 '3". Same thing. Today

we are going to break down and knock you out

with what the GCRN's Top 100 Transformers Characters

Countdown is going to be. This is going to be

juicy. Take it away, Optimus Solo. Finally, the

Geekcast Radio Network has come back. I should

do that like The Rock, to a top 100 countdown.

Actually, you should do it like Depth Charge.

Ooh. Yeah. I'd have to summon that and record

that separately. Work for you to do, finally.

I didn't know I was going to have to do that.

This day is just full of disappointments. Hey,

people love our Top 100 countdowns, and this

countdown has been a long haul in the making.

Long enough to make my head spin. That may be,

but either way, we are excited to kick off our

Top 100 Transformers countdown today. Show no

mercy! He is right! Predacons, unite! Garakons

fight everybody! First we crack the shell, then

we crack the nuts inside! Me Grimlock no bozo,

me king! Guys, stop, stop, stop. You can't fight

yet. This is just the introduction episode. We

aren't even revealing any rankings yet. If I

have to wait any longer, I'm going to bust a

gasket. You won't have to wait that much longer,

we promise. What are you saying? We are saying

that in the very next episode, we will begin

revealing our numbers 100 through 76 rankings.

Well then, partner, let's head him up and move

him out. Well, before we do that, we have some

business to take care of. What in the seven spiral

galaxies are you jabbering about? Well, we have

a lot of people to acknowledge and thank that

made this countdown possible. Educational stuff.

Me? I'd rather watch things explode. Okay, all

you Solomac fans are going on mute. We've done

six Top 100 Countdowns in the 12 -year history

of the GCRN, and I did some math, folks, because

everyone knows I love math, right? Yeah, I'd

much prefer meth at this point. Grand total listening

time of completed and published podcast episodes

for these six countdowns is 77 hours, 20 minutes,

and 14 seconds. That's where my life went. So

if anybody needs help falling asleep for the

next 77 days, there you go. Just kidding. Hey,

technically, that's shorter than my trip from

Massachusetts to Pennsylvania to Mississippi

over a decade ago. That's true. We've done a

massive amount of recording for these top 100s,

but we do it because we love it and because the

fans seem to love it. We get, by far, the most

interaction, the most responses, the most comments,

typically, when we do these top 100s. And, Mike,

the question is, how has it taken us 12 years

to get to Transformers? Ask the old bot over

there. It's his show. Well, you know, I had to

wait for some more series to come out. That's

true. If we would have done it too soon, we would

have already had to do an update, and then a

second update, and then every time a new show

comes out. But yeah, it's shocking that we haven't

done this yet, but it's a good excuse to do it

now. 35th and 25th anniversary year, so 35th

anniversary of Transformers the movie and 25th

anniversary of Beast Wars. Absolutely. And we

had... We got an overwhelming amount of response

for this one. Has it beat out any of the other

ones? Yeah, it's the number one as far as the

most lists contributed. Yeah, so we've done...

When we first started this, we were just relying

on our very close -knit network and some connections

that we'd made over the years. Obviously, we've

made more connections. Well, for this one, we

tried to tap into every connection we've ever

made and tried to make a bunch of new ones, which

I think we were successful with. We'll have to

cultivate those relationships as we go. But we've

had 33 people submit lists. for this countdown,

and they all come from various parts of the fandom.

Some casual fans, some super fans, some pretty

popular names within the fandom, some podcast

people, some toy people, some YouTube people.

I mean, it's all over the place. So I was very

impressed with how many lists we got. It's always

an interesting thing when we're collecting lists

because they come in all different times. You

know, whenever we put this out, we're going to

get, you know, TV's Mr. Neal is going to submit

it. that day. Um, and DJ Valentine's probably

going to submit it before we even get finished

asking him to participate. So like those two

are always like super quick. And then you never

know how the other ones are going to start funneling

in. And it was good, good pace for a little while.

Then it kind of dried up for a minute. And then

towards the end, I don't want to say like that

last like 10 days, they were just like coming

in like every day. So that was fun to see. It

was fun to get the responses from people. There's

a lot of people that are definitely looking forward

to seeing how this all breaks down. So I think

it's going to be interesting. So we had 33 lists

submitted. which included nearly 3 ,000 individual

votes. That's crazy. Wow. 3 ,000 votes, and if

you want to think of it, obviously we had a database

that had all kinds of characters to choose from,

and we tried to be as all -encompassing as possible,

but let's face it, guys, the Transformers universe,

I guess if you want to call it, is... is ginormous

like there has been so many characters uh in

all the different tv shows and you know movies

and comics like especially once you start looking

at the comics and stuff like that that there's

just a massive amount of characters but if we

want to look at just the characters that got

a vote we had a total of just about 450 characters

that received at least one vote wow And that

is out of an 800 -character spreadsheet that

we sent out to everybody. Right, which there

could be write -ins because it didn't include

some, especially some of the more foreign, like

a lot of the Japanese stuff. We didn't quite

include in that database because we just looked

at all the U .S. cartoons that had aired, all

the movies that have aired in the U .S. We looked

at all the major comic book lines to try to include

as much. That would be impossible just to include

all the characters that have been in the comics.

It would just be hard. I didn't have to twist

your arm about IDW. Yeah. So there was over 800

to choose from, and you could write in stuff,

too, and 450 of them got at least a vote. So

this is the process we're in now that we're about

to take place in these records. is trying to

narrow the 450 that got a vote down to the 100

that got the most votes. So that's crazy. I don't

know, Mike, if you want to go over a little bit

about what you're anticipating from or what your

process was to try to get this down or who you're

happy that was included in this and joined us

on this adventure. I'm going to let you take

over. I mean, like you said, we have a number

of people. Staples, like the three of us, obviously.

Steve and I created the network. You joined us

shortly after. We have Michael Wilson contributing.

We have my lovely fembots, as I call them. Amy,

Heather, and Nicole, who do a lot of the Transformers

and Gem and other things with me. For the first

time ever, we have three... Transformers, well,

one Transformers royalty name and two Transformers

creators. We have Mr. Benson Yee submitting a

list. We have writer Tyler Blazinski, who wrote

the Constructicons Rising arc of Transformers

Galaxy, Galaxies, I should say. And we have artist

extraordinaire Casey Collar, who has been doing

a lot of the IDW stuff. Now, I did want to reach

out to a bunch of other people, but the deadline

was kind of creeping up on us. Basically, what

we did, folks, is back in April of this year

or so or whatever, back in March, we basically

gave people 30 days. Here you go. If you'd like

to join us, you have until April 15th. And then

a final full -on cutoff date was April 20th.

We eventually had to extend that into May just

so people could get their lists in and things

like that. Steve and I had talked to Robo Apollo

from Iacon Online. She submitted a list. YouTubers

Rodimus Primal, who is a new friend of mine.

I was just on his... I was in his stream chat

a couple nights ago. Of course, by the time this

airs, that'll be a couple weeks ago. Long -time

friend and someone I've actually met in person,

Mr. Piaw from YouTube. He actually was the one

to give me the transfer. animated Rodimus toy

when he was traveling down to Louisville, Kentucky.

over a decade ago now uh just so many people

to thank uh brand new podcast i these guys have

been in the transformers fandom for a long time

six oh maz and liam the triple takeover toy cast

absolutely love those guys if you guys want fresh

interesting new transformers discussions or views

from people who aren't just in the u .s or canada

these guys are all overseas in the uk ireland

and i i'm sorry guys i don't remember where each

of you are but i've Ever since I saw their podcast,

I've been listening since episode one. They just

released, again, as of this recording, their

eighth episode talking about toy photography.

So good. Just absolutely love them. Thank you

to everybody. Like we said earlier, Scanner51,

Die Hard, Old School, GCRN fan, Tim Silvers,

longtime supporter and super fan, super fan Bondo

Mike. And then you have so many Transformers

websites associated, which I was ecstatic about.

Now, I'm a frequenter of AllSpark, so they actually

submitted a list as well. That's awesome to have

one of the top websites out there. If it's not

the top website, it's in the top three, I would

think, as far as Transformers websites. So that's

amazing. We had the guy from CollecticonToys

.com submit a list. TFU .info? Yeah, TFU .info.

Anthony over there submitted a list. We already

mentioned, you said, I don't know if you said

Icon Dispatch or not. No, I didn't. I didn't

mention that. Iacon Dispatch and Iacon Online,

two different Iacon venues there. I thought it

was really cool that Yoshi and Greg from TransformersReanimated

.com, who do a fan comic, and if you haven't

checked out their stuff, you should check it

out. The visual on that comic is great. If you're

a G1 fan or even just a general Transformers

comic fan, I would suggest checking that out.

I haven't had a chance to dig deep in, but from

what I've looked at, some of the stuff that I

quickly read through. It looks like it's pretty

cool stuff. I can't believe how... much content

they've put out so far, because I just feel like

putting one Transformers comic out would be like

a labor of love for me. So that is just, man.

Other friends of the site that we haven't mentioned

yet, we didn't, I kind of mentioned TV's Mr.

Neal and DJ Valentine of Simplistic Reviews.

They obviously submitted a list. Our friends

at This Week in Geek, represented by Alex, submitted

a list. We didn't mention our other GCRN friend

who is right now. big time doing comic stuff

from the comic concierge, Dan, uh, or as you

used to know him as the movie revolt, um, submitted

a list. Um, another podcast, the TFL Y P transformers

podcast. is represented. A couple other big -time

Transformers fans, Sam's Forge, who is at Sam

underscore makes underscore toys, and Solartron

at Solar dash Transform are on there. I'm trying

to think if we missed anybody, but that's...

Well, there's also the Moonbase 2 podcast. Oh,

yep. Mikey and Andy, I've actually been working

with Mikey for a couple of episodes of the pull

bag and stuff. We've been discussing toys back

and forth on Twitter quite often. Yeah, Mikey

is awesome. Moonbase 2, actually, I've known

of them for a long time. It used to be led by

David Paul Wallace. Between that and TFWire,

that's partly how I found Amy. And, yeah, I love

Moonbase, too. Those guys are awesome. We also

have Transformers AD, Jay, over there. He's a

super Transformers fan. And I think the other

one I missed was Cole Krishna, who does, if you

search Autoboticon97reviews, that's his YouTube

and Instagram. He does stuff over there. Now,

I know we're tapping into a big fandom, and we're

reaching out to all these people that have contributed.

So there's going to be some people that have.

Not necessarily been around the Geekcast Radio

that long. This might be their introduction into

who we are and what we've done. So I thought

it might be a good idea for us just to give a

quick synopsis or like a brief... summary of

what our transformers history is what we've done

at the network transformers related you know

what kind of presence we've had in the fandom

just so those that don't know who we are know

that it's not just three random podcasters that

are trying to do a transformers list so steve

you've uh been huge in the fandom for a long

time so why don't you give people kind of some

of your highlights through and what gives you

some credibility as making this list Well, aside

from getting into the Transformers in the 90s

with Beast Wars, I ran numerous Transformers

and Beast Wars related podcasts from 1998 through

the early late 2010 time period. I was a part

of many Transformers forums, both doing RPGs

on their forums and also just doing fanfics,

doing... a variety of those type of things. I

was introduced to podcasting through TFWire,

and I became a host of the podcast War Stories,

where I read people's fanfics and character voices

and also guested on their Transformers the movie

episode for the 2007 film. And then from there,

I created all things Transformers the next year.

And then that's kind of what spitballed into

the Geekcast Radio Network is because I met Mike

through Twitter, and I was looking for people

that were involved with Transformers, and I'd

kind of touched bases with a lot of different

people over the years through their websites

and through their forums. So I've definitely

followed a lot of it, but the All Things Transformers

podcast has been going since 2008. We've had

the TFG1 podcast. We've had Transformers animated

podcast, the Beast Unleashed podcast. And we

just continue to talk Transformers. Absolutely.

Mike, what about you? What's kind of your Transformers

background and some of your highlights? Well,

for me, when I was seven or eight, I had a copy

of the movie. The only movie that matters, folks.

Uh, and I wanted to, what I had always wanted

was I wanted the movie on tape. I didn't want

just the audio adaptation of it, but I wanted

it just in audio form so I could listen to it.

So I didn't have, cause I'd already by the time,

just like my secret of the sword DVD. Uh, I also

are not DVD VHS. I should say, cause there was

no DVD back then. I both ruined a VHS copy of

He -Man and She -Ra, The Secret of the Sword,

and Transformers the movie from watching them

too many times. Thankfully, they didn't break

the VCR, but the tapes were ruined. So I had

always wanted to have the movie on tape. And

I would try my hardest, and eventually my mom

or somebody or some sort of sound would... And

back in those days, you just had to put the tape

recorder in front of the TV. I was a kid. I didn't

know anything about the 80s technology kind of

thing and whatever else. And as years went on,

I fell in and fell out of the fandom. I remember

specifically in the early mornings of 96, 97,

looking at Reboot and looking at Beast Wars in

the morning before school, before high school.

Reboot? What the hell is this? I literally thought

that the Transformers cartoon was that Reboot

was the new... I'm like, what the hell is this

crap? Now, I don't have anything against Reboot.

Now, obviously, I know that that wasn't what

it was, but I had kind of... watched it off and

on and kind of thing. And by the two thousands,

I was completely the early two thousands. I was

completely out of it. I had no interest in 2001

rid, no interest in the, in the Unicron trilogy

or anything like that. When I started, um, finding

podcasts to listen to back in 2006, 2007, I had

found TF wire. I had found Jesse and Spada and,

and then, you know, Ryan was with them as well

and all that. So, you know, I've kind of been

in and around it, and I'm kind of like, I tried

getting in on the ground floor with some of the

fandoms, with some of the fandom websites, and

sadly, some of them are just... toxic way way

too toxic that's that's why i love all spark

yeah all spark is awesome i i have fully gotten

into that that that that energon bath yet but

i i couldn't believe like i'm just trying to

introduce myself to these people and it's like

yeah you can't say that you can't post that oh

my god you're you're bad like i did i didn't

actually get banned but that's essentially Yeah,

well, not really. But, like, that's the way they

reacted to me. And I'm like, really? Seriously?

Like, come on, guys. And, you know, I've made

a lot of great friends. Obviously, you guys.

You know, honestly, we owe all of this to Steve.

Because without Steve, this would not be a thing

right now. Right. So, I mean, you know, there's

that. And for me, it's all about the IDW Transformers

comics universe for the last eight years on the

pull bag. I've been reviewing the entire IDW

start from not necessarily from the full beginning,

but from their their phase two. So, yeah, it's

a whole 41 year story that can't be wrapped up

into one little seven minute thing or 20 minutes.

That's a good attempt. Yeah. I mean, and then

also, you know, when. when you get the opportunity

to actually speak at a convention, that's definitely

awesome too. And you're in with the customizers.

Absolutely. I started way back in the day as

well, just like Mike. I think the Transformers,

the movie was the first movie I saw in theaters.

um obviously grew up with the cartoon had a massive

toy collection back in the day it has only grown

since then um and i kind of went in and out like

but i man i craved transformers when i was younger

like this is before beast wars i'm talking about

in the mid to late 80s when they went off the

air at one point and they were in syndication

like i didn't know much about tv i didn't know

much about programming things of that nature

obviously computers internet that type of stuff

is not around yet i used to literally get tv

guides and like read the tv guide trying to find

where else transformers would air like what channel

what times like how do i get to watch more because

it's not like it you know you might have had

the the few select vhs tapes or something like

that but it wasn't like you could just go back

and watch any transformers episode at any given

time like when we were kids you got to see the

ones when they aired on tv and then you had no

way of watching them again So I would search.

And I remember how happy I was one time when

I found out that they were re -airing G1. I believe

it was on the SyFy channel. I could be wrong.

But it was like at like 5 o 'clock in the morning

or 6 o 'clock in the morning where I lived or

something like that. And I literally would change

my schedule so that I would wake up early. enough

to watch it before I had to get ready for school

and this that and the other so like I was obsessed

from an early age obviously loved Beast Wars

loved Beast Machines and all that like my kind

of faded not I didn't fade out of the toy collecting

I still that because by that point I was working

at Target I was seeing the Transformers toys

I was buying some of the Unicron trilogy figures

even though I wasn't watching the show Um, and

I remember being so stoked when the live action

movie started getting rumored and there was,

you know, there was going to be footage of a

transformer actually transforming and we all

know how that went anyway. But, um, I remember

in college getting involved in some of the transformers

fandoms, uh, specifically TFW 2005. Um, I used

to host a kind of a NCAA tournament over there

in their forums where I would pit, you know,

characters against each other and people would

comment and vote and stuff like that and it was

such a huge deal at that time like we were getting

like hundreds or i want to say it was in the

hundreds of votes and and comments and stuff

like that on there i guess it was getting too

much attention because then the administrators

got mad because it was dominating the the forums

like the top like x number of posts were all

my tournament posts And they were like, this

is making it so we can't see any of the other

posts because it's just all this. And they eventually,

like, there was a whole fight about it. And I

didn't get banned, but they threatened me multiple

times to be banned. You know, they still do that.

Yeah. And I'm like, they're just people that

are enjoying it. And it's funny because I actually

got a mention on TFW boards a while back. And

it somehow. Must have alerted me. I must have

it set so that if someone actually uses my name

in the thing or ats me or whatever, that it hangs

me or something. I'm like, I haven't been on

those boards in a decade, at least, if not longer.

And I'm like, what is going on? And it was literally

someone that was like, hey, I remember this one

user that used to do these tournaments. And they

were literally trying to resurrect it. And they're

currently running one right now. on tfw 2005

or they or they just finished it they've been

doing it this year and it was like literally

in the original post like they're giving me credit

of being the one that like started that whole

deal but it was because i got pinged there i

actually went back and and started looking to

see like oh i remember you know this half a dozen

like usernames that i really interacted with

back then you know we used to have conversations

in dms um i want to say one of them i even bought

a toy off up or whatever and so i started trying

to look them up and like Almost all of them have

been banned since then. Oh, my God. And it's

not hard. It's not hard to get banned there,

apparently, because I see it in the comments

on Discord a lot. Yeah, I know those people exist

now on AllSpark or on other forums. I don't know,

maybe Cybertron, but I know that they found other

ways to... But some of these guys were the nicest

guys in the world that we were just having fun

Transformers conversations, and it's like, I

don't know. So that kind of turned me off of

that particular forum, but it was okay because

that was when I met Mike and stuff like that,

and Steve, and started working. I met the guys

that did the BTBA and all that type of stuff,

so I got pulled in other directions, so I didn't

need that to... um, satiate the fandom in me

or whatever, I guess you could say. So, um, since

then it's just been dealing with, uh, all the

stuff we've done on the network and still collecting

toys. Like you guys have noticed recently on

my Twitter and Instagram and things of that nature.

I have a few transformer toys. Um, so that's,

how's that going? Well, so far I have them all

cataloged and I have them all packed properly

except for the G1 figures. I have to still match

them with other accessories because me and my

mom matched those all together and had them all

in sealed bags and things like that before I

moved out of her house way back 100 years ago.

And at some point I had them all displayed when

I was single, and I had to quickly pack them

all away because I was moving, and they never

got sorted properly. find them all their right

guns and their right you know various accessories

so that's going to be a process but i'm pretty

good at knowing which one goes to which so it

won't take too long um so yeah i have like over

300 and probably 340 350 now uh transformers

if you count the ones i bought in the last couple

weeks um which i just don't want to pay attention

to how much i've spent on transformers this year

so um Especially the Super 7. Yeah, I won't buy

any more of those. That's completely overpriced.

I bought one just because it was the dead Optimus

Prime and whatever. The price point is outrageous,

and they don't look that cool. As a network,

I know you guys already dropped the podcast names,

but just to clarify, these guys have recorded

a review for every single G1 episode. They've

had podcast reviews for every single Beast Wars

and Beast Machines episode. They've had all the

Transformers animated. And we're probably at

some point going to get to some of the other

things like War for Cybertron Prime and things

of that nature. currently we have done i think

we did part of the the web online the the power

of the primes trilogy we did part of that we

did we did a rough breakdown of it but eventually

we'll do a full -on right and eventually just

a lot of fun because obviously so we've already

covered almost all of these episodes we might

go back and do some of them in a different way

or some of the shows we haven't done but we have

been doing transformers like that is the dominant

theme of the cast radio network it always has

been yes we've done masters of the universe and

we've done you know various other other fandoms

and things like that but transformers has always

been like the main staple so um hopefully people

already know that we exist if not that's who

we are this is why we're doing this um and i

i also have to say I wasn't as close to one of

these people, but I was kind of close to the

other guy. I am personally dedicating this entire

countdown to the memory of J .D. Church, who

was a member of Radio Free Cybertron. He passed

away a number of years ago, and I was very close

with Optimus Scourge. Optimus Scourge was also

on the TF boards. at tfw 2005 but he was one

of the people it was him pia and proto man that

helped me start toy cast 12 years ago and he

i got september 28th of this year it'll be 10

years since he died yeah and i just want to dedicate

this to them because i can only imagine what

gary would say Looking at where the Transformers

toys have come from the time that he was collecting

them to now. Because I've gone back and recently

watched some of his videos. He would be so excited

with the... Say what you will about some of the

molds in Siege and Earthrise, but between Siege,

Earthrise, and Kingdom, he would be ecstatic

for all that stuff. It's not even the molds,

it's the paint jobs. Or lack thereof. That's

where they have the problem. But anyways. Yeah,

you bring up a good point, though, Mike, because

we did mention all the podcasts that we've done

that are Transformers -specific, but you also

have done a ton of Transformers coverage on ToyCast.

You've had like a literal who's who of toy reviewers

that have at least been on one or two episodes

there or sometimes a bunch of episodes. You've

also done a lot of Transformers coverage from

the comic standpoint on the pull bag. Oh, yeah.

Obviously, Steve already mentioned all things

Transformers. So it's not just the episodic reviews

that we've done as a podcast. We've incorporated

them in a lot of different ways, whether it be

toys, comics, et cetera. So we've interviewed

a lot of the people involved in the Transformers.

fandom. You've done a lot with some of the music

with Stan Bush and things of that nature. So

we have a lot of Transformers connections. Stan

Bush is still the single most returning guest

for interviews. You've met him five times. Yeah,

so that's awesome. And for those of you that

don't know how our Top 100 works... We basically

collect lists from people that we feel like have

some type of a level of intelligence within whatever

topic it is. We let them vote on either their

top 50, their top 75, their top 100, however

many they're able to do. And then we compile

all of that data together and we crunch the numbers

and see which characters get the most points.

That forms a top 100 list, and then we do these

podcasts where we reveal them one at a time in

chunks. So we usually have four or five episodes

where we reveal different portions of the countdown.

So we've done a lot of these before. We've done

the top 100 animated series, top 100 animated

movies. Mike, what are some of the other top

100? Animated characters. Animated characters,

TV shows, wrestlers. Villains. Villains. We even

did a top 50 video games. Absolutely. And because

we are so, you know, again, it's that age old

question. If you're only allowed one fandom,

what would you choose? I would say for us, at

least in the last 12 years of the network, like

you said earlier, Transformers is our core. It's

our staple. Yeah. It's our core. It's our staple.

It's something we're always going to go back

to because. No matter how many things we avoid

in it or how many things we may or may not like

in it, we always find something that is there

that we enjoy. And just because something new

comes along doesn't mean it erases what came

before it. You can always go back and watch G1

episodes. You can always go back and watch Beast

Wars episodes. Personally, the low road best

episode of that entire series. What's wrong?

Wild bean vines. Hard to digest. Do not turn

your back on me, maximal scum. No, not that.

But it's one of those things where as you know,

you had, you know, we did this whole little creative

intro that we just did to this and we have creative

intros that we're going to be doing for the other

parts of this countdown. We're going to be divvying

this up. Like you said earlier, 100 to 76, 75

to 51, 50 to 26, and then 25 to number one. And

for me. I'm like, oh, well, the intro is part

one. The closing is part six. The countdown will

be parts two through five. We're basically a

combiner. We're basically Devastator here. We're

not the balls. Other combiners are only five,

so we're not those guys. We've got to be Devastator.

Hey, got to go with the classic. Right. Speaking

of which, just kind of as a way to. Kind of wet

the appetite, I guess, for the next episode when

we're actually going to be revealing characters

and getting into our thoughts on who we like

and who we don't like and who is ranked too high

and who is ranked too low and who didn't make

it and all this jazz. I was wondering if you

guys just had any initial thoughts on things

that you're wondering about, like questions you're

going to have that you're hoping to get answered

during this or like. Do you feel like which TV

show or which generation is going to be most

represented or anything that you're kind of curious

about as we head into this countdown? Dave? Well,

I think, one, I think obviously G1 is going to

be a big part of it because a lot of the names

are going to be reused through different series.

But I also have this inkling of a feeling that

We're going to see a majority of the Beast Wars

cast show up, if not all of them, because it's

such a small cast. That's going to be something

to look for. How the Beast Wars slash Beast Machines

represent compared to maybe the G1, who are a

lot of the same characters that we see in stuff

like Prime and War for Cybertron, etc. Although,

obviously, War for Cybertron is blending the

both. It's also going to be interesting to see

what this countdown would have been like if we

did it six months later after that aired. Maybe

Beast Wars would be more prominent because people

would be remembering them better. Seems like

Beast Wars has a lot of respect. You don't hear

anybody say anything bad about it, but I feel

like when you ask somebody to make their Transformers

list, I feel like some people just forget about

it for some reason. I don't quite get it, but

I feel like sometimes they just are in a one

-track mind with what Transformers is to them.

I don't know. I think some people leave it off

because it's not only dated visually, even though

in some degree, I think it's... better than some

of the stuff we get today only because we actually

get to see them transform a lot right uh whereas

i feel like a lot of the cg stuff nowadays like

they don't have them transform they have them

more so run and robot a lot uh to save on budget

which i can understand that too but um yeah i

mean the the generation that grew up with the

movies as their They're G1, essentially. I feel

like they're a little less inclined to accept

Beast Wars. And I feel like those of us that

have been around the block for the entire series

quite a long time, we understand that that's

basically the one that saved the franchise initially.

And I'm not saying the movies didn't save it

in today's time because, I mean, it was pretty

much rehash, rehash, rehash. The movies put Transformers

more into the current -day mainstream, and with

the movies making the money that they have made

and they continue to make, it has brought a lot

of new fans into it. But people like the three

of us are like, okay, I'll go see these movies.

They're not that great. That's okay. I know Michael

Wilson, and maybe we'll have him on one of these

reveal episodes. I don't know. It depends on

scheduling. But it's one of those things where...

For the longest time, when I first started recording

with him, he just always goes back to, and he

doesn't mean this seriously, but Michael Bay

ruined my childhood kind of thing. It's a joke.

For me, it's like, oh my god, it's the end of

the world. At the same time, I really don't want

to see the robot parts on the outside of my Transformers.

It's a little too much detail there for me. What

I'm hoping to see is a wider range, because the

way I made my personal list, even though... Yes,

Wheeljack has started in G1, and he's been in

a bunch of things. Maybe we can kind of go through

each of how we went about making our list. I

went by generation. Because I had to, because

there's so many generations of, like, so many

different generations of characters that because

of what happens to the characters is so different

to me. Like, what happens to Hot Rod and Rodimus

in the G1 movie and cartoon is completely different

than what happens to him in the IDW continuity.

So I went by generation, and for me, 100 to...

189 was easy because, again, going by your point

system, as you said earlier, one point for number

100 and 100 points for number 1. Basically, 189

for me are my least enjoyed characters or characters

I really don't care about, that kind of thing.

It was very, very easy for me to do that. It

was also, on the flip side, very easy for me

to do the top 20, the top 30 kind of thing because

I knew instantly who I wanted because of, hopefully,

they'll get in on... on the actual list here.

Steve, how did you go about making your list?

I went about first removing any names that I

didn't really know too well, only to automatically

remove any obstacles, more or less, for those

that I may not be able to give justice to should

they score and somebody goes, hey, why did you

score this character? I have no idea. So I went

the route of actually listing, like just getting

it down to 100 as much as possible. I actually

got it down to like 150 and then I had to kind

of actually think. But the first 25 were pretty

easy for me. And then I kind of sprinkled some

other ones in because I was kind of like, eh,

I want to put them in the top 50, but I don't

know. And so some of them I kind of ranked based

on how well they showed up, how many times they

show up, what their impact is on the continuity

that they're in, how likable the character is,

how much I dislike them, how many times they're

reused. So I tended to skip certain characters

depending on that. Or if they're like a big one,

like say Unicron, you know, while I enjoy Unicron

for what he is, he's more or less turned into

a gimmick that they pull out in various series

to be like, oh, we got to end the end the show

and the universe. And so like typically I put

him, you know, in not as an important capacity

in the. The list, because while I understand

he has an impact in the franchise, I don't necessarily

think he deserves top 25 status. On my personal

list that I submitted, Unicron comes in at 75.

The Stunticons come in ahead of him from 74 to

71. Don't give away your list. No, no, no. It's

my list. It's not the list. It's okay. I'm just

saying, like, you're right. Like, yes, Unicron

is usually the big bad kind of thing, and that's

the ultimate ultimate, because they can't come

up with anything else. They can't come up with

anything. Heaven forbid they come up with something

different. I can see both arguments. For me,

yeah, for me, I have a process, and for this

one... For example, we had like 800 characters,

right? And I had them sorted by number of appearances.

So Optimus Prime appears in G1, he appears in

the movies, he appears in every cartoon. So obviously

he's appeared in almost everything. Same with

Megatron, etc. So they're sorted by that. So

what I did is I scrolled down to the point where,

in my opinion, they became ineligible to make

a top 100. So most of the ones that have had

only one appearance, unless they were like...

It's hard for them to make a top 100 compared

to somebody that's been in 10 of the shows or,

you know, 12 of the movies and shows or the comics

or whatever. So I kind of went a little bit on

there and kind of just set a line and nothing

below that line was going to make it in unless

they were just, I don't know, like some type

of mega power. No, that's a different thing.

Anyways, and then once I had that list, let's

say it was, I don't know, 300 or so out of the

800. It's a pretty simple chore for me to just

kind of. I start scrolling through, and all I

do is I highlight the ones that I'm like, this

is for sure. If I read the name, and in my head,

that is a top 100 character, I just highlighted

it. I didn't care how much, I didn't care where

they were going to fall in the rankings, I'm

just highlighting things that I know I want on

my list. Let's go through one time, do all that,

and see what I end up with. And usually when

I do that, I come pretty close to being within

50 of what I need. So then it might be going

through a second time and saying, okay, who is

questionable? I would debate in my head whether

they were worthy or not. And then I highlight

all them, and then I eventually, like Steve,

get down to my 100. And then once I'm in my 100,

it becomes a job of chunking. What I mean by

that is, first off, you're either top 50 or you're

bottom 50. So I just start separating my list

like that, and someone's either above or below

the line. Once I have 50 down, then let's break

it. 25 down. Are you in the bottom 25 or the

top 25? I just keep doing that until my list

is done. My brain works in weird ways, so it

doesn't take me a whole long time to do that.

It's a fun process. I'm wondering what you guys

think. Just two more questions before we get

wrapped up for the most part. How do you guys

think the people that voted are going to... react

or how did they vote for how did they treat the

combiners since you mentioned it earlier mike

you have stuff like devastator and then you have

all of the component characters that make up

devastator yeah we have a lot of combiners within

the transformers universe so do you think the

the the form where they're all together is going

to be more represented or that the individual

people that make up that combiner are going to

be more represented I think it's going to be

both, and I think it's going to depend on who

the person is that voted on the... If you love

Menasor, you're going to put Menasor in there.

But if you love the Stunticons individually,

you're going to put each individual Stunticon

in there. Same thing with the Constructicons,

same thing with the... With, oh, who makes the

Terracons? Right, right. You know, I really think

it, because you can't do, like, that's one thing

I'm glad we didn't do. We didn't sit here and

say, okay, you can only put either the components

that make up the, like, the characters that make

up a combiner, or you can put the combiner, because

that would have just been stupid. Because, honestly,

each, and this is a perfect thing, going back

to Tyler. Lozinski and the four -issue thing

that he wrote. The way he treats, and I think

you should read this, Kev. Four issues, it's

not a big deal. I can send them to you, but it's

one of those things where he treats the constructicons

as each individual personalities and then devastator

has a personality that takes over the six of

them i think certain certain comics and certain

tv shows have done a better job of giving each

of the components a personality versus the combining

form or giving them both like distinct personalities

like i even just taking g1 for example i think

the constructicons and the stunticons are more

hashed out whereas if you have like the protective

protectabouts Or like the Terracons. Most people

probably don't know the component parts as much

of those guys. I just feel like some have been

treated better and some have been, like you're

saying, with what he did apparently with his

writing, hashing those personalities out. So

that might help those combining forms, whereas

some of the other ones, it might be just the

big bad or the big good guy or that's it. Steve,

either thoughts on that or the ultimate question,

which I'm going to have to do some work to figure

out what the answer to is. As you guys probably

don't know, I'm the only one that knows what

the list is. So everything else is live reactions

for the record. As far as Steve and Mike and

whoever else we're going to have are going to

be reacting live when the reveal happens. One

of us has to know the list, so that's how that

goes. But I'm going to have to do some work to

find out the ultimate question, Steve, which

is, are we going to have more? In terms of the

combiners, I'm thinking that we're going to see

an equal representation of either the combiner

itself or the individual components. Or even

some people including both. But as far as good

guys or bad guys, that's a tough call because

there's a ton of good guys. And not that there

aren't a ton of bad guys either, but I feel like

they're a little less represented. unless you

have a show that's more balanced like Beast Wars.

But then you look at, you know, just the variety

of characters. I think that we're going to see

probably about an equal footing. I would be surprised

if the villains overtake the heroes. The villains

also have a lot more dynamic. and characterizations

and designs, so they may push ahead, too, just

because there's a lot of different variety there,

whereas the Autobots seem to be a lot of the

same with a different design. I can get that,

too, 100%. It reminds me of one of the early

G1 catalogs. I don't know if it was like 80.

586 or somewhere in there where if you counted

up the number of Autobots in that little toy

pamphlet compared to the Decepticons, it was

very lopsided. There was way more Autobots available

in that toy year or whatever it was because basically

you had Megatron and Soundwave and Shockwave

and then you had the Seekers. I know there was

a few others, but the Seekers was the big group,

but that's only X number of characters, whereas

the Autobots had the littler cars the bigger

cars but they're like 12 you know there's like

10 times the amount of characters but like you

said a lot of those are the same mold just a

different paint job or similar characters do

they stand out you know and that's going to be

interesting to see how many of those might get

left out because they didn't necessarily stand

out amongst the crowd like obviously someone

like wheeljack um you know inferno um not inferno

um ironhide um you know some of those type of

guys stand out a little bit more but you know

how much does grapple or tracks or some of those

guys stick out unless they had another form in

another you know continuity later on that that

was a little bit more you know had a little bit

more of a personality so it's going to be interesting

just to kind of see that whereas you would think

like with the seekers you're going to see at

least the big three um represented and possibly

more so That's going to be something else that

we're going to be able to keep track of is kind

of like Seekers and different classifications

of the characters who's represented and who's

not. It'll be interesting. Mike, any other thoughts?

It's going to be extremely interesting to see

where all of this falls because every, like you

said, that catalog, again, we're not. looking

up what year it is folks but i remember what

you're talking about right and i think the thing

of it is is why the catalogs always showed the

good guys and going to something else we do on

the network key man and masters of the universe

i remember seeing all the attorney and warriors

and maybe one or two or three or four of the

evil warriors you know the you know the heroes

versus the villains kind of thing and i think

it was because back in the 80s Our parents and

the marketers and whomever wanted children to

look at heroes. I don't know what it is with

our culture now where we love the villains. Don't

get me wrong, Beast Wars Megatron is great, but

there is something right now, as of this recording

in 2021, I just, and I'll watch it eventually

because it'll be on regular Disney Plus in August,

but I'm not a person that cares too much about

spoilers for the most part. So I read the Wikipedia

article for Cruella, and then I read several

other things about people talking about the movie,

and it's like, why are people worshipping evil

these days? There's just a lot of movies where

they're just doing that. I think they think that

they've run the course with heroes, but they

haven't. To be fair, the villains are always

more interesting. For a lot of times, yeah, or

the anti -hero or something of that nature. There's

so many different ways we can classify these

characters that it's going to be interesting,

whether it's Autobots and Decepticons, good guys,

bad guys, the different continuities, whether

it be Beast Wars or Prime characters, etc., like

we talked about with the Combiners, with the

Seekers, with the Cassettes. There's going to

be all kinds of different ways that we can hash

this out and see who made it, who didn't, how

many of this group, how many of that group. So

that's going to be some of the interesting part.

I, however, have some homework to do because

I don't have these labeled as good guys or bad

guys yet. So I don't even know the answer to

that. I'm going to have to figure that out shortly.

And there's always that, you know, a character

here or there that might play both sides. So

that'll be interesting as well. So any last thoughts,

Mike, before we stop this blabbering or before

the Transformers start trying to cut in on us

again and get us to start to get to the point

where we can actually reveal? No more Optimus

Prime! Grab me, Mercy! I beg of you! You, who

are without mercy, now plead for it? I thought

you were made of sterner stuff. Yeah, I don't

want another cliffjumper fight. Thank you very

much. Yeah, exactly. That's more editing for

me and you and everybody else. No, I'm very excited

for this. I think this is going to be absolutely

a blast. Again, thank you to all 33 people and

33, you know, Or whatever. Oh, no, no, no. I

know. I know. But what I'm saying is thank you

to everybody who submitted to the countdown to

be a part of it. We are hoping we can get some

people on here as guest hosts, but we're not.

planning. If things work, things work. If they

don't, they don't. We need a disclaimer, too.

We're not including any of these people to ride

off of their coattails. We are trying to just

bring more people to them. I was hoping we wouldn't

have to bring that up because I kind of want

to go through your entire Twitter thread and

read the whole damn thing. We're just trying

to give you guys all that participated more attention.

We just want quality people that have a presence

in the fandom. That want to actually work with

us and have fun. That's the whole point. Hopefully

somebody that's a big fan of AllSpark that might

see this connected to them will listen to this

and then start listening to the Triple Takeover

podcast. Or watching Rodimus Primal or PR. That's

our goal. Our goal is to get you guys more viewers,

more listeners, and to have some fun in the process.

We are who we are. We know who we are. We've

been there for 12 years. We're not changing.

Yeah, it is what it is. So, before Rumble comes

in here and sprays his purple spray paint all

over us, because Rumble is purple and Frenzy

is black. You mean before he shakes things up?

Yeah, there you go, that too. I was kind of going,

you know, Rumble is blue, Frenzy is red. But

anyway, thank you for joining us on the Top 100

Transformers Characters Countdown. If you'd like

to get in contact with us and leave feedback

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Visit the website, geekcastradio .com, where

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You can also look up all things Transformers

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receptors ready because in part two of this podcast

series, we start the countdown with 100 through

76. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with Steve Megatron

Phillips and Optimus Solo. We're going to close

out with an old staple quote. I can't deal with

that now. Gee, thanks, Ultra Magnus. We can't

deal with you either.