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 are 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. Inject.

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 Krimzik 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. Get used to it, it gets worse. And

she's so freaking tall that 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 six seven,

so I know I'm only six. I'm only six three same

thing Today we're gonna break down and knock

you out with what the GCR ends top 100 Transformers

characters countdown is gonna be This is going

to be juicy Take it away optimus solo finally

the geek cast 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.

Oh, yeah, I'd have to summon that and record

that separately. Work for you to do, finally.

I didn't know I was gonna have to do that. This

day's 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! GERACONS 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 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

solo Mac 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 much

prefer math at this point. Uh, 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. Hey, 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. I

Know I had to wait for some more series to come

out, you know, that's true If we would have done

it too soon, we would have already had to do

like an update and then a second update and then

every time a new show comes out. But yeah, it's

shocking that this is the, that we haven't done

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

And I am - 35th and 25th anniversary year, so

35th anniversary of Transformers the movie and

25th anniversary of Beast Wars. Absolutely. And

we had - More we got an overwhelming amount of

response for this one. Any of the other ones.

It's the it's the number one one as far as the

most less contributed. Yeah so you know we've

done. When we first started this, you know, we

were just relying on our very close -knit network

and some connections that we'd made over the

years, you know, 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 yeah, 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 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 gonna get you know TV's Mr

Neil's gonna submit it. that day. And DJ Beyond

Time is 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, um, I think it's

going to be interesting. So we had 33 lists submitted.

Which included over or nearly 3000 individual

votes so crazy 3000 votes and if you want to

think of it and 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 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 four hundred

and fifty characters that received at least one

vote wow. So we added and that is out of an eight

hundred character spreadsheet that we sent out

to everybody right which there could be writings

because it didn't include some especially some

of the more foreign like that a lot of the Japanese

stuff. We didn't quite include in that database

because we just looked at all the US cartoons

that it aired all the movies that have aired

in the US we looked at all the comic the major

comic book lines to try to include as much as

that would be impossible just to include all

the characters that have been in the comics it

would just be hard to twist your arm about IDW.

Yeah so 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 we're 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. Yep. 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 what,

you know, 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. We have G .C.

Aples, 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 Constructicon's rising arc of Transformers

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

extraordinaire Casey Coller, 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 RoboApollo

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. Pia from YouTube. He actually was the one

to give me the transfer when he was traveling

down to Louisville, Kentucky. over a decade ago

now. Just so many people to thank. Brand new

podcast. These guys have been in the Transformers

fandom for a long time. Sixo, Maz, and Liam.

The triple takeover Toycast. Absolutely love

those guys. If you guys want fresh, interesting,

new Transformers discussions or views from people

who aren't just in the US or Canada, these guys

are all overseas in the UK, Ireland, and 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, Scanner 51,

Die Hard, old school, GCRN fan, Tim Silver's

longtime supporter and super fan, super fan Bondo

Mike. And then you have you have so many Transformers

websites associated Mm -hmm, which I was ecstatic

about now. I I'm I'm a frequenter of of Also,

so so they actually submitted a list as well

Yeah, and that's awesome to have one of the top

websites out there like that's got to be in 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 the guy from collecticon

toys calm Do you submit a list? 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

John. 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, cool

stuff. I can't believe how... Much content they

put out so far because I just feel like putting

one Transformers comic out would be like a labor

of love for me. Other friends of the site that

we haven't mentioned yet, I kind of mentioned

TV's Mr. Neil 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 Or as

you used to know him as the movie revolt submitted

a list Another podcast the tfl yp transformers

podcast Um, is represented, um, a couple other

big time transformers fans, Sam's forge, who

is at Sam's Sam underscore makes underscore toys

and a solar Tron at solar dash transform are

on there. I'm trying to think if we've missed

anybody, but that's also the moon base two podcast.

Oh yeah. I've actually been working with Mikey

for a couple of episodes of the pullback and

stuff. We've been discussing toys back and forth

on Twitter quite often. Yeah. Yeah. Mikey is

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

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

David Paul Wallace. That's partly between that

and TFWire. That's partly how I found Amy. Yep.

And yeah, I love moon base too. Those guys are

awesome. We also have Transformers a DJ over

there. He's a super Transformers fan and I think

the other one I missed was Cole Krishna who does

if you search Autobot a con 97 reviews, 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 I'm not necessarily been around

the cast 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 been huge in the fandom for a long

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

of your highlights through 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 2010 time period. I was a part of many

Transformers forums, both doing RPGs on their

forums and also just doing fanfics. A variety

of those those type of things. I was introduced

to podcasting through TF wire and I became a

host of the podcast war stories where I read

people's fanfics in 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 touch bases

with a lot of different people over the years,

you know, through their websites and through

their forums. And so I've definitely followed

a lot of it, but the All Things Transformers

podcast has been going since 2008. Uh, we've

had the TFG one 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.

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

an audio form so i could listen to it so i didn't

have it by the time. Just like my secret of the

sword dvd i also not dvd vhs i should say cuz

there was no dvd back then. I both ruined a VHS

copy of He Man and She Are 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. like I was a kid

I didn't know anything about the 80s technology

kind of thing and whatever else and 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 and like reboot that that's trans what

the hell is this like I literally thought it

that the transformers cartoon was that reboot

was the neutral 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 you know I had kind of Watched it off

and on and kind of thing and by the 2000s I was

completely early 2000s. I was completely out

of it. I had no interest in 2001 rid No interest

in the in the unicorn trilogy or anything like

that when I started finding podcasts to listen

to back in 2006 2007 I had found TF wire. I'd

found Jesse and Spada and and then you know,

Ryan was with them as well and all that and So,

you know, I've kind of been around it and I'm

kind of like 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

Talk way way too toxic. That's why I love all

spark Yeah, all spark is awesome. I have fully

gotten into that that that that energon bath

yet, but 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 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

pullback. 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.

It'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.

Obviously grew up with the cartoon had a massive

toy collection back in the day. It has only grown

since then. And I kind of went in and out like,

but I, man, I craved transformers when I was

younger. Like this is before BSWords. I'm talking

about in the mid to late eighties 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 and 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 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 um 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 sci -fi channel i could be wrong but

it was like at like five o 'clock in the morning

or six 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 others so like

I was obsessed from an early age Obviously loved

Beast Wars loved Beast Machines and all that

Like Mike kind of faded it 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

unicorn 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 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 this is making it so we can't see

any of the other post 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. 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's somehow.

Must have alerted me. I must have it set so that

like if someone actually uses my name in the

thing or asked 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 and

they were trying to like 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 in 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. I want to say one of them I even bought

a toy off of or whatever. And so I started trying

to look them up and like. Almost all of them

have also have been banned since then. Oh my

god. It's not hard to get banned there apparently

because I see it in the comments on on Discord

a lot. Yeah, like I know those people exist now

on all spark or on other forums I don't know

maybe Cybertron but like I know that they they

found other ways to like But like some of these

guys were like 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 and Started working I met the guys that

did the you know BTBA and all that type of stuff

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

need that to like 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 I had me and my mom

match those all together and had them all in

sealed bags and things like that before it moved

out of her house way back 100 years ago. And

at some point I had them all displayed when I

was single and as something like I had to quickly

like pack them all away because I was moving

and they never got They never got sorted properly.

So I need to 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

of weeks, um, which I just don't want to pay

attention to how much I've spent on transformers

this year. So, um, Actually a super seven. 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 but But yeah,

the price point is outrageous and they don't

look that cool. Um So so yeah, so as a network,

I know you guys already dropped the podcast names

But just to clarify like 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 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

The cast radio network and always has been yes

we've done master z universe and we've done you

know various other other fandoms and things like

that but transformers has always been like the

main staples so. Hopefully people already know

that we exist if not that's who we are this is

why we're doing this and 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 JD 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 two

thousand five but he was one of the people what

it was him pia and proto man that helped me start

toy cast twelve years ago and he. September twenty

eighth of this year to be ten years since he

died 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 that's where

they have the problem. But anyways Yeah, you

bring up a good point though Mike because I did

we did mention all the podcasts that we've done

that are transformer specific But you also have

done a ton of transformers coverage on toy cast

You've had 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. Obviously,

Steve already mentioned all things Transformers.

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, etc. 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. So hopefully... Stan

Bush is still the single most returning guest

for interviews. Yeah. Five times. Yeah. So that's

awesome. And for those of you that don't know

how our Top 100 works... We basically collect

list 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 you know

their top fifty their top seventy five the top

one hundred you know how 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,

you know, 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 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. 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. Wild

bean vines. Hard to digest. Do not turn your

back on me, Maximal scum! Oh no! Not that! Um,

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. Other

combiners were only five, so we're not those

guys. We've got to be Devastator. Hey, gotta

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 was ranked too high and who was

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... You know do you feel like which um which

tv show or which generation is gonna be most

represented or anything that you're kind of curious

about as we head into this countdown. Dave well

i think i think um one i think obviously g1 is

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

names are gonna be reused through different series

um but i also i i have this inkling of a feeling

that. we're gonna see a majority of the Beast

Wars cast show up, if not all of them because

it's such a small cast. Yeah, that's gonna be

something to look for how the how the beast wars

slash beast machines represent compared to maybe

the G one who are a lot of the same characters

that we see and stuff like prime and war for

Cybertron, etc. Although obviously war for Cybertron

is blending the both. And it's also going to

be interesting to see what this countdown would

have been like if we did it, you know, six months

later after that aired. It would maybe Beast

Wars would be more prominent because people would

be remembering them better because. Seems like

the sports has a lot of respect as you know 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.

Whereas I feel like a lot of the CG stuff nowadays,

they don't have them transform. They have them

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

which I can understand that too. But yeah, I

mean, the generation that grew up with the movies

as their... their 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. I'm

not saying the movies didn't save it in today's

time because 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 like i know michael

wilson and maybe we'll have him on one of these

the these these reveal episodes i don't know

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 and it's

a joke. It's like it's not for me It's not like

oh my god. It's the end of the world at the same

time I really don't want to see the the robot

parts on the outside of my transformers 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 P .S. Wheeljack

has started in G1 and he's been in a bunch of

things. The way I, and you know, maybe we can

kinda go through each of how we went about making

our list. I went by generation. Cause I had to

cause 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 G one cart movie and cartoon

is completely different than what happens to

him in in the in the IDW continuity so I went

by generation and for me one hundred to. 89 was

easy my because again going by your point system

as you said earlier one point for number 100

100 points for number one 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. Right. 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 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

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

know and so like some of them I kind of ranked

based on You know how well they showed up how

many times they show up what you know their impact

is and the continuity that they're in How likeable

the character is you know 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 show and the universe. And

so like typically I put him, you know, in not

as an important capacity in the Right. The list

because while I understand he has an impact in

the franchise, I don't necessarily think he deserves

like top 25 status. On my personal list that

I submitted, Unicron comes in at 75, the Stuntacons

come in ahead of him from 74 to 71, and then

Cosmos... Don't go 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, it's I have a process and for this

one. For example, we had like 800 characters,

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

So, you know, if you have 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, you know, Megatron,

etc. So they're sorted by that. So what I did

is I scrolled down to the point where I be where,

in my opinion, they became ineligible to make

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

had only one appearance, unless they were like,

Phenomenal 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 current 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 gonna

make it in Unless they were just a you 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 You know start scrolling through

and all I do is I highlight the ones that I'm

like this is for sure Like if it's if I read

the name and in my head, that's like that hat

that is a top 100 character I just highlighted

it. I didn't care how much you know, I didn't

care where they're gonna fall in the rankings

I'm just highlighting things that I know I want

on my list like 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 you

know within 50 of what I need So then it might

be going through a second time and saying like,

okay, who is questionable? Like I would, 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 your 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, you know, are you

in the bottom 25 or the top 25 and I just keep

doing that until I my list is done And my brain

works in weird ways. So it doesn't take me a

whole long time to do that. Um, but it's a fun

process I'm wondering what you guys think just

two more questions before we kind of 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 combiner

since you mentioned it earlier mike you have

stuff like. Devastator and then you have all

of the component characters that make up devestator

yeah i have a lot of combine is within the transformers

universe so do you think the the the form where

they're all together is gonna be more represented

or that the individual people that make up that

combine are gonna 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 kit. Like if you want, if you love menasaur,

you're going to put menasaur in there. But if

you love the stunta cons individually, you're

going to put each individual sun to con in there.

Same thing with the construct a con same thing.

With, um, Oh, who makes the Terra cons. Right.

Right. You know, I, I really think it, cause

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. Cause that would

have just been stupid because honestly each,

and this is a perfect thing going back to Tyler.

Blazinski and his, the, the four issues 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 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 even just taking G1, for example, I think

the Constructicons and the Stunticons are more

hashed out. Whereas if you have like the Protectibots,

Or like the tarot cons like 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 that might be just the big bad or

the big good guy Or that's it. Yeah Steve either

thoughts on that or or the ultimate question

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

out what the answer to is because As you guys

probably don't know I'm the only one that knows

what the list is so everything else is live reactions

when live reactions for the record as far as

like Steve and Mike and whoever else we're gonna

have are gonna be reacting live when the reveal

happens one of us has to know the list so that's

how that goes but I'm gonna have to do some work

to find out the ultimate question Steve which

is are we gonna have more. Good guys or bad guys?

In terms of the the 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 just the variety

of characters. I think that we're gonna see probably

about an equal footing. I would be surprised

if the villains overtake the heroes. The villains

also have a lot more dynamic... Voicing and characterizations

and designs so they may push ahead to just because

there's a lot of different Variety there whereas

the Autobot seemed to be a lot of the same with

different design I can get that to a hundred

percent. It reminds me of like one of the early

g1 catalogs I don't know if it was like 80 586

or somewhere in there where like if you looked

at the if you counted up the number of autobots

in that little toy pamphlet compared to the decepticons

it was like very lopsided like there was way

more. Autobots available in that toy or whatever

it was because basically you have you know you

had like megatron and soundwave and shockwave

and then you had the seekers i know there's a

few others but the seekers was like the big group

but that's only like you know x number of characters

whereas the autobots had like. The littler cars,

the bigger cars, but they're like 12 times, 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, you know, Inferno, not Inferno,

Ironhide, 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 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 represented and possibly

more so. That's gonna be something else that

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

of like Seekers and and different classifications

of the the characters who has who's represented

and who's not it'll be interesting It's gonna

be extremely interesting to see where all of

this falls because Every look like you said that

catalog again, we're not Looking up what year

it is folks but i remember what you're talking

about 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 he man and masters

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 eighties.

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, but because it'll be on regular

Disney Plus in August, but I, I'm not a person

that cares too much about spoilers for the most

part. So I read the Wikipedia article for Corella

and then I read several other things about people

talking about the movie and it's like, why are

people worshiping evil these days? It's just,

there's just a lot of movies where they're just

doing that. I think they've think that they've

run the course with, with heroes, but to be fair,

the villains are always more interesting. Yeah,

for a lot of times. Yeah, or the anti -hero or

something of that nature So it's gonna be there's

so many different ways we can classify these

characters that it's gonna be interesting whether

it's Autobots and Decepticons good guys bad guys

beast You know the different continuity is whether

it be Beast Wars or prime characters or etc You

know like we talked about with the combiners

with the seekers with the cassettes There's gonna

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

gonna 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, and I'm

going to have to figure that out shortly. And

there's always 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 getting 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 cliff jumper 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. Organizations

and whatever oh no no no i know i know what i'm

saying is thank you to everybody who submitted

to the countdown to be a part of it we're 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 you know, that's

just glamour, too We're not including any of

these people to ride off of their coattails.

We are trying to just bring more people Yeah,

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 thing We're

just trying to give you all the participation

more attention, right? We just we just 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

from, you know, 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, you know, one of these others.

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's you know 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

friends you mean 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

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Visit the website, geekcastradio .com, where

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series, we start the countdown with 100 through

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

Phillips and Optimus Solo. We are 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.