Top 100 Countdown – TRANSFORMERS CHARACTERS – Part 5 – #25-01

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. I got a vibe tells

me I should be sitting in on this scene for a

while. You got the touch! This is Stan Bush,

and you're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network's

Top 100 Transformers Characters Countdown. And

use the power of the Matrix to light our dark...

Optimus. Yeah! Yes. Please, Rodimus, save us

all, because we all know Optimus couldn't get

the job done. Welcome to a very special episode

of the All Things Transformers brand here at

the Geekcast Radio Network. Whether it's TFG1

unleashing the beast or getting tapped, we are

now in the prime time with the Top 100 Transformers

Characters Countdown. I am one of your Cybertronian

hosts, TFG1 Mike. Joining me, as always, is the

rubber ducky lovin' Steve Megatron. Hello! Hello.

And from the planet of junk, we have Optimus

Solo, and our special guest is none other than...

I am Rengar! I dare to be stupid! Ho, ho, ho!

Merry Christmas! Garbage for all the good little

children! This is getting expensive. Well, today

we will be revealing who came in at the number

25 through 1 spots. We've got to get a new travel

agent. Nah, Hot Rod, we're just power gliding

through this epic Top 100 Transformers podcast

series. Yes. We will see where any of the contributors'

number ones will fall, or if they will even make

it, because we should never forget. One shall

stand, and one shall fall. That's right, but

before we get right into the countdown, we want

to take one more moment to thank all of the 33

contributors. Obviously, Optimus Solo, Steve

Megatron, and myself. along with comic concierge

Dan Clark, TV's Mr. Neal, Michael Wilson, Amy,

Heather, and Nicole. Over at Simplistic Reviews,

DJ Valentine, who apparently is flying off somewhere

with Astrotrain. I don't know where DJ is. He

was supposed to be here tonight, folks. Over

at This Week in Geek, Alex Ricci. Several websites

were also contributors to our Top 100 Transformers

Characters Countdown. including AllSpark, Transformers

AD, and Collection, as well as several podcasts.

We have TFLYP for Lucas and that podcast. We

have Mikey and Andy over at the Moonbase 2 podcast.

And what I'm basically calling the best new Transformers

podcast of 2021, Triple Takeover featuring Sixo.

Maz and Liam. And yes, Maz does live in Iceland.

He is the one that lives in Iceland, I remember.

In the other episode, I was like, I'm not sure

which one of them lives wherever they live, kind

of thing. We have three super fans that we love

and have supported us over the years that contributed

to this. Scanner51, Toon Master Tim Silvers,

and Bondo Mike, as well as several people from

YouTube. Cole Krishna. who is AutoboticCon97Reviews

over there on YouTube, Rodimus Primal, Pia, and

Iacon Dispatch, John from Iacon Dispatch over

there. We have several content creators that

we need to thank. Transformers Reanimated Yoshi

and Greg, Anthony from TFU .info. I've been listening

to his podcast recently. I listened to his Rebirth

episode. Oh boy, I love the Rebirth. So good.

We also have several super guest stars in writer

Tyler Bleszinski, artist Casey Collar, and Transformers,

would you call him a historian, Steve, I assume?

I would say probably. Yes. The Transformers historian

and super fan, Mr. Benson Yee. We also have...

Some other Transformers geeks as well, including

Robo Apollo from Iacon Online, where all are

one. Thank you to everybody. Without all of these

lists, without all of your time, without all

of the effort that went into this, this countdown

would not be happening right now. We'd be waiting

another 12 years to do this thing. Let's not

wait 12 years. And just to correct you, it's

Collecticon, not Collection. Oh, Collecticon.

Sorry. Gotta be Transformer -wise. Yep. I'm a

Transformer's dumbass, as everybody knows. But

yeah, it was a lot of work to put those lists

together, so thank you, everybody. Hey, Optimus

Solo, that's an awesome cassette deck. Man, that

technology hasn't held up. Disclosure averted.

Continue observation. We are now faced with the

top 25 faces of darkness, so let's get right

into the countdown. All right, before we get

into the actual numbers, I'd like to just take

a look back, guys, so far at what's happened.

what has transpired during the other 75 reveals

and where we are at with our different categories.

And then we'll get right into the actual number

25 pick. So just to recap what's happened so

far, hopefully you guys have listened, but it's

a lot to listen to and a lot of different characters

to think about. So we'll try to sum it up for

you right here. So, so far we have had 11 Beast

Wars characters, Steve. So that's good. 11 of

those guys. We've had 6 female characters. As

far as the battle of good versus evil, right

now the evil characters, bad guys, Decepticons,

Predacons, however you want to classify them,

we're sitting at 31 of them. That means for good

guys, we're sitting at 44. So a commanding lead

for the good guys, 13 more good characters than

bad so far. As far as the kind of categories

that we've been thrown about and discussing as

we've gone through, let's try to go from least

to most so far. So we've had one Pretender. We've

had two Headmasters and two Insecticons. We've

had three Combiners, three Dinobots, three...

Actual combined forms like the Gestalt or however

you're going to say that. Three triple changers.

Oh, I missed one. We've only had two seekers.

So those are kind of the small groups. Then we

get into a few bigger groups. We've had six bases

or like city bots. We've also had six mini vehicles.

So six of the tiny guys, six of the huge guys.

Five cassettes. Eight Autobot cars. So that's

kind of where it sits right now. Mike, as we

look back at what's already happened and things

of that nature. First off, one thing that's common

about these countdowns, guys, when we do these

top 100s is that when we're doing the 100 through

76 picks, nobody knows what's about to happen.

We don't know who's going to be named. It could

go in all kinds of different directions. There's

lots of surprises. As we keep revealing characters,

it gets more and more predictable. predictable

as to who's going to show up so there's probably

those of you out there that are listening especially

if you've been listening die hard through this

whole countdown that probably have a decent idea

as to probably the possibilities that could be

revealed today. You might have all 25 listed

or you might have a list of like 30 and you're

pretty sure that 25 of them are going to fall

today. So it's not about necessarily surprising

you today. There shouldn't be too many of that.

And as we go further, you know, once we reveal

the first 10, it's going to be even more obvious

what the last 15 are, what the top 10 are, what

the top five are. And as we get towards the number

one, it will be very obvious who that is as we

reveal each. pick so it's not necessarily about

knowing who's going to be in this top 25 it's

just about kind of what order they go in we can

argue about who belongs where and just kind of

being able to talk about the greatest transformers

characters that we've seen in the whole property

in the whole franchise so it's not necessarily

about predicting all these names that are about

to be said, but that being said about that 75

that we've already revealed, Mike, what's your

biggest takeaway, biggest surprise, or what have

you seen so far that struck you interesting in

the first 75? I wish we had a few more female

characters. I wish Blaster was a little higher,

but I understand. It's not that big of a deal.

I gotta say, I gotta agree with Amy, a .k .a.

Lady Wreck, when she was on Part 4. The fact

that we've gone from 99 to wherever the next,

like, what was it, 40 choices, 60 choices, whatever

it is, between cassettes, that's a little crazy,

and I don't know. I don't know where this is

going to go. I'm excited for it, and it's going

to be interesting to see who these 25 Faces of

Darkness are. We've also seen a couple of the

contributors' number one picks fall. In the very

first episode, we saw TFReanimated's number one

pick, which was Powerglide, fall. In the second

episode, we saw Pialu's number one, which was

Snarl. And in the last episode, we saw Amy see

her number one fall, which would have been Springer.

So those are the number ones that have fallen.

That means there's 30 people that still have

their number ones yet. to go, and we actually

have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, I believe.

No, 10 characters that we're going to talk about

today that were somebody's number one. So that

means 10 out of the 25 were somebody's number

one. That's kind of crazy. Steve, thoughts back

on the previous 75, or what are you looking forward

to as far as today goes? I still think some of

the Beast Wars characters got shafted, but I'm

going to be calling for a recall. That's the

thing. We all have our number ones that we're

pulling for, and there's, like I said, 10 of

them that have to fall here in this 25. If he

makes it in the top 10, I'll be happy. What if

he makes it in the top 15? He'll make it in the

top 10. Yeah, sure. Rodimus is going to be in

the bottom half. Five people's number one are

not going to make it in the top 15. I will just

say that much. So five of them will not make

it in the top 15. And then there's a whole lot

towards the top that will be revealed. So I guess

that is enough rambling back and forth and speculation.

We'll have to kind of see how it all plays out.

Another thing that we had been kind of looking

at throughout the countdown was kind of, you

know, like which. series or which mediums was

most represented, whether it was, you know, G1,

Beast Wars, Animated Prime, et cetera, et cetera,

War for Cybertron even. So we've seen... A few

here and there. I mean, obviously it's been mostly

G1. Beast Wars would probably be the next best

represented thing. And then we've seen just a

handful of things from Animated Prime, comics,

etc. Comics would probably be number three right

now, actually, with where we're at. And then

I would think it would be a toss -up between

Animated Prime and... maybe i don't know i don't

think anything else has been represented too

well so that means that a lot of these characters

are in multiple things so it's just about which

version you like best so let's stop the diablin

let's get right into it what number are we on

number 25 we start today like they said number

25 And let's go ahead and get one of those number

ones right out of the way, right off the bat.

This character was on 21 lists. There's only

one character that was on less list today. So

this is the second fewest in my list, but an

average ranking of 28. That's why he's able to

sneak into this top 25 as highly ranked as number

one. We had one, two, three, four, five people

that had him in the top 10, another four in the

top 20. And then we had some people kind of in

the 20s, 30s, 40s, all the way into the 60s.

We had three people that had him in the 60s.

So he falls here. At number 25, and we are speaking

of the one and only... The hero of the Cybertronian

Wars, the leader of the Autobots, the bearer

of the Matrix... Wait for it. Rodimus Prime!

Let's do it! Rodimus Prime. Why'd I have to be

the chosen one? Number 25. Hey, you know what?

That's good. I called it. He beat out 75 other

characters. That's right. Made it into the top

25. So obviously Mike is reacting because Mike

is the one that had him at his number one. We

have the whole spectrum here, though, because

we have Mike. You were the highest ranked at

number one. I was the lowest ranked for Rodimus

Prime at 68. So that's the spectrum. From one

to 68, of course. 12 people left him off the

list altogether. But Mike, why Rodimus as your

number one? And you said you're happy that he's

in the top 25. Expand on that a little bit. Yeah,

I mean, it's kind of like Steve reacting to Tarantulas

at 62. You know, it's one of those things where

as a kid, yes, I cried. Yes, I was shocked that

Megatron killed Optimus Prime. Megatron pulled

the trigger. Rodimus didn't pull the damn trigger.

Anyway. He just held the gun. No, he didn't.

Rodimus never came anywhere near Megatron's gun.

Metaphorically. Anyway, yeah. Metaphorically.

I think this might be... But the point is, you

asked me the thing. He was the character. Rodimus,

to me, is what Dick Grayson Nightwing is, to

me, in DC Comics. Optimus is essentially the

Batman of Transformers. He's... Something you'll

never live up to kind of thing. Rodimus is that

character that you can kind of say, oh, hey,

he's going through these problems. I'm going

through these problems. I can kind of relate

to the guy kind of thing. He's a relatable character.

He's a fun character. And what they did with

him in IDW just brings him so far. He is so far

over the top. This is why I say the IDW comics,

even though they are G1 continuity based, they're

so outside the scope of what the animation was

in the 80s. Because these writers and artists

take these characters to levels that I've never

seen before. And I just, I always liked the guy.

I always thought it was cool that, you know,

he was... He got Optimus' blessing. He was the

one that had to be the new leader. He was the

one that had to basically save Cybertron. And

he did, unlike Optimus, letting it die for four

million years. We'll see who ranks higher. Let's

see. One thing that I thought of, kind of as

I was listening back to some of the episodes

we've already recorded here, because one of the

things that came up last episode was the distance

between rumble and frenzy and the reason i bring

that up is because the more i thought about it

the i was thinking possibly that in making a

top 100 list you only have so many spots and

where people deciding one over the other like

saying these characters are so similar they're

both cassettes they both look similar they're

both from soundwave etc that i'm only going to

rank one Or, you know, that type of thing where

there's only room for one that's a similar character.

So I wonder when we have characters like that,

whether it be a Rumble Frenzy situation or whether

it be something like a Rodimus versus Hot Rod,

which we separated into two different characters.

Almost you could think of like a Megatron versus

Galvatron, which we separated. You know, did

people only have room for one or did it cause

them to rank one of the two higher? That type

of thing. So I don't know if that played into

people's rationale when they were ranking things,

but I think that might have at least had something

to do with Rumble and Frenzy. We'll see how it

plays out if Hot Rod made the countdown or how

close he is to Rodimus if he did and that type

of thing. But Rodimus, to me, I think he looked

cool in... Some art and in the comics and probably

in G1, at least better than he looked in animated.

He looked kind of like a turd in animated. No,

he was cool in animated. I'm talking about how

he looked. He died of cosmic rust. Yeah. But

I thought he was cool looking. I liked the voice

work for him. I just didn't like the writing

for Rodimus in G1. Obviously, I'm not alone.

But Steve, what are your thoughts on Rodimus?

I mean, I do agree. His writing was pretty weak

and they kind of made him like basically. In

some regards, and I know Rodimus fanboys are

going to hate me for this statement, but in a

way, they wrote Rodimus how they wrote Beast

Wars Megatron and Kingdom. Oh, yes, they did.

No, they did not. No, they did not. No, listen,

hear me out. He wasn't that bad, but he still

was like fawning over Optimus Prime consistently

to the point that he put his entire team at risk

to get Optimus' dead body back. True story. I

see the connection there. But I liked him as

Hot Rod. If the Decepticons had any guts, we'd

be taking a serious pounding. I got news for

you. This isn't any picnic. Decepticons, prepare

to go in for the kill. That's what I'm saying.

It'll be interesting to see if both of them make

it and how it turns out with that. um but rodimus

i mean just think of it guys if rodimus is at

number 25 like that just talks again like i said

last episode just talks about how many good characters

there are if one of the leaders at one point

in the franchise is number 25 we got 24 characters

that beat that. So that's just talking about

the caliber of characters we have to deal with

in this franchise, I think. And now they're going

for the gusto, right? Yes, but however, as much

as I hate to do this, he did put the work in

for it, and he's a Rodimus naysayer too, but

we do have a special guest here with us. So let's

get it over to TV's Mr. Neal and hear his opinion

on Rodimus. It was the only way into the Matrix.

Hey, guys. TV's Mr. Neal here. I wanted to send

in my thoughts about Mike Blanchard's favorite

Transformer, G1 Rodimus Prime, but I didn't want

him to know that I was actually doing this, so

I sent it to Kevin. Anywho, I'm sure Rodimus

is going to clear the top 50 or possibly even

the top 25. Whatever it is, it's way, way too

high. No, actually... Rodimus is a great character

in the movie. The problem with Rodimus Prime

is that the TV show had to continue, and as such,

the program had to unresolve his character arc

from the movie and present him as the put -upon

hero who questions his worth as commander. And

he seems willing to drop the Matrix whenever

the opportunity presents itself, which he does

twice. And then despite having the epiphany by

the end of season three that the Matrix chose

him for a reason, the first thing he does when

the Spore Plague explodes is to have Optimus

Prime resurrected anyway. He's also the bearer

of my least favorite vehicle design. What kind

of vehicle is that anyway? I've joked in the

past that he's either a garbage truck or a Winnebago

or something. But honestly, what made Transformers

cool was that kids love robots and they love

cars. Real cars. It was cool to fantasize that

the tractor -trailer truck coming down the highway

might be a robot. Rodimus Prime is like some

kind of alien truck, though. Where am I ever

going to see a car like that? Rodimus' vehicle

mode is like the Homer. It's like it's designed

by someone who doesn't know how cars work. I

mean, just look at the wheelbase. It's got three

sets of wheels. Look at the set behind the smokestacks.

It defies logic. You tell me how that thing is

supposed to turn. But my main problem with Rodimus

is that he's just not the star of the show. I'm

sorry, but it just seemed like he was thrust

upon us for the most crass of reasons. We couldn't

have the other guy because his toy was discontinued.

I'm sorry. I came to this party for the guy who

turns into a red truck. You're giving me a U

-Haul trailer with flame decals on the side.

This isn't what I signed up for. Anyway, TV's

Mr. Neal, signing out. His judgment is obviously

impaired. No more jokes, Springer. Cybertron's

in deadly danger. We're heading back there. Now.

Yes, sir, Mr. Leader, sir. Thank you so much,

Neil. You're wrong, but thank you. No, thank

you, Mr. TV. TV's Mr. Neil. I've never agreed

with you more. You can't even say his name right.

That's because I'm so happy that someone shot

him. He's shot. Great, great clip there. All

right, let's move on then before Mike gets upset

at me. Well, Spinocho, think of time for number

24. All right, that is right. We're at number

24. I didn't tell you the point totals for this

episode, but we're going anywhere from 1 ,500

to 3 ,000. Yep. 1 ,500 to 3 ,000. So that is

a crazy span. Usually each one is separated by

a few points here, a few points there. The gaps

start becoming crazy in this episode. If you

just look back at the last part of last episode,

let's just look at the last, I don't know, five

characters. There was a six -point difference,

a one -point difference, a ten -point difference,

a two -point difference. Now we're going to go

from 1 ,500 to 3 ,000. And just so you know what

that means, 1 ,500 means that 15 of the 33 people

would have had to rank this person at number

one. When we get to 3 ,000, I mean, that means

that 30 of the people would have had to rank

him at number one, basically, almost. So it gets

a little crazy. All right, number 24, beating

Rodimus out by about 60 points, actually. He

was on 24 lists, average ranking of 34 .3, but

nobody had him higher than 8. We had a lot of

people had him in different groups. So there

was an 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, and then there was

like a 29, 34, 34, 36, 37, and then a bunch of

the 40s and the 60s. So we are talking about

an Autobot here. Sometimes goes by the name of

Jetfire, other times by Skyfire. That's what

we're talking about here at number 24. I'm too

darn big to sneak around like this. You didn't

tell us anything. Why are we in Egypt? Don't

you get snippy with me, fleshling. Could that

energy somehow be used to reactivate Optimus

and bring him back to life? It was never designed

for that purpose, but it's an energy like no

other. Steve, what do you think of Jetfire coming

in here at 24? I think that he's definitely earned

his keep. I mean, in G1, he was not very frequent,

other than like Fire in the Sky. But no, I think

he's kind of earned it. He's been in enough of

the Transformers media since the Armada trilogy

type stuff that I think he's earned his keep.

Another Revenge of the Fallen character, if anyone's

keeping track. Nobody cares about that movie.

You know what? Honestly, Jetfire was the shining

example in Revenge of the Fallen, besides Ravage

for me anyway. And I don't know when the last

time is you watched G1, Steve, because I know

you watch Beast Wars daily. But because we've

been doing this whole countdown thing and everything,

and I've been going through all 98 episodes for

the audio. Jetfire or Skyfire, whatever you want

to call him. He was in a lot more than just a

few episodes. Yeah, he just never felt like he

was in a lot, though. Because, again, he had

his spotlight in Fire in the Sky. I believe he

was in Fire in the Mountain. Basically, they

used him as the transport. I actually prefer

him in The Warford. Cybertron trilogy over G1

almost. He looks the coolest in that and he actually

doesn't look bad in Cyberverse. But he gets more

characterization. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but

didn't he get buried in the ice on purpose to

warm the planet and then all of a sudden he was

back? Wait, in G1? No, he crash landed and he

was buried. But then he just all of a sudden,

miraculously, was back. Well, right, because

Starscream found him. And they were trying to

make... At the end of the episode, he went back

into the ice. Oh, that's right. He did, didn't

he? What the hell? And all of a sudden, he was

back. For me, he's a lot like Skylynx. They're

just characters that were these big, big in size,

strong, etc. And they almost both kind of...

flirted with being both bad and good at different

times and things like that and i i say that they're

similar because neither one of them really had

an impact on me as a child i've grown to appreciate

jetfire a little bit more over time Skylynx is

still kind of the same, but neither one of them

just ever, like, it didn't click with me. Like,

it wasn't one that I was just like, oh, I want

that toy, or oh, I want to see more of that character.

I'm not trying to take anything away from him.

I know a lot of people like the character. You

know, he's like a seeker on steroids, but I don't

know. For me, like, I had Jetfire ranked at 37,

so it wasn't too far off. He's here at 24. I'm

fine with him being in the top 50. He just never

was one of my favorites. I'm sorry to those Skyfire

fans out there, Jetfire fans out there. I think

the coolest, the funniest line he had, and it's

true because he is twice as big as some of the

other bots in G1, I think it's fire on the mountain.

It's not fire in the sky. It's the other one.

I'm just too darn big to be sneaking around here

like this. They tried to use him as a sneaking

mission person, and I'm like, oh, God, don't

do that. All right. all right so two autobots

for starting it off let's see if that streak

continues or not next number 23 That's right.

It is time for number 23, and the Autobot streak

will be broken. We are going to a Decepticon,

and we're also going to answer another question

because we weren't sure if we would or how many

we would see of this type of character. We've

seen only a few of them up to this point. I believe

we've seen three, possibly. We saw Superion.

We saw Bruticus. We saw Predaking. Now we see

Devastator. And now we see Devastator. So on

22 list, average ranking of 25 .5. So we almost

hit the average ranking. He comes in here at

number 23. And this was writer Tyler Blazinski's

number one. So another number one falls here.

We had Rodimus Prime already. Now we have Devastator.

Anywhere from 1 to 76. I missed this one just

by a bit. I had him ranked 26th. He comes in

here at 23rd. Mike? Thoughts on Devastator? I

really dig Devastator. I think he's a fun bot.

Again, I love what Tyler did with him in the

writing in Transformers Galaxies issues one through

four, where he was the seventh personality. It

wasn't just one of the other Constructicons as

the whatever. As far as G1 goes, I absolutely

love him showing up. That was the coolest thing

about that one Transformers Devastation. Oh man,

I remember when that video game first got announced

and whatever else. We saw that scene with him

and everybody fighting him in the middle of the

city, whatever. So cool. Absolutely love Devastator.

Yeah, to me, he was always one of my favorites

growing up. I will say that a little bit like...

Predaking, but in a different way. His toys as

a combiner were not quite as good as a lot of

the other ones we got. I felt the Autobots had

better combiners. Yeah, I just felt like the

Constructicons and the Aerialbots were the hardest

ones. They were like the least sturdy. of the

group when it was coming into its combined form

like a lot of the other ones that came after

that or around that same time were a little bit

more well put together where you could stand

them up easier maybe it was just because mine

were played with so much but it seemed like they

were a lot more floppy flimsy um but in the cartoon

like he is a badass when it comes to combiners

steve is this the end of the combiners do we

just get those four is devastator the most deserving

to be this high is there anything else that we

should see combiner wise I don't think we're

going to see another combiner. I think this is

the last nail in the coffin for that. There's

so many characters between Beast Wars and Generation

1 that have not been covered yet. Devastator

was always that favorite that everybody had.

Do we have the right four then? With Devastator,

Predaking, Bruticus, and Superion? Yeah, I think

so. I mean, Defensor I would have put on too,

but to some degree, he kind of really didn't

play much into it, and neither did... Computron.

Computron, or... I was thinking maybe Menasor.

Yeah, Menasor. Menasor I could have seen too,

but if you were going to get him, you would almost

have to have Defensor too. Because Superion and

Devastator kind of go hand -in -hand to some

degrees. But yeah, I mean, I definitely think

he's deserving. I put... devastator at 29 on

my list so yeah a lot of people actually almost

everybody that ranked him there was three people

out of the 22 that ranked him on the other side

of 50 um and one two three four five six seven

eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen of the

22 people had him in the top 25 so pretty overwhelming

agreement there that he is deserving to be in

the top 25. I would agree with that as well.

Even though I had him at 26, it's pretty damn

close. The cool thing about Devastator was you

could get him as a, you could get the Constructicons

as a gift set. If I remember, if I'm remembering

right, I think that was the only way you could

get them back in the day. In the world of the

Transformers, nothing is what it seems. Meet

the Constructicons, six evil robots that transform

into one mechanical giant. That was even before.

There was a few Transformers that my brother

owned before I got my own. And this was one of

the sets that he had already owned. So I don't

know how he came about them or how they came

or whatever. I just remember that I immediately

inherited them from him because he was 10 years

older than me and I was kind of at the stage

where he was too old for toys. So he got in right

at the end and then I got to get all of his toys.

I was happy about it. All right, so that's one

Decepticon. We're going to see who comes next.

I will tell you this much. It's going to be a

character that has appeared on more lists than

anybody so far through the countdown. Should

we wrap him up and tie him up in a little bow

for Megatron? Number 22. So number 22 here, and

he has appeared on 27 out of the 33 lists. So

only six lists was this character omitted. from

that's the most so far in the entire countdown.

He is not somebody's number one, though. The

highest that anybody had him ranked was two people

had him at number six. Guys, we've only had two

Seekers. Let's get our third one out of the way.

This will be... Thundercracker. Thundercracker

at number 22. We've only seen Skywarp and Thrust,

I believe, was the first one we saw. Way back

at number 96. And then Skywarp was number 36.

So now we get Thundercracker at 22. Great working

with you, Starscream. Yeah, but even without

our new weapon, I can fry your circuits extra

crispy. Megatron would love it. But that geeky

Starscream would take all the credit. Mike, is

that the right order? Thundercracker, then Skywarp,

then Thrust? I would put Skywarp ahead of Thundercracker,

but that's just me personally. I love Thundercracker's

voice in the G1 cartoon. I had Thundercracker

and Skywarp at 52 and 53. I've hit them at 49.

Not because I think they're bad characters at

all. There's just so many characters that I feel

like got explored more, that were more complex,

that had more depth to them. And Thundercracker

and Skywarp were like the henchmen. They were

like the right and left hand. jet or seeker to

Starscream in a way. I loved their color schemes

and I always wanted their toys because I didn't

have them when I was a child. I have them now,

but I didn't have them as a child. So I always

liked them as a character. But when I was coming

to rank the characters, I just couldn't... Like,

how many... big time stories do you remember

involving them compared to, I'm not saying they

don't exist, but compared to the number of stories

that you see from some of the other characters

we're talking about. So that's the only reason

I had them closer to the 50 mark versus the 25

mark. But I don't, I mean, it's clearly that

they deserve to be talked about at some point

during the countdown. Right, Mike? Yeah. And

for everybody who's interested for the IDW continuity,

the 2005 continuity, Thundercracker has an interesting

story in that continuity. Interesting. Yeah,

he adopts a dog at one point. That's crazy. So

there's 12 people that had him in the top 20,

25 -ish, and most of those people had him between

14 and 19. Steve, what do you think of Thundercracker

coming in here at 22? What's the matter, fearless

leader? You and Starscream look real geeky. Maybe

the Autobots have such wits after all. Does he

have to make that awful thunder noise? I've got

a headache. And they call themselves Decepticons.

I'm honestly surprised, and I totally forgot

about him, despite the fact that, I mean, I had

him at 49 on my list, or 47 on my list, but still.

I'm a little surprised he didn't come in sooner.

But at the same time, we're getting to those

core characters now at this point that were featured

in season one and parts of season two and not

after that, unless they were in another series.

But yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised he's here.

And I did enjoy him in Skywarp, even though they

didn't get the limelight as much as Starscream.

Absolutely. So another seeker joins the group.

So far we've had only three. So let's see where

we go to next. How about into the world of the

Beast Wars? You insolent worms. How dare you

rank the mighty Megatron at the number 21? However,

that is Steve Megatron's favorite number. So

at least I fell in the top 125. However, I will

be sending all of you to my Vehicons and have

your sparks extracted. Yes. Megatron. Megatron.

Oh, yes, indeed. So let's cut through the signal

noise, shall we? All right. For number 21, like

I said before, we're going to the world of Beast

Wars. We've had 11 of those characters so far,

so this will represent the 12th in that group.

On the list from as far as number 1 to number

62, we're talking about the leader of the Predacons,

Beast Wars. I knew it! Megatron. So now Mike

and Steve's number 1 have both fallen. And I'll

tell you why Beast Wars Megatron comes in at

21. I think it's the same reason why we saw some

other things, maybe with Rodimus Prime, kind

of going back to that Frenzy and Rumble character

thing. I think people might have not put him

on because they were putting Megatron on in a

way. I don't know if people were just thinking

that they could only put one or not because Beast

Wars Megatron is on the fewest number of lists

of any character today in today's episode. Megatron

was on 20 lists and Rodimus was on 21. Everybody

else is on more lists than that. So I don't know

if it's a curse of the Beast Wars with not being

on as many lists or if it's a curse of sharing

a name with another character that people left

him off. But literally 13 people left Beast Wars

Megatron off of their list, which is indescribable

and unacceptable unless they had all seen Kingdom,

which would have been impossible. If they had

given their list after Kingdom, I feel like everybody

would put this Megatron on their list. Yeah.

Just real quick before anybody else gives their

thoughts, let me break it down because he was

ranked super high by those that ranked him. His

average ranking was 14 .1. which if I was just

making this list based on average ranking, which

wouldn't be fair because there should be something

that goes for being on all the lists and that

type of stuff, he would have ranked number five,

I believe, if I'm doing my math correctly. So

he would have ranked number five on average ranking

because he was ranked number one. Two people

had him ranked number two. One person had him

ranked number three. One number five, three six,

two sevens, and a ten. So there was others that

had him on the other side of ten. That many people

had him ranked in the top 10, including a lot

of firsts, seconds, thirds, etc. Very well ranked

and respected from the people that voted for

him. Just not enough people voted for him. I

guess I can partially be to blame. I did vote

for him, but I had him at 16. I just had 15 people.

You still put him on your list. Yes, I had him

on my list. I had him at 16. I will extract your

spark and destroy you. And there's going to be

a little bit of that going forward because as

we get to these iconic, iconic characters, I'm

just going to throw something out, guys. There's

not a single character that made it on all 33

lists. So we can have that argument with a lot

of these characters that how can you leave? You

had 100 spots. and you left Vsword's Megatron

off, that same statement is going to be able

to be made for a bunch of other characters. You

had 100 spots, and you left Blank off. Watch

Bubble be number one just because it's shoving

it down our throat. Then we protest. We recount.

But, Steve, I'll give you a moment to laud Megatron

a little bit and to kind of make your case for

why he should be higher. Well, I mean, for crying

out loud, the guy, not only did he steal the

Golden Desk, Not only did he start the Beast

Wars and take them to Earth, knowing that it

was Earth, but just the sheer audacity that he

has to not care what anybody else thinks and

just do what he wants, take over. I mean, he

dealt with so many betrayals by his own team.

uh like bad decisions and then there were other

points where he totally lobotomized the maximals

uh and you take the also the the evolution whether

you love it or hate it or not but beast machines

the dude won the beast wars he got back to cybertron

before any of them had destroyed him uh he wiped

them all out except for primals like main him,

Rattrap, Cheetor, and Blackarachnia and everybody

else was just kind of screwed. And if it weren't

for the fact that the Oracle stepped in, Megatron

would have won even in Beast Machines. Great

vocal performance too, obviously. Yeah, I mean,

David Kaye's awesome. You can't top that. Sorry,

Kingdom. Sorry, not sorry. Honestly, if I would

have seen Kingdom before I made my list, I probably

would have docked him a few spots just for the

crappy way that they depicted him in Kingdom.

Well, I would have had to rank separately for

Kingdom. But the only ones for Kingdom I would

have even put on my list were Megatron and Starscream

for the War for Cybertron trilogy. The rest of

them, no. But, I mean, I would have just ranked

Beast Wars Megatron just for the sheer fact that

it was so horrible. um in kingdom but anyways

yeah i mean i'm i'm a little surprised people

didn't rank a lot of the beast wars characters

to be honest um but what i mean yeah i put him

as my number one but he's either way he's top

10 material at least oh absolutely i had him

at number seven i mean it wasn't he he took out

all of the i mean opposition you know it took

the stinking planet to come in and save the day

like it's interesting he was He took everyone

down. Right. It's interesting because we kind

of get to this point and I didn't kind of use

this as a classification at any point throughout

the other three episodes that we've done. You

know what I'm talking about, you know, cars and

many vehicles or whatever, but you almost have

to have a classification now for leaders. And

I think when it comes to the people that were

in leadership positions, there's just. people

that are very much in one camp or the other with

each different leader like you're either a fan

or you're not and we're gonna see quite a few

of them today obviously as you would expect in

the top 25 we've already seen two with Rodimus

Prime and Beast Wars Megatron so I think it's

interesting like I have I can see everybody making

a case for each one being number one, two, three,

you know, somewhere in there. So it's going to

be interesting to see kind of how those go down

and how you guys found it is. It's also very

hard for me, guys, because you guys kept making

jokes at each other that... oh, somebody's going

to be number 25. Somebody's going to be number

25. I'm staring at the list knowing that both

of your guys are 25 and 21. I'm like, I don't

know if we're going to make it to the top 20.

I'm like, I don't know if we're going to make

it to the top 20. I might lose both co -hosts

before we get to the top 20. I'm glad you guys

are still on board. Nobody has killed the other

person or anybody. That's good. First of all,

I can't kill Steve because he needs to run the

website and do his damn job. Second of all, he

can't kill me. because I'm the one doing all

the editing. So there's no way we were ever going

to kill each other. It's all in good fun. And

hey, like I said... I don't know which one's

the host. I don't know. So like I said, Rodimus

made the top 25. I'm happy. I'm absolutely ecstatic.

If Rodimus... Oh, God. I would go crazy if Rodimus

was 99 and Frenzy was 25. I'd go nuts. We'd have

a riot on our hands. But, you know... Not really,

no. Have you seen what has happened in the last

year in this country? Anyway. But, no, I mean,

that's where they fall. It is what it is. They

both made it into the top of the countdown. That's

great. The true test of this will be to see who

comes afterwards. You're each going to be comparing

each character that we named for the rest of

the way and saying Megatron or Rodimus should

be better than that one. You're going to be like,

oh, why did... Oh, let's see. That's going to,

it's going to, it's literally going to happen

in the next pick. So I can't wait. Why did defense

or get number two? And number one. All right.

Trigger happy. Where the hell did that come from?

He's in the headmasters. That would have been

like the one, that would have been like the one

countdown where we ended up having a lot more

people that had grown up in the nineties than

we had expected. And then all of a sudden all

the Disney movies from the nineties were beating

out like good stuff. I was like, what is happening?

Anyways, we've had three. Evil characters in

a row, you could say, with Devastator, Thundercracker,

and Megatron. Let's see if that streak continues

next. Oh, it's time for number 20. All right.

As they said, this is number 20. So now we are

into our top 20. One group of categories that

we haven't seen yet today would be the Autobot

cars. So let's go to a G1 Autobot car, but he's

also been very much present in a lot of other

iterations. This was one of my childhood favorites

as, you know, growing up on G1. I loved this

character. I wish he would have got more time.

since then or in g1 i feel like he kind of got

lost in the shuffle but we're talking about butrex

report we are being followed the police car named

prowl stay clear blue streak my battle computer

is down I'm helpless. I must link up with another

online computer. So Prowl is at number 20. He

was on 26 lists. Average ranking of 32. Highest

anybody had him ranked was number 9. And he went

all the way to 95. I had him ranked 19th. He

comes in here at 20th. I just really liked the

look of the G1 Prowl. I don't know if it was

because my dad was a police officer part -time,

and I just liked the police officer look. But

the red, I don't know what you want to call those,

not eyebrows, but the face pieces above his eyes

looked cool. So I really thought he was a cool

-looking character. I was always sad because,

like Mirage, he was one of the toys that I had

that was busted at a very early stage. So I never

had him really in full piece. I need to go get

a Mirage and a Prowl that are fully together

because both of mine are broken in pieces. But

I always wanted one because I thought he was

a cool character and I liked his head mold as

well. It's hard with the Autobot cars for me.

We've had a few of them so far that we've talked

about. I think, again, it's like everybody has

their favorites. We've already talked about Hound

and Mirage, who I really liked as well. And I

don't know what separates. Why Hound at 45, Mirage

at 39, and Prowl at 20? They all seem so similar

to me, and it's hard to distinguish one from

the other as far as being more worthy. But I

don't know. I would almost put them all together.

But Prowl at 19, Mike, what do you think? Or

20, excuse me. My 19. The list is 20. No, I love

G1 Prowl. I love Animated Prowl. Again, as I

will say for every pick that I know features

in IDW, IDW Prowl is next. He's literally over

9 ,000 in that, and it's just crazy. But G1 Prowl,

again, Michael Bell is the voice. You can't go

wrong with Michael Bell. Maybe that's why I liked

him so much. Yeah, absolutely. What always confuses

me, and what always confused me as a kid, confuses

me now as 41 years old, that his battle computer

was damaged, and he couldn't link up to Teletraan

1. He had to find a different battle computer,

which eventually he found Chip Chase, and...

He's constantly questioning the human, like,

why did you have me perform that action? Why

did you have me do this? But no, I always loved

Prowl. Prowl was always so awesome. I always

liked it when Prowl and Blue Streak were in the

same scenes together, because essentially it's

Michael Bell talking to Casey Kasem. I always

thought that was so cool. And specifically to

the animated version. You got Jeff Bennett, the

voice of Johnny Bravo is the voice of Prowl,

who is this cyber ninja who, you know, completely

different personality, black and gold motorcycle.

Absolutely awesome. Great, great stuff. Absolutely

love Prowl. He was one of the, he, his character

dying in the movie was almost more. jarring to

me emotionally than any other death in that movie.

I don't know if it's just because you get his

looking right at you in the face and then his

eyes and his mouth. That one was almost more

traumatic. I wouldn't say to Optimus Prime, but

more than any of the other characters that died

for me was when I saw Prowl die. I was like,

oh my goodness, no. He's one of my favorites.

Steve, I know he's a spot higher than Beast Wars

Megatron, but what do you think about Prowl?

I don't, I mean, I, I've not watched G1 as much,

um, and I'm just basing it off that. Um, but

I don't remember him getting as much characterization

as per se, like an Ironhide or, uh, I mean, for

crying out loud, I remember more about like Powerglide

and some of the other ones. Um, I think he was

just kind of there more like Inferno was. It

just depends. It depends. And like, it depends

on what they're, what he's being used for. Kind

of thing in G1. Again, so many characters. Even

before we got to Rebirth and they added 120 new

ones. You look at the early roll calls and the

early episodes where Jazz would call out Hound,

Mirage, Blue Streak, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, prowl, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well,

originally in the G1 cartoon, he is almost like

a second in command. Right, yeah. Originally.

I'm not saying they stick with that very long.

No, absolutely. 15 people had him ranked in today's

episode, so a lot of people had him in the top

25. But again, on the 26th list, that helped

him get to the spot that he was. We're going

to see if we have any controversy with our next

pick. I know some people had a problem with our

number... Let's see, what was it here? With our

number 88 rank. We'll see if anybody has a problem

with our 19 rank next. I have summoned you here

for a purpose. Number 19. All right, we are up

to point totals in the 1700s, almost 1800s. This

character made it onto 27 lists. That's as many

as Thundercracker, and that's the record right

now. Average ranking of 34 .4. He comes in here

at 19. A lot of people, when we revealed number

88, said, wait a second, this isn't a Transformer

when we talked about the Quintessons. I don't

know if people will have the same argument or

not, but this individual definitely transforms.

We're talking about the Chaos Bringer, Unicron,

at number 19. Mike, what do you think? I have

this one classified as an alien. no he counts

i mean he's not he's not affiliated with autobot

or decepticons but he is a transformer he goes

from one mode to the other mode and back it's

not like he it would be a huge difference if

you got like kranix i don't know if the the people

on that planet i don't know if they transform

or not i assume they did but whatever but you

know you know but having the chaos bringer at

19 that's interesting now i really don't know

where anybody else is gonna fall i i didn't know

in the beginning but i'm just saying like having

him here how the hell can you go past the the

destroyer of worlds i mean that's within two

picks we've gotten rid of two of the biggest

antagonist in the entire franchise with Beast

Wars Megatron and now Unicron. That's two of

the biggest baddies you can have. So it's definitely

interesting. Steve, what do you think of Unicron

being here at 19? Not a Unicron fan? I don't

know. I think he's an overused gimmick in a lot

of ways. I mean, there was an entire trilogy

that circled around him and then they've brought

him into the War for Cybertron trilogy. He's

It rumors that they're going to have something

to do with them in Rise of the Beasts. And then

I think that this and the AllSpark need to be

retired for a while. Which is why I put him at

number 85. I had him ranked at 31. I thought

top 50 material, but I couldn't put him in the

top 25. 12 people disagree with me because 12

people had him in the top 20. Didn't get any

higher rank than number 4, though. Two people

had him at number 4. so I mean it's hard because

he is like the it's like when you watch like

like when a Batman movie is rumored or a Batman

story and you're like well it's gonna be the

Joker like there might be a thousand other bad

guys that he can put against But the end -all,

be -all is they're going to put him against the

Joker. And I feel like that's what they do with

Transformers. Whenever a new person is trying

to make a story, they're like, well, what are

we going to go to for the ultimate villain? Well,

we're going to go to Unicron. And there's other

ways that they can go. Yeah. For me, I had him

10 higher than Steve, so I had him at 75 on my

list. The thing about Unicron is, yes, you're

right. He is the ultimate end -all, be -all.

oh my god, how are we going to beat this thing?

The funny thing is that the three voices that

I have personally heard, because I have not heard

anything else, between Orson Welles, John Noble,

and whomever does it in Kingdom, I dig all three

of them. Orson Welles will always be Unicron,

but what John Noble did in... in Prime, and what

they did with Unicron in Prime, basically making

him the center of evil on Earth kind of thing.

And what was done, you know, I must rethink this,

I must this, I must that, whatever, in Kingdom.

That's all well, good, and fine. Did I ever expect

Unicron to be this high at all? No, not really,

but I can see it. Do you think he got extra points

from anybody because of the 8 ,000 -foot, $6

,000 Unicron toy that came out this year? It

was a $600 toy. It was more expensive than anybody

should ever. Well, I mean, you know, it is what

it is. Hey, look, Snake Mountain was the same

price. But, you know, whatever it is. The other

thing I'll say before we move on is... Yes, I

do agree. As I already said about him being the

end -all, be -all. At the time, 2005 to 2019,

whatever, the 2005 IDW Universe, they didn't

bring him in until they wanted to end the universe.

So it was a solid 13 years of stories before

they brought him in. And when they brought him

in, it was like... oh shit, what are we going

to do now? I just, I don't, yeah, I just don't

feel like he always has to go to that though.

I feel like, and I'm not trying to take away,

he is a badass, you know, very intimidating character,

et cetera, et cetera, you know, changed. to other

people and reanimated them and things of that

nature, whatever. I was always more intrigued

with the Quintesson's storylines when I was growing

up. I thought that was more intriguing as a big

baddie to have. So I almost wish that they would

be used a few more times than Unicron. I know

they have more in recent times. And there's other

places you can go. I don't know. I feel like

it shouldn't always be Unicron because then it

becomes too predictable. Not taken away from

him. He deserves to be in the top 100. There's

no doubt about that. So let's see. We've already

had a few leaders here with Rodimus and Beast

Wars Megatron. I guess you could call Unicron

a leader in ways, but in a different way. We're

going to have a leader next, too. So let's see

which one we go with. Let's hope it isn't leader

one. You go bots. He's knocking the countdown.

No. Number 18. Well, that's just prime. Alright,

next up is a character that made 17 people's

top 25. On 23 lists total, average ranking of

21 .4. He's coming in at number 18 here. It's

another leader. This time we're going with...

Let's do it! Optimus Primal. Then we may have

to accept a rather unexpected development, friends.

It looks like the Maximals have won the Beast

Wars. Optimus Primal at number 18. Most common

ranking was 11. Four people had him at 11. I

had him at 17, which was a little bit... I had

Beast Wars Megatron at 16, and then I had Optimus

Primal at 17, because I think Beast Wars Megatron

is a better character. And I'm not taking away

from Optimus Primal. I just, for some reason,

was never drawn to him as much as some of the

other leaders. Just no pleasing some people.

That being said, I'm 100 % that he deserves to

be in the top 25. Well, that's just Prime. But

Steve, you're the Beast Wars expert, so what

do you think about Optimus Primal here at 18?

I think part of what pushed him this high is

because he was in Beast Wars 2. He was in Combiner

Wars. So I think that that has a lot of play

into it because he was put back in the public

eye. And not that it was Gary Chalk. which I'll

take Ron Perlman any day over what we got in

kingdom, but, um, which we're getting in rise

of the beast now, but I think he definitely deserves

to be here. And, uh, the, the one thing that

he had up on prime is that he would die every

season and come back practically. Uh, he did

it even a beast machines, which was hilarious,

but, uh, but I, I feel like We got just as much

of him as we did Megatron, but I feel like Megatron

didn't quite devolve when he hit Beast Machines,

whereas Primal I feel like just became kind of

weak and not his old, you know, he wasn't really

what he was in the previous series. So I don't

know. I feel like him being here is good. And

he deserves top 25, but I don't know if he deserves

to beat Megatron over that. Yes. Nobody had him

ranked number one. Nobody had him ranked number

two. So the highest he got was number three.

But he wins out by being on three more lists

than, just for example, than Beast Wars Megatron.

He made three more lists than him, which is why

he probably edges him out a little bit here.

On top of some of his rankings, he had a lot

of top 10 rankings, 11, 12, stuff like that.

So I would put Beast Wars Megatron a little bit

higher. Mike, what do you think? I had Optimus

at 12. I like him in Beast Wars, especially once

we get to season three and we get Optimal Optimus.

How do you feel? In a word, pride. Beast Machines,

I like him, but... Optimus. The reformatting

drained me for now. You must carry on without

me. Until I regain my strength, you will lead.

Me? You wouldn't even be hurt if it wasn't for

me. You were right. To trust your instincts.

They made him... Optimus! What's happening to

you? Sit. Eat. Get strong. No way! Someone around

here has to be responsible! Because, again, they

were doing this whole, and Bob Skeer told us

this years ago, this whole religious novel for

television kind of thing where Megatron believed

one thing and Optimus believed the other thing

kind of thing. And, you know, you can look at

Beast Machines and say, yeah, half the time Cheetor

was the leader of the Maximals because Optimus

was either too weak, needed to rest because of

his connection to the Oracle, everything else.

So his character, I feel, did degrade between

actually both Optimus and Megatron. Megatron,

not so much, because Megatron was afflicted by

what he would call a disease more than anything

else, the disease of his mongrel beast mode.

But I'm glad Optimus Primal is here. I don't

necessarily like Steve, so I don't necessarily

think he should be higher. I think basically

these should be swapped. Beast Wars Megatron

should be here. Optimus should be, you know,

where Beast Wars Megatron is. I think that would

be perfect. But I'm fine with him being where,

you know, because, you know, we had 33 people

in total vote on all this. You've already said

in this episode, 3 ,000 votes kind of thing.

So, hey, the chips fell where they fell. We can

do about it now. This isn't Florida. We don't

recount, folks. Although 10 people left Optimus

Primal off their list as well. So it's interesting.

All right. We're in the top 20 territory. We've

had Unicron. We've had Optimus Primal. Let's

see who comes in next. I'll tell you this much.

It's going to be another person's number one.

It's time for number 17. All right. That's right.

It's number 18. We're going with Transformers

AD's number one pick. 17. or 17, excuse me, similar

to Mike's number one pick, although this time

it's the younger version. We're going with Hot

Rod at number 17. Come out, Autobot! We all must

die sometime! Not today, Galvatron! You got the

touch! You got the... Arise, Rodimus Prime. Optimus.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 people had him in the

top 10. A bunch of other people had him in the

top 25. Of all the second glitch diode blowing

dimwittery, you left a piece out. No way. You're

just a little stiff. Anyway, all things considered,

you did an amazing job, lad. Amazing. Really?

Yeah. You even got rid of a nasty bar on my rotator.

Now let's find the Dinobots and get off this

twisted planet. I had him ranked 30 spots, 32

spots higher than Rodimus. Why? Because Hot Rod

was cooler before he became Rodimus. In my opinion.

And then he became Rodimus and screwed a whole

bunch of stuff up. They've stopped firing. I

know. And it worries me. Let's do what they don't

expect! I think this is a case where, you know,

you have two characters that are very similar.

Was it split? Were some people voting for one

over the other? Or did people vote for both of

them and just prefer one over the other? Overall,

Hot Rod beats out Rodimus by whatever we're at,

eight spots here. So it's interesting. Mike,

what do you feel about this? The Matrix. It's

gone. And with it, all hope. No! Galvatron has

it. Where's Galvatron? Where is he? And the answer

is... They're the same guy. Like, it's the whole

Megatron -Galvatron thing. It's the same character.

It's just... It is. It is. Anyway. No, yay. He

beat out Beast Wars Megatron. That's awesome.

I love that. That's amazing. No, I loved Hot

Rod when I first saw him. I loved what he did

in the movie. You loved that he killed Prime?

He didn't kill Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime killed

himself. No. Had he not gotten involved, Prime

would have lived. Optimus Prime's actions led

to his own death. No. He should have just killed

Hot Rod with Megatron and everything would have

been fine. You're just jealous. You refuse to

admit that Deviations shows that it's true. It's

canon. Yes, but Deviations is a separate universe.

Deviations doesn't count. Anyway, what I love

about Hot Rod is that, again, as I mentioned

earlier about Rodimus, he was that character

to kind of look up to and kind of look at and

say, oh, I kind of find myself in his shoes.

Oh, I was young and brash and everything else.

Before he ends up becoming Rodimus, him and Cup

have that kick -ass demolition derby, and that's

awesome. All I know is that this character here

at number 17 should be flipped with the number

33. That's right. Hot Rod should be number 33.

Springer should be 17. Hell no! What the hell's

wrong with you? Because Springer would not have

gotten in the way. I endorse this message. The

opinions of the Geekcast Radio Network do not

necessarily reflect Optimus Solo. They do. No,

they don't. I have veto. Hell no. I get it. Some

people like Hot Rod. Some people like Rodimus.

I'm not surprised that we see at least one, if

not both of them here on the countdown. I liked

Hot Rod as a character up until the movie, and

then I disliked him. Up until the movie, he debuted

in the movie. That's right. So I liked him up

until the movie and then I didn't like him anymore.

I liked him in the movie until he kills Optimus,

and then they reward him. He doesn't kill Optimus.

And then they take the character that should

have been the leader, Ultra Magnus, and that

doesn't work out. Oh, hell no. The writers should

have figured that out. And then they give it

to this punk, and then it's all downhill from

there. I'm just going off on a tangent because

I'm a Springer fan. Hey, the Matrix chose him.

The Matrix didn't choose Ultra Magnus. Yeah.

But he didn't choose the Matrix, so it didn't

work out anyways. So, I don't know. Steve, final

thoughts on Hot Rod? Swap him with Devastator.

There we go. All right. We have multiple votes

for swapping Hot Rod with somebody else. I like

it. Hell no. All right. Let's go from one leader

to another. Let's see. Well, one young going

to be leader in the future, I guess, if you want

to call that for Hot Rod, to another leader coming

up next. It's time for number 16. Open. Damn

it, open! This person was not on anybody's number

one list, but he was on 27 lists, so that matches

Unicron and Thundercracker for the most so far.

The highest he was ranked was actually 7, but

then a slew of people had him from 12 to 22,

like a whole lot of people. And then some people

had him in the 30s, 40s, 60s, 80s. He's just

on a lot of lists, but this proves that he...

was the more worthy person. Coming in one spot

higher than Hot Rod is Ultra Magnus at number

16. So we're just getting a slew of leaders here,

guys. So we've had Rodimus, we've had Beast Wars

Megatron, Optimus Primal, now Ultra Magnus. I

always loved Ultra Magnus as a kid. I love Robert

Stack as a voice. I thought that was cool. I

thought his look was, even though the truck part

was the same as Optimus. I still loved the carrier

aspect, that you could actually put the cars

on there at multiple levels, things of that nature.

So I always wished Ultra Magnus would have gotten

a better story in G1 than he did. I'm sure he

did get better stories in comics or other things,

but I am a huge Ultra Magnus fan. I always love

it when he shows up. So I'm fine with him here.

I had him at number 12. He comes in here at number

16. Open. Damn it, open! Prime, you said the

Matrix would light our darkest hour. Magnus,

I want the Matrix. Never! Steve, what do you

think about Ultra Magnus? You mean the guy that

should have taken over for Hot Rod? Yes, yes.

No. Or for Prime in there? No. Yeah, yeah. He's

just a soldier. He's not worthy. And Hot Rod

was a young turbo, you know. Turbo Punk. It is

what it is. Turbo Revan Punk. I'm perfectly happy

with Ultra Magnus beating out Hot Rod and Rodimus.

And Unicron. That's true. That green piece of

puke is way back in the back. Yay! Green piece

of puke? That helicopter, that green piece of

puke, that homewrecker. Oh, my God. Okay, we're

not going to let Mike talk about Ultra Magnus

then. He's just gone off the rails. No, no, no.

Seriously, though. Ultra Magnus. I love Robert

Stack's voice for him, but what Jack Angel did

with him in Season 3, I absolutely dug that,

too. Oh, yeah. Me, too. And again, I will bring

it up because I bring it up every thing I can

mention. Who's your new interior decorator? Skylynx

is not here. Rodimus, what do you mean Skylynx

is... Rodimus! Listen, I don't want to hurt you,

but I'm not taking any more of this! I always

knew you were hot -headed, but what the... An

illusion! All right, you've got until the count

of one to open these bars. One. You'll love what

they did. If you want Ultra Magnus the leader

or the whatever kind of thing, you'll love what

they did with him in IDW. It's a very cool storyline.

He also gave us the most quoted thing that we've

quoted on the network, I'm pretty sure, at least

between Mike and I, with the open, damn it. Open,

damn it, open. All right, so from here on out,

it's the top 15 territory. Coming up next. It's

time for number 15, vermin. All right. You know

what we haven't done yet, guys? We haven't had

a character that was two people's number one.

Oh, man. So let's have two people's number ones

fall. That's Kol Krishna and Triple Takeover.

Both of their number ones come in here. Two number

one rankings, two number three rankings, a number

four, two fives, a six, an eight, two nines,

and a ten. Impressive. So, a lot of love for

this character. On 24 lists, we're talking about

Dinobot. An excellent idea. Dinobot. Another

Beast Wars character coming in here at number

15. Steve, I'll let you go first. What do you

think? I mean, granted, I did rank him at number

5, so I'm happy he made it. Granted. Most of

my top five was Beast Wars. I don't know. I'm

happy that he made it. I'm still, like I said,

a little upset that Megatron didn't beat him

out just because of the fact that he outlived

him by many, many seasons. But Dinobot had this

nice arc, though, that went from Predacon to

Traitor to challenging the Maximals to having

to learn to get along with those Maximals. and

then a lot of back -and -forth internal struggles

with what to do when he was among his old comrades

again. And then you have him realizing that Megatron

is dangerous, and in order to save the proto

-humans, decides to take out the whole Preds,

and the way that he went out was so earned. Tell

my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly. My ill

deeds, along with the good, let me be judged

accordingly. The rest is silence. I felt that

it was like Beast Wars Optimus Prime moment.

but using Dinobot. And so it was very strong

and very emotional, and I definitely see why

he's here. Plus, the amount of comedic gold between

him and Rattrap is nothing short of hilarious.

And you know these cabins gotta lead to his lab!

I know nothing of the sort! For, unlike you,

I do not spend my time scurrying through sewers!

Yeah? Well, a sewer smells better than your breath,

Brontho -Brain! You will get used to it when

I bite your useless head off! I agree. I had

him ranked number 10 overall, so he did make

my top 10 as well. I would not have predicted

that he was going to beat both Optimus Primal

and Beast Wars Megatron when this whole project

started, that's for sure. I ranked him so high,

though, because of a lot of the stuff you're

talking about. Not only is he just a complete

badass. If you look him up on tfwiki .net...

The main picture that's at the top of the page,

that just tells you what kind of a badass he

is right there. It's such a cool image. But not

just because he's such a badass, but like Steve's

talking about, his arc, his depth when it comes

to character, all the stuff that he's dealing

with. And I'm so glad that they kind of continued

that a little bit with War for Cybertron Kingdom

with him. So one of the highlights for me. from

that uh series was that they kind of kept some

of that character development some of that complexity

into Dinobot and kind of carried that forward

so I really enjoyed that um and he's one of those

characters that kind of played both sides in

a way I would say he's probably the one of the

most well done when it comes to that i mean we

did get to see that a lot from beast wars you

know with black arachnia too and you know tarantulas

was always trying to play both sides a little

bit but i think dinobots the one that kind of

exemplifies that so i am fine with him being

here at number 15 he's only you know like i said

i had him number 10 so i can definitely see it

uh mike what do you think no i love dinobot i

think it's great that he comes in here and i

think it's always great when he gets the upper

hand on megatron oh lord And again, going to

the current IDW comics, what they're doing with

him so far in the Beast Wars comic is really,

really cool. Very, very season one kind of thing.

They take the story and kind of flip it a little

bit so it's not just a recap of the cartoon and

whatever. And you guys have already mentioned

his heroism and everything else. I gotta say,

though, there's two scenes I absolutely love

the Dinobot clone in. Number one, when he transforms

and shreds Waspinator and you see Waspinator

just floating down in paper shreds. And then

number two, when Rampage's spark is finally extinguished

and he gets back his honor, his this, his that,

and he stands up to Megatron and defeats him.

Right. So, Steve, that is our 14th Beast Wars

character. 15th. That's our 14th Beast Wars character.

Is that it? I would be surprised if we saw the

other ones in the show, or in this top 100 from

the show. Because, I mean, we only have Airazor,

Quickstrike, and Tigerhawk and Terrorsaur left.

And Scorponok. And I honestly don't see them

showing up. Right. So might be the last of the

Beast Wars. If so, that means Dinobot reigns

supreme. I would not have predicted that. All

right. Let's see who else makes our top 15. Number

14. Bird Prime. When are we going to start busting

Decepti -chops? Let's go back to the world of

G1 and Autobot cars. This is one that I have

a slight problem with. I shouldn't say that.

I don't necessarily have a problem with it. I

understand that a lot of people love this character.

A lot of people are also going to love another

one or two characters that we're going to talk

about today that I just never quite gravitated

towards. I liked some of their compatriots better.

But that's not saying they're good characters.

Obviously, they've got a lot of universal love.

And this will set a new record because he's on

28 lists. So the first time we've seen somebody

on 28 lists, we're talking about Ironhide. My

weapons specialist, Ironhide. You feeling lucky,

punk? Just kidding. I just wanted to show him

my cannons. Like I said, a lot of people love

him. I get it. He's been in basically every series,

every continuity. I feel like he pops up somewhere.

I just was... He's a red van. Like, what the

f... F do people give a... About a red van. I

had him ranked at 69 because I just never gravitated

towards him. It's Ironhide. I can't move. At

least you can still talk, old buddy. Where'd

you get hit? Back in somewhere. Think my linkage

is busted. I'll check it. Get him inside. You

gave us all a pretty good scare. That's been

worse. I remember the time on Cybertron. Save

the war stories, hotshot. Just remember there's

a thin line between being a hero and being a

memory. Maybe Ironhide's ready for a nice cushy

office job. Hey, no way. Soon as Ratchet tightens

a few bolts, I'll be right back in action. We'll

see. Cool voice, but... Why do I want to like

a red van? Mike, do you like Ironhide? I like

Ironhide. I know. Be more positive for me, because

otherwise people will shit on me. I'll be positive.

I like that Ironhide has no head. No, Ironhide,

I dig him. Like you said, it's Peter Cullen as

Ironhide. He's got so many quotable lines from

G1. Again, I will always go to the... He's from

the future in IDW, so he has a whole storyline

about the guilt he feels about being from the

future and not being able to change what eventually

happens kind of thing and that and everything

else. And then you get to say what you will about

it, but you get to animated and the live -action

movies. And animated, he wasn't that prevalent.

He actually just had one. background scene in

the Autobot camp episode where they go and they

tell Bumblebee's backstory kind of thing. He's

part of the Elite Guard in Animated, and they

literally took his name literal. That's his power

in Animated. He can go from orange to being hard

-ass silver, and he has an iron hide kind of

thing. But in the movies, say what we will about

Michael Bay in the movies and the stories and

the whatever, You can't go wrong with Jess Harnell

as the voice of Ironhide. I just wanted to show

her my kittens. 14 people had him in the top

25. Nobody had him higher than eighth, though,

so not anybody had him in the top seven. But

just a lot of love overall. 28 people ranked

him, so only five people left Ironhide off. Steve,

what do you think about him coming in here at

14? I mean, I ranked him pretty close to this

anyway, but it's more so just because I like

the characterization. Yeah, the red van thing

was kind of lame. I mean, I was being a little

bit sarcastic, but... Well, I mean, it is kind

of lame. I mean, when you look at it, he's an

old minivan. And so is Ratchet, for that matter.

But I love the character just because he's gung

-ho, ready to get in the battle. He's versatile,

and he's voiced by... uh peter cullen uh but

also the fact that he's basically like him jazz

and in prowl and in bumblebee and some of those

they they all kind of take turns being second

in command right um and so it's always fun when

i see ironhide take charge especially when you

get to have ironhide and optimus prime talk to

each other oh yeah yeah mike you hit it on the

on the head i know it was a die clone you know

etc etc but the fact that the toy has no head

always bugged me It just always really bugged

me. I never, I never ever wanted Ratchet and

Ironhide and I never had them. The other thing

I want to bring up about him is, as we've kind

of been joking about is, you know, he's just

a red man, blah, blah, blah. There is an episode

and I forget what it is off the top of my head.

I'd normally know it, but there's an episode

where we see the inside of the back of his van.

He has blaster and sound wave next to each other.

Both cassette decks are inside Ironhide. How

does he not know Soundwave's there? How does

he not sense something is wrong kind of thing?

But it is what it is. Right. All right. Well,

that takes us about halfway through today's reveal.

So we are going to take a quick break before

we come back and reveal the top 13 characters.

Discover a world of vintage and modern toys that's

more than meets the eye with the Triple Takeover

ToyCast. Hosted by toy writers and photographers

Toybox Soapbox, Sixo and TF Square One, this

informal and chilled out series of discussions

cover everything from vintage Transformers to

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or a casual robot enthusiast, all are welcome.

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my history of gaming, both new and old. Each

month is a new topic show in which I bring you

my console memories, give reviews of my favorite

video games, and talk with cool guests. People

have made cartridges. I've actually played Netflix

on Nintendo. I was making sure that I got everything.

I was writing it all down. They fixed that for

the third time. And that's the first time I remember

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and ravinghipster .com. What was that universal

greeting again? Never mind, I remember. Ba -weep

-grana -weep -ninny -bong. Hey guys, it's Rodimus

Primal, and be sure to check out my YouTube channel.

Join me as I have Transformers discussions, retrospectives,

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on Twitter at Rodimus Primal, as well as Facebook

and Instagram at Rodimus Primal Show. Transform

and roll out, and be sure to check out my content,

till all are one. On the Simplistic Reviews Podcast,

we talk movies. We talk TV. We talk... Hello,

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have got the

point across with sound effects, not the real

thing. Download the show on iTunes or at simplisticreviews

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Anyone there? Is he gone? Are they gone for a

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Mikey from Moonbase 2. And we're a Transformers

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we sent in some answers to this top 100 Transformers,

I thought I'd just stick this little segment

in when they were editing when no one was looking.

And if you're interested in us, we talk about

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and transcend your toy collecting today while

listening to ToyCast. It's time for number 13!

Alright, let's get back into it. As he just said,

this is number 13. And interesting because it's

very similar to where we were just at in a way.

Both on 28 lists. Both Autobots. Both Autobot

cars from G1. The highest ranked was number 7.

Just like Ironhide before was highest ranked

at number 8. I had this person a lot higher though

than Ironhide. I had Ironhide at 69. I have this

person at 18. He comes in here at 13. It's Wheeljack.

I'll admit they're kind of clumsy, but lately

I've been teaching them to use their powers with

a little more finesse. Brilliant baloney, Wheeljack.

Once a dino klutz, always a dino klutz. But go

ahead with your demonstration. It'll only prove

my point. I think you're going to eat those words

on a silicon wafer. Let's show them. I was always

a bigger fan of Wheeljack than a lot of the other

cars. prowl and hound and mirage way over ironhide

ratchet etc etc so um i just loved the the scientist

aspect the engineer aspect the he's been played

different ways in different you know continuities

obviously but uh also the look was way cooler

like you have a cool -ass car you have the the

Whatever you want to call the things that are

sticking out from his shoulders. I don't know

car terminology very well. The voice was cool.

So I'm a big fan of Wheeljack. I had him in my

top 20, so I have no problem with him being here

at number 13. Mike, you go first. What do you

think about Wheeljack here? I love Wheeljack.

Wheeljack is awesome. Wheeljack created some

of the greatest Transformers in history with

the Dinobots. It's kind of true. It is true.

I love what they did with him in Prime. I thought

that was really, really cool, giving him some

swords and things like that. So fun. Yeah, I

mean, seriously. I did not even remember that

it was Chris's voice. Because, again, all of

these old -school voice actors back then, were

voicing so many characters, and sometimes there

would be modulation on them. And sometimes, like,

Chris Lotta could have been voicing God knows

how many of these guys, and I am sure he was,

and he did. The cool thing for me, even though

it didn't always sometimes match up, I love that

his... I'm going to call them mutton chops. They're

not mutton chops. I know they're not. But his

side pieces on his face, that they blink blue

whenever he talks kind of thing, I always thought

that. I think another thing that I always appreciated

about Wheeljack was, and maybe this would be

something that kind of ups Steve's alley here,

is to me, and I'm not talking about color schemes

or things like that, but I feel like his toy,

his G1 toy, fit the G1 cartoon way better than

some of the other ones we got. Just looking at

who we just had, Ironhide to me, obviously his

toy does not look like the cartoon. The cartoon

has a head, the toy doesn't. And things of that

nature. There was other ones that were farther

away, some that were closer. I always thought

Wheeljack, the toy is what I expected it to look

like. So that, I think, made me drawn to him

more than some of these other characters that

I felt like there was a disconnect between the

toys and the cartoon. Yeah, the original G1 toy

was really cool and very interesting. And like

you said, it's very on model. I do love the Generations

version of him because it's essentially a modern

version of the G1 toys. That was very, very cool.

And I think so far, just scrolling the toy...

Article on Transformers Wiki. To me personally,

that was the best one we had was the Generations

Wheeljack. Steve, Wheeljack fan or no? I like

Wheeljack. Even my kids like Wheeljack. They

have good taste. Plus, they like that he created

the Dinobots. To them, that's the most awesome

aspect. Yeah, I have no problem with him being

here. I think people could argue about his exact

placement, where he should be, where he shouldn't

be, but I think top 25 is good ground for him.

Definitely top 50. So that's number 13. Let's

see who comes in next. It's number 12! Die, Autobots!

All right, we're going to have another leader.

It's been a little while since we had that, all

the way down at 16 with Ultra Magnus, so let's

get another one here with number 12. Again, nobody

had this person ranked number 1, 2, or 3. The

highest ranking was number 4, and that would

be by Rodimus Primal. But about 10 people had

him in the top 10. We are going to go with, and

this could cause controversy as well, I guess,

from some people, but we separated these guys

out. We're going with number 12, Galvatron. Unicron,

my master. With this, I shall make you my slave.

Decepticons! Your leader has returned! Long live

the Empire! Long live... Galvatron! So, Galvatron

comes in here at number 12 on 27 lists. That's

a lot of lists. Like I said, a lot of people

had him in the top ten. I had him at number nine.

I definitely consider him a different character.

I don't care what anybody says. I know it's the

same, but it's not. They are different characters

in certain continuities, but specifically to

the cartoon and the movie, they are the same

person. Is this the fate of the mighty Decepticon

Empire? In the days of Megatron, it was not like

this. You mean Galvatron? Galvatron! Hail Galvatron!

Well, they were the same guy. So, Mike, what

do you think about Galvatron being in the number

12 spot? Apparently he's a better leader than

Beast Wars Megatron. I don't see that. He got

nerfed by Scorponok. Well, he beat Rodimus Prime

by way more spots. Which is good because it's

still Megatron. I appreciate and really enjoy

what spock did with him in the movie however

i absolutely love crazy ass voice frank welker

in season three the fact that and i've seen in

very i believe it was run on this primal's interview

with with flint dilly where he was talking about

what was going on in season three and how they

wanted to ramp it up even more the fact that

they got in an episode About the psychology of

a leader and, you know, his mind is broken. We

need to reprogram him in web world. You say what

you want to say about the quality of web world.

The fact that they got that story in there was

just simply amazing. And just, I always loved

when Galvatron. went off on anybody in Season

3. I just always loved the look of the character.

I thought he was cool looking. And I thought

it was a decent switch from Megatron. If they

had to go somewhere, I much preferred Megatron

going to Galvatron than I did Optimus Prime and

then us having to go to Rodimus. I know it's

a little different, but that's basically who

the leaders were later on. Alright, so only one

more character that doesn't make the top 10.

We'll see who that is next. Well, well, well.

It's time for number 11. Yes. That's right. It's

time for number 11. I feel like this character

may have been helped by some of his later versions,

whether it be animated or prime or things of

that nature. Because, gosh darn it, it's another

guy that has no head. We're going with number

11 here, which is Ratchet. You have competition,

Bulk. I'm a bit stronger than I used to be. Also

a bit faster. Think you can take me, muscle car?

Wimp. How's it humming? Did he just? Stronger,

faster, studlier. We're also breaking records

here because the highest number of lists that

anybody had been on was 28, and now Ratchet was

on 30 lists. So only three people left Ratchet

off. that's how much universal love I guess there

is for ratchet. I had him at 38. He comes in

here at 11, but like I said, he's, he's lived

on through animated through prime and the aligned

continuity, et cetera, cyberverse. So he's been

just about everywhere. Um, so no surprise that

ratchet shows up here. Like I said before, I

would take ratchet and iron hide and switch them

out with hound and mirage probably, or prowl

or, you know, wheeljack in their spots, but it

is what it is. I know people love ratchet. So

Mike, why is he deserving of being here? He kind

of sort of helped Wheeljack with the Dinobots

in G1. But for me, and as much as I love that

G1 voice, and I don't remember off the top of

my head because I actually don't have his page

pulled up. Don Messick and Wally Burr. Don Messick

mostly. Don Messick mostly. Okay, okay. Wow,

Scooby was Ratchet. Holy crap. But between Animated

and Prime, I believe Corey Burton did him in

Animated. In Prime, I know it was Jeffrey Combs.

And Jeffrey Combs has that voice that is like,

oh, wow. And he's always played that. Ratchet

has always played the old Autobot, the this Autobot,

the Autobot that's lived through the wars kind

of thing. And I just, I dig it. I think it's

interesting. I think prime helped him a lot as

far as getting some more, keeping that love,

continuing living on, you know, where it didn't

just die, which he won and he didn't, you know,

never have. big arcs except for comics or whatever

he was in all the cartoons it seemed like so

i think that definitely helps him um and i guess

i will give him a little bit more of a pass than

um ironhide because yes he is a van but he's

an ambulance van yeah he's an ambulance in g1

so that's better than just a red minivan so i'll

give him that uh steve what do you think about

ratchet uh he was in my top 25 as well so i i

don't have a problem with it plus i always liked

ratchet and ironhide anyway so i was kind of

bummed when i saw them die in the movie yeah

Because they took out Ironhide, Ratchet, and

Prime, and those were three of the ones that

I really liked. Right. 30 people ranked him.

Like I said, nobody had him higher than 10. So

nobody had him in the top. Well, one person,

I guess, technically had him in the top 10. But

otherwise, everybody else had him outside of

that. It's just so much universal love as far

as being on 30 lists. Alright, that means there's

only room for ten more, guys. Ten more characters.

Let's see how the dominoes fall. Me Grimlock

think this number too high. It's number ten!

Let's start our top ten with some Decepticon

love. Nobody had this character higher than four,

but we did have 26 people rank him, and a whole

lot of people, almost every single person had

him in the top 25. Four or five out of the 26

did not. But otherwise, everybody else had him

in the top 25. I get the love. We've had a lot

of different versions, so it'll be interesting

to see what your guys' favorites are. But we

are going with the Decepticon that goes by the

name of Shockwave. Oh, wow. Shockwave, number...

10. Apparently Mike is shocked by Shockwave.

So Mike, go ahead. What do you think? He's top

10. Shockwave, the first one. I have plotted

a course to Vector Sigma. Shockwave reporting

to Megatron. Intruders have liberated personality

components of the renegade Decepticons. The Autobots?

Now they've really done it. They've gone too

far this time. Shockwave! Starscream, you must

help me. Cybertron has been invaded. Cybertron?

I'm that close to Cybertron? I know I can't catch

you, but I can trap you. Absolutely. Shockwave,

amazing as always with Corey Burton voicing him

in G1 and in Animated. You had David Soboloff

do him in Prime, and he is always the logical

bot. and uh very very cool and again i will champion

the idw universe for for transformers and i literally

i'm not even trying to make a joke out of this

when our good buddy ender uh told me about what

idw did with shockwave i literally was so shocked

that i could not i'm like that that is the reason

what he is What happens to him in the IDW continuity

from 2005 is the reason why I started reading

More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise

back in the day. He is the one character reason

why the pullback has all of the Transformers

comics coverage from IDW because of what happened

to him and what he eventually goes on and does

in it. I remember this clear as day. It was a

Saturday morning. It was probably 6 or 7 a .m.

because that's when cartoons air on Cartoon Network,

apparently, back in 2008, 2009. All throughout

animated, Shockwave went between himself and

Longarm Prime. All throughout animated, anytime

you saw Shockwave, he was gray. Shockwave ain't

gray, people. I get it. Season three comes and

in, I believe it's trans warped. We finally get

the full, literally, I kid you not. I was 29

years old at this point. I should not have done

this, but I literally fell out of bed on a Saturday

morning because I was so shocked at the purple

color reveal that he switched the colors. I was

like, Oh my God. So it is absolutely logical

and amazing that shockwave is here at number

10. Yeah, I didn't like his Insecticon look in

Animated. I thought that was a little weak, but

outside of that, he usually has one of the best

character designs as far as from just a visual

standpoint. He just looks badass, so I've always

been a fan of his. Steve, what do you think of

Shockwave being our first top 10 entrant? Well,

I had him on the other side of the spectrum,

but no, I mean, I can see it. His comic versions

are definitely more prominent. than anything

else like he's in g1 for the most part he's mostly

useless as are most of the decepticons but in

prime he's in prime he's pretty decent and in

in the marvel comics he was constantly vying

for power and in in the dreamwave comics he was

doing the same thing in idw he's doing the same

thing so uh instantly honestly i think he's he's

deserving right All right, so one Decepticon

enters the ranks of the top ten. Let's see what

Decepticon joins him. It's time for number nine,

mighty Galvatron. All right, our next Decepticon

here coming in at number nine. He was on 29 lists,

so only four people left him off. Unlike Shockwave,

which we just talked about, which seven people

left Shockwave off of their list. But we're going

to go with... Cyclonus, transform and attack!

none other than cyclonus here at number nine

um as highly ranked as number two and on 29 lists

so cyclonus another interesting entry into the

top 10 steve what do you think cyclonus in the

top 10 yeah number nine i yeah i don't see that

one we had him right let's see people had him

ranked number two number seven number eight number

nine number nine ten eleven thirteen thirteen

fourteen fourteen eighteen and then most everybody

else had him in the 20s, 30s, and a couple in

the 40s. And two in the 60s. I could see them

in the 30s, but how... There's some pretty solid

contenders in what we've listed today so far.

I don't see how Cyclonus really fits into that.

Land sweeps! And beware of treachery! Interesting.

Mike, agree or disagree? I disagree. Again, going

to IDW, as I have all of this episode. He's a

former Decepticon. He's a warrior. He is essentially

Dinobot without a faction as far as his honor,

as far as what he will and what he won't do.

And he has such a great, great arc in IDW. As

far as G1, I wish they used him more. It's kind

of like Skywarp didn't get used enough, and just

as that, Skywarp as Cyclonus didn't get used

enough either. I loved, I think it's Roger C.

Carmel. And then Jack Angel. Yeah, I love the,

like... What happened back there? Mighty Galvatron,

what is that? Blast him! But he's a ghost! Die,

you worthless... Since when do ghosts tumble

out of control through space? You know, absolutely

love those voices. Thought that was really cool.

And I gotta say, you want to talk about leaders?

Cyclonus definitely deserves to be in the leader

class when you talk about Galvatron and Rodimus

and Ultra Magnus and that kind of thing. Because

in G1, in the cartoon, it always ended up being

Rodimus versus Galvatron and Ultra Magnus versus

Cyclonus. Yeah. I actually had those two back

-to -back in my rankings. I had one at 12 and

one at 13 because I think I just kind of always

connect those two. Oh, absolutely, yeah. I think

he has a cool look. I think that kind of helped

him in my book as well. And it sounds like he

had some more complex character traits in the

comics, obviously compared to what we get in

G1 a little bit. Um, I've always been a fan of

Cyclonus. I can see the argument of maybe not

being top 10. Um, I don't know if I could take

him out of the top 25 though. Um, I don't know.

It would have to, I'd have to really look at

it, but, um, so two Decepticons to start off

our top 10. Let's see if that streak continues.

It's time for number eight. All right. It's time

for number eight guys. On 30 lists. So that was

as many as Ratchet. Highest ranked was number

two. And that would have been by Casey Collar.

A lot of people had him in the top 25. Like half

the people that voted. I shouldn't say him. It's

a her. Let's go with RC here at number eight.

So RC comes in here at number eight. Stay close

to me, Daniel. And you better stay close to me.

No, you better stay close to me. In case I never

get another chance to say this, you've really

proved your mettle. I'd like to think my actions

always spoke louder than my words, R .C. But

it didn't hurt to watch and learn from the best.

Would be nice if Optimus showed up about now.

I was referring to a powerful little two -wheeler

I know. R .C. reporting in. A lot of people,

like I said, half the people that voted had her

in the top 25. It's been a long time since we

had a female character. I think Blackarachnia

at... 31 was the last. So from 31 all the way

up to number 8. Mike, what do you think of Arcee

being here at number 8? I think it's great. I

think it's awesome. She was, you know, again,

some of these characters from G1, from the movie,

from the cartoon, especially when, you know,

she has this whole motherly connection with Daniel

and everything else. You know, they're trying

to teach us lessons. They're trying to do this.

They're trying to do that. She was always pretty

much the only mother -type figure on Transformers.

I mean, technically, I guess you could say Alita

1 was a little bit, but I find that more so to

be relevant in War for Cybertron than G1. What

they did with her in Animated was awesome. They

made her a teacher. I thought that was really,

really cool. Again, Susan Blue returning to voice

her. So, yeah. They made her Prowl's assassin

in IDW, so that was interesting, and that was

all kinds of complicated mess that eventually

got sorted out and whatever, but it was a very

good storyline as well. Yeah, I mean, I would

make the argument that Steve made with Cyclonus

on this one. I would say that she's not top 10

worthy. I had her at 21, so I could... Let's

see, who did we have at 21? Oh, yeah, that was

Beast Wars Megatron, so let's flip those two.

And I'd be fine with that. For me, the reason

I put Arcee in the top 25, though, is not G1.

It is Prime, so that's the reason why I would

have... put rc in the top 25 was more of her

aligned continuity um appearances um as far as

that goes um because i thought we didn't get

much out of g1 i know we did probably more in

the comics etc but you know outside of that like

i've there wasn't much to go on so i would i

had her 21 and i think number eight's a little

high steve I totally agree with everything you

just said. I'm not trying to say that. I'm not

trying to hate on her because it's a female character.

I had Blackarachnia in my top 10. I would honestly

maybe flip her with Blackarachnia. Blackarachnia

was 31, so let's put Arcee at 31 and Blackarachnia

up here. I don't know. I get it. I wouldn't have

her this high. Let's see if the controversy continues

or if we keep pissing off people with our next

pick. Number seven. All right. Another top 10

entrant and another character that was on two

people's number one. So TFU info, Nicole had

this character number one as well. I think some

people are going to be shocked by this, but.

Let's go through his rankings. 1, 1, 2, 2, 2,

3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 9. And then a whole bunch of

other people. 29 people had him ranked. I think

a lot of people are going to be shocked that

he's not in the top four. Number seven, the only

character to have his own movie, Bumblebee. Aw,

shucks. Bumblebee at number 7. I'm more surprised

that she didn't put Cyclonus as her number 1

than anything else. But do you think people would

be shocked that Bumblebee is number 7? That we

have 6 people ranked higher than Bumblebee? Oh

yeah. He is the only character that gets his

own movie. I was always a Cliff Trumper fan,

not a Bumblebee fan. But anyway. Mike, what do

you think about Bumblebee? I'm better than ever.

Look at this new paint job. I've gone beyond

being just plain old Bumblebee. I'm a gold bug.

I like Bumblebee. Again, he eventually became

the character that, because again, as I mentioned,

I think last episode or maybe it was the episode

before that, when G1 started, you had Spike and

Sparkplug kind of going between multiple characters

like there were several scenes with. Spike and

Hound and other characters and Wheeljack and

everything else. And then eventually they put

Spike with Bumblebee, which is fine, all well,

good, fine and great. And I love Dan Gilvezan

voicing him. I really, really dug, as much as

I haven't played it, as much as a bunch of other

people have. I love Johnny Young Bosch's voicing

of Bumblebee in War for Cybertron. I thought

that was really cool. You're a skilled fighter,

but you shouldn't be out here alone. Autobots

are no longer safe in Iacon. The Decepticons

control the airwaves. The only secure way to

communicate is by messenger. I volunteered. Name's

Bumblebee. Ratchet, this Autobot needs repairs.

Be still. I'll get you fixed up. What? No, there's

no time! I need to find the Autobot called Optimus.

I have important information for him. I am Optimus.

You're... Sir, it pains me to tell you this,

but our leader Zeta Prime is dead. Megatron.

What of the High Council? They've gone into hiding.

Cut all communication with the outside. Bumblebee

is a character, again, he's kind of like the

everyman. He's kind of like the everybot where,

you know, you can always relate to him. He's

sometimes making mistakes, but he always learns

from his mistakes. Kind of weird that... Batman

dressed up as him for Halloween one time. But,

you know, that's Wilfried L for you, folks. No,

but we'll be at number seven. I think that's

perfect. I'm kind of glad he's not number one.

Because at this point, we all know, sadly, who's

going to be number one. Or do you? That is number

seven. Let's see who comes in next. It's time

for number six. All right. We're getting inching

closer to our top five, but there's one more

character that does not make the top five, and

that is where we are going to go right now. So,

all right. This character was on 31 lists. That

is more than anyone has before. So only two people

left this character off, an average ranking of

24 .2, and another number one. Pick for one individual.

A lot of high picks here. Number 1, 4, 6, 8,

10, 10, 10, 12, 13, 13, 13, 15, 16. So a lot

of love for this character. I would switch this

with another one, but that's because I'm weird

and I'm probably alone in that camp because I

know a lot of love is out there for Jazz. So

Jazz here at number 6. I was always more of a

Prowl fan, but I get it. Jazz was cool, had a

cool voice, and got a lot more love later on

in different continuities and cartoons and things

of that nature. So Jazz beats out Bumblebee for

number six. Mike, what do you think of that?

Didn't you have a cat named Jazz? Yes, I do.

You do or you did? I did. Okay, I was going to

say, no, no, no, I don't want to depress everybody,

but I'm sitting here listening to you say that

you liked other characters more than him, but

yet. You named your cat after him. Anyway. Well,

I also had a license plate on my car that was

Prowl. Okay, well, that's your car. So I've named

different things after Transformers before. That's

fine. And for the record, my cat was black. Can

I say that? Sure. So I named it after the most

prominent African -American Transformer in my

mind, which was Jazz. There you go. I love Scatman.

Somewhere in here, because I didn't get, and

I understand the man's busy, but somewhere in

here I will put when we interviewed Phil Lamar

a number of years ago, I nearly lost my crap,

but I asked him about Scatman and Could he do

a Scatman, and he did it, and oh my god, I'll

put it right here. Yeah, I mean, because I would

have loved to have been able to do a Scatman

Crothers. That would have been, you know. Megatron!

You're going down! But holy crap, Jazz, I absolutely

love this character. Some of the lines that he

got to say were so cool, because again, it's

Scatman Crothers. How can you not give Scatman?

How can you not give Hong Kong Phooey? Some of

the best lines. Trust me, I get it. Jazz is a

cool character. Steve, what do you think? I'm

definitely down with Jazz being in the top ten.

He was always one of my favorites. Had some funny

lines. He's very down to earth. And other than

his movie rendition, I've loved every version

of him in everything. What's cracking, player?

Is that all you got, Megatron? You want a piece

of me? You want a piece? No, I want two pieces.

Brother always gets it. Yeah. And I think we're

not going to get too many arguments about him

being in the top 25 or probably even in the top

10. So Jazz is number six. That means from here

on out, guys, it's the top five. Let's see where

we start. Me Grimlock disappointed. Number five.

All right, this character actually is the only

character in, well, since Shockwave, that hasn't

been on somebody's either number two or number

one spot. So the highest anyone had this character

rank is number three. But 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 people had him in the

top 10. He's on 30 lists. He's the last of the

Dinobots. We're going with Grimlock here at number

five. So a lot of love for the Dinobots as we've

seen. We had like four of them on the countdown

here. Grimlock all the way up here at number

five. Steve, what do you think about that? I

am perfectly fine with Grimlock being on this

list. If he wasn't, I would be surprised. And

coming up next, Sludge at number four. No. If

Grimlock wasn't on this list, I was going to

say there are going to be people that riot just

on that alone. Me, Grimlock, need new strategy.

No, I mean, he's led the Autobots before in various

continuities. Also gotten himself in a lot of

trouble due to the same thing. But on a whole,

he's very deserving of being on this list. Yeah,

I agree. Mike, what is your love for Grimlock?

Intruders! Dinobot, destroy! Cycle and car robots,

good! Truck robot, bad! Yeah, I absolutely love

Grimlock. I think he's fun. I think he's cool.

I think he's interesting. Again, several things

that IDW has done over the years has really,

really made him into a really cool character.

Not that he wasn't already, but... Between Greg

Berger and G1 and David Kaye and animated, seeing

Grimlock here. at number five very awesome i

agree and the spots are just dwindling i know

we're kind of flying through this but you don't

need to make too many arguments for these characters

no it's just kind of more about how they fall

and that type of thing so i don't think anyone

is going to make a complaint that grimlock should

not be in the top five so dinobots not need robots

to fight dinobots destroy robots In case you

haven't noticed, Dinobots are robots. There's

only four spots left, guys, and I think you probably

know most of those names. Let's see which order

they fall. Well, let's have number four. My rightful

place on the list? Yes. No. All right. Next up,

as he said, number four on 31 lists. Again, only

two people. Left this character off of their

list. What was that? That was Evan. The purest,

most vibrant, most perfect harmony I've ever

heard. Also, the last character we're going to

talk about that was not somebody's number one.

Two people had him at number two, and almost

everybody else had him in the top ten. As you

command, Megatron. In fact... probably 1, 2,

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 people had him

in the top five. So that's crazy talk as far

as universal love for this character. We're going

with the Decepticon, as we will for most of the

rest of the countdown. And that is going to be...

Soundwave. Soundwave at number four. I had him

ranked number five. He comes in here at number

four. Mike, you start us off with Soundwave.

What do you think? I had him at number five,

too, I think. Number five or six. I had him at

ten. Yeah, I had him at five. The most common

ranking for him was four. There was like seven

people that had him at four. Again, you know,

for me, it was, as I mentioned, might have been

in the intro to the countdown. I forget when

I talked about this. As a kid, I had Blaster

in his cassettes. I always wanted Soundwave in

his cassettes, but I never got him. My buddy,

Jonathan, at the time, had him. Wouldn't even

let me... touch the damn... I didn't want to

play with it. I just wanted to hold it in my

hand so I could look at it, kind of thing. And

I always loved him. I always thought it was so

cool that he's essentially Dr. Claw with a vocoder.

That was great. And he's gone on to do some really,

really cool and interesting things. The way that

they approached him and animated how He constantly

gets upgraded and upgraded and upgraded every

time Saru uses her key, because she puts her

key in everything, apparently. I thought that

was really cool. What they do with him in IDW

was really cool. Basically, he turns into, without

the brotherhood part of it, without the, oh my

god, mutants or humans suck. He's basically Magneto

in IDW because he builds his own space station

where all Transformers can go kind of thing.

He turns into this, I don't want to say ancillary

character, but he turns into a character where

he's not on either side kind of thing anymore.

He grows out of that. I thought that was always

so cool. And yeah, I just absolutely love Soundwave.

Yeah, he's always been one of my favorites. Probably

one of my personal favorites. Like if I was just

making a list of my... personal favorite characters

toys etc etc soundwave would probably be in my

top two Or three. Just because I loved his character

so much. I loved the fact that he was different

than the rest as far as the speech and the vocoder

and stuff like that. I loved the cassette aspects.

And his cassettes were much more worthy than

Blaster's. So I enjoyed that. Not saying there's

anything wrong with Blaster or whatever. They

just didn't do a lot with the cassettes for him.

So personal favorite. But then I also think worthy

just for how much we've seen him in the different

storylines and the different cartoons, et cetera,

et cetera. I think he's always one of those.

constant that always pops up because people just

always think he's a badass he's like that silent

him and shockwave are very similar obviously

i think some people like soundwave better some

people like shockwave better but it's like even

though starscream is always trying to overthrow

megatron etc you always had the feeling that

shockwave or soundwave were the ones that were

more capable of overthrowing megatron if they

wanted just because That's because, I'm sorry

to interrupt you, that's because, again, number

one, Shockwave is going with logic. Starscream

is very emotional, in case you didn't know, folks.

No, no, I get that. I'm just saying they're like

these quiet assassins, almost. Yeah, no, absolutely.

And Megatron would never expect it or suspect

it. I have no problem with this. Steve, what

do you think of Soundwave? I think that he was

in my top ten anyway, and it's one of the few

G1 toys I actually owned. A long time ago, although

I can't find the way more for Cybertron 1 to

save my life. He was always one of my favorite

Decepticons, regardless of the fact that he doesn't...

do or say much, but he's always just kind of

there as backup and support. But you can clearly

tell that he's actually Megatron's second -in

-command, and Starscream is the one as the public

-facing second -in -command that gets bludgeoned

when something goes wrong. Yeah, for sure. I

don't think anybody's going to have a problem

with Soundwave showing up here at number four.

He's definitely top ten worthy. He comes in at

number four for us, which means there's only

three spots left. We all know who they are. Let's

see what order they fall. It's time for number

three. I, Starscream, am your new leader. Decepticons,

follow me. Who disrupts my coronation? Coronation,

Starscream? This is bad comedy. Megatron? Is

that you? Here's a hint. All right, next up,

beating out Soundwave by 20 points. This is the

closest. A lot of these have been big gaps, like

the jump from Grimlock to Soundwave was over

250 points. The jump from Soundwave to our number

three is only 20 points. They were on the exact

same amount of number of lists, both 31 lists.

The average ranking for Soundwave was 10 .9.

The average ranking for this character was 10

.3. So very close in all those things. The only

difference is Soundwave made Nobody's number

one. This character made four people's number

one. So this is going to be number one for Tim

Silvers, Collecticon, Michael Wilson, and Robo

Apollo. Also made three people's number two.

And one, two, three, four, five, six people's

number three. Another six people's number five.

Everybody but, let's see. Everybody but five

had him in their top ten that ranked him. And

then three more people had him in the top 25.

And then one person put him at 86. One person

put him at 100. And two people left him off.

Explain yourself. We're talking about number

three, and that is Starscream. So Starscream

here at number three. I know the one person hates

Starscream, but at least they felt that they

still needed to put him on the list, even if

it was at 100. But how did two people leave Starscream

off of their list? I don't know. I had him at

87. He's always around. Right. I had him at 87

because again, I know your point system. And

again, I know everyone else is going to vote

for him kind of thing. And I like Starscream.

I do in certain things, but I've just met, he

was, I always liked Skywarp and Thundercracker

more than Starscream because Starscream was all

like, they were the ones I wanted to know more

about. Starscream was always in your face. Starscream

was always this. Starscream was always that.

Again, amazing history with this character. And

again, how they got the other Seekers into animated

by making them Starscream clones and taking different

bits of his personality and making them. That

was hilarious. Ah, never before have I seen a

more impressive group of lethal fighting machines.

And pretty good looking if I do say so myself.

That pompous bag of bolts Megatron won't know

what Hylian's fuss. Against Megatron? Are you

insane? Huh? I think I just sprang an oil leak.

Silence, you fool. Megatron is a worthless pile

of scrap metal compared to my genius. Brilliant

observation, brilliant. But your genius pales

in comparison to the genius of our leader, the

original Starscream. I could listen to this one

all day. Yeah, and there is always that chance

that somebody just overlooked somebody. I'm not

saying that's an excuse for Starscream. But I'm

just saying there is that chance that ranking

all these people that somebody just accidentally

leaves somebody off. So I'm not trying to throw

too much shade, for example. Mike, you didn't

vote for jazz in your top 100. So that was just

a forgetful thing. AllSpark didn't vote for Soundwave

in their top 100. And it's kind of surprising

because Tyler Bleszinski had a... almost entirely

Decepticon list because of how much he likes

the Decepticons, but he did not vote for Starscream.

So a whole Decepticon list, but Starscream was

left off that one as well. And Benson, you didn't

vote for Starscream either. So interesting, you

know, I guess everybody has their favorites and

stuff like that, but obviously Starscream still

makes number three and I don't think a lot was

going to change that. So a lot of love Starscream

number three. We only got two spots left. We

know who they are, but who's number two and who's

number one? It's time for number two. One shall

stand and one shall fall. You, Optimus Prime.

All right, it's that time, guys. There's only

two spots left. That means when I reveal two,

it also reveals number one. Let me just give

the breakdowns for these characters a little

bit. One average ranking was 4 .2. The other

average ranking was 4 .8. The point total difference

was 2 ,971 to 3 ,046. So about a 75 point difference,

not quite. If you want to break it down a little

bit further, one person made it on all the lists

except for one. The other person made it on all

the lists except for two. If I break it down,

this is where it gets interesting. This is going

to be hard to keep up with, so I'll try to make

this as easy as possible. But I'm going to list

off their rankings, guys. I know it's a lot,

but I want you to listen to it because it's interesting

how this plays out. So one of the characters

has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 people

that ranked him number 1. 12. Then 1, 2, 3, 4,

5, 6, 7, 8 people had him ranked number 2. So

that's 20 people, either first or second. Then

two thirds, two fourths, a fifth, a sixth, an

eighth, tenth, eleventh. And then the outliers,

a 27 and a 51. Our other character made it on

three people's number one. One, two, three, four,

five, six, seven people's number two. One, two,

three, four, five, six, seven, eight people's

number three. Three 4s, two 5s, a 6, two 7s,

an 8, 11, 12, 15, and then the outliers would

be 21 and 36. You would probably say that the

person that was on 12 people's number one lists

is our number one. That is not correct. The person

that was only on three number one lists ends

up as our number one overall. Why? Because number

two was left off of two lists and number one

was only left off of one. and then how the rest

of those rankings broke down. So coming in at

number two, 2 ,971 points. On 31 of the 33 lists,

Optimus Prime. Until the next Autobot leader

appeared, a gentle robot known as Orion Pax,

who was fated to become Optimus Prime. And so

began the Third Cybertronian War. which reaches

to this day. And the Quintessons are our creators.

Through all these centuries, they have waited

for the proper moment to strike, to reclaim the

planet that we Transformers took from them. And

now they're going for the gusto, right? Do not

forget what you've learned of our past, Artemis.

From its lessons, the future is forged. Are you

crazy? Why'd you short -circuit yourself? Wake

up, you moron! It was the only way into the Matrix.

Number one, with 3 ,046 points on all the lists

but one, Megatron. One question, Megatron. Why

are we called Decepticons? Another Kraven Autobot

scare tactic. The name was meant to demonize

us. Instead, we wear it as a badge of honor.

For if speaking the truth is deception, then

we are gladly guilty. So in this battle, Megatron

wins. Mm -hmm. So, Steve, what do you think of

that? I, Megatron, have triumphed! I have finally

beaten Optimus Prime! Well, one, I think it's

hilarious that Prime lost. And the fact that

my number two is Optimus Prime. And I was still

correct. Megatron did get number one. Right.

Let me give credit real quick to those that had

these characters ranked number one. So the people

that had Optimus Prime ranked number one would

be TV's Mr. Neil, DJ Valentine. Alex from This

Week in Geek, Hahi Prime, Bondo Mike, AllSpark,

Iacon Dispatch, Scanner51, Rodimus Primal, my

friend Joel, the TFLYP podcast, and Solartron.

The three that had Megatron number one, Moonbase2,

Dan Clark, and myself. So, I got my number one

right, guys. Actually, I got my number one, two,

and three right. I had a Megatron Optimus in

Starscream for my one, two, and three, and then

I had Bumblebee before Soundwave just because

I thought that's how it would fall. Mike, what

do you think? Megatron wins Optimus Prime number

two, and how this all played out? Just goes to

show you when, you know... You lose a four million

year war, you have to give the Matrix to the

better leader. I think this is awesome. I think

this is great. And I specifically put Optimus

at 51. Because, yes, I love Peter Cullen voicing

the character. Yes, I love certain aspects of

the character in Generation 1. However, I just

don't think with some of the actions that he

took in Season 1 and 2... He is the better leader

in my personal opinion. The fact that Megatron

beat him, I absolutely love that. I think that's

great. Megatron, he has such a rich history.

Yeah, I think it's a deeper character. Yeah,

it is. And again, it goes to that whole thing

of sometimes the villains have the deeper story

than the heroes. Yes, Optimus Prime used to be

Orion Pax. Yes. He was reformatted into the leader

that we all know and love kind of thing. But

again, Megatron, especially in IDW and probably

the other comics as well, but man, Megatron in

IDW is... He eventually becomes an Autobot. It's

just... It's bonkers good. Because again, at

least when IDW started their Phase 2 books, Two

comics, More Than Meets the Eye, Robots in Disguise.

Robots in Disguise was the Cybertron, Political,

Starscream, Bumblebee, all that. Bots on Cybertron.

Lost Light was Rodimus and crew going out searching

for the Knights of Cybertron. They talk about

Megatron's trial for his war crimes and everything

else, and his punishment kind of is becoming

an Autobot and working with the Lost Light. So

you basically have Megatron and Rodimus working

together. There are a couple of issues in the

IDW run where they turn Megatron. No, they don't

turn them. I'm sorry. I need to rephrase that.

In the IDW universe, all of the bots have human

hollow avatars. It's like pounds around, and

they're holograms. So if they need to go onto

a planet that is inhabited, that you don't want

to have giant robots on, you can go as this hollow

avatar. Megatron's looks like my grandfather,

and I fucking love it. It's just so cool. And

Rodimus kind of looks like Marty McFly, which

is really nice. But Megatron, his character,

it just lends so much to give so much depth.

And Optimus does too, but as I said a second

ago... Everybody loves to love the villain these

days, and I'm sure it's been happening for the

last almost 40 years. Yeah. Steve, before we

go through the top 25 and our thoughts, et cetera,

and the countdown overall, any other last thoughts

about Megatron and Optimus? No. I mean, I can't

say I'm totally surprised that Megatron won just

because, one, I think people have an intense

distaste for him. during the War for Cybertron

trilogy, whereas Megatron seems to be the one

that everybody's rooting for. So, I don't know,

I'm pretty happy with where it landed. Plus,

like I said, a Megatron still won. Very true.

So let me go through the 25 here, and then we'll

give some final thoughts on that. We'll have

a whole episode where we'll give our final thoughts

on the whole countdown, but we'll wrap up at

least this part. So starting with Rodimus Prime,

then Jetfire, Devastator, Thundercracker, Beast

Wars Megatron, Prowl, Unicron, Optimus Primal,

Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Dinobot, Ironhide, Wheeljack,

Galvatron, Ratchet, Shockwave, Cyclonus, RC,

Bumblebee, Jazz, Grimlock, Soundwave, Starscream,

Optimus Prime, and Megatron. Mike, final thoughts

on this section of 25? Do I wish certain favorite

characters were higher than others? Yes. Even

Beast Wars Megatron. But I think overall with

this section, I think everybody that participated

in our countdown and all of the tallied votes

and everything. I think we got it right. I think

it's a good top 25. And I don't think anybody

would say, oh, I don't want any one of those

characters in the top 25. Maybe Unicron, maybe.

But, I mean, even Unicron has his merits to a

point. I just wish that they would do something

a little more with him. But, yeah, no, I'm happy.

Steve, what are your thoughts on this group of

25? Overall, I'm happy. I kind of predicted a

lot of the ones that were going to show up ahead

of time. Yeah, I didn't know what order they

were going to drop. Some of them I will argue

up and down that they should have been in the

next bracket. There is no more next bracket.

No, I know what I meant is like the previous

block over being in this one. There were some

that I would have maneuvered differently, but

no, I'm happy that the ones that showed up in

this top 25 showed up in this. Yeah. I think

so, too. Like if I was to look at my list and

compare it to what we got today, 17 out of my

top 25 made the top 25. So there was only eight

that were different, and I get that most of that's

just a personal choice. I didn't have Ratchet,

I didn't have Ironhide, Hot Rod, Rodimus, Unicron,

and I think Thundercracker and Jetfire were the

ones that I didn't have in my top 25, because

I had a lot more Beast Wars characters in my

top 25. So I actually had Blackarachnia, Cheetor,

Tarantulas, Waspinator, Rattrap, and Rhinox all

in my top 25, along with Arachnid. um, from prime.

Um, so I don't know. I just thought the beast

wars characters had a little more depth to them.

So I actually showed a lot of love to them. Um,

so that's kind of where I would have switched

some stuff out, but most of them, you can't make

too big of an argument that they don't belong.

Um, so Mike, like I said before, we're going

to have a chance to have a wrap up episode where

we're going to break all of this down and kind

of go through what order the different categories

were in, how many of each category and all that

type of stuff. So anything else you want to talk

about with that? Uh, coming, uh, On the anniversary

of the show. So September 17th, 2021 is the anniversary

when G1 started all those years ago. So that's

what's coming up next here. And yeah, I mean,

it's going to be interesting to see what all

of the final categorizations are and everything

else. Holy crap, guys. We made it through our

seventh Top 100 countdown. I wasn't sure if I

was going to make it. Yeah, we did it. Finally.

Top 100. We'll get all kinds of crazy reactions,

and it'll be fun to wrap this up. It was a huge

project, but I think I'm happy overall with the

results. I don't think there will be too much

to argue. Another thing that we always do in

the wrap -up episode, we'll get a little bit

more into those that didn't make it, how close

they came, and some stuff like that. So if your

favorite characters or some of your personal

choices that you were waiting for didn't make

it... Tune into the wrap up because we'll probably

hit some of them along the way, as well as kind

of going into our own list and some people that

didn't make it from our list and things that

we would change. You know, who was the who would

we move the highest? Would we move the lowest?

It's kind of all kinds of fun conjecture. So,

Steve, what are you looking forward to in the

wrap up and any last words before we get out

of here? I'm looking forward to in the wrap up,

just kind of having a final. you know breakdown

of maybe the ones that didn't show up that we

thought should have shown up and you know maybe

a few that we would maneuver and then and then

some you know honorable mentions that didn't

make the list at all cerebros can you hear me

what what happened i'll explain later i want

you to take me to that city you discovered We've

got to use it to hit back at the Decepticons

or we're all finished. No, no, no. I've had all

the fighting I can stand. Leave me alone. The

Decepticons have my son, Cerebros. Lord only

knows what they're doing to him right now. Absolutely.

So definitely tune in for that. Mike, get us

out of here. All right. Thank you for joining

us on the Top 100 Transformers Characters Countdown.

If you'd like to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show, there are several ways

to do so. Visit the website geekcastradio .com

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You can also search out all things Transformers

over there as well. Get your audio receptors

ready because in part six of this podcast series,

we conclude the countdown. with recaps, numbers,

thanking the contributors, and all that other

good stuff. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with... Steve

Megatron. And Optimus Solo. And we will have

something play here. I have no idea what it is,

but unleash the Transformers geek in you, and

we will catch you in the springtime for the Top

100 Toys countdown coming. in 2022 from the geek

cast radio network oh scrap you're listening

to all things transformers how are we ever gonna

fight that thing i don't know hot rod but we've

got to try i'm afraid it won't do I wish to speak

to my lawyer.