My Little Pony and Transformers Holiday Specials

Welcome to The Pull Bag. Join us as we dig on

our latest comics and discuss them with a rotating

panel of the GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy

this week's Pull Bag. Ta -da -da -da -da! Pony

Power! Oh, hell, I am so sorry. Welcome to The

Pull Bag, episode 125. This is the Holiday Leftovers.

Episode I am DFG and Mike and joining me is Nicole

Multiple screen names hailstorm whatever the

hell you call yourself this week. What should

I call myself? I'm gonna call myself Betty this

week. That sounds awesome. And of course we have

Heather Haye -Prime. Hello. I'm gonna call myself

Prime whenever I can. Betty Prime. That sounds

like something Betty White. Betty white pretty

white would be a good transformer. Yeah, she'd

be awesome. No Just know the Highlander of the

Golden Girls Didn't she the only one left alive

at this point Oh God You want to see Sophia in

one of the most hilariously stupid 90s movies

watch stop or my mom will shoot Alright, so we

are here and as I said, it's holiday left over

time December 30th of 2015 we over on Showtime

synergy in the pullback we did the Holiday special

for Jim So I figure why not do the other a couple

of the other ones and we're gonna do like I said

My Little Pony and Transformers First up is My

Little Pony. The main cover is spike Basically

being electrocuted kind of like Clark Griswold.

It's the yes the Christmas vacation Spoof. I

love it. And all the presents are for rarity.

I love it. Of course. Are they? Yeah, they totally

are. There's a lot of really glorious tiny little

stuff to find. Yep. The creative on this is Katie

Cook on writing. Art's also by Katie Cook, Brenda

Hickey, Agnes Garbowska, and Andy Price. Colors

by Heather Breckle, lettered by Neil Iatake.

I guess. And of course, Bobby Kernow is on editing.

We start off with Twilight Sparkle and Spike

being snowed in at the House of Mouse, so I'm

sorry. You can't have mouses as we'll see shortly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, I have to say this

is my, well... Next month in February Nicole

and I are gonna be doing fiendship is friendship

February. So I have read pony comics before this

I've read the the friends not friends forever

God the micro series The ponytails that's I've

read the the two volumes of ponytails volume

one and volume two and I still have to read friend

of the Fiend Ship is Magic and some other stuff,

but technically this is my overall third introduction

to the IDW My Little Pony comics. It starts off

with, like I said, Twilight Sparkle and Spike

in this... Don't know coffee shop or train station

Stop because there's the train tracks there.

Yeah, she's good. She just met up with her parents.

She's trying to get home It's kind of like planes

trains and automobiles if you think about it

We do not need bad fan fiction of Twilight and

Spike in the position of John Candy and Steve

Martin. It's like, that's not my hand. We do

not need that. But now you have invented it.

Yep, it's all your fault. so spike makes an executive

dragon decision that the that they should go

back to that her parents place and Then the avalanche

of snow comes piling in on him for spike. I love

the blissful ignorance Oh boy, so they get snowed

in And Well, Twilight wanted to read is the thing

right and she's a bookworm right at twice Amy

is Twilight, okay Because that's what she wants

to do with her whole life, is just read. But

somebody saw her book in her purse and just like...

Stole it and the way they port the way they portray

it is like it's totally a normal thing to just

like see a book in Somebody's person take it

with you like oh too bad the lost book I should

take it home like a foster book or something

like no, that's not how it works I love the title

of the book too. I know it's Lord of the Reins.

It's amazing Little pony right there. He's just

so into it. I Love that. He's getting to do exactly

what Twilight wanted to do He's growing by the

fire with a mug of tea reading the book and she's

just like alas and her tongue says anguish. Oh

My god, I didn't even notice that at first That's

my favorite thing that they do in the pony comics

is just funny little jokes with words that they're

like, yeah, we know adults are reading this.

Yeah, it's it's kind of like what Kelly Thompson

does over in gym where she'll there was the the

annual where they were having a movie night and

at one point or another, they all fell asleep

and around all of them, it says adorable snoring.

So, Spike is being a crybaby, essentially, because

he wants her to read to him. Why not, man? I

guess. What I found interesting with this is

how they incorporated the other ponies before

the eventual end of the story. Because I was

wondering how they were going to do that with

Twilight and Spike stranded. It's a holiday miracle.

Yeah, it's a festivus for the rest of us. Did

I just now notice that the bookseller guy fully

has a hipster beard? Oh, yeah So the first story

here is basically Rainbow the red -nosed reindeer.

Yes It's essentially a rainbow. I kind of want

a plushie of that. I know. I just like her feet.

And I like her big ears. Yeah. And her little

cyclonus antlers. I love it. I didn't even notice

those at first. Too bad one of them isn't broken.

That would be awesome. Can you imagine like the

other ponies or reindeer are like we you know

We won't let you play our reindeer games and

they like break off her horn They've had plenty

of Transformers references in the ponies. Oh,

yeah You know the very very first one big optimist

prime right there The the gray pony that says

what do you mean reindeer games it almost looks

like Her name's Silver Spoons. Oh, okay. I was

gonna say it almost reminds me of Jade from Twilight's

One -Shot, but it's not Jade, obviously. It's

supposed to be like Paris Hilton. And the other

one's Diamond Tiara. They're the privileged ponies

that just have everything going for them. And

if you're not like them, you're not good enough.

And that's basically how they talk to you. Yeah,

I have to zoom in and look at the names of these

games Okay, my favorite is apology. Yeah apology

connect for look Cattle ship Yeah, cattle ship

makeopoly No, meropoli meropoli. Yeah work is

not really curious about what this other one

is it's gelding wars gelding wars okay what okay

yes that's okay we have all right i'm fulfilled

now i have so uh they all leave her go inside

play their reindeer games and she's sitting out

there in you know with snow on her head and all

of a sudden princess luna crashes into her and

we break to You know, we break the fourth wall

here and, uh, cause Spike's like, wait, Princess

Luna is in this book? I guess so. Oh, look, she

wrote it. I love her author picture. Yeah, it's

hilarious. Uh, and it basically turns out to

be, poor Princess Luna. She just doesn't know

how to. talk to the common folk I totally heard

her voice for that part she was stuck in the

moon for centuries she's still learning with

the with the duck or the goose here I really

really instead of saying off with you I really

wanted to say I wanted her to say off with your

head nothing like flying fruitcake to get the

season started right I'm one of those people

I actually enjoy fruitcake one of the few there's

ten of us we should start a club so we get Luna

and Rainbow here Luna is essentially Santa, and

obviously Rainbow is gonna become Rudolph. What

an awesome job, man. I love the art. The art's

amazing in this. And I love how the, um, you

know, you hear this giant crash outside and the

other, the ponies that are still inside playing,

um... They are playing Maropoly they all just

kind of look and they're like wondering what

the heck was that And I love princess Luna you

just flew most accidentally to catch that rogue

fruitcake it wasn't rogue you threw it So the

other ponies come out and they're all being really

nice to rainbow would only be it's the standard

Let you know standard lesson all kids should

should learn, you know treat others as you should

be treated But they're essentially treating rainbow

better than they would have only because princess

Luna's there Well, they want to be part of the

world, you know Love the line a lot has happened

in ten minutes. We've all changed and grown as

individuals So they go back inside and Luna says

best way to show thanks my friend is to his manual

labor Let us be off. There's a fruitcake in it

for you and back to annoying me Of course we

we we learn the lesson and we go back to the

the train station and Oh The coffee vendors name

and is that supposed to be a Starbucks hat it's

well it probably is if she's got the apron Yeah,

and it's well, yeah, he's got the name too Yeah,

I You know, I I know last year there was a big

You know of an arms thing over what you know

Starbucks did for the holidays, but it's like

every time I see Starbucks now I'm just waiting

for someone like in something like this. I'm

just waiting for someone to make the cups red

Have had the red cups in here Oh, and then they

had the polar bear fiasco too. Yeah, that's true.

That was so stupid. People are idiots. I'm glad

I missed the polar bear one. Oh, so it was, you

know, like the, uh, Coca -Cola bear polar bears

and they had the red scarves on them. Well, they

had these cute little cookies that looked like

the polar bears and they put a little red scarf.

Oh, that's right. I did see that. It was, it

was so gross. I'm like, really? Are you serious?

You actually think they're going to do that?

I will not tangent about people making controversies

out of stuff that isn't really controversial.

The Toy and the Mouse is the next story which

stars Rarity Spike's favorite person or pony

to stock. This is basically the Nutcracker folks.

Yeah. And, uh, and rarity pretty much, um, refuses

to participate. Yeah. It's just like the real

story of the Nutcracker and everything. And then

it stops when there's a mouse king, the mouse

king in it. Nope. We're not doing this. This

actually knocked me out of the story a little

bit because it was The first story was enjoyable

and fun and I was I was all down for the characters

being You know ponies that we know in very thin

disguises and that was fun But this rarity one

it breaks the fourth wall so thoroughly and so

right away Yeah, that I was like, wait, are we

still even reading an actual book? What and it

threw me out? Yeah, and then we get the horseshoe

on the head for the Mouse King with the whack

and it goes back to The train station come to

find out spike in twilight of falling asleep.

Oh I didn't catch that. Okay, that makes it make

more sense if they were dreaming then it's allowed

to be full Well, it starts off as, you know,

if you look at it, because Spike does in the

beginning here, when, you know, when we learn

that the dude's name is Cup of Joe, they have

another book and Spike holds it up and he starts,

she starts reading with his mouth full and she

starts, says, don't do that. And then we see

the part of the book where it says the toy and

the mouse. So it's, it's a story in one of the

books, but they fell asleep reading it. Right.

Yeah. Okay. So that's why the fourth wall can

essentially be, you know, have the glass shattered

on itself. Yeah. I like that. The picture of

Twilight getting, uh, woke up by the clanging

of the film. That's what it'll look like tomorrow

at six o 'clock because I've already been up

and I still have to do a shift of work. You need

to get your sleep pad on track there. it's not

easy when you work graveyards and you guys still

have a wife if you look at the at that panel

there both of them have the same look in their

eyes except spike is upside down So cup of Joe

says, you know, oh I figured oh, I you know,

you said your friends were having a party I figured

let's have a party here and all I have at home

is my fish. Oh my gosh The poor the poor fish.

I mean, come on He's got a present for his owner

and he's not home. Oh my gosh. Look at those

sad eyes It's Nemo all over again So they read

the final story, Twas the Night of Hearth's Warming

Eve, and obviously this is, you know, the night

before Christmas. I like how this is written.

I always find it really interesting to see how

writers incorporate the classic Christmas tales

like this. To fit their whatever their specific

story is. Yeah I enjoyed the heck out of the

writing of this too Just cuz it was it was like

we're gonna be serious pump. No, I Just love

that Mac is reading Mary Higginson Clark I love

that. Oh, so Mac likes the romances. Mac likes

harlequins. I know it's not a harlequin. It's

a romance suspense kind of thing. Maybe he's

in it for the suspense. I also just noticed that

he is wearing butt flat PJs. I know. Oh my gosh.

There's so much cuteness in this. Okay, so so

this does have to do with the comic but we went

to this oh It's basically a water park here that

they decided to throw a winter activity thing

yeah, and They had a little train ride and you

stop halfway through the train ride you go in

and watch like a 10 -minute cartoon and you get

hot chocolate and The cartoon was this really

old Like Santa Claus coming to all the children

kind of cartoon and I'm like wow things have

changed since the 1930s There was the little

kid whose butt flap falls out But there was also

like the kid that falls into something and looks

up with blackface And oh my god Wow, there's

a lot of stuff that you could not get away with

now That's great you can't remember what's called

no Yeah, it was it was like weirdly traumatic

But back to the comic but you know, I was having

a brief flashback looking at at Big Mac's bump

there so So this one kind of ends with obviously,

you know Granny Smith coming in I like that.

I love granny We go back to Twilight, Joe, and

Spike, and we hear a creak, and Spike is somehow

sleeping, standing up. But wait, we have to rejoin

the line that's not an action figure, it's a

doll. Sorry. Moving on, go ahead. Yes, yes. And

we hear a whoosh, and Spike wakes up, and we

see all these strangers. With white eyes. All

these are white eyes, yep. They're getting their

ninja turtle on. Let's fire until you see the

white of their eyes. So everyone shows up. Rainbow,

Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, to

have a party at the coffee shop. And wait. Yeah,

that is rainbow. Okay. It's a harrowing tale

of friendship hardship and dedication that will

need a full 20 pages to explain Hey, bring the

fourth wall. Is it my bit? Is psychotic we have

seen this yeah I love the whole, we left Big

Mac behind. He can get himself out of that ice

crevasse and get his blank up here anytime he

wants. Probably. He'll be fine. I love how Pinky

is like, oh, Cup of Joe, is he on the guest list?

And then the next panel is her just basically

giving him the glare of all evil. That part got

me in the feels, because I'm totally that guy.

Wherever I went as a teenager, I was like, I'm

here. I know I'm not cool. But she accepted him.

She's like, ah, that's fine. I love it. You could

be Spikes plus one. Overall, I dug this. I thought

it was really cool. I like the art. I like some

of the stories. I don't know. I just, I don't

know. I'm still wrapping my head around this

whole my little Just this whole universe is just

weird to me At times yes, it's just strange to

me at times Yeah, we'll we'll get into that full

-on next month, but yeah It's just happiness.

What are your overall thoughts, Nicole, for the

My Little Pony special? It's a lot of fun. I

mean, you have to read it, because it's got a

lot of little hidden gems. And it's one of those

things that you have to read so you can actually

see them. It's definitely ponies, holidays, happiness,

funniness. It's got a good little moral story.

And I love the artwork. I especially love the...

picture of Macintosh when he remembers there's

the fire. Yes. I love that panel. It's so cute.

And the take on a classic, like you said, Twisted

Night Before Christmas. Love that. It's just

overall fun goodness. It's definitely ponies.

I love it. All's I can think of when I hear this

was the night before Christmas now is a Guy in

his pajamas in a dog chain And of course Piki

pie bought her party cannons, so yeah festive

boom To be honest I did love it but there are

parts that I really enjoy and the fact that it

really comes together at the end saves it like

you get to the end you're like yeah that was

fun and there's there like Nicole said the the

hidden gems are what make it the best and that

that's what makes the pony comics really fun

to be honest is the fact that you can go through

them and be like oh my gosh that little detail

is great i love the pinky pipe randomly brings

the fish that was one of my my pinky senses tiny

little favorite He's like, yeah, I left my fish

at home, but my fish won't care. And then it

cuts to the fish holding this little present

and like crying in his tank. And I'm like, oh

my gosh, that's horrible. But then she saved

the day and brought the fish back. So yeah, it

was fun, but not like deathless to me. On a scale

of zero to five, what would you rate this? Well,

it's your opinions on it. I like it. I thought

it was interesting. Like I said, I like seeing

different universe takes on classic tales. The

art is great. At first, I was taken out of the

whole rarity story at first, like Heather kind

of was, but then I realized, oh wait, yeah, they

fell asleep. That's interesting. And I like how

Joe is kind of disappointed that they fell asleep

I Mean it's it's ponies and Christmas what more

needs to be said Her heart is swarming even whatever

they call it in the universe Okay rating it what

would we rate this one I'm gonna give it a four

It's a lot of fun Yeah, yeah, the nutcracker

one did kind of like Heather said, the first

time I read it, it did kind of confuse me that

the second time, of course, I knew what it was

expecting, but there's so many little gems in

there. And it's one of those things that you

could read with anyone pretty much. Oh, yeah,

absolutely. What about you, Heather? I think

I'd give it a three and a half. Because it's

perfectly fine. but like I said not not this

isn't one I would be like I must own it but it's

really it's fun but kind of forgettable to me

please don't hate me internet I love you for

me I'm also gonna give it a three and a half

I enjoyed it I thought it was really cool I kind

of wish they would have done a little bit more

with it especially for the price that it is because

originally i think this was a four or five ninety

nine book i think i could be wrong about that

i'll have to look at that and i'll get back to

you guys at the end of the show but we're gonna

take a quick break so heather can go get some

hot chocolate and we'll come back with the transformers

Holiday special after this So we are back and

we all have a chocolate and apparently erotimus

gives the erotimus star to ultra Magnus Actually,

this is orange for a for a for a star hanger

Everything about both of these covers is true

faithful amazing and profound and I bought both

of them Because okay nerd moment dork moment,

whatever Okay, so I had to have of course the

ultra Magnus has Christmas tree cover because

you have to but I also had to have the me and

Megatron go sledding one. Oh my god Like everybody

else sledding is great, but me and Megatron are

going sledding and yes When I first saw this

I thought Cromie was pulling Bumblebee's head

off He's like, why are you holding onto my face?

I love Starscream kicking Windblade off the end

of this stiletto, though. I love just like, whee,

jump, pew. But like, because this is how I grew

up, I'm like, I love this cover so hard. And

we have three different stories in this one.

We have Choose Me, written by Marigold Scott,

Art by Coren Howell, Colors by Thomas Deer, Silent

Light by The Soulkiller James Roberts, art by

Koteri, colors by Joanna, and then the 13th day

of Christmas, or well, it's actually supposed

to be the 38th day of Christmas, but whatever,

the 13th day of Christmas, written by John Barber

and art by Josh Bircham. Oh, that's cool. Full

art, not just, because usually it's Perez and

Burcham on colors. Perez on art, Burcham, that's

awesome. Yep, he got to draw all by his little

self. That's awesome. That's a lot of work. He

always gets stoked when he gets to color, or

not color, obviously. When he gets to draw a

comic, he's like, I got to draw, thank you guys!

It's very cute. I had a think. So we start off

with choose me, and I didn't notice this at first,

but look at the sun. I know, the sun's horrible!

Are you noticing that like the city also has

a big smiley grin underneath? Yeah, it does.

Oh yeah, everything is so happy and... And there

is of course my little pony crossover. Dude,

my daughter, I was like, Eve, come look, there's

a pony with like a cutie mark and everything.

Kind of reminds me of a pink strido or a pink

arrow from He -Man. I wanted to be one of those

animals that Fort Max rescued. Yeah. So in this,

they're... telling us about everyone who is coming

back to Cybertron, all the refugees, and they're

talking about the Velocitrons and little devisons

all wanted to meet and, you know, talking about

the Ikarians and Kameans and all the people.

And Oscar the Grouch is happy. Starscream the

Grouch apparently is happy. There's like a totally

little Oscar the Grouch guy hiding in a pile

of trash being like the city is much nicer now

even for me Can we please just clarify at the

very beginning of this that this is a riff on

how the Grinch stole Christmas in rhyme? And

it's amazing. Yeah, it is and sadly I can hear

Oh No, I know I don't mean it in a bad way I'm

just saying that that was the first thing I thought

of When I was reading this and at first I thought

that I didn't think that was an Oscar the Grouch

I thought that was chippy Starscream honestly

They deposed him So yeah Starscream's in his

in his tower And he's like, they don't love me

enough. I was reading this out loud to the kids

and like, I like don't do voices very well, but

for some reason with this, I instantly had this

amazing Starscream voice. It's like, they don't

love me enough. The only thing that I don't like

about this story and it's i've pretty much enjoyed

everything marigold's ever done everything that

i've read that she's done but do they have to

keep calling him dead bumblebee like but it's

like you said the ghost of bumblebee or something

or i i know it's just a book and i know it's

just a story but it just the two times that it

said it just creeps me out But that's the joke

it's it's that I know to me. Anyway, that was

the joke like so I'm gonna turn to dead bumblebee.

Wait, what? Only show up to Starscream or oh

He does I was gonna say it would make it better

if he had chains, but he does have chains. Oh

Yeah, the irony of it is Bumblebee never wanted

cash. I understand what the joke is, but... I

know I was like, that doesn't farm, but I don't

care, it's fun. Are they ever going to bring

Bumblebee back? Not probably for a while, I'd

say. Not for a while. He's been gone for a long

time, though, now. Not that long. I mean, think

about the other people have been gone for ages.

Well Bumblebee died in what issue 25 or up to

almost issue 50 at this point? I don't expect

him back until like issue a hundred if and in

the series I Honestly, I will be surprised if

he comes back in Under these with this creative

team. I exactly brought back by some other creative

team in the future If you want your bumblebee,

you have robots in disguise. No, no, no. I know.

I know. I'm just... And like I said, we haven't...

I haven't seen him in forever in this series

or in the main ongoing. So that's why I'm saying

we know he's dead. And that's why I'm saying

showing him up here, I'm like wondering, is this

kind of like, is he going to come back sooner

rather than later? Well, this is just the continuing

of Starscream Talks to Bumblebee. Yeah. Because

he has been doing that for a while. Which I actually

really enjoy a lot. So Starscream gets his throne

together, he gets his little... I should say

Rattrap. He's tapping his foot while Rattrap's

like heaving his throne. Oh, that's Starscream.

and Starscream goes on his little video thing

and basically says that this should be, you know,

honor the chosen one day and you're supposed

to honor me and Rattrap runs off and gets it

to Circuit's station. the new session and I almost

it almost looks like and it could be just the

way I'm looking at the art it almost looks like

circuit puts it in upside down and I love that

it's like a VHS tape but he is like he's got

little bubbles of sleepiness I love that he was

just asleep under the desk like they're both

just Can I just say how much I love this artwork?

It is absolutely fun and adorable. There are

so many things where I'm just like, oh my gosh,

thank you for that panel, Corin. For although

they beautifully broadcast the tape, Longtooth

cut off the end which changed the whole shape

of the speech that Starscream had given and ruined

the aims for which he had striven. I love the

next panel where it's like and show why you carry

with August Brevura. It's a word. Trust me That

circuits an ape that's not what I said he cut

off my tape he could have cut off worse things

Starscream Yeah, dude, but the next panel where

he's just like curled up on his bed. He's got

like Supposed to be a Megatron poster with darts

in it and he's got like He's got this wonderful

little 12 -year -old boy room with like stars

and planets hanging from the ceiling and rockets

on his dresser and a lava lamp. You know that

uh the the truck thing on the bottom of the upper

middle right part of the panel right next to

the lava lamp? Yeah. No, not astro train. Flying

white school bus? Yeah, but it looks like octane.

Kind of. Yeah, I can't tell if that's a Megatron

dartboard or not. I can't really see if that's

a Megatron. I just assume that it is. That's

like his eye and then his frown. Basically it

has to be a Megatron dartboard. Well, yeah, it

could be a Galvatron dartboard, but you never

know. I know. All of the other bots love the

news. Both of the tankers got matching tattoos.

I love that panel. I love that so much. See,

I feel bad because I read the pony one and I'm

like, okay, that was fun. But this one, I cannot

read a single page without busting up laughing.

And part of it is that I'm not as deeply immersed

in the ponyverse. I mean, I'm immersed, but not

deeply immersed. Just just I mean, oh my gosh,

there's a reward in every panel Yeah There was

the pony one too. I just like these rewards better

I love the line lead his soldiers through a parade

and wait Where's the other am I missing a panel

here? What are you looking for? And says and

his teammates bought him. Oh, okay. Never mind.

I'd read it wrong and his teammates bought onslaught

a brand new grenade it's just awesome yes everyone

is the spirit of giving and you don't really

see too much with cheetor and i i assume that's

dino bar just like be like we don't really like

each other but here's present slide see as much

as the holograms Yeah, it kinda does. I mean,

as much as I love Cheetor, and trust me, I am

a huge Cheetor fanboy, I'm not afraid to admit

that, but it's just one of those things where

it would almost be better if that was Rattrap,

and I know it can't be, because Ratt... But if

you think of Beast Wars, you think of the quote

-unquote shipping and all that, it's Rattrap

and Dinobot, not Cheetor and Dinobot, but whatever.

That is still fun, though. Yeah. Dude, I just

assumed that, like... bajillions of little fangirl

hearts exploded at the knockout and breakdown

panel yeah that was going to the wastelands or

whatever it was i'm sorry i clicked the microphone

the fact they're dragging cans behind them with

signs are all too acid waste or bust that's just

crazy uh so let's see here we have And Steve's

still alive! Yeah, Steve is still alive, but

Waspinator looks like he died again. He's at

the spot doing his energon treatment. Yeah, he's

drunk. He's doing pond angels. and of course

everyone is is is happy except for one and the

panel where it says in that bitter old star scream

stewed in his tower getting madder each second

and sadder each hour he looks like cup in that

panel corn drew an old cup scream I have seen

so many people using that as like their little

avatar, that face and that face and the grinchy

grin face. Like just as soon as this came out,

everybody just like went, mine! Yup. It's hilarious.

So he's plotting his revenge and suddenly there's

a knock at the door and... He recognizes everybody's

features, and Wheeljack essentially just bursts

right in and basically slams the door in his

face. Everybody shows up to celebrate with Starscream

because Starscream didn't make it about himself.

So it's a good thing that the news people cut

off the end of his tape. I like this story. I

thought this was pretty cool. I love the rhyming.

Yeah, and Yeah, the artwork is just so much fun

Margarit did a really good job with this one.

Yeah Okay, so the the section of the pony one

that has the rhyming I really really really really

enjoyed that For the fact that it was willing

to be like really bad poetry This is a slightly

trickier thing where She's really trying to stick

pretty closely to the form and still be funny.

Which is really hard. So I'm like, good job.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, this is the one that I basically

grabbed everyone and went, sit down, I'm reading

this aloud because it's funny. I like your old

woman voice there. Yeah, all of my art night

people had to deal with a big read aloud like

I started I'm like I'm just gonna read you the

Starscream one of I read the whole thing And

we get the middle story here, which is soul crusher

James Roberts this one made my son cry Actual

tears of course and he Like, this is totally

jumping to the end, but he was so sad at how

the baby turned out. He was the disappointment

incarnate. He was like, I wanted to be a baby!

I'm like, I'm sorry! Welcome to James' world.

He giveth and he taketh away. Right, he mostly

taketh away. You know I hate hats. I love Rodimus.

I don't care what anyone says, I love Rodimus,

I always will. I like Rodimus, I just like it

when he gets left handed to him. Like that panel.

Because a frustrated Rodimus just brings me joy,

I don't know why. Oh, the one where he's pinching

his nose or whatever? Yeah, when he's getting

the hat and he's just like We're like way farther

in than I thought we were We wait because guys

we have to talk about Megatron picking up minimus

The fact a the fact that minimus would let somebody

pick him up at all and then the fact that it's

Megatron and then the fact that they are finishing

each other's sentences and Roddy's like you guys

are freaking me out, please Yeah, it's just crazy

Why isn't he in his armor? That's what I don't

understand I understand it around outside of

his armor more so that he can hang out with ten

because ten likes him when he's little and to

practice being comfortable in his own skin But

what It's like this. Heather will understand.

It's when you've had a long day and you get your

bra off and you're like, oh, this feels good.

Let's move on from that. Thank you. So we get

the hat wearing. That is such a British thing.

Everything in this entire comic is so, so British.

They have crackers and they have paper hats.

They have really good engex apparently because

apparently Swerve is importing. Swerve knows

the good stuff. I love it so much it's making

me sad. Swerve is amazing at this. I love Nautica

here still if he discovers you've been importing

contraband njacks and having lock -ins He's too

busy preparing for the big sleep. He's not gonna

bother us knock knock knock run. It's him run

No, no run and hide I love that swerve is just

like throwing in movie titles still because the

big sleep is totally a movie I also love how

Nautica is just like I like the way Nautica is

lying with her feet up For some reason, I just

enjoy that. And balancing energon on her wrench,

because... Doing an impression of Ultra Magnus.

That's my best Ultra Magnus, it's a work in progress.

Don't beat up prisoners. And of course, it's

only Amy showing up. So something we kind of

skipped over, which I noticed it immediately

as soon as they said it. We have a note about

it here now where the intercom is coming over.

Hibernation in T minus 15 minutes. All crew members

are to proceed to the observation deck where

they will find a bed. Yes. For those that don't

understand, biometric. Envelope development device

development device when it first said it. I Noticed

it immediately. I was like, oh my god, that's

how they're gonna work beds into the Transformers

universe. Oh my god Well, yeah, but actually

being able to say I Didn't know we're all made

different lines and stuff with his I I love that

line, please tell me what I think it is, because

if it is, I don't think my face can do this turn

of events justice. Yeah, it's hilarious. So as

we go along, basically the point here is they

have to go into this hibernation thing because

they're... trying to go around or go through

a certain galaxy or whatever and apparently apparently

it's like you know going to the Klingon homeworld

or something i don't know so yeah go to the bad

people who don't like robots place so we all

have to sleep and hide yeah hide under your blanket

so the monsters can't see you Everything in this

is such a funny joke, unlike the, you have to

go to bed or Santa Claus won't come type thing.

Oh yeah. And then we, I can't believe they're

still doing this joke. Formerly the duly appointed

enforcer of the tire rest accord. Can we let

that die, please? No, it's still funny. It's,

oh god, just let it die, people. um mike's the

only one that mike doesn't know how to have fun

shut up uh why are you surprised magnus never

magnus locks everything he locks his own mouth

when he isn't speaking and nautica pretty much

destroys the door with her wrench that's one

way that's that's one way uh So why are they

breaking into this thing? Why are they breaking

into his office? To get the subspace whoop -de

-doo. Okay. The thing that Swerve is trying to

get that's kind of like wrapped up in chains.

It's exactly like the Carmex bottle with no bottom

that I invented when I was 10. Jeez. And for

some odd reason, Wurl and Nautica had a baby.

Adorable I love the line. She's making a face

and it's like a face. It looks like you from

Wally a little bit. Yeah, I Love world fixing

the window with tape and like drawing on it with

crayon and Then we get drunk singing Magnus for

holiday And Swerve pretty much tries to distract

him. This is what always happens to me when I'm

like singing and I think I'm by myself and or

directing music with gusto by myself. Somebody

will walk in and I will be like, ah, and they

will be falling on the floor laughing. This happened

to be just recently. I was at church having to

make copies in the library. thinking that I'm

all by myself in the church. I had my headphones

on. I'm jamming out. I'd have my iPod on shuffled.

Gangster Paradise comes on. I'm getting into

it. And someone walks in, and I'm like, don't

act like you don't want to join in. Oh, man.

Well played. Well played. Come on. After 20 years,

this song's still awesome. Yep. Both versions.

Weird Al's version is just as good. I stand by

that. Okay. Okay. No problem. I thought there

were, you know how back in those days they used

to have like, Hey, this is the super dance remix

and this is blah, blah, blah remix. And this

is this. I'm like, that is totally not a back

in the day thing. It is still with us. Talk about

one thing about the music industry that needs

to die other than Taylor Swift Once every hundred

there's a really good one So getting back to

this Chromia not for I'm sure not chromia Nautica

and world lose their kid at some point. They

leave the kid in the office and the kid finds

the armor It's doing the full horror movie All

I can think of is Autobot spike You know, but

that's all I can think of is when spike becomes

Autobot exit first Not his derange though when

she waxes I actually really like the art of these

panels cuz it's I don't like that. The Thunk

panel and the, like, Whirl being, like, full

stretch of horror. Yeah. Like, we have made Whirl

look horrified by stretching him and putting

action lines behind him, and it's working. So,

Nautica bashes Minima's Anbus over the back of

the head with a wrench. And then Whirl's like,

are we sure I didn't just do that? Because that's

the type of thing I would do. Yeah, Nautica and

Whirl are probably the most, um, put together

couple in this panel. It's like, wow. He was

panicking. It made me panic. You knocked off

his tiny mustache. And Whirl's picking it up

in his claw. It's amazing! And Magnus is just

like passed out still singing. Mm -hmm. It's

the happiest season of all. And Megatron. We

finally see Megatron again. Five minutes, everyone.

Everyone not preparing for the ejection of the

ship. Yeah. Okay, this whole entire section.

I can't even deal with the seconds. It's so funny.

Sure, I have no idea what, uh... You think you're

doing ultra Magnus, but I've never given anyone

a hug in my life. I knew it And the fact that

Roddy's just like he's just getting into his

little pod thing he's just like he doesn't even

look back He's like I knew it Sitting on the

floor cowering with his arms wrapped around his

knees being like I hate you all go to bed The

capsules look almost like the original Thundercat

capsules when they got ejected from the ship

when they landed on Earth in the original Thundercat

series. But yeah, Megatron's just sitting there

holding himself. All of you, get to your beds!

No one else wants to hold Megatron, so he has

to hold himself. I want to hold Megatron! Thank

heaven! no one else in the comic wants to hold

Megatron this is your final warning you're a

solitary individual you can get lonely I can

empathize but now is not the time and then we

get back to the baby situation it's just so so

ladies and gentlemen if you've how long is this

overall How long has both of these been going

on? Since what, 2011? Right? I guess so. I think.

Yeah, sounds about right. I could look it up.

I'm too lazy. Four or five weeks at this point.

In five years, if you have not gotten emotionally

attached to Whirl, you're going to get emotionally

attached to Whirl in this comic right now. And

it looks like he's going to Eject the because

you can't the thing about the the the beds. They're

made for one Robot only so you can't have two

sparks in there the people that they're trying

to hide from will find them and Whirls like sawdust

and he just puts the little baby those claws

like his and he's just like Oh, he's gonna go

to a different world and he's gonna tell everyone

about you know The world that he had before He

had a little jerry -curl So oh god, so we get

to the Metabay later Where is she what have you

done with her Don't worry. She's safe or rather.

They're safe safely contained. I'm afraid you've

been nurse meeting an infestation of scraplets

Yeah, oh and now At the end of this podcast,

I have to put in bulkhead screaming. Yes, do

it, do it, do it! Oh, bulkhead. And Nautica's

not a natural -born lawbreaker, so she went to

Velocity, and yeah, she pretty much narked on

him. And we find out what that knock was at the

door at Swerve's. It was apparently the Scraplets

making a fist. Yeah. And it basically ends on

a world saying, and they did all that just so

they could live to kill again. I'm sorry. Are

you kidding? I'm proud of them. It is so. world

is so amy so the second story i enjoyed the second

story we get to the third one and it's probably

the only time i've actually enjoyed thunder crapper

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... The funny thing is I was reading this I'm

like and I was feeling proud of Thundercracker

because his writing has gotten better I'm like

oh Thundercracker your writing is still really

bad, but it's better than it used to be good

job you're learning At least he can rhyme now.

It's a Decepticon Warlord with an armed fusion

cannon. Oh my gosh so much I want a toy of this

Santa Megatron is awesome Basically, we just

have to make it like a little Santa suit and

add a little beard. Oh My gosh, I give him a

little bag with a sack And I love I love what

John did with the titles. He pretty much bullwinkled

it the 13th day of Christmas or Dead and green

or the night thundercracker and Buster saved

Christmas. I Love that Buster has a voice in

this. Yes. Yeah So Santa Megatron basically kills

this this chick who was supposed to be a an amalgamation

of Marissa Fairborn Which is okay because I kind

of hate Marissa Fairborn and But I I love that

her name is Anna log Yeah, that that is something

like I would find at work Like yes, I'll give

an example two days ago I was doing a kid piece

of mail last name case first name Justin oh no

together and I'm just like oh your parents hated

you wow I thought that was a joke so I get um

I bid you peace on earth peace through tyranny

boom or sorry choo I thought Shockwave was only

allowed to do the tune, but anyway. Then we get

to Eddie Valiant as Thundercracker. I totally

hear Humphrey Bogart narrating this and it makes

it 12 ,000 times better. It was past midnight

on December 38th when my phone rang. I was to

sleep. Yeah, Buster in black and white is kind

of awesome. This was the page that I was like,

Josh, I love it so hard! Oh my gosh, I also love

the line, but my friends call me when they're

in trouble. My name's Cracker, Thunder Cracker,

but my friends call me when they're in trouble.

I'm a detective, the private kind. Just everything

about this is so awesome. This is one of my favorite

pages. I love his little I love his hat and I

love his little grin and like I love Buster staring

at the phone with the World of Warcraft quest

thing above her head. Didn't I say it was on

lettering for this one? I don't remember. I don't

remember. I'm not going back. I got it. I got

it. Letters by Tom B. Long. Okay, that's what

I figured. I love how he and this one does the

bold on certain things. Oh, yeah. It's hilarious.

You know, we really I need to go and give that

man some worship because I've been reading some

of the older like the early IDW books to the

kids lately while we wait for things to come

out. I'm like, wow. The lettering used to not

be as good. He'd be like, Tom, you do good things.

Thank you, sir. You know, because this is Christmas,

I really want an analog's name to be director

Yule. Yule log. But whatever. That can be her

middle name. So apparently oh Wait no John wrote

this not James yeah the line with thundercracker

life's colorblind. There's no red and green only

shades of gray all as I can think it was what

Alex had Nicole do that one time And I love Thundercracker's

explanation of why he loves he can turn into

a jet. He never has to fly coach for long Because

it's such a lame joke, you know, it's it's funny

because it's lame because we know that Thundercracker

just cannot come up with his level of cleverness

is relatively low, but he tries and Turning buster

into Rudolph is just And I love that Santa has

this, like, massive... So Santa's Citadel is

the most heavily guarded fortress in the galaxy.

See, I originally thought that it was going to

be Megatron here, because you got robot fire

-breathing reindeer. I would expect that to be

a Megatron thing, not a Santa thing. You guys,

I just noticed something that I missed this entire

time. The Coca -Cola Bears are in the panel with

Thundercracker at the top. Also, oh my gosh,

there are penguins sliding on the ice and going

woo -hoo. Yeah, I noticed the penguins. I didn't

see them. Where are the polar bears? On the exact

opposite end. Oh, okay, yeah. Holy crap! There's

like a fat severe showing up with a bag. I can't

even deal with this Buster she kind of looks

like the dog from how the grinch told Christmas.

I can't remember the dog's name now. Oh Max.

Yeah. Yeah, she kind of looks like back So the

candy cane cannons are my favorite and I want

the toy of them I want the toy of Santa's Citadel.

Uh, yeah, I want this I want it to open up and

I want to put the little reindeer robots in there

and a couple of Steve's just because they seem

like they would fit. Yeah. The only thing I'm

going to question with this part of the story

is the fact that Buster has this giant rocket

pack strapped to the dog's back. There's no way.

We do not question. It is a story. I know it's

a story, but there's just no way logistically

that that dog is gonna be able to hold the weight

of that giant rocket pack. We're okay with Santa

Claus having a citadel guarded by candy cane

cannons and robot reindeer, but we're not okay

with Buster having a rocket pack. As I said,

I thought it was gonna be Megatron at first because

that's something Megatron would do. If he was

really bored. Huh like if he was really bored.

It's a little too elaborate for Megatron. He

just blow things up So Santa is here and I was

really hoping for a Tim Allen reference Like

what what Tim Allen reference specifically Santa

Claus Tell him was Santa for three movies. Yeah,

no, I just I thought you were looking for a specific

line not a line more more of a design i like

that i like santa that that's an mma fighter

i love they say he's fat right jolly although

well he's not it's not fat it's muscle muscle

and a lifetime of kung fu training he seems to

have just so much fun when he cuts loose and

writes comedy i'm like let the man write comedy

A human life lasts what, 200, 300 years? I don't

know, not long, whatever it is. The worst thing,

all I wanted was freedom for my people, so I

squished some organics, so what? Do I deserve

a lump of coal? Gichon got coal. And thus he

is mad at the world. Oh my gosh, and the whole

like, what's in the box? That would make Megatron

Morgan Freeman, that's just scary. No that would

make him um What's his name Kevin Spacey? Oh,

yeah So Megatron gets a knuckle sandwich. Santa

and Thundercracker are now friends and they go

off with the robotic reindeer with Buster leading

the charge. And we then cut back to the main

thing where Thundercracker is telling the script

to Fairborn and who's the other chick? Uh, Jones.

Okay. You killed me on page two! I like that.

No, it's an analog of you. Why don't you use

cycles and chords like normal people? Yeah. Yeah,

at the end, like going back to real life was

kind of a little bit of a letdown because I actually

really am not a fan of this whole dynamic. I

wanted to like Marissa Fairborn and her relationship

with Thundercracker. I wanted to like it so bad.

But all it's been is just it never has progressed

and it's just her being angry all the time Yep,

and and so I i'm like hating it more and more

the longer it goes I haven't felt about spike

since all hail megatron and so it was kind of

like I haven't read not rid since uh, I think

issue 30 334 so there's been some good stuff,

but it was not the earth -based stuff Well, okay

outside of combiner wars. I haven't read Not

rid since like I said since 33 or 34 I do love

the end with Jones though where they actually

do make Buster look like max from the cringe

now because they put the reindeer And you're

right Buster, of all the thundercrackers in the

world, he's the thundercrackierest. So that's

the Transformers holiday special. What do we

think of it overall? It's awesome and I love

it. You know how Heather feels, Nicole. It's

pure fun. There's only one thing that I have

a problem with this. out of all the things. It's

a problem that I have any time busters in a comic.

The size proportion always changes with her like

in almost every panel. That's fine. That's my

only gripe. That's okay. Still love Buster. Well,

but the size proportion changes based on the

artist, right? Is it just a different artist

drawing her or is it? No. Don't think so Okay,

but it's just because they try to put her in

a proportion with Thundercracker When she's by

Thundercracker and then they try to put her in

a proportion with a human when she's with a human

So but the thing is the portion is the same when

she's with Thundercracker as she is with humans

And this happened this has happened ever since

they've introduced Buster It doesn't matter who

the artist is, yeah. Does it make sense in this,

because it's, you know, it's Thundercracker's

story where he's the detective and she's his

dog, and that's okay, because it's in his imagination,

but... It's just been happening for a couple

years, and that's the one thing I've had a problem

with Buster, and it's understandable. I mean,

Thundercracker can't, you can't really have Buster

as like... Ant on his hand, you know Yeah, but

it's like the only thing that really throws me

off. But besides that is it's 100 % lovely I

really enjoyed it I thought it was really interesting

like I said and I know I'm nitpicking on this

the whole dead bumblebee thing like if she would

have said anything other than dead bumblebee

if she would have said the ghost of bumblebee

or the ghost of bumblebee past or present or

whatever like it's just something it is and I

know I'm nitpicking. But the term ghost only

belongs to Starscream. Y 'all know that. Then

why don't they hurry up and make him one? uh...

we we need new rulers on on cybertron at this

point oh that's not going to happen oh wait aren't

we getting that? aren't we getting that in issue

fifty? anyway yeah the quintessence come back

and take over everything i was thinking all hail

optimus but okay yeah i know i was just being

a brat uh... it's almost 2 a .m. that's overrated

okay uh my thoughts i enjoyed this i wasn't sure

what to expect out of this i really really wasn't

because like i said i haven't really been keeping

up with the two ongoing so i wasn't sure how

they were going to do this but i really enjoyed

the three stories i i really did like them and

it's like like i said before it's probably the

first time i actually enjoyed anything to do

with thundercracker's crappy writing At least

it got better this time. I love Thunder Crapper

writing. You can never not say that now. If you

wanted a real response from me, it would be like

that I'm just actually really really grateful

that this exists because it's just so fun. to

get something like this and it felt like a Christmas

present to me and all the fans to get this and

I receive it like one of the best presents I've

ever got. Now I know we don't know just yet what

the year, since we're in 2016, we don't know

exactly what the whole year is going to be for

the ongoings. Would you guys want them to do

another holiday special with different stories

with different creators next year? Sure, I would

love it. I think it's because, well, I mean,

most of the series in Transformers, they're fairly

serious right now. You get some good jokes here

now and then, you know, you've got the comic

relief in this series, but this is just one of

those like, okay, we're going to just calm down

and take a breather before we rip out your spine

and your heart. All your joy in life. So basically

what you're saying is before we let James have

your have his way with all of you Like he put

out a warning for this next issue He's like this

is gonna be the most disturbing stuff we've ever

done. I'm like, okay So yeah, I I like that they

give us this like like Heather said this was

a little treat, you know It's kind of like how

the holidays are the end of the year is just

health to me, you know, and then December 26

comes around and just like yay, you know Finally

I get to relax and enjoy a couple days off year

So yeah, it was it was a good little treat. Yeah

This is our little candy cane That's kind of

scary. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Like I said,

overall, I wasn't sure what to expect out of

it. But I mean, I enjoyed the writing. I enjoyed

the art for all three stories. I'm kind of wondering

what if they do another one next year, what kind

of stories they'll do, if they'll do like an

original Christmas tale or if they'll do something

like what happened in I don't think they could

really remake human error, but if they did, it

would be interesting to see how they would do

it. Seeing as how I don't reason why I don't

think they can remake it is because that story

is from animated is central to sound wave and

sound wave really isn't, um, to my knowledge,

he's not exactly, uh, doing a whole lot at this

very second. Um, but yeah, no, I enjoyed it.

I'll probably give it a four out of five. What

about you, Heather? I'm giving it a five, not

because it's perfect, but because it's a Christmas

issue. We haven't had one of those since like

the 80s, have we? I don't know. I'm just, it's

amazing. I'm giving it a five because it made

me that happy and there's nothing in it that

didn't make me absolutely just full of glee.

Okay. I was like, calm down. Full of glee like

full of glee. No goal. Yeah, I like it. Like

I said, I I know I was complaining about Buster

and everything but I'm I'm gonna gonna be Heather.

It was five because I came out being happy about

it. I mean, the the whole scrap thing that that

was that was a little tearjerker but but it was

just it was just again like I said like with

the pony up issue it's one of those things you

can sit down and you could read to someone and

you could to anyone you know even people that

don't know Transformers and they kind of will

get a little laugh at it it's it's not one of

those comics that you have to be up on what was

going on and that's what's nice about it so anyone

could read those comics Alright folks, that's

gonna do it for us on episode 125. I think next

time is, well I know it's obviously 126, but

I think it's gonna be Nicole and I talking about

D4VE from IDW. After that, I don't know just

yet. So Heather, where can the people find you

online? They can find me on Facebook, but if

you try and friend me and I don't have any, like,

shared friends with you, I will ignore you because

I don't know who you are. So just find her on

Twitter. Yeah, you can find her on Twitter. I'm

really bad at using it, but I will notice if

you tweet me. You can find me on DeviantArt.

Look up Hachi Prime and I will be there. Michael?

Oh, I'm BeedlezDiva. Just Google that and you'll

find everything. Twitter, Facebook, all the Transformer

forums. I'm under Halestorm that way, but...

I'm one of those two. Alright folks, that's gonna

do it for us. You can find me at TF2 and Mike

on Twitter. You can also follow The Pull Bag

at The Pull Bag on Twitter or find us on Facebook

as well as the GeekCast Radio Network. Make your

greatest game in the comics and we will catch

you next time. Aloha! Woohoo! It's Decian, the

superhero webcomic. Decian's got superhero antics

and sexy girls. Read it now at Decian .com. D

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