Shattered Glass and The Stunti-Con Job: Two BotCon Comics

Me Grimlock not podcaster. Me Grimlock King.

Welcome to the poll bag Join us as we dig out

our latest comics and discuss them with a rotating

panel of the GCRN crew So sit back and enjoy

this week's poll bag Attention Autobots and Decepticons.

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BotCon .com. Hello and welcome to the pool bag.

This is a giant sized episode. This is our first

episode that I'm No Appreciate it. Are you kidding

me? I'm six one and four hundred five pounds

I can make fat jokes if I want to make that yeah,

and I was just gonna say I'm not pregnant The

entire world now knows lady rec of the under

base is pregnant Yesterday did I announced it

yesterday? It's not a big miss that I mean it

is gonna be big eventually Today aren't we okay,

so As I was so saying before I was so rudely

interrupted. Oh, trust me. I'll do it again.

It can get worse. Oh, I'm sure it can. Basically,

this is coming off of something like Giant Size

X -Men number one, something like that, where

I'm going to take two episodes of the pull bag

and I'm going to mash them together and make

one giant episode. So it's like Super Podcast

Smash Brothers. And this is episode 84 and 85.

It is all about two of the BotCon comics. The

first one is from the 2008 convention, Transformers

Timelines number three, Shattered Glass. In my

personal opinion, out of all the BotCon stuff

I've seen since I've been back in the Transformers

fandom, I got back into it about 2006. uh...

or so i got really uh... heavy into it around

two thousand eight though uh... two thousand

six the convention was actually here in lexington

kentucky which is about an hour and a half away

from where i live and i'm like who i would love

to go to that four hundred dollar price uh...

new yeah looks and you know so little too much

money for me uh... many times so you know less

than worthy. You don't put out the 400 or...

Yeah, pretty much. And I didn't really pay too

much attention to the 2006 -2007 comic. I know

2006 was Dawn of Future's Past with Beast Wars,

I believe. I know 2007 I think was Games of Deception

was the classic stuff. two thousand eight uh...

when they announced it was going to be shattered

glass and you know we get this you know classics

repaint of repaint of classics optimists as you

know holy purple shattered glass optimist from

like shut up and take my money now you know this

is one of those things and i am all for alternate

timelines and alternate uh... dimensions stories

and that kind of thing and shattered glass just

flipping the whole thing, making the Autobots

evil, making the Decepticons good. That just

appeals to me on so many levels, because it's

something refreshing that we hadn't really had

in, at that point, the 25 -year history. Yeah,

there's a lot of really good one -liners out

of here, too. I mean, that's definitely... The

only thing that I'm kind of sad about is that

we haven't revisited since then, because it says

to be continued on here. This is not the end.

Unless they finished it somewhere else in just

like the regular. Did they ever do that? Nicole?

You're forgetting. You're forgetting. Basically

they wrote this and the next movie came out because

basically Shattered Glass Optimus is movie opt.

He's a killer. He's a killer. Yeah, but a bump.

No, I'm not really up to date on all my bot con.

Um, magazine, you know, stuff. So I have no idea

if they actually finished it or not. I had kind

of hope that they did, but like, cause I really

liked this one. It is one of the stronger pieces,

especially since, um, Pete Sinclair is the one

that wrote it. Oh, I actually take the back.

Pete Sinclair and Benson Yee is probably one

of their strongest ones they've done. And, and

it's like, Oh, I kind of like to see what happens

to Cliffjumper. But yeah, that's usually not

the case with. BotCon comics you just kind of

get what you think you want and then you kind

of realize that you don't want it And you're

like hey this one in 2011 were the strongest

ones that they have Yeah, they really really

are because the one where they did shattered

glass again I didn't even pay attention to that

comic because it was the classics It was was

it 2010 2012 there was one where it was classics

universe versus shattered glass oh that's right

and they had that which made no sense made absolutely

no damn sense um but you know for for this one

i think one of the biggest appeals of this is

all of the different and out of it makes sense

but all of the different and out of this world

designs like okay sure you know paint optimist

purple he's gonna be evil we get it but like

i was really surprised to see what gold bug was

like all the flashes to me in my head is i'm

not just a bubble be anymore i'm a gold bug you

know from rebirth and it's just one of those

things where the differences in the characters

in this you know seeing the dino but seeing grimlock

be evil uh... seeing Megatron and Starscream

of all bots to be good. I mean that was just

one of the things that it was so amazing to me.

Starscream is always good in my heart. I believe

in Starscream. Look over there in the corner

people, that's the fangirl section. I have to

say I do like my my Starscream kind of evil and

twisted like, you know, Windblade. Oh, I can't

say anything because you guys haven't read it.

What? Punish it. I can't say anything. Oh, yeah,

because you got lucky. You're the one that has

one of the. Oh, my gosh. The Windows 8. It takes

off right after Windblade ends and you're just

like. I gotta bite my tongue so I don't spoil

it for anyone. Well that's alright because none

of the listeners have have read it either so

you're the one of the lucky few that has Windows

8 that can get it for free. If anyone has read

it please contact me I need to talk to someone.

I'm actually taking it over to Heather's place

tomorrow so I can actually talk to someone about

it. You mean for the first hour you'll be sitting

there squirming in your seat as she reads it.

Oh, guess what's gonna happen here? And then

you'll see her reactions firsthand. It'll be

great. I can tell you right now. I know this

is a little sidetrack, but that's kind of rude

comic book reading for me because I want to hear

those explosions. I want to hear the fire crackling

and guns going off. Oh, made fire. You've spoiled

us all. So we get into this one and There's a

portal that opens up and the our universe cliff

jumper gets pulled through it I Have to say I

I haven't like to see cliff jumper pain I really

like lift jumper after what they put you know

how they built him up as as being a sniper in

the IDW universe. I've loved that little guy

since then. I thought I gave him perfect personality.

You know, he's the angry bot that has a gun.

You just don't want to be next to him. He's gonna

shoot you. No, you want to be next to him because

then you know where he's at. True. But you don't

want him like taking out his rage upon you. That'd

be true. That's true. But yes, the poor little

guy gets sucked into a portal and into this universe

has no idea what he's got himself into. No clue

whatsoever. We've got, let's see here. So we've

got Cliffjumper running into, who is that, Hufford?

I have no idea. Oh, second page, let me get there.

Yeah. I figured that since he spends so little

time in this comic that it really didn't matter

who he was. Yeah, that's he kind of not not to

poke Not to poke one of our other friends Mariah,

baby Not to poke her obsession with breakdown

his face kind of looks like breakdown, but I

know it's not breakdown. He kind of almost looks

like TF cons erector. What was his name shaft?

Yeah, I see that toy yeah, yeah, but this is

This is cliff jumper basically coming to and

and some weird Decepticon Dude is it can't be

you look. I'm sorry. I didn't see you. I'll just

let me go at all He gets destroyed Yeah. It's

like, whoa! Pretty much. What an explosive way

to start this off, you know? The first page is

just one big panel of Cliffjumper falling into

this world, and then the next one, somebody's

getting offed! It's like, whoa! Yeah. I kind

of like that. I love the expressions that they're

using on Cliffjumper 2. Yeah, they're... It's

Don. Don is... This is Don. Classic Don. You

know, that's why I think I really liked it a

lot is because the art is just beautiful. It's

Don Figueroa The art is amazing And then we get

the baddest bot of them all Well, what do you

know old op said there was a strange energy buildup

down here. I didn't think and Find anything like

you though Yeah, I love shattered glass So quick

question. Everyone has different color schemes.

So does Clutch? They recognize Clutch Jumper.

So does he have the same color scheme in this

world as he does the other? Slightly different,

because they do make mention that, huh, you look

a little different, but hey. Oh, that's true.

You know, still the guy, right? He sounds like

him. He walks and talks like, you know, CJ. Maybe

he is. They just don't know it's his identical

cousin that's living with him. Patty Duke reference

people that's how old it is. Okay No, I Like

when they announced this set I went and you know

outside of proto man, I believe I am the One

fan that is like really die -hard Rodimus Because

everyone else I know either doesn't like him

or oh he should you know Why'd they have to kill

optimist to make him the leader and blah blah

blah, whatever? Actually remember when this this

all came out. It was after BotCon. I was able

to at the time Snag one off eBay for this for

this toy and as soon as I did as soon as I did

that I actually have pictures I'll put it in

the in the post for this episode as soon as I

did that I found Kali Kari Shoka and her Puggle

Formers said I'm like I'm like well if you want

me to You know, if you want me to interview you

or whatever else, I'm going to need to see one

of these things up close and personal. So is

it okay if I get a review sample? And she's like,

sure. What would you like? And I'm like, and

it's the one I said. So what a way to spin it.

What a way to spin it like. I know, right? You

manipulated yourself into a free huggle. So,

you know, I had, you know, I had the toy. I just

read the comic and I was like, yeah, shattered

glass, Rodimus. And then like two or three years

later, two or three years, two or three years

later, she made, um, LOL cannons for lockdown.

I think she made a little accessory for one of

the lockdown puzzles. And I'm like, Ooh, Roddy

needs, Oh my God, cannons. I paid her five bucks

for this little accessory that he could put around

it. Oh my god, this is so hilarious. But what

was so great about this at the time, back in

2008, was once I had the comic and I had the

toy, I actually have pictures of the toy with

the Puggle in both robot mode and alt mode. So

yeah, Rodimus shows up, favorite line from Cliffjumper,

and what's with your face? You like? I added

a cycle back. Makes me look distinguished, you

know? Me? Distinguished. It's a laugh, right?

man I want more from this they need to do so

much more with this comic I know they won't but

damn it they do they did do a brilliant job I'd

have to say they just flipping things like that

it just seemed to work I mean I just read this

again this morning I'm it man the one -liners

that are coming out of this are just brilliant

the only problem is that there's a two -page

exposition that's a little bad I mean if they

could just cut that down and make it Less wordy,

I think it would totally hit it. Good. Right,

right. Yeah, absolutely. The thing is, I don't

picture Roddus' attitude being any different

than in the armor. He's just got a mustache.

He's just got a little less hesitation, let's

just say that. He's all in it for the guns, right?

He does have, I do like his colored sleeves.

Ops. He's gonna do what Ops says, man. Who's

the ringleader? That black and purple is so well

done. Oh, yeah, and then they did. Oh my god

I will never forget this I so wanted this toy

at the time, but I could never Never get it.

They did a I think was an e -hobby Animated when

animated Rodimus got released and they did all

those repaints of him one of the repaints was

a shattered glass repaint of him and Oh my god,

that toy was amazing. I remember seeing pictures

of that and going, oh, that is pretty cool. Yep.

So we get, you know, Optimus is going to meet

up with Cliffjumper and he assumes it's his old

comrade and everything else. Yeah, because they

haven't seen him for like three years or something

like that, where he just disappeared. They had

no idea what happened to him. So they just assumed

that he was dead. But, you know, oh, look, it's

my little buddy. the sniper guy yeah i need you

what up i need another thug yeah ain't that the

truth and we walk uh down the hall of shame where

all these tortured bots are are um in their cells

and is it just me and i'm only doing this because

nicole's here the one that's right by optimus's

hand it kind of looks like cyclotus it isn't

because cyclotus is in here yeah you can't play

that Exactly. He's later on in the comic, so

yeah. Yeah, that's true. But come on, I would

like to see this as a museum. I would like to

see this as a museum. Only if you're going to

have a shattered glass Optimus Prime give you

the tour. I think this would be so cool, though,

you know. That's me, my demented world. We just

need to get James involved in this, you know,

the next time we see the DJ D, we need a hall

of shame. Oh, that'd be so cool. No, but as a

tour guide, which we've already seen the tour

guide, though, as long as he's humming a tune.

So, we get to the smelting pool, and now that

I look at this a little bit more as we're talking

about it, all I can think of is, Spare me this

mockery of justice! Exactly. It's their own version

of it. This is why it works so well, is because

it's great transformers. There's so many little

nods to, like, the stuff that's come before,

and that's the reason why it works. It's not

even trying really hard to be that, but it is

kind of doing that. And unconsciously, it really

is. I mean, even the bots hanging from the top,

you know, hanging down and, like, all of the

pieces that you're seeing is, like, you know,

all are dead. I mean, come on. Little homage

is just left and right, and that's why I really

like this issue. It's why it really works. Know

there's a ton of things if I ever got a chance

to interview Peter Cullen I know there's a ton

of things I could ask him for promos for but

I really want his dark sinister optimist to say

till all are gone because Switching that from

till all are one till all are gone. That was

again like you said Amy This is one of the things

that made this this um theme so well done they

basically took everything we know flipped it

on its head and all that shattered glass yeah

you don't know michael michael bae still has

two more movies with peter cullen oh no no no

no and we got murderous prime with bae so you

never know they've just justified his actions

is all they've done yeah that's the one out of

all the things to justify that was it I really

wanted somewhere a certain Dinobot to turn around

and say, did you call my name? What the slag

is going on here? And apparently in this continuity,

Rumble is red. Boo. Aw, poor Rumble. And again,

what's interesting about this comic is, like

we said, it's... The personality is that you're

okay sure Ronimus isn't that different but Optimus

is a complete 180 from what we know and seeing

rumble I love the facepalm. Oh, of course. What

do you mean? Yeah Joking and he's like, you know,

he's so psychopath. It's so funny But the thing

is is that later on when you hear him and Megatron

going at it It's like their lines are like it's

so totally them, but it's like the flip of them

This is pretty genius I gotta admit Mr. Ye must

have just been channeling his inner transformers

really, really well when he wrote this, because

I don't think he's had this well of a written

story since, because this one just really worked

for me. I thought, wow, is it the same writer?

Wow, it's Ben? Really? This is cool. It's like,

wow. Cliffjumper doesn't, you know, because Cliffjumper

is so confused, he doesn't know where he is,

doesn't know how he got from Earth to Cybertron.

He assumes it's his Cybertron, which it isn't.

Yeah, if you had any doubt, at the point that

you see the smelting pool, he totally flips his

lid. I would. I would be like, what is going

on here? And that's what he does. He's like,

what the slag is going on here? That's what he

does. And he pays for it with his life. I wanna

see this story animated. I really, really do.

This looks so awesome. It's like, hey, oh, what

am I thinking? I'll let you go. Yeah, I'll let

you off this guy. And then he's like, no, I can't

do that. And it says, oh, so unwise. Turns around

and blows him away. It was like, whoa. Of course,

I just got movie Megatron in my voice when he

said that. I'm like, wait. Oh, so unwise. So

unwise. You know when that line is used something

bad's about to happen to say yeah, oh, so I know

That's you to the last thing my victims here

an optimus Optimus in this he's crazy crazy.

I mean he is nuts. He is talking to himself.

He's not talking to the other Autobots He's talking

to himself. He says What do you think shall he

join you all in oblivion? What? Dispose of him?

Hope he gets his wits back? Like, he's sitting

there talking to him. Yeah, and it's so cool.

If you have a guy that's that split second...

that's willing to turn on a dime and blow you

away, I would think that everybody's just afraid

of him. If we talk at a turn, he might turn around

and hit us. So it's like, yeah, of course he's

gotten to the point where he's answering for

his group, because if they answer wrong, they

could just get shafted, you know? Yeah. So it

shows both. the fact that he's just that insane,

but it also shows that he, like, really rules

these guys in a way that even his own troops

fear him. And even, I think in some ways, it

actually puts the Megatron that we know and love

to shame, to be honest. Because Crazy Prime,

he is crazy. I'm more worried about this guy.

than Megatron ever was, because with Megatron,

yeah, he'd bump you off too, but he had a little

bit of, he had some of his, some of his lieutenants

really do respect him, like Soundwave, and you

know, some of the guys are a little bit lower,

maybe not, you know, Starscream, because Starscream's

always taking power as much as he can, but you

know, at least you know that there are a few

loyalists. I'm not sure what's going on with

this world. It's shattered glass. All bets are

off the table. I think a lot of his core are

loyal to him, as far as Optimus goes. But I think

the only one that he might actually tolerate,

maybe saying something to him, would be Rodimus.

Probably. That would make sense. So they dispose

of Cliffjumper. more than disposed he kicks his

remains and says dump him in the rad zone now

that in itself i'm like rad zone that sounds

great right see if the empties who live there

finish him off if he makes it back to us in one

piece then perhaps he would get worthy to the

autobot symbol he wears i want to know what these

empties are i want to know who the empties are

Probably the people that have it joined aside

because they even mentioned it in this comic

that not everybody's joined up a side So these

two Decepticons fine cliff jumper he comes back

online Barely. Yeah, barely. Once they repair

him... He comes back online just long enough

for them to say, uh, we're gonna get him stabilized

so we can move him. Then they put him into stasis

lock so they can actually move him. I'm like,

dang, he's in such bad repair if they move him

it could kill him. So they put him in stasis

lock and then he wakes up in the Decepticon stronghold.

All fixed! Yeah. Out of the way, cons! I saw

the little, there's a little nurse bot in the

background that reminds me of the more than meets

the eye bot that they have on the Lost Light.

It's great. Oh cool. Yeah, true. I love the lines.

Out of the way, cons! No Decepticon Death Camp

can hold me! See you around, losers! What I appreciate

here is that the Constructor bots... Constructicons.

They're bots now, that's what I'm saying. I like

how they're like the repair bay. Yeah. And we

run into a Megatron that is white, red, white

and blue. Wow. With glowy bits. Yeah, like his

wings are sparkly. He's pretty. He's a good guy.

He's a vampire. He's a vampire. He looks good.

Oh, don't you dare. You call yourself a fanboy?

How dare you mention that? Well, technically,

you know, he's just, he's like all pale looking.

Of course, he could totally be a vampire. He

looks pretty. Yeah. A better version of vampires.

He just needs fangs. Starscreams usually got

the cat teeth. The fact that he says, are you

all right? Is just like, you okay little buddy?

And I love the, you know. What they do really

well here is showing the size difference. Normally,

sometimes in comics and toys, you don't really

get a good deal of what the... I mean, okay,

sure, toys, you can stand them next to each other

and you can see the size difference, but the

size difference between Megatron and Sideswipe,

oh my god, because... Look at the difference

between Cliffjumper and Megatron. I mean, he

just hits them right above the knee guard there.

Yeah. given us to be right at the cross uh...

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

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... So yeah,

so Cliffjumper meets Megatron. Megatron and Sideswipe

exchange pleasantries here. Wondering, you know,

what's going on where the Megatron says, I think

his time in the Rad Zone may have damaged his

memory circuits. We should have Shockwave take

a look at him. Oh, I so wanted to see Shattered

Glass Shockwave in this. Oh, that would have

been brilliant. That would have been amazing.

Just to piggyback on what you said about, like,

the size difference. Part of that reason comes

from the fact that they actually have a pretty

good professional that's actually doing the work.

Don Figueroa was really good about making sure

that some of those details were, and that's just

something that you get from an artist that's

willing to put the work in. Half the time, I

would say that I'm not gonna bash it off, because

I can't think of every single artist that's done

every BotCon, but I know that if you're not gonna

get... paid really well to do a BotCon comic,

I can understand. If they're like, eh, you know,

I'm just gonna do this as quick as possible,

get paid, or, you know, get paid the amount I'm

going to get paid, and then move on. You know,

it is what it is. Yeah, absolutely. And the funny

thing here is that, like, a shattered glass shockwave,

if shockwave in our world is all about logic,

shattered glass shockwave would be All about

illogical stuff. Or emotions, yeah. Swindle.

So he'd be Swindle. No, because he'd be a good

guy then. Wheeljack. He'd be more like Wheeljack.

Oh lord. So we get Cliffjumper and Sideswipe.

You know and you know Cliff jumper says so you're

not him you look just like him except for the

colors It's like seeing a ghost Look side swipe

or whoever you are. I'm tired of being shocked

confused and generally angry here Tell me what

you're talking about or so help me. I will beat

it out of you So I love the fact that he just

gets straight to it. It's like dude I have I

I'm completely confused either you tell me now

or I'm gonna beat you It's the angry, but no

it just Cliff jumper. He is so awesome at this

If only there were more Casey case and cliff

jumper lines Well, the fact that yeah sound science

what comes back with you even talk like it's

great before he tells them, hey, you know what,

you're not him because I saw the real one die.

So I know you're not him. And they go to find

out, like, how he is there. Exposition. So much.

I'm fine with it. It's part of the story, and

that's great. I definitely think they needed

to go through and explain how the Autobots and

the Decepticons are different. Just take everything

that you know and flip it. That's all you needed

to do. They didn't have to say, Oh, this is the

history lesson of how this universe happened.

I think that was a little exposition heavy. I

just don't think that they needed to do that

because it's almost implied it. Okay. Optimus

prime is going to be the opposite of Megatron.

So anything that he started out with is going

to be the flip of that. So I mean, then they

Pretty much go through and say the whole thing

over then. He was a guy named optronics obsessive

researcher except instead of You know working

for the freedom of the species. He wanted to

work for the opposite of that So, I mean, it

was almost implied. Did you really need to have

all of that exposition and the story of how it

happened? I think for people that maybe, you

know, for those people that attended BotCon that

were able to get a set at the con or something

like that, you know, for the everyday use, the

everyday person that isn't in Die Hard like us,

sure, you needed it. And honestly, without this

exposition, we wouldn't have had this amazing

small little panel down here of him in alt mode.

True, true. I just don't think they needed to,

you know, do two pages of it. I mean, I don't

know. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I figured I'd attend

one page. It's not hard to figure out what shattered

glass is because shattered glass has been around

in pop culture for quite a while. So if you don't

go out of their way to explain it, I'm just going

to assume the opposite of what happened. You

know, I'm just gonna flip Megatron and Optimus

Prime and that's how it's gonna happen because

that's how it usually happens in other things

Star Trek is done Shattered glass to death. In

fact, that's the reason why we call it shattered

glass is because it they called it the other

side of the mirror and They've been calling it

shattered glass sense. So it's if you're not

into science fiction and trans and and other

sci -fi franchises, and you don't know what shattered

glass means, then you're a, you know, you need

to inform yourself. Or you've been like, you

know, stuck in the mountains somewhere for the

last 20 years. You know, maybe you're from a

different, you know, one of those, those, those

religious people that live out in the middle

of nowhere, they have no technology around them,

they live on a farm. Amish people. Yes, maybe

you're an Amish person that don't know anything

about shattered glass and I'm sorry Please go

out of your way to watch Star Trek I Know if

they're like doing that thing where they like

leave their people and they're like, oh we're

going back into the world where the real people

are like The whole point is if you don't know,

please inform yourself about shattered glass

So we get the next page past the exposition So

you're telling me that Megatron is a good guy

and Optimus Prime is a loonier than Straxus?

Last week I have told you that you had a cracked

cylinder But I've seen some crazy things lately

dimension hopping time travel alternate realities

What I wouldn't give for a simple war with good

guys and bad guys Straxus is insane Straxus is

insane word where you come from I pity I always

liked his poetry Here he's a poet like, you know

skybite So we get to the part where side swipe

tells him about that he was once one of Optimus

Prime's elite and Apparently, over time I saw

that his philosophy was warped and his concern

was more for himself than anyone else. Or the

fact that he got hurt and they left him for dead.

That kind of bothered him. So he switched because

he basically got left for dead. If he hadn't

been left for dead, he might still actually be

one of them. I do love how they did the crossing

out of the Autobot symbol. Did the toy actually

have it on there too? Yep. Yep. That was awesome.

So we get back to Iacon, while I'm losing my

voice, holy crap. Oh no! Yeah, we get back to

Iacon in the combat training room and Optimus

is activating Light Battle Program Zeta. Yeah,

he's bored while Blur is giving him a report,

so he's got to beat things up while he's hearing

the report, which I thought was hilarious. He's

like, I don't care about your report. Just tell

it to me while I'm beating things up. Oh, angry

optimus. Oh my god, I just got a TF Prime Megatron

voice in my head. What are the rumors that Megatron

and his Decepticons are preparing an offensive

against us? Let them come. If they are foolish

enough to attack, we will crush them. Because

I know I know prime Megatron says that a couple

of times in in Transformers prime. Oh And the

end if he does cyclonus does Wait cyclones wasn't

in prime. Oh, no, I wasn't thinking prime. I

was thinking the original but okay. Oh, yeah

Yeah, no types work Galvatron said will crash

them. Yeah He's about as crazy as, you know?

Yeah, he is. I still think G1 Galatron's crazier.

I mean, that guy was just a nut job. He had many

gears loose. Yes, yes, he did. He was just full

of lots of loose nuts and bolts. So we get back

to the Deceptica. Well, we see gold bug and blur.

with optimus um and then we go back to polyhex

uh polyhex the war room where megatron and starscream

and all the other decepticons this room really

reminds me of um uh the the game the transformers

war for cybertron false for cybertron Were you

walk into one of the rooms and they've got this

hollow thing up there? I think it maybe it was

fall of Cybertron I think and the guy that was

overseeing it was perceptor Yeah, it reminds

me of that that that little room and I'm what

I wonder sometimes if they didn't like you know

Look at all of the stuff including the BotCon

comics Possibly Let's see Well sad to say that

you know It's not official Transformers, but

because Diamond does get a chance to publish

this for the rest of the comic industry, um,

you know, you've got the BotCon and then later

on in the year, usually around November, December,

we get the BotCon comic published by Diamond

shipping or it's, it's published by Fun Pub,

but it's through Diamond shipping. So it pretty

much get it anywhere then at that point. And

on the underbase when they've reviewed it they've

kind of they really kind of shoot them down pretty

bad because like come on It's it's supposed to

be a fan -run comic by a fan company that you

know, they might have the official Hasbro blessing

to do the official convention But this is the

only comic that they do once a year and it's

supposed to stand up against other professional

comics Yeah, so You look at it and you go, okay,

if this is your first comic that you're picking

up, Transformers -wise, and you've not read anything

else, and it is written... Mean the the two that

were viewing today are probably one of the two

strongest pieces that they've done And they've

done this for how many years if you're picking

up one of them randomly that just happens to

not be these two You could be getting any kind

of story that could have any level of ability

to tell a story See this one one of the things

when when the diamond thing came out. I'm like

I Want that I want the concept I want you know

because I actually bought from somebody at the

time I actually bought the BotCon set off of

somebody and no these are to me these are convention

exclusive comics like yeah like I was saying

you can't like I would love for them to take

this book and go further with it like with IDW

or with whoever you know that has the license

to do more stories in this universe I would love

for them to do that but because they haven't

or they don't or they won't this is solely to

this set same thing with they with the animated

one yeah exactly um so we get to uh let's see

um uh megatron says optimus prime has built a

ship he uh he calls the ark he intends to conquer

other worlds and plunder their energy sources

to fuel cybertron in his own ambitions he must

be stopped but his ship is heavily guarded and

bristling with weapons i fear the odds are not

in our favor by primus he can't be allowed to

do that Primus? Who is this Primus? He's like,

you don't know. He's like, no. Sorry, we don't

know that. I love how they, you know, like we've

been saying that they basically flip everything

on its head and reverse it. Instead of sparks,

we have embers. Yeah. I loved that. I was like,

wait, are they both going to have sparks or how

is that going to work? Well, Cliffjumper calls

it Spark, but they call it Ember. And I went,

oh, that's what they're calling it. OK, cool.

Yeah. I just love the fact that, you know, in

this this is the page we actually get to see

Cyclonus. Yeah, there's there's there's boyfriend

bunny ears. Love him. He's he looks like a giant

glass of orange juice. I got a giant strawberry.

I don't like him in the rot of his colors. No,

it just kind of doesn't work for him. So I call

that, you know, purple, purple, beautiful purple.

Speaking of which, I got my pedicure done in

his color. Thank you. OK, moving on to the art.

Oh, wait, before you too far. So so in the just

before Optimus Prime version. He basically doubles

or triples. What is that? I mean, it's something

that he triples the amount of people that he

wants on the arc and they find the fatal flaw.

Yeah. They find the fatal flaw is not the arc

because it's going to be heavily guarded, but

the platform. So they're going to, you know,

target the platform instead because, you know,

if they can target that and it brings down the

arc, then it will be unable to launch and it'll

kind of put a big wrench in their plans. The

thing I like about this page is both Starscream

and Megatron look like big shiny white knights.

That's just not what to expect from those two.

Love this. And so we get to the Ark and it looks

strikingly familiar. Not that they weren't going

to use the same design that they've always used,

but I was hoping, I know this isn't because obviously

Ravage is a Decepticon, but the bottom panel

where the bot says Sector 7 clear, I was really

hoping that would be Ravage. But it's Razor Claw,

I believe. Yep, it's one of the Terracons. And

pretty terror ish though. I mean, hey, they rip

this guy's head off. There's lots of love it

gore It's like there's no meaning to the kind

of looking a little Decepticon ish, right? Yeah,

but no doing it for the better. It's for the

good greater cause right take them out They're

all the dead the bottom panel where it shows

his head. It's like gives new meaning to the

term bobblehead So we have Starscream and Dive

Bomb and one other one. Oh, and we forgot another

point. They use Cliffjumper's glass gas abilities

to make these bombs. Oh yeah, that's right. So

it makes him, he's not just a gimmick, he's actually

there for a reason. There you go. Starscream

in this giant jet body with dive bomb And we

see that you know blur and you know I love the

silhouettes the silhouettes on dive bomb and

Starscream those are awesome as the bombs are

coming down Very very awesome See here we get

one of them is called whisper whisper yep Is

that really his name? Yes. Oh, okay. For some

reason, I've never heard that. I don't know why

it just has not hit the forehead or something,

because that would almost be a My Little Pony.

Sorry. Gotta get my plug in every single time.

Hey, I'm off for more ponies. BotCon, what was

it last year? Not this year. Last year had really

awesome cover with Pinkie Pie and Optimus. Oh,

they did it again this year. Yeah, they had.

Oh, they did. Oh, yeah, they did. They had Pony

and Soundwave. What was the other one? Yeah,

they had two of them, though. They had one with.

Oh, I think the other one was Megatron and one

of the other ones. I can't remember which one.

Oh, shoot. It was they were they were exclusives

to just the convention. And I picked up the Pony.

Yeah, yeah, they had it just these two different

ones two different big posters I picked up the

sound wave one and the pony because I like yeah

Because they're doing they're like doing DJ bad.

Yeah, they're they're they're doing a music off.

So it's like So we get to this battle scene We're

taking over your podcast So we get this battle

scene Megatron obviously Decepticons attack and

we see and one of the things I like about going

back and looking at this is because I haven't

I really haven't read this thing since Probably

it came out and I notice a lot more now than

I did then because I completely missed that their

shattered glass sound wave right behind him All

looking white and awesome. It's like he's the,

he's like the Ultra Magnus version. That's true.

He's got that baby blue. Yeah, very true. So

the blue bot, is that Rumble or is that Frenzy

now? It would have to be the other one that's

left. Yeah, it would have to be Frenzy. Yeah,

so that would be Frenzy. So there you go people.

Either way, you are correct. Rumble has been

both blue and red, and Frenzy has been both blue

and red, so however you say it, you're correct.

And in shattered glass. Technically, if you go

by the cartoon, the G1 cartoon, Rumble is purple

and Frenzy is black. But, anyway. So Optimus

says you cannot win Megatron your plan has failed

those explosions have damaged the platform, but

it still stands It isn't over yet prime They

exploded the stuff on there, but you know it's

glass, so you just need to shatter it now And

Megatron's like, it isn't over yet, Prime, how

sad it is that you believe that. Oh my god. It's,

yeah, you're right, Amy. They basically took

Optimus and Megatron and put, put Optimus' brain

inside Megatron's body and Megatron's brain inside

Optimus' body. Exactly. It's just the one -liners

between these two is just brilliant. It's like,

ugh. Yeah. Oh my god, Grimlock. Grimlock, destroy!

He doesn't say anything just after him as a t

-rex rampaging t -rex. I love this middle panel

This middle panel is so awesome Seekers transform

and roll out 15 points for tapes 25 points for

the rest loser buys the fuel game on So we get

Optimus versus Megatron we get Grimlock versus

Razor Claw and Grimlock Basically destroys him

And it's again the writing is so off Grimlock

stupid puny Decepticons that is so something

G1 Grimlock would say So awesome and again the

art is amazing The colors, everything about it

is so, so well done. Just got the right guy doing

it. Like I said, Don is always been the great

guy. I mean, I think everything that even Don

has done in the past, even though he's not working

on it now, I think it still influences a lot

of what we've got. I mean, he was the guy that

came back on, you know, when, after Marvel ended

and they had, you know, Drain Wave. The style

that he had... It's been the style that you've

looked at, and it's evolved a little bit since

then, but the big bulky Transformers, it has

evolved a little bit since then, but I think

I will always probably equate his line work as

being the inspiration that basically changed

the franchise, at least in the comics, forevermore.

So, I mean, it's kind of good to see him back

on this again and doing his thing. this two -panel

thing at the top with Cliffjumper, where it's

basically him looking both ways. Look both ways

before you cross the street, ladies and gentlemen.

He says, every time I turn around, one of my

pals is shooting at me, and some Decepticon has

my back. I'm likely to punch one of my own guys

in the face out of habit. How can I fight everything

and everyone I've ever known? Which also puts

him in crosshairs of... Optimus Prime! Traitor!

I gave you power beyond anything you ever had

before! And this is how you repay me! Die, you

worthless! And then we have the hero moment!

Where you don't expect it, but then guess who

throws himself in the way? Very Optimus Prime.

I mean Megatron. I mean Optimus Prime. I mean

Megatron. I just... I... I don't know, it just...

It seems like this is just me trying to work

my own warped Transitions into this it just seems

like Megatron should have said out of the way

cliff jumper Did you know also notice that Well

primes gun is shooting purple instead of red

yeah, I noticed that the first time when he shot

cliff jumper Yeah, well I just wanted to bring

it up because I thought that was a good little

touch. Yeah, that was very, very awesome. So

if Cliffjumper had any reason to doubt, I think

at this point he probably doesn't because, you

know, thinkatron kind of took a bad hit right

there, which motivates him to do the next thing,

which, yay for Cliffjumper! He shatters the glass.

and the bottom the bottom panel on page 23 where

optimus says no it looks just like right before

his the lights in his eyes go out before he turn

his before he turns his head and turns i swear

to god they mimicked the movie in this panel

well with optimus's face more than just that

it it's the reflection of the arc falling down

in his faceplate yep And that is brilliant. I

really, really liked that. That's a really good

panel. It's beautiful. So they win! Yay Decepticons!

Retreat! Yay! Finally! Mission accomplished!

Your argument is invalid! We have nothing left

to say! We won! Megatron says stick it in neutral

Optimus the day belongs to the Decepticons you

really think you should have honked him off even

more I just love the look on Cliff's face here.

He looks so happy and I love it And the final

line haha my friend This is only the beginning

a new age has begun and we would be honored if

you would join us in our cause The fight is far

from over Prime has helped me. I never thought

I'd say this but yeah Megatron you can count

on me Like I was saying Not the end those are

promises that you have to keep you don't just

start it and then not I this is why I wish fun

pub would do more stuff like At least if you're

gonna do something like this and leave it on

a cliffhanger and not the end at least allow

IDW to take the designs and the characters You

know, oh man. Well the thing is and I kind of

see the reason why they wouldn't is because yeah,

this is If they were to take that one, what would

fun pub do? Um, and then the other thing is,

is that it kind of isn't sanctioned by Hasbro

to begin with. And it's somebody else's toy box,

basically. And they're not going to go play with

somebody else's toys, even if they're the ripped

off version. The other thing is, is that I'm

actually kind of, cause I was thinking about

this like earlier, like why haven't they come

back to this? And I think what really controls

it. to be honest, is the fact that they get certain

toys, like different molds that they use every

year, and they're never the same. Every year,

it's something different. So, like, they would

pretty much have to start with a different crew

of people. I think they could go back to Shattered

Glass. They would just have to use completely

different characters. And, you know, I guess

it just depends on how much I say this reluctantly,

how well they are at planning, because in the

past we've had times where we sometimes this

last year we we only had a month's notice before

we actually found out where we were having the

convention at right right so it was like you

know you can do a whole lot of stuff but you

got to be able to plan ahead yeah and if you

can't do that you are really limited and it makes

perfect sense that that would absolutely have

an effect on the comic on their ability to write

a good story, what characters they're allowed

to use. It's just like, okay, if you guys could

be planning this a couple years in advance, then

you probably would have a little bit more ability

to do something really great. But being in the

way that they're kind of locked themselves into

this little box trying to move around in it is

really difficult. Here here's my thinking I would

love and this is gonna kind of transition us

into the animated thing But we'll do final thoughts

on shattered glass before them, but what I would

love for them to do is Go back to the unmade

season 4 take that shattered glass episode Take

the animated toys and they already did classics

verse versus shattered glass, which was just

We all agree it's kind of lame and stupid. It

wasn't executed well at all. I would love to

see a Shattered Glass animated BotCon set. Oh,

that would be perfect. That would be amazing.

Well, we already know that everybody likes a

lot of that animated toy, so I think that it

would be doable. I guess it just depends on whether

or not they could work that out with Hasbro and

get those molds. Yep. Alright, so let's go around

the room. Nicole, final thoughts on Shattered

Glass comic? Oh, it's a really fun comic. I enjoyed

reading it again, because it's been a while since

I've read it. Again, this artwork is amazing.

It's a lot of fun. And, of course, I'm excited,

because the Decepticons win for once. Woo -hoo!

No, again, like the one -liners. Like I said,

I really don't see Rodimus being totally different.

I don't know why. But I love the mustache. I

love mustache Rodimus. Always better with the

mustache. Yeah. There was only a couple panels

that I don't like that head on look of Grimlock.

That kind of threw me out with the artwork, but

that's like the only thing that I have against

the artwork and the colors, the details. It's

wonderful. I like heroic mags. You really do

and I love psychotic crime We just need more

boyfriend bunny ears, that's all I Will say that

they did stay true to his movie origin because

he didn't say one thing in this comic Back there

looking heroic. Yes What about you Amy, final

thoughts on Shattered Glass? I would definitely

say it's worth a read, it's definitely worth

a pick up and you're right. I mean all the things

that we've already said, you know, the idea of

having a Shattered Glass Optimus Prime, Rodimus,

and the colors that they're in, they look really

good. I wouldn't mind picking these up and I

didn't go that year, so it was before I was actually

on the wagon. So it's really well done, it's

really well night. The picture, the art, the

line work is just great. The coloring is beautiful.

The only thing, like I said, is just that it

gets a little word heavy in a few of the pages.

Definitely those two exposition pages, which

we've already discussed. But the snappy comebacks

later on is just, it's really rocking it. It's

just like, wow, this, I mean, this is probably

one of the first BotCon comics that I've actually

read that I've enjoyed other than. the other

one that we're going to discuss next. Because

the art was really rocking it, and it seemed

to really work. Yay, Benson Yee, I think this

is one of the strongest pieces I've ever heard

you write. And the sad thing is you haven't gone

back to it, so it's like, aw. If we could just

go back, kick up from, you know, cliff jumpers,

leave, or even it's just like, you know, a couple

weeks later, the same universe, a different group

of people had to go do something else. And, you

know, that would be kind of fun, but you know,

they haven't got back to it. Unfortunately, the

inconsistency is kind of to its detriment, but

it is a fun little story. So I would pick it

up. All right. We're going to take a quick break

and we're going to come back and we're going

to get animated after this. Alright, we are back.

This is the episode 85 portion of this podcast.

This is Transformers Timelines number 6, the

Stunticon job. And we have the same people here,

right? We have the same crazy two women. Of course.

I'm not crazy. Sure you're not. Yeah, right.

Now, a little bit of... I don't know what you

guys want. Everybody go back and listen to more

than meets the eye volume 5 remain in light episode

of the pull bag And you'll see how crazy Nicole

is. Yes. Yes That was you editing me as crazy.

I didn't always say me edit. I don't edit anything

I just slap stuff together and put it out. Hey,

you had to say it, you know No, I do edit. I

don't really censor people though. So the Fun

Pub cover here, the BotCon cover is an homage

to the Italian job like Amy said. I love, and

I didn't notice this till now, I love Wild Rider

being in the Fun Pub logo with the megaphone.

That's amazing. That's amazing. A little bit

of background here. I guess it was... See, they

announced this in what? January or February of

2011? Or they were about to announce somewhere

around there? It was like, it had to have been

like anywhere between 1 and 3 a .m. Eastern time,

so it was, you know, it's, you know, 9 to 11

California time, I guess. Derek J. Wyatt posted

on Twitter asking, anybody have a shot of G1?

motor master the back of his head. He's like,

I really need to see what's back there. I'm like,

uh, okay. So I went, went around, went around.

I'm like, is this what you're looking for? He's

like, yep, thanks. And I'm like, so motor master

is going to be part of vodka. And he's like,

kind of. So I, so, so I kind of had a slight

and small influence on helping Derek with the

back of motor master's head. I love both of these

covers. Um I love the BotCon one a little bit

more because I'm a huge fan of the well the two

thousand three version of the Italian job. Um

but uh why don't you guys talk about the the

the diamond cover? Okay, the the diamond cover.

Yeah, I was gonna say um yeah, what do you want

us to say that? I don't know. Basically, it's

has it's like split up into a And then you have

the two thirds, I guess, but two thirds of the

cover is sideswipe with his good old bow and

arrows there in the spotlight. And then you have

the five other, the five cons lined up in a row

onto the side, which is really cool because you

can see the personality in each one of their

faces just on the cover. And that's what animated

was really good at is that the expression, the

expressiveness of it was really, really well

done. So animated got animated. Okay, so for

those of you who have watched Transformers animated,

which you can watch the entire series on DVD

for this year. Yeah. Yes. As of this year, the

entire season three, one DVD set. This comic

basically picks up at the very end of Endgame

when Optimus returns with the Matrix on his chest.

And it's a brilliantly beautiful panel. Oh my

gosh. That's so great. I want a poster of just

that. Just give me a poster of just that. I will

buy it. Yeah, let's see. Marcelo, please, poster,

right there. So we've got Optimus, Megatron,

Shockwave, I'm so blocked out, Lugnut, Bulkhead,

Bumblebee, and Ratchet. You forgot Sorry. Yeah,

I was going to say, don't forget Sorry. Oh yeah,

she's... Don't underappreciate the females, please.

No, wait a second here. I didn't notice it at

first, and they're all... How can you miss her?

She's on fire! It's a jet burner The other bright

things that are that bright are shockwaves I

and and lug nuts I Looking at this we need more

lug nut love my gosh Are you kidding me General

Techno gives us enough I Know but I'm talking

about you know in an official format. We need

him to eat like In the comic, in the comics,

come on, come on Jimmy. Jimmy Robbins. Maybe

he'll be in the new robots in disguise. There

you go. Are you going to do these James, James

Robbins? Well, they, they pulled, um, they pulled

knockout into Windblade. So there you go. True.

They did. They were able to do that. Um, so you've

got, uh, Optimus and all, all the bots here.

They, Bumblebee. Jazz and Ratchet are carrying

Prowl's coffin there. Oh, sad face. Little tear.

Oh, yeah. And, you know, this is written by Marty

Eisenberg, which is so great having him do this,

because animated was, you know, his thing. Well,

it was Marty Eisenberg, Derek J. White, and Matt

Youngberg. Right. So we had three people that

worked on it. Right and it is so so good brilliant

brilliantly very very brilliant This is the difference

between the amateurs and the professionals to

say It's the best botcon comic has ever been

written to be honest, of course, yeah really

really is You can't you can't get any better

than this this is like the cream of the crop

that you will ever get This is almost explains

the reason why we should have season 4 from them

in comic form They did have the animated comic

books Yeah, but they were more like they were

I did get a couple of them. They they are pretty

much like, you know the show I'm talking about

like a original work from Mighty Eisenberg and

Derek J. Wyatt They could totally do a comic.

They could totally do all of season four comic

version. And and I'm pretty sure that most everybody

would get it. It would be a sellout. Oh, absolutely.

I'd be up for that. But people got to go back

and read it because Professor Princess humiliated

Starscream. And that was awesome. Yeah, cool.

Yeah, Professor Princess took down Starscream

people. So that was the best part of those comics.

I loved it. She put a pink wig on him and everything.

Oh, brilliant. I gotta go back and I haven't

read all of them. I just like got a couple. Oh,

yeah So we get the this opening monologue and

we don't know who it is by at first and then

we get to Side swipe and it is done by him He

is a Senior Investigator, Cybertron Defense Command.

It's basically from his point of view the whole

time. He's telling the whole story and I liked

that. And if you want to know how he got his

partner, there's a little two -page intro called

Moving Violations that explains why Cheetor becomes

his partner, which I thought was kind of, eh,

it helped out. I was like, oh, okay, now I know

why he is where he is is because he screwed around.

Right. The best thing about this opening page

where we see Lugnut and Megatron shockwave in

jail and we see sideswipe at his computer here,

he has a Krimzik mug. Yeah, I was going to say

Krimzik! Krimzik! What I like about the first

page here when you see Megatron and his... I

just think it's funny because Megatron's in the

middle. Lugnut and Shockwave are on each side.

Of course, these two battle it out for who's

Megatron's number one fan. Starscream just eggs

it on. He's like, oh, now he's Megatron's new

favorite. I just love that they're just surrounding

him still. Even the jail. I love it. Metroplex

looks amazing. Brilliant, I I don't think I've

ever seen Metroplex look this good So yeah, so

we get to We we continue with sideswipe story

here and There's an autotrooper right there.

Yep. There's an autotrooper right there. So the

Box that you got was the stunted job crew then

you got an extra of the iron fist and then there

were like extra packs or actually that was the

exclusive was the iron fist if you bought the

if you bought the box set then you got the iron

fist character and then they had the auto troopers

that you could buy separately and i think they

came in a three pack yeah yep the side swipe

himself do you remember at botcon though this

was derrick j wyatt's thing was the auto troopers

oh yeah oh yeah he wanted these auto troopers

did he come out with like 30 sets or something

like that. I don't know but I thought it was

insane how many sets that I heard get Because

some people started giving him stuff too Because

they wanted to get this huge collection of auto

troopers and that's what he wanted was this huge

I wonder how many he ended up with we should

text him and find out On Twitter, let's see if

he answers us before the end to the Twitter.

Okay, you guys go do that and I'll see if Ask

him how many how many auto troopers he got so

we get We get more of side swipes in our monologue

and we see his his partner and I had already

seen the designs for this and I already knew

it was gonna be Because it was part of the club.

It wasn't part of BotCon a transtech cheetor

transtech animated cheetor was a Club exclusive

that wasn't a part of the BotCon set Um, and

I was like, yes, putting Cheetor in the blur

mold. That is amazing. That is so friggin' cool.

Um, and I could, oh my god, like, if they, if

we ever got these people back together again

to do a script reading of this comic, they gotta

get Ian James Corlett to voice Cheetor, because,

oh my god, I can hear Ian's voice coming out

of Cheetor here. Oh, for sure, for sure. This

is absolutely awesome. And again, the art, the

backgrounds, everything about it is so well done.

Let's see here, we get... Sideswipe says, just

my luck, I get settled with some gung ho, wet

behind the ears, audio receptor transfer from

TransTech Division. Calls himself Cheetor. Oh.

My God. And Cheetor basically transforms and

this is what I love about comics when they do

stuff like this, where they show you the one

action and then they show you in slow motion

what they're doing. And then keep your filthy

servos off me, you flat wheel. I know my rights.

He tackled Rat Trap. Was it Rat Trap or was it?

It's Rattletrap. It's meant to be Rat Trap. Oh

man, so awesome. Oh man, let's see the writing.

They basically want... They basically are gonna

play good bot, bad bot with Rattrap. I love it.

And Side Swipe is the bad bot. I'm trying to

think if Michael could pull off, I mean Michael

Bell can pull off anything he does, but I just,

I keep hearing his side swipe voice in this.

It's brilliant how it's a completely different

universe, he looks completely different from

the G1 character, but yet you can hear Michael

Bell's voice over it because he's just that awesome.

Yep, pretty much. So they're what are they looking

for here? They're looking for well, basically

what happens is that they find out that that

he's got this axe That happens. Oh, that's right

It's the axe that's supposed to be Optimus Prime's

axe and because he's like the hero that say,

you know that that defeated the Decepticons Yeah

again, they didn't even know they were a threat

and all of a sudden now they are again and Optimus

is the guy that's defeated him. So he's got this

axe And he's like, where'd you get it? We want

to know where's this from? And so they go to

talk to Optimus Prime to find out, hey, where's

your axe? And he has it. So they're like, OK,

where did you get this axe from? And he's like,

oh, it's a duplicate. And he got it from this

group of people who are running this little side

show called Stunt Job. And it happens to be that

this little Roadshow thing that they're doing

is at the local but Kayone Yeah, can yeah can

and They're it's like a play that they're putting

on for the people there Wild Rider. Oh my god,

Wild Rider is so Starscream. Who is this malfunction

that dares to interrupt my rehearsal? All I can

think of is, who dares interrupt my coronation?

oh my god while oh my god yeah we so needed this

and animated we so needed a special animated

movie like to do this because this would be amazing

it would be brilliant oh i wish that they would

do another animated something now that we've

got season three come on man make it a comic

make it so you can do it uh so you know we get

And that image of Wild Rider at the bottom panel

here, you know, basically yelling through the

microphone and seeing the vibrations against

Cheetor, that is amazing art. Oh, yeah. That

is really nice. So we get, let's see, Uri Uri.

So the Motor Master can read his name on the

top of the marquee. Can you, Wild Rider? And

we get descriptions of all the stuntagons here.

Motor Master star. planet -sized ego, dead end,

daredevil stunt bot, and morbid robo -goth. And

he's got a stash. Yes. Drag strip, drag strip,

femme bot, acrobat with attitude. Yep. She's

a, she's drag strip, come on, it's all in the

name. Breakdown, Stunt Boy and Bad Luck Charm.

Walking Bad Luck Charm, yeah. Wild Rider, writer,

director, pyrotechnics, artista. I want to be

Wild Rider's friend. I want to work with explosives.

You would. Oh, we'd have so much fun together.

I love all of these designs. Seeing the toys

is one thing, and enjoying the toys is something

completely different, but seeing them... I don't

want to say animated because it's a comic book,

but I mean it's the animated design, and I could

so see this working as, like I already said,

like a direct -to -video, direct -to -DVD animated

movie, and just seeing the designs of the toys

done in comic... Oh my god, it's so amazing.

Another thing too that is good is that we get

to see the characters from the show as well.

I mean we get to see Optimus and Sentinel and

Sentinel's wearing a whole new headgear. This

is just so that show. Oh yeah. It's just like

even if we get new characters it's so much that

show. It has such a distinct voice already as

it is and having Marty and Derek to come back

to write it was just like You couldn't, it's

like, this is like a gold mine right here. This

is why this was the most popular year is because

it was just the best. They did everything right.

They had all of their, their feet on the right

foot going in the right direction or all the

boosters were firing in the right direction.

It was just, it was a brilliant year. It was

a brilliant year because of this. I think it

was successful because of Sentinel's shoulder

pads. Those things are amazing. He's gonna take

flight with those. He took Starscream's shoulder

pads and he made them his own, man. I love this

rehearsal they're doing. Wild Riders like, and

action! Gaspool save me from the evil Decepticon

fiends! Nowhere to run from the Motor Master

puny Autobot. Nowhere to hide and no one to save

you. And then Before we go on I just love this

the three bottom panels where you can actually

see them transforming Yes, but come on. That's

probably one of the most brilliant onomatopoeias

right there That is so awesome Side Swipe says,

for the spark of me, I couldn't figure out why

Sentinel Magnus would let these clowns do their

act in the shadow of Tryptagon Prison. And then

we get... We get Bizarro. Oh, I'm sorry, Toxitron.

Me am save you, Ms. Fenbot Lady. Me am Toxitron,

big hero Autobot guy. It's like somebody channeling

their inner Grimlock. Yep. But see the Grimlock

is stuck on a planet The funny thing is I think

this guy is even more stupid I don't say that

lately because you know He says do some really

dumb things Yeah, I mean he um he is pretty much

bizarro he is pretty much bizarro and I can so

hear... I'm trying to remember who did the voice

for Bizarro in Superman the Animated Series.

I don't remember if it was Tim Daly or not. I'll

have to look it up later. But I can so hear the

Superman the Animated Series Bizarro voice in

Toxytron. And if you think about it, they repainted

Optimus's body twice. Once for... Okay, sure.

Once for Motor Master, but Motor Master obviously

needs a different head. And then for this, for

Toxytron. I love Toxytron. You know what? I didn't

even notice I wasn't even paying attention to

the difference, but you're right, huh? It's not

like it was like this incredibly You know They

look so incredibly different their their characters

are so incredibly different that it It didn't

even you know and like I said, that's why this

is so good That's because they read did a repaint

and I still was like, oh cool We've got two different

ones and they're the same thing. But yeah, I

Can't remember because Tossetron was also one

of the ones that you got as well for Yeah, he

yeah toxitron and sideswipe or another one of

the the sets that you could get Yeah, cuz I was

gonna say I don't believe I think I picked up

a toxitron after somebody that I didn't get it

for myself So I was gonna say he's not part of

the box set box. That was the five. He was separate

Yeah, so that was the other exclusive that you

got is the side swipe and See, talking about

Foxit, I'll just go on a little bit of a tangent.

I remember when they announced Foxit, people

were saying, it's not going to work because you

just have all one faction. You only have Decepticons.

That's not going to sell. That's not going to

do it. and booyah it kicked butt it's sold out

didn't it like yeah before the con was even over

with i thought they sold it out really quick

yeah and you like because Decepticons rule Autobots

drool there you go even if the resale value on

it even today people are still trying to get

this set so if you are out there you have a set

you want to sell it you could probably make your

money back really easy everybody loves this set

So we get to the next page here. Even the exclusive

pin. I mean, geez. Yeah. Oh yeah, I forgot about

that. Even the exclusive pin goes for buko bucks.

It's just a pin. Love it. That M right. You M

run from Toxotron Decepticon coward guys. Guys?

Guys? Well, it's certainly big not big enough

I want to make sure Megatron cell has a clear

view of that image and his Sentinels giant head

projected. Yeah It's so hilarious And Toxatron

is he's a I See why he's so stupid. He's basically

leaking toxic waste out of himself And no you

em come back or you em face wrath of toxitron

energy axe thingy and he pulls out a plunger

Yeah, but we find out at this point that that's

not what his prop is supposed to be but he lost

his axe so that's when our hero and his sidekick

well the the cop people our two comers come in

and say, yeah, well, that's because we found

it, this axe. Let me just say, Wild Rider, best

facepalm of the day. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, we've

got one in each issue. Yes, I know. Mustaches

and facepalms. That's the name of this edition.

Mustaches and facepalms. That's so funny So yeah,

so they go to arrest the bots and You know we

get to you know, one of the auto troopers is

telling them that dispatches are putting a break

in an iron fists workshop and They go investigate

it and we see iron fist basically knocked out

And there's sparks coming out of him. Poor Iron

Fist doesn't get the love. So they actually had

to release him because they couldn't find any

records on the guys because they were running

background checks on them as Autobots and they

had no background checks. So because of that

they had to let him go because of that. So that's

when they go to Iron Fist to find out about this

whole weapon thing and that's when they find

him. trashed and his whole place is trashed.

Does this remind you of anything? Doesn't remind

me of anything. Ultra Magnus and the Magnus Hammer.

It's a recreation of when Shockwave stole the

Magnus Hammer. Nice! Brilliant. Did you get a

good look at the punk bots who did this? Optimus

Prime. That's not Optimus, that's Toxotron! Stomping

through your world as if there's nothing wrong.

Yep, pretty much so So we get we get this giant

battle and Cheetor is just firing at Toxitron

And sideswipe is telling him to hold his fire

Wow, these panels are just so amazing Just so

so amazing we get them I just like you get the

old bot who's about ready to retire the young

bot He you know thinks that he's unstoppable.

He can't do any wrong thing wrong because you

know he's still young and fresh out of the Academy

and Mr.. Old bot here. He's just like my gosh

It's basically a play on cup and hot rod yeah,

yeah Which is nice that it's different characters

though Yeah, it's good to see that, you know,

it could be done any, they could have totally

used those characters, but yet they didn't. They

used Sideswipe and Cheetor and it really worked.

And I'm kind of glad that they did that because

it breaks the mold and the cliche of, oh, we

always have, you know, Cup and Hot Rod. And the

fact that they used two characters that I did

not expect them to use actually just really worked

for me. Um, I love the line interrogating this

robo clown was getting us nowhere. That is so

something out of, out of any cop procedural you'll

ever watch. Um, especially since they're like,

Hey, uh, you know, if you don't do this, we're,

we're going to give you, you know, a thousand,

a thousand stellar cycles. He was like, I'll

take 20 ,000 stellar cycles. You realize that

you're supposed to plea bargain down, not up.

He says, okay, 30 ,000. I was like, dude, you're

stupid. This guy, I mean, look at that panel.

He looks so stoned. Yes, he does. Hyped up on

his own toxic stuff. Yes, he does. So they couldn't

make the charges stick. They had to let him go.

And we get to the, the, the, we get back to,

um, Sideswipe and Sheetal figure out that, um,

Sideswipe says something's not processing on

the oil factory sensors here. Other than a few

personal modifications, all that's gone missing

here is a bunch of excavation and demolition

equipment. Someone's planning a break -in, or

a break -out. So that's why the tryptocons have

their play here so close to trypticon prison.

Break it out. They're gonna break out the people

that are in the prison. We don't want Megatron

and his loons out Look at all these Autobots

on this page. I mean that is awesome. See they

have Ironhide looks like Rodimus Yep, see the

two Jetfire and Jetstorm I mean, a lot of them

are the people that we've seen, Alpha Trion,

Sentinel, Perceptor, Cliffjumper. I think that's

Botanica up in the front, at the top, next to

Cliffjumper. We've got RC, Ratchet, Bumblebee,

Sorry, Bulkhead, Jazz. Let's see, is that, is

it, it's Huffer? No, it's not Huffer. Yeah, it's

Huffer. Is it Huffer? It's the guy that says...

It if it ain't my lucky day Okay. Yeah. Oh, let's

see here red alert. I think red alert Yep red

alert on the other side of I don't know who the

one is next to her though. Oh, that's Wait, you

mean where Rodimus is yeah same row of Rodimus

except the last Rodimus is it isn't that hot

the one to the The one to her right, the one

to our right is Hot Shot. Yeah! That's Hot Shot.

That's Hot Shot? Okay, I wasn't sure. And to

the left is Rodimus. Which, I didn't notice this

until now, and I'm glad I kind of noticed it

now, because we... I know Derek said that, oh,

it's okay, the cosmic rust will wear off. It's

nice to finally see that it did, because I was

so pissed after watching Trans War Part 1. I'm

like, really? Seriously? You give us... Less

than five minutes with the character. Come on

And then the bottom the bottom of the thing is

just got a conglomeration of tons of different

people. Is it Rosanna's in there? I mean anybody

got Minerva. Oh, yeah Minerva She was the bot

con ex cosmos. Yeah. Yeah. She was the customizing

class Yeah, you've got cosmos. Let's see who

else do they wear eyes Like the the exclusive

that's this year, the Buster, the Bluster and

Trench. Is that the two guys that's behind this

guy? Oh, that is. Is it not them? Oh my gosh.

That is. That is them. Wow. Yeah. Mario and Luigi.

I think that's some fun. And I think a couple

of the Fembots are in here. I remember seeing

in the Almanac, but I don't remember what their

names are. Well, there's the Flareup. Flareup

is the one that's. And oh crap, I forgot her

name. It's a good, I mean, you got cameos from

people that you don't see very often. Yeah, Traxx

is there too. Oh my gosh, wow. Good times. And

I don't call myself an uber fan, but the fact

that I was able to pick out quite a few of these

that easy, this is why I love animated. It's

just so well done. There's tower glide in the

background there. Good times. Yeah, it is just

so so fun and and this is one of those things

where I didn't really because usually when I

read a comic for the first time I'm more so paying

attention to the story Not really paying attention

to every character. That's in the background

And looking back on this. It's like, oh man.

Wow, so awesome Because they managed to get in

every slate a lot characters oh yeah it's very

brilliant yeah so side swipe and cheater go down

side swipe stop the performance they're real

decepticons and drag strip you got that right

kitty cat punch to the face So many onomatopoeias,

I love it. Oh, he cut off his, she cut off his,

his, his weapon. Oh no. Go track strip. You get

him, girl. You've got a breakdown using his bow.

And it breaks. He's the accident -prone one,

remember? Yes. He's very accident -prone. Sentinel

is just all, you know... He's just so oblivious.

Clueless, as usual. Which is his biggest flaw,

is the fact that he's completely clueless. Hey!

They managed to work those two annoying defense

bots into the act! And then Toxytron comes crashing

in, meet Em, save you! He has an obsession with

Em. He really likes that word for whatever reason

But the coolest thing here is is that it's It's

because of him that everybody's basically stopped

Well, no, no, no. Yeah, but the the coolest thing

about this Toxitron entrance is that it's the

electric paint It's not Toxitron. It's optimus

The look on Sentinel's face explains it all.

He's like, Optimus? Why is he messing with the

show? And where's my hologram? He's wearing it.

Sorry, dude. He stole your thunder again. And

I love side swipes in a monologue. Optimus gave

him a hologram alright. One that blew the lid

off the whole Decepticon prison bust out. Yeah

the part where striker comes in and says And

they they do this so so well, I mean you've got

striker you've got you've got Side Swipe versus

Motor Master and Motor Ma - Side Swipe is basically

using Optimus's axe in reverse. He's actually

pointing it at his own head and using the thruster

to move himself backwards into Motor Master.

That's amazing. Gotta love it. Yeah. Oh, the

fa - Okay, I - Okay, sorry. I was gonna say,

what was that part? I was like, oh yeah, that's

the part where Motor Master tries to take one

of the guys hostage and - Yeah, he won't have

it. He's like I'm close to retirement. I ain't

gonna put up with this crap. So yep Yeah, yeah,

he says listen up kid no, but Autobot or Decepticon

is getting between me and my retirement. Oh my

god I can so hear him say, I am getting too old

for this shit. I'm getting too old for this slag.

I just picture him with like a Vanzone voice

myself. This is why I hate machines! So we get

to the last page and that's where we see Strika

and Spidor and um oil slick and who's the other

one the bottom left who is that my oh mine wipe

wow oh yeah huh uh so we get mine wipe strika

spit or uh oil slick um and uh blackout i believe

um is that blackout top right yeah maybe it's

not i i assume it's Assume it's blackout. I don't

know. I don't remember but okay, so The whole

play was obviously a ploy for the The breakout

yeah, they find out about the breakout the break,

you know, they go to stop it and they stop it

and then Just when you think you're getting cozy

enough you find out that your job's not done

yet those Decepticons that are still free are

Basically coming in getting in on side swipes

cozy little You know what energon farm deal that

he's got here. He's like, that's not a meteor

shower and here comes the cons So it's almost

a setup for like round two if they decide to

do it again and yes, they need to these entire

comics both of these comics today both have question

marks like like shatterglass said not the end

and this has the end with a question mark on

it yeah um oh man they need to come back to these

and start like you know wrapping them up yeah

not just oh we're just gonna we're gonna leave

this hanging here you know it's hanging forever

and hanging some more it's so funny we're hanging

around sorry I don't really look at the you know

because that's the beautiful thing about this

is you have about these comics you have you open

the you open the book and you have like a letter

from you have two letters one from Greg Lombardo

who is the senior general marketing director

for the Transformers brand team and then you

have one from Brian Savage and then you get the

entire story and at the end you have all these

ads and You know, I'm not complaining about these

ads. I just find it really, really funny that

one of them uses one of the most famous lines

from Transformers history to market themselves

for past generation toys. Light your darkest

hour, save 10 % with coupon code BotCon11. Overall,

the Stunticon job is by far the best one we've

ever gotten. You know, these two together...

Are really the best honestly, but the stunting

on job gave us What Cartoon Network was not willing

to give us because like you said at the beginning

of this podcast Amy We just now this year got

season 3. Yeah on D on on official DVD and This

was like Everybody was left on a cliffhanger

with the end of endgame and it's like, okay,

so they returned heroes and Omega's back and

Optimus has what looks like to be the Matrix

and everybody's gonna go to jail and they're

gonna you know set Prowl off into the sunset

or something or other and then we get this and

it's like oh okay so this picks up right where

we left off and then it takes us into a whole

new story all these all these characters are

so well developed without Eve like in one comic

they developed all five of the Stuntacons so

well and they made it look like it was easy you

know like this anybody can do this you know but

it's not i mean it's not you're not able to not

if if you don't know what you're doing you know

you can try but you know they just made it look

like it was as easy as breathing just inhale

exhale there you go absolutely absolutely all

right nicole final thoughts on the stunting on

job I miss animated. This makes you want to pick

it back up and like watch the whole series again,

doesn't it? It's like, I did not that long ago,

you know? And so it's been a couple of months

since I've seen it. I almost want to jump in

and watch it again. I know. And reading this

is just like, what could have been season four

Cartoon Network? I mean. This was so brilliantly

done, especially getting the original creators

that came from the TV show onto a comic. I mean,

there's your talent right there, going from writing

for a TV show and actually getting it down just

as well for comic book reading. Brilliant, you

know? Give these people some more jobs and get

us an animated comic book again. That'd be awesome.

I want to see more Toxic -Tron. I want to see

more Toxic -Tron. I freaking love... You know,

Toxatron is the... Even though he's not an actual

Stunticon, he is, you know, one of the sidesets,

but he is purely the heart and soul of the Decepticons

in this comic. He really is. And I absolutely

loved it. I loved everything about this comic.

I really want to see more... with him, you know,

with this entire cast of characters. Toxotron

was the only one that was, it was like a made

character specifically for this story, right?

So to put him into an actual, that would be great

if they could just pull that character that was

made for BotCon and pull it into whatever iteration

of what they do next. That would be kind of cool

to see that. Again, I think it's the brilliance

of the writers because, I mean, we got Lockdown

in animated. We got Lugnut. I mean, those are

two awesome characters and Bulkhead. Now Bulkhead's

like a staple. Oh, yeah. So much so that he got

put into the next series, Transformers Prime.

Lockdown got put into the most recent movie.

Yeah, that too. That just shows you how awesome

animated was. I meant to mention this when we

were going through this, when they revealed what

Motor Master's head was going to look like and

the fact that he has basically a goatee, the

way he looks, it reminds me so much, and again

I'm going back to Superman the Animated Series,

reminds me so much of Lobo voiced by Brad Garrett

from Superman the Animated Series. I went on

the wiki here and I looked up Bizarro from that

same series. It is Tim Daly who does both Bizarro

and Superman and I can so hear Tim Daly's Bizarro

coming out of Doxytron. It's just so awesome.

Brilliant. Amy, final thoughts? Oh, final thoughts.

Before I start, I got to say I did get a message

back from Derek J. Wyatt. He says, uh, I actually

have to go through them. I have a lot though.

Just think a mass amount of auto troopers. That's

how many Derek J. Wyatt had. Enough to be able

to, you know, actually have the word auto trooper.

Lots of them. Oh, brilliant. You know what, this,

I can't really say anything more than what we

haven't already said. I really, going back and

reading this again, makes me want to pick up

all of Transformers animated and watch it all

over again, which I did a couple of months ago,

but I could really stand to do it again because

like, it's awesome. And anybody from any age

can watch it. I always thought that they did

a good job, because when it first came out, I

had little, little, little ones. And they both

loved it. And when Transformers Prime came out,

my little ones were a little bit older at that

point. But my little one, my youngest, Reclit,

Still kind of got scared at some of the places

in Transformers Prime So it seemed a little bit

old for him like it was a little too too adult

or not too adult But just it was a little bit

more of that older kid vibe than the little kid

vibe But yet Transformers animated just seems

like it hits everybody from every age The kids

loved it This was like I like you guys said This

was the best BotCon comic that they ever made.

Go figure. They had professionals working on

it. Not that they didn't have professional art

on the last one, but they obviously did not have

a professional writer. But they did a good job.

It's one of the best BotCon sets that are out

there. It's one of my favorite years. It was

the first year that I went. And I think that

if they don't go back to Transformers Animated,

they are just shooting themselves in the foot

because it's so incredibly brilliant. Everybody

still loves it. I don't care if 10 years go by.

I think Animated will always have a special place

in most Transformers fans hearts. So it's good.

And I would highly recommend picking this up

just because. And of course, pick up the Allspark

Almanacs as well because they are done by Jim

Sorensen and Bill Forrester and they are great

and these are two guys that have put the love

into the fandom as well because of what they've

done with that so and they continue to do so

because they continue to put together like these

almanac type books that have just a plethora

of information that you didn't know you wanted.

Oh, absolutely. But the AllSpark and Almanacs

also kind of continue some of the things that

didn't get put into the show. So you get to get

the little extra tidbits and stuff like that.

They'll have some of the characters that we saw

on that one page where we name it out of the

characters. They have all of those tech specs

and stuff in there. So it's definitely, what

can I not say about Animated that I'd say go

buy it, buy this, buy the box set if you can.

Yep, absolutely. Alright, so I think that's going

to do it for this giant size episode of The Pole

Bag. That's going to wrap it up for July. The

last week of July here was the final... Crossover

episode for now with the pullback in the under

base with wind blade number four and we have

this episode Coming up in August. I've got IDW's

TMNT volume seven and villains micro series volume

two We've got an origins episode with star Joe's

Chuck After auto assembly Amy and I will be tackling

the politics of Cybertron and robots in disguise

volumes four and five and then I Not sure who

I'm gonna get to do this. It might be Amy or

Nicole or it might be somebody else I don't know

the last week of August we're doing an episode

86 Transformers Dark Cybertron So August is pretty

much Transformers Turtles month Where can the

good people interact with you online Nicole I

could be found on Twitter at Beatles Diva. That's

Beatles like the band not the bug one more time

uh find me on facebook under my name if you know

me or beetles diva or hailstorm or if you want

to find me on a transformers for uh forum i'm

hailstorm most likely so uh and what about you

amy you can find me on twitter at lady of rack

and that's mostly the best place to to find me

other than over on the underbase um because i

do a lot of editing and um You run the show,

just say it. I run the show, yes. Even if I'm

not on the podcast, I am in the background making,

calling the shots, telling everybody, do this,

do this, do this. Yeah, I keep the under base

running smooth mostly. But yeah, that's me. You

can find me online. I mostly hang out on Twitter.

It's the easiest place to go. My crazy life,

yeah. And it's gonna get crazier as we said in

your podcast. I was just gonna say that. It's

gonna get crazier. It's gonna get so much more

crazier. Alright, you can find me, TFG1Mike on

Twitter. You can also, this is kind of lame,

my personal Facebook is, I use the one, so when

I set up my fan page I couldn't use the one,

so my fan page for Facebook is Facebook .com

slash TFG2Mike. You've just heard the latest

episode of The Pull Bag, the GCRN's comic review

and discussion podcast. There are several ways

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