Masterpiece Figures, Bumblebee Movie, and IDW Comics

This is Optimus Prime, and you're listening to

All Things Transformers. Hello, and welcome to

All Things Transformers, the first episode of

2019. Ah, yes. And joining me this week is TFG1

Mike and - Hello. Ryan. I like how you sounded

less enthused than I usually do. That's impressive.

Congratulations. It takes years of practice,

but he's mastered it. Apparently. Yes, I've mastered

it just like Galvatron. I'll bring back blasphemy

from 2008. Bad pun. Anyways, so we have a multitude

of things today, some of them interesting news,

some of them bashing the news, and some of them

just actual interesting topics. Yes, so without

further ado Toys R Us is returning as true kids

brands, which sounds even more ridiculous than

toys backwards are us And they're also nowhere.

What are you guys talking? Where did toys or

us go in the u .s. Oh here There's they're everywhere.

What are you guys talking about? All right? So

anyways, they think that they will be able to

solidify their U .S. retail strategy for their

brand as their current president of whatever

they're calling themselves this week. They're

saying, I can't say today what that exact strategy

is. We do know that we have an omni -channel

approach that is tech -immersive. parental with

a small footprint. In other words, kiosks or

something to that nature. Yeah, I saw a meme

about this. I think it was last year when they

were going to call it Jeffrey's Toy Box, which

is the worst name ever. But basically, they were

little kiosk boxes inside of Walmarts. They were

in Kroger's around here. Maybe you guys should

stop electing people who make money off of predatory

circumstances. buying up companies and then killing

them because you have loopholes in the, oh, never

mind. In the tax system? Government for the lose.

Yeah, to be fair, I mean, I'm a little bitter

at the states in general. A, you guys are trying

to drive our drug prices up again. I mean, it's

not working because we ignore your imbecile.

President but also be Almost everybody. I know

who's American is currently unemployed because

your economy is absolute shit, so yeah Yeah,

sorry about that by the way. Yeah, it's fine.

I'm working for myself now. I'm done with that

Yeah, because that seems about the only way to

go anymore. I've been laid off twice in seven

months, so It just sucks so and and I can't get

a job to save my life that would make enough

money for my wife and I to survive and She her

and her medical issue. Neither one of us can

get a job. So I don't get calls either So and

all my medical issues are paid for and I get

more than and I get paid $33 an hour now, so

Man, I wish I got paid that I've never seen money

like that. Although I will be freelancing now,

so in a variety of Like graphic website and writing

articles. So well, I don't need to hear about

graphic websites Family show. Yeah wrong with

you people. Yeah, the Toys R Us stuff though

is really depressing I mean, I can't imagine

I'm kind of going through this too with GameStop

as in in dire straits as well and I can't imagine

a scenario where like remember as a kid just

you walk into the toy store, you know and It's

just exciting especially when you're young. I

can't imagine growing up without that. I think

it really sucks for the current generation of

kids kind of growing up that You know your toy

store is going to basically be like walmart or

targets or you know, one of the box stores It's

not the same though. It's you know, there was

a feeling when you want maybe i'm nuts But I

don't know. There's a feeling when you walk into

a toys or us and you're just surrounded by Toys

and you know jeffrey and everything else As an

adult I would not want to be surrounded by jeffrey

at all, but you're right and it is one of those

things where that's a An impact of our childhood

from the late 70s early 80s into the 90s where

you could go to a Specific store that was nothing

but toys and it was absolute magical bliss Yeah,

it feels like I mean we're a little older for

that but it feels like the 90s and the 2000s

were kind of like that the heyday hmm, maybe

it's just from when I grew up but Those were

the years that the toy stores and stuff just

seemed really busy. There just seemed to be shelves

full of everything. Absolutely. They had toy

shelves full of everything. When they closed

too, it's just that nobody could afford to buy

those toys. Yeah, it's the same with I just watched

and this is on topic to this but it's also off

topic as well I just watched one of company man

Mike's recent videos He does like history on

various companies and things like that. He just

did a history of like red box and you know how

they have kind of cornered the market on DVD

rentals where in part of the video he says you

know it used to be a magical thing going into

a blockbuster or whatever video store you had

and looking around and seeing all the movies

and same thing same thing applies to the toy

store i mean i'm sorry walmart and target toy

aisles they're it's not the same it's not the

same and they're also abysmal like I mean, it

depends on your area. We have good and bad Walmarts

here too. Some of them are well stocked, some

of them the employees care, it's set up well,

that kind of thing. Other ones, it's like a warehouse

where they just kind of throw everything. Yeah,

that's not good. I don't know. Yeah, it sucks.

And it's really depressing when you consider

that. No matter what we kind of talk about, Toys

R Us was doing reasonably well financially and

everything else. They just, they got purchased

by somebody who would make more money gutting

them and selling them than it would keeping them

open, which by the way is a broken system, but

let's dub it for another show. I'm very pleased

that the Canadian one is considered a separate

company. I don't know that they're going to be

able to survive without the backing of the US

one, but I've heard and been told that they're

successful, so hopefully that's enough. It's

hard to say because... You can buy everything

online now at this point and to have a fully

stocked store and things, especially stuff that

could end up being shell formers, which a lot

of the movie stuff is, it's kind of hard to judge.

And especially with the fact that, like you mentioned

before, with everybody being unemployed, it makes

it very difficult. And that also kind of goes

in with hand in hand with why Hasbro and Mattel's

profits for the last year were in a, you know,

like dropped. you know anywhere from five to

thirteen percent yeah it's interesting how different

things are even though you know our borders only

only not very far away and like the movie stuff

at least in terms of the bumblebee movie uh man

it moves well or at least it moved really well

here especially in the lead up to christmas it

was nuts you couldn't find stuff on the shelves

it actually Mean it was moving better than siege

was and siege was moving pretty well It's a sad

day all around for all of us and if they come

back they come back if they don't they don't

I mean like Steve just said we now live in an

online world and I Don't know I see things all

the time and again, like you said Ryan this could

be a whole other show thing, whatever, about

children's toys and things like that, and most

of these marketing gimmicks, I'm like, why would

I give my kid that? Why would I buy my kid that

toy? That's not, no. It depends on what it is.

Just a lot of it is, we can get into this with

the cyberverse stuff as well, too, that the marketing

has changed. Yeah. Cyberverse though is a very

sort of 80s style in that it's got a cartoon

series Sorry an animated series and it's got

a Lot of the same stuff for the same kind of

backing that the generation one had Although

it's still very different Yeah, it was true I

mean but the same time late I don't know the

for instance a lot of the the masterpiece stuff.

I would love to get my hands on It just can't

afford it because like every one of them the

price keeps going up higher and higher So yeah,

we're getting getting into the black arachnia

then Segway into that it looks gorgeous. But

yeah, how much it's gonna cost. I'm the The DinoBot

was worth it. It is brilliantly made it's poof

It's a contender for my favorites of the masterpiece

figures I've got. And the accessories with them

are fantastic. But on the other hand, yeah, it

might have been nice if they had made fewer of

the accessories to keep the price down so more

people could afford to pick them up. With Blackar

Acnea, I'm curious if there's going to be what

there will be for electronics or that kind of

thing. Are they going to try something similar?

Because I'm not real. I have very little interest

in the new Masterpiece Optimus Prime just because

he's nice, but he's not $400 more than the Masterpiece

Primes I already own and love nice. Yeah. I don't

mind if it's a new character and we're probably

not gonna like Dinobot and probably not gonna

see it again in the Masterpiece line. nor is

there much potential for repaints with them.

I'm more okay with that, but redoing like yet

another Optimus Prime, I don't know. So as they

continue with the Beast Wars stuff, like Blackarachnia

is a great one, Megatron is great, I'll pick

up those. But I have no real interest when they

keep redoing the other characters, especially

with the third party market around too. Yeah,

I mean the only one the only one I could see

having Not necessarily a redo but a continuation

for masterpiece outside of Actually redoing others

or repainting or reissuing others is cheetor

because at least through beast wars He had three

different forms He had his main form in his transmittal

to or trans metal and then transmittal to and

then obviously the beast machines form if they

ever get around to that but I mean The rest of

them you're and I kind of understand it. It's

like hey, here's a new Optimus Prime masterpiece

figure. That's more for like. I guess the kids

of today versus going out and trying to find

an MPO one at a decent price. Yeah, I guess that's

that's true. It may be for people who just for

whatever reason weren't collecting when the others

came out. No, that's that's good point. I'd be

curious to know you know what it sells versus.

Dinobot or Dinobot obviously sold well. I mean,

it took them no time to do a reissue. Yeah, I

expect like that. I expect Masterpiece Beast

Wars Megatron. Boy, that's a mouthful. I find

a shorter way to say that. But anyway, I expect

that's going to sell really well because I think,

you know, he's another extremely popular character

for good reason. The Blackarachnia? I don't know.

I always liked her. Good character, obviously.

And I love Beast Wars. I just, with her, all

I want to see is I want to see the actual, like,

the pictures that we have or, like, I guess,

the unpainted, the prototype ones. I want to

see the paint. And the only other thing with

her, if they did do, like, an alternate, like,

you know how they do MP01B, like, to make Optimus

the Black version? For her, They have to make

her a silver version to reference that one episode

of Beast Wars where she turns silver. That may

come as a repaint later on just as a method of

them doing it just to milk extra money out of

her. Kind of like they've done with Cheetor with

his basically Ravage or whatever his name was

version of his character. I know it wasn't it,

but something to that nature. But this will be

the first accurate Black Arachnia we've ever

gotten from Beast Wars, which will be nice. Because

the closest we've gotten is that universe, almost

like Transformers animated mixture figure from

Japan that came over, the Takara version, and

it was the closest we've ever gotten to an actual

legit Black Arachnia. I'll be curious to see

the beast mode too just because she Their shots

from behind her available as well, too. She has

next to no shell So I'm curious about the transformation

That's one thing that's always been kind of fun

for me with the masterpiece figures is seeing

how they actually transform It usually takes

me like an hour or two to do it, but I'm always

curious to see the engineering and everything

that goes into it. It's fascinating to me just

because I love G1. I hate how it always sounds

like I'm crapping on it, but let's be honest,

they were kind of bricks. You look at something

like Broadside where his entire back was an aircraft

carrier because he transforms into an aircraft

carrier. Think the sleekest g1 figure that I

ever really had was astro train the original

g1 astro train was the The backpack on him was

not as bad as a lot of some of the other ones

was it's true. I'd argue Like in terms of representing

their animation that kind of thing even the original

optimus prime is pretty Solid, I mean you can

actually move his elbows on like half of the

g1 figures his shoulders move. He had knees He's

been reissued for $70 Canadian without a Trailer,

which is absolutely insane recently. It's invisible

You can't see him now talking about Especially

that's weird whenever you can find the commemorative

one for not a whole lot, too That was an odd

choice in terms of reissues, but oh well That's

one of the reasons why if I ever got any version

of optimus I would want probably the mp04 because

or something that's like that Because even as

a kid, I was never impressed with g1 optimus

Really? Because his back is open like they could

just shoot right into his windshield like The

Master Key's better Supposed to have an imagination

as a kid. Come on. Yeah, and yes my imagination

would say that Megatron shoots his little orange

Cap into optimus's back and it goes through his

windshield and yes the and the masterpiece prime

is still In my opinion the best one and it's

probably my favorite Figure I've got still it's

close. There's a few masterpiece dyno bot. I

love Mastermind creations Tarn slash coltor is

amazing. Perfect effect warden, which is IDW

Fort Max is amazing. I had a lot of cannabis,

which is IDW hot rod is gorgeous. He ooze it

by the way, the IDW hot rod quick note. I picked

up the repro labels for him and actually comes

with the smirking. Autobots insignia if you want

to put it on That if you pay enough attention

in the comics shows up occasionally on hot rod

usually when he's very proud of himself That's

very cool Yeah, it's really neat. Also. I mean

he comes with an alternate head That is also

smirking in that cool kind of way Anyway, but

yeah black or acne looks great They the pictures

come from Japan. And it's her first generation,

like the other Beast Wars transformers they've

done in masterpiece styles, her first generation

version that she was until middle of season three.

Yep. Yeah, and I while I love the first generation

like season one these tours figures I can't wait

till they get to the trans metal ones someday,

which will probably when we're on our like 50s

60s I'm not yeah, I'm not sure so so far. I mean

dino -bots. I prefer his original version Megatron

it's close. I like all three versions. So do

I Primal Proof probably second or third. I prefer

his trans metals. I don't know For she knows

tough to actually I think I like first and third

for Cheetor. Mm -hmm. Yeah I like the second

version a little bit, but that third version

that that black cat kind of version of him Oh,

I love like it. Yeah, it's one of that feral

scream two -parter is one of my favorite nice

episodes from Beast Wars Yeah, that version of

cheetah is one that I always have displayed front

and center. No matter where it moved to One thing

about optimal optimus or optimus primal is that

I would want for if I was getting a masterpiece

primal, I would want optimal optimus because

they would have to do all four modes. Yeah, it's

true. I don't know. I mean, it's inevitable that

we're going to see the others. I'll be curious

to see how tarantulas works out in the masterpiece

line. Yep, uh, desperately want masterpiece waspinator

Yeah, that's an absolute must as long as he comes

like a bunch of Legos like yeah I was gonna say

he should be totally detachable Exactly. Yeah,

or at least come with spare heads or parts. He

can leave around him or something. Yeah Yep,

put him into a giant crushed box, you know compact

it up On that note also if they ever do an inferno

His head has to pop off like Rockum Sockum robots.

I'm trying to think of what he needs something

to get the whole royalty slash Queen thing across

and he needs a voice box and they need to get.

Yeah, if they want electronics, yeah on one.

Yeah. Yeah, you're talking some serious dough.

Oh, yeah. Well, they're already 400 bucks anyway.

I mean, yeah, it's like, you know, I don't know

what they are in the States, but a masterpiece

dyno bot was 400 something for me after tax and

shipping and handling. So yeah, I think it's

roughly about the same here. It's brutal when

the third party masterpieces are much cheaper

than the actual ones. So I don't know if you

guys have seen any of this whatsoever Transformers

cyberverse they've confirmed a season two and

it's the thing between Cartoon Network Hasbro

Studios and Boulder Media Limited Also doing

the Rescue Bots Academy. Have you guys seen cyberverse?

Yes, what's crazy is especially the back end

of the first season is way better than it has

any right to be This show could be not good It's

surprising yes basil you agree apparently Why

do I podcast with cats around it's not like I

can get rid of them anyway But anyway, you should

hear Steve's come up on the mic sometimes I can't

gets mad at me for doing sounds and she starts

coming up she goes Yeah right now just to end

the Dinobot thing. I know we've already moved

on from that, but I looked at it at BBTS. It's

280 bucks and it's on pre -order. So you guys

kind of get raped over the coals for that one.

Well, I mean, yeah, but you're talking that's

before any shipping and handling and duty and

everything else. So about 400 bucks is not horrendous.

True. Remember, shipping something that size

and weight costs a lot of money, which is annoying.

Definitely, definitely. Very true. I work in

the post office, I should know. But yeah, Cyberverse,

I don't know. I haven't picked up any of the

toys. I see them around. I have no real interest

in them. I mean, it's not directed towards me.

But for a show that could easily just be a soulless,

crank this out. and get kids to buy it kind of

crap fest. It's way better than it should be.

It reminds me a lot of the old, not necessarily

in terms of quality, but it reminds me a lot

of like Batman, the animated series and Batman

Beyond that they could have just made it to cheap

kids show and cranked it out and kids would have

bought it because it's Batman or in this case,

Transformers. But some effort actually went into

it. I've only seen the act like I haven't seen

any episodes that air on Cartoon Network I've

only ever seen whatever the Hasbro YouTube channel

puts out Which I guess is either extended or

shortened versions of the actual cartoon that

they show on Cartoon Network So yes, I'm so far

out of of cyber verse stuff right now that I'm

not even paying attention to it I Get that It's

I mean it's it's kind of an acquired taste to

like I've I've kind of not fully signed on I've

watched it But it's not really my thing. So yeah

So getting into other things that possibly aren't

our thing Mm -hmm. What do you think like who

I know you guys probably saw the bumblebee movie

I have not yet, but I have not either I know

Ryan has seen it. Yeah, what did you think? It's

good. It's I wish it was the film that had debuted

in 2007 and I still like the 2007 Movie, I still

think it holds up fairly. Well The sequel is

not as much but that's another story but there's

more places to go with this It has better and

more characterization to the Transformers than

all of the Bay movies put together. That's good.

I tried real hard not to just knock the other

ones because this was an improvement on those.

Okay, Mr. Breaking Bad. I know. God damn it.

Why do people text me? I swear to God, Steve,

it's every time that we're podcasting, his phone

goes off. Know people hate me. I don't understand

why they suddenly text me as soon as I'm podcasting

I shut it off now. I've just given up Or was

I yeah the bumblebee movie I enjoyed it. I think

it's a I The comedy didn't always hit for me

part of it's cuz I'm old, you know, I'm not I'm

not necessarily who it's aimed at but there's

so much more Heart to it. So like if I'm telling

somebody why I enjoy transformers the movie I'm

talking 1986 so much a lot of it is because that

despite the fact, you know, it's based around

toys blah blah blah all the Usual bad things

people say about it. There's a lot of heart to

it. It's just There's more to it than just being

an hour and a half to our commercial And I'd

say the same thing about this. It has more hearts

and more emotion to it than the Bay movies did

and there's more kind of weight to it. It's only

good to hear. My cats agree. That's definitely

good to hear, though. And so what do you think

as far as like future films, do you think? Because

I know that they kind of put the kibosh on it

after, you know, nothing to do with the Bumblebee

film, but just ahead of time, they'd kind of...

Killed there wanting to restart the film universe

as it were Yeah, I don't know what they're gonna

do with that it so it fits in with the It fits

in with the Bay movies about as well as the other

Bay movies do Which is to say there's a whole

ton of stuff that you'd think somebody would

mention But apparently nobody bothers to mention

it It's kind of like that that I guess they could

say that You know somebody didn't refer or somebody

wouldn't talk about that, but it just doesn't

make a lot of sense Not to talk about it or stuff

like that. So But in terms of moving forward

I really just I Hope they just let it be its

own thing. I hope that they do a bumblebee too,

and I hope that They just decide to continue

on. I really think they should just ignore the

other movies. That's not a knock against them.

I'm not trying to say they're bad or anything

like that. I'm just trying to say this was a

good beginning and I really think they should

just decide to build off of it. I think this

is one of those weird scenarios where they shouldn't.

They shouldn't start out saying this is a reboot

or anything like that. It's after it's been out

and after it's run and after people have enjoyed

it, they should just decide to say, alright,

you know what? We're just going to do this going

forward. This should be one of those rare scenarios

where they decide to reboot after the fact. Yeah,

absolutely, because it's very good. I really

I really think you'll both enjoy it when you

get around to seeing it. I think it's going to

have a lot of legs on. DVD slash blu -ray slash

Streaming whatever they put it on Although I

mean it made a crap ton of money foreign like

way more than the budget and it more than enough

that I think they will do a sequel but Yeah,

we'll see there's a lot of places they can go

with it and definitely it seems like They want

to do something with Cybertron I think you you

know, you've both seen the trailers so it's not

much of a spoiler to say that the scenes of Cybertron

will have I think fans and even non fans smiling

Just because while yes, the designs are g1 homages.

They're also gorgeous. Yeah like I was one of

the people when the bay designs were shown off.

I said, yeah, you know what it I don't blame

them. It might be really hard to do Generation

1 in CGI, that kind of thing. They did Generation

1 in CGI, and it looked really good. And it looked,

yeah, because I've seen those pictures and I've

seen those parts of the trailers, yeah. Although

having said that, we're now 12 years beyond,

you know, the first movie in terms of CGI and

that kind of thing, so. And thank God they've

decided to go elsewhere other than Michael Bay.

Now, now. Gotta remember to if it weren't for

that guy. We probably wouldn't have the franchise

and I and I understand that but It as Ryan has

already said the the follow -up movies to the

first one Not so good. Yeah. Yeah, but having

said that it may not be Transformers to me, but

it's Transformers to somebody yeah, it's just

as valid as Beast Wars or hell I want to mention

it now. We had pictures, again, same show that

Blackarachnia showed off at. We had pictures

of an Armada Optimus Prime. And I know actually

quite a few people. So Mike's going to mention

it later, did a podcast about the Transformers

comic line, which has ended. But anyway. When

I was doing that, I got messages from people

who their first exposure to Transformers was

the Armada stuff. Oh yeah, everybody has a Transformers

beginning. No one's doubting that. No one is

ever like, just cause I scoff at the Unicron

trilogy or most of us that grew up with it when

we grew up with it in the eighties and nineties

and all that, just look at the Unicron trilogy

and be like, that's not a Transformers. Everybody's

going to have moments like that. People who grew

up with that stuff that love that stuff are going

to look at G1 and say, That's not my optimus

prime. I've seen people grow up with it. Say

that like the G1 stuff is so bad and I'm like,

yeah, yeah, I can kind of see that but. But talking

about the Armada prime, he's gorgeous and he

is. Yeah, I always had a soft spot for. So when

Transformers came back, it was with robots in

disguise pretty much, which was a Japanese show

that they dubbed and brought over. But the figures

for that line were terrific. And one thing with

the Armada line that continued is a lot of the

toys were really good and really nice. And Optimus

Prime was another one that I kind of like the

design of them. but different like it was off

those prime of a new kind of era and i always

loved like the little wrist guns on him so i'm

curious about this and i'm happy that people

who grew up with it much like we did with g1

will get a chance to purchase like new versions

and new just updated slash Better versions of

these toys because they really haven't gotten

the chance to we've we've had I don't know how

many reissues of different Generation one figures,

but our motto has never been redone for example

and like The Armada optimus sort of merger. I

can't remember the name. I feel bad but whenever

you merged him with his Other pieces and everything

sucked Yeah, I had the possibility of a brick.

It was like less possible than power master prime.

I think Yep, it was nice if the fans and those

people got a version that was more akin to a

great optimist prime than giant hunk of plastic

and Hey, maybe some of the Armada figures will

set spade us house on fire There's always that

possibility Yeah, that guy's either gonna die

from having his house set on fire by transformers

or by KFC double down I know he was a bit. Oh

god. God. I want those so bad. I Don't have them

here sucks Yeah, I think it was a Megatron that

nearly lit us no no It was it was an optimist.

Yeah that nearly lit his house on fire good times

I wonder if this one will have that they need

to add that gimmick to it if not Fire is the

right of all sentient beings. Yeah, that's arson

arson is the right of all sentient beings No,

I don't like I say I'm I may or may not pick

it up. I'm happy it exists though It's kind of

about time the other lines got some love Absolutely,

and the one thing I'll say about beast era masterpiece

if they ever do Megatron from Beast Machines.

They better do it right and it better have a

friggin cloak. I thought you were gonna say as

a head. No, no They made okay. There's that too,

but they made yeah If they make machines Megatron

is tough, although having said that a lot of

the Beast Machines Toys that we got originally

like I think it'd be a hard hard time have a

hard time improving on Jetstorm Who was just

a fantastic figure? Mm -hmm? And and really we

got a decent tank or two and yes but I Just realized

something when I was looking at the the graphics

of The Bumblebee movie specifically of like sound

wave and shockwave, which I know John Bailey

voiced but Do you remember? Studio Draven back

in the early 2000s Like the Draven 3d transformers

redemption Yes, that I remember. I didn't know

the name of the company. Yeah, it was Studio

Draven I used to follow that because I was a

part of the Fandub community for the longest

time and It's still around but it's it's pretty

much like dead in the water because nobody has

time in their adult life to actually sit there

and mess with all that but Yeah, he did he did

the first episode of it meant for like a whole

like season of like five to ten minute episodes

of that But the Bumblebee movie, specifically

when you look at the Decepticons, kind of reminds

me of his designs for the gritty, cartoony CGI

look. I also remember when Hasbro themselves

redid the Megatron Optimus Prime fight in CG

from the 1986 film, and it looked pretty good.

It obviously took a long time. I can't remember

which anniversary they released that for. I want

to say... I want to say 20th. Didn't they, like,

contract that out, though? Yeah, they did. I

mean, it wasn't that, like, them themselves.

Was it, like, Dr. Smoove and... And Randall?

I'm not sure. I'd have to ask him. I wouldn't

put it past them. Right, yeah. Because it looked

kind of like their MO there. Like, so, I don't

know. It kind of looked that way. Not sure although

with Hasbro to be fair they could just reuse

since they have the rights They could have just

reused the audio from the movie. Well, I meant

that but I meant like the CG part. Oh Hard to

say I don't know. Oh, it looks pretty good Either

way, I like CGI Look, I like animation too, but

I like CGI much better if it's done, right? So

what else do you guys got I know that the comic

universe rebooted, I don't know what the state

of that is now. When does it start, Ryan? It

hasn't started yet already, has it? No. Okay.

So, for the last 13 years, IDW has been the company

that has had the Transformers license. And in

that time, we've had ups and downs, and back

to being up again. kind of went up then down

down down down down down down down down then

up up up into stratosphere yes and with a few

twists turns and going sideways and being cut

in half lengthways and all that kind of good

stuff uh ryan took over the yeah poor ambulon

uh -huh ryan took over the pull bag uh a couple

weeks ago uh and He, Liddy Rick, and Genevieve

Frank, Jen apparently on Twitter, basically did

an in -depth discussion in the last 13 years

of Transformers comics at IDW, and it was a great

episode. You guys should go listen to it. It's

over on the pullback at Geekcast Radio Network.

But yeah, I mean, it's coming to an end. It's

the longest. Well, it has ended, yeah. So we

did the recording in advance of the release of

the final two trades for the two final series

of Transformers. Although there's one more trade

left to be released, which is the fight against

Unicron, which is a mini series. But for all

intents and purposes, the actual finales take

place within Lost Light 4 and Optimus Prime 5.

So another thing I did in advance, I ended up

reading two of them online. But I asked people,

you know, how did you get into the Transformers

comics? Because it's been running for 13 years.

And not everybody that started reading it is

going to be familiar with or grew up with Generation

One Transformers. And it was just it's always

been interesting to be the number of people.

had people that are 16 years old hit me up and

tell me how they got into it or why or when and

just interesting the different age ranges the

different interests and that kind of thing it

was a comic series that had a lot for pretty

much everybody uh it's crazy to me it was nuts

for me to go back and look at So it was kind

of a retrospective, and I told everybody come

up with your positives and your negatives and

that kind of thing. And I'm real good at being

negative. I don't know if people have noticed

on this show or any others, but I'm a master

at playing devil's advocate and saying bad things,

especially about franchises. I love Star Trek

and. many others, but I had a real hard time

coming up with negative stuff for this series.

It's scary to me. I feel bad for anyone who's

for the people who have to follow this up. It

is nightmarishly good like last stand of the

records is one of the best individual trades

and stories I have period. Not just of Transformers

or books or anything else I own, which I own,

you know, hundreds. Actually, if you add in books,

probably thousands. Anyway. But it's. It was

insane to me, and after it was over, I thought

up and I remembered all these amazing moments

and characters and arcs and everything else that

I completely whiffed on or forgot about. And

yeah, it's amazing that they got the chance to

do this for 13 years Mm -hmm. I did it. Well,

I mean, yeah there you mentioned there's ups

and there's downs I didn't do the podcast to

slag on particular people and particular runs

Yeah, no It's history not good ones. Yeah, it

had everything that has a history has ups and

downs You know look at this podcast and how far

we've come in 11 years. Um, you know, it's one

of those things where I'm glad I jumped on when

I did, uh, basically bugging. I think, well,

it was partially you, but it was also, uh, ender.

No, well, she did, but no, the main reason, uh,

ender kept Because he was reviewing the stuff

over at T formers or what wherever and he kept

saying oh shockwave who shockwave who shockwave

and shadow play and. And all this and all that

and everything else I'm like what the hell are

you talking about so I went out and I started

with death of optimus prime and then it's a you

know I basically was told you start with death

of optimus prime and then you go one of two ways

or you go both ways you can go more than meets

the eye or robots in disguise. And I started

reading them both because there were two very

different things. More than meets the eye when

it started was the adventure in space. And Robots

in Disguise was basically robot politics when

it started. Yeah, it was super character -driven.

And it's weird that they both switch by the end.

And it's deliberate because the characters switch

by the end. We mentioned this in the podcast

that by the end of the series Megatron is everything

Optimus Prime wanted him to be and Optimus Prime

is everything Megatron didn't want to be. And

they both end up like kind of switching. It is.

The entire series is just. Beautifully done and

if you're a fan of Transformers and in particular

if you're a fan of Transformers who never necessarily

got this the limelight You know, I mentioned

it on the podcast that skids is best known for

being Skids is best known for having Charlene

give him a sponge bath that is the extent of

the characterization of skids in 20 sorry 30

years of generation one stories that was skids

his highlight and then you read this series and

he has So much more he is a ridiculously good

and sad Simultaneously Arc and then you look

at hot rod who has one of the best sort of up

-and -down arcs That I don't want to ruin because

I know you like him a lot in IDW. Oh, yeah So,

I think you'll be pleased. I just, what I love

about IDW Rodimus is that not only is he the

guy that I knew from the original series and

the movie and all that, but he's more so because

he's so off -the -wall wacky. He'll... He's probably

different though, too. Like, they let him grow

up a little bit, but then he still makes mistakes.

He's still a hot rod, you know? Like, there's

the one story arc, and you can remind me, and

I know Steve is tuned out at this point, where

they're dealing with brainstorm. And there's

this whole thing where Rodimus is like, look,

his insignia, it changes. Like, he has this really

excitable, almost Han Solo kind of moment. And

that's what I like about the guy in IDW. And

by the way, don't forget that during that same

bit, he takes Ultra Magnus's nameplate that's

in front of him and keeps messing with the letters.

So each time it flips back to Magnus, it spells

something different because Rodimus has been

screwing with it. It's just little touches like

that. I still like my favorite line from him

was when lockdown catches him. And he says, you

know, that was some nice moves back there. Your

friends must be very impressed. And he says,

yeah, well, my friends don't all have flames

on their chest. It's a lot to live up to. And

then my other favorite line was when he confronts

terrorists. And the last line he tells them is.

Or sorry Tira says to him. So do you have any

questions and Rodimus says? Yeah, why are you

such a and then it switches back to him telling

the story and he just goes yeah, and that's when

I started swearing Yeah He was fun and yeah the

whole ride was fun and it ends Surprisingly fittingly

if you told me it was gonna end fairly well While

I was reading Unicron, I would have said you

were nuts. Yeah, but they managed to close it

off Well, it was smart letting the final issues

of each series be the sort of codas that take

place afterwards Yeah Yeah, I don't think I would

have I mean I've only read and I don't even remember

at this point because it's been so long since

I've read it I've only read the first three issues

of Unicron. I had not even read Lost Light or

Optimus Prime yet. And so far we're only up to

volume two of each of the those series there

we'll be doing more later this year inside the

pull bag, but With the way Unicron was going

after issue three, I'm like, I hope this is not

the complete, like the Unicron six issue mini

series is not the complete end. That the actual

series get to do an end and I'm glad that they

do. Yeah, not only do they do, but man, it's

really each one has a very different ending that

is perfectly fitting. And so to Steve, the best

advice I can give you is at the very least, If

you ever get, you know, the time, money and interest

in it, for the love of God, start at Return of

Optimus Prime and read, you know, or when they

release it, the phase three compilation of everything,

probably be the least expensive way, but it's,

you know, if you ever, it's hard to explain.

There's so many characters that get so much more

You know how many of the more than meets the

eye cast were ever used swerve? brainstorm chrome

dome rewind these are all characters that tailgate

that actually get some like depth and and even

the characters you love like man they And hailstorm

or Nicole could talk about this someday, too

But the arc and the story for cyclonus is so

good. Yeah, it is so good especially the stuff

with world which gets a Yeah, it's good I've

often said and they know this Nicole is in complete

love with cyclona. So she is cyclonus and then

Amy aka direct. She's world. It's just the way

it is I would suggest to Steve that I know Steve

doesn't have the time money or whatever I mean,

I have most of the run on my comics ology and

Yes, go go to a better country. That's right.

Although although holy crap. Is it cold and snowy

up here? Yes Yeah, that's the only I mean you

get used to it, but Although Mike you were colder

than we were for a little bit there. Yeah, Chicago

was nuts It's funny. We had one day where we

were the coldest city on earth and then you guys

Were colder than not Chicago basically said hold

my beer Well, no, we were still colder, but it

was only for one day you guys got like a sustained

vicious cold blast also there's a difference

because You know, we're we prepare, you know,

we're used to a lot of this garbage. Yeah And

in Chicago, it's usually nicer, at least somewhat.

I mean, it's linked the difference between the,

like, Michigan weather, where you get, like,

a foot and a half, two feet of snow, and we're

like, eh, we can try to work in it, although

they were stupid and cancelled everything, like,

during that, like, after the polar vortex. Like,

I got it during the vortex, but after that, they

were like, we're gonna close school. But, like,

you go to Texas, and they get, like, a quarter

of an inch, they're like, gotta close the roads,

everything's down. Yeah, we have that here, though.

There are places that do that here. Anyway, back

to Transformers. Hey, why has there not been

a Snowplow Transformer? That's a good point.

Yeah, yeah, you could just modify Rekgar. Add

a Snowplow attachment to him. What the hell was

I saying? Nobody knows. We were talking about

the IDW Transformers, and then at this point,

so the reboot hasn't happened. When is it happening?

That's two months from now. So it's May. We're

in February. April. April, that's right. Yeah,

no, the IDW run is just, oh, I was saying to

Steve, suggesting to him how to do this, because

obviously with two kids, a wife and hopefully

a future job or self -employment or whatever

it is that he ends up doing, reading 13 years

of comics is probably not going to be the best

use of his time, so I suggested that if he wants

to get the whole story without needing to go

in depth, go over and read Chris McFeely's Transformers

Historia, because it basically chronicles the

entire 13 -year run. And I specifically bought

that because I wasn't here for anything before

Death of Optimus Prime, the Mike Hosteron, any

of that stuff. I never read it. I never had to

get as mad as Ender got, or as mad as anyone

else got. He didn't get as much. So it was interesting

for me reading the beginning parts of the IDW

run, because I hadn't done that before. But yeah,

I mean, Transformers comics, yay! It's something

about the format too. I mean there's more you

can do in terms of Comics are a format that when

used correctly get to merge both visual and Written

storytelling in a way that both novels and then

film obviously don't Yes, they're dependent on

one or the other And when it's perfectly done

and you get stuff like Neil Gaiman Sandman or

Watchmen or something like that You or why the

last man or pretty much everything from Brian

Cave on you get stuff that can transcend it both

Genres like some of the some of the comics I've

got like those I'm just mentioned I would put

up against the best of literature and film and

I don't say that lightly and The fact that More

Than Meets the Eye in particular is a series

that I've ranked with some of the best comic

series is also saying something. It's extremely

impressive. I never thought there would be a

Transformers series. I would hold up to that

level. Yeah, that's a nice way of saying that

let's be honest a lot of the transformer stuff

is just to sell toys and shit Well, you know

I've said this before out of all of the US Generations

over the last 35 years because this year is 35

years since g1. Oh god. I'm old Mm -hmm. We all

are G1 beast wars beast machines Animated prime

all that stuff Uh, I like it all for different

reasons, but having gone through, and I've only

gone through this since the pull bag started

2013, it's out of 13 years that the IDW universe

has been around. I went through almost all of

it in six years, you know? Um, and I just, Absolutely

love every bit of it. There there are certain

things where I critiqued it There are certain

things that I may not have certain certain characters

getaways a dickhead You know kind of a thing

But like it was a new way to experience Transformers

for me because I never read the Marvel runs,

US, UK, whatever. I never read any of the Dreamwave

stuff. I was not into Transformers. The closest

thing I got to Transformers comics as a kid was

the Wheely storybook thing. There was a storybook

based on Wheely's origin with his parents and

crap like that that my elementary school library

had way back. I have all the Transformers coloring

books and sticker books. Good for you, little

Ryan. Now go sit in the back of the class. Steve,

what else would you like to talk about since

we've railroaded your show here? No, I think

that's good. It was more of just catching up

in what's new in Transformers and what's interesting

and what people actually probably will care about.

The only thing I'll kind of add in is just the

Transformers trading card game, which, so Wizards

of the Coast launched it. It was pretty clearly

just a throwaway. They kind of dumped out wave

one. And I don't know if they, I don't know if

they just had no plans to support it. I don't

know if they just thought it wouldn't make any

money. I don't know what it was, but they basically

just kind of crapped it out and said here, well,

it's taken off to the point that it seems like

there's actually gonna be a competitive. scene

developed around it. And they've announced all

of the cards that will be part of wave two, which

is the focus is going to be on the combiners.

Although having said that, they've just added

the triple changers as well. Well, two of them.

It's Springer and Blitzwing are the first two.

And just they keep adding more mechanics to the

game. For anyone who plays any other card games,

it's a mixture between Magic the Gathering and...

Crap. What the hell's the Star Wars name? One?

Why am I asking you two? It's whatever the Star

Wars one that's out now. It's not Imperial Assault.

That's the miniatures game, which is really good.

Whatever. Anyway, it's a mixture of those two

kind of card games and actually works really

well. The transforming mechanic, especially with

the triple changers, is well implemented. And

the artwork is amazing, so they use the IDW artwork

for all of the action cards. And then for the

cards themselves, as in the character cards,

they use the Legends artwork and it's gorgeous.

The cards all look amazing, especially in person.

But yeah, it's good. It's interesting to me that

they didn't think it was going to take off. Like,

you know, what did you think was going to happen?

Transformers has been around for 35 years. I

actually know people that are just buying these

because they love the artwork. So it's nice.

And the game itself is a lot of fun. There's

some good incorporation of the characters. The

Dinobots are a lot of fun to play as. I'm so

happy they're getting a second set of them. And

I can actually have two Grimlocks on the same

team, apparently. Which seems horrifically unfair

because the wave one Grimlock is an absolute

beast. Anyway, is it the fantasy flight game

Star Wars card game? I believe so, yes. According

to everything I'm seeing on Google, it's just

Star Wars the card game, which it even says that

on the packaging. It's Star Wars the card game.

There is no separate title for this. What's the

title? Whatever. Anyway. Yeah, I don't know.

I haven't collected a card game in a long, long

time. So I think it's interesting. And honestly,

if I had the money, I would buy them for the

card. are specifically more so than anything

else. But yeah, I mean, it's pretty awesome that

they actually picked up more than what they thought

they would. It's weird to me that there's stuff

for Transformers that we haven't seen. It's been

around 35 years. And yeah, there have been trading

cards and that kind of thing, but never a card

game that anyone's backed. And there's other

stuff like, you know, how is a weird one to me

is how has there not been Aside from a really

short -lived one. How is there not been like

a Transformers MMO or exactly a Transformers

role -playing game or there's all this stuff

that this franchise has been around way longer

than other franchises that have Taken off in

these genres like Warcraft has only been around

since the 90s and it's had pretty much everything

Yeah, why doesn't Transformers had it? Why does

Transformers not have a dedicated board game?

Or it's weird to me. If they did do any kind

of Transformers like role playing or MMO game,

I honestly would want it in the style of Kingdom

Hearts. Kingdom Hearts 3 is so friggin beautiful.

The backgrounds in that game, the way the mechanics

work and everything else, I'd want it in that

style. if it was going to happen. Last thing

I want to bring up, this is from Twitter, from

KCW Caller. He is an artist on some of the Transformers

books at IDW that have been going on for the

last 13 years. He did a Spider -Man No More homage

with Megatron and Galvatron. It's gorgeous and

I understand why he had to do this, but... He

put an ugly watermark on his own thing. I get

it. He had to do it So no one stole it like that,

but yeah, he actually says it says ugly watermark

on Megatron's back Yeah, no, I know I under yeah

when I read so I saw his post as well and when

I read that By the way, that's another thing

to mention the arts in the IDW books and the

transformer books. My god, is it beautiful? Yes,

it is. Oh anyway Yeah, so it's an homage to Spider

-Man number 50, but I agreed with his reason

unfortunately Because when I saw it and I read

his post I thought yeah, somebody's somebody's

gonna make it a t -shirt. He's right Like some

jerks just gonna be like, oh, I'll just steal

this artwork and try to make money I replied

to him and I said, look, I want this as a print

that I can hang on my wall, poster size, whatever

you, whatever I have to do, just let me know.

Yeah, that's kind of become my goal is there's

certain issues of more than meets the eye. So

for example, I talk about it on the pull bag

podcast, but the issue that got me back into

transformers, for example, I want that cover

as a print and there's other ones too and there's

a couple of the artists that sell prints of their

cover work So yeah, he should definitely Assuming

it's okay. I guess the question would be You

know, does it fall under homage or is he gonna

get sued by Marvel? Yeah, I guess I think it

would fall under homage I would assume so but

you never know so places and people are a little

more uptight with right but how many artists

have done prints for like cons and stuff not

specifically for the the con like they're not

in but they've done prints to take to cons that

are homages to other things yeah and i just mentioned

like some of the idw artists actually made prints

of their idw work which yeah it's obviously copyrighted

by them yep absolutely Um, I think that's about

it. Unless you - I think so too. Okay. Well,

it's your show Megatron, do your job! Well, I

know that. Well, I gotta get back to playing

Star Trek online. Eh, I've been playing that

lately too. Oh god, you guys can wax prophetic

about your Star Trek stuff offline here. Yeah.

Well, yeah, so the first four episodes of Disco

- Oh, you weren't serious. Stop it! Offline.

So anyways, thank you for tuning into All Things

Transformers, and until next time, transform

and roll out. Yes, this is counterintuitive.

Beasts don't roll. They rock. They can roll.

Yeah, Megatron did have those roller skates for

a while. He did. Megatron, Rattrap had... Rattrap

had wheels, Tarantulas had wheels, pretty much

all of them at some point had. I wish to speak

to my lawyer.