State of the Franchise and Beast Wars Retrospective

This is Optimus Prime and you're listening to

All Things Transformers Hello and welcome to

All Things Transformers I'm your host Steve Megatron

Phillips and in this episode I am joined by nobody

So yeah, I decided to do another episode just

kind of keeping up the momentum here Have you

ever noticed that every Transformers site right

now that you go to doesn't matter which one,

whether it's Cybertron, T -Formers, TFW, any

of them. None of them have any like actual news.

They're all the same articles. They're all covering

the toys. They're all covering the comics. And

then there's like a little bit of like movie

news and then there's like nothing. it's all

the same stuff and I was trying to figure out

what to talk about and to kind of scour through

the the land of transformers and there's really

not really not anything to be honest there's

there's really nothing that's worth checking

out right now in the transformers world and I

always swore if there was like a time like this

I would not do an episode but I kind of I think

this is kind of like a problem with Franchises

if there's not an ongoing series if there's not

something to talk about in the shows if there's

not Kind of just anything that's that's kind

of ongoing and it's you're left to the the merchandising

it's not really a good place to be and I say

that with like respect to the franchise, but

Everybody's kind of wasting everybody's time

trying to put hits on their websites And it's

not I mean unless you want to see these pictures

of some of these new toys And you want to read

some of the stuff with the comics like honestly

if I cared about the comics I'd go buy the comic

And I get some of it's gonna get covered because

I mean it's just something to put on the website

It's you know kind of goes into the gallery kind

of goes into the stuff like that, so I get it

I used to run a Transformers website. It was

way too much work to sit there and try and put

filler on the website instead of just putting

stuff that's pertinent, like the Transformers

history, like the timeline, like where stuff

takes place, like character bios, you know, actually

important things that have to do with the franchise

as opposed to... Let's put a bunch of news articles

and a couple of toys and then we'll talk about

the comics for an article and then Yeah, then

and then push it over to the comments section.

Here you go. So I Know I'm just starting out

very right today so I'm just kind of commenting

on that and we just had yeah one of the New York

Comic Con I believe and I'm sitting here going

Yeah, this is this is interesting. There's nothing

really going on, but yeah, it's it's it's kind

of interesting I know they just had TF con DC

Recently and You know David Kay was there a bunch

of other people were there I'm not quite sure

who all was there I would have loved to gone

and meet David Kay one of these days I'm not

sure when that'll happen Just kinda depends on

when they bounce around and stuff. But if TFCon

ever comes to like Michigan, I'll probably go.

Because it'll be a hop, skip, and a jump for

me. But New York Comic Con just happened between

the 5th and the 8th. And there really wasn't

anything too much Transformery news. Like there

was a Hasbro panel, there was some screenshots.

You know, they had some exclusive figures of

like Grotesque, Terrorcons, Windcharger, Black

Optimus Prime, or Rodimus Plime, which is like

Unicronimus Prime kind of thing. Or Rodimus Unicronus

Scrapnel. I mean, there really wasn't anything

Transformers related to even cover. They had

some some action figures because you know we

can't call them toys Of the last night all spark

tech figures roleplay masks generations trypticon

power of the primes Dinobot combiner vulcanus

vulcanicus Titan class Predaking teaser Like

I said there really wasn't anything pertinent

They had some of the prime masters like alpha

try and alchemist prime Vector Prime, Nemesis

Hot Rod, Wind Charger, Scrapnol. Again, they're

like $6 figures for the most part, unless you're

talking about Rodimus Unicronus, which is $50,

and then Wind Charger and Scrapnol are like $10.

Like I said, it's not anything magnificent where

it's just, you have to go check it out. As much

as I like Transformers, there's just a lot of

filler going on right now. So yeah, on the Transformers

Autobots Alliance, which is the exhibit known

as the Transformers Experience, there's been

clips that have surfaced of the voice cast. And

a look of CGI models of Primus that will be at

the event. And then they have Charlie Adler doing

Starscream, Frank Walker doing Megatron, Peter

Cullen doing Prime. And then they have an orchestra

doing the score. And then they have the Autobot

Alliance. They have Primus circling around and

kind of showing this whole thing to do with it.

And then they've got Will Friedle doing Bumble

Bee, Jess Harnell, Ironhide, Amari Williams,

Laser Beak. So yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting.

And then The Last Night just had its disc home

release and it debuted at number one in the United

States, go figure. Pretty much anything that

comes out though that's action movie is gonna

hit kind of number one as soon as it comes out

and then it kind of And just kind of disappears

because Wonder Woman got bumped down to number

two spot But remained in high demand even though

you know, like I said, it's just a week to week

thing Wonder Woman came out the week before and

it was number one and then Transformers, you

know debuted at number two and then went up to

number one and then or debuted at number one

and then It's yeah, I it actually was a pretty

solid movie compared to Two and four Which is

funny because every odd movie and transformers

seems to be pretty decent still doesn't hold

a candle to the original stuff, but That's neither

here nor there So Transformers Bumblebee set

shots finally reveal who John Cena is playing.

And it's funny because he has hair in this picture.

You usually don't see him with hair. And he's

playing a character rumored to be a part of Sector

7. Alongside Haley Steinfeld and George Lendenborg

Jr Kind of reveals the the Sector 7 crew and

his character's name to be Burns Whatever that

means unless they're It would be interesting

if they're tying and somebody made the reference

that it's you know rescue bots reference it would

be interesting if they tied bumblebee because

bumblebee is in rescue bots if they made this

like a live -action version of rescue bots and

some of these characters are tied with these

characters and Sector seven is involved and then

they Kind of lock up some of the stuff or they

that some of them are using The Transformers

for their duty back then but it was it was like

hush hush only sector 7 knew about it And then

bumblebee like eventually escapes it would be

kind of interesting if that's the route they

went with it And then of course, there's a rumored

Masterpiece movie Figure of barricade. I didn't

even know they were making masterpiece movie

figures Unless that's what some of these have

been years ago I can go with neither here nor

there. I want to see some Beast Wars Megatron,

like Pronto, and more masterpiece Beast Wars

figures. So Cybertron .com decided to vote their

top 5 best tribes, fomos, beast wools, figyos,

or actually characters, I didn't even say figures.

They're saying that it wasn't much competition

and the only real discussion point would be why

Beast Wars is better than G1 Sunbow Beast Wars

would trump G1 for sure had to cut the discussion

right away and tell you why the characters Beast

Wars had the best characters on TV and then they

give a breakdown and then they had the depth

charge rampage rival of duking it out to their

death and they had the figures kind of going

back and forth in a thing kind of like a Batman

Joker rivalry in a sense with the different temperaments

of the characters, so I can kinda get that. And

then they had Rhinox, they said part of them

wanted to put Rhinox number one to make a statement

saying that he's the best Maximal character.

I wouldn't go that far, but he was an interesting

character. Put Black Ratna at number three because

best female character of all time in the Transformers

franchise Which that's obvious because she's

kind of the most prominent aside from RC But

she was more fleshed out than RC in more of the

ways than one I'll leave that there, but Yeah,

Beast Wars just had better writing so it kind

of made a difference and then they've got Megatron

Beast Wars at number two I agree to disagree,

but they're saying that because he knows he's

bad, loving every second of it, infectious to

the viewer, loving his assurance, very seductive,

almost wants to see him succeed in plans that

are marking of a perfect villain, kind of reminds

him of Hans Gruber and other villains with charisma.

I can kind of get that. Megatron got darker as

the series went on, so I think that he could

have trumped it further. However, I do agree

with their number one in this one piece alone.

It says, unlike almost every other Transformers

character, Dinobot, yes, Dinobot is number one,

doesn't seem to have a predetermined personality

based on his allegiance. And he kind of, you

know... We see, you know, that the second season,

that Predacons are not... you know, the same

as Decepticons and each thing has different values,

ideals, whatnot. You know, Megatron is very similar

to Megatron and Dinobot is not like hard -coded

evil, like he could go either way depending on

how he determines if it's honorable or not or

if, you know, depending on how much thought he

puts into something. He chooses to be maximal

more so because he doesn't want to be a part

of the Predacons and what they stand for because

they're dishonorable. And so that regard, I can

kind of see that. I can kind of see how they

broke that down. And it honestly makes a lot

of sense. So who would your guys top five be?

Honestly, if I wasn't including Dinobot, I'd

have Megatron as my number one, I'd have Primal

as number two. I'd have Rat Trap in there as

well because I really like his character. I think

that he's sarcastic. However, he didn't really

evolve all that much throughout the series, so

I kind of get why they had him. I would still

have Dino Bot in my top five regardless. I like

Depth Charge. There's a lot of great writing

in Beast Wars. It's just hard to trump it. even

Beast Machines wasn't as well received or written

as Beast Wars and I think that's why it had the

venomous hate that it had at the time. But yeah,

I don't know, what do you guys think about it?

I'm honestly a little bit torn on a lot of the

Transformers content anymore. I'm wanting to

see what they do with this new series I want

to see if that that rumor of the Beast Wars coming

back with a Netflix animated thing Actually pans

out. I would love nothing more than that to happen

Just because I like Beast Wars more than I like

the rest of the stuff But yeah, I don't know

It's kind of hard to talk about some of that

stuff late anymore. I don't find myself as infatuated

with Transformers as I used to in all of its

entirety. But Beast Wars, it still holds a spot

deep down. And then like... Last month, they

had actually a writer, comic writer, an editor,

and Transformers script writer who passed away.

I saw the name, but I kind of glossed over it

and didn't really think nothing of it. He was

the creator of Wolverine and Swamp Thing, but

I didn't realize that he wrote for X -Men and

Watchmen. And he wrote on four different Transformers

series, which I never noticed. He wrote on G1,

Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and Robots in Disguise,

the 2001. Some of the episodes he wrote, Beast

Wars -wise, were like Web World, Tangled Web,

Beast Machines with Savage Noble, then he had...

Wrote those and some of those were actually pretty

decent. I really like savage noble Web or web

world was g1 But that was an interesting one

as well tangled web kind of creepy, but good

So yeah, I I can definitely see his his influence

now that I'm looking at that So what are some

toys that you guys want to see as they come out.

I'm still hoping for the masterpiece stuff, I'm

still hoping for more Beast Wars screen accurate

toys as well as Beast Machines, but what are

you hoping that transpires in the new Transformers

series? I'm kind of hoping that as they reboot

this stuff they bring a little bit of Beast Wars

and they have those actors come back, they bring

a little bit of Transformers G1 and then they

have those actors come back, and then kind of

create like a best of both worlds, like Transformers

Universe type of show. I think that that could

be kind of interesting to watch. And I hope,

I hope that the animation is CGI, but not this

stuff that we've got in Transformers Red that's

on right now. I would very much like to see them

go back to, not even Transformers Prime, but

like something akin to Beast Wars. In that regard,

I'm not 100 % sold on returning to that aesthetic,

even though I really like it still, but it's

very dated, so I can see why they wouldn't go

back to that, but I think that it could be fun

to revisit some of those characters even playing

a prequel to Theft of the Golden Disk. Speaking

of Theft of the Golden Disk, I know that thing

came out years ago. But myself and another Transformers

fan are going to cover that soon. I know we did

it in Beast Unleashed. But think of this as an

addendum that's going to be a part of this same

Transformers feed. We're going to be doing a

Beast Unleashed Part 2. And you could be asking,

what? Beast Unleashed Part 2? Well... What essentially

that's going to be is we're gonna be reviewing

Beast Wars 2 and Beast Wars Neo Yes, you heard

that right. We'll be covering that on this show

Kind of looking forward to to doing it I've believe

it or not. I've never watched them I've seen

the Beast Wars 2 movie where they summon optimus

primal like Leo convoys summons optimus primal,

but I've never actually watched Beast Wars 2

or Beast Wars Neo, which is funny because I used

to be on TFCOG quite often and we did fan dubs

of the series. I was involved in Scramble City,

which was a fan project kind of bridging season

two in the movie. Then I was involved in still

an involved involved in Transformers headmasters

So Yeah, I'm I'm still Still involved heavily

with it, which is funny because it's been 12

years since I started messing with that but TF

cog Only sadly made it up. They started production

in 2006 of the stuff. They only made it through

five episodes of Beast Wars 2. Which I'm very

sad about, because I would have loved to have

watched it dubbed over watching it subbed. And

Beast Wars Neo, with Big Convoy, they only made

it 11 episodes out of the 35. They started that

in 2003. So, I'm a little sad that they never

made it further. But literally nobody... is on

that site anymore. It's a complete dead zone,

which I'm very sad to see as far as the dubs,

but yeah. So anyways, regardless of sub or dub,

we'll be covering that on all things Transformers

in the future. So be sure to keep an eye out

for that among the Transformers news, the comic

reviews from TFD1Mike that will be uploaded on

this same feed. As well as the Transformers origins

with various people that have been influential

in the Transformers Fandom among other things

we may have some other people join in in the

future. You never know and Maybe we'll get Stan

Bush. Maybe we'll get some of these other people

back in and Have a different kind of like a Transformers

origins for them. It could be kind of interesting

So yeah until next time and transform and roll

out and unleash the beast in you I wish to speak

to my lawyer.