Speaker 1: Hey, what's up? If the Nation in fernis welcome to
Speaker 1: another episode of NERD. If he said, we are here
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about I kind of teased it
Speaker 1: out last week and there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: hyped for Transformers, and this was one of the fun
Speaker 1: ones where we why we scraped it up just a
Speaker 1: little bt s. We had like a gap between when
Speaker 1: our research for the next episodes are up, and I
Speaker 1: was like, let me try and tackle you know, transformers.
Speaker 1: I can research that, and man, there's a lot of transformers.
Speaker 1: There's so much Transformers. But we'll get into that. I'm
Speaker 1: if you wa waite and sitting across from me is
Speaker 1: Danny Fernandez. Yeah. I like that. You added if your
Speaker 1: nation and Ferns. Fernie was something that I jokingly started
Speaker 1: to do. If you don't follow me on Instagram, follow
Speaker 1: me on Instagram because I make the dumbest videos called
Speaker 1: Rumor Control, which if He has been in and several
Speaker 1: other people have been in, where I just I refer
Speaker 1: to everyone as fernees and then tackle a really dumb
Speaker 1: rumor but it's stuck, it's stuck behind it. If he
Speaker 1: Transformers is something that I kind of didn't really grow
Speaker 1: up with as much and actually really enjoyed the film
Speaker 1: with Shila b Well, it's what's crazy. I really liked
Speaker 1: I was in high school and it was it was
Speaker 1: like such a big deal in high school, like everyone
Speaker 1: I think it came out in the summertime, and I right, yeah,
Speaker 1: and so I just remember in Megan Fox and it
Speaker 1: was like ha in these cars and like, yeah, well
Speaker 1: it was a banger because it came out my third
Speaker 1: which is Weekend, and no people liked it. I was
Speaker 1: the only one who didn't like it. And we will
Speaker 1: be able to chronicle, like it's crazy because doing the
Speaker 1: research for this, I chronologically see why I hated it
Speaker 1: so much and we'll get into that. And everything made sense.
Speaker 1: Everything I found out made everything makes so much sense
Speaker 1: to me because it just truly just my wee heart
Speaker 1: was always there. But it's funny because we touched on
Speaker 1: Transformers a little bit on our g R G I
Speaker 1: Joe episode, and well, it's cool about it is the
Speaker 1: reason because we always know that Hasbro and G I
Speaker 1: Joe they've kind of been hand in hand because they
Speaker 1: were under the same brand. But what's crazy is it's
Speaker 1: because they kind of have always been together because in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, the Takara Company Limited launched the Microman
Speaker 1: in Japan and this was the mold that Hasbro license
Speaker 1: to make g I. Joe's. There are these very articulate
Speaker 1: kind of humanoid figures, and eventually they did a spin
Speaker 1: off called diet Clone, which were like Microman, but they
Speaker 1: turned into everyday objects. Oh these are so cool. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, I'm looking it up right now, so
Speaker 1: like to give people a visual. They do kind of
Speaker 1: look like more slender Transformers um with like these chrome
Speaker 1: alien looking heads. As far as Microman, yeah, and actually
Speaker 1: the people who signed the Dia Clone went on to
Speaker 1: be the designers from across the anime that had the
Speaker 1: mix that turned into fighter jets and was super cool.
Speaker 1: And but yeah, it's it's crazy because it goes hand
Speaker 1: in hand. And I want to I'm gonna touch on
Speaker 1: this because a good friend of ours row Com touched
Speaker 1: on He was like, oh man, I want to be
Speaker 1: in the Transformers episode. But we mentioned molds, and molds
Speaker 1: are very very important. I've gotten more into toys, so
Speaker 1: my just to say, wait, I thought you called them
Speaker 1: action figures, Well yeah, they are action figures. But these
Speaker 1: I'm talking about toys, Vinyl toys and they and there's
Speaker 1: a whole huge community about it. And you know how
Speaker 1: they'll sell the blanks of the toys. Some you have
Speaker 1: to be in to paint them. Like no regular Joe
Speaker 1: off the street can really paint the toys and sell
Speaker 1: them because then you'll then the creator of the blank
Speaker 1: will be like, whoa, you're painting over Like I made
Speaker 1: it blank on purpose. And this is all stuff that
Speaker 1: we're going to get into Vinyl way and all that.
Speaker 1: That's when we're bringing you on Rocom, you and Kuang,
Speaker 1: because that's what they do. Rocom just launched a toy
Speaker 1: which he just premiered, the one that I got, the
Speaker 1: one off because I support the Kickstar, support your friends Kickstars.
Speaker 1: But back to the Diacloge. Hasbro bought the molds from
Speaker 1: Takara and then from there they were able to create
Speaker 1: g I Joe. And with the hit, they went and
Speaker 1: grab the diaclones to make the Transformers. And what was
Speaker 1: cool was just like g I Joe, they wanted to
Speaker 1: hire people to make the background stories of these toys.
Speaker 1: And in around that time, Jim Shooter, who was Marvel's
Speaker 1: ninth editor in chief, and that's a whole lot of
Speaker 1: drama which I was reading then I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, we're gonna have to do an episode on this.
Speaker 1: He was a controversial editor in chief because he was
Speaker 1: such a hard ass. That's all. That's the only way
Speaker 1: I know how to say it. He was a hard
Speaker 1: ass and he had like very strict rules, and creators
Speaker 1: felt like he was he was kind of ramp in
Speaker 1: their style. But he wasn't around when they was okay,
Speaker 1: because remember our Image Comics episode when all those artists
Speaker 1: pieced out. Was he after that? He was gone by then,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure so she probably contributed to that feeling
Speaker 1: there because he after that went on to make Valiant
Speaker 1: Comics and then uh And so it was between Jim
Speaker 1: Shooter and Dennis O'Neill who wrote Spider Man and Doctor Strange,
Speaker 1: and they're hired by Hasbro to create like the backstories
Speaker 1: for all the Transformers. As a matter of fact, Dennis
Speaker 1: O'Neill is the one who made the name Optimus Prime.
Speaker 1: That was him, but the rest were by Bob Boudinski,
Speaker 1: who came on board and basically created most of the
Speaker 1: Transformers characters and went on to write the comics for Marvel,
Speaker 1: which was crazy because the first run of Transformers uh
Speaker 1: comics were Marvel Cannon like they went to the strange lands.
Speaker 1: Nick Fury got involved. That was wild. Does that mean
Speaker 1: that they could show up again? I hope? So you know,
Speaker 1: now that everything's all coming together, we got like our
Speaker 1: X Men, Fox and Disney merged like you know, transformed
Speaker 1: Transformers in there the Shark when it's like um because
Speaker 1: you know, like I always say that poster, that Marvel
Speaker 1: poster could not get more packed. They didn't even have
Speaker 1: my man Hawkeye on there because they were like, it's
Speaker 1: which is too much? We can only have the top ted. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no it was. It was great and it was wild,
Speaker 1: and I love that. That is a piece that technically
Speaker 1: the Transformers are Marvel Cannons. Wait before we move on those,
Speaker 1: So did the Transformers you're saying, we're essentially just like
Speaker 1: G I J and teenage Mutant NA Turtles. They brought
Speaker 1: these guys on so that they could create stories, so
Speaker 1: they would sell the toys. Yeah, exactly, just to drive
Speaker 1: home which you saying, Yes, this is another thing that
Speaker 1: people love that was only created to sell toys, which
Speaker 1: but it's cool. What's cool about Transformers is as it grows,
Speaker 1: there is a nice cannon that builds around it. But
Speaker 1: in the end, I think that is important to understand
Speaker 1: that these things that people have ownership and attack other
Speaker 1: people are are these stories that were created. I mean
Speaker 1: it's turned in our exactly, So put put your laser
Speaker 1: gats down and stop attacking people. Just trying to make
Speaker 1: this thing that was once created just to sell toys
Speaker 1: good for another generation. I feel like this is something
Speaker 1: we're gonna touch on a lot, because every day it
Speaker 1: feels like there's another story that's about that. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna jump to the TV series because the TV series
Speaker 1: is also cool. Everything is so cool. We'll get to this.
Speaker 1: But I came in during Beast Wars and I was
Speaker 1: a huge Transformers boy. You'll and we'll get to this.
Speaker 1: And that's why I didn't like the first movie. This
Speaker 1: reignite this. Doing the research for this reignited my all
Speaker 1: spark and I am now about Transformers again. I am
Speaker 1: so back on board. And that's why I like this podcast.
Speaker 1: Is the fun thing about revisiting the things that we
Speaker 1: used to really be into a maybe not so much
Speaker 1: in finding new things like I've been. I've still been
Speaker 1: watching all of Twilight Zone from the first. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been fun just dumping into all these different fun things. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go and watch Trent because I think the
Speaker 1: nice thing about you and I is we complement each other.
Speaker 1: So like whereas Twilight Zone, I'm like, this is my
Speaker 1: bread and butter. I could talk about this all day
Speaker 1: and then you like went and started watching it, and
Speaker 1: so now this is your bread and butter. Like you
Speaker 1: know way more about Transformers than I do, and now
Speaker 1: I can go home and start watching it. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can skip this, you can. You can really jump all
Speaker 1: the way to the I d w com What about
Speaker 1: you don't want me to watch wars Wars. You can
Speaker 1: get in there, but watch like one or two episodes.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it doesn't hold up, is okay? Okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So in September sevente the first episode of Transformers the
Speaker 1: TV series air and it's produced by Sunbo and Marvel Productions.
Speaker 1: I wanted to take a second to look at the
Speaker 1: three top credited writers on IMDb because and by top credit,
Speaker 1: they just have the most episodes under the belt, because
Speaker 1: it's funny when we visit these properties, like when we
Speaker 1: did the Nickelodeon and we found that Neil Brennan was
Speaker 1: all that. These guys ended up doing a lot of
Speaker 1: things we does. So David Wise, who wrote fifteen episodes, Uh,
Speaker 1: he went on to write for Batman, the animated series,
Speaker 1: Wildcats and the Mighty Ducks animated series, which was so dope.
Speaker 1: I feel like it didn't get its Just do they
Speaker 1: gave out the pucks at McDonald's. I wanted. Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: my parents never let me get into roller hockey because
Speaker 1: you know, uh, there's no roller hockey leagues Incompton. Who cares.
Speaker 1: We should have found it. We should have drove to
Speaker 1: the Orange County to get Who wouldn't know. I could
Speaker 1: have been the new Wayne Gretzky or or whoever that
Speaker 1: translates the same but hockey, but you know, kind of uh.
Speaker 1: And then the next up is Donald F. Glutt, who
Speaker 1: he wrote twelve episodes, and he went on to write
Speaker 1: Duck Tails and X Men, and then Booth, who was
Speaker 1: the third but in my heart, he knocked it out
Speaker 1: the park. He went on. Doug Booth went on to
Speaker 1: write Mighty Max which oh man, I got another angry
Speaker 1: at my parents store for that. So when I went
Speaker 1: to remember Mighty Max, you might I'll Mighty Max was
Speaker 1: the boy branded toy for Polly Pockets, so little girls
Speaker 1: and the little boys got Mighty Max. And so I
Speaker 1: had a Mighty Max. Uh. And I brought it to
Speaker 1: my dad at Toys and resumes, like, okay, we will
Speaker 1: get this for you, and he uh and he we
Speaker 1: went to the the cash register. He got all the
Speaker 1: things he got and then I went through the bag
Speaker 1: because I was excited to play with and I couldn't
Speaker 1: find it. And we're walking down. I was like, Dad, Daddy,
Speaker 1: she forgot. She forgot to put in the Mighty Max.
Speaker 1: He was like, oh, it's okay, and it's like so
Speaker 1: he did the Yeah, he did the old parents switchero
Speaker 1: where he took it to the register and this is
Speaker 1: why I have trust issues. But yeah, so Mighty Max
Speaker 1: and then my faith. I think I might have touched
Speaker 1: on this on t m NT. But street Sharks baby,
Speaker 1: he wrote on street Sharks don't at me? Do you
Speaker 1: feel like sharks is why you are into such like
Speaker 1: the weightlifting buff? Oh yeah, life, Oh I definitely buff
Speaker 1: like everything. It's funny because I find like Street Sharks,
Speaker 1: rocket Power and all this stuff is made for California
Speaker 1: little boys, which I was so I was all about like,
Speaker 1: oh they roller blade, don't skateboard. Oh they like burger. Meanwhile, me,
Speaker 1: I'm very like sexually confused because it's like, why does
Speaker 1: the Shark have pets? Like the sharks should not have
Speaker 1: a twelve pack. Danny is very confused. Big shout out
Speaker 1: to Street Sharks because they did have representation because they
Speaker 1: brought in the black character and he was an orca,
Speaker 1: which is the blackest fish. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: they named a movie black Fish about orcas, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I get it, and I'm here for it.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen Street Shark, cause play like I
Speaker 1: need to see that. I'm gonna it. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: if you find it, keep it away from let's do it.
Speaker 1: I want to do. Oh there is Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tweet out this photo once this episode drops. But then
Speaker 1: he also did the Spider Man animated series, which was
Speaker 1: Oh no, I'm sorry, look at this. That's comfortable. It
Speaker 1: is way too sexy. Okay, it should be. It is
Speaker 1: a very sexy ass Shark and oh his navel too. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's move on. And then he also did the nine G. I.
Speaker 1: Joe reboot. But basically, in the TV series, the auto
Speaker 1: Bots are looking for new energy sources and they end
Speaker 1: up crash landing as the Decepticons attacked. And then uh, basically,
Speaker 1: Marvel interpreted the Autobots as destroying a rogue asteroid approaching
Speaker 1: Cybertron and shock Wave loyal to the Megatron and the
Speaker 1: TV series and keeping Cybertron in a stalemate during his absence,
Speaker 1: but in the comic books, he attempts to take command
Speaker 1: of the Decepticons. The TV series would also differ widely. Basically, yeah,
Speaker 1: the TV series was a hit, I mean came out.
Speaker 1: It dropped in September four, and then by August two
Speaker 1: years later, in Transforms, the movie hits theater and it's
Speaker 1: written by Ron Friedman, directed by Nielsen Shin. And yeah,
Speaker 1: this one was wild because we talked about this in G. I. Joe.
Speaker 1: Because this is the reason that they don't kill Duke,
Speaker 1: because Optimist Primes gets bodied in this within like the
Speaker 1: first act. It's not like at the end he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's cool they body him. In the movie just moves
Speaker 1: on without him. But wait, didn't it not do so well?
Speaker 1: Because wasn't that and didn't we say that like that
Speaker 1: affected GI their g I Joe property in the movie? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe so yeah, let me, I'll get the exam.
Speaker 1: Dan our producer is saying, yes, yeah, he had to
Speaker 1: listen to our episode multiple times, and editors all our
Speaker 1: episodes multiple time. Can I just say before we move
Speaker 1: on that I created a chronic illness group. I don't
Speaker 1: know if everyone knows about me, but I have an
Speaker 1: autoimmune disorder, and so we did a walk to raise
Speaker 1: money and we called ourselves the Autoimmune Bots. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that is hilariouson I love it, Little known Fernie back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and just to confirm what you said earlier, you're right.
Speaker 1: The budget was six million and it made five point
Speaker 1: eight million. It didn't even make its money back. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a huge flop. It made kids very sad,
Speaker 1: and uh, I think that's why it pieced out for
Speaker 1: a bit. But the soundtrack was banging. Okay, we got
Speaker 1: my man uh stand Bush coming with You got the touch,
Speaker 1: you got the power. Once you hear it, you'll never
Speaker 1: stop hearing it. And Also they threw weird al Yankovitz
Speaker 1: dare to be Stupid on it, which which I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm down for any soundtrack. So at least
Speaker 1: we got that. But this period that we're talking about
Speaker 1: right now has been coined by fans and creators alike
Speaker 1: as Generation one of the Transformers and Generation two begins
Speaker 1: from til about and it started off the the toys
Speaker 1: during generation to start off as pretty much a reissue
Speaker 1: of the Generation one toys but just with new color schemes.
Speaker 1: But then September happens and Beast Wars premiers. Now little
Speaker 1: known fact this is the Transformers. I knew this was
Speaker 1: my first experience with Transformers were the beast Wars, so
Speaker 1: so I actually started with Beast Wars and had to
Speaker 1: like learn about the Transformers later and figure out what
Speaker 1: they had to do. But the series featured uh, they
Speaker 1: didn't have Auto Autobots and Decepticons. They had the Maximals
Speaker 1: and Predacons. Yeah, descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons. And
Speaker 1: this is this is where the funniness of a story
Speaker 1: created to sell toys versus like you know, comic book
Speaker 1: creators and future creators making legitimate stories and having to
Speaker 1: retcon because it was apparently it was set in the
Speaker 1: future of the original Transformers continuity, but then eventually it
Speaker 1: was revered yield that they had traveled back in time
Speaker 1: before the series began and we're actually on prehistoric Earth
Speaker 1: and that's why they turned in the dinosaurs. I feel
Speaker 1: like that does make sense because the same way Transformers
Speaker 1: came to Earth and picked cars to turn into, the
Speaker 1: Beast Wars did the same with animals, and they were
Speaker 1: all prehistoric. So for it to be set in the
Speaker 1: future would have been weird, or it could have been
Speaker 1: that what was it the time Traveler when the future
Speaker 1: goes so far in the future and then it turns
Speaker 1: prehistoric again. That has stuck with me for my whole life.
Speaker 1: So do you remember what you watched it on? Like?
Speaker 1: That was Fox? Fox Kids? Yeah, and Fox Kids kind
Speaker 1: of had the lock on the Transformers brand for a
Speaker 1: bit because in September eight of two thousand one, the
Speaker 1: Transformers Robots and Disguise launches, which was basically a Transformers anime.
Speaker 1: So this after Beast Wars, Transformers has been anime and
Speaker 1: I think that has been slept on fact by mostly
Speaker 1: me because from so This was a series that was
Speaker 1: produced in Japan and came out and was dubbed out here.
Speaker 1: It started in two thousand one and it ran for
Speaker 1: thirty nine episodes on Fox Kids and outside of the Page.
Speaker 1: Because all during this time, you know, the Transformers comics
Speaker 1: was kind of just stagnant. After kind of living with Marvel.
Speaker 1: In December two thousand one, dream Wave Productions ended up
Speaker 1: acquiring the Transformers licensing and then they created their own universe,
Speaker 1: adapting and borrowed a lot of things and also added
Speaker 1: some stuff, like they had like a whole bit of
Speaker 1: all Transformers not believing in the existence of Primus, which
Speaker 1: was actually on a Transformers Generation one number five original
Speaker 1: sin which was released in May two thousand four. And uh,
Speaker 1: the corruption in Cybertronian government that was first led by
Speaker 1: Megatron to begin the roar was dropped in Transformers Generation
Speaker 1: one number ten, two thousand four. Uh, the Root of
Speaker 1: All Evil. So if you didn't think this podcast was
Speaker 1: nearly enough, now we're quoting actual. This is so weird
Speaker 1: to me because, like I said, I remember it vaguely,
Speaker 1: but I didn't really grow up with it too much.
Speaker 1: And I'm while you were talking, I was looking up,
Speaker 1: like what else was on Fox Kids at that time?
Speaker 1: And it was all things that I watched. It was
Speaker 1: Batman animated series, Bobby's World, which I was addicted to
Speaker 1: in the Cat, goose Bumps, which I read and watched
Speaker 1: um and owned some of the VHS tapes Mighty morphin
Speaker 1: Power Rangers, the tick like where where on Earth is
Speaker 1: Carmen San Diego? Um? And uh I didn't know that
Speaker 1: was different than where um? Anyways, uh so I am
Speaker 1: I'm confused of during that hour that it that it aired.
Speaker 1: My parents like turned off the TV. They're like, go outside,
Speaker 1: go outside. Well, it also had that like weird CG animation.
Speaker 1: You probably were like the animated beast Wars was the
Speaker 1: was CG animated? And I looked at some episodes recently
Speaker 1: and it that CJ doesn't Oh I see what you mean?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah no, I definitely turned this out. It looked okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely this And I did watch reboot. I loved Reboots,
Speaker 1: but see what you mean? Okay, the animation, wow do
Speaker 1: people really enjoy? Yeah? Also, I remember I had the
Speaker 1: Beast Wars toys that would combine into one big Transformers
Speaker 1: and I remember how just kind of like gross in
Speaker 1: macab it would look because it was like this machine
Speaker 1: animal like meshed together to make this mega machine animal.
Speaker 1: And I think he had like a rhino. It was okay. Actually,
Speaker 1: now that I'm looking at some of the characters, I remember, yeah, this,
Speaker 1: but it was like a flash in the pan. Really,
Speaker 1: but this was the start of, like I feel like,
Speaker 1: the basis of, for lack of a better way of
Speaker 1: describing it, and in risk of infuriating some of the
Speaker 1: O G fans, the good A Transformer arcs because dream
Speaker 1: Waves started off and then we had a new show.
Speaker 1: But we'll talk about all that after the break and
Speaker 1: welcome back everyone, all right, just up top. So Danny
Speaker 1: had something important to run off and do, so I
Speaker 1: went to the Dan archives and got another Dan, Dan Goodman,
Speaker 1: who you may not have heard yet. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think you might have said a thing or two my
Speaker 1: voice and you try to keep it very very edited out,
Speaker 1: you know. But he is the editor and producer of
Speaker 1: They're Difficent, and he's popping in for a bit. If
Speaker 1: it was a pleasure to be here, Thank you for
Speaker 1: having me, Thank you for doing it. You know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's good to have someone who can
Speaker 1: step up when I am late yet again pushing into
Speaker 1: people's other schedules, and uh, hey it is It is
Speaker 1: no problem at all. I happened to love Transformers, so
Speaker 1: it's always happy to be in the rule. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you are already, you know, piping in with a few
Speaker 1: hot takes. Yeah. Uh, do you want to give people
Speaker 1: a quick rundown of who you are and what you
Speaker 1: do outside of what I just said? Sure? Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan Dan Goodman. I'm the producer and
Speaker 1: editor of Nerdificence. I also edited a lot of the
Speaker 1: shows on the How Stuff Works Network, so you probably
Speaker 1: heard my handywork on some of the other shows. I'm
Speaker 1: a longtime nerd. My specialties are definitely in the video
Speaker 1: game department. Um. You may call me Mr Steel your aerial.
Speaker 1: If you catch me on the Rocket League fields, I
Speaker 1: will take you down. Um. But than other that, I
Speaker 1: am proud to be part of the network, proud to
Speaker 1: be part of the show, and happy to add my
Speaker 1: own voice on nerdy stuff whenever it is needed. Oh nice, Well,
Speaker 1: we when we left off, we just touched on the
Speaker 1: Robots and Disguise franchise, which was the anime bad classic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was in two thousand one, and dream Way pick
Speaker 1: it up in two thousand one as well. You know,
Speaker 1: real quick, embarrassing story. Just the phrase the first time
Speaker 1: I heard and this is this is this attributes to
Speaker 1: my classic mishearing of lyrics throughout my entire life. But
Speaker 1: when I heard robots in disguise for the first time,
Speaker 1: I thought they were I thought it was robots in
Speaker 1: the skies, like flying robots. I was like, yeah, some
Speaker 1: of them are playing with robots and disguise. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, robots in disguise. That's pretty word word.
Speaker 1: I want to see that transform in disguise. Do you
Speaker 1: remember do you remember that game Crossfire? Oh? Yeah, this
Speaker 1: cross Fire. Yeah. Then the song goes You'll get caught
Speaker 1: up in the Crossfire. Yeah. I thought it was you'll
Speaker 1: get caught up in love because you love the game
Speaker 1: so much, you get caught up in love Crossfire anyway,
Speaker 1: miss hearing lyrics my specialty. Yeah, that's that's fun when
Speaker 1: you find out that you've been hearing it wrong. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a class fun embarrassing, it's a it's a good
Speaker 1: healthy helping of the two. Yes. Oh man, so you
Speaker 1: got the dream Wave up in Canada, their Canadian com publisher,
Speaker 1: making these dope Transformers comics. But then in August two
Speaker 1: Transformers are Mata heirs on Cartoon Networks to Nami. It
Speaker 1: was developed in Japan, but it launched in US first.
Speaker 1: So here's the crazy thing. And once again, because I
Speaker 1: remember watching our Mata and thinking that, oh, it does
Speaker 1: feel like an anime. But when I was watching it
Speaker 1: at the time, you know, we this is the time too,
Speaker 1: when you know anime has officially blown up in the
Speaker 1: US and there is you know a lot of American
Speaker 1: cartoons are taking that style, and so like this was
Speaker 1: an anime but I didn't even realize it because it
Speaker 1: was dubbed. But I mean, the style was there. But
Speaker 1: it goes back to that, you know argument we keep
Speaker 1: talking about, like what makes quote unquote anime a quote
Speaker 1: unquote anime because for all intensive purposes, this what we
Speaker 1: traditionally assumes an anime is what it is produced for,
Speaker 1: you know, to produce using a shared property that exists
Speaker 1: in America. I feel like I'm gonna go back and
Speaker 1: watch it and feel like an idiot. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's going to be very obvious that it's anime, but
Speaker 1: it actually aired in the US before Japan, and that
Speaker 1: was led to a lot of goofiness because they rushed
Speaker 1: the production schedule because they had to dub it because
Speaker 1: they wanted it to air in the US. So this,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, mad silly dubs. You had sure Shock repeatedly
Speaker 1: being called Grinder, hot Shot being called hot Rod, Optimist,
Speaker 1: Mini con Partners, spark Plug being called Leader one. That
Speaker 1: just feels like the dubbing agent just forgot to do
Speaker 1: that one part. He was looking at his whole list
Speaker 1: and he's like, all right, got hot hot Shot whatever,
Speaker 1: close enough, and then we'll stick with Leader one. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what it seems like. I'm like, yeah, Leader one,
Speaker 1: Leader to But yeah. So but the about this series
Speaker 1: in itself, it actually started a new continuity, so we're
Speaker 1: no longer talking about Crowbots and Disguise and Robots and
Speaker 1: Disguise wasn't talking about the Generation one at all, So
Speaker 1: we we created this new continuity. But it doesn't stop
Speaker 1: at this series. The series is actually finally one that
Speaker 1: gets a sequel. In the series, the war rages on
Speaker 1: between Auto Bots in Deocepticons, as in with all Transformer stories,
Speaker 1: as you do, yeah, and they're seeking power over a
Speaker 1: race of smaller power enhancing transformers called mini Cons, seeking
Speaker 1: to flee the conflict that surrounds them. The mini Cons
Speaker 1: escapes Iybertron with the aid of autobots, but an attack
Speaker 1: by the Decepticons crippled the ship as it flees through
Speaker 1: a space bridge. The ship materializes in the Solar System
Speaker 1: and impacts with the Moon on Earth, breaking it into
Speaker 1: or breaking into. One portion of the ship stays embedded
Speaker 1: on the Moon, while the other plummets to the planet
Speaker 1: below and the Mini Cons all locked in the pentagonal
Speaker 1: stasis panels are scattered across the globe. This seems like
Speaker 1: a very common plot device at this time of like
Speaker 1: the thing we need to get has been scattered everywhere
Speaker 1: and we have to find That was the Jackie Chan Adventures.
Speaker 1: That was what else, you know, Yeah, we have to go.
Speaker 1: It's it's like the what ended up being the blueprint
Speaker 1: of design of MMO Quest. You have to go go
Speaker 1: talk to Mr mckinfley, and then after that you're gonna
Speaker 1: talk to you. So that is basically the story of
Speaker 1: this show. We have these Mini Cons and that goes
Speaker 1: until about January two thousand four, when our modest sequel,
Speaker 1: Transformers Inner John premiers. In the series, the Transformers primary
Speaker 1: gimmicks are autoboxibility to combine with partners of the same size,
Speaker 1: accept constability to use powered up form ms, and the
Speaker 1: addition of Inner John weapons and the stars that can
Speaker 1: be placed in any Transformers and Mini Cons from the
Speaker 1: previous line are still present, but all many con pegs
Speaker 1: are dead and they do not activate a function on
Speaker 1: the toy, uh so making those toys obsolete. So we're
Speaker 1: getting timed obsolescence even in toys. At this point, he
Speaker 1: thought it was only Apple, but no, no, Transformers has
Speaker 1: been doing it for years. Yeah. So then ten years
Speaker 1: after the war for Mini Cons and the apparent destruction
Speaker 1: of Unicron and the mysterious Alpha Que which stands for Quintessen,
Speaker 1: operating out of the husk of the planet Eater's body,
Speaker 1: releases energy eating terra Cons to attack the autobot Cybertron
Speaker 1: cities in the Solar System and gathering Inner John for
Speaker 1: Alpha Qu's plan, and it just goes on and on
Speaker 1: and on like that. I like it. I think that
Speaker 1: that you know, what Transformers did so well was really
Speaker 1: try and build out each one of their universe is
Speaker 1: to not simply say, yep, there's robots here, let's do it.
Speaker 1: It's really let's give let's give this a full story,
Speaker 1: even if it changes, even if it adjusts. It's deep
Speaker 1: and I know it's kind of based on the idea
Speaker 1: of how many more toys make, but doing so creates
Speaker 1: so much more depth and potential for lore and fan
Speaker 1: fiction and stuff like that. I think it's ultimately a
Speaker 1: positive move. Oh yeah, no, it was super great. And
Speaker 1: what was cool and when we will eventually get to
Speaker 1: the Michael Bay movies is I actually really enjoyed the
Speaker 1: design of the transformers during Like they were so cool.
Speaker 1: They're like chunky strong. They were basically dope Mex transforming Mex.
Speaker 1: And I was all in on it. I wasn't following
Speaker 1: it religiously. This is two thousand for them in high school.
Speaker 1: Um deep into room escape at this point. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: farming finessing, Yeah, exactly, Yeah. I finessed the members past
Speaker 1: for my dad. Somehow I convinced him I'd still to
Speaker 1: this day, I don't know how I convinced him to
Speaker 1: give me five dollars a month for this member's Uh
Speaker 1: so I wasn't really following it, but I did keep
Speaker 1: up with art around it. At this time, I also
Speaker 1: was a part of a art forum called poly Carbon BBS.
Speaker 1: So it was started by this guy called Pat Shuttlesworth,
Speaker 1: who at the time was this artist who you know,
Speaker 1: worked in the worked in He was a professional artist,
Speaker 1: but he created all these tutorials online and now he's
Speaker 1: actually an art director and a concept artist for the
Speaker 1: game industry, and he's actually worked for some pretty dope
Speaker 1: games at this point. Yeah. I checked in on him
Speaker 1: a few days ago and he he was let's see,
Speaker 1: he did the nine seven three to Blade Runner VR experience.
Speaker 1: He was working on he was working on a Quantum break.
Speaker 1: That was the thing I saw, Quantum Break. So yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's definitely still thriving. But what was dope is
Speaker 1: he made all these to corials on the site Polycarbon
Speaker 1: that kind of showed you how to draw, and then
Speaker 1: on the boards you can kind of communicate with other
Speaker 1: artists and allowed them to kind of critique your work
Speaker 1: so you can get better. It was really cool. One
Speaker 1: it's it was a system that is now obsolete because
Speaker 1: of sites like you know, d a tumbler and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth. But at the time it was
Speaker 1: revolutionary and they had these things, and that's this is
Speaker 1: why I totally signed up. They had fight clubs, and
Speaker 1: what they would do is you and a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of artists would team up, create a premise of your
Speaker 1: story and create characters, and you would draw comics of
Speaker 1: them fighting, and you would make these comments. And this
Speaker 1: was when I was really into artist, just trying to
Speaker 1: be an artist, and I was scanning these pieces up
Speaker 1: and it really did make me a better artist as
Speaker 1: I was making art for this thing, because you're practicing
Speaker 1: and someone might say this one and you were basically
Speaker 1: just r ping and drawing at the same time. It
Speaker 1: was that that sounds amazing. It's you know, I still
Speaker 1: go to the dead forms every now and then to
Speaker 1: see if anyone's still kicking around, and every now and
Speaker 1: then there's still that one, like anyone's still here that
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I still feel about the new Grounds bulletin
Speaker 1: board system. I used to troll those way too much. Man,
Speaker 1: back when the old flash animation days. I'd be like,
Speaker 1: how is this one? Oh that's terrible, Thank you, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you looking at it. Yeah, I had a short
Speaker 1: stint in new Grounds when I got uh, what was it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I think it was just called flash animator or
Speaker 1: something like that. It was. I have no idea. I
Speaker 1: can't remember, but we spent a lot of time looking
Speaker 1: for we both cannot remember. If you remember two thousand
Speaker 1: Escar Early esque Flashmaker programs, please tweet the man that's
Speaker 1: the one I was using. I remember, I trash. I
Speaker 1: made a trailer for this flash animated fight Club sequel
Speaker 1: I was gonna make, and it was very bad, I think,
Speaker 1: like literally, like I tried to. I tried to like
Speaker 1: work around the fact that I was bad at doing
Speaker 1: the art for it, and like there was like it
Speaker 1: was a black screen, then a small red dot and
Speaker 1: then smoke comes up, and then like it was the
Speaker 1: text of like uh and and something that he would
Speaker 1: say like something like that, and then it was like
Speaker 1: this whole like blocky like people fighting, And I remember
Speaker 1: the only comment and I wish I could go back
Speaker 1: and find it because you'll see, you'll see why I
Speaker 1: want to go back and shove it in this person's face.
Speaker 1: It wasn't going anywhere. No, they were like if you
Speaker 1: read the book, you would understand that there can't be
Speaker 1: a sequel to Fight Club. There's nowhere to be a sequel.
Speaker 1: If you know anything. There is a sequel to Fight
Speaker 1: Club that Chuck Plane you wrote himself. Yeah, and it was,
Speaker 1: but they made it a graphic novel and I love that,
Speaker 1: and I want to be like I want to be like,
Speaker 1: remember me from almost a decade ago. You gotta pull
Speaker 1: that back up, dig in, take that screenshot and just
Speaker 1: find him, go to his house and stick. I know that.
Speaker 1: That's the thing is all my like old school accounts
Speaker 1: are gone, like my zanga like they Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: need to see my old space. I don't want to
Speaker 1: get James gunned down. I don't want to see what
Speaker 1: my old Top eight was. Yeah. Oh man, I remember
Speaker 1: I put Tila Tequila in on Top eight. It would
Speaker 1: make her put her there, you go, yeah, no, definitely
Speaker 1: didn't hindsight. Yeah. So after Inner John premieres, uh, there
Speaker 1: is a sequel. But before the sequel, in January two five,
Speaker 1: dream Wave Production went bankrupt. But then in May of
Speaker 1: that same year, I DW picks up the license of
Speaker 1: Transformers and continues to drop dope comics until this day.
Speaker 1: That's that's what I was telling Danny to jump to
Speaker 1: if you want to get into Transformers, if you love
Speaker 1: Transformers and you're like, it might not hold up, or
Speaker 1: I mean, you can always go back and watch Transformers
Speaker 1: the movie. That's just one of those nostalgia things that
Speaker 1: if you don't have a good crested in the time,
Speaker 1: you'll love it. Um maybe not so much to anyone else,
Speaker 1: but the I. D W comics are so solid and
Speaker 1: they're still going on. As a matter of fact, they
Speaker 1: plan on relaunching next year, so you can kind of
Speaker 1: get this first run. It's it's exciting. I also like
Speaker 1: to think that, you know, comic books in general have
Speaker 1: such a better shelf life than TV. Sometimes animation can
Speaker 1: really look stilted and old, and but you know, comics
Speaker 1: still have this preservation of the time. It's almost kind
Speaker 1: of like I make this comparison with hip hop and
Speaker 1: electronic music. Old electronic music sounds bad, but classic hip
Speaker 1: hop is always going to be classic hip hop because
Speaker 1: you connect with it in a different way. Mind, You
Speaker 1: have a time more than you're just being like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this is means those two and I was a kid
Speaker 1: or something like that. Like, comic books are a very
Speaker 1: similar way. Each time you go back to them, you
Speaker 1: have that recurring feeling like I remember exactly where I
Speaker 1: was when I read this for the first time, And
Speaker 1: so it doesn't have as much of that technological barrier
Speaker 1: as going back and watching an old cartoon does in
Speaker 1: my personal opinion. Yeah, no, I think that's super right on.
Speaker 1: So then while this is all happening, I d w
Speaker 1: S building the brand. It's apt or nineteen two thousand five,
Speaker 1: Transformers Inner John launches. Now this is also still part
Speaker 1: of the same kind of universe, except in Japan. In
Speaker 1: Japan it's aired as a separate rebooted Transformers series, but
Speaker 1: in North America, the English deb was presented as a
Speaker 1: sequel to the previous two series, Transformers Armana and Inner John,
Speaker 1: and scenes were added that linked elements of the Armada
Speaker 1: and Inner John stories to the show and using additional
Speaker 1: dialogue and reused animation to link the series together. And
Speaker 1: this is very important because this was is for all
Speaker 1: intents and purposes, my Transformers. Even though I wasn't super
Speaker 1: keeping up with the show like it was on because
Speaker 1: it was popping on like to Nami and stuff like
Speaker 1: I would, I would check it out but it wasn't
Speaker 1: something I was religiously keeping up with. But I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the Transformers, this is this is good. I
Speaker 1: like it. It's great, super good. And and then in
Speaker 1: July three of two thousand seven, Michael Bay premiered the
Speaker 1: Transformers movie. But we'll get into that after this prank,
Speaker 1: and we're back to talk about Transformers, but more specifically
Speaker 1: the Michael Bay Transformers. Now, I will say a k
Speaker 1: a lens flare of the movie. I will say there
Speaker 1: are people who thoroughly enjoy this. Danny herself said she
Speaker 1: enjoyed this. I don't knock anyone who enjoyed this, but
Speaker 1: I'm so glad it shook out the way it did.
Speaker 1: One I found out the reason I loved the Armada trilogy,
Speaker 1: all of those was because it was anime. I was
Speaker 1: a weep. I loved it. I love the design of it.
Speaker 1: Now this is what we're coming off of. So I
Speaker 1: hear there's a Transformers movie being made. That's what I
Speaker 1: had in my head. I was super duper excited. It
Speaker 1: had always been an animated series, so it kind of
Speaker 1: builds the expectation when I saw this realistic version of
Speaker 1: Transformers that Michael Bay was trying to present. I was
Speaker 1: not having it. Also, this is two thousand seven. If
Speaker 1: this is a nineteen year old, we be freshman in college,
Speaker 1: freshman and community college, super opinionated, super nerdy, deep in
Speaker 1: your thoughts, deep in my thoughts, child of the Internet,
Speaker 1: point still on four chance, oh heavy sifting through b
Speaker 1: all the racism for the memes. Memes weren't even mainstream yet.
Speaker 1: It started off as making fun of myself to sounding
Speaker 1: like a super weird hipster Internet. Hey, we're all going
Speaker 1: to look back on these times. We're gonna be like,
Speaker 1: what was it like? Let me tell you what? Boy Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I took it as a personal slight
Speaker 1: like every in every way that those like Star Wars
Speaker 1: fan boys have been taking offense to to the new
Speaker 1: Star Wars, like this was me for Transformers. And remember
Speaker 1: I wasn't even that into Like, I wasn't following this religiously.
Speaker 1: This wasn't my jam. I DW comics were out, I
Speaker 1: wasn't even reading those. I just knew it as something
Speaker 1: that I grew up with. It was a thing I liked,
Speaker 1: and now this person is going to try and make
Speaker 1: it and I think That's why, in a weird way,
Speaker 1: I understand exactly how wrong a lot of these like
Speaker 1: Star Wars fanboys are where it's like, you know, but
Speaker 1: I was mad. I still to this day, I haven't
Speaker 1: seen the Transformers movie at all. At all. I still
Speaker 1: to this day I told myself, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: see it. I'm not going to see and then it
Speaker 1: just got to the point where I just didn't care
Speaker 1: to see, you know, And I've only saw and I
Speaker 1: only saw the only Transformers movie I saw was I
Speaker 1: forgot what movie I was watching. But my sister wanted
Speaker 1: to go see this Transformers sequel, which came out in
Speaker 1: January nine. We'll go deeper into sequels, but then we're
Speaker 1: talking about that was prob. Oh yeah, this is still
Speaker 1: Shylo buff and he uh. And my sister was watching
Speaker 1: it and my movie got done, So I went to
Speaker 1: pop in two guess watch the tail end of this
Speaker 1: movie to wait for my sister, being a good brother,
Speaker 1: thinking Okay, I've hated Transformers, It's probably not as bad
Speaker 1: as I'm making out it out to be. I walk in.
Speaker 1: The first thing I see are the two black robots.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows who I'm talking about. When I say the
Speaker 1: two Black Robots, because they're the two Black Robots. They
Speaker 1: are the jar Jar Binks of the Transporter series. And
Speaker 1: I was like, I made the right decision. He's not
Speaker 1: investing in this, in this, in this franchise. That had
Speaker 1: to be one of the worst decisions that they made
Speaker 1: for the man. Oh my gosh. That I just remember
Speaker 1: being like, wow, this is exactly as bad as I
Speaker 1: remember it. But a lot of times, you know, I
Speaker 1: often catch myself being like, how do these keep getting made?
Speaker 1: How do these keep getting made? But they keep getting
Speaker 1: made because they are widely successful. I mean the the
Speaker 1: franchise as a whole. As a whole, the budget has
Speaker 1: been nine hundred and seventy two million, which sounds like
Speaker 1: a lot, but the budget as a whole has also
Speaker 1: made four point thirty eight billion dollars billion, not millions,
Speaker 1: billion dollars. So we got the first Transformers, which you
Speaker 1: had a budget of one hundred and fifty million, and
Speaker 1: they made seven hundred nine point seven million. Then we
Speaker 1: had the sequel, which had the budget of two hundred million,
Speaker 1: only to make eight hundred and sixty three point three million.
Speaker 1: The sequel made almost as much as the whole series
Speaker 1: has cost I almost think that, you know, these movies
Speaker 1: kind of defined a particular genre film where it was
Speaker 1: like robot action. Oh yeah, here's the thing. I'm all
Speaker 1: about it because I'm a huge Pacific rim fan boy.
Speaker 1: I was just about to bring that up. Love robots
Speaker 1: fighting monsters for intensive, like everything, I'm with it. I
Speaker 1: Transformers was made for me. I'm a guy who would
Speaker 1: have watched it if I wasn't you know that edge
Speaker 1: Lord in two thousand seven, I'd be on this podcast
Speaker 1: talked about its praises because let me tell you, if
Speaker 1: you've ever been in Universal Studios, they have a Transformers ride,
Speaker 1: which I initially avoided, of course, because even though this
Speaker 1: is a new positive everything, love everything, if he keep
Speaker 1: down inside that edge Lord is still tugging on some strings,
Speaker 1: don't do it. You don't believe in this. But when
Speaker 1: I went on that ride, I sat in. I believed
Speaker 1: in Transformers, the Michael Bay series. When I was rolling
Speaker 1: through that four D experience, watching Bumblebeet and Megatron fight
Speaker 1: in front of my call, I felt the heat of
Speaker 1: the flames, felt the sparks, the crunch, the turns, high adrenaline.
Speaker 1: I believe it, and every time I go to Universal Studios,
Speaker 1: I get on that right because it's fun. It's amazing,
Speaker 1: it's fun. It's too fun. It's too fun. I needed
Speaker 1: to take a seat after the first one because my
Speaker 1: my heart was racing, pumping. I feel that, and it's
Speaker 1: I can't deny I like robots fighting, and I should
Speaker 1: like the series. I may go back and watch the
Speaker 1: original one. Who knows, maybe maybe that's how I'll close
Speaker 1: the chapter on that part of my life is watching Transformers.
Speaker 1: I think that there's definitely a certain value to the movie,
Speaker 1: specifically in what you mentioned, in what you experienced in
Speaker 1: the ride, in putting all of that stuff in an
Speaker 1: actually physical space. I think, aside from issues with the movie,
Speaker 1: like Shyla buff in general being kind of a goofball,
Speaker 1: maybe making Fox's performance where you know, not the best.
Speaker 1: Maybe some of the storylines about the robots themselves were
Speaker 1: kind of like, is this really where we're going with
Speaker 1: these guys right now? Also making the robots bleed, there's
Speaker 1: all these little like aesthetic choices where it was like,
Speaker 1: I get that he's in pain. You don't have to
Speaker 1: create big robot blood for me to get that bubble
Speaker 1: he's not feeling it right now, but I think for
Speaker 1: that entertainment purpose they succeed. Well, that's what's funny is
Speaker 1: I feel like right now superheroes are filling that void.
Speaker 1: And but there was a time where a movie didn't
Speaker 1: have to be the perfect story, didn't have to have
Speaker 1: agree with that. It just needed to have the heart
Speaker 1: and the energy, the adrenaline. It was like that. That
Speaker 1: was what a blockbuster movie was. It wasn't necessarily the
Speaker 1: best movie, but you had fun while watching it. An
Speaker 1: exciting thing happened. And now, and I don't think it's
Speaker 1: necessarily a good or bad thing. We're having that blockbuster
Speaker 1: experience kind of supplemented with good stories based on these
Speaker 1: superhero lores that have existed and been refined for decades.
Speaker 1: At this point that this that might be a thing
Speaker 1: that's gone. I felt like there was a when the
Speaker 1: first specific Rim came out. Everyone there were people who
Speaker 1: hated it, but for the most part, a lot of
Speaker 1: people were like, nah, it was robots fighting monsters. That's
Speaker 1: what we wanted. Was great. And then between that, a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of Marvel movies came out doing exactly what
Speaker 1: I just talked about. Then we do the second Pacific
Speaker 1: Rim and everyone's like, the story could be better, And
Speaker 1: that's like a valid critique. Like by valid critique, I
Speaker 1: mean a critique that I understood and wasn't really able
Speaker 1: to argue against. Whereas when people hit me without a
Speaker 1: critique with Pacific Rim, my response was, what did you expect?
Speaker 1: It was to me the movie promised gave me everything
Speaker 1: that it promised, and it promised robots fighting monsters, and
Speaker 1: you know what, I got a boat being used as
Speaker 1: a bat. I got a surprise sword. Yes, you surprise sword. Baby,
Speaker 1: let's go now. I gotta say when I walked out
Speaker 1: of Pacific Room for the first time, truthfully, that was
Speaker 1: my only complaint in the whole movie that I was like,
Speaker 1: time out, You're gonna save the sword for just the
Speaker 1: last fight. Like I get it. I it's a's a
Speaker 1: plot device. Maybe they just installed it and it was
Speaker 1: a new Yeager kind of thing, but like you could
Speaker 1: have been sliced people up with that sword from day one.
Speaker 1: That every anime we've seen ever has prepared us for
Speaker 1: that moment, because that could be the thing that about
Speaker 1: every anime like Goku, why didn't you try and go
Speaker 1: super instinct when you were fighting like vegeta or something
Speaker 1: you had to you couldn't use the spirit bobbab like
Speaker 1: three other fings exactly exactly now, I'm I'm definitely I'm
Speaker 1: I'm with you in that department. Um, But you know,
Speaker 1: I think you're very right and that the Marvel movies
Speaker 1: kind of took the place of the Spectacle movie and
Speaker 1: that we definitely have this kind of expectation of these movies.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting to me how certain movies kind of
Speaker 1: skirt that. I know we're not talking about movies like
Speaker 1: Fast and Furious right now, but I think they do
Speaker 1: something very well and that they almost throw it in
Speaker 1: your face how unrealistic that is. They're constantly doing stuff
Speaker 1: where it's like, hey, look, we're very purposefully avoiding reality
Speaker 1: right now, and it does it to an extent that
Speaker 1: it almost makes it more enjoyable, because it's like, this
Speaker 1: movie is extra silly. I unronically loved the Fast and
Speaker 1: Furious franchise with you and it, and as the series evolved,
Speaker 1: I evolved with it. Originally, this this same wee be
Speaker 1: iffy that we were talking about in these early odds
Speaker 1: was also because, of course I was a weep. Of
Speaker 1: course I liked the initial D, so of course I
Speaker 1: wanted I was really in it. I was in there.
Speaker 1: There was these model cars called Modifiers. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember them. They were made by the same
Speaker 1: company that made tech Deck, and what it was it
Speaker 1: was it would be as a stock car and then
Speaker 1: it would give you aftermarket parts where you can who
Speaker 1: in the car. You can add a body kit, you
Speaker 1: can add um a cold air intake. And I was
Speaker 1: deep into that. I was so deep into that. I
Speaker 1: was in the Modifiers. Back to forums. I was in
Speaker 1: the forums, and I had a real popular thing, and
Speaker 1: I wish I could. I don't have any record of it,
Speaker 1: and it's the one thing I regret. I created a
Speaker 1: magazine specifically for this form called mod mag that was
Speaker 1: like an import tuner for these model cars, and then
Speaker 1: I interviewed people on the on the forum boards. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was so cool. I just wish I could
Speaker 1: go back and see and I could like it's stuff
Speaker 1: like that, that's like, oh, that's why I'm a TV
Speaker 1: writer now, but like it's just so so cool. But
Speaker 1: like taking that person trying to pull in that tangent
Speaker 1: abile the initial Fast and Furious, which was about you know,
Speaker 1: racing tuner cars. I'm in and then as I grow
Speaker 1: and become a mega nerd and like robots fighting and
Speaker 1: big action in movies, and it turns into like this
Speaker 1: huge heist movie. I mean once the Rock got involved
Speaker 1: that that whole series turned around. Like I know Tyres
Speaker 1: was beef and with the Rock, but it's like, no,
Speaker 1: you gotta I'm sorry, you all got to take an
Speaker 1: ail on that. The Rock did save this series and
Speaker 1: make it something so amazing. It really kind of gave
Speaker 1: the series a new life, and it gave it new direction,
Speaker 1: and it gave it a voice, like we know what
Speaker 1: it's what it is, and I can't wait for the
Speaker 1: spinoff and what they do next. Speaking of movies, the
Speaker 1: third one Transformers Dark of the Move. So this is
Speaker 1: where Transformers gets kind of confusing, because I remember when
Speaker 1: Dark of the Moon came out and to me, I
Speaker 1: thought it kind of came and went. I thought no
Speaker 1: one cared about it. I mean, this is where things
Speaker 1: get kind of funny and where we start to answer
Speaker 1: that question like why do they keep making Transformers in
Speaker 1: this but like because it's unstoppable, Because when Rotten Tomatoes
Speaker 1: has thirty five percent so UM two hundred forty six
Speaker 1: surveyed critics gave a positive review, the average rating being
Speaker 1: four point nine out of ten. The site's critical consensus reads,
Speaker 1: it's special effects and three D shots are undeniably impressive,
Speaker 1: but they aren't enough to fill up a loud, bloating run,
Speaker 1: bloated running time, or mask it's thin in different script.
Speaker 1: So I remember that, I remember the bad reviews. I
Speaker 1: remember it feeling like it came and went. What I
Speaker 1: don't remember is the fact that it costs one million
Speaker 1: to make but made one point one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: four billion dollars. I've missed. I thought you said a
Speaker 1: hundred four billion dollars. Why hasn't it broke records? Yeah?
Speaker 1: One point one to four and that's worldwide grows. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, so that's the thing. And so this is
Speaker 1: June twenty nine, two thousand and eleven, and we're like,
Speaker 1: what is going on? But it's like, yeah, it's making
Speaker 1: the money. And then we get number four, Age of Extinction,
Speaker 1: which which that one ended up bringing in. It costs
Speaker 1: uh two hundred ten million, and it brought in another
Speaker 1: one point one hundred and four billion. That's two movies
Speaker 1: in a row that has brought in a billion dollars
Speaker 1: and that is the only and this is the market
Speaker 1: mark era. And yeah, that's why they keep making it.
Speaker 1: I guess I can't argue that. I knowing that, I
Speaker 1: can't argue it. It's like, keep making it. Now. The
Speaker 1: reception is it was the pretty much same thing, Like
Speaker 1: it had an eight Rotten Tomato score, which is based
Speaker 1: on a hundred nine seven reviews in an average rate
Speaker 1: of three point nine out of ten. But the billions
Speaker 1: don't lie, you know, you can you can cry yourself
Speaker 1: to the bank. Yeah, I mean I also think that,
Speaker 1: you know, what we find is that a lot of
Speaker 1: these numbers are kind of they come from overseas numbers.
Speaker 1: We're obviously seeing a lot of theater participation in the States,
Speaker 1: but a lot of overseas numbers just bump everything up
Speaker 1: because I think the rest of the world kind of
Speaker 1: gets it when they're like this is Look, I'm not
Speaker 1: coming to this movie for these oscar winning you know,
Speaker 1: performances are writing or something. I'm coming here to be entertained. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, exing out the world. I'm eating my
Speaker 1: popcorn and I'm watching a movie. And I think that's
Speaker 1: why some of these movies succeed and so in such
Speaker 1: grandiose fashion around the world is because they are super
Speaker 1: well done spectacles that a lot of people who just
Speaker 1: want to go have a spectacle or like this is perfect,
Speaker 1: don't change. That's so true because that's the one reason
Speaker 1: that Pacific Room was successful. It flopped in the US, obviously,
Speaker 1: But you're right, because even if you can't speak English,
Speaker 1: you can understand robots beating the crap. Most certainly can.
Speaker 1: And so I think that is great. Like if you're watching,
Speaker 1: if you don't have too much of a hold on
Speaker 1: English and you're watching, like inside Leewin Davis, that's I
Speaker 1: can't think of a worst You're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to understand the nuances of, you know, trying to grow
Speaker 1: up gay. Oh my gosh, yeah yeah that that that yeah, that,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's so this that last one that
Speaker 1: came and went with the Last Night, that one, like,
Speaker 1: you know, like I saw ads for it within a
Speaker 1: week of it releasing and then they disappeared, you know.
Speaker 1: Unsurprisingly has the worst Rotten Tomato review and has made
Speaker 1: the least out of all of the Transformers movie. So yeah,
Speaker 1: this technically is the first L but that L being
Speaker 1: a two hundred and sixty million budget and a sixty
Speaker 1: four hundred million box office, So that's still a that
Speaker 1: that is still a success by any meeting. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: still that's still a lot of money right there. I mean,
Speaker 1: it also might explain why Michael Bay was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, let's take our foot off the series, because
Speaker 1: like that they was just starting to hit hit that
Speaker 1: plateau and then I was just starting to creep over
Speaker 1: the edge. And instead of you know, pulling a Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan and taking one more season with the Wizards, they
Speaker 1: were like, I'm gonna take the win because you end
Speaker 1: on a win. I mean, this is the worst. They're
Speaker 1: still winning four dollars old. It's a huge win. That's
Speaker 1: why it's so funny because it's like, yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: what follion dollars, Like, yeah, but the last two made
Speaker 1: a billion, so that's so when you could bear. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things that might have screwed this
Speaker 1: is the fact that the advertisement wasn't there. I didn't
Speaker 1: see any advertising for the last night. Like when I
Speaker 1: saw it, I was like, Oh, there's gonna be another Transformers.
Speaker 1: Oh man and and but you know, you're right, Michael
Speaker 1: Bay did pull the foot off the gas because the
Speaker 1: Bumblebee uh spinoff slash is going to be by some
Speaker 1: Bumblebee I don't necessarily get because bumble Be just just
Speaker 1: because you've seen most of them. Yep, you've seen the
Speaker 1: first one, which is the most important from my experience,
Speaker 1: bumblebee first interaction. What's a human is Shyla buff Yeah,
Speaker 1: so but this seems like Bumblebee's first interaction with human.
Speaker 1: They're they're re upping the story. And it's the funny
Speaker 1: thing is usually re up a story like that when
Speaker 1: you want to retell a character arc. It's like how
Speaker 1: many times have we seen Peter Parker get raised and
Speaker 1: you know, talked about at May And then the same
Speaker 1: thing with Batman. It's like the story of Batman has
Speaker 1: been told so many times because it is compelling, and
Speaker 1: Bumblebee doesn't really have a compelling birth story. He wasn't
Speaker 1: there wasn't like some you know, Megatron betrayal or anything
Speaker 1: like that. You know, not to disrespect the other Transformers.
Speaker 1: But he's a robot, and he was introduced to us
Speaker 1: by being like, hey, that cars a robot, and that
Speaker 1: was pretty much shit. That was pretty much our backstory
Speaker 1: with him. So whenever they tried to fabricate or right
Speaker 1: as it were, is going to be a kind of
Speaker 1: like addition and kind of you know, trying to add
Speaker 1: some sort of sympathetic backstory to a character that is
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, for the entertainment. Also, I'm guessing it's
Speaker 1: going to end with him having his memory wiped. Since
Speaker 1: we never hear about any of these, some sort of
Speaker 1: horrible thing will happen. I'm sure. Yeah, it's it's wild,
Speaker 1: and that is a good point where it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: some stories can be told over and over, some don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have to, which is why I'm super excited that
Speaker 1: Homecoming just started. I was that was the biggest professionair Fair,
Speaker 1: huge Homecoming fan. Yeah, I loved it, And that's what
Speaker 1: That's what I want for the next Superman, the next Batman. Like,
Speaker 1: let's just start. Everyone knows what how they got their powers,
Speaker 1: they know, let's just start it. No need to rehash
Speaker 1: the same origin story. Goodness, gracious, it's almost more fun
Speaker 1: when you know, you kind of have to figure out
Speaker 1: what's going on and you're like, oh, wait, we're in it.
Speaker 1: That is Spider Man. Oh this is oh oh. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like um with Logan. How it starts and
Speaker 1: he's a drunk, passed out limo driver in the back
Speaker 1: of the truck and they're messing up this thing and
Speaker 1: he's like all right, fine. Then he bust out the
Speaker 1: spikes and you're like, oh, it's really oh okay, here
Speaker 1: we are. And I think if you want to add
Speaker 1: something organic and real, it's got to be like that.
Speaker 1: You have to pay, you have to you know, base
Speaker 1: it on real human emotion and struggle and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And I just don't I don't see Bumblebee having that
Speaker 1: kind of you know that that that strife as it were.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately quite Yeah, but that's that's the next step on
Speaker 1: the series is But you know the best part of
Speaker 1: all this is you do get that I DW series
Speaker 1: that's still going, and it's it's still there. It's like
Speaker 1: they I had so many friends gush about the Transformers
Speaker 1: I d W series that I'm probably going to pick
Speaker 1: up a few trades. It's a bi weekly schedule. It's
Speaker 1: been going on since October two tho five and has
Speaker 1: been going till this day, and it seems like they're
Speaker 1: going to wrap up this current story and relaunch. So
Speaker 1: hearing this podcast is a nice alarm that you can
Speaker 1: because whenever someone asked me when they should get into
Speaker 1: comics or when they should do I always say start
Speaker 1: after a crossover event because usually they all the stories
Speaker 1: kind of reboot. Um, that's the and And if I
Speaker 1: haven't said that on that pot on the pot yet,
Speaker 1: that is the best time to start any if you
Speaker 1: want to get into Marvel, if you want to get
Speaker 1: into d C, wait for a crossover event. If you
Speaker 1: want to know what a crossover event is, I think
Speaker 1: the easiest way to describe it to someone who doesn't
Speaker 1: read comics regularly is walk into the store. Look at
Speaker 1: all of the titles. Do they have a subtitle on it?
Speaker 1: Is it like Batman Darkest Night, Superman Darkest Night? Uh?
Speaker 1: Then you'll see a comic called Darkest Night. Then that
Speaker 1: probably means that they're having a Darkest Night crossover. And
Speaker 1: you can even talk to the front desk person and
Speaker 1: what's usually good too is usually on the during the
Speaker 1: crossover events, they'll have the amount of comics that the
Speaker 1: crossover events will be. I'd say maybe even jump in
Speaker 1: during the crossover event, you know, check out what's going on. Also,
Speaker 1: that's gonna help you because they're probably gonna refer to
Speaker 1: the crossover event through the whole thing. And the reason
Speaker 1: it's called a crossover event is because normally most comics
Speaker 1: stay in their own lane, and during a crossover event,
Speaker 1: you'll have heroes being in other comics and the events
Speaker 1: of the crossover events leaking over into other comics. Like
Speaker 1: Fear Itself. You know happened during the what was it
Speaker 1: called the Most Dangerous Man Alive, which was when Black
Speaker 1: Panther to Challa lost his Black Panther powers and what
Speaker 1: was watching Overhel's kitchen right after the shadow Land event,
Speaker 1: and uh, Daredevil kind of took a hike to go
Speaker 1: find himself, and so you had to Challa watching over
Speaker 1: New York and doing street level crimes when Challa is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the world stage, it's really I have them all I
Speaker 1: can let you. It was great. The Fear Itself crossover
Speaker 1: I wasn't the happiest about because they put them up
Speaker 1: against Hate Monger, who is literally just a dude who
Speaker 1: is in a pink KKK outfit with an H on
Speaker 1: his head. It was, it was, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was kind of whack. But in the end, like
Speaker 1: I kind of grown to love this series because it
Speaker 1: was showed to Challa in a new light and up
Speaker 1: against the new situations, kind of kind of you know,
Speaker 1: pressing him in the way of like, Okay, I am
Speaker 1: used to handling things on things on a grand stage.
Speaker 1: I'm used to being, you know, a high status individual,
Speaker 1: and now he's kind of a low status as working
Speaker 1: for a convenience store in uh in New York, as
Speaker 1: a black person. It's it's very fun. It's it was
Speaker 1: a fun run and it was short, and then after
Speaker 1: that Black Panthers ceased to exist for a bit, but
Speaker 1: then then it came back and now it's going strong
Speaker 1: there because because that was the last Black Panther book
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, before the Tennahsee Coats Run. But
Speaker 1: I think the Tennahasey Coats Run kind of just starts
Speaker 1: its own kind of. I mean, it's still within the world,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really reference anything that happens there, so
Speaker 1: you don't have to read it. If you want to
Speaker 1: go read the Tenahasey Coats run, which is also amazing.
Speaker 1: But what I'm trying to say, so you're trying to
Speaker 1: get into the I DW Transformers, you can hop on
Speaker 1: the train very soon they reboot it, or you can
Speaker 1: just wrap up everything that has happened since October two
Speaker 1: thousand five in trades. Very daunting, I will say, but
Speaker 1: you but if I remember correctly from the image Commis episode,
Speaker 1: trades are the best way to fully dive into a
Speaker 1: oh yes, because it just technically a bit cheaper and
Speaker 1: it gets a lot of the like, especially when you
Speaker 1: have to go through a lot of comics, like I'm
Speaker 1: it's like four or five than one book, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was behind on That's how I got caught
Speaker 1: up on Walking Dead. I'm behind again. But I bought
Speaker 1: the compendium, which was a hundred issues and one thick book,
Speaker 1: and I burned through that, And so I caught up
Speaker 1: a hundred issues and was able to catch up to
Speaker 1: the issue at the time, which was um which was
Speaker 1: a major character being killed off. And I was able
Speaker 1: to not to feel it just the same because I
Speaker 1: just didn't jump that burned into it. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like that's all the Transformers will talk about. Transformers
Speaker 1: is going to be around forever. I feel like, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad we got to cap off the holy Trinity
Speaker 1: of like those three main properties that were created to
Speaker 1: sell toys but now are just main stays and have
Speaker 1: their own strong lore. You have Ninja, Turtle, g I Joe,
Speaker 1: and Transformers the Toy the toys series series. Yeah, someone's
Speaker 1: gonna hit me up with this some some extra toy
Speaker 1: I mean, there's definitely some other toy stuff we need
Speaker 1: to hit on the belief, but we'll get to that.
Speaker 1: But these, I feel like, are like the holy Trinity
Speaker 1: of toy series. Absolutely. I feel that Do you have
Speaker 1: anything you want to plug? Dan? You know? Goodness? Well, um,
Speaker 1: first I will plug for our awesome co host, Miss
Speaker 1: Danny Fernandez. You can find her on all the socials
Speaker 1: at Miss Danny Fernandez. That's M S D A and
Speaker 1: I F E R and A N D Easy, Miss
Speaker 1: Danny Fernandez. Check around. Um. You can find me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at DJ Underscore Daniel if you want to hear
Speaker 1: my random video game hot takes or if you want
Speaker 1: to hear about me occasionally stepping back into the world
Speaker 1: of electronic music. I get all my hot takes off there.
Speaker 1: But other than that, that's that's mostly what I do.
Speaker 1: Listen to all the podcasts. Listen to the Zeit guys,
Speaker 1: Listen to Nertificent Couples therapies popping off right now. Culture
Speaker 1: Kings is amazing, Listen to the Bechdel Cast. Listen everything
Speaker 1: wasn't a nertificent she I mean, you're already doing that,
Speaker 1: so congratulations. Uh yeah, And I'm iffew waddyway on all
Speaker 1: the platforms, Twitter, Instagram, Come check your boy out if
Speaker 1: he's on Twitch. Lots of lots of NERD fam coming through.
Speaker 1: Even even Dan has popped in on a few streams
Speaker 1: and he's hanging out on the discord. We do have
Speaker 1: a discord. I've mentioned it. I'll have to pin it
Speaker 1: sooner or later. But if if you can't find the
Speaker 1: tweet where I mentioned the discord, hit your boy up
Speaker 1: or stopping on my stream and then I'll blast the
Speaker 1: discord out. We're having lots of nerd difficent discussions. We
Speaker 1: have fluf in. They're dropping many many many many many
Speaker 1: uh mini memes. Wish depth on me? Um who knew
Speaker 1: we done with AFT? I know I want to do so.
Speaker 1: A while ago, I was like, any of the nerd
Speaker 1: fam that comes through and smashes that sub button, I'll
Speaker 1: shout you out. That has been true. The real the
Speaker 1: thing that has happened is I I've forgotten to write
Speaker 1: your names down, and so I don't necessarily have you know,
Speaker 1: the people who have necessarily said nerd nerd fan. So
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do is, I'm just going to read
Speaker 1: all of my subs. I love it. Do you have
Speaker 1: them up right now? Time? Oh? Yeah, make one announcement
Speaker 1: while I get up. So as well, if you want
Speaker 1: to read the references from today's episode, if you want
Speaker 1: to learn a little bit more about what we're talking about,
Speaker 1: we have all of links to everything that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: the footnotes, if you will. If I had miles here,
Speaker 1: we have all of our information in the footnotes of
Speaker 1: this episode, in the description of the episode itself. So
Speaker 1: when you open up iTunes or whatever you're listening on
Speaker 1: in the show description will be the footnotes. So look
Speaker 1: there for the links and everything else if you want
Speaker 1: to check all our information and whatnot. All right, so
Speaker 1: here comes some subs. I'm just gonna read you all
Speaker 1: off and you know, I'm sure I'm gonna get some
Speaker 1: of them NERD fans. Thank you and keep this up
Speaker 1: is going. Here's just shouts Outlondel been left, Hannah beat
Speaker 1: Uh Hannah Bataki Uh. I want to say Yama, but
Speaker 1: it's it's might be Lama, Armata, Kappa, Drudge, Dappy, Rereen,
Speaker 1: Mr Addict, Skeet Sauce, Botomic bomb every Day Michelle can
Speaker 1: is it Nicol? Yeah, it's Nicole. We talked about it
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Speaker 1: gets shouting you out? Uh, DJ Mikey Malone Isisen first Pod, Diablo,
Speaker 1: Rodney Ogg, Transparent, Riley, Liam Max, Mary your friend, Kusia,
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Speaker 1: you so much for those subs. You've got a lot
Speaker 1: of subs. Yeah, they're keeping me alive. They're keeping me
Speaker 1: streaming and showing the love through multiple platforms. So I
Speaker 1: gotta thank you so much. Quick shout out to Zack
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Speaker 1: But all good things must come in and that includes
Speaker 1: this podcast, so stay neardy,