Transcript
Speaker: Casual Nerdity is a podcast celebrating and discussing the pop culture that we love. Movies, TVs, comics, books, games, you name it. Ari missed to talk about the good, what worked, and yeah, sometimes what didn't.
Speaker: All with an eye towards building up, not tearing down. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker: Welcome back to the Casual Nerdy Podcast, everybody. I hope that you are doing well. This is your friendly host, Daryl, and with me i have... I'm Nick. you're not you' You're not a friendly host like me? Are you an unfriendly host, Nick?
Speaker: i You should realize i'm actually a Decepticon. That's true. And today we are going to be more nerdy than than meets the eye, which is pretty damn nerdy.
Speaker: um Now, I believe last episode we teased that we would be back to our normal Clone Watch, but Lauren's computer is in the computer hospital. Yeah, it's... fit His computer is actually, that her computer is actually Soundwave. Yeah, probably.
Speaker: Probably. So, and and this happened, like, last minute, so it's just you and you and me this time. And we have decided to take a look at a Gen X touchstone.
Speaker: We are looking at ah Transformers the Movie. From 1986. We figured it was appropriate. It's the 40th anniversary. It's back doing a limited run in theaters because of that. And going hand in hand with our last episode, it's kind of remembering the now sadly departed Peter Cullen.
Speaker: There was a marketing campaign about they were running pretty heavily beforehand. God, we're sorry for scarring your childhood. And now it now your adulthood is scarred, coinciding with the timing of this re-release.
Speaker: But they did readjust the marketing in honor of Peter Cullen. Yep. Now it was it was a quick turnaround because again, this is rather recent, but I do appreciate the fact that they even took the time to be like, no, it was tongue in cheek before, but now it's for real. Now, Nick, that This may surprise you to learn that while I have seen the entirety of this, I have seen this movie in bits and pieces in its entirety over the years. I think mostly when they cut it into three episodes of the series.
Speaker: But four hours ago was the first time that I sat down and watched the movie from start to finish. Really?
Speaker: Ever. Like, ah like im ever. well So, i'm here's the thing. I played it here. at We usually have... we We've run Transformers 1.
Speaker: At your house. Oh, you're right, yes. um But here here's here's kind of the thing. Here's kind of why. When this came out in 1986, I was be 16, and...
Speaker: freshly sixteen or about to be sixteen and So i I only had a short time with the Transformers. I had a little longer with G.I. i Joe. I was more a G.I. Joe.
Speaker: While I liked the Transformers, I was not as invested in the Transformers. That's fair. yeah that but it It was cool. It was cool. I enjoyed it.
Speaker: I you know made a point of watching it when I got home from school because it was a block of G.I. i Joe and then Transformers. But by the time this movie rolled around, I was starting to age out. That's That's fair that And that's kind of the reason the movie... The movie is a unique piece of media because it was a literal choice in the in the marketing department to retire certain figures.
Speaker: Well, yeah, they they were refreshing the toy line. They were retiring... most of the original line of figures. there There had been two or three waves in there, you know, releasing new toys, but the original line, they decided, okay, that's kind of tired. We're going to cycle those out and we're going to introduce fresh new characters that the kids are going to love.
Speaker: and And, well, let's do this with a great big event. And as much as the marketing did not... AIDS particularly well when they were saying like when they were marketing this new most recent re-release before the the passing of Peter Cullen saying sorry the sorry we scarred your childhood tour um no that that that that was pretty accurate Well, and not just the one event, the main event that we're going to get to, but also just in general.
Speaker: Okay, let let's be honest. The TV series was a 30-minute toy commercial. Oh, yes. The TV series... set The TV series was a 30 minute toy commercial and it was written and performed and created as such.
Speaker: Yes. It's active pictures fighting each other for like 30 minutes. And then in between that is also commercials for the actual toys. And it was written for the audience that would be buying the toys.
Speaker: Yeah. This movie went harder than the series. In a way this not that, honestly, I've seen multiple reactors watch it. They're like, what they they did this? It's like, yeah, they did. Our friends at the Movie Defenders have discussed this movie.
Speaker: And one of the hosts has talked about how his mother took him and a friend to go see it. And when dropping his friend off afterwards, his mother apologized to his friend's mother for taking him to see it. Because it went so hard.
Speaker: It did. it Again, it's it is a movie that's like that is in like that childhood zeitgeist of like movies that went harder harder than they needed to go.
Speaker: But... let's Let's take a little look at the zeitgeist of the time.
Speaker: I do give this movie credit for going kind of as hard as it did, because entering the syndicated animation zeitgeist at the time was also Robotech.
Speaker: Now, Robotech was also riding the wave of you know vehicles transforming into robots, but they weren't independent robots. They were still vehicles. They were just robot-shaped vehicles when they transformed.
Speaker: And Robotech was a translation into English from Japanese of three separate, completely independent from one another anime series characters.
Speaker: That all had to do with transforming Mecca. And even in the translation to English, because at the time, English translation of science fiction anime like this was known for scrubbing and sanitizing.
Speaker: The original source material. the the Battle of the Planets. we can't Battle of the Planets, Star Blazers. yeah you know they They sanitized stuff a lot. The the the anime boom wasn't until the 90s, and even then it still suffered sanitation in certain areas. Robotech still went hard.
Speaker: Yeah, Robotech was going hard. Robotech was going hard. Robotech was killing off main characters. Robotech was dealing with heavy issues like um you know societal programming and but systemic violence. And oddly enough...
Speaker: the military manipulating media for their own ends. And that was part of a large part of mecha anime in Japan. Like, Gundam was a major factor of that. Like, kids and child warfare. But Transformers has this weird factor, like, it's a Japanese toy line, but the animation was done here in America.
Speaker: Right. it Well, it was contracted by an American animation studio. Yeah. But the story of the Transformers was actually contracted to Marvel Comics.
Speaker: Right. Marvel Comics and Marvel Animation. and so But where I was going with the whole Robotech thing is that this movie, if we look at the Transformers TV series,
Speaker: It was like a hard G, a light PG, if we're going to look at movie ratings. Whereas, like, Robotech was a solid PG-13.
Speaker: and And we're we're looking at a target audience for Transformers. Your target audience is about 8 to 10 in that range. Yeah. in that range This movie, even though it got a PG and PG-13 existed at the time, I would say this could have deserved a PG-13.
Speaker: As someone who argues against the arbitrary contraction of like the PG-13, I'd even agree. they This is a PG-13.
Speaker: And the main reason I say that is... I believe that in comparison to the TV series as it was at the time, PG-13 would have set more accurate expectations for people walking into the theater.
Speaker: Because, and this is not exaggeration, there are countless online accounts of kids who grew up watching this movie and having a very palpable response to it.
Speaker: I just double-checked the date, and also, 1986. nineteen eighty six Speaking of Robotech, granted, it did not have nearly the release that Transformers the movie did, but that same summer,
Speaker: Robotech the movie The Untold Story that was released in a ah very, very limited run. And when I say very limited, it was released to theaters in the Dallas, Texas area to like four theaters as a test run.
Speaker: And... even with the content of the TV series, what it was, had you know, a decent PG-13 equivalent, Robotech the movie, the untold story, got a PG, and parents took their kids to see Robotech the movie, saying, oh, it's a cartoon.
Speaker: that This is where the U.S. bias... ah that still kind of exists, that, oh, it's a cartoon, that means it's for kids. And ah parents dragged their kids out of the theater for Robotech the movie. there it It is relevant that a recent, very solid, very good horror movie that I watched recently called Buddy released.
Speaker: it's it's It's an independent film. It's basically what-if horror, but... Barney the Dinosaur. So it's Barney the Dinosaur because Barney the Dinosaur is horrifying.
Speaker: If and, but let's just say that the biggest reviews around that is how my parents are had to drag their kids out of there screaming because they took them to an R-rated horror movie. Yeah.
Speaker: So, Robotech the movie is happening at about the same time that Transformers the movie is happening. And Both of them had something in common, just you Transformers had a much wider release than Robotech the movie in that the audience didn't walk in with the correct expectations for what they were about to see. And apparently it's still happening, and again, with people who've also walked into and Deadpool screenings and now Buddy and other movies where they're like,
Speaker: So yeah, there's a creative... Yeah. we we put all I wanted to just kind of put that whole zeitgeist in context there because that in some ways they got the reaction that they were wanting out of Transformers the movie, but it was a stronger flip version of the reaction that they wanted than what they were expecting.
Speaker: Yes. And, um, so what, what say we get into talking about the movie itself now that we've got to talk about the zeitgeist a little bit. So transformers, the movie, um, now I I'm going to say right off the bat, since this is my first time watching it all the way through as a middle-aged adult, um, it was kind of light on story.
Speaker: Oh, it's, it's, I'm not going to lie it's a so It's an accident spectacle, not a lore-heavy movie. It's pretty much an 85-minute fight scene.
Speaker: Which, admittedly, feels... and the closes and In the best way, I'd say like it feels like ah Mad Max Fury Road. it's like you're not There's no stopping. Once the accident starts going, we aren't slowing down.
Speaker: It's a chase. It's a fight. It's a conflict. We open with the Transformers Galactus Unicron eating a robot planet. So my first question, because I always defer to you on Transformers lore, how many damn robot planets are there in the Transformers universe?
Speaker: Depending on the k on the continuity, there are a great many. This is the specific one is Lithone. It is home to the Lithones or Lithons.
Speaker: But ah yeah, they are one of many ah robotic races within in the Transformers universe. Which appears to be a a can more consistent than organic life.
Speaker: Yeah, because there's tons of robot planets that I've seen. Now, part of what made me think of Robotech when I was watching it is that the animation in this sequence is very 80s anime, as opposed it is what as opposed to what you're used to seeing on the Transformers cartoon series.
Speaker: It is very much... they In general, the animation budget got a huge boost, but they fly they weren't using the usual Sunbow animation in the studio. They did actually get some animators from Japan to help with this Especially with certain sequences.
Speaker: And in this sequence it shows because the the detailing and the stylization looks very not I say Robotech as the broad US umbrella but it looks very macros. Yes. and it's Very much so.
Speaker: And it also looks very Akira. Yes. I been It's not the same, still but they were working on a carrot around the same time. So a lot of the animation in this entire movie is gorgeous. Some of the best. Now, we get some narration telling us that it's, to those of us 1986, the far-flung future
Speaker: And the Decepticons have taken over Cybertron, and the Autobots are in hiding, fighting back. um Question for you, Transformers Loremaster. Yes.
Speaker: So my understanding is that um the Autobots Moonbase one is a moon of Cybertron. Yeah? Yes. Okay. So it seems pretty open that the Autobots are there with their base, yeah?
Speaker: Yes. Why do the Decepticons who are in control of Cybertron, why do they countenance this? It's mainly the fact that In the Transformers series, this is... Basically, this goes from season two, and basically jumps literal decades.
Speaker: It goes from the 80s to the form of long future of 2000. yeah And in this case, the Decepticons have fully conquered Cybertron and are now inhabiting it.
Speaker: Right. That's what I'm saying. And basically, the Autobots have basically established... two staging areas moon base one and moon base two it's it's an ongoing conflict but basically it the disearies are in control why don't they if the decepticons are in control why don't they just death star those but that's not how how savatron works it it they don't have the ability to blow up those moons i mean it it it just seems like you know at this point the decepticons have an overwhelming force now
Speaker: Narratively, I understand why, because this is the point that we're jumping to in the future. And so we're, we're setting up this, but as it's basically, we're, we're working off of like sort of pseudo world war one trans warfare, but in space, it's like they've, the Autobots have been pushed onto the moons. The Septicons control the Capitol, but we're still like in seeds warfare.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. Um, So we then have a now adult Spike who gives us some expository dialogue as only TV and movies can do.
Speaker: Tell my son Daniel I'll see him soon. These are people that know you. Why do you have to explain to them that your son's name is Daniel or who Daniel is? I understand. He's explaining it to the audience.
Speaker: Because again, this is a major time jump. Spike was a teenager. When we last talked. understand. I understand. I'm just saying the dialogue ain't exactly natural.
Speaker: Again, if we're going to critique the dialogue, we'll be here all day. but I know. But it's just like, you know, there's ways to make that a little more natural. Like, you know, hey, hey tell Daniel I'll see him soon. Oh, yeah, your son's really, you know, anxious to see you.
Speaker: Something like that. I don't know. Yeah. but I just i i was sitting here watching it thinking, I want whatever the writers of this movie were smoking or snorting or drinking or injecting because that seems like some good shit.
Speaker: yeah are you Are you going to tell your son Xander about that? I mean, I'm sure he does not think that this is, you know, high art.
Speaker: He enjoys it. He watched it with me, and he's seen it multiple times. But, you know. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, the father-son moment. Cute.
Speaker: Yep. So the Decepticons attack an Autobot shuttle that's heading to Earth to stock up on Energon. And at this point, we go ahead and we start clearing...
Speaker: A good moment to also talk about how amazing the soundtrack is. Okay.
Speaker: Hey, Intimates of Destruction is such a great theme, especially for this absolute route that Decepticons do on the Autobot saddle.
Speaker: You mean when the Decepticons walk in and they just wipe boxes of toys off of the shelves? Yes. Because that's what they were doing. and we it's in the and Going back to the actual design pieces of the movie, it's like we're removing toys from the shelves.
Speaker: Yes. So we are killing characters and they are killing them in ways like, no, they aren't coming back. Yeah. ah one One thing that I noticed, too.
Speaker: At first, I just noticed that, hey, it's just like the the big name, quote unquote, real respectable actors who got opening credits.
Speaker: And as the movie's going on, I was like, wait a second. The real respectable actors are all of the new characters that are replacing the ones that are getting binned.
Speaker: Yes. And we'll get to those real respectable actors, because this does have an all-star cast, but it's it's more fun to like reveal who they are going on. and all-star cast, some of them, all-star is very, very...
Speaker: very Very. Yeah, I'm going to throw one more very in there. Tied to 1986. Yes.
Speaker: John Machida. Sorry. we we see Had something stuck in my throat there. We see characters like shot in the chest and their eyes sort of like bleed out and have them crawl up and just be exploded.
Speaker: Yes. It's like, it's like, throw your toys away. They're dead. They're dead. Yeah. I mean, they, they could have just, you sent them off to a farm somewhere, but they went hard.
Speaker: a They went went ho outrageously hard. And I mean, you you, you killed legendary song and dance man, character actor, scat man, crothers horribly on screen. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I would say his death in this as a cartoon robot was probably more horrifying than his death in The Shining.
Speaker: um see I'd agree. It was more brutal. was more brutal and more traumatizing. And like you, you literally watch the life leave his eyes. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: And I, and yeah i yeah it's true. is it Like, again, this movie is not pulling any punches, but then we cut over to our new main characters.
Speaker: Yes, we get some new main characters, you voiced by Judd Nelson, Hot Rod. ah And and we we get our new our new ah home point of view character for the kids in Spike's son, Daniel.
Speaker: but yes i I do like that they were like, okay, we're going to going to continue this season of human, kid. here and it just It's just so abrupt that we went like, all right, now we went from season two, Spike's now an adult, and now he has a kid, and and now it's kids, I think.
Speaker: It's so up abrupt. And we get... Robert Stack as as um um oh god I have it Ultra Magnus oh yeah he's Ultra Magnus yeah and ah so you we again we're we're getting these respectable you know Not necessarily big name, but... He's he's the the Unsolved Mysteries guy. Yeah, I was about to say, at this point in time, he is no longer Elliot Ness from The Untouchables. He's Mr. Unsolved Mysteries.
Speaker: He will be that for like The end, till the end of time. And the Decepticons come Trojan horsing in, in that Autobot shuttle and attack Autobot City. And we get a big extended fight, bringing in a bunch of, you know, favorite...
Speaker: decepticons from g1 and the next couple of waves you know we we get devastator we get the whole you know we get the constructicons combining into devastator um i had that toy i had one or two of the insecticons um It's a big old fight, but we also got a whole lot of new... We we get them we get blur ah on the Autobot side. The aforementioned John Mashida, he of the you know Fast Talking Micro Machines commercial.
Speaker: ed boy he was Which is his thing. at at this time... I know that if you were even born for this, you were too young to know.
Speaker: He was a thing for a while. but i he would i wasn't around then, but I knew he was a I've seen the commercials when I was growing up. but they Well, he did the Micro Machines commercials. They would have him on shows like ah Solid Gold to do the fast-talking thing. They would have him on other shows to introduce stuff and do the fast-talking thing.
Speaker: ah you He was the kind of the precursor to, you know how how Michael Buffer just made an entire career out of Let's Get Ready to Rumble?
Speaker: Oh, yeah. John Machida made an entire career out of Talking Fast. Holy shit. I knew that he had like a career before when I saw him. When I saw him, it was like commercials that were just being replayed. was like I get amazed that he had like several Guinness World Records for like the past of speaking. Yeah. and so you this is the eighties kids. You, you think anyone, just anyone can become famous. Well, yeah, it is worse now, but just anyone can ah point a camera at themselves and post it on social media and become famous ah says the self-serving podcast host.
Speaker: ah
Speaker: But I knew that like, yeah, he was the thing. You know, like I, um I remember picking up, I get his book of wrote records, and was like, oh, there's Adam Acena.
Speaker: But he was big enough in 86 that he's one of the people that got an actual credit in the opening credits. And because he's playing Blur.
Speaker: And he is doing ah the fast speaking thing because he's he's basically the Flash. And so the... The other Autobots on Cybertron, led by Optimus Prime, come in, come riding in like the Cavaltry... Cavaltry?
Speaker: Cavalry to reinforce the Autobots at Autobot City. The Dinobots come dropping in. i love me some Dinobots. The Dinobots are ah kick some serious bot...
Speaker: i I know that I at least had Grimlock. I might have had another one. But know for sure I had Grimlock. I think everyone wanted Grimlock.
Speaker: I had Grimlock. Grimlock was awesome. Because he's Grimlock. Me Grimlock. And we gotta talk about at the moment. the When Optimus Prime comes down and he says the Decepticons...
Speaker: Must be stuffed. No better than cause. And transforms. And it's pure cinema. It's pure cinema because a song sung by a porn star comes... oh sorry. I'm crossing Transformers the movie with Boogie Nights.
Speaker: ah Um, yeah, if you want to wax poetical about the touch, you go right ahead.
Speaker: um i am far more cynical about that song. yeah yeah Because I, I, I don't have, I don't have the childhood nostalgia for it.
Speaker: I would normally be derailed by that, but I go in to do it. I,
Speaker: You knocked me off the track because this is this is one of the most iconic moments in the entirety of the Transformers franchise. Optimus Prime in his full training mode running down Decepticons emerging lifting up after his transformation pulling out his his iconic ion rifle and just last to ahead.
Speaker: How'd that go? help okay And then fighting its way to Megatron and saying the iconic like one cell stand, one cell fall.
Speaker: And then trauma for a generation. Yes. We get a one-on-one fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. it is not true.
Speaker: it is not They aren't holding back. And both of them are grievously wounded and there's nothing that the all but Autobots can do.
Speaker: Prime dies. And no we aren't gonna but no, we're not going to include that scene because it's it's sad enough as it is. Well, it's sad enough as it is, but I think we can all rest assured that Optimus Prime will return in Avengers Doomsday.
Speaker: You won't know it's coming for him.
Speaker: I mean, you know, it depends on which Optimus Prime it is. um if it If it's Michael Bay Optimus Prime, ah you know, he he's Doom's going to hand him is his mechanical lunch.
Speaker: ah But the Decepticons hightail it out of there in Astro Train, one of the relatively recent at the time additions to the toy line. A triple changer. was a train and the space shuttle. And a space shuttle.
Speaker: and ah And apparently a pretty tall space shuttle because during all of the infighting during the escape, ah the Constructicons start to form Devastator inside. ah ah Mass shifting. That was always a problem in G1.
Speaker: Yeah, oh well, most most definitely. But Astro Train's like, hey, you know we need to get rid of some weight back there, or we're not going to make it back to Cybertron. So Starscream just starts saying, yeah. First way, I have to address the ah the matrix of leadership. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually...
Speaker: According to... Oh, well, not my my notes just kind of combine some notes. Combine some moments with the next visit with the next note. Because the Matrix of Leadership happens during the death of Prime. Yeah, he passes it on to Ultra Magnus. To which he's in the fandom says, like, I don't, I can't handle all that.
Speaker: And then Prime drops it and Ultimaeus gets it, but it passes first to Hot Rod. Foreshadowing is a literary device. And um so then yeah we we get the infighting on Astro Train.
Speaker: And Starscream is like, okay, you all of the all of those um you know first wave ah figures over there, toss them out. Yes, you too, Megatron. You're a first wave figure.
Speaker: Out you go. i listen the no fun Out you You are a wave one figure. wave one.
Speaker: Go. So all of those wave one figures get thrown out to drift in space. And Unicron, who, how do you miss a planet-sized transforming robot?
Speaker: I don't know, but apparently they did. Unicron do you brings all of them in, rebuilds Megatron as Galvatron. you got, you got, you get to appreciate the characterization. Again, this is Frank Welker, who's been a part of this the whole time, but it's like, his characterization of Megatron, it's like, it's like, I will rebuild you. It's like, and?
Speaker: And what? Also, I have to criticize, have to be praising the voice actor for Unicron, because he is the legendary way beyond his entire franchise's bandwidth. Orson Welles.
Speaker: Okay, so before we go on with all of our discussion about this scene then, since you brought up Orson Welles, let's let's talk about the elephant in the room. let's let's Let's talk about Orson Welles and his absolute utter disdain that he had for this role.
Speaker: Yeah. This is his direct quote to his biographer. You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. I play a planet. I menace somebody called something or other.
Speaker: Then I'm destroyed. This, well, he recorded his lines for this literally five days before he died. Yes. And Orson Welles, you and I are both film students. We are film fans.
Speaker: He is a legend as a director, as a writer, and as an actor. he's see He's basically the originator of 90% of like film terminology and and techniques this is the point in his life the last 10 15 years of his life where he was doing paycheck job after paycheck job he was do he was doing wine commercials he was doing uh i forget what other commercials he did i think he did like like like
Speaker: Fists or something? Yeah. Well, see, i don't know if I don't know if I'm really remembering that happening or if that's a bit from the critic. yeah that That's it's honestly, but it's... I know it was a bit on the critic, but I don't remember if it was also real.
Speaker: But the fact that the critic was so on the nose and was correct that he was doing... He didn't do fist sticks. That's the critic bit. He didn't do fist sticks. He did an intro to an episode of Moonlighting.
Speaker: Yeah. ah you know he He was doing paycheck jobs, and he had no qualms about admitting when they were paycheck jobs.
Speaker: Even though he was, is, the most important person in the history of cinema. and the a A huge part of radio.
Speaker: due due to the War of the Worlds. ahs like he is If anyone in this cast, which is a very stacked cast for the time, he is the greatest of all time in this cast.
Speaker: And he did not give a care about it. But, as a Transformers fan, we all love this performance. His performance as Unicron is iconic because of how dispassionate and horrifying in that his power is so non-salant.
Speaker: And he rebuilds Megatron as Galvatron. Who gets a news new voice actor now? He gets Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron.
Speaker: The other discarded Decepticons get rebuilt as new toys, too. ah As Galvatron's lieutenants. And bringing some stuff full circle, you know ah you know how it goes. Again, it's like poetry. sort of, they rhyme.
Speaker: ah On the most recent How We Roll Gaming, we mentioned Harry Mudd on Star Trek, played by the fantastic character actor Roger Carmel, who voiced Cyclonus.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. so you know time is a flat circle uh but they they get rebuilt as his as his uh backup group and they are tasked by there's a great many questions on like which specific the septicons were turned to them but that's not this if your son was here we we we probably have like a very long discussion about that But they are tasked with destroying the Autobot matrix of leadership that we just mentioned was passed on to Ultra Magnus.
Speaker: And so there we get you know the driving plot for the rest of the movie. But ah Galvatron decides to head to Cybertron, where Starscream is cramming himself.
Speaker: Leader of the Decepticons, and it is it is an amazing sequence. He has the Constructicons trumpeting him, but they keep getting the rhythm wrong. He has a cape and a crown.
Speaker: i mean, we we think the movie's going hard. Starscream is going hard, too. Starscream is going full tilt, D.Va. Until Galvatron decides to like, put...
Speaker: to put this shit down. And literally bash blasts Starscream to ash. As if we didn't recognize it, like, um when they turn to gray and disintegrate that they're dead. Like, no, no, no, no. Starscream is fucking dead. And so, okay, let's let's yank that toy off the shelves, too. Again, I like to remember that the Hasbro executive's like, alright, when they leave the They're just going to violently rip those action figures and just throw them into the garbage can. Well, what Hasbro was counting on was that the kids were going to leave the movie theater and beg mom and dad to take them to the toy store to buy the new characters that they had just fallen in love with, never thinking that they were ripping out the children's hearts.
Speaker: Again, they were also assuming, like, and they'll take those old action figures, and they'll just throw them in the trash with the violence of, like, raids. And it's like, no.
Speaker: they They put their souls into the... These characters mean something, man. so Anyway, without what're now we're focusing on the new on the new bloods. Yep.
Speaker: At this point, that's pretty much all that's left. is like wave two and three and on. And the new characters that are going to be hitting the shelves any day now.
Speaker: So then we we get to to the junk planet. Junkion! And there's you some some random junk planet shenanigans that that take place. We we introduce other other robot races that... So were were the Quintessons ever a toy?
Speaker: i don't think they were ever a toy. didn't think so either. The Sarpticons and the Alicons were. But we're forgetting that the Dukions are controlled by by Eric Idle. Yes.
Speaker: The Junkions are controlled by Eric Idle. And here's the one point where where I will agree with you on the needle drops, because randomly inserting a Weird Al song is never a bad idea. Hold up, that there especially in this moment, like Dare to Be Stupid, perfect.
Speaker: Which, they it granted, it was a very abridged version of Dare to Be Stupid, but I did appreciate that they kept in the line that did reference Orson Welles' wine commercials.
Speaker: yeah ah Yeah. like Because the the famous phrase, I can't remember the brand of the wine, But the famous phrase catchphrase, the slogan of the ad campaign is, they will sell no wine before it's time.
Speaker: And there's a line in Dare to be Stupid talking about all the things that you need to do that are outside the norm. And it's like, you should sell some wine before it's time. And the idea that the Chokeons...
Speaker: the jo ons speak TV that did that they were speaking like ah infomercials which is kind of funny and cool and they even reference that when in a future Transformers series ah Transformers animated they brought back in the character of Rekkar from the Junkions and they had him played by Al again it's like poetry so that they rhyme yeah
Speaker: I didn't think I was going to get much use out of that clip in this episode, but ah I was wrong. There's a lot of fun things here. And ah we we get more extended fighty-fight stuff.
Speaker: There's actually some really good fight sequences, some really cool sequences, like when Hot Rod spins around in the Quintesson, with is on like i pool up full and like serve of turbos out of it was fun. There's some really good... just All of it's, as we mentioned earlier, incredibly animated.
Speaker: Yeah, it's great animation. they the The extra money clearly shows. Clearly, clearly shows. and barely As we're saying, like the story is rather thin, but there's some amazing action sequences are really well animated.
Speaker: And so they they get a ship, they're they're taken off, ah and worth mentioning that ah Galvatron fights Ultra Magnus and takes the Matrix of Leadership. Ultra Magnus can't open the Matrix of Leadership. he's He's trying to use it to brandish it against...
Speaker: Galvatron and nothing's happening and for a moment it looks like Galvatron's taking out Ultra Magnus too he takes off with the Matrix of Leadership but you know the you know Rekkar and his guys just literally polish him back up and and he's good as new but uh I think like Leonard Neymar does a great job this is not This will not be his for this is his first time in in the Transformers franchise. He comes back later in the Michael Bay films, he also as a baddie.
Speaker: But ah in this case, he... eat Spoilers! think we're going to talk about those. I mean... we We do try to stay positive, but it would be interesting to to discuss some of the choices made in them.
Speaker: But that would kind of that you drift away from our... our Usual positivity. Yeah. Back on track. ah Galvatron tries to...
Speaker: intimidate Unicron and try to control him. And how'd that work for him? Well, Unicron decided to show that, oh, you thought I was just like a big planet guy? And again, compliments of the animation, the transformation of Unicron into his full robot form is gorgeous. gorous And that that is another moment that very much gave me Robotech vibes.
Speaker: That was very much the Veritech transformation type animation. And also just the sheer scale of it.
Speaker: Yeah, it looked great. And Unicron just brought a single fist down onto a planet Just as this here expression of power. Like he was bombing a basketball. Yeah.
Speaker: I was... The animation alone, but like, that's a sheer scale of this... It feels like something out of like a Garf Edwards picture. And so our heroes get a ship, or get a couple of ships, really, and follow to try to get the Matrix back because they know it's going to be really bad news if um you Galvatron and Unicron hold on to the Matrix. Unicron literally just pop Galvatron into his mouth.
Speaker: Yep. And they ah they literally fly inside um Unicron's eye. eric ah yeah that That was pretty cool.
Speaker: Like right into his eye. And while most of them are dealing with basically internal defenses, Hot Rod tracks down Galvatron, who's wearing the Matrix of Leadership like, you know, like Flava Flav wears the clock.
Speaker: Yeah. has a great big chain and it is wearing the Matrix. He can't use it. He can't defeat Unicron, but it's like, he's still, it's a, it's a, it's a trophy. Yeah.
Speaker: Yep. And the two of them fight over the Matrix, and it opens up and transforms Hot Rod into Rodimus Prime, which also apparently has the side effect of giving Unicron fatal indigestion.
Speaker: Oh yeah, he is not like, oh yeah, it's supposed to light the darkest hour, which apparently is a fatal indigestion. Yes. And... And Galvatron is just, like, yeeted out of Galvatron.
Speaker: Yeah. Galvatron's gone. although The rest of the Decepticons head out. The Autobots leave. Unicron blows up, and his head just keeps floating through space. And the the end of the Syratronian Wars...
Speaker: Until all are The end of the Cybertronian Wars until next season. And I'm sure that Galvatron's head or Unicron's head floating through space won't be a problem. And Galvatron still being on the loose won't be a problem. Foreshadowing is a literary device.
Speaker: Oh, yeah yeah you've actually talked to your son about Transformers Zord. Because, yeah, that... Nick, I watched it. I watched some of them still. I was alive.
Speaker: as i just wanted to say that you you had good times with your with your son watching South of the Bat. But, no, I mean, like, back then, I watched.
Speaker: I did, did. I wasn't implying anything incorrect. I just wanted to... There is plenty more Transformers stories that happened after this. But it is like the catalyst of so many stories that will go forward.
Speaker: And again, these weren't the initial ideas. Again, this was supposed to be like an end of an era for a group of toys.
Speaker: that This was supposed to be just a ah transition from one set of toys to another. They went about it in a way that it definitely made an impact on the audience for the toys, not the impact that they were expecting. The reaction cast quite the shadow because they were also working at roughly the same time on an animated G.I. Joe movie.
Speaker: Yeah. That was meant to do pretty much the same thing. It was meant to transition into... a new wave of toys that, frankly, in the case of G.I. i Joe, this new wave of toys was going to slightly change the direction of the line.
Speaker: It had always had a slight science fiction bent to it. And this new wave was going to dive headfirst into that.
Speaker: And ah the production... Hasbro went to the production team on G.I. i Joe the movie and like, yeah, you know those characters that you were going to kill off? Cut that shit out.
Speaker: stop Stop it. We're getting... we're getting So many letters right now. So, like, um, um, was it Hawk or Duke?
Speaker: It was Duke. Duke duke was gonna die. duke Duke was gonna die. Duke took, like, ah a snake through the chest. Literally. like i like the They added he was in a coma.
Speaker: they he was in thats ah Yeah, that sounded sick. It's cool. I'm not sure how that makes any sense. Like a snake just like ripping through his chest.
Speaker: No, they changed that. And yeah, they it it was going to completely take Cobra Commander off of the board. That was left open-ended so that they could bring Cobra Commander back in the series. and again i which and Again, I tried to get Cobra Commander out the board multiple times. It never worked.
Speaker: Well, they they never really tried to get him off the board. Part of the story that they hit that had ended up developing was like internal power jockeying within Cobra.
Speaker: And so there was that internal conflict with Destro and the Baroness trying to take him off the board. But This was supposed to... This was the producers who were going to be taking Cobra Commander out of the picture.
Speaker: Oh, you can't do that. You can't do that. Take take take the toy. you Get the figure off of the pegs. No more. yeah and It's the realization that they they didn't understand what the formula was. Yeah. character People liked these characters. They attached themselves to them.
Speaker: Well, and see, part of it was that they were thinking in terms of manufacturing and selling of toys in that it's more. Yes, you can add characters to the line, but if you have, say, 25 toys, 25, 30 toys in the whole line and you introduce 20 more and don't retire some of them. You're having to pay to manufacture 50 toys now. So it's like, okay, we're going to introduce 20. Let's take you 10 or 15 out of rotation.
Speaker: And you can do that and when you have a five days a week, 30 minute commercial for these toys. <unk> still and you still use those characters, the kids are going to see that commercial, they're going to want to walk into the store and buy the toys of all of those characters, and if those are retired, they can't buy them, so you don't want to use them in the show any anymore, but narratively, you kind of want a reason why they're not there any anymore. so there and Because there will always be that one person, just like,
Speaker: I like that guy. That's my guy. ah Is he at this guy? Oh, this is episodes he's in. Cool. He's in the background. Cool. And so with with gi G.I. Joe was probably a little cheaper to continue producing the toys because they're, you know, the three and a quarter three and three quarters inch action figures for the most part with vehicle sets. It's easier to retire the vehicle sets.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. than it is to retire the characters. Well, with Transformers, the vehicle sets are the characters. they They are a full articulating action figure. yeah so and with've we've bought With multiple thosell stages, that is way more complicated to build.
Speaker: With G.I. i Joe, they were able to course correct and say, OK, let's tone down the movie. um i I believe they even reanimated the opening sequence of the mo of the G.I. Joe movie.
Speaker: I could be wrong. I know that the the opening, whether it was redone or not, the opening sequence of the G.I. i Joe movie is so over-the-top, ultra Reagan-era patriotic. Oh, it is.
Speaker: Yeah, it is. Honestly, like that's that's an episode. it is so over-the-top. it It is so Reagan-era. It is so rah-rah military, rah-rah USA.
Speaker: We should do that one time. Yeah, it was. It was it was he was quite quite the... It certainly was a movie.
Speaker: if i do have to ask Did you ever get to Did you ever own ah a USS flag? No. the The flag came out as I was aging out of G.I. Joe. So, and as big as it was, I wouldn't have had anywhere to put it.
Speaker: I did have the G.I. i Joe headquarters. Oh, like the O.C. one? Yeah, I had the G.I. i Joe headquarters that had the garage bay for the tank on the one side and the Jeep on the other, and had the little cell in the center i and all that. You don't have that anymore? Yeah, I do.
Speaker: They're all out in the garage. Oh, would love to see that. That's cool. um It's not as big as you would think. um I did have... and is I had everything from like the first three or four lines of G.I. i Joe.
Speaker: ah Even though it was His tank? I had the His tank. I had the HISTank from early enough that... So, Nerd Deep Dive. the The stickers were for all of the vehicles were on clear labels.
Speaker: Yeah. And there was a number for the HISTank. I want to say it was like 788 or something. and Yeah, there was. on the On the original release, the numbers were just an outline in red.
Speaker: but they're on clear label plastic that went on a black plastic body of the tank. And since it was a thin outline, it was hard to read. So in later releases of it, the 788 was a solid filled in red.
Speaker: I have the outline 788. seven eighty eight shut the front door. um I had the... I don't remember what the G... yet there there were There was a G.I. i Joe jet. I had that. I had the Cobra jet. I had the G.I. Joe helicopter.
Speaker: Nick, I had the little foam hang gliders. All of them? All of are rare as fuck. but Do you have those?
Speaker: I probably still have those out in the garage. I don't know how sturdy they are because being in the garage and being styrofoam, they could dried out and be super brittle. ah I can't use them. I don't know.
Speaker: But yeah they had like a a little G.I. Joe windsurfer that you mailed away to get. I had that. ah I had the hooded Cobra Commander that you mailed away for. Wait, wait.
Speaker: Hooded? The hooded Cobra Commander? Yeah, I had the hooded Cobra Commander. you You mailed proof of purchases off to get the hooded Cobra Commander. Yeah, I did that.
Speaker: Um... probably in this episode over there And don't don't worry, Nick. I will be repointing our doorbell. I will be expanding the field of vision of our doorbell camera to ah cover our driveway so that i I will know if you show up.
Speaker: I'll just ram my vehicle and into your house and I'll just abscond when I can. I know where you live. Damn it. And I know your HR. Damn it.
Speaker: and see And see what side of you, if you give her enough McDonald's advice. I was just talking about this um on DMs with our friends from the Movie Defenders, because I forget what got them talking about this recently on either their main show or the... I was on their Masters the Universe episode.
Speaker: Scott was talking about how he was very particular about making sure he kept all of his accessories for like his GI i Joes. He put them all in baggies and all of their weapons and stuff went the baggies with them.
Speaker: I, I sent them a DM in our group chat that we have. And I was like, Scott, you were, no, I posted this on socials on Facebook. i was like, Scott, you were an amateur. For my G.I. i Joes. um Nick, you you know when you go to the hardware store, if you've ever been to the hardware store?
Speaker: have. So, you know how they have the... They sell those... They're in, like, blue aluminum casings, and they're the little clear pull-out drawers to put, like, nails and stuff in? Yeah, I think.
Speaker: So, did you know that those little clear pull-out drawers... if you put the little divider at the very back slot, they will fit a three and three quarters action figure. And in that little slot at the back is perfect size for their accessories. Oh my God.
Speaker: That's what I did with my GI i Joes. And I had little labels that went on the front of each one that, so you know how, um, you know, snake eyes, the packaging was like commando code name, snake eyes.
Speaker: Yeah. Little label, Commando, codename Snake Eyes. Holy shit, that's cool. And I... So I did this too, and we'll get off of the G.I. Joe digression and and close out the episode.
Speaker: So the G.I. Joe team is supposed to be like a top secret task force, right? they They're America's special heroes.
Speaker: Yes, but they're supposed to be top secret, right? Especially because, personally, I preferred the continuity from the comics to the cartoon. Where the G.I. i Joe team is a classified team. they Their existence is not known to the public.
Speaker: i see that I do that too. And are i did and i prefer that the Cobra is a in an international terrorist organization, but it It doesn't do all of its normal stuff in public. So all of the vehicles, like the Cobra ones, I'm fine with slapping the Cobra logo on everything because they're wanting to take credit for everything that they're doing.
Speaker: Well, the G.I. Joe vehicles all came with a sticker that had the G.I. Joe logo on them. like not Not the little like star or hawk emblem that they later came up with, but like the the logo that says G.I. Joe with the red, white, and blue stripes on the back. again like I never put any of those on. That's fair.
Speaker: Honestly, that makes more sense. because like But what I did do... They put a Cobra logo on there because they are terrorists. But they also aren't affiliated with anything.
Speaker: thank it's is yeah os face and it's a so it's a it's a big so It's a big scam campaign. But what I did do is I took one of the... Some of the larger vehicles had that GI Joe sticker logo sticker.
Speaker: I put that at the bottom of the little aluminum frame of the cases because I i i eventually expand had to expand to like two of those things but I even had that on there you know so that it's my GI Joes yeah I was a little extra I was a little extra ah should should I mention that I thought that that headquarters was too small to be a headquarters for the whole organization so I took some graph paper and I expanded out what the rest of the headquarters was like that sounds amazing
Speaker: Honestly, I do wonder, like, do you... Do I what? Did you ever did you ever want want the USS flag? Oh, I wanted it, yeah, but like I said, i i was just starting to age out, and there was no place that we could have put that.
Speaker: There was no place that I could have kept that. It's cool as hell. I was Because it's like four or five feet long. I've seen it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I saw that at Benson like two years ago. I was like, I did not realize how big that was.
Speaker: I mean, it's big enough to land the Sky Striker jet on. think you could like park two of them on there. But you you want to know what what one of my favorite vehicles was? The hovercraft.
Speaker: Oh, the hovercraft was cool. Because the hovercraft really did float and we had a pool. Wait, it it could actually float? Yeah. When you put it together ah around in what was supposed to be um you know like on a real hovercraft at the time, you know how they had the big rubber around the bottom that worked. I think we have to have to end this episode. Otherwise, you're just going to be talking about the But, you know, real hovercrafts have that rubber housing that cover the fans on the bottom.
Speaker: Well, when you assembled the G.I. i Joe hovercraft in that housing, there it came with pieces of foam to put in there. but as It would actually float.
Speaker: So there's foam in there to help it float, and the main cavity... Of the hovercraft was just air. So it floated. yeah And I forget what they called it. they I think it was like the shark. The little, the G.I. i Joe submersible that was also a plane.
Speaker: Yeah, it it it had a really cool cool acronym. yeah and it And it came with the diver. ah hu Well, the diver in the diving suit on the back.
Speaker: he had like a little nozzle thing that you, that it also came with a little hose and a pump that you could put him in water and pump the air out of the figure so that he would actually dive. No fucking way.
Speaker: Yeah. No way. Yeah. And then, you know, when he came up, you know, you, the, you pump the water out. Yeah. There's some, there's some cool toys.
Speaker: Uh, and smart was writing this episode that It's really cool, but like... um But yeah, like closing closing thoughts on Transformers the movie. um yeah we've We've talked about its impact, the G.I. Joe movie, and then we derailed into my G.I. Joe toys.
Speaker: ah But um it's... Seeing it all the way through in one sitting for the first time, I'm like, okay, yeah, this is some really nice animation.
Speaker: um I can see where if i someone in the target audience seeing it for the first time would have been horrified.
Speaker: I already knew what happened in it by the time i saw it in bits and pieces. So it didn't have the impact on me. But I would say, like, as someone that didn't grow up with it at the time period, but did eventually grow up with it, it is a, I understand, it's cultural impact.
Speaker: Oh, for sure. it It has that place in cultural history. And I do that and not have any problem with anyone that that's like, yeah, they grew up with this, and this was a huge moment like that.
Speaker: I understand that, especially because is a huge moment of a character that is iconic and timeless, and especially now, revisiting. yeah Peter Collins Optimus Prime.
Speaker: and This is one of his best performances. Some of the ones that he will, that you will always remember. And with that, I will let you have the last word on it.
Speaker: And I will let you have that last word. So we reached the point of the show where, as always, i Thank everybody listening for joining us for casual nerdity and remind you that if you're enjoying the show, there's a few easy ways to support us leaving a hopefully good review on your podcast platform of choice, which helps more listeners find us.
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Speaker: So until next time, transform and roll out.
Speaker: So long. but Yes. and Until all are one. So long.
Speaker: This has been Casual Nerdity. We hope you've enjoyed your time with us and forward to having you back.
