The Energon Pub

Welcome to the latest episode of the Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast. This very special 200th episode features fan-favorite writer and artist of many IDW Transformers comics, Nick Roche, as he sits down for his first interview about the upcoming Requiem of the Wreckers! He's joined by your host Scotty P as well as Va'al. For the rest of the episode, the team of Counterpunch, Razorclaw0000, Tigertrack, xRotorstormx, and Megatronus help out in the proceedings. Listen in as we discuss what has changed and what lies ahead.

Episode #200 "Requiem of the Twincast" is available directly and in our RSS Feed, and should appear on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.

We begin our 200 victory lap with the man behind Requiem of the Wreckers, and architect of the wider Wreckers mythology: Nick Roche himself. Goofball extraordinaire Va'al and our tireless host ScottyP join Nick for a robust conversation about the latest Wreckers installment, which comprises the first 90 minutes of the episode. Our incisive interviewers begin with the genesis of Requiem, and how Kup's death sets the story in motion. We learn a great deal about the development of Springer & Verity, and what (literal, figurative) roads we can expect these characters to travel down.



Our conversation with Nick Roche continues with an analysis of Sins, and how that story of loneliness and isolation gives way to something entirely different in Requiem. For general comics enthusiasts, we go plenty deep into the mechanics of storytelling, how certain narratives come to be driven by characters versus conflicts, and Roche's comfort transitioning from drawing humans to robots. We also learn more about the role Mayhem may play in future stories, what to expect from the IDW reboot, and of course, Unicron.



Of course, Scotty is also giving away five copies of this one-shot in a totally-not-official-or-site-sponsored giveaway! Just comment on this story on our Energon Pub Forums and tell us what the Wreckers stories have meant to you for your chance to win. On the comic's release day, Scotty will randomly choose five winners and contact them via Private Message. One international winner will be chosen while four United States residents will have a chance, so be sure to include your location - and Seibertron.com staff, sorry, even though this isn't official you aren't eligible for this giveaway.



ScottyP takes the episode forward by... looking backward. Counterpunch joins the dialogue as our podcast hosts, past and present, embark on a Twincast retrospective. What has changed personally since the show first started 8 years ago, and how have we seen the brand evolve in that time? Change is life's only constant, after all (cliche much?), and we're all for looking at it under a microscope.



Following this deep dive into the annals of history, ScottyP caps off his time traveling journey in the present, where he is joined by Twincast regulars Razorclaw0000, Tigertrack, xRotorstormx, and Megatronus for a handful of well thought out and appreciated Listener voicemails. Let's listen, shall we?



We start off with news team member WilliamJames88, who wants to know what our favorite Transformers toy lines since 2010 have been. To much shock and bewilderment, no one chooses Titans Return or Masterpiece - what were we thinking? Then, frequent listener and friend of the pod Joevill recounts being convinced by Razorclaw0000 that Dark of the Moon Legion class Hatchet is pretty awesome. We agree - and hope to see you again at a convention soon.



The mighty Samsonator wants to know what's changed since starting the show - thereby giving license to the rest of the cast to chaotically riff on ScottyP and Counterpunch's previous segment. We look back with affection. Then, sometimes cast member and always pal Mr. Starscream says listening to the podcast is like hanging out with your friends, no matter where you are, which leads to some fun Twincast anecdotes and listener appreciation.



Frequent commenter and insightful boards poster Flashwave asks what toys we've been memorably Counterpunched into, and if any of those items were memorable for being great or a dud? We also get into what lines we're just relieved to be no longer hunting. Then, Ultra-Australian UltraMarginal wants to know what our favorite G1 toys are - his is a tie between Jazz and Skids. This gives the Twincast a chance to reminisce on our favorites, and what has managed to hold up (or not) over the years.



We conclude this episode with a special message from news team member Bronzewolf, and look forward to more episodes to come - excelsior!

Had a blast recording this but it was so much work. Well worth it, I hope everyone can power through the length and file size because this is one of the most complete, produced top-to-bottom shows we've ever done. Don't get used to it

Hey, where'd you find that photo of me? I haven't done a face reveal yet.

This was a excellent, jampacked episode! What a lineup. I'm proud to be a part of the Twincast's history, however small. It seriously is like sitting around a table hanging out with friends, talking TFs. Which is honestly something I'd never experienced before then, at least with people that are on the same level (and above) of knowledge and geekism as me. It was amazingly refreshing. I'd love to be on again sometime, if you'd have me.
Also, I'm officially quitting Seibertron for about 5 minutes to be eligible for that giveaway.

I just had time to skim listen through the interview again to figure out any blunders, but wanted to say:

- well done to the Twincast crew for all the work put in so far
- good intro from Counterpunch and ScottyP
- good music and buffer choices so far!

Looking forward to listening to the rest this afternoon.

It was long, but I was just playing a game anyway, which is what I'm usually doing while listening to these, so it didn't make much difference.

Definitely want to see Studio Series tackle Hatchet, even if he is an SUV. We don't have enough figures of animals that turn into vehicles without a humanoid bot mode. I have the Cyberverse figure and he's easily one of the best in that line from DotM.

I remember the KISS Demon fairly well. My best friend is a big KISS fan and a big wrestling fan so back in the day he made me watch his debut on a VHS recording. We still laugh about it, though the Demon did hang around quite a while after KISS stopped promoting it. This was the same promotion that also brought in Robocop and Chucky so they sort of deserved to lose the Monday Night Wars.

I was definitely not expecting to hear the Persona 5 animation opening used as an insert song in this video.

There was other things I was going comment on, but after a video that long I can't remember them all... I was going to record a question, but I kinda forgot to. Probably for the best since it was going to be similar to the Counterpunch'd question anyway. I've got another question, but maybe I'll just save it for 300. Nah, I'll probably just post it in the questions topic.

Congrats on 200!

Emerje

I really enjoyed the host on host segment, and I think it gave me more of an understanding of some of the history of the podcast (I haven't been listening that much longer than I think I have, so yeah, I always really had ScottyP as the main host).

Having the podcast 'split' into shorter but themed segments might indeed work if that were a thing that you wanted to do, and I think Mainframes has had a warm enough reception to warrant trying out other topics and themes too. I like Counterpunch's suggestion of getting in at the ground floor with the IDW reboot, but do share ScottyP's caution on it too. We'll see, I suppose.

(Which reminds me, there should probably be a big comics episode with Unicron stuff at some point, right?)



Can't wait for the podcast reboot.

It's taken me a day and a half to be able to listen to the whole thing, but it's a great episode!

So much nostalgia from some of my favourite episodes, like the mass Counterpunching of Primus, or the adventures of the top-hatted and monocled "Noisemaze Mass Production Type Club". Precious memories of back when I used to work graveyards at a gas station and listen to the podcast while stocking drinks in the cooler.

It was also nice to be able to contribute to the show again in some way, even if this time I was just asking a question that had already come up earlier in the episode... oops...

It was a great experience to listen to this monumental episode, and I can't wait for episode one of Billy!

Two hours in and Google decides to reload the page. Lost ALL of my reponses. Erraggh!!!!

------
Happy 2-Penny-Ennial guys.

What is this, thr Shattered Glass Podcast?

We ARE crazy. This is news?

---
The Nick Roche interview---

It seems like in most corners of the Fandon the humans are dispised by us the fans. Is there a want to see the IDW humans?

Springer reminds me of a Picard type.distant, not one to immerse himself in the off duty hours of his troops, always focused, always busy, but when you look back you knew he always cared and you felt warm and loved for it.

As someone who has no Comic Shop, I tend to read online. Thats how I will probably read Requiem, but I am looking forward to getting my hands on the Compendium in paper as well, itll be my first paper book for any of the Wreckers stories.

Yay! More Car Robots love! Um, are we calling them Car Robots to more easily differentiate the two RIDs now?

My favorite Unicron is the BW Neo Prototype

No. No Gender Swapping. I hate this need to change a fundamental detail of an established character to appease "balance". Bring more female characters, I'm all for that, but leave the set stuff alone.

Ratchet was gping to be a Female? What? This is news to me, could someone fill me in?

I do love that 2007 soundtrack.

Fans that didnt have someone who relate" Hey! That's me! Thank you guys, for doing this.

I don't want to he a Member of aby Organization that would want me as a Member -Groucho Marx

Don't go back and fix it, is a cardinal rule of Live Theater. If you flub up, ypu roll on with it and take your lumps. Otherwise you lose your momentum.

Man, I wish I jumped 9n the Welcome to 2010 prumus and Inicron. I've never been able to gwt ny hands on Amazon Unicron and neither is cheap now. Oh well

Not sure what Transformer I would want to be, but I probably would be Spin Out: the no name Fuel Prep Specialist who sticks with sonething long enough to end up stuck with command and then go down in flames like immediately...

I'm glad you asked this question. One of the questions I wanted to ask and couldnt get worded in a way that I liked, was "How had the Twincast affected your collecting and experience with the Hobby?" And ypu've kind of hit on it. (And in Samsonator's question as well)

Evergreen Episodes: one or two slight hitches, mostly in the post airing delivery. The problem I forsee is how do people find this show easily? There's not really a database on the shows and two or three years down the road people will be searching through tje shows goinf "When was the Armada show? Was that 213, no, maybe 215? 220?" And it ended up it was actually 227. Once you get the info out there, how fo you make it accessible?
Time is a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey... Stuff.

I agree with Megatronus. I have loved "getting to know" you guys while listening.

Yep, you guys have snookered me into a few things over the listening. Matter of fact, while listening, i just went and ordered a Hatchet. Thanks Bob...

I do t have many G1 toys in my collection, but I would have to go eith either Percy or Blaster. When I was younger, I was really into the Real Gear esque theme of turning into stuff. Not so much anymore,

Scotty, you hsve done a great job as Cat Herder Host, and i have enhoyed throughly rhe opinions of all pf the Podcasters I have had the pleasure of listening to.

CounterPunch, I think you were hosting the first Podcasts I listened to. I thibk I remember Beth and maybe Joe, but those shows don't stick out in my mind, o thanks for setting the table.

Thanks guys! On to 201...

Everybody should own a Hatchet! Glad you pulled the trigger, Flashwave!

This was an awesome show to record. I hope everyone has had as much fun listening to the last few shows leading to this and this as we did making it.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Everybody should own a Hatchet! Glad you pulled the trigger, Flashwave!

This was an awesome show to record. I hope everyone has had as much fun listening to the last few shows leading to this and this as we did making it.

I dont know that I ever saw Hatchet in stores. He's been on my want list for a while though so when you mentioned him I decided to circle back around

I had a Hatchet for a really long time, then it had to go with many others. I'm not sure if it's with my brother or if someone took it from the charity shop in Norwich where I worked, but yeah - a fun little toy, which could've been even more fun in a bigger size. A good recommendation to be dragged into.

Enjoyed the third segment too, there was a lot more polished pauses, less silent drags, good answers (maybe more prepared on some?) and I loved hearing the questions being posed directly in audio - it must be a logistical nightmare to do so regularly, but I really really enjoyed it!

Looking forward to the Billy x Twincast t'mup #1.

Flashwave wrote:It seems like in most corners of the Fandon the humans are dispised by us the fans. Is there a want to see the IDW humans?

The interesting ones, yes! Verity, Action Man, most of the Adventure Team (not Colton, he's boring), Rock 'N Roll, Trakker, Mayday, Marissa, and plenty more have enriched the story universe rather than distracted from it. They feel like actual characters with reasons to be there and not blank-slate-reader-avatars.

Flashwave wrote:Yay! More Car Robots love! Um, are we calling them Car Robots to more easily differentiate the two RIDs now?

Generally speaking, yep. So many RiDs at this point it's easier to use the Takara franchise name.

Flashwave wrote:No. No Gender Swapping. I hate this need to change a fundamental detail of an established character to appease "balance". Bring more female characters, I'm all for that, but leave the set stuff alone.

Starscream's already Queen of the Decepticons, so something like that would be no big deal

Flashwave wrote:Ratchet was gping to be a Female? What? This is news to me, could someone fill me in?

Budiansky's inspiration for the name was Nurse Ratched, and the character was female in initial treatments. Someone (Jim Shooter? It's written down somewhere in one of the Marvel collections) decided they didn't need any female robots. As we all know, that stuck for a whopping year-ish.

Flashwave wrote:Evergreen Episodes: one or two slight hitches, mostly in the post airing delivery. The problem I forsee is how do people find this show easily? There's not really a database on the shows and two or three years down the road people will be searching through tje shows goinf "When was the Armada show? Was that 213, no, maybe 215? 220?" And it ended up it was actually 227. Once you get the info out there, how fo you make it accessible?

Good question, and the answer is part title, part hustle, and possibly part branding. We'll see!

ScottyP wrote:

Flashwave wrote:It seems like in most corners of the Fandon the humans are dispised by us the fans. Is there a want to see the IDW humans?

The interesting ones, yes! Verity, Action Man, most of the Adventure Team (not Colton, he's boring), Rock 'N Roll, Trakker, Mayday, Marissa, and plenty more have enriched the story universe rather than distracted from it. They feel like actual characters with reasons to be there and not blank-slate-reader-avatars.

Flashwave wrote:Yay! More Car Robots love! Um, are we calling them Car Robots to more easily differentiate the two RIDs now?

Generally speaking, yep. So many RiDs at this point it's easier to use the Takara franchise name.

Flashwave wrote:No. No Gender Swapping. I hate this need to change a fundamental detail of an established character to appease "balance". Bring more female characters, I'm all for that, but leave the set stuff alone.

Starscream's already Queen of the Decepticons, so something like that would be no big deal

Flashwave wrote:Ratchet was gping to be a Female? What? This is news to me, could someone fill me in?

Budiansky's inspiration for the name was Nurse Ratched, and the character was female in initial treatments. Someone (Jim Shooter? It's written down somewhere in one of the Marvel collections) decided they didn't need any female robots. As we all know, that stuck for a whopping year-ish.

Flashwave wrote:Evergreen Episodes: one or two slight hitches, mostly in the post airing delivery. The problem I forsee is how do people find this show easily? There's not really a database on the shows and two or three years down the road people will be searching through tje shows goinf "When was the Armada show? Was that 213, no, maybe 215? 220?" And it ended up it was actually 227. Once you get the info out there, how fo you make it accessible?

Good question, and the answer is part title, part hustle, and possibly part branding. We'll see!

Ah. I knew, or guessed that Ratchet was a sideways connection, but I didnt know it was intended to be more direct. Boy, that would have changed the mythos in a big way.

Again, not sure now that Ratchet has such an established baseline that I woud want to see him gender swapped, but now I'm curious to see a RTchet-esque female medic. Maybe along the lines of Animated Red Alert?

It's been a while since I listened. I really enjoyed this episode. I miss you guys!

I'm almost done with the episode. I wish I could have been a part of it. And I realized I could have recorded a short bit to send it. Life just gets in the way.

One of my all time favorite Twincast moments was before I was on the show. It was the April Fool's episode. Counterpunch kept trying to start a topic and someone would interrupt him. If I remember correctly, it was a topic I really wanted to hear everyone talk about too. I was getting so pissed. I literally was yelling in my car. I had about 10 minutes left in the episode when I finally realized what was going on. You got me good.

Congrats on 200 episodes everyone! Sorry I didn't have time to record a message for you all before the episode went up, but I can say now that I love listening to you guys and always look forward to the next episode. Thanks for always being around to entertain us, we all appreciate it!

This seems like as good a time as any to share my own story that I'll remember as a highlight of listening to the Twincast, even though it didn't actually happen in the episode - y'all Counterpunched me into buying Generations Rattrap last year! I was driving home from work and heard a discussion about how awesome that toy was, and knew that I was about to drive past a store with a left-over Rattrap from a few years ago. So despite not giving a lick about Beast Wars, I pulled over, paused the episode, went in and bought it, then got back in the car and listened to the rest of the podcast on the way home. I know it's not a thrilling tale, but I wanted to share it just to say: a) I love the way you guys open me up to new opinions on toys!, and b) now I understand how it feels to get Counterpunched too

Thanks again, and here's to another 200 or more!

That’s such an awesome moment, Qwan, and one of my favorite parts of the hobby: getting clued into something I may have missed (even I miss stuff!) and being lucky enough to still find it on a whim and experience it fresh.

RC13: I still loved doing that episode.

Joevill: we miss you too!

RodimusConvoy13 wrote:the April Fool's episode.

Oh damn, I forgot about that one. What a glorious mess that episode was! Probably even better in terms of me laughing my ass off than what I spent hours searching for and never actually found. Thank you for reminding me.

Samsonator wrote:

RodimusConvoy13 wrote:the April Fool's episode.

Oh damn, I forgot about that one. What a glorious mess that episode was! Probably even better in terms of me laughing my ass off than what I spent hours searching for and never actually found. Thank you for reminding me.

Could somebody go back and retroactively add that into the show? I think that'd be a lovely clip to listen to. I kid of course, but now I do want to go look up this show and hear it

Awww, Counterpunch said nice things about me!

Now that I have a taste for compliments, I will stop at nothing to get more!!!

Thank you to everyone who has listened and supported us along the way.

At first I was very dejected that no one entered my little giveaway thing. However, upon going to the shop yesterday and learning that 0 of my copies actually arrived, I felt a sense of relief. And urgency to go across town for the one copy left at another shop, but that's a different matter.

I for one enjoy the podcast. Although, every time you guys put one out and I download it, something amazing happens - such the FRIKKIN REVEAL OF MP-FORTY-FRIKKIN-THREE!

But seriously, love listening to you guys!

Here’s a question: why did you start playing “In The Air Tonight” during CP’s little monologue towards the ends there? What was the context? I feel like either I totally missed something, or somebody was just having way too much fun inserting songs.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:I for one enjoy the podcast. Although, every time you guys put one out and I download it, something amazing happens - such the FRIKKIN REVEAL OF MP-FORTY-FRIKKIN-THREE!

But seriously, love listening to you guys!

Here’s a question: why did you start playing “In The Air Tonight” during CP’s little monologue towards the ends there? What was the context? I feel like either I totally missed something, or somebody was just having way too much fun inserting songs.

Thanks!

As for Phil Collins, that just-under-fair-use-threshold length clip is an homage to ATHF:Colon Movie Film For Theaters and led down a rabbit hole that ended up with the Decepticons opening the show from the Island of Dr. Weird on the South Jersey Shore.

Edit: I have learned in the last few minutes that just yesterday, the entire movie has been posted online, legally and officially, for free. Enjoy: http://www.adultswim.com/videos/aqua-te ... -theaters/

Okay what? Thats probably the third most preposterous thing I jave heard of from the Twincast...

admin note: I hit edit instead of quote. I've tried to fix it. Sorry! - SP