Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Welcome to the latest episode of the Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast. This episode features your host ScottyP along with Razorclaw0000 who immediately misses a joke, Megatronus who is immediately late, and RodimusConvoy13 who is entirely to blame for the contents of this episode. The weird side of Transformers is here and breakfast can wait! Join us on one bogus adventure, won't you?

Episode #199 "Like It's 199(9)" 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 start off with some movie talk. Specifically, Bumblebee. Not the weirdness that was promised by the opening paragraph, is it? We'll get there after sharing some luke-warm takes based on secondhand accounts of a teaser trailer. Does this movie have a little more heart and a little less Bayhem, and is that a positive development if so? Most of the cast seems to think so! Plus, with one minor comment about a "blue and red" Starscream, our Armada-obsessed fanboys cast members take that idea too far.


Hasbro has aquired the Power Rangers intellectual property, and this is indeed, um, news. To someone. More importantly, what are some of the business impacts that this could have, especially given Takara Tomy and Bandai's very competitive relationship overseas? Megatronus arrives to lead this discussion as we look at the business side as well as Megazord engineering.


While Transformers has "crossed over" with various properties since the early days of the franchise - Spider-Man and GI JOE in the Marvel G1 comics, for instance - we've done the "What should Transformers crossover with" discussion before. This time, we change it up a bit and find definitive, correct, and canonical answers to questions no one has before asked or will ever want to again.


Questions asked include:

• If the Transformers were to be foes with a crossover property, who'd be the most likely to succeed in killing all the Transformers, or at least be the most effective at doing so?
• If the Predacons (G1, Beast Wars, etc; it is left up to the person answering) were to be friends with a crossed over property, what would that look like?

Things continue with wacky crossover questioning, and they really begin to get strange:

• Which Transformer would win a cooking competition show and why? Which cooking competition show is it?
• What group of Transformers could win the Stanley Cup, an NBA Championship, or the Premier League?
• Which crossover property or characters from the property could live in peace on Cybertron with the Cybertronians and why?
• In which other non-Transformers universe could G1 Megatron win an election peacefully?

We close things out with possibly the most important question:

• Transformers: Cybertron had toy bios that canonically established some characters as toy collectors (most famous example: Shortround and his unreleased G2 collection.) Which Transformer is the best at collecting your favorite non-Transformers toy line and why?

We come up with some pretty good and pretty bad ideas. Be sure to comment on this episode's topic in our Energon Pub Forums to tell us which podcaster is definitively, definitely correct.


Moving on from the wacky, we go serious and discuss recent Transformers comics. Up first is Optimus Prime #18 and #19. Check out our double review here. We completely spoil a major twist, so consider yourself extra warned! More importantly, we dive in to the aftermath of Onyx Prime's arrival and the reveal that Onyx Prime isn't who we thought he is. Or is he? Misdirection within, as we talk about the "Prime of Lies"!


After Optimus we take a look at Free Comic Book Day's Unicron #0. Unicron is quickly making meals of Cybertronian colonies, and while it looks like many of Rom the Spaceknight's Elonian race is saved, what price is paid for the lives saved? We discuss a short, yet jam packed and beautiful issue. Plus - how did Pat Lee possibly influence a panel!?


We wrap things up with the Great Springtime Toy Drought of 2018. It happens every year, and we're used to it, so how are we getting through it? Are we getting comic collections, backfilling older Transformers toy lines, or not reading the entire question in the agenda like RodimusConvoy13? How are you getting through it?


That's all for now. Next episode: Episode 200, featuring some writer from some series no one's heard of. He drew Spiderman too, whoever that is. Oh, yeah and our 200th episode might have some other special things too, so we hope you'll join us for that special occasion!

Whats this? I'm listening ON TIME????!!!

Bumblebee movie: Holding my judgement, but cautiously optimistic. Remember when we got the teaser for TF1 and its the Blackout scene and everyone was like OMG YES THIs and then we got... Sam... and hjis parents... BUT THEN WE GOT BUMBLEBEE vs. BARRICADE and that was cool... and then we got more Sam... Yeah, waiting for the whole movie.

Yes, you will care about canon in the end. Its hard to think so now, but #214 or whatever you'll be sitting there reviewing the movie going "but that doesnt make any sense! How did blah balah blah get from there to here?" And poor Sabr's head will explode.

Can wee maybe get a sane S7 agent please? I feel like that whole organization could have been a lot more intimidating if we'd gotten less Simmons and more of the guy who came into the Defense Secretary's office.

Agreed with the Club's butchering of the Singularity Mythos. But (a small) part of me is glad they had the cajones to come up and cut everything apart and make it all different, it frees up narrative options down the road. Course, the flip side is that means a writer is more free to make Primus and Unicron these different things, so maybe thats not so good.

I too love the Energon Megatron from Black Shadow, but I think my favorites conceptually were the ones using the TR figures as ActionMaster accesory vehicles and such. To me, that just felt like the Club took the idea of the TR set Hasbro had and really took it to the next level. I can safely say I really wanted all of those. (And they did say in those releases that only some of those would have been made, the others were alternate designs if Hasbro said "No")

PR: Does this mean that Hasbro is designwing the Zords? If so, I think I for one would be excited about that. There have been some neat Zord concepts that are just giant blocky toys, and given the Hasbro combiner tech using CW/POTP ports, or the Devastator engineering (and even some of Predaking, the giant robot ponytails on Rampage and Tantrum aside) could be good for the brand, but is that their call or is the physical design still being handled by Bandai for the toys?

This makes me go back to the Hasbro/Disney talks, is Disney just sitting there waiting to see how many properties Hasbro can gobble up before they go and make that offer again?

Question: Is Lego on the decline because they are actually in trouble, or did they just get too bloated and they are simply dropping to a sustainable, more realistic volume?

I got the Sun Zord? Train dude, the cars have openings that Minicons can ride in.

Disney is at this point almost an investment firm. Like the ESPN stuff have they even done anything to cvhange ESPN? They are more or less just sitting back and letting them do what they do and counting the dividends, right?

At some point, anti-trust laws are gonna kick in and these other little IP rights companies are gonna start complaining becauswe they are trying to market their satuff to such a diverse giant portfolio. Hasbro/Disney could be the straw that breaks the camels back. Not to mention, I could totally see a TV channel like Nickelodeon objecting, because Hasbro/Disney could just drop so many name brand properties into Disney Channel and be done with it, or demand exorbinant prices for all these top shelf titles. I could totaly see this being the straw that breaks the camel's back, so to speak.



Originally, Disney had/has their own streaming network. Hulu just added a varient platform. Frankly, I am waiting on a Fall from Grace for Netflix. When Netflix got big, no one wanted to do Streaming, they all wanted to focus on their Nielson ratings and TV stuff, so they contracted everything out to Netflix. But now they have all seen the writing on the wall, and they are favoring the Online outlets as much as their TV stuff or ebven developing their own TV shows for online exclusivity. CBS, CW, ABC all have stuff online. CBS has their All Access, CW has the CW Seed for their old shows and stuff they now own IP for, and new stuff that maybe they dont feel would do well enough on Primetime but they want to develop. Where is this going to leave Netflix in the not too distant future

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I would love to see a Transformers/Netflix Voltron crossover. Given sheer scale of Voltron and the monsters, (the lions themselves are big enough to carry vehicles inside, then you start stacking them up) and the sheer volume of the Galra empire, the Transformers would be hard pressed to keep up. Given the right cast of Autobots you could make a compelling story. Not to mention that while "Magic" is a hard thing to keep realistic and grounded, I could believe that the Transdformers could be suspetible to something like who Voltron handles it.

A Skynet Transformers crossover would be... M.E.C.H.

I have thought about a TF/Borg Crossover and I come out with two answers. On the one hand, given that the Transformers are living MACHINES, assimilation could be really easy fior the Borg. On the other hand, the Transformers are LIVING Machines, and I imagine their own bodies are riddled with the same kind of the Nanotech the Borg are using, and an assimilation could end up being this prolonged infection that ends up incapaciting both partiesplus, I just have a hard time with properties that say "Oh, well Cybertronians are just like Robots", when given the nature of Sparks they are more or Energy beings living in mechanical vessels.

Crazy thought: What if the Borg are a leftover of a Scorponokesque pre Nebulan Headmaster program? Discrded transformer/organic hybrid that no one thought would be a problem?

Aaaannnndddd Todd takes my answer. GET YOUR OWN.

I think Voltron would be roughly 2 to three times Devvy's size.

RE: Quintessence. In the Netflix cartoon, the Quintessence is a transdimenential metal, but I could see it an Alt- Universe equivalent of Energon.

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"Cooking with Grimlock..."

The UW Technobots were making goodies for Fathers Day with th e daughter of Marissa and the Con man from G1.

Wasn't there an actual Galley Chef transformer on one of those second string storylines?

Got it: Spin Out.

Obvious answer: Krok the SOCCER STAR.

I totally think Volcanicus could be GREAT in the NBA, given his long lanky limbs

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G1 MEGATRON could do it in OUR elections, who are you kidding? He'd get the NRA backing and just sweep. I want a Meme of megatron in front of some Pro-Gun guys going "See Optimus Prime? You've got it all wrong. I don't kill people"

(Disclaimer: This is a joke, I am a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, don't lambast me)

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RID Bumblebee as a Pokemon Go Player, but onlyin the first few weeks. After Niantic released the Speed Cap he is terminally plagued by "You're Going to fast"

I feel like given enough time someone on the Ark would have a HUGE model train layout. Maybe Perceptor, I could see him bing super anal about detail accuracy.

Here's a thought on Shcokwave: What if he dermined Logically, that in order to sell himself as Onyx Prime, he nneded the emotional side. Just as Onyx is a facade in its own right, Shockwave has brought his emotions forward as part of the character he is playing, and maybe at some point in 12 million years the two have finally blurred together?

Remember that in Spotlight Shockwave, we got a taste of Shockwave with Emotions and he went full on savage kill em all murdernuts on the Dinobots for a minute.

I think you guys did a couple of uncounted bonus episodes, that were mostly interview esque shows. Still, exciting to see you guys have gotten so far.

This was a fun episode. I needed those laughs on the way to work this morning.

^^ Good call on SL Shockwave, fun to think about how well that fits now. Good example of why retcons are not intrinsically a bad thing!

Your comments on Megatron remind me of the Ript Apparel shirt I got a few weeks ago featuring the Autobots marching against guns, using a Walther P-16 with the stock and silencer attached on their signs. I considered an answer along those lines but instead took that shot at something that's always bugged me (a little, not to any serious extent) about Star Wars.

Counterpunch wrote:This was a fun episode. I needed those laughs on the way to work this morning.

I'm glad we did you proud, senpai

Well done on this episode, guys. Haven't eaten through the entire thing yet, but so far, so very good.

Bronzewolf wrote:Well done on this episode, guys. Haven't eaten through the entire thing yet, but so far, so very good.

Thanks! Hey go record a thing for 200

ScottyP wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:Well done on this episode, guys. Haven't eaten through the entire thing yet, but so far, so very good.

Thanks! Hey go record a thing for 200

I've been trying! When's the deadline for that anyway?

Bronzewolf wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:Well done on this episode, guys. Haven't eaten through the entire thing yet, but so far, so very good.

Thanks! Hey go record a thing for 200

I've been trying! When's the deadline for that anyway?

:checks watch:

It passed but still probably fine to send something in the next several hours

Alright, recording now, if you're alright waiting for a few more minutes!

Once again, I had listened to this, and I had made notes to say something on here - then I lost my notes, and I can't for the life of me remember what my comments were about. Ugh.

But! I did enjoy the episode! It was fun, and I like this direction you lot are going in with the totally serious questions being answered and not at all sh!tposting - I liked the crossovers and foes section, and haven't really thought about what I would try setting up, though this clip came to mind with the Xenomorphs:





And this made me snort. Always does.





(Was still holding out for Liege Maximo being behind everything, but I guess not, huh.)

Listening to this now and from what I've been told Bandai USA is a completely separate company from Bandai Japan. Yes, they shared the license for Sentai/Rangers but Bandai JP has given licenses for some of their other properties to different companies over the years. Hasbro owning PR doesn't open the door to getting a re-issue Jetfire and I doubt Takara would have any input into the re-imagining of the zords.