The Energon Pub

Hey gang,

sorry if this isn't the right place to put this, but it's about toys, so I figured it would go here...

Anyway, some of you might remember Don't Fear the Reaper, a short stop-motion flick I made which starred Stikfas and G.I. Joes. Well, this summer I decided to make a new stop-motion featuring the toys I collect the most - the Transformers!

After about 2 months of writing, shooting, editing, sweating, and cursing, my film is finally done. I'm proud to present Bad Mother Truckers!



BMT is a comedic buddy-cop film about Peter Built [Classics Prime] and his partner Fred Liner [Cybertron Armorhide], two hard-boiled die-hard detectives who just happen to be able to turn into trucks. When their President [Cybertron Primus] is kidnapped by ninjas, Pete and Fred are sent out to save him. But can even the Bad Mother Truckers prevail against a guild of rogue ninjas?


I had split the film up into 3 Acts when I was editing it, but now I've completed my work and all 3 thirds of the movie are online! Click on the links below to watch them, if you're interested. I hope you like them!

Act 1: Situation
Act 2: Investigation
Act 3: Confrontation

(What? I've never even heard of this 'IDW' comic strip group!)

Disclaimer: I have no political agenda. Primus' character is in no way supposed to reflect any real-life political figure, living or dead. The story of the President being captured by ninjas is simply a reference to the notorious arcade classic Bad Dudes.
Even though they might look like other characters, the characters depicted in Bad Mother Truckers are my own: the Chief looks like Picard but he's the Chief, Peter Built looks like Optimus Prime but he's Peter Built, etc. This means that they have their OWN voices, so don't tell me 'd00d ur p1card emprezzshun SUXXXXorz!!11' I know it does, which is why I didn't do it. That being said, you can expect an occasional Picard or Prime line in there somewhere!

Man that was fiking funn! I wish I could remember my youtubename....
I loved that can't wayt for the next ones, loves the way BB was the bigbad, ore will be at some point!

Just if you havn't noticed from my coment which is misspeled, More More!

Excellent work, it was a great vid... Can't wait for "Highway to hell"!

Here's some behind the scenes stuff you guys might enjoy:

To get Wendy to walk towards the camera in Act I, I laid down some Lego train track, made a cart, attached her ankle to it (since her feet are out of frame), and in each photo, posed her and moved the cart a little bit forward:


The street in Act II was actually just one strip of Lego road. I moved props around as well as the light source (lamp in top right corner) to make it look like time was passing. Also worth noting are the characters who weren't used in this scene:


To get the camera to rotate around it subject, I laid down some curved Lego tracks and built a custom cart which held the camera steadily:


For the shot where the camera is behind the missile as it flies towards the ninjas' hideout, I attached an arm to the cart and put the missile on it. Here's what it looked like, sans the cotton smoke trail:


For the Bad Mother Truckers' shooting scene, I had them lie down on Lego train cars (which were out of frame). I just rolled these carts along to get them to bail. For the muzzle flash, I put a piece of cotton on the end of the guns' barrels and aimed a flashlight at it, moving the light to burn out the cotton:


The empty casing seen during the shootout montage is actually a real casing from .45 automatic, provided my friend who gave the Yellow Ninja his voice:


And here's the obligatory cast photo. Spoilers - Don't expect to see them all back in the next Bad Mother Truckers film!: