Twincast / Podcast Episode #256 "Netflix and Siege"

I am 16 minutes in and I am annoyed. I have cared for 35 years as well and I don't need them to blow things up all the time as this isn't Bayverse. This was the best G1 iteration since the original cartoon.

I enjoyed the pace, the story, and the art direction. My only complaint is I wanted more.

You cannot please everyone but this was more than satisfying.. As an adult I wanted to grab the figures I bought from the series and create my own in between stories. Finally they found the balance of please the adult fans and something that makes people want to purchase these toys.

I hope you'll keep listening. After we air some grievances, we do get to what we liked, and you'll find we agree on a lot of the same things.

I for one completely agree it succeeded in making me want to play with the toys. Which I did the second time I watched the entire series.

I'm very behind on the Twincast, but since this episode looks to be 90% Siege I feel like skipping ahead to cash in on the show discussion is probably justifiable.

I dunno how much I would agree on the comparisons to the WfC/FoC games, because they're naturally going to be compared since they're the only well-known TF media that takes place on Cybertron the whole time and the obvious name sharing, but WfC the game was VERY Dark Energon heavy in terms of plot and both Optimus and Megatron were rather different compared to how this show handled them.

To answer I believe it was Scotty's comments:
1. There were in fact Refraktor recolors scattered amist the standard Reflectors in Megatron's stadium crowd scenes at the very least, because I recall explicitly seeing the black and red one from the toy color 3-pack, but I don't remember actually seeing Scrapface specifically. I only watched the whole thing once through so far though, so he could have been there too and I just didn't see it. You guys mentioned that exact Refraktor towards the end of the episode, whoops.
2. Moonracer did not show up until episodes 5 & 6 right before she died, that was Chromia you saw at the beginning. I watched it with subtitles on and Moonracer's voice actress is distinctly British, so I can confirm that for you.

In regards to the question of which recolor generics should get produced, my initial thought was also that black and gold Seeker, but I would much rather we get Sunstorm before that. AND BUZZSAW, because even though I own none of the WFC cassettes so far I now really want a Buzzsaw to go with my Soundblaster (is it obvious Soundblaster was one of my highlights of the show?).

Of COURSE they had to get into a car in that one scene you mentioned, Arcee's model had zero kibble and wasn't based off a toy at all so she clearly couldn't transform!

I'm gonna have to disagree with the cast's speculation on the end teaser because I think it's a ship full of Doubledealer and other Mercenaries, especially since the Pulse product listing for Exhaust mentions him being a Merc in the show, but that may be me getting my hopes up.

I don't really have much to say on Siege since I largely agreed with what was said in the podcast, but oh boy do I have some selects ideas/wants. I don't expect any of these to happen this is just what I'd like to see.
-I was thinking it would be cool if we could get Glyph and/or Tap-out (I say and/or because I would totally dig a two-pack of those two) since we now have both Cliffjumper and Bumblebee. Come to think of it I could also go for a bug bite repaint.
-I'm not going to lie I'm a sucker for evil primes (he says, not owning a single Nemesis Prime) so I would be all for a shattered glass or nemesis repaint of earthrise Prime.
-I also really want to see more unicron trilogy so maybe we could get something like armada Wheeljack out of siege Sideswipe, Energon Snowcat out of Siege Ironhide, and defense force Red Alert out of Doubledealer. Although if they were to do Red Alert I don't know how you could do a Scattorshot to round off the trio. Impactor could be an okay approximation of the robot mode but the vehicle mode would be entirely off and you wouldn't get his missile launchers (even if you included them as accessories they wouldn't have anywhere to go on the tank mode). Maaaaaaaaaybe you could do a redeco/remold of siege ironhide with two of his missile launcher/hammer things to approximate his arm-mounted missile launchers, but that would be a huge stretch and neither mode would look right. Oh well. At least I have Galaxy Upgrade Optimus and could still potentially get selects Hot Shot. I guess I can wait a while for my next burst of Cybertron nostalgia.

I'm making a separate post to talk about the Selects stuff, both because I don't want to make my first post too long and because I want to reference Notimus Crime's suggestions (which by the way, is a solid username, I got a kick out of that).

First of all, I want to start by saying I think everything Notimus said should get made, regardless of whether I want them all or not, because they're all great suggestions, and I want to specifically comment on a few:

Notimus Crime wrote:Come to think of it I could also go for a bug bite repaint.

Since you're a new poster on the site (welcome by the way), you probably aren't aware, but Bug Bite already has a leaked product listing from TRU Canada in a big list that included a bunch of figures that have since come out, so you can look forwards to that.

Notimus Crime wrote:-I'm not going to lie I'm a sucker for evil primes (he says, not owning a single Nemesis Prime) so I would be all for a shattered glass or nemesis repaint of earthrise Prime.

I'm still annoyed "Alternate Universe" Prime turned out to NOT be Shattered Glass, so I'm 100% on-board for this SG Prime of which you speak, preferably from the ER Prime mold.

Notimus Crime wrote:Energon Snowcat out of Siege Ironhide,

Yup, also preferably a Cannonball and/or Oil Slick out of ER Ironhide/Ratchet.

Notimus Crime wrote:defense force Red Alert out of Doubledealer. Although if they were to do Red Alert I don't know how you could do a Scattorshot to round off the trio. Impactor could be an okay approximation of the robot mode but the vehicle mode would be entirely off and you wouldn't get his missile launchers (even if you included them as accessories they wouldn't have anywhere to go on the tank mode). Maaaaaaaaaybe you could do a redeco/remold of siege ironhide with two of his missile launcher/hammer things to approximate his arm-mounted missile launchers, but that would be a huge stretch and neither mode would look right.

I think the best bet for Scattorshot is to either wait for a later mold, or to retool Impactor. Give him a new head, get rid of the shoulder cannon and his current accessories, and replace that plastic mass with 2 of Ironhide's rocket pods and retool either them or the arms of the figure to get them in play for alt mode. And while we're at it, also turn Impactor into Demolishor via similar retooling/new accessories, I've been asking for it since Impactor won the fan vote and I will continue to do so.

Whoever it was in the show that said Loudpedal, I 100% agree as long as we also get Road Rage, let's get a Deadlock from Siege Springer, and since a good number of these requests already break the unspoken Selects rule of 1 repaint per mold, give me Mercenary Detritus.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Notimus Crime wrote:Come to think of it I could also go for a bug bite repaint.

Since you're a new poster on the site (welcome by the way), you probably aren't aware, but Bug Bite already has a leaked product listing from TRU Canada in a big list that included a bunch of figures that have since come out, so you can look forwards to that.

You are right that I'm a new poster to the site, but I have been regularly checking seibertron for a year or two now as my source of transformers news. I decided only recently that it could be fun to actually engage with the community. Anyways as for the Bug Bite leak, I do remember reading something like that a while back now that you mention it, but at the time I was just sort of like "alright so what could we make out of the bumblejumper mold.....there's Glyph and Tap-out....OH YEAH and there's Bug Bite I like him".

Nemesis Primal wrote: I think the best bet for Scattorshot is to either wait for a later mold, or to retool Impactor. Give him a new head, get rid of the shoulder cannon and his current accessories, and replace that plastic mass with 2 of Ironhide's rocket pods and retool either them or the arms of the figure to get them in play for alt mode. And while we're at it, also turn Impactor into Demolishor via similar retooling/new accessories, I've been asking for it since Impactor won the fan vote and I will continue to do so.

Yeah I agree it is probably best to wait for a new mold but I was really trying hard to rack my brain for ideas on Scattorshot because he's my favorite out of the Cybertron Defense Force and I want him to happen as soon as possible. Your idea for how to rework Impactor into him (and Demolishor, I'm 100% on board with that too) is pretty solid. Also correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the "one use per mold" rule broken with Lancer and Nightbird? Or does that not count because one is the combining variant of the mold and the other isn't?

Notimus Crime wrote:You are right that I'm a new poster to the site, but I have been regularly checking seibertron for a year or two now as my source of transformers news. I decided only recently that it could be fun to actually engage with the community. Anyways as for the Bug Bite leak, I do remember reading something like that a while back now that you mention it, but at the time I was just sort of like "alright so what could we make out of the bumblejumper mold.....there's Glyph and Tap-out....OH YEAH and there's Bug Bite I like him".

Notimus Crime wrote:Also correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the "one use per mold" rule broken with Lancer and Nightbird? Or does that not count because one is the combining variant of the mold and the other isn't?

Technically those are different molds, the Chromia mold shares a small amount of parts with the original Moonracer mold but transforms differently, doesn't have the combiner capacity, and uses more new parts than it reuses, whereas Lancer is just a new head on the Greenlight retooling of Moonracer.

Personally though, if they do break the rule at some point I will not be upset, since that opens up the possibility for more characters.

Really enjoyed the conversation fellas! Sad I wasn't available to be on for this one.

Most of the surface level elements that irk people - pacing, voice direction - is much less an issue for me than the writing. You all touch on it in various ways, but I was hoping for a more in depth discussion around the plot points, weakness in dialogue - so many of the other complaints would have mitigated if they had just managed to tell a good story.

A couple examples:

-A 2-5 minute preface bringing the audience up to speed would have been great. "Cybertron has been warring for millions of years. The Golden Age of Cybertron ended with Megatron's uprising against the classist Autobot state, but he was not immune to power's corruption. In freedom's darkest hour, Orion Pax rose to resist Megatron's Decepticon autocracy. Bla Bla Bla." You get the idea - if you aren't going to factor flashbacks into the plot (which I think they should have done) getting as large a chunk of the implied history as possible out of exposition-oriented dialogue should have been a storytelling priority.

-How weakly written was Omega Supreme's moment? Or the introduction of the sparkless? Don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. What if the Guardians were guarding (what a concept) the All Spark, giving Omega Supreme, their leader, the opportunity to engage with Optimus and Megatron in a way that (1) fleshes out Megatron's descent into darkness, (2) provides any characterization for Omega Supreme, and (3) ties up these slap-dash concepts?


But for every implausible leadership decision by Prime (THIS guy led the Autobots for MILLIONS of years??) or scene where Megatron walks away just to walk back in 2 seconds later, or insane deus ex machina that negates the narrative (why center on the importance of the Alpha Trion Protocols if they're just going to be cancelled?), you have really decent character-based surprises: the new take on Bee, the degree to which Megatron's bad counsel corrupts him, Jetfire's arc (anyone else notice his Slytherin-y voice gives way to more of an Autobot one in his last few lines?)...

All in all, a mixed bag. An acceptable one. I'd give it a C or C-.

Really like what Matt said - it wasn't as great as we had hoped, but about as good as I expected.

megatronus wrote:so many of the other complaints would have mitigated if they had just managed to tell a good story.

AGREED!

It confounds me that in an industry who's main concern is "Story" above all other things, they failed to tell a good one. It seems to happen all too often that in an effort to be part of the process that notes from the noncreative executives handed down to the creatives, end up doing more harm than good. Stepping on their very desire to deliver the one thing they hold so dear.

I like some of your suggestions. I feel like any one of them would have helped make for a more compelling story. And now I do wish you had been part of the convo.

Cobotron wrote:

megatronus wrote:so many of the other complaints would have mitigated if they had just managed to tell a good story.

AGREED!

It confounds me that in an industry who's main concern is "Story" above all other things, they failed to tell a good one. It happens all too often. It seems to happen all too often that in an effort to be part of the process that notes from the noncreative executives handed down to the creatives, end up doing more harm than good. Stepping on their very desire to deliver the one thing they hold so dear.

I like some of your suggestions. I feel like any one of them would have helped make for a more compelling story. And now I do wish you had been part of the convo.

Thanks! I also really liked what you said - that they over-wrote the "why should I care."