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Transcript
O: Welcome to the AfterSpark Podcast, an episode by episode recap of the original G1 Transformers cartoon. I’m Owls!
S: And I’m Specs!
O: And we’re here to talk to you about giant robots. Or at least, we will be! This is actually our intro. What we’d like to do is recap all of generation 1 because it is full of glorious, glorious cheese. Delightful, cheesy goodness and honestly we just want to talk about it, because it’s fun.
S: Yeah
O: And we just wanted to introduce ourselves and kind of our experience with fandom and what things we like before we got into actually talking about the episodes. You should be able to check out our actual first episode the same time we post this. So if you’re like, “Hey, I don’t really care about any of this stuff,” it’s cool, I get it. The other episode’s over there. It’s fine, we’ll see you in a few minutes. For the rest of you that are sticking around, allow us to introduce ourselves. We’ve been friends for nine (9) years.
S: Mm-hmm.
O: Uhh, we went to college together. We were both in art degrees so we like art and comics and media and all that junk.
S: Yep, yep.
O: We’re also neighbors that live in the same building, so one day I was like, “Hey, hey, Specs, want to talk about giant robots?”
S: And I’m like, “Yes!”
O: So here we are, getting ready to talk to you about giant robots, hopefully. We are both first time podcasters, and a shoutout to my husband Chezni for helping us out with sound, so hopefully we don’t sound like complete shit while you’re listening to us. Hopefully it’s a little bit slightly, well, cultured shit -
S: [Laughter]
O: -Or at least our sound quality doesn’t sound awful, because that’s a big deal in podcasting. One of my biggest inspirations was the Jem Jam, which is another podcast that does episode by episode recaps of Jem and the Holograms, which is another Eighties (80’s) Hasbro-
S: -Franchise.
O: Thank you. That is equally ridiculous in vastly different ways. Mostly involving the Eighties (80’s) and music and hair and fashion and all these lovely things.
S: And Soap Opera Drama~!
O: And Soap Opera level of drama. It was also delightful. Go was the show or listen to the podcast because it is completely ridiculous and highly entertaining. But! Something I noticed when I was trying to kind of look around at Transformers podcasts was that I didn’t see anything that quite had that same vibe of just a bunch of friends talking about something ridiculous and I really wanted that and realized it wasn’t there and thought, “Eh, maybe we can do that?”
O: And yeah, that’s what we’re trying to do.
S: So. Hi, I’m Specs. I’m been, uhm. Oh, this feels- [sigh] - This feels like I’m in a support group.
O: [Laughter] Welcome! Tell us how Transformers has affected your life. Tell us, Specs! Tell us!
S: Eh, I got into Transformers in like 2002-2003 and I got into it with fanfic. Because of course I did. So much fanfic over the last, like, sixteen (16) years. Oh my god. [huff of laughter]
O: She has quite a collection downloaded.
S: I save things. Habitually. After, uh, there was the great ezboard wipeout of, like, 2005. So, I got into fanfic. Or got into Transformers through fanfic basically I’d been poking through the Medabots thing [category] on fanfiction.net and oh. This person who wrote this thing that I read has also written about these other robots. And I was like, “Ok, let me check this out,” and I had no idea what was going on, so I was like, “I’m going to read through this entire category or at least look through, find whatever the heck looks interesting and then read it,” and that was like 4000 things [fics/works] in the category at that point.
O: Which is significantly less than what’s in there now, I do feel the need to point out. But!
S: I still went through that, and yeah there was a lot of stuff. Yeah, there’s actually still things I really like that I read way back when but basically that was my first exposure to transformers. My first complete canon experience was the G1 [Marvel] comics, but US and UK runs. So I’ve read the entirety of that and I think I read that before 2003 was done, so before 2004. I’ve still got it. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it. Basically, my dad bought a CD, two CD’s actually that had scan of the comics and that’s how I read it and that’s my complete G1 comic experience.
O: So accidentally pirating. [Laughter]
S: [Laughter] Kind of, yeah.
O: Not intentional, but, uh, y’know.
S: Yeah, and then I ended up on the Padded Cell, which was like the- the major sort of transformative fandom hub at the time? A lot of the stuff you see in fanfic now came from people who were on that forum from like 2000-2008. It wasn’t really the hub of anything anymore as things shifted to Lifejournal and [later] Tumblr, People moved away from forums and into, y’know-
O: Other social media accounts.
S: Yeah
O: That were easier and, y’know, they didn’t have to keep servers up and all that junk.
S: Yeah, but it was- it was neat, because I got to see a lot of the fandom stuff, like evolving firsthand, but, uh, so yeah. My fave G1 characters are Ratchet, because I really thought that he was the main character-
O: [Stifled laughter]
S: - in the comics for awhile, because, like, everyone is frigging, like all the Autobots are frigging out.[Laughter] LIke really quickly after they wake up and Ratchet’s just off doing whatever with Buster and then he has to do like a blood-fuel? Pact with Megatron-
O: [Laughing]
S: [Laughing] -and it’s weird. Yeah.
O: I have no frame of reference for any of this.
S: Well, maybe you will soon.
O: She’s lending them to me. Oh no.
S: And then there’s Dead End because like the first DVD’s that I got- I got the second half of season two, and was like, “I like lIke Dead End’s voice, oh no, he’s depressed. Let me hug this- hug this poor robot and so I got the entire. I have an entire, like, complete original G1 Stunticon toys. Set of the G1 toys with all of their combiner stuff. Never actually got around to combining them because I’m lazy and I was more interested in the characters themselves than in Menasor. So yeah, I’ve got those and I’ll bring them up to show them to you and I’ll bring the Alternator Dead End up, too
O: Yes, show me more toys!
S: And- And Wheeljack., which I don’t have an original Wheeljack toy, but I do have a Wheeljack Alternator. Basically G1 sort of got me on the kick for medics and scientists. I like most of the medics that pop up in various series. And yeah, so, favorite overall character is Ratchet and Rescue Bot Blades, who is coincidentally, the Rescue Bots medic. [Laughter]
O: He was before he got turned into a helicopter [laughter]
S: Yeah
O: Which is a great out of context thing to say.
S: Yes, it is.
O: Blade’s is adorable!
S: Like all of the Rescue Bots characters are adorable and you should watch that right now. Go watch it.
O: It is better than it has any right to be. I know, you’re sitting here going- if you haven’t seen it already- why would I watch something that was made for preschoolers? It is written better than it has any right to be. I do not know why, I don’t care why. It is actually quite good and very entertaining even if you’re an adult and you like transformers.
S: It’s got some of the most consistent writing out of any of the shows, like they knew what they had to do, they worked well within the guidelines they had to work with. Like, no one can die, no one can be seriously injured.
O: Right. Because preschoolers. Right.
S: And so it doesn’t have any of the weird tonal inconsistencies that sometimes Prime could get and it wasn’t, like, canceled like Animated was.
O: [softly] Yeah.
S: [sighs] And then Rewind. He’s basically kind of a librarian, and I think. Just Rewind and Chromedome are really neat. I like them both. I like most of the IDW characters.
O: They’re very, very good.
S: Mm-hmm. Favorite series: IDW G1, especially phase two. My favorites are Lost Light and More Than Meets The Eye. I still have a really soft spot for the original G1 comics, cuz they’re the first things that I read.
O: That makes sense.
S: Mm-hmm. And so, let’s - let’s go over to Owls.
O: Hi! My name is Owls. Uh, so in contrast to my friend, I’ve been in the fandom for three months, maybe. It all started a fateful day when I watched someone on YouTube talk about Beast Wars. I had the sneaking suspicion of I vaguely liked Beast Machine’s growing up? Didn’t remember anything else and thought, “Hey! I should watch Beast Wars!” This was my first mistake. At which point I, ah, messaged Specs and I was like, “Hey! You’ve got a copy of Beast Wars, right?”
S: Yep, mm-hmm.
O: And she did, and I watched it and then I rapidly ascended into Transformers madness. And I now lie at the bottom of a ravine getting buried by toys, comics, and various amounts of DVD’s.
S: Yep. Ones [Comics and DVD’s] that I’ve mostly lent you, but… [Laughter]
O: Mostly. I did buy Beast Machines, because she didn’t have it and I wanted to watch it and I have Opinions™. I have Opinions that I won’t get into right now. But I have opinions.
S: You also have Beast Wars.
O: I also bought Beast Wars, but that’s because it is my favorite Transformers thing. SO I’ve probably watched about six different animated series, uh, and the Bay movies and now I know enough to hate the Bay movies. Oh my god! I didn’t know before but now I do. [Laughter] Now I do.
S: Now you know the pain.
O: Now I do, yes. My desk is rapidly accumulating Transformers. Help.
S: [Laughter]
O: We’ve got Grumpy Desk Raptor, and we’ve got 99.9% Done-With-Your-Shit-Rodimus-Grandpa, and smaller, more murderous Desk Raptor. I’ll leave it you to figure out who those three are. [Laughter]
S: I like your desk raptors-
O: My desk-
S: and grumpy grandpa.
O: I-I-I collect grumpy, grumpy characters. This is going to become a theme. Ah, my favorite characters are Dinobot from Beast Wars, who is AWESOME! And I’m so mad he doesn’t show up in anything else! But I guess I should be happy he’s alive in the IDW comics and presumably in a good place?!
S: He’s in the Christmas ep- He’s in the Christmas episode, basically.
O: There’s an adorable panel, it is my life. Ahem. Anyway, so Dinobot from Beast Wars, Lost Light Megatron, which, if you’ve not read the comics, I won’t tell you we’re going to be spoiler free here, but I also don’t want to like be blatant about it so, he’s really well written and I really enjoy him and there’s a very, very obvious reason for that if you’ve read the comics. I also really like Transformers Prime Ratchet, who is just a serious Mood. Uh, he, y’know, is trying to do his job and then he’s like “What the hell are all these human children doing here? And you’re breaking my shit,” And honestly, that’s kind of how I feel most days if I’m around children, yeah.
S: And then he takes over their science projects, because of course he does.
O: Transformers Prime, though I love it, has some weird tonal issues.
S: It does.
O: We’ll get to that eventually.
S: [Softly] It does.
O: I-I feel like I have to do some honorable mentions for pretty much any version of Soundwave, Grimlock, and Starscream in existence. Except for Grimlock from Car Robots or the 2001 Robots in Disguise, because he doesn’t really act like Grimlock. Regardless, they’re all delightful and I love them. And that basically sums up the characters I like for G1 pretty well, which is Soundwave and Grimlock are probably my favorites. Uh, I also rather enjoy Perceptor and I enjoy Megatron for the pure, pure delightful camp factor. [Laughter] He has no redeeming qualities and I love him.
Both: [Laughter]
O: None. So obviously, I have been here for, oh, three months. I know nothing about fandom. I really wanted to do something to get involved, and was like, “Oh dear gog, I can’t draw robots, I don’t really think I feel competent enough to post fanfic,” and I thought, ‘By god , my executive function must surely be worth something.’ And then I decided to put together a podcast, because through the powers of organization, anything is possible.
S: It is, it is. [laughter]
O: And here we are. Through the power of organization. That being said, ah, with us doing this podcast we really wanted to try to put some emphasis on fanworks and fanart and so what we would like to do with the episodes we release is recommend a fanfic and maybe some fanart with our episodes because Specs has been in the fandom for so long she's got this great stash of ~vintage~ transformers work. Not all of it we can share because some of it’s been taken down and we don’t want to post something without the original authors’ permission or it being posted somewhere, but basically we’re hoping we can give you some good fanfics to kinda go with the theme of the episode . So, should be fun. That being said, if you’re got recommendations for fanart or fanworks-
S: Or questions, or complaints. I’m our complaints department for the record.
O: You can shoot us a message. You can find us on Tumblr. We are AfterSpark-Podcast on Tumblr and you can find other methods in which to contact us there. All that being said, I think we’ve kind of come to the end of our intro here. Hopefully you’ll come join us on our delight ride
through generation 1 and the waves of pure cheesiness we are about to embark on, because trust me, we are.
S: Our delightful ride on jousting jets.
O: A delightful ride on jousting jets. Just wait for it. Um, well, this is Owls!
S: And Specs!
O: Signing off. Thanks for listening to AfterSpark Podcast.
S: Toodles!