Archive for July, 2009

Transformers G1 – Episode 6

We come in with Voice Over guy being all dramatic about weapons being bad, while showing a factory.  Inside said factory, there is a poster with Megatron on it, the word “Decepticons” and a yellow bumper sticker on it that says “The Enemy”.  Thanks, that needed clearing up.

Decepticons attack the factory.  Humans have laser guns.  Chip is there.  Convenient.

Optimus drives through the giant hole the Decepticons made in the factory, also crashing through the Energon cubes.  Generally Energon is sensetive and the cubes are prone to leaking, or whatever.  They should have exploded.

Skywarp fires a heat seaking missle at optimus.  He dodges, and it goes back at him.  Transformers generate heat.

Optimus takes a big blast from something in the factory exploding.  He asks Wheeljack to fix him.  Is Ratchet on vacation?

Laser core?  Megatron referenced that twice about Optimus’ life force.  I think later they refer to it as their Spark.

Laserbeak sneaks in, and shoots lasers at Optimus to finish him off.  Optimus gets all sparky, and then explodes!  Seriously, it looked like lava was coming out of his chest. (And then a Commercial, how convenient)  Optimus is still hurt.  They need to replace his cosmotron.  Wheeljack has one… On Cyberton that is.

Spacebridge opens up in 72 billion astro seconds.  Which from the previous episode means 72 seconds.  Let’s see how that plays out.  I don’t know, it seems like they erected the ‘road’ thing a little quickly.  Maybe it’s 72 minutes.

Ironhide shot like an ice laser, and it froze starscream.  They use the spacebridge, and show up on Cybertron.  Chip is with them.  We have to assume that Cybertron has oxygen on the planet, even though I highly doubt Transformers even breath, as half of them don’t have mouths, and I’ve seen them fight in outerspace.

Hahaha, so they’re trying to escape from Shockwave, and on the wall, there just happens to be a backpack filled with liquid nitrogen and a hose on it.  Ironhide fires it at the wall, and it explodes!  A) Ironhide had an ice beam 10 seconds before, and B) liquid nitrogen doesn’t explode.

Ironhide then fires some sticky goop on the floor and Shockwave and another robot get stuck to the floor.

Chip is officially outside of a car.  There is definitely oxygen on cyberton.

Acid rain is a huge problem on Cybertron.  It’s really hurting the autobots.  Chip seems fine with it though.  If there’s acid rain, there has to be a whole ecosystem, lakes, wind patterns, evaporation, which implies a sun or energy source in their solar system, all kinds of things.  Impressive.

I wikipedia’d Cybertron because I thought it was, in itself, a robot too, but I was wrong.  I’m thinking of Unicron, who becomes one of their moons later on.  However, I did learn that the transformers were built by a different species, and the workers became the autobots, and the soldiers became the decepticons, and then civil war broke out.

Back to the show.

Autobots get the Cosmotron for Optimus, and start heading back.   Megatron is already on his way to attack.  Big battle scene.

Optimus is fixed!  Dun DUUUUN dun dun dun duuuun

Classic warriors honor BS.  Optimus challenges Megatron to a battle, and they have to fight alone because it was a challenge.

The fight itself was kind of lame, not as cool as their previous one with the axe and mace.

End.

2 Comments

Transformers G1 – Episode 5

We start off with Starscream as the “leader”, and it looks like they’re attacking the exact same power plant/dam from episode 3.

I’ve lost all hope for humanity:

“Hey, those’s aren’t jets, those are Decepticons!”

Is Soundwave the only one who can make those empty energon cube containers?  Again, it seems like he’s doing all the work.

CJ gets knocked into Brawn, Brawn doesn’t flinch.  He must be tough, like his name.  Kind of like how starscream has his head in the stars and screams all the time… wait… that’s not right…

Decepticons retreat.  Starscream transforms and fly’s off.  Soundwave takes off on foot.  Even though he flew there.

Cybertron is awesome.  Megatron is alive and well, and contacts Starscream and Thundercracke, who totally just kissed MT’s ass, by saying something about how they can’t fail under his leadership.

I think Starscream just said “Leadership my sine function”, but I could be wrong.

Megatron tells them to meet them in 5 billion astro seconds.  Assuming it looked like he warped there in 5 seconds, 1 billion astro seconds is equal to one earth nanosecond.

Chip arrives at a facility with Bumblebee.  Oh, Wheelchair guy! Chip!  Yay!

Security guard enters a secret code on a panel, and the camera decepticon (what’s his name? TriPod or some shit?) gets the code by taking pictures.

Apparently there’s an Anti-matter formula in this building.

Hah, Chip gets a copy on a 5 and a quarter floppy.

BB has pink seats again.  I guess I’ll accept it as the norm.

Car references as insults: Manifold Mouth, and Crank Cases.

The other car with Jazz is totally voiced by Casey Casum.

Anti-Matter forumla = Unlimited Energy?  Hrm.

Megatron calls the Doctor guy a Flesh Creature, and the doctor uploads the file to Chip (and I guess deleting it on his end at the same time?)

Oh, it’s Prowl that’s with Jazz.  Chip’s last name is Chase.  Chip Chase.  Wow.  And now he’s in control of Prowl for some reason, like a video game?  I’m confused.  Anyway, Chip’s a super genius.  Before Ravage gets to Chip, Chip has memorized the formula and ripped up the floppy.

Soundwave is a mexican who’s crossed the border into America.  He’s working WAY to hard, and I hear the Decepticons don’t even offer dental.  Anyway, like always, he has to do everything, and extract the data from Chip’s mind.  The writers of TF2 had to watch this episode, because the same thing happened to Shia “Meat” Lebeuf.

MT: “Now Soundwave, activate the master computer”  Argh, quit working Soundwave, go on strike!

The other autobots pour out of the back of Optimus’ Trailer “Knight Rider” style.  Megatron throws antimatter at them and it explodes.  Commercial.  Everybody’s fine, they’re just banged up.  They transform and their windsheild’s are cracked.  And whichever one the #4 car is looks pretty bad too.  Optimus however looks fine.

Teletraan is the name of the ship or just the computer on the ship.

Two autobots flew up to greet Thundercracker.  Starscream knocked one off, and now they’re both using the parachutes to go back down.

So, in two scene’s (three if you count a previous episode) there’s been an autobot that looks like bumblebee but has a black helmet/head.  Mistake or real autobot?

Big fight ensues.  Megatron absorbs some antimatter energon cubes and becomes super powerful in gun form.

Hahahahaha, Brawn is brawny.  So, Starscream is firing Gun Megatron.  There’s a ravine (that’s conveniently the height of Brawn) seperating him and the autobots.  Optimus transforms and drives towards Starscream.  To get over the ravine Brawn “tosses” Optimus over.  Optimus only manages to knock Gun MT out of Starscream’s hand.  ”Skywarp! Get the Anti-Matter gun!”  Hey Starscream, that’s Megatron, not the Anti-Matter gun.

Humans!  Stupid puny meat sacks!  That’s me saying it, and not a robot.  Spike runs up with a jackhammer (cordless, or gas powered, eitherway I’m not sure those exist at all, let alone able to do any damage to a robot that’s 4 stories tall) and starts to use it on Skywarp.  Idiot.

Megatron dumps the antimatter energy out, it’s unstable and they get damaged.  They retreat.

Again with the Blackhead Bumblebee, then immediately they show Bumblebee after him, so I’m sure they’re two different autobots.

That concludes episode 5.

So, in my quest to find the Blackhead BB, I learned that I was spelling Casey Kasum’s name wrong.  Sorry buddy.

Okay, it’s Sunstreaker, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Autobots-universe.jpg, on the right.

2 Comments

Transformers G1 – Episode 4

Welcome to episode 4!

So, the previous three was actually the pilot (parts 1, 2, and 3).  So, now we know the networks liked the show, and voila, the Transformers were there every saturday morning for our enjoyment.  Accuracy and complete character developetment don’t have a lot of merit in the pilot, so the real action starts now.

So!  On with the shenanigans.

The intro is funny, because it’s just them running around and shooting lasers, or standing still and shooting lasers.  Did you see TF2?  I don’t think I saw a laser in that whole movie, just a lot of explosions.

I love the voice over guy, who has to recap what’s happening.

Cliffjumper immediately screams “Lookout! Decepticon!”.  It’s just a rock formation (which I’m guessing he’s seen every time he walks out of the ship?)  Optimus and Ironhide are standing below it and rubble falls.  Good going CJ.

Oh, and at the end of the last episode, the decepticon ship crashed into the water.  Now Ironhide mocks CJ because “we put them at the bottom of the ocean months ago”.  Now I know where TF1 got the idea to put Megatron at the bottom of the ocean.

The depticons have built a Sealab structure from their ship wreckage.  I’m guessing they don’t rust, ever.

Meanwhile, Shockwave on Cybertron sends out a message for Megatron.  After 400 million years he’s still groveling at Megatron’s feet.  Why didn’t you send rescue missions dumbass?  Oh, and they start talking like he’s never been gone!  And megatron wants to be ruler of the universe, not just Cybertron.

Spike is riding in Jazz, and they get stuck in a traffic jam.  Whenever I’m in a traffic jam I always daydream about having a flying car, or a car that can lift up and the wheels can go around other cars; I guess having the car be a robot would be equally as nice.

Gears looks funny.

Wow, I actually had to rewind this part to make sure it actually just happened:

So, Optimus and Co. see that Megatron is alive and well, and he’s draining energon from the “Solar power plant” (Yeah, like those exist.  Reagan didn’t stop at the white house when he removed the solar panels).  Obviously they go to stop them.  Instead of busting through the door, or a wall, they have to be ninja’s and jump through the plate glass window that’s on the roof.  They went through the trouble of getting ON the roof, to jump down into it.  They have no regard for the janitors who are going to have to clean that up.  And who the hell puts a window on their roof?

Haha, CJ is pathetic.  Talks big at Megatron, punches his leg once (because he’s half his size), then Megatron swats him away.

And now CJ goes after Starscream!  Somebody has issues.

Gears looks REALLY funny.  I want to laugh every time I see him.

There was an Optimus/Megatron battle in there too.  Optimus is pretty nimble.

Ironhide took a bullet for Optimus (Soundwave fired Megatron in gun form) and Ratchet is doing surgery on him.  Outside.  I’m glad they don’t have to be sterile or anything, and no anesthesia is needed.

Is Megatron “in gun form” really more powerful than “normal” Megatron and the gun thing on his arm?  It seems like the same power could be harnessed just through his arm.

Oh Spike, I’m surprised you don’t die (unless you do, nobody ruin that for me *shakes fist*)  Optimus has Bumblebee spy in the decepticons, and Spike volunteers to help, like he’s going to a Kiss concert or something.  What is wrong with the humans?

I need to stop pausing it and writing, I’m only a third through this episode.

Shockwave talks about Space Bridges!  Yay!  Only works for 11 minutes though, probably a power thing.

Bumblebee’s seats are pink.

SS/MT bickering:  Starscream says that Megatron’s space bridge was stupid, and that he’s going to find a way to do it himself.  Megatron says No, and Starscream doesn’t say another word.

And I called it, BB and Spike are in deep shit.  And how do you fall down a cliff if you’re trying to drive forwards?

BB: How are we going to get through this?
Spike: By the skin of our teeth.

Really Spike?  What are you going to do?  Nag Megatron to death?  Write in your diary journal some more?  BB points out that he didn’t know human’s had skin on their teeth.  It’s not a great saying to begin with, but him using it right now was even worse than normal.  A) Transformers don’t have Skin.  B) Transformers don’t have Teeth (that I’ve seen anyway.  The Fallen had some teeth in the movie I think, but nobody else really does.  Do Transformers even eat?  Or do they just drink Oil and Energy?)  Anyway, Spike is a retard, and his Dad, ‘Sparkplug’, has failed as a father.

HAHAHAHA, so they’re stuck in a transportation thing that will take them through the space bridge to Cyberton.  The first two cars were failures (they use the term “they’ve been aborted”, but that’s something you do BEFORE it fails.  You can’t abort something after it fails.)  Anyway, Spike says “blah blah Change blah blah” and BB is like “That’s It! Change”, changes into the car, and busts out of the car thing.  BB may be stupider than Spike.

This keeps getting better.  They’re both escaping, BB in car form, and Spike on foot.  Ravage is chasing them down a canal, and Spike is still running, and keeping up with, Bumblebee.  You know how retarded people have the strength of 10 men?  Spike instead has the legs of 10 men.  Or BB is being slow for no reason.  Get in the car stupid!

Starscream: “My null ray will stop you squirming for a while”

Oh Starscream, I bet you say that to ALL the ladies.

Also, if Transformers do have sex, Starscream probably gets laid way more than any other transformer.

Guh, Bumblebee is now mind wiped, and tells the autobots some information HE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE TOLD THEM ANYWAY.  ”They’re going to send Spike to Cyberton!”  Sparkplug says “Wait a minute! They’re not going to send my kid anywhere!”  Then why did you let him leave in the first place!  Parent of the year everybody.

Oh, okay, Bumblebee gave them fake information.

Now they’re trapped in a cave, and fighting.

Starscream fires a laser, Jazz rips up a stalagtite (or mite, the one that ‘grows’ up), and Ken Griffy Jr’s the laser, sending it back at him.  So, we can discern that these aren’t really lasers, but more generalized energy weapons.  Not that a Stalag-thing should be able to hit one back.

Soundwave is about to call Ravage, and Ironhide actually touches him.  I think that’s the first time I’ve seen SW in an actual fight.

… Megatron’s left fist goes inside his arm, and out comes a saw blade, which he then throws.  It creates a lot of smoke and allows Optimus to get behind him.  Then a laser thing comes out of Megatron’s left arm.

Anyway, the space bridge is ready again, MT orders SS to blast open the wall they created in the first place, they get out, and them MT goes Gun form, and SS shoots him and closes it back up again.  At least they weren’t born in a barn.

WTF?  I can’t go 10 seconds without having something else dumb happen.  Ratchet fixed Bumblebee, and Optimus asks him where the Space Bridge is.  ”I remember!  It’s by the Riverbed.  In the Desert”.  Again: Riverbed, Desert.

It takes three autobots with lasers to open the hole (Yeah Megatron, you really did due diligence to make sure they’d never leave that cave).  So, one Starscream laser equals three Autobot lasers.  That might be important later, but probably not.

Holy shit.  Optimus twists the nozzle of his gun, and he’s a fucking SNIPER too!  That was some Green Beret shit right there!  So spike is in this vehicle thing, and the laser first opens the roof/window thing (it’s all one piece) [and it opens nicely, like a button was pressed or something, nothing explodes].  Also, Spike is strapped in (like he was wearing a backpack or something, just two over his shoulders).  Optimus shoots each strap to free Spike.  To recap: Optimus hit a moving target, three times, two of which could have possibly killed Spike if he was a quarter of an inch off.

Oh! Megatron is caught in the bridge!  Starscream claims that MT is dead, and that he’s the leader now.  They retreat to base.  (Also, when he claimed he was the leader, another Starscream [same color] stood next to him, and they both turned their heads the same way at the same tmie, smooth move Animators)

Megatron makes it alive!  It’s a miracle!

The end.

This would probably work better as a Podcast, or a Vid-cast, as I’m finding that there’s a lot to complain about.  At first I just wanted to complain about the physics aspect, but the plot holes are more awesome.

Though, I’m sure there’s some legal stuff that would prevent me from showing every episode of The Transformers on my site, haha.

2 Comments

Transformers G1: EP3

Jenny and I are watching the 90’s X-Men cartoon here and there as well because she bought the DVD’s.  Their “recap” is like ten minutes long and it covers everything.  I’d just like to point out again how much I love the fast paced-ness of all the 80 cartoons.

On with the show!

I’m not sure if Roller is an actual Autobot.  Anyway, Prime rolled down a hill, and is now in pain and having trouble transforming.  He sounded like he was having an orgasm.

Sparkplug: “Wheeljack wasn’t kidding when he said the bomb would blow in 60 seconds.”
Wheeljack: “59.99 to be exact”
This isn’t K-Mart.  Keep the explosion timers on even numbers.  Wow.

More on flying: Decepticons are faster than autobots in the air [Source: Optimus].

A decepticon teleported behind Ironhide and Bluestreak.  The beginnings of the space bridge technology seen in TF:Animated and TF2?  Or maybe just his ability.

Optimus just called Ironhide “Hotshot”.  Y’know, like in sarcastic terms “Thanks captain obvious”, etc.  He needs to be careful though because with all the names, Hotshot could definitely be a real Transformer name.

Spike on a cliff again writing in his journal.

They pull the ‘ol “Reveal a fake plan in front of the enemy” tactic, and leave the key behind ‘On accident’.  Apparently Ravage has opposable thumbs, because he was able to turn the key.  Also, you would think futuristic robots would have a better holding cell than just some iron bars 100 yards from their ship.  Y’know, maybe something cozy INSIDE their ship?  Idiots.

Also, I keep calling them futuristic, but it makes me kind of cringe because I realize that they’re 400 million+ years old.  When I say Futuristic, I mean “More advanced than humans”.

I might just record all the Starcream put downs.
SS: “Right on schedule, aren’t we!” (After the good news about fake energy that the Autobots made Ravage listen to)
MT: “No thanks to you!”

Megatron makes it clear that he knows Starscream is after his position as leader of the Decepticons.  Starscream says that “It’s time for change”.  Barack Obama may infact be Starscream in disguise.  That would probably make McCain Unicron.

Wow, Megatron knew that they let Ravage escape.  Smart man.

Car pun: Optimus said “Go ahead Megatron, you’re in the driver’s seat.”

Decepticons are attacking Cape Carlson Air Force Base.  I’m going to wikipedia to see if it’s a real base.  Nope, fake.  Whatever, it’s in the middle of the mountains anyway.

One of the guards sounded like he was voiced by Casey Casum.  Could be wrong.

Soundwave says the course for Cybertron has been plotted.  I thought they didn’t even know where they were?

Slow mo transforming.  Bumblebee was a little F’d up.  Had a black helmet, then a second later had his normal yellow.

… Starscream points his gun at something.  Spike throws a rock (I dunno, smaller than a basketball).  Apparently throwing it at a billion miles an hour, knocking his gun off his arm.

Optimus takes Sideswipe’s rocketpack.  Catches up with the ship.  Gets shot down.

The physics of a any ship leaving orbit has to have a large amount of force below it.  They were basically already out of the atmosphere when Optimus caught up with them.   He couldn’t have gotten anywhere NEAR the ship with a stupid rocketpack.  Also, he gets shot down, again, almost out of the atmoshere, possibly out of, falls ALL the way down, and he’s fine.  But an explosion forces him to roll down a hill?  Oh, get the medic!

Starscream’s attempt #2, in the same episode, to take out Megatron.

Soundwave seems to be doing all the work.  He should be the leader.  ”Soundwave, do this” “Soundwave, do that”.  Megatron is a broken record.  Do something yourself.

Mirage jumps from the ship, and guess what, he has a parachute!  Flying: Zero, Parachute: One.

Spike and his journal, again.  ALL the governments AGREE to give the autobots all the energy they need to get back to cybertron?  Wow.  As a kid, I wouldn’t have thought about that ever again.  As an adult, and with the relatively little knowledge I have of the inner workings of the world’s political systems, I have a hard time with this.  Robots from a robot planet are more believeable as a whole, than that one statement.

Episode 3: Fin

1 Comment

Transformers – G1: S1E2 review (Bonus S1E1 recap)

I’ll start by saying that I love transformers.  I started watching the 80’s cartoon after seeing the 2nd movie when it came out a couple weeks ago.  I’m by no means an expert on the subject, but these will be my ongoing thoughts on the cartoon as I watch.

Episode 1:

400 million years pass after they crash on earth.  Though they don’t know how long it’s been, Megatron doesn’t care, he’s still going to drain the planet of energy and go back to Cybertron (Who, after 400 MILLION years has probably long forgotten about the whole crew, though maybe not since they’re all immortal [in the sense of not dying from age])

It was my understanding that the Autobots didn’t fly.  Maybe they just don’t because it wastes energy, but apparently they can do it at will.  Megatron attacks an oil rig and starts stealing oil.  The cartoon was made during the Reagan administration, but the writers were probably still feeling the effects of the Carter administration.  I’m glad oil isn’t a problem in today’s society.  Oh wait…

Episode 2:

Spike is on a rock writing about how awesome the robots are.  Soundwave is spying on him (being the master of disguise he hides behind a rock).  As spike approaches, he transforms into his famous cassette player, and spike picks it up.  Two problems.  First problem, the Soundwave the cassette player is about 100 times smaller than Soundwave the robot (megatron and his gun have the same problem).  This wouldn’t be a problem if he retained mass, which is possible, so I’ll give him that.  Second problem.  Spike reaches down, and picks it up.  Soundwave probably weighs, what, at least two tons?  Rough guess.  Wikipedia didn’t have an answer to that.  But Spike picks it up like it’s nothing.  Like it was the plastic toy I had growing up.  That’s not the worst part though.  He brings it inside the Autobot’s base, and just puts it up on a shelf, like it belongs to them.  Good going Spike, you just planted a bug in the base.  Moron.

While in the base, alone, Soundwave researches Earth’s resources from the Autobot’s computers.   If the internet existed he would have had an easier time.

Now Megatron is going to create a tidle wave to overthrow a dam or something.  Wha?  Oh, he’s using Rumble.  I could see that.

Haha, so now the dam’s meter’s are going into the red.  The puny human’s are freaking out, and their solution is to smack the machine’s with an open palm.  Brilliant.

The 3 part camera decepticon is bad ass.  I’m pretty sure I had his toy.

Optimus: “Autobots, to the power plant!”
*Autobots fly 10 feet into the air and start shooting*

Was that speech necessary Optimus?  And again, they’re ALL flying.

Compressed energon cubes look like neon pillows.

Super battle! Optimus wields his energy axe, and megatron has a flail.  I love the idea that the more futuristic the concept, the more it borrows from the mid-evil era.

Megatron fly’s off, still with the Flail… flailing, he looks like a helicopter.

Did I mention I’m writing this AS I’m watching, yeah, you’re getting a play by play.

I love how when they’re in water, they can’t just fly away, they have to catch a rope.

Ooo, the ruby crystals of Burma.  The richest source of energy ever.  Now Megatron is yelling at Starscream for testing the energon cubes.  He actually had a point.  They could have collected all this energy, went back to Cybertron, and it not interface with their weapons.  Grow up Megatron.

This is rich.  Spike and his dad are riding in one of the Autobots.  The dad jokes that “Spying is way better than working the oil rigs” (as they had just gotten info that the Decepticons were going to Burma).  I’m sure the Autobots are paying your Mortgage, douche.  His codename is Sparkplug?  Pfft.

Side note: I love love love how fast paced these old shows were.  These new shows now a days take so long to develop, each of these old episodes is like a season of a new show.

Wow that’s a lot of ruby crystals.  Is the core of the planet made from Ruby?

Confirmed, the dad’s name is Sparkplug.  Not only is he an oil rigger, but he’s worked the mine’s of Burma before.  Bumblebee drives him to the entrance, he gets out, and they both walk in…

There’s 30 different types of Starscream’s.  Animators are lazy.  It’s the same with video games.  There’s a normal Orc, then of course there’s the purple one, and the orange one, etc.

And that was episode two.  *claps*

No Comments