Twincast / Podcast Episode #77 "Drop The Mic"

Are we not gonna talk about how cool it is that there is a GIF on the news bar?

Sorry, it just blew my mind when I saw it. I vote we use gifs more often in the news bubbles!

I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but here is the most epic "Drop the Mic" moment in cinematic history!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_264840&feature=iv&src_vid=fOk_1ZeSBe0&v=KzANAr1V82c

Fun fact: The other potential title for this episode was "Taco Tank" and the title image would have been something resembling a Taco with tentacles.

Title is kind of funny because I'm not on.

On the subject of watching or downloading something early: You try to harp on those who do this, yet you don't take into the account that maybe we do buy the material when it comes available as well, which I do. I support the TF franchise as a whole and yeah, I downloaded Predacons Rising, and guess what? I'm going to purchase the dvd when it's available. Your boasting how you have connections and got the DVD weeks early and such, and that's ok because it happens to you, and then you go on a rant about how people are not "cool" cause they download a torrent or watch a video on Youtube. Let's put a little more of a perspective on this. I was deployed to Afghanistan when Animated Season 3 was airing. The DVD is yet to be made available and the series has been off the air for what, 4 years, and yes it's coming out this year, but am I such a terrible person for downloading season 3 when I returned so I could watch something that I did not have access to? Just a personal experience which doesn't apply to everyone, but not everyone has access to all the material that the rest of the world may have.

I absolutely hate this guy in this .gif, whomever he is. fuckin lame.

Counterpunch wrote:Title is kind of funny because I'm not on.

"Drop the Mike" was definitely thrown out there at some point.

chaddicus wrote:On the subject of watching or downloading something early: You try to harp on those who do this, yet you don't take into the account that maybe we do buy the material when it comes available as well, which I do. I support the TF franchise as a whole and yeah, I downloaded Predacons Rising, and guess what? I'm going to purchase the dvd when it's available. Your boasting how you have connections and got the DVD weeks early and such, and that's ok because it happens to you, and then you go on a rant about how people are not "cool" cause they download a torrent or watch a video on Youtube. Let's put a little more of a perspective on this. I was deployed to Afghanistan when Animated Season 3 was airing. The DVD is yet to be made available and the series has been off the air for what, 4 years, and yes it's coming out this year, but am I such a terrible person for downloading season 3 when I returned so I could watch something that I did not have access to? Just a personal experience which doesn't apply to everyone, but not everyone has access to all the material that the rest of the world may have.

I think you may have misread the intention of that part of the discussion. Certainly, there are a lot of folks who will: 1) Not watch PR illegally, 2) Watch it illegally and still buy the Blu-ray, and 3) Watch it through illegal means due to lack of access (no HUB network in their part of the country, and no distribution of the DVD in their region/country).

The discussion is not meant to address any of those three types of people. The purpose of bringing it up is that there are without a doubt a large number of folks that would have either watched on TV or bought the Blu-Ray/DVD that now won't because of the leak. An impact on ratings and sales isn't good for fans of the show, as it makes it appear less successful to Shout Factory/Hasbro, who are, let's not kid ourselves, in it to make money, not provide free entertainment.

Okay okay, I'll weigh in on who Dragotron is.

Basically, he both is and isn't Predaking. He is in that he fulfills the same role as Predaking, being the leader of the Predacons. But at the same time, he is not the same physical person as the Predaking character who appeared in season 3 of the Transformers: Prime cartoon.

See, the thing is, season 3 of Prime never aired in Japan, so those events technically never happened in the Japanese version of the show. Instead, a whole new backstory was created for the Predacons to explain their presence in the Transformers Go! cartoon.

In this version, after the events of TF: Prime season 2, the Autobots and Decepticons shifted their battles away from Earth into outer space, where Shockwave came along and then created the Predacons to help fight against the Autobots. But, the Predacons soon rebelled against the Decepticons, and hundreds of Preds scattered themselves across the universe. A certain group of Predacons, led by Dragotron, decided to go to both Earth and to specific locations in the universe aiming to invade them, but the Autobots and Decepticons soon followed the Preds back to Earth and succeeded in defeating Dragotron there. The used the power of a mystical object called a Legendisc to seal Dragotron deep underground, and then both Optimus Prime and his Autobots returned to outer space to continue hunting down the remaining Predacons throughout the universe. But, should the Preds who were defeated on Earth ever return, Optimus has tasked six new Autobots, who are the two Swordbot teams, to remain behind on Earth to protect the planet from the Predacons. The seal on the Preds was eventually broken and so the battles between the Swordbots and Dragotron's Predacons began anew.

As you can see, it's a very different backstory from the Prime cartoon version of Predaking (and the Preds in general). So, while Dragotron most certainly is not the same exact person as Cartoon Predaking, whether you want to see him as just another version of the general concept of TF: Prime Predaking (like how G1 Optimus Prime has a Sunbow cartoon version of himself, a Marvel comics version of himself, a Dreamwave comics version of himself, an IDW comic version of himself, and more versions of himself), or a new character altogether different from Predaking, is completely up to you.

(As an aside, TFWiki currently remains uncertain of his character status, for now keeping the info for both Predaking and Dragotron on the same character page until its ever decided to split the two.)

After all, the little pack-in storyline that comes in the instructions of every "larger-than-Cyberverse" Prime Beast Hunters toy also features a version of Predaking who is nothing like his Cartoon self, being a cruel, savage tyrant instead of the noble patriot he was in the cartoon, but is still considered to be a variation of the Prime Predaking character.


While I'm at it, I might as well go ahead and show you guys something. The following is a thread I created to help make things easier for people who wish to learn about Transformers Go!, and to help them keep up with it as well. There's a description of the series, a glossary of names and terminology, and links to English subtitled episodes all laid out for everyone's convenience. Check it out and see how ya'll like it. Here it is.

Great podcast as usual, although I did miss CP. There is no better TF podcast in the land. Nothing else out there even comes close. Many other TF podcasts out there seem more interested in talking about their wrestling figures, batman figures or video games. Even when the TwincastPodcast goes off topic, it's still on topic! I really appreciate the in depth discussions of the toys we all love. Keep up the great work!

I think it is worth noting that there is another minor/major difference between the sdcc metroplex and the hkacg version besides the decoys. While not unique to the release the hk version comes with the regular retail non foil stickers which when applied does create a unique "deco" of sorts in the sense that you've got the sdcc paint apps (chrome) with retail (brighter) stickers.

For some reason (long story) I have all four releases and as a fan of g1 decos and chrome my favorite is the sdcc. One of the few occasions where the Takara version is not my preference. I've seen the Costco version in store and it seems he is exactly the same as the regular retail version. I'd like to get one and find out for sure though.

chaddicus wrote:On the subject of watching or downloading something early: You try to harp on those who do this, yet you don't take into the account that maybe we do buy the material when it comes available as well, which I do. I support the TF franchise as a whole and yeah, I downloaded Predacons Rising, and guess what? I'm going to purchase the dvd when it's available. Your boasting how you have connections and got the DVD weeks early and such, and that's ok because it happens to you, and then you go on a rant about how people are not "cool" cause they download a torrent or watch a video on Youtube. Let's put a little more of a perspective on this. I was deployed to Afghanistan when Animated Season 3 was airing. The DVD is yet to be made available and the series has been off the air for what, 4 years, and yes it's coming out this year, but am I such a terrible person for downloading season 3 when I returned so I could watch something that I did not have access to? Just a personal experience which doesn't apply to everyone, but not everyone has access to all the material that the rest of the world may have.

Welcome to the site chaddicus. I hope you will continue to listen to the Seibertron.com Podcast. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

While I disagree with watching it illegally regardless of whatever reason a person may have, that wasn't the point that I was making. I was really hot about the people who think they have a right to post the video on Youtube or make it available on bittorrent or however else they have chosen to illegally distribute a video on which Hasbro and Shout! Factory are still trying to make money. The people uploading those videos are who I am upset with. They don't have a right to distribute the video. It hits home with me because I personally know people at Shout! Factory and at Hasbro and I think it sucks in this economy that their hard work to make some money is undermined like this. It's not fair.

Thank you also for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. I don't expect or hope that you guys will always agree with me and I'm also not afraid to speak opinions that are unpopular. Our differences in opinions make for much more interesting discussions here on our forums than if we all agreed with each other. That'd be boring.

JackStraw wrote:Great podcast as usual, although I did miss CP. There is no better TF podcast in the land. Nothing else out there even comes close. Many other TF podcasts out there seem more interested in talking about their wrestling figures, batman figures or video games. Even when the TwincastPodcast goes off topic, it's still on topic! I really appreciate the in depth discussions of the toys we all love. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the great compliments. I'm glad that you are enjoying our podcast so much. There's so much to talk about with Transformers ... I don't know how other podcasts veer off topic so often. I like the comment about even when we go off topic, we're still on topic. That's hilarious and should be one of our tag lines. Maybe jON3.0 can add a new line to our intro or outro

jON3.0 wrote:Seibertron.com's Twincast / Podcast ... even when we go off topic, we're still on topic!

JackStraw wrote:For some reason (long story) I have all four releases and as a fan of g1 decos and chrome my favorite is the sdcc. One of the few occasions where the Takara version is not my preference. I've seen the Costco version in store and it seems he is exactly the same as the regular retail version. I'd like to get one and find out for sure though.

Wow ... you've gone one step further than I will. 3 is enough for me until Metrotitan comes out or some other very drastic repaint. I probably would like that Asian verison though because I wasn't a fan of the foil stickers on the SDCC version. The stickers were a bitch to put on that thing.

kaxblastard wrote:I absolutely hate this guy in this .gif, whomever he is. **** lame.

If someone can find an image that is larger than 1000 pixels that is a better picture of the phrase "Drop The Mic", I'll be happy to change it out. Sometimes coming up with the spotlight image and news image for our podcasts is very difficult. I'm open to suggestions on this one!

kaxblastard wrote:I absolutely hate this guy in this .gif, whomever he is. **** lame.

If someone can find an image that is larger than 1000 pixels that is a better picture of the phrase "Drop The Mic", I'll be happy to change it out. Sometimes coming up with the spotlight image and news image for our podcasts is very difficult. I'm open to suggestions on this one!

Seibertron wrote:

kaxblastard wrote:I absolutely hate this guy in this .gif, whomever he is. **** lame.

If someone can find an image that is larger than 1000 pixels that is a better picture of the phrase "Drop The Mic", I'll be happy to change it out. Sometimes coming up with the spotlight image and news image for our podcasts is very difficult. I'm open to suggestions on this one!

Unfortunately, this is the biggest one I could find:



Best Mic Drop EVER!!

I totally watched Predacons Rising on Youtube, but only because I do not buy physical movies any more and I do not have cable/satellite. However, I WILL be buying the movie in HD legit from either Amazon Video On Demand or Vudu. I don't pirate any more and this will be no exception. I even bought Transformers: Prime seasons 1 and 2 on Blu-ray but since I never actually watch discs any more, even though I own them, I watched them (as well as season 3, which I did not buy) on Netflix. For music, I've ended up not only buying any new music I like from Amazon (DRM-free MP3s for the win ), but I've also re-purchased most of the CDs I own this way simply because digging out all of my thousands of CDs (assuming they aren't too scratched after all these years) to rip them to my PC is a PITA so buying and downloading them from Amazon is just way more convenient and thankfully most of the time the quality/bit rate is acceptable. I stream on Vudu and Amazon, however both services also offer the option of letting you download a copy to your PC so no internet connection is required to watch it (although Amazon artificially cripples theirs by not allowing HD for much of the content on PC, so Vudu is usually superior in that department).

On the subject of Beast Wars, I couldn't agree with Ryan more. Beast Wars resurrected the franchise and was the reason we got a movie in '07 (at least I think so). Kenner not only saved the franchise from a stale G2 death, but they also infused it with new engineering and a vastly different approach to a toyline by setting the new (and still in use) standard for having multiple size classes at different price points. And of course the writing on the show and characterization showed that Transformers could be much more than a toyline with a 22 minute commercial every week. It was a legit science fiction series full of comedy, drama, action and depth not to mention a real sense of continuity, something which was largely absent from the mostly standalone G1 episodes of the past. It's also very strange that it was excluded considering how much of that era obviously influenced what Has/Tak have done with TF:Prime (i.e. BEAST Hunters ) with Predacons (a faction of evil Beast formers) fighting newly reformatted (a-la Transmetal) Autobots and Decepticons.

Regarding the club, I can't wait until they get the Beast Hunters figures, especially the Predacons if only because they can start doing some G1 stuff like the Firecons etc. If they did a TFSS that was nothing but nifty repaints and/or retools of the Beast Hunters Predacon molds, I'd be all over it. As it is, I skipped this year because I only wanted 2 of the figures (both now preordered from BBTS). Subscription 1.0 was worth the price for me since I wanted 4 of the figures (Ultra Mammoth, Slipstream, Scourge and Breakdown) and I was pleasantly surprised with how cool Jackpot looks (I've never owned the Animated Jazz mold before, but it looks kinda badass). I think part of the problem for me is that I've never been interested in the comics at all, and this year's subscription service is very comic oriented. I'm getting Thrustinator and Barricade, but I've got no interest in any of the others. Maybe I'll want that 7th mystery figure once I find out what it is, but I'm not paying hundreds of dollars just to guarantee I'll get a small figure that I *might* end up wanting. If it's that desirable, I'll just snag it from BBTS or ebay.

Someone pointed out to me elsewhere that that timeline that was missing Beast Wars and the Unicron Trilogy might just be indicating which main lines had toys based on licensed vehicle designs, which G1, G2, RiD, and the movies all had (Prime's inclusion is likely just cuz it's what the current line is).

A particular case with RiD involved Side Burn's Super Mode toy requiring Dodge's license and logo put on the toy so Hasbro could release it.

As for why a line like Alternators isn't shown, well, simply put, it wasn't the main line of its time. The UT lines were.

I was mentioned at the beginning! Woooo!

I'm actually intrigued about the discussion that didn't really happen with ScottyP about the 'low points' of MTMTE 21.

Va'al wrote:I was mentioned at the beginning! Woooo!

I'm actually intrigued about the discussion that didn't really happen with ScottyP about the 'low points' of MTMTE 21.

Ah, yeah that really didn't come up in the show much, did want to get into it there or in the review thread but, well, kinda forgot.

It's not a perfect issue, as you've pointed out. The death-not-really-I'm-back gimmick is a little old, I'd rather see serious but obviously not deathly injuries occur that maybe knocks a character out for a few hours or something - achieves the same effect, long term, in the story without feeling cheap. Saving some arcs for the prose was kinda weak (Red Alert deserved better), but at least they got addressed instead of not at all. And yes, 21 was over hyped beforehand. There's only so much that can fit into one issue.

It's been a few weeks being able to digest the issue, and I actually went back and read the entire MTMTE series last weekend again start to finish. As a stand alone issue, 21 is somewhere close to "good enough". As a part of a whole and what it does for the story, it goes from "good enough" to "really damn good" quickly. The decisions made on which arcs to explore and which to handle quickly/in prose make a ton of sense, mostly, and the path of the story is pretty tidily wrapped up while we await the next big arc. Sure, there are some dangling unknowns (The briefcase, the Necrobot's list, what happened to Pharma, etc), but I think the strength of the issue is not as a standalone, but as a wrap up to an arc that wraps up a much larger arc. That's why I was ultimately very pleased with it despite the low points.

Something else kinda neat - Roberts said somewhere (Twitter or a Podcast or somewhere) that Fort Max was supposed to originally die at the hands of Swerve in #6 (or was it 8?) when they blew up Rung's head. Now, in the prose, he was kind of shuttled off as the new enforcer. This shows me there really isn't yet a plan for him, and never really was long term, at least for now, but at least he can be brought back at some point effectively.

Maybe we should just get Roberts on the show Unless of course he costs money. We ain't got no money. We're broke as hell.

ScottyP wrote:Maybe we should just get Roberts on the show Unless of course he costs money. We ain't got no money. We're broke as hell.

Hit me up next time Auto Assembly is around, and I'll get him interviewed on audio.

As for the other points, I can see your argument, but I still think it could've maybe spread across two issues, rather than being quickly wrapped up in the prose stories (which are good, I'm not challenging the quality!).

I just think it's a shame that such a good weaver of plotlines gets garbled up on endings, as the Overlord arc also showed.

I had the same problems with the new Google+ pages. Initially I went with it until it screwed up me using YouTube on my BluRay player. Thankfully I was able to go back and separate the pages and keep my G+ fan page.

Va'al wrote:I was mentioned at the beginning! Woooo!

They should have you and I guest star. That would have people really Wooooing.

Burn wrote:

Va'al wrote:I was mentioned at the beginning! Woooo!

They should have you and I guest star. That would have people really Wooooing.

Heck Yeah! You two should just do an nWo style take over.

I have that RID Cybertron set. I remember having a hard time figuring out how to combine the two properly.

Haven't watched the podcast yet, but watching episodes illegally is the only reason I'm into Transformers at all. Up here in Canada I haven't seen any Transformers shows at all on television. And I've only seen Shout Factory's G1 DVD releases (Which I bought after watching the episodes illegally). However, I look at it this way. These shows are to sell me toys, and attach me to the characters. If I couldn't see (for example) TF Prime legally what would the toys mean to me? In fact it's likely that if I hadn't seen G1 on Youtube and liked it so much, that I wouldn't have bought the thousands of dollars of toys that I've bought. I'm actually surprised that Transformers sell at all in Canada considering that you can't see the shows anywhere. Hasbro should do a way better job showing the episodes to kids so that all of these characters actually mean something to them.

I hope your arms feel better by the next podcast! They must have shattered into a billion pieces from patting yourselves on the backs so hard.

No one thinks they have the right to do something illegal. They do it despite it being illegal.

Now excuse me while I go back to watching Armada on YouTube.

Seibertron wrote:

chaddicus wrote:On the subject of watching or downloading something early: You try to harp on those who do this, yet you don't take into the account that maybe we do buy the material when it comes available as well, which I do. I support the TF franchise as a whole and yeah, I downloaded Predacons Rising, and guess what? I'm going to purchase the dvd when it's available. Your boasting how you have connections and got the DVD weeks early and such, and that's ok because it happens to you, and then you go on a rant about how people are not "cool" cause they download a torrent or watch a video on Youtube. Let's put a little more of a perspective on this. I was deployed to Afghanistan when Animated Season 3 was airing. The DVD is yet to be made available and the series has been off the air for what, 4 years, and yes it's coming out this year, but am I such a terrible person for downloading season 3 when I returned so I could watch something that I did not have access to? Just a personal experience which doesn't apply to everyone, but not everyone has access to all the material that the rest of the world may have.

Welcome to the site chaddicus. I hope you will continue to listen to the Seibertron.com Podcast. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

While I disagree with watching it illegally regardless of whatever reason a person may have, that wasn't the point that I was making. I was really hot about the people who think they have a right to post the video on Youtube or make it available on bittorrent or however else they have chosen to illegally distribute a video on which Hasbro and Shout! Factory are still trying to make money. The people uploading those videos are who I am upset with. They don't have a right to distribute the video. It hits home with me because I personally know people at Shout! Factory and at Hasbro and I think it sucks in this economy that their hard work to make some money is undermined like this. It's not fair.

Thank you also for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. I don't expect or hope that you guys will always agree with me and I'm also not afraid to speak opinions that are unpopular. Our differences in opinions make for much more interesting discussions here on our forums than if we all agreed with each other. That'd be boring.

I haven’t heard the podcast, but just reading these comments I’d like to add another viewpoint. I appreciate that your problem is with those who do this illegaly for the sake of wanting to do companies out of money, and you may already be sympathetic to my views, but if I may just get something off my chest;

I find it absurd that we, as fans and more importantly as consumers, are not expected to want things. Why do Hasbro and Shout! Spend their time and money creating and distributing entertainment if people can’t want it?
Let me explain. I want to watch Transformers: Prime. When I first heard it was coming I wanted to watch it. I’m in the U.K, and yes, we are always behind.
We, as fans, are on the WORLD WIDE web. There is no hiding from things anymore. I wanted to keep up with my friends, this website and the fandom as a whole…so yeah, I began watching season 1 on YouTube. I could have been watching them on the hubs official website, with the same effect…but despite being on the WORLD WIDE web, it’s region restricted.
Anyways, I was about half way through season 1, when it was announced it was coming here to Cartoon Network. I stopped watching You tube, re-watched all the eps from the beginning on CN…only to have it stopped half way through. I think maybe I saw 2-3 fresh eps direct on CN. CN then proceeds to repeat eps 1-13 over and over and over. Season 1 finishes in U.S. I’m still stuck on re-runs. I did everything to avoid spoilers, didn't read any Prime related news. Was a good boy and sat waiting for CN to air the final eps. We all know the big plot point that clinches season 1…and I get it ruined one day on Deviant art by some twit posting a pic of Unicron. Nice.
I’m an artist and a writer. I know the importance of carefully threading and writing a story. Spoilers are not just the nemesis of fans, they can ruin the writers intentions for a story. This may be a weak point, since this is ultimately a business argument, but I also believe in supporting the creative’s behind these stories. I don’t see why their carefully crafted material should be ruined for their intended audience.
Times are changing. The internet has changed how media works, It has changed how we interact with said media and fandoms. I see you are friends with members of Shout! And Hasbro, so I can sympathize this issue is a sensitive one to you personally. These people have the right to make money on their hard work-I do NOT argue or disagree with this. But, if they feel this strongly about the problem, they have to step up to it. They have to as companies trying to sell and market products.
I will be buying predacons rising, I will import the DVD from the U.S, since I have no idea if the U.K will ever get it. I can play NTSC region stuff easily, so why not? I’m not an evil Pirate. I’m a fan, a very enthusiastic fan. (this will however piss off the U.K, as I am robbing the British economy of income. Can’t win whatever you do) They make product, I want it. This is the natural process. If people were agnostic and didn't want product, companies would die. If they provide me a source to buy it I will. Or, at the very least watch on domestic TV, as I have with TF: Prime now (yes, I still re-watched all eps broadcast, even after seeing the you tube vids) Consumers should not be blamed for bad distribution. If these companies are facing walls set up by people bigger than them in regards to international distribution, then tackle them. Don’t just blame us.

Since you know some of these people personally, may I humbly ask that this point of view be presented to them? The Internet is World Wide. The walls don’t exist anymore.And they most certainly SHOULD NOT exist anymore. Distribution of media should not, and need not be restricted anymore. If companies distribute this stuff through fairly priced legal channels with availability to EVERYONE, then this ‘problem’ would be so much smaller.

I can’t say fairer than that.