"The Transformers: The Movie" (1986) with Nicholas Pepin

Tim Williams: The year was 1986. For millions of kids, life was simple. You had your breakfast cereal, your Saturday morning cartoons, and your favorite semi truck hero who stood for truth, justice, and the auto-bot way. But then Hollywood decided that simple wasn't enough. They decided to take our childhood heroes, throw them into a feature length, heavy metal space opera, within the first 20 minutes, break every kid's heart in the theater. It was the movie meant to sell toys, but it ended up becoming a Shakespearean tragedy wrapped in chrome and neon. So check your energon levels, get ready to roll out, and whatever you do, don't let go of The Matrix, as Nicholas Pepin and I discussed Transformers the movie from 1986 on this episode of the 80s flick flashback podcast. Welcome in everybody. So glad to have you on the show. I am your host Tim Williams to tackle a movie this massive I needed a co-host who knows his Cybertronian lore and isn't afraid to face the wrath of Unicron Returning to the show is a man who always brings the touch and the power to our discussions He's the host of pop culture roulette and a true titan of 80s nostalgia. Please welcome back to the pod Nicholas Bevin. How you doing Nicholas?

Nicholas Pepin: Well, I have watched the wrong movie. I was prepared to talk about Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, so...

Tim Williams: ⁓ Wrong decade. Wrong, very, very wrong decade.

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ No, no, I'm ready to talk about the traumatizing film that was the 1986 Transformers.

Tim Williams: Yeah, ready to jump into this one. So let's just go. So, all right, you know how we do, how we start the show. When did you see Transformers, the movie from 1986 for the very first time?

Nicholas Pepin: Now, see, this, I'm struggling. I knew this was the question you were going to ask. I've done enough of these, these episodes that I genuinely don't remember. I was such a big Transformers fan. I know in boxes in the basement down here, I've got Transformers from the eighties. Um, I don't remember going to see this one in the theaters though, which is, which is hard because I was such a big fan. I, there's no way I wouldn't have made my parents take me.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm.

Nicholas Pepin: but I don't remember them taking me to see it. Maybe they knew or saw something in the review of like, Hey, this is going to traumatize your, this is going to be like, you know, but I mean, I know I watched it. I know, you know, was one of those that I definitely saw like as soon as it was available to rent. I, I have a hard time believing I didn't go see in the theaters. I just don't remember. Of course I would have been eight. So

Tim Williams: This could be traumatizing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, see, I'm kind of like you because I don't think that I knew this movie was in the theater at all. Like I, this, I found out about this movie like years later. So like, I don't remember. And I think maybe if I, even if I saw the VHS, I just thought it was like a collection of like the TV episodes. Cause I watched the cartoon. I had, I had a few of the toys. We weren't quite, you know, Transformers rich as we said as a kid. I was more go-bots. I'm not we could I got a four more go We could afford my go more go-bots than ⁓ Transformers, but I had friends that had ⁓ That had a few of the toys and so but I was a huge fan of the cartoon. So ⁓ I'll be honest. This was I think this was my first time watching it watching it for the podcast I don't think I'd ever seen it before I just it was just never on my radar. And so when I started the podcast

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓

Tim Williams: And I kept seeing like Transformers, movie, Transformers, the movie. like, I thought this was just like, I didn't know this existed. It would just, it for some reason just wasn't on my radar.

Nicholas Pepin: Well, on my list of future topics I have is 80s movies that traumatized children. ⁓ This one and Neverending Story are top two of that list. There are other ones, but the 80s specialized in not just ⁓ making great movies, but traumatizing children at a young age. ⁓

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I think 80s movies told us as kids, like, life is not fun. It's gonna suck. So here you go. Get ready for heartbreak, kid, because it's coming. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I would say in my list, it was like, you know, we've talked about how a poltergeist traumatized me in other ways, but ET, man, ET like broke me as a kid. Yeah. Yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah. So. ⁓ yeah, would be on that list as well, yeah.

Tim Williams: which is why I haven't covered that one yet. I'm not sure if I'm ready to watch it again. I've seen it a couple of times. It's not quite as traumatizing now, but yeah, we'll get to it. Well, how long has it been since you rewatched it for the podcast?

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ I mean, it's probably been, you know, 88, 89, I don't know, whenever they would have aired it on TV. And I was still watching the Transformers cartoon. Yeah, I mean, it's been a while. This is not one that I've revisited in a long time.

Tim Williams: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like I said, first time watch for me, so I don't have any rewatching. This is a first time watch, which I have a few of those on the podcast, so it fits. But I knew that going in. was like, I think this might be my first time seeing it. So all right, well, let's jump into our newest ⁓ side venture, our newest category on the podcast, Risky Quizness, which is my title that I've given for our little trivia game about the pre-production of casting and pre-production of Transformers the movie, which being an animated movie is a little bit more interesting to follow. But I got five true or false questions. Nicholas, you're on your own. You have no team to pull from, but I think you can do it.

Nicholas Pepin: Alright, let's find out.

Tim Williams: All right, here we go. We're gonna start at the top. True or false? Number one, Leonard Nimoy was cast as Galvatron because the producers wanted a Spock-like performance. True or false?

Nicholas Pepin: False.

Tim Williams: You are correct. That is false. While he was cast for his gravitas, he actually took the role because he was a friend of the director, Nelson Shinn, and actually wanted to play a villain. Which I could see that. All right, number two. The script originally called for the death of every single character from the first two seasons of the TV show. True or false? Yep. The directive from Hasbro was to clear the shelves to make room for the 1986 toy line. The writers had to keep a few survivors.

Nicholas Pepin: True.

Tim Williams: It's crazy, crazy, crazy, Yeah. Yeah. All right, he's doing good. Number three, Scatman Crothers, who voiced jazz, recorded his lines while he was filming Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, and we'll get there, we'll get there, but that was, ⁓ yeah, that was the choice. false.

Tim Williams: You are correct. This is a common timeline mix up. The Shining was actually in 1980 by the time Transformers was in production. Crothers was sadly in the final year of his life. I think he passed away either right before it came out or right after. So, all right, he's got over the halfway point. See if he can bring it all the way home. Number four, Judd Nelson who voiced Hot Rod was cast immediately after his success in The Breakfast Club.

Nicholas Pepin: Ooh, now I have to remember when true.

Tim Williams: That is true. The producers wanted Brat Pack star power to appeal to the older kids and teens who were actually aging out of the toy line. All right, here we go. See if we can get a clean sweep. five, the character R.C. was almost cut because producers feared a female transformer wouldn't sell any toys. True or false? Yeah, despite her prominent role in the film, an R.C. toy didn't actually hit shelves until decades later.

Nicholas Pepin: But that would be true.

Tim Williams: because of this initial executive pushback, which I think is completely crazy.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, it's so ridiculously stupid to think that's how people thought back in the day, but you know, whatever. It is what it is.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right, Nicholas, you cleared the board 100 % got it right. So good job. Let us know how you did, if you played along with us and leave us a comment or send us a message on ⁓ social media. So cool. That was a good one. So yeah, the pre-production is pretty much what we kind of covered. ⁓ It basically came, they wanted to sell toys. They knew that there was a popular, the cartoon was popular. but they really wanted to like create all new characters. They wanted the movie to be all new Transformers and they wanted to kill off everybody from before that. Like who thinks making a cartoon where you kill off all of the characters is a good idea? And actually they realized what a mistake it was to, spoiler alert, kill off Optimus Prime early in the movie because they just thought of him as a toy and didn't realize that kids looked up to him as like an authority figure and like they got reports of like parents having to carry their crying kids out of the theater during screenings and they were like, ⁓ my god, what have we done?

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, and see, that's where I'm thinking that maybe ⁓ those reports must have made the news or made the newspaper. And my parents were like, yeah, we're not going to take him to see this one in the theater. We're going to wait. you know, and I don't know if you have in your notes or not, but it affected them so much that when they did the G.I. Joe movie a couple a little bit later, they actually re scripted part of it so that they didn't kill a bunch of G.I. Joe characters as well.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, it could be. Yeah, I didn't have that on my note, so I'm glad you brought that up. yeah, but yeah. But, you know, we'll get into box office a little later, but it didn't do well in the theaters, which is probably why I don't really remember it that much. It kind of got swallowed up by too many other like family friendly movies at the time. And it just I think I want to say at that point, they were starting to lose some of the, you know, a lot of their number one fans were kind of aging out, becoming teenagers, and they may not have wanted to go see the movie, but looking back, like watching it, I was like, man, this would have been so cool to see the theater. it's a fun movie to watch. I mean, it's like the cartoon, but on steroids. it's like, I was expecting a little bit more like even keel and a few action sets sections, but it's like nonstop from top to bottom. Like there's very little like...

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah.

Tim Williams: pause in the action and even the soundtrack like keeps it moving pretty well.

Nicholas Pepin: I know I've told this story before, I don't think it was on your podcast, but ⁓ I was a huge fan of Voltron as well. And when Cartoon Network was like, bought that, we got the rights to Voltron, we're gonna re-air it. I went out of my way to either set my DVR or set my VCR, I don't remember the timeframe. And I watched the first episode and I was like, I can't. I must, I can't.

Tim Williams: Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm.

Nicholas Pepin: I have to leave the memory of Voltron where it was because this cartoon is so bad. ⁓ When rewatching this movie, I'm like, I actually want to go back and watch the cartoon. Like the animation and the style was not like, it's not so like heavily eighties that you're like, ⁓ I'm just going to leave my memory where it is so that I can have the good memory. But yeah, it was like, wow, like, yeah, this is, I mean, it brought back the warm and fuzzies, you know,

Tim Williams: Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm, I think another thing that hurt it is it took I want to say it took like almost two years To for that for the animation they were saying like it would take I Should have wrote it down like they had to like double the amount of animators from the TV show for the movie and I want to say like it would take them up to nine weeks to do one like 20 minute episode So to have to, you know, thinking about how much time it would take to do the movie while they were still making the show at the same time was like, you know, it was a huge undertaking, ⁓ which.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, because that was back in the day before computers were really advanced enough to do a lot of the like the just, you know, the background stuff or, you know, yeah, everything was still pretty much hand drawn, but.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's not quite as clean. Yeah, yeah, it's not quite as clean as I thought it was gonna look like it and maybe it was just the version that I watched even though I watched I think I think I watched the 4k or the HD it wasn't terrible but there were a few parts where it like it was still a little it wasn't quite as clean as I thought it was gonna be.

Nicholas Pepin: I watched the version that was uploaded to YouTube.

Tim Williams: Hey, that's probably I didn't pay in for mine, but was it was a pretty cheap rental. So. All right, well, let's jump into the cast. And this is I wanted to keep it short, but this cast is like super stacked with people. Yeah. Yeah. Which is another reason why, like, how did I not know this movie existed? So all right. Well, let's let's start at the top with Judd Nelson as Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime.

Nicholas Pepin: Ridiculous.

Tim Williams: Of course, we talked about after he was in the Breakfast Club, which caused the associated with a group of actors known as the Brat Pack. In the late 80s, he starred in other Brat Pack films, including St. Emile's Fire in 85, which we covered. Blue City in 86, and had lead roles in From the Hip in 87, and Relentless in 89. So yeah, we've talked about him on the Breakfast Club and on St. Emile's Fire, so I'm not going too deep into his filmography, but yeah. I mean, for the character he played, he was fine. I mean, I... He doesn't have that distinctive voice. He's like, ⁓ that's Judd Nelson. Like, I really couldn't pick him out too quickly when I was watching it.

Nicholas Pepin: If I hadn't seen his name in the credits at the beginning, I'm not sure. Like as soon as I heard it, I'm like, ⁓ yeah, that's Judd Nelson. But like, like I saw the name in the credits, so I knew he was common.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Right, right, yeah. There were a few names that popped up like, oh, I have to listen for that. Like Leonard Nimoy, like I didn't think of him being, you know, one of the voice actors. you know, his voice is definitely distinguished. talking about distinguished voices, there's a guy talking about Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime. Of course, he voiced Optimus Prime in the original animated series, later returning to the role in the 2007 Transformers live action movie. He has also voiced many other characters across the wide variety of popular media, including Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh franchise, Monterey, Jack, and Chippendale rescue rangers, and the voice of Carr in Knight Rider and the vocalizations of the title character in Predator. So yeah, first voice of car, which I'm assuming was like Kit from Knight Rider, but.

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ I think car I think car was the bad one Yeah, I think I think yeah cuz I think kit kit was was the one that run around with Michael Knight and then car was the evil one that was like I Can't remember all that There was just he was like the first version and he got shelved and he I don't it's been a long time since I watched night writer

Tim Williams: ⁓ is that what it was? Okay. That could be right. Yeah. Yeah, I vaguely remember that now, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. And that's one of those like, too, like I remember when they, what was it like? Ooh, that's probably like 20 years ago. They were doing like the night. They tried to reboot Knight Rider for TV and I was like, ⁓ I want to go back and watch the old episodes. And I watched like a couple. was like, I just can't. just, once again, the memory is better. Like it's so cheesy. So.

Nicholas Pepin: Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Williams: But yeah, but I mean, Peter Cullen is awesome, you know. So just wanted to say his name again. All right, and then we got Lion. You got anything else to add about Peter Cullen? Okay.

Nicholas Pepin: no i don't know it's like the city of colin a couple more times to say it

Tim Williams: Yeah, Peter Cullen, man. All right. And then we got Lionel Stander as Cup. I only mentioned him because he had an extensive career in theater, film, radio and television that spanned nearly 70 years. He was known for his distinctive raspy voice and tough guy demeanor. Moving right along. Robert Stack as Ultra Mangus. definitely are Ultra Magnus. There you go. Ultra Magnus. Yeah. His is a voice that I definitely know. I mean, of course, Unsolved Mysteries is, you know,

Nicholas Pepin: Holy ultra magnus.

Tim Williams: what trauma, another traumatizing thing of us for us as kids, seeing him come out of the smoke in his trench coat and tell you about, you know, who got murdered and we don't know how it happened or who did it. So we just covered him, of course, in our airplane episode earlier this year or so, but great. And it was funny to hear him like in this character, like saying some of the lines he said in this movie. like, had to be fun for like this, you know, serious actor. He, of course he'd done like the airplane, kind of like.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah.

Tim Williams: playing a comedic version of himself, but here he's really getting to like chew up the scenery with the ultra Magnus character.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, I mean, it's just, I have this vision of him sitting in the studio going, what do you want me to say? Just say the line as it's written. What is this? We paid you already, just say it.

Tim Williams: Right. Yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah. I think that was probably a few of them were like that. Like, what did I sign up for again? Oh, yeah. OK.

Nicholas Pepin: let me just look at that check how many zeros does it have in okay, ⁓

Tim Williams: Right, right, right. Yeah, give me the line again. Speaking of people that came on for a paycheck and didn't know what they were talking about, Orson Welles as Unicron. His first film was Citizen Kane, 1941, which he co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in as the title character. He has also been consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. He have directed 12 other features. The most acclaimed include The Magnificent Ambersons in 42. Othello in 1951, Touch of Evil in 58, The Trial in 62, and Crimes at Midnight in 1966. Of course, he's most known for the War of the Worlds radio adaptation in 1938. If you don't know about that, you can Google it. We had to study it in elementary school, I think. But yeah, but a little fun fact here, director Nelson Shen and the historic consultant Flint and Dill. have confirmed that Orson Welles had a very hard time recording his lines due to his failing health. Most of his lines included labored breathing and heavy wheezing. considered most of Welles' dialogue unusable, but put the recordings through a voice synthesizer to give Welles' voice a clearer, more ominous tone. According to Shin, Unicron's onscreen voice is an enhanced, synthesized version of Welles' voice.

Nicholas Pepin: It was still pretty recognizable as Orson Welles,

Tim Williams: Which is probably one. Yeah. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Once again, I think, and there's a quote where like, he said he would come home and his family would ask him like, so how's the movie you're filming? He was like, yeah, today I blew up something. And yeah, he like, he had no clue what he was talking about. It's like, yeah, I'm a big planet that eats another planet or something like that. Like he didn't really understand his character. just was reading the lines, so.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, I feel like it was very much like Marlon Brando in Superman. Just say it. No, I'm gonna do this other thing instead.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Hoo boy. Yeah. I'm just thinking about the Marlon Brando stories from Superman. What did he say? He wanted to portray it like an avocado or something crazy like that. A bagel. Yeah. Yeah. I can't remember. So outrageous. All right. Here's the name I did recognize. Frank Welker is Megatron, the merciless Decepticon leader. He also voiced Soundwave, Frenzy.

Nicholas Pepin: Bagel, I can.

Tim Williams: rumble-wheelie scrap heap and youthful rebellious junkie-in. Welker is best known for voicing Fred Jones from the Scooby-Doo franchise since its inception in 1969 and later the character himself since 2002. In 2020 he reprised the role in the animated film Scoob, the only original voice actor from the series in the film's cast. He's also known for voicing Garfield from the Garfield franchise from 2007. But yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: and pretty much every cartoon ever he has had a roll on.

Tim Williams: Yeah, yeah. mean, I've seen his name in probably so many cartoon credits. I can't even keep track. But yeah, and of course, talked about Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron. Of course, he's most known for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise. He also directed a few movies like Through Men and a Baby in 1987. It's Leonard Nimoy and it's Spock. mean, what else you gonna say? It's who it is. All right, moving along. Susan Blue voiced R.C. She's also known for playing the roles of Stormer, Mary Phillips, and Lindsay Pierce in the 1980s animated series, Gem. She also served as a casting and voice director for Handy Manny, for which she also guest starred as Marion. There you go. For your next trivia night. Who voiced Marion on Handymanny? Susan Blue. There you go. And then we've got Neil Ross as Springer. He also voiced Bonecrusher, Bulldozer. I mean, Bonecrusher was the Bulldozer hook. ⁓ Slag and the Dinobot Triceratops.

Nicholas Pepin: Okay.

Tim Williams: ⁓ He's noted for his transatlantic accent. He also provided voices in many American cartoons, most notably GI Joe, Spider-Man the Animated Series, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Voltron, and Transformers. He's also been a radio announcer or voice roles for many movies, including Back to the Future Part II, Babe, and Quiz Show. And my favorite reason why I put him on here, he is the voice of the whammy in the classic game show Press Your Luck.

Nicholas Pepin: I've never thought about who the voice of the whammy was, but now I know.

Tim Williams: ⁓ Yep, so and congratulations you're on both episodes that we've talked about the whammy from Pressure Luck because going all the way back to Better Off Dead Savage Steve Holland was one of the animators of the original whammy so

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ yeah. That, man, it's just we can't get away. Maybe we should just go on pressure. Maybe we should just go on pressure luck.

Tim Williams: We can't get away. I really want to, I want to go on Pressure Luck. I keep saying I'm gonna audition and I keep checking anything out. I'm gonna have to do it. So, ⁓ but yeah, I love Pressure Luck as a kid and like I have to watch it when it's on now. So, all right, ⁓ I'm going to skip a few of these that are just, there's so many people that were like standard animated. voice actors, I'm gonna kinda skip over those and go for ones that we knew from other things. ⁓ The one that I definitely picked up on, absolutely out of the gate. I did not know his name, but it's John Moschita Jr. as Blurr, the fast talking, high-strung Autobot soldier, but he's also known as Motor Mouth or the fast talking guy. He was an actor, singer and spokesman. He's best known for his rapid speech delivery. He appeared in over 100 commercials as

Nicholas Pepin: Haha, yes.

Tim Williams: the Micro Machines guy and in a 1981 ad for FedEx. So that's what I knew him from the Micro Machines commercials for sure.

Nicholas Pepin: Yep. Yep, absolutely.

Tim Williams: And then somebody else I knew, Eric Idle as Rekgar. Of course, he's known for ⁓ the Monty Python sketched series, Flying Circus, the films Holy Grail, Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life. Yeah. He's been in other movies, including National Lampoon's European Vacation we've covered, Ventures of Baron Munchausen, Nuns on the Run, Splitting Airs, Casper, ⁓ Ellen Enchanted, and Shrek the Third. But yeah, Eric Idle. I knew his voice, the other one I knew right off the bat. Yeah. And then I think the last one I'm gonna mention, oh no, I got one more after this one, but the late great Casey Kasem was the voice of Cliff Jumper. Of course we know him as American Dish Jockey and radio presenter who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, the most notably American Top 40, as well as the weekly syndicated TV series.

Nicholas Pepin: Immediately.

Tim Williams: He also voiced Shaggy in Scooby-Doo, which of course I knew, and he also voiced Dick Grayson and Robin in Super Friends from 1973 to 1985. Yep. He'll always be the voice of Shaggy to me. Like, when I found out that he was the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, like I couldn't listen to his radio show the same way after that anymore. So. And then the last one we have, mentioned already Scatman Crothers as Jazz. He was known for playing Louis the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man. He was also in The Shining in 1980. ⁓ He was a title character in Hong Kong Fooey and Scat Cat in the Disney animated film The Aristocrats. Aristocats, sorry. So yeah, but yeah, I recognized his voice. He's another one with a very recognizable voice for sure. So anybody that I missed or skipped over that you had in your notes.

Nicholas Pepin: no, no, they, mean, other than Orson Welles and Eric Idle, there was not really just, I mean, there's just so many names that you've already mentioned that you're just like in 1986, they weren't really like, other than maybe Disney and Disney wasn't even doing the big, the big name stars then that was, that was, you know, cause I, remember I was just a conversation that I was having recently where like,

Tim Williams: Yeah, right, right.

Nicholas Pepin: People complain about like, all these animation things. They only hire big name actors anymore. Voice actors don't get the work anymore. And I was like, yeah, well, let's go back to 1986 and say it started at least then, if not before. Cause like none, like other than Peter Collin and a couple of the other people, like none of the people from the cartoon were doing the voices of the characters that were in this movie. Like

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And there's actually.

Nicholas Pepin: And then when they went back to the cartoon, they went right back to the voice people who were.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think there's even there was even some trivia. I may have it on my notes later on, but like there's some characters that you see, but they're like their their lines got cut. So some of they still had their names in the credits, but they cut their lines. But there's so many characters in this movie and it's moving in so many different, you know, places like it was kind of tough to keep up with some some points. So so I could see how being tough to kind of keep everybody everybody together. for that. So what about favorite character? mean, of course, Optimus Prime is all is going to be everybody's favorite from like Transformers altogether. But from the movie specifically, was there a character that stood out to you as your favorite or most interesting?

Nicholas Pepin: I mean, this time it struck me the T-Rex whose name is escaping me, but like the DinoBots, I've always liked them anyway, but like, I mean, I remember the series of episodes that created the DinoBots, so like having them included in this one, but like I just, found them to be humorous and amusing to me this time around. ⁓

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah. So like, you know, like when they were trying to get, they're like, get on the plane and they're like, no, like get, get on, get on the ship. Like, on. Like just that, that scene was really funny to me. ⁓ obviously the weird Al song.

Tim Williams: Yeah, yeah. Yes, and it was crazy because I was like, are they for real playing Weird Al in this movie? Like I had no idea. And then when I got to the chorus, I was like, that is Weird Al, wait a minute, what? Like that was not expecting that at all.

Nicholas Pepin: There is a small part of me when I was watching this movie that was like, wait a minute. My obsession with Weird Al, I think started around the same time this movie came out. So there might be a small link between Transformers, the movie and Weird Al in general, because I mean, I definitely had the Dare to be Stupid album that they, that he, I didn't, so I don't know if he did the song for the movie and then he just threw it on that album.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm.

Nicholas Pepin: Or if they were like, we really like Weird Al, let's just figure out how to put this song in a movie. Because it made no sense for the scene. None whatsoever. But I mean, it was fun. I mean, that whole the whole Rekgar motorcycle people were weird. you know, it just. But yeah, but there's definitely a very small chance that these two things were related to each other.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. No, it didn't at all. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: either either weird out was introduced to me from transformers are transformers and i were like yes we got weird out

Tim Williams: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so for me, like my favorite character was actually Eric Idle's character. I just loved that he was like, you know, he learned English from like TV. So all this dialogue was like mixed with like commercials kind of stuff. So that was that was funny to me. So I like I liked his character. I would have liked more of his character in the movie. But yeah, but like I said, it was so many different characters. It was kind of hard to keep up. some at some points. All right, well, let's talk about iconic scenes, favorite scenes. So if somebody said to you, think we're going to say the same thing. Transformers, the movie, what's the first scene that you think of? The death of Optimus. Yeah. Yes.

Nicholas Pepin: I mean, come on. It's the thing that has become the meme. It is the death of Optimus Prime. It's the thing that anybody wants to talk about when it comes to this movie of like, why did you think in your wisdom killing the main character of the show, the center of your show, was a smart idea? I know that they're like, we gotta sell more toys, but like...

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nicholas Pepin: Just introduce more toys.

Tim Williams: Right. And he had to been like the top selling toy they had at that time, or at least in the top five.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah. I, yeah. Now see, I had a lot of transformers, but there were, there were tiers of transformers. There were the little, there were the little ones. I had a lot of them. I didn't have the top tier ones like Optimus, any of the big ones, like the, bigger ones are like the train, like the Astro train set. My friend had that stuff.

Tim Williams: There were. Mm-hmm. Exactly. No. Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓ yeah,

Nicholas Pepin: You know, Omicron, like the big, like the play sets that the other Transformers could like interact with. I had the little ones that came in the blister packs. Like I had a couple of the mid level ones, but mainly I just had the small ones. And a lot of GoBots, but.

Tim Williams: Right. Right, right. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. had a friend. Yeah, I had a lot of go-bots. ⁓ I had a friend that had Optimus Prime, and that was the one that everybody wanted to play with. Like everybody wanted to go to his house and play with Optimus Prime. And he got played with so much, he was like really loose, like you pick him up and like his legs were like dangle, like it wasn't like stiff anymore. ⁓ And the other one was the, I can't remember the name of the character, but it turned into like the Walkman, like the cassette player, Soundwave. Yeah. And so.

Nicholas Pepin: the Sound wave. Yeah.

Tim Williams: I remember one of my friends got that and he wouldn't let anybody touch it. It was like you could look at it but you couldn't touch it. ⁓

Nicholas Pepin: If memory serves, didn't he actually work as a Walkman or okay? Yeah

Tim Williams: Yeah, yeah, but it was like mini tapes. I don't think it was like a full-size cassette. It was just like those mini tapes.

Nicholas Pepin: Okay, yeah. because you had the tapes that could transform, but then you could also put real tapes that...

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah, if that memory serves me correctly. Yeah, I think somebody had Starscream. I think I remember I vaguely remember playing with Starscream once or twice.

Nicholas Pepin: I think I had I remember, I think, I don't know if I had Starscream or the Starscream knockoff that was like the red jet that was basically exactly Starscream but painted different color.

Tim Williams: Painted different, yeah, and $10 cheaper.

Nicholas Pepin: I might have had both actually, but you know.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. So definitely that's the iconic scene. What about favorite scenes or any scenes that stood out to you as like favorites?

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ I mean, there, there were just, there were things that stood out to me, but not necessarily because they were favorites. Like, I mean, there, there's not having not seen this movie in like 40 years. Well, not quite 40 years, but you know, pretty close to it. Like it just, there wasn't anything like, ⁓ I mean, obviously, you know, Optimus Prime dying, traumatized a kid. And as an adult, you're just like, why would you do this? ⁓ you know,

Tim Williams: Yeah. Right. Right. Right.

Nicholas Pepin: hot rod becoming Rodimus Prime. ⁓ The random like three or four faced robot that would like throw people in the robot shark tank where robots would die. I that I mean a lot of just nonsense that you're like, this doesn't make sense to me. How does this work? ⁓ I don't know if you have it on your notes or where you're going to go with this stuff, but

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: We need to talk about Unicron in general.

Tim Williams: Okay, let's talk about it.

Nicholas Pepin: Okay. What do you have in your notes for Unicron? Because there was something that stuck out to me immediately that in 1986 would not have stuck out to me.

Tim Williams: Let me see. I don't have a whole lot of trivia, only because there was so much that I was reading through and I was just trying to like pull out like smaller things, I guess. But yeah, go with it. Whatever you got, me.

Nicholas Pepin: Okay. So the first thing that pops into my head is they straight up stole from Galactus. this was, Unicron was Galactus. And I was like, when did Galactus come out? Maybe it was like, you know, maybe one should know Galactus came out in 1966. Like there's no way that the makers of, of that Hasbro and the people who were making this movie did not immediately go and like,

Tim Williams: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm.

Nicholas Pepin: Marvel had to be like, you did what now?

Tim Williams: Yeah, yeah. Well Marvel was part of this too, wasn't it?

Nicholas Pepin: Well, I don't remember when Marvel started making the Transformers cartoon or comics. So I don't know, because it was one of those that Marvel would have licensed Transformers. wasn't something that they they. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, it was I mean, there's no there's no way around it. I mean, the makers of this movie straight up stole the whole concept from from the Fantastic Four.

Tim Williams: Yeah. True, true. Yeah, wasn't, they created. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nicholas Pepin: I mean, and I couldn't find anything that said directly like one way or the other whether Marvel was like, okay with it or they were just like, it's not worth it.

Tim Williams: Yeah, I I don't think they were, don't think IP was as big of a thing then as it is now, where they would have been like, you can't do that, that's our character. They were probably like, ⁓ okay, there's some similarities there. Maybe it'll get people to read our comics, because know, Marvel wasn't the powerhouse then that it is now, for sure.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah. Yeah, not true. Yeah. And it's probably just different enough that Marvel could be like, well, you clearly stole it from us, but we can't do anything about it. Because ours is just a big giant guy. Yours is a transforming planet, you know.

Tim Williams: Yeah, we can't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. If you would have called it Galacticon or something like that. We're like, I think we got a case.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, Galacticon, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's just the idea of like watching like in the first couple minutes like a bunch of the characters dying Then optimus dying then starscream dying and I guess in a sense megatron died. They just brought him back immediately as galvatron uh, like it just it was Such a bizarre Set as choices. It's choices that I think even today you'd be like, oh we want to sell new toys, but We are just repackage optimus prime with a new coat of paint or a different

Tim Williams: Alright, we win. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah, or you would you would send though you would send like those characters off like Separately like they're gonna go do something for during this and we're gonna introduce these new care like have them kind of set up the new characters and then just kind of like We've got to go take care of this on this other planet You guys take care of earth where we're gone and kind of give them their story without kind of like killing them off

Nicholas Pepin: function and say, this is Optimus Prime 2.0 or something or, know.

Tim Williams: But then too, know, nowadays we think about long-term. So you're not gonna kill off your main characters because you want them to team up and like how Marvel does it now, like bring them back for, you know, other installments. So definitely different, a different ⁓ mindset of moviemaking back then for sure. But once again, like I said, the whole idea of this movie was not entertainment necessarily. It was just, got it. We wanna sell more toys. and let's just put it all out in a big movie instead of trying to space it out over a season of the TV show.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah. Well, and then, ⁓ then I watched a quick little YouTube clip, like, cause after I watched it on YouTube, YouTube was like, you want to watch all this other stuff. And it was like, you know, why did, why did hot rod fail or why did Rodimus prime fail? And they were like, not only did people like just not connect to the character and they immediately changed it, like not immediately, but pretty close to immediately brought Optimus back in the cartoon. ⁓

Tim Williams: That's my thought anyway. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Nicholas Pepin: Like they made the Hot Rod toy like 100 times cheaper than the Optimus Prime toy. And it just, didn't have the function and like the color and like people were just like, ⁓ like maybe if they had made a better toy, people would have been like, all right, well, we can get down with this, but they made such a ⁓ crappy toy that it just did. People were just like, ⁓

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I could see that you're making money, you're gonna make them cheaper and sell them more expensive for the name and make them cheaper so they're not gonna last as long. That's why Gen Xers don't trust anything. It's not as good as used to be. All right, well let's jump into some scenes, some trivia, maybe think about some other scenes. I don't really have a lot of favorite scenes, like I said. It was fun.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah.

Tim Williams: but it's almost a blur, like trying to go back and think, like after I watched it, if you would have asked me to like explain what happened in the movie when it was over, I probably would have got lost like three or four times. Like, well, I think, when did that happen again? Well, there were, these guys were doing this, but I can't remember that guy's name. Like it was just so much like thrown in there, but it was fun. Like the soundtrack was cool, the music was cool, the action was good, but yeah, I just didn't, I didn't have a lot. to latch onto as like a favorite scene. So ⁓ I mentioned earlier about many Autobot and Decepticon characters were completely absent from the movie's plot. Sideswipe, Blue Streak, and Inferno are never mentioned or seen in the movie. IDW Publishing published its own adaptation of the film in 2006. This includes extra scenes such as a battle between the missing combiners and Omega Supreme at the arc and shockwave and reflector being destroyed by Unicron. So I did read there's like a couple of different versions that are out, like they were able to pull like different foot, like older, different prints and different footage, which I think was another issue with the movie. Like it was. it was kind of put together kind of not very well when they sent it out. So, ⁓ the big thing was they actually, ⁓ I can't say film, but it's animated. But the original print was TV size, so was standard size. But the trailers said, the Transformers in widescreen. So they initially had to go back and actually just chopped off the top and the bottom of what they had created to make it widescreen. But I think they said now, like they've restored it back to the original, like, you know, standard, but I was like, that's crazy. So.

Nicholas Pepin: You

Tim Williams: But yes, Marvel Comics did publish a three-issue comic book adaptation written by the karate kid himself, Rob Macchio, and drawn by Don Perlin. And the comic Autobot City is referred to as Fortress Maximus. The character and toy of Fortress Maximus would not be introduced until nearly a year after the movie's release.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah.

Tim Williams: Yep, I don't have much trivia here. It's my last little thing here. We talked about the music on the soundtrack. The band who sings the songs in the soundtrack called Nothing's Gonna Stand In Our Way and Hunger is listed on the soundtrack credits as Spectre General, but the band's actual name is Kickaxe. A-X-E. When the soundtrack was being assembled, they thought the name Kickaxe sounded too threatening, so they listed them as Spectre General instead. The band was not notified about the change. ⁓

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, again, something you could do in 86 that you could never do today.

Tim Williams: Right, right, right. And then of course the greatest song ⁓ from the movie, The Touch, performed by Stan Bush, was actually inspired by a line in the movie Iron Eagle and was originally written for the movie Cobra with Sylvester Stallone, but made it here instead. So, The Touch. All right, anything else, anything you had in your notes you wanted to talk about?

Nicholas Pepin: I got, I got, well, I just was looking through my notes. There was one thing that stuck out and that I, and I, and it could be something that came from the cartoon, but it's been so long since I've watched a full episode of the cartoon that it just, it didn't, I don't remember it, but Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons is a gun. When he transformed, like he's big, he's big, he's bigger than most of the Decepticons. When he transforms Starscream uses him as a handheld gun.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I remember that.

Nicholas Pepin: What's first off? Why is the leader of the Decepticons becoming a handheld weapon for the, the, the jerk number two guy, which that's pretty weird, but like the fit, like optimus is big and he stays as a big truck. Jazz is, you know, big and he just stays as a Porsche Bumblebee, you know, as a Volkswagen bug. Like the proportions all tend to stay the same. Megatron.

Tim Williams: Right, Yeah. Mm. Yeah. ⁓

Nicholas Pepin: It's just, it was like, what is happening?

Tim Williams: Right, right, yeah. Depth perception is really bad in this, yeah. And I had similar thoughts, like when they're, you know, it's a scene of them all, like they're flying a bigger ship than them. And I'm just like, your brain, like as big as Optimus is already, like there's something even bigger that he can like sit down in a pilot seat. And it's not like it's a small cockpit, like there's like 10 feet above him in that, you know, in that scene. So I was like.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah.

Tim Williams: And then they're walking around and there's no sound. Give Michael Bay a little bit of credit for the Transformers. When the Transformers walk in the new movies, it shakes the ground, it leaves imprints. In the cartoon, it's like metal hitting metal makes no noise at all. You can sneak up on anybody.

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ very very good rubber shoes

Tim Williams: Sure, Yeah, and I will say I didn't like how they transformed. Like there's not a lot of, and once again, maybe because I've seen the movies much more, it's more detailed, but it's like, it almost like it gets crumbled on the sides and it just folds into whatever the car they're turning into. Like there's no like real transforming. Like that was a cool thing where the toy was like. it was almost like a puzzle, like trying to put the pieces in the right place to fold it down. So the cartoon didn't really do that very well.

Nicholas Pepin: yes because i i definitely had one or two transformers that once they transformed i i don't remember them ever going ever going back so i don't remember how to how do i if i i'm gonna break this thing if i move it back

Tim Williams: Going back. Yeah, right. Right. Right, why won't this piece fit? I don't think it came with any instructions either. You just got it and you figured it out.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, pretty much. But yeah, well, I mean, I think, again, that has to do with animation from the early 80s compared to animation, because if they were to make well, and I haven't watched it yet because I just I don't know. I just have. that Transformers one movie or Transformers Spark, whatever the animated movie, the one the animated movie that came out a couple of years ago, I bet you they're transforming is way better. But it was, you know.

Tim Williams: ⁓ for sure. Yeah. Haven't watched it either. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ for sure. Yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: not necessarily completely CGI, but a lot more ⁓ computer assistance.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was just, yeah, it's like, I wanted to get excited about it, but every time I saw the trailer, they always played it like right after they played the trailer from Mufasa. And I'm like, these are the same movie. The two villains were best friends. This is before they were enemies. I'm like, y'all could have spaced this out a little bit more than putting them out at the same time. So yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: Ha

Tim Williams: I didn't see either one. haven't seen Mufasa and haven't seen Transformers one either.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, haven't seen either. My wife said Mufasa was ⁓ awful. And she loves The Lion King and all of The Lion King stuff. But she came home and was like, that might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Mm-hmm. I didn't like the live action remake of the Lion King. That was the most, I was so disappointed. Like I took Hannah, my daughter to see it when she was little, she was excited and we were both like, what are we watching? Why are we watching this? Like, why even make this? It was terrible. Our hot takes that aren't so hot. Cause most people will agree with this. All right, let's hop into box office. ⁓ When Transformers the movie hit 990 US screens.

Nicholas Pepin: You Yeah, probably.

Tim Williams: On August 8th, 1986, it struggled to find its footing. The film debuted in disappointing 14th place, earning just $1.7 million on its opening weekend, falling behind movies like About Last Night, which had already been out for over a month. By the end of its run, the film grossed a total of $5.8 million, making it only the 99th highest grossing film of the year, just made in the top 100. The lackluster performance is part of a larger financial headache for Hasbro. The toy giant lost $10 million in 86 due to a failing partnership with De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, DEG, which distributed both Transformers and the equally unsuccessful My Little Pony, the movie that I also did not see in the theater. While the film industry was generally booming, small distributors like DEG were drowning under the weight of producing too many cheap films too quickly, just like Canon films, which we've talked about extensively. Beyond corporate struggles, the Autobots were simply crowded out by the most legendary summer, one of the most legendary summer lineups in cinema history. To survive at the box office, Transformers had to compete for attention against massive hits and cult favorites like Aliens, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Karate Kid Part II, Labyrinth, and Stand By Me. Ultimately, the film was lost in the shuffle, failing to capture the mainstream audience despite the massive popularity of the toy. didn't do so well.

Nicholas Pepin: No, but I mean, that's like, I mean, we talked about that with UHF. UHF came out in a super crowded market, so it didn't, it wasn't going to capture the market that it did. It found its hold later and found its place. think Transformers for the animated movies that came out in that era, like the My Little Pony, G.I. Care Bear, like all of the cartoons that made big movies.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nicholas Pepin: I think most people regard this one a little higher. I could be wrong, but I feel like it, cause I was looking at the IMDB Rotten Tomatoes scores and they were kind of high compared to like most of the stuff that you're just like, yeah, let's pretend it doesn't exist.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Right, right. Yeah, I'm pretty sure like I said, I know that I saw the VHS cover for this. I know it had to have done fairly well on VHS. I didn't put that in the notes, but I'm sure that's kind of how it somewhat stayed relevant, you know, or made at least some of its money back. But it but it's not what like I said, I don't remember it being like on TV that much. I don't remember it being on cable at all. So maybe

Nicholas Pepin: My guess is much like a lot of the other cartoons, they probably chunk this up into three or four episodes and then just...

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think I did read that they did release it, yeah, as episodes later, yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: and then just ran it as like, you know, like a couple episodes in a row. Like it just became part of the next season. Like, you know, which you can also tell, like they kind of had that theory or that idea because like they kind of had natural. Yeah, certain certain natural break points in there, you know, because I mean, they did. What's the one that Jerry talks about where he says something about the first maybe it was Voltron or something?

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah. There are certain cutting points. Yeah. Yeah. In the movie. Yeah. Yeah. Cause one of them. Yeah. Go ahead.

Nicholas Pepin: where like the first like four or five episodes were a movie. And then they just split them up into, cause I know Jerry and I have had this conversation before about, well Voltron. So, ⁓ that's why I'm thinking that's what it was, but like, yeah, they, did it as a movie and they were like, yeah, now we're just going to turn it into a full on series, take the movie, split it up into, you know, three or four, maybe even five, ⁓ 30 minute episodes or 22 minute episodes. Cause of the commercials and

Tim Williams: It might have been Voltron. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓

Nicholas Pepin: You know, they're double dip. Now we get to call it part of season one. Yeah. Part of C. Well, part of whatever season it was and we are the movie. So, you know, they they might have claimed a $10 million loss that year, but they've made their money back since.

Tim Williams: Season six, yeah. Right, right. Oh, for sure, yeah, yeah. Not a total loss at all. I mean, it's very much a bankable franchise. and I don't know if we'd get into like the last Transformers live action movie wasn't great, but to know that they're gonna try to like, the end credits kind of shows that they're gonna try to cross over with the GI Joe live action. was like, that could be kind of fun. If they do it right, it could be fun. We'll see what happens.

Nicholas Pepin: don't even know if I saw the last live action one. I'll have to look at the list and see which one it was.

Tim Williams: Yeah, it just came out like two years ago, I think. Yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: then I don't think I saw it. went and saw the last night in theaters and I was just like, I could be done with this franchise.

Tim Williams: Yeah, that one wasn't that great. Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, I'll say we're totally jumping in a different decade, but like the Transformer live action movies, like most or like a lot of other like long franchises, there are good ones and there are bad ones and they're not consistent. Like the first one is great. The second one's terrible. The third one's not too bad. The fourth one's bad. The fifth one was, you know, it's like, it just kind of goes up and down. like the bot, the

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah.

Tim Williams: Daniel Craig Bond movies, I'm like, the odd number of movies are great, the even number of movies stay away from. It was like every other movie was great.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah. Well, I mean, I will say this. I went to the first Transformers movie with Shia LaBeouf with a great amount of trepidation because first off, there's not been a great track record with making live action and rebooting a franchise that I loved as a kid to begin with. And then you're putting the kid from Even Stevens as it and like.

Tim Williams: Mm. Right. Yep.

Nicholas Pepin: Michael Bay, Michael Bay loves to make a fun, Michael Bay makes fun movies with lots of explosions and, you know, big booms, he doesn't exactly have a great like story track record. That movie was way better than it should have been.

Tim Williams: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I that I mean I'll rewatch like the first one is the only one that I own like I don't own any of the other ones like but I will watch the first Transformers again and again. It's very enjoyable.

Nicholas Pepin: I, my Blu-ray copy has, it's a, it's a very poor transformer, but it's, it's, it's, it's an optimist prime. Like you can like transform the box. Like you can like fold out arms and legs and then transform it back into the box. So yeah, I mean, I'm a nerd.

Tim Williams: ⁓ yeah Yeah, I remember seeing those in good company, in good company. All right, well, let's talk about the rewatchability of nostalgia meter. It's our way of measuring how enjoyable movie is for repeat viewings along with the waves and nostalgia it brings. Here's how it works. If you're unfamiliar, it's a one to 10 scale. Any number between one and 10 will do, but here are a few parameters to help you decide. At the bottom of the meter is the number one. It means I saw it once and that was enough. Right in the middle at a number five is a good rewatch every couple of years. And at the top at a number 10 means it's highly watchable and full of nostalgia. So Nicholas, where does Transformers the movie rank for you on the rewatchability nostalgia meter?

Nicholas Pepin: All right, well, I understand what we're doing here. And I know where I should put it because I haven't seen it in like 35 years. But I'm gonna give it good 6.5.

Tim Williams: You should, you've done this a few times. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's exactly where I have it. Yeah. Good.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, it's it's fun. I. It's fun. I would rewatch it again. I'll probably rewatch it again way before another 30 years. But yeah, it just it's it's I mean, if somebody wanted to rewatch it again like next weekend, I'd probably be like, sure, why not? Let's do it.

Tim Williams: Yeah, ⁓ yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm right there. Once again, kind of the same reason, like I don't really have the nostalgia for the movie, but I have nostalgia for the toys and the cartoon. that I can marry those two things together pretty well, like because it is an extension of the cartoon for the most part.

Nicholas Pepin: Yes.

Tim Williams: but it isn't something I've watched many times, but because it's a lot of fun, I was gonna land right at a six. It's not a five, it's not that close to the middle, but it's not gonna be higher because it's not one I'm gonna watch on a regular basis. So I think six is right on the money for where it deserves to be on the rewatchability and nostalgia meter for me anyway.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah. That's, that's right. Yes. I echo everything you just said and that's what, yeah. I mean, it actually makes me, I want to know. I think I have the GI Joe cartoons on DVD. It makes me kind of want to hunt down the transformer, like the original, like G G one cartoons and watch those.

Tim Williams: Yeah Okay. Cartoons, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, hey, go to Find 2B, Pluto TV, you know, one of the streamers, there's the Roku TV. Yeah, you may not be every season, you might only get like season two and three, or like two and six, or something like that, something crazy, but you never know. Or it might just be on YouTube somewhere, so.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, it's probably on. It's probably on 2B. Yeah. Probably.

Tim Williams: Yeah. All right. Well, let us know where you think Transformers the movie should rank on the rewatchability and nostalgia meter. Send us an email. Let us know on social media. can drop us a comment right here on YouTube, if that's where you're watching this from. So Nicholas, thanks a lot for joining the podcast. Always a pleasure to have you on the show, my friend. And what you got coming up on Pop Culture Roulette.

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ We've been doing a lot of brackets because it's March. ⁓ So we've been doing some pretty crazy brackets. got at least ⁓ one more. We're probably going to do a couple more brackets just because that's been what's been entertaining us recently. But what did we do? We did ⁓ One Hit Wonders. We did... ⁓

Tim Williams: It's March Madness, yeah, why not? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: ⁓ we did a game that wasn't a bracket. actually just did a game where we talked about weird, wacky, Crona, Comet crossovers like Godzilla versus Joe, Godzilla versus Charles Barkley or Archie meets predator.

Tim Williams: ⁓ yeah, yeah. Yeah, was that when the comic and comics get weird and then what was the name of that was only? Yeah.

Nicholas Pepin: Yeah, when comics get weird, yeah. Yeah, we've just been having fun, you know, like we always do. We've been making each other laugh and having a good time, which is what Pop Culture Roulette is all about.

Tim Williams: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So definitely check it out. Also, Nicholas and I are part of Laramy's March Madness with the ⁓ villain live action. Who's the best live action adapted villain? So ⁓ I know that should be dropping here not too far in the future. So go check that out on moving panels as well.

Nicholas Pepin: Adapt.

Tim Williams: All right, well, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. Be sure to follow, subscribe so you never miss an episode. We would love for you to support the show by becoming a partner at buymeacoffee.com. Jump online and visit the website, 80sflickflashback.com in our T public store for some awesome 80s flick merch and original designs. Thanks again for tuning in. Thank you, Nicholas, for being here. I'm Tim Williams for the 80s flick flashback podcast. I've got better things to do tonight than die.