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The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye · The Recess Bell

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  Speaker 1: This production is brought to you by the Recess Bell.
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  Speaker 2: Hey everybody, my name is Justin Greenberg, and this is
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  Speaker 2: Film Real and on today's program. It's part one of three,
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  Speaker 2: that's right, So if you don't like part one, you're
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  Speaker 2: bound to not like part two and three.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna be covering.
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  Speaker 2: More than a few months ago, I interviewed Flint Dilly,
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  Speaker 2: writer of the Transformers television show from the nineteen eighties
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  Speaker 2: and the nineteen eighty six movie. But we're gonna go
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  Speaker 2: in depth in the franchise, my personal experience with the franchise.
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  Speaker 1: That's what the podcast is about.
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  Speaker 2: If you want to learn the history of Transformers, there's
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  Speaker 2: plenty of YouTube videos, there's plenty of documentaries and books
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  Speaker 2: where you can learn the actual, in depth history of
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  Speaker 2: the franchise. I'll do a brief rundown of the franchise,
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  Speaker 2: but but this is my life. This is the podcast.
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  Speaker 2: It's my personal stories growing up with the Transformers and
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  Speaker 2: they've always been a part of my life. Some of
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  Speaker 2: the earliest memories I have are watching that original television show,
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  Speaker 2: watching that original movie from nineteen eighty six. I have
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  Speaker 2: home movie footage of pretty much my entire life, early birthdays,
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  Speaker 2: early Christmases. You see me as a young child receiving
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  Speaker 2: the VHS tape, see me receiving the action figures, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, the Transformers has just been a part of
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  Speaker 2: my life. I'm thirty five years old. I live in
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  Speaker 2: a van down by the river. But it transforms into Ironhide,
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  Speaker 2: all right. So let's talk about the history of the show,
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  Speaker 2: history of the brand, and then we'll get into, you know,
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  Speaker 2: my personal story. That's going to be part one, my
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  Speaker 2: love for the franchise, and a brief history of the franchise.
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  Speaker 1: Part two is going to be the good, the Bad,
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  Speaker 1: the ugly.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about the nineteen eighty six movie,
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk about the nineteen eighties television show.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about Beast.
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  Speaker 2: Wars, which is a huge, huge part of my childhood
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  Speaker 2: from the nineteen nineties. Sort of rebranding the franchise when
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  Speaker 2: it was not doing too hot in the early nineties
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  Speaker 2: with the success of Mighty More from Power Rangers and
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  Speaker 2: Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters and all these other properties. You know,
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  Speaker 2: Transformers really wasn't relevant in the early nineties, so Beast
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  Speaker 2: War sort of recaptivated that. So We're gonna get into
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  Speaker 2: that in part two, and we'll also talk about we
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  Speaker 2: gotta talk about the elephant in the room, the terrible
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  Speaker 2: Michael Bay films. Then part three, we're gonna talk about
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  Speaker 2: the newest film in the franchise, and that's Transformers one.
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  Speaker 2: Very complicated with the naming of these things. You know, Oh,
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  Speaker 2: are you gonna watch Transformers one?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you mean the one from nineteen eighty six. No,
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  Speaker 2: I mean Transformers one? Oh, the first Michael Bay one. No,
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  Speaker 2: you freaking idiot Transformers one.
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  Speaker 1: Oh. Yeah. They gotta do better.
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  Speaker 2: Hollywood's gotta do better with naming of movies. But let's
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  Speaker 2: get into the history of the Transformers right now on
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  Speaker 2: film reel. All right, so it's a toy commercial. We're
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  Speaker 2: just gonna cut to the chase. The Transformers were brought
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  Speaker 2: to America to sell toys. There's based on a several
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  Speaker 2: toy lines in Japan that were existing in the early
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  Speaker 2: nineteen eighties, and has Bro purchased the rights to these
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  Speaker 2: toys and they repurposed them and repackaged them and had
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  Speaker 2: writers write a.
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  Speaker 1: Backstory for these toys.
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  Speaker 2: These toys that transform from any object. You have sound
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  Speaker 2: wave that's like a sette player. You have perceptor that's
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  Speaker 2: a microscope. You have cars, jets, anything that your mind
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  Speaker 2: can imagine would transform from a robot to a vehicle
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  Speaker 2: to an accessory.
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  Speaker 1: And these were, you know, popular toys.
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  Speaker 2: In the nineteen eighties, and Hasbro saw the success of
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  Speaker 2: the toys and they thought, hey, if we brought this over,
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  Speaker 2: write a little backstory, maybe we could get some success here.
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  Speaker 2: And we don't have to do half the work. The
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  Speaker 2: work's already done, you know, the toys are already made.
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  Speaker 1: That's a beauty. That's like a really.
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  Speaker 2: Smart idea that a lot of companies have done. They
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  Speaker 2: take existing things and then they kind of tweak them
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  Speaker 2: for American audiences. I think the most famous one would
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  Speaker 2: have to be the Power Rangers. I mean, there's like
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  Speaker 2: countless Super Sentai they call them shows in Japan. And
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  Speaker 2: they took that footage and all right, we're not talking
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  Speaker 2: we're not talking about Rangers. I'm I have like add
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  Speaker 2: to the extreme, especially when I'm talking about my Transformer.
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  Speaker 2: So has Bro got the rights, they partnered with Marvel.
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  Speaker 2: Marvel wrote a comic book sort of outlining the history
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  Speaker 2: and you know, the storyline for the Transformers so they
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  Speaker 2: had like a triple threat going. They had the comic book,
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  Speaker 2: they had the toy line, which now has a storyline
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  Speaker 2: based around it based on the comic book, and now
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  Speaker 2: they're going to have a television show. So kids are
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  Speaker 2: just bombarded with all these different medias for the Transformers.
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  Speaker 2: They never really did the video games though, which is
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  Speaker 2: shocking because in the mid eighties, you know, Nintendo is
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  Speaker 2: the hottest thing, you know, since sliced Bread. But the
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  Speaker 2: only you know, Transformers game of any mainstream success was
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  Speaker 2: over there in Japan, released on the Famicom, but not
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  Speaker 2: brought over to the United States.
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  Speaker 1: But let's get back to America.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So now we have a show, and the
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  Speaker 2: show's a huge success, and like I said at the
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  Speaker 2: beginning of this, it's all to sell toys.
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  Speaker 1: Now. I love the show.
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  Speaker 2: I have a super nostalgia for the show, and a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the episodes are written really well, but the
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  Speaker 2: main point of this program, and majority of programs from
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  Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties that are cartoons, are trying.
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  Speaker 1: To sell kids toys.
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  Speaker 2: Cartoons would be written a lot better in the nineteen nineties,
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  Speaker 2: shows like Batman, the animated series, Spider Man, X Men,
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  Speaker 2: Tiny Toons, anime x. These were shows that did have
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  Speaker 2: merchandise around them, but they weren't solely created to sell toys.
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  Speaker 2: I still love The Transformers, but you can really you know,
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  Speaker 2: if you're watching it as an adult, you know, you
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  Speaker 2: see what they're doing.
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  Speaker 1: So the show's a huge success.
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  Speaker 2: It runs for technically four seasons, and it has a
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  Speaker 2: feature film that's released in theaters, and then that's sort
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  Speaker 2: of the shelf life for most cartoons at that time.
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  Speaker 2: They have a three to four year run and then
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  Speaker 2: the kids move on to the next thing. It's crazy,
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  Speaker 2: though we're at the fortieth anniversary of Transformers. It's one
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  Speaker 2: of those properties. A lot of properties from the eighties
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  Speaker 2: have stood the test of time. I don't know if
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  Speaker 2: that's because that generation lives off of nostalgia. You talk
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  Speaker 2: to people that were growing up in the fifties and sixties,
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  Speaker 2: they're not idolizing and you know, collecting like this generation was.
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  Speaker 2: That eighties and nineties kids. You know, they are a
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  Speaker 2: different breed and they are one of the many reasons
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  Speaker 2: as to why The Transformers is still relevant in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty four. In fact, the people that buy more toys
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  Speaker 2: than anyone now are adults. It's not kids anymore. So
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  Speaker 2: the adult collector is the one that's keeping the brand alive.
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  Speaker 2: But the Transformers is a juggernaut forty years running. And
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  Speaker 2: we're gonna get to my personal history with the brand.
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  Speaker 2: So I mentioned, you know, my earliest memories involve the Transformers.
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  Speaker 1: They just do.
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  Speaker 2: I could just close my eyes and envision myself at
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  Speaker 2: my grandma's house watching the Transformers. I remember vividly getting
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  Speaker 2: a giant bucket, filling it with water and putting toys
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  Speaker 2: in the water, replicating scenes from the Transformers movie in
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  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty six. I remember this vividly, and it is
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  Speaker 2: one of my earliest memories. Let's start with the toys.
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  Speaker 2: In my experience with the toys, they're brilliant. They really
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  Speaker 2: are ingenious, because they really are more than meets the eye.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you get two in one, sometimes three in one,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes you can even get six toys in one. With
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  Speaker 2: these original Generation one Transformers, you get a vehicle mode,
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  Speaker 2: you get a robot mode, but then there are triple Changers,
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  Speaker 2: and then there's a Transformer called six Shot, which is
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  Speaker 2: six different things. It's very complicated, but yeah, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: what other toys like that. It's a car, so you
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  Speaker 2: got like your hot wheels right there, but then you
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  Speaker 2: have a robot, so you have your voltron right there,
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  Speaker 2: but then you have the transforming mechanism of it. So
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  Speaker 2: it's like a Rubik's cube meets a puzzle meets hot
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  Speaker 2: wheels meets a vultron toil all in one. The engineering
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  Speaker 2: of these toys, I means, it really is genius. And
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  Speaker 2: I would spend hours. You know, I didn't always have
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  Speaker 2: the instruction manual to these toys, and I was a kid.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't know how to read. I barely know how
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  Speaker 2: to read at age thirty five. So you know, you're
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  Speaker 2: just messing around figuring, Okay, you move this hinge here,
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  Speaker 2: and then you bend the legs there and you push
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  Speaker 2: this together, and you're testing things and you're using your
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  Speaker 2: mind and your brain to figure out how to solve this.
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  Speaker 2: You know, three D like puzzle, and that's that's freaking awesome.
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  Speaker 2: And I was always collecting. I mean I still collect
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  Speaker 2: to this day. But I can remember, you know, being
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  Speaker 2: a good kid and not crying in school and my
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  Speaker 2: mom would reward me with a little figurine and it
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  Speaker 2: usually was transformers.
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  Speaker 1: That's what I wanted. I wanted more and more Transformers.
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  Speaker 2: So the cartoon did a good job of making me
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  Speaker 2: want to buy and buy and buy.
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  Speaker 1: And now a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Of these toys, like a lot of collectibles from that time,
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  Speaker 2: are valuable.
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  Speaker 1: Think about it.
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  Speaker 2: Every kid that got this toy was playing with it,
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  Speaker 2: so ninety nine point nine percent of them are out
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  Speaker 2: of the box and they're damaged because no kid was
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  Speaker 2: keeping it in the box at the time. They didn't
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  Speaker 2: know it was going to be valuable. And when they
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  Speaker 2: were opening it, you know, they were bashing it together,
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  Speaker 2: they were putting it in water like I was doing.
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  Speaker 2: They were playing outside with it in the mud. So
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  Speaker 2: to have something that's really clean in the box, you're
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  Speaker 2: talking hundreds thousands of dollars for some of these toys.
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  Speaker 2: I could vividly remember creating my own stories, you know,
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  Speaker 2: using my imagination and taking these characters that you saw
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  Speaker 2: on the television screen and creating, you know, the next story,
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  Speaker 2: creating the next storyline that you wish they put on
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  Speaker 2: the television screen. Sometimes they would kill off a character
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  Speaker 2: and you know, maybe in my world, in my fantasy
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  Speaker 2: booking of the Transformers world, that character would eventually become
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  Speaker 2: the leader, and that's the beauty of imagination.
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  Speaker 1: I think I hate.
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  Speaker 2: To be the the old man that yelled at Cloud,
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  Speaker 2: but I talked about how kids aren't playing with toys
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  Speaker 2: and maybe they're losing some of that creativity just from staring.
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  Speaker 1: At an iPod and an iPod? What year is this?
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  Speaker 1: Why did I say iPod?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. So I was born in nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 2: eight and The Transformers really weren't on the air anymore.
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  Speaker 2: So how did I watch this show that wasn't being
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  Speaker 2: aired on television.
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  Speaker 1: Well? Two things.
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  Speaker 2: Number One, VHS tapes. You go to Blockbuster, you could
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  Speaker 2: rent majority of the episodes there, and we actually owned
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of the VHS tapes, so I would constantly
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  Speaker 2: rewind and watch over and over and over again. And
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  Speaker 2: then in the early nineties, they tried to rebrand the
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  Speaker 2: the property by renaming it Generation to Transformers.
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  Speaker 1: And what that was is they would just re air.
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  Speaker 2: The original series and that's really how I watched the show.
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  Speaker 2: I wasn't part of that generation that grew up with
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  Speaker 2: the show when it was at its peak, but I
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  Speaker 2: always loved it. And I think you know that movie
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  Speaker 2: that nineteen eighty six movie. That's the thing I watched
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  Speaker 2: over and over again. I mean, to watch these Transformers
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  Speaker 2: on the big screen must have been something I wish
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  Speaker 2: I was seven eight years old when that movie came out,
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  Speaker 2: because that must have blown a lot of kids' mind
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  Speaker 2: seeing the animation, because there's such an advanced animation compared
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  Speaker 2: to what was seen on the television screen. To see
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  Speaker 2: the death of these characters, that must have shocked kids
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  Speaker 2: to the extreme. And we talked about that when I
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  Speaker 2: interviewed Flint Dilly. So go back if you haven't, that's
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  Speaker 2: in the archives over on the film reel. Go back
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  Speaker 2: and listen to that interview with Flint Dilly if you
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  Speaker 2: want to be more interested on the in depth details
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  Speaker 2: of creating and writing the series the Transformers.
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  Speaker 1: But that show, it was really great.
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  Speaker 2: And I know I said it was essentially a twenty
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  Speaker 2: two minute toy commercial, but it was more than that.
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  Speaker 2: There was hard to it there really was. That character
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  Speaker 2: of optimist Prime is a hero. He taught a lot
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  Speaker 2: of kids growing up you know what's right and what's wrong,
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  Speaker 2: and you don't always.
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  Speaker 1: Have to fight. That was the beauty of the Autobots.
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  Speaker 2: They weren't this like badass group of individuals that were,
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  Speaker 2: you know, looking to fight, you know, g I, Joe,
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  Speaker 2: that was their deal. But the Autobots, you know, they
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  Speaker 2: just they wanted to just have peace. That was their
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  Speaker 2: whole goal, is to live on Cybertron, their home planet,
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  Speaker 2: and live in harmony. And the Decepticons they wanted war.
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  Speaker 2: They want to conquer. So it felt like a different show.
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  Speaker 2: It didn't feel like a lot of the other television
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  Speaker 2: shows of its time. And I go back and I
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  Speaker 2: rewatched these episodes, and I find I find a lot
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  Speaker 2: of them, Like I said, are there to sell toys.
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  Speaker 2: But there's a bunch of diamonds and the Roughs in there,
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  Speaker 2: and and there's some really well written programs in that
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  Speaker 2: Transformer show. It does teach valuable lessons. It does teach Uh.
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  Speaker 2: There's there's a character Chip who is in a wheelchair,
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  Speaker 2: and I love that character, and he shows in an
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  Speaker 2: episode that you know, just because I'm handicapped, it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: mean I'm not any less than you know, the average
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  Speaker 2: human being. I love that stuff. It didn't feel forced,
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  Speaker 2: it felt organic. It wasn't pushing an agenda, but it
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  Speaker 2: always had a positive message. And that's the beauty of Transformers.
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  Speaker 2: Also there's explosions and robots and fighting and violence and
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of other fun stuff. I love this brand.
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  Speaker 2: I still collect toys. As I mentioned, I still go
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  Speaker 2: see the movies in the theaters. I rewatch all the
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  Speaker 2: old episodes. I love it. I love Transformers. And we're
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  Speaker 2: gonna get into some of the more reasons as to
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  Speaker 2: why I love the brand. We're gonna go over the
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  Speaker 2: cartoon show in the next episode. We'll go over the
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  Speaker 2: cartoon movie from nineteen eighty six, and we'll review.
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  Speaker 1: The Michael Bay film. So stay tuned for that.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you all for listening to film Real Bye bye
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  Speaker 2: and Transform and roll Out. Yeah yeah, all right, Oh
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  Speaker 2: it's still recording.
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  Speaker 1: Hey yeah,