Hello, and welcome to a special All Things Transformers.
I'm your host, Steve Megatron, and joining me
on this adventure into geekdom is TFG1 Mike.
Yep, I'm here. Today, we're celebrating with
the original show that kind of started the whole
journey on the Geekcast Radio Network with our
4 ,000th... episode that's right so i started
tracking this because for those that don't know
and i don't know some people may know some people
may not know if you use wordpress or use any
website whatever when you use it for podcasting
or use it for any posting it tracks how many
posts you've published whatever and the way we
now have ours set up is the podcast stuff is
separate from the written stuff So we can track
how many actual podcast episodes we've released
overall in the last almost 16 years. And I say
almost 16 years because we're recording this
at the end of April. And we are just over a month
away, a month and a half away or something, from
June 1st, which is our 16th anniversary. So when
it started reaching 3 ,950, I started counting
and I started keeping track of every episode
that posted. Because I wanted to make sure when
we hit 3 ,999, that we did something special
for the 4 ,000th entry of... our podcasting empire
that we have here yep and before we get into
all the stuff we are going to talk about we actually
do have a spur of the moment last minute thing
because i was too sick this last week to get
the notice out earlier to everybody else but
optimus solo sent in a voice clip so you're going
to hear that right now and we'll come back to
Continue on the journey of the 4 ,000th episode
on the Geekcast Radio Network. We'll be back
right after this. Hey, guys. It's Optimus Solo,
one of the many voices that you've heard over
the last 16 years here at the Geekcast Radio
Network. Just wanted to drop a note here to Steve.
Mike, Dan, and all the other voices that you've
heard at the Geekcast Radio Network. Mighty congratulations
on hitting this milestone. Episode 4 ,000 podcasts
is not an easy feat. So many podcasts don't live
out their original plans. So many podcasts I've
listened to over the years have faded into. the
ether and it's hard to keep them going and life
gets in the way. So to get to 4 ,000 as a network
is an incredible feat. So I just wanted to say
congratulations to everybody involved with the
network and also a big thanks to the fans that
have listened over the years, who have left us
reviews, who have interacted with us on social
media. All of that has been fantastic. If I could
just quickly highlight some of my favorite times
and some of my contributions along the way, I
would say that maybe I've been on close to 15
% of those 4 ,000 episodes. I know Steve and
Mike are probably at least in the upper 60, 70%.
Mike's probably found a way to be on 99 % of
them. I'm not sure. The highlights along the
way, from the early days of ToonCast, recording
with Mike back in 2009 -10 era, I think we probably
did about 100 episodes of that, to the spinoff
Telecast, which was a ton of fun doing those
35 episodes, to Mike and I's review, cartoon
-centric reviews on The Mass Mayhem and Masters
of the Universe, probably another 150 episodes
if you total those two together. Probably done
about 45 episodes of the Top 100 Countdowns,
which is always a highlight when we do those.
And then where you hear me currently the most,
Dan and I, Fridley Scent, Amanda, and those that
have joined us along the way, we're over 215
episodes or thereabouts on the Cinema Geeks,
so that's been a lot of fun as well. There's
also been a ton of written content we've done
over the 16 years, but I know this is mainly
about the 4 ,000 podcast, so we've had some huge
shows that have eclipsed over 400 episodes, whether
it be Altered Geek, whether it be... Um, the
toy cast I'm sure is up there. I'm sure the pull
bag is probably over 500 episodes. I'm sure the
guys are going to cover all of that as well,
but it's been fun to interact with everybody
along the way. Met a lot of cool people, co -hosted
or hosted episodes with a lot of fun individuals
that we've met online over the years and also
got to meet a few people in person along the
way as well. So it's been a fun journey. So to
everybody involved in the network one more time,
congratulations on hitting 4 ,000. We've done
it. And man, if you only knew about the plans
that we've had over the last 16 years, if we
would have been able to successfully execute
all of our plans, we'd probably be at like 24
,000 podcast episodes. Life gets in the way sometimes,
but... Onward and upward as we make our trek
from 4 ,000 to 5 ,000 episodes and beyond. Hope
you guys will join us for the ride. It's been
a lot of fun. This has been Optimus Solo, and
I'll throw it back to Steve and Mike. All right,
folks. We are back here on All Things Transformers,
the overall 4 ,000th episode of the Geekcast
Radio Network's catalog. This is episode 444
for ATTF, so it's odd that it's all even. Kind
of is. Yeah, exactly. You're supposed to laugh.
It's funny, man. It's funny. Humor's lost, folks.
Humor's lost. It's been a long day. It's been
a long year so far. Ain't that the truth. It's
not even May yet. It's gonna be May. Yeah, it's
gonna be May. That's right. Oh, look. May. Spider
-Man standing next to Aunt May. So the first
thing I wrote down here is from episode zeros
and ones to who knows what number. Obviously,
you start out with either an episode zero or
an episode one, whatever you want to do. I always
liked starting out with episode zero because
it's an introduction kind of thing. And then
one, you just kick off with whatever you're going
to kick off with. fuse the numbers yeah is they
have a trailer tag now which didn't exist back
in the day no it doesn't count towards your your
grand total right gotcha so or a bonus episode
so so they don't count towards your number totals
which is great if you're a newbie yeah if you're
a if you're old hat and you've been around the
block 16 years. For years and years and years.
Yeah. You probably do have that episode zero
that's kind of living in the ether. Yeah. And
truthfully, we probably have over 4 ,000 episodes
because over the years, I deleted some of the
quote -unquote bonus or episode zeros or the
series updates that we would do periodically.
Yeah. I deleted those because it didn't make
sense to keep them. Yeah. Yeah, well, it is what
it is. Like I said, I'm just going off of what
we currently have as of what the back end tells
me now on WordPress. Well, we do have war stories
on there. Mm -hmm. Yep. It really doesn't live
anywhere else. And then we have a show that doesn't
exist anymore that I have the files for called
Headshot. Which, it turns out, there's actually
a bunch of podcasts named that now, but they
have nothing to do with rants. They're like headshots
for photography or for gaming, job searches or
not. No, really. Not for gaming. No, they're
business related. Wow. And I was quite surprised.
I went looking earlier today before just because
I was curious and I wanted to see, hey, you know.
What's what's what's in existence at this point?
Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And, you know,
when we've created podcasts on the network over
these last years, these last 16 years, some are
on continuous ongoing things and some are limited
series. Some are specifically have an end date
because like, you know. There's only so much
that you can cover. Nobody wants Star Trek fan
fiction. Nobody really wants Star Trek fan fiction.
Not really. You cover all of the Star Trek television
shows. You cover all of the movies. You discuss
it. You have fun with it. It has an end point.
However you want to do that discussion, whether
it's by season, whether it's episode by episode,
or whether it's movie by movie. That franchise
has an end point, even though it's currently
still got stuff going on up to a point. If you
want to say stop at the end of the Kelvin timeline
at the end of Star Trek Beyond, you can just
stop right there. Transformers, even though Transformers
is a 41 year old brand and. multimedia franchise
they have cartoons that only have x number of
episodes so you can only have a podcast covering
that cartoon for x number of episodes so not
all of our shows are going to be started episode
one and go until we're either sick of doing that
show or whatever We want to move on to do something
else, that kind of thing. Obviously, there are
shows on the network like Geekcast Radio, The
Pull Bag, TuneCast, and others that can go for
as long as we want them to go if that's what
we want to do. Hell, The Pull Bag, we're at 577
currently. I think, without looking. Yeah, because
Joe and I still have to record 578, 79, and 80.
We're marching towards 600, and we'll reach that
later this year, I think. I think. Depending.
But, yeah, no, it just all depends on what you
want to do and how you want to do it. You know,
you can either do something like a Geekcast radio
or like an Altered Geek. or whatever, and you
can just, here's this week's episode, or it doesn't
have to be a weekly podcast, folks. If you don't
have the time to dedicate weekly to recording
a podcast and releasing it, do a monthly show.
That's more than fine. It is what it is. We've
just always done things either weekly or biweekly,
but you can take that every week and build it
up like we have and just... go forth and you
never know what number you're going to get to
so with the 100s 200s 300s 400s 500s and beyond
so many hundreds uh i always like using those
as celebration stuff like big stuff like it doesn't
matter what it is it could be like i said all
things transformers it could be all all things
uh star trek it could be or altered trek technically
is what it's called now Uh, it could be whatever
it is, the 100th episode, the 200th episode,
whatever, like should be, you know, a big thing.
Either. It's a thing that we've at this point,
we've probably talked about a lot of them, but,
and we probably use that space. Like I remember,
uh, which episode, well, episode 100 of movie
we can review is, uh, I believe it is all things
Star Trek. I think. Yeah, because 75 was Star
Wars. So yeah, so we did that because that's
your love and everything else. And I was like,
oh, let's make episode 100 this or that or whatever.
And it's just one of those things where I always
like doing something special on those numbers
if the show gets to those kinds of numbers. Well,
and we've had, you know, like ATTF is in the
430s, AG or Alter Geek is in 430s. And then we've
got like Cinema Geeks in the 220s. Yep. Geek
Cast Radio is in the 320s. And then we've got
a movie we can review in the 230s, Pauka and
105 Pixels at 107. Powers of Grayskull at $138.
Studio 2009 is at $138. Talking in Circles had
$140. Pull Bag, $575. ToonCast, $318. Which now
includes Toon Beyond, but Toon Beyond, when it
was separate, was $131. Yeah, it was $131. ToyCast
is $194. Yep. And then, yeah, I mean, those are
the only ones to break 100. Yeah, and like I
said, a lot of the other ones didn't break the
100 because they were limited series. They were
one -offs. Hell, even the only reason why the
podcast organization without a cool acronym,
and for those listening to this wondering what
in the hell is that, you obviously haven't watched
Trinius and Ferb. But it's one of those things
where originally that was supposed to just be
104 episodes. And the only reason why that was
supposed to be 104 episodes is because in the
theme song and in the show, they say it's 104
days of summer. It was a parody on the show.
That's the only reason why. But no. And look,
I'm happy that we're getting a season five. Oh,
no. Wait, we're getting a season five. holy crap,
that means we have to do more episodes of the
podcast because we must be complete. We can't
not be complete, you know? So it's like, ah,
damn it, ruined my joke. Or homage or whatever
you want to call it. But it is what it is. I'm
proud of all of it. Everything. I know Optimus
Solo doesn't get as much time as he would like
to to record some stuff, and I've got several
ToonCast plans to do with him at some point,
hopefully in the near future. But I always loved
working with him, loved working with Dion the
Music Man on the various things that we had recorded
with, which I think I'm getting him back on GCR
for a We Are the World 40th Anniversary episode,
because We Are the World is 40 years old this
year. So there's that. But yeah, no, you can
start anywhere, folks. Just, you know, start
at the beginning and go for however long as you
want to go for. The only thing I've always said
from day one, have a plan. If you go back and
you listen to our Geekcast Radio episode about
the podcast Name Game, listen to that episode.
Steve and I have got plenty of advice in that
episode about more podcast stuff. But, you know,
just... Have a plan, stick to the plan, and then
if the plan doesn't work, throw away the plan
and get a new plan. Paraphrasing Captain Cold
from The Flash. I see, I... Let me tell you,
some of the reels that pop up in my Instagram,
it's crazy. So, like I said, if I counted right
on the show page for the four pages of shows
that we have listed, I believe it's 44 podcasts.
I can't believe it's just 44. that like 44 podcasts
in 16 years. And that's just on the website that
I counted. I didn't look at everything else.
I didn't look at the, I mean, the interviews
are in various podcasts and things like that,
but Oh boy. I know you're not usually a numbers
guy. Cause in the beginning of this folks, when
we started that, he's like, yeah, forget the
numbers. I'm like, no, we cannot forget the numbers.
We cannot. I don't know, because maybe it's the
two years that I two or three years I listened
to podcasts before I actually started one where
I would always see people put in some sort of
episode number. However, they numbered it. I
don't know. This was back in 06 to 08, 2006,
2008. And there was always an episode number
in almost every show that I ever listened to.
And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. And for me, it's
an easy way to keep track. Like, I literally
told somebody else on a podcast recently, I'm
like, yeah, my brain's not working right now.
Normally I have, like, you know, you give me
a podcast episode number, I can usually tell
you what podcast that was. Okay, well, let's
stick with the hundreds. Episode 400 of The Pull
Bag, I believe, is the... comics to what is it
called? It's, um, it was something, uh, the comic
concierge and I did Dan and I did, it was about,
um, from the pay. It was something about, it
was a special episode comic thing, but like,
uh, I know episode 300 was when Optimus Solo
and I did the IDW back to the future episode.
One of them. I know episode 500 was the origins
in comic reading of Michael David Sims from earth2
.net. You know, so most of the time, you know,
somebody tells me a podcast episode number. Usually
I don't have to go to the website and look it
up. I usually have it in my brain because I just
associate the number with what it is. And the
other behind the scenes thing, folks, is that
I remember when we started, when you brought
me on to all things Transformers. And I was starting
to come up with a plan for the TFG1 podcast.
And after that all happened, we started doing
things and doing stuff on all things Transformers,
doing stuff on TFG1 podcast. We started doing
supplementals and special episodes and everything
else. And by, I think, the end of December or
the beginning of January 2009, you're like, we
need to put this somewhere. and expand it. Yeah.
Cause I think originally we were trying to put
it on product on empire and it was, yeah, it
was working for all things transformers and the
TF2 one podcast. And then, yep. Nothing else.
And then I think the beast unleashed started
the 2009. Yeah. No, it started in 2008. I thought
like December. It was when we had our first interview.
Hmm. You're probably right. I vaguely remember
because I went to my dad's and I brought a microphone
and I sat in his office and recorded it. And
then after that, we're like, well, I want to
talk movies. I want to talk this. I want to talk
that. And so then it kind of snowballed. And
by like April, we technically had part of the
site. Yep. Yeah, you're right about December.
You're just wrong about the year. It was December
8th, 2009. No, because we didn't start it in
2008. TFG1 wasn't even finished yet. So anyway,
folks, it was December of 2009 for David Kaye
and Gary Chalk. It was a very beastly Christmas
in 2009 here at the Geekcast Radio Network. Any
other thoughts on the lead -up? or the makeup
of the 4 ,000th before we get into the entertainment
part of it. Well, I've tried to murder this podcast
three times. Yes, you have. And it won't let
you, you know, it fails every time. Yeah. You
know why? You know why? I don't want to, but
I don't want to kill it now. So no, no, no, no.
But you don't, you know why it's failed every
time. Why? Because it has rampages and start
indestructible spark. That's why. This podcast
is secretly run by Starscream, and I'm not talking
about either one of us, folks. Now that you're
here, Air Commander, what do you want? Why, to
pledge allegiance to the glorious Megatron and
fight as your loyal lieutenant! We have always
strived to bring you the most entertainment that
we can. Have we said some things on these podcasts
in the last 16 years? Yes. Have we sometimes,
but we've also veered away from it when it comes
to current events or political things? Yes, we
are not here for real world anything, for the
most part. Yes, we give you insights to our lives
sometimes. Yes, we let you know what's going
on in our lives. But the point for me is to show
up, have fun conversations with my friends about...
whatever geeky topic we're going to be discussing
and to always entertain you, the audience thoughts.
No, I mean, I agree with that. I, I think there
were some times that we had a little bit more
fun than others. And you can clearly tell in
the episodes, like sometimes we're off mentally
and sometimes, um, you know, just stuff has happened
or we'll ramble a little bit more than normal,
or you'll hear me, uh, doing. Playing video games.
Or in this day and age, you'll hear his 3D printer
going off. Well, I try not to turn it on during
because I don't know if it's going to pick it
up. And not to mention, it just heats up in here
and it gets loud. Yeah. But, no, I mean, I legitimately
try to come prepared and pay attention. There's
sometimes it just doesn't work. Yeah, everybody
has off nights. Even I have off nights. Like
I sound a little off in this one, but that's
because I'm dealing with like sinus issues that
I've had for like weeks and it won't go away.
But no, I mean, I've I've I've been like kind
of going back to the well of old old content
or old graphics and kind of getting ideas for
new stuff. And like we're back to the the squared
feature art. Yep. Yep. Yep. New website. And
I'm messing with that and kind of evolving it
as we go. Yep. Absolutely. As, as should always
happen when something like that changes. I mean,
we had years, I don't even know the last squared
pod art we had on the website itself, but like
it, it had been, I want to say late 2011 up until
last year or the year before. When did we change
the website over? Was it last year? Yeah. So
let's say from late 2011 up until 2024, we had
the 658 by 317 rectangle banner arts that we
have always had. That's like, I want to say close
to 90 % of our network lifespan here. Pretty
much. And we still have, you still do, you don't
do as many specific individual ones, but we had
still done the regular 1400x1400 pod art. It
was just more so for the podcatchers and the
players and the whatever else. It wasn't for
the website specifically. True. So, you know,
but it's all relative now. But yeah, folks, we
hope we are bringing you the most entertainment
that we can. As always, that's just the ultimate
goal. As long as we're having fun, we hope you're
having fun listening to the stuff that we do.
And like Steve said, sometimes we have off nights,
and sometimes when we do have off nights, we
don't record. Fortunately, there are some nights
when you have to take Batman's advice, block
it out, and power on through. And then there's
other nights where we're just like, nope, not
going to work. Yep, nope. Like, can we skip this
week? Yep, it's okay. There's no Transformers
news majorly coming out. It's fine. So the last
thing I had written down here, in every podcast
episode, we unleash our geekiness. At the end
of the episodes, we always say that we want to
unleash the geek in you. This phrase is meant
to be inspiring and interactive. I know there
are a lot of people listening. Because we can
track the numbers, we can track the countries,
we can track the tracks and whatever else. I
just wish we had more interaction on the website.
We do get some on social media, but not a lot.
Anyone who is listening, thank you so much. But,
you know, even though I've said in the past that
I basically do this for myself, it's kind of
nice to know that we're not just talking into
the void. true you know so don't be afraid guys
gals whoever people don't be afraid to reach
out to us if you've listened to any of the episodes
and any of the podcasts and you have thoughts
or you have opinions or you have whatever you
know you can email us feedback at geekcastradio
.com you can send in written stuff you can send
in mp3s as long as they're less than 10 minutes
long uh you know any kind of thing like that.
So if you've heard an episode of all things,
transformers where Steve and I are actively talking
about transformers news that we actually care
about, because there's a lot of transformer news
out there that right, at least right now in this
early stage of 2025, where it's like, yeah, that
could have been an email. It didn't have to be
a podcast. I've been making that reference way
too much this year because certain things have
just, I'm like, really? Anyway. But yes, please,
folks, don't hesitate to interact with us if
you would be so inclined to do so. So thank you
so much for listening. Thank you to everybody
who's been with us, new and old, anyone that's
been with us for the last 16 years, anyone that's
just found us now. We hope you enjoy the content
that we give you. And we're going to keep going.
Like Optimus Solo said in his voicemail. I don't
know if you listened to that. Did you listen
to that thing? I did not have time yet. I will
after. I'll play it. Yeah, you'll have to listen
to that. But thank you so much, Optimus Solo.
We got to get to cartooning podcasting here soon.
So I'll kind of give this a preview. I haven't
really done. too much on this yet, but I've been
planning this for years. That's the thing, folks.
Think about our plans. Sometimes they sometimes
don't always happen, but we still have them and
we still hold on to them for years. I have been
planning a Flintstones Friday and a Space Age
Saturday series for the Flintstones and the Jetsons
for at least the last five years. Hmm. So he
and I are going to go through every episode of
each series on ToonCast. Not at the same time.
We're going to do the Flintstones first, and
then the Jetsons after that. So that's one big
thing that I've had stuck in the back of my mind
to do with ToonCast. There are other things.
This year, I'm launching the TV Watching Origins
in Studio 2009. So 30 questions about your TV
watching habits. And who knows what else we're
going to come out with this year, folks. Our
ideas are just coming off a winter break. They're
thawing out for spring. That they are. Anything
else you would like to bring up or say? No, I
just am looking forward to more episodes and
more. meaningful content, and revisiting the
pool. Yes, well, it is summertime. Yes. All right,
folks, this has kind of been a short one. 4 ,000.
Holy crap. Cannot believe it. Here's to 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10 ,000. Who knows? We don't know. And
we'll get back to more Transformers. Yes, yes,
absolutely. The next episode will be the video
games episode for Transformers. For hearing all
things Transformers. So don't worry all things
Transformers fans. We will be getting back to
the Transformers stuff. This was just a special
thing. Since this show technically. Honestly.
This is all your damn fault. Yep. Some stranger.
With a Twitter image of Beast Wars Megatron.
Said something to me. Back in. I don't know what
month of 2008. And I'm like, oh, cool. Okay,
sure. Yeah, it was August. Oh, of course it was.
It's always fucking August. Yep, it is. All things
Transformers. Yep. That's right. Geek. That's
right. That's right. And just like everything
else, Transformers is the reason I'm podcasting.
Mm -hmm. Yep, yep. Absolutely. That and Star
Trek. Well, it was totally Transformers. True.
Yeah, luckily that's... Even though as much as
we've done with Transformers over the last 16
years, there's still so much more that we...
Plenty of stuff. We haven't run out of Transformers
ideas, folks. Trust us, we haven't. And I've
seen some interesting things in the news. Oh,
really? Well... We needed knockoffs. Wait, what?
Knock off Transformers. Studio Series 86 Optimus
Prime. Oh, geez. No trailer. No trailer. You
and your no trailer. Yep, no trailer. Yep. But
anyways, I think that about wraps this episode
up. Yep, yep. As my allergies continue to...
Plague you. Yes, plague me that I've had to use
gratuitous use of mute. That's right. As Michael
Wilson would say. That's right. So we hope you
enjoyed this kind of retrospective look back
on the 4 ,000th. 4 ,000th. 4 ,000th episode of
Geekcast Radio Network's catalog of podcasts.
And join us next time as we'll be talking about
the Transformer video games, which I'm super
excited about. Yep, yep. Absolutely. Cause I
played a lot of them and I have opinions, very
opinionated opinions. Oh yeah. No, some, some
of it's good. Some of it's good. I actually,
I genuinely enjoy most of them. So, so thank
you as always for listening to all things, transformers
and the geek cast radio network. I've been your
host, Steve Megatron with TFG and Mike. You can
of course interact with us on the network. at
Geekcast Radio pretty much everywhere or Geekcast
Radio Network. You can hit us up on the Geekcast
Radio website. This episode's posts on the website
or on Facebook or your favorite podcatcher. So
until next time, transform and transcend.