Hello, and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm
your host, Steve Megatron. And joining me on
this adventure into geekdom is TFG1 Mike. Hello.
If you would like to subscribe or keep up to
date on this podcast, please visit us on geekcastradio
.com. I've also noticed a great uptick recently
on Geekcast Radio. Plus, there's a lot of awesome
geeky articles coming out from Mike, myself,
and Optimus Solo. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yes,
and lots of TV show stuff. I'm doing a lot of
podcast writing lately, so you won't find much
of that there, but I may branch out soon. So
in this episode, we're back on the cusp of the
16 year anniversary of the podcast network, the
big one six. Somebody take away our licenses.
We haven't even gotten them yet. Well, in two
years we can drive, drive the Internet, that
is. No, there's there's been some interesting
developments while I was. Some that happened
after I got back and some while I was on vacation.
And a lot of it's movies, movie industry related,
you know, between like AMC and WB and Discovery
and things of that nature. So I think without
further ado, we'll get into it with. The initial
article that you posted to, which was AMC. Yeah,
this is pretty much a nothing burger. So I started
following Pop Culture Brian on Instagram and
Facebook. There's this guy that does pop culture
news and other things. And it's just a it's an
easier way for me to consume news than to sit
there. and read a news article kind of thing
yeah article after article after you know just
it's like okay get to the point yeah which is
why i like a lot of certain youtube video shows
and things like that on certain topics it just
depends on what the topic is so i saw this and
i was like oh no because i haven't been to a
movie theater since 2018 literally the the anniversary
re -release of transformers the movie or whatever
it was in 2018 when karen and i went to see that
at the time was the reason the last time we went
to see a movie at the time and i just don't go
to movie theaters i'm perfectly fine waiting
like right now i would love to be able to see
lilo and stitch i've seen and i mean lilo and
stitch 2025 live action is pretty much not shot
for shot but it's pretty much outside of a few
live action plot points that they had to change
to accommodate live action which i'm fine with
i don't care all these people that's a whole
other topic or whatever but oh my god all these
people freaking out about how oh my god it's
not the same as the animated movie from 20 something
20 23 years ago however how long it's been get
over it right What? The 23 years before the live
action? Well, just the time frame. I saw things
where people were freaking out because they changed
the fact that... The social worker, the villain,
the CIA agent, all that stuff. Well, and then
they changed the fact that when they were doing
the hide -and -seek scene, it was a cabinet instead
of a dryer. Oh, God. yes like the original was
a dryer and then they and then they edited it
to look like a cabinet on disney plus which i
agree with i agree with that change okay see
that's the thing that's the other problem i'm
currently having i'm current and that's another
topic i actually want to take this over to geekcast
radio at some point and do a show that might
be our 350th episode of geekcast radio Might
be a fun one to get a roundtable with DJ. Oh,
you have no... Well, you don't even know what
I'm going to bring up. Is this an off -air conversation
or an on -air conversation? No, I'm just going
to give you the headline. No, I'm just going
to give you the headline in a nutshell. Subscription
services and how... They are the new drug of
the 21st century and how they guilt trip you,
bribe you, and cajole you through 50 different
screens before they allow you to actually cancel
them. I have been without Disney Plus for about
a month or so. I have been, and normally I pay
for that annually, and I wasn't able to do the
annual subscription this year. Once I get paid
again, I will be buying the annual subscription
so I don't have that problem for the next year
or so. Same thing with YouTube Premium. The first
time in at least, I want to say, 11 years, I
do not have YouTube Premium currently. And I
feel like I'm in the Stone Age of 2007. literally
i forgot what it was like watching youtube ads
youtube premium is absolutely love youtube premium
and i'm not saying that to take away from the
creators on youtube whatsoever because youtube
does any of i forget what the the the money i
forget what the numbers are for it but anyone
who has a youtube premium subscription whether
it's monthly or annually youtube creators as
long i think i i think and i could be wrong about
this so people can correct me as long as you
watch enough of that creator they get a percentage
of the youtube premium subscription that you
pay for or something okay somehow as long as
you pay for a youtube premium subscription somehow
it goes back to the creators i forget what the
actual details are on how it gets back to the
creators but it does get back to the creators
so that way you don't feel like you're making
them lose out revenue by not having ads and paying
YouTube directly for a subscription. So YouTube
does share part of, I would have to research
that and I'm not clicking on anything right now
because I'm too damn lazy to do so. But I do
remember reading that at some point. But right
now I'm without those things and I'm slumming
it and that's okay. So I didn't even realize
I thought Lilo and Stitch was still in theaters.
I didn't even realize it was on Disney Plus yet.
Well, I don't know if it is. I just I was saying
the animated one. Oh, the animated one. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. The animated one had the dryer scene.
They changed it in the live. And again, the light
from again, I've seen practically every spoiler
and it's not a spoiler. Like I said, I've already
talked about the changes. They made Cobra Bubbles
an actual CIA agent instead of the social worker
former CIA agent. They added in Tia Carrere,
who was the original voice of Nani, as the social
worker. That's cool. They made the original voice
of David from the cartoon, from the animated
film, and those... From the original 2002 film,
they made him the boss. They made him Nani's
boss in the live action film. Mrs. Asagawa, I'm
probably saying that wrong. From the original
film, the actress, the lady that voiced her in
the original animated film, she's who plays the
neighbor in the live action film. So like the
lady that says. dog he's no dog this is a dog
that lady that's in the in the trailers um so
i like what they did with it even though i haven't
seen all of it from all of the clips and everything
i've seen and oh my god the way they are the
way that all of the creators online are remixing
some of the stitch scenes to various music tracks
holy crap It's hilarious. They are taking the
water gun fight scene and where he, it's not
his slowdown. It's not when he's ready to fire
the water at, at Lilo, but it's when he does
the bam, bam, bam. When he does that, he does
that in the trailer. He does that fast. People
slow it down. So it goes. bam bam bam and they
put oh my god i got i'm gonna end up inundating
you with some of this stuff because it's so creative
and so good how they're you i look i'm all in
on lilo and stitch it's the only disney live
action i will ever say i'm all in on i don't
know if i would be all in on on them doing any
sequels but I mean, the thing is literally broken
every box office record ever at this point. It's
heading towards a billion if it isn't already
there now. I don't funny how that works. Yeah.
Well, it's Disney. I don't think it's at a billion
yet, as far as I know. But yeah, no, the so yeah,
the the AMC thing. So the AMC thing is basically
they're going to do a premium. ad thing before
all of the other ads and all of the other previews
which uh which brian uh pop culture brian uh
already pointed out that a cinemark and and regal
have already been doing this so it's basically
that's why i say it's a nothing burger amc is
just jumping on the bandwagon of the other theaters
that have already been doing this And I know
most people are going to say, oh, well, just
figure out the timing of how long that ad break
is and just, you know, buy your tickets and show
up to the movies 30 minutes late. Well, remember
back in the day, like they used to show, I mean,
they only used to show commercials and extra
trailers and things like that, but they used
to just get to the point. Yep. But it does seem
like they're adding more and more and more and
more. It's been a couple of years since I've
seen a movie in theater. Yeah. Luckily, I don't
go to AMCA, go to like Cinemark because that's
all that's around here. But I don't. I don't.
And this is I mean, we've discussed movie theaters
at Nauseam before, too. I don't miss. The movie
theater. And I know that's kind of. Almost like.
sacrilegious to say is a you know geek podcast
but i don't miss the commercials i don't miss
waiting to see the film because i mean like i'm
counting on the film of being between this time
this time like i don't want to spend excess time
there yeah and then there's the other aspect
of i i saw an article kind of along these lines
and i can't find it right now um But it was along
the lines of people just like the time of the
movie theater kind of being done. Just, you know,
at least for like our generation, our era, just
because it's like it's easier to just watch it
at home in the comfort of your own home, eat
your own food. You don't have the obnoxious person.
that or people that are making it more or less
difficult to watch the film yep uh because they're
noisy and obnoxious and that's kind of where
i'm at with it like i don't miss going to the
theaters anymore and i used to miss it so it
it is kind of sad in that regard But I honestly,
I haven't missed it in years. It's just been
one of those things where it's just more convenient
at home. And streaming's kind of created that.
It's fostered it. It's brought it in. It's made
it easy to do at home. And I don't see me ever
really going back to the theater unless there's
something I just have to see. Yeah, I thought
I was going to have to see Stitch on the big
screen. I thought I was going to have to see
Mission Impossible on the big screen. Oh, by
the way. And I first heard this from pop culture
Brian when he was talking about Stitch's box
office and Mission Impossible's box office. And
I know other people have said this, but. I need
to use stitching impossible everywhere now because,
Oh my God, I love that. But it's one of those
things where I wanted to actually see both films
in theaters. I really wanted to. And at the end
of the day, I just couldn't. And I'm just like,
okay, I'm not missing out on anything. Really.
I'm missing out on sticky floors. I'm missing
out on, on theater that probably, and I live
in a. town that i don't even know where the nearest
i mean i know where the nearest probably cleanest
theater is is probably in indianapolis but i've
lived here in anderson indiana northeast of indianapolis
for three and a half years now almost three years
now and i've never looked for a movie theater
in this town so i wouldn't even know what kind
of movie theaters or what kind of whatever in
this town Stitch is at $772 .5 million. Oh, it's
going to hit a billion before the end of the
summer. I guarantee it. Not quite surprising.
No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. None whatsoever.
So moving on to the next one, we have Warner
Brothers putting the kibosh on Batman Forever,
the Schumacher cut. Why? Do they just not like
money? Like literally? First of all, your director
unfortunately passed away in 2020. Your lead
actor from this film. passed away a couple of
months ago, and it's the film's 30th anniversary!
Why aren't you putting this out? Because they
don't like money? Somebody just take that stupid
cane of his and just hit me in the head with
it over and over and over and over again. I feel
like... I feel like whoever is at Warner's going
back in, or if there was anybody going back and
forth over this at Warner's, this is your brain
on the box. This is my brain on the box. This
is your brain, my brain, your brain, my brain.
Does anybody else feel like a fried egg? Like,
seriously, who the hell's brain wasn't on the
box when they made this decision? It's 30 years
later. I understand why initially 30 years ago
they went for the more comic bookie. They went
for the more jokey. They went for the more kid
friendly because I was 15 at the time when this
movie came out, you were nine. It's probably
because of the reception that Batman and Batman
returns received. Oh no, you can't, you can't
blame that on that. No. Okay. You 30 years later,
you cannot blame. The first two films on the
fact that right now in 2025, they're not releasing
the Schumacher cut. The Schumacher cut, at least
according to this article. No, not now. I'm saying.
No, yes. No, no, absolutely. That that's, that's
what it was. Absolutely. 30 years ago. Absolutely.
The reason why there was no Schumacher cut at
the time, they wanted a more colorful, a more,
but what I'm saying now is. the schumacher cut
that was supposed to be released until wb put
the guy bosh on it was the more psychological
it was what does this article say it says kiva
goldsman claimed to have seen the cut there's
definitely about 35 percent more psychological
realism more about guilt and shame goldman told
the playlist whatever the playlist is i've never
heard of that publication Joel's first cut had
all of that, but preview audiences weren't ready
for it. They just wanted the humor and the action,
so a lot of it got trimmed down. Still, it was
a cool film. If it's a cool film for the 30th
anniversary of the damn film, release the Schumacher
cut. We are recording this quite literally a
week. literally yeah we are yeah literally a
week before the 30th anniversary to the day june
16th is when batman forever came out 30 years
ago one week from today next monday june 16th
is the date that batman forever came out 30 years
ago Why won't you people release this? It's not
going to hurt anybody to release this thing.
It's not going to tarnish the film that you did
release. It's only going to give those of us
who care about the thing a more in -depth look
at what was originally proposed. And like I already
said in the show a few minutes ago, your lead
actor is no longer with us and your director
is no longer with us. So let us relive the original
dream of the legacy of those people. We're not
going to be taking children to see this cut here.
Like, this is for adults, people. This is not
for kids. Hell, even the original. The original
movie was PG -13. PG -13, for those that don't
know, is for children. who are 13 and older.
So basically, teenagers and young adults to adulthood.
We're not taking little Timmy at six years old
to see this movie. But it's not going to happen,
because WB just doesn't want it to happen, and
they suck. You suck! Next. What else sucks? Well,
I mean, I don't know if this sucks, but it's
interesting. Warner Brothers' discovery to split
into two separate public companies by 2026. This
hurts my head. Current CEO David Zasloff will
helm the streaming and studio company, which
includes the movie businesses and HBO Max, while
CFO Gunnar... Wyden Fels will oversee the global
network side of things, including CNN, TBS, and
Warner's other cable channels, and basically
reverses the entire 2022 merger of WarnerMedia
and Discovery Communications. So what I don't
understand about this, if it's going into two
separate companies, what is the second company?
So the other one will be Discovery. and the other
one will be Warner Brothers. It's showing in
one of the images that I found about it, it shows
WB will have HBO Max and WB, and then Discovery
will have Discovery, CNN, OWN, ID, Food Network,
TBS, TLC, HGTV, and TNT. Okay, because... But
the thing about it is, is Warner Brothers has
been tossed around. Yeah. It's like the. It's
like the. Like the ex -girlfriend nobody wants.
Yeah. Which is sad because of its legacy. But
yeah, it is sad because of its legacy. Like,
I mean, it was AOL Time Warner. I mean, it was
Time Warner. You know, it it's it's jumped around
and changed names so many times that. It's losing
its relevancy. I mean, it's almost like CBS and
Paramount and Viacom. Yeah. You know, Viacom
had CBS and Paramount, then they split and it
just became Paramount CBS. Then they merged back
together and became Paramount. Yeah. It's like.
Yeah. But I mean, Comcast is doing that with
NBC Universal. I mean, this this part of it's
like six months old, but. um they're spinning
off like their cable channels the tv network
side of it so like msnbc cnbc and like usa yeah
like they're wanting to move move those and then
keep their other stuff you know on the peacock
service and um Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know.
It's it's a really strange time in television
history right now because it's either going streaming
or dead. Yeah. Or they're just dying or floundering.
Jim. So I do find it funny, though, that Warner
Brothers Discovery is. Essentially. And I feel
like if this doesn't take. After the split, either
somebody big is going to buy them out like a
Netflix or a or a Disney or a Comcast or something
like that, or some of these. Are going to go
away for good, and then people will just have
like random buying rights of various tentpoles.
yeah so speaking of tent poles here i looked
at the because originally you sent me a linkedin
link for this and i looked at the cnbc article
that that person linked in their in their post
so i'm on the cnbc article and i've read this
paragraph four times in the last hour and a half
In preparing for this podcast. And I'm going
to read this again. Because even though you've
already said it four times. I have to say it
again to myself. Because I have to see if it
makes sense to me. Because it. Either it's me.
Or it's written poorly. And I can't tell. So
I'm going to do this again. And I'm sorry. But
I have to. WBD. Will separate into a streaming
and studios company. Which will include. It's
movie properties and streaming services, HBO
Max, which they still haven't changed the name
back to yet. And a global networks company. OK.
See, I think I either read that too fast or.
Because that just kind of jumbled all together
to me the first 40 times I read that this paragraph.
That the global networks companies part of it
was like. Oh, isn't that all the same thing?
No, it's not, obviously. Duh, Mike. I'm dumb.
My brain no work so well no more, everybody.
Why should I be a podcast? I quit. I retire.
Good night, everybody. Anyhow. Serious. No, seriously,
dude. I'm serious. I've been trying to figure
out what you're talking about, like with the
two company thing for 40 minutes. And I'm like,
what is he talking about? Oh, God damn it. Pretty
much. I don't know, man. And it's all because
he wants to consolidate and everybody's consolidating
now. Everybody wants to cut down or cut loose
or cut this or cut. Everything is merge this,
merge that four or five years ago or however
the hell long it's been. And now everybody's
like, cut the fat, cut the fat, cut the fat,
cut the fat, cut the fat. And it's like, but
you're still going to have the same thing just
in two different. So moving to the main topic
here. Yes, main topic. Yeah, since those are
some interesting geek news in our top three,
or the, as we used to call it, the 10 -minute
blitz. Yes, the 10 -minute blitz. Geek collection
habits. Yes. Which this is far more entertaining.
Yes, but you completely ignored. My reference.
I didn't catch your reference. Are you serious?
I don't even know if it registered. It probably
didn't at this time of night, but we didn't have
a topic section in the script, so I went and
I made a topic section for the script, and I'm
like, oh, interesting, because you had mentioned
something about topics and geekdom. Mm hmm. G
.O .T. My G .O .T. is better than the actual
G .O .T. Geekdom of topics. The top date, the
topics of our geekdom. Or you could do togs like
pogs. No, I had to explain what those were to
my kids recently, and they were on. It was like,
I don't know if it was on Boy Meets World or
something else like. Probably. It was probably
Boy Meets World. Yeah, I think it was a Boy Meets
World episode. My kid was like, what is pogs?
And I'm like, well, it's these things that, you
know, my heart hurts so much. I'm like, I'm so
old. But no, I. For one, I've been enjoying like.
Recollecting again as an adult, plus I've got
a 3D printer. Which makes it even nicer. So I
can print things. You don't need to collect things.
You can just collect print files and print them.
Print the shit yourself. If they exist. Yes.
Well, that's what I'm saying. You can just collect
the print files and print it yourself. If it
exists. Yeah. But yeah, I. So like I, I've recently
printed multiple like Dragon Ball Super or Dragon
Ball GT figures. just because one they don't
either they don't have a figure of them or they're
so obscenely priced that it's like oh this isn't
worth it and it's like do i need them to move
not really i mean the ones that do it's nice
um i mean for the most part i don't repose them
but there are there are times where i do um typically
when i run out of room and i have to reshuffle
my geek collection which I need to take a new
picture of mine just so that I can put it in
this episode post. Yes. I have like I have a
Beast Machines Megatron that I still have yet
to finish printing or not printing a painting.
It's it's more so I have to figure out what I
want to do with it. Yeah. And how much detail
because I'm not unhappy with it where it's at
to where I would leave it alone. But at the same
time, I'm like, I should probably put a little
bit more work into them. But I've printed, like,
starships. I've printed, like, captain's chairs.
I've printed, like, for my Power Rangers, like,
the pedestals for the heads, like, for their
helmets to go on. And I've printed risers in
my cabinet so that I can actually see all of
the figures. Yep. And I've printed some morphers
and some, you know, Star Trek badges, heads for
Transformers and add -ons for them and so on
and so forth. stasis pod parts and um so like
my my collecting habits have kind of been if
it had this strong resonance with my childhood
and then part of it is like oh shiny oh shiny
you know it's like it's like oh new version of
something i used to have but it's better kind
of like the uh the trans metals you know the
trans art trans metals or the uh um you know
the the lightning collection transformer or net
transformers power rangers and then um you know
like oh we don't have an optimal megatron well
i'll just 3d print ahead and put it on optimal
um so i mean i've i've had a lot of fun with
those aspects as well of like just kind of trying
to reclaim like things i had back then or things
that i was like i'm too poor i don't have it
yeah um because i mean that was part of it too
is like i i just i legitimately didn't have um
the income to purchase some of these things yeah
exactly and then it just made me remember like
Toys R Us and KB Toys when I used to go in there
and window shop. Yep, absolutely. What kind of
prompted the idea, though, was I saw your you
were like, I'm redoing my collection here, my
display case. No, no. And I was like, I was like,
oh, that's kind of neat. Like, I didn't think
about like, you know, like the Funkos like fit
perfectly in those shelving units. and absolutely
these are basically mainstay from walmart they're
three shelved shelving units and basically because
the thing with funko pops folks is they don't
transform they don't move okay well sometimes
the arms might move or the head might move no
the arms no the arms don't move the head moves
but right left to right other than that most
of the time they don't move And the great thing
about the Funko Pops is easiest toy to get in
and out of the box. You don't have to destroy
the box. You don't have to throw away the boxes
if you don't want to. You can put it right back
in and it doesn't affect the value as long as
you don't hit the box up against the side of
a desk or anything. As long as you don't put
a crease in the box or put a... cut an edge in
the box you know what i mean like as long as
you don't actually damage the box opening the
box itself to take it out to take a photo and
put it right back in a box is not gonna deteriorate
the thing's value of anything so that's one of
the reasons why i love the funko pops is they're
the easiest toys for me to open in and out of
the box and not have to worry about it and when
i was and not to i'll let you finish in a second
but when i sent you that photo it was more about
yeah i'm kind of figuring this out as i go i
don't know what i'm doing with it but i'm like
i'm going to end up paying you for a a uh arc
optimus prime 3d printed command chair at some
point before the end of the year because i need
matching chair And I need matching matrix too,
but the center of that matrix has to be blue.
You can't futz it and just make it all orange.
Well, yeah, that, I mean, I, well, I would have
done more with the other one, but you were kind
of like, that's fine. That was fine. But I'm
saying like for the Autobot matrix, it has to
be special. The Decepticon matrix, it didn't
work anyway. It was fake. But yeah, no. But yeah,
no, folks. Once you see the post, you folks,
if you're listening to the sound of my voice
right now, y 'all better go over to geekcastradio
.com and look at this episode's post because
the pictures he's going to put in that post,
I don't even know what else new he's going to
do to his display. He's got light up cabinets.
He's got robots in there that actually function.
He's got robot clean. He's got Rosie the robot.
She cleans his shelves for him every time. I
do not have Rosie the robot. Yes, you do. No,
I don't. Thanks for listening to this podcast.
mike's gonna die now yeah yep yep but uh no i
mean i've i've i've been just kind of building
up the the collection more or less like just
having fun with it and um A couple of years ago,
I didn't have squat left. Like this is all stuff
that I've accumulated in the last like seven
years. Um, give or take, uh, there's very little
left of my original collection in there. Like
it's funny because some of the things I reacquired,
like the, um, like I have a, uh, the McFarlane
Batman, um, the, uh, thrilling 30 figures. I
had all those, the, uh, the one Megatron that's
when they did the 10th anniversary and it looked
like kind of a mix of trans metal and not like
the robo version of like Megatron folks. Let
me tell you next year in 2026, I guarantee you.
We're probably going to end up doing an episode
a week for all things Transformers leading up
to whenever the hell we get a 30th anniversary
Megatron because he's going to be fucking whoring
out himself for Megatron. I guarantee you. You're
going to be like. I have my obsessions, but I'm
kind of over my obsessions at this point, and
we'll talk about that here in a minute, but I
can't imagine what next year is going to be like
for Beast Wars because... If they do anything.
Oh, yeah, they better. They better, but they
won't. Revive the brand. Like, if Beast Wars
didn't happen, we wouldn't be here. Like... Like...
They better do something. They better do something
big. I hope so. I really do. I hope that they
honestly do a Beast Machines Megatron. Yeah,
that would be nice. Like a legit one, or if nothing
else, the Days of Future Past Megatron. But again,
I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know
either. But let me tell you, folks, whatever
does or doesn't happen next year, he's going
to be difficult to live with because next year
is the 30th anniversary of Beast Wars. And now
they may do a trans metal Megatron akin to their
dragon. You got the dragon, didn't you? I did.
And I also repainted it. Of course you did. And
I got a third -party head for it. Of course you
did. Because it had, well, it had robots in disguise
Megatron head. Yeah, that's true. And I was looking
at it, and I was like, this is not the correct
head. Yep. No, and it looked nothing like him.
And then, I mean, looking back at it, now I can
3D print the head for it. Well, yeah. you there
are versions of it out there that i've seen some
though there's like this one version that somebody
did for an optimal megatron and it looks like
they plucked it out of the cartoon yep um but
same thing with with uh you know the the transmittal
2 megatron like i've seen that one too and um
i legitimately I mean, I like the one I have
on it, but I mean, if the other option was available,
I would have gotten that at that time. But no,
I've really enjoyed just kind of rebuilding my
Megatron collection and I have Masterpiece and
I have I have like the IDW Megatron. Yep. Which
I 3D printed. Yep. So that makes him cool too.
And then So, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's. It's
definitely one of those things like I've got
my Star Trek, I've got my G1, I've got select
G2. And when I say select G2, I mean, I got J
axis with the. And again, this is like one of
those things where I customize them based on
appearance and the need. I could have painted
him, but I also opted to do the repro labels.
Yeah. And retro labels are awesome. They really
are. I mean, it added some nice, you know, shiny
aspects to them that I really wasn't going to
do. I could have done it with G2 Megatron, the
tank War for Cybertron, you know, select series.
Yep, yep. But I opted instead to get the upgraded
chest. where it juts out like the actual original
G2 figure did. Very cool, very cool. And then
I 3D printed his shoulder cannon and other stuff.
I mean, it doesn't transform with all of that
on there, but it could with some of it, but I
don't ever transform them. And I turned my War
for Cybertron Netflix Optimus Prime into G2.
Because it fits more that G2 aesthetic. Right.
Then. Then the. Like. For instance, I'm getting
the. Knockoff Studio Series 86 Optimus Prime.
Right. Because he. Looks like Optimus Prime.
So I'm I'm super stoked for that one. And I don't
know if I'll ever transform it per se. But. I'm
excited for it, plus it doesn't come with a trailer.
Which has been my beef with every Optimus Prime
that's come out in the last like. Decade. But
we figured out tonight through the magic of video
and me showing you comparisons and you showing
me photo comparisons. of why you don't want the
actual thing so it is nothing to do with the
trailer folks it's they put season one optimus
prime's head on ss86 the coloring of ss86 optimus
prime's head is a light blue from season one
of the cartoon it is not the dark metallic blue
that he has in the movie So that's what Steve's
real hang up is for SS 86 prime from Hasbro.
It isn't the fact that it comes with the damn
trailer. It was the color, but it was just the
wrong head. Like the design. It wasn't, wasn't
right. Like for the film. And I think like, I
mean, do I have room for the trailer? No. Could
I have put it in there and had prime stand on
top of it? Certainly. I could have had my Autobot
sitting on top of it going, you know, haha, Decepticons.
That's right. I have the high ground. You could
have had Thrust popping out of the back of the
trailer like Optimus ran him right through. I
don't think you have Thrust, but, you know, Thrust
was the one he ran over. No. i think i got star
screen like still like legacy but yeah but the
point that yeah but um but no i mean like i but
i i mean i but it's amazing the stuff that is
out now oh absolutely compared to way back when
because like i remember like i just remember
We were just happy to have the toys. Yeah, I
mean, we were just happy back then just to have
it. But nowadays, it's like, oh, I can get show
accuracy? Oh, I can get this add -on kit or this
upgrade kit? Oh, I can get Prime? Yeah, and that's
all thanks to third -party people. But it's sad
it takes a third -party to do it. I understand
that, but... I mean, I'm happy for it. Don't
get me wrong. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I know.
I know. But the thing about the third party community
and the third party section is that they're also
fans. Like, I'm sure if you were to present yourself
to Hasbro with your either your stasis pod or
your cloak Megatron that you 3D printed or whatever.
they would look at that and be like, oh, it is
feasible. We could do this. We might not financially
be able to do it, but it is possible in the future
that we could do this kind of thing. And it takes
fans to tell these companies, hey, look, this
is what we want. We give you money, you give
us stuff. I remember that quote. That's right.
It's not mine. It's Ender's, but it ain't mine.
But I quote it all the time. And it's a good
quote. It is, it is. But I mean, like I, I'm
thankful for these, these 3d artists that make
these things like these designs. Cause like I've
got, I've got a stasis pod. I've got captain
Kirk's command chair. I've got, I've got like
all these different, all these different, figure
design things i've got starships that like the
enterprise e and then i got the enterprise um
the original one i've got the enterprise g from
a card i've got you know i used to have the xenizer
morphers and now i have them again because i
3d printed them and um i have the classic morpher
which i've never owned although with playmates
designing their own um if those ever hit store
yeah they're gonna be like 20 bucks i'll probably
get one at that price um but you know at the
same time it's like it's almost cheaper for the
hobbyists to take over the toy industry yeah
where we're kind of at right now which is really
weird yeah it's Very strange. Very, very strange.
I mean, I'm almost to the point where it's like,
oh, I don't really need all of these. You know,
I mean, I don't need any of it, but but it's
like I can almost just like, oh, they don't have
it. I'll I'll find somebody who made a file and
printed myself like it's like. As long as it
exists, like I didn't want to buy a. 20 year
old version of Dragon Ball GT Vegeta but I bought
a 3D print file that I can get a more show accurate
version of the same character which I was like
I'm more apt to do that because I want more of
the show accuracy like I don't I'm not one of
those like it's the same reason like I don't
have anything against Funkos yeah i don't personally
care for them but it's because they just don't
resonate with me and what my version of standards
are like for you you're like i'm never going
to pose them i'm never going to transform them
it doesn't matter to me like i just want i just
want character yeah that's the coolest thing
about them is whatever pose that funko decides
to put them in that's the pose they're in there
i mean like i said outside of their head turning
left or right There is no real pose. Whatever
Funko decides to do, that's what is done. Like
literally right now, as we're talking about this,
I'm looking at upcoming releases for Red Turbo
Ranger, Red Zeo Ranger, and I cannot believe
they're doing this, but I need it. I have to
have it. Damn it, Mike, don't cry. They're doing
the Black Dino Thunder Ranger. They're doing
Tommy from... Yes, they're doing Tommy from Dino
Thunder. Helmet or no helmet? Helmet. Of course,
helmet. Yeah, no. And if they ever do a chase
of this thing, it better be the invisible version,
because damn. that would be cool as hell that
would be an awesome chase for this for the for
the dino thunder thing but yeah there uh i'm
about to uh send this to you right now so you
can see it i got lucky when i was collecting
the legacy collection uh -huh and you got the
dino thunder i got the dino thunder but what's
funny is i didn't have to wait for it I was doing
my well, I was doing my rounds at work and like.
A lot of our locations are by Walmarts. And.
I was like. I just got up here. It's lunchtime.
Let's go hit up Walmart. And I went in there
and I think it was like in August or something
of whatever year it was. And. um it was in wyoming
i mean i'm in colorado but yeah i stopped at
the wyoming one because it's literally like right
next door to a location yep and um i was like
okay let's uh let's see and i saw it and i was
like do i want it do i not want it because like
at the time i was like i was like I'm, I'm really
like, I don't need it. Like I was, I was really
heavily weighing it. And then I saw that the
master morpher was about to come out and this
was like the next month and I can get my hands
on master morpher. And I'm like, well, what better
way to achieve the goal than to, um, just collect
what I could. And I was like, I want, If I can't
get the Master Morpher, I want all the Tommies.
Yep. And so I got my hands on Zeo Red from like
BBTS. And then that was the last one. I got Dino
Thunder Black at the Walmart. But the funny thing
is, I didn't get it up. I didn't get it the first
time I saw it. Oh, no. I got it. I went up a
month and a half later. Oh no. And I was like,
I wonder if it's still going to be there. And
I went up there and sure enough, it was still
on the shelf. And I was like, yoink. Yoink. And
then, um, and then I saw that everywhere it was
selling out, but it was like, it literally had
come out like two months prior and everybody
was trying to get their hands on it, but it was
just not available. And I'm like, I just happened
upon it by accident. lucky me and so um but yeah
i mean i can i can relate to it i like that one
specifically because it gave me the adult tommy
head with the spiked hair yep and i in turn did
not put that on the uh um the black dino ranger
i put that on the green ranger because my my
green ranger it came with the you know the the
evil you know like after because i got the remaster
one that didn't come with the shield which i
was a little bummed about and then um so i ended
up getting the that and then i 3d printed the
dragon shield nice for the green ranger and the
red ranger and then i printed a silver one for
the black ranger because i was like oh it looks
nice um but no i mean i've and that's kind of
the thing with with the collecting it's like
and you know this as well as i do i get all in
um to the point like when tron legacy came out
i was like do i need the disc no i don't need
the disc now i could 3d print the disc if i really
want it but i don't care anymore now when tron
aries comes out i may change my tune and just
3d print one anyway but um Right now I've been
relegated to like Dragon Ball related stuff in
Transformers and I'm waiting on like a new Cobra
Commander for the Deke series. Battle Armor,
like the full seven inch figure. Yes. So I'm,
I'm super excited for that one. But, and then
there's like a, and it also seems like every
time I get going on my geek collection, um, the
companies come out with more stuff. They come
out with stuff after, you know, um, cause like
I, I made my own custom captain Kirk from generations
with the vest and to sell toys is making. you
know the same exact stinking figure but it's
gonna be accurate and i'm and i'm like well they
yeah they've got me i'm not gonna not get it
um so it'll it'll be fun either way but i just
thought it was funny i'm like yeah of course
they're they're they get the license they're
gonna do it justice and then i'm gonna be like
i gotta get it of course But that's kind of,
again, the beauty of the geek collections nowadays.
It's like, I'm older, I collect what I want,
and then you get either the better renditions
that the companies produce or somebody's 3D printing
exactly what you're looking for. Exactly. Absolutely.
Yep, yep. As for me, I don't collect anything
anymore. What are even collections? Nobody knows.
No, I've really been slowing down in the last
few years. I did the math. I started recollecting
stuff in 2017, so it's been eight years since
I started doing the Funko collecting stuff. I've
sold stuff. I've bought stuff. I've kept most
of the stuff that I've... absolutely felt that
I absolutely could not part with kind of thing.
But there have been plenty of things where I'm
like, Ooh, I don't need that anymore. I have
no real attachment to that anymore. I'm okay.
Letting that go or, Hey, I have to pay this bill
or, Hey, I have to do this or I have to do that.
And it's like, eh, sacrifices must be made. Whatever
it is, what it is. Uh, and my thing with the
Funko pop collecting has always been, it has
to be a character or it has to be a show or a
cartoon or a movie or a comic or something that
like, you're not gonna see me go out and buy.
the entirety of the Game of Thrones Funko Pop
set. Not that I could. Those things are just...
The value on those are just... It's out of my
reach. Not that I would anyway, because I have
no interest. But it's one of those things where
you're not going to see me with... I'm trying
to think. It's a different character that I don't
care about. God. I don't know. Like, you're not
going to see me with a Mr. Bean or what's his
nuts from the office, Dwight or Michael Scott
or whatever. Like, you're not going to see any
of that. Like, right now, the two. Biggest parts
of the collection are... Ow. That was my finger.
Stupid desk. Ugh. Yes, folks, can you tell I'm
having problems this time? Well, not like any
other time. I'd say the two biggest franchises
I currently have are Transformers and Turtles.
He -Man would probably be a third if I still
had a third of my He -Man collection that I used
to have for the Funko Pops, but that would be
a close third for those. But Transformers and
Turtles has been the two biggest ones that I've
tried to keep up with. I don't have all the Turtles
stuff, but I do have the black and white chases
for the comic versions of the Turtles, because
those were the ones I wanted, because if I was
going to be comic accurate, I wanted it to be
the black and white chases. Funny story about
that, about going after what you want. This is
a couple of years ago now, so this isn't anything
current. This is a couple of years ago. Have
you ever been to a whatnot auction? No. Don't.
Just don't even let yourself be tempted. And
I'm not saying that because whatnot is bad. I'm
not saying that to like, if you ever want to
try it, sure. Fine. Go ahead. Here's somebody's
$15, whatever code to do, whatever you want with
whatever. Cause that's what people do that do.
What not auctions is like here, here's my code
to do whatever. And that's fine. I'm not, not
making fun of whatnot folks. I'm not, I'm just
kind of saying out of my mouth. Yeah. Yeah. I'm
not whatnot. But I used to be because my thing
is, if I'm. As long as I as long as everything's
paid for and I have extra funds to spend and
I want to help the people that I watch on YouTube
that are Funko Pop creators like Slapshot Pops
or the Poppin Duo or this person or that person
or whomever, they run whatnot auctions. They
sell they buy and sell Funko Pops. And, you know,
through them and through other people, I've found
others and whatever. And I was in a whatnot auction
one night and I just so happened to be in a whatnot
auction that had the entire set of the chases
of the TMNT line of the comic line of the black
and white chases. And I had already bought like
three of them. I think there's six in the set.
Yeah, because it's 131 to 136. I think that's
right. I guess I could just look over at my shelf
and figure it out. Yeah, there's six in the set.
So I had half the set. I got down to the final
two. And everybody in the auction realized, finally,
after like an hour and a half. Oh! Mike really
must want these. We're going to now make him
pay for the final two. I would have to look at
my phone and I would have to look at the whatnot
records on my phone to tell you. Maybe I can
tell you folks next time in the next episode
of. uh got here on ag or whatever we're gonna
do this for geek topics geeks of topics or geekdom
of topics uh but uh i think for one of these
things i ended up spending close to 75 80 90
dollars i mean i can see that i mean that's okay
and again i don't want to say that that's not
normal I don't think that was normal back then
for this specific line, even though it was a
black and white chase. These, I believe, had
just come out or maybe come out like six months
previous to when this happened. So they were
fairly new. It wasn't like it was a grail from
like 2013 or something. This was. fairly new
and i understand chases are rare and this that
thing and everything else but like i'm used to
spending two three hundred dollars for five or
six like okay perfect example did i i think i
if i forget which episode of all things transformers
it is because this is altered geek and we've
kind of mixed and matched the two here tonight
but when i talked about the transformers nfts
that i bought for my buddy the ultra magnus and
the cheetor and the rc and the blitzwing the
newest the wave 2 wave for that yep i think in
total i paid him 350 for four funko pops i know
some people have shelled out 350 for one funko
pop depending on how limited it is or depending
on how much of a con exclusive it might have
been so I'm not sitting here saying that people
won't pay more for these things. I'm just saying
in my experience of trying to get this thing,
the experience that I had that night was like,
oh, Mike's getting all the turtle chases. We're
going to make Mike pay in the end. And it is
what it is. But hey, I got him. So. That's how
I felt when I was trying to do the Power Rangers.
Just because they were kind of selling out everywhere.
I'll tell you what, to get your hands on the
Legacy Collection Green Ranger or Red Ranger,
the remaster, was not easy. In fact, the remaster
Red Ranger, everywhere I tried, would sell out
um actually hasbro had discontinued the line
right around release and so pretty much anybody
that had pre -ordered it wasn't getting it um
like i had it at bbts and the date kept changing
it kept changing kept changing and i was like
i am not gonna end up with this and then i tried
ordering it from like from uh like ally express
and other places and it was not working um and
so i ended up getting from bbts um i ended up
getting the regular jason figure right without
the dragon armor which that was the reason i
was getting the other one was to get the dragon
armor which i was like it's kind of a crappy
way that hasbro did that yeah they shouldn't
have done that they did it so they could resell
the same figures over again well yeah i know
but i'm saying they shouldn't have done that
no um so anyways i so i got that one and then
i was like uh i i just got the 3d printer at
some point near to that um and i found the file
somebody had made one and i was like okay this
is this is going to be good you know i'll see
how it turns out and my old printer printed it
like garbage like it did not come out at all
but it was also like the file like and that's
something i've had to learn um some of the files
are not optimized correctly right and they print
like trash oh no and then you get other ones
that are made really well and they print really
well without any you know supports or any any
additional need Um, and so I, I experimented
with that thing. Like I tried cutting it in half
and gluing it together and I tried, you know,
all these other methods and eventually got it
at a weird angle, like almost like kind of cockeyed.
And then it, it printed perfectly with my, my
gold filament. So I didn't even have to paint
it. Um, and then, I was like, OK, this works.
Let's print another one. And so that's how I
ended up with it. But and it does fit the figures,
which was nice, but it was it was still not fun
to have to go through that process. But I mean,
I've. Like the stasis pod, that was like a holy
grail figure, you know, thing when I was a kid
and. I had my hands on one. Does it fit like
some of the figures? No, I mean, it fits a deluxe
or a basic or. you know, modern deluxe and a
core class, but it doesn't fit anything bigger
than that unless I printed it larger. Yeah. But
again, it's still, I'm not unhappy. Yeah, absolutely.
But yeah, I mean, geek collecting has certainly
changed quite a bit. Absolutely. It has. holy
crap has it definitely has so my question to
the listeners would be what are you some of your
like kind of like holy grail geek items what
are some things that you were able to like maybe
get from you know third party or from 3d printing
or kit bashing or or just things that you've
managed to find at you know auctions or you know
just other places because I'd be kind of interested
to hear what what people's experience were trying
to obtain, you know, these figures that they've,
they've been hunting for to complete their collections.
Absolutely. And remember folks, nobody needs
a collection intervention. I mean, Mike is right.
Worst show ever. I'm glad I don't, I've not actually
seen that. Are you serious? You've never seen,
they're like geek collectors, like, hold on,
let me, I'll, we'll, we'll dig it up after the
show, but yeah, let us know what you guys, what,
what you guys are enjoying and what you guys
think. You can let us know on our, either our
Facebook page or on geekcastradio .com. You can
send us an email feedback at geekcastradio .com
and let us know what you think there. So I think
that about does it for this episode. Yep. So
until next time, get altered, get geeky with
the Altered Geeks.